In this document of Mr Edwards's early opinions, we have said, that, amidst all their horrors, there are many intimations of the natural fineness and sen sibility of his spirit. The following passages are remarkably beautiful, and have about them a tone almost of pastoral, or rather scriptural poetry : " Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looked up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious ma jesty and grace of God, that I know not how to ex press God's excellency, his wisdom, his pu rity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds and blue sky ; in the grass, flowers, trees ; in the water, and all nature ; which used greatly to fix my mind. I of ten used to sit and view the moon for a long time, and so, in the day-time, spent much time in view ing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things ; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer I used to be a person uncommonly terrified with thunder ; and it used to strike me with terror, when I saw a thunder-storm rising ; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God at the first appearance of a thunder-storm, and used to take an opportunity at such times to fix myself to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder," &c. These confessions have let us already into the inside of Edwards's mind, and there is no need to return upon them, while we pursue the ac count of his studies, life, and writings. There is a poetry and grandeur in some of his passages of this sort, which show a moral sublimity of genius in the midst of enthusiastic reveries, often, in inferior minds, more productive of dark and disorderly sentiments, than of sound and elevated piety. When he comes, however, to reason on his theological or philosophi cal tenets, he is no longer either an enthusiast or a poet ; for he then proceeds with all the pertinaci ty and ingenuity of a hard-headed special-pleading lawyer.
He went young to Yule College, and, so early as his thirteenth year, had read Locke On the Hu man Understanding, with great delight and pro fit. He had a great taste for natural philosophy, but the moral and divine sciences were his chief object; and after a long residence at college, dur ing which time he prepared himself assiduously for the ministry, he was in due form licensed to preach. In August 1722, he was invited to preach to the English Presbyterians at New York, where he con tinued with approbation above eight months ; 'but as this society was too small, to maintain a preacher, he returned, in the year 1723; to his father's house at Connecticut, where, for some time, he applied to his studies with much industry and perseverance ; and this severe application became habitual to him, although he was of a delicate constitution. In the spring of 1724, having taken his master's degree, he was 'pointed tutor of Yule College, being then in his twenty-first year; an office which, not withstanding his youth, he filled for two years with great success and reputation. In September 1726, he received an invitation from the people of North ampton in Connecticut, to become assistant to his mother's father, Mr Stoddard, to whom he was ordained colleague in his twenty-fourth year, and continued pastor of this congregation till the year 1750. During this time be married, had many children, and wrote several pious and useful trea tises, chiefly suggested by the events of the times; such as his " Faithful Narrative of the of God, in the Conversion of many Hundred Souls in Northampton," (for these, as his biographer • 'tells us, were remarkable times for the out-pouring of God's Spirit) ; but particularly a sensible and use ful treatise on Religious Affections, in which he en deavoured to restrain the extravagance and fana ticism into which, under these strong impressions, the religion of his flock was but too apt to run. He was a most faithful and conscientious minister, but at last fell under the odium of his people, from no other cause but his anxiety for their spiritual interests. They appear, indeed, to have been a very stiff-necked generation, full of absurd whimsical va garies on the subject of religion, but, at the same time, with very little of its spirit in their lives and conversations. They had all a voice in the elec tion and continuance of their clergyman, and they were very ready to seize any opportunity to show their power. Mr Edwards discovered that some li' centious books had got among the youth of his con. gregation ; a fact as to which he wished some inves tigation to take place ; and this was the first point upon which his people flew off from him. There was afterwards another point about the administration of the Holy Communion. His grandfather, Mr Stod dard, it seems, had a notion, that the administra tion of the sacrament was a moment which the Divine Spirit was much disposed to seize for the conversion of sinners ; and that, therefore, the most notorious sinners were to be, without scruple, admit ted to that holy ordinance, in the hope that this con version would fall upon them. The result of this precious notion was, that the utmost licentiousness, mingled as it was with wild religious fancies floating in every began to prevail among the people. When Mr Edwards, on his grandfather's death, got the entire charge, he endeavoured to make a change in this particular. But the outcry against him was loud and overbearing. Even his brethren of the clergy tamely gave way to it ; and this excellent, able, and pious clergyman was thus driven away by the misguided flock, for whom he had laboured assidu ously for twenty-four years ; and at an advanced period of life, with a wife and a large family, was thrown upon the world, and the care of Providence.
