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1-1-1966 Jonathan Edwards and Puritan Consciousness Richard Bushman Claremont Graduate University

Recommended Citation Bushman, Richard L. "Jonathan Edwards and Puritan Consciousness," Journal for the Scientific tudyS of Religion, V (Fall, 1966), 383-396.

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RICHARD L. BUSHMAN Assistant Professor of History Brigham Young University

ηπΗΕ writings of Jonathan Edwards con- Work of God. Taken together these works -•- tain the most complete description fully describe the religious consciousness we have of the piety of eighteenth-cen­ of his day.2 tury American Puritans. Events made Edwards used himself as the chief Edwards a specialist in Puritan conscious­ source of information about conversion. ness. As he said, "It is a subject on which His personal writings reveal how occupied my mind has been peculiarly intent, he was with dark intruders from the ever since I first entered on the study cellars of his soul and the sweet and of divinity."1 Besides inquiring into glorious visitations of grace. He wrote his own heart, he was chief defender and at length of the contrasting moods they interpreter of the Great Awakening and brought and of his earnest efforts to closely studied revival conversions to dis­ keep his house in order. By reconstruct­ tinguish God's work from mere emotions. ing Edwards' dominant states of mind He recorded the fruits of his research and by following his will's struggle to in a variety of documents. His "Diary" regulate the powers of heaven and self and Personal Narrative tell of his own circulating in his soul, we can recover quest for holiness; A Treatise Concerning much of Puritan consciousness, making Religious Affections, The Distinguishing it available for translation into modern Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, and terms for our better understanding.3 Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England were 2 The guide to the literature on the English his answers to critics and frauds. He branch of the subject is William Haller, The also edited and commented on An Ac­ Rise of Puritanism, New York: Columbia Uni­ count of the Life of the Late Reverend versity Press, 1938. Mr. David Brainerd, for the edification 3 For a comparable discussion of English of concerned souls, and described the Puritanism, see Richard Rogers and Samuel Northampton revivals of 1735 in A Ward, Two Elizabethan Diaries, M. M. Knap- Faithful Narrative of the Surprising pen, Ed., Chicago: American Society of Church History, 1933, pp. 1-16. Erik Erikson, Young 1 The Works of President Edwards, in Four Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Volumes. A Reprint of the Worcester Edition. History, New York: W. W. Norton, 1958, is 4 vols., New York: Leavitt, Trow & Co., 1843, a much more sophisticated and complex dis­ vol. Ill, p. ix. Hereafter referred to as Works. cussion of Luther's piety. William James, John E. Smith explicates Edwards' definition The Varieties of Religious Experience, London: of true religion in the introduction to Jonathan Longmans, Green, 1902, is still fundamental Edwards, Religious Affections, John E. Smith, for anyone seeking psychological understanding Ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959. of religion. 384 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

The reconstruction and translation tive was written after the revival had of Puritan experience is a task well worth already swept through the Connecticut the effort. In an age so distant as our Valley once, beginning at Edwards' pul­ own, Calvinist theology may be con­ pit in Northampton. It recounted his ceived as a stately but desolate mansion. experiences of 20 years earlier, as a guide We think of doctrinal treatises as houses to parishioners who had newly discovered of intellect only and are baffled to know the excruciating pleasure of grace, and why men shed blood in their defense. also presented his religious credentials, We also may glibly connect our modern as it were, to critical observers in America revival of Calvinism with the pristine and Europe. As such, the story stressed variety, when actually the meaning of the moments of exaltation when Ed­ the two are quite different. Perhaps wards felt close to God and drank deeply most important to historians, the signi­ of the joys of grace. ficance of the passing of Puritanism is mis­ The "Diary," or what remains of it, understood if we do not understand the begins in December of 1722, near the structure of feeling lying behind it. Cal- midpoint of the conversion period. It vinist doctrines lost their vitality be­ was written for Edwards' own use, not cause old passions faded and new ones for publication, and more frankly dis­ emerged. The changing shape of per­ closes how the peaks of rapture were sonal experience motivated the intel­ regularly followed by valleys of despair. lectual developments of the eighteenth Essentially it is a record of the uphill and nineteenth centuries. Unless we struggle for piety. Those high thoughts have a clear conception of the Puritan of Christ's excellence which infused him consciousness, we will not see what died with heavenly delight were exceedingly and what lived on, and why, in the men­ elusive, and he was determined to strength­ tality of the new era. Edwards' dis­ en his hold at all costs. In one sense the courses on piety fix a base line for meas­ "Diary" is a handbook of Edwards' "in­ uring ensuing changes. ventions," as he called them, and their Edwards' close attention to the con­ success in producing spiritual enjoy­ dition of his soul began when he was ments.5 He was continually searching for 16 and in his last year of college. In the ways of sustaining himself on the heights two years after graduation while studying or of lifting himself from the depths. divinity in New Haven his "sense of The "Resolutions" accompanying the divine things" gradually increased. In "Diary" are the restraints and spiritual August of 1722 he finished his prepara­ exercises he imposed on himself to achieve tions and accepted a temporary pulpit a lasting piety. in New York where he preached for a The highs and lows in Edwards' con­ year and a half before returning to his sciousness were two