ADVERTISEMENT. THE present Edition of the Works of President Edwards, is a reprint o. that published at Worcester, with some variation of the arrangement, and considerable additions from other sources. The pieces added are as follows 1. Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit. 2. God's Moral Government, a Future State, and the Immortality of the Soul. 3. The necessity and reasonableness of the Christian doctrine of Satisfaction for Sin. 4. The Perseverance of the Saints. 5. The Endless Punishment of those who die Impenitent. 6. Fourteen Sermons. While the accuracy of the Worcester Edition has been carefully preserved, the value of the present publication has been greatly enhanced, not only by the introduction of the above mentioned matter, but by the COPIOUS GENERAL INDEX, inserted at the close of the 4th volume. This has been prepared with much labor, and will be found to be unusually complete. For obvious reasons, the references are generally made in the very language of Edwards. Thus has all suspicion of partiality and misrepresentation been precluded; and the reader is presented, besides, on many points, with a brief synopsis of the author's views and trains of argument. The publishers flatter themselves that they have done a service to the cause both of theological learning and prac tical piety, by making an improved edition of these invaluable works more accessible to the religious public than any former one has been. New-York, March 1843. MEMOIRS OF THE LATE REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS, A. M. CHAPTER I. MR. EDWARDS'S BIRTH, PARENTAGE, EDUCATION AND ENTRANCE INTO THE MINISTRY. PRESIDENT EDWARDS was one of those men of whom it is not easy to speak with justice without seeming, at least, to border on the marvellous, and to incur the guilt of adulation. The Christian Biographer labors under a difficulty, in describing the characters of extraordinary men, which the writers of other lives are but too generally allowed to forget; for he is bound so to represent actions and motives, as to remind his readers, that the uncommon excellencies of a character flow entirely from the bounty of heaven, for the wisest and best purposes, and are not the result of natural vigor and acumen. Otherwise, instead of placing these excellencies in a view advantageous for imitation, or describing a character attainable, as to its most valuable traits, only by gracious aids, there would be danger of setting up an idol, more precious indeed than gold, but still an idol, whereby the mind would be led astray from the one great object of the Christian life, JESUS CHRIST, whose fulness filleth all in all. While we have a just view of him, it is a privilege to hear of his wonderful works in and by his honored servants; and to be enabled to imitate them is a great augmentation of the privilege. If their graces, exemplified in a variety of circumstances, in a manner force us to a throne of grace, and thereby prove the means of quickening ours; then do we make a right use of their history, and follow them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Mr. Jonathan Edwards was born on the 5th of October, 1703, at Windsor, in the then Province of Connecticut, North America. His father, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, was minister of that place almost sixty years, and resided there from November, 1694, till January, 1758, when he died in the 89th year of his age, not two months before this his only son Jonathan. He was very universally beloved and esteemed, as an upright, pious, exemplary man; a faithful and very useful minister of the gospel. A few more particulars of this excellent man will be acceptable. He was born at Hartford, in Connecticut, May 14, 1669, received the honors of the college at Cambridge, in New England, by having the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts given him the same day, July 4th, 1694, one in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. On November 6th, 1694, he married Esther Stoddard, daughter of the Rev. and celebrated Soloman Stoddard, of Northampton, in the 23d year of her age. They lived together in the married state above sixty-three years. Mrs. Edwards, our author's mother, was born June 2d, 1672, and lived to about ninety years of age (some years after her son), a remarkable in VOL. I. 1 |