terians in Virginia, fer many years after its first settle

ment.

Maryland was colonized by George Calvert, baron of Baltimore, a Roman Catholic; and the principal part of the emigrants, who followed the destinies of that nobleman, into the new world, were of the same faith with himself. Their doctrines and their policy, long predominated in the colony.

William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, was, in the earlier part of his life, an enthusiastic disciple of George Fox, the father of the Quaker society; and published some small tracts of his own composition, in defence of the peculiar doctrines of Barclay, and the practices of the society. After he became a politician, it is altogether doubtful, whether he was a Quaker, a Roman Catholic, or a mere political manœuverer, without any real regard for any reli gion. But whatever he may have been in reality, the first settlers of his colony were principally Quakers, and he found it convenient, to maintain an external attachment to the society, and to express great regard for their peculiarities. The founders of the colony were, of course, not believers in the atonement. The chief books which they brought over with them, were Barclay's Apology, and the Tracts of Penn. To these were confined nearly all their reading, and in these was to be found their whole creed. Very little or rather no efforts were made at the settlement of the colony to encourage literature. Penn, himself, was a very illiterate man, as his education was broken off when his father disowned him for joining the Quaker society. Salvation by works, was the only hope of these deluded people.

They did not long retain the undisturbed possession of the government of the colony. Its founder had held out liberal terms, to people of all denominations of Christians, and of all countries, who should settle in Pennsylvania, Thousands embraced the offers which he made, and soon the Scotch, Irish, and German presbyterians, and German Lutherans, became numerous and powerful. English dissenters of various denominations, and episcopalians also, settled un

der the government of Penn. All these united together, at first, to oppose the regime of the Quakers, and afterwards wrested it out of their hands. Though the Germans were numerous, the Irish presbyterians were the most powerful of all the parties which opposed the Quaker system.

In New-York there was a considerable number of Scotch, and some Irish presbyterians. The clergy of the presbyterian churches in the middle colonies, retained the principles which their fathers in Britain held, and were attached to the same form of church government; but were at first without any kind of union, not having been authorized, by the judicatories in Britain, to form themselves into a Presbytery, or Synod. They, however, in time, took up the affair, and constituted an ecclesiastical judicatory, styled the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia. This was modelled upon the Genevan plan, to which they had been accustomed in Britain. The condition of the church in America, the want of unity and co-operation among the ministers from the time of their emigration to that in which this Synod was formed, and the predisposition of some to Congregationalism, rendered it impossible to impart so vigorous a tone to this body as would have been desirable. The qualifications for ministerial communion, were not so accurately defined as they had been in the presbyterian churches in Europe. The Westminster Confession, however, was adopted; and all who were admitted to membership, were required to profess their belief in all its doctrines, except those which related to the power of the civil magistrate about religious matters. Though the texture of this fabric was not of remarkable firmness, and though many of the clergy were superficial in their literary attainments, yet they were generally pious; and we have no ground to think that any of them were unsound in the doctrines of the gospel. Their profession of adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith, was no doubt sincere, and the doctrines which they taught agreeable to the truths which it contains. The opportunities of education which the youth destined for the ministry possessed, were

very slender; their study of theology not systematic, and mostly superficial.

The numbers of this body increased rapidly, both from emigration and natural increase; and the want of energy in the original constitution, became more visible as it developed itself, covered a greater extent of country, and embraced a greater number of congregations.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, was thrown into a violent state of agitation, by one of those events, which is usually known in modern times, by the name of a revival of religion. It was effected through the instrumentality of that very extraordinary man, the Rev. George Whitefield. This gentleman, belonged originally to the episcopal church of England. He possessed warm passions and great zeal for practical religion. The lukewarmness which prevailed in the establishment, was not calculated for a man of his warm feelings and ardent piety. He declaimed, with vehemence, against the vices of the time and the want of practical piety among his brethren; and rendered himself extremely obnoxious to the dignitaries of the church. But he set them all at defiance, and threw himself upon the populace, to whom his addresses were very acceptable. He embraced the principal points of the Calvinistic creed, but doctrinal points were not the subjects upon which he dealt in his exhibitions from the pulpit. The condition of man while in a state of nature, exposed to the wrath of heaven, the blessed estate of the righteous, the glories of heaven, and the horrors of the damned, he described in the most vivid manner, and aroused the fears, and awakened the hopes of his auditors by a torrent of the most irresisti ble eloquence. No preacher, perhaps, ever addressed larger audiences, whose passions he seemed to have entirely under his control. The chief place in Britain, in which his eloquence produced to the full extent the effects at which it aimed, was in Cambuslang, in Scotland. The passions of those who heard him were not only roused, and his vast audiences caused to burst into a flood of tears; but multitudes were heard to cry aloud for mercy, while others were

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 nu merous 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.”

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