Cornell University Library BX8936 .W38 ^'sto.fY„,.9,!...?!!? Presbyterian church In Am olln 3 1924 029 470 287 All books are subject to recall after two weeks Olin/Kroch Library DATE DUE ^14KL-J2J99T ^^^^SSS ™'-»^9pr mr^ *-w^ ^ ' 1 1 i GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029470287 PASTOR 'X IBS. fPSSP^TETOAM CHllP.CH MAIICH CHUNK, PA i\J-lL. AUrHOP. Of THE HESTOKYOF THE PKEoETI'EPIAiJ CHIIP.CH. IN AMEPJc^A tuLli-lj-fll.yJosepliMWilsoji,27?HnitL Tenth S^ jirlow '."ai-'Uiiiir SI rtifladdljl:iml8&7. A HISTORY OF THE FEOM ITS ORIGIN UNTIL THE YEAB 1760, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS EARLY MINISTERS. BY THE EEV- RICHARD WEBSTER, i.AIE PASTOB OF THE PRE S B YTE KI AN CHURCH, MAUOH CHCNE, PA. WITH BY THE REV. C. VAN RENSSELAER, D.D. AND §in |ist0rical |ntwtotti0K, BY THE REV. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, D.D. PUBLJSHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. PHILADELPHIA: JOSEPH M. WILSON, No. 27 SOUTH TENTH STREET, BELOW CHESTNUT ST. 1857. 3 ^ -.V '^ ^35'so-l^ Entered act'ording to Act of Congresa, in the year 1867, by JOSEPH M. "WILSON, in the ClerX's Of&ce of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of PennsylTania. ETBREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & CO. FHILADELFHIA, NOTICE. The Presbyterian Historical Society resolved, in 1853, to publisli the Eev. Eichard "Webster's "History of the Presbyte- rian Church." A committee, consisting of C. Van Eensselaer, John C. Backus, and Samuel Agnew, was appointed, with power to take measures to carry the resolution into effect. Yarious circumstances interfered to prevent the publication of the work until the present time. Since the committee was appointed, the basis of the Presbyte- rian Historical Society has been enlarged so as to include other branches of the Presbyterian church. It is, therefore, proper to state that the Society itself is not to be considered as committed to any of the controversial statements of the present history; but merely as issuing it under its general patronage and authority, after the manner of other Historical Societies. This volume of Church History is the first volume of the PUBLICATIONS OF THE PEBSBTTEEIAISr HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. C. Van Eensselaer, Chairman Ex. Com. of P. M. S. December 22, 1856. CONTENTS. FASB Memoik 11 iNXKODtrCTION 45 PART I. HISTORICAL. CHAPTER I. State of Ulster daring the Reigns of James I. and Charles I. — Trials of the Ulster Presbyterians — The Eagle's Wing — Bishop Bramhall — Mr. Castell — His plan for introducing the Gospel into the Colonies — The Battle of Dunbar — Scots Prisoners sent to the Colonies — 1670 to 1680, Scottish Presbyterians settle in Virginia, and procure a Minister from Ireland — Settlements in Maryland — 1680, Colonel Stevens applies to Laggan Presbytery for a Minis- ter — Efforts of Scottish noblemen and others to settle Carolina — 1684, Other prisoners sent from Scotland to Carolina — Lord Cardross — Settlements on the Potomac and Patuxent — Scotsmen join in purchasing the Jerseys — Scott, of Pitlochie — Voluntary exiles — Barclay, of Urie — Hume, of Paisley — Emi- gration to Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia — Dutch Reformed Congregations — Society of Friends — Ranters — John Labadie — Delusion in New England — Efforts made in Massachusetts to send the Gospel to Virginia — Episcopal Churches — Baptists — Presbyterianism in Philadelphia — Francis Mal^emie — Other Ministers— State of Morals — Religious Liberty in the Colonies 65-78 CHAPTER II. Opening of Eighteenth Century — High-Churohism again in power — New Jersey united to New York — Viscount Cornbury appointed Governor— Conduct of Church Party in Pennsylvania, 1701-1703 — Colonel Quarijy— George Keith — Sir Robert Carr, Governor — Fears of compulsory enforcement of Con- formity — Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts incorporated in 1701 — Steps taken to have a Bishop consecrated — The Bishop of London and Archbishop Seeker favourable — Two Jacobites consecrated, and sent over The Bishop of London and the Baptism of Dissenters — Vesey, the Rector of Trinity Church, New York — Town of Jamaica Settled — John Hub- 5 6 CONTENTS. FAQS bard and Lord Cornbury — Tyrannical proceedings in Jamaica — Keith urges Cornbury to further harsh Steps — Samuel Bownas— Plempstead settled — Further proceedings of Keith and other Episcopalians — Irregularities of the Episcopal Clergy— Proceedings in Virginia — Several Ministers qualified to preach — First meeting of the Presbytery — Note 79-91 CHAPTER III. The Synod of Ulster before 1697— Records lost— Order adopted in 1698— Sub- scription of Confession' adopted, 1705 — Probable course of Philadelphia Presbytery — First meeting at Freehold — Second meeting at Philadelphia — The Members — Letters from members to Scotland — Aid from London — Soon failed — Happy intercourse of the Brethren — Doctrines and Order of the first members of the Presbytery — Formation of the Synod — Note — Fund esta- blished — Emigration from North of Ireland — Cotton Mather — Ministers arrive from Ireland — The Toleration Act extended to Ireland in 1719 — Irish Presbyterians refuse the terms of the Toleration Act — Their f^rm proposed to the Government — Mr. Haliday, of Belfast, refuses subscription to the Westminster Confession — Troubles in the Irish Church on Creeds and Con- fessions — 1721, Gillespie's proceedings in the Synod — Discussions in Synod — Further proceedings in the Irish Presbyterian Church — Their effects on the Synod — The Antrim Presbytery — Synod of Philadelphia, 1727 — "A full Synod" every third year resolved on — Debates on Subscription — Dickinson's "Remarks" — Proceedings in Synod of 1729 — Division in Charleston Pres- bytery — The Adopting Act — Samuel Hemphill^Jealousy of the people for the Standards — Difference between Gilbert Tennent and Cowell — Proceed- ings adopted to save the Church from the intrusion of unsound or immoral ministers from other Churches — Supplies from New England — From Eng- land — from Ireland — From Scotland — Presbyterianism in New England — Emigration from 1718 till 1740 mainly Presbyterian — Effect on the Churches 92-120 CHAPTER IV. Identity of Discipline in the Irish, Scottish, and American Churches — Family Training — Ministerial Labours — Presbyterial Oversight — Psalmody — Francis Rous — Ministerial Support — Schools — Style of Preaching — Publication of Sermons — The " Marrow Controversy" — Jlinisters come from the Mother- Churches — Gilbert Tennent educated in this country — Feeling of other bodies towards the Church — 1729, The Synod condemns the prevalence of a litigious spirit among Church-members — Order relative to Marriages Limited Intercourse with the Church of Scotland — Correspondence with the Scottish Assembly, and with the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge 121-131 CHAPTER V. State of Society before the " Great Revival" — Intelligence of Revivals abroad — Effects on the Churches — Decline of Godliness lamented — Means adopted CONTENTS. 7 PAGE by the Synod — Gilbert Tenuent — Synod adopts his Views — Philadelphia Presbytery complies with Recommendations — State of affairs in New Jersey — Synod of 1735 — Exercise of Authority — John Cross — Overture from Lewes Presbytery on Ministerial Preparation — Discussions caused thereby — The Eevival in progress — Arrival of Whitefield — Reception in Philadelphia, and in New York — Franklin's Estimate of Whitefield — Sources of his Power — He goes southward — Returns from Georgia during the following April — Followed by great multitudes — Hevisits New York again — Gilbert Tennent's Sermon on an "Unconverted Ministry" — The Revival at Fagg's Manor — Meeting of Synod — Large attendance — Eifects of Revival Sermons 132-148 CHAPTER VI. Continued Discussions in Synod respecting the Trials of Candidates for the Ministry — Present rule continued — Protest — An explanatory Overture — Proceedings of Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Blair — Minute adopted — Mild Conduct of the majority of Synod — Contrasted with the action of New Haven Association — Meeting of the Commission of Synod — ^Appearancesof Division — Efforts to induce Whitefield to visit Boston — His progress thither from Georgia — His Reception — "The Querists" — Gilbert Tennent goes to Boston — Whitefield again in Philadelphia — His progress southward — Dis- cussion in Donegal Presbytery — Complaints against Alexander — Cross, of Easkingridge — Divisions — William Tennent and the Philadelphia Presbytery — Synod meets, in May, 1741 — Continued Irritations — State of Religion in the Synod and in New England contrasted — Preparations in Synod for business — Protestation read by Robert Cross — Twelve Ministers and eight Elders sign this Protest — Parties in the Synod — The Minority withdraw. — Effects of the division, and the state of the Parties — Letter of Andrews to Pierson 149-181 CHAPTER VII. Synod proceeds with business after withdrawal of the Brunswick Brethren — Overture adopted — Commission appointed — -Meeting in June of the ex- cluded Brethren at Philadelphia — Blair appointed to prepare >■ paper on Divisions in the Church, and Tennent an answer to the Protest — Applications from numerous places to the Brunswick Brethren — Creaghead and the Solemn League and Covenant — Creaghead withdraws — Davenport in Con- necticut — Moravians in Pennsylvania — Charge against Rowland — Anxieties of Gilbert Tennent — Dickinson in Boston — Gilbert Tennent preaches in New York against the Moravians — Synod meets in Philadelphia in May, 1742 — Conference with the Brunswick Brethren proposed — An Interloquitur resolved on — The New York Brethren bring in a Protest, which is sustained — The Brunswick Brethren withdraw — The Nottingham Sermon again — Letter from Andrews to Pierson — Divisions in New England — Creaghead and »• portion of his people adopt Cameronian Principles — Correspondence of Whitefield — Synod of 1743 — Proposals of Peace sent to the Brunswick 8 CONTENTS. FASll Party— Other Proposals from the New York Brethren— Action of the Synod — Application from Virginia to Scotland for Preachers — Synod of 1744 — Davenport retracts his Errors — General Asso6iation of Connecticut advise against communion with Whitefield — Synod of 1745 — Committees ap- pointed in order to adjustment of difiBculties — Their efforts ineffectual — Whitefield again in Philadelphia — Plan adopted in Synod for Union 182-217 CHAPTER VIII. Concessions of the New-Side Brethren to those of New Tork — Philadelphia Synod meets, May 29, 1746 — Proposals for Intercourse — New York Synod meets in the Spring — No action on the Proposals of the Philadelphia Synod this Year — Nor in 1747 nor in 1748 — No action on Union in the Old Synod in 1747 or 1748 — In 1749, proposals made in New York Synod — Submitted to the Philadelphia Synod — Referred to the Commission and to the Presby- teries — Loss of Presbyterial Records — Action of the New York Commission — Meetings of the Synods of New York, May 16, 1750, and of the Philadelphia Synod, May 23, 1750 — Their respective Plans for Union — Consideration of these Plans— Answer of the New York Synod — Inaction of the Philadelphia Synod on this subject in 1753 — New York Synod of 1754 — Philadelphia Synod, 1755 — Reply of New York Synod to the Philadelphia Brethren — Action thereon by the Philadelphia Brethren — How received by the Synod of New York— Philadelphia Synod of 1756— And of the New York Synod in the Fall — In their next meeting they agree to assemble in Philadelphia at the same time with the Philadelphia Synod — Proposal accepted by the latter body — They meet in the Second Presbyterian Church in May, 1758 218-239 CHAPTER IX. Whitefield in 1745— News of the Rebellion of '45— Further labours of White- field — The Great Valley of Virginia — Philadelphia Synod's care for Virginia — Extension of the Church through Western Virginia and Carolina — Irish Congregations in Pennsylvania weakened thereby — Creaghead applies to the Associate Synod of Edinburgh — Arrival of Culbertson, Telfair, and Kinlooh — Points of agreement between the Associate Presbytery and the Reformed — Old-Side Synod direct McDowell and Smith to prepare a Representation for circulation, showing the most dangerous principles and practices of the Seceders — Gellatly's Reply to the New-Side Brethren — Answered by Samuel Finley and Robert Smith — Covenanters join with the Anti-Burghers and Burghers and form the Associate Synod in 1782 — Peace in the Churches in New Jersey — Difference of increase in the Synods — Reasons for the dif- ference- — Effects of the Revival on Church Government — ; State of the Churches in New England — Synod of Philadelphia agrees to establish a, School — Three Presbyteries meet to adopt a plan for establishing a School — Action resolved on, and Alison placed at the head of the Institution Correspondence with Professor Hutcheson, of Glasgow, respecting the School — Alison removes to Philadelphia — The School changed to Elk— CONTENTS. Aid afforded to the School under Samson Smith — Presbytery of New York aim at founding a first-class Literary Institution — Council of New Jersey grant charter for such an Institution — College commenced at Elizabethtown —Efforts made to promote the welfare of the College in England — Attempt to send Pemberton to England on behalf of the College — Dayies and Tenneut sent — Their success in England, Scotland, and Ireland — A Divinity Pro- fessor appointed in Yale College — Bevivals of Religion in Yale and iri Nassau Colleges — Death of President Burr, and of Finley — Articles con- tained in the "Plan of Union" of the Synods 240-270 CHAPTER X. Importance of the Document as finally adopted — Effects of the remodelling the Presbyteries — Relative influence of the two Synods — Differences, in 1762, on trial of Samson Smith — Other causes of difficulty — Proceedings in 1764, 1765, and 1766 — Action in the case of Donegal and Carlisle Presbyteries — Philadelphia Presbytery test the sense of Article VI. of the Plan of Union, in the cases of Magaw and John Beard — Second Presbytery of Philadelphia erected for one year — Case of Hugh Williamson — The Old-Side mep offended with the decision as offensive to the New England Churches — Dissent of the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia — Reply of the Synod — In 1774, Tate requests a review of the action of Synod — The Act rescinded, and a Substi- tute adopted — Important Minute of 1784, relative to Ministers and Licen- tiates from abroad — Desponding tone of the Episcopal Ministers — State of affairs in Episcopal Church — Interference of New-Side Brethren in settle- ment of an Episcopal Minister — Proceedings connected therewith — Alison proposes, in 1757, to establish a, Magazine — Correspondence with the Con- sociated Churches of Connecticut resolved on — A Convention meets at Eliza- bethtown— Election-strife in New York — Concluding Observations 271-294 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH KEY. RICHARD WEBSTER. The writer of this sketch was on familiar terms of intercourse with the late Rev. Richard Webster. Born and brought up in the same city, contemporaries in age, and students in the same theological seininary, a friendship existed between us which ripened with the progress of time and was interrupted only by death. My friend, in his will, bequeathed to me his historical manuscripts : they are now published in the same eondi- tioq in which he left them. In our last interview, I asked Mr. Webster when his history would be ready for the press. He answered, with a smile, "Never; I am all the time making corrections and additions." The truth is, that his work was left in an imperfect state; but it will nevertheless be highly appreciated by the public as a valuable repository of Presbyterian history and bio- graphy. Another remark I may make here respecting his work is, that it only professes to give the early portion of the history of our church. The period embraced in the present volume is a little more than half a century, and is limited to the reunion of the Synods of New York and Philadel- phia, in 1758. The reader, therefore, must not expect to find a complete history of the Presbyterian church in the United States. The early per- il 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE tion, wLioli is exceedingly rich in events and in illustrious men, possesses a peculiar interest; and this is the portion comprehended within the Bcope of Mr. Webster's researches, now published. It is my purpose to make a few remarks on the character of the la- mented author of this volume, chiefly in connection with his devotion to history ; and to incorporate into this sketch, on other points, the views and opinions of brethren who were more intimately acquainted with his ministerial character and habits of life. EiOHAED Webster was born in the city of Albany, New York, on the 14th of July, 1811, and was the youngest child of Charles R. Webster and Cynthia Steele. His father was a prominent bookseller in that city, and publisher of an influential newspaper. Richard's love of books and of newspaper-writing was undoubtedly nurtured by his father's occupation. His mother belonged to one of the good old families in Albany whose praise is in the churches. The young child' was trained according to the principles of the covenant of promise, and was brought up under the ministry and ordinances of the First Presbyterian Church, which was at that time under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. William Neill, and sub- sequently of the Rev. Dr. Henry R. Weed and the Rev. Dr. John N. Campbell, the latter of whom is still pastor of the church. Richard Webster early professed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and, while the "dew of youth" was upon him, united himself with the followers of the Redeemer. The principal facts in his life will be presented in ex- tracts from the personal reminiscences and testimony of others. Grod gave to Richard Webster a good, vigorous intellect. Even a casual observer (jould not fail to see the flashes of intelligence which ema- nated from no ordinary mental constitution. In the true acceptation of the word he might be called a talented man, — sprightly, however, rather than logical, and original and ready rather than very profound. Well culti- vated in early life, his mind expanded under the influence of the collegiate and theological course, and received great strength and discipline from the higher studies incident to his profession. His intellectual powers were far above the average of those of his ministerial brethren; and, although not in the first rank, occupied by the privileged few alone, he was certainly KEV. EICHARD WEBSTER. 13 prominent among the many who belong to the class of able, well-endowed, useful men. With a retentive and excellent memory, Mr. Webster treasured up what he acquired. He was a hard student all his life. His professional edu- cation was regarded only as a means to an end. The preliminary course had but prepared him to continue his literary and religious investigations with the greater zeal and perseverance. Many, it is to be feared, err in placing too great reliance upon the discipline and knowledge early acquired, instead of aiming at a steady and progressive improvement by means of their preparatory resources. Mr. Webster, instead of relaxing from study, made it his daily work. He became more and more familiar with the original languages of Scripture, and prosecuted his theological studies to an extent quite unusual among the temptations of an active missionary life. If not a very learned man, he was more so than many who, owing to circumstances, have attained a higher reputation. Mr. Webster possessed warm social feelings. The emotional part of his nature was simple and earnest, and was a true balance to his insatiable love of knowledge. When free from restraint and among friends, he loved to indulge his natural humour. Few persons, indeed, had more wit, more genuine playfulness, a more rich vein of native fun. This exuberant capacity for amusing others often manifested itself in pleasant and jocose remarks producing irresistible laughter. His nature was emi- nently social; but deafness interrupted, especially in the latter part of his life, this genial flow of soul. In the family, his affectionate disposition showed itself in endearing and delightful manifestations. Mr. Webster's piety was sincere and full of good fruits. With much of the emotional in his nature, religion drew forth the homage of his soul. His affections were set upon things above. He was a holy man. No one could mistake the purposes of his life. His heart was in the ministry of reconciliation. Devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ was his reigning pas- sion. He had consecrated himself to his Master's service with a view to preach the gospel among the heathen; but, when Providence seemed to throw obstacles in this direction of his choice, he joyfully went to a mis- sionary-field at home, doubtless under the guidance of his heavenly Father, who greatly blessed him in his labours. Living a zealous, self-denying, and active life, he accomplished much for the advancement of the Re- 14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE deemer's kingdom. A tender compassion for souls was the beauty and power of his ministerial character. A sweet, earnest love, that came from God, enabled him to toil in the destitute coal-regions of Pennsylvania, edifying the saints and exhorting sinners to repentance. The Rev. A. B. Cros?, who preached his funeral sermon, fitly chose for his text, " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblamably we be- haved ourselves among you that believe; as ye know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his chil- dren, that ye should walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory :" 1 Thess. ii. 10-12. The Rev. F. De W. Waed, of Geneseo, New York, was the class- mate and room-mate of Mr. Webster at Union College and at Princeton Theological Seminary. Mr. Ward was deeply afflicted by the intelligence of the death of his friend, and sent the following notice for publication in the Presbyterian Magazine. I thought it expedient, however, to reserve it for the present sketch : — " Geneseo, New York. "lam a mourner. A friend, greatly respected for his richly-stored mind, — a Christian brother, dearly beloved for his pious heart, — has fallen before the great destroyer, ' "whose shafts none can repel.' Eev. Richard Webster, despite the prayers and tears of a weeping family and a large circle of loving parishioners and clerical associates, has been called away from us. Our loss is his gain. He has doubtless gone to join the company of 'the just made perfect.' "He was my fellow-collegian at Schenectady, my room-mate for nearly three years at Princeton, a most faithful and valued correspondent during my ten years' missionary-life in India, and a visitor than whom none was more welcome to my home. I have known him long and well, and have loved him the more with every year's extended acquaintance. "His conversion occurred at Albany, 'his native city, and was whole-hearted. When he united with the church, he laid upon the altar of his Saviour mental capacities of rare excellence and power. His was a rapid mind, a poetic genius, a retentive memory, quick wit, great ability of application, indomitable perseverance, untiring energy, and all devoted to Christ! In naming these characteristics I do not flatter. The grave is a place where truth alone is to be spoken. " I said that his conversion was deep, — ' whole-hearted.' He has told me (not with ostentation : that was far from him) with what pleasure he waited the hour EEV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 15 of noon, when his law-employer would go to dinner, leaving him alone to read his Bible and enjoy his private devotions undisturbed. Nor could I detect, during our long acquaintance, any diminution of this devotional temper, — anything that would eeem to say, 'Oh that I were as in days past!' I have rarely met one who so loved his Bible. He had a 'Woodworth' edition, and with loving intensity did he daily read and study its pages. That dear book! — I think I see it still, as it used to lie upon his table, — plain in binding, plainer still in paper and type ; but it contained a stream to which he was ever resorting, to drink of its life-giving waters. "He was in heart a foreign missionary. Ahmeduuggar was the field he had chosen. Upon the eve of departure Providence said, 'You must not go.' The prohibition seemed strange, when the call was so loud from the grave of Gordon Han and his devoted associates, — ' Send the gospel to the land of Brahma.' Our brother grieved and wept over the disappointment. But his was not the dis- position to say, ' If I cannot go where I would I will turn to another profession.' With the same self-devotion which would have sent him to India, he sought for a destitute locality on Christian ground. He found it among the mountains of Penn- sylvania. The history of his life there, others' pens will, I trust, give to the church and the world. Our mutual friend and classmate. Dr. D. X. Junkiu, told me, in May last, that, ' notwithstanding the sad disadvantage of his deafness, not a member of our class had accomplished more, if as much, for our church as Mr. Webster, — nearly a score of churches (if I am not misinformed) owing their exist- ence to his agency.' " My last letter from his loved pen contained a'warm request to come and see him. Would that I had done so ! And shall all that he wrote find a grave with his body? Those thousand pages of manuscript, upon almost every possible subject: — his researches in church history, — his letters, fuU to overflowing of fact and thought and spiritual wit, — essays, orations, and poems, — his discourse upon the death of the missionary Barr, — his many, many sermons, exegetical, doc- trinal, and hortatory: — is there no one to collect aU these, read them, and compile a volume of 'Remains'? My judgment is greatly at fault if such a volume would not be well received by the Christian public, while the proceeds might go towards a family left in far from affluent circumstances. " I am a mourner. Two of my best-beloved friends and zealous co-workers in the Christian field are in their graves : — Lamrence in India, Webster in America, — kindred in heart, and one now in heavenly worship. May my last end be like theirs ! "Adieu, my much-loved brother! In the words with which you closed a letter to me years ago, ' Very pleasant hast thou been to me ; thy love to me was passing the love of women!' Be it mine so to live, that, in the general revelation, these eyes shall see thee again in peace, these ears shall hear, and this heart shall again commingle and coalesce with the heart of him for whom I mourn. W." 16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE In order to exhibit more clearly some of the traits of the Rev. Richard Webster's character, I will lay before the reader a graphic letter of the Rev. Benjajiin J. Wallace, editor of the Presbyterian Quarterly Review, Philadelphia, who was a classmate of our departed brother in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. " Pkesbtteeian HotrsB, Philadelphia, \ July 9, 1856. / "My Deau Sik: — " It is a melancholy pleasure to comply with your request, to endeavour to give those not so well acquainted with our departed friend Webster as were you and myself, some idea of his character as it impressed me. " He came to the Seminary at Princeton while I was a student there. I think I was a year with him before I knew much of him. We were not in the same class, and he was not a person much given to seeking new friends. I cannot now recall the occasion of our intimate acquaintance; but I remember well that it was immediate, and a source of great pleasure to me while I continued at Princeton. "I may as well state at once that the keynote of Kiohard Webster's character, as it was revealed to me in the confidence of youthful friendship, was one hardly suspected by those who knew him in after years. He was a poet. I do not meail by this merely that he wrote verses, or only that he took great delight in the works of the great masters of the imagination. My meaning is, that he was a poet in the essence of his nature, and that he had all the special traits which go to make up that strange and interesting character. No one can gain the right position from which to see him without keeping this in view. His mind was indeed so absorbed In later times by things which he considered much more important, that he did not give much time to poetry as an art ; but it was impossible to root out from his nature its constituent elements. I remember, at this distance of time, but two of his poetic ideas, and I will mention them as specimens of his mood of early thought. "One occurs in a crfejMe on Shakspeare. 'Artists have found,' Webster says, ' great difficulty in painting the different shades of white in nature ; and, in order to bring them out, they have generally contrasted them with dark colours. Writers have met vrith a similar difiiculty in delineating the female character. Their plan is to contrast it with impurity or ruggedness. Shakspeare alone, like Nature, shades whiteness with white.' Mrs. Jameson's ' Characteristics of Women' might almost be taken as a commentary on this admirable criticism. "The other though^-or fancy— occurs in a beautiful poem, the finest, I think, he ever wrote—' The Funeral of SheUey.' The body of this exquisite, though, it must be regretfully added, infidel poet, was, it will be remembered, burned on KEV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 17 the shores of the Gulf of Spezia, hy Byron and others. The flame, Medwin de- clares, in blazing up, was coloured like the rainbow. Webster says, it * Gfracefiilly curl'd up, As if from offor'd flowers, that to the flame Gave all their beauty.' "You, my dear sir, who knew Webster so well, will be able, with this clue, better to understand his peculiar nature. You will better appreciate his acuteness, his peculiar kind of shrewdness, his playful fancy, his satirical turn, his reverence for every thing old, his passion for books, his power of living within himself and ' Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy,' and, in fine, that slight dash of eccentricity which you must have often noticed. That he kept his poetic nature so much to himself is one of the marvels of his peculiar genius. "Richard Webster has never been appreciated. That he bore up so bravely, and, on the whole, patiently and meekly, — that he laboured kindly on in an obscure place for a lifetime, with no more restlessness than was betrayed in an occasional satiric hit at some of onr famous men, — ^is a wonder, attributable partly to the nobleness of his nature, and, we must devoutly add, pai-tly to the grace of God, which was given to him in no common measure. It was his misfortune, as men estimate things, to have a body of most frail and nervous organization : he reminded one of Charles Lamb, only that he was sharper, and thus not so genial. He was very deaf, even at the Seminary ; and it grew upon him steadily with increasing years. He was very near-sighted, and he grew prematurely old. A man who always appeared to me young, I found spoken of as old, — almost (partly from his connection with ancient historical documents) as an antique. These defects, especially his deafness, inter- fered materially with his power as a public speaker. He heard none of the ordi- nary sounds of nature in the fields or woods ; he heard nothing of the mixed sounds of a great city : he heard nothing, he once wrote to me, but ' the human voice raised more loudly than usual.' ' • This comparative isolation from society, and physical unfitness for much of the business of life, drove him to history. Passionately devoted to the Presbyterian church, holding our Faith and Order to be the very primitive form and mould of apostolic truth, he could conceive of nothing more noble and venerable than Cal- vinism and Presbyterianism. Around the church he poured the wealth of his reverence, his imagination, and his affection ; and by how much he was rti- strained from being a great actor in the present, he determined to chronicle what was great in the past. It was impossible to confine so active, so versatile, so eager, and so discursive a mind to one small spot: it lay in his nature to espand itself; and, if he could not be an ecclesiastical statesman, his instincts led him next to be an ecclesiastical historian. Yet, after all,— for we would not allow the partiality of 2 18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE friendsliip, even oyer hia graTo, to lead us from the strict trntb, — as he would always and under all circumstances have been rather artist than statesman, so he had not so much the large comprehensiveness and far-seeing sagacity of the true historian, as the keen observation, the acute insight, the delight in an event, the homelike feeling, the fondness for anecdote and incident, which make the bio- gi-apher. And it is no mean thing to be known to after-times, for hoir long we may not yet say, as the biographer of the Presbyterian ^hurch in America. s " Of Mr. Webster's course as a pastor, as a member of church courts^ and in the varied relations of the ministry, others can speak better than myself. We were separated, during his ministry, by distance, and by our position in different branches of our church, and differed materially as to some important church ques- tions. But I can well believe all that I have heard of his excellence in these rela- tions. I think, however, that I can appreciate, better than those who knew him later in life, the difficulties which he overcame in himself before he settled quietly down among the mountain-valleys, as a missionary and pastor to a scattered, and in a great degree rude, population, limiting his ambition to the founding of a pres- bytery, of which the younger ministers called him the father. His fervid, discur- sive, and somewhat romantic nature was more characteristically shown in his con- secrating himself to the missionary work in India, whither he would have gone had not circumstances entirely beyond his control prevented him. It was, perhaps, the tenderness of his heavenly Father which shielded him from trials which he might not have been able to bear, accepting the sincere and earnest intent for the accomplished deed. " What was especially admirable in Webster was the practical good sense with which he accepted his narrow conditions, feeling that God had fixed his lot, and addressing himself with constant and patient industry to every field of exertion which lay within his reach. There is something of the true sublime in this self- abnegation, the laying aside of vain imaginings and the dissolving of day- dream, to accomplish the plain, practical work given us to do. No one can be sure what he is fit for, until the providence of God confirm his aspirations; but one thing we may all do :— we may heartily and cheerfully address ourselves to what- ever work is actually allotted to us, be it great or small. Webster exem- pKfied this greatness. ' He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.' " His death-scene was very interesting. You will permit me to refer to it, as illustrative of his inner or more hidden character. I think it is Goethe who remarks that the poet is one who carries all through life the fresh feelings of childhood. There belongs to such intensely vital organisms as Webster's— where there is no robustness, but vivid nervous energy— a kind of elastic tenacity of life, such as we see in children, who rebound from attacks of disease that lay strong men low. Accordingly, he could not believe that he was dying. Like all of us he had some idea about death ; but it was not realized. < Doctor,' he said, ' you REV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 19 must be mistaken. I cannot be dying. I feel naturally ; I am in full possession of all my powers. I feel very much as I have always felt.' On being assured that his hours were numbered, he said, ' You must know best ; but I never con- ceived of such a death.' There was, it will be observed, no thought of fear, — his preparation for death having been long since made, — but, mingling with his calm faith and trust, and with every other feeling suitable for a Christian's death-bed, there was a palpable cueiositt, a wonder at death, a gazing at this king of ter- rors, as though he were overrated, — a fresh, keen sensation, in view of this great crisis through which he was now to pass. ' It cannot be death,' he said ; ' if it be, it is such a death as I never dreamed of.' It is not too much to believe that the Saviour, whom he had, amid great disappointment and diificulty, so unfalteringly and uncomplainingly served, kept aU evil influences from that death-bed, gave him to part from life sweetly and pleasantly, and opened for him so gently the portals of heaven, as that the poet-Christian felt, in its loveliness, something so natural, that he said, ' I never dreamed of such a heaven. It is most glorious ; but, what is wonderful, it is not strange. It is only a brighter home!' "You have, my dear sir, so repeatedly assured me that I might write just what I pleased of our mutual friend, that I have perhaps indulged my feelings too much. The public may not be interested in my view of Richard Webster. I can only say that I can think of him no otherwise ; and that, however imperfectly I have answered your expectation, I have done what I could. "Very truly and respectfully yours, " Benjamin J. Wallace. " The Rev. C. Van Rensselaee, D.D." Having given the testimony of classmates at tte college and semi- nary, who had abundant opportunities of discovering character, as well as tact in delineating it, I next present to the reader the testimony of a parishioner. The Kev. James Scott, of Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, who was formerly a teacher at Mauch Chunk, attended on Mr. Webster's ministry, and partook of the hospitalities of the parsonage. Mr. Scott writes as follows : — " HoLMESBOKO, Pa., August, 1856. " Rev. De. Van Rensselaee : — " Dear Sie :— It affords me much pleasure to learn that you are engaged in the publication of the late Rev. R. Webster's work on the History of the Presbyterian church in this country ; and, in compliance with your request, it gives me great satisfaction to place at your disposal the following reminiscences of one whom I have esteemed as a friend, honoured as a minister, and loved as a father. "About eight years ago, it was, in the providence of Go''., my lot to be em- 20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE ployed as teacher in the grammar-school at Mauch Chunk. I was then a Btranger in this land ; and it requires the heart of a stranger to realize the faU Tveight and preciousness of true Christian friendship. It was then and there that I Tvas first made truly sensible of the reality of those bonds which unite the many members of the one mystical body. The Rew Mr. Webster quickly sought me out, and extended to me a most cordial welcome. From that hour till the day I left for Princeton I found in his house a most grateful asylum. His friendship towards me increased day by day. His excellent Ubrary was at my service at all times, and his counsel was always good and seasonable. He threw around me a chain of such delightful circumstances as I never again expect to find in this world of change and turmoil. I need not say how fraught with instruction was the con- versation of such a man. His learning was varied and extensive. He read much, and seemed to have remembered all he read. His memory for names of persons and places was proverbial. "His Sabbath services were always interesting and instructive. The matter was excellent, — plain, doctrinal, practical, and experimental truths, often min- gled with some appropriate illustrations, drawn from his favourite study, — history. As he was long deprived of the sense of hearing, it would be preposterous to judge of his pulpit performances by elocutional standards. " He was earnest in his delivery, being sometimes moved even to tears. " Agaiu and again have I heard him, in a strain of extreme tenderness, expostu- lating with sinners, beseeching them, by the mercies of God, to turn from their evil ways and live. " The low state of religion that prevailed for many years in Mauoh Chunk greatly grieved him. During this period, the plaintive tone of the weeping prophet often characterized his pulpit services. Especially on one occasion I recollect how deeply he was affected. His heart seemed overwhelmed within him. I went, in company with a mutual friend of his and mine, with a view of administering some word of comfort. He freely unbosomed to us his whole soul ; and truly his feelings were such as could arise from nothing less than the most vivid apprehen- sion of spiritual things, the value of the soul, and the worth of the Saviour. " But we can gain a clearer insight into the heart of the man from the following selections out of a correspendence stretching over the whole period of my semi- nary life, and up to my settlement in my present field. " I am yours, fraternally, " James Scott." The following are extracts from the letters of Mr. Webster referred to in Mr. Scott's eommunication. These specimens of Christian cor- respondence with a young friend are highly creditable to head and heart : — REV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 21 " The death of the excellent Dr. Miller brought to my mind sensibly the many and great obligations I owe to him. When I was about to leave the seminary he prayed with me, and parted with me most affectionately. I can neyer be thankful enough to God for his mercy to our beloved church in sparing him, through thirty- six years, to aid so efilciently in training her sons for the ministry. His venerated and beloved colleague may yet live to see many of us go before him to the dust. In our presbytery, every minister but Mr. Hunt was trained at Princeton.'' " We have just closed an interesting series of meetings at Nesquehoning. The attendance was large, regular, and solemn: ten persons confessed themselves deeply concerned about their souls. It was very encouraging." " Let nothing hinder you from taking >■ full course at the seminary. Who is sufficient for these things, even with the best training ? Our church is suffering with half-educated men. ' Workmen that need not to be ashamed' are needed, greatly needed, in this day of lamentable and amazing indifference to the means of grace. In this place, swarming with people, I do not think more than fifty male heads of families attend any place of worship regularly ; while of the younger men a larger proportion attend, but with what shocking carelessness ! With sorrow I say it, mine is not a rare case. Sin reigns triumphantly, unto death of the soul as well as of the body. Seeing these things are so, how lamentable that our spirit is not stirred within us, as was Paul's at Athens 1 There, the city was wholly given to idolatry ; here, the whole world lieth in wickedness, worship- ping and serving the creature rather than the Creator." "Now, my dear brother, God has led you in this land of strangers graciously, and permitted you to preach the gospel. Value highly the privilege, and magnify the grace of God in counting you worthy to be put in trust with the ministry. I have great confidence in your faithfulness as a student, and in your sincerity as a follower of Jesus. Desire much to be enabled to do great things for him : espe- cially cultivate the spirit of a compassionate, suffering Saviour, that you may con- descend to men of low estate, and weep with them that weep. Much is to be done in going from house to house ; but it cannot be done without the preparation of heart which is from the Lord." " Have you made any arrangements yet as to your future field of labour? I trust that you will remember the Scripture rule of waiting for the Lord and asking counsel of him. He sets the bounds of our habitations, and opens the doors of usefulness. Oh, may he graciously direct you, and abundantly replenish you with the spirit of piety, with all saving knowledge, and with a large and blessed ex- perience of the fulness of Christ ! There are trials and perplexities in the exer- 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE cise of the ministry unexpected and wonderful. Paul prayed to be delivered from unreasonable and absurd men : we need tbe like deliverance, but, to escape them, we must needs go out of the world. Hence, there is nothing of such unspeakable importance and infinite comfort as a childlike trust in God and a sincere ana hearty endeavour to know and to do God's wiU. How comfortable to be able to say, 'Lord, all my desire is before thee.' 'I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people.' ' My times are in thy hand.' "You will feel the lack of Christian fellowship,— no one to understand your motives, to enter into your designs, to help you by example or counsel, sympathy or co-operation. How often will you be forced to realize, 'All seek their own ;'■ and, judging you by themselves, they will attribute all that you do to selfish ends, to low-minded cunning. "You will grieve to find them that seemed to be pillars savouring only the things that be of men, and caring only for the things which perish in the using. Even if you do not bitterly cry out, ' My soul is among lions,' you may suffer from being 'in a dry land where no water is.' "Temptations will arise, — 'musing, the fire burns; then spoke I with my tongue,' — as one weary of life, weary of the service of God: — temptations to sloth, to discouragement, to self-exaltation, unwisely comparing yourself with others. These temptations wiU harden the heart and hinder prayer. "Above all things, be mindful that, as Christ was in this world, so are you in this world. He said, ' Yet I am not alone ; he that sent me is with me.' May this be your comfort too ! " Let me hear from you, especially as to what has presented as a future field of labour. "I wish you would, at some convenient time, write a letter to McKillip on the subject of his duty t6 his soul. His direction is Sacramento, California." " You probably heard that, at White Haven, the fault in your public services is said to be that your prayers and sermons are too long. Remember they have been used to different ministrations, — short in length, not heavily laden with instruction, and ofi'-hand in manner. You have been used to the ways of a well- trained people, who waited for instruction, and who listened that they might re- member. But too many listen now only to be interested for the moment, and never remember, much less consider, except it be some striking saying or out- landish expression. 'Jesus spake unto them as they were able to bear it.' He used similitudes, ' and without a parable spake he not unto them.' The whole kingdom of nature furnishes analogies to aid us in understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of grace. So does the providence of God in the history of the past and the events of to-day. What use did Jesus make of the news that Pilate had cruelly murdered the Galileans at the altar? The tower of Siloam had EEV. EICHARD WEBSTER. 23 probably fallen years before; yet be turns the remembrance of it to account. Wliat will suit a mind like yours, accustomed to the catechisms and the valuable teachings of an aged pastor, will repulse a mind untutored as a wild ass's colt. The Greenlander needs much pains to be taken with him before he can be satisfied with venison or turkey: to him, train-oil is at once a necessity and a luxury. Many a deceived heart feeds on ashes, of choice, and can scarcely stomach any thing else. We are sent as physicians to heal a dying world. They can neither relish nor profit by the strong meat, save in small quantities. Hence the great difficulty of dividing aright the word of God, and of giving to each man a portion in due season.'' " I am persuaded that where there is extreme difBdence, or, as in the case of our friend at , no fluency, it is decidedly a duty to write out the whole sermon in a fair, large hand, to read it over, so as to be entirely familiar with it, and then use it in the pulpit. This wais the method of Dr. Green. Mr. Glen uses the same method, and his style of preaching is generally and greatly admired. It is true, he has complete self-possession, — not the slightest embarrassment; and it is our duty to cultivate boldness as ambassadors of God. Humility towards God, and boldness in his service, are related as cause and effect. There is a criminal timidity growing from want of faith, forgetting that we speak ' as though God did beseech men by us.' "A missionary who has two or three preaching-places may use the same sermon ; and, if he does this with a diligent attempt to improve, bis success will equal his desires. Dr. Franklin says, 'Whitefield never appeared to such advan- tage as when preaching a sermon the fortieth time.' Our great danger is, to let other things occupy us, and make our preaching only an accessory, not the main business. I rely, dear brother, on your unfeigned piety to keep you, in a great measure, from this error." The Eev. Dr. David X. Junkin, now of Hollidaysburg, Pennsyl- vania, was formerly settled at Greenwioh, New Jersey, and was well ac- quainted with our departed brother. The intimacy was formed at the Theological Seminary, and was nurtured by frequent intercourse as mem- bers of the same synod. They were friends by social and ecclesiastical ties. Dr. Junkin thus refers to Mr. "Webster in a communication which is copied from "The Presbyterian:" — " He graduated at Union College in 1829, and at Princeton Theological Semi- nary in 1834. It was in the latter place that the writer made his acquaintance in 1832. In the Seminary he was the devout and conscientious student, the cheerful 24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE compiinion, the consistent Christian. After completing his seminary course in 1834, he offered himself, and was accepted, as a foreign missionary by the Ameri- can Board. But his increasing deafness threatening to make the acquisition of spoken languages difficult, and other causes having delayed his departure, he was detained from the foreign field ; and, with the promptness and zeal which ever characterized him, he sought one of equal or greater toil and self-denial in his own country. "In the autumn of 1835, he came to South Easton, PennsylTania, at the instance, it is believed, of the Hon. J. M. Porter, and for a short time laboured in that place ; but, the field not proving as encouraging as was hoped, he shortly after- wards entered the important field in which he wore out his valuable life and iu which he was the instrument of such extensive good. " On Sabbath, the 1st of November, 1835, the writer, aided by Ruling Elder Enoch Green, of Easton, (lately gone to his rest,) organized the Presbyterian church of Mauch Chunk, with twenty-four members. On the 4th of the following month, accompanied by Brother Webster, he again repaired to Mauch Chunk, preached, and introduced the youthful pastor to the little flock that had so lately been gathered in those mountain-gorges. On the next evening, (Saturday,) De- cember 5, Mr. Webster preached his first sermon in the field of his life-labours ; and the next day (Sabbath) the two classmates administered the first Lord's Supper that was spread in that congregation. " From that time to the hour — indeed, to the moment — of his death, he continued to preach Christ crucified to that people, and at many other points in the Pennsyl- vania coal-region. He was emphatically the apostle of the coal-fields. He threw his earnest heart, his clear, well-furnished mind, his untiring energies, and his worldly substance, into the work of evangelizing the population of the mining region and towns. With a slender and feeble frame, and amid impediments and difficulties that would have deterred most men, he hoped on and toiled on, until, with God's blessing, his own immediate flock was enlarged and became an im- portant and efficient church, and churches were organized and houses of worship reared in all that region. He was indefatigable in preaching, travelling, visiting, corresponding, and introducing and sustaining missionaries. Whilst his own stipend was very small, he relinquished his allowance from the Board of Missions, in order that it might be given to other labourers in his favourite mountain-field. Often, like his Master, did he travel on foot to great distances, over steep and rugged roads, to carry the gospel to the destitute, and this without hope of earthly reward. " In the spring of 1838, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Cross, of Baltimore, and, in a home of more than usual affection and felicity, found rest amid his toils, and solace in his trials. A fonder, a happier, or a wiser husband and father the writer has rarely known. " Arduous and widely extended as were our brother's professional labours, he KEY. RICHARD WEBSTER. 25 found time for literary eifort and historical research; and the columns of the Presbyterian, the New York Observer, the Watchman of the South, and other journals, were enriched by his scholarly and sprightly contributions. The readers of these journals will not soon forget 'K. H.,' the finals of his place of residence. " No one had collected such rich and extensive materials for a history of Ameri- can Prcsbyterianism ; and, indeed, some of the histories already published are indebted to his researches and his liberality in imparting information. It is hoped that this portion of his life-labour is in such a shape that it wiU not be lost to the church. " Though he seldom published, he not unfrequently wrote in poetry, and some of his unpublished verses are worthy a place among the best productions of the American muse. "Although deprived of the facility for social intercourse which ready hearing affords, Mr. Webster was nevertheless a favourite in the social circle. He was a cheerful Christian ; and his extensive reading, his unfailing memory, his exhaust- less fund of anecdote, his sparkling wit, his lively but always barbless repartee, all chastened by the most considerate Christian propriety, gave a charm to his con- versation that made it ever coveted. " But it was as a Christian and a minister that he made his strongest mark upon his generation and will be most fondly remembered by his brethren and his sor- rowing church. Solemn, earnest, ready, sound, scriptural, illustrative, terse, and compact in style, and full of holy unction, his sermons were always impressive, and were largely blessed. In pastoral duties he was tender and skilful, and in ex- ample such as became the Christian pastor. His death-bed sermons were the most impressive of his life. To his dear ones, to his mourning people, and to all that approached him, he most effectively commended, in dying, that gospel he had preached when living. His last two pulpit discourses — by a coincidence that startled at the time and now seems almost prophetic — were from the texts, 'The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?' and, 'Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him.' He had gone from the bed to the pulpit, and from the pulpit to the bed, from which he never rose. "At the time he was seized with his last illness he was looking forward with desire to the completion of the new and elegant church-edifice, the second built during his pastorate ; and one of his last efforts at letter-writing was an invitation to the writer to preach at the dedication when it should be finished. But he was not permitted, in the body, to witness the consummation so dear to his heart. But will he not witness it from the bulwarks of the upper temple ? " Did your space permit a detailed description of the closing scenes of this great and good man's life, it could not but commend the blessed gospel to your readers, and teach them how to die. One of the most unselfish men the writer ever knew, 26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE this charaoteristio was apparent to the close. With a countenance radiant with the joy of salvation, and borne in trinmph upon the full tide of the promises, his thoughts, his counsels, and his prayers were employed for the good of others, and he seemed scarcely to think of himself. The tender husband and father seemed to wish to live for his dear ones, and the devoted pastor longed to labour on for his Master ; but every such wish was quaUfied with the language, ' The cup that my Father giveth me, shall I not drink it V ' Not my will, but thine, be done.' With his children standing, at his request, where his eye could rest upon them to the last, he prayed for them, their mother, and the church, until, with ' Into thy hands I commit my spirit,' he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus. " Many, as they tearfully retired from that chamber, so 'Privileged beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite on the verge of heaven,' said that now they better understood the prayer, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' " The following letter from one of iis co-labourers, now at the South, will be read with much interest : — " AuousTA, Ga., September 2, 1856. "Bet. C. Van Eensselaee: — "Deae Sir : — Permit me to say a few words respecting our deceased brother, the late Kev. Richard Webster, of Mauoh Chunk. For several years I laboured, as a licentiate of Luzerne Presbytery, in the section of country embracing White- Haven, Beaver Meadow, and Hazleton, and, during that time, had much friendly intercourse with Mr. Webster, and learned to love him as a brother and revere him as a father. He frequently administered the sacraments for me and aided me in pastoral visitation ; and I do most thankfully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to his example, counsel, and Christian sympathies. In the coal-mining region, comprising Carbon and Schuylkill counties and the lower portion of Luzerne, ho was well known and much beloved and revered as a father in the gospel ; and it is to his long, self-denying labours and watchful oversight that the churches of that region owe very much of what they are at present. I believe that the uniform im- pression of Mr. Webster in the minds of the people is that of a most sincere, self- denying, and devoted servant of Christ, as tender and sympathizing a friend in sorrow as ever lived, and, withal, a man of singular acuteness of mind and depth of character. I never knew a man with heart so womanly in tenderness, and so quick to enter into sympathy and feel with the woes of others. It was one of his most prominent and lovely traits, and most of all endeared him to those among REV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 27 ■whom lie laboured as a pastor and evangelist. His words were always full of com- fort to the bereaved and afflicted. Although seemingly frail in body and of little physical strength, he yet possessed great hardihood, and was in the habit of walk- ing distances of miles, in all weather, to fulfil his frequent missionary engage- ments. Wherever he went, on these errands of love, preaching formed but a small part of his work: 'in season and out of season,' from house to house, he laboured, — instructing, warning, and tenderly admonishing and beseeching, with all meekness, patience, and fidelity. His pastoral visits were very edifying. On account of defective hearing, the burden of conversation fell upon himself; but he possessed a rare facility in discerning, or learning in some way, the true character and circumstances of persons and families, and in adapting his discourse to them. I have sometimes seen him plead with tears ; and his manner, tone of voice, and expression of countenance, at such times, were very affecting. Unfeigned humility, springing from a deep, abiding sense of his unworthiness and unprofit- ableness, was, as all who knew him intimately will testify, one of the most marked and beautiful features of our departed brother's character. Although gifted with a rare fund of humour and pleasantry, which he freely disbursed among others, the habitual seriousness and even sorrowfulness of his countenance clearly shadowed the depth and intensity of his heart-struggles and experiences. More than once, in confidential Christian interchanges with him, he would speak with tears of the unfruitfulness of his ministry and the xmprofitableness of his Ufe. ' ' Mr. Webster's preaching — as all know who have heard him — was singularly earnest, affectionate, and evangelical. "Yours, in the gospel, " John F. Baker." The Rev. Andrew B. Cross, the brother-in-law and intimate friend of Mr. Webster, was called upon, in providence, to preach his funeral sermon. This excellent discourse has been printed in pamphlet form; and, had there been room, the whole of it would have been published in this Preface to the History. The delineations of character are re- markably well drawn, and are not oiJerdrawn. The account of the last hours of our beloved brother in the Lord is particularly interesting and edifying. The reader will find the whole worthy of his attentive pe- rusal : — "The knowledge I have of your late pastor commenced twenty-four years since, when we entered together upon our theological studies, and has continued until his death, in an intimacy and familiarity which rarely happen. During all this period 28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE nothing ever interrupted our friendship. To his life I could bear witness. But I am forbidden by his dying direction; and you know, from his humble, modest, difB- dent life, he would not allow me to say anything which might appear flattery con- cerning him. If he were present he would say, Preach plainly and practically to the people. "What can be more practical than to call upon you to bear witness to his ministry ? —to caU up to your recollection his life, his labours, his prayers among you and for you, and to remind you that you are witnesses to these? Not only you who were the members of his church, but the people of this town, of the country around, the many congregations to which he so often and so earnestly preached the gospel, — ye all are witnesses. "He strove to preach the gospel to even/ one of you. Instant in season and out of season, he warned, exhorted, charged, and comforted you in the spirit and with the love of a father. On his death-bed he expressed his anxiety to live to a certain hour, that he might see a man who had neglected attending the sanctuary, and to beg him to attend, that, if any thing in him had hindered, that cause would now be removed. God spared him to see him, and from his dying lips did speak to him. Could any thing but the sincerest love for the soul of a man move him at such an hour ? And yet this was only an exhibition of the tender and faithful spirit which, during his ministry, sought thus to deal faithfully with the souls of his flock, and any whom the providence of God placed in his way. "While he sought to preach the gospel to every one of you, he did not cease to remember every one of you in his prayers before God. I doubt if there be an indi- vidual among all his people. Or among all his friends, whose particular case, with all its attendant diflBoulties, he has not made the subject of special prayer to God. Are there not among you, parents, many parents who do not pray for yourselves and your children, on whose behalf he has often wrestled with God, and who have been a burden on his heart so great that he has been ready to sink under it? (Bead his sermon, 'A Word to Fathers,' preached in this church January 8, 1854.) He is here no more to preach or to pray. But if you perish, and if your children go down to hell, it will be against his warnings, entreaties, and prayers. I mention his prayers for you because they were remarkable for their earnestness, particu- larity, and tenderness. He seemed to make every case his own for which he was praying. In the house of mourning, amid the afflicted and bereaved, he will not soon be forgotten. His tender and sympathizing heart led hiin to seek out such, to minister to them the consolation of the gospel. "The house of mourning and afliiction were never passed when it was in his power to visit them. This was not confined to his own congregation, or this town, or the churches of your vicinity. His letters of condolence went far and wide, whenever the hand of God was laid upon one that he knew. The tenderness of his heart towards the aflicted I need not call up to you who have for many years known and EEV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 29 felt it. He came as the minister of Jesus, and brought you the consolation of the gospel, — the true balm of healing and consolation. "You had his whole ministerial life. Ye are witnesses. God also made him awit- ness among you, and his testimony is on record in the. high court of our King. Soon you will meet him to hoar his testimony. I call upon you to-day to remember and profit by it. Take heed to it. His voice, which so often warned and testified, is now silent. Lay up his instructions in your memories ; meditate upon them. May God quicken your consciences to apply them ! Walk with God, and you shall meet him with joy before your Father in heaven. " Rev. Richard Websteb was born at Albany, New York, July 14, 1811 ; was the youngest child of Charles R. Webster and Cynthia Steele, of that place ; died at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, Thursday morning, June 19, 1856, at a few minutes before twelve o'clock, leaving a wife and six children. At his death he wanted only twenty-five days of being forty-five years of age. "He graduated at Union College in 1829, at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1834. On leaving the Seminary he designed entering the foreign missionary field, and was, on September 2, 1834, designated by the Committee of the American Board to the 'Mahratta Mission.' A difficulty delayed his sailing, which gave him pain at the time, but was cleared up satisfactorily and greatly to his honour. God had work for him in another field not less laborious or self-denying, in which he was to do much for his Master's glory. He was ordained an evangelist, by the Presbytery of Albany, April 29, 1835. He was soon engaged as a missionary at South Easton, Pennsylvania, and there commenced a work, which, through many changes and difficulties, has grown into the Second Presbyterian Church. From this place he extended his labours to Mauch Chunk, thirty-six to forty miles north- west from Easton, on the Lehigh River. At this point, a few years before, coal- mines had been opened : there, and in the vicinity, had collected a population of about two thousand persons. He commenced, in 1835, preaching there once a month, and missionating in the vicinity. His labours were so successful that, by the spring of 1836, there had been a church organized, a lot secured, and part of the money promised towards building a church, which was afterwards erected, and dedicated February, 1837. He commenced, in April, to preach one-fourth of his time at Summit Hill, nine miles west ; was installed pastor at Mauch Chunk in July, 1837. From January, 1843, he gave up the other places, and preached regularly at Mauch Chunk. But then, as before, he preached during the week in the adjacent villages, and visited the people. The amount of these labours and his self-denial cannot be well estimated by any one who is not familiar with the rapid growth and great necessity for preaching in the coal-regions, embracing parts of Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Luzerne, Columbia, and Schuylkill counties, and the zeal with which he laboured to carry the gospel to them. "At his instance the General Assembly was memorialized, and, in May, 1843, 30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE constituted tlie Presbytery of Luzerne. The great object of this presbytery was to take charge of this missionary-field. By appointment of the Assembly he opened the presbytery with a sermon. ■ He was considered not only the father of the pres- bytery, but was looked up to as a father by the ministry and churches in all that vicinity. " In a letter from one of the oldest members of this presbytery, he remarks that, for information and counsel by his brethren, none of our ministers would be missed as much, excepting some of the older professors in our seminaries. ' He was a model for a member of presbytery,' said another member. " His ministerial life was abundant in labours, not sparing himself. Gifted by God with great clearness of mind, a wonderful facility in acquiring knowledge, an exceedingly tenacious memory, a diligence and application which knew no cessa- tion, he was familiar with almost every subject connected with the church : with a faculty for, and promptness in, communicating information, he was a most enter- taining and instructive companion. "Among the incidental labours of the years of his ministry was a constant con- tribution to the religious press. Few men who were not regularly in the editorial chair wrote more. But most of this period he gave the strength of a mind, which seemed to have been constituted by God for the work, to gathering up and pre- paring for publication what could be found of the early history of the Presbyterian church in the United States, and the lives of her early ministers. In the prose- cution of this work he became the repository of almost every thing that could be collected in connection with them. Since the effort has commenced among the churches to prepare histories of their early settlement and organization, he hag been called upon continually for a history of some church or preacher, and, from his generous disposition, he has been taxed with writing almost weekly such sketches and histories, many of which have appeared in the historical sermons preached and published by pastors. In the histories of the church in different States, published within a few years, large contributions have been furnished by him, in addition to the numerous articles contributed on this subject to the reli- gious press of our own church. " The ' History of the Presbyterian Church,' to which he had devoted so much time and attention, and which has been looked for with so much anxiety, happily for the church, had so far reached its completion as to be in readiness for publica- tion, and, under the auspices of the Historical Society, was about being placed in the printer's hands a few weeks before his decease. " He prepared, at the request of the Board of Publication, 'A Digest of the Acts of the Assembly,' which is a most valuable book of reference in our church judica- tories. " The field to which he had given his regular labours for twenty-one years was the congregation collected at Mauoh Chunk. There he had been greatly blessed in EEV. KICHAKD WEBSTER. 31 collecting and gathering into the fold of the Great Shepherd many souls, who will hail him with joy before the throne as their father in the gospel of Christ. The congregation had gradually so increased, notwithstanding deaths and the nume- rous changes incident to such a population, that persons could not obtain sittings. During the past year another lot was procured, and a large, comfortable house, of fifty feet long by eighty-fiye feet wide, has been erected : in a few weeks the basement will be in readiness for preaching. " He was a most laborious preacher and an indefatigable pastor. Such was his promptness and vigilance that no part of his field was neglected or escaped his oversight. With his delicate frame, and the heavy calamity of his deafness, it was always the wonder of his friends, and people how he could perform the amount of service which he so regularly rendered. At the same time, while he suffered nothing to hinder his preaching to his own people, his labours among his brethren in the congregations around were abundant. In a letter, of December, he said, ' Last week I preached five times for Brother Irwin at Catasaqua ; last month three times for Brother Gaston, besides a Sabbath. In September, I preached ten times for my brethren in eight days.' These are specimens of labour extra from his own people, and yet he did not seem to feel he was doing any thing. His labours were unto the last. After his first attack, which was severe, he preached twice to hia own people. On the last Sabbath, he got out of his bed, and went into the church, and preached from the words, 'Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.' As he closed his sermon with the prayer that both pastor and people might so live that, when they came to die, it might be said of them with truth, they had walked with God, many of the congregation thought, and some of them re- marked, that he seemed as if he was preaching his last sermon. " He went from his pulpit back to his bed. A week after he had another attack, in which he suffered violent pains and was left greatly prostrate ; but his physician hoped, under proper treatment, he might recover. " He was down-stairs two or three times on Monday, June 16, walked about the yard, and wanted to fix a number of little things ; took tea with his family. Tuesday, he was not so well, lay in bed, but read the newspapers and letters of cor- respondents, and wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, (18th,) when the papers were brought, he felt so weak that he told them he did not wish them, and only glanced over a letter which had come. The doctor observed his pulse was very rapid and' weak, and concluded to spend the night with him. About twelve o'clock, he felt his pulse ; on noticing which, he asked the doctor if there was any prospect of im- mediate death. ' I should like to know if there is.' The slate was handed, and on it was written, he 'might live a few hours, perhaps less.' On reading it he re- marked, 'This is sudden; I did not expect it: but, blessed be God ! I have no pre- paration to make. That was made long ago. I have renewed it daily ; I am a sinner, I have had my faults ; but I have trusted in the righteousnesa of my blessed 32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE SaA-iour ; I throw myself upon Mm : I trust I have the forgiyeness of my God.' ' I wish heartily to forgive every one;' ' give my love to all.' 'I have often admired the dying sayings of Samuel Blair and Jonathan Edwards,' repeating them, ' and that of John Breokenridge,-God is with me.' 'And it is mine : not a cloud, not a fear,-entire trust in my Saviour. I did not expect this ; but thauks be to God for Buch a death 1 Can it be that it is death? Is not the doctor mistaken? I had no such thought.' On the head being shaken to say that there was no mistake, he said, ' It is such a death as I never knew of:' ' not a pain, no weakness; my facul- ties are all as usual.' ' Thank God, no one could be more kindly dealt with ; it is not only without a terror it comes, but it is sweet : can it be death? I thank God my body is not racked with pain, that I have the perfect use of my senses, that I was early called to the knowledge of the Saviour, that he permitted me the honour of preaching his name. • Oh, how I have loved to preach it 1 I can bless God, my times are in thy hand.' "About half-past one o'clock in the morning, he requested that his children should be awakened, to see him and bid him farewell, as he might not live until daylight. When they came he embraced them, kissed each of them, prayed for them, which he did several times. He gave directions about things of his house and family, his funeral, who should preach, his burial, avoiding all show, and men- tioned friends to whom he wished letters to be written. He said he would like to live for his family and the church ; lamented the vacancies, need of ministers for the missionary-fields. ' Oh, how I love the cause of missions !' ' I am comfortable It seems impossible that I am drawing near to death. I can well pity the poor sinner, drawing near his end, and so little in the circumstances to aid in his pre- paration. My voice and words fail me to express the trust I have in God.' ' I would like to say to the impenitent, sickness is no time to prepare to meet God; when there is a sinking of all the faculties, it is hard to do any thing, hard to enter in at the strait gate, hard to find the narrow way.' ' If this be death, it approaches with tender, gentle, loving embrace ; I feel no pain, no apprehension. I look for- ward with joy to meeting my Saviour, with perfect calmness of mind, and assur- ance of the blessing of the Lord upon myself, my wife, my family, my friends, and the church of God.' ' If I have been deceived all my life, I now come, at the eleventh hour, and put my trust in the Saviour, hoping in his mercy, confessing my sins, and acknowledging his mercy, which has been with me always. Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me. His I am, and him I serve.' He repeated the hymn, ' Lord, I am thine, entirely thine,' to the line, 'And con- secrate to thee my all :' then added, ' Blessed be God, this is not a new work, not a thing taken up to-day or yesterday!' " Speaking of his people, he said, ' May God be with them! I loved to preach the gospel to them; I thank God for permitting me to preach it to orec people.' He had a horror of pastoral changes. ' He thought he had not been altogether un- REV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 33 faithful, but had come very short.' ' How strange the deceitfulness of things ! I feel that I might get up in a few minutes as well as any of the children.' ' Truly, man walketh in a Tain show.' " Speaking to his family, he said, ' I loTe you, my wife and children ; I have no breath, or I would tell you — but words cannot tell you — ^how much I love you. This is a great trial. How little we expected it yesterday I How differently we would have spent yesterday and last night if we had known itl' ' The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Thy will be done. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.' ' Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I wUl fear no evil ; thy rod and staff comfort me.' ' I have not been faith- ful enough with my children, and yet I have tried in some measure to bring them up for God.' ' He has promised to be a Father to the fatherless, a God to the widow. How dear is every one of you to me ! Oh, how hard to part 1' 'I would like, when death approaches, for all to leave me but my own family, that we may have a calm, quiet, pleasant committing of ourselves into God's hands.' " He continued to read what was written on the slate until within a few minutes before he died, when he told them to put it away, — that he was so weak it was too great exertion for him to read. At that time his pulse had ceased in one of his wrists, and nearly in the other. A very short time before this he said to his wife that his hands were cold, and asked her to rub them ; and, while she and his oldest child were rubbing them, he remarked about his mistake of the coldness. ' He did not think.' ' It was death.' And so quietly and gently did he pass away, that those around did not perceive it until the doctor said, ' He is gone.' " These gathered thoughts from his death-bed have been saved from the many things said by him during that period, through the recollection of some that stood by him. Very much that he said has escaped. During the morning, when it was known that he was dying, his room was filled with friends and members of the con- gregation, who wanted to hear the last word or take the last look at one who had BO long been identified with them. All his sayings bore the correct, concise, and pointed marks of his mind. Without wandering, or wavering, or hesitating, he continued his utterances as long as his strength permitted. His tongue had scarcely ceased to utter the thoughts of his heart to his people and family until it was animated with new energy in the presence of his Saviour. " How glorious and blessed the change ! He — who for years had not heard the sound of his own voice, or of one of his own children, or the voice of the con- gregation to whom he preached, when they sang praise to God — has awaked amid the company of the redeemed, to tune his harp and lift up his voice, and hear the songs of the redeemed, as they give glory and honour to the Saviour whom he so loved and sought to honour on earth. 3 34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE « ' Ob for the death of those Who slumber in the Lordi Oh be like theks my last repose, Like theirs my last reward I' "Added to the life and labours, you have had the death, of your pastor. A Ufa of devoteduess to God,— ripened and completed in your midst,— with a calm, quiet, peaceful, hopeful, and blessed death. " May his death be more blessed to all of you than the labours and example of his life have been ! May you, who hare been the objects of his prayers, and warnings, and entreaties, flee to that Saviour whom he so often, so earnestly, and so tenderly besought you to embrace 1 Make him the end of your conversation. May God, in his great mercy and grace, give each one of us the wisdom and the grace to live the remainder of our days in his service, and, when they are ended, may we in peace enter into our rest !" The following interesting letter from Mes. Webster, the respected widow of the departed servant of Christ whose life it is my aim to illus- trate as fully as possible in a brief space, is here introduced, with the advice of some of my personal friends whom I consulted. Although the ~ letter was written simply to furnish materials for the compilation of a biographical sketch, and not for publication by itself, yet I have assumed the responsibility of inserting it entire, for reasons which, I trust, the reader will appreciate on a perusal. It was a point of great delicacy; and, if I have offended propriety by the course adopted, I throw myself upon the indulgence of the public : — " Mauch CHrNK, July 28, 1856. "Rev. C. Van Bensselaer, D.D. : — " Dear Sir : — I feel very grateful for your kind letter, and far more indebted to you for the interest manifested in regard to my dear husband's book than words can express : if there were any way to lessen your care and trouble with it I should be very glad to know of it, and would cheerfully incur the additional expense ; and may I hope that you will do no more personally than is absolutely indis- pensable? The terms of the agreement appear to me fair and liberal : profit I do not expect, though I should deeply regret Mr. Wilson losing in any way by it. " There appears to be something of an impression that Mr. Webster's great anti- quarian tastes, &c., combined with his deafness, rendered him almost unfit for other labours. Bat it is a very great mistake indeed : the business of his life was to labour faithfully, earnestly, and amid much fatigue and discouragements, in the REV. EIOHARD WEBSTER. 85 service of Ms Master. Every thing else was subordinate. Ho bad literary and antiquarian tastes, but they Vfere gratified only in fragments of time, redeemed, I may say, by his unfailing industry. His correspondence was large. He had many calls to prepare obituary notices and many other such small things, which were promptly attended to. His sessional and presbytery books were carefully kept, — the entries of the last meetings all neatly recorded. He was always ready to prepare a New Year's Address, &c. ; but his chief work was never neglected. He mourned over his deafness, and yet visited as faithfully, embraced every oppor- tunity for saying a 'word in season,' and was as welcome and his society as much desired as that of any pastor. His preparation for the pulpit was extremely careful. He delighted in his work. The time passed unconsciously while in his study, — often saying, when sent for to dinner, that he ' had not thought the morn- ing half spent,' so busy had he been. His rule was to visit every family before each communion-season ; and I scarcely remember an instance of social visiting that was not closed with prp,yer. And here suffer me to say, he was peculiarly a man of prayer: he did not require solitude, on account of his deafness; the closing of his eyes, or the hand placed over them, was enough ; and our little ones often slipped out of the room when they saw it, leaving him alone. But not only thus : as he attended to his flowers, as he walked the streets, as he travelled, and as he often sat in the social circle, hearing nothing, his heart was lifted up in prayer. ,No one can imagine the holy, devotional spirit in which his days were passed. I saw ^d felt it; and almost the only feelings of alarm and fear for his recovery, during his illness^ proceeded from this very feeling. I saw, as plainly as I saw his face, the wonderful growth in spirituality and heavenly-mindedness ; and, as I sat by his bedside, the thought would come unbidden, ' Has all this manifest growth in grace been the preparation for his end ?' Many of our people have remarked to me, since his death, that they had felt the same. His preaching, especially on Wednesday's lecture, had so much of heaven, — so much as though the glories of it were already objects of sight, — so much holy joy in dwelling on the glory to be revealed, — that, among themselves, several had remarked, they feared their minister was soon to finish his work, and, while he and I were looking forward to his recovery, many of them scarcely ventured to hope for it. At our late com- munion-seasons I have almost trembled : he seemed so nearly done with emblems, so nearly drinking of the ' vrine new in the kingdom of his Father.' I hope I am grateful for the mercy of such an abundant preparation ; but ,the loss to myself — to his poor children — is not lessened. We have lost his holy example, and his prayers, which were almost unceasing for us. " He repeated to me, after his last visit to Philadelphia, your prediction, smiled incredulously, and, I think, the subject was never mentioned by him again, and scarcely thought of, most likely. " The Thursday after his return he was taken violently ill. After a few days he 36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE rallied, and was able to take short rides in about a week, improving slowly. He preached twice between the two severe attacks. From the last he recovered slowly; and when from many of his symptoms we feared another, came the sleep, lessness, the sinking and the exhaustion, and the end, so unexpected, that it seemed hard for either of us to believe that it was death. Again and again I asked the doctor if it were not possible he was mistaken. He referred me to the imper- peptible pulse, but added, aU else was as new to him as to me. He had seen death in many forms, but this differed from all that he had ever imagined. To him, it seemed like one preparing for sleep and leaving directions to be attended to during the time. He had feared from the first, not from the violence of the disease, but from the worn-out state of the system. He considered him the most cheerful and patient sick person he ever saw. He was grateful for every attention, perfectly satisfied to do what we thought best. " The Sabbath was to him ever a delight. He rose earlier than on other days ; and, oh, how we miss his cheerful greeting on that holy day, — his morning prayer, so fuU of praise and thanksgiving, — the holy cheerfulness that characterized his appearance during the interval of worship ; and then, when the labours of the day were over, and we sat down, alone, to talk them over, and as I saw the solemnity, and especially the mourning over our young people, who seemed so careless, so kind, and so attached to him, and yet slighting his message, I have often thought that, could those who think the pastor's duties easily performed have seen the sickness of heart, the failing of spirit, and almost the giving up of hope, they would have changed their opinion. " From the commencement of his ministry until about a year since he preached regularly three times a day: this past year he has not more than half the time. " My brother has fallen — I know not how — ^into the strange mistake of sup- posing that he did not hear his voice. He again and again told me that,he did. And as to our children, it was their delight to talk to him and ask questions. Our voices reached his ear easily. Of course, he lost all general conversation ; but all- our family matters — all that interested us — was told him as a matter of course. I always encouraged it in the children, for his sake as well as theirs ; and none but ourselves know the cheerful, sprightly, interesting, and pious spirit which threw such a charm around our home, — with what delight he returned, after his frequent absences, forgetting the weariness and fatigue in the comfort of being again with us; and, to the very last days of his life, as our boys returned from school, he was interested in their lessons and in hearing the little things they had to relate. " He had his books and papers gathered around his sick-bed; for there he spent nearly all the time, on account of weakness. He had sent for ' Dr. Hedge's Ephesians:' it came while he was sick. He read it carefully, comparing the notes which he had taken when at Princeton. And in bed he copied what is done of REV. KICHARD WEBSTER. 37 President Da vies' a letters, — wrote letters, even on the Monday before Ms death, relating to a vacancy in our bounds, &o. His Bible was always beside him. He requested me, one day, to read some of the closing chapters in 'Alexander's Isaiah,' saying he had just reread them with so much comfort. He said he had several sermons all thought out, and only waited for strength to write them. He pointed out Isaiah xxxviii. 19 as the first one he wished to preach after his re- covery, — having felt in what peril of life he had been, and how his heart over- flowed with thankfulness, thinking the danger was past. Hebrews xiii. 7, last clause, was another. His interlined Greek Testament was always at hand. The word of God was to him an unfailing delight, reading almost with rapture. " There were none present in that hallowed chamber of death who can do justice to the scene. No words can express the holy composure, the strong desire for life, the clinging to us with an intensity of affection. He said that words could not teU the longing desire to labour for souls, and yet the loveliest spirit of submission, all indicating that he was not alone in that hour of trial : — the Everlasting arms were manifestly supporting him ; the sting of death was not there." Mr. KocKWOOD, of Mauch Chunk, was an intimate friend of Mr. Webster, and one of the elders of the church. He was present at the closing and impressive scene, and has sent an interesting communi- cation, which we here publish, giving his impression of Mr. Webster's character and labours, and an account of his last hours. " Macch Chunk, August 12, 1856. " Kev. Dr. C. Van Rensselaer : — " Rev. and Dear Sir : — Friends of our late pastor. Rev. Richard Webster, understanding that you are preparing a ' Biographical Sketch' to accompany his forthcoming work, have requested me to attempt to give you the impressions made by him as =■■ man and a minister at home. While his historical labours are widely known, few besides his ovm people could be familiar with his pastoral work, as his brethren in the ministry seldom saw him in the midst of his labours. " My acquaintance, both social and in the church, has been intimate for about four years. These were not his most laborious years, — his declining strength having, of late, compelled him to lessen his labour outside of his own parish. During the greater part of his ministry he had been in the habit of performing an amount of extra services in the destitute neighbourhoods, from four to twenty miles around, which is surprising when his feeble frame is remembered, and which undoubtedly short- ened his life. To these efforts many of the churches of the coal-region owe their origin. Many of these efforts have been made quite beyond the limits of a 38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 'Sabbath-day's journey,'-by holding series of meetings during the week, after ■which he would return and preach to hia own people on the Sabbath. Until within about two years past he has had regular preaching-stations, which occu- pied nearly every Sabbath afternoon. Many of these preaching-expeditions were made wholly or in part on foot, and often in the night, regardless of the injurious effect of the night-air upon his hearing. " Mr. Webster's deafness occasioned no aversion to society. He was of a genial, pleasant spirit ; and, even since he could be addressed only through a tube, he was affable and easy of approach, even to strangers,— deUghting in social intercourse, and capable of entertaining with lively anecdote or of instructing by grave remark. He was, notwithstanding his difficulty of hearing, faithful in pastoral visitation, especially in times of sickness or affliction, when the natural tenderness of his feelings enabled him to make the sorrows of others his own, and unite his tears with theirs in true sympathy. His depth of feeling on these occasions (constantly recurring in a community so liable to accident and sudden death) wore seriously on his own strength. Cases of bereavement were feelingly noticed in public prayer, and often again remembered on their anniversary another year. His conversations with the impenitent were frequent, and his faculty of pleasantly introducing pointed, personal appeal was good. Often, where conversation was precluded, his pen was used. His general conversation showed that the con- version of souls was his most earnest desire, and, while naturally cheerful, nothing so saddened him as the fewness of additions to the church from the world. He continually mourned that he was not more usefiJ. "Mr. Webster's historical researches have been so spoken of as to give the im- pression that they formed the. labour of his life. They were, however, the result of leisure hours, although the amount of these labours (often performed in un- selfish regard for the wishes of others applying for information) gives evidence of his industrious habits. His life was literally and truly devoted to the ministry. His pulpit exercises were uniformly good, and well digested and prepared. During the last few years he wrote most of his sermons ; but they were complete in his mind before writing, so that the manuscripts showed few alterations. The distinguishing feature of hia preaching was that he preached Christ, — seldom occu- pying the pulpit with discourses merely historical, literary, or critical. His lan- guage, while showing no attempt at ornament, was clear, condensed, and often beautiful, but never calculated to attract attention from the truth to itself. His sermons were earnest, convincing, and instructive, and such as would interest and profit both the learned and the unlearned. The peculiarity of voice arising probably from deafness— was to a stranger unpleasant; but, when the ear had become accustomed to it, his delivery was found to be forcible, and the preaching grew upon the hearer from year to year. " His life and manner were becoming a minister of the gospel,— cheerful, but serious and beyond reproach, commanding the confidence aUke of the Christiaa REV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 39 and the worldling. He felt little encouragement in his work ; but his exertions and influence have not been without their share — and that a large share — of effect upon the community around him, shown in the increased regard for the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and for sacred things. The church originated and fostered by him, and now for years self-sustaining and prosperous, is a testimony to his usefuhiess. "Mr. Webster had a great advantage for study, in a remarkably retentive memory, which enabled him to treasure up what he read even casually, and to remember clearly his own trains of thought. He once remarked to me that he could preach an unwritten sermon, even several years after its first preparation, without material change even in the language. He kept himself well informed in the religious and other literature of the day, and, both in preaching and con- versation, showed a mind thoroughly trained and abundantly stored. "Mr. Webster was humble and unselfish in a high degree in his intercourse with all. He gained the warm regard especially of those of his congregation who were in the more humble walks of life, by the interest he took in their welfare. Their children were all known to him by name. Towards the close of his life it was noticed that he preached with increased unction, and watched with more earnest desire for an increasing religious interest. When confined with sickness, his desire to preach was so strong that it was with difficulty that he could be induced to forego the attempt; and, on two Sabbaths during his last illness, he arose from his bed to preach, and returned from the pulpit directly to his bed. "Although his friends greatly feared the result of his sickness, he did not appreciate the danger, and, until within u, day or two of his death, looked for- ward with expectation to an early resumption of his pulpit duties. His vital powers failed very gradually for many hours before death. When told, about twelve hours before his departure, that he was near death, he could scarcely believe it, his feelings having given so little admonition of the decay of nature. He was taken by surprise, but not unprepared. Without the least perturbation he expressed his resignation and entire peace of mind. I was permitted to be with him for the last ten or eleven hours, and a greater privilege is seldom enjoyed in a lifetime. No vrritten narrative of peaceful death-bed scenes ever gave me such a realizing sense of the value of a good hope in Christ, and daily consecration to God, as a preparation for death. There was not a fear or a doubt. His mind was calm and composed, though active and fuUy awake to his nearness to eternity ; yet all was peace and joyful anticipations for the future for himself, and cheerful trust in God for his family and the church. Some of the death-bed sayings which I have read have always appeared to me as if said because expected by those around ; but, in this instance, the continuous utterance of devout thought was the evident overflowing of a heart stayed on God and filled with love for him and his cause. The expressions of resignation, love to God, and entire confidence in him, accompanied by humble self-abasement and confession of sin, would make a valuable chapter of religious experience. 40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE " Soon after being informed that he was gradually but steadily sinking, and could live but a few hours, he said, 'If this be death, it approaches with tender, gentle, loving embrace: I feel no pain and no apprehension. I look forward with joy to meeting with my Saviour,-with perfect calmness of mind and assurance of the blessing of God upon myself, my wife, my family, my friends, and the church of God.' At another time he said, 'I am very comfortable: it seems im- possible that I am di-awing near to death.' ' My voice and words fail me to ex- press the trust I have in God.' 'If I have been deceived all my life, I now come, at the eleventh hour, and put my trust in the Saviour, hoping in his mercy, con- fessing my sins, and acknowledging his mercy, which has been with me always.' 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit! Thou hast redeemed me,' repeating the hymn, beginning — " ' liOrd, I am thine, entirely thine,' and ending with " ' Thee, my new Master, now I call. And consecrate to thee my all.' He said, 'Blessed be God! this [consecration] is not a new work; not a thing taken up to-day or yesterday.' . . . ' Dying is but going home.' He expressed no desire to live except to be useful to the church and to his family. He said, ' I would have been thankful to be spared to preach. I love to preach. I have embraced every opportunity to do so, and have, no doubt, overworked myself He was thankful that his whole ministry had been among ' one people.' ' I would like to say to the impenitent, that sickness is no time to prepare to meet God, when the sinking of all the faculties makes it hard to do any thing, — hard to enter into the strait gate, — hard to find the narrow way.' ' I had hoped to rise up to preach from the words of Ilezekiah on his recovery, (Isa. xxxviii. 19,) "The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day : the father to the children shall make known thy truth," — the duty of those spared to teach the knowledge of God to children.' He 'thanked God he had not been altogether unfaithful; but had come very far short.' " He had no pain : his mind was clear, his sight and voice strong, and he seemed unable to realize that he could be dying. He said, ' How strange the deceitfulness of things ! I feel as if I might get up, in a few minutes, as well as any of the children. Truly, man walketh in a vain show.' "With frequent confessions of sin and expressions of his entire trust in saving grace alone, he, from time to time, as he supposed the scene was closing, com- mitted himself ' to God, to go through the dark valley and shadow of death, but not alone.' He spoke but seldom of his own salvation: it seemed to be a subject long since committed to God, with the full assurance of faith. His thoughts were mainly given to others. His prayers were for his family and the church. Several times, as he thought death approaching, he bade each member of his family good-by with a most affecting exhibition of love. He had the children, EEV. RICHARD WEBSTER. 41 more than once, all brought near, where he could look upon them. He prayed that his boys might be permitted to preach the gospel. " In the morning, one or two of his congregation came to bid him farewell, and it distressed him ; but afterwards he seemed to receive strength from on high to sustain him, and he desired to see all. Many of his church and congregation came in, for each of whom he had a word in season, and sent messages to the absent. Many were mentioned by name, whom he had hoped to see brought into the church. He was amdous to see one friend, who lived near but had then gone out to his work. He wished to live tUl noon, when this person would return from work, and frequently inquired, ' How late is it ?' 'Is it twelve o'clock?' His desire was gratified: his friend was sent for. Such was hia interest for his congregation, each of whom, by name, children and adults, he was in the habit of bearing on his heart at the throne of Grace. " His faculties were spared to him, so that he continued to converse until within a very few minutes of his ceasing to breathe. It was the ' death of the righteous;' and none, witnessing it, could fail to wish, 'May my last end be like his !' Very respectfully yours, " CHAEIES Q. EOOKWOOD." Thus did this good man live and die ! His " works do follow him." The seals of his ministry were many, and bright are the jewels in the crown of his rejoicing. He lived to a good purpose, and, having ended his work, has entered into his rest. Among the incidental labours of Mr. Webster's life is the history which is now published. It was written amid the incessant calls of active ministerial duties. This is, of itself, a sufficient apology for whatever imperfections may be found in the volume. Mr. Webster had a natural taste for historical investigation. His longing for facts and incidents in history and biography was ever fresh and intense. A lover of history has reason to thank God for directing his pursuits towards a branch of knowledge so grand and useful. It is a study that brings the mind in contact with Providence; it has relations of a very comprehensive character; and, while in itself satisfying and delightful, it produces results helpful to the cause of religion and truth. Mr. Webster, in devoting a considerable part of his time to historical investigations, felt that he was engaged in a way likely to benefit his generation. His tastes and desires made history a recreation. His mind was refreshed by roaming through the by-ways and paths of the 42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE olden time. It was his delight to pursue inquiries relating to the history of the Presbyterian church and the men of a former generation. Mr. Webster's patience and alacrity to endure hardship were as con- spicuous in historical inquiries as in ministerial labours. Whatever he did he tried to do heartily, as unto the Lord. He did not regard preaching as for his Master and writing history as for himself. He was devoted to Christ in every thing, and hence was willing to bear toil and self-denial wherever they were to be encountered. His labours as an historian were abundant. Who will ever know how many miles were travelled, how many letters sent forth and received, how many books con- sulted, how many late hours of the night taken from rest, how many chambers and old repositories explored with scrupulous care and cunning, how much time and health and strength and property taxedy in pro- moting the pursuits which he had at heart ? It was delightful to find this diligent man cheerful in the midst of his labours. He worked at his task gladly. His patience was inexhaustible, and his habits of endurance extraordinary. He copied with his own pen all that part of the exten- sive Bellamy correspondence which threw any light upon the history of the Presbyterian church, into a large volume, elegantly written, which is in the possession of the Presbyterian Historical Society, — a donation of his thoughtful head, untiring hand, and benevolent heart. Unaffected modesty marked the character of our Presbyterian his- torian. With all his ardour of investigation and success of research, Mr. Webster was the last to appreciate his own just claims. He never obtruded himself into public notice. No one ever charged him with desiring notoriety or public applause. On the contrary, his modesty interfered with his merit, and his diffidence prevented an extensive appre- ciation of his researches. A disinterestedness of spirit is the last trait I shall mention in the character of my friend as an historian. Mr. Webster had a large and generous soul. He worked not for himself, but for all who chose to avail themselves of his labours. Jealousy formed no part of his character. He had no private ends to answer. Some might have considered it a lawful and proper reserve to keep their manuscripts from the inspection of others, but he was ever ready to lend to investigators of history all the papers in his possession. Few men, it is believed, showed as great gene- REV. KICHAKD WEBSTER. 43 rosity as he in thus allowing others even to anticipate the results of his own researches, if they had shown a disposition to do so. His manu- scripts have been freely lent in a spirit of disinterested and religious scholarship worthy of all praise. The last time I saw Mr. Webster was in May, when he came to Phila- delphia to attend the anniversary of the " Presbyterian Historical Society." He himself was the life of the meeting. He wrote the annual report which was read on that occasion, and made several speeches full of ^wit and learning. The appearance of his venerated friend, Samuel Hazard, Esq., in the chair, revived some reminiscences of a pleasant character; and he told several historical anecdotes with great glee, and to the amusement and edification of us all. On the fol- lowing morning, when he came to bid me farewell, I asked him to leave his manuscript history for publication. He smiled, and said, " I do not believe it will ever be published." He, however, left it, and measures were about to be taken to put it to press, when the unexpected and melancholy tidings of his decease suspended the undertaking for a season. The last will and testament of Mr. Webster contained the following bequest : — "To the Rev. Dr. Courtlandt Van Rensselaer I give and bequeath the manuscript of my book, and all my historical memoranda." Acting under a sense of the responsibility thus imposed upon me, I made inquiries respecting the terms on which the history could be pub- lished ; and, finding that Mr. Joseph M. Wilson made the most advan- tageous ofier, I put the work into his hands. I previously communicated, however, with the executors and with judicious friends, and obtained a general assent to the arrangement as a just and liberal one. And, now that I have finished this brief and imperfect sketch of the life and character of the author, I commit the volume, in his name, to the public, with the hope and prayer that it may meet every reasonable expectation, be the means of imparting useful information, assist in awakening and in extending the spirit of historical inquiry, and redound to the honour of our common religion and to the glory of God. C. Van Kensselaer. Philadelphia, December 22, 1856. INTEODUCTION. The great King of Zion has endowed the Presbyterian church in the United States with a goodly heritage, and, under his foster- ing care, its borders have been widely extended. In the space of a century and a half, a cause which at first was represented by a few itinerant missionaries, labouring among a number of scattered settlers on the shores of the Chesapeake and the adjoining regions, has attained to a magnitude unprecedented in the annals of Pres- byterianism. For many years past, the Presbyterian church numbers among the most valued of her members the descendants of settlers from Holland, France, Germany, and other nations of Continental Europe. Still, the great body of those hardy pioneers who sought a home in the Western world, or who were driven hither by per- secution, and founded our Zion, were from Scotland and the North of Ireland. It is true, that a large proportion of the English Puritans who settled New England held Presbyterian principles, and were favourable to our form of church polity. Popularly, the term Puritanism, when associated' with New England, is under- stood to signify Congregationalism ; but the fact, as here stated, that many of the English Dissenters, who fled from their native land to New England, in order to enjoy liberty of conscience, were Presbyterian in sentiment, is established by abundant and most satisfactory evidence.* Into the causes which operated in producing a gradual change in the character of the early New England churches, and which prevented a full development of a distinct Presbyterian organization, it is not our object here to enter. We desire rather to advert to the circumstances which led to the formation of our church in the Middle States of the Union; and, in this connection, the few pages of this work which can be spared for an introductory chapter may be de- voted to a recital of the causes which led to the settlement of * Hodge'a Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, chap. i. Phila- delphia : W. S. Martien, 1839. 45 46 INTRODUCTION. the fathers of our Zion in the Tvildernesses of this continent,— to the principles which these hardy sons of a covenanted Keforma- tion brought with them to the land of their adoption, — to an ex- position of their social characteristics, and their influence in form- ing and modifying the religious institutions of our country. We can merely glance, as it were, at each of these topics. To treat them fully, as their importance merits, would require the compass of several volumes, and the command of much antiquarian and statistical information, of which, it is to be regretted, that, through neglect, much has been already lost. A large portion of valuable material for the history of the church might yet be preserved by the industry of competent persons, who would collect and arrange such facts as are connected with their own districts ; but it is to be feared, that the causes which allowed so much information to be lost, by the men of the last generation, will continue to operate in our o^vn day also. Scotland has stood out pre-eminently in modern times as the great witness-bearer, among the European nations, for civil and religious liberty. In carrying out the reformation of religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Scottish people dis- played an intelligence and an energy of character whiqh contrast most favourably with the conduct of the inhabitants of the south- ern portion of the island. In England, the heads of the church or of the state might overthrow the power and repudiate the doc- trines of the Church of Rome, as was done in the reigns of Henry VIII. and of Edward VI. ; or, as in the reign of Mary, they might reverse what had thus been accomplished. In either case, a numerous body of the people clung to their national sanc- tuaries, and permitted their leaders to effect such changes in the formularies of the church as they pleased, without appearing to feel that they should have an influential voice in such important arrangements, and that there was a divine standard to which an appeal in all such matters should be made. In Scotland it was far otherwise. There, the people soon comprehended the great truth, that the evils under which the country groaned were mainly traceable to the tyranny, the rapacity, and the debasing super- stitions of the Romish church, which had departed from the prin- ciples and order which God had enjoined in his Word. They further perceived, that these evils must continue to afllict the country, until a thorough reformation was effected in the church, and that no church should be considered reformed or pure whose doctrines and discipline were not strictly in accordance with the revelation which the King of Zion had given, and in which alone his will was to be discovered. The great doctrine of the Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ soon came to be recognised on the north of the Tweed; while in INTRODUCTION. 47 England, the civil power, in freeing itself from the bondage under ■which it suffered in the palmy days of Romish supremacy, not only regained the possession of the civil sword, — which rightfully be- longs to civil rulers, — but, at the same time, it reversed its former condition. It was not satisfied with securing an independence of spiritual control in the affairs which belonged to its own province, but it laid the church prostrate, depriving it even of spiritual jurisdiction, and trampling it under the foot of the state. In Scotland, however, the distinction soon became apparent to the public mind, between the province of civil rulers, and the depart- ment which belonged to them, as ruling in civil affairs, on the one hand ; and the province of spiritual officers, on the other hand, who were called to administer the functions of an office, which they held from the Lord Jesus Christ, which regarded spiritual things, and was instituted for the administration of the affairs of the church. Addressing the regent of the kingdom, even as early as 1571, Erskine, of Dun, says, "There is a spiritual jurisdiction and power which God has given under his kirk, and to them that bear office therein ; and there is a temporal jurisdiction and power given of God to kings and civil magistrates. Both the powers are of God, and most agree to the fortifying one of the other if they be right used. But when the corruption of man enters in, con- founding the offices, usurping to himself what he pleases, nothing regarding the good order appointed of God, then confusion follows in all estates. The kirk of God should fortify all lawful power and authority that pertains to the civil magistrate, because it is the ordinance of God. But if he pass the bounds of his office, and enter within the sanctuary of the Lord, meddling with such things as appertain to the ministers of God's kirk, then the servants of God should withstand his unjust enterprise, for so they are com- manded of God."* In Germany, the controversies in which the church was engaged were of a different character from those which were raised in Scot- land in consequence of the action of the civil power, and the discussion of which so rapidly made the people of that land familiar with the principles for which they had afterwards to con- tend, even to the forfeiture of liberty and life. In France, the terrible power of the monarchy, which was used so recklessly in the vast holocaust of St. Bartholomew, effected such an overthrow of the upholders of the reformed faith, that their cause was merely able, for a considerable time, to struggle for existence, wifihout as- serting for itself the prerogatives which the nobles and people of Scotland demanded for the church of their land. That Christ is King in Zion— the only king whose right it is * Bannatyue's Memoirs, pp. 197-204 ; Calderwood, p. 48. 48 INTRODUCTION. to prescribe what doctrines are to be taught and believed, what ordinances are to be observed, and what offices are needful for the welfare or the extension of the church — is not only important as a correct theological principle, but it is momentous also in the con- sequences which flow from it. Whatever the doctrines, the ordi- nances, and the offices may be, which Christ has instituted in his church, his people have received them from him, to be held as a sacred deposit, for the ends for which they have been given. The members of the church are not at liberty to surrender these doc- trines, to yield up these ordinances, or to change or abolish these offices. To do either would constitute a breach of trust, and mani- fest a contempt for the privileges with which they were endowed. It would indicate a disparagement of the wisdom of the church's Head, and would further involve a usurpation of the authority with which he alone is clothed. If the members of the church — as individuals or in their collective capacity — dare not act in this manner without flagrant sin, neither have those who are invested with office a similar liberty. They hold their office from Christ, to whom they are responsible, and who demands of them that they shall be faithful in the administration of all their functions. They are not at liberty to increase or to diminish the number of the institutions which Christ has appointed. They are not legis- lators, to enact new laws, enjoin ordinances or doctrines which are not already given by Him whose right it is to rule. Their office is executive and declarative, not legislative. And, consequently, they are not at liberty — either at the suggestion of their own wis- dom, or in order to please any party, within or without the pale of the church — to change or surrender what Christ has ordained. If speculative men, who are fond of novelty or changes in re- ligion, — if worldly men, who dislike holiness of doctrine, — if civil rulers, who are ambitious of authority in the household of faith, — should suggest or demand any change or surrender of these trusts, then the reply of every enlightened and faithful servant must be, " These are not ours, but Christ's. They have been committed to our hands, to be held for his glory ; to be retained, amid all perils, in their integrity, for the ends of their institution, and thus to be transmitted to coming ages. It is His prerogative who gave them to modify or abrogate them, not ours." The Scottish mind soon comprehended this principle. It per- meated the masses of the people ; and, under the influence of such leaders as Knox, Melville, and Henderson, the professors of the reformed faith comprehended their duties as well as their privi- leges, and they saw that the one involved the other. It is obvious, that an intellectual, energetic, and high-tninded people, educated in such principles, and thoroughly imbued with their influences, would be prepared for resisting all attempts at en- INTRODUCTION. 49 croaching on their spiritual privileges. Hence the prompt resist- ance of the Scottish people to the exercise of arbitrary power, in ecclesiastical matters, by Charles I. and Charles II. in Scotland, — a resistance as remarkable for the clearness of conception which pervaded all ranks of the community regarding the principles which were involved, as it was for the tenacity of purpose which they displayed, and the enormous sacrifices of ease, property, liberty, and life which were so freely made during the protracted contest. The struggle had commenced in the reign of James ; but, when Charles I. succeeded to the throne, it became obvious that all the wiles of diplomacy and courtly intrigue, and all the power of the secular arm, would be used to abolish presbytery and esta- blish prelacy in its stead. There were a few in Scotland who held the doctrine, that resistance to the civil magistrate was unlawful for Christians — although his rule might be unjust and oppressive — so long as he confined his power to mere secular things.* We shall have occasion to show that the great majority of the people had clearer views on the relation which should subsist between rulers and their subjects. Many would have submitted to much that was oppressive, with no other kind of opposition than that of remon- strance and supplication ; while others held more decided views on this subject. " But all were compelled to perceive, that the king had much more in view than to allow them even the hard alternative of obedience or punishment, which, in matters dis- tinctly religious, must always subject men to penalties till the civil magistrate can be prevailed on to relax his requirements. The intention of his majesty, it was easily seen, was positively to com- pel them to adopt all those changes in religious worship which he might think proper to introduce, and to prohibit absolutely and unconditionally those modes of worship which they believed to be most accordant with the word and will of God. The alternative was not obedience or the forfeiture of certain civil advantages and the infliction of certain temporal penalties, but obedience or im- prisonment, exile, and death; or, rather, it Was, obey the king, though you should thereby be disobedient to God. With deep and anxious solicitude, they set themselves to the investigation of this * The peculiar character of the trials which the people of Scotland had to en- counter soon dispelled from their minds any lingering clouds of darkness on the Bubject of non-resistance and passive obedience. In England, so long as the Court visited Puritans and Dissenters with pains and penalties, there were many of the Prelatists who held most determinedly to the doctrine of passive obedience. When, however, after James II. ascended the throne, the Episcopalians began to expe- rience the application of their own principles, they speedily abandoned them for the rational and common view which had been maintained by those whom, without compunction, they had seen visited with confiscation, imprisonment, and compli- cated penalties. — Vide Hume's History of England; Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 12mo, vol. vi. pp. 322-329. Macaulay's History of England; New York: Harpers, 12mo, vol. ii. chap. is. pp. 301-306. i 50 INTRODUCTION. momentous question; and, after the most profound and studious perusal of eminent divines and jurists, and especially of the Bible, they arrived at the conclusion, that a Christian people were en- titled to take up arms in defence of their religious liberties against any assailant."* It is not our province to trace the history of the great struggle •which was continued during four reigns, and which deluged the soil of Scotland with the blood of her martyred heroes. Our object is merely to point to the principles which were involved in the strife, and to the fact, that these persecutions were mainly instrumental in bringing to this country many of the worthy fathers and founders of our Zion. Of these, some were igno- miniously transported as felons for their attachment to the cause of God. They were prayerful and holy men. Their crime, in the eye of their oppressors, was, that they would not violate the dictates of conscience, and sin against the law of their God. Others fled, because they saw no prospect in their own country that the ark of the Lord would enjoy a safe resting-place, and they sought a region in which they might worship God in peace ; while others still, attracted by the prospects which the colonies held forth to them, left the homes of their ancestors, and sought an asylum in the companionship of those who had borne a good testimony and endured much hardness for their Lord and Saviour. In Ireland, the causes which produced the remarkable exodus of the Presbyterian inhabitants of Ulster to the North American colonies, which commenced in the end of the seventeenth century, and which has continued to flow with more or less regularity until the present time, were difierent, in some respects, from those which prevailed in Scotland. These causes soon began to affect the Scottish settlers, who had been induced to occupy the lands which fell into the hands of the Crown after the suppression of the great rebellion of O'Niell. The settlement, or, as it has been called, the " Plantation of Ulster," by settlers from Scotland and England, commenced in the reign of James I. This great mea- sure was rendered necessary because of the deplorable condition to which the northern province had been reduced by the pro- tracted wars in the time of Elizabeth. The whole kingdom had greatly sufTered, but the northern portion had especially been de- vastated and reduced to the lowest and most abject condition of misery. f After the accession of James, arrangements were made to extend English laws and customs over the whole of the kingdom. In * Hetherington's History of the Church of Scotland ; third edition, p. 102. Vide also Baillie, vol. i. p. 189. t Leland, vol. ii. p. 410; Cox, toI. ii. p. 3 ; Morrison, toI. ii. pp. 172, 200, 28S. INTRODUCTION. 51 London, O'Niell and O'Donnell were received with marks of dis- tinguished favour. The former was confirmed in the Earldom of Tyrone, and the latter was created Earl of Tyrconnell ; while an act of oblivion and indemnity was published under the Great Seal, whereby all offences committed before the accession of James were pardoned, and never to be called into further question. Most of the Irish lords yielded their estates to the Crown, and received them back again under an English title. Speedily, however, it appeared, that the restraints under which O'Niell and Tyrconnell had placed themselves were more than their impetuous spirits could brook. Formerly, they had been recognised as masters in their own territories, — their will had been received as law ; but now they felt that officials were ordained to administer the pro- visions of a code which, they perceived with regret and chagrin, abridged their power, and divested them of honour in presence of their people. Smarting under disappointment, and perhaps dread- ing the further interference of the English authorities, which they apprehended would prove adverse to the Romish church, as well as to their personal dignity, they commenced the arrange- ments of a plot, which was never matured, in consequence of the speedy flight of the two chieftains to the continent. Romish parti- sans have laboured most sedulously to show that the charge of a plot against the two Northern earls is absurd ; but the authorities on which they rely clearly demonstrate that proceedings had been commenced, which, had it not been for their speedy departure, would have resulted in turbulence and civil war.* The flight of Tyrone and Tyrconnell caused their extensive estates to revert to the Crown ; and the settlement of these lands, with such a population as would promote the arts of peace and industry, became a leading object of James's policy. The regu- lations which the King adopted for the settlement of the lauds in Ulster were, in many respects, well calculated to secure the objects of the Government, had they been faithfully carried out by the principal "undertakers" among whom the estates were divided. In many cases, however, the stipulations assented to by the undertakers were disregarded, especially in relation to fixed rents and the granting of leases to the tenants, who had beeij induced to settle on the lands as farmers. Grievances on these points were complained of equally by settlers from England and Scotland. In the twelfth article of the " Conditions" on which the proprietors received their estates, it was enacted, that " the said undertakers shall not demise any part of their lands at will * Cox's History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 12 ; Lingard, vol. ix. p. 144, Dolman's edition; Lynch's "Alithinologia, Supplement," p. 186, in O'Connor's "Historical Address," xi. p. 226. 52 INTEODUCTION. only, but shall make certain estates for years, for life, in tail, or in fee-simple;"* and yet it was found that this important condition, so essential to the prosperity of the plantation, was neglected from the beginning.f . i • • During the subsequent history of the Ulster Plantation, the irri- tating and depressing influence of this unjust conduct of the under- takers continued to produce a plentiful crop of injuries. Tenants learned that they were altogether in the hands of their landlords, and they felt that they possessed no adequate means of protecting themselves from their rapacity and avarice. If they improved their holdings, then they might be — and were often — called on to pay a higher rent to their landlords, because of their own indus- try, which had increased the value of the farms. If they neglected to improve their lands, then they suffered from poverty and its at- tendant evils. On the whole, and notwithstanding these obstacles to improve- ment, the province continued to advance in prosperity. Letters arrived from Scotland, and they were followed by ministers of the gospel, who were encouraged to remove to Ireland by the pros- pects of usefulness among their countrymen, as well as by the proceedings of the Irish Convocation, in which the learned and tolerant Ussher had borne so prominent a part. A remarkable revival of religion followed the labours of these devoted servants of God, and the cause of divine truth began to prosper in a re- markable degree in Ulster. No sooner, however, had the inflexible character of the Presby- terianism of these faithful ministers been established, and the suc- cess become obvious which followed their services, than they were called on to encounter the jealousy of Echlin, the Bishop of Down, who proceeded, in a short time, to suspend two of their number. Through the influence of Ussher, these men were re- stored again ; but, soon afterwards, Echlin silenced four other * Vide "Confiscation of Ulster," by MacNevin, Dublin and London: 1846, p. 135. f Complaints on this subject became so loud that, at length, a commission Tras appointed to investigate the state of the Ulster settlement. The returns, as giyen in " Pynnar's Survey," indicate a lamentable state of affairs. No less than eighteen of the most extensive undertakers are reported as defaulters in the matter > of leases. " He hath made no estates," is a common entry. In the cases of others/ no information could be procured, because of their absence from their propertj« (Vide "Confiscation of Ulster," pp. 171-195.) The conduct of the hopMif^om- panies, among whom the county of Londonderry was divided, appeara'TO have been equally negligent. The Grocers', the Ironmongers', the Haberdashers', the Drapers', and the Saltora' Companies appear to have been most culpable. ( Vide ante, pp. 221-228.) It is no wonder that Pynnar should state in his report, " that from the Insecurity of tenure, many of the English tenants did not then plough upon the lauds, nor use husbandry, because they feared to stock themselves with cattle and servants for such labours." INTRODUCTION. 53 brethren, and, accordingly, the whole Scottish settlers were filled with alarm and distress. Although the case of these aggrieved men was carried up to London, and referred by the King to the Lord-Deputy of Ireland, still, they did not receive redress. Alarmed at the gloomy state of aifairs, and perceiving no ray of light in any part of the horizon, the Ulster Presbyterians directed their attention to New England, with the view of removing thither, in despair of enjoying either civil or religious liberty at home. In the spring of 1634, Mr. Livingston, and a layman named William Wallace, were deputed to visit the colony, and select a suitable place of settlement. They went to London, and afterwards to Plymouth, in furtherance of their instructions ; but subsequently, being deterred by various untoward circumstances, they returned to Ulster, where they found their brethren prepared to await the events which a change, that had taken place in the administration of the civil affairs of the kingdom, might produce.* Instead, however, of any amelioration in ecclesiastical affairs, the appointment of the notorious Wentworth as lord-deputy led to an accumulation of grievances which sadly oppressed an already- afflicted people. Under the influence of Laud, decided steps were taken to modify the church in Ireland so as to accord with his Romanizing views. Serious alterations for the worse were made in Trinity College in Dublin. Arminianism was openly favoured. Bramhallf and Leslie, who proved most bitter and unscrupulous tormentors of the Presbyterians, were promoted; and, through the efforts of Wentworth, a high-commission court was established in Dublin, which enabled the deputy to subject the freedom and property of every individual in the kingdom to his control. The Presbyterians were soon made to feel the effects of this new instrument of tyranny. On the death of Bchlin, Leslie was ap- pointed to his see. He immediately signalized himself by the suspension of five other ministers. And his intolerance and re- lentless severity hastened the intended voyage to New England ; for the Presbyterian laity were now thoroughly satisfied that it was their duty to abandon a country in which their religious privi- leges were so flagrantly violated. The affecting incidents of this rejuftrkable voyage are well known, and need not be enlarged on 'fere. The vessel which bore so precious a cargo,J after accom- * Reid's History, vol. i. p. 142. •j- Afterwards called " The Canterbury of Ireland," from his zeal in imitating Laud. t " This little colony, who were about to settle in the uncultivated wilds of America for the sake of enjoying liberty of conscience, were one hundred and forty in number. Among them, were Mr. Blair, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Robert Hamil- ton, and Mr. John'McClelland, afterwards ministers in Scotland ; John Stuart, Pro- vost of Ayr, Captain Andrew Agnew, Charles Campbell, John Sumervil, Hugh 54 INTKODTJCTION. plisliing about two-thirds of the voyage, was arrested by severe storms, and, after great suffering by all on board, was provi- dentially driven back to Carrickfergus Bay. The ministers, being prevented from exercising their offices in Ireland, were compelled to flee to Scotland, where they were soon settled in pastoral charges. From this period until the breaking-out of the Massacre of 1641, the trials of the Presbyterians were exceedingly oppressive. For instance, the Bishop of Down was authorized to arrest, in a summary manner, and to imprison during pleasure, the Non-con- formists in his diocese. Wentworth, aware that the laity were accustomed to maintain an affectionate intercourse with their pas- tors who had been banished to Scotland, resolved to abolish the practice. By concentrating troops in the northeastern districts, he cut off all connection between the kingdoms, and, at the same time, alarmed the Scotch, who knew not when he might land these forces to aid the King in his efforts against the religious liberties- of Scotland. In pursuance of his plans for the extermination of Presbyterianism, and the prevention of any effort on the part of the people to oppose the arbitrary measures of Charles, Wentworth now adopted an expedient more intolerable and oppressive than any which he had previously attempted. This was the imposition, on the Ulster Scots, of the celebrated Black Oath, — so called, because thej'' were compelled to swear, never to oppose any of the King's commands, and to abjure all covenants and oaths contrary to the tenor of this unconditional engagement. The proceedings connected with the enforcement of this ensnaring and illegal mea- sure were of the most flagitious character, involving the Presby- terians in manifold sufferings. Having tried every expedient short of extirpation — oaths, fines, forfeitures, and imprisonment — without subduing the Scots, he, at length, conceived the idea of banishing them altogether out of the kingdom. The result, had he succeeded, would have secured the overthrow of Protestantism in Ireland ; for the few scattered Protestants who would have re- mained could never have withstood the furious assaults of the Romanists in the massacre which took place during the year fol- lowing. His object was, by means of intrigue, to procure from the Irish Parliament a recommendation to remove the Northern Presbyterians, lest they should unite with Argyle and aid him in his objects in Scotland, or lest he might invade Ulster, and, by their means, effect an insurrection in the North. Happily, when Parliament assembled, the state of affairs was such that the project was never submitted; and it only remains on record as an evidence of his reckless and unfeeling despotism. Brown, Trith many families and single persons." (Reid's History, vol. i. chap. iv. INTRODUCTION. 55 In the calamitous period of 1641, the Presbyterians suffered severely, and many were treacherously and ruthlessly butchered. Of the ministers, a number had withdrawn or been banished to Scotland, and, on the occasion of the first alarm at the breaking out of the storm, a season was given for preparation ere the terrible visitation, which swept over the country, had time to reach the Scottish settlers. In this way many lives were providentially saved. As soon as peace was restored, the cause of Presbyte- rianism began to flourish again. The chaplains, who had come to Ulster with the Scottish regiments which had been drafted over to meet the emergency, consented to remain in the country. A presbytery was regularly organized, sessions were formally established in many congregations, and the foundations of the church were laid broad and deep in the land. A fervent appeal to the Assembly, in Edinburgh, was favourably entertained, and additional ministers were sent to Ulster. Of these, some had been; in Ireland before. They were all men of deep piety and fervent zeal, and, under their ministrations, the church broke forth on the right hand and on the left. In many districts of the country, where settlers had languished for the ordinances of religion, churches were formed, and successful efforts were made for the enforcement, of strict discipline throughout the bounds of the presbytery, in ac- cordance with the practice of the parent-church. On the abolition of the monarchy, by the execution of Charles I., the Ulster Presbyterians found that trials were still in store for them; and, although Prelacy had been deprived of its former power, they learned that the downfall of their old enemies brought them little relief. They occupied a middle position be- tween the High-Church Prelatic party, that would have restored the monarchy on the principles of non-resistance and passive obedience, and the Independents and other sectaries, who would have destroyed all royal authority in the state, and all settled government, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian, in the church. The Presbyterians were anxious for a constitutional monarchy, with proper restraints on the royal authority, and with adequate securities on the subject of religion ; while they adhered to the Covenants, and desired the establishment of a Presbyterian form of government in the church. Accordingly, they did not assent to the policy of the leaders who represented the authority of Crom- well in Ireland ; and, on his own arrival, they continued steadily to, repudiate his views. Forthwith, the presbytery was first threatened by the army, under Venables, and, subsequently, a considerable number of the ministers were imprisoned because they refused to swear to an engagement, which would have committed them to an abandonment of their well-known principles. Afterwards, many of them, because of the privations which they had to encounter, 56 INTKODUCTION. were compelled to flee to Scotland, while a plan was concocted for transporting the remainder of them out of the kingdom. At one time, Cromwell designed to remove the leading Presbyterians to Munster, the southern province of the island, and a proclamation to that efi^ect was made.* Had the measure been carried out, it might have produced a powerful effect in ameliorating the con- dition of the island, as the North would not have been surren- dered by the Scottish population ; and when the influence of that people in Ulster is contrasted with the want of energy which has been displayed by the Protestants of the South, it is perhaps to be regretted that the design of Cromwell was not executed. Although Charles II. was fully aware, that the Presbyterians laboured with great zeal and success in promoting his restoration, yet, having determined on patronizing Prelacy, it would have manifested weakness to expect that a man who had no gratitude, and who never remembered his benefactors, would interfere to deliver his friends from the fresh troubles in which they were in- volved by the return of their old enemies to power. About this period it became customary with the gentry, who aimed at com- mending themselves to the bishops and their friends in power, to exhibit their zeal by inflicting a series of annoyances of an irri- tating character on the Presbyterian ministers. Foremost, now, among their clerical persecutors, stood the celebrated Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor,f who, after citing the breth- ren in his diocese to his visitation, proceeded, in the most summary fashion, to proclaim thirty-six of their churches vacant. His ex- ample was followed by others of the Northern prelates, and, in a short time, no less than sixty-one ministersj were prohibited from * Vide Copy of the Proclamation, in Reid, vol. ii. pp. 272-275. j- These references to the arbitrary proceedings of the bishops in Ireland, and to the Prelatioal supporters of the despotism of the Stuarts in Scotland, are not made with a view to create prejudice against Episcopacy. In Scotland there was a Leighton, and in Ireland there were Ussher, Bedell, and others, who were tolerant and benevolent as well as learned men. The odium of these unjust and tyrannical measures belongs to the men and to the spirit of the age in which they lived. In Scotland, the Parliament never represented the people. The General Assembly was the court in which the popular voice was heard. Hence it came to pass that, as the Assembly was opposed to Prelacy, the Scottish bishops threw themselves into the arms of the monarch, and sided with his subservient Parliament. They sustained the King because he supported them. In Ireland, also, the upholders of Episcopacy found that the spread of Presbyterianism would certainly limit the powers of the hierarchy, and eventually succeed in abolishing the pecu- liar features of the system, if its progress were not arrested ; and they therefore lent themselves to sustain the Court against a people whose political views gave offence to the monarch. Thus, in Ireland, as well as in Scotland, the bishops saw that, as a reward for their services in maintaining the royal authority, the power of the civil arm would be extended to sustain themselves. ( Vide Hodge's His- tory, p. 59, note.) X There were nearly seventy ministers, associated together in presbyteries, at ■ INTRODUCTION. 57 exercising any of their functions in the country. Had they merely been deprived of their temporal benefices, they would have borne the injury with meekness ; but to be prohibited, under pains and penalties, from preaching, baptizing, and ministering, in any way, to their flocks, and to see that thus, by one stroke, nearly all the ministers of the province were silenced, was to them and to their people an inexpressibly severe trial.* In process of time, a season of relief was enjoyed again, and a goodly number of ministers returned to their charges ; but they had scarcely resumed their labours ere they were called on to encounter renewed persecutions. Numbers of them were im- prisoned. In different districts their churches were closed ; and, generally, their worship was interdicted, while the penalties of recusancy were inflicted on both ministers and people, by an in- tolerant, time-serving, and reckless magistracy. So long did this deplorable state of affairs continue, and so severe were the dis- tresses of the ministers and the members of their charges in the counties of Donegal and Derry, that, in the year 1684, the ma- jority of the Presbytery of Laggan intimated to their brethren in other presbyteries their intention of removing to America, "be- cause of persecutions and general poverty abounding in those parts, and on account of their straits and little or no access to their ministry."")" During the reign of James II., the Presbyterians, as well as the other Protestants of the country, were called on to contend against the efforts which were then made to establish Popery in the king- dom. Favoured by William III., and even endowed by that prince, yet no sooner had Anne ascended the throne than the same intolerant High-Church party that had formerly oppressed them renewed their assaults. At one time, their annoyances arose from embarrassments about the marriages which the minis- this period. Of these, seven only conformed to Prelacy, and sixty-one remained faithful to their principles. Of the small number of ministers in tjlster who were not Presbyterian, and who had been endowed during CromweU's time, no fewer than eleven appear to have conformed to Prelacy. * "These ministers enjoyed the painful, though honourable, pre-eminence of being the first to suffer in the three kingdoms, the Non-conformists of England not being ejected till the month of August in the following year, nor the Presbyterians of Scotland till the subsequent month of October, 1662. The reason of the minis- ters being ejected in Ireland so long before their brethren in the sister kingdom was this: — The old form of church government and worship had never been abolished by law in Ireland ; and therefore, at the Restoration, Prelacy, being still the legal Establishment, was immediately recognised and enforced. Both in England and in Scotland it had been abolished by acts of their respective Parlia- ments, and the Directory substituted in room of the Common Prayer Book. It was necessary, therefore, that these acts should be first repealed, and new acts of Parliament passed, before the bishops had power to proceed against those who did not conform." (Reid, vol. ii. p. 350, and note 16 on same page.) f From MS. Minutes, quoted by Reid, vol. ii. p. 425. 58 INTRODUCTION. ters were accustomed to celebrate among their own people. At another time, they were assailed because their ministers obeyed their presbyteries by preaching in vacant charges ; while the most absurd charges of disloyalty were urged against them in virulent pamphlets, and often made the subject of legal investigation before unscrupulous magistrates. To such lengths were these harsh pro- ceedings carried, that a presbytery, which had met for the pur- pose of forming a new congregation, were arrested and indicted for a riot, while they were sitting peaceably engaged in the discharge of their duties, making provision for the spiritual edifi- cation of their own members. Add to these trials the compli- cated insults and vexations which flowed from the adoption by the Government of the " Sacramental Test- Act," an act which, in its operation, was most oppressive, and it will not seem strange that,, at this period, considerable numbers of the Presbyterians began to seek relief by emigration to the colonies. In England, the Dis- senters enjoyed full security for their religious observances ; but in Ireland, and among the Presbyterians, the disabilities created by this act extended to all civil and military offices held under the Crown. In fact, no Presbyterian could hold any situation in the army, the navy, the customs, the excise, or the post-office, in any court of law, or officiate as a magistrate, without conforming to the Established Church. After the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne, the Ulster Presbyterians continued to endure many grievances of the most mortifying and irritating character, even subsequent to the period when their worship was legalized by the "Act of Tole- ration." Many of the largest estates were in the hands of Epis- copalians, who utterly refused to allow Presbyterian churches to be erected on their properties. To enforce conformity, many landlords exacted a higher rental from Presbyterians than they demanded from their Episcopal tenantry; and, as soon as any yielded to this pressure, and joined the Established Church, their rents were reduced to a just standard. Though constituting two- thirds of the population of Ulster, no gentleman of their com- munion could fill the office of magistrate or sheriff, and even their teachers had much difficulty in conducting their schools. At length, on the accession of George II., such changes occurred in many districts of Ulster, that emigration to America began to be carried out on a scale far beyond any thing known in the history of the province. After the Revolution, and with a view to en- courage the agricultural prosperity of the North, many of the landholders had given leases to their tenants in conformity with the article in the " Condition" to which we have already referred. Many of these leases were only for thirty-one years ; and, now that they had expired, the landlords took advantage of the INTRODUCTION. 59 tenants, and raised the rents of their holdings to an unwonted sum, because of the increased value of the lands, which had been improved by the tenants' skill and industry. Add to this the annoyance of a proportionate increase of tithe paid to a hier- archy and clergy who not only rendered the Presbyterians no spiritual benefits in return, but, on the other hand, were their most determined oppressors, — and, still further, the distresses arising from a number of uncongenial seasons, which produced scanty harvests, — and it will not be thought strange that emi- gration should be hailed as a boon by any people so unfavourably circumstanced. '\ Addressing the Secretary of State in England, Archbishop Boulter gives a melancholy picture of the condition to which the Northern Presbyterians had been reduced. According to hia statement, a number of agents from the colonies, and masters of vessels, aware of the distress which existed and of the dissatis- faction which was felt by the people with the administration of law, had travelled through the country, pointing out the advan- tages which might be enjoyed by those who would resolve to cross the Atlantic and seek that peace and prosperity which were offered in an American home. The archbishop also shows that, in three years, no less than four thousand two hundred men, women, and children had deserted the country, and tha|, of these, no less than three thousand one hundred had gone in the summer of 1728.* The wisdom of the Head of the church in all these providences is abundantly manifest. Had the Ulster Presbyte- rians been permitted to abandon their country at the time when Livingston and Wallace were deputed to prepare for carrying out the scheme, their numbers were then so few that a small body only could have reached the colonies, while it is probable that a weak remnant only, unable to contend with the trials which were still to be encountered, would have remained at home. Had the voyage of " The Eagle- Wing" succeeded, a similar result must have taken place. Ulster would never, in that case, have become the great nursery for our church which it has been for a century and a quarter, sending off the excess of its population from year to year to strengthen the cause which had been established on this great continent, while the parent-stock, which remained in its own land, continued to grow and prosper. The church had now, however, attained to a considerable magnitude ; and, from this time forward, the American colonies presented attractions to the Ulster Presbyterians which the lapse of time and the occur- * Boulter's " Letters,'' vol. i. pp. 260-261. Writing in the spring of next year, he says, " There are now seven ships at Belfast, carrying off about one thousand passengers." 60 INTRODUCTION. rence of many social changes on both sides of the ocean have not served to diminish. The tide which then commenced to flow has never ceased to set in the same direction, until, at the present time, it is probable that the descendants of the Irish Presbyte- rians in the United States are threefold more numerous than the whole Presbyterian population now in Ireland.* The circumstances here enumerated will account for the fact, that a greater number of settlers arrived in this country from Scotland than from Ireland during the middle of the seventeenth century, and that afterwards this proportion was decidedly re- versed, and the majority were supplied from Ireland. The troubles in Scotland were mainly terminated by the Revolution settlement ; but many of the grievances of the Ulster Presbyte- rians were only then commencing. In Scotland, the difficulties connected with the tenure of land did not exist, while it was chiefly after the Revolution that the evils of the landlord system in Ireland began to be fully experienced.f These trials were endured by the people of Ulster until patience became exhausted; and, as hope died out, the disheartened people began — at first in small numbers, and then in greater bodies — to desert their homes. Although a goodly number of emigrants had gradually been leaving the country for the colonies, and even Makemie and others had commenced' their labours among the Scotch and Ulster settlers before the Revolution, still, it was after that period that the great emigration-movement commenced, which, at length, attained to such a magnitude that certain leading authoritiesj in Ireland began to dread the removal of the entire Presbyterian population of Ulster. § For instance, six thousand Irish are reported as having come to this country in 1729, and, before the middle of the century, nearly twelve thousand arrived annually for several years. || Of these, the greater number arrived in Pennsylvania, although many of them afterwards removed to Vir- ginia and the Carolinas. At the same time, Charleston had be- come a favourite port of arrival for Irish and Scottish settlers, many of whom found their way out into the agricultural districts * Vide Reid, vol. iii. p. 514, note 55. f Many of these evils still exist in different parts of the country, and, for several years past, an effort has been made to settle the questions in dispute between the landlords and the cultivators of the soil. The measure is popularly known as the "Tenant-right" movement. J Wodrow's MS. Letters, xx.. No. 129. I Vide Hodge's History, p. 65 ; Holmes's Annals, vol. ii. p. 123. Holmes says, that, "in the first fortnight of 1773, three thousand five hundred passengers ar- rived in Pennsylvania from Ireland. In October, a ship arrived from Galway, in the North (west) of Ireland, with eighty passengers, and a ship from Belfast, with one hundred and seventy passengers." "Vol. ii. p. 305. II Proud's History of Pennsylvania, vol. ii. pp. 273-274. INTRODUCTION. 61 of North and South Carolina, and numbers of the remainder con- stituted the early settlers of Georgia.* The religious views of these founders of our church — whether they came from Scotland or from Ireland — were equally decided and well kiy)wn. They steadfastly adhered " to the form of sound words" laid down in the Westminster Standards, which they held to be the fullest, the clearest, and the most scriptural ex- hibition of the truths of revelation which had been drawn up for the use of the church in any age. All the influences which had been brought to bear on the Scottish population, from the reign of James I. till that of William III., had never infected them with the leaven of Pelagian or Socinian error. The Moderatism which afterwards grew up in the country, and produced such a harvest of evil, was a plant of later growth. The seed of this Upas-tree was sown at the time of the Revolution settlement, when the "compromise" or "comprehension" was assented to, which allowed the intruded Prelatists to remain in the parishes which they then held in the Scottish church. In Ireland, the population were equally Calvinistic and Evangelical. The allure- ments of place and power, the fascinations of the national Esta- blishment, the tyranny of the Government, the continued perse- cutions of the hierarchy, and the insolent conduct of the gentry, for upwards of a century, were powerless to seduce or to drive them from their integrity. The Ulster Scots maintained their principles through the storm as well as in the calm, resisting alike the minions of the Stuarts during the monarchy, and the profi"ered endowments or the frowns of the officials of Cromwell in the days of the commonwealth. They could leave the country, but they could not abandon their principles. No prelatic forms had crept into the system of church government to which they were attached, and they were equally free from Arminian views ; while no elements of Congregationalism had been adopted into their discipline. They were as much opposed to Independency, on the one hand, as they were to Prelacy, on the other; and that form of church government which they loved, and for the maintain- ance of which they had testified in days of trial, they brought with them to these shores. Politically and religiously, they were in a strait between three parties, and from the enmity of each they had to calculate on ill-will and suffering. The Papists hated them, as being heretics, and as intruders on a soil which formed the heritage of their fathers. The Prelatists trampled upon them, as a stiff-necked generation, because they refused to acknowledge the lawfulness of the power which the * Holmes, vol. ii. pp. 131, 142. 62 INTEODUCTION. heads of the church assumed. And the civil rulers of the day sub- jected them to penalties, because they protested against tyranny, and demanded the exercise of constitutional power in the state. Even as early as 1659 we find Willock— the colleague of Knox —propounding to the Convention of Estates,* in Edinburgh, the doctrine, " that the power of rulers was limited both by reason and by Scripture, and that they might be deprived of it upon valid grounds." To these sentiments Knox assented, with certain limitations, not of the principle, but merely to guard against .pas- sion or prejudice being allowed to rule in the practical application of the principle in individual cases. The Assembly of 1649 de- clared "that, as magistrates and their power are ordained of God, so they are, in the exercise thereof, not to walk after their own will, but according to the law of equity and righteousness ;_ that a boundless and unlimited power is to be acknowledged in no king or magistrate ; and that there is a mutual obligation betwixt the king and his people, — each of them is tied to the other for the performance of mutual and reciprocal duties." From these posi- tions the Scottish people were never driven. To these sentiments, and to the principles laid down in the Covenants, both the Scot- tish and the Ulster Presbyteriansf 'adhered during that long war- fare, in which they resis.ted the power of the Stuart dynasty, and in which they ultimately triumphed, while the faithless race that had oppressed them was hurled from the throne. The training through which, in Scotland and Ireland, our emigrant fathers had been conducted was admirably adapted to constitute them wise and energetic founders of new states. They were lovers of liberty, but they respected law ; and it was a por- tion of their creed that the office of the civil magistrate is of God. Such a people were eminently qualified for establishing and maintaining the institutions of a free country. All national asso- ciations of men require the influence of a restraining power. An atheistical or an immoral people may be controlled by the pre- * Vide Hetherington, 3d ed., Edinburgh, p. 25. •j- When the Irish Presbyterians were charged -with disloyalty by one of their many traducers, in the reign of Anne, their defender, Ejrkpatrick, justifies their views by an appeal to the principles which placed William III. on the throne. He quotes the sentiments of Hoadly as expressing Presbyterian views, Hoadly had received the thanks of the House of Commons for his writings ; and Kirkpatriok quotes, from the sermon preached by him before the Lord-Mayor of London, the following: — "If, therefore, they (i. e. magistrates) use their power, to the hurt and prejudice of human society, they act not, in any such instances, by authority from God, but 'contrary to His will. Nor can they, in such instances, be called his vicegerents without the highest profaneness : and, therefore, to oppose them in such cases cannot be to oppose the authority of God ; nay, a passive non- resistance would appear, upon examination, to be a much greater opposition to the will of God than the contrary." (Vide Kirkpatriok's "Presbyterian Loyalty," Belfast, 1713, p. 4.) INTEODUCTION. 63 sence of a military force which represents and carries out the •will of an autocrat; but a moral, religious, and educated people, among whom the fear of God dwells and the influences of religion are in full operation, will require little external force or compul- sion to secure the observance of order or obedience to just and equitable laws. Their religion and their politics both take hold on the sanctions of eternity ; and in their integrity, their obedience to law, and their respect for those who rule, it will be seen that true religion is the only safe foundation on which the edifice of civil society, especially in a republic, can be erected with any rational prospect of permanence. Such were our emigrant fathers. " Their moral principles were derived from the words of Him who lives and abides forever ; and the commands of God, and the awful retributions of eternity, gave force to these principles, which became a living power and a controlling influence. The time has but just passed when the schoolmaster from Ireland taught the children of the Valley of Virginia and the upper part of the Carolinas as they taught in the mother-country, — when the children and youth at school re- cited the Assembly's Catechism once a week and read parts of the Bible every day. The circle of their instruction was circum- scribed; but the children were taught to speak the truth and defend it, to keep a good conscience, and fear God, — the founda- tion of good citizens and great men. Wherever they settled in America, besides the common schools, they turned their attention to high-schools and academies, and to colleges, to educate men for all the departments of life, carrying in their emigration the deep conviction, that without sound education there could be no permanence in religious or civil institutions, or any pure and un- debased enjoyments of domestic life."* This work, in the body of which and in the biographical depart- ment an attempt is made to record the incidents of the lives of a goodly number of those honoured men and to chronicle their labours in founding our Zion, will form an enduring monument to their intelligence, their social worth, and their earnest religious convictions. The seed which they sowed in troublous times, and which they watered with their tears, has, under the divine bless- ing, grown up a goodly tree, and prospered, until its branches are spreading out and overshadowing this fair land ! " The memory of the just is blessed." Usto perpetua ! William Blackwood. Maech, 1857. * Foote's Sketches of North CaroUna, pp. 122, 123. PART I. THE Ir^sbglerian €\mt\ m %mtxm. The northern district of Ireland was to the Presbyterians of Scotland in the days of James and Charles what ISTew Eng- land was to the Puritans, — a refuge from oppression ; and the intelligence, the integrity, and the prosperity of Ulster is the memorial of their wisdom and their piety. There was a time when the most judicious ministers thought that they must leave their new homes and lead their brethren to the wild tracts of America as once they had gone with them to the devastated and confiscated fields of Irish rapine. They took the Eagle's "Wing* to speed them across the ocean ; but the sea wrought and was tempestuous, and, after many disasters, they abandoned their project.f Bishop Bramhall, in Latin verse, derided the return of the Puritanical Argo without the golden fleece. They were not suffered to come hither; there they were to build the church of God, and be, though not imme- diately, yet really, the instruments of planting religion in our land ; for the individuals who, single-handed, laid the founda- tions of our church, owed to Ulster their birth, and to her * 1637. Eeid's Hist. Presbyterian Church in Ireland. f The saintly Rutherford wrote, in 1637, to John Stuart, Provost of Ayr: — "I would not have you think it strange that your journey to New England has got such a dash. It hath indeed made my heart heavy ; but I know that it is no dumb providence, but a speaking one whereby the Lord speaks his mind to you, though for the present ye do not well understand what he saith. However it be. He that sitteth on the floods hath shown you his marvellous kindness in the great depths. . . . Let me hear from you, for I am anxious what to do. If I saw a call for New England I would follow it." 90th Letter also. 5 65 gS WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE pastors and faithful teachers the training in knowledge and goodness which made them benefactors of this whole nation In 1641 Mr Castell, the Parson of Cortenhall, published* a plan for' introducing the gospel into the colonies It was approved by seventy of the Westminster divines, by Alexander Henderson and the Scottish Commissioners. But forty years passed, and nothing was done by the Establishment or the Dissenters. The Church of Scotland at that period, bke the Church of Ireland, had too many foes, to say nothing of her poverty, to attempt the extension of her doctrine and her discipline in parts beyond sea. But the folly and the cruelty of the Government contributed to effect a result which the Church was unable to accomplish. As in the Apostolic age persecution led to the disciples being scattered abroad throughout Judea and Samaria; so the oppres- sion of men in high places in Britain became the occasion of settling the wilds of America with the fathers of our Presby- terian Zion. Immediately after the battle of Dunbar, the victorious gene- ral sent the Scots prisoners by shiploads to the Plantations to be sold. A list of those sent in one vessel is preserved in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. After the Eestoration the same method was pursued by the king ; and many of those concerned in the risings at Pentland and Both- well were consigned to servitude beyond the Atlantic. A stream of emigration flowed from the oppressed congrega- tions, and Scottish merchants and physicians were found from New York to Charleston, and throughout the West Indies. Eobert Livingston came to New York in 1672t with his nephew. He was a son of the venerable minister of Anerum, who was banished to Holland, and whose name is linked in honourable remembrance with the signal refreshing at the Kirk of Shotts. Between 1670 and 1680, Scottish Presbyterians settled on the eastern branch of Elizabeth Eiver, near Norfolk, in Virginia, and had a minister from Ireland, who died in August, 1683. In the lower counties of Maryland, on the Eastern Shore, * Reprinted in Force's Collections. f Sedgwick's Life of GoTernor William Livingston. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 67 they established themselves, during the persecution in their native land. They had meeting-houses* in Snow Hill, Pitt's Creek, Wicomico, Monokin, and Rehoboth, at least twenty years before the close of the seventeenth century. Their appli- cation is the first that is known to have been made to the British churches for a minister. In December, 1680, a letter from Colonel Stevensf was laid before Laggan Presbytery, in Ireland, to send a minister to the people in Maryland, beside Virginia."! The Scottish noblemen and gentlemen who opposed the introduction of arbitrary power under the guise of prelacy, were in close correspondence with Shaftesbury and other leaders of the Country party against the Court. While seeking his aid and counsel to effect a political change at home, they embarked also in his scheme of settling Carolina.§ The king signified, toward the end of 1682, to his council in Scotland, that Sir John Cochran, of Ochiltree, and Sir George Campbell, of Cesnock, had been sent up to him as commis- sioners about the project, and he recommends the council to encourage them. These commissioners contracted with the lords-proprietors of Carolina for a county of thirty-two square plats of twelve thousand acres, with a quit-rent of one penny an acre, and engaged to advance ten pounds for each hundred acres before October, 1682, and ten thousand pounds besides, if necessary for charges. Among the thirty-six "under- takers" were the Lords Callender, Cardross, Haddington, and Yester, with Sir Patrick Hume, of Polwarth, and the eminent lawyer Sir George Lockhart. Their agent in London was the Rev. Mr. Ferguson, who was constantly engaged in schemes against the government, always detected and never punished. It was suspected and openly charged at the trial of Baillie of Jerviswood, that there was no purpose to promote emigration, * Spenoe's Early History. ■|- Colonel William Stevens died 23d December, 1687, aged 57, at his residence iti Eehoboth, Md. : having been for twenty-two years a judge of the county court and one of Lord Baltimore's council, and a, deputy-lieutenant of the province. (From his tombstone, by Rev, J. L. Vallandingham. ) J Reid's History of Presbyterian Church in Ireland. § Wodrow. In 1685, "the great and good Earl of Cassilis,'' who sat in West- minster Assembly, proposed to leave Scotland. Archibald Kennedy, a merchant in New York, returned at a later date, having succeeded to the earldom. gg WEBSTER'S HISTOEY OF THE and that it was a cover of the designs which were defeated by the discovery of the Eye-house plot and by Monmonth s overthrow. After the defeat at Bothwell, the king* allowed the pri- soners who made acknowledgment of repentance to be trans- ported, and great numbers were banished in the summer of 1684. Two-and-twenty were sent over to Carolina in one ship, principally from Glasgow, Eaglesham, and Eastwood. With them sailed William Dunlop, a probationer, and Henry Erskine, Lord Cardross, leaving their families. After a voyage of great hardship, they reached Charleston in the fall. The settlement was at Port Royal, at the mouth of Broad Eiver. " The place was sickish ;" and as early as 1686, "the English were very much off that plantation of Carolina." Adverse, disheartening circumstances caused Cardrossf to go over to Holland, and Dunlop returned on the accession^ of William, and was made principal of Glasgow iTniversity. Scarce a tradition of the enterprise remains. Presbyterians from Fifeshire, under the auspices of Colonel Ninian Beall,t took up their abode between the Potomac and Patuxent, during the time of Scotland's trouble, and formed the congregations of Marlborough and Bladensburg. Thomas Wilson,§ an Enghsh Eriend, in 1691, coming north, after preaching in Virginia and Carolina, was invited to his house by "an ancient, comely man, an elder among the Presbyterians," who lent him his boat next morning across the Potomac, on his way to Patuxent. Scotsmen joined with Penn and others in the purchase of the Jerseys. Eair were the terms and wise the consti- tution promulgated by the proprietors; numbers removed from Scotland to East Jersey, taking many servants with them, having received as a gift from the council their brethren who could not comply with the outrageous measures of the government. Among others who removed was George Scot,|| of Pitlochie, who had suffered grievously by fine and imprisonment for his non-conformity. He was the son of Sir * Wodrow. f He was created, on the Revolution, Earl of Buchan. J He was a prominent man in the colony in 1689, when he joined in representing to the council that there was no ground for suspecting the Papists of a plot. MSS. Maryland Hist. Soo- J Friends' Library. || Wodrow. ' PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 69 John Scot, of Scotstarbet, and a man of large estate. In 1674, he, with several gentlemen, appeared before the council, and, on their acknowledgment of having been present when John Welsh and other "outed" ministers preached, they were fined and ordered to lie in prison till payment was made. Pitlo- chie's fine was one thousand pounds Scots, — the heaviest of all ; and for his alleged impertinent and outrageous carriage before the council, five hundred merks were added to it. Would they have taken the oath of supremacy, the fine would have been remitted; they remained in prison till it was paid. " By and attour" all this, he was fined in the next month one thousand pounds for harbouring that excellent man, Mr. Welsh. After this, he was intercommuned, and, being seized for attending conventicles, was sent by the council, February 8, 1677, to the Bass, and remained prisoner till the beginning of October, when he was released on giving bond to appear when called. His wife, the daughter of that eminent Christian, William Rigg,* of Aitherney, not appearing when cited by the council, was fined one thousand merks for fre- quenting conventicles, and was intercommuned. Pitlochie, on leaving the Bass, gave security in ten thousand merks that he would confine himself to his own lands, and not keep conventicles. He was before the council May 14, 1679, on a charge of having violated his engagement ; he was ordered to pay three thousand merks and confine himself to his own lands, the rest of the penalty in the bond being superseded "until they see how the said Greorge carries in time coming." He was fined on the 23d of January following seven hundred pounds for not attending musters and the king's host. In 1683, he was indicted for treason, rebellion, and favours done to rebels ; but, being out of the kingdom, the prosecution was dropped. He was however, on his return, sent to the Bass. He petitioned the council to be let out to remove to East Jersey, promising to take with him his fellow-prisoner, the Rev. Archibald Riddel, and to be "caution for him" in five thousand merks. He was released in the spring of 1684, and published an appealf to the Presbyterians, showing them the advantages of settling there, especially of having the free * Livingston's Memoirs. f Printed in Whitehead's East Jersey under the Proprietaries. 70 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE enjoyment of their own mode of worsliip, whicli was no longer tolerated at home. The appeal was seconded by letters from Scotsmen already established there, particularly from Jamea Johnston, of Spotswood. Beside Mr. Eiddel, the Eev. Wil- liam Aisdale accompanied him, but died at sea. The Rey. Thomas Patterson,* who had been " outed" from the parish of Borthwick by the council, in August, 1662, and who seems to have escaped the notice of the persecutors, was expected to go also ; but it is not known whether he went. The council recommendedf the king to grant Pitlochie " a gratification," in consideration of services rendered by his father, and gave him warrant, February 11, 1685, to transport from the prisons of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling, one hundred persons who were willing to go, not having landed property worth one hundred pounds a year. He petitioned afterwards for some of those who had recently been banished, and, ou the 7th of August, twelve more were given him. The names of over seventy men and of ten or twenty women given him are preserved by "Wodrow. They were, some of them, men of great worth, and had already passed through much suffering. At the head, was John Frazer,! who, having taken his degree of Master of Arts, and gone to London for his safety and preparation for the ministry, was seized at a meeting while the Rev. Alexander Shiels was preaching. The minister, with Frazer, John Foreman, and five others of his hearers, were sent up to Scotland, having first lain in Newgate. They were marched through London, manacled two-and-two, as criminals. They were examined by the council and sent to Dunotter. One hundred persons were thrust into a vault under ground, with one window which opened to the sea : there, ankle-deep in mire, with nothing on which to sit or lie, they were pent up through the summer. Frazer, weak and sick, was marched on foot to Leith, where a Newcastle ship, Richard Hutton, master, was lying to receive him and his companions in tri- bulation. Twenty-eight persons left at this time a testimony dated August 28, 1685, against their unjust banishment, and for the covenants and the preaching of the word in * Wodrow. •)■ Ibid. J Ibid. PKESBTTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 71 fields and houses. Those who could not pay their passage were given to Pitlochie, and all the banished were put into his care. After long delay, the ship sailed, September 5 ; the pro- visions began to putrefy ; malignant fever attacked nearly all on board, and swept away twenty-two of the prisoners, with most of the crew. Pitlochie and his excellent lady died, with their sister-in-law. Lady Aitherney and her son and daughter, and the wife of Mr. Riddel. The captain was inhuman beyond measure. Upwards of sixty died, many of whom were voluntary exiles for the word of Grod. They reached ISTew Jersey about the middle of December. The people on the coast showed them no kindness; but "a town* a little way up the country sent horses for the feeble, and entertained all of them till the spring." Pitlochie had sold what remained of his estate to pay the freight, and, dying, he gave the prisoners to his son-in-law, Mr. John Johnston. They resisted his claim ; and the governor, on hearing both parties, summoned a jury, whose verdict was, that, not having of their own accord come in that ship, nor bargained with Pitlochie for money or service, they were free. Most of them went to Sew England, and were kindly enter- tained. Frazer was ordainedf in Hartford county, Connecticut, and preached at "Woodbury. His labours were blessed ; but on the accession of William, he returned with his wife to Scotland, and became the minister of Alness. His son was the author of the admirable work on Sanctification. Among the voluntary exiles was Robert McLellan, of Bal- magechan. He had been forfeited in 1680. He made his home at "Woodbridge ; and on the revolution, in returning to Scotland, was captured by the French, and, on being released, he was shipwrecked on the Irish coast. He reached home at last, and was reinstated in his lands. Another was William Mven, of Pollockshaws ; like McLel- lan, honourable and excellent. He also returned. The Rev. Archibald Riddel had a call to a congregation on Long Island ; but he preferred to settle at Woodbridge. He * Wodrow. t Prfif^'Oe to Frazer on Sanctification. 72 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE also returned,* suffering, by-the-way, years of imprisonment in France. He was the brother of the Laird of Eiddel, in Rox- burghshire,— a heavy sufferer for conscience. In the summer of 1677, he joined, with Mr. Welsh and other " outed" mmisters, in dispensing the sacrament at Maybole, in Carrick. Search was ordered to be made for him after Bothwell ; and proclama. tion was made, June 26, 1679, against harbouring or resetting him. In September, 1680, he was seized while riding from Moffkt-well, and imprisoned ; he demanded to be tried for his accession to the rising. He would not engage to abstain from field-preaching ; and, not being able to find security, he was left seven months in Edinburgh prison and three years and a half in the Bass. He was liberated in the spring of 1681 to see his dying mother,t and in June was again sent to the Bass for holding a conventicle at Kippen. There he remained till he sailed for America. Among the prisoners were John Foreman, John Henderson, John Foord, — names still familiar in Freehold. These ban- ished men formed a large part of our early congregations in East Jersey. Colonel Barclay, of IJrie, was, like Pitlochie, concerned in the shipment of prisoners. He had twenty-three given him at one time. He settled at Amboy, and, though nearly related to the great Quaker apologist, was a churchman. "That excellent person," Lord ISTeil Campbell, the son of the Marquis of Argyle, and the brother of the earl, was not suffered, after 1681, to live in his own house ; and, having refused the test, he was forced to go to America at hazard of life, leaving his family behind. He returned on the downfall of the Stuarts. The Rev. David Simpson, minister of Killean, was, after the indulgence, placed by the council at Kintyre. He was imprisoned, but liberated March 17, 1685, on condition of leaving the kingdom. He went to New Jersey and died there. In the parish of Dalserf, in Lanarkshire, the curate, Mr. Joseph Clelland, was very active against non-conformists. * His daughter, Mrs. James Dundas, remained here. — W. A. Whitehead, Esq., of Newark. f She had been denounced as a rebel -while a widow. Her husband had been heavily fined. — Wodrow. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 73 Many families were scattered. John Harvie and Walter Ker were seized. The former was given to Pitlochie. The latter was banished September 3, 1685 ; he settled in Freehold, was greatly serviceable in promoting the interests of religion, and lived till 1744 to witness the great awakening. The Rev. Dr. Ker, of G-oshen, New York, and the Rev. Jacob Ker, of Somerset, Maryland, were his grandsons. Mr. Hume,* living near Paisley, a man of property and respectability, was imprisoned for his zeal as a Whig, and released on condition of removing to America. A contagious fever carried off himself and his wife while at sea in a crowded vessel. His only child, a daughter of fifteen, was kindly received by her mother's brother, Dr. Johnson, of New York. She married William Hoge, an exile for Christ's sake : they settled at Amboy. Their son was the Rev. John Hoge, of Opequhon, Vii'ginia, and their grandson the Rev. Dr. Moses Hoge. Little companies of Scotsmen, driven from home by brutal oppression, were scattered through East Jersey, Delaware, and along York and Rappahannock, in Virginia.f There was a large emigration to Charleston. The closing of the seventeenth century was marked by the subsiding of the flood of religious feeling which had so power- fully for three generations agitated Great Britain. The turbid waves were almost at rest, and the atoms lately tossing on the top of the billows were precipitated as from a chemical solution, and gradually congealed and stratified in forms and masses as distinct and unchangeable as the second- ary and tertiary formations of our globe. A similar tendency to assume and adhere to distinctive forms and denominational peculiarities was displayed in this country. The Dutch Reformed congregations, surrounded in the larger towns by an English population, and living under a government which favoured the sole use of the English tongue, abated not one jot of their tenacity for the exclusive * MS. Life of Dr. Moses Hoge. ■f Dr. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, was born of parents both natives of Virginia, his grandparents having removed from Newbottle, the parish served by Leighton, to York River, where "it was at least two miles over." 74 webstee's history of the use of Low Dutch in their religious services. The necessity thus created favoured the introduction of the Church of Eng- land ; and Trinity Church, New York, increased rapidly m numbers, through the falling off of the young people from the language and the Church of Holland. The Livingstons and some other Scotsmen adhered to the Reformed Dutch church, though barely able to follow the preacher through the mazes of a strange language. The Society of Friends, shaken by the rupture with Keith, and constantly roused by the earnest appeals of ministers from England, was in the process of crystallization. Vital heat departed and left the beautiful transparent forms sub- sisting till now. The Ranters— a portion of the gangrene which consumed the cause of truth and godliness in Cromwell's day — still claimed to possess divine attributes and to be able to do actions inconceivably vile without incurring guilt. They still intruded on the worship of others, hooting like owls, dancing and defaming ; but they were almost extinct, and in a few years no trace and scarcely a remembrance of them remained in Rhode Island, at Oyster Bay, and Mattinecock, Long Island, or in Middletown, !N"ew Jersey, where once they were in admiration.* A community existed near Chester,t Maryland, fonned on the model devised by John Labadie, who died in 1674. Samuel Bownas visited " the Labadies" in 1702. "When supper came in, twenty men entered a large room at a call; * Friends' Library. f Bownas's Journal, in Friends' Library. Mr. Ward wrote, September 15, 1666, to his fellow-exile, John Brown, of Wamphray: — "If worthy Labadie come to see yon, (for the French Synod have begun to persecute him already, and have summoned him to appear at Amsterdam to answer to a commission that they have appointed to question him about some things ; they pretend he favours the Mil- lianary opinions ; but, the truth is, they cannot bear his zeal for God ;) if he come, I say, be very kind to him, and ye may think, if it were not fit, having Mm dine with you. I am much taken with the man, for the great report he hath of pietie, zeal, and learning, and for which he is in repute among all the godly who know him." John de Labadie had been a Jesuit, and entered the Reformed church. William Penn visited at Weiwart, in Holland, a religious society which had been awakened by him to seek after a more spiritual fellowship, and had followed him in the way of a refined Independency. The Brownists also- held Ljibaijie in high esteem. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 75 sitting down, one after another took off his hat, and, after a season of silence, one after another put on his hat and began to eat. The women ate by themselves. They had all things in common, but could take nothing when they went away. They were in all about one hundred. They made linen, and had a plantation of corn, tobacco, and flax, besides much cattle. But as early as 1720 they were all scattered. They were probably from I^orth Holland. " The Labadeans were correct on the subject of justifica- tion." "Whitefield said, "John Labidee went on in the same manner as the Moravians, in Maryland. His plan was carried as high as theirs ; but it fell remarkably." New England saw a form of delusion in the followers of Banks and Case.* Many under their influence fell down as in a fit, and rose up crying, " Oh, the joy !" " Many now living have not forgot the mad freaks of the infamous Case and Banks, with their followers. "Who could have a stronger per- suasion of their interest in Christ than they had ? How did they frequently go about the streets in a kind of rapture, crying, ' Joy, joy !' "t They were like those in Scripture whose " sins were open beforehand, going to judgment." They went, in the spring of 1699, into lITew Jersey and Pennsylvania, then called "the new country," and, after a season, came to naught. The attempt made by Massachusetts to send the gospel to Virginia, in 1643, was promptly crushed by the banishment of the ministers and the expulsion of the congregations. The homeless people established themselves on the western shore of Maryland, in Anne Arundel, and the adjacent counties of Charles and Prince George. The E.ev. Matthew Hill,J ejected from Thirsk, in Yorkshire, by the Uniformity Act, settled in Charles county in 1674. The prospect of usefulness was encouraging at first ; but new troubles arose, and his hopes were blighted. Those driven from Nansemond§ retired to ITorth Carolina; and Durant's Neck, in Perquimans county, perpetuates the name of "the godly elder of that orthodox congregation." His Geneva Bible, is preserved by the Historical Society of ITorth Carolina. * Mather's Magnolia. ■[■ Dickinson's Display of Sovereign Grace, t Calamy'a Memorials. g Mather, quoted by Bancroft. 