Posted on 07/29/2021 2:12:46 PM PDT by CharlesOConnell
Historical figure, Jonathan Edwards, died from a smallpox vaccine shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey in Princeton.
He was the grandfather of Aaron Burr, the third United States vice president. Died: March 22, 1758 (aged 54).
I'm not against vaccines. I've historically taken the flu shot every year. All of my children have been vaccinated. But I do respect parents, families, and individuals who shy away from vaccinations for health reasons. I'm uninterested in changing their minds. That said, I respect our two former presidents' efforts "to build confidence" in vaccine safety.
I also know about the history of America. I know the LORD. And the LORD seems more interested in people placing their confidence in Him than in a vaccine. Using a Targum of Psalm 20:7 (be sure to look up the definition of a Targum), here's a message for America in 2020 from a verse for Israel in 1000 BC.
"Some trust in vaccines and some in doctors, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."
By the way, just as soon as that statement of trust was made in Psalm 20:7, King David got on his "horse" and led "chariots" of soldiers (the two Hebrew words that I've Targumed as "vaccines" and "doctors") and went out to fight a battle. There's no argument in the Bible against using instruments like vaccines and doctors or horses and chariots. The Bible teaches that you're in trouble if you trust in those things rather than the LORD.
The LORD has used infectious disease to bring down a nation that did not trust in Him. He could do it again. The LORD's stated purpose is to "bring low the proud and raise up those who trust in Him," a theme established throughout the Hebrew Scriptures as well as in the New Testament.
Allow me to introduce President Obama and President Bush, as well as the rest of you, to the story of the death of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1755).
Edwards was the most well-known colonial American of his day. At age 54, he died with newspapers tracking and reporting on his experience in taking the newly invented smallpox vaccination "to build confidence" in the American people about vaccine safety. Jonathan Edwards trusted in the LORD. He was, from all accounts, a most humble man.
Unlike the 2020 RNA vaccination for Corona, the 1755 smallpox vaccination was primitive in nature. A pustule from a sick, infected victim of smallpox would be cut open. The pus would be squeezed out and mixed with a rubbing matter.
The infected matter would be carried by a doctor to a house where healthy people lived. The doctor would make small incisions between the thumbs and index fingers of those who had never been infected with smallpox. The rubbing matter would be placed over the open cuts and wrapped with cloths. If all went well, those vaccinated would endure a mild case of the pox and go on to live healthy lives without fear of catching the full-blown disease.
The American people in Edwards' were afraid of the new smallpox vaccination like many American people today are afraid of the new Coronavirus vaccination. 
The 54-year-old newly elected President of Princeton University wasn't afraid. He trusted the LORD.
Jonathan Edwards was the closest thing to a celebrity that America had in 1758. Serving as a pastor before his appointment to Princeton, Edwards' preaching had become the spark that led America to a Great Awakening.
As a teenager, Jonathan Edwards had written 70 Resolutions for Life. Every New Year's Day, Edwards personally renewed his pledge to live by his resolutions for life. The ninth one states:
"Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death."
For most Americans today, that resolution sounds morbid. That's because we've lost the art of dying well. Actually, if applied, this resolution #9 would help all of us die as well as Jonathan Edwards did in the prime of his life.
Dr. William Shippen, a Princeton doctor who would later serve as a delegate to the Continental Congress, administered the smallpox vaccination to President Jonathan Edwards. The newspapers reported the event, hoping to encourage other New Jersey citizens to get the treatment themselves.
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| Smallpox |
At first, things went normal. Edwards came down with a mild case of the pox, and he appeared to be on the mend.
But then smallpox spread into his mouth and throat, making swallowing difficult.
Jonathan Edwards knew that he was dying.
He'd moved to Princeton only a few months earlier to serve as President of the school (then known as The College of New Jersey). His wife had not yet made it to Princeton. Jonathan Edwards had co-founded the school with his good friend Aaron Burr, Sr., whose sudden death by fever in the fall of 1757 had precipitated Edwards's appointment. Edwards' daughter, Esther Edwards, had married Mr. Burr, and their son Aaron Burr, Jr. would go on to become Vice-President of the United States. Most Americans only know of Jonathan Edward's grandson, Aaron Burr, Jr., for his killing of Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel, an event made even more memorable by the Broadway musical play Hamilton.
As Jonathan Edwards lay on his death bed, messengers sent for his wife. But Sarah Edwards would not make it to Princeton to see her husband before he died. When Jonathan Edwards realized his wife wouldn't make it, he called for Lucy, his daughter, who'd moved with him to Princeton. He said to her:
"Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue forever: and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are now like to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father, who will never fail you. And as to my funeral, I would have it be like Mr. Burr’s; and any additional sum of money that might be expected to be laid out that way, I would have it disposed of to charitable uses."
