Jonathan Edwards: A Life

638 Pages·2003·4.18 MB·English

by  George M. Marsden

Jonathan Edwards
[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

Jonathan Edwards, ca. 1750–55
Z X
Jonathan
Edwards
A Life
Z X
George M. Marsden
Yale University Press
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.
Copyright ∫ 2003 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond
that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for
the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by James J. Johnson and set in Adobe Caslon type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.,
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania.
Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley and Sons, Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marsden, George M., 1939–
Jonathan Edwards : a life / George M. Marsden.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-300-09693-3 (alk. paper)
1. Edwards, Jonathan, 1703–1758. 2. Congregational churches—
United States—Clergy—Biography. I. Title.
BX7260.E3M412 2003
285.8%092—dc21
[B] 2002013611
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To a generation of Edwards scholars who made this work possible
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
the power may be of God, and not of us.
—II Corinthians 4:7
Contents
List of Maps ix
Cotton Mather’s Map of New England x
Chronology of Edwards’ Life and Times xiii
Preface xvii
Note on the Text xxi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. A Time to Be Born 11
Chapter 2. The Overwhelming Question 25
Chapter 3. The Pilgrim’s Progress 44
Chapter 4. The Harmony of All Knowledge 59
Chapter 5. Anxieties 82
Chapter 6. ‘‘A Low, Sunk Estate and Condition’’ 101
Chapter 7. On Solomon Stoddard’s Stage 114
Chapter 8. And on a Wider Stage 133
Chapter 9. The Mighty Works of God and of Satan 150
Chapter 10. The Politics of the Kingdom 170
Chapter 11. ‘‘A City Set on a Hill’’ 184
Chapter 12. God ‘‘Will Revive the Flame Again,
Even in the Darkest Times’’ 201
Chapter 13. The Hands of God and the Hand of Christ 214
viii Contents
Chapter 14. ‘‘He That Is Not with Us Is Against Us’’ 227
Chapter 15. ‘‘Heavenly Elysium’’ 239
Chapter 16. Conservative Revolutionary 253
Chapter 17. A House Divided 268
Chapter 18. A Model Town No More 291
Chapter 19. Colonial Wars 306
Chapter 20. ‘‘Thy Will Be Done’’ 320
Chapter 21. ‘‘I Am Born to Be a Man of Strife’’ 341
Chapter 22. The Crucible 357
Chapter 23. The Mission 375
Chapter 24. Frontier Struggles 395
Chapter 25. Wartime 414
Chapter 26. Against an ‘‘Almost Inconceivably Pernicious’’
Doctrine 432
Chapter 27. Original Sin ‘‘in This Happy Age of Light
and Liberty’’ 447
Chapter 28. Challenging the Presumptions of the Age 459
Chapter 29. The Unfinished Masterworks 472
Chapter 30. The Transitory and the Enduring 490
Appendix A. Genealogical Table of Edwards’ Relatives 507
Appendix B. Edwards’ Sisters 510
Appendix C. Edwards’ Immediate Family, from His Family Bible 511
Notes 513
Credits 601
Index 603
Maps
Southeastern Section of Cotton Mather’s Map of New England, 1696 x
Central New Haven, 1748 92
Edwards’ World as the Embattled American West 384