76 wbbstek's history of the The New Haven colonies in West Jersey seem to have remained without stated ministers till the close of the cen- tury, when the Eev. Thomas Bridge, from England, settled at Cohanzy. The Puritan settlements on Long Island were early sup- plied with ministers. These were East 'Hampton, South- ampton, Southold, Setauket in Brookhaven, Hempstead, Jamaica, and ISTewtown; even Flushing* also, before 1657, had a Presbyterian minister who went to Eastern Virginia. In West Chester county, New York, Bedford and East Chester had a minister from Connecticut. In East Jersey were the congregations of Elizabethtown, Newark, Woodbridge, and Freehold. The minister at New- arkf was the only one who did. not have recourse to some Other calling for maintenance. The French churches in the province of New York grar dually merged in part in the Reformed Dutch body; a portion received missionaries from the Gospel Propagation Society, and laid aside their distinct character for the Epis- copal form. The few Swede churches, of the discipline of Augsburg, retained their separate existence till of late years they have come under the jurisdiction of the Bishops of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. In the province of New York there was, before 1699, but one Church minister except the chaplains of the forces ; none in the Jerseys or Delaware, and but one in Pennsylvania. Trinity Church was erected in New York in 1696 ; and Mr. Vesey, formerly an Independent minister in Queen's county, Long Island, celebrated divine service for the first time, Feb- ruary 6, 1697. Christ Church was erected in Philadelphia in 1695, and was served by Dr. Clayton, Eector of Crofton, in Yorkshire, and afterward by Mr. Evans. In 1700, prayer- books were given " as fine as those in the queen's chapel." In Maryland and Virginia, there was provision by the statute for the clergy, and the parishes were mostly supplied. In North Carolina there were no ministers of any persuasion but those of the Society of Friends. * O'CaUaghan's New York. -j- Whitehead'a East Jersey. PEESBYTBRIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 77 In South Carolina, there were Congregationalists from New England, and Scottish Presbyterians. They were so much mingled in Charleston that, while the church was independent in its government, its ministers, for twenty years, were of the Church of Scotland. There was a Baptist congregation and several French churches; yet, in 1704, when there was but one Episcopal congregation, the Church of England was established by law, and her sacramental test enacted. There were Baptist congregations from Ireland in Middle- town, Cohanzy, and Cape May, in New Jersey; there were congregations from Ifew England, at Piscataway and Cohanzy, not in fellowship with the other churches of that order in the province. In Pennsylvania there was a Welsh Baptist mi- nister serving Pennepek and Philadelphia. In Delaware there was a minister with his flock, at Pencader, from the principality of Wales. In Philadelphia, a Presbyterian congregation was slowly formed during the last ten years of the century. It is highly probable that the visit of Francis Makemie to the city in 1692 led to the gathering of the Protestant dissenters for worship at the Barbadoes store. Jedediah Andrews, from Massachu- setts, began to preach statedly to them in the autumn of 1698. Francis Makemie came to Maryland in 1682, and spent one or two years as the minister in Lynnhaven parish, Virginia. He subsequently fixed his abode in Accomac county, and in 1699 took license under the Toleration Act. The ministers of Laggan Presbytery* intimated to the other presbyteries in Ireland, in 1684, their intention to remove to America, (some of them having been invited thither,) the course of "the Pre- lational party" being so vexatious; but a favourable turn of affairs detained them in Ulster. The only other Presbyterian ministers known to have been in any besides the New England States at an earlier date than 1706 are Nathaniel Taylor, at Marlborough, Maryland; Dugald Simson, at Brookhaven, on Long Island, from 1685 to 1691, who returned . to Scotland, and was, in 1696, a member of Lochmaben Presbytery ; Thomas Bridge, who was called from Eeid's History. 78 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE Cohanzy to the first church in Boston, in 1704; Mr. Black, who lahoured in West Jersey and in Lewes, Delaware ; John Wilson at Ifewcastle, and Samuel Davis, also in Delaware. The state of morals was generally good, the people sober and "not over-zealous." Liberty of worship existed in every province. Virginia was no exception ; for Makemie in no instance complains of ill- usage or molestation, and, in his "Plain and Loving Persuasive to the Inhabitants of Maryland and Virginia," published in 1705, he clearly assumes that intolerance was not the order of the day. The New York law of 1693, dividing the provinces into parishes and precincts, and directing assessments of a rate for the support of the ministry, was purposely* worded indefinitely, so as not to awaken a suspicion in the minds of the majority of the Assembly of intention to secure the com- pulsory maintenance of the Episcopal clergy. There was then not one Church-of-England congregation in the province, and the only churchman in the Assembly was James Grahame, the speaker. The vestry of Trinity Churchf having inquired, in 1695, if by "able Protestant minister" was to be understood a Dissenting minister, the Assembly declared that under the act any congregation might call and settle a Protestant Dissenting minister. Governor Fletcher denied their right to put such an interpretation on the words; but it is not known that he refused, in any instance, to order the induction of a Dissenter when regularly chosen by the people. Increase Mather, seeing provision made for support of the gospel, induced Mr. Vesey, who wasj labouring on Long Island, to go to the city of New York and serve the spiritual interest there. Governor Fletcher is said§ to have bought him off. He sailed for England, and, obtaining orders, was inducted|| Rector of Trinity Church by the two Dutch Reformed divines. * Colonel Morris, quoted in Macdonald's Hist, of Jamaica, f Proceedings of New York Assembly. X The Rev. Mr. Miller; reprinted in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll ? Doc. Hist, of New York. II Dr. Brownlee's Sketch of History of Reformed Dutch Church in America. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 79 CHAPTER n. The eighteentli century opened with the accession of Anne, and the restoration to favour of the patrons of High-Churchism and the enemies of the liberty of the subject. ^ew Jersey passed from under the control of the pro- prietaries, and was united by the crown with the province of IsTew York, under the government of the Queen's cousin, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury. He was the grandson of Clarendon, the historian. Lacking his talents and his grave dignity of manner, he was the inheritor* of his rapacious, despotic principles. Clarendon, when he knew Charles the Second to be a Papist, made it felony for any man to say so ; while persecuting the non-conformists without limit or mercy, he protected the chief instruments of the great rebellion, who could purchase his favour by gifts of money, or of the por- traits of the noble families they had despoiled in the civil war. Destitute of honourable feeling, he made his history a vehicle of calumny. He was displaced by men as worthless as himself, and died in exile. Cornbury was a spendthrift, transported to the Plantations to save him from his creditors. He at once assumed to be the patron of the church, and required all congregations to apply to him for leave to settle ministers. The sect of the Hero- dians existed at that day; they knew no king but Csesar: and loud were their professions of zeal for the Church of England, now that zeal for her was the passport to favour. In 1701, the Church partyf in Pennsylvania refused to sign a paper clearing Penn's government of the charge of persecu- tion. In 1703, they, with a packed vestry headed by John Moore, waited on Lord Cornbury, and, among many compli- ments, hoped they should prevail on the Queen to extend the * Lord Dover's Notes on Clarendon. f Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 80 Webster's history of the limits of his government over them, that so "they may enjoy the same blessings others do under his authority." Cornbury came again to Philadelphia. Colonel Robert Quarry headed the address, and asked him to beseech the Queen to grant them this favour. "William Penn was offended at these turbu- lent churchmen, and asked the Lords of Trade either to buy him out, or to let him buy out "the hot Church party." Colonel Quarry, an officer in the customs, was a zealous churchman, and indefatigable in ferreting out causes of com- plaint against the colonial assemblies and the governors who were not of his temper and notions. His letters in the Brod- head collection in Albany unveil his exertions for the esta- blishment of thorough despotism. The chief instigator of all these movements was George Keith, born in Scotland in 1638, and a graduate of Aberdeen in the class with Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. A prominent minister in the Society of Friends, he was disowned, in Phila- delphia, as a disturber. Failing in his attempts to form a sect embodying the 'differences for which he contended, he took orders in England; and his efforts in America, from New Hampshire to Cui'rituck, entitle him to the credit of being the apostle of Prelacy, and the successful founder of the English church on a permanent basis along the sea-coast. The appointment of a bishop for Virginia was resolved on in the reign of Charles the Second. The revenues of the see were to be drawn from the customs ;* but there were so many other less sacred but more fascinating persons to be supported out of that branch of royal income, that the scheme was abandoned. Fears of the establishment of Episcopacy, and of compulsory enforcement of conformity to human appoint- ments in divine things, arose in the colonies soon after Sir Robert Carrf entered on his government. The conduct of Colonel Fletcher in ISTew York, in assuming the right to fur- nish the towns with ministers of his own choosing, gave new uneasiness. The Venerable Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts was incorporated in 1701 ; with royal favour, large funds, and a strong array of zeal and political * Seeker's letter to Walpole. The scheme failed through the resignation of Clarendon. t MS. letter in Massachusetts Historical Society. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 81 influence, it commenced vigorous operations. The amazing proposal was made by Colonel Morris,* a pupil of Keith's, that the society should see that only churchmen were sent out as governors of the colonies, and should endeavour to have the rule introduced, that no person should be competent to receive a considerable benefice in England, who had not per- formed three years of missionary labour in America. Colonel Heathcotef wrote to the Venerable Society, that as early as November, 1705, it was reported that the Queen would main- tain from her own purse a suffragan bishop in America. He felt no doubt that, when this was done, many educated at Boston College would conform and be content to take the support secured by law, without being burdensome to the society. This report gained so much confidence that Mr. John Lil- lingston. Rector of St. Paul's, in Talbot county, and senior clergjmian in Maryland, who was judged the fittest person, J was sent to Great Britain to be in readiness for consecration. Perhaps the chief hinderance to the consummation of the project was, that the clergy here and at home were mostly attached to the Jacobite cause ; and that the Scots here, as well as in their native land, were greatly embittered against the government, by reason of the union of the kingdoms. As Dr. Chauncey§ said to President Stiles, " The ministry regard bishops as mere tools ; but they are edge-tools, and they use them only when there is a needs-be." The scheme, however, was on foot; for the Bishop of London|| addressed the Queen's Council in December, 1707, urging that the appointment of a suffragan in Virginia would excite no clamour, and for the M'ant of one, bigamy and all other evils infested the provinces and grew apace. Archbishop Seeker wrote an appeal in 1750 in favour of sending a bishop to Virginia. f Dr. Johnson, of King's College, !N'ew York, applauded the good design. There was much talk in London of the matter, when the death of * Hawkins's Missions of the English Church. f Bolton's History of West Chester County, New York. J Hawkins. § Stiles's MSS., Yale College. || Albany Documents. T[ Seeker's letter, and a critical commentary on it, are so curious and illustratJTe of the times as to deserve reprinting together. The critical commentary is in the New York State Library. 6 g2 -WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE m Henry relham threw this, with many other schemes, out of mind. Dr. Stennet related to Davies, in 1753, "a confer- ence he had with the Duke of Newcastle and the Archbishop of York about the mission of bishops into America. It was very entertaining." Two Jacobite clergymen,* Talbot, of Burlington, and Dr. Eicliard Welton, 6f Christ Church, Philadelphia, were conse- crated by some of the English non-juring bishops m 1723, and came to America, exercising their functions secretly over as many as received them. The British government commanded them to return immediately. Talbot took the oaths of alle- giance, and Welton retired to Lisbon. Talbot would not read the prayers for the reigning family, nor give thanks for the defeat of her majesty's enemies. Governor Hunterf said, in 1715, that he incorporated the Jacobites at Burlington to sanctify his sedition and insolence. The Venerable Society ceased to employ Talbot, on account of his disaffection to the House of Hanover. Gibson,! Bishop of London, wrote to the clergy in America to beware of asserting the invalidating the baptism of Dis- senters ; for it had been set on foot by the non-jurors, to injure the Church of England, and was in opposition to the constant doctrine of the church. In 1699, Vesey§ declared that experience had undeceived him as to the comforts to be found in his new situation as the Eector of Trinity Church in New York:— "We find ourselves under all discouragements imaginable." Lord Bellamont de- scribes him " as capable of any wickedness, base, unchristian'; Ms wickedness is plain; he wants honesty." With Governor Hunter he came into direct conflict, and used all means to destroy his credit at home. The sin of Bellamont and Hunter consisted in refusing to bestow on Trinity Church "a small farm," called "The King's Bowerie." They gave the rector a lease of it during their continuance in office as governor. Vesey wanted it in fee ; he subsequently obtained it. That "small farm" now lies in the city of New York, and yields a princely revenue. * Dorr's History of Christ Church. -j- Albany Documents. J MSS. of Ebenezer Hazard, of Philadelphia. J Albany Documents. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 83 In 1702, besides Vesey, the clergymen in New York " in orders" were Bartow, church missionary at West Chester, and Stuart, in Bedford. They were missionaries. Patrick Gordon was "expected suddenly." The town of Jamaica* was settled entirely by Presbyterians ; and in 1702 there were considerably above a hundred families, exemplary for all Christian knowledge and goodness. They had a stone church worth £600, and a parsonage valued at £1500 : the glebe consisting of an orchard and two hundred acres of land. The Act of 1693 had constituted Jamaica, ISTewtown, and Flushing, a parish, and imposed the obligation to raise £60 for the support of a minister. This had been wholly disregarded until the accession of Cornbury, when the town elected (Jan. 1702) Presbyterians for churchwardens and vestrymen, and settled in the following month the Rev. John Hubbard, according to the provisions of the act. He was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1677, and graduated at Harvard in 1695, in the same class with Andrews of Phila- delphia. Hubbard took a journey to Boston, and on his return in the summer, of a Saturday, learned that Bartow, the church missionary at West Chester, had just arrived; and he sent to inquire if he intended to preach on the morrow. He answered that he did. The next morning, Bartow went to church on the last ringing of the bell; and, finding that Hubbard had begun his service, he went straightway to the "pew" or pulpit and sat down, expecting he would desist, "being he knew I had orders from the government to officiate there." Hubbard did not desist, and Bartow forbore to make any interruption ; but, in the afternoon, he, with the countenance of Chief-Justice Mompesson, and Mr. Carter, her majesty's controller, went very early, and when Hubbard arrived he found Bartow read- ing the liturgy. He withdrew, and assembled the congrega- tion in an orchard hard by. Many went in and took benches and seats out of the church. Bartow, on finishing, locked the church and gave the key to Cardale, the sheriif. The people asked for the key and were refused; and Bartow says, jocosely, " The scolding and wrangling that ensued are by me ineffable." * Maodonald's History of Jamaica. 84 WEBSTER'S HTSTOET OF THE Lord Cornbury thanked Bartow, as doubtless Abab also thanked the scarcely more iniquitous elders of Jezreel, and told him, he would do the church and him justice. Accord- ino-ly, in 1703, Bartow is reported as receiving a benevolence of*X30, in addition to a salary of £50 from the Venerable Society. My lord summoned Mr. Hubbard and the heads of his con- gregation, and forbade him ever more to preach in that church; "for, in regard it was built by a public tax, it did belong* to the Establishment." He threatened them with the penalty of the statute for disturbing divine worship, but, on their submis- sion and promise, he forgave them. He suspended Hubbard for a breach of the public peace, and afterward gave him a "during pleasure" license; which he held till his death in 1705. The Venerable Society, in 1706,t acknowledged most thank- fully the continual bounty of the Queen, "which has had veiy good effects abroad, by influencing and exciting the governors and inhabitants to build several new churches, and even to convert some of the meeting-houses of the Quakers and other sectaries into houses of worship according to the Church of England." It was during the great plague in London, that Clarendon induced his pliant master to add heavier burdens to the op- pressed non-conformists ; it was during the great sickness in New York, in the summer of 1702, that Cornbury sought a refuge in Jamaica. He entreated Hubbard in a friendly man- ner for the use of the parsonage: it was granted, and, on returning to the city, his lordship delivered the house into the hands of the churchmen. "The warrant," says Colonel Morris, "which he gave to the sheriff to dispossess the dis- senting minister of the glebe, was wholly without form or due course of law." Cardale seized the glebe, surveyed it out into lots, and leased them for the benefit of his party. Grordon, who was " expected suddenly," arrived in April, 1702, and, going from the city to Jamaica, he took sick on Saturday, and died in eight days. The Rev. William Urqu- hart, who was supported by the subscriptions of the Yorkshire * Macdonald's History of Jamaica. f Eeport of Venerable Society. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 85 clergy, was inducted July 4, 1704, and Hubbard, being then in possession of the parsonage, was ordered by Cornbury to de- liver it to the rector: he did so quietly and peaceably. Hub- bard died in his twenty-ninth year, October 11, 1705. Urqu- hart retained the church and parsonage unmolested till his death in August, 1709. Cotton Mather, in his letter to the London ministers in 1706, tells them, the good people of Jamaica adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour by a most laudable silence and Vv-^onderful patience under these wrongs. The next instance* of the success of Keith in engaging Cornbury in his daring schemes was the seizure and impri- sonment, November 21, 1702, of Samuel Bownas, a minister of the Society of Friends. Keith informed against him ; and "Wilham Bradford, a printer, who had been disowned by Friends, gave evidence that he heard Bownas, in his preach- ing at the house of ISTathaniel Pearsall, in Hempstead, speak disparagingly of the Church of England in relation to the sacrament of Baptism. A warrant was placed in the hands of Thomas Cardale, High-Sheriff of Queen's county, for the apprehension of Bownas. Colonel Heathcote, in a letterf to the secretary, said, "Many of the instruments made use of to settle the church in Jamaica were of warm tempers, and, if report is true, indifferent in their morals. One Mr. Cardell, a transient person, and of very indifferent reputation, was recommended and made high-sheriff of the county, and the settling of the church was left in a great measure to his care and conduct." The Hon. "William Smith calls him " one Cardwell, a mean fellow." Thompson! says he sustained a despicable character, and, being afterwards thrown into prison for some offence, he hanged himself. The warrant was sei^ved on Bownas while at meeting, in Flushing, on the 29th ; and, though he was wrongly named, he took no advantage of the defect. The sheriff' was very moderate, and in a very good humour; he spoke mildly and courteously, and blamed Keith and Bradford. He let him stay * Bownae's Journal. f February 11, 1711, quoted by Macdonald. J B. F. Thompson's History of Long Island. 86 Webster's history of the three days with his friends, and then carried him to Jamaica. The four justices, on pretence of cold, met in a small room, and thus disappointed the great crowd which had gathered. A priest was with them, who put the worst construction on eveiy thing, and the next day he was committed. On the 26th of December a special commission of Oyer and Terminer was held, and John Bridges, Esq., Chief-Justice, gave "an uncommon chai'ge" and adjourned the court till Monday. The grand jury ignored the bill against Bownas. "The other justices, being mostly Presbyterians, cared nothing; but Bridges said to the grand jury, 'You have forgotten your oaths; I de- mand your reasons for not finding the bill.' " James Clement, a bold man and skilled in the law, refused to give the reasons. The grand jury were sent back; and, finding no bill. Bridges threatened to send Clement to London, " chained to the deck of a man-of-war, like other vile criminals." Bownas was con- fined in a room which had two years before been protested against as an unlawful prison ; his friends were denied admit- tance ; and, that he might be chargeable to no man, he learned to make shoes and earned his food. The grand jury refusing to find any bill against him in August, he was released, having been in prison a year lacking twenty-three days. Thomas Hicks, who had been a justice many years, em- braced him, and said, "Dear Samuel, the Lord has made use of you as an instrument to put a stop to our arbitrary courts of justice, which have met with great encouragement since his Lordship came here for governor. The judge frets because he cannot have his way of you; and the governor is dis- gusted, he expecting to have made considerable advantage by it. But the eyes of the country are now opened. You are not alone ; it is the case of every subject, and tliey will never be able to get a jury to answer their end. Had the Presbyterians have stood as you have done, they had not so tamely left their meeting-houses to the church. He blamed that people very much for being so compliant to all the claims of the gover- nor, although ever so unreasonable and against law." But their compliance secured them from no hardship which Corn- bury could inflict. The next town on the island, Hempstead, was settled from the l^orth of England, the first minister being the Rev. Rich- PEESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 87 ard Denton,* a Presbyterian minister of Coley Chapel in Hali- fax. He was small in stature and blind of an eye: the quaint annalist styles him an Iliad in a nutshell. He was not accept- ablef to the Puritan portion of his flock ; they made no oppo- sition until he baptized the children of those who were not church-members; then they broke away from him. He re- turned to England before 1663, and a long, angry controversy! is said to have arisen between the Independents and the Pres- byterians, similar to that which caused Governor Webster, of Hartford, and Mr. Eussel, the minister of Wethersfield, to remove with many others to Hadley, Mass., in 1659. The Independents contended for the exclusion from all authority in the state, and from all privileges in the church, those who were not Christians, by an open covenanting with the visible church. The lax party triumphed; and at the end of twenty-five years the Pev. Jeremiah Hobart was settled, and remained fifteen years ; when, many§ falling away to the Quakers, and more becoming irreligious and refusing to support the gospel, he removed to Connecticut. George Keith || preached there and found the people gene- rally well affected and greatly desiring the services of the church. The Venerable Society sent thither, in 1704, the Pev. John Thomas, who had been a missionary in Philadelphia ; and he took possession of the church and parsonage in direct op- position to the will of the people, for they were more unwilling to be taxed to sustain a Conformist than a Presbyterian. " The country,"Tf said he, "is exceedingly attached to a Dissenting ministry ; and, were it not for his Excellency my Lord Corn- bury's most favourable countenance to us, we might expect the severest entertainment here I have scarcely a man in the parish real and steady to the interest and promotion of the church, any further than they aim at the favour or dread the displeasure of his lordship The people are all stiff * Mather's Magnalia. f Letter to the Classis of Amsterdam : quoted in O'Callaghan's History. J Letter of Church Missionary : quoted by Bev. Dr. Carmiohael, Bector of St. George's, Hempstead. g Trumbull's History of Connecticut. II Keith's Journal : reprinted by Protestant Episcopal Historical Society. ^ Letters to Venerable Society: quoted by Thompson, Carmichael, &c. 88 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE Dissenters ; not above three church-people in the whole parish. .... If it had not been for the countenance and support of Lord Cornbury and his government, it would have been im- possible to have settled a church on the island." Thomas gives, in 1717, as the result of twelve years' experi- ence of "rowing against wind and tide," that "the pious fraud of a caressing and well-ordered hospitality has captivated and inclined their affections [to the church] more powerfully than the most carefully-digested sermons from the pulpit." The church and parsonage remained in the possession of the Episcopalians, no effort having been made to recover them at the law. To insure quiet occupation. Governor Cosby, some thirty years after the seizure, granted them by a royal charter, to those who detained them from their lawful owners. The proprietaries of East Jersey had from the first granted religious liberty, giving two hundred acres in each parish for the support of the gospel, and securing to the people the right to select their own minister. They surrendered the govern- ment to the crown in 1702, mainly through the urgency of Colonel Lewis Morris. On the accession of Cornbury, the Prayer-book was ordered to be read, the sacraments to be ad- ministered only by persons episcopally ordained ; and all minis- ters, without ordination of that sort, were required to report themselves to the Bishop of London. A bill for the main- tenance of the church* in the Jerseys was defeated solely through the unflinching perseverance of a Baptist and a Quaker, — Richard Hartshorne and Andrew Browne. The Baptist ministers in West Jersey qualified themselves accord- ing to the Toleration Act, and had their places of meeting cer- tified, " the Dissenters being troubled in Queen Anne's reign." A minister was needed for the Falls, in Shrewsbury, where Colonel Morris was about to build a church, — "and he'll en- dow it;" and Episcopal churches were about to be erected in Amboy, Hopewell, Monmouth, Burlington, and Crosswicks. The benefits of the Toleration Act were secured to Dis- senters in Maryland in 1702. The irregularities of the clergy of the Established church rose to such a height, men of such known infamy being put in orders by the Bishop of London, * Morgan Edwards's History of the New Jersey Baptists. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 89 that "a Maryland parson" came into vogue as an epithet ex- pressive of unparalleled insolence and immorality. Governor Seymour* proposed to establish a court, consisting partly of laymen, to take cognizance of the manners of gentlemen in orders. The necessity was admitted of something more effec- tual than the supervision of the commissary to restrain the disorders; but the governor's plan seemed to savour too strongly of Presbyterianism, with its ruling elders, to be accepted in any exigency. In Virginia, Governor Nicholson drew on himself the dis- like of Mr. Blair, the bishop's commissaiy, and the Scottish clergy in the province. He presented such a view of the affair to the Government that the council forbade Mr. Blair to leave England. He however returned to Virginia, and the dispute between the English and the Scotch rectors raged virulently. The publicationsf on both sides were painfully unbecoming. The clergyj in Pennsylvania came to the governor's aid, and drew up an address against Mr. Blair. Mr. Blair,§ describing the state of things in Virginia, said, in 1702, "There is a sort like Presbyterians here which is upheld by some idle fellows that have left their lawful employ- ment, and preach and baptize without orders." Beverly, in 1705, speaks of the two small conventicles of the Presby- terians: — "'Tis observed that those counties where they are produce very mean tobacco, and for that reason can't get an orthodox minister to stay among them." Thus unwittingly he accords to Makemie the praise of preaching the gospel to the poor; and, to do so, belies Accomac county, which was the garden of plenty. He does not go so far as the Quaker who asserts that the soil around Boston became so impoverished, after the hanging of Quakers, that they could not raise wheat or peas. The aspect of affairs throughout the colonies was a grief of heart to the Presbyterians, and doubtless led to much con- * Dr. Hawks's History of Protestant Episcopal Cliurch in Maryland. It was, however, enacted in South Carolina, but negatived by the Crown on the representa- tion of the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal. f Reprinted in the Church Review. J Pennsylvania Colonial Records : edited by Mr. Samuel Hazard. J Reports of the Venerable Society. 90 webstee's history of the sultation by letter aud personal conference on the part of Makemie, Taylor, Davis, and the devout men who wor- shipped with them. They devised, as the best plan, that Makemie should visit Great Britain and Ireland, and repre- sent the circumstances of " those favouring our way in the Plantations," and endeavour to interest the ministers in Lon- don, and those in Scotland and Ireland, in the defence of their rights and in the supply of their wants. "With a view to this voyage, Makemie executed a power of attoi'ney for the management of his property in his absence, and in case of his death, and sailed some time after May 30, 1704.* " He prevailed! with the ministers of London to undertake the support of two itinerants for the space of two years, and, after that time, to send two more on the same condition, allowing the former after that time to settle ; which, if accom- plished, had proved of more than credible advantage, con- sidering how far scattered most of the inhabitants be; but, alas ! they drew back their hands." He returned in the fall of 1705, accompanied by the Rev. John Hampton and George McNish, and, it is not unlikely, by Mr. John Boyd, a proba- tioner. Makemie's field of labour was on both sides of the Pocomoke, the meeting-house being in Maryland, and the congregation being called Pocomoke, or Coventry, but most generally Rehoboth. Twenty-five miles distant was Snow Hill and the associated congregation of Pitt's Creek; and fifteen miles from Snow Hill Avere the united congregations of Monokin and Wicomico. These, having four places of worship, were reckoned as two congregations ; and the pres- bytery says, in 1710, there were four congregations in Mary- land, counting these as two, together with Rehoboth and Marlborough. The four meeting-houses in Somerset county had shared with Rehoboth the labours of Makemie; and, when (l^ovem- ber 14, 1705) he waited upon Somerset Court with McMsh and Hampton, that they might be qualified to serve them, the Rev. Robert Keith,| of Coventry parish, and Mr. Alexander Adams, anticipated the application. These gentlemen repre- * Spence's Early History of Presbyterianism. t Letter of Philadelphia Presbytery in 1710 to Dublin Presbytery. J Spence. ■" ■' PRESBTTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 91 sented to the court, then sitting at Dividing Creek, that they had reason to believe that Malsiemie and his assistants de- signed to ask to he qualified as Dissenting teachers, and they requested the court to refer the application to the governor. McNish applied ; but the matter was refei-red to the governor. In January, 1706, McNish and Hampton made a joint appli- cation to Somerset Court, and it was in like manner referred. The business was long delayed ; but, at last, Grovernor Sey- mour issued his order, and McMsh and Hampton presented it to the court, and were qualified (June 12, 1706) to preach in the meeting-houses at Snow Hill, the Head of Monokin, near Mr. Edgar's, and on Captain Joseph Venable's land. Captain Venable was at this time one of the justices on the bench ; his residence was on Wicomico. The other place of worship was on Pitt's Creek. The first meeting of the presbytery was probably held in September, 1706 ;* but the first leaf of the records is lost, — the book beginning with a fragment of the minutes of a meet- ing, (December 26,) probably called at Freehold, for the pur- pose of ordaining Mr. John Boyd. * [In the Preliminary Sketch of the " Records of the Presbyterian Church," printed by the Board of Publication by the authority of the General Assembly, Dr. Engles, the editor, says, " In consequence of the irrecoverable loss of the first leaf of the minutes of this body, we are Unable to ascertain the precise date of their ecclesiastical association ; but, judging from the first date, which appears on page third of these records, it must have been about the beginning of the year 1705. This Presbytery of Philadelphia consisted of seven ministers, — viz. : Francis Makemie, John Hampton, George McNish, Samuel Davis, — all, from the best ac- counts, emigrants from Ireland, and exercising their ministry on the Eastern Shore of Maryland ; John Wilson, also, from Scotland, settled in New Castle, — and Jedediah Andrews, from New England, and settled in Philadelphia. To these may be added John Boyd, who was the first person ordained by the new pres- bytery in 1706, and settled in Freehold, New Jersey." Ed.] 92 WEBSTER'S HISTOBY OF THE CHAPTER m. The records of the Synod of Ulster before 1697* are lost; but the Rev. Mr. Iredell declared to the synod, in 1T21, that he had assented to the Confession of the Westminster divines in 1688 ; and it is improbable that any persons were licensed without giving to the presbytery entire satisfaction of their doctrinal soundness, even in minor matters. What had been matter of custom was, by the unanimous vote of the synod in 1698, made a matter of statute ; candidates, on being licensed, were required to subscribe the Confession, and in June, 1705, "such ministers as are to be licensed shall subscribe the Westminster Confession to be the confession of their faith, and promise to adhere to the doctrine, discipline, and govern- ment therein contained; as also those that are licensed and have not subscribed are to be obliged to subscribe before they are ordained." This was unanimously approved of; and the next year the presbyteries reported that the. rule was uniformly complied with.f When the Presbytery of Philadelphia met, this doubtless made, of course, a part of their constitution. The first leaf of their records being lost, we can know no- thing of the articles of agreement embraced in their bond of union; but if it were not for the paging, one might naturally suppose that a thousand leaves were gone, with the pro- ceedings of a century spread upon them; for there is no appearance in the movements of the body, indicating that it * The facts concerning the Synod of Ulster are taken from the report of "The Clongh Case," in which authenticated extracts from the minutes were admitted in evidence, [before the Court of Exchequer, in Dublin, on the celebrated trial which involved the right of the Trinitarian portion of "The Clough Congregation" to pre- vent Unitarians from carrying off the meeting-house and Congregational pro- perty. Ed.] I In 1708, the churches of Connecticut, represented by delegates at Saybrook, unanimously adopted the Westminster Confession, leaving out some things relating to divorce and church-discipline. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 93 was oppressed with a cumbrous system which it had not proved. The machinery goes on as quietly as though by long use every part had become thoroughly fitted for its place and work. Were it not for the names of places incidentally men- tioned, one could easily believe that he had taken up the minutes of some of the original presbyteries of the Irish church. The book opens with the brethren in session at Freehold, on a Thursday, engaged in examining Boyd for ordination; they held "Sederunt 2d" on Friday, sustained his trials, and on the Lord's day, December 27, 1706, his ordination was performed at "the public meeting-house in this place, before a numerous assembly." This was an adjourned meeting. The meetings were annual. The second was at Philadelphia, March 22, 1707 ; four ministers with their elders were present. The ministers are ranged according to seniority, but the elders according to their position in society or their age. "Wilson is first on the roll, and his elder John Gardner is third; An- drews is second, and his elder Joseph Yard is first ; Taylor is third, and his elder William Smith is second; while McNish and his elder James Stoddard stand side by side. Wilson was chosen moderator by a plurality of votes, and McJN'ish clerk. It being Saturday, they adjourned till Tuesday at 4 p.m., after having refused to accept the excuse Davis had sent by letter for his absence from this and the preceding meeting. On Tuesday, Makemie, Hampton, and Boyd appeared, and the meeting was opened by Makemie and Wilson with discourses on the first and second verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews, as appointed at the meeting of the last year.* They had little business. Wilson wrote requiring Davis to attend the next meeting; Hampton gave reasons for not accepting, at this time, the call to Snow Hill, now tendered to him, and it was left in his hands; Taylor wrote to the people to encourage * These were by way of exercise and addition, and were approved. After the Restoration, the Scottish bishops modelled their synods after the Presbyterian cus- tom, and appointed a committee, called "The Brethren of the Exercise," to arrange religious services during the session. Principal Forrester, at the time of forsaking the prelatic establishment, had been appointed to deliver " The Addition" at the opening of the synod. 94 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE tlieir endeavours for a settled minister among them ; and An- drews and Boyd were appointed a committee to prepare over- tures Jbr the propagating of religion in the congregations. The next day closed their sessions. Makemie wrote to Mr, Alexander Colden, the minister of Oxnam, in Scotland, giving an account of the state of the Dissenting Presbyterian interest in and about Lewestown, and signifying the earnest desires of that people for him to come and be their minister. Wilson wrote to the presbyteiy of which Colden was a member, to the same effect. This was probably the Eev. Alexander Colden, of Dunse-in-the-Merse, who had a sister of his wife's residing in Philadelphia. His son, Cadwalader Colden, M.D., visited his aunt in 1710 ; and, going to New York, he acquired the favour of Covernor Hunter, and was made surveyor-general of the province, and was afterwards appointed lieutenant- governor. The aid from London to sustain missionaries' was continued but for a short time. The need of its continuance was pressing, and Dr. Cotton Mather and the Boston ministers, in 1709, cheerfullj^ gave their concurrence in applying for its renewal. "Wilson and Andrews wrote to Sir Edmund Harrison in con- cert with the letter from ISTew England ; and in 1710, McKish wrote to Dr. Tongue in London. Henry, in the following year, wrote to the Presbytery of Dublin ; Wilson and Ander- son wrote to the Synod of Glasgow on the same head. The application to London failed. The Rev. Thomas Rey- nolds generously sent assistance and continued it for several years. The intercourse of the brethren for nine years was harmo- nious and happy; quiet, steady growth in numbers marked each successive meeting, and the churches which had retained their New England connection and their independent form, gradually, with their ministers, joined their fellowship and walked by the same rule. Newtown and Southampton, on Long Island, led the way; Elizabethtown and Newark, ac- companied by their neighbours, followed. Thus in the formation of the churches, and in the establish- ment of the presbytery, the fathers of our Zion brought with them and planted on our soil the same system of church order and government to which they were attached, and for which PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 95 many of them had borne hardness in their native land. The essential elements of presbytery, containing the parity of pastors and the prerogatives of ruling elders in their respective churches, together with the action of the "Kirk Session," from which an appeal might be taken to a higher court, in which the subject under consideration should be authoritatively dis- posed of, were principles of government as well known to them as to their descendants in more modern times. The formation of the synod also occurred with as little parade as the opening of a flower; the bud burst its leafy bonds and expanded its beauty to the eye and poured its fra- grance on the air. It was rendered necessary by the extension of territory.* The Presbytery of Long Island .embraced the province of New York ; Philadelphia Presbytery covered East and West Jersey and so much of Pennsylvania as lay north of the Great Valley. All the other churches belonged to ]SJ"ew- castle Presbytery, the project of forming the ministers on the peninsula between the Delaware and the Chesapeake into the Presbytery of Snow Hill having failed. The synod metcin the 17th of September, 1717, and was called upon by JSTewcastle Presbytery to pronounce authorita- tively on the marriage of a man to his brother's widow. Con- siderable time was spent in discoursing on it : they made a * [The Presbytery of Philadelphia met in that city on Tuesday, September 18, 1716, and was engaged with business until Saturday, the 22d. On Friday, the 21st, the Presbytery adopted the following minute : — "It having pleased Divine Providence so to increase our number, as that, after much deliberation, we judge it may be more serviceable to the interest of religion to divide ourselves into subordinate meetings or presbyteries, constituting one annually as a synod, to meet at Philadelphia or elsewhere, to consist of all the members of each subordinate presbytery or meeting for this year at least : There- fore, it is agreed by the presbytery, after serious deliberation, that the first subor- dinate meeting or presbytery to meet at Philadelphia or elsewhere, as they shall see fit, do consist of these following members, — viz. : Masters Andrews, Jones, Powell, Orr, Bradner, and Morgan. And the second to meet at Newcastle or else- where, as they shall see fit, to consist of these, — viz. . blasters Anderson, McGill, Gillespie, Witherspoon, Evans, and Conn. The third to meet at Snow Hill or else- where, to consist of these, — viz. ; Masters Davis, Hampton, and Henry. And, in consideration that only our brethren Mr. McNish and Mr. Pumry are of our number on Long Island at present, we earnestly recommend it to them to use their best endeavours with the neighbouring brethren that are settled there which, as yet, join not with us, to join with them in erecting a fourth presbytery.'' Records of the Presbyterian Church, pp. 43, ii. Board of Publication, 1841. Ed.] 96 webstee's history of the unanimons declaration of its being incestuous and unlawful, the parties not to be restored to church privileges until they parted. They also began a fund for pious uses, to which yearly con- tributions were made by the congregations : by it they aided feeble churches, assisted in building places of worship, and relieved the widows of their deceased members. About this period, a large emigration commenced from the north of Ireland ; year after year it flowed into Maine, Massa- chusetts, and New Hampshire, and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The immediate cause is supposed to have been the refusal to renew the leases to the tenants on the old terms, or on any terms which they judged reasonable. Cotton Mather* wrote to Principal Sterling, of Glasgow, on the 3d of Fourth month, 1713, expressing the hope that, " as great numbers are like to come to us from the north of Ire- land, the bond between the churches of Scotland and New Engla,nd will every day grow stronger and stronger." On the 6th of Eighth month, 1718, he writes to him : — "We are com- forted with great numbers of the oppressed brethren coming from the north of Ireland. The glorious providence of God, in the removal of so many of a desirable character from the north of Ireland, hath doubtless very great intentions in it." Among these were Thomas Creaghead, who came in 1715 ; James McGregoire, in 1718, with a number of families, who established themselves at Londonderry, New Hampshire; Edward Fitzgerald, at the head of a company who settled at Worcester, Massachusetts ; William Cornwell, from Mona- ghan Presbytery, with a body of settlers at Casco Bay, in Maine, in Falmouth township, near Portland ; and William Boyd, minister of Mecasky, (or Macosquin,) who returned soon after and settled at Taboyn. Mather also speaks in high terms of James Woodside, who also returned. On the 10th of Sixth month, 1718, Mather wrote to An- drews : — " Sir : it has been a great satisfaction to your bre- thren here to understand how comfortably and admirably you are strengthened by an accession of excellent men to carry on * Mather MSS., American Antiquarian Society, Worcester. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 97 the work of the ministry with you. The compassion which our dear Saviour has herein shown to the sheep in the wilder- ness and the encouragement given to his faithful servants who wanted such faithful labourers, we have observed with delight and veneration. And we promise ourselves that your wise, gracious, candid, and condescending union with one another, and your continual progression of services to he done for the kingdom of God, will be attended with many happy con- sequents in your parts of the world." The Act of Toleration, relieving Dissenters from the oppres- sive Act of Uniformity, was not enacted by the Parliament of Ireland till 1719, in the sixth year of Greorge I. The Dissenters in England, in order to enjoy relief under the Toleration, were required to subscribe the doctrinal Arti^ cles of the Church of England. The Irish Presbyterians were determined not to accept of the toleration if tendered on those terms. On the 10th of November, 1714, there was a meeting of ministers and gentlemen at Antrim, to consider on what grounds they would receive it; and their unanimous resolve was, that "the first thing we shall propose to the government and insist upon is, that the terms on which we will accept it shall be our subscribing the Westminster Confession of Faith." At a full synod in Belfast, June 19, 1716, an interloquitur was held, and the resolution was unanimously approved and ad- hered to ; yet, as the government might refuse to allow sub- scription to the Westminster Confession to be enacted as the condition, they agreed in that case to propose, that the condi- 'tion be subscription to this formula: — " I profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God, and in God the Holy Ghost ; that these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. I believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and l^Tew Testament were given by divine inspiration, and that they are a perfect rule of faith and practice ; and, pursuant to this, I believe all the doctrines common to the Protestant churches at home and abroad, contained in their and our public Con- fessions of Faith." To this, some objected that it might be regarded as a reced- ing from the Confession to propose such a formula. It was replied, that the formula was in substance the same with our 98 Webster's histoby of the Confession, and a compendious abridgment of divers of the most fundamental articles of it, and that to tolerate on the ground of it, would give the public sanction of authority to our standing by and preaching up to all knov?n principles con- tained in our Confession. It was agreed, with but one dissent- ing voice, that to propose the formula could not rightly he construed as a relinquishing the "Westminster Confession aa our Confession. From the determination as a last resort to propose this formula, three ministers and two elders dissented, and one minister and one elder were non liquet. In 1721, at the Synod in Belfast, Mr. Haliday, having been called to the old conoTes:ation in that town, declined to declare for the Confession, though he had assented to it when licensed at Rotterdam. Testimonials of his soundness in the faith were produced from the London ministers, from Leyden, Rot- terdam, Basle, and Geneva, and from several presbyteries. He said, " My refusal to declare my assent does not proceed from my disbelief of the important truths contained in the "Westminster Confession, the contrary of which, by word and writing, I have often declared, as this venerable body can bear me witness ; but my scruples are against the submitting to hu- man tests of divine truth, when imposed as a necessary term of Christian and ministerial communion, especially in a great number of extra-essential truths, without the knowledge or belief of which men may be entitled to the favour of God and the hopes of eternal life, and, according to the laws of the gospel, to Christian and ministerial communion." The synod utterly disclaimed all power of imposing on men's consciences, of which God alone is Lord; and, at the solicitation of the reverend commissioners from Dublin Pres- bytery, they indulged Hallyday, who declined giving the rea- sons of his scruples, lest it should cause heat and altercation ; but they rebuked the Belfast Presbytery for having proceeded to settle him. They, -however, by a majority resolved that each individual minister should express his opinion distinctly concerning the Supreme Divinity of our Lord and Saviour ; several declined and were excluded. Others professed their faith in the Trinity, but refused to subscribe the Westminster Confession. A great number of congregations supplicated the synod, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, 99 earnestly, that all its members and all the inferior judicatories should be obliged to subscribe the Westminster Confession. An overture concerning the Eternal Deity of the Son of God was brought in ; an interloquitur was held, and the overture remodelled, read three times, and reasoned upon at great length. Some withdrew, and, while professing in the strongest terms to believe the article, objected to the overture as unsea- sonable, and because, in their judgment, they were against all authoritative decisions and human tests of orthodoxy. The synod declared it to be an aspersion, wholly groundless BO far as they knew, that the Deity of the Son of God was im- pugned by their members ; and that " it is our resolution that whoever denies this article hereafter in the pulpit, or in con- versation, or in print, shall be proceeded against according to the law of the gospel and disowned." In 1721, Gillespie introduced a declaration into the Synod of Philadelphia, which was adopted: — "Our opinion is, that if any brother have any overture to ofter to be formed into an act of synod, for the better carrying on in the matters of our go- vernment and discipline, he may bring it in against next synod." The design of Gillespie was probably to prepare the way for an overture concerning some material point of doc- trine, perhaps the very one which had engrossed the attention of the mother-synod. Dickinson appears to have occupied the ground of Hallyday, Abernethy, and others, who, while profess- ing the doctrine of the Deity of Christ, objected to any authori- tative decision by a human tribunal. He, therefore, with Mor- gan, Jones, D. Evans, Pierson, and Webb, protested against adopting the resolution, and against its being recorded. Andrews* v^rote to Colman, April 30, 1722: — "Two or three things have happened within a twelvemonth among us of no very promising aspect among some few other better things. The business of the protestation that happened at our last synodical meeting, I've endeavoured to heal, and I hope 'twill be healed. I know not but the Pacificf Articles have had their * MSS. Massachusetts Historical Society. f The Pacification Articles were adopted, in 1720, by the Irish Synod. " If any person called to subscribe shall scruple any phrase or phrases in the Confession, he shall have leave to use his own expression, irMch the presbytery shall accept of, provided they judge such a person sound in the faith : the explanation shall be entered on the presbytery-book." " It's a larger door," says Wodrow, " than we 100 -WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE good use. In short, I think the difference is in words, for I can't find any real difference, having sifted the matter in seve- ral letters which have passed between Mr. Dickinson and me upon it. I am still of the mind, as I told you before, that the squabble at Few York is at the bottom and has an evil influ- ence on our peace. I wish it may not do more hurt hereafter." Dickinson, as the moderator, opened the synod with a ser- mon* on 2 Timothy iii. 17, in 1722. It bore directly on his position assumed in the protest ; asserting that the church has no authority to make new laws or alter or add to what is pre- scribed in the Bible. "I challenge the world to produce any such dedimus potestaiem from Christ, or the least lisp in the Bible, that countenances such a regal power." They had accompanied their protest with reasons. McGill and McMsh produced answers ; when Jones, Morgan, Dickin- son, and Evans, brought in a paper testifying their judgment concerning church government, which was approved by the synod, and ordered by the synod to be recorded in the synod- book. Likewise, the said brethren being willing to take back their protestation against the act, together with their reasons given in defence of said protest, the synod doth hereby order that the protest, together with the reasons of it, as also the an- swers at the appointment of the synod given in to the reasons alleged by Mr. Daniel McGill and Mr. George Mc]!rish, be all withdrawn, and that the said act remain and be in all respects as if no such protest had been made. The articles are as follows : " 1. We freely grant that there is full executive power of church government in presbyteries and synods, and that they may authoritatively in the name of Christ use the keys of church discipline to all proper intents and purposes, and that the keys of the church are committed to the church officers and to them only. " 2. We also grant that the mere circumstantials of church discipline, such as the time, place, and mode of carrying on, in the government of the church, belong to ecclesiastical judica- tories to determine as occasions occur, conformable to the general rules in the word of God, that require all things to be allow of. The synod soon saw the advantage taken of these articles by unsound men, and repealed them." — Wodrow Gorrespondenee. * MSS. Massachusetts Historical Society. PRESBYTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 101 done decently and in order. And if these things are called acts, we will take no offence at the word, provided that these acta be not imposed on such, as conscientiously dissent from them. " 3. We also grant, that synods may compose directories and recommend them to all their members, respecting all the parts of discipline; provided that all subordinate judicatories may decline from such directories, when they conscientiously think they have just reason to do so. "4. "We freely allow that appeals maybe made from all infe- rior to superior judicatories, and that they have power to con- sider and determine such appeals." "The synod was so universally pleased with the abovesaid composure of their difference, that they unanimously united in a thanksgiving-prayer, and joyful singing the 130th Psalm." The reasons of protest and the answer were both dropped from the record. The four points presented as the basis of agreement were so material, in the judgment of the Synod of Ulster, that they decided, in 1725, that those who denied them should not be allowed to vote in any matter affecting those who believed them, "it being contrary to common equity, that, where there is a parity of power, the obligation to mu- tual submission should not be equal in all the members." The next year a Committee of Bills and Overtures was ap- pointed, on which Dickinson served; but Jones and D. Evana dissented from the appointment of it. Immediately after the adoption of Q-illespie's proposal in 1721, a commission of synod was appointed to act in their name, and with all their authority, in the matter of the fund or any other business which may come before them. The commission was annually appointed until the formation of the General Assembly. The loss of all the minutes of its pro- ceedings is much to be regretted. In 1722, the Irish Synod resolved firmly and constantly to adhere to the Westminster Confession, as being founded on the Word of God and agreeable thereto ; and to cleave to and maintain the Presbyterian government and discipline, hitherto exercised among them according to our known rules, agreeable to the Scripture. In 1723, for the security of the church, they resolved that the declaring of Articles of Faith in Scripture language only, 102 Webster's histobt of the which had been permitted by the Pacification Articles, shall not be accepted as sufficient evidence of a person's soundness in the faith ; and that the condemning of all creeds, confes- sions, and declarations of faith in human words, opens a door to let errors and heresies into the church. These proceedings sent a wave across the Atlantic ; and in 1724, the Presbytery of ISTewcastle entered in their book a for- mula, expressing adherence to the 'Westminster Confession, and their candidates on being licensed cheerfully signed it :— "I do own the Westminster Confession as the confession of my faith." What the Presbyteries of Philadelphia and Long Island did during these years cannot be ascertained, their records being lost. The formula used by Armagh Presbytery, in Ulster, was, "I do believe the Westminster Confession of Faith to be founded on and agreeable to the word of God, and therefore as such, by this my subscription, do own it as the confession of my faith." In 1725, the Irish Synod resolved to suspend from the mi- nistry all who reproached the church judicatories fpr requiring subscription; and " that whosoever shall maintain- that Christ has not lodged any authority in the judicatories of this church, but that they are mere consultative meetings, whose decisions even in matters of prudence and expediency may be counter- acted and defeated by every man's private judgment, ought not to be allowed to vote in any matter the decision whereof may afliect any member who believes the proper authority of our judicatories as the ordinance of Jesus Christ, to which submission is due in all things lawful for conscience." They ordered also that censure be inflicted on those who refused, when required by a regularly-constituted judicatory, to give a declaration of their sentiments on any important article of faith. They transmitted the following overture by a great majority to the presbyteries: — Whether or not we should, after the laudable example of the Church of Scotland in their General Assembly, require of every minister and ruling elder, before their admission to vote in the General Synod, that he subscribe or declare the Westminster Confession of Paith to be the confession of his faith as a qualification of membership ? They also ordered, that if any inferior judica.- tory shall reverse or alter the decisions of their superior judi- PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 103 catories, the moderator and clerk then in office shall incur suspension as long as the next higher judicatory shall see fit. In 1726, the non-subscribers offered propositions for an ac- commodation, which the subscribers rejected as inconsistent with the peace and unity of this church; and, "by these their principles and their declared resolutions to adhere to them, they put it out of our power to maintain ministerial communion with them in church judicatories as formerly, consistently with the faithful discharge of our ministerial office and the peace of our own consciences." The non-subscribers read their observations on this paper : eighteen ministers and four elders objected to proceed to the vote on it. It was agreed to by a great majority, eleven ministers and one elder dissent- ing. The non-subscribers, being thus excluded, withdrew, and formed the Antrim Presbytery. In the Synod of Philadelphia, in September, 1727, Thomson, of Lewestown, introduced the following overture:* " That the synod, as an ecclesiastical judicature of Christ, clothed with ministerial authority to act in concert in behalf of truth and in opposition to error, would, by an act of its own, publicly and authoritatively adopt the Westminster Con- fession of Paith, Catechisms, &c. for the public confession of our faith; and oblige each presbytery to require every candi- date for the ministry to subscribe or otherwise acknowledge, coram preshyteris, the said Confession, and promise not to preach or teach contrary to it. All ' actual ministers' coming among us to do the like, and no minister to teach or preach contrary to said articles, unless first he propose the point to tlie presbytery or synod to be by them discussed. Each mi- nister to recommend to his flock to entertain the truth in love, be zealous, and fruitful, and earnest by prayer with God, to preserve the vine from being spoiled by these deluding foxes."t ISTothing is said of it in the minutes of that year ; but ISTew- castle Presbytery, March 28, 1728, requested it to be produced, and, being read, a judgment on it was deferred till the next meeting. They say subsequently that the synod slighted it, and that Thomson published a letter which took effect. He * Printed in Hodge's History, from Mr. Ebenezer Hazard's MSS. f Page 92, Synod Records. 104 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE printed the overture, with his reasons for its adoption. ^ It was proposed, he says, as an expedient for preventing the ingress and spreading of dangerous errors among ourselves and our flocks. "Being an organized body, we ought, especially when apparent dangers call for it, to exert ourselves in vindication and defence of the truth we profess. We are not accountable to the judicial inquiry of any superior earthly judicatory; and, if we do not exert the authority inherent in us for maintaining the purity of gospel truth, there is no earthly authority to call us in question for our neglect, our errors or heresies. "Perhaps my unacquaintedness with our records may cause me to mistake ; but it seems to me we are too much like the people of Laish, — in a careless, defenceless condition, as a city without walls, having never, by a conjunct act of the represen- tatives of our church, made it our confession as we are a united body politic, and there being nothing to keep out of the mi- nistry those who are corrupt in doctrinals, or to prevent any among us from propagating gross errors. Pernicious and dan- gerous corruptions in doctrine have grown in fashion among those, whose ancestors would have sealed the now despised truth with their blood. Our infancy and poverty prevent us from planting a seminary of learning ; and we must depend on other places for men to supply our vacancies, and so are in danger of having our ministry corrupted, by those who are leavened beforehand with false doctrine. If such an expedient be neglected, (now, I hope it may be done,) those who now discern not the necessity hereof, may, ere many years, see it when it will be too late ; when perhaps the number of truth's friends may be too few to carry such a point in the synod." The synod met in the fall by delegates, it having been resolved to do so in 1724, and to have " a full synod"* every third year. The delegates were, from Philadelphia Presby- tery, Andrews, Morgan, William Tennent and his son Gil- bert, Pierson, Dickinson, and Parris ; from Newcastle Pres- bytery, Creaghead, Thomson, Anderson, Gillespie, McCook, Gelston, Houston, and Boyd ; from Long Island Presbytery, Pomeroy and Cross. There were twelve elders, all Irishmen or Scotchmen, except John Budd, from Philadelphia, and * The Synod of Ulster speak of " a full synod" as early as 1716. The plan of delegation went out of use in 1730. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 105 ITathaniel Hazard, of New York. Of the ministers, six were from New England. The overture on subscription being read, the synod, judg- ing it to be a very important affair, unanimously deferred the consideration of it for a year, recommending it to the mem- bers of each presbytery to give notice to the absent members of it, and agreeing that the next synod should be a full one. Andrews* wrote to Colman, April 7, 1729: — "We are now likely to faU into a great difference about subscribing the "Westminster Confession of Faith. An overture for it — drawn up by Mr. Thomson, of Lewestown — was offered to our synod the year before last, but not then read in the synod. Measures were taken to stave it off; and I was in hopes we should have heard no more of it. But last year it was brought again, recommended by all the Scotch and Irish members present ; and, being read among us, a proposal was made, prosecuted, and agreed to, that it should be deferred till our next meeting for further consideration. The proposal is, that all ministers and intrants should sign it, or be disowned as members. JSTow, what shall we do? They will certainly carry it liy numbers. Our countrymen say they are willing to join in a vote to make it the Confession of our church ; but to agree to making it a test of orthodoxy and term of ministerial com- munion, they will not. I think all the Scotch are on one side, and all the English and "Welsh on the other, to a man, Nevertheless, I am not so determined as to be incapable to receive advice ; and I give you this account that I may have your judgment what I had best do in the matter. Supposing I do believe it: shall I, on the terms above mentioned, sub- scribe or not ? I earnestly desire you by the first opportunity to send me your opinion. Our brethren have got the over- ture, with a preface to it, printed ; and I intend to send you one for the better regulation of your thoughts about it. Some say the design of this motion is to spew out our coun- trymen, — they being scarce able to hold way with the other brethren in all their disciplinary and legislative notions. "What truth there may be in this I know not. Some deny it ; whereas others say there is something in it. I am satisfied, * Printed in Hodge's History from the MSS. of Ebenezer Hazard. 106 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE some of us are an uneasiness to tHem, and are thought to be too much in their way sometimes, so that I think it would he no trouble to lose some of us. Yet I can't think this to be the thing ultimately designed, whatever smaller glances there may be at it. I have no thought, they have any design against me in particular; I have no reason for it. This busi- ness hes heavy on my mind ; and I desire that we may be directed in it, that we may not bring a scandal on our pro- fession. Though I have been sometimes the instrument of keeping them together, when they were like to fall to pieces, I have little hope of doing so now. If it were not for the scandal of a division, I should not be much against it; for the different countrymen seem to be most delighted with each other and to do best when they are by themselves. My congrega- tion being made up of divers nations of different sentiments, this brings me under greater difficulty in this contested busi- ness than any other minister of our number. I am afraid of the event. However, I will endeavour to do as near as I can what I understand to be duty, and leave the issue to Providence." Dickinson published "Remarks"* on a discourse entitled "An Overture." It is dated April 10, 1729, and was printed by J. P. Zenger, Smith Street, New York. He insists that poor defenceless Laish will not be bettered by the wall of subscription, which will fall if a fox go over it. Her true defence is the thorough examination of candidates on the saving work of grace in their hearts, in reviving ancient disci- pline, in bringing offenders to account, and being diligent in preaching the whole counsel of God. He shows that there may be a bond of union without subscription, that the synod had already a bond of union in the general acknow- ledgment of the truth, and that subscription always causes disunion. To shut out of the ministry non-subscribers, is to make the Confession, not the Bible, our standard, and is an invasion of the royalty of Christ. He depicts the sad condition of a good man who cannot in conscience subscribe : he is, at best, treated as a weak brother, or held up to his people as an object of distrust. He refers to * Old South Church Library. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 107 tlie dismal group of heresies which crowded into the church, within seventy years after the adoption of the Nicene Creed ; all of which " flowed from the corrupt fountain of impositions and subscriptions. This was the mark set by Providence on the first subscription of this kind, and this the defence and propagation of the truth that followed from it. The churches of New England have always been non-subscribers, and yet retain their first faith and love. Subscription, therefore, is not necessary to the being or the well-being of a church; unless hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, and heresies are necessary to that end."* To this, if Thomson replied, no copy of his answer is known to remain. In his view, " secret, bosom enemies of the truth (I mean those who, being visible members of the church, do not openly and violently oppose the truth professed therein, but in a secret way endeavour to undermine it) are as dangerous as any ; and the church should in a special manner exercise her vigilance against such, by searching them out, discovering them, and setting a mark upon them, whereby they may be known, and so not have it in their power to deceive." The result of this delay was manifest and happy. In 1729, all the members of synod were present, except Morgan, Pem- berton, Cross, Webb, Stewart, Pomeroy, and Hook ; four of whom were New England men. There were thirteen elders, of whom Mr. Budd was of American birth, and William Williams was probably a Welshman. The overture was referred to Anderson, the moderator, Andrews, Dickinson, Thomson, Pierson, Creaghead, and Conn, and the elder John Budd. They brought in an over- ture, which, after long debating, was agreed on * When President Clapp established the Professorship of Divinity in Yale Col- lege, and made subscription to the Confession binding on the professor, Dr. John Gale, of Killingworth, attacked him, and quoted the passage in the text. Mr. Clapp replied. Dr. Bellamy ■wrote on the same side, under the signature of " Paulinus." Dr. Hopkins was zealous for the subscription. Bostwick, on hearing of Dr. Dana's settlement at Wallingford, wrote to Bellamy, (January 1, 1759,) •' 'Tis a mercy that all our ministers are professed adherers to the Confession of Faith. No Arminian can be encouraged or get his bread by preaching among us. A late attempt has been made by an ingenious young clergyman from Ireland, all along the coast, but to no purpose." 108 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE "All the ministers of the synod now present, except one that declared himself not prepared, after proposing all the scruples that any of them had to make against any articles and expressions in the Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westmin- ster, have unanimously agreed in the solution of those scru- ples, and in declaring the said Confession and Catechisms to be the Confession of their Faith; excepting only some clauses in the twentieth and twenty-first chapters, concerning which clauses the synod do unanimously declare that they do not receive those articles in any such sense, as to suppose, that the civil magistrate hath a controlling power over synods, with respect to the exercise of their ministerial authority, or power to persecute any for their religion, or in any sense contrary to the Protestant succession to the throne of Great Britain." The ministers present were Andrews, Creaghead, Anderson, Thomson, Pierson, Celston, Houston, Tennent and his son Gilbert, Boyd, Dickinson, Bradner, Hutcheson, Thomas Evans, Stevenson, Conn, Gillespie, and Wilson. Observing the unanimity, peace, and unity which appeared in all their consultations and determinations in this affair, they unani- mously agreed in giving thanks to God in solemn prayer and praises. They also unanimously ackowledged and declared that " they judge the Directory for worship, discipline, and government, commonly annexed to the Westminster Confession, to be agreeable in substance to the word of God and founded thereon ; and, therefore, do earnestly recommend the same to all their members, to be by them observed as near as circum- stances will allow and Christian prudence direct." Elmer, who had recently come from l^ew England, pro- fessed himself not prepared to act ; but, in 1730, he gave in his adhesion. Pemberton and Morgan "declared" before their presbyteries; and David Evans, who had withdrawn thi-ee years before, returned and adopted the Confession. This unanimity was remarkable, and ought to be re- * Pemberton, in a letter to Dr. Colman, calls it " our happy agreement." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 109 garded as a Bignal manifestation of God's gracious love and care. The Presbytery of Charleston at the same time were sadly divided. The Eev. Josiah Smith, of Cainhoy, and Mr. Basset, of Charleston, appeared as non- subscribers. The former represented to Dr. Colman* that the matter was urged in an unbrotherly and unchristian manner by the Scotch brethren. He published a sermon, in 1729 :— "Human Impositions proved unscriptural ; or, the Divine Right of Private Judgment." The Rev. Hugh Fisher, of Dorchester, South Carolina, published, on the opposite side, a sermon entitled "A Preservativef against Dangerous Errors in the "Unction of the Holy One," Smith's reply was headed, "]S"o ISTewJ Thing for Good Men to be evil-spoken of." Smith said that they denied the right of private judgment and insisted on his putting the Confession on the same footing with the Bible. This they, of course, denied, and charged him with saying that Pierce, of Exeter, had as good right to hold his heretical views of the Trinity as they had to hold the truth. He declared that he believed every thing in the West- minster Confession, except the clauses on the power of the civil magistrate, on the divine right of ruling elders, and on the subject of marriage with wife's kindred. "There is but one book that I prefer to it." His adherence was read in Presbytery; but the majority refused to accept it, unless he subscribed also seven articles of their framing. The diffi- culties continued from March, 1728-9, to 1731. The White Meeting-house in Charleston had been occupied by Presby- terians and Independents : the Presbyterians withdrew, and the line of separation was drawn between the two bodies, not because of their ditferent modes of church government, but as subscribers and non-subscribers. There seems to have been a general acquiescence in the Adopting Act, each Presbytery reporting yearly that those who were licensed or ordained did adopt, subscribe, or declare for the Confession in the fullest manner. A formula was entered on the records of Newcastle and Donegal Presby- * MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. ■(■ Massachusetts Historical Society Library. | Ibid. 110 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OE THE teries, and was signed by each member on being received. At Nottingham, some dissatisfaction arose from the suppo- sition of a laxness in the matter of scruples ; but Newcastle Presbytery hastened to allay it by " declaring openly before God and the world that we all with one accord adhere to the same sound form of doctrine in which we and our fathers were trained, and own the "Westminster Confession and Catechisms to be the Confession of. our Faith, being in all things agreeable to the word of God so far as we are able to judge and discern, taking them on the true, genuine, and obvious sense of the word." In Boston, an Irish minister expressing himself strongly against the non-subscribers. Dr. Colman laid the matter before the indefatigable Wodrow. He was shocked at such unpa- ralleled conduct, and feared it was "one of those whose heats, having nearly consumed them at home, have carried their fire to the Synod of Pennsylvania. We have a copy of their act about subscription ; but I know not well what to make of it."* He had lamented so much the divisions growing out of this controversy in England and Ireland, that he feared our Adopting Act might issue as unhappily. " We are saved from these things," says he, "by the Act of the Eevolution, Parlia- ment making subscription binding on all." No instance of erroneous teaching is known to have oc- curred until 1735, in the case of Samuel Hemphill. He could hardly be called heretical, — being a trivial man, of no vigour of thought or capacity of expression, and who indiflerently took up any printed discourse, committed it to memory, and delivered it fluently and handsomely as an extemporaneous eflbrt. As soon as he was detected, he was forsaken by his zealous friends, and passed at once out of notice. Henry Hunter was, in like manner, ready to sail with any wind : he used whatever came to his hand, and his folly was soon manifest. Branded as heretics, Hemphill and Hunter might have been canonized as martyrs; proved to be plagiaries, popular odium made them glad to escape from disgrace into obscurity. Hemphill had been received by the synod from the Presby- * Wodrow Correspondence. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. Ill tery of Strabane in 1734, and he adopted ttie Confession in tlieir presence. Letters from Ireland induced ITewcastle Pres- bytery (for he began his labours at New London) to call hina to account; but nothing was proved to his disadvantage. lie spent the winter in Philadelphia, expecting to find a congrega- tion in the country. Being a young man, with a free, hand- some delivery, he was invited to preach as assistant to An- drews. He drew great numbers after him ; but many of the congregation were disgusted with the sentiments he uttered, and ceased to attend. Andrews heard him regularly, and notified the moderator of the commission that he wished to present charges against Hemphill for erroneous teaching. Franklin was a great admirer of him ; and, on the week be- fore the commission met, he wrote and published in his paper* a dialogue in which he thus speaks: — "Upon the supposition that we all have faith in Christ, as I think we have, where can be the danger of being exhorted to good works? Is virtue heresy? .... Will you persecute, silence, and condemn a good preacher for exhorting men to be honest and charitable ? .... Supposing our fathers tied themselves to the West- minster Confession: why should not a synod in George the Second's time have as much right to interpret the Scriptures as one that met in Oliver's time ? .... If any doctrine there maintained is, or shall be thereafter found to be, not altogether orthodox, why must we be forever confined to that or any other Confession?" The commission was fully attended. Andrews presented eight articles, drawn from the sermons he had heard, either impugning or leaving out of view original sin and the blood of Christ, and representing salvation by the merits of Christ, as setting God forth as stern and inexorable. After many delays, Hemphill produced his notes, and the commission declared him erroneous in doctrine, and sus- pended him. They published an extract of their minutes ;t and Pranklin, early in July, wrote and printed " Some Obser- vationsj on the Proceedings of the Commission in the Affair of the Rev. Mr. Hemphill, together with a Defence of his Sermons against the Censure passed on them by the Commission." In * Gazette, April, 1735 : in Philadelphia Library. t Old South Church Library. t Ibid. 112 Webster's histoky op the this he assails Tennent of ISTeshaminy, and Hs son Gilbert, and with virulence defames Hubbell, of Westfield, New Jersey. He takes the ground that the old man (Andrews) was jealous, and the commission, to uphold him, would have declared any doctrine "necessary and essential." He also advertised "A Narrative of the Proceedings of Seven General Synods of the Northern Presbyterians in Ireland, with relation to their dif- ference in judgment and practice from the year 1720 to 1726, in which they issued in a synodical breach : containing the occasion, rise, true state, and progress of the difference, by Antrim Presbytery, with Hallyday's reasons against the impo- sition of human tests."* Dickinson published anonymously, in September, "Ee- marks on a Letter to a Friend in the Country ;t containing the substance of a sermon preached at Philadelphia in the congre- gation of the Eev. Mr. Hemphill, in which the terms of Chris- tian and ministerial communion are so stated that human im- positions are exploded, a proper enclosure proposed for every religious society, and the commission justified in their con- duct toward Mr. Hemphill."f To this he appended the Adopt- ing Act, "to J convince the reader that we govern ourselves according to the principles here asserted and pleaded for." If a man be, in the society's opinion, qualified for the work of the ministry, and like to serve the interests of Christ's kingdom, they can with a good conscience admit him to the exercise of the ministry with them, notwithstanding lesser differences of opinion in extra-essential points. But if he embrace such errors as, in the judgment of the society, un- qualify him for a faithful discharge of that important trust, they cannot admit him to the cure of souls without unfaithful- ness to God and their own consciences. To admit hira were deliberately to send poison into Christ's household, instead of the portion of meat which he has provided. * Franklin's Memoirs of his own Life. The pamphlets he issued in this case have escaped the search of Mr. Sparks. The Letter to a Friend in the Country we have not seen ; but the Observations on the Minutes of the Commission, and the defence of the observations, are both in the Old South Church Library, and are evidently from Franklin's pen. f American Antiquarian Society's Library. See advertisement, November, 1735. X Quoted by Dr. Hodge. PRESBTTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 113 Hempliill contemptuously disregarded the synod's citation, declaring that he had adopted the Confession only in its " es- sential and necessary doctrines," and that he "despised their claim of authority." The synod disowned him; and the speedy detection, in the printed works of Dr. James Foster, Dr. Ibbots, and Dr. Clarke, of his objectionable discourses, covered him and his adherents with confusion. The synod desired the brethren to answer any complaint of Hemphill if necessary, and agreed to defray the expense out of the fund. While this case was before the synod, it was resolved that "if any member prepare any thing for the press on any religious controversy, he shall submit the sam^ to be perused by a com- mittee of the synod." One was appointed for the Iforth, con- sisting of Andrews, Dickinson, Rob, Cross, Pemberton, and Pierson ; another, of Anderson, Thomas Evans, Cathcart, Stevenson, and Thomson.* The people of Paxton and Derry in 1736 supplicated for an explanation of some expressions and distinctions in the first or preliminary act adopting the standards, great stress having been laid by the friends of Hemphill on the restriction con- tained in the words "necessary and essential doctrines." The synod declared they adopted and adhered to the Confession, Catechism, and Directory, without the least variation or altera- tion, and without any regard to said distinctions. The conjunct Presbyteriesf of ISTew Brunswick and New- castle declared it to be an aspersion that they do not cleave to and maintain the standards as fully as the Synod of Philadel- phia in their public acts have done. "We believe with our hearts, and profess and maintain with our lips, the doctrines summed up and contained in the Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as the truths of God revealed and contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and ITew Testaments, and do receive, acknowledge, and declare the said Confession and Catechisms to be the confession of our faith; yet so as that no * In 1722, Ne-wcastle Presbytery forbade Gillespie to publish any remarks on a decision of synod, in a case of discipline, until they gave consent, •j- Quoted by Dr. Hodge. 8 114 Webster's history of the part of the twentj^-third chapter of said Confession shall be construed as to allow civil magistrates, as such, to have any ecclesiastical authority in synods or church judicatories, much less the power of a negative voice over them in their eccle- siastical transactions ; nor is any part of it to be understood as opposite to the memorable settlement of the crown of the three kingdoms in the illustrious house of Hanover." The jealousy of the people for the integrity of the standards, and for exact and hearty adherence to them, was most reason- able, from their knowledge of the spread of the 'Eew Light " at home," and from the probability that errorists would cross the ocean to corrupt " our church." Great alarm prevailed on ac- count of the progress of error in the British Isles. Dr. Col- man* wrote feelingly on the subject to Andrews, deploring the propagation of dangerous heresies by men who "sheltered themselves under the covert of believing the Bible, while they refused to avow how far they had departed from the faith of God's elect." E"o dispute seems to have arrayed brother against brother until 1738, when Gilbert Tennent and Cowell carried on in a correspondence a discussion on the ingredients of holy obedi- ence, — whether a view to our own eternal interests could in the sight of God be an acceptable motive for seeking salva- tion and keeping his commandments? " Sundry large letters passed between them. The synod appointed a committee to converse with them together, and, if there be necessity, dis- tinctly to consider the papers. They ordered them to refrain from all public discourse on the controversy, and all methods of spreading it among the populace, until the committee have made their report to the synod. They were found to be sub- stantially and thoroughly agreed, although Tennent feared that there had been ' slighting and shuffling' to hide errors ' contrary to the express testimony of Holy Scriptures, our Confession of Faith, and Christian experience.' " Immediately after the exclusion of Hemphill, an overture was presented and adopted, lamenting the great and uni- versal deluge of pernicious errors and damnable heresies, "and that so many wolves in sheep's clothing are invading the flock * MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 115 everywhere ; and, as we are likely to have the most of our supply of ministers from the north of Ireland, the synod bears testimony against the late too common and now alto- gether useless practice of some presbyteries in that region, in ordaining men, sine tilulo, immediately before they come hither, and depriving us of the just right of inspecting into their qualifications." Robert Cross, Thomson, and Houston, wrote to the Gene- ral Synod, that "the continuance of the practice will be very disagreeable and disobliging to us ; and that no minister so ordained in Ireland shall be admitted to the exercise of his ministry among us unless he submit to such- trials as the pres- bytery to which he comes may appoint." They suggested, also, that it is " our earnest desires, that ministers, besides credentials, should bring letters from brethren who are well known to us to be firmly attached to our good old principles and schemes." A letter was received from the Synod of Ireland in 1738, Anderson and Thomson were directed to prepare and trans- mit a respectful answer. Yearly inquiry was made concern- ing the order in relation to ministers coming from Europe. It was faithfully observed. It being with exceeding difllculty that candidates from Wew England could be induced to visit our vacancies, there was no uneasiness felt, lest we should be overrun from that quarter. Not until the great revival did "that hive of preachers" swarm. Of the few who came, several returned as soon as they could find an eligible situation, — Joseph Smith to Mid- dletown Upper Houses, Moses Dickinson to liforwalk, Chalker to Glastenbury, Gould to Middlefield, Tudor to East "Windsor ; while four others made only a transient ■ stay and passed to parts unknown. Philadelphia Presbytery, in 1735, wrote to the Eector of Yale in behalf of the waste places in West Jersey. Daniel Buckingham,* who graduated at Yale in 1735, and was licensed by Hampshire Association, came ; but, though called to Pilesgrove and Gloster, he went to the East. Robert Small has the credit of being the first New Englauder who sought a field of usefulness in Newcastle Presbytery; he also * MS. Records of Philadelphia Presbytery. 116 Webster's histokt of the went into West Jersey ; but the lack of good testimonials and some ill-reports deterred Philadelphia Presbytery from en- couraging him. The Rev. John Adams, a graduate of Har- vard, came as a candidate to Philadelphia for the post of assistant to Andrews. Dr. Cooper,* writing to Dr. Colman, March 25, 1735, said that he intended to have proposed to the ministers of Boston to resume the consideration of Mr. AdamS for Philadelphia, "for I can't but think it a pity that such superior talents as his should be so much unimproved." Adams preached the opening sermon of Presbytery in May, 1736, from Isa. xxxv. 2. He settled at Newport, Ehode Island. In two cases the committee of sj'nod declined to ordain. They had no uneasiness as to the orthodoxy of Cleverly ; but, owing to the opposition made by some of his hearers, they did not proceed to ordain him at West Hanover, (Morristown,) New Jersey. The congregation of Goshen seems to have been much distracted at the close of Bradner's life with a personal difference between him and Samuel Nealy. On his death, Samuel Tudor, a native of Poquonnok, in Windsor, who gra- duated at Yale in 1728, came as a candidate. f Instead of applying to the presbytery, the congregation supplicated the sj'nod, in 1735, to send as soon as possibly may be, a committee to ordain him. He wrote to the synod, declaring his readiness to adopt the Confession and submit to Presbyterian rules. The synod appointed him a Latin exegesis and a popular ser- mon on Rom. xi. 6, and directed Robert Cross to preside in, that affair, and with Pumry, Webb, Nutman, John Cross, and Chalker, to meet there in the course of the next month and ordain. The congregation was publicly notified, on a Lord's day, that if any desired they might lay their objections. Robert Cross, Pumry, and Chalker met, and did not ordain him because of insufficiency. Tudor was born March 8, 1704-5, in East Windsor, and waa married December 10, 1729, to Mary, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Smith, of Cohanzy, and afterwards of Middletown. He was ordained the second minister of Poquonnok Society * MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. f The New York papers of 1734 describe him as a Presbyterian minister in the Highlands who had been pursued by robbers, near the FishkiUs, on the 12th of August. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 117 in Windsor in January, 1740, and died September 21, 1757,— a faithful and useful minister, respected for intelligence, appli- cation to business, and dignity of manner. Only one minister besides John Orme seems to have come from England from the formation of the synod to the disrup- tion: — Mr. Peter Finch, in 1724. His testimonials were ap- proved, and leave was given to the people in Kent county, Delaware, on their request, to employ him. The next year, a small sum was allowed him out of the fund. He is not again mentioned. He was probably the Eev. Peter Finch, of Norwich, who was one of Matthew Henry's friends. John Madowell was accepted by the synod in 1736 as a probationer, being recommended by the Presbytery of Temple- Patrick, the Session of Dunagor, and several brethren of note in the north of Ireland. He was appointed to supply the new erection in Philadelphia during the months of October and JS'ovember. His name never again appears on the roll. Scotland sent us few men during the twenty-five years before the division. Laing and Hutcheson were Scotsmen, and per- haps John Cross, Carlisle, and one or two more. The great majority were North-of-Ireland men, educated at Glasgow. During the same period, only one impostor intruded him- self on them, — James Morehead; he preached with acceptance in West Jersey and in N"ewcastle county, and for several years resisted the eftbrts of the synod to reduce him to obedience. He sunk into contempt and was forgotten. There was much land to be possessed. There were none to go forth v/ith them into the wilderness and contest the inhe- ritance. Great caution was used in meting out the bounds of each congregation, and no new erection was encouraged hastily. A perambulation of the tenitory was made by indif- ferent persons, and the projectors were required to furnish the neighbouring ministers with lists of their supporters and members who were to embark in the enterprise. There was no lack of delay on the -g^rt of the presbyteries, each pastor being naturally sensitive on the subject of the invasion or cession of his legitimate domain. Generally, the people strug- gled manfully till the synod or presbytery yielded, and in every case the fears which had made the reverend judicatories 118 Webster's history of the pause were disappointed, in the mutual growth of the mother- churches and their flourishing daughters. The opposition to the erection of the New London congregation was protracted for years ; slowly, point by point, every thing was yielded, and for the obvious reason that all the gloomy apprehensions of the church of Elk Eiver were dispelled. New London, in her turn, seems to have resisted the building at Fagg's Manor, and with the like result : the church rose on the site selected by the people, and no loss was sustained by New London. Boyd had a field from 1724 to 1735, covering Octorara, Pequea, Middle Octorara, and the Forks of Brandywine. Hanover, in East Jersey, struggled, as though its existence were at stake, against giving leave to "West Hanover or Morristown to have a minister; but, seeing no prospect of reducing "the west part" to submission, they yielded, and at length admitted that they were no losers thereby. In New England the boundaries of the towns and the con- gregations were identical and unchangeable until the colonial legislature gave leave. This was a cause of great trial to the Irish Presbyterians in Massachusetts. In 1718, they settled in "Worcester,* having the Eev. Edward Fitzgerald for their minister. Their attempt to build a meeting-house was out- rageously defeated by a mob headed by some of " the con- siderable persons" of the place. They had afterwards the Rev. "William Johnston ; but they were taxed for the support of the first church in the town, and finally he left them and settled in Londonderry. They retained their Presbyterian prefer- ences, and carried their children for baptism to the distant towns where there were Presbyterian ministers ; and the most of them, about 1740, removed to Otsego county, then the western frontier of New York. Bitter were the complaints of the Rev. Mr. Frink,t of Rutland, because of the obstinacy of the Irish in his parish. They constituted two-fifths of the population, but could obtain no privilege for themselves as a separate society until the west part of the parish was formed into a town called Oakham. Th^ they gathered a church after the model of the church in North Britain. The Rev. * Lincoln's History of Worcester. f MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. He subsequently took holy orders. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 119 Mr. Smith, of Falmouth, now Portland, went over to Mr. Allen's, May 29, 1736, and met the ministers on the affair of the Irish. In the district of Maine,* the same trouble befell the Irish settled at Purpooduck, on Casco Bay : the Irish Pres- bytery, with William Johnston for moderator, and William McClenaghan for clerk, proposed as a compromise that the second church of Palmouth should allow the people the use of their meeting-house two Sabbaths in the year, for the ad- ministration of the sacrament by their own ministers. This was denied, and the presbytery proceeded to furnish them with regular supplies. The Irish Presbytery is mentioned in the Colman MSS. in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collection ; but its real name was the Presbytery of Boston, and the date of its origin and its extinction ai-e alike unknown. Among its members were the Rev. John Moorhead, of Boston, William Johnston and Davidson, of Londonderry, William McClenaghan, of Blandford, Massachusetts, James Morton, of Coleraine, Ruth- erford, Urquhart, John Harvey, and John Caldwell. The Rev. Mr. Lemercier, of the French church in Boston, was also a member. A curious pamphlet warfare arose on the receiving of the Rev. Mr. Hillhouse, of New London, Connecticut, in 1736 : Moorhead and Harvey approved, while Rutherford ob- jected. The ordination of David McGregoire over the second congregation in Londonderry was accomplished with- out the consent of the presbytery, and when he offered to take his seat, he was refused. Moorhead withdrew and met with them no more, and they suspended him "a6 officio et beneficio." No mention is made of this presbytery, in any work we have seen, except in a few pamphlets,t rare and unimportant, in two sermons preached before it,J and in two or three letters, which are the only vestiges remaining of its existence. The influx from abroad, from 1718 to 1740, was wholly Pro- * Smith's Diary, in Deane's History of Portland.— MSS. of Massachusetts His- torical Society. f Letter to John Presbyter, by Mr. Lemercier, in Massachusetts Historical Society's Library. X McClenaghan's sermon on the Christian soldier, and Caldwell on the false prophets, in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Library. 120 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE testant and largely Presbyterian. The newspapers furnish curious items of the extent of it. In September, 1736, one thousand families sailed from Belfast on account of the diffi- culty of renewing their leases. On tbe ninth of that month, one hundred Presbyterians from Ireland arrived at Philadel- phia, as many more soon after at Newcastle, and twenty ships were daily expected from Ireland. At this time, three hun- dred and eighty-eight persons from Holland landed on our shores. The loss to Ireland is deplored, the linen-weavers and small farmers composing a great portion of the emigrants. "Wodrow* says, the departure of the people in shoals excited the fears of the government, lest Ireland should be wholly abandoned to the Papists. He hoped it would lead to exten- sion of privileges to the Presbyterians. The eifect was soon visible. New York had seen for twenty years a small Presbyterian flock assembling in a house without galleries, six out of its eight windows being closed with boards, poverty preventing their being glazed, and the frac- tion of light being enough for the handful of people. But now the pews on the ground-floor were filled, three galleries were constructed, and the sun blazed unobstructed through the whole line of windows. The church in Philadelphia had increased so much that, in 1733, an assistant minister was needed. Newcastle Presbytery was large enough in 1734 to set ofl' Donegal Presbytery on the west, and, having surren- dered Lancaster county, was able soon after, in 1738, to realize the long-cherished project of forming the Presbytery of Lewes out of the churches on the peninsula. Philadelphia Presby- tery was divided in 1733, and East Jersey Presbytery was formed. Long Island Presbytery, declining from the attach- ment of the ministers in "the East Riding" to Connecticut, — an attachment growing out of its being the land of their birth, and strengthened by matrimonial ties and the convenience of crossing the sound to attend its associations, — was united, in 1738, to East Jersey Presbytery, under the style of the Pres- bytery of New York. Portions of New York and Philadel- phia Presbyteries were constituted the Presbytery of New Brunswick in the same year. * Correspondence Wodrow Soc. Pub. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 121 CHAPTER W. The methods in use in Ireland and Scotland were all intro- duced on the erection of congregations. They were so gene- rally accustomed to modes closely similar, that no solicitation was needed to secure the acquiescence of the people in them. The emigration brought over many schoolmasters, and few Presbyterian settlements were without schools during most of the year. It was rare to find one, (except among the servants, and even among them it was very rare,) who could not read and who did not possess a Bible. The Shorter Catechism was learned at home and recited at school; and the Psalms in metre were largely treasured in the memory ; they were the lullaby of the babe, and the song at the loom and at the wheel. They formed universally a part of family worship. That pre- cious privilege was regarded as an indispensable duty. Inquiry was made concerning the observance of it, on the occasion of asking baptism for their children. Family in- struction was not neglected; the Catechism was "gone through" on Sabbaths by parents, children, and servants ; ser- mons were repeated, and the points of doctrine duly compared with the Scripture. The congregations were divided into portions called " quar- ters," each of which was committed to the charge of an elder, and the people in each quarter were gathered at suitable and oft-recurring seasons at some convenient point, — it might be a kitchen or a barn, to accommodate large numbers, — and old and young were solemnly, carefully, and at length, catechized. The seed sown in the sanctuary was harrowed in by the cate- chizing. The minister knew the state of the flock and how they profited by the word preached. The presbyteries* visited the congregations, taking first the * MS. Minutes of Donegal Presbytery. 122 WEBSTER'S HISTOEY OF THE minister by himself, and asking him how he performed the duties of preaching, visiting, and catechizing, how the elders discharged their office, and how the people hearkened to the word and submitted to godly discipline. He being put forth, the elders were called in and questioned concerning their minister's doctrine, life, diligence, and faith- fulness ; as to the extent to which they laboured in their quar- ters, and how the people deported themselves toward those who were over them in the Lord. Lastly, the people were called in, to answer by their representatives, — who were strictly what their name imported, — representatives. These were chosen to act and speak for the people, to sign the call and be the respon- sible agents in all secular matters. They were asked how the people were satisfied with their minister and with the elders, and how they performed their stipulations for his support. Each of the three parties was asked if any cause of complaint existed, or of dissatisfaction, and the presbytery proceeded authoritatively to investigate the alleged matter and to remove it or rebuke the offenders. The Lord's Supper was celebrated, according to the usage "at home," twice in the year. It was preceded by a day of fasting: several of the neighbouring ministers attended, and sermons suitable to the approaching solemnity were preached on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday previous. Ordinarily, a large body from adjacent congregations came with their mi- nisters, and were on the ground before the Sabbath. Tokens were distributed, and those from a distance received them on the testimony of their minister and his elders. Often they brought written requests from their pastors that they might share in the feast. Commonly it was in the open air that most of the sermons were preached; a covered stand, called a tent, being an appendage to every meeting-house. The tables were spread and reached across the house and from the pulpit to the door. The action-sermon was long and full of the marrow of the gospel ; the fencing of the tables was scarcely less solemn and even more heart-searching. « Then, in the simple music Of the old glorious days, The hearts of pious thousands Gush'd forth in streams of praise. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 123 The Psalms in metre, the work of Francis Rous,* an English gentleman, of Cornwall, were hallowed by innumerable pious and tender associations. Plain of speech, our fathers stumbled not at the roughness of the verse nor sighed at the lack of melody. The same words and the same tunes charmed unholy thoughts from the mind of Burns, as he sat, of a Saturday night, by the cotter's ingle-side. The same words and the same tunes harmonized with Brainerd's devotions, and thrilled Whitefield like the songs of heaven, at Cambuslang and White Clay. Our fathers were not virtuosi, charmed even in God's house with rubbish if rare, and trifles if tasteful : " And surely God was praised, When David's words to David's tune Five hundred voices raised."-}- When the sacred symbols were uncovered, how many hearts broke as if in bitterness for a first-born ! and, as they rose to take their places at the board, it was reverently, as though seeing Him that is invisible; even as though before their eyes Christ had been set forth evidently crucified among them. The Lord's Supper was, in its fullest sense, a monument of the great facts of redemption, — a memorial of the necessity of atonement, the glorious Deity of the Son of God, the freeness of justification, and the fulness of the promises. The mode * [Francis Kous, or House, was born at Halton, in Cornwall, in 1579, and edu- cated at Broadgate HaU, now Pembroke College, Oxford. He studied law ; and in the first Parliament called by Charles I., he was returned for Truro, in Cornwall, for Tregony in the third, and for Truro again in the fifteenth and sixteenth of that reign. He was one of the few laymen appointed by the Commons to sit in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. He sat in the Parliament called in 1653, and held the post of Speaker for a, month. He aimed at conforming the government to the model of the Je-wish ; but, failing in this object, he proposed that Cromwell should be elevated to rule with the title of Protector. Cromwell made him one of his privy-counsellors. He was made Provost of Eton in 1643, at which place he died in 1659, and was buried with great pomp and splendour. His chief works were Meditations dedicated to the Saints throughout the three nations; The Law- fulness of obeying the Present Government ; The Beauties of the Fathers of the first three centuries ; Interiora Begni Dei ; and a Translation of the Psalms into English Metre, printed in 1645, by order of the House of Commons. Vide Rose's Biog. Diet., vol. xi. p. 392. London: B. Fellowes, Ludgate Street, 1847. The Version of the Psalms, after being modified by a committee, was adopted, in 1649, by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. — Ed.] f Mrs. Gray, of Easton, Pennsylvania. 124 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE in wlaieh it was administered rendered it necessary that the highest truths, the loftiest themes, should be preached, and with unction. Every circumstance conspired to invest even the most lifeless preacher with such a feeling of the greatness of the occasion, as made him surmount at least for the time the narrow limits of his talents, and speak in the demonstra- tion of the Spirit and with power. The closing service of thanksgiving prepared the way to return home, pondering in their hearts the great things which had been told them. Those were golden days, when souls were enlightened with such a knowledge of Christ, as if the light of the sun had been seven- fold, as if the light of seven days had poured at once on the worshippers, with healing in every beam. Many of the congregations furnished their ministers with a house and farm, or else promised him in the call a sum of money to buy a plantation. The salaries were mostly paid in kind, wheat, Indian corn, hemp, and linen yarn being fre- quently specified in the call ; and, from a riddle to a squire's " publishment of a marriage" or an " estray," every imaginable article is entered on their sui-viving "count-books" as being received in payment of stipend. Olassical schools were established by many ministers. An- drews probably had one in Philadelphia; Dickinson had at Elizabethtown, Thomas Evans at Pencader, and "William Ten- nent at ISTeshaminy. The school at ISTew London went into operation soon after Alison's settlement. Two-thirds nearly of the ministers, until 1738, were graduates of Glasgow Uni- versity. The New England men were mostly from Yale. The few Welshmen were scholars of a high standard, their educa- tion having been thorough and on a liberal scale. Of the style of preaching little judgment can be formed. Franklin evidently had no favour to them; for he says, he would rather hear Hemphill preach other people's sermons fluently, than hear the old synod preach their own dull com- positions. Makemie printed but one sermon, long, full, clear, and valuable : his other productions are plain and vigorous in style. It is remarkable that Andrews, during a ministry of forty- five years in Philadelphia, is not supposed to have published a line ; while Morgan put forth almost as many sermons as PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 125 any New England divine of his day. Dickinson appears to have passed twelve years of his ministry without using the press ; but, after that, he was before the public to the latest year of his life, discussing the Evidences of Christianity, the Doctrines of Grace, the Claims of the Prelatists, the lifeless scheme of Baptismal Regeneration, and the serious errors of judgment among the unwise friends of the Revival. Robert Cross published one sermon, Pierson three, and Pemberton several ; while Gilbert Tennent's writings issued from the press like bees from a hive ; no complete list of his multitude of publications will probably ever be made. None are known to have left any work in manuscript, ex- cept Henry, of Rehoboth. Scarcely a fragment of their corre- spondence exists. They were mostly worthy men, few of them of a rare order of talent, but learned and competent for an honourable dis- charge of their office. Of their success in winning souls, we may hope there is a bright record on high ; but on earth their memorial has perished with them. Morgan* tells us that at one or two periods of his ministry, he saw the word take effect on many souls. In 1719 and '20,^ there was in Monmouth county an amazing change ; new con- gregations were formed, and " the marks of a work of grace were astonishingly plentiful among those who had lived longer under means of grace." Hopewell and Maidenhead received a large increase, the first-fruits of the youthful labours of Moses Dickinson. There is a tradition of a revival at Jamaica under Robert Cross. The Dutch Reformed church in New Jersey possessed, in the Rev. Theodore James Frelinghuysen, a most eminently wise, laborious, and successful servant of God. His faithful counsel roused Gilbert Tennent to consider nar- rowly his own performances, and to gird himself for a more vigorous invasion of Satan's kingdom. A considerable degree of success attended Tennent's preaching on Staten Island and at New Brunswick. His brother John came like " a dew from the Lord" on the plains of Monmouth, and changed Freehold, from a feeble, distracted congregation of careless hearers, into * Answer to an Anonymous Kailer against Election. — Am. Antiq. Soc. Lib. ■j- MS. Letters of Morgan to Cotton Mather. — Am. Antiq. Soc. 126 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE a large and united body of devoted, well-tanght Christians. John Cross, also, "at a place called the Mountains, back of Newark," enjoyed such a degree of success that the fame of it reached Northampton, and is mentioned by Edwards in his Thoughts on Revivals. The "Marrow Controversy" in Scotland, and the secession of the Erskines, could not fail of interesting deeply the members of synod. Gilbert Tennent and his father were correspondents* of the Erskines ; and the alumni of Glasgow partook largely of the feeling pervading the West of Scotland in regard to the growth of Pelagianism and profanity under the deathlike shadow thrown by moderatism and patronage over " the hail kirk." When, therefore, in 1733, Gilbert Tennent introduced his overture concerning ministerial faithfulness in preaching and in dispensing the sacraments, the synod accepted it and formed it into an act ; each presbytery entered it on tlieir book, and took order for the careful observance of it. For the first thirty years, the synod received, almost without an exception, its candidates and its ministers from the mother- country or New England ; but towards the close of that period, natives of the middle colonies, or persons who had received all their education here, came forward to be taken on trials. The first who is known to have pursued his whole course of study in the bounds of the synod was Gilbert Tennent, who, shortly after being licensed, received from Yale the degree of A.M. His brother John was the next, and his performances were universally approved by Newcastle Presbytery. The state of feeling in the synod towards other denomina- tions appears strikingly in the circumstance of their having allowed the Presbytery of Philadelphia to ordain the first Lu- theran minister who settled in Berks county. This case has been sadly misrepresented; Dr. Hill having charged Andrews with such laxness that he consented to ordain a Dunker. The Lutherans had, very early, a congregation in New York city, using the Low Dutch language. In their settlements on the Mohawk, and in Dutchess county, the preaching was in High Dutch. The Swedish churches were Lutheran, and had ministers from their own country; but the German Lutherans * Whitefield's Letters, 3 vols. PKESBTTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 127 in Pennsylvania, though numerous, had none to raimster to them in their own tongue. They had been involved in trouble, owing to objections being made to the title by which they held their land in Schoharie, in New York; and, in 1729, many removed to Oley and Tulpehocken, in Berks county. Among them was the well-known Conrad Weiser, the Indian interpreter. In August, 1730, John Peter Miller arrived in Philadelphia and began to preach to them. He was born in Oberant Lau- tern, in the Palatinate, and had graduated at the University of Heidelberg. He presented himself for ordination to the synod, who " agreed that the Dutch probationer be left to the care of Philadelphia Presbytery to settle him in the minis- try." Andrews, writing to Dr. Colman,* October 4, 1730, said, "There is lately come over a Palatine candidate for the minis- try, who, having applied to us at the synod for ordination, 'tis left to three ministers to do it. He is an extraordinary person for sense and learning. We gave him a question to discuss about Justification, and he has answered it in a whole sheet of paper in a notable manner. He speaks Latin as readily as we do the vernacular tongue, and so does the other, Mr. Weiss." Miller was " ordainedf at the end of 1730, upon order of the Scotch Synod, in the old Presbyterian meeting-house in Phila^ delphia, by three eminent ministers, Tennent, Andrews, and Boyd." He officiated for the Lutherans in Oley and Tulpe- hocken for several years ; but in September, 1735, he was im- mersed by Conrad Beissel, of Ephrata, having adopted the views of the Seventh-day Baptists. In this he was followed by Weiser, who subsequently returned to the Lutheran church. Miller removed to the "Kloster" at Ephrata, and assumed the name of Jabez, Beissel being called Friedsam. The fraternity dressed like Capuchins. Miller was well known in the literary world : he had an extensive correspondence, and was the au- thor of "Chronicon Ephratense." He succeeded Beissel as head of the society, and died September 21, 1796.J * Printed in Hodge's History, from E. Hazard's MSS. I Fahnestock's Sketch of the Dunkers. j Dr. Douglass, in his work on the Provinces, speaks of him as -writing Teiy 128 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE Mr. "VVeiss, mentioned by Andrews in connection M'ith Miller, was the minister of the German Eeformed Church in Gosenhoppen, Pa. Mr. Johannes Henricus Goetschius, or Goetschy, applied, through Andrews, to the synod, in May, 1737, signifying the desire of many of the German nation that he might be or- dained on the synod's order. He was a native of Switzer- land, and had been educated at the University of Zurich. His testimonials from Germany, were ample, and satisfied the synod as to his learning and good Christian conversation. They recommended him to Philadelphia Presbytery, to act upon further trials of him as to them should seem fit. The presbytery met two days after, and agreed that he might preach, but declined to ordain him for a season, because, though learned in the languages, he was deficient* in divinity and college learning. Where he was ordained, or by whom, is unknown to us; he served the Keformed Dutch Church in Bucks county, and was settled, in 1741, the first pastor of Jamaica, E^ewtown, Success, and Wolver's Hollow, on Long Island. In 1751, he removed to Hackensack, New Jersey. In 1729, the synod bore testimony against, and declared their great dissatisfaction at, the religious lawsuits that are main- tained among professors of religion, so contrary to that peace and love the gospel requires, and the express direction of the Holy Ghost, (1 Cor. vi. 1-3,) and consequently very much to the scandal of our holy profession. They recommended to each minister to bring his congregation into a joint agreement to avoid all unnecessary lawsuits for the future, and to refer difB- culties which cannot easily be accommodated between them- selves, to prudent, religious, and indiflierent friends, (if it may be, of our own profession,) mutually chosen or otherwise, as such society shall think best, to decide and determine such differences. The particular occasion calling for this testimony was, pro- bably, the necessity of intrusting church and parsonage lands to individuals, to be held in their own name. It was removed finely in Latin on Religious Mortification. Morgan Edwards mentions him ynth much respect. * Manuscript Records of Philadelphia Presbytery. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 129 in Pennsylvania, by the law of 1731, allowing religious socie- ties to hold lands,* and securing to them the property already in their possession. In 1734, the synod forbade its members in "Pennsylvania and the lower counties from this time forward to marry any by license from the governor, till the form of them be altered and brought to a nearer conformity to those of the neighbouring governments of New York and New Jersey ; and particularly till they are altered in such a manner as hath nothing peculiar to the ministers of the Church of England, nor oblige us to any of the forms and ceremonies peculiar to that church." The Presbyteries of Newcastle and Donegal were ordered con- junctly to make such regulations for their members as was ht. Orr, of Nottingham, was soon tasked by his brethren for hav- ing married the Eev. Benjamin Campbell with a license ; and, thirty years after, Hezekiah James Balch was gravely ques- tioned by Donegal Presbytery concerning his having been married by an Episcopal minister. He excused himself that, Mr. Bay not being at home, he had to submit to the Common Praj'er-Book formula or go unwed. About that time, New- castle Presbytery called up Dr. Robert Davidson, then a licentiate, for having joined himself in marriage to an unbap- tized person. In 1738, the " marriage act" was so modified that ministers had liberty to marry by license in certain exempt cases ; but they were enjoined to marry none clandestinely, or without consent of parents or guardians; and if either of the par- ties belonged to any congregation of ours, not to marry unless they produced certificates from their minister of there being no hinderance ; and if from vacant congregations, then to bring like certificates from substantial persons. In 1739, the Presbyteriansf of Lancaster county, with their respective ministers, represented to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, that they had been educated according to the doctrine, worship, and government of the Church of Scot- land, and were excluded from all offices, and from giving evi- dence, by a ceremony (kissing the book) which, in their judg- * Huston on the Land Titles of Pennsylvania. \ Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 9 130 WEBSTER'S HISTOKT OF THE ment, is inconsistent witli the word of God. They prayed that a law might pskss authorizing them to take the oath with- out such form. The intercourse with the Church of Scotland was limited and unfrequent; but two instances occur in thirty years of an interchange of letters. The first was in 1727, when the com- mittee to settle the difficulties in the congregation of New York was directed to write an account of the affair to Scot- land. The committee met in November ; and a letter from the Commissioners of the Assembly was presented, and they wrote an answer. In 1730, the General Assembly sent to Dr. ISTicoll a copy of their act, securing the property in New York to the use of a Presbyterian church forever, and ordered him to lay it before the synod. He did so, and the synod found that the terms of the act had been complied with. In 1733, on hearing that certain gentlemen in Virginia had behaved harshly and injuriously to the Kev. Hugh Stevenson, while on a mission to our vacancies in the colony, a copy of his representation was sent to the Assembly, and that venerable body was requested to use their influence to pro- cure them three benefits : — 1. Assistance from the societies for propagating Christian knowledge, or some other source, to support itinerant minis- ters in Virginia. 2. The favourable notice of the government to restrain and discourage persons in that province from hampering, by illegal prosecutions, our itinerant missionaries. 3. Some assistance from his Majesty for our encouragement, by way of regium donum. Andrews, Anderson, Thomson, and Stevenson wrote and sent two copies of the letter, that one might, if not both, reach its destination. No answer was received. In 1730, the Commission of the Assembly wrote to the synod, informing them of moneys left by the Rev. Dr. Daniel "Williams for the propagating of the gospel in foreign parts. After much discourse, Andrews, Anderson, Thomson, and the elder John Budd, were appointed to write a reply, and also to address the associated ministers of Boston on the matter. In 1731, answers were received from Boston, and from Mr. AVilliam Grant, President of the Scottish Society for propa- PRESBTTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 131 gating Christian Knowledge. They were read; but no action was taken on them. This correspondence probably opened the way for Dickinson and Pemberton to propose to the society to undertake the support of missionaries to the In- dians in IsTew York, Ifew Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The result was, that they, with others of 'New York Presbyteiy, were appointed correspondents of the society, with power to select fields, employ missionaries, and superintend their pro- ceedings. 132 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OI- THE CHAPTEE V. The causes were at work for a score of years, out of which rose the " Great Revival," giving existence and form to its glorious and memorable mercies, and to its deplorable and remediless catastrophe. There were circumstances — some obvious, and more unsuspected — creating the necessity for that amazing revolution in the hidden springs of our church's life. Zinzendorf, Wesley, and "Whitefield were not the authors of " the manner of the time ;" they were but the lightning and the thunder, the rushing wind and the rain-tor- rents, in which the long-gathering storm breaks forth. God visits the waters, the parching pasture, and the withering field; we gaze on the dividing of the flames of fire, the shaking of the wilderness, and the terrific land-flood, as though they had no king over them. In another age, how little could those great evangelists have accomplished ! "Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it." It was a period of migration. Families left their homes for a forest. Untried paths and unthought-of embarrassments wrought amazing and rapid changes in the energies and the plans of the new settlers. Daring ventures, hazard of life, and want of old restraints, good influences, and holy privileges, shaped the spirits of the people after another pattern than that which was shown to Moses in the mount. They sought ex- citement rather than instruction, and wearied of the cus- tomary methods, so venerable in the meeting-house standing amid their fathers' sepulchres, a substitute was sought for the joy that grows out of meditating, reflecting, and praying. They desired to enjoy a sensible impression on their hearts ; and comfort to be swallowed, as an exhilarating cordial, — stimulat- ing, strengthening, requiring no other eflbrt to understand or appreciate it than was needed beside the blazing fire, to feel the PRESBTTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 133 genial heat pervading the freezing limbs,, and driving the torpid current through the numbed extremities. They who live in settled homes may v?ait for the slovs^ leavening of the dough and the thorough baking of the loaf; but he who came in hungry and exhausted, was glad of a cake baked before the glowing coals. The sudden summons to flee from the savage made them snatch up the food, however uninviting. There is a oneness in our bodily and our spiritual habits : they wanted preaching suited to warm and enliven them, — undervaluing the slow enlightening, the gradual process of the leaven in the three measures of meal. A remarkable succession of diseases, for a period of years, traversed the provinces, or, confined to a few localities, bore oif the children and the youth; yet those years were not more remarkable for unexampled mortality than for unbridled merri- ment. The gayety seemed unchecked, though the gayest had passed away; though the flower and the life of the revels had been mown down ; though the new lines of graves in every burial-place were like the swarths behind the reaper. There was mourning for the dead by many a hearth, — mourning admitting of no consolation, for they had died with- out repenting. Deep and bitter were the concealed heart- searchings of parents ; often the light-hearted wept upon their pillow. A vast change was visible in the churches of Wew England : the discipline was relaxed, the doctrine was diluted, and the preaching tame and spiritless. A written form of words super- seded the notes which had served for "a brief" in the pulpit; the confinement of the eye and the finger to the line, and the absorption of the minister in the reading of the scroll, left the young unawed and the aged slumbering, while the others glided in reverie to the farm or the trafiic, the fireside or the forest. The powerless Sabbath was followed, as soon as the sun went down, by visiting, gayety, and the resumption of worldfly talk, if not of worldly work. Dancing became a re- spectable diversion, and attained to amazing popularity, espe- cially in the new settlements. The home of the emigrant furnished him with many induce- ments to remember and refletet. Disappointment and sorrow came; sickness and bereavement drove him to his Bible; and 134 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE the family which had not known God, gladly gathered round the mercy-seat, because their soul fainted in them. There was a widely-diffused remembrance of the powerful preaching of other days, when the terrors of the Lord darkened the sky and deluged the earth with the summer rain, and the glory of Jesus — a rainbow like unto an emerald — shone round the Father's throne, and filled the heart with peace in be- lieving. There was a sighing after the consolations of the gospel, — the support of the everlasting arms. They asked for bread which would satisfy. This remembrance was kept alive by the occasional hearing of faithful preaching, and the con- stant renewal of reports of the success of the gospel in the Old World. These reports awakened much curiosity, and kindled in pious hearts a spirit of supplication and "a looking-for of re- demption." There were, throughout the land, many able ministers of the l^ew Testament, — workmen that needed not to be ashamed ; and a large number of mature or aged disciples who prospered through the preaching of the truth. There was also the abiding presence of Christ in his church, like the unnoticed dew on the mown grass. His spirit was brooding on the face of the darkened deep, and the way of the Lord was prepared as the morning. The declining power of godliness was a subject of lamenta- tion in 1733; and the synod earnestly recommended, as a proper means to revive it, that all its members take particular care about ministerial visiting of families, and do press house- hold and secret worship according to the Westminster Direc' tory. Each presbytery was ordered to make inquiry, at suitable seasons, of each minister, touching his diligence in each par- ticular. It being found, the next year, that the order had not been fully put into execution, it was renewed ; and the brethren were earnestly obtested, conscientiously and diligently to pur- sue the good designs thereof. This meeting was very large, there being thirty-two ministers present and only seven absent, none of the latter being important persons. There were also fifteen elders. On the 20th of September, Gilbert Tennent introduced an overture that there be due care in examining candidates for the Lord's Supper, and for the ministry, on the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 135 evidences of God's grace in them, as well as their other neces- sary qualifications. He had then been in the ministry about seven years, and had been solemnly exercised during severe sickness concerning his manner of dealing with souls; and on recovering, had, upon examining "the states of his people," found that most had, in his judgment, "built upon sand." The short ministry of his brother John, his faithfulness and large success, had impressed him deeply ; and he was ready to say, with Elijah, "I only am left, and they seek my life; I am very jealous for the Lord of hosts." How many of the errors of his life had never been com- mitted, could the still, small voice have been heard by him, declaring that God had reserved seven thousand undefiled souls for himself! His overture was intrusted to a special committee of Ander- son, Thomson, Dickinson, and Cross. They reported, and the admonition was unanimously approved by the whole synod : — "As it has been our principle and practice, and is recom- mended in the Westminster Directory, to be careful in this matter, so it awfully concerns us to be serious and solemn in these trials. We do, therefore, in the name and fear of God, exhort and obtest our presbyteries to take special care not to admit into the sacred office loose, careless, and irreligious men ; but particularly to inquire into the conduct, conversa- tion, and behaviour of such as offer themselves to the ministry, and that they diligently examine them in their experience of a work of sanctifying grace in their hearts, and admit none to the sacred trust that are not, in the eye of charity, serious Christians. "We do also seriously and solemnly admonish all our ministers to make it their awful, constant, and diligent care to approve themselves to God, to their own consciences, and to their hearers, as serious, faithful stewards of the mysteries of God, and of holy and exemplary conversations. "We do also exhort them to use due care in examining those, they admit to the Lord's Supper." They added, also, a unanimous recommendation to the presbyteries to take effectual care that each of their members should be faithful in the discharge of their awful trust. In particular, that they frequently examine into the life of each 136 Webster's history of the minister, his conversation, diligence, and methods in dis- charging his calling; and that at least yearly, they examine iiito his manner of preaching, whether he insist on the great articles of Christianity, and recommend the crucified Saviour as the only foundation of hope ; the absolute necessity of the omnipotent influence of the divine grace to enable them to accept of this Saviour; whether he do, in the most solemn and afiecting manner he can, endeavour to convince his hearers of their lost and miserable state while unconverted, and put them upon the diligent use of those means necessary to obtain the sanctifying influences of the Spirit. Whether he do (and how) discharge his duty to the young people and children in cate- chizing and familiar instruction; and whether and in what manner he visits his flock and instructs from house to house.* This recommendation was to be copied into each presbytery- book, and to be read at the opening of each meeting; the ministers who are found defective to be censured, and, refusing to submit, to be reported to the synod. The records of Philadelphia Presbytery show that the rule was complied with in regard to candidates for the ministry. East Jersey Presbytery complained, the next year, that they are incapable to comply with the excellent design of the act, by reason that several of the members, and John Cross in par- ticular, neglect to attend their stated meetings. The synod, on hearing this, admonished Cross. Gilbert Tennent was not present. The synod, esteeming the act to be of the greatest moment and importance, exhorted the presbyteries to an exact compliance with all parts of it; and they also exhorted all to take due care that they who receive baptism, for themselves or their children, are of a regular life and have suitable ac- quaintance with the principles of the Christian religion ; that that seal be not set to a blank, and that those who are mani- festly unfit be not admitted to a visible church relation, i East Jersey Presbytery was nearly equally divided in senti- ment; and, at the end of three years, they were divided by setting ofif Cross, Wales, the two brothers Tennents, and Blair, into a separate body, with the name of New Brunswick Presby- * They also directed them "to be as much in catechetical doctrine as possible." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 137 tery. However kindly intended, this was the immediate and main cause of rending the church. The meeting in 1735 was large ; the case of Hemphill having drawn thirty ministers and sixteen elders. The instance of Hemphill, and "some other considerations to the like purpose," secured the adoption of five new rules : — 1. That the moderator of each presbytery and two ministers be a committee to examine the credentials of every European minister or probationer, and that he - do not preach in any vacant congregation till he subscribe the Westminster Con- fession, and satisfy them of his firm attachment to it. 2. That no call be presented to such person till he has preached half a year in our bounds. 3. That all calls shall be moderated by a minister appointed by the presbytery under whose care the congregation is. 4. That no student shall be taken on trials till he give most of the members of the presbytery opportunity, at their houses, "to take a view of his parts and behaviour." 5. That no minister ordained in Ireland, sine tiiulo, shall be allowed to exercise his ministry among us, till he submit to such trials as the presbytery in which he resides may appoint. As early as 1735, the synod blamed John Cross for re- moving, without the concurrence of his presbytery, from one congregation to another. It is not known whether any similar case had occurred; but, in 1737, fears were expressed that irregular steps might be taken to effect the transporting of ministers from one presbytery to another. Five more rules were therefore adopted in relation to candidates for settlement : — 1. ITo probationer is to preach to a vacant congregation with- out the consent of his own presbytery. 2. ITor to a vacancy in another presbyteiy without the appointment of the presby- tery under whose care it is. 3. That no presbytery make such appointment for him unless he has credentials or recom- mendations from his own presbytery. 4. That vacancies en- courage none to preach among them without the concurrence of presbytery. 5. That no minister invite probationers or ministers to supply vacancies without" the advice and concur- rence of his brethren. As might have been expected, these rules were broken, 138 weestek's history of the some ministers and prolaationers having gone out of their bounds and preached, as candidates, without allowance asked or o-iven. Who these persons were is unknown. The rule was adopted that if a minister, leaving his own presbytery to preach to a vacancy, is informed, by a minister of the presby- tery into the bounds of which he has come, that he thinks his preaching will tend to divide or disturb the congregation, he shall not preach till the presbytery or synod allow him. An explanation was added, that, if he has already obtained leave of the presbytery, then he need not regard the advice. The same year, the Presbytery of Lewes introduced an overture, which, though most kindly meant, and in itself most wise, became an occasion of dissension, wrath, and confusion. Poverty preventing our students from going to Europe or New England for a university education, they proposed that the synod should appoint a committee, before which all students, with or without diplomas, should appear and be examined,, and, if approved, receive a synodical testi- monial ; and that this, when they offered themselves to their presbytery, should be accepted as equal to a degree in the arts. ITothing but attendance was to be required ; no fee or gratuity of any kind. The synod, by a great majority, adopted the plan, and for that year appointed two committees, — the one north of Philadelphia, consisting of Andrews, Robert Cross, Gr. Tennent, Pemberton, Dickinson, Cowell, and Piereon ; the other, of Thomson, Gillespie, T. Evans, Hook, . Anderson, Martin, and Alison. There were twenty- eight ministers present and sixteen elders. It is to be ob- served that, in the committees, the three Presbyteries of ISTew- castle, New York, and Philadelphia were represented by three members, Lewes and Donegal by two, and New Brunswick by one. "Why some other member of the last body was not substituted for Cowell, one of the youngest members of Phila^ delphia Presbytery, is only to be guessed. Probably the majority chose to testify their regard for him, seeing he had been so rudely assailed and so bitterly inveighed against by Gilbert Tennent, by letter and before synod. The proposal, to require candidates to exhibit a diploma before they were taken on trial, was simply conforming to the Westminster Directory. It was the uniform practice of . PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 139 the Synod of Ulster and the Scottish Kirk. "The synod* came to a public agreement to take all private schools, in •which young men are educated for the ministry, so far under their care, as to appoint a committee to examine all such as had not obtained degrees in the European or ITew England colleges, and to give them a certificate which was to serve our presbyteries instead of a diploma." 'No objection appears to have been made at the time to this method ; no dissent was entered ; but, in 1739, the New Brunswick Presbytery, having disregarded it, brought in their apology for dissenting from two acts or new religious laws passed at the last session of synod. The whole ground is gone over of the wrongfulness of the acts, in precisely the mode, and nearly the language, of the Kew-Light Brethren of Antrim ; and might have been adopted for a manifesto by the Friendly Society of Belfast. It ex- pressly declares that it is a false hypothesis that the majority of any church judicatory has a power committed to them by Christ to make new rules about religious matters, which shall be binding on those who conscientiously disseat from them ; even though the majority judge the i-ules to be not against but agreeable to the word and serviceable to religion. This would include every law made by session, presbytery, or synod. It militated as strongly against the requirement of subscription to the "Westminster Confession, or of classical learning in candidates, as against the two acts it aimed at. " It isf heterodox and anarchical, and plainly contradicts the thirty-first article, third section, of the Confession of Eaith." It denied that any church court has power to make rules about expedients and prudentials. The Irish Synod declared, in 1725, that those who made this denial were deserving of exclusion from the privileges of membership in their body. A day was spent in debate on the objections ; the act was reaffirmed, except that the examination was to be before the whole synod or its commission. There were thirty-two ministers in attendance and eighteen elders, — all men of weight, age, and experience. On the decision of the matter, Gilbert Tennent cried out that it was to prevent his father's * Synod of Philadelphia to the Rector of Yale, 1746. f Protestation of 1741. 140 Webster's history of the school from training gracious men for the ministry. He pro- tested ; his father, his two brothers, his two co-presbyters, his elder, David Chambers, his brother Charles's elder, William McCrea, Thomas "WorthingtOn,* and John Weir, elders, joined in the protest. It is curious to notice that the synod's act, as remodelled, is identical with the course pursued by the Synod of Ulster for the last thirty years, as a preventive to the entrance of Arian or unlearned preachers into her communion. The opposition to the act in its new form was as fiery as at first. The protest was the third which had been presented since the formation of Philadelphia Presbytery. Personal rancour appears to have operated strongly on the minority. They regarded the act as bearing solely on the Presbytery of New Brunswick, depriving them of the power of taking up whatever candidates they pleased, and, in effect, closing every door of entrance against all whom the majority of synod did not approve. The protesters demanded the power of imposing on the synod whatever persons they pleased. The act about vacancies was remodelled, no one objecting. When the preaching of a minister from another presbytery seemed to cause divisions or hinder the settlement of a minis- trj^, complaint was to be made to the presbytery, and the minister was to appear and abide by their decision. The Presbytery of JS'ew Brunswick had not only objected to the synod's acts, but had taken Eowland on trials, and licensed him and sent him to preach to a vacancy in Philadel- phia Presbytery. The synod did not command them to revoke his license, but simply censured their action, and deter- mined not to admit Rowland as a preacher in their bounds until he should submit to the requirements of the, act. [In a similar spirit, and for the preservation of order and discipline, the] Synod of Ulster [had] directed that if any judicatory reversed or disregarded the acts of the court above, the mode- rator and clerk in ofiice at the time of the offence should be suspended from their ministerial functions during the pleasure of the next higher authority. * Probably from Upper Marlborough, who died March, 1753, aged 63, — five miles from Annapolis. PEESBYTEEIAN CHXIECH IN AMERICA. 141 The synod then decided the difficulty between Tennent and Cowell, apparently to the mutual satisfaction of the parties. The project of a school or seminary was approved, and it was resolved to send home to Great Britain, to prosecute the affair, either Pemberton and Dickinson, or Anderson and Robert Cross. The commission met in August to deliberate and proceed, but, discouraged by the small attendance, did nothing. Colman sent them the promise of aid from Boston ; but the breaking out of the Spanish war closed up all hope of aid from Europe. 'So answer appears to have been sent from the Church of Scotland. There was an overture presented from Thomas Evans ; but the contents are not known, nor whether it bore on the points in dispute. This was an eventful juncture. The revival was in pro- gress ; Freehold, Hopewell, ITew Brunswick, Baskingridge, and I^Tewark had received the heavenly gift, and from the east end of Long Island came tidings of " gracious communi- cations from God." The arrival of Whitefield was looked for. His way had been prepared by the publication of his journals and his sermons, and by highly-coloured and flattering newspaper notices. He reached Philadelphia in ISTovember, 1739, with Seward, his afiluent and munificent friend, and a company of persons for the Orphan-house. He brought a cargo of goods to be sold for the benefit of the institution, and hired a house, exposed them for sale, and advertised them in the city prints. He came as a gentleman, and lived as one who was the associate of the gentry and had friends among the nobility. Pranklin notes how much the people in his day looked up to an " Old England man." The distinction of ranks was kept up in the colonies with the precision and etiquette of a German prin- cipality of four miles square. The sermons on Regeneration and the Almost Christian gained many hearts for him, and his captivating eloquence won many more. He was then* of middle stature, slender body, fair complexion, comely appear- ance, and extremely bashful and modest. Much had been published against him in England, and had * Newspaper account. 142 Webster's history op the found its way hither. " The Trial of Mr. Whitefield's Spirit" is an ingenious and able twisting of all his unwise expressions to his disadvantage. The Bishop of London's pastoral letter met the approbation of Dr. Watts, who could not help saying, "I wish* Mr. Whitefield had not risen above any pretence to the ordinary influence of th© Spirit, unless he could have given better evidences of it. He has acknowledged to me that it was such an impression on his mind that he knows it to be divine, though he cannot give me any convincing proof of it." The bishop replied, very justly, " From the time that men imagine themselves singled out by God for extraordinary purposes, and, in consequence of that, to be guided by extra- ordinary impulses and operations, all human advice is lost upon them." The Dissenters in England were not cordial to him, having been denounced by him as banded formalists. On the other hand, the Erskines admired him and loved him, and wrote to him to come to them in Scotland. In Philadelphia, all the churches were thrown open to him,, and in the evenings he preached from the balcony of the court-house. Gilbert Tennent came to him ; his preaching powerfully influenced Whitefield, so that he came under Tennent's control, drank of his spirit, and spoke his words. He proceeded in company with him to New York, having been invited thither by Thomas N'oble, a wealthy merchant,, whose acquaintance he had made in England. The commissary refused him the church, — ^the court-house was shut against him ; he preached in the fields on Sabbath afternoon and in the Presbyterian meeting-house in the evening. Through the week he preached twice or thrice daily in the city. He treated Pemberton as a novice, a dauber, having readily taken Tennent's suspicion for the truth. This conduct he soon deeply regretted, and wrote to Pemberton,t expressing his contrition. New York was under a universal concern ; so was Philadelphia. Returning, he preached for Dickinson, at Elizabethtown ; for Tennent, at New Brunswick, and at Maidenhead, Burling- ton, and Abington. Treat, of Abington, and Campbell, of Tehicken, gave up their hope in Christ, and mourned as self- * Philips's Life of Whitefield. f Whitefield'a Letter3 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 143 deceivers and soul-murderers. "God blessed the word won- derfully at Philadelphia. I have great reason to think many are brought home to God." "It is not to be expressed with what great crowds he was followed." The writer liked not his doctrine, "yet could not but admire to see what a command he had of the attention and the affections of the audience. His delivery was warm and affectionate, and his gestures natural and the most beau- tiful imaginable."* Franklin attended his sermons, with an enormous multi- tude of all sects. " It wasf matter of speculation to me to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by asserting that naturally they were half beast and half devil. Erom being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town of an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families in every street. He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words so per- fectly that he might be heard and understood at a great distance, especially as his auditories observed the most per- fect silence. I computed that he might well be heard by thirty thousand." What were the sources of Whitefield's power? " l^eitherj energy, nor eloquence, nor histrionic talents, nor any artifices of style, nor the most genuine sincerity and self-devoted- ness, nor all these united, could have enabled him to mould the religious character of millions of his own and future generations. The secret lies deeper, though not very deep. It consisted in the nature of the theology he taught, — its per- fect simplicity and universal application. Man is guilty, and may obtain forgiveness ; man is immortal, and must ripen here for endless weal or wo hereafter. Expanded into innu- merable forms, and diversified by infinite varieties of appli- cation, these two cardinal principles were ever in his heart and on his tongue. Let who would invoke poetry to embellish * New York newspapers of that date. f Franklin's Autobiography. J Edinburgh Review ; article, " Philips's 'VVhitefield." 144 Webster's histokt of the the Christian system, or philosophy to explore its esoteric depths; from his lips it was delivered as an awful, urgent summons to repent, believe, and obey. In fine, he was thoroughly and continually in earnest, and, therefore, pos- sessed that tension of soul which admitted neither of lassi- tude or relaxation, few and familiar as were the topics to which he was confined. His was, therefore, precisely the state of mind in which alone eloquence, properly so called, . can be engendered, and a moral and intellectual sovereignty , won." What Whitefield saw in Philadelphia satisfied him of the degeneracy of the ministry and the lack of piety in the. churches. On slight evidence, he was convinced of the want of spirituality in preachers and hearers. Tennent's testimony was doubtless the foundation, or at least the strongly-predis- posing inducement, to take up at once so harsh and unwar- rantable a judgment. He fancied that " he saw not as man seeth :" faith in his own insight into secrets of the heart was his besetting sin. The cargo being sold, he purchased a vessel, and sent his people by sea to Georgia, while he and Seward journeyed by land. His stay in Philadelphia was of less than a month's continuance ; yet the change was so great that there was reli- gious service every day for a year after, and three times on the Sabbath. No less than twenty-six associations for prayer were formed. Ten thousand assembled on Society Hill* to hear his last sermon. A thousand persons accompanied him out of Philadelphia. The judges at Chester sent him word they would defer the court till after the sermon. The church being too small, the church minister erected a plat- form, and he preached to seven thousand. At Wilmington he preached twice to five thousand; at Newcastle to two thousand five hundred; at Christiana Bridge to three thou- sand; and on Sabbath, at White Clay, to eight thousand. On Monday he preached at North East. At Annapolis the governor treated him courteously, and * Where the Third Church now stands, in Pine Street ; bo called from the land having been owned by the " Society of Free Traders." — Watson's Annals. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 145 attended: the church minister* was under convictions, wept twice, and begged his prayers. "Meeting with no opposition, he was ready to cry out, Satan, why sleepest thou?" He reached Williamsburg, Virginia, December 15 ; not having met with an almost Christian since leaving Delaware, till, at Captain Whiting's, he saw a planter striving to know the way of G-od more perfectly. The governor, and Mr. Blair, the commissary, were attentive and polite, and were among his hearers. At New Bern, Iforth Carolina, there was " an uncommon influence" accompanying the word; at Newton, on Cape Fear, lately settled from Scotland, his labours were not without effect. He published a journal of what God had done in Maryland and Virginia. From Georgia he wrote ; and Franklin pub- lished two letters on Archbishop Tillotson's Eight to be called a Christian, and asserting that Mohammed has a better title to the name. Soon followed his letter to the planters on the subject of their slaves, and expressing his belief that God had a quarrel with them for their unworthy usage of them. In the middle of April he arrived at Newcastle ; and, it being the Lord's day, he preached twice, and on Monday, at Wilmington, to three thousand, and went to Philadelphia. The bishop's commissary, following the example of Dr. Gar- den at Charleston, closed the churches against him. He preached in the open air and in the meeting-houses of the Baptists and the Presbyterians. On Tuesday eight thousand were present on Society Hill ; Wednesday he preached twice in the city ; Thursday at Abingdon and Society Hill ; Friday at White Marsh and Germantown ; on Saturday and Sabbath at Philadelphia; on Monday at Greenwich and Gloucester; on Tuesday in the city ; Wednesday at Neshaminy ; and on Thursday at Skippack, where the famous Mr. Spalemburg (Spangenburg?) had resided. Peter Boehler followed the ser- mon with an exhortation in German. The next day— rising at three, and riding fifty miles — he preached at Amwell to five thousand, " with the same power as usual." Gilbert Tennent, Wales, Rowland, and Campbell, " four godly ministers, met us here." Saturday and Sabbath * Whitefield's Letters. 10 146 Webster's history of the he preached at New Brunswick, seven thousand being pre- sent. On Monday he preached at "Woodbridge and Elizabeth- town, and remained in New York from Tuesday till the Sab- bath. Since his former visit the society had increased from seventy to one hundred and seventy. " The word ran." On Monday he preached on! Staten Island. Going to New York, he had the company of the Eev. Jonathan Arnold, a graduate of Yale, M'ho had conformed, and was then the society's itinerant missionary. They discoursed on regenera^ tion; and Arnold* hearing afterwards that "Whitefield had represented him as knowing nothing of religion, he wrote to Whitefield's diocesan, the Bishop of Gloucester. His lord- shipt replied, that he had for some time refused to see Whitefield, or " answer his letters, though he was very obliging." • Tuesday he preached at Freehold and Allentown ; "Wednes- day at Bristol ; Thursday in Philadelphia, — " things go on better and better, only Satan begins to cast some into fits;" Friday at the ancient Baptist church in Pennepek ; Saturday and Sabbath at Philadelphia ; Monday at Darby and Chester, — the people having been crossing the ferry as fast as two boats could carry them since three in the morning ; Tuesday, "Wilmington and White Clay ; Wednesday at Nottingham. Gilbert Tennent had preached there, on the 8th of March, his sermon on "An Unconverted Ministry." Cross, being denied the use of the meeting-house, had preached in the woods, amid amazing manifestations of distress. Whitefield had not spoken long when he perceived numbers melting. "As I pi'oceeded, the influence increased, till at last, both in the morning and the afternoon, thousands cried out so as almost to drown my voice. Oh, what strong cryings and tears were poured forth after the dear Lord Jesus ! Some fainted ; and, when they got a little strength, would hear and faint again. Others cried out almost as if they were in the * He insisted — at the house of Mr. Smith, in New York, " after a plentiful sup- per of wild fowl" — on examining Whitefield on his experience. This involved him in a newspaper controversy with Mr Smith, which was reprinted in the Philadel- phia papers. f New York Gazette. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 147 sharpest agonies of death. After I had finished my last dis- course, I was so overpowered with a sense of God's love that it almost took away my life." The next day he preached at Fagg's Manor. The revival had recently begun under Blair. "Look where I would, most were drowned in tears. The 'word was sharper than a two-edged sword.' Their bitter cries and tears were enough to pierce the hardest heart. Oh, what different visages were then to be seen ! Some were struck as pale as death, — others lying on the ground, — others wringing their hands, — others sinking into the arms of their friends, — and most lifting up their eyes to heaven and crying out to God for mercy. I could think of nothing when I looked at them so much as the great day. They seemed like persons awak- ened by the last trump and coming out of their graves to judgment." Twelve thousand were present. The Eev. James Anderson, of Donegal, was present, and as soon as the service ended, "furiously pressed," ssija Blair, in his Reply to The Querists, "to the stand, to reason with "Whitefield con- cerning his mode of procedure. His request was denied." Whitefield then proceeded to Eeedy Island, in Delaware, and sailed for Charleston before the meeting of synod. He said, " The war between Michael and the dragon has much increased. Blessed be God, the devil's children begin to throw off the mask ! I want to draw the lingering battle on." " I could not help recommending these men* in the strong- est manner wherever I went, because I saw they gloried in the cross of Christ." The synod met May 28. The attendance of ministers and elders was very large. It was a critical time ; New Bruns- wick Presbytery having assumed ground wholly untenable on any scriptural principle and subversive of all Presbyterian government, — and, indeed, of all ecclesiastical and civil sub- ordination, — and having, in defiance, taken Finley on trial, licensed Robinson and McCrea, and ordained Rowland. The strangest excesses in outcries in worship, — the most violent denunciations of all who " followed not us," — the most fla- grant errors concerning the witness of the Spirit, imparting * Tennent, Cross, Blair, and Eowlaud. 148 Webster's history of the immediate knowledge of our acceptance with God, and of the hearts of others, and of our duty in every conceivable in- stance, — startled and shocked all who were not wholly carried away with them. All the intervals of synod were spent by the "New Side" in preaching: there were fourteen sermons during thq week on Society Hill, besides several in the Bap- tist church. Davenport and Rowland were there, l^one were suffered to preach on the stand who were not of White- field's principles. Dickinson was excluded on this ground, he having attacked from the pulpit at Newark the delusion concerning the witness of the Spirit. Yet Dickinson said, " The alteration* in the face of things is altogether amazing. Never did the people show so great a willingness to attend sermons, nor the preachers greater zeal and diligence. Re- ligion became the subject of most conversation: books of devotion were chiefly in demand : psalms and prayers were the entertainment which almost superseded all others." * Letter to Foxcroft, in Christian History. PRBSBYTEBIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 149 CHAPTEK VI. PiERSON was chosen moderator, and Treat, who had recently resumed his ministry, clerk. At the first morning session,* upon reading the last year's minutes, a paper was brought in and read, of proposals to accommodate the diiFerence about the trials of candidates. A copy of it was given to each party. On proceeding to consider it on the afternoon of the next day, the protesting brethren declared their dissatisfaction with the plan. This was pro- bably the plan of Dickinson, and it was in the largest sense courteous and conciliating. The majority, though denounced as enemies of the revival, being of a far difiierent temper, sought to heal the church's wounds, and agreed to submit a statement of the matter, drawn by mutual consent, either to the highest church courts in Scotland or Ireland, or to the associated divines of London or Boston, and obtain their judgment or advice. The protesters refused to concur, be- cause it would be difficult to frame a representation which both parties could adopt ; because they did not need the ad- vice of any body of men, seeing the Lord smiled on their course ; and because most of those whose judgment was de- sired were incompetent, as they averred, to give advice of any value ; being dead formalists, with religion decaying under their ministrations. The synod, still desiring that this unhappy difference might be accommodated, recommend that each brother consider some further expedient, and, if possible, bring it in at the next sederunt. An overture with this intent was offered next * Preface and Appendix to Protestation. Gilbert Tennent's Remarks on the Protestation. Examination and Refutation of Mr. G. Tennent's Remarks on the Protestation, and on ifs preface and appendix. By some members of the synod, per order. Quoted largely by Dr. Hodge. 150 Webster's history of the morning, but was rejected by the minority, the stumbling block being, whether the synod is the proper judge of the quahfications of its members, or whether each presbytery may force upon it whom they please. The uncomfortable debate was resumed, and was ended by a vote to continue the rule for the present. The protest was renewed, John Cross and Alexander Creaghead joining in it, and the following elders : — Robert Gumming, of Free- hold, James Cochran, of Fagg's Manor, Eichard Walker, of Neshaminy, Daniel Henderson, of Forks of Brandywine, John Henry, of Lamington, William Emmitt, of White Clay, James Miller, James McCoy, Eobert Matthews, Joseph Steel, and Hugh Lyon or Lynn. Gillespie and Hutcheson desired their dissent to be entered. The next morning, an overture explanatory of the acts con- cerning intrusions and candidates was offered. It contem- plated a declaration that the synod do heartily rejoice in the labours of the ministry in other places besides their own par- ticular charge, and, as a proof of this, repeal the act on intru- sions. It went so far as to propose that those who are licensed and ordained in violation of the act shall be regarded as gospel ministers, although we cannot admit them to be mem- bers of synod until they submit to our rule ; because we think that rule needful to be insisted on, for the well-being of this part of Christ's church. This act was not adopted, although Dr. Hodge says, (vol. i. 253,) " they passed the explanatory de- claration," and, (p. 248) " because the act was misinterpreted, they agreed to repeal it," and (vol. ii. 142) a general anxiety was felt to have the difficulty arranged, and the act was re- pealed. This mistake grew out of the insertion of the paper on the records, it being a thing rarely done in the case of a rejected minute. Mr. Tracy* adds, "A minute was adopted acknowledging a work of grace in the land, and giving thanks for it." An inspection of the printed record shows this to be an error. On the introduction of this explanatory overture, two expe- dients for peace were offered, and, after some consideration, they were deferred till the afternoon. One of them was from * Great Awakening. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 151 a member of New Brunswick Presbytery, suggesting, that synodical committees of two ministers attend each presbytery when engaged in examining candidates, and should accuse the presbytery to the synod if they saw cause. But, when asked if they would defer the trials on the committee's objecting and refer the matter to the synod, the protesters frankly replied they would not. Gillespie prepared the other. A fair copy of the trials of each candidate should be produced by the presbytery when they were to be admitted to membership in the synod. Dick- inson asked, "Would the protesters, if the synod saw or thought they saw insufficiency in the reported trials, submit the candi- date to the synod for examination or censure ? Gilbert Ten- nent said they might censure the presbytery, but that the can- didates should not be produced to the synod, however de- fective they might judge the trials to be. It being evident that nothing but submission to their will would satisfy him and his adherents, the synod passed to other business, no vote being asked for on these well-meant expedients. The majority made great concessions, yet were stigmatized as stiff, pert, and arrogant, because they did not sacrifice their own convictions, and abandon what they con- ceived to be necessary defences. Tennent insisted that each presbytery should be a sovereignty, with a private mint to put the guinearstamp on pieces of such weight and such alloy as it chose, and to circulate them through the domi- nions of the synod currently, and as of equal value with the standard coin. The synod was disrobed of all its dignity, and each presbytery was at liberty to disregard and annul its decrees. The further consideration of the explanatory overture was deferred. What action might have been taken on it, or what good might have resulted from its adoption, was lost sight of in the amazement, sorrow, and indignation caused by an unprecedented measure of Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Blair. Tennent asked for an interloquitur, — a secret session, in- formal, and from which it is believed even the elders were excluded. The design of it was to prepare business and to understand each other's views, before introducing affairs of 152 ■Webster's history of the moment on the floor of synod. It being the closing after- noon session, the synod declined to go into an interloquitur, and directed Tennent to proceed with whatever he had to ofter. The house was full. The great multitude which had been attending on the preaching of Tennent, Blair, Eowland, Cross, Creaghead, and Davenport twice a day for a week, came up with highly- excited feelings. They were fully pre- pared to sanction Tennent's course, and to go far beyond. Tennent then read a paper, and Samuel Blair followed with a like representation of their view of the state of the ministry. There was no concert between them. Each, unknown to the other, had drawn a most appalling picture ;* and we wonder why they did not conclude by declaring that they could not sit in sjmodical union with men whom they believed, and told to their faces, even weeping, that they were enemies of the cross of Christ. ITo attempt was made to interrupt them ; but, when the reading was finished, they were earnestly entreated to spare no man in the synod whom they could prove unsound in doctrine or immoral in practice; to take Christ's method, and not condemn the innocent with the guilty. They then offered to prove the matters of charge against particular members, if the synod required it. The majority declined to institute process on Tennent's and Blair's statements, and urged that they should proceed in a regular way by tabling charges against particular persons. Both Blair and Tennent admitted they had never spoken with the persons they aimed at, or made any regular inquiry into the truth of the reports they had credited. With amazing moderation, the following minute was adopted : — "Mr. Blair and Mr. Gilbert Tennent representing many defects in our ministry that are matters of greatest lamenta- tion if chargeable on our members : the synod do, therefore, solemnly admonish all the ministers in our bounds seriously to consider the weight of their charge, and, as they will answer it at the great day of Christ, to take care to approve them- selves to God in the instances complained of. And the pres- * Neither of these papers have I seen. They are quoted by Dr. Hodge at much length. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 153 byteries are recommended to take care of their members in these particulars." Having readily granted the request of Newtown and Tini- cum to be placed under the care of New Brunswick Presby- tery, they adjourned till the next year. The minute is scarcely such as would have been expected from a body in which the immense majority was stigmatized as bitter enemies to heart-religion. Yet there were no less than seventeen ministers who were so styled, six who scarcely escaped the like reproach, and, at the most, eight ministers only who could listen with patience to the unwar- rantable language of Tennent and Blair. The elders were more equally divided ; thirteen being with the majority and eleven with the protesters. Why they were not rebuked or suspended for their repre- sentations, is difficult to conceive. The New Haven Association deposed the Rev. Timothy Allen, for saying, that the reading of the Scriptures could no more convert a sinner than the read- ing of an old almanac. Yale College denied Brainerd his degree, for having asserted, that the chair on which he leaned was as pious as his tutor ; and expelled the Rev. John Cleve- land, of Chebacco, and his brother, because they had wor- shipped with the Separate Church, of which their parents were members. The rector justified this last measure in the newspapers. They were expelled for being followers of the Paines, — two lay exhorters, whose corrupt principles and per- nicious practices are set forth in the declaration of the minis- ters of Windham county. The moderation in the case only secured for the majority the unenviable reputation of being "close hypocrites, dumb dogs," who would not bark when beaten. It is only to be accounted for on the supposition of wisdom, piety, meekness, and forbearance on their part, to- gether with great tenderness toward honoured but misguided brethren, and an unwillingness even to seem to oppose good men, zealously labouring and with remarkable success. They submitted to the rebuke of the righteous, as though it were a refreshing anointing i-ather than a deadly blow. It is a spectacle worthy to be contemplated. The members against whom Tennent and Blair testified were respectable for their number, age, long-tried fidelity, and admitted ability. It is 154 -webstek's history of the common to suppose that Dickinson and his co-presbyters en- joyed the high esteem of Tennent at the time: yet he would not suffer him to preach on Society Hill, because he was not of Whitefield's principles. One of the oldest and most distant members, Hugh Conn, was present, after an absence of eight years. Anderson and Houston were there for the last time, their earthly career being finished before the next synod. Who of the majority merited these castigations ? It is true we have the testimony of the friends of the revival against them ; but we have other testimony in their favour and quite as unexceptionable. Robert Cross is charged with having preached little of an experimental or awakening character in Philadelphia ; yet he left behind him at Jamaica* a precious memory of his faithfulness. Happily, Tennent lived long enough to lament the breach of that day, and to testify in favour of the men whom he had trodden down as mire in the streets. Tradition has sadly confused matters, and given all the credit for zeal and warm piety to the Kew Englanders and South Britons ; but in the pamphlets of that day not a syllable to that effect is breathed. Neither the New England divines of that generation nor their people experienced such lenity or favour from Whitefield or his votaries. The synod adjourned without a rupture ; but in what sense were the two parties united in one body ? The protesters had no faith in the piety of the opposite side, and no respect for their judgment. The New Brunswick Presbytery renounced the jurisdiction of the synod, when it was not satisfi'ed with its decisions. The old side must have gone to shameful lengths in recrimination, if they returned the tithe, in kind, of the reproachful, unchristian attacks of the Nottingham sermon. They parted, but not to lay down their weapons. The Nottingham sermon issued from the press at Boston and Phila- delphia, and the representations of Blair and Tennent were both published. Tennent also proceeded to evangelize in West Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The commission met on the adjournment of the synod, and referred to the next synod the application of " a party in * Macdonald's History of Jamaica. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 155 Ifrottingham" to be dismissed from Donegal Presbytery, l^ew Brunswick Presbytery soon after licensed Samuel Finley ; and he went to supply "the party" who set forward the building of a meeting-house at the Eising Sun, separated from the Old Church only by the highway. While at Charleston, Whitefield was written to by Dr. Colman and Mr. Cooper, in the name of the associated minis- ters, to come to Eoston. The letters of the Rev. Josiah Smith to Colman, in favour of Whitefield, had been fully confirmed by Pemberton, of Few York. There was a general anxiety through New England to hear him, and the Boston ministers took the lead in pressing him to come. He sailed for Rhode Island ; and while there he received a letter from Jonathan Barber,* one of the "young ministers on Long Island, who had great communications from G-od." In it, he used to Whitefield, the language of the centurion to the Saviour : — " I thought myself not worthy to come unto thee." This pleased Whitefield ; and he published it, with the fact that Barber had waited a fortnight for him under an assurance of seeing him, from having these words impressed upon him: — "Is not Aaron thy brother? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he cometh forth to meet thee ; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart." Like the eagle, he furnished many a feather besides this, to wing arrows against himself and against the cause of Christ. This interview decided him to place Barber at the head of the Orphan-house in Georgia, — a step which prejudiced many against him; for Barber was generally considered a kind of Quaker, guided by his own whimseys and impressions as implicitly as if they were the word of God. Yet he was doubtless a worthy, good man, of great excellence and piety, being beloved and ho- noured by Buel and the best men of his time. The exagge- rations of Chauncy and like spirits are too commonly relied on, to the great injury of a devoted servant of Jesus. The chaff has been carefully garnered by the accusers of the breth- ren, and no record has been made below the skies, of the hundredfold of good seed, brought forth by the word in his heart, and long ago stored away by the Lord of the harvest. * Whitefield's Journals. 156 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE Colman wrote down his first impressions of Whitefield. Happily, the notes remain. The opinion of such a man is truly valuable. " His holy fervour of devotion in prayer and of address to the souls of his hearers in preaching was such as we had never before seen or heard. My esteem for him was sincere and great." Governor Belcher showed him every honour, and besought him, with tears, not to spare ministers or magistrates, but to rebuke openly their degeneracy. The language of such a man must have inflated any minister of twenty-seven years of age to an amazing degree. Whitefield's previous conduct afforded melancholy proof that he needed a wise reprover. Edwards, at Northampton, ventured, as Watts had done at the outset, on this necessary but unwelcome duty. He cautioned him against pronouncing persons to be un- converted, and against giving way to every motion of his soul as if of divine origin. The impression left on Edwards was that Whitefield was not altogether pleased with the counsel; hut he seems to have adopted it. At Boston, the Bishop of London's commissary and his clergy were civil, when he called. One of them began with him for calling "that Tennent" and his brethren faithful ministers of Christ. They questioned the validity of Presby- terian ordination, and quoted Whitefield's words against him- self, and said that when Wesley was there, he was strenuous for the church and against all other forms of government. The discussion ran on, showing that they had no favour for the doctrines he preached. He left them without asking for their pulpits. The meeting-houses were open to him all along the road he travelled. At New Haven, he preached before the governor and the legislature, and in the college. At table, he expressed himself so as to leave an impression on Mr. Clap, the Eector of Yale, that he had concerted with Edwards to bring gra- cious youth from Great Britain, to be ordained by New- Brunswick Presbytery, and to supersede the unconverted parish ministers of New England, — an impression, however, unfounded, and fitted to rally and marshal a legion against the supposed projectors. Unusual success attended his preaching at Milford, Strat- PKESBTTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 157 ford, Fairfield, JSTorwalk, and Stamford ; and, at the last place, he was visited by several ministers under deep concern. He preached at Rye, being kindly entertained by the Episcopal minister, and at Kingsbridge, and, on the 30th of October, reached l^ew York. Davenport was there. He had lately, in two months, seen twenty instances of conversion among his people. Barber was there, and his marriage was accomplished by Pemberton, and followed by Whitefield with a prayer. Whitefield preached, and Pemberton never before had seen the word fall with such power. At night there was a great dis- play of divine power. He spoke with authority ; some fainted, "others favouring," shrinking, crying, weeping, on all sides. He preached three days. He was shown two volumes of ser- mons, bearing his name, and lately published in London : he had never before seen one of them. On seeing the production called "The Querists," he remarked, "I have long expected close opposition : I believe it will increase daily." The title of this pamphlet explains its origin: — "The Que- rists ; or, an Extract of sundry passages taken out of Mr. White- field's Sermons, Journals, and Letters, together with some scruples proposed in proper queries raised on each remark ; pre- sented to Newcastle Presbytery at White Clay Creek, September 9, 1740, by sundry members of the Presbyterian persuasion." "The presbytery, having maturely considered them, resolved that, Mr. Whitefield being expected soon to come again into these parts, and as he best understands his own intentions in these expressions, we leave it to the people to print and him to answer them." From this decision Samuel Blair and Charles Tennent, with his elder, William McCrea, and Hutcheson's elder, John Bravade, (or Brevard,) dissented. Newcastle Presbytery was small, and nearly equally divided into three parts : Thomas Evans, Alison, and Cathcart being on the old side, Blair and Charles Tennent on the new ; Gil- lespie and Hutcheson, the senior members, being dissatisfied with both. Conn and Orme were so far off" that they rarely attended presbytery, and of course were not of any weight in this eventful time. At this meeting Gilbert Tennent was present, being on a preaching tour. His representation and Blair's were called 158 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE up, as the synod ordered. They, and Charles Tennent also, were most earnestly pressed by the presbytery to spare none of them, hut to table charges if they could lay to their charge any thing unbecoming their office as Christ's ambassadors. Gillespie openly entreated them for God's sake to do so. Gil- bert Tennent rephed that the proposal was matter of surprise to him ; that he had no thought of such a thing till it was mentioned in the face of the judicatory; that his meeting with them was wholly accidental ; and that for him to enter on a judicial process was inconsistent with his design of itinerant preaching and the appointments already made. They then asked him to leave the matter with them in writing, and that they would take it in any way. How Blair answered is not mentioned. Charles Tennent* was subsequently called to answer for defending some of "WTiitefield's expressions, Whitefield having himself retracted them. " The Querists" was soon published. Its bitterness was much complained of; but its bitterness consisted in doing what Ers- kine had done in private letters to Whitefield, and what Watts and Edwards had done in conference ; pointing out his errors and his inconsistencies with himself no less than with the Scriptures. The style is courteous, and the pamphlet is calm, judicious, searching, and fair. Whitefield wrote a reply on reading it ; he thanked them for the opportunity of confessing his faults, acknowledged all they had said, and pointed out what they had (Overlooked. He had made the like acknow- ledgment to Erskine. His friends said, " The excellent meek- ness of his answer to The Querists will honour him much." Whitefield suspected it was the work of a minister, and many attributed it to Thomas Evans, of Pencader. He said, " If this be the work of the ministers put forth in the name of the people, they have not acted simply with me." He absolutely denied the doctrine of Universal Redemption, which they sup- posed him to hold. He persuaded Gilbert Tennent to go to Boston, to water what he had sown ; and, with the concurrence of the neighbour- ing ministers, he consented to go and "blow up the divine * Philadelphia papers of that date contain his explanation of his conduct. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 159 fire lately kindled there, although his cold constitution of bodj^ poorly fitted him to endure the northern gusts." Whitefield was accompanied to Philadelphia by Davenport, and spent a week there preaching in the Great House, which he opened, though the roof was not on ; and he preached in it every day. " God has revived his own work in Philadelphia. His glory filled the Great House." Being excluded from the Episcopal pulpits, and enormous multitudes* flocking to hear him, it was proposed to build a house. Sufiicient money was at once procured to buy ground and build a house one hun- dred feet long by seventy broad. It was carried up with spirit, and was soon ready for use. " The afiairs belonging thereto are, I believe, well settled." The trustees were to be taken in equal numbers from each denomination, and the house to be open for any preacher of any religious persuasion, even a mis- sionary to propagate Mohammedanism. On the 15th of ISTovember, he preached in Cross's meeting- house, because of the snow. " The word was attended with a sweet and wonderful power." Now he began to realize the truth of Edwards's remarks; and he declared that the openly exposing of our opinion of ministers as unconverted, was a lording over the brethren, and not to be tolerated. " Oh, pray for me," he wrote to Gilbert Tennent, "that I may not by any means grieve the children of God." On the 17th he preached at Gloucester, — "an affecting melt- ing," — and at Greenwich "to a few without power;" on the 18th, at Pilesgrove, to two thousand. I^one were affected. On the 19th he preached twice at Cohanzy, (Fairfield,) to some thousands. Gilbert Tennent had been there not long before. The whole congregation was moved, and two cried out. " The Spirit of the Lord moved over the whole face of the congre- gation." On the 20th he preached at Salem, to two thousand — a precious time. He crossed the bay and preached at New- castle : few were affected, and some scoffed. Here Anderson desired a conference with him ; but "Whitefield, who had turned from him at Fagg's Manor, declined, and, identifying him with "The Querists," said, "You have made your remarka on me public : I can have no private discourse on the matter." The * Franklin's Memoirs. 