If you were to put together a list of the most influential pastors in American history, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) would make the top five. Born in Connecticut and educated at Yale, he went on to pastor a New England church where he delivered some of American history’s most famous sermons. After congregation politics led to him being dismissed from his church in 1750, Edwards accepted a job preaching at a much smaller church in Massachusetts, giving him more time to write. His books combined theology and philosophy in groundbreaking ways, setting the foundation for new schools of religious thinking. When he died in 1758 from a smallpox inoculation, Edwards had just entered a post as president of the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University). Even though he died comparatively young at 54, and just when he seemed about to enter a new phase, Edwards left a body of work that continues to be studied today.
Here are some of the many great quotes from Edwards’ works, alongside facts you probably didn’t know about him.
10 Quotes by Jonathan Edwards Quotes
1. “It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand.” — “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Sinner”
2. “I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father’s pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking upon the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, as I know not how to express—I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjunction; majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness.” — “Personal Narrative”
3. “The learned Grecians and their great philosophers, by all their wisdom did not know God, they were not able to find out the truth in divine things. But, after they had done their utmost to no effect, it pleased God at length to reveal himself by the gospel, which they accounted foolishness.” — “God Glorified in the Work of Redemption”
4. “The soul of a true Christian, as I then wrote my meditations, appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year; low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom, to receive the pleasant beams of the sun’s glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly, in the amidst of other flowers round it; all in like manner opening their bosoms, to drink the light of the sun.” — “Personal Narrative”
5. “We ought to seek heaven, by traveling in the way that leads thither. This is the way of holiness. We should choose and desire to travel thither in this way and in no other; and part with all those carnal appetites, which as weights will tend to hinder us.” — “The Christian Pilgrim”
6. “The Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case from what he doth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a natural man, but he acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital principle. He acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an extrinsic, occasional agent; for in acting upon them, he doth not unite himself to them; notwithstanding all his influences that they may be the subjects of, they are still sensual, having not the Spirit, Jude 19. But he unites himself with the mind of a saint, takes him for his temple, actuates and influences him as a new, supernatural principle of life and action.” — “A Divine and Supernatural Light”
7. “My heart panted after this—to lie low before God, as in the dust; that I might be nothing, and that God, might be ALL, that I might become as a little child.” — “Personal Narrative”
8. “The redeemed have all their good of God. God is the great author of it. He is the first cause of it; and not only so, but he is the only proper cause.” — “God Glorified in the Work of Redemption”
9. “Ruth forsook all her natural relations and her own country, the land of her nativity, and all her former possessions there, for the sake of the God of Israel; as every true Christian forsakes all for Christ.” — “Ruth’s Resolution”
10. “There is in heaven a sufficiency for the happiness of every sort; there is a convenient accommodation for every creature that will hearken to the calls of the Gospel. None that will come to Christ, let his condition be what it will need to fear but that Christ will provide a place suitable for him in heaven.” — “The Many Mansions”
What You Probably Didn’t Know about Jonathan Edwards
1. He was interested in science. While many people know Edwards’ sermons and theological works written as an adult, he began writing as a child. One of the earliest surviving records of his work is “Of Insects,” an essay he wrote around the time he was 11 that shows him carefully detailing how spiders live, how they move, and ultimately how they die.
2. He came from a bright family. While a lot has been written about Edwards’ intellect, some skip over the fact that he was influenced by a family of intelligent people, especially women. Christian History Institute contributor Heidi Nichols outlines how Edwards’ mother encouraged him to read widely, and how his sister Ethel wrote “The Soul,” an essay often misattributed to her brother.
3. He went to Yale before it was Yale. Edwards attended Yale College, the school officially founded in 1701 that expanded over several centuries to become Yale University. In her foreword to Jonathan Edwards: Basic Writings, Edwards biographer Ola Elizabeth Winslow notes that when Edwards entered Yale College in 1716, it was still in “the first throes of its stormy beginning.”
4. He pastored a church where he had family history. In 1727, Edwards received his ordination and became an assistant pastor to his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who pastored a well-known church in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Edwards took over as lead pastor after his grandfather’s death in 1929.
5. He predated the Great Awakening. Officially, the revival that started at Edwards’ church in 1734 is called the Northampton Awakening, a preamble to the famous Great Awakening that started six years later. However, since George Whitefield heard about the Northhampton Awakening and preached at Edwards’ church twice in 1740, one movement affected the other.
6. He cared about truth. While Edwards lived through a religious revival, he didn’t let the period’s high emotions detract from clear teaching. Some of his best-known works are careful discussions about what true conversion looks like, separating clear Biblical teachings about the Holy Spirit from easy emotionalism.
7. He wrote some of his best work at an unexpected time. After clashes with his congregation led to Edwards being dismissed as pastor in 1750, he became a pastor and missionary at a small church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1751. He spent seven years there, mostly serving as a missionary to Native Americans. Some scholars view this time as an exile period for Edwards. However, Onslow notes that it was the period when Edwards wrote almost all of his classic books.
