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The Beginnings of Arminianism in New England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1912

Francis Albert Christie
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Extract

In his Narrative of Surprizing Conversions, Edwards wrote: “About this time began the great noise that was in this part of the country, about Arminianism.” The context shows that the time in mind was about 1734. On the basis of this and similar allusions and because of Sereno Dwight's comments and Whitefield's invectives, it has been believed that before the Great Awakening the Congregational churches and ministers had to some degree adopted Arminian views. An investigation of this matter may contribute to the spiritual history of New England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the American Society of Church History , Volume 3 , March 1912 , pp. 151 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1912

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References

page 156 note 1 This pertinacity means that the vote not to examme was reconsidered at a second meeting and reaffirmed at a third.

page 156 note 2 Stiles comments on Winthrop, Diary, ii., 334: “H e was a firm Friend to Revelation in opposition to Deism. … I only wish that evangelical Doctors of Grace had made a greater figure in his ideal system of Divinity.” Stiles knew him in the second half of the century when Deism was discussed. The words allow us to infer only that Winthrop had some originality of theological construction not based on traditional theological sources. He was a layman and a scientist.

page 163 note 1 Cf (1) Enoch Pratt, A Comprehensive History of Eastham, Wellfleet, and Orleans, 1844.

(2) A Short and Plain Relation of Some Transactions in the South Church at Eastham. (This deals with Osborn's settlement.)

(3) Additional Proposals for Convictions of the Churches, Dec. 3, 1729.

(4) Samuel Osborn, The Case and Complaint of M.S.O., etc., Boston, 1743.

page 167 note 1 The third opponent of Edwards in Dwight's enumeration, p. 307, must, in view of page 434, be the autocratic and arrogant Israel Williams, “the monarch of Hampshire,” chief among “the river-gods” in the parlance of the time.