but his repeated applications for ordination in the church met with refusals1. Mr. Whitfield, before he quitted his work at Bristol, had sent to call Mr. John Wesley to his assistance: he arrived there in April. He says: "I could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which Mr. Whitfield set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order." He however followed the example with success. An extraordinary effect appeared under Mr. Wesley's preaching about this time, which afterwards much distinguished that branch of the Methodists of which he may be considered as the particular founder. Many persons, especially women, were thrown into a kind of epileptic fits, which seemed connected with strong religious impressions. How these should arise, and how one should catch the infection from another, without any imputation of hypocrisy, is easy to be accounted for; but why they should attend Mr. Wesley's preaching and some of his followers, rather than that of others, it were difficult to say, except that he encouraged them, and gloried in them as a spiritual effect of his preaching. By all judicious Christians this matter has been regarded to his prejudice. He, however, considered it as the hand of God; and with amazement we hear him appeal to these extraordinary affections of the mind and body, as a miraculous attestation to the truth of his doctrines on those very points where they departed from the standard of better times! " April 25th, while I was preaching on these words, He that believeth hath everlasting life,' I was insensibly led, without any previous design, to declare strongly and implicitly, that God willeth all men to be thus saved; and to pray, that if this was not the truth of God, he would not suffer the blind to go out of the way; but if it were, he would "In France there occasionally came to the aid of the venerable curé, under the name of missionaries, a certain number of secular or regular priests, employed by the bishop of the diocese to perform what was termed a mission, within a particular precinct. They generally remained in it about ten or fourteen days, at the expense of the bishop or their own; and were wholly employed, from a very early to a very late hour of the day, in preaching and instructing the flock," &c.-" If," says cardinal Maury, "there remains among us any trace of the ancient and nervous eloquence, which is nothing else than the first cry of nature imitated or repeated by art, it is in the missions among villagers that we must seek for examples of it," &c.-BUTLER'S Reminiscences, p. 267. bear witness to his Word. Immediately one, and another, and another, sank to the earth; they dropped on every side as thunderstruck." Mr. Whitfield, in the same year, 1739, had adopted the practice of preaching abroad in the open air, in the vicinity of London. The numbers collected seem astonishing; by computation, fifty thousand, and even eighty thousand are mentioned ! Every where Mr. Whitfield was encouraged by appearances of great and evident success. Again he crossed the Atlantic, and arrived, in October, in Pennsylvania, and till the end of the following year, travelled up and down in the British colonies, afterwards to become the United States of America. 66 We have already had occasion to remark, that the uneasiness and the harsh treatment of the ancient Puritans, were among the causes which had induced a multitude of families and ministers to transport themselves into this newly-discovered world. Here, under the forms of which they were so extravagantly fond, religion flourished for some time; but all their writers' speak of a very sad declension about the commencement of the eighteenth century; a clear proof that that "platform" of discipline, for which their forefathers sacrificed so much, had not the great advantage they had fondly imagined, over the national establishment which they deserted. Mr. Danforth, on a public occasion, in 1670, makes the serious inquiry, Whether they had not in a great measure forgotten their errand into the wilderness?" and draws a deplorable contrast between the zeal and piety of former times and their present "exercise of holy things," as "matters of custom and ceremony;" while "pride, contention, worldliness, covetousness, luxury, drunkenness, and uncleanness," had "broke in as a flood, and good men grew cold in their love to God and one another." Dr. Increase Mather writes in the same strain, in the year 1678: "The work of conversion has made a great stand in the world. In the last age, in the days of our fathers, scarce a sermon was preached but some were evidently converted, and sometimes hundreds in a sermon." But "the body of the rising generation is a poor, perishing, unconverted, and (except the Lord pour down his Spirit) an undone generation. Many are profane, drunkards, swearers, lascivious, scoffers at the power of godliness, despisers of those 1 See Prince's Christian History. that are good, disobedient: others are only civil, and outwardly conformed to good order, by reason of their education, but never knew what the new birth' means." 66 In another book, published in 1702, he says: " You that are aged persons, and can remember what New England was fifty years ago, that saw these churches in their first glory, is there not a sad decay and diminution of that glory? How is the gold become dim! the most fine gold changed!" This venerable pastor holds the same language twenty years afterwards, in his eighty-third year. Having been for sixty-five years a preacher of the Gospel," "I had an opportunity to converse with the first planters of this country: I cannot but be in the disposition of those ancient men, who had seen the foundation of the first house, and wept with a loud voice to see what a change the work of the temple had upon it. I wish it were no other than the weakness of Horace's old man, the laudator temporis acti, when I complain there is a grievous decay of piety in the land, and a leaving the first love,' and that the beauties of holiness' are not to be seen as they once were; and the very interest of New England seems to be changed from a religious to a worldly one." "What did our forefathers come into this wilderness for? Not to gain estates as men do now, but for religion; and that they might leave their children in a hopeful way of being truly