distinct frames of father's house in East Windsor. Soon mind, characterized by clear contrasts after he was appointed tutor at Yale. in spiritual operations. The graceless Alfthis time his ecstatic experiences were consciousness he variously called dull, growing more intense. Many years later dead, lifeless, sunken, decayed. He never he said that he enjoyed more "constant enlarged upon the meaning of these words delight and pleasure" in God then than as he did with thosef describing his de- ever afterwards.4 This time of conversion from age 16 5 The most complete versions of the "Diary" to 20 is described in both the "Diary" and the "Resolutions" appear in S. E. Dwight, and the Personal Narrative. The Narra- The Life of President Edwards, New York: G. & C. & H. Canili, 1830, hereafter referred 4 Works, I, pp. 16, 23. to as Life. The reference is to p. 77. JONATHAN EDWARDS 385 lights, but they suggest a depressed state Will and emotion were organically bound characterized by a flat emotional tone. together. The will could not act without In his "Diary" he equated deadness with arousing emotion to some degree, and listlessness and spiritual lethargy. At one the affections were still only when the point he said that during times of dull­ will stood at dead center, in a state of ness he was not easily affected, his emo­ "perfect indifference. "9 tions were sluggard and bound.6 He also Thus conceived, the affections were said in his Treatise Concerning Religious symptomatic of the state of the soul. Affections that hardness of heart was the Joyous sensations of love for God meant opposite of piety, and hardness "meant the heart was strongly inclined toward an unaffected heart, or a heart not easy heaven, while listless affections revealed to be moved with virtuous affections, an unconcern for religion. Edwards like a stone, insensible, stupid, unmoved, despised dullness because it signified and hard to be impressed," in short "perfect indifference" to God. 7 "a heart void of affections." He also knew that the will might pass The misery of spiritual decay arose beyond neutral indifference and incline also from the paralysis of the righteous lustfully toward worldly objects. The will. Edwards despised the listlessness heart hard to holy affections was per­ which "unbends and relaxes" the mind fectly capable of indulging wicked pas­ "from being fully and fixedly set on reli­ sions.10 The diary is a record of the gion." In times of spiritual depression evil inclinations that tugged persistently he lamented that his "resolutions have at Edwards' will. He readily admitted lost their strength." Apparently when that "without the influences of the he began to sink, all his powers to act Spirit of God, the old serpent would decayed. "I do not seem to be half begin to rouse up himself from his frozen so careful to improve time, to do every state, and would come to life again."11 thing quick, and in as short a time as The lethargy of will, even in merely dull I possibly can." He was not "half so frames, was not simple laziness as Ed­ vigorous" and moved slowly, meanwhile wards sometimes supposed, but the pull placating his conscience by thinking of of inadmissible desires straining against religion. He resolved the next time he his purer inclinations. When he did arith­ was lifeless to force himself "to go rapidly metic or practiced shorthand he was from one thing to another, and to do struggling to deny forbidden demands those things with vigour." When all from the emotional underworld. else failed, he worked arithmetic or His plans for invigorating the will are practiced shorthand, anything to keep 8 closely related to the central impulse of active. Feeling his powers bogging down, the Protestant Ethic. Cotton Mather he drove them on to keep his will from probably had the same experience in mind stalling. when he urged a vocation on his parish­ To Edwards' mind a mired will and ioners as a means of avoiding the snares bound affections were two aspects of of sin. Devotion to a calling, even prac­ the same spiritual malfunction. The ticing shorthand, kept the Puritan a step will was the faculty inclining the soul ahead of the dullness and sin dogging to like or dislike, to choose or reject, his heels. and all its movements were accompanied These artificial devices for controlling by some degree of pleasure or displeasure. the will were forgotten when Providence

6 Dwight, Life, p. 87. 9 Works, III, pp. 3-4. 7 Works, III, p. 16. 10 Ibid., Ill, p. 18. 8 Dwight, Life, pp. 72, 81, 78, 91, 100. 11 Dwight, Life, p. 77. 386 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION lifted Edwards from his sunken condi­ in the mountains with Christ, "and tion to his other, happier frame of mind. wrapt and swallowed up in God. The Grace liberated the emotions and will sense I had of divine things," he wrote, from their prison. Filled with the Spirit, "would often of a sudden kindle up, as he joyously exercised the powers of his it were, a sweet burning in my heart; soul with perfect freedom. "Wherever an ardor of soul, that I know not how true religion is," he said, "there are vig­ to express." Even then his passions orous exercises of the inclination and were not so free as he wished: will towards divine objects."12 High thoughts of Christ made "unusual re­ The inward ardor of my soul, seemed to pentance of sin" easy, and he pressed for­ be hindered and pent up, and could not ward in the struggle with alacrity and freely flame out as it would. I used often zeal. All of his work went better once to think how in heaven this principle the will was freed. "I can do seven times should freely and fully vent and express as much in the same time now, as I itself. Heaven appeared exceedingly de­ can at other times, not because my facul­ lightful, as a world of love; and that aU happiness consisted in living in pure, ties are in better tune; but because of the 16 fire of diligence that I feel burning with­ humble, heavenly, divine love. in me."13 The startling change confirmed The love that began in God, over­ the doctrine of rebirth, the creation of a flowed into His creations, and encom­ new man in the old. passed all men. "God's excellency, his When downcast, Edwards complained wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to most