160 webstbk's histoky of the next day, at White Clay Creek, lie found thousands waiting to hear the word. Several of Anderson's associates were present. The people were greatly moved ; some cried out. On Saturday, the 22d, he preached at Fagg's Manor, to many thousands; there was a wonderful powerful moving of hearts, but not so great as at his first visit. He spent the Sabbath at ]Srottingham. There was a great concourse, and the blessing descended like the dew. The next day, November 24, at Bohemia, Maryland, Hutcheson's charge, he preached to thousands, and had not seen "a more solid melting since his arrival." He then went to Eeedy Island to embark, and, the sloop being detained by contrary winds for a week, he preached frequently. The captains' and crews of the wind-bound vessels attended ; crowds came from the country, and some from Phila- delphia, and there was a general and deep concern. He sailed for Charleston the seventy-fifth day after he landed at Rhode Island, having preached one hundred and seventy -five times, exhorted frequently in private, collected, in money, goods, and provisions, £700 for the Orphan-house, never hav- ing journeyed with so little fatigue or seen such a continuance of the divine presence with those to whom he preached. Donegal Presbytery was the field of the sorest confiict. Other presbyteries were on the circumference of the tornado, but it lay in the centre, and was devastated by its maddest whirlings and its mightiest uprootings. The senior ministers were Thomson, of Chestnut Level, Boyd, of Octorara, and Bertram, of Derry; next in age was Alexander Creaghead, of Middle Octorara, a standard-bearer in the warfare; and with him was associated in opposition to the rest of the body David Alex- ander, of Pequea. They two declined attendance on the stated meetings, because candidates were licensed and ordained after superficial examination, and while giving no evidence of not being enemies to heart-religion. The five to whom they openly objected were Black, of Brandywine Manor, Elder, of Paxton, Zanchy, of Hanover, Samuel Thomson, of Pennsboro', and Cavin, of Conococheague. They two countenanced the itinerations of Finley and the separation at Nottingham, and were themselves complained of for seeking to promote divi- sions : Creaghead at New London and Alexander at Brandy- PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 161 wine Manor. Thomson complained of Blair for intruding into his charge at Chestnut Level, to foment alienation of feeling. Besides, Creaghead was charged with making adherence to the Solemn League and Covenant a term of admission to church privileges ; while the sin of di-unkenness lay at Alex- ander's door. The presbytery* came to Middle Octorara to take up the complaints against the minister ; they found him in the pulpit preaching against "blind leaders of the blind." On conclud- ing, he invited the large congregation to meet at the tent and hear his defence. The presbytery being about to proceed to business, the people rose in a tumult, railing on them; and they adjourned to another place. Creaghead's defence was read from the tent by Alexander and Eiuley, and the next day, the presbytery were forced to hear it read from the pulpit. For this contumacy, he having renounced their authority in the first instance, he was suspended. The press was used by both parties. The Querists replied to "Whitefield, showing how many things still needed explanation in his language and conduct. To this Samuel Blair replied with unsparing and inexcusable severity, imputing the most unworthy motives to the ministers, whom he regarded as its authors and patrons. "It is no sin to exclaim against dry, sapless, unconverted ministers, for such surely are the bane of the church." "That is," said The Querists, "it is no sin to defame a man after you have given him a bad name." "The Querists 'No. III." was composed of notes on Tennent's Not- tingham Sermon. In January, 1741, Finley preached a sermon on Matthew xii. 27, 28 : — " K I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom then do your sons cast them out?" It was published with the title, Christ Ebigning and Satan Raging, — severe, bitter, unjust, and mischievous. He also printed a Letter to a Friend, in which he speaks of "the set of priests;" "pride and interest have hindered the general of ecclesiastics from embrac- ing Christ." "Christ kept aloof and damned them for their rotten performances, fastings, prayei's, and alms." "Oh, the babbling ignorant priests that would seem such friends to holi- ness!" "Are not these the devil's advocates? whose spirit * MS. Records of Donegal Presbytery; cited by Dr. Hodge. 11 162 Webster's histoky of the came from them?" "Diabolical reasoners, be they ministers or people. ministers of Satan, enemies of all righteousness who like Elymas ."* These specimens mournfully illus- trate the state of things at that day, and explain the necessity for hesitating before we cast out, as vile, every man who joined in the outcry against Finley and the older ones from whom he learned such language. He used the same unmeasured and inexcusable invective in his answer to Thomson's able, scriptural, dignified sermon on Conviction and Assurance. "The Clear Light put out in Ob- scure Darkness," is the title of this performance; and Thom- son's doctrine is condemned as Moravian, Muggletonian, and detestable. Tennent made his tour through New England in the severe winter of 1741, Long Island Sound being frozen over; and, while "Whitefield had been scrupulously exact, neat, and hand- some in his apparel, Tennent laid aside powder, discarded wigs, and wore a large greatcoat girt with a leathern girdle, as if the new era in religion was to date from the new style in clothes. He appears to have avoided denunciation and extra- vagance, and to have preached with great clearness, solemnity, and power, the glorious distinguishing doctrines of the gospel. He was received with great respect and cordial welcome, and was signally honoured of God in winning souls. f In May, 1741, Donegal Presbytery met at Pequea to hear the complaints against Alexander ; he took the pulpit and pre- vented the moderator from preaching. They cleared him of the charge of drunkenness ; but his excess in drink at a funeral, his reproaches of his presbytery, and his refusal to s'ubmit to the constituted authorities of the church, could not be over- looked. He was disowned till he manifested repentance. At the same time, "the dreadful scandals" of Cross, of * Library of Harvard University. " Mr. Whitefield is very sure of God's eternal love, and is not afraid he shall ever be ashamed of his hope. . . . Now, I would be glad to learn of these diabolical reasoners, (the Querists,) be they ministers or people, if it be the devil's custom to set the world in an uproar about their souls ?" f A letter from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, says, "That heavenly man preached six sermons there, and spoke as I never heard man speak before. While dwelling on the grace of Christ towards the guilty, there were such outcries and weepings you could scarcely distinguish one sound from another." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 163 Baskingridge, came to light, and his absence from the meeting of New Brunswick Presbytery delayed his trial and condem- nation till after the synod. Divisions had already begun. William Tennent,* of ITesha- miny, had renounced the authority of Philadelphia Presbytery since the fall of 1739. "iNTew erections" of separate congrega- tions were nearly completed at ISTottingham and Hopewell. To the Great House in Philadelphia, a large body had with- drawn from the Old Meeting-house, and all of these erections were supplied by the New-Side ministers and licentiates. The synod met on the 27th of May, 1741 ; the Old Side were exasperated by the misrepresentations and insults of the Pro- testers, and by their unwearied and successful schemes lu alienating their people from them, and trembled with a godly jealousy lest the principles of the New Brunswick men (being like those of the Irish non-subscribers in the matter of church government) should bring in here, as there, contempt of the doctrines of grace and denial of the Supreme Deity of the Son of Grod. The New Side came flushed with success ; the shout of a king was in their camp ; they had the favour of the people, as the men whom God had owned, and they had the favour of God, making them mighty to pull down the strong- holds of Satan. They did not meet as brethren. Each was strongly prepos- sessed against the other, and the actions of each served to irri- tate and embitter the feelings already excited and wounded. They were blinded to each other's excellencies, and amazingly acute in discerning the dimensions of the mote in their bro- ther's eye. The strange incongruity was seen, of the smallest and the youngest presbytery refusing to be bound by any law of the synod which displeased them; and having three licentiates and one minister on their list, whom the synod could not accept without laying aside its authority, and sinking itself into a mere consultative body whose decisions were binding on none. The claim made by the non-subscribers in the Ulster Synod twenty years before, was renewed by the Protesters under a still more offensive form; for they admitted the synod's power to make rules, and the excellency of the rules, when the synod was com- * MS. Records of Philadelphia Presbytery. 164 WEBSTER'S HISTOKT OF THE posed of godly men ; and denied its power and the binding force of its enactments, only, when the church was crushed by a majority of blind guides, letter-learned Pharisees, and dead men. In effect, they asserted, "If we were the majority, it would be binding on you to obey the rules ; but, seeing you sightless and Christless ones are in the majority, the rules are null, and, like yourselves, fit only to be despised." ISTo human skill could throw a bridge across the frightful gulf yawning between them, that they might meet half-way or stand on debatable ground. There can be no union where, in the eyes of a handful, the majority of their brethren are as grasshoppers. "What, then, was the great point of difference ? On neither side was there ignorance or hatred of the doctrines of grace, or the habit, or the wish, of sinking them unobserved into in- significance. 'Hot was there disbelief or dislike of the doc- trine of Regeneration, or its author, necessity, or nature ; nor yet as to the evidences of it, but only as to the convictions preceding the change from death to life, and the immediate inward witness of the saving change; and even the difference on these points, when divested of exaggerations and cleared of confusion of terms, was so small as to be indiscernible. There was no difference as to the mode of church government, or subscription to the "Westminster standards, or the necessity of a learned ministry, much less of the higher necessity of piety in ministers and people. Nor yet as to the outcries, faintings, laughter, and other unusual accompaniments : both abhorred the thought that they were marks of saving operations of the Spirit; the one derided them as degrading public worship and substituting bodily exercise for reverent hearing of the truth ; the others contended that they were not necessarily contempt- ible or abominable as the effects of terror, or overvsTfought sensibility, or Satanic agency. In New England, the case was widely different. There Ar- minianism was secretly working and widely diffused. Its effect was seen in the lethargic preaching, and the dead formal- ism, strangely joined with bitter denunciation, and tireless manoeuvres to put down every one who acknowledo-ed another king besides Csesar. In Connecticut, the legislative power was invoked, and the law giving liberty to sober dissenters from the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 165 standing order to form themselves into congregations, was repealed. A minister of tlie colony, preaching in a parish with- out the consent of the pastor, though it were in a Baptist meeting-house by the request of the Baptist preacher and his people, was deprived of his salary for a year. Ministers not of the colony, committing the like offence, were to be taken up as vagrants and carried from constable to constable, till they touched the soil of the nearest province. In the Bay, as well as in Connecticut, the associations issued warnings, testimonies, and declarations against the promoters of the Revival, and laid hold on every available opportunity to unsettle them from their pastoral charges, or to hedge up their admission to settle- ment in any vacancy. But the Old Side had no willing legis- lature to frame laws for their advantage ; they issued no testi- mony against Whitefield or any man ; no pious man was un- settled for his adherence to the Protesters; no hinderance was offered to congregations asking a change of jurisdiction. The measure of courtesy towards the Protesters, and especially the excellent meekness of their submission to the high-handed assaults on their personal and ministerial character by Blair and Tennent, greatly honours them. There were present twenty-six ministers and eighteen elders. Andrews was chosen moderator, and Boyd clerk. The whole of New York Presbytery were absent, probably by design, being apprized that a crisis was at hand, and being unable to act with either side, or compose the difference be- tween them. There had been, doubtless, much concert on the part of the majority. They had fully mustered their forces. The right of some to sit as members in synod was the first branch of busi- ness; and Creaghead, having declined the jurisdiction of his presbytery and having been suspended, his case was taken up. He presented a paper, which was read ; and the next day was consumed in considering a paper of charges made by his people against John Thomson, and a second paper offered by Creaghead. The charges were handed to Thomson to peruse, and his presbytery was ordered to judge in that affaii speedily. The afternoon of Friday, the 29th, and the morning of Sa turday, were devoted to hearing the answer of Donegal Presby 166 Webster's history of the tery to Creaghead's paper, and to discoursing on it. They adjouTOed at noon, till three on Monday. The Sabbath was a busy day. Gilbert Teunent preached five times, beginning at six in the morning, and baptized eight adults. On Monday, June 1, after the reading of the minutes, the following protestation was brought in by Robert Cross, and read : — Eeverend Fathers and Brethren : — We, the ministers of Jesus Christ, and members of the Synod of Philadelphia, being wounded and grieved at our very hearts, at the dreadful divisions, distractions, and convulsions which all of a sudden have seized this infant church to such a degree, that unless He, who is King in Zion, do graciously and seasonably interpose for our relief, she is in no small danger of expiring outright, and that quickly, as to the form, order, and constitution of an organized church, which hath subsisted for above these thirty years past, in a very great degree of comely order and sweet harmony, until of late. "We say, we being deeply afiiicted with these things which lie heavy on our spirits, and being sensible that it is our indispensable duty to do what lies in our power, in a lawful way, according to the light and direction of the inspired oracles, to preserve this swooning church from a total expiration : and after the delibe- rate and unprejudiced inquiry into the causes of these confu- sions which rage so among us, both ministers and people, we evidently seeing, and being fully persuaded in our judgments, that, besides our misimprovement of, and unfruitfulness under, gospel light, liberty, and privileges, that great decay of practi- cal godliness in the life and power of it, and many abounding immoralities: we say, besides these, our sins, which we judge to be the meritorious cause of our present doleful distractions, the awful judgment we at present groan under, we evidently see that our protesting brethren and thsir adherents were the direct and proper cause thereof, by their unwearied, unscrip- tural, antipresbyterial, uncharitable, divisive practices, which they have been pursuing, with all the industry they were ca- pable of, with any probability of success, for above these twelve months past especially, besides too much of the like PRBSBYTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 167 practices for some years before, though not with such bare- faced arrogance and boldness. And being fully convinced, in our judgments, that it is our duty to bear testimony against ^these disorderly proceedings, according to our stations, capacity, and trust reposed in us by our exalted Lord, as watchmen on the walls of his Zion, we having endeavoured sincerely to seek counsel and direction from God, who hath promised to give wisdom to those that ask him in faith, yea, hath promised his Holy Spirit to lead his people and servants into all truth, and being clearly con- vinced, in our consciences, that it is a duty called unto in this present juncture of afl'airs. Eeverend fathers and brethren, we hereby humbly and solemnly protest, in the presence of the great and eternal God, and his elect angels, as well as in the presence of all here pre- sent, and particularly to you, reverend brethren, in- our own names, and in the names of all, both ministers and people, who shall adhere to us, as follows : — 1. "We protest that it is the indispensable duty of this synod, to maintain and stand by the principles of doctrine, worship, and government of the Church of Christ, as the same are summed up in the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Direc- tory composed by the Westminster Assembly, as being agree- able to the word of God, and which this synod have owned, acknowledged, and adopted, as may appear by our synodical records of the years 1729, 1736, which we desire to be read publicly. 2. "VVe protest that no person, minister or elder, should be allowed to sit and vote in this synod, who hath not received, adopted, or subscribed the said Confessions, Catechisms, and Directory, as our presbyteries respectively do, according to our last explication of the Adopting Act; or who is either accused or convicted, or may be convicted before this synod, or any of our presbyteries, of holding or maintaining any doctrine, or who act and persist in any practice, contrary to any of those doctrines, or rules contained in said Directory, or contrary to any of the known rights of presbytery, or orders made or agreed to by this synod, and which stand yet unrepealed, un- less or until he renounce such doctrine, and, being found guilty, acknowledge, confess, and profess his sorrow for such 168 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE sinful disorder, to the satisfaction of this synod, or such infe- rior judicatory as the synod shall appoint or empower for that purpose. 3. We protest that all our protesting brethren have at pre- sent no right to sit and vote as members of this synod, having forfeited their right of being accounted members of it for many reasons, a few of which we shall mention afterwards. 4. "We protest that, if, notwithstanding of this our protesta- tion, these brethren be allowed to sit and vote in this synod, without giving suitable satisfaction to the synod, and particu- larly to us, who now enter this protestation, and those who adhere to us in it, that whatsoever shall be done, voted, or transacted by them, contrary to our judgment, shall be of no force or obligation to us, being done and acted by a judicatory consisting in part of members who have no authority to act with us in ecclesiastical matters. 5. We protest that, if, notwithstanding this our protestation, and contrary to the true intent and meaning of it, these pro- testing brethren, and such as adhere to them, or support and countenance them in their antipresbyterial practices, shall con- tinue to act as they have done this last year, in that case we, and as many as have clearness to join with us, and maintain the rights of this judicatory, shall be accounted in no wise disorderly, but the true Presbyterian church in this province ; and they shall be looked upon as guilty of schism, and the breach of the rules of presbyterial government, which Christ has established in his church, which we are ready at all times to demonstrate to the world. Reverend and dear brethren, we beseech you to hear us with patience, while we lay before you, as briefly as we can, some of the reasons that move us thus to protest, and, more particularly, why we protest against our protesting brethren's being allowed to sit as members of this synod. 1. Their heterodox and anarchical principles expressed in their Apology, pages twenty-eight and thirty-nine, where they expressly deny that presbyteries have authority to oblige their dissenting members, and that synods should go any further, in judging of appeals or references, &c., than to give their best advice, which is plainly to divest the officers and judicatories of Christ's kingdom of all authority, (and plainly contradicts PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 169 the thirty-first article of our Confession of Faith, section three, which these brethren pretend to adopt,) agreeable to which is the whole superstructure of arguments which they advance and maintain against not only our synodical acts, but also all authority to make any acts or orders that shall bind their dis- senting members, throughout their whole Apology. 2. Their protesting against the synod's act in relation to the examination of candidates, together with their proceeding to license and ordain men to the ministry of the gospel, in oppo- sition to, and in contempt of, said act of synod. 3. Their making irregular irruptions upon the congregations to which they have no immediate relation, without order, concurrence, or allowance of the presbyteries or ministers to which congregations belong, thereby sowing the seeds of di- vision among people, and doing what they can to alienate and fill their minds with unjust prejudices against their lawfully- called pastors. 4. Their principles and practice of rash judging and con- demning all who do not fall in with their measures, both minis- ters and people, as carnal, graceless, and enemies to the work of God, and what not, as appears in Mr. Gilbert Tennent's sermon against unconverted ministers, and his and Mr. Blair's papers of May last, which were read in open synod ; which rash judging has been the constant practice of our protesting brethren, and their irregular probationers, for above these twelve months past, in their disorderly itinerations and preach- ing through our congregations, by which (alas for it!) most of our congregations, through weakness and credulity, are so shattered and divided, and shaken in their principles, that few or none of us can say we enjoy the comfort or have the suc- cess among our people, which otherwise we might, and which we enjoyed heretofore. 5. Their industriously persuading people to believe that the call of God, whereby he calls men to the ministry, does not consist in their being regularly ordained and set apart to that work, according to the institution and rules of the word ; but in some invisible motions and workings of the Spirit, which none can be conscious or sensible of but the person himself, and with respect to which he is liable to be deceived, or play the hypocrite. That the gospel, preached in truth by uncou- 170 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE verted ministers, can be of no saving benefit to souls; and their pointing out such ministers, whom they condemn as graceless by their rash judging spirit, they effectually carry the point with the poor credulous people, who, in imitation of their example, and under their patrociny, judge their ministers to be graceless, and forsake their ministers as hurtful rather than profitable. 6. Their preaching the terrors of the law in such a manner and dialect as has no precedent in the word of God, but rather appears to be borrowed from a worse dialect; and so indus- triously working on the passions and affections of weak minds, as to cause them to cry out in a hideous manner, and fall down in convulsion-like fits, to the marring of the profiting both of themselves and others, who are so taken up in seeing and hear- ing these odd symptoms, that they cannot attend to or hear what the preacher says; and then, after all, boasting of these things as the work of Grod, which we are persuaded do proceed from an inferior or worse cause. 7. Their, or some of them, preaching and maintaining that all true converts are as certain of their gracious state as a per- son can be of what he knows bj' his outward senses ; and are able to give a narrative of the time and manner of their con- version, or else they conclude them to be in a natural or grace- less state, and that a gracious person can judge of another's gracious state otherwise than by his profession and life. That people are under no sacred tie or relation to their own pastors lawfully called, but may leave them when they please, and ought to go where they think they get most good. For these and many other reasons, we protest, before the. Eternal God, his holy angels, and you, reverend brethren, and before all here present, that these brethren have no right to be acknowledged as members of this judicatory of Christ, whose principles and practices are so diametrically opposite to our doctrine, and principles of government and order, which the great King of the Church hath laid down in his word How absurd and monstrous must that union be, where one part of the members own themselves obliged, in conscience, to the judicial determinations of the whole, founded on the word of God, or else relinquish membership ; and another cart de- PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 171 clare, they are not obliged and will not submit, unless tlie de- termination be according to their minds, and consequently will submit to no rule, in making of which they are in the negative ! Again, how monstrously absurd is it, that they should so much as desire to join with us, or we with them, as a judica- tory, made up of authoritative officers of Jesus Christ, while they openly condemn us wholesale ; and, when they please, apply their condemnatoiy sentences to particular brethren by name, without judicial process, or proving them guilty of heresy or immorality, and at the same time will not hold Christian communion with them ! Again, how absurd is the union, while some of the mem- bers of the same body, which meet once a year, and join as a judicatory of Christ, do all the rest of the year what they can, openl}' and aboveboard, to persuade the people and flocks of their brethren and fellow-members to separate from their own pastors, as graceless hypocrites, and yet they do not separate from them themselves, but join with them once every year, as members of the same judicatory of Christ, and oftener, when presbyteries are mixed! Is it not most unreasonable, stupid indolence in us, to join with such as are avowedly tearing ns in pieces like beasts of prey? Again, is not the continuance of union with our protesting brethren very absurd, when it is so notorious that both their doctrine and practice are so directly contrary to the Adopting Act, whereby both they and we have adopted the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Directory composed by the Westmin- ster Assembly. Finally, is not continuance of union absurd with those who would arrogate to themselves a right and power to palm and obtrude members on our synod, contrary to the minds and judgment of the body? In fine, a continued union, in our judgment, is most absurd and inconsistent, when it is so notorious that our doctrine and principles of church government, in many points, are not only diverse, but directly opposite. For how can two walk together, except they be agreed ? Reverend fathers and brethren, these are a part, and but a part, of our reasons why we protest as above, and which we 172 webstee's history of the have only hinted at, but have forborne to enlarge on them, aa we might. The matter and substance of them are so well known to you all, and the whole world about us, that we judged this hint sufficient at present, to declare our serious and deliberate judgment in the matter; and, as we profess ourselves to be resolvedly against principles and practice of both anarchy and schism, so we hope that God, whom we desire to serve and obey, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose minis- ters we are, will both direct and enable us to conduct our- selves, in these trying times, so as our consciences shall not reproach us as long as we live. Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, and let them that hate him fly before him ; but let the righteous be glad, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. And may the spirit of life and comfort revive and comfort this poor swooning and fainting church, quicken her to spiritual life, and restore her to the exercise of true charity, peace, and order. Although -we can freely, and from the bottom of our hearts, justify the Divine proceedings against us, in suffering us to fall into these confusions for our sins, and particularly for the great decay of the life and power of godliness among all ranks, both ministers and people, yet we think it to be our present duty to bear testimony against these prevailing disorders, judging that to give way to the breaking down the hedge of discipline and government from about Christ's vineyard, is far from being the proper method of causing his tender plants to grow to grace and fruitfulness. As it is our duty in our station, without delay, to set about a reformation of the evils whereby we have provoked God against ourselves, so we judge the strict observation of his laws of government and order, and not the breaking of them, to be one necessary mean and method of this necessary and much- to-be-desired reformation. And we doubt not, but when our God sees us duly humbled and penitent for our sins, he will yet return to us in mercy, and cause us to flourish in spiritual life, love, unity, and order: though perhaps we may not live to see it, yet this testimony that we now bear may be of some good use to our children yet unborn, when God shall arise and have mercy of Zion. Ministers: — Robert Cross, John Thomson, Francis Alison, PRESBYTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 173 Robert Cathcart, Richard Zanchy, John Elder, John Craig, Samuel Caven, Samuel Thomson, Adam Boyd, James Martin, Robert Jamison. Elders: — Robert Porter, Robert McKnight, "William McCul- loch, John McEwen, Robert Rowland, Robert Craig, James Kerr, Alexander McKnight. After being read, it was laid on the table, and was signed by several. Some cried that they were protesting gross lies before Almighty God ; and others that the elders were sub- scribing what they had not heard or considered. Andrews left the chair; the Brunswick party, loath to be cast out hastily, spoke in their own defence ; but, the house being con- fused, it was hard to tell what was said. Blair and others insisted that the Protesters ought to withdraw, not being a majority of the body. The building was crowded, and the galleries rang with the cry to cast the Protesters out. The Brunswick party offered no pacific overtures or any satisfaction for past grievances, but only unchristian reproaches. This brought the affair to a crisis, so that both parties could not sit together. " It was canvassed by the former Protesters whether they or we were to be looked on as the synod. We maintained that they had no right to sit, whether they were the majority or not. Then they motioned that we should examine this point, and that the major number was the synod." The roll was counted. Andrews decided at once, and said openly he would not join with the New Brunswick gentlemen. Gillespie and McHenry did not appear, when it was now or never in the point of outvoting. Elmer had probably gone home with his elder, Jonathan Fithian, on Saturday. Hutche- son hesitated. The minority consisted of William Tennent and his elder, Richard Walker ; Gilbert Tennent and his elder, David Chambers; Richard Treat, Eleazer Wales; Samuel Blair and his elder, John Ramsey ; William Tennent, junior ; Charles Tennent and his elder, William McCrea; Alexander Craighead and David Alexander. They withdrew, followed by a great crowd. Then Andrews resumed the chair, and the synod proceeded 174 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE to business. Andrews* had not been consulted, and knew nothing of the design till the protest was brought. Itf had been drawn up and agreed upon after consultation and solemn prayer. The protest has been greatly condemned as violent, unpre- cedented, unwise, and unnecessary. Was it unprecedented ? It was not unlike the protest of the subscribers in the Synod of Ulster, by which they ex- cluded the non-subscribers in 1726, who withdrew and formed the Antrim Presbytery. This was probably the precedent which governed their course. Was it not the only practicable mode of pacification ? If they tabled charges, who should judge? Were not the Pro- testers accused in open synod and in print by Tennent and Blair? There could be no umpire. Creaghead would submit his case only to a committee packed with a majority of his friends. Tennent would refer neither to Scotland or Ireland, London or Boston, for he had the smiles of God on his course. Was it not necessary? What could be more absurd and inconsistent than continued union, while the minority divided congregations, defamed their brethren, and set at naught the synod's claim to make any rules not pleasing to them? It was a warring chaos, — potsherds dashing against potsherds. Separation was necessary, and to effect it a test was necessary. Was it ill-timed ? Could it have been longer delayed with any benefit? Was it a duty for the synod and the presbyteries to brook further contumely and defiance ? The New Side were fully prepared, and they would yield not an inch in Creaghead's case. They doubtless expected some, if not many, would con- cur, and demanded that the Protesters should withdraw. There were five classes in the synod : — the Protesters, the excluded, the silent, those who were dissatisfied with both parties, and the absent. Death had removed Anderson and Houston ; Gould had gone among the Congregationalists on Long Island; and Stevenson, "having omitted his ministry," was struck oW the roll at the opening of the session. The Protesters were Robert Cross, of Philadelphia, and John * MS. Letter of Andrews to Pierson : in the hands of Dr. Sprague. f Refutation of Tennent's Remarks on the Protest. — Presb. Hist. Soc. lib. PEESBTTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 175 Thomson, of Chestnut Level, who had been members of the synod almost from its formation; Francis Alison, of New London, and Robert Cathcart, of Wilmington, and the five youngest members of Donegal Presbytery, — Zanchy, Elder, Cavin, and Samuel Thomson, with John Craig, of Augusta, in Virginia; together with Adam Boyd, (then in the sixteenth year of his ministry, who seems not to have signed the protest till it was laid on the table,) James Martin, of Lewestown, and Robert Jamison, of Duck Creek. The excluded were William Tennent, of N^eshaminy, now near the close of his days, and his three sons; Richard Treat, of Abingdon, and Eleazer Wales, who had been ordained nine or ten years; Samuel Blair, of Fagg's Manor, and Alexander Creaghead, of Middle Octorara, who, in six or seven years, had risen to the first rank as preachers and men of influence; and David Alexander, whose ministry had but recently begun. Those who were dissatisfied with both parties were the large majority of the synod. Two of the oldest ministers, Gillespie and Huteheson, stood aloof on the division. The Presbytery of Ifew York, composed of the best men, did the same ; and the Presbyteiy of New Brunswick took under its care the churches in West Chester county, installed a pastor, and ap- pointed supplies for the Highlands, as though the Presbytery of New York had ceased to exist. The silent were a small fraction, to which belonged the oldest minister, Andrews; Elmer, of Cohanzy, who protested the next year, against the exclusion, but whose congregation, nevertheless, was divided by the Brunswick Presbytery, as though he were a dead man; Cowell, of Trenton, like the other two, from New England ; and McHenry from Ireland, and very recently ordained assistant to William Tennent at Nesha- miny and Deep Run. The absent were the three most distant ministers, aged men: — Orme, of Upper Marlborough; Conn, of Bladensburg, and Bertram, of Derry, on the Swatara; Hook, of Drawyers, like Bertram, near the close of life ; and the Welshmen, David Evans, of Pilesgrove, and Thomas Evans, of Pencader. The silent and the absent all remained with the Old Side, while of the dissatisfied only Gillespie returned to them. The extent of the division was great. Bedford and Crum- 176 webstee's history of the pond, and Salem and Setauket, in New York Presbytery, placed themselves under the care of the Brunswick Presbytery. The separation in Philadelphia was large; Hopewell and Maidenhead, Cohanzy, ISTeshaminy, and Great Valley, in Phila- delphia Presbytery, were rent asunder: G-reenwich, Gloster, Cape May, and Abingdon went over undivided. In Ifew- castle Presbytery, Bohemia, "White Clay, Pigeon Eun, or Red Lyon, withdrew: there were separations from Newcastle, Drawyers, Pencader, Red Clay, and Elk River. In Lewes Presbytery, divisions ensued at Lewes and Dover, and in Somerset; in Donegal Presbytery, in every congregation, and especially the new settlements west of Susquehanna and in the Valley of Virginia. "While from the New-Side congrega- tions there were no separations to any extent; a few only withdrew from Treat, of Abingdon, Blair, of Fagg's Manor, and Creaghead, of Middle Octorara. Thus was the division accomplished. The most pious and judicious men might have signed the protest, or have upholden the movers of it. The grounds of it were solid ; the reasons for it just and weighty. The action and language of the Brunswick party were anar- chical, and were defended by precisely the assumptions made by the non-subscribing Presbytery of Antrim, that had fallen into Arianism. Licensing and ordaining in direct violation of the synod's express and repeated injunction was rebellion; and to give way to it, was to abandon the authority and liberty which Christ had given them. Intrusion, though not meriting the heavy civil penalties adjudged to it in Connecticut, was unbrotherly, and destruc- tive of a pastor's success and comfort. The justification of it made it worse; for they admitted, it was wrong except where the people were burdened with the ministry of dead men. The denunciation was a lording over brethren, and a con- demning of the law of Christ ; its effect on the converts was the generation of arrogance and censoriousness, which brought them and "the work of God" into contempt. To it must be traced much of the bitterness of opposers, and the sad, rapid, amazing, and hopeless decline of the revival. The doctrine of assurance and the Spirit's witness were so PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 177 preached as to lead to Antinomianism ; John Cross* was up- held by many, and continued to exercise his ministry, although suspended on glaring evidence ; Dickinson was charged with having done the greatest mischief, such as no professed infidel could have accomplished, in teaching that we must seek the evidences of our acceptance with God in the work of sanctifi- cation in us.f Gilbert Tennent had asserted in preaching, and maintained in private, that every true convert is as sensible of the grace of 'God in him, and the love of God to him, as he is of a stab in the flesh or a thought in his mind. Besides this, which made every man a suflBcient judge of his interest in Christ, they complained of no other instance of erroneous teaching, except the assertion that people were bound to their pastors only as long as they thought they could get good from their preaching, and had the right to forsake them when they might be more benefited elsewhere. On these five grounds they rested their demand that the Brunswick party should be excluded from membership in the synod until they made satisfaction for these grievances, and engaged no more to pursue their divisive courses. The ISTew York brethren agreed with the Protesters, that these were reasonable grounds of complaint and loud calls for lamentation ; and they would not come into any union with the excluded party, until they had solemnly engaged no more to offend in any of thes-e things. Thus was the protest justi- fied by those who condemned the exclusion; and the exclu- sion was maintained by ISTew York Presbytery to its full extent, until all that was demanded in the protest was secured by the plighted faith of Tennent and his coadjutors. In this connection, the following calm and valuable letter may be read with advantage, as illustrative of the length to which the leaders of the Brunswick party had gone in theo- logical views. * Dickinson's Defence of his Display of Grace. j- Croswell'a Answer to the Display of Grace. — Harv. Coll. Libr. 12 178 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE ANDREWS* TO PIERSON, OF WOODBRIDGE. "Philadelphia, June 25, 1741. " Rev. and Dear Brother : — "Mr. Dickinson's letter of May 23, and yours since that date, came both to hand; and, though you both agree, it would be unreasonable to bring on the debate about the contested act at our last synod, when so many were absent ; yet I am told there is reason to believe it was designed, and if they had carried their point in having that act rescinded, it would have brought in such a deluge of preachers that 'twould have been in vain for any that don't come into all their new notions, to have appeared at synod any more. And some judged they were strengthening their party with such a view, as we all know they stick at nothing to gather prose- lytes. What influence that had in bringing on the protestar tion against them now, as I was not consulted, or whether any, I can't tell. You may have your thoughts, as I have mine. " But, brother, you that way don't see, hear, and feel what we do. The confusions they have made this way, in town and country, are perfectly astonishing, and indeed e'en make us weary of our lives. They have called themselves members with us, but have been coijtinually acting against us, and endeavouring to make all that don't follow them to be looked on as carnal, graceless, unconverted hypocrites, to destroy our usefulness and bring as many as possible over to them, so that we can scarce tell where to go or who to speak to. But this is not all ; both town and country are full of Antinomian notions, which if we say any thing against, in pulpit or out, 'tis almost as much as our lives are worth, and we feel our- selves bound in conscience to give people warning and endea- vour to preserve them from destruction. " The prevailing opinion among the party is, that the moral law is no rule to believers. They freely declare they don't do any good, or bring forth any fruit, or avoid any evil, on consideration of any law obliging or forbidding them, or from any fear of God at all. Nay, they tell me they have no regard to any thing they do or can do, to promote their own * Transcribed from the original by permission of Dr. Sprague. PRE3BYTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 179 happiness or salvation at all. They utterly disclaim all self- love, and make it a wrong mercenary thing, contrary to the spirit of the gospel, to have any eye to their own benefit in any thing they do, but only the glory of God, exclusive of their own good. "The common vogue is, that we must not press the un- converted to do duty, because all they do is sin; and that there is no need to urge the converted to it, because they will do it, not because they must. Accordingly they avoid preaching up moral duties ; and, though they have ever so fair an opportunity for it, they avoid telling the people that the moral law is the eternal rule of reasonable creatures ; they seem to be afraid to do it ; for, if they did, they would be as bad as we, and their hearers would leave them. They con- verse with that party a hundred times more than I do, and, consequently, must know their errors better than I can ; and yet they say nothing to bring them off, that I hear of, which they would do if they were not of the same mind themselves, or else can't be honest men. This enthusiastical frenzy is, I think, universal among them, (I mean their leaders and some others,) that they can tell who is converted or not, espe- cially upon a little discourse, and so judge and condemn and damn with all the freedom imaginable. "The Christ they invite persons to, seems to me not the true Christ. The true Christ has a yoke, which they that come to him must take upon them ; but this yoke is not mentioned, but only ' Come, come.' All which, and much more to the same purpose, they say, they learned of Mr. "Whitefield; and they do think they follow him punctually in them, which is their aim. I know in some of them they are not mistaken, and I feared things would come to this pass from the begin- ning, which made me dissatisfied. Some people blamed me then (thinking people would take the good and leave the bad) that now justify me and say that I saw further than they. "A prevailing rule to try converts is, that, if you don't know when you were without Christ and unconverted, &c., you have no interest in Christ, let your love and your practice be what they may ; which rule, as it is unscriptural, so I am of the mind will cut oflE' nine in ten, if not ninety-nine in a hundred, of the good people in the world that have had a 180 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE pious education. And, hence, in a manner, all our pious fore- fathers are doomed to the pit, as most sober, pious people are now. The old rule that our Saviour gave of judging the tree by its fruits, is now generally thrown out of doors, and an intuitive way of judging, like God's, is now pretended to. All that don't come up to this way of thinking and judging are declared carnal ; and so much as to call it in question, is almost fatal. ISTay, all that don't think we are saved in the way of absolute sovereignty, (which some think renders all the promises of the gospel, and the gospel itself and the Me- diator of it, all needless and useless,) and that don't believe we must feel the Spirit blow upon us as evidently as we can feel the northwest wind, they are looked upon as carnal persons. " ITow, my dear brother, I don't know what you may think of these things ; but I think they strike at all solid religion, and tend to pervert the good principles derived to us from our forefathers; and I think — nay, I am almost sure — ^you like them no better than I, notwithstanding the angry letter you wrote me concerning the convulsive motions caused by Ed.'s* extravagant preaching. You quite mistook me, or you had spared the pains in that letter, as if I think convictions and awakenings, &c. were needless. Indeed, my brother, I never had such a thought. God forbid I should ; but I am of the mind that those things of which we have heard so often, at least some of them, are not of that nature. But I'll forbear : only say that if you have heard nothing of them, or if you judge such outcries must be, or we are lost, I think you and I and our forefathers have been doing nothing but deceiving the people ; but I hope in God it is not so, at least altogether. But enough of this at this time, and, for aught I know, more than expedient; for, if Whitefield or some other should come at the sight of this letter, it may occasion many a raving sermon, as the exposing my former letters did. But, though such an unbrotherly, not to say unchristian, thing were done once, I can't entertain a thought that it will be done again. " I have here enclosed a protestation. What you may think * Eowland. PRESBYTEEIAN CHTJRCH IN AMERICA. 181 of it I won't pretend to guess ; nor, as I was not concerned in it, will I tell you my thoughts of it. Only this I will venture to say : that, if it had not been done now, if things didn't soon make a great turn for the better, it must, in my mind, have been done in a little time, unless we would be contented to be a Babel both as to principles and practice. " My dear brother, if you find your judgment don't jump with mine in every thing, I desire charity between us may be kept alive ; for I do assure you, if I know any thing of the doctrines of our predecessors and the reformed churches, (and I humbly conceive I am not altogether an ignoramus in them,) I have not varied from them. What I dislike is, for aught I know, new, not known, at least not professed, by those that went before us, and, which is abundantly more, not according to the word. Therefore, non credo quia non lego. I design this for Brother Dickinson as well as yourself; and, with hearty affection from Mr. Cross and self for you and Mr. Dickinson and yours and his, in the entire bond of Christian brotherly friendship, I rest, your own "Jedbdiah Andrews." 182 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE CHAPTER Vn. The Brunswick party having vdtlidrawn, the synod pro- ceeded with its business, making no other reference to their departure than this : — that they appointed Thomson, Thomas Evans, and Alison to defend the protestation in print, if need be. The overture which Thomson and his elders had brought before Donegal Presbytery was taken up and readily ap- proved, nem. con. " That every member of this synod, minister or elder, do sincerely and heartily receive, own, acknowledge, or subscribe the "Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms as the confession of his faith, and the Directory, as far as circumstances will allow and admit in this infant church, for the rule of church order. " That every session do oblige their elders at their admis- sion to do the same." The commission was appointed, to consist of Thomson, Dickinson, Pemberton, Pierson, Robert Cross, Alison, Boyd, and Martin, with Andrews, the moderator; but there is no record of its having been called together. They gave ten pounds out of the fund to the under- takers of the meeting-house in "Wilmington to defray the charge of it, anfl. lent them thirty pounds, free of interest, for three years. The synod, taking to their serious consideration that God's judgments are abroad in the earth, and the war in which we are engaged, the threatening scarcity of grain by the dis- couraging prospects of our crops, and the mournful melan- choly divisions among us who profess to be followers of the Prince of peace, resolved to keep a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, to implore the merciful and compassionate regard of our good God in these difficulties ; and that it be left to PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 183 eacli presbytery to appoint the time as it will best suit within their respective bounds. They then adjourned. The non-subscribers in Ireland, always assunied, that they withdrew on being protested against, in the face of the synod's declaration that they were excluded. The Brunswick party, always alleged, that they were ex- cluded, although they withdrew on finding the majority of the synod resolute in demanding of them satisfaction for the grievances complained of in the protest ; they denying that such grievances had been committed by them. The three excluded ministers* of New Brunswick Presby- tery met in Philadelphia on the 2d of June, the day after the protest was introduced, pro re naia. Rowland was chosen clerk, and the six ministers who adhered to them sat as cor- respondents. Hutcheson was present, although undecided what course to pursue. Gillespie, though absent, signified his willingness to join them. "Having been all along joined in one united synod with the other Presbyterian ministers in these parts, the greater part of whom, with us in synod met, did yesterday, without any just grounds, protest against our continuing with them any longer, and so cast us out of their communion, we came together to consider how we ought to conduct ourselves in present circumstances for the fulfilling of the work committed to us by the Lord Jesus, as ministers and elders, and agreed to declare, — " That the protestation is unjust and sinful. " That it is our bounden duty to form ourselves into dis- tinct presbyteries for carrying on the government of Christ's church. " That those brethren who have left Newcastle and Done- gal Presbyteries meet at White Clay Creek, on the 30th of June, and form the Presbytery of Londonderry. "That the two presbyteries do meet at Philadelphia, the second Wednesday in August, in the capacity of a synod. " Lest any should suppose us to be receding from Presby- terian principles, we unanimously declare that we do adhere * MS. Records of New Brunswick Presbytery. 184 Webster's history op the as closely and fully to the Westminster Confession, Cate- chisms, and Directory, as ever the Synod of Philadelphia did in any of their public acts and agreements about them." Blair was appointed to draw up, against the next meet- ing, an account of the differences in the synod for some years past, and which have issued in this separation. Ten- nent was directed to prepare an answer to the protest, wherein things are most unjustly represented. Blair's paper was adopted and published as the Declaration of the Con- junct Presbyteries. When the protestation was printed with a preface, Tenuent speedily sent forth Eemarks on the Pro- test, and, as an appendix, the apology his presbytery had presented to the synod in 1739. This called forth two pam- phlets, — one, a Refutation of Remarks on the Protest, and the other from John Thomson, being an examination of the apology, and entitled " The Government of the Church." To this latter piece Samuel Blair replied, coinciding with Thomson in all his principles, and denying that he or his party had ever taken the positions which seem to constitute the very essence of the apology. Blair's paper was printed in 1744, and was entitled "A Vin- dication of the Brethren cast out, from maintaining Princi- ples of Anarchy and denying the Scriptural Authority of Church Judicatories." He expresses surprise that Thomson never once charged them with holding the Congregational plan, and asserts that the apology was valid and conclusive against the claim of legislative or law-making power, and maintained the executive authority of church courts. He declares all that had been said of the apology as anarchical was palpably false. He said he knew nothing of Tennent's paper when he prepared his representation. " What hurt was there in obtaining such a synodical admonition when there was really so much needed and more ?" On the afternoon of the 2d of June, the Brunswick party received supplications from Tredryffryn, Norriton, Brandy- wine, Nottingham, Leacock, Hopewell, (now Big Spring,) Pigeon Run, Christiana Bridge, Little Britain, Donegal, Derry, Greenwich, Cape May, Hanover in Lancaster, Pennsboro',(Car- lisle,) Conecocheague, Newtown, and Tehicken, and from James PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 185 Eiver in Virginia. From this it would seem as if preparations had been made by these congregations, which were vacancies, to petition the synod for supplies, passing over their own pres- byteries; and by those of them which had pastors, to demand new erections, or to be loosed from their ministers and have supplies. Probably intimations of this revolutionary measure were conveyed to the synod in some informal way, and decided them to delay no longer, but to free themselves from continued union with men who behaved to them as if they were heathen and publicans. IsTothing but the foresight of some impending catastrophe could have led so many congregations to send up supplications at such a time. They were the effects which might naturally have been predicted from the dispersion abroad of the representations of Tennent and Blair. In many places, public worship was forsaken to a large extent, and the ministry of the pastors scouted, as being as unlikely to be used by God in the conversion of souls, as the agency of Satan. They appointed James Campbell, a licentiate, who had told the synod openly that he was unconverted, and had laid aside preaching, until solemnly engaged by Whiteiield to resume it, to begin at Londonderry, (Fagg's Manor,) and go to Forks of Brandy wine, left vacant by the removal of Black ; Leacock and Donegal, also vacant; Hanover, Zanchy's charge; Derry, Ber- tram's ; Paxton, Elder's; Pennsboro', Samuel Thomson's ; Cone- cocheague, Cavin's; Little Britain, J. Thomson's; Nottingham, the new erection ; Elk River, vacant by Houston's removal ; Pigeon Run and Christiana Bridge, vacancies ; and Greenwich, in West Jersey, also vacant. Rowland was directed to follow in Campbell's track. Finley was sent to supply the new erection at Nottingham, and to go to Baltimore, and to Dover in Dela^ ware. There being a great necessity in the valley, embracing Tredryffryn and Norriton, David Alexander was sent thither. A few weeks after, John Cross was called up and suspended; David Alexander probably died within a year. No notice is taken in the manuscript records of the fact stated in another place by Blair,* that at this meeting, or the one in August, Creaghead and his elder, Samuel Irwin, brought * AuimadverBions on the reasons wliich induced A. C. to leave the Presbyterian church. — Philadelphia Library. 186 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE in a proposal for the conjuuct presbyteries to adopt the Solemn League and Covenant. He urged that neglect of it was the great cause of the decline of religion. They declined to com- ply, because the renewal of it was properly a national work, belonging to the three kingdoms, and not to two presbyteries. He immediately withdrew, and sounded the alann on both sides of the Susquehanna, that the "Westminster standards had never been adopted by either the synod or the presbyteries. The bond which had held the party together while contending with the synod was gone ; they had no occasion to unite to- gether against a majority; they began to make demands on each other. The Seceder and the Covenanter element worked freely and developed itself rapidly. Creaghead had been com- plained of by his people for introducing new terms of com- munion ; he now opened a correspondence with the Reformed Presbytery* in Scotland, to send ministers to Pennsylvania, for there were many who had embraced all the principles of "the mountain men," and others had emigrated to this country who at home had been associated with the Society people in their native land. There were others, still more numerous, but for the time more quiescent, who clung to the peculiarities of the Associate Presbytery, and who were not behind the very chiefest of them in their repugnance to the Burgess Oath, and in their abhorrence of a defective or mutilated testimony against all errors, individual and national, of every degree of importance. The Tennents were correspondents of the Ers- kines ; so also was Whitefield, and in his letters showed the greatest interest in the movements of the Seceders; and it was doubtless a widely-current rumour, that he was going to Scot- land at their solicitation to espouse their cause. Almost at the very time the conjunct presbyteries met in Philadelphia, Whitefield met with the Associate ministers in Edinburgh, and the silver cord was loosed which bound him in endearing friend- ship to the Erskines. He could not consent to unite himself as a member with them, or be confined by their methods in intercourse with other denominations. The breachf took place * Sketch of the Reformed Preshyterian Church in America, by Dr. J. N. McLeod. •f- Fraser'e Life of Erskine ; Philips'a Whitefield ; MoKerrow's History of the Secession Church. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 187 Augusts, 1741; and on the 8th, he wi-ote to Thomas IsToble, Esq., of New York, detailing the particulars and desiring them to be communicated to the Tennents. "I am glad to hear the work of the Lord prospers in their hands, and that they intend to meet in a synod by themselves. Their catholic spirit will do good." In the very month of the rupture, Davenport went through his extraordinary career in Connecticut. He was no wild en- thusiast, but a grave man, of great piety, of unblemished life ; a powerful reasoner, no mean poet, and, what was of great im- portance in that colony, of one of its most ancient and honour- able families. It is monstrous to pretend that he had a capti- vating eloquence, or could preach so as to depict as if before them hung and groaned the bleeding Saviour.* His sermons were plain, not striking ; his exhortations stirring and warm, hut uttered in a strange singing tone that was intolerable to the careless, but which moved amazingly the feelings of the newly awakened, and of all who sympathized with him. De- nouncing raen as unconverted, walking with his hearers in procession through the streets and from town to town, singing "human composures," or hymns of his own composing; burn- ing pious books and gay apparel in one bonfire, and setting up separate meetings : these, with the delusive notions of the "Witness of the Spirit, brought him into contempt and caused his good to be evil spoken of. Friends and foes were thrown together in opposition to him, and good men by their zeal agaifist him strengthened the hands of evil-doers, and led many to separate from the standing order, and forsake the ministra- tions of faithful pastors. A few Moravians had been in Pennsylvania, K'ew Jersey, and New York, for several years. Peter Boehler was at Skip- pack, in 1739 ; and in November, 1741, Count Zinzendorff ar- rived : he laid aside all mark of rank, and lived as a Lutheran minister, with the name of Von Thurnstein. He appeared before the governor in Philadelphia, and, in the presence of Logan, Franklin, Allen, and other persons of distinction, defined his position in a Latin oration ; he also made several * Chauncey's Seasonable Thoughts ; Bacon's Historical Discourses at New HaTen. 188 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE statements of his intentions in French. Logan* speaks of the Latin and the French as being wholly unlike any performances he had ever heard in either of those tongues. The brethren had, previously to the count's arrival, bought " a barony" called Xazareth, which Whitefield had once contracted for, to found a home for coloured persons, and which, after having laid the foundation of a building, he had given up. When Zinzendorlf came to the Brethren on the Lehigh, they met for worship in a stable, and called the place Bethlehem. He visited the Ger- mans in Oley and Tulpehocken, and, finding that one of the Brethren had joined the "Sieben Taegers" in the Kloster at Ephrata, he went thither. He soon set forward measures for gathering the pious of the numerous German sectsf into a yearly conference for friendly religious intercourse. The prin- cipal obstruction in the way was the belief of some that he was an immoral man, who had fled from his own country, and the impression in others that he was the Beast of the Revelar tions. He made a great impression in ISTew York and Phila- delphia, and drew many of Whitefield's chiefest friends after him. Dickinson, Tennent, and Finley all wrote against him, viewing his tenets as subversive alike of law and gospel. About this time, Rowland was indicted for horse-stealing, and acquitted on the testimony of William Tennent and two of the elders of the ISTew-Side church of Hopewell. The wit- nesses were indicted for having procured his acquittal by wilful perjury; and popular indignation rose so high that Rowland left Hunterdon county, and settled at ISTew Providencef-and Charlestown, in Pennsylvania. Amid all these painful circumstances, the stout heart of Gilbert Tennent shook ; and he who had preached on the bene- fits of spiritual desertion learned the bitterness of it,J and trembled for his salvation. * Watson's Annals of Philadelphia ; Translation of the Count's Letter, by Rev. Mr. Reading, of Appoquinimy ; Answers to Queries proposed to the Count ; Curious and astounding documents in Philadelphia papers of 1741, '42, '43. f Jackson's Life of Zinzendorff. J MS. Letter of D. Brainerd to Bellamy, February 4, 1742-3: — "I'm more dead to the world than ever ; but I'm afraid I shall faU into the same state dear Mr. Ten- nent has been in, so amuse myself with something, tho' I satisfie myself with nothing." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 189 Whitefield heard of his distressed state, and wrote to him from "Glodoester, Enqland, Februarys, 1742. "I bless God for delivering Brother Eowland out of the hands of his enemies. I am persuaded he will deliver your brother "William also. By your desertion and temptations, I believe God is preparing you for a fresh work. I believe you would be better if you would always evangelize." The following letter will serve to illustrate the state of Mr. Tennent's mind at this period : — "GILBERT TENNENT* TO JONA. DICKINSON. "February 12, 1742. " I have many afflicting thoughts about the debates which have subsisted in our synod for some time. I would to God the breach were healed, were it the will of the Almighty. As for my own part, wherein I have mismanaged in doing what I did, I do look upon it to be my duty, and should be willing to acknowledge it in the openest manner. I cannot justify the excessive heat of temper which has sometime appeared in my conduct. I have been of late, since I returned from New England, visited with much spiritual desertion and distresses of various kinds, coming in a thick and almost continual suc- cession, which have given me a greater discovery of myself than I think I ever had before. These things, with the trialf of the Moravians, have given me a clear view of the danger of every thing which tends to enthusiasm and division in the visible church. I think that while the enthusiastical Moravians, and Long-beards or Pietists, are uniting their bodies, (no doubt to increase their strength and render themselves more consider- able,) it is a shame that the ministers who are in the main of sound principles in religion should be divided and quarrelling. Alas for it! my soul is sick for these things. I wish that some * Published in Pennsylvania Gazette, and reprinted in Hodge's History. f Brainerd to Bellamy, March 26, 1743, writes as follows: — "The Moravian tenets cause as much debate as ever ; and for my part I'm totally lost and non- plussed about 'em, so that I endeavour as much as possible to suspend my judgment about 'em, for I cannot tell whether they are eminent Christians, or whether their conduct is aU underhanded policy and an intreague of Satan. The more I talked to Mr. Noble and others, the more 1 was lost and puzzled ; and yet Mr. Noble must be a Christian." 190 webstek's histokt of the Bcriptural metliods could be fallen upon to put an end to these confusions. Some time since I felt a disposition to fall on my knees, if I had opportunity, to entreat them to be at peace. "I remain, with all due honour and respect, your poor worthless brother in the ministry. "P.S.— I break open this letter myself, to add my thoughts about some extraordinary things in Mr. Davenport's conduct. As to his making his judgment about the internal states of persons or their experience, a term of church fellowship, I believe it is unscriptural, and of awful tendency to rend and tear the church. It is bottomed upon a false base, — viz. : that a certain and infallible knowledge of the good estate of men is attainable in this life from their experience. The practice is schismatical, inasmuch as it sets up a term of communion which Christ has not fixed. The late method of setting up separate meetings upon the supposed unregeneracy of pastors is enthusiastical, proud, and schismatical. All that fear God ought to oppose it as a most dangerous engine to bring the churches into the most damnable errors and confusions. The practice is built upon a twofold false hypothesis : — infallibility of knowledge, and that unconverted ministers will be used as instruments of no good in the church. The practice of openly exposing ministers who are supposed to be unconverted, in public discourse, by particular application of times and places, serves only to provoke them instead of doing them any good, and declares our own arrogance. It is an unprecedented, divi- sial, and pernicious practice. It is lording it over our brethren to a degree superior to what any prelate has pretended, since the coming of Christ, so far as I know, the pope only excepted ; though I really do not remember to have read that the pope went on at this rate. The sending out of unlearned men to teach others upon the supposition of their piety in ordinary cases seems to bring the ministry into contempt, to cherish enthusiasm, and bring all into confusion. Whatever fair face it may have, it is a most perverse practice. The practice of singing in the streets is a piece of weakness and enthusiastical ostentation. "I wish you success, dear sir, in your journey; my soul is grieved for such enthusiastical fooleries. They portend much mischief to the poor church of God if they be not seasonably PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 191 checked. May your labours be blessed for that end ! I must also express my abhorrence of all pretence to immediate inspi- ration or following immediate impialses, as an enthusiastical, perilous ignis-fatuus." Well might " Philalethes" array Gilbert against Tennent, when this letter issued from the press, at the very time the third edition of the ^Nottingham Sermon appeared. How Tennent could so entirely have forgotten his own guiltiness in the main with Davenport, is not to be conjectured. The letter is like David's condemnation to death of the rich man who furnished his guest with a feast on the only lamb of his poor neighbour. Did Dickinson reply with Nathan's rebuke to him ? Probably he was so rejoiced to be furnished for his journey with this weapon of proof, that he forgot to notice the inconsistency. Dickinson journeyed through New England to Boston; " for they were wont in old time to say, ' Surely they will ask counsel at Abel,' and so they ended the matter." He also, in concert with Edwards and Burr, used his influence to have Brainerd restored to his standing in Tale College, but to no purpose. The determination seems to have been formed in consultation at Boston to make the withdrawment of the pro- test the indispensable prerequisite to further continuance in union with the Philadelphia Synod, or to demanding an ac- knowledgment from the Brunswick party of their errors or missteps. This was in effect to constitute the synod as if the separation had never taken place, and to take up the whole controversy as it stood on the morning of June 1, 1741. The letter of Tennent to Dickinson,* with others of like import to Pemberton and "Whitefield, strongly impelled them to gra- tify him in this tender point; and the conjunct Presbyterians, having cleared themselves of all receding from Presbyterian principles, and from all concurrence in any of the offensive things in the practices or teachings of Cross, Creaghead, and Davenport, satisfied the New York brethren that they were * The latter was placed by Dickinson in the hands of Clap, of New Haven, who had it printed. The letters to Whitefield and Pemberton we have not seen. 192 Webster's history op the clear of the charges in the protest, of promoting anarchy and inflaming enthusiasm. In April, 1742, Tennent preached in ISTew York his sermons against the Moravians ; he used hardly stronger language than Dickinson, who pictured the Moravians as libertines in his "Dis- play of Grace." Tennent uttered his own condemnation in eveiy syllable in which he exposed and denounced them ; and the paragraphs of the JSTottingham Sermon, placed in parallel columns with others from the Moravian Sermon, furnish a remarkable specimen of recantation made unconsciously. Among the memorable things of that day, is the fact that Tennent saw no self-contradiction in the two productions ; and that neither he nor Blair nor any of their party inter- preted their apology as Thomson did, or saw in it any of the anarchical or heterodox principles, which, to every other person, glare on the surface and are the very soul of it. The synod met in Philadelphia in May, 1742, the Brunswick brethren being in town, with their newly-ordained co-presby- ters and a full quota of elders. Gillespie and Hutcheson were absent. Of IsTew York Presbytery, there were present Dick- inson and his elder, David Whitehead, Pemberton and his elder, Nathaniel Hazard, Pierson and his elder, John Ball, Simon Horton, of Connecticut Farms, and his elder, Timothy Whitehead, Nutman, (without charge,) Leonard, of Goshen, and Azariah Horton, the missionary to the Long Island In- dians. Of Donegal Presbytery, there were Thomson, Boyd, Zanehy, Gavin, Black, Samuel Thomson, and Alexander McDowell, newly ordained as an evangelist. With them were the elders, — John Hally, Andrew Gray, Thomas Hope, Walter Caruth, George Davison, James McTire. Of Newcastle Pres- bytery, there were only two present, — viz.: Cathcart and Alison, with the elders, William Lindsay and Samuel Steel. From Lewes, only Jamison ; and the presbytery, being reduced to two by the death of Hook, was merged in Newcastle. Of Philadelphia Presbytery, there were Andrews and his elder, William Gray, R. Cross and his elder, John Cross, David Evans, Elmer and his elder, Jonathan Fithian, Cowell, McHenry and his elder, Samuel Hart, Samuel Evans, newly ordained pastor of Great Valley, and his elder, David Griffith, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 193 and Guild, newly ordained at Hopewell, and his elder, Thomas Stidraore. Dickinson was chosen moderator, and Alison clerk. An- drews preached from 2 Cor. iv. 5. The ahsence of ISTew York Presbytery last year was considered, and the excuses of some of the members sustained. The next day, Dickinson moved that a conference be held with the Brunswick brethren, to accommodate the difference and make up the unhappy breach. It was resolved to hold the conference at the usual place of meeting in the afternoon, and that four of the absentees at the time of the divison, — Dick- inson, David Evans, Pierson, and Pemberton, — and four of the Protesters, — Cross, Thomson, Cathcart, and Alison, — with Andrews, should be a committee to try all methods consistent with gospel truth, to prepare the way for healing the breach. The conference was so far encouraging* that, at the next morn- ing session, the sj^nod was resolved into an interloquitur of ministers and elders, and the ejected brethren had leave to bring with them those they had ordained, and whom the synod had not accepted as members, with their respective elders. A great deal of time was spent to no purpose, the question being, " "Who should be judges in the case ?" The ejected brethren would submit it to the consideration of none but those who had not signed the protest ; and the Protesters answered that they, with those who adhered to them, were the synod, acted as such in the ejection, and in doing so had only cast out such as they judged had rendered themselves unworthy of member- ship by openly maintaining and practising things subversive of their constitution ; and that, therefore, they would not be called to account by absent brethren or any judicature on earth, though they were willing to give the reasons of their conduct to their absent brethren and the public, to consider and review it. Alison did not concur in this, but entered on the minutes his dissent. He agreed with the Protesters, that it was an infringement of their rights, for any absent members to pretend to call the body to an account, and to judge of the legality of their proceedings ; yet he firmly believed it to be * According to David Evans, (letter in Pennsylvania Gazette,) Gilbert Tennent seemed willing to make a retraction as full as could be desired. 13 194 Webster's history of the the synod's duty, to submit them to a review of the next synod. Though looking on it as giving up some of their rights, it was his earnest desire, and he insisted that the merits of the synod's action in the exclusion be fairly tried by the present synod, to manifest the justness of the proceedings. On the next day, two hours were again spent in an interlo- quitur, and on Monday the New York Presbytery brought in their protest, in which Elmer joined them. 1. They declare the exclusion without previous trial to be an illegal and un- precedented procedure, contrary to the rules of the gospel, and subversive of our excellent constitution. 2. They con- demn the conduct of the Protesters in refusing to have the legality of the exclusion tried by the present synod. 3. They demand that all who were excluded, with their adherents, are to be owned as members of synod until excluded by fair and impartial process. 4. They protest against all passages in any pamphlets lately published in these parts, which seem to reflect on the work of divine power and grace, carried on in so won- derful a manner in many of our congregations, and declare to all the world, that we look upon it to be the indispensable duty of all our ministers to encourage that glorious work with their most faithful and diligent endeavours. 5. With equal solemnity, they protested against all divisive and irregular methods and practices, by which the peace and good order of our churches have been broken in upon. This protest is dated on the preceding Saturday. Three elders joined in it: — the two Whiteheads and ISTathaniel Hazard. The synod took no notice of it, and adjourned, after entering Alison's concurrence with it in the second article, to the next year. A note enclosed in brackets was appended to the protestation, declaring the first article to be untrue ; for the synod, by a vote, declared they were to be excluded if they refused to give satisfaction for the points complained of; and upon this they withdrew. This places the matter in its true light. The Protesters demanded of the synod that the Brunswick party should be excluded, unless they repented and desisted from their irre- gular and divisive methods. The roll being called, it appeared that the majority sustained them in their demand. On this, the Brunswick party withdrew. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 195 They were as unprepared to comply with the demand in 1742 as in the preceding year, and determined to persevere ; for they had never intermitted them in the methods con- demned so strongly by the JSTew York brethren and the Pro- testers. The labour of Dickinson and his estimable associates seems to have been spent solely in endeavouring to bring the Protesters to repentance, all that had been done on the other side, being passed over in a closing clause of their paper. Continued union would have been as absurd and mischievous as before the protest. There was no movement on the part of the conjunct presbyteries, to allay the uneasiness their pro- ceedings had produced, or to soften the vindictive asperity of their language or their action towards the Old Side and their adherents. The separation in Philadelphia was completed, and Samuel Finley preached six months to the new congrega- tion, and Gilbert Tennent was installed by his presbytery over it. The new erections were supplied as frequently as possible ; pastors were given to them, and evangelists ordained to minis- ter to them and to go on distant missions. Tennent's letter to Dickinson was published in August, and was followed by David Evans's remarks, showing how both it and the " Declaration of the Boston Ministers in Rela- tion to Davenport" justified the " Protest" and " our watchful Querists." Tennent hastened to send forth an explanation of it, which was really a retraction of it. The third edition of the " ll^ottingham Sermon" appeared. If Davenport had preached or published it, it would have been denounced by "all that fear God" as fanatical and insane. He would have been compelled, before being restored to standing in the church, to have retracted explicitly almost every sentiment it contained. For all that Davenport did in his frenzy, with "the long fever and the unceasing flow of the cankery humour," was mild when compared with the denunciations which Tennent uttered, and published and republished in all soberness and cold blood. ISTo retraction was demanded of Tennent. He denied solemnly that he had ever urged people to separate from their pastors if they deemed them unworthy ; yet, in his printed letter to Franklin in September, 1742,* he * Quoted by Dr. Hodge. 196 Webster's histokt of the said, "I see not how any who fear God can sit contentedly under their ministrations" (whom he supposed to have con- spired in opposing the work and servants of God) "without becoming accessory to their crimson guilt." The "Exa- miner; or, Gilbert versus Tennent," was too thorough an ex- posure, in his own words, of his inconsistencies and con- tradictions, for him to pass over. In his "Examiner Exa- mined" he retracted nothing, but renewed some of his most cruel, unsupported, and sweeping charges. He had said, in the " Sermon on an Unconverted Ministry," " Let those who live under the ministry of dead men, whether they have the form of religion or not, repair to the living." To assert that this was a call to set up separate meetings on the supposition the ministers were unconverted, or even contentedly unsuc- cessful in their work, he pronounced a dreadful instance of effronted impiety, and that all the world knew it to be a groundless and crimson calumny imputed to him by the CDemies of the power of religion. The " outgate" from the dilemma was, he was charged with encouraging separation from ministers merely because unconverted; while he had only done so where the ministers were opposers of the work of God. "It is the necessity of their wretched cause that urges those unhappy men to take such sinful and scandalous methods to cloak their horrible wickedness in opposing God's work Is not this the reason why a work of conviction and conversion has been so rarely heard of in the churches till of late? — that the bulk of her spiritual guides are stone-blind and stone-dead ? . . . . Consider that there is no probability of your getting good by the ministry of Pharisees ; for, take them first and last, they do more harm than good. When the life of piety comes near their quarters, they rise up in arms against it as a common enemy that discovers and condemns their craft and hypocrisy. And with what art, rhetoric, and appearances of piety, will they varnish their opposition of Christ's kingdom!" If unconverted, of course they would oppose the work of God, and, consequently, were to be forsaken. That the " Ser- mon" had a reference to his brethren, he openly admitted in 1743. " When I composed it, I expected it would be judged by that tribe it detected, as guilty of scandalum magnatum, as worthy of stripes and of bonds. I supposed it would be like PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 197 rousing a wasp's nest ; and I have found it according to my expectations." At that time, also, he said, " Give me leave also to propose this query to Mr. Thomson and his associates : — "Whether it vras because such as wei'e convinced of sin had generally a less esteem for his ministry and theirs, that he, and some at least of them, have so fiercely opposed the blessed operations of the Holy Ghost in convincing and alarming a secure vrorld? For my ov?n part, I must say, I humbly conceive that to be the secret of the story of their opposition, the bottom of the mystery, the true spring of their malignant contending against vital godliness. The false and ungenerous method, as vs^ell as long continuance of their op- position to the work of God, under so much advantage of light and evidence in favour of it, together with their dan- gerous errors, free me from the just imputation of rash judging in thinking as I have expressed." They opposed God's work by their " false and dangerous Moravian doctrine of conviction. Witness Mr. Thomson's detestable and incon- sistent performance on that subject, which divers leaders of that schismatical party have expressed their approbation of. Hardly any thing can be invented that has a more direct tendency to destroy the common operations of God's Spirit and keep men from Jesus than what Mr. Thomson has ex- pressed in that performance." Croswell had not used more unbounded language in describing Dickinson's " Display of Grace." Tennent affronted the " Old Side" by his contempt no less than by his invectives. The " Protesters" said, " Through their rash judging and condemning all who do not join with them, which has been their constant practice in their itinera- tions through our congregations, most of them are so shat- tered, divided, and shaken in their principles, that we have neither the comfort or success we had heretofore." He re- marked on this : — " As to their comfort, we believe them ; but respecting their success, we thought it had been the same as formerly, for truly this is the first time we ever heard of the success of most of them." Men must have had rare constitutions and unequalled sensibilities who could regard the author of such attacks on them with calmness, or who could feel confidence in the 198 Webster's history of the mediation of those who upheld his right to membership with them. As au illustration of this mild and forbearing spirit, the following letter will serve as an example : — ANDREWS TO PIERSON.* " Philadelphia, August 3, 1742. " Rev. and Dear Sir : — "As you desired me, when here last, to give you account of things that should happen here from time to time, so, old friendship, conscience of duty, and inclination, prompt me to gratify you in that regard. Being now entered into the sixty-ninth year of my life,— and so know it can't be long before, in the course of nature, I shall be called to give up my account, — and being lately threatened with death by a sur- feit contracted by the excessive heat, (from which indisposi- tion I am scarcely recovered,) I thought myself obliged to open my heart and ease my mind a little to you. And, as what I am about to say will be the entire fruit of brotherly love and Christian friendship,. I hope and desire that, though my sentiments may not be agi'eeable to yours, and may seem to bear too hard on some late transactions, yet, considering our state of imperfection, in which none is secured from being sometimes deceived, I trust your piety and candour will cause you to put the best of constructions upon them. I must, therefore, dear brother, tell you, that, according to. my opinion and that of all sober, judicious, unprejudiced persons I speak with about it, the ' Protest' given in last synod is chargeable with at least three imperfections. I don't mean simply as to the matters of complaint contained in it, (those against whom it is levelled must, in that respect, answer for themselves;) but that any thing of that nature should be exhibited at that time seems to me liable to no mean exceptions. In short, then, I take it to have been needless, unseasonable, and unkind. " 1. I take it to have been altogether needless ; for I cannot apprehend any need or necessity can be pretended for it, unless it were to tell the world you were not guilty, or had no * Transcribed from the original, in the hands of Dr. Sprague. PRESBYTBRIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 199 hand in the excluding protestation which you represent as a criminal action. If this were the reason (and I can see no other of any consequence,) nothing could he more need- less. Everybody knew you were not here when it was done, and, therefore, could not possibly have any hand in it. But it may be replied, if we hadn't done as we did, people might tliink we agreed to it or connived at it. I answer, your dis- approbation might have been declared in synod, and entered on the minutes, without such a public and noisy procedure, which would have sufficiently saved your credit, if there was any danger of it, — as I apprehend there was none, for I never heard of any thing suggested that had the least hint that way. " 2. To me it appears to have been egregiously unseasonable. We were at that time, and some time before, on motions and endeavours — as was, I think, on all hands professed — about ways and means of accommodation and healing the doleful rent and divisions among us. ITow, in my poor judgment, that transaction had a direct tendency to prevent, or at least retard. Let it be considered that all men have their weak- nesses and imperfections ; and that an inclination not to be undervalued or despised more or less obtains with all men. N'ow, let any body look impartially into the nature and ten- dency of that protestation, and see whether it hath not a direct tendency — especially considering the public clamorous circumstances of it — to exasperate the spirits of the former 'Protesters,' and render them abundantly more unfit and indisposed for accommodation and passing by grievances than they were before. I desire you will not take it amiss if I tell you that it appears to me in that aspect, and not to me only, but to all indifferent persons I hear speak of it. It appears to me a stumbling-block in the way of peace and concord, (though I don't believe designed so,) and the most material one of that nature which has been thrown in the way all along, not so much from the nature of the thing, as the emi- nent quality of some persons concerned in it. My dear brother, look over it again, and say if it don't look like a design, (though I won't suffer myself to imagine it was so,) — if it don't carry an aspect of an intention to disgrace, vilify, and ruffle the passions of the ' Protesters,' and consequently, put 200 Webster's history of the them out of humour, and indisposed for that glorious and necessary work of coalition which all profess to be aiming at? My dear friend, I shall look upon it as my duty, and hope I shall not be wanting in endeavours, to prevent such an evil eftect; but if the transaction be looked on with an impartial eye it bears too much of that aspect. I am willing to think myself mistaken, not being willing to harbour any wrong notions of my old, dear, valuable friends. " 3. As for the third particular, I think myself equally con- cerned with my neighbours, — viz.: unkindness. I am at a loss to make the matter agree with the friendship that is pro- fessed. Did not you know how sorely we have been handled, and what loads of affliction we have laboured under, and par- ticularly myself, your old, sincere, unfeigned friend and bro- ther, by the enormous doings of these men? Did not you know these things, which we have suffered, to the wounding of our souls, disturbance of our peace, and almost to death? Surely you could not be altogether ignorant of it. If so, to do a thing, as if designed on purpose to throw us in the dirt, and give our enemies, that have sought our ruin and to deprive us of all comfort of life, advantage to trample on us and render us despicable and useless in the world, — I say, it looks very strange from friends. I bless God that I do not perceive it hath done us any harm as to our particular charge and busi- ness, which is, to me, a wonderful providence ; but if you had come on purpose to weaken our hands, I do not see how a more direct method could have been taken. Suppose we were in the wrong in our sentiments, and don't agree with you in our notions of some men and things : as long as we profess sincerity and conscience, and are in other things, I hope, tolerably regular, — and nobody can convict us of hypocrisy in our pi'ofession, — one would have expected pity from old friends, and not such a blow under the fifth rib, when there was really no need of it, by opening a door to let in our ene- mies to devour us. Truly, my dear brother, it appears asto- nishing to me. But I will stop my pen, (perhaps it has run too far already,) and tell you my thoughts. I don't impute it to old friends : it was chiefly the transaction of one man, who, in an ostentatious, noisy manner — so my old friends shall be such still ; some say dux fcemina facti; if so, more is the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 201 pity. I was going for an appendix to compare the former pro- test (wherein I had no hand) with this, and see if I could not make this look as black as that. But I forbear, and pray the Lord open all our ej^es, rectify our mistakes, and keep us from being biassed by human favour, affection, or example, but sincerely follow the things that tend to true Christian peace and truth, that so we may give in our account with joy. " Let there be no diminution of aff'ection or stagnation of correspondence. " Let us compassionate each other's weaknesses ; and, if you reckon me, as Gilbert does, an enemy to God's work, or call me devil, my Christian charity towards my good old friends shall, I hope, remain inviolate. Pray, take in good part these uncouth lines, because the effort of the sincere aff'ection and to deliver the soul of " Your old friend and brother, "J. Andrews. " You may let this go to next town, sed non ultra. Having heard the Moravians twice, think their doctrine the same as Whitefield's when he first came here. Divers dead last week of the heat. Pray the Lord make us ready." In New England and parts adjacent, while many separated from the standing order, and became strict Congregationalists, a number invoked councils to relieve them from lukewarm or insufficient pastors, or to countenance them in forming new congregations. The Irish Presbyterians there, were not united. The Rev. John Caldwell preached in the old church of Londonderry, N.H., on the Trial of the Spirits ; and the Rev. David McGre- goire, of the second church in the town, to whom "the wondrous work now making its triumphant progress through our land was agreeable," preached on the same text with widely different doctrine and inferences. Both sermons were printed. Caldwell, during Davenport's stay in Boston, preached before the Presbytery of Boston, in the French meeting-house, a sermon on the false prophets, full of personal allusions and incidents and instances taken from Whitefield's writings and those of his friends. Tennent had described the old Pharisees 202 Webster's history of the as having a fair and strict outside, but being full of pride, policy, malice, ignorance, covetousness, and bigotry to human inventions in religious matters; and that those that have covetously and cruelly crept into the ministry in sv^^arms and crowds, were as like those of old, as one crow's egg is like another. Caldwell described false teachers as laying aside reason, opposing, contradicting, and endeavouring to bring into disgrace the ministry of God's appointment; speaking loud, like Baal's prophets; presumptuous, throwing defiance at Satan, and saying "Why sleepest thou?" and being in some or more particulars answerable to the characters given iu 2 Pet. ii. 10, and "turning the grace of God into lascivious- ness." Such he declared the whole tribe of evangelists and itinerants to be. It was, in the highest degree, merciless and unjust. Caldwell has left these two sermons; but, besides these, we know nothing of him, and little or nothing of those who acted with him. The expression of religious joy by a hearty laugh during divine service, was quite as offensive to some, as the fits into which Satan cast several in Philadelphia were to "Whitefield; Lay exhorters rose up in abundance in the East; and, though Tennent condemned the practice of sending them forth as perverse and unjustifiable, yet the names of several* are given who, under his auspices, went out to supply the lack of service of the plastered hypocrites. Creaghead published his manifesto or declaration of prin- ciples, and formed, after the mode of the Society people in Scotland, praying-societies in many places. A part of his congregation forsook him to receive supplies from Donegal Presbytery ; another portion left him to remain with the New- Side; and a thii'd fraction adopted, with him, the distinctive tenets of the Caraeronians. While in New England, l^ew York, and ISTew Jersey, there were opposers of the revivals, opposers of Davenport, and friends of his proceedings, each widely parted from the other; throughout Pennsylvania and the lower provinces there were Old-Side, !N"ew-8ide„ and Cove- nanter congregations worshipping in the same log meeting- * Lawyer Paine, Daniel^'Rogers, Samuel Thatcher. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 203 house, at different hours or on different days, and severed from each other as if by oceans. " The trial of the Moravians" continued. Pemberton* wrote to Doddridge that the Moravians tried to draw off the affec- tions of the people from the soundest and most zealous preachers ; and the following extracts show that Tennent had his share of "the trial." WHITEFIELDf TO NOBLE, OF NEW YORK. " EDiNBiTiiGH, September 2, 1742. "I have just been writing to our dear brother, Gilbert Ten- nent. Both your letters came to me at the same time, and, had I not been used to trials uf that nature, would have affected me much. Dear Mr. Tennent speaks many things that I know are too true of the Moravian brethren; but his spirit seems to be too much heated, and I fear too much of his own wild fire is mixed up with that sacred fire of zeal which comes from God." " September 22. — Take heed that your getting acquainted with any new set of Christians does not insensibly lead you to despise others of your old acquaintance Principles of themselves, without the Spirit of God, will not unite any set of men together." WHITEFIELD TO DR. COLMAN, OF BOSTON. " September 24, 1742. " There seems to be such a time in Philadelphia as we have had in England. I have wrote to Mr. Tennent. He, in a late letter, thinks me too charitable ; but my conscience does not reproach me for that. I go on preaching the cross and the power of the Redeemer, and desire to say as little as possible about others, lest I should divert people's minds from the sim- plicity of the gospel. I have often found that opposing, in- stead of hurting, makes erroneous people more considerable. This made me wish the Boston ministers would not say so much about the exhorters. It will only set the people the more upon following them. Zinzendorff formed the English Moravian church in Phila- * Doddridge's Correspondence. f Whitefield's Correspondence, 3 vols. 204 -Webster's history of the delphia, December 31, 1742, and immediately left the city for Frankford, on his way to ISTew York, to sail for England. That fanaticism was making headway at this time in ISTew England, the following extract of a letter from the Eector of Yale to Dickinson, dated March 14, 1743, will testify :— "I take the liberty to inform you of one pretty remarkable piece of news, — viz. : the Separatists or Antinomians at New London, under the conduct of Messrs. Croswell, Allen, Curtiss, &c., have sent for Mr. Davenport to embody them into a church. The next Sabbath after he came, they made a bonfire in the street, before Mr. Adams's meeting-house, just as the people were coming out, and burnt up your dialogues, sermons, &c., Mr. Adams's sermons, Russel's seven sermons, the Whole Duty of Man, the Old Testament, and sundry other such erroneous books. One of them made a prayer and exhortation over the bonfire, and told them it was a mercy they had escaped the errors contained in those books; for, if they had not, they would have been in the flames, as those books were. Mr. D.* also commanded Mr. Allen and Mr. Curtiss to pull off" their gowns, and others their banyans, wiggs, short cloaks, &c. ; they accordingly pulled them oft' and laid them in a heap. But some said they had a revelation not to burn them; so, after some dispute, it was deferred." The synod met in 1743, the Brunswick party being also in town. Dickinson, Pemberton, Pierson, Burr, and Nutman, of New York Presbyteiy, were present without elders. From Newcastle Presbytery, now embracing Lewes, there were Cath- cart, Alison, and Jamison ; Martin, and Thomas Evans being dead, Glasgow having embraced Episcopacy, and Carlisle ceasing to be mentioned. From Donegal Presbytery, there were Thomson, Boyd, Black, Elder, Zanchy, McDowell, and the newly-ordained ministers, Bell and Hyndman. There were also eight elders. From Philadelphia Presbytery, there were Andrews and his elder, William Gray ; Eobert Cross ; Elmer and his elder, John Ogden; Cowell; McHenry and * Transcribed from E. Hazard's MSS. Brainerd wrote to Bellamy, March 26, 1743 : — " Mr. Davenport's conduct makes a terrible noise at New York and the Jerseys ; where, 'tis affirmed, he has burnt the Old Testament among other books." PKESBTTEMAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 205 his elder, Samuel Hart; and S. Evans and his elder, David Griffith. Dickinson preached from 1 Cor. i. 10. Cowell was chosen moderator, and Alison clerk. Thomas Cookson, Esq., one of his Majesty's justices for Lancaster county, appeared, in the name of the governor, Math a paper and an affidavit about it. All business was laid aside to hear the paper, and they unani- mously declared their detestation of it, and that they knew not who was the author ; and that Mr. Alexander Creaghead, to whom it was ascribed, "hath been no member of our societ}'' for some time past, nor do we acknowledge him as such." Dickinson, Pemberton, Alison, and Cowell drew up an ad- dress to the governor, which the synod approved, and ap- pointed Andrews, Cross, Cathcart, and the moderator to present it, with a copy of the minute.* The meeting on Monday morning was adjourned till the afternoon of that day, that some proposals of peace and agree- ment might be prepared and sent to the Brunswick party. These proposals were sent in an extra-judicial way by Burr, and were in substance : — 1. That they recant the principles of their Apology, and engage to submit to agreements and con- clusions adopted by the majority of the synod. 2. That they license only those who submit to the synod's rule or an equiva- lent, and give up those licensed or ordained without such sub- mission, to be examined by the synod, and promise to hold no ministerial communion with those of them who refuse submis- sion, or who being examined are found deficient. 3. That they will neither intrude or send missionaries within fixed pastoral charges, nor encourage separation, nor supply with preaching the societies that have separated, but will declare all such practices pernicious and anti-presbyterian. 4. That, until censured on proper judicial process, they will in no way diminish any minister's character, nor claim the right to judge of men's spiritual states towards God, if sound in faith and of a good life. 5. That they renounce the tenets of the ISTotting- ham Sermon, such as the allowance to church members to guess at their pastor's spiritual state, and on this guess without further trial to leave him as graceless. 6. That they acknow- * Printed in Bradford's Weekly Mercury. 206 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE ledge tlieir guiltiness in these things, and that, though they may have been influenced in doing them by zeal to promote a work of grace, they are conrinced these practices have had a dreadful tendency to promote divisions and disturb the church. 7. That, whether they accept of these terms or not, they are welcome to table charges in the proper judicature against any of us, and that,, if they accept these terms or any other that they and we can devise, all other grounds of complaint shall be removed by public trial, or by such method as they or we shall determine. These proposals, except the first and second, are evidently identical with the acknowledgments made by Tennent in his letter to Dickinson. They took him at his word, and ofliered reconciliation on the terms of his own choos- ing. On meeting in the afternoon, the Brunswick party sent for answer, that they judge that there can be no regular method of reconciliation until the illegal protest be withdrawn ; that they and we may be both upon an equal footing in the regular trial of the diflerence. They alleged that there were misre- presentations and unreasonable demands, and that they had several charges in which they must have satisfaction before they could come into stated union with them. The ISTew York Presbytery had prepared and sent proposals of a different character. They asked: — 1. That the protest be withdrawn, and that the excluded members peaceably take their seats as formerly. The synod replied, that the protest was sufficiently justified by the reasons contained in it; and that the only sensible expedient for reunion was for the ex- cluded to give under their hands a statement how far they would comply with the demands of it, by acknowledging their misconduct and by giving satisfactory security against the fears of its being repeated. 2. They proposed that all who in future are privately educated for the ministry shall submit to the synod's rule or else go to a Isew England college for a year: their expenses there, if need be, to be defrayed out of the synod's fund. The synod replied, that if the excluded refused to give satisfaction for the past, it was unlikely any equivalent to the rule would be of service; and that the best method would be for them to state what satisfaction they are willing to give on this head. That no one shall close his pulpit against any brother, and no one encourage separation PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 207 or alienation from pastors. They replied, where love and esteem actually subsist, there is no need for such a right to be pleaded by the itinerant; and where jealousy and distrust exist, such a rule would undoubtedly increase them. That no minister ought to be allowed to itinerate unless by order of his presbytery, and by concurrence of the body into whose bounds he goes. That the separations were already made, and that those concerned in them ought to be required to return to their pastors, or be dealt with as disorderly. 4. That if any one has or thinks he has ground for any complaint against a brother, he shall privately seek to have it removed ; and that on failing, he may cite him to appear before his presbytery or the synod or its commission. They replied, this was the rule already, and that the natural method was the best, to bring every case before the next highest judicature. 5. That all treat one another as if no difference had ever existed. They replied, this was impossible until repentance were shown and security given; and was unscriptural, for we are required to rebuke them that sin, and avoid the author of division. 6. They urged, that at this session some plan of accommodation should be adopted, but that if none could be agreed on, then they asked the synod to give leave to as many of their mem- bers as pleased to erect a new synod, to be in communion with them, and yearly, by the interchange of two correspond- ents, to consult the general interest of religion in these parts. They refused on the ground that this would be authorize and perpetuate schism, and would be a continual temptation to each party to build up itself against the other ; but that if the new synod should be erected, though they could not but regard it as a contentious separation, yet they would endeavour to cul- tivate a truly Christian and charitable disposition towards them, so far as they could ; for they added, they had reason to acknow- ledge that the remains of corruption and uncharitableness did too much and too often prevail over them. These proposals were unanimously rejected by the synod. On this, Dickinson, in behalf of his co-presbyters, declared that they complained of no unfriendly or unbrotherly treatment from the synod to themselves, but that, as long as the Brunswick brethren were excluded, they could not see their way clear to sit and act as though we were the Synod of Philadelphia. 208 Webster's history of the An answer to this paper was read; but it was unanimously agreed not to enter it on the record. The New York brethren had happily escaped the divisions that rent and tore the congregations in West Jersey and Penn- sylvania ; they had seen much of the contending in New Eng- land, and sympathized with the moderate party which bore the cross-fire of the opposers of the revival and the favour- ers of extravagances. They had no occasion to burden them- selves with Saul's massive armour, and could not understand why the Protesters and their associates refused to harness them- selves in coats of mail which would render them helpless before the giants that were in those days. They approached the shield on the golden side, while the others saw no sign of any thing better than brass. They were at their ease, and could not have compassion on those whose flocks were scattered, and who met with reverence more rarely than with reviling. The New York terms of accommodation would have been rejected by their best friends in New England. Dr. Colman was not satisfied with Davenport's ample retraction, till he added to it an explicit condemnation of intrusions. In July, 1743, a tes- timony in behalf of the revival, signed by many ministers in New England, contained this proviso : — That ministers do not invade the province of others, and in ordinary cases preach in another's parish without his knowledge and against his con- sent, nor encourage new and indiscreet young candidates to rush into particular places. Colman* and fourteen others concurred in the testimony, with the exception of the article of itinerancy, or ministers and others intruding into parishes without the consent of the pastors ; " which great disorder we apprehend not sufficiently testified against." The New York terms proposed to sanction this itinerancy on the largest scale. The frankness on both sides is pleasing. The Protesters made their demands full and clear; each party understood how much was asked, and how much was yielded. In 1742, several of the back-inhabitants of Virginia suppli- cated the commission to ask the Scottish kirk to send them a probationer or a minister. The letter was written, but was not answered. McDowell, from Virginia, had been ordained as * Tracy's Great Awakening. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 209 .an evangelist, and sent to them ; and Hyndman was on this supplication ordained and sent to them. In 1743, the synod laid before the General Assembly in Edinburgh the low and melancholy condition of the church for want of probationers to supply numerous vacancies, and for want of suitable encouragement of ministers in new settle- ments; and asked them to send probationers and ministers, and allow them some small support for a few years in new places, and also to aid in establishing a school. Alison and McDowell wrote to some gentlemen in Virginia, begging their interest to further the application. The Brunswick party had not been idle; they ordained Eobinson and Campbell in 1742, and the next year, Finley, McKnight, Youngs, and Beatty. They also licensed Dean, and sent Treat to preach at Milford, in Connecticut, and heal the separation there. Eobinson went through the Valley of Virginia into North Carolina, and spent two years in the new settlements there and beyond the Susquehanna. Davenport, having denounced the Boston ministers, was pre- sented to the grand jury and by them declared to be insane. He offered himself in October, 1743, as a member of ISTew Brunswick Presbytery ; the people of Hopewell, 'Sew Jersey, petitioning that he might supply them with a view to settle- ment. The presbytery examined him, and, finding him hum- bled and contrite for some of the things in which they thought him faulty, but not in all, they could not allow a call to be presented to him, but suffered the people to "improve" him for the next six months. Early in February, 1743-4, G-illespie* waited upon Sew- castle Presbytery, "convened at the New London tract, and then and there, in the presence of the said presbytery and .of a very numerous congregation, confessed his error and sin in leaving them, and solemnly declared he was sorry he had ever joined with the new party; that he had acted rashly and divi- sively, and was led to it by the appearance of piety in some, and by not duly considering and comparing the protestation and the apology of the New Brunswick Presbytery. He thought that the things laid to the charge of said presbytery, and used * Philadelphia newspapers. 14 210 Webster's histoey of the as a ground of casting them out, had not been tabled against them, nor they called to an account and tried before their exclusion. Whereas, upon a fair and impartial review of the affair, he found there was a sufficient ground to cast them out in 1739, when they gave in their apology, because in it they argued for the subversion of the Presbyterian plan of govern- ment, and paved the waj for all the anarchy and confusion that has followed since. The letter that he published to the Presbytery of New York, went upon a false foundation, as if the apology had not been tried ; and that, by their adhering to it and endeavouring to vindicate it, they deserved exclusion. He was received as a member with mutual joy and satis- faction." In 1744, none of New York Presbytery were present in synod, and they sent no further proposals. Pomeroy sent his excuse for absence, he being near his end. Gillespie appeared for the first time since the rupture. Hutcheson wrote to the synod expressing his views of the proceedings on both sides, and giving his advice. They sent a respectful reply to him by Alison. Jamison and Stevenson had been removed by death, Griffith and Steel had been ordained, Scougal received from Scotland, and Bell suspended. Newcastle Presbytery now had seven ministers, all present; there were five from Donegal and six from Philadelphia : there were fifteen elders. McHenry was chosen moderator. Many people of North Carolina re- quested the synod to take their desolate condition into consi- deration, and send one of their number to correspond with them. John Thomson, who was about settling in Virginia, was appointed, and travelled thither to preach to them and learn fully their condition. They also wrote to Wales, that a probationer, speaking the language of the Principality, might be sent over. The brethren having agreed privately to establish a school, the synod took it under their care, and resolved to keep it open through the year, that all who please may have their children instructed gratis in the languages, philosophy, and divinity. It was to be supported by yearly congregational col- lections. Alison was chosen master, with a salary of twenty pounds, with leave to choose an usher, to whom they promised fifteen pounds. PRESBYTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 211 The Rev. Mr. Dorsius, or Dorsey, of the Reformed Dutch church in Bucks countj-, from the deputies of North and South Holland, desiring of the synod an account of the state of the High and Low Dutch churches in the province, and of the synod's churches, and whether they can be united in one synod, or whether the Dutch can be formed into a synod by themselves, — the synod wrote to the deputies of those synods and to the Scotch ministers in Rotterdam, giving the account and signifying their willingness to join with the Calvinist Dutch churches. They represented also the great want both of High and Low Dutch ministers, and desired them to help in educating men for the ministry. The Brunswick party sent Blair to the synod, demanding that a portion of the fund be allowed them. They replied, that they saw in this no endeavour for peace or for healing the lamentable divisions ; and that as they have by their con- duct forfeited all right to membership, their demand is highly unreasonable and unjust, and not to be complied with. Dickinson, Pierson, and Nutman, with Gillespie, were put on the commission. On the 8th of July, 1744, Davenport made a free, complete retraction of alibis errors: — "I had the long fever and the cankery humor raging at once ; my spirit was devoid of in- ward PEACE, laying too much stress on externals, neglect- ing the heart, being full of impatience, pride, and arrogance." "His manner was so changed; it was with such a mild, plea- sant, meek and humble spirit, broken and contrite, as I scarce ever saw exceeded or equalled. He asked pardon of those he had treated amiss, and in a large assembly made a public recantation of his mistakes and offences." In August, 1744, Wbitefield arrived in ISTew England, and remained there till the spring. On one occasion, while preach- ing at Webb's meeting-house in Boston, there was an outcry and great confusion. Dr. Colman* wrote at once to him, not to encourage such things and make a party for Moorhead, the Presbyterian minister. "Wbitefield disclaimed any such idea ; and Colman replied, wishing "such things might be confined to walls, where I always esteemed them but the signs of the * MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. 212 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE weakness and infirmity of minister and people." A body of people separated at ISTewburyport, and subsequently became a Presbyterian church. When Whitefield preached in their new meeting-house, such was his kindness* on the head of separations, that he declared to the congregation before preaching, that he would not have appeared there, but be- cause of the snow, and the other places of worship being refused him. He also declared at that time against unscrip- tural separations. In June, 1745, the G-eneral Association of Connecticutf declared, that Whitefield having been the promoter or faulty occasion of the prevailing disorders, it would be by no means advisable for any of our ministers to open their pulpits to him, during his progress through this government, or for any of our people to attend his administrations. The synod in 1745 was attended by Dickinson, Pierson, and Pemberton, with his elder, Nathaniel Hazard ; all of Philadel- phia Presbytery but Guild ; all of N'ewcastle Presbytery, and only three — viz. : Thomson, Boyd, and Zanchy — from Donegal. There were thirteen elders. Cathcart was chosen moderator; Dickinson, Pierson, and Pemberton were put at the head of the commission. At the request of the New York brethren, a committee was appointed to confer with them and accommodate the difference between them. The committee did not succeed, and the synod spent much time in committee of the whole, and appointed Thomson, Alison, Griffith, Steel, and McDowell, to prepare and bring in a plan of union. As a preliminary, the New York brethren declared that they accounted only such of the Bruns- Aviek party as had been members of the synod, to be members now. The plan was prefaced by a narrative of the differences ; and, premising that the New York brethren proposed that all the members of the synod should subscribe the essential agreements on which the synod was established, they concur, nud declare those agreements to be : — 1. In all prudential acts, every member shall either actively concur or peaceably * Noticed in all the papers of the day. f Trumbull's History of Connecticut. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 213 submit to, and not counteract the determinations of tlie ma- jority; or else withdraw if he have not freedom of con- science to complj'. 2. Only the rules of the gospel and our known methods shall be used, when any one sees faultiness in his brother's life or doctrine. 3. No minister shall pi-each in another's charge, unless invited by him or appointed by the proper authority; and new erections in any regulated congregations shall neither be maintained or supported by any of our members. 4. None shall be admitted, without submitting to examination and subscribing these agree- ments. 5. That each member keep a day of fasting, to mourn the decline of religion and implore the blessing of God. The New York brethren immediately declared they would not be united with them on this plan, and desired a copy of it for their presbytery. They proposed that they he allowed to form, with the consent of the synod, a new synod; that there may be a foundation for both bodies to act in mutual concert, and maintain love and brotherly kindness. The synod replied, that they saw no just ground for their withdrawal; yet, seeing they proposed to erect a new synod in the most friendly manner possible, we shall endeavour to maintain Christian affection towards them and show it on all suitable occasions by correspondence and fellowship. Minuteness was necessary in the detail of the measures which separated the New York Presbytery from the Protest- ers, that justice might be done to the character of the latter, as Christian men "of good report. They insisted on one point only, to which the New York brethren could not fully con- sent ; for they concurred in regarding those only as members of the synod who were so at the protestation. All ordained since, as well as any ordained in disregard of the rule con- cerning candidates, were not to be admitted as members of the synod, even on the withdrawal of the protest, until the ma- jority of the body consented. The hinderance, was the demand to amalgamate the Old and New Side congregations, as if no separation had taken place ; to unsettle their pastors ; and to compel the people to return to the old meeting-houses. The thing was impracticable; and, even if the Brunswick party 214 Webster's history of the had faithfully used all their endeavours to eflteet it, their suc- cess would have amounted only to filling old bottles with the new fermenting liquor, merely to see them burst and waste the wines. It was a kind Providence that frustrated their well-meant endeavours for a reunion. Separation placed both parties in a position to see other's excellencies, and made them cordially desirous of drawing together. There was too much corrup- tion and contentiousness, and too frequent yieldings to it, in most of the Protesters and the excluded, to 'have rendered union comfortable. Many expedients might have been de- vised; but it is a blessing that cometh of the Lord, "to make men of one mind in a house." The commission met at Bran- dywine, Delaware, on the 20th of August, and wrote to Presi- dent Clapp and the Trustees of Yale, who, in reply, expressed their readiness to aid them in sustaining their school, and inquired about the plan of it and the state of the synod. " Our poor undertaking has been so blessed by Providence as to exceed our expectations. Several ministers and gentle- men have helped us to books, to begin a library ; and we hope in time to obtain assistance from England, Ireland^ and else- where, to found a college. Our fund for public uses is consi- derable ; but we have had no occasion to apply any of it to the school." They proposed to send their scholars to Yale, to be examined by the president and fellows, and treated only according to proficiency. The particulars are lost to us of the proposals interchanged between the New York and the Brunswick brethren, before they united in forming a union. Whitefield was in the country; but he was not consulted,* although he was at New York very shortly before the new synod met at Eliza- bethtown. " At New York, Whitefield found the seed sown had sprung up abundantly, and at the east end of Long Island he saw many instances. Near Freehold, he preached, through an interpreter, to the Indians who had been converted under Brainerd, and saw nearly fifty in a school learning the Assem- * " His seeming to faTOur the MoraTians causes our ministers to keep aloof from him." — Rev. Enos Ajres to Mr. Bellamy, September, 1745. MS. Letter. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 215 bly's Catechisra. William Tennent seemed to encourage the missiou with his whole heart." "His party I found much on the advance," is all that Whitefield says on the matter, so interesting and so important in its vast and happy results. Fifty persons on horseback escorted Whitefield into Phila- delphia, where he found Grilbert Tennent settled; and, the trus- tees of the Great House offered him eight hundred pounds if he would preach for them six months in the year. It appears that he urged Romaine and Dr. Haweis* to go and preach in the Great House. He remained seven days in the city, — from the 13th to the 20th. The meeting to constitute the synod was large. Of ITew York Presbytery were present, Dickinson and his elder, Joseph Woodruff"e ; Pemberton and his elder, Nathaniel Ha- zard ; Pierson ; Simon Horton ; Burr and his elder, Joseph Prudden ; Johnes ; Byram, of Mendham, and his elder, Ben- jamin Leonard ; Sturgeon, of Bedford, and his elder, John Ayres; and A. Horton. Of New Brunswick Presbytery, Gilbert Tennent and his elder, Samuel Hazard ; Lamb ; Treat ; William Ten- nent and his elder, Robert Gumming; McCrea and his elder, John Craig ; Robinson ; Youngs ; Beatty and his elder, Richard Walker; McKnight and his elder, Peter Peryen. Of Newcastle Presbytery, Samuel Blair and his elder, John Love; S. Pinley; C. Tennent; John Blair and his elder, Alexander Moody. They considered and adopted the following plan and foun- dation of their synodical union : — " 1. They agree that the Westminster Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, be the public con- fession of their faith in such manner as was agreed unto by. the Synod of Philadelphia, in the year 1729, and to be inserted in the latter end of this book. And they declare their approbation of the Directory of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as the general plan of worship and discipline. * Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon. 216 Webster's history of the "2. They agree that, in matters of discipline, and those things that relate to the peace and good order of our churches, they shall be determined according to the major vote of minis- ters and elders, with which vote every member shall actively concur or pacifically acquiesce ; but if any member carmot in conscience agree to the determination of the majority, but supposes himself obliged to act contrary thereunto, and the synod think themselves obliged to insist upon it as essen- tially necessary to the well-being of our churches, in that case such dissenting member promises peaceably to with- draw from the body, without endeavouring to raise any dis- pute or contention upon the debated point, or any unjust alienation of affection from them. " 3. If any member of their body supposes that he hath any thing to object against any of his brethren with respect to error in doctrine, immorality in life, or negligence in his ministry, he shall not on any account propagate the scandal until the person objected against is dealt with according to the rules of the gospel and the known methods of their discipline. " 4. They agree that all who have a competent degree of ministerial knowledge, are orthodox in their doctrine, regular in their lives, and diligent in their endeavours to promote the important designs of vital godliness, and that will submit to their discipline, shall be cheerfully admitted into their com- munion. "And they do also agree that, in order to avoid all divisive methods among their ministers and congregations, and to strengthen the discipline of Christ in the churches in these parts, they will maintain a correspondence with the Synod of Philadelphia in this their first meeting, by appointing two of their members to meet with the said Synod of Philadelphia at their next convention, and to concert with them such mea^ sures as may best promote the precious interests of Christ's kingdom in these parts. " And that they may in no respect encourage any factious separating practices or principles, they agree that they will not intermeddle with judicially hearing the complaints, or with supplying with ministers and candidates such parties of men, as shall separate from any Presbyterian or Congrega- PRESBYTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 217 tional churches that are not within their bounds, unless the matters of controversy be submitted to their juriBdiction or advice by both parties." Compared with the proposals offered by the Protesters, these articles look almost as if drawn by the latter. The fourth article is so contrary to all that had been taught about graceless and unconverted preachers, that it might have been brought in by Thomson and Eobert Cross and accepted by any one of the Old Side. 218 Webster's history of the CHAPTER Vni. Acting by theniBelves, and engaged in constituting a synod for themselves, the New Side yielded much to the ISTew York brethren, without imagining they were yielding any thing.* Demanded as articles of submission by Philadelphia Synod, most of the terms of the Plan would have been rejected super- ciliously. Dickinson was chosen moderator, and Pemberton clerk, and they two were appointed a committee to meet with the Philadelphia Synod and propose terms of agreement and cor- respondence. An interloquitur was held, probably to agree on the terms to be offered by them; and a commission was appointed, embracing four members of the New York Presby- tery, and two from each of the other presbyteries. Philadelphia Synod met May 29, 1746, with twelve minis- ters and eleven elders. No new members had been added, and Bertram and Scougal had died. The smallpox being in Philadelphia, the committee of New York Synod did not at- tend ; but Dickinson wrote, desiring correspondence, each body to send yearly to the other two of their members, and pro- posing a triennial meeting, by delegates, in some convenient place, "to order public affairs for the glory of God, and the good of the church." They replied: — * Samuel Finley to Bellamy, Elizabethtown, September 20, 1745. "I can truly sympathize with you in your grievances as to the declension of religion and to those horrendous principles you mention; they are antinomiau and enthusiastic. .... We have some that treat us in the same way as your Eastern Exhorters, and equally pervert the Scriptures, ignorantly taking some scriptural expressions in their full extent, and will not observe the limitations made by other Scriptures. But I'm so hurried I cannot write the fourth part of what I would. We are joined in a synod with New York Presbytery. Religion is not lively with us ; yet some- times a sinner is brought home and saints refreshed." peesbtterian church in america. 219 "Eeverend and Dear Brother: — " We had yours laid before us by Mr. Andrews, and trust we can heartily join in all proper methods to promote the glory of God, the interest of Christ's kingdom, and welfare of the churches in these parts; and shall readily join with you in remembering each other at the throne of grace, and praying for each other's gospel endeavours to advance religion. We are also pleased, that attempts are making by you, to prevent divisive methods. We would desire, you might communicate to us the plan on which you have erected yourselves, what general agreements you have brought the members under on their ad- mission, and who are members with you. When we are better acquainted with these things, we can the more readily judge how we shall be able to answer your desires. We can assure you of our regard and friendship, and of our prayers for the divine blessing on your person and ministerial labours." In their letter to the Eector and the Trustees of Yale, they say, "The ISTewTork Synod's proposals seem fair; but, till the dividers of our churches (and they chiefly make up that body) declare against the late divisive, uncharitable practices, and show us in what way they intend to have their youth educated for the ministry, we shall be shy to comply with their proposals." The omission of sending the plan and the list of members of the new synod was a fatal one. Had Dickinson met with them, it would have been supplied, and the way prepared for a reconciliation and for friendly intercourse as two contiguous and distinct judicatories. The next meeting of 'New York Synod was in the spring, and was very small. The members were prevented from at- tending by the apprehension of smallpox and other diflaculties. Dickinson preached from Psalm xxiv. 4; and Pemberton was chosen moderator. The reply of the Synod of Philadelphia was read ; but no notice appears to have been taken of it at this time, or at the meeting in May, 1747, or in 1748. During this time, Robinson, Dickinson, Brainerd, and Tucker died ; and there were ordained Eoan, Sackett, Bostwick, G-raut, Hunter, Dean, Green, Lawrence, Davies, Arthur, Sterling, Bay, and Prudden. Davenport, Symmes, and Lewis had been re- ceived from Long Island or New England. 220 Webster's history of the Nothing was done on the subject of union or correspond- ence with the ISTew York Synod by the Old Synod in 1747 or 1748. The meeting in 1747 was small, — twelve ministers and twelve elders.* Andrews had been removed by death, and four ministers had been ordained: — Thorn, Dick, Hamilton, and Hector Alison. In 1748, there were fourteen ministers pre- sent, and twelve elders; Dick had died, and Brown had been received from Scotland. During this lull in the storm, which so completely becalmed the two ships of Zion that they attempted no intercourse, the spirit of Gilbert Tennent stirred within him, and he preached, June 20, 1749, the "Irenicum; or, a Plea for the Peace of Jerusalem." In May, 1749, the 'Sew York Synod met, with twenty-two ministers and six elders. Twenty-one ministers were absent. Dean had died and Allen had been received, and Rodgers, Smith, John Brainerd, and Richards had been ordained. The Presbyterj' of Suffolk was admitted into the synod, and Mr. Prime and Mr. Brown took their seats. A motion was made for making proposals to the Philadelphia Synod for a union : it was considered the next day, and, after much reasoning, was carried by a great majority. Among the absentees were Samuel and John Blair, "William and Charles Tennent, Wales, and Sterling. The paper was as follows : — " The Synod of New York are deeply sensible of the many unhappy consequences that flow from our present divided state, and have with pleasure observed a spirit of moderation increasing between manj' of the members of both synods. This opens a door of hope, that, if we were united in one body. We might be able to carry on the designs of religion in future peace and agreement to our mutual satisfaction; and, though we retain the same sentiments of the work of God which we formerly did, yet we esteem mutual forbearance our duty, since we all profess the same Confession of Faith and Direc- tory of Worship. We would, therefore, tumbly propose to our brethren of the Synod of Philadelphia, that all our former * Gillespie, though recorded as absent, was present on the second day of the meeting. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 221 diffei'eDces be buried in perpetual oblivion, and that for the time to come, botb synods be united into one, and that hence- forth there be no contentions among us ; but to carry towards each other in the most peaceable and brotherly manner, which we are persuaded will be for the honour of our Master, the credit of our profession, and the edification of the churches committed to our care. Accordingly, we appoint the E.ev. Messrs. John Pierson, Gilbert Tennent, Ebenezer Pemberton, and Aaron Burr, to be our delegates to wait upon the Synod of Philadelphia with these proposals. And if the Synod of Philadelphia see meet to join with us in this design, and will please to appoint a commission to meet for that purpose, we appoint the Pev. Messrs. John Pierson, Ebenezer Pemberton, Aaron Burr, Gilbert and William Tennent, Richard Treat, Samuel or John Blair, John Roan, Samuel Finley, Ebenezer Prime, David Bostwick, and James Brown, (whom we appoint a commission of the synod for the ensuing year,) to meet with the commission of the Synod of Philadelphia, at such time and place as thej' shall choose, to determine the affair of the union, agreeable to the preliminary articles concluded upon by this synod ; and it is agreed that any other of our members who shall please to meet with the commission shall have liberty of voting and acting in said affair equally with the members of said commission. Which articles proposed as a general plan of union are as follows, viz.: — " 1. To preserve the common peace, we would propose that all names of distinction which have been made use of in the late times be forever abolished. "2. That every member assent unto and adopt the Confes- sion of Faith and Directory, according to the plan formerly agreed to by the Synod of Philadelphia in the years . " 8. That every member promise, that after any question has been determined by the major vote, he will actively concur or passively submit to the judgment of the body; but if his con- science permit him to do neither of these, that then he shall be obliged peaceably to withdraw from our synodical com- munion, without any attempt to make a schism or division among us. Yet this is not intended to extend to any cases but those which the synod judges essential in matters of doc- trine or discipline. 222 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE "4. That all our respective congregations and vacancies be acknowledged as congregations belonging to the synod, but continue under the care of the same presbytery as now they are, until a favourable opportunity presents for an advan- tageous alteration. " 5. That we all agree to esteem and treat it as a censurable evil, to accuse any of' our members of error in doctrine or immorality in conversation, any otherwise than by private reproof, till the accusation has been brought before a regular judicature and issued according to the known rules of our discipline." The Synod of Philadelphia met the week following: four ministers present from each presbytery, and ten elders. One minister had been ordained. Joseph Tate and Brown had returned to Scotland. At the first sederunt, the proposals for peace and union were brought in by the four delegates of iNew York Synod, and the synod resolved itself into a committee and spent the next morning in considering them. The delegates agreed to the following concessions and amendments in the proposals. 1. "We retain the same sentiments of the work of G-od which we formerly did, [though great and good men have been of difierent opinions.] In the third article to strike out "yet this is not intended," &c., and to substitute "always reserving a liberty for such dissenting members to lay their grievances before the synod in a peaceable manner." To add two articles: — "6. That there be no intrusion into the bounds of presbyteries or pas- toral charges against the inclination of presbyteries or pastors. "7. That all candidates for the work of the ministiy either be examined by the synod or its commission previous to their admission on trials by any of our presbyteries, or else be obliged to obtain a college-diploma, or a certificate, from the president and trustees of the college, of their having been examined and found qualified." Gilbert Tennent only objected to the synodical examination of candidates. It was also agreed that the two commissions should ripen things for the next synodical meetings, but not finally deter- mine any thing. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 223 The synod, at the close of this conference, resolved, as the delegates have given us some hope of our great ground of complaint being removed, to leave the matter to a commis- sion ; and to lay a copy of the New York Synod's plan and confession before every presbytery; and that, if possible, every member be consulted; and that the presbyteries oifer what else they think necessary for this valuable end, and give it in charge to those of their members who are of the commission, to treat with the gentlemen of the ISTew York Synod at Tren- ton, in October. John Thomson was then labouring in the Valley of Virginia ; and the moderator, Timothy Griffith, was ordered to write to him on this head. By a remarkable coincidence, the records of each of the three presbyteries for that year are lost. On the 4th of October, the two commissions met to treat upon the overture of union. From the Philadelphia Synod, there were four Protesters, — Cross, Boyd, Cathcart, and Alison ; two who had adhered to them at the rupture, — Cowell and McHenry; and two members ordained since, — Griffith and Thom. From the Ifew York Synod there were present, of those who were excluded by the protest, Gilbert and William Tennent, Treat, and Samuel Blair; three of those who, in those trying times, had as probationers and candidates been strongly identified with them, — Samuel Finley, James Blair, and Eoan ; two who had signed the ]S"ew York Presbytery's protest against the exclusion, — Pierson and Pemberton ; and two new members, — Lewis and Arthur. Of the ]srew York commission, there were absent. Burr, Prime, Bostwick, and Brown. Cowell was chosen moderator, and Arthur clerk. Leave had been granted by the New York Synod to their members not in commission to attend and have equal liberty of voting with those in commission. A number availed themselves of this privilege: their names are not given. Several who had not been present in forming the general plan of union desired a private conference with their brethren, that they might be fully acquainted with each other's sentiments, and with the general concessions or preliminary articles made by their committee. The commissioners ad- journed till the next day, when the New York brethren, waiv- 224 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE ing all other matters, immediately insisted that the protest should, by some authentic and formal act of the Philadelphia Synod, be declared null and void. It is said to have been reported by some of the Old Side that the protest was to be confirmed, and the New York Synod to be received on that footing; and that this was the reason of their mentioning the protest in particular. The debates on this head rose very high ; and, no prospect appearing of coming to any conclusion, by reason of some of the iN'ew York brethren being unable to agree on the explication of their own plan, they unanimously agreed that each synod, at its next session, more fully prepare proposals for accommodation, and interchange them ; and that in the mean time there be a mutual endeavour to cultivate a spirit of candour and friendship. The principal things to be considered by the synods were, — 1. The protest; 2. The paragraph about essentials; 3. Of presbyteries. The Synod of IsTew York met May 16, 1750. There was a large attendance. They had lost Lamb by death, had received Spencer, and ordained Ayres and Reid. Gilbert and Charles Tennent were absent, with Samuel Einley and all of the Suf- folk Presbj'tery. They were not able to proceed to make fur- ther proposals for union, the minutes of their last meeting and the plan not being in the house. They expressed to the Phila- delphia Syilod their regret, and professed their design to enter upon that affair the next year. The Philadelphia Synod met on the 23d of May, 1750. The venerable John Thomson had come from Virginia to be pre- sent at this interesting period. Craig was also there. There were besides, from Donegal Presbytery, Boyd, Elder, Zanchy, Caven, and Tate. From Philadelphia Presbytery, there were Cross, Elmer, Cowell, Guild, and McHenry. From ITewcastle, Cathcart, Alison, McDowell, Griffith, Steel, Hamilton, and Hector Alison. * There were fourteen elders. Thorn had de- ceased, and no new member had been added. On receiving the minute of the IsTew York Synod in relation to the union, they joined them in regretting that a thing so much desired by them cannotbeprosecuted; and, hoping to have their expectations answered by such proposals next year as shall effectually promote union, they would heartily join with them in PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 225 the mean time in such measures as shall promote candour and friendship. The Synod of Ifew York met at K'ewark in the following September, 1750. A large attendance of ministers, but only three elders. Among the absentees were Gilbert and Charles Tennent, Samuel and John Blair, Roan, Eodgers, and Davies. Treat, William Tennent, Finley, Green, and Spencer were ap- pointed to draw up proposals for union, and the synod approved their draught of a plan. They ordered the clerk to place a copy in the hands of Samuel Hazard,* of Philadelphia, to be by him delivered to the Synod of Philadelphia when he shall have received their proposals. The Philadelphia Synod met in May, 1751, having lost David Evans and Samuel Caven by death. The attendance was small, — eleven ministers and ten elders. Being unpre- pared to send proposals, not having their previous minutes at hand, they resolved to meet in the fall, that the Synod of ISTew Tork " may consider our overtures and take proper measures for concluding a union. We recommend it to them to use all endeavours to promote a healing spirit ; and we shall, through divine assistance, endeavour to do the same, that our designs may be brought to a comfortable issue." Ten ministers and four elders assembled in September, 1751, and, having seriously and maturely considered the affair of union, agreed to comply with the proposals laid down by the Synod of l^Tew Tork in 1749 " as closely and as far as we can expect to preserve our future peace and union." The dif- ference between the two plans will be seen by exhibiting them side by side. THE PLAN OJ THE SYNOD OF KEW YORK, THE PIAN OP THE SYNOD OP PHILA- OMITTED IN 1750, BUT BEING THE DELPHIA, PROPOSED IN 1751. PIKST PROPOSAL IN 1749. 1. That all names of distinctions made use of in late times be forever abolished. 1. That every member assent unto 2. That every member give his assent * The second son of Nathaniel Hazard, an elder in New York from 1728 to 1745. He was a, merchant in Philadelphia, an elder in the Second Church, and an original and active trustee of the College of New Jersey. He was the father of Ebenezer Hazard, to whom we are so largely indebted for the preservation of the materials of our church history. 15 226 Webster's history of the anil receive the ■Westminster Confession and Catuchisms as the confession of his faith, according to the plan agreed to by the Synod of Philadelphia in 1729, and agree to the Directory as the gene- ral plan of -worship and discipline. 2. That all matters shall be deter- mined by a majority of votes, to which determination all shall submit; but if any cannot in conscience submit to a particular act or determination of the body, he shall, after sufficient liberty of reasoning and modest remonstration, be obliged to withdraw from our synodioal communion: provided always that this last article shall not extend to any cases but such aa the synod judges essential ■ in doctrine, worship, or discipline. 3. That it shall be treated as a cen- surable misconduct for any member to charge any of his brethren with errors in doctrine, or immorality, except in a way of private reproof or judicial pro- cess ; and that none shall be judicially condemned or censured without a fair trial and process, according to the known rules of our discipline. 4. That no candidate shall be taken on trials by any presbytery without a degree or certificate from the president and a sufficient number of tutors and trustees of some college, testifying to the sufficiency, of his learning, except in extraordinary cases, in which the pres- byteries shall be accountable to the synod. 5. That it shall be treated as irre- gular for any minister or candidate to to the Westminstet' Confession and Di- rectory, according to the plan agreed on in our synod. And that no acts be made, but con- cerning what appears to the body plain duty, or concerning opinions that we believe relate to the great truths of religion. And that all public and fundamental agreements of this synod stand safe. 3. That every member engage that, after any question has been determined by a major vote, he will actively concur or passively submit to the judgment of the body ; or, if his conscience will not per- mit him to comply with either, then he shall be obliged peaceably to withdraw, always reserving him a liberty to sue for a review, or to lay his grievances before the body in a Christian manner. 4. That it be esteemed a culpable evil, and treated as such, to accuse any of our brethren of error in doctrine or Immorality in practice, otherwise than by private admonition, or to spread evil surmises that he is graceless or uncon- verted, till the accusation has been brought before a regular judicature and issued according to the rules of well- known church discipline. And that no person be excluded from any of our judicatures without regular proceedings, according to our known rules of discipline. 5. That all candidates for the ministry be examined either by the synod or its commission, and be approved by them in the languages and philosophy, or be obliged to bring a college-certificate or diploma that they are suitably qualified according to the rules of that college, before they be admitted to trials in any of our presbyteries; and we promise that we will encourage them to fall in with this last, as the most honourable and customary. That there be no intrusion into the bounds of any of our presbyteries or PKESBYXERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 227 preach or perform other ministerial of- fices in the congregations of other mi- nisters helonging to our body, contrary to their minds. On the other hand, it shall be deemed unbrotherly for any minister to refuse his consent, without ■weighty reasons, when amicably desired. 6. That aU the several presbyteries belonging to both synods respectively shall continue distinct presbyteries as now they are, and That the several congregations and vacancies may continue under the same presbyteries as at present. 7. That the protestation made in the Synod of Philadelphia in 1741 be de- clared henceforth void and of none ef- fect, and that the proposed union shall not be understood to imply an agree- ment or consent to the protest on our part. 8. As, this synod doth believe that a glorious work of God's Spirit was car- ried on in the late religious appear- ances, (though we doubt not there were several follies and extravagances of peo- ple and artifices of Satan intermixed with it,) it would be pleasing and de- sirable to us, and what we hope for, that pastoral charges without the consent of the presbytery or minister first ob- tained, explicitly* or implicitly. 6. That our presbyteries shall be made up everywhere of the ministers that live contiguous, so that there shall be no old and new presbyteries for old and new congregations to repair to and obtain ministers bearing party names ; and that any minister may, on applica- tion to the synod, have liberty to join with any neighbouring presbytery he shall choose, if they think it for edifica- tion to allow him. That such congregations where there are new erections, and each is able to support a minister, shall be continued ; that where there are two parties, and both vacant, and neither is able to sup- port a minister, all care be taken to unite them ; and that where erections have been made by these divisive prac- tices to the disadvantage of former standing congregations, the ministers supplying them shall be removed, and all proper methods taken to heal the breach. We hope few will be aflTected hardly by this, for they may find more comfortable settlements in our nume- rous vacancies. 228 WEBSTER'S "EIISTORT OF THE botli synods may come so far to agree in their sentiments about it, as to give their joint testimony tjiereto. The Synod of N'ew York received these proposals ^n the course of a few weeks, having met on September 26 of the same year, (1751.) Samuel Blair, " the greatest light in these parts," had taken wing and flown to his heavenly home. Thomas Arthur was also dead. There had been ordained, Thane, Moftett, Graham, Kennedy, Chesnutt, Gumming, Jona- than Elmer, Todd, and Hugh Henry. Gilbert Tennent and Charles were again absent. The attendance of ministers was large. There were only eleven elders. The Philadelphia plan was considered, and Pierson, Finley, Smith, Beatty, and the moderator, John Blair, were appointed to draw up an answer, which was approved by the synod, and is as follows :* — " The proposals of the Synod of Philadelphia for union with this synod were opened and read. The synod, after deliberate perusal of them, are pleased in observing any steps taken towards the uniting the two synods, and that our brethren of the Philadelphia Synod profess a peaceable disposition, and determine to concur with our proposals as closely and as far as they can, in their present view of things. But, as they have not seen fit to comply with some of the particu- lars proposed by us so closely as we could have wished, we judge it becomes our professions, and our endeavours for peace, to be candidly open and free in pointing out those things from which we disagree in their present plan of accommodation. " 1. Though the synod should make no acts but concern- ing matters of plain duty, or opinions relating to the great truths of religion, yet, as every thing that appears plain duty and truth unto the body may appear at the same time not to be essential, so we judge that no member or members should be obliged to withdraw from our communion upon his or their not being able actively to concur or passively submit, unless the matter be judged essential in doctrine or discipline. " 2. We cannot agree that all the public and fundamental agreements of the Synod of Philadelphia should stand safe, if * Records, pp. 245, 246. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 229 this is understood to extend to agreements made by said synod since the rupture happened. " 3. We cannot see that it will consist with the peace and edification of the church to use any coercive measures to obhge people to be under the ministry of those whom they do not choose, or to dissolve and new-model presbyteries-. " 4. Seeing by the goodness of Divine Providence we have now a college erected, we see no necessity for the alternative of the synod or their commission examining candidates before they be admitted to presbyterial trials. " As the Synod of Philadelphia had not our last proposals before them when they drew up the present plan of accom- modation, we refer them to said proposals, as to what we further desire in order to our union with them." The Philadelphia Synod met in May, 1752. Sampson Smith had been ordained. There were present fourteen mi- nisters and twelve elders. They considered the New York proposals, and their reply was as follows :* — " Upon perusal of yours, our pleasing views of a comfort- able union, from repeated intimations of your readiness to comply with what appeared reasonable, are considerably abated ; especially as we apprehend you receding further from a union, and from your own former proposals in order thereunto, which we shall fully point out, being persuaded it is our duty, being willing for and desirous of a reasonable accommodation. " 1st. You have repeatedly proposed that all former differ- ences be buried in perpetual oblivion, which you apprehend for the honour of our Master, the credit of our profession, and the edification of the church. How, consistently therewith, do you insist that the protestation of the synod, in the year 1741, be declared void and of none effect? and that this declaration shall be a term of union, since the synod have assured you, and are willing to declare that, upon the union, they shall act and carry it towards you as if this protestation had never been made, looking upon the design of the protes- tation answered by reasonable terms of union ; and, if any thing further be intended by your insisting that said protesta- tion be declared void and of no efltect, we assure you we are * Records, pp. 205-207. 230 WEBSTER'S EISTOKT OF THE well satisfied that said protestation was made on sufficient and justifiable grounds, and we are not in the least convinced that the synod acted wrong in said step. " 2d]y. You insist that presbyteries shall continue as they are, and declare you see no reason to dissolve the new- modelled presbyteries. How is this consistent with your pro- posals, that all differences be perpetually buried, and that all names and distinctions be forever abolished ? nay, how can you reconcile it in ,your own minds with the peace of this church, the valuable end to be aimed at by the union? Besides, we acquainted you that a uniting of presbyteries appeared to us so requisite to the peace of our church, that un- less your delegates had given us, by their concessions, ground to believe your synod would have consented to this, we should have looked upon any attempt for union as vain and useless. " And your own former proposals on this head — viz. : that congregations, as they are at present, should belong to the same presbytery they now do, till a favourable opportunity of an advantageous alteration — gave us ground to apprehend that you would consent, from the apparent necessity of the thing, to this advantageous alteration. " 3dly. You have formerly declared, that though your sen- timents, of what you esteemed a work of God, continued the same, yet you judged mutual forbearance your duty, since we all profess the same Confession of Faith and Directory for worship. But now you seem to insist on a joint testimony for such a glorious work of God, in the late religious appear- ances, as a term of union, by making it one of your proposals for peace and union, that you hope both synods will go into such a testimony. IIow is this consistent with your former professed sentiments of duty of forbearance in said case, and with your declared sentiments, that no difference in judgment in cases of plain sin and duty, and opinions relating to the great truths of religion, is a sufficient reason why the differing member should be obliged to withdraw, unless the said plain duty or truth be judged by the body essential, in doctrine or discipline ? And we think it strange you would insist on this, or even mention it, as a proposal for union, seeing your delegates before us conceded that both great and good men had differed from them on that head, besides your own declaration PEBSBYTERJAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, 231 on that affair- — viz. : that you doubt not but that there were several follies and extravagancies of the people and artifices of Satan intermixed with what you call a glorious work of Grod's Spirit, plainly evince the difficulty of such a testimony, especially to such who cannot easily be persuaded to declare that these religious appearances were a saving work of Grod's Spirit. " Besides, in order to such a testimony, in an affair confes- sedly difficult, that it be consistent with reason and a good conscience, we apprehend that it is your business and duty who hope for and insist on such testimony, that you point out what you believe to be a glorious work of God's Spirit in the late religious appearances, and what to be the follies and extravagancies of the people, and the artifices of Satan, that so a distinct testimony be given for the encouragement of the one, and for preventing the other, and undeceiving many among the simple and ignorant who may have mistaken the one for the other, and yet continue in the mistake. " 4thly. We have condescended, for the sake of peace, that all the ministers belonging to your synod, and all their con- gregations, should belong to this body ; but when intrusions have been made by disorderly ministers into our congrega- tions, so as to render them incapable to perform their solemn engagements to their pastors, we think these things that are so unjust ought to be rectified ; yet if, consistent with the rights of gospel ministers, you can find a salve for this diffi- culty, we will gladly approve of it. " 5thly. As for our sentiments in other affairs, relating to the proposed union, we refer you to our late proposals, which we apprehend just and reasonable, and as yet see no just reasons to recede from, or make any material abatements of them ; and particularly in regard to proposals for deciding affairs by majority of vote, we apprehend it strictly Presbyterian and reasonable, and are not convinced that the alteration in that article proposed by you, about what is essential and what not, is necessary ; nay, we apprehend that such an alteration as stated by you has a bad aspect, and opens a door for an unjustifiable latitude both in principles and practice. "6thly. We are much satisfied to hear you propose that young men should bring college certificates, seeing that you 232 WEBSTER'S HISTOKY OF THE have now, by the goodness of Divine Providence, a xjollege erected. We are and ever were as much for this, and more, than some of those brethren who once belonged to this synbd ; and we would put you in mind that there were colleges erected in reach of your youth before you had one in ISTew Jersey. But no regard was to be paid to our repeated desires and pubUc votes that our young men should have education, and certificates from them, when it was proposed by our synod; and we think that our synod may find, among their number, men as well qualified to examine and judge of men's abiUties as either the tutors, trustees, or rectors of your col- lege; so that we think the approbation of our synod, or committee, a good alternative, and yet will give it up if you oblige all your candidates to bring college certificates, unless in extraordinary cases, and these shall be settled to prevent such disorders as we have seen and felt in time past. " At present, we are well pleased with any degree of a dis- position towards peace and union professed by you, and are resolved to cultivate and improve, in ourselves and others in any measure under our influence, the same peaceable disposi- tion, and to concur heartily with you in any plan of accom- modation reasonable and consistent with our profession as Presbyterians^ and for the good of the church and honour of our Lord and Master." The Philadelphia Synod's remarks were not considered by the ISTew York Synod in September, 1752. There had been ordained, "Worts, John Campbell, James Finley, and Robert Smith. Youngs had died. Jonathan Edwards preached the opening sermon : — " True Grace distinguished from the Expe- rience of Devils." Gilbert and Charles Tennent were again absent. In October, 1753, they were present at the meeting held in Philadelphia ; at which there were thirty-two minis- ters and fifteen elders. Alexander Creaghead had returned to the synod ; Evander Morrison, John Smith, and Joseph Park had been received, and Maltby, Harker, Wright, and Pobert Henry had been ordained The New York Synod answered the letter from the Phila- delphia Synod on the plan of union, insisting that the protes- tation of 1741 should be declared of no eft'ect, and that the presbyteries and congregations should continue as they now PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 233 are. An agreement in a joint testimony in regard to " tlie late glorious work of God" was also considered highly desir- able and important. The general tone of the synodical reply was firm, but conciliatory. The Philadelphia Synod, in 1753, did nothing towards the union : they had lost their two oldest members, John Thom- son and Hugh Conn, and had gained none. In 1754, they had lost, by death, Cathcart and Griffith, and ordained McMordie and Kinkead. The oldest minister sent his coun- sel.* The letter from the Synod of New York was read, * To the Reverend Moderator and worthy members of the Presbyterial Synod of Phila- delphia, there met some few days after the date hereof. Bevebend and Worthy Bkethren : — I would gladly have been present ■with you, but my weakness of body hath rendered me unfit to ride such a journey. I hope you will accept of this, my letter of excuse, for my absence ; yet I desire to be present with you, by write (by letter?) in some things. I think I may say, that there is one thing which layeth much upon my heart, — these woeful divisions which are among ministers and people. It is my earnest desire that the Lord may touch your hearts now when met, that so you may fall on some healing methods to have that breach made up which is betwixt us and those other ministers which were once members of our church judicatories. A division in a church hath many evils in it. First. It bringeth ministers of both sides into con- tempt. Secondly. It makes some people of the one side hear" the ministers of the other side with prejudice. Thirdly. It hinders the success of the gospel preached, and the edification and good of souls. Fourthly. It makes Satan rejoice, wicked and profane persons scoff at religion. Fifthly. It leadeth out some persons to rejoice in one another's calamities and to hold evil wishes to one another. We read of Chrysostom and Epiphauius : though both godly, Chrysostom wished that Epiphanius might die and never see Cyprus when sailing unto it, his charge being there ; and Epiphanius wished that Chrysostom might not die Bishop of Constan- tinople. The Lord testified his displeasure at both their sinful wishes, for both came to pass ; so the followers of both were silenced in their sinful joy. Sixthly. It puUeth down the government and discipline in Christ's house, which are walls and fences which God hath appointed to preserve the flowers of his precious truths in the garden of his church from being trampled under foot ; and they put a stop to delusions and errors. I want words to express the horrid evil of the pulling down the government and discipline of Christ's house ; it is a great mother- evil. By this, those that should be ruled will be all rulers and dictators to their rulers ; and some on one side, when off'ended in the least, will run to the other side to evite (escape) church censure; others cast both themselves and their families from under the care of any minister. It leadeth out to rash judging and evil-speaking and envy. If any member, of either side, think that the not press- ing after an union will be the way to get an union with the other side, then, I think, such a member reasons wrong, because the greater distance one side keeps 234 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE and, at first, it was resolved to send proposals to them ; but afterwards it was judged a better expedient to desire a con- from the other, this will tend to make the breach the wider. It is observable, that those who have pressed much after peace and union in a church, and have been most condescending in their terms in the time of divisions in a church, have been most commended, and afterwards most loved, by the gocjly of both sides; all which appeareth from ecclesiastical history. Beloved brethren, I was informed (but whether the information be truth or not I can't tell) of two conditions of peace and unity which the other side requireth of our synod. First. That the presbyteries of both sides should be continued as they now are, and meet all together in one Synod of Philadelphia. In my judg- ment, I can't agree to this first condition; but judge it most reasonable that pres- byteries consist of ministers and elders of both sides ; as the congregations lie con- tiguous and near to one another, this will make for the conveuiency t^ui tend to the good order and create brotherly love. But if presbyteries should be as they are now, and only meet in the synod, this will give Satan a great handle to hinder brotherly love and peace, and create and carry on a division in our synod again. The second condition is, they require that it be acknowledged that there was a great and glorious work of God and reformation, or great and glorious times and days, in our land and church a few years past. My thoughts are, that the days or times of late past in our Presbyterian church or land are not to be called properly glorious days or times, but properly the days or times of the Lord's pleading a controversy with our Presbyterial churches in this land for our sins ; yet I think that God, in the midst of his anger, hath remembered mercy, and hath converted some souls. It is evident to me that the days and times of the Reformation from Popery were glorious days and times, though then many delusions and errors sprang up; but observe and notice, the great instruments of the Reformation from Popery, or the Reformers, were men coming from darkness to light more and more,^men coming from errors to Christ's truths ; but they were not men falling from truths into delusions and errors, as these ministers and members, the great instruments and ringleaders of that work of late called a glorious reformation, were. Surely those are not glorious days and times, and a reformation of a church, when these ministers and people, who are the chief instruments, are falling into delusions or errors, pulling down the walla of church government and discipline, falling into a spirit of rash judging and false zeal. My thoughts are that the days of late were days and times of the Lord's pleading a controversy with our church for our sins. I earnestly desire that both sides would bury in oblivion all the faults which each chargeth upon the other, and that no mention be made of any of these ; and to unite together again in the doctrine, discipline, and government of Christ's house, to carry on the interest of Christ and the good of souls. Reverend brethren, our Lord and Master, Christ Jesus, the Prince of peace, sayeth, in Matthew v. 9, " Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." Let us follow after peace as much as is possible. If peace with truth be obtained, and church union, then this will crush Satan's interest greatly, create brotherly love, advance the interest of glorious Christ, the good of souls, and tend to the successfulness of the gospel in our parts. PKESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 235 ference with some of the members of that body commis- sioned for this purpose. They record as their reason that a, very pacific temper seems to prevail on both sides. Imme- diately following stands this minute : — " Ordered, that Messrs. McDowell and Sampson Smith represent briefly some of the most dangerous opinions and practices of the ' Seceders,' and get them printed ; and that the books be divided among the ministers, who are to sell them where these gentlemen are doing most damage. Memorandum : That no one piece exceed a sheet." The New York Synod met in 1754, having lost Byram by death, Pemberton by removal, and gained Henry Martin and John Brown. In compliance with the desire of the Philadel- phia Synod, Burr, Bostwick, William Tennent, Treat, John Blair, and Samuel Finley, were appointed to attend the next session of that hodj, to confer about the union, but not to conclude any thing inconsistent with our former proposals. It is to be observedj that two of the committee were per- sonally excluded by the " Protest," and two others were their most devoted adherents. In May, 1755, the Philadelphia Synod met; Elmer having died, and G-illespie being absent through indisposition. The commissioners from New York were present ; and a committee was appointed of three " Protesters," — Cross, Boyd, and F. Alison ; two, who adhered to them, — Cowell and McHeury ; with two ordained since, — McDowell and Steel. The con- ference occupied the whole of the afternoon of the 29th of May. The New York brethren proposed, that we should mutually forgive and forget, and wholly bury all past com- plaints and grievances in oblivion, and endeavour, in the strength of God, to treat each other hereafter as though these things had never been : that, as the synods are two That the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole King and Head of the Church, the great Master of assemblies, may be with you in all your consultations and determina- tions, direct and tiid you by his Holy Spirit in every thing that cometh before you, to act for your spiritual comfort, the good of souls, the true peace of His church, and God's glory, is the earnest and sincere desire of your affectionate servant and brother in the work of the Lord, Geoege Giliespie. At the Bead of Christiana Creek, May 15, 1754. 236 WEBSTER'S HISTOKT OF THE distinct judicatures not accountable to each other, they meet as two contiguous bodies of Christians agreed in principles, as though they had never been concerned together before or had any difference, which is true of a great part of both synods. That we should join the synods and presbyteries upon such scriptural and rational terms as may secure peace, heal our broken churches, and advance religion. And particularly, they would have the "Protest" withdrawn, or declared null, before the "Union." The synod, on hearing this result of the conference, re- solved : — That they apprehend peace and union of the last im- portance to the church of Christ, and do adhere to their pro- posals, and can offer nothing further. That, if it be asked by any, how we can join those who lately had such differences, we think every well-disposed Christian would be satisfied with being told, that we mutually forgive, according to Christ's command, and agree to maintain good conduct, through grace, for the timp to come. That, as to the "Protest," we shall on the "Union" carry it towards our brethren as though it had never been made; and, as those who are aggrieved and obtain no satisfying redress have a right to require their "Protest" to be recorded, so, none but those who enter a protest can withdraw it or dis- annul it. They added, that they thought it unbrotherly for the ifTew York Synod to meet in Philadelphia. The ISTew York Synod met in October; having ordained Knox, Greenman, and Hoge. In answer to the Philadelphia proposals, they resolved, — That they were lacking in distinctness concerning the con- tinuance of presbyteries and congregations as they are, and concerning ministerial communion, as set forth in the parar graph concerning essentials. That they could, with no pro- priety, insist on the disannulling of the "Protest," if they will declare that they do not in a synodical capacity adopt it. That, on their doing this, we propose to unite on the terms PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 237 proposed to them in 1749 and '50, tlie article concerning the "Protest" being accepted. That the synod, thus composed of both bodies, shall, immediately after being constituted, proceed to hear and determine, if needful, the differences between the "Protesters" and the "Excluded." They gave as a reason for meeting in Philadelphia, that it was necessary for the convenience of distant brethren. The Synod of Philadelphia, in 1756, was very thinly at- tended : they had lost Hamilton by death, received Alexander Miller from Ireland, and ordained Matthew Wilson and Mc- Kennan. They instructed their missionaries to the Southern colonies, to study, in all their public administrations and private conver- sations, to promote peace and union among the societies, and avoid whatever may foment divisions and party spirit ; and to treat every minister from the Synod of l^ew York of like principles and peaceful temper in a brotherly manner; "for we desire to promote true religion, and not party designs." They sent a copy of these instructions to the New York Synod, and answered their proposals unanimously as follows : — " We are heartily desirous that the synods be united, and all the presbyteries be united, as the members lie contiguous, that the union be in name, and in reality in love and true affection. In a synodical capacity, we declare that we neither do nor did adopt the Protest as a term of ministerial communion : it was never mentioned to our members, any more than any of the protests delivered on the occasion of those differences. We only adopt and desire to adhere to our standards as we for- merly agreed when united in one body. " We are in earnest for peace and union ; and we appoint the commission of our synod, on timely notice given, to meet with such members as the Synod of !N"ew York may appoint for this purpose, at Philadelphia, or some other convenient place, to adjust matters previous to a union." There was a full attendance at the iNTew York Synod in the fall. There had been ordained Whitaker, Halt, and Harris ; Cowell sat as a correspondent, and Leydt also, of the Reformed Dutch church in ISTew Brunswick. After much debating, they came to the following agreement on the subject of the union : — 238 Webster's history of the " Though the Philadelphia Synod have not given a satisfac- tory answer to the particulars which were judged necessary to be settled previous to an union, the synod, from an earnest desire of a hearty and lasting union, do comply with their proposal of a mutual conference, and appoint Gilbert and William Tennent, Burr, Davenport, Treat, Finley, Blair, Caleb Smith, Prime, and James Brown, to be a committee to meet with their commission at Trenton, the second "Wednesday in May next, to fix upon a proper plan of union, to be laid before both synods at their next meeting." Their next meeting was on the 18th of May, there having been ordained Ramsey, James Finley, Duffield, McAden, and Eeeve. The Committee of Conference reported, that they found the Philadelphia commissioners well disposed for union ; that they declared for themselves, and doubted not but their synod would readily declare, that they do not look upon the Protest as the act of their body, nor adopt it as such; and that there ap- peared to be also an agreement on both sides concerning the nature and right of protesting, and other things formerly pro- posed as necessary to a union; and that it was agreed on both sides, to propose to each synod to have their next meeting at the same time and place, to unite if matters shall at that time appear ripe for it. Samuel and James Finley, John Blair, Robert Smith, and John Rodgers were appointed to prepare a plan as the ground of the union, and bring it in to the com- mission at their meeting. The synod, in view of so desirable a prospect of union, agreed to meet at Philadelphia at the time of the other synod's meeting, and to propose that the commissions of both synods meet on the Monday before the synod, to prepare matters for both bodies and their happy union. The Synod of Philadelphia met in the spring of 1757, having lost McHenry by death, and received John Miller. Thirteen ministers were present, and nine elders. Boyd was chosen moderator. Having heard the report of their committee and received the minute of the Few York Synod, they instructed their commission to meet at the time proposed. On the commission of the Philadelphia Synod were Cross, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 239 Francis Alison, Steel, Cowell, McDowell, Tate, McKennan, Smith, and Boyd, the moderator. On the New York commission were Pierson, Burr, Spencer, Prime, James Brown, William and Grilbert and Charles Teu- nent, Davenport, Treat, Samuel Finley, Rodgers, and Bostwick, the moderator. Before the meeting Burr and Davenport died. Alison, who had recently received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, preached before the two commissions from Eph. iv. 1-8. The sermon was published with the title, " Peace and Union recommended." Bostwick preached from 2 Cor. iv. 5. His sermon was published also, and reprinted in Scotland with the title, "Self disclaimed and Christ exalted." The com- missions met, Hector Alison, John Miller, Smith, and McDowell having been appointed, with the committee previously named by the other synod, to prepare a first draft of the plan. The Synod of Philadelphia on the afternoon of Friday accepted the plan, with a few alterations they desired to be made in it, and requested the Synod of l^ew York that the committee may meet again and communicate the alterations each body might desire to the other. This was readily complied with. On Saturday, the ITew York Synod maturely considered the plan with the amendments, and unanimously approved of it and agreed to it, and judged it to be their duty to unite with the Synod of Philadelphia on the same. Each body having agreed to the amendments proposed by the other, the Synod of Philadelphia unanimously approved of it as a satisfactory plan. They then sent a message, desiring that the time and place of meeting in one body may be agreed on. At three p.m., in the Second Presbyterian Church, the two synods met, Sampson Smith being moderator of the one, and Samuel Davies of the other. The plan of union was read and unanimously agreed to, the union was accomplished, and a new book opened and the whole plan and articles of agree- ment entered May 29, 1758. 240 WEBSTER'S HISTORT OF THE CHAPTER IX. Whitefield reached Annapolis September 27, 1745, and preached eight times before the Legislative Council and As- sembly. He proceeded to Hanover, in Virginia, and saw there the happy effects produced in part by the reading of his ser- mons, which had been published from notes taken at Glasgow, while he preached extempore. Blair and Tennent had just been there and administered the Lord's Supper. Whitefield preached four or five days, which was a fresh* encouragement to the newly-gathered flock, for others were engaged to serve the Lord, especially of the church people, who the more readily hearkened to the gospel from him "because he was in orders." In North Carolina he made but little stay and accomplished but little. He remained some time in Georgia, and then sailed for Maryland. There, "thousands had never heard of redeem- ing grace: the heat tries my wasting tabernacle; but, through Christ strengthening me, I intend to persist in preaching till I drop." The news of the Rebellion of '45 seems to have produced little excitement in America. "Whitefield preached, on the occasion of its suppression, August 24, 1746, a sermon, which he printed with the title, "Britain's Mercy and Duty." From Annapolis, he wrote, U,ovember 8, "Lately I have been in seven counties in Maryland, and preached with abundant suc- cess. The harvest is great here. I have preached to large congregations and with great power." He made a circuit of three hundred miles through Maryland and into Pennsylvania, up the Susquehanna as far as Derry. " Thousands and thou- sands were ready to hear, but nobody goes out scarcely but myself." At this very period Davies was labouring with Robinson in * Morris's Narrative. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 241 that region. The revival veas great in Queen Anne courrty and at Buckingham, but especially in Somerset county; in Baltimore county, it was like the first planting of the gospel.* Whitefield spent the winter at Bethesda. In March, 1747, Brainerd published his journal with the title, " Mirabilia Dei inter Indicos." Whitefield came to Bohemia by land, making a journey of six weeks from Bethesda. " As I came along, I saw Mr. Davis. He is licensed, as are the four houses ; but there is a proclamar tion issued against all itinerants. Jesus has been very gracious to us southward, and, as we came along, the desert seemed to blossom as the rose." He wrote, April 26, to Mi'S. B., in Virginia, from Bohemia, " After two days' abode here, I pur- pose, God willing, to take a three weeks' circuit in hunting for Maryland sinners. In Virginia, for the present, the door is shut; but I believe it will be open in the fall to more advan- tage. I have no thoughts of visiting it this spring. The cloud moves another way. However, night and day I shall remember you in your little hut." He was at Dover in Delaware on the 8th of May : " all next October, God willing, I have devoted to poor North Carolina.^' Nor was he unmindful of Dover; soon after, the Boston ministers sent thither John Miller, who for almost half a century was a burning and a shining light to the peninsula. He was at "Wicomico on the 16th of May. In this ancient seat of Presbyterianism, Eobinson and Davies had laboured with great success. " Christ's strength is in some degree mag- nified in my weakness, and my preaching is blessed to poor souls. Amazing love ! Maryland is yielding converts to the blessed gospel." "Methinks I see you rejoice and ready to say. Have the Maiylanders also received the grace of God? I trust some have indeed received his grace in sincerity. The harvest is promising. You and the other dear neighbouring ministers are always on my heart." Philadelphia, June 6: "Mr. B. will let you know that the word has run and been glorified in Maryland. Satan has attempted to stop the pro- gress of the everlasting gospel in Virginia ; but I believe he has overshot himself" June 23 : " To-morrow I set out for New * Davies's printed Letter to Bellamy. 16 242 Webster's history of the York to gain strength. At present I am so weak, I cannot preach." July 4: "I have been in Few York eight days, and have preached twice with great freedom: once to a very large auditoiy, and did not feel myself much worse next morning. A pleasing prospect of action lies before me. People flock rather more than ever, and the Lord vouchsafes us solemn meetings." Early in September he went to New England, and then proceeded by land to the South. He preached once in Virginia: the smallpox was spreading, and the Assembly did not sit. At Bathtown, a port of entry on the north side of Tar River, in N"orth Carolina, he preached three times. " The Lord seems to have given me the affections of the people, and I am deter- mined in his strength to see what can be done." He reached Charleston as early as October 25. "The barren wilderness was made to smile all the way. I trust good was done in i^orth Carolina. The poor people were very willing to hear." He remained in Georgia and South Carolina till the close of March, when he sailed for the Bermudas. At the commencement of missiori^ry labours in the Valley of Virginia, Anderson had sent thither, with recommendations, a preacher from New England named Dunlap. Gelston, An- derson, and Thomson visited Opequhon, Bullskin, and adjacent places. Craig was settled on the Triple Forks of the Shenan- doah. McDowell and Hyndman were ordained as evangelists, principally with a view to Virginia; but the former made only one tour, and the other died soon after being called to Rock- fish and Mountain Plain. Lyon, a probationer, and Caven, on being released from Conecocheague, visited the South Branch of Potomac, and the Eastern Branch also. In 1743, Robinson had gone from Frederick county in Virginia, through Augusta, Campbell, Prince Edward, Charlotte, and Hanover, and through North Carolina, even to the Pedee River. In 1744, supplica- tions from North Carolina were sent to Philadelphia Synod, and a request was made that one of the members might be appointed to correspond with them. That duty was assigned to John Thomson, and he went to them, as he would have gone to a presbytery which bad desired the synod that he might correspond with them. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 243 The Synod of New York, in answer to pressing supplica- tions in 1745, desired Robinson to go thither ; but his failing health forbade, and he intrusted that important work to Davies. Rodgers followed him, but could not obtain permission to qua- lify himself under the Toleration Act. In 1747, Byram, of Mendham, ITew Jersey, and Dean, of Brandywine Manor, went into Augusta and the neighbouring counties of Virginia. An extensive awakening followed, which continued till 1751. They were followed the next year By Alexander Gumming, who laboured much in Augusta and in North Carolina, and was the first of our ministers who preached in Tennessee.* In 1749, the New York Synod represented to the Association of the Eastern District of Fairfield the neces- sitous condition of Virginia, and urged them, but wholly with- out success, to send thither a minister or a candidate. In 1750, they sent Todd, then just licensed, and Davenport, who pur- posed to settle there, but found no suitable opening. "He stayed two months in Hanover, and did not labour in vain : some were brought under concern, and many of the Lord's people much revived, who can never forget the instrument of it."t Todd was installed in the upper part of Hanover, in 1752, and Greenman went thither as a missionary, and Robert Henry to settle at Cub Creek. In 1748, the Synod of Philadelphia resolved to send a mi- nister to spend eight weeks in the fall, and another as much time in the spring, in the back-parts of Virginia. Steel, of Nottingham, and Zanchy, of Hanover, went in 1748; Tate, of Donegal, and McHenry, of Deep Run, in 1749 ; Griffith, of Pencader, in 1750 ; Hector Alison, of Drawyers, and Sam- son Smith, of Chestnut Level, in 1751 ; McKennan, of Red Clay, spent sixteen weeks in 1752 ; McMordie, of Marsh Creek, and "William Donaldson, a probationer, in 1753; Tate and Kinkead, of Norriton, in 1754; Donaldson, Matthew Wilson, a probationer, and McKennan, in 1755. The Old Side had not settled one minister in Virginia during ten years ; they had lost Thomson by death, and had only Craig and Black left. The New Side had Davies, at Hanover, Todd, * Rev. Dr. Foote, of Romney. f Davies to Bellamy. 244 Webster's history of the in Louisa, Alexander Creagliead, on Cowpasture River near Windy Cove, Robert Henry, at Cub Creek, John "Wright, iu Cumberland and in the valley, John Brown, at Timber-ridge, and John Hoge, at Opequhon. These ministers, except Hoge, were formed into Hanover Presbytery in October, 1765, and all ministers who might settle south or west of Hoge's congre- gation had leave to join it. Whitefield landed at Beaufort, South Carolina, May 2T, 1754. Having better health, he exclaimed, " Oh that I may at last learn to begin to live !" He sailed for New York, and from the close of June to the middle of September, he travelled from there to Philadelphia and back, proceeding occasionally -as far as White Clay. "Everywhere prejudices were removed, a more effectual door opened for preaching the gospel, and a divine power accompanied the word." On Wednesday, July -31, he preached in the morning at ITewark, at l^ew Brunswick at two in the afternoon, and reached Trenton at night. His labours were blessed at Philadelphia and New York, and "we had good seasons at the places between them. The shout of a king has been among us. In Philadelphia, in New Jersey, and at New York, the Great Redeemer caused his word to be glorified !" He set out on the 1st of October for Boston, with President Burr, and travelled as far as Portsmouth in New Hampshire. " Souls flew as doves to their windows : opposition seemed gene- rally to have subsided." He left Boston, November 7, and, though he had thought, in September, that Providence pointed directly to Virginia and the Orphan-house, he remained in Mary- land from the middle of December till the close of the year. People came in great numbers to hear him, some as far as forty and fifty miles: prejudices seemed gone; the churches were all open to him, and a happy work of conviction and consolation visibly appeared. Many declared what God had done for them during his former visits. He had just entered on his fortieth year when he set out for Virginia, January 17, 1755. "Fresh doors of usefulness, I trust, are opening iu Virginia. The prospect is promising indeed. People have flocked from all parts to hear the word of God ; arrows of con- viction have fled, and I believe stuck fast. Seed sown several years ago has sprung up and brought forth fruit." He reached Charleston in February, and sailed in May for England. