was also a very great and general concern at Northfield. And wherever this concern appeared, it seemed not to be in vain: but in every place God brought saving blessings with him, and his word, attended with his Spirit, (as we have all reason to think) returned not void. It might well be said at that time, in all parts of the county, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?"

As what other towns heard of and found in this, was a great means of awakening them; so our hearing of such a swift and extraordinary propagation, and extent of this work, did doubtless for a time serve to uphold the work amongst us. The continual news kept alive the talk of religion, and did greatly quicken and rejoice the hearts of God's people, and much awakened those that looked on themselves as still left behind, and made them the more earnest that they also might share in the great blessings that others had obtained.

This remarkable pouring out of the Spirit of God, which thus extended from one end to the other of this county, was not confined to it, but many places in Connecticut partook in the same mercy; as for instance, the first parish in Windsor, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Marsh, was thus blest about the same time as we in Northampton, while we had no knowledge of each other's circumstances: there has been a very great ingathering of souls to Christ in that place, and something considerable of the same work began afterwards in East Windsor, my honoured father's parish, which has, in times past, been a place favoured with mercies of this nature, above any on this western side of

New England, excepting Northampton; there having been four or five seasons of the pouring out of the Spirit, to the general awakening of the people there, since my father's settlement amongst them.

The last spring and summer, there was also a wonderful work of God carried on at Coventry, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Meacham. I had opportunity to converse with some Coventry people, who gave me a very remarkable account of the surprising change that appeared in the most rude and The like was also vicious persons there. very great at the same time in a part of Lebanon, called the Crank, where the Rev. Mr. Wheelock, a young gentleman, is lately settled: and there has been much of the same at Durham, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Chauncey, and to appearance no small ingathering of souls there. And likewise amongst many of the young people in the first precinct in Stratford, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Gould, where the work was much promoted by the remarkable conversion of a young woman that had been a great company-keeper, as it was here.

Something of this work appeared in several other towns in those parts, as I was informed when I was there the last autumn. And we have since been acquainted with something very remarkable of this nature at another parish in Stratford called Ripton, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Mills. And there was a considerable revival of religion last summer at Newhaven old town, as I was informed by the Rev. Mr. Noyes the minister there, and by others. This flourishing of religion still continues, and has lately much increased. Mr. Noyes writes,

that many this summer have been added to the church, and particularly mentions several young persons that belong to the principal families of that

town.

There has been a degree of the same work at a part of Guildford; and very considerable at Mansfield, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Eleazar · Williams; and an unusual religious concern at Tolland; and something of it at Hebron and Bolton. There was also no small effusion of the Spirit of God in the north parish in Preston, in the eastern part of Connecticut, which I was informed of, and saw something of it, when I was the last autumn at the house, and in the congregation of the Rev. Mr. Lord; who, with the Rev. Mr. Owen of Groton, came up hither in May last year, on purpose to see the work of God here; and having heard various and contradictory accounts of it, were careful, when they were here, to inform and satisfy themselves: and to that end particularly conversed with many of our people, which they declared to be entirely to their satisfaction, and that the one half had not been told them, nor could be told them. Mr. Lord told me, that when he got home he informed his congregation of what he had seen, and that they were greatly affected with it; and that it proved the beginning of the same work amongst them, which prevailed till there was a general awakening, and many instances of persons who seemed to be remarkably converted. I also have lately heard that there has been something of the same work at Woodbury.

But this shower of divine blessing has been yet more extensive. There was no small degree of it in

some parts of the Jerseys, as I was informed when I was at New-York, by some people of the Jerseys whom I saw; especially the Rev. Mr. William Tennent, a minister, who seemed to have such things much at heart, told me of a very great awakening in a place called the Mountains, under the ministry of one Mr. Cross; and of a very considerable revival of religion in another place, under the ministry of his brother, the Rev. Mr. Gilbert Tennent; and also at another place, under the ministry of a very pious young gentleman, a Dutch minister, whose name as I remember was Freelinghousa.

nary way.

In

This seems to have been a very extraordinary dispensation of providence. God has in many respects gone out of, and much beyond, his usual and ordiThe work in this town, and some others about us, has been extraordinary on account of the universality of it, affecting all sorts, sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise; it reached the most considerable families and persons, to all appearance, as much as others. former stirrings of this nature, the bulk of the young people have been greatly affected; but old men and little children have been so now. Many of the last have, of their own accord, formed themselves into religious societies in different parts of the town. A loose careless person could scarcely find another in the whole neighbourhood; and if there was any one that seemed to remain senseless or unconcerned, it would be spoken of as a strange thing.

This dispensation has also appeared very extraordinary in the numbers of those on whom we have reason to hope it has had a saving effect. We have

about six hundred and twenty communicants, which include almost all our adult persons. The church was very large before; but persons never thronged into it as they did in the late extraordinary time. Our sacraments are eight weeks asunder, and I received into our communion about a hundred before one sacrament, and fourscore of them at one time, whose appearance, when they presented themselves together, to make an open explicit profession of Christianity, was very affecting to the congregation. I took in near sixty before the next sacrament day; and I had very sufficient evidence of the conversion of their souls, through divine grace, though it is not the custom here, as it is in many other churches in this country, to make a credible relation of their inward experiences the ground of admission to the Lord's supper.

I am far from pretending to be able to determine how many have lately been the subjects of such mercy; but if I may be allowed to declare any thing that appears to me probable, in a thing of this nature, I hope that more than three hundred souls were savingly brought home to Christ, in this town, in the space of half a year, (how many more I do not guess,) and about the same number of males as females; which, by what I have heard Mr. Stoddard say, was far from what has been usual in years past, for he observed that, in his time, many more women were converted than men. Those of our young people, that are on other accounts most likely and considerable, are mostly, as I hope, truly pious, and leading persons in the ways of religion. Those that were formerly looser young persons, are generally,