16 July 2008

That Great Instrument of the Devil

Bernard Bartlett, member of Northampton Church, recorded in 1735, at the close of the regional revival that came 6 years before the Great Awakening, that his pastor, a certain Jonathan Edwards,

was as Great an Instrument as the Devil Had on this Side of Hell to bring Souls to Hell.

--Kenneth Minkema, "Personal Writings," in Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards, p. 39

Well guys, let's just get ready for the crap. The unjust criticism. The subtle, whispered, smearing. If Edwards got it, we're going to get it. Historical accounts of the trial that would take place fifteen years later that eventuated in Edwards' dismissal by a vote of 10 to 1 recount that Edwards was inexplicably serene throughout the trial. Let's learn from our father and gladly submit to the unfairnesses of life, instead of defending ourselves.

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