Part II  –  Application to Reformed & Evangelical Theology

Subpart C  –  The Awakenings of Evangelicalism

ARTICLE 1 – THE GREAT AWAKENING

a.  Puritan Reformers & the New Word; “Revival”      b.  Events in New England               c.  The Camsumblang Work    d.  Criticism of the Awakening; Charles Chauncy    e.  Awakening as Principle of Evangelicalism    f.  The End of a Divine Visitation

 ARTICLE 1 – THE GREAT AWAKENING

a.  Puritan Reformers & the New Word; “Revival”

The meaning of saving-faith and spiritual-regeneration became subjects of much deeper development during the era of the Puritan-reformers of the seventeenth-century.   While the Reformation focused upon general principles of doctrine and practice the century that followed brought religion deeper into principles of the heart.

The Puritan-movement also resisted the formalities and rituals that the Protestant churches seemed to have difficulty shedding from its Catholic origins.  The Church of England held to many of the ostentatious-practices of the Roman clergy – such things as (e.g.) the wearing of vestments.  The Puritan reformers rejected to such practices as inconsistent with true spirituality:

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, & enlarge the borders of their garments,                Matt. 23:5

They objected to the practice of genuflecting to the clergy, the imposition of a liturgical-order with a compelled chain-of-authority.  In fact the Puritans resisted a good-many things on Scritpural-grounds that brought them into conflict with even the Protestant ecclesiastical-authorities of the Church of England.

The Puritan-movement  was characterized by an emphasis upon the teachings of Christ, discipleship, and a more devotional and personal way of faith.  Their era brought the Christian faith into a time of more depth of insight into the meaning of gospel-holiness that had not been generally taught in the previous-century of the Reformation.
The Puritans went beyond their Reformer-forbears to personalize the meaning of faith in Jesus Christ as a matter of the heart. 
While secular-historians have too commonly painted the Puritan-era as a time of self-righteous piety, that brush has been far too broad.  Those that will take the time to read the Puritan authors, e.g. Thomas Watson, John Owen, William Gurnall, Joseph Alleine might be surprised to find an incredible wealth of insight and spirituality in these writings.   Many Christian readers will attest that there was no greater period of devotional-writing than the Puritan-era.

Once the truths of the Reformation began to take root, an evermore-vital castigation of inward-sin and striving after personal holiness became prevalent. The preaching and literature leading from the seventeenth into the eighteenth-century was markedly superior to what had gone before in terms of presenting the gospel and the doctrines of Christ as a matter confronting the individual and going to the inner-man – faith as a living-principle rather than as an abstraction.  As these gospel-influences began to permeate broader areas of society something new began to occur!  The churches began to experience true spiritual awakening wherein the Spirit of God wrought powerfully upon the hearts of men – and particularly where the teachings of the Puritan Reformers were preached.  Suddenly the church had a new word in its lexicon; “revival.”

b.   Events in New England

Secular-analysis abounds in regards to the conditions and causes that led to the Great Awakening and the several-successive revivals that occurred in the hundred or so years thereafter.  Following in the wake of any vibrant move of God there are always secular rationalizations pointing to underlying causes, be they; economic, social, psychological, etc.  The secular-world operating under natural-principles cannot do differently – knowing not the things of the Spirit of God.  They see the swaying trees but refuse to acknowledge the wind that is acting thereupon.  Recall the Lord’s words to Nicodemas:

“The wind blows where it wishes & you hear the sound of it,  but you do not know where it comes from & where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  John 3:8

The senses may perceive the noise of the tumult; cries of distress of those under conviction, the tears of repentance, the joyful voices in spiritual-worship – men, women, and children, worshiping God in spirit and in truth, but if we do not believe in the work of God even though we see its earthly-effects and hear it with our own ears, then what hope do we have of having these things communicated to ourselves?  If we do not believe it when we see its effects upon the natural, then how can we expect to believe it at its source, which is spiritual?  For the Lord’s preceding statement to Nicodemas was:

“If I told you earthly things & you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”           John 3:12

What were these “earthly things” that Nicodemas had difficulty believing?  The evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in the hearts of men!  Such a work began to occur in New England in the year 1733.  Secular commentators have offered various rationales for the stir and tumult that swept New England in those days.  As to the events in and around Northampton, Massachusetts that spanned a number of years and which reoccurred in successive decades, these have been widely explained-away as a psychological-phenomenon associated with fire and brimstone preaching.  But the fact is that as to Edwards, his preaching style was described as drably monotone.[1]  Nonetheless a powerful, intensely-emotional, and well-documented series of events occurred that had rare precedent in history.

