2. Punctuation added for clarity. Proverbs 19:8, June 1756, box 13, folder 985, Jonathan Edwards Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Hereafter cited as JEC.

3. Matthew 13:3–4, 1740, repreached May of 1756, box 6, folder 463, JEC.

4. Ibid.

5. 2 Peter 1:19, August 16, 1751, Franklin Trask Library, Andover Newton Theological Seminary, Newton Centre, Mass. (hereafter ANTS); undated fragment from baptismal sermon. Fragment on back of letter dated Dec. 28, 1756; Matthew 1:21, September 1755, box 13, folder 1016, JEC.

6. See especially Stout, Harry S., The New England Soul (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986)Google Scholar and William, J.Youngs, T., God's Messengers: Religious Leadership in Colonial New England, 1700–1750 (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), chapter 4.Google Scholar

7. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 3, Original Sin, ed. Holbrook, Clyde A., (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970), 124.Google Scholar

8. Parrington, WroteGoogle Scholar, “before an adequate democratic philosophy could arise in this world of pragmatic individualism the traditional system of New England theology must be put away, and a new conception of man and of his duty and destiny in the world must take its place.” Parrington, Vernon L., Main Currents of American Thought, vol. 1, The Colonial Mind, 1620–1800. (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1927), 148–63 (quote page 148).Google ScholarRichard, Theologian H. Niebuhr directly challenged Parrington's interpretation in a manuscript, also titled, “The Anachronism of Jonathan Edwards,” written in 1958 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Edwards' death. In another unpublished essay, “The Idea of Original Sin in American Culture,” written in 1949, Niebuhr challenged the linking of orthodox Calvinism with an antidemocratic spirit, arguing that positive assessments of innate human capacities were in fact more likely to issue in undemocratic political systems. Johnson, W. Stacey, ed., History and Culture: Major Unpublished Writings of H. Richard Niebuhr (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996), 123–33, 174–91.Google Scholar

9. Miller, Perry, Jonathan Edwards (New York: W. Sloane and Associates, 1949), 279.Google Scholar

10. Heimert, Alan, Religion and The American Mind from the Great Awakening to the Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966).Google ScholarGoff, Philip has offered a helpful review of the fate of Alan Heimert's controversial thesis and its legacyGoogle Scholar. Goff, “Revivals and Revolution: Historiographic Turns since Heimert's, AlanReligion and the American Mind,” Church History 67:4 (1998), 695–722.Google Scholar

11. McDermott, Gerald R., One Holy and Happy Society: The Public Theology of Jonathan Edwards (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), chapters 3–5.Google Scholar

12. Pahl's work explicitly challenges the work of Miller, Heimert, Nathan Hatch, Ruth Bloch, and Harry Stout and others for their emphasis on the support evangelical millennialism lent force to the Revolutionary movement. Pahl, , Paradox Lost: Free Will and Political Liberty in American Culture, 1630–1760, (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), especially chapter 12Google Scholar; and “Jonathan Edwards and the Aristocracy of Grace,” Fides et Historia 25 (1993): 62–72.Google Scholar

13. Patricia Tracy's excellent book focuses on the complex relationships between Edwards and his Northampton congregation. Tracy, , Jonathan Edwards, Pastor, (New York: Hill and Wang, 1979)Google Scholar, chapter 7. Minkema's essay on Edwards and slavery suggests one aspect of Edwards' acceptance of the inherited social order. Minkema argues that while Edwards accepted slavery, he opposed the continuation of the slave trade. Minkema, Kenneth, “Jonathan Edwards on Slavery,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. LIV (10 1997), 823–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Jonathan Edwards, Tracy's, Pastor is the most thorough investigation to date of the social context of Edwards' ministry, while McDermott's One Holy and Happy Society is the most extensive treatment of the social implications of Edwards' theology.Google Scholar Other notable exceptions include Valeri, Mark, “The Economic Thought of Jonathan Edwards,” Church History 60:1 (1991), 37–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chamberlain, Ava, “The Immaculate Ovum: Jonathan Edwards and the Construction of the Female Body,” William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., LVII (04 2000), 289–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and especially the recently published biography by Marsden, George, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003).Google Scholar

15. This is the central argument of Perry Miller's monumental biography of Edwards. Although subsequent scholars have taken issue with Miller's thesis—the centrality of Locke versus other philosophers to Edwards' thought—the appreciation for the scope of Edwards’ reading and knowledge has only increased largely because of Norman Fiering's work. Fiering, , Jonathan Edwards' Moral Thought and its British Context (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981).Google Scholar

