ground, that most of his conversions are spurious, and that he is doing, though per haps, not intentionally, essential injury to the cause of religion in general. They dread the re-action which will follow these wild commotions.

(4.) The whole drift of this sermon, goes directly to contradict an inportant point in the proceding one. In that, Mr. B. disclaimed all intensions of making people happy, in this life, by conversion. In this, every comparison leads to the opposite conclusion.

The sinner is represented by miserable sufferers in the porches around the pool, Bethesda. By entering the troubled water, they were cured in an instant, and resorted to health and happiness. Of course, the sinner, by being converted, would be made spiritually whole and happy. And so he was understood to mean, by his auditors.— Hence, his second sermon was a flat contradiction of the first. Nothing can be plainer. And yet, as he made pompous professions of being filled with the Holy Ghost, and as (he says,) "manner is matter," his self-contradictions, passed unobserved by the credulous, and he was revered as a messenger sent from heaven, to convert souls to God, by denouncing the judgments of eternal death and endless torments in hell. How consistent!

PART THIRD.

MR. Burchard's Discourses on Wednesday-Evening Sermon, in which he slew the Philistine-Reasons for his Success-Resolute attempt to interrupt business of all descriptions.

Mr. Burchard's exercises on Wednesday, P. M. were the least exceptionable of any which I heard. His text was Ephesians, iii. 21. "Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." A considerable part of the sermon was written, the style was good, and the preacher read it in a very acceptable manner. So far, there was little of his usual rant and dogmatism. It was a season of special mercy to the Bible, the cushion of the desk, and I may add, to the congregation. Rarely did the speaker smite those objects with his fist, as he was wont to do, or exclaim, "hark! look here,-boys, keep still there in the gallery;" "boys don't keep poking that fire so much;" "Mr. Mitchel, go and stop those boys from putting any more wood in the stove ;"-when, lo! it was a venerable deacon who was "troubling the fiery furnace."

Mr. B. preached a thorough-going Calvinistic sermon, in which the leading points of the Genevan Reformer were distinctly and fairly stated, and the instrumentality of the church, in carrying the eternal purposes of God into execution, was earnestly argued. This was as it should be. We mean to be candid, and approve every man for maintaining manfully, what he believes or professes to believe, to be the truth. But the preacher, having been so calm and consistent, for him to be, was less satisfied with his performance, we presume, than most of his hearers. Towards the close of his discourse, he became enraged, and "went off in a tangent." Looking into the gallery on the left, he screamed out, "Sinner," seizing the Bible in his left hand, and bringing it up violently against his side, and smiting it without mercy with his right hand fist,-"Sinner, Peter says, Acts third chapter, "your soul is in danger of eternal death! repent ye, and flee from everlasting damnation." And this is a fair specimen of Mr. B's quotations of scripture! What a monstrous, not to say wicked, perversion of the sacred text! Does a speaker ought to be indulged in such palpable mis-statements, without interruption? These truthless declarations are calculated to alarm and deceive the young, the timid and uninformed. There is not a shadow of evi

dence in the chapter to which the preacher referred, to sustain his assertion. Let the candid reader examine the chapter for himself.

The only passage to which Mr. B. could have alluded, is the following, (Acts iii. 19.) "Repent ye, therefore, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Now reader, compare this, or rather contrast it with the arrogant assertions of the wonderworking revivalist "Sinner, your soul is in danger of eternal death! repent ye and flee from everlasting damnation!"

Can the friends of Mr. B. blame me for regarding him as an impostor? What! will they undertake to convince me, that God has commissioned "a worm of the dust" to convert souls to the truth, by falsifying the plain declarations of his word? I would be glad to appeal to them personally and affectionately, upon this subject. Let them carefully read the words of St. Peter in their connection, and see if they can find a shadow of excuse for their leader's misquotation. The apostle says, "Repent, therefore," which must refer to what preceded. Well, what was it? that the sinner was in danger of eternal death?By no means. The words are,-"But those things which God had before showed by all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he

hath so fulfilled. Repent ye, therefore, &c. Are any so blind as to misunderstand this ? But it is added, "and be converted." Well, what was to be the fruit of their conversion? Were they to be saved from "everlasting damnation," as Mr. B. would have it? Not at all. Their sins were to be blotted out. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing [not revivals, as the preacher quotes it] shall come from the presence of the Lord." And what next? Why, it is added, "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you ;* whom the heavens must receive until the times of RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Can we conceive how the speaker could have done greater violence to the words of St. Peter, even had he intended to do his worst? And yet, strange to tell, we are required to believe, with this glaring evidence of a perversion of scripture, that the very perverter, Jedediah Burchard, was sent of God to Woodstock, to convert the people! But suppose he should succeed and make proselytes to his faith and practice? Would they not, by

*Peter preached Jesus Christ,-not "eternal death" and "everlasting damnation."