The Emergence of Modern Protestantism 1725 - 1850

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The Emergence of Modern Protestantism1725 - 1850
Lecture 2 The Great Awakening - Edwards
Dr. Dave Doughty
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Outline

• The Problem
• The Great Awakening
• Frelinghuysen and Tennent
• Edwards

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The Problem The Halfway Covenant

• According to Covenant Theology, baptism is a sign
  and seal of the covenant of grace, the ingrafting
  into Christ, and a symbol of admission to the
  visible church (just as circumcision was).
• Because the covenant with Abraham was also to his
  seed, children were circumcised to indicate their
  participation in the covenant
• Now, as then, the children of believers also
  participate in the covenant, and are members
  (albeit non-communicant) of the visible church,
  and are baptized as infants as a symbol of this
  (just as previously they were circumcised).
• As children get older, at some point they are
  required to make a profession of faith to partake
  of the Lords Supper (i.e. become communicant
  members).
• What if they dont? Should their children be
  baptized (if the parents request it)?

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The Essential Question

• Thus, to the Reformed Baptist, the status quo is
  no longer believers and their children being in
  covenant with God, but to the individual man,
  woman, boy, or girl who is confronted with the
  gospel to believe, repent, and be baptized.

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The Church Decides and wimps out

• In the 17th century, this problem became acute in
  the second and third generations.
• These adults were known as half-way covenanters
  and typically wanted their children baptized.
• General practice had been to require one
  believing parent.
• Cambridge synod 1646-1648 took no decisive action
  (WCF was being written)
• In 1657 a group of seventeen ministers took the
  liberal view
• In 1666 seventy delegates gathered at First
  Church in Boston liberals won by 7-1.
• Became a significant factor in the decline of the
  churches, which eventually resulted in the Great
  Awakening

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The Great Awakening

• Roughly at same time as Pietism on continent,
  Wesleyan revival in England
• Started in 1726 in Raritan Valley of NJ
• Dutch Reformed
• Theodore Frelinghuysen
• Spread throughout the colonies
• Other prominent names Tennent, Edwards,
  Whitefield
• Emphasis on personal conversion!

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The Great Awakening (non-friendly view)

• Stressed the emotional side of religion.
• This weakened institutional authority
  regeneration was not certified by church, but by
  ones own emotional conviction.
• It bypassed doctrinal orthodoxy the converts
  immediate sense of participating in spiritual
  reality rendered intellectual formulations less
  significant.
• It made religion more popular it is easier to
  experience emotional excitement than rational
  understanding.
• It made religion more democratic by emphasizing
  the individual experience of conversion, and the
  equal capacity of everyone, child or adult, rich
  or poor, ignorant or wise, to be touched by the
  inner experience of grace.
• It made religion trans-colonial breakdown of
  distinctions between church and creed, it
  encouraged the proliferation of sects which led
  to vagueness in doctrine, laxness in discipline,
  and faded into general religious indifference. It
  gave rise to a community organized in pursuit of
  secular values.

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Frelinghuysen from a sermon

• How happens it then, that this sacrament is so
  lightly extended to all who but ask it, and bear
  the name of members, though often as ignorant as
  heathen, openly living in gross sins, and not
  marked by the least morality not to speak of
  true godliness? With what reason may we exclaim,
  with the holy Polycarp O good God! To what evil
  times hast thou preserved me! For it has now
  come to this, that many may be found who bear the
  name of the Reformed, and yet are ignorant of the
  Reformed doctrines, and oppose, calumniate, and
  practically deny them. I have three times
  administered the Lords supper and urged this
  point, that the unconverted may not approach, and
  that the wicked must, according to our doctrine,
  be debarred. But what murmuring has this
  excited? How many tongues, set on fire of hell,
  have uttered their slanders?

