perfection'' in the sense of the ability of a person to be free from willful transgression of
Notes to Pages 240–48 ∑∑≥
3. Edwards to Joseph Bellamy, January 21, 1742, Works, 16: 98–100. 4. Sarah Edwards, ''Narrative'' (1742), reprinted in Dwight, Life, 171–86, quotation p. 181.
5. Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion, Works, 4: 340. 6. Ibid., 331. 7. Ibid., 334. Sarah was born January 9, 1710. 8. Ibid., 333–34 9. Ibid., 334–35. 10. Ibid., 341. John Wesley defined sin as a willful choice and so believed in ''Christian perfection'' in the sense of the ability of a person to be free from willful transgression of known law. Edwards believed in the inward corruption of human nature that was not entirely eradicated among the regenerate. Cf. C. C. Goen's note, Works, 4: 341n.
11. Probably they would have mentioned it if the group were women only. Jonathan wrote, ''Indeed, modesty might in ordinary cases, restrain some persons, as women, and those that are young, from so much as speaking when a great number are present; at least, when some of those present are much their superiors, unless they are spoken to: and yet the case may be so extraordinary as fully to warrant it. . . . [For instance, if they are struck by lightening] . . . I have seen some women and children in such circumstances, on religious accounts, that it has appeared to me no more a transgressing the laws of humility and modesty for them to speak freely, let who will be present, than if they were dying.'' Some Thoughts, Works, 4: 486.
12. Jonathan readily adopted this innovation. Later that year he wrote, '' 'tis unreasonable to suppose that the Christian church should forever, and even in times of her greatest light in her praises of God and the Lamb, be confined only to the words of the Old Testament, wherein all the greatest and most glorious things of the Gospel, that are infinitely the greatest subjects of her praise, are spoken of under a veil.'' Ibid., 407.
13. Handel, Theodora (1749), Aria, act 1. 14. Fragment (in Edwards' hand) of Sarah Edwards' Narrative, Edwards Collections, ANTS, Works of Edwards transcription. The much more vague corresponding passage is in Dwight, Life, 183. This fragment is all we have of the original, and we do not know what else Dwight edited out. Sarah's account, on which the present summation is based, is in Dwight, Life, 171–83. Jonathan's version in Some Thoughts, Works, 4: 331–41.
15. William Patten, Reminiscences of the Late Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D. (Boston, 1843), 26. Although this late source may be questionable, Hopkins was present at the event. Patten was later for twenty-one years a confidant of Hopkins (1721–1803) and had written down this version of Hopkins' probably often-repeated recollection.
16. Edwards' account is in a letter from Edwards to Thomas Prince, December 12, 1743, Works, 16: 120–21. 17. Samuel Mather to Edwards, n.d., in sermon, Luke 12:35–36 (December 1742), Edwards Collection, Beinecke, Works of Edwards transcription.
18. Stephen J. Stein, '' 'For Their Spiritual Good': The Northampton, Massachusetts, Prayer Bids of the 1730s and 1740s,'' William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 37, no. 2 (April 1980): 273. The two Lyman girls died December 8, 1742. Edwards' sermon was on Luke 12:35–36, which urges people to always be prepared for the immediate coming of the Lord. He also preached a sermon on the occasion of the fire, on Micah 6:9, the first point of which was ''God's voice sometimes cries to a city or town in the awful rebukes of his