Selections from the Unpublished Writings of Jonathan Edwards

Ten years ago I crossed the Atlantic in order to consult and arrange with the representatives of Jonathan Edwaeds, about a complete and really worthy edition of the Works, published and unpublished, of that “master in Israel.” Commissioned by Publishers of position and character thereto, and the way having been j)repared by correspondence, I had immediate access given me to all the Manusceipts of Edwards,... these having been committed to the keeping of the Kev. Tryon Edwards, D.D., of New London, Connecticut, “as sole peimanent trustee, by all the then surviving grandchildren of their author.” Very pleasant, if onerous, was the labour of examining the numerous MSS.; which were found to embrace, — besides papers of rare biographical interest and value, — the originals of some of the works already published, and a mass of his ordinary “sermons,” in part fully written out, in larger part half-written out, and in largest part in simple “notes,” — these three classes being of very various worth. The treasure of the whole proved to be a Treatise on Grace, carefully iinished and prepared for the press: and second to it, if second, an interleaved Bible, containing numerous annotations. Circumstances, which it is not at all needful to state here, have hitherto prevented the carrying out of the scheme of a complete collective edition of the Works: but a foiloin hope is indulged, that if the deplorable Civil war were ended, it may yet be achieved under the joint-editorship of the above Rev. Dr Tryon Edwards and myself.

Meantime, in response to very frequent and urgent requests addressed to me, 1 have personally transcribed from the original MSS. now in my possession, the contents of the present volume.

* lutroduction to Edwards’ .s “Charity and its Fruits; or, Christian Love as manifested in the Heart and Life.” Edited from the Original MSS. by Tryon Edward.s, DP. (London; Nisbet & Co. 1S52. 8vo.), page iv.; an inestimable book.

With a collective edition of the Works in possible prospect, I did not deem myself at liberty to publish anything; but there seems no valid objection to the printing of a limited impression for subscribers only, willing and wishful to share the cost with the Editor.

I may briefly notice the several portions of our Selections.

I. Treatise on Grace. — This Manuscript was found by itself, carefully placed within folds of thick paper, and tied up with a silk ribbon. It proved to be arranged into chapters and sections, all paged; and, in short, precisely as now printed. Our facsimile prefixed to the title-page, shews the size and appearance of the original. Many of the pages have interlineations and erasures; but there can be no doubt that the Manuscript was intended for publication.

It is possible that I may have the usual bias of a discoverer and editor. But I shall be surprised if this Treatise do not at once take rank with its kindred one, on “the Religious Aflections.” There is in it, I think, the massive argumentation of his great work, on “The Will;” but there is, in addition, a fineness of spiritual insight, a holy fervour not untinged with the pathetic “frenzy” of the English Mystics, as of Peter Sterry and Archbishop Leighton, and — especially toward the close — a rapturous exultation in the “excellency and loveliness” of God, a glow in iteration, of the wonder and beauty and blessedness of Divine Love, and a splendour of assertion of the CLAIMS, so to speak, of God the Holy Spirit, which it would be difficult to over-estimate

II. Annotations on the Bible. — I give an account of the copy of Holy Scripture whence these Annotations are drawn, in the Note prefixed to them. It is perhaps necessary to explain that not one of these has been hitherto printed. In the “Woi’ks” as supplemented by Mr Robert Ogle of Edinburgh,* there is a series of “Notes on the Bible,” and in the “Works” as now in circulation in America, -f* a few pages (seven in all) are occupied with” Observations upon Particular

* This suijplement is titled volume IX. and volume X. of the Works, intending thereby to range with Williams’s edition in 8 vols, royal 8vo, and the American below. The former contains, I. Notes on the Bible, (pp. 397;) and, II. Types of the Messiah. The latter, I. Miscellaneous Observations; II. Seventeen Occasional Sermons. Those who have Williams’s edition ought to possess themselves of these; and those also who have the American edition, inasmuch as none of their contents are in the one, and only a comparatively small part in the other. Messrs Ogle & Murray, South Bridge, Edinburgh, are the present pulilishers, and few copies remain.

+ 4 vols. 8vo, vol. iii. pp. 5i~-55o. See footnote at end of this Introduction.

Passages of Scripture,” the former omitting the latter, and the latter, strange to say, omitting the former, as well as other equally important portions of Edwards’s writings. But the present is a wholly independent series, — the old Bible having been in the possession of one of the grandchildren until the general committing of all in 184!)-50 to Dr Tryon Edwards, as stated ante. In the “Notes on the Bible” mentioned above, there are various references to “the Blank Bible,” which were not understood, but now are, in the light of our recovery of the present Annotations.

Students of Edwards have always prized “above rubies” the “Notes” and “Observations” already extant; and I run no great hazard in anticipating that those now for the first time printed, will be equally valued. They seem to us to be of a more richly experimental character than the others, while there is the same acumen, quickness in discernment of Scriptural harmonies and parallelisms, soundness of interpretation of difficulties, happy accommodation, sweetness and tenderness of enforcement, overshadowed at times with solemn appeal, and rare ingenuity of “improvement,” — as the Puritans were wont to call it.

III. Directions for Judging of Persons’ Experiences. — I have come upon this searching and very precious MS. since the issuing of my Proposals. It evidently formed the author’s guide in his testconversations with enquirers during the great Awakenings or Revivals. This — as well as eight instead of two sermons — is substituted for specimens of the original MS. of the treatise on “The Will,” as explained onwards.

IV. Sermons. — As stated, the great mass of the Edwards’s MSS. consists of his “Sermons.” From among these a noble volume might be gathered, that is, of fully written out and magnificent Discourses: and another of equal weight and value, consisting of select passages from those less perfect, and, as a whole, of ordinary type, together with what clerics know as “skeletons” or “sketches,’’ — many of them, as No. 2 of our selection will shew, mammoth-boned, I have given eight Sermons: Nos. 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8, consisting of two Sermons in each case from one text — in place of two Sketch-sermons only, as originally designed and announced — to illustrate the usual style of preparation by Jonathan Edwards for the pulpit. No. 1 is the more frequent example of his preparations; No 2 is fuller, and is peculiarly interesting, as being one of those delivered to the Indians of Stockbridge; Nos. 3 and 4 are still fuller; Nos. 5 and 6 yet more so; and Nos. 7 and 8 elaborate, but, as will be seen, not filled up, so far as the wording goes. I have selected the last, as being on a difficult passao-e, which is at once assumed to mean that which strikes our common sense as its only meaning, — and because it furnishes us with a well-nigh cmsome specimen of the purged and Dantesque style of Edwards’s grandest preaching, as well as, in its final “Applications” and “Directions,” of his unexpected, and pungent, and penetrating rebukes of prevalent sin. It should make a fine picture to call up the scene of the great Preacher delivering the sermon on “The Word of God” to the swarthy Indians, in what was then the outskirts of civilisation, though, as we can testify, a fiuer landscape now is nowhere to be seen; nor found, a more winsome or kindly Community.

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