jority of one voice only, to the following purpose: "That it is expedient that the pastoral relation between Mr Edwards and his church be immediately dissolved, if the people still persist in desiring it." And it being publicly put to the people, whether they still insisted on Mr Edwards's dismission from the pastoral office over them? a great majority, above two hundred against twenty, voted for his dismission; and he was accordingly dismissed, June 22, 1750.'-Ibid. p. 69.

These facts are of a nature to make comment unnecessary; but it is worthy of remark that the opposition to most of Mr Edwards' measures was headed by Joseph Hawley, one of the ablest, certainly one of the most disinterested, patriots of the Revolution. It is true, ten years afterwards, in a letter to a member of the Council abovementioned, this gentleman speaks of the folly and wickedness of his conduct on that occasion, in the strongest terms of selfabasement and selfloaththing; but there are internal marks that the letter was written in one of those fits of constitutional melancholy to which he was subject,* and we can hardly reconcile it with fairness to bring forward the moanings of a disordered mind, and parade them as an authority.

The account of the revival in Brookline, which appeared at the time in the Christian History, was republished, not long ago, in one of the orthodox journals as a remarkable testimony in favor of revivals generally.† Probably the editor was ignorant of the fact that Mr Allen, the author of that account, and the minister of the place, told his people from the pulpit, about six months afterwards, that having often recommended the work and endeavoured to promote it, as the work of God, he now felt constrained publicly to declare, that further inquiry and experience had convinced him it was the work of the devil. A few of his church, who were too much infected with the fever of the times to listen to reason, immediately withdrew, handing in at the same time a memorial of their grievancies and their reasons for separation. One of

* With all those powerful talents and noble feelings he [Hawley] was not exempt from a misfortune that occasionally threw its dark shadows over them. He was subject at particular times to a hypocondriac disorder, that would envelope him in gloom and despondency. At these seasons he was oppressed with melancholy and would lament every action and exertion of his life. When his mind recovered its tone, the recollection of these sufferings was painful, and he disliked to have them remembered.' Tudor's Life of Otis, p.

259.

The Boston Recorder and Telegraph, December 3, 1825. The account is abridged.

these was: We think Mr Allen's preaching had a tendency to settle persons down upon works; for he said, speaking to persons out of Christ, that if they used the means, as praying and attending public worship and ordinances, and refrained from all sin as much as they could, they might humbly hope to be saved.' This memorial was signed by six persons, one of whom was Elhanan Winchester, father of the celebrated Universalist of that name. He afterwards renounced his Newlightism, and adopted his son's sentiments; and again, in his old age, was led away by the Shakers, and is reported to have said on his death bed, 'When I was a Calvinist and when I was a Universalist, I thought I was right, but now I know I am.' Of the other five, one was afterwards detected in stealing faggots, another was frozen to death in a fit of drunkenness, and of the rest nothing is known.

We might go on to mention the unhappy consequences of the revival in other towns, after the minds of men, already in a state of high excitement, became soured and estranged; but it would be painful and invidious, and we forbear. No doctrine is more popular at the present day, than that a man's orthodoxy is tested by his favoring religious excitements as commonly conducted, connected with the insinuation that none but Unitarians ever oppose them. It happens, however, that in the time of Whitefield, an immense majority of the New England churches and ministers were Calvinists, strict Calvinists, and the trinity had never been impugned in the provinces; and yet it was here, that one of the most remarkable revivals ever known was discountenanced and put down. The following estimate of its results, drawn up, too, before the worst of them had been fully developed, is from the pen of a cotemporary and a Calvinist.

For myself, I am among those who are clearly in the opinion that there never was such a spirit of superstition and enthusiasm reigning in the land before; never such gross disorders and barefaced affronts to common decency; never such scandalous reproaches on the Blessed Spirit, making him the author of the greatest irregularities and confusions. Yet I am of opinion also, that the appearances among us, so much out of the ordinary way,and so unaccountable to persons not acquainted with the history of the world, have been the means of awakening the attention of many; and a good number, I hope, have settled into a truly christian temper. Though I must add, at the same time, that I am far from thinking, that the appearance, in general, is any

other than the effect of enthusiastic heat. The goodness that has been so much talked of, 'tis plain to me, is nothing more, in general, than a commotion in the passions. I cannot see that men have been made better, if hereby be meant their being formed to a nearer resemblance of the Divine Being in moral holiness. It is not evident to me, that persons, generally, have a better understanding of religion, a better government of their passions, a more christian love to their neighbour, or that they are more decent and regular in their devotions towards God. I am clearly of the mind, they are worse in all these regards. They place their religion so much in the heat and fervor of their passions, that they too much neglect their reason and judgment; and instead of being more kind and gentle, more full of mercy and good fruits, they are more bitter, fierce and implacable. And what is a grand discriminating mark of this work, wherever it takes place, is, that it makes men spiritually proud and conceited beyond measure, infinitely censorious and uncharitable, to neighbours, to relations, even the nearest and dearest; to ministers in an especial manner; yea, to all mankind, who are not as they are, and don't think and act as they do. And there are few places where this work has been in any remarkable manner, but they have been filled with faction and contention; yea, in some, they have divided into parties, and openly and scandalously separated from one another.'-Letter to Wishart, pp. 21, 22.

