Sermons and Discourses, 1739–1742 (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 22 | WJE)
Overview
The sermons and discourses in this volume chart the rise and decline of the Great Awakening in Jonathan Edwards’ parish in Northampton, Massachusetts, and beyond. A leading figure of the revival period, Edwards delivered potent and wide-ranging sermons during the years 1739–42. In this volume the transcript of the original manuscript of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is reproduced for the first time, along with the text of its first printed edition.
Seeking to nourish the emerging revival spirit, Edwards preached on the glory of saints in heaven, the dangers and opportunities of the unregenerate on earth, and the torment of the damned and devils in hell. As the revival progressed he became ever more critical of participants’ behavior, and with its decline he attempted—without success—to compel godliness.
Top Highlights
“There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” (Page 405)
“2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction.” (Page 404)
“I. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment” (Page 405)
“3. Another thing implied is that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another” (Page 404)
“That the reason why they are not fallen already, and don’t fall now, is only that God’s appointed time is not come.” (Page 404)
- Title: Sermons and Discourses, 1739–1742
- Author: Jonathan Edwards
- Series: The Works of Jonathan Edwards
- Volume: 22
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 2003
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Congregational churches › United States--Sermons
- ISBNs: 9780300095722, 9780300060591, 9780300087147, 9780300091748, 9781520881034, 9781520881218, 0300095724, 0300060599, 0300087144, 0300091745, 1520881037, 1520881215
- Resource ID: LLS:EDWARDS22
- Resource Type: text.monograph.collected-work
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:37:24Z
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is considered one of America’s greatest theologians. While attending Yale College, he encountered the same Calvinism that had influenced his own Puritan upbringing.
Three years after Edwards was ordained as a minister, the First Great Awakening began in his church, which prompted Edwards to study conversion and revival within the context of Calvinism. During the revival, Edwards preached his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” and penned many of his most popular works, including Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd.
In 1757, Edwards reluctantly became president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), where he hoped to complete two major works—an expansion of his treatise on the history of redemption and a study of the harmony of the Old and New Testaments. The Works of Jonathan Edwards (26 vols.) is a massive collection containing five decades’ worth of study and scholarship on and from Edwards.