The Emergence of Modern Protestantism 1725 - 1850

1. The Emergence of Modern Protestantism1725 - 1850

2. Outline The Problem The Great Awakening Frelinghuysen and Tennent Edwards

3. The Problem � The Halfway Covenant According to Covenant Theology, baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, the ingrafting into Christ, and a symbol of admission to the visible church (just as circumcision was). Because the covenant with Abraham was also to his seed, children were circumcised to indicate their participation in the covenant Now, as then, the children of believers also participate in the covenant, and are members (albeit non-communicant) of the visible church, and are baptized as infants as a symbol of this (just as previously they were circumcised). As children get older, at some point they are required to make a profession of faith to partake of the Lord�s Supper (i.e. become communicant members). What if they don�t? Should their children be baptized (if the parents request it)?

4. The Essential Question Thus, to the Reformed Baptist, the status quo is no longer believers and their children being in covenant with God, but to the individual man, woman, boy, or girl who is confronted with the gospel to believe, repent, and be baptized.

5. The Church Decides� and wimps out In the 17th century, this problem became acute in the second and third generations. These adults were known as �half-way covenanters� and typically wanted their children baptized. General practice had been to require one believing parent. Cambridge synod 1646-1648 took no decisive action (WCF was being written) In 1657 a group of seventeen ministers took the liberal view In 1666 seventy delegates gathered at First Church in Boston � liberals won by 7-1. Became a significant factor in the decline of the churches, which eventually resulted in the Great Awakening

6. The Great Awakening Roughly at same time as Pietism on continent, Wesleyan revival in England Started in 1726 in Raritan Valley of NJ Dutch Reformed Theodore Frelinghuysen Spread throughout the colonies Other prominent names � Tennent, Edwards, Whitefield Emphasis on personal conversion!

7. The Great Awakening (non-friendly view) Stressed the emotional side of religion. This weakened institutional authority; regeneration was not certified by church, but by one�s own emotional conviction. It bypassed doctrinal orthodoxy; the convert�s immediate sense of participating in spiritual reality rendered intellectual formulations less significant. It made religion more popular; it is easier to experience emotional excitement than rational understanding. It made religion more democratic; by emphasizing the individual experience of conversion, and the equal capacity of everyone, child or adult, rich or poor, ignorant or wise, to be touched by the inner experience of grace. It made religion trans-colonial; breakdown of distinctions between church and creed, it encouraged the proliferation of sects which led to vagueness in doctrine, laxness in discipline, and faded into general religious indifference. It gave rise to a community organized in pursuit of secular values.

8. Frelinghuysen � from a sermon �How happens it then, that this sacrament is so lightly extended to all who but ask it, and bear the name of members, though often as ignorant as heathen, openly living in gross sins, and not marked by the least morality; not to speak of true godliness? With what reason may we exclaim, with the holy Polycarp: O good God! To what evil times hast thou preserved me! For it has now come to this, that many may be found who bear the name of the Reformed, and yet are ignorant of the Reformed doctrines, and oppose, calumniate, and practically deny them. I have three times administered the Lord�s supper and urged this point, that the unconverted may not approach, and that the wicked must, according to our doctrine, be debarred. But what murmuring has this excited? How many tongues, set on fire of hell, have uttered their slanders?�

9. Tennent � �The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry� Starts from passage in Mark 6:34 � �Sheep not having a shepherd� �Pharisee-Teachers, having no Experience of a special Work of the Holy Ghost, upon their own Souls, are therefore neither inclined to, nor fitted for, Discoursing, frequently, clearly, and pathetically, upon such important Subjects. The Applications of their Discourses, is either short, or indistinct and general. They difference not the Precious from the Vile, and divide not to every Man his Portion, according to the Apostolical Direction to Timothy. No! they carelessly offer a common Mess to their people, and leave it to them, to divide it among themselves, as they see fit�.But sometimes they do worse, by misapplying the Word through Ignorance, or Anger. They often strengthen the Hands of the Wicked, by promising him Life. They comfort People, before they convince them, sow before they plow�These fooling Builders do but strengthen Men�s carnal Security, by their soft, selfish cowardly Discourses. They have not the Courage, or Honesty, to thrust the Nail of Terror into sleeping Souls;��

10. Tennent - �Unconverted Ministry �All the Doings of unconverted men, not proceeding from the Principles of Faith, Love, and a new Nature, nor being directed to the divine Glory as their highest End, but flowing from, and tending to Self, as their Principle and End; are doubtless damnably Wicked in their Manner of Performance, and do deserve the Wrath and Curse of a Sin-avenging God;� Is a blind Man fit to be a Guide in a very dangerous Way? Is a dead man fit to bring others to Life? A mad Man fit to give Counsel in a Matter of Life and Death? Is a possessed Man fit to cast out Devils? A Rebel, an Enemy to God, fit to be sent on an Embassy of Peace, to bring Rebels into a State of Friendship with God? A Captive bound in the Massy Chains of Darkness and Guilt, a proper Person to set others at Liberty? A Leper� fit to be a good Physician?�

