A Letter from a Pastor: Spiritual Guidance for a Young Christian

Deborah Hatheway, an eighteen-year-old convert who was without a pastor in her home town of Suffield, Massachusetts, turned to a known, trusted adviser for spiritual counsel and advice. Responding to her inquiry, Jonathan Edwards wrote this guide for a young Christian, with emphasis upon attitude and behavior.  Every new and old Christian alike needs to read this letter and heed this wise pastoral advice.

Northampton, June 3, 1741

Dear Child,

As you desired me to send you in writing some directions, how to conduct yourself in your Christian course, I would now answer your request. The sweet remembrance of the great things I have lately seen at Suffield, and the dear affections for those persons I have there conversed with, that give good evidences of a saving work of God upon their hearts, inclines me to do anything that lies in my power, to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people there. And what I write to you, I would also say to other young women there, that are your friends and companions and the children of God; and therefore desire you would communicate it to them as you have opportunity.

I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion in all parts of it, as you would do if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature and was seeking conversion. We advise persons under convictions to be earnest and violent for the kingdom of heaven, but when they have attained to conversion they ought not to be the less watchful, laborious and earnest in the whole work of religion, but the more; for they are under infinitely greater obligations. For want of this, many persons in a few months after their conversion have begun to lose the sweet and lively sense of spiritual things, and to grow cold and Hat and dark, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows, whereas if they had done as the Apostle did, Philippians 3:12-14, their path would have been as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day. Don’t leave off seeking, striving and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive your sight, that you may know your self, and be brought to God’s foot, and that you may see the glory of God and Christ and may be raised from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart; for those that have most of these things, had need still to pray for them; for there is so much blindness and hardness and pride and death remaining, that they still need to have that work of God wrought upon them, further to enlighten and enliven them; that shall be a bringing out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion and resurrection from the dead. There are very few requests that are proper for a natural person, but that in some sense are proper for the godly.

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards, Letters, Pastors, The Christian Life

Edwards Speaks to Pastors

On September 19, 1746, Jonathan Edwards preached at the installment of the Rev. Samuel Buel, as pastor of the church and congregation at East Hampton on Long Island. The sermon was entitled, “The Church’s Marriage to Her Sons, and to Her God.” In this marvelous sermon, Edwards lays out the marital relationship that Christ shares with his Bride, the church, and the relationship each Pastor shares with the same Bride. Listen as Edwards speaks on the Pastor’s role on the day when the Bride enters her heavenly glory.

“We trust, dear Sir, that you will esteem it a most blessed employment, to spend your time and skill in adorning Christ’s bride for her marriage with the Lamb, and that it is work which you will do with delight; and that you will take heed that the ornaments you put upon her are of the right sort, what shall be indeed beautiful and precious in the eyes of the bridegroom, that she may be all glorious within, and her clothing of wrought gold; that on the wedding-day she may stand on the king’s right hand in gold of Ophir.The joyful day is coming, when the spouse of Christ shall be led to the King in raiment of needle-work; and angels and faithful ministers will be the servants that shall lead her in. And you, Sir, if you are faithful in the charge now to be committed to you, shall be joined with glorious angels in that honorable and joyful service; but with this difference, that you shall have the higher privilege. Angels and faithful ministers shall be together in bringing in Christ’s bride into his palace, and presenting her to him. But faithful ministers hall have a much higher participation of the joy of that occasion. They shall have a greater and more immediate participation with the bride in her joy; for they shall not only be ministers to the church as the angels are, but parts of the church, principal members of the bride. And as such, at the same time that angels do the part of ministering spirits to the bride, when they conduct her to the bridegroom, they shall also do the part of ministering spirits to faithful ministers. And they shall also have a higher participation with the bridegroom than the angels, in his rejoicing at that time; for they shall be nearer to him than they. They are also his members, and are honored as the principal instruments of espousing the saints to him, and fitting them for his enjoyment; and therefore they will be more the crown of rejoicing of faithful ministers, than of the angels of heaven.

So great, dear Sir, is the honor and joy that is set before you, to engage you to faithfulness in your pastoral care of this people; so glorious the prize that Christ has set up to engage you to run the race that is set before you.”

(Taken from, “The Works of Jonathan Edwards,” vol. 2, The Banner of Truth)

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards, Pastors

Journey Towards Heaven

For years I have desired a daily devotional written by Jonathan Edwards that exceeded just a few lines. I wanted a devotional of theological depth. Something that would lift my affections to heights of splendor as I beheld the majesty and holiness of God that Edwards so passionately proclaimed.

In order to enjoy such a devotional I decided to compile one myself in the sincere hope that many would benefit from its pages. With the initial consideration in view it took some time to decide in which direction of Edwards’ writings I would proceed. The Yale edition of Edwards works had just been published online by the Jonathan Edwards Center and provided a vast wealth of material in which to draw. Would I draw from his weighty theological treatises’? Would I develop something from his endless Miscellanies? Then it hit me, what a better place for true devotional reading than the life-labor of his sermons. I wanted to sit in the pew as those in New York, Northampton, and Stockbridge. Excerpts from Edwards’ sermons would also provide the opportunity for a wider audience, for those who read such a work enjoy and learn from sermons each week.

Reading over countless sermons I came to see that Edwards was first and foremost a preacher par excellence. This was his calling, his passion and his desire. The sermons of Edwards personify the essence and life of Puritan preaching. Filled with exhortation, exposition, and serious application; Edwards sought to lift the hearts and minds of his hearers in the truth of the Word of God.

Filed under: Books, Jonathan Edwards

The Goodness of God Extended to the Ungodly

“God bestows abundance of mercy upon ungodly men; he bestows great temporal mercies upon them. God is kind to the evil and the good, to the just and the unjust. God is good to wicked men in preserving their lives, in providing for their subsistence, in giving them many things that are for their comfort in the world. Wicked men receive a great deal of goodness from God that they have cause to admire and be thankful for every day, and [there are] but few that live any considerable time but what are the subjects of special instances of God’s goodness and mercy to them in deliverances from trouble, and danger, and otherwise. Ungodly men especially receive great kindness from God. God heaps temporal good things upon them; he gives them wealth, and ease, and honor, and great temporal prosperity. God distributes the world amongst them. And they show their great ingratitude in that they, notwithstanding all God’s bounty to them, will not learn righteousness; Isaiah 26:10, “Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness.” Thus Samuel reproves Saul for his great ingratitude, that he took no more notice of the great kindness of God to him; 1 Samuel 15:17, “When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards

The Wise Men Seek Christ

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

Matthew 2:10

When those that have been earnestly seeking Christ come to find him, they have reason to rejoice with exceeding great joy. The person that they find is exceeding excellent and lovely. Before Christ is found, there is nothing that is truly lovely that is ever found or seen. Those things that they had been conversant with before and had set their hearts upon, had no true excellency. They only deceived ‘em with a false, empty show. But now they have found Christ, they have found one that is excellent indeed. They see in him a real and substantial excellency. Before that, while they were under trouble, they had before them only those things that were objects of fear and terror, such as their own guilt, the wickedness of their hearts, and the wrath of God, and death and hell, but nothing pleasant or lovely. But when they came to find Christ, what was terrible in those objects disappears, and they found a glorious object and far surpassing all things that ever they saw, one of excellent majesty and of perfect purity and brightness, purer than the light of the sun, infinitely farther from all deformity or defilement than the highest heavens themselves; and this conjoined with the sweetest grace, one that clothes himself with mildness and meekness and love. How refreshing and rejoicing must this be after they have nothing before their eyes but their sins staring them in the face, appearing with a frightful

Filed under: Christmas, Jesus, Jonathan Edwards