Neither in the Resolutions nor in the Journal do we meet the deep, all-pervading sense of sin which we should naturally expect from one who afterwards made it so prominent in his theology. There are traces of the sense of sin and guilt in these records of early experience, but it is not the prominent feature: it is subordinate to the aspiration after an ideal, or to the methods by which the aspiration may be achieved. Forgiveness is not the word which becomes a key to unlock the secret of his spiritual history. There are some, like Luther, who begin their religious experience with the burden of a sinful conscience, a burden which when it has disappeared, as at the foot of the cross, is gone never to return. And there are others, worshippers of an ideal, who attach themselves without reserve to God, thirsting for the righteousness which union with the divine demands. With these, the sense of sin may come later, growing out of a deeper love, out of the consciousness of failure to fulfil the standard of a perfect law. That such was Edwards' experience is intimated in a beautiful passage from his Treatise on the Religious Affections:

"A true saint is like a little child in this respect: he never had any godly sorrow before he was born again, but since has it often in exercise; as a little child before it is born, and while it remains in darkness, never cries; but as soon as it sees the light of day it begins to cry, and thenceforward is often crying. Although Christ hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows so that

THE SENSE OF SIN.

35

we are freed from the sorrow of punishment, and may now sweetly feed upon the comforts Christ hath purchased for us, yet that hinders not but that our feeding on these comforts should be attended with the sorrow of repentance, as of old the children of Israel were commanded evermore to feed upon the paschal lamb with bitter herbs. True saints are spoken of in Scripture, not only as those who have mourned for sin, but as those who do mourn, whose manner it is still to mourn: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.'"

There is another point in which the Diary is prophetic of work to be accomplished in the future. Several of the entries relate to the process which is called conversion. At this time neither the name, nor the process for which it stood, were as familiar as they have since become. In these allusions Edwards appears uncertain about his spiritual condition, because he is not clear as to what conversion requires. He determines that he will be constantly looking within, to the end that he may not be deceived as to whether he has a genuine interest in Christ. He makes it a point for future investigation to look most nicely and diligently into the opinions of our old divines concerning conversion. "The chief thing that now makes me in any measure question my good estate is my not having experienced conversion in those particular steps wherein the people of New England, and anciently the dissenters of old England, used to experience it. Wherefore have resolved

never to leave off searching till I have satisfyingly found out the very bottom and foundation, the real reason why they used to be converted in those steps." All this is interesting in view of the fact that Edwards did more than writer who preceded or followed him in determining the nature and the mode of conversion.

any

After years of concern about his inward state, yet so late as 1725 Edwards was still uncertain as to whether he had been converted. Nor in later life, as he reviewed these years of struggle and anxiety, was he able to describe with clearness the process through which he had passed. His conversion must be left, where he has left it, in mystery and obscurity. No mind, however subtle or introvertive, can trace the genesis of spiritual life, or analyze the steps by which the soul enters into union with God. But in Edwards' case, as in that of so many others, the process is confused and complicated by extraneous elements. An intellectual transition waited upon the spiritual process of which he gives no hint in his journal. He was tending away from the dreams of his youth, which reveal such extraordinary affiliations with Plato, with the Platonist fathers of the early church, or even with Spinoza, toward the Augustinian conception of God as unconditioned and arbitrary will. The change resulted in putting him in sympathy with the tenets of Calvinistic theology. He shows no appreciation of the significance of the transition, but he records the fact and its momen

tous consequences. "From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty, in choosing whom lle would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He pleased, leaving them eternally to perish and be everlastingly tormented in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me." But the moment came to him when he rejected the natural, instinctive working of the conscience as carrying no sacred force. This inward repulsion might be only the carnal mood of the natural unconverted man ; nay, even it might be a presumption in favor of the obnoxious tenet. Edwards no longer questioned the truth of the doctrine because it was repellent. What he aspired after was its reception with a willing and rejoicing mind. And somehow, he cannot tell exactly how, he finally attained this result.

"I remember the time very well when I seemed to be convinced and fully satisfied as to this sovereignty of God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing of men according to his sovereign pleasure; but never could give an account how or by what means I was thus convinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God's spirit in it, but only that now I saw further, and my mind apprehended the justice and reasonableness of it. However, my mind rested in it, and it put an end to all these cavils and questionings. God's absolute sovereignty and justice with respect to salvation is what my mind seems to rest assured of, as

much as of anything that I see with my eyes; at least it is so at times. But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another kind of sense of God's sovereignty than I had then. I have often had not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet. But my first conviction was not so."

So Edwards entered into the heritage of his fathers and made the Puritan consciousness his own. There are traces of an inward rebellion which was suppressed. There is reason to believe that his success was not so complete as he fancied in eradicating his earlier thought. But the critical point of the transition is not explained. It is buried out of sight in silence and darkness.

III.

SETTLEMENT AT NORTHAMPTON.

DOMESTIC LIFE.

MARRIAGE.

ON the 15th of February, 1727, Edwards was ordained at Northampton as the colleague of his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, then in his eighty-fourth year. The town of Northampton, a beautiful spot on the banks of the Connecticut, had been founded in 1654. The first minister was Mr. Eleazar Mather, a brother of the celebrated Increase Mather. After his early death came Mr. Stoddard, who held the pastorate from 1672 to 1729. He was one of the great men of