Jonathan Edwards Collection: Edwards, Jonathan - Personal Writings: 22
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Jonathan Edwards Collection: Edwards, Jonathan - Personal Writings: 22
TOPIC: Edwards, Jonathan - Personal Writings (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 22
Other Subjects in this Topic:
CHAPTER XXII.
LETTER TO HIS ELDEST SON--RETURN OF GREATER PART OF THE
MOHAWKS--LETTER TO COMMISSIONERS--MISSION OF MR HAWLEY TO
ONOHQUAUGA--REMAINDER OF MOHAWKS DIRECTED TO RETURN--"FREEDOM OF THE
WILL"--LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE--PROPOSAL OF SOCIETY IN LONDON--LETTER TO
MR. GILLESPIE--DESIGN AND CHARACTER OF THE "FREEDOM OF THE
WILL"--LETTERS FROM MR. HOLLIS--SURRENDER OF MOHAWK SCHOOL TO MR.
EDWARDS--ENTIRE DEFEAT OF ENEMIES OF MISSION--RETURN OF REMAINING
MOHAWKS.
early in the ensuing spring, the eldest son of Mr. Edwards, then a lad
of fourteen, went to New York, and thence to New Jersey; and on his
way was much exposed to the small-pox. On his return to New York, he
was seized with a violent fever His father hearing this, and not
knowing whether it an ordinary fever, or the small-pox, addressed to
him the following letter; which, like all his letters to his children,
indicates that his chief anxiety was for their salvation.
"To Master Timothy Edwards, at New York.
Stockbridge, April, 1753
my dear child,
Before you will receive this letter, the matter will doubtless be
determined, as to your having the small-pox. You will either be sick
with that distemper, or will be past danger of having it, from any
infection taken in your voyage. But whether you are sick or well, like
to die or like to live, I hope you are earnestly seeking your
salvation. I am sure there is a great deal of reason it should be so,
considering the warnings you have had in word and in providence. That
which you met with, in your passage from New York to Newark, which was
the occasion of your fever, was indeed a remarkable warning, a
dispensation full of instruction, and a very loud call of God to you,
to make haste, and not to delay in the great business of religion. If
you now have that distemper, which you have been threatened with, you
are separated from your earthly friends, as none of them can come to
see you; and if you should die of it, you have already taken a final
and everlasting leave of them while you are yet alive, so as not to
have the comfort of their presence and immediate care, and never to
see them again in the land of the living. And if you have escaped that
distemper, it is by a remarkable providence that you are preserved.
And your having been so exposed to it, must certainly be a loud call
of God, not to trust in earthly friends or any thing here below. Young
persons are very apt to trust in parents and friends when they think
of being on a death-bed. But this providence remarkably teaches you
the need of a better Friend, and a better Parent, than earthly parents
are; one who is every where present, and all sufficient, that cannot
be kept off by infectious distempers, who is able to save from death,
or to make happy in death, to save from eternal misery, and to bestow
eternal life. It is indeed comfortable, when one is in great pain, and
languishing under sore sickness, to have the presence, and kind care,
of near and dear earthly friends; but this is a very small thing, in
comparison of what it is, to have the presence of a heavenly Father,
and a compassionate and almighty Redeemer. In God's favour is life,
and his loving-kindness is better than life. Whether you are in
sickness or health, you infinitely need this. But you must know,
however great need you stand in of it, you do not deserve it: neither
is God the more obliged to bestow it upon you, for your standing in
need of it, your earnest desiring of it, your crying to him constantly
for it from fear of misery, and taking much pains. Till you have
savingly believed in Christ, all your desires, and pains, and prayers
lay God under no obligation; and, if they were ten thousand times as
great as they are, you must still know, that you would be in the hands
of a sovereign God, who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy. Indeed,
God often hears the poor miserable cries of sinful vile creatures, who
have no manner of true regard to Him in their hearts; for he is a God
of infinite mercy, and he delights to show mercy for his Son's sake,
who is worthy, though you are unworthy, who came to save the sinful
and the miserable, yea, some of the chief of sinners. Therefore, there
is your only hope, and in him must be your refuge, who invites you to
come to him, and says, `Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out.' Whatever your circumstances are, it is your duty not to despair,
but to hope in infinite mercy, through a Redeemer. For God makes it
your duty to pray to him for mercy; which would not be your duty, if
it was allowable for you to despair. We are expressly commanded to
call upon God in the day of trouble, and when we are afflicted, then
to pray. But, if I hear that you have escaped,--either that you have
not been sick, or are restored,--though I shall rejoice, and have
great cause of thankfulness, yet I shall be concerned for you. If your
escape should be followed with carelessness and security, and
forgetting the remarkable warning you have had, and God's great mercy
in your deliverance, it would in some respects be more awful than sore
sickness It would be very provoking to God, and would probably issue
in an increasing hardness of heart; and, it may be, divine vengeance
may soon overtake you. I have known various instances of persons being
remarkably warned, in providence, by being brought into very dangerous
circumstances, and escaping, and afterwards death has soon followed in
another way. I earnestly desire, that God would make you wise to
salvation, and that he would be merciful and gracious to you in every
respect, according as he knows your circumstances require. And this is
the daily prayer of
Your affectionate and tender father,
jonathan edwards"
"P.S. Your mother and all the family send their love to you, as being
tenderly concerned for you."