16. Kenneth Minkema's discussion of Edwards' views toward the elderly offers an interesting parallel. Because of his personal experiences throughout his life with the aged, Edwards implicitly challenged the hierarchical woridview that he explicitly espoused. Similarly, I suggest here that Edwards' personal experiences with his congregations led him to articulate his theological convictions in a way that subtly challenged his assumptions about the social order. Minkema, , “Old Age and Religion in the Writings and Life of Jonathan Edwards,” Church History 70:4 (2001), 674–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Despite a longstanding call for studies that demonstrate the influence of native peoples on the colonizers, most scholarship focusing on cultural encounters charts the influence of colonialism on native communities. Investigations of the Indian impact on English colonial culture include work by Axtell, James, especially, “The indian Impact on English Colonial Culture,” in The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 272–315.Google ScholarRichard, Pointer examines the influence of mission work on missionaries in, “‘Poor Indians’ and the ‘Poor in Spirit’: The Indian Impact on David Bramerd,” New England Quarterly 67 (September, 1994), 403–26.Google Scholar

18. Personal Narrative, written around 1740, The Work of Jonathan Edwards, 16, Letters and Personal Writings, ed. Claghorn, George S., (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998), 791–92.Google Scholar

19. On the relationship of Edwards' conversion experience and his view of the “hard doctrines” of Calvinism, see Zakai, Avihu, “The Conversion of Jonathan Edwards,” The Journal of Presbyterian History 76 (Summer 1998), 127–38.Google Scholar

20. Dating according to Schafer, Thomas. “Mysteries of Religion. Absolute Decrees. Original Sin, Etc.,” The “Miscellanies,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 18, The “Miscellanies,” ed. Schafer, Thomas A. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), 195–96.Google Scholar

21. The most extensive treatments of the controversy are Tracy's, Jonathan Edwards, PastorGoogle Scholar; Sweeney's, Kevin “River Gods and Related Minor Deities: The Williams Family and the Connecticut River Valley, 1637–1790,” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1986)Google Scholar, chapter 5; and David Hall's introduction to volume 12 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards 12, Ecclesiastical Writings (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994).Google Scholar

22. Patricia Tracy suggests that this move was in part an attempt by Edwards to regain a measure of respect and authority he felt had been waning in recent years. The result, however, was to further alienate the congregation who now felt they had been betrayed by their pastor. Tracy, , Jonathan Edwards, Pastor, chapter 8.Google Scholar

23. Wilson Kimnach settles on “Text” as the proper term for referring to the first part of the traditional Puritan sermon form employed by Edwards. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 10, Sermons and Discourses, 1720–1723, ed. Kimnach, Wilson H. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), 32, n. 5.Google Scholar

24. The scripture texts were Acts 20:18, 20, 26, 27, Galatians 4:15, 16. Edwards, , A Farewel Sermon Preached at the First Precinct in Northampton after the People's Publick Rejection of their Minister, and Renouncing their Relation to Him as Pastor of the Church There on June 22, 1750 (Boston: S. Kneeland, 1751), 2, 1319, 33, 34.Google Scholar

25. Sweeney, , “River Gods,” 414–15.Google Scholar

26. By September of 1750, Edwards had received three offers including the invitation to Stockbridge. The other two were to “large churches of New England people much pleasanter as to worldly accommodations than the settlement at Stockbridge.” He had received an offer from his Scottish friend and minister, Erskine, John, to find a settlement for him in Scotland. Edwards declined this invitation, not out of an unwillingness to “submit to the Presbyterian form of government” but because of the difficulties attending “removing with my numerous family over the Atlantic.” John McLaurin to William Hogg, November 8, 1751, Firestone Library, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.; JE to the Reverend John Erskine, Northampton, July 5, 1750, Works, 16:355–56.Google Scholar

27. Quoted in JE to Thomas Gillespie, July 1, 1751, Works, 16:387.

28. “Minutes,” May 9, 1750, New England Company Records, 1685–1784, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass. (hereafter NEC); JE to Isaac Hollis, July 17, 1752, postscript, Works, 16:504–9.

29. He did, however, see one advantage to Edwards' presence—it would raise the value of his land to have a renowned theologian fri their midst. He also noted besides, the remainder of the English residents seemed to be very much “set for him.” The most famous line from this letter laments the shame that a “head so full of divinity should be so empty of politics.” Williams, Ephraim Jr. to Ashley, Jonathan, 05 2, 1751, in Colonel Ephraim Williams: A Documentary Life, ed. Wright, Wyllis (Pittsfield, Mass.: Berkshire County Historical Society, 1970), 61.Google Scholar

30. The minutes of the New England Company noted that “the English Inhabitants and the Indians at Stockbridge [have] express'd their desire of the Revd Mr. Edwards' settling among them.” “Minutes of the Meetings of Boston Commissioners,” April 1, 1751, NEC.

