writhing under the most alarming bodily convulsions. The work spread in various directions and attracted general notice. He was introduced to the fathers and founders of the Secession church, the Erskines, who were at first very favourably disposed towards him; but upon a more intimate acquaintance, were led to consider him in the light of an enthusiast, without any fixed system of principles, or regularity of plan, and willing to accommodate himself to almost any denomination of Christians, whatever their principles, provided they maintained what he considered the fundamental points of the Christian system. They refused to have any farther ecclesiastical connection with him, or to give him their countenance, as a minister of the gospel.

He set sail for America, animated no doubt with the most honest desire to promote the interests of true religion, and to be instrumental in saving the souls of sinners. He landed at Charleston in 1740, and was soon after invited to Boston. His fame had reached that place before him, and vast audiences assembled at all those places, in which it was known that he would preach. The effects of his preaching were of the same nature precisely in America, as in Britain. Loud cries and bodily agitations were almost every where produced under his ministrations. Many went to hear him either with a view to mock, or to gratify their curiosity, in hearing so celebrated an orator. The clergy and the people in America were divided in their opinions respecting him, as much as in England and Scotland. From New-England, he visited New-York and Pennsylvania. The ministers of the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, all admitted him into their pulpits; many of them hailed him on his arrival as they would a messenger immediately from heaven, and copied as far as possible, his pathetic mode of preaching. Others thought that such forcible appeals to the passions, without paying sufficient attention to the enlightening of the understanding, were not calculated to produce any lasting salutary effect. They admitted, that Mr. Whitefield might be, and no doubt was, instrumental in the conversion of numerous sinners; that he was pious and honest in his inten

tions; but they feared that the storm of passion which was raised, would lay waste the order of the church, and in the end, produce more evil than good. The controversy ran high, and much ill nature was mingled with it. Those who followed Whitefield, were called "New Light," and "New Side," while his opposers were denominated "Old Light," and "Old Side" men, names borrowed from Scotland. The dispute was not merely about the manner of preaching, it also embraced discussions, on some very important doctrinal topics. Those who adopted the vehement manner of declaiming from the pulpit, found themselves, as they thought, too much limited in their exhortations to duty, while they admitted that the people had no power of themselves to believe, repent, and perform works of righteousness, and were led to assert and maintain, that man has power to perform all the duties which God enjoins upon him, provided he but wills to perform it. Their opponents said, nothing was gained by this distinction; for as man could not will without the assistance of the spirit of God, his incompetency was, upon the whole, the same in both cases. They also said, that to represent man as possessing such powers, was inconsistent with the scriptural account of his native inability, which it makes total; and that this was the opening of a door by which all the Arminian errors would find their way into the church. All these solid arguments were urged in vain: when the sensibilities of the mind are awakened into extraordinary action, the voice of reason, however powerful, is not heard. The new doctrine was drunk in greedily, by many of the ministers and people. It ended in a schism; and the Whitefieldians formed a new presbytery, known by the name of the New-Brunswick presbytery. Many of the ministers and people in Philadelphia, and many in Delaware, belonging to the New-Castle presbytery, embraced the doctrine of natural ability, and moral inability, as taught by the New Lights. The members of the New-Brunswick presbytery, and their adherents, refused to consider their former brethren as ministers of Christ Jesus; or to use the language of that time, they "unchurched them."

S

This revival, though it was undoubtedly the means of converting many sinners, was through the instrumentality of Satan and the corruptions of the human heart, the cause of introducing into this church evils of which it has never yet been able to purge itself. It left the body crippled, and bleeding with many wounds, which are hardly yet perfectly healed. The Rev. Dr. Ewing, of Market-street church, well known as the principal of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Allison; Mr. Steel, of Carlisle; Mr. Elder, of Dauphin county; Mr. Simonton, of the Great-Valley; Dr. Latta and Mr. Willson, were of the Old Light school. The Rev. Messrs. Tennant, Samuel and John Blair, Roan, Foster, Carmichael and Strain, were of the New Light school. The character of many of both parties is well known, and their memory honoured by all good people who knew them. The New Lights, as well as their brethren from whom they separated, were firmly attached to the doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith, except on the subjects which have been mentioned. From the whole of these events we are perhaps warranted in drawing the general conclusion, that those extraordinary excitements, which throw the passions into a violent and ungovernable state of agitation, together with the good effected through grace, usually bring along consequences unfriendly to the best interests of the church.

