Virtue in the Cork Sermons of Morgan Edwards on 2 Peter 1:3–9

Abstract

While there are two biographies, a number of articles and snippets on Morgan Edwards in Baptist history books, there is nothing written on his preaching. This thesis deals exclusively with his sermons, and specifically his sermons on 2 Peter 1:3–9, which he preached in Cork, Ireland, and where he expounded on the list of Christian virtues within the Petrine text.

Through this examination of these sermons three key themes come to light. First, they reveal the way in which an eighteenth-century Baptist preacher understood Christian virtue as based on 2 Peter 1:5-7, and how he presented that to an Irish congregation in Cork, Ireland. Second, they reveal how impactful, instructive, and reformative Scripture can be when exegesis and exposition is done correctly, in this case, through Edwards’s expositions about virtue in the life of the believer. Third, Edwards’ sermons on 2 Peter 1:3–9 reveals the timeless relevance and necessity of the biblical view of virtue in the life of the believer.