31. The mission was founded in 1735, and the town of Stockbridge was incorporated in 1739 as an Indian township. Missionary John Sergeant had invited four English families, including Ephraim Williams, Sr. to settle in Stockbridge as models of English civilization and Christian living. See Wheeler, Rachel, “Living Upon Hope: Mahicans and Missionaries 1730–1760,” (Ph.D. diss.: Yale University, 1998)Google Scholar, chapter 1; and Frazier, Patrick, The Mohicans of Stockbridge (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), chapters 3 and 4.Google Scholar

32. Kellogg's two recommending assets included his knowledge of the Mohawk language gained when he was held captive and his efforts to secure Eunice Williams' return to New England. Sweeney, “River Gods,” 461. According to Edwards, Kellogg was “a man of pretty good understanding for one that was being an illiterate man, and a man in years,” yet he could not be “persuaded to set up a school or turn Out of his own disorderly way.” JE to Jasper Mauduit, March 10, 1752, Works, 16:453. Hopkins, Samuel, Historical Memoirs Relating to the Housatonic Indians (Boston: S. Kneeland, 1753), iii, 143.Google ScholarJE to Secretary Andrew Oliver, February 18, 1752, Works, 16:425–28.Google Scholar

33. Edwards suspected the Williamses of attempting to “purg[e] the town of all that stands in their way” from which he knew he would not be exempted, being considered “a great nuisance here.” JE to Oliver, Andrew, February 18, 1752, Works, 16:428.Google Scholar

34. Edwards provided further detail to his Scottish friend William Hogg, explaining “Another source of difficulty is this. In the case of the late great controversy at Northampton, there was a number of gentlemen belonging to other towns, of a certain family of considerable note in New England, which had long manifested a jealous and unfriendly spirit towards me, at least some of them (‘tis needless for me to say what I think were the first causes of this unfriendliness), who on occasion of the foresaid controversy, sat in on the side of my opposers, were their chief counselors during the whole continuance of the controversy. One or two of the inhabitants of Stockbridge were of the same family; who when my coming to settle here was first talked of, greatly opposed it. But when they saw the stream was too strong for them seemed to concur in it, and appeared very friendly. But since the forementioned gentleman of the General Court's Committee has married into the family, they have thrown off the appearance of friendship in a great measure, and act entirely in concert with him in his opposition, and are abetted and upheld in it by some gentlemen of note in other places, of the same family, the same that fomented the contention at Northampton.” JE to Hogg, William, November 25, 1752, Works, 16:550–51.Google Scholar

35. JE to Secretary Oliver, Andrew, February 18, 1752, Works,16:423–24.Google Scholar The Indians' contempt for Williams predated Edwards' arrival. John Sergeant noted in his diary, “Liet. Sonkewenaukhheek [Umpachenee]” was “giving himself up to drinking, talking against me, and Capt Williams and in general against the English and throwing stumbling blocks in the Indians way.” And a month later Sergeant noted that Umpachenee was still in an “ill Temper,” saying he has “no heart for reform” and insisting that “Capt Williams and I were the occasions of his Apostacy.” John Sergeant, diary entries dated October 21, 1739 and November 29, 1739, Stiles Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. See also the petition from several Stockbridge Indian residents to the General Court in September 1750 protesting that Williams had encroached on their land. Petition dated September 26, 1750, Massachusetts Archives, vol. 32, pp. 61–64. Williams requested that the petition be dispensed as “vexatious and groundless.” vol. 32. pp. 72–73. The Court found that “it would be inconvenient for sd Williams not to have it” and so rejected the petition. October 13, 1750, vol. 32. p. 76. For the full extent of the Williams family's involvement in alienating Indian lands, see Miles, Lion, “The Red Man Dispossessed: The Williams Family and the Alienation of Indian Land in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1736–1818,” New England Quarterly 67 (1994), 46–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36. JE to Oliver, Andrew, April 13, 1753, Works, 16:590. By the fall of 1752, according to Kevin Sweeney, Ephraim Williams, Sr. was beginning to show signs of failing mental and physical health. Sweeney, “River Gods,” 475.Google Scholar

