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 K SEP 29 1931 
 
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 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT BARNES. 
 
 President Davies' Sermons, in the editions which have been 
 heretofore published in this country, have been preceded by the 
 following discourses: (1.) A sermon entitled "The disinterested 
 and devoted Christian, preached at Nassau Hall, Princeton, May 
 28, 1761 ; occasioned by the death of the Rev. Samuel Davies, 
 A.M., late President of the College of New Jersey, by Samuel 
 Finley, D.D., President of the said college," on. Rom. xiv. 7, 8. 
 (2.) A brief "Appendix" annexed to the above sermon, contain- 
 ing some of the leading facts in the life of President Davies. (3.) 
 Two sermons entitled, " Divine Conduct Vindicated," preached at 
 Haberdashers' Hall, London, March 29, 1761, on the decease of 
 President Davies, by Thomas Gibbons, D.D. (4.) An essay on 
 the character of President Davies, by Rev. David Bostvvick, M.A., 
 of New York. 
 
 In issuing a new edition of these sermons from the press, it 
 has been thought best to omit these discourses ; to arrange the 
 facts in regard to the life of President Davies which they furnish ; 
 to add such other facts as could be obtained from other sources, 
 and to suggest some considerations which might illustrate the 
 nature of the ministry which is demanded in the present age. 
 Much of the matter found in the discourses prefixed to the former 
 editions has little relevancy to the questions which are asked 
 
 • • 
 
Xll LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 respecting President Da vies, and would be of little use to those 
 -who might desire to avail themselves of the aid which may be 
 derived from the study of his writings, in qualifying themselves 
 . for the work of the ministry. 
 
 In preparing this Introductory Essay, I have been materially 
 aided by the " Notes " on the life of President Davies in the Ap- 
 pendix to the Baccalaureate Discourses of the Rev. Dr. Green, 
 delivered in Nassau Hall, and also by several interesting commu- 
 nications addressed to me by the Rev. William Hill, D.D., of 
 "Winchester, Virginia. In the communications which Dr. Hill 
 had the kindness to make for this Introductory Essay — to 
 whom I desire in this manner to make most grateful acknowl- 
 edgments — he has presented views of the state of religion in 
 Virginia before the time of Mr. Davies' settlement, and of the 
 effects of his labors, of great interest. No man living has had bet- 
 ter opportunities of being familiar with the character and effect of 
 Mr. Davies' labors ; and I am thankful that I am permitted to be 
 the instrument in this manner of preserving so many valuable 
 reminiscences of his life. The communications of Dr. Hill are 
 preserved mainly in his own language. 
 
 The Reverend Samuel Davies was born on the third day of 
 November, A.D. 1724, in the county of Newcastle, then in the 
 province of Pennsylvania, but now in the state of Delaware. He 
 is supposed to have been of Welsh descent, both by his father's 
 and mother's side. His father was a farmer, who lived with 
 great plainness and simplicity, and who supported the character 
 of an honest and pious man.* He died, says Dr. Hill, when 
 Samuel was young. His mother survived him but a short time. 
 She was a woman of eminent piety, and of very superior natural 
 powers of mind ; and the distinguished piety and usefulness of 
 her son, is one among the many instances which have occurred 
 where the prayers and example of a pious mother have been sig- 
 nally blessed. 
 
 He was an only son. By maternal feelings and vows he had 
 been devoted to God ; and the name Samuel was given to him 
 by his mother, as an expression of the same feelings which had 
 
 * " He was a man of small property, of intellectual endowments rather 
 below than above the common level, of unpolished manners, but of a blame- 
 less life.*'— Dh. Gbekn 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. Xlll 
 
 • 
 
 led to the bestowment of the name on the distinguished prophet. 
 1 Sam. i. 11. He remained with his parents until he was about 
 ten years of age, and was taught by his mother, there being no 
 school in the vicinity. His progress in these early years is spoken 
 of as such as to attract attention, and as indicating uncommon prom- 
 ise. During this period of his life, it is not known that he had 
 any impressions of special seriousness. He is described as a boy 
 of uncommon sprightliness ; as demeaning himself with propri- 
 ety, and as making rapid progress in his studies. 
 
 At about ten years of age, he was sent to an English school at 
 some distance from his father's, where he continued two years, 
 and made great progress in learning. Away from his father's 
 home, however, and lacking the counsel and example of his 
 pious parents, his mind became more careless on the subject of 
 religion. Yet he was then in the habit of secret prayer, particu- 
 larly in the evening. The reason why he did this, as he stated 
 in his diary, was that " he feared lest he should perhaps die be- 
 fore morning." It is remarkable, also, in his prayers at that 
 time, that " he was more ardent in his supplications for being in- 
 troduced into the gospel ministry, than for any other thing." 
 
 The first twelve years of his life, however, he afterwards re- 
 garded as having been wasted in the most entire negligence of 
 God and religion. At about this period of his life, it is probable, 
 he was brought to see his need of a Savior, and to devote him- 
 self to the service of that God to whom he had been consecrated 
 by the vows and prayers of his mother. Of the exercises of his 
 mind at that time, little is now known. The influence of his moth- 
 er's example and prayers, and of the fact that he had been 
 early devoted by her to God, is known to have produced a deep 
 impression on his own mind. In a letter addressed by him many 
 years after to a friend in London, he says, " That he was blessed 
 with a mother whom he might account, without filial vanity or 
 partiality, one of the most eminent saints he ever knew upon 
 earth. And here," says he, '*I cannot but mention to my friend 
 an anecdote known but to few, that is, that I am a son of prayer, 
 like my namesake Samuel, the prophet ; and my mother called 
 me Samuel because, she said, ' I have asked him of the Lord.' 
 This early dedication to God has always been a strong induce- 
 ment to me to devote myself to him as a personal act ; and the 
 
XIV LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 most important blessings of my life I have looked upon as im- 
 mediate answers to the prayers of a pious mother." 
 
 What was the immediate means by which his mind was 
 awakened and which led to his conversion, and what were the 
 mental exercises through which he then passed, are now un- 
 known. ISo record that I have been able to find, has furnished 
 any light on a question of so much interest. Dr. Green remarks 
 of him that " he was so deeply impressed with a rational sense 
 of his danger as to make him habitually uneasy and restless, till 
 he obtained satisfactory evidence of his interest in the forgiving 
 love of God. Yet he was afterwards exercised with perplexing 
 doubts for a long season ; but at length, after years of impartial, 
 repeated self-examination, he attained to a settled confidence in 
 redeeming grace, which he retained to the end of life." At what 
 time he connected himself with the church is now unknown. It 
 is supposed to have been when he was about fifteen years of age. 
 His conversion was soon succeeded by a purpose to devote him- 
 self to the service of God in the ministry. 
 
 He was favored with a liberal education at a Collegiate In- 
 stitution, but his preparation for the ministry was made in a 
 more private manner. A considerable part of his classical and 
 theological education was acquired under the care of Rev. Samuel 
 Blair, at Fog's Memo?', in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Mr. 
 Blair was an eminent preacher as well as scholar, and several 
 distinguished men in the Church, besides President Davies, re- 
 ceived their education under his instruction. His academy was 
 designed mainly to train young men for the ministry, and the 
 course of instruction embraced both the classical and theological 
 departments. Mr. Davies was then probably somewhat less than 
 fifteen years of age. It is supposed that his poverty prevented his 
 remaining there for a longer period. It is an interesting fact that 
 while there, he was supported, in part, as will be mentioned in 
 another place, by funds contributed by the very people of Vir- 
 ginia, among whom he was afterwards settled, but to whom he 
 was at that time wholly unknown. Dr. Finley remarks of him, 
 " His love to God, and tender concern for perishing sinners, excit- 
 ed his eager desire of being in. a situation to serve mankind to 
 the best advantage. With this view he engaged in the pursuit 
 of learning, in which, amidst many obvious inconveniences, he 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XV 
 
 made surprising progress, and, sooner than could have been ex- 
 pected, was found completely qualified for the ministerial office. 
 He passed the usual previous trials with uncommon approbation; 
 having exceeded the raised expectations of his most intimate 
 friends and admirers." He was licensed to preach by the Pres- 
 bytery of New Castle. His views and feelings, when he was li- 
 censed to preach the gospel, may be learned from a fact stated by 
 Dr. Gibbons : " When he was about entering the ministry," says 
 he, "or had not long entered upon it, if I remember right, he was 
 judged to be in a deep and irrecoverable consumption. Finding 
 himself upon the borders of the grave, and without any hopes of 
 recovery, he determined to spend the little remains of an almost 
 exhausted life, as he apprehended it, in endeavoring to advance 
 his Master's glory in the good of souls. Accordingly he removed 
 from the place where he was, to another about an hundred miles 
 distant that was then in want of a minister. Here he labored in 
 season and out of season ; and, as he told me, preached in the 
 day, and had his hectic fever by night, and to such a degree as 
 to be sometimes delirious, and to stand in need of persons to sit 
 up with him." 
 
 I will here insert an account of the early labors of Mr. Davies 
 in the words of Dr. Hill : 
 
 "From the commencement of Mr. Davies 1 labors, after his licen- 
 sure, to Ms settlement in Virginia, from 1745 to 1748. 
 
 " Mr. Davies was licensed to preach the gospel in 1745, when 
 he was just twenty-one years of age. From the intense applica- 
 tion he paid to his studies, his constitution, naturally vigorous, 
 became much impaired, so that when he was licensed, he thought 
 himself and was thought by others, to be laboring under a pul- 
 monary affection which would, in all likelihood, cut short his 
 days. After licensure, Mr. Davies visited many vacancies, some 
 in Pennsylvania, some in Jersey, but chiefly in Maryland. These 
 ministerial visits took place just before and after his first visit to 
 Virginia. The account he gives of them is this. (See Mr. Davies' 
 letter to Bellamy, 1751.) 
 
 ' In Maryland also, there has been a considerable revival, or 
 shall I not rather call it a first plantation of religion in Baltimore 
 County, where, I am informed, Mr. Whittlesey is likely to settle. 
 In Kent County and Queen Anne's, a number of careless sinners 
 
XVI LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 have been awakened and hopefully brought to Christ. The 
 work was begun and chiefly carried on by the instrumentality of 
 that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I re- 
 flect upon it, astonishes me. Oh ! he did much in a little time ; 
 and who would not choose such an expeditious pilgrimage 
 through this world ? There is in these places a considerable con- 
 gregation, and they have made repeated essays to obtain a settled 
 minister. There was a great stir about religion in Buckingham, 
 a place on the sea shore, about four years ago, (i. e. in the year 
 1747, the time Mr. D. visited them,) which has since spread and 
 issued in a hopeful conversion in many instances. They want a 
 minister. — But the most glorious displays of divine grace in Ma- 
 ryland have been in and about Somerset County. It began, I think, 
 in 1745, by the ministry of Mr. Robinson, and was afterwards 
 carried on by several ministers that preached transiently there. 
 I was there about two months, [i. e. in 1746 or 1747,] when the 
 work was at its height, and I never saw such a deep and spread- 
 ing concern : the assemblies were numerous, though in the ex- 
 tremity of a cold winter, and unwearied in attending the word 
 preached ; — and frequently there were very few among them that 
 did not give some plain indications of distress or joy. Oh ! these 
 were the happiest days that ever my eyes saw.' Again, says he, 
 'after I returned from A T irginia, [i. e. in 1747,] I spent near a 
 year under melancholy and consumptive languishment, expecting 
 death. In the spring, 1748, I began slowly to recover, though I 
 then looked upon it only as an intermission of a disorder that 
 would finally prove mortal. But upon the arrival of a messenger 
 from Hanover, I put my life in my hand, and determined to ac- 
 cept their call, hoping I might live to prepare the way for some 
 more useful successor, and willing to expire under the fatigues of 
 duty, rather than involuntary negligence.' 
 
 " Thus was Mr. Davies employed, notwithstanding the very del- 
 icate and precarious state of his health, from the latter end of the 
 year 1745, when he was licensed, till the spring of 1748, when he 
 located himself permanently in Virginia. He was invited to set- 
 tle in several other places, which ottered advantages far superior 
 to the one lie selected, on many accounts. Hear him tell his 
 own story to the Bishop of London upon this subject. ' And I sol- 
 emnly assure your Lordship that it was not the secret thirst of 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XVII 
 
 filthy lucre, nor the prospect of any other personal advantage that 
 induced me to settle here in Virginia. For, sundry congregations 
 in Pennsylvania, my native country, and in other northern colo- 
 nies, most earnestly importuned me to settle among them ; where 
 I should have had at least an equal temporal maintenance, in- 
 comparably more ease, leisure and peace, and the happiness of 
 the frequent society of my Brethren ; and where I should never 
 have made a great noise or bustle in the world, but concealed 
 myself in the crowd of my superior brethren, and spent my life 
 in some little service for God and his church, in some peaceful 
 corner, which would have been most becoming so insignificant a 
 creature, and more agreeable to my recluse natural temper. But 
 all these strong inducements were over-weighed by a sense of the 
 more urgent necessity of the Dissenters here ; as they lay two or 
 three hundred miles distant from the nearest ministers of their 
 own denomination, and labored under peculiar embarrassments 
 for the want of a settled minister.' " 
 
 At this stage of the notices of the life of Mr. Davies, when he 
 was about to be settled in Virginia where he exerted so import- 
 ant an influence in the cause of religion, it may be interesting to 
 present a statement of the condition of this colony before he be- 
 gan his labors there. It will be given in the words of Dr. Hill : 
 
 " A hasty sketch of the state of religion in Virginia shortly be- 
 fore and at the time of Mr. Samuel Davies'' settling in that state. 
 
 " At the time of the death of the Rev. Francis Makemie, which 
 took place in Accomack county, in the year 1708, there were two 
 organized churches in that county, which he had lately collected 
 as Christain societies. One was on a small creek about five 
 miles from Drummondton, the present seat of government for the 
 county, where Mr. Makemie resided upon a valuable estate 
 which he there owned, and where he had a small meeting-house 
 built and licensed as a place of preaching according to the provi- 
 sions of the Act of Toleration. The other congregation was on 
 and near the mouth of the river Tocomoke, which here consti- 
 tutes in part the dividing line between Virginia and Maryland. 
 Here also Mr. Makemie owned a large tract of land, extending 
 on both sides of the river, and a large dwelling house, which was 
 now vacant, and which he also got licensed as a place of preaching. 
 
XV1U LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 "The members composing this congregation were scattered 
 on both sides of this river. The house first licensed, was on the 
 Virginia side. But a little before his death, by his exertions, a 
 new house of worship was built upon his land, on the Maryland 
 side, at a place now called Rehoboth, which has continued as a 
 place of worship ever since. 
 
 k> Among other reasons which led to this change of location in 
 their place of worship, no doubt, was a design of getting beyond 
 the reach of Episcopal persecution which universally prevailed in 
 Virginia, and the security of religious freedom which, by charter, 
 was guaranteed to all sects in Maryland. 
 
 " There was, at the same time, a small Presbyterian congrega- 
 tion on the Elizabeth River, near where Norfolk now stands, 
 over which the Rev. Mr. Mackey, from Ireland, presided as their 
 minister. But soon after Makemie's death, he was forced to fly 
 from intolerant persecution, and we hear no more of him or his 
 congregation afterwards. 
 
 "After the two small congregations of Accomack lost the la- 
 bors and protection of Makemie, they were soon extinguished, 
 and were no more heard of. "When, therefore, Mr. Davies arriv- 
 ed in Virginia, 1748, just forty years after, there was not a sin- 
 gle organized Presbyterian church anywhere to be found in the 
 old settled parts of Virginia. 
 