The awakening in New England is generally regarded as having commenced under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards in 1733 in Northampton, Massachusetts.  It began when various members of Edwards’ congregation began to become troubled by a deep sense of conviction and distress.  In his account, Edwards relates the case of Abigail Hutchinson, saying; “I fix upon her especially because she is now dead and so it may be more fit to speak freely of her than of living instances.”[2]  Hutchinson came under conviction upon merely hearing her brother speak of the need for “regenerating grace, together with the good news of the conversion” of another young woman.  She thereupon became stricken by the wicked-condition of her heart and immediately set upon reading her Bible all the way through.  By Thursday she was stricken with “an exceeding terror.  Upon which she left off reading the Bible in course, as she had begun; and turned to the New Testament, to see if she culd not find some relief there for her distressed soul.”  Her terror seemed based in the apprehension that she had sinned irreparably against God; “until she saw nothing but blackness of darkness before her, and her very flesh trembled for fear of God’s wrath”.[3]  Ms. Hutchinson sought out the ministry and members of her family for relief and describes “an enmity against the Bible, which greatly affrightened her.”  She became so ill that her friends discouraged her from attending church on Sunday, however she went in order to speak privately with the minister.

As she awakened on Monday morning, a little before day, she wondered within herself at the easiness and calmness she felt in her mind which was of that kind she never felt before.  As she thought of this, such words as these were in her mind; “The words of the Lord are pure words, health to the soul, and marrow to the bones” and then these words, “The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin” which were accompanied with a lively sense of the excellency of Christ and his sufficiency to satisfy for the sins of the whole world.  She then thought of that expression, “It is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun” which words then seemed to her to be very applicable to Jesus Christ.  By these things her mind was led into such contemplation and views of Christ, as filled her exceeding full of joy. . . . On Monday she felt all day a constant sweetness in her soul.  She had a repetition of the same discoveries of Christ three mornings together, and much in the same manner, at each time, waking a little before day; but brighter and brighter every day.[4]

Ms. Hutchinson went on to evangelistically share her faith and to warn sinners with meekness and lowliness of heart.  She expressed to Edwards a growing revelation of “a kind of beatific vision of God” that brought her “as much joy and pleasure as was possible in this life”.

Edwards gave other accounts of remarkable and dramatic conversions as a few examples of what was beginning to sweep through his congregation, the surrounding region, New England at large, and ultimately into Western Europe.  While Ms. Hutchinson’s distressed condition lasted little more than a week, other cases lasted months and even years.  Some experiences seemed to terminate in dramatic bestowals of grace and the knowledge of God, while others did not fare so fortunate.

Edwards describes persons convicted thereunder as follows:

Persons are first awakened with a sense of their miserable condition by nature, the danger they are in of perishing eternally . . . Some are more suddenly seized with convictions – it may be, by the news of others’ conversion, or something they hear in public, or in private conference-their consciences are smitten as if their hearts were pierced through with a dart.  Others are awakened more gradually . . . and so their awakenings have increased, till a sense of their misery, by God’s Holy Spirit setting in therewith, has had fast hold of them.[5]

Edwards relates; “There is in nothing a greater difference, in different persons, than with respect to the time of their being under trouble; some but a few days, and others for months or years”, during which . . .