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 245. In 1754, Beatty, of IsTeshaminy, and Thane, of Connecticut Farms, went to JSTorth Carolina, and the latter penetrated to the thinly-scattered tract between Broad and Saluda Rivers. The French "War, long threatened, broke out, and the Southern Indians took up arms against the English. As a distressing drought also was felt severely in Pennsylvania and in most of the colonies, the Provincial Government of Virginia appointed the 5th of March for a day of fasting and prayer. In May, it was represented to New Brunswick Presbytery that there were fourteen congregations in North Carolina. Hugh McAden, a probationer of Newcastle Presbytery, visited them in the summer, and seems, soon after, to have been ordained and sent thither as an evangelist. About this period, Creaghead took up his abode on Sugar Creek, in Mecklenburg county. Campbell, of Tehicken, in 1756 or '57, became the minister of the Scottish settlers on Bl6unt's and Cross's Greeks and the northwestern branch of Cape Fear River. The settlers in Western Virginia and North Carolina, being chiefly from Pennsylvania, carried with them all the prepos- sessions and antipathies of the Old and New Side : the latter party largely preponderated in most places, and all traces of missionaries of the Philadelphia Synod were gone. Davies speaks of the Old Side as having but two congregations in Virginia in 1751. They had, besides Craig's and Black's charges, in 1750, congregations worshipping at Brown's meeting-house in 1751, at BuiFalo settlement, where John Thomson spent part of his days, and on the South Branch of Potomac ; in 1752, at North Mountain, six miles west of Staunton, South Mountain, Timber-grove or Timber-ridge, North Eiv^r, embracing Lexington and New Monmouth, Cook's Creek, near Harrisonburg, in Rockingham, and at John Hinson's; and also on Peeked Mountain and Calf- pasture River. Black also supplied the settlers at Hawfield's, Eno, and Hico, and on Little River in North Carolina., At all the settlements between Yadkin and Catawba, and at Reedy Creek, they had adherents, and the missionaries paid especial attention to them ; but not one of them settled an Old-Side minister. John Alison, a probationer, spent much time among them, but he returned to Ireland in 1756. Donaldson 246 -WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE appears to have settled in South Carolina. The only congre- gations in Virginia which received a minister from the Phila- delphia Synod, before the union, were the two in Rockingham, Alexander Miller having been installed at Cook's Creek and Peeked Mountain in 1758. With the extension of territory, came a new depletion to the Irish congregations. Creaghead, on forsaking the New Side in August, 1741, made immediate application to the Reformed Presbytery in Scotland for assistants in the minis- terial work; but no success seems to have attended his request, and, before Cuthbertson came, he had opened a correspondence with the Associate Synod of Edinburgh. As early as 1750,* he wrote in behalf of a considerable body of sober people who could not comfortably or conscientiously unite with either branch of the Presbyterians. He alleged that with neither synod would adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith be deemed a test of orthodoxy ; that they were lax in church communion and did not preserve the purity of religion. He, together with those in whose name he wrote, regarded themselves as bound by their Baptismal Cove- nant, and by the Solemn League and Covenant, to contend for the whole of the faith. This appeal was made to the Burgher Synod ; and in answer to it, after much delaj^, David Telfair and Kinloch came to Pennsylvania, and Thomas Clark, from Ballybay, in Ireland, with, a number of families, to Salem, in Washington county, ISTew York. A church was formed which worshipped in Shippen Street, Philadelphia, and others in Orange and Washington counties, New York. Before they came, Creaghead had joined IJ^ewcastle Presbytery and be- came a member of the Syuod of New York; in 1751 or '52, he settled in Virginia. Cuthbertson had been ordained by McMillan and Nairne,! the first founders of the Reformed Presbytery in Scotland. * McKerrow's History of the Secession Church. f Nairne was the minister of Abbotshall, and left the Establishment and joined the Associate Presbytery. When he went OTCr to the Covenanters, the Seceders called him to account ; but the Reformed Presbytery, with Cuthbertson for mode- rator, served them with a solemn interdict to proceed no further. They, however, deposed Nairne, who, after a time, returned to the Establishment, and, on a public acknowledgment, was restored to the ministry. When asked why, having left the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 247 He is said to have come to this country in 1751 or '52. He formed praying-societies after the model of the Mountain Men, one of which was in the Wallkill congregation, in Orange county, ISTew York. He laboured in Chester and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania ; but his chief success was on the west side of the Susquehanna. He had a discussion with Evander Morrison at Middle Octorara. His assertion, that the New-Side ministers urged their hearers to prepare themselves to receive the free grace of G-od, was vehemently denied. Early in September, 1753, Roan and Smith met in committee by appointment of Newcastle Presbytery, and Piuley and Davies, in conjunction with them, revised and corrected a draft of a warning or testimony, drawn up by John Blair, against several errors and evil practices of Cuth- bertson. Among the errors they animadverted on were these : — That God has made over Christ and his benefits by a deed of gift to all that hear the gospel, so that every sinner who hears the gospel offer ought to put in a claim to him, as his Saviour in particular; that saving faith consists in a per- suasion that Christ is mine ; and that he died for me in particular. It is not known whether "the Scotch bigot," as Davies styles Cuthbertson, took any notice of this paper ; but it ap- peared just at the time when the missionaries of the Anti- Burgher Synod — Arnot and Gellatly — began their operations at Middle Octorara. An appendix to " The Warning" was directed against them. The presbytery seems to have passed over the peculiarities of the Covenanter system, and to have struck at the doctrines* for which the Erskines left the Kirk kirk on account of her defections, he had returned, he said he saw in her a change for the better. The moderator said, " The only change in the kirk, thus far, was for the worse." — MeKerrow. * Nathaniel Hazard, of New York, wrote to Dr. Bellamy, December 8, 1755 :— "Gellatly has sense, learning, and piety. Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Halt approve his preaching." November 17, 1758 : " The Soots people have got up a new meeting- house, about twenty-seven feet wide and forty feet long. Mr. Gellatly has been preaching in it four weeks. Some insinuations of his and his brethren's being unsound in the article of Faith, excited him to declare their sentiments on it to a very numerous auditory. In vindication, he publicly read the Dutch, French, Geneva, Church, and Presbyterian Confessions, which were esteemed, I believe, by all that heard it, as being substantially the same with theirs. If you are strong 248 WEBSTER'S HISTOKY OF THE of Scotland, the doctrines which were zealously upheld by the best men during the Marrow Controversy, and which con- stituted the chief charm to Toplady and Boston in that an- cient and excellent treatise, — " The Marrow of Modern Divi- nity;" and its fellow, "The Gospel Mystery of Sanctifica- tion," by the mellifluous Stephen Marshall. The Associate Presbytery and the Eeformed were united in their testimony on these points : — 1. Christ has died for the elect. 2. There is in the nature of saving faith an appropria- tion of Christ and his benefits. 3. The gospel is indiscrimi- nately oifered to all. 4. The righteousness of Christ is the only proper condition of the covenant of grace. In 1754, the Old-Side Synod directed McDowell and Samson Smith to represent briefly some of the most dangerous prin- ciples and practices of the Seceders, that they might be printed and sold where those gentlemen are doing most damage. Gellatly prepared a severe reply to the New-Side brethren, entitled the "Detector."* All the charges made by Creag- head of laxity he. assumed to be true, and demanded whether they, who had set the example of forming separate presbyteries and of dividing congregations, had any right to blame others for ministering to those at whose call they crossed the ocean, and who were as conscientiously opposed to the jN'ew-Side methods and peculiarities, as the ITew Side were to the dege- neracy of the Old Side. He warmly assailed the paragraph about essentials, and the assumption that one may be a true follower of Christ who did not believe all that Christ had taught, or regard all that he had commanded as necessary duty. He also objected to the orations as well as prayers at funerals, and to the heterodoxy of some who impugned the eternal generation of the Son of God. At firstf the Burghers and Anti-Burghers freely united in one presbytery ; but the Anti-Burgher Synod in Scotland refused the Associate Pres- bytery of Pennsylvania any countenance or aid, until, that con- enough to set your Bhoulder against the whole Protestant world, then condemn the Seceders aa unsound in the article of Faith, and enter an endless controversy, which, I imagine, will never do twopence-worth of good ; and, whether right or wrong at present, I am of opinion they will be right in a little time if you let them alone." * Philadelphia Library. f Kev. J. P. Miller's Sketches. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 249 nectiou was dissolved witTi all ministers who denied tlie sinful- ness of the Burgess oath. This was soon effected, and the places of the excluded were supplied by a number of able and eminent preachers of righteousness. Samuel Finley and Robert Smith replied to the pamphlet of G-ellatly in a piece entitled the " Detector Detected."* They quoted largely from Blair's animadversions on Creaghead's reasons for leaving the Presbyterian connection, in disproof of the accusation of laxity in doctrine and decline from the Westminster Confession in doctrine and discipline. They quoted the Irish Burgher ministers, — Samuel Delap, of Letter- keuny, and Thomas Clark, of Ballybay, — as authority for charging the Anti-Burghers with forsaking not only the com- munion of bad men and errorists, but the constitution of the church also, and with excluding from communion the best of men. They said that Clark esteemed the treatment of the Erskines as a great impiety, and lamented the success the Anti-Burghers had in imposing on so many in Philadelphia. The Anti-Burghers were not without success elsewhere : they gathered congregations in New York City, and in several other places in that province, at Octorara, Pequea, Chestnut Level, Forks of Brandywine, Fagg's Manor, Oxford, Deep Run, in the Forks of Delaware, in York and Adams county, , and indeed in almost every Presbyterian settlement west of Sus- quehanna. They also spread to the southern and western limits of emigi'ation, and, although small in numbers, they re- mained separated from all else, honourably distinguished, for the most part, by knowledge of the truth and steadfast ad- herence to every jot and tittle of the law and the testimony. The Covenanters were found west of the Susquehanna, and it is believed that only three ministers of that persuasion came to this country before the Revolution. These were Cuthbert- son, Lind, of Conecocheague, and Alexander Dobbin, of Adams county ; and these all lived to join with the Anti- Burghers and the Burghers in forming the Associate Re- formed Synod in 1782. The congregations in ISTew Jersey seem to have escaped these divisions, and to have had uninterrupted peace. The * Philadelphia Library. 250 Webster's history op the onl)' two exceptions seems to have been in Amwell, where, according to the testimony of a Church missionary, two hun- dred Presbyterians, in 1753, conformed to the Episcopal mode;* and on Black River, where the Separates or Strict Congregationalists established a congregation, still existing at Chester. At the union of the synods there were twenty ministers be- longing to the Synod of Philadelphia, and seventy-two iji con- nection with the Synod of New York ; yet the former, with suicidal zeal, insisted on the amalgamation of the presbyte- ries ; the ministers and congregations which were contiguous to be united in one body. To this the New Side objected to the last, though they had nothing to lose by it, ai).d though it put the Old-Side ministers, with their congregations, en- tirely under their control and uncovenanted mercy. Upon this plan, Suifolk and New York Presbyteries re- mained unchanged. New Brunswick Presbytery received Cowell and Guild from Philadelphia, thus leaving Cross and Dr. Alison to be joined with the large Presbytery of Abing- don, under the name of Philadelphia Presbytery, and to stand by themselves in a hopeless minority. The like discomfort awaited Craig, Black, and Alexander Miller, who were set off from Donegal to Hanover Presbytery. The Presbytery of Lewes was erected, to consist of two Old-Side members — Wilson and John Miller — and three New-Side men, — Hugh Henry, Harris, and Tuttle. "With these exceptions, the Pres- byteries of Donegal, and first and second Newcastle, remained for a time unchanged. At the rupture, the Synod of Philadelphia was left with twenty-two ministers ; before the union, they received five and ordained seventeen, and at the union, they had only twenty. There was an amazing superiority in numbers in the New York Synod, sixty-six having been ordained and fifteen re- ceived. The latter were all natives of New England except Morrison, who was probably born and ordained in Scotland. About one-third of those ordained were also New Englanders; there were two Englishmen and one Welshman ; of the re- * This is stated in Hawkins's Missions of the English Church. Is it not apocryphal ? PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 251 mainder, half were born in Ireland, and the rest within the bounds of the synod. To account for the difference of ministerial increase, we must consider the difference of territory. The New York Synod had the old settled provinces of Ifew York and New Jersey wholly to themselves, presenting eligible settlements and likely to attract candidates from New England. The Old Side had in common with them the provinces of Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, and Delaware, with the new settlements in Virginia and Carolina. The Old-Side congregations had been rent, and afforded barely a maintenance ; while the New-Side congregations, gathered during the Revival, were vigorous, united, and growing, and they furnished a very considerable number of candidates, as Eoan, Dean, Davies, Eodgers, Todd, Hugh Henry, Robert Smith, Harris, Ramsey, Duffield, and McAden. It is remarkable that Moses Tuttle was the only New England minister who settled below New Jersey, and Eleazer Whittlesey the only candidate who sought to labour among the Scotch and Irish ; and there were scarcely any, besides Spencer and Greenman, who found a home in New Brunswick or Abingdon Presbyteries. The difference must be resolved mainly into the influence of the great Revival ; the Spirit was poured out from on high on the young men, and they forsook their trades and gave themselves to the ministry. Roan, Bay, and Todd had been weavers, Chesnut a shoemaker, Tuttle a sailor, Laurence a blacksmith, and C. Tennent a saddler. To use the language of Eriends, " a spring of ministry was opened;" and on beholding the rapid filling up of the ranks in that period with pious, zealous, able, and, in many cases, distinguished ministers, " who knoweth not that the hand of the Lord has done this?" "He gave the word: great was the company of them that published it." A singular circumstance is also to be observed, — the ceasing of the influx from Ireland of candidates or ministers. Many young men from that country began to prepare for the sacred work after they had seen the grace of God here ; but few or no graduates of Glasgow or Edinburgh came as they had formerly done ; none, it is believed, came to the New York Synod, and very few, if any, to the other body. Not a single 252 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OP THE instance is known of an ordained minister from Ireland having come over to unite with either synod, nor from England. The Philadelphia Synod received from Scotland, Scougal, who soon died, and Brown, who, in less than a year, sought his native soil. The ISTew Side received Evander Morrison, who may have been ordained in Scotland, though it is not unlikely that he was admitted to the sacred office in New England, where he preached in 1749. The application of the church in Philadelphia for an assistant and successor to Robert Cross was presented to the Presbytery of Edinburgh and to the Independent ministers in England, and was disregarded. It is interesting to observe, among the fruits of the Revival, a turning from man's inventions to the Scriptural mode of church government. Whitefield told Erskine* that if, when a candidate for the ministry, he had had the views held in 1740, he would not have sought ordination from the hands of a diocesan prelate. Edwards, a few years later, wrote, "I have long been perfectly out of conceit of our unsettled, inde- pendent, confused way of church government in the land ; and the Presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of Grod and the reason and nature of things." By the advice of Whitefield, the friends of the Revival who separated from the First Church in Newbury, Massachusetts, adopted the Presbyterian form; and the people at Milford, Connecticut, in like circumstances, declared themselves sober dissenters from the standing order, worshipping after the model of the Church of Scotland. Horror of divisive prac- tices kept the Synod of New York from countenancing or winking at any movements in New England to leave the set- tled ministry and gather Presbyterian congregations. There appears to have been only two of the Irish ministers in that region who warmly espoused the side of Whitefield, — Moorhead and McGregoire. A few years after. Parsons, with his church in Newburyport, united with them. In 1758, they in a formal and explicit manner adopted the Westminster standards. This presbytery had no connection with the Synod of New York ; * Philips's Whitefield. PKESBTTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 253 but in its difficulties with Abercrombie,* who, in 1753, charged them with looseness in regard to subscribing the Confession, they oftered to refer the matters in controversy for final adju- dication to the synod at its session in May, 1758. The original Presbytery of Boston was opened in 1745, by the Eev. William McClenaehan, A.M., of Blandford, with a sermon in the French meeting-house. The French church disbanded in 1748, and their meeting-house passed into the hands of the Separates, who, with the Eev. Andrew Crosswell for pastor, formed the Eleventh Congregational Society. The last trace of this judicatory appears in the Eecords of Dutchess Presbytery, September 9, 1765, when the Eev. Samuel Dunlap, of Cherry Valley, was received as a member, the "presbytery to the eastward of Boston," to which he belonged, "being in- capable of sitting by reason of the dispersion of its members." The ministers on the east end of Long Island had been favoured with great success during the Eevival, and they were called to endure a great fight of afiliction. For Davenport had been the chief instrument used by God in reviving his work, and he had left the impress of his Spirit on a large body of pious people. They separated from their ministers, being under doubt of their conversion, or from some like weighty reason. Many, after Davenport's retraction, laid aside their extravagances of opinion and practice ; but a greater number had drunk so largely of them that their very bones were dyed through and throughout. They organized the Strict Congre- gational churches, with all the appendages of lay exhorters and females praying in public. On the 8th of April, 1747, the Eev. Ebenezer White, of Bridgehampton, Ifathaniel Mather, of Acquebogue, Ebenezer Prime, of Huntingdon, Ebenezer Gould, of Cutchogue, Sylva- nus White, of Southampton, and Samuel Buell, of Easthamp- ton, "ministers on the island of ISTassau," met at Southampton, and, in view of the " broken state of the churches, the preva- lency of separations and divisions, and the growing mischiefs * Robert Abercrombie, on being licensed, came from Scotland to New England ia the fall of 1740, with testimonials from the Presbyteries of Edinburgh and Eirk- aldy, and recommendations from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of Perth : he was ordained by a council at Pelham, Massachusetts. He joined with Moorhead and McGregoire iu forming Boston Presbytery at Londonderry, April 16, 1745. 25-1 •WEBSTER'S HISTOEY OF THE those disorders are big with, did, after repeated addresses to the throne of grace, some debate and serious consultations, covenant to unite in a presbytery. They were satisfied that the disorders were much owing to the want of some sts.ted rules of ecclesiastical government, and were persuaded, accord- ing to light received from the word of God, that Presbyterian government in its most essential articles was consonant to the mind and will of the glorious Head and King of the Church, and will best answer the ends of government in the churches to which they sustain the pastoral relation. They regarded the Westminster Confession as agreeable to the word of God and a suitable test of orthodoxy. They covenanted to endea- vour to engage their people to join with them, and to seek to draw vacant and unsettled congregations to place themselves under their care." At this meeting, the churches of Easthamp- ton, Bridgehampton, and Southampton were represented by delegates, who also entered into the covenant. A few weeks after, they met, and there were favourable appearances in the churches of concurrence ; but Southampton embraced the pro- posal nem. con. Mr. Mather died before April, 1748, some of his people having forsaken him, and others "having a list that way." Soon after the formation of the presbytery, a gracious reviving cheered the pastors and united their people firmly to them. They joined the Synod of New York. It is pleasant to reflect that each of these ministers except Gould, who through the desertion of his people to the Separates was obliged to remove to Connecticut, lived to long life, in vigour to the last, useful beyond most men, and closing their days among the people who welcomed them in youth and reverenced them in age. The Rev. Eleazer Wheelock,* afterwards President of Dart- mouth College, wrote from Lebanon, Connecticut, March 13, 1749, to Dr. Bellamy : — " There are many things that have a threatening aspect on our religious interests in these parts: — Antinomian principles, and the Korah-like claims which are the usual concomitants of them ; prevailing worldliness and coldness, which has become a common distemper among us ; growing immorality, justified by the wHdness and errors of many high pro- » Bellamy MSS. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 255 fessors ; a Want of promising candidates for the ministry, and the great difficulty that commonly attends the settling of any, chiefly through the strait-hand edness of parishes toward the support of the gospel ; the want of a good discipline in our churches, and the difficulty upon many accounts of reviving it, &c. &c. I am fully of the opinion that it is time for ministers to wake up for a redress of these evils ; and I can think of no way more likely, than for those, who are in the same way of thinking about the most important things in religion, to join in a presbytery. Don't you see that Arminian candidates can't settle in the ministry ? Don't you see how much those want the patronage of a godly presbytery, who do settle ? Tor want of it, they get broken bones, which will pain them all their days. Would not such a presbytery soon have all the candi- dates of worth under them, and, consequently, presently most of the vacant churches ? Our wild people are not half so much prejudiced against the Scottish constitution as against our own. Many churches in these parts might easily be brought into it, and my soul longs for ^ . . . For my part, I think it high time that men who have been treated as Mr. Robbins (of Branford) was, should have some way of relief, which I am informed was the view of that honest Calvinist who first moved in that proposal. ... Is there not some reason to hope that hereby there will be a door opened for bringing things into a better posture among the Calvinist party ? You know how God has overruled things in the Jerseys." Soon after the Synod of Philadelphia had, in 1739, resolved that all persons, before being received as candidates for the ministry, should be examined by its committee and approved, John Thomson proposed to Donegal Presbytery to ask the synod to establish a school of its own. The synod, in the May of that year, unanimously -agreed to do so ; and the hope was expressed, that either Dickinson and Pemberton, or Anderson and Robert Cross, might be prevailed on to go home to Europe to prosecute the affair. Arrangements were made to facilitate Pemberton's going to Boston to prepare preliminary measures. The commission, with correspondents from each presbytery, was ordered to meet in August, and draw up proper directions for the persons intrusted with this important mission. This measure, if adopted unanimously, must have been carried 256 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE after the withdrawal of the protesting brethren ; for "Gilbert Tennent was hardy enough to tell our synod that he would oppose their design of getting assistance wherever we should make application, and would maintain young men at his father's school in opposition to us." The commission met ; but no persons were present, either from ISTew York or New Brunswick Presbyteries. Andrews, Anderson, Thomson, Boyd, Cross, Martin, and Treat attended, with the correspondents, Cathcart, Alison, Black, Jamison, and D.Evans. They resolved first to seek divine guidance, and David Evans prayed ; they then charged Andrews to write to the Church of Scotland, and Thomson to prepare a circular letter to the congregations, and agreed to call the synod to- gether in September, to deliberate further on the matter. Andrews, Cross, and Treat were appointed to prepare ad- dresses, credentials, and letters, to be laid before the synod; but, the war between England and Spain breaking out, the calling of the synod was omitted. By private agreement, the three Presbyteries of Newcastle, Philadelphia, and Donegal met in committee at the Great Valley, November 16, 1743, to. consider the necessity of using speedy measures to educate youth to supply our vacancies. They resolved at once to open a school, and the synod in the spring took it under its care. The plan was to give instruction in languages, philosophy, and divinity, to all gratis ; the school to be supported by yearly congregational collections. Alison was placed at the head, and eleven ministers were appointed trustees to visit the school and examine the scholars. No presbytery was allowed to "improve" any scholar who did not produce a joint testimonial from the trustees and the synod's committee. The synod applied to the Trustees of Yale, to receive their scholars at such advanced stages as their profi- ciency warranted, and to admit them after a year's residence to a degree. Several ministers and gentlemen helped them to books to begin a library. They received a favourable response from Yale ; but it seems none of their scholars availed them- selves of the privilege. Professor Hutcheson, of Glasgow, had* proposed to Alison * Alison to President Stiles, in MS. at Yale College. PRBSBTTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 257 the setting on foot of a seminary ; and in 1746, he opened a correspondence with him, but we do not know with what ad- vantage. In 1747, the synod determined to endeavour to pay the arrears to the master, and to get the congregations more generally to contribute. In 1748, they raised his salary to £40, intending to make it up by collections, and by " 'sessing" each scholar twenty shillings, and to defray any deficiency out of the yearly interest of the fund. In 1749, they declined to give Alison leave to remove to Philadelphia, and promised him ,£30, reserving liberty to exempt as many scholars from tuition- fees as they please ; and giving him permission to charge the rest as he sees fit. Still, the point was not arranged to his satis- faction, and they agreed to exempt only four of their own choosing ; leaving it to him to choose four others, who should enjoy the synod's bounty. He removed, in 1752, to Philadel- phia, as master of the Latin school, without consulting the presbytery or the commission. The synod overlooked this, on the ground that it was "highly probable that in his new sta- tion he might be serviceable to the church in teaching philo- sophy and divinity so far as his obligations to the academy vnW admit." The school was removed to Elk, and placed under the care of McDowell, immediately on Alison's resignation. He had £20 from the synod, and an assistant. In 1754, he declined the whole burden, but consented without charge to teach logic, mathematics, and natural and moral philosophy. The encou- ragement formerly allowed him was given to his assistant, Matthew Wilson. It is said that many able ministers were educated during Alison's time in the synod's school, and that two Dutch Reformed ministers, born in this country, were educated by him.* The synod also afforded aid to Samson Smith for his school at Chestnut Level, and procured him a yearly donation from the British Society for Educating German Children in Penn- sylvania. Thus, their efforts resulted in no great permanent institu- tion. The well-devised scheme of making Alison a subordi- * One of these was the Key. Jonathan Dubois, of Southampton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a native of Pilesgrove, New Jersey. 17 258 webstbe's history of the nate instructor in the college of Philadelphia enlisted the Old Side in the support of that institution, and drew them off for many years from attempting to erect a college of their own. The Presbytery of Kew York was probably mainly induced to press the forming of a new synod, in order to found a semi- nary of learning on an equal scale with those of JSTew England. The stand in regard to the Kevival taken by Harvard and Yale seemed to render this necessary, and had probably led to an attempt to establish a school at ISTew London.* Although this effort was unsuccessful, still, the causes in which it had its origin remained in full force. The obstinate refusalf of the authorities of Yale to admit Brainerd to his degree, after his humble submission, and in disregard of the personal repeated earnest solicitation of Dickinson, Pierson, Burr, and Edwards, satisfied them that it was time to arise and build a seminary, •suited to the times, to be under the influence of those who saw a glorious work of God's grace in the appearances con- temptuously designated " a religious stir." A charter, to incor- porate sundry persons to found a college, passed the great seal of the province, tested by James Hamilton, Esq., President of his Majesty's Council in New Jersey. This charter the trustees refused to accept, Tenuent strenuously objecting to the clause constituting the governor of the province, ex-ofiicio, a trustee. The college, however, was commenced at Elizabeth- town: the newspapers, in April, 1747, advertise that, on the fourth week in May, all persons suitably qualified may be ad- mitted as students. On the death of Dickinson, in October of that year, it was removed to Newark, and placed under the presidency of Burr. Whitefield wrote to Pemberton, Novem- ber 21, 1748, urging him to come to England, with one of the converted Indians, in behalf of the college. , Governor BelcherJ had from time to time, by letters, intro- * "That thing called the Shepherd's Tent" had been set up by Eev. Timothy Allen, at New London, to educate "gracious youths;" but the Connecticut Legisla- ture, in 1742, made it penal for private or unknown persons to conduct such semi- naries, and ordained that none should be admitted to the privileges of the ministry of the standing order, without a diploma from Britain, Yale, or Harvard. The tent was shifted to the Narragansetts, and soon given up. t Dr. Alexander's Log College. J Life and Times of Lady Huntingdon. PRESEYTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 259 duced the college to the notice of Lady Huntingdon ; "WTiite- field had drawn her attention to it also. In the earlj;- part of 1750, Mr. Allen, and Colonel Elisha "Williams, of Weathers- field, formerly Rector of Yale, came to England, with letters from Belcher and Burr. "Whitefield inti'oduced them to the countess, at her seat at Ashby. A statement of the intended plan and enlargement of the college was drawn ; and by her advice it was printed, with a recommendation signed by herself, Doddridge, and Whitefield. Several of the Dissenting minis- ters promised their assistance. She was active in collecting considerable sums, and corresponded with many persons in its behalf in England and Scotland. Whitefield lost no opportu- nity of recommending it to the attention of those who could efiectually further the object. He wrote, in May, 1750, to McCulloch, of Cambuslang, " concerning the Presbyterian col- lege in the Jerseys, the importance and extensive influence of which you have long been apprized of. Mr. Allen, a friend of Governor Belcher's, is come over with a commission to nego- tiate this matter ; he hath brought with him a copy of the letter which Mr. Pemberton sent you some months past. This letter hath been shown to Dr. Doddridge and several of the London ministers, who all approve of the thing and promise their as- sistance. Last week I preached at Northampton, and conversed with Dr. Doddridge about it. The scheme that was then judged most practicable was this : — that Mr. Pemberton's letter should be published, and a recommendation of the affair, subscribed by Dr. Doddridge and others, should be annexed ; that a sub- scription and collections should be set on foot in England, and that afterwards Mr. Allen should go to Scotland. I think it an affair that requires despatch. Governor Belcher is old, but a most hearty man for promoting God's glory and the good of mankind. 'The spreading of the gospel in Maryland and Vir- ginia in a great measure depends upon it, and I wish them much success in the name of the Lord." Allen died in the summer of the gaol-fever, which broke out in London, and carried off four of the judges at the Old Bailey. La 1751, the synod met at ITewark, at commencement, and, at the request of the trustees, sent Burr, Treat, W. Tennent, and Davies, to New York, to obtain the consent of his congre- gation to his going. Pemberton had at the time no family ; 260 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE and tlioiigli Gumming, his colleague, was to remain, and the trustees offered to supply the pulpit, the people and Gumming unaccountably refused. In the winter of 1752, the trustees solicited Davies to go with Gilbert Tennent to Great Britain on this embassy. Whitefield wrote, June 8, 1753, "I am glad Mr. Tennent is coming with Mr. Davies : if they come with their old fire, I trust they will be enabled to do wonders." The synod unanimously appointed them to this mission in October, and they arrived in London on Ghristmas day. The next day they saw Wbitefield, and he gave them recommendar tory letters to Scotland. In London they had remarkable suc- cess, and collected £1100, though they had not expected £300. Davies said,* April 7, 1754, "We have had most surprising success in our mission, which I cannot review without passion- ate emotions. Our friends in America cannot hear the news with the same surprise, as they do not know the diffieultiesf we have had to encounter ; to me it appears the most signal interposition of Providence I ever saw." September 2: "I think it an evidence of the remarkable interposition of Provi- dence in favour of the college, that, wherever I have stayed to make a collection, it has doubled what was ever raised before on a like occasion." Mr. Hogg, an eminent Christian merchant in Edinburgh, wrote to President Burr, August 28, 1755, "I have the satis- faction to acquaint you, that the collection ordered by the General Assembly amounts to above £1000; of which fifty pounds is from the Marquis of Lothian. The General Assem- bly, in May, renewed their appointment to all ministers who have not collected, to do so with all speed. The surprising ap- pearance of Providence, in giving Mr. Tennent and Mr. Davies such success, is indeed matter of great thankfulness and praise. "We would fain hope that it is a token for good that the Lord will make that seminary of learning eminently useful in send- ing forth labourers into his vineyard." * Diary, printed in Dr. Foote's Sketches of Virginia. f The Rev. Dr. George Benson did not sign the recommendation Without a sneer at subscription to creeds. He wrote to Dr. Mayhew, April 17, 1754, " I have endeavoured to enlarge their notions of liberty and charity, which appear to me greatly confined. They are diligent and dextrous men, and have had. great success." — Bradford's Life of Mayhew. PRESBTTEEIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 261 Tennent obtained £500 in Ireland. It was supposed by Hogg that the collections in Britain and Ireland would not be less than i;4000 ; probably this did not embrace the whole amount collected. The moneys collected by them enabled the trustees to erect a commodious building and lay a foundation for a fund for the support of the necessary instructors. New Jersey and Connecticut* each allowed a lottery for the benefit of the college. Governor Belcher was ever ready to aid in the good work, and his patronage was needed to the latest moment of his life; for Burrf undoubtedly hastened his own end, by travel- ling when sick to meet the legislature and to urge them to repeal or not enact a clause requiring military duty of the students. The growth of the college is said to have had a powerful influence on Yale, and to have hastened the appointment of a professor of divinity. The ostensible motive J of President Clap, in urging this latter measure, was that the students of the college were required to attend the First Church in New Haven, and that neither the doctrines, language, nor manner of the pastor, Mr. Noyes, were in any degree fitted to promote their orthodoxy or spirituality, or to fit them for the becoming discharge of the duties of the pulpit. In the Stiles Manuscripts it is charged that his real design was to keep up the character of the insti- tution for orthodoxy, and to prevent the Jersey College from drawing off students. Clap succeeded, it is said, by these considerations, in gaining a majority of votes and carrying his point. Elliot, of Killingly, Noyes, of ISTew Haven, and Rug- gles, of Guilford, protested against the measure. In Septem- ber, 1755, Naphtali Dagget, of Smithtown, Long Island, one of the youngest members of the synod, was nominated to that * Newspaper advertisements. In March, 1754, George Spafford, Andrew Reed, William Grant, John Sayre, A. Hodge, William Henry, Hagh McCullough, and Samuel Hazard, managers of the lottery granted by Connecticut for the college, state that there are eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight tickets, and three thousand and eighty-eight prizes. t Caleb Smith's preface to Burr's sermon on Belcher's death. I Stiles MSS.— Yale College. 262 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE high post. He exhibited to the trustees, November 21, a confession of his faith, declared his full and explicit consent to all the doctrines contained in our Catechisms and Confes- sion, and expressly renounced the prevailing errors of the times. He was inaugurated March 4, 1756. In the following year there were revivals at Yale and at Nassau Hall: the latter institution experienced the largest refreshing.* Davies tells us that it began with the son of a considerable gentleman in New York, and was general before the president knew of it. The first appearance of it caused much opposition and mis- representation. " This religioust concern was not begun by the ordinary means of preaching, or promoted by any alarm- ing methods ; yet some were ready to sink under its weight. It spread like the increasing light of the morning. A wise and gracious Providence had brought about a concurrence of different incidents, which tended to lead the students to thoughtfulness about their souls. These things, viewed in connection, manifested the finger of God; the freeness of whose grace appears by considering that, a little before this merciful visitation, some of the youth had given a looser rein to their corruptions than was common among them. A spirit of pride and contention prevailed, to the great grief and almost discouragement of the worthy president." BurrJ wrote to Edwards, February 12, 1757 : — " As I have had more fatigue, so I have had more comfort in my little society this winter than ever. There has been more of a reli- gious concern than I have ever known : some of the most careless and thoughtless are considerably reformed, and others solemnly concerned." February 14: "Half the students join in the society. Much old experience has taught me to judge of these things more by their fruits than by any accounts of experience for a short season." February 22 : "I never saw any. thing in the late revival that more evidently discovered the hand of God. Mr. Spencer says the same. Certainly a * Bacon's Historical Discourses. — Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. f Gilbert Tennent's preface to his Sermons on Important Subjects, j Gillies. Obadiah Wells, of New York, to Bellamy, March 19, 1757 : — ' Fourteen have been converted in the senior class." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 263 great and glorious work is going on. For nearly a month, a religious concern has been universal, not one student ex- cepted. When it began, I called such as were hopefully pious, and laid before them what I thought had obstructed the work of God heretofore. Their conduct has been very prudent. Mr. William Tennent agreed as to the method pursued, and has been very helpful by private applications." March: "I never observed conviction of sin so rational, solemn, and thorough." Thus wrote Tennent, of Freehold,* to Samuel Finley, and he sent the glad tidings to Davies :— " I went to the college last Monday, and saw a memorable display of God's power and grace in the conviction of sinners. The whole house was a Bochim. A sense of God's holiness was so impressed on the hearts of its inhabitants, that all of them, excepting two, (esteemed religious,) were greatly shaken as to the state of their souls. This gracious ray reached the Latin School, and much affected the master and a number of the scholars. Kov was it confined to the students : some others were likewise awakened. "I conversed with all the present members of the college, excepting one, who generally inquired, with solicitude, what they should do to be saved ; nor did I ever see any in that case, who had more clear views of God and themselves, or more genuine sorrow for sin and longing for Jesus. This blessed work of the Most High so far exceeded all my ex- pectations, that I was lost in surprise and constrained to say. Is it so ? can it be so ? !N"or was my being eye and ear Mnt- ness, from Monday till Friday, able to recover me from my astonishment. I felt as the apostles when it was told them the Lord had risen. They could not believe, through fear and great joy. "My reverend brethren and myself were 'as those that dream.' There was little or nothing of the passions in the preachers during their public performances, nor any public discourses during the hours allotted for study ; only, at morn- ing and evening prayers, some plain and brief directions * Printed in the Log College, from the original in the hands of President Carnahan. 264 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE suitable for persons under spiritual trouble were delivered. Before I came away, several persons received something like the gift of the spirit of adoption, being tenderly affected with a sense of redeeming love, and thereby determined to endea- vour after universal holiness. "I cannot fully represent this glorious work. It will bear your most enlarged apprehensions of a day of grace. Let God have all the glory ! It was indeed as a tree of life to my soul. Yea, it is still to me as if I had seen the face of G-od." In March, Gilbert Tennent* was informed of an extra- ordinary appearance of the divine power and presence there, and requested to come and see. ""With this kind motion I gladly complied ; and, having been there some time, had all the evidence of the reality of the afoi-esaid report that could be in reason desired." Daviesf was informed by some of the students, that the son of a very considerable gentleman in Wew York, being sick at the college, was awakened to a sense of his guilt. His discourse made an impression on some, and they on others, so that it was general before the worthy president knew any thing of it. Misrepresentations were sent abroad, and some took away their sons ; but most were sent back. As early as June, two or three had been drawn by wicked companions into their former evil habits. He learned from Mr. DufBeld, a young minister, that there was a pretty general awakening among the young throughout the Jerseys. Of the four classes then in the college, twenty students became ministers of our church. Two days before the commencement in that year, President Burr died. His father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, was imme* diately called to succeed him; but he died of smallpox, March 22, 1758. "An earthquake^ spread a tremour through a great part of our continent on that melancholy day. How much more did Nassau Hall tremble when this pillar fell !" His cha- racter has been drawn by many friends. Dr. Cutler,§ Church missionary at Boston, said of him, "I have known the man. * Preface to Sermons on Important Subjects. f Gillies. J Davies's Diary. j Albany Documents. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 265 Of much sobriety and gravity, and more decent in his lan- guage than Mayhew or Prince; but odd in his principles, haughty, stiff, and morose. There are not less than one hundred subscribers from Scotland to his book." (August 28, 1754.) Gilbert Tennent, in the Philadelphia papers, April 6, 1758, expressed his high sense of Edwards's excellencies: — "There was a great calm in his soul at his exit." After leaving messages with Mrs. Burr for his wife and children, who were absent, " he looked about, and said, ' Now where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and never-failing Friend ;' and so he fell asleep and went to that Lord he loved." In 1762, "sixteen popular students," as Whitelield expresses it, were converted, soon after the induction of Samuel Finley to the presidency. The revival-* began in the freshman class, spread through the college, and widely refreshed the sur- rounding country. Of the four classes, twenty-five entered the ministry of our church ; fifty of the students are said to have united with the church. Four short years were not gone, before Finley passed from earth ; but God, who had so graciously supplied each former loss, again displayed his kindness in sending Witherspoon, and preserving him to be its venerated head for a quarter of a century. Before noticing any of the results which flowed from the union of the synods, it is desirable that the "plan" or basis on which these bodies eventually were incorporated should be given in full. It will be found in the "Reeords"t of the first meeting of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, which assembled at Philadelphia, May 22, 1758. Observations on the consequences of its adoption will follow in a subsequent chapter. This document is as follows : — " The plan of union agreed upon between the Synods of New York and Philadelphia, at their meeting at Philadelphia, May 29, 1758. " The Synods of New York and Philadelphia, taking into * Dr. WoodhuU, of Freehold : printed in Schenck's Historical Discourse at Princeton, f Records of the Presbyterian Church in America, pp. 285-7 266 Webster's history of the serious consideration the present divided state of the Presby terian church in this land, and being deeply sensible, that the division of the church tends to weaken its interests, to dis- honour religion, and consequently its glorious Author; to render government and discipline ineffectual, and, finally, to dissolve its very frame; and, being desirous to pursue such measures as may most tend to the glory of God and the establishment and edification of his people, do judge it to be our indispensable duty to study the things that make for peace, and to endeavour the healing of that breach which has for some time subsisted amongst us, that so its hurtful conse- quences may not extend to posterity; that all occasion of reproach upon our society may be removed, and that we may carry on the great designs of religion to better advantage than we can do in a divided state ; and since both synods continue to profess the same principles of faith, and adhere to the same form of worship, government, and discipline, there is the greater reason to endeavour the compromising those differences, which were agitated many years ago with too great warmth and animosity, and unite in one body. "For which end, and that no jealousies or grounds of alienation may i-emain, and also to prevent future breaches of lik* nature, we agree to unite and do unite in one body, under the name of the Synod of JS'ew York and Philadelphia, on the following plan. " I. Both synods having always approved and received the "Westminster Confession of Faith, and Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as an orthodox and excellent system of Christian doctrine, founded on the word of God, we do still receive the same as the confession of our faith, and also adhere to the plan of worship, government, and discipline, contained in the "Westminster Directory, strictly enjoining it on all our mem- bers and probationers for the ministry, that they preach and teach according to the form of sound words in said Confes- sion and Catechisms, and avoid and oppose all errors contrary thereto. " II. That when any matter is determined by a major vote, every member shall either actively concur with or passively submit to such determination ; or, if his conscience permit him to do neither, he shall, after sufficient liberty modestly PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 267 to reason and remonstrate, peaceably withdraw from our com- munion, without attempting to make any schism. Provided always, that this shall be understood to extend only to such determinations as the body shall judge indispensable in doc- trine or Presbyterian government. " m. That any member or members, for the exoneration of his or their conscience before God, have a right to protest against any act or procedure of our highest judicature, because there is no further appeal to another for redress ; and to require that such protestation be recorded in their minutes. And, as such a protest is a solemn appeal from the bar of said judi- cature, no member is liable to prosecution on the account of his protesting. Provided always, that it shall be deemed irregular and unlawful, to enter a protestation against any member or members, or to protest facts or accusations instead of proving them, unless a fair trial be refused, even by the highest judicature. And it is agreed, that protestations are only to be entered against the public acts, judgments, or determinations of the judicature with which the protester's conscience is offended. "IV. As the protestation entered in the Synod of Phila- delphia, anno Domino 1741, has been apprehended to have been approved and received by an act of said synod, and on that account was judged a sufficient obstacle to a union ; the said synod declare that they never judicially adopted the said protestation, nor do account it a synodical act, but that it is to be considered as the act of those only who subscribed it ; and therefore cannot in its nature be a valid objection to the union of the two synods, especially considering that a very great majority of both synods have become members since the said protestation was entered. " V. That it shall be esteemed and treated as a censurable evil, to accuse any member of heterodoxy, insufficiency, or immorality, in a calumniating manner, or otherwise than by private brotherly admonition, or by a regular process accord- ing to our known rules of judicial trial in cases of scandal. And it shall be considered in the same view, if any presbytery appoint supplies within the bounds of another presbytery without their concurrence ; or if any member officiate in another's congregation, without asking and obtaining hia 268 -WEBSTER'S HISTORY OH THE consent, or the session's in case the minister be absent ; yet it shall be esteemed unbrotherly for any one, in ordinary circumstances, to refuse his consent to a regular member when it is requested. " VI. That no presbytery shall license or ordain to the work of the ministry any candidate, until he give them competent satisfaction as to his learning, and experimental acquaintance with religion, and skill in divinity and cases of conscience ; and declare his acceptance of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as the confession of his faith, and promise subjection to the Presbyterian plan of government in the Westminster Directory. " VII. The synods declare it is their earnest desire, that a complete union may be obtained as sodn as possible, and agree that the united synod shall model the several presby- teries in such manner as shall appear to them most expedient. Provided nevertheless, that presbyteries, where an alteration does not appear to be for edification, continue in their pre- sent form. As to divided congregations, it is agreed that such as have settled ministers on both sides be allowed to continue as they are ; that where those of one side have a settled minister, the other, being vacant, may join with the settled minister, if a majority choose so to do ; that, when both sides are vacant, they shall be at liberty to unite together. " VIII. As the late religious appearances occasioned much speculation and debate, the members of the New York Synod, in order to prevent any misapprehensions, declare their ad- herence to their former sentiments in favour of them, — that a blessed work of God's holy Spirit in the conversion of numbers was then carried on ; and, for the satisfaction of all concerned, this united synod agree in declaring that, as all mankind are naturally dead in trespasses and sins, an entire change of heart and life is necessary to make them meet for the service and enjoyment of God; that such a change can be only effected by the powerful operations of the Divine Spirit ; that when sinners are made sensible of their lost condition and abso- lute inability to recover themselves, are enlightened in the knowledge of Christ and convinced of his ability and willing- ness to save, and upon gospel encouragements do choose him PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 269 for their Saviour, and, renouncing their own righteousness in point of merit, depend upon his imputed righteousness for their justification before God, and on his wisdom and strength for guidance and support. When upon these appre- hensions and exercises their souls are comforted, notwith- standing all their past guilt, and rejoice in God through Jesus Christ, — when they hate and bewail their sins of heart and life, delight in the laws of God, without exception, reve- rently and diligently attend his ordinances, become humble and self-denied, and make it the business of their lives to please and glorify God and to do good to their fellow men, — ■ this is to be acknowledged as a gracious work of God, even though it should be attended with unusual bodily commo- tions or some more exceptionable circumstances, by means of infirmity, temptations, or remaining corruptions ; and, wherever religious appearances are attended with the good effects above mentioned, we desire to rejoice in and thank God for them. "But, on the other hand, when persons seeming to be under a religious concern, imagine that they have visions of the human nature of Jesus Christ, or hear voices, or see ex- ternal lights, or have fainting and convulsion-like fits, and on the account of these judge themselves to be truly converted, though they have not the scriptural characters of a work of God above described, we believe such persons are under a dangerous delusion. And we testify our utter disapprobation of such a delusion, wherever it attends any religious appear- ances, in any church or time. " Now, as both synods are agreed in their sentiments con- cerning the nature of a work of grace, and declare their desire and purpose to promote it, different judgments re- specting particular matters of fact ought not to prevent their union; especially as many of the present members have entered into the ministry since the time of the aforesaid religious appearances. "Upon the whole, as the design of our union is the ad- vancement of the Mediator's kingdom, and as the wise and faithful discharge of the ministerial function is the principal appointed mean for that glorious end, we judge that this is a proper occasion to manifest our sincere intention unitedly to 270 Webster's history of the exert ourselves to fulfil the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus. Accordingly, we unanimously declare our se- rious and fixed resolution, by divine aid, to take heed to our- selves, that our hearts be upright, our discourse edifying, and our lives exemplary for purity and godliness ; to take heed to our doctrine, that it be not only orthodox, but evangelical and spiritual, tending to awaken the secure to a suitable concern for their salvation, and to instruct and encourage sincere Christians, thus commending ourselves to every man's con- science in the sight of God ; to cultivate peace and harmony among ourselves, and strengthen each other's hands in pro- moting the knowledge of divine truth and diffusing the savour of piety among our people. " Finally, we earnestlj' recommend it to all under our care, that, instead of indulging a contentious disposition, they would love each other with a pure heart, fervently, as brethren who profess subjection to the same Lord, adhere to the same faith, worship, and government, and entertain the same hope of glory. And we desire that they would improve the present union for their mutual edification, combine to strengthen the common interests of religion, and go hand in hand in the path of life ; which we pray the God of all grace would please to effect, for Christ's sake. Amen. " The synod agree, that all former differences and disputes are laid aside and buried ; and that no future inquiry or vote shall be proposed in this synod concerning these things ; but if any member seek a synodical inquiry or declaration about any of the matters of our past differences, it shall be deemed a censurable breach of this agreement, and be refused, and he be rebuked accordingly." PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 271 CHAPTEE X. This noble declaration* is for our church, what the Decla- ration of Independence is for our couutry. It is a promul- gation of first principles, — a setting forth of our faith, order, and religion, as an answer to those who question us. It is the foundation of our ecclesiastical compact, the bond of our union. It is with grateful exultation, that we read, that this declaration was unanimously adopted, — that every member of the united synod set his hand to this testimony in behalf of truth, order, and evangelical religion. Every occasion of contention was shut out but two : one of them — ^the remodelling of the presbyteries — had been forced in by the astonishing pertinacity of the Old Side. The other —the examining of candidates for the ministry, touching the saving operations of the Holy Spirit on their hearts — was regarded by both sides as a necessary duty ; but, as to the way in which the examination should be made, they diiFered totally. There were many circumstances steadily concurring to produce on these points alienation of feeling, and to make the union merely nominal. Like the trickling of drop on drop in the slight crevice of the anvil or the narrow fissure in the cliff, — of little moment till the freezing air distends them and the iron is burst in sunder, and the mountain shakes, and the forest crashes beneath the falling fragments of the rifted rock, — so what, in the genial atmosphere of Christian affection and brotherly kindness, would have distilled and exhaled unper- ceived and harmless, became, in the polar temperature of declining piety, mighty to shake and shiver the fabric and foundation. * Dr. Hodge. 272 -WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE The Synod of JSTew York had the immense advantage in almost every particular. It was superior in numbers: its members were in the flower of their age, largely endowed with talent, occupying all the conspicuous places and com- manding posts; they were of high character for public spirit, worth, and piety. Their zeal prompted them to undertake important enterprises, and to sustain them vigorously till crowned with success. They had also large and growing con- gregations, and they were seconded in their labours by an able band of elders, and a goodly company of prayerful parents. There was a vital energy in their ministrations. If their sermons were bare of ornament as skeletons, they were compacted together with the joints and bands of doc- trines, precepts, .and promises. Though very dry to the cursory inspection of the caviller and the trifler, yet, like the dead bones of Elisha, they gave life even to the dead. The increase of candidates of an excellent spirit, adorned with appropriate gifts for the ministry, was a cheering token that He who ascended on high had accepted their works. They had also a college, with a liberal charter, in a degree endowed, well officered, with a high and increasing repu- tation, under pious influence, and visited with times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The Synod of Philadelphia, stationary for seventeen years in numbers, with few young men of distinguished promise, with congregations mostly in obscure places and not remark- able for size, liberality, or zeal, with no charter for their school at Ifewark, were under the necessity of placing their candidates* in an institution largely under the benumbing influence of a paralyzing Arminianism. On the other hand, the Old Side had more of the bearing and courtesy of the higher circles, and were too ready to notice the deficien- cies of men whose thoughts had not been turned to the ministry till they had been disciplined to handicrafts and * Of these, Beveral frent to England for orders, as William Thompson, sou of Rev. Samuel Thompson, of Pennsboro' ; William Edmeston, Rector of St. Thomas, in Frederick county, Maryland; Samuel Magaw, Rector of St. Paul's, Philadelphia ; and Francis Wilson, from the Forks of Delaware, and brother-in- law of McHenry, of Deep Run; and Matthew Tate, son of Rev. Joseph Tate, of Donegal, who also conformed. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 27a tillage. Their haughtiness ■w^as not unnoticed by their hearers; and the synod and the presbyteries had cause to lament the insulting arrogance they used in bringing appeals to their bar. The New Side were men of like passions with others. They were not blind to the contrast between them and their old antagonists. They repaid slights and coolness, by exercising, as a majority, their power over their brethren, after the manner of conquerors towards a restive but helpless nation. At the union, the three Old-Side ministers in Virginia were not present; and, without being consulted, they were separated from Donegal Presbytery and annexed to Hanover Presbytery. All the members of the latter body lived east of the Blue Eidge, except Brown, of Timber-ridge. They all three attended the synod in 1759, and requested to be erected into a separate pres-' bytery, which should embrace also Brown and Hoge, of Ope- quhon. It was a most reasonable request; for, even in our day, most ministers would think it a requisition equivalent to debarment from presbyterial privileges, if they were obliged to go from Augusta, or Rockingham, to Hanover, and Louisa, twice in a year. The brethren on the peninsula of the Chesa- peake had been favoured with a separate organization, al- though they were only five in number, and could as easily attend presbytery in Chester or Newcastle coiinties, after the union, as before. The territory embraced in Lewes Presbytery furnished few openings for new congregations, and its declin- ing vacancies offered small inducement to probationers to settle ; while the Valley of Virginia was rapidly filling up with a Presbyterian population, and its new congregations and its older vacancies drew all the neighbouring eyes. The five brethren in the Valley had pastoral charges ; two of those in the peninsula were only sojourners for a few years. The others might without inconvenience have been left in connection with Newcastle Presbytery ; but it would have been far more for the accommodation of those in Western Virginia to have re- mained with Donegal Presbytery, than to have been unequally yoked with the distant ministers east of the mountains. The majority of the synod refused their request. There were three New-Side mea in Lewes Presbytery to two Old-Side; but, 274 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE in the new one asked for, the Old Side had a majority of one. At the union, no attempt was made to remodel the Old-Side Presbyteries of Newcastle and Donegal and the K'ew-Side Presbytery of Newcastle, which embraced ministers and con- gregations in the bounds of both. They were left as they w^ere for one year. In 1759, Donegal Presbytery was absent. If they hoped, by not attending, to secure a continuance of the existing state, they were disappointed ; for the synod directed the two presbyteries of Newcastle to confer, and, upon their report, it was ordered that three New-Side men, Robert Smith, Eoan, and Hoge, with one Old-Side man, Samson Smith, should be one bodj^ The Presbytery of Newcastle then consisted of four of the Old Side, Boyd, McDowell, Hector Alison, and McKennan ; and of eight of the New Side, Blair, Samuel and James Finley, Charles Tennent, Rodgers, Bay, and Sterling, In no instance does any unkind feeling seem to have arisen from the collision of the two parties. Donegal Presbytery stood seven of the Old Side, Thomson, Elder, Zanchy, Steel, Tate, McMordie, and S. Smith, to three New Side, R. Smith, Roan, and Hoge. The last rarely attended any meetings, and added nothing but his name to the minority. It is worthy of notice that at this time DufEeld was settled in Carlisle, but he was left in Newcastle Presbytery. The synod, on being asked whether the congregations of Steel and Duffield should build each a meeting-house in that town, were grieved that there should still be such a spirit of animosity, and, far from encou- raging any steps to perpetuate a divided state, enjoined both ministers to unite their counsels and use their influence to bring about a cordial agreement between the congregations, that a plan may be laid for building a house in common. They built together in the following year. Duffield, soon after the new-modelling, agreed to join Donegal Presbytery, though not without apprehensions of unpleasant consequences. He wrote a letter to his uncle, Mr. Blair, in which he expressed himself freely, and censured Steel for having underhandedly and hastily obtained his call to Carlisle. This letter fell into Steel's hands ; whether before or after it reached its destination, does not appear. This greatly embittered them, and came before the presbytery, and the letter was put upon the record. PRESBYTEKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 275 The presbytery, in 1762, differed seriously in the trial of Samson Smith. The majority rejected the evidence of several witnesses, as being incompetent to give legal testimony: by their exclusion, the prosecution could not be sustained, and he was cleared. The rejected witnesses appealed to the synod, as did also one of the minority of the presbytery ; and a highly- respectable committee, embracing a fair proportion of both parties, was appointed to go on the ground and hear the whole case. Tbej' rejected one witness which tbe presbytery had refused, and admitted another rejected witness to testify. The synod approved of the admission of the latter, and by a great majority disapproved of the rejection of the other: ten mem- bers declared themselves not clsar to join in this disapproval. Ewing protested very learnedly against the admission of the witnesses, and declared that it would be criminal for him to pay any regard or submission to any sentence passed by a judi- cature on such evidence. The synod replied, that they had only determined that, for any thing the presbytery or com- mittee had offered, both the witnesses ought to be admitted to testify. The committee was reappointed, to meet at Little Britain, with full powers to bear and determine. But new causes of difficulty had arisen. The presbytery had licensed William Edmeston, although R. Smith, Roan, and Duffield declared themselves unsatisfied with the declaration of his religious experience. Roan appealed, and the matter was left to the same committee. There was a third appeal. Duffield had objected to the right of Steel's elder to sit in presbytery, because he had not been ordained. The presbytery overruled the objection, and Roan and Duffield appealed. This matter was deferred by the synod for several years. The Old-Side congregation of West Nottingham petitioned to be transferred from E"ewcastle to Donegal Presbytery, and the granting of this request gave the majority an opportunity to strengthen the B'ew-Side interest in that body. They granted the petition, and annexed also the JSTew-Side church of WestlsTottingham, Strain and his congregations, Chanceford and Slate Ridge, and Hunt and his congregation. Little Britain. In 1764, all the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia was ab- 276 Webster's history of the sent, and all of Donegal Presbytery but Robert Smith and Hunt. In 1765, Robert and Samson Smith, and Tate, attended. The appeal was decided respecting the ordination of the elders, and the judgment of the presbytery was affirmed. They were to be received as elders, because they had been elected by the people, who had acquiesced in their appointment, though they had never explicitly consented in the face of the congregation to undertake the office. The presbytery and the synod agreed in judging that it would be for the peace and edification of the church to have a public declaration of consent made in every instance of accepting the eldership. The Second Congregation of West K"ottingham (IsTew Side) ipade a representation of the creeks and rivers to be crossed in order to meet with Donegal Presbytery, and was reannexed to N'ewcastle Presbytery. The maj ority of Donegal Presbytery asked to be divided, or to have the members added of late years, ordered to return whence they had been taken. This led to a remodelling, obviously with a sole view to the prepon- derance of the New Side. They dissolved the old presbytery, and added Bay, of Deer Creek, to those on the west side of the Susquehanna, and formed them into Carlisle Presbytery, thus, throwing Samuel Thomson and Steel into connection with Duffield, Bay, Strain, and Hoge. By an equally arbitrary, un- called-for, and preposterous measure, all the members east of the Susquehanna were formed, with Newcastle Presbytery, into a body called Lancaster Presbytery. Beard, who had been installed over the First Church in West Nottingham, joined the six others of the Old Side, in declaring that this arrangement gave them no relief, while their rights were infringed by being distributed, unconsulted and un\yilling, at the pleasure of the synod. This had no effect ; and a hope was expressed, that in new connections, the prejudices and animosity might subside and wear off. McDowell and Ewing dissented, and entered their reasons, apprehending that the act was contrary to the engagement at the union, that the remodelling of the pres- byteries should be only for edification, and not for destruc- tion. In 1766, the great majority of the synod refused to rescind the minute of the last year, except so far as continuing Carlisle Presbytery. The effect of this would have been to restore PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 277 Newcastle Presbyten- to existence, and to revive Donegal Pres- bytery, with the Susquehanna for its western bound. A like fate awaited the proposal to revive Donegal Presby- tery and leave Carlisle untouched, and also the plan to annex the members of Donegal Presbytery to the Second Philadelphia Presbytery for one year. Matthew Wilson, Ewing, Patrick and Francis Alison protested against these refusals, since only the exchanging a member or two in two presbyteries would have prevented the breach. Tate and Beard then declined tlie juris- diction of the synod, declaring themselves members of Done- gal Presbytery and of the Synod of Philadelphia, as it existed before the union. The venerable Richard Treat, the oldest member of the synod except Pierson and Cross, proposed — and the synod agreed — that all should be as it was before erecting Carlisle and Lancaster Presbyteries. This, however, was no improvement of the affair; for the New Side had gained Robert Cooper, at Middle Spring, and Siemens, at Marsh Creek, and of course had a stronger majority than before. They met and ■constituted; but the seven dissatisfied brethren formed them- selves into a separate Presbytery of Donegal, and ordained Lang, at West Conococheague. They addressed the synod; but no notice was taken of their letter further than to record, that, having adopted the declinature of Beard and Tate, they are no longer members of this body. On hearing the paper a fiecond time, they appointed a committee to converse with them, and bring in an overture. They proposed to erect the members of Donegal Presbytery, east of Susquehanna, together with Steel, with the old name, and to revive Carlisle Presby- tery, and add Roan,, Thomson, and Lang. This was rejected, and the dissatisfied brethren were assured that any reasonable proposals would be heard on their withdrawing the declinature. Robert Smith asked and obtained leave to join Newcastle Presbytery ; and Roan dropped his appeal in the case of Ed- meston, on condition it should be recorded, that he did not acquiesce in the judgment. In 1768, Tate proposed to with- draw the declinature, if the synod would annex Samson Smith and Beard to Newcastle Presbytery; Samuel Thomson and Lang to Donegal ; and Tate, Steel, Elder, and McMordie, to the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia. The synod acceded to this,— Strain protesting that this was erecting a monument 278 WEBSTER'S HISTOET OF THE of the former division, and would have the same effect as a rupture of the union, and would obstruct the success of the gospel ; that it was sacrificing the peace of the church, and in a measure the success of the gospel, to appease the wrath of a few, and that it opened the door for unrestrained passion to demand of the body whatever satisfaction a party might please. Roan, Duffield, Cooper, and Siemens protested that bad temper and want of brotherly love were the only motives the dissatisfied brethren had to urge; that they had made heavy charges against their co-presbyters and the synod, and had been zeal- ously engaged in promoting schism ; that to grant their request was to admit their charges and justify their practice, and espe- cially to strengthen a presbytery* which, in the judgment of many of the synod, ought not to be allowed an existence. They protested against it as covering offenders from discipMne, furnishing a pernicious precedent, and leading to a waste of precious time, which might be better employed than in a jour- ney of one hundred miles to attend presbytery. The Presbyteiy of Philadelphia tested, immediately after the union, the sense in which Article VI. of the Plan of Union was to be understood,— viz. : " Every candidate, before being licensed, shall give competent satisfaction as to his experimental acquaintance with religion." John Beard, a graduate of Nas- sau Hall, had been before ITewcastle Presbytery as a candidate, and, without dismission or recommendation, applied to Philar delphia Presbytery, October 23, 1759, and Was directed to visit the members of presbytery at their houses, and give them op- portunity of knowing his religious views and spiritual state. This was reviving a rule that had been adopted in 1735, enact- ing, "That no student be received to enter on trials in order to his licensing to preach, until he shall repair unto the dwelUngs or lodgings of at least most of the ministers of the presby- tery, and thereby give them an opportunity to take a view of his parts and behaviour." In May, they examined him, and professed themselves satisfied with every thing except what related to a work of grace on the soul. They proceeded to license him in August, 1760. In May, 1760, Magaw offered himself to the presbytery, and * The Second Presbytery of Philadelphia. PEESBYTBKIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 279 they resolved, that they were bound to improve no candidate, until he had visited the ministers, that they might personally iuspect into his experience. The presbytery heard his declara- tion of experience at a subsequent meeting, and deferred a judg- ment on it. In August, 1761, they debated the question whether his former declaration of experience was satisfactory. Four ministers were satisfied, — Cross, Alison, Simonton, andEwing; seven were not, — Tennent, Treat, Hunter, Lawrence, Greenman, Eamsey, and Chesnut. Magaw,* willing to give them all the satisfaction in his power, ofi"ered to converse with them, that they might further inspect into his state. The conversation af- forded them no additional light. The question was then taken on proceeding to license, and five elders and four ministers gave their voices in the affirmative, so that, by a majority of two, the matter was settled. The elders were Philip Wynkoop, of Abingdon, George Bryan, of the First Church, and Gunning Bedford, of the Second Church in Philadelphia, M. Dubois, of Pittsgrove, and John Cloyd, of Great Valley. The seven ministers protested, but did not wish thereby to hinder the majority from admitting Magaw to preach as a probationer. They unanimously approved his sermon. The application of Beard to the Presb;^tery of Phila- delphia, after having left the Newcastle Presbytery without being dismissed from that bod}', led to the proposal to the synod in 1760 of this query, — viz. : Whether our stu- dents, bred in our colleges, have not a right to apply to any of our presbyteries for improvement for the sacred work of the ministry? and whether they ought not to be re- ceived on sufiicient recommendations ? It was not answered till 1764, and then as follows : — Any student of divinity has a right to study for his improvement under any approved divine in the synod ; but when he enters on trials, he shall come under the care of the presbytery in whose bounds he has been brought up, has mostly lived, and is best known ; and if, for convenience, he desires to come under somfe other pres- bytery, nothing less shall be esteemed a sufficient recom- mendation but a testimonial from the presbytery to which he naturally belongs, or from several ministers of it, recommend- * MS. Eeoords of Philadelphia Presbytery. 280 Webster's history of the ing him as a candidate of exemplary piety and holiness of conversation. Montgomery and Talmage dissented from this judgment; but it has always remained as a law in the church. The debate in respect to Magaw's experience led to the introduction of this query in 1761 : — Whether, since hohness is a qualification requisite in a gospel minister, it is the duty of a presbytery, and possible for them, to make candidates give a narration of their personal exercises, and upon this form a judgment of their real spiritual state towards God, as the ground of admitting or rejecting them ? The answer was deferred, as also the request of a number of the members of Philadelphia Presbytery to be set off as a distinct judicatory. In 1762, the query was withdrawn as not clear. Those who apprehended themselves particularly concerned in its solution, declared it was a matter of conscience with them, and there- fore highly desirable to ascertain the true and proper meaning of the query, the precise thing to be considered. It was stated as follows : — "Whether a candidate's declaration of his own exercises and experiences in religion, given in the way of nar- ration, or of answers to questions put to him concerning them, should be required by a judicature as one appointed, warrant- able, and useful mean of forming a judgment of his experi- mental acquaintance with religion, according to which judg- ment they are to admit or reject him ? It was ordered that every member should be called to speak what he thinks proper to the question ; after which, if occasion require, the question shall be debated and then determined. John Brainerd took the chair, and the roll was called : two days and a half were consumed in going through it. The vote was taken on the 20th, and an affirmative answer was given, thirteen voting in the negative, and one being non liquet. It was also decided in the affirmative that this solution of the query is a compliance with the plain sense and meaning of the sixth article of the Plan of Union, and with the order in the "Westminster Directory to examine candidates touching the grace of God in their hearts. The dissatisfied declared, that the provision in the eighth article for the continuance of presbyteries to act separately, till it should be for edification to unite them, was a confirma^ tion of the method used by the presbyteries of Philadelphia PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 281 Synod in licensing candidates. The Presbytery of ISTew York, fearing a rupture, had chosen to be absent, and had sent, by two of their members, the following proposals: — 1. Presbyteries may continue to use the methods they choose without blame or censui-e. 2. The mode in any pres- bytery shall be adopted by a vote of the majority. 3. They may ask, in thesi, what the candidate believes to be the expe- riences of a real convert, and whether he believes he has eX' perieneed this saving change. 4. Ministers may be joined together in presbyteries, so that they may peaceably act accord- ing to judgment and conscience in the discharge of this im- portant duty. These were not acted on ; but Treat, S. Finley, and Blair, with Dr. Alison, Ewing, and McDowell, and A. Horton, were appointed to attempt an amicable accommodation. The synod, after solemn prayer to God for direction, agreed that every member of a presbytery may use that way which he in con- science looks upon as proper to obtain a competent satisfaction of a candidate's experimental acquaintance with religion, and that then the presbytery, as a presbytery, shall determine whe- ther to take him on further trials. This agreement did not satisfy a number of the synod. Immediately on this vote, and just before adjournment, the Second Philadelphia Presbytery was erected, for one year at least, to consist of Cross, Alison, Ewing, Simonton, and Latta. The vehemence on both sides is to be traced to two circum- stances : — the !N"ew Side assumed that this declaration of expe- rience was the only method by which the piety of a candidate could be ascertained, and that the dislike to it grew out of the opposition of the unconverted, and of their readiness to admit •others like themselves into the ministry. Hence, John Blair, in his " Animadversions on a Pamphlet styled. Remarks on a late Decision, and Thoughts on the Examination and Trials of Candidates," labours to show the necessity of holiness in those that bear the vessels of the Lord. The Old Side de- nounced this "inspection into the state towards God," as an invasion of God's rights, an ascription to one's self of Christ's heart-searching power, and an imitation of the lamentable •excesses of Davenport and his compeers. They claimed that 282 Webster's history of the there were other methods of complying with the Directory,— even those always in use in Great Britain and Ireland and among ourselves from the beginning. Besides the eases of Magaw and Beard, there seems to have been only one other in which there was difficulty about the declaration of experiences, — that of William Edmeston, who was licensed by Donegal Presbytery ; although Roan, Robert Smith, and Duffield, protested that they were not satisfied concerning his spiritual state. By a remarkable coincidence, none of these men continued in the work of the ministry. Beard was deposed ; Magaw never had a pastoral charge, and took holy orders; Edmeston gave up his license and went to England, and, having been made a priest, settled in Maryland. Hugh Williamson had been taken on trials by Newcastle Presbytery, and, without being dismissed, went off to Connec- ticut, and was "approbated" by some association. In May, 1760, he asked to be received by Philadelphia Presbytery as a probationer : there was a tie in the vote, and the matter was carried to the synod in the form of two queries : — " Whether it is regular for our students of divinity, who intend to return and officiate in the bounds of the synod, to go into New Eng- land or elsewhere to be licensed?" and, further, "Whether any minister or probationer, ordained or licensed in Scotland, England, Ireland, Connecticut, or in any of the Reformed churches, ought not to be admitted as a minister or proba- tioner if he produced sufficient certificates that he was orderly ordained or licensed, and has behaved according to his cha- racter, provided he adopts our Confession and promises sub- jection in the Lord?" The queries were deferred ; but it was voted that Mr. Hugh Williamson, a probationer, who was licensed in Connecticut, be received under the synod's care. He resigned his license in a few years, and served as a ruling elder in the First Church in Philadelphia. He became a practitioner of medicine, and rose to eminence in political life. It was he who obtained the letters of Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts, through the inadvertence of a clerk in the office in London, and, handing them to Franklin, he passed over to France. He represented North Carolina in the convention which formed our Federal PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 283 Constitution, and wrote a history of that State. He spent his last years in the city of ISTew York.* The queries, "so often repeated," were not answered till 1764:— " Though entertaining a high regard for the Associated Churches of New England, yet we cannot but judge that stu- dents who go to them, or any other than our own presbyteries, to obtain license, in order to return and officiate among us, act very irregularly ; and are not to be approved or employed by any of our presbyteries, as hereby we are deprived of the right of trying and approving the qualifications of our own candidates : but if, in some circumstances, it be thought ne- cessary for the greater good of a congregation for a student to do so, it shall be laid before the presbytery to which the con- gregation belongs, and be approved by them. " Though every Christian society should maintain communion with others so far as they can with a good conscience, yet no society is obliged to adopt or imitate the irregularities or defi- ciencies of another, contrary to its own established and approved rules of procedure. If any society or body of men is known to be of erroneous principles, or to be lax and negligent as to the orthodoxy and piety of those they admit to the ministry, as we apprehend to be the case of the N"ew Light in Ireland, and of some other particular judicatures and individual ministers who may, and, on this continent, sometimes do, convene toge- ther as a temporary judicature, for the single purpose of licens- ing and ordaining a candidate ; in such cases, none of our presbytei'ies are obliged to receive and employ in their bounds, as ministers or probationers, such persons, though producing fair certificates and professing to adopt our Confession. But if any minister or candidate comes well recommended by those on whose testirhony we can depend, they are to be gladly received, on their adopting our Confession and promising sub- jection in the Lord." In 1765, an explanation was added to the answer, affii-ming the undoubted right of presbyteries to converse with persons from foreign parts, so far as they may find it necessary for their own satisfaction, and not to receive them implicitly on his cer- * HosaoS's Memoirs of Williamson. 284 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE tificate, and a general profession of the Westminster Confess- sion; and it is highly necessary to be more particular and exact in exainining the principles of those who come from a church or judicature generally suspected or known to be erro- neous, or lax and negligent respecting the moral conduct or piety of their candidates and ministers, or who come from any number of ministers convened without any regular con- stitution, merely for the purpose of licensing or ordaining particular persons. This decision gave no small offence to the Old-Side men, who resented highly the insult offered to the New England chui'ches. The rule, however, was not stringent enough, in the judgment of the other side ; and, the emigration from -Ireland having greatly increased during the ten years preced- ing the Revolution, the number of ministers from that quarter increased. In 1773, Eoan proposed that no foreign minister or candidate should be received until their whole testimonials and credentials had been laid before the synod, for the very good reason that we had cause to distrust the faithfulness of many foreign judicatories in licensing, ordaining, and recom- mending men who held not the great doctrines of the Re- formation. This overture was admitted by a very small majority. The whole Second Philadelphia Presbytery unaminously dissented, because it takes away the essential rights of pres- byteries ; insinuates that they are unsound, or not trust- worthy, and is uncharitable and inconsistent with the love, respect, and fellowship we owe to the Protestant churches abroad ; will prevent foreign ministers from uniting with us, and induce them to erect separate presbyteries : it will furnish a pretext for the synod to engross all power, and is as much an insult to the northern provinces as to Great Britain and Ireland. Eodgers, Caldwell, McWhorter, Montgomery, John Miller, Anderson, Read, and McDowell dissented, but entered no reasons. Matthew Wilson, Latta, King, and Lang dissented for substantially the same reasons as those given by the Second Philadelphia Presbytery. They asked, " May not ministers who are pious and sound in the faith come from Great Britain or Ireland?" The synod replied that none of tlj^se brethren denied that PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 285 there was so great a degeneracy in the churches of the mother- conntry as rendered it peculiarly necessary that much care should be taken in admitting ministers and candidates from thence ; and that the presbyteries could not have the same means as the synod of information concerning their character, nor indeed such as was necessary to judge with any sufficient degree of certainty concerning them. It was, however, agreed that the overture be expressly declared not to extend to per- sons coming from any part of this continent. Eodgers moved that the operation of the overture be sus- pended for a year. He afterwards withdrew this proposal,, and, in the place of Roan's plan, it was ordered that presby- teries may, if they see their way clear, employ foreign minis- ters, but not receive them to full membership, until their full testimonials and recommendations be laid before the synod. In 1774, Tate requested a review of the act, and a consi- deration of the power by which the synod restrains presby- teries from acting according to the best of their judgment, in things which, before the synod's act, were allowed to be lawful, and not forbidden by the word of G-od. Thus, Tat© and his Old-Side coadjutors actually took the ground they had condemned in the N"ew Brunswick Apology as anarchical, and which the New Light in Ireland had always so stre- nuously maintained as the stronghold of their heresy. The synod rescinded the act. Witherspoon, Spencer, Hun- ter, Siemens, Mitchell, Duffield, and Hezekiah James Balch dissented. Eodgers, Treat, and McWhorter brought in a substitute, which was unanimously approved, and which was as follows : — "It being of the highest importance to the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom that church judicatories should maintain with the greatest care orthodoxy in doctrine and purity in practice in all their members, the synod, in addition to the agreement of 1764 and '65, do most earnestly recommend t» the presbyteries, to be very strict and careful in examining the certificates and testimonials of those who come from foreign churches, and be very cautious not to receive them, unless they are authenticated by private letters, or other cre- dible and sufficient evidence; and the presbyteries shall lay before the synod the testimonials and all other certificates on 286 Webster's histoet of the which they have received any foreign minister or probationer ; and, if the synod shall find them false or insufficient, the pro- ceedings of the presbytery, in receiving him, shall be null, and he shall not be owned as in ministerial communion with us. But whoever shall come duly recommended from abroad, we will receive them as brethren and give them every encourage- meut in our power." An important minute appears on the Records of 1784 :— "The synod, having reason, by information given since this meeting, to apprehend the churches under their care in immi- nent danger from ministers and licentiates of unsound princi- ples from abroad, do hereby renew their former injunctions, and strictly enjoin on every member of this body, under pain of censure, to be particularly careful in this respect." An attested copy of the injunctions and of this minute was sent to each presbytery. In 1785, John Hiddlesou, a young minis- ter of Belfast Presbytery, produced his credentials to the synod, and aslied to be received as a member of Newcastle Presbytery. Witherspoon, Eobert Smith, Miller, McFarquhar, Cooper, and Woodhull, having examined his papers and con- versed with him, reported that he ought not, in their opinion, to be annexed to any of the presbyteries, but may, if he choose, be committed to any of them, to deal with him as they think best, and report what they do to the next synod. He is not mentioned again. It is curious that William McKee, of the same presbytery, presented his credentials on the same day with Hiddleson, and was at once received. It does not appear that, up to the formation of the General Assembly, any heretical or unsound teacher, if we except Hemphill, was received into membership from any foreign body. The desponding, complaining tone of the Churcb ministers, in their letters to the Venerable Society and the bishops, is so uniform as to be amusing. In New York, not a governor had been at church from Sir Charles Hardy's day, in 1743, to 1760. The growth of their churches was hindered by sad, untoward circumstances. Punderson, of New Haven, lacked the polite- ness requisite for that post; Standard, of Bedford, was never * Albany Documentg. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 287 agreeable to the people ; Lyon, of Setauket, was perfunctory, and so covetous that his clothes were ragged. Only one was destitute of moral character,— ITathaniel Whitaker, of Mary- land, who is denounced as the worst of men. Their gain from the Dissenters occasioned them no small uneasiness. "William McClenacban, from Ireland, had been the minister of the Presbyterian churches in Brunswick and Georgetown, Maine, from 1734 to 1744, and, after a short stay at Blandford, Mass., he was installed colleague with the Rev. Thomas Cheever, of Chelsea, near Boston, in 1748. He remained there six years; and, having taken holy orders, he was sta- tioned as a missionary of the Venerable Society at Frankfort and Georgetown, Maine, " being a man* of uncommon forti- tude, and cheerfully disposed to undergo hardships." He left this frontier-missionf with no credit to himself, and went to Virginia. He engaged himself to a parish, and received such marks of their favour that he ought to think himself under obligation to serve them. He gave encouragement to the expectation that if he could obtain the Society's consent he would settle with them. He came to Philadelphia in 1759, and produced a great impression at Christ Church. The commissary, Dr. Jenney, was aged, asthmatic, and feeble. "WiUiam Sturgeon was the assistant minister, and another minister was needed. In May, seventy-four persons peti- tioned the vestry for McClenachan, and they granted him the use of the pulpit as a lecturer, provided the subscribers would maintaia him. In June, he was elected assistant minister. Provost Smith and the commissary, though no very good friends, united in opposition to his settlement. Smith was shocked at an extemporaneous prayer in Christ Church, in which, after many complimentary titles addressed to the Most High, he said, " We thank thee that we are not in hell." Dr. Johnson, of IsTew York, wrote to the archbishop, "I wish he does not occasion much disturbance at Philadelphia. I doubt he is enthusiastical. He affects to act a part, like Whitefield." The Bishop of London wrote, March 25, 1760, and declined * Hawkins's Missions of the English Church. t Dorr's History of Christ Church, Philadelphia. — Albany Documents. 288 Webster's history of the to license him, and directed the vestry not to countenance him, but to assist him to remove to Virginia. They waited on him with a copy of the letter. Seeing that, having been elected assistant, he was likely to be kept out of the post, the New-Side brethren took up the matter warmly. He was an Irishman, as most of them were. He was introducing evangelical doctrines into a pulpit where, from the beginning, an historical faith and a lifeless routine had superseded the preaching of the cross. Eighteen of them, in May, 1760, addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, stating their view of the case, and soliciting his Grace to use his influence, to constrain the commissary to induct him, in obedience to the call of the people. The signers were Grilbert and William and Charles Tennent, Davies, John Blair, Moses Tuttle, Charles McKnight, Ches- nut, Ramsey, Eodgers, James Finley, Kittletas, Roan, Brush, Moffet, McWhorter, Robert Smith, and Kennedy. This was not without a precedent ; for the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, by a formal vote, had prepared an address to the Earl of Holderness, secretary of state, in. behalf of Governor Bel- cher, who had been assailed. The archbishop took no further notice of the letter, than to send a copy of it to this country. The Venerable Society declared that McClenachan would meet with no countenance on that side of the water. It created a great outcry, when it was blazed about, that the Pres- byterians had moved the Primate of England to compel the Episcopalians of Philadelphia to receive a minister they had refused to have. A pamphlet, professedly from a Covenant- ing Presbyterian, appeared, giving au exact copy of the letter of the eighteen, and seeking to alarm the flocks by this amazing defection of their shepherds from the simplicity and well-known principles of the Covenanted Reformation; for they had used the official style, and, from their mode of addressing "his Grace," one might have fancied they intended, like McClenachan, to apply for orders. In May, 1761, there was an Episcopal Convention in Philar delphia. There were present Provost Smith, Campbell, of New Jersey; Craig, of Chester; Reading, of Apoquinimy; Sturgeon, of Philadelphia ; Neill, of Oxford ; Barton, of Lan- caster; Thomson, of Carlisle; Duche, of Philadelphia; PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 289 Chandler, of Elizabethtown ; and Keene, of Maryland. They applied to the governor for his approbation and protec- tion during the sitting. He replied he had no objection, and would give all needful protection. On the 23d, they attended the commencement of the College of Philadelphia, and, on the 25th, sent to the synod the letter of the eighteen brethren to the archbishop, with a complaint of such an inter- ference. The matter was committed to McDowell, Caleb Smith, Samuel Finley, Matthew "Wilson, and Hector Alison. Their minute was adopted, declaring that the brethren had acted improperly and without due consideration in the afiair, particularly in asking for the induction of McClenachan. The members complained of declared, that they, like the rest of the synod, are opposed to induction, if by induction ia meant the forcible obtrusion of a minister on a people against their will, and that they only desired the archbishop to use his influence in settling one whom they understood was the choice of the congregation. The synod declined to notice the doubtful insinuations made by McClenachan, and would not put the eighteen on the unusual task of clearing them- selves, when there is no evidence against them. The Old Side are said to have enjoyed greatly the awkward position of their brethren, particularly when the pamphlet containing their letter was hawked and cried in the synod's hearing: — "Here's your eighteen Presbyterian ministers for a groat. Who'll buy?"* The pamphlet was answered by a layman, who shows that no Covenanter, but some Episcopalian, had issued it, and that the squib had so pleased the clergy that they had departed from the convention with their saddle-bags stuifed with it. He added that the application of the eighteen for holy orders would be exceedingly acceptable to the dignitaries of the Church, who, for want of better candidates, gave the gown to drunkards, dupes, and debauchees. The retort was bitter and insulting in the extreme. It sneers at the defender of the eighteen as being well known as "the cursing prophet," and says the Presbyterians were sadly to be pitied if the eighteen were the best part of their ministers. He then pictures them * Miller's Life of Kodgera. 19 290 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE with some of their younger associates as having reached the Bishop of London's palace, seeking admission into the ministry of the English Church. John Blair is put forward as mistaking the bishop's porter for the bishop and opening in homely phrase the object of their visit. The porter intro- duces them to his lordship, who courteously asks, "Good people, to what do I owe this visit?" There being some hesi- tation, Charles Tennent says, haughtily, ""We've come to get the gown. We hear you give it to drunkards, dupes, and debauchees ; and we want it." The bishop, in amazement, scarcely believes his ears ; when Eoan obsequiously suggests that, if his worship wants linen to his skirts, "sax hunder reeds fine, he is tlie man in the face of day to weave it." This leads the others to declare their proficiency in their respective trades, and into a dispute about their comparative skill ; and the bishop dismisses them with the advice to stick to the last and not look for the gown. McClenachan is not named subsequently anywhere, to our knowledge. The letter of Provost Smith to the archbishop, on the case, is transcribed into the Albany Documents, under the impression that it was from "William Smith, the prominent opponent of the Episcopal movement in ITew York. The Episcopal clergy in tlie colonies had little ground to complain of the eighteen, for they were continually moving the primate, and all in authority, to act against the Dissenters. Their persevering resistance of the Incorporation of the Pres- byterian Church in New Yoi'k was not a solitary instance. Chandler, of Elizabethtown, admits that the counsel refused the Incorporation, because William Smith, Esq. was a member of the congregation, and he had been active against encroach- ments on our civil and religious rights. Dr. Johnson told his Grace that Smith's book was the principal cause of the com- plaints against the Church missionaries. The primate had serious thoughts of attempting to prevent the Society in New England for Propagating the Gospel from being incorporated ; and by his interference the charter was disallowed. Nor was it any new thing for the New England divines to bring before archiepiscopal eyes the misdemeanours of colonial Churchmen. His Grace learned, through the Dissenters, that Beach, of New- town, had vented certain errors ; and he called the attention of PRESBYTEBIAN CHUECH IN AMERICA. 291 the clergy to the matter- The " Independent Whig and Ee- flector" reached Lambeth; and pamphlets, which Dr. Johnson had not heard of in New York, crossed the water and were even in bishops' palaces. His Grace was amazed at the viru- lence of an anonymous writer on the "Benefits of Conformity," and wondered how the Dissenters could fail to see that such things must rebound and injure them. " As the church doth hither westward fly, So sin doth dog her instantly." "There is nothing," said Dr. Johnson, "they will stick at: they patronize monstrous enthusiasm, strolling teachers, and wild notions." Doddridge, in 1751, possessed the Archbishop of Canterbury with the character of Davies, and the candour of his attempt : — "If the affair should ever come before the King, his Grace's designs are so pacific, that neither you nor any of the Dis- senters will suffer any injustice he can prevent." In November, 1757, Alison proposed to establish a maga- zine. He wrote against the Episcopal projectors in the " Phila- delphia Sentinel." In May, 1766, the synod resolved to have some correspond- ence with the Consociated Churches of Connecticut, and pre- pared a letter to be presented to them by Ewing, Patrick Alison, and Spencer, the moderator. They were charged to propose that each body should appoint certain ministers to meet together yearly, at such place as the General Association should select. The letter was transmitted at once. "Whittle- sey, of the Pirst Church in New Haven, says, "the first he heard of the proposed convention was from Mr. Bill Smith of New York." The convention met at Elizabethtown, November 5, 1766. Peter Van Schaak, afterwards an eminent counsellor, then a youth, wrote, January 27, 1769, " Our election in New York City is ended, and the Church is triumphant, in spite of all the efforts of the Presbyterians. The Churchmen regard it as a complete victory: it is a lasting monument of the power of the mercantile interest. The Presbyterians think they have, as a religious body, every thing to dread from the growing power of the Church." In August, 1769, Zubly, of Savannah, 292 WEBSTER'S HISTORY OF THE sent to Dr. Stiles a copy of Makemie's trial, as being important at this crisis; it had been reprinted in the "Watchtower," in New York, in 1755. The counties east of the Hudson received the English part of their population from the adjoining townships of Connecticut. They looked to the Association of Fairfield county for candi- dates and for assistance in all spiritual and secular aflairs of their churches. Bedford, Cronpond, (Yorktown,) Hanover, in Cortland Manor, (Peekskill,) and Salem, put themselves under New Brunswick Presbytery in 1743. Eumbout and Fishkill were received by New York Presbj'teiy in 1751. Salem invited the Fairfield ministers to ordain Mead as their pastor, in 1752; about that time, John Smith, of Rye, joined New York Pres- bytery. Ten years after,* Kent, of the First Church in Philipse's patent, and Peck, of the Second, met with Mead, of Salem, and, considering that they and their churches had no connection with any ecclesiastical body, did accept the plan of government used in North Britain, and adopted the Westmin- ster Confession, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as the confession of their faith, and the Directory and Discipline to be their rule of worship and discipline. They resolved, in the most amicable manner, to form themselves into a presby- tery, and, October 27, 1762, chose Kent moderator, and Peck clerk : at a subsequent meeting they appointed. Mead to attend the synod in Philadelphia, and desire their incorporation with it. "The smallpox was so thick in the city," that he sent the request by letter. Full satisfaction was given by several mi- nisters of the good character of the applicants, and of their standing in the churches, "and that no unfriendly views or dis- affection to the neighbouring Connecticut churches led them to desire to unite with us." The request was granted, and Smith and Graham, of New York Presbytery, and Ball and Sackett, of Suffolk, were joined with them, under the name of Dutchess County Presbytery. The new presbytery, hearing that the only condition of union was the adoption of the Con- fession and the observance of the Directory, did heartily, cheerfully, and renewedly declare their adoption of them. * MS. Records of Dutchess County Presbytery : in the hands of Dr. Johnston, of New Burgh. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. 293 They soon after received the church in Albany under their care, with its minister, William Hanna, and, in 1765, Samuel Dunlop, — from a presbytery to the eastward of Boston, — the minister of Cherry Valley. Much of the territory covered by their congregations was neutral ground during the Revolu- tion, and was wasted by both parties : the ministers retired, the meeting-houses were burned, and the people greatly broken in their circumstances. The presbytery was much weakened from this cause, and, being reduced in numbers by death, re- ceived from New York Presbytery the ministers on the west side of the river, and took the style of Hudson Presbytery. Thus passed the first half-century of the existence of our favoured church in America. Who, on the survey of these years, does not hear the angel-voice saying to her, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured!" Onward was her progress, through poverty, through neglect of the British churches, through the cramping, crippling subserviency of royal gover- nors to the monopolizing measures of the Establishment. What church, since the days of the apostle, has been adorned with such a retinue, headed by Makemie, and spreading, through many of equal worth, to Bostwick, Bodgers, and Davies? Each presbytery was a constellation of pastors, "the glory of Christ." See, in Suffolk, Buel, Brown, and Prime ; in New York, Pemberton, Cumming, and Bostwick; in East Jersey, the Dickinsons, Burr, Pierson, the Tennents and the Brainerds, Cowell, Spencer, and Rowland. What an array the New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle presented ! — the Blairs, the Finleys, Robert Smith, Hugh Henry, Dean, Rodgers, and Davies. And, though less celebrated, yet widely useful, the men of the Old Side, — Gillespie, Alison, Thomson, Creaghead, Boyd, and McDowell. How steady, how rapid, how permanent her enlargement! Prom Connecticut to North Carolina, at every frontier-post, she set up her banners. Her standard-bearers in the extremest points were men who might have adorned the chief cities of any land. Craig, and Davies, and Brown, and Todd, in Vir- ginia; and Craighead, Campbell, Patillo, and McAden, in North Carolina, — and, before all, Robinson. They who served in the ministry were allured by no splendid 294 Webster's history of the presbtterian church. prizes ; they endured hardship as good soldiers of Jesus, for from him had they received their ministry. JSTo new theory, no philosophy of religion, gave them promi- nence and bewitched the people with the belief that thej' were the great power of God. " That which ye have heard from the beginning," "the word which began to be spoken by the Lord," was the message they brought; and they delivered it in goodly and time-honoured words. Sound in the faith, lovers of learning, steadfast in duty, they toiled silently, unitedly. He who hastens his work in his own time commanded the blessing like the daily dew, even life for evermore. A little one became a thousand. "The Breaker is come up before them; they have broken up and passed through the gate;" and of them he said, "0 satisfied with favour and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the south and the west." PART II. ii0grapljial ii0grap|}^5. FRANCIS MAKEMIE. A NATIVE of the county Donegal, lie had probably studied at one of the Scottish universities. In January, 1681, he was intro- duced to Laggan Presbytery by the Rev. Thomas Drummond, of Rathmelton,* — the brother, we presume, of William Drummond, the first governor of North Carolina, and who afterwards, in Bacon's War, suffered death as a rebel under Sir William Berkeley, Gover- nor of Virginia."!" The record of his ordination is lost. Two of his letters to In- crease Mather, of Boston, are preserved in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Elizabeth Rivek, Va., 22 July, 1684. Reverend and Dear Brother: — I wrote to you, though unacquainted, by Mr. Lamb, from North Carolina, of my designe for Ashley River, South Carolina, which I was forward in attempting that I engaged in a voyage, and went to sea in the month of May ; but God in his providence saw fit I should not see it at the time, for we were tosst upon the coast by contrary winds, and to the north as far as Delaware Bay, so that, falling short in our provisions, we were necessitated, after several essays to the south, to Virginia ; and, in the mean while. Colonel Anthony Lawson, and other inhabitants of the parish of Lynn- haven, in Lower Norfolk county, (who had a Dissenting minister from Ireland, until the Lord was pleased to remove him by death in August last; among whom I preached before I went to the South, in coming from Maryland, against their earnest importu- nity,) coming so pertinently in the place of our landing for water, prevailed with me to stay this season ; which the more easily over- came me, considering the season of the year and the little en- * Keid's Irish Presb. Church. t Bancroft's Hist. U. S. 29r 298 FRANCIS MAKEMIE. couragement from Carolina, from the sure information I liave had. But for the satisfaction of my friends in Ireland, whom I design to be very cautious in inviting to any place in America I have yet seen, I have sent one of our number to acquaint me further con- cerning the place. I am here assured of liberty and other en- couragements, resolving to submit myself to the sovereign provi- dence of God, who has been pleased so unexpectedly to drive me back to this poor, desolate people, among whom I designe to continue till God in his providence determine otherwise concern- ing me. I have presumed a second before I can hear how acceptable my first has been. I hope this will prevent your writing to Ashley River, and determine your resolution to direct your letters to Colonel Anthony Lawson, att the Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River. I expect, if you have an opportunity of writing to Mr. John Hart,* you will acquaint him concerning me; which, with your prayers, will oblige him who is your dear and affectionate brother in the gospel of our Lord Jesus, Ffrancis Makemie. It is probable that Makemie came over to the people in " Mary- land beside Virginia," who had applied to his presbytery for a minister by Colonel Stevens in December, 1680. In the fall of 1683, he travelled by land as far as Norfolk, and proceeded to Carolina. Elizabeth Eiveb, 28 July, 1685. HoNOUBBD Sir:— Yours I received by Mr. Hallet with three books, and am not a little concerned that those sent to Ashley River were miscarried, for which I hope it will give no offence to declare my willingness to satisfy ; for there is no reason they should be lost to you, and far less that the gift should be ... f for which I own myself your debtor. And assure yourself if you have any friend in Virginia, to find me ready to receive your commands. I have wrote to Mr. "VVardrope,! and beg you would be pleased to order the safe con- veyance thereof unto his hands. I have also wrote to Mr. Thomas Barret, a minister who lived in South Carolina, who, when he wrote to me from Ashley River, was to take shipping for New England. So that I conclude that he is with you. But, if there be no such man in the country, let me letter be returned. I am yours in the Lord Jesus, Ffrancis Makemie. * The minister of Londonderry. f Illegible. X Mentioned in Jlacdonald's History of Jamaica, as having been there as a minister and removed to Pennsylvania. FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 299 In 1690, Makemie was residing in Accomac county, Virginia, and was engaged in the West India trade. The next year he visited London, and conversed, among others, with Mr. John Faldo, an aged Congregational minister.* In 1692, four hundred and fifty acres of land were granted him by certificate of Accomac Court. George Keith, having been expelled by the Society of Friends, denounced them as erroneous, and travelled in the Southern pro- vinces to establish his peculiar views. He saw a catechism which Makemie had prepared and published, and sent him word he would make him a visit. He did so in July, 1692 ; and Makemie " scorned with sharp retorsion" the charges of error, and his misconstruction of "my compassion of the tender souls in an American desart." He declined a public dispute with him, knowing that Keith would parade his learning before the people, who were incompetent to judge of the genuineness, accuracy, or relevancy of his quotations from ancient authors. Keith then wrote an examination of the catechism, and left it with Mr. George Layfield,f to be placed in Makemie's hands. On his way north he made, to the Rev. Samuel Davis, in Delaware, a statement to Makemie's discredit, similar to one he made to Makemie concerning the London ministers. He charged him, in his paper, with denying or wholly overlooking our need of the infiuences of the Spirit, and with "running to the Pope and Church of Rome, by that dirty conduit to have his call to the ministry conveyed to him." Makemie, in August, 1692, "satisfied his desire," and visited Pennsylvania, and witnessed the ferment growing out of the rup- ture with Keith. He soon after issued from the press, at Boston, "An answer to George Keith's libel on a catechism published by F. Makemie."J This bears, in black-letter, IMPRIMATUR, Inceease Mather; and is recommended by Increase Mather, James Allen, S. Willard, J. Bailey, and Cotton Mather, as the work of a "reverend and judicious minister." "I am constrained to justify my office from these uncharitable calumnies, and that grace might be magnified by giving this rela- * Matthew Henry wrote to his father in February, 1686-7, that Mr. Faldo, on King James's dispensing with penal-laws against Dissenters, was among the first to preach publicly, to many hundreds of people. He published several books against the Quakers. t In a paper in the British State-Paper Office, the names of those inhabitants of Maryland known to be honest men (attached to the Government) are pricked; among them is George Layfield, of Somerset. His descendants still reside there. MSS. of Maryland Hist. Soo. t In Library of Mass. Hist. Soc, and in Old South Church Library, Boston. 300 FRANCIS MAKEMIE. tion in the sigtt of an all-seeing and omnipresent God, that ere I received the imposition of hands in that scriptural and orderly way of separation unto my holy and ministerial calling, I gave re- quiring satisfaction to godly, learned, and judicious discerning men of a work of grace and conversion wrought in my heart by the Holy Spirit in my fourteenth year, by and from the pains of a godly schoolmaster, who used no small diligence in gaining tender souls to God's service and fear ; since which time, to the glory of God's free grace be it spoke, I have had the sure experiences of God's various dealings with me, according to his infinite and un- erring wisdom, for my unspeakable comfort." Makemie complains that Keith had published " no form of sound words," to which reference might be made for his true sentiments; and that he had, " at the house of Thomas Fooks, in Onancock, and at Nuswuddux," and in London, taught that the Scriptures were like a letter from an absent husband to his wife, which is needful for her guidance and precious during his absence, but is superseded by the words of his lips when he returns. If Christ were not present with his people, they would need the Scriptures. This pamphlet is remarkable for printing Calume and Caluinists for the name of the Great Reformer of Geneva. He had married* Naomi, the daughter of William Anderson, of Accomac. His father-in-law left him by will a thousand acres on Matchatank Creek, besides a release of the moneys lent him. About this period, he qualified himself, under the Toleration Act in Barbadoes, as a Dissenting minister, and in 1699 published in Edinburgh " Truths in a new light ; or, a Pastoral Letter to the Reformed Protestants in Barbadoes,!" vindicating the Non-conform- ists and showing that they are the truest and soundest part of the Church of England." He rejects the Liturgy, because of its " stinted composed and imposed forms of prayer, its use of a corrupt version of the Psalms, and its rejection of their Scripture titles, prefixed by the Divine Author." After some objections to the burial-service, he asks, " Why it was denied to the living at the fune- ral of the Rev. H. Vaughan, Dec. 28, 1697 ?" He laments that the vitals of religion are wounded and the doctrine of election assailed by church ministers as contrary to the Bible and discouraging to piety ; and pointedly asks, whether a sinner, without the special and entire grace of God, can repent, believe, regenerate, and save himself? He prays that the God of all grace would bless the world with a better spirit, and adds, that it is a paradox in Barba- does to hear of a Presbyterian minister taking up the cudgels in defence of a fundamental Established Church doctrine against a son, member, and minister of the English Church. * Spenoe's Early History of Presbyterianism. f Library of Harvard University. FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 301 Before this publication, he returned to Accomac ; and tradition says* that his preaching far and wide drew on him the anger of the Virginia clergy, and that he was seized and carried to the gover- nor at Williamsburg ; and that his noble vindication obtained for him the governor's license to preach throughout the Old Dominion. As a result, it is thought, of his argument, the Virginia Legisla- ture entered, April 15, 1699, the Act of Toleration on their Sta- tute-book. On the 15th of October,f "he did produce to Accomac court certificates from Barbadoes of his qualification there," and was licensed to preach in his own dwelling-house on Pocomoke, near the Maryland, and at Onancock, five miles from Drummond- ton, in the house next to Captain Jonathan Livesey's. He sailed for England in the summer of 1704. He published in London, in handsome style, J " A Plain and Loving Persuasion to the inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for promoting towns and co-habitation." It was dedicated to Edward Nott, Lieutenant- Governor of Virginia, who is characterized as " having so large a stock of temper and unbiassed interest." He notes as " an un- accountable humour, and singular to most rationale, that in those provinces no attempt was made to build up towns." As induce- ments to do so, he urges that it would increase the worth of the whole country, fill the land with people, make trade easier and less expensive, would prevent many frauds, give employment to the poor, and be of great advantage to religion, education, and general welfare. He reminds them that planting is overdone, the fields stripped and drained ; while the other course would bring artists and tradesmen, and, instead of depending on one staple, they might carry on foreign and home trade. He mentions and refutes the objections : it would cause a falling off from the cultivation of tobacco, and that there could not be much trade in time of peace. The growth of large towns would lead, say some, to cast ofi" de- pendence and allegience to the mother-country ; but why, he asks, should this thought be improved against us, and not against Bos- ton, New York, and other rising places ? The closing objection he supposes to be that the inhabitants are against towns ; for, if there were towns, there would be ordinaries ; and that would lead to drunkenness. He answers, the giving away of liquor makes drunkards ; if there were ordinaries, liquor could only be ob- tained by purchase ; if there were towns, there would be stocks, and sots would be placed in them. In the summer of 1705, he sailed for America, bringing with * Miller's Life of Kodgers. t Spence. I Libr. of Harv. Coll. This -was probably prepared at the suggestion of friends of those colonies in Great Britain ; for the British Government was at this time earnestly pressing on the Council ia Maryland to "erect quays and towns." — MSS. of Maryland Historical Society. g02 FRANCIS MAKEMIE. him John Hampton and George McNish. In the next summer, they succeeded, through the interposition of Governor Seymour, in obtaining license of Somerset County Court to officiate as Dis- senting ministers at four places on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In December, 1706, he was Moderator of the Presbytery of Phila- delphia, at a meeting held probably in Freehold to ordain Boyd as an evangelist. In company with Hampton, he immediately set out for Boston, and, having paid his respects to his excellency the governor at New York, he was unexpectedly invited to preach. He left it to them to find a place for the meeting. Neither the Dutch minister nor the elders of the French Church dared to invite him to their pulpits without Lord Cornbury's consent. Anthony Young waited on him to obtain permission; but it was refused. William Jackson opened his house at the lower end of Pearl Street ; and there Ma- kemie preached on the Sabbath, January 19, 1707, and baptized a child ; there being five present, and five above that, at the least. His text was Psalm 1. 23 : — " And to him that ordereth his con- versation aright will I show the salvation of God." It was the substance of two sermons. After unfolding the text, he announced this doctrine : — A well- ordered conversation is the only way to the kingdom of heaven. It is not causo regnandi, sed via regni. It is not the meritorious cause of salvation, but the way in which we must go, to enter into life. I. What is presupposed in a conversation ordered aright ? II. What is a well-ordered conversation ? III. Why is it necessary as the way ? IV. What is necessary to advance it? V. What usually hinders it ? It closed with a practical application. There was at this time a small Presbyterian congregation in the city, which assembled in a private house to read the Scriptures, and to unite in prayer and praise. At what period they commenced these meetings is unknown. Some of their number had long been residents of New York. The names preserved by Dr. Miller, are David Jamison, Esq., Capt. John Theobalds, Mr. John Vanhorn, Mr. William Jackson, and Mr. Anthony Young. Jamison,* having been classically educated, had been taken up as a " sweet singer" in company with Gib, in 1681, and imprisoned. He was, by leave of the Council, carried oiF by Captain Lock- hart, "voluntarily," and, being offered for sale in New York, was bought by Mr. Clark, the minister in the fort, and permitted to teach school. Entering the office of Mr. Clarkson, Secretary of the Province, he acquired a knowledge of law and was admitted to practice; he was an attorney in Lord Bellamont's time, and * Wodrow. — Albany Dooumenta. FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 303 afterwards Clerk of the Council. Governor J^■letcller was his bene- factor. By his zeal in religion, art, and management, he rose to eminence. To him the Church of England owed its legal establish- ment in the province. Governor Hunter describes him as the greatest man he ever knew, and on the death of Mr. Mompessom made him Chief-Justice of New Jersey. John and Garret Van- horn were merchants in the city in 1705.* On Tuesday, Makemie went to Newton, L.L, having appoiiited to preach there the next day. He was arrested by Cornbury's order, and with Hampton was carried to Jamaica by the sheriff and lodged in the meeting-house. In the evening of Thursday, being brought before Cornbury, he demanded " How dare you take it upon you to preach in my government without my license ? None shall preach in my government without it. The Act of Toleration does not extend to the American Plantations, but only to England. I know it is local and limited, for I was at the making of it. It extends to New York only by her Majesty's instructions signified unto me, and is from her prerogative and clemency." Makemie was satisfied that "the law for liberty" had no limit- ing clause; but he said, "If extended to the plantations by the Queen's clemency, our certificates are demonstration that we have complied therewith." Cornbury said, "The certificates are only for Virginia and Maryland. The law was made against strolling preachers, and you are such. You shall not spread your pernicious doctrines here." Noble was the reply : — "As to our doctrines, we have our Con- fession of Faith, which is known to the Christian world; and I challenge all the clergy of York to show us any false or pernicious doctrines therein ; yea, with those exceptions specified in the law, (the articles not doctrinal,) we are able to make it appear that they are, in all doctrinal articles of faith, agreeable to the established doctrines of the Church of England." The attorney-general said, the certificates were written under a hedge. Cornbury caught at .the clerk's omission in their certificates to state that they had signed the Articles of Religion, and at his having preached in a private house. "You must give bond and security for your good behaviour, and also bond and security to preach no more in my government." " If your lordship requires it, we will give security for our be- haviour ; but to give bond and security to preach no more in your excellency's government, if invited and desired by any people, we neither can nor dare do." * ■William Jackson and John Young were also shipped to the Plantations by the Council from Scotland. 304 FRANCIS MAKEMIB. "Then," said Cornbury, "you must go to gaol." While he was writing an order for their commitment, Makemie offered to pay the attorney-general, who was present, for a copy of that paragraph which contained the limiting clause of the Toler- ation Act. Cornbury said, "You, sir, know law?" Makemie replied, "I do not pretend to know law; but I do pretend to know this law, having had divers disputes thereon." The mistake made in his name — Mackennan — in the first order was rectified, and they were carried by the high-sheriff of the city and county to his dwelling, "to be safely kept till further orders." Cornbury disregarded their petition to state for what they were imprisoned ; no habeas corpus could issue till Chief-Justice Mom- pessom came from New Jersey. At the meeting of the Quarter Sessions, they applied for his lordship's leave to take the oaths and be qualified; "for we are resolved to reside in your lordship's go- vernment." He refused ; and when, by their attorney, they applied to the justices, the attorney-general put their application in his pocket, not suffering it to be read. The justices declined to license Jackson's house as a place of worship for Dissenters. The habeas was issued the 8th day of March, and my lord issued a new order of commitment in due form, admitting the illegality of the other. The sheriff refused to execute the writ of habeas corpus till they had paid "twelve pieces-of-eight" for their com- mitment, and as many more for the execution of the writ. They now gave security. Dr. John Johnstone, of the Jerseys, and Wil- liam Jackson, being their bail. The Supreme Court met on Tuesday, March 11, and they were present.; but the attorney moved, and it was ordered, that they appear on the last day of term. While the grand jury were con- sidering the case, Cornbury ordered Major Sandford, of Newark, to examine Jasper Crane, of Newark, and the Rev. Samuel Melyen, of Elizabethtown, concerning the discourse Makemie had with them. The grand jury examined four witnesses, who testified that Makemie preached no false doctrine. ^ They brought in on the last day a bill charging him with preaching without being qualified or permitted, and using other rites and ceremonies than those of the Common Prayer. The trial was set down for the June term ; and Makemie, on his own bonds and those previously given, was allowed to depart. The Presbytery met on Saturday, March 22, and adjourned till Tuesday at 4 p. M. At that time Makemie and Hampton ap- peared ; and Makemie, "by way of exercise," and Wilson, " by way of addition," preached on Hebrews i. 1, 2. The discourses were approved. In June, he returned to New York with his man, and, pleading :prancis makemie. 305 not guilty, the petit jury was called on the 6th. Not having the right of peremptory challenge, he objected against Elias Neau, who had justified Cornbury's course. Makemie expressed sur- prise at such language from a Huguenot, so lately dragooned out of France. He was employed as a catechist by the Venerable Society: "a good man,* but not in favour with the rector, Vesey." He was strongly attached to the Church; "he would not condemn the Dissenters, leaving that judgment to Grod;" which, considering how much the Church had invaded the divine prerogatives, was remarkably moderate. Neau was set aside. The jury being impanelled, Makemie admitted having preached at the time and place signified. The attorney-general, Mr. Bickley,t read the Queen's instructions to the governor: — "You are not to permit any minister, without certificate from the Bishop of London, to preach without obtaining your leave." The attorney-general asserted the Queen's supremacy as head of the Church ; cited the Act of Uniformity, and the Queen's instructions. "I doubt not the jury will find for the Queen." Mr. Regniere| replied, showing that the preaching was not pri- vate nor unlawful, for the law of the province was, that all per- sons professing faith in God by Jesus Christ his only Son, may freely meet at convenient places and worship according to their respective persuasions. The Act of Uniformity does not extend to New England, nor to this province ; we have no more need of the Toleration Act than they. Mr. William Nicoll made merry with the attorney-general's argument ; he asserted the constitutions of the Plantations to have been settled, as by national consent, for those whose thoughts in religious matters could not square with the national establish- ment. Mr. David Jamison said, "We have no Established Church here ; we have liberty of conscience by act of Assembly made in the be- ginning of William and Mary's reign. This province is made up chiefly of Dissenters and persons not of English birth." Makemie, having leave, said, " He agreed with what the attor- ney-general had asserted before Lord Cornbury, — that the penal statutes and the Act of Toleration were local, not reaching to the Plantations. He showed that the Queen's instructions related solely to ministers of the Establishment. Why are we denied what is freely given to Lutherans, Quakers, and Jews ?" The attorney-general moved that the jury be directed to bring in a special verdict, and the chief-justice directed them to do so. * Albany Documents; Hawkins; Weiss's French Refugees. t May Bickley, Esq., died in April, 1724. "He was not a bamster-at-law. ' — New York Documents. . 1 A son-in-law of Colonel Markham, Deputy-GoTemor of Pennsylvania. 20 306 FRANCIS MAKEMIB. The jury in a short time returned, bringing in a verdict of not guilty. This was the more remarkable, for the governors were careful, when appointing sheriffs, to select such that the Church* "might be safe as to the juries;" even Governor Hunter claimed credit for having displaced gentlemen from the Commission of the Peace, on Staten Island, because they were not as friendly to the church as the missionary at that post desired. Four of the jury were Huguenots, — Bartholemew Laroux, Andrew Lauron, Thomas Bayeux, and Charles Cromline. One, William Horsewell, was pro- bably a Presbyterian, named Horsefield, whose descendant was afterwards an elder. Mr. Regniere moved that the defendant be discharged, but the chief-justicef declined ; the next day his discharge was ordered, he paying the fees. These amounted to eighty-three pounds. The legislature soon after denounced the iniquity of requiring a man, proved innocent, to pay the costs of an unjust prosecution. Makemie preached in the French Church, and proceeded to New Jersey. Cornbury issued new processes to arrest him there, as concerned in the authorship of the Jersey paper entitled " Forget and Forgive." A whole Sabbath was spent in vain search for him, and he was put to a fresh expense of twelve pounds to escape into Connecticut. He wrote from Boston to Cornbury, July 28, 1707, that the authors of the paper smiled at his lordship's mistake, and that he waited a time to confront his sworn accusers in court and convict them of perjury : — "My universal known reputation makes me easy under the in- vidious imputation of being a Jesuit. I have been represented to your lordship as being factious both in Virginia and Maryland. I have lived peaceably in Virginia ; I have brought from Mary- land a certificate of my past reputation, signed by some of the best men in Somerset county." He printed, at Boston, the sermonj which occasioned his impri- sonment, with the motto, (Matthew v. 11 ; Acts v. 29 :) — " Preces et lachrymse sunt arma ecclesise." It is dedicated to the small con- gregation which heard it. "Had I been thoroughly acquainted with New York, and the irregularities thereof, which afterwards I was an eye and ear witness of, I could not have selected a more suitable doctrine." This he ascribes to Divine Providence, and hopes it may be an inducement to awaken sinners. The dedication is dated March 3, 1706-7. * Governor Hunter : in Albany Documents. f " Mompessom was Bent over as chief-justice to Pennsylvania, by 'William Pcnn, ■with high commendations, but, receiving no encouragement, went to New York." — Janney's Life of Penn. Governor Hunter says, "His poverty exposed him to temp- tations." — New York Documents. J In the Library of Colonel Force, at Washington. FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 307 Cornbury, " that noble patron of the Church here, '* was rebuked by the Rev. Thorogood Moor, a Church minister, for debauchery and swearing. He refused to administer the Lord's Supper to a man of so evil a life as Lieutenant-Governor Ingoldsby. Corn- bury threw him into prison : he escaped on ship-board, and was lost on his voyage to England. Cornbury was displaced soon after. Colonel Quarryf wrote, June 28, 1707, — " Colonel Morris and Jennings, with two or three others, had been very hard at work in hatching the most scandalous paper I ever saw in my life. It was false, malicious, unjust, and most bar- barously rude ; they treated his excellency most inhumanly ; they got printed a scandalous libel and dispersed a vast number. They had got an Assembly in the Jerseys to their mind." This libel was probably the Jersey paper, which came out in February, while Makemie was in durance, and which so exasperated Cornbury. Dr. John Johnstone, of the Jerseys, a druggist in Edinburgh, married Eupham, daughter of George Scot, of Pitlochie, and ac- companied his father-in-law in his ill-fated voyage to New Jersey. His sister, with her husband, Mr. Hume, dying at sea, he showed all kindness to his niece, who became the wife of William Hoge. Dr. Johnstone resided at Amboy, and died there, September 6, 1732, aged seventy-three. His son Lewis married a daughter of Colonel Heathcote, of Scarsdale Manor; and his son Andrew married Catharine Van Cortland. Makemie published "A Narrative of a New and Unusual Ame- rican Imprisonment of two Presbyterian Ministers, and Prosecution of Mr. Francis Makemie, one of them for preaching one sermon in the city of New York. By a learner of Law and a lover of Liberty." This tract was reprinted, in 1755, by Hugh Gaine in New York, under the direction of Livingston, Smith, and other gentlemen, concerned in conducting the "Watch Tower." In August, 1769, Dr. Zubly, of Savannah, sent a fragment of it to President Stiles, as likely to be of great service in the cause of liberty, if brought before the public. The representations made to the British Government drew from Cornbury the following letterj to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trades and Plantations : — "My Lords: — " I trouble your lordships with these lines, to acquaint you that, on the 17th of January, 1705-6, a man of this town, one Jack- * Rev. Dr. Carmiohael, formerly of Hempstead, Long Island. f Albany Documents. I Transcribed for me from the Albany Documents by Mr. Joel Munsell, and printed, with my consent, in Dr. Foote's Sketches of Virginia. 808 FRANCIS MAKEMIE. son, came to acquaint me that two ministers were come to town,— one from Virginia and one from Maryland, — and that they de- sired to know when they might speak with me. I, being willing to show what civility I could to men of that character, ordered my man to tell Jackson, they should be welcome to come and dine with me. They came; and then I found, by the answers they gave to the questions I asked them, that one, whose name is Francis Mackensie, is a Presbyterian preacher settled in Vir- ginia ; the other, whose name is John Hampton, a young Presby- terian minister, lately come to settle in Maryland. They dined with me, and talked of indifferent matters. They pretended they were going towards Boston. They did not say one syllable to me of preaching here, nor did not ask leave to do it. They applied themselves to the Dutch minister for leave to preach in the Dutch Church in this town ; who told them he was very willing, provided they could get my consent. They never came to me for it. They went likewise to the elders of the French Church : they gave them the same answer the Dutch had. All this while they never ap- plied themselves to me for leave, nor did they offer to qualify themselves as the law directs. But on the Monday following I was informed that Mackensie had preached on the day before at the house of one Jackson, a shoemaker in this town ; and that Hamp- ton had preached on Long Island ; and that Mackensie was gone over thither, with intent to preach in all the towns in that island, having spread a report thereto that they had a commission from the Queen to preach all along this continent. I was informed on the same day from New Jersey, that the same men had preached in several places in that province, and had ordained, after their manner, some young men, who had preached without it among the Dissenters ; and that, when asked if they had leave from the Government, they said they had no need of leave from any go- vernor ; that they had the Queen's authority for what they did. These reports, and the information I had from Long Island of their behaviour there, induced me to send an order to the sheriff of Queen's county to bring them to this place ; which he did on the 23d day of January, in the evening. The attorney-general was with me. I asked Mackensie how he came to preach in this government without acquainting me with it, and without qualify- ing himself as the law requires? He told me he had qualified himself according to law in Virginia ; and that, having done so, he would preach in any part of the Queen's dominions where he pleased ; that this province is part of the Queen's dominions as well as Virginia, and that the license he had obtained there was as good as any he could obtain here. " I told him, that Virginia was part of the Queen's dominions as well as this province, but that they are two different govern- ments, and that no law or order of that province can take place FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 309 in this, any more than any order or law of this province can take place in that ; which no reasonable man would imagine could be allowed. He told me he understood the law as well as any man, and was satisfied he had not offended against the law ; that the penal laws did not extend to, and were not enforced in, America. To which the attorney-general replied, that if the penal laws did not take place in America, neither did the Act of Toleration ; ' nor is it proper,' said he, ' that it should, since the latter is no more than a suspension of the former.' Mackensie said, that the Queen granted liberty of conscience to all her subjects without reserve. I told hirn he was so far in the right ; that the Queen was gra- ciously pleased to grant liberty of conscience to all her subjects except Papists ; that he might be a Papist for all I knew, under pretence of being of another persuasion; and that, therefore, it was necessary that he should have satisfied the Government what he was, before he ventured to preach. He said he would qualify himself in any manner and would settle in this province. I told him that, whenever any of the people in either of the pro- vinces under my government had desired leave to call a minister of their own persuasion, they had never been denied ; but that I should be very cautious how I allowed a man so prone to bid defi- ance to Government as I found he was. He said, he had done nothing he could not answer. So I ordered the high-sheriff of this city to take them into custody, and I directed the attorney- general to proceed against them as the law directs ; which he has done, by preferring an indictment against Mackensie for preach- ing in this city without qualifying himself as the Act of Toleration directs. The grand jury found the bill ; but the petty jury ac- quitted him. So he has gone towards New England, uttering many severe threats against me. As I hope I have done nothing in this matter but what I was obliged in duty to do, especially since I think it is very plain by the Act of Toleration it was not intended to tolerate or allow strolling preachers ; but only those persons who dissent from the Church of England should be at liberty to serve God after their own way in the several places of their abode, without being liable to the penalties of certain laws. So I entreat your lordships' protection against this malicious man, who is well known in Virginia and Maryland to be a disturber of the peace and quiet of all the places he comes into. He is Jack- of-all-trades ; he is a preacher, a doctor of physic, a merchant, an attorney, a counsellor-at-law, and, which is worst of all, a dis- turber of governments. I should have sent your lordships this account sooner, but I was willing to see the issue of the trial. " I am, my lords, "Your lordships' most faithful, humble servant, " OORNBURT. " New Tokk, October 14, 1706." 810 SAMUEL DAVIS. The result of his visit to Boston is not known. He di^d in the summer of 1708, leaving a widow and two daughters. Elizabeth survived him less than a year ; and his widow soon followed her to the grave. Anne married Mr. Holden, of Accomac, and died in 1787, childless, leaving a large property.* Makemie left one hundred and twenty English books to his family; his law-books to Andrew Hamilton, Esq.,t and the rest of his library to Andrews and his successors in Philadelphia. He left four lots, with the buildings, to the Presbyterian congregation of Rehoboth, on Pocomoke, and to their successors; but "to none else but to such as are of the same persuasion in matters of religion." His portrait was destroyed in the burning of Dr. Balch's house ; but his course of life portrays a man of learning, energy, talent, and public spirit. Dr. Miller, on the authority of Dr. Rodgers and of Dr. Read, of Wilmington, speaks of him as a man of emi- nent piety and strong intellectual powers, adding to force of talents a fascinating address, conspicuous for his natural endow- ments and his dignity and faithfulness as a minister of the gospel. His Catechism has escaped the researches of American collectors. He had two brothers in county Donegal (Ireland) alive at his decease. Andrews baptized Elizabeth, a child of Francis Ma- kemie, February 2, 1730. It was he, probably, who appeared as a commissioner from Warrington before Philadelphia Presbytery in May, 1739. In the Bishop of London's palace, at Lambeth, are letters from the Episcopal clergy in Maryland, stating that many fell away from them, by reason of the Dissenters in Makemie's day. SAMUEL DAVIS. He was next to Makemie in point of years, and, like him, en- gaged in trade. He was residing in Delaware in July, 1692, * "She gave by her will £100, to be disposed of yearly, for the support of a minister by the Session of Pitt's Creek, Maryland ; and £50, for the poor of that neighbourhood. ' ' — Spence. t Was this Andrew Hamilton the father of James Hamilton, Governor of Penn- sylvania? Andrew was a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, whose argument in behalf of Zenger the printer, prosecuted by Governor Cosby, of New Yorlc, was published in England as a most valuable assertion of the rights of persons charged with libel. He died at his seat at Bush Hill, Philadelphia, August 4, 1741, at an advanced age. JOHN WILSON. 311 when George Keith visited him. At the formation of the presby- tery he was prevented by business from performing the duties of a pastor ; and, on the failure of the people of Lewes to obtain Mr. Golden from Scotland, he continued to supply them as much as the condition and posture of his affairs allowed. In 1715, he joined with them in their request to presbytery to have a minister settled over them. On Hampton's resignation of his charge, he removed to Snow Hill, and preached there probably till his death, in the summer of 1725. He was present in presbytery only in 1709, when he was chosen moderator. On the formation of the synod, he was appointed a member of Snow Hill Presbytery. Through the death of Henry, of Rehoboth, and the declining health of Hampton, it was not organized. He and Hampton were not afterwards joined to any presbytery, because through sickness, business, and age, they could not attend at so great distance as the ordinary places at which Newcastle Presbytery met. Spence, though residing at Snow Hill, seems never to have heard of him or his successor, Hugh Stevenson. JOHN WILSON. One of the correspondents of Increase Mather, in the seven- teenth century, mentions the arrival of a Mr. Wilson in Con- necticut, and expresses a desire that so acceptable a minister might settle in the colony. Whether this person was the one who for many years was the minister of Newcastle is unknown. Among the "Colonial Documents"*- at Harrisburg is one signed by John Murray, in 1686, stating that William Huston, by his last will, gave three hundred acres on Christiana Creek, four or five miles from Newcastle, to John Wilson and his suc- cessor. He asks the interposition of the Government, the land being withheld by Anthony Howston. As early as 1702, he preached in the court-housef at Newcastle, and, not being contented, removed. He returned in 1703 ; which dissatisfied some, and made them anxious for the services of a Churchman. He had no pastoral relation to that congregation; and they were very anxious to secure McNish, and gave him a call. The meeting-house at White Clay Creek was considered as a chapel- * Colonial Documents, edited by Samnel Hazard, Esq. f Talbot, in Protestant Episcopal Historical Society's Collections. 312 JEDBDIAH ANDREWS. of-ease, the people in that neighbourhood being regarded as part of Newcastle congregation. In 1708, the presbytery directed Wilson to preach alternately on the Sabbath at Newcastle and White Clay, and monthly on a week-day, and quarterly on a Sabbath, at Apoquinimy. In 1710, he was succeeded by Anderson at Newcastle, and probably devoted all his time to White Clay till his death, in 1712. He conducted the presbytery's correspondence with divided or uneasy congregations, with Scotland, and with Sir Edmund Har- rison in London. His widow was recommended by the committee for the fund, in 1719, " as a person worthy of regard as to her present circum- stances;" £4: were given her; and a discretionary power was lodged with Andrews to give, if necessity required, £8 more. She received £5 yearly till 1725. JEDEDIAH ANDREWS, The son of Captain Thomas Andrews, was born at Hingham, Massachusetts, July 7, 1674, and baptized by the Rev. Peter Ho- bart five days after. He was the youngest but one of ten chil- dren. He graduated at Harvard in 1695. The disturbance caused by Keith, in Philadelphia, prepared the way for the commencement of religious services by Baptists, Pres- byterians, and Churchmen. There were nine Baptists, and a few Independents, in the town. After the " Barbadoes Company" gave up their store, the building was used by the two denomina- tions in common whenever the service of a minister could be pro- cured. The Rev. John Watts, of the Baptist Church* in Pennepek, began, (on the second Sunday in December, 1697,) by request, to ofiiciate at regular intervals. The Rev. Dr. Clayton, a Church minister, entered into an amicable correspondence with him, to effect a union with the national Establishment. In 1698, in the summer, Andrews came to Philadelphia ; and Watts and his friends, feeling uneasy at what seemed to them coldness, wrote to him, proposing that each congregation should unite in worship, whenever conducted by ministers of either body, acknowledged to be sound in the faith and of good repute : — * Morgan Edwards's History of Pennsylvania Baptists. There were nine Baptists in the town. JEDBDIAH ANDREWS. 313 " We do freely confess and promise for ourselves that we can and do own and allow of your approved ministers, who are fully qualified and sound in the faith and of holy lives, to pray and preach in our assemblies." This letter, dated 80th of Eighth month, 1698, was addressed to Andrews, John Green, Joshua Story, and Samuel Richards. Andrews* replied : — "To the church of Christ, over which Mr. John Watts is pastor, we, whose names are under-written, do send salutation in the name of our Lord Jesus : — " Brethren and Well-beloved : — " Forasmuch as some of you, in the name of the rest, have in a friendly manner sent us your desire of uniting and communing in the things of God, as far as we agree in judgment, that we may lovingly go together heavenward, we do gladly and gratefully receive your proposal, and return you thanks for the same ; and bless God who hath put it in your minds to endeavour after peace and concord, earnestly desiring that your request may have a good eifect, which may be for the edification of us all, that we may the more freely perform mutual offices of ' love one towards another' for our furtherance in Christianity. But that we may do what we do safely, and for our more eifectual carrying on our fore- mentioned desire, we have thought it might be profitable for us all, and more conducive to our future love and unity, that we might have some friendly conference concerning those afiairs before we give you a direct answer to your proposition, which we have confi- dence you will not deny. And in pursuance hereof we do request that some of you (who you think best) may meet with us, or some of us, at a time and place which you shall appoint, that what we agree upon may be done in order. " Subscribed, in the name of the rest, Philadelphia, November 3, 1698. Jedediah Andrews. "John GREEN,f Samuel Richards, David Giffing, Herbert Corey, John Van Lear, Daniel Green." It was agreed to meet at the common meeting-house on the * Printed in Edwards's History. f In the office of the Register of Wills, Philadelphia, are recorded the testa- ments of — Daniel Green, October 22, 1699. John Green, cordwainer, October 4, 1711. David GifBng, bricklayer, 1716. John Van Lear, April 16, 1722. I do not find the names of Richards or Corry. 814 JEDEDIAH ANDREWS. 19tli of November. Three of the Baptists went from Pennepek to town, (Philadelphia,) and sent to Andrews's lodgings, which were near. But he said, " he knew it not to be the day, but took it to be the second day after." The Baptists waited for him and his friends till sunset. Watts went home, satisfied that the Pres- byterians had not acted "in sincerity, how godly soever their words may be." He, therefore, wrote to Andrews the same day: — " Necessity constrains us to meet apart from you till we can receive an answer, and are assured you can own us, so as we do you. We remain the same as before, and stand by what we have written. No more at present; but prayers for you, and dearest love to you in Christ Jesus." This conduct of the Presbyterians surely needs no such heavy censure as Edwards bestows, calling it " a dispossession unkind and rightless." The Baptists withdrew to the brew-house of Anthony Morris, " near the draw-bridge." Andrews soon after wrote to Thomas Revell at Burlington: — " Though we have got the Anabaptists out of the house, yet our continuance there is uncertain ; therefore must think of building, notwithstanding our poverty and the smallness of our number." He was probably ordained in Philadelphia, in the fall of 1701 ; for his " Record of Baptisms and Marriages" begins, 1701, Tenth month, 14th day. Talbot,* Church missionary at Burlington, writing to the "Venerable Society," April 24, 1702, says, — "The Presbyte- rians here come a great way to lay hands on one another; but, after all, I think they had as good stay at home for all the good they do In Philadelphia, one pretends to be a Presbyte- rian, and has a congregation, to which he preaches." In 1704, they left the " Barbadoes Store," to worship in the church they had erected in Buttonwood [now Market] Street. Five adults were baptized in 1705 and four in 1706. He enters the baptism of his children thus : — " 1707, Seventh month, 21. — Mary, daughter of Jedediah An- drews and Helena his wife. " 1709, Third month, 28. — Ephraim, their son, (born January 28, 1708-9,) baptized by Mr. Hampton." The church is said to have been of the Congregational order ; but it was represented by elders in presbytery from the first. An- drews was punctual in his attendance on every meeting ; being accompanied by Joseph Yardf for eight years, in 1716, by David * Hawkins's Missions of English Church. f Joseph Yard, bricklayer, made his -will in May 16, 1716. .John Snowden, a tanner, was the father of Jedediah Snowden, an early trustee of the Second Church, and the ancestor of Isaac (father of Gilbert) Tennent, Samuel Finley, and Natha- JEDEDIAH ANDREWS. 315 Giffing for six successive years, and frequently after by Jolm Snowden, occasionally from 1723 by John Budd, and reo-ularly from 1782 to 1746 by William Gray. In 1711, -when Christ Church could not be used, the Presbyte- rians offered the use of their church to the vestry. They declined it, preferring the Swede Church at Wecaco. In 1714, £10 were allowed to Philadelphia out of the money sent by Mr. Reynolds of London, to " the support of God's work in these parts." The presbytery, in 1707, "for propagating the interest of reli- gion," directed each minister in his congregation to read and com- ment on a chapter of the Bible every Lord's day, as discretion and circumstances of time and place will admit. All the ministers but Andrews complied ; and in 1708 it was recommended to him to take into serious consideration the reading a chapter and making a com- ment on the same. His backwardness to read a chapter in public worship strongly illustrates his tenacity of New England habits. The exposition of the Scripture was to the other members of pres- bytery a most important service of the sanctuary ; in it they de- lighted, and perhaps excelled. The repugnance of the New Eng- land divines to it was as uniform as it was unaccountable. When the new church was reared in Boston for Dr. Colman, ancient men stood aghast at the report that a chapter was to be read from the Bible morning and afternoon ; they apprehended it to be a premo- nitory symptom of the Liturgical mania. The entries* in Chief Justice Sewell's diary are curiously illustrative. In 1713, Dr. Colman bewailed, in one of his sermons, the prevailing neglect of the Scriptures in public worship. It is unlikely that Andrews ever conformed to the good old Presbyterian custom of expounding God's word. But he needed no urgency to comply with the suggestion to sup- ply the destitute. His record of baptisms is proof of his journey- ings ,to Hopewell, Bensalem, Gloster, Salem, Burlington, Piles- grove, Rocky Hill, Amboy, and Staten Island. He was Recording Clerk of the presbytery and of the synod till his death, conducted most of their correspondence, and was rehed on as signally gifted and successful in terminating happily the disputes which, wedge-like, had been driven to the head in con- gregations and among individuals. It is a serious loss that so few of his letters to Cotton Mather and Dr. Colman are preserved. Tradition says that the Inde- niel Snowden, ministers ia our church. John Budd was an agent of the Proprie- taries for the sale of land in New Jersey. William Gray was a baker, and executor of his pastor's estate, together with Peter Chevalier. Gray preserved the Register of Baptisms and Marriages, and placed it in the hands of Edward Shippen, Esq. f Ainerican Quarterly Eegister. 316 JEDEDIAH ANDREWS. pendent mode was laid aside by him in 1729 ; — a strange time to do it, when the congregation were seeking aid from Boston to en- large their house. Nothing of the kind is hinted at in his letter to Colman in 1729, asking advice about his duty in relation to the Adopting Act. " As to affairs here, we are engaged in the en- largement of our house, and, by the assistance we had from Boston, I hope we shall go on comfortably with that work." Writing to the Rev. Thomas Prince, 14th of Eighth month, 1730, " I am continually longing to come and see my mother once more before she dies ; but, the journey being long and multiplicity of business continually taking me up, I am doubtful whether I shall get liberty to answer my desires." She died, Oct. 23, 1732, aged ninety-nine, — to the last, pretty quick to hear and see, — leaving two sons and two daughters. In September, 1733, he asked the synod " that an assistant be allowed unto him in the ministry." The request was unanimously granted, " if, first, suflScient provision be made for his honourable maintenance during his life among them." This, after long discourse, and after conference with some gentlemen of his congregation, was modified so as to allow the congregation to call an assistant. Those who desired an assistant were directed not to diminish but rather increase their subscriptions to Andrews, because the present sub- scription was but scanty ; that none of the present subscription be alienated from him, but that all care be taken to get new ones for him ; and that he have all the monthly collections. In the follow- ing May, the presbytery acceded to his request, and gave him leave to remove if he saw fit. In the autumn, Hemphill came to this country, was received as a member of synod, and took up his abode in Philadelphia until he should obtain a settlement. An- drews invited him to occupy his pulpit a part of each Sabbath, but soon regretted it ; for " freethinkers,* deists, and nothings," flocked to hear him, while the better part of the congregation stayed away. Andrews attended regularly during the winter, and felt himself bound "to article against him ;" and the commission tried Hemphill and suspended him. Andrews tells Colman that he had never suf- fered so much as during this period, and that his mind was made up to leave his charge, although " the better sort" desired to keep him. The congregation could not agree on an assistant ; but one part supplicated the synod for Dickinson, and another for Robert Cross. But while the matter was in debate, the friends of the lat- ter asked to be erected into a new congregation, capable to call a minister for themselves. Their request was granted by a large majority, with the understanding that they are not obliged to form a distinct society, but may do so if they see fit. * MS. Letter in Am. Autiq. Soc. Lib. JEDEDIAH ANDREWS. 317 Tlie commission met in June, 1736, the endeavours for a re- union of the congregation having been unsuccessful; they per- suaded the friends of Cross to make a further eifort, and Andrews heartily approved of the design ; but his friends would not consent. The new erection had supplies till 1737, when Robert Cross ac- cepted their call ; then the two congregations united, and were allowed £50 out of the synod's funds to buy a burying-ground. Andrews remained with the Old Side on the division. In 1744, he wrote to Colman that Tennent was much more moderate and left Mm alone. At the close of a long, active, useful, and honourable life, a rumour was spread that Andrews had suddenly fallen by a disgrace- ful act. He was put on trial ; and his own hands recorded his statement of the matter, — his denial of drunkenness, criminal in- tent or act, and his confession of imprudence and foolish tamper- ing with evil. He deplores the shame brought on the ministry, by a levity so unbecoming his advanced life. No testimony appears to have been adduced ; and he closes his labours as clerk of pres- bytery by recording that the sentence of suspension was passed on him. In a few months he was restored, and very soon after ended his days. He made his will July 31, 1742, being in declining health ; it was proved May 25, 1747. He left his property to his widow during her life ; and, in case his only son should die without issue, all should go to John, in Boston, son of his brother Benjamin. Hi» hbrary consisted of 363 volumes, — 58 folios, 78 quartos, 45 octavos. Franklin,* in his Memoirs, says that he regularly paid his sub- scription for the support of the only Presbyterian minister or meet- ing we had. " He used to visit me sometimes as a friend, and admonish me to attend his ministrations ; I was now and then prevailed on to do so ; once for five Sundays successively. Had he been, in my opinion, a good preacher, perhaps I might have con- tinued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the Sunday's lei- sure in my course of study ; but his discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforced ; their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens. At length he took for his text, Phil. iv. 8 : — ' Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report, if there be any virtue or any praise, think on these * Memoirs. An epigram in Bradford's Weekly Mercury, June 12, 1729, repre- sentB one whose eyes had been drawn from the preacher at Christ Church, to the ladie, going in the afternoon to the Presbyterian meeting : — " Now wiU I gnard against my morning's fall; Kyes, by your leave, now ears shall have it all. This said, I closed them, and in posture sate Like devotee, to hear and meditate : But now 'twas worse and worse ; the priest did creep So duU and slowly that I fell asleep," 318 GEORGE McNISH. things.' I imagined, in a sermon on suet a text, we could not miss of having some morality. He confined himself to five points only, as, meant by the apostle :— Keeping holy the Sabbath day. Being dili- gent in reading the Scriptures,. Attending duly the public worship, Partaking of the sacraments, and Paying due respect to God's ministers. These all might be good things ; but, as they were not the kind of good things I expected from that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and attended bis preaching no more. On Hemphill's defeat, (in 1735,) I quitted the congregation, never attending it further, though continuing my subscription many years for the support of its ministers." NATHANIEL TAYLOR Was probably ordained in Scotland in 1702 or '3, and came imme- diately to Marlborough, on the Patuxent. The settlement was made in 1690, by Col. Ninian Beall, who purchased a large tract on the Potomac and drew thither his friends and neighbours from Fifeshire. The mouth of Patuxent was a great commercial emporium ; — There George Fox and Edmundson anchored in 1651 ; and there Chalkley and Richardson, who followed them as Public Friends, left the ship. Taylor was a punctual attendant on every meeting of presbytery till his death in 1710. His elder in 1707 was William Smith ; and, in 1708 and '09, James Bell (Beall ?) Mr. Foot, of Port Penn, supposes him to have been related to the Taylors,* who, as early as 1683, settled at Drawyers. He may have been a brother of Elias Taylor, who married Makemie's sister-in- law, Comfort Anderson. GEORGE McNISH Came to Maryland with Makemie and Hampton in 1705. Dr. Reid says that he was from Ulster ; but Mr. Poyer,t of Jamaica, calls him a North Briton. He preached at Monokin and Wico- mico ; but, being poorly supported, he declined their call in 1710. The presbytery left it to himself to determine the affair between * Historical Discourse at Drawyers. -j- Albany Dociimeiits. GEORGE McNISH. 319 Jamaica and Patuxent, but advised him not to delay fixing him- self somewhere. Makemie states that there was, at the time of his trial, a Dis- senting minister at Jamaica by a " during-pleasure license" from Cornbury.* The chiefs of the sect petitioned Lord Lovelace on his assuming the chair of State ; but his untimely death occurred before it was answered. " No sooner was his Majesty pleased to remove Col. Ingoldsby, he having administered the government from the death of Lovelace in 1709, but the very next day (April 11, 1710) the more violent of that sect took possession of the church, and detained it against the justice. He committed them. They were released on bail, fined three shillings each, and the fines were remitted." On Governor Hunter's arrival, "the two great patrons of the sect" waited on him, and, in the presence of Colonel Morris, dis- cussed the Ministry Act of 1693 ; but he gave them no encourage- ment. He, however, removed some who were in the Commission of the Peace, and substituted, unintentionally, some who were not Churchmen. This drew on him the anger of the clergy, who sent many strong representations against him to the crown. To answer them, he sent minute specifications of his zeal, energy, and libe- rality in behalf of the English Church in New York and the Jerseys. The Presbyterians, on the day the Church missionary was ex- pected in town, entered the parsonage and dispossessed Mr. Urqu- hart's widow, with her connivance ; for her daughter by her first husband was married to the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, an Inde- pendent, at that time a student of theology. She was soon admitted as a tenant of the congregation. In the spring of 1710, the churchwardens and vestry, being all Independents, called "one Mr. George McNish, an itinerant Dissenting minister;" but, at the governor's order, Mr. Poyer was inducted, by Mr. Sharp, chaplain of the forces. Hunter advised Poyer to sue for the parsonage and his stipend, promising the use of his purse, and offering to bear the whole expense of the suit. The clergy in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, advised to the contrary, and joined in a complaint to the Bishop of London, got up with all secrecy, against the governor, for having "lately ad- vanced judges who were professed implacable enemies of the Church, in the room of men of character, who were actually doing justice to the Church;" and also for not having "written to the judges to enforce them in their duty." The governor had con- sulted with Chief-Justice Mompessom, who said that any attempt to put Poyer in possession of the parsonage, without due course of * Letters to the Venerable Society : quoted by Maodonald in History of Ja- maica. 320 GEORGE McNISH. law, would be a high crime and misdemeanour. He wrote in his defence to the Venerable Society ; and his statements were fully sustained by Lewis Morris, Esq., Colonel Heathcote, and Mr. Sharp, the chaplain. Mr. Vesey, of New York, and Mr. Hen- derson, of Dover, Delaware, were chiefly zealous in getting up this petition, Poyer being a weak man and used as a tool by Vesey. The petition of the clergy prevailed ; and her Majesty, in council, granted them leave to appeal in any suit, without limitation of sum, to the governor and council of the province. The petition was resented by Hunter and his friends ; and the Bishop of Lon- don wrote, May 12, 1712, to Poyer: — "I must now entreat you for the future to have a care of foolish and' unwary advisers. Pray, therefore, think your governors to be wiser than yourself; and, if you miscarry under that conduct, you will come off with reputation, for I must tell you that your application over into England has done you and your brethren no great service. Be wiser, therefore, for the time to come. "The clergy," says Morris, "are a gigg (agog) to be meddling with politics, — an inclination I wish our missionaries had less of." "All the Assembly which passed the Act of 1693 were Dissenters, except the speaker, (James Grahame, a relative of the Marquis of Montrose.) They knew nothing of the Church, and intended to raise a maintenance for a Dissenting minister. The act, without wrest- ing, will admit a construction in favour of Dissenters. "There is no comparison of our numbers anywhere but in the city of New York. I believe, at this day, the Church had been in a much better condition, had there been no act in her favour ; for in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, where there is none, there are four times the number of Churchmen there are in New York, and most of them are so upon principle ; whereas nine parts in ten of ours will add no great credit to whatever church they are of. Yet the poor rrian Poyer and his friends, are weak enough to think their superiors in England will enter into measures to displace the governor, for not dragooning in their favour, as his predecessor did." ^ The church was wrested from the Presbyterians ; but McNish, on accepting the call, was put by the town in possession of the parsonage and glebe, and the stipend fixed by the Act of 1693 was raised and paid to him. Poyer complained, in 1713, that the governor had appointed one Baird, a North Briton and a Dissenter, high-sheriff; and he, though ordered by the justices, refused to thrust out the tenant whom the town had placed in the parsonage. The Venerable Society obtained from the Dissenting ministers, Robinson and Reynolds, the letter of Cotton Mather in relation to Jamaica ; and, having seen the statements on both sides, agreed to pay Poyer's expenses in an ejectment suit and in an action for the GEORGE MoNISH. 821 stipend. He commenced suit in 1716, and recovered of the church- wardens £1Q lis. 3d., and "proceeded to* such lengths that several of the principal inhabitants were harassed with severe persecutions, heavy fines, and long imprisonment; others fled out of the pro- vince, to avoid the rage of Episcopal cruelty." Their steadfastness was stigmatized as obstinacy; and "they are encouragedf in it by their minister, a very designing man, who persuades them to what he will." The Venerable Society were gravely informed that the miller refused to grind Foyer's grain, saying he might eat it whole, as the hogs did; and the society, in consideration of his many hardships, sent him a gown, a cassock, and ten pounds. Before McNish came, the people had unanimously, at their own expense, built a meeting-house. In this he preached during his life. Governor Hunter sent to the clergy in the province, copies of the 72d article of the Queen's instructions, requiring the vestry of each parish to admit the minister as a member of their body, and to transact no business without his presence. In January, 1713, Poyer met with the vestry and produced the instructions. McNish was with them ; and they refused to do any business till Poyer re- tired. This was duly represented to the governor and the society. The Eev. Thomas Reynolds, of London, | wrote to Cotton Mather, June 9, 1715, "I must now acquaint you that Mr. McNish has not been forgotten by me, who have endeavoured, upon all occasions, to solicit the concern of the foreign plantations, and have stirred up my brethren to counteract the designs of the missionaries. Endeavours have been used and much time spent for this purpose. The society proceeds, and is not without hopes of gaining bishops to be sent into his Majesty's plantations." He urges that an agent be sent over; "and that if Mr. McNish or any other can send any thing which may aiford matter of further remonstrance to the society, we pray he will do it with all expe- dition, and with authentic testimonials." In the fall of 1718, there was "a prospect of his going to Britain on important business;" but he did not go. Pumry, of Newtown, having joined the presbytery, and the con- gregation of Southampton having come under its care, it was, on the erection of the synod, earnestly recommended to McNish and Pumry to use their best endeavours, with their neighbouring brethren, to form a presbytery. In this they were successful; and, with the Rev. George Phillips, of Setauket, they constituted the Presbytery of Long Island, and probably held their first meet- ing April 17, 1717, and ordained Gelston. There is a tradition that he had a grant of one thousand acres * Key. Dr. Elihu Spenser: quoted by Macdonald. t Mr. Poyer to the Venerable Society. J Mather MSS. Am. Antiq. Soc. 21 322 JOHN HAMPTON. from the King on the "Wallkill in Orange county. Eager mentions him among the land-owners in 1721. He flied March 10, 1722, leaving one son, who married* a daugh- ter of Joseph Smith, of Jamaica, and removed to New Jersey, where he was educated and licensed ; and whether ever ordained is not ascertained. He resided in Orange county, New York, and, in 1738, married Mary Fitch. He died at Wallkill, at the age of sixty-five, in 1779. His descendants remain there. Hef preached at Newtown, Long Island, between 1744 and '46. McNish gave reasons in 1716 for the absence of his elder. He was attended at synod in 1717, by John Rhodes, and in 1720 by Daniel Smith. JOHN HAMPTON. Whether he was a native of Scotland or Ireland is unknown. Lord Cornbury speaks of him as "a young Presbyterian minister lately come to settle in Maryland." He made application to Somer- set Court to be qualified, in Jan. 1706 ; the matter was referred to the governor, and he went northward with Makemie, and, having preached at Newtown on Sabbath in "a meeting-house ofiered to record," was arrested with Makemie and carried before Cornbury. He remained silent until the governor began to make out an order for his commitment, when he demanded a license to preach, accord- ing to the Toleration Act. Cornbury refused, and sent him to prison. He was not indicted, the attorney-general having dropped his name when the matter was laid before the grand jury. He was called to Snowhill in March, 1707, the salary to be paid in tobacco. He was "inaugurated" by McNish. He was long in feeble health, and visited his native country in 1717 for his recovery ; and the synod, in the following fall, accepted his demission of the pastoral care of his people, because he could not perform his duty to them "without apparent hazard of his life through bodily indisposition." He made his willj October 28, 1719, and died before February, 1721. His widow (probably his second wife) survived him and her two previous husbands. Colonel Francis Jenkins and Rev. John Henry, and died in 1744. He also served Pitt's Creek ; and the united congregations were * Macdonald. j- Biker's History of Newtoira. J Spence. JOHN BOTD — JOSEPH SMITH. 323 fepresented in 1709 by "William Fosset; in 1710, by Benjamin Aid- lett,* (Aydelotte;) in 1711, by Adam Spence; in 1714, by Samuel Hopkins; in 1715, by Nathaniel Hopkins; and in 1718, by Ed- mund Cropper. JOHN BOYD, A NATIVE of Scotland, came as a probationer, probably at tbe solicitation of bis countrymen, wbo, fleeing from persecution, settled in Monmouth between 1680 and '90. Wodrow is said to have cor- responded with the Scots in Jersey. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, December 29, 1706, at the public meeting-house, before a numerous assem- bly. He had no call, but laboured at Freehold and Middletown. The country around Upper Freehold was, at that time, a wilderness full of savages. t The people of Freehold wrote to the presbytery, about the settle- ment of Mr. Boyd, in May, 1708, and the presbytery requested them to consent to his preaching every third Sabbath at Wood- bridge. He died in 1708, and his tomb remains to this day, while Makemie and the other ministers, most of them, lie in unknown graves. JOSEPH SMITH. In Connecticut, the ancient barriers of Independency were swept away as by an ice-freshet. The legislature called synods to ad- judicate; but every step only led further from the rigid mode of separating the world from all participation in the government and * The Aydelotte family are still members of our church at Pitt's Creek. Adam Spence, one of the earliest settlers of Snowhill, came from Scotland during the persecution ; the late Irving Spence was his descendant, to whom we owe much, for his gathering many interesting materials of our early history. Nathaniel Hopkins stands at the head of the list of elders, indicating his rank in society. Edmund Cropper is mentioned as attending Newcastle Presbytery. f Morgan Edwards's History of New Jersey. Colonel Morris says that Keith made the first settlement in Freehold ; he preached several times when a missionary at Toponemus, in Freehold. The congregation was probably represented by John Gray, in 1708. 324 JOSEPH SMITH. privileges of the church, and their children from the sacrament of baptism. A pacification was agreed on ; but the Lord's Supper was not celebrated for a long time in Hartford, and it was esteemed an oflfence that the aggrieved brethren sought a dismission to another church. It was grievous to the ruling powers that those who could not walk with the church of Hartford were treated as brethren in good standing by the church of Wethersfield. This led to the pur- chase of a large tract on the Connecticut, in Massachusetts, and to the unanimous engagement of the proprietors, in the spring of 1659, to remove thither with their families. Besides a larger number from Hartford, the minister of Wethersfield, Mr. Russell, with twelve heads of families, removed. Among them were Samuel Smith, and Philip his son, both men of good estate. Philip mar- ried Rebecca, daughter of Nathaniel Foote, one of the early set- tlers of Wethersfield. " He* was largely employed in the affairs of the town, a lieutenant of the troop, and, which crowns all, a man for devotion, sanctity, and all that was honourable, exceeding ex- emplary. Labouring under ischiatick pains, he seemed ripening apace for another world, filled with grace and joy to a high degree. Such was his weariness of, and his weanedness from this world, that he knew not whether he might pray for his continuance here. Such assurance had he of the love of God, that he would cry out, in raptures, ' Lord, stay thy hand ; it is enough ! it is more than thy frail servant can bear!' Such a man was, in the winter of the year 1684, murdered, with a hideous witchcraft, that filled all those parts of New England with astonishment." Joseph, son of Philip Smith, was born at Hadley, in 1674, and graduated at Harvard, in 1695. About two years after, he married Esther, daughter of Cornet Joseph Parsons, one of the first settlers of Springfield. He preached for a time at Brookfield, Massachu- setts, and came early in 1708 to Cohanzy, in West Jersey, at the instance of his college classmate, Andrews, who said they were "the best people in this neighbourhood." The settlement on Cohanzy was made from Fairfield county, Connecticut, and they named their new homes Fairfield and Green- wich, after the towns from which they came. It is said the church was formed in 1700, and supplied by Mr. Black. The Rev. Thomas Bridge preached at Cohanzy in 1702 or '03, and was called from there to be colleague to Mr. Bradstreet, in the First Church in Boston. He came to Boston in 1682,f with testimonials from John Owen, Matthew Mead, and six other divines ; he soon after settled at Port Royal, in Jamaica, and then in New Providence and Ber- muda. He died in Boston, September 16, 1715, aged fifty-eight. * Quoted from Mather's Magnalia, in the genealogy of the Foote family, by my honoured and indefatigable friend, N. Goodwin, Esq., of Hartford. ■j- MSS. in Massachusetts Historical Society: Funeral Sermon of Mr. Bridge. JOHN HENRY. 325 Smith was ordained and installed at Colianzy in 1708 ; but, com- plaining of the negligence in making up his support, he left, and returned to New England. The presbytery ordered him to go to Hopewell and Maidenhead and confer with them on such matters as may be propounded to him by them, concerning his being called to be their minister. He preached for a short time at Greenwich, Connecticut, and about 1713 was called to the Second Society, in Middletown, Con- necticut, (commonly known as Upper Houses,) then newly formed ; and was installed January 5, 1715, and died there September 8, 1736, aged sixty-two. His widow survived him twenty-five years, and died May 30, 1760, in her eighty-ninth year. He left a son, Joseph, and two daughters, Mary, the wife of Rev. Samuel Tudor, of East Windsor, and Martha, the wife of Richard Hamlin, of Middletown. JOHN HENRY Was ordained by the Presbytery of Dublin, and came to Mary- land in 1709, having been invited, on the death of Makemie, to be his successor. He was admitted a member of presbytery in 1710, having given good satisfaction by testimonials. Mr. Pierce Bray presented a call for him " from the good people of Reho- both;" and Hampton and Davis preached at his "admission." " He* stood high as a citizen and a divine. He left a strongly- bound octavo volume of manuscript, entitled 'Commonplace,' of from three hundred to five hundred pages. It was a mass of reli- gious instruction, enforcing the prominent doctrines of the West- minster Confession in their length and breadth, and urging the performance of every Christian duty. It was made up with great care, and was more legible than many printed volumes. " He married Mary, the daughter of Sir Robert King, the agent of Maryland in 1690, and the widow of Colonel Francis Jenkins, f who, with herself, was the executor of Makemie's will, and who died childless. Henry left two sons, both men of distinction, — Robert Jenkins Henry being Judge of the Provincial Court in 1754, and residing in Somerset, Colonel John Henry sitting in the House of Delegates for Worcester county. One of his de- * Spence's Early History. f Colonel Jenkins was President of the Council in 1708, being then very old. He died before 1710. 