110. Seventy Resolutions.-In his twentieth year, and just before entering upon his tutorship, he drew up seventy resolutions for the government of his heart and life. Though they are tinged with a Puritan austerity, and unduly accentuate, perhaps, the religious element of life, they reveal an extraordinary depth and earnestness of character. He was accustomed to read them over once a week. They are included in the "illustrative selections," as revealing the secret of his earnest, laborious life.

111. Domestic Life. In 1726 Jonathan Edwards was called as pastor to Northampton, where the next twenty-four years of his life were passed. The following year he was married to Miss Pierrepont of New Haven, a lady who added to unusual intellectual gifts and attainments an executive ability and considerate sympathy that fitted her in an eminent degree to be the helpmate of her husband. She relieved him entirely of domestic cares. There is a tradition that he did not know his own cows. Though his constant inattention to the concerns of his household hardly rendered him a model husband, he gave himself with all the more devotion to his sermons and theological studies. He regularly spent thirteen hours a day in his study; and when out for recreation, which was usually on horseback, he carried pen and paper with him to note down such valuable thoughts as might occur to him. In order to keep up the necessary physical strength for his great intellectual labors, he was careful to take regular exercise, and observed the strictest temperance in eating and drinking. He was exceedingly thorough in his methods of study. He could never be satisfied with hasty or superficial work; and as we read his sermons and numerous volumes, his clearness of view, his power of analysis, and his irresistible cogency of reasoning, afford continual astonishment and pleasure.

112. Pulpit Power. Among the many able preachers of America, he stands as one of the greatest. He dwelt habitually on the weightiest doctrines of the Christian faith; and in his treatment of them there is a Miltonic grasp of thought and

vigor of language. He was not eloquent in manner or expression; his voice was weak, and he kept his eyes closely fixed on his manuscript; but such was his overpowering spiritual earnestness that his sermons were sometimes startling in their effect. When he preached his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," the feelings of his audience deepened into an insupportable agony; and at last the cry burst forth, "What must we do to be saved?" In those days people did not go to church to be entertained; and with an endurance that seems almost incredible now, they listened, with unflagging attention, to closely reasoned sermons two hours long. It was for audiences of this kind that the sermons of Edwards were prepared; and to such persons as take them up with sufficient determination, and are able to appreciate their powerful reasoning, they appear veritable masterpieces.

The celebrated Though attended

113. "Great Awakening."-Under his preaching in 1735 there began at Northampton a new interest in religion, which afterwards extending throughout the American colonies has been known as the "Great Awakening." Whitefield contributed much to this revival. at times with great excitement and extravagance, this movement upon the whole seems to have been helpful to morality and piety. It was in this connection that Edwards wrote "Some Thoughts concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England "-a work of such spiritual discernment, practical wisdom, and conservative judgment, that it has since been regarded as an authority on the subject. He was not friendly to the fanatical tendencies sometimes exhibited during the "Great Awakening;" and in order to distinguish between the true and the false evidences of a Christian life, he wrote his "Treatise concerning the Religious Affections." Though defective in style, as indeed are all his works, it occupies a very high rank as a treatise on practical religion.

114. Controversy and Resignation. For nearly twenty years Jonathan Edwards had a firm hold upon the affections of his

people. Then there came a reaction, which finally resulted in his being ejected from his pastoral charge. Contrary to the prevailing custom at Northampton and in other parts of New England, he maintained that only consistent Christians should be admitted to the Lord's Supper. A bitter controversy followed. Though contending with heroic courage for what he believed to be right, he constantly exhibited the beauty of a meek and forgiving spirit. He was finally forced to resign in 1750.

115. Missionary Work.-In 1751 he was called to Stockbridge, forty miles west of Northampton, to serve as pastor to a congregation there, and at the same time to act as missionary to a tribe of Indians in the vicinity. The congregation was small, and the work among the Indians unpromising. It was a field that especially required persistent personal work. Confirmed, as he was, in retiring and studious habits, it is not strange that, in spite of his faithful preaching, he was unsuccessful as a missionary. But among the unfavorable surroundings of a frontier settlement, he continued his literary labors, and composed his ablest works.

