Salvation of Souls

The Salvation of Souls: Nine Previously Unpublished Sermons on the Call of Ministry and the Gospel by Jonathan Edwards
Richard A. Bailey (Editor), Gregory A. Wills (Editor), George M. Marsden (Foreword), Jonathan Edwards

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Gregory Wills and Richard Bailey gather nine previously unpublished ordination sermons delivered by Jonathan Edwards that charge others to be faithful in the gospel ministry. These sermons define the nature and task of such service, both then and now. Pastors today will find Edwards's words to be a challenge to return to the basic call of saving sinners by preaching the Word.

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Excerpt

Foreword by George M. Marsden

Jonathan Edwards was first of all a preacher. His central concern, as the editors of this volume point out, was the salvation of souls. At the center of his own experience was the encounter with God best encapsulated in his famous sermon "A Divine and Supernatural Light." Those who are recipients of the saving grace of God are given "eyes to see" the beauty of the love of God manifested in the saving work of Christ on the cross. Once people glimpse that beauty and love, they are inexorably drawn to it. As when one recognizes any overwhelming beauty, one cannot help loving it at the same time that the love is wholly voluntary. So it is with the mysterious power of God's saving grace that allows one to see what is truly beautiful and lovely. The job of the preacher is to use God's Word as a means of awakening people at least enough to look for the love and beauty that their sins keep them from apprehending or (in the case of the converted) from apprehending fully.

In the midst of the debates over the Great Awakening, Edwards made a revealing comment about the effects of preaching. During intense periods of awakenings, evangelists often preached to the same audiences daily, or even more frequently. Opponents of the awakening argued that people could not possibly remember what they heard in all these sermons. Edwards responded that "The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered."1 Preaching, in other words, should be designed primarily to awaken, to shake people out of their blind slumbers in the addictive comforts of their sins. Though only God can give them new eyes to see, preaching should be designed to jolt the unconverted or the converted who doze back into their sins (as all do) into recognizing their true estate.

Edwards's emphasis on the immediate affective impact of preaching might seem surprising from reading some of these sermons. By today's standards, they may seem calmly intellectual. They are thoroughly organized, point by logical point. They have few emotive images. None is anything like "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Partly their seemingly staid nature is due to the occasions for which they were preached. Several are ordination sermons, for instance. Yet these sermons are far more typical of Edwards's usual preaching than is "Sinners," with its elaborate piling up of vivid images. The power of most of Edwards's sermons was in their logic. His goal was to make an impression "upon the mind" of a hearer. The mind, he believed, was the most important seat of the affections. Purely intellectual knowledge was incomplete. True knowledge must involve the affections, which shaped one's heart, will, and hence one's actions.

Though deceptively simple-looking in their organization and unadorned instructive style, Edwards's sermons often could have a strong affective impact. "The Kind of Preaching People Want," for instance, involves a skillful turning of the tables on critical parishioners. Once hearers grant Edwards's unassailable premise that God's Word, rather than human lusts, should be the norm for good preaching, they are forced to recognize that they stand condemned by their own usual resistance to gospel preaching. This sermon offers a message of which more recent generations of pastors and congregations need to be reminded. Other sermons are more simply instructive, such as "Deacons to Care for the Body, Ministers for the Soul," which reveals Edwards's characteristically strong distinction between body and soul. At the same time, his comparison of the church's works of mercy with Old Testament duties of sacrifice provides a powerful lesson, still applicable today. Edwards's sermon on "Ministers to Preach Not Their Own Wisdom but the Word of God," although seeming to have less affective potential, is nonetheless a fascinating summation of his views of faith and reason. While granting a large place for reason as a source of truth, he insists that the dictates of reason must be tested by Scripture, rather than the reverse.

Probably one of the most emotionally powerful of the sermons when it was first delivered was that on Acts 20:28, preached at the ordination of Edward Billing in 1754. Both Edwards and Billing had been dismissed by their congregations. For Edwards his dismissal from Northampton was the most emotionally devastating experience of his life. He knew that Billing must have also suffered miserably. Edwards's theme for the sermon is that "Christ's expending his own blood for the salvation and happiness of the souls of men" should be a model for ministers. His thoroughgoing exposition of the many implications of this remarkable truth might seem overly theoretical if viewed in the abstract. If viewed in its setting, however, of the suffering that everyone knew each minister had endured for matters of principle, the cumulative emotive impact could be substantial.

