before they obtain comfort. I have, their countenances. From a face converfed with many who fell un- of horror and defpair, they aff der the influence of comfortable med one which was open, lumisfeelings, and the account which ous, and ferene, and expreffive of they gave of their exercises, while all the comfortable feelings of relithey lay entranced, was very furpri-gion. As to those who fall downfing. I know not how to give you under legal convictions and contina better idea of them, than by fay-ue in that state, they are not dif ing, that they appeared in many ferent from thofe who receive concafes to furpass the dying exercifes victions in other revivals; exceptof Doctor Finley. Their minds ing, that their diftrefs is more feappeared wholly fwallowed up in vere. Indeed, extraordinary powcontemplating the perfections of er is the leading characteristic of Deity as illuftrated in the plan of this revival. Both faints and finfalvation. And while they lay in ners have more ftriking discoveries all appearance fenfelefs, and almost of the realities of another world, deftitute of life, their minds were than I have ever known on any more vigorous and active, and their other occafion. memories more retentive and accu- I truft I have faid enough on this rate, than they had ever been be- fubject, to enable you to judge fore. I have heard refpectable how far the charge of enthusiasm characters affert, that their mani- is applicable to it. Lord Littleton feftations of gospel truth were fo in his letter on the converfion of clear, as to require fome caution St. Paul obferves (and I think vewhen they began to fpeak, left they ry juftly) that "Enthufiafm is a fhould ufe language, which might vain, felf-righteous fpirit, fwelled induce their hearers to fuppofe they with felf fufficiency, and difpofed had feen those things with their nat- to glory in its religious attainural eyes. But at the fame time, ments." If this definition be a they had feen no image or fenfible good one, there is perhaps as little reprefentation, nor indeed any enthufiafm in Kentucky as in any thing, befides the old truths con- other revival. Never in my life tained in the bible. Among thofe have I feen more genuine marks of whofe minds were filled with the that humility, which difclaims the moft delightful communications of merit of its own duties, and looks divine love, I but seldom obferved to the Lord Jefus Chrift as the onany thing ecstatic. Their exprefly way of acceptance with God. fions were juft and rational; they I was indeed highly pleafed to find converfed with calmnefs and com. that Chrift was all and in all in pofure; and on firft recovering the their religion, as well as in the reufe of fpeech, they appeared like ligion of the gospel. Chriftians perfons juft recovering from a vio- in their higheft attainments were lent sickness, which had left them moft fenfible of their entire deon the borders of the grave. pendance on divine grace; and it was truly affecting to hear with what agonizing anxiety awakened finners inquired for Chrift, as the only physician who could give them any help. Thofe who call thefe things enthufiam, ought to tell us what they understand by the Spiric I have fometimes been prefent when perfons who fell under the influence of convictions, obtained relief before they rofe. On thefe occafions it was impoffible not to obferve how strongly the change of their minds was depicted in of Chriftianity. In fact, Sir, this revival operates, as our Saviour promifed the Holy Spirit fhould when fent into the world. It convinces of fin, of righteoufnefs, and of judgment; a ftrong confirmation to my mind, both that the promife is divine, and that this is a remarkable fulfilment of it. It would be of little avail to object to all this, that perhaps the profeflions of many of the people were counterfeited. Such an objection would rather establish what it meant to deftroy. For where there is no reality there can be no counterfeit and befides, when the general tenor of a work is fuch, as to difpofe the more infincere profeffors to counterfeit what is right, the work itself must be genuine. But as an eye-witness in the cafe, I may be permitted to declare, that the profeffions of thofe under religious convictions, were generally marked with fuch a degree of engagedness and feeling, as wilful hypocrify could hardly affume. The language of the heart when deeply impreffed is easily diftinguished from the language of affectation. Upon the whole, Sir, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever vifited the church of Chrift. And all things confidered it was peculiarly adapted to the circumftances of the country into which it came. Infidelity was triumphant, and religion at the point of expiring. Something of an extraordinary nature appeared neceffary to arrest the attention of a giddy