Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-Thus far my Letter to Mr. Clark

 

Northampton, May 7, 1750.

The council had heard that I had made certain draughts of the covenant, or forms of a public profession of religion which I stood ready to accept from the candidates for church communion, they, for their further information, sent for them. Accordingly, I sent them four distinct draughts or forms, which I had drawn up about a twelvemonth before, as what I stood ready to accept (any one of them) rather than contend and break with my people. 

The two shortest of these forms are here inserted for the satisfaction of the reader. They are as follows. 

“I hope I do truly find a heart to give up myself wholly to God, according to the tenor of that covenant of grace which was sealed in my baptism; and to walk in a way of that obedience to all the commandments of God, which the covenant of grace requires, as long as I live.” Another, “I hope I truly find in my heart a willingness to comply with all the commandments of God, which require me to give up myself wholly to him and to serve him with my body and my spirit. And do accordingly now promise to walk in a way of obedience to all the commandments of God, as long as I live.” 

In such kind of professions as these, I stood ready to accept, rather than contend and break with my people. Not but that I think it much more convenient, that ordinarily the public profession of religion that is made by Christians should be much fuller and more particular, and that (as I hinted in my letter to Mr. Clark) I should not choose to be tied up to any certain form of words, but to have the liberty to vary the expressions of a public profession the more exactly to suit the sentiments and experience of the professor, that it might be a more just and free expression of what each one finds in his heart. 

And moreover, it must be noted, that I ever insisted on it, that it belonged to me as a pastor, before a profession was accepted, to have full liberty to instruct the candidate in the meaning of the terms of it, and in the nature of the things proposed to be professed; and to inquire into his doctrinal understanding of these things, according to my best discretion; and to caution the person, as I should think needful, against rashness in making such a profession, or doing it mainly for the credit of himself or his family, or from any secular views whatsoever, and to put him on serious self-examination, and searching his own heart, and prayer to God to search and enlighten him that he may not be hypocritical and deceived in the profession he makes; withal pointing forth to him the many ways in which professors are liable to be deceived. 

Nor do I think it improper for a minister in such a case, to inquire and know of the candidate what can be remembered of the circumstances of his Christian experience; as this may tend much to illustrate his profession and give a minister great advantage for proper instructions: though a particular knowledge and remembrance of the time and method of the first conversion to God are not to be made the test of a person’s sincerity, nor insisted on as necessary in order to his being received into full charity. Not that I think it at all improper or unprofitable, that in some special cases a declaration of the particular circumstances of a person’s first awakening and the manner of his convictions, illuminations, and comforts, should be publicly exhibited before the whole congregation, on the occasion of his admission into the church; though this is not demanded as necessary to admission. 

I ever declared against insisting on a relation of experience, in this sense (viz., a relation of the particular time and steps of the operation of the Spirit in the first conversion), as the term of communion: yet, if by a relation of experiences, he meant a declaration of experience of the great things wrought, wherein true grace and the essential acts and habits of holiness consist; in this sense, I think an account of a person’s experiences necessary in order to his admission into full communion in the church. But that in whatever inquiries are made, and whatever accounts are given, neither minister nor church is to set up themselves as searchers of hearts, but are to accept the serious, solemn profession of the well-instructed professor, of a good life, as best able to determine what he finds in his own heart. 

These things may serve in some measure to set right those of my readers who have been misled in their apprehensions of the state of the controversy between me and my people, by the aforementioned misrepresentations.

 Jonathan Edwards.