Edward Michael Wigglesworth

Background

Edward Michael Wigglesworth was born in Malden, Massachussets, son of the poet Michael Wigglesworth and his third wife, Sybil (Sparhawk) Avery.

Education

Edward attended the Boston Latin School, where he was an usher, and graduated from Harvard College in 1710. Taking up residence at the College, he continued his studies in divinity.

Career

Harvard's first great patron, Thomas Hollis, established a chair of divinity in 1721 and Wigglesworth was made the first Hollis Professor on January 24, 1722. In 1724 he was elected to the Corporation of the college. In 1730 he was granted a doctorate in divinity by the University of Edinburgh. In spite of the handicap of increasing deafness, he was constantly active in the pulpit, preaching in a "nervous and sufficiently animated style, " and instructing young students in theology. When George Whitefield, the itinerant evangelist, came to Harvard in 1745, to find that "Tutors neglect to pray with and examine the Heart of their Pupils, " Wigglesworth was the College's stoutest defender. In A Letter to the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield (1745), he openly accused Whitefield of being "an uncharitable, censorious, and slanderous man" and urged him to a public apology. By this defense and his later publication, Some Distinguishing Characters of the Extraordinary and Ordinary Ministers of the Church of Christ (1754), he became a leader among the anti-evangelical clergy. Growing reputation brought him in 1761 the offer of the Yale rectorship, which he declined. He died some four years later and was given impressive funeral ceremonies in the College Chapel, with a notable sermon by Nathaniel Appleton and a Latin oration by one of his senior students. His successor in the Hollis Professorship was his son Edward. In addition to the works already mentioned, Wigglesworth published several sermons.

Achievements

• He was made the first Hollis Professor.

Religion

In A Seasonable Caveat against Believing Every Spirit (1735) and Some Evidences of the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures of the Old Testament (1755), he denied the peculiar gift of God to evangelists in general and Whitefield in particular. A sermon on the death of Hollis, The Blessedness of the Dead Who Die in the Lord (1731), and an anti-papal sermon, Some Thoughts upon the Spirit of Infallibility Claimed by the Church of Rome (1757) deserve mention because of their cogent style. A last group comprises three sermons in the field of Arminian-Calvinistic controversy: In A Discourse Concerning the Duration of the Punishment of the Wicked (1729) Wigglesworth showed himself to be an uncompromising Calvinist. Observable in the second of these three (An Enquiry into the Truth of the Imputation of the Guilt of Adam's First Sin, 1738) is the gradual breakdown of unconditional Calvinism and a new emphasis on the independence of the will as opposed to strict accounting to God for the original sin. Here Wigglesworth mirrors the trend of the times. More especially does he show the split between conditional Arminianism, which provides salvation to those men redeemed by faith, and unconditional Calvinism in The Doctrine of Reprobation Briefly Considered (1763). He considered the Sub- and Supralapsarian aspects of the older doctrine: the Sublapsarians held that God's decree with respect to original sin was antecedent to His foreknowledge, while the Supralapsarians placed His judgment afterwards. In reply to both points of doctrine Wigglesworth, voicing distinct Arminian sentiments, answered that all election and foreordination are conditional, and that no man is "under irresistible motions, either to good or evil. " From the point of view of theological doctrine, Wigglesworth's gradual compromise heralds the advent of Unitarianism.

Connections

He married Sarah, daughter of President John Leverett, June 15, 1726. The Wigglesworths lived opposite the head of Holyoke Street, on the northerly side of Harvard Street, where Wigglesworth Hall now stands. Sarah died in 1727, and on September 10, 1729, Edward married Rebecca Coolidge, by whom he had three sons and a daughter.

Father:

Michael Wigglesworth

Mother:

Sybil (Sparhawk) Avery

Spouse:

Sarah

Spouse:

Rebecca Coolidge