people, who were ready to conclude that Chriftianity was a fable and futurity a dream. This revival has done It has confounded infidelity, awed vice inte filence, and brought numbers beyond calculation under ferious imprefions. Whilft the bleffed Saviour was calling home his people and building up his church in this remakable way, oppofition could not be filent. At this I have hinted above. But it is proper I fhould obferve here, that the clamorous eppofition which affailed the work at its firft appearance has been in a great measure borne down before it. A large proportion of those who have fallen, were at firft oppofers ; and their example has taught others to be cautious, if it has not taught them to be wife. I have written on this fubje& to a greater length than I first intended. But if this account should give you any fatisfaction, and be of any benefit to the common carfe, I fhall be fully gratified. Yours with the higheft efteem. GEO. A. BAXTER. Rev. Archibald Alexander. Extra of a letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia to his friend in Hartford. "I was laft Sunday evening to hear Mr. fpeak at the old College-it is fitted up fo as to accommodate at least 1500 per fons and it was fo crowded the greater part of the audience were obliged to ftand the whole time.— His fubject was, the great condefcenfion of the Almighty in reafoning with his creatures to perfuade them to come to the truth, whereby their happiness would be increafed here and hereafter.Great attention and folemnity appeared in the people the whole time, and a more than common concern has taken place here on the fubject of religion, and many enquiring what they fhall do to be faved." Given By two friends of Mifdoll. & 16 dolls. go cents. fons, Concerning the propagation of the them: They ran up, and down, as if delirious, till they could run no longer They would make their faces as black as a coal, and fnatch up any weapon, as tho' they would do mifchief with it; and fpake great fwelling words; and yet they did no harm." "Many of thefe Indians were, by the English, feen in this condi tion. Now this, and all other ca lamities which the Indians were gofpel among the Indians in New-under, they generally then attribu- I others remain to be noticed. Mr. Experience Mayhew mentions another thing, which was a temporary impediment to the propagation of the gofpel among thefe Indians, viz. “In the year 1643, there was a strange difeafe among VOL. II. No. 10. ted to the departure of fome among them from their own heathenish among civilized people, who yet have been better inftructed, they read the judgments of heaven up on this occafion.* It feems probable, from the ancient accounts transmitted to us, that the oppofition to Christianity Poffibly this was a ftratagem of confidents, who acted their parts fo the powows, who might employ fome well, as to impofe upon the other Indians, and even upon the English them felves. Such pious frauds have not been peculiar to civilized nations. Suppofe this a fraud, or otherwife, the powows knew how to take advantage of it, to prejudice the minds of the Indians agaiaft Christianity. X X made by the powows, was the greateft obftacle of all. The com mon people knew not how they fhould come off from them. They were extremely afraid of offend ing them. They not only dreaded their fuppofed power, of wound ing and killing whom they thought fit, by their enchantments; but they were afraid of difpleafing them on another account, as they made great dependence upon them in times of ficknefs, as men, who had a preternatural power in the cure of difeafes This, it seems, was the ftrongest cord that bound them to their heathenifh rites. The powows, by one mean and another, kept them in the moft flavifh fear and fubjection to them; fo that, for a confiderable time, few durft defert them.. The powows and those who adhered to them, about the year 1646, feeing two meetings of the praying Indians, fet up in oppofition to that way, which themfelves, and their fathers had long walked in, were very much difturbed and enraged: And now they thought to terrify Hiacoomes, and the rest of the praying Indians, by threatening to destroy them by forcery. One powow in particular told them," That the powows could kill all the Meeting [i. e. Chriftianized Indians, if they fet about it."