AN EARLY PRINTING OF A SERMON BY EDWARDS

Authors

  • Jonathan Edwards
  • Jonathan Yeager

Keywords:

Sermon, American Religious History,

Abstract

Recently, Jonathan Yeager of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, discovered the imprint of a sermon by Edwards on Revelation 14:2, preached in November 1734, in an obscure, short-lived English journal, The Biblical Magazine. The sermon, published in the inaugural volume of the journal in 1801, appeared in two installments, apparently divided according to preaching units as they appeared in the original manuscript. We can only surmise that division, because the manuscript no longer survives, which makes the discovery of this printing quite valuable. (It is worth noting that the New-York Missionary Magazine 3 [1802], pp. 99 ff., also publishes the sermon, but, curiously, only the first preaching unit.) It was later included by Sereno Dwight in his ten-volume collection of Edwards’ writings (1829) under the title, Praise, One Of The Chief Employments Of Heaven. Whether Dwight had access to the manuscript is unknown, but since the text was sponsored by the English divine John Ryland Jr., it seems likely that he was sent the manuscript by his correspondent Jonathan Edwards Jr., and that Dwight actually based his edition on Ryland’s earlier one. Whichever text Dwight used, there are significant differences his and that of Ryland, the more significant of which are noted.

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Published

2015-11-12

Issue

Section

Historical Documents