His next position was at Stockbridge, in the western part of Massuchusetts Bay, where he was put at the head of mission for converting the In dians. He was not enabled to do much as a mis sionary, but here he. had a great deal of leisure, which he employed in writing his principal works. It was now he completed his chief treatise, on the subject of free-will ; concerning the rapid execution of which, we have the following information in the Reverend Sir Henry Moncreiff Wellwood's very in teresting Life of Dr Erskine.—" It was not till the month of July 1752, that he appears to have resum ed his studies on the subject of free-will; for on the 7th of that month he writes Dr Erskine, that he hoped soon to be at leisure to resume his design;' and gives him another sketch of the plan of his book, in which, though there be nothing new, there is more detail than in that which he had formerly sent him. Whatever opinion (continues this able writer) may be held, with regard to Mr,Edwards's argument, it must appear astonishing to those who are capable of appreciating the difficulty of his subject, that, in nine months ftom the date of this letter (on the 14th of April 1753), he could write Dr Erskine, that he had almost finished the first draught of what he ori ginally intended; though he was under the necessi ty of delaying the publication till he knew the re sult of proposals which he had circulated, for print ing his book by subscription. His book was pub
fished in 1754, and though he had made some pro. gress in preparing his materials before'he left North-' ampton, was certainly written, and nearly completed, the time ascertained by the two letters re ferred to, and must be admitted to convey a very* striking idea, both of his mental resources, and of his literary ardour." In 1757, on the Mr Aaron Burr, Mr Ed wards was chosen President of New Jersey College. He had been here, however, a very short time, when he was carried off, on March 22, 1758, in the fifty fifth year of his age, by the small-pox. This disease was, at that time, raging in the neighbourhood. Mr Edwards, who had never had it, proposed to be inoculated, which his physicians approved of. He had the disease favourably, but a secondary fever set in, and, by reason of a number of pustules in his throat, the obstruction was such that he could not swallow the necessary medicines, and the fatal result was what we have stated. The character of Mr Ed wards is that of a very primitive, self-mortified, sim ple, and amiable man, and affords a strong proof of the power of genuine Christian piety upon the heart in spite of the most dark and awful tenets. He was solely occupied with his professional duties and his theological studies, insomuch, as is mentioned with inimitable simplicity by the author of his life, " that he was less acquainted with most of his temporal af fairs than many of his neighbours, and seldom knew when and by whom his forage for winter was gathered in, or how many milk-kine he had ; whence his table was furnished," &c. Mrs Edwards, however, a most valuable and sensible woman, fully supplied de fects in these particulars. We must quote another passage from this piece of biography, which is equal in simplicity, though by no means in any thing else, to some of the exquisite biographies of Isaac Walton. After being informed that he did not permit dancing (he has a sermon against that amusement), we are told that " he allowed not his children to be from home after nine o'clock at night, when they went abroad to see their friends and companions ; neither were they allowed to sit up much after that time, in his own house, when any came to make them a visit. If any gentleman desired acquaintance with his daughters, after handsomely introducing himself, by properly consulting the parents, he was allowed all pro per opportunity for it, and a room and ire, if needed ; but must not intrude on the proper hours of rest and sleep, nor the religion and order of the family." Mr Edwards comes nearer Bishop Butler as a philosophical divine than any other theologian with whom we are acquainted. His style, like But ler's, is very much that of a man• aloud. In both these authors the train of • * in their own minds is more clearly exhibited to us than, perhaps, by any other writer; while they show' us, with great truth and distinctness, what their no tions are, and how they came by them, with very little concern about the form of expression in which they are brought out. Butler, however, had a lar ger mind than Edwards, and was by no means so much of a special pleader. He may be, therefore, less acute, but he is more comprehensive, and gives fairer play to every opposing argument. We do not mean here to enter into any of Edwards'S specula tions. Both on the subject of Original Sin, and on the Freedom of the Will, he seems to us to unite a great deal too closely the views which originated, as we have seen, in no small degree, amidst his early reveries, with the infallible discoveries of divine reve lation. Our notion is, that in all discussions on such subjects which have hitherto appeared, the specula fists have forgotten how little a part either of the his tory or the nature of man we are, in fact, acquainted with ; and how ready we ever are, in laying the foun dations of our theories, to place a tortoide beneath the elephant. The whole difficulty, for instance, on the freedom of the will, turns upon a puzzle in the idea of cause and effect. Perhaps this idea is far ' from being precise in our minds (Mr Edwards uses it very loosely in his speculations), and yet we do not situ le, in our reasonings upon it, to draw the most positive inferences from the assumptions which we y down. We suspect, for our parts, that the true and accurate notion of causation always in volves the idea of volition, and, in that supposition, to ask for the cause of volition itself is absurd. It may be very true, that we cannot will to do any thing without previous thought or motive; neither can we think without previous existence. But is our existence the cause of our thinking? Just as much as our thinking is the cause of our willing. We are far, however, from wishing to add our own crude conceptions to those which have been piled up upon this subject from the beginning of time to the pre sent hour, without, we believe, doing the slightest service to the cause of moral and religious truth, or doing any thing, in short, except affording an ex ercise for ingenuity, and too often a handle for the most uncharitable rancour and presumptuous absur dity. Mr Edwards, with all his great powers, has, accordingly, we apprehend, done but little good to the world,—we mean as a phil ,—for he did much good in his own day, living the life of a zealous and faithful Christian minister. But it is " thus we play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock . us." Exalted above all the folly of human wisdom, the spirit of this truly good and pious man is now, it may be, disposed to regard with some such sen.. timent many of his own former most severe and la borious speculations, which were carried on in the serious belief, that if " the knots of Calvinism were trimmed off, or its doctrines, in the whole length and breadth of them, were not rigidly maintained, a man could nowhere set his foot down with consistency and safety, short of Deism, or even Atheism itself, or ra ther universal Scepticism !" Edwards's works consist of several volumes of sermons, printed at various times, and often reprint.. ed in this country as well as in America. Besides these, he wrote, 1. A Treatise concerning Religious Affections, 1746, 8vo. 2. An account of the Lye of the Reverend David Brainerd, 1749, 8vo. S. An Inquiry into the Qualifications for full Communion in the 'Visible Church, 1749; intended as a vindication of his principles in the matter which occasioned his dismission from Northampton. 4. A careful and strict Inquiry into the Modern Nation V that Free dom of Will, which is supposed to be essential to Moral Agency, 1754. 5. The great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin defended; containing a Reply to the Objec tions of Dr. John Taayylor, 1758. 6. A iliseory of Re demption. 7. MiJrcallaieeous Observations an Important Theological S 'eds. London, 1798. 8. .rks on Important 1 heolagicalControversies. Ibid. 1796. Some of these were posthumous, as were a few other tracts of less importance. written by him.