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Tennent The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry

• Starts from passage in Mark 634 Sheep not
  having a shepherd
• Pharisee-Teachers, having no Experience of a
  special Work of the Holy Ghost, upon their own
  Souls, are therefore neither inclined to, nor
  fitted for, Discoursing, frequently, clearly, and
  pathetically, upon such important Subjects. The
  Applications of their Discourses, is either
  short, or indistinct and general. They
  difference not the Precious from the Vile, and
  divide not to every Man his Portion, according to
  the Apostolical Direction to Timothy. No! they
  carelessly offer a common Mess to their people,
  and leave it to them, to divide it among
  themselves, as they see fit.But sometimes they
  do worse, by misapplying the Word through
  Ignorance, or Anger. They often strengthen the
  Hands of the Wicked, by promising him Life. They
  comfort People, before they convince them, sow
  before they plowThese fooling Builders do but
  strengthen Mens carnal Security, by their soft,
  selfish cowardly Discourses. They have not the
  Courage, or Honesty, to thrust the Nail of Terror
  into sleeping Souls

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Tennent - Unconverted Ministry

• All the Doings of unconverted men, not
  proceeding from the Principles of Faith, Love,
  and a new Nature, nor being directed to the
  divine Glory as their highest End, but flowing
  from, and tending to Self, as their Principle and
  End are doubtless damnably Wicked in their
  Manner of Performance, and do deserve the Wrath
  and Curse of a Sin-avenging God Is a blind Man
  fit to be a Guide in a very dangerous Way? Is a
  dead man fit to bring others to Life? A mad Man
  fit to give Counsel in a Matter of Life and
  Death? Is a possessed Man fit to cast out
  Devils? A Rebel, an Enemy to God, fit to be sent
  on an Embassy of Peace, to bring Rebels into a
  State of Friendship with God? A Captive bound in
  the Massy Chains of Darkness and Guilt, a proper
  Person to set others at Liberty? A Leper fit to
  be a good Physician?

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Results

• Some of this did not go over big resulting in a
  split - Old Side New Side
• The key issue the relation between doctrinal
  orthodoxy and experimental (or experiential)
  knowledge.
• The New Siders formed a separate presbytery, then
  synod (1745)
• Questioned the value of strict orthodoxy in the
  absence of personal religious experience.
• Stressed the need for educational, doctrinal and
  experiential qualifications for the ministry
• Took a stand in support of the Adopting Act of
  1729 (still on PCA web site)
• And do therefore agree, that all the Ministers of
  this Synod, or that shall hereafter be admitted
  into this Synod, shall declare their agreement in
  and approbation of the Confession of Faith with
  the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the assembly
  of Divines at Westminster, as being in all the
  essential and necessary articles, good forms of
  sound words and systems of Christian doctrine
  and do also adopt the said Confession and
  Catechisms as the confession of our faith.
• By 1758 New Side had grown from 22 ministers to
  73, and the Old Side had stagnated merged but
  New Side had won

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Jonathan Edwards, New England Theology, The
Awakening

• He that would know the workings of the New
  England mind in the middle of the Eighteenth
  century, and the throbbings of its heart, must
  give his days and nights to the study of Jonathan
  Edwards. George Bancroft (19th cent. historian)
• Born 1703
• Graduated Yale 1720

1727 ordained as junior minister (to his
grandfather Stoddard) in Northampton senior
pastor in 1729 1731 Great and Thursday Lecture
in Boston
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God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the
Greatness of Mans Dependence upon Him, in the
Whole of It

• I. There is an absolute and universal dependence
  of the redeemed on God.
• First, the redeemed have all their good of God.
• Tis of God that we have our Redeemer it is God
  that has provided a Saviour for us
• And as it is God that gives, so tis God that
  accepts the Saviour.
• Tis of God that Christ becomes ours, that we are
  brought to him and are united to him it is of
  God that we receive faith to close with him, that
  we have an interest in him. Eph 28, For by
  grace ye are saved, through faith and that not
  of yourselves it is the gift of God.
• Tis God that pardons and justifies, and delivers
  from going down to hell
• Second, the redeemed have all their good through
  God.
• Third, the redeemed have all their good in God.