about his will, but when exalted appear in every thing," he wrote. He he spoke more of affections. While life­ delighted to think of heaven where "reigns less, all he could manage was to drive heavenly, calm, and delightful love, with­ on the stubborn will, knowing the affec­ out alloy . . . where those persons who tions would revive if the will inclined appear so lovely in this world, will really toward God. In gracious times, the be inexpressibly more lovely, and full affections rolled forth so powerfully that of love to us."17 Brainerd's love was the will was carried effortlessly on their not only ardent for his friends but for crest.14 Obeying God, mortifying the his enemies, Edwards noted, and he could self, and all the acts of will were the happily report that the Northampton natural outcome of gracious love. Will converts put away their differences and and affections, of course, sprang from treated one another lovingly.18 the same source, but overwhelmed as he The whole world was bathed in affec­ was by love for God, it seemed fitting tion while Edwards lived in the "sweet to stress one side more than the other. sense of the glorious majesty and grace In the treatise on affections he under­ of God."19 The contrast with his sunken scored the proposition that "true religion, condition is perhaps best epitomized in in great part, consists in holy affections."15 the two words, sweet and vile. When Above all Edwards experienced a con­ despondent, insofar as he felt emotions, suming love of God. When he walked they were bitter and dark: anger, fretting, in the fields softly singing God's praises, despair, melancholy, and scorn. They his heart overflowed with adoration. made him feel vile and odious, and he Sometimes he imagined himself alone sought to extinguish or at least hold

12 Works, III, p. 6. 16 Ibid., I, pp. 16, 18. 13 Dwight, Life, pp. 78, 83. 17 Ibid., I, pp. 16-17, 19-20. 14 Works, I, pp. 17-18. 18 Ibid., I, p. 659; III, p. 235; cf., I, p. 549. 15 Ibid., Ill, p. 2. 19 Ibid., I, p. 16. JONATHAN EDWARDS 387 them back, covering them with an ap­ before God carried to the point of self- pearance of benignity.20 In grace, his abasement. His exertions all aimed to feelings were calm and sweet, the two make less of himself and more of God. words he used over and over. His emo­ Humility began with the extinction tions pleased and satisfied him, giving of the vile self, the lazy, lustful, proud, joy as they poured from his heart. angry, and morose self which had to be Eventually these sweet enjoyments al­ wholly denied, utterly annihilated with ways departed, and Edwards found him­ all its corruptions to make room for the self decaying. His "Diary" entries most "contrary sweetness and beauties." He often occur at these times when he was continually looked for more stringent sinking and remorsefully examining him­ forms of self-denial, convinced that "great self to discover why. His response then instances of mortification, are deep is important to understand, for it was wounds, given to the body of sin." With characteristic of his psychic structure every blow he grows weaker and more and basic to his theology. He always cowardly, "until at length, we find it blamed himself, lamenting, "O how easy work with him, and can kill him weak, how infirm," and set about to re­ at pleasure."23 gain grace. In a letter to a young Chris­ To set a demanding standard, he once tian he advised the practice he always considered the supposition that there followed himself: "If at any time you was to be but one person on earth at a fall into doubts about the state of your time "who was properly a complete soul, in dark and dull frames of mind . . . Christian, in all respects of aright stamp," apply yourself with all your might, to and resolved "to act just as I would do, an earnest pursuit after renewed expe­ if I strove with all my might, to be that rience, new light, and new lively acts of one, who should live in my time."24 That faith and love." At the same time, he sort of conscientiousness called for the knew he could not earn grace by himself. complete elimination of every trace of His full lament was, "O how weak, sin. By the time Edwards began the how infirm, how unable to do anything "Diary" the grosser forms of sensuality of myself !" The very cause of his down­ were completely vanquished and never fall was a pretension to independence. merited a comment. Instead he regularly "While I stand, I am ready to think that rebuked himself for eating, drinking, and I stand by my own strength . . . when sleeping too much. He decided to skip alas ! I am but a poor infant, upheld by 21 meals entirely if called to the table when Jesus Christ." Even the thought of deeply engaged in study.26 He could not becoming pious by his own efforts was permit himself any display of untoward prideful and offensive to the Spirit. emotions either. He worried especially What then could he apply himself to over an inclination to find fault and re­ in the pursuit of renewed experience? solved that he must "refrain from an air The answer was obvious to a Puritan. of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in con­ He must work to be more dependent on versation," and constantly exhibit an God: "O let it teach me," continues the air of "love, cheerfulness, and benignity."26 lament, "to depend less on myself, to Of course, he assiduously attended to be more humble, and to give more of all his religious duties such as prayer and the praise of my ability to Jesus Christ."22 scriptural study, requiring of himself the The heart of Edwards' piety was humility 23 Ibid., pp. 85, 80. 20 Dwight, Life, p. 87. 24 Ibid., p. 72. 21 Ibid., pp. 81, 151. 25 Ibid., pp. 78, 82, 83, 86, 87, 102, 103, 106. 22 Ibid., p. 81. 26 Ibid., p. 72. 