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their own lives. At least two people committed suicide in the depths of their spiritual duress, one from Edwards's
own congregation•his uncle, Joseph Hawley II. It is not known if any others took their own lives, but the suicide
craze effectively ended the first wave of revival, except in some parts of Connecticut. -- However, despite these
setbacks and the cooling of religious fervor, word of the Northampton revival and Edwards's leadership role had
spread as far as England and Scotland. It was at this time that Edwards was acquainted with George Whitefield, who
was traveling the Thirteen Colonies on a revival tour in 1739•1740. The two men may not have seen eye to eye on
every detail•Whitefield was far more comfortable with the strongly emotional elements of revival than Edwards
was•but they were both passionate about preaching the Gospel.They worked together to orchestrate Whitefield's
trip, first through Boston, and then to Northampton. When Whitefield preached at Edwards's church in
Northampton, he reminded them of the revival they had experienced just a few years before. This deeply touched
Edwards, who wept throughout the entire service, and much of the congregation too was moved. Revival began to
spring up again, and it was at this time that Edwards preached his most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God" in Enfield, Connecticut in 1741. This sermon has been widely reprinted as an example of "fire and
brimstone" preaching in the colonial revivals, though the majority of Edwards's sermons were not this dramatic.
Indeed, he used this style deliberately. As historian George Marsden put it, "Edwards could take for granted...that a
New England audience knew well the Gospel remedy. The problem was getting them to seek it." -- **Sinners in the
Hands of An Angry God, A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8, 1741, by Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Published at
Boston, 1741 -- The movement met with opposition from conservative Congregationalist ministers. In 1741,
Edwards published in its defense The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, dealing particularly
with the phenomena most criticized: the swoonings, outcries and convulsions. These "bodily effects," he insisted,
were not distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God one way or another; but so bitter was the feeling
against the revival in the more strictly Puritan churches that, in 1742, he was forced to write a second apology,
Thoughts on the Revival in New England, his main argument being the great moral improvement of the country. In
the same pamphlet, he defends an appeal to the emotions, and advocates preaching terror when necessary, even to
children, who in God's sight "are young vipers• if not Christ's." He considers "bodily effects" incidental to the real
work of God, but his own mystic devotion and the experiences of his wife during the Awakening (which he gives in
detail) make him think that the divine visitation usually overpowers the body, a view in support of which he quotes
Scripture. In reply to Edwards, Charles Chauncy wrote Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New
England in 1743 and anonymously penned The Late Religious Commotions in New England Considered in the
same year. In these works he urged conduct as the sole test of conversion; and the general convention of
Congregational ministers in the Province of Massachusetts Bay protested "against disorders in practice which have
of late obtained in various parts of the land." -- In spite of Edwards's able pamphlet, the impression had become
widespread that "bodily effects" were recognized by the promoters of the Great Awakening as the true tests of
conversion. To offset this feeling, Edwards preached at Northampton, during the years 1742 and 1743, a series of
sermons published under the title of Religious Affections (1746), a restatement in a more philosophical and general
tone of his ideas as to "distinguishing marks." In 1747, he joined the movement started in Scotland called the
"concert in prayer," and in the same year published An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible
Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's
Kingdom on Earth. In 1749, he published a memoir of David Brainerd who had lived with his family for several
months and had died at Northampton in 1747. Brainerd had been constantly attended by Edwards's daughter
Jerusha, to whom he was rumored to have been engaged to be married, though there is no surviving evidence for
this. In the course of elaborating his theories of conversion Edwards used Brainerd and his ministry as a case study,
making extensive notes of his conversions and confessions.
SermonAudio: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Mp3)
"Great Sermon!" This particular reading of the "greatest sermon ever preached on American soil", scared the hell
out of me. Even as a regenerated Christian, I was trembling throughout the entire sermon. The actor who performed
the reading of this certainly outdid himself. I would recommend this particular reading (produced by
cloudaudio.com) over all the others.
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