 " About the year 1730, a large number of Scotch-Irish emigrants 
 from Ireland came over into America. This current of immigra- 
 tion became stronger and stronger for many years, and formed a 
 frontier settlement in Pennsylvania, Mrginia, North and South 
 Carolina. All these had received a Presbyterian education in 
 Ireland. 
 
 " These Presbyterian Irish settlers formed a barrier settlement 
 between the older settlers from England and the Indians of the 
 west. 
 
 " The intolerant Episcopalians of Virginia were willing for a 
 while to admit these settlements for their own security from In- 
 dian excursions among them, and leave them unmolested in their 
 Presbyterian modes and predilections. Among these western 
 settlements, Presbyterian congregations were formed as early, and 
 in some instances prior to the church which Davies organized in 
 Hanover. A few of these Scotch and Irish settlements were 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XIX 
 
 supplied with ministers from the 'old side ' synod of Philadelphia 
 and their presbytery of Donegal. Congregations were formed 
 in Augusta west of the mountains, and two members of the Done- 
 gal presbytery were settled there soon after the great schism of 
 1741, and another congregation was organized east of the Blue 
 ridge, near Rockfish Gap, and another member of Donegal Pres- 
 bytery located there, before or about the time Mr. Davies settled 
 in Hanover. Incipient steps were taken also to form congrega- 
 tions in Frederick county, and a few other places, about the same 
 time, by the ' new light ' synod of New York. 
 
 "There was very little intercourse between these western 
 Scotch-Irish and the lower counties of Virginia when Mr. Da- 
 vies first came to that colony ; — their interests, localities, and 
 social intercourse were entirely of a different character. But 
 there was one exception to the last general remark. As the old 
 settlements south of James river did not extend further west of 
 Richmond than about 60 or 70 miles, a portion of those foreign 
 emigrants crossed the mountains at Rockfish. Gap, and formed a 
 compact settlement there ; while others of them went further 
 south, crossed James river, and formed settlements in what are 
 now called Charlotte and Prince Edward counties. It was to 
 visit these settlements, that the Rev. William Robinson was sent 
 out in the year 1743, by the 'new light' Presbytery of New 
 Brunswick. He preached to the settlements in Frederick, crossed 
 over at Rockfish Gap, and preached to the settlements in Char- 
 lotte and Prince Edward counties. From these settlements Mr. 
 Robinson continued his journey south into the western and Irish 
 settlements in North Carolina, and was there overtaken by the 
 commissioners which had been despatched from Hanover to in- 
 duce him to pay them a visit on his return. This he promised 
 to do, and authorized them to have an appointment made for 
 him on a given Sabbath some weeks afterwards. 
 
 " On the Saturday before the Sabbath which Mr. Robinson 
 had appointed to preach in Hanover, he had to ride late at night 
 to reach a tavern, within about 8 or 10 miles of the place. The 
 tavern-keeper was a shrewd, boisterous, profane man ; and when 
 uttering some horrid oaths, Mr. Robinson ventured to reprove 
 him for his profanity ; and although it was done in a mild way, 
 the innkeeper gave him a sarcastic look, and said. ' Pray, sir, 
 
XX LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 who are you, to take such authority upon yourself?' 'I am a 
 minister of the gospel, 1 says Mr. Robinson. 'Then you belie 
 your looks very much,' was the reply. It is said that Mr. Rob- 
 inson had had the small pox very severely, which had given 
 him a very rough visage, and had deprived him of the sight of 
 one of his eyes. It was with reference to his forbidding appear- 
 ance that the innkeeper seemed to question his ministerial char- 
 acter. 'But,' says Mr. Robinson, 'if you wish certainly to 
 know whether I am a minister or not, if you will accompany me 
 to such a place, you may be convinced by hearing me preach. 1 
 1 1 will,' says the inkeeper, ' if you will preach from a text 
 which I shall give you.' ' Let me hear it,' says Mr. Robinson, 
 ' and if there is nothing unsuitable in it, I will.' The waggish, 
 tavern-keeper, with the wish of turning him into ridicule, as- 
 signed him the text, Psalm cxxxix. 14. ' For I am fearfully and 
 wonderfully made.' Mr. Robinson promised, if he would ac- 
 company him, he would preach, among his first sermons, one 
 .from that text. He did so, it is said ; and before the sermon 
 ended, this wicked man was made to see that he was the mon- 
 ster, and that he was indeed fearfully and wonderfully made him- 
 self; and it is said that he became a very pious and useful mem- 
 ber of the church. It is thought that President Davies has a ref- 
 erence to his case, among others, in his letter to the Bishop of 
 London, when he says, ' I have been the joyful witness of the 
 happy effeets of those four sermons upon sundry thoughtless im- 
 penitents and sundry abandoned profligates, who have ever since 
 given good evidence of a thorough conversion from sin unto holi- 
 ness.' 
 
 u Seldom did the preaching of the gospel produce such imme- 
 diate and happy effects as the four sermons which he was allow- 
 ed to preach at Morris' Reading House. Let this scene be de- 
 scribed by one who was competent to do justice to it. ' On the 
 sixth of July, Mr. Robinson preached his first sermon, and con- 
 tinued with us preaching four days successively. The congrega- 
 tion was large the first day, and vastly increased the three fol- 
 lowing. It is hard for the liveliest imagination to form an idea 
 of the condition of the assembly on those glorious days of the 
 Son of Man. Such of us as had been hungering for the word be- 
 fore, were lost in an agreeable surprise and astonishment, and 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXI 
 
 some could not refrain from publicly declaring their transports. 
 We were overwhelmed with the thoughts of the unexpected 
 goodness of God in allowing us to hear the gospel preached as 
 we never had before, and in a manner which far surpassed our 
 hopes. Many that came through curiosity were pricked to the 
 heart, and but few in the numerous assemblies on these four days 
 appeared unaffected. They returned alarmed with apprehen- 
 sions of their dangerous condition, convinced of their former en- 
 tire ignorance of religion, and anxiously inquiring what they 
 should do to be saved. And there is reason to believe, there was 
 as much good, done by these four sermons, as by all the sermons 
 preached in these parts since or before.' Supplies were regularly 
 sent to them until Mr Davies visited them, four years afterwards. 
 It can readily be seen that Mr. Robinson visited them under very 
 favorable circumstances. They had the advantage of giving 
 timely notice of his coming; — they had never heard preaching 
 that was worth the name before ; — their minds had for some 
 time been deeply impressed with the necessity and importance 
 of religion ; — it was not a mere transient visit, but a protracted 
 meeting of four days and nights' continuance, without intermis- 
 sion ; — and it is probable there were few ministers who knew 
 how to handle the word of God more dexterously, and to give to 
 each one his portion in due season. There were daily additions to 
 this little flock of hopeful converts. So mightily grew the word 
 of God and prevailed among them. 
 
 " We have no right to inquire now what might have been the 
 consequences if Mr. Robinson had been permitted to have pro- 
 longed his visit, and extended his labors through the regions 
 round about, w r hich were so white and ripe for the harvest. But 
 he had to make a precipitate retreat, and commence his flight 
 from the sheriffs, who were ordered out for his apprehension, by 
 persecuting Episcopalians. 
 
 "As Mr. Robinson had to leave them so hastily and unexpect- 
 edly, his many warm friends had no opportunity to contribute 
 anything as a compensation, or even to defray his expenses. A 
 collection was raised the next day, and sent by some trusty 
 friends to overtake him, and put it in his possession. They did 
 overtake him, but he peremptorily refused to receive a penny of 
 it ; saying, he knew what his enemies would say if he should re- 
 
XXI 1 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 reive any part of it, and lie was determined he would give them 
 no occasion to speak evil of either himself or his master's cause, 
 which he advocated. He at last said, there was one condition 
 upon which he would receive the money. He knew a very pious 
 and promising young man, who was in very iudigent circum- 
 stances, and had been for some years prosecuting his studies for 
 the ministry ; he would with their leave expend it upon him, 
 with the promise that if he should enter the ministry, he should 
 come and preach to them. To this they consented. Samuel 
 Davies, then studying under the care of the Rev. Samuel Blair, 
 at Fogg's Manor, Pennsylvania, was this youth ; and by his com- 
 ing and laboring among them, the pledge was redeemed. 
 
 " The Episcopal Church of England had been established by 
 law in Virginia, from its first settlement; — the ministers, gener- 
 ally speaking, were men sent from Great Britain to seek their 
 fortunes, or to recover broken ones in America. Although nom- 
 inally belonging to the see of the Bishop of London, yet, in fact, 
 they were subject to no supervision, amenable for misconduct to 
 no human authority ; and it is not wonderful that the most of 
 them were addicted to horse-racing, cock-fighting, card-playing, 
 and drinking, and, in fact, were the mere parasites of the rich and 
 the great. This being generally their character, with here and 
 there rare exceptions, religion was and had long been at a very 
 low ebb. The common people had lost all confidence in their 
 clergy, and were generally ready to hear any pious minister 
 gladly, and would have easily been led off to another church, had 
 they not been restrained by high-handed civil authority. There 
 perhaps could no other people be found where the great mass of 
 the community were more open to conviction and accessible by 
 the gospel, whenever and wherever it was faithfully preached. 
 Thus impressible did Mr. Davies find Virginia when he settled in 
 Hanover. He was the solitary Presbyterian minister of the " new 
 light " order then settled in the colony. The three u old side" 
 ministers who were settled, one in Albemarle, and two in Augusta, 
 were mere drones, and did the cause more injury than benefit, 
 two of whom fell under the heavy censures of the church before 
 their death." 
 
• •• 
 
 OF THE AUTHOR. XX111 
 
 " The labors Mr. Doxies had to undergo, and the difficulties and 
 opposition with which he had to contend, when he first under- 
 took his charge in Virginia. 
 
 "It should be recollected that when Mr. Davics first settled in 
 Virginia, there was not another minister in the same ecclesiasti- 
 cal connection with himself in the whole bounds of Virginia, or 
 within less than between two and three hundred miles of him. 
 
 "It is true there were three other Presbyterian ministers who 
 settled in the colony about the same time, and some one or more 
 of them might have preceded him. These were the Rev. Samuel 
 Black, in Albemarle county, near Rock-fish Gap, of the Blue 
 Ridge ; the Rev. John Craig, and Alexander Miller, in what was 
 then Augusta county, in the Valley of Virginia, west of the Blue 
 Ridge. But these were old side Presbyterians, and belonged to 
 the old side Presbytery of Donegal and the Synod of Philadelphia, 
 and were so far from rendering him any assistance, that they 
 were among his inveterate enemies and bitterest revilers, as au- 
 thentic records and testimony of another character can abun- 
 dantly establish if necessary. There is no better way of making 
 known the task he had undertaken, and the labor he actually 
 did undergo, than to take it from Mr. Davies' own pen, in his let- 
 ter addressed to the Bishop of London, dated May 21st, 1752, 
 which was four years after his settlement in Virginia. 
 
 " ' The frontier counties of this colonv ' he says, ' about one 
 hundred miles west and south-west from Hanover, have been 
 lately settled by people that chiefly came from Ireland originally, 
 but immediately from the northern colonies, who were educated 
 Presbyterians, and had been, during their residence there, under 
 the care of ministers belonging to the Synod of New York, of 
 which I am a member. Their settling in Virginia has been 
 many ways beneficial to it, which I am sure, however, most of 
 them would not have done, had they expected any restraints on 
 the inoffensive exercise of their religion, according to their con- 
 sciences. x\fter their removal, they continued to petition the Sy- 
 nod of New York, and particularly the Presbytery of New Castle, 
 which was nearest to them, for ministers to be sent to them. But 
 as the ministers of the said Synod and of the country were few, 
 and vastly disproportioned to the many congregations under their 
 care, they could not provide these vacancies with settled pastors. 
 
XXIV LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 And what could they do in this case ? The only expedient in their 
 power was to appoint some of their members to travel alternate- 
 ly into these destitute congregations, and officiate among them 
 as long as would comport Avith their circumstances.' ' The 
 same method was taken, and for the same reason, to supply the 
 dissenters in and about Hanover, before my settlement among 
 them, and this raised the clamor still higher. 
 
 " l There are now in the frontier counties at least five congre- 
 gations of Presbyterians, who, though they have long used the 
 most vigorous endeavors to obtain settled ministers among them, 
 have not succeeded yet, by reason of the scarcity of ministers, 
 and the number of vacancies in other parts, particularly in Penn- 
 sylvania and the Jerseys ; and we have no way to answer their 
 importunate petitions, but by sending a minister now and then 
 to them to officiate transiently among them. And as the people 
 under my charge are so numerous, and so dispersed, that I can- 
 not allow them at each meeting-house such a share of my minis- 
 trations as is correspondent to their necessity, the said Synod has 
 twice or thrice in the space of three years, sent a minister to 
 assist me for a few Sabbaths. These are the only itinerations 
 that we have been charged with, in this colony ; and whether we 
 should not rather run the risk of this causeless charge, than suffer 
 these vacancies, who eagerly look to us for the bread of life, to 
 perish through a famine of the word of the Lord, who can enter- 
 tain a doubt ? 
 
 " ' But as I am particularly accused of intrusive schismatical 
 itinerations, I am more particularly concerned to vindicate my- 
 self. It will be necessary therefore to inform your lordship, [ad- 
 dressed to the Bishop of London,] of the circumstances of the dis- 
 senters in and about Hanover, who are under my ministerial care. 
 
 " The dissenters here and hereabout are only sufficiently nu- 
 merous to form two distinct organized congregations, or particu- 
 lar churches ; and did they live contiguous, two meeting-houses 
 would be sufficient for them, and neither they nor myself w T ould 
 desire more. But they are so dispersed, that they cannot con- 
 vene for public worship, unless they have a considerable number 
 of places licensed ; — and yet they are so few, that they cannot 
 form a particular organized church at each place. There are 
 meeting-houses licensed in five different counties in this part of 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXV 
 
 the state, but the extremes of my charge lie 80 or 90 miles 
 apart; and the dissenters under my care are scattered through 
 six or seven different counties. The greatest number of them, I 
 suppose about 100 families at least, is in Hanover, where there 
 are three meeting-houses licensed. About 20 or 30 families are 
 in Henrico ; about 10 or 12 in Caroline ; about 15 or 20 in Gooch- 
 land ; and about the same number in Louisa ; in each of the four 
 last-mentioned counties there is at this time but one meeting- 
 house licensed. Besides these, there are about 15 or 20 families 
 in Cumberland county, [between 80 or 90 miles from Mr. Davies 
 residence in Hanover,] where there is no place of worship licensed 
 for our use, and about the same number in and about New Kent, 
 where a license was granted by the court of that county, but 
 afterwards recalled by the General Court. [The doctrine ad- 
 vanced by the General Court was, that the act of toleration, if it 
 extended at all to the colonies, did not admit of licensing any 
 place of worship for a dissenting minister, except one in the 
 countv where he resided, and where the dissentinsr member 
 regularly and uniformly attended. This was done ro prevent 
 itinerant preachers, as they were called, from going from county 
 to county, and making proselytes from the established church of 
 England.] 
 