11. Results Some of this did not go over big resulting in a split - Old Side � New Side The key issue � the relation between doctrinal orthodoxy and experimental (or experiential) knowledge. The New Siders formed a separate presbytery, then synod (1745) Questioned the value of strict orthodoxy in the absence of personal religious experience. Stressed the need for educational, doctrinal and experiential qualifications for the ministry Took a stand in support of the Adopting Act of 1729 (still on PCA web site) And do therefore agree, that all the Ministers of this Synod, or that shall hereafter be admitted into this Synod, shall declare their agreement in and approbation of the Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the assembly of Divines at Westminster, as being in all the essential and necessary articles, good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine; and do also adopt the said Confession and Catechisms as the confession of our faith. By 1758 New Side had grown from 22 ministers to 73, and the Old Side had stagnated � merged but New Side had won

12. Jonathan Edwards, New England Theology, The Awakening �He that would know the workings of the New England mind in the middle of the Eighteenth century, and the throbbings of its heart, must give his days and nights to the study of Jonathan Edwards.� George Bancroft (19th cent. historian) Born 1703 Graduated Yale 1720

13. God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of Man�s Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It I. There is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God. First, the redeemed have all their good of God. Tis of God that we have our Redeemer: it is God that has provided a Saviour for us� And as it is God that gives, so �tis God that accepts the Saviour. �Tis of God that Christ becomes ours, that we are brought to him and are united to him: it is of God that we receive faith to close with him, that we have an interest in him. Eph 2:8, �For by grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.� Tis God that pardons and justifies, and delivers from going down to hell� Second, the redeemed have all their good through God. Third, the redeemed have all their good in God.

14. Of God�Grace The redeemed have all� Of the grace of God It was of mere grace that God gave us his only begotten Son. The grace of God in bestowing this gift is most free. It was what God was under no obligation to bestow: he might have rejected fallen man, as he did the fallen angels. It was what we never did any thing to merit. �Twas given while we were yet enemies.� And �tis from mere grace that the benefits of Christ are applied to such and such particular persons. Of the power of God

15. God Glorified II. God is glorified in the work of redemption by this means, viz. by there being so great and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him. We have the greater occasion to take notice of God�s all sufficiency, when all our sufficiency is thus every way of him. We have the more occasion to contemplate him as an infinite good, and as the fountain of all good. By the creature�s being thus wholly and universally dependent on God, it appears that the creature is nothing and that God is all. If we had our dependence partly on God and partly on something else, man�s respect would be divided to shoe different things on which he had dependence.

16. The Awakening in Northhampton Started in 1733-1734 Edwards was preaching a �closely reasoned� sermon series on justification by faith People began to be �awakened� to their spiritual condition.� About 300 people converted Well documented - in 1737 he wrote �A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, and Neighboring Towns and Villages�

17. A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, and Neighboring Towns and Villages - 1737 Presently after this, there began to appear a remarkable religious concern at a little village belonging to the congregation called Pascommuck, where a few families were settled, at about three miles distance from the main body of the town. At this place, a number of persons seemed to be savingly wrought upon. In the April following, anno 1734, there happened a very sudden and awful death of a young man in the bloom of his youth; who being violently seized with a pleurisy, and taken immediately very delirious, died in about two days; which (together with what was preached publicly on that occasion) much affected many young people. This was followed with another death of a young married woman, who had been considerably exercised in mind, about the salvation of her soul, before she was ill, and was in great distress in the beginning of her illness; but seemed to have satisfying evidences of God's mercy to her, before her death; so that she died very full of comfort, in a most earnest and moving manner warning and counselling others. This seemed to contribute to render solemn the spirits of many young persons; and there began evidently to appear more of a religious concern on people's minds.

18. A Faithful Narrative�dry bones reborn Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees, and all ages. The noise amongst the dry bones waxed louder and louder; all other talk but about spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown by; all the conversation, in all companies and upon all occasions, was upon these things only, unless so much as was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary secular business. Other discourse than of the things of religion would scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world, it was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly business, more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it; the temptation now seemed to lie on that hand, to neglect worldly affairs too much, and to spend too much time in the immediate exercise of religion. This was exceedingly misrepresented by reports that were spread in distant parts of the land, as though the people here had wholly thrown by all worldly business, and betook themselves entirely to reading and praying, and such like religious exercises.