37. JE to Paice, Joseph, February 24, 1752, Works, 16:434–47.Google Scholar

38. 1 Thessalonians 5:5, December 1751, box 14, 1118, JEC. In all likelihood, the Northampton affair was much on Edwards' mind when he preached the Thessalonians sermon. He was at the same time working on his Misrepresentations Corrected, begun in the spring of 1752, an answer to Solomon Williams' The True State of the Question, published in May 1751. Hall, David, “Editor's Introduction,” Works, 12:73–74.Google Scholar For other sermons that emphasize the prior heathen state of Europeans, see Acts 11:12–13: “So that after a while a great many nations turned Christians and after this the English nation had the Gospel preached to 'em and turned Christian who before were Heathen.” January 1751, box 14, folder 1091, JEC. Edwards pursued this same logic in a sermon delivered at the ordination of Edward Billing in Greenfield, suggesting that “‘Tis owing to him [Paul] Chiefly under Christ that the Nations of Europe and most other nations that Profess the Christian Religion are at this day any other than Pagans and gross Idolators as they all formerly were.” This sermon is particularly interesting given the context. Billing had lost his position in Cold Spring because he sided with Edwards in the controversy. The central message of the sermon was that ministers should exert themselves and suffer as Christ and his apostles did in their business of promoting true religion, even though they will meet with derision and persecution. “Prepared for the Installment of Mr. Billing,” Acts 20:28, March 28, 1754, box 9, folder 676, JEC. Sweeney, See, “River Gods,” 481–88.Google Scholar

39. Edwards used some variant of this phrase in many of his sermons. See for example Hebrews 9:27, January 1751: “God gives you an opportunity by bringing you here to this Place therefore Improve this opportunity,” box 14, folder 1127, JEC. John 1:12, February 1751: “And God has brought you here where you hear the Gospel preached and now you have a good opportunity therefore now harken to counsel and improve your opportunity,” box 14, folder 1079, JEC. 2 Corinthians 4:18, August 1751: “men that had good opportunities once and would not improve 'em are now in Hell,” box 14, folder 1110, JEC.

40. 2 Peter 1:19, August, 1751. ANTS. Edwards delivered the sermon at a conference in Albany called to reaffirm the relations of the British colonies with the Six Nations. He had been asked by the Massachusetts contingent to go along and do his part towards cementing the good will of the Mohawks by reiterating an old invitation to settle at Stockbridge and partake of the benefits of a Christian education. A number of Mohawks did in fact settle at Stockbridge in the early 1750s, but most had left by 1754. Many of Edwards' letters from his early years at Stockbridge refer to the Mohawk affair. Clearly, Edwards shared in the general belief in the importance of the Iroquois to the colonial rivalry between Britain and France. He often pleaded with Massachusetts officials, requesting them to expend more resources in attaching the Iroquois to the British interest to counter the French influence. See especially JE to Speaker Hubbard, Thomas, August 31, 1751, Works, 16:394–405.Google Scholar

41. This sympathy was never manifested as an interest in individuals or in Indian culture. Only a very few mentions of Indian individuals can be found in the vast body of Edwards' writings from his Stockbridge tenure. It is important to remember, however, that mentions of his white congregants are equally elusive. By his own admission, Edwards was not especially socially adept. Patricia Tracy's biography clearly exposes Edwards' prickly character, as does George Marsden's new biography. Marsden, , Jonathan Edwards, 5–6 and throughout.Google Scholar

42. See especially his correspondence with Hollis, Isaac, Oliver, Andrew, Paice, Joseph, Foxcroft, Thomas, and Hubbard, Thomas. Works, 16.Google Scholar

43. JE to Edwards, Timothy, January 27, 1752, Works,16:420.Google Scholar

44. Edwards happily reported that Stockbridge schoolmaster Timothy Woodbridge, together with a number of other Stockbridge residents, had taken the time to write to English benefactor Isaac Hollis in his defense. JE to the Reverend Gillespie, Thomas, October 18, 1753, Works, 16:610.Google Scholar

45. JE to Major Williams, Ephraim Jr., and others. September 18, 1753, Works, 16:604.Google ScholarHawley, Gideon, schoolmaster to the Stockbridge Indians and friend of Edwards, commented in his journal that he “was pleased with both his [Edwards'] discourses. The first to the Indians was from John 10:27.” Hawley, July 14, 1754, The Papers of Gideon Hawley, American Congregational Library, Boston. There is indeed a manuscript sermon from July of 1754 on the text John 10:27, box 14, folder 1087, JEC. Sermons preached to the two congregations can be distinguished not only by stylistic markers, but also by his headings. Edwards labeled the sermons to the Indians “St. Ind.” followed by the date and the Text. Those without the “St. Ind.” were clearly preached to the English congregation, as is apparent by the different style and vocabulary.Google Scholar

