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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
It is customary to associate Jonathan Edwards with the town of Northampton. That he was born in East Windsor (Conn.), was graduated from Yale College in New Haven, served a Presbyterian church in New York City, wrote his great treatises – A Careful and Strict Enquiry into … Freedom of Will (1754) and The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin (1758) – in Stockbridge (Mass.), and died as president of the College of New Jersey in Princeton does not mitigate the local association. For it was in Northampton where Edwards came of age theologically. He served as its minister from 1729 to 1750, following his grandfather Solomon Stoddard, who had served the same parish for the preceding sixty years. As with the one, so with the other: Northampton was Stoddard and it was also Edwards, a dynasty holding sway for over eighty years and commanding the religious spirit up and down the length of the Connecticut Valley.
1 Smith, John E., ed., Jonathan, Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (New Haven, 1959), 467Google Scholar; Stein, Stephen J., ed., Edwards, , Apocalyptic Writings (New Haven, 1977), 31 n.Google Scholar
2 For example, the Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart thought that Edwards's treatise on Freedom of Will (1754) “raises its author to the same rank, as metaphysician, with Locke and Leibnitz” (quoted in Dwight, Sereno E., The Life of President Edwards [New York. 1830]), 533Google Scholar. In judging Edwards's Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741), first preached as a sermon in New Haven, James Robe of Kilsyth thought it “one of the best sermons, and done with the most solid Judgment of any that hath ever been upon the Subject” (James, Robe, ed., The Christian Monthly History [Edinburgh, 1743–1946], 11, 5)Google Scholar. John MacLaurin, minister at Glasgow, spoke for the Scottish revivalists in saying that “those who are friendly to this work among us have a high sense of the worth of Mr. Edwards of Northampton; and reckon ourselves exceedingly obliged to him for that incomparable sermon” (Letter to Thomas Prince, Jr., 13 Sept. 1742; in The Christian History [Boston, 1744–1945\, 1, 77–79)Google Scholar. Another minister from Glasgow, James Fisher, who hotly disagreed with Edwards's views regarding visible evidence of religious experience, nevertheless called the sermon the “Standard-Piece” that described not only New England revivals but, by extrapolation, those of Scotland as well (James Fisher, in The Christian Monthly History, 11, 11).
3 Johnson, Thomas H., The Printed Writings of Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758: A Bibliography (Princeton, 1940), 34–42, 44–58, 85–93Google Scholar. In asserting that Edwards's writings wielded greater influence than his preaching, Sidney H. Rooy sees explicit linkage between Edwards and Scotland; see Rooy, , The Theology of Missions in the Puritan Tradition: A Study of Representative Puritans: Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Eliot, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards (Delft [The Netherlands], 1965), 292–93.Google Scholar
4 For biographical information concerning these persons, see Scott, Hew, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, 7 vols. (Edinburgh, 1915–1928), 1, 47–48Google Scholar; III, 237–38, 439, 479; V, 10–12, 320–22. Dwight includes thirty-one letters in his The Lift of President Edwards.
5 The Christian Monthly History, VIII, 234. Stein speculates that MacLaurin of Glasgow was the recipient (Stein, ed., 444).
6 Letter to Thomas Gillespie, 1 July 1751; in Dwight, 468.
7 Letter to John Erskine, 31 August 1748; in Dwight, 251.
8 Ibid., p. 252.
9 See especially Letters: Edwards to William McCulloch, 5 March 1744; Thomas Gillespie to Edwards, 24 Nov. 1746; Edwards to Gillespie, 4 Sept. 1747; Gillespie to Edwards, 19 Sept. 1748; in Dwight, 211–19, 224–30, 232–42, 252–61.
10 Letter to William McCulloch, 12 May 1743; in Dwight, 197–98.
11 Letter to James Robe, 23 May 1749; in Dwight, 279.
12 Letter to William McCulloch, 6 July 1750; in Dwight, 413. Documentation for these events is amply supplied in Goen, C. C., Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740–1800 (New Haven, 1969).Google Scholar
13 For a historical survey of this period see Daiches, David, The Paradox of Scottish Culture: The Eighteenth Century Experience (London, 1964), Ch. 2Google Scholar; also Hetherington, W. M., History of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1843), Ch. 9.Google Scholar