19. A Faithful Narrative�visitors When this work first appeared and was so extraordinarily carried on amongst us in the winter, others round about us seemed not to know what to make of it. Many scoffed at and ridiculed it; and some compared what we called conversion, to certain distempers. But it was very observable of many, who occasionally came amongst us from abroad with disregardful hearts, that what they saw here cured them of such a temper of mind. Strangers were generally surprised to find things so much beyond what they had heard, and were wont to tell others that the state of the town could not be conceived of by those who had not seen it. The notice that was taken of it by the people who came to town on occasion of the court that sat here in the beginning of March, was very observable. And those who came from the neighborhood to our public lectures were for the most part remarkably affected�There were many instances of persons who came from abroad on visits, or on business, who had not been long here, before, to all appearances, they were savingly wrought upon, and partook of that shower of divine blessing which God rained down here, and went home rejoicing; till at length the same work began evidently to appear and prevail in several other towns in the county.

20. A Faithful Narrative�divine wrath Many times persons under great awakenings were concerned, because they thought they were not awakened, but miserable, hard-hearted, senseless, sottish creatures still, and sleeping upon the brink of hell. The sense of the need they have to be awakened, and of their comparative hardness, grows upon them with their awakenings; so that they seem to themselves to be very senseless, when indeed most sensible. There have been some instances of persons who have had as great a sense of their danger and misery as their natures could well subsist under, so that a little more would probably have destroyed them; and yet they have expressed themselves much amazed at their own insensibility and sottishness at such an extraordinary time. Persons are sometimes brought to the borders of despair, and it looks as black as midnight to them a little before the day dawns in their souls. Some few instances there have been, of persons who have had such a sense of God's wrath for sin, that they have been overborne; and made to cry out under an astonishing sense of their guilt, wondering that God suffers such guilty wretches to live upon earth, and that he doth not immediately send them to hell.

21. A Faithful Narrative�eyes opened It was very wonderful to see how persons affections were sometimes moved-when God did as it were suddenly open their eyes, and let into their minds a sense of the greatness of His grace, the fullness of Christ, and His readiness to save-after having been broken with apprehensions of divine wrath, and sunk into an abyss, under a sense of guilt which they were ready to think was beyond the mercy of God. Their joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tears often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping. Sometimes they have not been able to forbear crying out with a loud voice, expressing their great admiration. In some, even the view of the glory of God's sovereignty, in the exercises of His grace, has surprised the soul with such sweetness, as to produce the same effects. I remember an instance of one, who, reading something concerning God's sovereign way of saving sinners, as being self-moved-having no regard to men's own righteousness as the motive of His grace, but as magnifying Himself and abasing man, or to that purpose-felt such a sudden rapture of joy and delight in the consideration of it: and yet then he suspected himself to be in a Christless condition, and had been long in great distress for fear that God would not have mercy on him.

22. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - 1741 Originally preached by Jonathan Edwards in his own church, then, one month later, in Enfield Connecticut, July 8, 1741 Text � Deuteronomy 32:35 � �Their Foot Shall Slide in Due Time� The verbal expressions of conviction for sin became so loud, in fact, that it seems that Edwards was not able to complete the sermon. Why the response of wails and cries? It wasn't because of his verbal style-which was quite staid, and certainly far less dramatic than George Whitfield's. It was because of the content.

23. Sinners in the Hands� What is not in the sermon The biblical basis for this picture of hell The good news of how sinners can escape Isaac Watts (famous pastor and hymn-writer � When I Survey), a contemporary of Whitefield and Edwards, penned on his copy of the sermon "A most terrible [that is, terrifying] sermon, which should have had a word of Gospel at the end [of] it, though I think 'tis all true." George Marsden writes, �Building on the widely held premise of New Englanders that hell was as genuinely a reality as China, Edwards hoped to awaken people to what that awful reality must mean to them here and now� Edwards wanted his hearers to �know� hell, not just �know of� it.

24. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God The Point: �There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.�

25. Sinners�Are NOW the objects of God�s wrath IV. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they don�t go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.

26. Sinners�are awaited by the devil V. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as his �goods,� Luke 11:21. The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

27. Sinners�can go to hell in a moment VII. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. �Tis no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he don�t see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows that this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step won�t be into another world.

28. Sinners�are in a dreadful state So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold �em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

29. Sinners�are awaiting a flood �Tis true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God�s vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are continually rising and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God that holds the waters back that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward; if God should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power�

30. Sinners� are hanging by a thread The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet �tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment: �tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God�s hand has held you up: there is no other reason to be given why you han�t gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don�t this very moment drop down into hell.

