As to the general charges against him, he undertakes also to show, that they were unfounded, though he admits that he had been sometimes unguarded in his expressions.

Such a defence was by no means satisfactory; and soon afterwards a Letter in reply was addressed to him by Dr. Wigglesworth, in the name of his colleagues in the immediate government of the College. In this admirable production, the learned Professor of Divinity went over the whole ground with great care and thoroughness; he clearly pointed out the dangers of enthusiasm; confuted all his opponent's arguments in a masterly manner; and, by enlarging upon the several charges against him, gave additional evidence and force to the "Testimony." No analysis of such a work could do it justice; or could be sufficiently condensed for insertion here; and what relates particularly to the College, being of considerable length, and at the same time too interesting to be omitted, will be found in the Appendix.

The Professor concludes his letter in the following impressive terms: "And now, Sir, for myself, I can with great sincerity assure you, that it hath been no small grief of heart to me, to deal with you in this public manner: But as these things have been all made public by your own writings, which are read, I suppose, in all parts of the British Dominions in Europe and America; and, as I apprehend, you have been permitted to fall into repeated, deliberate, most public, comprehensive, and pernicious violations of the holy laws of God, I cannot persuade myself that any good could come of private Conferences; but think that you ought to give Satisfaction in as public a Manner, as you have given Offence; which I earnestly pray God to incline your Heart to do, and am," &c.

To Dr. Wigglesworth's letter was appended one from the President; in which he animadverts upon some remarks of Mr. Whitefield's respecting certain incongruities real or apparent between the "Convention Sermon" and the "Testimony." The President very easily deprives him of any advantage these things seemed to afford him. Upon the passages in the Sermon favorable to him and Mr. Tennent, one of which is quoted above, the President thus expresses himself: "I now assure you, Sir, and all the world, that I am so far from being displeas'd with the mention of them, that I rather rejoice in it, as thereby you have given me a fair Opportunity to correct them: For tho' I have a good while dislik'd them, and therefore (you must needs think) cou'd not be insensible of them when I came into the formention'd Testimony; yet I did not think it worth while, since they are upon the charitable side, to make a formal Business of Retractation; though I think if they had been upon the other side, I ought to have done it, whether called upon or not. And inasmuch as you have noted them as standing in direct opposition to several things in the Testimony which I myself have signed, I now thank you, Rev. Sir, for pointing out those faults to me,' if you will allow me to give that term to those errors and mistakes." 1

He goes on to say, that, when he delivered his Sermon he thought what he uttered was true, but that he had found he was mistaken; and, after making some pertinent remarks and acknowledging that he ought to have taken more time before he delivered his judgment, he feelingly observes-"Alas! how was I deluded by show and appearance! And not only I, but mulThe Rev. President's Answer to Mr. Whitefield, p. 3.

titudes besides me, who no doubt would be as ready as I am now, had they a proper occasion for it, to say they have been sorrowfully deceived; and that whatever good was done, hath been prodigiously overbalanced by the evil; and the furious zeal with which you had so fired the passions of the People, hath in many places burnt up the very vitals of Religion, and a censorious, unpeaceable, uncharitable disposition hath, in multitudes, usurped the place of godly jealousy.”

From the fermentation, produced in the community by the warmth of Whitefield, soon arose a swarm of illiterate, conceited, noisy exhorters, that infested the land, going from place to place inveighing against the ministers and Colleges, and Arminianism and good works. Mr. William Croswell was very conspicuous among them. "He publicly in great assemblies accused the President and Instructers and Governors of both Colleges of Arminianism and as enemies to the work of God, though he knows but little about them. He has advised some persons, as Foster of Plymouth, to take his son from College, and advised Fayerweather and other scholars not to mind what their Tutors said to them, told others that 't were better to send children aboard a man of war for education than to College. He has raved from Plymouth to Charlestown against the College and its Governors and greatest part of the ministers and some in Boston. These things people love to hear, and follow his preaching from town to town, many being puffed up in themselves and leavened with ill dispositions against the ministers, having both in contempt, even some women saying, they believe that few ministers are converted, limiting the nature of conversion to their own particular way of thinking about it, that is, sudden and temporary turns of dis

tress and joy." He said also, "he intended to write against the College.

Another person by the name of Prentice said "he would make such an attack on the College as it never had yet.

Some "imputed the coldness grown upon scholars to the Tutors' not advising them about spiritual things." The result of this controversy was no doubt satisfactory to the public and beneficial to the College. What effect Mr. Whitefield's denunciation had to injure the College, by keeping back patronage, by lessening the number of its students, or in any other way, is not known. It was probably much less than it would have been, had not Yale College, then the only one in New England except this, been included in the same proscription. President Holyoke in his letter to Mr. Whitefield, said to him, "You have already (whether you designed it or not) really injured us not a little. " But from the continued and increasing prosperity of the College, it is evident that the injury received could not have been very considerable, either in magnitude or duration; and it was doubtless owing, under Providence, to the timely exertions of its officers in no small degree, that the mischiefs which threatened it were so happily averted.

1 Flynt's MS. Diary.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE laws made in 1734 appear to have contained all that was needed for several years. On the 29th of April 1740, "The Committee appointed April 25th, 1738, to enquire into the state of the College, &c., and revived the 6th of September last, have attended that service, and upon enquiry made of the Rev'd. President, Tutors, and Professors, doe find that the exercises required by law are statedly attended, and that the body of laws lately made for the government of the College doe in a good measure answer their end, and prove beneficial to the Society, and that at present there does not appear occasion for any new laws to be made; nor do the Committee apprehend it needful to lay any new proposals before the Board of Overseers. All which is submitted in the name and by the desire of the Committee. April 20, 1740.

S. PHIPPS."

Such was the operation of these laws for some years longer; till, in the natural progress of things, occasions arose for the vigorous application of them, and for such alterations and additions, as resulted at length in another revisal and amendment of the Code. Those occasions were sometimes furnished by "profane cursing and swearing" among the students; "by their frequenting alehouses;" by their "improving persons in fetching liquors"; by "the extravagant expenses at taverns and retailing houses, for wine, strong beer, and distilled spir

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