Jonathan Edwards
One difference from what took place in the towns five or six years before was that conversions were frequently wrought more visibly; the impressions were stronger and more manifest in their external effects; the progress of the Spirit of God in conviction, from step to step, was more apparent; and the transition from one state to another was more obvious and plain; so that in many instances it might be, as it were, seen by bystanders. The preceding season had been very remarkable on this account, beyond what had been before; but this was even more remarkable. And in this season, these visible conversions (if I may so call them) were more frequently in the presence of others, at religious meetings, where the appearances of what was wrought on the heart fell under public observation.
After September 1741, there seemed to be some abatement of these extraordinary appearances, yet they did not wholly cease, but there was something of them, from time to time, all winter. About the beginning of February 1742 Mr Buell2 came to this town. I was then absent from home, and for about a
1The final part of a letter written on 12 December 1743, from Northampton, the New England town where Edwards’ church was, to a minister in Boston. Taken with editing from Select Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol 1. The first part appeared last month.
2Samuel Buell, who had recently been licensed to preach.
fortnight afterwards. Mr Buell preached almost every day in the meeting-house. I had left to him the free use of my pulpit, having heard before I went from home that he intended to visit. He spent almost the whole time in religious exercises with the people, either in public or private, the people continually thronging him. When he first came, a number of zealous people came with him from Suffield, who continued here for some time. Mr Buell’s labours had very extraordinary effects; the people were exceedingly moved, crying out in great numbers in the meeting house, and a great part of the congregation commonly stayed on in the house of God for hours after the public service.
Many also were exceedingly moved in private meetings where Mr Buell was. Almost the whole town seemed to be in a great commotion, day and night, and there was indeed a very great revival of religion. But it was principally among professing Christians; the appearances of a work of conversion were in no measure as great as they had been the summer before. When I came home, I found the town in very extraordinary circumstances, such as, in some respects, I never saw it in before.
Mr Buell continued here a fortnight or three weeks after I returned; great appearances still attended his labours, many in their religious affections being raised far beyond what they had ever been before. And there were some instances of persons lying in a sort of trance, remaining perhaps for a whole 24 hours motionless, with their senses locked up, but in the mean time under strong imaginations, as though they went to heaven and had there a vision of glorious and delightful objects. But when the people were raised to this height, Satan took advantage, and his interposition, in many instances, soon became very apparent; and a great deal of caution and pains were found necessary to keep many of the people from running wild.
In the month of March, I led the people into a solemn public renewal of their covenant with God. To that end, having made a draft of a covenant, I first proposed it to some of the principal men in the church, then to the people in their several religious associations in various parts of the town, then to the whole congregation in public, and then I deposited a copy of it in the hands of each of the four deacons, that all who desired it might resort to them and have opportunity to view and consider it. Then the people in general that were above 14 years of age first subscribed the covenant with their hands; then, on a day of fasting and prayer, all together presented themselves before the Lord in His house and stood up and solemnly manifested their consent to it, as their vow to God.
In the beginning of the summer of 1742, there seemed to be an abatement of the liveliness of people’s affections in religion, but yet many were often
in a great height of them. And in the fall and winter following, there were at times extraordinary appearances. But in general, people’s engagedness in religion and the liveliness of their affections have been on the decline; and some of the young people especially have shamefully lost their liveliness and vigour in religion and much of the seriousness and solemnity of their spirits. But many walk as becomes saints, and to this day there are a considerable number in town that seem to be near to God and maintain much of the life of religion and enjoy many of the sensible tokens and fruits of His gracious presence.
With respect to the late season of revival of religion amongst us for three or four years past, it has been observable that in the former part of it, in the years 1740 and 1741, the work seemed to be much purer, having less of a corrupt mixture than in the former great outpouring of the Spirit in 1735 and 1736. Persons seemed to be conscious of their former errors and had learned more of their own hearts, and experience had taught them more of the tendency and consequences of things. They were now better guarded, and their affections were not only stronger but attended with greater solemnity and greater humility and self-distrust, and greater engagedness after holy living and perseverance, and there were fewer errors in conduct.
But in the latter part of it, in 1742, it was otherwise: the work continued purer till we were infected from other places. Our people heard of, and some of them saw, the work in other places where there was a greater visible commotion than here and the outward appearances were more extraordinary. They were ready to think that the work in those places far excelled what was amongst us, and their eyes were dazzled with the high profession and great show that some made who came hither from other places.
That those people went far beyond them in raptures and violent emotions and a vehement zeal and what they call boldness for Christ, our people were ready to think was owing to far greater attainments in grace and intimacy with heaven; they looked little in their own eyes in comparison with them and were ready to submit to them and yield themselves up to their conduct, taking it for granted that every thing was right that they said and did. These things had a strange influence on the people, and gave many of them a deep and unhappy tincture, from which it was a hard and long labour to deliver them, and some of them are not fully delivered from it to this day.
The effects and consequences of things among us plainly show the following things. The degree of grace is by no means to be judged of by the degree of joy or zeal; indeed we cannot at all determine by these things who are gracious and who are not. It is not the degree of religious affections but their nature that is chiefly to be looked at. Some that have had very great raptures
of joy and have been extraordinarily filled (as the common phrase is) and have had their bodies very often overcome have manifested far less of the temper of Christians in their conduct since then than some others that have been still and have made no great outward show. But then again, there are many others that have had extraordinary joys and emotions of mind, with frequent great effects upon their bodies, that behave themselves steadfastly, as humble, amiable, eminent Christians.
It is evident that there may be great religious affections in individuals which resemble gracious affections and have the same effects on their bodies, but are far from having the same effect on the temper of their minds and the course of their lives. Likewise there is nothing more manifest, by what appears amongst us, than that the good state of individuals is not chiefly to be judged by any exactness of steps and method of experiences in what is supposed to be the first conversion. But we must judge by their spirit the effect wrought upon the temper of the soul in the time of the work and remaining afterwards.
Though there have been very few instances known to me, among those who profess religion amongst us, of what are ordinarily called scandalous sins; yet the temper and the behaviour that some of them show, together with some things in the nature and circumstances of their experiences, make me much afraid lest a considerable number have woefully deceived themselves. Though, on the other hand, there is a great number whose temper and conversation confirms the charity of others towards them, and not a few in whose disposition and walk there are amiable appearances of eminent grace. Notwithstanding all the corrupt mixtures that have been in the recent work here, there are not only many blessed fruits of it in particular persons that yet remain, but some good effects of it upon the town in general.
A party spirit has more extensively subsided. I suppose there has been less appearance these three or four years past of that division of the town into two parties, which has long been our bane, than there has been at any time during the preceding 30 years. And the people have apparently had much more caution – and a greater guard on their spirit and their tongues – to avoid contention and unchristian hearts in town meetings and on other occasions. And it is a matter of great rejoicing that the people very lately came to a final agreement in their grand controversy about their common lands; which has been, above any other particular thing, a source of mutual prejudices, jealousies and debates for 15 or 16 years past. The people also seem to be much more conscious of the danger of resting in old experiences, or what they were the subjects of at their supposed first conversion, and to be more fully convinced of the necessity of forgetting the things that are
behind and of pressing forward and maintaining earnest labour, watchfulness and prayerfulness as long as they live.