Outlines of the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
David Owen Filson
26 March 2003

    One of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my academic career is reading and outlining virtually every sermon in the 2 vol. Hickman edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. The impetus for this lengthy, and sometimes tedious project came from an assignment in a doctoral class with Dr. Sam Logan at Westminster Theological Seminary in the spring of 2000. The reason I have based this project on that standard two-volume set reprinted by Banner of Truth, rather than the various Yale volumes of Edwards' sermons, is per the original course assignment. Please, should you ever enroll in this class, refrain from simply taking this document and turning it in as your own. You do not want to miss the joy and benefit of doing the work yourself. Neither, do you want to besmirch your integrity. Besides, by doing your own work, you will, no doubt, compose and even better version that I have. This project, as you might imagine, took seemingly countless hours to put together, as there are as many as 165 sermons and miscellanies I read, in order to put these outlines together, not to mention scores of other miscellanies and treatise material in the compilation of the "Edwardsian Links." So, if you happen to be taking the course on the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards at WTS, please respect your and my academic energies by doing your own work.

    I have tried to not only read each sermon and cull out an outline from it, but to draw upon my readings in the available Edwards corpus over the past decade, and synthesize my outlining with my understanding of Edwards' theology, as a whole. The most overt way in which I have attempted this is by, highlighting in purple here and there, throughout the outlines, phrases, words, doctrines, etc., appearing in each sermon that relate to Edwards' teaching on the need for regeneration for sound epistemology, "fitness," the new sense of the heart," and causal and non-causal conditionality in relation to justification. You will see that this has been a major area of interest for me, by reading my other essays on Jonathan Edwards here on this website. I follow the sermon/miscellanies order of appearance in the two-volumes Hickman edition. It will be quickly evident that the outlines follow Edwards' basic "Puritan plain style of preaching," which proceeds, on most instances, along the lines of exposition, doctrine, followed by the application or "improvement" section of the sermon. Spelling curiosities are due to my adherence to Edwards' actual wording. You will also notice, at the end of each entry, a set of "Edwardsian Links." These are simply some ideas for places to go in searching out the particular themes of a given Edwards sermon in his other treatises and miscellanies (some of which are contained in the Hickman edition, some in vols. 13, a-500; and 18, 501-832 of the Yale edition, and a few of which are as of yet unpublished ms. form).

    With all this said, I present this for your enjoyment and aid in making your way through the tremendous sermons contained in that two-volume goldmine. I pray that this tool will encourage and assist many to take up the sermons of Edwards with a sense of thankfulness and eager anticipation to sit at the feet of that teacher of Israel. Tolle, lege!

    Also helpful in sifting through Edwards' sermons is the brief sermon index also provided here.