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Bible Encyclopedias
Edwards, Jonathan D.D.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or the second son and ninth child of the President whose history has been sketched in the preceding article, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 26th, 1745. Although each was the president of a college, yet, as the father was not a doctor of divinity, he is familiarly termed the President, and the son is distinguished from him as the Doctor. In his early childhood young Edwards was afflicted with an ocular disease, and therefore did not learn to read at so early an age as his powers and instincts would have inclined him. In consequence also of his father's ecclesiastical troubles at Northampton, he was deprived of some important facilities for his education. "When I was but six years of age," he writes in 1788, "my father removed with his family to Stockbridge, which at that time was inhabited by Indians almost solely, as there were in the town but twelve families of whites, or Anglo-Americans, and perhaps one hundred and fifty families of Indians. The Indians being the nearest neighbors, I constantly associated with them; -their boys were my daily schoolmates and play-fellows. Out of my father's house I seldom heard any language spoken but the Indian. By these means I acquired the knowledge of that language, and a great facility in speaking it. It became more familiar to me than my mother-tongue. I knew the names of some things in Indian that I did not know in English. Even all my thoughts ran in Indian; and, though the true pronunciation of the language is extremely difficult to all but themselves, they acknowledged that I had acquired it perfectly, which, as they said, had never been done before by any Anglo-American. On account of my skill in their language in general, I received from them many compliments applauding my superior wisdom. This skill in their language I have in a good measure retained to this day."
Although the pastor at Stockbridge was nominally the teacher of the Housatonnucks, yet, in fact, he often gave instruction to families of the Mohawks, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras, who had gone to his parish for the sake of its educational advantages. He was a patron and also an intimate companion of Gideon Hawley, a man highly revered as a preacher to the Indian tribes. The elder Edwards desired that his son Jonathan should be trained for a missionary among the aborigines, and he therefore sent the boy, not then eleven years old, to a settlement of the Oneida Indians on the banks of the Susquehanna. The faithful friend, Gideon Hawley, traveled with the boy, and took the charge of him, but, in consequence of the French and Indian war, was obliged to return, with him, after a residence of about six months among the Oneidas. Young Edwards endeared himself to the Oneida tribe, and on one occasion, when they expected an attack from the French, the Indians took the boy upon their shoulders, and bore him many miles through the wilderness to a place of safety. At that early age he exhibited the traits which afterwards distinguished him — courage, fortitude, and perseverance. While traveling through the wilderness in the depths of winter he was sometimes compelled to sleep on the ground in the open air, and he endured the hardness as a good soldier. He spent the two years 1756, 1757, under the parental roof in Stockbridge, but in January, 1758, his father removed to Princeton, and in October, 1758, both his father and mother were removed from the world, and thus, in his fourteenth year, he was left an orphan. He had no pecuniary means for pursuing his education; but, having received promises of aid from the friends of his parents, he entered the Grammar School at Princeton in February, 1760, was admitted to Princeton College in September, 1761, and was graduated there in September, 1765. During the presidency and under the preaching of Dr. Finley, he became, as he thought, a true servant of Christ, and in September, 1763, he became a member of the Church. After having studied theology with Dr. Joseph Bellamy, he was approbated as a preacher in October 1766, by the Litchfield County Association. In 1767 he was appointed to the office of tutor at Nassau Hall, and was continued in the office two years. He was also offered, but he declined to accept, the professorship of languages and logic in the same institution. He had distinguished himself as a linguist and as a logician at Nassau Hall, and at a later day he received the doctorate of divinity from that college. Thus in his earlier years he was honored by his Alma Mater as a man of uncommon promise, and in his mature years as a man of uncommon attainments. His contemporaries speak of him as indefatigably diligent while at college, and as ever afterwards an eager aspirant for knowledge in its various branches.
He was also an instructive and sometimes an eloquent preacher. Accordingly, he was invited to the pastorship of an important church in New Haven, Connecticut, and was ordained there January 5, 1769. It is stated in his memoir, that the ordaining council were so intensely interested in his preparatory examination that they continued it for their own pleasure and profit several hours after the time which had been previously appointed for the public exercises of the ordination. Several members of his, church were advocates of the "half-way covenant;" he, like his father, was decidedly hostile to it. This divergence of views occasioned much trouble to him in his pastorate. The extravagances which had been connected with the "great awakening" in 1740-2 were followed by a disastrous reaction among the New England churches, and the ministry of Dr. Edwards was made in some degree uncomfortable by it. His pastorate was also disturbed by the demoralizing influences of the Revolutionary war. That war introduced a flood of errors among the people. Dangerous heresies were adopted by some members of his parish. The result of all these untoward events was that he was dismissed from his office May 19, 1795, after having labored in it more than twenty-six years. The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine stated that the principal cause "of his dismission was the departure of some of his parishioners from their former faith, but the ostensible cause assigned by the society was their inability to support a minister."
