it, and never heard any thing material of it, besides what I find in Doctor Cotton Mather's history of his father's life. There was formerly, when Mr. Penn had newly begun to settle people here, an account published of the country, which I have often seen inserted in histories of America, as well as single, but I have none of them by me.

"The first European inhabitants here were low Dutch and Swedes, who got titles from the Duke of York, which were confirmed by the proprietor, Mr. Penn. There are in this province and the Jerseys, Swedish assemblies -Lutherans. The Ministers come from Sweden, and when they have been here eleven or twelve years they are sent for home, and others sent in their room, for they think it a kind of hardship to be here, and so they call them home and advance them. These Swedish Missionaries are usually men of good learning, and good behavior; they soon learn English, and often preach among church people in vacant places. I have been well acquainted with some of them, and wrote a certificate lately for one that was going home.

"I have not a loadstone in possession now, having lost a good one in removing our goods, to escape a dreadful fire that had like to have turned us out of doors, as it did my next neighbor, the winter before last; but I will endeavor to get one for you—they are found about twenty-two miles off. I was many years ago to search for them and cotton-stones (the amianthus or asbestos) for Mr. Belcher, now your Governor. I had not the opportunity of the conversation with Messrs. Belcher and Oliver which I desired, for which I am much troubled. When they came to my house I unhappily was out of the way; and when I went to look for them, they were pre-engaged, so that I did but just speak to them, which troubles me more than a little; and when I expected them, and waited on purpose, they did not come, being taken up with other company; for the gentry of the town showed them abundance of respect indeed, and, I hear, were exceedingly pleased with them.

"Thus sir, I think I have, in some measure, answered your requests, and shall be glad to understand my account of things has yielded you any satisfaction. If there be any thing that you would be further informed about, touching the state and affairs of this country, I shall readily gratify you as far as I can.

"This, with hearty respects, is all at present from your brother and servant,

"To the Rev. THOMAS PRINCE,

"JEDEDIAH ANDREWS.

"At Boston, New England."

The judicious and inquisitive reader who wishes information upon the subject, will readily excuse the length of this letter, and that it has been ' given in extenso; for it is justly considered as a precious relic of olden times, and calculated to throw as much light upon the state of society in the infancy of these colonies, and of the true condition and real character of the Mother Presbytery, as any other document now extant.

I shall now make a few comments upon those parts of the letter which relate to the state of American Presbyterianism in that day.

1. Let it be remembered that this letter of Mr. Andrews was written in the year 1730, that is, twenty-five years after the Mother Presbytery had been formed. When the Presbytery was formed the country was very new, and the population sparse and scattered over a great surface, but chiefly confined to the Jerseys, east and west, and to the banks of the Delaware river and bay, and the peninsula of Maryland and Virginia: that is, the population out of which the first congregations of Presbyterians were organized. The upper or inner counties of Pennsylvania were not then settled. We have already inquired respecting the kind of people who first formed those settlements they were Swedes, low Dutch, New Englanders, emigrants from England, and a mixture of French refugee Protestants. Their religious educations and preferences were Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopalian, and more lately Quakers. There were in those days few or none of the Irish or Scotch among those early settlers, except a few Scotch merchants and agents, or servants. Emigration from Ireland had not then commenced, or had gone to very little extent, and still less from Scotland. It was not until between 1720 and 1730, that emigrants came from these countries in any number, and they then settled chiefly in the upper or inland parts of Pennsylvania, and from thence more southwardly into Virginia and the Carolinas. We shall furnish authentic documents proving this still more conclusively hereafter. These emigrants were called Scotch Irish, as they are to this day, though they were natives of Ireland. Besides these, there were a number of Palatines, or Germans, who began about the same time to flock to America, who occupied very much the same tract of country with the Irish settlers; but these may be passed by, as they did not amalgamate with others. These were all, in the day in which Andrews's letter was written, called new-comers, because people of that class were but lately known in these regions. But the Mother Presbytery had then been in existence from fifteen to twenty-five years, and had acquired a stability and character of its own before these new-comers had arrived in the country. These are facts worth noticing, and can all be established by Mr. Andrews's letter, as well as from other sources. As soon as these new-comers arrived, and began to mingle in the Presbyterian church with

their peculiar and more rigid and restrictive sentiments, troubles arose which were unknown before, and which grew worse and worse until an open rupture ensued, which we shall hear more about in due time.