At length the event, so long predicted by Mr. Edwards, actually took
place. The Mohawks, who had manifested exemplary patience under the
vexatious and embarrassments to which they had been subjected by the
whites, were at last wearied out; and, in the month of April, the
greater part of them relinquished their lands and settlements at
Stockbridge, and returned finally to their own country. After a brief
allusion to this fact, in a letter to the commissioners, Mr. Edwards
communicated to them a variety of interesting intelligence relative to
the Iroquois, and to the mission proposed to be established among them
"To the Commissioners in Boston.
Stockbridge, April 12, 1753.
gentlemen,
The last Tuesday, about two-thirds of the Mohawks, young and old, went
away from Stockbridge, and are never likely to return again. They have
long manifested a great uneasiness at the management of affairs here,
and at the conduct of those persons on whom their affairs have almost
wholly fallen; and have shown themselves very much grieved, that
others, who used to be concerned, have been excluded. They have, once
and again, represented the grounds of their uneasiness to the
provincial agent, but without redress. They have been dissatisfied
with his answers, and there has appeared in them a growing dislike of
the family, who have lately left their own house, and taken up their
constant abode among them, in the female boarding-school.
The correspondents, in New York and New Jersey, of the Society in
Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge, have determined, if
Providence favours, to settle a mission among the Six Nations. To that
end, they have chosen Mr. Gordon, a pious young gentleman, who has
lately been a tutor at New Jersey college, to come to Stockbridge, and
remain here with Mr. Hawley, to learn the Mohawk language with him, in
order to his being fitted for the business. Mr. Gordon is expected
here to prosecute this design in the beginning of May.
In addition to this, Mr. Brainerd, the pastor of the Indian
congregation at Bethel in New Jersey, who is supported by the
correspondents, having met with much trouble from the enemies of
religion in those parts; and his Indians being greatly disturbed, with
regard to the possession and improvement of their lands; the
correspondents have of late had a disposition, that he, with his
school-master and whole congregation, should remove, if a door might
be opened, and take up a new settlement, somewhere in the country of
the Six Nations. Mr. Hawley has seen Mr. Brainerd, and conversed with
him on the subject, this spring. He manifests an inclination to such a
removal, and says his Indians will be ready for it. If such a thing as
this could be brought to pass, it would probably tend greatly to the
introduction of the gospel, and the promotion of the interests of
religion, among the Six Nations; as his congregation are, I suppose,
the most virtuous and religious collection of Indians in America, and
some of them have now been long established in religion and virtue.
According to the best information I can get, of the country of the Six
Nations, the most convenient place, to be chosen as the chief seat of
missionary operations, is the country about Onohquauga, near the head
of the Susquehannah river.
I apprehend, from some things of which Mr. Woodbridge informed me,
that the commissioners have had very wrong information concerning the
Onohquauga Indians, as though they were a very despicable company, a
kind of renegadoes, scarcely to be reckoned as of the Six Nations,
living out of the country of those nations. There are, indeed, some
here, who have sometimes spoken very contemptuously of them; which
seems to have been, not from any manner of ground in fact, or so much
as any colour of reason, but merely because these Indians appeared
peculiarly attached to Mr. Ashley and his wife, and under their
influence. But there are other persons in Stockbridge, who have had as
much opportunity to know what is the true state of these people, as
they. The Onohquauga Indians, who have been here, are properly, not
only of the Six Nations, but of the five nations, who are the original
united tribes of the Iroquois. All, but one or two of them, are of the
nation of the Oneiutas; and they appear not to be looked upon as
contemptible, by the rest of the Five Nations, from what was once
openly said of them, at a public council, by the sachems of the
Conneenchees, or proper Mohawks, who advised us to treat the
Onohquaugas with peculiar care and kindness, as excelling their own
tribe in religion and virtue; giving at the same time many instances
of their virtue. We have found the testimony which they gave of them
to be true. They appear to be far the best disposed Indians with which
we have had any connexion. They would be inclined to the utmost, to
assist, encourage, and strengthen, the hands of missionaries and
instructors, should any be sent among them, and to do all they could
to forward their success, among themselves, and the other Indians
round about.