14 Letter to John Erskine, 5 July 1750; in Dwight, 406–07.
15 Letter to John Erskine, 20 May 1749; in Dwight, 276.
16 Ibid., p. 276.
17 Miller, Perry, Jonathan Edwards (Cleveland, 1959), 209–23.Google Scholar
18 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Pages from an Old Volume of Life: A Collection of Essays 1857–1881 (Boston, 1892), 369Google Scholar; Holmes, , Over the Teacups (Boston, 1892), 40, 254Google Scholar; William, James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (London, 1902), 330Google Scholar; Clarence, Darrow, “The Edwardses and the Jukeses,” American Mercury, VI 10, 1925), 153Google Scholar. For a thoughtful assessment, see Holbrook, Clyde E., “Jonathan Edwards and His Detractors,” Theology Today, x, (10., 1953), 384–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 Letter to John Erskine, 5 July 1750; in Dwight, 409.
20 Ibid., 410.
21 Ibid., 411.
22 Ibid., 412.
23 Ibid., 412.
24 Letter to William McCulloch, 6 July 1750; in Dwight, 414.
25 Letter to Thomas Gillespie, 1 July 1751; in Dwight, 462–68.
26 Ibid., 465.
27 Ibid., 466 (my italics).
28 Ibid., 465.
29 Ibid., 465.
30 Ibid., 465.
31 Ibid., 465.
32 Ibid., 464.
33 Ibid., 464.
34 Letter to Thomas Gillespie, 24 Nov. 1752; in Dwight, 514.
35 Letter to Thomas Gillespie, 18 Oct. 1753; in Dwight, 536.
36 William Lindsay, in Lives of Ebenezer Erskine, William Wilson, and Thomas Gillespie, Fathers of the United Presbyterian Church, by the Revs. James, Harper, John, Eadie, and William, Lindsay (Edinburgh, 1849), 285.Google Scholar
37 Joseph, Tracy, The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield (Boston, 1842), 259.Google Scholar
38 “It has been a very great wound to the church of Northampton that there has been for forty or fifty years a sort of settled division of the people into two parties, somewhat like the Court and Country party, in England” (Letter to Thomas Gillespie, 1 July 1751; in Dwight, 464). “If one desired a roster of Antirevivalists and also a social register for New England in 1743, he need only consult the list of subscribers to [Charles auncy's] Seasonable Thoughts” (Perry, Miller, Jonathan Edwards, 175)Google Scholar. The Great Awakening saw the “revolt of backcountry producers from stringent controls of the mercantile aristocracy which ruled them from afar” (Mosier, Richard D., The American Temper [Berkeley, 1952] 76).Google Scholar
39 Davie, Donald, A Gathered Church: The Literature of the English Dissenting Interest, 1700–1930 (London, 1978), 2.Google Scholar
40 Daiches, 41.
41 Religious Affections, in Smith, ed., 113.
42 Jonathan, Edwards, The Distinguishing Marks in The Great Awakening, ed. Goen, C. C. (New Haven, 1972), 228–248.Google Scholar
43 Religious Affections, 206.
44 Goen, C. C., ed., The Great Awakening, 90Google Scholar. The title is that designated by Goen; the volume Contains Edwards's A Faithful Narrative, The Distinguishing Marks, Some Thoughts, letters, and prefaces.
45 A Faithful Narrative, in Goen, ed., ibid., 144, 149.
46 Ibid., 151.
47 Some Thoughts, in Goen, ed., 341.
48 Henry, Moncrieff Wellwood, Account of the Life and Writings of John Erskine, D.D. (Edinburgh, 1818), 197.Google Scholar
49 Van de Wetering, John E., “The Christian History of the Great Awakening,” Journal of Presbyterian History, 44 (1966), 125Google Scholar. The suggestion follows that of Gaustad, Edwin Scott, The Great Awakening in New England (New York, 1957), 58.Google Scholar
50 Austin, Roland, “The [Glasgow] Weekly History,” Proceedings of The Wesley Historical Society, II, Pt. 2 (1918), 39.Google Scholar
51 Tyerman, Luke, The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, 2 vols. (London, 1876), 1, 268.Google Scholar
52 Kenney, William Howland III, “George Whitefield, Dissenter Priest of the Great Awakening, 1739–1741,” William and Mary Quarterly, 26 (1969), 78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 Quoted in Tyerman, 1, 504
