175. FUTURE STATE.

God, if he made the world, he undoubtedly ordered all things wisely in it. But he has made man and placed him in such circumstances, that he has made [it] his prudence with all his might and with all possible vigor to be providing for a future state. For he has made him so, and placed him in such circumstances that, let him exercise his reason never so much, he cannot be sure that there is no future state; but the more rational and most virtuous men are most apt to believe it—we find that by experience. God has given us no proofs that there is no future state, and he has placed man in such circumstances that, let him exercise his reason never so well, he will see many arguments for a future state which he cannot get over; and it can be proved by mathematical demonstration, that a probability or possibility of eternal happiness on one hand and misery on the other, is more to be regarded than the certainty of anything that has an end. But if God has made it our prudence to spend our lives in providing for a future state when there is none, he has not ordered things wisely.

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 13, The “Miscellanies:” Entry Nos. a–z, aa–zz, 1–500, ed. Thomas A. Schafer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 325-326.

On February 1, 2010, Moody Publishers will unveil The Essential Edwards Collection. This collection appears to be designed to make Jonathan Edwards more accessible to churchgoers and any who may not be interested in reading lengthy, academic works pertaining to Edwards’s life and thought (all of these volumes check in at 160 pages). Initially, there will be five volumes in this series, and it’s unclear whether more will be coming. Here are the short descriptions of these initial volumes:

Jonathan Edwards Lover of God by Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan – This volume of the Essential Edwards Collection tells the story of Jonathan’s life and the important events that shaped his faith and views on God and salvation. It is a biographical and contextual look at the man credited for starting the First Great Awakening.

Jonathan Edwards on Beauty by Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan – This volume focuses on Edwards’ view of God, God’s communication of beauty, and God’s desire that Christians recognize His beauty both in Scripture and the world. Edwards is presented as a “God-intoxicated” man, captivated by God’s glory and beauty, and committed to sharing that beauty with others.

Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell by Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan – This volume explains Edwards’ strong sense of pastoral responsibility to warn his people of the reality and dangers of judgment and hell. But it also shows his equally vivid and compelling views of heaven and eternal life.

Jonathan Edwards on the Good Life by Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan – This volume focuses on how Edwards found joy and fulfillment by encouraging others to know and worship God. For Edwards, the good life was one lived in accordance with God’s will, a life of worshipful participation in, and magnification of, God’s glory and beauty.

Jonathan Edwards on True Christianity by Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan – This volume focuses on Edwards’ view of the nature of true religion, true conversion, and supernatural regeneration. Going from the problem of human sin, and the inadequacy of head knowledge, to God using our biblical knowledge to give us new hearts filled with Him, Edwards believed God wants to unite us to Christ by the indwelling presence of His Spirit.

Twitter user JacobYoung84! Congratulations, Jacob! You are the winner of the aDaSL 1st Anniversary Giveaway and will be receiving a hardcover copy of Religious Affections in the Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards. I hope this book will be of great benefit to you.

I want to send a hearty thanks to everyone who entered the contest. I hope to be having many more of these, so stay tuned!

1053. PREPARATORY WORK.

God usually does much to prepare his people for those things which yet, if he pleased, he could bring to pass, and that in a due perfection, without any preparation. Thus much was done to prepare Joseph for his exaltation in Egypt. Much was done to prepare Moses for his high privileges and employment in his forty years banishment. Much was done to prepare the children of Israel to enter into covenant with God at Mt. Sinai, in the hard bondage they suffered in Egypt, and the great and terrible things which they had seen wrought by God on the Egyptians; and much was done to prepare them for the blessings of Canaan in their forty years’ travel through the wilderness, Deuteronomy 8. Much was done to prepare David for the crown of Israel, in the troubles he met with through Saul’s persecution, etc. How much was done to prepare the church for the blessings of the gospel introduced by Christ! What a law was given to [be] their tutor and schoolmaster, to train up the church for these privileges and their glorious inheritance, and what a variety of dispensations of providence did the church pass under, from the calling of Abraham, for that end. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the minds of men for Christ’s coming. What a long preparation had Christ himself for the work he had to do, before he entered on his public ministry. How much did the man Christ Jesus pass through, to fit him for the glory of his exaltation! How much did Christ do to the disciples, to prepare them for their privileges and business after his ascension. How long a time of preparation had they! The apostle Paul was long in Arabia, to fit him for the great things he was designed for. And how much have the church of God, to prepare them for the latter-day glory. And how much have the saints in this world, to fit ‘em for the heavenly state! God’s church and people are represented in Scripture by those plants that come to their perfection and ripe fruit through much preparation, and by many degrees. God reaps his harvest when it is ripe, and when the fields are white to the harvest, and gathers his fruits when come to maturity. Christ came into the world in the “fullness of time” [Galatians 4:4], when all things were ready; and so God accomplishes all that appertains to the salvation and glory of his people in the fullness of time. If the wisdom of God did not see it meet that there should be preparation for that spiritual good that he bestows on his church and people, there would be no use at all of means of grace, and prayer to God for the blessings we need would be of no benefit.

