The Preface
The friendly correspondence which we maintain with our brethren of New England gives us now and then the pleasure of hearing some remarkable instances of divine grace in the conversion of sinners, and some eminent examples of piety in that American part of the world. But never did we hear or read, since the first ages of Christianity, any event of this kind so surprising as the present narrative has set before us. The Reverend and worthy Dr. Colman of Boston had given us some short intimations of it in his letters; and upon our request of a more large and particular account, Mr. Edwards, the happy and successful minister of Northampton, which was one of the chief scenes of these wonders, drew up this history in an epistle to Dr. Colman.
There were some useful sermons of the venerable and aged Mr. William Williams published lately in New England, which were preached in that part of the country during this season of the glorious work of God in the conversion of men; to which Dr. Colman added a most judicious and accurate abridgement of this epistle. And a little after, he sent the original to our hands, to be communicated to the world under our care here in London.
We are abundantly satisfied of the truth of this narrative, not only from the pious character of the writer, but from the concurrent testimony of many other persons in New England; for this thing was not done in a corner. There is a spot of ground, as we are well informed, wherein there are twelve or fourteen towns and villages, chiefly situated in the county of Hampshire near the banks of the river Connecticut, within the compass of thirty miles, wherein it pleased God two years ago to display his free and sovereign mercy in the conversion of a great multitude of souls in a short space of time, turning them from a formal, cold, and careless profession of Christianity to the lively exercise of every Christian grace and the powerful practice of our holy religion. The great God has seemed to act over again the miracle of Gideon's fleece, which was plentifully watered with the dew of heaven while the rest of the earth round about it was dry and had no such remarkable blessing.
There has been a great and just complaint for many years among the ministers and churches in Old England and in New, that the work of conversion goes on very slowly, that the Spirit of God in his saving influences is much withdrawn from the ministrations of his Word, and there are few that receive the report of the gospel with any eminent success upon their hearts. But as the gospel is the same divine instrument of grace still as ever it was in the days of the apostles, so our ascended Savior now and then takes a special occasion to manifest the divinity of this gospel by a plentiful effusion of his Spirit where it is preached; then sinners are turned into saints in numbers, and there is a new face of things spread over a town or country. The wilderness and the solitary places are glad, the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose; and surely concerning this instance we may add that they have seen the glory of the Lord there, and the excellency of our God — they have seen the outgoings of God our King in his sanctuary.
Certainly it becomes us who profess the religion of Christ to take notice of such astonishing exercises of his power and mercy, and give him the glory which is due, when he begins to accomplish any of his promises concerning the latter days; and it gives us further encouragement to pray and wait and hope for the like display of his power in the midst of us. The hand of God is not shortened that it cannot save, but we have reason to fear that our iniquities, our coldness in religion, and the general worldliness of our spirits have raised a wall of separation between God and us. And we may add, the pride and perverse spirit of unbelief, degeneracy and apostasy from the Christian faith, which have of late years broken out among us, seem to have provoked the Spirit of Christ to absent himself much from our nation. Return, O Lord, and visit your churches, and revive your own work in the midst of us.
From such blessed instances of the success of the gospel as appear in this narrative, we may learn much of the way of the Spirit of God in his dealing with the souls of men, in order to convince sinners and restore them to his favor and his image by Jesus Christ his Son. We acknowledge that some particular appearances in the work of conversion among men may be occasioned by the ministry which they sit under, whether it be of a more or less evangelical character, whether it be more severe and frightening or more gentle and persuasive. But wherever God works with power for salvation upon the minds of men, there will be some discoveries of a sense of sin, of the danger of the wrath of God, of the all-sufficiency of his Son Jesus to relieve us under all our spiritual needs and distresses, and a hearty consent of soul to receive him in the various offices of grace in which he is set forth in the holy Scriptures. And if our readers had opportunity, as we have had, to peruse several of the sermons which were preached during this glorious season, we should find that it is the common plain Protestant doctrine of the Reformation, without stretching toward the Antinomians on the one side or the Arminians on the other, that the Spirit of God has been pleased to honor with such illustrious success.