There seems to be no room for a missionary, in the country of the
Conneenchees. The Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
have long since taken them under their care, and pretended to support
a mission among them. A mission from the commissioners in Boston would
not be borne by them, nor by the Dutch, who are always among them. And
as to the country of the Quinqua*s, and the original seat of the
Oneiutas, they seem not to be convenient places for settling a
mission, on two accounts. They are on the road to Oswego, where the
Dutch are incessantly passing and repassing with their rum; with which
they are continually making them drunk, and would be, in many other
respects, a continual hindrance and affliction to a missionary; for
they are exceedingly opposed to the New England people having any
thing to do with the Iroquois. The nation of the Quinquas, also, are
mostly in the French interest, as well as many of the Oneiutas; so
that a missionary would there be afflicted, and perhaps in danger, by
the French. And it is very evident, that the country of the Onondagas,
is no country for our missionaries to attempt to establish a mission
in. It would be like establishing a mission in Canada; for that nation
have entirely gone over to the French interest. They are on the road
of the French, as they go up a trading to Mississippi, and their
distant settlements, and the nations on the great lakes; and the
French have of late built a fort in their country, and have in effect
annexed it to Canada. And the country of the Senecas will not be much
more convenient for the purpose, both by reason of its very good
distance, and also because most of the nation are firmly united to the
French, who constantly maintain their missionaries among them.
Onohquauga is within the territory of the Five Nations, and not so far
from the other settlements, but that it may be convenient for making
excursions to the several tribes; as convenient perhaps as any place
that can be found. It is, I suppose, as near to the heart of the
country as any place, unless Oneiuta and Quinquah. They are also much
out of the way of the French, and considerably out of the way of the
Dutch, are in a pleasant fruitful country, surrounded by many
settlements of Indians on every side, and where the way is open by an
easy passage down the river, which runs through one of the most
pleasant and fruitful parts of America, for four or five hundred
miles, exceedingly well peopled on both sides, and on its several
branches, by Indians. Onohquauga is the road, by which several of the
nations pass, as they go to war with the southern nations. And there
will be this advantage, which missionaries will have, that the
Onohquauga Indians are fast friends to the English; and though some of
the Dutch have tried much to disaffect them to the English, their
attempts have been in vain. They are very desirous of instruction, and
to have the gospel established in their country.
There are several towns of the Onohquaugas; and several missionaries
might probably find sufficient employment in those parts. If Mr.
Brainerd should settle somewhere in that country, with his Christian
Indians, and one or two more missionaries, not at a great distance,
they might be under advantage to assist one another; as they will
greatly need one another's company and assistance, in so difficult a
work, in such a strange distant land. They might be under advantage to
consult one another, and to act in concert, and to help one another,
in any case of peculiar difficulty. Many English people would be found
to go from New England, and settle there; and the greatest difficulty
would be, that there would be danger of too many English settlers, and
of such as are not fit for the place.
But, in order to accomplish this; especially in order to such a body
of new Indians coming from the Jerseys, and settling in the country of
the Six Nations; the consent of those nations, or at least of several
of them, must be obtained. The method which Mr. Woodbridge, Mr.
Hawley, and I, have thought of, which we submit to the wisdom of the
commissioners, is this,--that Mr. Woodbridge, and Mr. Ashley and his
wife, should go, as speedily as possible, into the country of the
Conneenchees;--they being the first tribe in honour, though not in
numbers;--and there spend some weeks, perhaps a month, among them, to
get acquainted with them, and endeavour to gain their approbation of a
mission, for settling the gospel in the country of the Six
Nations.--Mr. Hawley, in the mean time, to keep Mr. Woodbridge's
school. Then, that Mr. Hawley and Mr. Gordon should join them there,
and go with them from thence to Onohquauga, and when they have
acquainted themselves well with the people, and the state of the
country, and find things agreeable, and see a hopeful prospect, then
for Mr. Woodbridge to return, and leave Mr. Hawley and Mr. Gordon
there, and forthwith send word to Mr. Brainerd, and propose to him to
come up, with some of his chief Indians, to see the country. And if,
on the observations they make, and the acquaintance they get with the
people and country, they think there is an encouraging prospect, then
to endeavour to gain a conference with some of the chiefs of the Five
Nations, at an appointed time, to know whether they will consent to
their coming to settle in their territories. All this will occupy some
considerable time; so that, if they can obtain their consent, Mr.
Brainerd must return home: and he and his chief Indians must come
again to the treaty, at the time and place appointed.
You will easily perceive, Gentlemen, that these things will require
time, and that, in order to carry these various measures into effect
this year, there will be need of expedition, which may show the reason
why we think it necessary, that Mr. Hawley should come to Boston; for,
if these things are to be done this year, we had need speedily to know
the minds of the commissioners, and therefore that the case would not
allow of waiting for, and depending on, uncertain accidental
opportunities, of sending to them, and hearing from them. It is also
proper, that the commissioners should have opportunity to agree with
Mr. Hawley, concerning the reward of his services.
Mr. Brainerd told Mr. Hawley, that, if he removed with his Indians, he
should choose to do it speedily; and that, the longer it was delayed,
the more difficult it would he, by reason of his building, and the
Indians increasing their buildings and improvements at Bethel.
