- Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 - March 22, 1758) was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist Protestant theologian. Like most of the Puritans, he held to the Reformed theology. His colonial followers later distinguished themselves from other Congregationalists as "New Lights" (endorsing the Great Awakening), as opposed to "Old Lights" (non-revivalists). Edwards is widely regarded as "one of America's most important and original philosophical theologians". Edwards' theological work is broad in scope, but he was rooted in Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his life's work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical fitness, and how central The Enlightenment was to his mindset. Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening, and oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733-1735 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Biography:
Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 and was the son of Timothy Edwards (1668-1759), a minister at East Windsor, Connecticut (modern day South Windsor), who eked out his salary by tutoring boys for college. His mother, Esther Stoddard, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts, seems to have been a woman of unusual mental gifts and independence of character. Jonathan, their only son, was the fifth of 11 children. He was trained for college by his father and elder sisters, all of whom received an excellent education and one of whom, Esther, the eldest, wrote a semi-humorous tract on the immateriality of the soul, often mistakenly attributed to Jonathan.
Jonathan Edzvards, born at East Windsor, Conn., October 5, 1703. " Everything points to him as a child of rare intellectual precocity. When not more than twelve yearS old, he wrote a letter refuting the idea of the materiality of the soul. At about the same time he wrote an elaborateand instructive account of the habits of the field spider, based upon his own observation." (Allen's Life of Jonathan
Edwards.) " He entered Yale College in 171 6, and received the degree of A.B., 1720, a little before he was seventeen years old. In his second year at college, he read Locke on the ' Human Understanding ' with great delight and profit, though he made good progress in all the arts and sciences, and had an uncommon taste for Natural Philosophy, which he cultivated to the end of his life ; yet Moral philosophy and Divinity were his favorite studies. He hved at college two years after he took his degree, preparing for the work of
the ministry. And being pitched upon and applied to by a number of ministers in New England, who were interested, to act in behalf of the English Presbyterians of New York, he complied with their request, and went to New York in August, 1722, and preached there to very good acceptance about eight months. He left them the next spring, and retired to his father's house, where he spent the summer in
close study. In 1723, he received his degree of M.A. ; about which time he had invitations from several congregations to come among them ; but being chosen Tutor of Yale College, the next spring he retired thither, and remained about two years. While he was so engaged, he was applied to by the people of Northampton, with the invitation to come and settle there with his grandfather vStoddard, who, by reason of his great age, stood in need of assistance. He thereupon resigned his tutorship in September, 1726, and accepted the
invitation, and was ordained colleague with Mr. Stoddard February 15, 1727. He remained in the work of the ministry to that ongregation until June 22, 1750, somewhat over twenty-three years." (Life of Mr. Edwards, Northampton, 1764.) On the 28th day of July, 1727, he married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. James and Mary Hooker Pierpont, of New Haven, Conn., the bride being seventeen years of age. She is spoken of as possessing rare beauty both of form and feature. She was descended from the Rev. Thomas Hooker, renowned as the father of the Connecticut churches. James Pierpont was an eminent divine, connected with Yale College in various capacities, fovuider, trustee, and Professor of Moral Philosophy. His father, John Pie'rpont, came to Roxbury, Mass., from Holme-Pierpont, in the County of Nottingham, England, and was the youngest of three sons oi Sir John Pierpont. At about the time of his marriage, JNIr. Edwards is described thus : " He was tall, upwards of six feet in height, slender, and of great seriousness and gravity of manner. His
face bespeaks a delicate and nervous organization. The life he had set for himself was that of a student who would not allow his time to be frittered away by useless employment. He visited the people only in cases of necessity. Thirteen hours of study daily is said to have been his rule. His manner in the pulpit is described as quiet exceedingly, with little or no gesture ; a voice not loud, but distinct and
penetrating," " Mrs. Edwards proved to be a woman of strong character, endowed with a natural religious enthusiasm, with a decidedly mystic bent to the piety that belonged to her from childhood. As her husband's reputation grew throughout the colony, her name became everywhere associated with his, but also as of a person to be known and revered on her own account. There was nothing morbid or sad about her religion. She made the home at Northampton a center of genial and attractive hospitahty. *A sweeter couple I have not seen,' said Whitefleld in his diary, after a visit of several days." (Allen.)
