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TOPIC: Edwards, Jonathan - Personal Writings (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 20b
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"To the Rev. John Erskine.
Stockbridge, July 7, 1752
rev. and dear brother,
The last spring I received a letter from you, dated, at the beginning,
July 17, and at the end, Sept. 5,1751 and the week before last I
received another letter, dated Feb 11, 1752, with a packet, containing
Arnauld de la fréquente Communion, Goodwin's Sermon at the Ordination
of Mr. Pickering; Mr. Jarvis's Sermon on Methods for reviving
Religion; Reasons of Dissent from the Sentence of the General
Assembly; Edwards on Christ, God-man; Mr. Hartley's Sermon, Parish on
the Assembly's Catechism; and Dr Gill's Sermon on Isaiah xi. 12. I
heartily thank you for these letters and pamphlets. Arnauld on
frequent Communion will not be very profitable to me, by reason of my
not understanding the French. But several of the rest have been very
agreeable to me. That letter which you mention in your last, dated
Feb.11, as sent about a twelve-month before, containing some Remarks
on the Decay of the Power of the Papal Clergy, and an Abstract of
Venema's Reasonings to prove that Judas was not present at the Lord's
Supper, I never received, and regret it much that I missed it, and
request that you would still send me those Remarks on the Decay of the
Papal Clergy.
I am obliged to you for the particular information you have given me,
concerning Mr. Adam of Falkirk's affair. Though it is a pity so
deserving a person should suffer at all from his brethren, only for
not acting contrary to his conscience; yet it is a matter of
thankfulness, that the Assembly of the year 51 showed so much better
temper than that of the preceding year. I shall be glad to hear
concerning the temper and conduct of the Assembly of this present
year, 1752.
I am sorry to learn, that there is so much reason to fear, that the
revival of religion in the Netherlands will be hindered, and brought
under a cloud, through the prevailing of imprudences. It is what I was
afraid I should hear. I should be glad to see the Pastoral Letter you
mention against Fanaticism, though written by one disaffected to the
revival. I wish I could see a History of Enthusiasm through all ages
written by some good hand, a hearty friend of vital religion, a person
of accurate judgment, and large acquaintance with ecclesiastical
history. Such a history, well written, might doubtless be exceedingly
useful and instructive, and of great benefit to the church of God;
especially, if there were united with it a proper account and history
of true religion. I should therefore choose, that the work should be a
history of true, vital, and experimental religion, and enthusiasm:
bringing down the history from age to age, judiciously and clearly
making the distinction between one and the other; observing the
difference of source, progress, and issue; properly pointing out the
limits, and doing justice to each, in every age, and at each
remarkable period. I don't know that there is any such thing extant,
or any thing that would, in any good measure, answer the same purpose.
If there be, I should be glad to hear of it.
I thank you for the account you give me of Mr. Taylor's writings, and
of the things which he is doing to propagate his opinions. It now
appears to be a remarkable time in the Christian world; perhaps such
an one, as never has been before: things are going down-hill so fast,
and truth and religion, both of heart and practice, are departing by
such swift steps, that I think it must needs be, that a crisis is not
very far off, and what will then appear, I will not pretend to
determine.
The last week I sent away my answer to Mr. Williams. If I live till it
is published, I will endeavour to send one to you, and some other
friends in Scotland. I hope now, in a short time, to be at leisure to
resume my design, of writing something on the Arminian controversy. I
have no thought of going through with all parts of the controversy at
once, but the subject which I intended, God willing, first to write
something upon, was Free-will and Moral Agency; endeavouring, with as
much exactness as I am able, to consider the nature of that freedom of
moral agents, which makes them the proper subjects of moral
government, moral precepts, councils, calls, motives, persuasions,
promises and threatenings, praise and blame, rewards and punishments:
strictly examining the modern notions of these things, endeavouring to
demonstrate their most palpable inconsistency and absurdity;
endeavouring also to bring the late great objections and outcries
against Calvinistic divinity, from these topics, to the test of the
strictest reasoning; and particularly that great objection, in which
the modern writers have so much gloried, so long triumphed, with so
great a degree of insult towards the most excellent divines, and in
effect against the gospel of Jesus Christ:--viz. That the Calvinistic
notions of God's moral government are contrary to the common sense of
mankind. In this Essay, I propose to take particular notice of the
writings of Dr. Whitby, and Mr. Chubb, and the writings of some
others, who, though not properly Pelagians, nor Arminians, yet in
their notions of the freedom of the will, have, in the main, gone into
the same scheme. But, if I live to prosecute my design, I shall send
you a more particular account of my plan after it is perfected.