religious." Mr. Whitfield saw this venerable pastor in his old age. Notwithstanding the general declension, there had, however, been remarkable revivals of pure religion in particular parts of America, before the visit of this evangelist. Dr. Cotton Mather mentions a short revival in Massachusetts colony, about 1680, and in the colonies of Plymouth and Connecticut : " But alas!" he observes, "it soon passed away." A second instance occurred in 1705. This was principally at Taunton, and began with meetings for prayer among the young men, and societies for reformation, in imitation of those at London. Mr. Stoddard, the grandfather and predecessor of the justly celebrated American divine, Jonathan Edwards, could record five particular harvests, as he termed them, of conversion of souls during his ministry at Southampton. The first was about the year 1679, the second about 1683, the third about 1696, the fourth about 1712, the fifth and last about 1718. Some of these times," says Mr. Edwards, were much more remarkable than others, and the ingathering of souls more plentiful; but in each of them, I have heard my grandfather say, the bigger part of the young people of the town seemed to be mainly concerned for their eternal salvation." A revival of religion at Windham, in Connecticut colony, also took place under the ministry of Samuel Whiting, about 1721. Now things," says the reporter, "put on the same face of gladness and delight as once they did at Samaria, when Christ was preached with success, Acts iii. 10: And there was great joy in that city."" But he compares the town, on this occasion, to "Gideon's fleece, which was wet with the dew of heaven, when the rest of the country remained comparatively dry; and serious religion was sadly decaying throughout the land." The next instance of religious concern is mentioned, as following an alarming earthquake, which visited New England in 1727. "Not a few," it was hoped, 66 I were turned from sin to God in a thorough conversion; but the much greater part, who had been affrighted with terror, within a while forgot." A considerable revival had also taken place in 1730, at Freehold, in New Jersey, by the ministry of John and William Tennant. They hailed with gladness the coming of Mr. Whitfield among them, who was much blessed in watering the seed they had sown. We read with astonishment that, among the descendants of the Puritans, there had been a time when the doctrine of the new birth had been held in derision, and treated as a new and false doctrine. But now the great truths of " free, special, and sovereign grace, were received with power." "The sapless formalist," Mr. W. Tennant writes, "is become spiritual in his conversation; the proud and haughty are made humble and affable; the wanton and vile, sober and temperate; the swearer honours that venerable name he was wont to profane, and blesses instead of curses; the Sabbath-breaker is brought to be a strict observer of holy times; the worldling now seeks treasure in heaven; the extortioner now deals justly, and the formerly malicious now forgive injuries; the prayerless are earnest and incessant in acts of devotion; the self-seeker endeavours the advancement of God's glory and the salvation of immortal souls." "Through God's mercy we have been quite free from enthusiasm; our people have followed the holy law of God, and not impulses of their own minds. There have not been, that I know of, among us any visions, except such as are by faith: namely, clear and affecting views of the new and living way to the Father, through his dear Son Jesus Christ; nor any revelations but what have been long since written in the sacred volume." Mr. Whitfield was much pleased with the Tennants and their people: "It is impossible to tell," he says in his Journal, "with what pleasure the children of God heard those truths confirmed by a minister of the church of England, which for many years have been preached to them by their own pastor. Mr. Tennant's opposers' mouths were stopped, several were brought under strong convictions, and our Lord's dear disciples were ready to leap with joy." He met also with a few other ministers, particularly Mr. Cross and Mr. Blair, who could tell him of similar revivals in their congregations, but in the midst of much opposition from ignorant and carnal people. On one occasion he says: "My soul was much refreshed with the sight of Mr. Gilbert Tennant and Mr. Cross. Mr. Tennant has been in the West Jerseys and Maryland, and told me how God had remarkably worked by his ministry in many places. Mr. Cross also has seen great and wonderful things in his congregations; so great, that when I came to désire a particular account, he said it directly answered to the account given by Mr. Edwards of the work of God in Northampton." This account had been already published, and had much attracted the attention of the friends of religion both in America and in England. It describes a revival of religion, under the ministry of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards before mentioned, which took place not only in Northampton, but also in other towns, both of the county of Hampshire, and of Connecticut colony, in the years 1734, 1735, and 1736. The narrative of Mr. Edwards remarks: "Just after my grandfather's death, it seemed to be a time of extraordinary dulness in religion licentiousness for some years greatly prevailed among the youth of the town:there had long prevailed in the town a spirit of contention between two parties - prepared to oppose one another in all public affairs." "But, in two or three years after Mr. Stoddard's death, there began to be a sensible amendment of these evils; the young people shewed more of a disposition to hearken to counsel, and by degrees left off their frolicking, and grew observably more decent in their attendance on public worship." "In the latter end of 1733, there appeared a very unusual flexibleness and yielding to advice in our young people." "There was a thorough reformation of the disorders complained of, "which has continued ever since." "Presently after this, there began to appear a remarkable religious concern at a little village belonging to the congregation. Some remarkable deaths struck the attention of the young people, and they agreed to follow the advice of their pastor, to associate them R R |