He had already acquired a great reputation as a philosopher and as a philanthropist. He was well known and much beloved by divines in Great Britain, with some of whom he maintained an active correspondence. Such a man could not long remain without some official relations. In January 1796, he was installed pastor of the church in Colebrook, Connecticut. Here, in the bosom of an intelligent, affectionate, and confiding parish, he persevered in his rigorous system of study, and prepared himself for works which he did not live to execute. Having enjoyed his busy retreat a little more than three years, he was surprised by being called in May 1799, to the presidency of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. After a prolonged examination of his duty, he applied to an ecclesiastical council for their advice, and in accordance with their counsel he accepted the new office. He entered on its duties in the summer of 1799, and was welcomed with unusual demonstrations of joy. Reverend Dr. Andrew Yates, who was associated with Dr. Edwards in the government of the college, says of him: "His discipline was mild and affectionately parental, and his requirements reasonable. Such a character for government in president Edwards was unexpected to some who professed to know his disposition, and had formed their opinions of him in this respect. It was therefore the more noticed. There was an apparent austerity and reserve in his manner, which no doubt arose from the retirement of study and from habits of close thought, and would leave such an impression after a slight acquaintance; but in his domestic intercourse, and with his intimate friends, while conscientiously strict and prompt in his duties, and while he acted with decision, he was mild and affectionate. The same spirit characterized his government of the college. It was probably conducted with greater mildness and affection than would have been exercised had not the prevailing expectations of some intimated the danger of his erring on the side of severity. His pupils, like a well-regulated family under faithful discipline, were respectfully attached to him."
On August 1, 1801, after an illness of about a fortnight, he died, at the age of fifty-six years, two months, and six days. "The blood of Christ is my only ground of hope" were among his last words. A highly eulogistic sermon was preached at his funeral in the Reformed Dutch Church at Schenectady by his friend, Reverend Robert Smith, of Savannah. Dr. Edwards had been greatly affected by the loss of his first wife, who, in June 1782, was drowned. He had also been bereaved of one child; but three of his children survived him.
The influence of Dr. Edwards in the pulpit, although not equal to that of his father, was yet greater than might have been expected from his analytic habits. His eye was piercing, his whole manner was impressive, his thoughts were clear and weighty, and his general character was itself a sermon. He was known to be honest, and a hearty lover of the truth as it is in Jesus. Although not a talker, in the superficial meaning of that phrase, yet he was powerful in conversation with men of letters, and was a prince among disputants; therefore his influence over his theological pupils was perhaps as important as his power in molding the character of his parishioners. He instructed many young men for the Christian ministry, and his influence is yet apparent in the writings of some of them. One of these pupils was his nephew, president Dwight, of Yale College, who was wont to speak of him with filial reverence; another was Dr. Griffin, president of Williams College, who bore frequent testimony to the power of his teacher. A large part of Dr. Edwards's influence arose from his interpretations pf his father's writings. He often said that he had spent his life on those writings, although, in fact, he had more various learning than belonged to his father. He studied the published and the unpublished works of the elder president with peculiar care. He was an early and confidential friend of Dr. Bellamy, one of the most intimate associates of the elder president, and he learned from Bellamy the exact shadings of the father's system. He was also a lifelong friend of Dr. Samuel Hopkins, another of president Edwards's bosom companions, and he obtained from Hopkins many nice discriminations in regard to the president's theories as expounded in his conversations. He was thus well fitted to be an editor of his father's works, and he did prepare for the press the History of the Work of Redemption, two volumes of sermons, and two volumes of Miscellaneous Observations on important Theological Subjects. He was also well fitted to write a commentary on his father's doctrinal system, as that system was originally published by the President, or afterwards modified by Hopkins, Bellamy, Smalley, and others. In this aspect there is great value belonging to Dr. Edwards's treatise entitled Improvements in Theology made by President Edwards and those who have followed his Course of Thought. In 1797, while he was at Colebrook, he published A Dissertation concerning Liberty and Necessity, in reply to the Reverend Dr. Samuel West.