826 JAMES ANDERSON. scendants was Governor of Maryland, and was educated under Samuel Finley, at Nottingham. "His will is dated October 15, 1715; lie died before beptember, 1717." The elder from Rehoboth, in 1710, was Pierce Bray; m 1718, John Dridden, (Dryden,) whose descendants still reside there. JAMES ANDERSON Was* born in Scotland, November 17, 1678, and was ordained by Irvine Presbytery, November 17, 1708, with a view to his settle- ment in Virginia.f He sailed March 6, 1709, and arrived in the Rappahannock, April 22 ; but, the state of things not warranting his stay, he came northward, and was received by the presbytery, Sep- tember 20. He settled at Newcastle. He was directed to write, in conjunction with "Wilson, to the Synod of Glasgow ; and the application was answered by sending hither Wotherspoon and Gillespie. In 1714, out of regard to the desolate condition of the people in Kent county, he was directed to supply them monthly on a Sab- bath, and also to spend a Sabbath at Cedar Creek, in Sussex. An effort seems to have been made, after the acquittal of Ma- kemie, to have the city of New York supplied with a minister of our church. VeseyJ wrote to a friend December 2, 1709, " that the Dissenting preacher is likely to gain no ground." His stay was brief; but the people kept together, and met for worship, with few interruptions, and with a gradual increase of numbers, till 1716, when they took measures to form a regular congregation. The next year found them strong enough to undertake the support of a minister, being doubtless encouraged by promises from the mi- nisters of Glasgow. They presented§ their call for Anderson, by the hands of Mr. Thomas Smith and Mr. Gilbert Livingston, to New- castle Presbytery during the first meeting of synod. They con- sidered the matter, and, having heard Anderson's reasons for re- moval, referred it to the synod : a large committee was appointed to meet at Newcastle and "audit" the objections of his people and fully determine the affair. The commissioners attended the com- mittee, and Anderson was allowed to accept the call. Public worship was held in the City Hall. The original friends * Miller's Life of Rodgers. f Andei-son to Principal Stirling, of Glasgow. J Albany Documents. § MS. Records of Newcastle Presbytery. JAMES ANDEKSON. 327 of Presbyterianism seem all to have passed away. Prominent among their successors were Patrick Macknight, Dr. John Nicoll, Gilbert Livingston, Thomas Smith, William Smith, and William Livingston. The bold, free, handsome signature of P. Macknight, at the head of the representatives, indicates his position as a merchant and a man of property. He was from the North of Ireland. Dr. Nicoll was a graduate of Edinburgh University, — a physician of eminence ; he died October 2, 1743, aged sixty-four. Gilbert Livingston was the youngest son of Robert Livingston, son of the venerable minister of Ancrum, — and was the grandfather of Dr. Gilbert R. Livingston, of Philadelphia. William Livingston was the nephew of Robert, and father of the Governor of New Jersey. Thomas Smith was from England : he lived to an advanced age. William Smith was a native of Newport-Pagnel, in England, and came to New York in 1715 in the same ship with James Alexander, who, like Smith, became distinguished as a lawyer and an opponent of an arbitrary executive. He was afterwards a judge, and a mem- ber of the King's Council. In 1718, Dr. Nicoll, Macknight, Gilbert Livingston, and Thomas Smith purchased a lot on Wall Street, near Broadway, and, in the following year, built a church. Besides the donations in the city, the Legislature of Connecticut directed a collection to be taken up throughout the colony for their benefit. Cotton Mather* wrote' to Dr. Nicoll (January 20, 1719-20) the following letter " to be communicated :" — " Brethren : — " We are very sensibly touched with grief at the information you give us of the strange difBculties under which your evan- gelical affairs are labouring. But, since it is from you only we have been informed of them, this gives us a little hope they may not grow to the extremity you may be afraid of. The opposition your work suffers from the great adversary is but an argument that it is a work of .God ; and if you keep looking up to Him, who is infinitely stronger than he that is in the world, you may soon see all the opposition happily conquered. But it would be a wis- dom in the opposers to consider seriously who and what they may be acting for. As for us, we have never yet had any disadvanta- geous representations of worthy Mr. Anderson made to us ; nor shall we receive any thing to his disadvantage without first giving him and you an opportunity of vindication. May the glorious Lord, * Mather MSS. American Antiquarian Society. Wodrow wrote to Mather, January 28, 1713, "I presume to give my kindest regards to Mr. James Ander- son, my old acquaintance." He desires to hear of the condition of our brethren in Peansylvania and Maryland, and thereabouts. — Wodrow Correspondence. 328 JAMES ANDERSON. who knows the services and patience of his ministers, be near his faithful minister, — a God of patience first and then of consolation. It has been a trouble to us that we have been able to do so little among our people for your assistance in your laudable design of erecting an edifice for the worship of God." Macknight and Nicoll, with Joseph Blake, John Leddel, and Thomas Inglis, representatives of the congregation, wrote (May 9, 1720) a letter* of thanks to the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Members of Council, and Representatives of the General Court of Connecticut. A twelvemonth before, they had applied to their honours, " for a brief for a general and voluntary contribution for assisting in building our house of worship, which, being begun, we could not finish without the charitable aid of others ; which was cheerfully and readily granted. Now, with rejoicing, we crave leave to acquaint this assembly that, by the assistance we ex- perienced from Connecticut, we were not only encouraged to go on with our begun building, — which otherwise was like to drop and go to ruin, — but were able also to get it under roof, so that now with joy we enjoy the ordinances dispensed to us therein. We heartily thank you for your opportune, free, and voluntary liberal aid to a small despised handful, which, we hope, designs nothing else but the honour of the glorious Lord and the eternal good of their souls and their children's." The sum raised in Con- necticut was less than they expected, — " the char-ity of some having been cooled by false and malicious reports dispersed through the colony. However, we do not blame anybody hut ' the accuser of the brethren,' who hath indeed all along opposed the good work with the utmost malice. But this does not in the least discourage us, but rather demonstrates to us that the work is God's, who, as he has brought it this length, will undoubtedly finish it in opposition to Satan and all his instigations." The congregationf petitioned the King's Council (March 4, 1719-20) to incorporate, by letters-patent under the great seal of the province, the ministers, elders, and deacons of the Presby- terian congregation in the city of New York. They style them- selves Scots, from North Britain, and state, that they have erected a house for the worship of God after the manner of the Presbyterian church. They urge their request on the ground of the great inconvenience of vesting the title to their property in certain individuals, which they must do until incorporated. This application was signed by Anderson and the five representatives. The president of the council was Peter Schuyler; the members, A. Depeyster, Rip Van Dam, John Barberie, Thomas Byerly, and * MSS. in Secretary of State's Office, Hartford. f Case of the Scots Presbyterian Congregation in New York. JAMES ANDERSON. 329 John Johnston. The vestry of Trinity Church appeared by coun- sel to oppose, and the request was refused. On the 19th of September, they renewed their petition, — Go- vernor Burnet* being come to the province and appearing friendly. With him there was a discrepancy between appearance and inten- tion. He was for the Church, right or wrong, by fair means or foul : he rent the French congregation by his illegal interference, and deceived the Presbyterians by much fair speech. The council were, A. D. Philipse, George Clarke, Robert Wal- ter, Caleb Heathcote, and John Byerly, — probably all Church- men. Counsel was heard on both sides ; and the council declined to act, because no instance had occurred of granting corporate privileges to a body of Dissenters. Their petition, dated May 10, 1724, was transmitted to the "Lords of Trade;" and the Attorney-General for Ireland, Rich- ard West, gave his opinion that, in the general and abstract view of the thing, there was nothing in the request unreasonable or improper. On the 16th of May, 1730, the church was completed, being eighty feet long by sixty feet wide. The Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, in 1719, invested a collection in goods, and sent them to New York. The Synod of Phila- delphia gave a tenth of the nett produce to aid in the support of Anderson, and sent to their Scottish friends " hearty thanks for their kindness to the interest of religion in these wilderness parts." The letters to Boston and Connecticut had referred to malicious reports, widely dispersed, against Anderson, and which had cooled the charity of some towards the infant church. Gilbert Living- ston and Thomas Smith were much dissatisfied, and complained to the synod of the Presbytery of Long Island in regard to the settlement of Anderson. The synod heard their representations, and, by a large majority, decided that the proceedings were regu- lar. The two gentlemen also complained of two sermons of An- derson's ; they were read, and approved as orthodox and godly in substance, though the terms in some passages were not so mild and soft as they could have wished. Dr. Nicoll was present in synod as an elder ; Andrews and Dickinson wrote to Livingston and Smith; Jones, Gillespie, and Evans wrote to the congre- gation. These gentlemenf petitioned the council not to grant corporate privileges to the congregation, as this would confirm the property * The "Address of the Presbyterian Ministers of New York and Long Island" to him in October, 1720, contains «, high compliment to his father's memory, the historian. — Bradford's Weekly Mercury. t Documentary History of New York, third volume. 830 JAMES ANDERSON. to Anderson and those who adhered to him. They asked that they might be released from the bonds which they, jointly with Macknight and Nicoll, had given for the land and the building, as Macknight was about to go to Europe, and they had experience enough of Nicoll's instability and other faults. The matter was not healed. The source of the difficulty is wholly to be guessed at. Andrews calls it " a squabble."* The trustees of New Haven College sent missionaries, at the request of Smith, to erect a new congregation. The synod (in 1721) approved of the action of Long Island Presbytery; but, having received a letter from the trustees, desiring the synod to send some of their number to confer with them on the interest of religion in general and the unhappy difference in New York, the synod directed the presbytery to meet with them. The conference was held at Stamford, in October, but was fruitless. The synod approved of the presbytery's management of the affair.f Jonathan Edwards, J barely nineteen, preached to Smith and his friends from August, 1722, till April 26. He loved to re- member the pleasant days spent there, and his delight in the so- ciety of the pious Madam Smith and her son, — probably the Rev. John Smith, of Rye. The separation terminated on Edwards's departure. In the "Antiquarian Library" at "Worcester, Massachusetts, is a letter from Rebecca Nicoll, to Cotton Mather, (May 23, 1723,) representing that the whole difficulty lies with Smith, and Grant and his son, and intimating that they were unreasonable. They " had a meeting by themselves ; but most of Grant's family went to the English church." Mr. Grant reports, " that the Boston ministers engage ^60 yearly to aid the separate meeting. We have a faithful pastor, as all who know Mr. Anderson acknow- ledge him to be. It is a shame to send aid to humour a part of two families. Madam Smith has a letter, confirming the. report of aid. Ten of the people are very scandalous. Mr. Jephson * The narrative given in the preface to the Eecorda of the Trustees of the Con- gregntion was drawn up twenty years after by William Smith, who takes no notice of this original difficulty between " the undertakers," but refers solely to the sub- sequent difficulty between Dr. Nicoll and the minister, and presents the view taken of the matter by Dr. Nicoll. Dr. Rodgers has added a marginal note, that Ander- son was a graceful, popular preacher, and a worthy man. "f Morgan to Mather, October 31, 1722 :— " Our synod have justified all that the Long Island Presbytery have done in the affair of New York. I only stood up and dissented ; more would, but have been mistrusted to have had a hand in setting up the separate meeting ; but all knew that I was against that being set up, for I look upon it as a very hurtful thing." — American Antiquarian Society. J Immediately on being licensed, in consequence of an application from a num- ber of ministers, who were intrusted to act in behalf of the Presbyterians of New York, he went thither. "I had," Edwards says, "abundance of sweet religious conversation in the family of Madam Smith." After leaving, " sometimes I felt my heart ready to sink with the thoughts of my friends in New York." JAMES ANDERSON. 331 and his family have returned to us. Her excuse for writing was, 'having been one of your flock.' " Dr. Nicoll took a voyage to Scotland, and engaged the General Assembly to assist them ; and, by their order, a large collection was taken up. New troubles were in store for Anderson ; the representatives and elders complaining of Dr. Nicoll to the presbytery and synod. Without consulting the representatives, (trustees,) he had applied to the payment of the church debt, the money sent from Great Britain, and refused to cancel or deliver up the bonds paid with the public money. He disregarded the presbytery, would not attend the synod when notified, and, as though the church were his property, applied to Boston for a minister. The synod (in 1726) pronounced his conduct unjustifiable, and wrote to the minis- ters in Boston not to countenance him till he gave satisfaction. Anderson at once desired liberty to remove from New York, and the congregation was allowed to call another minister in an orderly manner, as soon as they paid the arrears now due. He was called, September 24, 1726, to Donegal, on the Susque- hanna, and accepted it. His removal did not heal the difficulty : the arrears were not paid till 1780. The synod gave leave to his friends, Blake, Leddel, and Inglis, to "join as to sacramental com- munion" with any of our neighbouring congregations. Application was made by Andrew Galbraith to Newcastle Pres- bytery, August 1, 1721, for supplies for Chicken's Longus, (Chique- salunga ;) and Gillespie and Cross were sent. Rowland Chambers renewed the request next year. In May, 1723, Conestoga applied ; but Hutcheson failed to go, being unable to obtain a guide thi- ther ; in the fall, he and McGill were sent to Dunngaal. In 1725, Donegal obtained one-sixth of Boyd's time ; and he served them till they called Anderson. He was installed the last Wednesday in August, 1727. In September, 1729, he gave every fifth Sab- bath to the people on Swatara, and joined the congregation of Derry. The Presbytery of Donegal held its first meeting October 11, 1732, and consisted of Anderson, Boyd, Orr, and Bertram. As early as September, 1785, the emigration to Virginia attracted the attention of Thomson, of Chestnut Level ; and he proposed to Done- gal Presbytery to employ an itinerant in Virginia. The overture was "simply approven;" that is, fully, as in Romans xii. 8: — "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity," — without stint or abate- ment : so they concurred in his plan heartily. Each year brought up the case of the back-parts of Virginia ; and in April, 1738, the presbytery approved of the plan of John Caldwell to ask the synod to send a deputation to wait on the Virginia government and solicit its favour in behalf of our interest there. The synod wrote to the governor, and sent Anderson to bear the letter, providing 332 JAMES ANDBESON. supplies for his pulpit, and allowing for his expenses "in a manner suitable to his design." Caldwell was a member of Thomson's congregation, having come with four single sisters from county Antrim. He removed to Frede- rick county ; then to Campbell and Prince Edward's. He was the father of Caldwell, of Elizabethtown, and of Major John Caldwell, of Virginia, who was shot by a Tory during the Revolution. John C. Calhoun was his great-grandson. Anderson performed his mission satisfactorily. In April of the next year, the presbytery blamed him for having sent Dunlap from New England to Virginia without knowing any thing certainly of his ecclesiastical standing. This was probably the Rev. Robert Dunlap, who settled in Maine. He married* Mistresse Suitt Garland, daughter of Sylvester Garland, of the Head of Apoquinimy, February, 1712-13. She died December 24, 1736. He married Rachel Wilson, December 27, 1737. His son. Garland Anderson, was one of the witnesses of Andrews's will, in 1742. He married Jane, daughter of Peter Chevalier, of Philadelphia: he died early. His daughter Eliza- beth married Samuel Breeze, and resided in New York, a woman of great excellence. Anderson died July 16, 1740, probably on his return from a visit to Opequhon, and just in the trying emergency when he was needed to stand in the breach. A worthless fellow sought to bring a re- proach on him after his death, and the presbytery promptly came forward with a declaration that he was high in esteem for circum- spection, diligence, and faithfulness as a Christian minister.f Blair, in his answer to " The Querists," speaks of him as pressing forward, at Fagg's Manor, to dispute with Whitefield, almost before he had finished preaching. He afterwards, at Newcastle, proposed to have some conference with Whitefield, but was told that, since he and his friends had made their queries public, he could have no communication with him except through the press. His brother, the Hon. John Anderson, | of Perth Amboy, was made, in 1712, one of the Council of the Province, in place of William Pinhorne, Esq. Governor Hunter was obliged to excuse himself to the government at home for having displaced an obsti- nate Churchman to make way for a man of sense who was a Dis- senter. He died in March, 1736, aged seventy-three, being then President of the Council. * From his family Bible : copied by Mr. Hazard. f His correspondence with Principal Sterling, of Glasgow, is preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. J Albany Documents. " A Scotch Presbyterian who had the command of a ship of the Darien Company, and enriched himself by plundering it." Eev. Mr. Hen- derson, of Dover, Delaware, wrote thus to England, to involve Governor Hunter iu ti'ouble. NATHANIEL WADE. 333 NATHANIEL WADE. Nathaniel Wade, a lawyer of Bristol, and a vehement republican, had formed the project of emigrating to New Jersey; but, engag- ing in Monmouth's scheme to overthrow James the Second, he un- dertook to head a rising in his own city. He was thrown into pri- son ; and his confession, often referred to by Macaulay, is in the Harleian Collection, 6845. He probably came to Massachusetts. Nathaniel Wade, of Medford, married Mary, the eighth child of Governor Bradstreet, of that province. The name of Nathaniel Wade does not occur in any of the genealogical researches I have seen, nor among the graduates of Harvard or Yale.* Nathaniel Wade was ordained and settled at Woodbridge, in New Jersey, by the ministers of Fairfield county, in Connecticut, before 1708. Woodbridge was settled from Newbury, Massachu- setts ; and Chief-Justice Sewall began to prepare for the ministry, with a view of being their pastor. The church embraced several Scottish families, and was served for a season by the Rev. Archi- bald Riddel. In May, 1708, letters from Woodbridge informed Philadelphia Presbytery of the diiference about Wade, and they, besides writing to the ministers of Fairfield county, directed Boyd, if his people at Freehold consented, and those of Woodbridge desired it, to preach in the meeting-house at Woodbridge every third Sabbath. They straitly enjoined that the meeting-house shall be the only place of worship in the town, but Boyd "may preach at Amboy." Talbot,t in 1704, in representing to the Venerable Society the im- portance of a church in Amboy, said, " Though there be few people there, many would come out of Woodbridge." In September, 1710, Wade desired to be a member of the pres- bytery, and was received, having satisfied the brethren, by "letters, testimonials, and personal arguings, that his proceedings gave just ground for his acceptance." They wrote separately to those with whom he was concerned, and to those who were dissatisfied with him. To the latter they said, "You professedly own this judicatory." They had found, by Wade's certificates, that he had a call and subscriptions even from some of them, and that his ordination was valid according to Scrip- ture rules. He produced certificates from persons whose integrity * Mary, the youngest child of Rev. John Davenport, first minister of New Haven, married for her second husband a Mr. Wade. f Hawkins's Missions of English Church. 334 NATHANIEL -WADE. could not be suspected; and his joining the presbytery seemed to be from sincere intentions of being more useful, and he sub- mitted himself fully to our church government and discipline. They therefore urge them not to weaken his hands, but to seek to cement the congregation.* He sat in presbytery in 1711, with his elder, Thomas Pike, and resigned all pastoral relation to the people in Woodbridge. Divers of his congregation were present, for and against him ; and he did not clear himself altogether of the grievous scandals charged upon him. With trembling hands and tears in his eyes, he declared he would no longer be "a bone of contention in that miserable town." The presbytery sent Gillespie thither ; but, when the town met to consider the getting of another minister, Wade, with ostentation, told them that he was now more firmly fixed in Woodbridge than be- fore, and that he stood as fair to be voted for as any man ; pretend- ing the intention of the presbytery to be that a vote should first be taken for himself. The town was therefore constrained to send to "a coram of our number" for an interpretation of the presby- tery's intent. At the same time Wade visited Boston, and made to Cotton Mather such a statement as led him to encourage a Mr. Wiswall to become a candidate for the vacancy. Mather had heartily recommended Gillespie, and wrote several letters, — "the utmost he could do for poor Woodbridge." No further mention is made of Wade, who seems to have re- mained in the town. It may be added that his opponents, John Ilsley and William Sharp, were New Englanders ; and also all those who drew off to Episcopacy. * Mr. Whitehead, of Newark, has kindly furnished me -with the following docu- ment from the Records of the Venerable Society, addressed, in 1711, to the Eev. Mr. Vaughan, Church missionary at Elizabethtown and the adjacent region : — "Sir: — The unhappy difference between Mr. Wade and the people of Woodbridge is grown to that height that we cannot join with him in the worship of God as Christians ought to do. It is the desire of some people here, that if you think it may be for the glory of God, and no damage to the other churches, that you would be pleased to afford us your help sometimes on the Sabbath as you shall think con- venient ; we do it, not with any intent to augment the difference among us, but rather hope that it may be a means for our better joining together in setting up the true worship of our Lord Jesus Christ here amongst a poor deluded people. This is the desire of your humble servants, Richard Smith, John Ashton, Benjamin Dunham Amos Goodwin, Gershom Hiqgins, Henry Rolph, John Bishop, William Bingle, George Eubanoks." Robert Wright, A house was placed at Mr. Vaughan's disposal. Monthly services were commenced, and a church was built near the meeting-house, — " probably the smallest you have ever seen, but amply sufficient for the congregation at this day." — Newark Sentinel. JOSEPH MORGAN. 335 JOSEPH MORGAN. James Morgan* came to Pequot, New London, Connecticut, about 1647, with the first settlers, the younger John Winthrop being their head. His third son married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Parks, Esq., in April, 1670. Their son Joseph was born Nov. 6, 1674. Arrangementsf were made by the town of Bedford, in West Chester county, New York, Dec. 26, 1699, to secure him for their minister. It was settled from Stamford, Connecticut, and had a meeting-house in 1680. They promised him a house and £40. On the 12th of June, 1700, they took measures to have him indicted, under the Act of 1693, for settling a ministry He was ordained about that time by the ministers of Fairfield county, and preached the sermon according to the custom of that time. Two years after, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, as one of the first class of graduates of Yale ; making it probable that in one instance, at least, a degree was given where the usual course of study had been accomplished before the college possessed cor- porate privileges. When he began to preach, he used notes. Hooker would hardly consent to his being licensed, and Noyes, of Stonington, exclaimed vehemently against his performing his duty in that manner. He pleaded his inability to proceed without them ; and, they insisting on their being laid aside, he made the attempt, and complied fully with their advice. He also served the neighbouring town of East Chester. It had, in 1704, 400 inhabitants, mostly Presbyterians; but difficulties sprang up, of which the Churchmen availed themselves. Colonel Heathcote, of Scarsdale Manor, a man of large possessions and great influence, informed the Venerable Society, Oct. 5, 1704, that the minister! '^^^ about to leave the Independent Church at Bedford, and that the people were well-aflfected to the Church. He had used means to persuade Morgan to conform, and says he had pro- mised to do so ; but he left, and removed to Greenwich, Connec- ticut, and preached there till 1708. Madam Knight, in her " Itinerary of an Overland Journey from Boston to New York in Dec. 1704," says, "East Chester is a very miserable, poor place, and the people a poor, quarrelsome crew ; and, having quarrelled about their minister, the governor, on find- ing a vacancy, sent them an Episcopalian, who supplied besides at the French town (New Rochelle) and Merrinack (Mamaroneck.)" Makemie says, in 1706, that Bedford had asked Cornbury's leave * Transcribed from Town Records by N. Goodwin, Esq. f Bolton's History of West Chester County. t Bolton. 336 JOSEPH MORGAN. to settle a Dissenting minister, but that no answer -would be given until a Scotch Non-juring parson had been consulted. In 1709, Morgan settled at Freehold, in New Jersey; and, being desired to preach in the fall of that year at the ordination of Dickinson in Elizabethtown, he resolved to take the same sub- ject and treat it in the same manner as he had done at his own ordination, nine years before. This he could not do in all respects ; for one of the ministers frequently desired him to be brief, on ac- count of the shortness of the day and the greatness of the work in hand. His text was Mark xvi. 16 : — " The Great Concernment of G-ospel Ordinances, manifested from the great eifects of im- proving or neglecting them." This sermon was printed at New York* by W. & A. Bradford, in 1712, the preface being dated at Freehold, Dec. 12, 1709. It is a judicious, instructive discourse, appropriate to the occasion. The duty of suitable preparation for the ministry is enforced by the adage, "A tow lace ill beseems a silk garment." His treatise on Baptismf is a review of " The Portsmouth Dis- putation Examined;" the dedication — to Robert Hunter, Governor of New Jersey — is dated Oct. 28, 1712. He had then a great family, and little opportunity to devote himself to learned studies. He was a correspondent of Cotton Mather ; and a Latin letter to him, dated " Cal. III., Sept. 1721," is in the Antiquarian Library in Worcester. He had sent, by a Mr. Preston, a treatise against Deists, who sadly abounded in New Jersey. He says he had few books, — no dictionary but an imperfect copy of Rider's. His eldest son had been more of an impediment than a help to him ; his second son was at Yale ; and the third and fourth relieved him from the labour of the parsonage plantation. It was amazing to see the happy change that had taken place. Formerly Presbyterians were scarcely less hated than Papists ; but now they were, regarded with favour, and openings presented for "fluent" preachers. There had been a happy display of saving grace among his own people. He had laboured thirteen years and seen no work of grace, but in about two years is so strange a turn, that I stand in a kind of maze to see it. In the spring of the next year, he travelled through Connecticut, and on his return wrote to Mather from East Chester, May 28, 1722. His object had been to procure ministers for New Jersey, but had failed, there being ten vacancies in Connecticut. He expresses his uneasiness about the introduction of Arminianism into Yale, but is unwilling, on account of his obligations to the institution, to appear as a witness or informer. Mather sent him some books, which he acknowledges under date * Connecticut Historical Society's Library, f Am. Antiq. Soc. Libr. JOSEPH MORGAN. 337 of Oct. 31, 1722, and transmits a manuscript for the press, de- siring that his friend would furnish a preface. He was in cor- respondence also with Governor Saltonstall of Connecticut, and with Deputy Governor Gold. He soon after printed a "Remedy* for Mortal Errors, showing the Necessity of the Anointing of the Spirit to guard us from Error,' ' and strongly insisting on the duty of examining candidates for the ministry on their experience of a saving change. He appends a few sentences in Latin, wishing that our ministers would disuse notes in preaching, they heing so disagreeable to the Scotch and the Dutch ; concluding with the wish that all our churches were furnished with ruling elders to assist the ministers. His next publication, on "Original Sin," is in the Old South Church Library. It was followed by another, entitled, "Sin its own Punishment." His " Replyf to an Anonymous Railer against the Doctrine of Election" bears date " 17th, Eighth month, 1724." Noticing the slur on Presbyterian ministers for receiving a maintenance, he says he had been in the ministry twenty-seven years, and that, when his people kept him free from worldly avocations, the work of grace went on abundantly : they came from every quarter to receive spi- ritual consolation. " It would even melt one's heart to see the humiliation, self-abasement, and self-loathing that appeared in them, and their fleeing to the blood of Christ for relief, and to the pure grace and good pleasure of God to draw them to Christ, and to see the change wrought in these lovely souls." But when he from necessity entangled himself in the things of this life, the scene changed mournfully ; but, on his being set free from this burden, he witnessed again the same delightful success. He tells Mather, Oct. 31, 1722, that he hopes the circulation of his book may remove the prejudices " which half the country here- away, and almost the other half too, have against our Confession of Faith. Of all the engines Satan has formed against our sal- vation, the most efiectual is Arminianism ; especially so, because, while it owns most of the great articles of faith, it goes less feared and mistrusted, and, under the specious pretext of vindicating God's benevolence and encouraging virtue, and such like, it privately strikes the work of regeneration under the fifth rib, and is usually followed by Socinianism, and that by Deism." His son Joseph graduated at Yale in 1723, and died in early life. His father " entertained" the audience at his funeral by a discourse on Ps. cxxxvii. 1 and Job x. 2. He printed it, with the title of "The DutyJ and Marks of Zion's Children." In September, 1728, the synod examined divers papers of com- plaints against him, and dismissed the accusations. They found no * Am. Antiq. Soc. Libr. 1 1*"'^- X Dr. Sprague's CoUection in Seminary Library, Princeton. 338 PATJLUS VAN VLBCK. proof of his practising astrology, countenancing promiscuous danc- ing, or transgressing in drink ; but some separated from him ; and, there being no hope of his promoting peace or union, he removed to Maidenhead and Hopewell. He published about this time a sermon on "Love to the Brethren," which reached a third edition at Boston in 1749. In 1736, the Presbytery of Philadelphia resolved to call Dickin- son and Pierson as correspondents, and to meet on the 2d of No- vember to investigate the charge of intemperance brought against him. The accusations were supported with much evidence, and, in many instances, were fully proved. He was then of advanced age and of high reputation for piety ; but, on his denying all and seem- ing wholly insensible, he was suspended until sincere repentance should be seen in him. The synod left the case to the Presbyteries of Philadelphia and East Jersey, and approved of their course in continuing the suspension. He declined the jurisdiction of the Presbytery in Sept. 1738, but retracted it in October ; and the Presbytery restored him, at the request of the body of sober and religious people, they expressing grateful remembrance of his past usefulness, and confidence in his hopeful ability to do them service. The synod approved of his restoration ; but his name is not men- tioned after 1740. In 1739, Franklin printed for him a sermon on " The general Cause of all hurtful Mistakes," from Prov. iii. 5 : it was reprinted at New London in 1741. PAULUS VAN VLECK, A NATIVE of Holland, and a nephew of Jacob Phenix, in New York, was in that city in 1709, having probably arrived ifi the spring, as a probationer. Colonel Nicholson* directed the Eev. Dominie Dubois to select a proper person to accompany the expe- dition to Canada and read prayers to the Dutch troops. Van Vleck was presented to him ; and the Colonial Assembly, on the 21st of June, directed Dubois, and his colleague, Antonides, to take him and examine him before the next Tuesday, in the pre- sence of two of her Majesty's council, and ordain him. They did not obey ; and Van Vleck, on the 23d, prayed the Assembly to insist on their compliance. The next day, Mr. Livingston laid * Proceedings of New York Legislature. — N. T. Mercantile Lib. GEORGE GILLESPIE. 339 before the house a paper from the two ministers, stating that they were not empowered, by the Classis of Amsterdam, to ordain. The matter was dropped. In September, 1710, he joined the presbytery, being the minister of the Low Dutch congregation of Neshaminy, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania ; Mr. Lenard Vandegrift being his elder. By whom he had been ordained does not appear. In 1711, one of his elders was sent to presbytery, to state that his absence was caused by his being disabled through sickness. The next year he was charged with bigamy ; but the evidence was not suffifcient to prove the crime, neither was his vindication such as to take off the scandal wholly ; he therefore consented, as the presbytery proposed, to desist from preaching till his innocence was completely established by proof of his first wife's death. The day after the presbytery broke up, he brought papers in his behalf, which were seen by all the mem- bers, and left by them with Andrews, McNish, and Hampton, to consider if they were sufficient to clear him of the imputation. They thought they were not; besides, a new charge of falsehood was brought. On inspecting a letter from his mother, they learned that his wife was alive. Drunkenness, swearing, and "light car- riage" were also fastened on him. "He ran out of the country;" and, from 1715, he is passed over in silence. GEORGE GILLESPIE Was born in 1688, in the town of Glasgow, and educated in the ancient university founded there centuries ago. He was licensed by Glasgow Presbytery early in 1712, and came to New England in the spring, furnished with recommendations from Principal Stir- ling to Cotton Mather, and "certificates of his conversation." The situation of Woodbridge had been made known to the ministers in Boston ; Mather heartily recommended Gillespie to that divided people. He was " at first generally liked, being of an excellent character and laudable carriage, and his management being to universal satisfaction." The hope of his uniting the discordant parties was cheering; but Wade's factious course divided them still more. In September, the presbytery approved of his credentials ; and, " if Providence make way for his ordination by a call from any congregation, Andrews, McNish, Anderson, and Morgan are ordered to ordain him." The presbytery recommended him again to the congregation of Woodbridge :—" We shall strengthen his hands and encourage his heart to try a while longer, waiting for 340 eEOEGE GILLESPIE. the effect of our renewed essays for peace and quietness among you. He wrote to the presbytery; and Henry prepared an answer, informing him that the people of White Clay had petitioned for a minister, and, if he left Woodbridge, he was ordered first to supply that people. He was ordained by a committee of three. May 28, 1713, having received a call from the people of White Clay Creek. He preached, the day before, on Gal. iv. 4, 5, and delivered an exegesis on "An Christus pro omnibus et singulis sit mortuus?"^ These were to good acceptance, as also his examination in the original languages, philosophy, and theology. Red Clay, Lower Brandywine, and Elk River, besides White Clay, seem to have formed his charge for several years. Abra- ham Emmit, who subsequently appears as an elder from Elk River, petitioned for a new erection in 1719, and was refused. Gillespie was zealous for strict discipline, and three times en- tered his dissent* when offenders were dealt with too leniently for their immoralities. He informed his presbytery that he would publish his animadversions on the synod's undue tenderness in a certain case; but he was strictly forbidden by them to do so. The Philadelphia papers, in 1735, advertise his " Treatise against the Deists or Freethinkers, shewing the Necessity of Revealed Reli- gion: for sale by John Cross, at the Drawbridge, in Front Street." No copy is known to exist. Was it occasioned by Hemphill's course '? He is said to have organized the congregation of the Head of Christiana, and he served it till his death. Zealous for the interests of the church, he was remarkably punctual in attendance on presbytery and synod, and in bringing something for the fund. On the question of the Protest he did not vote, having in all the previous trying sessions sought the peace of Jerusalem : he with- drew with the excluded brethren, and joined with them,, and pub- lished a letter to the New York Presbytery in their defence. In February, 1743—4, he made a public, formal acknowledgment of his error in having done so, before Newcastle Presbytery ; and he was cordially welcomed to membership. Soon after, Franklin published his "Remarksf upon Mr. Whitefield, proving him a man under delusion: Rom. xvi. 17; 1 John iv. 1." In discussing the terms of union, he objected to being required to acknowledge the events generally styled "the Great Revival," as "a glorious work of grace." He had seen so many sad issues * Morgan said, " Pious Mr. Grilleapie entered his dissent" against the limited suspension of Walton, in 1722. f In the hands of Eev. Dr. Dickey, of Oxford, Pa. JOHN MACKET. 341 of hopeful beginnings, so many lamentable things in the proceed- ings of the chief actors, such sad confusions and wide-spread divisions, that his heart trembled for the ark of God. He died January 2, 1760, aged 77. Alison, who knew him, calls him "that pious saint of God." It was left to a generation "that knew not Joseph" to lavish on his name epithets of con- tumely. A long life passed in the service of Christ, unchronicled by the men of his own day, is summed up in a few bare sentences. The storm leaves a record of its progress and its power, but the dew and the summer breeze "return not void" to Him that sent them; though unobserved, they are not useless. Yet we would gladly see some record of a good man's life, — something more note- worthy than that, in 1750, the synod allowed five pounds towards the building of his meeting-house, or that he urged his brethren to remonstrate against the opening of a play-house in Philadelphia. JOHN MACKEY. The earliest congregation that had a minister was the first to become extinct. Colonel Anthony Lawson was the leading man on the Eastern Branch of Elizabeth River, Virginia, when Make- mie came there, in 1683. His descendants resided at "the new town," near Norfolk, until a recent date. George Keith, who was often in that neighbourhood, having a daughter married at Kicke- tan, (now Hampton,) said that Princess Anne county could not maintain a Church minister, the tobacco was so very poor. The congregation in Lynnhaven parish, on Elizabeth River, is men- tioned by Commissary Blair as existing at the close of the seventeenth century. Makemie* owned a house and lot in Elizabeth River, and gave them, by his will, to the congregation of Rehoboth, leaving it doubtful whether the Presbyterians in Norfolk county needed no aid, or were so greatly diminished that any efforts for the main- tenance of "our way" in that neighbourhood would be useless. In 1710, the presbytery sent word to Dublin Presbytery that "in all Virginia there is but one small congregation at Elizabeth River, and a few families favouring our way in Rappahannock and York." Henry, in 1713, made "complaint to the presbytery of the melancholy circumstances Mr. John Mackey, in Elizabeth River, labours under." Hampton, being about to write to him on an * Spence. 342 THOMAS BEATTON — ROBERT LATVSON. affair of his own, was desired by the brethren to signify "their regard to and concern for him." The nature of his distresses, and their issue, with all his history, is unknown. Thomas Wilson, an English Friend, mentions his stopping, in 1713, at the house of a Presbyterian widow in Lynnhaven Bay. THOMAS BRATTON Arrived in Maryland in the fall of 1711 ; and the next year, being detained by sickness, he sent to the presbytery a " certificate of his legal admission to the ministry." Robert Wilson, a com- missioner from Monokin and Wicomico, presented a statement of their church affairs, and a call for Bratton, and a paper of sub- scriptions for his encouragement. Anderson wrote to him in re- spect to the call in favour of the people. He had probably preached for them from his arrival, but the letter scarcely reached him before he was hurried away. He finished his course in October, 1712. ROBERT LAWSON Was a member* of Dumfries Presbytery in December, 1696. The tobacco trade, for the first half of the eighteenth century, kept up direct communication between London and Virginia and Mary- land. The wants of Monokin and Wicomico speedily reached Great Britain ; and, on the early death of Bratton, Lawson came over to supply his place. He was a native of Scotland; but, like McGill, his countryman and companion across the Atlantic, it was through Scottish merchants in London that he was directed to their correspondents in America. Mr. Reynolds, of London, sent by him a letter to the presby- tery, engaging to pay ^30 for the support of one or more ministers to spread the gospel "in the parts about you." At the presby- tery, in 1713, he produced ample testimonials of his ordination and good behaviour, and was received cheerfully. A call for him from Monokin and Wicomico was presented by the elder, James * Minutes of trial of Mr. Clanny : in the handa of the Rev. A. B. Cross, of Balti- more. DANIEL MoGILL. 343 Caldwell, and, being offered to him by the moderator, he took it under consideration, with promise to give the people an answer as soon as the circumstances of his affairs would allow. Ten pounds out of the sum promised by Eeynolds were given to him. He died in November, a few months after his landing on our shores. DANIEL McGILL. On the death of Taylor, Patuxent remained vacant, having only occasional supplies. Failing to obtain McNish, they applied to their friends in London, who procured McGill for them. They transmitted him a call, and he accepted it in England, and laid aside all business* that could be advantageous to him ; he was unemployed for nearly half a year in consequence, before he entered into ac- tual service in Marlborough. He joined the presbytery in 1713. In 1714, his elder was James Beall ; in '14, Alexander Beall ; in '15, Wilson Scott. " On being interrogated touching the manner of his people's deportment to him in his pastoral work, he made his answer wholly to their advantage, and with a pleasing earnestness to com- mend them, as made it apparent he had good cause for what he spoke. ' ' But the presbytery, on the representation of the messenger, Mr. Scott, was sensibly affected : they heard of Satan's devices, threat- ening their gospel peace and mutual love. They made a few pro- posals to them, " which it is in your power to make helpful to your present condition : — _ '_' Particularly with firmness and godly resolution oppose all dividing measures. " We apprehend the disproportion between the number of your elders and deacons may occasion some uneasiness in your session. We need only represent unto you the ends and institution of Scrip- ture deacons, and that there is no judicial power allowed them in the Scripture. " We expect your acquiescence in our last year's act touching sessions and session-books, which we presume you know to be agree- able to the laudable practice of the best reformed churches." In the neighbourhood of Marlborough, in the town of Providence, in the town-land of Seven, was the home of the Independents when driven from Virginia. The Scots from Fife, and the Inde- pendents, had little in common in regard to church government and discipline. Here we see them approaching to collision. Concerning Scripture deacons, Dickinson has expressed himself * Synod Records -i. 62. 344; DANIEL McGILL. Strongly in a pamphlet in vindication of Non-conformity, published in Boston in 1724 : — " We have no church stock, and therefore have no need of the office of deacons." The congregation sent a representative next year, a Scotsman, Archibald Edmundson ; but a doubt was raised whether he ought to be allowed to act as a representative in presbytery, in the absence of the minister. It was unanimously decided that he might. He was the bearer of a letter from Patuxent, which was " read twice to our great satisfaction." Another diflSculty arose, and was considered by Newcastle Pres- bytery in 1718, during the intervals of synod. " Andros and Mc- Knish" (as David Evans spells ; his rare, curious handwriting being as uncommon as his spelling) sat as correspondents. A healing letter was written ; but McGill insisted that it should not be sent until the last paragraph was expunged. The letter was sent with- out alteration; and, at the next synod, a testimonial was given him, he having no pastoral charge, and being uncertain how and where Providence may dispose of him." The traditionf at Marlborough is that he was an austere, sulky man. In 1720, he asked the commission if he ought not to be paid by his people for the six months which elapsed between his acceptance of the call in England and his beginning to preach to them. About this, there was " a difference between his apprehen- sions and theirs," as there well might be at the end of eight years. The synod in 1719, having received a letter from the people of Potomoke, in Virginia, requesting their care and diligence to pro- vide them an able gospel-minister, appointed McGill to preach to them in order to settlement on their mutual agreement. Conn and Cross wrote to the congregation on Mc Gill's going to Potomoke. He spent some months, and put " the people into church order." They manifested by letter their approbation of his whole conduct among them, and desire him, but in vain, to be their minister. The affair of Potomac was referred to the Committee of Bills, and is not again mentioned. This was probably Bladensburg, subsequently described as on the East Branch of Potomac and Pamonkey ; and probably the advice of the synod about " dividing measures" grew out of the wish to have the western part of Marlborough congre- gation, living on Potomac, permitted to have a minister of their own. McGill was called to Elk River, in Maryland, but, after a long delay, declined. He was a supply for short periods in Kent, at Birmingham, on Brandywine, at Snowhill, White Clay, Drawyers, Conestoga, and Octorara. He died Feb. 10, 1724, his home being in the London Tract, Newcastle county, Delaware. He was a valuable member of synod, a good preacher, and a learned man. « Quoted by Dr. Hodge, from T. Balch's MS. History. HOWELL POWELL. 345 Besides the following advertisement, nothing else has been res-' cued, concerning him, from the river of oblivion : 1722. "Ran* away from the Rev. D. Magill, a servant clothed with damask breeches and vest, black broadcloth vest, broadcloth coat of copper-colour, lined and trimmed with black, and wearincr black stockings." '^ HOWELL POWELL. Howell ap Howell offered himself for admission in 1713 ; and the presbytery, well satisfied of his ordination, advised him to procure within a year further credentials from some eminent ministers in England, whom they knew. Till then he shall be free to exercise his ministry in all its parts where Providence shall call him, but not fully to settle as a fixed minister." When Smith left Cohanzy, there came thither Mr. Esell. The presbytery wrote to them, in 1711, that they "wished the congre- gation had taken better-advised steps for their provision as to the ministry :_ by the best account they had of him, they judged him not a suitable person to preside in the work of the ministry. Though invited to be present at our meeting, he neither came nor sent, mtimating either a contempt or a supine neglect of ecclesias- tical judicatures. We cannot approve of some printed papers dis- persed by him among the people, as they contain, so far as they are intelligible, abundance of gross errors, — a great part consisting of nonsense and obvious self-contradictions." He settled at Chestertown, in Maryland, and formed an Indepen- dent congregation. A grant of land for its use was made, in 1727, to Mr. Samuel Exell.f By their messenger, John Ogden, Cohanzy sent a petition the next year, and the presbytery sent them a written answer. Ephraim Sayre, in their behalf, asked advice about the choice of a minister, and Powell was sent. In 1714, he sat in presbytery with his elder, Joseph Sealey. Though he had used diligence, he had not received the required credentials ; but the presbytery, being satisfied by so long trial and personal acquaintance, together with other considerable circum- stances, sustained, on mature deliberation, the unanimous call given him from Cohanzy. He accepted it ; and Andrews preached his admission sermon, Oct. 14, 1715. He died before September, 1717. Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. f Eev. A. B. Cross, Baltimore, Maryland. 346 MALACHI JONES. MALACHI JONES Offered himself to the presbytery, Sept. 9, 1714, and they, being well satisfied of his ordicS-tion and other qualifications, did heartily accept of his ofi'er, and admitted him as a member. He had been ordained in Wales. He came to Abingdon, about eleven miles from Philadelphia, where a church was organized in 1714 on the Congregational plan : it soon adopted the Presbyterian method. Being the oldest minister, he was frequently placed at the head of the commission and on the affair of the fund. At the close of the synod in 1727, he, with David Evans, Webb, and Hubbell, brought in a protest, — probably against the delay in receiving Pemberton, — and declared his intention to join no more with them. He seems not to have retracted it ; for his death is men- tioned thus in the records : — " Since our last, Mr. Malachi Jones, heretofore a member with us, and Mr. Archibald McCook, departed this life." Andrews, in writing to Colman under date of March 7, 1729, adds, " P.S. — Ten days ago died Mr. Malachi Jones, an old Welsh minister. He was a good man, and did good." He made his will Sept. 28, 1727 ; he left three sons — Malachi, Benjamin, and Joshua — and four daughters. He provides for his widow two rooms and the little cellar, and charges his son Malachi to give her comfortable maintenance, and to have her firewood cut and brought to her door, with five hogsheads of cider, whenever the plantation shall make so much. To each grand child he gave a ewe and a lamb. His will was proven March 25, 1729. His son Benjamin was an elder at Abingdon in 1733, and a member of Assembly from Bucks county in 1724. He and his brothers adhered to the Old Side. The elders who sat with Jones in presbytery were probably, in 1715, John Parsons ; and in synod, in 1720, Benjamin Armitage ;* in 1723, Joseph Charlesworth ; in 1725, John Hall, (a member from Bucks county in 1740 ;) in 1726, Charles Hofty. George Renock (Renwick) attended synod as an elder in 1729. * He was frozen to death in a swampy meadow, in Dee. 1735, being an ancient man and feeble. Charlesworth died in 1748; Hofty, in 1742. ROBERT WOTHERSPOON — DAVID EVANS. 347 EOBEET WOTHERSPOON, A NATIVE of Scotland, wrote to the presbytery in 1713, enclos- ing his credentials as a probationer. The people of Apoquinimy petitioned that he might be ordained and settled among them ; but they were informed that this could not be done until they presented a formal call. They did so ; and he was ordained to the sacred function and office of the ministry to the Presbyterian congrega- tion at Apoquinimy, May 13, 1714. Gabriel Thomas,* in his work on Pennsylvania, published in London in 1695, speaks of Apoquinimy as the place where goods come to be carted into Maryland. Settlements began to be made on the three branches of Drawyers Creek, as early as 1671, — chiefly from Holland and England. In 1703, the Venerable Society was asked for fifty pounds, in aid of North and South Apoquinimah,f which were about to build Episcopal churches. They were styled, in Latin, Appoquenomen and Quinquenium, the last being the original name for St. George's, and had for their missionary, in 1707, Mr. Jenkins, a Welshman, — the Episcopalians at St. George's having the Church services in their native tongue, the Welsh. On the 10th of May,J 1711, Isaac Vigorue, Hans Hanson, An- drew Peterson, and Francis King, bought an acre of land and built on it a meeting-house. The spot has been used ever since as the site of the house of God. Wotherspoon, in 1715, bought a farm, which still belongs to his descendants. He died in May, 1718. Hans Hanson sat in presbytery in 1714; Thomas Heywood, (Hyatt,) in 1715; and Elias Naudain in synod in 1717. DAVID EVANS, A NATIVE of Wales, was probably the son of David Evans, Esq., an elder in the Welsh Tract Church. A Baptist church was organ- ized in Wales in 1701, and the members came to Philadelphia in September of that year. They remained a year and a half at Pennepek, but could not hold fellowship with the church there. * New York Historical Society's Library. t Hawkins. i Rev. George Foot's Historical Disoourse at Drawyers. 348 DAVID EVANS. because of disagreement about laying on of hands after immersion. Thirty thousand acres having been bought in Delaware, the newly- arrived church removed thither and settled in the neighbourhood of the Iron Hill. Welsh Presbyterian congregations existed in Pencader, or the Welsh Tract, and in TredryflFryn, or the Great Valley, in Chester county, as early as 1710 ; for in that year the presbytery agreed that David Evan had done very ill in preaching or teaching in the latter place, and he was censured for acting irregularly and for invading the work of the ministry. As the most proper method, to advance him in necessary literature, and prepare him for the minis- terial work, he was directed to lay aside all other business for a twelvemonth, and apply himself closely to learning and study under the direction of Andrews. Liberty was given to Andrews, Wilson, and Anderson to take him on trials, and at their discretion to license him. In 1711, a committee of presbytery examined him, and approved of his hopeful proficiency, and he was allowed to preach as a can- didate for one year, under the direction of Andrews, Wilson, and Anderson. In the next fall, David Evans a, candidate, was chosen clerk of presbytery, his penmanship being careful and in the extreme curious. The people of Welsh Tract and Great Valley petitioned that he might be ordained ; but, though he had made considerable proficiency, it was voted that he should continue to study as before. In 1713, he graduated at Yale College, and was sent at the request of the people to reside at Welsh Tract and preach there. They gave him a unanimous call, and, after a thorough examination and the usual trials, he was ordained, Nov. 3, 1714. There being divers persons in the Great Valley with whom he was concerned, they were declared a distinct society from his pastoral charge. He was the recording clerk of Newcastle Presbytery for six or seven years. For his services each member gave him a half-crown. "An opinionative difference" between him and Samuel James gave his brethren no small trouble ; they dismissed it and labored to pacify the excitement arising from it, but their healing letters and healing sermons did no good. He was dismissed in 1720, and was called to Great Valley ; but he declined to accept it for several years. He was one of the first supplies sent to Sadsbury, West Branch of Brandywine, and Conestoga. When he removed to Tredryffryn, he was directed to spend one-fourth of his time at Sadsbury. He printed his sermon at the ordination of Treat, of Abingdon. On page 49,* he says, "That it is a wonder to see any gracious, * Quoted by FraJiklin in Mb defence of Hemphill. DAVID EVANS. 349 truly considerate, wise man in the ministry. It is no wonder to see thousands of ignorant, inconsiderate, carnal ministers ; but it is a wonder to see any truly understanding, considerate, gracious ones." He brought in a protest after all the business of synod was done in 1727 ; but after three years he declared his hearty concern for his withdrawal, and desired to be received as a member again. Haying declared his adopting the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, he was unanimously received as a member, and, for his ease, was joined to Philadelphia Presbytery. Early in the spring of 1738,* he presented to the presbytery his scheme for supplying the English Presbyterians in the Valley. In December, 1739, the presbytery met, and heard the charges brought against him by Timothy GrifiSths for suspending his elders from office. He was cleared, and the accuser blamed and debarred from church privileges ; but the charges were renewed in the spring, with a complaint of his heterodoxy, his not preaching enough in Welsh, and his church tyranny. The only point on which he was thought censurable, was his laying aside the elders and saying he would make no use of them. At his request he was dismissed, and accepted a call to Piles- grove and Quihawken,"!" in West Jersey. Either the church or- ganization at Pilesgrove had become extinct, or it was not to his mind ; for a church covenant^ was signed, April 30, 1741, by him- self and twenty-five others. Among the signers were Isaac Van Meter, Henry Van Meter, Cornelius Newkirk, Abraham Newkirk, Barnet Dubois, Lewis Dubois, and Garret Dubois. He adhered to the Old Side on the division of 1741 : so did his sons. Samuel succeeded him at Tredyffryn. Joel graduated at Yale in 1740, was licensed by Philadelphia Presbytery, September 17, 1741, and supplied Woodbury and Deerfield. In April, 1742, Mr. Vandyke, from Appoquinimy, desired that he might be sent to them. He died before May, 1743. He printed in Franklin's Gazette what Samuel Finley calls "sullen remarks" on Tennent's letter to Dickinson; and, in 1748, published his "Law and Gospel; or, Man wholly ruined by the Law and recovered by the Gospel," being the substance of several sermons preached in 1734, at Tredyffryn, from Galatians iii. 10; Romans i. 16. He adds to his name A.M. and V.D.M. The following paper§ is curious and interesting : — * MS. Records of Philadelphia Presbytery. f In the neighbourhood of Salem ; probably Penn's Rock. X New Jersey Historical Collections. g Mr. W. E. Dubois, of Philadelphia. 350 DAVID EVANS. A 'petition in the behalf of Jonathan Dubois* a hopeful begin- ner in learning. To ALL OUR Christian Friends in Sopus or anywhere else, etc. This is to acquaint you that Jonathan, the son of Barnet Du- bois, (the bearer hereof,) hath been at learning these three-quarters of a year, in order to the gospel ministry, and proceeds in learning hopefully, as also does his cousin John,t the son of Lewis Dubois, his school-fellow. But, his parents not being well able to bear the charges of his learning without assistance, we, therefore, on be- half of the said Jonathan, earnestly desire and beg, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, that his near relatives, and any others that are able, would open their hearts and hands and contribute out of their earthly possessions for the carrying on of so good and necessary a work, unto which the Lord and owner of all that you have, now by his providence, calls you. We entreat you, Christian brethren, to manifest the sincerity of your Christian faith and love, by being rich in good works, (1 Timothy vi. 17, 18, 19,) being assured that they who sow bountifully shall reap also bountifully. I add no more, at present, but all sincere wishes for your temporal, spiritual, and eternal happiness, by the mercy of God the Father, through the merits of God the Son, by the sanctification of God the Holy Ghost. Amen. And so rest Yours, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, David Evans, Minister. Filesgrove, in Salem county, in West New Jersey, May 7, 1745. Be it known to all whom it concerns that the moneys which Barnet Dubois formerly collected at Sopus and elsewhere, for our public religious affairs, were honestly laid out according to the tenor of the petition." The congregation of Pilesgrove had met with great discourage- ments in their endeavours to have the gospel settled among them, and in 1739, the commission of the synod allowed them to build on the site they had chosen. To accomplish the erection, they sent a messenger to Esopus and other parts of Ulster, in New York, to their relatives, to solicit help. Evans is said to have been eccentric and high-spirited. His preaching gave such offence on one occasion to a person at Piles- grove, that, rather than listen a moment longer, he jumped out of the church window. He died before May, 1751. In his will,| he expresses the hope * The pastor, for many years, of the Reformed Dutch Church, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. ■j- Died in 1745, at New London, while pursuing his studies with Alison. J On record at Trenton. JOHN BRADNER — HUGH CONN. 351 that his people would settle a student from the College of New Jersey, and leaves a sum of money to be given to his successor for his encouragement. JOHN BRADNER. On his arrival from Scotland, Hampton and Henry, on good and sufficient reasons, took him on trial, and licensed him in March, 1714. He was called to Cape May, and ordained May 6, 1715. He removed, in 1721, to Goshen, in Orange county. New York, and died before September, 1733. His son, Benoni, is said to have been born in 1733. He gradu- ated at Nassau Hall, in 1755; but by whom or where he was licensed or ordained, does not appear : it was not in our connec- tion. He was settled at the Nine Partners, in Dutchess county, and in June, 1786, became the minister of the Independent Church in Blooming Grove, in Orange. Consumptive, and troubled with shortness of breath, he lived to the age of seventy-one, and died, January 29, 1804, after a long and distressing illness. He was a trustee of the Morris County Society for Promoting Religion and Learning, from its formation. HUGH CONN. He was born at Macgilligan, in Ireland, about 1685; and, hav- ing studied at the school in Foghanveil, (Faughanvale,) he gradu- ated at the University of Glasgow. The trade from the Patapsco to Great Britain gave rise to a Presbyterian congregation in Baltimore county; and their appli- cation to the London merchants brought their case under the eye of the Rev. Thomas Reynolds, minister in London ; and, through his agency, the Rev. Hugh Conn came over to be their minister. He sent letters by him to several members of the presbytery, with the pleasing intelligence that he designed to continue his bounty (which was £30 per annum) for the furtherance of the gospel. Conn's credentials were approved ; and in September, 1715, Mr. James Gordon presented a call for him from the people of Balti- 352 HUGH CONN. more county, and he was ordained on the third Wednesday of October following.* McGill, James Anderson, and George Gil- lespie officiated on the occasion, and installed him pastor of the congregation of Patapsco. In September, 1719, he obtained leave to demit his pastoral charge, on account of his uselessnesa there, from the "paucity of his flock. He immediately took charge of the people on the East Branch of Potomac and Po- monkey, — they having, by their commissioner, James Bell, (Beall,) petitioned Newcastle Presbytery for a minister. Bladensburg is the modern designation of his field of labour ; Pomonkey being a creek in that vicinity. He remained there till his death. He seldom met with Newcastle Presbytery, but attended with creditable regularity on the synod. He adhered to the Old Side. He died on the 28th of June, 1752, while preaching at the funeralf of a person who died suddenly. The subjectj he was upon gave him occasion to mention the certainty of death, the uncertainty of the time when it might happen, the absolute neces- sity of being continually prepared for it, the vast danger of delay and trusting to a death-bed repentance ; for that, although we may possibly live some years, yet we may be called away in a month or a week, or, for aught that we can tell, death might surprise us the next moment. This part of his discourse he was observed to deliver with some elevation of voice, but had scarce uttered the word "moment," when, putting one hand to his head and one to his side, he fell backward and expired, verifying, in a most extra- ordinary manner, the truth of his doctrine. President Davies, in two of his printed sermons, refers to the manner of his death. In one, preached before the New Side Presbytery of Newcastle, in October, 1752, he says, "Death may surprise us in the pulpit, and leave the sentence unfinished on our lips. As Mr. Conn was observing, ' death may seize us the next moment: just as he had expressed the word 'moment,' he fell back in the pulpit and immediately expired." In his New-Year Day sermon, in 1760, he says, " Consider the uncertainty of time to you. You may die the next yaar, the next month, the next week, the next day, the next moment. I once knew a minister, who, while making this observation, was made a striking example of it, and instantly dropped dead in the pulpit." * Records, p. 37 f Rev. Dr. Maosparran, in Updyke's History of the Churcli in the Narra- gansetts. I Maryland Gazette of July, 1752. ROBERT ORR — SAMUEL PUMRT. 353 EGBERT ORR, A PROBATIONER from Ireland or Scotland, having preached some time for the people of Maidenhead and Hopewell, presented his credentials to the presbytery in 1715. They were approved; and, a call being presented by Mr. Philip Rings, he was ordained, October 20, 1715, at Maidenhead, by Andrews, Morgan, Dickin- son, Evans, and Bradner, before a numerous assembly. His field embraced the ground covered by Pennington, Lawrence, Trenton, (First Church,) Trenton City, Titusville, and perhaps Amwell. The ground for a Presbyterian house of worship in Hopewell was secured by deed before 1700. The Churchmen obtained a lot in 1703, and soon after built. Evans, the Church minister in Philadelphia, baptized nineteen children at one time at Maiden- head, in 1700. Andrews frequently went to Hopewell to baptize whole households. In 1711, the united congregations, by William Yard, asked assistance of the presbytery in getting a minister : they had then Mr. Sackett preaching for them, who afterwards settled at West Greenwich, Connecticut. Mr. Woolsey, of Long Island, also visited them; and a complaint was lodged against Governor Hunter by Henderson, the Church missionary, in 1712, because Woolsey had been allowed to preach in the Episcopal church in Hopewell. Of Orr's stay in Hopewell nothing is known. Andrews bap- tized his son Henry, July 18, 1715. He was dismissed from his charge in 1719, and received a synodical testimonial, being uncertain how Providence would dis- pose of him. Through the loss of the Records of Philadelphia Presbytery, his subsequent career cannot be traced. SAMUEL PUMRY Was the son* of Medad Pumry, of Northampton, Massa- chusetts, — his mother being the widow of the Rev. Israel Chaun- cey. He was born September 16, 1687, and graduated at Yale in 1705. He was a faithful recorder, and has left a store of accu- rate and valuable information. * Kiker'a History of Newtown. 23 354 SAMUEL PUMRT. Newtown, on Long Island, was settled in 1651, and had, for its first minister, William Leverich, — from 1658 till his death in 166!». The Venerable Society were told, in 1704, that there wus a church or chapel there, in which, according to the Tolera- tion Act, a Dissenting minister might preach: there was also a house for a minister. When Hampton preached there in January, 1706, there was " a meeting-house* offered to record ; but the town were afraid to ask Cornb.ury's leave to settle a minister of their choice." Pumry marriedf Lydia Taylor, of Northampton, July 23, 1707; and, being at Newtown in July, 1708, a call, signed by some scores of heads of families, was offered to him. On his accept- ing it, the town sent two men to transport his family thither; and he and his wife and child were conveyed thither safely on the 18th of September, 1708. The members in full communion, and the rest of the people, making earnest request, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, John Williams, of Deerfield, and William Williams, of Hatfield, ordained him, November 30, 1709, at Northampton, before a great congregation. He was heartily and unanimously accepted as a member of presbytery in Septem- ber, 1715, he promising subjection in the Lord. The next year, the reasons of his elder's absence were inquired into and sus- tained. This refutes the supposition, that there were no elders in the congregation till 1724, when he stated his need of assistance in the work of the ministry. On his nomination, Content Titus, James Renne, and Samuel Coe were elected, and ordained June 28, and " the members of the church were required and exhorted to acknowledge them as men in authority, and to be subject to them in their government in the Lord." In 1722, he married a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Webb, of Green's Farms, in Connecticut. On the 24th of May, 1744, his absence from the Synod of Philadelphia was excused on account of bodily indisposition. He had preached for the last time on Sabbath, the 20th, from John xi. 15, and " was taken amiss in the evening, and died about eight in the morning of the 30th of June." The "Church Record" adds, "He left his dear bosom friend and congregation to bewail an unspeakable loss." His daughters married Philip Edsall and Jacob Ryker. His son, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Pumry, of Hebron, Con- necticut, was a man of real genius, — grave, solemn, and weighty in his discourses, in manner animated, and full of zeal and affec- tion. In expostulating and pleading with sinners, he melted into * Makemie's Narrative. f Prime's History of Long Island ; Kiker's History of Newtown. .JOHN THOMSON. 355 tears ; with equal advantage lie could set the terrors of the Lord in array, and the wonders of Christ's love, — his glory and the sufiBciency of his righteousness, and the blessedness of all who are reconciled to God by him. He was one of the best preachers of his day, and one of the most zealous and successful promoters of the revival. For this his name was cast out as vile by the opposers of the work. He was ordained at Hebron in 1735, and died there in 1784, in the forty-ninth year of his ministry, aged seventy-one. JOHN THOMSON Came from Ireland as a probationer to New York, in the sum- mer of 1715, with his wife and child. He was recommended by the presbytery to the people of Lewes, in Delaware, and went thither. In the fall of 1716, they presented a call for him by their commissioner, William Shankland ; and he was ordained and installed on the first Wednesday of April, 1717. In 1723, a brick church* was erected. In 1727, Samuel Bownas,t an English Friend, visited George's Creek, Duck Creek, -Motherkill, Hoarkill, (Lewes,) and Cool Spring. " Friends are seldom visited, and have few ministers. The Presbyterians and Churchmen have attempted to do something; but, the people being poor, and the pensions small, they gave out for want of pay." Thomson left Lewes in September, 1729, through want of sup- port. He was invited to Newcastle; and the next fall he ac- cepted the call from Middle Octorara, sent by James Garner. His installation was appointed for the second Wednesday in Octo- ber; but, being harassed by disorders among .his people, he re- moved, in 1732, to Chestnut Level. Being in great straits, the congregations in Donegal Presbytery kindly made collections for Ms relief in 1733. His thankful acknowledgment was placed on the record. His proposal for sending an itinerant to Virginia being ap- proved, he was charged with the duty, but was excused, because of the severity of the winter and the scarcity of provender. In the winter of 1738, he visited the Valley, and passed through the * Spence. t Friends' Library. 356 JOHN THOMSON. Rookfisli Gap to Concord, Buffalo, and Cub Creek. " He* took up collections, to support preachers in itinerating in the new set- tlements, and was active in promoting the best interests of our church." In June, both parts of Opequhon supplicated for him. In September, 1739, Alexander McDowell, from Vii-giniaj was introduced to the presbytery, having (probably at Thomson's solicitation) detennined to devote himself to the ministry. _ Thom- son asked to be dismissed from his charge, to remove to Virginia; but the presbytery would not consent. In the troubles of the great rupture he had his full share. The state of his congregation made it uncomfortable for him to re- move ; he was poorly paid, and he turned towards Virginia, where he had steadfast friends. He was not released till July 31, 1744; and then he at once made his home in the Valley. Donegal Pres- bytery intrusted to him and Black and Craig the charge of the missionary operations in Western Virginia. An effort was made to bring him back to Chestnut Level. In 1744, he visited North Carolina, and again in 1751. During the last visit, he met with Henry Patillo, and engaged him to study for the ministry. He published at Williamsburg, in 1749,t an Explication of the Shorter Catechism. He was then labouring in Amelia. His son-in-law having removed to Buffalo, in Prince Edward, Thomson spent the closing years of his life with him, and died in 1753, in Centre, North Carolina.J During the distractions following the rending of the synod in 1741, he overtured the presbytery to suffer no person to be in- ducted into the eldership, or to sit in any judicatory, without hav- ing subscribed the Confession of Faith, — a vain remedy, when the agitators were as zealous for it as their opposers. His book on the " Government of the Church," and his sermon on " Conviction and Assurance," are as able, learned, judicious, and evangelical, as any of the writings of Dickinson and Blair. Even Gilbert Tennent, in 1749, quoted largely from them, with high com- mendation, to justify the Old Side from the misrepresentations cur- rent against them, and to prove the expediency and the duty of uniting the synods in one body, bound together by a common faith, by mutual esteem, and by fervent desire for the peace of Jeru- salem. It was told to Thomson that himself had been pointed out by some as an unconverted minister ; but, if Tennent spoke thus of him, repeating the sin of Moses while God renewed the mercies of * Dr. Foote. | In the hands of Eev. B. M. Smith, of Staunton, Virgina. J Dr. Foote ; but Dr. Alexander said, "He lies in the Buffalo graveyard, with- out a stone." JOHN PIERSON. 357 Meribah, it was to him as "waters that pass away," when he wrote his "Irenicum." Davies knew Thomson as a neighbour in the ministry, and, in 1751, speaks highly* of his judgment, and hopefully of his piety, and says, " He acknowledged the Revival had done much good in Hanover, and rejoiced in seeing the prosperity of religion." He did not live to see the union ; but, on the proposal to prepare the way for it, he hastened to Philadelphia from Virginia, to assist with healing _ counsels. He lived long enough for Tennent to do his writings justice, and to vindicate his sentiments ; long enough to obtain, from the devoted admirer of Samuel Blair, unsolicited testimony to his judgment and his delight in the promotion of the work of God. His discourse entitled "An Overture, urging the Synod to adopt, by a public agreement, the Standards of the Scottish Church," was answered by Dickinson ; his "Examination of the New Brunswick Apology" was a treatise on the government of the church, and called forth a reply from Samuel Blair ; his sermon on Convictions was attacked by Samuel Finley, but is deservedly commended as an excellent exhibition of the truth. JOHN PIERSON Was born in 1689, and graduated at Yale in 1711. The Rev. Abraham Pierson was an Independent, and, with a com- pany of like sentiments, came to Lynn, in Massachusetts, and from thence removed to Southampton, on Long Island. But, when the Long Island towns put themselves under the Connecticut jurisdic- tion, he, with those of the ancient way, settled Branford, in the colony of New Haven, as their brethren in Hartford settled Had- ley, that they might not be partakers in the growing laxity of dis- cipline. The colonies of New Haven and Connecticut united ; and the aged Pierson, like another Moses, said to his people, " Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount;" and they arose and took their journey and settled the town of Newark, in New Jersey. There he died. His son, being "a moderate Presbyterian," left Newark, and became the Rector of Yale. His Presbyterianism was that of Connecticut, in distinction from the Independency of his father. Woodbridge had vainlyf endeavoured, in 1669, to secure for its pastor the younger Pierson, then settled in Newark. They built * Letter to Bellamy. f Newark Sentinel. g58 JONATHAN DICKINSON.. a meetins-lioiise thirty feet square, and, after passing through many uncomfortable seasons, obtained a pastor who served them faithfully through a long life. i r w ;n, -j In 1715, Andrews wrote pressmgly to the people ot Woodbridge, urging them to use utmost diligence to have a minister ordamed among them. At that time, Pierson was preaching there, and a call was offered to him the next year. He was ordamed there, April 29, 1717, before a very great assembly. Andrews, Morgan, and Orr were assisted on the occasion by the venerable Prudden, of Newark, and Dickinson, of Elizabethtown. He is said* to have employed no elders in the management of church affairs ; but this tradition is inconsistent with the record, his elder at synod, in 1742, being John Ball; probably, also, Mosea Bolph attended in several previous years. He published a treatise on the " Intercession of Christ, aiid ^ sermon preached before the Presbytery of New York, May 8, 1751, on "Christ, the son of God, as God, Man, Mediator." His wife, Ruth, daughter of the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, of Hartford, died in 1732, aged thirty-eight. Dickinson printed his sermon at her funeral. In 1753, he resigned his pastoral charge and settled at Mend- ham, New Jersey, and was the minister there for ten years. He then removed to Long Island, and resided on the farm of his second wife, Judith Smith. On her decease, he removed to Hano- ver, New Jersey, and closed his days under the roof of his son- in-law, the Rev. Jacob Green. He died August 28, 1770, aged eighty-one. JONATHAN DICKINSON ' Was the grandson of Naithaniel Dickinson,, one of the first set- tlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut, who, with his minister, Mr. Rus- sell, and "the aggrieved brethren in Hartford," purchased and set- tled Hadley and the adjoining towns in 1659. His estate wa^ rated, on his removal, at two hundred pounds, — one of the largest in the town. His son Hezekiah lived in Hatfield, where Jonathaii was born, April 22, 1688. He graduated at Yale, in 1706. ' His father dying soon after, his mother married Thotnas Ingersoll, of Springfield. He came to Elizabethtown in 1708, and soon after married Jo- * Dr. Azel Roe's MS. History of Woodbridge : quoted by Dr. Hodge. JONATHAN DICKINSON. 359 anna, the daughter of the Rev. Samuel Melyen, or of some other descendant of Joseph Melyen, one of the associates in the purchase of the Elizabethtown Tract under Governor NicoUs's grant. His entry in the family Bible of the birth of his first child is, " Our son Melyen was born December 7, 1709." He was ordained by the ministers of Fairfield county, Connecti- cut, September 29, 1709. Morgan, of Freehold, preached from Mark xvi. 16. His field of labour embraced Rah way, Westfield, Connecticut Farms, Springfield, and part of Chatham. He was engaged in teaching, and in the practice of medicine. He met with Philadelphia Presbytery as a correspondent, in 1715, at the ordination of Orr, and became a member early in 1717. His first publication was his sermon preached before the synod in 1722, on 1 Timothy iii. 17, — the expression of his views on the subject of Synodical Acts, or Church Legislative Power. He entered warmly on the Episcopal controversy when a heartless Arminianism and a hope of court favour led a few ministers in Con- necticut to conform. In 1724, he published his "Defence of Pres- byterian Ordination in Boston." A reply from a Churchman drew from him an answer, in which he says, "High-Churchism is pro- perly no more a part of the Church of England than a wen is of the human body." He published " Remarks on Thomson's Overture, introducing the Adopting Act," in April, 1729; the "Reasonableness of Chris- tianity," in 1732 ; the " Vanity of Human Institutions in Religious Worship," a sermon he had preached at Newark, June 2, 1732, on the introduction of the Episcopal services into that town; the " Reason- ableness of Nonconformity," in 1738 ; the "Witness of the Spirit," in 1740 ; "A Treatise on Regeneration," in 1744 ; the "Vindication of the Sovereignty of Grace," in 1776 ; and " Familiar Letters to a Gentleman," and a " Dialogue, entitled a Display of Saving Grace." Mr. Wetmore defended against him the doctrine of regeneration by baptism ; the Rev. Andrew Croswell condemned the "Dialogue on a Display of Grace" as pernicious beyond parallel. Dickinson replied to him, and also to the Rev. John Beach, who wrote against his book on " Sovereign Grace." Beach rejoined, and Dickinson left, at his death, an answer unfinished. It was completed and published by his brother. The Rev. Dr. Johnson, of Stratford, Connecticut, controverted his opinions, under the name of Aristocles. The Rev. Experience May- hew also addressed two letters to him. To both of them he replied. In 1740, he, with Burr and Pemberton, communicated to the Society in Scotland for Propagating the Gospel, the deplorable and perishing condition of the Indians on Long Island, in New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They were appointed correspondents, and authorized to employ missionaries. They engaged Azariah Horton and David Brainerd, and were forward to countenance them in their work and to rejoice their spirits with hearty counsel. 360 JONATHAN DICKINSON. His former instances of joy in revivals, previously enjoyed, were more eminent and remarkable than any of a late date. While he preached to youth, there was weeping, audible sighing, and sobbing. About sixty were added to the communion ; they were under a law- work for a considerable time; pungent and thorough conviction emptied them of self-righteousness, and drew them to Christ. The disorders attending the awakening in New Jersey grew out of erroneous views of assurance and the witness of the Spirit. Antinomianism appeared, and denounced the practice of looking for evidence of justification in the progress of our sanctification. There was much arrogance in some who were called converts ; and many upheld a preacher who had been suspended for dreadful scandals. These things called forth his " Dialogue on the Display of Grace" and his sermon on the "Witness of the Spirit." His wife died April 20, 1745, aged sixty-three ; she was the mo- ther of a large family, of whom only three daughters survived her. The third child was named after his father, born Sept. 19, 1713, graduated at Yale in 1731, and took the Master's degree. He left his home ; and his father daily in the family entreated God for him. At length he ceased to do so. His household noticed, but none asked the reason, supposing that he had received privately intelligence of his end too painful to be uttered. His youngest daughter, Martha, married the Rev. Caleb Smith ; another was the second wife of Mr. Jonathan Sergeant, of Princeton, the grand- father of the Hon. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia; a third mar- ried Mr. John Cooper, probably of West Hampton, Long Island. Braiiierd spent part of the closing year of his life under Dick- inson's roof, and solemnized his second marriage at Newark, April 7, 1747. He rode back to Elizabethtown in the evening, " in a plea- sant frame,, full of composure and Sweetness." Dickinson died Oct. 12, 1747, of a pleuritic attack, in his sixtieth year. Pierson preached at his funeral. The New York Postboy contains a high eulogium on him. Dr. Johnes,* of Morristown, who was with him in his last illness, asked him, just before his death, concerning his prospects. " Many days have passed between God and my soul, in which I have so- lemnly dedicated myself to him ; and, I trust, what I have committed unto him, He is able to keep until that day." These were his last words. It is said that tidingsf of Dickinson's decease came to Mr. Vaughan, the minister of Elizabethtown, then lying on his death-bed, when he exclaimed, " Oh that I had hold of the skirts of Brother Jona- than!" They entered on their ministry in the town about the same time, and "in their death they were not divided." * Austin's Preface to the Five Points, f Dr. Murray's Notes on Elizabethtown. SAMUEL GELSTON. 361 Forty-six* years after his departure, " there were those who tes- tified that he was a most solemn, weighty, and moving preacher ; a uniform advocate for the distinguishing doctrines of grace ; in- dustrious, indefatigable, and successful in his ministerial labours. His person was manly and of full size, his aspect grave and solemn, so that the wicked seemed to tremble in his presence." Bellamy speaks of him as "the great Mr. Dickinson." Dr. Ers- kine said the British Isles had produced no such writers on divi- nity in the eighteenth century as Dickinson and Edwards ; he wished Hervey had seen their treatises before he prepared his works. Dr. Rodgers was often heard to say that he was one of the most vene- rable and apostolical-looking men he ever saw. Foxcroft, of Boston, was his friend through life, and, in his pre- face to his posthumous piece, expresses a high sense of his excel- lence. His works were collected' after his death and published in Boston. A selection, comprising all that were not local in their design, was printed in Edinburgh, in an octavo volume, in 1793. His treatise on " The True Scripture Doctrine concerning the Five Points of Election, Original Sin, Grace in Conversion, Jus- tification by Faith," was issued at Boston, in 1741. Under the direction of New York Presbytery, in 1796, a new edition ap- peared; and another was undertaken at Chambersburg in 1800. f SAMUEL GELSTON Was born in the North of Ireland in 1692, and came as a pro- bationer to New England in 1715. He was received in the fall under the care of Philadelphia Presbytery, and was sent to the people of Kent, on Delaware. Though desired to stay, he left with- out the consent of presbytery, and went to Southampton, on Long Island. There his brother Hugh resided: he was called as col- league with the pastor. Samuel Whiting and the congregation placed itself under the presbytery's care. The Presbytery of Long Island, on its organization, took him on trial, and ordained and in- stalled him, April 17, 1717. His stay was about ten years ; and, Aug. 27, 1728, he was received as a member of Newcastle Presby- tery, and took into consideration a call to Newcastle. The next * The Rev. David Austin, in his Preface to the Five Points. ■j- John Colman, of Chambersburg, subscribed for 144 copies. 362 SAMUEL GELSTOir. month, he was called to Nevr London,* Chester county, Pennsyl- vania. This was a new erection, which for two years had vainly strug- gled for a separate existence, the congregation of Elk River op- posing. The presbytery, May 11, 1726, had refused leave to_ a few families residing on the northeast side of Great Elk, to build a meeting-house, and have a part of their pastor's lahours performed in it. The house was put up, and the synod confirmed the action of the presbytery ; but the next year they modified it, requiring the house to be removed to a point six miles distant from Houston's church. Only one person dissented from this decision, and from the order forbidding any minister to preach in it, until removed. The site pointed out, near the Indian town, towards Fagg's Manor, cannot now be ascertained. The house was not removed, and the Synod renewed its stringent order. The presbytery exacted of Gelston an apologyfor preaching in the forbidden building, and laid him under a solemn engagement to do so no more. In 1731, the matter was terminated, by leaving the house where it was built;: none of the apprehended damage having accrued to the congrega- tion of Upper Elk. It is thought probable that the present New London Church stands on the very spot selected by the presby- tery, and so tenaciously refused by the congregation. Robert Finney, who was an elder in synod in 1721 from Elk River, was the principal mover for the new erection. In 1729, he, with James Muir, protested against the synod's refusal to have a perambulation made of the bounds in dispute by indifferent men, and against their hearkening to the representations of those who were bent on defeating the enterprise. The arrangements for Gelston's installation in January, 1729, were postponed, as a rebuke for having preached in the objection- able locality. He left his charge as early as 1733, and fell under censure. Going into the Highlands of New York, many evil re- ports arose ; but a committee of synod met at Goshen and saw reason to remove his suspension. He seems to have visited Vir- ginia in 1735; for, in May, 1736, "both parts of Pekon wrote for him" to Donegal Presbytery. He had joined that body about a month before, and was sent to Opequhon, to Conestoga, and Cone- doguinet. In the fall, he was directed to supply Pequea, and in the Spring following, having informed the presbytery he was about to remove from their bounds, he was dismissed. In 1748, Robert Cross wrote to him to repay the money he had borrowed of the Synod's fund ; and in 1753, a promise was made to remit all the in- terest in arrear, if he would forthwith pay the principal. He is saidf to have died Oct. 22, 1782, aged ninety. * Rev. R. P. Dubois's Historical Discourse at New London. •[■ Thompson's History of Long Island. GEORGE PHILLIPS — HENRY HOOK. 363 GEORGE PHILLIPS Came* of a distinguished Puritan ancestry, being the son of the Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Rowley, Massachusetts, and the grand- son of the celebrated divine, George Phillips, of Watertown, who came to New England, in 1630, with Sir Richard Saltonstall. George Phillips was born June 3, 1644, and graduated at Har- vard in 1686 : he was employed as a licentiate at several places, besides Jamaica, where he laboured till his removal to Setauket, from 1693 to 1697. Brookhaven, an eight-sided township, the largest on Long Island, was settled from Boston, in 1655. The place where the planters fixed their abode was called Setauket, from the Indian tribe which had dwelt there. For thirty-five years, the town had for its minister Nathaniel Brewster, the grandson of the ruling elder of the Pilgrim Church, of Plymouth. As a colleague to him, Dugald Simson was employed from 1685 to 1691, when he returned to Scotland. The town promised Phillips the gift of one hundred acres in f6e, and the use of two hundred more for life. He was not ordainea from 1697 till April 13, 1702. The Second Meeting-house was planned in 1710, and the dis- agreement about the site was not removed till 1714 ; when, by an appeal to the lot, it was decided to build on the old spot. This edifice was used till 1811 ; British soldiers occupied it in the war,- and left on it marks of bullets and cannon-balls. Phillips joined in forming Long Island Presbytery, in 1717. On its extinction, he was connected with New York Presbytery till his death, in 1739. He was never present in synod. HENRY HOOK Came as an ordained minister from Ireland, and was received by the synod in 1718; and he settled at Cohanzy. Andrews wrote to Mather,t April 30, 1722 : — " The week before last, by the pressing importunity of the minister of Cohanzy, I went thither to heal some differences between the two congregations there; * Thompson's History of Long Island; Prime's ditto, f Mather MSS., Am. Antiq. Soc. 364 JOSEPH LAMB — WILLIAM TENNENT. whicli being effected, contrary to expectation, such charges were laid against him as have subverted him from acting there or any- -where else." He removed to Delaware; and Newcastle Presby- tery met in Cohanzy to investigate the case. The synod judged, though several things were not proven, yet it was due to rebuke him openly, in Fairfield Meeting-house, and to suspend him for a season. He was sent to supply Conestoga and St. Jones, in Kent, on Delaware. Hans Hanson and John Burgess, commissioners from Drawyers or Appoquinimy, presented a call for him, March 12, 1723 : he did not accept till September 14, 1724, and Creag- head, of White Clay, installed him. He was sent frequently, as a supply, to St. Jones, and, in 1737, to Kent, in Maryland. He died in 1741, and was buried on land he had bought in 1724, and ■which is owned by his descendants at this day. JOSEPH LAMB Graduated at Yale in 1717, and was ordained, by Long Island Presbytery, December 6, 1717, pastor of Mattituck, Long Island. But few things are known of him, further than that his wife died in April, 1729 ; that he was appointed by the synod to supply Jamaica, in April, 1737 ; and that, being called to Baskingridge, in New Jersey, he joined New Brunswick Presbytery, May 24, 1744. Brownlee calls him "a Scottish worthy;" but he was probably a native of Connecticut, for he was sent, in July, 1744, to stipply the Presbyterian Church in Milford, in that colony. He died in 1749. WILLIAM TENNENT "Was born in Ireland, and was a cousin,* on the mother's side, of James Logan, the Secretary of the Province of Pennsylvania; the Rev. Patrick Logan having married Isabel Hume, a relative of the Laird of Dundas and the Earl of Panmure. Tennent mar- ried, May 15, 1702, a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Kennedy, a dis- * Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. WILLIAM TENNENT. 365 tinguished Presbyterian minister in Ireland. The Rev. Gilbert Kennedy, a kinsman of the good Earl of Cassilis, who sat in the Westminster Assembly, having been ejected from his charge in Girvan, Ayrshire, went to Ireland, and became the minister of Dundonald. He was imprisoned, in 1670, by Boyle, Bishop of Down, and died February 6, 1687-8. His brother Thomas was the minister of Donoughmore; and his grandson, Gilbert, suc- cessively minister of Lisburn, Killileagh, and Belfast, died in 1773. William Tennent was ordained, by the Bishop of Down, a deacon in July, 1704, and a priest, September 22, 1706. He resided in Down at the time of his marriage, then in Armagh, and, after entering into orders, in Antrim and Down. He is said to have held a chaplaincy in a nobleman's family. A brief* family record states the births of Tennent's children, and their baptism by Church ministers. After having beenf in orders a number of years, he became scrupulous of conforming to the terms imposed on the clergy of the Establishment, and was deprived of his living. There being no satisfactory prospect of usefulness at home, he came to America with his wife, four sons, and a daughter, in September, 1716. He settled, November 22, 1718, at East Chester, New York, and removed. May 3, 1720, to Bedford. In 1721, he took charge of Bensalem and Smithfield, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He ac- cepted a call to Neshaminy in 1726. He had a school, at which his sons and others were educated, — ^the Latin being as familiar to him as his mother-tongue. In 1728, James Logan| gave him fifty acres on Neshaminy Creek, "to encourage him to prosecute his views, and to make his residence near us permanent." The presbytery did not send a minister to install him ; but the people, being asked in the meeting-house, declared their acceptance of him as their pastor. He had two congregations, distinguished on the presby- tery-book as the upper and lower. On obtaining the land, a log building was erected, twenty feet square, in which his pupils studied. Whitefield says, eight ministers trained by him were sent out before the fall of 1739. Of these, four were his sons; two others were Samuel Blair and John Rowland. In September, 1734, the newly-formed congregation of Newtown asked for one-fourth of his time ; but his upper congregation would not consent. In June, 1736, he asked the presbytery if they con- sidered him the regular pastor of Neshaminy: they replied that they did. The people then carried the matter to the synod, who concurred with the court below. Again Tennent asked the presby- tery, in 1738, and they replied as before. Two years after, a * Published by Dr. Alexander, in the Log College. f Memoir of Wm. Tennent, of Freehold. % Watson. 366 WILLIAM TENNENT. petition, signed by sixty-six names, was brought, asking for an assistant. The presbytery called Boyd and Thomson to sit with them in considering the matter : they came, and Tennent freely and cheerfully agreed to the people's proposal. It was arranged that each party should pay their own minister, andthe two should preach "day about." McHenry was chosen as assistant. His people complained, September 18, 1739, that he had yielded his pulpit to Rowland, against the synod's express order in the previous May. When the presbytery entered on the consideration of the case, he disclaimed their jurisdiction, and withdrew; and they did no more than beseech his friends not to suffer the hke violation of the synod's authority any more. On. the 10th of November, he came to Philadelphia to see White- field, who rejoiced to welcome "an old, gray -headed disciple and soldier of Jesus Christ, — a great friend of Mr. Erskine, but secretly despised by most of the synod." Two days after, Whitefield went to Neshaminy, and, on his arrival, found Gilbert Tennent preach- ing in the churchyard to three thousand persons. He stopped at once, and gave out a psalm; after which "Whitefield preached, and the people were unaffected; but, in the midst of my dis- course, the power of the Lord Jesus came upon me. The Lord brought great things to pass." The revival was extensive and powerful there. Tennent entertained Whitefield as one of the ancient patriarchs would have done. Whitefield saw in him another Zacharias ; and his wife appeared like Elizabeth. There were then " several gracious youth" in the Log College, nearly ready for the ministry. Whitefield wrote to a friend in Philadelphia, July 15, 1740, " I rejoice you have been at Neshaminy. I can say of Mr. Tennent and his brethren as David did of Goliath's sword : — ' none like them.' " Tennent was regularly at synod during the exciting scenes of the three years preceding the rupture, and concurred with his sons in all their measures. Regarding himself as cast out by the Protest, in 1741, he withdrew from the synod and joined New ;Brunswick Presbytery. He soon asked for an assistant ; and sup- plies were sent till 1743, when Beatty was called and ordained. Roan took charge of the school for a season. Tennent finished his earthly course May 6, 1746, aged seventy- three, having seen of his pupils, Samuel Blair, Rowland, McCrea, Robinson, John Blair, Samuel Finley, Roan, Beatty, Lawrence, and Dean, besides his four sons, make honourable proof of their ministry, as men " allowed of God." He lived and died poor. On his coming to this country, he bor- rowed from the synod's fund, McNish being his security. He asked, in 1724, for " some supply from the fund," in vain. On one occasion, the unpaid interest was remitted. His widow petitioned SAMUEL YOUNG — KOBBRT CROSS. *367 for the same favour : eight pounds were thrown off, on condition that principal and interest were paid at once. ' His widow, Catharine, closed her days with her son Gilbert, and died in Philadelphia, May 7, 1753, aged seventy. Of his daughter, Eleanor, we have no notice except of her birth, Decern'- ber 27, 1708. To William Tennent, above all others, is owing the pros- perity and enlargement of the Presbyterian church. Other men were conservative, and to their timely erection of barriers we owe our deliverance from the "New Light" of Antrim; others were valiant for the truth, and exerted by the press a wide influ- ence on the age ; many were steadily and largely useful in par- ticular departments and in limited spheres : but Tennent had the rare gift of attracting to him youth of worth and genius, im- buing them with his healthful spirit, and sending them forth sound in the faith, blameless in life, burning with zeal, and un- surpassed as instructive, impressive, and successful preachers. SAMUEL YOUNG "Was received from Armagh Presbytery by the synod, Septem- ber 23, 1718, and was appointed by Newcastle Presbytery to supply Drawyers. In May, 1720, a number, (lately come from Ireland,) having settled about the branches of Elk River, sent -Thomas Read and Thomas Caldwell to present their case to the presbytery. Young visited them, and countenanced their design of having the gospel settled among them. They were organized as a congregation in June, and they made out a call for Young in September: he declined, and died before June 6, 1721, leaving a widow. BOBEET CEOSS "Was born near Ballykelly,* in Ireland, 1689 ; and his cre- dentials as a probationer Were approved by the synod in 1717. After spending some time in Newcastle, he was called to that * Near Letterkenny, according to Mr. Hazard. 868 KOBERT CROSS. place on September 17, 1718; he was ordained and installed, March 17, 1719. Young preached, and Andrews was present as a correspondent. The congregation of Jamaica, Long Island, called him, September 18, 1723, to succeed McNish. He ac- cepted the call ; and, on the failure of the Church missionary in his suit for the ejectment of the tenants from the parsonage lands, he was, by a vote of the town, (January 2, 1725,) put into pos- session of them. GOVERNOR BURNETT* TO THE BISHOP OP LONDON. " New York, July 14, 1727. "My Lord: — " I have been informed by Mr. Poyer that there is an action commenced by the Presbyterians of Jamaica for the English church, which they pretend was built by them, and taken from them by violence by my Lord Cornbury. " I know nothing certain about their claim ; but if they take the course of law I cannot help it ; but, they having committed a riot in taking possession of the church, the attorney-general here has lodged an information against them, and I refused them a nolle prosequi upon their application, — that their rashness may be attended with charge and trouble at least, if not punishment, which may perhaps discourage them in their suit, or make them willing to compromise it. My lord, &c., " W. Burnett." Whether they were indicted, or prosecuted, or convicted, does not appear; but they proceeded in their suit for the church. The defendant's counsel demurred to some of the plaintiff's evi- dences; but Chief- Justice Morris bade them waive it, for if the jury found for the plaintiff he would grant a new trial. They were very unwilling to do so ; but, knowing the man, and fearing the worst from him, they consented. The verdict being for the plaintiff, the defendant's counsel moved at the next term before judgment for a new trial. It was refused ; and, on reminding Morris of his promise, he denied having made it, but said, oa being urged, "A bad promise ought always to be broken." So, in 1727, the Presbyterians recovered their church by due course of law. Morris was no friend to the Presbyterians, having been a pupil of George Keith. He was openly charged with having taken a bribe, and Governor Cosby suspended him from his office. He went to England for redress, and published the grounds of his * Quoted by Macdonald. ROBERT CROSS. 369 decision in the Jamaica case. Cosby wrote in his own vindication to the Council, describing Morris as grossly intemperate, insuf- ferably haughty, shamefully neglectful of the business of his office, and destitute of regard for truth. The year after Cross settled in Jamaica, there were, according to Poyer, ma,ny infidels and eighty Church families in the town and the precincts of Newtown and Flushing. In 1733, the Assembly granted the Vestry of Jamaica leave to dispose of sixty pounds ; and the king was vehemently importuned to disallow the act, because the money would be given to the Dissenters. Cross was called to Philadelphia, in 1734, as assistant to An- drews ; but the synod, on his leaving the matter to them, decided, after calling upon God, not to place the call in his hands. Pem- berton* wrote to Welstead, of Boston, August 26, 1734, "You live in a place of action, but we ... . have nothing before us but the removal of Mr. Cross. The Jamaica people refuse to give him up ; the Philadelphia people insist on having him. Pie de- clares himself willing to comply with the determination of synod, but has no wish to part with his present people." When the commission was called together, in April, 1735, in the case of Hemphill, Pemberton and Cross preached, and both printed their sermons, to vindicate themselves from the charges brought against them. Hemphill was amazed at so much insin- cerity in Cross, who had seemed to be much his friend. In the fall of 1735, his friends in Philadelphia petitioned to be made a distinct congregation. Leave was granted in the next summer, and they presented a call for him. He told the synod, that he thought they could not determine the matter till his people had been duly apprized, and that he thought it his duty to stay with them. The matter was delayed a year, and both congrega- tions presented their reasons. They were considered ; and, after calling on God for light and direction in the matter, they with one accord united in recommending his removal to Philadelphia. He is saidf to have been successful in winning souls. His work in Jamaica had been to him delightful, and for his work's sake he was very highly esteemed. Elizabeth Ashbridge,! the Quakeress, said, "His people almost adored him, and impoverished themselves to equal the sum offered him in the city ; but, failing in this, they lost him." He joined Philadelphia Presbytery, May 29, 1737. The two congregations uniting, he was installed, November 10; and An- drews preached from 2 Cor. iv. 7. * MSS. of Massachusetts Historical Society. + Macdonald. % Friends' Library. 24 370 ROBERT CROSS. The ministry of Whitefield in Philadelphia was extensive and powerful in its influence. Many were alienated from Andrews and Cross ; they did not preach, it was said, so as to alarm the conscience. Whitefield, when about to sail, wrote from Reedy Island, Delaware, May 19, 1740, " Mr. C. has preached most of his people away from him. He lashed me most bravely the Sunday before I came away. Mr. A. also preached against me." But, subsequently,- when the snow prevented the roofless "Great House" from being used, Cross ofi"ered his meeting-house to Whitefield, and he preached there, with a sweet and wonderful power. Then he entered in his journal his sense of the folly of exposing his opinion of ministers as unconverted : he saw it to be a lording it over brethren. On the death of Andrews, Cross had Francis Alison for his assistant; and, in 1753, application was made to Edinburgh and London for a colleague. The answer from Edinburgh is un- known ; but Dr. Chandler recommended Mr. Richard Godwin, of Little St. Helen's, in London, — " serious and reserved in con- versation, but very fluent in the pulpit." He (Cross) resigned the pastoral charge, June 22, 1758. He maintained a corre- spondence with the ministers of South Carolina Presbytery. He died on the 9th of August, 1766. His wife, who was born in New York, in 1688, died in the same year with him. They left no children. He was esteemed for prudence, gravity, and skill in the Holy Scriptures ; it is added, — and for his genteel deportment. He made his will on the 6th of June. "I do commit my soul to my heavenly Eather, of whose mere mercy and free grace I hope to obtain the full and free pardon of all my sins, through the merits and mediation of his well-beloved Son, my only Saviour and Re- deemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I believe, and on whose atonement and all-powerful intercession I solely depend for my acceptance with God and eternal salvation." He left to his bro- ther, Hugh Cross, £100 in Irish money; "£1000 proclamation to Margaret, only daughter of my brother William, who lives with me." He gave twenty-five pounds to the Widows' Fund; and the proceeds of his library, excepting several books given to Mrs. Humphreys, to the poor of the congregation, specifying that twenty pounds be given to the Widow Glen. His gold-headed cane he left to his executor, Mr. William Humphreys. At this period, Davies and Tennent were in Great Britain, in be- half of the college ; and they suspected Cross of having sent to Chandler a copy of the Nottingham Sermon. They attributed its appearance there to the inveterate malignity of the Philadelphia Synod, though it is not unlikely it was officiously dispersed from hand to hand by the Rev. William Smith, a Churchman, who was JOHN CLEMENT — WILLIAM STEWARD. 371 then in London, zealously moving for the Philadelphia Academy. Cross, however, wrote to Scotland to excite prejudice against the college and its agents: his letter was put into "sundry hands," and the Nottingham Sermon was industriously spread at Edin- burgh, among the members of the General Assembly. Tennent and Davies prepared an answer to the letter, which they stigmatized as a malignant, ungenerous, clandestine effort. JOHN CLEMENT Presented his credentials as a probationer from Britain; and they were approved by the synod, September 18, 1718. A call was presented for him from Pocomoke, in Virginia, called some- times Coventry, from the parish in which it partly lay, and ordinarily Rehoboth, from the place where the meeting-house stood. His ordination was appointed to be according to the usual methods, and to be performed by Davis, Hampton, and Thomson, and such mem- bers of Newcastle Presbytery as they might choose to call to their assistance. He was ordained in June, 1719 ; but scarcely a year elapsed before some of his elders sent a written complaint of him to the synod. It was given to him, and he prepared a written an- swer ; but they suspended him. The suspension was taken off on his full confession, and Philadelphia Presbytery employed him to preach at Gloster and Pilesgrove^ but, on inquiry into his manner of life, he was suspended again, and further mention of him ceases. WILLIAM STEWARD Was received as a probationer on the same day with Clement, and, being called to Monokin and Wicomico, was ordained on the same day with him. For several years he waited, in the hope of forming a presbytery in the peninsula ; but, in 1723, by order of synod, be joined Newcastle Presbytery. A new meeting-house was built at Monokin, on land conveyed by deed, in 1720. The congregation had then eight elders. Steward died in 1734. 372 JOSEPH WEBB — JOHN OEME. JOSEPH WEBB, The son, probably, of tbe minister of Green's Farms, Connecti- cut, graduated at Yale in 1715, and became a member of synod in 1720, being the pastor of Newark. He was attended by his elder, Caleb Ward. In 1724, he proposed to the synod a case of con- science, but in such general and doubtful terms, that it was re- mitted to the presbytery. In 1726, a committee of synod, at his request, went to Newark to heal the difference there. The synod approved in 1727 of its doings. After all the business was done that year, Jones, David Evans, Webb, and Hubbel put in a protest, declaring their intention to join no more with them. Webb re- tracted in two months after. As early as 1732, diiEculties in his congregation led the Church missionaries to commence their service in the town. Dickinson preached on the "Vanity of Human Institutions in matters of Ee- ligion." Colonel Josiah Ogden had been suspended from church privileges, because, for fear of losing his hay, he had gathered it in on the Lord's day. He wrote to the synod in 1734, and Cross and Pemberton replied ; but the letter did not satisfy him. Dickinson and Pemberton wrote the next year, Webb having opened the case more fully to the synod. Ogden connected himself with the Epis- copalians, and a Church missionary was stationed in Newark. Webb is said to have been dismissed from his pastoral charge in 1736 ; his name is mentioned as a member of synod till 1740. He was most punctual in bringing collections for the fund. He and his son, a student in Yale College, were drowned October 21, 1741, while crossing the ferry at Saybrook, Connecticut. , JOHN ORME, A MINISTER from Devonshire, England, was received by the synod, September 26, 1720. The congregation of Marlborough on Patuxent having, through their correspondents in London, engaged him, he became their pastor, and continued with them till his death, in 1758. He remained with the Old Side. Whitefield preached twice at Upper Marlborough, and wrote, December 8, 1739, to Noble, of New York, " This afternoon God has brought us hither. Some are solicitous for my staying here to-morrow. I have complied with their request. These parts are in a dead sleep." MOSES DICKINSON. 373 MOSES DICKINSON, A YOUNGER brother of Jonathan, was born at Springfield, De- cember 12, 1695, his father having lived successively at Hatfield, Hadley, and Springfield. He graduated at Yale in 1717, and succeeded Orr, in Hopewell and Maidenhead, before September, 1719, his sickness at that time having detained his brother from synod. His first child, Mary, was born August 18, 1721. The date of his ordination and installation is not known. He sat in synod for the first time in 1722. Morgan wrote to Mather, in May, 1721, of the astonishing marks of a work of grace around him, and which were more plentiful among those who had been longer under the means of grace ; and, in September, he speaks of "magnum incrementum ecclesise" in Dickinson's congregations. He was released from Hopewell and Maidenhead before August, 1727. On the* dismission of Buckingham from Norwalk, in Con- necticut, many in the congregation, having heard Gilbert Tennent, were desirous of calling him ; but the Fairfield Association thought he ought not to be taken from so destitute a region as the Jerseys. They advised them to call Dickinson, for whom they expressed great respect and value. He was invited to preach for them, June 26, 1727, and was called on the 19th of August. Seventy-five voted for him, and thirty-nine against him : they objected to the call, not out of dislike to him, but because they felt bound in con- science to regard their previous minister as their pastor. The ad- joining parish of Wilton concurred in the call the next day. The town sent the Hon. Joseph Piatt to New Jersey to remove Dickin- son's family at their expense. A large manuscript is in the possession of the Rev. George Hale, of Pennington, entitled " Some Meditations on the Occasion of the Removal of Mr. Dickinson, in 1727 ; delivered in Hopewell meeting- house, by Enoch Armitage." Armitage was an elder, and came from Yorkshire in 1719. Dickinson preached the sermon at the ordination of Elisha Kent, in Newtown, Connecticut, his predecessor, Mr. Beach, having gone to England and returned with holy orders and a commission as a missionary. At Norwalk, an Episcopal separation took place ; and, among others, Mr. Jarvis, a deacon, withdrew. It is doubtful whether Bishop Jarvis was baptized before or after his father took this step, and, consequently, whether he ever tasted any other than uncovenanted mercies. Dickinson published several sermons. On the death of his bro- * Rev. Dr. Hall's History of Norwalk. 374 THOMAS EVANS. tlier, he completed his second " Vindication of the Sovereignty of Grace." Foxcroft, in his preface, highly commends the continuation. Dickinson also prepared a treatise on the questions, Whether blind- ness of mind is the primary cause of unbelief? and Whether re- generation is wrought by the Holy Ghost operating with the gospel, •whereby the sinner is enlightened and enabled to know the truth? He took the affirmative side, in opposition to the new theology then coming into vogue. It was read before the Fairfield County As- sociation and the trustees of Yale, and was approved by them. Early in 1764, he sought an assistant in William Tennent, Jr., the son of the patriarch of Freehold; but, after his removal, during the closing years of life, he pursued his work unaided. He died May 1, 1778, aged eighty-three. Dr. Trumbull, in pre- paring his " History of Connecticut," had access to his manu- scripts ; but they have been lost or destroyed. THOMAS EVANS Was received by Newcastle Presbytery aa a student from the Presbytery of Caermarthen, in Wales; and they recommended him, (September 14, 1719,) after appointed trials of his ministerial gifts and high satisfaction in his blameless life, as a very hopeful candidate. They licensed him, May 28, 1720. The congregation of Welsh Tract (where his relatives were among the wealthiest and most highly-esteemed people) petitioned for him; but the pres- bytery persevered in efforts to reconcile them to their late pastor, David Evans. The call was placed in his hands, March 12, 1723; and he was ordained at Pencader, May 8. Proclamation was made thrice at the door of the meeting-house, by David Evans, Esq., that, if any had allegations to make against his life or doctrine, they should do so before the ordination. He was the brother* of Nathaniel Evans, a large proprietor in Delaware. He was an excellent scholar and a valuable instructor. Among his pupils were Abel Morgan,f the Baptist minister of Middletown, New Jersey, with whom President Davies acquired the rudiments of classic lore, and who maintained a discussion on baptism with President Finley. Evans was a bachelor, a book- * So I am informed by Joshua Edwards, whose father (Rev. Morgan Edwards) took for his second wife the widow of Nathaniel Evans, f M. Edwards's History of the New Jersey Baptists. ALEXANDER HUTCHESON. 375 worm, possessed a fine library, and was continually adding to his store. He was esteemed a truly pious man. He was absent from the synod in 1741; but the Old Side ap- pointed him, with two others, to defend the "Protestation" in print, if need be. He died in 1743. ALEXANDER HUTCHESON. The Rev. Alexander Hutcheson, of Saintfield, county Down, (Ireland,) was one of the ministers of the Synod of Ulster to whom Sir Arthur Forbes first spoke of the project of the Regium Donum. He died in 1711. Francis Hutcheson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, took a deep in- terest in our infant church, and proposed to Francis Alison that the synod should establish a seminary of learning. When Alexander Hutcheson was received by Newcastle Presby- tery as a probationer from Glasgow Presbytery, (September 10, 1722,) they transmitted a formal vote of thanks to that body for sending him to these parts. After supplying Drawyers, he was called (March 12, 1723) to Bohemia Manor and Broad Creek, in Cecil county, Maryland. After proclamation made, no objections being ofiered, he was ordained, June 6. His people were not numerous or wealthy, and he asked to be dismissed ; but the pres- bytery declined, and gave him aid out of the fund, and left him at liberty for one-third of his time to supply vacancies which desired him. He, with Gillespie, dissented from the act requiring a synodical examination of candidates for the ministry ; and they withdrew with the Brunswick brethren. Hutcheson wrote to the Synod of Philadelphia, expressing his opinion of the proceedings of both parties, and giving his advice. Augustin Herman, a Bohemian, a large land-purchaser, was "the first founder and seater of Bohemia Manor." The "Manor" covered eighteen thousand acres. In Whitefield's day, it was one of the most interesting portions of our country. The Bayard family were his choicest friends. He wrote from there, April 26, 1747, "After two days' abode here, I purpose taking a three weeks' circuit in hunting for Maryland sinners." 1754: "Again I have got into Maryland, and into a family out of which five, I trust, have been born of God. To-day I am forty." From St. George's, November 24, 1740 :— " We have had precious times at 376 ALEXANDER HUTCHESON. Botemia. There were two thousand people present. I have not seen a more solid melting since my arrival." There is no mention, in print, of Hutcheson's having had a part in this good work ; every thing was swallowed up in Whitefield. His influence was like the long summer-rain on the field where others have cleared away the forest, gathered out the stones, ploughed thoroughly, and cast in abundantly and in season the good seed, which is the word of God. The rapid bursting forth of vegetation followed the rain : other men had laboured, and he entered on their labours. In 1750, soon after the settlement of Dr. Rodgers at St. George's, Robert Alexander made a deed of a lot to Peter Bayard, James Bayard, Sluyter Bouchell, Benjamin Sluyter, Wil- liam Moore, John Moody, James Chew, Thomas Rothwell, and John Vandyke, trustees of the Forest Congregation, incorporated as the " Congregation of Bohemia and Appoquinimy." The ser- vices of Dr. Rodgers attracted to the Forest Church so many from Bohemia and Drawyers that they were in danger of becoming ex- tinct. Hugh McWhorter, who had been an elder of Hutcheson's, (the father of Dr. McWhorter, of Newark,) became an elder at the Forest. Hutcheson died in October, 1766. Emigration to Virginia and North Carolina reduced the congre- gations rapidly. In April, 1770, Bohemia Manor and Back Creek* petitioned Newcastle Presbytery to be considered as a separate congregation; but no subsequent mention of them by name is made. The Bohemia Church stood near Taylor's Bridge, and remained until 1809; only the tombstones are left now. Mr. Foot, of Port Penn, after much search, could not learn so much as the name of Hutcheson, or hear any mention of Whitefield's success in Bohemia. An elder at Bohemia, on Hutcheson's settlement, was Dr. Peter Bouchelle; another was John Brevard, f whose son Ephraim is so honourably connected with the movement in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, for the assertion of our independence; another was Manasseh Logue. * Mr. Foot, of Port Perm, says the Forest Church worshipped at Back Creek aud St. George's till 1750. f Brevard and Bouchelle were of Huguenot descent, as also was the Basset family and the Bayards. Mr. Brevard, on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled to Ulster, and then settled on Elk Eiver, Maryland. He had five sons. Of these, John married a sister of the Rev. Dr. Maowhorter, of Newark, and removed to North Carolina, in the neighbourhood of Centre Church, in Iredell county. At the close of his days, his house, with its contents, were burned by the British, as a punishment for having eight sons in the rebel camp. General Davidson, who was killed at Cowan's Ford, on the Catawba, was his son-in-law. — Wheeled s Sketches of North Carolina. ROBERT LAING — JOHN WALTON. 377 ROBERT LAING, A MINISTER from Great Britain, arrived in Maryland in 1722, and supplied Snow Hill. In March, he removed to Brandywine and White Clay. In August, he was suspended for bathing on the Lord's day, and, not receiving the sentence in a becoming manner, he was deposed. Thomas Evans and Robert Cross ob- jected to so heavy a punishment; and the synod, on the ground that he had sought relief under sickness by a water-cure, took ofi" the sentence and rebuked him. In 1726, he, with the synod's advice, demitted the ministry, because of his weakness and defi- ciency; aid was given him out of the fund; and assurance was given that any minister prudently ministering to his necessities should be reimbursed. He passed out of notice. JOHN WALTON Graduated at Yale in 1720. Morgan wrote to Mather* from East Chester, May 28, 1721, that there had formerly been no Pres- byterian congregations within twenty miles of Freehold on the north and sixty on the south. " Our ministrations were as little desired as enjoyed ; but now, new congregations (Allentown, or Crosswicks, and Cranberry) are formed, where formerly the people thought us as bad almost as Papists. I engaged Hook, the two Dickinsons, and Webb, to preach to them: the appearances were encouraging. I also prevailed with one from Yale, of my own town born, (New London,) and he had double the good effect of all that were there before ; but some things will make his labour useless." Morgan wrote to Mather, October 31, 1722, "Walton's preaching was admired. People heard him with tears. He had like to have brought over all the people to our way; and his imprudencies and wickedness are much to be admired," (won- dered at.) Andrews wrote to Colman, April 30, 1722, " One from Con- necticut, that was like to have done much good in the Jerseys, has, by his nonsensical importunities and madness, lost his honour, * Mather MSS. American Antiquarian Society. 378 JOHN WALTON. and is gone." He had been preaching at Crosswicks; and the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in his absence, took the testimony, suspended him, and published the sentence from the pulpit in ^yhich he had preached. Subsequently the charges against him were regularly adjudicated and proved. His conduct to the pres- bytery, °and his mode of speaking of them, were abusive and unbecoming. The synod had a conference with him privately, and allowed him several days to consider and prepare a written ac- knowledgment of his misdemeanours. His paper was accepted ■pro tanto, and he was suspended for three Sabbaths.* His con- fession was to be read on the third Sabbath after the sentence, from the pulpit in Newark, in part, so far as related to his offences there. He was to own the confession publicly, and then to be ab- solved. On the day appointed, no minister being present, he read his confession and absolved himself. The synod refused to acknowledge such a proceeding, and remitted the case to Long Island Presbytery, with Dickinson, Morgan, and Pierson as corre- spondents. Regardless of the synod, he preached at East Chester. The committee, in October, 1723, were informed (by letter and otherwise) of several scandalous allegations against him, and con- tinued his suspension. When Morgan rose to give him an exhor- tation, he exclaimed against their conclusion, renounced all sub- jection to them, told them he wanted no exhortation from them, and rushed away in an angry manner. Immediately he advertised that he would teach in New York, on Broad Street, near the Exchange, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and that during the winter he would keep an evening school. In 1725, he requested the synod to leave his case to the Pres- bytery of Long Island ; but they consigned it to the same com- mittee as before. He went to West Chester county, and preached at Rye and White Plains. It seems probable that, during the ministry of the Rev. Christopher Bridge, Church missionary at Rye, there was a general acquiescence of the town. On his death, in 1719, the people desired Poyer, of Jamaica, f to come to them : he requested the Venerable Society to send him, because the congregation said, if they could not have him, they knew whom they would have, — Mr. Buckingham, of Norwalk. " The humble Memorial of the Presbyterians of Rye and White Plains" toj the Governor of Connecticut and the Legislature, dated May 11, 1727, is headed by John Walton, and is signed by * Morgan says, "We, who went out, (Philadelphia Presbytery,) wondered that the synod restored him. Pious Mr. Gillespie entered his dissent." f MSS. in hands of Henry Onderdonk, Esq., of Jamaica. J MSS. in Secretary's Office, Hartford. WILLIAM McMillan. 379 fifty others. It embraces names long familiar in West Chester, as Theall, Brundige, Lane, Purdy, Knapp, Hyatt, Bloomer, Turner, Horton, Travis, Hachiliah Brown, Sharkoe, Kniffin, Haight, Merrit, and Lyon. They were obliged to pay to the support of the Church of England, — "our way is not established;" and they were opposed by the Church party, who lessened their number and too much strove to discourage and hinder ; but they persevered because of their love of God's honour, and out of regard of the peace of their immortal souls. They formerly had hopes of settling a meeting-house, and had got timber ; but through long, delay it rotted. They had begun a meeting-house at White Plains, and had covered it, but were in debt for part, and unable to finish it. Besides, they wished to build a meeting-house at Ryetown, six miles from White Plains. They ask that a brief may pass through the colony for their relief, and that the collections be paid to Mr. Davenport, of Stamford. " Oh, consider the indefatigable industry of the Church of Eng- land to help poor places Have you a little sister without any breasts ? What shall ye do for your sister in the day that she is spoken for ? If she be a door, will ye not enclose her with boards of cedar ? .... Is not one soul worth ten thousand worlds ? Can you be easy while we perish? Surely, no." They add, "We have made up a small yearly competent salary for a minister." The Legislature refused the request. The trustees of Yale encouraged them to renew their appHcation; and they held "an orderly meeting," October 4, 1727; and, "as we have no law authorizing us to appoint a moderator," the proceedings were certi- fied by "our justice, Caleb Hyatt." They add, that they are required to rebuild the Church of England. The trustees of Yale sent the Rev. Mr. Davenport, of Stamford, to present the petition to the house, and it was granted. The church was built at Rye, in May, 1729 ; and Walton disappears from view. Did he become a Baptist minister, and settle at Morristown, New Jersey, and die there, 1768 ?* WILLIAM McMillan. It was a sad thing for our cause in Virginia that early death should overtake our labourers there. There were many dis- couragements to hinder candidates from settling among the few people favouring our way in Rappahannock and York, or the small * BUla of Mortality of Morristown, New Jersey. 380 WILLIAM McMillan. congregation on Elizabeth River. The former had obtained the promise of Anderson's service; but, when he came from Scotland, he felt no inclination to abide with them. A representation was made by some of the members of synod in 1722, "of the earnest desire of some Protestant Dissenting families in Virginia, together with a comfortable prospect of the increase of our interest there." Conn, of Bladensburg, Orme, of Marlborough, and Stewart, of Monokin, each spent four weeks there. The people of Virginia wrote to the synod in 1724; Jonathan Dickinson was recommended to spend some Sabbaths with them, and the three brethren in Maryland were appointed each to preach for them four Sabbath days. Jones and Andrews wrote to the people, and Dickinson and Cross prepared an address to the Governor of Virginia. Only Orme went. The people again wrote, and the synod referred the whole affair to the Presbytery of Newcastle. That body had met two days before, on the 14th of September, 1724; and, "a repre- sentation* being made of Mr. Wm. McMillan to the presbytery, as a fit and hopeful candidate for the ministry, they, being satisfied with his testimonials, or'derhim to deliver a sermon on Gen. xxxiii. 2, at our next, and till then defer his extemporary trials. " September 17. — Mr. McMillan delivered a popular sermon on Gen. xxxiii. 2, and underwent some tryals in extemporary questions, as appointed, in both which he was approven : the further con- sideration of his affair is deferred till our next sederunt at White Clay Creek. "September 22. — The affair of Mr. McMillan being reassumed, the presbytery took tryal of him in the learned languages, and were highly satisfied ; and, considering the difficulties he lies under to attend another dyet for further tryals, together with the deso- lateness of the people at Virginia, and being fully satisfied with the tryals they have taken of him, do allow and license him to preach the gospel of Christ." He then subscribed a declaration of his adherence to the Westminster Confession, being the first who is recorded to have done so. He was ordered to supply the people of Virginia during his abode there, — Mr. Stewart to give them one Sabbath in October, and Mr. Conn one Sabbath in May. Of him we know nothing further; nor has the locality been ascertained, which is designated as "Virginia." In the March following his licensure, the people of Coventry petitioned for sup- plies, — making it probable that it was Rehoboth, on Pocomoke, in Coventry parish, with Accoinac county, which contained "the people of Virginia." Occasional supplies were sent to them till 1727. * Kindly transcribed for me, from the Records, by the Rey. R. P. Dubois, of London. THOMAS CREAGHBAD. 381 'THOMAS CEEAGHEAD Is said by some to have been a native of Scotland. He was probably the son of Robert Creaghead, the minister of Donough- more. He was at Londonderry in the time of the siege : he left the city in the midst of that fearful and protracted leaguer, and removed to Glasgow. His little work for communicants is practical, valuable, and still frequently reprinted. Thomas Creaghead is said to have studied medicine as well as divinity ; and, after being settled in Ireland for ten or twelve years, he came, in 1715, to New England. He was employed in the minis- try at Freetown, near Fall River, Massachusetts. Cotton Mather* wrote to Mr. Hathaway, 22nd, Fifth month, 1718, regretting that unkind treatment of some of the people had prevented the settle- ment of that gentleman's gracious and worthy relative in Freetown. " You will excuse me that I earnestly entreat you to give a demon- stration of the wisdom that is from above, and encourage Mr. Creaghead in the work in which he is now engaged." 21st, Fifth month, 1719: "You can't be insensible that the minister whom our glorious Lord hath graciously sent among you, is a man of an excellent spirit, and a great blessing to your plantation. Mr. Creaghead is a man of singular piety, meekness, humility, and in- dustry in the work of God. All that are acquainted with him have a precious esteem of him, and if he should be driven from among you, it would be such a damage, yea, such a ruin, as is not with- out horror to be thought of." These entreaties were vain. Creag- head left in 1723, and is said, in President Stiles's papers, to have gone to the Jerseys. Backus, the Baptist historian, said that he treated the people so abusively for their neglect to clear off the arrears, that they, in disgust, would not consent to settle another minister. They who wrong a minister of his salary are never slow to rob him of his good name. They continued twenty-five years without the stated ministration of the gospel, chiefly through unwillingness to pay a regular salary. A Congregational church was organized in 1747, and the Rev. Silas Brett was settled, his support not being -col- lected as a tax, but contributed at each man's pleasure. After thirty years of faithful labour, he was dismissed. The church never had another pastor, and became extinct after the Revolution. , Creaghead was received by Newcastle Presbytery, Jan. 28, 1724, and James Smith and John Hoge appeared as commissioners from * Mather MSS. American Antiquarian Society 382 THOMAS CUEAGHBAD. Elk, with a call for him. The next month, John Montgomery and John Campbell presented a call for him from White Clay. He accepted it, having leave to supply Brandywine every third Sab- bath ; he was installed, Sept. 22, Hutcheson officiating. In No- vember, 1728, his people, being now able to make up his full sup- port, asked for the whole of his time : the request was granted ; but he was directed to supply Brandywine every fifth Sabbath, and to catechize there as formerly. He removed to Lancaster county, and in September, 1733, a call from Pequea being presented to Donegal Presbytery by Patrick Moor, commissioner, he accepted it, and was installed on Wednes- day, the last day of October. Donegal Presbytery always speak of him as "Father Creaghead," and his name stands first on their book, and on that of Newcastle, among the subscribers to the Confession. His people having besought the presbytery to meet with them and hear their complaint against him, the case was opened in May, 1736. The charge was that he had suspended his wife from church privileges without consulting the session : he replied that, the reason for this being known only to himself, the session were not compe- tent to advise ; besides, he had not resolved on it till the Satur- day night preceding the sacrament. The presbytery judged that he was under a delusion or delirium of the head, and directed him to restore her, and not to insist on having his son John and his wife live under his roof.* His usefulness being at an end, he was dismissed, Sept. 7, 1736, and was sent to supply Monada, (now Hanover,) Paxton, and Conedoguinnet. In November, Kobert Henry presented a call for him from Hopewell. The difficulties about the boundaries of Hopewell and Pennsborough were settled by allowing the former to build at the Great Spring ; from which it has since borne the name of Big Spring. Anderson and Thom- son objected to allowing him to preach until the trouble in his family was allayed. After considerable discussion, Mrs. Creag- head, being present, was asked, and she said she had no cause for complaint against her husband. Alexander Creaghead was ap- pointed to install him ; but, failing to do so, the service was per- formed by Bertram, of Derry, on the second Friday in October, 1788. He is said to have expired in the pulpit, dropping dead after pronouncing the benediction, at the close of April, 1739. He lies without a monument, being buried, it is said, under the corner-stone of the present meeting-house at Big Spring. He is said to have been accompanied from New England by his younger brother, who settled first at Donegal and was one of the first who removed to the vicinity of Carlisle. His family is ex- tensively spread through Western Pennsylvania. * Their dwelling at the Head of Pequea. JOSEPH HOUSTON. 383 Thomas Creaghead is said to have left five children, — George, Thomas, John, Margaret, and Jane, wfe of Rev. Adam Boyd. George probably remained in Delaware when his father removed to Pequea, and was a judge, and, in 1770, an elder from Lower Brandywine. He was speaker of the Council at the adoption of the Federal Constitution. His son. Captain William Creaghead, removed to Virginia, was an elder in Davies's Church in Hanover, and died at an advanced age in Lunenburg county, — a man of great intelligence, public spirit, and piety.* Family tradition represents one of Thomas Creaghead's sons to have been a minister in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, — making it probable that Alexander Creaghead, of Middle Octorara, was his son. Creaghead was one of the pioneers of the Irish Presbyterians in New England : he was employed by our presbyteries to correspond with ministers on their arrival there. He wrote to the Rev. John McKinstry, afterwards of Ellington, Connecticut, and to the Rev. John Campbell, afterwards of Oxford, Massachusetts, to come to these parts ; he also wrote in 1736, in the synod's name, to Boston, to the newly-formed Presbyterian congregation there. JOSEPH HOUSTON Came from Ireland to New England and was received by Newcastle Presbytery as a probationer, July 29, 1724, was employed at New London, Connecticut,"!' during the absence of Mr. Hillhouse in his native land. After preaching for a few months at Elk River, An- drew Steel and Roger Lawson, commissioners from that congrega- tion, presented a call for him in September. He accepted it, Oct. 5, and Robert Finney, with two other commissioners, petitioned that he might be ordained speedily. He was ordained on the 15th. In March, 1726, the presbytery proceeded to heal the diflFerence which had arisen on "settling the seats" in the meeting-house on the branches of Elk. They ordained that the minister's seat should be on the right of the pulpit ; that William Finney should have his choice of the seats assigned to William Hoge and Andrew Steel ; and that Roger Lawson and Abraham Emmet should ex- change seats. * Dr. Alexander, who knew him well and valued him highly, mentions him in hia History of Colonization as one of the first to broach the idea of restoring our co- loured people to the land of their fathers. f MSS. in Secretary's office, Hartford. 384 ADAM BOTD. A long, wearisome, and unwise contest grew out of Houston's un- willingness to give a part of his time to the people living on the northeast of Great Elk. He and the body of his people opposed the erection of a meeting-house there, and were at last contented to admit, that they had received no damage, from establishing a separate congregation at New London. He was installed pastor of Goodwill or Wallkill congregation, in Orange county. New York, before May, 1740, and died in the fol- lowing October, aged forty-eight.* In "^1743, the synod agreed to remit his bond, dated July 25, 1740, in favour of his widow and family. His descendants still remain in Orange county. ADAM BOYD Was born at Ballymoney, Ireland, in 1692, and came to New Eng- .land as a probationer in 1722 or '23; and, being minded to return to his native country, he was furnished by Cotton Mather with a commendatory certificate,f dated June 10, 1724. Having formed an attachment to a daughter of Mr. Creaghead's, he relinquished his design, and was received under the care of Newcastle Presby- tery in July. He was sent to Octorara, with directions to supply Newcastle and Conestoga. In September, Arthur Park and Cor- nelius Rowan presented a call for him from Octorara and "Pikquse," which he accepted in October, and Cornelius Rowan and John Dever appeared as representatives to solicit his ordi- nation. He was ordained on the 13th at Octorara, Creaghead, Gillespie, Hook, Thomas Evans, and Hutcheson, with his elder, Dr. Peter Bouchelle, being present. Sadsbury is the township, and Octorara the stream, which give names to the congregation. They had supplies from 1721, and had been directed to " gratify" the ministers sent to them and not let them go home unpaid. In Oct. 1727, the families on the west side of Octorara asked for one-third of his labours, and it appeared they could raise fifty-one pounds. It being shown that the site selected for their meeting-house was nine miles distant by one road and eleven miles by another, from the Octorara house, Boyd was directed to spend every sixth Sabbath at Middle Octorara ; Nottingham being called the Mouth of Octorara, or Lower Octorara. The Forks of Brandy- wine composed part of his field till 1734. * Eager's History of Orange County, t Mather MSS. Am. Antiq. Soo. ADAM BOYD. 385 Ten days after his ordination, Oct. 23, 1725, Boyd married Jane, the daughter of Creaghead, of White Clay. Ale.xander Creaghead, her relative, if not her brother, became the minister of the adjoining congregation of Middle Octorara. In the progress of the Great Revival, a large portion of Boyd's congregation left him. and joined the Brunswick brethren. He therefore asked leave, Aug. 11, 1741, to accept the invitation given him by the fraction of Brandywine which adhered to the Old Bide, and -which offered him twenty pounds for half of his time. At this period commences Boyd's account-book, full of minute memoranda, extending down to his last days. He had used the book for his exercises while in the grammar-school; it contains several sermons, in cramped, abbreviated letters. The first entry is : — "Fforks records, &c., commencing 11th August, 1741." It embraces the payments of each subscriber, with the offsets, the time of their death or removal, and the attending circumstances. He says his relation to Forks was dissolved " most irregularly in in 1758," and that on the 1st of September, Octorara engaged to pay for two-thirds of his time. He had been joined by the synod to Newcastle Presbytery, on account of the fewness of the members ; and on the union, he seems to have acted harmoniously and com- fortably with his brethren, though the majority was of the New Side. At the close of hia life, he asked supplies for his pulpit ; and the New-Side congregation, being vacant by the death of Sterling, united with his people in calling Foster. Robert Smith, of Pequea, pre- sided on this occasion. May 2, 1768 ; and it was agreed to pay Boyd twenty-five pounds yearly during his life. He was able to be present at Foster's ordination, and died Nov. 28, 1768. His widow survived till Nov. 6, 1779. He left five daughters and five sons. The eldest, John, is said to have been licensed, and to have died young ; Thomas settled on a plantation, given him by his father ; Andrew remained upon the homestead ; Adam resided in Wilming- ton, N.C., and commenced the Cape Fear Mercury,* in Oct. 1767; he was a true friend of liberty, " much respected, and was a leading member of the Committee of Safety." He engaged to resume the publication of his paper, Jan. 30, 1775, and, the next year, ex- changed the press for the pulpit. ■ He was chaplainf of the North Carolina Brigade. Samuel, the youngest, entered Mr. McDowell's school at Elk in * Governor Swain's Sketch of the Occupation of North Carolina by the British, in the North Carolina Union Magazine. Wheeler, in his Sketches of North Carolina, calls him an Englishman. Colonel Andrew Boyd, of Octorara, writing to his mo- ther-in-law of the war in the Southern colonies, mentions the report that the Bri- tish have seized Wilmington, "where my brother Adam is." t Stiles MSS., New Haven. 25 386 NOYES PARRIS — NATHANIEL HUBBELL. the summer of 1760, and became a student in the College of Phila- delphia in 1764. He entered on the practice of medicine, and re- moved to Virginia. He was a man of property, and of great exactness, recording in •what articles his salary was paid ; thus, John Long paid by publi- cations (as a magistrate) of marriages and estrays, and by a riddle. His hearers seem to have been uniformly commendable in regard to his support : several remembered him, in their dying testaments, by small bequests. Many of them removed over the river, and to Virginia and North Carolina. His marriage-portions to his daughters were large, according to the notions of that day, and show the thoughtfulness as well as the liberality of the parents. A few of his sermons are in my hands. On his tombstone is engraved : — " Forty-four years pastor of this church." NOYES PARRIS Was the son of the Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem village, Massa- chusetts, so mournfully conspicuous in giving life and vehemence to the delusion and the judicial murders for witchcraft. He was born in 1692, and graduated at Harvard in 1721. He preached at Cohanzy from 1724 to 1729, when, having fallen under serious imputations, he in a disorderly manner withdrew to New England. Dickinson was directed to write to Boston and state the circum- stances. NATHANAEL HUBBELL Graduated at Yale in 1723, and became the pastor of West- field and Hanover, New Jersey, in 1727, — the latter including the present congregations of Morristown, Chatham, and Parsippany. The Westfield* congregation gave him, as "a settlement" on his accepting their call, one hundred acres of their parsonage-lands in fee-simple. "A settlement" in land or money was the uniform * Rev. Jas. M. Huntting's Hiatorical Discourse at Westfield. It would appear that Hanover did the same. His house having been burned, Mr. Budd made a new deed. — Rev. Jos. F. Tuttle, Rockaway, New Jersey. GILBERT TENNBNT. 387 New England custom, and was frequent in Pennsylvania, it being understood that the minister was to spend his days in their service. At Westfield, all who chose bound themselves by a covenant to be assessed according to their property, to make up whatever was de- ficient in the pastor's salary. The first time Hubbell met with the synod, he put in a protest with Webb and others, and seems for years to have relinquished all connection with it. In 1732, his name appears again on the Re- cords, but generally as an absentee. In 1730, he gave up the chai-ge of Hanover. He was present as a correspondent at the meeting of the com- mission in Hemphill's case ; and, in one of the pamphlets in defence of that unworthy man, it is said that Hubbell avowed that " any method of promoting a good cause was innocent and lawful." He prosecuted a claim for arrears, which led to his dismission in 1745, just before his death. GILBERT TENNENT, The oldest son of Tennent, of Neshaminy, was born in the county Armagh,* Feb. 5, 1703, before his father entered into orders. He was converted, through the exertions of his father, at the age of fourteen, while crossing the Atlantic. He was educated by him, and was licensed by Philadelphia Presbytery in May, 1725. He received in the fall the degree of A.M. from Yale. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred by that institution for the first time in 1774, and he was the third person on whom it was be- stowed. He was called, Dec. 29, to Newcastle, and, after remain- ing some time, abruptly left. The congregation and the Presbytery of Newcastle complained of his departure ; and a letter was pro- duced, declaring his acceptance of the call. The synod concluded that his conduct was too hasty and unadvised ; and the moderator reproved him, and exhorted him to use more deliberation and cau- tion in future. The rebuke was sharp, and he took it meekly.f He was ordained at New Brunswick, by Philadelphia Presbytery, in the fall of 1726. He would have been called soon after to Nor- walk, had not the Fairfield Association interposed their judgment that he ought not to be taken from so destitute a region as the Jerseys. When he went to New Brunswick, he found there several excel- lent persons who had been converted under the ministry of the * Family Record in Dr. Alexander's Log College. I MS. Records of Newcastle Presbytery. 388 GILBERT TENNENT. Eev. Theodoras Jacobus Frelinghuysen.* That good man sent him a letter on the necessity of rightly dividing the word, which ex- cited in him a greater earnestness of labour. He was distressed at his want of success : though greatly admired and very popular as a preacher, there was no instance of a saving change in any of hia hearers during the first year and a half after his settlement. A severe fit of sickness gave him afi"ecting views of eternity, and he was exceedingly grieved that he had done so little for God. On recovering, he examined many professing Christians, and found their hope to rest on sand. With these he dealt faithfully. Some were apparently converted ; but others turned to be his enemies. He preached much on original sin, repentance, -and the nature and the necessity of conversion : a considerable number around were hopefully converted, and at sacramental seasons there were fre- quently signal displays of the divine presence and power. " New Brunswick did then look like a field the Lord has blessed. Alas ! now (1744) the scene is altered." At Staten Island, — one of the places where he statedly laboured, — there was, in 1728 or '29, a more general concern ; and pretty many were converted. Once, while preaching from Amos vi. 1, the people, careless before, were so affected, that they fell on their knees to cry for mercy,and the general inquiry was, " What shall I do to be saved 'f " In 1738, he laid before the synod " sundry large letters" which had passed between him and Cowell, of Trenton, on the subject of the true motive that should influence our obedience to God : whether it should be wholly a desire for God's glory, or whether, with this desire, there should be a desire for our own happiness : Is disinte- rested benevolence the essence of holiness ? The large committee to whom the papers were referred, heard both parties, and delayed their decision for a year. They presented a wise, happy statement of the true doctrine ; but it did not satisfy Tennent. He again in- troduced the business in 1740 ; but the synod, by a large majority, refused to consider it. This he represented in his paper, which he read a few days after, on the deplorable state of the ministry, as a slighting and shufiling the late debate about the glory of God, and as sanctioning the doctrine that there is no difference between seeking the glory of God and our own happiness, and that self- love is the foundation of all obedience. At this time, he corresponded with Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine; and Whitefield, in giving them his advice, enforces it by saying, " Our dear brother and fellow-labourer, Mr. G. Tennent, thinks the same, and said he would write to you about it." On hearing Tennent preach, Whitefield said, "Never before heard I such a searching sermon. He went to the bottom indeed, and did not daub with untempered mortar. He convinced me more * His Letter in the Christian History. GILBERT TENNENT. 389 and more that we can preach the gospel no further than we have experienced the power of it in our hearts. I found what a babe and novice I was in the things of God. He is a son of thunder, whose preaching must either convert or enrage hypocrites." Whitefield preached, Nov. 20, "about noon, for near two hours, in worthy, Mr. Tennent's meeting-house, to a large assembly ga- thered from all parts ; and amongst them, as he told me, there was a great body of solid Christians ; and again at three and seven. Several were brought under strong convictions, and our Lord's disciples were ready to leap for joy." Tennent sent him word, Dec. 1, 1739 : — " Since you was here, I have been among my people, dealing with them plainly about their souls' state, examining them as to their experience, telling natural people the danger of their state, exhorting them that were totally secure to seek convictions and those that were convinced to seek Jesus. I reproved pious people for their faults. There are hopeful appearances among pretty many in the place I belong to." In April, it was said two had been savingly converted in November. Whitefield wrote to him from Williamsburg, Virginia, Dec. 15, 1739, "Be not angry because you have not heard from me. In- deed, I love and honour you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. You are seldom out of my thoughts. I trust the work goes on glo- riously in your parts : the hand of the Lord brought wondrous things to pass before we left Pennsylvania Last night I read the affecting account of your brother John. Let me die the death of that righteous man. Oh, my dear friend, my brother, en- treat the Lord that I may grow in grace and pick up the fragments of my time that nothing may be lost. Teach me, oh, teach me the way of God more perfectly. Rebuke, reprove, exhort me with all long-suflFering and doctrine : I feel I am but a babe in Christ. I only wish I was more worthy to subscribe myself your affection- ate brother and servant in Christ." From New Brunswick, April 28, 1740, he writes, " God has now brought me here, where I am blessed with the conversation of Mr, Tennent. Indeed, he is a good soldier of Jesus ; and God is pleased in a wonderful manner to own him and his brethren. The congre- gations where they have preached have been surprisingly convicted and melted down. They are unwearied in doing good, and go out into the highways and hedges to compel poor sinners to come in." To Mr. Habersham he wrote from Savannah, June 25, 1740, " I like the Messrs. Tennent for preaching in this manner. They wound deep before they heal : they know there is no promise made but to him that believeth, and therefore they are careful not to comfort overmuch those that are convicted. I fear I have been incautious in this respect, and have often given comfort too soon." To Mr. R , in Philadelphia, he wrote from Charleston, July 11, 1740, " Keep close, my dear friend, keep close to the dear Mr. 390 GILBERT TENNENT. Tennents. Under God, they will build up your soul on your most holy faith. It gladdens my heart to hear of their success in the Lord." Whitefield went to New Brunswick, Nov. 6, and Tennent, of Freehold, met him, besides other ministers. It was settled that Gilbert should go to Boston, though he pleaded inability for so great a work. His first wife had lately died; and he was so much supported that he was able to preach her funeral sermon while she lay before him in the coiEn. Whitefield wrote to Governor Belcher, at Boston, from Philadel- phia, Nov. 9, " Great things has the great Immanuel done for me and for this people by the way. The word has been attended with much power. Surely our Lord intends to set America in a flame. This week, Mr. Tennent proposes to set out for Boston; to blow up the divine flame lately kindled there. I recommend him to your excellency as a solid, judicious, excellent preacher. He will be ready to preach daily." Tennent took Long Island in his way ; and his labours were greatly blessed. At Newport, there was a considera.ble concern. He preached at Westerly, Rhode Island, from Matt. xi. 28, in going, and, returning, from Gen. iii. 9 ; rousing up the people, and filling Bome with great wrath. He waked up the conscience. He arrived at Boston, Dec. 13. His first sermon Was on " The Righteousness of the Scribes," and was speedily printed. It was a period of protracted and unexampled cold ; Long Island Sound was frozen across. The Rev. Dr. Cutler, Church missionary at Boston, laments to the Venerable Society that " Gilbert Tennent* afliicted us more tha^n the most intense cold and snow. Though (vulgar, crude, and boisterous, yet tender and delicate persons were not deterred from hearing him at every opportunity. The ill effects of Whitefield's visit might have worn off, if his followers could have been preserved from writing; but they carried on his |design with too great success." Dr. Cutler said to Dr. Zachary Grey, (Nicholls's Lit. Anecdotes,) " Whitefield has plagued us with a vengeance, especially his friends and followers. Our presses are forever teeming with books. . . . While he was here, the town was as if it were in a siege ; the streets were crowded with coaches and chaises. He lashed and anathematized the Church of Eng- land. After him came one Tennent, a minister, impudent and saucy, and told them they were damned. This charmed them ; and, in the dreadfullest winter I ever saw, people wallowed in the snow day and night, for the benefit of his beastly brayings. Many ended their days under these fatigues. Both W. and T. carried more money out of these parts than the poor could be thankful for." He preached for nearly two months. The assemblies had been full from the time Whitefield preached ; but under Tennent, the concern be- * Hawkins. — Albany Documents. GILBEKT TENNENT. 391 came more general and powerful. From the deep and terrible con- victions he had passed through, he had such a lively sense of the divine majesty, holiness, and justice, that the very terrors of God seemed to rise in his mind afresh when he brandished them in the eyes of unreconciled sinners. Some of the most stubborn sinners were made to fall down at the feet of Jesus in lowly submission. The Rev. Thomas Prince says that " in private he was seen to be of considerable parts and learning, — free, gentle, and condescending : he had as thorough an acquaintance with experimental religion as any person I ever conversed with ; his preaching was as searching and rousing as any I ever heard. He aimed directly at the heart and conscience, to lay open numerous delusions and show the many secret, hypocritical shifts in religion, and to drive out of every de- ceitful refuge." His preaching produced no crying out or falling down : he did not so much preach the terrors of the law, as search man's delusive hopes, show their utter impotence and impending danger. He left Boston, March 2, 1741, and preached his farewell from Acts xi. 23. He was exceeding strict in cautioning against running into the church. Yet, the opposers say, the congregations, while he preached, expressed their religious joy by a hearty laugh, and that Tennent laughed over those who were under conviction. He preached eight sermons at Plymouth, in March, vrith good re- sults, on the sin and apostasy of mankind in Adam ; on the blind- ness of the natural man in the things of God ; on the utter inability of the fallen creature to relieve itself; and on justification through the imputed righteousness of Christ. In Maine, he preached seven sermons at Piscataqua, and three at East York, going from thence to Hampton, N.H., and Greenland ; at Portsmouth, six or seven times, his voice drowned by the cries of the people in distress. In Massachusetts, he preached three sermons at Bridgewater, one from Matt. xi. 28, at Taunton, which awakened only a few, and was deep and lasting in only two in- stances. At Oxford, the Rev. Peter Thatcher, then under great de- pression, came from Middleborough to hear him, with sensible pre- judice, but had not heard three sentences of his prayer before he found him to be a man of God. " I desire to bless God for that ser- mon. I never saw more of the presence and power of God in prayer and preaching, and never felt more of the power of God ac- companying the word on my own heart. Every word made its own way. I felt the weight of it. This revived in me the ministry I sat under in my youth." At Middleborough, he preached from Rom. vii. 9, and said he was never so shut up but once before in his life. No one, however, perceived it. There was, however, no effect at the time ; but the people were from that time inclined to hear, and half a dozen were awakened. At Lyme, the sermon, from Ezek. xxxviii. 9, was very dull. Parsons was afraid several timea 392 GILBERT TENNENT. he would have nothmg to say. One was convinced. Next day the text was Luke xiii. 24: the audience very attentive and deeply affected. There was much visible concern ; but the effects were far more extensive than at the time appeared. At the East Parish of Lyme, the two sermons were excellent, and were attended by a great, if not general, awakening. At Saybrook, he gave a plain, searching sermon. At New Haven, he preached seventeen sermons. Several were in the college hall. The concern was general in the college and in the town. Among the pious students were Brain- erd. Bull, and David Youngs. They visited every room and con- versed with every student. Dr. Sproat, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, were brought to the Saviour. Hopkins was about twenty, — had lately heard Whitefield : he thought Tennent the greatest and best man and the best preacher he ever saw or heard. "His words were to me like apples of gold in pictures of silver. I thought, when I should leave college, I would go and live with him, wherever I could find him." A large number of three upper classes entered the ministry : John Grant, Thomas Lewis, Caleb Smith, Job Prudden, Aaron Eichards, and Thomas Arthur became pastors in our church. Tennent regretted, in 1744, having kept no journal of this tour, — the brokenness of his memory preventing his drawing up a full account of it.* It being assumed that he had gone into New England on the supposition of the unregeneracy and uselessness of the ministers, he said that the reason of his undertaking the tour was to promote his "progress in the Christian course, by that continual train of labours and hardships I foresaw I should be engaged" in and ex- posed to." He said it was admitted on all hands there was a lamentable decline in that' region : but, if there were not, " do not general rules admit of exceptions ? In extraordinary times, when the Spirit of God is poured out, may not extraordinary methods be pursued without censure?" He reached home just before the division of the synod, and preached in Philadelphia, May 31, 1741, five times, and baptized eight adults. The next day the Protest was introduced. He published at once "An Examination and Refutation of the Protest." He soon lamented the rupture and the sad aspect of the churches through- out the colonies, and yet suffered a new edition of the Nottingham Sermon to appear. The rise of the Moravians troubled him greatly ; and he preached against them at New York, and printed the sermons on Rev. iii. 3 ; and Colman prefixed a preface. To this, "Philalethes" replied, contrasting Gilbert with Tennent, and * Gillies. He preached frequently three times a day. Thirty of the students followed him on foot to Milford, and for this were fined by the rector. The unscru- pulous author of the Account of the State of Religion in New England since Mr. Whitefield's Visit says, " The college in Connecticut is nearly broke up." Tenaent'n labours at Harvard College were blessed. GILBEET TBNNENT. 393 placing in opposite columns his self-contradictions, accusing him of raising a hue and cry after Pharisees, and countenancing such unlearned exhorters as D 1 R s, S 1 K-h-r, and L-y-r P e. He without delay published, " The Examiner Exa- mined; or, Gilbert Tennent harmonious." In 1744, he removed to Philadelphia and took charge of the Second congregation : his feet were blistered in traversing the streets and visiting such numbers of distressed souls. He called on Franklin to point out suitable persons from whom to solicit aid in erecting a house of worship. The philosopher told " the enthu- siast" to call on everybody : he did so, and built the church. He ceased his former method of uttering his discourses, and read them. He lamented his " extravagancy in discarding a wig and wearing his hair loose and unpowdered, with a large greatcoat fastened with a leathern belt for his outer garment." His ministry in Phila- delphia was in the main unattended with encouraging success. Andrews said to Samuel Mather, April 17, 1745, " We are pretty quiet at present. Tennent lets me alone, and is generally mode- rate ; but many of his followers grow weary of him, and wish for Whitefield's return." Tennent now assumed that persons of moral life, possessed of a knowledge of the principles of the Chris- tian faith, should be admitted to the communion, and argued stre- nuously against his own former practice. In 1749, he preached and printed his " Irenicum, a Plea for the Peace of Jerusalem," to effect a union between the synods of New York and Philadelphia. He did full justice to, the brethren he had so bitterly assailed, and especially holds up Thomson — once the object of his unsparing invective — as a worthy representative of the excellent and estimable principles of his Old-Side associates. He freely justifies them from the charge of being opposers of the work of God or heart-enemies to vital godliness, — doing it as cordially as if he had not been foremost and loudest in creating these unfavour- able impressions of them. Davenport wrote to Bellamy, May 29, 1753, " Blessed be the great and good God for a remarkable reviving and quickening given lately, about the beginning of March, to Mr. William Tennent, and, about a fortnight after, to Mr. G. Tennent, before his wife's death and since." His second wife, Cornelia Depeyster, widow of Matthew Clark- son, made a hasty flight, March 19, 1753, aged fifty-seven ; and early in May he buried his mother. His family being taken from him, he consented to go to Great Britain, in conjunction with Davies, to solicit aid for the college. The expectation of so accomplished a companion in the embassy was an encouragement to Davies to undertake the arduous task. Whitefield writes in June, 1753, "I am glad Mr. Tennent is 394 GILBEKT TENNENT. coming over with Mr. Davies. If they come with their old fire, I trust they will be enabled to do wonders." He sailed Nov. 17, and reached London on Christmas day. Davies was " deeply sensible of the kindness of Heaven in ordering his father and friend to be his companion, not only for the right management of the undertaking, but for his social comfort." Tennent was cheerful and courageous on the voyage, and preached from John iii. 5 of a Sabbath evening. The sermon was judi- cious, plain, pungent, searching, and well adapted to do good. Hav- ing no opportunity to address the people at another time, he said, " Where there is no good to be done, the door is not opened." The next evening after their arrival was spent with Whitefield. Tennent's heart was all on fire ; and, after having gone to bed, he suggested to Davies that they should watch and pray : they rose and prayed together till three in the morning. " Tuesday, Jan. 22. — Observing at Mr. Chandler's that our col- lege would be a happy expedient to unite the German Calvinists with the English Presbyterians, Mr. Smith, afterwards Provost of the University of Philadelphia, replied that a union would not be desirable.' Tennent immediately answered, ' Union in a good thing is always desirable.' Mr. Chandler said, 'I have seen a very ex- traordinary sermon against union,' and reached him his Notting- ham Sermon. Chandler had also read the examination of Tennent's answer to the Protest. All that we could say had no eifect. He told us he would do nothing for us. The next day we waited on him, and Tennent made honest, humble concessions : — that the sermon was written in the heat of his spirit, when he apprehended a re- markable work of God was opposed by a set of ministers; that some of the sentiments were not agreeable to his present opinions ; that he had painted sundry things in too strong colours. He plead that it was now thirteen years, and he had used all his influence to promote union between the synods. He produced his ' Irenicum,' and the minutes of the synod, to show the state of the debate. He urged that, if the sermon was faulty, it was the fault of one man, and should not be charged on the whole body." Davies exerted all his powers of pathetic address ; and, in the end. Chandler gave them his name and co-operation. The sermon had been oiEciously dispersed through London from hand to hand, and Tennent was sadly discouraged ; and his success in obtaining funds amazed him and delighted him, as a gracious "regarding of the cry of the destitute." Having, at Edinburgh, succeeded in obtaining from the Assembly an order for a national collection, Tennent went to Glasgow and to Ireland. He attended the General Synod ; and they agreed to make a collection through all their bounds. The Presbytery of Antrim, " the New Light," Non-subscribers, fast sinking into Arian- GILBERT TENNENT. 395 ism, did the same. He was advised to make private collections in Dublin. He returned to London early in October, having received, in Ireland, above five hundred pounds. He received three hundred and sixty pounds for the education of pious youth for the ministry. He sailed November 13, and reached home safely. Burr* wrote to Erskine, in May, 1755, that the labours of Ten- nent had been blessed in Philadelphia ; in June, " he was more than ordinarily engaged," and there was much to encourage him. He joined with Alison, and the Presbyterians generally, in op- posing the throwing off of the Proprietary government. In 1762, he began to need an assistant ; and, the congregation being regularly summoned, he presided, and, by a considerable ma- jority, a call was made out for Dufiield, of Carlisle ; yet he, with the trustees of the building, objected to the presbytery's considering the call, until the question between the trustees and the congregation had been submitted to arbitration. The presbytery decided that the call was in order, and gave the commissioners leave to prose- cute it. Donegal Presbytery declined to place it in Driffield's hands. The Rev. John Murray, from Ireland, was then called and ordained ; but the synod would not acknowledge him, and he was soon cast off. He died January 23, 1764. President Finley preached at his funeral. He made his will October 20, 1763, giving three hundred pounds and his library to his son Gilbert, and directing that he should be put to learning, in the hope that God would prepare him for the ministry. He provides also for his daughters Elizabeth and Cor- nelia. He constituted his wife,t his brother William, and the wor- shipful John Lyal, of New Brunswick, the guardians of his children, they being very young. His son was lost at sea. One daughter married Dr. William Smith, of Philadelphia ; the other died young. As he drew near his end, every symptom of dissolution filled him with comfort. His disposition, naturally calm, was sweetened by piety. Tennent was taller than most men, and every way proportion- able ; grave and venerable ; affable, condescending, and communi- cative. He was endeared by his openness and undisguised ho- nesty, eminent for public spirit and great fortitude ; his mind was enriched by much reading, and his heart was laden with a rich ex- perience of divine grace. As a preacher, he was equalled by few ; his reasoning was strong, his language forcible and often sublime ; his manner, warm and earnest. Most pungent were his addresses to the conscience. With admirable dexterity he exposed the false hope of the hypocrite, and searched the corrupt heart to the bot- tom. He said of some of his earliest sermons, that he begged * GilUes's Collections, Bonar's edition. t ^'^^- Sarah Spafford, widow. 396 GILBERT TENNENT. them with tears of the Lord Jesus. A lady asked him, at the close of his life, concerning his mode of preaching while in New Eng- land, during the Revival. He replied, he hardly knew what he preached; he had no time to study. The many yearshe had spent in diligent preparation, and his prevailing absorption in divine things, nobly qualified him to preach without effort. The drop- pings of his lips were as choice silver. He was a mark for many archers. They emptied their quivers on him; he was sore wounded by their calumnies; but he "shook off the venomous beasts," and lived, serving Christ, approved of God and acceptable to men. The publications of Tennent, like " the fourth part of the dust of Jacob," are not to be numbered. The earliest seems to have been a sermon preached in New York in March, 1734 ; in 1735, "A Solemn Warning to a Secure World from the God of terrible majesty; or, the Presumptuous Sinner detected, his Pleas consi- dered, and his Doom displayed;" to which is added the life of his brotheu, the Rev. Mr. John Tennent. " The Necessity of Religious Violence to Durable Happiness," preached at Perth Amboy, June 29, 1735 ; two sermons on the nature and necessity of sincere sanctification, contrition, and an acceptable appreciation of a suf- fering Saviour, preached* at New Brunswick in July and August, 1736. A volume of his sacramental discourses was printed in Boston, in 1739; his sermon on an "Unconverted Ministry," in 1740; on the "Priestly Ofiice of Christ," preached at New Bruns- wick, in 1741 ; on the death of Captain Grant, in 1756; on "Pub- lic Fasting," in 1749; on "Religious Zeal," in 1750; on the "Duty of being Quiet," and at the opening of the synod, in 1759. He was struck by lightning ; and the eagerness of some to proclaim it as a judgment led him to preach a sermon and print it, on the "Righteousness of the Scribes," in 1740; his Moravian sermons, in 1742; "The Examiner Examined," in 1743; on a thanksgiv- ing, and on another public occasion, and a third on Admiral Mat- thews's victory, in 1744; on the success of the expedition against Louisburg, in 1745. He published, in 1746, a volume of twenty-three sermons on import- ant subjects,* embracing "Man's Chief End," "The Divine Authority of the Scriptures," "The Divine Attributes," and "The Trinity." A French privateer came into Delaware Bay in December, 1747. The citizens of Philadelphia met in the New Meeting-house, and formed an association for defence. Tennent preached to them from Exodus xv. 3 : — " The Lord is a man of war." A large num- ber of copiesf lay unsold when the British held the city, and were torn up for cartridges. The sermon being attacked, he published, * It is said to have had "a florid preface" afBxed by six divines, f Day's PennsylTania Historical Collections. ARCHIBALD MoCOOK — EBBNEZER PEMBERTON. 397 within a month, "Defensive "War consistent with Christianity," —the animadversions on which he repelled, in 1748, by a third pamphlet: — "Defensive War Defended." In 1748, he printed a Fast-sermon, and one preached before a sacramental solemnity; in 1749, on the "Display of Divine Jus- tice in the Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ;" in 1756, one before Captain Vanderspiegel's company; in 1758, several on important subjects; and, amid his closing days, he issued an "Address on the Late Invasion of American Liberty by the Stamp Act." Most of these are very rare, being scattered in public libraries. They are all creditable to his abilities, were serviceable in their time, and, having served their generation, have passed into oblivion. ARCHIBALD McCOOK Was received as a student from Ireland, by Newcastle Presby- tery, in March, 1726, and was licensed, September 13, having sub- Scribed the Westminster Confession. He was sent to Kent, in Delaware, embracing Dover, St. Jones, and Mother Hill, was called March 28, 1727, and ordained June 7. Houston proclaimed, and Thomson preached. He died before September. The desolate condition of the people in Kent attracted the atten- tion of the presbytery in 1714. Anderson was sent as a monthly supply; Gelston went as a candidate, in 1715 ; and the next year they had occasional supplies in connection with Cedar Creek, in Sussex. Cross preached for them monthly for several years, and Hook, Thomas Evans, Steward, and Hutcheson visited them. They had also Mr. Peter Finch, probably from England, for a sea- son. After McCook's death, they had supplies for several years. EBENEZER PEMBEETON, The son of one of the pastors in Boston, was born in 1704, and graduated at Harvard in 1721. When licensed, he was employed as chaplain at Castle William.* * Robbins'B Second Church, Boston. 398 EBENEZEK, PEMBERTON. On the dismission of Anderson, he was sent hy the Boston minis- ters to New York ; and, at the request of the congregation, made in April, they ordained him in his native town, August 9, 1727. Colman preached the sermon,* from Mark ix. 38. He dwelt on the young man's leaving his beloved mother, and the city in which his father had laboured ; on his being called to the head-city of a pro- vince; and on the goodness of God in having formed and endowed him for his service, and inclined and spirited him for this distant and important work. He reminded him of the hand of Go^ in uniting the affections of the flock on him, and presents, as a motive to faithfulness, the piety of his parents and grandparents. He bids him prepare the beaten oil and the sweet incense for the sanc- tuary, contend earnestly against the common errors of the day, maintain the doctrine, worship, and discipline established from the beginning, assert expressly the Trinity, the true and real Godhead of Jesus, and justification by faith, insist on the observance of the Lord's day, and urge the duty of family worship and family govern- ment. He concludes, " The God of New England, before whom our fathers walked, go with you and give the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed." The New York congregation informed the synod that they were satisfied with all Dr. Nicoll's proceedings, and desired them to ad- mit Pemberton as a member. This they declined to do, but not out of any disrespect to him. They appointed a committee (all New Englanders) to settle the difference between the Presbytery of Long Island and the congregation. The difficulty was settled by causing Inglis, Blake, and Leddell to make over by deed all their right to the meeting-house to the ministers of Edinburgh, and to Dr. Nicoll, in trust for the congregation ; and by requiring Nicoll to release those three from all bonds and obligations they were under to him on account of that property ; and by exacting of him a bond of two thousand pounds to the ministers of Edinburgh, not to alienate his right therein, and, when reimbursed, to transfer all his right to them. They required also a. bond from him of two thousand pounds to Pierson, Cross, and Dickinson, obliging him- self to concur with persons appointed by Edinburgh Presbytery, in selling such pews as the majority of the congregation chose. The congregation was allowed to choose five representatives or managers of the property. Pemberton, at his request, was received as a member, by the committee, without hearing what the presbytery had to offer. The synod refused to sanction his reception, and then proceeded unanimously to receive him, leaving it to him and the congregation to join what presbytery they pleased. In 1735, he was moderator of the commission at the trial of * Massachusetts Historical Society's Library. EBBNBZER PEMBERTON. 899 Hemphill ; and his sermon on that occasion, from Luke vii. 35, being cavilled at, he published it. Whitefield came to New York in November, 1739, and was denied the use of the court-house. The commissary, before being asked, refused him the church. Dominie Boel declined to admit him to the Dutch Church, and Whitefield would not officiate in the meeting-house tendered by the Presbyterians. He attended Trinity Church in the morning, and preached in the afternoon in the fields, and in the evening in the Presbyterian meeting-house. Pemberton wrote to him, that he had left the town under a uni- versal concern ; and that, to meet the wants of the people, he had appointed a lecture. Many were deeply affected; and some of the loose and profligate were ashamed, and set on reformation. Whitefield* wrote to him, November 28, 1739, " I have been much concerned, since I saw you, lest I behaved not with that humility towards you which is due from a babe to a father in Christ; birt you know how difficult it is to meet with success and not be puffed up with it ; and, therefore, if any such thing was dis- cernible in my conduct, oh, pity me, and pray to the Lord to heal my pride. All that I can say is, that I desire to learn of Jesus to be meek and lowly in heart ; but my corruptions are so strong, and my employ so dangerous, that I am afraid." He wrote from Upper Marlborough, December 8, " Till now I have had neither time nor leisure to answer your kind letter. Blessed be God, who has opened the heart of some of his people at New York to receive the word ! May he enable you to waterf what his own right hand hath planted, and grant to your labours a divine increase ! Oh that the Lord would be pleased to send forth experimental labourers into his harvest ! for I fear, among you, as well as in other places, there are many who are well versed in the doctrines of grace, — having learned them at the univei'sity, — but notwithstanding are heart-hypocrites and enemies to the power of godliness. I use this freedom, because I love simplicity. I con- fess I am but a child in grace as well as years. At his second visit, October, 1740, " the Holy Ghost came down as a mighty rushing wind." Dr. NicollJ wrote to Nicholas Spence, agent of the Church of Scotland, that " the effects were visible in the town, particularly in our congregation and in my own family. Little children fol- lowed Mr. Pemberton to his lodgings, weeping, and anxiously con- * Whitefield's Letters. t Pemberton had set up a lecture, on account of the increased desire for re- ligious instruction. Steward, in his published journal, scoffs at this, and says, " Some pretend to water what God has planted, by setting up lectures : they daub with untempered mortar, and say there is no need of giving an account of your conversion." j Gillies's Collections. 400 EBENEZER PEMBERTON. cerned about tte salvation of their souls. The good Lord hath stirred up Gilbert and William Tennent, Burr, Mills, (of Eipton,) Leonard, (of Goshen,) and Davenport, and spirited them, in his mercy, to water it; but Satan is using (May 20,^ 1741) his utmost endeavours to drive some of them to extremes." Pemberton was sent for to Connecticut College, and preached twice a day while absent. He printed his sermon preached at Yale, April 19, 1741, immediately after Tennent's visit. The subject was, "Know Christ." In May, he attended the synod, with his elder, Nathaniel Hazard;* and both signed the protest against the exclusion of the New Brunswick party. Hazard sat in synod as an elder in 1728. His place of business was at the store of Thomas Noble, at the " Old Slip:" he advertises "likely negroes, and a prime lot of old Cheshire cheese." Pemberton preached, September 13, 1742, at Stratfield, Con- necticut, on the duty of committing our souls to 'God, from 2 Tim. i. 12. This discourse was printed, as also the funeral ser- mon of Dr. Nicoll, his valued friend, the church's benefactor.f A petition was addressed by the congregation, March 12, 1746, to the associated ministers of Boston, seeking aid to enlarge the church. A copy of this document is preserved in Dr. Stiles's papers, signed by J. Royal, William Smith, Jeremiah Owen, Wil- liam Eagles, Joseph Millikin, P. Jackson, and P. V. B. Livingston. They state that, when the church was first built, there were not more than seventy or eighty belonging to it ; that differences grew up among the original undertakers of the building, and that for four years after Pemberton's settlement, the congregation con- tinued small: after a time, six of the eight windows were glazed, having before been boarded. In 1739, showers of heavenly influ- ence descended, with an increase of gifts in the minister. The congregation grew till the floor was filled and three galleries ; and now they needed to repair, enlarge, and add a steeple and bell. Being about to engage an assistant minister, they would be unable, if not aided, to bear the whole expense of refitting the house. The years from 1740 to '50 were years of rapid increase. Mr. Gumming was settled as assistant minister. Whitefield was in New York eight days in the summer of 1747. " People flock rather more than ever: the Lord vouchsafes us solemn meet- ings." * A native of Newtown, Long Island, and descendant from one of the early set- tlers there. His son, Nathaniel Hazard, was the friend and constant correspondent of Dr. Bellamy; his second son, Samuel, was a merchant in Philadelphia, and a steadfast and inTaluahlc member of the Second Church. f Dr. Sprague's Collection at Princeton. EBENEZBR PEMBERTON. 