A quaint writer has said, that to exchange the vices of levity and sensuality for those of uncharitableness and spiritual pride, is but laying down the sins of a man to take up the sins of a devil. This, by the consent of all parties, seems to have been in many places almost the only fruit of the revival; and the remarks of Dr Chauncy on this point are universally applicable.

"I know, in some cases, it may admit of dispute, what is uncharitable judging; and so it may, what is intemperance, or injustice, or oppression, and the like. But this does not argue but that in other instances, the intemperance or injustice may be so evident, as to leave no room for debate upon the matter. And this is the case with respect to the judging that now prevails. If there is any such vice, it now takes place: nor can it easily be imagined wherein men could be more grossly guilty of it. This prohibition of our Saviour was never, I believe, more outrageously trampled upon than it now commonly is, by multitudes of those who call themselves good Christians. In respect to many, it is as plain they live in the breach of this law of God, as that any do in the breach of the law of temperance or righteousness. And it ought to be considered with all seriousness, that uncharitable, cen

sorious judging is a sin as well as intemperance or injustice; and perhaps as bad a sin, if not a worse. And it ought not therefore to be excused. The same lawgiver and judge who has said, Thou shalt not steal, or get drunk, has also said, Thou shalt not judge; and the law is guarded with the like sanction of death and hell. It is therefore dangerous to men's souls to speak of this mischievous vice as a human frailty only, a mere imprudence that will well enough consist with a work of God in their hearts. It is true, good men may be betrayed into this sin; and so they may into drunkenness, or injustice; but if they allow themselves in it, if they live in the habitual practice of it, it will as certainly damn them as if they lived in the practice of any other sin.'-Chauncy, pp. 173, 174.

He is also completely successful in repelling the objection that the evils originating in the revival were merely accidental.

'It has been suggested concerning the bad things of the present day, taken collectively, that they are only accidental effects of a good work. But how do we distinguish between accidental effects and those that are natural? Is it not by the frequency, and uniformity of their production? If such and such effects are found, in experience, to be the common and general attendants of such and such causes, at one time and another, in this place and the other, don't we always speak of them as natural, and never as accidental only? Yea, is not the doctrine of causes and effects wholly founded on this kind of observation and experience? And if in this way we judge of the bad things prevailing in these times, can it be thought they are nothing more than accidental effects of a good cause? Will any pretend, that they are rare productions? or, that they have been peculiar to here and there a person, in here and there a particular place? Is it not a known, undeniable fact, that they have appeared in all parts of the land; yea, in every place upon the whole continent, in a greater or less degree; and this among persons of all ranks, ages, sexes, and conditions, who have been wrought upon in these days? And have not these effects been most remarkably visible in those, who have been spoken of as the most remarkable subjects of the present operation? These are truths that cannot be disowned. They are as evident as the light shining at noonday. And is it possible, if these effects were merely accidental, that they should be thus uniform and almost universal? We must give up our understandings before we can entertain such a thought of them.' -Ibid. pp. 307, 308.

To protect ourselves against misconstruction, it is necessary to observe, once for all, that in what we have said of revivals of religion, we have not used that word in its literal, but

only in its common and popular acceptation. In the prayers and endeavors of Christians every thing must yield to a desire to increase in the minds of men a reverence for religious principle, and a practical conformity to the truth as it is in Jesus. If we have succeeded in connecting together the testimonies we have given, so as to give the reader some idea of the manner in which cotemporaries thought and spoke of the greatest and most extensive movement ever felt in our churches, our design, an humble one, has been accomplished. It will be seen that its friends and promoters were disappointed in every one of their expectations. They expected it would promote vital piety; but it began by occasioning strife and separation, and ended in inducing a distrust of all pretensions to uncommon sanctity, and the coldness and deadness which follow, almost necessarily, seasons of unnatural excitement. They expected it would give currency and popularity to their peculiar tenets; but no event in the ecclesiastical history of this country ever did so much to bring them into disrepute, and give an impulse to contrary opinions; and from this time, Arminianism and Arianism may be considered as firmly established in New England. They expected it would bring into favor a new mode of elevating the tone of moral and religious feeling in the community; but it only served to expose its bad and dangerous tendencies, until all were convinced of them; as was sufficiently apparent in the avidity and satisfaction with which Dr Chauncy's book was read, throughout the country, and in the remarkable fact that the preachers before the Convention, for several years, were chosen from among those, who had distinguished themselves in their opposition to the delusions which had prevailed.

ART.XVI.-A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. In two Volumes. By MOSES STUART, Associate Professor of Sacred Literature, in the Theological Seminary at Andover. Vol. I. Andover, 1827. 8vo.

THE question respecting the author of the Epistle, as it is called, to the Hebrews, is one of much importance in its various bearings. In modern times, the opinion that it is the work of St Paul, has been acquiesced in by the generality of Christians without much examination. It is only as his