Some have had such a sense of the displeasure of God, and the great danger they were in of damnation, that they could not sleep at nights; and many have said that when they have laid down, the thoughts of sleeping in such a condition have been frightful to them; they have scarcely been free from terror while asleep, and they have awakened with fear, heaviness, and distress still abiding on their spirits.[6] 

We should not think that Edwards exaggerated the intensity of these manifestations they were historically well-documented and did not abate into the year 1735 in which (quoting from Wikipedia) the:

. . . religious fervor took a dark turn.  A number of New Englanders were shaken by the revivals but not converted, and became convinced of their inexorable damnation.  Edwards wrote that “multitudes” felt urged – presumably by Satan – to take their own lives.  At least two people committed suicide in the depths of their spiritual distress, one from Edwards’s own congregation – his uncle Joseph Hawley. . . . the “suicide craze” effectively ended the first wave of revival, except in some parts of Connecticut.”[7]

Edwards describes how persons under conviction would have great bouts with temptation as; “Satan, the old inhabitant, seems to exert himself, like a serpent disturbed and enraged”.

Indeed, some have felt many heart-risings against God, and murmurings at his way of dealing with mankind, and his dealings with themselves in particular.  It has been much insisted on, both in public and private, that persons should have the utmost dread of such envious thoughts; which if allowed tend exceedingly to quench the Spirit of God, if not to provoke him finally to forsake them.  And when such a spirit has much prevailed, and persons have not so earnestly strove against it as they ought to have done, it has seemed to be exceedingly to the hindrance of the good of their souls. [8]  

Edwards found the great diversity of God’s methods in different persons remarkable:

There have been some who have not had great terrors, but have had a very quick work.  Some of those who have not had so deep a conviction of these things before their conversion, have much more of it afterwards.  God has appeared far from limiting himself to any certain method. . . Some who are less distinctly wrought upon, in what is preparatory to grace, appear no less eminent in gracious experience afterwards.[9]

Edwards describes how there seemed to be a period of “quietness and composure” prior to any distinct discovery of mercy:

Often they then come to a conclusion within themselves, that they will lie at God’s feet, and wait his time; and they rest in that, not being sensible that the Spirit of God has now brought them to a frame whereby they are prepared for mercy.[10]

Edwards describes how although there seemed to be a great variety of facets to the grace expressed, when mercy came; “Christ is distinctly made the object of the mind, in his all-sufficiency and willingness to save sinners.”[11]  With the revelation of God’s mercy in the Person of Jesus Christ, those under conviction entered upon a new plain of grace that was evident even to those around them.

In the decade that would follow, the Methodist evangelist George Whitefield visited Northampton as the guest of Edwards.   
His sermons are described by Edwards as having “melted” the  congregation and in the months that followed new manifestations of revival began to spread:

. . . many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable estate and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and the like.  Others soon heard of it in several parts of the town, and came to them; and what they saw and heard there was greatly affecting to them, so that many of them were overpowered in like manner, and it continued thus for some hours; the time being spent in prayer, singing, counseling, and conferring. . . . It was a very frequent thing to see a house full of outcries, faintings, convulsions, and such like, both with distress, and also with admiration and joy.  It was not the manner here to hold meetings all night . . . but it was pretty often so that there were some that were so affected and their bodies so overcome that they could not go home, but were obliged to stay all night where they were.[12]

c.  The Camsumblang Work

The Great Awakening in the American Colonies sparked an awakening that occurred in Scotland; called the “Cambuslang Work”.  This was a powerful visitation of the Spirit that began when a very inadequate minister simply read to his congregation, written reports from the American colonies concerning the Great Awakening.  The name of this minister was William M’Culloch.

M’Culloch was not highly-regarded as a minister.  Upon his graduation the church would not license him for ten years; presumably because of his poor speaking-ability.  When he was finally ordained to Cambuslang, he did not begin to preach for another three years due to bouts with anxiety and feelings of inadequacy.  During this time, he visited a fellow minister, a Mr. Wodrow of Eastwood, who reports of Mr. M’Culloch:

