But most people remember Jonathan Edward for this:
While this sermon does have some wake-you-up lines --
...the God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked...
-- some today have given him an unnecessarily bad name for it.
Our professor spent several hours explaining why Jonathan Edwards was not a bad person. (Although one might wonder why a book has been written about him entitled Marriage to a Difficult Man, which Dr. Arnold made his wife read before they got married.) Of interest among these three hours was a bit of how his descendants turned out:
- 13 college presidents
- 65 professors
- 100 lawyers
- 66 physicans
- 30 judges
- 80 holders of public office, including
- 3 senators
- 3 mayors of large cities
- vice president of the United States - Aaron Burr
Jonathan Edward made good use of his time. While traveling on horseback, he would have a thought. He would take out a pin and put it in his shirt. He would take out a second pin for the second thought, and so on. When he got home at the end of the day, he would take out the pins and write down the thoughts, one by one, from memory.