You say, In that article the reviewer intimates, that reformation must precede revival-that we must first re-model the clay, before God can make it a living soul. Now, it seems to me, that the American churches rather expect a revival to produce reformation, than reformation to bring about revival. And this, precisely on the same principle that we consider no previous qualification requisite for coming to Christ, knowing that the very act of believing on him is the seed which alone can produce that tree from which are to be gathered all the fruits of righteousness. After stating the condition in which a Christian church ought to be, the reviewer asks, "Are we then to do nothing but pray and wait?" and immediately answers in the negative, referring us to the first churches. Allow me then to ask the writer of that article, whether he would preach thus to sinners? Is there nothing else which can be said to sinners, besides. " pray and wait God's time," or pray and improve your works ?" Would he not rather say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?" and if he would say it to a solitary rebel against God, why should he not say it to a collection of sinful churches?But the secret of this doctrine comes out a little further on,. when the writer adds, "After all, it may become a question whether we are to expect so extraordinary an effusion of the Holy Spirit for such a purpose." This sentence seems to me the centre around which all the reviewer's arguments, cautions, and wishes revolve, and to which they continually tend. He contrives to associate, in connection with the expectation of an extraordinary out-pouring of the Spirit, "visible symbols, extraordinary gifts, "supralapsarian theology," "the cry of ri kaivov, and I know not what besides, and then concludes by wishing rather to see, (what no doubt every Christian desires,) "a work, deep, broad, and lasting, that shall not need reviving." In strict consistency with these principles, without attempting to contradict any document, he appears anxious to pass by the United States; where he confesses "revivals are attended by such signs as to be denominated an extraordinary out-pouring of the spirit," and refers to the Islands of the South Seas, as exhibiting a kind of revival he seems to desire. Now I would be the last to undervalue the labours of those devoted men who have spent their strength in the holy enterprise of converting these wretched idolaters. I love the Missionary work. But I am not, therefore, prepared to allow that the change which has taken place among the inhabitants of the South Seas, is satisfactory to the same extent as that produced on the minds of some of the Backwoodsmen of America. To say nothing of the increased difficulty which must exist in deciding upon the fact of a change of heart having taken place in a savage, or of the degree of evidence which ought, in such a case, to be expected, (a subject well worthy of discussion,) it should be remembered, that in the Islands of the Pacific the nations became Christian under the influence (in part at least) of their chiefs, and, consequently, great numbers among them can only be regarded as nominal Christians. It would occupy too much of your Magazine to criticise the reviewer's account of the Northampton revival. It is liable to many very serious objections. Why revivals generally, or why those which took place under President Edwards, should be made responsible for the unhappy consequences which resulted from Dr. Stoddard's unscriptural notion, that unconverted persons, as such, were admissible to the Lord's Table, I, for one, cannot divine. Does he mean to say, that such is the practice now in America? If he does, evidence to the contrary shall speedily be adduced. I have only one more remark to make on the sentiments advanced in this Review, and that relates to the actual state of religion amongst us. The writer tells us, that Religion is becoming more and more the great and absorbing topic of general attention;" and, in another place, "In our judgment, revival has been thus enjoyed in this country, as well as in others, during a period of forty years." If these be the sentiments of those who have appointed days of humiliation and fasting, no wonder that so little effect has been produced. That religion, in the abstract, and religious societies, occupy the attention of what is termed "the Religious World," nobody doubts. But it is by no means equally clear, that spirituality of mind, deadness to the world, or experimental religion in any shape, has been generally prevalent in our churches; and as to the revival of religion amongst us during the last forty years, unless it can be shown that in the earlier parts of this period, Christians immersed themselves in business and worldly excitement more deeply than they do now-that tradesmen violated the claims of truth, and justice, and conscience more flagrantly than they do now-that servants and dependants were more entirely shut out from all the means of grace than they are now, I must be excused from believing that any thing amounting to a general revival of religion has hitherto been apparent amongst us. It In conclusion, allow me to suggest one main cause which may contribute to impede any thing like a revival amongst us. is our refined taste. The fact is, "We are idolaters of taste." Many persons have long ago ceased to think any thing of a sermon which does not possess some merit as a literary composition; the familiarity, and plainness, and boldness of Edwards or of Whitefield, would be unwelcome to many congregations, and equally unwelcome would be one of their revivals. We wish for a revival, but then it is a quiet revival which would not offend against a refined taste. We do not wish to be ranked as enthusiasts, or to be shunned as fanatical by our respectable worldly connections. If it be asked, then, what kind of revival I desire, I would reply, such an one as is described by the presbytery of Albany,* such as were experienced by Edwards * See Appendix to Pastoral Discourses, by the Rev. H. F. Burder. and by Whitefield. I have no expectation of receiving such a blessing without some admixture of human infirmity. I am not quite sure whether such would be desirable. Perhaps it is, for wise purposes, permitted by God, that such awakenings should display some alloy of human extravagance. They then become a test by which we are able to see how far men are prepared to exercise Christian discrimination, and how far they are prepared to bear ridicule and reproach for Christ. At all events, I pray that a revival may come, although accompanied by many indications of a ORIGINAL LETTER OF DR. DODDRIDGE. Northampton, July 2, 1743. REV. AND DEAR SIR-I cannot let my good friend, Mr. Parminter, return into the West without bringing you one line for me, to assure you that I entertain most affectionate and respectful remembrance of you, and of the obliging hospitality with which you received me last summer. I never think of you but it is with