He felt he was “nothing but a hollow hypocrite”  because he had been preaching since his ordination on the nature of Conversion and was “a perfect stranger to it himself”.  He was always very serious and dutiful, and preferred the company of righteous people, but had no inward experience of conversion.  He had been “haunted with atheistic thoughts and blasphemous suggestions”.  He was jealous and suspicious of friends (he said) and complained of his own pride and “self-carnality”.  He was also much depressed by conversations with ordinary people, who told him about their experiences of conversion, which “he has been a stranger to”.  Mr. Wodrow thought him a sincere, studious and depressive sort of person, with the tendency of such people to be over-critical of themselves and rather obsessive on the details of theological study.  He advised Mr. M’Culloch that his obvious sincerity and great knowledge of both Scripture and doctrine made him a far better person to be a minister than many he knew.  Mr. Wodrow noted the many “bodily marks” of Mr. M’Culloch’s anguish – including piercing headaches.  It is obvious he was going through some sort of mental breakdown, though he did report that he got some solace from reading the Bible in extreme times, when he longed for death. [13]

During the time that M’Culloch’s doubts and anxieties kept him away from the pulpit, the lack of church-ministry (combined with the general disrepair of the church building) resulted in a large number of home fellowships and prayer-groups starting within the parish.  When Mr. M’Culloch finally took to preaching, he spoke outside under a tent because of the church’s state of disrepair.  Rather than preaching, he simply read letters from the American colonies concerning the “Great Awakening” that had been occurring overseas.

The year was 1742, and something incredible occurred as he finished his prayer.  His words were;  “Lord who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?  Who are the fruits of my poor labors among this people?”   At once, many in the crowd began to cry out in anguish, exhibiting much of the same phenomenon that had been occurring in New England.  A spirit of deep conviction came over the area, and great crowds began to flock to Cambuslang for daily instruction in the word.  As whole crowds were seized with conviction over sin, there would be crying, shrieking, and contortions.  One woman is noted to have stated her experience at Cambuslang to have far exceeded the pain of childbirth.  There were physical-effects, such as bleeding from the nose and fainting.  Many seemed to have bright conversions – one of which was described as being:

. . . raised all at once from the lowest depth of sorrow and distress, to the highest pitch of joy and happiness, crying out with triumph and exultation . . . that they had overcome the wicked one; that they had gotten hold of Christ!

Still there were others whose agonies did not seem to culminate in joy.

Well-established evangelists such as George Whitefield came to preach the revival in Cambuslang.  A multitude of 30,000 was estimated to have attended a single sermon by  Whitefield.  The revival was documented as one of the most spontaneous and vigorous works of the Spirit ever known to have occurred, although detractors challenged the work as; “delusions of Satan”.   Later historians such as Dr. James Meek documented the events that had occurred, although Meek offered humanistic explanations for the phenomenon at Cambuslang, including that of  “mass hysteria”.

We are told that M’Culloch was very ill near the end of his life and needed to helpers to lead him in and out from the church.  When he died (in 1771) it was not known whether he himself had ever experienced the fruit of that revival in the dramatic works of conversion that occurred in his parish.

d. Criticism of the Awakening; Charles Chauncy

The most notable opponent of the Great Awakening and outspoken critic of Edwards’ views embracing the awakening as a work of God was the highly-influential rationalist Congregational minister Charles Chauncy.[14]  Chauncy was from the highest-class of New England stock[15] and a staunch defender of the business-interest and ruling-class status-quo in New England. He was also a fierce contender for the colonial-cause.  Near the time that a young Jonathan Edwards was succeeding to the pastorate in Northampton, Chauncy  was succeeding to the highly visible and prestigious position as the pastor of the First Church in Boston at the age of a mere 23 years.  According to Harvard Square Library his influence and role in shaping New England’s religious-thought cannot be overstated:

The history of the First Church in Boston is the spiritual history of New England and the record of intellectual and religious growth.  Its significant development in religious opinion began with Chauncy.[16]

Chauncy was especially effective in proliferating his views through the means of printed articles, pamphlets, and books.  The opinions coming out of the church in Boston had profound impact upon New England thought and opinion – and Chauncy postured himself and the strength of his office squarely against the revival winds that were blowing.