 M ' The counties,' says Mr. Davies in continuance, ; are large, 
 generally 40 or 50 miles in length, and about 20 or 30 in breadth ; 
 so that, though members may live in one county, it would be 
 impossible for them all to convene at one place, and much more 
 so when they are dispersed through so many counties. Though 
 there are now seven places of worship licensed, yet the nearest 
 to each other are 12 or 15 miles apart; and many have to travel 
 from 10, 15, or 20 miles to the nearest, and from 40 to 60 miles 
 to the other places licensed ; nay, some of them have from 30 to 
 40 miles to the nearest place of worship. And such is the scarc- 
 ity of ministers in the Synod of New York, and so great the num- 
 ber of congregations under their care, that though a part of my 
 congregation with my hearty concurrence, used repeated endeav- 
 ors to obtain another minister to relieve me of a charge of them, 
 they have not been able to succeed as yet. So that all the dis- 
 senters here depend entirely upon me to officiate among them, 
 as there is no other minister of their own denomination within 
 
XXVI LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 200 miles or more, except where .one of my brethren from the 
 north is appointed to pay them a transient visit for two or three 
 Sabbaths once in a year or two ; and as was observed, they can- 
 not attend on my ministry at more than one or two places, on 
 account of the distance, nor constitute a complete particular 
 church at each place of meeting on account of the smallness of 
 their numbers.' 
 
 " These extracts from Mr. Davies 1 letter to the Bishop of Lon- 
 don, may give us a glance of the work he had to perform, and of 
 the opposition against which lie had to contend. It was his 
 practice to preach more frequently at one of the meeting-houses 
 in Hanover than at any of the rest of the places. This meeting- 
 house was built near Mr. Morris's reading-house, where Presby- 
 terianisin originated, and where they were much more numerous 
 than anywhere else, and near to which Mr. Davies had fixed his 
 residence witli his family. But it was his regular custom to 
 preach one Sabbath at least in three or four months, at each of 
 the other places licensed ; for as yet he did not venture to preach 
 in any other place that was not licensed by law. Beside preach- 
 ing on the Sabbath, he ventured to preach frequently at his dif- 
 ferent chapels of ease, on weak days, which proved highly bene- 
 ficial, though it was the ground of heavy charges and strenuous 
 opposition from Episcopal clergymen. The reason for which 
 was, that many Episcopalians, who dare not absent themselves 
 from their own parish church to hear Mr. Davies on the Sabbath, 
 felt no scruple to hear him on a week day — some out of curios- 
 ity to hear a man whose fame was now much noised abroad 
 through the country, and many were desirous of hearing him 
 from a much better motive, it is believed. But it is generally be- 
 lieved that more persons were brought under serious impressions 
 by his week day sermons than those of the Sabbath ; and it was 
 chiefly by these meetings that so many were induced to forsake 
 the worship of the established church, which they had found to 
 be so unprofitable in times past, and resort to ordinances which 
 they found more beneficial ; and thus they not only became true 
 Christians, but rapidly increased the number of Presbyterians. 
 This excited the ire, and quickened the opposition of the Episco- 
 palians. 
 
 "While Mr. Davies was thus left to labor without any co-ope- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXV11 
 
 ration from his brethren, except on occasional visits sent by the 
 Synod of New York to aid him two or three Sabbaths, with such 
 intervals as made them few and far between, he was continually 
 extending his labors, and occupying new territory. 
 
 "The more he became known, the greater was the crowd that 
 followed after him ; until the pressing invitations which he re- 
 ceived from various quarters, became almost overwhelming to 
 his sensitive mind. 
 
 " When he first came to Virginia, a youthful stranger, the 
 clergy of the establishment affected to treat him with sovereign 
 contempt ; several scurrilous lampoons were written against him, 
 and the sarcastic songs which were put into the mouths of drunk- 
 ards to turn him into ridicule, are remembered by some old 
 people to the present day. It was soon seen that such light 
 weapons as these rather brought him into notice than did him 
 any injury. 
 
 " He was now frequently called before the General Court, and 
 the Governor and Council, who seriouslv threatened to recall the 
 licenses which he had heretofore obtained, and to deny him any 
 of the privileges secured to dissenters by the act of toleration ; 
 and not only threatened to banish him the colony, but did actu- 
 ally cause some that were sent to his aid, to depart from the ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 "He had made himself so great a master of the laws of Eng- 
 land, and of his civil and religious rights and privileges, that he 
 was never in the least daunted in answering all their indictments, 
 nor in facing their most able councillors. He always chose to 
 plead his own cause, and acquitted himself in such a manner as 
 made him many friends and admirers, and even his enemies to 
 say, ' What a lawyer was spoiled ichen Davies took the pulpit /' 
 
 " The home of Mr. Davies was about twelve miles from Rich- 
 mond ; but his occasional labors, as is seen by the above account, 
 were extended through a considerable part of the colony ; and he 
 acquired, probably, a greater influence than any other preacher 
 in Virginia ever possessed. The limits of the Presbytery of Han- 
 over originally comprehended the whole of Virginia, and a con- 
 siderable part, if not the whole of North Carolina. Through 
 this - extensive region there were scattered numerous settlements 
 of Protestants. Of this whole interest which ' dissented ' from 
 
XXV111 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 the then established church of Virginia, Mr. Davies was the ani- 
 mating soul. His popularity in Virginia was almost unbounded ; 
 so that he was invited and urged to preach in every part of the 
 colony. The Presbytery to which he belonged, willing to gratify 
 the people as far as in their power, directed him to supply vacan- 
 cies, with a frequency which came at last to be offensive to the 
 people of his own immediate charge. They warmly remonstrat- 
 ed to the Presbytery against being deprived so much of their pas- 
 tor's time and labors. To Mr. Davies, however, no blame was 
 attached by either party. He appeared willing to spend and be 
 spent in any service to which duty called him. 
 
 "The church in which he preached in Hanover, and which 
 was erected for him in 1757, is still standing. It is about ten 
 miles from the city of Richmond, and is a remarkably plain build- 
 ing, of wood, without a steeple, and capable of accommodating 
 about five hundred persons. In pleasant weather, the number 
 of persons who came to hear him was so great, that the church 
 would not contain them, and worship was held in a neighboring 
 grove." 
 
 It was during Mr. Davies' residence in Virginia, that, in com- 
 pany with the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, he was sent to London to 
 solicit donations for the college of New Jersey. Of this visit, Dr. 
 Hill has furnished the following account. 
 
 "Mr. Davies' popularity as an eloquent pulpit orator — his able 
 defences before the Governor and General court of Virginia, — his 
 military sermons, and his patriotic addresses upon different im- 
 portant occasions, together with his very able correspondence 
 with the Bishop of London, and other distinguished men in Eng- 
 land, had raised his reputation to such a height, that in the year 
 1753, when the ' new side ' Synod, of New York, were looking 
 out for a companion and coadjutor to the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, 
 to send to Great Britain, they could find no one in all their num- 
 ber who was thought to possess qualifications for that undertak- 
 ing to compare with those possessed by Mr. Davies, who was 
 then but a mere youth, still under thirty years of age. 
 
 " Mr. Davies' modesty induced him strongly to remonstrate 
 against devolving such a trust upon him ; — and his people felt 
 still stronger objections to this appointment. . They knew how 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXIX 
 
 important his services were at that critical period in their affairs, 
 and that no one else could supply his place with equal advan- 
 tage. Besides this, they had another ohjection. They knew his 
 excellencies better than any other people, for he came to them 
 when a youth, and it was among them that his powers had 
 ripened ; and they were afraid if he became extensively known, 
 he would he sought after by other places, which could afford 
 him a much easier and more comfortable settlement than they 
 could, and that they would thereby endanger the loss of him 
 altogether. 
 
 " Subsequent events, which soon after followed, showed how 
 well-founded their fears and apprehensions were. Although the 
 Synod took care to have Mr. Davies' people supplied during the 
 year of his absence, yet no one could, in their estimation, render 
 services equivalent to his. It is generally thought that the pro- 
 gress of Presbyterianism was seriously affected by Mr. Davies' 
 absence from Virginia, and that its prospects were hardly ever as 
 promising afterwards as before. 
 
 " What was the precise amount of funds raised by this em- 
 bassy to Great Britain ; the mode of their operations ; whether 
 they went together, or separated, and took different routes, is not 
 known. They visited England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and there 
 is no doubt they raised a considerable amount, and enlisted many 
 friends and patrons for Princeton Seminar}' — as that institution 
 rose rapidly into notice and usefulness from that time. When 
 Mr. Davies was in London, his fame had preceded him, so that 
 his preaching was much resorted to by dissenters and others; 
 and an occurrence is said to have taken place which was much 
 spoken of among his friends, and with some little exultation, after 
 his return. 
 
 " The circumstance alluded to is this — that his fame as a pul- 
 pit orator was so great in London, that some noblemen who had 
 heard him, mentioned in the presence of King George II., that 
 there was a very distinguished dissenting preacher in London 
 from the colony of Virginia, who was attracting great notice, and 
 drawing after him very crowded audiences; upon which the 
 King expressed a strong desire to hear him, and his chaplain in- 
 vited him to preach in his chapel. Mr. Davies is said to have 
 complied, and preached before a splendid audience, composed of 
 
XXX LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 the royal family, and many of the nobility of the realm. It is 
 further said, that while Mr. D. was preaching, the King was 
 seen speaking at different times to those around him, who were 
 seen also to smile. Mr. Davies observed it, and was shocked at 
 what he thought was irreverence in the house of God, that was 
 utterly inexcusable in one whose example might have such in- 
 fluence. After pausing and looking sternly in that direction sev- 
 eral times, the preacher proceeded in his discourse, when the 
 same offensive behavior was still observed. The American 
 dissenter is said then to have exclaimed, ' When the lion roars, 
 the beasts of the forest all tremble; and lehen King Jesus speaks, 
 the princes of the earth should keep silence.'' The King is said to 
 have given a significant, but courteous bow to the preacher, and 
 sat very composedly and reverently during the rest of the ser- 
 vice. If this be a correct statement of the fact that took place, it 
 speaks louder than anything that has yet been said in praise of 
 Mr. Davies 1 promptness, intrepidity, and solemn self-possesssion 
 while engaged in delivering God's messages to his perishing fel- 
 low-men. Whatever authoritv Mr. Davies' friends had for nar- 
 rating this story is not now known, but it was universally be- 
 lieved among them to have occurred. 
 
 "The explanation given of this strange affair is this. The 
 King is said to have been so enraptured with Mr. Davies' solemn 
 and impressive manner and eloquence, that he was constrained 
 repeatedly to express his astonishment and applause to those 
 around him, and felt anything else but irreverence upon the oc- 
 casion. He 'was so delighted with him, that he sent him an in- 
 vitation to call upon him at a given time, which interview un- 
 questionably did take place, and was repeated more than once, 
 after which, and the explanations which were given, Mr. Davies 
 was delighted with his Majesty, and not only received a hand- 
 some donation from him for the college whose cause he was ad- 
 vocating, but was led to form a most exalted opinion of George 
 II. ever afterwards, as may be learned from a funeral sermon he 
 preached upon his death and character." 
 
 The following account by Dr. Hill, will furnish an interesting 
 and useful account of " the style and manner of Mr. Davies 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXXI 
 
 preaching, the effects 'produced ; and the influence which he ac- 
 quired. 
 
 " Mr Davies possessed naturally every qualification, both of 
 body and mind, to make him an accomplished orator, and fit 
 him for the pulpit. His frame was tall, well-proportioned, erect, 
 and comely ; — his port and carriage were easy, graceful, manly, 
 and dignified ; — his voice clear, loud distinct, melodious, and well- 
 modulated; — and his natural genius was strong and masculine ; 
 his understanding clear ; his memory retentive ; his invention 
 quick ; his imagination sprightly and florid, his thoughts sub- 
 lime ; and his language elegant, strong and expressive. His 
 temper or disposition was naturally modest, diffident, and retir- 
 ing ; but when roused by difficulties, or strongly urged by a sense 
 of duty, he was, from a consciousness of his mental resources, 
 enterprising bold, and fearless. He was remarkably neat and 
 tasteful in his dress, and dignified and polite in his manners. A 
 distinguished character of the day, in seeing him walk through a 
 court-yard once, saiu, ' he looked like the ambassador of some 
 great king.'' 
 
 " Mr. Davies wrote and prepared his sermons with great care : 
 this he was enabled to do, notwithstanding the great and multi- 
 plied pastoral duties which he had to perforin, from the fact that 
 he had so many places of preaching, and that they were so wide 
 apart, that one sermon could be preached throughout his exten- 
 sive range, without much danger of any of his hearers having 
 heard the same discourse twice. His common practice was to 
 take his manuscripts with him into the pulpit, and make more 
 or less use of them in delivering his discourses. But his memory 
 was such, and the frequent use he was permitted to make of the 
 same sermon rendered it so familiar that he was never tram- 
 meled in his delivery. Though this was his common practice 
 yet he would sometimes extemporize to very happy effect. One 
 of his confidential elders once said to him — ' Mr. Davies, how is 
 it, that you, who are so well informed upon all theological sub- 
 jects, and can express yourself with so much ease and readiness, 
 upon any subject, and in any company, and have language so at 
 your command, should think it necessary to prepare and write 
 your sermons with so much care, and take your notes into the 
 pulpit, and make such constant use of them? Why do you not, 
 
XXX11 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 like many other preachers, oftener preach extempore ?' Mr. Da- 
 vies' reply was this : — ' I always thought it to be a most awful 
 thing to go into the pulpit and there ?peak nonsense in the name 
 of God. Besides, when I have an opportunity of preparing, and 
 neglect to do so, I am afraid to look up to God for assistance, for 
 that would be to ask him to countenance my negligence. But 
 when I am evidently called upon to preach, and have had no op- 
 portunity to make suitable preparation, if I see it clearly to be 
 my duty, I am not afraid to try to preach extempore, and I can 
 with confidence look up to God for assistance.' 
 
 " No one can be at a loss to know what was the style of Mr. 
 Davies' preaching, who has ever read his printed sermons, for 
 they are verbatim, as he delivered them, and no doubt were print- 
 ed from the very manuscripts which he used in the pulpit. It 
 should not be thought wonderful if such sermons, accompanied 
 with his dignified appearance — appropriate gestures — clear, well 
 modulated and melodious voice, should have interested the peo- 
 ple, and insured him overwhelming congregations. His preach- 
 ing was intelligible and attractive to people of every class and 
 condition — the high and the low, the rich and the poor. He had 
 an unusual popularity among the poor illiterate slaves ; took 
 great pains with them, and spent much time in having them 
 taught to read, and furnishing them with Bibles and hymn books, 
 and other suitable books. "When he left Virginia, it is probable 
 his colored Communicants were more numerous than the white. 
 The writer of this has known manv of his black members, and 
 they have always been esteemed by their masters as servants of 
 a superior order ; which secured to them not only the friendship 
 and confidence of their owners, but treatment more like Christain 
 brethren than slaves. 
 
 11 Mr. Davies, in his letters to Mr. Bellamy and others, speaks 
 very discouragingly of his success, especially as contrasted with 
 the effects produced before his arrival, by the four days' preach- 
 ing of Mr. Robinson; but he evidently does not do himself jus- 
 tice by such remarks and comparisons. Mr. Robinson's labors 
 were all employed at one place, in Hanover, among the same 
 people, and without any intermission. It is natural, therefore, 
 without overlooking the supernatural aids of divine grace, to ex- 
 pect that instrumentalities, thus employed, should produce more 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXXlll 
 
 visible effects than if the same means had been spread over as 
 many different counties, among different sets of hearers, and with 
 considerable intervals of time between the sermons. The fruits 
 of Mr. Robinson's labors were visible at once, but upon a very 
 limited scale, compared with the extensive field over which Mr. 
 Davies had not only to scatter the seed, but to prepare the soil 
 by subduing the thorns and noxious weeds. No doubt much of 
 Mr. Davies 1 work was lost, because he had always to hurry away 
 to some other part of his extensive bounds. Those that came 
 after Mr. Davies, were better able to judge of his usefulness than 
 he was himself at the time. There was no remarkable revival 
 of religion during his ministry, bnt there was a gradual increase, 
 and a growing and deepening impression of the necessity and im- 
 portance of religion. If he could have devoted his labors, and 
 concentrated his energies, upon a smaller field, no doubt there 
 would have been more visible fruits seen ; but whether he did 
 not perform a greater and better work, by preparing an extensive 
 field for many laborers to come after and gather the fruits, is a 
 question of no easy solution. Mr. Davies was but the pioneer 
 for Presbyterianism and vital piety in Virginia ; and his mysteri- 
 ous and speedy removal to another sphere, just as his prospects 
 in Virginia began to brighten, has to many appeared of very 
 questionable propriety." 
 
