Note 7 — Chapter II · • The Anachronism of Jonathan Edwards

For a statement of the doctrine, see Sermon XXXIV, “God’s Sovereignty,” in Works, New York, 1847, Vol. IV, p. 548.

Edwards unconsciously admits that the doctrine of sovereignty was reactionary. “From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, in choosing whom He would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He pleased, leaving them eternally to perish and be everlastingly tormented in hell.” Later he came to regard such repugnance as the sinful expression of the natural man. As he saw further, his mind “apprehended the justice and reasonableness of ... God’s absolute sovereignty and justice with respect to salvation ... as much as of anything that I see with my eyes; at least it is so at times. But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another sense of God’s sovereignty than I had then. I have often hid not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet.... But my first conviction was not so.” Quoted in Allen, Jonathan Edwards, pp. 37–38.