2. The actual state of the church in 1730 is learned from this letter with great precision: "Such a multitude of people coming in from Ireland of late years, [from Ireland, not Scotland,] our congregations are multiplied in this province [Pennsylvania, observe, the province, not the territories or lower counties] to the number of fifteen or sixteen, which are all but two or three supplied with Ministers." The Presbytery of Donegal was formed in that region in 1723; that is, they had in that region twelve or thirteen Ministers then settled-"all Scotch or Irish but three or four;" that is, eight or nine Scotch or Irish Ministers in all among these new-comers. In the Jerseys the state of things was different. There were some Congregational assemblies who had not fully Presbyterianized, whose inclination was strong toward Congregationalism, being originally of New England, "but they all submit to the Presbyteries well enough;" that is, to answer all substantial and peaceful purposes. In the Jerseys, "the Ministers are all Presbyterian, none pretending to call themselves Congregational, though mostly from New England." The plain common-sense meaning of this statement is this: In Pennsylvania Scotch and Irish Ministers were the most numerous, and the people were generally the Scotch Irish from Ireland. In the Jerseys the people were generally from New England, and many still had a strong predilection for the kind of government which there prevailed-the Ministers in that region were mostly from New England, but they had all agreed, whatever their preferences might be, to drop the name of Congregational, and be called Presbyterians; and that they could all submit and get along with their Presbyteries well enough, as matters had been managed up to that time. They had the year before adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith, in such a manner as satisfied them all very well, but in such a manner as Doctor Green, in his Christian Advocate, says, "left them nothing of Presbyterianism but the name.”* (More of this, however, by and by.) But, although they all called themselves Presbyterians, and got along well enough thus far, it was not long to be the case; the Grecian horse had been introduced among them, but it had not yet let out its mischievous inmates.

3. I shall now give Professor Hodge's version of this matter, for he ventures to allude to Mr. Andrews's letter too, and undertakes to draw a strong argument from it, to prove that all the Ministers who were settled in the Jerseys were bona fide strict consistent Presbyterians after the Scottish

*See Christian Advocate, vol. 2, pages 365, 366.

model. Hear him, page 69: "The influence of the New England Puritans was, as has been seen, nearly confined [he might have said altogether, with as much truth as is to be found in many of his statements] to Long Island and East Jersey. Of those who settled in Jersey a portion were, no doubt, inclined to Congregationalism-others of them were Presbyte rians. All the Ministers, according to Mr. Andrews, were of the latter class." That is, Presbyterians, without any qualification or limitation. And did not the people from New England also agree to drop the name of Congregationalists and be called Presbyterians as well as the Ministers? Why then make this distinction between the Ministers and people who were from New England, except to make the impression that the Ministers were such Presbyterians as Professor Hodge is pleading for, and then give Mr. Andrews as authority for so saying? Is this candid-is this honest? Why, then, does Doctor Green, Professor Hodge, and others, claim all the original members of the Mother Presbytery as Presbyterians after the rigid Scotch plan, except Mr. Andrews, who they say was a Congregationalist? Did not Andrews call himself a Presbyterian, and agree to drop the name of Congregationalist as well as the rest? If the rest were now good Presbyterians, according to Professor Hodge, why not Mr. Andrews too? Then let us admit they were all good Presbyterians, and I will agree to it likewise. But what sort of Presbyterians were they? I say good American Presbyterians-Professor Hodge says strict consistent Scotch Presbyterians. Now we are apart again as wide as ever.

But we can easily see what kind of Presbyterians these New England Ministers were, and Professor Hodge himself shall tell us in part. See page 43, note: "In 1714, they [the congregation of Woodbridge] invited Mr. John Pierson from Connecticut, who remained with them forty years."

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During Mr. Pierson's time, there was no Session in this church. He managed the affairs of this congregation without Elders." Yet this Mr. Pierson was a member of the Mother Presbytery from 1714 to 1754, and was one of those who called himself a Presbyterian, and one to whom Mr. Andrews alludes in his letter, and whom Professor Hodge quotes with so much triumph, while he knew all the facts at the same time. This same Mr. Andrews, who says in his letter, "we all call ourselves Presbyterians, none pretending to be called Congregational in this province," had no Session nor Elders, but used committee-men all his life; and this continued to be the case in that congregation for sixty years. Yet now, Professor Hodge claims all these New England Ministers as good Presbyterians, and gives Mr. Andrews as good authority. It is really painful for me to have to make such disclosures as these, and to have to make them so often.

Lastly-before I dismiss this letter. If a slight mixture of Congregationalism, such as is found in the Act of Union of 1801, which was de-, signed for new and yet forming congregations, was enough to cause our late reformers to cast all that region of country out of the church without any discrimination, would not the same men, for the same reason, have likewise cast out of the church the Mother Presbytery, and all who sprung from them, for holding such members in its bosom? Let us then have no more eulogies pronounced upon the venerable founders and fathers of our American churches.

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