Doctrinal orthodoxy, moral instruction, and proper public behavior had not induced, and therefore could not induce, a change in heart. Preaching on this theme, Edwards often drew on the analogy of light. Sinners had access to the Bible, to notions of right and wrong, but it was quite apparent by experience that their corrupt hearts inclined away from the good and the true. If only God could change hearts, then the best that the people of Northampton could do what they should do was to pray for revival. In 1734 and, again, in 1742, revival came.
Historians have since come to call it The Great Awakening.
To my evangelical friends I point out that Edwards urged his people to move beyond an intellectual assent to Scripture and right doctrine, and to experience the reality of spiritual things. True conversion effected a genuine moral transformation. It turned bitter and envious people into gentle and charitable neighbors. But Edwards did not sanction all religious experience. He learned from the hard duties of a pastor that there had to be a tough-minded, and theologically astute even sophisticated doctrine to guide the experience.