388 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION most intense concentration and heartfelt as I."30 Confessing his sins passionately devotion. When he wrote that he was and in detail permitted him better to lax in not "forcing" himself upon "reli­ "abhor" himself and brought him closer gious thoughts," he was looking for total to the total abasement he sought.31 immersion in his meditations.27 For all its difficulty, the destruction of Occasionally the constant exertion was evil impulses was the easiest part of Chris­ too much and without willing it, his tian humility. The more demanding task strength gave way. He even wondered was to give up every desire, every aspira­ if "this being so exceedingly careful, and tion, every action that was not wholly so particularly anxious, to force myself for the glory of God, even if ostensibly to think of religion, at all times, has innocent. The Christian's duty was exceedingly distracted my mind, and "freely, and from his very heart, as it made me altogether unfit for that, and were [to] renounce, and annihilate him­ every thing else." But then his strength self."32 Edwards wanted to destroy his returned and it seemed he could not do sins and then give everything else to enough. Sometimes he discovered him­ God. self looking forward to a suspension of He once asked himself if he could per­ effort, thinking he had earned a release mit any delight or satisfaction that was as his due. But he knew his lot was dif­ not religious. His first answer was yes, ferent, that he must "live in continual for otherwise there would be no rejoicing mortification without ceasing, and even in friends or any pleasures in food. But to weary myself thereby, as long as I am on second thought he concluded, "We in this world, and never to expect or never ought to allow any joy or sorrow, 28 desire any worldly ease or pleasure." but what helps religion." That degree Talking about his wickedness seemed of self-denial was characteristic. One of to strengthen him for the struggle and his first resolutions was "never to do any he avidly enlarged upon his corruption. manner of thing, whether in soul or body, His sin, he said, was "like an infinite less or more, but what tends to the glory deluge, or a mountain over my head." of God." Comprehensive as the state­ Or, reversing the metaphor, "when I ment was, it did not satisfy him. Every look into my heart, and take a view of time he received an honor or prospered my wickedness, it looks like an abyss in any way, he worried that he exalted infinitely deeper than hell."29 These were himself at God's expense. He regularly sincere expressions of his feelings, but he added resolutions blocking any loop­ also knew that pointing to his sinfulness holes where pride could sneak through.33 empowered him to hate and destroy those In one of his high moments of dedication qualities that were, after all, still part he entered into a covenant with God of himself. When he said, "What a that was meant to be absolutely binding foolish, silly, miserable, blind, deceived, and complete. poor worm am I, when pride works," I have been before God, and have given he confirmed his determination to cut myself, all that I am, and have, to God; so out a cancer in his own flesh, however that I am not, in any respect, my own. I painful. One of his early resolves was can challenge no right in this understanding, "to act in all respects, both speaking this will, these affections, which are in me. and doing, as if nobody had been so vile

30 Dwight, Life, p. 68. 27 Ibid., pp. 77, 78. 31 Ibid., p. 90. 28 Ibid., pp. 81, 82, 77, 80. 32 Works, III, pp. 139-140. 29 Works, I, p. 22. 33 Dwight, Life, pp. 79-80, 68, 83, 69, 71, 72. JONATHAN EDWARDS 389

Neither have I any right to this body, or to be "emptied and annihilated" and any of its members—no right to this tongue, "full of Christ alone," without claiming 37 these hands, these feet; no right to these consummation. Edwards could never senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, forget the corruptions of the flesh block­ or this taste. I have given myself clear ing the influx of the Spirit. The North­ away, and have not retained any thing ampton converts after experiencing as my own.84 God's glory had "a far greater sight of their vileness, and the evil of their hearts. "38 Abasement was not merely an un­ The more grace they enjoyed, the more pleasant prerequisite for enjoying God's they recognized how their sins separated love, a device for opening oneself to them from God. grace, ending when the walls of the self were broken and the Holy Spirit flowed Edwards' conception of the regenera­ in. Humility was the desirable condi­ tive process also stood in the way of tion in itself, one of the sweetest fruits self-annihilation. The Spirit of God did of grace, and came to culmination in not absorb the person; it altered his na­ times of spiritual joy. Edwards prayed ture and more particularly his percep­ for constancy in the pleasures of humility, tions. Through his senses he saw the for they were "the most refined inward beauty of God and his creations, and this and exquisite, delights in the world." He vision was the source of holy love. The loved to be "a member of Christ, and not whole process was supernatural, origina­ anything distinct, but only a part, so ting in God, yet it was natural too, work­ as to have no separate interest, or pleas­ ing through the faculties of the creature. ure" of his own.85 Some of his most Through all, the individual mind was fervent contemplations were of himself held inviolate. Indeed regeneration de­ as a child being led by Christ. In a pended on the independent functions of perceiving minds beholding and loving famous passage he pictured the soul of a 39 Christian as "a little flower as we see God's excellence. in the spring of the year low and humble The preservation of individuality, how­ on the ground, opening its bosom to ever, was not Edwards' reason for ad­ receive the pleasant beams of the sun's vocating this conception of regeneration. glory." "There was no part of creature Its beauty was that it diminished the holiness," he went on to say, "that I had role of the self in redemption. Humility so great a sense of its loveliness, as hu­ not individualism was still the prevailing mility, brokenness of heart and poverty spirit. The schemes of Arminians and of spirit; and there was nothing that I radical Separates, the targets of Edwards ' so earnestly longed for. My heart panted arguments in A Treatise Concerning Reli­ after this, to lie low before God, as in gious Affections, began with selfishness. the dust, that I might be nothing, and The Arminians thought men chose God that God might be ALL, that I might to achieve their own happiness, and become as a little child."36 the Separates said converted men loved God because he first loved and saved The impulse for self-abasement brought them.40 Edwards opposed both for justi­ Edwards to the verge of mysticism but fying man's cardinal sins, pride and self- it never carried him over. The passages love. Men came to true faith only by that ring most mystically express a long- ing to lie low in the dust, a yearning 37 Ibid., I, p. 22. 38 Ibid., I, p. 550. 34 Ibid., pp. 78-79. 39 Miller, Perry. Jonathan Edwards. New 35 Ibid., pp. 83, 80. York: William Sloane, 1949, pp. 67-68, 193-194. 88 Works, I, pp. 21, 18. 40 Works, III, pp. 91-95. 390 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

