"A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God"

This sermon by Jonathan Edwards stresses the fact that a human being must be given this “Divine and Supernatural Light,” directly from God. Jonathan Edwards emphasizes this divinely inspired knowledge by using biblical references. For example, Edwards cites the Apostle Peter’s declaration of Jesus Christ’s sanctity as God’s son and Jesus’ response to this declaration. Edwards puts particular emphasis on Jesus’ dialogue towards Peter, “This is such knowledge as only my Father which is in heaven can give: it is too high and excellent to be communicated by such means as other knowledge is. Thou art blessed, that thou knowest that which God alone can teach thee.” Edwards uses these italics in these verses in order to indicate that God alone is responsible for this divine knowledge.

Edwards also shows the importance of God in inspiring great knowledge when he says, “ Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul, than all the knowledge of those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity without grace.” Edwards reinforces this viewpoint once again by discussing the “great men” such as the Scribes, Pharisees, and Rulers. These are the gentlemen with the most knowledge about religion in general, but they are unable to understand this divine and supernatural light. Edwards suggests that they are to caught up in their own righteousness to understand that all good things come from the Son of God. When Edwards references Matthew 11:25-27, he continues to stress the fact that only through God can one reach true enlightenment, because his truth is hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes.

Overall, Jonathan Edwards conveys the message through this sermon that God is responsible for everything that is accomplished in life. In this sense Edwards portrays God as a deity who leaves no room for arrogance or pride. Edwards constantly states that divine enlightenment comes from the savior only. In a lot of ways this sermon reflects some of the important themes in Cotton Mather’s book The Christian Philosopher. Each essay states that God is ultimately in power, and everything we achieve is through him alone. Each essay also states the unimportance of the individual in comparison to God, because God essentially gives us all our talents and abilities. Each work of literature also contains metaphors to darkness and the light. Although each essay speaks of humbleness, Edwards seems to be the only one to follow through with this plan. While Cotton Mather constantly praises God throughout his book, one gets the feeling that Mather is writing to impress rather than glorify God. Mather’s use of syntax, vocabulary, and sentence structure makes one wonder whether or not the early American-Puritans found Mather as a righteous or a self-righteous man. In sharp contrast of Mather’s bombastic writing style, Edwards has a solid, straight-to-the-point style. Edwards tells his congregation what they need to hear, without elaborating on his own genius by using complicated writing. In this sense one may feel that Edwards is actually adhering to the humbleness which he preaches of a lot closer than Cotton Mather ever did. To be fair to Cotton Mather, one should keep in mind that Jonathan Edwards came about a century after him. Also, Edward’s sermon is not an book and perhaps he would be more verbose if he took the time to write a large peace of literature.