401 He wrote to Pemberton from London, November 14 1748 urging him to come thither and solicit funds for Nassau Hall. In 116\), the Synod of Philadelphia had endeavoured to prevail on him to "go home to Europe" to obtain funds for erecting a semi- rS' ^^^ M^''°*^ °^ ^^^ Y°^^^' i^ 1^51' proposed it to him: he had* no family at the time, and was willing to go ; and a com- mittee was sent " immediately" to treat with his people. It was hist settled purpose to have gone; but his people and Mr. Cummmg hindered it. His intention of going caused great uneasiness among his people, and created dissatisfaction towards hun m the minds of some. By death and removal,J he was left without an elder or deacon. Mr. Hazard removed to Philadelphia. On the death of Dr. Nicoll, trustees were chosen to manage the affairs, by those who were bound for the payment of the church debts, and out of their own number. Troubles arose. The trustees complained because Pem- berton insisted on having, by virtue of his office, a seat in their board and a voice in the temporal affairs. The matters in contro- versy passed from the presbytery to the synod in 1752. Tliey decided that the church property belonged to those, without dis- tinction of name or nation, who conformed to the general plan of the Scottish Church, as practised by the New York Synod ; that the pastors had no right, by virtue of their office, to preside over the board of trustees, and that Gumming was imprudent in insist- ing on doing so ; that the trustees had acted faithfully and much to the advantage of the church. They commended Gumming for insisting that_ parents who present children for baptism shall pray in their families, and condemned the plan of carrying round a paper to get subscriptions to introdu.ce a new version of Psalms. Davies, Finley, and Beatty, as a committee, after careful inquiiy, nominated Israel Horsefield and David Vanhorne;§ and they were elected elders. Though empowered to recommend Watts's Psalms if they thought proper, the committee declined to do so, recom- mending to both parties moderation and forbearance. In 1753, Pemberton was blamed by some of the people for neglecting family visiting, the session for introducing Watts of their own accord, and both ministers for neglecting to recommend the Catechism in baptism, and for praying when asked at funerals. This was a matter of intolerable offence to the Scotsmen : they could not endure " orations" at funerals. The committee dis- missed these charges, and lamented the injurious and contemptuous * Mrs. Catharine Pemberton died in June, 1751, haying, in her last years, passed through "very melancholy scenes of affliction and pain." t Jonathan Edwards to Erskine. j MS. Records of Trustees of New York Congregation. I DaTid Vaa Horne died NoTember 13, 1775, aged sixty-three. 26 402 EBBNBZBR PEMBERTON. treatment on both sides. No one opposed Cumming's request to be dismissed ; but a number of gentlemen strongly remonstrated against giving up Pemberton. The committee advised him to stay for a while, and make a further trial ; and, if at the end of a month he had no success in healing the divisions, he was to be Visiting Boston, he received a unanimous call to the New Brick Church, and immediately wrote* to the synod, desiring that he might be set at liberty. He was dismissed ; and the Presbytery of New York addressedf a letter of high commendation in his favour to the ministers of Boston. He was installed, March 6, 1754. He was greatly admired, and his preaching was largely attended. But, towards the approach of the Revolution, his people, being zealous Whigs, were pained by the sight of Governor Hutchinson in the front pew, and standing high in the esteem of their minister. They withdrew; but the favour of Hutchinson preserved the church edifice from the desecration and ruin which befell the other places of worship. His salary was poorly paid, and he generously forgave the arrears. The Baptists, being with- out a house, were welcomed to an equal use of the church, — Dr. Stillman preaching alternately with the pastor. A vain attempt had been made to secure the Rev. William Tennent, Jr., after- wards of Charleston, as a colleague. The want was, in a mea- sure, supplied by the Rev. John Lathrop, of the New North Church, whose congregation had been despoiled of their sanctuary by the British; and, on the death of Pemberton, the two societies united. The pastoral relation of Pemberton was virtually dis- solved in February, 1774: from that date he received no salary. During the war he retired to Andover, and died, September 9, 1779. Dr. Chauncey told President Stiles that Pemberton would go to the death for Edwards's distinguishing tenet : — refusing church privileges to the unregenerate. He published his sermons at the ordination of Wilmot and Brainerd. In 1750, he printed a memoirj; of his mother, as a preface to her " Meditations," and dedicated it to her third hus- band, — Henry Lloyd, Lord of the Manor of Queen's Village. Her second husband was John Campbell, of Boston, the publisher of the first newspaper in that town. He corresponded with Doddridge. One of his letters, dated December 16, 1743, § is preserved ; it was in answer to an inquiry * MS. Records of the Trustees, t Dr. Robbins's History of Second Church, Boston. J Massachusetts Historical Society's Library. § Doddridge Correspondence, by Humphreys. DANIEL ELMER. 403 concerning the injustice said to have been done to the Moravians by the Dissenters in America. He denies that there was any ground for such a story. "With us, they are evidently en- deavouring to draw ofif the a,ffections of the people from the soundest and most zealous ministers in these parts." His valued friend, Mr. Noble, had already forsaken him. Davies said, " Mr. Price is by far the best orator I have heard in London. He is an affable, affectionate gentleman, and is the likest man to Mr. Pemberton, both in conversation and in the pulpit, that I have seen." The Hon. William Smith, father of the historian, said, " His deficiency in delivery was natural, but surprisingly mended with great pains taken." DANIEL ELMER Was born in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1690, and graduated at Yale in 1713. He married soon after, and, "for some time, car- ried on the work of the ministry" in Brookfield,* Massachusetts. The General Court allowed the town twenty pounds for three years, to aid in sustaining the gospel. Elmer received only half of this encouragement, having left before 1715. Where he spent the next twelve years is not known. In 1728, he settled at Fair- field, in Cohanzy. At the declaring for the Confession, in 1729, he was the only minister who professed himself unprepared to act. Time was granted him to consider; and the next year he in- formed the synod that he had declared before the presbytery his cordial adoption of the Confession and the Catechism. Whitefield visited West Jersey in the spring of 1740. Gilbert Tennent was there in the summer; and, while Whitefield was preaching (November 19) on Wednesday, the Holy Ghost came down "like a mighty rushing wind" at Cohanzy. Some thou- sands were present. The whole congregation was moved, and two cried out. At the separation in 1741, Elmer and his elder, Jonathan Fithian, though present at the opening of the sessions, seems to have gone home before the Protest was introduced. He ad- hered to the Old Side. The congregation divided : even his own son occasionally went to Greenwich to hear Andrew Hunter. Finley spent much time in the vicinity ; and New Brunswick * The ReT. Dr. Joseph J. Foot's Historical Discourse at Brookfield. 404 HUGH STEVENSON, Presbytery was constantly importuned for supplies, and their most promising candidates were sent to Cohanzy. At Elmer's request, Cowell, McHenry, and Kinkaid were sent by the synod, in September, 1754, to endeavour to remove the difficulties he complained of in his congregation ; but all proceed- ings were stayed by his death. He Ues buried in the Old New England town-graveyard, with this inscription : — " In memory of the Rev. Daniel Elmer, late pastor of Christ's Church in this place, who departed this life, January 14, 1755, aged sixty-five years." Dr. Alison wrote to President Stiles, July 20, 1755, informing him that the two parts of Elmer's congregation had united on his death, and introducing Mr. Thomas Ogden, whom they had sent as their messenger to Connecticut to procure a minister. Elmer married Margaret, daughter of Ebenezer Parsons, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, and sister of the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, of Newburyport ; she was the mother of three sons and four daughters. His second wife was a Webster, the mother of two sons and three daughters. His son Daniel was born in 1714, and was the father of Dr. Jonathan and General Ebenezer Elmer. HUGH STEVENSON, A STUDENT of theology from Ireland, was received under the care of Newcastle Presbytery, May 11, 1726, and was, licensed, September 13. He was sent from time to time to supply Lower Octorara (now Nottingham) and Newcastle and LewestoWn. He was called to Snow Hill, Maryland, March 26, 1728, Edmund Cropper being the commissioner. He accepted the call in June ; Anderson, Thomson, and Houston were appointed to examine his discourse, and Thomson, Stewart, and McCook to proceed with his trials. He was ordained before June, 1729. In 1733, while preaching in Virginia, he received harsh and injurious treatment' from some gentlemen. A copy of his repre- sentation was sent by the synod to the Church of Scotland, and aid was asked to maintain some itinerant ministers in. Virginia and elsewhere ; and especially was that venerable body urged to use its infiuence with the Government to lay " a restraint upon some gentlemen in said neighbouring province as may discourage them from hampering our missionaries by illegal prosecutions." JOHN AVILSON — EBENEZBR GOTJLD. 405 In 1739 or '40, he opened a grammar-school in Philadelphia, being a teacher of high reputation.* Just before the introduction of the Protest in 1741, he was suspended by the synod, having omitted his ministry and fallen into some irregularities. He died before May, 1744. JOHN WILSON, A MINISTER from Ireland, "coming providentially into these parts," presented his credentials to the synod in 1729, and was unanimously received. He preached at Lower Octorara, and made a strong party in his favour. The Presbytery of Newcastle received, January 27, 1730, a letter from Armagh Presbytery concerning him ; and they resolved not to employ him. He was then preach- ing at Newcastle with much acceptance, and a misunderstanding sprung up between the congregation and the presbytery in regard to him. Robert Gordon,t Judge of Newcastle County Court, and Probate of Wills, wrote to the synod to interpose in the breach. This brought under review the presbytery's action, and the synod judged that they had not acted with any severity towards him, but rather the contrary. He removed soon after to Boston, and died there, January '6, 1733, aged sixty-six. It is supposed that the Rev. John Wilson was his son, who was born in Ulster and ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church in Chester, New Hampshire, in 1734, and who died there, February 1, 1779, aged seventy-six. EBENEZER GOULD, A NATIVE of New England, graduated at Yale m 1723, and became the minister of Greenwich, in Cohanzy, about the time Elmer settled in Pairfield, in 1727. In 1736, Philadelphia Presbytery was informed of difficulties in his congregation; and, he being absent at the time set for consider- ing the case, they heard the complainants on two points : — 1. Whether it be lawful in any case to have evidence which Is to be used in an ecclesiastical case, sworn before a magistrate ? * Miller's Life of Eodgerg. f He died, September, 1735, "a man much beloved.' 406 ELEAZER WALES. 2. Whetter a congregation or a private member may, after proper means used, complain of their minister to the presbytery ? An aiBrmative ansiver was giren, and the complainants went home ; and, the day after, Gould came. The others were sent for to return, but in vain. It was all happily reconciled soon after, having grown out of Gould's saying that if he had money he would go to England. No notice was taken of it at the time, and when he afterwards expressed his scruples freely about "the Presbyterian way" in some things, it was surmised that only poverty kept him from going to England and taking orders. Further difficulties occurred in the summer of 1739, and he removed without being dismissed, and was installed in 1740 at Cutchogue, Suffolk county. Long Island. He united in April, 1747, with Ebenezer White, of Bridge- hampton, Nathaniel Mather, of Acquebague, Ebenezer Prime, of Huntingdon, Sylvanus White, of Southampton, and, Samuel Buell, of East Hampton, in forniing Suffolk Presbytery. A member* of Gould's church was present, and approved of the plan, though not delegated by the brethren. The majority being rigid Congrega- tionalists, a crisis ensued : separations, divisions, and alienations left him with no prospect of support or of usefulness. He and they mutually agreed to part. No intimation is given that the Great Revival was felt at Cutchogue ; it doubtless was, and the separation was pwing not to the matter of church government, but to the peculiar views of those who were carried away by Davenport in the outset of his career, and who abjured him when he renounced his errors. They formed separate churches throughout the east end of the island, which bear to this day the name of Strict Congregational churches ; the strictness being in the maintenance of the purity and exact- ness of discipline of the primitive era. He removed to Middlefield, the southwest part of Middletown, then newly organized into a society, and was installed, October 10, 1747. He removed in 1756, and died in Granville, Massachusetts, in 1778. ELEAZER WALES Is not mentioned in the published genealogy of the Wales family, though undoubtedly sprung from it. Nathaniel Wales, who settled at Dorchester^ Massachusetts, in 1636, was the father of Timothy, whose son Eleazer was born * Prime's History of Long Island. KICHARD TREAT. 407 "25th, Tenth month, 1657." He was probably either the father or grandfather of Eleazer Wales, who graduated at Yale in 1727, and settled at Allentown, New Jersey, in 1730. Crosswicks, or Crossweeksung, was an early Quaker settlement. An Episcopal church was proposed to be erected there in 1702. Morgan probably refers to it when, in his Latin letter to Mather, in 1721, he speaks of two congregations suddenly grown up twenty miles from Freehold, and where formerly were only seven Presby- terian families. He began to preach there in May, 1720, and prepared the way for Walton. The Presbyterians had a meeting- house before 1722. In 1730, the synod considered a supplication from Crosswicks, and directed Andrews to reply. Wales soon after settled there; but he asked leave, September 19, 1734, of Philadelphia Presbytery, to resign, on account of inadequate sup- port : his statement being confirmed by the representative of the congregation, Mr. Ingliss, he was dismissed. He was directed to join with Andrews in writing to the Eector of Yale for a minister to visit the destitutions of West Jersey. He was called to Mill- stone, September 19, 1735, and joined East Jersey Presbytery, within the bounds of which it lay. He was one of the first members of New Brunswick Presby- tery, and the only New Englander, besides Treat, who was ex- cluded by the Protest. He is mentioned incidentally, once or twice, in Whitefield's Journal, as having come to Amwell and New Brunswick to meet him. His name is also seen in Brainerd's diary, among the contributors to the support of his mission. Kingston is entered as giving £b lis. No notice appears of Kingston or Millstone among the con- gregations highly favoured during the Revival. Wales died in 1749. RICHAED TREAT, Born at Milford, Connecticut, September 25, 1708, was a de- scendant or near relative of Governor Robert Treat, an early set- tler of that town. He graduated at Yale in 1725, and was or- dained by Philadelphia Presbytery, and installed pastor of Abing- don, Pennsylvania, December 30, 1731. David Evans preached on the occasion, showing that it was a wonder to see a godly, con- siderate man in the ministry. Treat, in 1739, while hearing Whitefield preach, was convinced of his formal state, notwithstanding he held and preached the doc- trines of grace. 408 EICHARD TREAT. WHtefield* was at Abingdon, April 17, 1740, and says, " God has lately shown mercy to him. He was deeply convinced, when I was here last, that he had not experienced the saving power of the gospel. Soon after I went away, he attempted to preach, but could not, and told his people how miserably he had deceived himself and them. He desired them to pray for him, and has ever since continued to seek Jesus Christ, sorrowing. He is now under deep convictions and a very humbling sense of sin. He preaches as usual, though he has not a full assurance of faith, because, he said, it was best to be found in the way of duty. I believe the Lord is preparing him for great services. I observed a great presence of God in our assembly, and the word came with a soul-convincing and comforting power to many." He had before acted with the majority of the synod; but now, becoming, in their judgment, " a ringleader in destroying learning and good order," he was excluded in 1741. With his neighbour Tennent, of Neshaminy, he joined New Brunswick Presbytery. A division in the congregation ensued; and, when Philadelphia Presbytery met (March 19, 1742) at Abingdon, Treat demurred to their jurisdiction, and they referred the matter to synod. In May, Benjamin Jones, Malachi Jones, Archibald McClean, Ben- jamin Armitage, and others, asked the presbytery for advice; and they were directed to settle the matter as should be most for the glory of God. The next spring, the papers were laid before the synod ; and, on their recommendation, the presbytery sent supplies to Abingdon as often as they could. Whitefield often preached in the graveyard to a great con- course from all the region round. Treat's labours were also largely blessed. When the Presbyterians at Milford, Connecticut, asked New Brunswick Presbytery to ordain Jacob Johnson for their minister, they declined, but sent Treat to heal the diiFerence. He failed ; for they of Milford, instead of succumbing to Congregational despotism, made out a call for him, August 10, 1743. The pres- bytery advised him not to accept it, and sent them Sackett, of Bedford, Lamb, of Baskingridge, and Youngs, of Southold. New Haven Association^ retaliated by closing their pulpits against all the members of New Brunswick Presbytery. Treat published his sermon| preached, in 1747, at the ordina- tion of Lawrence, in the Forks of Delaware, and on the death of President Finley. In 1751, Abingdon Presbytery was formed, for the convenience of the ministers of Brunswick Presbytery residing in Pennsylvania and West Jersey. It was merged in Philadelphia Presbytery on the union. * Whitefield' s Journal. f Tracy's Great Awakening. J Conneoticut Historical Society. EOBBRT CATHCART. 409 He died, November 20, 1778, surviving many years all who had been in our ministry before him, and being reverenced as a peace-maker and a man full of good TYorbs. He laboured to the close of his days, having preached on " the "West Branch of the Forks" (Allen township) shortly before his decease. The Rev. Joseph Treat, colleague with Dr. Rodgers in the city of New York, was his son. Another of his sons was settled there as a physician. ROBERT CATHCART, A LICENTIATE from Ireland, was received by Newcastle Presby- tery, April 15, 1730, and was sent to supply Middletown, Dela- ware county, Pennsylvania, and Brandywine, Kent, and Lewes, in Delaware. In December, he was called to Kent, but declined, and settled at Brandywine, and, probably, at Middletown. In 1720, an address from some people in Birmingham, on Brandywine, was read in synod, and McGill was appointed to preach to them. The next year they were directed to apply to Newcastle Presbytery, and are described as people on Brandywine, White Clay, and the north side of Red Clay. Laing was the sup- ply of White Clay and Brandywine in the spring and summer of 1723 ; and the 22d of August is noted by the presbytery for a re- markable freshet of White Clay Creek, as though it had risen in its might to wash away all remembrance of Laing's Sabbath-day bathing. In the fall, McGill was there; and then Creaghead served them for several years. In 1727, they called the Rev. Patrick Vance, of Burt, Ireland ; and the presbytery sent the call to him in Ireland. In 1729, they had the services of John Ten- Jient. A meeting-house being contemplated by the people of Brandywine and Middletown, the fears of White Clay Congrega- tion were aroused, and the intervention of the presbytery was in- voked. Leave was given them to build. In 1740, Cathcart began to preach in Wilmington.* The undertakers of the meeting-house. Captain Chambers and Captain Hutchinson, obtained a gift from the synod's fund of fifty pounds, and a loan of thirty pounds. Cathcart signed the Protest in 1741; and, as Whitefield * Thomas Chalkley, a Friend, in September, 1736, being there, says, "It is a newly-settled town on Christiana Creek, which, I believe, will be a flourishing place if the inhabitants take care to live in the fear of God." 410 WILLIAM OHR. often preached at "Wilmington and the vicinity, his congregation divided, and the New-Side Church of Lower Brandywine was formed,— his own, in process of time, having taken the name of Red Clay. He died in 1754. WILLIAM ORE Was received by Newcastle Presbytery, as a student from Ire- land, November 15, 1730, and was licensed: before 1732, they ordained him pastor of Lower Octorara or Nottingham. The Mouth of Octorara began to receive supplies in 1725, and asked for Stevenson in 1727: it soon after obtained one-third of Hutcheson's time. It is frequently styled Lower Octorara, and is named Nottingham for the first time in April, 1730. Un- pleasant disputes seem to have grown out of the location of the meeting-house, and still more from the desire of some to have John Wilson settled over them. There were some who "scru- pled our way of adopting- the Confession," being shocked at the possibility of having a minister admitted into our connection who had a difficulty concerning an iota of it. Donegal Presbytery forbade its members, in 1732, to baptize or preach among the people living between Nottingham, Chestnut Level, Donegal, and Swatara. Nottingham informed the presbytery, in 1733, that they had agreed on the following persons for elders, and they were ap- proved : — Hugh Kirkpatrick, John Kirkpatrick, James Buchanan, John Luckie, John Moor, Hugh Fulton, David Patterson, John Smith, and John Mackadoo. John Kirkpatrick accused his minister (April 2, 1733) of preach- ing false doctrine concerning election,^alleging that he had used against it the common Arminian flings. His explanations were accepted ; and a new complaint was made against him for having married the Rev. Mr. Campbell with a license, which seemed to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. More serious complaints were made ; and Gillespie, Thomas Evans, and Houston were invited to sit as correspondents in considering them. To this Orr objected ; but they proceeded, and acquitted him, though they blamed his conduct during process as insulting, in- decent, and reproachful. The synod sent a committee to adjudicate on the spot an appeal from this sentence of acquittal. Gillespie, Hutcheson, Treat, WILLIAM BERTRAM. 411 Thomas Evans, and Andrews met in November, 1734. They ob- tained from the presbytery an acknowledgment that they had erred in refusing to hear John Kirkpatrick's supplication and to give him copies of certain papers. Though these refusals had been owing to want of time, and disturbance among the people, they entered their acknowledgment-'on the records, and all of them signed it. Orr and his session made an acknowledgment of harsh- ness to some and undue lenity to other offenders. The committee restored Kirkpatrick and his adherents to church privileges, on their acknowledgment of rashness and imprudence in representing their minister's doctrine as false, and in abruptly and irregularly breaking off from the session. The presbytery in the following year declared that they could not give Orr a certificate of good standing: he ceased to preach, and said he would not be at the trouble of carrying their certificate. He then sued Paton and Steel, the representatives of the congre- gation, on the bond for his salary, and harassed them sorely. The presbytery blamed his action as irregular, unaccountable, pro- fane, and disagreeable to the Christian character. Being dismissed from his charge, he deserted the bounds of the presbytery as a fugitive from discipline. He was ordained* by Gibson, Bishop of London, as a deacon, September 19, 1736, and was admitted to priests' orders ten days after. He arrived in South Carolina, from England, in 1737, and took charge of St. Philip's and St. Paul's. In March, 1748, he reported that the Indian tribe of Cushoes, once numbering a thousand, were reduced to sixty-three ; and that the number of his communicants in his church had increased from eight to thirty-four. In 1746, he took charge of St. Helena parish, in Beaufort, and removed, in 1750, to St. John's, Colleton. He died there, in 1755. He was one of the ecclesiastical court which, with Commissary Grarden at its head, cited Whitefield in 1740, condemned him for canonical irregularities, suspended and denounced him. WILLIAM BERTRAM Presented to the synod, in 1732, most ample testimonials from the Presbytery of Bangor, in Ireland, of his ordination, ministerial qualifications, and regular Christian conversation ; and, having de- clared his full and free assent to the Confession and Catechism, * Dalcho's History of Protestant Episcopal Churcli, South Carolina. 412 WILLIAM BERTRAM. was unanimously received, and joined to Donegal Presbytery. At the same time, George Renick (Renwick) presented him an invita- tion to settle at Paxton and Derry, and at the first meeting of Donegal Presbytery he declared his acceptance of it. No regular call was made ; but he was satisfied with the paper of subscriptions put into his hands. He was installed, November 15, 1732, at the meeting-house on Swatara. The congregation then appointed re- presentatives : — "on this side, Thomas Foster, George Renick, Wil- liam Cunningham, and Thomas Mayes ; on the other side, Rowland Chambers, Hugh Black, Robert Campbell, John Williams, William Williams, James Quigley, William McCord, and John Sloan." They executed to Bertram the right and title to the Indian town they had purchased. He informed the presbytery that his wants had been tenderly regarded. Rowland Chambers* appeared before Newcastle Presbytery in behalf of the settlements towards Susquehanna, in September, 1722. John Harris, from Yorkshire, settled at the mouth of Paxton Creek in 1726; and soon after James, Robert, Joseph, and Benjamin Chambers, from county Antrim, took up land at the mouth of Fishing Creek. In 1729, Swatara had been allowed one-fifth of Anderson's time, and the next year Fishing Creek asked for sup- plies. Swatara called the Rev. John McKinstry, a minister from Scotland ; but he returned the call, and settled at Ellington, Con- necticut. On the settlement of Bertram, the congregation on Swatara took the name of Derry, and the upper congregation on Fishing Creek was styled Paxton. They gave the presbytery the list of the elders they had selected, and their choice was approved. Bertram complained, in 1735, of "the intolerable burden" he was under with the two congregations, and desired leave to confine himself to one. Derry engaged to pay sixty pounds in hemp, corn, linen yarn, and cloth, and he was released from the care of Pax- ton, September 13, 1736. He died May 3, 1746, aged seventy-two; and "his tombf may be seen by leaving the main road, near Hummellstown, and tra- versing the cool, clear, spring creek to Dixon's Ford : there stands the venerable Derry meeting-house on the banks of the Swatara." Bertram's son was surveyor-general of Pennsylvania. * "1734, 3d of 10th month. Both of the proprietaries present. At the request of Rowland Chambers and Thomas Armstrong, one hundred acres each were granted to the congregations of Paxton and Derry, at a half-penny sterling yearly, for meet- ing-houses." — Huston's Land Titles. •j- Mark' Bancroft's Stories: in Atkinson's Casket. JOHN CROSS. 413 JOHN CROSS, Styled, by Dr. Erownlee, "a Scottish worthy," was received as a member of synod in 1732, and settled at a place " called The Moun- tains, back of Newark." The remarkable revival in his congrega- tion there, in 1734 and '85, is noticed in Edwards's "Thoughts on Revivals." East Jersey Presbytery blamed him, in 1735, for not attending their meetings, and for moving from one congregation to another without their consent. He was the minister of Basking- ridge and Staten Island, and was one of the first members of New Brunswick Presbytery. He distinguished himself greatly by his zeal and his success during the Great Revival. Whitefield was refreshed by meeting him and Gilbert Tennent on Staten Island, in 1740, and by hearing from him of the wonderful things often seen under his ministry. He had been absent from home, and had left Davenport to preach to his people. Whitefield went with him to Baskingridge, and found, on his arrival, Davenport with three thousand people assembled. Whitefield preached, standing in a wagon. Some cried out, and others wept. When this vehemence of feeling abated, Cross saw a little boy weeping as if his heart would break, and lifted him into the wagon. Whitefield was touched with the sight, and turned from his subject to dwell on the sovereignty of God, in melting a child and leaving so many in security. A universal con- cern immediately appeared: fresh persons dropped down, and the cry increased. At night Tennent preached in a barn on " Spi- ritual Desertion;" Whitefield prayed and exhorted, and there was a great commotion. The next day they went to New Brunswick, followed by a throng of persons from distant places. A deaf and dumb man from New Germantown lost no opportunity of being present on any of these occasions ; and to the end of life he amazed and delighted those who witnessed his delineations, by looks and motions, of those memorable scenes. Cross told Whitefield, in 1739, of the wonderful things often seen in his assembly : at first, only eight or nine had been affected ; but afterwards, upwards of three hundred of his congregation, which is not large, were effectually brought home to Christ. He had remarkable success on Staten Island, in 1741. When Whitefield preached at Nottingham, the heavenly infiuenoe descended as the dew. Tennent followed ; and, the meeting-house being closed against Cross, he preached in_ the woods, amid an astonishing outcry, swooning, and overwhelming concern. 414 BENJAMIN CAMPBELL. WHtefield wrote to Noble, of New York, September 22, 1742, wbo had expressed his high admiration of Cross, "I do not won- der; he is a dear soul, and one that the Lord delights to honom-." He said of him also, "He is indeed one that I believe would re- joice to suffer for the Lord Jesus. Oh that I might be hke- minded!" Tennent, on seeing these things in print, wrote to Whitefield, who replied, " I shall write to some friends about Mr. C.'s principles. I thank you for your kind caution. My mistakes often humble me." Thomson, of Chestnut Level, charges him with having required parents, on presenting their children for baptism, to own the Solemn League and Covenant of Scotland's Reformation. More serious charges than this were laid against him, in April, 1739, and, new complaints being made, he was called up by his presbytery and suspended, June 23, 1742. Dickinson says, " His dreadful scandals came to light in the midst of the Revival, and his previous high character for zeal and piety caused the enemies of God to blaspheme and triumph." Dickinson regarded his princi- ples as wholly Antinomian. A large body of people adhered to him and welcomed his ministrations. In October, 1746, he asked to be restored ; but the presbytery refused, on the ground that they had not sufficient evidence of his repentance. In the time* of the great land-riots, he was accused, by the par- ties who brought the ejectment suits, of being the counsellor of the people who resisted the process, and of having, in connection with the Rev. Daniel Taylor, — the Independent minister of Newark Mountains, — encouraged them to liberate the prisoners, and to the like deeds of violence. The actual settlers, it was said, pretended a just title, having purchased of those who had obtained a tract fif- teen miles square, of the Indians, for a five-shilling bill and a bot- tle of rum. A New York paper, of December, 1747, suggests the publication of "Sermons to Violent Men," founded on Proverbs xxix. 7. BENJAMIN CAMPBELL, A STUDENT of divinity from Ireland, was received by Newcastle Presbytery, November 5, 1729, and was licensed and ordained to a charge in their bounds before September, 1733. He married be- * New York Papers. JOHN NUTMAN. 415 fore January, 1734 ; and his death was reported to the sTnod in September, 1735. Mr. Legate, who came over with him, a fellow-student, is not mentioned after his being taken on trials by Newcastle Presby- tery. JOHN NUTMAN Was a native of Newark, New Jersey. His father (James* Nut- man) was from Scotland, and married a daughter of the Rev. John Prudden. Dr. Alden, in his "Epitaphs," says, " The old rule at Yale was to rank the scholars on the roll according to the relative position of their family." As Nutman stands at the head of the graduates of 1727, we may understand that he was of a family of distinguished consideration. He was licensed by Philadelphia Presbytery, and ordained pastor of Hanover, New Jersey, in 1730. Dr. Alden calls the congregation Whippany : it included at first West Hanover and South Hanover. He appeared in synod, in 1733, to lay before them the difficulties of his situation. A lot had been cast, with sacred solemnity, to determine the site of the meeting-house : the people of West Hanover or Morristown, being dissatisfied with the lot, formed a separate congregation, and left Nutman with only a portion of his people and a proportionate diminution of support. The synod blamed the resorting to the lot as unnecessary, and directed the Presbytery of East Jersey to travail with the people to reunite, at least till they be better able to subsist apart ; failing in this, to grant him a dismission on his application. They did not succeed ; and West Hanover applied to the synod, in 1734, for the ordination of Mr. Cleverly. The matter was left to Phila- delphia Presbytery; and they met at Hanover, August 8, 1737, — many delays having occurred, — and declined to ordain, though not judging the candidate unfit. The next year, the synod was in- voked by Mr. Budd, a commissioner, to consider whether West Hanover was bound by the lot, which had been cast in the lap five years before, to abide by a decision of a committee of East Jersey Presbytery. The matter was ended by appointing a committee of ministers to proceed to Hanover and hear both parties. * Dr. Stearns's History of First Church, Newark. 416 SAMUEL HEMPHILL. On the 20th of July, 1738, Gilbert Tennent opened the com- mittee with a sermon on Ezek. xi. 19 : — " I will give them one heart." Andrews, Treat, and Cowell were there, with John Cross, Gilbert Tennent, and his brother William. It appeared that, since the lot was cast. West Hanover was one-half abler tha.n before; and that Hanover was also much stronger, and, though " it was hard with them at present to support Mr. Nutman, yet they were in growing circumstances, and able to support of them- sehes. They had no mind to unite with the whole of the western part, nor on any of the former terms." The committee decided, that it was now impracticable to comply with the engagements under the lot, and that every good purpose would be much better answered by there being two separate societies. All parties ex- pressed their satisfaction with this decision. Nutman resigned the charge in 1745, and engaged in teaching in Newark. He died, September 1, 1761, aged forty-eight. His daughter was the first wife of Jonathan Sergeant, and the mother of the wife of the Eev. Dr. Ewing, of Philadelphia. SAMUEL HEMPHILL, While* a probationer in Ireland, preached to the vacant con- gregation of Burt, and gave offence by his doctrine to the Rev. Patrick Vance. When Hemphill's name was published in the synod in the usual manner before ordination, Vance was present, but made, no objections ; but in private he spoke of him freely as erroneous in his sentiments. When Hemphill came to America, Vance wrote to his brother-in-law, John Kilpatrick, (probably Kirkpatrick, the elder at Nottingham,) intimating his opinion of the man. Hemphill produced ample credentials to the synod from the Presbytery of Strabane; and, having adopted the West- minster Confession and Catechisms as " the rule of his faith and the guide of his practice," he was received as a member. He preached at New London with acceptance ; but, Kirkpatrick hav- ing showed Vance's letter to the ministers of Newcastle Presby- tery and to other persons, an investigation was made by that body, and they declared themselves satisfied with his teachings. * Hemphill's Remarka on Minutes of the Commisaiou: Old South Church Library. SAMUEL HEMPHILL. 417 Andrews* wrote to Colman from Philadelphia, June 14, 1735, "There seems to be now a more dreadful plot laid by Satan to root Christianity out of the world than ever was known before, so that all Christ's friends have reason to be awakened, and to do what they can to save the sinking ship. It has been, since last November, the most trying time with me that ever I met with. There came from Ireland, at that time, one Mr. Hemphill, to sojourn in town for the winter, as was pretended, till he could fall into business with some people in the country ; though some think he had other views at first, considering the infidel disposition of too many here. Some desiring that I should have assistance, — ■ and some leading men not disaffected to that way of Deism, as they should be, — that man was imposed on me and the congrega- tion. Most of the best of the people were soon so dissatisfied that they would not come to meeting. Freethinkers, deists, and nothings, getting a scout of him, flocked to hear. I attended all winter, but, making complaint, brought the ministers together, who acted as is shown in the books I send you." Hemphill said, Andrews invited him to preach once a day, and, being grieved at seeing multitudes come to hear him, went from house to house to prejudice the people against him. He called the commission; and they met, April 17, 1635. f Pemberton was moderator: the members present were Creag- head. Cross, Pierson, Anderson, Gillespie, and Thomson. The correspondents were Tennent, of Neshaminy, David Evans, Treat, Boyd, Hutcheson, Houston, Archibald, Jameson, Thomas Evans, Cathcart, Hubbell, and Gilbert Tennent. " Never was therej such a trial known in the American World. I was obliged, though with great regret, to article against him." The articles were, in substance, these :§ — 1. The gospel is a revival, or new edition, of the law of nature, except two positive precepts, and the worship of God by a medi- ator. Taught in a sermon on Rom. viii. 8. 2. The Lord's supper is a means of promoting a good life; but in it the believer has no communion with Christ. Sermon on Gal. vi. 15. 3. He declaimed against salvation by the merits of Christ, as representing God as stern and inexorable. He said Christ is preached up as a charm to work up enthusiasm. Sermon on Acts xxiv. 25. * MSS. of American Antiquarian Society. ,. u j • t Franklin wrote a moat artful, insidious dialogue, and published it, anony- mously, in his "Gazette," a few days previously. J Andrews to Colman. I Minutes of the Commission: Old South Church Library. 27 418 SAMUEL HEMPHIXL. 4. Faith is a persuasion, founded on natural grounds. Mys- teries were only for those times in which the apostles lived. Faith and obedience are the same thing. Sermon on Mark xvi. 16. 5. Cornelius was a heathen when the angel appeared to him. Sermon on Acts x. 24. 6. In preaching on Ps, xli. 4, — " Heal my soul," — he made no mention of original sin. He said, the passions and affections were right in themselves ; he did not include the blood of Christ among the remedies of the soul, and advanced a peculiar notion concern- ing hell. 7. In preaching from Eph. ii. 8, he said, it referred to the hea- then, and not to us ; and asked. Is not James as good as Paul ? 8. In prayer, he prays for mankind, and not for the church, and thanks God that he has given us reason for a rule. " If I am mistaken," said Andrews to the commission, "I shall be abundantly more ready to retract than to accuse." Hemphill objected to Thomson and Gillespie, as having avowed their opposition to him ; but the objection was overruled. Though he had promised to produce his notes, yet he fell back, and put Andrews on proof of his articles. Hemphill said he had promised to show Andrews his notes in private ; that he was not bound to furnish accusation against him- self ; and that it was contrary to the practice of the Church of Scotland to require it of him. He adds, but "they had prejudged the case already." Tennent and his son, however, testified that he had told them he would produce his notes to the commission. Andrews said, " I was put to a difiiculty ; for those that would have been evidences did not attend, and I could not persuade them to it; and others that could, would not." Hemphill says, "Andrews did produce two men; but their evi- dence was of no value." One of them, it is said, testified that he had heard many of the things specified by Andrews, but he could not repeat the exact words in which they were uttered, or name the text of the sermon in which they occurred. " Thus the first week, from Thursday, p.m., was spent." On Sabbath, Pemberton and Cross preached, and, Hemphill alleged, with the design of holding him up as a heretic to the people. They, in self-defence, printed their sermons. On Monday, he consented to bring his notes. "Then," said Andrews, "I left all to the ministers and meddled no more. As Providence ordered, all my charges came out fair." The notes were publicly read on Monday. Under the first article, he admitted he had said, " This is no more than to live ac- cording to our nature, and have the government of ourselves in SAMUEL HEMPHILL. 419 our own hands. The gospel, as to its ultimate end and most essential parts, is implanted in our very nature and reason." The commission unanimously felt themselves obliged to declare his teachings unsound and dangerous, and suspended him. They prmted their minutes, and appointed persons to defend what was done, who published a vindication of the commission from Hemphill's remarks on their minutes. "Since then," said Andrews, in July, "there have been many discourses of doing this and that ; and, though some are so angry as to stay away, yet most give their attendance. There is in the press an answer to the 'Abstract of the Minutes and a Vindication of his Sermons;' what it will be, I know not. Upon the whole, I am weary of these things, though all carry fair ; and, though the best of the people dread the thing, I intend to get away and leave them." Franklin was a pewholder in the Presbyterian church, and attended with much pleasure on Hemphill's preaching ; and, finding that, though a fluent preacher, he could not write, he pre- pared one or two pamphlets in his defence, besides several columns in the newspapers. One of these was probably " Some Observations on the Pro- ceedings against Mr. Hemphill, with a Vindication of his Ser- mons." A second edition of this pamphlet appeared in 1735. The first issue was delayed by the illness of the printer. It is claimed that, in all his discourses, Hemphill enforced Christian charity and the necessity of a good life. " The old man [Andrews] admitted that he was of an excellent temper." The commission having expressed surprise at his adopting the Confession, he replied, he had done so only so far as the funda- mental articles were concerned. That he asked the commission how many articles they esteemed fundamental, and they said they could not tell ; but, his defender says, " they would make all fundamental to serve a turn." The commission had said, they "were obliged to declare him unsound and dangerous;" he insinu- ates that the declaration was made solely to save Andrews's character, and that they had " no pattern for their proceedings but that hellish tribunal, the Spanish Inquisition." A manuscript note on one of the pamphlets* states, that a Quaker woman appeared before th« commission and insisted on being heard in Hemphill's behalf. The synod approved of the doings of the commission; and Hemphill sent a silly message, in writing, with a postscript: — "I shall think you do me a deal of honour if you entirely excom- municate me." * Old South Church Library. 420 ANDREW ARCHBOLD. In July, 1735, he preached twice to a very numerous assembly, where the congregation generally met. His pamphlet was soon answered; but, to the shame of his friends, it appeared that the sermon* on Mark xvi. 16 was in the published works of Dr. Clarke, the Arian, and those on Gal. vi. 15, Rom. viii. 8, and Ps. xli. 3, in the works of Dr. Ibbots, his colleague ; Dr. James Foster, also an Arian, being the author of the one on Acts xxiv. 25. Franklinf says, " Hemphill admitted that, by reading over a discourse two or three times, he could remember it so as to repeat it fluently from the pulpit as if extempore." " This, like a frost, nipped his popularity, and his adherents fell off like withered leaves, at once. Franklin upheld him, out of dislike to the old synod, and because he preferred hearing a man preach the fine compositions of others instead of his own ordinary or insipid pro- ductions." Another defence of Hemphill from Franklin's pen appeared, with this motto : — " I never knew any good to come from the meetings of priests." — Tillotson. "Wherefore, rebuke them sharply." — Paul. Andrew Bradford, of New Yorkj printed, in 1735, a satirical refutation of this piece: — "Remarks on Hemphill's Defence of his Observations, showing his orthodoxy, the excellency and meek- ness of his temper, and the justice of his complaints : by Obadiah Jenkins." The horrid profaneness of his book is censured, and his rude- ness in styling the synod men of impenetrable stupidity and reverend asses. He had said, that " original sin was as ridiculous as imputed righteousness," that there was "no need of spiritual pangs and convulsions," and that " good works put men in God's way and reconciles God to them." His plagiarism overwhelmed him : he slunk away into deserved obscurity. ANDEEW ARCHBOLD Was ordained by Newcastle Presbytery in 1733, and was sus- pended in 1735. Two instances of his gross wickedness being discovered, he "wholly absconded." * Obadiah Jenkins's Remarks on Hemphill's Defence. f Memoirs. JOHN TENNBNT. 421 JOHN TENNENT, The third son of Tennent, of Neshaminy, was born in county Armagh, (Ireland,) November 12, 1707.* His anguish -syhen awakened was violent in degree. He had been subject to rash anger, and was for four days "a rack of acute and continued anguish under dismal apprehensions of impending ruin and end- less misery from vengeance of a just and holy God." His con- solations were eminent and conspicuous. He was educated by his father, and was taken on trial by New- castle Presbytery, November 21, 1728, when he delivered "a homily to universal satisfaction." He was licensed September 18, 1729, and went as supply to Brandywine, Middletown, Newcastle, and Middle and Lower Octorara. Reports being raised of his having spoken unwisely, Creaghead, Thomson, and Hutcheson conferred with him, and were satisfied that the rumour was un- founded. About this time Freehold became vacant, and the people were so grievously divided, that there seemed no hope of their ever settling a minister. Walter Kerr left his harvest-fieldf and went to Neshaminy to persuade Tennent to go home with him. He totally refused; but Kerr told him, on leaving him, that he knew he would soon decide differently. He sent after Kerr to say he would come ; but, on coming, he expressed his regret in having consented to visit a people who seemed given up by God for their abuse of the gospel. There was a German sect that styled themselves " The NeAV Born," and were widely spoken of for their follies and their sins. In Monmouth, this name was applied in derision to those who pro- fessed to experience religion under the faithful labours of Freling- huysen and the English ministers. Tennent stayed only four or five Sabbaths ; but the Lord so blessed his laboursj that he was thoroughly persuaded Clirist had a full harvest to bring home there. He said that, should they call him, he would settle with them, poor and broken though they were, and though, by so doing, he should be put to beg his bread. He had a unanimous call, April 15, 1730, and was ordained by Phila- delphia Presbytery, November 19. Rightly dividing the word of * Quoted by Dr. Alexander, from his life by Gilbert Tennent. t On his return, he found that his neighbours had cut his grain and stacked it. A very general loss of the crop followed through some accident after housing it. Kerr's escaped, and furnished seed to those who had so kindly reaped his field. This tradition was mentioned to me by the Rev. Job F. Halsey. I William Tennent, of Freehold, in the Christian History. 422 WILLIAM TENNENT. truth, he avoided that "bane of preaching,* setting a common mess before his hearers and leaving to them to divide it among themselves as fancy and humour directed." Wonderful success attended him; the place of worship was usually crowded with persons of all classes and persuasions, listening as for their Hves. Sometimes the body of the congregation was moved, minister and people being wet with tears, many sobbing, and some carried out as if they were dead. There was "no public outci-y." A great reformation followed; "all talked of religion, though all did not approve of the power of it." He died April 23, 1732, aged twenty-five; for six months before he was unable to preach, his pulpit being supplied by his brother William. During his sickness, many came, inquiring what they must do to be saved ; but the blessing on his labours to the con- viction and conversion of souls, was more discernible after his death. Almost in every neighbourhood were sin-sick souls, longing for Christ, the dear physician. His brother Gilbert appended to his " Presumptuous Sinner De- tected," a life of his brother, with his two sermons on the "Nature of Regeneration, and its absolute necessity in order to Salvation demonstrated." Whitefield, on reading it, exclaimed, "Let me die the death of that righteous man !" Dickinson prepared an epitaph for his tomb. Dr. Alexander speaks of his sermons as in no way remarkable, but sensible, solemn, and earnest. WILLIAM TENNENT, The second son of the minister of Neshaminy, was born in county Antrim, June 3, 1705. He was early led to the Saviour, and, upon finishing his classical course with his father, he beganf the study of divinity with his brother Gilbert. While preparing for examination before the presbytery, he fell ill with a pain in his breast and a slight hectic fever. His flesh dropped away till little hope of life remained; his spirits sunk, and his hope of salvation was wellnigh gone. While conversing with Gilbert in Latin on his fears for his soul, he fainted, and every sign of life departed except a scarcely-percept- ible tremour under the left arm. He was laid on a cooling-board ; * Gilbert Tennent. t Memoir of Tennent, of Freehold, by Dr. Henderson, and commonly ascribed to Elias Boudinot. WILLIAM TENNENT. 423 but the physician, a young man, his intimate friend, having put his own hand in warm water, felt the heart and affirmed that there was an unusual warmth. The eyes were sunk, the lips discoloured. Gilbert, hearing a hope expressed that he was not yet dead, ex- claimed, "What ! a man not dead that is as cold and stiff as a stake !" The body was restored to a warm bed, and all probable means used without success. On the third day the tongue was Swollen and ready to crack; the physician moistened the lips, and Gilbert blamed him for "feeding the dead." Suddenly the eyes opened, and, with a dreadful groan, the body sunk as if twice dead. In. about an hour the eyes again opened, the dreadful groan followed, and then all was deathlike. In an hour, however, there was a re- vival of the vital action : for six weeks he was so low that his life was despaired of; in a twelvemonth he regained his health. His own account, as given to his elder, Dr. Henderson, and to his successor. Dr. Woodhull, was, that the three days seemed like twenty minutes ; that he felt himself wafted along under the guid- ance of a superior being, till at a distance he beheld an unutterable glory; he saw an innumerable host of happy beings, and heard their songs of praise with rapture. He thought, "Well, blessed be God, I am safe at last, notwithstanding all my fears." He was about to join the happy company, when one came to him and said, "You must go back." It was like a sword through his heart: with the shock he awoke, and saw his brother disputing with the doctor. He had lost all his knowledge ; he did not know the Bible, nor how to read, nor what reading meant. When he became capable of attention, he was taught to read, like a child, and, when reciting Nepos, it appeared to him he had read the book before. Gradually his knowledge and his health were fully restored. He was licensed by Philadelphia Presbytery, and, being called to succeed his brother John, he was ordained by Philadelphia Presby- tery, October 25, 1733. His salary was not large, but there was an excellent plantation attached to the parsonage : leaving the care of it entirely to an overseer, he became clogged with debt. He married the widow of Mr. John Noble, of New York, and left to her the management of all his affairs. When his oldest child was about three or four years of age, his views of duty changed, and he saw the propriety of a minister's making reasonable provision for hia household. After the remarkable outpouring of the Spirit on his brother's labours, God continued to bless his ordinances to the conviction, conversion, and consolation of precious souls, so that every year more or less were converted ; but there were fewer from 1742 to '44 than formerly. Some, however, were awakened in 1744. Whitefield preached, in his journeys across the State, on week- 424 WILLIAM TENNENT. days, in Freehold: "the new meeting-house" is mentioned in 1729. In the next April, Tennent refreshed Whitefield by telling him what God was doing for hundreds in the Highlands of New York, where he had lately been. His brother Gilbert mentions, in 1740, that his labours at that time were remarkably blessed in Burlington county. Several reli- gious societies were formed there. In 1757, a revival was granted to Freehold, equal in power to that which was then descending on the College of New Jersey. Burr speaks of it, in June, as a remarkable revival : — "We have reason to remember it as the most glorious day of the Son of man. The assembly was large. The manner of administra- tion did particularly engage their attention. It appeared as one of the days of heaven to some of us, and we wished that, with Joshua, we could have delayed the revolutions of the heavens to prolong it." In March, 1753, there was a remarkable revival and quickenings. During the exciting scenes in the synod, he appears to have been a silent but steady supporter of his brother; in all the fierceness of the pamphlet-warfare, not a syllable was uttered against him. He visited Virginia, in company with Samuel Blair, and assisted in dispensing the Lord's Supper in Hanover. In company with Rowland and two elders from Hopewell, in New Jersey, he attended a sacramental occasion in Maryland, in 1741 or '42. Not long after, Rowland was indicted for having stolen a horse in Hunterdon county. New Jersey. The time when the theft was committed being the time when he was with them in Maryland, Tennent and the elders came forward and proved that he was a hundred miles distant at the period alleged. Rowland was acquitted, but was assailed with a storm of invective, as having escaped by perjury. Tennent was indicted, and the elders ; one was convicted, and the other escaped only by taking advantage of some error on the part of the prosecution. Able counsel appeared for Tennent; but, instead of sending for the minister, or others from Maryland, to sustain his veracity, they proposed that he should avail himself of a flaw. This he would not do ; and, just before the case came on, a man and his wife presented themselves to him, having come from Maryland in consequence of dreams of danger portending, which only their presence could avert from him. They must have been persons known in Trenton ; for their testi- mony was admitted, and the prosecution abandoned. "His manner was remarkably impressive, and his sermons, though seldom polished, were generally delivered with indescrib- able power; what he said seldom failed to instruct and please. He was remarkable for a pointed attention to the particular cir- cumstances of the afflicted in body and mind. Eminent as a WILLIAM TENNENT. 425 peacemaker, all were charmed with his converse. His hospi- tality and domestic enjoyments were proverbial. " More than six feet high, of a spare, thin visage, erect carriage, with bright, piercing eyes, his countenance was grave and solemn, yet at all times cheerful. He lived above the world, with such clear views of heavenly things as seemed to give him a foretaste of them." Tennent took a deep interest in Brainerd's mission, and for a season took the oversight of it. When Whitefield visited him, he saw with delight the school, and marked the proficiency of the pupils under Tennent's fatherly care. The life of Tennent was long. He devoted much time to the education of youth, and trained several in philosophy and divinity. Among others who studied theology with him were Gumming, McWhorter, and Oliver Hart, pastor of a Baptist church in Charleston. He had the pleasure of seeing his sons, John and William, awakened during the revival at Princeton, under Dr. Finley ; and of seeing another of great promise, but of loose habits, graciously brought back, on a bed of sickness, to the Shepherd and Bishop of his soul. This son died soon after. Another died in the West Indies ; and his son William, a distinguished minister and patriot in South Carolina, was suddenly called from earth, not long after his father's decease. Unlike Gilbert, he published but one sermon, — a plain, judicious discourse on Galatians v. 25. It was printed in Boston, in 1739, in the " Sacramental Discourses." Many striking incidents in his life are so universally known, that, beyond all the ministers of his day, he lives in the memory of the people. It has been supposed that he was a sleep-walker, from his having " gone to bed with ten toes on, And when he waked up, one was gone ;" as is smartly said of him, by one who ridiculed his undertaking to give advice to "His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury." The toe disappeared ; whether cut off by treading on glass in a som- nambuUsm,* or gnawed off by rats, or how else, may be disputed. Can it be that Tennent believed that he who contended with Michael for the body of Moses strove also for his, and, failing, wrenched off the great toe ? Such is the tradition. * As supposed by Dr. Alexander. 426. SAMUEL BLAIR. SAMUEL BLAIR Was born in Ireland, June 14, 1712, and came to this country ■when a lad. Where his parents* resided is not mentioned. " He was blestf with early piety, and on his death-bed could recollect, with delight, various evidences of gracious influence in his tender years. He was made sensible, betimes, of his guilty state by na- ture and practice, felt his total inability to deliver himself, saw plainly that he lay at mercy, and that it was entirely at God's good pleasure to save or reject him. He was restless till he saw the way of life, — that God could save in consistence with the honour of governing justice, for that the obedience and sufferings of Christ in the room of sinners have made sufficient atonement for sin. His soul approved of the divine glorious plan. Strict holiness was his choice. He grew in stature and in grace." He studied at the Log' College, became conversant with the original languages of the Scriptures, and had much critical learn- ing, with a thorough knowledge of divinity. He was licensed, November 9, 1733, at Abingdon, by Philadelphia Presbytery, at their first meeting after the Presbytery of East Jersey was set off; he preached his trial sermon before them, on Romans iv. 5. He was called. May 24, 1734, to Middletown and Shrewsbury, and also to Millstone and Cranberry. He accepted the former, Sep- tember 19, and was dismissed to East Jersey Presbytery, and was soon after ordained. When licensed, and when ordained, he de- clared his acceptance of the Westminster Confession, Catechisms, and Directory. Middletown and Shrewsbury were among the towns first settled in East Jersey. A Baptist church was organized at the former place in 1689. There was a Presbyterian church there before 1711, J and " the spirit of mixed communion prevailed in both societies. The divisions among the Baptists rose very high ; and, as a healing measure, they agreed "to keep their own places, and not wander to other societies." Blair met with little success, the people in both of his congregations "being very irreligious." His pastoral relation was dissolved, September 5, 1739, and he was dis- missed by Brunswick Presbytery, October 12, to join Newcastle Presbytery. A sermon of his was published, about this time, in Boston, in a volume of Tennent's "Sacramental Discourses." * The name of WilHam Blair occurs as an elder in 1729, and 1732, from Brandy- Trine or Bed Clay. -j- Finley's- sermon at his funeral. J Morgan Edwards's History of New Jersey Baptists. SAMUEL BLAIR, His three sermons on Justification were also published, and are commended by Seward, in 1740, as full of solid divinity. At the earnest invitation of the people of Fagg's Manor, he removed thither in the beginning of November, accepted their call in the winter, and was installed in April. The place was newly settled, from Ireland ; the congregation had been formed in 1730, but had never had a minister. Some of them applied* to the As- sociate Presbytery in Scotland, in 1735, but without success. It was a great encouragement to Blairf to find some hopefully-pious people among them at his first coming ; but religion lay as it were dying, and ready to expire its last breath. "Having some view and sense of the deplorable condition of the land in general, the scope of my preaching for the first winter was mainly calculated for persons in a natural unregenerate state. I dealt solemnly and searchingly: four or five were brought under deep convictions. Leaving home in March, I obtained a neighbouring minister to preach a Sabbath in my absence." This was, in all probability, Alexander Craighead, of Middle Octorara. "He seemed to be earnest for the awakening and conversion of secure sinners. He preached, from Luke xiii. 7, on the dangerous and awful case of such as continue unregenerate and unfruitful under the means of grace. Under that sermon there was a visible appearance of much soul-concern ; some burst out with an audible noise into bitter cry- ing, — a thing unknown in those parts before." "A pretty light, merry sort of a youth" came to Blair, on his return, under deep trouble. The sermon had not impressed him; but, the next day, when he went to grubbing in order to clear new land, as he saw a pretty large tree with a high top fall, the words " Cut it down : why cumbereth it the ground?" came to his remembrance, and went as a spear to his heart. " So must I be cut down by the jus- tice of God for the burning of hell, unless I get into another state than I am now in." He came under deep and abiding distress : "his conversation since becomes the gospel of Christ." Blair's first sermon, on coming back, was from Matthew vi. 33. In pressing the injunction, he urged that they had already too, too long neglected to seek the kingdom. This cut like a sword; and several could not contain, but burst out into the most bitter weep- ing. He besought them to moderate their passions, but so as not to stifle convictions, and to avoid hindering themselves and others from hearing what was spoken. The number of the awakened increased very fast ; scarcely a sermon or a lecture through the whole summer failed to produce impressions. Often these impressions were very great and general : some were * McKerrow's History of the Secession Clrnroh. I Letter in Christian History. 428 SAMUEL BLAIR. overcome and fainting, others deeply sobbing ; some crying in a most dolorous manner, many more silently weeping ; a solemn con- cern on every face. Comparatively, a few were affected with some strange, unusual bodily motions. Very few in the congregation were without solemn thoughtfulness about their souls. The awa- kened had a rational, fixed conviction of their dangerous perishing state; they were much given to reading the Scriptures and good books. Excellent works, which had lain neglected, were perused, and lent from one to another. Blair preached on Fridays, through the spring and summer, his great aim being to lay open the de- plorable state of man, by nature, since the fall, and the way of the sinner's closing with Christ by faith, and obtaining a right peace to an awakened, wounded conscience. Many afforded very hopeful, satisfying evidence that the Lord ha^ brought them to a true closure with Jesus Christ : several had had remarkable and sweet deliverances. Towards the end of the summer, there seemed to be a stop put to the awakening and conviction of sinners ; and, for the next four years, there were few instances of persons convinced. Blair makes no mention of the two visits of Whitefield. He made a tour of preaching through New England in the summer of 1744. Of the rupture of 1741, Blair spoke when near his end, "It pleased God to make me and a number of my brethren instru- mental in promoting what I always believed was a work of his power and grace ; but, somehow or other, our mother's children were angry with us who were instrumental in carrying it on, and unjustly excluded us from communion with them." Blair published a "Vindication of the Excluded Brethren," an answer to Thomson on the " Government of the Church," and to Creaghead's "Reasons for Forsaking our Church;" also, a "Trea- tise on Predestination." His school produced such men as Davies, Rodgers, Cumming, James Finley, Robert Smith, and Hugh Henry. "Each one re- sembled the children of a king." As scholars, preachers, pastors, patriots, — in their piety and their success, — a noble company, a goodly fellowship, showing the church what manner of men the apostles and martyrs were. Blair spoke* as one who knew the worth of souls, and felt in himself the sweet constraint of the love of God and man. He was grave and solemn, yet cheerful, even pleasant, facetious, witty. Davies spoke of him as the incomparable Blair. "When, in 1753, I passed the meeting-house where I had so often heard the great Mr. Blair, I could not help crying out, ' Oh, how dreadful is * Finley. SAMUEL BLAIR. 429 this place ! this is no other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' " He was a man of great weight in judicatories : " they waited for him as the rain." His zeal for the college made him journey when sick to promote its interests. After severe sickness in Philadel- phia, he was, beyond his expectation, restored to health and home; he then laboured as one near his end to awaken the perishing, but, failing, he changed his strain ; " only he publicly reminded them of a certain day, March 25, 1744, when he was enabled to set eternal things before them with more than ordinary solemnity and pun- gency." He then entered on a new course of sermons for the edification and establishment of the people of God, wherein he clearly ex- plained and satisfyingly confirmed the whole system of gospel doc- trine, from the state of innocence to the consummation of all things. He concluded the course with a sermon on 1 Corinthians xv. 24, with which he may be said to have closed his public ministry; for, though he afterwards preached twice, it was with so little strength and efBcacy, that he called them "supernumerary sermons." On the 7th of April, 1751, apprehending his end to be near, he sent for the elders and two out of every quarter of the congrega- tion, and gave them his parting counsels. He asked them to col- lect the remnant of his debts and give their good countenance to his widow and his half-a-score of children. "Adhere to your own presbytery ; but, if the synods unite, be not obstinate and separate." In seeking a successor, he bids them not to expect from a young man, at the outset, all that they saw in him after many years of experience. His son-in-law, Robert Smith, of Pequea, published his dying counsels, with several of his sermons. Blair had, through a long course of years, an habitual assurance of his interest in the favour of God. His last words, a minute or two before his departure, were, " The Bridegroom is come, and now we shall have all things;" and, under a gleam of heaven, he breathed his last, on July 5, 1751. His son Samuel was early in life elected to the presidency of Nassau Hall, and was settled in the Old South Church in Boston. His daughters married the Rev. George Duffield, Robert Smith, David Rice, of Kentucky, William Foster, of Octorara, and John Carmichael, of the Forks of Brandywine. He was above the middle stature, comely, and well set ; in aspect grave and venerable, with a clear understanding, quick apprehen- sion, prompt elocution, solid judgment, strong and lively imagina- tion, and tenacious memory. His voice was clear and command- ing; his pronunciation distinct and deliberate; his style natural, elegant, pure. He studied plainness, being naturally poetic, copi- ous, and florid; preaching without notes, but seldom or never ex 430 SAMUEL BLAIR. tempore. His advise to Dr. Rodgers was, "Speak slow; speak low, be short." Finley speaks of him as gentle, prudent, cautious ; as having a glorious arousing view of God's power, the wisdom of his govern- ment, and the riches of his grace, with a particular appropriation of them to himself and his. His was a divine calmness. Davies said to Bellamy, " The greatest light in these parts is just about to take wing." In his travels in Great Britain, he heard no one equal to his instructor ; not one whom he thought, in any way, to resemble or approach to him in the matter or the de- livery of his discourses. In his elegiac verses* he says : — "Blair is no more ! then this poor world has lost As rich a jewel as her stores could boast. While, hovering on the verge of life, he lay Eager for flight, and yet resign'd to stay, How oft did we, in agonies of prayer, Wrestle with Heaven his sacred breath to spare I But, ah ! his worth but cherish'd our despair, And threaten'd the denial of our prayer. So great, so heavenly, so mature a mind Required employment of a nobler kind. Too much refined in this dark world to bear The humble place of Zion's minister, Heaven oall'd him to sustain some nobler function there. An intellect as clear as blaze of day, Sedate as midnight, boundless as the sea. Free as the wind, yet steady as the pole. Passive to truth, impatient of control From vulgar error ; regular and smooth As genuine reason and harmonious truth ; Truth link'd to truth and thought to thought conjoin'd Spontaneous rose in his harmonious mind ; His rude, unstudied thoughts in order sprung, Express'd in equal order by his tongue ; Clusters of ripen'd sense on each young period hung. His passions vigorous, yet by reason ruled. By calmest reason kindled, temper'd, cool'd ; His heart reserved as prudence, and confined, And yet as truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind. His life, a fix'd, unerring walk with God, A constant progress in the heavenly road ; His heart, the rest of constant peace and love ; There glow'd the passions seraphs feel above; There, pleased and unmolested, dwelt the heavenly dove. His breath, like grateful incense, to the skies Did daily in refined devotions rise. His soul exerted with his praying breath The almighty importunity of faith ; Hence guilty heads escape the falling blow. And blessings to unworthy millions flow. Nations partook the bounty of his prayer And future times the benefit shall share." * Printed in the collection of his sermons published after his death, containing Finley's funeral sermon, and Robert Smith's account of his closing days. JAMES MARTIN — ROBERT JAMISON. 431 JAMES MARTIN, From Ireland, was the pastor of Lewes, in Delaware, in 1734, and died there in 1748. He is said to have organized the church at Cool Spring, Whitefield landed about five (o'clock) in the evening of October 8, 1739, at Lewestown ; and, in reference to this event, he ob- serves,^ " We had not been long in the inn but two or three of the chief inhabitants, being apprized of his arrival, came and spent the evening with us, and desired me to give them a sermon on the morrow." He preached there, in 1740, to " as unaffected a congregation as he had seen in America. They wept, next day, when he por- trayed the trial of Abraham's faith. Alas ! when I turned from the creature to the Creator, and to talk of the love of God in sacrificing his only Son, I observed their tears dry up. I told them of it ; and could not but infer hence the dreadful depravity of human nature, that can weep at the sufferings of a martyr, — a man like ourselves ; but when are we affected at the relation of the sufferings of the Son of God?" The Church missionary gives a different view. He says White- field preached from a balcony, and that the enthusiasm of the people was violent, but after a time it abated. Martin signed the Protest in 1741. His death is mentioned in May, 1748. ROBERT JAMISON, From Ireland, settled in Delaware, and was a member of synod in 1784. From a manuscript of Joshua Evans,* an Independent, it appears that there were Welsh Baptists at Duck Creek; and that the first name of their meeting-house was Bryn-Sion, i.e. Zion Hill. The Presbyterian meeting-house was built in 1783, on land given by Mr. Dickinson. Thomas Evans preached the first ser- * Quoted by Morgan Edwards, in his MS. History of the Baptists in Delaware, of which only a fragment remains. 432 ISAAC CHALKEE. mon in it, August 12, 1733, and administered the November 9. At first the Baptists used the house, but after- wards worshipped in private houses. There was a great mortality in that region in the spring of 173T. Jamison began to preach, December 26, 1734. He died in 1744; and, the congregation having ' neglected to have the property conveyed to them by deed, it reverted, during the long vacancy that followed, to the Dickinsons, and was made over to the Baptists in 1771. ISAAC CHALKER. Of the family of Chalkers in Saybrook, Connecticut, graduated at Yale in 1728 ; and, after being licensed, he married, and re- sided on Long Island. He was ordained, in 1734, by East Jersey Presbytery, pastor of Bethlehem and Wallkill, in the Highlands of New York. John Smith, an elder from Bethlehem, sat with him in the synod in 1735, and is almost* the only elder who, for fifty years, asked to have his dissent entered against a synodical decision. The presbytery had ordained Chalker at a distance from his congregations; and he found himself in great difficulty at Wallkill, through a wide-spread report of his not having adopted the Westminster Confession. He had lost the good-will of Samuel Neely, of Neelytown. The synod judged that Chalker was hearty in his adherence to our standards, and that Neely was to blame in exciting discontent. Chalker left the bounds of the synod in 1743, havingf lost his stock of cattle in the extremity of the cold winter of 1741-2. He also "lost a man," became very poor, and much in debt. In 1744, he was settled in Eastbury, (Second Society in Glasten- bury,) Connecticut, with a settlement of three hundred pounds, old tenor, and a salary of one hundred and thirty pounds a year. He petitioned the legislature for relief, and aid was granted to him, but not sufficient to set him free from his embarrassments. He remained until 1760, and died. May 28, 1765. * John Gardner, of White Clay, did the same in the case of Walton, f MSS. Connecticut State Library. SIMON HORTON — HUGH CARLISLE. 433 SIMON HORTON Was born in Boston, March 30, 1711. The family removed to East Jersey in 1727; and he graduated at Yale in 1731. He was ordained, by East Jersey Presbytery, pastor of Connecticut Farms, New Jersey, in 1734. He succeeded Pumry at Newtown in 1746. On the death of Colgan,* Church missionary at Jamaica, Long Island, the Dissenters prevailed — by their majority in the vestry in 1756 — to present to the governor " one Simon Horton" for induction into the parish; but Sir Charles Hardy, who was then at the head of the Provincial Grovernment, refused to induct him into the cure. Horton seems to have resigned the pastoral care before 1773, as is supposed, t from his becoming sensible that he was not likely to do them good, by his plain and unattractive manner ; but, on the removal of Bay, his successor, he acted as stated supply until his death. May 8, 1786, aged seventy-five. He was sent yearly by New York Presbytery, towards the close of his life, to supply the East and West Houses on Staten Island. Davies heard Horton, during the synod of 1753, preach on Sabbath morning " an honest, judicious sermon" on " Christ the Wisdom and the Power of God." During the Revolution,! he resided at Warwick, Orange county, with his son-in-law, Benjamin Coe. The congregation of New- town was so scattered during the war, that, at its close, there were only five communicants in the congregation. The church was dilapidated through the madness of the British and the Tories. HUGH CARLISLE Was " admitted into the Newcastle Presbytery" before Septem- ber, 1735, probably from Great Britain or Ireland. He adopted the standards at that time ; but, not having seen the Adopting Act until he met with the synod, " he had the same read to him, and did then concur in his assent to the terms of it." At that time, * Macdonald's Jamaica. ■}■ Riker's History of Newtown. J Ibid. 28 434 ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD. Newtown and Plumstead, in Bucks county, obtained leave of Phila- delphia Presbytery to employ him; and he joined that body in June, 1736. Hugh Hunter and Anthony Thompson requested the presbytery that a call might be moderated for him. Treat was directed to preside. The call was presented in May, 1737 ; but, in August, he declined it, on account of the distance of Plumstead from Newtown. He continued to service them, and was sent, in November, to supply Amwell and Bethlehem, in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, with other vacancies. Martin met with Philadelphia Presbytery, March 14, 1738, to request that Carlisle might go into the bounds of Lewes Presbytery. He removed at once, and is mentioned as a member of that presbytery in 1742 : subsequently his name is not seen. ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD Was probably the son of the Rev. Thomas Craighead, and may have been born in this country. He appeared before Done- gal Presbytery, January 5, 1734; and was licensed October 8, having preached from Prov. x. 9. He was sent to Middle Octo- rara and " over the river," being the first to whom that duty was assigned. He was called (April 9, 1735) to Middle Octorara, the people promising sixty pounds, and declaring their ability to raise seventy-one pounds. He accepted in June, and was appointed to prepare a sermon on Col. ii. 7, a lecture on the first Psalm, and to discuss the question. Where revelation is necessary to salvation ? He was ordained November 18, Boyd having preached from 2 Tim. ii. 15. A zealous promoter of the " Revival," he accompanied White- field while in Chester county ; and they made the woods ring, as they rode, with songs of praise.* He carried the gospel to the people of New London, in opposi- tion to the wish of the minister, session, and most of the congre- gation. A part of his flock complained of his introducing new terms of communion, requiring them, when having their children baptized, to adopt the Solemn League and Covenant. He also was charged with denying that ministers should be confined within * Whitefield, after preaching at Willingston, ( Wilmington,) rode towards Not- tingham -with Tennent, Craighead, and Blair, accompanied by many from Phila- delphia, mostsweetly singing and praising God, May 13, 1740. — Qiltiet. ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD. 435 tte bounds of one congregation, but should roam as evangelists ; and with excluding from communion one who seemed opposed to the new methods. The presbytery came to his meeting-house in December, 1740, to adjudicate the case. He was preaching from — " They be blind leaders of the blind." It was a continued invective against Pharisee preachers, and the presbytery, as given over to judicial blindness and hardness. " He railed on Mr. Boyd." The people were invited at the close to repair to "the tent" and hear his de- fence, which was read by David Alexander and Samuel Finley. The presbytery, though summoned to hear it, remained in the church, and were proceeding to business, when the people rose in a tumult, and, with railing, compelled them to withdraw. When they met next day, he, with his coadjutors, appeared ; and, having read the defence from the pulpit, he declined their juris- diction, because they all were his accusers. They suspended him; but resolved that, if he should signify his repentance to any member, a meeting should be called at once, to consider his acknowledgment and take off the suspension. He sat in the next synod; and, they having spent the first week in considering his case without coming to any decision, the Protest was introduced on Monday, and separated the conflicting parties. Some of his people respected the sentence of the presbytery, and forsook him. He asked the presbytery, just before the rup- ture, to see to it that those- persons fulfilled their engagements to him. He separated from the Brunswick party at the first meeting of the conjunct presbyteries, because they refused to revive the Solemn League and Covenant. Soon after, he published his rea- sons for leaving their connection, putting forwfird, as his promi- nent inducement, that neither synod nor presbytery had adopted the Westminster Standards by a public act. Blair replied to him ; Gilbert Tennent lamented his party-spirit and censoriousness. Craighead addressed the Reformed Presbytery in Scotland, declar- ing his adherence to their views and methods, and soliciting helpers. He issued a manifesto, setting forth his opinions, to draw together all who held the like sentiments. Thomas Cookson, Esq., one of his Majesty's justices for Lan- caster county, appeared before the Synod of Philadelphia, May 26, 1743, and, in the name of the governor, laid before them a paper to be considered. All other business was at once deferred, and the paper, with an accompanying affidavit, was read. The synod unanimously agreed, " That it is full of treason, sedition, and dis- traction, and grievous perverting of the sacred oracles, to the ruin of all societies and civil government, and directly and diametrically opposite to our religious principles, as we have on all occasions 436 ALEXANDEK CRAIGHEAD. openly and publicly declared. "We hereby declare, with the greatest sincerity, that we detest this paper, and, with it, all principles and practices that tend to destroy the civil and religious rights of man- kind, or to foment or encourage sedition or dissatisfaction with the civil government that we are now under, or rebellion, treason, or any thing that is disloyal. If Mr. Alexander Craighead be the author, we know nothing of the matter. He has been no member of our society for some, time past, nor do we acknowledge him as such, and heartily lament that any man that was ever called a Presbyterian should be guilty of what is in this paper." Dickinson, Pemberton, Alison, and the moderator, Cowell, pre- pared an address to the governor. It was presented to him, with a copy of the minute, by Andrews, Cross, and Cathcart. Tennent said, about the same time, "His late and present divi- sive conduct we utterly detest and disclaim. I hope he is a pious man ; but, having more zeal and positiveness than knowledge and judgment, he has schismatically broken communion with us, and adopted the rigid Cameronian scheme. He is indeed tinged with an uncharitable and party spirit, to the great prejudice of real reli- gion in some places this way. May the Almighty forgive him and rectify his judgment!" His success in forming praying societies is not known ; no minis- ter came from Britain to his assistance. "With apparent sincerity, he objected to the deficiency of the system on which the Philadelphia Synod was constituted, and, with seeming sincerity, joined himself to the support of the languishing cause of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He did not, how- ever, possess stability. Overstrained zeal is seldom permanent. This man, having co-operated with the Covenanters with an ardour which appeared to some of them enthusiastic, left his profession and vows, and turned to the iiocks of his former companions. The societies which he had forsaken continued eight years in this dis- tressed condition, until, moved by their entreaties, the Rev. John Cuthbertson* came to them from Scotland, in 1762. "f In 1751, he wrote to the Anti-Burgher Associate Presbytery in Scotland ; but, though ministers were directed by the presbytery to go in answer to his appeal, they failed to comply. He is said to have removed to Windy Cove, on Cowpasture River, in Augusta county, Virginia, in 1749 ;J but it was probably not till after the ill success of his second application to Scotland. A » Through the kindness of the Kev. T. W. J. Wylie, of the Reformed Presbyte- rian Church, I learn that Cuthbertson laboured forty years at Middle Octorara, Lancaster county, and joined in forming the Associate Reformed body. He died there, March 10, 1791, aged seyenty-three. I Reformed Principles exhibited by the Reformed Presbyterian Church. J Dr. Foote's Sketches of Virginia. ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD. 437 large* buttonwood-tree, close to the river-bank, marks the site where stood his humble cabin. About a half mile above, stood his little log church ; nothing now remains of it but a few stones of the back-wall of the fireplace, amidst a thick grove of pines. He and his people went to the house of God fully equipped to meet any sudden attack of savages. He joined Newcastle Presbytery before the fall of 1754. On Braddock's defeat, his congregation fled from the frontier, and a portion settled in North Carolina. He met with Hanover Presbytery, September 2, 1757, and, in January, was sent to Rocky River, in North Carolina, and to other vacancies. He was called, in April, to Rocky River ; and Richard- son, on his way to labour among the Cherokees, was directed to install him. He died in March, 1766, leaving behind him the affectionate remembrance of his faithful, abundant, and useful labours. He is said to have been a prey to dejection of spirits, as was also hi8 relative, John Craighead, the pastor of Rocky Spring, Pennsyl- vania. The first numerous settlementf between the Yadkin and Ca- tawba was three miles north of Charlotte. In 1750, there were no white inhabitants ; but they poured in so rapidly that, in 1756, the chm-ch on Sugar Creek was formed. Here was Craighead's home, and his burial-place : no stone marks his grave ; but it is known by two large sassafras-trees, which grew, it is said, from the sticks being thrust into the ground, on which his coflSn was borne to the grave. His son Thomas became a minister of our church in Tennessee, and rose to high standing. His third daughter married the Rev. David Caldwell, of Buffalo and Allemance. Her son, Samuel Craighead Caldwell, was licensed at nineteen years of age, and ordained pastor of Hopewell and Sugar Creek in 1792. His har- monious continuance in that relation for thirty-five years is his best eulogium. At one time, seventy were added to the church. He died in 1826. Two of his sons are in the ministry. * Rev. Samuel Brown, of "Windy CoTe. f Dr. Foote's Sketches of North Carolina. 438 JOHN PAUL— PATRICK aLASCOW — 6AM0EL BLACK. JOHN PAUL Was received by the standing committee of Donegal Presbytery as a licentiate from Ireland, December 10, 1735, and was soon after called to Nottingham. Thomson "served his edict," and he was installed the second Wednesday of October, 1736. He preached at the ordination of David Alexander, at Pequea, in 1738, and was one of the first supplies sent to Deer Creek, Maryland. He died in 1739 ; and in June the commission remitted his bond for twelve pounds, and, the next year, gave his widow one pound out of the fund. His tomb remains in the old graveyard near the Rising Sun: the inscription, nearly obliterated, tells that he died at the age of thu'ty-three. PATRICK GLASGOW, After the ordinary trials, and after adopting the Westminster Confession, was licensed by Lewes Presbytery. Having a call to Monokin, he was, after the usual steps, and a repeated declaration of his adopting the Westminster Confession, ordained and installed in 1736. He is not mentioned after 1741 on our records: he was or- dained after the Episcopal mode, and became the rector of All-Hal- lows, in Worcester county, Maryland. He died there, March 23, 1753. SAMUEL BLACK, A STUDENT of theology, from Ireland, was licensed by New- castle Presbytery. The Forks of Brandywine, in Chester county, were formed into a separate congregation. In September, 1735, Donegal Presbytery gave them leave to invite Black to preach as a SAMUEL BLACK. 439 candidate for settlement. He was called, October 7, and was or- dained, November 18, 1735. Boyd preached from 2 Timothy ii. 15. A portion of his people preferred complaints against him, Septem- ber 2, 1740, and requested the presbytery to call, as correspondents, Charles Tennent and Samuel Blair, when they took up the case. This was just at the time of the extraordinary effects produced by the preaching of Whitefield. The presbytery, in writing to Newcas- tle Presbytery for correspondents, requested the moderator that any of the members might be sent to their aid but Blair and Ten- nent, — alleging that the congregation, in asking for them, evinced a desire to choose their own judges. Black was put on trial November 4, to answer the charges — 1. Of saying, "He sought not theirs, but them," while he did not seek their salvation. 2. Of representing himself as weary through much labour in the ministry, while he did not toil in the vineyard. 3. Of drunkenness. 4. Of lying, in speaking of the Revival at different times in dif- ferent ways. 6. Of sedition, in sowing dissensions among the people. 6. Of making no application of the truth to the states or cases of his hearers. 7. For opposing the work of God then in progress in neighbour- ing congregations. The presbytery rebuked him for the drunkenness, and for slight- ing his work : he acknowledged his fault, and they laid no censure on him at the time. In May, they suspended him for a season, the people complaining that much evidence had been industriously kept back at the trial. The presbytery very soon after made inquiry on the spot, and restored him: the majority of his people following the "Brunswick Brethren," they released him from the pastoral relation. The new congregation of Conewago, in Mount Joy, (in Adams county,) Pennsylvania, called him in October, 1741, and he was in- stalled the second Wednesday in May. He began to visit Vir- ginia as a missionary, and was sent to Potomac in 1743. Diffi- culties arose in his flock, and they asked to have Steel sent to them. North and South Mountain, in Virginia, (the former six miles west of Staunton,) asked for him, March 6, 1745. He was dis- missed from Conewago in April; but in the fall they sought to re- gain him. A division took place: those who left him obtained one-fifth of the time of Roan, pastor of the New-Side churches of Paxton and Derry. In 1747, he, with Thomson and Craig, was directed to take the oversight of the vacancies in Virginia. He was at the synod in 440 FRANCIS ALISON. 1751, and was directed to supply Buffalo settlement, and the adja- cent places, four Sabbaths ; he also visited Hies, Eno, and Haw River, in North Carolina. He took charge of the congregations of Eockfish and Mountain Plain before 1752. In 1759, he attended synod, and vainly sought to have a presbytery formed west of the Blue Ridge. Hanover Presbytery decided that the people in Woods's Gap, in the mountains of Albemarle, were not in his bounds, and erected them into the congregation of Albemarle. They dismissed him from his charge, July 18, 1759. He died August 9, 1770. The presbytery style him " an aged minister." FRANCIS ALISON, Born in Ireland, in 1705, studied at the University of Glas- gow, and came as a probationer to this country in 1734 or '35. On the recommendation of Franklin,* he was employed by John Dickinson, of Delaware, the author of the " Parmer's Let- ters," as the tutor of his son. Leave to take a few other pupils was granted ; and he is said to have had an academy at Thunder Hill, Maryland.f The commission, in 1736, wrote to him to officiate as a supply for the new erection in Philadelphia. He was ordained pastor of New London by Newcastle Presbytery before May, 1737. He was a correspondent of President Stiles, who has preserved many of his letters. He says, he commenced his school in 1743 ; and Professor Hutcheson, of Glasgow, having, in 1746, advised the setting on foot of a seminary by the synod, he also opened a correspondence with him. The synod, failing in their attempt to endow a college, did what was in their power, and took the New London school under their patronage. They gave Alison twenty pounds, (Pennsylvania currency,) with the liberty of choosing an assistant at a salary of fifteen pounds. In 1748, the salaries were raised ; one to forty pounds, and the other to twenty pounds. Alison complained to Donegal Presbytery, that Alexander Craighead had intruded into his congregation, " to rend and divide it against his mind, the mind of the session, and the de- clared opinion of the congregation in general." * Joshua Edwards, Esq. t Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. FRANCIS ALISON. 441 He signed the Protest ; but he agreed with the New York bre- thren in demanding that the whole proceeding should be reviewed in 1742 ; and he entered his dissent from the vote refusing this request. Though foremost on the Old Side, it does not appear that any of his congregation deserted him. In 1744,* they erected the largest church in that region. The building was sixty-three feet long by thirty-eight wide, with long, low, brick •walls, an antique, Swedish, or hipped roof. The side of the edifice was turned to the road ; and it had arched doors and windows, with imported leaden sashes. The pulpit was on the side ; and the pews were of forms, patterns, and colours as diverse as the tastes and the incomes of their respective owners. In 1749, he was invited to Philadelphia, a grammar-school having been opened in that city by subscription. He asked leave of the synod to sit as a member of Philadelphia Presbytery : they declined, and promised him thirty pounds for educating their beneficiaries, with liberty to charge at his pleasure for the tuition of others. The grammar-school in Philadelphia was incorporated in 1750, endowed in 1753, and erected into a college in 1755. Alison left New London before May, 1752, without consulting presbytery or synod ; but this was excused, owing to the pressing circumstances of his position. He took charge of the grammar- school, and became colleague to Cross. Among his elders who sat with him in synod were the Hon. Charles Thomson and Mr. William Humphreys. He was made vice-provost of the college in 1755 ; and Nassau Hall gave him the degree of A.M. in 1756, and the University of Glasgow created him doctor of divinity in 1756. He was the first of our ministers who received that honour ; and the Synod of Philadelphia returned their thanks, for the favour, to the Uni- versity, f On the union of the synods. May 24, 1758, he preached from Eph. iv. 4—7. The sermon was published, with the title, " Peace and Union recommended," and a note, suggesting that, as in the perusal it might to many seem long, they may conveniently divide it by pausing at the twenty-eighth page. He went, with Colonel Burd, as chaplain to the expedition to Fort Cumberland, and remained from August to November. Together with Gilbert Tennent and the Presbyterians gene- rally, who were- headed by Chief-Justice Allen, (father-in-law of Governor John Penn,) he opposed the throwing off of the Pro- * Dubois's Historical Discourse at New London. t The diploma was transmitted to him through the Eey. James Moody, of Newry. — Philadelphia Newspaper. 442 FRANCIS ALISON. prietary Government; and, as a reward* for his services in that matter, Richard Penu gave Alison the splendid tractof one thou- sand acres at the confluence of the Bald Eagle with the West Branch of the Susquehanna. He was the efficient agent in the establishment of the Widows Fund in our church; and was wisely active in the convention with the Connecticut ministers to withstand the gradual but determined innovations of Churchmen and the Crown on our liberties as citi zens and Christians. Among his correspondentsf were Dr. Gordon, of Stepney, England ; William Boyd, minister of Taughboyne, in Ireland, (who visited New England in 1718,) and John Holmes, of Glendermot, both able and zealous advocates for the subscription of the West- minster Confession ; and James Moody, of Newry, who differed with them on that point. Alison was so much pleased with Connecticut that at one time he thought of making it the retreat of his old age. Probably some hint of this induced the people of New London, who had remained vacant since his removal, to send Elijah McClenachan, and William Montgomery as commissioners to the Second Phila- delphia Presbytery, with a call for him, August 14, 1765. He took it under consideration, and returned it, November 26, 1766. Although his family could ill afford it, he set free his slaves by will: "the good manj followed the dictates of his conscience, leaving his widow to Providence." He died, November 28, 1779, aged seventy-four. His wife was an Armitage. He left a son (a physician, at Fagg's Manor) and two daughters: one of his sons died before him, at the age of twenty-eight. Among his pupils were Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, Dr. Ewing, of Philadelphia, Dr. Latta, of Chestnut Level, Matthew Wilson, of Lewes, Hugh Williamson, and David Ramsay, the historian of North and South Carolina, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence, — Governor McKean, George Read, and James Smith. He had the reputa- tion§ of being the best Latin scholar in America. Bishop White was one of his pupils, and, in his "Memoirs," speaks of him as a man of unquestionable ability in his department, of real and * Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. But Judge Huston says that the lands of the West Branch were laid out for officers of first and second bat- talions of regiment under Colonel Boquet. Fifteen hundred acres on west side of the mouth of Bald Eagle were conveyed to Dr. Alison, February 4, 1769, and were paid for in full, April 3, 1772.— Land Titles. t Stiles's MSS., Yale College. J Philadelphia Newspaper. I Morgan Edwards. DAVID COWELL. 443 rational piety; with a proneness to anger, -which was forgotten in his placableness and affability, Davies speaks of him to Cowell as "our learned friend." DAVID COWELL Was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1704, graduated at Harvard in 1732, and came as a licentiate to Trenton, N. J., in 1736. Trenton, which had formed a part of Hopewell, asked Phila- delphia Presbytery, in September, 1734, to provide them a minister. _ In the next fall, Cowell began his labours there. On his receiving a call,* the presbytery examined him on his religious principles and sentiments, heard him preach from Rom. iii. 25, and, after a sermon by Andrews, ordained him, November 3, 1736. A debate was maintained between him and Gilbert Tennent on a most important matter: namely. Whether a motive, to which the natural man is susceptible, a regard to what he sees to be on the whole most for his interest, is acceptable with God when it leads one to embrace Christ's salvation and God's service? Cowell disclaimed the affirmative, which Tennent charged him with holding, and probably was equally unwilling to admit that our obedience to God is worthless if we be influenced by a desire for our own salvation as well as the glory of God. He took no part at the division in 1741 ; but he was fully op- posed to the extreme measures of the Brunswick party. He re- mained with the Old Side ; but his intercourse with the New York brethren, and his intimate friendship with Burr, was not inter- rupted. In 1749, the commissions of both synods met at Trenton, to treat about a union. Cowell was chosen moderator ; but, a heated discussion arising about the Protest, they broke up, unanimously agreeing that each synod more fully prepare proposals of recon- ciliation, and that there be in the mean time a mutual endeavour to cultivate candour and friendship. He was an early, an ardent, and an indefatigable friend of New Jersey College, and unwearied in his efforts to place Davies in the presidency. He wrote to him,t " The college ought to be * It is dated April 7, 1736, and is in the hands of Mr. J. V. Cowell. t MSS. in the possession of Mr. Joseph V. Cowell, of Philadelphia. Daviea 444 DAVID COWELL. esteemed of as much importance to the interests of religion and liberty as any other institution of the kind in America. God at first, in a most remarkable manner, owned and blessed it. It was the Lord's doing. He erected it; for our beginning was nothing. He carried it on, till it was marvellous in our eyes. But it hath been under terrible frowns of Divine Providence: first, in the loss of Mr. Burr, the life and soul of it ; and then of Mr. Edwards, from whom we had such raised expectations. May the Father of mercies look with pity and compassion on the work of his own hands ! I am sensible that your leaving Virginia is attended with great difficulties ; but I cannot think your affairs are of equal importance with the college." Upon the union, he joined New Brunswick Presbytery, June 3, 1758 ; and, the next year, Trenton asked for supplies. He died, December 1, 1760, having never married. Davies preached at his funeral — himself so soon to follow — from Heb. iv. 11, having been " nominated by him to that service." " During* the short time I have been a resident of this pro- vince, he has been my very intimate friend; and I have conversed with him in his most unreserved hours, when conversation was the image of his soul. I had only a general acquaintance with him for ten years before. " The characteristics of his youth were a serious, virtuous, re- ligious turn of mind, free from the vices and vanities of that thoughtless age ; and a remarkable thirst for knowledge : and I am witness how lively a taste for books and knowledge he cherished to the last. He appeared to me to have a mind steadily and habitually bent towards God and holiness. If hia religion was not so warm and passionate as that of some, it was perhaps proportionally more even, uniform, and rational. His religion was not a transient passion, but appeared to be a settled temper. Humility and modesty, those gentle virtues, seemed to shine in him with a very amiable lustre. He often imposed a voluntary silence upon himself, when he would have made an agreeable figure in conversation. He was fond of giving way to his brethren with whom he might justly have claimed an equality, or to encourage modest worth in his inferiors. He was not im- pudently liberal of unasked advice, though very judicious, impar- tial, and communicative when consulted. He had an easy, grace- ful negligence in his carriage, — a noble indifference about setting himself off; he seemed not to know his own accomplishments, though they were so conspicuous that many a man has made a relied upon his skill as a physician, and requested his presence when the students had been inoculated for the smallpox. * MS. Sermon of Davies. DAVID COWELL. 445 brilliant appearance -with a small share of them. He had a re- markable command of his passions ; he appeared calm and un- ruffled amid the storms of the world, — peaceful and serene amid the commotions and uproar of human passions. Remarkably cautious and deliberate, slow to determine, and especially to censure, he was well guarded against extremes. In matters of debate, and especially in religious controversy, he was rather a moderator and compromiser than a party. Though he could not be neuter, but judged for himself to direct his own conduct, he could exercise candour and forbearance without constraint or re- luctance ; when he happened to differ in opinion from any of his brethren, even themselves could not but acknowledge and admire his moderation. " His accomplishments, as a man of sense and learning, were very considerable. His judgment was cool, deliberate, and pene- trating ; his sentiments were well digested, and his taste excellent. He had read not a few of the best modern authors, and was no stranger to ancient literature. He could think as well as read ; and the knowledge he collected from books was well digested, and became his own. He had carefully studied the Sacred Scriptures, and had a rational theory of the Christian system. " He had an easy, natural vein of wit, which rendered his con- versation extremely agreeable : he sometimes used it with great dexterity to expose the rake, the fop, the infidel, and other fools of the human species ; it was sacred to the service of virtue, or innocently volatile and lively, to heighten the pleasures of con- versation. " He was a lover of mankind, and delighted in every office of benevolence. Benevolence appeared to be his predominant virtue, and gave a most amiable cast to his whole temper and conduct. " That he might be able to support himself without oppressing a small congregation, he gave some part of his time to the study and practice of physic ; in which he made no inconsiderable figure. A friend of the poor, he spared neither time nor expense to relieve them. " I never had the happiness to hear him in the sacred desk. In prayer, I am sure, he appeared humble, solemn, rational, and importunate, as a creature, — a sinner in the presence of God. " In the charter of the College of New Jersey, he was nomi- nated one of the trustees ; and but few invested with the same trust discharged it with so much zeal, diligence, and. alacrity. His heart was set upon his prosperity; he exerted himself in this service, nor did he forget it in his last moments. " The church has lost a judicious minister, and, as we hope, a smcere Christian; the world has lost an inoffensive, useful mem- 446 CHARLES TBNNENT. ber of society, this town an agreeable, peaceable, benevolent inhabitant, the College of New Jersey a father ; and I have lost a friend." CHARLES TENNENT. The youngest child of Tennent, of Neshaminy, was born in the county Down, May 3, ITll, and was baptized by the Rev. Richard Donnell. He is said* to have learned the trade of a saddler. After studying with his father, he was taken on trials by Philadelphia Presbytery in May, 1736 ; in June, at Neshaminy, he was examined on the evidences of his piety, and was licensed Sept. 20. He was called, April 6, 1737, to Pilesgrove and vicinity; but the call was not put into his hands. He soon after was ordained, by Newcastle' Presbytery, the pastor of Whiteclay. In November, 1739, f Whitefield assisted him at the sacrament; he preached from the tent to eight thousand persons. Among the hearers was Mrs. Douglass, the sister of Charles Thomson, Secre- tary to Congress, and the grandmother of the Rev. James W. Douglass, of Fayetteville. She describes Whitefield as bathed iu tears during nearly all the service. It was a glorious day. The efiect was happy and extensive. To his delight, he found there a family named Howell, who had heard him at Cardiff and Kings- wood. In the following year he was there on a like occasion ; some opposers being present, Whitefield felt peculiar pleasure in singing the 23d Psalm :— "My table thou hast furnished, In presence of my foes ; My head thou dost with oil anoint. And my cup overflows." A separation took place in the congregation : the Old Side joined with Elk River. On the union of the synods, some of the most zealous friends of the Revival forsook Tennent and went aver to the Seceders, being unable to understand how it could be right to enter into fellowship with those they had been taught to regard as heart- enemies to the power of religion. "Shouldest thou help the un- godly, and love them that hate the Lord ? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." Tennent was dismissed from his charge in 1763, and settled at Buckingham, now Berlin, on the * Letter of a Covenanting Presbyterian, •j- Log College, Whitefield' s Journal. AARON BURR. 447 Eastern Shore of Maryland. " There was a great stir about reli- gion," said Davies, in 1751, "some four years ago in Buckingham, on the sea-shore, and a place called the Ferry, which were then without a minister." _ Of his success there little is known ; he was involved in difficul- ties that threw a gloom over his closing days. He died in 1771. His son, the Rev. Wm. M. Tennent, was licensed before his death: bis granddaughter, Miss Stewart, died a few years ago, in advanced life. He is said to have been a good preacher, but high-spirited and hasty. Davies joins him with his brothers in high praise : — • " Surviving remnant of the sacred tribe, Who knew the worth these plaintive lays describe, Tonnents, three worthies of immortal fame. Brothers in ofSoe, birth, and heart, and name." AARON BURR Was the son* of Daniel Burr, of Upper Meadows, in Fairfield, Conn., a descendant of Jehu Burr, an early settler of Springfield, Mass., and of the Rev. Jonathan Burr, who came from Redgrave, in Suffolk, in 1604, and was the minister of Dorchester, Mass. Aaron was born Jan. 4, 1715-6, and was baptized March 4. He graduated at Yale in 1735. The year afterf he took his first degree, he spent in the college ; and it is supposed that he then met with a saving change of heart, and became not only almost, but altogether, a Christian. The re- lation of this important event I have extracted out of his private papers, and shall give you his own words, as follows : — "This year God saw fit to open my eyes, and show me what a miserable creature I was. Till then, I spent my life in a dream ; and, to the great design of my being, had lived in vain. Though before I had been under frequent convictions, and was drove to a form of religion, yet I knew nothing as I ought to know. But then I was brought to the footstool of sovereign grace ; saw myself polluted by nature and practice ; had affecting views of the divine wrath I deserved ; was made to despair of help in myself, and almost concluded that my day of grace had passed. These convic- tions held for some months, greater at some seasons than at others ; * MS. Letter of N. Goodwin, Esq., Hartford. j- Funeral Sermon, by Rev. Caleb Smith. 448 AARON BUKR. but I never revealed them to any, which I have much lamented since. It pleased God at length to reveal his Son to me in the gos- pel, an all-sufBcicnt and willing Saviour, and, I hope, inclined me to accept him on the terms of the gospel. I received some conso- lation, and found a great change in myself. Before this, I was strongly attached to the Arminian scheme, but then was made to see those things in a different light, and seemingly felt the truth of the Calvinian doctrines." He was licensed in September, 1736, and preached his first ser- mon at Greenfield, Mass. While laboring at Hanover, N.J., he was invited to Newark ; he was received by all with great regard ; "much love was shown to him," and, coming in "a day of tempta- tion and darkness," in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel, the aspect brightened and all around beamed with peace. Within two months after beginning to preach, he went to Newark, and, full trial being made of his gifts, he was ordained by the Presbytery of East Jersey, Oct. 25, 1737-8. Pierson preached, and Dickin- son presided and gave the charge. "There* was a remarkable revival there in the autumn of 1739 : in March, the whole town in general was brought under an uncommon concern about their eternal interests ; and under some sermons the congregation appeared universally afiected. In Feb- ruary, 1741, there was another effusion of the Holy Spirit, princi- pally upon the young. When Whitefield preached at Newark, it was nearly dark, and he could not see the eifect produced ; but at night, at worship in Burr's house, some young men, studying with him, were greatly aifected." Whitefield speaks of him as a young minister, "who, I trust, will come fairly out for God." In the divisions at New Haven, f growing out of the progress of the Revival, it was proposed in June, 1742, as a measure likely to satisfy all parties, that Burr should be settled in the First Church ; and a committee, with the rector of Yale at its head, was appointed to treat with him. The enemy sowed tares at Newark : there sprang up a spirit of arrogance and censoriousness in some of the converts ; strange no- tions concerning assurance and the witness of the Spirit, were em- braced; and the great excitement about the ejectment suits, involv- ing the property and the homes of nearly every one, and the land- riots, sunk divine things out of notice. . The College of New Jersey was, on the death of Dickinson, re- moved in 1747 to Newark, and Burr was placed at the head. He accompanied Whitefield through New England in 1752, and visited Edwards. Having seen his daughter Esther, he wrote expressing * Dickinson, in Christian History, t Bacon. AARON BURR. 449 his desire that, as he was unable to go to her, she would come to him. Her mother accompanied her to New York, where they were married June 29, 1752. In 1755, his pastoral relation was dissolved, as it was thought best to establish the college in Princeton. Much urgency had been used to prevail on him to go to Great Britain in its behalf, but his marriage prompted him to decline. It grieved him to see the stu- dents banded in parties, and exhibiting much alienation of feeling : there was in a degree a reconciliation effected in the winter of 1757, and it was followed by a gracious revival. The hand of God was visibly displayed in February, 1757; "much old experience" had taught Burr to place little reliance on relations of experience. The students carefully observed his cautions about giving way to irre- gular heats, and silenced the gainsayers. Finley wrote to Davies an account of the good work, who said, " It was the most joyful news I ever heard. It began with the son of a considerable gen- tleman in New York, and was general before the President knew of it." "The President," said Gilbert Tennent, "never shone in my eyes as he does now. His good judgment and humility, his zeal and integrity, greatly endeared him to me." Spencer had seen nothing more evidently like a work of God, even in the Great Re- vival. The first Tuesday in April was observed as a day of fast- ing and prayer. In the summer there were some backslidings ; "but," said Burr, "certainly a glorious work is going on." In the summer,* being in a low state of health, he made a rapid and exhausting visit, in a very hot, sultry season, to his father-in- law at Stockbridge. He soon returned to Princeton, and went im- mediately to Elizabethtown, and, on the 19th of August, made an attempt to procure the legal exemption of the students from mili- tary duty. He mourned with a friend, (probably Caleb Smith, of Orange, who had just lost his wife ;) and on the 21st, being much indisposed, he preached an extemporaneous sermon at a funeral in his successor's (Rev. John Brainerd's) family at Newark. From Princeton he went to Philadelphia on business of the college, and on his return learned that Governor Belcher had died on the blst. He prepared the sermon for his funeral under a high fever, and at night was delirious. He rode to Elizabethtown, and, on the 4th, preached, being in a state of extreme languor and exhaustion. His languor of countenance was noticed, but especially the failure of his harmonious delivery. Returning home next day, he sunk under nervous fever, and died Sept. 24, 1757. The Rev. Caleb Smith preached his funeral sermon. William Livingston, afterwards Governor of New Jersey, pronounced his eulogium. It was printed in New York, and speedily reprinted in Boston. The following is given as a specimen : — * Eey. Caleb Smith. 29 450 AARON BURR. " To have all the qualifications that render a man amiable or great ; to be the object of delight wherever one is known ; to pos- sess learning, genius, and sublimity of soul : can there be born a greater blessing to the world ? To exert these shining endowments for the benefit of mankind, and employ a great and elevated spirit only in doing good and diffusing good : can a nobler use be made of the happiest talents ? Amidst such striking colours, in such a degenerate age, who can mistake the picture of the excellent de- ceased? Can you image to yourself a person, moderate in pros- perity, prudent in difSculty, in business indefatigable, magnanimous in danger, easy in his manners, of exquisite judgment, of profound learning, catholic in sentiment, of the purest morals, and great even in the minutest things : can you image so accomplished a per- son without recollecting the idea of the late President Burr ? Few were more perfect in the art of rendering themselves agreeable in company. His open, benevolent, undissembling heart inspired all around him with innocent cheerfulness, and made every one who knew him court his engaging society. Though a person of slender and delicate make, to encounter fatigue he had a heart of steel, and, for the despatch of business, the most amazing talents joined to a constancy of mind which induced success in spite of every ob- stacle. As long as an enterprise appeared not absolutely impos- sible, he knew no discouragement, but in proportion to its difiiculty augmented his diligence, and by an insuperable fortitude often ac- complished what his friends conceived utterly impossible. To his unparalleled assiduity, next to the divine blessing, is doubtless to be ascribed the present flourishing state of the College of New Jer- sey, which, from a mere private undertaking, is become in a few years the joy of its friends, the admiration and envy of its ene- mies. "He was life and activity itself, and, though cut oflf in the bloom and vigour of his years, attained, with respect to his public utility, the remotest period of old age. His every year was replete with good works, and while others could boast here and there a shining action, like a scattered star in the vast expanse of heaven, his life, like the milky way, was one continued universal glow. " In the Scriptures he was a perfect Apollos. These were his constant study, the subject of his daily meditations. From these he extracted his divinity, and the maxims of his conduct, and by these he was made wise unto salvation. His piety eclipsed all his other accomplishments. He was steady in his faith, unfluctuating in principle, ardent in devotion, deaf to temptation, open to the motions of grace, without ostentation, without pride, full of God, evacuated of self, having his conversation in heaven, seeing through the veil of mortality the high destiny of man, breathing a spiritual life, and offering up a perpetual holocaust of adoration and praise. AARON BURR. 451 "In the pulpit he shone with superior lustre. He was fluent, copious, sublime, persuasive. The momentous truths and the awful mysteries of religion so strongly possessed the mind, that he spoke from the heart. His language was intelligible to the meanest ca- pacity, and above the censure of the highest genius. He aimed at perspicuity, and inculcated the luminous and uncontroverted truths of Revelation. His invention was not so properly fruitful as inex- haustible, and his eloquence was equal to his ideas. He was none of those downy doctors who soothe their hearers into delusive hopes of the divine acceptance, or substitute external morality for vital godliness. He scorned to proclaim the peace of God till the rebel had laid down his arms and returned to his allegiance. He was an ambassador that adhered inviolably to his instructions, nor ever acceded to a treaty that would not be ratified in the court of Hea- ven. He searched the conscience with the terrors of the law, before he assuaged its anguish with the sweet emollients of a bleeding Deity. " What he preached in the pulpit he lived out of it. His life and his example were a comment on his sermons, and by his engaging deportment he rendered the amiable character of the Christian still more lovely and attractive. In him religion seemed to have set up her throne, and, as it were, doubled the beams of her majesty. The pastoral function he discharged with equal fidelity and success. "For public spirit and love of his country, who ever surpassed this reverend patriot ? Amid all the cares of his academic func- tion, he thought and studied, he planned and toiled, for the common weal. He had a high sense of English liberty, and detested des- potic power as the bane of human happiness. With him the heresy of Arius was not more fatal to the purity of the gospel than the positions of Pilmer to the dignity of man and the repose of states. Of our excellent Constitution he entertained the justest idea, and gloried in the privileges of a Briton. *' In propagating the gospel among the Indiana, how assiduous ! "With what dignity and reputation did he sustain the office of President! He had the most engaging method of instruction ; nor inferior to his capacity of receiving was his facility of communi- cating knowledge. No man had a happier talent of expressing his sentiments, or calling latent truth from her deep and profound recesses. No man more capable of opening the mental soil to the kindly rays of science, or improving and fertilizing it with the gentle dews of exposition and comment. He neglected no oppor- tunity of imbuing his pupils with the seeds of virtue. With ease he secured their obedience and love." Davies heard him preach a valedictory sermon, Sept. 23, 1753, to the graduating class. "His Subject was, 'And now, my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper thee.' I was amazed to see 452 AARON BURR. how readily good sense and accurate language flowed from Mm ex- tempore. The sermon was very affecting to me, and might have been so to the students. " Sept. 24. — My drooping spirits were exhilarated by free conver- sation with him." He printed his sermon before the synod in 1766, on Isa. xxi. 11, 12 ; also a "Vindication of the Supreme Divinity of the Son of God," in opposition to Emlyn ; and also a Latin Grammar. He left two very young children, who were soon deprived of their mother,* and their grandparents also. The son, like his father in form, in face, in talent, in energy, in eloquence, in polished and engaging manner, in his influence over men, rose to the Vice-Presi- dency in 1800. Oh that such a father might have lived to train such a son ! alas, that a son of such a father should have lived to old age with the heartlessness of a profligate and the brand of a traitor ! The daughter was the wife of Judge Reeve, of Litchfield, Connec- ticut, and was a follower of her parents, as they followed Christ, Davies wrote to Cowell, Feb. 20, 1758, "Mr. Burr! My heart fails me at the sound of the dear, melancholy name. What an illus- trious triumvirate have the college, the church, and the world lost by the death of Governor Belcher, Mr. Burr, and Mr. Davenport. I was the more affected at the President's death, as a life so much less important than his was spared when in extreme danger about the time of his illness. Since that, I have had frequent touches of affliction, under one of which I now languish, but, having ob- tained help of God, I continue unto this day. " As the death of these good men was undoubtedly gain to them, may we not modestly conjecture that it will also prove an advan- tage to the world, though we are apt to lament them as lost? I cannot conceive of heaven as a state of mere enjoyment without action, or indolent supine adoration and praise. The happiness of vigorous immortals must consist, one would think, in proper exer- cise suitable to the benevolence of their hearts and the extent of their powers. May we not suppose, then, that such devout and benevo- lent souls as these, when released from the confinement of mor- tality, and the low labour of the present life, are not only advanced to superior degrees of happiness, but placed in a higher sphere of usefulness, employed as ministers of Providence not to this or that particular church, college, or colony, but to a more extensive charge, and perhaps to a more important class of beings. And if, when they cease to be useful men, they commence angels, i. e. ministering spirits, we may congratulate them and the world upon this more extensive beneficence, instead of lamenting them as lost to all usefulness." * Mrs. Burr died of smallpox, April 7, 1758, aged twenty-six. Her father died at her house, a fortnight previously, March 22 ; her mother died on the 2d of the next October. WALTER WILMOT — DAVID ALEXANDER. 453 WALTER WILMOT Was born at Southampton, Long Island, in 1709, and graduated at Yale in 1735. He was ordained pastor at Jamaica, April 12, 1788. Pemberton preached from Colossians i. 7, and Dickinson presided, and delivered a discourse on "The Divine Appointment of the Christian Ministry, and the Method of its Conveyance." This, with the charge which he gave to the people, was printed. His wife died at the age of twenty-three. Prime preached at her funeral from Ezekiel xxiv. 16. The sermon was printed with her journal of her religious exercises. In the Great Revival, Jamaica was favoured highly ; Whitefield pi-eached there, and Gilbert Tennent, on his way to Boston, in the winter of 1740. "Our church," says Mr. Colgan to the Vene- rable Society, " has been depressed of late by those clouds of error and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm has of late been very predominant among us." Wilmot did not survive his wife and his babe many months. He was taken sick in the evening of the 15th of July, 1744, and died on the 6th of August. He was greatly beloved by his people. DAVID ALEXANDER. Alexander Davidson, a commissioner from Pequea, asked leave of Donegal Presbytery, in November, 1786, to employ Alexander, who probably had lately arrived from Ireland. He may have been educated at the Log College, and licensed by Newcastle Presby- tery. He was at "Pacque" the next spring, but the West End (Lea- cock) desired leave to build. In August, no call having been made out, Boyd was directed to convene the congregation on a working- day. A call was presented in October, but, not being entirely in order, was not given to him. In April, 1738, the people promised him, in addition, one year's lodgings; and he was ordained and in- stalled October 18, Paul presiding and preaching. The West End (Leacock) petitioned that a portion of his time might be given to them. At length, in 1741, just before the rup- ture, Leacock was declared by the synod entitled to all the privi- leges of any vacant congregation. 454 JOHN ELDER. Alexander let no man outstrip him in his violation of all rules in his treatment of those whom he esteemed "opposers of the work." He intruded into Black's congregation to carry the gospel to a people burdened with a lifeless ministry. When* called, in October, 1740, to answer for his neglect to attend the stated meet- ings, he excused himself on account of his bodily weakness, and because the presbytery were too superficial in examining candi- dates, and opposed the work of God, and the ministers chiefly in- strumental in carrying it on ; and also because they opposed the crying out during sermons. He withdrew, and refused to answer a citation for intruding into Black's field. The presbytery met at his church to consider a charge against him of intoxication. He took the pulpit and preached. He acknowledged the intoxication at a funeral, and the presbytery judged it not so heinous as had been represented ; but they sus- pended him till "satisfaction was given for his disregardful con- duct to us, and his refusal to submit to the government of Christ's church in our hands." Yet he was suffered to sit in the synod of 1741, and he withdrew with the excluded brethren. The conjunct Presbyteries of New Brunswick and Newcastle appointed him, on account of "the necessity in the Great Valley," to supply there. From that time he passes out of sight. JOHN ELDER Was born in Scotland, and educated and probably licensed there. Paxton and Pennsborough, having obtained leave to apply to New- castle Presbytery for candidates, in August, 1737, Elder was sent the next month to those vacancies. The people of Paxton asked for him in November, and called him April 12 ; and he was ordained November 22, 1738, Black presiding. As the Great Revival spread, it entered Elder's bounds, and he was accused to the presbytery of preaching false doctrine: they cleared him, in December, 1740, but the separation was made soon after, and the conjunct presbyteries answered the supplications sent to them the next summer, by sending Campbell and Kowland to those who forsook him. He signed the Protest. His support being reduced, he took charge of the Old-Side portion of the Derry * MS. Records of Donegal Presbytery : quoted by Dr. Hodge. JOHN ELDEE. 455 congregation. In a few years after, Roan became the pastor of the New-Side congregations of Paxton and Derry, and on his death the two congregations united in receiving Elder as their minister. _ When associations for defence were formed throughout the pro- vmce, his hearers, being on the frontier, were prompt to embody themselves : their minister was their captain, and they were trained as rangers. He superintended their discipline, and his mounted men became widely known as the "Paxton Boys." He afterwards held a colonel's commission from the Proprietaries, and had the command of the block-houses and stockades from Easton to the Susquehanna. In tendering this appointment to him, it was* ex- pressly stated that nothing more would be expected of him than the general oversight. His justification lies in the crisis of aflFairs. Bay at York, and Steel at Conecocheague, and Griffith at New- castle, with iBurton and Thompson, the Church missionaries at Lancaster and Carlisle, headed companies, and were actively en- gaged ; for no one can conceive the dreadful state of uneasiness on the borders from 1750 to 1763. Many a family mourned for some of their number shot by the secret foe, or carried away captive. Their rifles were carried with them to their work in the field, and to the sanctuary. Elder placed his trusty piece beside him in the pulpit. Death often overtook his flock as they returned to their scattered plantations. In 1756, the meeting-house was surrounded while he was preaching ; but, their spies having counted the rifles, the Indians retired from their ambuscade without making an attack. The next year, when leaving the meeting-house, they were assailed, and two or three were killed. Friendly Indians would come and stay with them in the summer. Murders occurred in the fall, and the criminals could not be found, having, it was supposed, a hiding-place among the Conestogas. Elderf besought Governor Hamilton to remove them, because, although on the whole a harm- less tribe, they harboured murderers. He engaged, September 16, 1763, that, if this were done, he would secure the safety of the frontier without expense to the province. The proposal was not accepted. A party of rangers determined to destroy the tribe, and they called on Elder, as one knowing the necessity of breaking up the den of miscreants, to lead them on. They were ready to set ofi": he was then in his fifty-seventh year, and, mounting his horse, he commanded them to desist, and re- minded them that they were about to destroy the innocent with the guilty. They replied, " Can they be innocent who harbour mur- derers?" They pointed to instances in which their wives and mo- * Colonial Documents: edited by S. Hazard, Esq. f Redmond Conyngham's Notes. 456 JOHN ELDER. thers had been murdered and the destroyers traced to the homes of the Conestogas. He still entreated, and, at last, placing him- self in their road, declared that only by cutting him down they could advance. They then prepared to kill his horse, and he, seeing his efforts all fail, left them to take their course. They were chiefly, if not wholly, Presbyterians, from Paxton, Derry, Hanover, and Donegal; not all young men, but some of them of Elder's own age, their leader, Lazarus Stewart, having been a commissioner from Monada Creek in 1735. They did their errand thoroughly and mercilessly, destroying, in Conestoga and Lancaster, nearly every remnant of the Indian race. The Indians were removed from every exposed place to Phila- delphia, and the citizens apprehended the " Pextang" Boys would pursue them thither. The Governor published a proclamation, setting a reward on the heads of Stewart and others. Elder wrote to the Proprietary, January 27, 1764, " The storm which has been so long gathering has at length exploded. Had Government re- moved the Indians, which had been frequently, but without success, urged, this painful catastrophe might have been avoided. What could I do with men heated to madness? All that I could do was done. I expostulated, but life and reason were set at defiance : yet the men in private life are virtuous and respectable ; not cruel, but mild and merciful. This deed, magnified into the blackest of crimes, shall come to be considered as one of those ebullitions of wrath caused by momentary excitements, to which human infirmity is subjected." His pay was suspended, and he promptly laid down his commission. Pamphlets without number, truth, or decency, poured like a tor- rent from the press. The Quakers took the pen to hold up the deed to execration; and many others seized the opportunity to defame the Irish Presbyterians as ignorant bigots and lawless marauders. A dialogue between Andrew Trueman and Thomas Zealot speaks of '" Saunders Kent, an elder these thirty years, that gaed to duty" just before the massacre, and while he "was saying grace till a pint of whiskey, a wild lad ran his gully [knife] through the wame of a heathen wean." This, and much more that is worse, lacks the first requisite of a good lie ; it does not look like truth : it makes Irish Presbyterians talk like English Churchmen, to whom the phrase "saying grace" is peculiar. "Gaeing to duty" is a thrust at family worship, in use among Presbyterians, but highly ridiculous to godless "sayers of grace." The Presbyterians replied that "the infamous Teedyuscung" confessed that he would not have complained of the new settlers if he had not been encouraged by prominent Quakers. They pro- duced affidavits that the Indians who were killed were drunken, KIGHARD SANCKET. 457 debauched, insolent, quarrelsome, and dangerous ; they refer to the Christian Indian, Renatus, as notoriously bad, and assert that the Indian who shot Stinson, in Allen township, while rising from hia bed, was secured, in Philadelphia, from justice, and comforted in a good room with a warm bed and a stove. They also charged that the representation in the Assembly was unequal, and that Lan- castei;, with a larger population, was allowed fewer members than other counties. In all the yirulent attacks and retorts. Elder is never stig- matized as abetting' or conniving at the massacre; nor is his authority or concurrence pleaded by the actors in their defence. Lazarus Stewart, and forty families of his neighbours, removed, and settled Hanover, in the Shawnee Flats, in Wyoming, under the Connecticut jurisdiction. Little did they think a few years before, when Elder marched them thither to disperse the New Englanders on the Susquehanna, and found, on reaching there, only the burned cabins and the mangled bodies, — ^the savages having vindicated their title to the land by an exterminating attack, — that they would soon make their home there, and stand for the defence of their hearths against the Pennsylvania troops. Stewart, with many of his friends, fell in the disastrous battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778. The union of the synods brought Elder into the same presby- tery with Roan, Robert Smith, and DuiEeld, they being at first in a minority, but rapidly settling the vacancies with New-Side men. Elder, by the leave of synod, joined the Second Philadel- phia Presbytery, May 19, 1768, and, on the formation of the General Assembly, became a member of Carlisle Presbytery. He died in July, 1792, aged eighty-six, having, for fifty-six years, preached in the Old Paxton meeting-house, two miles above Harrisburg. KICHARD SANCKEY, A NATIVE of Ireland, was taken on trial by Donegal Presby- tery, October 7, 1735 : he was licensed, October 13, 1736, and was sent to Monada Creek. This congregation is first mentioned in Octobor, 1735,— Lazarus Stewart appearing to supphcate m its behalf the next year. Bertram, of Derry, moderated the call which was brought to the presbytery for Sanckey by John Cun- ningham and Robert Green, June 22, 1737. It is from that time 458 SILAS LEONARD. styled Hanover. He accepted, August 31 ; but, it appearing that his trial sermon was transcribed out of books, to give a false view of his ministerial powers, and contained most dangerous errors, his presbytery rebuked him, and delayed his ordination. Gil- lespie remonstrated with the synod not to countenance such lenity, especially as Sanckey had sent the notes to Henry Hunter, " who had preached them to his own overthrow." Hunter had passed himself off as an ordained minister of the New-Light Presbytery of Antrim, in the bounds of Lewes Presbytery ; and the synod, finding his credentials of license genuine, but that he had not been ordained, that he had been guilty of prevarication, and also that money had been given him to go to the Bishop of London for orders, resolved, nem. con., not to countenance him, especially as there was " ground to suspect his principles," until he has gone through the ordinary course of trials in some of their presbyteries. He ac- quiesced; and, coming before Newcastle Presbytery with notes stolen from heretical divines, he was rejected. The synod blamed the Presbytery of Donegal for not taking notice, in their minutes, of Sanckey's plagiarism, or censuring him on that account; but, as he had been sharply rebuked, and his ordination delayed a considerable time, they declined to lay any other burden on him. He was ordained, August 31, 1738, and removed, with many of his congregation, to Buffalo, in Virginia, about 1760, on account of the incursions of savages. In that year he joined Hanover Presbytery, and was appointed to preside at the opening of the Synod of Virginia in 1785. He lived to a good old age, respected by his people and his brethren in the ministry. SILAS LEONARD "Was a descendant of James Leonard, who, with his brother Henry, came from Pontypool, in Monmouthshire, in 1652, and settled at Raynham, in Massachusetts. They established a forge there. Wherever any of the family took up their abode they engaged in the manufacture of iron, until it passed into a pro- verb, " Where is a Leonard, there is a forge." Such was their probity and excellence that the Indian rule was, " Never hurt a Leonard." Silas Leonard graduated at Yale, in 1736, and was ordained by East Jersey Presbytery, in 1738, pastor of Goshen, New York. He was not a regular attendant on presbytery. The Revival 6AMUEL CAVIN. 459 spread through the Highlands ; and he* was " stirred up and spi- rited to water what was sown" in the city of New York and other places. Tennent, of Freehold, and Eobinson, came to his assist- ance, and witnessed blessed results. In 1742, he met with the synod, to endeavour to heal the rupture, but, failing in this, joined in protesting against the ex- clusion of the New Brunswick party, and against the passages in the late pamphlets which disparaged the Revival. He died in 1764. SAMUEL CAVIN A LICENTIATE from Ireland, was sent by Donegal Presbytery, November 16, 1737, to Conecocheague. This settlement was first mentioned in September, 1736, when the presbytery refused to sanction the employment of Mr. Williams, from England, who was then preaching there. They had leave soon after to apply to Newcastle Presbytery for candidates, and Gavin came to " Cano- gogig." This congregation then embraced Falling Spring (Cham- bersburg) and Greencastle, Mercersburg and Welsh Run. The separation of the congregation into East and West was somewhat precipitate, and without the consent of the presbytery. They ap- proved of it in August, 1738, the creek being the dividing-line, and "Alexander Dunlop the highest that belongs to the society on the west side." " Several papers being read, and a pretty deal said by several persons," the call of the East Side was presented to Cavin; and he accepted it, April 4, 1739. The people, by James Lindsay, commissioner, supplicated, in September, that his ordination might be hastened, — their subscriptions amounting to forty-six pounds, and they promising him what can be had over and above, and that they will do what they can to procure a plantation for him to live upon. They had a meeting-house then near Greencastle, and agreed that the other should be at Falling Spring, though the people of Hopewell thought this too nigh them. The ground at Falling Spring was given by Colonel Ben- jamin Chambers, — a cedar-grove, on the banks of the creek, where the Chambersburg church now stands. Cavin was ordained and installed November 16; Anderson * Dr. NicoU, of New York, in Gillies's Collection. 460 FRANCIS McHBNRT. preached from 1 Tim. vi. 11. In September of the next year, representations for and against him were brought from Falling Spring. In the winter, he visited the settlements on the South Branch of Potomac. The presbytery in Philadelphia, during the session of synod in May, 1741, admonished him for his imprudent and unguarded ex- pressions; and, yielding to his request, they dismissed him from his charge at Palling Spring. He signed the Protest, and spent some time, in the summer, at Anteidem, (Hagerstown,) Marsh Creek, Opequhon, and on the South Branch. After labouring some time in the Highlands of New York, he was called. May 26, 1743, to Goodwill, or Wallkill. The remainder of his life was spent in itinerating in Virginia and the other vacancies : — at one time, six Sabbaths on the East Branch of Potomac ; at another, preaching "between the two rivers." He was an occasional sup- ply of Falling Spring and Conecocheague, and was invited, No- vember 6, 1744, to the ," South Side of East Conecocheague." He died, November 9, 1750, aged forty-nine, and lies buried in the graveyard at Silver Spring.* The Conecocheague settlement espoused the New Side warmly; and the complaints against Cavin were, that he never asked about the state of their souls, did not rebuke profanity, claimed for the natural man power to do good, and called the vehement, im- passioned language of Alexander Craighead blasphemy. The Old- Side congregations remained vacant many years; and the New- Side congregation in vain called Rodgers and others, and was left to depend on occasional supplies. FEANCIS McHENRY Maeeied, before leaving Ireland, the eldest daughter of Hugh Wilson, of Coote Hill, in Cavan, who emigrated with his family and friends, and was among the first purchasers at Craig's Settle- ment, in the Forks of Delaware. McHenry appeared before Philadelphia Presbytery, November 10, 1737, with recommendations from Monaghan Presbytery and a letter from the Rev. Andrew Deane. He was examined as to his piety, and, having been licensed, was directed to supply Amwell, * Nevins'a Churches of the Valley. SAMUEL THOMSON. 4g2 Bethlehem, and other vacancies in Hunterdon county, New Jersey and to preach every third Sabbath at Newtown, Bucks county Pennsylvania. When Tennent, in October, 1738, consented to have an assistant, « to preach day about" at Neshaminy, McHenry was sent to spend every third Sabbath, giving the rest of his time to Deep Kun. In the spring, Neshaminy asked for half of his time. A request being made for his ordination, the presbytery met, July 12, 1739, at the meeting-house on the South Branch of JNesha,miny: "he gave a modest but satisfactory account of hia experience of the influences of the Holy Spirit." Robert Cross preached; and he was ordained, September 18. In May, Deep Run_ asked leave to call him; but the presbytery directed him to continue to serve Neshaminy. The congregation of Deep Run* was formed in 1732: William Allen gave the parsonage and church lot. It was probably styled, on the presbytery's records, " Mr. Tennent's Upper Congrega- tion," until 1788, when the name of Deep Run appears. McHenry took no part in the time of the exclusion, but re- mained with the Old Side. A call for him from Nottingham was brought. May 28, 1742, by John Dick, a commissioner ; and the Rev. Adam Boyd at- tended, to urge the concurrence of the presbytery. Touched with the deplorable condition of the people, they directed him to supply them: he did so for a season, and then returned the call. He was installed at Deep Run and Neshaminy, March 16, 1743. In the spring of 1750, he spent eight weeks as a missionary in Vu-ginia. He died in 1757. SAMUEL THOMSON, ? A LICENTIATE of Newcastle Presbytery, came as a candidate to the two societies of Pennsborough in November, 1737, and was taken under the care of Donegal Presbytery. Both societies united on him ; and Benjamin Chambers and Thomas Brown came as commissioners to ask for him in June, 1738. Thomson wais blamed before the presbytery for having written an offensive letter to the Proprietary. His friends pleaded that he had been shame- fully used by certain persons, and that they had threatened to * Rev. Dr Andrews's Manual of the Doylestown Churcli 462 JOHN CRAIG. take him out of the pulpit, and drag him at a horse's tail to the New Town. Thomson was ordained, at Pennsborough, November 14, 1739, pastor of Upper and Lower Pennsborough, Newcastle, and Silver Spring: Alexander Craighead preached from Ezek. xxxiii. 6. In March, 1745, Upper Pennsborough obtained the whole of his time. In 1749, he was charged with an immo- rality, and was suspended. He was subsequently restored, and dis- missed from Pennsborough. His congregation divided during the Revival. The first congregation " over the river" was on the Conedo- guinet, and had supplies in 1734: the first were A. Craighead, and Bertram, and Gelston. In 1736, Anderson preached at the New Town. In April, 1737, Anderson and Bertram were sent to Conedoguinet. John Penn gave the settlers three hundred acres for meeting-house and parsonage. They built their church first at the Meeting-house Springs ; and in the old graveyard are to be seen the stones with coats of arms graven on them. He was often sent to supply in Virginia. He was dissatisfied with many things after the union, and withdrew ; but, on the final adjustment of the matter, he was annexed to Donegal Presbytery. He died, April 29, 1787. His son William took holy orders, and came to York and Cum- berland, as a missionary of the Venerable Society, about 1750, and was the rector of St. John's, in Carlisle. JOHN CRAIG Was born in Ireland, September 21, 1710, but educated in America. He appeared before Donegal Presbytery in the fall of 1736, and was taken on trial the next spring, and licensed, August 30, 1738. He was sent to Deer Creek (now Churchville, Maryland) and to West Conecocheague. He spent the summer in those places, and Conewago and Opequhon. West Conecocheague called him in the fall of 1739 ; but he declined a settlement in that charge. In 1737, the new-settled inhabitants of Beverley's Manor ap- plied for supplies ; and Anderson* visited them, and settled the bounds of the congregations " in an orderly manner, by the voice * Key. B. M. Smith, of Staunton, in Presbyterian Magazine, October, 1752. JOHN CRAIG. 463 of the people." Craig was sent, at the close of 1739, to Opequ- hon, Irish Tract, and other places in Western Virginia. He was "the commencer of the Presbyterian service in Augusta." He gathered two congregations in the south part of the Manor, now Augusta county, and, in April, 1740, received a call from Shana- dore and South River. It is described in the call as the con- gregation of the Triple Forks of Shenandoah, but long since known as Augusta and Tinkling Spring. On the 2d of Septem- ber, 1740, Robert Poag and Daniel Denniston appeared as repre- sentatives, and took on them the engagements made by the people at installations. On the next day, after Sanckey had preached from Jer. iii. 15, Craig was ordained and installed. At this time all things were working mightily " to draw the lingering battle on." " Having examined* the controversy, had free communication with both parties, (New Side and Old,) he ap- plied to God for light and direction in this important matter, and came — not instantly, but after time and deliberation — to clearness of mind to join in the Protest against the new and uncharitable opinions and the views of church government." The friends of the Revival passed through his bounds, but do not seem to have alienated his people to any large extent. They were blessed with much success throughout the valley. He attended the synod in 1741, and signed the Protest. " Going downt from the splendid prospect of the Rockfish Gap, you enter the bounds of the oldest congregation in Virginia, Tinkling Spring, with its old stone church. Here, in a wooden building finished by the widow of John Preston, Craig preached. He was greatly opposed to the location of the meeting, wishing it more central." The people chose it, among other reasons, for the convenience of the spring ; and, it is said, " he never suffered its water to cool his thirst." The church in Augusta was strongly fortified in the French War, Craig refusing to flee from the savage. On the union, he heartily joined with Hanover Presbytery, and was as forward as any in soliciting funds for Princeton College. He resigned the pastoral care of Tinkling Spring in November, 1754 ; and the sermon which he preached on that occasion, from 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, is the only one of his discourses that can be found. It was printed, for the first time, in the "Baltimore Literary and Religious Magazine," in December, 1760. "In this short discourse," he says, "I have collected together the sum and substance of those doctrines I have declared to you these twenty-five years past * MS. Letter of Craig; quoted by Mr. Smith. f Dr. Foote. 464 JOHN CBAIG. "I Lave long, often, and sincerely exhorted, entreated, invited, and besought you, in public, in private, in secret, to come and take hold of God's covenant and Christ the Mediator thereof. I hope some among you have sincerely complied : I wish I could say all that I have been so nearly concerned for or related to. But now our near and dear pastoral relation is dissolved. And, oh, how does my heart tremble to think and fear that too, too many among you have not sincerely accepted of and embraced Christ on gospel terms ! Oh, how can I leave you at a distance from Christ, and strangers to the God that made you? I cannot leave you till I give you another offer of Christ and the covenant of grace. Let me beg of you, for your souls' sake, for Christ's sake, to leave all your sins, and come, come speedily, and lay hold on the covenant and the Mediator ; never, never let him go till he bless you. " Few and poor, and without order, were you when I accepted your call ; but now I leave you a numerous, wealthy congregation, able to support the gospel, and of credit and reputation in the church. " For coming into the bond of this covenant of grace ; it is by faith we take hold of it. This we do when we are thoroughly, clearly convinced of our sin, and misery, and undone state under the covenant of works ; and do hence betake ourselves to the new covenant, to the gracious method of salvation proposed to us in the gospel through Jesus Christ and his righteousness, and do cor- dially approve of, and acquiesce in this noble contrivance, and accept of Jesus Christ as our only Mediator, Surety, and Peacemaker with God, and in him do sincerely make choice of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — to be our God and portion. On our part, giving ourselves soul and body to be the Lord's ; engaging, in the strength of our great surety, Jesus Christ, to abandon all sin, live for his glory, and walk with him in newness of life, as becomes God's covenanted people. This great work is carried on in all its parts by God's Holy Spirit, helping and determining our souls to do all these things heartily, cheerfully, and sincerely." In parting, he makes no complaints of them, and no boasting of himself. He remained in the charge of Augusta till his death, April 21, 1774, " after fifteen hours' afiliction," aged sixty-three years and four months. " The old people* in Augusta county have learned from their fathers that he was a man mighty in the Scriptures, — ' in perils oft, in labours abundant,' for the gospel; and they hold his memory in the highest veneration." * Dr. Foote. AZAKIAH HORTON. 465 Craig said,* when asked if he found suitable persons for elders in new settlements, where he had organized churches, " When there were no hewn stones I just took dornacks." AZARIAH HORTON, A BROTHER of the Rev. Simon Horton, graduated at Yale in 1735, and, on being licensed, probably by New York Presbytery, he received a call to a promising parish, Long Island, and was prepared to accept it. The case of the Indians on the island was pressed upon him by the correspondents of the Scottish Society for Propagating the Gospel; and they prevailed on him to relinquish the call. He was ordained by New York Presbytery in 1740, and entered on his labours at the east end of the island in the midst of the Great Revival."}" Thirty-five Indians were soon after bap- tized. Subsequently he had little or no encouraging success. Two churchest still exist, the remains of the fruit of his toil : one at Poosepatuck, on the Great South Bay, in the south of Brookhaven, the other at Shinnecock, the largest settlement, two miles west of Southampton. At the latter place he made his home. He printed two years of his missionary journal. On the 18th of May, 1742, he was at Smithfield, Pennsylvania, and he spent a fortnight in preparing the Indians on the Delaware for Brainerd's coming. He went from there to attend the synod in Philadelphia, and signed the Protest of the New York brethren against the exclusion and rupture of 1741. He met with many discouragements in his work. In his printed letter dated Southampton, September 14, 1751, he speaks of having been annoyed by the Separates ; this, together with the diminished number of the Indians, and the hopelessness of doing them any good, led him to abandon the mission in 1753. The Indians on the island numbered only four hundred in 1740. He became the pastor of South Hanover, New Jersey, the con- gregation having been set off from Hanover in 1748 : for a long time it was called Bottle Hill, and now is known as Madison. He was dismissed in November, 1776, and died March 2, 1777, aged sixty -two. * Edward Graham, in Dr. Davidson's History of Kentucky. f Dr. Prime's History of Long Island. X He had, for his assistant, Miranda, formerly an Indian trader, who had la- boured to instruct the Delaware and Susquehanna Indians; but he died soon after his appointment. — Gillies. 30 466 JOHN GUILD. JOHN GUILD, Born in Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard, and came, pro- bably as a teacher, to Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1737. He offered himself to Philadelphia Presbytery at their meeting, in Maidenhead, in April ; and, when on their way to adjust the difficulties between Hanover and the infant church of Morristown, the ministers stopped at Captain Edward Hart's, in Hopewell, and took him on trials. On the 19th of September they examined his pious inclina- tions and dispositions, and licensed him. He supplied Hopewell, then vacant by the removal of Morgan. There was much opposi- tion to him there ; and Ms friends, though they had a majority on their side, condescended for three months, and the presbytery gave them leave to invite Davenport, and drew up a letter for the con- gregation to send to him. They, however, invited Rowland, then recently licensed by New Brunswick Presbytery, in disregard of the synod's act concerning the examination of candidates ; and he preached for them, although warned by Cowell that by doing so he would create and foment divisions. In October, Benjamin Stevens, John Anderson, Samuel Hunt, and Joseph Birt, petitioned for a new erection, — a division of the congregation ; and Enoch Armitage, Thomas Burrowes, Edward Hart, and Timothy Baker opposed. The synod, in 1739, on hearing both sides, condemned the friends of the new erection for their treatment of the presbytery, and for "improving" Rowland, knowing that the synod had not allowed him as a candidate, and refused to form them into a new congre- gation until they submitted the location of their proposed meeting- house to the determination of the presbytery. They requested the presbytery, when determining the site, to call, as correspondents, Nutman, Blair, Burr, Hubbel, and Wales. Whether this was done does not appear. The Revival was in progress in these congrega- tions ; Gilbert Tennent published several of the sermons preached to them during this period, and the division of the congregation was effected as though the captives were going out of Babylon, or the righteous were rising from their graves. Hopewell asked Philadelphia Presbytery for Guild, May 22, 1739, and they referred the matter to the synod. He was called, September 18, 1739, but not ordained till November 11, 1741. He joined New Brunswick Presbytery on the union of the synods, June 13, 1758. The New-Side congregation abandoned their separate state several years afterwards, sold their church to the Methodists, and became comfortably united with Guild's people. He died in 1787. SAMUEL EVANS. 467 SAMUEL EVANS, The son of the Rev. David Evans, graduated at Yale in 1739, and offered himself to Philadelphia Presbytery, August 5, 1740. They inquired diligently touching the workings of the Spirit upon him, and licensed him, January 8, 1741. The congregation of Tredryffryn, left vacant by his father, asked to be set off to New Brunswick Presbytery : the matter was referred to the synod. A division took place. He was soon called to Deerfield, and asked for by the people in the Great Valley. He was ordered to supply both. He was called, October 7, 1741, to Great Valley, and was ordained. May 5, 1742. Norrington had been rent asunder, and he was directed to supply the Old-Side remnant. He was suspected,* although he denied it, of being the author of a scurrilous lampoon, — "The History of a Wandering Spirit." It was never acknowledged by anybody. Tennent, in his "Ireni- cum," clears the Synod of Philadelphia and its members of having ever approved of it or owned it. It was probably more severe than scurrilous ; for even Blairf pould only say, in defence of Whitefield, that his education had been very defective. In the affair of the School, the meetings of the projectors were held at his house. He relinquished the pastoral charge in 1747, without consent of the presbytery, and made several voyages to England. His conduct was so disorderly that the synod disowned him in 1751. He was the father of the Rev. Israel Evans. * Dr. Hodge. " The History of a Wandering Spirit" was printed in tlie General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for February, 1741. (This number is wanting in the Philadelphia Library.) Blair replied to it in the April number, setting together all the aspersions against the Saviour recorded in the Gospels, as the "History, by a Rabbi, of a Wandering Spirit," once famous in Palestine. In the June number was a supplement to the original article, asserting that it was the production of a layman, and that Blair had not touched the case, for he had set forth the words of an enemy, but they had given the Wandering Spirit's own testimony. f Keply to the Querists. 468 ALEXANDER MoDOWELL. ALEXANDER McDOWELL,* A NATIVE of Ireland, offered himself to Donegal Presbytery, Sep- tember 4, 1739, and is stated to have come from Virginia. The McDowell family had settled on Burden's Tract in 1737 ; and it is probable that Thomson, while visiting the new settlements, became acquainted with the young man and brought him to the presbytery. He was licensed, July 30, 1740 : in the spring he was sent to Vir- ginia, supplications having been made by North Mountain, James River, Rockfish, Joy Creek, Buck Mountain, South Branch of Po- tomac, and by the Marsh, in Maryland. He was ordained, October 29, 1741, to go as an evangelist to Virginia; and in the fall he was directed to itinerate in Newcastle Presbytery. West Cone- cocheague, White Clay, and Elk River, asked for him. He seems to have settled at Nottingham ; for, in 1743, he was, at the request of Alison, joined to Newcastle Presbytery, that he might answer the supplication of White Clay and Elk River ; and, as the price of this favour, Newcastle Presbytery was directed to supply Not- tingham for a year, and, in 1744, it was placed under their care. The synod's school was intrusted to him, and was for several years at Elk, and finally, in 1767, at Newark, Delaware. In 1754, he declined to have the whole burden of the school. Matthew Wilson was appointed to teach the languages, and to receive twenty pounds yearly. McDowell, "from a sense of the public good," continued to teach the other branches. On the union he gave up the charge of Elk, and it united with East Nottingham, under James Finley, the latter being the New-Side portion which had withdrawn from Elk River in 1741. In April, 1760, Coneco- cheague asked for him. In 1767, the school at Newark was char- tered as an academy by the Proprietary, John Penn. Dr. Ewing, and Hugh Williamson, M.D., visited Great Britain to solicit funds for its endowment : they were very successful, and Ewing brought back six or seven thousand dollars. In 1771, Newark Academy had seventy-one students. McDowell died January 12, 1782, having never married. * A person of the same name, born in Ireland, graduated at Harvard University, and -was settled as pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Coleraine, Massachusetts, September 28, 1753, and was dismissed in 1701. HAMILTON BELL — JOHN ROWLAND. 469 HAMILTON BELL "Was a student at Neshaminy in 1738. He offered himself to the synod for examination, September 29, 1739, and, being recom- mended by the commission in May, 1740, he was taken on trials by Philadelphia Presbytery, and licensed, September 30. Having spent some time at Nottingham, he was received by Donegal Pres- bytery, October 27, 1741, and on the 7th of April he received a call to Nottingham. He was also invited to Donegal and to Lan- caster, and to White Clay ; but, having accepted the invitation to Donegal, he was ordained pastor, November 11, 1742. The next spring he was admonished, and in the fall he was suspended. In February, 1744-5, he published his renunciation of the presbytery in the newspapers. He "materially appealed" to the synod, in May, 1744, and they, at his request, appointed a committee to meet on the ground and determine the affair. It met at Donegal the second Wednesday in June, and deposed him ; and the synod ap- proved the sentence in 1745. JOHN ROWLAND Was a native of Wales.* He studied at Neshaminy, and was taken on trials by New Brunswick Presbytery at its first meeting, August 8, 1738, in disregard of the act requiring, in accordance with the direction of the Westminster Assembly, a degree from a university, or, in lieu of it, a certificate from the synod's com- mittee. They licensed him, September 7, and directed him to Maidenhead, the congregation having leave from Philadelphia Presbytery to ask for supplies. Cowell, of Trenton, informed Rowland that his going there would produce dissension ; but he went. On the 19th, some of the people of Maidenhead and Hope- well complained to Philadelphia Presbytery of his having done so : Benjamin Stevens, John Anderson, Samuel Hunt, and Joseph Birt asked for a new erection, and for leave to come under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery; Enoch Armitage, Thomas Bur- * Professor Kinnersley's defence of himself for having blamed the Baptists in Philadelphia for admitting him to their piilpit. 470 JOHN ROWLAND. rowes, Edward Hart, and Timothy Baker appeared on the other side, and it was decided not to consent to their transfer yet. " The presbytery advised them that Rowland was not to be esteemed and improved as an orderly candidate of the ministry." He, however, continued his labours ; and the presbytery referred the matter to the synod, and his friends complained of the presbytery, and asked to be set off as a new congregation. The synod first heard the objections of New Brunswick Presbytery to the act, and resolved: — "It being the first article in our excellent Directory, that candi- dates be inquired of, what degrees they have taken in the univer- sity, and it being our desire to come to the nearest practicable con- formity to its incomparable prescriptions, therefore, all candidates not having a diploma shall be examined by the synod or its com- mission before any presbytery take them on trials." The proceed- ing in licensing Rowland was declared to be highly disorderly, and "such divisive courses are to be avoided;" and Rowland was re- quired to submit to the appointed examination, and not to be ad- mitted as a preacher in the bounds till he do so. They condemned the indecency of those of the congregation who had " improved" him, in disregard of their presbytery, in uttering unmannerly reflections and unjust aspersions against their presbytery and the synod. They refused their request to be jnade a separate congre- gation till they had submitted the matter to their presbytery with two correspondents from New Brunswick and three from New York Presbytery. The church doors were shut against Rowland, and barns were opened. Gilbert Tennent preached for them, and administered the sacrament,* and printed the sermons, with warm epistles of dedi- cation to those who had heard them. Rowland laboured also at Amwell, — "an agreeable people;" and they asked to have him for their minister, October 4, but the presbytery chose to ordain him as an evangelist, and performed that service, November 6. In a letter to Foxcroft, of Boston, Rowland says,t for the first six months there was no marked success, he having strove to con- vince them of their lost and guilty state. Then he changed his method with immediate happy effect. A sermon, in May, 1739, from John xi. 28-29, " The Master is come, and calleth for thee," and another from Matthew xxii. 4, " All things are ready ; come unto the marriage," were blessed to many souls. On the 6th of October, through misinformation, only fifteen assembled; but, while he preached, eleven were convinced, and cried out. He preached, December 30, from Isaiah xl. 6: — "And he said, What shall I cry?" — showing that man knoweth not what to cry until guided by the word and by the Spirit of God.' In the evening there was a great * Sacramental Discourses. f Christian Histoiy. JOHN ROWLAND. 471 impression made. At Maidenhead, while preaching on the "Para- ble of the Net," many were entangled in the meshes : not a few slipped out of them as soon as they could. After service, July 24, about fifty stopped at the "Christian houses," and the fifty-first Psalm was sung: the next day the mighty power of God was seen. There were also amazing manifestations at Amwell, July 27, and at Maidenhead, August 23. There was still a great revival in Sep- tember, 1740. He mentions that the zeal and diligence of the " Christian peo- ple" were especially serviceable to the converts, in promoting their stedfastness ; while, in Amwell, the same good effect was secured by "both the husband and the wife being taken," in many instances, and brought into the fold. When the division took place, he was sent by New Brunswick Presbytery to the New-Side congregations in Pennsylvania, in the track of James Campbell, beginning at Fagg's Manor, as far as Pennsborough, (Carlisle,) and Conecocheague, (Chambersburg,) and returning by way of Pigeon Run, Christina Bridge, and Green- wich, in West Jersey. Charleston and New Providence, in the Great Valley, asked for him, October 12, 1741. While preaching in the Baptist church in Philadelphia, on a Thursday evening, during the session of synod in 1740, the audience was sadly overcome by his description of their wholly-ruined con- dition as sinners ; and the distress rose to such a pitch that Gilbert Tennent went to the pulpit stairs and cried out, " 0>h, brother Row- land, is there no balm in Gilead?" Then he changed his strain, and joyfully proceeded to unfold the way of recovery.* Mr. Daniel Kinley, a teacher at Deer Creek, Maryland, wrote downf from the lips of Davies, the following circumstance, which may be introduced with an explanatory statement of Samuel Blair : — "Some believed there was a good work going on, and they desired to be converted: they saw others weeping, fainting, and lamenting, and they thought if they could be like those it would be very hopeful with them ; hence, they endeavoured just to get themselves affected by sermons, and if they could weep or be in- clined to vent their feelings by cries, now they hoped they were under conviction and in a very hopeful way." A woman in New Jersey, hearing many cry out under sermons, became convinced of the necessity of perceiving her undone con- * The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, a Baptist minister residing in PLiladelphia, was present at this horrid harangue, and was shocked at his "designing, artful, delud- ing" way of working on the passions. He remonstrated with the congregation from the pulpit shortly after, and some rose up in a tumult against him. He defended himself in the public prints, and the Baptists replied. f ' In a MS. Tolume of Excerpts from diyines, in the hands of the Rev. A. B. Cross. 472 JOHN ROWLAND. dition before she could heartily embrace the gospel offer. She attended wherever she thought she might be affected ; but she heard the most rousing preachers and remained unmoved amid a general melting. She was concerned that she should be blind and past feeling. She availed herself of an opportunity to hear Rowland. The word was with power on many, but she felt it not. She desired to see him and open her case to him. She was shown to the room where he had retired after dinner. He was walking backward and forward, and, asking her to sit down, he continued walking in silence. He stopped of a sudden, and said to her, with a solemn voice and aspect, "Woman, did you hear there is a warrant out for you?" Instantly, struck with amazement, she replied, "No, sir." "No? not know it? that is surprising indeed!" said he; and, with much solemnity, he continued walking. She sat awfully silent and as- tonished, yet assured that there was no precept issued against her. He stopped of a sudden: — "It is truly amazing indeed that you have not heard of it. What ! not hear that there is a warrant out for you? can such a thing be possible?" With fear and tremblihg she replied, "No, indeed, sir; I never heard of it before." After a considerable pause, he broke forth, with a pathetic, solemn voice, "Woman, whether you know it or no, I now tell you there is a warrant out for you, and from the highest authority; and further, I tell you, the warrant is now in the officer's hands. woman, I am the officer ; and I do here arrest you, in the name of the Eternal God, for the murder of his Son." She almost fainted, and was immediately struck with a sense of her lost and wretched condition. She soon found by experience what conviction was, and her convic- tions issued in sound conversion. Davies spoke of him to Finley as eminently holy, and peculiarly endowed with abilities, natural, supernatural, and acquired, to win souls to the blessed Jesus. At Maidenhead, Rowland was admit- ted to use the meeting-house; but at Hopewell the New-Lights built about a mile from Pennington, towards the Delaware. In the middle of September, 1744, Tennent, of Freehold, organized the church of Maidenhead and Hopewell. A remarkable adventurer, who has strangely escaped the notice of those who have transformed criminals into heroes of romance, appeared in the colonies about the middle of the last century. He was known by the name of Tom Bell, and performed the exploit of successfully passing off, in the South, a transported convict girl as a daughter of George II. Passing through Princeton in the twilight, he was invited by John Stockton, Esq., to his house, who addressed him as Mr. Rowland. Bell with much difficulty convinced him of his mistake, the resemblance being so strong.* * Bell was slim, thin-Tisaged, of middle stature, with a heavy cough. His appear- ance under different names is often noticed, but he never seems to have been appre- JOHN ROWLAND. 473 The wretcli went to a vacant congregation in Hunterdon county, where Rowland was known by face to few, and, introducing himself as Rowland, was invited to spend the week and preach on the Sab- bath. While riding with the ladies to church, he professed to miss his notes, and his host took his place in the wagon, that he might on horseback seek them, and be back in time for the service. The people waited; but " Nor hide, nor hair, nor any trace, Of horse or man was seen." Bell rifled a desk of money and escaped, proclaiming himself as Mr. Rowland. Rowland at this very time, in 1741 or '42, was with two elders of his, Joshua Anderson and Benjamin Stevens, and Tennent, of Freehold, attending a sacramental service in Mary- land or Pennsylvania. On his return he was charged with the rob- bery, and gave bonds to appear at the court of Oyer and Terminer in Trenton. The chief-justice, who was well known for his disbelief of revelation, charged the grand jury on the subject with great severity : after long consideration, they found no bill. With an angry reproof the judge sent them back again, with the same result. They were sent back a third time, and, being threatened with severe punishment if they persisted in the refusal, they brought in a bill for the alleged crime. He was acquitted at once on the tes- timony of Tennent, Anderson, and Stevens. The popular feeling was against him ; his friends were indicted for perjury, and he with- drew from the province, and settled at Charleston and New Provi- dence, in Chester county. It was not an inviting field:* there was little piety or religious knowledge; but while he was travelling, his ministrations were blessed to a remarkable work of conviction. It was of short con- tinuance ; in two months there was a cessation of the awakening. Rowland, on becoming their minister, wisely set himself to build up the converts in their most holy faith. In closing his narrative, he says to Foxcroft, " This is very little of what I might have said." He died before the fall of 1747. Dr. Henderson, of Freehold, in his Memoir of Tennent, says he possessed a commanding eloquence, and many estimable quali- ties. Whitefield said, " There was much of the simplicity of Christ discernible in his behaviour." hended. In 1752 or '53, he laid aside his bad habits, and taught school in Hanover, Virginia. * Rowland, in Christian History. 474 WILLIAM ROBINSON. WILLIAM ROBINSON Was the son of a wealthy Quaker physician, near Carlisle, in England. Having gone up in early life to London, he was ensnared into foolish courses, which made him ashamed to return to his father's house. He came to America, and taught school in Hope- well, N.J., from 1729 until 1739. At the commencement of the Revival, and probably under the influence of Rowland, his mind was filled with amazement, in con- templating the starry heavens, at the thought of his having lived so regardless of their Maker. " While meditating* on the beauty and grandeur of the firmament, and saying to himself, ' How tran- scendently glorious must the Author of all this beauty and gran- deur be !' the thought struck him with the suddenness and the force of lightning, ' But what do I know of this God ? Have I ever sought his favour, or made him my friend?' This impression never left him till he took refuge in Christ as the hope and life of his soul." He studied at the Log College while he went on with his school, and was taken on trials by New Brunswick Presbytery, April 1, 1740, and was licensed on the 27th of the next month. In August he was sent to Craig's and Hunter's settlements in the Forks of Delaware, (Allen township and Mount Bethel,) to "Mr. Green's and Pequally (Panaquarry,) N.J. He was ordained an evangelist, Aug. 4, 1741, and was again sent to the ' Forks.' " He declined the call to Neshaminy, which was presented to him Aug. 2, 1742, and was directed to supply there and at the "New Erection," in Nottingham. "His dear memoryf will mingle with my softest and most grate- ful recollections as long as I am capable of refiection. The neces- sitous circumstances of many vacancies, and the prospect of more extensive usefulness, engaged him to expose his shattered constitu- tion to all the hardships and fatigues of almost uninterrupted itine- rations. Tracing his travels in sundry parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, I cannot recollect one place in which he ofiiciated for any time where there were not some illustrious effects of his ministry. He had a noble, disinterested ambition to preach Christ where he was not named ; and therefore he took a journey to the new settlements at the South, in which he continued two years, oppressed with the usual difiiculties a weakly constitution feels in travelling a wilderness, and animated only by his glorious successes." * Miller's Life of Rodgers. •j- Dayies to Bellamy. WILLIAM ROBINSON. 475 The smallpox is said to have left lasting debilitating effects on his trame, and to have disfigured his countenance and deprived him of an eye. James River had applied to New Brunswick Presbytery in 1739, and again in 1741 ; but nothing seems to have been done in the way of granting supplies. In the winter of 1742, Robinson entered Virginia, and was seized near Winchester by the sheriff as an un- hcensed preacher, but was soon released. He went up* the Valley, and spent the winter in North Carolina, where, by exposure, he contracted a disease which clung to him all his days. He had not much success in that province : he penetrated as far as the Pedee. In 1751, one hundred families on that river petitioned Hanover Presbytery for a minister. Returning, he preached with great suc- cess in Charlotte, Prince Edward, Campbell, and Albemarle coun- ties, lately settled by great numbers of Irish Presbyterians from Pennsylvania. In Lunenburg, near the North Carolina line, there were a few Presbyterians settled among a number of loose Vir- ginians. He was the happy instrument of reclaiming many thought- less creatures, and of founding a flourishing congregation. In Hanover and Louisa,t Mr. James Hunt, Mr. Samuel Morris, and two other gentlemen, were, by the reading of "Boston's Four- fold State," and "Luther on the Galatians," awakened to a sense of their perishing state : without being aware of any person's feel- ing as he did, each absented himself from the parish church and its hfeless ministrations. Being summoned to answer for this offence, each man found his case was not singular. They agreed to meet at each other's houses on the Sabbath and read the Scrip- tures and Luther's great work. For this they were frequently fined. A copy of the sermons which Whitefield had preached at Glasgow, and which were printed from notes taken by a hearer, fell into the hands of Morris in 1742 : benefited by it himself, he invited his neighbours to come and hear it. " The plainness and fervency of these discourses being attended with the power of the Lord, many were awakened, and could not avoid crying out, weep- mg bitterly and even giving strange and ridiculous indications of their concern. The house became crowded ; the Lord was speaking as on Mount Sinai, with a voice of thunder, and sinners, like that mountain, trembled to the centre. A goodly little number were healed by the word, that wondered and rejoiced understandingly in Christ. A reading-house was built : having not been used to social prayer, none of them durst attempt it. Other reading-houses were built, and the number of attendants and the force of divine influ- ence much increased." The leaders were summoned| to appear at Williamsburg, and on * The river runs northerly, so that going southward is going up the yalley. f Davies to Bellamy. J Sir. James Hunt: quoted by Dr. Foote. 476 'WILLIAM EOBINSON. their way, being overtaken by a storm, tbey stopped at a poor man's house, on whose shelf lay a ragged copy of the Westminster Confession. The whole summary pleased them ; and, having received the book, they presented it to Governor Gooch as the expression of their views. The Governor was a Scotsman, and, recognising the book, at once said that they were Presbyterians according to the Kirk of Scotland, and could not be molested. During the delibe- ration of the Council, a thunder-storm shook the house and light- nings glared fearfully, and they were let go, with a caution not to disturb the peace. Being dismissed, they very naturally and joyfully regarded the storm as let loose to "still the enemy and the avenger." A man going from Augusta* to Hanover for iron and salt, spoke of Robinson, and excited a desire to hear him. Some young peo- ple from Hanover, being at Cub Creek, heard him ; and this led Morris, and his friends to send some of their number to hear him preach, and, if they approved of his doctrines, to invite him to visit Hanover. They found him at the Rockfish Gap, and prevailed on him to promise to come. He travelled through most of the night to reach the place at the appointed day. Having seen his credentials, learned his doctrine and method of procedure, they were very eager to hear him. A large crowd assembled ; a venerable spreading oak, with embower- ing shades, gave him and them shelter. It was the Sabbath, July 3, 1743 ; he preached from Luke xiii. 3. He preached four days : the concourse increased vastly. " 'Tis hardf for the liveliest imagination to form an image of the condition of the audience in those glorious days of the Son of Man. Many came through curiosity, and were convinced of their entire ignorance of religion. There is reason to believe there was as much good done by those four sermons as by all preached in the next seven years." In private he succeeded in removing some doctrinal errors, and in engaging them to use prayer and singing of psalms in their meetings. They offered to remunerate him : he said, " I have enough;" but, overcome by their urgency, he took the money and applied it to assist Davies in his studies. When he came to Cub Creek, | the people were warned that he would preach at the stand. David Austin, a half-breed, but terri- ble as a full-blooded Indian, went to hear, and lay down at a dis- tance, as if to sleep. He rose on hearing the text, "Awake, thou that sleepest," and pressed near to the stand, the people making way. He returned home in great distress : his convictions were agonizing, and his deliverance remarkable. He became an eminent * Davidson's Kentucky. f Mr. Samuel Morris : quoted by Davies. J Related to me in May, 1843, by Dr. Alexander. WILLIAM EOBINSON. 477 Christian ; troubled souls far and wide sought his counsel. The ex- cellent Mrs. Morton had heard Davies and his compeers, and the Smiths and their associates ; but she believed that none equalled Davy Austin in skill to administer consolation to the disquieted and desponding believer. On his way to Hanover, Robinson reproved a tavern-keeper for his profanity. "Who are you?" was the rude demand. " A minister of the gospel," was the reply. " Go with me, and you may hear me preach." He promised to do so, if Robinson would preach from the words, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made," designing to jeer his visage, scarred and seamed. Robinson preached from the text : the wicked man heard, and became a very pious and useful member of the church. Davies was " the joyful witness of the happy effects of the four sermons on sundry thoughtless impeni- tents and sundry abandoned profligates. They have, ever since, given good evidence of a thorough conversion." His next field of labour was in " the Government of New York," probably in the Highlands. Gilbert Tennent heard that many had been awakened by his labours. In 1745, a most glorious display of grace began by his ministry in Wicomico, in Somerset county, Maryland. In Baltimore county, there was a considerable revival ; in Kent county and Queen Anne's, a number of careless sinners were awakened and hopefully brought to Christ. " The work was begun and mostly carried on by that favoured man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect on it, astonishes me." The last six months of his life he spent at St. George's, Dela- ware, and took charge of the congregation. Of his labours there we have no record. There was a revival there under his occa- sional visits previously and those of Whitefield. It seems to have constituted a part of Bohemia congregation, and to have enjoyed the benefits of Whitefield's visit in November, 1740. It became a separate congregation; and Robinson, in March, 1746, took his dismission from New Brunswick Presbytery to Newcastle, with a view of becoming their pastor. But his end was at hand. He died, August 1, 1746. Blair preached at George's Town, August 3, a sermon, in com- memoration of him, from Zech. i. 7. He speaks of his abiding sense of the deplorable condition of the unregenerate, and of his liberality, often giving away, at a time, twenty and forty pounds. The Synod of New York, at its first meeting in September, 1745, having considered the circumstances of Virginia, and the wide door that is opened for the preaching of the gospel there, are unanimously of the opinion, that Mr. Robinson is the most suit- 478 CHARLES BEATTT, able person to be Bent, and do earnestly recommend him to go down and help them, as soon as his circumstances will permit, and reside there for some months. Kobinson was present at that meeting, and probably intended to go. On his death-bed, he left it as his last request to Davies to go to Hanover. To him he bequeathed* most of his books, having previously aided him with money. Davies had him in the highest estimation : — " Oh, he did much in a little time ! Who would not choose such an expeditious pil- grimage through this world?" The father of Dr. Moses Hoge had heard him preach near Opequhon, Virginia, and thought that his sermons lacked method. They possessed a living power. " Thanks be unto God, who always caused him to triumph in Christ, and made manifest the savour of his knowledge by him in every place." CHARLES BEATTY Was born in county Antrim, Ireland, between 1712 and 1715. His father died while he was a child. His mother, Christiana, was of the Clinton family,t who removed from England to county Longford during the Great Rebellion, being attached to the Royalists. Her brother, Charles Clinton, with Alexander Den- niston and others, took ship, in 1729, for Philadelphia. They sailed in May, and reached Cape Cod in October, and remained in New England till 1731, when they began a settlement in Ulster, now Orange county, New York. Beatty had received a classical education in Ireland to some extent, and may have profited by the instructions of the pastors of Goshen, Wallkill, and Bethlehem. Reaching manhood, he engaged in trade ; and, as was the manner of that day, — when, in the country, few out of the seaport-towns had the capital to lay in a supply of imported goods, — he travelled^ on foot, or with his pack-horse, to display his "auld-warld gear" to the people in their own homes. Stopping at the Log College, he amused him- self by surprising Tennent and his pupils with a proffer in Latin of his merchandise. Tennent, perceiving at once that this was " no pedlar's Greek," replied in Latin; and the conversation went * Davenport to Edwards. f Hosack's Life of De Witt Clinton. J Dr. Miller : on the authority of Dr. Rodgers. CHARLES BEATTT. 