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Jonathan Edwards’s “Fast Days”

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A “Fast Day” in Jonathan Edwards’s time was day designated by an individual, congregation, town, or colony as a day to engage in the biblical practice of fasting, that is, abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.

Usually “the work of the day,” as Edwards put it in a Fast Day sermon, was “repentance and humiliation of sin” and “humble and earnest supplication to God for his mercy.” Frequently this was deemed the appropriate response to a recent calamity or necessary to avert impending judgment.

Edwards took at face value biblical passages such as Matthew 6:16-18 where Jesus taught His disciples about fasting and began the instructions with, “Whenever you fast,” understanding these directions to apply to every Christian in every generation.

Samuel Hopkins, writing from the perspective of a young minister who spent eight months as a type of pastoral intern in the Northampton pastor’s home during the early 1740s, noted that while much of Edwards’s personal piety was concealed from onlookers, he knew that Edwards “often kept days of fasting.”

Edwards believed that ministers, as they were to be examples to the flock, should especially feel responsible to discipline themselves to observe fast days. He said as much in Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival, when he wrote, “I should think ministers, above all persons, ought to be much in secret prayer and fasting, and also much in praying and fasting with one another.” In his “Blank Bible” notes on Matthew 17:21, Edwards summarized succinctly, “fasting is a part of Christian worship.”

So when Edwards led his church or all Northampton in a Fast Day proclaimed locally or colonially, even those who opposed him (as became increasingly common prior to his dismissal from the pastorate in 1750) knew that Edwards was no hypocrite in the piety he urged upon them from the pulpit. Everyone in his congregation was aware that his slender frame had often been denied food because of a greater hunger for the blessing of God.

In his sermons and publications, Edwards referred to or called for what might be termed special congregational (in contrast to personal) Fast Days. He did so in the pursuit of spiritual revival and in response to events as varied as military campaigns, epidemic sickness, and a local suicide. All these were in addition to “annual days of public fasting” which were apparently a customary part of the calendar for the people of Northampton.

Although fasting involves more physical self-denial than other personal spiritual disciplines and thus might provoke resentment in those upon whom it is enjoined too frequently, there is no indication that Edwards’ congregation manifested any antipathy toward their pastor in this regard. Eight months before he was fired, Edwards received the cooperation of the church when he called for a Fast Day on October 26, 1749, “to pray to God that he would have mercy on this church . . . that he would forgive the sins of both minister and people.”

When counseling people individually, he likewise advocated the biblical disciplines he practiced, such as fasting. In a letter to eighteen-year-old Deborah Hatheway, penned on June 3, 1741, in response to her request for spiritual guidance, Edwards advised her in a way consistent with his own practice: “Under special difficulties, or when in great need of, or great longings after, any particular mercy for yourself or others, set apart a day for secret prayer and fasting for yourself alone.”

For Edwards, though, fasting was primarily a matter of faithfulness to the Bible and conformity to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. He would fast as a means “to animate and engage devotion” and as way by which he would “seek the Lord.”

Thus, perhaps as much as he might have done with any contemporary writer on the subject, Edwards would have identified with John Piper who said that fasting is what a Christian does to express herself or himself on those occasions when the hunger for God exceeds the hunger for food.  Therefore as pastor he considered it his responsibility not only to engage in the discipline personally as an example to his parishioners, but to instruct them in it, both individually and congregationally.

Edwards’s understanding of the biblical teaching on the subject of fasting and his personal example in the matter is worthy of every Christian’s consideration today.

 

Original artwork by Caffy Whitney

For more about Jonathan Edwards and his spirituality:

god_entranced_vision

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things—The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Don’s contribution to this book is the chapter on “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards.”

Edwards_Solitude

Finding God in Solitude: The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and It’s Influence on His Pastoral Ministry. This is a popularization of Don’s Ph.D. dissertation. It is so expensive because it was published by an academic press and with a small print run.

The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards, part 2

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Part one can be read here.

The principal means by which Jonathan Edwards expressed the “true and gracious longings after holiness” of which he spoke in Religious Affections was through the practice of the spiritual disciplines he found in Scripture. Edwards’s God, he believed, was self-revealed in the Bible, and that “the Scriptures are the word and work of a divine mind.” Thus the Bible was the centerpiece of his devotional piety.

But Edwards did not merely read Scripture, rather he meditated on and prayerfully studied it by the hour. This is plainly evidenced by the abundant fruit of these practices represented in the works cited previously. Throughout his life, the Bible was the supreme means by which Edwards sought to know and experience God and to pursue conformity to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Edwards’s devotional meditation on Scripture was inevitably intermingled with prayer, especially in the late afternoon when it was his habit to “walk for divine contemplation and prayer.” But Edwards also prayed alone in his study, as well as with his children and with Sarah, as noted in the previous post. He did the same with church members who came seeking his counsel or with young ministers living as interns in his home. Samuel Hopkins, an early biographer of Edwards who was one of those pastoral interns, indicates that sometimes Edwards devoted entire days to prayer.

