Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian and revival preacher, was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, on October 5, 1703. This was the same year John Wesley was born, and the people of New England were affected by Edward’s preaching much the same way the people of England were by Wesley’s.

Jonathan’s father was a minister, and his mother’s father was also. It seemed natural that one of their eleven children should follow suit. Of course, it had to be Jonathan, for the other ten were girls. However, he came to that end of his own choice, though he would be quick to point out God’s sovereign will ordained it.

He was exceptionally curious about everything. By his tenth birthday he had already written two treatises, one on the nature of the soul, the other about the habits of the flying spider. Though interested in all the sciences, he sought a larger realm of thought. He dug into philosophy, and worked out the philosophical implications of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica and John Locke’s psychological ideas.

He entered Yale College at the age of 13, and graduated valedictorian at 17. He pastored a Presbyterian church in New York for a while, and then returned to Yale, receiving the M.A. degree in 1724. In 1727 he was ordained by his grandfather’s church, and became their associate pastor. Then he married his sweetheart of college days, Miss Sarah Pierrepoint, daughter of one of Yale’s founders. His grandfather died in 1729, leaving him pastor of one of New England’s most influential churches.

As pastor, Jonathan studied thirteen hours every day. He usually read his sermons, with very little emotion. He was determined not to let it appear that he was more educated than the congregation. Yet he packed emotional and intellectual content into every word, so that his hearers were shocked out of their complacency and edified at the same time. Though he spoke for two hours, reading in a high-pitch, raspy monotone, yet they hung on every word:

“You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe and burn it asunder; and you have nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”

People throughout New England turned to God, in this Great Awakening of 1740-41. New churches were built by the hundreds, to accept the thousands of new converts. But any great advance of the work of God encounters opposition. When Edwards desired to limit church membership to those truly born again, his own church threw him out.

After six months looking for a church, and finding none ready to call so large a man, he went as missionary to an Indian village at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. For the next eight years, the best educated man in America lived and labored in poverty. His children helped by selling their handicrafts, and the Lord provided all their needs. This tribulation worked for our blessing, as he used the time to write heavy theological books, such as Freedom of the Will, which set the tone of theological thinking in America for generations.

In 1757 the tribulation ended. Princeton, New Jersey, was the site of a new college started by some of those “awakened” under Edward’s leadership. They called him to be president of their school. After serving less than two months, he died of complications from a smallpox vaccination.

So ended the life, but not the influence, of one of America’s best theologians and colonial leaders, and devout Christians.