Jonathan Edward's had attended Mr. Burr's funeral the previous fall and was impressed with its simplicity and charity. There were no ornate decorations, nor an ornate casket or headstone, both customary in Edward's day. Mr. Burr had instructed all the money that his family would save to go to charitable causes.
As the hour of his death approached, friends and Dr. William Shippen stood near President Edwards and discussed the significant loss of coming to the college, the American colonies, and the world at large through President Edwards' death. Nobody thought Jonathan Edwards could hear the conversation, but he raised his head up from his bed and spoke clearly to the group:
"Trust in God, and ye need not fear."
At 2:30 pm, the afternoon of March 22, 1758, Jonathan Edwards died of smallpox at 54. Dr. Shippen sent a letter to his widow:
"This afternoon, between two and three o’clock, it pleased God to let him sleep in that dear Lord Jesus, whose kingdom and interest he has been faithfully and painfully serving all his life. And never did any mortal man more fully and clearly evidence the sincerity of all his professions, by one continued, universal, calm, cheerful resignation, and patient submission to the divine will, through every stage of his disease, than he; not so much as one discontented expression, nor the least appearance of murmuring, through the whole."
Sarah Edwards would later write to her daughter these words of comfort and encouragement:
"My very dear Child, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud! …The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness that we had him so long. But my God lives: and He has my heart. Oh, what a legacy my husband and your father has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be."
In our day, when families are panicked over the possible death of loved ones and when individuals are anxious and fearful over their own mortality, it's good for us to reflect on the past lives of God's faithful servants and the art of dying well.
It's also a reminder that people who trust in the LORD may die of Covid-19. People who trust in the LORD may die from vaccination. People who trust in the LORD will die, just like those who don't trust in the LORD.
But when you trust in the LORD, you don't fear your death.
I wish President Obama and President Bush success, but if the LORD is bringing down a proud nation, the new Corona vaccinations may not turn out the way we desire.
Maybe God was angry?
George Washington did this to the troops at Valley Forge when Small Pox broke out - only a handful died - he saved his army.
I didn’t know until, well, now that the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” man was Aaron Burr’s grandpa. As the saying goes, learn something new every day.
They used exposure to cowpox to give resistance to smallpox.
Though, these days, the terms vaccinate and inoculate are essentially used interchangeable, I don’t think vaccinate is an apt term for what was done then. As the post correctly stated, live virus in pushing was physically placed into a cut in the hand. That is not “vaccination” in any reasonable use of that term. I don’t think this incident has anything to teach us about the vaccinate/ dont vaccinate co grocery’s of the day. Though, as always, I would certainly agree that trusting in the Lord is always good advice.
Did he die from a smallpox vaccine or a smallpox inoculation? The process of inoculation involved deliberately infecting someone with hopefully a mild case of smallpox. If successful the patient had a lifetime immunity against the disease, but it could go wrong and the patient could die from the smallpox.
The vaccine, which according to Wikipedia, came after Edward’s death. It involved introducing cowpox virus which is close enough to smallpox as to give immunity from the deadly disease. The ‘vacc’ in vaccine comes from the Latin vacca—cow.
The first vaccines were created by Louis Pasteur, he was born in 1822. Looks like a hoax to me.
A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbor urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The neighbor then drove off in his pick-up truck.
The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on.
The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The floodwaters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left. The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned.
When he reached heaven and asked, “God, why did you not save me? I believed in you with all my heart. Why did you let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat, and a helicopter and you refused all of them. What else could I possibly do for you?”
They used exposure to cowpox to give resistance to smallpox.
That was the much safer way to do it, but had not been yet discovered in Edwards’ day.
“friends and Dr. William Shippen stood near President Edwards”
Oh Hell no. With Smallpox?
Edwards Hall at Princeton Univeristy. A popular dorm because all of the rooms are single occupancy. Built in 1879, at the time it was considered the "poor man's dormitory."
no cow jab for me
Classic “Straw Man” argument. It’s a drowning straw man.
According to Bobbie Gentry there was a virus going found and papa caught it and died last spring. Too bad he didn’t have a choice of getting a vaccine.
The ‘vacc’ in vaccine comes from the Latin vacca—cow.
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I learn something every day.
I didn’t know he was President of Princeton. And I also didn’t know that the smallpox vaccine is likely a hoax until somebody mentioned Pasteur’s dates.
You do learn something new every day, and sometimes it is even true!
Good post—above average for FR but below average for one of the better threads I’ve seen in a while in terms of largely insightful comments. I’ve learned a good deal.
From that bastion of conservatism NPR
That was an amazing feat, since he died in 1758 and the vaccine was developed in 1796.
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