 Mr. Davies continued in the field of labor in Virginia, until he 
 was elected to the Presidency of the College of New Jersey, in 
 the year 1759. He was chosen to succeed President Edwards. 
 President Burr died in September, 1757 ; President Edwards was 
 elected soon after, but was not inducted into office until Februa- 
 ry, 1758, and died in the March following. Mr. Davies was in- 
 augurated as President in July, 1759, and continued in the office 
 until his death, on the 4th of February, 1761. He " preached his 
 farewell sermon to his people, June 1st, 1769. The effect pro- 
 duced upon the minds of his people can neither be conceived nor 
 expressed. Despondency and gloom hung over the- whole as- 
 sembly, and the distress and surprise with many were too great 
 to admit of the relief which a flood of tears might afford. The 
 consternation was nearly as great with the Presbytery, for a pa- 
 ralyzing discouragement seemed to have possessed all in Vir- 
 
XXXIV LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 ginia who were concerned in this matter ; after which everything 
 of a religious nature seemed to decline. Ichabod seemed to be 
 written, not only on his own congregation, but on the entire 
 Presbytery ; from which it has hardly ever recovered since. His 
 congregation in Hanover began at once to dwindle away by 
 death, but more frequently by removals to the upper counties, 
 where the soil and climate were more inviting. Perhaps God 
 saw it was necessary ; for if ever a people were guilty of man 
 worship, they were ; and sorely did they pay for it." — Dk. Hill. 
 
 It is as a preacher, particularly, that it is proper to contem- 
 plate him in an " Introduction " to his Sermons : and all that is 
 needful, therefore, to say of his character as the President of a 
 College, is, that he equalled the most sanguine expectations of 
 his friends ; and that, at his death, he left the College in as high 
 a state of literary merit as it had ever been in since its first in- 
 stitution. A more full account of his efforts to benefit the Col- 
 lege, and of his success, may be found in the Appendix to Dr. 
 Green's " Discourses, delivered in the College of New Jersey, ad- 
 dressed chiefly to candidates for the first degree in the arts." 
 Pp. 350-355. He died from an inflammatory fever, after an ill- 
 ness of two days, which was supposed to have been caused 
 mainly by his having been unskilfully bled. His death was 
 probably hastened, as he had been predisposed to disease, by his 
 unremitting application to study, and to the duties of his office. 
 His previous situation had afforded little leisure, and compara- 
 tively few means, for the cultivation of general science. To 
 qualify himself for his new station, therefore, his application to 
 study became intense and unremitted. This fact, and the fact 
 that during his residence in Princeton, he had almost wholly 
 neglected the exercise to which he had been accustomed in Vir- 
 ginia, contributed to render the disease incurable. During his 
 brief illness, the violence of the disease was such as almost 
 wholly to deprive him of the exercise of reason. 
 
 " His faltering tongue was, however, continually uttering some 
 expedient to promote the prosperity of the Church of Christ, and 
 the good of mankind." 
 
 His remains lie in the churchyard in Princeton, by the side of 
 Presidents Burr, Edwards, Finley, and Witherspoon. The follow- 
 ing inscription is recorded on the stone which marks his grave: — 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXXV 
 
 Sub hoc marmore sepulchral! 
 
 Mortales Exuviae 
 
 Reverend! perquam viri, 
 
 SAMUELIS DAVIES, A.M. 
 
 Collegii Xov-Csesariensis Praasidis, 
 
 Futurum Domini Adventum praestolantur. 
 
 Xe te, viator, ut pauca de tanto 
 
 Tamque dilecto vivo resciscas, 
 
 Paulisper morari pigeat. 
 
 Natus est in Comitatu de Newcastle, juxta Delaware, 
 
 iii. Novembris, Anno Salutis reparatae, 
 
 MDCCXXIV. S.Y. 
 
 Sacris ibidem initiatus, xix. Febrnarii, 
 
 MDCOXLVn. 
 
 Tutelam pastoralem Ecclesiaa 
 
 In Comitatu de Hanover, Virginiensium, suscepit. 
 
 Ibi per xi. plus minus Annos, 
 
 Ministri evangeiici laboribus 
 
 Indefesse, et favente Xumine, auspicato perfunctus. 
 
 Ad munus Praesidiale Collegii Xov-CsesarieDsis gerendum 
 
 Vocatus est, et inauguratus, xxvi. Jnlii, 
 
 MDCCLIX. 8.K. 
 
 Sed, proh Reruni inane ! intra Biennium, Febre correptus, 
 
 Candidam animam ccelo reddidit, iv. Februarii, MDCCLXI 
 
 Heu quam exiguum Yitae Curriculum ! 
 
 Corpore fuit eximio ; Gestu liberali, placido, augusto. 
 
 In genii Nitore, 
 
 Morum Integritate, Munificentia, Facilitate, 
 
 Inter paucos illustris. 
 
 Rei literariae peritus ; Theologus promptus, perspicax. 
 
 In Rostris, per Eloquium blandum, mellitum, 
 
 Vehemens simul, et perstringens, nulli secundus. 
 
 Scriptor ornatus, sublimis, disertus. 
 
 Praesertim vero Pietate, 
 
 Ardente in Deum Zelo et Religione spectandus. 
 
 In tanti viri, majora meriti, 
 
 Memoriam duraturam, 
 
 Amici hoc qualecunque monumentum, 
 
 Honoris ergo, et Gratitudinis, posuere 
 
 Abi, viator, ei eemulare. 
 
XXXVI LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 ■ 
 
 The characteristics of President Davies as a preacher, were 
 such as the following : 
 
 1. He was eminent for zeal and ardor. This was evinced in 
 all his ministry, and is apparent in his printed sermons. lie 
 gave his whole soul to the work, and did nothing languidly or 
 sluggishly. His ardor and zeal prompted him to untiring dili- 
 gence ; to a readiness to preach whenever he had an opportuni- 
 ty ; and to the burning thoughts and expressions which charac- 
 terize his sermons. The same ardor led him to make a diligent 
 use of all the means at his command for qualifying himself for 
 wider usefulness, and making the most of the eminent natural 
 endowments with which he had been favored. As a specimen 
 of his ardor in preaching, the following statement of his own 
 feelings will furnish an interesting illustration : 
 
 " I desire seriously to devote to God and my dear country, all 
 the labors of my head, my heart, my hand, and pen ; and if he 
 pleases to bless any of them, I hope I shall be thankful, and 
 wonder at his condescending grace. Oh ! my dear brother, could 
 we spend and be spent all our lives, in painful, disinterested, in- 
 defatigable service for God and the world, how serene and bright 
 would it render the swift approaching eve of life ! I am labor- 
 ing to do a little to save my country, and, which is of much 
 more consequence, to save souls from death — from that tremen- 
 dous kind of death, which a soul can die. I have had but little 
 success of late, but blessed be God, it surpasses my expectation, 
 and much more my desert. Some of my brethren labor to better 
 purpose. The pleasure of the Lord prospers in their hands." 
 
 Another epistle tells me, u As for myself, I am just striving 
 not to live in vain. I entered the ministry with such a sense of 
 my unfitness for it, that I had no sanguine expectations of suc- 
 cess. And a condescending God (O, how condescending!) has 
 made me much more serviceable than I could hope. But, alas ! 
 my brother, I have but little, very little true religion. My ad- 
 vancements in holiness are extremely small : I feel what I con- 
 fess, and am sure it is true, and not the rant of excessive or affect- 
 ed humility. It is an easy thing to make a noise in the world, to 
 flourish and harangue, to dazzle the crowd and set them all 
 agape ; but deeply to imbibe the spirit of Christianity, to maintain 
 a seoret walk with Qod, to be holy a9 he is holy, this is the la- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXXVU 
 
 bor, this the work. I beg the assistance of your prayers in so 
 grand and important an enterprise. The difficulty of the minis- 
 terial work seems to grow upon my hands. Perhaps once, in 
 three or four months, I preach in some measure as I could wish; 
 that is, I preach as in the sight of God, and as if I were to step 
 from the pulpit to the supremo tribunal. I feel my subject. I 
 melt into tears or I shudder with horror, when I denounce the 
 terrors of the Lord. I glow, I soar in sacred ecstasies, when the 
 love of Jesus is my theme, and, as Mr. Baxter was wont to ex- 
 press it, in lines more striking to me than all the fine poetry in 
 the world, 
 
 'I preach as if I ne'er should preach again ; 
 And as a dying man to dying men.' 
 
 But, alas ! my spirits soon flag, my devotions languish, and my 
 zeal cools. It is really an afflictive thought, that I serve so good 
 a Master with so much inconstancy ; but so it is, and my soul 
 mourns upon that account. 
 
 U I am just beginning to creep back from the valley of the sha- 
 dow of death, to which I made a very near approach a few days 
 ago. I was seized with a most violent fever, which came to a 
 crisis in a week ; and now it is much abated, though I am still 
 confined to my chamber. In this shattered state, my trembling 
 hand can write but little to you ; and what I write will be lan- 
 guid and confused, like its author. But as the Virginia fleet is 
 about to sail, and I know not when I shall have another oppor- 
 tunity, I cannot avoid writing something. I would sit down on 
 the grave's mouth, and talk awhile with my favorite friend ; and 
 from my situation you may foresee what subjects my conversa- 
 tion will turn upon — Death — Eternity — the Supreme Tribunal. 
 
 " Blessed be my master's name, this disorder found me em- 
 ployed in his service. It seized me in the pulpit — like a soldier 
 wounded in the field. This has been a busy summer with me. 
 In about two months I rode about five hundred miles, and preach- 
 ed about forty sermons. This affords me some pleasure in the 
 review. But, alas ! the mixture of sin and many nameless im- 
 perfections that run through and corrupt all my services, give me 
 shame, sorrow, and mortification. My fever made unusual rav- 
 ages upon my understanding, and rendered me frequently de- 
 
XXXV111 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 lirious, and always stupid. But, when I had any little sense of 
 things, I generally felt pretty calm and serene ; and death, that 
 mighty terror, was disarmed. Indeed, the thought of leaving 
 my dear family destitute, and my flock shepherdless, made me 
 often start back and cling to life ; but in other respects death 
 appeared a kind of indifference to me. Formerly I have wished 
 to live longer, that I might be better prepared for Heaven ; but 
 this consideration had but very little weight with me, and that 
 for a very unusual reason, which was this : After long trial, I 
 found this world is a place so unfriendly to the growth of every 
 thing Divine and Heavenly, that I was afraid, if I should live 
 longer, I should be no better fitted for Heaven than I am. In- 
 deed, I have hardly any hopes of ever making any great attain- 
 ments in holiness while in this world, though I should be doom- 
 ed to stay in it as long as Methuselah. I see other Christians, 
 indeed, around me, make some progress, though they go on with 
 but a snail-like motion; but when I consider that I set out 
 about twelve years old, and what sanguine hopes I then had of 
 my future progress, and yet that I have been almost at a stand 
 ever since, I am quite discouraged. O my good master, if I may 
 dare to call thee so, I am afraid I shall never serve thee much 
 better on this side the region of perfection. The thought grieves 
 me : it breaks my heart, but I can hardly hope better. But if I 
 have the least spark of true piety in my breast, I shall not always 
 labor under this complaint. JSTo, my Lord, I shall yet serve 
 thee — serve thee through an immortal duration — with the activ- 
 ity, the fervor, the perfection of the rapt seraph that adores and 
 turyis. I very much suspect this desponding view of the matter 
 is wrong ; and I do not mention it with approbation, but only 
 relate it as an unusual reason for my willingness to die, which I 
 never felt before, and which I could not suppress. 
 
 "In my sickness, I found the unspeakable importance of a 
 Mediator in a religion for sinners. O ! I could have given you 
 the word of a dying man for it, that that Jesus, whom you 
 preach, is indeed a necessary, and an all-sufficient Savior. In- 
 deed, he is the only support for a departing soul. None but 
 Christ — none hut Christ ! Had I as many good works as 
 Abraham or Paul, I would not have dared to build my hopes 
 upon such a quicksand, but only on this firm eternal rock. 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. XXXIX 
 
 " I am rising up, my brother, with a desire to recommend him 
 better to my fellow-sinners than I have done. But, alas ! I hardly 
 hope to accomplish it. He has done a great deal more by me 
 already than I ever expected, and infinitely more than I deserved. 
 But he never intended, me for great things. He has beings, both 
 of my own and of superior orders, that can perform him more 
 worthy service. O ! if I might but untie the latchet of his shoes, 
 or draw water for the service of his sanctuary, it is enough for 
 me. I am no antrel, nor would I murmur because I am not. 
 
 " My strength fails me, and I must give over. Pray for me 
 write to me. Love me, living and dying, on earth and in 
 heaven." 
 
 2. He was distinguished for an imagination singularly rich and 
 sublime. He was himself a poet, and the characteristics of a 
 poetic genius are seen in rich abundance on the pages of his ser- 
 mons. His language is elevated, glowing, and warm from the 
 heart; and the scenes which he describes are placed before the 
 mind with a most vivid reality. Occasionally, indeed, there is a 
 luxuriancy amounting to redundancy in the images which he 
 uses, and a want of care in- his style, which he probably would 
 himself have corrected, had he lived to a more mature age, or 
 had he lived to publish his sermons himself. Indeed, there are 
 some expressions in his discourse on the General Judgment, 
 which now would be regarded as bordering on the ludicrous ; 
 and which a more chastened imagination, or a severe criticism, 
 would have removed. His sermons, moreover, are not distin- 
 guished for minute accuracy of language, or those terse periods 
 which many later compositions of the same kind possess. Occa- 
 sionally, also, we meet with something that appears loose, tumid 
 and declamatory. The general tenor of the sentences, however, 
 is harmonious; and there is such an unction of piety and popu- 
 larity of manner ; there are so elevated conceptions, and such a 
 variety of beautiful images, that the minor imperfections are for- 
 gotten, and the reader is borne along with the subject, charmed 
 by the happy union of genius and piety everywhere apparent. 
 When delivered by a man of the noble bearing, the fine form, 
 the eloquent gesticulation, the fervor of manner, and the heart 
 and soul of such a man as Mr. Davies, it is easy to understand 
 
Xl LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 the reason why he had so commanding an influence over a 
 popular audience, and why he was characterized as " the prince 
 of preachers." 
 
 3. He was distinguished for strong and vigorous sense ; for 
 just thinking, powerful reasoning, and pungent addresses to the 
 conscience and the heart. In an argument, the hearer is con- 
 ducted from point to point by a clear chain of connected reason- 
 ing, and every position is sustained ; and in direct appeals to 
 men, the conscience is made to respond to the claims which the 
 preacher urges. Under the delivery of these sermons, it would 
 have been impossible for a well-educated and thinking skeptic 
 not to feel that their was much in Christianity which demanded 
 his attention, or for any man not to feel that religion had claims 
 on the conscience and the heart superior to all other claims. 
 