Whatever the subject, the personal intensity of Edwards's otherwise undramatic preaching style reflected his deep commitment to all that he was saying and was therefore often deeply affecting to his hearers.

In all, this collection of sermons is a valuable addition to the available literature on Edwards. Its focus on the ministry makes it particularly valuable for pastors (but also to those who listen to pastors) who are open to guidance from other eras in understanding their divine errand.

Notes

  1. Jonathan Edwards, Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, in Edwards, The Great Awakening, ed. C. C. Goen, Vol. 4 of Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972), 397. I am indebted to Timothy Keller for pointing out this passage.

Introduction by Richard A. Bailey & Gregory A. Wills

In these sermons, all of which have never been published (except for one--"Ministers to Preach Not Their Own Wisdom but the Word of God," in the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology [Volume 3, Number 2, Summer 1999]), Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) defines the nature and task of the minister of the Gospel. At bottom, Edwards's position is straightforward. The primary work of the ministry is saving sinners.

Edwards's influence on American Christianity was extensive, and his thought has enduring appeal. He integrated the "New Learning" of the British Enlightenment--its empiricist approach to human knowledge and its psychology--into a Christian worldview. He bolstered Calvinist theology before the growing popularity of Arminianism. He promoted a piety of the heart in opposition to formal and rationalist religion. His preaching and writing was the catalyst for the Great Awakening, and he developed an influential theological defense of the revival. At the heart of his work, however, was his aim to save sinners. He explains in these sermons that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he sends out his ministers to do the same.

Edwards's Career As a Minister of the Gospel

Edwards steadfastly applied himself to the task of the ministry. For most of his career he served the congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1727 to 1729 as assistant to his grandfather Solomon Stoddard, and from 1729 to 1750 as sole pastor. At Northampton he labored successfully to save sinners. For about six months in 1734 and 1735, Northampton experienced a remarkable revival in which virtually the whole town grew concerned about their eternal welfare, and many professed saving faith. When Edwards described this event in his Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, published in 1737, he hoped that the story would prompt others to pray and preach for the salvation of sinners. The book succeeded and set the stage for the vast transatlantic revival that followed. When the Great Awakening kindled in 1740 through the conversionist preaching of itinerant George Whitefield, Northampton and the Connecticut River Valley participated fully. Edwards played a leading role and encouraged the awakening by preaching and publication.1

Edwards's zeal for the salvation of sinners was central to his vision of the ministry, but the church's mission entailed more than conversion and evangelism. Christ ordained that his people should pursue righteous lives and should keep the church pure. In 1749 Edwards concluded that by admitting professedly unconverted persons to Communion, the church had compromised the purity of Christ's ordinance. He informed the church that henceforth he would offer the Lord's Supper only to persons who had professed faith and whom the church judged in charity to be converted. This reversed the church's practice under both Stoddard and Edwards himself, in which all persons who assented to the doctrine of the church and pledged to live moral lives could receive Communion. New England churches had debated the question before, but by the 1740s most Congregationalists saw Edwards's new view as a disruptive innovation.

Although Edwards argued at length that his position was scriptural, he convinced few. In 1750 the congregation dismissed him by a large majority. From 1751 to 1757 he served in Stockbridge on Massachusetts's western frontier as pastor to the colonists and as missionary to Native Americans. He became president of Princeton College in 1758 but died later that year from a smallpox inoculation.

Edwards's Vision of the Work of the Ministry

In the sermons published here, Edwards explains that the task of the ministry was given by God. Ministers, he asserted, are on a divine errand. God has not authorized them to choose their duties or their doctrines. "Ministers are only sent on his errand. God has not left it to their discretion what their errand shall be." The errand of ministers is to save sinners by preaching the Gospel. They are unequal to the task. But those who labor faithfully and look to God for success generally receive God's blessing. Those who fall prey to the many dangers that beset the ministry face a frightful prospect.2