Following his 1742 sermon against the evils of Christian Enthusiasm, Chauncy published (1743) Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England asa refutation of those revivalistic-views held by Jonathan Edwards.  The Great Awakening of New England had been characterized by intense emotional phenomenon and disturbances such as; crying, screaming, falling, and hysterical-reactions as of terror and grief.  While even amidst substantial-criticism there seemed to be a general consensus that the awakening in New England was a genuine work of God, Chauncy rather discredited the awakening as entirely of evil-origin and ridiculed the emotional responses that were occurring.  However, his rejection of the Great Awakening did not come until after he himself had made failed attempts at revival-preaching.[17]  Chauncy’s book in opposition to the Great Awakening (Seasonable Thoughts) is quoted by Steve Rabey:

Nay, what Engine has the Devil himself ever made use of, to more fatal purposes, in all Ages, than the Passions of the Vulgar heightened to such a Degree, as to put them upon acting without Thought and Understanding?  The plain Truth is, an enlightened Mind, and not raised affections.[18]

Chauncy extended his fight against the Great Awakening to the publishing of open letters against revivalists such as George Whitefield – demanding that he defend his conduct and role in the revival.

Chauncy would eventually become leader of the theologically-liberal “Old Lights” and a prominent promoter of the heterodox doctrine of universal salvation known as Unitarianism which he particularly advanced through books written in 1784 wherein he rejects the Calvinistic doctrine of future punishment and asserted that all souls would eventually be saved. [19]

e.  Awakening as Principle of Evangelicalism

Keeping true to his Puritan forbears, it was precisely this issue, ie. that of a personal-religion that set Jonathan Edwards apart for his role in the Great Awakening.  It was this truth, ie. that “the kingdom of God is within you”[20] upon which Edwards took action immediately upon assuming his pulpit as the young minister of the Northampton Church.

The revival for which Edwards is known and which swept through New England did not occur  without respect to doctrine and practice.  There was a context.  When Edwards assumed the pastorate in Northampton in 1727, a policy for Communion was in effect known as the Halfway Covenant.  This policy had been established by his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729) who believed that the Communion was itself a means of effectuating conversion.  As is generally-practiced in the churches of today, persons were allowed to partake in the sacraments even if they could not attest to having experienced a personal work of the Spirit toward the effectuating of their conversion.  As the great majority of church-attendees could not attest to having experienced a personal day-of-grace, the Halfway Covenant nevertheless afforded them the means of partaking alike with those attesting to a conversion-experience so long as they were willing to accept the ministry and discipline of the church.[21]

Paul, in warning the church against the casual partaking-in of the Lord’s supper, poses the question; “Is not the communion of the body of Christ?”.[22]  Edwards’ rejection of the policy allowing general-admittance into the sacrament was no doubt based upon Paul’s words:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, & drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall   be guilty of the body & blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself,  & so let him eat of the bread & drink of the cup.                                        I Cor. 11:27-28

Edwards declared an end to the practice of allowing Communion to those apt to partake in an unworthy manner and thereby risk sinning against the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Failure to acknowledge sin and to seek His righteousness is implicit to the rule; “let a man examine himself”.  As a divinely-established ordinance of the church this is that opportunity to examine oneself and to invoke the authority of that covenant within which we have been founded.  By confessing our sins and pleading conformity to His mind and to His purposes, we appeal to the divine-agency of the Holy Ghost to act in those things pertaining to the Holy Covenant – things which we ourselves may not necessarily perceive or rightly apprehend.[23]  True judgment may go forward as may the kingdom of God within us.[24]  But these things contemplate a true heart’s faith; something that itself contemplates a work of God within the individual having gone before.

By overturning the practice of allowing the unconverted to partake in the communion, Edwards fortified certain evangelical-principles, namely that salvation must be experienced on an individual basis, that salvation constitutes a true experience (ie. not merely conceptual), and that a person must render judgment as to whether that experience has in fact occurred within him/herself.  Until a true work of God had occurred, it did not serve such a person well to indulge the presumption of possessing saving grace.  Edwards as well upheld the role of the ministry to act as a thoughtful overseer and dutiful custodian of the sacrament in safeguarding these evangelical-truths.