I suppose there has been a trial before now, whether a national
collection can be obtained in Scotland, for New Jersey college: unless
it has been thought prudent, by such as are friends of the affair, to
put it off a year longer; as some things I have seen seem to argue.
There was a design of Mr. Pemberton's going to England and Scotland.
He was desired by the trustees, and it was his settled purpose, to
have gone the last year; but his people, and his colleague, Mr.
Cummings, hindered it. His intention of going occasioned great
uneasiness among his people, and created some dissatisfaction towards
him, in the minds of some of them. Since that President Burr has been
desired to go, by the unanimous voice of the trustees. Nevertheless. I
believe there is little probability of his consenting to it; partly,
on the account of his having lately entered into a married state. On
the 29th of last month, he was married to my third daughter.
What you write of the appointment of a gentleman, to the office of
lieut. governour, of Virginia, who is a friend of religion, is an
event that the friends of religion in America have great reason to
rejoice in; by reason of the late revival of religion in that
province, and the opposition that has been made against it, and the
great endeavours to crush it, by many of the chief men of the
province. Mr. Davies, in a letter I lately received from him, dated
March 2, 1752, mentions the same thing. His words are, `we have a new
governor; who is a candid, condescending gentleman. And, as he has
been educated in the church of Scotland, he has a respect for the
Presbyterians; which I hope is a happy omen.' I was in the latter part
of the last summer applied to, with much earnestness and importunity,
by some of the people of Virginia, to come and settle among them, in
the work of the ministry; who subscribed handsomely for my
encouragement and support, and sent a messenger to me with their
request and subscriptions; but I was installed at Stockbridge before
the messenger came I have written some account of the state of things
at Stockbridge to Mr. M'Laurin; which you doubtless will have
opportunity to see.
July 24. The people of Northampton are still destitute of a minister,
and in broken, sorrowful circumstances. They had the last winter Mr.
Farrand, a young gentleman from New Jersey college, but contended much
about him, so that he has left them They are now in a state of
contention; my warmest opposers are quarrelling among themselves. I
hear they have lately sent for a young preacher, a Mr. Green of
Barnstable, who is soon expected; but I know nothing of his character.
Another minister has lately been dismissed from his people, on the
same account that I was dismissed from Northampton: viz. Mr. Billings
of Cold Spring. Many of the Cold Spring people were originally of
Northampton, were educated in the principles, and have followed the
example, of the people there.
I heartily thank you for the accounts you have from time to time sent
me of new books, that are published in Great Britain. I desire you
would continue such a favour. I am fond of knowing how things are
going on in the literary world.
Mr. John Wright, a member of New Jersey college; who is to take the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, the next September; is now at my house. He
was born in Scotland; has lived in Virginia; is a friend and
acquaintance of Mr. Davies; has a great interest in the esteem of the
religious people of Virginia, and is peculiarly esteemed by President
Burr, has been admitted to special intimacy with him; and is a person
of very good character for his understanding, prudence, and piety. He
has a desire to have a correspondence with some divine of his native
country, and has chosen you for his correspondent, if he may be
admitted to such a favour. He intends to send you a letter with this;
of which I would ask a favourable reception, as he has laid me under
some special obligations.
My wife joins with me in affectionate salutations to you, and Mrs.
