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 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 publications; 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

derived great improvement; while the multitude, who think superficially, are incapable both of detecting the fallacy of some of his reasonings and of comprehending his distinc tions, acquire a taste for his subtle speculations, and adopt his erroneous first principles as indisputable. Locke too was an Arminian: he considers the human mind in infancy as a pure sheet equally susceptible of any impressions, whether good or bad. Hence there is no place according to his system, for the doctrine of original sin. Those students who were taught to venerate him, would necessarily imbibe some Arminian tenets, and the tendency of the puritan character to subtle ratiocination would be strengthened.

The writers on ethics, by discussing the subject as entirely distinct from the precepts revealed in the scriptures, and speaking in very general and loose terms about the reward of virtue, representing virtue as leading necessarily to happiness, and pressing it without any allusion to the Christian system, especially to the gracious work of the Spirit of God, upon the human heart, give countenance to the creed of the Arminian school. Some of them also give mistaken, or at least dangerous views of the system of the Universe. Hutchinson, in his Moral Philosophy, (p. 68.) says " All the variety of evil we behold, is no more or greater than what is necessary to the perfection of the universe." On the subject of disinterested benevolence he says, (p. 64.) "From our natural sense and approbation of moral excellence, wherever it is discovered, there must arise a disinterested love and veneration, detached from all considerations of our own interest." About the middle of the last century, it became fashionable to talk of the good of the whole as the rule of human actions, and thus was revived one of the dogmas of Aristotle. From Europe those opinions were introduced into the New World. Two systems, both apparently and really adverse, were espoused, about the same time, in New England; but when found in the way of detached sentences in the works of metaphysi cians and moralists, the discrepancy was not so visible as now, since they have become fully matured. One was the Armi

nian tenets of Locke; the other, that the whole system of the universe is all arranged by God so that a reference is always had to the good of the whole, and that as a practical result of this doctrine, every man should search for what will best promote the good of the whole, and make it without any regard to himself the rule of his own conduct. It was in Harvard University and Yale College that Arminianism first made its appearance among the congregationalists. Whether the other opinion was maintained there at the same time, we have not been able to ascertain.

The Salmurensian controversy was also well known in New England, and from the similarity, or rather from the identity of many of the errors which soon after the revival in question made their appearance in the north, there is not the least room left for doubt, that a considerable number of divines had adopted the opinions of Amyraut. One of his opinions, not before mentioned was, that God is the author of sin.

A declension of vital piety, for some time before the revival, had been very conspicuous in the New England churches. In the invitation which the ministers of Boston sent to Mr. Whitefield, while in Charleston, they complain in very strong terms of the want of practical piety, and of a general declension of the power and life of godliness in their congregations*. This declension appears to have commenced about the time that the bruit of Arminianism spread abroad, which was eight years before the invitation to Whitefieldt. Here the same deleterious effects were produced by Arminianism, or by Amyraldism, which it has elsewhere produced. Corruption in doctrine generally precedes a decay of practical religion; and the latter accelerates the growth of the former.

About the time that Yale College was first suspected of favouring Arminianism, the character of Dr. Isaac Watts became known in Boston, and the northern churches. This

* Backus's History of New England.

† Life of Dr. Coleman, p. 53.