Next to a hunger for the Bible, Edwards believed that the most important indicator of a person’s relationship to God or, conversely, the absence thereof, was prayer. This is revealed in his sermon, “Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer.” In Edwards’s personal piety, prayer was planned, but it was also informal; it was scheduled, yet it was also spontaneous—all on a daily basis. In terms of method, Edwards spoke of prayer mostly as propositional communication, that is, addressing God with rational thought.

Beyond the essential elements of meditation on Scripture and prayer, Edwards’s piety was frequently characterized by worshipful song. Especially when walking alone late in the day he found that “it always seemed natural . . . to sing or chant forth my meditations.”

Much of Edwards’ devotional life was somehow connected with writing. Whether in his “Diary,” “Miscellanies,” “Notes on Scripture,” or “Blank Bible,” Edwards frequently recorded insights that occurred to him as he meditated on Scripture, creation, or God’s providence. Today such practices would sometimes be designated a type of “journaling.”

Another aspect of Edwards’s devotional piety was fasting, that is, abstaining from one or more meals for spiritual purposes. Hopkins observed that Edwards frequently fasted, and Edwards himself wrote, “fasting is a part of Christian worship.” Occasionally he declared “fast days” for the Northampton congregation.

All the aforementioned disciplines practiced by Edwards—reading and meditating on Scripture, praying, worshipful singing, spiritual diary and devotional writing, and fasting—occurred in the context of his discipline of God-focused solitude. It may be that Edwards’s pastoral ministry suffered due to his preference for solitude, nevertheless he steadfastly maintained, “It is the nature of true grace, that however it loves Christian society in its place, yet it in a peculiar manner delights in retirement, and secret converse with God.”

Though little has been written of it, Edwards’ devotional piety extended to his immediate family. As previously mentioned, he read Scripture with his wife and children each morning and prayed with them more than once daily. By this means he practiced in his home what he preached from his pulpit: “A Christian family is as it were a little church.”

Edwards was persuaded that God had most clearly revealed himself—his nature, attributes, and will—in Scripture, and that to know God in an increasingly intimate way necessitated a biblically-saturated piety. He never appeared to question the methods of spirituality located in the biblical text, nor did he seem to find them unsatisfying or ineffective in his pursuit of God. To be sure, he did not limit his encounters with God’s presence to the pages of the Bible, for Edwards constantly looked to see and savor the revelation of God in creation as per Romans 1:20. And yet, as often and as deeply as he rejoiced in the glory of God in creation, Edwards never allowed this to take precedence in his piety over the specific revelation of God found in Scripture.

Edwards’s piety was a manifestation of his view that this life should be lived in preparation for eternity. He believed passionately in the existence of heaven and hell as taught in the Bible, that true and everlasting joy was found only in the presence of God in heaven, and that life on earth should be spent in the pursuit of and preparation for happiness in the coming world. For Edwards, the primary means of experiencing God in this life, and the wisest way to use his time, and the best method of preparing for eternity was to devote as much time as possible to biblical piety.

 

Original artwork by Caffy Whitney

For more about Jonathan Edwards and his spirituality:

god_entranced_vision

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things—The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Don’s contribution to this book is the chapter on “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards.”

Edwards_Solitude

Finding God in Solitude: The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and It’s Influence on His Pastoral Ministry. This is a popularization of Don’s Ph.D. dissertation. It is so expensive because it was published by an academic press and with a small print run.

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[1] Namely his “Diary,” “Miscellanies,” and “Notes on Scripture.” We can also conjecture about Edwards’s own devotional habits from the commendation he gives to the missionary’s piety in The Life of David Brainerd, the counsel provided in his letter to Deborah Hatheway, the content of various sermons, the notes in his “Blank Bible,” and especially from the testimony in his Personal Narrative—the single best autobiographical resource on Edwards’s piety.

 


The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards, part 1

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Broadly defined, “piety” refers to the aggregate of a person’s distinctly Christian beliefs and actions. Here Jonathan Edwards’s piety is considered in the more narrow sense of devotional piety, that is, those private practices intended to focus the heart and mind of the individual believer upon God and to develop authentic Christian beliefs, motives, and actions.

Although Edwards’s general Christian piety was exemplary, his personal devotional piety was exceptional, both in breadth and depth. It was grounded in Scripture, influenced by the patterns of his father Timothy and grandfather Solomon Stoddard—both of whom were pastors—and consistent with that of the ministers in Puritan England and New England through whom Edwards traced his theological lineage.