Erskine. Hoping that we shall continue to remember each other at the
throne of grace, I am,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate and obliged
Brother and servant,
jonathan edwards."
Soon after he had entered on the mission at Stockbridge, Mr. Edwards
addressed the Rev. Mr. Hollis, by letter, concerning the Indian
schools, and the state of the mission at large. The observations of a
year had now brought him far more intimately acquainted with the
actual state of things, and particularly, with the manner in which the
annual benefactions of that gentleman had been expended; and he felt
himself bound, at whatever hazard, to make the facts known. In doing
this, he presented him, in a letter bearing date July 17,1752, with a
succinct and well drawn history of the mission, and stated, in general
terms, the unhappy disagreement subsisting among the English
inhabitants of Stockbridge, as well as various other circumstances of
malignant aspect, which threatened ruin to the mission, and to the
Indian schools. Want of room forbids its insertion. With this letter,
he forwarded to Mr. Hollis a certificate, from a large number of the
most respectable people of the town, stating the actual conduct of his
agent, or instructor, the condition of the Indian boys, and the manner
in which his benefactions had been perverted.
The firm and undeviating course of conduct pursued by Mr. Edwards,
with regard to the Indian schools, and the general concerns of the
mission, at length convinced the resident trustee, and his new
friends, that they had nothing to hope from any compliances on his
part. They resolved, therefore, if possible, to effect his removal
from Stockbridge. With this view, that gentleman repaired to Boston,
and endeavoured, in conversation, not only with the commissioners, but
with some of the principal men in the government, (and among others,
with the secretary of the province,) to produce in their minds very
unfavourable impressions concerning him particularly, that he was a
man of an unyielding character, and unwilling to be reconciled to
those from whom he had differed; and that, by this course, he was
likely to ruin the Indian mission. The friends of Mr. Edwards, in
Boston, giving him timely notice of this attempt; he addressed a
letter to the Hon. Mr. Willard, in his own defense, bearing date July
17, 1752; in which he so effectually refuted these representations,
that the influence of that gentleman was permanently secured, in
favour of the mission, and its real friends.
_________________________________________________________________
[43] Mrs. Backus, the fifth sister of Mr. Edwards, was now a widow.
Her husband the Rev. Simon Backus of Newington (Wethersfield) was
designated by the Connecticut legislature, as chaplain to the troops
sent to Louisburg in 1746, to prevent its recapture by the French. He
died there soon after his arrival. The vessel, containing his effect,
and a considerable sum contributed by the gentlemen of the army for
his family, was cast away on its return: and the family were left in
very indigent circumstances.
[44] I suppose that this means £2000 old tenor as it was then called;
the value of which continually varied, but has been estimated at 6s.
8d. sterling to the pound.
[45] So severe was this pressure, for a considerable time, that Mr.
Edwards found himself necessitated to practise the most rigid economy,
in everything-even the article of paper. Much of what he know wrote,
for his for his own use, was written in the margins of useless
phamphlets, the covers of letters, and the remnants of the silk used
in making fans.
[46] A representation having been made to the legislature , in
pursuance of this recommendation, three trustees or commissioners were
appointed on behalf of the province.
[47] That is, provided the commissioners, in Boston, approved of the
appointment.
[48] With reluctance I have yielded to the necessity of this
minuteness of detail; but the fact, that Mr. Edwards had no very
marked success in the Stockbridge mission, cannot not otherwise be
explained; and the failure of the Iroquois establishment at
Stockbridge cannot otherwise be accounted for. Unhappily the Indians
at that place, like all other Indians in the vicinity of whites, were
exposed to the impositions, the seductions and the oppressions, of
their civilized neighbors. In these counteracting causes, both the
friends and the enemies of the Indian missions may learn, why it is so
difficult to reform and christianize savages.
[49] I have regarded the use of antonousasia as correct in this and
some other quotations.
[50] It was not published until November.
[51] This excellent letter, omitted here for want of room, will be
found in vol. i. pp. 529-231, and should be read in this place.