obliterating the self and occasionally announced it in his maiden sermon before at least loving God purely for his own the Boston ministry, entitling his address, sake. God Glorified in Man*s Dependence. He By affording a glimpse of God's beauty elaborated a sophisticated and exalted and excellency, grace gave men this statement of the same theme in The selfless experience. Seeing His beauty, Nature of True Virtue, the work occupy­ brightness, and glory, they adored Him ing him in his closing years. His personal without thinking of themselves. Saints devotions, his polemical works, and his "do not first see that God loves them, sermons constantly returned to God's and then see that he is lovely; but they overpowering glory and dominion, and first see that God is lovely, and that man's nothingness. Christ is excellent and glorious." "False This picture of Edwards' consciousness affections begin with self." "The hypo­ raises many questions about his charac­ crite lays himself at the bottom of all," ter. Perhaps the most obvious is what while "the saints' affections begin with relationship existed between his deep God." "In the love of the true saint, yearning for self-abasement and his two God is the lowest foundation."41 most common spiritual conditions: the Edwards lived for those moments emotional lethargy of the dull states and when the sight of God's glories so over­ the passionate love of the exalted ? Why whelmed him that self fell away and did self-annihilation seem the most na­ he stood awestruck in love and admira­ tural way from lethargy to love? How tion. "A true saint, when in the enjoy­ can we explain his spiritual dynamics ment of true discoveries of the sweet in terms meaningful for our generation? glory of God and Christ, has his mind To suggest a tentative answer, as well too much captivated" to think of him­ as to sketch briefly Edwards' place in self. "It would be a loss which he could the subsequent development of the New not bear to have his eye taken from the England mentality, we must set him in ravishing object of his contemplation a wider context of Puritan consciousness. and turned back on his own person."42 Edwards devoted most of his writing The same power to humble also con­ to the converted man, but he also de­ firmed Edwards' belief in conventional scribed the condition of hardhearted sin­ Galvinistic doctrines. The value of belief ners. Actually the misfortunes of this in divine sovereignty, original sin, and state were implicit in all of his writings, free grace was that they allowed nothing to for only in contrast to the miseries of human powers and attributed all to wickedness did the joys of grace achieve God. They tore away the shields of poignancy. Though not invidiously, the human self-confidence and laid a man gracious person constantly contrasted bare, exposing his sinfulness, helplessness, present light to his previous deplorable and utter dependence. An Arminian could darkness. hold on to some small portion of pride In the years before the Great Awaken­ and self-righteousness. Calvinism com­ ing, preachers addressed many a sermon pelled a man to abase and abhor himself to sleepy sinners. A drowsy insensibility totally. seemed to have fallen over their parish­ Edwards' conviction that complete ioners and blinded them to the unfortu­ humility was man's only hope for en­ nate condition of their souls. These joying divine love, a regulated will, and everyday Puritans listened to the ser­ salvation was the theme of his life. He mons about sin and damnation without taking them to heart. In one way or 41 Ibid., Ill, pp. 93, 96. another they warded off the threats 42 Ibid., Ill, p. 100. descending from the pulpit and main- JONATHAN EDWARDS 391 tained their equanimity. Some thought the hopelessness of the state of the un­ their righteousness was sensible proof converted, tried by the law of God and of grace. Others may have taken enough found worthy of unending torment. The comfort from the multiplication of flocks picture of God they drew was a Being and herds not to worry over their estate of wrath and terror, unflinching in his in the hereafter. Edwards was well determination to crush sinners. Small aware of "the stupifying influence of wonder that some listeners were buried worldly objects."43 in black despair. Weighed down by con­ The apparent complacence, however, cern, Edwards' Uncle Hawley killed him­ was not solid confidence. For years self in the midst of his spiritual turmoil. before the Awakening, ministers noted Others clamored to "extinguish their fears that an earthquake, a sudden death, or a of hell," and find some "confidence of the shipwreck would set their congregations favour of God."46 They grasped at every to inquiring into the state of their souls. evidence of righteousness in themselves, Any sort of dramatic destruction seemed every image of holy things crossing their to resonate in the hearts of people and minds, eager to see grace in it. The Sepa­ awaken fears of God's intentions for rates made the assurance of the Saints them. Two deaths in Northampton a cardinal point of doctrine. Edwards "contributed to the solemnizing of the thought their hopes were obstacles to spirits of the Young People" there. And true humility, but he himself brooded when one person was seized with a con­ about his own state, at last resolving cern for his soul, soon others were too. simply to trust in God's good inten­ Observers from neighboring towns came tions for him.47 to look and went away with "wounded Edwards wondered why he had never spirits."44 The sudden precipitation of passed through the state of terror. Miss­ concern