Even as a child Edwards sometimes manifested unusual inclinations toward devotional habits. Although he’d not yet experienced the converting influence of the “Divine and Supernatural Light” he would famously preach about in 1733, as a boy there was a period of months when he would “pray five times a day in secret,” often in a booth built for the purpose in a swamp.

After his conversion (1721) at age 17 his devotional duties became delights. He reported that now he “went to prayer, to pray to God that I might enjoy Him; and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection.” He also began to experience “the greatest delight in the holy Scriptures, of any book whatsoever.” In the Bible he “seemed often to see so much light, exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing ravishing food communicated.”

Within months Edwards “solemnly vowed to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were.” He built his life around disciplines that helped him pursue the enjoyment of God and cultivate happiness in him.

At 18, for example, he began the lifelong practice where he “very frequently used to retire into a solitary place, . . . for contemplation on divine things, and secret converse with God; and had many sweet hours there.” About the same time (no later than 1722) Edwards began his “Diary,” the volume containing his “Resolutions.”

In terms of daily routine, Edwards’s piety began each morning between four or five when by candlelight he would read the Bible and pray. Marsden says that afterward Edwards would lead his family in prayer and that “each meal was accompanied by household devotions.” At the close of each day, Sarah and Jonathan would pray together in his study.

Most every day of Edwards’s life was spent at home, and most of that time he worked in his study. A legendary line from Samuel Hopkins, who as a first-hand observer wrote of Edwards, “He commonly spent thirteen hours every day in his study.”

While the specific details and processes of Edwards’s devotional methods remain hidden behind his study door, we can draw the general contours of his personal spirituality from resources produced there such as his “Diary,” “Miscellanies,” and “Notes on Scripture.” We can also conjecture about Edwards’s own devotional habits from the commendation he gives to the missionary’s piety in The Life of David Brainerd, the counsel provided in his letter to Deborah Hatheway, the content of various sermons, the notes in his “Blank Bible,” and especially from the testimony in his Personal Narrative—the single best autobiographical resource on Edwards’s piety.

To read Edwards’s own account of his private spirituality, read his Personal Narrative. Believed to be a response to an inquiry about his testimony of his walk with God by his son-in-law, Aaron Burr, Sr. (president of Princeton University and father of Aaron Burr, Jr., who is best known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel) it is by far my personal favorite among Edwards’s writings. It’s less than thirteen pages of volume 16 in the Yale edition of the Works of Jonathan Edwards, a collection of seventy-three volumes found in their entirety and fully searchable at edwards.yale.edu.

Part two is found in the next post.

 

Original artwork by Caffy Whitney

For more about Jonathan Edwards and his spirituality:

god_entranced_vision

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things—The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. My contribution to this book is the chapter on “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards.”

Edwards_Solitude

Finding God in Solitude: The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and It’s Influence on His Pastoral Ministry. This is a popularization of my Ph.D. dissertation. It is so expensive because it was published by an academic press and with a small print run.

 

Lessons from Jonathan Edwards’s Diary

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In August of 1722, less than a year-and-a-half after his conversion, Jonathan Edwards became the interim pastor of a small Presbyterian church in New York City. He remained at this temporary post for eight months. He stayed with Susanna Smith and her son, John “who seemed to him”, says George Marsden, “models of Christian piety.”[1] Significantly, it was here that Edwards began his “Diary” on a winter’s day halfway through his brief tenure.

He continued the volume through the remainder of his time in New York, and on through the period of his Master’s degree. He persisted with the practice during the half-year Bolton pastorate, his tutorship at Yale, and into several months after his return to his parents’ home in East Windsor, in August, 1725, which was a year before his move to Northampton to assist Solomon Stoddard. This period of Christian growth as a young, single adult determined the spiritual trajectory for much of the rest of Edwards’s life and ministry.

Edwards “Diary” commences on December 18, 1722, when he was nineteen. It begins so abruptly that Dwight[2] conjectures that there was an earlier section that may have reached back to Edwards’ days of theological study at Yale (1720-1722). For all practical purposes, it concludes with an entry on November 16, 1725. Inexplicably, there are but six brief entries made over the next ten years, with the final one recorded on June 11, 1735. Altogether Edwards made 148 entries, with 142 unevenly spread over the first 35 months when he was most committed to the project.

The first entry is a record that he had “made the 35th Resolution.” This rather abrupt beginning led Sereno Edwards Dwight to wonder if there had not been an earlier section of the “Diary” that had been lost. When and where the previous, undated resolutions were composed is unknown.[3] In light of their reflection of a radical devotion to Christ, one may surmise that they were written sometime after Edwards’s conversion the previous year.

Although the content of the “Resolutions” was unique to Edwards, the reference in his “Diary” to another document devoted solely to “Resolutions” is not. According to George Claghorn, “Drawing up resolutions was a standard practice for educated people in the eighteenth century,” and many have compared and contrasted Edwards’s “Resolutions” with those written almost simultaneously by Benjamin Franklin. By August 17 of 1723, Edwards would complete a total of seventy of these firm personal commitments to himself and/or to God, noting in his “Diary” when each, up to the 47th, was made.