 4. President Davies was a man who regarded ample prepara- 
 tion as indispensable for the successful performance of the duties 
 of the ministry. His sermons bear the marks of having been 
 prepared with great care ; and we know what were his views 
 on that subject. He possessed uncommon facility for making at- 
 tainments in his studies, and gained knowledge with an ease 
 with whicli few are favored ; but still, the consciousness of this 
 never deterred him from intense application, and from the use of 
 all the means in his power for enlarging the boundaries of his 
 attainments. He is known to have declared, that " every dis- 
 course of his, which he thought worthy of the name of a sermon, 
 cost him four days' hard study in the preparation." It was owing 
 to this toil, as well as to the extraordinary talents with which 
 he had been endowed, that he became, perhaps, the most elo- 
 quent and accomplished pulpit orator that this country has pro- 
 duced ; that he was more successful in winning souls to the Re- 
 deemer than any other minister of the age in which he lived, if 
 we except, perhaps, Whitfield and Edwards ; and that his ser- 
 mons have been probably more popular than any other sermons 
 which have ever issued from the American press. Before the 
 year 1800, nine editions had been published; and it would be 
 difficult to estimate the number that have been issued in Great 
 Britain and in this country. When the size and expense of 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. xli 
 
 the work is considered, and when it is remembered that his ser- 
 mons are almost wholly posthumous in their publication, such 
 an expression of the public favor is the most conclusive proof of 
 their value. 
 
 5. President Davies was a warm and ardent friend of revivals 
 of religion. The age in which he lived was characterized emi- 
 nently by such works of grace, and his heart sympathized with 
 those who prayed for them, and who were blessed with them. 
 He sympathized with the Tennents, and with Edwards and Bella- 
 my, in their views of such displays of the divine power, and nothing 
 gave him more joy than the evidence of the presence of the Spirit 
 of God attending the preaching of the gospel with a blessing. 
 The following extract from a letter to a friend in England on 
 this subject, lays open the secrets of his soul in reference to re- 
 vivals of religion. 
 
 " The best news that perhaps I ever heard in my life, I lately 
 received from my favorite friend, Mr. Samuel Finley, minister 
 of Nottingham, in Pennsylvania, tutor of a large academy, and 
 one of the trustees of the college of New Jersey. I had sent him 
 some extracts from my British letters, giving an account of the 
 revival of religion in sundry parts of England, particularly among 
 the clergy : in answer to which he writes thus : 
 
 "'April 16, 1757. I greatly rejoice that our Lord Jesus has 
 put it in my power to make you a large compensation for the 
 good news you sent me. God has done great things for us. Our 
 glorious Redeemer poured out his Holy Spirit upon the students 
 of our college ; not one of all who were present neglected — and 
 they were in number sixty. The whole house, say my corre- 
 spondents, was a Bochim. Mr. William Tennent, who was on 
 the spot, says, he "never saw any in that case who had more 
 clear views of God, themselves, and their defects — their impo- 
 tence and misery, than they had in general : that there never 
 was, he believes, in any house, more genuine sorrow for sin, and 
 longing after Jesus : that this glorious work was gradual, and 
 spread like the increasing light of the morning : that it was not 
 begun by the ordinary methods of preaching, nor promoted by 
 alarming methods; yet so great was their distress, that he 
 judged it improper to use any arguments of terror in public, lest 
 
Xlil LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 some should sink under the weight : that what makes the gra- 
 cious visitation more remarkable was, that a little before, some 
 of the youth had given a greater loose to their corruptions than 
 was ordinary among them; a spirit of pride and contention pre-: 
 vailing, to the great grief and even discouragement of the worthy 
 President : that there were no public outcries, but a decorous, 
 silent solemnity ; that before he came away, several had received 
 something like the spirit of adoption ; being tenderly affected 
 with the sense of redeeming love, and thereby disposed and de- 
 termined to endeavor after universal holiness." 
 
 " ' Mr. Treat and Mr. G. Tennent tell me in theirs, that the 
 concern appeared rational, solid, and scriptural ; and that in a 
 remarkable degree. I was informed by some of the students 
 who had been my pupils, that this religious concern first began 
 with the son of a very considerable gentleman of New York. 
 The youth was dangerously sick at college ; and on that occa- 
 sion, awakened to a sense of his guilt. His discourse made 
 some impression on a few others, and theirs again on more; so 
 that it became almost general, before the good President, or any 
 others, knew anything of it. As soon as it became public, mis- 
 representations were spread abroad ; and some gentleman sent 
 to bring their sons home. But upon better information, the most 
 were sent back again. The wicked companions of some young 
 gentlemen, left no methods untried to recover them to their for- 
 mer excess of riot; and with two or three have been lamentably 
 successful. 
 
 ut Mr. Duffield (a worthy young minister) informed me the 
 other day, that a very hopeful religious concern spread through 
 the Jerseys, especially among young people. In several letters 
 from Philadelphia, from Mr. G. Tennent and others. I have an 
 assurance of a revival there for which good people are blessing 
 God. Lawyer Stockton informs me, that he is certified by good 
 authority, of a gracious work of God at Yale College, in New 
 Haven.' 
 
 " This, sir, is some of the best news from one of the best of my 
 correspondents. You will join with me in blessing God, and con- 
 gratulating posterity, upon this happy, surprising revolution, in a 
 college to which the eager eyes of so many churches look for 
 supplies. Perhaps it may afford me the more pleasure, as my 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. xllU 
 
 having taken so ranch pains to promote that institution, gives 
 me a kind of paternal solicitude for it, though I live near four 
 hundred miles from it. 
 
 "The finger of God is the more conspicuous in this affair, as 
 the students, who had so often heard such excellent sermons 
 from the worthy President, and from the many ministers from 
 various parts, who have occasionally officiated there, without any 
 general good effects, should be universally awakened by means 
 of a sick boy. Though this college was well founded, and well 
 conducted, yet I must own, I was often afraid it was degener- 
 ating into a college of mere learning. But now my fears are 
 removed, by the prospect that sincere piety, that grand ministe- 
 rial qualification, will make equal advances." 
 
 6. President Davies was an ardent and devoted friend of his 
 country. He lived in the forming period of our history, and he 
 exerted his great influence in vindication of his country's rights. 
 The country was alarmed and agitated to the highest degree by 
 the French and Indian Avar, while he was a pastor in Virginia. 
 There was even much talk of abandoning a part of the colony of 
 Virginia to the enemy. On the 10th of July, 1755, General 
 Braddock sustained his memorable defeat, and the remnant of 
 his array was saved by the courage and skill of Colonel Washing- 
 ton, then only twenty-three years old. On the 20th of this month, 
 Mr. Davies preached a sermon " On the defeat of General Brad- 
 dock, going to Fort Du Quesne." In this sermon, he calls on all 
 his hearers, in the most impassioned and animating strains, to 
 show " themselves men, Britons and Christains, and to make 
 a noble stand for the blessings they enjoyed." It was feared the 
 negroes would rise up and join the French. His influence among 
 the blacks was greater, perhaps, than that of any other man ; 
 and he used it all to persuade and deter them from joining the 
 enemy. In August, of the same year, he delivered a sermon in 
 Hanover, to Captain Overton's company of independent volun- 
 teers, under the title of " Religion and patriotism the constitu- 
 ents of a good soldier." It was in a note to his sermon, that he 
 expressed the hope, which has been so often since noticed in re- 
 gard to "Washington. " As a remarkable instance of this [of the 
 fact that God had ' diffused some sparks of martial fire through 
 
xliv 
 
 LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 the country 1 ], I may point out," said he, " to the public that he- 
 roic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Provi- 
 dence has hitherto preserved, in so signal a manner, for so me im- 
 portant service to his country.' 1 '' 
 
 " The celebrated Patrick Henry," says Dr. Green, " is known 
 to have spoken in terms of enthusiasm of Mr. Davies. And as 
 that great statesman and powerful orator lived from his eleventh 
 to his twenty -second year, in the neighborhood where his patri- 
 otic sermons were delivered, and which produced effects as pow- 
 erful as those ascribed to Demosthenes himself, it has been sup- 
 posed, with much probability, that it was Mr. Davies who first 
 kindled the fire, and afforded the model of Henry's elocution." 
 
 As a preacher, President Davies was eminently fitted to the 
 times in which he lived. He was one of the great men whom 
 God raised up at that time to impress their features on the age, 
 and to mould the opinions of their countrymen. He was such a 
 preacher as the times then demanded, and such a preacher, in 
 the great features of his ministry, as this age also demands ; and 
 had he lived now, he would have fallen in with, or rather would 
 have been a leader in all that is. good that characterizes this 
 generation. It is not presumption, nor should it pass for mere 
 conjecture, to say, that with the advantages which we now en- 
 joy, he would have been an eminently close student of the Bible ; 
 a friend of the great enterprises of Christian benevolence ; an 
 advocate of temperance and of revivals ; an enemy of wild and 
 visionary views, of strife, and bigotry and schism ; as a man of 
 charity and liberality of sentiment ; a preacher disposed to unite 
 with all who love the Lord Jesus, in efforts to do good ; and a 
 friend of Christian liberty and peace. 
 
 On occasion, therefore, of issuing these sermons again from 
 the press, and of bringing before the public mind and heart the 
 name of an American so distinguished as he was, I have thought 
 it would not be inappropriate to suggest some thoughts in con- 
 nection with this publication, on the kind of preaching that this 
 age demands, or the kind of ministry fitted to the times in ichich 
 we live. The importance of this subject, with reference to the 
 welfare of our country, and the interest which is everywhere felt 
 in it, will furnish, it is hoped, an apology for such suggestions. 
 The subject itself is such, that no one can over-estimate its im- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. xlv 
 
 portance ; and he who contributes any thoughts that may be of 
 even inconsiderable value in themselves, is doing something to 
 serve his generation. Believing that the edition of the sermons 
 of Davies now issued will have an extensive circulation, it is not 
 denied that the hope is cherished, in making these suggestions, 
 to reach some minds that could not otherwise be accessible, and 
 to do something to elevate the prevailing views of the sacredness 
 and the importance of the office of the Christian ministry. The 
 suggestions are submitted with deference, particularly to those 
 who are candidates for this high office, and who are inquiring 
 with solicitude what shall be the great object of their aim in the 
 work to which they have devoted their lives. 
 
 It has been comparatively rare, in this world, that any indi- 
 vidual has embarked on life, or on any enterprise, with a deter- 
 mined purpose to see how much could be done by the utmost 
 efforts of which the mind and the body could be made capable. 
 Occasionally such an individual has appeared ; and appeared 
 to astonish us no less by the vastness and the success of his own 
 efforts, than by the proof which he has thus furnished of the im- 
 becility, and indolence, and wasted talents of that great mass of 
 mankind. Such a man was Howard — living to make "full 
 proof" of how much could be done in a single object of benevo- 
 lence. "The energy of his determination," it has been said, 
 "was the calmness of an intensity kept uniform by the nature 
 of the human mind forbidding it to be more, and by the character 
 of the individual forbidding it to be less. The habitual passion 
 of his mind was a measure of feeling almost equal to the tempo- 
 rary extremes and paroxysms of common minds; as a great 
 river, in its customary state, is equal to a small or moderate one 
 when swollen to a torrent."* Such a man, in a far different de- 
 partment was Napoleon; living to illustrate the power of great 
 talents concentrated on a single object, and making " full proof" 
 of the terrible energy of the single passion of ambition. Such a 
 man, too, was the short-lived Alexander ; and, in a different 
 sphere, such a man was Paul ; and, to a considerable extent, 
 euch a man was Whitfield. But, compared with the immense 
 
 * Foster's Essay on "Decision of Character." 
 
xivi LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 multitude of minds which have existed on the earth, such in- 
 stances, for good or evil, have been rare. iY part has been 
 sunk in indolence from which no motives would rouse them. 
 Part have been wholly unconscious of their own powers. Part 
 have never been placed in circumstances to call forth their en- 
 ergies, or have not been endowed with original power to create 
 such circumstances, or to start a plan that should require such 
 concentrated efforts to complete it. Part have never been under 
 the right influence, in the process of training, to make "full 
 proof " of the powers of the soul ; part have wasted their talents 
 in wild and visionary schemes, unconscious of the waste, or of 
 the main error of their life, till life was too far gone to attempt to 
 repair the loss ; — some are thwarted by a rival ; some meet with 
 discouragements, are early disheartened, and give up all effort 
 in despair. Most reach the close of life, feeling, if they have 
 any right feeling, that they have accomplished almost nothing — 
 the good usually with the reflection, that if they ever accomplish 
 much, it must now be in a higher state of being. Even Grotius, 
 one of the most laborious and useful of men, is said to have ex- 
 claimed near the close of his life, " Proh vitam perdidi, operose 
 nihil agendo." 
 
 What I have remarked of individual powers, is true also of 
 associated intellects, and of institutions designed to act on man- 
 kind. Full proof has never yet been made of the power of the 
 church to sanctify and save the world ; of the Bible to elevate 
 the human intellect, to purify the heart, and to change the social 
 habits, laws, and morals of mankind ; of the Sabbath to arrest 
 the bad influences that set in upon man from the world, and to 
 promote order, happiness, and salvation ; and of the ministry to 
 save souls from death. There has been a vast amount of un- 
 developed power in all these to affect mankind ; and the past 
 furnishes us in some bright periods with glimpses of what is yet 
 to be the living reality, but the full proof remains to benefit and 
 to bless some future age. 
 
 The qualifications for the Christian ministry, in all ages, and 
 in all places, are essentially the same. The same great doc- 
 trines are to be preached ; the same plan of salvation to be ex- 
 plained and defended ; the same duties toward God, and toward 
 man, in the various relations of life, to be inculcated. The hu- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. xlvil 
 
 man heart is, in all ages, and climes, and nations, essentially the 
 same; and men are everywhere to be saved in the same way. 
 Man, " no matter whether an Indian, an African," an European 
 or an American sun has shown upon him, is a sinner. lie comes 
 into existence a fallen being. lie enters on his immortal career 
 ruined by the apostasy of the progenitor of the race. lie com- 
 mences life, certain that he will begin to sin as soon as lie begins 
 to act ; and will sin on forever in this world and the next, unless 
 he is redeemed by atoning blood, and renewed and sanctified by 
 the Spirit of God. For him there is no salvation but in the sac- 
 rifice of the Son of God in human nature — a vicarious offering 
 for the sins cjf men. In that great Savior there is hope ; in him 
 there is full redemption ; and by his merits only can a sinner be 
 justified and stand before God. 
 
 Each successive generation is to be met with this gospel ; and 
 on each individual the influences of the Holy Ghost are to be 
 sought, that his heart may be renewed, and his soul saved. The 
 great system teaching the fall and ruin of man ; the doctrine of 
 the threefold existence of the divine nature ; the incarnation and 
 the atonement of the Son of God ; the necessity of regeneration 
 by the holy Spirit ; the necessity of holy living ; the resurrection 
 of the dead, and of eternal judgment, is to be proclaimed from 
 age to age, and from land to land. 
 