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Of GodGrace

• The redeemed have all
• Of the grace of God
• It was of mere grace that God gave us his only
  begotten Son.
• The grace of God in bestowing this gift is most
  free. It was what God was under no obligation to
  bestow he might have rejected fallen man, as he
  did the fallen angels. It was what we never did
  any thing to merit. Twas given while we were yet
  enemies.
• And tis from mere grace that the benefits of
  Christ are applied to such and such particular
  persons.
• Of the power of God

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God Glorified

• II. God is glorified in the work of redemption by
  this means, viz. by there being so great and
  universal a dependence of the redeemed on him.
• We have the greater occasion to take notice of
  Gods all sufficiency, when all our sufficiency
  is thus every way of him. We have the more
  occasion to contemplate him as an infinite good,
  and as the fountain of all good.
• By the creatures being thus wholly and
  universally dependent on God, it appears that the
  creature is nothing and that God is all.
• If we had our dependence partly on God and partly
  on something else, mans respect would be divided
  to shoe different things on which he had
  dependence.

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The Awakening in Northhampton

• Started in 1733-1734
• Edwards was preaching a closely reasoned sermon
  series on justification by faith
• People began to be awakened to their spiritual
  condition.
• About 300 people converted
• Well documented - in 1737 he wrote A Faithful
  Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the
  Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton,
  and Neighboring Towns and Villages

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A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of
God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in
Northampton, and Neighboring Towns and Villages -
1737

• Presently after this, there began to appear a
  remarkable religious concern at a little village
  belonging to the congregation called Pascommuck,
  where a few families were settled, at about three
  miles distance from the main body of the town. At
  this place, a number of persons seemed to be
  savingly wrought upon. In the April following,
  anno 1734, there happened a very sudden and awful
  death of a young man in the bloom of his youth
  who being violently seized with a pleurisy, and
  taken immediately very delirious, died in about
  two days which (together with what was preached
  publicly on that occasion) much affected many
  young people. This was followed with another
  death of a young married woman, who had been
  considerably exercised in mind, about the
  salvation of her soul, before she was ill, and
  was in great distress in the beginning of her
  illness but seemed to have satisfying evidences
  of God's mercy to her, before her death so that
  she died very full of comfort, in a most earnest
  and moving manner warning and counselling others.
  This seemed to contribute to render solemn the
  spirits of many young persons and there began
  evidently to appear more of a religious concern
  on people's minds.

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A Faithful Narrativedry bones reborn

• Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern
  about the great things of religion and the
  eternal world, became universal in all parts of
  the town, and among persons of all degrees, and
  all ages. The noise amongst the dry bones waxed
  louder and louder all other talk but about
  spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown by
  all the conversation, in all companies and upon
  all occasions, was upon these things only, unless
  so much as was necessary for people carrying on
  their ordinary secular business. Other discourse
  than of the things of religion would scarcely be
  tolerated in any company. The minds of people
  were wonderfully taken off from the world, it was
  treated amongst us as a thing of very little
  consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly
  business, more as a part of their duty, than from
  any disposition they had to it the temptation
  now seemed to lie on that hand, to neglect
  worldly affairs too much, and to spend too much
  time in the immediate exercise of religion. This
  was exceedingly misrepresented by reports that
  were spread in distant parts of the land, as
  though the people here had wholly thrown by all
  worldly business, and betook themselves entirely
  to reading and praying, and such like religious
  exercises.

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A Faithful Narrativevisitors

• When this work first appeared and was so
  extraordinarily carried on amongst us in the
  winter, others round about us seemed not to know
  what to make of it. Many scoffed at and ridiculed
  it and some compared what we called conversion,
  to certain distempers. But it was very observable
  of many, who occasionally came amongst us from
  abroad with disregardful hearts, that what they
  saw here cured them of such a temper of mind.
  Strangers were generally surprised to find things
  so much beyond what they had heard, and were wont
  to tell others that the state of the town could
  not be conceived of by those who had not seen it.
  The notice that was taken of it by the people who
  came to town on occasion of the court that sat
  here in the beginning of March, was very
  observable. And those who came from the
  neighborhood to our public lectures were for the
  most part remarkably affectedThere were many
  instances of persons who came from abroad on
  visits, or on business, who had not been long
  here, before, to all appearances, they were
  savingly wrought upon, and partook of that shower
  of divine blessing which God rained down here,
  and went home rejoicing till at length the same
  work began evidently to appear and prevail in
  several other towns in the county.