The errand is divine. "Ministers of the Gospel," Edwards said, "are sent forth by Christ." To be sent, ministers must have an "external call to work," in which Christ's church formally sets them apart to the work. But the Spirit of Christ must also call them inwardly, by which Edwards meant primarily that Christ inwardly inclined and disposed them to the work of the ministry.3

The errand is comprehensive. God has issued instructions on the nature and duties of the office of minister. Through the apostles Christ ordained the organization of the church, including its officers, government, worship, and discipline. The apostles organized the first churches at Christ's command. The Jerusalem church in the book of Acts, Edwards held, "is set forth as a pattern for all other Christian churches in its constitution." The example was normative.4

The apostolic churches established two kinds of officers in the church. They established deacons to look after the physical needs of the church, and bishops, also known as pastors or elders, to look after the spiritual needs. The pastor is a minister in Christ's kingdom.

As "Christ's officer," he bears the authority of his office. Edwards exhorted Christians to receive humbly the teaching of the ministry from the Scripture, for it was the teaching of Christ, who had inspired the Bible. They should submit therefore to their ministers.5

Christ called his ministers to exercise their office faithfully. The faithful minister was to "give up himself to this work with his whole heart, and to give up himself to God in it." They should enter the work not from regard for temporal support or financial advantage, but for the advancement of the kingdom of their Lord and Master and for the good of souls. The ministers of Christ should therefore be ready to "exert themselves and deny themselves and suffer" for these ends. They should be ready to sacrifice all their temporal goods and even their own lives for the sake of Christ's kingdom, should God in his providence require it. Christ and the apostles labored and suffered and died for the kingdom, setting an example for ministers to follow.6

To labor for the sake of Christ and his kingdom means rescuing lost souls, Edwards held. Christ's work was the work of redemption, and he sends out his ministers to continue that work. The minister's business, he proclaimed, "is to be an instrument to carry on Christ's work, the work of redemption." Faithful ministers "will labor hard for the salvation of souls."7

Ministers save sinners by faithfully preaching the Gospel. Ministers in fact have no power to save. God alone makes the preaching effective for the salvation of sinners. Ministers must therefore depend upon God for the success of their labors. They should not depend upon their abilities, learning, eloquence, reputation, or preparation. If they expect to persuade and convert persons through their own gifts and eloquence, "there is danger that God will withhold his Spirit and then it will all be in vain."8

Ministers should instead depend upon Christ and pray for the presence of God's Spirit to make their preaching effective. Ministers cannot produce success--they cannot make sinners repent and believe in Christ. They must attend to faithful administration of the orders Christ committed to them. They must be faithful especially in the ordinance of preaching.

Faithfulness in preaching first means submission to God's Word. Ministers must not employ a rule of interpretation that overthrows Scripture's teaching. What seems right to our reason cannot be made a rule for interpreting Scripture. This would make our own reason a better guide than God's revelation and would effectively overthrow Scripture whenever reason is dissatisfied with what Scripture reveals.

Faithfulness in preaching also means that ministers are to preach all the doctrines taught in Scripture. God has not left to ministers' discretion what doctrines they should teach their people. They are "to preach the preaching he bids them." God has put into their hands the Bible and sends them to preach its message. "God does not need to be told by his messengers what message is fit to deliver to those to whom he sends them, but they are to declare his counsel and are not to shun to declare his whole counsels, when men will hear or whether they will forbear."9

Faithfulness in preaching finally means that preachers are to seek not merely to instruct the mind, but to move the heart. In this Edwards was consistent with the Puritan tradition, which aimed to make doctrine useful, as God intended it to be. And so he brought the truth to bear on the consciences of his hearers. He rebuked and exhorted and warned. He reminded his hearers frequently that death must come upon all and that it would come shortly. He warned them to put away their sins lest the preaching of the Gospel be in vain toward them and they fail to escape condemnation in hell.