Probably, if the removal cannot be brought about the next year, it
never will be. And if his Indians remove the next year, it will be
necessary that they remove as early as the spring, in order to plant
there that year. And if so much needs to be done this summer, it is as
much as it will be possible to find time for.
Though we project the measures mentioned above, we are sensible they
will be attended with much uncertainty. Man's heart deviseth his way,
but the Lord directeth his steps. Many are the desires of men's
hearts, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. Unthought of
difficulties may arise, to confound all our projects; as unforeseen
difficulties have dashed all the pleasing hopes we entertained, and
the fair prospects we had, concerning the affairs of the Mohawks at
Stockbridge, the year before last. And I would humbly propose it for
consideration, whether it will not be necessary, to leave these
affairs, in some measure at discretion, to be determined as the
complicated, uncertain, changing state of things shall require; to
save the trouble and expense of frequently going or sending to Boston,
for new instructions; and to prevent the disadvantages, under which
our affairs may be laid, through the lengthy, uncertain way of sending
for and receiving new orders, by occasional opportunities.
There will be a necessity of Mrs. Ashley's going as an interpreter,
and of her husband going with her. He will be qualified to instruct
the Indians in their husbandry: having been well instructed in it
himself. I believe he will not be very difficult as to his wages,
though probably he expects to know what they will be.
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obliged and obedient servant,
jonathan edwards."
During the month of April, Mr. Hawley received a letter from the
commissioners, directing him to go to Onohquauga, for the purpose of
commencing a new mission at that place. He left Stockbridge May 22d,
in company with Mr. Woodbridge, and Mr. and Mrs. Ashley, travelling
through the wilderness, and on the 4th or June arrived at the place of
their destination. The Indians received the intelligence of their
proposed mission with strong expressions of satisfaction. Mr.
Woodbridge returned soon after to Stockbridge. Mr. Hawley appears to
have remained, with his interpreter; and his labours, as a missionary,
were attended with considerable success.
In the course of the summer, not long after the return of the larger
part of the Mohawks, from Stockbridge to their own country, a general
council of the nation was held, at their principal settlement on the
Mohawk; in which, after due examination of the facts, it was decided,
that the rest of the Mohawks at Stockbridge, should return early in
the spring, as soon as the hunting season was over. Instructions, to
this effect, were immediately transmitted, from the chief sachem of
the tribe, to the residue of the little colony, and made known to the
people of Stockbridge.
About this time, the agent of Mr. Hollis, discouraged, doubtless, by
the state of things, as far as it was known, and probably auguring no
very favourable result to himself, or his friends, from the
application to Mr. Hollis, quitted Stockbridge, and went back to
Newington; leaving the few boys, whom, by offering to board and clothe
them gratuitously, he had persuaded to live with him, in the hands of
the resident trustee.
This unhappy controversy, now drawing to its close, which, during its
continuance, had threatened to subvert the whole Indian mission, and
to destroy the prosperity of the village, and the temporal welfare of
Mr. Edwards and his family, must have occupied so much of his
attention, that when our readers remember, that he preached two
discourses a week to the whites, as well as one, by an interpreter, to
the Housatonnucks, and one to the Mohawks; and also catechised the
children of the whites, the Housatonnucks, and the Mohawks; they will
be ready to believe, that he found no time for any additional labours.
And when they also recollect, that, on the 23d of November, 1752, he
says, in his letter to Mr. Erskine,--"I began, the last August, to
write a little on the Arminian controversy, but was soon broken off:
and such have been my extraordinary avocations and hindrances, that I
have not had time to set pen to paper, about this matter, since. But I
hope God, in his providence, will favour me with opportunity to
prosecute the deign, and I desire your prayers that God would assist
me in it;"--and that this proposed work, on the Arminian controversy,
was none other, than the treatise on the freedom of the will; they
will conclude, of course, that the execution of it must have been
deferred to some happier period, when, amid the leisure and
tranquillity of retirement, he could give his uninterrupted attention,
and his individual strength, to its accomplishment. What then will be
their surprise, when they find him opening his next letter to Mr.
Erskine, under the date of April 14th, 1753, with the following
annunciation.--"After many hindrances, delays, and interruptions,
Divine Providence has so far favoured me, and smiled on my design of
writing on the Arminian controversy, that I have almost finished the
first draught of what I first intended; and am now sending the
proposals for subscription, to Boston, to be printed." Let it be
remembered, that the Essay on the Freedom of the Will, which, in the
opinion of Dugald Stewart, raises its author to the same rank as a
metaphysician with Locke and Leibnitz, was written within the space of
four months and a half; and those, not months of leisure, but
demanding the additional duties of a parish, and of two distinct
Indian missions; and presenting, also, all the cares, perplexities,
and embarrassments of a furious controversy, the design of which was
to deprive the author, and his family, of their daily bread. So far as
I am aware, no similar example, of power and rapidity united, is to be
found on the annals of mental effort [56] ."
