Jonathan Edwards: Resolved to Be Wholly True to God

INTRODUCTION (JONATHAN EDWARDS PICTURE 1)

Furthermore, the progeny of Jonathan Edwards is stunning.

Someone tallied the family history of Jonathan Edwards at the beginning of the 20th Century and here is what they found:

What if I told you that one man’s family line produced:

300 pastors, missionaries or seminary professors.

120 college professors

110 lawyers

More than 60 physicians

More than sixty published authors

Thirty judges

14 university Presidents

80 holders of major public office

Three mayors of large cities

One chaplain to the US Senate

One comptroller of the US Treasury

And one Vice President of the United States—Aaron Burr

You would likely ask, “Who is this man? And what sort of magic blood did he possess?”

Imagine being told by a historian, that this one man is also the greatest theologian in American history and one of the six greatest theological minds to ever live on the earth.

And imagine being told that in the minds of many, this one man’s book, Freedom of the Will, is the most important theological work to be published on American soil.

And to top it all off, you are told this man preached the most famous sermon in all of American history and that he was the preeminent intellectual figure in colonial America.

You might think, “How can all of this be true of one man?”

Well I want to tell you this morning that all of this is true of one man. And his name is Jonathan Edwards.

And that is who we are talking about today—the greatest theologian in American history—New England’s Jonathan Edwards.

WHY DO THIS?

Now—why do this?

Typically, we are walking through a book of the Bible, but twice a year I like to stop and teach you about some great and meaningful figure of church history in a biographical sketch.

The goal is never simply to learn facts, but to be compelled to faithfulness.

But as we look at Edwards this morning, I do want you to consider a text of Scripture.

It comes from 1 Kings 8.

In that passage, Solomon is dedicating the temple to the Lord.

It is a beautiful scene of worship filled with prayers and sacrifice.

The glory of the Lord fills the temple.

Solomon is blessing the Lord.

In the benediction of the dedication, Solomon says this to the people:

1 Kings 8:61 ESV

Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

Solomon’s words tell us something about the God we love:

God desires a heart that is resolved to be wholly true to Him.

He does not want hearts that pay lip service.

He does not want hearts that say they are true but do not keep His statutes and commandments.

God wants a life that has made a resolution to be completely surrendered to Him.

He wants a heart that is undivided and devoted to Him.

Wholly true.

This morning, I hope to show you that life in Jonathan Edwards.

And I pray you will find it so compelling that you would desire to be in the mold of Edwards.

I earnestly hope that when we are done today, your resolve is strengthened to live all of your life for the glory of God.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION

Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5th, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut. He had ten sisters.

His family has one of the more respected names in young colonial America.

His father, Timothy Edwards, was a pastor who was trained in the halls of Harvard and faithfully preached to one congregation for over 60 years.

His mother, Esther, came from the Stoddard family.

Her father, Solomon Stoddard was also a pastor. (SOLOMON STODDARD PICTURE 2)

And he also pastored a church for over sixty years—the very Northamption congregation that Edwards would one day lead.

Solomon Stoddard was so famous that he was called “The Pope of the Connecticut River Valley.”

He was a leader among leaders.

Timothy Edwards raised his son to minister. He trained him for it for a young age.

He taught him the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism and instructed his son on deep matters of theology.

At the age of 13, Edwards was sent to the Collegiate School of Connecticut—also known as Yale.

Even though Timothy Edwards went to Harvard, he sent his son to Yale because Harvard had become influenced by Arminian teaching.

At Yale, young Jonathan Edwards began to interact with great theological minds like John Calvin and John Owen.

But that is just one piece of his education.

Here is Steven Lawson:

The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards A Puritan in the Making (1703–1726)

In the bachelor’s program, Edwards received a broad liberal-arts education, studying grammar, rhetoric, logic, ancient history, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, metaphysics, ethics, natural science, Greek, Hebrew, Christian theology, natural philosophy, and classical literature.