Although faithfulness in itself has "no sufficiency or efficacy to obtain success," yet God usually blesses the labors of faithful ministers, Edwards said. And even if ministers have little success, if they are faithful, they will not forfeit a glorious reward.10

The congregation has a vital interest in sustaining a faithful ministry. "A good minister that has the presence of God with him in his work," Edwards taught, "is the very greatest blessing that God ever bestows upon a people, next to himself."11

The congregation must do their part to make the ministry a success. Edwards warned his hearers of their duty in salvation: "If you continue to live careless, unawakened, and slothful in the business of religion, you never will be saved, let you have what minister you will. . . . If you should live under the most eminent minister that ever lived, it will only aggravate your damnation." The people must receive the preaching of the Word and embrace it in their hearts in personal repentance, faith, and holiness.12

The congregation must also support their minister in order to advance the success of his ministry. They should give him an adequate and comfortable salary. They should seek to avoid all strife between minister and people. The two were related. Edwards felt nothing promoted "uneasiness and contention between a minister and people" more than failure adequately to support the minister. Such strife undermined the aims of ministry and was a worse calamity, Edwards felt, than a "war with the Indians." It was worse because at risk were spiritual goods, not temporal goods. "People that keep their minister low in the world and oppose him in his work and weaken his hands do but fight against their own souls and undermine their own everlasting welfare." A successful ministry redounded to the everlasting gain of the people.13

The congregation must also protect the scriptural purity of the ordinances of the Gospel. This included all the matters Christ had ordained in the church. The greatest need, Edwards felt, was in the area of church discipline. "There is no other part of the ministerial work more unfavorable and attended with greater difficulties." It was the people's duty to "stand by their minister in the regular exercise of church discipline, both that it may be made easy to him and that it may be effectual and successful in its issue."14

But the work of the ministry was in any case attended with "a great many difficulties," Edwards judged. Many congregations in fact failed to provide adequate support for their minister. Many contended with their minister and did not support attempts to sustain the purity of the ordinances. In it all, Edwards held, "the devil tries to hinder ministers all that ever he can."15

Edwards himself experienced these things. As noted above, when he tried to persuade his Northampton congregation that they were not administering the Lord's Supper scripturally, because many unqualified persons were receiving it, they did not support him. The resulting contention led to his dismissal.

But the suffering of faithful ministers was little compared to that of unfaithful ministers. On judgment day even the condemned will testify against unfaithful ministers for their failure to seek the salvation of souls. Such ministers neglect the proper work of the ministry and attend chiefly to accumulating wealth. They will face a dreadful judgment. "Those precious souls that were committed to our care lost through our neglect," Edwards warned, will "rise up in judgment against us and shall declare how we neglected their souls."16

But God will condemn unfaithful ministers also out of their own mouths. They "little think how they are drawing up their own indictments when they are composing their sermons." Ministers are in the best position to know God's will and are under the greatest obligations to do it. Among the wicked, Edwards admonished, no "order of men whatsoever will have so low a place in hell [as] unfaithful and wicked ministers." They will endure a "distinguished torment."17

Preaching and the Ministry in Edwards's Day

Edwards's sermons represented the traditional Puritan model in most respects. Puritan sermons began with a brief "opening" or explanation of the scriptural text. Then came the first "doctrine" of the text, which the preacher explained and defended. He then drew spiritual applications of the doctrine, called "uses." Each sermon typically advanced several doctrines, and each doctrine had several uses.

Edwards's sermons differed from this model in one respect. Edwards typically advanced only one doctrine from the sermon's text.

Edwards, like the Puritans generally, sought "plain" preaching, free of rhetorical ornament and refined eloquence. Puritan preachers did not, however, eschew all rhetorical devices or tropes. They approved the use of restrained figures of speech such as metaphor or personification. Edwards was at times daring nevertheless. He did not attempt the grand style, but he could use a simple literary device in a grand way with remarkable effect. The sermon below on Micah 2:11 ("The Kind of Preaching People Want") is a good example.

For many years Edwards took a complete sermon manuscript into the pulpit. About the time of the Great Awakening, he began relying on briefer outlines. Although in later life he regretted his reliance on notes in the pulpit, he never overcame it. His voice was not strong, but his speech was distinct and precise. He did not preach in a wooden or detached manner, but with a gravity, sincerity, and zeal that carried power. He conveyed emotional ardor and theological insight by his choice of words more than by the character of his delivery.18

Edwards believed that the ministry was in jeopardy in his day. The spread of rationalist and Arminian views of religion threatened it on the one side, and the proliferation of spiritualist and anti-establishment Separatists threatened it on the other.