The dramatic spiritual awakening that occurred in Edwards’ Northampton church was preceded by a definite reorientation by the ministry toward an evangelically-principled posture toward the Covenant in Christ’s blood which facilitated the movement of God’s hand in the salvation of men.  Thus the Great Awakening was received in the context of the restoration and upholding of Evangelical Truth establishing an association between the heaven-brought (divine) awakening of conscience and the faithful upholding of Evangelical Truth by the earthly-minister of Christ – as John the Baptist intimates:

He that comes from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, & speaks of the earth;  he that comes from heaven is above all.                 John 3:31 

 John is herein expressing the limited role of the earthly-messenger in the sanctification of the elect.  The real-work must be performed by Him that is able to speak heavenly-things, even Christ.   However the earthly-messenger does facilitate (ie. “prepares the way”) of  the witness that comes from heaven.  This principle was brought dramatically to bear in the Great Awakening that swept the American Colonies and Europe in the eighteenth-century and which continued into the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth-century.

f.  The End of a Divine Visitation

In his treatise entitled; The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God,[25] Jonathan Edwards describes the hostility that attended the very dramatic incidences of the Spirit’s work in New England, particularly by those considered to be pious and religious.  He writes that such as these were commonly given to tread dangerously-close to the unpardonable sin of blaspheming against the Holy Ghost in the midst of a divine-visitation.  He also writes that there were many of a religious-mind, that (while not actively opposing the work) would remain aloof from participating in God’s worship and aloof from the Spirit’s influences.  He writes:

This pretended prudence, in persons waiting so long before they  acknowledged this work, will probably in the end prove the greatest imprudence.  Hereby they will fail of any share of so great a blessing, & will miss the most precious opportunity of obtaining divine light, grace, & comfort, heavenly & eternal benefits that God ever gave inNew England.  While the glorious fountain is set open in so wonderful manner, and multitudes flock to it & receive a rich supply for the wants of their souls, they stand at a distance, doubting, wondering, & receiving nothing, and are like to continue thus till the precious season is past. 

Edwards compared this visitation of the Holy Spirit with the visitation of Christ among God’s people of the first century.  In the same way that the Jews were offended in Christ, so are many today offended when His Spirit moves in the church.  Edwards observed that it was particularly those that had; “a reputation for religion and piety” that demonstrated “great spite against the work because they saw it tended to diminish their honour, and reproach their formality and lukewarmness.”[26]  And just as the first-century Jews missed their day of visitation, Edwards laments that so many in New England missed their own day of visitation from the Lord.  He writes:

Since the great God has come down from heaven, and manifested Himself in so wonderful a manner in this land, it is vain for any of us to expect any other than to be greatly affected by it in our spiritual state and circumstances, respecting the favor of God, one way or other.  Those who do not become more happy by it will become far more guilty & miserable.  It is always so; such a season as proves an acceptable year, & a time of great favour to them who accept & improve it proves a day of vengeance to others. (Is. lxi.2)  When God sends forth His word, it shall not return to Him void; much less the Spirit.  When Christ was upon earth inJudea, many slighted & rejected Him;  but it proved in the issue to be no matter of indifference to them.  God made all that people to feel that Christ had been among them; those who did not feel it in their comfort felt it to their great sorrow.  When God only sent the prophet Ezekiel to the children of Israel, he declared that whether they would hear or whether they would forbear, yet they would know that there had been a prophet among them; how much more may we suppose that when God has appeared so wonderfully in this land, that he will make every one to know that the great Jehovah had been in New England.

 Edwards was one of the first ministers of the church faced with the difficult undertaking of interpreting spiritually-sourced phenomenon and rendering judgments on its legitimacy.   What is remarkable is that Edwards undertook this without recourse to Pentecostal doctrine.  In fact, Edwards held those cessationistic-views[27] that were the overwhelming consensus of his day.  Indeed, he describes no manifestations that were overtly Pentecostal in nature.  No baptism of fire, no sign-gifts such as speaking in tongues or prophecy, and no miracles of healing.   The phenomenon that occurred in his day is described as a divine visitation that impacted profoundly upon the soul and found expression through intense emotions and an overwhelming of bodily strength and function.