And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind withrespect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty from that day to this; so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it in the most absolute sense, in God showing mercy to whom be wi.1 show mercy, and hardening whom he wilL God's absolute sovereignty and justice, with respect to salvation and damnation, is what my mind seems to rest assured of, as much as of anything that I see with my eyes; at least it is so at times." Edwards stayed at college two years after taking his B.A. degree, preparing for the ministry. In August 1722 he went to New York, having been invited by the English Presbyterians in that town to become their minister. His diary records constant religious medi tations during his eight months' stay at New York, and on the 32th of January 1723 he relates that he solemnly dedicated himself to God.
"I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down, giving up myself, and all that I bad, to God ; to be for the future in no respect my own; to act as one that had no right to himself in any respect." He left New York in April 1723, and returned home. In September of the same year he took his M.A. degree, and shortly after he was chosen tutor of Yale College, an office which he filled with great credit. Two years after he accepted an invitation from North ampton, in Massachusetts, to assist his maternal grandfather, the Rev.
Solomon Stoddard, in the ministry ; and, having resigned his tutor ship, lie was ordained colleague to his grandfather at Northampton in February 1727, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. Shortly after, he married.
Between tho time of his going to New York and his settlement at Northampton, Edwards wrote out seventy resolutions, which he kept before him as his guides through the remainder of his life. They are published in President Dwight's Life.' They mostly refer to the governing of his morals and the performance of religious exercises.
He remained at Northampton first as assistant to his grandfather, and after hIs grandfather's death as solo minister for twenty-three years. He was all this while indefatigable in the discharge of his duties as minister, and diligent in self-improvement. He was an effective preacher, and acquired much fame on the occasion of a very general `revival' in the years 1740 and 1741 : ministers and congrega tions from all parts of New England applied to Edwards for assistance, and solicited him to oome among them and preach. It was at the
time of this revival, and in order to moderate men's zeal, that lie wrote his treatise on 'Religious Affections.' A revival had previously taken place in his own parish of Northampton in 1734, an account of which was at the time published by himself under the title, 'A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, in the Conversion of many hundred Souls in Northampton :' this work excited much interest among what is known as the religious public of England, where it was republished in 1736 under the editorship of Dr. Isaac Watts.
On the 22nd of June 1750, Edwards was dismissed ignominiously from his charge at Northampton. He had offended a large and influential part of his congregation, no less than six years previously, by taking some very active and, as they appeared, arbitrary measures, In consequence of a reported circulation of obscene books among the younger members of his flock. He was openly resisted in his attempts to make a public example of the offenders, and from that time his Influence over his flock was greatly weakened. But the cause of the final rupture between himself and his flock, and of his dismissal, was a different one. It was a refusal to admit " unconverted " persons, or (in other words) persons who either could or would not say that they had really embraced Christianity, to a participation in the sacrament.
The custom of admitting such persons had been introduced by his predecessor, and not without opposition ; and now, after the custom had been established some time, a fiercer opposition was raised by an attempt to get rid of it. On Edwards's first announcement of his disapprobation of the custom, and of his determination to end it, his dismissal was immediately clamoured for. This was in the spring of 3744 ; and the six intervening years having been spent in continual disputes, and fruitless attempts to effect a reconciliation, he was dismissed In 1750. A council had been appointed, consisting of ten neighbouring ministers, to adjudicate between Edwards and his flock; and this council determined by a majority of one "that it is expedient that the pastoral relation between Mr. Edwards and his church be immediately dissolved, if the people still persist in desiring it." On its being put to the people, more than two hundred voted for his dismissal, and only twenty against it.