Many in New England no longer preached the true Gospel, Edwards held, and instead advanced Arminian notions of human nature and salvation. They aimed their eloquent essays at the moral instruction of the mind, not at the conversion of the heart. Reason was the road to virtue, they held, not impassioned appeals to the heart. When the awakening spread in the 1740s, such preachers accused Edwards and his fellow revival preachers of reducing religion to emotional excitement at the expense of reason.

Edwards addressed both threats. Faithful ministers, he held, must preach the Gospel in its Calvinistic understanding. They must aim at the heart, not merely at the mind. Arminian preaching would lead to the disappearance of "saving religion." It pleased God on the contrary to visit revival on plain Calvinistic preaching. When Edwards preached against Arminianism in his 1734 sermons on justification by faith alone, God made them especially an instrument of awakening and converting many souls. The success of gospel preaching depends upon the favor of God, not the wisdom or eloquence of human reason.19

Against the Separatists he argued that the ministry must retain the dignity and authority of its office. Ministers are called by Christ. In setting ministers apart from the laity, Christ placed distinct duties upon ministers. He committed the teaching and ordinances of the church to their administration.

The laity among the Separatists sometimes took the ordinances of the ministry into their own administration. They especially practiced "lay exhortation." Although technically distinct from preaching, this involved lay exhorters in publicly instructing the people in doctrine. By way of defense, they typically pleaded that their settled minister was unconverted and did not preach gospel truth. But Edwards argued that the prerogatives of the ministry ought not in any case be seized by laypersons.20

Ministers of the Gospel today must negotiate their way amid a multitude of voices urging a perplexing variety of models for ministry. Edwards developed a persuasive vision of the nature of the ministry and of the church from its central task of rescuing the lost. Around this central task revolve the other tasks and ordinances of the ministry and the church. God is glorified as Christ gathers his redeemed into faithful and virtuous congregations in which ministers preach the whole counsel of God's Word and exhort their hearers to maintain the purity of their lives and of the church. Edwards's voice still compels across the years. The work of the ministry is saving sinners.

Preparing the Text

The task of deciphering Edwards's handwriting is notoriously difficult. His sermons present a particular challenge. The first challenge is the orthography itself, which Edwards scholar Thomas Schafer characterized as "exasperatingly formless."21 Other challenges include elliptical constructions, irregular capitalization, cramped interlinear alterations, and the absence of helpful punctuation.22 We have throughout sought to reproduce the texts as Edwards wrote them in his sermon notebooks. Some changes were necessary, however.

We have modernized Edwards's spelling. We have spelled out his shorthand symbols and abbreviations, such as ampersands and "thems [themselves]." We have rendered contractions in their full-word forms (for example, we substituted "has not" or "have not" for Edwards's "han't," "be not" for "ben't," "it is" for "tis"). We rendered the abbreviations "i.e." and "viz." as "that is" and "namely" respectively. We retained many archaic usages (such as "aspeaking" and "abegging") but have modernized verb forms (such as "does" for "doth" and "has" for "hath") and a few other archaic forms (such as "begrudge" for "begrutch" and "going to warfare" for "going a warfare"). To accord with modern pronunciation, we substituted "a" for "an" in several places. In two places we changed verb number to achieve subject-verb agreement. We have introduced most of these without comment.

All punctuation and capitalization is that of the editors. We consulted the patterns of capitalization, punctuation, and paragraph division exhibited in Edwards's works that he prepared for publication. Kenneth Minkema, Executive Editor of Yale University's Works of Jonathan Edwards series, rendered much gracious assistance by making extensive suggestions in these areas.

We have otherwise followed the very sensible conventions of the Works of Jonathan Edwards series.23 We thus follow their conventions for numbering the heads and subheads of the sermons, for regularizing Scripture citations, and for indicating any words that we have inserted. Square brackets ([]) indicate words that either in our opinion Edwards inadvertently omitted or that are necessary to make sense to the modern reader. Curly brackets ({}) indicate an ellipsis and enclose those words that Edwards deliberately omitted in order to save himself the trouble of writing out the entire phrase. Edwards typically indicated an ellipsis by a long dash. In most cases the phrase he intended presents no difficulty, but in some cases it is less certain. Where Edwards indicated that a Scripture passage was to be read but did not write the passage, we have inserted the passage from the version Edwards used, the King James Version. In places where Edwards wrote out a Scripture passage, we have left it as Edwards wrote it.

