these excellencies in a view advantageous for imitation, or describing a character attainable, as to its most valuable traits, only by gracious aids, there would be danger of setting up an idol; more precious indeed than gold, but still an idol, whereby the mind would be led astray from the one great object of the christian life, Jesus Christ, whose fulness filleth all in all. While we have a just view of him, it is a privilege to hear of his wonderful works in and by his honoured servants; and to be enabled to imitate them is a great augmentation of the privilege. If their graces, exemplified. in a variety of circumstances, in a manner force us to a throne of grace, and thereby prove the means of quickening ours; then do we make a right use of their history, and follow them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Jonathan Edwards was born on the 5th of October, 1703, at Windsor, in the Province of Connecticut, North America. His father, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, was minister of that place almost sixty years, and resided there from Nov. 1694, till

January, 1758, when he died, in the eightyninth year of his age; not two months before this his only son Jonathan. He was universally beloved, and esteemed as an upright, pious, exemplary man; a faithful and very useful minister of the gospel. A few more particulars of this excellent man will be acceptable. He was born at Hartford, in Connecticut, May 14th, 1669; and received the honours of the college at Cambridge, in New England, by having the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts given him the same day, July 4th, 1694, one in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. On November 6th, 1694, he married Esther, daughter of the Rev. and celebrated Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, in the twenty-third year of her age. They lived together in the married state above sixty-three years. Mrs. Edwards, the President's mother, was born June 2d, 1672, and lived to about ninety years of age, (dying some years after her son,) a remarkable instance of the small decay or mental powers. This venerable couple had cleven children; one son, the subject of these

Memoirs, and ten daughters, four of whom were older, and six younger than himself.*

* We shall here subjoin a sketch of Mr. Edwards's more remote ancestors, as it may gratify some readers. Jonathan Edwards's grandfather was Richard Edwards, who married Elizabeth Tuttle, daughter of William Tuttle, of New Haven, in Connecticut, and Elizabeth his wife, whọ came from Northamptonshire, in Old England. By this connection he had seven children, of whom the eldest was Timothy, the President's father. His second marriage was to Mrs. Talcot, sister to Governor Talcot, by whom he had six children. The father of Richard, was William Edwards, Jonathan's great-grandfather, who came from England young and unmarried. The person he married, whose christian name was Agnes, and who had left England for America, had two brothers in England, one of them mayor of Exeter, and the other of Barnstaple.-The father of William, Richard Edwards, the President's great-greatgrandfather, was minister of the gospel in London, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and his wife, Ann Edwards, was employed in making some part of the royal attire. After the death of Mr. Edwards, she married Mr. James Cole, who with her son William accompanied her to América, and all died at Hartford, in Connecticut."

President Edwards's grandfather, on the mother's side, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, New England, married Mrs. Mather, the relict of the Rev. Mr. Mather, his predecessor, who was the first minister at Northampton. Her maiden name was Esther Warham, daughter and youngest child of the Rev. John Warham, minister at Windsor, in Connecticut, and who, before he This lady had

left England, had been minister at Exeter.

three children, by Mr. Mather; Eunice,

釁

Warham, and

Mr. Edwards entered Yale College wher about twelve years of age; and received

Eliakim; and twelve children by Mr. Stoddard, six sons and six daughters. Three of the sons died in infancy, and three lived to adult years, viz. Anthony, John, and Israel; the last of whom died a prisoner in France. Anthony was minister of the gospel at Woodbury, in Connecticut; he was in the ministry about sixty years, and died Sept. 6, 1760, in the eighty-second year of his age. John lived at Northamp ton, and often, especially in his younger years, served the town as their representative, at the great and general court át Boston; and was, long, head of the county of Hampshire, as chief colonel, and chief judge of the court of common. pleas. He likewise served in the province of Massachusets Bay, as one of his Majesty's council. He distinguished himself as an able politician, a wise counsellor, an upright and skilful judge; possessed in an eminent degree the spirit of government, and ever proved a great and steady friend to the interest of religion. He was a warm friend and admirer of our Mr. Edwards, and, to the time of his death, greatly strengthened his hands in the work of the ministry. A more particular account of the life and character of this truly great man, may be seen in the sermon which Mr. Edwards preached and published, on the occasion of his death. The father of Mr. Solomon Stoddard, and Mr. Edwards's great-grandfather, on the mother's side, was Anthony Stoddard, esq. of Boston, a zealous congregational man. He had five wives, the first of whom was Mary Downing, sister to Sir George Downing, whose other sister married Governor Bradstreet. Solomon was the first child of this first marriage. From these particulars it appears, that Mr. Edwards's ancestors were from the west of England, who, upon their emigration, allied themselves to some of the most respectable families in America,

the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Sept. 1720, a little before he was seventeen. While at college, his character was marked with sobriety and improvement in learning. In the second year of his abode there, he read Locke on the Human Understanding with much delight. His uncommon genius, by which he was naturally formed for close thought and deep penetration, now began to discover and exert itself. From his own account, he was inexpressibly entertained and pleased with that book, when he read it at college; more so than the most avaricious miser, when accumulating stores of silver and gold from some newly-discovered treasure. Though he made good proficiency in all the arts and sciences, and had an uncommon taste for natural philosophy, (which he cultivated to the end of his life,) yet moral philosophy, including divinity, was his favourite subject, in which he soon made great progress.

He lived at college nearly two years after he took his first degree, preparing for the work of the ministry; after which, having passed the usual trials, he was licensed to