"Stockbridge, April 14, 1753.
rev. and dear sir,
After many hinderances, delays, and interruptions, Divine Providence
has so far favoured me, and smiled on my design of writing on the
Arminian controversy, that I have almost finished the first draught of
what I first intended and am now sending the proposals for
subscription to Boston to be printed; with a letter of Mr. Foxcroft,
to send thirty of those proposals to Mr. M'Laurin, with a letter to
him; in which I have desired him to deliver half of them to you, as
you have manifested yourself ready to use endeavours to get
subscriptions in Scotland. The printing will be delayed to wait for
subscriptions from thence. I therefore request that you endeavour to
promote and expedite the affair.
Stockbridge affairs, relating to the Indians, are, in many respects,
under a very dark cloud. The affair of the Iroquois, or Six Nations,
here is almost at an end, as I have given a more particular account to
Mr. M'Laurin. The commissioners in Boston, I believe, are discouraged
about it, and have thoughts of sending and settling a missionary in
their own country. The correspondents of the Society in Scotland, have
also determined to send a missionary there, and have chosen Mr. Gordon
a tutor of the college at Newark, for that end. Mr. Gordon is expected
here at the beginning of May, to live at my house with Mr. Hawley, in
order to learn the Iroquois language with him. It is probable that he
and Mr. Hawley will go up, and spend the summer, in the Iroquois
country.
The correspondents have also a disposition, that Mr. Brainerd should
remove, with the whole congregation of Indians, to settle somewhere in
the country of the Six Nations; and he himself and his Indians, are
ready for it. `Tis probable that something will be done to prepare the
way for it; and at least to see, whether the way can be prepared, or
any door opened for it, this summer. Some of these Indians have a
great desire, that the gospel should be introduced and settled in
their country.
Some of the Stockbridge Indians have of late been under considerable
awakenings,--two or three elderly men, that used to be vicious
persons. My family is now in usual health. My daughter Burr, in New
Jersey has been very ill all the winter past. We last heard from her
about five weeks ago; when it was hoped there was some amendment.
My wife joins with me, in respectful and affectionate salutations to
you and Mrs. Erskine. Desiring a remembrance in your prayers,
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate brother,
and obliged friend and servant,
jonathan edwards."
The representations of the nephew of the opponent of Mr. Woodbridge,
and those of the commissioners of Boston, to the Society in London,
the former hostile, and the latter friendly, to Mr. Edwards and his
associates, were sent forward, and arrived at their place of
destination, in due season. That gentleman had entertained an
overweening estimate of his own influence with the board of directors
of the Society in London. They gave full credit to the statements of
their own commissioners, and sustained them in upholding their
missionaries and instructers. Perceiving, however, that an unhappy
controversy subsisted at Stockbridge, relative to the mission, and
knowing that their commissioners at Boston were 150 miles distant;
they endeavoured to devise a plan, by which the existing evils might
be remedied. Mr. Edwards, in his letter to Mr. Mauduit, one of their
number, had observed, "What renders it the more necessary, that things
here should he under the immediate care of trustees on the spot, is,
the misunderstanding and jealousy here subsisting, between some of the
chief of the present English inhabitants of the town, which is one of
our greatest calamities. Things, on this account, do much need careful
inspection; and therefore, the gentlemen intrusted ought to be such,
as are perfectly impartial, and no way interested in, or related to,
these contending parties." The plan suggested by the directors was
this, That eleven persons,--two in New York, two in Albany, one in
Wethersfield, two in Hartford, one in Windsor, one in Suffield, one in
Hadley, and one in Stockbridge,--should be a board of consultation, to
advise their agents at Stockbridge, and to act, by correspondence,
with the commissioners; and they counted upon the preceding extract,
as what had confirmed them in the measure [57] . At the request of the
Hon. Mr. Bromfield, one of the commissioners, Mr. Edwards, in a
letter, dated Oct. 19, 1753, expressed his own views of the plan, and
pointed out its inconvenience, if not utter impracticability. The
commissioners having expressed similar views to the directors; the
plan was relinquished. This was the result of the application to the
Society in London [58] .
The General Assembly of the church of Scotland, for the year 1753,
having refused, by a very small majority, to restore Mr. Gillespie to
the ministry in the kirk, and to his parish of Carnock;--an act of
plain justice, which he would not ask them to render him,--Mr. Edwards
addressed to him the following letter; a part of which must have been
sweet and consoling to the feelings of suffering piety.