Edwards’s “Diary” was far more than the kind that merely records the passing of events. Of course, “it consists of facts,” observes Dwight, but it also comprises

solid thought, dictated by deep religious feelings . . . . It is an exhibition of the simple thinking, feeling, and acting of a man, who is unconscious how he appears, except to himself and to God; and not the remarks of one, who is desirous of being thought humble, respecting his own humility. If we suppose a man of Christian simplicity and godly sincerity to bring all the secret movements of his own soul under the clear, strong light of heaven, and there to survey them with a piercing and an honest eye, and a contrite heart, in order to humble himself, and make himself better; it is just the account which such a man would write.[4]

Edwards’s main use of his diary, at least early on, was to measure himself against his “Resolutions.” (Later he would admit in his Personal Narrative that he relied on his own strength too much in his efforts to keep his “Resolutions.”)

Sometimes he would begin an entry with a single word, and then write a paragraph explaining his spiritual condition. For example, “Wednesday, Jan. 2.[5] Dull”[6] was followed by 262 words of self-examination. It is similar with “Wednesday, Jan. 9. At night. Decayed”[7] and “Thursday, Jan. 10. About noon. Reviving.”[8] He rebuked himself: “Saturday night, March 31. This week I have been too careless about eating.”[9] He rejoiced: “Saturday night, April 14. I could pray more heartily this night for the forgiveness of my enemies, than ever before.”[10]

He could be mundane: “Wednesday night, Aug. 28. Remember, as soon as I can get to a piece of slate or something, whereon I can make short memorandums while traveling.”[11] And again, “Sabbath morning, Sept.8. I have been much to blame, for expressing so much impatience for delays in journeys, and the like.”[12] He could be sublime: “Wednesday, March 6. Near sunset. Regarded the doctrines of election, free grace, our inability to do anything without the grace of God, and that holiness is entirely, throughout, the work of the Spirit of God, with greater pleasure than before.”[13]

Thus while Edwards could reflect more profound thought and insight in certain entries than other journal-keepers might, in many ways his style—which included entries from the trivial to the transcendent—was hardly exceptional. But we do learn from this that from ages nineteen to twenty-two, Edwards was scrupulous about observing and analyzing the motions of his soul. He used his diary as a mirror, a place where he could examine himself for evidence of spiritual progress or decline, and then in response, Edwards would remake his mirror into a platform before God where he could rejoice, lament, or make resolutions as he thought necessary.

A similar document today might be referred to as a journal rather than diary. In contemporary usage, the latter term often connotes a mere itemization of daily events, perhaps interwoven with personal reflections. In Christian parlance, a journal usually implies a document wherein the author attempts to integrate the intricacies of life and faith. In Edwards’s day, if the practice of David Brainerd is any indication, a diary was meant for personal use only while a journal—which might include much of the same material found in one’s diary—was intended for publication. Brainerd’s journal served as a published report for the supporters of his missionary labors while his diary revealed additional details, musings, and self-evaluations he was not comfortable sharing with others. So while distinctions can be made, the terms journal and diary—both in the eighteenth century and now—are often interchangeable.

So, does Edwards’s example mean that all Christians must keep a spiritual journal? No, journal-keeping is not necessary for Christlikeness. Many of the greatest Christians in history—such as Edwards—have kept journals, and many equally godly men and women have not. But I urge you to consider whether you might be among those who would find journaling an easy and practical encouragement the Holy Spirit would use in your growth in grace, just as He did in Edwards’s.

 

Original artwork by Caffy Whitney

For more about journaling:

Do I Have to Keep a Journal? (article/bulletin insert)

Probe Your Soul with Questions (article/bulletin insert)

See the chapter on “Journaling . . . for the Purpose of Godliness” in Don’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

 

For more about Jonathan Edwards and his spirituality:

god_entranced_vision

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things—The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Don’s contribution to this book is the chapter on “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards.”

Edwards_Solitude

Finding God in Solitude: The Personal Piety of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and It’s Influence on His Pastoral Ministry. This is a popularization of Don’s Ph.D. dissertation. It is so expensive because it was published by an academic press and with a small print run.

 

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[1] Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, 47.

[2] Sereno E. Dwight, “Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards, A.M.,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, ed. Edward Hickman (1834; repr., Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), xxiii.

[3] WJE 16:742.

[4] Ibid.

[5] The original diary entries in this paragraph generally do not state the year, but all are from 1723.

[6] WJE 16:760.

[7] Ibid., 761.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., 768.

[10] Ibid., 761.

[11] Ibid., 780.

[12] Ibid., 781.

[13] Ibid., 767.