479 on in the Roman tongue with such evidence of scholarship, re- ligious knowledge, and fervent piety, that Tennent commanded him to sell what he had and prepare for the ministry. He "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision;" for he who spoke to Saul by the way called Beatty to " this grace and apostleship" also. His kinsmen were not passed by in the Great Awakening ; for Leonard, of Goshen, was specially " stirred up and spirited" to water what Whitefield had planted in New York. Tennent, of Freehold, and Robinson, laboured in the New York Government, in the Highlands, with success. While pursuing his studies at Neshaminy, he was taken on trials by New Brunswick Presbytery, October 12, 1742, and was licensed the next day, and was sent to Nottingham. He was called to the Forks of Neshaminy, May 26, 1743, and was or- dained, December 14, the excellent Tennent being present in pres- bytery then for the last time. Brainerd rejoiced in his society, having seasons of sweet spi- ritual refreshment with him. He went with him to assist Treat at the sacrament in April, 1740, and in June rode from the Forks, and preached in the afternoon to a crowded audience at Neshaminy, with great freedom in setting forth the sorrows of God's people and their comforting considerations. It was a sweet, melting season, happily preparing them for the Sabbath. Beatty preached, and there appeared some warmth in the assembly. Brainerd assisted in the administration of the Lord's Supper, and, towards the close, discoursed extempore from the sacred words, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him," and was greatly favoured with divine aid in addressing sinners. The word was attended with amazing power : many scores, if not hundreds, in that great assembly of three or four thousand, were very much affected: "there was a very great mourning, like the mourning of Hadad Rimmon." Beatty and his wife, with Treat, came to see Brainerd at Princeton in October, 1740, when about to leave for the Indians. "My spirits," says Brainerd, "were refreshed to see them; but I was surprised and ashamed that they had rode thirty or forty miles to visit me." They rode with him ten miles on his journey. There they parted ; but one special friend (Davenport) stayed on purpose to keep him company, and to cheer his spirits. The synod sent him to Virginia and North Carolina in 1754 ; and he accompanied Franklin, when he, with five hundred men, came up to defend the frontier, after the burning of the Moravian missionaries at Gnadenhuetten, near Lehighton. Franklin says,* * Memoirs. 480 CHARLES BBATTT. " The chaplain was zealous, and lamented the backwardness of the soldiers to attend the prayers and exhortations." Franklin suggested that the spirit-rations should be dealt out under Beatty's eye, after the religious exercises. This remedy secured uniform attendance ; but Beatty soon left, to go down into Bucks county and aid in recruiting. The synod, in 1756, judged it his duty to go with the Pennsylvania forces, if the Government should ask for his services. He was again invited in 1759 ; but the synod, on account of the state of his congregation, advised him not to go. They advised him to comply with Colonel Armstrong's request, and go as chaplain to his regiment. The Corporation for the Widows' Fund sent him to Great Britain in 1760. He was furnished with letters from Davies, which were of the highest service to him. The General Assembly of the Scottish Kirk ordered a national collection to be taken up. The Rev. Dr. Gordon, of Ipswich, wrote to Bellamy, October 27, 1761, "Mr. Beatty is over in England collecting. Have had the pleasure of his company. He is at my brother's, (Thomas Field, bookseller, London.) Expect he will get three thousand pounds before he returns." The Rev. Provost Smith, of Philadelphia, took the ground that much of the money had been raised for the distressed inhabitants on the frontier, who had been driven from their homes by the Indians. This involved Beatty in a long correspondence, to vin- dicate his character, and to prevent the fund from being per- verted from its rightful use. The corporation desired the synod to send two missionaries to the frontiers of the province; ajid they, in 1766, appointed Beatty and DufSeld to preach two months in those parts, and to do what else is best for the advancement of religion, according to the instructions of the corporation. They left Carlisle in August, Duffield going through Path Valley, Fannet, and the Cove, and Beatty passing along the Juniata. The Delaware town, on the Muskingum, one hundred and thirty miles beyond Fort Pitt, was visited by them. They found a very agreeable prospect of a door opening for the spread of the gospel among the Indians. The white settlers were ready to exert them- selves to the utmost to have the gospel among them, but were very necessitous from the distresses and losses of the war. Beatty was married, June 24, 1746, to the daughter of the Hon. John Reading, of New Jersey. He took her to Great Britain, in 1768, to obtain relief for her from eminent surgeons ; but she died, soon after landing, at Greenock. The journal of his tour was printed in London.* He also published two pamphlets on the Indian missions, and a sermon, entitled, " Double honour * PMladelphia Library. JOHN HINDMAN — TIMOTHY JOHNES. 481 Is due to tte laborious Gospel Minister, which he had preached at the ordination of Mr. Ramsay, at Fairfield, New Jersey. To relieve the College of New Jersey, he sailed for the West Indies, but died, August 13, 1772, soon after reaching Bridge- town, in Barbadoes. Three of his sons became ruling elders in our church. Dr. Charles C. Beatty, of Steubenville, Ohio, is his grandson. His grand-daughter, the wife of the Rev. Henry R. Wilson, died while labouring as a missionary among the Creek Indians. JOHN HINDMAN Was received as a candidate by Donegal Presbytery, Septem- ber 3, 1740; and, Gillespie having represented to them "his im- prudence and childish simplicity," they resolved, in the next April, not to continue him. Soon, however, they were satisfied that they might retrace their steps ; and he was licensed. May 80. He was sent to Virginia,, and was, in 1742, at James River and Head of Shenandoah, and at Opequhon and BuUskin. He was ordained as an evangelist, to go to Virginia, November 11, 1742; and we find him at Opequhon, Rockfish, Potomac, "Cub Creek on Round Oak." Rockfish and Mountain Plain called him, March 26, 1745 ; and, in June, John Woods appeared, as a commissioner, to urge the request of Rockfish. He was also invited to Marsh Creek and Conecocheague. His name is not agaia seen on the records. TIMOTHY JOHNES, Of Welsh descent, was born at Southampton, Long Island, May 24, 1717, and graduated at Yale in 1737. Of the period between his leaving college and going to Morristown we have seen no notice, except that, in that perilous time, when some " haply were found fighting against God," those who separated from the 81 482 TIMOTHY JOHNES. First Parish in New Haven worshipped in the house of Mr. Timo- thy Johnes.* He went to Morristown, New Jersey, August 13, 1742; stayed six Sabbaths: " fetchedf my family, and was ordained, February 9, 1743," by New York Presbytery. As early as 1735, West Hanover had separated from Hanover, and asked for the ordination of Mr. Cleverly. He was graduated at Harvard in 1715, and remained at Morristown till his death in December, 1776, aged eighty-one. He never married. His small property became nearly exhausted towards the close of life, and reduced him to hardships. The congregation of Morristown "was, under Christ, col- lected, settled, and watered" by Johnes. He had a happy faculty of instilling successfully the principles of religion. He was much with his people. He read accounts of revivals to them ; but no instance of more than ordinary success is recorded during the first twenty-one years of his labours. Ninety-four were added to the church in 1764: "these were the sweet fruits of the won- derful effusion of God's admirable grace begun on our sacrament- day, July 1, 1764." " The LordJ Jehovah has rent the heavens and come down, and the mountains are fleeing at his presence. There is something of this blessed work all around me." It was a season of " deep feeling and much anxiety," arising from awful apprehensions of the nature of sin and of the justice of God. Fifty were added in 1774 : " those that follow are the ingather- ings of the divine harvest of 1774; — sweet drops of mornmg dew." As the result of the revival of 1790, forty united with the church; four hundred and twenty-four under his ministry pro- fessed their faith in Christ. " Few men laboured more zealously or more successfully." The American army passed the winter of 177T encamped near Morristown. It was a disastrous stage of our public affairs : sick- ness swept away the soldiers ; and the gloom was made horrible by the abounding profanity and the ceaseless gaming. Washing- ton,! as the communion drew nigh, asked Dr. Johnes if member- ship with the Presbyterian church was required by him as a term of admission to the ordinance. He replied, "All who loved the Lord Jesus were welcome." " That is right," was the answer; and he sought, in the fellow- ship of God's people and in the remembrance of redeeming love, * Bacon's Historical Discourse at New Haven. I Quoted from his memoranda by Eev. Albert Barnes, in his Manual of the Church at Morristown, 1828. X Quoted by Mr. Hunting, in his discourse at Westfield, from Dr. Johnes's Letter in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. I The Rev. 0. L. Kirtland, in the Presbyterian Magazine. TIMOTHY GRIFFITH. 483 on the Sabbath, relief from the scenes that appalled him, and from the forebodings that oppressed his soul. The services were held in the open air, even in winter, in a sheltered spot. The church was at that time occupied as a hospital ; and often, in the morning, the dead were found lying in the pews. Dr. Johnes, the son of the pastor, was intrusted with the care of the sick, and, through his judicious arrangements, the comfort of the sufferers was promoted, and the mortality checked. " Distinguished for his fidelity, his discourses were clear, plain, practical, persuasive. By an affectionate appeal to the heart, he aimed to win men to the practice of holiness. Few congregations were so thoroughly instructed in all that pertains to the practical duties of religion and in the great doctrines of grace." A lover of peace, his own people and the neighbouring congregations unhesitatingly reposed with confidence in his judgment and tried friendship. He was not lacking in firmness as a ruler in the house of God, having, in one hundred and seventy cases, sought the welfare of the church by timely and wholesome discipline. In 1791, an unworthy man was associated with him in the pas- toral work. The truth, long suspected, was finally made clear enough to secure his dismission in 1793. The late Rev. Dr. Rich- ards, while a candidate, preached to the aged man in his own dweUing, (then near his end,) that he might judge of his fitness. He received a call just before the death of Dr. Johnes, who was removed by dysentery, September 19, 1794, aged seventy-eight. TIMOTHY GRIFFITH Was probably a son of Timothy Griffith, an elder in the Great Valley. He taught a classical school in Philadelphia in 1737, and graduated at Yale in 1742. Newcastle Presbytery ordained him, in 1743, as successor to Thomas Evans in Pencader. Understanding the Welsh language, he was ordered by the synod to supply Tred- ryffryn once a month for several years. On the death of Dick, he removed to a farm in Appoquinimy, and resided on it till his death in 1754. During that time, he probably supplied New- castle and Drawyers, they being, like Pencader, divided by the New Side, and left very feeble. When the province was threatened with invasion, he was elected 484 JOHN STEEL. captain of the company raised in Newcastle county in September, 1748. He was a missionary in Western Virginia in 1751. JOHN STEEL, A PROBATIONER from Londonderry Presbytery, appeared before tbe commission in May, 1742 ; and there being some irregularity in his marriage, by reason of a pre-contract, letters were written to Ireland before any steps were taken in his case. He was sent, in April, 1743, to supply Rockfish and Roanoke, and in the fall he was sent to Conestoga, being under the care of Donegal Presby- tery. He was ordained by Newcastle Presbytery before May, 1744, and was, for a time, at New London. He removed to West Conecocheague* in 1752, perhaps earlier, and remained till the Upper West Settlement (now Mercersburg) was broken up. He was a man of great intrepidity : his church was fortified, and he led his men to attack the savages. In 1755, he received a cap- tain's commission, and held it many years. Several of his letters, in those difiicult times, are preserved in the Colonial Documents. He preached for a time at Nottingham, and then at York and Shrewsbury ; and, on the union of the synods, he removed to Car- lisle and Silver Spring. Dufiield had just before been called to Big Spring and the New-Side congregation in Carlisle. The call to Steel was made out April 20, 1759, and he was installed before June, giving two-thirds of his time to Carlisle. Duffield resented this, — his call being of an earlier date, and stipulating that two- thirds of his time should be given in town. The synod, in May, 1759, lamented the unhappy state of feeling, and directed the two congregations to unite in building a house of worship, and en- treated the ministers to join their counsels to bring about a cor- dial agreement. In 1761, the church was built by a lottery, and used by both parties. He withdrew from the synod, with the other Old-Side minis- ters of Donegal Presbytery, and finally was permitted to join the Second Philadelphia Presbytery. Pennf wrote to him, February 24, 1768, to dispossess the settlers on the Red Stone and the * Rev. Thomas Creigh's Historical Discourse at Mercersburg. f Colonial Documents : edited by Mr. Hazard. JAMES SCOUGAL — CHARLES McKNIGHT. 485 YougHogeny. In April, he assembled the people, and reasoned the case with them. There were one hundred and fifty families on the Youghiogeny. Dr. Martin said, "He was a good preacher; sound in his theology." He died in August, 1779, JAMES SCOUGAL, A MEMBER of the Presbytery of Paisley, having received a call from the Old-Side portion of Snow Hill and the Ferry, in Wor- cester county, Maryland, (it had been sent to him with the con- currence of Newcastle Presbytery,) came to this country in 1743. He produced sufiicient testimonials of his piety, prudence, learn- ing, soundness in the faith, and blameless conversation. " The place called the Ferry" is mentioned by Davies as the scene of a remarkable work of grace, at the time of his entrance on the ministry. Scougal died in 1746. CHARLES Mcknight Was taken up by New Brunswick Presbytery, June 23, 1741, and was licensed probably in the fall. In the next May, the Forks of Delaware and Greenwich, in Warren county, New Jersey, asked for him, as did also Staten Island and Basking- ridge. In August, Amboy supplicated for his services, and Greenwich and Forks renewed their request. Staten Island and Baskingridge called him in October, and he was ordained, Octo- ber 12, 1742, at the same time with Finley and Youngs. He was installed, October 16, 1744, at Cranberry and Allentown. Allen- town asked supplies in 1738 ; Cranberry, at the same time, by their commissioner, John Chambers, asked advice, being troubled about a proposal to build their meeting-house in common with the Church of England. 486 JOHN BLAIR. WMtefield preached several times, both at Crosswicks and Allen- town, on weekdays. McKnight was dismissed from Cranberry in October, 1756, and Burden's Town obtained one-fourth of his time in 1758. He was called, May 28, 1766, to Middletown Point and Shrewsbury; and, in the fall, Trenton asked for him. He was dismissed from Allentown in October, and accepted the call to Middletown Point, Shark River, and Shrewsbury, April 21, 1767. He was seized by the British, and his church was burned. He died, soon after his release, in 1778. In 1789, Morgan Edwards said of the Presbyterian church at the Point, " The place which knew it knows it no more." It was rebuilt by a lottery, and was only rarely used by the Presby- terians till 1820. Shrewsbury remained vacant till 1812; and Shark River has long been surrendered to other denominations. JOHN BLAIR, A BROTHER of Samuel Blair, was born in Ireland, in 1720, and was educated at the Log College, and licensed by the New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle at its earliest sessions. He was ordained, December 27, 1742, pastor of Middle Spring, Rocky Spring, and Big Spring, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. These places had been served by Thomas Craighead ; the first two being then called Upper and the third Lower Hopewell. They divided on the rupture, Hopewell having supplicated the conjunct presbyteries in 1741, and Campbell and Rowland having been sent to them. Blair gave two-thirds of his time to Big Spring, and divided the re- mainder between the others. He visited Virginia soon after Robinson. "Truly* he came to us in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Former impressions were ripened, and new ones made on many hearts. One night, a whole houseful of people was quite overcome by the power of the word, particularly of one pungent sentence; they would hardly sit or stand, or keep their feelings under any proper restraint. So general was the concern during his stay, and so ignorant were we of the dangers of apostasy, that we pleased our- * Samuel Morris. JOHN BLAIR. 487 selves with the thought of more having been brought to Christ than now appear to have been. There is the greatest reason to believe that several bound themselves in an everlasting covenant to the Lord." He visited* the New-Side congregations east and west of the Blue Ridge, and also on his second visit in 1746. In that year he organized the congregations of North Mountain, including Bethel and Hebron, of New Providence, Timber Ridge, and the Forks of James River, now New Monmouth and Lexington. The incursions of the Indians led him to resign his pastoral charge, December 28, 1748. He seems to have remained without settlement till 1757, when he succeeded his brother at Fagg's Manor. He continued his school with reputation. In 1767, he was chosen Professor of Divinity and Moral Philosophy in the College of New Jersey, and officiated as President. On the acces- sion of Dr. Witherspoon, in 1769, he resigned, and accepted the call to Wallkill, in the Highlands of New York, May 19, 1769. He died, December 8, 1771. During the excitement growing out of the question concerning the examination of candidates on their experience of saving grace, one of the Old Side published "Thoughts on the Examination and Trials of Candidates." On this pamphlet Blair published "Ani- madversions," dated "Fagg's Manor, August 27, 1766." He also published a reply to Harker's "Appeal to the Christian World," entitled "The Synod of New York and Philadelphia vindicated." He left behind him a treatise on Regeneration, orthodox, and ably written : it was published shortly before his death, with the title, "A Treatise on the Nature, Use, and Subjects of the Sacraments ; on Regeneration ; and on the Nature and Use of the Means of Grace." The preface is dated " Goodwill, alias Wallkill, December 21, 1770." In it he states that his opinions have undergone a change ; and he begs that those who attempt to answer his reasons for the change will not throw dust. He had formerly believed that, though the unre- generate ought to have their children baptized, they ought not to adventure to the Lord's table. On this point he had changed his views and his practice. He endeavours to prove that there is no more propriety in excluding those who wish to partake of the sacra- ments than there would be in excluding them from other parts of public worship. It was reprinted by Dr. James P. Wilson, in his collection of Sacramental Treatises. He married the daughter of John Durborrow, of Philadelphia. The Rev. John D. Blair, of Richmond, was his son. His daughter Rebecca was the wife of Dr. William Linn, of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City. The Rev. Dr. John Blair Linn, of the First Church in Philadelphia, was her son. * Dr. Foote. 488 SAMUEL FINLBY. Davies said of him, in his elegy on Samuel Blair : "When, all-attentive, eager to admit The flowing knowledge, at his reverend feet Raptured we sat, thou above the rest. Brother and image of the dear deceased, Surviving Blair! oh, let spontaneous flow The floods of tributary grief you owe." SAMUEL FINLEY Was born in the county Armagh, Ireland, in 1715. His parents early sought the Lord's blessing on each of their children, and he was seriously impressed by divine truth in his sixth year. The family arrived at Philadelphia, September 28, 1734, and made their home in West Jersey. He was in his eighteenth year, and had already made some progress in preparing for the ministry : he completed his studies at the Log College. New Brunswick Pres- bytery took him on trials, August 4, 1740, and licensed him the next day. He went into the bounds of Donegal Presbytery, and was present at the trial of Craighead, in December, and abetted him in his contumelious treatment of that judicatory. He preached, January 20, 1741, at Nottingham, from Matthew xii. 27, 28:— "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom then do your sons cast them out?" This sermon was published with the title, "Christ victorious, and Satan raging," and was soon reprinted at Boston and London. Soon after appeared in print his letter in commendation of Whitefield. The conjunct presbyteries, in August, 1741, sent him to Dover and Baltimore, and directed him to supply the new erection at Not- tingham. He then went into West Jersey, and his labours were remarkably blessed at Greenwich, in Cohanzy, and Deerfield, in Gloucester county. Whitefield had passed through the region, and Gilbert Tennent had laboured there. " There was a remarkable stir of a religious kind in Cape May." In the spring of 1740, Abel Morgan, the Baptist minister in Middletown, New Jersey, "was so affected by Whitefield's spirit that he went forth preach- ing the gospel on the sea-coast" and other places in that province. He came to Cohanzy, and Finley soon appeared: on Tuesday he went to Cape May, and on Thursday Finley came. The mode and the subjects of baptism became the topic of general discourse; "many of the disciples went among the Baptists, which caused SAMUEL FINLET. 489 great wrath."* Finley and Morgan had a debate which lasted two days, with the usual result of greater estrangement of the parties. Two elders and six members left the Presbyterian for the Baptist church. Finley published "A Charitable Plea for the Speechless ;" Morgan replied. Finley vindicated the claim of infants to the promise and the seal of the promise ; Morgan put forth a re- joinder. Morgan Edwards says that Morgan's book shows him to have been a man of wit, of very genteel irony, and master of the Greek. Morgan alludes to Finley's fondness for controversy. He printed, in January, 1743, a sermon, on 2 Thessalonians ii. 11, 12, against the Moravians, entitled " The Strength, Nature, and Symp- toms of Delusion," and, in the same year, replied to Thomson's sermon on convictions, in a discourse headed, " Clear Light shining out in Obscure Darkness." In all of these early productions is much that is uncalled for, and much more that cannot be ap- proved. Cohanzy and Gloster supplicated for him in May, 1742. The presbytery granted the request, and ordained him an evangelist, October 13 : Robinson preached from Ezekiel iii. 17. He went to preach for the Presbyterians in Milford, Connecticut; but Lieu- tenant-Governor Law put an odious statute, lately enacted, in force, and he was carried from one constable to another and transported as a vagrant out of the colony. In August, 1743, calls were pre- sented to him from Cohanzy, Nottingham, and Milford, and the presbytery sent him to Milford "with allowance that he also preach for other places thereabouts where Providence may open a door for him." Having preached at Milford, he went, on the 1st of September, to preach for the Second Society of New Haven, at the request of Mr. James Pierpont, the son of the former pastor of the First Church, and the brother-in-law of the present pastor. The Second Church, though regularly organized, was not recog- nised by the civil authority or the New Haven Association ; it was an indictable offence to preach for them. Yet Finley went ; and, on September 5, as he was going to meeting, he was seized by the constable and confined. The grand jury presented him on the 11th, and judgment was given that he should be carried out of the colony as a vagrant. The sentence was executed. Finley peti- tioned in October that the Assembly would review the case ; pleas were heard in abatement, and his prayer was denied. During these visits he made many friends, and maintained a most affec- tionate correspondence with Bellamy till his death. He spent six months in Philadelphia, preaching to the new congregation. He * Morgan Edwards's History of New Jersey Baptists. 490 SAMUEL FINLEY. was called, in June, 1744, to Nottingham, and was tte pastor there seventeen years. In the summer of 1745, by appointment of the conjunct pres- byteries, Gilbert Tennent and Finley waited on Governor Gooch to repel the insinuations made against Roan, and the New Side in general, as schismatics, defamers, and fanatics. The governor received them kindly, gave them permission to preach, and opened tlic door for the preaching of New-Light ministers without moles- tation. They continued at Hanover about a week, and did much good. The people of God were refreshed, and some careless sin- ners awakened from their foolish trust in their moral conduct and religious duties. Thus the dreadful cloud which overshadowed them on Roan's persecution was scattered for a while: they con- tinued vacant for a considerable time, but the Lord favoured their reading-meetings with his presence. Finley's school soon became celebrated. Among his pupils were Governor Martin, of North Carolina, Ebenezer Hazard, of Phila- delphia, Benjamin Rush, M.D., and Judge Jacob Rush, (sons of Mrs. Finley's sister,) Dr. McWhorter, of Newark, Dr. Tennent, of Abingdon, and, most celebrated of all, James Waddel, of Virginia. In 1754, it was proposed to call him to New York : he was liked as a preacher, "but, his voice being uncommon low, it was thought he would not suit" that congregation. When Davies was urged, after having declined the presidency, to act as vice-president of the college for six months, he would not consent, on hearing from the messenger, Mr. Halsey, afterwards minister at Lamington, that some of the trustees preferred Finley. He wrote at once to Cowell, of Trenton, " I recommend Mr. Fin- ley, from long and intimate acquaintance with him, as the best- qualified person, in the compass of my knowledge, in America, — incomparably better qualified than myself. Though the want of some superficial accomplishments for empty popularity may keep him in obscurity for some little time, his hidden worth, in a few months or years at most, will blaze out to the satisfaction and even astonishment of all candid men. A disappointment of this kind will certainly be of service to the college." In a note to a sermon in May, 1758, he styles him "the best of men, and my favourite friend." He was elected, on the death of Davies, to be his successor ; and, soon after entering on the office, there was an extensive re- vival in the college : about half the students experienced religion. He died, July 17, 1766, while in Philadelphia, whither he had gone for medical advice. His state of mind was peculiarly happy and redolent of divine influence. Dr. Mason has placed, in strik- ing contrast, his end with the closing scene of David Hume's life. Treat, of Abingdon — the last survivor, except Tennent, of Free- ELIAB BYRAM. 491 hold, of the brethren cast out in 1741 — preached at the funeral of his good fellow-labourer in that day of abundant harvest. Small in figure, with a round, ruddy face, he was remarkable for great knowledge of the human heart, for uncommon sweetness of temper, and polite behaviour. Many were his long and fatiguing journeys to carry the gospel to vacant and destitute congregations. Abundant in labours, fervent in spirit, He that sent him was with him, giving him, in the establishing of many hearts with grace through his preaching, testimony that his work pleased God. His first wife, Sarah Hall, died, at the age of forty-two, July 30, 1761, — her mother being the second wife of Gilbert Tennent, — and lies buried at the " Rising Sun." His second wife was Ann Clarkson, daughter of Matthew Clarkson, Esq., of Philadelphia. His son Ebenezer was a physician in Charleston ; and his son William Perroneau Finley is the President of Charleston College. Dr. Finley's daughter married Samuel Breeze, of Amboy, and among her descendants is the inventor of the electric telegraph. He published, in 1749, his sermon at the ordination of Rodgers ; in 1751, on the death of Samuel Blair ; in 1754, at the opening of the Synod of New York, from 2 Cor. x. 14; in 1762, on the death of Davies ; and in 1764, at the funeral of Gilbert Tennent. He was the second minister of our church who received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The University of Glagow, having conferred it before on Alison, "adorned" Finley with it in 1763. At Nottingham, he had for his near neighbour Samuel Blair ; and Davies says of their intiinacy, — " Finley, who full enjoy'd the unbosom'd friend." After his death, Mr. Ebenezer Hazard made persevering attempts to publish a collection of his works ; but a sufiicient number of subscribers was not obtained. ELIAB BYRAM Was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and graduated at Har- vard University in 1740. His ancestor, Nicholas Byram, settled at Bridgewater in 1660. ,r it -kt t He became the minister of Rocsiticus, now Mendham, New Jer- sey, in October, 1743. Before 1740, there had been a meetmg- house about a mile and a half from the village ; in 1745, a new one was built in town, and continued in use till 1816. Rocsiticus was placed under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery m 11 3b, but, at its request, was restored to New York Presbytery the next year. Brainerd had him for his companion in his first journey to the Susquehanna, and speaks of him with much afTection. He spent 492 EGBERT STURGEON. some time in 1746 and '47 in Augusta county, and his labours were blessed : the awakening lasted till 1751. Falling Spring and Pro- vidence called Hm in 1747, having had experience of his faithful- ness and ability; but he declined to settle in Virginia. He joined New Brunswick Presbytery, May 22, 1751, and accepted the call to Amwell, June 25. He died before May, 1754. He married Phebe, daughter of Ephraim Leonard, of Raynham, of an ancient and honourable family. His daughter married Jo- siah Dean, of Raynham, the owner of the forge there, the manu- facture of iron being the hereditary occupation of the Byrams and the Leonards. His brother Ebenezer moved with his family to Mendham, in 1744, and died there, August 9, 1753, aged sixty-one. The Rev. Dr. Philip Lindsley, of Nashville University, is the grandson of his daughter Huldah. Eliab Byram taught while at Mendham. Among his pupils was Benjamin Miller,* who had been in a remarkable manner converted under the ministry of Gilbert Tennent and was baptized by him. He began to prepare for the ministry ; but, adopting Baptist views, he was immersed, and was the useful and honoured pastor of the Baptist church of Scotch Plains. His labours as an evangelist, in Virginia and North Carolina, were highly valuable in 1755. ROBERT STURGEON Was a nativef of Scotland, and, having completed his studies, was about to be taken on trials, when some circumstances caused the presbytery to pause. He came to New England, and was licensed by a council, greatly to the regret of Cotton Mather, who felt that his conduct here had justified the course of the presby- tery. Wodrow lamented that there was so little of a safeguard in Congregationalism against hasty admission of unfit persons into the sacred office. He became the minister of Wilton, the Second Society, in Nor- •walk, July 20, 1726, and was dismissed in 1732. He is said, in President Stiles's papers, to have been settled at Bedford, New York, for twelve years. Bolton, in his " History of West Chester County," represents him as being the minister there in 1746. It seems scarcely probable that New Brunswick Presbytery would have installed Sackett there in 1748, if Sturgeon then sus- tained any relation to that people ; but, when so many other ties * Morgan Edward's History of New Jersey Baptists. f Wodrow Correspondence. JAMES McCREA. 493 were sundered rudely, even this unbrotherly act may have been committed. Sturgeon was present, in 1745, at the first meeting of the Synod of New York, as a member of New York Presbytery. His name is not mentioned after 1750. William Sturgeon, vrho graduated at Yale in 1745, was probably his son. Being recommended*' by the Rev. Henry Barclay, of Trinity Church, New York, he was sent out at the expense of Christ Church, Philadelphia, in December, 1746, to receive dea- cons' and priests' orders in England. He returned in October, and was inducted as assistant minister of Christ Church, and catechist of the negroes. He was agreeable to the people ; and, " considering his youth and the stinted education given in the American colleges, he discharges extremely well" his official duties. He resigned the charge in 1766. JAMES McCREA "Was probably from Ireland, and may have been a son of Wil- liam McCrea, a prominent elder from White Clay during all the exciting scenes in the synod which ended in the rupture. He studied at the Log College, and was taken on trials by New Bruns- wick Presbytery, October 4, 1739, and was licensed, November 6. At that time Muscinnecunk (Musconetcong) asked for supplies, and he was called, April 1, 1740, to Lamington, Lebanon, Pepack, Readington, and Bethlehem. This call he accepted, but was not ordained till August 4, 1741. Pepack and Lebanon supplicated in 1738, and Lammmtunck in the fall of 1739 : the presbytery wrote to Mr. Edwards to send some young men into their bounds. Among other separations which were especially cared for by the conjunct presbyteries, in August, 1741, were Pigeon Eun and Christine Bridge, in Delaware. Campbell and Rowland were sent to them. In the next August, Pigeon Run and Newcastle pre- sented a call for McCrea, but without success. Pigeon Run was nearly midway on the stage-road from St. George's to Newcastle. One stone in the graveyard indicates a burial there as early as 1730. It was probably united with the New-Side portion of Draw- yers in forming St. George's. . i. t McCrea was the father and founder of the congregation of Lam- ington, or Bedminster. A portion of the people procured his dis- mission, November 11, 1755; but the greatest part of the congre- * Dorr's History of Christ Church. 494 BAVID YOUNGS. gation united In a new call to him, and tlie synod, believing that his removal could be of no service, directed the call to be placed in his hands, — adding, expressly, that his acceptance of it would not entitle the minority to supplies, or to be refunded their contribu- tion to the meeting-house. Bedminster, Lebanon, and Reading- ton, (the White House,) presented their call, and he accepted it, October 26, 1756, and was installed, May 1. Charges were then alleged against him, which on investigation appeared baseless ; and he was fully cleared. When he resigned, October 21, 1766, his people engaged to provide for him, being near the end of his days. He died. May 10, 1769. His son. Colonel John McCrea, resided in Albany, and married the daughter of Mr. Beekman, who built the Vanderheyden House, which, with its galloping horse for a weathercock, is placed safe from the tooth of time in the pages of Washington Irving. The site was sold by Colonel McCrea's heirs, and on it now stands the Pearl Street Baptist Church. Jane McCrea, the second daughter of the minister, perished by the hands of savages, near Fort Edward, while accompanying them to meet, within the British lines, an American gentleman to whom she was soon to be married. The Indians quarrelled as to which should receive the reward for conveying her to the place of the wedding, and ended her life and the dispute with the toma- hawk. It is said that Captain Jones, the suitor, entered the British ser- vice with the design of seizing General Burgoyne, and delivering him to the Americans, as had been successfully done in the case of Colonel Prescott and General Lee. DAVID YOUNGS, A GRANDSON of the Rev. John Youngs, the first minister of Southold, Long Island, was born in that town in 1719, and graduated at Yale in 1741. Davenport was his pastor; and he warmly espoused the views with which that good man prosecuted his ministry. In his class-mates Buel and Brainerd he found congenial spirits. In the closing year of his college-course, Tennent visited New Haven. The college had been so much moved by Whitefield's preaching, that the enemies of "the stir" represented it as being broken up, and the students scattered to their homes. Tennent preached seventeen times. Among those who were savingly awakened were Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, and Dr. Sproat, of DAVID THORN — JOHN DICK. 495 Philadelphia. The former speaks strongly of the eminent piety and zeal of Brainerd and Buel, but of Youngs as excelling them in fervency of spirit, and of his successful endeavours for the unconverted. It is probable that, on graduating, he, as well as Buel, was licensed at once ; for, on the 29th of May, 1742, Brookhaven, or Setauket, Long Island, supplicated New Brunswick Presbytery to ordain him. Why they passed by New York Presbytery is ex- plained by the fact that that body had not identified itself with the peculiar measures of the Great Revival. New Brunswick Presbytery ordained him at their next meeting, October 12 ; and, in 1746, the year after the Synod of New York was formed, gave him leave, on account of its being more convenient, to join New York Presbytery. He became a member of Suffolk Presbytery in May, 1749. He died before May, 1752, leaving his people sadly weakened and discouraged by the success of the Separates in alienating many of his early and warmest friends from him. DAVID THORN Was probably a native of Delaware, and a descendant of Wil- liam Thorn, who, in November, 1674, was intrusted (together with Edmund Cantwell) with the public property at Newcastle, by Sir Edmund Andros. He was examined by the committee of synod, and approved as a candidate. May 28, 1745. He was ordained by Donegal Presbytery between May, 1746, and May, 1747, and was settled at Chestnut Level. He died in 1750. . His son William was the first minister at Alexandria, Vir- ginia, and died in early life. JOHN DICK, Probably born in West Nottingham, Maryland, was ordained, by Newcastle Presbytery, November 12, 1746, pastor of the Old- Side portion of Newcastle and Drawyers, they being so weakened by the rapid growth of the New-Side churches that they needed to unite that they might support the gospel. He died in 1747 or '48. 496 JOHN HAMILTON — HECTOR ALISON. JOHN HAMILTON, Having been examined by the synod's committee, was ap- proved, May 28, 1745, and was ordained, by Newcastle Presby- tery, in 1746, pastor of the Old-Side portion of Rehoboth and Monokin, Maryland. In 1750, he was the minister at Chester Town, Maryland. He died in 1756. HECTOR ALISON Was examined by the synod's committee, and approved, May 28, 1745. He was ordained by Newcastle Presbytery in 1746, probably at White Clay. He was settled at Drawyers from 1753 to '58. A curious instance occurs in the records of synod, in 1750, in the omission of the name of a young man blamed for having hastily promised marriage. The lady was willing to release him ; but she had a scruple whether it was lawful for her to do so. The synod decided it was lawful, and called up the young man, and directed John Thomson to rebuke him in the presence of the synod, — "it being necessary to show our detestation of such rash proceedings in young people." He submitted; and Cathcart and Thomson were directed to go with him to the young woman, to endeavour to issue the affair. They reported that they went to White Clay about Alison's affair, and that the parties subse- quently made a mutual release. In 1750, he was sent for eight Sabbaths to Western Virginia. In 1753, he asked for a dissolution of his pastoral relation. The presbytery referred it to the synod, and a commission was ap- pointed, to meet at New London on the first Tuesday of August. They determined the affair, and he probably removed to Drawyers. In 1760, he was allowed to go as chaplain to the Pennsylvania forces ; and, in answer to a very pressing application made to the synod in May of that year by the English Presbyterian gentle- men in Albany, he was directed to supply there till July. He joined Newcastle Presbytery after the union in 1761, and was re- JOHN CAMPBELL. 497 leased m a little time from his charge at Appoquinimy. An ap- plication being made from Baltimore tOTvn on his behalf, a com- mission was sent there in November, who judged that the proposals were so unsatisfactory that it was inexpedient to suffer such a call to be placed in his hands. He was dismissed from the presbytery m December, 1761, probably with a view to join bouth Carolina Presbytery, and settled at Williamsburg, South Carolina.* ^' On his removal or death, the congregation were annoyed and divided by Samuel Kennedy, from Dromore Presbytery, who had given no small trouble to the synod ; and, although disowned by them, he went south with letters of recommendation from the Second Philadelphia Presbytery. David Brown, a minister from Scotland, joined Newcastle Pres- bytery in 1748, and, the next year, returned to his own country. JOHN CAMPBELL Was born in Scotland in 1713, and came to America in 1734. He studied at the Log College, but at what period does not appear, nor in what occupation he passed, or in what place, the first thirteen years after his arrival. His home was probably in the Great Valley, in Chester county; for Charlestown and New Providence petitioned New Brunswick Presbytery that, if he should be licensed, they might have his services. At the same time. May 19, 1747, Campbell was taken on trials, and when he was licensed, October 14, a call was presented for him, and, on the 27th, he was ordained and installed at Charlestown and New Providence. On the death of Rowland, Treat, of Abingdon, took charge of these congregations, and had the assistance of David Brainerd at Charlestown at the sacrament, August 11, 1746. This was on his last journey to the Susquehanna; and, on his return, he preached there twice on the Lord's day, September 14, and spent the next day in composing a difference between certain persons. " There seemed to be a blessing on our endeavours." On the first day of May, 1753, Campbell was struck with palsy * Rev. J. A. Wallace, King's Tree, South Carolina. 32 498 JOHN ROAN. in the pulpit, when commencing the morning services, and giving out these words in the 116th Psalm : — " Dear in thy sight is thy saints' death ; Thy servant, Lord, am I." Davenport, under date of May 29, 1753, mentions to Bellamy that, a few weeks before, Mr. Campbell, " a zealous and useful young minister, was struck in the pulpit with a dead palsy, and died in little more than a week after." He was about forty. His daughter Mary was but two years old at that time. She married General William Harris, of the Valley, and, after a widowhood of twenty-five years, was gently called away in 1838, in her eighty-fourth year. She left six sons, of whom may be mentioned Dr. William Harris and Dr. Thomas Harris, of Phila- delphia. The churches continued vacant for many years, Charlestowa yearly seeking supplies from Newcastle Presbytery, and New Providence at length uniting with Abingdon and Norriton, in settling Dr. William M. Tennent. JOHN ROAN, A NATIVE of Ireland, was brought up as a weaver. He studied at the Log College, and taught on the Neshaminy, probably while completing his theological course. He had, for one of his pupils. Dr. Rodgers, of New York, for several years. He was licensed by the New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle, and sent to Hanover, in Virginia, in the winter of 1744. He continued for a longer time than either Robinson or Blair, and the happy effects of his ministrations were visible and lasting. In several places which he visited in the neighbourhood, a religious concern commenced, where there was little appearance of it before, and increased ; and this, with his free comments on the Established Church, led to a vigorous attempt to silence him, and suppress " the New Light" altogether. Affidavits were laid before Governor Gooch, charging him with blasphemous language and saying that the adherents of the Episcopal way were damned, and worshipped the devil. The governor delivered a vehement charge to the grand jury. An in- dictment was prepared, April 9, 1745, against Roan, (though he had left the colony,) on the information of James Axford, for re- JOHN ROAN. 499 fleeting upon and vilifying the Established religion in divers ser- mons preached at the house of Joshua Morris, in James City- parish, on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of January, before a numerous audience unlawfully assembled. The governor's charge was published. " "Without a breach of charity, we may pronounce that 'tis not liberty of conscience, but freedom of speech, they so earnestly prosecute." An order, for- bidding any meetings of Moravians, Muggletonians, and New Lights, was issued, for which there was some show of reason, it being the memorable 1745, when the Pretender made his last attempt on the Crown. In the next month, the people of Hano- ver sent Samuel Morris and three others to lay the case before the conjunct presbyteries. They sent an address to the governor by the hands of Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Finley. Before they arrived, Axford confessed himself perjured, by fleeing and never returning. The indictment was tried, October 19 ; but the six witnesses, cited by the attorney-general, fully proved that he had uttered none of the expressions imputed to him. It is probable that he had been ordained before this time. He was soon after settled over the united congregations of Derry, Paxton, and Mount Joy. The latter was in Adams county, and is now Great Conewago. It was a division of Black's con- gregation of Conewago, and had one-fifth of Roan's time. Brainerd passed through Paxton and Derry in the fall of 1745 ; but in his printed journal no mention is made of Roan. As he rode along, September 11, he had a very importunate invitation to preach, — the people being gathered at the meeting-house ; but he could not, by reason of weakness. He was annoyed by the rudeness of irreligious fellows at a tavern where he lodged in Paxton. " The Pextang Boys" were hearers of Roan, as well as of Elder. The union of the synods placed Roan in Donegal Presbytery ; and points of difficulty continually arose, which admitted of no compromise. The licensing of William Edmeston was the oc- casion of much uneasiness. He was a student of Sampson Smith's and a prominent witness in his defence. These were no recommendations in the eyes of Roan ; and he declared himself dissatisfied with what the majority accepted as evidence of the young man's piety. Edmeston prosecuted Roan for various things, to the effect that he was a party and a principal mover in a conspiracy to destroy Smith by perjured or dishonest witnesses. The trial was protracted, and was in the last degree insulting ; trivial questions without end were asked, and persons were_ sworn as witnesses, seemingly only to annoy them. It ended m Ed- meston's going to England for holy orders. Some friend recom- mended him to the Bishop of London for a parish in Maryland, 500 DAVID BOSTWICK. which the Lord-Proprietary of Maryland very highly resented; "giving an idea," says Bishop White, " of the reception a bishop would probably have, if sent over to that province." Roan, towards the close of life, informed the presbytery that his congregations were deeply sunk in debt. He was sent on mis- sionary tours, and, at one time, spent eight weeks on the South Branch of Potomac. He died, October 3, 1775, and lies buried at Derry meeting- house, on the Swatara, with this inscription : — " Beneath this stone Are deposited the remains Of an able and faithful, Courageous and successful Minister of Jesus Christ." " Truths for once told on a tombstone," says the author of "Mark Bancroft's Tales." William Graham, of Washington College, Virginia, was a mem- ber of his church, and received from him the education preparatory to entering Nassau Hall, and his theological training. DAVID BOSTWICK Was born in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1721, of parents who were from Scotland. He entered Yale College, but, before gradu- ating, left, and completed his studies with Burr, at Newark. For some time he was his assistant in the Academy. He was ordained, by New York Presbytery, pastor at Jamaica, Long Island, October 9, 1745. Burr preached from 2 Timothy ii. 16, and Pemberton exhorted the minister and people. Davies heard him preach, during the synod in 1753, an excellent sermon on Acts ii. 11. "He has, I think, the best style, extem- pore, of any man I ever heard." He heard him the next evening on "Godliness is Profitable for all Things," and was much charmed with both his matter and his language. The next day being the Lord's day, he preached in the evening, "When Christ who is your life shall appear." "My pleasure under his sermon was renewed and increased." The next year he was appointed on a mission to Virginia and North Carolina, but it is not probable that he went. He continued at Jamaica ten years, enjoying the respect and DAVID BOSTWICK. 501 affection of his own people and of the town, with scarcely an ex- ception; for, at a meeting of the freeholders in the spring of 1753, only three persons dissented from giving to the elders and deacons certain lands, and the right to sell them for the support of a Pres- byterian minister forever. The troubles in the congregation of New York had not been re- moved by dismissing the pastors, Pemberton and Gumming ; but an agreement had been effected in relation to the mode of electing trustees, the enlargement of the session in reference to Psalmody, also, and the administration of Infant Baptism. "By order* of the synod, in 1754, Samuel Finley and John Blair came to New York to call a committee in the congregation of such men as might be thought fit to act for that congregation in relation to a call and settlement of a pastor, as our elders appeared too in- dolent in the matter. The congregation was opposed by some of the gentlemen with much vehemence, which much surprised the ministers : they abused some publicly, and their behaviour more and more convinced us that the church's real good was little their care or concern. They talk of putting to vote in the congregation for Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Blair. We have been refused Mr. Davies. We find that those who opposed Mr. Bellamy would oppose Mr. Edwards." They united with unanimity, in July, 1755, in a call for Bostwick. The presbytery asked the advice of the synod, and a large committee of the most valuable ministers was appointed \o meet at Jamaica and determine the affair. Twelve ministers at- tended ; but, not having suflScient light, they referred it to the com- mission. They appointed Bostwick to spend ten sabbaths in New York, and provided a constant supply for his people. "Mr. Bost- wickf began his ten weeks of probation (as also his trial of us) the first Sabbath in December. We have had a Seceder minister (Rev. Alexander Gellatly) invited here, who has preached for a month four discourses a week, in a house provided for him : he is a man of sense and learning, and, to all appearance, really pious. Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Hait went to hear him in the evening, who both approved of his preaching." "No oppositionj appears to Mr. Bostwick : the gentlemen that were opposed to Bellamy are very zealous for him. He may be settled, and a seceding congregation raised up, chiefly out of our congregation ; though pious people of almost all denominations are very fond of Mr. Gellatly's preaching. For my part, I like it very much, and think it well calculated to do good here. It is a pity his principles are so narrow ; but this city has so long been fed with bread, perhaps a change will be health- ful." His labours among them very much increased, and strength- * Samuel Lowden to Bellamy, October 7, 1754. t N. Hazard to Bellamy, December 8, 1755. J Ibid., January 9, 1756. 502 DAVID BOSTWIOK. ened the desire for him. The commission dissolved the pastoral re- lation, April 15, 1756, because so many fruitless attempts had been made to resettle the gospel in New York, and there was so desirable a prospect of his usefulness there. Immediately the Scots erected a small house of worship; and in June, 1761, the Rev. John Mason arrived from Scotland, — "a great philosopher, but not popular." He had rejected several calls from other churches, and was with great diflSculty persuaded by his friends that it was his duty to remove to New York from a people earnestly entreating him to remain. "As the congregation of Jamaica will necessarily be put to charge in obtaining a resettlement of the gospel ministry, the com- mission earnestly recommend to the church in New York to exer- cise a Christian generosity towards them, that they may be better enabled to settle another minister." He was soon after installed in New York. One of his hearers, Wm. Smith, Esq., in his "History of New York," gave this account while he was living: — "Of a mild and catholic disposition, with piety, prudence, and zeal, he confines himself entirely to the proper business of his function. In the art of preaching he is one of the most distinguished clergymen in these parts. His discourses are methodical, sound, and pathetic in sentiment, and, in point of lan- guage, singularly ornamented. He delivers himself without notes, and yet with great ease and fluency of expression, and performs every part of divine service with a striking solemnity." In the winter of 1756, the prevalence of smallpox put him to study what is present duty, and the mind of Providence in regard to himself and his family. "I had rather die in the way of duty than purchase life by running out of it. I have therefore con- cluded to stay : but I have thought it prudent to send my family to Newark. I see many people will venture to tarry when they have nothing in prospect but a little worldly advantage : and will it do for a minister of Christ, whose work is so very important, to leave it for such appearances of danger as will not influence worldly men to quit their worldly interests ? If I have any more work to do for Grod, he will carry me safely through ; to him I commit my cause, and through the blood of Jesus wait for eternal life." He preached before the commissions of the two synods, imme- diately previous to the union, in 1758, from 1 Corinthians iv. 25. The sermon was printed, with the title, "Self Disclaimed and Christ Exalted," and in 1802, it was published in the second volume of the "Evangelical Preacher," in Edinburgh, with are- commendation by Dr. Erskine. He delivered a eulogium on President Davies, and followed him the next year to a better world. He died, after a few days' illness, November 12, 1763, in the forty-fourth year of his age, " being DAVID BOSTWICK. 503 remarkably supported." His health had been for a long time so delicate that he needed an assistant ; and the Rev. Joseph Treat was called to be his colleague, in October, 1762. "As a preacher he was uncommonly popular. His gifts and qualifications for the pulpit were of a high order. His appearance and deportment were peculiarly venerable. He possessed a clear understanding, a warm heart, a quick apprehension, a lively imagi- nation, a solid judgment. He had a strong voice, and spoke in a distinct, deliberate, and impressive manner, and with a command- ing eloquence. He dealt faithfully with his hearers, declaring to them the whole counsel of God, showing them their danger and their remedy ; speaking with the solemnity becoming the import- ance of the subject, in language pure and elegant, plain and affec- tionate, never below the dignity of the pulpit, nor above the ca- pacity of any of his hearers." Dr. Miller says, " He possessed pulpit talents superior to most of his brethren : his piety and prudence were as conspicuous as his brilliant gifts. His eloquence was such as few attain : the ardour of his piety, and the purity of his life, gave him a strong hold on public esteem. His ministry in New York equalled the most san- guine expectations of his friends;" but he could not bring back the Scots' Presbyterian Society. Not long after his decease, his treatise entitled "A Fair and Rational Vindication of the Right of Infants to the Ordinance of Baptism" was published in New York, and reprinted the next year, in London. His widow died at Newark, September 22, 1778, aged fifty- seven. His daughter Hannah was married to Mr. Barret, Major- General McDougal, and the Rev. Dr. Roe, of Woodbridge. In May, 1762, the congregation purchased a parsonage; but, besides being strengthened in numbers, established in peace, and favoured with prosperity, a better benefit descended from heaven. Shortly before his decease, the means of grace were attended with a more than common blessing. A portion of its happy influence remained when Rodgers was installed, in 1765. The loss of his eldest son, in 1762, was a heavy blow, "who was so much the darling and hope of my family." In January, 1763, he said, "our church affairs are but in an indifferent situation. Unhappily for us, the settlement of Mr. Treat has made some jar, and dissatisfied a number, though I hope not many. An attempt has been made by Messrs. Hazard, Wells, and others, to erect an- other congregation, in which Mr. Thompson has been employed as a preacher ; but with no success. Religion is indeed at a low ebb with us." Shortly before his death, the means of grace were at- tended with a more than common blessing; " thoughtfulness about 504 THOMAS ARTHUR. religion" continued; and this was probably a strong inducement to Rodgers to accept the call. Bostwick said, in 1759, "There were some slight awakenings, but no genuine convictions ; good people have not a right temper." Hazard, whose heart was bound up in Bellamy, said, " Our con- gregation is yearly increasing in grandeur and finery, but, I be- lieve, has seen its best days as to godliness, perhaps for this age." THOMAS AKTHUR Graduated at Yale in 1743, and was, on being licensed, em- ployed for a time at Stratfield, Connecticut. He was ordained and installed, by New York Presbytery, pastor at New Brunswick, in 1746. It seems not unlikely, from the remark of Gilbert Tennent, in 1744, that the congregation there was then sadly changed from its favoured condition when it was as a field the Lord had blessed ; and that his removal had been preceded or followed by some un- happy occurrences, which led to its placing itself under New York Presbytery. Arthur* was a good scholar, a graceful orator, a finished preacher, an excellent Christian ;_, steadfast, without a tincture of bigotry; cheerful in conversation, without the appearance of levity ; of an amiable and engaging behaviour ; the darling of his people. He was one of the original trustees of New Jersey College, as was also Mr. Johannes Leydt, the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of New Brunswick. His sermon at the ordination of Thane, in August, 1750, was printed, and the trustees of the congregation of New York re- quested a copy, for publication, of his sermon preached at the ordi- nation of Cumming as their pastor, in October of that year. He died, February 2, 1750-1, aged twenty-seven. His distemper was violent, and soon affected his head; but as death approached the clouds scattered. He passed away calmly, leaving his soul in the hands of Christ, saying, "I am not afraid to depend on his all- sufficient merits alone for eternal life." The meeting-house was struck with lightning in June, 1752, and was pretty much shattered. A long vacancy ensued in the pastoral * Obituary in New York Papers. ANDREW HUNTER. . 605 office, during which Gumming probably supplied them from 1753 to 1761. About this time the congregation again came under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery. ANDREW HUNTER "Was taken on trials by New Brunswick Presbytery, September 11, 1744, and was licensed May 28, 1745: he was ordained the pastor of Greenwich and Deerfield, in West Jersey, September 4, 1746. In 1720, Gloster and Pilesgrove were associated in endeavours to "settle the gospel among them," and continued united till 1738, when the name of Gloster ceases, and Pilesgrove and Deer- field had the Rev. Daniel Buckingham as a candidate. Piles- grove was anxious to make efforts to secure him permanently; but Deerfield refused. A new meeting-house was needed at the former place, and, after much contention, was placed, with the consent of the commission, within six miles of Deerfield Church. This put them asunder ; and, when Pilesgrove and Quihawken called David Evans, the presbytery mournfully record that Deerfield is left. It passed over to the New Side, and united with Greenwich in settling Hunter. Greenwich was left vacant by Gould's removal at the commence- ment of the Revival ; it was fully enlisted on the side of its pro- moters. Whitefield preached in April and in October, 1740, at Greenwich and Gloster. Tennent had been there before his second visit, and, on the rupture, Campbell and Rowland were bidden to complete their circuit by preaching at Cape May and Greenwich. Cohanzy, or Fairfield, seems to have been highly favoured during Whitefield's stay, while of Greenwich, he says, at one time, none were moved. In September, 1746, he preached three sermons there to large and afi'ected auditories. Finley laboured with zeal and success in Deerfield and the adjoining congregations. Hunter drew many from Fairfield to him : on the deaths of their pastors, Elmer and Evans, both Fairfield and Pilesgrove passed over to the New Side and settled Ramsey and Greenman. Hunter gave up Deerfield in 1760, and died, July 28, 1775. 506 DAVID BKAINERD. DAVID BRAINEKD, Born of a respectable family at Haddam, Connecticut, April 20, 1718, was early left an orphan. Losing his father at the age of eight, he was terrified at the thoughts of death, but soon turned from the care of his soul, esteeming religion a melancholy business that destroyed his eagerness for play. At thirteen, — awakened he knew not how, — his concern was increased by the prevalence of a mortal sickness. The death of his mother, in March, 1732, exceedingly distressed him. Frequent, constant, and sometimes even fervent, in prayer, he took delight in reading pious books, especially "Janeway's Token for Children." At times he was much melted in the duties of religion, and, being re- markably dead to the world, his thoughts were almost wholly em- ploj'ed about his soul's concern. In his fifteenth year, he went to Haddam, and resided there till nineteen, still attending secret prayer, though much addicted to the company and the amuse- ments of the young. His conviction abated. Having gone to Durham, to work his farm, love of study prompted him to seek a liberal education ; and, at twenty, he entered on a course of learn- ing in the house of Mr. Fiske, the minister of Haddam. He finished his preparation for college with his brother, the minister of Eastbury. Naturally inclined to melancholy, he was now regular in life, sober in deportment, and settled on a self-righteous foundation. Walking out for prayer, of a Sabbath morning in the winter of 1738, it pleased God to give him of a sudden such a view of his danger and of the divine wrath, that he stood amazed. He envied the birds and the beasts their happiness in not being ex- posed, like him, to eternal misery. Day by day mountains seemed to obstruct his hoping for mercy, and the work of con- version seemed so great that he thought he should never be the subject of it. Spending a day in February, 1739, in fasting and almost continual cries that his eyes might be opened to see the evil of sin and the way of life in Jesus Christ, God was pleased to mak^to him a considerable discovery of his heart : \his en- deavours that day became a means of showing him in some measure his helplessness. One night, while walking alone, such a view of his sin opened to him that he feared the ground would cleave and become his grave. These many disappointments, dis- tresses, and perplexity, p'ut him in a horrible frame of con- testing with the Almighty, — with inward vehemence and virulence blaming his ways of dealing with man. " I found great fault DAVID BRAINEKD. 507 with the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, and wished for some other way of salvation than by Jesus Christ. Being sensible of the necessity of deep humiliation in order to a saving interest in Christ, I used to set myself to produce in my heart the convictions requisite in such a humiliation. Scores of times I vainly imagined myself humbled and prepared for mercy." In this distressed, bewildered, and tumultuous state, he was espe- cially irritated with the strictness of the divine law, and with the fact that faith was the condition of salvation. He could not find out what faith was, nor what it was to believe and come to Christ. " I could not bear the divine sovereignty." At last, on Friday, July 10, 1739, seeing all was in vain, he was brought to a stand, as being totally lost. The tumult was now quieted, and he was somewhat eased of the distress he had felt in struggling with a view of himself and of the divine sovereignty. He saw that, in all his performances, he had regard to nothing but his self- interest : his duties were nothing but self-worship and horrid abuse of God. On the next Sabbath, while walking in a thick grove and en- deavouring to pray, though in a very senseless, stupid frame, un- speakable glory opened to his soul in a new, inward appre- hension or view of God. "I stood still, wondered, and admired. It was widely diflFerent from all the conceptions I ever had of God or things divine. My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God ; and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that he should be over all for ever and ever." So captivated was he with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that he had no thought at first of his own salvation, or that there was such a creature as himself. " The way of salvation opened with such infinite wisdom, suitableness, and excellency, that I won- dered I should ever think of any other way. Could I have been saved in any other way, my whole soul would have refused it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation entirely by the righteousness of Christ. " ' Stoddard's Guide to Christ' was, I trust, in the hands of God, the happy means of my conversion." " While spending some time in prayer and self-examination, the Lord so shined into my heart that I enjoyed the full assurance of his favour for that time, and was unspeakably refreshed with hea- venly enjoyments." He entered Yale College in September, 1739, and enjoyed con- siderable sweetness in religion all the winter, though ambition in his studies greatly wronged the activity and vigour of his spiritual hfe. The class was the largest that had ever entered the insti- tution, and he stood at the head of it. An attack of measles, in the winter, made him despair of life ; and in August, close appK- 508 DAVID BRAINERD. cation to study compelled him to go home in great weakness. He did not return to New Haven till after Whitefield's visit. His old temptation, ambition in study, sunk him into coldness and dul- ness. The Great Awakening began in February, 1741, and he was much quickened and abundantly engaged in religion. On his death-bed he destroyed so much of his diary as reached from January, 1741, till April 14, 1742, because of the "im- prudences and indecent heats" into which he was carried by "a tincture of the intemperate and indiscreet zeal" then prevalent. Gilbert Tennent laboured with great success among the students and the citizens. When he left, many people followed him to Mil- ford. The scholars were fined for going without leave; and Brainerd was accused of having said, he "wondered the rector did not fear to drop down dead for doing so." In the spring, he went over, with Buel, to Southold, and witnessed the glorious dis- plays of grace. In the summer, Davenport came to New Haven ; and many who had long disliked the preaching of the pastor, Mr. Noyes, — both his doctrine and his manner, — now withdrew, and formed a new congregation. The rector, Mr. Clap, disliked the preaching, and took unwearied pains afterwards to form a church in the college, that he and the students might enjoy ministrations more orthodox and attractive. But he was a foe to all violations of order ; and Brainerd incurred his displeasure for going once, when forbidden, to the separate meeting. Being alone, with some companions in the hall, after the tutor (Mr. Whittlesey) had been unusually pathetic in his prayer, Brainerd was overheard by a passer-by to say, " He has no more grace than this chair." This reached the rector; and he extorted from those who were present the information as to the person of whom Brainerd spoke. Being required to make a public con- fession, and to humble himself before the whole college, in the hall, for what he had said in private conversation, he would not comply, and was expelled. This was in the winter of 1742 ; and he went to prosecute his theological studies with Mills, of Ripton, under the supervision of the neighbouring ministers, Cooke, of Stratford, Graham, of Southbury, and Bellamy, of Bethlehem. In May, he spread the treatment he had received from the rector and tutors before a council of ministers at Hartford, and they entreated the college authorities to restore him to his former privileges, but without suc- cess. The Association met at Danbury, July 29, and, having exa- mined him as to his learning and experience in religion, licensed him to preach. His first sermon was from 1 Pet. iv. 8, and was delivered at Southbury. " Had much of the comfortable presence of God in the exercise ; seemed to have power to get hold of the DAVID BKAINERD. 509 hearts of the people." Being forced by the people to preach at a place near Kent, some Indians cried out in great distress, and all appeared greatly concerned. " Hired an Englishwoman to keep a kind of school among them." On the 17th of August, he began to see that he had erred in many things. " It cuts and wounds my heart to think how much self-exaltation, spiritual pride, and warmth of temper have inter- mingled with my endeavours to promote God's work. Sometimes I long to lie down at the feet of opposers and confess what a poor imperfect creature I am." He was regarded as one of "the most disorderly strolling preachers," and had to use much care to escape imprisonment at New Haven for having preached to the Separate Society there. He came into the town, secretly, in the evening. Preaching, in October, at West Suffield, with clearness, power, and pungency, " there was some noise and tumult in the assembly that I did not well like, and I endeavoured to bear public testimony against it with moderation and mildness through the current of my discourse." "I ci-ied to God to enable me to bear testimony against the false appearances of religion, which breed confusion and hinder the progress of vital piety." At Canterbury, where there had been a division, he preached in the meeting-house : " exhorted the people to love one another, and not to set up their own frames as a standard by which to try all their brethren." He went to see the Rev. Solomon Williams, of Lebanon, who is supposed to have had much influence in convincing Davenport of his errors, and who wrote against the book of his kinsman, Jonathan Edwards, on requiring a profession of personal piety as a term of sacramental communion. " Spent several hours with him ; was greatly de- lighted with his serious, deliberate, impartial way of discourse about religion." At New London, January 28, 1743, " Found some fallen into extravagancies, carried away with a false zeal and bitterness. God had not taught them with briers and thorns to be of a kind disposition towards mankind." A few weeks after, Davenport came, and foolishly made a bonfire of some pious books and gen- teel clothing. To Bellamy he said, February 4, 1742-3, "Last week I preached for Mr. Fish at Stonington. The Lord helped me to be all love there while I was undermining false religion, so that, if they had any inclination to quarrel with me, he helped me to love them all to death. There was much false zeal among them, so that some began to separate from that dear man. He wants to see you in these parts more than any man on earth. Indeed, I believe you might do service there, if the Lord should help you to softness." ,510 DAVID BRAINERD, At Stonington, wliere there was also a rending of the church, he insisted on humility and steadfastness in keeping God's com- mands, and that we should not make our own frames the rule by which we judge others. " I felt sweetly calm, full of brotherly love, and never more free from party spirit. I hope some good will follow ; that Christians will be freed from false joy, party zeal, and censuring one another. A few days ago, the Lord let me feel as if I could rend heaven down on their heads if they would not come to God ; and that showed me that, while I was warring against wild-fire because of that cursed pride there was in it, I might fall into an extreme that way. Oh, the Lord help us, or we shall wound the cause of God some way or other." In after years he said, "When God sets before me mj past misconduct, especially any instances of misguided zeal, it sinks me into shame and confusion." "Longed to get on my knees and ask forgiveness of everybody that had ever seen any thing amiss, especially in my religious zeal." " Was grieved at the very thoughts of a fiery, angry, and intemperate zeal in religion ; mourned over past follies in that regard." These things serve to show, like the acknowledgments of Daven- port, how much man did to mar God's work, while yet most truly desirous of promoting his glory. He had long indulged the hope of being sent to the heathen afar ofi", and of seeing them fiock home to Christ ; but his disgrace at college seemed to render it impossible. While at New Haven, November 19, 1742, he received a letter from Pemberton, desiring him to come speedily to New York, to meet with the corre- spondents of the Scottish Society in relation to the Indians. " My mind was instantly seized with concern ; so I retired with two or three friends and prayed, and it was indeed a sweet time to me." Oppressed with the weight of the affair, but casting his burden on the Lord, he reached the city, November 24, and, the next day, " was examined of my Christian experience, my ac- quaintance with divinity, and some other studies, in order to my improvement in that important aifair of evangelizing the heathen. I was forced to go" and preach to a considerable assembly, before some grave and learned ministers." Having now undertaken the missionary work, and thinking he should have no occasion among the Indians for the estate left him by his father, (though afterwards he found himself mistaken,) no way presented itself to his thoughts wherein he could do so much good with it as by educating a young man for the ministry. He selected " a dear friend," Nehemiah Greenman, of Stratford, ac- quainted him with his thoughts, and left him to consider of it till they met. He was soon put to learning, and was supported by Brainerd till the latter died, Greenman having gone through his DAVID BRAINERD. 511 third year. He was, for many years, the pastor of Pittsgrove, in West Jersey. His expectation was to be sent at once to the Forks of Dela- ware ; and he took leave of his friends as if never to meet them again on earth. In the evening of the Lord's day, December 26, he rode from New Haven to Branford, " after I had kneeled down and prayed with a number of dear Christian friends, in a very re- tired place in the woods. The next evening I preached from Matt. vi. 33, 'But seek ye first,' with much freedom, sweet power, and pungency : the presence of God attended our meeting. Oh, the sweetness, the tenderness, I felt in my soul ! If I ever felt the temper of Christ, I had some sense of it now. Blessed be my God ! I have seldom enjoyed a more comfortable and profitable day than this." Yet this was the thing set foremost in the charges against Mr. Bobbins: "his earnestness in improving those strolling preachers that were most disorderly, more espe- cially in one meeting carried on at his own house by Messrs. Brainerd and Buell." The Correspondents not wishing him to begin his labours in the winter, he spent, by request of the people of East Hampton, four weeks with them. While detained at Saybrook, he wrote to Bellamy, February 4, 1742-3:— " Dearest Brother : — " I received the line you sent me from Branford with satis- faction, but longed, if Divine Providence had permitted, to have seen yourself in the room of it. I have been so hurried of late, especially this week,, while a friend from East Hampton has been waiting for me, that I despaired of writing to you before I left the shore, having sundry other letters to write of absolute necessity. But Divine Providence has given me this opportunity, for want of wind to sail ; and oh that my time in writing these lines, and yours in reading them, may be spent for the glory of our blessed Lord ! Almost my whole time, since I left Branford, has been spent in one continued series of spiritual distress and inward conflicts, — though I have taken a journey to the eastward since, in which I preached near twenty times, and sometimes with divine softness, tenderness, and some degree of power and pun- gency. All the praise be to the Great Donor of every good and perfect gift! What I have endured in my soul is perfectly beyond expression and the conception of any but those that feel the same My distress consists wholly in privation ; and, being unable to bear the distress, I am greatly inclined to amuse and divert myself with some mean conversation, or something else, while my conscience stings me for that criminal waste of time, and 512 DAVID BRAINERD. for attempting to please myself with any thing shortof God However, I am persuaded that God has done and will do me good by these trials. Nothing could ever have shown me so much of my insufficiency to make myself happy ; that our blessedness is not, in whole or in part, in and of ourselves, but from God alone, — as these dispensations have done. Nothing kills cursed pride and self-conceit like it. Nothing destroys a positive, confident, dog- matical spirit like it. So that, seeing we are dark and benighted and so infinitely vile and ignorant, instead of saying, ' I know,' and ' I know as sure as God lives,' &c., we shall be ready to say, ' I don't know ;' ' I am a poor, dark, ignorant, benighted worm ;' 'Oh, the Lord only knows.' Further: nothing makes me so tender towards all mankind in general, and towards those we hope to be our fellow-Christians in particular, though they and we difi"er widely in sentiment in some respects. This I have found by experience, to a remarkable degree of late, when I have had anv dawn of divine light, so that I could even love a close, refined hypocrite, in the midst of all his nauseous actions. But, dearest brother, I am afraid of extremes everywhere. I fear whether you and I haven't been too dogmatical with regard to our own frames and feelings; i.e. set them up as standards, at least too much to try others by, though I don't dare to say we have ; but what I see more and more is, that God don't deal with all his children as with me My soul has undergone inexpressible anguish yesterday and to-day; and the greatness of my work lies like mountains of lead upon me, though I had much rather go than tarry in these parts, and I'd rather die than go or stay; not be- cause death is desirable, as sometimes ; but, dearest brother, if there is an object of pity on earth, and one that needs the prayers of all God's people, 'tis I, at present. Oh, therefore, pray for me, and tell your dear Christians to pray for me, that God would go with me and help me ; for, at present, I don't desire the Indians should be converted, and yet I can't but go among 'em. " I expect to tarry four or five weeks at East Hampton, before I go to York. I should be very glad if you would write to Mr. Pem- berton and enclose a letter in his for me, and do take some care of brother Greenman, my scholar, for I can't hear a word from him, though I have wrote to him : and when you write to me at York, let me know where he is, and how he is. So, dear, dear brother, wishing you well for time and eternity, and hoping, after a few gloomy days more, to meet you in that world where sin and sorrow is eternally banished, I remain your benighted but very afiection- ate brother, David Beainbrd. " P.S. Dear Brother : — I long to see you more than any friend on earth, to converse with you of some dear topics. I wonder we DAVID BRAINERD. 513 should spend any time fruitlessly -when we were together, since now I would give any thing for one hour ; but I know not but we must defer our communion and conference to the world of spirits. Lord, let our souls meet there ere long, and rejoice for ever and ever. Amen, and amen." At New York, the following letter from' Bellamy was waiting for him, dated March 7, 1743 : — " Dearest Brother : — "Last night I received yours from Seabrook. I read it, and loved you and pitied you, and felt a sweet mixture of grief, sor- row, and joy. You seem dearer to me than all the world besides* It was not from want of love I did not come to see you from Bran- ford, nor is it from want of love I don't now set out for New York to meet you there ; but, dear brother, we must travel far asunder, tho', by your letter, I see 'tis thro' much the same wilderness. I hope we shall meet in the same blessed world at last. All your sore conflicts do and will work for your good ; only keep on follow- ing after the Lord, and verily he will be kind: Isa. xl. 31. I have heard that there is a great inclination among some of the Indians above Susquehanna, to receive y° gospel, tho' at that place I hear y^ are much prejudiced, and are very surly. John Mac, the Mora- vian preacher, has been in all those parts, and, as h_e tells me, (I saw him last week,) has strangely got into the hearts of the Indians. But, by-the-way, I fear he is not sound in his principles : he would not talk very plain, but, so far as I could learn, he seemed to hold universal redemption, free-will, and that the essence of faith is a persuasion of the love of Christ ; and he seemed to be more taken with the blood and wounds of Christ than with Christ himself, and seemed to talk as if a law-work was not so very needful, but all sinners have to do is to believe ; but yet I might misunderstand him. I can't but hope he is a Christian ; and yet he talks just as other Moravians that I saw at New York ; but, the truth is, the Moravians puzzel me more than any people I ever met with. .... In general, I have had a. sweet winter, loose from the world, had clearness and freedom in writing ; yet many times I have been so deserted for days together, that I wonder I should ever pre- tend to write May God always be with us, and teach us, and humble us, and bring us to his kingdom at last. I love you dearly in the Lord Jesus. All our Christians love you dearly." On Saturday afternoon, March 19, Brainerd rode to Newark, and had some sweetness in conversation with Burr, and in praying together. He preached next day: "God gave me assistance and sweetness, and enabled me to speak with real tenderness, love, and 33 514 DAVID BEAINERD. impartiality. In the evening preached again, and of a truth Q^od ■was pleased to 6,ssist a poor worm. I was enabled to speak with life, power, and passionate desire of the edification of God's people, and with some power to sinners." On Monday he went to Woodbridge, met with the Correspond- ents, who ordered him to go to a number of Indians, among whom was a hopeful prospect of success, at Kaunaumeek, "in the woods between Albany and Stockbridge." He wrote to Bellamy from Scaticoke, March 26, 1743 :— " Mt Dearest Brother : — "When I received your last letter in N. York, which I imme- diately answered, I was so wholly engrossed and confused that I wholly omitted mentioning some things you inquired of me, — viz.: when I expected to see New England again. I could not then have guessed that I should see any part of it so soon, as I find div. providence has brought me just to the borders of it. Div. provi- dence has strangely and unexpectedly changed my course, so that, instead of going among the Delaware Indians and Susquehannas, I am going to a tribe of 'em near Albany ; as nigh as I can learn, about 18 miles northeast from Albany ; for the Commissioners are not willing I should go among t'other Indians while they are sus- pected of contention with the English ; and, knowing I must come near, if not thro' some part of New England in my journey to the Indians near Albany, my soul long'd exceedingly to see you by the way, to communicate some things to you respecting religion, and to mourn with you over Zion, while labouring under so many unhappy burdens. 0, I long'd, I long'd for it exceedingly; but the Lord has disappointed me. May I learn to be resigned ! However, in hope to see you, tho' I was detained in the Jerseys and York till past 10 o'clock on Thursday last, before I could get out of the city, and tho' I had determined to be with these Indians at Scaticoke, near Kent, on the Sabbath, yet I hoped to ride so hard as to save a little time to see you. Aco'^ I rode near 50 miles after 10 on Thursday, and yesterday designed to reach your place before I Blept, which would have been something above 50 miles more, and so to have spent this day while noon with you, and then have come to N. Milford, and so to these Indians : but coming to Danbury yesterday, I heard that you were certainly set out for Boston, and so my heart sunk, and almost died, and I felt almost tired to death, and so tarried there last night, and to-day am come hither ; and the Lord knows all my sorrows of heart and heavy burdens. I never wanted to see yo'^ as I do now, to unbosom my griefs and fears to you respecting the cause of God. 0, how is the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom attacked on every side! God only knows what will be the issue and event of all the dark and threat- DAVID BRAINERD. 515 ening aspects relating to religious matters. But, dear brother, let us watch and pray without ceasing, that God would enable us to conduct piously and judiciously in this difficult day I believe Antinomianism is likely to prevail in many parts of the land; but, dear brother, 'tis a tender point to touch; we had need be very cautious in thinking of and treating with others that don't feel as we do. Our frames and feelings alter and vary almost every day, so that I scarce know what to make of myself sometimes. Let us then, my dearest brother, put on utmost tenderness, love, meekness, humility, and candour ; and love our enemies to death, (for that's a weapon they can't withstand,) and let us love all that don't think as we do, even our enemies. So shall we be the children of our heavenly Father : Matt. v. 45. "P.S. I shall not be above 18 or 20 miles from Mr. Sergeant. I should greatly rejoice if you could come up and see me ; it might possibly be much for our assistance and comfort in our way towards Zion : but if not, I beseech you, dear brother, not to vex yourself 80 much with the blazing hypocrites, for they roar at you now very much. " The Lord be with you forever, and make you a pilgrim all the while you live in j' world." Sergeant was a native of Newark, a graduate of Yale, who com- menced his labours at Stockbridge in 1735 ; he had not much suc- cess, having never acquired the use of the Indian language, though he laboured assiduously. His advice was that Brainerd should master the language so far as to write it and understand it when spoken, but should communicate with the people through an inter- preter, and teach the Indian children the English language by the aid of schoolmasters. He died in 1749. The Indians* to whom Brainerd ministered lived about five miles northwest of New Lebanon, on the road to Albany : the place is now called Brainerd's Bridge, a toll-bridge having been built across the Kayaderosseras Creek by a person of that name. The Indians dwelt in the meadow at some distance below the bridge. In 1823 there were traces of their dwellings, orchard, and burying-place. The nearest white people spoke only Low Dutch ; a Scottish Highlander was the only person with whom Brainerd could converse. The Indians received him kindly, and were seriously attentive to his instructions ; two appeared under concern, and one told him, pri- vately, that her heart had cried since she heard him first. His interpreter was an ingenious Indian, who had been taught by Mr. Sergeant, understood both English and Indian very well, and wrote * S. B. Dwight : Edwards's Works. 516 DAVID BRAINERD. a good hand. To instruct himself he translated English discourses into Indian by the aid of an interpreter, as near verbatim as the sense admitted, and observed strictly how they use words, and what construction they will hear. He also composed several forms of prayer suited to their capacities and circumstances, and, translating them into their language, prayed with them in their own tongue; by translating several psalms, "we were soon after able to sing in the worship of God." In June he visited the Correspondents, and they granted his request to set up a school, and appointed his interpreter the teacher. He then went to New Haven to effect a reconciliation with the rector, and soon after renewed the attempt. In the fall he attended the Commencement, and consulted Jonathan Edwards, whom he met for the first time : the Correspondents sent Burr to solicit that his degree might be given him. He prepared a most humble and ample acknowledgment. The authorities were so far satisfied that they offered to give him the degree if he would reside a twelve- month in the college. The Correspondents would not consent to this, and, though earnest application was made, the faculty would accept of nothing else. "I was witness," says Edwards, "to the very Christian spirit he showed at that time;" the trial was the greater, since, but for the displeasure of the heads of the college, he would have taken the highest honours. Burr wrote to him May, 16, 1743, "I rec* yours of Ap' 5, which was refreshing to me. I bless God he gave you so much favour with Mr. Sergeant. I was not a little concerned about the entertainment you would meet with from him. 'Tis blessed news y' God inclines the hearts of y" Indians to receive and hear you. I pray and trust you may see j° fruit of your labours to your abundant rejoicing in the Lord. If God should make you instrumental in turning many of these poor benighted souls from darkness to light, how will it abundantly compensate for all the hardships and tryals you meet with ! My heart sometiines mourns for you on account of your outward difiSculties ; but I have more reason to rejoice with you for the consolations of God, which are not small, I trust, to your souls. I wonder with you y' any Chris- tian sh* love the o ; and yet my foolish heart is often running after it, though it always gets a wound and a smart for it. that I was wholly dead to it, y' I might live only to God ! When will it once be ? D' Br., pray for me. " The ministers forbid my going to N. England, by reason of y° Presb^ and Synod; and, some important affairs depending, by reason of something y' happened, I could not go before y" Synod, so can't be there for some time before Commence'. I shall write to rector and Mr. W — Isey ; so will rest of ministers. I doubt not of your having a degree, but whether in this class is a question. DAVID BRAINERD. 517 Br. Johnson, who is here, scruples it. I shall use all my interest to have the thing accomplisht, for I think 'tis of importance. "I long to see you. The Indian interpreter, I hope, will answer our end. If he will not, what shall we do ? for I can hear of no other. If you don't come down before, don't fail being at Com- mence'. Then must be the time for your affair to be issued, when the trustees are together. I shall, God -yvilling, meet you at N. H", then, or week before. May the Lord be ever with you ! Let us meet daily at the throne of grace. And for the happy day when we shall meet in heaven, to spend an eternity in singing praises to him that loved us, and washed us in his own blood." To escape the confusion of living in a wigwam, he built a house for himself on a knoll. He could not procure bread within ten or fifteen miles: he made cakes of Indian meal and fried them. He suffered much by sickness, and by riding frequently in winter to Stockbridge to pursue the study of the native language with Ser- geant. In March, 1744,* the Indians having removed to Stockbridge, the Correspondents directed Brainerd to go to the Forks of Dela- ware. At Sheffield he met a messenger from East Hampton bearing a unanimous call for him. It was tho fairest, pleasantest town on the whole island, and one of its largest and most wealthy parishes. " When I heard of the great difficulties of that place, I was much concerned and grieved, and felt some desire to comply with their request." The people were unanimous in their desires to have him for their pastor, and for a long time continued their earnest endea- vours to obtain him. The people of MUlington, near his native place, sent their mes- senger, very earnestly desiring his coming among them on proba- tion for settlement. "Resolved to go on still with the Indian affair." On the 8th of May he came to Fishkill, and, crossing the Hud- son, reached Goshen the next day, and then across the woods, through a desolate and hideous country above New Jersey. He came, on the 10th, to a settlement of Irish and Low-Dutch people, called The Minnisinks, twelve miles above the Forks. On the 13th he came to Lakhauwootung, (Lehigh,) within the Forks, and was respectfully received by the king, and preached most of the summer at his house. This was near the settlements of Hunter, at Mount Bethel, and Craig, in Allen township. Among the Irish were some that appeared sober and concerned * The Rev. W. B. 0. Peabody, in his Life of Brainerd, says that at this time he sold his books. Brainerd owned the first edition of Buxtorf 's Hebrew Lexicon, published at Basle in 1645. His Indians covered it with otter-skins, painted in the style of moccasins. It passed from him to Jonathan Edwards. — Rev. Dr. Edwards, of New London. 518 DAVID BRAINERD. about religion. After a fortnight spent with them and the Indians, he set out to meet the Presbytery of New York, at Newark. Hav- ing preached from Acts xxvi. 17, 18, and been examined on the usual course, and on his experimental acquaintance with religion,, he was ordained on the 11th of. June. Pemberton preached from. Luke xiv. 23, and said, at the close, "We trust that you are a chosen vessel designed for extensive service in this honourable though difiScult employment. We adore the God of nature, who has furnished you with such endowments as suit you to this im- portant charge. We adore the Great Head of the church for the nobler gifts and graces of his Spirit, by which we trust you are enabled to engage in this mission with an ardent love to God, with a disinterested zeal for the honour of Christ, and with tender con- cerns for the souls of a people that sit in darkness and the shadow of death. It is at the command of Christ that you go forth, who,, by a train of surprising providences, has been preparing your way for this important embassy." The presbytery universally approved of his trials, and judged him uncommonly qualified for the work of the ministry. In the summer some of the Indians manifested serious concern, and continued, with diligence, affection, and becoming solicitude, to seek after salvation. In July, hearing of a number of Indians residing at Kanksesauchung, (Catasaqua,) he preached to them, and they invited him to come to their home on the Susquehanna, their temporary abode being on the Indian land between Biery's Bridge and Cherry ville.* This invitation gave him great encouragement; and, after a journey to New England, he set out, in October, with " dear brother" Byram, the minister of Mendham, New Jersey, and made their way, for three days, over lofty mountains, deep valleys, and hideous rocks. His horse hung one of her legs in the rocks : nothing remained but to kill her and pursue his journey on foot, They reached Opeholkaupung, (Wapwallopen,t) visited the Indians in their house, and preached four days. The Indians gave up their hunting design, and listened attentively. On the way back, both he and Byram preached at the Irish set- tlement, where was a numerous congregation, and then returned to his dwelling. His abode was at Lower Mount Bethel, where hia house still remained at the beginning of the present century: it was then called Hunter's settlement, and, on the records of New Brunswick Presbytery, Forks North, to distinguish it from Forks West, or Craig's settlement, now known as Allen township. In these places were Presbyterian congregations under the care of * Northampton county, Pennsylvania. ■f On the east side of the Susquehanna, ahove BerTvick. The cavlng-in of the river-bajik discloses remauiB of pottery, arrows, &c., indicating a large settle- ment. DAVID BEAINKRD. 519 New Brunswick Presbytery, which had been supplied for several years with frequent preaching. Ten miles from his house, on the east of the river, was Green- wich, where he occasionally preached. Once in December, in the intermission, he got among the bushes and cried to God for pardon of his deadness, and was in anguish and bitterness that he could not address souls with more compassion and tenderness. "Lord's Day, February 17. — Preached in the wilderness, on the sunny side of a hill, to a considerable assembly of white people, many of whom came near twenty miles, — from Kreidersville to Martin's Creek. Discoursed to them all day from John vii. 37; in the afternoon spoke with great freedom and fervency. I think I was scarce ever enabled to offer the free grace of God to perishing sinners with more freedom and plainness. Afterwards I was enabled earnestly to invite the children of God to come renewedly to this fountain of the water of life, from whence they have hereto- fore derived unspeakable satisfaction. There were many tears in the assembly ; and I doubt not but that the Spirit of God was there, convincing poor sinners of their need of Christ." In March he made another short visit to New England,* and on * To Bev. Mr. Sergeant, in PealDody's Life of Brainerd: — "Woodbury, (Conn.,) IStli March, 1745. "Eeverend and honoured Sir: — In November last, I attempted to send you a line hy Mr. Van Schaick, to inform you of the state of affairs with us, and actually ■wrote ; but, he leaving New York an hour sooner than I expected, I was disappointed. And now I am in the greatest hurry, and can but hint at things I would otherwise be a little more particular in. As to my affairs here, I took a journey, last Oc- tober, to Susquehanna, and continued there some time, preaching frequently to the Indians, in a place called Opeholhaupung, about fifteen or twenty miles down the liver from the place you formerly visited. I supposed. I had some encouragement among them, and I propose to visit them again, about the middle of next month, with leave of Divine Providence, and think to spend most of the summer in those parts, if a door opens for it. There is one peculiar difficulty in the way; the land these Indians live upon belongs to the Six Nations, — i.e., the Mohawks; and it is something doubtful if they will suffer a missionary to come among their tribu- taries and on their lands. Yet this diflculty, we hope, may be removed by the in- fluence of the Governor of Pennsylvania, who maintains a strict friendship with the Six Nations, whose assistance the Correspondents have endeavoured to engage in this affair. May He who has the hearts of all men in his hands open their hearts to receive the gospel ! "I have, this winter past, had more encouragement among the Indians of the Delaware tribe than ever before. A spirit of seriousness and concern has seemed to spread among them, and many of them have been very attentive, and desirous of instruction. But I have also met with many discouragements, so that I scarcely know what to say. Yet I am not discouraged, but still hope that the day of divine power shall come, when they shall become a willing people. "I long to hear of your affairs, especially how things are likely to turn out with respect to your plan of a free boarding-school, which is an affair much upon my heart amidst all my heavy concerns, and I can learn nothing, whether it is likely to succeed or not. . ii. i "I fully designed to have given something considerable towards promotmg that good design; but whether I BhaU be able to give any thing, or whether it wiU be 520 DAVID BRAINERD. his return met a number of ministers dt Woodbridge, convened "to consult about the afifairs of Christ's kingdom in some important articles," — the preliminaries, probably, to the formation of the Synod of New York. Soon after, he waited on the governor, in Philadelphia, to obtain leave to live at Susquehanna, most of the Indians having removed from the Forks. This journey gave him opportunity to ^join with Beatty in assisting Treat at the sacrament at Abingdon : " the assembly was sweetly melted by his preaching ; scores were in tears ; there was a most amazing attention, and it was a sweet season to many." Early in May he travelled with his interpreter to the Susque- hanna, and went about a hundred miles up this river, as far as Shamokin, and preached to several tribes by different interpreters. Going down the river, he came to an island called Juniata, (Dun- can's Island,) where the Indians appeared more free from preju- dices against Christianity than any others. Weak and feeble, he soon after went to Neshaminy and assisted Beatty at the sacrament : on Saturday the crowded audience was melted while he preached. Towards the close of the administra- tion of the ordinance he discoursed to the multitude extempore, with great assistance in addressing sinners. The word was attended with amazing power ; perhaps hundreds in that great assembly, con- sisting of three or four thousand, were much affected, so that there was a great mourning. On Monday he preached with a good de- gree of clearness, and some warmth ; there was great attention and solemnity, and to God's people sweet refreshment. Passing on to Maidenhead, he came to Cranberry to visit the Indians at Crosswicks. " My body was feeble, and my mind scarce ever so much discouraged about the conversion of the Indians as when I made my first visit to the Indians in New Jersey." Wed- nesday, June 19, 1745, he preached to a few women and chil- my duty to do so under present circumstances, I know not. I have met with several losses lately, to the value of £60 or £70 New England money. In particular, I broke my mare's leg last fall, in my journey to Susquehanna, and was obliged to kill her on the road, and I can't get her place supplied for £50. And I have lately moved to have a colleague or companion with me, for my spirits sink with my solitary cir- cumstances ; and I expect to' contribute something to his maintenance, seeing his salary must be raised wholly in this country, and can't be expected from Scotland. "I sold my tea-kettle to Mr. Jonathan Woodbridge, and an iron kettle to Mr. T. W., both which amounted to something more than four pounds, which I ordered them to pay to you for the school. I hope you will use the money that way ; if not, you are welcome to it for yourself. I desh'e my teapot and bed-ticking may be improved to the same purpose. "As to my blankets, I desired Mr. Woodbridge to take the trouble of turning them into deer-skins. If he has not done it, I wish he would, and send the skins to Mr. Hopkins, or, if it might be, to Mr. Bellamy. Please to remember me to Madam and all friends. I am, in greatest haste, " Your obedient, humble servant, "D. Bbainekd." DAVID BRAINEED. 521 dren : the women readily set out, and travelled ten or fifteen milea to give notice of his preaching next day. Numbers were gathered : he preached twice. On Saturday the power of God evidently at- tended the word : thirty were present, and several were brought under great concern, and wept. Having preached on the first three days of the week, they desired him to preach twice ; and he did so on Wednesday and Thursday, on the Sabbath and Monday. This encouraging readiness to receive instruction, seems to have been the effect of the conviction which one or two of them met with at the Forks, and who had endeavoured to show their friends the evil of idolatry. The like happy appearances cheered him at the Forks, and on the 21st of July he baptized his interpreter and his wife : he had been awakened while hearing Brainerd preach to the whites, in July, 1744. He was about fifty years old, and was named Moses Finda Fautaury. Returning to Crosswicks, he found that the labours and endea- vours of William Tennent had much promoted the convictions of the people. A surprising concern appeared under Brainerd's first sermon: out of twenty adults, scarce two had dry eyes. Fifty pfersons accompanied him to the administration of the sacra- ment at Cranberry, and were much affected ; but especially on the Monday "they were universally engaged about their soul's con- cerns. One woman obtained comfort." On Tuesday, there was nothing remarkable but their attention, till, near the close of his discourse, scarcely three in forty could restrain tears and bitter cries : they seemed in an agony to obtain an interest in Christ. "The more I invited them to come to Christ, the more their distress was aggravated, feeling themselves imable to come." The next day, some fell flat on the ground, crying incessantly for mercy: persons from remote places, as soon as they came, were awakened. On the afternoon of the day following, the power of God seemed to descend on the assembly like a mighty, rushing wind, bearing down all before it. Old people and little children, the boaster and the drunkard, the conjurer and the murderer, were bowed down with concern together. McKnight, of Cranberry, was present, and says, "While Mr. Brainerd urged upon them the absolute necessity of a speedy closure with Christ, they were utterly unable to con- ceal their distress. This prompted the pious to gather the dis- persed congregation together, who soon seemed to be in the greatest extremity, begging for mercy, and some unable to rise. A white person, seeing this, was, I trust, by means of it, savingly brought to Christ. Indeed, so extraordinary was the concern, that I am ready to conclude it might have been sufiScient to convince an atheist that the Lord was there." Through the week he laboured ceaselessly, and each day was a day of the Son of man. 522 DAVID BRAINEED. On the Sabbath some of the white people could no longer be idle spectators : a great concern spread through the whole assembly. He now busied himself in putting in execution a plan for settling the Indians together in a body, for their advantage in receiving instruction. On the 25th of August, he baptized fifteen adults and ten children. At the Forks there appeared a remarkable work of the Divine Spirit among the Indians generally. He then journeyed to Sha- mokin, a large town of the Delawares, and downward to Juniata homeward, having little encouragement. In November, he bap- tized six adults and eight children at Grosswicks. One woman was above eighty, and two of the men were above fifty years old. A sorcerer,* artful, able, profligate, gave him so much trouble that he thought it would be great favour to the design of gospel- izing the Indians if God would take him out of the way ; but it pleased Him to renew him unto repentance. He now had need to learn a third language : the Delaware was of no use to him in his new field. At his suggestion, the Corre- spondents laid out eighty-two poundsf New Jersey currency in clear- ing off the debts contracted by the Indians, lest their lands should be taken away by their creditors. The opposers now raised the cry that Brainerd was a papist, supported by the Scottish friends of the Pretender to stir up the Indians to sedition and murder. On the 27th of April, 1746, he administered the Lord's Supper to twenty-three persons : there was a sweet, gentle, and affectionate melting. They soon after removed to their lands at Cranberry, and were molested with claims unjustly set up by men in power. "June 19, 1746. — This day makes up a complete year from the first time of my preaching to the Indians in New Jersey. What amazing things has God wrought in this space of time for this poor people ! What a surprising change appears in their tempers and behaviours ! morose and savage pagans transformed into agreeable, affectionate, and humble Christians ! their drunken and heathen bowlings turned into devout and fervent praises to God ! It is remarkable that God has so continued and renewed his showers of grace here ; so quickly set up his visible kingdom among * Peabody's Brainerd. f One hundred pounds bad been collected to pay the debts of the Indians, to build a school-house, pay the teacher, and buy books for the children : — £, s. d. £ s. d. New York 23 10 2 Neshaminy and places adjacent 14 5 10 Freehold 12 11 Abingdon and New Providence 10 5 Elizabethtown 7 5 Kingston 6 11 Freehold Dutch Congregation.. 4 14 8 Newark 4 S Shrewsbury and Shark River 3 5 New Brunswick Dutch Cong. 3 5 Jamaica, Long Island 3 Woodbridge 2 18 2 Middleton Dutch Cong 2 Connecticut Farms 1 18 Morristown 1 5 DAVID BRAINERD. 623 these people, and so smiled upon them in relation to their acquire- ment of knowledge human and divine. There is still an appear- ance of the power of divine grace, a desirable degree of tender- ness, religious affection, and devotion, in our assemblies. In eleven months, thirty-eight adults and thirty-seven infants were baptized. They have inquired concerning, the doctrines, to obtain light and insight into them, and have manifested a clear understanding of them. They took pains and appeared remarkably apt in learning to sing psalm-tunes, and are able to sing becomingly in the worship of God." They were never put to any more trouble for their debts. Some charged Brainerd with striving to set them on murdering the whites, and others attributed his compassion to the most abomina- ble and vile motives. " From a view of these things, I have had occasion to admire the wisdom and goodness of God in providing 60 full and authentic a commission for the undertaking and carry- ing on of this work." Tennent attested Brainerd's narrative. " I have been much conversant with the Indians at their own place and in my own parish, where they generally convene for worship in his absence. Their conversation hath often refreshed my soul. It is my opi- nion that the change in them has been wrought by God, through a clear, heart-affecting sense of its being their reasonable service." McKnight said, " I have frequently beheld with pleasing wonder what I am inchned to believe were the effects of God's almighty power accompanying his own truths. As far as I am capable of judging, they may be proposed as examples of piety and godliness to all the white people around them." Amid these glorious scenes, his outward man was perishing un- aware to him. He administered the communion for the third time to his flock on the 13th of July. Thirty-one Indians partook. Most of them were sweetly melted and refreshed : there was scarcely an eye dry when he took off the Hnen and showed them the symbols of the broken body. The afternoon was a season of much enlargement and tenderness. " God crowned the assembly with his presence." In his last journey to the Susquehanna, he went to Philadelphia and across the country through the white settlements, to avoid the huge mountains and hideous wilderness of the nearest route. Hav- ing assisted Treat in the sacrament at Charlestown, he went with six of his people on to Paxton and up the river to Shamokin, where things appeared as encouraging as at first at Crosswicks. He went as far as Great Island, now Lockhaven ; and, having to lie out at night, and being without an axe, he climbed a young pine- tree, and with his knife lopped off the branches for a shelter from the dew. His linen was wringing wet with sweat in the night, and he awoke, scarcely able to sit up. Neither at the Delaware town nor among the Shawnees had he 524 DAVID BRAINEED. any encouragement ; but among the former a few appeared affected. The increase of his disorder prevented his staying ; and he returned home so exhausted that he was no longer able to keep a regular diary. Reaching Elizabethtown on his wayto New England, he was so prostrated that he was obliged to remain through the winter at Dickinson's house. Four months passed' before he was able to ride so far as Newark : he was sinking with cough, fever, and asthma, having neither appetite nor digestion. On Friday, March 20, he walked among his people, inquired about their state and concerns, and, when they assembled, explained and sung a psalm. This was his last interview with them, though he knew it not. The Correspondents sent for his brother John to take care of his congregation in his absence. He came, and Brainerd assisted at his examination by the Presbytery of New York. Setting out for New England, he reached Northampton apparently improved, but in confirmed and incurable consumption. Edwards found him remarkably sociable, pleasant, and entertaining in his conversation, solid, savoury, and very profitable, meek, modest, humble, and with- out affectation. Even in asking a blessing or returning thanks, there was something remarkable to be observed in the manner and matter of the performance. He generally made it one petition in his prayer in the family that we might not outlive our usefulness. Riding being recommended to him, he went to Boston, accompa- nied by Edwards's daughter, Jerusha, then in her eighteenth year, to whom he was engaged to be married. Soon after he came there, he was brought so low by the breaking of ulcers and by fever as to be almost speechless ; but he was not idle or useless. The Com- missioners of the London Society for Propagating the Gospel con- sulted him about disposing of Dr. Daniel Williams's legacy, and intrusted to him the selection of two missionaries to go to the Six Nations. Others gave Bibles for his Indians, and in many ways testified their love to the heathen. He met with the Rev. Andrew Croswell, who maintained the cx- tremest notions that had been advanced in the Revival, in his de- nunciation of Dickinson's "Display of Grace," and in a pamphlet, " What is Christ to me if he is not mine?" He claimed that the essence of saving faith and the first act of it was the belief that Christ has died for me in particular. In the presence of several persons, in a long conference with Croswell, he mentioned that the faith defined by him had nothing of God in it, nothing above na- ture, nothing above the power of devils, and was only a delusion.* On his return to Northampton, he was able only to ride sixteen miles a day : he grew weaker and weaker. He Jtiad the pleasure * Croswell replied in print that lie honoured Brainerd as highly as those who canonized him, but that he honoured also the great company who "were in Chiist before him," and who savoured not the new defioitions broached at Northampton. DAVID BRAINERD. 625 of having his brother John come to him, and of having the Com- missioners in Boston allow tvro hundred poUnds to support another teacher among his people. He wrote to Byram on the subject of the examining and licensing of candidates. "Oh that God would bless and succeed that letter ! Oh that God would purify the sons of Levi, that his glory may be advanced !" Towards the close, his dis- temper preyed on his vitals, in an almost constant discharge of puru- lent matter, by mouthfuls, with much distress and pain. Delightful views of heavenly things refreshed him. " Soon shall I see the Bible opened ; the mysteries in it and in God's providence will all be un- folded." In broken whispers, he said,"He will come, he will not tarry ; I shall soon be in glory. I shall soon glorify God with the angels." He revived ; and, the next day, his brother John, who had re- turned to New Jersey on important business, came to him. "My dear brother! I love him the best of any creature living!" He was affected and refreshed with seeing him. After a day of unutter- able agony through bodily distress, amid much fear of dishonouring God by impatience, he had, late in the night, much proper and pro- fitable discourse with his brother concerning his mission. At 6 A.M., on Friday, Oct. 9, 1747, he died, in his thirtieth year. Shortly before him, his sister, Mrs. Spencer, died ; his brother Israel died in the next January, while preparing for the ministry; Jerusha Edwards died Feb. 14, 1748, after an illness of five days, esteemed by Brainerd a very eminent saint, fitted to deny herself for God beyond any young woman he knew. Edwards* describes him as a singular instance of a ready inven- tion, natural eloquence, easy, flowing expression, sprightly appre- hension, quick discernment, very strong memory, of a very pene- trating genius, close, clear thought, and piercing judgment. He had a great taste for learning, and excelled in it. To extraordinary knowledge of men and things, to uncommon insight into human nature, was joined a power beyond most men of communicating his thoughts and of adapting himself to those he would instruct and counsel. For the pulpit his gifts were extraordinary : his manner clear, instructive, nervous, natural, moving. In prayer, he was almost inimitable. He excelled in conversation, being social, free, entertaining, profitable. In his knowledge of theo- logy, he was an extraordinary divine, with uncommon ability de- fending truth and confuting error. " How short his life, his work how great !" " Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, this also that he hath done shall be spoken of, for a memorial of him." * An abridgment of his Life, with a preface by Doddridge, was speedily published in England. 626 WILLIAM DEAN. WILLIAM DEAN Was probably educated at the Log College. The first notice of him is on the records of New Brunswick Presbytery, Aug. 3, 1741, when he was taken on trials. He was licensed, Oct. 12, 1742, and was sent to Neshaminy and the Forks of Delaware. The Lehigh was formerly called the West Branch of the Delaware, and the ter- ritory bounded by the two rivers and the Kittatinny Hills was long known as the Forks. It was inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, or the Delawares, and probably by other tribes : their cabins and cultivated patches did not deter the Proprietors from putting up large tracts of it as prizes in a lottery, besides conveying thousands of acres to William Allen, of Philadelphia. Two settlements were made in 1735 or '36, the one on the West Branch being called Craig's, and the one on the North Branch,. Hunter's Settlement. The people were from Ulster ; and at the second meeting of New Bruns- wick Presbytery, they presented their case, and Gilbert Tennent ■was directed to go to them in the fall. Campbell and Robinson were soon after sent, and, May 26, 1743, the Forks presented a call to Dean. He declined it, and was appointed to supply there and at Cape May ; at the same time, at the request of Newcastle Presby- tery, he was sent to the Forks of Brandywine and Pequea. In the fall he was sent to Grreenwich, in West Jersey, and, in Oct. 1744, to Cohanzy and the Forks of Delaware. In the next year he went with Byram, of Mendham, into Au- gusta county, Virginia : a great awakening attended their labours, and continued till 1751. JHe was ordained, before May, 1746, pas- tor of the Forks of Brandywine : three acres were conveyed to him for the use of his congregation, and a meeting-house erected. In May, 1747, a call was sent for him to the synod from Timber Ridge and the Forks of James River: the presbytery were directed to meet and consider whether it should be put in his hands. He died, July 9, 1748,* aged twenty-nine, and lies in the grave- yard at Brandywine Manor. Daviesf confirms the testimony recorded on his tomb, that he was an active, zealous, faithful minister : he laments his early death, and speaks of him and Robin- son as our most useful ministers. * Dr. J. N. C. Grier's Historical Discourse at Forks of Brandywine. •J- Davies to Bellamy. JACOB GREEN. 52T JACOB GREEN Was born* at Maiden, Massachusetts, Jan. 22, 1722, (O.S.,)and, losing his father in his second year, removed when a child with his Btep-father to Killingly, Conn. He had a good mother, who care- fully trained him in the fear of God : many were his serious impres- sions in boyhood, but, especially at the age of seventeen, during the dreadful prevalence of the throat-distemper in 1738. He returned to Massachusetts soon after, and began to study the languages. Falling into the society of some young men who met for prayer, he joined with them ; and, to his surprise, the minister propounded him for admission to the Lord's table, though he had no comfortable sense of pardon. Entering Harvard College in July, 1740, he devoted himself assiduously to study ; he was charmed with Whitefield, and followed him to Leicester, approving all he did, yet not awakened to any feeling of his lost condition, and buoyed up with favourable judgment of his state. Gilbert Tennent preached in the college hall at the close of January, 1741, on a false hope : he was over- come with a view of his lost condition, and, retiring to the woods, heard a man in distress, praying for mercy. The next day Ten- nent preached three times in Cambridge, and his mind was deeply exercised. About two months after, he began to obtain clear views of Christ and the gospel; nothing seeming so much to relieve his troubled spirit as the words, " Who of God is made unto us right- eousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption." On graduating, in 1744, he taught school at Sutton, Mass., and, at the solicitation of Whitefield, consented to go to the Orphan House in Georgia. At Elizabethtown, being released from his engagement, he put him- self, by the advice of Dickinson, under the care of New York Presbytery, and was licensed, Sept. 1745. He was soon called to Hanover, and was ordained in November, 1746. He married Anna Strong, of Brookhaven, Long Island, in the next year. On her death, in 1757, he was much " stirred up" to per- form his work more zealously and faithfully. His second wife was Ehzabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Pierson, of Woodbridge. In 1750, the congregation of South Hanover, formerly called Bottle Hill, now Madison, was erected; and a new meeting-house was erected on Hanover Neck, and another at Parsippany. He confined his labours to Hanover in 1757. At this time he was elected Vice-President of the College, and for a few months was at the head of the institution. The support of a large family led * Acooimt of himself, pubUshed by his son in the Christian Advocate. 528 JACOB GEEEN. him to engage in the practice of medicine, and he continued it for thirty years, conceiving that less than any other worldly business it took him off from his appropriate work. He was diligent in catechizing, in endeavouring to promote piety in the young, and to encourage heads of families to guide their households in the good old way. He had been led by Dickinson and Burr to adopt the method of admitting to the sacraments all who seemed desirous of leading a godly life : the reading of Watts and Edwards on the Terms of Communion changed his views, and he,* first of all our ministers, took his stand that only those who were hopefully pious should be received into church-membership. The Pres-bytery of New York asked him to give them in a sermon his views on Covenanting. He published a "View of the Consti- tution of the Jewish Church," embodying his opinions on that point. His labours were without much remarkable success till 1764 : he "shared in his own soul a small part of that blessing," and was unwearied in efforts to promote the good work. In 1774, he was again honoured to win many souls. On the breaking out of the war of Independence, he was fore- most in his country's cause, and, against his will, was elected to the Provincial Congress. He was chairman of the committee which drafted the State Constitution. A series of articles from his pen, signed Eumenes, against a paper currency, drew on him much oblo- quy ; and his sermon at the Continental fast, on " The Acceptable Fast," roused the slave-holders of Morris county to come to his house with threats and insults. About this time he grew dissatisfied with the hinderances in the way of supplying our vacancies : — "firstf we make them gentlemen, and then ministers:" he proposed to Bellamy to establish two schools, one in New Jersey, and one in Connecticut, for educating men up to a certain point in languages and philosophy, and then licensing them. He wished to imitate the Baptist way, that our growing country might not be left unblessed with sound doctrine and firiii discipline. Dissatisfied^ with the requirement of the synod that students should study divinity two years after obtain- ing a diploma, and that ministers should keep a register of births, baptisms, &c., and with their practice of dissolving pastoral rela- tions to place men at the head of the college, he withdrew from the Presbytery of New York. Grover, of Parsippany, Lewis, of War- wick, Orange county. New York, and Bradford, who married Eliza- beth Green, also withdrew; and. May 3, 1780, they formed Morris County Presbytery, "as we consider ourselves, in a scriptural * Maowhorter and Caldwell : in Bellamy Papers, f Letter to Bellamy, 1774. J Letter to New York Presbytery, on withdrawing : MS. records. NATHANIEL TUCKEB — DAVID BEOWN. 529 sense, Presbyterians." He disliked the Congregationalism of New England as mucli as the Scottish mode of Presbyterianism. His people adhered to the presbytery, and retained, by the advice of that body, their aged, honoured pastor. He published, in a quarto pamphlet, "A View of a Christian Church, and Church Govern- ment, representing the Case of the New Presbytery." He died of influenza, after a short illness, May 24, 1790. A revival of reli- gion* was then in progress, but so noiseless that the neighbouring ministers did not know of it till they came to his funeral. Thirty persons, the gleanings of the harvest, came after his death to hi3 Bon, Dr. Green, to seek spiritual direction, and to lament that they had not turned at his reproof while he was yet with them. He published' sermons on " The Nature of Natural and Moral Inability," " The Sins of Youth Visited with Punishment in Sub- sequent' Life," and "A Help to Heads of Families." An active, devout man, he did much to enstamp on the community a high moral and religious character. "An instructive, plain, searching, practical preacher, a watchful, laborious pastor, he was ever intent on some plan for the glory of God and the salvation of his people, and, by the divine blessing, was happily and eminently successful." NATHANAEL TUCKER, Born in Milton, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard in 1744. Brainerd was present at his ordination by New York Pres- bytery, April 9, 1747. Edwardsf speaks of him as a worthy, pious young gentleman, having made his acquaintance shortly after Brainerd's death. Returning from a visit to his friends at Milton, he was taken sick at Stratfield, Connecticut, and died there in De- cember, 1747. DAVID BROWN, " A MINISTER of the gospel from North Britain, being admitted a member of the Presbytery of Newcastle, took his place among us" in the Synod of Philadelphia in May, 1748. He returned to Scotland during the year. * Dr. Green, in Sprague's Lectures on Revivals. f ^^^^ of Brainerd. 84 530 JAMBS ■ CAMPBELL. JAMES CAMPBELL Was born in Campbelton-on-Kintyre, in Argyleshire, and came to America in 1730. He waa probably licensed by Newcastle Presbytery in 1735, and was "well received" by Philadelpbia Presbytery, May 22, 1739. He spent the summer at Newtown and Tebicken, and on the 18tb of September, the latter place, by Francis Williamson and John Orr, their commissioners, asked for his services. The presbytery granted their request ; but he, " after many struggles with himself, told the synod, in 1739, that he was unconverted, and dared not preach till he was born again. He had been preaching four years, and was a regular, moral liver, and esteemed a very good man. Within these few months he was con- vinced of sin, and that he knew nothing experimentally of Jesus Christ, though he had pretended to preach him so long. He has laboured under great distress of soul, and is looked upon by some as melancholy and beside himself; but Whitefield, after much dis- course with him at New Brunswick in November, really believed these humiliations would prepare him for great and eminent ser- vices in the church. At the persuasion of Whitefield and Tennent, he promised to preach next Sunday." Success attended his labours. In April, 1740, he told* White- field that he was trying to bring back his people to convictions again and take them off from a "floating joy." In the spring, Newtown and Tinicum were transferred at their request by the synod to the care of New Brunswick Presbytery. Tinicum is the name of the township in Bucks county, and Te- hicken is the creek on which the meeting-house stood. Campbell continued to serve them, and was sent to the Forks of Delawai^ and Mr. Green's as a frequent supply, — Mr. Green's being what is now Greenwich, Mansfield, and Oxford, New Jersey. . On the rup- ture, he was sent to preach to all the New-Side vacancies, except James River, in Virginia. He was followed by Rowland. In May, 1742, he was directed to spend one-fourth of his time^ at Forks ; and, in August, Durham asked for a portion of his time. Durham lies between Tinicum and Easton, was settled at an early age and the manufacture of iron commenced. It was the birth- place of the celebrated Daniel Morgan, the hero of the Cowpens, who in old age became a Christian under the ministry of Dr. Hill, of Winchester. Campbell was ordained Aug. 3, 1742, and was ordered to divide * Seward's Journal. JAMES DAVENPORT. 531 one-half of his time between Forks and Greenwich. He was in- stalled at Tehicken, May 24, 1744. A new meeting-house being needed, a controversy arose as to whether it should be built on the old site or at the Red Hill. It resulted in fixing on the latter point, and in the dissolution of the pastoral relation in May, 1749, He removed into Newcastle Presbytery, and preached at Cone- cocheague, Rocky Spring, and the neighbouring churches. In 1758, he was dismissed to join South Carolina Presbytery, — a body which, in 1770, proposed to unite with the Synod of iSTew York and Philadelphia. He became the minister of a band of his countrymen settled on the left bank of Cape Fear River, above Fayetteville, opposite the Bluff Church. In the winter of 1739, Whitefield preached, "not without effect," at Newton, on Cape Fear River, where among the congregation were many settlers newly come over from Scotland. The rebel- lion of 1745 was punished by the expatriation of many High- landers to North Carolina : these retained the Gaelic speech, which was familiar to Campbell, being his mother-tongue ; and he became their minister. The Scotch-Irish began to flow in a steady stream southward from Pennsylvania before the French War, and drew to them, from their native land, large numbers. Campbell united with Orange Presbytery in 1774, and is not mentioned on the records after 1780, JAMES DAVENPORT. The name of Davenport has been used familiarly and of old time to point a moral on enthusiasm ; but how little is known of him ! Few men were more highly eulogized, living or dying, by the wisest and best of his own day ; and his was a day fertile in the production of good, great men. But the sneers of Chauncey have been adopted for true, as though the professed opponent of the doctrines and results of the Great Revival could be safely relied on for candour, in his view of facts, and impartiality, in his estimate of character. His statements cannot be verified ; he traduced Po- meroy and Wheelock, and made the hearts of the righteous sad by holding up to contempt and abhorrence a work which was really a work of God, and the men whom God made wise to win souls. Wonderfully successful in his efforts to awaken the careless, to reclaun the Indian from heathenism, and to infiuence the pious for good, Davenport was for a time successful in promoting a spirit of bitter, rancorous fanaticism, which tore asunder and consumed the 532 JAMES DAVENPORT. churches ; but let it be known (for it is so entirely lost sight of in passing judgment on him that we cannot suppose it to be known) that the period of his excesses was one of acute irritating bodily disease, and that his restoration to health was followed by an ample) retraction of his errors and an entire amendment of his course. The heaviest censure has been laid on him ; while the greatest leni- ency has been exercised towards the Tennents and Whitefield, anij him who, like Hooker, is esteemed by all " the judicious," — Jona- than Edwards ; for Davenport differed from them not in the spirit, principle, and matter of his teachings and actings. The close of his career is as little visible in the current accounts of him as thq motions of the heavenly bodies after they sink below our horizon ; but to those who walked with him, " his path was as the shining light, brighter and brighter to the perfect day." Men who longed to see the salvation of Israel come out of Zion lamented for him, gaying, " My father, my father ! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." They are ready for the battle ; but where is h? who shall set the battle in array ? The name of Davenport was honourable. John Davenport,* i^ famous minister in the city of London, came, with many of his congregation, to Massachusetts in 1637. He was one of the fathers of the colony of New Haven, and, in all matters of pubhq interest in state or church, his advice was sought and ordinarily followed. His grandson was the minister of Stamford, Connecti- cut, from 1694 to 1731, and ,there, in 1716, James Davenport was born. He entered Yale College while Elisha Williams was rector. In the classes above him were Sergeant, missionary to the Indians, Parsons, of Newburyport, the excellent Elisha Kent, and Jonathan Barber. Wheelock and Pomeroy, Burr, Wilmot, and Bellamy were his juniors. Conspicuous among the students for zeal and pious joy was David Ferris. f Born in 1707, at Stratford, his pa- rents had moved in his infancy to New Milford," recently settled and almost a wilderness. Through the care of a pious mother, he early felt himself accountable to God, and in his twelfth year was deeply exercised. During a severe illness when about twenty, horror and anxiety seized him : he made promises of amendment, but these gave him no relief, and he sunk in despair. While at th^ plough one evening, he remembered, " The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin;" but he immediately thought, " It is too late." The text, however, came with power and authority, and his heart leaped up at. the sight of a door of hope. "If hia blood cleanseth from all sin, why may it not cleanse mine?" " Then a living hope sprang 'in my soul, and the way cleared be- __ ■ . — , — . — . — , . — f * Trutnbuirs History of Connecticut : The Davenport family. I Memoir of Ferris. JAMES DAVENPORT. 633 fore me like a road through a thicket." His joy was unspeakable ; he was humbled and "made subject to the cross." Jesus became his director in all things ; a season of assault and sorrow followed, but gave way to thanksgiving and gladness, " which did not leave me one moment for two years." A religious excitement* began at New Milford in 1726 ; many of the subjects of it separated from the church as carnal, and pro- fessed to enjoy assurance of salvation and sinless perfection. The pastor, the Rev. Daniel Boardman, regarded Ferris as one of theii* leaders, and says that, on his entering college in 1729, he obtained a great ascendency over Wheelock and Pomeroy and Davenport. Ferris says nothing of this in his own account ; only that, while in New Haven, he examined his principles, discarded the doctrine of election, and could not join a promiscuous assembly of saints and sinners in singing the Psalms as a part of worship. When jugt about to graduate, he felt that he could not accept a degree, and returned home, much to the dissatisfaction of his friends. " The people generally had undue expectations of my usefulness." He told no one the reason of his actions, but, going over to Long Island, he saw for the first time the people called Quakers. He had long thought there ought to be such a people ; he joined them, and removed to Philadelphia, and afterwards to Wilmington, resid- ing there from 1737 until his death, December 12, 1769. He spoke as a minister for the first time in 1755. Surely the experience of Ferris was, at the outset eminently scriptural: every thing in his history invalidates Boardman's story that he appeared proud, haughty, and desirous of applause. We might as easily credit Dr. Cutler, the Church minister of Bos- ton, when he says of Jonathan Edwards, "I know the man: though more decent in his latiguage than Mayhew and Prince, he is odd in his principles, stiff, haughty, and morose." How far this man influenced Davenport cannot be known ; pro- bably very little, — Certainly not in his doctrinal views, or his attach- ment to "the standing order" of the churches. As for singing, Davenport delighted in it to excess. It is charged as a prime fault in Ferris that he was certain that not one in ten of the communicants in New Haven would be saved. This was when the half-way covenant brought into church-mem- bership all who were not openly immoral. He erred, in company with Edwards, Whitefield, Tennent, and Blair, in uttering such an opinion. The state of the churches was lamentable : the un- converted in large numbers were in the communion and in the ministry. . , u , Absurdly enough, Ferris is blamed for saymg he should have a higher seat in heaven than Moses,— an inference of his, natural * Quoted by Dr. Hodge from Chauncey's Seasonable Thoughts. 634 JAliES DAVENPORT. if not just, from the saying of the Saviour, that he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, than whom none greater had arisen among the sons of women. Very likely, had it been necessary, the " seasonable thought" would have occurred to Chauncey of charging the Quakerism of Ferris to the enthusiasm of Davenport. At the age of twenty-two, Pavenport graduated.' He seems to have preached in New Jersey in the close of 1737 ; for Phila- delphia Presbytery gave leave, March 12, 1738, to Maidenhead and Hopewell, (Lawrence and Pennington,) to send for him, and also wrote a letter for them to him. He preferred to settle at Southold, the oldest town on Long Island, left vacant in 1736 by the removal of Mr. Woolsey, and was ordained by a council, Oct. 26, 1738. He began to preach at a time remarkable for increasing atten- tion to personal piety. Years had passed, in which languor in ministers and worldliness and formality in hearers strangely con- trasted with severe and extensive prevalence of disease of dreadful form and fatal character. The year 1734 was long remembered for the desolating ravages of the throat-distemper among the young. There were some slight awakenings ; but throughout the land, in 1737 and '38, there was a general decline, like the sudden closing- in of winter after an early spring, destroying — at least injuring — the premature vegetation. The method generally pursued by those who mourned over the secure state of the unconverted was to preach much on original sin, on repentance, and the nature and necessity of regeneration. In every congregation there were many, esteemed as truly pious, who, on examining and declaring the reason of their hope, were convinced in their consciences or pronounced by the minister to have nothing for their foundation but sand. Edwards* was com- plained of for announcing to some that he believed them to be in Christ, and to others that their hope was as the spider's web. He justified himself on the ground that he ought not to keep back from the godly the satisfaction he felt in perceiving the goodness of their state, and that he was bound with all authority to declare his judgment concerning the self-deceiver. To this practice may be traced the fierce opposition of some to the Revival, and the backwardness of many sincere Christians to countenance the fa- vourers of such proceedings. The practice was exactly suited to such a mind as Davenport's, and he pursued it to extremities. Though young, such was the fervour of his spirit, so unworldly was his life, that he was reve- renced, and men rose up before him as before the hoary head. His examination of "the states" of his hearers was rigorous and awful, * Tracy's "Great Awakening." JAMES DAVENPORT. 535 as though he were sitting as the refiner and purifier. He dealt with them under the invigorating remembrance that "if thou sepa- rate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth." He magnified his office; and the people listened, when he unfolded the results of his inquiry, as though they were to hear from him the de- cision of the Judge. He called the members* of his church of whose state he formed a favourable opinion, brethren ; the others he styled neighbours, and withdrew as much as possible from inter- course with them. Afterwards he forbade "neighbours" to come to the Lord's table ; and we may imagine the distress, excitement, and exasperation that followed. At that time every wind from England came laden with the fame of Whitefield. His great success awakened ardent desires and high expectations that America would receive a hke refreshing. D'Israeli remarks, that they who live in an age of books cannot esti- mate the effect produced in the hall, on the baron and his retainers, by the tales of pilgrims from the Holy Land ; and we, who live in an age of newspapers, are still less qualified to imagine how the hearts of the community, a hundred years ago, were shaken, as the trees of the wood, by the reading of a letter or the hearing of a rumour that God had visited his people. Then, on the highways a traveller was rarely seen, and each settlement, like Israel, dwelt alone. So, when the news reached them of Whitefield's progress as an evangelist, or as the angel in mid-heaven, having the ever- lasting gospel, it had free course ; no other exciting topic divided with it the popular mind. "And great were the searchings of nearc. Another peculiarity of that time was the cheapness of labour: the divisions of employment in a household were as numerous as the divisions of a sermon. There was no hurry : large portions of weekdays were devoted to family worship, catechizing, and confer- ence. There were set seasons of family fasting; servants were required to spend a considerable time in reading the Scriptures, and in retirement for secret prayer. The minister rarely visited : he came at stated times, and for his coming every thing was pre- pared as for an ambassador of the Great King on his Master's ■business. At Oysterponds, now Orient, a neighbouring parish, Jonathan Barber was employed. Born at West Springfield, Massachusetts, January 31, 1712, he graduated at Yale in 1730, and was licensed when about twenty. Having preached some time to the Indians at Aggawam and Mohegan, he came to Long Island. Like-minded, these two spake often one to another, framing great expectations from the visit of Whitefield to our country. An enemy hath said * Traoy. 536 JAMES DAVENPOKT. thaf Barber meditated and fasted till lie fainted, and regarded the impressions on his mind as direct communications from heaven. In March, 174:0,* Barber visited Southold, and found his friend greatly impressed with the twelfth verse of the 115th Psalm : — " He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;" gathering assuredly from thence that the Lord had called him to awaken the ministry and to bless them. A meeting was held for twenty-four hours : as a matter of course, opposers became more inveterate, moderate persons distrusted still more the warrantable^ ness of their pastor's proceeding, while his admirers and the new converts were satiated with good. A mixed multitude came out of Egypt with Israel ; to them these unheard-of ways were as the corn of heaven, and what was sorrowful meat to the wise-heartedj who trembled for the ark of God, was to them as angels' food. Davenport left home with "his man," or, as Chauncey calls him^ "his armour-bearer." Before entering East Hampton, they waited for a sign, as Jonathan and his armour-bearer did before discover^ ing themselves to the Philistine garrison. The sign was given : he entered, and twenty were soon converted. The late Dr. Davis,f of Hamilton College, says, " This was the first revival in East Hampton ; many untoward and ever-to-be-lamented circumstances occurred ; yet lasting good was done, amid a great shaking and commotion." Whitefield heard, April 28, 1740, of "two ministers on Long Island who had large communications from God, and had been in- strumental in bringing many souls to God. They have walked in an uncommon light of God's countenance for a long while together." He met Davenport early in May, and styles him "one of the minis- ters whom God has lately sent out; a sweet, zealous soul." Daven- port went to Philadelphia, and was there during the meeting of th6 Synod of Philadelphia: he joined with the Tennents, Blair, and Rowland, in preaching daily on the stand on Society Hill. To- wards the close of the synod, Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Blair asked for an " inter loquitur" or private session; but they were di- rected to read their papers in the face of a great assemblage. They charged, as characteristics of the state of the ministry, unre- generacy, Phariseeism, and opposition to the work of God, de^ daring that the church was burdened with a carnal ministry, and that ministers said "there was no knowing the state of people's souls," because, conscious of hypocrisy, they dreaded discovery. These things on the part of Blair and Tennent were full of power on the mind of Davenport : they were a pattern to him. Whitefield passed the summer of 1740 in Georgia. At New- port, Rhode Island, a letter was put into his hand : " I could not but Tracy. ■[• Sprague on Eeviyals. JAMES DAVENPORT. 537 think it was from one of the young ministers whom God has lately made use^of in such a remarkable manner on the east end of Long Island. ' It was from Barber, who had come thither with the full conviction that he should see him. Whitefield took sweet counsel Vrith him, and placed him at the head of the Orphan-House : this occasioned a bitter outcry against him, as an upholder of Quakerish delusions and enthusiastic courses. Davenport spent the summer at Southold. In the fall he wrote to his mother that twenty of his people had been converted in about two months ; in almost all, the work of conviction seemed Very clear. He preached for a season at Baskingridge, in the ab- sence of Cross, the pastor, amid an awakening of extraordinary extent and power. In accompanying Whitefield to Philadelphia, in November, he twice narrowly escaped drowning in the swollen creeks: he returned, after a few days, to New Brunswick, to remain there a portion of the time which Tennent spent on Long Island, in his way to New England. Whitefield rejoiced to hear that the Lord was with him, adding, " Shortly, I believe, you will evan* gelize." The winter he probably spent in his own parish, where the pass* ing labours of Tennent were fruitful of good. _ In July, 1741, Davenport Went into Connecticut "to draw the lingering battle on;" and his high reputation gave him a signal ad* vantage. He was no stranger, but sprung from one of the most honourable families in the colony. Whitefield* said of him, he knew no man keep so close a walk with God. Tennent said, he Was one of the most heavenly men he ever knew. Pomeroy said, he went far beyond Whitefield for heavenly communion and fellow ship. Parsons said, in 1742, no man he had seen lived so near to God and had his conversation so much in heaven. "I greatly loved him for his piety." At Stonington, one hundred Were awakened by his first sermon. He came to Westerly, Rhode Island, accompanied by the people in solemn procession, singing as they went. He preached from Joha V. 40: — "Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life." It was plainf and awakening, but not extraordinary ; yet there was a cry all over the house from conviction of sin. Twenty of the Niantie Indians were converted under his preaching at East Lyme: "he 'Was a great blessing to many souls of that tribe, and of the Mohc- gan. He was eminently blessed in inclining them to receive reli- gious instruction, all the great pains taken by others having been fruitless." Coming to Branford of a Saturday, the pastor, Philemon Rob-- bins, asked him to preach. On their way to meeting on Sabbath, * Tracy. f Rev. Joseph Park, in Christian History. 538 JAMES DAVENPORT. he proposed to sing as they went ; but, though Robbins objected, he sung. He preached well : at the close of the afternoon service he asked "his man" to pray, "but not with my consent or liking," says Mr. Robbins. Yet, for "improving" Davenport on this occa- sion, he was subjected to a series of annoyances from the New Haven Association for years. The Patent-Office contains no speci- men of Yankee ingenuity equal to that exhibited by that body in their devices and machinations to ruin him. At New Haven, he came in conflict with the pastor, Mr. Noyes, who refused to submit to his examination ; but his preaching power- fully influenced Brainerd, and probably Buell and other students : Brainerd destroyed that portion of his diary in which he had en- tered "the irregular heats" to which he then gave way. At Saybrook, the Rev. Wm. Hart, his classmate, declined ad- mitting him to his pulpit, because of his censures of the standing ministry. Davenport warned the people of the danger of hearing unconverted preachers, as Tennent had done in his Nottingham Sermon. " Truth coming from the lips of a godless man was as injurious as water flowing from a poisoned trough ;" and, as they claimed that the signs of unregeneracy were conspicuous, all were guilty of self-murder on their own souls who did not forsake the hearing of them as enemies of the cross. "I see not," said Ten- nent, "how any that fear God can sit contentedly under the minis- trations of opposers without becoming accessory to their crimson guilt." Samuel Blair said to the synod,* "Unless we can see hopeful, encouraging signs of a work of God's converting grace among ministers, we shall find ourselves bound in duty to our glo- rious Lord, to answer the invitations and desires of a people groan- ing under the oppression of a dead, unfaithful ministry, by going to preach to them wherever they are. Let those who live under the ministry of dead men, whether they have the form of religion or not, repair to the living." Tennent said it ; Davenport echoed it. He probably passed the winter with his people. Neither his friends nor his opponents were idle. Burr wrote from Newark, to Bellamy, Jan. 13, 1741-2,t "I can join with you in expressing a very great value for that eminent man of God, Mr. Davenport. But I dare not justify all his conduct, nor can I see through it. Our dear brother, Mr. Edwards, tells me in a letter, he thinks he does more towards giving Satan and other opposers an advantage against the work than any one person. My dear brother, if his conduct be right, why do you not imitate him ? I believe you don't see your way clear to do so in all things. I would ask you, what you think of his preaching : — whether it was well calculated to do good to mankind in general? But I feel no heart to speak about these * Quoted by Dr. Hodge. f Printed in New York Observer. JAMES DAVENPORT. 539 things. I have more reason to complain of my own deadness than of others' imprudences. But, my dear brother, as the Lord has given you such clear discoveries of his love, I hope you will appear open and bold for him against all opposers, and also withstand Peter to the face when he is to be blamed." A law* was passed in Connecticut, in May, 1742, such as Queen Elizabeth might have sanctioned and Sacheverell applauded. If any minister preached without express invitation in a parish not under his care, he was denied his salary for a year ; and the ministers who licensed a candidate, or counselled a congregation, not under their particular association, were also deprived of their support. No minister could draw his salary till he had a certificate of the clerk of his parish that he had not been complained of in either of these things. Ministers of the colony, preaching out of their own parish, in a place without the consent of the pastor and a majority of the people there, were bound over, in the penal sum of one hundred pounds, not to offend again : persons not inhabitants of the colony, violating the statute, were to be carried out of the land as vagrants. The law allowing "sober dissenters from the standing order" to form congregations was repealed. Davenport was seized in May, at Ripton, with Pomeroy, of He- bron, having met there at the request of Mr. Mills, the pastor, who favoured the revival and was blessed in his labours. The news- papers state that in June, 1742, Captain Blackleach and Mr. Wm. Adams, both of Stratford, complained to the General Court of the disorders to be apprehended from the great crowds gathered by Davenport, and that thereupon he was taken up. They were car- ried to Hartford, charged with having exhorted people to set the law at defiance. On the way Davenport exhorted, and, having been examined by the General Court, was imprisoned, and sang all night. Edwardsf wrote to a friend, March 9, 1741, that the work was wonderfully breaking out at Hartford. There was a great crowd and tumult, as though Herod stretched forth his hands a second time to vex certain of the church, and to kill James. To the honour of Hartford be it told that such a sense of the horrid injustice of the law was displayed, that the craven legislature called out forty men to mount guard for their protection. The expression of public sentiment had its effect ; and, assuming that he was disturbed in the rational faculties of his mind, the legislature conveyed him to his settled abode on the island. Soon after he went to Massachusetts, but was not countenanced by the ministers of Boston. He withdrew from the communion on the Lord's day, at Oharlestown, apprehending the minister to be unconverted. He appeared before the Association, "and m a free * Trumbull. t *^^^- °^ Massachusetts Historical Society. 640 JAMBS DAVfiNPORt. and ready manner gave ns such an account of the manner of God'a work upon him from his early days, and his effectual calling in riper years, as that he appeared to us a man truly pious."* They issued a declaration expressive of their disapprobation of his course. He immediately denounced them as the prophets of Ahab's court. This Was saying scarcely more than he had heard Grilbert Tennent say in the Synod of 1740, when Dickinson proposed to refer the con- troversy about the reception of candidates to the Boston ministers : — " The most of them are dead formalists, if they have even got so far as that." At this time the Presbytery of Boston met in the French meet- ing-house in that city, and was opened with a sermon by the Rev. John Caldwell, on the False Prophets, just after Davenport had concluded "a warm, stirring exhortation"t in the open air. Cald- well's sermon was printed : it was sharp and biting, placing extracts from Whitefield's and Tennent's writings, as illustrative of the apos- tolic descriptions of false prophets, — with a frequent reference to Davenport's methods. He was taken by the sheriff, and was desired to give bonds for his good behaviour; he was kindly treated at the sheriff's house till evening, when, refusing to procure ball, he was sent to jail. The grand jury presented Davenport as a defamer of the minis-i try : he was treated as insane, and carried to his home. In October a council^ was held at Southold, at the instance of his dissatisfied and neglected people : he was censured, but not dis- missed. In March, 1743, he went to New London, and organized a separate church, his followers making a bonfire of the religious books and the clothes he condemned. Among the book's were some of Flavel's, the sermons of Fish, of Groton, and, as Chauncey jocosely mentions, the famous sermon of Parsons, of Lyme. He adds, that Davenport contributed! | a pair of plush breeches, in the heat of his zeal, and that, for the want of them, he was obliged to keep the house. Will it be credited, that he attributes the sickness ■tvhich confined him to his bed, to his gross immorality ? He does so, without giving the name of "his intelligencer." Dr. Cutler§ wrote to Dr. Zachary Grey, that Chauncey might have put many more and worse things among his seasonable thoughts, had not the "timid pastors," who were "his intelligencers," declined to have their statements published. * Declaration of Boston Ministers, August 12, 1742. f Thatcher's Diary : quoted by Tracy. J Tra He challengedf Abel Morgan, the Baptist minister of Middle- town, and who had debated on infant baptism with Finley, in West Jersey; and they disputed on that point for two days at Kingwood, in Hunterdon county. "Some proselytes," says Mor- gan Edwards, "being found in the Baptist camp, and some from Barker's being missing, some shook their heads and others opened their mouths." In 1752 or '53, a man namsd Heaton, who, with three brothers, had moved from Wrentham, Massachusetts, to es- tablish iron-works on Black River, near Schooley's Mountain, be- came a Baptist because he could not find a text proving infant baptism. This led Robert Colver, who lived there, to advertise a reward of twenty dollars for a text proving infant baptism. Harker carried a text to him and demanded the money: being refused, he sued him ; but the justice ordered Harker to pay the ■ costs. On the Black River dwelt also a small number of Rogerenes, or Quaker Baptists, from Groton, Connecticut. The presbytery heard, in October, 1757, that he had imbibed and vented certain erroneous doctrines, and were about to proceed against him, when they learned that he had left his charge and gone as a captain with the army. Laying the matter before the synod in May, Gilbert Tennent, Treat, Samuel Finley, and John Blair were appointed to deal with him in such manner as shall appear to them most suitable for his conviction. By order of synod, in 1759, a committee met at Mendham and examined a paper containing Harker's principles, and were happy to find that his sentiments were correct, though far from being happily and cautiously expressed. Thus, by "all men's being in the covenant" he meant that the covenant, in the proposals thereof, respects the whole human race; and, by the assertion that "the regenerate were not probationers for heaven," he intended to teach that they have a sure and unfailing title to heaven, being interested in the * Dr. Foote : Sketches of North Carolina. f Morgan "Edwards's History of the New Jersey Baptists. SAMUEL HARKER. 623 merits of Christ. They could not, however, convince him that he was in error in teaching that by the tenor of the covenant of grace God has hound himself to bestow saving blessings on the endea- vours of unregenerate men, and has predestined men to salvation upon a foresight of their compliance with the terms of the cove- nant. The synod, on hearing this report, thought it expedient to try yet whether further converse may convince him, and agree that he meet with Samuel and James Finley, John Blair, and Robert and Sampson Smith, at Nottingham, in November ; and, on his return, with Gilbert Tennent, Treat, Ewing, and Dr. Alison. He met with these committees without any benefit, "though the interview lasted two days and one evening." Having prepared his sentiments for the press, he asked the synod, in 1761, to read his performance, and, if they would convince him he was wrong, he would amend what was so ; otherwise he would think himself obliged to print without delay. This they would not do, but declared their disapproval of some of his opinions. The book soon appeared, — "An Appeal* to the Christian World," — and was forwarded, In November, 1761, by Bostwick, to Bellamy. "A most shockingf bad book : It may serve to show the inconsistency of the modern fashionable divinity." The synod, in 1763, condemned the two propositions in which he was declared erroneous on a previous occasion, and also a third: — "that the covenant of grace Is in such a sense conditional, that all, by the general assistances given under the gospel, have a sufficient ability to fulfil the conditions of it, and so, by their own endeavours, to insure regenerating grace and saving blessings." They therefore declared that they could not contmue him as a member, and that he is disqualified for preaching or exercising his ministry anywhere. The congregation of Black River was thrown into confusion on hearing this, and wrote to Dr. Rodgers to call a meeting of the synod without delay. He con- sulted New Brunswick Presbytery ; and they judged that it was not desirable, for that all the good to be expected could be accom- plished by sending a committee thither. Accordingly, In August .they sent Halt, McKnight, and Kennedy; and, soon after, the West Branch of Black River asked for supplies. McWhorter,J of Newark, wrote to Bellamy, January 28, 1764, "I think I don't live in a printing part of the world. I see but very few newbooks. There is a gentleman in our province who has lately published a piece, and, being one of our synod, he was censured for it last session,— to wit, Mr. Harker. Whether it has been able to travel BO far as to your parts, I can't tell. It pleases some for the sweet Arminianism it contains, or because it takes the promises ot * No copy is to be found in any public library. •j- N. Hazard : BeUamy papers. + J-"'"^ 624 JOHN WEIGHT. God wHcli are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, and endeavours to make them yea and amen in a natural man's good endeavours ; and because he now and then turns off some of what he looks upon to be asperities and unrighteous severities in the holy law of God. He is evidently a very inaccurate writer, a man of little reading, and has no settled scheme that will, in any tolerable measure, hold together. I am afraid some will attempt to answer him who, though they may hold more truths, are as far from any well- digested scheme of religion as he. I should be extremely glad, if he lay in your way, you would drop some reflections which might have a tendency to make him know his standing." John Blair published an answer to his "Appeal to the Christian World," entitled, "The Synod* of New York and Philadelphia Defended." Harkerf married Kachel Lovel, daughter of a French Protes- tant residing at Oyster Bay, Long Island, a most excellent woman. One of his daughters married Dr. Caldwell, of Lamington, who, dying early, left her with an infant, — the Kev. Dr. Joseph Cald- well, President of the University of North Carolina. Another married Judge Symmes, of Marietta, Ohio. JOHN WRIGHT Was born in Scotland, and, while living in Virginia, enjoyed the friendship of Davies. He graduated at Nassau Hall in 1762^ and was admitted to special intimacy by Mr. Burr,J being of a very good character for understanding, prudence, and piety. On leaving college, he travelled in New England, and visited Jonathan Edwards. Davenport wrote to Bellamy, § May 29, 1753, " Mr. Wright, who was licensed last winter, (by Newcastle Presbytery,) is to be ordained in about a fortnight, to go to Virginia and Caro- lina." He was the principal supply of Hanover while Davies was in England ; and, on his return, he found that he had conducted judiciously and to admiration. In 1761, he wrote|| to Mr. Peter Munford, (Montford,) of the Fishkills, a friend and benefactor of his; and, "after an agreeable recollection of a former intimate Christian intercourse, exhilarates his drooping soul by the particulars of what King Jesus does among the wild Virginians. I settled, about seven years ago, * PliiladelpMa Library. f Dr. Foote. J Dwight'a Life of Edwards. j Bellamy papers. || Ibid. JOHN WRIGHT. 625 about the middle of James and Roanoke Rivers, in a very scat- tered congregation, and among a very ignorant people, destitute of any kind of religious knowledge, though mostly of the Church- of-England persuasion. Upon my first preaching here, they were awakened and aAvfully alarmed ; and, in about nine weeks, many got engaged in a most solemn manner for my settlement with them, and promised me a decent maintenance : which invitation I accepted before Newcastle Presbytery; and I may say, to the praise of a good and a gracious God, that we never saw the natural spring since but 'the Day-spring from on high hath visited us.' " I preached here first in March, 1754, and completely settled the October following. On the last Sabbath of the succeeding July, I received to the Lord's table about one hundred souls — mostly from the Church of England — who were never com- municants before. Thirteen months after, I received about ninety more; and, at every sacrament since, an addition has been made, on a moderate calculation, of about thirty; and I always have two sacraments in a year. But this spring and summer exceeded all the seasons I have been acquainted with, in Vir- ginia, for conviction and conversion : the work is more imiversal and powerful. " Religion seemed to be sunk exceeding low, while its enemies were very lively, hoping there was now no God in Israel, and even the children of the kingdom drooping through unbelief. I was full of fears myself, lest we had provoked the Holy One of Israel to depart from us forever; but even then the stability of the covenant, and his unchanging regard to his own glory, propped my tottering faith, and led me to preach in another channel. The gospel was almost a new thing to myself and my hearers, insomuch that I could say it was good for us to be afflicted with discouraging fears. People grew more and more engaged, and sinners were awaked in an uncommon manner and degree; and what supported my hopes was, I could see the Sun of righteous- ness shining upon the negro quarter in the darkest and stormiest part of our spiritual winter. When the revival _ began, it spread more powerfully among the blacks than the whites, so that they crowded to me in great numbers, solemnly engaged and deeply affected, to know what they should do to be saved. I received to communion, between the second Sabbath in June and the first in August, above one hundred souls, among whom were forty-six negroes. " Our enemies were exceedingly confounded, and the children of the kingdom exceedingly humbled,— consequently, more joyful and highly exalted than ever. A great number were then ambi- tious to become New Lights, who before hated and scorned the 40 626 JOHN WRIGHT. name. Some of our bitterest enemies were conquered, and made ■willing to deny themselves and take the cross. "About five years ago I baptized some few negroes,* and they kept dropping in one after another, till, about two years ago, I had fifteen admitted to communion. At this time, I baptized two leading fellows of one Colonel Gary, who has now twenty slaves in full communion in our church. The work has ever since been spreading among that gentleman's slaves, and others round; and I believe there are now about three hundred Ethiopians solicitously engaged after the great salvation. Could I solemnize the Lord's Supper in the centre of my congregation this fall, I might have hopefully one hundred black converts at the table. I have now above one hundred catechumens under examination for baptism, besides fifty or more I baptized since last May. " 1. When I came first here, there was not a shadow of a con- gregation. Mr. Davies, Robinson, Cumming, James Finley, Brown, Davenport, and Henry preached a few sermons in their transitu, and, I suppose, there might be four or five pious souls in all my bounds when I came ; and yet, amidst the whole of the work, there has been scarcely any tincture of enthusiasm. The Lord kept the converts low by a constant view of their own hearts, so that they were rather tempted to unreasonable diffidence, than, like the Separates, inclined to go and preach to others. " 2. Those who were first taken among the whites, though none of the grandees, were yet accounted responsible, honest people; and, when the husband or wife was awakened, the same ordi- narily happened to his or her consort, unless in few instances, and there the person- exercised was uncommonly supported under the trial of the other's opposition, and the trial generally was not long. " 3. Those among the negroes who were first baptized were the most honest, upright, leading men among their tribes, which greatly contributed to spread religion among their fellow-slaves ; and their masters, overseers, and stewards generally fell in with religion beyond all expectation, and thereby they were greatly en- couraged. " 4. The opposition has been, and still is, violently strong, but * "I am a member of a society in London, which lays out a large sum of money every year in boots to be distributed gratia among the poor. When I pub- lished the arrival of my nomination of books, I called upon the negroes to accept of them aU. Few of them became scholars, but they seemed exceedingly attentive and affected on receiving the books. The work spread amazingly among them. Last year I had nine hundred and forty-eight books, this year eleven hundred and fifty-five. This, in the hand of a gracious Providence, with the prayers of a great number of very holy souls in and about London, is the cause of this glorious work among them." JOHN WRIGHT. 627 does not hinder or retard the work : it enters Into their families, and takes hold of their children, husbands, and wives. " 5. There are as few apostasies as ever I knew in a work of grace of so large an extent, among uncultivated souls." Wright was installed in Cumberland by Davies and Henry. "At the sacrament on the last Sabbath in July, 1755, two thousand were present : there were one hundred and eighty communicants, eighty being new ones. There were general awakenings for sundry Sabbaths before, and new instances of deep and rational conviction. In August, of a Lord's day, I saw above a hundred weeping and trembling under the word." Davies said, in the next summer, "Wright's labours continue to be blest." There was more of the power of God that spring, summer, and autumn, than ever. There were remarkable revivings in Davies's congregation, among the negroes ; in Henry's, among the young : in Wright's it was general, but eminently among the young. "After the sacrament in September, I don't know that there were two un- affected hearts in my congregation. On the third Sabbath in November, there was a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit ; Christ triumphed among us ; convictions were more deep and pun- gent than formerly." In the middle of May, 1T5T, Wright preached at Willis Creek from Acts xvii. 30, having had no success before, and thought it would be the beginning of better days. Having been sickly through the spring, he relapsed in June : Martin and Henry assisted him at the sacrament. On Friday, a congregation assembled, and he ventured to talk from "All things are ready." This was a word in season to saint and sinner. " We had a prelibation of what fol- lowed. Henry preached from Rev. xxii. 17. I never saw the cross of Christ triumph as then. One B. W. had been three years under temptation. " ' Such miserables as I,' said he, on Friday, ' Have no place at the Lord's table.' " ' Are you then willing to give up all your part and portion in Christ?' " 'No; not for a thousand worlds.' " On Sabbath, Wright took him aside, and gave him a token, which he accepted with great reluctance. In fencing the first table, he saw this poor object, and, going to him with the bread, he said, — " ' I cannot take; I feel no faith.' " ' But don't you want Christ?' " ' Yes ; but I am not worthy of him.' " 'Are you not ready?' " ' I am lost without him.' " ' Are you not labouring and heavy laden?' " ' I am crushed under the load of sin.' 623 THE CHUECH IN NEW TOEK. " ' Then Christ calls you by name to come to him.' " He took the bread, and stood up. Being a tall man, he was seen by all, as, stretching out his hands, -with the most affecting countenance, he said, 'Lord Jesus, I am lost without thee. I come trembling. I would fain be a partaker of thy broken body ; for I am undone without thee. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me! No spectator can ever forget that solemn transaction between Christ and that poor sinner. The whole day was " one of the days of the Son of man." Thirty-six new communicants were received. He was a correspondent of the publisher of the " Glasgow Christian History," and, it is said, of John Wesley also. And must this glowing account of zealous labours and great success end abruptly with the statement, that Wright was sus- pended, by Hanover Presbytery, in 1763, and never restored? THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. The synod received, in September, 1753, a letter* from Pem- berton, of New York, informing them that, owing to dissensions in his charge, his hope of usefulness was gone, and that a unanimous call from a congregation in Boston was ready to be placed in his hands. He desired that a committee might be sent to New York without delay to issue the business. Several mem- bers of the congregation made a representation of their divided state ; and a committee was appointed, with full powers to do as they judge necfissary for the healing of divisions and for the best interests of religion there. Tennent, of Freehold, with his elder, Samuel Ker, Burr, Beatty, Bostwick, Spencer, and Caleb Smith, met in the city, October 24. No opposition was made to the dis- mission of Cumming ; but, being sensible of the many difficulties Pemberton laboured under, they allowed him a month's time to make a further trial, and left him at liberty then to remove or abide, as he saw best. During the month, even the gentlemen who were fearful that his departure would endanger the peace of the congregation were satisfied that he should go ; and, on the joint recommendation of Pemberton and Cumming, the congregation (November 19) sentt * MS. Records of the Trustees of the Congregation. ■\ The letter was signed by Nathaniel Hazard, James Jauncey, John Smith, Joseph Forman, and Nathajaiel MoKinley. THE CHURCH IN NEW YOKK. 629 Obadiah Wells, to request and entreat the Christian and charitable assistance of the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, of Bethlem, Connecticut, in coming and preaching to them a few sermons, and aiding them by his counsel and advice. " We know of no more powerful motive we can offer to excite you, than by telling you, from very good accounts we have from several worthy ministers among us, there is an undoubted prospect of your being instrumental in healing our breaches and uniting our congregation. Pemberton and Gumming, also Mr. Vanhorn, the elder, and others, wrote to him to spend a Sabbath with them, being in great hopes* that, by the blessing of heaven, it would be of singular advantage to the interest of religion, and, perhaps, a means of composing our dif- fer en ces."f Bellamy was born in 1719, in New Cheshire, Connecticut, graduated at Yale in 1735, and was settled, in 1740, in " the east part of the North Purchase," a new parish set off from Woodbury, with the name of Bethlem. He was then one-and- twenty ; and, having observed that, on the failure of their people to support them, ministers commonly went to work, and were then blamed for neglecting their duty, he declared that he would accept their call only on condition that he might give himself wholly to the sacred office. A gracious revival blessed the first years of his labour. At Wallingford, also, he was greatly favoured with suc- cess. He approved of Davenport's cause long after others, like Edwards and Burr, thought that " Peter should be withstood to the face." His own spiritual comforts declined, religion ran low among his people, and, amid desertion and anguish, he received such impressions of the nature, evil, and mischiefs of false re- ligion as changed the whole course of his feelings, and moulded anew his whole system of opinion. " The delusions J which I saw take place in New-Light times have engaged me, as well as the divided state of the Christian world in general, to devote my whole time for above twenty years to inquire into the nature of Christianity. I have conversed with all men of genius, into whose company I have had access, in New England; I have read all books I could come at : I think I have found the truth. I have * Pemberton. ,, -r. . + Obadiah Wells "was chosen to go to Bethlem, by the Rev. Mr. Pemberton, Mr. David Vanhorn, elder, and Mr. P. V. B. Livingston, a trustee, and sundry other persons in the congregation. My orders were to desire Mr. Bellamy to come to New York, and preach a few sermons, to try to heal our unhappy divisions, and to think of a suitable minister for us ; only not to return without him with me. I had heard some time before that some of his congregation were much inclined to Separatism, and so dissatisfied with his ministry, that 'twas con- cluded he must remove. This made me with joy engage m the affair, hoping the door was wide open to favour poor, unhappy New York."— MS. Letter of 0. Wells. I Bellamy to Hobart, of Fairfield. 630 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. published my sentiments in tlie most open and undisguised man- ner," in the "Nature of True Religion Delineated." This book, so celebrated, so widely influential on the doctrinal systems and the yieivs of experimental religion of all evangelical churches in our land, was sent by Dr. Erskine to the venerable Robert Riccaltoun, of Hobkirk, to be " perused with the unre- lenting eye of a critic." " The book* is written with so good an intention, such zeal and warmth for what he takes to be true re- ligion, and the whole executed with the true spirit of an original author, that it is a very disagreeable task to point out blemishes iu so much beauty. " There seems to me a great many essential lineaments wanting, not a few which do not belong to it, and some which, I think, are directly inconsistent with it It is well known what influence the course of one's studies, the writings he has been most con- versant with, his company, and the circumstances of the world about him, must have upon a writer. Our excellent author seems to have been not a little unhappy this way, as we see by his pre- face I am sorry to say that he appears to me deeply — though I dare say insensibly — tainted with the evil disease of regarding the nature and fitness of things, and the eternal truths thence arising in the imagination, as the only thing worth a philo- sopher's notice. By his title, and the whole of his manner, he seems formed upon that very fashionable writer, Woolaston, and his fellows, the modern philosophical divines. Their fantastical, unmeaning terms — the nature of things, moral fitness, the true taste or moral sense, moral beauty, with much more such aflected cant — run through the whole of his book. He carries them so far as to prescribe law to the Almighty, and dictate with assurance what he may do Had he designed it only as an argument against the men he deals with, on their own principles and con- cessions, I should have been pleased with it, as you are in that view, though even then I could only have considered it as argu- mentuni ad hominem; but when he gives it as a delineation of the true religion, I must compare it with the Scripture plan; from -which I think it difiers very widely, both in the manner of laying it, and even the matter itself. " Instead of founding religion, or the love of God and our neighbour, — as God himself has done in his record, — on the love of God in Christ, and the plain facts by which it is evidenced and im- printed, he runs out into metaphysical excursions to raise and establish a sort of idea of God and his essential, and what he calls his moral perfections, (in the very words and phrases of that sort * Kicoaltoun to Erskine. THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 631 of men,) abstracted from, and previous to, any discoveries He has made of himself in Christ." The impression made by his visit to New York was beyond the most sanguine expectations : the Scots, who had formed themselves into a separate society, were beyond measure charmed with him ; the most fervently pious were drawn to him with the warmest attachment. The closing day of the year was observed as a day of fasting and prayer with great solemnity ; and then a call was unanimously made out for Bellamy. Mr. Vanhorne signed the call with an express declaration of his dissent, and wrote, January 8, 1754, to inform Bellamy that "four of the trustees, both of the elders, and a number of persons of considerable importance to the interests of the church, are entirely opposed to the choice, not from any opinion to the prejudice of your piety or abilities, both of which they think well of; but because there appears to them something very disagreeable in your delivery and method, which is peculiar to people your way." The presbytery met on the 9th, concurred in the call, and also wrote to Bellamy, and to the association of which he was a member, urging the call, and desiring that if the way were not clear for his removal at once, to allow his spending several weeks in the city. Vanhorne wrote again, on the 9th, that some objected that "you don't preach so free and generous a gospel as we have been used to and is agreeable to us: you do not preach so much in a gospel strain as would be agreeable. If your sentiments with regard to church communion are such as Mr. Edwards's, it would infallibly make the rent in our church much wider, as the bulk of our people are against it, and most — I believe I may say the whole — of our synod." The Hon. William Smith, one of the oldest members of the church, high in reputation as a counsellor, a judge, a patriot, and a Christian, wrote, on the 14th, it being " expected of me to inform you of every thing necessary to inform your judgment in this im- portant affair, there are about half a dozen persons on whom the reputation and support of this congregation do depend, who did not concur in the vote, — because, 1. One or two of them think that your judgment in divinity tends too much to Legalism ; 2. You are suspected of having notions too strict in the article of visible church communion ; 3. Your discourses here were not sufficiently methodical, proportionate, and coherent; 4. As to the art of de- livery in a just modulation of voice and gesture ; 5. You have not enough studied prayer as a gift, and as a work of the head, as is necessary in a minister who leads the worship of a congrega- tion. " You will please also to reflect as to your consent to the synodi- cal determinations in the settlement of our constitution, and the 682 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. method of worship prescribed in the Directory, and used in this church, neither of which I think can be altered without damage. "We choose you for our minister because 'tis thought you are furnished with divine knowledge, natural abilities, aptness to teach, and a capacity to address the consciences of men, and, with the divine aid, are hkely to promote real religion among us." The Scots Presbyterian Society "thought fit," in a letter on the 14th, signed by Ranal McDougal and William Nicholson, "to give Bellamy notice that we all heartily agree to the call, and fear your refusing may prove fatal to the union of this church." The council was called and convened at Bethlem, January 24. Nathaniel Hazard, Jr., and Captain James Jauncey, appeared as commissioners with the call, and presented their reasons in writing, at length, and with much earnestness, dwelling on the union of all parties on him. Bellamy presented his views in writing : — " My people give me salary enough, are very kind to me ; I love them, and, if it be the will of God, I should love to live and die with them. There are many difficulties in the way of my going to New York. They are a difficult people, — don't like my terms of communion. Some of their great men are against my coming : I may possibly do to be minister out in the woods, but am not fit for a city. I may die with the smallpox, and leave a widow and fatherless children in a helpless condition ; my people will be in danger of ruin : it breaks my heart to think the interest of reli- gion must sink among my people, the youth run riot, and the little children be left without an instructor. I humbly desire, therefore, that nothing may be done without the utmost deliberation, and that, whatever advice you may see fit to give me, you would let me and my people know what grounds you go upon. Behold, my life, and all the comforts of my life, and my usefulness in the world, and the temporal and eternal interests of my people, lie at stake ; and you must answer it to God if you should give me any wrong advice for want of a thorough and most solemn and impartial weighing of the affair. May the infinitely-wise God direct you ! " I pray you to consider me as one of your most unworthy breth- ren, almost overwhelmed with concern, and just ready to sink under the weight of the affair, and quite broken-hearted for my kind and dear people. " The council* voted it was my duty to go if the consent of my people could be obtained, and casting all the blame upon them. Upon this they were, some of them, so exercised and afflicted as, of their own accord, to come to my house and take Mr. Hazard alone, before I knew it, and tell him, 'We have done wrong: let your people make another application, and you will obtain your * Bellamy to Burr. THE CHURCH IN NEW TOEK. 633 end.' Mr. Hazard, on his return, telling this to Mr. Graham, stirred him up to write to New York and encourage a second at- tempt." The call was at once renewed. His friends in New York, " although* he had discouraged and disheartened them more than all his people together, were per- suaded that the Lord would convince him and them that it was his indispensable duty to come. Mr. Lawyer Smith says, he will undertake to answer all your people's objections, if they have any real regard to the interest of religion. The Rev. President Burr is sent for over to us, that every reasonable objection arising out of difficulties among ourselves may be removed. The Moravians, I imagine, boast and glory from their numbers increasing from our church. The Baptists have been preaching here also last week, February 4." The venerable Tennent, of Freehold, wrote, February 20, to urge his considering the matter anew, "principally because by accepting the call you will, under God, save from utter destruction a very large and once flourishing congregation. The call is vastly more unanimous than it would have been, without a special inter- position of Providence, to any one living, such is their rent state. And, I may add, it is the earnest desire of our ministers." Robert Smith, of Pequea, also addressed him; and two of the elders of the Second Church, Philadelphia, — David Chambers and Samuel Hazard, — applied themselves ^o secure the influence of Graham, of Southbury, in favour of poor New York. The presbytery met on the 27th of February, and concurred "with the congregation in renewing the call: they wrote to Bellamy, and also to Graham, and also to the Eastern Association of Fair- field county, to join with the Association of Litchfield county in advising about his removal. "The eyes of that society are in- tently fixed upon him, as the only person that is likely to unite them; and scarce any appear against his coming." Edwards, who had attended the council, was urged by Bellamy to attend the meeting of the Consociation: he wrote from Stock- bridge, February 28, 1754, " 'Tis wholly needless that I should come again on the afi"air of your going to New York, and alto- gether improper, as I suppose now the afiair will properly be re- ferred to the Association or Consociation. And, besides, I think I can do more good by 'writing than by coming. I wish you had been a little more particular in your information. I desire you would write to me again as soon as possible. I have a mind to write a letter to the moderator of your Association. But only I want to know much more about the matter, that I may know the better how to write. Please to inform me whether Lawyer Smith * N. Hazard. 