But despite all of this great teaching and knowledge and training, Edwards graduated with his Bachelors and headed into Yale’s Master’s program, with no saving faith in Jesus Christ.

—A reminder for us that being around vast amounts of truth does not automatically equate to trusting in the truth with your soul.

CONVERSION

But suddenly, at age 17, the Master’s student, Jonathan Edwards, was converted.

It happened as he read 1 Timothy 1:17

1 Timothy 1:17 ESV

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before. Never any words of Scripture seemed to me as these words did.

Jonathan Edwards

For the first time, Edwards went from being a student of the things of God to someone who had experienced them.

He was obsessed with the Savior that He had come to know and love.

And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of His person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in Him.

Jonathan Edwards

THE NEW YORK PASTORATE AND RESOLUTIONS (NEW YORK 1700S PICTURE 3)

Edwards’ education was expedited because his skills were so strong that it was decided the young man should be kept from the pulpit no longer.

He was sent a little Scottish Presbyterian church in New York City near Broadway and Wall Street.

At 19 years old, Jonathan Edwards was an interim pastor.

Edwards began his work in New York in August of 1722 and it would last eight months.

These would be formative months for Edwards—not just as a pastor or a theologian, but as a Christian.

During this time, he begins his insatiable habit of writing.

First of all, he is writing sermons regularly for the first time in his life.

Secondly, Edwards is writing his Miscellanies, which means, “a group of different items.”

These are catalogued thoughts of Edwards about everything from theology to scientific theory.

Miscellanies tells us so much about the brilliance of the man and his seriousness about all things—most importantly, the Lord Jesus.

And that seriousness is never more clear than in what is known as Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions.

70 RESOLUTIONS

In the year between August 1722 and August 1723, Jonathan Edwards writes down 70 Resolutions that he wishes to have guide his life.

These are things he is resolved to do or not to do.

We certainly don’t have time to read all 70 this morning.

I do encourage you to check them out.

You can actually read them in devotional form in a book called Serious Joy, by Joey Tomlinson, a good brother who pastors right up the road in Newport News.

But I do want to give you a taste of the gravitas of Jonathan Edwards’ faith as he is just finishing his education and wrapping up his teenage years.

The resolutions will show us the trajectory of his life.

Many of the resolutions are concerned with his overall mission in life.

The very first resolution says it best:

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 1 of 70

Time is a favorite subject Edwards returns to again and again in the resolutions:

19. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 19 of 60

Another is self-examination:

37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year. 

Jonathan Edwards, Resolutions 37

Many of the resolutions are incredibly practical, setting up guardrails for living Christlike in relationships:

14. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 14

Or in suffering:

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 10

Even eating and drinking:

20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 20

But nothing was more important to the young Edwards than maintaining intimacy with God in his spiritual life.

21 of the 70 resolutions are specifically focused on spiritual discipline and pursuing holiness.

No other subject is given more share of the resolutions.

They touch on a host of issues like:

Communing with God

Lord’s Day Worship

Mortifying Sin

Fanning the flames of Righteousness

Prayer

Reading the Bible

Having an assurance of salvation

Maybe his desperation to know God and be known by Him is best captured in the 53rd Resolution, written on July 8th, 1723:

53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 53

As you read through Edwards’ resolutions, you can’t help but notice the zeal of a young man.

He doesn’t want anything—be it internal or external—to interrupt his relationship with God.

He is ferociously passionate.

The teenagers and young adults of our church would be very wise to read Edwards’ resolutions and consider some of them for their own lives.

And yet, I want to issue a word of caution--

If you are prone to legalism, you might misinterpret Edwards’ Resolutions as laws you can follow to earn God’s favor.

Don’t forget what Edwards writes in his own preamble to the Resolutions:

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.

Jonathan Edwards

Any step we take toward holiness is only taken by the grace of God.

You will not resolve yourself to heaven.