46. Kimnach also suggests that there is little novel or interesting about the Stockbridge sermons. Many of them are indeed bare outlines and some are based on earlier sermons, but I would urge that they not be dismissed for they still contain the central elements of the form: text, doctrine and application. Kimnach, , “General Introduction to the Sermons,” in Works, 10:3, 66.Google Scholar

47. Hawley, Gideon, “A Letter from Rev. Gideon Hawley of Marshpee, Containing an Account of His Services among the Indians of Massachusetts and New-York, and a Narrative of His Journey to Onohoghgwage,” in Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, ser. 1, vol. 4 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society), 51.Google Scholar

48. There are roughly 25 sermon manuscripts that represent original compositions for the English congregation at Stockbridge. Other evidence suggests that the majority of the English population at Stockbridge sided with Edwards, while the Williams clan opposed his ministry. See also, JE to Hollis, Isaac, July 17, 1752, Works, 16:504–9.Google Scholar

49. This number includes 187 original compositions, 34 repreached from earlier sermons, and 12 Stockbridge Indian sermons preached on two occasions. This average is inclusive and does not exclude months when Edwards was known to be away from Stockbridge. Of the 165 sermons marked as preached to the English congregation at Stockbridge, only 29 were original compositions. All numbers are drawn from an analysis of the finding aid to the collection written by Elizabeth A. Bolton, 1995.

50. For a discussion of Edwards' use of imagery see Kimnach's, “Editor's Introduction,” in Works, 10:213–27.Google Scholar

51. The first was preached in Northampton. JE on Matthew 13:7, November 1740, box 6, folder 469, JEC. Edwards continued to use the same sort of scaffolding in preaching to English congregations. See, for example, 1 Corinthians 10:17, January 1751 preached at Stockbridge in which he comments, “in the Text four things may be observed.” Box, 14, folder 1104, JEC. See also the sermon preached for the installation of Edward Billing, Acts 20:28, March 28, 1754, box 9, folder 676, JEC in which he preached, “The method in which I shall by divine Help persecute this design is to observe what there is in Christ's shedding his blood.” Many other examples could be cited to show that Edwards continued to use this method when preaching to English audiences.

52. JE on Matthew 13:7, March 1752, box 6, folder 470, JEC.

53. Works, 3:160. In Freedom of the Will, Edwards distinguished between the meaning of words as understood by the “common” people and as used in philosophical discourse, without any sense that a lack of an appreciation or capacity for metaphysical disputation in any way lessened a person's likelihood of experiencing saving grace. See for example, Part IV, Section 4, “It Is Agreeable to Common Sense, and the Natural Notions of Mankind, to Suppose Moral Necessity To Be Consistent with Praise and Blame, Reward and Punishment,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 1, Freedom of the Will, ed. Ramsey, Paul (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1957), 357–71.Google Scholar

54. JE to Pepperell, William, November 28, 1751, Works,16:407–14.Google Scholar

55. Psalms 1:3, August 1751, box 13, folder 955, JEC.

56. In part, this represents a common practice of Calvinist theologians who toned down some of the harsher doctrines when they left their studies and entered the meeting-house. Tracy, , Jonathan Edwards, Pastor, 76.Google Scholar William Breitenbach makes a similar point about Calvinist preachers who commonly mitigated their belief in the absolute sovereignty of God that they professed in ministerial circles, but who preached a more tempered version to their congregations that allowed some room for human striving. Breitenbach, William, “The Consistent Calvinism of the New Divinity Movement,” William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 41 (1984), 245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar In his account of the revival in Northampton in the mid 1730s, Edwards described the need for a balance between arousing terror and providing encouragement “And yet those that have been under awakenings have oftentimes plainly stood in need of being encouraged, by being told of the infinite and all-sufficient mercy of God in Christ; and that 'tis God's manner to succeed diligence and to bless his own means, that so awakenings and encouragements, fear and hope may be duly mixed and proportioned to preserve their minds in a just medium between the two extremes of self-flattery and despondence, both which tend to slackness and negligence, and in the end to security.” Edwards, , “Faithful Narrative,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 4, The Great Awakening, ed. Goen, C C., (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972), 167–68.Google Scholar

57. This sermon was preached in August 1751. Edwards was installed as missionary on the second Saturday of that same month, although he had been preaching to the Stock- bridge Indians on a temporary basis since January of that year.

