Jonathan Edwards
I had read about Jonathan Edwards. But I have now come to admire a dedicated saint God could work through to begin The First Great Awakening. Some particularly enlightening insight into his character came to me unexpectedly—supernaturally, I believe. At our family New Year's gathering, I asked each one to voice a resolution. My grandson, Cody Oaks and his bride, Aubrey Pearsons Oaks were with us. The next morning Aubrey came to my place from the prayer cabin where they stayed. She had in her hand a very old book we had used for décor.
The Harper's Fifth Reader was published in 1889. Its Publisher's Note read: "To cultivate a spirit of patriotism and to inculcate a commendable pride in the achievements of our countrymen is one of the first duties of the schools." The reader's lessons were by authors such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ward Beecher, Julia Ward Howe, etc. And it included "Resolutions by Jonathan Edwards." Written when he was young, they show the bent of his resolve to live life—the life God anointed for great purpose. Billye Brim
Jonathan Edwards was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, October 5, 1708. He graduated at Yale College in 1720; preached for about eight months in New York; was a tutor in Yale College from the summer of 1724 until the summer of 1726; was pastor of the church at Northampton from 1727 to 1750; was missionary to the Stockbridge Indians from 1751 to 1758; was installed as president of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, February 16, 1758; and died on the 22nd of March following.
When a child he was acquainted not only with the ordinary writings in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, but with the abstruse and difficult works of modern philosophers. At the age of twelve he wrote a paper ridiculing the idea that the soul is material. The “Resolutions” were written for his own personal guidance while he was still a mere boy. As a preacher, and as an original thinker and reasoner, it is probable that no one in America has ever excelled him. His chief literary work was “An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will,” published in 1754; a volume of such enduring value that it is still sometimes used as a college text book. (Biography taken from the Harper’s Fifth Reader, Notes, pg 472.)
RESOLUTIONS
by Jonathan Edwards
- Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence.
- Resolved, To do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general.
- Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
- Resolved, To live with all my might while I do live.
- Resolved, Never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
- Resolved, To be endeavoring to find out fit objects of liberality and charity.
- Resolved, Never to do anything out of revenge.
- Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.
- Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
- Resolved, That I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
- Resolved, To live so at all times, as I think is best in my most devout frames, and when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel and another world.
- Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
- Resolved, Never to do anything which, if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
- Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
- Resolved, Never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.
- Resolved, Never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this resolution.
- Resolved, In narrations, never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
- Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it.
- Resolved, To inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent--what sin I have committed--and wherein I have denied myself; also, at the end of every week, month, and year.
- Resolved, Never to do anything of which I so much question the lawfulness as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
- Resolved, To inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could with respect to eating and drinking.
- Resolved, Never to allow the least measure of any fretting or uneasiness at my father and mother. Resolved, to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye; and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family.
- On the supposition that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.