 The first essential qualification for this work, everywhere and 
 always, is piety. The minister should be a converted man. He 
 should not merely be a moral man, or an amiable man, or a gift- 
 ed man, or a learned man, or a serious-minded man, or a man 
 desirous of being converted ; he should be a regenerated man. 
 He should have such evidence on that point as not to have his 
 own mind embarrassed and perplexed on it ; such as never to 
 leave a doubt amounting to " a shadow of a shade " on the mind 
 of others. He should have confidence in God. He should have 
 no doubt of the truth of the system which he defends ; he should 
 have no doubt that God intends to bless that system of truth 
 which he preaches to save the world. At all times ; in all 
 lands; in every variety of the fluctuating customs and laws 
 among mankind, the ministers of the gospel should be " wise as 
 serpents, and harmless as doves ;" they should be " blameless, 
 vigilant, sober, of good behavior" — or modest (marg.) — koo/ilov — 
 
Xlviil LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 u given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine — ^ Ttdpoivos 
 — (marg. ' not ready to quarrel, and offer wrong as one in wine' 
 — ' not sitting long by wine, 1 Robinson) ; no striker, not greedy 
 of filthy lucre, not a brawler, not covetous ; he should not be a 
 novice — (marg. ' one newly come to the faith' — vi6<pvrov) ; and 
 he must have a good report of them which, are without. In all 
 ages and places, the ministers of the gospel are to preach the 
 word ; they are to be instant in season, out of season ; they are 
 to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine — 
 (didaona/.ia, teaching) ; they are to reprove, rebuke, exhort, with 
 all long-suffering ; they are to be lovers of good men, sober, just, 
 holy, temperate ; they are to follow after righteousness, godli- 
 ness, faith, love, patience, meekness ; they are to fight the good 
 fight of faith, and to lay hold on eternal life ; they are to watch 
 in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of evangelists, make 
 full proof of their ministry." 
 
 Never were the general qualifications of the ministry better 
 drawn by an uninspired pen than in the well-known words of 
 Cowper : 
 
 " Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, 
 Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, 
 Paul should himself direct me. I would trace 
 His master-strokes, and draw from his design ; 
 I would express him simple, grave, sincere ; 
 In doctrine uncorrupt ; in language plain, 
 And plain in manner, decent, solemn, chaste 
 And natural in gesture ; much impressed 
 Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, 
 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
 May feel it too ; affectionate in look, 
 And tender in address, as well becomes 
 A messenger of grace to guilty men." Task, B. ft. 
 
 But while it is true that the qualifications for the Christian 
 ministry are always essentially the same, it is also true that dif- 
 ferent contries, ages, and fields of labor require peculiar endow- 
 ments in those wiio minister at the altar. Some great duty or 
 class of duties in one age or country shall demand peculiarly to 
 be inculcated ; some gigantic form of wickedness is to be met 
 and overthrown ; some far-spreading and subtle error is to be de- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. xlix 
 
 tected and removed ; some great enterprise for the welfare of 
 man is to be originated, vindicated, and sustained ; or some pro- 
 pensity of the age or country shall need to be counteracted and 
 opposed by all the power and talent of the Christian ministry. 
 In the times of the apostles, great energy of character was de- 
 manded; great self-denial and readiness to meet privation and 
 danger ; and great wisdom in standing up to oppose the systems 
 of philosophy which had so long reigned over the human mind. 
 A spirit of noble enterprise and bold daring was demanded, to 
 cross seas and lands ; to encounter perils and storms ; to be ready 
 to stand on trial before kings, and to meet death in any form, in 
 such a way as to do honor to religion. The prevailing systems 
 of religion were sustained by all the wisdom of philosophy, and 
 by all the power of the civil arm ; and the very boldness of the 
 new preachers, their zeal and disinterestedness, and conscious- 
 ness of having the truth, was to strike dismay into the friends of 
 idolatry, and under God to change the religion of the world. 
 Such men were found in Paul and his fellow-laborers ; men great 
 in all the essential qualifications of the sacred office, and men 
 peculiarly adapted to the times in which they lived. In subse- 
 quent times, to be a Christian was to be a martyr ; to be a min- 
 ister of religion was to be in the front ranks of those who consti- 
 tuted the great procession that was led to the rack or the stake ; 
 and the times demanded men of steady firmness of purpose and 
 of unwavering confidence in God ; men who could cheer their 
 fellow-sufferers, and teach them how to die, as well as how to 
 live ; and such men in early times were found in Ignatius and 
 Polycarp; in later times in Pwidley and Latimer. 
 
 Again, subtle and profound systems of philosophy came into 
 the church, and the simplicity of the faith began to be corrupt- 
 ed ; and then was demanded the aid of men who could follow 
 out the mazes of sophistry, and expose skilful error ; and such 
 men were found as Athanasius and Augustine ; in later times 
 such men as Horsly and Edwards. Times like the Reformation, 
 also, demanded a peculiar order of ministers. All the other 
 qualifications of almost every other age seemed to be required in 
 combination. A spirit bold and firm to meet power and rebuke 
 sin in the high places of ecclesiastical office, as well as on 
 thrones; a readiness to meet martyrdom, and a patience in suf- 
 
1 LIFE AND TIME8 
 
 fering such as was demanded in the days of Polycarp and Igna- 
 tius ; the power of detecting and exposing subtle error in the 
 most skilfully constructed system of error that has ever obtained 
 an ascendency over the human mind; requiring far more ability 
 than was requisite to meet the subtilty of the ancient philosophy ; 
 and God raised up such men. The ministry furnished such men 
 as Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and Oranmer ; and never were 
 the demands of an interesting age of the world better met than 
 by the labors of those men. They were made what they were 
 in part by the times in which they lived ; but they would have 
 been adapted to any age, and would have left the impress of 
 their great minds upon it. The idea which I have endeavored 
 thus far to illustrate is, that the qualifications for the ministry, 
 at all times, and in all lands, are essentially the same : a pious 
 heart, a prudent mind, a sober judgment, well-directed and 
 glowing zeal, self-denial, simplicity of aim, and deadness to the 
 world ; but that these qualifications are to be somewhat modi- 
 fied by the peculiarities of each age ; and that the age in which 
 men live must be studied in order that they may make M full 
 proof of their ministry." 
 
 I proceed now to what I intend as the main design of this part 
 of this essay, to inquire what are the qualifications for the minis- 
 try which are peculiarly demanded by our times and country. 
 What should be the grand aim of the ministry ? For what should 
 the ministers of the gospel be peculiarly distinguished ? It may 
 be impossible to consider these questions without trenching 
 somewhat on what I have mentioned as the essential qualifica- 
 tions of the ministry at all times, but my main object will not be 
 interfered with. 
 
 1. The times in which we live demand of the ministry a close, 
 and patient, and honest investigation of the Bible. The general 
 reasons for this are too obvious to detain us. The truths which 
 the ministry is to present are to be derived from the word of God. 
 They are not the truths of mental philosophy ; they are not the 
 theories formed by a fertile imagination; they are not the opin- 
 ions held by men; they are not systems embodied merely in 
 creeds and symbols, they are the ever-fresh and ever-living truths 
 of the Bible. It is almost too obvioua to need remark, that the 
 
OP THE AUTHOR. H 
 
 man who goes forth to proclaim the gospel, should be able, at 
 least, to read it in the language in which it was originally pen- 
 ned. Why should a man attempt to expound a message which 
 he can neither read nor understand as it came from the hand of 
 him who commissioned him ? Can there be a more evident un- 
 fitness for his work than to be ignorant of the very document 
 which it is the main business of his life to explain to others ? It 
 is almost too absurd for grave remark, to speak of an ambassador 
 who cannot, except by an interpreter, read his own credentials ; 
 of a lawyer who cannot read the laws which he expounds ; of a 
 teacher who cannot read even the books which he professes to 
 teach. 
 
 And yet it is as true as it is melancholy, that the business of 
 studying the Bible, in any proper sense of the word study, is a 
 business to which even in the ministry there is often a sad reluc- 
 tance. I speak now of the fair and honest study of the Scriptures 
 in the language in which they were originally written, and in the 
 use of all the helps which the God of Providence and grace has 
 now given to illustrate this most wonderful ancient book which 
 the ministry is called to explain and defend. Who knows not 
 how reluctantly this is approached even in the seminaries of 
 Christian theology? Who knows not how it is often laid aside 
 as Boon as the departing evangelist has bid adieu to the place of 
 his theological training ? And who knows not that the whole 
 arrangement of the "study " afterwards contemplates the removal 
 of all books written in the Greek and Hebrew tongue to the most 
 remote and unfrequented department of the Library ? And who 
 is ignorant of the fact, that to multitudes of ministers in this land, 
 with all the advantages which they have had, the original lan- 
 guages of the Scriptures are unapproached and inapproachable 
 treasures — gold and diamonds hidden from their view, or rich ore 
 which they are incapable of turning up to find the truth. The 
 study of the original languages of the Scriptures in our semina- 
 ries is often like the study of music in the schools of female edu- 
 cation. Many a weary hour is spent upon it ; many a difficulty 
 met and surmounted ; and when the sober business of life is en- 
 tered on, music is laid aside as useless, or its memory is revived 
 only to amuse an idle hour, or to please the transient guesfc. 
 Happy would it be if the ministers of religion would, even for 
 
Hi J.IFE AND TIMES 
 
 amusement, recall the study of the languages in which holy men 
 spoke and wrote. But a higher motive assuredly should lead 
 them to it — the high motive of being able to understand the book 
 to an explanation of which they have devoted their lives. 
 
 The age in which we live is not, as it seems to me, distinguish- 
 ed for simple and direct appeals to the Bible, in defence of the 
 doctrines of religion. Extensively it is an age in which the ap- 
 peal is made to the opinions of the fathers ; to the authority of 
 creeds and symbols of faith ; to the opinions of other times ; an 
 age in which to depart from those symbols and opinions, or to 
 doubt their infallibility, is regarded w r ith suspicion, and when 
 such a departure in the slightest degree turns many an eye with 
 deep vigilance on the first steps of the wanderer. By many it is 
 held, or rather felt, that the system of religious doctrine has been 
 settled by the investigations of the past ; that there is no hope of 
 discovering any new truth ; that theology, as now held, is not 
 susceptible of improvement ; that the whole field has been dug 
 over again and again with instruments as finished as our own, 
 and by as keen-sighted laborers as any of the present age can be ; 
 and that it is presumption for a man to hope to find in those mines 
 a new gem that would sparkle in the crown of truth. 
 
 No good or grateful man will undervalue the wisdom of the 
 past. lie will be thankful for all the toil of the hands, the head 
 and the heart, by which we are placed in our present advanced 
 position over other times. In religion, as well as in everything 
 else, we are acting on the results, and deriving the full benefit of 
 the experience of the past. We reap the fruits of all the self-de- 
 nials and sacrifices ; the profound studies, the travels, the skilful 
 inventions, and the sufferings of past times. Every happy dis- 
 covery, every ingenious invention, every hour of patient study, 
 every improvement in past times, has gone into the amelioration 
 of the human condition, and has contributed its part to the civili- 
 zation and refinement of the age in which we live. There has 
 not been a philosopher who has not thought for us ; not a traveller 
 who has not travelled for us; not a defender of liberty who has 
 not fought for us ; not an advocate of violated rights who has not 
 pleaded for us ; not a skilful student in medicine who has not con- 
 tributed something to make our condition more happy ; not a mar- 
 tvr who has not suffered to establish the' religion whose smiles 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lift" 
 
 and sunshine we now enjoy, and not a profound thinker in theo- 
 logy who has not done something to chase away error, and to 
 disclose the truth, that we may see it and be made better for it. 
 " Other men have labored, and we have entered into their labors. 
 "VVe begin where they left off; we start on life under all the ad- 
 vantages of the wisdom and knowledge and piety of past times; 
 and we should not undervalue or despise it. 
 
 But is the field fully explored ? Is there nothing yet to be 
 learned from the bible ? Is there no encouragement for us to 
 study the word of God ? Are we to receive the systems made 
 ready to our hands, and to suppose that there may be no rich 
 vein in this bed, that has not yet been fully explored ? Even 
 were it so, it would be better for the minister of religion to go to 
 the Bible and get his views of truth there, than from any mortal 
 lips, or from any human system of theology. There all is still 
 fresh, and vigorous, and instinct with life. The word of God is 
 a fountain ever fresh and health-giving ; and the streams that 
 issue thence create a rich verdure where they flow. They are 
 like the rivers that flow along in the deserts in the East. There 
 the course of a stream can be traced afar by the trees, and shrubs, 
 and flowers, and grass that spring up on its bank, and that are 
 sustained by it in its course— a long waving line of green in the 
 waste of sands. Where it winds along, that line of verdure 
 winds along ; where it expands into a lake that expands ; where 
 it dies away or is lost in the sand, that disappears. So it is with 
 views of truth that are derived from the word of God. Their 
 course can be traced along in a world not unlike pathless sands, 
 as the course of the river can be traced in the desert. The Bible 
 is the true fountain of waters in this world ; and as we wander 
 away from that, in our investigations and our preaching, we wan- 
 der amid pathless sands. 
 
 But can there be any improvement in theology ? Can there 
 be any advance made on the discoveries of other times ? Is it not 
 presumptuous for us to hope to see what the keen-sighted vision 
 of other times has not seen ? Is not the system of theology per- 
 fect as it came from God? I answer, yes. And so was astrono- 
 my a perfect system when the " morning stars sang together ;" 
 but it is one thing for the system to be perfect as it came from 
 God, and another for it to be perfect as it appears in the form in 
 
llV LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 which we hold it. So were the sciences of botany, and chemis- 
 try, and anatomy perfect as they came from God ; but ages have 
 been required to understand them as they existed in His mind ; 
 and other ages may yet furnish the means of improvement on 
 those systems as held by man. So God has placed the gold under 
 ground, and the pearls at the bottom of the sea for man — perfect 
 in their nature as they came from his hand. Has all the gold 
 been dug from the mines? Have all the pearls been fished from 
 the bottom of the ocean? The whole system of sciences was as 
 perfect in the mind of God as the system of revealed truth ; yet 
 all are given to man to be sought out ; to be elaborated by the 
 process of ages; to reward human diligence, and to make man a 
 " co-worker with God." u Truth is the daughter of time ;" and 
 is it to be assumed that all the truth is not known ? That there 
 is no error in the views with which we now hold it ? That all 
 is known of the power of truth yet on the human soul ? 
 