You will not white-knuckle your way to intimacy with Christ.

However, those who have received eternal life and are on their way to heaven will be resolved to have a heavenward life.

And that is what you see in young Edwards.

You see a heart that is resolved to be wholly true to God.

EARLY NORTHAMPTON (1727-1739) (NORTHAMPTON PICTURE 4)

In 1727, this resolved young man came to Northampton, Massachusetts and he was selected for a monumental task—replacing his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, as the pastor of the Northampton congregation.

It was one of the most prestigious pulpits in New England.

On February 15, 1727, Edwards was ordained as an assistant minister, with the understanding that he would replace his 83 year old grandfather when the time was right.

This took place two years later, when his grandfather passed away.

At 26 years old, Edwards began to lead the church.

The highlight of the first 10 years of Edwards’ ministry was the movement of the Spirit of God that took place from 1734 to 1736.

This is not The Great Awakening that would come half a decade later.

Instead, these were the early tremors of the impending earthquake.

REVIVAL THROUGH PREACHING

In December of 1734, Edwards began to preach a series of sermons on justification by faith alone.

As the cold month of 1735 arrived, the people of Northampton were suddenly stirred by the preaching of God’s Word.

“The town seemed to be full of the presence of God; it never was so full of love, nor so full of joy.… There were remarkable tokens of God’s presence in almost every house … everyone [was] earnestly intent on the public worship.”

Jonathan Edwards

Edwards also said that the movement of God that had swept people up was not a movement of hysteria.

It was the result of God’s truth impacting consciences.

Iain Murray agrees in his biography of Edwards.

He says it was preaching that set Northampton on fire in the mid 1730’s.

It was the Word of God coming from Edwards’ pulpit.

For Edwards, the pulpit was the place where he would come to do the most serious work possible—teach the very Word of God.

And in handling the Word, he did not make a go of it alone, but was dependent upon the Holy Spirit.

Edwards believed that the preacher must be under the influence of the Spirit.

And if he was, he believed the preacher was able to take the consciences of men and hold them and touch them as if they were in their hands.

But if you did not preach under the influence of the Spirit, Edwards believed you were trying to handle the consciences of men with stumps and not hands.

In other words—preaching is Spirit-acquainted work. Without the Spirit, the preacher is just talking. And people are just listening.

Edwards published his record of what God did in this initial revival in a book called, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton.

DOMESTIC LIFE

It was also during this time that the domestic life of Jonathan Edwards began to take shape.

One year after coming to Northampton, Edwards married Sarah Pierpont, the daughter of a pastor from New Haven, CT.

They courted one another for four years before tying the knot.

Sarah Edwards was a true example of a Proverbs 31 woman.

She was the true administrator of the Edwards home.

Jonathan famously spent thirteen hours a day studying on a regular basis, so she was always working to put his salary to use.

She cooked. She cleaned. She shopped. She farmed. She gardened. She protected.

She was so in charge of the daily happenings of their home that people joked about how Edwards wouldn’t know how to buy a leg of lamb at the market because he was so removed from the daily details of the home.

On top of all of this she was the mother of 11 children—three sons and eight daughters, all of which she bore, nursed and educated.

SLAVERY

This would also be a good time to make mention of the Edwards family and their relationship with the American slave trade.

Jonathan and Sarah had at least six servants in their household.

There was Leah—a teenage girl.

And then there were two married couples—Joab and Rose and Joseph and Sue.

Finally, there was Titus, the son of Joab and Rose.

It should be said that these household servants did not live in separate quarters, but in the home with the Edwards.

They attended church with the family and sat with them.

Leah even became a full member of the church in 1736.

However, Edwards position on slavery is still regrettable.

He was opposed to the Trans-Atlantic slave-trade, but defended slavery for those who were debtors, war captives, or were born enslaved in North America.

Ultimately, we can say he was a man of his time.

