American Keligious Leaders JONATHAN EDWARDS BY ALEXANDER V. G. ALLEN, D. D. BOSTON AND NEW YORK 1889 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. THE edition of Edwards' works to which references are made is known as the Worcester edition, in four volumes, published in New York in 1847. I have drawn freely from his Life by Dr. S. E. Dwight published in 1830. Valuable as this work is, it does not constitute an adequate biography. Much that would throw light upon Edwards' history is withheld from publication. It is greatly to be regretted also that there is no complete edition of his works. But in the method which I have followed I have not lacked for abundance of material. I have endeavored to reproduce Edwards from his books, making his treatises, in their chronological order, contribute to his portraiture as a man and as a theologian, a task which has not been heretofore attempted. I have thought that something more than a mere recountal of facts was demanded in order to justify the endeavor to rewrite his life. What we most desire to know is, what he thought and how he came to think as he did. The aim of my work is a critical one, with this inquiry always in view. Criticism, however, should be sympathetic to a certain extent with its object, or it will |