54 Ibid., 1, 269.
55 Letter from Whitefield to John Cennick, 15 July 1742; in Tyerman, 11, 6.
56 Indispensable first-hand accounts include: McCulloch, William, A Short Narrative of the Extraordinary Work at Cambuslang (Glasgow, 1742)Google Scholar; Robe, James, A Short Narrative of the Extraordinary Work at Cambuslang (Glasgow, 1742)Google Scholar, included in Narrative of the Revival of Religion at Kilsyth, Cambuslang, and Other Places, in 1742, intro. Robert Buchanan (Glasgow, 1840); Webster, Alexander, Divine Influence: The True Spring of the Extraordinary Work at Cambuslang and Other Places in the West of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1742)Google Scholar; George Whitefleld's Journals. Reprints of other accounts of the Cambuslang revival are included in Gillies, John, comp., Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel and Eminent Instruments Employed in Promoting It, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1754), II, 339–355Google Scholar A valuable study is Fawcett, Arthur, The Cambuslang Revival: The Scottish Evangelical Revival of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1971)Google Scholar. For a history and endearing description of the village of Cambuslang, see Brown, J. T. T., Cambuslang: A Sketch of the Place and the People, Earlier Than the Nineteenth Century (Glasgow, 1884)Google Scholar. See also Beldon, Albert D., George Whitefleld, the Awakener (Nashville, 1930), 133–37Google Scholar; MacFarlan, D., “The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century, particularly at Cambuslang,” extracted in Westminster Standard (Gisborne, New Zealand, 1961).Google Scholar
57 McCulloch, 7.
58 Webster, 34.
59 Some Thoughts, in Goen, ed., 341.
60 Fisher, James, A Review of the Preface to a Narrative of the Extraordinary Work at Kilsyth, and other Congregations in the Neighborhood, written by the Reverend Mr. James Robe, Minister at Kilsyth (Glasgow, 1742), 3–68.Google Scholar
61 Whitefield, , in The [Glasgow] Weekly Histoty, No. 25, quoted by Fisher, 10.Google Scholar
62 Fisher, 11, 18–21.
63 [James, Robe], Mr. Robe's first Letter to the Rev. Mr. James Fisher … Concerning his Review of the Preface to a Narrative of the extraordinary Work at Kilsyth, etc … (Glasgow, 1742), 1–26Google Scholar; [James, Robe], Mr. Robe's Fourth Letter to Mr Fisher … (Edinburgh, 1743), 1–112Google Scholar. The quotations are taken from the first Letter 7, and the fourth Letter, 7.
64 [John, Willison], A Letter from Mr. John Willison, Minister at Dundee, to Mr. James Fisher, Minister at Glasgow, Containing Serious Expostulations with him concerning his Unfair-dealing in his Review of Mr. Robe's Preface, etc. and Several suitable Advices to him and others (Edinburgh, 1743), 3–11Google Scholar. In his preface to the Scottish edition of Edwards's, Distinguishing Marks (Glasgow, 1742)Google Scholar Willison saw the revivals in New England as “of the same kind with that at Cambuslang” (4).
65 Gaustad, 88–89.
66 [Charles, Chauncy], A Letter from A Gentleman in Boston, to Mr. George Wishart, One of the Ministers of Edinburgh, Concerning the State of Religion in New England (Edinburgh, 1742), 5–15Google Scholar; reprinted in Clarendon Historical Society Reprints (March 1883), 73–83Google Scholar. See Gaustad, 153 n. Quotations are from Letter, Edinburgh ed., 7, 9–10, 14, 15.
67 [Charles, Chauncy], The Wonderful Narrative, or a Faithful Account of the French Prophets, Their Agitations, Extasies, and Inspirations (Glasgow, 1742).Google Scholar
68 John, Erskine, The Signs of the Times Consider'd or, the High Probability, that the Present Appearances in New-England, and the West of Scotland, are a Prelude of the Glorious Things Promised to the Church in the Latter Ages (Edinburgh, 1742), 23Google Scholar. For details concerning the Chauncy-Whitefield exchange that drew others in as well, see Tyerman, 11, 124–140.
