the nature, to make us susceptive of the pleasures of God's presence.

Cavilers and scoffers, I know, there are enough, in these last days against this doctrine. Some master of Israel may ask, How can these things be? Can a man when he is old enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Who ever said he could? Or what would it avail, if he should? But I hope there may be such a thing as a spiritual birth, subsequent to the natural. May we not be again begotten to a lively hope? May not God of his own will do it by his word and spirit? And may we not then become as little children and new born babes. Born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God? Are we not told, in the most express language,-that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit? Are not here two births, one natural, the other spiritual? I am really astonished, any man should read his Bible and his own heart, and be a stranger to this doctrine of the new birth; without which all our boasted morality, and ethical virtues, however splendid and rhetoricated upon, can never adorn us in the sight of God, nor qualify us for his redeeming love.

True religion is an inward thing, a thing of the heart; it chiefly resides there, and consists in a right disposition and sanctified temper of the will and affections; and as we have been lately told, in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Which naturally introduces another doctrine, nearly allied to this, and which was very strongly insisted on, viz:

The impressions, or (which was the preacher's own phrase) inward feelings of the spirit. And here you remember, how he guarded against the invidious censure, of assuming the character of an apostle.

He renounced all pretensions to the extraordinary powers and signs of apostleship, gifts of healing, speaking with tongues, the faith of miracles; things, peculiar to the age of inspiration, and extinct with them. He also allowed these feelings of the spirit were not in every person, or at all times, in the same degree; and that though a full assurance were attainable, and what every one should labor to attain, yet not of absolute necessity to the being of a christian. Only he asserted that we might feel the spirit of God, in his sanctifying and saving impressions, and witnessing with our own spirits. And what is there in all this repugnant to reason! What is there in it, but what is perfectly agreeable to Scripture! How can we be led by the spirit, or have joy in the Holy Ghost, without some sensible perceptions of it! Can I at any time feel my soul in sacred raptures, burning with the love of God, and of Christ,

and all my best passions alive? Can I feel a secret pleasure in the word, ordinances, and communion of God? Can I taste the powers of the world to come? Can I feel the threatenings of God impressed upon my conscience, or promises of paradise working upon my hopes! Can I groan under the burden of my corruptions, or exult in the liberty of spirit, I may sometimes have, in a calm and retired hour, in the meditation of my pardon, and the contemplation of heaven and immortality? I say, can I have all these things in me, and do I feel them upon my soul, and yet this doctrine of feeling the spirit be burlesqued and ridiculed, in an age of infidelity, and of men who love to speak evil of the things which they know not? Indeed a sinful and adulterous generation may seek after a sign. But what sign can we give them of things that must be known by being felt? Or what ideas can I convey of light to the blind, and of harmony to the deaf? Let God touch their hearts as he has done ours, and they shall feel what we feel; and what I would not but feel for millions of worlds. But till then it is impossible in nature to represent it, in a full, adequate light to them; and they may as well ask for mathematical demonstrations in a point of pure morality. This is a doctrine, I have been acquainted with these many years; it is not new or surprising to me; you have heard me preach it scores of times, though perhaps, clothed in other expressions as the influences of the spirit, the impressions of grace. And however derided by some, who set up and caress a system of rational religion, I hope to have always enthusiasm enough to maintain that the spirit of God may be felt. To conclude this head, all the doctrines now mentioned, are primitive, protestant, puritanic ones; which our good fathers, conformists and dissenters, have filled their writings with; and as Dr. Watts has well observed, "They fill heaven apace, for God was with them."

Yet all that vast reverence, with which I heard these doctrines from the mouth of our famous preacher, could not win my applause or approbation of some few harsher epithets and expressions (you know what I mean) which dropt from his lips. These, in my opinion, may be pronounced failings; but such as often attend a warm zeal for orthodoxy, in the points of the last importance, arise from a principle of conscience, and are found interwoven with the brightest characters; and he that has none, let him cast the first stone.

II. I shall next give you my opinion of the manner of his preaching.

And here I need not say, nor can my pen describe his action and gesture, in all their strength and decencies. He is certainly a finished preacher, and a great master of pulpit oratory and

elocution, while a noble negligence ran through his style. Yet his discourses were very extraordinary when we consider how little they were premeditated, and how many of them he gave us, the little time he was with us. Many, I trust, have felt, and will long feel the impressions of his zeal and fire, the passion and flame of his expressions: which were such, that I cannot think my public character of him, in the least exceeds the bounds of truth and strict verity; only making that allowance for figures of speech, which is always expected, upon extraordinary occasions, and in the portraiture of great characters.

