neous work, originally published in numbers, containing accounts of the revival in this country and in Scotland, written, in general, by the pastors of the churches in which the revival occurred; Gillies' Collections, which, as far as it relates to this country, is principally a reprint of the former work; Whitefield's Life and Journals; Edwards' Life, Correspondence, and Sermons; Chauncy's Seasonable Thoughts, another contemporaneous work, containing the dark side of the picture; Fisk's nine sermons, preached in Stonnington after the revival, and containing many valuable historical details; Trumbull's History of Connecticut; President Dickinson's Works; Works of the Rev. Samuel Blair. Besides these, there are a great many smaller works, principally pamphlets, for and against the men and measures of those days, quoted and referred to in the following pages, which need not be particularly mentioned here. The authorities relied upon for the account given of the schism, besides the official records of the synod, which themselves contain much of the history, are the contemporaneous works of the leading men of the two parties. As the controversy ostensibly arose out of the disregard, on the part of the presbytery of New Brunswick, of two acts of the synod, the Apology of that presbytery presented in 1739, for their conduct, stands first in order. The only copy of that work, of which the writer has any knowledge, is in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society at Worcester; for the use of which he is indebted to the kind intervention of the Rev. Dr. Anderson of Boston. The greater part of the Apology, however, is reprinted in Mr. Thompson's Government of the Church of Christ, published in 1741, where, according to the good old method of controversy, it is quoted in order to its being refuted. Mr. Thompson's strictures on the Apology were answered by the Rev. Samuel Blair, in his vindication of the New Brunswick brethren, contained in the printed volume of his works. In 1740, Mr. Gilbert Tennent and Mr. Samuel Blair, presented to the synod two memorials containing various complaints against their brethren. These memorials are given at length in Mr. Thompson's work above-mentioned. This latter work, therefore, is itself one of the most important books relating to this period of our history, embracing as it does the views of both parties as to most of the points in controversy. It was before the schism also that Mr. Tennent preached at Nottingham, his sermon on the Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry, which is contained in volume 143, of the valuable collection of pamphlets extending to near a thousand volumes, presented by the Rev. Dr. Sprague of Albany, to the library of the Theological Seminary in this place. In 1741, Mr. John Thompson published his sermon on the Doctrine of Conviction, which was answered by the Rev. Samuel Finley in 1743. The Protest presented to the synod in 1741, which was the immediate cause of the schism, was printed with a historical preface and appendix, and is preserved in the Philadelphia Library. Mr. Tennent immediately published Remarks upon that Protest, which are included in the collection of his works in the library at Worcester. Those Remarks were answered in a work entitled, Refutation of Mr. Tennent's Remarks, &c., by some of the members of the synod, Philadelphia, 1742. The brethren, who had been excluded from the synod published a Declaration of their sentiments on the subjects of doctrine and church government. This tract the writer has not been able to find. It is, however, largely quoted in the Detector Detected, by the Rev. Robert Smith, contained in vol. 561, of Dr. Sprague's collection. The year after the schism, Mr. G. Tennent printed his sermons against the Moravians. Those sermons an anonymous writer in Boston contrasted with Mr. Tennent's Nottingham discourse, in a book called the Examiner, or Gilbert versus Tennent. This was answered by Mr. Tennent, in the Examiner Examined, printed in 1743. Both of these works are generally accessible. Mr. Tennent's Irenicum, or Plea for the Peace of Jerusalem, published in 1749, with the design to heal the divisions in the church, is another of the most important works relating to these controversies. The writer has faithfully given the results of a careful examination of these contemporaneous publications. The conclusions to which he has arrived, as to the merits of the controversy, differ in some measure from his own previous impressions; and may differ still more from the accounts preserved by tradition in various parts of the church. It is believed, however, that the reader will find no conclusion in the following pages materially different from those to which Mr. Tennent had arrived in 1749. With regard to the two other chapters contained in this volume, there is less to be said. They are little more than a digest of the minutes. In the one a history is given of the synods of Philadelphia and New York, during the seventeen years the separation lasted, by classifying their acts under certain heads. The same method is pursued in reference to the united synod, which was formed in 1758, and dis |