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A Faithful Narrativedivine wrath

• Many times persons under great awakenings were
  concerned, because they thought they were not
  awakened, but miserable, hard-hearted, senseless,
  sottish creatures still, and sleeping upon the
  brink of hell. The sense of the need they have to
  be awakened, and of their comparative hardness,
  grows upon them with their awakenings so that
  they seem to themselves to be very senseless,
  when indeed most sensible. There have been some
  instances of persons who have had as great a
  sense of their danger and misery as their natures
  could well subsist under, so that a little more
  would probably have destroyed them and yet they
  have expressed themselves much amazed at their
  own insensibility and sottishness at such an
  extraordinary time.
• Persons are sometimes brought to the borders of
  despair, and it looks as black as midnight to
  them a little before the day dawns in their
  souls. Some few instances there have been, of
  persons who have had such a sense of God's wrath
  for sin, that they have been overborne and made
  to cry out under an astonishing sense of their
  guilt, wondering that God suffers such guilty
  wretches to live upon earth, and that he doth not
  immediately send them to hell.

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A Faithful Narrativeeyes opened

• It was very wonderful to see how persons
  affections were sometimes moved-when God did as
  it were suddenly open their eyes, and let into
  their minds a sense of the greatness of His
  grace, the fullness of Christ, and His readiness
  to save-after having been broken with
  apprehensions of divine wrath, and sunk into an
  abyss, under a sense of guilt which they were
  ready to think was beyond the mercy of God. Their
  joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it
  were to leap, so that they have been ready to
  break forth into laughter, tears often at the
  same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling
  a loud weeping. Sometimes they have not been able
  to forbear crying out with a loud voice,
  expressing their great admiration. In some, even
  the view of the glory of God's sovereignty, in
  the exercises of His grace, has surprised the
  soul with such sweetness, as to produce the same
  effects. I remember an instance of one, who,
  reading something concerning God's sovereign way
  of saving sinners, as being self-moved-having no
  regard to men's own righteousness as the motive
  of His grace, but as magnifying Himself and
  abasing man, or to that purpose-felt such a
  sudden rapture of joy and delight in the
  consideration of it and yet then he suspected
  himself to be in a Christless condition, and had
  been long in great distress for fear that God
  would not have mercy on him.

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - 1741

• Originally preached by Jonathan Edwards in his
  own church, then, one month later, in Enfield
  Connecticut, July 8, 1741
• Text Deuteronomy 3235 Their Foot Shall
  Slide in Due Time
• The verbal expressions of conviction for sin
  became so loud, in fact, that it seems that
  Edwards was not able to complete the sermon. Why
  the response of wails and cries? It wasn't
  because of his verbal style-which was quite
  staid, and certainly far less dramatic than
  George Whitfield's. It was because of the
  content.

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Sinners in the Hands

• What is not in the sermon
• The biblical basis for this picture of hell
• The good news of how sinners can escape
• Isaac Watts (famous pastor and hymn-writer When
  I Survey), a contemporary of Whitefield and
  Edwards, penned on his copy of the sermon "A most
  terrible that is, terrifying sermon, which
  should have had a word of Gospel at the end of
  it, though I think 'tis all true."
• George Marsden writes, Building on the widely
  held premise of New Englanders that hell was as
  genuinely a reality as China, Edwards hoped to
  awaken people to what that awful reality must
  mean to them here and now
• Edwards wanted his hearers to know hell, not
  just know of it.

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• The Point
• There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any
  one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of
  God.

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SinnersAre NOW the objects of Gods wrath

• IV. They are now the objects of that very same
  anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the
  torments of hell and the reason why they dont
  go down to hell at each moment, is not because
  God, in whose power they are, is not then very
  angry with them as angry as he is with many of
  those miserable creatures that he is now
  tormenting in hell, and do there feel and bear
  the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great
  deal more angry with great numbers that are now
  on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now
  in this congregation, that it may be are at ease
  and quiet, than he is with many of those that are
  now in the flames of hell.

