Jonathan Edwards Collection: Edwards, Jonathan - Personal Writings: 22

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

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.