Chapter VIII (part 6 of 6)

“Others, again, have had a more general view of the beauty and excellency of Christ, and have had their souls delighted with an apprehension of his divine glory, as unspeakably exceeding all they had ever conceived before; yet, without singling out any one of the divine perfections in particular; so that, although their comforts have seemed to arise from a variety of views and considerations of divine glories, still they were spiritual and supernatural views of them, and not groundless fancies, which were the spring of their joys and comforts.

“Yet it must be acknowledged that, when this work became so universal and prevalent, and gained such general credit and esteem among the Indians that Satan seemed to have little advantage of working against it in his own proper garb, he then transformed himself ‘into an angel of light,’ and made some vigorous attempts to introduce turbulent commotions of the passions in the room of genuine convictions of sin, imaginary and fanciful notions of Christ, as appearing to the mental eye in a human shape, and in some particular postures, &c. in the room of spiritual and supernatural discoveries of his divine glory and excellency, as well as many other delusions. I have reason to think, that, if these things had met with countenance and encouragement, there would have been a very considerable harvest of this kind of converts here.

“Spiritual pride also discovered itself in various instances. Some persons, whose feelings had been greatly excited, seemed very desirous from thence of being thought truly gracious; who, when I could not but express to them my fears respecting their spiritual state, discovered their resentments to a considerable degree. There also appeared in one or two of them, an unbecoming ambition of being teachers of others. So that Satan has been a busy adversary here as well as elsewhere. But, blessed be God, though something of this nature has appeared, yet nothing of it has prevailed, nor indeed made any considerable progress at all. My people are now apprised of these things, are made acquainted, that Satan in such a manner ‘transformed himself into an angel of light,’ in the first season of the great outpouring of the divine Spirit in the days of the apostles; and that something of this nature, in a greater or less degree, has attended almost every revival and remarkable propagation of true religion ever since. They have learned so to distinguish between the gold and dross, that the credit of the latter ‘is trodden down like the mire of the streets;’ and, as it is natural for this kind of stuff to die with its credit, there is now scarce any appearance of it among them.

“As there has been no prevalence of irregular heats, imaginary notions, spiritual pride, and satanical delusions among my people; so there have been very few instances of scandalous and irregular behavior among those who have made a profession, or even an appearance of seriousness. I do not know of more than three or four such persons who have been guilty of any open misconduct, since their first acquaintance with Christianity; and I know of no one who persists in any thing of that nature. Perhaps the remarkable purity of this work in the latter respect, its freedom from frequent instances of scandal, is very much owing to its purity in the former respect, its freedom from corrupt mixtures of spiritual pride, wild-fire, and delusion, which naturally lay a foundation for scandalous practices.

“May this blessed work, in the power and purity of it, prevail among the poor Indians here, as well as spread elsewhere, till their remotest tribes shall see the salvation of God! Amen.”