A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
Edwards’s letter to Dr Colman of Boston describing the religious awakening in his congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and 1735. It is the pastor’s own account, written within two years of the events.
Read the text at ccel.org ↗Preface by the first editors, Isaac Watts and John Guyse ↗
Edwards describes his town and its earlier ministers, the beginning of the awakening in the last days of 1734, its spread to neighbouring towns in the spring of 1735 and its decline after May. He reckons the converts in Northampton at more than three hundred in half a year, describes the usual course of a conversion, and gives two cases at length. He also reports what went wrong: a suicide and two people “led away with strange enthusiastic delusions”.
The letter is addressed to a minister in Boston and was printed with a preface by its first editors, Isaac Watts and John Guyse, dated 12 October 1737. It is the judgment of a participant who believed the work to be of God. See the Great Awakening.
Cited in
- 1734 to 1743, firm date