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Sinnersare awaited by the devil

• V. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and
  seize them as his own, at what moment God shall
  permit him. They belong to him he has their
  souls in his possession, and under his dominion.
  The Scripture represents them as his goods,
  Luke 1121. The devils watch them they are ever
  by them, at their right hand they stand waiting
  for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their
  prey, and expect to have it, but are for the
  present kept back if God should withdraw his
  hand, by which they are restrained, they would in
  one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old
  serpent is gaping for them hell opens its mouth
  wide to receive them and if God should permit
  it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

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Sinnerscan go to hell in a moment

• VII. It is no security to wicked men for one
  moment, that there are no visible means of death
  at hand. Tis no security to a natural man, that
  he is now in health, and that he dont see which
  way he should now immediately go out of the world
  by any accident, and that there is no visible
  danger in any respect in his circumstances. The
  manifold and continual experience of the world in
  all ages, shows that this is no evidence that a
  man is not on the very brink of eternity, and
  that the next step wont be into another world.

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Sinnersare in a dreadful state

• So that thus it is, that natural men are held in
  the hand of God over the pit of hell they have
  deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced
  to it and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger
  is as great towards them as to those that are
  actually suffering the executions of the
  fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have
  done nothing in the least to appease or abate
  that anger, neither is God in the least bound by
  any promise to hold em up one moment the devil
  is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the
  flames gather and flash about them, and would
  fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up the
  fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to
  break out and they have no interest in any
  mediator, there are no means within reach that
  can be any security to them. In short, they have
  no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that
  preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary
  will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of
  an incensed God.

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Sinnersare awaiting a flood

• Tis true, that judgment against your evil works
  has not been executed hitherto the floods of
  Gods vengeance have been withheld but your
  guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing,
  and you are every day treasuring up more wrath
  the waters are continually rising and waxing more
  and more mighty and there is nothing but the
  mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back
  that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard
  to go forward if God should only withdraw his
  hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly
  open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and
  wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable
  fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent
  power

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Sinners are hanging by a thread

• The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much
  as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect,
  over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
  provoked his wrath towards you burns like fire
  he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but
  to be cast into the fire he is of purer eyes
  than to bear to have you in his sight you are
  ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as
  the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You
  have offended him infinitely more than ever a
  stubborn rebel did his prince and yet tis
  nothing but his hand that holds you from falling
  into the fire every moment tis to be ascribed
  to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the
  last night that you was suffered to awake again
  in this world, after you closed your eyes to
  sleep and there is no other reason to be given
  why you have not dropped into hell since you
  arose in the morning, but that Gods hand has
  held you up there is no other reason to be given
  why you hant gone to hell since you have sat
  here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes
  by your sinful wicked manner of attending his
  solemn worship yea, there is nothing else that
  is to be given as a reason why you dont this
  very moment drop down into hell.

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Sinnershave an opportunity

• And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a
  day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy
  wide open, and stands in the door calling and
  crying with a loud voice to poor sinners a day
  wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing
  into the kingdom of God many are daily coming
  from the east, west, north and south many that
  were very lately in the same miserable condition
  that you are in, are in now an happy state, with
  their hearts filled with love to him that has
  loved them and washed them from their sins in his
  own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of
  God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a
  day! To see so many others feasting, while you
  are pining and perishing! To see so many
  rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you
  have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl
  for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one
  moment in such a condition?

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A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections - 1746

• Because many who, in the late extraordinary
  Season, appeared to have great religious
  Affections, did not manifest a right Temper of
  Mind, and run into many errorsand because the
  high Affections of many seem to be so soon come
  to nothingHence religious Affections in general
  are grown out of Credit, with great Numbers, as
  though true Religion did not at all consist in
  them.
• Herein appears the subtilty of Satan. While he
  saw that Affections were much in Vogue, knowing
  the greater Part of the Land were not versed in
  such Things, and had not had much Experience of
  great religious Affections, to enable them to
  judge well of em, and distinguish between true
  and false then he knew he could best play his
  Game, by sowing Tares amongst the Wheat.