Edwards reflects the sentiments of many in mid-18th century colonial America.

But we can also say that the treatment of those servants in his household was ethically above and beyond much of what we think of when we think of slavery, reflecting the Christian love of the Edwards home.

THE GREAT AWAKENING (1740-1746)

WHITEFIELD (WHITEFIELD PICTURE 5)

After the initial revival of the mid-1730’s waned, things were thrown back into a fever pitch as the 1740’s arrived.

George Whitefield came to the colonies and America’s famous Great Awakening that Edwards is most associated with was underway.

George Whitefield was a fiery British evangelist who made seven trips to the colonies between 1740 and 1770.

His booming voice and his penetrating messages caused people to flock to hear him wherever he would open his Bible.

He first arrived in New England in September of 1740, after being invited by a number of ministers.

Joseph Tracy wrote that these men knew that the gas of revival was in the air and they were eager to have Whitefield come and light a match.

By October of 1740, the 25 year old preacher had made his way to Northampton, where he would stay with Jonathan and Sarah Edwards and their family.

To understand the fanfare around Whitefield’s ministry, you almost have to compare it to The Beatles or Taylor Swift.

The content might be different, but the crowds followed Whitefield just the same.

Listen to this account from a farmer named Nathan Cole:

I was in my field, at work, I dropped my tool that I had in my hand and ran home and ran through my house and bade my wife get ready quick and go to hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown and rand to my pasture for my horse with all my might, fearing I should be too late to hear him...

Nathan Cole

Cole goes on to describe how he and his wife needed to ride 12 miles in under an hour, so they pushed their horse and themselves to the limit in order to get there in time. Here is what he described upon arrival:

One high ground I saw before me a cloud or fog rising, I first thought off from the great river but as I came nearer the road I heard a noise something like a low rumbling of horses feet coming down the road and this cloud was a cloud of dust made by the running of horses’ feet. When we got to the meetinghouse there appeared to be a great multitude—it was said to be 3 or 4000 people assembled together.

Nathan Cole

Sarah Edwards described Whitefield’s powerful preaching with the following words:

It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. I have seen upwards of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence, broken only by an occasional half-suppressed sob.

Sarah Edwards

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD

There were many ministers who were jealous of Whitefield’s popularity and they saw him as a performer.

Edwards had no such feelings.

As he got to know Whitefield, and he watched him set America on fire with his sermons and meetings, he saw it as a great opportunity for the advancement of the Gospel.

And Edwards was delighted at the effect upon the New England.

It is estimated that during this time, out of a population of 300,000, anywhere from 25,000-30,000 people were added to the churches of the region.

Edwards himself was not just a pastor on the sidelines reaping fruit.

He was a part of it.

He was traveling and preaching, helping to seize the moment and gain new converts for the Kingdom.

On one such occasion, Northampton’s pastor was 29 miles away in Enfield.

He was not scheduled to preach, but was called upon in a pinch.

He preached from Deuteronomy 32:35

Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’

He warned that God’s wrath was coming and that if people did not repent, they would be sinners in the hands of an angry God.

let anyone who does not now know Christ awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom!! Run for your lives! Don’t look back! Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!

Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

This is America’s most famous sermon.

To illustrate the reality of that, I was made to read this in public high school and at the very liberal public university I attended.

It captures the essence of the sort of convicting, but inviting preaching that characterized the era.

People say that as Edwards preached, he had to motion to the congregation to calm down because they were clinging to the pews, fearing the floors would open up and swallow them into Hell right then and there.

NEW LIGHTS VS OLD LIGHTS

But not everyone was a fan of the developments.

There were many who accused the revival of having no substance. They said no real repentance was taking place and that it was all emotions and false enthusiasm.

These ministers were called Old Lights.

Those who stood by the genuineness of the revival were called New Lights.

Yale, the place where Edwards was educated, was torn down the middle.

Edwards was called on to speak to the matter in a commencement address in 1741.