31. Sinners�have an opportunity And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now an happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him that has loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition?

32. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections - 1746 �Because many who, in the late extraordinary Season, appeared to have great religious Affections, did not manifest a right Temper of Mind, and run into many errors�and because the high Affections of many seem to be so soon come to nothing�Hence religious Affections in general are grown out of Credit, with great Numbers, as though true Religion did not at all consist in them. �Herein appears the subtilty of Satan. While he saw that Affections were much in Vogue, knowing the greater Part of the Land were not versed in such Things, and had not had much Experience of great religious Affections, to enable them to judge well of �em, and distinguish between true and false; then he knew he could best play his Game, by sowing Tares amongst the Wheat.�

33. False Religious Affections �Tis no Sign that Affections have the Nature of true Religion, or that they have not, that they gave great Effects on the body.� ��there is nothing of it in this falsely supposed Leading of the Spirit, which has been now spoken of; but also shows the Difference between spiritual Understanding and all Kinds of Forms of Enthusiasm, all imaginary Sights of God and Christ and Heaven, all supposed Witnessing of the Spirit, and Testimonies of the Love of God by immediate inward Suggestion, and all Impressions of future Events, and immediate Revelations of any secret Facts whatsoever� None of these things consist in a divine Sense and Relish of the Heart, of the holy Beauty and Excellency of divine Things; nor have they any Thing to do with such a Sense, but all consist in Impressions in the Head�.

34. Edwards Final Word on Affection �Christian Practice is the most proper Evidence of the gracious Sincerity of Professors, to themselves and others; and the chief of all the Marks of Grace, the Sign of Signs, and Evidence of Evidences, that which seals and crowns all other Signs. I had rather have the Testimony of my Conscience, that I have such a Saying of my supreme Judge on my Side, as that, John 14:21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; than the Judgement, and fullest Approbation, of all the wise, sound and experienced Divines�But yet this is the chief and most proper Evidence. There may be several good Evidences that a Tree is a Fig-Tree; But the highest and most proper Evidence of it, is that it actually bears figs.�

35. Edwards and Communion � Who Should Partake? Edwards grandfather and predecessor Stoddard, wanted to allow virtually everyone to take communion (and eventually did) General practice was if your parents were Christians, you attended, and refrained from blatantly ungodly behavior, you could partake Edwards tried to �fence the table� Cost him his job, in 1750

36. A Humble Inquiry into the Rules of the Word of God, Concerning the Qualifications Requisite to a Complete Standing and Full Communion in the Visible Church - 1749 From the preface�"My appearing in this public manner on that side of the question, which is defended in the following sheets, will probably be surprising to many, as �tis well known, that Mr. Stoddard, so great and eminent a divine, and my venerable predecessor in the pastoral office over the church in Northampton, as well as my own grandfather, publicly and strenuously appeared in opposition to the doctrine here maintained. � But the difficulties and uneasiness on my mind increasing as I become more studied in divinity and as I improved in experience; this brought me to closer diligence and care to search the scriptures, and more impartially to examine and weigh the arguments of my grandfather and such other authors as I could get on his side of the question. By which means, after long searching, pondering, viewing, and reviewing, I gained satisfaction, became fully settled in the opinion I now maintain as in the discourse here offered to public view, and dared to proceed no further in a practice and administration inconsistent therewith."

37. A Humble Inquiry� PART I: THE QUESTION STATED AND EXPLAINED The main question I would consider, and for the negative of which, I would offer some arguments in the following discourse, is this: whether, according to the rules of Christ, any ought to be admitted to the communion and privileges of members of the visible church of Christ in complete standing, but such as are in profession, and in the eye of the church's Christian judgment, godly or gracious persons?

38. Edwards� last years In 1751 Edwards went to Stockbridge Mass Mission to the Housatonic Indians Preached at least 200 sermons to the Indians His interpreter was John Wauwaumpequunaunt Christ had died for the elect of all nations Wordly power and wealth were no signs of election A productive seven years Became president of Princeton in 1757 Died one year later

39. A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the modern prevailing Notions of the Freedom of Will, Which is supposed to be essential to Moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punishment, Praise and Blame - 1754 �In such a situation [where the deeds of men are not caused] God must have little else to do, but to mend broken links as well as he can, and be rectifying his disjointed frame and disordered movements, in the best manner the case will allow. The supreme Lord of all things must needs be under great and miserable disadvantages, in governing the world which he has made, and has the care of, through his being utterly unable to find out things of chief importance, which hereafter shall befall his system; which if he did by know, he might make seasonable provision for.�

40. Next Week The Great Awakening � Whitefield, Wesley and Franklin