N04497:12
Copies of the two letters cited by the Rev. Mr. Clap, Rector of the…
Copies of the two letters cited by the Rev. Mr. Clap, Rector of the college at New-Haven, in his late printed letter to a friend in Boston, concerning what he has reported, as from Mr. Edwards of Northampton, concerning the Rev. Mr. Whitefield. Communicated in a letter to a friend. : With some reflections on the affair those letters relate to, and Rector Clap's management therein. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Minister of the Gospel at Northampton, and writer of those letters.
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1745
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Whitefield ever so much as mentioned the NAME of THAT LAND to me. You say that I told you, "That I took all Opportunities to talk with Mr. Whitefield alone about this Matter▪ But when Mr. Whitefield saw that I did not approve of his Design in that Matter, he did not seem to choose to say any Thing about it; he would either turn off the Discourse upon something else, or go out of the Room." This Account is amazing to me: It is all of it perfectly new to me. Nor can I conceive what any Imagination, that ever ⟨p. 7⟩I said any such Things, should arise from. I indeed have told several Persons, that I once purposely took an Opportunity to talk with Mr. Whitefield alone about Impulses: and have mentioned many Particulars of our Conference together, on that Head: That I told him some Reasons I had to think he gave too great Heed to such Things: and have told what Manner of Replies he made; and what Reasons I offered against such Things. And I also said that Mr. Whitefield did not seem to be offended with me: but yet did not seem to be inclined to have a great deal of Discourse about it: And that in the Time of it he did not appear to be convinced by any Thing▪ I said. I have also said that I at that Time talked with Mr. Barber (who came to my House with Mr. Whitefield) about some of his Impulses; dealing plainly with him; whereby he seemed to be displeased, and replied with Earnestness and Zeal. It is also true (tho' I don't know that ever I spake of it before) that I thought Mr. Whitefield liked me not so well, for my opposing these Things. And tho' he treated me with great Kindness; yet he never made so much of an Intimate of me, as of some others. It is also true, that I once talked with Mr. Whitefield (tho' not alone) about judging other Persons to be unconverted. But that I took all Opportunities to talk with him, about a Design of his, of turning out the Generality of the Ministers of New-England, or any Ministers; or that I took any one Opportunity to talk with him about it; or that I ever said a Word to him, or he to me, either alone, or with others, about any such Design; or that I took many Opportunities to talk with him about any of his Errors, (as your Expression seems ⟨p. 8⟩to imply) or that he ever went out of the Room when I was talking with him about any of his Errors, so putting an End to, or avoiding the Discourse;