Jonathan Edwards on Revival

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Jonathan Edwards on Revival is a great volume collecting three great works.

This volume contains one of Edwards’ most analytical treatises on revival, Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, and his famous Narrative of Surprising Conversions, a detailed account of the famous revival of religion at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1735.

Favorite Quotes

  1. 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 Saviour 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 number, and there is a new face of things spread over a town or a country (2).
  2. This remarkableĀ pouring out of the Spirit of God, which thus extended from one end to the other of this county, was not confined to it, but many places in Connecticut have partaken in the same mercy (17).
  3. Persons are first awakened with a sense of their miserable condition by nature…Some are more suddenly seized with convictions…Others are awakened more gradually (23).
  4. The way that grace seems sometimes first to appear, after legal humiliation, is in earnest longings of soul after God and Christ: to know God, to love him, to be humble before him, to have communion with Christ in his benefits… (35).
  5. There is still a great deal of religious conversation continued in our town, amongst young and old; a religious disposition appears to be still maintained amongst our people, by their holding frequent private religious meetings; and all sorts are generally worshipping God at such meetings, on Sabbath-nights, and in the evening after our public lecture (72).
  6. Let us all be hence warned, by no means to oppose, or do any thing in the least to clog or hinder the work; but, on the contrary, do our utmost to promote it (130).
  7. A man may have those extraordinary gifts, and yet be abominable to God, and go to hell (138).
  8. The people also seem to be much more sensible of the danger of resting in old experiences, or what they were subjects of at their supposed first conversion; and to be more fully convinced of the necessity of forgetting the things that are behind, and pressing forward and maintaining earnest labour, watchfulness, and prayerfulness, as long as they live (160).