Between the Presbyterian church in the middle states and the congregational churches in the north, there was not at the time of which we now speak, much connection. This did not proceed from a want of harmony on doctrinal points, for they all embraced the same creed, but from local situation, from the difference in their form of church government, and from their living under distinct colonial governments, not always very harmonious in their political operations. Though the intimacy of connection was not great, there was no hostility, but on the contrary, as far as they knew each other, they were friendly. Mr. Whitefield was the occasion of a similar division in Connecticut. Of the "Old Lights," President Clap, and the Rev. Jedidiah

Mills, (the maternal great-grandsire of the Rev. E. S. Ely,) whom nevertheless Mr. Whitefield has mentioned in his Journal with affection, were the most distinguished.

The revival which he was the means of producing in New England, was promoted by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, Dr. Bellamy and others, by the same kind of pulpit exhibitions, which we have described in the middle states, except that they partook more of the didactic character. Mr. Edwards was a peculiarly intellectual man. Except a sermon, which he published during the revival in his congregation, nearly all his writings are quite devoid both of imagination and passion. He was a profound reasoner, a very acute metaphysician, who wrote and published many volumes, which have procured for him great celebrity as a scholar and a divine. His defence of the doctrine of the decrees, of original sin, and various other important points of the Calvinistic creed, connected with the atonement, is ample and irresistible. Yet at the time of the revival in his congregation, he became a very passionate speaker, and to such a degree were the feelings of his auditors roused that violent bodily agitations were produced. So sanguine were the hopes of this excellent and celebrated man, as to the consequences that were to result from this revival of religion, and from the state of the world, that he believed the millennial glory of the church was speedily to burst forth upon a benighted world. He even published a small essay to prove that the witnesses were slain, that he might remove one of the greatest obstacles to the realization of those elevated expectations, which he had taught his people to form, and which are expressed in his sermon on the revival. Alas! how were all these hopes frustrated. He soon found that he had been too sanguine; for like the revival at Cambuslang, and that in Pennsylvania, the excitement did not last long. He now perceived that there might arise some misconceptions relative to the exercise of the affections in religion, from the course which he had taken, especially from the sermon which has been mentioned; and when the fervour of his mind subsided, he addressed himself to the writing of a

book on the affections. It is one of his most valuable pub-, lications; a work with which every Christian should be acquainted. A difficult, and important subject is discussed with great perspicuity and depth of reasoning.

The reputation which Mr. Edwards acquired during this revival, by his works which grew out of it, and by his profound erudition, wonderful industry, and great fertility of mind, gave him a very extensive influence, not only in the New England, but also in all the Presbyterian churches in America. Hence it is that by some incorrect opinions which are contained in his works, and by strained deductions from what was naturally harmless, the growth of some of the most formidable errors has been greatly accelerated, and evils have been introduced which will not be speedily removed.

A full enumeration of the causes which either prepared the way for the introduction, or immediately introduced, the evils which followed this revival, would occupy more room than can be here devoted to the subject. A few of them shall be exhibited in a concentrated view.

The first that deserves notice, is the metaphysical and speculative character of the puritans, both in England and America. Though many of the puritanical divines are luminous and correct in all their metaphysical discussions, such as the profound Dr. Owen, yet there was among them an extravagant attachment to subtle distinctions, and too great a desire to explain every thing, in such a manner as to render it perfectly within the comprehension of human reason. This did little harm, when confined to subjects of minor importance, but applied to the great mysteries of the Trinity, the atonement, and the incarnation, it could not fail to do mischief. For this propensity the New England Puritans were more remarkable than their English ancestors, as appears from all their theological, moral, and historical works. Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding was early introduced into the northern seminaries as a text book, and made an essential part of a liberal education. From the study of this book men of distinguished mind have always