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 20, The “Miscellanies:” 833-1152, ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 393-394.

Just under a week remains to enter the aDaSL 1st Anniversary Giveaway. You could win a hardcover edition of Religious Affections in the Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards series. A $110.00 value!

Get your entries in and tell your friends!

The Henry Center just announced the creation of a new Jonathan Edwards Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This new center is being established in conjunction with the JEC at Yale and will provide a wonderful opportunity for the furthering of Edwards scholarship. Congratulations to TEDS and Doug Sweeney for this achievement!

From: HCTU Director Doug Sweeney
RE: New Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS
Date: 1/12/2010

In conjunction with the Jonathan Edwards Center of Yale University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is pleased to announce the formation of a new Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS, effective immediately. This partnership was formalized on the campus of TEDS on Wednesday, January 6, 2010. Kenneth P. Minkema, director of the Yale Center, and Douglas A. Sweeney, director of the Trinity Center, both spoke to this groundbreaking development and noted its excellent prospects.

The Center at TEDS is the newest of several satellite Edwards Centers founded by Yale’s Edwards Center in strategic locations around the world. The purpose of these Centers is to promote awareness of and scholarship on Edwards in the academy and also the church. Existing locations include Germany (Tübingen), Poland, South Africa, and Australia (Ridley College). The Jonathan Edwards Center at Trinity is, apart from the Yale Center, the only existing such center in North America.

The JEC at Trinity provides a rare opportunity for us to engage the larger world of Edwards studies, and to share the riches of that world with our community. The Center will debut a website near the end of February that will offer our academic and ecclesial communities access to a wide range of Edwards resources. The Center will also feature a designated computer terminal in the library on which students and visiting scholars will be able to access a wealth of resources for the study of Edwards and related figures and movements throughout history. Trinity is the only school in North America, other than Yale, with access to this range of materials.

As Director of the new Center, Sweeney is currently planning the further development of its work. In coming weeks, the JEC will announce a program of events. In addition to regular conferencing, the JEC at Trinity will offer two lecture series: “Jonathan Edwards and the Church,” which will feature the best Christian Edwards scholars in the world in conversation with Sweeney and a variety of clergy who are interested in Edwards and his legacies to the church; and “New Directions in Edwards Studies,” which will feature cutting-edge research on Edwards and his influence.

Furthermore, the JEC at TEDS will seek to encourage Trinity students, and other students in the region, to undertake advanced work on Edwards and his legacies around the world. It will provide pastors and scholars with up-to-date web resources for making good on Edwards’ legacy and for staying up on the most important Edwards scholarship.

Those interested in the JEC at TEDS should look for a second announcement in late February that will make public the new website and announce a range of programs. It is with gratefulness to God, and thanks to our friends at Yale, that we announce this unique partnership.

In January and February, I’m teaching a class on Religious Affections for my church in Sunday School. As such, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the awakenings that Edwards and much of Colonial New England experienced in the mid-eighteenth century. Every time I read the Affections, I’m struck by the balance that Edwards achieves between the Old Light “rationalists” and the New Light “enthusiasts.”

In this miscellany entry, Edwards’s intent is to show that “enthusiasm” has been around as long as the church. There was excitement, and response to the proclamation of the Gospel, and perhaps much concern for the things of religion, but ultimately much of this would not amount to anything. The seeming movement of God’s Spirit through these people would prove to be, in Edwards’s words, “pretended.” If first century Judea was not immune to such “enthusiasm” at the preaching of such a saint of God as John the Baptist, Edwards is implying, then certainly it should be expected that there will be some excesses and false affections drafting the genuine work of God’s Spirit in the colonial awakenings.

Therefore, “enthusiasm” is no reason to discredit the awakenings outright, as the Old Lights would prefer. Rather, it is necessary to seek ways in which to separate the wheat and the chaff. In other words, to find what are “distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God,” or what are “signs of truly gracious and holy affections.”

1058. ENTHUSIASM.
John the Baptist was a person greatly moved by the Spirit. He preached to the people in a very earnest manner, warning of their danger, calling upon ‘em to fly from the wrath to come with great pathos, manifesting his great engagedness not only in words but deeds: his incessant labor and great self-denial and great boldness in his work, fearing none, reproving great and small, whereby the people, seeing and hearing, were mightily moved. Christ therefore says concerning him, Matthew 11:7 and Luke 7:24, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?” Which seems to imply that there is such a thing as men’s being mightily moved and actuated by something that is pretended to be the Spirit of God, but yet is vain and empty as the wind, exceeding unsteady, and soon comes to nothing, though violent; and that the persons that are the subjects of this emotion do show their great weakness in yielding to it, and being governed by [it]. Such there were, many of them, in the primitive ages of the Christian church. Christ denies John the Baptist to be such a one.