He appeared to me, in all his discourses, very deeply affected and impressed in his own heart. How did that burn and boil within him, when he spake of the things he had made, touching the King? How was his tongue like the pen of a ready writer? Touched as with a coal from the altar! With what a flow of words, what a ready profusion of language, did he speak to us upon the great concerns of our souls? In what a flaming light did he set our eternity before us? How earnestly did he press Christ upon us? How did he move our passions with the constraining love of such a Redeemer? The awe, the silence, the attention, which sat upon the face of so great an audience, was an argument, how he could reign over all their powers. Many thought, He spake as never man spake before him. So charmed were people with his manner of address, that they shut up their shops, forgot their secular business, and laid aside their schemes for the world; and the oftener he preached, the keener edge he seemed to put upon their desires of hearing him again! How awfully, with what thunder and sound did he discharge the artillery of Heaven upon us? And yet, how could he soften and melt even a soldier of Ulysses, with the love and mercy of God! How close, strong and pungent were his applications to the conscience; mingling light and heat, pointing the arrows of the Almighty at the hearts of sinners, while he poured in the balm upon wounds of the contrite, and made broken bones rejoice? Eternal themes, the tremendous solemnities of our religion, were all alive upon his tongue! So methinks (if you will forgive the figure) St. Paul would look and speak in a pulpit, and in some such manner, I have been tempted to conceive of a seraph, were he sent down to preach among us, and to tell us what things he had seen and heard above! How bold and courageous did he look? He was no flatterer, would not suffer men to settle upon their lees; did not prophesy smooth things nor sow pillows. He taught the way of God in truth, and regarded not the person of men. The politest, the most modish of our vices he struck at, the most fashionable enter

tainments; regardless of every one's presence, but his in whose name he spoke, with authority. He delivered his own soul, very sharply rebuked our balls and midnight assemblies, that bane of all that is serious and religious; and I dare warrant, if none would go to these diversions, till they have answered the solemn questions he put to their consciences, our theater would soon sink and perish.

You may be sure I was not displeased with this part of his conduct, when I have so often myself mentioned these things, as of pernicious tendency to our morals, religion, and prosperity. And who can blame a minister's freedom and zeal: what hard measures, what cruel treatment would it be to censure our plainness of speech; when our very commission requires us to lift up our voice like a trumpet, to cry aloud, and spare not, to show people their transgressions; and when the blood of your souls, the most insupportable thing in the world, must be required at our hands, if we be afraid to warn! I am sure, would people consider this, and that we cannot possibly propose any temporal advantage to ourselves, by striking at the right eye, they would applaud, and not censure, our warmth and freedom. I must tell you, over and over again, such things are dangerous to your souls; this cannot consist with your christian profession and baptism; they tend to devour the seeds and weaken all the young springs of virtue, and to erase the most pious impressions.

But if the voice of ministers cannot be heard, at least let the circumstances of our country, and the louder roarings of Providence, awe and restrain us; for sure I am it is now a time to mourn, and not to dance: and the Scripture severely threatens a people, that disregarded the operations of God's hands.

III. I now proceed to show my opinion of our preacher in his personal character and behavior.

Here I may take courage, and challenge his worst enemies to lay any thing to the charge of his morals, or to arraign his sincerity, so visible in his whole deportment.

While he preaches up faith alone, in our justification before God, yet he is careful to maintain good works, and denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly. These things the grace of God teaches us; and how much of this doctrine has he transcribed into his life? How rich has he been in all good works? What an eminent pattern of piety towards God? How holy and unblamable in all conversation and godliness? How seasoned, how much to the use of edifying, all his discourses? How naturally does he turn them to religion? How much is he given to meditation himself, and how does he labor to excite it in others?

It is indisputable with me, that he affects no party in religion, nor sets himself at the head of any had this been his aim, no man living has had fairer occasions offered; but he abhors the spirit, he endeavors to suppress it. He is always careful to time his Sabbath discourses, so as not to interfere with the stated hours of worship, in that church, of which he is a professed member and minister, and in the opinion of many people a very bright ornament; because, as he told us, he would not tempt away hearers from their proper and respective pastors. And is not this a noble and generous, a catholic and christian spirit? He is not bigoted to the modalities and lesser rites and forms of religion, while zealous enough and very warm and jealous in all its essentials, especially in the divine honors and godhead of his Savior. He professed love to good men of every denomination, and told us, that the kingdom of heaven consists not of meats and drinks. He appears to me a man full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. Though his prayers, in this pulpit, were all extempore, yet how copious, how ardent, with what compass of thought! The spirit of grace and supplication seemed to be poured out upon him in plenty, and to kindle and animate his devotions. He prays in public, with that spirit, variety, and fluency, which could only be expected from a man, who was no stranger to the sacred duty in private. He lives much by faith, and above the world; despises preferments and riches; of which last I am told, he has had great offers in Europe. His heart seems set upon doing good. He goes about his great Master's work, with diligence and application; and with such cheerfulness, as would make one in love with a life of religion, which has so many inward springs of the best comforts, and is not that gloomy, melancholy thing, which prejudice and imagination make it. He is proof against reproach and invective. When he is reviled, he revileth not again, but prays heartily for all his enemies, and that such as oppose the truth, may be converted to it. He professes himself to lay down his life for Christ, and to spend and be spent in the service of souls. Such a man has all imaginable claim to our highest love and honor. I freely own he has taken my heart, and I feel his reproaches. God seems to be with him of a truth; has set his seal upon him: his rod has budded, and he has many to whom he can say, Ye are my epistle. Wherever he has preached, he has been thronged, and many have come to him pricked in their hearts, saying, What shall we do to be saved! He has put a new face upon religion, my letters inform me, in some populous cities and parts of our neighboring continent; given new life to ministers and people; made sermons, once a drug, a vendible