religious influence that is on the minds of people, be over and past,
1. What they are waiting for. Whether it isn't to have this wonderful religious influence that is on the minds of people, be over and past, and then to see how they behave themselves. That is, to have grace subside, and its actings cease in great measure, and to have people grow cold and dead, and then to see whether after that, they will behave themselves with that exactness and brightness of conversation that is to be expected of lively Christians, or of those who are in the vigorous exercises of grace. — There are many who won't be satisfied with any exactness or laboriousness in religion now, while people's minds are greatly moved, and their affections are high. For they lay it to their flash of affection and their heat of zeal, as they call it. They are waiting to see whether they will carry themselves as well, when these affections are over. That is, they are waiting to have people sicken and lose their strength, so that they may see whether they will then behave like healthy strong men. I would desire that they also consider whether they aren't waiting for more than is reasonably to be expected, supposing this is really a great work of God, and is much more than has been found in former great outpourings of the Spirit of God, which have been universally acknowledged in the Christian church? Do they expect fewer instances of apostasy, and evidences of hypocrisy in professors, and those who for the present seem to be under the influences of the Spirit, than there were after that great outpouring of the Spirit in the apostles' days, or in the time of the reformation? Do they stand prepared to make a mighty argument against this work, if there should be half so many?
2. How long they will wait to see the good fruit of this work, before they determine in favor of it. Isn't their waiting unlimited? The visible fruit that is to be expected from an outpouring of the Spirit of God on a country, is a visible reformation in that country. What reformation has lately been brought to pass in New England by this work, has been observed. Hasn't it continued long enough already, to give reasonable satisfaction? If God cannot work on the hearts of a people in such a way as to show His hand so plainly, and if we cannot reasonably expect it to be acknowledged in a year and a half or two