This volume may be regarded as perhaps the fairest exponent of the elder president's theory of the will. It led Dr. Emmons to say that, of the two, the father had more reason than the son, yet the son was a better reasoner than the father. It is accordingly in his published works that the influence of Dr. Edwards has been most conspicuous. He printed numerous articles in the New York Theological Magazine; various sermons, one in 1783, at the ordination of Reverend Timothy Dwight, at Greenfield, Connecticut; one in 1791, on the Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave-trade; one in 1791, on Human Depravity; one in 1792, at the ordination of Reverend Dan Bradley, at Hamden; one in 1792, at the ordination of Reverend William Brown, at Glastenbury; one in 1792, the Concio ad Clerom, preached in the chapel of Yale College on the marriage of a deceased wife's sister; one in 1793, on the death of Roger Sherman; an election sermon in 1794; in 1797, a sermon on the Future State: of Existence and the Immortality of the Soul; in 1799, a Farewell Sermon to the people of Colebrook. The most celebrated of his discourses are the three On the Necessity of the Atonement and its Consistency with Free Grace in Forgiveness. They were "preached before his excellency the governor and a large number of both houses of the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, during their sessions at New Haven, in October, 1785, and published by request." They have been frequently republished, and they form the basis of that theory of the atonement which is sometimes called the "Edwardean theory," and is now commonly adopted by what is termed the "New England school of divines." These discourses have great historical as well as theological importance, and they serve to illustrate the fact that some of the most profound treatises in the science of divinity have been originally preached in sermons. One ultimate design of his volume on the Atonement was to refute the argument which some were deriving from that doctrine in favor of universal salvation. Intimately connected with this volume was another larger work, originally published in 1789, but frequently republished, and entitled, The Salvation of all Men strictly examined, and the endless Punishment of those who die impenitent argued and defended against the Reasonings of Dr. Chauncy in his book entitled "The Salvation of all Men." This work alone would have established the fame of Dr. Edwards as a divine of singular acuteness, deep penetration, accuracy and precision of thought and style. At the present day it is more suggestive of the true and the decisive modes of reasoning on this subject than is perhaps any other volume. The preceding works illustrate the metaphysical acumen and the profound judgment of Dr. Edwards; he published one essay which indicates his tact as a philologist, and which elicited the enthusiastic praises of Humboldt.
This is his Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew Indians, in which the Extent of that Language in North America is shown, its Genius grammatically traced, and some of its Peculiarities, and some Instances of Analogy between that and the Hebrew are pointed out. These observations were "communicated to the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences, and published at the request of the society." One of the most accomplished of American linguists, Honorable John Pickering, who edited one edition of this paper, says of it: "The work has been for some time well known in Europe, where it has undoubtedly contributed to the diffusion of more just ideas than once prevailed respecting the structure of the Indian languages, and has served to correct some of the errors into which learned men had been led by placing too implicit confidence in the accounts of hasty travelers and blundering interpreters. In the Mithridates, that immortal monument of philological research, professor Vater refers to it for the information he has given upon the Mohegan language, and he has published large extracts from it. To a perfect familiarity with the Muhhekaneew dialect, Dr. Edwards united a stock of grammatical and other learning 'which well qualified him for the task of reducing an unwritten language to the rules of grammar." Nearly all of Dr. Edwards's published writings were collected and reprinted in two octavo volumes, each of above 500 pages, in 1842. They were edited, and a memoir was prefixed to them, by his grandson, Reverend Tryon Edwards, D.D.
Although the two Edwards were in various particulars dissimilar, yet in many respects there was a striking resemblance between them. Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, says "the son greatly resembled his venerable father in metaphysical acuteness, in ardent piety, and in the purest exemplariness of Christian deportment." The son, like the father, was a tutor in the college where he had been a student; was first ordained over a prominent church in the town where his maternal grandfather had been the pastor; was dismissed on account of his doctrinal opinions; was afterwards the minister of a retired parish; was then president of a college, and died soon after his inauguration. His memoir states that both the father and the son preached on the first Sabbath of the January preceding their death from the text, "This year thou shalt die." (E.A.P.)
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Edwards, Jonathan D.D.'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/e/edwards-jonathan-dd.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
