CHAPTER IV
JONATHAN EDWARDS
I. The Manuscripts of Jonathan Edwards
Most of the manuscripts from which the works published during Edwards's lifetime were printed have vanished. Some of the manuscripts used by Dr. S. E. Dwight in the preparation of the edition of Edwards's works published in 1829 have likewise disappeared. Of the manuscripts which remain Yale University and the Andover Theological Seminary possess practically the entire number. Miss Agnes Park of Andover, Mass., owns the record of the Edwards family from the family Bible, and also a thin note book on "Things to be Inquired into," written on scraps of fan paper. In addition she has a few private letters and some sermons of Timothy Edwards, the father of Jonathan Edwards.
It has frequently been suggested that some of the manuscripts of Edwards should exist in Scotland. None were found, however, by Dr. F. B. Dexter in a search undertaken some ten years ago.
A. The Edwards Manuscripts at Yale University
The Yale collection of Edwards manuscripts is that left at Edwards's death to his widow. Dr. Sereno E. Dwight used it in editing Edwards's works in 1829. In accord with the wishes of the great-grandchildren of Edwards, the manuscripts were deposited in the library of Yale University in 1900. They include:
Bible (Interleaved and annotated). Catalogue (Mainly literary notes and notes on books purchased or read). Doctrine of Original Sin (Incomplete). Early treatment of the Trinity (No title. Topics for investigation in Old Testament History for the boys of the Northampton congregation are included in the same cover). Images or Shadows of Devine Things (Also called The Book of Nature and Common Providence). Miscellaneous Observations (Eight volumes of about 1400 pages or 1412 entries). Notes on the Bible (Three quarto volumes). Notes on Natural Science (Cover page only). Reply to Solomon Williams on the Qualifications for Communion (Early draft). Sermons (Fifty undated, probably written before 1727. Five hundred about 1727-1741. Three hundred sermon outlines, 1741-1750. One hundred seventy-five Stockbridge sermon outlines. Of this whole collection only about fifty sermons have been published). Sermon Note Book (Begun about 1738. Contains "plans of discourses, texts from which the writer proposed to preach, and the doctrines deducible from them").
B. The Edwards Manuscripts at The Andover Theological Seminary
The Andover collection of manuscripts is part of that made by Dr. Sereno E. Dwight for his edition, and subsequently passed to Andover. The collection is not finally catalogued, although a card index has been prepared.
(a) Letters
The collection contains 150 letters by Edwards, including his earliest dated writing—a letter to his sister Mary, May 10, 1716—and also letters to Scotch clergymen and to Indian agents. There are in addition about fifteen letters to Edwards, and above one hundred and fifty letters by or to contemporary relatives or acquaintances.
