, president of the college of New Jersey, and a divine of very considerable
, president of the college of
New Jersey, and a divine of very considerable fame in
America, was descended from English parents who emigrated in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and was born,
Oct. 5, 1703, at Windsor, in the province of Connecticut
in North- America. In 1716 he became a student of Yale
college, and received the degree of B. A. in 1720, before
he had completed his seventeenth year. His mental powers
are said to have opened themselves so early and so strong,
that he read Locke’s “Essay on the Human
Understanding
” with delight, in his second year at this college.
After taking his bachelor’s degree he remained two years
more at college preparing himself for the ministry, and
after the usual trials, was licensed to preach. In August
1722 he was invited to preach to the English presbyterians
at New York, where he continued with approbation above
eight months; but as this society was too small to maintain
a preacher, he returned in the spring of 1723 to his father’s house at Connecticut, where, for some time, he applied to his studies with great industry and perseverance;
and severe application became habitual to him, although
he was of a delicate constitution. In the spring of 1724,
having taken his master’s degree, he was appointed tutor
of Yale college, and notwithstanding his youth, and the
time necessary to be devoted to his own improvement, he
filled this office for two years in a manner which afforded
his superiors no reason to repent of their choice. He
would probably have remained longer here, had he not received, in Sept. 1726, an invitation from the people of
Northampton in Connecticut, to become assistant to his
mother’s father, Mr. Stoddard, who was the settled minister
of the town. Having accepted this offer, he was ordained
colleague to Mr. Stoddard, Feb. 15, 1727, when only in
his twenty-fourth year, and continued pastor of this congregation until June 1750, at which time his congregation
dismissed him with every mark of contempt and insult.
This, however, will appear to reflect no discredit on Mr.
Edwards, when the reader is told that the first cause of
complaint against him was, his having detected and endeavoured to expose a combination of youths who had imported obscene books, and were corrupting one another’s
principles with great eagerness. So many of these young
men were connected with the best families, that the parents
declared their children should not be called to an account,
and all inquiry was stifled. Still, however, they could not
have proceeded to expel their preacher, if they had not
soon afterwards laid hold of another pretext, which arose
from Mr. Edwards’s refusing to administer the sacrament
to persons of notoriously loose lives. Meetings were held,
in which he endeavoured to justify his opinions; but upon
a decision, on the question of continuing him their pastor,
he was left in a minority of 180, after a residence among
them of twenty-four years, and a character of unimpeachable integrity and piety.
As it is impossible to suppose that all his hearers joined
in the above decision, he appears to have been supported
for some time, by the kindness of those who admired his
character, until sent on a mission to the Indians at Stockbridge, in the western part of Massachusett’s bay, about
sixty miles from his former residence. Here he arrived in
1751, and enjoying a quiet retirement, employed himself
at his leisure hours in composing the principal part of his
works, until 1757, when, on the death of Mr. Aaron Burr,
he was chosen president of New Jersey college. He had
not, however, long commenced the business of his new
office when the small-pox raging with great virulence, he
caught the infection, although after inoculation, and died
of the disorder March 22, 1758. Mr. Edwards was a man
of extensive learning, principally in theology, and his
avidity for knowledge was insatiable. He commonly spent
thirteen hours a day in his study, and yet did not neglect
the necessary exercises of walking and riding. He read
all the books, especially in divinity, that he could procure,
from which he could hope to get any help in his pursuit of
knowledge. And in this, he did not confine himself to
authors of any particular sect or denomination; but took
much pains to procure the works of the most noted writers
who advanced a scheme of divinity most contrary to his
own, which was nearly that termed Calvinistic.