Mr. Edwards was dismissed ignominiously by his congregation January 22, 1750. For the cause of this proceeding, reference is made to any Life of Mr. Edwards. " The Indian missions at Stockbridge being vacant, the Commissioners for Indian Affairs, at Boston, applied to Mr. Edwards. He was at the same time invited by the inhabitants of Stockbridge, and repairing to that place, he was introduced, and fixed as missionary to the Indians there by an ecclesiastical council called for that purpose, August 8, 1751." (Life, 1764.)
" It was at Stockbridge that Mr. Edwards wrote the treatiseon the Will, and that on Original Sin. On September 24, 1757, his son-in-law, the Rev. Aaron Burr, President of the New Jersey College (now Princeton University), died, and at the next meeting of the Trustees, Mr. Edwards was chosen his successor, the news of which was quite unexpected to him. After much hesitation and correspondence with the
Trustees, he accepted the position, and set off from Stockbridge in January, 1758, leaving his family, not to be removed till spring. He had two daughters at Princeton, Mrs. Burr and Lucy, his eldest, unmarried. The smallpox was then in Princeton, and by the advice of the physicians, and with the consent of the Corporation, he was inoculated, February 13. He had it favorably, and it was thought all danger was over; but a secondary fever set in, and it put an end to his life on March 22, 1758, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. A little before his death he called his daughter Lucy to him, and addressed her in a few words, which were immediately written down, and were as ollows : * Dear Lucy, it seems to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you ; therefore, give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as 1 trust is spiritual, and therefore will con-
tinue forever ; and 1 hope she shall be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are likewise to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father who will never fail you.' His last words were : * Trust in God, and ye need not fear.' He appeared to have the uninterrupted use of his reason. to the last, and died with as much calmness and composure as that with which one goes to sleep." (Life of Mr. Edwards, printed in Northampton, 1764.)
His remains, as well as those of his wife, who died seven months later, while in Philadelphia, and those of his grandson, Aaron Burr, rest in the cemetery at Princeton.
On the 22d of June, 1900, just a hundred and fifty years after the dismissal of Mr. Edwards, a Memorial Bronze Tablet to him was nveiled in the First Church (his church)in Northampton, containing a two-thirds length relief figure of Edwards, life size or larger, represented as if preaching. On the panel beneath the figure is the inscription.
In Memory of
JONATHAN EDWARDS,
Minister of Northampton" The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his Hfe. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and did turn many away from iniquity. " - Mai.ii. 6.
The original portraits of President Edwards and his wife were, in 1870, in possession of the family of Jonathan Walter Edwards, Esq., of Hartford, Conn. " They were painted about the year 1740, ni Boston, at the request and expense, it is believed, of a Mr. Hogg, and were forwarded to him in Scotland. At the decease of Mr. Hogg they passed into the hands of his sister, who presented them to the Rev. John
Erskine, of Edinburgh. After the American Revolution, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the second son of the President, made application to Dr. Erskine to purchase the portraits, and the latter gentleman declined to sell them; but, on learning that no other portraits of the President and his wife existed, he sent them to this country as a present to Dr. Edwards, and they have remained in my father's family since." (Remarks of Jonathan Edwards, of New Haven, at the Edwards Meeting, at Stockbridge, 1870.)
TO THE PORTRAIT OF SARAH PIERPONT.
O lustrous eyes, so dark and deep,
Filled with a shimmering haze!
O eyes that holy vigils keep!
Tears into mine unbidden leap
As I return your gaze.
Why look on us with mild surprise.
American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist Protestant theologian
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1703 - 1758 (54 år)
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