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 20, The “Miscellanies:” 833-1152, ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 395.

As with any cultural, social, religious, etc. movement, the Great Awakening was not immune to criticism. Those unhappy with the stirrings of revival cited excesses among the so-called “enthusiasts,” as they sought to discredit what was going on. One of the biggest problems these critics had was in regard to “lay exhorters.” Here is a rather amusing description of such persons:

There is a creature here whom perhaps you never heard of before. It is called an Exhorter. It is of both sexes, but generally of the male, and young. Its distinguished qualities are ignorance, impudence, zeal. Numbers of these Exhorters are amongst the people here. They go from town to town, creep into houses, lead captive silly women, and then the men. Such of them as have good voices do great execution as they move their hearers, make them cry, faint, swoon, fall into convulsions.

Edwin S. Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1965), 70.

Well, it’s been about a year since this site started, and that calls for a celebration. To mark this occasion, I will be giving away a hardcopy edition of Volume 2 in the Yale Works of Jonathan Edwards series, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections.

This book is Edwards’s landmark work on the nature of true Christian experience and is a must-read for any who are interested in Christianity and the religious history of America. In addition to the text of Edwards’s treatise, this volume contains a wonderful introduction by the editor, John E. Smith, as well as several pieces of personal correspondence that shed further light on Edwards’s process in the composition of this great work.

Here is the publisher’s description of this volume and the official giveaway rules can be found after the description.

This volume contains Edwards’ most mature and persistent attempt to judge the validity of the religious development in eighteenth-century America known as the Great Awakening. In developing criteria for such judgment he attacked at the same time one of the fundamental questions facing all religion: how to distinguish genuine from spurious piety? The Awakening created much bitter controversy; on the one side stood the emotionalists and enthusiasts, and on the other the rationalists, for whom religion was essentially a matter of morality or good conduct and the acceptance of properly formulated doctrine. Edwards, with great analytical skill and enormous biblical learning, showed that both sides were in the wrong. He attacked both a “lifeless morality” as too pale as to be the essence of religion, and he rejected the excesses of a purely emotional religion more concerned for sensational effects than for the inner transformation of the self, which was, for him, the center of genuine Christianity.

Official Giveaway Rules:

1. There are two ways to enter the giveaway. (1) Fill out the form below with your name and email address. This method is limited to one entry per person and multiple entries will be discarded. (2) If you have a Twitter account, follow @aDaSLblog and post the following update: RT to win a copy of Religious Affections from @aDaSLblog. One entry per day. http://bit.ly/7rB9RR #aDaSLcontest. This method of entry is limited to one entry per person per day for the duration of the contest.

2. The giveaway will begin on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 and will close at 11:59PM EST, Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

3. One winner will be selected from all eligible entries, and that winner will be announced on this site and notified either by email or through their Twitter account. Upon selection, the winner agrees to send their mailing address to the provided email address, and the book will be shipped at aDaSL’s expense.

4. At the conclusion of the giveaway, all information gathered will be immediately and permanently erased.

5. Any questions concerning this event should be directed to info@adivineandsupernaturallight.com.

Here is one more miscellany on the incarnation of Christ. This time, Edwards muses on the union of the two natures of Christ, identifying the Holy Spirit as the bond which unites these two natures.

764b. INCARNATION OF CHRIST. UNION OF THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST.

What Christ says in the John 3:33–34, confirms that the Holy Spirit is the bond of union by which the human nature of Christ is united to the divine, so as to be one person. “He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.” Which words may be thus paraphrased: he that hath received my testimony as true, and sets to his seal that I speak true, he therein sets to his seal that God speaks true, for in my speaking of it God speaks it. There is such an union between this human nature that immediately speaks with God’s [words], that the words in being my words are God’s words; which union is the consequence of God’s communicating his Spirit without measure to my human nature, so as to render it the same person with him that is God. Something more is doubtless intended than that he was an inspired person, and spake the Word of God as the prophets did. When Christ says that he that receives his testimony sets to his seal that God is true, because his words were God’s words, he doubtless has respect to something that is peculiar to himself, something that is his own prerogative; and therefore, the reason that he gives for it is something peculiar to him, viz. God’s giving the Spirit not by measure unto him. When he says that he that hears his words hears God’s words, and he that owns him to be true owns God to be true, ’tis most natural to understand him in a sense analogous to what he says elsewhere: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”; and “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” [John 5:17, John 14:9].

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 18, The “Miscellanies:” 501-832, ed. Ava Chamberlain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 411.