 I am now speaking of the ministry, and not of theology in gen- 
 eral ; and I am urging to the study of the Bible with a view to a 
 more successful preaching of the gospel. It seems to me that as 
 yet we know comparatively little of the power of preaching the 
 truths of the Bible. That man has gained much as a preacher 
 who is willing to investigate, by honest rules, the meaning of the 
 Bible, and then to suffer the truth of God to speak out— no mat- 
 ter where it leans, and no matter on what man, or customs, or 
 systems it impinges. Let it take its course like an unobstructed 
 stream, or like a beam of light direct from the sun to the eyes of 
 men. But when we seek to make embankments for the stream, 
 to confine it within channels, such as we choose, how much of 
 its beauty is lost, and how often do we obstruct it ! When we 
 interpose media between us and the pure light of the sun that we 
 deem ever so clear, how often do we turn aside the rays or divide 
 the beam into scattered rays that may make a pretty picture, but 
 which prevent the full glory of the unobstructed sun ! There is 
 a power yet to be seen in preaching the Bible which the world 
 has not fully understood ; and he does an incalculable service to 
 his own times and to the world, who derives the truths which 
 he inculcates directly from the Book of life. Besides, the Bible 
 is receiving constant illustrations and confirmations from every 
 science, and from every traveler into the oriental world. Not a 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lv 
 
 man comes back to ns from the east who does not give us some 
 new illustration of the truth or the beauty of the Bible. He who 
 wanders among the ruins of Babylon; he who visits the mount 
 Of Olives or Lebanon; lie who gazes upon the remains of tem- 
 ples, and palaces, and upon the dwelling-places of the dead ; he 
 who tells us of desolate Petra or the barren rock of Tyre; he who 
 describes to us the Bedouin, or tells us how they build a house or 
 pitch a tent in the east, is doing something to make us better ac- 
 quainted with the Bible. A few years past have opened here a 
 vast field of interesting research, and that research has turned 
 the attention of the world to the full confirmation of the Scrip- 
 ture prophecies ; and for a theologian there is now no field of in- 
 vestigation more rich and promising than this ; and how can a 
 man, whose business it is to explain the oracles of God, be igno- 
 rant of it? But where should I stop in the illustration of this 
 point? The minister should be familiar with that wonderful 
 book which he professes to explain and to defend. IBs life is 
 none too long to make it the object of his study; nor will the 
 field be all explored when we die. It will be as fresh, and beau- 
 tiful, and new, too, to the next generation as it is to us ; and 
 when ice die, so far from having reached the ultima Thule of dis- 
 covery in the word of God, we shall feel that we have but just 
 entered on the boundless ocean. I confess that long since /have 
 abandoned all idea of fully understanding the Bible in all its parts 
 in this world ; and I am amazed when men gravely suppose 
 there cannot be truths there, like diamonds in the earth, on which 
 the eye has never yet gazed. — The amount of what I have said 
 on this point is this, that the preacher who would make full 
 proof of the ministry, should derive all his doctrines from tho 
 word of God ; he should be familiar with all that can illustrate 
 the Bible ; — with its language, its scope, its design ; with all in 
 criticism, archaeology, history, travels, manners, customs, laws, 
 that shall go to vindicate its divine origin, and explain its mean- 
 ing. From this pure fountain of life he should constantly drink. 
 Let him climb the hill of Calvary rather than the heights of Par- 
 nassus, and love less to linger at the Castalian Fount than at 
 
 '•' Siloah's brook that flowed 
 Fast by the oracle of God. 
 
lvi LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 II. The times in which we live demand a ministry that shall 
 
 */ 
 
 be distinguished for sound and solid learning. Never, indeed, can 
 this qualification be safely dispensed with ; but there is not a lit- 
 tle in our age and country" that peculiarly demands it. In no na- 
 tion on the face of the earth has there been a more prevailing and 
 permanent conviction that this was an important, if not an essen- 
 tial qualification for the ministry, than in our own ; and to this 
 conviction, and the natural result of that conviction in preparing 
 the ministry for its work, is to be traced no small measure of the 
 respect shown to the sacred office in our land. Our countrymen 
 in general are qualified to appreciate good sense, solid learning, 
 and high attainments, and they are prepared to do honor to such 
 attainments wherever they may be found. It is a bright fact in 
 our history that the first college in our land was founded for the 
 purpose of training up men for the Christian ministry ; and it is a 
 fact, that is at the same time honorable to the solid learning of 
 the ministry, and that bespeaks the confidence which the com- 
 munity reposes in the ministry, that nearly all the Presidents, 
 and a very large portion of the professors in our colleges, are, to 
 this day, ministers of the gospel. The people of this nation are 
 willing that this state of things should continue. They evince 
 no impotience under the working of the system. They desire no 
 change. The experience of two hundred years has satisfied them 
 that the system works well ; and the men of the world, and even 
 the majority of infidels in the land, who have sons to educate, are 
 so satisfied with the propriety of the arrangement, that all they 
 demand is the evidence of solid learning united with piety, to 
 place all these institutions in the hands of the ministers of the 
 gospel. 
 
 But it is not with this reference now that I advocate the ne- 
 cessity of solid learning. It is with reference to the immediate 
 duties of the pastoral office. I do not believe that a minister of 
 the gospel should enter on his work with a view to become ulti- 
 mately a President of a literary institution. If he becomes such, 
 it should be because there are intimations of divine will that 
 do not leave the question of duty in doubt. It is with reference 
 to the office of Pastor ; to the work of the ministry ; to the busi- 
 ness of saving souls, that I now urge the argument that the times 
 demand a ministry that shall be distinguished for solid learning. 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lvii 
 
 It should be for the following among many other reasons: (1.) 
 There is great danger of neglecting and undervaluing such attain- 
 ments. There is great danger that, with whatever views the minis- 
 try may be entered, the attention may be soon turned from the pur- 
 suit of whatever can be appropriately classed under the head of 
 classical attainments, or whatever bears on the sciences, or what- 
 ever marks progress in the severe discipline of the mind. This is 
 an age of action — in the ministry and in the world. It is a time 
 when ministers are called to a great amount of labor ; when they 
 are expected to perform a much larger amount of pastoral duties 
 than was required in the days of our fathers ; when the numerous 
 benevolent institutions of the age make a constant draft on the 
 time, and strength, and toil of pastors ; when the cause of tem- 
 perance, of morals, and of missions — with numerous kindred 
 causes depend on the ministers of the gospel ; and when, there- 
 fore, they are in great danger of satisfying their consciences for a 
 neglect of classic learning, by the fact that they are called to a 
 great amount of collateral duties. It is not to be wondered at 
 that in these circumstances a warm-hearted pastor in the midst 
 of the thrilling scenes of a work of grace, or in the pleasantness 
 of the pastoral intercourse, or in the wearisomeness caused by the 
 demands on his time, should excuse himself from the diligent 
 pursuit of the somewhat foreign or collateral subjects that do not 
 bear directly on his work. (2.) Again. This is an age when 
 the mass of men are driven forward by headlong propensities, 
 and when there is danger of trampling down, in the pursuit of 
 honor and of gold, all that has been hitherto regarded as valuable 
 and settled in solid learning, as well as in staid and virtuous hab- 
 its. To careful observers of the propensities of this age it has 
 not been regarded as a matter of wonder that the attempt should 
 have been made to displace classic learning from the schools, and 
 to introduce men into the ministry by a shorter course than our 
 fathers thought necessary, and in such a way as to unfit them, 
 when in the ministry, for any eminent attainments in solid learn- 
 ing. It is one of the regular results of the course of events in 
 this age. It is an age, say those who plead for this, of enterprise 
 and action. A large part of life, they go on to remark, is wasted 
 before men begin to act. Months and years are consumed in the 
 attainment of profitless learning ; in the mere drilling of the 
 
Will LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 Christian soldier, while he ought to be in the Held. On the basis 
 of such reasoning as this, the plan is formed for preparing men 
 for action, and for action only. The classics are laid aside. The 
 time of preparation is shortened. The field is to be entered at an 
 earlier age, and the ' study' is to be a place quite secondary and 
 unimportant in the arrangements of the ministerial life. Have 
 such men forgotten that a long and tedious training, involving, 
 apparently, a great waste of time, is the allotment of man? 
 "What would seem to be a greater waste of time than that one- 
 third of the ordinary life of man in the period of infancy, child- 
 hood, and youth, is passed in the slow and cumbersome process 
 of learning to talk, to move, to read, to think, and to become ac- 
 quainted with the elements of the mechanic arts? Is it then a 
 departure from the established laws of the world, when men are 
 called by long and weary toils, to prepare for the momentous 
 work of leading sinners to the altar and the cross ? Who knows 
 not how much more was gained on the field of Waterloo, or in 
 the strife at Trafalgar, by regular and disciplined troops, than 
 could have been done by raw and undisciplined men? And who, 
 when the banners of victory float over the fields of the slain, or 
 the acclamations of emancipated freemen greet the returning con- 
 queror, regret the days of discipline, or the time spent in prepar- 
 ing for conflict ? And who is to stand up against the headlong 
 propensities of this age, if it be not the minister of the gospel ? 
 And who are to teach our deluded countrymen that there is some- 
 thing better than gold ; that the landmarks of opinion and learn- 
 ing, of morals and sound sense, are not to be trodden down, if it 
 be not the ministers of religion ? And where shall we look for 
 that which will command the respect of thinking men, if it be 
 not to those who have been trained with care in our schools, and 
 who are, by their office, to be the guides and instructors of man- 
 kind ? Again ; (3.) The age in which we live, is, perhaps, more 
 than most former ages, a period when the attacks on Christianity 
 have been drawn from learning and science. Each of the sciences 
 as it has developed itself, has been arrayed in some form against 
 the authority of the Bible, and often by the skill of the adversaries 
 of the Christian religion in such a form as to alarm its friends. 
 At one time the argument was derived from the disclosures of 
 modern astronomy ; at another from the ancient records of Hin- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lix 
 
 dostan and China, and the dynasties of kings who are recorded to 
 have reigned cylces of ages before the account, in Moses, of the 
 creation; at another time the infidel has gone and interrogated 
 the crater of the volcano and searched its hardened scoriae, and 
 made it tell of ages long before the Scripture account of the crea- 
 tion of man; and at another the argument has been drawn from 
 the researches of the geologist. All sciences have been taxed to 
 find objections to the Bible ; and there are few infidels who have 
 not derived their objections from some form of pretended learn- 
 ing. In such an age, wiiat shall the ministers of religion do who 
 are unable to defend the book, to vindicate and explain which is 
 the business of their lives ? In this, strife and declamation will 
 not do for argument ; nor will assertion, however confident or 
 fierce, satisfy thinking men. The minister of the gospel should, 
 as he easily may, command the respect of his fellow-men, and 
 should show them — as he easily may, without ostentation — that 
 he is not unworthy the confidence due to one in the office which 
 he sustains. 
 
 I am not ignorant of the objections which may be felt and urg- 
 ed to these remarks. I know it may be asked how is time to be 
 found for these attainments ? How shall health be secured for 
 these objects ? And another question, not less important, how 
 shall the heart be kept, and the fire of devotion be maintained, 
 brightly burning on the altar of the heart, while making these 
 preparations ? I should transcend all reasonable bounds in my 
 remarks, if I were to attempt to go fully into an answer to these 
 inquiries. . I would only observe that it may be at least question- 
 able whether all the ministers of the gospel have just that sense 
 of the value of time which they ought to have, and whether all 
 make full proof of their ministry in the utmost cultivation of their 
 powers. The question whether the diligence of the student and 
 the faithfulness of the pastor can be united : whether the intel- 
 lect may be intensely cultivated so as not to interfere with the 
 growth of grace in the heart ; and whether time can be secured 
 for the pursuit of these objects, and yet not interfere with the 
 public duties of the ministry ; whether a man may so study as to 
 contribute something to carry forward the intellect of his age, and 
 yet not interfere with his duties in the pulpit, in the prayer-meet- 
 ing, in the Bible-class, and in family visitation, and so as to secure 
 
lx LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 permanent health also is a question which it would be of im- 
 mense importance to settle. " What shall we say to the nine 
 ponderous folios of Augustine, and nearly the same number of 
 Chrysostom, volumes not written like Jerome's in monastic re- 
 tirement, but in the midst of almost daily preaching engage- 
 ments, and conflicting, anxious, and responsible duties ?" What 
 shall we say of the nine folios of Calvin — the most diligent 
 preacher of his age — the man who read every week in the year, 
 three lectures in divinity ; and who preached two hundred and 
 eighty-six times in the year ? What shall we say to the folios 
 of Baxter, the most laborious pastor and the most successful min- 
 ister of his day ? What shall we say of the volumes of Edwards, 
 perhaps the most laborious student, as he was the profoundest 
 man and the best preacher of his time ? In that great man, as- 
 suredly, profound study never interfered with humble-hearted 
 piety ; and in him the contemplation of the most abstruse sub- 
 jects of metaphysical inquiry did not interfere with the most sim- 
 ple style of preaching, or with that solemn and effective elo- 
 quence of the heart which bathes a congregation in tears. But 
 I cannot enlarge on this point. The sum of my remarks is, that 
 we may not in this age have learned the art of making full proof 
 of our ministry, and that there may be a blending of study, and 
 piety, and pastoral fidelity such as shall greatly augment the use- 
 fulness of those who minister at the altar. 
 
 III. The times demand a ministry of sober views ; of settled 
 habits of industry ; of plain practical good sense ; of sound and 
 judicious modes of thinking ; a ministry that shall be patient, 
 equable, persevering, and that shall look for success ra'ther in the 
 proper results of patient toil, than in new experiments, and new 
 modes of doing things. Against real improvements, and plans 
 that shall really save labor, or that shall be a wise adaptation of 
 skill to save labor, no good man can utter a word. Such plans 
 are not to be rejected merely because they appear to be innova- 
 tions, nor is anything to be set down as certainly wrong because 
 it is new. If a doctrine or measure be true and wise, no minister 
 of the gospel should be found in opposition to it. But the idea 
 which I wish to convey, is, that the ministers of the gospel should 
 not expect to accomplish their objects by anything which con- 
 templates success as the mere result of new and untried experi- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. ixi 
 
 merits, or anything which shall be originated to avoid severe, and 
 patient, and protracted toil. Success should not be expected from 
 that which is adapted merely to startle, shock, surprise, confound, 
 or perplex. Success should not be looked for as the result of 
 scheming, of dark plans, of unusual modes of thought, of para- 
 doxes in theology, or in an affected originality. The men who 
 enter the ministry should be men who will be willing to labor 
 patiently as long as may be necessary to accomplish an object ; 
 to tread on if necessary, in a path which has been trodden by 
 thousands before ; and at the close of life to look back upon re- 
 sults gained by patient toil rather than on the results of fitful 
 efforts, however brilliant, or which have only served to startle 
 and amaze mankind. Need I state reasons why the -age de- 
 mands such a ministry ? Not so much for the purpose of stating 
 reasons as for illustrating what I mean, I would refer to the fol- 
 lowing summary of points which I have not room to illustrate 
 at length. (1.) The people of our nation, and our ancestors in 
 our father-land, have hitherto been distinguished among other 
 nations for this : for what is sensible and solid rather than for 
 what is brilliant ; for the useful rather than the visionary ; for 
 patient toil rather than for mere experiment ; for what Mr. 
 Locke calls " large, sound, round-about sense ;" a trait of charac- 
 ter which has given us some advantages, at least, over the vola- 
 tile Frenchman, the dull and dark Spaniard, the effeminate Ita- 
 lian, and the visionary and contemplative German : and it is 
 desirable that the ministiy should do something, at least, to 
 maintain this trait in the national character. (2.) The age in 
 which we live is becoming visionary, and wild, and headlong in 
 its propensities. Bubbles swell and burst on every side ; fancied 
 cities of extreme beauty and eminent commercial advantages, on 
 paper, rise on every hill, and in every vale, and beside every 
 water-fall and stream, and fall, and are succeeded by others as 
 rapidly as if they were some splendid moving pageant ; fortunes 
 are made and lost as if men were playing marbles, or as if the 
 business of life had become the sports of children. (3.) There is 
 a tendency to crowd these things into religion, and to pursue the 
 work of religion, and the business of saving souls, by plans as 
 wild as those by which men seek gain. Novel theories are 
 broached ; novel plans formed ; associations are entered into for 
 
lxil LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 impracticable purposes ; and opinions are started anew and advo- 
 cated, which experience has shown to have been wild, and false, 
 and dangerous centuries ago. Soon many of those plans are 
 abandoned — as the paper cities disappear from the map of the 
 nation ; or the vain speculator in theology gains as much wisdom 
 and knowledge as the speculator in lands and town lots does 
 gold ; and time is wasted for '* that which is not bread, and labor 
 for that which satisfieth not." 
 
 (4.) From such bubbles, and from mere experiments, the min- 
 istry should stand aloof. These games, if they must be played, 
 should be played by the world. By example, and by precept, by 
 a patient, sober, practical life, as well as by preaching, the min- 
 isters of the gospel are to recall men to the soberness of truth. A 
 preacher has no time to lose in mere experiments; none to 
 squander in idle speculations. The average length of time in the 
 ministry in this country is probably not twenty years ; and all 
 that time may be filled up in a course of undoubted wisdom, and 
 a warfare with evil, where not one blow shall be struck on the 
 empty air. 
 