Acknowledgments

Several persons deserve special thanks for their help in this project. The staff at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, where all of these manuscripts are housed, assisted graciously in early stages of our research. Margaret Freeman of the Hadley Historical Commission, Hadley, Massachusetts, directed us to information regarding Chester Williams, the town's third permanent pastor. The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology published an earlier version of the sermon on 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 in article form. Ken Minkema applied his experienced editorial hand throughout the transcription and editing of these sermons, affording us the benefit of his expertise and friendship. With gracious enthusiasm, George Marsden agreed to take time away from his forthcoming biography of Jonathan Edwards to write the foreword, sharing his keen historical judgment. Marvin Padgett, Lane Dennis, and the Crossway Books staff encouraged our work from the outset. With love and support, Leanne Bailey endured several trips to New England, accompanying Richard in both libraries and cemeteries. Cathy, Sam, Abby, James, and Maggie Wills reminded Greg of the things more important than wrestling with Edwards's punctuationless prose. Finally, Paul House and Ben Mitchell, to whom we dedicate this volume, entertained and encouraged us, as well as serving as instruments of edification.

Notes

  1. To learn more of Edwards's life and thought, see George Marsden's forthcoming biography of Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003); Stephen J. Nichols, Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2001); Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987); Conrad Cherry, The Theology of Jonathan Edwards: A Reappraisal (1966; reprint, with a new introduction by the author and a foreword by Stephen J. Stein, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990).
    To read more from Edwards's sermons and writings, see John E. Smith, Harry S. Stout, and Kenneth P. Minkema, eds., A Jonathan Edwards Reader (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney, eds., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999); and the splendid multivolume Works of Jonathan Edwards published by Yale University Press, each volume of which includes excellent introductory materials.
  2. "Ministers to Preach Not Their Own Wisdom but the Word of God."
  3. "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  4. "Deacons to Care for the Body, Ministers for the Soul."
  5. "Pastor and People Must Look to God."
  6. "Pastor and People Must Look to God"; "The Work of the Ministry Is Saving Sinners."
  7. "Pastor and People Must Look to God"; "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  8. "Ministers Need the Power of God."
  9. "Ministers to Preach Not Their Own Wisdom but the Word of God."
  10. "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  11. "Pastor and People Must Look to God."
  12. "Pastor and People Must Look to God."
  13. "Pastor and People Must Look to God"; "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  14. "Pastor and People Must Look to God."
  15. "Preaching the Gospel Brings Poor Sinners to Christ."
  16. "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  17. "Pastor and People Must Look to God"; "The Minister Before the Judgment Seat of Christ."
  18. For discussion of Edwards's approach to preaching, see Wilson H. Kimnach, "Jonathan Edwards' Art of Prophesying," in Edwards, Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723, ed. Kimnach, Vol. 10 of Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 1-258; and Richard A. Bailey, "Driven by Passion: Jonathan Edwards and the Art of Preaching," in The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition, eds. D. G. Hart, Sean Michael Lucas, and Stephen J. Nichols (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, forthcoming 2003).
  19. See Edwards's letter to the Northampton Church (June 1752), in Edwards, Letters and Personal Writings, ed. George S. Claghorn, Vol. 16 of Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 484; Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, in Edwards, The Great Awakening, ed. C. C. Goen, Vol. 4 of Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972), 148-149; and Goen, "Editor's Introduction," in ibid., 17-21.
  20. See, for example, Edwards's letter to Deacon Moses Lyman, May 10, 1742, in Edwards, Letters and Personal Writings, 102-103; and Edwards, Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, in Edwards, The Great Awakening, 83-88.
  21. Thomas Schafer, "Manuscript Problems in the Yale Edition of Jonathan Edwards," Early American Literature 3 (1969): 166.
  22. See Helen Westra's colorful characterization of the difficulties in The Minister's Task and Calling in the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986), 49, note 24.
  23. For the conventions of the Works of Jonathan Edwards, see Wilson H. Kimnach, "Note to the Reader," in Edwards, Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723, ed. Kimnach, Vol. 10 of Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), xi-xii.