Reformation &"evival A Quarterly Journal for Church Leadership Volume 4, Number 3 III Summer 1995 Jonathan Edwards and His Legacy] Michael A.G. Haykin When D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones read his paper on "Jonathan Edwards and the· Crucial Importance of Revival" at the Westminster Conference in 1976, he confessed that the paper was "one of the most difficult tasks I have ever attempted. "2 Part of the reason for this, Lloyd-Jones admitted, was the immense influence Edwards had had upon him personally.3 But there was also the fact that Edwards was a spiritual and theological giant. "I am tempted," Lloyd-Jones said, "perhaps foolishly, to compare the Puritans to the Alps, Luther and Calvin to the Himalayas, and Jonathan Edwards to Mount Everest!" And as he faced "this great peak pointing up to heaven," Lloyd-Jones continued, he could feel like a weak • "little climber."41f Lloyd-Jones felt so daunted by Edwards, how much more does this writer! My only hope is similar to that of Lloyd-Jones: "to give some glimpses of this man and his life, and what he did," with the goal of persuading you to read Edwards for yourself.s Edwards was born on October 5, 1703, in a town far from the centers of influence and power, East Windsor, Connecticut. His parents both came from well established New England Puritan families. His father, Timothy Edwards (1669-1758), the pastor of the Congregational church in East Windsor, was first cousin to the well-known Puritan theologian and historian Cotton Mather (1663-1728), while his mother, Esther (1672- 1770), was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729), a prominent Congregationalist pastor in New England. Stoddard was especially renowned for his fervent preaching and for the recurrent revivals which his congregation in Northampton, Connecticut, had experienced. Jonathan, the only son of eleven children, received his early education from his father and older sisters. At the age of thirteen he entered the Collegiate School of Connecticut in New Haven, Connecticut, which would later be renamed Yale College. Although he had been raised in an extremely godly home, and graduated from the Collegiate School in 1720 at the Jonathan Edwards and His Legacy Jonathan Edwards and His Legacy head of his class academically, Edwards had neither inner I know not how to express.8 peace nor saving faith. Writing later of his life at this time, Edwards said that it was characterized "by great and violent After a relatively brief stint of pastoring a small Presbyt& inner struggles."6 Edwards stayed at the college for another rian work in New York, Edwards moved back to his hometown two years after graduation in 1720, studying towards an MA of East Windsor in April 1723. That summer he finished his It was during this period, probably in April or May 1721, that MA thesis and subsequently received his M.A. from Yale in Edwards experienced conversion.7 In his Personal Narrative, the fall. The following year he was appointed tutor at Yale, in which he wrote in 1739, he describes this experience: which capacity he served until August 1726, when he was 1 invited by the Congregational Church of Northampton, Mas­ The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward sachusetts, to become assistant to its pastor, his grandfather, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much Solomon Stoddard. In the words of lain H. Murray: "For the in since was on reading those words, 1 Tim. 1:17. "Now unto next twenty-three years he was to be 'Mr. Edwards of the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be Northampton. "'9 honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen." As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as It were diffused Within a year of his arrival at Northampton Edwards had thro' it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, married. He had known his bride Sarah Peirrepont (1710-58), quite different from anything I ever experienced before. since his student days at Yale. Samuel Miller, who wrote a Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words biography of Edwards in the last century, comments thus on did. I thought with myself, how excellent a being that was; their marriage: "Perhaps no event of Mr. Edwards' life had a and how happy) should be, if) mIght enjoy that God, and be more close connection with his subsequent comfort and wrapt up to God in Heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him.) kept saying, and as it were singing over these words usefulness than his marriage."lo Throughout their married of scripture to myself; and went to prayer, to pray to God lives Sarah and Jonathan were deeply devoted to one another; that I might enjoy Him; and prayed in a manner quite moreover, her godliness fully matched his.11 Their first daugh­ different from what) used to do; with a new sort of affection. ter, Sarah (1728-1805), was born the following year. She was But it never came into my thought, that there was anythIng the first of eleven children, all of whom survived infancy. In a spiritual, or of a saving nature In thIs. day when infant mortality was extremely high (Cotton Mather, From about that time, I began to have a new kind of for instance, had fifteen children, of whom only two survived apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of infancy), this is indeed an amazing fact. Moreover, it should be redemption and the glorious way of salvation by Him. I had noted that the frequent portrayal of Edwards as a stern an inward, sweet sense of these things, that at times came theologian is belied by his tenderness as both a husband and into my heart; and my soul was lead away in pleasant views father, ''whose children seemed genuinely fond of him."12 and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly Solomon Stoddard died in 1729, leaving to his grandson the engaged, to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ; and the beauty and excellence of His person, and the ministerial charge of one of the richest congregations in lovely way of salvation, by free grace In Him .... The sense I Connecticut. Spiritually, though, things were far from good at had of divine things, would often of a sudden kindle up, as it the time of Stoddard's death. Edwards wrote of the congrega­ were, a sweet burning in my heart; and ardour of soul, that tion at that time: Jonathan Edwards and His Legacy Jonathan Edwards and His Legacy The greater part seemed to be at that time very insensible of was central to the onset of revival in December 1734.15 For the the things of religion, and engaged in other cares and pursuits. next five months an intense concern to be at peace with God Just after my grandfather's death, it seemed to be a time of and to walk with Him gripped the entire town. "The town extraordinary dullness in religion. Licentiousness for some years prevailed among the youth of the town; they were seemed to be full of the presence of God," Edwards later wrote 16 many of them very much addicted to night-walking, and in his account of this revival. Of the town's roughly one frequenting the tavern, and lewd practices, wherein some, thousand inhabitants, there was hardly one who was not by their example, exceedingly corrupted others. It was their concerned "about the great things of the eternal world."17 manner very frequently to get together, in conventions of Those who knew Christ were ''wrapt up in delightful contem­ both sexes for mirth and jollity, which they called frolics; plation of the glory and wonderful grace of God, the excellency and they would often spend the greater part of the night in them, without regard to any order in the families they and dying love of Jesus Christ; and ... in longing desires after III belonged to: and indeed family government did too much God and Christ. "18 On those who did not know Christ the initial fail in the town. It was become very customary with many of effect was twofold: our young people to be indecent in their carriage at meeting, which doubtless would not have prevailed in such a degree, One was.... immediately to quit their sinful practices .... had it not been that my grandfather, through his great age When once the Spirit of God began to be so wonderfully (though he retained his powers surprisingly to the last), was poured out in a general way through the town, people had not so able to observe them. There had also long prevailed soon done with their old quarrels, backbitings, and In the town a spirit of contention between two parties, into intermeddling with other men's matters. The tavern was which they had for many years been divided; by which they soon left empty; and persons kept very much at home; none maintained a jealousy one of the other, and were prepared went abroad unless on necessary business, or on some to oppose one another in all public affairs. 13 religious account, and every day seemed in many respects like a Sabbath-day. The other effect was, that it put them on Many of the adults of the congregation were taken up with earnest application to the means of salvation, reading, prayer, the pursuit of wealth and property, not with that of God and meditation, the ordinances of God's house, and private His kingdom.