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[1701 / Yale College established]   1703 / Born October 5, East Windsor, Connecticut   He had 10 sisters (no brothers), all of whom were at least 6 ft. tall! Jonathan’s paternal grandmother was a chronic adulteress who bore another man’s child. She was psychotic, often given to fits of perversity, rage, and threats of violence (her sister murdered her own child and her brother killed another sister with an ax). She eventually deserted her family...Read More

What is glorifying God? “Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? An understanding of the perfections of God, merely, cannot be the end of the creation; for he had as good not understand it, as see it and not be at all moved with joy at the sight. Neither can the highest end of creation be the declaring God’s glory to others; for the declaring God’s glory is good for nothing otherwise than to raise joy in ourselves a...Read More

A Narrative of Surprising Conversions and The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God   Summary and Analysis   On May 30, 1735, Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter of eight pages to Dr. Benjamin Colman (1673-1747), pastor of Brattle Street Church in Boston, in which he described the nature of the revival he was seeing. Colman sent much of the letter to a friend in London where news quickly spread about what was happening in the Colonies. Edwar...Read More

A Narrative of Surprising Conversions and The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God   Summary and Analysis A.            The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God   The substance of this work was originally delivered by Edwards as the commencement speech to the faculty and student body of Yale University on September 10, 1741. Edwards expanded the work and published i...Read More

Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England Summary and Analysis   This lengthy volume is Edwards' most ambitious and comprehensive treatment of the revival. He completed work on it near the close of 1742. It was published in March of 1743. The work is comprised of five parts. ____________________   Part I   "Shewing that the extraordinary work that has of late been going on in this land, is a glorious work of God" (29...Read More

Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England Summary and Analysis   Part IV   "Shewing what things are to be corrected or avoided in promoting this work, or in our behavior under it" (409).   Edwards opens with this interesting comment:   "Many that are zealous for this glorious work of God are heartily sick of the great noise there is in the country about imprudences and disorders; they have heard it so often fro...Read More

At no time did Edwards believe or preach that America would be either the focus or the locus of the coming millennium. Rather, he suggested that, at best, America may be where those intermittent revivals would occur that eventually would bring on the millennium, the latter being at least 250 years away. Edwards believed in the concept of the “national covenant,” according to which God entered into covenant with a people or nation and blessed or punished them...Read More

[The reader is encouraged to read Edwards’ sermon before working through these short observations.]   What the “divine and supernatural light” is not:   1)            It is not to be identified with the conviction of sin that unregenerate people experience. The Spirit can act upon the soul of the unregenerate without communicating himself to or uniting himself with that person.  ...Read More