69 Letter to William McCulloch, 12 May 1743; in Dwight, 196–98.
70 John, Erskine, Signs of the Times, iii, 9.Google Scholar
71 Some Thoughts, in Goen, ed., 520.
72 Stein, , ed., Apocalyptic Writings, 36, 37 nGoogle Scholar; see also Stein, , “‘For Their Spiritual Good’: The Northampton, Massachusetts, Prayer Bids of the 1730S and 1740s,” William and Mary Quarterly, xxvii (04, 1980), 261–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Edwards's comments on prayer societies in Northampton, see Goen, , ed., The Great Awakening, 544Google Scholar, and Stein, , ed., Apocalyptic Writings, 445Google Scholar. Also consult Fawcett, Ch. 4 (‘The Societies for Prayer”); also Willison, John, The Duty and Advantages of Religious Societies, Proven from Scripture and Reason (Edinburgh, 1743).Google Scholar
73 Although the announcement (Memorial) was unsigned, Fawcett speculates that “undoubtedly” the sponsors included these four among the twelve (Fawcett, 227). See also Foster, John, “Scottish Evangelicals of the Eighteenth Century: With Special Reference to Thomas Gillespie of Carnoch,” The London Quarterly and Holborn Review, 177 (1952), 257–63.Google Scholar
74 The first account of the Concert for Prayer appeared in Robe's “Memo,” The Christian Monthly History (1745), 1, 303. See Gillies, , comp., Historical Collections, II, 399–401.Google Scholar
75 The Memorial is included in Edwards, , An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer (Boston, 1747), 20–25Google Scholar; in Stein, , ed., Apocalyptic Writings, 324–28.Google Scholar
76 Edwards, , An Humble Attempt (Boston, 1747), 20.Google Scholar
77 The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. John, Telford, 7 vols. (London, 1931), 11, 33.Google Scholar
78 Edwards, , An Humble Attempt, 182–83, 187.Google Scholar
79 Stein, , ed., Apocalyptic Writings, 30.Google Scholar
80 Ibid., 30.
81 Edwards, , An Humble Attempt, 2.Google Scholar
82 Stein points out that Edwards denied saying that the millennium started with the Northampton revivals (Stein, , ed., Apocalyptic Writings, 29Google Scholar; Letter to William McCulloch, in Dwight, 211–19)). However, Edwards identified the Fifth Vial (see Rev. 16: 10) with the Reformation and interpreted the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Vials (see Rev. 16: 10–20) as “directly tend[ing] to the Overthrow of his [the Antichrist's] Kingdom, and accordingly each of' em is attended with a great Reviving of Religion” (An Humble Attempt, 173). Specifically, “the Work of God's Spirit, in reviving Religion…is not far off”; it will accompany the Sixth Vial (Ibid., 172).
83 John, Erskine, Proposals for Printing by Subscrition, a New Work, Intitled [sic], A History of the Work of Redemption, by Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh, 1773), 2.Google Scholar
84 Weir, R. W., A History of the Foreign Missions of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1900), Ch.1.Google Scholar
85 Morrison, J H., The Scottish Churches' Work Abroad (Edinburgh, 1927), 31.Google Scholar
86 Fawcett, 217.
87 Latourette, Kenneth Scott, The Nineteenth Century in Europe: The Prostestant and Eastern Churches (London, 1959), 116Google Scholar, see also 311.
88 Edwards is cited as “one of the chief links,” between America's Great Awakening and Britain's missionary awakening (Rooy, , The Theology of Missions in the Puritan Tradition, 293)Google Scholar. Rooy cites Edwards's influence upon such early missionary leaders as John Wesley, William Carey, Samuel Marsden, Henry Martin, Philip Doddridge, and Andrew Fuller. Also see Van den Berg, Johannes, Constrained by Jesus' Love: An Inquiry into the Motives of the Missionary Awakening in Great Britain in the Period Between 1698 and 1815 (Kampen [The Netherlands], 1956), 123Google Scholar (“…without any doubt, the British missionary awakening owes a great deal to the stimuli given by this great Reformed theologian”). A brief but suggestive study concerned with the missionary ramifications of the Concert for Prayer is Beaver, R. Pierce, “The Concert for Prayer for Missions: An Early Venture in Ecumenical Action,” The Ecumenical Review, x (07, 1958), 420–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
89 Payne, Ernest A., The Prayer Call of 1784 (Edinburgh, 1942), 5.Google Scholar
90 Editor George Burder changed the title to: United Prayer for the Spread of the Gospel, Earnestly Recommended; or, An Abridgment of an Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People (London, 1814), 1–32Google Scholar. Burder's comment appears on page 2 (preface).
91 Beaver, R. Pierce, Ecumenical Beginnings in Protestant World Mission: A History of Comity (New York, 1962), 19.Google Scholar
92 Bullock, F. W., Evangelical Conversion in Great Britain, 1695–1845 (St. Leonard's on Sea, Sussex, 1959).Google Scholar
