long intervals flock in troops to the Redeemer's standard? I shall be exculpated in your eyes, if, with decorum and a charitable spirit, I repel the imputations, with such considerations as these: We cannot, with the view of producing a general excitement, adopt any expedients unknown to the scriptures, and unauthorized by the practice of Christ and his Apostles. Equally opposed to precipitation on the one hand, and to procrastination on the other, we cannot avoid recommending, that, in the most important transaction of this life, the greatest care should be taken, that our resolutions are deliberately formed, our principles clearly understood, our motives fairly canvassed, our affections deeply engaged, and our hearts firmly set upon witnessing a good confession before God and man.

Persuaded, that the operations of the Spirit are gradual and not instantaneous, we make a material distinction between convictions of sin, and the actual passage from death unto life. So that, if large numbers, within a short period and with little previous reflection, were to present themselves in order to partake of the bread, which we break, and of the cup of blessing, which we bless; it would be felt, that many had probably mistaken the commencement for the consummation of grace. We should not doubt their sincerity. We should consider them perfectly honest and conscientious, alive to their dearest interests, and convinced of having obtained the one thing needful.

But pass some few months, and in our opinion, the religion of those, who together commenced the race of glory, and honour, and immortality, with the like fair and brilliant prospects, would exhibit a widely variant and discordant aspect. Some of them would have cherished their first impressions. They would have made diligent use of all the various means of grace, and in this way ensuring the divine blessing upon them, they would have gradually perfected the work, already supposed to have been finished. Others however would have lost their first love. They would have relaxed by little and little from their original zeal, and at length perceiving their religious duties to become more and more irksome, they would either have abandoned them under the idea of their having been self deluded; or else have consoled themselves with the flattering doctrine of their final perseverance.

Our opinion is, that in all such cases there is experienced, at the time of making a publick profession of faith in Christ, nothing more than sudden and violent convictions of sin; that those convictions may or may not prove the harbingers of ultimate conversion; but let them eventuate as they may, that the first class will always look back to this period, as the epoch of their regeneration, and the second be considered by their friends to have been grossly, though unintentionally deceived. We cannot therefore encourage such a precipitate union with the Church of Christ. When connected with the favourite system from which it springs, it reminds us of the oracles of Greece, so ambiguous in their predictions, as in no event to incur the slightest danger of remaining unfulfilled. The steadfastness of the one set of converts is accounted for, on the principle of their having been really born again; the apostacy of the other, on the ground of having mistaken the nature of their spiritual experience. The whole theory is consequently constructed in so ingenious a manner, so admirably adapted to any sequel, that it is almost impossible to convince them of its fallacy. They who do not fall away are firm believers in instantaneous regeneration; some of those, who do, are unwilling to abandon it in the hope that their delinquency is but temporary, and the residue are left to acknowledge, that they never were converted.

I do not wonder that the best and most intelligent divines, among our dissenting brethren, are beginning to detect and expose the unhappy delusion. No one will question the competency of Dr. Mason, whom I have before quoted, to form an accurate opinion upon the subject. His language is peculiarly striking, and I cannot resist the inclination to transcribe it. According to him; "Some, in fine, think that religious experience is the sole test of admission into the Church, provided a man can satisfy them of his conversion, (and they are not always HARD to be satisfied;) if he can relate a plausible story of his feelings, can talk of his distress and of his comfort, and has learnt to deal in joys and ecstasies, it is enough. How he came by his experience, he probably cannot tell, and his spiritual guides often omit to ask. And yet this is often the point, upon which turns the discrimination between true and false religion; between rational experience and fanaticism; between good influences of the Spirit of God, and their counterfeits. It is lamentable, that so LARGE a proportion of conversions, which are the fruit of

tumultuous meetings, and the theme of NEWSPAPER praise, prove to be of this class. Dark views, gross ignorance, and even flat con tradictions in the simplest truths of Christianity, are no obstacle. Thousands go from sin to God: from nature to grace: from condemnation to pardon: from despondency to rapture: and when interrogated about the process by which this marvellous transition was accomplished, have little or nothing to say, but that THEY HAVE FELT SO. And what is still more astonishing, they have been translated from darkness to light without being illuminated! For the uttering of incoherent exclamation, and the chattering over a set of phrases, though accompanied with vehement passions, with shrieks, and fallings, and faintings, and fits, and trances, must not pass for divine illumination, nor divine influence of any sort. When we consider the mechanism of the human affections, and how rapidly emotion is propagated BY SYMPATHY through promiscuous crowds, we can explain all the phenomena, which in this matter have lately attracted the publick wonder, without recourse to supernatural agency: and must be convinced that nothing can be more precarious, than the tenure by which these SUDDEN CONVERTS hold their profession."

