1811 JONATHAN EDWARDS / JOSEPH BELLAMY. The Works of Jonathan Edwards Most Important Theological Student.

A very important first edition complete of the works of one of the primary disciples of Jonathan Edwards, and certainly his most significant theological inheritor, Joseph Bellamy [1711-1790]. The Great Awakening itself, especially as articulated by Jonathan Edwards, could be seen as a response against the half-way covenant, i.e. the idea that unconverted persons in the church may still be meaningful members of the church, have their children baptized, etc., Edwards saw this as a serious compromise; the Church was not composed of assenting people, but regenerate people. Edwards went a step further and called into question the very notion of any covenant aside from that which occurs mystically between the soul of a person and Christ, thus making them part of the Church universal.  As the Great Awakening wound down, the old tendencies flared up and Bellamy took up the mantle of Edwards, again arguing for the necessity of conversion to Christ to meaningfully participate in the Kingdom of G