(October 5, 1703\u2013March 22, 1758), was an American theologian and minister of the Calvinist Puritan tradition. His preaching began the Great Awakening revival which swept the Colonies. This was responsible in part for uniting the Colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. In 1757, he became the third president of Princeton University, formerly the College of New Jersey. His most notable works include Religious Affections,<\/i> 1746, and The Freedom of the Will,<\/i> 1754.<\/p>\n
In 1727, he married Sarah Pierrepont. Their success as parents was revealed in a study done in 1900, showing their descendants included: a dean of a prestigious law school, 1 Vice-President of the United States; 1 comptroller of the U.S. Treasury; 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors of large cities, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 65 professors, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, and nearly 100 missionaries.452<\/p>\n
In his Narrative of Surprising Conversions,<\/i> Jonathan Edwards wrote:<\/p>\n
And then it was, in the latter part of December, that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to \u2026 work amongst us. There were, very suddenly, one after another, five or six persons who were, to all appearance, savingly converted, and some of them wrought upon in a very remarkable manner.<\/p>\n
Particularly I was surprised with the relation of a young woman, who had been one of the greatest company-keepers in the whole town. When she came to me, I had never heard that she was become in any ways serious, but by the conversation I had with her, it appeared to me that what she gave an account of was a glorious work of God\u2019s infinite power and sovereign grace, and that God had given her a new heart, truly broken and sanctified. \u2026 <\/p>\n
God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town. I have had abundant opportunity to know the effect it had, by my private conversation with many. The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lighting upon the hearts of young people all over the town, and upon many others. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town and among persons of all degrees and all ages. The noise of the dry bones waxed louder and louder. \u2026 <\/p>\n
Those that were wont to be the vainest and loosest, and those that had been the most disposed to think and speak slightly of vital and experimental religion, were not generally subject to great awakenings. And the work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner and increased more and more; souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. \u2026 <\/p>\n
This work of God, as it was carried on and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town, so that in the spring and summer following, Anno 1735, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God.<\/p>\n
It never was so full of love, nor so full of joy \u2026 there were remarkable tokens of God\u2019s presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on the account of salvation\u2019s being brought unto them, parents rejoicing over their children as new born, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands.<\/p>\n
The goings of God were then seen in His sanctuary, God\u2019s day was a delight and His tabernacles were amiable. Our public assembles were then beautiful; the congregation was alive in God\u2019s service, everyone earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink the words of the minister as they came from his mouth.<\/p>\n
The assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached, some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for their neighbors.<\/p>\n
There were many instances of persons that came from abroad, on visits or on business \u2026 [that] partook of that shower of divine blessing that God rained down here and went home rejoicing. Till at length the same work began to appear and prevail in several other towns in the country.<\/p>\n
In the month of March, the people of South Hadley began to be seized with a deep concern about the things of religion, which very soon became universal \u2026 About the same time, it began to break forth in the west part of Suffield \u2026 and it soon spread into all parts of the town. It next appeared at Sunderland \u2026 <\/p>\n
About the same time it began to appear in a part of Deerfield \u2026 Hatfield \u2026 West Springfield \u2026 Long Meadow \u2026 Endfield \u2026 Westfield \u2026 Northfield \u2026 In every place, God brought His saving blessings with Him, and His Word, attended with Spirit \u2026 returned not void.453<\/p>\n
Jonathan Edwards stated:<\/p>\n
There is no leveler like Christianity, but it levels by lifting all who receive it to the lofty table-land of a true character and of undying hope both for this world and the next.454<\/p>\n
Resolved: never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.455<\/p>\n
I have reason to hope that my parents\u2019 prayers for me have been, in many things, very powerful and prevalent, that God has \u2026 taken me under His care and guidance, provision and direction, in answer to their prayers.456<\/p>\n
Jonathan Edwards, in his work, \u201cThe Latter-Day Glory Is Probably to Begin in America,\u201d proposed the idea that the continents could be classified into two groups, the New World and the Old World. Since the Old World had the honor of hosting Christ\u2019s first coming, he reasoned that the New World would be given the honor of preparing the earth for His second coming. Observing the \u201cSun of Righteousness\u201d travels from east to west, Jonathan Edwards\u2019 perspective enkindled the origins of America\u2019s \u201cManifest Destiny\u201d:<\/p>\n
When the time comes of the church\u2019s deliverance from her enemies, so often typified by the Assyrians, the light will rise in the west, till it shines through the world like the sun in its meridian brightness. \u2026 <\/p>\n
And if we may suppose that this glorious work of God shall begin in any part of America, I think, if we consider the circumstances of the settlement of New England, it must needs appear the most likely, of all American colonies, to be the place whence this work shall principally take its rise. \u2026 457<\/p>\n
Jonathan Edwards wife, Sarah Edwards, wrote to her brother in New Haven documenting the response to George Whitefield\u2019s preaching during the first Great Awakening in the Colonies:<\/p>\n
It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. \u2026 Our mechanics shut up their shops, and the day laborers throw down their tools to go and hear him preach, and few return unaffected.458<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(October 5, 1703\u2013March 22, 1758), was an American theologian and minister of the Calvinist Puritan tradition. His preaching began the Great Awakening revival which swept the Colonies. This was responsible in part for uniting the Colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. In 1757, he became the third president of Princeton University, formerly the College of … Continue reading “EDWARDS,
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