Mr. Whitfield preached in all their principal towns, and sometimes to audiences said to amount to ten thousand. The work was truly great, and his success was great; thousands of souls were hopefully born to God, through the instrumentality of Mr. Whitfield, and became seals of his ministry, and crowns of his rejoicing, in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fame of Mr. Whitfield, in the south, spread into New-England, and Dr. Coleman and Mr. Cooper of Boston, wrote to him with a request, that he would visit New-England; this invitation he readily embraced, from the desire of witnessing the abodes of the Puritan fathers, and visiting the sons of those sires, who had erected the standard of the church in the wilderness; the fame of whose late revivals had traversed the ocean, and reached the land of their fathers, and kindled fresh joy in the hearts of the saints of the original church.

Mr. Whitfield embarked at Charlestown, August 1740, and arrived at Rhode-Island, Sept. 14, being Lord's day : here he was joyfully received by the Rev. Mr. Clap, one of the venerable pillars of the Puritan Church, and then minister of the first congregational church at Newport. Pleased with his reception by this venerable saint, Mr. Whitfield preached six sermons to this people, amidst crowded and deeply affected audiences, and then departed for Boston, where he arrived on Thursday, amidst the general acclamations of the people. Mr. Whitfield preached in all the parishes in Boston, in regular succession, and whenever they became so crowded as not to admit the audience, he adjourned to the common. His preaching was powerful, and the impressions were powerful; nothing like this preaching and awakening, had ever appeared in the country it appeared to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God, to salvation of thousands of souls. Although the revival which sprang up at Northampton,

had become general in Massachusetts and Connecticut, yet it had not appeared in Boston, until after the arrival of Mr. Whitfield; then the hearts of this people, which had been so long cold, and indifferent to the things of their eternal peace, were warmed by the influences of the Divine Spirit, and melted into a submission to the Divine Will, by the preaching of Mr. Whitfield, and numerous sons and daughters were born to God, and became the trophies of his special and sovereign grace.

From Boston, Mr. Whitfield made an excursion through the eastern towns of Massachusetts, and published the glad tidings of the gospel in every town he visited, with powerful effects upon numerous crowded audiences. On his return to Boston, he preached to an audience of 20,000; and then took his departure for Northampton, the seat of the great revival, with a special view to visit Mr. Edwards, whose fame and whose praise, had become universal in the churches. Mr. Whitfield preached in every town through which he passed, until he reached Northampton, where he was most cordially received by Mr. Edwards, and his people; here he preached four times. Here he revived that spirit, which God had so powerfully poured out upon this people, many years before, and here he rekindled that fire, which had so long been burning in the temple of the Lord, and gave a new zest to that zeal, which had shewn so conspicuously throughout the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The joys of old saints were very generally revived, and the hearts of old and obstinate sinners, were very generally subdued, by the sovereign power of divine grace, and the songs of redeeming love became almost universal in Northampton.

Mr. Whitfield took an affectionate leave of this abode of the blessed, on his way through Connecticut, for NewYork, and preached in every town through which he passed, with his usual energetic powers and success.

Mr.

Whitfield preached three days successively in New-York, to numerous, and crowded audiences, and then commenced his route into the Southern States, as before; but with renewed energies, and success. In December he arrived at Charlestown, after a tour of nearly 1000 miles, in which he had preached one hundred and seventy five sermons," beside private exhortations, and collected more than seven hundred pounds for the orphans of Georgia, where he thus exclaims," Never did I perform my journey with so little fatigue, or see so much of the divine presence, in the congregations to whom I have preached. Praise the Lord, O my soul!"

Soon after Mr. Whitfield left Boston, the mantle of this Elijah, which had fallen upon the Elishas of that place, kindled a spirit of zeal, and ardor in the churches, which led to a revival, that became general, or rather almost universal; and the power of God was conspicuously manifest in the churches in Boston. The zeal which Mr. Whitfield had sown in the churches in Connecticut, kindled into a flame, and led many of the regular ministers to become itinerants, and visit the neighbouring parishes, and preach with great ardor and zeal.

The Rev. Messrs. Mills, Pomeroy, Wheelock, and Belamy, became the principal itinerants, and greatly promoted the work of the Lord throughout the churches. Although great good appeared to follow this itinerant preaching, as it had done Mr. Whitfield's, yet jealously, strife, animosity, and bitter contention, soon sprang up, and marred the good work of God; and those churches which we have seen vocal with the praises of redeeming love, were filled with the malignity of all the evil passions in the midst of this discord of the churches, appeared the Rev. James Davenport, of Long-Island, who made a tour through the churches of Connecticut, and in his route visited Boston. The madness of this man through the excess

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of his zeal, ruined the revival, and threw the churches into confusion, and brought upon all zealous, and experimental christians, the reproachful terms of new lights; and this reproach was used indiscriminately by both ministers and people, who opposed the general revival. This spirit went from the churches into the general assembly, where severe laws were passed, to restrain itinerants, and prevent even neighbouring ministers from entering the pulpits, or even parishes of each other to preach, without a special invitation from the brethren therein settled, on penalty of becoming an outlaw in the colony, as a gospel minister, and thereby prevented from obtaining his regular support. This law opened a new field in the churches, and that zeal for religion which we have witnessed breaking forth in the raptures of redeeming love, and triumphing in the joys of peace on earth, and good will to men, was now swallowed up in the bitterness of strife, contention, and party persecution; and the churches of Connecticut, were clad in sackcloth, by the madness of their own folly.

Upon a complaint laid before the general assembly against Mr. Davenport, he was removed out of the state, and transported to Long-Island; and thus itinerants were generally suppressed.

Other excesses grew out of this strife in the churches; frequent divisions and separations took place; errors in doctrine, disciplne, and manners, followed; the spirits of men were high, and obstinate; some of these were ordered by the general assembly to be arrested, and brought to the bar of the house, to answer for their offences; where' they were duly punished. This was construed into persecution, and widened the breach the people caught the fire, took part with the persecuted ministers, and then those churches, which but a short time before, we have witnessed to receive the people in flocks, as clouds, and as doves flocking to their windows, were now excommunicating their You. I.

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brethren, in the bitterness of party; and the churches in Connecticut were thus arrayed against themselves.

Great and serious separations took place at this time in ma y of the churches, and such was the spirit of the day, that even the sons of the college were expelled, whenever they withdrew from the regular churches, in their own parishes, and joined in worship with the separates.*

These separations multiplied in the churches, and became general, and threatened the peace and union of the churches; but this arbitrary act of the authority of Yale College, gave great uneasiness in the colony, and widened the breach, and strengthened, if it did not multiply divis

ions.

This schism in the churches was ascribed to Mr. Whitfield; and perhaps, in ti.e ardor of his zeal, he might have been imprudent; yet if the itinerants of the colony, who caught the fire of Mr. Whitfield, and attempted to follow his example, had kept steady to the labours of their charge, and had not entered into other men's labours, the evils imputed to Mr. Whitfield, had probably never existed.

During these schisms in the churches of Connecticut, Mr. Whitfield performed his southern tour, as he had done before; and in autumn 1744, he returned again to New-Ergland. He was as cordially received in Boston, as before, and preached there, and through the eastern parts of Massachusetts, to as great acceptance, and with as good success; but the schisms in Connecticut, had embodied the ministers against him, and the general association of the colony, passed a resolve, that they would unitedly exclude hin from their pulpits.

This resolve of the generel association kindled, or rather fanned the fire in the church; separates multiplied, became numerous, and divided, and distracted the churches in all parts of the state; which called forth the exertions

Instances of this, were John and Ebenezer Cleaveland of Canterbury.