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The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 22: Sermons and Discourses, 1739-1742
The sermons and discourses in this volume chart the rise and decline of the Great Awakening in Jonathan Edwards's parish in Northampton, Massachusetts, and beyond. A leading figure of the revival period, Edwards delivered potent and wide-ranging sermons during the years 1739-42. In this volume the transcript of the original manuscript of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is reproduced, along with the text of its first printed edition.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published April 10, 2003
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About the author
Jonathan Edwards
1,624 books531 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
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July 7, 2017
This volume covers one of the most fruitful periods of Edwards' life. Most notably to most, it includes both the first published version and the original manuscript outline of his infamous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" - which is a vivid example of a particular subgenre of sermon, though not necessarily of Edwards' preaching in general.
For my money, though, the most striking sermon here was "Like Rain Upon Mown Grass," which develops the central image in myriad ways, e.g., "The church of God in the world is very much like grass in that respect: it can't be killed by cutting down or by being devoured by the beasts that feed upon it. Let it be cut down by the scythe or wounded by the teeth of beasts never so often, yet it will live and grow again by the showers of heaven. ... So Christ often revives the hearts of his saints when they have been, as it were, cut down by some remarkable affliction. ... Christ comes down upon such souls as a healing, refreshing shower. His blessed Spirit descends and enters the poor, wounded soul, the broken heart, as a healing oil. And then there is life from the dead" (310-311).
For my money, though, the most striking sermon here was "Like Rain Upon Mown Grass," which develops the central image in myriad ways, e.g., "The church of God in the world is very much like grass in that respect: it can't be killed by cutting down or by being devoured by the beasts that feed upon it. Let it be cut down by the scythe or wounded by the teeth of beasts never so often, yet it will live and grow again by the showers of heaven. ... So Christ often revives the hearts of his saints when they have been, as it were, cut down by some remarkable affliction. ... Christ comes down upon such souls as a healing, refreshing shower. His blessed Spirit descends and enters the poor, wounded soul, the broken heart, as a healing oil. And then there is life from the dead" (310-311).
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