Dr. Allen, Edwards's biographer and critic, and a careful student of his
unpublished, as well as of his published, writings, says, "He was at his
best and greatest, most original and creative, when he described the divine
love." Such passages as the following, and also the one quoted on page 51,
show this quality:--

"When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love and purity.
So the green trees and fields and singing of birds are the emanations of
His infinite joy and benignity. The easiness and naturalness of trees and
vines are shadows of His beauty and loveliness."

His favorite text was, "I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the
valleys," and his favorite words were "sweet and bright."


ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD

The great English writers between the colonization of Jamestown in 1607 and
the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754 are: (1) JOHN MILTON
(1608-1674), the great poetic spokesman of Puritan England, whose _Comus_
is addressed to those, who:--

"... by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key
That opes the palace of eternity,"

whose _Sonnets_ breathe a purposeful prayer to live this life as ever in
his great Taskmaster's eye, and whose _Paradise Lost_ is the colossal epic
of the loss of Eden through sin; (2) JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688), whose