"8. By calling himself Ordinary of Savannah.

"9. By refusing to receive William Aglionby as a godfather, only because he was not a communicant.

10. By refusing Jacob Matthews for the same reason, and baptizing an Indian trader's child with only two sponsors." (This, I own, was wrong; for I ought, at all hazards, to have refused baptizing it till he had procured a third.)

Fri. 2.---Was the third court at which I appeared since my being carried before Mr. P. and the Recorder.

I now moved for an immediate hearing on the first bill, being the only one of a civil nature: but it was refused. I made the same motion in the afternoon; but was put off till the next court-day.

On the next court-day I appeared again; as also at the two courts following: but could not be heard, because (the Judge said) Mr. Williamson was gone out of town.

The sense of the minority of the grand jurors themselves (for they were by no means unanimous) concerning these presentments, may appear from the following paper, which they transmitted to the Trustees:

To the Honourable the Trustees for Georgia

"Whereas two presentments have been made, the one of August 23, the other of August 31, by the grand jury for the town and county of Savannah, in Georgia, against John Wesley, Clerk.

"We, whose names are underwritten, being members of the said grand jury, do humbly beg leave to signify our dislike of the said presentments; being, by many and divers circumstances, thoroughly persuaded in ourselves, that the whole charge against Mr. Wesley is an artifice of Mr. Causton's designed rather to blacken the character of Mr. Wesley, than to free the colony from religious tyranny, as he was pleased, in his charge to us, to term it. But as these circumstances will be too tedious to trouble your Honours with, we shall only beg leave to give the reasons of our dissent from the particular bills.

It is now two years and almost tour months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity: but what have I learned myself in the mean time? Why, (what I the least of all suspected,) that I who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God. "I am not mad," though I thus speak, but "I speak the words of truth and soberness", if haply some of those who still dream may awake, and see, that as I am, so are they." Text-The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, London edition, (1903), Vol. I, pp.

26-71.

CHAPTER XII

THE GREAT AWAKENING

Bibliography

The phenomena of this movement have been described by Jonathan Edwards in a "Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, . " (1736: New York edition of Edwards' Works, Vol. III; also issued separately); George Gillespie in "A Letter to the Reverend Brethren of the Presbytery of New York. . . . As Also Some of the Causes of the Great Decay of Vital Religion and Practical Holiness in our Presbyterial Church. With Proofs of God's Remarkable Appearance for the Good of Many Souls" (1740); George Whitefield in "A Continuation of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield's Journal From a Few Days After his Arrival at Georgia to his Second Return Thither from Pennsylvania" (1740); Samuel Finley in a "Letter To a Friend Concerning Mr. Whitfield, Messrs. Tennents, and Their Opposers" (1740); Jonathan Dickinson in "A Display of God's Special Grace in . . . the Conviction and Conversion of Sinners so Remarkably of late Begun and Going on in these American Parts" (1742); Samuel Blair in “A Short and Faithful Narrative of the Late Remarkable Revival of Religion in the Congregation of New Londonderry and Other Parts of Pennsylvania" (1744); Thomas Prince in "The Christian History containing Accounts of the Revival and Propagation of Religion in Great Britain and America in 1743, 1744" (II Vols. 1744-45); John Rowland in "A Narrative of the Revival and Progress of Religion in the Towns of Hopewell, Amwell, and Maidenhead, in New Jersey, and New Providence, in Pennsylvania" (1745); Jonathan Edwards in "Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians on the Borders of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; Chiefly Takes from his own Diary" (1747, new edition by Sereno Edwards Dwight, "including his Journal, now for the First Time Incorporated with the Rest of his Diary in a Regular Chronological Order" 1822). Whitefield's correspondence is highly descriptive of his revival experiences. This is accessible in "The Works of Rev. George Whitefield, A.M.... with a Select Collection of Letters" (VI Vols. 1771).

Interpretations of this awakening are to be found in "Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England, A. D. 1740, and the Way in which It Ought to be Acknowledged and Promoted" (1740; New York edition, Vol. III) by Jonathan Edwards; also "Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion, " (1743) by W. C. Chauncy. A substantial work embodying masses of documentary material drawn from Prince's history, is that of Joseph Tracy, "The Great Awakening; A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield" (1842). Trumbull's "History of Connecticut" (1818) discourses quite freely of the revival and presents some important source material. In "A History of New England, With Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians Called Baptists, . . ." (2nd ed., with notes by D. Weston, II Vols. 1871) by Isaac Backus, there are many references to this movement particularly in its relation to Baptist development, and to the Separates, (See also p. 96). "The Great Awakening of 1740" (1903) by Rev. F. L. Chapell is a popular presentation of the subject, but adds nothing to the knowledge of the movement. In a "History of American Revivals" (1913), F. G. Beardsley describes rather than interprets the movement. "The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies" by Thomas Stacy Capers ("Jour. Pres. Hist. Soc." Vol. VIII, pp. 296-315) discusses the revival in its relation to the Presbyterian schism that followed. Psychological studies are "Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals" (1905) by F. M. Davenport, and "Primitive Elements in the Great Awakening" (D.B. Dissertation, Univ. of Chicago, 1907) by W. D. Wilcox. "Great Revivals and the Great Republic" (1904) by Warren A. Candler is a suggestive interpretation of the national significance of the awakening. "The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies" (1920) by C. H. Maxson has much interpretative value.