In the address, Edwards outlined five marks of a true work of God’s Spirit from 1 John 4:1-6.

According to Edwards, true revival will:

Raise the esteem of Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world

Lead people to turn from their sins and lusts to the righteousness of God

Increase the regard people have for the Scriptures

Establish in people true Christian doctrine

Evoke a true love for God

Edwards said that the revival in the colonies met every standard and it was a true work of the Lord.

His address was published later that year under the title, The Distinguishing Marks of a work of the Spirit of God in 1741.

And then, again in 1746, Edwards was back in the fight.

This time he wrote his Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in which he argued that true saving faith is to be experienced.

Those who are truly saved by God will experience the joy of knowing Him in their thoughts, feelings and actions.

This work was determined to not allow Christianity in colonial America to simply become a list of facts you believe.

Instead, he was adamant that at the heart of Christianity, there is a God you know.

DAVID BRAINERD

The Distinguishing Marks and the Religious Affections are two of Edwards’ most famous works.

They are surpassed only by another work that was published in during this period of revival—An Account of the Life of the Reverend David Brainerd.

The Edwards family loved to be a host to young men who were in ministry or training to go into ministry.

One of these men who stayed with them was David Brainerd—a missionary to the Delaware Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Brainerd was a brilliant young man who had his degree from Yale withheld because in the midst of the Old Light/New Light debate, he told one of his Old Light professors that he had about as much godliness as a chair.

This turned him away from the more typical route to Gospel ministry and found him in a brave and courageous mission to the Native Americans.

Brainerd was a godly as he was bold and the short time he spent with the Edwards family made a huge impact on Jonathan.

Brainerd sadly died of tuberculosis on the roof of the Edwards’ home in October of 1747 under the care of their daughter, Jerusha.

Jerusha would contract the disease and die months later.

But Edwards was moved by Brainerd’s life and his devotion to the mission field, that he took his diary and published it in 1749.

This volume went on to inspire an entire generation that became the fathers of the modern mission movement.

In fact, in a pamphlet on missions, William Carey credited Brainerd with inspiring the modern missions movement as we know it.

THE COMMUNION CONTROVERSY

However, despite all of the wonderful happenings in the two decades that Edwards had spent pastoring at Northampton, the end was coming near.

There were a number of factors in play.

Tensions from the Old Light/New Light controversy.

Tensions over Edwards’ salary, which grew larger as his family grew.

Disagreements over how some matters of church discipline had been handled

Edwards was leading in solitude

He did not have a plurality of elders

This was the church culture of his day and he suffered for it when the church became divided

But it all blew up over the Lord’s Supper Table.

If you remember, Solomon Stoddard, Edwards’ beloved grandfather, had pastored in Northampton for 60 years and his name and opinions carried a lot of weight.

Stoddard had taught that it was okay for people who acknowledged the church’s beliefs, but did not claim to be regenerate Christians, to take Communion.

He said that if they are not believers, it may be that the grace of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will convert them.

Edwards came under a different conviction though.

He felt that if you were going to come to the Lord’s Supper table, you must have a profession of faith that is backed up by some manner of Christian living.

He wrestled with this for some time, but his wife recalls when he had come to a place of settled conviction.

Not very long after Mr. Edwards had admitted the last person that ever was admitted into this church who made no profession of godliness, he told me that he would not dare ever to admit another.

Sarah Edwards

When Edwards actually began to put the conviction into practice, and people were barred from the Communion Table, and thus barred from the body of Christ, it was a full on firestorm.

It did not help that Edwards’ own family was out to destroy him.

For a reason we don’t fully know, his cousins, the Williams family, hated Edwards.

Solomon Williams wrote publicly against Edwards and was happy to fan the flames of the controversy.

The Williams family are suspected to have been offering counsel to the anti-Edwards crowd in the church on how to undermine the pastor.

