EDWARDS, JONATHAN, an eminent American di vine, was born at Windsor in Connecticut in October 1703 ; and entered Yale College in 1716, where he re ceived the degree of bachelor of arts, before lie was fully seventeen years of age. He gave very early indi cations of his genius for abstract enquiries ; and in his thirteenth year, used to take the noun,( &Fight in study ing Locke's Essay on the Iltnnati Understanding. l le made a rapid progress in scientific pursnits, especially in the study or natural philosophy ; hut was parth ularly attached to moral philosophy and theology, as eolinected with his future occupation. Having continued at col lege two years after he took his first degree, he was li censed as a preacher of the gospel ; and, in the year 1722, he preached during eight months with lunch ac ceptance, to the English Presbyterians in New York ; but, as he did not consider the circumstances of that society such as to justify him in settling as their mini, ter, he returned to his father's house in the following spring, where he spent the summer in close application to study. In September 1723, he was admitted master of arts ; and, in the following year, was chosen tutor of the college in which he had been educated, where he continued in that office above two years. In 1726, he resigned his tutorship, and was ordained pastor of a congregation at Northampton, and colleague to his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard. In this si tuation he continued to labour with the greatest suc cess and approbation till the year 1744, when his en deavours to check the dissemination of licentious pub lications among the young persons of his congregation, and to exercise greater strictness in admitting commu nicants to the Lord's supper, excited such violent dis putes and dislikes, as, in a great measure, terminated his comfort and usefulness at Northampton. In the midst of the most violent and uncandid opposition, he remained nearly six years longer, but was at length for mally dismissed by a vote of his congregation, in which only 20 persons appeared in his favour, and more than 200 against him. During the whole of this affecting struggle, he preserved the greatest calmness and meek ness under the most injurious treatment, and, within a few years after his removal, was amply vindicated by the public acknowledgment of one of his most virulent per secutors. He was, in short, the last minister in New England, of whom such an event could have been anti cipated ; and the whole transaction presents one of the strongest objections, from actual experience, to those forms of church government which empower the peo ple to dictate to their religious instructors. In 1751, Mr Edwards was appointed Indian missionary, at the town of Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, where he was honourably supported by the Society in London for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; and where, for the space of six years, he discharged the duties or his office to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. During his residence in this retired situation, he produ ced the most valuable of his writings. In the year 1757, without any solicitation, and even with much reluctance on his part, he was elected to the presidency of the college of New Jersey, and removed to Princeton in the beginning of the following year. Scarcely had he
entered upon the duties of his office, and given testimo ny of his eminent qualifications, when lie proposed, with the advice of the physicians, and the consent of the cor poration, to be inoculated with the small-pox, which was then spreading its ravages in his neighbourhood. He had the disease in a favourable manner, and all danger was considered as past, but a secondary fever put an end to his valuable life, on the 22d of March 1758, in the 55th year of his age. Ile uttered very few words during his sickness, but evinced, in every stage of his disease, the most patient submission to the Divine will ; and died at last with the utmost compo sure, as ono falling asleep. Mr Edwards bad a very infirm constitution of body ; and, on that account, as %yell as from religious principle, was remarkably abste mious in his diet. Ile was nevertheless capable of great mental application, constantly rising about four or five o'clock in the morning, and commonly spending thirteen hours every day in his study. 1 lis usual recreation in summer was riding on horseback, or walking ; and in winter he was accu.tomed, by way of exercise, to spend half an hour or more every day, in chopping wood with an axe. He possessed an uncommon thirst for knowledge, and read all the books, especially in divini ty, that were within his reach. Ilis own principles were strictly Calvinistic ; but he drew them for himself from a thorough investigation of the sacred scriptures, and %•as least of all men led by the mere authority of others. Ile always studied with his pen in his hand, and, in this way, committed to paper many observations on almost every subject in divinity. The number of these mis cellaneous reflections amounted to more than 1400, and a selection of them was published, in one volume, after his death. He was particularly careful in the composi tion of his sermons, which, for the first twenty years of his ministry, he generally wrote out at full length, and carrying them with him to the pulpit, usually read the greater part of what he had written. This, however, he considered as one of his deficiencies as a preacher. His mode of delivery was easy and natural, deficient in ges ture, but full of solemnity. His voice was not strong, but distinct ; and his words, without much noise or ex ternal emotion, were so full of meaning and expressive of inward fervour, that few speakers were more suc cessful in commanding the attention of an audience. He was seldom tedious either in prayer or preaching, and generally employed the greater part of his discourses in the application or improvement of the subject. Un less when he was called by the sick, or heard that any of his people were under some particular affliction, he did not visit them in their own houses ; because he was aware that his talent consisted in preaching and writing, rather than in teaching by conversation ; but he encou raged all who desired his advice, to repair to his study, and regularly catechised the young persons and chil dren, both in public and in his own house. He kept him self remarkably free from worldly cares, and committed the direction of his domestic concerns so entirely to Airs Edwards, that he seldom knew even whence his table