58. Genesis 1:27, August 1751, box 13, folder 934, JEC; 2 Peter 1:19, August 16, 1751, Trask Library.

59. Titus, 1:2, December 1751, box 14, folder 1122, JEC.Google Scholar

60. 2 Peter 1:19, August 16, 1751, Trask Library.

61. 1 Thessalonians 5:5, December 1751, box 14, 1118, JEC

62. Genesis, 1:27, August 1751, box 13, folder 934, JEC.Google Scholar

63. Lecture to the Indian Children, February 1751, Trask Library.

64. Edwards in this sermon explained the meamng of being created in the image of God. “Therefore holiness is the chief thing that is meant by the image of God that therefore this holy image of God is a more excellent [thing] than reason and understanding.” Genesis, 1:27, August 1751, box 13, folder 934, JEC.Google Scholar

65. 2 Peter 1:19, August 16, 1751, Trask Library. He preached a similar sermon at Stock-bridge in January of 1751, Acts 11:12, 13, with more emphasis on the role of the minister and less on pre-Christian history, box 14, folder 1091, JEC.

66. See for example, Luke 19:10, June 1751, box 14, folder 1076, JEC; Titus, 1:2, December 1751, box 14, folder 1122, JECGoogle Scholar; 1 Thessalonians, 5:5, December 1751, box 14, folder 1118, JECGoogle Scholar; Deuteronomy, 32:39, July 1752, box 13, folder 940, JECGoogle Scholar; 1 John, 3:10, March 1756, box 14, folder 1137, JECGoogle Scholar. In so doing, Edwards was using the style of preaching he had learned from his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, and used to good effect in Northampton, in which the minister preached terror from the pulpit, in order “to make the consciences of sinners tender.” Tracy, , Jonathan Edwards, Pastor, 31.Google Scholar See also Minkema, Kenneth, “Editor's Introduction,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14, Sermons and Discourses, 1720–1723, ed. Minkema, Kenneth P., (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996), 14:27–30.Google Scholar

67. Revelation 3:20, February, 1751, box 14, folder 1141, JEC.

68. 2 Corinthians 4:18, August, 1751, box 14, folder 1110, JEC.

69. John, 1:12, February 1751, box 14, folder 1079, JECGoogle Scholar. For other examples of hellfire preaching to the Indians, see Matthew, 7:13–14, January 1751, box 13, folder 1024, JECGoogle Scholar; Hebrews, 9:27, January 1751, box 14, 1127, JECGoogle Scholar; Revelation 1:7, February 1751, box 14, folder 1140; Luke, 16:22, July 1751, box 14, folder 1072, JEC.Google Scholar

70. According to Edwards, the Indians were prone to the sins of drunkenness, lascivious behavior, pride, malice, revenge and quarreling, murder, talking against others, fornication, adultery, laziness, breaking the sabbath, unbelief, disregarding counsels, backsliding, stealing, cheating, lying, sloth and negligence in religion, hatred of those who injur, self-righteousness, “vain jollity and frolicking,” and “hallowing and dancing.” This list of sins is drawn from Genesis 1:27, August 1751; Luke, 16:22, July 1751Google Scholar; 2 Corinthians, 4:18, August 1751Google Scholar; Ecclesiastes, . 9:10, December 1751Google Scholar; Matthew, 16:24, January 1752, box 6, folder 490, JECGoogle Scholar; 1 Peter 4:7, January 1, 1752, box 14, folder 1135, JEC ; and Ephesians, 4:22–24, June 1752, box 14, folder 1112, JECGoogle Scholar. The Northampton sins included licentiousness, night walking, frequenting the tavern, lewd practices, “conventions of both sexes, for mirth and jollity,” indecency of carriage at meetings, contentiousness, jealousy, profaning the sabbath, “feasting your lusts,” absence from meetings, lack of family worship, disobedience to parents, revenge, malice, envy, pride, hatred, worldliness, vain dressing, “wallowing in sensual filthiness,” intemperance, and “self-pollution.” Edwards, , “A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God,” Works, 3:146Google Scholar; and The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19, Sermons and Discourses, 1734–1738, ed. Lesser, M X., (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), 348–49.Google Scholar