Here is Edwards talking about the controversy in his own words:

The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards The Painful Separation (1750)

A very great difficulty has arisen between me and my people, relating to qualifications for communion at the Lord’s table. My honored grandfather Stoddard, my predecessor in the ministry over this church, strenuously maintained the Lord’s Supper to be a converting ordinance, and urged all to come who were not of scandalous life, though they knew themselves to be unconverted. I formerly conformed to this practice, but I have had difficulties with respect to it, which have been long increasing; till I dared no longer in the former way: which has occasioned great uneasiness among my people, and has filled all the country with noise; which has obliged me to write something on the subject, which is now in the press. I know not but this affair will issue in a separation between me and my people. I desire your prayers that God would guide me in every step in this affair

The leaders of the church asked that he address the matter in print, not from the pulpit.

But as Edwards worked to get his arguments printed, the divide was only deepening.

In the end, he presented a series of lectures that were on Thursdays at 2pm for four consecutive weeks.

They were well attended, but not by the people of the Northampton church.

It seems their minds were made up.

The church held a vote and 90% voted to remove their pastor.

The decision was upheld by a body of local ministers, who also felt it was best.

Surely those ministers and many in the congregation just felt the situation had gone too far to rescue.

You can only imagine how painful the results of the votes were for Edwards.

And yet, he held firm in his conviction.

He did not budge an inch.

This is what a heart that is resolved to be wholly true to God will do.

It will hold to that which is right according to the Word of God, even at the risk of its own welfare.

ENDING AT NORTHAMPTON

But Edwards’ life had become so entwined with the life of the congregation that it took a while for the parties to truly separate.

The Edwards family kept living in the parsonage for another 15 months.

More than that, for about a year and a half, Edwards would continue to preach for them when they couldn’t fill the pulpit.

Considering these things, despite the painful parting, you can’t say that Edwards tried to set the place on fire on the way out the door.

Far from it. He continued to give the church as much of his love as they would receive.

His heart for Northampton is best summed up in the words of the verse he preached in his farewell sermon:

2 Corinthians 1:14 ESV

just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

MISSIONARY AND PASTOR TO NATIVE AMERICANS (1751-1757) (EDWARDS HOME STOCKBRIDGE PICTURE 6)

After leaving Northampton, Edwards was like big money free agent sports star hitting the market.

Here was America’s greatest theological mind available for employment!

Friends in Boston reached out and offered him prestigious pulpits.

His pen pals in Scotland offered to move his family over so that he could minister there.

But he turned all that down.

Instead, he accepted a call to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he would pastor 250 Mohican and Mohawk Native Americans who had converted to the Christian faith, as well as a dozen white families.

With many of the Native Americans being new to the English language, Edwards would have to sort through the sermons he preached at Northampton—of which there were over 1,000—and he would need to bring them down to about a fifth-grave learning level in order to be able to teach the whole congregation.

So Edwards of The Distinguishing Marks and The Religious Affections, turned down ivory pulpits and well-paying ministerial positions, in order to overhaul his whole teaching approach and pastor his new flock in a humble setting.

It took him out of the public eye and made his a true pastor-missionary.

Why would he choose this?

I can’t help but think that David Brainerd played a large part in his decision.

Early in Brainerd’s missionary career, during a period when he was making no headway, he received a call to pastor a church in East Hampton.

Brainerd said no because:

I never, since I began to preach, could feel any freedom to…settle down in the ministry where the gospel was preached before.

David Brainerd

Edwards had spent twenty years pastoring a church that his grandfather pastored for sixty years before him.

I have to believe that Edwards, motivated by what he had found in Brainerd’s life and in his diary, was eager to pastor somewhere that required a bit more trailblazing.

WILLIAMS FAMILY

But once again, Edwards ministry was impacted by that mysterious hatred that his cousins possessed for him.

A member of the Williams family named Ephraim came along and spread a rumor that Edwards had embezzled money from the school that had been established to educate the Native Americans.