+ To the end they might terrify the new converts, and drive them, if poffible, to renounce their profeffion, feveral Indians went to a meeting of the praying Indians, Praying Indians was a term commonly ufed in early times, and applied to thofe natives, who had embraced Christianity, and prayed to God in the name of Jefus Chrift, the Mediator, to diftinguish them from, their heathen countrymen, Indian Converts, p. 7. and there told many stories of the great hurt, which the powows had, in the way of their enchantments, done to many. Such a power in them, being generally, if not univerfally believed by the Indians, feemed, above any thing else, to difcourage them, for a time, from receiving the true religion, now published among them; tho' thofe few, who had already embraced it, were not fo terrified as to relinquifh their profeffion. During this meeting, this quef tion was afked by one, who was on the fide of the powows, "Who is there, who does not fear the pow ows?" To which another of them answered, "There is no man, that is not afraid of them." Probably they fpake the real fentiments of their hearts, at least, respecting the main body of the Indians. It may be difficult, at this day, fully to determine the character of thefe powows. The people of New-England in ancient times, particularly the writers in the ferenteenth century, generally fuppo fed them to be wizzards, in the common fenfe, in which that word is ufed. That they had special communications with evil fpirits, and produced fome preternatural effects by their affillance; that they had, not only actual conver fations, but explicit confederacies with devils. Receiving the tefti mony of the natives, our ancestors were of opinion, that many per fons among them were, by the zeal of their parents, dedicated to their infernal gods; but that the dæmons accepted only fome here, and there, to make dangerous powows, or wizzards of them. They were of opinion, that these powows often employ their dæ mons to fmite their neighbors with blindness, lameness, wounds, and other mischiefs; and fometimes to kill them, and fometimes to cure | thofe that were cruel in the extheir maladies. The powows themfelves made great pretences to fuch a power; and the Indians perhaps univerfally believed; that they were invefted with it: And thofe of the natives, who became Chriftians, had no fcruple, that the powows had a preternatural power, communicated by fome fpirit, inferior indeed to Jehovah, and fubject to His control, but when permitted by Him, could, and did, by the inftrumentality of thefe men, produce effects beyond human. The Indians told our ancestors ftrange ftories about the feats of the pow. ows; and doubtlefs, in many inhances at leaft, related what they fuppofed to be strictly true." The powows were ever ready to proclaim their own extraordinary power, and their people ftood ready to believe them. Governor Hutchinfon mentions one Paffaconaway, a great Sagamore upon Merrimack River, who was the moft celebrated powow in the country: He made the Indians believe frange things; that he could make water burn, rocks move, and trees dance; and metamorphofe himself into a flaming man; that in winter he could raife a green leaf out of the afhes of a dry one, and produce a living fnake from the kin of a dead one t Indeed, they, who affumed the leaft, made pretenfions of performing works beyond the power of mere mortals. The poor, ignorant Indians were doubtless, in many inftances at leaft, deluded themfelves: Vile frauds were practifed upon them; and fometimes, without doubt, Some accounts are fo romantic, that we may fay concerning them, what the Roman poet fays in another cafe," Credat Judæus Apella." + Ft. Maff. v. 1. p. 474. treme. They told the early fettlers what they themselves belleyed; and it may be, the former were not fo careful, and strict in their examination of reported facts, as they might have been. Allowance is ako to be made for the credulity of that age, in refpect to fome particulars; which was indeed, by no means, peculiar to' New-England. In that period, many men of great learning, and' found judgment in most things, feemed too apt to give credit to the marvellous, without that evidence, which their good fenfe would have required in most other cafes: And fome good Chriflian Indians, who communicated an account of the extraordinary power of the pow ows, and their aftonishing actions, might be miftaken, being impofed upon by the art, and dexterity of thefe cunning men; for the generality of the natives had fuch a fixed awe upon their minds of the great power of thefe men, and fuch a veneration for their character, as thofe, who had immediate communication with their deities, and direct influence from them, that they would not be likely to examine with ftrictnefs their fuppofed extraordinary feats. Mr. Neale, arier quoting from fome of the ancient writers, feveral accounts of the uncommon, and, as they fuppofed, preternatural actions of the powows, which were attributed to the affiftance given them by evil fpirits, concludes with this remark: "I fhall leave the reader to pafs what judgment he pleases, upon thefe relations; but, in my opinion, they are fo far from proving the doctrine they are brought to fupport, that they cairy in them the greatell air of juggle, and impofture in the world." As to the true and full charac |