real veneration and love, and I fail not frequently, at such times, to lift up my heart to God for you, in most affectionate wishes and prayers, that he may still be with you, and warm your heart even in these chilling years, with a lively sense of his love in Christ, and the continual joys of his salvation. I greatly rejoice, honoured Sir, to hear, that when so many of my fathers and brethren in the ministry, most of them your juniors, are laid aside, God is continuing your health and vigour, and giving you that cheerfulness and vivacity of spirits which I am informed you still have. It may seem a little barbarous, after you have so long been Miles Emeritus, to wish you a much longer continuance in this warfare, yet, for the sake of the church, I cannot forbear wishing you may be spared, and earnestly pray, that whether your continuance be shorter or longer, you may see the work of God reviving about you, as well as hear comfortably of its advancement in other parts of the world, and particularly in our kingdom. Comfortable tidings, I bless God, I do receive from various parts, which encourages me to hope that, degenerate as we are, both in principles and practice, God will not utterly depart from us; while you are continued among us, I am sensible you will be interceding for us, and your prayers have been dear to God before most of us were born. I beseech you that you would sometimes favour me with a share in them, who certainly have this to recommend me to them, that my work is very great and various, and my infirmities many, though I bless God, as for bodily health, I enjoy a very good state of it, and often find myself refreshed, rather than fatigued, by my la bours. I should take it as a favour, some time or another, to receive a few lines from your good hand, which I shall lay up as a valuable relique: may God give us more and more of that spirit which is in you, and I question not but we shall see his work revive: I bless God the interest here continues in good heart, and I apprehend that it has been for some years gaining, rather than losing ground, though God was pleased to strip us almost at once, between the years 36 and 40, of those who, humanly speaking, were our greatest supports; removing the most valuable of our ministers in the midst of their usefulness. Adored be his goodness, that there is a seed to serve him who are accounted to the Lord for a generation. You will, I hope, dear Sir, often lift up your prayers for the remnant that is left; I heartily recommend both you and your pious consort to the distinguished blessings of Provi dence, and join my thanks to you both for the friendly reception you gave me, and should really have esteemed it a great honour, if God had fixed the bounds of our habitations so that I might have received my apostolical friend and father, Mr. Ball, here. I do not despair of another interview with you at Honiton, but depend I much more, not only on an interview, but an abode together in our Father's house. In the mean time, may our views of it daily grow brighter, and may our souls be refined to greater degrees of preparation for it. I am, with the sincerest respect and affection, Honoured and Dear Sir, Your faithful and obliged Servant and Son, P. DODDRIDGE. Mr. Parminter is one of the most excellent youths I have ever known, or probably shall know. Were all students for the ministry like him, I should expect that Christ was about to erect his kingdom among us with a glory hitherto unknown. I hope, Sir, it is in part, under God, owing to your labours and prayers. To the Rev. Mr. Ball, UNDYING AFFECTION. "He best can paint it, who has felt it most."-Pope. MY MOTHER! soul arousing sound, Surpassing every other- To cheer my heart-my Mother. My love to thee-my Mother! Thy love, or in another, With softest pity blended; Thy voice was music sounds, and thence But, ah! that voice I hear no more, Thou hoverest near-my Mother! Burslem. REVIEW OF BOOKS. Natural History of Enthusiasm. London: Holdsworth and Ball. pp. 311. 8vo. Price 8s. WE are much mistaken if this volume be not the production of some writer of established celebrity. Though anonymous, it certainly cannot be considered as a literary adventure. It is not the effort of one who is trying his strength, but of one who knows it. Every page displays the hand of a master. There pervades the book that perfect freedom, both of composition and of thought, which can only distinguish the productions of those who have acquired the first by long habits of writing, and discover the second from a sort of instinctive consciousness of superior power; a consciousness with which, in the present instance, the reader so entirely sympathizes, that he never, for one moment, associates it with that of the vainly confident; but with that, which, in one form or other, always belongs to minds of the first order, and which is perfectly consistent with the proverbial modesty of true genius. We have heard the title of the work objected to. It does not, perhaps, convey instantaneously, to any reader, and not at all to superficial ones, a very distinct idea of its object. The term history" is so associated in most minds with accounts of the rise, progress, and vicissitudes of its subject, throughout some period of time more or less extended, that they forget the fact of its being capable of another application; they forget that, when qualified by the epithet "natural," it is used to signify not so much consecutive detail, as general de scription. We are disposed to think the title is logically unobjectionable, because the phrase stands for the description of the essential element, and specific properties of a thing; for an exhibition, in short, of what it is, and not for an account of what it has passed through. The work consists of a series of Essays on Enthusiasm, describing its nature, and presenting it to observation under a variety of aspects; it does this, however, not with a constant relation to time; it attempts not to give a regular view of the manner in which it has appeared in the different ages of the world; the successive phases and diversified effects it may have exhibited in the annals of the species; this would have been its history; but, attempting first to ascertain in what it consists, it proceeds to develop and illustrate its operations; to describe the way in which it displays itself in human characters, acting in relation to different objects, but upon the common and unchangeable principles of human nature; this is its natural history. We feel that it would be unjust to our readers to occupy much space by voluntary disquisition; and yet we never experienced so strong a disposition to indulge it. For once, we find that the converse of the Greek proverb may be true, "a little book is a great evil; its narrow columns, and confined space compel us to put a forcible restraint upon the excited energy of our own minds. It is the prerogative of genius that its productions seem to inspire the reader with a portion of its own power; |