 (5.) Again. The age in which we live is becoming distinguished 
 not merely for pursuits of things of little or no promise or utility, 
 but for putting things of real value out of their places ; or for the 
 disproportionate location of things of real worth. There are mul- 
 titudes of men who become eminent, not for pursuing an object of 
 no importance, but for pursuing it in a manner which requires 
 everything else to give place to it. Some one favorite project is 
 held so near to the eye, that nothing else is seen ; and they are 
 distinguished for what is known in a homely, but expressive 
 phrase, for riding hobbies. With one, temperance is everything ; 
 with another, the tract cause ; with another, the Bible cause ; with 
 another, the cause of moral reform ; with another, the rights of 
 the slave ; and so on through all the catalogue of the plans of be- 
 nevolence, wise and unwise. With one, the age goes too fast ; and 
 the great design of the ministry is to " stand still and hold back ;" 
 and with another, the age goes to slow ; and the object of the 
 ministry is, Jehu-like, to spur on its sluggish movements. Many 
 or most of these things are seen and admitted to be important ; 
 and they who do not see them as their advocates do, are de- 
 nounced as accessories to the evils to be remedied, or as time- 
 servers. All the interests of the church and the state ; of Chris- 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. ]xHl 
 
 tian and heathen lands, are made to turn on the success of the 
 one project; and he who does not see it as the zealous advocate 
 does, is held up as recreant to his master. Now, however natu- 
 ral this amiable propensity may be to men who have but one 
 cause to advocate, yet it is not the feeling which is to be culti- 
 vated by the ministry of the gospel. The pastor, the great guar- 
 dian, under God, of the dearest interests of benevolence, of social 
 order, and of the rights of man, is to look out with a well- 
 balanced mind, and a clear and calm eye, upon all the interests 
 of benevolence. He is to endeavor to look upon things in their 
 just proportions. He is to look abroad upon the world. Tem- 
 perance is not everything ; nor is the cause of foreign missions, 
 or domestic missions, or tracts, or human liberty everything. 
 They are parts of one great whole; the plans for these and kin- 
 dred objects are bright and beautiful portions in the great pic- 
 ture of benevolence. To the pastoral office we look that these 
 objects should be held up in their proper proportions ; and the 
 moment when the pastor loses the proper balance of his mind, 
 and begins to ride " a. hobby," that moment his usefulness begins 
 to wane. 
 
 (6.) One other thought under this head. The age demands a 
 ministry distinguished for sober industry. There is enough to 
 accomplish to demand all the time, and it cannot be accomplished 
 by mere genius, or by fitful efforts. It must be by patient toil. 
 An industrious man, no matter what his talents, will always 
 make himself respectable ; an indolent man, no matter what his 
 genius, never can be. In the ministry, pre-eminently, no man 
 should presume on his genius, or talents, or superiority to the 
 mass of minds around him. A man owes his best efforts to his 
 people, and to his master ; to the one by a solemn compact when 
 he becomes their pastor, to the other by sacred covenant when 
 deeply feeling the guilt of sin and the grateful sense of pardon, 
 he gave himself to the great Redeemer in the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation. An idle man in the ministry is a violator of at least 
 two sacred compacts ; and upon such a man God will not, does 
 not smile. 
 
 IV. The times demand men in the ministry who shall be the 
 warm and unflinching advocates of every good cause. 
 
lxiv LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 (1.) Men are required who shall have so well-settled and in- 
 telligent views of truth as not to be afraid of the examination of 
 any opinion, or afraid to defend any sentiment which is in ac- 
 cordance with the word of God. They should be men of such 
 independence of mind, that they will examine every subject, and 
 every opinion that may be submitted to them, or on which they 
 may be called to act. The times are not theoretically against 
 free discussion and the independent maintenance of one's own 
 opinions. The character of the age will not tolerate that. But 
 the secret aim is, to screen a few points from examination. It is 
 so to present the authority of past times and of great names, as to 
 secure certain points from examination. Now the pulpit is to 
 be one place — if the last in the world — of free and independent 
 examination of all the opinions which can affect the destiny or 
 the duty of man. Should the right of free examination and of 
 free discussion be driven from the capitol ; should the conductors 
 of the press cower before the outbreaking* of popular violence ; 
 should men in all other places succeed in isolating certain sub- 
 jects as points which are never to be examined ; yet the pulpit 
 is to remain as the last place to which liberty is to take its 
 flight, and in the sanctuary men are to breathe freely, and to be 
 allowed to speak their emotions with no one to make them 
 afraid. Our lathers, in this commonwealth, worshipped God 
 with arms in their hands, to guard themselves from the attacks 
 of savage barbarians. Not with such arms, we trust, are we to 
 defend the right of free discussion; but such a wilderness is 
 again to be sought — if there remains such an one on the earth — 
 and such perils again encountered, before the sons of the pilgrims 
 shall yield the right of the free expression of their sentiments in 
 the pulpit, on all the great questions that affect the welfare of 
 man. The man of God is to enter that sacred place with his 
 Bible as his guide, and is to be unawed in its exposition by any 
 great names; by any fear of 'personal violence ; by any decrees 
 of councils; or by any laws which this world can ever promul- 
 gate to fetter the freedom of thought. There, at least, is to be 
 one place where truth may be examined, and where the voice 
 of God may be heard in our world ; and there, as long as he 
 who holds the stars in his right hand shall continue life, is the 
 truth to shine forth on a dark world. 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. 1XV 
 
 2. Men arc required in the ministry who shall be the warm 
 and decided friends of the temperance reformation ; and whose 
 opinions and practice on this subject shall be shaped by the strict- 
 est laws of morals. For this opinion, the reasons are plain. The 
 temperance reform is one of the features of the age. Revolutions 
 do not go backward ; and this cause is destined, it is believed, to 
 triumph, and ultimately to settle down on the principles of the 
 most strict morals. It was a sage remark of Jefferson, that no. 
 good cause is undertaken and persevered in, which does not ulti- 
 mately overcome every obstacle and secure a final triumph ; and 
 if anything certain respecting the future can be argued from the 
 past, it is that this cause will secure an ultimate victory. The 
 people will carry it forward, whatever may be the feelings of the 
 ministers of the gospel. Now, it is not only the duty of the min- 
 isters of religion to be foremost in " every good word and work," 
 but it is a fact that they may soon be left far in the rear in this 
 cause, and a fact that such a position will materially impede 
 their own work. A people zealous in the cause of temperance 
 will not long sit under the ministrations of a man who indulges 
 in intoxicating drinks ; nor can he, by any eloquence in preach- 
 ing, counteract the effect which this single fact will have on their 
 minds. Besides, the ministry has already suffered enough from 
 intemperance. Not a few men in this land, of the brightest 
 talent that was ever adapted to adorn the pulpit, have fallen a 
 sacrifice to this destroyer ; and they have left their names to be 
 mentioned hereafter with pity and dishonor. 
 
 (3.) In like manner, the times demand a ministry that shall 
 be the unflinching advocates of revivals of religion. Such men 
 lived in other times ; and such scenes blessed the land where 
 Davis, and Edwards, and Whitfield, and the Tennents lived. 
 What is needed now is the ministry of men who have an intelli- 
 gent faith in revivals; who have no fear of the effects which 
 truth, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, shall have on the 
 mind ; who shall so far understand the philosophy of revivals as 
 to be able to vindicate them when assailed, and to show to men 
 of intelligence that they are in accordance with the laws of our 
 nature ; and whose preaching shall be such as shall be fitted, 
 under the direction of the Holy Spirit, to secure such results on 
 the minds of men. To revivals of religion our country owes 
 
lx 
 
 VI LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 more than all other moral causes put together ; and if our in- 
 stitutions are preserved in safety, it must be by such extraordi- 
 nary manifestations of the presence and the power of God. Our 
 sons forsake the homes of their fathers ; they wander away from 
 the place of schools and churches to the wilderness of the west ; 
 they go from the sound of the Sabbath-bell, and they forget the 
 Sabbath and the Bible, and the place of prayer ; they leave the 
 places where thhir fathers sleep in their graves, and they forget 
 the religion which sustained and comforted them. They go for 
 gold, and they wander over the prairie, they fell the forest, they 
 ascend the stream in pursuit of it, and they trample down the 
 law of the Sabbath ; and soon, too, forget the laws of honesty 
 and fair-dealing, in the insatiable love of gain. Meantime, every 
 man, such is our freedom, may advance any sentiments lie pleases. 
 He may defend them by all the power of argument, and enforce 
 them by all the eloquence of persuasion. He may clothe his 
 corrupt sentiments in the charms of verse, and he may make a 
 thousand cottages beyond the mountains re-echo with the cor- 
 rupt and the corrupting strain. He may call to his aid the power 
 of the press, and may secure a lodgment for his infidel senti- 
 ments in the most distant habitation in the republic. What can 
 meet this state of things, and arrest the evils that spread with 
 the fleetness of the courser or the wind ? What can pursue and 
 overtake these wanderers but revivals of religion — but that 
 Spirit which, like the wind, acts where it pleases ? Yet they 
 must be pursued. If our sons go thus, they are to be followed 
 and reminded of the commands of God. None of them are to be 
 suffered to go to any fertile vale or prairie in the west without 
 the institutions of the gospel ; nor are they to be suffered to con- 
 struct a hamlet, or to establish a village, or to build a city that 
 shall be devoted to any other God than the God of their fathers. 
 By all the self-denials of benevolence ; by all the power of ar- 
 gument; by all the implored influences of the Holy Ghost, they 
 are to be persuaded to plant there the rose of Sharon, and to 
 make the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the 
 desert to bud and blossom as the rose. In such circumstances 
 God has interposed ; and he has thus blessed our own land and 
 times with signal revivals of religion. 
 
 Our whole country thus far has been guarded and protected 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lxvii 
 
 by the presence of the Spirit of God ; and " American revivals " 
 have been the objects of the most intense interest among those 
 in other lands who have sought to understand the secret of our 
 prosperity. That man who enters the pulpit with a cold heart 
 and a doubtful mind, in regard to such works of grace ; who 
 looks with suspicion on the means which the Spirit of God has 
 appointed and blessed for this object in past times; and who co- 
 incides with the enemies of revivals in denouncing them as fana- 
 ticism, understands as little the history of his own country as he 
 does the laws of the human mind and the Bible, and lacks the 
 spirit which a man should have who stands in an American 
 pulpit. 
 
 (4.) Men are required who shall stand up as the firm advo- 
 cates of missions, and of every proper project for the world's con- 
 version. That great design of bringing this whole world, by the 
 divine blessing, under the influence of Christian truth, is one of 
 the strong features of the age ; and the hope and expectation of 
 it has seized upon the churches with a tenacity which will not 
 be relaxed. The plan is not the work of a moment, and has none 
 of the marks of enthusiasm. There never was a plan of conquest 
 that was so deliberately formed, or that enlisted so many hearts 
 before. Schemes of victory to be gained by blood have usually 
 been formed by some one master mind — some ambitious monarch 
 or warrior, while the nation over which he ruled had no sympa- 
 thy with the plan, and no agency in its formation ; or where the 
 army was led on by the strength of military discipline alone. 
 But this is not the origin of the plan for securing the conquest of 
 this world for God. It is no plan of a leader simply ; it has been 
 formed by the church at large — the mass of Christians who are 
 prepared to go on with it whether the ministers of religion will 
 or will not guide them. The church at large will bear with no 
 patience opposition in the ministry to this great undertaking ; nor 
 can a minister long hold his place in the confidence and affections 
 of the church, whose heart is not in this work. He who does 
 not enter on this work prepared to devote his talents and learn- 
 ing, his heart and bodily powers to the advancement of this 
 cause, has not the spirit of the age, and falls behind the times in 
 which he lives. 
 
 (5.) The times demand men in the ministry who shall be men 
 
lxviii LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 of peace. The period has arrived in the history of the world 
 when there should be a full and fair illustration of the power of 
 the gospel to produce a spirit of peace in the hearts of all the 
 ambassadors of him who was the "Prince of Peace." The fond- 
 ness for theological combat and ecclesiastical gladiatorship, has 
 been one of the most remarkable characteristics pertaining to tho 
 character of the ministers of the gospel in past times, and ono 
 which it may be difficult to account for. In a portion of tho 
 ministry, to a melancholy extent, this has been a characteristic 
 of the ministry of the present times. Whatever may have been 
 the causes, and whoever may have been to blame, it is certain 
 that this spirit of contention and strife is one of the things which 
 has been most apparent for a few past years ; and that the wea- 
 pons of war are still kept furbished, and that the champions are 
 not disposed to lay them aside. Having tried these weapons 
 long enough, with only the advantage that accrues to an army 
 in a dark night, when one part of the army draws the sword on 
 another, there is now needed a ministry that shall follow after 
 the things that make for peace ;" where there shall be mutual 
 confidence and charity ; where there shall be candor for one 
 another's imperfections ; where there shall be toleration of 
 opinions on points that do not affect the essentials of Christian 
 doctrine ; and where there shall be harmony of view and action 
 on the great work of saving the world. For twenty years, it 
 may be remarked, particularly, the din of ecclesiastical strife has 
 been heard again within the bounds of that Christian community 
 of which Davies was a minister and a member ; and again, as in 
 his time, that church has been rent in twain, and the noise of the 
 strife has been heard afar. This strife has been long enough. 
 Enough of that glory lias been achieved, for one age, which can 
 be achieved by arraying brother against brother, and altar against 
 altar; by skill in noisy polemics and in harsh denunciation ; by 
 rending the church asunder, and by triumph where victory is 
 always equal to defeat. We want now men of peace, and cha- 
 rity, and love ; men who can bear and forbear, men who will 
 not " make a brother an offender for a word ;' men who shall be 
 more anxious to convert a sinner from the errors of his ways than 
 to defend the " shibboleth " of party. Such men, too, the church 
 will soon have. It requires now all the zeal and talent of the 
 leaders in the strife to convince the mass of Christians that the 
 
OF THE AUTHOR. lxiX 
 
 controversy is of any importance ; and even that slight sense of 
 the importance of the points for which there is such a noise of 
 contention, is fast dying away. 
 
 It is an auspicious circumstance in these times, that there is 
 such a demand for such works as those of President Davies, as 
 to warrant their republication. The effect of the study of such 
 models on the ministry and on the churches, cannot but be 
 auspicious to the cause of evangelical religion. It is one of the 
 honors of our country, young though we are, that we do not lack 
 for examples of the highest order of preaching ; and even now, 
 when we look through a great library for the best models, we 
 instinctively fix on some that have been produced on this side the 
 ocean. The purest models of preaching are to be found un- 
 doubtedly, in the discourses of the apostles and of the Great- 
 Preacher; but after leaving those times, we shall find no land, 
 probably, where there have been exhibited more correct speci- 
 mens of pure classic style, of sober thought, of instructive dis- 
 courses, of appeals adapted to rouse the concience of a sinner, 
 or to warm the heart of a child of God, than have been furnished 
 in our own land. The American pulpit, imperfect as it is, is 
 more elevated in its influence and.power than that of any other 
 nation ; and in no other country is its influence so justly appre- 
 ciated or so deeply felt on the public mind. Much as we may 
 revere the memory of the past ; much as we may learn from the 
 wisdom of other generations ; and much as we may honor those 
 who have been or are distinguished for eminent usefulness across 
 the waters, yet if we wish to see the power of preaching exem- 
 plified in the hearts of men, and to derive instruction from the 
 lives and success of those of other times, we cannot find a more 
 appropiate place than to sit down at the feet of such men as 
 Davies, and Edwards, and the Tennents, and Strong, and Pay- 
 son, and Dwight, and Griffin, and Bedell. It will be an honor to 
 tread in the footsteps of such men; it is an indication of a health- 
 ful tone in the public sentiment, and of holy aspirings in the 
 candidates for the holy office, when the works of these men 
 shall be demanded from the press; it is an indication of good 
 when the times require the republication of such discourses as 
 are here given again to the public — the warm, glowing, fervent, 
 eloquent sermons of the much lamented President of Nassau 
 Hall. 
 
I 
 
 
 •