Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/449

EDWARDS. Jonathan, an American divine and metaphysician, born at East Windsor, Conn., Oct. 5, 1703, died at Princeton. N. J., March 22, 1758. He was an only son, with ten sisters, four of whom were older than himself. His father and his mother's father were eminent ministers; he sprung directly from John Warham, the west of England minister who reached America a week or two before Winthrop, settled first in Dorchester, and then with a part of his flock removed to Windsor. He was trained by his father and his elder sisters for college and to habits of careful study and analysis. The community in which he lived was eminently religious, and before he was ten years old his religious sensibilities were strongly aroused. His childhood was troubled with anxious doubts as to the divine sovereignty. At the age of ten he wrote a paper ridiculing the idea that the soul is material. He early showed quickness and accuracy of observation; when twelve years old he sent to a European correspondent of his father an account "of the wondrous way of the working of the spider "in the forest, whose habits he had watched. In September, 1716, he entered Yale college. He gained a good name for "his carriage and his learning;" but in his scanty opportunities the range of his learning was very limited. He knew little of classic literature; the best impulse to his mind was given by Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding," which he read with delight. But he was quickened, not subdued or mastered, by Locke's system, which turned him to speculative activity. He inclined to that system which in Europe had found its representatives in Malebranche and Leibnitz; and, probably from citations, something of Plato's theory of ideas, and something of the doctrine of Cudworth's "Intellectual System," infused themselves into his reflections. When about 15, in opposition to Locke, he denied the possibility of adding to matter the property of thought, and held that "everything did exist from all eternity in uncreated idea;" that "spirit or mind is consciousness and what is included in consciousness;" that "truth is the agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God;" that "nothing has a proper being but spirit;" that "matter is merely ideal;" that "the objects of the external senses are but the shadows of being;" that "the universe exists nowhere but in the divine mind." His speculations have sometimes a startling resemblance to those of Spinoza. The latter calls thought and extension the "attributes of God," and ascribes being to God alone; Edwards wrote that "space is God." In one of his latest works he says of God, "He is all and alone;" "the infinite, universal, all-comprehending entity." In his youth he said, "God and real existence are the same; God is, and there is none else." While a collegian he argued out for himself his theory of the will and his theory of virtue. One thing more was wanting to shape his course. He counted himself still among the unregenerate; but after an illness in his last year in college, when not yet 17, how or by what means he could never tell, "his past convictions" were overcome, and he had no more doubts of "God's absolute sovereignty and justice with respect to salvation and damnation." Now he had found the purpose of his life; his speculative opinions and his religious faith were unalterably formed. He had no less than Locke a disposition to show the harmony between reason and religion, the faculties of man and the dogmas of the true faith; but from the first he repelled the materialist philosophy; and while he never came forward as the express combatant of Locke, it became from his early youth the object of his earthly career to combat the results of Locke's philosophy in its application to the sources of knowledge, the science of morals, and theology. His sense of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up "a sweet burning in his heart." He gave an account of his experience to his father, and united with the church. For two years after he took his degree he remained in New Haven as a student for the ministry; and in August, 1722, he was selected to preach in a Presbyterian church in the city of New York. Here he remained eight months, and here on Jan. 12, 1723, he made anew a solemn dedication of himself to God. In April, 1723, he returned home, and at his father's house in East Windsor continued his studies, made with the pen in hand. Here he finished a series of 70 resolutions, in regard to which he humbly entreated God by his grace to enable him to keep them all: to act always for the glory of God, for the good of mankind in general; to lose not one moment of time; to live with all his might while he did live; to let the knowledge of the failings of others only promote shame in himself; to solve as far as he could any theorem in divinity he might think of; to trace actions back to their original source; to be firmly faithful to his trust; to live as he would if it were but an hour before he should hear the last trump; to strive every week for a higher and yet higher exercise of grace; "to keep a benign aspect, and to let there be something of benevolence in all his speech." In September, 1723, several congregations invited Edwards to be their minister; but he declined every proposal, reserving two years more for study. In June, 1724, he became tutor in Yale college. In the summer of 1726 he was invited to become the pastor at Northampton, as the colleague of his grandfather. Solomon Stoddard; and on Feb. 15, 1727, he was ordained to his office. On July 28 he married Sarah Pierrepont, daughter of a minister at New Haven. In February, 1729, the senior pastor died, and the young minister was left alone. It was his habit to rise early, and study during the whole day. He made no visits unless sent for by the sick or the sorrowing, but encouraged persons under religious