71. Relevant sermons dealing with the process of salvation include 1 John, 3:10, February 1751, box 14, folder 1137, JECGoogle Scholar; Revelation 3:20, February 1751, box 14, folder 1141, JEC; John, 1:12, February 1751, box 14, folder 1079, JECGoogle Scholar; Luke, 19:10, June 1751, box 14, folder 1076, JECGoogle Scholar; Acts, 16:9, August 1751, box 14, folder 1093, JECGoogle Scholar; Luke, 24:47, October 1751, box 14, folder 1078, JECGoogle Scholar; Titus, 1:2, December 1751, box 14, folder 1122, JECGoogle Scholar; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25, January 1752, box 14, folder 1105; Matthew, 16:24, January 1752, box 6, folder 490, JECGoogle Scholar; Proverbs 8:31, March 1752, box 13, folder 981, JEC; Ephesians, 4:22–24, June 1752Google Scholar; Matthew, 11:28, August 1752Google Scholar; Matthew, 11:29–30, August 1752, box 13, folder 1031, JECGoogle Scholar; Matthew, 5:8, August 1752, box 13, folder 1021, JECGoogle Scholar; Luke, 14:16, November 1752, box 14, folder 1112, JECGoogle Scholar; 1 Timothy 3:16, February 1753, box 14, folder 1121, JEC; 1 Peter 1:8, October 1753, box 14, folder 1132, JEC.

72. Works, 3:183. “And if you go on in drunkenness and other wickedness the Gospel will be in vain. You will be the devils People and will go to Hell notwithstanding and you will have a worse Place in Hell than those that never heard the Gospel preached.” Acts 16:9, August 1751, box 14, folder 1093. “Take Heed that you dont Refuse to hearken to the Gospel you have heard the Gospel. It will be worse with you than other Indians.” Matthew, 10:14–15, March 1755.Google Scholar See also Luke, 13:7, June 1751.Google Scholar

73. Proverbs 8:31, March 1752, box 13, folder 981, JEC.

74. 2 Corinthians, 5:17, September 1751, box 14, folder 1111, JEC.Google Scholar

75. Edwards' use of images here is remarkably similar to his argument for original sin based on humanity's shared constituency with Adam, but here he asserted for his Indian audience that they shared in Christ's nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17, September 1751, box 14, folder 1111, JEC. “Some things, being most simply considered, are entirely distinct, and very diverse; which yet are so united by the established law of the Creator, in some respects and with regard to some purposes and effects, that by virtue of that establishment it is with them as if they were one. Thus a tree, grown great, and an hundred years old, is one plant with the little sprout, that first came out of the ground, from whence it grew, and has been continued in constant succession; though it's now so exceeding diverse, many thousand times bigger, and of a very different form, and perhaps not one atom the very same: yet God, according to an established law of nature, has in a constant succession communicated to it many of the same qualities, and most important properties, as if it were one.” Works, 3:397–98.Google Scholar

76. 1 Cor. 6:19–20, February 1754, box 14, folder 1143, JEC.

77. Hebrews, 9:27, January 1751, box 14, folder 1127, JEC.Google Scholar

78. Luke, 24:47, October 1751, box 14, folder 1078, JEC.Google Scholar

79. Revelation 3:20, February 1751, box 14, folder 1141, JEC.

80. n.d. fragment from baptismal sermon, Fragment on back of letter dated Dec. 28, 1756, JEC.

81. 2 Peter 1:19, August 16, 1751, Trask Library.

82. Revelation 3:20, February 1751, box 14, folder 1141, JEC. Edwards used the same image in another sermon preached the same month. “Jesus Christ offers himself and his salvation to all them that hear the gospel preached and all good men. Jesus comes to men's doors and knockes and tells them that if they will open the door he and let 'em [him] in He tells 'em He will give Himself and all that He has to them. Christ came down from Heaven and stands and calls at the door and knocks and offers this priviledge to all that will let Him in.” John, 1:12, February 1751, box 14, folder 1079, JEC.Google Scholar

83. Job 9:4, January 1753, box 13, folder 947, JEC.

84. Edwards never endorsed universalism—the idea that all people will eventually be saved—but he did maintain, if only in his Stockbridge sermons and his private notebooks, that the offer of salvation was open to all. McDermott discusses the “hidden” Edwards of the Miscellanies and the lengths to which Edwards went to counter critics of Calvinism who argued that it made God a monster by damning to hell those who had died without receiving word of Jesus Christ. McDermott, , Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion and Non-Christian Faiths (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), especially Part III.Google Scholar

85. Luke, 9:23, August 1753, box 13, folder 1061, JEC.Google Scholar

86. Tracy, , Jonathan Edwards, Pastor 133–35.Google Scholar

87. Revelation 22:5, August 1756, box 14, folder 1149, JEC. A letter from Edwards to former Stockbridge schoolmaster and missionary to the Iroquois, Gideon Hawley, in October of 1756 provides a further glimpse into Edwards' state of mind at this time. He wrote, “God indeed is remarkably frowning upon us everywhere: our enemies get up above us very high and we are brought down very low…. Many things that have happened doubtless make us very contemptible in their ithe enemies'] eyes, and in the eyes of almost all nations of Indians on the continent.” JE to Hawley, Gideon, October 9, 1756, Works, 16:690.Google Scholar

88. The manuscript provides no further hints as to the occasion or date of the lecture. Edwards, “Lecture on the Problem of Drink,” Edwards Papers, Beinecke Library.