up and down the Connecticut ing this step worried him a little, for it Valley in 1735 showed how the previous was standard in the conversion process.48 complacency covered a powerful dread. But if he never felt terror consciously, The realization that burst upon these there is reason to believe it worked its ef­ people was a horrifying conviction of fects on some level. Like other Puritans their own sin. They saw clearly "their he was seized with concern when destruc­ dreadful pollution, enmity, and perverse- tion threatened, in his case a bout with ness: their obstinacy and hardness of pleurisy that brought him "nigh to the heart." They could not forget their guilt grave." Before his conversion nothing in the sight of God and saw that with was more terrible to him than thunder perfect justification "the great God who and lightning flashing from the heavens, has them in his hands" was "exceedingly and he admitted that from childhood, no angry." He appeared "so much provoked point of doctrine bothered him more than and his great wrath so increased" that that of "God's sovereignty, in choosing He must "forthwith cut them off" and whom he would to eternal life, and re­ send them down to "the horrible pit of jecting whom he pleased; leaving them eternal misery."45 eternally to perish, and be everlastingly The revival ministers pressed hard on tormented in hell." "It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me," he con­ these fears, teaching what was called 49 "legal humiliation." They underscored fessed. Perhaps as revealing as any-

43 Ibid., Ill, p. 72. 46 Ibid., I, p. 66. 44 Ibid., Ill, p. 236. 47 Dwight, Life, pp. 76, 93, 99, 105. 45 Ibid., I, p. 548; III, p. 549; cf. Ill, pp. 48 Ibid., p. 76; Works, I, pp. 15, 661-662. 240-246. 49 Works, I, p. 15. 392 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION thing is the sermon, Sinners in the Hands But the central issue, judging from of an Angry God. It is difficult to con­ Edwards' own account, was reconcilia­ ceive of anyone portraying the terrors tion with the great and terrible God. The so forcefully who had not experienced doctrine of God's sovereignty in punish­ them somewhere in his being. ing whom he wished was the major intel­ The God that holds you over the pit of lectual obstacle to conversion—and ac­ hell much as one holds a spider, or some ceptance of God's right to judge prepared loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, the way. The scripture that precipitated and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath to­ the first outpouring of grace was I Tim­ wards you burns like fire; he looks upon othy 1:17: "Now unto the King eternal, you as worthy of nothing else, but to be immortal, invisible, the only wise God, cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than be honor and glory forever and ever, to bear to have you in his sight; you are Amen." Immediately after the glory ten thousand times more abominable in of this declaration struck him, Edwards his eyes, than the most hateful venomous saw God as an object to be loved rather serpent is in ours. . . . You hang by a than feared. His heart was caught up slender thread, with the flames of divine to Christ and he rejoiced in the loveliness wrath flashing about it, and ready every of the Divine Being. moment to singe it and burn it asunder.50 In many ways this reconciliation of Father and son paralleled the resolution Those are the words of a man who had of the Oedipal crisis, and perhaps Ed­ felt the wrath of God. wards' conversion may be considered, on This component of terror was as charac­ one level, primarily as an effort to repeat teristic of Puritan consciousness, Edwards and master that difficult ordeal. The not excepted, as love or lethargy, and similarities between Puritan theological must be included in an explanation of images and common childhood images Puritan personality. Altogether the pic­ of father and son suggest how easily the ture is suggestive to anyone with a psy­ tensions of the early conflict could be choanalytic orientation, though under­ transferred to the adult conversion expe­ standably very complex. So compelling rience. The qualities of the revival preach­ an experience as conversion necessarily ers' terrible God, for example, resemble operated on many levels of the personal­ those a boy often attributes in his imag­ ity, and brought to the surface feelings ination to his father-rival. In the boy's shaped in all the earliest stages of life. fear-inspired fancy, even a kind and meek Edwards' cycle of depression and exhi­ father is credited with omnipotence and laration, for example, is reminiscent of an horrible wrath. The boy's own trans­ infant's experience of fright and estrange­ gressions also, though chiefly imaginary, ment when separated from the mother and may be painted in darkest hues, like of the return of well-being when reunited. those of the concerned sinner. Edwards' The wooden restraint of feeling is a mode sense of sinfulness fits the childhood pat­ of handling emotion characteristic of tern particularly well. Partly he deplored those taught to fear vile outbursts when specific faults like sensuality, anger, or first learning self-control. The compul­ faultfinding, departures from some ideal sive element in Edwards' preoccupation standard. But more wicked than dis­ with will restraining the affections is un­ obedience was pride, the vaunting of the mistakable. Conversion permitted a self over God. The young boy likewise safe and joyous release of emotions some­ worries about disobeying the father, es­ how purified by submission to God. pecially about indulging sensuous desires that seem like forbidden approaches to 50 Ibid., IV, p. 318. the pleasures of the mother's love. But JONATHAN EDWARDS 393