"Stockbridge, October 18, 1753
rev. and dear sir,
The last November I wrote you a letter, and desired Mr. Foxcroft to
put up with it, for you, one of my Answers to Mr. Williams. After
that, in the latter part of the winter, I received a letter from you,
dated June 15th, 1752, with Milton on Hirelings; and duplicates of a
Letter from a Gentleman in Town, &c.; and Answers to the Reasons of
Dissent, &c. I now return you my hearty thanks for these things. Since
that, I have received letters from Mr. M'Laurin and Mr. Erskine, with
various pamphlets and prints relative to your extraordinary affair I
think, dear Sir, although your sufferings are like to continue, the
General Assembly having refused to restore you to your former station
and employments in the church of Scotland; yet they are attended with
many manifestations of the goodness, and fatherly kindness, and favour
of the great Governor of the world, in the many alleviations and
supporting circumstances of your persecutions; in that so many of
God's ministers and people have appeared to be so much concerned for
you; and have so zealously, and yet so properly, exerted themselves in
your behalf; and have so many ways given their testimony to the
goodness of the cause in which you suffer, and the unrighteousness of
the hardships which you have been subjected to; and that even so great
a part of the General Assembly, themselves, have, in effect, given
this testimony for you, there being but a very small majority, but
what openly appeared for the taking off of the censure of the former
Assembly, without any recantation on your part, or so much as an
application from you, desiring them so to do. You have some peculiar
reasons to rejoice in your sufferings, and to glorify God on account
of them. They having been so greatly taken notice of by so many of the
people of God, and there being so much written concerning them, tends
to render them, with their circumstances, and particularly the
patience and meekness with which you have suffered, so much the more
extensively and durably to the glory of the name of your blessed lord,
for whom you suffer. God is rewarding--you for laying a foundation, in
what has been said and done and written concerning your sufferings,
for glory to his own name, and honour to you, in his church, in future
generations. Your name will doubtless be mentioned hereafter with
peculiar respect, on the account of these sufferings, in
ecclesiastical history; as they are now the occasion of a peculiar
notice, which saints and angels in heaven take of you, and of their
praises to God on your account; and will be the occasion of a peculiar
reward, which God will bestow upon you, when you shall be united to
their assembly.
As to my own circumstances, I still meet with trouble, and expect no
other, as long as I live in this world. Some men of influence have
much opposed my continuing a missionary at Stockbridge, and have taken
occasion abundantly to reproach me, and endeavour my removal. But I
desire to bless God, he seems in some respects to set me out of their
reach. He raises me up friends, who are exerting themselves to
counteract the designs of my opposers; particularly the commissioners
for Indian affairs in Boston; with whom innumerable artifices have
been used, to disaffect them towards me; but altogether in vain.
Governor Belcher, also, has seen cause much to exert himself, in my
behalf, on occasion of the opposition made to me. My people, both
English and Indians, stedfastly adhere to me; excepting the family
with whom the opposition began, and those related to them; which
family greatly opposed me while at Northampton. Most numerous,
continued, and indefatigable endeavours have been used, to undermine
me, by attempting to alienate my people from me; innumerable mean
artifices have been used with one another, with young and old, men and
women, Indians and English: but hitherto they have been greatly
disappointed. But yet they are not weary.
As we, dear Sir, have great reason to sympathize, one with another,
with peculiar tenderness; our circumstances being in many respects
similar; so I hope I shall partake of the benefit of your fervent
prayers for me. Let us then endeavour to help one another, though at a
great distance, in travelling through this wide wilderness; that we
may have the more joyful meeting in the land of rest, when we have
finished our weary pilgrimage.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most affectionate brother,
and fellow-servant,
jonathan edwards"
"P. S. My wife joins in most affectionate regards to you and yours."
The proposals for publishing the Essay on the Freedom of the Will,
were issued in Massachusetts, in 1753; but in consequence of the kind
offer of Mr. Erskine and Mr. M'Laurin, to circulate the papers, and
procure subscribers for it in Scotland, the printing was postponed
until the success of their efforts was known. What that success was,
probably cannot now be ascertained. The work was published early in
the year 1754, under the title of "A careful and strict Inquiry into
the modern prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will, which is
supposed to be essential to Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward and
Punishment, Praise and Blame." This work is justly considered as the
most laboured and important of the metaphysical investigations
undertaken by the author. The subject, as will be obvious from the
preceding title, lies at the very foundation of all religion and of
all morality. That it was also a subject of no ordinary difficulty,
appears generally to have been felt, and in effect acknowledged; for
until the time of Mr. Edwards, it had never been thoroughly
investigated either by philosophers or theologians, though it was
constantly recurring in their reasonings on the great principles
connected with the moral government of God, and the character of man.
Calvin, in his chapter on the Slavery of the Will, may be taken as an
example of the most that had been done to settle the opinions of the
orthodox, and refute their opposers on this subject before this
period. His defect, and that of his followers, until the time of Mr.
Edwards, is seen in this one thing; that they insisted on the great
fact, merely that the will of man was not in a state of indifference,
but so strongly fixed in its choice as to require supernatural grace
for conversion, overlooking in a great measure the nature of moral
agency, and what is essential to its nature. Their opposers, on the
contrary, were constantly affirming, that freedom of will was
necessary to moral agency, and carried their views to the extent that
the will determined itself, and could not be enslaved. In this state
of ethical and theological science, Mr. Edwards set himself to the
task of examining the great subject of moral agency, as connected with
the human will; and by the precision of his definitions and
statements, the cogency of his reasonings, the fulness of his
illustrations, the thorough handling of all objections, and the
application of his views to many scriptural truths, he placed the
grand points of his subject in a light so overwhelmingly convincing,
as to leave little room for any doubt or dispute afterwards.
