| The statement from the Reverend Jonathon Edwards to the 1741 General Convention of Congregational Ministers in Boston was never read there. Discovered in 1990 at the Summerville Room, Luther King House, it shows evidence that it had been leaked and discussed beforehand by ministers: |
| In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who shed blood to save sin. |
| The Reverend George Whitefield has been preaching with great effect the true Word of God in the southern and middle Colonies. He was invited to Boston by Reverend Colman of Brattle Square Church, Boston. Mr. Whitefield has since been in other towns nearby. Others have preaching in a similar way. |
| There has been a great awakening saving sinners from the hands of an angry God and yet Mr. Whitefield and others have been greatly criticised as a deluder by members of this Convention. Instead they should praise God for this revival in our Colonies of true Calvinist belief and practice now beginning amongst the elect gathering together for the worship of the Lord. |
| Years ago in 1722 the Reverend Cotton Mather indicated in his sermon at the General Convention that resident ministers were neglecting to preach Christ. So I am not going to criticise the visiting Mr. Whitefield for calling heretics "dumb dogs, half devils and half beasts, spiritually blind, and leading people to hell." Rather, he is correct because they have been engaging in lax preaching and evasive view of the atonement despite claiming that they are believers in this true doctrine. We have long had this infestation of heresies in the Colonies, as recorded by Edward Johnson in 1654 in Wonder Working Providence, and demonstrated since in The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption from William Pynchon, the magistrate of Springfield in 1650, in 1655 in New England. True believers have been greatly concerned that there are many who have willingly or unknowingly followed recent developments of doctrinal decay. |
| However, what we now have in this land so infested with heresy as elsewhere is a revival of the true faith. This is to be welcomed and unless all parish ministers assent and give proclomation to all Calvinist doctrines from their pulpits we will find the separation of all the elect. |