116. "Freedom of the Will.”—In 1754 appeared his famous treatise entitled "Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will." It is his greatest work, the argument of which he had been slowly elaborating for years. It placed him at once, not only at the head of American writers, but among the world's profoundest thinkers. "On the arena of metaphysics," says the great Dr. Chalmers, "he stood the highest of all his contemporaries, and that, too, at a time when Hume was aiming his deadliest thrusts at the foundations of morality, and had thrown over the infidel cause the whole éclat of his reputation." According to the judgment of Sir James Mackintosh, "in the power of subtile argument, he was, perhaps, unmatched, certainly unsurpassed among men." Among his other works published while he was at Stockbridge are "A Dissertation on the Nature of True Virtue," and a treatise on "Original Sin."

117. President of Princeton.-In 1758 he was called to the presidency of the College of New Jersey, a position which he accepted with hesitancy and misgivings. He questioned his natural aptitude for the office, and hesitated to assume duties that would interfere with the studious habits of his life. In a letter to the trustees, in which he speaks with great frankness, he furnishes some interesting facts about his manner of life. "My method of study," he says, "from my first beginning the work of the ministry, has been very much by writing; applying myself, in this way, to improve every important hint; pursuing the clue to my utmost, when any thing in reading, meditation, or conversation, has been suggested to my mind, that seemed to promise light in any weighty point; thus penning what appeared to me my best thoughts, on innumerable subjects, for my own benefit." In the same letter he speaks of a great work that he had on his "mind and heart; "namely his "History of the Work of Redemption."

118. "History of Redemption."-The plan, as he outlines it, reminds us of Milton and Dante. "This history," he says, "will be carried on with regard to all three worlds, heaven, earth, and hell; considering the connected, successive events and alterations in each, so far as the Scriptures give any light; introducing all parts of divinity in that order which is most Scriptural and most natural, a method which appears to me the most beautiful and entertaining, wherein every divine doctrine will appear to the greatest advantage, in the brightest light, and in the most striking manner, showing the admirable contexture and harmony of the world." This work, so grandly outlined, was left unfinished at his death; but the manuscript sermons, which formed the basis of it, were reduced to the form of a treatise by his friend Dr. Erskine of Edinburgh, and the work, which has had a wide circulation, first appeared in that city in 1777.

119. Last Days. He was inaugurated as president of the College of New Jersey in 1758, but performed the duties of his

office less than five weeks. The smallpox having made its appearance in Princeton, he deemed it advisable to be inoculated. At that time inoculation was regarded as a more serious thing than at present. The trustees were consulted, and gave their consent. A skilful physician was engaged to come from Philadelphia to perform the operation; but in spite of all precautions, the inoculation terminated fatally. He died March 22, 1758, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. In his last hours he retained the beautiful faith and resignation that had characterized his active life. Shortly before he expired, some friends, not thinking that he heard them, were lamenting the loss that his death would bring to the college and the church. Interrupting them he said, "Trust in God, and ye need not fear." These were his last words.

120. A Biographer's Estimate.- -"Other men have, no doubt excelled him in particular qualities or accomplishments. There have been far more learned men; far more eloquent men; far more enterprising and active men, in the out-door work of the sacred office. But, in the assemblage and happy union of those high qualities, intellectual and moral, which constitute finished excellence, as a man, a Christian, a divine, and a philosopher, he was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest and best men that have adorned this, or any other country, since the Apostolic age."

1

FOR FURTHER READING AND STUDY.

See general bibliography, page 573. Illustrative annotated selections from Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards are given on pages 369-386 of this volume. Extracts from the minor writers may be found in Stedman and Hutchinson's "Library of American Literature."

Franklin's "Autobiography"; J. B. McMaster's "Benjamin Franklin (American Men of Letters Series); J. T. Morse's

1 Miller, Life of Jonathan Edwards, p. 213.