We are taught also by this happy event how easy it will be for our blessed Lord to make a full accomplishment of all his predictions concerning his kingdom, and to spread his dominion from sea to sea through all the nations of the earth. We see how easy it is for him, with one turn of his hand, with one word of his mouth, to awaken whole countries of stupid and sleeping sinners and kindle divine life in their souls. The heavenly influence shall run from door to door, filling the hearts and lips of every inhabitant with earnest inquiries: What shall we do to be saved? And how shall we escape the wrath to come? And the name of Christ the Savior shall spread itself like a rich and vital perfume to multitudes that were ready to sink and perish under the painful sense of their own guilt and danger. Salvation shall spread through all the tribes and ranks of mankind, as lightning from heaven in a few moments would communicate a living flame through ten thousand lamps or torches placed in a proper situation and proximity. Thus a nation shall be born in a day when our Redeemer pleases, and his faithful and obedient subjects shall become as numerous as the blades of grass in a meadow newly mown and refreshed with the showers of heaven. But the pleasure of this agreeable thought carries the mind away from our theme.
Let us return to the present narrative. It is worthy of our observation that this great and surprising work does not seem to have taken its rise from any sudden and distressing calamity or public terror that might universally impress the minds of a people. Here was no storm, no earthquake, no inundation of water, no desolation by fire, no pestilence or any other sweeping disease, nor any cruel invasion by their Indian neighbors, that might force the inhabitants into a serious thoughtfulness and a religious temper by the fears of approaching death and judgment. Such scenes as these have sometimes been made happily effectual to awaken sinners in Zion, and the formal professor and the hypocrite have been terrified with the thoughts of divine wrath breaking in upon them. But in the present case the immediate hand of God in the work of his Spirit appears much more evident, because there is no such awful and threatening providence attending it.
It is worthy also of our further notice that when many profane sinners and formal professors of religion have been frightened out of their present carelessness and stupidity by some astonishing terrors approaching them, those religious appearances have not been so durable, nor the real change of heart so thoroughly effected. Many of these sudden converts have dropped their religious concerns in a great measure when their fears of the threatening calamity have vanished. But it is a blessed confirmation of the truth of this present work of grace that the persons who were divinely worked upon in this season continue still to profess serious religion and to practice it without returning to their former follies.
It may not be out of place to take notice that a very surprising and threatening providence attended the people of Northampton this past year, among whom this work of divine grace was so remarkable. This providence at first might have been construed by the unthinking world to be a signal token of God's displeasure against that town, or a judgment from heaven upon the people; but soon afterward, like Paul's shaking the viper off from his hand, it discovered the astonishing care and goodness of God expressed toward a place where such a multitude of his young converts were assembled. Nor can we give a better account of it than in the language of this very gentleman, the Reverend Mr. Edwards, minister of that town, who wrote the following letter, which was published in New England.
But it is time to conclude our preface. If there should be anything found in this narrative of the surprising conversion of such numbers of souls where the sentiments or the style of the narrator, or his inferences from matters of fact, do not appear so agreeable to every reader, we hope it will have no unhappy influence to discourage the belief of this glorious event. We must allow every writer his own way, and must allow him to choose what particular instances he would select from the numerous cases which came before him. And though he might have chosen others perhaps of more significance in the eyes of the world than the woman and the child whose experiences he relates at length, yet it is evident he chose that of the woman because she was dead and is thereby unable to know any honors or reproaches on this account. And as for the child, those who were present and saw and heard such a remarkable and lasting change in one so very young must necessarily receive a stronger impression from it and a more agreeable surprise than the mere narration of it can communicate to others at a distance. Children's language always loses its striking beauties at second hand.
Upon the whole, we declare our opinion that this account of such an extraordinary and illustrious appearance of divine grace in the conversion of sinners is very likely, by the blessing of God, to have a happy effect toward the honor and enlargement of the kingdom of Christ.
May the worthy writer of this epistle, and all those his reverend brethren in the ministry who have been honored in this excellent and important service, go on to see their labors crowned with daily and persevering success! May the numerous subjects of this surprising work hold fast what they have received and increase in every Christian grace and blessing! May a plentiful effusion of the blessed Spirit also descend on the British Isles and all their American colonies, to renew the face of religion there! And we entreat our readers in both Englands to join with us in our hearty addresses to the throne of grace, that this wonderful discovery of the hand of God in saving sinners may encourage our faith and hope of the accomplishment of all his words of grace, which are written in the Old Testament and in the New, concerning the large extent of this salvation in the latter days of the world. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and spread your dominion through all the ends of the earth. Amen.
London, October 12, 1737. Isaac Watts. John Guyse.