In this treatise it is contended, that the power of choosing, or
willing, does itself constitute freedom of agency; and that particular
acts of will are determined, i.e. are rendered certain, or become such
as they are, rather than otherwise, by some sufficient cause or
reason, in perfect consistency with their being acts of will, or in
perfect consistency with that power of willing which constitutes
freedom of agency. On the ground that the power of willing pertains to
man, the author asserts a natural ability, which is the just occasion
of precept, invitation, &c. or of the will of God being addressed to
him, and on the ground that his acts of will are rendered certain, by
a sufficient cause, the author asserts a moral inability. The
principal point contended for, and which is most essential to the
defence of the Calvinistic scheme of faith, in distinction from the
Arminian, is the latter one, that the acts of the will are rendered
certain by some other cause than the mere power of willing. What the
particular cause or causes may be, is not particularly considered, but
this question is dismissed with a few brief remarks. The fact, that
there is and must be, some such cause, is the great subject argued,
and most powerfully demonstrated. This cause he asserts is the
foundation of necessity, in the sense merely of certainty of action,
and does not therefore destroy natural ability or the power of choice,
nor imply that man acts otherwise than electively, or by choice; so
that it is a necessity consistent with accountability, demerit, or the
contrary and so with rewards and punishments. He asserts that all such
terms as must, cannot, impossible, tenable, irresistible, unavoidable,
invincible, &c. when applied here, are not applied in their proper
signification, and are either used nonsensically, and with perfect
insignificance, or in a sense quite diverse from their proper and
original meaning, and their use in common speech; and that such a
necessity as attends the acts of men's wills, is more properly called
certainty than necessity.
Rightly to understand this controversy, it must be observed, that he
and his opponents, alike, considered sin to consist in acts of will.
Had this not been the case, it would have been idle for Mr. Edwards to
have confined himself, in his whole treatise, to acts of choice, and
the manner in which they are determined, i.e. rendered certain. He
must, in that case, have agitated the previous question, respecting
acts of choice themselves; and have asserted and maintained, that
something else of specifically a different nature, enters into moral
character, and forms the ground of praise and blame, or retribution.
But the question which he considered to be at issue, is this: Does the
mind will, in any given manner, without a motive, cause or ground,
which renders the given choice, rather than a different choice,
certain. Whitby, the writer whom he especially has in view, in his
remarks on the freedom of man, asserts, that man, by his own activity
alone, decides the choice. Mr. Edwards acknowledges that man chooses;
but asserts, in opposition to the opinion of Whitby, and those who
side with him, that there must be some other ground or cause, beside
the mere activity of man, or his power of choosing, which occasions
his choosing in one manner, rather than another. He asserts, that
"doubtless common sense requires men's being the authors of their own
acts of will, in order to their being esteemed worthy of praise or
dispraise, on account of them." The very act of volition itself, is,
doubtless, a determination; i.e. it is the mind's drawing up a
conclusion, or coming to a choice, between two things or more,
proposed to it. But determining among external objects of choice, is
not the same as determining the act of choice itself, among various
possible acts of choice. The question is, What influences, directs, or
determines, the mind or will, to such a conclusion or choice as it
does form? Or what is the cause, ground, or reason, why it concludes
thus, and not otherwise? This is the question, on his own statement.
In the latter part of February, 1754,a letter was received from Mr.
Hollis, by Mr. Edwards, containing his explicit directions as to the
school, for which he had expended so much money, to so little purpose.
By this letter, Mr. Hollis withdrew the care of the school, and the
expenditure of his benefactions, from the hands of those who had had
the charge of them, and placed them in the hands of Mr. Edwards [59] .
On the 25th, Mr. Edwards enclosed a copy of this letter, in a note to
the provincial agent, requesting, from him, an account of the existing
state of the school, and of the furniture and books belonging to it.
On the 27th, he went to the school, to examine into its actual
condition, and found in it six Indian boys. The following day, he
mentioned this fact, in a second note to the agent, and informed him,
that, as the Mohawks had long had the resolution to leave Stockbridge,
early in the spring, he had appointed a conference with them, on the
1st of March, to learn whether they still persisted in that
resolution; to the end, that, if they did so, he might suspend any
further expense upon them, on Mr. Hollis's account. At this
conference, which was held with all the Mohawks, men, women, and
children, in the presence of many of the people of the town, they
informed him, that they had all agreed in the autumn, that they would
return, in the spring, to their own country; and that this agreement
was owing to the determination of the council of their nation, the
sachems of the Conneenchees, and could not be altered, unless by a new
determination of their sachems. Of this he gave the agent due notice
the day following, as well as of his purpose to expend none of Mr.
