neglect their worldly business, yet there then was the reverse of what commonly is; religion was with all the great concern.' This state of feeling spread rapidly during the following seven years through many of the New England states, and in some of those of New York and New Jersey. This work,' says Dr. Trumbull,* was very extraordinary on many accounts. It was much beyond what had been the common course of Providence. It was more universal than what had before been known. It extended to all sorts and characters of people, sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise. To all appearance, it was no less powerful in families and persons of distinction, in the places which it visited, than others. In former works of this nature, young people had generally been wrought upon, while elderly people and children had been little affected, if moved at all. But at this time old men were affected as well as others.' " People, in a wonderful manner, flocked together to places of public worship, not only on the Lord's Day, but on lecture days, so that the places of worship could not contain them. They would not only fill the houses, but crowd around the doors and windows without, and press together wherever they could hear the preacher. They would not only thus assemble in their own towns and parishes when the

* History of Connecticut, vol. ii., p. 141 (vol. ii., p. 109 et seq., in 1898 reprint).

word was preached, but if they had the knowledge of lectures in the neighboring towns and parishes, they would attend them. Sometimes they would follow the preacher from town to town, and from one place to another, for several days together. In some instances, in places but thinly settled, there would be such a concourse, that no house could hold them. There was, in the minds of people, a great fear of sin, and of the wrath of God denounced against it. There seemed to be a general conviction, that all the ways of man were before the eyes of the Lord. It was the opinion of men of discernment and sound judgment, who had the best opportunities of knowing the feelings and general state of the people at that period, that bags of gold and silver, and other precious things, might, with safety, have been laid in the streets, and that no man would have converted them to his own use. Theft, wantonness, intemperance, profaneness, sabbath-breaking, and other gross sins, appeared to be put away. The intermissions on the Lord's Day, instead of being spent in worldly conversation and vanity, as had been too usual before, were now spent in religious conversation, in reading and singing the praises of God. At lectures there was not only great attention and seriousness in the house of God, but the conversation out of it was generally on the great concerns of the soul.'

"There is a circumstance which considerably contributed to accelerate

the diffusion of a revival spirit, which must not be overlooked the visits of the celebrated contemporaries, Wesley and Whitfield, to the American continent, just at this period. The extraordinary exertions of the latter especially excited and emboldened many faithful ministers of Connecticut, whose labors and pecuniary sacrifices now became greater than they had ever before experienced or imagined they could endure. They not only abounded in active exertions among their own and neighboring congregations, but preached in all parts of the colony, where their brethren would admit them, and in many places in Massachusetts, and the other colonies. They were very popular, and their labors were generally acceptable to their brethren, and useful to the people. They were not noisy preachers, but grave, sentimental, searching, and pungent. Connecticut was, however, more remarkably the seat of the work than any part of New England, or of the American colonies. In the years 1740, 1741, and 1742, it had pervaded, in a greater or less degree, every part of the colony. In most of the towns and societies, it was very general and powerful.

"It has been estimated, that, during three years, from thirty to forty thousand persons had their minds affected in the decided manner which has been described. It might naturally have been supposed, that, as many of these impressions occurred

469

at a period of extraordinary excitement, they would not have been generally productive of permanently beneficial results. The contrary, however, in a very great majority of instances, appears to have been the fact. 'The effects on great numbers,' says Dr. Trumbull, were abiding and most happy; they were the most uniform, exemplary Christians, with whom I was ever acquainted. I was born, and had my education, in that part of the town of Hebron in which the work was most prevalent and powerful. They were extraordinary for their constant and serious attention on the public worship; they were prayerful, righteous, peaceable, and charitable; they kept up their religious meetings for prayer, reading, and religious conversation, conversation, for many years; they were strict in the religion and government of their families, and I never knew that any one of them was ever guilty of scandal, or fell under discipline. About eight or ten years after the religious revival and reformation, that part of the town. was made a distinct society, and it was mentioned to Mr. Lothrop, the pastor-elect, as an encouragement to settle with them, that there was not a drunkard in the whole parish. While I lived in it, I did not know of one prayerless family among his people, nor ever heard of one. Some of those people, who dated their conversion from that period, lived until they were far advanced in life; and after I was settled in the ministry, I became ac

quainted with them in one place and another. They appeared to be some of the most consistent practical Christians with whom I ever had an acquaintance. Their light shone before men, through a long life, and brightened as they advanced on their way. Some I was called to visit in their last moments in full possession of their rational powers, who appeared perfectly to acquiesce in the will of God, to die in the full assurance of faith, and in perfect triumph over the last enemy.' ''*

No matter what might have been the effect of the "Great Revival" on the religious condition of the community, it was offset, to a great extent, by the outbreak of the third intercolonial war which took its rise from the fact that Spain attempted to maintain her system of colonial monopoly which she had adopted in its utmost rigor, and which the French and English had imitated, though with less stringency. By the treaty of Utrecht the English had obtained the right to transport a number of slaves annually to the Spanish colonies, and under

*On the work of Whitefield and Edwards see J. G. Gillies, Memoirs of George Whitefield; J. P. Gledstone, Life and Travels of Whitefield (1901) and the lives by Joseph Belcher and Tyerman; Whitefield, Journal of Travels in America; A. V.

this privilege a wide-spread system of smuggling had sprung up against which the Spaniards had endeavored to protect themselves by putting into commission a fleet of revenue cutters. With supreme lack of sense in distinguishing between those legally and illegally engaged in the traffic, these Spanish ships had attacked some of the English ships which, as happened, were well within their legal rights, and in addition had committed a number of barbarous acts which greatly excited the English populace. They therefore clamored for war, and Walpole reluctantly consented. 1744, therefore, a general European war broke out the war of the Austrian succession — and again the colonists became involved in the struggle of the European countries.

In

The first intimation the New Englanders had that a state of war existed was in May, 1744, when an expedition from Cape Breton attacked and captured Fort Canso (or Canseau), Nova Scotia, and also broke up the fishery.* the fishery. The Indians and Canadians besieged Annapolis, but the garrison was able to withstand the siege until relief arrived from Massachusetts. During this year, however, a number of privateers went from

Memoir of Jonathan Edwards; Gardiner, Jonathan Edwards (1901); L. P. Powell, Jonathan Edwards, in Heavenly Critics (1909); Edwards' Works (8 vols., 1809), the edition by S. E. Dwight (10 vols., 1829-30; The Observations Concerning the Scripture Economy of the Trinity (ed. by E. C. Smith, 1880) and the Essay on the Trinity (ed. by G. P. Fisher, 1903) are not in the published editions.

upon the New England fisheries and commerce, and in addition, the Indians on the frontier of Maine broke

Hutchinson, vol. ii., p. 364.

† Parkman, Half-Century of Conflict, vol. ii., pp. 78-83.