What hath Northampton to do with Azusa St.?

Some years back, I was at the home of an ardent Pentecostal acquaintance when I was amazed to see a copy of one of Jonathan Edward's treatises on her dining room table. As a newly Reformed Christian I had assumed that since Edwards was such a strong predestinarian, there was no way that my friend could possibly have been giving the treatise a sympathetic reading...and yet it was highlighted and underlined all over the place! What is it that modern-day Pentecostals find in common with the same one who preached "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." Both are/were committed to bring about revival. Like modern-day Pentecostals, Jonathan Edwards attested to an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit which led, not only to the alleged conversion of many, but was also accompanied by astonishing experiences in the lives of his townsfolk. Although Edwards was careful to distinguish his reports from other sensational accounts like those of the Quakers, he nevertheless, placed a high priority upon extraordinary religious experience and interpreted these events as actual divine outpourings. This is the same trajectory later followed in the Second Great Awakening and today by Pentecostals, in particular, as well as numerous Evangelicals, in general. 

The hallmark of any claim to an authentic revival (excluding Finney's) is that all is wrought by the divine power of the Spirit. Human-wrought effects, brought about by ordinary means and circumstances, are by definition, not revival. Hence, the almost universal criticism of Charles G. Finney's extravagant claim that revival can be brought about through human means without any need for divine grace. The problem with making such a strong contrast with the First and Second Great Awakening, however, is that human agency and circumstances played a large part in the former as it did in the latter. For example, Edwards' early account of the "awakening" going on in his Northampton made its way across the pond where it was enthusiastically read by the likes of John Wesley and George Whitefield, who in turn, sought to bring about the same results. 

Another human-related means used by Edwards and others was the use of what can be termed, scare tactics. At the height of the Northampton awakening, one of Edwards' own distant relations, committed suicide by slitting his throat. Never one to shy away from interpreting providence, Edwards attributed this tragic event largely to the workings of Satan (I'm sure he had at least something to do with it [cf. Gen 3]).  Since God was doing such an extraordinary work, Edwards reasoned, Satan also must be doing his utmost to stop it. His sermons following the suicide used the deceased as an example of Satan's victim, the obvious application was: don't end up like him.  Edwards heightened the urgency for his parishioners as he attested that "multitudes," who previously never suffered from depression, were suddenly confronted with the temptation to end their own life! It was as if, according to Edwards, Satan came upon them and told them, "'Cut your own throat, now is good opportunity: now, NOW!'"