his most wicked ambition is to displace was that he felt assured of God's love the father, to rise above him, perhaps only when sin and pride were utterly to kill him. Pride is the boy's most of­ denied, when he offered no threat to fensive sin, too. God's supremacy. Only when utterly Some of Edwards' comments on hidden humble was he confident of divine ap­ sinful desires reveal how deeply he probed proval. Then his conscience released for the roots of wickedness. the emotions of the gracious times and You object against your having a mor­ he loved heartily and freely. Blessed tal hatred against God; that you never with God's love, his soul glowed with felt any desire to kill him. But one reason affection. Humility was the surest way has been, that it has always been conceived to circumvent the wrath of God and so impossible by you, and you have been recover full use of will and emotions. so sensible how such desires would be in One reward of humility was a return vain, that it has kept down such a desire. to a harmony with all of Being, reminis­ But if the life of God were within your cent of the infant's most blissful ex­ reach, and you knew it, it would not be changes of love with its mother. Edwards safe one hour.51 longed to be a child again, or a little flower, opening itself "to drink in the He could never consciously contemplate light of the sun," eagerly consuming this act himself, of course, but pride in nourishment from the center of warmth the world, or self-confidence, anything and affection. One of the signs of true but abasement, pulled down God and conversion was the awakening of sen­ exalted man in symbolic patricide. sory delight in divine things, which often This analogy between the spiritual vi­ seems like a hungry absorption of love cissitudes of childhood and maturity helps through all the nerve endings, as if the explain the emotional lethargy of Ed­ usual consumption organs would not suf­ wards' dull frames of mind. The re­ fice. God's perfections in these joyous pression of emotion is connected with moments assumed at times a maternal the assimilation of the wrathful father cast. Edwards sang of "the* beauty, grace, image. He becomes part of the boy and and holiness of God, and longed to be in a sense constantly rebukes him for "wrapt" up in Him. Indeed much of his wicked desires. This judging part Edwards' model for the ideal harmony of the self demands the containment of with God seemed to be drawn from the evil thoughts, repressing them below selfless union of mother and child.62 the level of consciousness. Thus when­ The meaning of conversion in psycho­ ever Edwards' pride or sensuality raised analytic terms was that men accepted their heads, his internal monitor sup­ Edwards' solution to a basic problem. pressed them, closing subterraneously The preachment of legal humiliation the valves of all feeling even remotely brought the crisis to a head. The images related to the forbidden actions. His of terror and the condemnation of sinners experience of dullness was actually a revived long-buried fears by starkly con­ struggle between unconscious desires and fronting the listener with a reflection the countervailing powers of conscience. of his inner self. The preachers coined Edwards made peace with this con­ words for feelings that before were mute, science as boys make peace with their fa­ and gave archaic despair currency in the thers, by relinquishing the ambition to adult consciousness. overcome and by striving to imitate in­ The wounds thus opened began to stead. The significance of abasement heal when the convert under the influence

51 Ibid., IV, p. 48. 52 Ibid., I, p. 18. 394 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION of grace ceased to fight God and started watchfulness, excited them to "care to love Him. By giving way entirely, as for the good of their souls," and restrained Edwards had, the sinner escaped divine them from sin.56 Conscience repeatedly terror and indeed found it beautiful.53 drove them to the abasement and self- Edwards sometimes saw a passive calm denial which preceded the return of gra­ come over sinners as they gave up the cious love, the dominant mode of Puritan struggle and surrendered to God. In his consciousness. own case, the doctrine of divine sover­ Pointing to the parallel between boy- eignty that once appeared horrible be­ father and man-God relations does not came "exceedingly pleasant, bright, and fully explain the movements of the sweet." After that, thunder entertained Puritan consciousness. At best the com­ rather than terrified and led to "sweet parison suggests the sources of energy contemplations of my great and glorious feeding the quest for piety. The theo­ God."54 logical and moral symbols—God, terror, The big difference in the converted pride, sin, abasement, love, beauty—tap­ man was that love swallowed fear. Nat­ ped primary reservoirs of emotional power. ural men stood in awe of God and fear­ The flow of childhood feelings into the fully strove to obey Him, but they did adult struggle gave it urgency and en­ not voluntarily "abase themselves and durance. But after saying that much exalt God alone. This disposition," Ed­ the psychoanalyst can only congratulate wards said, "was given only in evangelical Edwards for attempting to resolve an humiliation, by overcoming the heart, ancient and fundamental human dilem­ and changing its inclination, by a dis­ ma. covery of God's holy beauty." Natural The bald statement that the dramas men may be "subdued and forced to the of the Puritan consciousness were no ground;" converted men "are brought more than a reenactment of the Oedipal sweetly to yield, and freely and with trauma grossly distorts the truth. No delight to prostrate themselves at the simple link can be forged between child­ feet of God."55 The crux of conversion hood and adult life. Among other objec­ was the willing renunciation of all am­ tions, there are logical flaws in such a bition to rival God, and submision to contention. The most important is that Him out of selfless love. all children pass through Oedipal crises, The resolution of the old conflict but not all adults are Puritans. The task brought peace and joy and a great tender­ of the historian is to explain why Oedipal ness of heart, but not perfect stability. problems were so prominent in the Puri­ The price of freer emotions and heighten­ tan consciousness and why their resolu­ ed self-awareness was the painful oscilla­ tion took the form it did.57 tion between dullness and grace. Ed­ The inquiry obviously leads toward a wards observed that among all converted study of Puritan family life and the con­ men, love decayed and fear arose in per­ ditions that magnified the boy's fear of sistent alternation. Conversion recon­ his father.58 It also leads toward a