89. Indeed, he cautioned his Indian congregants “don't come [to communion] 'till your hearts are changed.” Psalms, 78:36–37, December, 1751, box 2, folder 162, JEC. One of these professions was signed Cornelius and Mary Munneweaunummuck. These sources are written in Edwards' hand and the language is obviously Edwards. However, these were no more (or less) Edwards' creations than the professions he expected his Northampton parishioners to present. Edwards presumed that he should oversee the composition of the professions. Interestingly, the Indian professions are significantly more detailed than the bare minimum he was willing to accept from his Northampton parishioners in the midst of the communion controversy. One of the Indian professions reads as follows: “I hope I do truly find a Heart to give up my self wholly to God according to the Tenour of that Covenant of Grace which was seal'd in my Baptism and to walk in a way of that Obedience to all the Commandments of God which the Covenant of Grace required as long as I live.” Thanks to Kenneth Minkema for this citation. Box 21, folder 1245.Google Scholar See also Hall, , “Editor's Introduction,” Works, 12:62. An even more distant hint of Edwards' lasting influence is a short letter from Hendrick Aupaumut, future chief of the Stockbridge Indians to Timothy Edwards, son of Jonathan. The eighteen-year-old Aupaumut wrote that he “should be thankful if you would lent me a Book. The Authors is your Father—Concerning A[ffections] or if you han't such—wish to have the other mention—the Will.” Hendrick Aupaumut to Timothy Edwards, 1775, typescript at Historical Room, Stockbridge Public Library, Stockbridge, Mass.Google Scholar

90. See lecture on Luke 1:77–79, delivered in New Haven July 1739 and repreached November 1756 at Stockbridge, box 7, folder 541, JEC. The lecture is meant to demonstrate the absolute insufficiency of human understanding to obtain knowledge of divine truths. The piece seems extreme in its emphasis on the arbitrary nature of divine revelation. Preached Edwards, “arbitrary revelation alone can make known what God's arbitrary pleasure is.”

91. Proverbs 3:16, 1751, box 3, folder 199, JEC. (Also preached 1750 at Middletown, Windsor, and Salem Village.) Mark Valeri divides Edwards' economic thought into three phases. The first, lasting until the Northampton revival, followed traditional Puritan teachings. During the second phase, from 1734–43, Edwards preached to the godly, believing that social change must begin with the elect. And finally, from 1744–50, Edwards abandoned the preaching campaign to the saints and resorted instead to seeking external controls. Valeri, “Economic Thought,” 39–40.

92. 1 Corinthians 11:27, January 1751, box 14, folder 1065, JEC.

93. Matthew, 13:3–4, 1740, repreached May of 1756, box 6, folder 463, JEC.Google Scholar

94. Taylor, John, The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, Proposed to Free and Candid Examination (London: J. Wilson, 1740).Google Scholar

95. Taylor, quoted in Works, 3:149.Google Scholar

96. Quoted in Works, 3:149.

97. Works, 3:183.

98. Works, 3:194.

99. Works, 3:185.

100. Works, 3:196.

101. As Gerald McDermott has demonstrated, Edwards followed other authors in his embrace of prisca theologia, the idea that certain central truths of Christian belief had been espoused by the ancient Greeks and other “heathens.” He accounted for these glimpses of “true religion” by suggesting that they were remnants of religious truths revealed through God's prophets. Geographical and chronological distance from the original source of revelation accounted for the corruption of true religion. No prophets had appeared on American shores, and the written gospel had only recently arrived, and so the heathens of America were in even worse straits than the heathen of ancient Rome, who at least benefited from a geographical proximity to events of direct, divine intervention. McDermott, , Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods, chapter 5.Google Scholar Edwards presented this logic in his sermon to the Indians at the treaty in Albany. 2 Peter, 1:19, August 16, 1751, ANTS.Google Scholar

102. Works, 3:151.

103. Edwards' argument for the common constituency of all humanity in Adam can be found in Works, 3:389–412.

104. Emphasis in the original. Works, 3:424.