Hollis's money upon them, so long as they persisted in that
resolution.
As the general court had interested themselves in the affairs of Mr.
Hollis, and had waited to know his mind concerning them, that they
might order their own measures accordingly; Mr. Edwards, in a letter
to the secretary of the province, dated March 8th, enclosed an extract
from the letter of Mr. Hollis, and informed him of the actual state of
the school, of the determination of the council of the Mohawks, and
the consequent resolution of the little colony to return to their own
country, and of the notice he had given the agent, that he should
withhold any subsequent expense of Mr. Hollis's money upon them. He
likewise informed him, that some of the Mohawks had, since the
conference, brought their children to him, and earnestly requested
that they might be instructed; offering to take the charge of their
maintenance themselves; and that he had consented to receive them [60]
. He also asks the advice of the secretary, whether he might still
occupy the schoolhouse, which had been built on the lands of the
Indians, at the expense of the province, for the benefit of Mr.
Hollis's school.
The individuals opposed to Mr. Edwards and Mr. Woodbridge, thus found
every plan, which they had formed of connecting themselves with the
Stockbridge mission, defeated, and their last hope extinguished. In
1750, the prospects of the mission, in consequence of the arrival of
the two detachments of the Mohawks and Onohquaugas, which seemed to be
mere harbingers of still larger colonies of their countrymen, were
uncommonly bright and promising. And could the benevolent intentions
of Mr. Hollis, of the Society in London, and of the provincial
legislature, in behalf of the Iroquois, have been carried forward to
their full completion, with no obstructions thrown in their way, by
greedy avarice or unhallowed ambition; it is difficult to conceive of
the amount of good which might have been accomplished. A large and
flourishing colony of the Iroquois would soon have been established at
Stockbridge, drawn thither for the education of their children, and
brought directly within the reach of the means of salvation. What
would have been the ultimate effect of such a colony on their
countrymen at home, and on the more remote Indian tribes, can only be
conjectured. By the steadfast resolution of those persons to oppose
these plans of benevolence, unless the management of the funds by
which they were to be accomplished could be placed in their own hands,
this whole system of beneficence towards the Iroquois, which would
only have enlarged with the opportunity of exerting it, was frustrated
finally and for ever. We will not cherish the belief, that the
disappointed individuals found any thing in this melancholy result, to
console them under the shame and mortification of their own defeat;
although they thus effectually prevented the benevolent efforts of
their opponents, by driving the intended objects of them beyond their
reach. A short time after the letter of Mr. Hollis was received, the
individual, in whose hands the Mohawk school had been left by the
former teacher, removed with his family to his former place of
residence; leaving behind him only one of his associates at
Stockbridge.
_________________________________________________________________
[56] Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, who had the MS. Letters of Mr.
Edwards to Dr. Erskine in possession, while writing his Life of the
latter, observes, "It was not, however, till the month of July, 1752,
that he [Mr. Edwards] appears to have resumed his studies, on the
subject of Free Will; for, on the 7th of that month, he writes Dr.
Erskine, that he hoped soon to be at leisure, to resume his design."
He then adds, "Whatever opinion may be held, with regard to Mr.
Edwards argument, it must appear astonishing to those, who are capable
of appreciating the difficulty of his subject, that, in nine months
from the date of his letter (on the 14th of April, 1753) he could
write Dr. Erskine, that he had almost finished the first draught of
what he originally intended." The passage, in Mr. Edwards's letter of
Nov. 23, 1752, announcing, that he began to write in August, but was
soon broke off; and had not, from that time, been able to put pen to
paper, about the matter: and that he hoped, that God, in his
providence, would favour him with an opportunity to prosecute the
design; obviously escaped Sir Henry's notice. If he regarded it as
astonishing, that Mr. Edwards should have been able to write the work
in nine months: what would have been his view of the subject, if,
after first reading the details of the Stockbridge controversy, he had
then discovered, that it was not written, not in nine months, but in
four and a half.
[57] The directors, knowing the characters of the respective
individuals residing in these places, whom they designated; and
perceiving, from an inspection of the map, that Stockbridge was nearly
central to most of the places mentioned; appear to have supposed, that
they might all meet there, without inconvenience.
[58] On this account only, is the plan worthy of being mentioned here.
[59] Many benevolent men, on being surprized of such a wanton and
shameful perversion of the funds, appropriated by themselves to a
given charity, would, at once, have wholly discontinued their
benefactions; but the benevolence of Mr. Hollis, like a living and
copious fountain, could neither be dried up, nor obstructed.
[60] These children of the Mohawks, and the children of the
Onohquaugas, constituted, from this time, the male Iroquois
boarding-school at Stockbridge. How long it was continued I have not
been able to ascertain; but suppose it was removed to Onohquauga, soon
after the establishment of the mission of Mr. Hawley at that place.