of Mr. Edwards, and who voted for the same, gave vigor to the erratic principle. Its influence was perpetuated by his successor, Dr. Hopkins, who was a decided Stoddardean. His character as a man and a minister was such as to give force to his sentiments. He was a faithful pastor, in the acceptation of the times, and enjoyed the reputation of an able divine. He was a man of decided ability, good practical sense, familiar with the Scriptures, and very respectable as a general scholar. As a preacher he was always instructive and pertinent, though possessing little of the "popular element," or that imaginative fervor which glows with inward fire, and sweeps its way through a discourse on radiant wing, charming the million. As a reasoner he was clear and sagacious, and in judgment sound. In private life he was amiable, affable, and dignified, with the grace of easy condescension. He was exceedingly entertaining as a companion, and a careful cultivator of peace among his people and in all his relations. In theology he was a Calvinist, in the sense of an anti-Edwardean of the age, though far less lax than those clergymen of his time who prepared the way for the influx of Unitarianism and kindred delusions. IIe inculcated the salient points of the system, but not in such a way that they stood out in marked contrast with Arminianism. He had no sympathy with the peculiar views and nice distinctions of his cousin, the astute theologian of Newport. He did not hold the specialtics of the Calvinistic system in such distinctness of vision, or reason upon them with such acuteness, analyzing them so closely that each was seen in its true position and individual force; and then combining them into one consistent whole, press them with crushing weight on the consciences of his hearers. His general pulpit services came not, therefore, upon the formal and lukewarm with startling effect, nor did they probe the hearts of the impenitent with lacerating point; yet they that loved the Lord were edified and helped on their way to the better land. Salvation alone by grace was his frequent theme;

STODDARDISM IN HADLEY.

51.

but the moral virtues and ritualistic observances were enforced with little less frequency, and both as of almost equal importance. Near the close of his ministry he mourned over his little success; thus evincing both his carnest desire to do good, and his freedom from a boastful spirit. Under such a pastorate of fifty-five years Stoddardism would inevitably strike deeper its roots.

Other causes contributed to the same result. The excitement occasioned by the able discussion of the subject by Edwards, and the violent opposition it awakened at Northampton, must have extended their influence across the river. The church in IIadley had looked at it with the eyes of controversialists, and taken sides with the feelings of partisans. The intelligent majority could say, "We have considered both sides of this subject, and we are satisfied by personal examination where the truth lies." Besides, a man's political standing, and social position in the town, during and at the close of Dr. Hopkins's ministry, was materially affected by his connection with the church. Pride and policy were thus arrayed in defence of the unscriptural practice. Selfish case also gave her vote in its favor. To come without faith to the communion-table as a means of grace, seemed a smoother way to heaven than the rough and narrow path of entire consecration to God and of selfrenouncing trust in redeeming blood. Thus the discussion. partisans, its vener

of the subject for fifty or sixty years as ableness as handed down from father to son, and the soothing efficacy of the dogma itself on the unregenerate members of the church, tended to enroot it more deeply in the affections of the majority; to render it one of those settled things which the selfish prejudices desire to leave in rest.

While Dr. Hopkins seems never to have changed his views or his practice respecting the sacramental supper, yet near the termination of his long pastorate the dogma began to relax its hold on a portion of the church.

The rising sun will send his beams through the densest

Their

clouds. The rays of truth will eventually pierce the thickest darkness of delusion. The scriptural views of Edwards had commended themselves from the first to the Christian conscience of the public, and had been gradually gaining ground. Other pulpits had resounded with the same truths; other pens had set them forth in brilliant forms. They were matter of frequent discussion in private circles. Men thought and reasoned and consulted their bibles. vision became clearer. The light brightened till it illuminated the entire atmosphere. The church in Hadley, like others shrouded in the same mists, felt its reviving beams. But a more specific cause there wrought its transforming work. Dr. Hopkins was wont to say, "I myself hate the Hopkinsian scheme, but my five daughters have fallen in love with it." Four of his own daughters, and Martha Williams, the daughter of his wife, who was the widow of his predecessor, Rev. Chester Williams, all married Hopkinsian ministers, - Rev. William Riddell, and Rev. Leonard Worcester, Drs. S. Spring, S. Austin, and N. Emmons, all clear thinkers; the three last leading New-England divines. These able preachers, accustomed to use great plainness of speech, frequently occupied the pulpit of their father-in-law. By this means the church became somewhat familiar with the Hopkinsian aspects of divine truth, and the Hopkinsian mode of presenting it. The sermons of these royal thinkers and preachers could not have been ineffectual; and so felt the venerable pastor. He once requested an exchange with an able minister on the plea that Mr. Spring, Mr. Emmons, and Mr. Austin had preached for him on the three preceding Sabbaths; and now he added, "You must preach on the fourth, so as to let me down easily to preach on the fifth."

Another cause of the weakening of the Stoddardean principle of church-membership was a revival in the winter of 1804-5. This was much promoted by a young man, himself a recent convert to Christ, a member of one of our colleges

EXTENT OF HIS PARISH.

who was teaching school in the place.

53

About thirty hope

fully turned to the Lord, some of whom became the most intelligent and efficient members of the church, and long wrought as devoted co-workers with Mr. Woodbridge.

At

Such was the field which he was called to cultivate. the time of his settlement Hadley contained some twelve hundred and fifty inhabitants, most of whom were committed to his spiritual training. The parish and the town were nearly the same in extent. They were pre-eminently a churchgoing people. The single church edifice to which they were accustomed to resort on thé Sabbath was spacious and commodious, capable of seating some six or seven hundred, and was ordinarily well filled.

CHAPTER V.

MR. WOODBRIDGE'S QUALIFICATIONS FOR HIS FIELD.

THE ministerial qualification which underlies all others, imparting to them vitality and power, is harmony of will with the divine will; an utter abandonment of self-interest to the interest of Christ's kingdom; a disinterestedness so abiding and exalted that it elevates the possessor into the fixed habit and cheerful purpose of preferring his Master's pleasure to his own; prompting him submissively to say, in view of every duty and at every turn of life, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." However acceptable one may be as a preacher of salvation to his fellow-men, no one who is not in harmony with the individual and combined excellences of the Godhead, can be acceptable to him whose "heart of tenderness" yearns to justify the ungodly "to the praise of the glory of his grace." He aloue is truly qualified to preach "the glorious gospel," whose soul is filled with such intensity of holy love that he can traverse the profoundest depths of revelation; walk among the most self-abasing, self-annihilating, and God-enthroning truths, and feel delight in them as objects of highest moral beauty and grandeur; even rejoice in them as the expression of the sublimest will of the universe, with which he is sweetly conscious that the deepest sympathies of his soul are in accord; whose mind is so clarified from the mists of sin, so exalted in spirituality, that he has "the vision divine" of spiritual discernment, that penetration into the interior life of truth which a holy heart alone gives; who not only grasps the truth with distinctness, but receives it into his heart, feels