Periodical literature is as follows: "The Great Awakening" ("Christian Review" September 1844); "President Wheelock and the Great Revival" ("Amer. Pres. Rev." July 1869); "The Great Awakening of 1740" ("Pres. Quar. and Princeton Rev." October 1876); "Revival Experiences during the Great Awakening in 1741-1744" ("New Englander," November 1883). For additional literature see p. 264.

DOCUMENTS

I. REVIVAL PHENOMENA

Such uniformity characterized the phenomena of the Awakening in the various regions affected, that it will suffice to single out representative

points such as Northampton, where the revival began, New Londonderry and Boston.

Northampton

Jonathan Edwards, an eye witness of the revival in his own parish, thus described it in his "Narrative of Surprising Conversions, " 1735.

The town of Northampton is of about eighty-two years standing, and has now about two hundred families; which mostly dwell more compactly together than any town of such size in these parts of the country; which probably has been an occasion that both our corruptions and reformations have been from time to time the more swiftly propagated from one to another through the town. Take the town in general, and so far as I can judge, they are as rational and intelligent a people as most I have been acquainted with: many of them have been noted for religion, and particularly have been remarkable for their distinct knowledge in things that relate to heart religion, and christian experience, and their great regards thereto.

Just after my grandfather's death it seemed to be a time of extraordinary dulness in religion; licentiousness for some years greatly prevailed among the youths of the town; they were many of them very much addicted to night walking, and frequenting the tavern, and lewd practices, wherein some by their example exceedingly corrupted others. It was their manner very frequently to get together in assemblies of both sexes, for mirth and jollity, which they called trolics; and they would often spend the greater part of the night in them, without any regard to order in the families they belonged to: and indeed family government did too much fail in the town. It was become very customary with many of our young people to be indecent in their carriage at meeting, which doubtless would not have prevailed to such a degree, had it not been that my grandfather, through his great age, (though he retained his powers surprisingly to the last,) was not so able to observe them.. There had also long prevailed in the town a spirit of contention between two parties, into which they had for many years been divided, by which was maintained a jealousy one of the other. and they were prepared to oppose one another in all public affairs.

At the latter end of the year 1733 there appeared a very unusual flexibleness and yielding to advice in our young people. It had been too long their manner to make the evening after the Sabbath, and after our public lecture, to be especially the times of their mirth and company keeping. But a sermon was now preached on the Sabbath before the lecture, to show the evil tendency of the practice, and to persuade them to reform it; and it was urged on heads of families, that it should be a thing agreed upon among them, to govern their families and keep their children at home at these times; and withal it was more privately proposed that they should meet together the next day, in their several neighborhoods, to know each other's minds: which was accordingly done, and the suggestion complied with throughout the town. But parents found little or no occasion for the exercise of government in the case; the young people declared themselves convinced by what they had heard from the pulpit, and were willing of themselves to comply with the counsel that had been given: and it was immediately, and, I suppose, almost universally complied with; and there was

a thorough reformation of these disorders thence forward, which has continued ever since.

Presently after this, there began to appear a remarkable religious concern at a little village belonging to the congregation, called Pasommuck, where a few families were settled, at about three miles distance from the main body of the town. At this place a number of persons seemed to be savingly wrought upon. In the April following, anno 1734, there happened a very sudden and awful death of a young man in the bloom of his youth; who being violently seized with a pleurisy, and taken immediately very delirious, died in about two days; which (together with what was preached publicly on that occasion) much affected many young people. This was followed with another death of a young married woman, who had been considerably exercised in mind about the salvation of her soul before she was ill, and was in great distress in the beginning of her illness; but seemed to have satisfying evidences of God's saving mercy to her before her death; so that she died very full of comfort, in a most earnest and moving manner warning and counselling others. This seemed much to contribute to the solemnizing of the spirits of many young persons; and there began evidently to appear more of a religious concern on people's minds.

In the fall of the year I proposed to the young people that they should agree among themselves to spend the evenings after lectures in social religion, and to that end to divide themselves into several companies to meet in various parts of the town; which was accordingly done, and those meetings have been since continued, and the example imitated by elder people. This was followed by the death of an elderly person, which was attended with many unusual circumstances, by which many were much moved and affected.

. . . And then it was, in the latter part of December, that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in, and wonderfully to work among us; and there were, very suddenly, one after another, five or six persons, who were, to all appearance, savingly converted, and some of them wrought upon in a very remarkable manner.

Presently upon this a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees and all ages; the noise among the dry bones waxed louder and louder; all other talk but about spiritual and eternal things was soon thrown by; all the conversation in all companies, and upon all occasions, was upon these things only, unless so much as was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary secular business. Other discourse than of the things of religion would scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world; it was treated among us as a thing of very little consequence; they seemed to follow their worldly business more as a part of their duty than from any disposition they had to it; the temptation now seemed to lie on the other hand to neglect worldly affairs too much, and to spend 100 much time in the immediate exercises of religion, which thing was exceedingly misrepresented by reports that were spread in distant parts of the land, as though the people here had wholly thrown by all worldly business, and betaken themselves entirely to reading and praying, and such like religious exercises.

But though the people did not ordinarily neglect their worldly business, yet there then was the reverse of what commonly is: religion was with all classes the great concern, and the world was a thing only by the by. The only thing in their view was to get the kingdom of heaven, and every one appeared pressing into it: the engagedness