Nor let it be thought, that the sentiments of this celebrated preacher, are perfectly detached and isolated. Dr. Beecher, a no less celebrated and able congregational divine, has borne an equally decided testimony, in his remarks upon some late extraordinary revivals in the presbyterian Churches of New-York, He has reduced his observations to several heads, and upon this, "The HASTY recognition of persons as converted, upon their own judgment, without interrogation or evidence," he thus writes, "Revivals may become so great and rapid, as to make it proper that those experiencing a change, IN THE COURSE OF A DAY, should meet in one place, not to be recognised as CONVERTS, but to be examined, cautioned, and instructed: for the more powerful and rapid is the work of grace in a community, the more certain is the existence of SYMPATHY and all the causes of SELF-DECEPTION; and the more imperious the necessity of caution, unless we would replenish the Church with HYPOCRITES, to keep her agitated by discipline, or covered with shame by the neglect of it."

The writer's opinions are the more valuable, because he is an ar dent promoter of temperate and judicious revivals, but for those of a

wild, inflammable description, he has no respect, he is satisfied of their having in some degree acquired that complexion among his presbyterian friends, and after many admirable thoughts, draws towards a conclusion in these forcible terms; "I have only to add that all the evil may, with perfect ease be avoided, without diminishing the true spirit and power of a revival; but in every respect shall increase it. There is no need of praying as if God and man were deaf, or of wallowing on the floor, and frothing at the mouth, as if filled with hydrophobia, instead of the Spirit of God; nor any harm in kindness and gentleness, nor any benefit in harsh and severe epithets. The state of man may be explained to him so that he shall believe and feel, better than by calling him a devil, a viper, or a serpent. There may be as great directness as is needed, or as is possible without indecorum, and the gospel may be preached faithfully and attended with the power of God, without GROANING in prayer and crying" AMEN," and without FEMALE prayers and exhortations, and without that spiritual PRIDE, which never fails to attend pressing the mass of the community out of their places, and shaking together in one chaldron of effervescence all the passions of all the classes in human society." And again, "Dear Brethren in Christ; you must not, for a moment suppose that I do not fervently love you; or that I ascribe to you in extenso, all the defects to which I have alluded. But that I have drawn the outlines of a moral chart, which such a disastrous revival as your present course could not fail to lead to, would amply fill up, I have not a doubt.”

Such then, Brethren, are the opinions of two of the strongest men to be found in the dissenting Churches, in regard to the excesses committed under the guise of religion. The opinions themselves ! do not hesitate to approve. The language in which they are expressed may be objectionable, and I do not propose to become responsible either for its sarcasm or its caustick severity. But certainly from the enemies of the Church, I have the same right to avail myself of self-accusing concessions, that the conqueror has to wield the weapons of a vanquished foe; and I desire no more convincing evidence to sustain the views entertained by us, in relation to the extravagancies, which have become extremely prevalent under the popular and imposing name of revivals. I have not that confidence in them, which I should have, if they were more sober. enlightened, and durable: if the soul was not stormed through the

imagination; if the heart was not supposed to be quickened in a moment, and the full-grown saint manufactured, in the twinkling of an eye, out of the votary of the world, the veteran in guilt, and of course, the ignoramus in divinity.

But I will not stoop to the language of invective. Our Christian Brethren, so far as we are concerned, have an undoubted right to follow the dictates of their own judgment, and sincerely do I rejoice, whenever their labours are attended with the salvation of immortal souls. My object is purely defensive. It is to justify the Church for pursuing what we claim the privilege of believing to be a more scriptural mode of instruction; and although it must be acknowledged to enlist in its favour far less excitement and enthusiasm; yet is it to be seriously borne in mind, that while the murmuring of the rivulet is heard, the deep majestick stream glides in peace and quietness to its ocean home. And long may it continue to flow and fertilize with its waters the vineyard of the Lord. Even from the summary sketch I have drawn, of the more important articles of our faith, you must be convinced, that purer doctrines were never imbodied from the inspired volume, and that we have abundant reason to characterize them, as " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Never then, let us surrender them in compliance with the errours and prejudices of others. They were adopted with the utmost deliberation, when our American became a distinct branch of the holy Apostolick Church, and by a convention, that understood their import precisely as they have been interpreted in your hearing. A circumstance, that evidently exonerates us from the stigma of inconsistency, to which I have before alluded. For had they countenanced a single ingredient in the poisoned chalice of Calvinism, it would have been expunged. Had it been deemed practicable to have improved them in any one particular, the time was favourable, the ability ample, and the authority undoubted. But no improvement could be suggested; they were preserved unbroken and entire; and still continuing to receive the approbation of our minds and consciences, they bid fair to be the true faith of Churchmen to the end of time.

I will only subjoin my fervent prayer to God, that to the extent of our day and generation, our talents and resources of every description, we may be included within the number. They will ena