Another Thanksgiving Sermon

In 1836, Tryon Edwards, Jonathan Edwards’ great-grandson, delivered a Thanksgiving sermon celebrating the Puritans’ perseverance and faith. Today, Stephen Nichols explores their strong belief in God's providence and their dedication to pure worship.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Last time we were together, we were anticipating the Thanksgiving holiday and talking about some Thanksgiving sermons. Well, I do hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving if you are an American and you celebrated it. But I want to return to this theme of Thanksgiving sermons. This sermon came from 1836. That year, Thanksgiving was on December 15, and it was preached by Tryon Edwards. He is the great grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and he preached this sermon at the First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York. He used this occasion to remind his congregation, and as he says in the sermon, even the good people of the city of Rochester, of the founders, and he was speaking specifically of the Puritans. He speaks of the Puritans, “how they were bound together by persecution and by the sympathies of a common faith.” He goes on to say that “the name Puritan is a name in which every American should delight to glory,” and he says that “we should desire to share in it even to the remotest degree.”

Well, he goes on to say two things. He goes on to give us a little history of the Puritans in the sermon, and then he goes on to get at what is the heart of being a puritan and the essence of Puritanism. In the history, he goes back to Henry VIII, and he speaks of how Henry VIII was trying to stamp out popery in Old England. But even though he brought in some reforms, it did not clear it out altogether. And of course, we know Bloody Mary would come along, and he references the blood spilled on the plains of Smithfield and the Marian Martyrs. Then he goes on to reference Elizabeth and her two acts, which brought about the Puritans, the second one being the act of conformity.

Well, Tryon Edwards picks it up from there, he says, and in this, “The Puritans persevered. Notwithstanding their incredible sufferings from unjust laws and bitter trials and severe persecutions, they persevered, till by voluntary exile from their native land, they gained their long-sought end.” Of course, he's talking about the Puritans coming to the new world. But then he goes on after he gives us that brief history lesson to get to the heart of what it means to be a Puritan. He writes that “We're not content with acknowledging in general an overruling providence. They habitually ascribed every event to the will of God for whose power nothing was too vast and for whose care and inspection nothing was too minute. To know and serve and enjoy God was with them, the very end and the great end of their existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage, which other sects had substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on his infinite brightness and to commune with him face-to face.” So if we go back and unpack Tryon Edwards here, we see that he is saying for the Puritans, it really is the doctrine of God. And when they understand who God is, then they see God at work. They see God at work in their lives. They see God at work and the world, and they see that this is the end of their existence.

We also see in here the idea of pure worship. This actually goes back to the very beginnings of the Reformation itself. We remember Calvin in his wonderful little text, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, and he answers the question, why the Reformation? He says, well, the whole church was corrupt from top to bottom, and so we needed to reform it from top to bottom so that we can have that pure worship of God. And so, we see Tryon Edwards is reminding us of the emphasis of his great grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, and of the Puritans before him, and the Reformers before him who were not contempt with just a glimpse of God here and there, but for God to be at the very center of their lives. And that's the Puritans from a Thanksgiving sermon by Tryon Edwards. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.