new ciled the soul to God without purging entirely the former fears of the terrible 56 Ibid., Ill, p. 56. Divinity. The old terror remained at 57 I also hold with those who maintain a some level and properly so, Edwards psychoanalytic interpretation of religion does thought, because it stirred men up to not exclude a supernatural one. 58 Morgan, E. S. The Puritan Family: Essays 53 Ibid., Ill, pp. 246-249; I, pp. 548-549. on Religion and Domestic Relations in Seven­ 54 Ibid., I, pp. 15, 17. teenth Century New England. Boston: The 55 Ibid., Ill, p. 138. Trustees of the Public Library, 1944. JONATHAN EDWARDS 395 look at Puritan culture to discover the ious notions of sufficient cultural strength elements that drew out this particular to counterbalance the humbling doctrines configuration of feelings from the varied of Calvinism. Reason was one of these. experiences of childhood. It should be By virtue of its power Benjamin Franklin, clear at this point how influential Cal- a fugitive from Puritan Boston, held God vinist doctrine was in the shaping of to strict compliance with moral rules character. The conceptions of divine and could appease his conscience with sovereignty, original sin, and free grace good works. Benevolence was another. all stressed man's lowliness, God's power, Charles Chauncy, Edwards' archfoe dur­ and the necessity of submission. Those ing the Awakening, said divine love and doctrines were bound to select from the eternal punishment were contradictory. legacy of childhood the patterns sur­ God desired the well-being of His children rounding the Oedipal crisis and give them and punished to teach goodness. When standing in the adult world. In the years the lesson was learned, the punishment when a young person was looking for the ended. No one needed to fear permanent components of the private self that were internment in the pit of misery. These negotiable in public, he could name and two, reason and benevolence, helped talk about these feelings. The doctrine many a Yankee to calm his fear of judg­ helped him to choose them from his large ment and to avoid the humiliation of store and award them a permanent place total surrender.59 in his adult identity. Thus the Puritan The sons of the Puritans who resorted encountered fewer obstacles to feeling to these devices, however, did not enjoy sinfulness, despair, and holy wrath than, perfect equanimity. Though its com­ for example, a lad bred on optimism and mands were muffled, conscience continued rugged individualism in the late nine­ to drive men. They worried that their teenth century. good works fell short, that pride had The Puritan consciousness began to carried them too far, and that they must decline in Edwards' own lifetime. By serve others more selflessly. They be­ the end of the eighteenth century Puri­ came zealous reformers, determined to tans were in the minority even in New exterminate from the world the evil they England. Either Edwards or the psycho­ could not remove from their own hearts. analyst could explain why. Calvinism However tightly they sealed the passage required men to abase themselves totally leading to the past, the voice of their in the hopes of reaching God, and few fathers' God still resounded in their could meet the test. Edwards knew that hearts. Even adherence to optimistic pride and selfishness lay at the very bot­ doctrines of progress only demonstrated tom of the soul. Natural men had always how they feared their world would some­ constructed ingenious doctrinal defenses time collapse and God would have them against God's demands for absolute humi­ in His awful power. lity. The psychoanalyst knows that boys For many the cost of restraining God who cease to compete overtly with their was the loss of internal freedom. Unable fathers continue the rivalry under various to face God in all his terror, they could guises. No one surrenders entirely, and never know Him in His glory. They most will more or less openly protect their held Him strictly to a reasonable moral- pride against the extreme demands of conscience. Edwards lived to see eighteenth-cen­ 59 Haroutunian, J. Piety versus Moralismi The tury thinkers devising ways of stifling Passing of the New England Theology. New the voice of judgment and terror in them­ York: H. Holt, 1932, describes this develop­ selves. The Enlightenment provided var­ ment in theological terms. 396 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION ity and consequently were bound them­ taught their own forms of discipline and selves. They enjoyed the small pleasures surrender, and they avidly sought the of decorous worship and worldly prosper­ moments of ecstasy and insight which ity, and passed over the raptures of en­ as heirs of Edwards they knew were velopment in heavenly love. accessible to human consciousness. A few grandsons of the Puritans sensed Few others, however, tasted of the di­ they were cheated of their inheritance. vine glory and so most forgot what Puri­ A reasonable faith and moral propriety tanism once meant. They saw only the with quiet hopes for a good estate here­ terrors of a wrathful God and gladly bur­ after palled them. They hungered for ied the Puritan Divinity in the graves sweeter, stronger nourishment. In this of their ancestors. Edwards was remem­ generation the transcendental prophets bered chiefly for inhuman strictness once again lost themselves in visions of and his debasement of human powers. divine excellence and felt the surge of Puritanism came to stand for dreary self- holy love in their souls. They did not restraint and joyless piety. The latter- practice Edwards' humility; Emerson day generation lost touch entirely with thought Puritanism a religion of "priva­ the vital heart of Edwards' religion. tion, self-denial and sorrow."60 But they They failed to see that unending spiritual exertions and absolute surrender were nought beside the sweetness of beholding 60 Emerson, R. W. The Complete Works of and selflessly loving the great and glo­ Ralph Waldo Emerson. Concord Edition, rious God. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1904, Vol. I, p. 220. My argument here follows that of Perry Miller Errand into the Wilderness, Cambridge: Har­ in his essay, "From Edwards to Emerson," in vard University Press, 1956, pp. 184-203.