8. He was an apologist. While Edwards’ writings about philosophy and theology are his best-known work, newer research has shown he also wrote Christian apologetics. In The History of Apologetics, Michael J. McClymond details the many notebooks where Edwards wrote an apologetics project criticizing deism by showing all human knowledge as God-centered. These notebooks’ contents have since been published in Yale University Press’ The Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards.
9. His most famous sermon isn’t quite what you think. Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” has gone down in history as a classic fire and brimstone sermon. Historians have pointed out that Edwards also preached much about the father’s love and didn’t preach it in the highly emotional style we associate with fire and brimstone preaching.
10. He left an incredible legacy. Edwards not only came from a bright family but also had many bright descendants. Historian George Marsden reports in Jonathan Edwards: A Life that studies of Edwards’ family tree show that his family “produced scores of clergymen, thirteen presidents of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements.”
5 Classic Books by Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards’ works have been republished many times over, in editions of varying quality. Banner Truth has a two-volume collection of his works, and Yale University Press has released his complete works in a 37-volume set that you can read for free online. If you’re looking to get into his work slowly, the following are five of his best-known books, covering a range of subjects from philosophy to religious revivals.
3. The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God
5. A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World
5 Great Books about Jonathan Edwards
Since Edwards was a complex thinker, it helps to have books by people who had studied his work and can explain it in an accessible way. The following are five of the best books for an overview of Edwards’ life and work.
1. God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards by John Piper
2. Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George M. Marsden
3. An Absolute Sort of Certainty: The Holy Spirit and the Apologetics of Jonathan Edwards by Stephen J. Nichols
4. Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to His Thought by Oliver Crisp and Kyle Strobel
5. The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia edited by Harry Stout, Kenneth Minkema, and Adriaan Neele
Dan Graves provides a deeper look at a side of Edwards that many forget: his marriage.
What Do We Know about Jonathan Edwards’ Wife?
Jonathan Edwards was first attracted to thirteen-year-old Sarah Pierpoint because he saw in her an extraordinary cheerfulness and a deeper than usual faith in God. Many smooth and handsome young men courted Sarah, but it was gangly, moody Jonathan, with his prayerful ways and deep love of God, who won her. He made her feel as if what she thought was important to him. They married on this day, July 20, 1727. She was seventeen, he was 23.
Their marriage, which lasted over thirty years, was a happy one. Much of that was owing to Sarah, who managed the home—and her scholarly husband—efficiently. Sarah worked hard to rear godly children, dealing immediately with sin when it showed itself. She bore eleven, ten of whom lived to adulthood. Jonathan also gave an hour a day to play and conversation with his children.
The many people who visited the home were impressed by the peace which flourished in the home. There was none of the quarreling or coldness so common in other homes. Husband and wife supported and admired each other. They prayed daily together. Evangelist George Whitefield, after spending a few days in the calm, happy Edwards home, was so impressed that he determined to get married himself. “A sweeter couple I have not yet seen” he enthused.
Jonathan himself saw home life as a living lesson in faith. In his sermon, “The Church's Marriage to Her Sons and to Her God,” he reminded his listeners of the importance of marriage. “Of all the various kinds of union of sensible and temporal things that are used in Scripture to represent the relation there is between Christ and his church; that which is between bridegroom and bride, or husband and wife, is much more frequently made use of both in the Old and New Testament. The Holy Ghost seems to take a particular delight in this, as a similitude [likeness] fit to represent the strict, intimate, and blessed union that is between Christ and his saints.”
The Edwards suffered their share of criticism. Although Sarah was not wasteful, she had expensive tastes, especially in dresses and dishes. Jonathan came under a cloud of anger when he refused to admit just anyone to communion. The last years of the couple's lives were lived in turmoil and poverty.
Jonathan had just accepted the presidency of Princeton when he contracted smallpox. On his death bed, his last thoughts were of Sarah. “...give my kindest leave to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long existed between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever; and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God.” he said. Sarah and he had just lost a daughter and son-in-law. Sarah fell ill of dysentery while on a visit to collect her grandchildren to raise with her own younger children. Just six months after Jonathan's death, she joined him in the grave.
Bibliography:
- Cook, Emily. “Sarah Edwards.” http://www.hillsdale.edu/dept/Phil&Rel/ JE/EdwardsS/CookE.html
- Kirk, Hilary. “Jonathan Edwards, Images of Marriage.” http://www.hillsdale.edu/dept/Phil&Rel/ JE/Papers/98/KirkH.html
- Morrison, Sara. “Sarah Edwards; Gentle Joyful Servant.” http://www.hillsdale.edu/dept/Phil&Rel/ JE/EdwardsS/MorrisonS.html
- Petersen, William J. Martin Luther Had a Wife/Harriet Beecher Stowe Had a Husband. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1983.
- Van Buren, Camille. “The 'Uncommon' Sarah Edwards.” http://www.hillsdale.edu/dept/Phil&Rel/ JE/EdwardsS/VanBurenC.html
Last updated July, 2007.
(“Sarah Pierpont Married Jonathan Edwards” by Dan Graves, MSL, published on Christianity.com on April 28, 2010)
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Henry Augustus Loop
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