Edwards had his name cleared in the end, but the conflict caused the Mohawks to leave the school and that spelled the beginning of the end for the mission.

LEGACY AMONG STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS

Despite the fact that the conflict stunted the work Edwards did there, his six years of work among the Stockbridge Native Americans was not in vain.

Fifty years later, his grandson, Timothy Dwight, wrote that his grandfather’s name was still respected among those tribes where he had done his pastoral missionary labor.

It would not be forgotten that this brilliant man, compelled by love, moved his family, in the midst of the French-Indian War, into dangerous territory, to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the people of the land.

PRINCETON PRESIDENT (1758) (PRINCETON PICTURE 7)

As the fall of 1757 arrived, Jonathan Edwards’ son-in-law, Aaron Burr Sr, had passed away.

Burr was the president of the College of New Jersey—now known as Princeton.

When Burr passed, the college approached his father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards.

At first Edwards said no on the grounds that he is bad at small talk and didn’t know enough Greek to be in such a high position.

But the leadership of the college persisted and finally, Jonathan Edwards agreed to become the third President in the history of Princeton.

On February 16, 1758, Jonathan Edwards was inaugurated.

He was the leader of the school that would become the pillar of orthodox theology in the United States all the way until the 1920’s.

DYING WITH HIS DAUGHTERS

But sadly, Edwards days behind the president’s desk would be short.

Within a month of his inauguration, there was a smallpox outbreak.

Edwards, wanting to lead the way for the students, was inoculated against the virus.

Unfortunately, Edwards contracted a secondary infection while recovering from the inoculation and died on March 22nd, 1758 at 54 years old.

His daughters, Esther and Lucy were by his side.

They recorded his final words:

It seems to me to be the will of God, that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue forever; and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God.

Jonathan Edwards

Esther, who had lost her husband and father in a matter of months, died on April 7th from a similar reaction to the smallpox vaccine.

Sarah Edwards arrived in New Jersey that summer.

She stood in the Princeton Cemetery looking at the graves of her husband, daughter and son-in-law, having no idea that she would be buried right next to them before all the leaves would fall.

She died of dysentery on October 2nd, 1758.

CONCLUSION

When you read the 70 Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards, they are not just the hopeful scribbling of a 20 year old.

They are the picture of a man who was taking shape.

They show us the trajectory of a resolved man of God.

In taking on the pastorate at Northampton, he took on a nearly impossible task of monumental proportions—following a spiritual giant of 60 years, who happens to be his own grandfather.

But resolved, he did not shrink back.

In taking on the Old Light critics who said that the movement of God in New England was just false enthusiasm, he was staring down the traditions of the young colonies and calling them to account for their cold, indifferent religion.

But resolved, he did not shrink back.

In standing firm, fencing the Lord’s Table and demanding it be treated with the reverence that Scripture gives it, he was saying that the giant who pastored before him, again—his own grandfather—was wrong.

It cost him his very job.

But resolved, he did not shrink back.

In going to the more rural Stockbridge and using his gifts to reach Native Americans, he was turning down much easier paths and positions.

But resolved, he did not shrink back.

Even in death, Edwards did not shrink back.

According to his daughters, after delivered those finals words, he asked, “Now where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and unfailing Friend?”

He was resolved.

Jonathan Edwards was the man the nation needed.

A theologically brilliant, but gentle pastoral mind, there to instill a warm, devoted, but steely faith in the spine of young colonial America.

He did with the pen. He did it with the pulpit. He did with his perseverance.

But understand that he was just a man.

For all his gifting and all his accomplishment, he was just a resolved man.

And that shows what God can and will do with a heart that is resolved to be wholly true to Him.

Are you resolved to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ?

Are you resolved to be used by the Lord Jesus Christ?

Are you resolved to be wholly true to Him?

As Solomon did with the temple and as Edwards did with himself—dedicate yourself to Christ.