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False Religious Affections

• Tis no Sign that Affections have the Nature of
  true Religion, or that they have not, that they
  gave great Effects on the body.
• there is nothing of it in this falsely supposed
  Leading of the Spirit, which has been now spoken
  of but also shows the Difference between
  spiritual Understanding and all Kinds of Forms of
  Enthusiasm, all imaginary Sights of God and
  Christ and Heaven, all supposed Witnessing of the
  Spirit, and Testimonies of the Love of God by
  immediate inward Suggestion, and all Impressions
  of future Events, and immediate Revelations of
  any secret Facts whatsoever None of these things
  consist in a divine Sense and Relish of the
  Heart, of the holy Beauty and Excellency of
  divine Things nor have they any Thing to do with
  such a Sense, but all consist in Impressions in
  the Head.

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Edwards Final Word on Affection

• Christian Practice is the most proper Evidence
  of the gracious Sincerity of Professors, to
  themselves and others and the chief of all the
  Marks of Grace, the Sign of Signs, and Evidence
  of Evidences, that which seals and crowns all
  other Signs. I had rather have the Testimony of
  my Conscience, that I have such a Saying of my
  supreme Judge on my Side, as that, John 1421.
  He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them, he
  it is that loveth me than the Judgement, and
  fullest Approbation, of all the wise, sound and
  experienced DivinesBut yet this is the chief and
  most proper Evidence. There may be several good
  Evidences that a Tree is a Fig-Tree But the
  highest and most proper Evidence of it, is that
  it actually bears figs.

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Edwards and Communion Who Should Partake?

• Edwards grandfather and predecessor Stoddard,
  wanted to allow virtually everyone to take
  communion (and eventually did)
• General practice was if your parents were
  Christians, you attended, and refrained from
  blatantly ungodly behavior, you could partake
• Edwards tried to fence the table
• Cost him his job, in 1750

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A Humble Inquiry into the Rules of the Word of
God, Concerning the Qualifications Requisite to a
Complete Standing and Full Communion in the
Visible Church - 1749

• From the preface"My appearing in this public
  manner on that side of the question, which is
  defended in the following sheets, will probably
  be surprising to many, as tis well known, that
  Mr. Stoddard, so great and eminent a divine, and
  my venerable predecessor in the pastoral office
  over the church in Northampton, as well as my own
  grandfather, publicly and strenuously appeared in
  opposition to the doctrine here maintained. But
  the difficulties and uneasiness on my mind
  increasing as I become more studied in divinity
  and as I improved in experience this brought me
  to closer diligence and care to search the
  scriptures, and more impartially to examine and
  weigh the arguments of my grandfather and such
  other authors as I could get on his side of the
  question. By which means, after long searching,
  pondering, viewing, and reviewing, I gained
  satisfaction, became fully settled in the opinion
  I now maintain as in the discourse here offered
  to public view, and dared to proceed no further
  in a practice and administration inconsistent
  therewith."

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A Humble Inquiry

• PART I THE QUESTION STATED AND EXPLAINED
• The main question I would consider, and for the
  negative of which, I would offer some arguments
  in the following discourse, is this whether,
  according to the rules of Christ, any ought to be
  admitted to the communion and privileges of
  members of the visible church of Christ in
  complete standing, but such as are in profession,
  and in the eye of the church's Christian
  judgment, godly or gracious persons?

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Edwards last years

• In 1751 Edwards went to Stockbridge Mass
• Mission to the Housatonic Indians
• Preached at least 200 sermons to the Indians
• His interpreter was John Wauwaumpequunaunt
• Christ had died for the elect of all nations
• Wordly power and wealth were no signs of election
• A productive seven years
• Became president of Princeton in 1757
• Died one year later

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A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the modern
prevailing Notions of the Freedom of Will, Which
is supposed to be essential to Moral Agency,
Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise
and Blame - 1754

• In such a situation where the deeds of men are
  not caused God must have little else to do, but
  to mend broken links as well as he can, and be
  rectifying his disjointed frame and disordered
  movements, in the best manner the case will
  allow. The supreme Lord of all things must needs
  be under great and miserable disadvantages, in
  governing the world which he has made, and has
  the care of, through his being utterly unable to
  find out things of chief importance, which
  hereafter shall befall his system which if he
  did by know, he might make seasonable provision
  for.

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Next Week

• The Great Awakening Whitefield, Wesley and
  Franklin