Jonathan Edwards
The pastor of Northampton, Massachusetts, whose account of the awakening in his town in 1734 and 1735 was printed with a preface dated 1737. In 1741 he preached the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God at Enfield.
Edwards writes that he was the third minister settled at Northampton, Massachusetts, that he had served for about two years beside his grandfather, Mr Stoddard, before the old man’s death, and that the awakening in his congregation began in the latter part of December 1734 (Edwards, Faithful Narrative section 1). He signed his account of it at Northampton on 6 November 1736 (Edwards, Faithful Narrative section 3, close).
George Whitefield, who stayed in his house in October 1740, called him “a solid, excellent Christian” and wrote that he had not seen his fellow in all New England (Whitefield, Journal seventh journal, pp. 47–49). On 8 July 1741 Edwards preached at Enfield in Connecticut the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God heading). See the Great Awakening.
In the timeline
- 1734 to 1743, firm dateThe Great Awakening
A revival in Jonathan Edwards’s congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and 1735 becomes known through his printed account. In 1740 George Whitefield preaches to great crowds in New England, and Charles Chauncy of Boston answers that much of the stir is disorder.