1720 JONATHAN EDWARDS / TIMOTHY EDWARDS. Sermon MSs on Baptism, Renewal of the Covenant, and the Lord's Supper.

A wonderful piece of unpublished Church history with superb provenance.  The present is a 4pp, c.1,000-word sermon manuscript entirely in the hand of the father of Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Edwards, and involves one of the most important theological conversations of the Puritan and Colonial era of American Theology, the relationship of Baptism to Covenant. The relationship between these two Christian sacraments lay at the heart of the Half-Way Covenant controversy, which involved the entire Edwards clerical ancestry; i.e. Solomon Stoddard, Jonathan Edwards' grandfather; Timothy Edwards, Jonathan Edwards father and the author of the present manuscript; and Jonathan Edwards himself. Unlike Jonathan, who was said to have put the nail in the coffin of the Half-Way Covenant, Solomon Stoddard and Timothy Edwards were deeply embroiled in advocacy for the controversial position.  Solomon Stoddard [1643-1729] succeeded Eleazer Mather as the minister at Northampton and was, consistent with his s