N04497:14
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.
But certainly there has been some strange and wonderful Misapprehension and Confusion arisen in your Mind, by some Means or other, that caused you so confidently, publicly & plentifully to report these Things of me. I beg of you thoroughly to consider it; and insist upon it, as what Justice to others Characters does greatly require from you, publicly to correct these gross Mistakes. I am, Sir, your humble Servant, J. E. Northampton, Oct. 29. 1744. P. S. Rev. Sir, I just now received your Letter of Oct. 28. and would only say, That I don't say it was not possible for you to mistake any Thing I might say to you, about Mr. Whitefield, going to Boston; so as now to think that I said as you have represented. I do suppose that it arises from some strange Mistake, that you have reported as you have. Tho' as I said, I remember no Conversation ⟨p. 10⟩about Mr. Whitefield at that Time (tho' I remember considerable of other Conversation, as about my Book, and about Connecticut Laws) yet it's possible I might say to you, that I believed Mr. Whitefield did aim at People's forsaking unconverted Ministers, and to endeavour that there should be a Supply of converted Ministers, as far as in him lay; or something to that Purpose. In the same Discourse it's possible I might mention what Mr. Whitefield told me of his Design of bringing over a Number of young Men from England, to be ordained by the Tenants, in the Jerseys: And might say that I thought I dealt more plainly with Mr. Whitefield, about his Errors, than any other Minister: And that when I talked with him about Impulses, he did not seem to like to have much Discourse about it. And how far you might mistake any such Things, I might say, I do not determine: But certain I am, that by some Means or other, you have laboured under an exceeding great Mistake. I am yours, &c.—J. E. Northampton, Nov. 3. 1744.
But certainly there has been some strange and wonderful Misapprehension and Confusion arisen in your Mind, by some Means or other, that caus'd you so confidently, publickly & plentifully to report these Things of me. I beg of you thoroughly to consider it; and insist upon it, as what Justice to others Characters does greatly require from you, publickly to correct these gross Mistakes. I am, Sir, your humble Servant, J. E. Northampton, Oct. 29. 1744. P. S. Rev. Sir, I just now received your Letter of Oct. 28. and would only say, That I don't say it was not possible for you to mistake any Thing I might say to you, about Mr. Whitefield, going to Boston; so as now to think that I said as you have represented. I do suppose that it arises from some strange Mistake, that you have reported as you have. Tho' as I said, I remember no Conversation