634 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. has received my letter, and what he writes to you ; and what has been done at New York and at the presbytery, and what, and after what manner, application has been made in that affair, and what is going to be done further. Probably, I shall have a mind to. write to some others, besides ministers, about this affair. Therefore I desire you to be particular, and full, and speedy in your writing to me. Particularly inform me when the Association meets on this affair."* Mr. Obadiah "Wells wrote from New York, February 28, " Things here, to appearance, ripen apace for so desirable an event, [as ob- taining you for our pastor,] and much beyond what I ever expected. William Smith, Esq., is most sincerely engaged in it beyond all doubt, and has, by his indefatigable labours, made true proselytes of Messrs. William Livingston, Morine Scott, Whitehead Hicks, and his own son William, who are all gentlemen of the law, and all now very desirous to have Mr. Bellamy. Also Mr. William P(eartree) S(mith) is much altered, as I am informed, and Mr. P. V. B. Livingston. As to Elder Vanhorne, he seems to be the only obstinate person that I know of; Moravianism has, to a deplor- able degree, infatuated that poor unhappy gentleman. Our trus- tees have voted two hundred pounds per annum, salary, and a sub- scription is going about for fifty pounds more for four years : in that time our church will be out of debt, and then 'twill no doubt be able to do it all without a subscription. 'Tis my opinion that such a salary, with the perquisites, will make a handsome living for a family like yours. Neither are our people unmindful of doing something, by way of remittance, to the good people of Bethlem, in regard to their settlement." Bellamy noted at the bottom, "But what if the trustees won't vote it [£50] at the end of four years ? they won't be so likely to do it then as now. "N.B. — Nothing is said of their voting my terms of admission into their church." The Rev. John Graham, moderator of the Fairfield Association, had written to Lawyer Smith, January 24, and, on his reply of February 19, he "wrote the best apology for the state of his church and congregation which he could, consistent with truth." On the 13th of March, he wrote again that the state of affairs was such that " I cannot but hope the ministers of Litchfield Associa- tion will most readily advise his accepting the call. All difficulties with regard to a suitable provision for his maintenance are entirely removed, the salary fixed on the public revenues of the congre- * "If it should really so come to pass that you should remove to New York, my ■wife desires to. buy your negro woman, as she supposes she will do better for tha country than the city. She will probably come along through your place some time in April, when she will talk with you about it." THE CHUECH IN NEW YORK. 635 gation, and an addition thereto by private subscription. As to the few votes that did not concur at the first, they are almost to a man effectually gained. The rest, being two or three, I do not despair of. Not one man among us will make any faction or disturbance ; and there is the greatest prospect of the most unanimous approba- tion of Mr. Bellamy as our minister, of any man that I know of in America." Mr. Smith also drew a long and very able and pathetic appeal to the church of Christ in Bethlem: it is dated March 15, and was signed by John Stephens and William Eagles, deacons, in be- half of the whole Presbyterian Church at New York, and by Cap- tain Jeremiah Owen, eldest trustee of the congregation. " This ■ congregation, from the smallest beginnings in 1715, through strug- gles and difficulties, has at length, though very lately, become the most important church in this Province, with regard not only to the general interest of religion among those of the Presbyterian de- nomination, but also as to the political influence it has in the safety and protection of all its sister churches. " Were we not fully persuaded that God has chosen Mr. Bellamy for the ministry of this church, we durst not desire your consent to his removal." Bostwick wrote to Bellamy on the same day. Ill health had prevented him from attending the presbyteries; yet "my concern for the interest of religion in that congregation will not permit me to be inactive. That Providence opens the way for your labour there is exceeding evident, from the unanimous and persevering importunity of the people: in this the hand of God is evidently seen. The case of New York is really necessitous and distressing, and if they fail in this attempt there is the utmost danger of their coming to ruin." Mr. John Smith, the early friend of Edwards, wrote in the same strain: "they will scarcely unite on any other minister, and will dwindle away to nothing. If you can't see it your duty to God to come among us, we are a gone people, our congregation is undone, and religion is ruined, — they are in general so fixed on your coming." Among the many letters of invitation sent to Bellamy was " a plain one," dated March 18, from John Robinson, the collector of the pew-rents : — " I am daily conversant among the whole con- gregation : they are all impatiently expecting your coming. We keep together, though with many silent Sabbaths. As to the few objections, they told me their scruples hinged on the shortness of the tryal of you. I pray God may direct your way to us speedily. Gen. xxiv. 49 and 68." Bellamy had well considered the whole matter, and had drawn up a little book of " Objections :" — 636 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. " 1. As to my worldly support. It will take three hundred pounds per annum to maintain a minister with any considerable family ; but I must have at least eight at my removal, which, in a few years, may probably increase to twelve or fourteen. But at New York they have not been used to give their ministers half so much as three hundi-ed pounds ; and, if they are persuaded to it, it is to he feared that there will afterwards be murmuring and dis- content among the people, which would render my life miserable, and destroy my usefulness. Their way of maintaining ministers by subscription, I am told by those I may fully credit, is uncertain, and not safe for a minister to depend upon ; whereas, there is no uncertainty attending our way in these parts. My people give me salary enough, and are willing to pay it, whereby I am under advantages to attend quietly to the work of the ministry, and run no risk. " 2. My removal to New York must be attended with great charges. I must resign my house and farm for the use of the next minister for a number of years, or pay my people eight hun- dred pounds, Old Tenor, upon account of the settlement I formerly received of them. " It will cost at least two hundred pounds, York money, to re- move my family, and furnish a house at New York, in order only to make as decent an appearance as we do now here. We have every thing decent for a country minister already. It is not reasonable that I should be at this extraordinary expense out of my own estate, since it would be altogether not for my own, but for their sakes. And can it be supposed they will cheerfully be at so much cost and trouble, when it would be so much cheaper and easier to get a young, unsettled man ? " 3. The only profession of faith required among them, in order to an admittance to special privileges, is in these words : — ' You do declare your unfeigned assent unto the articles of the Christian faith, as they are contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments ;' — but the ancient Pelagians, Socinians, and all other heretics, would make this profession, and might, therefore, be admitted to special ordinances upon this plan, and could never consistently be excommunicated, which would be directly contrary, I think, to the express words of Scripture, (Tit. iii. 10,) and also to the sense of the Church of Scotland. Although what we judge to be orthodox, in every minute circum- stance, may not be necessary to be professed in order to enjoy church privileges, yet I am of opinion that, as to the main and more essential principles of the Christian faith, they ought to be explicitly professed and assented to ; otherwise, I cannot so much as guess what a man's principles are by the public profession he makes. THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 637 " 4. As to the covenant in use at the administration of baptism, I perfectly approve of it : only there is one alteration I should insist upon, — viz.: instead of, 'You are. desired to give up your- self, and this your child, to God,' thus: 'You do now give up yourself, and this your child, to God;' because, otherwise, they don't so much as profess to do the very thing which gives right to baptism, and which the very form itself supposes to be necessary ; for why should they be so much as desired to give themselves and their child to God if their doing so were not at all needful to its being regularly baptized? " 5. My people are, and have been ever since my settlement among them, remarkably satisfied with my ministry, ready to support me, ready to receive instructions and reproofs ; and my ministry has been blessed among them, which has increased a mutual endearment among us : by all which I am under great ad- vantages to do good among them. Nor could they easily, if pos- sibly, be brought to be willing to part with me ; and, if I should leave them, they would be in very great danger of ruin, for it would be extremely difficult to find a man that would unite them." The substance of these objections he had communicated to the congregation of New York, in a letter concluding thus : — "Gentlemen: — I am heartily concerned for the welfare of your congregation, and am willing to do any thing that is my duty to promote your prosperity. But these difficulties, which have been mentioned, are real, and of great weight ; and, besides all that has been said, I and my family must run the venture of our lives the first time the smallpox comes into the city. "It is the part of a wise man to sit down and count the cost: it becomes a prudent man to foresee the evil. It will doubtless become your congregation and church, and the presbytery, to weigh these things thoroughly, and, perhaps, hereby all parties concerned will be satisfied that it will not be best to make any further attempts for my removal." To the Consociation he said, that, after his representations of the difficulties, " the congregation are still resolute, pleading they are undone if they fail of success. Now, what I have to offer is as follows : — "1. I cannot apprehend it to be right to remove a minister from a people, where both are well agreed, unless in cases of special necessity; nor (2.) can I think a minister is obliged to part with all the delights of a peaceable and quiet life, to be put at the head of a congregation attended with so many difficulties, unless there be a rational prospect of doing so much good to souls,, and to the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom, as makes it a duty to practise all the self-denial the case calls for ; nor (3.) can I be 638 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. ■willing to go myself, and take my family, into the way of the smallpox, as in the present case, unless the affair be so circum- stanced that the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom makes it my duty. " I am sensible that the people of New York plead that a great congregation lies at stake, and, if they are ruined through my backwardness to go, are ready to say I must answer for it ; and ministers in those parts, by letters, urge and press it upon my conscience in the most solemn and affectionate manner, as matter of indispensable duty. To all which I reply, if it does appear to be my indispensable duty to remove, there is no more to be said. ' The will of the Lord be done!' I ought to go, all selfish con- siderations to the contrary notwithstanding. This is the point to be judged ; but, I conceive, it cannot be made out to be my duty to remove, unless it can be made to appear: — 1. That some settled minister should be removed to supply New York. 2. That no other can answer as well, or better, or be removed with as little or less difficulty. 3. That there is a prevailing probability that my removal would, all things being considered, do more good and pre- vent more harm there, than it will occasion here." The church of Bethlem met on the 25th, and voted, that the Deacon Hezekiah Hooker, Esq., Jabez Whittlesey, and Samuel Strong, with Captain Josiah Averett and Mr. Samuel Slater, be a committee to represent the church before the Consociation. On the 26th, the New York Pleas were heard ; and the church com- mittee asked for a copy, and to have the affair adjourned, that they might answer, in writing, in due time. Their answer was, the reiteration of Bellamy's four points : — that the burden lay on the New York commissioners to prove that it is right to remove a settled minister against his own wish and that of his people ; that it is necessary some settled minister should be removed to New York ; that it is necessary that Mr. Bellamy be that man, and that he is likely to do more good there than here. The church voted, by a full majority, on the 26th, that Mr. Bellamy should not remove to New York. Mr. Slater presented his reasons. The Bible says nothing of removing ministers. We look upon it that he is the gift of God to US, and that it is of the Lord's mercy we have such a teacher, and that we should pray he would continue him to us. But if he is removed, a door will be flung open for poor mortals to speak evil of the ways of God, and of our religion ; and we may lament, and say, as Moses did, "Lord, what will become of thy great name?" The Consociation adjourned, and advised Bellamy to visit New York before they met in May. He accordingly came there early in April, and remained six Sabbaths. On Monday, April 8, Mr. THE CHURCH IN NBW YORK. 639 Obadiah Wells wrote to him, that a club of deists had heard his forenoon sermon the day before ; and that one of them, in a very engaged manner, in their meeting in the evening, told them it was the last time he should meet with them, as he was fully convinced of their madness and folly, and that he would hereafter seek for amendment of life. He added, that " another prayerless person came yesterday to a conclusion to set up the worship of God in his family. These things give me great hopes that God is about to do glorious things for poor New York through you." But, onleaving, Bellamy informed the elders and deacons, that it was plain that at least ten families were opposed to his settle- ment, and that he should think it his duty to declare to the council, that he did not think, as things stand, it would be for the glory of God and the interest of religion for him to be removed. He besought them to make no further attempt. But a new aspect was placed on the afiair by the following paper from the Scots Presbyterian Society: — "To the Elders and Deacons of the Presbyterian church in the city of New York, and to the Trustees of the Congregation, ^c. " Gentlemen : — " There are many considerations which make us very desirous that all matters of uneasiness may be removed, and a solid and lasting peace be established in the congregation, and that without delay. Indeed, it was proposed to omit saying any thing about these affairs until all things were ripe for the settlement of a minister, and then to refer all to a presbytery or synod; but, nevertheless, if our difficulties can be settled amongst ourselves, it will undoubtedly be most for the real satisfaction of the con- gregation, and lay the most solid foundation for a lasting peace, as well as tend to encourage a minister to settle among us. We would, therefore, in behalf of ourselves and our adherents, humbly propose the following scheme of accommodation with relation to the Psalms, the Confession of Faith, and the trusteeship, about each of which there has been so much uneasiness and contro- versy : — " 1st. As to the Psalms, notwithstanding we are as much at- tached to our old Psalms as ever we were, yet, for peace' sake, we will resign the point, and say no more. " 2dly. As to the Westminster Confession and Catechism adopted by this church, we request no more than that the minister and ruling elders admit none to sealing ordinances but those who are qualified as said Confession and Catechisms teach they ought to be, and that said Confession and Catechisms be recommended at the baptism of children, agreeable to the practice of the Church of Scotland. 640 THE CHURCH IN NEW TOEK. " 3dly. As to the trusteeship, we consent that it remain as at present ; and at the expiration of three years from the first day of January, A.D. 1755, — by which time, it is supposed, the present debts of the congregation will be paid, — we only request that, from that time and forward, two new trustees may be annually chosen by the congregation ; and that such men may be chosen as are known to be wise, able, and faithful men, hearty friends to the religious as well as the temporal welfare of the congregation. And on this foot we consent that the trusteeship should continue, and be established forever; or if, in time to come, any incon- veniences should arise which we do not now foresee, we desire nothing further than peaceably to refer all to the presbytery and synod. "And, to conclude: As we hope all our controversies are at an end, we desire to forgive, and be forgiven, as to what is past; to be at peace, and to live at peace, and seek the peace and pros- perity of our church, and to do all that in us lies to encourage the speedy settlement of a minister among us. The above we sub- scribe, with this condition : — that the Rev. Mr. Joseph Bellamy be our minister. "We are, in behalf of our society, gentlemen, your very humble servants, "Jonas Wright, Jacob Reijker, Ronald McDougald, Peter Clark, Robert Gulleland, Alexander McDougald, Duncan Camp- bey, Robert McAlpine, William McKinley, Alexander Wiley, William Nicholson, John Durham, Samuel Lowden. "We shall be satisfied if the following form be used in Bap- tism : — "Baptism is a seal of the Covenant of Grace, and is to be ad- ministered to such as profess their faith in Christ, and their obedi- ence to him, and to their children. You are now come to present yourselves before the Lord, to dedicate your child to God in bap- tism, according to divine appointment. "You believe the articles of the Christian faith as they are con- tained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, a sum- mary whereof we have in the excellent Confession and Catechisms which are adopted by this church, and you do now give up your- self and this child to the Lord, to be justified by the righteousness of Christ, and to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit ; and you pro- mise that if this child live to years of discretion, you will bring it Tip in the knowledge of the true religion you have now professed, and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and like pious David you will bless your household, will pray with and for your family, and, with good Joshua, you resolve that, as for you and your house, you will serve the Lord. THE CHURCH IN NEW TORE. 641 "These things, by the grace of God, you promise to perform. The vows of the Lord are upon you : the Lord make you and us mindful of our sacred engagements." ^ To all this the elders and trustees agreed on the 27th of April, ■with this further: — "that if the debts of the church and congrega- tion are not paid at the time any two trustees shall go out of office, the two succeeding trustees shall indemnify and save them harm- less from all personal engagements that they are under for or on account of the debts of the church and congregation." Bellamy again addressed to the church and congregation a dis- suasive from further attempts : — "Perhaps there is scarcely a minis- ter in New England under more happy circumstances than I am in my present situation ; and perhaps there would scarcely a minister in North America be under more difficult circumstances than I would be at the head of your congregation. Nothing, therefore, can make me think it my duty to remove, unless it be the most urgent necessity; and nothing can convince me of such a necessity but your actually making the most thorough trial elsewhere." By the advice of Burr, they persisted : he wrote to Bellamy, May 14, " 'Tis my advice that the matter be prosecuted. The fer- ment the congregation are now in, makes it appear more necessary that their case should be represented in the best manner, and I am persuaded Messrs. Tennent and Spencer will do it thoroughly. The matter lies before the Consociation : their voice, therefore, I hope, will be the voice of God. If you entertain the least jealousy of the want of a cordial brotherly affection from me, you greatly wrong me, or that I should not be highly pleased with having you for a neighbour. There being a little appearance of this in your manner of writing makes me say this much. I shall not cease to love you and pray for you, that God would make your duty plain before you. 'Tis best, in my opinion, you should wait the result of the Consociation. While I am persuaded that the messengers from the presbytery will do their utmost to gain it in favour of New York, I would satisfy you, if I had a few hours with you, that you have no cause of discouragement from the conduct of the pres- bytery." Mr. Thomas Grant — probably one of the promoters of the sepa- rate meeting in Anderson's day — sent his hearty concurrence in the call, especially because "your endeavours in this short time, with the blessing of God, visibly appeared to increase this congregation, not only in numbers, but in true, sincere piety. Scripture, as well as reason, tells us ' that no man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel ;' and, without flattery, your Association act the same in confining you to that obscure place, when your labour and light are so much wanted here. It is true you have some opposition, but it is a very inconsiderable number to your friends; yet they 41 642 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. are gentlemen of estates and politeness who have been great bene- factors to the church. I think it unreasonable they won't comply •with the majority, -syhen they concurred with the presbytery that the call of a minister should be by vote, which was by such great odds in your favour. I am in hopes that when your residence is determined among us, they will abate their unreasonable prejudice, and am of opinion that in adversity they would be your dearest friends. I believe if you had never preached or been known in this place, one of our synod might have done; but you have so deeply engaged the aiFections of the congregation, that they will not hear of the call of any other." The Consociation met. May 24 ; Mr. Hazard and Captain James Jauncey being commissioners, and Spencer and Tennent, of Free- hold, appearing on behalf of the presbytery. A letter was pre- sented from the Eev. James Brown, of Bridgehampton, Long Island, pressing their consent to his removal ; and another from Samuel Finley, arguing the most exposed post requires the ablest man for its defence. He also wrote to the congregation, answer- ing the four points concerning the removal of settled ministers. These are both full of excellent sense, and of great weight. " That pious Enoch," Davenport, wrote also to the Consociation: the frag- ment begins thus : — " The whole visible church may be justly conceived with weep- ing eyes, and in great distress,' stretching out her hands to you, while New York is entreating ; New York, I say, which appears to be in threatening danger of being awfully broken, if not ruined, if Mr. Bellamy don't settle there ; and, oh, what a blow would this be at the whole church ! "Dear ministers of that Christ who purchased the church with Lis most precious blood, sets her as a seal on his heart and on his arm, and will at last raise her to eternal glory, can you, oh, can you refuse to hear the cries of this same church in agonies on this occasion ? And oh, if you do hear, how may you find through grace unspeakably more comfort and satisfaction in this exercise of self- denial than in all self-gratifications put together, and have the blessing of many souls ready to perish coming upon you ! " I humbly submit these considerations to your impartial and deliberate judgment. May the great and glorious Head and King of the church favour you at all times, and especially your present convention, with his gracious direction, presence, and blessing ! and may you be led to such a conclusion in this important afi'air as shall be most agreeable to the divine word and will, as shall justly afford you the most peaceful reflections all your days, and on a dying bed, as shall be approved and applauded by the great Judge, and as shall be rewarded with a crown of glory that fadeth not away ! THE CHURCH IN NEW TORE. 643 " Permit me now to take leave, humbly and earnestly begging an interest in the secret prayers 6f you all for your most unworthy thit affectionate brother and fellow-servant." The Hon. William Smith also wrote, "We have had the pleasure to observe that^Mr. Bellamy's interest in the affection and esteem of this people is, by this second interview, greatly increased, and theprospects of his usefulness surprisingly enlarged. Our congre- gation has regained its flourishing appearance, and is at present generally more numerous than in times of its former prosperity. The very opposition itself has changed its nature, and, instead of being a bar in Mr. Bellamy's way, is now a very strong motive to his acceptance of our call. The springs of that small non-concur- rence with the vote of this congregation were for some time hid from me by my belief of public professions, but at length are clearly discovered (as to some persons) from a favour to a modern scheme in divinity, to which Mr. Bellamy's principles are entirely opposite; which scheme, if it should prevail among us, would utterly ruin this church, to prevent which Mr. Bellamy's gifts in establishing truth and confuting error are now more apparently needful than ever." Bellamy informed Mr. Smith of the decision of the Consociation, May 25: — "I represented your case as it was, and declared that, were I an unsettled man, I would, notwithstanding all the difiicul- ties in the way, accept your call, and submitted to the council to decide whether it was right I should be removed: they judged it was not. Indeed, Mr. Tennent urged me to declare absolutely that it was a duty for me to remove ; but I apprehended that the council were the proper judges of that point, not I; nor would such a declaration have carried a vote in the council, without the consent of my people too." And now the devout and honourable women, of whom there were not a few, made their appeal to Bellamy. Miss Nancy Smith wrote, June 2, " I mourn under the stroke, and pray that God may not send leanness into your soul. I think you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord. I love you, and shall ever pray that you may be a great blessing to the church of Christ ; but I fear for you, that like Jonah you have disobeyed the word of the Lord. As for myself, (I would speak it to the praise of sovereign and glorious grace,) I have been supported, and, after the melan- choly tidings, enabled to rejoice in God's government; but how short-lived are my comforts ! I feel a very distressing sense of the Lord's hand : all looks like judgment. I mourn for sinners : the fields were white unto harvest, and all, alas ! is blasted, through Mr. Bellamy's reservedness. Have you not reason to fear your Master will resent it, and make you and your people a rod to each other? I know it's hard for your people ; but let them consider how glo- 644 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. rious it would be, by resigning their minister, to have tbis Sodom become a Zion. Oh that duty to God might constrain them to offer up their beloved Isaac ! "Your labours have not been in vain among us: there appears a general seriousness among the people. I hear many have set up family -worship, and some are under concern about their souls." Mrs. Ann Mercier, " being unwell in body, distressed in mind, and troubled on every side," wrote the next day, "Oh that God in the midst of judgment would remember mercy and incline the hearts of your people to make our case their own, and so to send you to us ! and oh that in mercy he may send one to them to feed them with the bread of life ! Seeing the call is so loud for your coming here, and that we cannot unite on any other, let me entreat you to consider our deplorable condition, and to represent it to your people, and beg them to let you come." Mrs. Elizabeth Breeze, the granddaughter of Anderson, wrote also, but her letter has not been found. The Scots were not behindhand at this juncture in pleading, "still firmly trusting that God would send him to New York:" they feared that "the ten families" had an undue weight on his judgment. Obadiah Wells presented another view : — that some of the people of Bethlem saw that their minister was no longer at home with them ; that they plainly perceived his heart was in New York ; that they feared his usefulness was at an end among them ; and that for not consenting to his removal, heavy judgments were in store for them. He therefore besought him to think with all calmness, and declare himself freely to his people, "and for this once appear boldly on the Lord's side." " Mr. William Smith is gone (June 10) to Albany, on the treaty with the Indians, and will not be home under three weeks, when our people will make another attempt after Mr. Bellamy." Mr. Samuel Lowden wrote on the 12th, because "the melan- choly state of this church is enough to make the dumb break their silence. The congregation still design to prosecute the invitation, seeing it is backed with the most solid evidence and encouragement that can be expected. They are more unanimous than ever : some deistical persons, who have been convinced by your preaching, long much for your coming. Your labours here have been crowned with success, in that several have set up and continue worship in their families ; deists brought under conviction, secure sinners awakened, and a universal concern, not only in this congregation, but in sun- dry of the Dutch, English, and French churches, who have pro- mised to come and join with us, should you come here. There's a prospect of seeing old men and tall Christians as cravers of your ministry here." THE CHURCH IN NEW YOEK. 645 Mr. Smith, " though in the midst of the most important business that ever occupied the British colonies, in which seven of them are united in the present Congress," wrote, "with great inconvenience and haste," to Mr. Graham, "to press his furtherance of the speedy removal of Mr. Bellamy. I beseech you to charge the call of Pro- vidence home upon the consciences of Mr. Bellamy and the people of Bethlem. Were I not fully satisfied of a call of God to Mr. Bellamy to remove to New York, and that his work lies there, I would not, for any consideration, write one syllable more to pro- mote his removal ; but, as it is, I cannot be silent while I see any prospect of success remaining." To Mr. Hazard, Mr. John Smith, and Mr. Jauncey, he wrote, advising them to keep the congregation in union, " and do all you can to gain the consent of Mr. Bellamy's people. I am informed by some gentlemen here that it is likely Mr. Bellamy's people may consent, and that two-thirds are gained already. I intend to use my interest in writing to Mr. Edwards." To Bellamy he wrote, " Your call to New York is very clear to me and many others, whose eyes are single, and who, without selfish attachments, make God's glory their governing end. I have seen two ministers of the Consociation, who tell me Bethlem people relent, and now think it is their duty to resign you into the hands of God and to the disposal of his providence. Another of the ministers of that Consociation supposes that you may do very much to lead them into a sense of their duty, and, if I understand him, thinks you had not done enough. I refer the case to God, and beg that Satan may not be permitted to hinder you." Mr. John Smith, Mr. Jauncey, and Mr. Hazard wrote, on the 30th, that they do not " choose to proceed to do any thing until Mr. Lawyer Smith returns. He's a gentleman we respect, and whose judgment we value. " Mr. President Burr came to town last Saturday, and preached two excellent sermons to us yesterday. He has been about among the people, and says it is his opinion that it is best, and there is no other way, but still to try and get you. Let your people demand what they think proper, [as a compensation for the settle- ment given Mr. Bellamy :] we are determined to comply with it if possible." Mr. Hazard made another visit to Bethlem. The congregation met on the second Friday in July, and declined to consent to the removal of their pastor, and Bellamy immediately communicated the result to the church of New York :— "Want of union among yourselves has embarrassed the late attempt from the very first, and been the principal cause of your disappointment. Had you been united, I believe my people would have consented. 646 THE CHURCH IN NEW TORE. " Things looked very liopeful soon after Mr. Hazard left us; but several things happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. ',' There are about half a dozen men among my people engaged to have me go, and a few more that will just barely consent ; but three-quarters declared, in their society-meeting, that they con- scientiously thought it not my duty to go. My people, 'tis pos- sible, would have consented, had they not been tampered with,, and made to think that my representation of the state of New York was not according to truth. They heard, soon after the council met, that I had been imposed on, which gave their minds a new turn : once, above half the people seemed convinced, now but one-quarter. " I being so blamed by Mr. Graham and Mr. Tennent for not declaring, and also by the people at New York, and likewise the? danger of my people's breaking to pieces if I sat still, forced mQ to call my people together when a messenger and letters came up from New York, although I knew that the application was irregu- lar. But I never proposed to my people to do any thing but to give the case a rehearing, upon a regular application, until I heard how things were going your way ; and then I put quite another. question to them, — viz. : whether they were fully convinced it waa my duty to remove from them ? which was voted in the negative ; and so my society, in a very critical moment, was saved fron^ division and confusion. " My people met yesterday, and I had a long discourse witl^ them ; and I am astonished to consider how honest, cool, candid, serious, friendly, conscientious, they appeared to be under trials so very great. 'Tis pity so kind a people should lose their minister. It touches me to the very heart; and I would now pronounce the final sentence, — that I would never accept your call were not the case so difficult. Yet, notwithstanding this is the inward tem-. per of my heart toward my people, yet, from conscience and judg- ment, I pleaded your cause with them for some hours to the best purpose, and I never saw a people behave so well in so difficult a case; like dear children hanging round a kind father, who en- deavours gently to pull their hands to him, and inwardly bleeding with love towards them all the while. They thought there was not the least reason to resign me to you, unless you would be at the whole cost of settling them another minister. By this, they say, you would give them nothing. You would only leave them as you found them, in that respect ; while they give you, out of mere com- passion to you and conscientious regard to the interest of religion, what they esteem a gift of very great worth." To Mrs. Mercier he wrote, " Others wonder at my backwardness to come to New York, and even doubt my integrity ; but you know better. You have seen the anguish of my heart, and my con- THE CHUKCH IN NEW YORK. 647 scientious desire to do the thing that is right. I never thought I was fit for New York : I never saw my way clear to remove. Indeed, rather than your distrest congregation should go to ruin, I would still be willing to run the venture, and trust myself in the hands of an all-sufficient God, who, when I am weak, can make me strong, and who can take care of me wherever I be. Oh that God would send you a man that is fit for you, and that your con- gregation might be humbled under the hand of God in this day of trial !" "^ He sent his final refusal, July 18, 1754. Upon the request of some members of the congregation, the synod, in Septem- ber, appointed Mr. Samuel Finley and John Blair to supply them the next Sabbath. " Praised* be God, who, in the midst of judgments, shows us great mercy, in sending his servants daily with a meal for us! By order of synod, Messrs. Finley and Blair came here to call a committee in the congregation, of such men as might be thought fit to act in things relating to a call and resettlement of a minister, as our elders appeared too indolent in the matter. But the congregation was opposed by some of the gentlemen with much vehemence, which much sur- prised the ministers. They abused some in the public con- gregation, and convinced the people more and more that the church's real good was little their care or concern. So you see where we are still. They talk of putting it to vote in the con- gregation for Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Blair. Mr. Finley's voice is exceeding low, though pretty much liked, and, is thought, would not suit this congregation ; but, I believe, can't obtain either. We have been refused Mr. Davies. We find those that opposed you would oppose Mr. Edwards also. The various accounts among ministers and people hindered their making any attempt for Mr. Edwards." Captain Jauncey wrote again in the fall, to open the negotia- tion anew. Bellamy replied, November 20, "I have read and considered your letter, and I heartily pity your case. 'Tis your business to unite in a man ; 'tis the presbytery's business to get him. You could not unite in Mr. B., and the presbytery could not find it in their heart to plead your case. We have heard a good character of Mr. Rodgers ; and, if he is what I have heard, I advise you, if possible, to get him : but, whether you can unite in him or not, there is no hope of removing Mr. B., as things now stand." Rodgers, however, declined the invitation by the messenger who carried it. Mrs. Breeze wrote (December 18) to Bellamy, desiring him to pay the congregation a visit. He replied, January 1, 1755, * Samuel Lowden to Bellamy, October 7, 1754. 648 THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. " Mr. Wells told me that Mr. Vanhorne said that, although I pre- tended to be so backward, yet I was trying to crowd myself in all the while. 'Well,' said I, ' I do not intend to set my foot in New York till they have a minister settled.' I heartily wish you pros- perity in your attempts to get- a faithful minister. To hear you are well settled will give me the same joy a tender parent feels on the recovery of a sick child from the sides of the grave. Once I thought God called me to put my life in my hand, and try to save you from ruin, and I acted accordingly in the integrity of my heart. But God, in his providence, has released me from the dangerous work. I do not believe it is, or ever will be, my duty to remove and settle at New York. I have never complimented with New York, in the pulpit or out of it. I do not want court- ing ; and to have a poor distressed people beg and pray, it almost breaks my heart." It was said by the Rev. Noah Benedict, at the funeral of Bel- lamy, that one hinderance to his acceptance of the call to New York was his apprehension that it would not be pleasing to some of the ministers of our church. " 'Tis true," said Bellamy to Burr, " the conduct of the presbytery, when they were at New York, had made me suspect how the case stood ; but your letter re- moved my uneasiness. And, 'tis true, their conduct at the coun- cil in New England awakened my suspicions again ; but then their telling me, in private, so solemnly, that it was my duty — urging me to declare, blaming me for not declaring — stunned them again." Yet these suspicions he vented in very strong terms at Commence- ment at New Haven, especially condemning Bostwick's behaviour in the matter. Hearing of these censures, Bostwick took means to learn Bellamy's reasons, and was thus enabled to clear himself entirely. He had said to Bellamy, over and over, that it was hia duty to go to New York ; and he had also said, after hearing the statements of those who opposed him, that his heart smote him for having made an unfair representation on the testimony of the other side. He also contradicted the report, that there were some hundreds brought under great convictions by Bellamy's labours in the city. " It has been an affair attended with the most mis- takes, jealousies, evil surmises, &c. that ever I knew in the whole course of my life. Many false reports have been spread abroad, and many corrupt passions excited on either side. I wish the great Governor of the world may overrule all for his glory." A reconciliation was eifected, and a pleasant correspondence maintained till Bostwick's decease. Dr. Trumbull says, Bellamy " was a large and well-built man, of commanding appearance, with a smooth, strong voice, that could fill the largest house without any unnatural elevation. He possessed a truly great mind, preached generally without notes, THE CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 649 had some great point of doctrine commonly to establish, and would keep close to his point until he had sufficiently illustrated it ; then, in an ingenious, close, and pungent manner, he would make the application. When he felt well, and was animated by a large audience, he would preach incomparably: though paying little attention to language, he would, from the native vigour of his soul, produce the most commanding strokes of eloquence, making his audience alive. There is nothing to be found in his writings, though sound and valuable, equal to what was to be seen and heard in his preaching. His pulpit talents exceeded all his other gifts. It is difficult for those who never heard him to form a just idea of the force and beauty of his preaching. No man was more thoroughly set for the defence of the gospel." He wrote to Hazard, January 22, 1755, " To serve your con- gregation in any thing will ever rejoice my heart, and to see you well settled would be to me like life from the dead. " Last night, just after receiving your letter informing me that you had quite given over all thoughts of me, and were turning your eyes towards Mr. McGregory, of Nutfield, and desiring my opinion, there came into my study a religious, judicious man, who has moved near an hundred miles to sit under my ministry. He is a pretty good judge for a layman, and has heard Mr. McGre- gory about fifty sermons. From him I learn that Mr. McGregory has had the smallpox, — which, to be hired, I would not have for all New York. Is of a good appearance : all religious people look upon him as a good man, and do greatly flock after him whenever he goes abroad to preach : he preaches very solemnly, — much more politely and genteelly than I do. His preaching commands as much attention as mine does. His language is not so flowery as Mr. Bostwick's, but manly, nervous, flowing, neat ; his delivery good, his voice strong ; his preaching reaches the heart, and is much better than Mr. Bostwick's. He is prudent and guarded in his preaching: preaches often on gospel subjects. He is a man of government, no trimmer, used to the wars ; very free and sociable in conversation, with words at will in the pulpit, an active man, a full friend to the late work of God in the land. " I am of opinion that he might suit your religious people and the Scotch as well as I should have done. Mr. Vanhorne and the gentlemen would like him better, although I don't think they would be quite suited. 'Tis my advice, you do unitedly make your strongest efforts to get him, being much more likely to suit than any man I know of in New England. As soon as I can, I will get Mr. Edwards's opinion, and send you. " I am as 'much a friend to your congregation as I was that dreadful Monday when your people cried about me, and broke my heart; but I am, and ought to be, governed by cool, sedate reason. 650 EGBERT HENRY. I pray you, leave off scolding at the presbytery : it does your con- gregation great damage. But what shall we do? Read the Proverbs of Solomon through, with a desire to know your duty, and you will find a hundred things pat to your case." The Rev. David McGregoire was the son of the first pastor at Londonderry, New Hampshire, and was ordained pastor of the Second Church in that town (now Derry) in 1735, and was, at this time, in his forty-fifth year. In January, by the advice of the presbytery, the congregation, in an informal manner, (for " there* was no vote, nor any thing like a regular call,") sent an invitation to him to become their minister. President Burr at- tended the meeting of Boston Presbytery, in April, at Pelham, to urge that body to consent to his translation. He returned, and brought an account of a considerable prospect of obtaining Mr. McGregoire; but "I did not observe any remarkable rejoicing among many of the people occasioned by it. They are quite still. Mr. Spencer, and Mr. William Livingston, [afterwards Governor of New Jersey,] are now gone to Boston, to have the matter finally determined. Mr. Burr expects he will accept the call before he comes to see us. I fear he knows little of our circum- stances. Did he only know this one thing, — that the people's af- fections are still attached to Mr. Bellamy beyond any man living, . — it would be very discouraging to him." The presbytery met, May 14, at Boston, and declared they had no authority to remove a minister out of their bounds. McGre- goire saw no encouragement to adventure himself among a people ■so divided among themselves, and with so many cleaving, with unabated desire, to Bellamy. EGBERT HENRY, A NATIVE of Scotland, graduated at Nassau Hall in 1751, and was soon after licensed by New York Presbytery. In May, 1752, Tehicken, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, asked leave of Abing- don Presbytery to employ him, and, in the fall, the synod, having heard from Davies the necessitous yet hopeful prospects in Vir- ginia, sent him thither. He preached for some time without being licensed by the governor, and was unmolested. Newcastle Pres- bytery ordained him before 1753, his field of labour being in what was then Lunenburg county, and where Robinson had been * Hazard to Bellamy. ROBERT HENRY. 651 greatly successful. He was installed, by Hanover Presbytery, June 4, 1755, the pastor of wbat are now Oub Creek, in Charr lotte, and Briery, in Prince Edward. After his installation, Todd* and Davies preached five days, ■with " comfortable evidences of the presence of God with us every day. Many were awakened. One was the nearest image of the trembling jailor I ever saw. Divine power was felt by many hearts who had never heard a New Light before." Davies was in Lunenburg in June, 1756, and preached eleven or twelve times in thirteen days, with encouraging appearances of success. " I think Mr. Henry's and Mr. Wright's labours continue to be blessed in those parts. At the sacrament, in that wilderness, there were two thousand hearers and two hundred communicants : a considerable number of thoughtless creatures are solicitously inquiring about religion." Davies said, in 1757, " My honest friend Mr. Henry has had remarkable success, the last winter, among the young people." Cub Creek was settled from Pennsylvania. Caldwell, who drew the attention of the synod to the new settlements in the valley in 1738, having ended his days on the Roanoke, Donegal Presbytery sent supplies to Cub Creek, on Round Oak, in 1744 ; and the synod sent Black to Buffalo, and Craig to Roanoke, in 1751. The Briery congregation grew out of the conversion of Joseph Morton and his wife. He had been noted for his skill as a land- hunter, f — in finding eligible tracts in the unsettled wilderness. The horses ran wild through the woods, " against which no feller had come up:" "horse-pens" were prepared on the creeks to cap^ ture them. A most beautiful, gentle mare, taken by Morton in a pen, was given to his wife. Little Joe Morton and his wife were eminently pious. He was the first elder, and, until they had a settled minister, more like a pastor than an elder. He convened the people on the Sabbath, read a sermon, and catechized the children. Few have left behind a sweeter savour of piety. He was never spoken of without vene- ration. His widow long survived him, — "a mother in Israel." Their children all became pious, and a large number of their grandchildren. . In May, 1755, HenryJ refreshed McAden by the relation of his success. Several were hopefully brought in, and scarce a Sabbath passed without some appearance of the power of God. Wright says, " Seventeen were awakened, in 1757, under an occasional * GiUiea. + Dr. Alexander. „ „ ,, „ ,. X MoAden'8 Journal: in Dr. Foote's Sketches of North CaroUna. 652 JOHN SMITH. lecture of Ms. He tad two hundred commuhicants, besides forty coloured members." He also gave a portion of his time, every fourth Sabbath, to Falling River. Morgan Edwards* says, " There was an ' awful delusion' on Falling Creek, in Pittsylvania, soon after the Sepa- rate Baptists came there." He removed to Steel Creek, North Carolina, in 1766, and died May 8, 1767, — a plain man,t of devoted piety. As he rode on his solitary way, he dropped the bridle, and, lifting up his heart and voice and hands in prayer, suffered the quiet, faithful beast to take his own time. Often his horse stopped at Mr. Morton's door, with his good master still engaged in worship, as if alone in the forest. Faithful in his preaching to all, his principal success was among the servants. He led them to Jesus, and they became eminent for their growth in grace and knowledge of the truth. His widow long survived him. JOHN SMITH Was born in England,! May 5, 1702. He is said to have received a degree from a university : perhaps he graduated at Yale, in 1727, though not marked in italics in the catalogue. His father, Thomas Smith, with a few others, forsook the ministry of Anderson, and, by the aid of the trustees of Yale Col- lege, obtained Jonathan Edwards, then nineteen, to preach for them. He referred with delight to his pleasant intercourse with Madam Smith and her son John. He was admitted the minister of Rye and White Plains, in West Chester county, probably May 15, 1729, being ordained by the Fairfield Association. The long tract of forty years, like the Arabian desert, is relieved by no cooling stream, no living ver- dure; — nothing but a solitary date, scattered here and there, meets the eye, as it wanders over nearly half a century of the good man's toil. He came with Edwards, in 1752, and met the Synod of New York. Soon after, he joined New York Presbytery, and became a member of Dutchess Presbytery in 1763. * MS. History of Virginia Baptists. ^ Dr. Alexander. J Bolton's West Chester County. ELEAZER WHITTLESEY, 653 Through infirmities of age and disorders of body, he asked for an assistant m August 1758. The Eev. Ichabod Lewis, twin- brother of the Rev Dr. Lewis, of Greenwich, was ordained as his colleague, pastor of White Plains and Sing Sing. Eye is not men- tioned again in the presbytery-book. Smith died, February 26, 1771,-an able and useful minister, worn out with labour. ELEAZER WHITTLESEY Was probably a native of Bethlem, Connecticut. He came to Burr, at Newark, with a letter from Bellamy, in the winter of 1741-2: — "Mr. Tennent* and I have encouraged him in his design. He is now under my care, and makes good progress in learning. I trust the Lord has work for him to do. " N.B. — He was not converted in the way that you think neces- sary, and that I have thought so, though now I am now in some doubt of it. I have met with others of God's dear people, who don't tell of such a particular submission as we have insisted on, though the substance of the thing may be found in all." He afterwards spent some time at Nottingham ; and Finley, on sending him to college in 1747, speaks of him as having made con- siderable proficiency. He graduated at Nassau Hall in 1749, and was licensed by Newcastle Presbytery soon after. Writing to Bellamy, May 8, 1750, from Mr. Finley's, he says he had been directed to ride abroad in March and April, (and supply vacancies,) and, " this week, I go to Deer Creek." He complains of being unable to study, or to made preparation for the pulpit, on account of "what you call melancholy, but what I call by another name;" and that, in conse- quence, his days passed "in painful idleness." There was so great a revival in Baltimore county, in 1746 and '47, that it seemed to Davies like the first planting of religion there. It was in what is now Harford county, and extended from Deer Creek to Slate Ridge and Chanceford. In 1751, Whittlesey was about to settle there. No notice of him appears, except where, in the records of Newcastle Presbytery, a man asked to be restored to church privileges, who had been debarred for ill-usage of the late Mr. Whittlesey. A log church was put up near Muddy Creek, in Peach Bottom * Burr to Bellamy. 654 NEHEMIAH QBEENMAN. township, in York county, soon after the " Barrens" were settled ; for much of York county, like the Valley of Virginia at the same period, was destitute of trees, though, since the savages have passed away, forests of noble growth adorn the Valley and the Barrens. The Indians* suffered fire to run through them every year, and destroyed the young saplings above the ground, but the roots con- tinued uninjured; and, when the fires were no longer permitted, these large roots sent up a strong growth of shoots, which in thirty or forty years became very fine timber. In the Log Church Whittlesey preached: there gathered the congregation of Slate Eidge : his labours extended to all the neighbouring settlements. The late Dr. Martin, of Chanceford, said that Whittlesey formed the Slate Ridge and Chanceford congregations. Finley tells Bellamy, July 3, 1752, that Whittlesey, "whom I tenderly loved for his zeal and integrity, left my house on a Thursday morning, cheerful, and in pretty good health, and preached the next Sabbath at Muddy Run, not designing to con- tinue there longer. On Monday he was taken sick with pleurisy, in a cold house, and a cold time ; continued in pain until Saturday, and then gave up the ghost. The last words he was heard to utter were, ' Lord, leave me not.' The Susquehanna River was frozen, and no messenger could come to me till all was over. He died, December 21." To Bellamy he bequeathed his watch, and re- quested Rodgers to take his horse at what price he pleased. NEHEMIAH GREENMAN Was born at Stratford, Connecticut, and was probably a de- scendant of the Rev. Adam Blackman, the first minister of the town. David Brainerd had a special friendshipf for him, and by his charitable expenses he was educated. When he undertook the Indian mission, thinking he should have no further use for the pro- perty left him by his father, he set himself to discover how he might spend it most for the glory of God. No way presented wherein he could do more good by it than by educating for the ministry a young man of good abilities and well disposed. Brain- erd met him at Southbury, December 11, 1742 : — " Conversed with a dear friend to whom I had thought of giving a liberal education, * Huston's Land Titles. f Brainerd's Life: Bellamy MSS. NEHEMIAH 6REENMAN. 655 that he might be fitted for the gospel ministry. I acquainted him with my thoughts, and left him to consider of the matter till I should see him again. Three days after, he conversed again with him ; and he appeared much inclined to devote himself to the sacred work, li (xod should succeed his attempts to qualify himself for ^'■^ iV- ^?^° commenced his studies, and was supported till the end ot his (Bramerd's) life, not, however, without much self-denial; tor among the Indians he found his mistake in supposing he would have no need of his patrimony. Brainerd had a special friendship for him, and wrote to him from Boston, when he was expecting daily and hourly to enter into the eternal world, " I have a secret thought, from some things I have observed, that God may perhaps design you for some singular ser- vice in the world. Oh, then, labour to be prepared and qualified to do much for God." He pursued his preparatory studies with Bellamy.* He graduated at Yale, in 1748, and was licensed by Suffolk Presbytery very soon after,— on the 3d of October. The first year of his ministry he spent at Moriches and Quogue, now Westhamp- ton. Being in feeble health, he left, and laboured at Fire Place. He was called, April 4, 1750, to the New Society, in South Hano- ver, New Jersey. New Brunswick Presbytery, May 22, 1751, solicited him, and Pomeroy and Rowland, of Connecticut, to come into their bounds. He was probably ordained by New York Pres- bytery while labouring at South Hanover, New Jersey. He joined Abingdon Presbytery in May, 1758, and commenced preaching at Pilesgrove, and was installed on the 5th of December. The old name was given up, and the town was called Pittsgrove, in honour of the great Earl of Chatham. Greenman suffered from delays in paying his salary, and the usual consequence followed : — an alienation of some who seemed to be pillars. In March, 1778, he fled into the wilderness to escape the indignities largely dealt to Presbyterian ministers by the Bri- tish troops. He remained with his family six months at Egg Har- bour, preaching, and almost resolved to settle there ; for his congre ■ gation ministered not at all to his necessities. On his return, they complained to the presbytery that the sacrament had not been administered since April, 1777 : he told his wrongs, and was dis- missed, April 9, 1779. He died before the next November. His sister Amy accompanied him to Pittsgrove, and married the Rev. Jonathan Dubois, pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church in Southampton, Bucks county. Her son, the Rev. Uriah Dubois, was the pastor of Doylestown and Deep Run. * Edwards to MoCulIoch, of Cambuslang, July 6, 1750. 656 JOHN BROWN. Greenman spent a part of his time at "Aloes Creek:" there -was a church at Logtown, on Lower Alloway's Creek, in 1750 ; it has been extinct for many years. He gave one-fourth of his time to Penn's Neck, (probably Qui- hawken :) it first appears in 1747, asking supplies of New Bruns- wick Presbytery, and it had for a time a pastor ; but it is now for- saken. JOHN BROWN Was born in Ireland, and graduated at Nassau Hall in 1749; was licensed by Newcastle Presbytery, and sent to the Valley of Virginia. In August, 1753, he was called* to Timber Ridge and Providence, the commissioners of the congregations being Archi- bald Alexander and Andrew Steel. He was ordained at Fagg's Manor, on Thursday, October 11, 1753. Davies preached from Acts XX. 28, "with a good deal of inaccuracy and confusion, though with some tender sense of the subject. I have hardly ever thought myself in so solemn a posture as when invoking the God of heaven, with my hand on the head of the candidate. May the Lord be his support under the burden of that office which he has assumed, I doubt not, with very honest and generous intentions !" He speaks of him, in 1754, as a youth of piety, prudence, and zeal. McAden was with him at Timber Eidge, on the first Sabbath in July, 1755, — a day of fasting on account of murders by Indians: "there was great attention and solemnity." It was under a sermon preached by Brown, from Psalm vii. 12, — "If the wicked turn not," — that the Rev. Dr. McWhorter, in early youth, was impressed and led to the Saviour. 1 — ' — — ' — - — ^^— ^-^— ~~— ~.^^^^^^^^^._^____^^^^^^___^^^.^^^^^^^^^^^^____^_«. * The call is preserved, with its long list of signers, and is worthy of preserva- tion: — "We being, for these many years past, in very destitute circumstances for want of the ordinances of the gospel statedly among us, many of us under distress- ing spiritual languishments, and multitudes perishing in our sins for want of the bread of life broken among us ; our Sabbaths wasted in melancholy silence at home, or sadly broken and profaned by the more thoughtless among us ; our hearts and hands discouraged, and our spirits broken, with our mournful condition and repeated disappointments of relief in this particular. In these afBicting circum- stances, which human language cannot paint, we have had the happiness, by the good providence of God, of enjoying a share of your labours to our abundant satis- faction ; and, being universally well satisfied with your ministerial abilities in gene- ral, and the peculiar agreeableness of your qualifications to us in particular, as a gospel minister, we entreat you to have compassion on us, and accept this our call and invitation to the pastoral care of our immortal souls." ELIPHALET BALL. 657 ' Brown married the daughter of Jolin Preston, a native of Ire- land who settled at Tinkling Spring, Virginia, and became the ancestor of a long, honourable line of Prestons, Browns, Brecken- ridges, McDowells, and Marshalls. • ^7Jn^Ttr t^^^^'-e of Timber Ridge* in 1776, and removed, '^./^f7' *P ?„^J'^^<=^y- He died in 1803, aged seventy-five: his wife died in 1802, aged seventy-three. His eldest daughter mar- ried the Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, of Tennessee. His eldest son, John, was three times elected a member of the United States benate, from Kentucky ; he married the only sister of the Rev Dr. John M. Mason, and died in 1837, aged eighty. His third son James, was the first Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a member of the United States Senate for many years from Louisiana, and, for six years, minister to the Court of France. His fourth son, Samuel, was an eminent physician and a Professor in the Transylvania Medical School. ELIPHALET BALL Graduated at Yale in 1748. On the resignation of Sackett, in 1753, Bedford had leave of Suffolk Presbytery to go to the Congregational Associations for a candidate: at a pro re nata meeting, December 11, 1753, they presented Ball as their choice. Por an exegesis, they gave him "An Christus pro omnibus mor- tuus sit?" They met at Bedford, December 31, and the next day examined him, and heard him preach from Romans iii. 28. When Sackett came, they resumed the examination for his sake. On the 2d of January, 1754, Mr. Silliman prayed, Joseph Parke preached from 1 Timothy iv. 6, Prime presided, Sackett gave the right hand, and Dagget exhorted the people. In May, 1757, they met a week earlier than usual, because of complaints made against him, and adjourned to meet at Bedford- on-the-Main. He was charged with using his neighbours' fowls which frequented his barn ; with imprudent levity and unguarded airiness of deportment ; with setting aside the elders, and managing contrary to the Presbyterian mode ; and, while professing not to act * It was called Timber Ridge, or Timber GrOTe, because it was the only wooded tract in 1737, in that district, — the Valley being overgrown by the pea-vine, the annual fires keeping down the shoots from the vigorous roots, until, on the retire- ment of the Indians, the white man saw the open country transformed into a forest. —Dr. Foote. 42 658 HUGH KNOX. on the strict plan, requiring a full profession of godliness in all •R-ho presented children for baptism. The presbytery judged that ie was not blameworthy, as was alleged, and gave him some cau- tions with respect to his natural turn and the formula suitable for baptism. Thus, for a time, were allayed "the jars and matters of uneasiness." He was joined by the synod, in 1763, to the newly-formed Pres- bytery of Dutchess county. He had, for several years, no small diiEculty with his session : two elders were dismissed from their office by him and the other elders ; and the presbytery admitted their right, in common with every other body in church or state, to purge itself. Mr. John Lawrence appealed to the synod from Bome other decision of presbytery; and, having declared all the grievances he had to allege against his pastor, it was decided that they were too trivial, even if true, to warrant any judicial censure, and could in no way justify any in forsaking Ball's public minis- trations. He was dismissed, December 21, 1768, and when his successor resigned, in 1772, he resumed the charge, and remained till 1784. Having spent four years at Amity, in Woodbridge, Con- necticut, he removed, with a part of the Bedford congregation, in 1788, to Saratoga county. The settlement was named Ball Town, but has long since become widely known as Ballston. He died in 1797. HUGH KNOX Came from Ireland in 1751, and the Synod of Philadelphia, hearing that he and Mr. John Alison were desirous of being taken on trials, directed them to meet Newcastle Presbytery at Elk River. Probably they did so ; for Alison was soon licensed, and was exten- sively employed as a missionary in the Southern provinces. Knox gave up all thought of the ministry, and led a life of worldly gayety, teaching for a support. He was recommended, by Dr. Francis Alison, to Rodgers, of St. George's, and was em- ployed as a teacher near Middletown, Delaware. He attended the jForest Church on Sabbath mornings, and kept his tavern-compa- nions in a roar, of an evening, by imitations of Rodgers, — imitations so complete that Mr. David Witherspoon, the keeper of the house, and an elder in the Old-Side Church of Drawyers, imagined that it must be Mr. Rodgers himself, until he entered the room. Soon after, he shook off these follies, and entered Nassau Hall : at the commencement he requested Mr. Rodgers, who with great surprise HUGH KNOX. 659 saw him there, to forgive him, and not publish his delinquencies, lor his mimicry had been the means of his conversion He graduated in 1754, and probably studied divinity with Burr, The Reformed Dutch Church in the island of Saba requested JNewD^ork Presbytery to send them a minister. They proceeded to ordain Knox, m 1755, and were so much pleased with his trial sermon, on the "Dignity and Importance of the Gospel Ministry," that they unanimously requested its publication.* He had, on receiving from the Eev. Jacob Green, of Hanover, INew Jersey, a copy of his sermon on the sinner's faultiness and inability, corresponded with him freely on his peculiar opinions on those points. In 1769, he published "A Letter to Mr. Green,"t expressing his high regard for him, and for the candour and charity he displayed towards him. The Rev. Dr. Green, in an article on the New Haven speculations concerning God's inability to constitute a world of free agents, in which sin should not enter, states that a similar theory had been advanced by Mr. Knox, in this pamphlet. We are indebted to the zeal of Bishop Hobart for rescuing Knox's pamphlet from oblivion, by embalming it in the Churchman's Magazine for 1808 and '09. It serves to show the wretched sophistry of Hobart; for he has appended to it a note in which he praises the ninth article of "our ohm-ch" for saying that "it (original sin) deserveth God's wrath and damnation," and for implying that the persons in whom origi- nal sin is do not deserve it: a distinction not unlike that of the baron bishop, who fought as a baron only, and gave some anxiety thereby to his friends, who feared that the devil, in clutching the baron, might not be able to carry him off without bearing the bishop along. Knox appears in this letter as a man of acute mind, clear and vigorous in thought and expression, candid, and open to convic- tion. Green had probably known the difficulties that he felt on some parts of the Hopkinsian scheme ; and on the publication, in 1767, of his sermon from Romans ix. 19, on the sinner's faultiness and spiritual inability, he wrote to Knox, sending him a copy. This occasioned Knox's pamphlet. He thanks him for his sermon and his very kind letter, and then says, " I entirely approve of, and cordially adhere to, that scheme of religion which tends to exalt God and humble the creature. I think God can never be exalted high enough in the thoughts of the creature, nor the sinful crea- ture sunk low enough in his own thoughts. Could I imagine that there was one article in my creed which favoured the opposite false abominable doctrine, I would tear it off with indignation, and tear * Massachusetts Historical Society's Library. t New York Society's Library. 660 HUGH KNOX. away that part of my teart which had harboured It." He then adds, that "absolute, unconditional reprobation" seems abhorrent to every just view of God, and assumes that it was held by Green, whereas no man was further than he from supposing that reproba- tion follows any one, but as the just punishment of his sin, and is not always conditional on the blameworthiness of the sinner. Knox was staggered, and very reasonably too, by such expres- sions as these: — "God has willed, ordered, and in his way caused, the quantum of sin in the world ; and this, too, as a necessary and glorious display of his holiness." "If God had ordered less sin in the world, it would have proved him to be not a good and holy, but an envious, being." He supposed that, "of all possible plans of a world, God adopted the one which was best on the whole." He hesi- tated at supposing that God might have made a world of free agents without the possibility of their falling into sin. He conceived that God could not, in consistency with his perfections and the free agency of the creature, make a system of free accountable crea- tures without the possibility of sin's entering into the system. He made a distinction between Adam's liberty in a state of innocence, and that of sinners under a dispensation of preventing restraining grace. His repugnance was strong to the Hopkinsian notion of benevo- lence, and of the necessity of sin to the highest display of God's glory, and to President Edwards's doctrine of the necessary con- nection between moral effects and their causes, or the motives which produce them. "Make it," says he, "appear clear on your principles [those of Edwards and Hopkins] that God is exculpated from the charge of having any causality in producing sin, and I am satisfied. Consider me in the humble capacity of a learner. I have such a firm persuasion of your piety, and such a respect for your judgment and candour, as will keep me from uncharitableness in thought or language towards you. There breathes such a spirit of kindness and goodness through all your letters as secures both my affection and my gratitude. " The distinction between natural and moral inability, I have ever thought an important and useful one, when well stated and explained. My worthy and excellent friend. President Burr, was the first who ever gave me an idea of this distinction. He did it in three sermons, preached from Joshua xxiv. 19: — 'Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God.' He acknowledged they were the substance of Edwards's book relative to that subject, and expressed a pretty strong desire of having them printed, as some of the most useful and important he had ever preached. I would define moral inability thus : — A natural and contracted disinclina- tion or aversion to the exercises of piety and moral virtue, which becomes faulty and criminal by our resisting the motives which HUGH KNOX. QQl would have overcome it ; and neglecting, by prayer and other duties, to apply to God, through the Eedeemer,for those influencea ot the Holy Spirit, by which it would have been wholly subdued, and our volitions and actions engaged on the side of piety and moral rectitude. •' "The system of the ancient Calvinists is well jointed, and hangs together; but Calvinism, as held by President Edwards's admirers, seems to me as different from it as Arminianism,— a middle thing patched up out of both,— and ought to be called 'Edwardism.' " "I greatly question," he says, "what you say on p. 19:— 'They have all the powers that can be conceived in the nature of things for a smner to have; for they have light in the understanding; they see the reasonableness and fitness of things, and the obliga- tions they are under.' I always thought the understandin<^ was sadly darkened and blinded by the fall ; that the natural man could not know nor discern the things of God, and that it required the power of renewing grace to cure this faculty of its blindness; but I find that Mr. Hopkins and you make out this faculty pretty sound and vigorous, as though it had suffered little, if any thing, by the original apostasy." These extracts speak favourably of the spirit of the man, and show that he was a strenuous opponent of Hopkinsianism. Unfor- tunately, he resorted to a bad hypothesis in order to get rid of one not so bad, anticipating therein the New Haven divinity, and fol- lowing, if we" may believe the Edinburgh Review, in the steps of Bishop Butler, Dr. Balguy, and Archdeacon Paley. What effect the pamphlet produced, who answered it, and whe- ^ ther the New York Presbytery took notice of it, are among the things unknown. Yale College gave him the degree of A.M. in 1768, and the University of Glasgow made him a Doctor in Divinity. In 1772, his church was destroyed by a hurricane ; and, at the request of New York Presbytery, the synod, in 1773, appropriated fifty pounds out of the collections for pious uses, to aid him in re- building. The presbytery corresponded with him yearly, through Dr. Rodgers, and expressed their regret on hearing, after the Revo- lution, of the declining condition of his flock. They asked him if there was not some way in which they could aid him. In the records of Norwalk, Connecticut, is entered the baptism of his son Hugh, in 1781, who graduated at Yale in 1800. He spent the closing years of his life in St. Croix, and died there in October, 1790. The celebrated Alexander Hamilton,* in early boyhood, was placed under the instruction of Dr. Knox, who, delighted with the * Life of Hamilton. 662 HENRY MARTIN — JOHN HOGE. unfolding of his mind, took a deep interest in his welfare ; and Knox's fervent piety gave a strong religious bias to Hamilton's feelings. Knox espoused the American cause warmly, and main- tained a pleasant and familiar correspondence with his pupil. He published two volumes of sermons on interesting subjects at Glasgow, in 1772. A copy is in the library of Nassau Hall. HENRY MAETIN Graduated at Nassau Hall in 1751, and was licensed by New York Presbytery. Hopewell and Maidenhead asked for him, in May, 1752. He was accused of having behaved ill, in preaching as a candidate at Tehicken, and refusing to settle, as they thought he had encouraged them to expect ; but New Brunswick Presby- tery examined the matter and justified him. He was called to Newtown and Salisbury, in Bucks county, in May, 1753, and was ordained and installed by Abingdon Presbytery, April 9, 1754. He died before May, 1764. JOHN HOGE, A SON of William Hoge*, " an exile, for Christ's sake," from Scotland, in the days of the persecution. After some time spent in Amboy, he removed to Delaware, and from thence to the Swa- tara, in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. He was among the first settlers on Cedar Creek, in Opeckon, Virginia. Samuel Gelston went there, as the first missionary of our church, in the fall of 1735. " Pekin wrote for him" to Donegal Presbytery in the next May, and he was sent. Anderson visited the place in 1737. Craig and Thomson were there in 1739, — " both parts of Opeckon" having written for Thomson. In April, 1740, Cavin was at Bullskin and Opeckon : Lyon and Anderson went thither. Year after year came its supplications. It also asked for Lyon in 1740, and for Hyndman in 1742. With the * MS. Life of Dr. Moses Hoge : by Rev. J. B. Hoge. JOHN HOGB. 663 loss of Donegal Records, after 1750, disappears the last faint trace of the visits of the Old-Side ministers to Frederick county. Lying on the road by which the Valley of Virginia was entered, Opeckon had the benefit of the New-Side ministers, as they went down to the numerous vacancies. Robinson preached there, and so probably did John Blair and Roan, Gilbert Tennent and Fin- ley, William Tennent and Samuel Blair. A supplication for sup- plies, and in particular for the opportunity of a probationer from Cedar Creek and Opeckon, was brought to the Synod of New York in May, 1748, after Dean and Byram had preached there with success. In 1748,* John Hoge graduated at Nassau Hall, but was dis- couraged, by the -New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle, from enter- ing on trials, lest his genius should not be fit for the ministry. Persevering in his purpose, he gave the presbytery more satis- faction in his trials than was expected, and he was licensed, Octo- ber 10, 1753. He was ordained in 1755, and settled at Cedar Greek. His father gave the ground on which Opeckon Meeting- house stands. His brother James was one of his elders, but withdrew, and united with an Associate congregation in Pennsyl- vania. James Hoge thought, in the solemn exercises of his early life, " I would be willing to travelf round the world, if I could be sure to meet with Christ, and get him to take me in his arms, and tfiU me that he loved me, and would save me." On the union, Hoge was annexed to Donegal Presbytery. In 1760, he had charge of Tuscarora, Opeckon, and Back Creek. He rarely attended ecclesiastical meetings. In April, 1762, he ' lamented the sad deficiency of his people. Cedar Creek and Opeckon promised forty-five pounds a year, and the arrears amounted to twenty-five pounds. He resigned, and removed into Pennsylvania, and was one of the first members of Huntingdon Presbytery, being without charge. * Davies's Diary. f " Travel" being used in the North of Ireland as synonymous with going on foot. 664 NATHANABL WHITAKBR. NATHANAEL WHITAKER Was born* on Long Island, February 22, 1722, and graduated at Nassau Hall in 1752. He was ordained, and settled in the bounds of New York Presbytery, in 1752. In 1759, he was called to Chelsea,t near Norwich, Connecticut. It was conditional : — " provided he be first liberated from his charge in the Jerseys." This church was Presbyterian in its organization, and was in its infancy, having six communicants, and no house of worship. The installation took place in the open air, February 25, 1761: the sermon, by the Rev. Benjamin Lord, of Norwich, was printed, with those parts which, out of mercy to the shivering people, had been omitted in the delivery. Whitaker had fine talents, and was very prepossessing. He engaged in traffic, and " pierced himself through with many sor- rows." His people accused him of being greedy of gain and neg- lectful of their interests : he charged them with violent and un- christian conduct. The meeting-house was completed in 1766. The Connecticut Board of Correspondents for Evangelizing the Indians selected him to go to Great Britain with the Rev. Samson Occum, of the Mohegan tribe, to solicit funds for a mission school. Philip sup- poses the project to have been set on foot by Whitefield. He had frequently, in previous years, urged that Occum might be sent over. Lady Huntingdon| warmly advocated the cause ; Romaine, and Venn, and Powley, (son-in-law of Mrs. Unwin,) exerted them- selves at Leeds, Huddersfield, and Halifax. A considerable sum was collected at Newcastle, where, at Whitaker's particular desire, John Wesley preached. They returned after eighteen months' absence, having had great success, and prepared the way for founding Dartmouth Col- lege. The University of St. Andrew's conferred on Whitaker, in 1767, the degree of D.D. While in England, he published several sermons on "Recon- ciliation to God," in which he endeavours to prove, — That the renewed soul is reconciled to God's original essential properties and character as absolute Lord and Governor of all ; that the ground of reconciliation is the sacrifice of Christ, and the * Rev. Joseph B. Felt's History of Salem. ■j- Calkins's History of Norwich. j Life and Times of Lady Huntingdon. NATHANABL WHITAKBK. 665 means of it ; the knowledge of Christ crucified, and the power of the Holy Spirit. That the sinner is, by regeneration, imbued with a new temper and a taste and relish for divine things. That Christ's work has not rendered God in himself any more lovely to the unrenewed heart ; and, That the sinner is not renewed by "objective light." The difficulties with his people blazed afresh on his return, and he accepted a call to the Second Church in Salem, Massachusetts, May 9, 1769. He had written to them a month before, insisting on the adoption of the Presbyterian system. He declared that he never was so perfectly sick of the Congregational method, and demanded that he should have a full negative on the proceedings of the church, and that no church act should be valid without him. This strange demand was accounted a part of the Presby- terian system by the New England divines; and Jonathan Ed- wards tells us that the church of Northampton conceded to hia grandfather, the venerable Stoddard, in accordance with his Pres- byterian principles, " a negative on all their proceedings, and never, so far as I heard, disputed it." He was installed, July 28, 1T69. But Salem, though by interpretation signifying "peace," has been the scene of much theological warfare. In 1773, the people declared that they had not acquiesced in Whitaker's proposals. He, with fourteen friends, withdrew, and formed a Presbyterian congregation, and united with Boston Presbytery, November 27, 1773. The presbytery dismissed, without censure, those who with- drew from him, and, a council being called, declared these persons to be the Third Church. His friends erected a house of worship, and the property was conveyed to him, as founder and sole pro- prietor, for the use of the congregation only so long as it con- tinued orthodox in faith. It was burned, October 6, 1774; and, in the spring. Dr. Whitaker, and his elder, Mr. Nathaniel Silsbee, met with the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, as corre- spondents, to ask aid to rebuild. The synod commended them to the charity of all. They completed their new church in February, 1776. Whitaker, on the breaking out of the war, espoused warmly the cause of independence. He engaged in the manufacture of salt- petre, and five hundred pounds were subscribed to enable him to erect " works at the head of the turnpike." The town gave him leave. May 13, 1776, to sink cisterns to procure nitre. In a few weeks he furnished the authorities with ninety-two pounds, and soon after with two hundred and eighty-two pounds. On the oc- casion of the Boston massacre, in 1771, he printed a sermon on "The Fatal Tragedy in King Street;" and, on the proclamation of 666 NATHANAEL WHITAKER. independence, another, entitled "An Antidote to Toryism." A{ the termination of the struggle, he reprinted the latter, with another, — " On the Reward of Toryism." The Synod of New England was formed, May 31, 1775, by forming the three Presbyteries of Londonderry, Salem, and Palmer. It met only once or twice ; and, in 1782, only the Pres- bytery of Salem remained, with barely a quorum. Whitaker was again in trouble. The church resolved to adopt the Congrega- tional form, November 28, 1783, and called a council, which dis- missed him, February 10, 1784. He was shut out of the churchy March 25. Salem Presbytery justified him, and the Rev. Mr. Cleveland, of Chebacco, defended the people and the council. He published a history of the case, and then a confutation of the pamphlets on the other side. He removed to Maine, and, after vainly attempting to establish a presbytery, he went to Virginia, and died, January 21, 1795, in poverty, at Woodbridge, near Hampton, at the age of sixty- three. His son Jonathan graduated at Harvard, in 1797, and became a Congregational minister with Unitarian sentiments. The Rev. William Hart, of Saybrook, who was declared by Davenport to be unconverted, attacked the sermons on "Recon- ciliation" on their appearance in this country. He held them up as new, objectionable, and of the invention of Samuel Hopkins. Whitaker replied, in 1770, and retorts on Hart that he held, that, as all men have a conscience, they have a taste for and an admiration of holiness : asserting, on the contrary, that there is a natural enmity of the heart to God, — " an inward, partial, in- terested aifection, contrary to the inward sense of righteousness." Hart, also, attacked Hopkins, and occasioned the publication of his treatise on holiness. He had represented Whitaker as teach- ing that man is turned devil. Hopkins replied,* that, before Hart let Whitaker go, he blackened him, and made him look like a devil. There was another Nathanael Whitaker, who was a native of Medford, Massachusetts, and studied at Harvard. In June, 1742, it is mentioned, in the public prints, that he had sailed from Boston, to enter " into orders." He was settled in Maryland ; and Archbishop Seckerf was informed, in 1759, on unquestionable authority, that he was one of the worst of men. * Essay on Holiness. | Kev. Dr. Samuel Johnson : Albany Documents. BENJAMIN HAIT — BENJAMIN TALLMADGE. 667 BENJAMIN HAIT Was probably a native of Norwalk, Connecticut. He graduated at Nassau Hall in 1754. While a student, be went, in company with Davies, from Newark to New York. "A promising young man," be observes. "I bad an agreeable conversation with bim on original sin, and tbe influence of tbe flesb upon tbe spirit to incline it to sin." He was taken on trials by New Brunswick Presbytery, as soon as he received bis diploma, September 27, 1754, and was licensed, October 25, and sent to supply the Forks of Delaware. On the records of Forks bis name is spelled Hoit, as it was uniformly pronounced. In tbe next May, Amwell and the Forks asked for him, and be was called to Fagg's Manor. Amwell presented a call, November 11, 1755, which he accepted, and was ordained, December 4, 1755. He continued there till May, 1765 ; and, being dismissed, be was called, in November, to Wall- kill. He settled at Connecticut Farms, and died there, June 27, 1779. Mr. Halt's son was a merchant in Schenectady, and married a daughter of tbe younger President Edwards. BENJAMIN TALLMADGE Was born at New Haven, Connecticut, January 1, 1725, and graduated at Yale in 1747. On tbe death of Youngs, he was sent for, in May, 1752, by the people of Brookhaven. He was or- dained at large by Suffolk Presbytery, October 23, 1754. Park prayed ; Buell preached, from Isa. liii. 1 ; Prime presided, and set forth the nature of Presbyterian ordination; Dagget gave the right hand of fellowship, Brown exhorted the people, and Thomas Paine closed with prayer. Tbe church in Brookhaven bad not escaped rending, and was in a deplorable, languishing condition; so he was not installed. A " Separate" meeting-house was put up, two miles beyond Se- tauket. John Churchman, in the exercise of the ministry among Friends, travelled on Long Island, in 1769, and, applying for the use of Tallmadge's church, was refused. He went to " the Sepa- rates," supposing that, "having come out from us, they had laid aside bigotry; but, on making known his object, they refused bim 668 ABNER REEVE. promptly, — as promptly as any Friend's meeting-house would have been refused to a Separate or a Presbyterian." Tallmadge married the daughter of the Rev. John Smith, of Bye. His son. Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, of Connecticut, was a distinguished officer of the Revolution. He was a highly-honoured minister. He died, February 5, 1786. ABNER REEVE, Born in Southold, in 1710, and graduated at Yale in 1731. Licensed in 1735, he preached at Smithtown ten or twelve years, but was laid aside for intemperance. After Mr. Throop was set- tled at Southold, Reeve* was led, by his faithful care and minis- tration, to repentance, and was admitted to resume his license by Suffolk Presbytery, they being satisfied there was a saving change in him. Moriches and Ketchabonock obtained his services, and he was ordained and installed, November 6, 1765, in the Western Meeting-house. Brown prayed ; Throop, by the request of Reeve, preached, from 1 Cor. ix. 27 ; Prime presided. Park made the or- daining prayer, Tallmadge gave the right hand of fellowship, Buell exhorted the people, and Dagget closed with prayer. Being dismissed, in 1763, he settled at Blooming Grove, New York, soon after. Adopting the Independent scheme, he with- drew from New York Presbytery in 1770, and was the minister at Burlington, Vermont, till his death, in 1795. His son Tapping graduated at Nassau Hall, in 17 — , and was the tutor from to . He married the only daughter of President Burr. He resided at Litchfield ; was eminent as a lawyer, a judge, and a Christian. His law-school was in great repute. * MS. Records of Suffolk Presbytery. MOSES TUTTLE — JOHN HARRIS. 669 MOSES TUTTLE The son of John Tuttle,* of New Haven, was born in that town, June 25, 1715, and is said to have foUowedf the sea before graduating at Yale in 1745. In 1747, he was ordained the first minister in Granville, Massachusetts, and was dismissed in 1763. "He was," says Dr. Cooley, of Granville, "an orthodox and faithful minister : his short ministry here was blessed with pros- perity and peace." In 1756, he was a member of the New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle, and was then employed in Kent county, Delaware. On the union, he was joined to Lewes Presbytery. In November, 1763, the Corporation for the Relief of Poor and Distressed Ministers paid him twenty-five pounds, he being in ex- treme poverty, and intending to return to the place whence he was driven in the late war. Soon after — in 1764 — he belonged to New York Presbytery, and withdrew in 1769. The cause which im- pelled him, Mr. Reeve, of Blooming Grove, and Mr. Dorbe, of Parsippany, to this step, about the same time, is unknown. He died at Southold, Long Island, it is said, in April, 1771. He was a brother-in-law of Jonathan Edwards, having married, in 1746, his sister Martha, daughter of the Rev. Timothy Edwards, of Windsor. Dr. Cooley says, " The good man, after his dismission from Granville, preached in various places, and died in peace, in a good old age." His daughter Esther, widow of Mr. Amos Cady, of Vernon, Connecticut, was living there in October, 1851, at the age of ninety-five, in the possession of her memory and other faculties. JOHN HAERIS Graduated at Nassau Hall in 1753, and, soon after, October 12, was examined by the New-Side Presbytery of Newcastle, with a view to his being taken on trials. Davies speaks of him as a promising candidate. He acquitted himself to universal satis- faction. It would seem that he had resided in Virginia; for * Communicated by N. Goodwin, Esq., Hartford. t Having signed the letter to the archbishop, he receives a notice from the Covenanting Presbyterian, in his letter to the " Cursing Prophet." 670 WILLIAM KAMSET. Finley,* -writing to Bellamy to " second the present application to Mr. Edwards," says, (August 1, 1751,) "Our presbytery was providentially sitting -when Mr. Harris came along from Virginia ; and we sent a letter to Mr. Edwards, to signify our hearty con- currence with our brethren in Virginia, in their address to him," to settle in the Old Dominion. He was the bearer of the pro- posals to Edwards. In 1756, he was ordained pastor of Indian River, near Lewes, Delaware, and resigned in 1769. In the spring of that year, he was sent, by the synod, to Virginia, North Carolina, and " those parts of South Carolina that are under our care." In 1771, the synod ordered him to supply at Hitchcock's and Cartridge Creek, in Anson county. North Carolina, for three months. He joined Orange Presbytery in 1774, and was set oif, with five others, in 1784, to form South Carolina Presbytery. WILLIAM RAMSEY, The sonf of James Ramsey, a pious man, from Ireland, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His youngest brother, David, born in 1749, was a physician in Charleston, and distin- guished as an author as well as for his worth. William Ramsey graduated at Nassau Hall in 1754, and, while preparing for the ministry, was selected as a suitable person to unite the divided con- gregation of Fairfield, in Cohanzy, left vacant by the death of Elmer. Dr. AlisonJ furnished their messenger, Mr. Ogden, with a letter to President Stiles, to assist them in seeking a candidate, both parties being anxious to come harmoniously together. Ramsey went to Connecticut, and was licensed by the Association of the eastern district of Fairfield county, in order that he might appear before the people free from all that could alienate any from him. He was received by Abingdon Presbytery, May 11, 1756, and was ordained and installed at Fairfield, December 1, 1756. He died November 5, 1771, aged thirty-nine, greatly lamented. His brother-in-law, Dr. Jonathan Elmer, pronounced a glowing eulogy on his piety, talents, and excellence. It was printed. § He lies buried in "the old New Englandtown" graveyard, || with this inscription: — "Beneath this stone lie interred the remains of * Bellamy papers. f Memoir of Dr. David Ramsey. J Stiles MSS. ? New York Historical Society's Library. II Communicated by Dr. John Barron Porter, of Bridgeton, New Jersey. HUGH McADEN. Q11 ot the Piesbyterian Church in this place, whose superior genius and native eloquence shone so conspicuously in the pulpit as to command the attention and gain the esteem of all his hearers. In erery situation of life he discharged his duty faithfully. He lived greatly respected, and died universally lamented." He married Miss Sarah Sealy, of Cohanzy. HUGH McADEN 19-11^^ T°^°* ^^ Pennsylvania, and graduated at Nassau Hall in 1753. Licensed m 1755, by Newcastle Presbytery, he was sent at once on a mission to the South. Leaving Kirkpatricks, in Not- togham, .June 3, he passed to Conecocheague, and, crossing the Potomac, travelled along the Valley of Virginia. It was a season of great distress : the dreadful tokens of long-prevailing drought met his eye every day ; the uneasiness occasioned by the war was changed to terror by the news of Braddock's defeat, and he met tiie people flying from Virginia, for security, into North Carolina. He visited the new settlers in South Carolina, on Broad River, Tyger River, Waxhaw, and Catawba; and, returning, was invited to divide his time between Cathy's Creek (Thyatira) and Rocky River, North Carolina ; but the state of the people, not united among themselves, led him to decline. After preaching among the Scotch Highlanders, he passed three Sabbaths at the Welsh Tract, and was called by the people there, and at Goshen. He was or- dained, by Newcastle Presbytery, in 1757, and probably returned at once to the South. In May, 1759, he was dismissed to accept the calls, which had then been in his hands some years. Goshen being the Grove congregation in Duplin county, and the Welsh Tract being on Cape Fear River, in Hanover county, he joined Hanover Presbytery, July 18, 1759, and in March, 1768, he was settled at Hico, Dan River, and County Line. Subsequently he served the congregations of Grier's, Red House, and Pittsylvania. In 1770, with six other ministers, he was set off to form Orange Presbytery. He died January 20, 1781, two days after the British army passed by. Systematic in study, in visiting, in examining, he faithfully fulfilled his ministry, and left behind an honourable memory. * Dr. Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, in which is printed his journal of hia first missionary tour. 672 GEORGE DTJFFIELD. GEOEGE DUFFIELD Was born in Pennsylvania, in October, 1732, and graduated at Nassau Hall at the age of twenty, and was a tutor there from 1754 to 1756. He was ordained by the New-Side Presbytery of New- castle, in March, 1756, and was directed by the synod, in the next September, to the several vacancies to the southward. In the spring of 1757, there was a revival of religion at Fagg's Manor, under Mr. Duffield. He was soon after sent by the synod to Hano- ver, in Virginia ; and he accepted a call to Carlisle and Big Spring early in 1759; reluctantly, and with uneasiness, he joined Donegal Presbytery. He was installed the third Wednesday of September. In April, 1763, he was called to the Second Church, Philadelphia; but Gilbert Tennent, with the trustees, opposed the call being, handed to him : the presbytery transmitted it to Donegal Presby- tery, and they decided not to present it to him, without even con- sulting his congregations. An appeal being taken by the Second Church, the synod ordered a rehearing, because the presbytery had acted without suiEcient light. The matter was dropped, but was again renewed in January, 1768, a joint call being made for him and Strain, of Slate Ridge. This also the presbytery declined to give him. In 1765, he was sent to Carolina. He gave up Big Spring, and was installed, November 14, 1769, at Monaghan, to give it one-third of his time. Roan presided, and Cooper, of Middle Spring, preached. The First Church in Phila- delphia,* having taken up land on Society Hill, proposed to the Second Congregation to join with them in erecting a house of ■worship : they declined. The First Church proceeded to build, and obtained a charter of incorporation for the united committees of the First and Third Churches. The Pine Street Church presented a call to Patrick Alison : he accepted it, but in a short time re- turned it. Samuel Eakin, a licentiate of Lewes Presbytery, was settled, in opposition to the wishes of Dr. Ewing: on his removal, Duffield was called; in 1771, the session objecting, the Second Philadelphia Presbytery declined to consent to its being prose- cuted. The synod gave them leave by a large majority, but the presbytery refused to receive Duffield as a member. The synod, in 1773, judged that he had good cause of complaint, and declared him to be the minister of the Third Congregation, and ordered that he be put upon the list of the aforesaid presbytery. At the re- quest of the people, they were set off to the First Philadelphia * MSS. of Samuel Hazard, Esq. ABRAHAM KBTTLETAS. g73 Presbytery, and the elders were authorized to resign if they could not concur m the settlement of the minister according to the Jsh ot the congregation. ° He was a *zealous patriot, "an early, decided, and uniform S v'' Tv''^-. ^^ '^'^^ ^^''^' ^™« remarkably an? mated m his public addresses, and very popular; his manner was alwayswarm and forcible; his talent of touching the conscience and seizing the heart was peculiar. Abundant in labours, pecu- liarly qualified for plantmg churches, zeal to do good exposed him to the disease which called him away. He died February 2, 1790. His first wife was a daughter of bamuel Blau-; the second, of Colonel John Armstrong ABRAHAM KETTLETASf Was born in the city of New York, December 26, 1732, and graduated at Yale in 1752. He was early impressed with a sense of religion. He was probably licensed by New York Presbytery and was installed at Elizabethtown, September 14, 1757. His stay was short, having left before September 29, 1760. In the next spring he appealed from the judgment of New York Presbytery, and earnestly requested the synod to endeavour to remove the diffi- culties between him and his brethren. The presbytery had borne testimony in a moderate manner against what they disapproved in a brother for whom they had a very high esteem, and did not in- tend to suspend or exclude him; and, to remove all misunderstand- ing, they condescended, at the request of the synod's committee, to receive him as though no censure had ever passed on him. The breach was not healed, and he withdrew before May, 1765. He married the daughter of the Hon. William Smith, of New York, and resided at Jamaica, having no pastoral charge. Being familiar with the three languages then spoken in the province, and an eloquent speaker, he often preached for the Dutch and French chui'ches as well as the Presbyterian. Entering warmly into the struggle for independence, his safety required him to leave Long Island, and, until the close of the war, he sojourned in New England. He was elected, in 1777, a mem- ber of the convention to form a Constitution for the State of New York, but he did not attend. He was a political writer of note. He died September 30, 1798. Several of his sermons were published. * Dr. Green, at his funeral. f Dr. Hodge spells Ms name "Kittletas." 43 674 JOHN MAKTIN — EBENEZER PRIME. JOHN MARTIN Studied with Davies, was taken on trials by Hanover Presby- tery, March 18, 1756, and was licensed August 25. He was widely employed' in supplying vacancies, and was called to Albemarle, April 27, 1757. The New England Society for Propagating the Gospel resolved to support a missionary to the Cherokee upper towns, if the Scot- tish Society would do the same. Martin was ordained, June 9, 1757, being the first minister of our church ordained in Virginia. Davies preached from 1 Timothy iii. 1. Martin engaged in the Indian mission, January 25, 1758: the prospects were at first cheering, but, the Cherokees having joined the French on the breaking out of war, the enterprise was abandoned. He settled in South Carolina, and is mentioned in 1770 as subscribing for seven sets of the two additional volumes of Davies's sermons, published in London. EBENEZER PRIME Was born* at Milford, Connecticut, July 21, 1700, and gradu-r ated at Yale in 1718. He was ordained by a council, as colleague to the Rev. Eliphalet Jones, at Huntingdon, Long Island, June 5, 1723. "A diligent student, extremely exact and systematic, he kept a register of the texts, places, and times of preaching, with- out a single omission, for more than fifty years." In the Great Awakening, his labours were much blessed; "the power of God was marvellous." Convictions of long continuance then issued in joy and peace. There was a great and general awakeningf at Huntingdon in 1748, and it was still prospering in the next year. This was immediately after the formation of Suffolk Presbytery: so wisely and so prayerfully did they seek to stay the progress of disorder, and so graciously did the Lord smile on their attempt to build up the broken churches. In the summer of 1758, he expressed to the presbytery his doubts of the Scripture warrant for licensing probationers for the ministry, it being his judgment that investiture with the office * Dr. Prime's History of Long Island. | Buell, ia Edwards's Life. EBENEZER PRIME. 675 of the gospel ministry was necessary before one could preach; "preaching being office-work, to be performed not without, but in consequence of, solemn ordination." His brethren yielded so far as to ordain in every instance where the -candidates professed that they could not in conscience receive license. Such a course con- flicting with all Presbyterian usage and with the order of the synod in 1764, he opened his views to the synod in 1771, and they, not being convinced of their soundness, could not repeal the act, yet, having full confidence that he would never consent to ordination in any case except after making the necessary trials, left him to pursue his own course. The year 1763 was a year of disquiet at Huntingdon, and, according to the ancient custom in such junctures, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not adminis- tered for twelve months. Happily, in May, 1764, "the greatest part* of the people seemed solemn and thoughtful, not a few wounded deeply, and groaning under burdens insupportable ; some under shuddering horror and fearful apprehensions of Divine wrath. God's glorious work of grace goes on here;" and, in September, he said, " God has poured out his Spirit in a surprising manner upon this people." The disquiet was owing to the desire of the people to settle a colleague, and Kirkpatrick, of Amwell, was their choice : they had leave from the presbytery to prosecute the call, October 25, 1763, but he could not be obtained. Prime refused to have a licentiate occupy the pulpit as a candidate for settlement ; and on the 4th of June, 1764, the presbytery, having heard both sides, decided that when the congregation resolved to admit a licentiate to preach to them, the pastoral relation should be, ipso facto, dissolved. Soon after, George Gilmour, a licentiate of the Eastern Association of Fairfield, who had previously preached in the Presbyterian congre- gation in Blandford, Massachusetts, was invited in an irregular manner, and greatly to the dissatisfaction of many in the town, and of the presbytery. In December, 1765, they asked leave to hear John Close, a licentiate of Dutchess Presbytery : he was soon called, but was not ordained till October 30, 1766, and his short stay was full of trouble. Many felt that the pastoral relation had been rudely rent, so that, although two hundred and thirty persons op- posed Close's removal, he resigned, and was dismissed April 4, 1773. They then called Matthias Burnet, also a licentiate ; but he declined; and, in March, 1775, they sought for Ebenezer Bradford, also not ordained; but, after much hesitation, he also refused. In the war, Huntingdon was held by the British, and much wanton and malig- nant injury was done to the dwelling, library, and other property of the aged, patriotic minister. He died in the fall of 1779. * Prime: in Buell's aocormt of the revival of 1761 676 JOHN MALTBY — HENRY PATILLO. JOHN MALTBY "Was the son* of Captain William Maltby, of New Haven. His mother was a sister of James Davenport, and a descendant of the Bev. Abraham Pierson, first minister of Newark. Being early left a widow, she married the Bev. Eleazer Wheelock, of Lebanon Crank, Connecticut, the founder of Dartmouth College. She was a woman of great worth, and died while her son was in college. He graduated at Yale in 1747, and was a tutor in Nassau Hall from 1749 to '52. Probably he studied divinity with Burr. Ap- plication being made by the people of Bermuda to Pemberton,t he applied to Bellamy and Wheelock to point out a suitable person. Maltby was ordained by New York Presbytery, in 1753 or '54, and was for a number of years the much-loved pastor of the church on that island. The Bev. Mr. Fowle gathered a flock there early in the eighteenth century, and was succeeded by Josiah Smith, subse- quently minister of Cairhoy and Charleston. Maltby was fol- lowed by Dr. James Muir, afterwards of Alexandria, Virginia; after whom they had Enoch Mattson. In 1770, Maltby was dis- missed to South Carolina Presbytery, and is said to have laboured in Charleston ; but, his health failing, he removed to Hanover, New Hampshire, and died there in 1771. HENRY PATILLO, A NATIVE of Scotland,! was in a counting-house, in Virginia, and, probably through the influence of Thomson, was on his way to Pennsylvania, with a view to study for the ministry, when he met Davies at Roanoke. This was in 1751. He went with him to his house, and pursued a course of instruction under his care, and was licensed, by Hanover Presbytery, September 29, 1767, " agreeably to the practice of the Church of Scotland." He had spent some time in teaching, and was married to Miss Anderson. He " desired to do good," and was sent to Hico, (Dismal Swamp,) Albemarkj Orange, and Cumberland. He was called to the churches of Willis Creek, Byrd, and Buck Island, and was or- * History of the Davenport family, by A. B. Davenport. j- Bellamy papers. j Dr. Foote's Sketches of North Carolina. HENRY PATILLO. 677 dained July 13, 1758. He -was dismissed from his charge, Octo- ber, 1762, and spent two years in Cumberland, Harris Creek, and Deep Creek. He then removed to North Carolina, and was in- stalled, October 2, 1765, at Hawfields,- Eno, and Little River. He was a delegate, in 1775, to the Provincial Congress. In 1780, he became the minister of Grassy Creek and Nutbush congrega- tions, largely made up of converts under the ministry of Davies. They gave him three hundred acres in fee, on condition of his staying with them for life. He was one of the first members of Orange Presbytery, and presided at the organization of the Synod of the Carolinas. He published a small volume,* containing, among other things, his letter, "On Predestination," to Francis Asbury, dated Gran- ville, June 14, 1787, and a defence of his conduct in admitting to the Lord's table persons holding Arminian sentiments : on one oc- casion, six or eight Methodist preachers, and a number of their people, after due notice, received the sacrament at his hinds. At the close of a long life,"f he was stripped of his property, and reduced to want, on account of the failure of his son in busi- ness, for whom he had been an indorser. He and his aged wife are said to have adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour by their submission and patience under this trial. He died in Dinwiddle county, Virginia, in 1801, aged seventy- five. To originality of genius and superior powers he added piety, public spirit, and faithfulness in his ministry. Like his teacher and model, Samuel Davies, he paid much attention to the coloured people, and was successful in doing much good among them. " Of the religious negroes in my congregation, some are intrusted with a kind of eldership, so as to keep a watch over the others : any thing wrong seldom happens." After the Revolution, he lamented that the supply of good books from abroad ceased, and that he had none to give away to the servants. Several instances of unworthy men from abroad coming to the South, and occasioning trouble, with disgrace to the ministry, led him to write to the Synod of the Carolinas not to admit aiiy foreign ministers to labour in their bounds, counting it better to have laymen discharge the sacred function, or even leave the churches entirely vacant. He rejoiced greatly in the revival under John B. Smith, in Virginia, and welcomed the young men who, under his influence, entered the ministry. Patillo had "often thought that the popular Congregational form, joined to the Presbyterian judicatures as a last resort. * In the possession of Rev. A. B. Cross. f Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. 678 WILLIAM KICHARDSON. ■would form the most perfect model of churcli government that the state of things on earth admits of." The errors which after- wards carried away Barton W. Stone and the New Lights in one direction, and Thomas E. Creaghead in another, received counte- nance, in some measure, from Patillo. He was inclined to assume the pre-existence of the human soul of Christ, and the peccability of his human nature. WILLIAM RICHARDSON Was born in Egremont, near White Haven, in England, and, coming to America, became a resident in the family of Samuel Davies, and studied with him. Davies speaks* of him to his cor- respondents in Scotland as though he were known to them: he was then under his roof, and would assist him in distributing among the negroes the books sent out by the Glasgow Society. He was taken on trials, by Hanover Presbytery, June 9, 1757, and was licensed in the next January, and was ordained, July 13, 1758, in Cumberland county, as a missionaryf to the Cherokee towns in North Carolina. Davies preached, on the occasion, on the love of souls a necessary qualification for the sacred office. Todd gave the charge. The Indians taking up arms, the mission was abandoned on the breaking out of the French War. In 1761, he connected himself with the South Carolina Presbytery; and, in 1763, he was the minister in the Waxhaw settlement. Having no children, he adopted his nephew, William R. Davie,| a distinguished officer of the Revolution, Governor of South Caro- lina., and minister to France in 1799. Governor Davie died in 1820, aged sixty-three. * GilKes. f Brown's History of Missions. J National Portrait Gallery. BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. [On the left hand, are the Dames of the parties whose memoirs are given in this work. The colnmn to the nght, shows the place of their nativity, so fkr as known to the author. The third colnmn Indi- cates the year in which they were bom. The fourth column shows the date of their ordination, or their recognition as ministers in the Presbyterian Church; and the nezt column intimates the year of the.r decease; while that on the right hand points out the page in the work where their respective ■biographies will be found.] ."""^ Country. Date of Birth. Ordination. Death. piOE Francis Makemie Ireland 1680 1708 297 Samuel Davis Ireland? 170-5 1725 310 John Wilson I702 1712........"ail Jedediah Andrews Massachusetts 1674 1698 1746 312 Nathanael Taylor Scotland 1690 1710 318 George McNish ..Ireland 1705 1770 318 John Hampton Scotland? 1706 1720? 322 John Boyd Scotland 1706 323 Joseph Smith Massachusetts 1708 1736 823 John Henry _. Ireland 1710 1717 325 James Anderson Scotland 1678 1709 1736 326 Nathanael Wade Massachusetts 1708 333 Joseph Morgan Connecticut 1674 1700 335 Paulus Van Vleck Holland 1710 838 George Gillespie Scotland 1683 1713 1760 339 John Mackey 34I Thomas Bratton 1712 1712 342 Robert Lawson Scotland 1713 1713 342 Daniel McGill ......Scotland 1713 1724 343 Howell Powell Wales 1714 1717 345 Malachi Jones Wales 1714 1729. 346 Eobert Wotherspoon Scotland 1714 1718 347 David Evans Wales 1714 1743 347 JohnBradner Scotland 1715 1733 351 Hugh Conn Ireland 1685 1715 1752 351 Eobert Orr Ireland? 1715 353 Samuel Pumry Massachusetts 1687 1715 1744 353 John Thomson Ireland 1717 355 John Pierson New England 1689 1717 1770 357 Jonathan Dickinson Massachusetts 1688 1717 1747 358 Samuel Gelston Ireland 1692 1717 1782 361 George Phillips Massachusetts 1644 1702 1739 363 Henry Hook Ireland 1718 1741 363 Joseph Lamb Connecticut? 1717 1749 364 William Tennent Ireland 1673 1718 1746 364 679 680 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. Name. Country. Date of Birth. Ordination. Death. PiOB Samuel YouBg Ireland 1718 17:21 367 Robert Cross Ireland 1689 1719 1766 367 John Clement Great Britain 1719 371 William Steward Gre.at Britain 1719 1734 .^71 Joseph Wetb Connecticut ...1720 1741 372 John Orme England 1720 1758 372 Moses Dickinson Massachusetts 1695.. 1722. 1778 373 Thomas Evans Wales 1723 1743 374 Alexander Hutcheson Ireland? 1723 1766 375 Robert Laing Scotland'. 1722 377 JohnAValton Connecticut 1721 1768? 377 WilUam McMillan 1724. 379 Thomas Creaghead Ireland 1724 1739 381 Joseph Houston Ireland 1693 1724 1741 383 Adam Boyd 1692 1724 1768 384 Noyes Tarris Massachusetts 1692 1724 386 Nathanael Hubbell Massachusetts , 1727 1745 386 Gilbert Tenuent Ireland 1703 1726 1754 387 Archibald McCook Ireland 1727 1727 397 Ebenezer Pemberton Massachusetts 1704 1727 1779 397 Daniel Elmer Connecticut 1690 1728 1755 403 Hugh Stevenson Ireland 1729 1744 404 John Wilson Ireland 1667 1729 1733 405 Ebenezer Gould New England 1727 1778 405 Eleazer Wales Massachusetts 1657 1730 1749 406 Richard Treat Connecticut 1708 1731 1778 407 Robert Cathcart Ireland 1730 1754 409 William Orr Ireland 1730 1755 410 William Bertram Ireland 1674 1732 1746 411 John Cross Scotland 1732 413 Benjamin Campbell Ireland 1733 1735 414 John Nutman New Jersey 1703 1730 1751 415 Samuel Hemphill Ireland 1734 416 Andrew Archbold 1735 420 JohnTennent Ireland 1707 1730 1732 :...421 William Tennent Ireland 1705: 1733 1777 422 Samuel Blair Ireland 1712 1734 1751 426 James Martin Ireland , 1734 1743 431 Robert Jamison Ireland 1734 1744 431 Isaac Chalker Connecticut 1734 1765 432 Simon Horton Massachusetts 1711 1734 432 Hugh Carlisle Ireland? 1735 433 Alexander Craighead Pennsylvania? 1735 1766 434 John Paul Ireland 1736 1739 438 Patrick Glasoow 1736 1753 438 Samuel Black Ireland 1735 1770 438 Francis Alison Ireland 1705 1737 1779 440 David Cowell Massachusetts 1704 1736 1760 443 Charles Tennent Ireland 1711 1737 1771 446 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 681 Aaron B^^r p ''''™*7- I'ate of Birth. OrdinaUon. Death. Aaron isurr Connecticut 1715 1737... 17.57 447 Walter WiW Long Island 1709 1738..: .i::::: DaTid Alexander Mand I738 Irt '"''l^t\ Scotland :"::i738:::::::::n92:::;:::::454 David Sanckey inland I73O ^rn SUas Leonard Massachusetts ZnSsZZlisiZ^" m ^amuel Gavin Ireland 170I 1739 1750 459 Francis McHenry Ireland I739 1757 460 Samuel Thomson 1,39 ^^g, ^^^ John Craig Ireland 1711 174O 1774 462 Azanah Horton Massachusetts 1715 1740 1777 .465 John Guild Massachusetts 1741 1737 466 Samuel Evans Pennsylvania? 1742.'.!!!'..'.".... ! 457 Alexander McDowell Ireland 1741.'!!!!!!!!i"782!!'!! " "468 Hamilton Bell : 1740 ign John Rowland Wales 1738 !!i747!.'!!!!!!!469 William Robinson j7^j j-jp .„. Charles Beatty Ireland 1712-15. ...1743 !.!l772!!!!!!!!!478 John Hindman 1742.. 481 Timothy Johnes Long Island 1717 1748 1794 481 Timothy Griffith Pennsylvania 1743 1764 '481 John Steel Ireland I744 1779 434 James Scougal Scotland? 1743 1746 435 Charles McKnight 1742 1778 435 John Blair Ireland 1720 1742 1771 486 Samuel Finley Ireland .1715 1742. 1766 488 Eliab Byram Massachusetts 1743 1754 491 Robert Sturgeon Scotland 1732? 492 .James McCrea Ireland 1741 1769 493 David Youngs Long Island 1719 1742 1752 494 David Thorn Delaware 1746 1750 495 .John Dick Maryland 1746 174" 495 John Hamilton , 1746 1756 496 Hector Alison 1746 496 David Brown Scotland 1748 497 John CampbeU Scotland 1713 1747 1753 497 .>ohn Roan Ireland 1745 1775 498 David Bostwick Connecticut 1721 1745 1763 500 Thomas Arthur 1723 1746 1750 504 Andrew Hunter 1746 1755 505 David Brainerd Connecticut 1718 1744 1747 506 William Dean 1719 1746 1748 526 Jacob Green Massachusetts 1722 1746 1790 627 Nathaniel Tucker Massachusetts 1747 1747 529 David Brown Scotland 1748 529 .James Campbell Scotland 1742 530 .James Davenport Connecticut 1716 1738 1757 531 Daniel Lawrence Long Island 1718 1747 1766 545 Samuel Sackett Long Island 1741 1784 546 682 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. Name. Country. Date of Birth. Orflination. Death. paoe Timothy Symmes Massachusetts 1715 1744 1756 548 Samuel Davies Delaware 1723 1747 1761 549 John Brainerd Connecticut 1748 1781 5G3 Job Prudden Connecticut 1715 1747 1774 569 Thomas Lewis New England 1747 1778 572 Andrew Sterling 1747 1766 573 Andrew Bay Ireland.. 1747 1777? 573 John Grant 1716 1746 1753 576 John Rodgers Massachusetts 1727 1749 1811 576 Aaron Richards 1719 1749 1793...' 583 Caleb Smith Long Island 1723 1748 1762 582 Timothy Allen 1716 1748 1806 583 Israel Reid 1750 1793 585 Daniel Thane Scotland 1750 .»..1784? 586 Enos Ayres 1750 1765 587 Elihu Spencer Connecticut 1721 1750 1784 587 Sylvanua White Massachusetts 1704 1747 1756 591 Samuel Buell Connecticut 1716 1746 1798 592 John Moffat Scotland 1751 1788 599 Joseph Tate 1748 1774 600 Samson Smith Ireland 1752? 601 Robert McMordie ' 1754 1796 602 Chauncey Graham Connecticut 1750 1784 602 Samuel Kennedy Scotland 1751 1787 604 Benjamin Chesnut England 1751 1775 604 Johnes Brown Connecticut 1748 1788 605 Naphthali Dagget Massachusetts 1727 1751 1780 606 Jonathan Elmer New England 1750 1807 608 Jolin Todd 1751 1793 608 Conrad Worts Germany 1752 610 James Finley Ireland 1725 1752 1795 610 Evander Mortison Scotland 1752 612 Robert Smith Ireland 1722 1751 1793 612 Alexander Cumming New Jersey 1726...., 1750 1768 614 Hugh Henry 1751 1763 616 John Kinkead Ireland 1753? 616 Alexander Miller Ireland 1757 618 John Miller Massachusetts 1722 1749 1791 619 William McKennan Delaware 1756 620 Matthew Wilson Pennsylvania 1731 1755 1790 620 Joseph Park 1752 621 Samuel Harker 1752 622 John Wright Scotland 1753 624 The Church in New York 628 Robert Henry Scotland 1752 1707 650 John Smith England 1702 1763 1771 G52 Eleazer Whittlesey Connecticut 1752 653 Nehemiah Greemnan Connecticut 1750 1779 654 John Brown Ireland 1728 1753 1803 656 BIOGEAPHICAL INDEX. 683 ^'onie. Country. Date of Birth. Ordination. Death. paqb EUphnlet Ball 1754 1797 657 Hugh Knox Ireland 1755 1790 658 Henry Martin 1754 1764 662 Jolm Hoge 1. Scotland 1755 662 NathanaelWhitaker Long Island 1722 1752. .> 1795 664 Benjamin Hait Connecticut 1755 1779 667 Benjamin Tallmadge Connecticut 1725 1754 1786 i;67 Abner Reeve Connecticut 1710 1755 1795 .668 Moses Tuttle Connecticut 1715 1747 1771 669 John Harris 1756 669 William Ramsey Pennsylvania 1732 1756 1771 670 Hugh McAden Pennsylvania 1781 671 George Buffield Pennsylvania 1732 1756 1790 672 Abraham Kettletas New York 1732 1798 673 John Martin 1757 674 Ebenezer Prime Connecticut 1700 1723 1779 675 John Maltby Connecticut 1753? 1771 676 Henry Patillo Scotland 1726 1758 1801 676 William Richardson England 1758 678 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BIOGEAPHIES. Name. page Alexander, DaTicI 453 Alison, Francis 440 Alison, Hector 496 Allen, Timothy 583 Anderson, James 326 Andrews, Jedediah 312 Archbold, Andrew 420 Arthur, Thomas. , 504 Ayres, Enos 587 Ball, Eliphalet 657 Bay, Andrew 573 Beatty, Charles 478 Bell, Hamilton 469 Bertram, William 411 Black, Samuel 438 Blair, John 486 Blair, Samuel 426 Bostwick, David 500 Boyd, Adam 384 Boyd, John 323 Bradner, John 351 Brainerd, Dafid 506 Brainerd, John 563 Bratton, Thomas 342 Brown, David 529 Brown, David 497 Brown, James 605 Brown, John 656 Buell, Samuel 592 Burr, Aaron 447 Byram, Eliab 491 Campbell, Benjamin 414 Campbell, James 530 Campbell, John 497 Carlisle, Hugh 433 Cathcart, Robert 409 684 Name. page Cavin, Samuel 459 Chalker, Isaac 432 Chesnut, Benjamin 604 Clement, John 371 Conn, Hugh 351 Cowell, David 443 Craig, John 462 Craighead, Alexander 434 Creaghead, Thomas 381 Cross, John 413 Cross, Robert 367 Cumming, Alexander 614 Dagget, Naphtali 606 Davenport, James 531 Davies, Samuel 549 Davis, Samuel 310 Dean, William 526 Dick, John 495 Dicldnson, Jonathan 358 Dickinson, Moses 373 Duffield, George 072 Elder, John 454 Elmer, Daniel 403 Elmer, Jonathan 608 Evans, David 347 Evans, Samuel 467 Evans, Thomas 374 Finley, James 610 Finley, Samuel 488 Gelston, Samuel '361 Gillespie, George 339 Glasgow, Patrick 438 Gould, Ebenezer 405 Graham, Chaunoey 602 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BIOGRAPHIES. 685 Name. p^a^ Grant, John 57g Green, Jacob 527 Greenman, Nehemiah 654 Griffith, Timothy 483 Guild, John 4.gg Halt, Benjamin 667 Hamilton, John 496 Hampton, John 322 Harker, Samuel ,..622 Harris, John 669 Hemphill, Samuel 416 Henry, Hugh 616 Henry, John 325 Henry, Robert .' 050 Hindman, John 481 Hoge, John 662 Hook, Henry 863 Horton, Azariah..... 465 Horton, Simon 433 Houston, Joseph 383 Hubbell, Nathaniel 386 Hunter, Andrew 505 Hutcheson, Alexander 375 Jamison, Robert '. 431 Johnes, Timothy 481 Jones, Malachi 346 Kennedy, Samuel 604 Eettletas, Abraham 673 Kinkead, John 616 Knox, Hugh 658 Laing, Robert 377 Lamb, Joseph 364 Lawrence, Daniel 545 Lawson, Robert 342 Leonard, Silas 458 Lewis, Thomas 572 Mackey, John 341 Makemie, Francis 297 Maltby, John 676 Mnrtin, Henry 662 Martin, James 431 Martin, John 674 Miller, Alexander 618 Name. paoe Miller, John 619 Moifat, John 599 Morgan, Joseph 335 Morrison, Evander 612 McAden, Hugh...., .- 671 McCook, Archibald 397 McCrea, James 493 McDowell, Alexander 468 MoGill, Daniel 843 McHenry, Francis 460 McKnight, Charles 485 MoKennan, William 620 McMordie, Robert 602 McMillan, William 379 McNish, George 318 Nutman, John 415 Orme, John 372 Orr, Robert 353 Orr, William 410 Park, Joseph 621 Parris, Noyes 386 Patillo, Henry 676 Paul, John 488 Pemberton, Ebenezer 397 Phillips, George. 363 Pierson, John 357 Powen, Howell 345 Prime, Ebenezer 675 Prudden, Job 569 Pumry, Samuel 353 Ramsey, WiUiam 670 Reeve, Abner 668 Reid, Israel 585 Richards, Aaron 582 Richardson, WiUiam 678 Roan, John 498 Robinson, WiUiam 474 Rodgers, John 576 Rowland, John 409 Sackett, Samuel 546 Sanokey, Richard 457 Scougal, James 485 Smith, Caleb 582 686 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BIOGRAPHIES. Name. PAGE Smith, John 652 Smith, Joseph 323 Smith, Robert 612 Smith, Sampson 601 Spencer, Elihu 587 Steel, John 484 Sterling, Andrew 573 Stevenson, Hugh 404 Steward, William 371 Sturgeon, Robert, 492 Symmes, Timothy 548 Taylor, Nathaniel 318 TaUmadge, Benjamin 667 Tate, Joseph 600 Tennent, Charles 446 Tennent, Gilbert 387 Tennent, John 421 Tennent, William 364 Tennent, WUliam 422 Thane, Daniel „ 586 Thomson, John ....355 Thomson, Samuel 461 Thorn, David 495 Todd, John 608 Name page Treat, Richard 407 Tucker, Nathaniel 529 Tuttle, Moses 669 Van Vleck, Paulus 338 Wade, Nathaniel 333 Wales, Eleazer 406 Walton, John 377 Webb, Joseph 372 Whitaker, Nathaniel 664 White, Sylvanus 591 Whittlesey, Eleazer 653 Wilson, John 311 Wilson, John '. 405 Wilson, Matthew 620 Wilmot, Walter 453 Worts, Conrad 610 Wotherspoon, Robert 347 Wright, John 624 Young, Samuel 307 Youngs, David 494 The Church in New York 628 RESOLUTIONS OF SYNODS AND PRESBYTERIES. The well-known ability of tte author prompted the adoption, by several of the synods, and many of the presbyteries, of resolutions encouraging the extensive circulation of this History, and we publish all we have received up to the time of going to press. The following resolutions were passed unanimously by the SYNOD OF NEW JERSEY. Whereas, It is well known that the late Eev. Kichard Webster left, at the time of his death, a manuscript History of the Presbyterian Church in America, — a work full of antiquarian research and facts of great Talue to all Presbyterians,^ and that the intrinsic value of the work, together with the fact that the family of the author are interested in its sale, renders its extensive circulation desirable : Therefore — Resolved, That this synod cordially and earnestly recommend this History of the Presbyterian Church (about to be published) to the ministers and churches under our care, and likewise express the hope that suitable effort will be used to secure the sale of as large a number of copies as possible within the bounds of the synod. Resolved, That we would respectfully suggest to our Presbyterian Board of Pub- lication the propriety of placing the work in hands of their colporteurs, for the purpose of obtaining a more general circulation among all our churches. R. K. RODGERS, Stated Clerk. The follorwing was also adopted unanimously by the SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA. Whereas, The late Rev. Richard Webster left for publication a manuscript Historv of the Presbyterian Church in America,— a work of deep research and 44 689 690 RESOLUTIONS OF of great value to all Presbyterians, — and the family of the author are interested in its sale, its extensive circulation is desirable : Therefore, Eoeolved, That this synod cordially recommend the History of the Presbyterian Chui'ch to the ministers and churches under our care, and earnestly request that every effort be made to secure the sale of as large a number of copies as possible. Resolved, That Tve would suggest to our Presbyterian Board of Publication the propriety of placing the "work in the hands of their colporteurs, for the purpose of securing a more general circulation among all the members of our church. S. M. Andrews, Stated Clerk. Also, tte following presbyteries : — PRESBYTERY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. Resolved, That this presbytery cordially approve of the publication of the History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster, believing that the well-known industry and habits of patient investigation which he for so many years gave to the whole subject of the antiquities of the Presbyterian churches in this country will make it all that might be expected. Resolved, That the work be recommended to the patronage of all the churches tmder our care. A. D. White, Stated Cleric. PRESBYTERY OF FORT WAYNE. Resolved, That we heartily commend the work to the churches under our care, as well as to individuals, as worthy of their confidence, entitled to their patronage, and adapted to their profit. WiLSOK M. Donaldson, Staled Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF DONEGAL. Resolved, That the presbytery have learned with great pleasure of the pro- posed publication of the History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster ; and, in view of the intrinsic value of such a work, especially from so competent a source, as well as the relation which the enterprise bears to the family of the lamented deceased, would cordially recommend the forthcoming volume to the patronage of the members of our several congregations. John Fakquhak, Stated Clerk. SYNODS AND PRESBYTERIES. 691 PRESBYTERY OF LONG ISLAND. Resolved, That we heartily commend to the churches under our care, and to the community at large, the forthcoming History of the Presbyterian Church in America, by the late Rev. Richard Webster, and that we esteem it our privilege to give it the widest circulation possible within our bounds. T. MoCaulet, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Resolved, That, inasmuch as the work promises to be a standard volume of great value to the Presbyterian churches, and as the family of the self-denying and laborious author have an interest in its sale, we recommend that the members of this presbytery make special efforts in procuring subs6riber8 for it. T. L. MoBbtde, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF BEDFORD. Resolved, That the members of presbytery be requested to act as agents in their respective charges, to procure subscriptions for the new work about to be published, entitled " The History of the Presbyterian Church," by the late Rev. Richard Webster. William Pattekson, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF CARLISLE. Resolved, That presbytery recommend to the pastors and sessions under its care, to promote, as far as possible, the circulation of the History of the Pres- byterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster. James F. Kennedy, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF NEWCASTLE. The Stated Clerk read a circular, in regard to the publication of a History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster : whereupon it was Resolved, That this presbytery do hereby earnestly recommend this forthcoming work to the patronage of the congregations under its care. ROBEET P. DnEois, ' Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF GREENBRIER. Presbytery, having learned that Joseph M. Wilson, of Philadelphia, expects to publish a work on the History of the Presbyterian Church in this country, do hereby express their gratification at the prospect of the publication of the work 692 KESOLUTIONS OF prepared by the late Rev. Richard Webster, and recommend it to the ministers and churches under our care. S. H. Bkown, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF NORTHUMBERLAND. Resolved, That presbytery would earnestly commend the History of the Pres- byterian Church, by the Rev. Richard Webster, deceased, to the attention and patronage of the ofEcers and members of our churches ; and the ministers of pres- bytery are requested to publish this resolution from their pulpits. Isaac Gkeee, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF MAURY. Resolved, That we cordially and earnestly recommend the History of the Pres- byterian Church in America, by the Rev. Richard Webster, to the members of all our churches, and to all others. J. Stephenson Feierson, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF RARITAN. The Stated Clerk laid before presbytery a communication from Mr. Joseph M. Wilson, of Philadelphia, in relation to the History of the Presbyterian Church, by the laT« Rev. Richard Webster, of Mauch Chunk, which he is about to publish for the benefit of the family of the author : whereupon it was Resolved, That this presbytery highly approve of this enterprise, and cordially recommend it to the patronage of our churches, and, furthermore, request our pastors and ruling elders to use their endeavours to obtain subscribers to the work in their respective congregations. A true extract : P 0. Studdiford, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF CHEROKEE. Resolved, That the History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster, — now in course of publication by Joseph M. Wilson, — be cordially recom- mended to all the churches and members under our care. John P. Lanneau, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF ERIE. A letter having been read — from J. M. Wilson, publisher — relative to the History of the Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Richard Webster, deceased, it was Resolved, That this presbytery do cordially recommend said history to the SYNODS AND PBESBYTEKIES. 693 favourable notice of ministers and members of chm-ches throughout our bounds, as an interesting and valuable contribution on a subject of great importance to all lovers of the doctrines and order of the Presbyterian church ; and also to their acceptance, in view of the benevolent objects designed by its publication, as well as of its intrinsic excellency. Extract from Minutes of Presbytery of Erie, January 7, 1857. S. J. M. Eaton, Staled Clerk, PRESBYTERY OF CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI. Resolved, That this presbytery feel a deep interest in the publication of tho above-named History, and would earnestly recommend to our ministers, elders, and members to subscribe for the same, and send theif names and subscriptions to Mr. J M. Wilson, of Philadelphia, the publisher. James S. Montgomeet, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF MISSISSIPPI. Resolved, That this presbytery take a deep interest in the circulation of this work, and earnestly recommend it to all the members of the church within their bounds ; and, further, express the hope that each member of the presbytery, and the elders of our churches, will exert themselves to obtain subscriptions, and forward the same to Joseph M. Wilson, 27 South Tenth Street, below Chestnut, Philadelphia. R. Pbice, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF PALMYRA. Whereas, We have learned that Joseph M. Wilson, of Philadelphia, is about to publish a History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Rev. Richard Webster : Therefore — Resolved, That we recommend to all our ministers and elders to procure the work, and to introduce it into the families of our churches so far as practicable. A. P. FOKMAN, Slated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF LOUISIANA. Resolved, That the members of this Presbytery be requested to present the claims of Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church to the churches under their care, secure subscribers for it, and forward the same to Joseph M. WUsod, publisher, Philadelphia. ^^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^ Stated Clerk. 694 BESOLUTIONS OF SYNODS AND PRESBYTERIES. PRESBYTERY OP STEUBENVILLE. Resolved, That the History of the Presbyterian Church, by the late Eev. Richard Webster, — now in the course of publication by Joseph M. Wilson, of Phila- delphia, — will, no doubt, be both instructive and interesting, it be recommended to as many of the members as may find it oonvenient to subscribe for the same, especially as it is published for the benefit of the family of Mr. Webster. JOHK R. Aqnew, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF TUSCALOOSA. Resolved, That Presbytery' earnestly recommend to the pastors and members of the churches under our care the History of the Presbyterian Church, by Eev. Richard Webster, now in course of publication, as, from the weU-known reputa- tion of the author, it will be a volume of great interest and value. C. A. Stiilman, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF HUNTINGDON. Resolved, That pastors be requested to interest themselves in the circulation of Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church. EoBEEi Hammili, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERY OF CONCORD. Wiereas, Mr. Joseph M. Wilson, of Philadelphia, is about to publish a History of the Presbyterian Church, prepared by the late Eev. Richard Webster; therefore, Resolved, That this presbytery would cordially recommend to all our ministers and members of our churches to supply themselves with the work. E. H. Lafpeett, Stated Clerk. SECOND PRESBYTERY OP PHILADELPHIA. Extract from the Minutes of the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, at Brides- burg, October 8, 1856:— " Presbytery earnestly recommended to all its members, ministers, and elders, to take such action in their respective congregations as, in their judgment, will best secure a wide circulation of the Church History prepared by the late Eev. R. Web- ster, and now in course of publication by Mr. Joseph M. Wilsonj of Philadelphia." A true extract. Jacob Belville, Stated Clerk. PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. At a meeting of tte Executive Committee of the Presbyte- rian Historical Society, held on August 5tli, 1856, the undersigned was appointed to draw up a statement in reference to the plans and objects of the Society, and to append it to the Eev. Eichard Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church. In conformity with this resolution, the following statement is respectfully presented to the public : — The Presbyterian Historical Society was organized at the meet- ing of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, in May, 1852. At the anniversary meeting of the Society held in the city of BuiFalo in May, 1854, some amendments were made in the Constitution, chiefly with a view to secure the co-operation of all branches of the Pres- byterian church. These amendments were more definitely incorporated into the Constitution at the anniversary meeting held in the city of Philadelphia, in May, 1856. The Revised Constitution will be found annexed to this statement. The Presbyterian Historical Society aims at accomplishing the follow- ing objects : — I. To collect the materials — manuscript, published, or traditionary — which serve to illustrate the history of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. II. To preserve these materials safe from danger, and accessible to all, at a location convenient for general reference. III. To promote the knowledge of the history thus collected and pre- served. This will be done, in part, by the circulation of an Annual 695 696 PRESBYTEKIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Keport and Address ; by public meetings, held from time to time in dif- ferent parts of the Church, at which papers on historical subjects may be read and discussed ; and by the publication of such of the writings of the Presbyterian fathers, and of other historical memorials, as may be deemed expedient. The MODE in which co-operation can be efiBciently and successfully exerted may be in the following, among'other forms which may suggest themselves to your independent reflections : — 1. By every presbytery, in all the churches represented in the So- ciety, taking measures to induce each minister to write, without delay, the history of the church or churches which he serves, — the whole col- lection to be arranged in historical order, and prefaced by a general history of the presbytery, by some person or committee appointed for that purpose; the latter committee also to secure the history of vacant churches. The following points in the history of the churches are of special im- portance, — viz. : the circumstances of their organization; the names of all their ministers and elders; number of communicants at different periods; revivals; donations to benevolent objects; candidates for the ministry; foreign missionaries; schools for education of children, &c., — in short, all the details of the religious or secular history likely to be interesting. 2. The presbytery may do a very important historical service by ob- taining a biographical sketch of every minister in their body who departs this life; and also of elders, or prominent laymen, as may seem desirable. A biographical sketch of our deceased ministers, in particular, is absolutely necessary in elucidating the history of the Church. The following points are of special biographical interest: — Age and place of birth; whether of pious parents ; at what college and seminary educated ; circumstances of conversion; when licensed and ordained; his various fields of labour; incidents and characteristics of his ministry or public life; name of wife and of children ; publications ; circumstances and date of death, &c. 3. In the third place, the presbytery is requested to co-operate in obtaining, for present use, a complete list of all the ministers of the Presbyterian Church, from the beginning, with the dates of their ordina- tion, and their names icritten out in full, with the name of the ordaining liieshytery. This can be done : — 1st. By each minister giving his own name, with date of ordination and the ordaining presbytery, to some PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 697 one who will transmit the whole list of the presbytery to the Society. 2d. By each presbytery authorizing some person, who may volunteer to do the work, to transcribe from the records of presbytery the names and dates of all the ordinations from the organization of the presbytery. By these means immediate information can be obtained, on the points in question, which is an object of great interest, as records maybe destroyed, deaths may ensue, and other providential hinderances may occur. 4. It is extremely desirable for every minister to transmit to the So- ciety a copy of every published sermon, or other religious and literary production of his pen; and also to send a manuscript sermon, to be deposited among the archives of the Society as a memorial connected with the current history of the Church, — which will, with the lapse of time, possess increasing interest to Presbyterians generally, as well as to those specially concerned in such collections. ■5. Each minister, elder, and member of the congregation may co- operate by collecting and transmitting old sermons, pamphlets, news- papers, magazines, letters, books, manuscripts, portraits, or any relics of the olden time, which throw light upon our annals. A copy of all the new Presbyterian books, pamphlets, and periodicals, is also desired, — it being the purpose of the Society to publish annually an historical account of the current literature of the Presbyterian Church, and to collect all the publications — past, present, or future — which illustrate its lite- rature. Having thus frankly stated the objects of the Institution and the reliances for prosecuting them, the co-operation of every presbytery and of all the members of our congregations is respectfully solicited, in the modes and forms suggested, or in whatever way may best suit their con- venience. It will be seen at once that a work of no ordinary magnitude and dili- gence is before the Church. Much historical research, literary labour, patient toil, and miscellaneous drudgery, must be endured for history's and the Church's sake. Considerable expense will also be involved iu carrying into execution plans 'for cultivating a field so extensive, and so long left a comparatively-neglected waste. The Society will endeavour to meet honourably all necessary and reasonable claims for remuneration; but they know too well the ministers and members of the Presbyterian churches not to suppose that, in a work like this, much service will be 698 PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. spontaneously and gratefully rendered. History presents interesting and important topics of investigation ; and the particular history of the Pres- byterian Church, in its different branches, has materials of doctrinal, ecclesiastical, literary, evangelistic, and political value, which invite the free and full investigations of her most devoted and ablest sons. All which is respectfully submitted. C. Van Rensselaer, Chairman of Executive Committee. Philadelphia, March, 1857. P.S. — In this connection, it is deemed proper to append the CHARTEB, of the Peesbyteeian Historical Society, which has just passed the Legislature of Pennsylvania. The Constitution of the Society will be found in the Act of Incorporation. AN ACT TO incorporate THE PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Section 1. Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, That David Elliott, William M. Engles, W. R. De Witt, Albert Barnes, George H. Stuart, J. B. Dales, J. T. Cooper, James Hoge, Charles Hodge, Samuel Hazzard, Samuel Agnew, Robert J. Breckinridge, William Chester, George Howe, William B. Sprague, Henry A. Boardman, C. Van Rensselaer, John C. Backus, John Leyburu, William S. Blartien, Alfred Nevin, Thomas H. Skinner, John A. Brown, Samuel H. Cox, Peter Force, Edwin F. Hatfield, George Duf- field, George Duifield, Jr., Henry B. Smith, Matthew W. Baldwin, Henry J. Williams, B. J. Wallace, J. N. McLeod, John Forsyth, James Wood, Thomas Beveridge, James M. Wilson, T. W. J. Wylie, S. J. Wylie, Thomas Smyth, M. L. P. Thompson, and J. F. Stearnes, and their asso- ciates and successors, shall forever be, and they are hereby, erected and created a body politic and corporate in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of the Presbyterian Historical Society, and by that name, style, and title shall have and enjoy perpetual succession, and be able and capable to purchase, receive, take hold, and dispose of real and personal estate, to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, to receive and make all deeds, transfers, conveyances, and assurances, contracts, and egree- ments whatever, to have and use a common and corporate seal, and the same to break, alter, and renew at pleasure, and generally to do and per- PRESBYTBKIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 699 form any act, matter, and thing necessary to promote the objects and design of this act of incorporation, with full power to enact and repeal all rules, regulations, and by-laws which may be found expedient or desirable : Provided always, That such rules, regulations, and by-laws shall not be contraiy to or inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States or of this Commonwealth. Sect. 2. That the fundamental articles of the Constitution of this So- ciety shall be as follows : — Article 1. This Society shall be known by the name of the Presbyr terian Historical Society. Art. 2. The objects of this Society shall be to collect and preserve the materials, and to promote the knowledge, of the History of the Presby- terian Church in the United States of America. Art. 3. Any branch of the Presbyterian Church, whose admission shall be approved by the Society at its annual meeting, shall become an integral part of the same. The branches now constituting the Society are — The Presbyterian Church whose General Assembly met in the First Presbyte- rian Church in New York City, in one thousand eight hundred and fifty- six ; The Presbyterian Church whose General Assembly met in the Pres- byterian Church on Madison Square in New York City, in one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six ; The Associate Keformed Church, the Asso- ciate Presbyterian Church, and the Keformed Presbyterian Church. Art. 4. Any person may become a member of this Society by the pay- ment of one dollar annually, and shall thereby be entitled to receive a copy of the annual report. The payment of ten dollars at one time, or in annual payments, shall constitute a life-member. Art. 5. The officers of the Society shall be a President, one Vice- President, (from each of the churches represented in the Society,) a Cor- responding and Keeording Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Executive Com- mittee, of which committee at least one member shall be from each of the churches represented in the Society : all the officers shall be elected at each annual meeting of the Society. Art. 6. The annual meeting of the Society shall be held in the city of Philadelphia on the first Tuesday in May. Art. 7. The Executive Committee shall be composed of not less than nine nor more than twelve members, (of whom the Corresponding Secre- tary and the Treasurer shall be members ex officio,) to whom shall be com- mitted the work of devising and executing measures to secure the objects of the Society. They shall make an Annual Keport of their proceedings at the Anniversary Meeting, shall cause an address or addresses to be de- livered during the meeting of the General Assembly or Synod of each Church represented in this Society, and shall have power to issue publi- cations from time to time, and to provide means for defraying the neces- 700 PKESETTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. sary expenses of their operations. The Executive Committee shall meet quarterl}', on the first Tuesdays of February, May, August, and November, and at other times, if deemed necessary by any two members, on the call of the chairman. Vacancies occurring in their body by death or other- wise may be filled at any regular quarterly meeting. Art. 8. The formation of a library, containing publications and manu- scripts, shall be regarded as a prominent measure to be accomplished by the Society. The Executive Committee shall have charge of the library, and shall appoint a Librarian. Publications, manuscripts, and other his- torical relics, may be placed on deposit in the library, to be returned to the persons depositing the same on their written application. Art. 9. This Constitution may be amended by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at any annual meeting : Provided, That notice of such alteration be proposed at a preceding meeting of the Society. Sect. 3. That the officers and members of the Executive Committee of this Society, until others are regularly chosen under the provisions of this act, shall be those now in office, namely: — President, Thomas H. Skinner, D.D.; Vice-Presidents, E. J. Breckinridge, D.D., LL.D., William B. Sprague, D.D., Edward F. Hatfield, D.D., Colonel Peter Force, John Forsyth, D.D., John N. McLeod, D.D., Thomas Beveridge, D.D.; Secre- tary, J. B. Dales, D.D.; Treasurer, Samuel Agnew, Esq.; Executive Com- mittee, C. Van Rensselaer, D.D., J. C. Backus, D.D., Samuel Hazzard, Esq., George Duffield, Jr., B. J. Wallace, H. J. Williams, Esq., G. H. Stuart, Esq., J. B. Dales, D.D., and Joseph T. Cooper, D.D. Sect. 4. That the annual income of the real estate held at any time by the said Society shall not at any time exceed the sum of three thou- sand dollars. P.S.— All donations for the Presbyterian Historical Society may be sent to Samuel Agnew, Esq., 821 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. A LIST OP SUBSCRIBEES HISTOEY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Abbey, Charles, Philadelphia. Abbey, W. R., Philadelphia, Abbot, jVt., Summit Hill, Pa. Abbott, Eev. C. J., St. Louis, Mo. Abbott, J. W., Tamaqua, Pa. Adair, James A., MoConnelsville, 0. Adam, Rev. M.T., Dykman's Station,N.Y. Agnew, B. L., Theol. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Aguew, Rev. J. R., Steubenville, 0. Agnew, Samuel, Philadelphia. Albright, J. J., Scranton, Pa. Alexander, Francis, Potter's Fort, Pa. Alexander & Grier, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Alexander, J. A., D.D., Princeton, N.J. Alexander, J. B., Louisville, Ky. Alexander, John, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Alexander, S., M.D., Clinton, Ala. Alexander, W. S., Princeton, N.J. Algeo, James, Philadelphia. Allen, Rev. A. C, Franklin, la. Allen, John, Bordentown, N.J. Allen, John, Wysox, Pa. Allender, John, Williamsburg, Pa. Allison, Andrew, Huntingdon, Pa. Allison, John, Indiana, Pa. Allison, Mrs. Mary, Huntingdon, Pa. Allison, Robert K., AUenville, Pa. Anderson, Daniel S., Newton, N.J. Anderson, Rev. E., Summerfield, Ala. Anderson, James A., Clinton, Ala. Anderson, Rev. J. P. S., St. Louis, Mo. Anderson, Mrs. M. H., Huntingdon, Pa. Anderson, R. B.,Theo.Sem.Columbia,S.C. Andrew, Joseph, Boalsburg, Pa. Andrews, James, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Andrews, James, Sr., Philadelphia. Ansley, J. A., Augusta, Ga. Ansley, W. J., Augusta, Qa. Anthony, J. J., Shelocta, Pa. Archibald, E. A., Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Archibald, J. H., Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Arden, Mrs. Allison, West Chester, N.Y. Arms, Eev. Clifford S., Ridgebury, N.Y. Armstrong, E., Germantown, Pa. Armstrong, J., Meigsville, 0. Armstrong, J. D., Romney, Va. Armstrong, Rev. John, Hazleton, Pa, Armstrong, Rev. R., Adena, 0. Arnell, W. H., Florence, Ala. Arthur, William C, Baltimore, Md. Atkins, Layton T., Fredericksburg, Va. Atterbury, E. J. C, Trenton, N.J. Atwater, L. H., D.D., Princeton, N.J. Axtell, Rev. C, Galena, 111. Ayrault, Hon. Allen, Geneseo, N.Y. Ayres, Eev. John W., Pigeon Creek, Mo. Backus, John C, D.D., Baltimore, Md. Backus, John T., D.D., Schenectady, N.Y. Baer, Mrs. M. S., Baltimore, Md. Bailey, Benjamin S., Richmond, 0. Bailey, James, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Bailey, Yancey, Hat Creek, Va. Baird, E. T., D.D., Columbus, Miss. Baird, Rev. J. H., Lock Haven, Pa. Baird, Rev. S. J., Woodbury, N.J. Baker, Eliaa, Altoona, Pa. Baker, Mrs. F. A., Quincy, 111. Baker, Eev. John F., Augusta, Ga. Baker, Miss P. Amelia, North Salem, N.Y. Baker, Peter H., Greenville, Ky. Baldwin, Rev. J. A., Newark, N.J. 701 702 A LIST OF SUBSCKIBERS TO THE Bant, Ephraim M., Greenville, Ky. Banks, Gen. E., Lewistown, Pa. Banks, Hugh S., Newburg, N.Y. Barber, Augustus S., Woodbury, N.J. Bard, Rev. Isaac, Greenville, Ky. Barefoot, John, Milroy, Pa. Barker, Ralph, West Chester, N.Y. Barnard, Rev. Alfred, West Chester, N.Y. Barnard, John, D.D., Lima, N.Y. Barnes, Mrs. E., Tamaqua, Pa. Barnes, James C, D.D., Somerset, Ky. Barnes, J. Edward, Tamaqua, Pa. Barmvell, Robert, Indiana, Pa. Barr, Rev. Andrew, Crestline, 0. Barr, Rev. J. C, Princeton, HI. Barrett, Rev. Myron, Newton, N.J. Bates, Davis, Milroy, Pa. Bathgate, R. D., Sinking Vall6y, Pa. Bayard, James, Philadelphia. Bayard, Col. N. J., Rome, Ga. Beadle, Rev. E. B., Hartford, Conn. Bean, J. S., Augusta, Ga. Beard, Benjamin, Hardin, Iowa. Beard, John, Philadelphia. Beard, William, Hardin, Iowa. Beattie, Rev. D., Scotchtown, N.Y. Beattie, Rev. James, West Chester, N.Y. Beattie, Rev. R. H., Salisbury Mills, N.Y. Beatty, C. C, D.D., Sleubenville, 0. Beatty, John, Milroy, Pa. Beatty, John, Philadelphia. Beatty, Ormond, Prof., Danville, Ky. Beck, C. F., M.D., Philadelphia. Beck, T. W., Rodney, Miss. Beebe, Capt. E. H., Galena, HI. Beebe, Mrs. Sarah, Galena, 111. Beisel, William, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Belden, E. L., Theol. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Belford, George, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Bell, George, Milroy, Pa. Bellas, Thomas, Philadelphia. Bellville, Rev. Jacob, Hartsville, Pa. Bemiss, J. W., M.D., Rodney, Miss. Benedict, A. W., Huntingdon, Pa. Benedict, G. C, North Salem, N.Y. Berry, J. M. S., Paris, Mo. Bertsch, Daniel, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Bertsch, Daniel, Jr., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Betts, N. N., Towanda, Pa. Beveridge, Rev. A. M., Hoosick Falls.N.Y. Beveridge, Rev. T. H. , Philadelphia. Beveridge, Thomas, D.D.,Xenia, 0. Bick, George, Port Carbon, Pa. Bigham, John, Baltimore, Md. Billington, H., Sunbury, Pa. Bingham, Rev. W. R., Warren Tavern, Ps, Bird, A. D., Hazleton, Pa. Bissell, Rev. S. B. S., New York. Bittinger, Rev.E.C, U.S.N., Philadelphia, Black, A. W., D.D., Sewickleyville, Pa. Blackburn, Rev. A., Bristol, Tenn. Blackwell, Rev. H., Flint Hill, Mo. Blackwood, John F., Hamburg, Ga. Blackwood, William, D.D., Philadelphia. Blair, Brice X., Shade Gap, Pa. Blair, D., Huntingdon, Pa. Bloom, Joseph, White Haven, Pa. Boal, Hon. George, Boalsburg, Pa. Boardman, H. A., D.D., Philadelphia. Boggs, A. C, West Liberty, Va. Boggs, Rev. John M., Independenoe,Iowa. Boiling, A., Richmond, Va. Bones, Mrs. S., Augusta, Ga. Borden, John, Philadelphia. Bossert, John J., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Bosworth, Rev. E., Baltimore, Md. Bouton, Edgar M., Galena, 111. Bower, Rev. E. R., Wappinger Falls, N.Y. Bowers, Aaron, Theo. Sem., Allegheny,Pa. Bowers, C, M.D., Newton Hamilton, Pa. Bowman, Rev. J. R., Eutaw, Ala. Boyd, Alexander, Philadelphia. Boyd, David, Philadelphia. Boyd, Miss Jane, Washingtonville, Pa. Boyd, Mrs. Jean L., Philadelphia. Boyd, Joseph E., Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Boyd, J. Howard, Baltimore, Md. Boyd, J. S., Theol. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Boyd, Mrs. Margaret, Rising Sun, la. Boyd, W. B., Petersburg, Va. Boyle, Edwin, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Boyles, James, Philadelphia.' Brace, R. J., Trenton, N.J. Bracken, Rev. T. A., Independence, Mo. Braokett, Mrs. S. A., Rock Island, 111. Bradshaw, Rev. F., Bridgeville, Ala. Brank, Rev. R. G., Lexington, Ky. Brearley, Johnes, Lawrenceville, N.J. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 703 Brearley, Joseph G., Trenton, N.J. Breckinridge,R.J.,D.D.,LLD.,Danville,Ky Breed, Rev. W. P., Philadelphia. Brisbin, David, Potter's Fort, Pa. Brodhead, A. G., Jr., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Brodhead, A. J., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Brodhead, L. W., White Haven, Pa. Brodrick, Thomas, Rookport, Pa. Brothwell, Miss Frances, Kingston, Pa. Broughton, J. E., Rodney, Miss. Brown, Rev. Allen H., May 's Landing, N. J. Brown, Mrs. Andrew, Philadelphia. Brown, D., Philadelphia. Brown, Mrs. D., Princeton, N.J. Brown, Geo, W.,'M.D., Port Carbon, Pa. Brown, James, Augusta, Ga. Brown, John, White Haven, Pa. Brown, Joseph, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Brown, R. F., Sybertsville, Pa. Brown, Samuel H., Frankfort, Ta. Brown, Samuel T., Huntingdon, Pa. Brown, Mrs. Sarah, Holmesburg, Pa. Brown, S. S., Galena, HI. Brown, Wallace, Mill Hall, Pa. Bryan, R. E., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Bryan, William F., Peoria, HI. Buck, R. S., Bridgeton, N.J. Buck, Miss Sarah H., Bridgeton, N.J. Budman, Miss Sarah, DanvlUe, Pa. Buford, Goodloe W., College Hill, Miss. Bull, Edward C, Rome, Pa. Bullock, Joshua, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Burdett, Rev. M., Philadelphia. Burgess, J. C, Scran ton, Pa. Burnside, Francis C, Jeffersonville, Pa. Burr, Charles H., Astoria, L. I., N.Y. Burt, Rev. N. C, Baltimore, Md. Burtt, Rev. John, Blackwoodtown, N.J. Bush, Rev. George C, Stewartsville, N.J. Bush, Rev. Stephen, Cohoes, N.Y. Butler, A. W., Mauch Chunk, Pa. CaldweU, Hon. D., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Calvin, Hon. Samuel, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Cameron, A., Allegheny City, Pa. Cameron, H.C.,Th.Sem., Princeton, N.J. Camp, George H., Roswell, Ga. Campbell, Don, Knoxville, Tenn. Campbell, Hugh, PhUadelphia. Campbell, James E., Rising Sun, la. Campbell, John W., Erimfield, 111. Campbell, Joseph, Jr., Belleville, Pa. Campbell, J. N., D.D., Albany, N.Y. Campbell, J. 0., Belleville, Pa. Campbell, Robert, Belleville, Pa. Campbell, S. C, Knoxville, Tonn. Canfield, W. B., Baltimore, Md. Canning, Mark, Philadelphia. Cargen, Rev. William, Cambridge, Wis. Carmine, Andrew, Franklin, la. Carnahan, Rev. D. T., Baltimore, Md. Carnahan, James, D.D., Princeton, N.J. Carr, F. E. G., Charlottesville, Va. Carr, John, Trenton, N.J. Carrell, Rev. B., Clover Hill, N.J. Carroll, Miss Josephine, New York. Carson, Mrs. Mary, Marion, N.C. Carson, Thomas, Philadelphia. Carter, John, Bloomsbury, N.J. Carter, Robert & Brothers, New York. Caskey, Samuel, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Castner, Wesley W., Bloomsbury, N.J. Cater, Rev. Edwin, Haddrells, S.C. Catt, Christopher, Sinking Valley, Pa. Cattell, Rev. W. C, Easton, ?a. Catto, Rev. William T., Philadelphia. Chamberlain, John, Pontiac, Mich. Chambers, Col. Geo., Chambersburg, Pa. Chambers, John S., Trenton, N.J. Chapin, Lyman, Albany, N.Y. Chapman, J. H., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Chapman, R. Hett, D.D., AsheviUe, N.C. Chappin, Thomas, Jr., Columbus, Ga. Chase, Joseph, Soranton, Pa. Cheesman, L., D.D., Philadelphia. Chester, Rev. Alfred, Morristown, N.J. Cl^ester, William, D.D., Philadelphia. Cbilas, Bradley, White Haven, Pa. Childs, Rev. Thomas S., Hartford, Conn. Chrisman, G. W., Milroy, Pa. Christian, Rev. L. H., Philadelphia. Christy, J. A., Mifflintown, Pa. Church, Harvey, Troy, N.Y. Clark, Miss Annie E., Washingtonville, Pa. Clark, John, Macomb, lU. Clark, John, Williamsburg, Pa. Clark, Lambert, West Chester, Pa. Clark, William F., Hat Creek, Va. 704 A LIST OF SUBSCKIBEKS TO THE Clarke, Freeman, Rochester, N.Y. Clarke, Henry S., D.D., Philadelphia. Clarke, Rev. Joseph, Chambersburg, Pa. Clarke, Robert C, Augusta, Ga. Clarke, Samuel S., Peoria, 111. Clayton, Rev. J. A., Clarkston, Mich. Clegg, IsaaCj Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Clift, Joseph, Holmesburg, Pa. Clifton, William B., Louisville, Ky. Close, H. L., Milroy, Pa. Close, W. T., Milroy, Pa. Cobb, Rev. A. P., Philadelphia. Cochran, Rev. William P., Hansons, Mo. Coffee, Alexander D., Florence, Ala. Coffee, Mrs. John, Florence, Ala. Collins, Charles, Philadelphia. Collins, Rev. Charles J., Wilkesbarre, Pa. Collins, Hon. Orestes, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Colt, Charles, Jr., Geneseo, N.Y. Colt, Rev. S. F., Towanda, Pa. Colwell, Stephen, Philadelphia. Condict, Rev. J. B., Stillwater, N.J. Condit, J. W., M.D., Dover, N.J. Condron, James, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Cone, Ephraim, Geneseo, N.Y. Connitt, Rev. G. W., Deep Run, Conn. Connor, E. T., Summit Hill, Pa. Conrad, Rev. L. L., West Manchester, Pa. Cook, Cyrus, Rome, Pa. Cook, Rev. Darwin, Rome, Pa. Cook, Watts, Scranton, Pa. Cook, William G., Trenton, N.J. Cook, Ziri, Rome, Pa. Cooper, A. B., Prairie Bluff, Ala. Cooper, Rev. Charles W., Pontiao, Mich. Cooper, John, Philadelphia. Cooper, Rev. Joseph T., Philadelphia. Cooper, Rev. S. M., Walker, Pa. , Copp, Rev. J. A., Chelsea, Mass. Corey, Rev. Benj., Perth Amboy, N.J. Corl, Nathan, Boalsburg, Pa. Corning, Erastus, Albany, N.Y. Cortright, N. D., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Coryell, M., Hazleton, Pa. Coulter, Rev. David, Lexington, Mo. Couper, James, M.D., Newcastle, Del. Couper, William, Newcastle, Del. Covert, Daniel, Franklin, la. Covert, George L., Franklin, la. Covert, P. G., Franklin, la. Cowell, Mrs. Sarah, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Cox, Alexander, Boalsburg, Pa. Crabb, Rev. John M., Bryan, 0. Craig, J., Augusta, Ga. Craig, Samuel, Bordentown, N.J. Crane, Walter B., Rondout, N.Y. Craven, Rev. Elijah R., Newark, N.J. Craven, H. L., Th. Sem., Princeton, N.J. Crawford, Alexander, Baltimore, Md. Crawford, Rev. A. L., Indiantown, S.C. Crawford, Armstrong, Sinking Valley, Pa. Crawford, E.D., M.D., Thompsontown, Pa. Crawford, Mrs.Eunice, SinkingValley,Pa. Crawford, Holmes, Chambersburg, Pa. Crawford, Joseph, Sinking Valley, Pa. Crawford, J. R., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Crawford, Rev. Robert, Crookville, Pa. Crawford, Rev. Thomas M., Slatehill, Pa. Creveling, Jacob V., Washington, N.J. Creveling, John A., Bloomsbury, N.J. Crook, William T., Crookville, Pa. Crooks, H. L., Galena, 111. Crouch, George, Bethel, Pa. Crowell, Rev. James M., Parksburg, Pa. CuUen, William, Rising Sun, la. Cumming, S. J., Monroeville, Ala. Gumming, Thomas, Williamsburg, Pa. Cummins, Col.Wm., Eishacoquillas, Pa. Cummins, Williamson, Belleville, Pa. Cunningham, R., Mifflintown, Pa. Curran, Rev. Richard, Petersburg, Pa. Curtin, Hon. A. G., Belief onte. Pa. Curwen, John, M.D., Harrisburg, Pa. Cuttler, J., Hardin, Iowa. Guttler, W., Hardin, Iowa. Cuyler, Mrs. C. C, Philadelphia. Cuyler, Theodore, Philadelphia. Dale, Rev. James W., Chester, Pa. Dales, Rev. J. B., Philadelphia. Dana, Ara, Tunkhannock, Pa. Dana, Daniel, D.D., Newburyport, Mass. Daniel, Hugh, Green Tree, Pa. Daniel, Mrs. R. T., Richmond, Va. Daughtrey, M. F., M.D., Portsmouth, Va. Davenport, Mrs. Mary, Hazleton, Pa. David, S., Knoxville, Ala. Davidson, A., Louisville, Ky. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 705 Davidson, Robt., D.D., N. BruaBTTick,N.J. Davidson, R., Troy, N.Y. Da^^cs, James W., Augusta, Ga. Davies, Rev. J.LeRoy,Coate'sTavem,S.C. Davis, Rev. J. B., Titusville, N.J. Davison, John S., Pittsburg, Pa. Deaderick, David A., Knoxrille, Tenn. Deal, Jolin, Frankford, Pa. Dean, Samuel, Williamsburg, Pa. Dean, W. W., West Liberty, Va. Dearin, Thomas, New Hamburg, N.Y. Delancy, N., Knoxville, Tenn. Dennis, N. M., Williamsburg, 0. Dennison, D. W., Philadelphia. Denniston, James, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Depuy, George, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Derriokson, Aquilla, Mermaid, Del. Dexter, Mrs. S., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Dick, Rev. John N., Kittanning, Pa. Dickey, Rev. Samuel, Oxford, Pa. Dickson, Rev. Cyrus, Baltimore, Md. Dickson, James N., Philadelphia. Dickson, Robert M., Vernon, Iowa. Diehl, Joseph, Danville, Pa. Dietrick, Mrs. C, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Dilworth, Robert, D.D., Enon Valley, Pa. Doak, Rev. D. G., Oxford, Miss. Doby, Joseph, Tulip, Ark. Dod, Rev. W. A., Princeton, N.J. Dodge, Rev. J. V., Springfield, 111. Dodson, Mrs. C, Weatherly, Pa. Donaldson, Mary C, Philadelphia. Donaldson, William, Tamaqua. Pa. Donnan, W. S., Richmond, Va. Doolittle, Rev. Henry L., Mill Hall, Pa. Doremus, Rev.J.E.C, Oakland Coll., Miss. Dorrance, Col. Charles, Kingston, Pa. Dorrance, John, D.D., Wilkesbarre, Pa. Dorrance, Mrs. P., Wilkesbarre, Pa. DoTsheimer, B., Scranton, Pa. Doty, Edmund S., MifElintown, Pa. Dougherty, S. B., Bordentown, N.J. Douglass, A. A., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Douglass, David, Shirleysburg, Pa. Douglass, E. A., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Dowd, C. H., Scranton, Pa. Dowd, William G., Scranton, Pa. Drake, Charles D., St. Louis, Me. Dreer, Henry J., Philadelphia. Du Bois, Edward, Tamaqua, Pa. Dudley, Rev. J. D., Dover's Mills, Va. Duffield, Rev. George, Jr., Philadelphia. Duffield, Rev. John T., Princeton, N.J. Duncan, Samuel, Sinking Valley, Pa. Duncan, Mrs. S. P., Port Gibson, Miss. Dungan, C. B., Philadelphia. Dunham, A. W., Clinton, N.J. Dunlap, James, Philadelphia. Dunlap, J. E., Theol. Sem., Columbia, S.C. Dunlap, John, Springfield, 0. Duulap, Robert, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Dunlap, Maj. W. S., Coates' Tavern, S.C. Dunwody, John, Boswell, Ga. Dwart, William L., Sunbury, Pa. Dysart, Alexander, Sinking Valley, Pa. Dysart, Joseph, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Eagleton, 6. E., CornersviUe, Tenn. Earp, Miss, Philadelphia. Easter, Hamilton, Baltimore, Md. Easton, Rev. William, Smyrna, Pa. Eaton, Rev. S. M. J., Franklin, Pa. Edgar, Rev. E. B., Westfield, N.J. Edgar, John, Philadelphia. Eckard, Rev. J. R., Washington, D.C. Edgar, Wm., Rahway, N.J. Edwards, James, Albany, N.Y. Edwards, Rev. J., South Hanover, la. Eells, Rev. W. W., Carlisle, Pa. Elliott, David, D.D., AUegheny City, Pa. Elliott, Rev. George, Alexandria, Pa. Elliott, Mrs. H. G., Philadelphia. Elliott, Theo. H., Philadelphia. Elmer, Hon. L. Q. C, Bridgeton, N.J. Elmer, Wm., M.D., Bridgeton, N.J. Elstun, W. P., M.D., Columbia, 0. Ely, Richard, Binghampton, N.Y. Emery, Wm. P., Flemington, N.J. Engle, Mrs. C. B., Germantown, Pa. Engle, J., SybertsviUe, Pa. Engle, M. D., Scr.inton, Pa. Engle, S., Hazleton, Pa. Engles, Joseph P., Philadelphia. Engles, Wm. M., D.D., Philadelphia. English, Rev. J. T., Liberty Corners, N.J. Erskine, Rev. E., Columbia, Pa. Erwin, John S., M.D., Marion, N.C. Esler, Benjamin, Philadelphia. 45 706 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE Espey, Jlrs. Agnes, Rising Sun, la. Evans, Rev. R. R., German town, Tenn. Everhart, James B., West Chester, Pa. Evins, Col. S. N., Spartanburg, S.C. Ewing, Amos, Battle Swamp, Md. Ewing, Rev. C. H.,WestPMladelpliia,Pa. Faires, J. W., Philadelphia. Faris, Rev. John M., Steubenville, 0. Farley, Mrs. S. R., CoUierSTille, Tenn. Farnum, P., Holmesburg, Pa. Farquhar, Rev. J. , Lower Chanceford, Pa. Farris, Rev. R. P., Peoria, 111. Farrow, James, Spartanburg, S.C. Feay, Joseph, Williamsburg, Pa. Fegley, Nathan, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Fell, Mrs. M. A., Waverley, Pa. Fellows, A. W., Summit Hill, Pa. Fenton, Rev. Jos. F., Kirkwood, Mo. Field, James, Philadelphia. Fillmore, Rev. J. 0., Batavia, N.Y. Fine, Hon. John, Ogdensburg, N.Y. Finlay, Rev. J. B., LL.D., Eittanning, Pa. Finley, Rev. J. P., Paris, Mo. Finley, Rev. Robert S., Metuohiu, N.J. Finley, W. R., M.D., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Fish, Jonathan, Trenton, N.J. Fishback, Charles, M.D., Shelbyville, la. Fisher, Rev. James P., Johnstown, N.Y. Fisk & Little, Albany, N.Y. Fithian, George, Philadelphia. Fithi.an, Joseph, M.D., Woodbury, N.J. Fitten, John H., Augusta, Ga. Fleming, John, Shelocta, Pa. Fleming, John M., CoUiersville, Tenn. Fleming, Morton, Shelocta, Pa. Fleming, Porter, Augusta, Ga. Fleming, Rev. W. A., Farmington, 111. Foote, W. Henry, D.D., Romney, Va. Ford, Rev. C. E., Williamstown, N.J. Foresman, Rev. R. B., Middaghs, Pa. Forest, Joseph, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Forman, Mrs. A. H., Easton, Pa. Forman, Rev. A. P., Hannibal, Mo. Forsyth, A. R., Greensburg, la. Forsythe, Rev.W. H., Mt. Pleasant, Ky. Foster, Asa L., Council Ridge, Pa. Foster, John C, Jr., Bethel, Pa. Foster, Rev. Julius, Towanda, Pa. Foster, Thomas, Galena, Dl. Foster, Wm., Boalsburg, Pa. Fowler, M. P., Tamaqua, Pa. Fowler, Peter, Y. B., Newburg, N.Y. Frazer, Simon A., Hinesville, Ga. Fredericks, J.F., Th. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Freeman, Alfred, M.D., New York City. Freeman, E. B., Scran ton, Pa. Frew, H. B., Mifflintown, Pa. Frierson, John M., College Hill, Miss. Frisbie, Chauncey, Rome, Pa. Frisbie, Zebulon, Rome, Pa. Frothingham, Rev. W., Johnstown, N.Y. Frymire, John, White Haven, Pa. Fuller, Charles, Scranton, Pa. Fuller, E. C. Scranton, Pa. Fuller, Mrs. Harriet, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Fuller, J. S., Scranton, Pa. Fulton, Mrs. Sarah A., Philadelphia. Fulton, William F. , Sumpterville, Ala. Futhey, J. Smith, West Chester, Pa. Gahgan, Daniel, Boalsburg, Pa. Galbraith, Rev. E. C, Baltimore, Md. Gale, E. Thompson, Troy, N.Y. Gamble, Archibald, St. Louis, Mo. Garvin, W. , Louisville, Ky. Gaston, Rev. Daniel, Philadelphia. Gates, Jabez, Germantown, Pa. Gayley, Andrew, Philadelphia. Gayley, Andrew W., Philadelphia. Gayley, James F., M.D., Philadelphia. Gayley, Oliver, Parkesburg, Pa. Gayley, Rev. S. A., Battle Swamp, Md. Gayley, Rev. S. M., Media, Pa. Gayley, Rev. S. R., Shanghae, China. Gazlay, Rev. Sayjrs, Williamsburg, Gibboney, D. C, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Gibson, David, Romney, Va. Gibson, George S., M.D., Baltimore, Md. Gibson, John, Philadelphia. Gibson, J. W., M.D., St. Louis, Mo. Gibson, William J., D.D., Walker, Pa. Giger, Rev. G. M., Princeton, N.J. Gilbraith, Rev. J. N., Kirkwood, Mo. Gilchrist, Charles, Hat Creek, Va. Gildersleeve, W. C, Wilkesbarre, Pa. GilfiUan, Henry, Philadelphia. Gillespie, James, Oxford, Miss. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 707 Gillespie, Mrs. Margaret, Rising Sun, la. GilUland, David, Potter's Mills, Pa. Gilliland, John, Potter's Mills, Pa. GiUiland, Samuel, Boalsburg, Pa. Gilmore, H., Sybertsville, Pa. Gilson, William B., Academia, Pa. Given, Rev. James, Bakerstown, Pa. Glazier, Henry, Huntingdon, Pa. Glen, Rev. Wm. R., German Valley, N.J. Godfrey, Walter B., Stewartsville, N.J. Godfi-y, T. A., Tremont, Pa. Going, A. Pleasant Grove, Ala. Going, E. T., Pleasant Grove, Ala. Good, Abraham, Nescopeck, Pa. Good, Anthony, Nescopeck, Pa. Good, James, Nescopeck, Pa. Gordon, A. A., Louisville, Ky. Gordon, George, Philadelphia. Gordon, J. Smith, Th.Sem.,Princeton,N.J. Gould, W. H., D.D., Edinburgh, Scotland. Gould, William F., Augusta, Ga. Grafius, Israel, Alexandria, Pa. Graham, G. M., M.D., Perrysville, Pa. Graham, James, Philadelphia. Graham, John, Philadelphia. Graham, Rev. W. R., Woodbury, N.J. Grant, John C, Trenton, N.J. Grant, W. H., Richmond, Va. Gray, J. H., D.D., Memphis, Tenu. Giay, John, D.D., Easton, Pa. Gray, Robert, Philadelphia. Gray, Wm. H., Philadelphia. Green, Caleb S., Trenton, N.J. Green, Rev. E. H., Portersville, Tenn. Green, George S., Trenton, N.J. Green, Henry W., Trenton, N.J. Green, John B., Philadelphia. Green, John C, New York. Green, Rev. W. Henry, Princeton, N.J. Gregg, Rev. George C, MayesvUle, S.C. Gregory, Rev. C. R., Oneida, N.Y. Gregory, Henry D., Philadelphhia. Gretter, G. W., Richmond, Va. Grier, James K., Brandywine Manor, Pa. Grier, J. Mason, Palmyra, Mo. Grier, John C, Peoria, HI. Grier, Rev. J. W., U.S.N., Philadelphia. Grier, Rev. M. B., Wibnington, N.C. Grier, M. C, Danville, Pa. Grier, M. C, Philadelphia. Grimes, Rev, J. S., Salem, 0. Griswold, John L., Peoria, III. Groninger, Jacob, Perrysville, Pa. Grove, Rev. T. A., Wegee, 0. Grubb, William A., Philadelphia. Gubby, Rev. James, St. Louis, Mo. Gmteau, Rev. S., Baltimore, Md. Guthrie, Rev. H. W., Mackinac, Mich. Guthrie, Miss Margaret, Cedar Creek, Ky. Gwatheney, Mrs. H. B., Richmond, Va. Gwin, Hon. James, Huntingdon, Pa. Gwynn, Samuel, Louisville, Ky. Hageman, William L., Williamsburg, 0. Hagerty, Joseph, Sinking Valley, Pa. Haggarty, Miss Mary, Belleville, Pa. Haines, A.W., Theol. Sem., Allegheny,Pa. Haines, R. T., Elizabeth, N.J. Hale, Rev. George Pennington, N.J. Hall, J. A., Huntingdon, Pa. Hall, John, D.D., Trenton, N.J. Hall, Wilfred, Philadelphia. Halsey, L., D.D., Blooming Grove, N.Y. Halsey, Rev. L. J., Louisville, Ky. Halsey, Stephen A., Astoria, L. I., N.Y. Halsy, R. C, Jr., M.D., White Haven, Pa. Hamersley, Rev. Wm., Rough Creek, Va. Hamill, Rev. Robert, Boalsburg, Pa. Hamill, Rev. S., Lawrenoeville, N.J. Hamilton, Alfred, D.D., Cochran ville, Pa. Hamilton, Miss C, Philadelphia. Hamilton, James, Annapolis, 0. Hamilton, James, Washington City, D.C. Hamilton, R. R., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Hamilton, .Thomas, Indiana, Pa. Hand, Rev. A. H., Bloomsbury, N.J. Handy, Rev. I. W. K,, Portsmouth, Va. Hanewinckel, F. W., Richmond, Va. Hannay, A. M., Florence, Ala. Happersett, R., D.D., Philadelphia. Hardwick, Mrs. M. A., Philadelphia. Hardy, Mrs. Delia H., Asheville, N.C. Harned, Rev. A. G., Summit Hill, Pa. Harper, James, Philadelphia. Harper, John M., Philadelphia. Harper, T. Esmond, Philadelphia. Harrington, James, Scranton, Pa. Harris, Francis, Bordentown, N.J. 708 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE Harris, Kev. John S., Guthriesville, S.C. Harris, WilUam D., New York. Harrison, A. S., Huntingdon, Pa. Harrison, J. R., Princeton, N.J. Harshberger, A., M.D., Perrysville, Pa. Hartz, Miss Mary, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Harvey, Joseph, Pliiladelphia. Harvey, Samuel, Germantown, Pa. Hassinger, Rev. Peter, Moro, lU. Hasbler, CharlesW., Washington City,D.C. Hatch, Rev. L. D., Greensborough, Ala. Hautz, D., M. D., Alexandria, Pa. Hay, Rev. Samuel H., Camden, S.C. Hays, Christiana, Williamsport, Pa. Hays, John, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Hays, John R., Williamsport, Pa. Hazard, F., Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Hazlett, Andrew, AUenville, Pa. Hazlctt, Mrs. Ann C, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Hazzard, Samuel, Sr., Philadelphia. Heacock, Rev. Jos.S., Kingsborough,N.Y. Headings, John, AUenville, Pa. Heaton, Reuben, Tamaqua, Pa. Heaton, Mrs. Sarah, Tamaqua, Pa. Heberton, Rev. A., Williamsport, Pa. Heberton, G. Craig, M.D., Philadelphia. Heebner, Abraham, Port Carbon, Pa. Helm, Rev. James I., Princeton, N.J. Henderson, Mrs. C, Florence, Ala. Henderson, Rev. James, Newville, Pa. Henderson, Joseph, Slielocta, Pa. Henderson, Thomas, Franklin, la. Hendrick, J. T., D.D., Clarksville, Tenn. Henry, Alexander, Columbia, Ky. Henry, Mrs. Alexander, Philadelphia. Henry, E., Nescopeck, Pa. Henry, George, Philadelphia. Henry, George W., Philadelphia. Henry, Rev. James V., Jersey City, N.J. Henry, Mrs. John S., Gei-mantown, Pa. Henry, Rev. P. B., Bridgeton, N.J. Henry, Rev. Robert, Belfast, Ireland. Henry, S. C, D.D., Cranberry, N.J. Henry, William, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Hepburn, A., M.D., Williamsport, Pa, Hepburn, Rev. S. C, Goshen, N.Y. Heroy, Rev. P. B., Bridgeton, N.J. Herron, James B., Hillsborough, 0. Heston, Elisha B., Boalsburg, Pa. Hetrick, Andrew J., Elizabeth, N.J. Heugh, Walter, Philadelphia. Hewett, Benjamin L., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Hewett, Joseph N., Williamsburg, Pa. Hewit, N., D.D., Bridgeport, Conn. Hibben, Hon. A., Haddrells, S.C. Hickok, Rev. Milo J., Scranton, Pa. Hileman, Philip, HoUidaysburg, Pa. HUes, James, Oxford Furnace, N.J. Hinchman, Reuben, Salem, N.J. Hinsdale, Rev. H. G., Oyster Bay, N.T. Hitchcock. Rev. R. S., Baltimore, Md. Hoagland, 0. M., Bardolph, lU. Hodge, Rev. A. A., Fredericksburg, Va. Hodge, Charles, D.D., Princeton, N.J. Hodge, Hugh, M.D., Philadelphia. Hodge, Rev. J. A., Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Hoffman, Josiah, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Holby, John, Greensburg, la. HoUenbaok, Mrs. Sallie, WUkesbarre, Pa, HoUond, Miss H., Philadelphia. Holt, B. S., Baltimore, Md. Holt, Mrs., West Chester, N.Y. Hood, A., BridgeviUe, Ala. Hood, John, Sr., Kittanuing, Pa. Hood, M. G., Philadelphia. Hood, Samuel, Sr., Philadelphia. Hope, Levi, Oxford, Miss. Hopkins, John, Scranton, Pa. Hornblower, Rev. W. H., Paterson, N.J. Houser, Sophia, White Haven, Pa. Houston, Robert, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Houston, Rev. S. R., Union, Va. Howard, Mrs. B. C, Baltimore, Md. Howard, Pleasant C, Hat Creek, Va. Howard, W. D., D.D., Pittsburg, Pa. Howard, WUliam T., Hat Creek, Va. Howe, Alvah, Bedford, N.Y. Howe, Mrs. Anna M., North Salem, N.Y. Howe, George, D.D., Columbia, S.C. HoweU, Rev. J. L., Dobbs's Fen-y, N.Y. Howsley, Rev. Alban S., Greenville, Ky. Hoy, James, Trenton, N.J. Hoyt, H. F., Theol. Sem., Columbia, S.C. Hoyte, Rev. James W., Nashville, Tenn. Hudson, Wm. A., Shade Gap, Pa. Huey, William, Shade Gap, Pa. Hughes, Rev. James E., Baltimore, Md. Hulburt, Chauncey, Philadelphia. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 709 Hulshizer, Darnel, Stewartsville, N.J. Humphrey, E. P., D.D., DLmville, Ky. Humphrey, Hugh, Albany, N.Y. Humphrey, James E., Keokuk, Iowa. Humphrey, J. D., Towanda, Pa. Hunt, G. F., Rodney, Miss. Hunt, Rev. Thomas P., Wyoming, Pa. Hunter, David, M.D., Tamaqua, Pa. Hunter, Rev. John, Danville, Ky. Huuter, Miss Nancy, Sunbury, Pa. Hunte^^, William, Kent, Pa. Hunter, Rev. William, Clinton, Pa. Huntington, Rev. C, EUicott's Mills, Md, Husted, Rev. John, Zion, Md. Hutchinson, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Hutchinson, Saml. B., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Hutchinson, Saml. N. , Mauch Chunk, Pa. Huyett, H. G., Williamsburg, Pa. Hyndman, Hugh, White Haven, Pa. Hyndman, James, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Hyndman, Mark, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Hyndshaw, Miss E., Stewartsville, N.J. Hynes, Rev. T. W., Greenville, 111. Ingham, Samuel D., Trenton, N.J. Invilliers, C. E. de, Philadelphia. Irvine, James, Florence, Ala. Irvine, William H., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Irwin, Crawford, M.D., Hollidaysburg,Pa. Irwin, Rev. D. S., Louisiana, Mo. Irwin, James, Philadelphia. Jack, William, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Jackson, Mrs. James, Florence, Ala. Jackson, Mrs. T., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Jacob, R. U., Lewistown, Pa. Jacobs, Rev. Ferdinand, Charleston, S.C. Jacobs, John, Perrysville, Pa. Jacobs, S., Sybertsville, Pa. Jacobus, Melancthon W., Pittsburg, Pa. Jacques, John, Washingtonville, N.Y. Jagger, Rev. S. H., Marlborough, N.Y. James, J. A., M.D., Indiantown, S.C. Jamison, Daniel, Philadelphia. Janeway, J. J., D.D., New Brunswick,N. J. Janeway, Rev. J. L., Flemington, N.J. Janvier, George W., Pittsgrove, N.J. Jardine, Thomas, West Chester, N.Y. Jenuison, Rev. J. F., DanviUe, Pa. Jewett, Rev. D., Wilkosbarre, Pa. Johnson, Mrs.AmeliaG.jHoUidaysburgjPa. Johnson, James T., Boalsburg, Pa. Johnson, Rov. John, Sybertsville, Pa. Johnson, L., Philadelphia. Johnson, Rev. 0. M., New Hampton, N.Y. Johnson, Stephen, Unionville, S.C. Johnson, William H., Newton, N.J. Johnston, D. 0. N., SteubenviUe, 0. Johnston, Francis, Philadelphia. Johnston, Robert, Bethel, Pa. Johnstone, Rev. W. 0., Philadelphia. Jones, Benjamin, Orangeville, Pa. Jones, Rev. Charles J., New York. Jones, Hon. Joel, Philadelphia. Jones, Rev. John, Scottsville, N.Y. Jones, Joseph H., D.D., Philadelphia. Jones, Paul T.; Philadelphia. Jones, Samuel B., D.D., Bridgeton, N.J. Jones, Simon, Scranton, Pa. Jordan, A., Sunbury, Pa. Joseph, John M., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Juukin, David X.,D.D.,Hollidaysburg,Pa. Junkin, J. M., M.D., Holmesbuig, Pa. Kaufman, Rev. J. H., Baltimore, Md. Keck, Charles L., White Haven, Pa. Keen, Peter, Nesoopeck, Pa. Kellam, S. L., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Keith & Woods, St. Louis, Mo. Kelly, Rev. David, Rock Island, lU. Kelly, John P., Perrysville, Pa. Kelly, Joseph, M.D., Academia, Pa. Kelly, Mrs. Mary E., CharlottesviUe, Va. Kelso, John T., Baltimore, Md. Kennedy, Mrs. David S., New York. Kennedy, D., D.D., Troy, N.Y. Kennedy, Rev. James F., Dickinson, Pa. Kennedy, John, Lewistown, Pa. Kennedy, Rev. E. W. B., Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Kennedy, T. B., Chambersburg, Pa. Kennedy, WiUiam, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Kenny, Miss Elizabeth, BellevUle, Pa. Kerr, George, Thistle, Md. Kerr, James, AUenville, Pa. Kerr, John, Troy, N.Y. Kerr, William, Potter's Jlills, Pa. Kierstead, J. 0., Scranton, Pa. 710 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE King, Mrs. B., Roswell, G-a. King, Jacob, Holmesburg, Pa. King, James Roswell, Eoswell, Ga. King, Joseph L., Knoxville, Tenn. King, E. H., Albany, N.Y. King, T. E., Eoswell, Ga. Kinkead, James JI., Williamsburg, Pa. Kinzy, P., Hazletoa, Pa. Kirlsham, Mrs. Thomas, Florence, Ala. Kirkpatrick, Rey. J., Jr., Trenton, N.J. Kline, Eev. A. L., Tuscumbia, Ala. Knauss, Rachel, White Haven, Pa. Kneeling, W. B., Th. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Knickerbocker, Mrs. J. , Waterford, N.Y. Knighton, Eev. F., Belvidere, N.J. Knowles, L. D., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Knowlson, James S., Troy, N.Y. Kuowlson, E. J., Troy, N.Y. Knowlson, Mrs. R. J., Troy, N.Y. Knowlson, Eichard J., Sand Lake, N.Y. Knox, A., Philadelphia. Knox, Eev. J. H. M., Germantown, Pa. Kooher, Conrad, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Kolb, Frederick T., Tamaqua, Pa. Kough, Jacob, Indiana, Pa. Krebs, John M., D.D., New York. Kutz, Henry C, Philadelphia. Ladd, Eev. Francis D., Philadelphia. Ladson, George W., Milledgeville, Ga. Lafferty, Eev. E. H., Charlotte, N.C. Laman, George, Philadelphia. Lane, Eev. Charles W., Talmage, Ga. Lane, Rev. C. R., Tunkhannock, Pa. Lane, George, Fort Montgomery, N.Y. Lane, John G., Meigsville, 0. Lane, Rev. John J., Wrightsville, Pa. Lanier, T. C, Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Lanterman, William, Moro, 111. Lash ell, James M., Atlenville, Pa. Lathrop, A., Willimantic, Conn. Latimer, Misses, Philadelphia. Latta, Rev. James, Parkesburg, Pa. Latta, Rev. W. W., Honey Brook, Pa. Lauderdale, W. E., Geneseo, N.Y. Lawrence, Rev. S., Milroy, Pa. Leaman, Eev. John, M.D., Blue Ball, Pa. Lee, Edward W., Ballston Spa, N.Y. Leeper, Samuel, Columbiana, Ala. Leet, J. D., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Leggett, C, Mauch chunk. Pa. Leisenring, Mrs. A.M., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Leisenring, John, Council Ridge, Pa. Leisenring, Reuben, Council Eidge, Pa. Lemon, E. M., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Lewis, Asa S., College Hill, Miss. Lewis, J. L., Shelocta, Pa. Lewis, Justus, Rome, Pa. Lewers, Dickenson, Summit Hill, Pa. Lewers, Dixon, Summit Hill, Pa. , Leybum, John, D.D., Philadelphia. Library, Alexander Soo. of Inquiry, Phila. Library, Bd. of Domestic Missions, Phila. Library, Bd. of Education, Philadelphia. Library, Bd. of Foreign Missions, N.York. Library, Bd. of Publication, Philadelphia. Library, Classical Institute, Media, Pa. Library, Edge Hill School, Princeton,N. J. Library, Henry Instituteof Science, Phila. Library, Judson College, La Grange, Ga. Library, New York State, Albany, N.Y. Library, Presb. Ch., Dobbs's Ferry, N.Y. Library, Presb. Ch., Frankford, Pa. Library, Presb'n Hist. Soc, Philadelphia. Library, Eoseland Fem.Ins,,Hartsville,Pa. Library, Second Presb. Ch., Troy, N.Y. Library, Theol. Seminary, Allegheny, Pa. Library, Theol. Seminary, Danville, Ky. Library, Theol. Seminary, Princeton, N.J. Library, Th. Sem. , Eef. Presb'n Ch. , Phila, Liggett, B,., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Limaster, W. P., Memphis, Tenn. Line, S. M., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Lingle, Thomas, Potter's Fort, Pa. Linn, Samuel, Hillsborough, 0. Lippincott, Charles, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Lippincott, Thomas E., Holmesburg, Pa. Lisa, Mrs. Mary M., Galena, HI. Littell, Eev. Luther, Mount Hope, N.Y. Livermore, Alonzo, Sunbury, Pa. Lockhart, Robert, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Lookwood, C. N., Troy, N.Y. Lockwood, H. N., Troy, N.Y. Logan, S. A., Johnstown, Pa. Logan, Rev. Saml. C, Constantino, Mich. Long, Thomas, Summit Hill, Pa. Lombaert, H. J., Altoona, Pa. Longshore, Mrs. Ann, Weatherly, Pa. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 711 Lorance, Rev. James H., Courtland, Ala. Lord, Hon. Scott, Geneseo, N.Y. Lord, Willis, D.D., Brooklyn, N.Y. Loucks, Peter 0., Peoria, 111. Loughmiller,W. C.,P.M.,Springplace,Ga. Love, Rev. Thomas, Loveville, Del. Lovejoy, Amos, Baltimore, Md. Lovcland, George W., Kingston, Pa. Lovell, John T., Dubuque, Iowa. Lowrie, John C, D.D., New York. Lowrie, Rev. John M,, Lancaster, 0. Lowry, Rev. A. M., Port Carbon, Pa. Lucas, Alexander, Shelocta, Pa. Lull, Augustus A., Pontiac, Mich. Lupton, Henry B., Bridgeton, N.J. Lyon, Rev. D. C, Bedford, N.Y. Lyon, John, Stover's Place, Pa. Lyon, Seth, Bedford, N.Y. Lyon, William M., Pittsburg, Pa. Lyons, Rev. D. W. , Hardin, Iowa. Lyons, J. R., Scranton, Pa. Lytle, Griffith, Boalsburg, Pa. Macalester, Charles, Philadelphia. Macallister, James, Philadelphia. Waodonald, Rev. J. M., Princeton, N.J. Macfarlane, J., Towanda, Pa. MacKellar, Thomas, Philadelphia. JIacklin, A., D.D., Philadelphia. Maclean, John, D.D., Princeton, N.J. Magie, David, D.D., Elizabeth, N.J. Magill, Miss Helen, Boswell, Ga. Main, William S., Pliiladelphia. Maitland, Miss Sarah, West Chester, N.Y. Mangum, Darius R., New Hamburg, N.Y. Mann, John E., HinesviUe, Ga. Mannes, William, W., Scranton, Pa. Markle, G., Hazleton, Pa. Marquis, Rev. John, Henry, 111. Marr, William P., M.D., Tamaqua, Pa. Marsh, Ephm., Schooley'3Mountain,N.J. Marshall, George, D.D., Bethel, Pa. Marshall, Mrs. L. R., Natchez, Miss. Marshall, T. L., Battle Swamp, Md. Martien, Wm. S. & A., Philadelphia. Martin, Rev. B. A., Hat Creek, Va. Martin, Mrs. Harriet, Hazleton, Pa. Marvin, Alexander, Albany, N.Y. Marvine, H. L., Scranton, Pa. Mason, Rev. J. D., Davenport, Iowa. Mason, W. P., New York. Masser, G. W., M.D., Scranton, Pa. Massey, Ann, Port Kennedy, Pa. Mateer, Rev. Joseph, Curllsville, Pa. Matheson, A. S., Columbus, Ga. Masters, Rev. F. R., Mattewan, N.Y. Mathews, E. M., Oxford, Miss. Mattes, Charles F., Scranton, Pa. Matthews, Rev. James, Danville, Ky. Maybin, Thomas, M.D., Kent, Pa, Mayne, James S., Princeton, N.J. McAleese, Rev. D. M., Montgomery, N.Y. McAllister, H. N., Bellefonte, Pa. McAllister, James, Philadelphia. McAllister, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. McArthur, John, Philadelphia. McAuley, Rev. R. M., Philadelphia. McAuley, Rev. Wm. H., Uniontown, Ala. McCahen, James A., HoUidaysburg, Pa. McCall, Mrs. H. K., Stewartsville, N.J. McCalla, Rev. W. L., Ashwood, La. McCallister, Rev. J. R., Rock Island, 111. McCamant, Mrs. Mary, Tipton, Pa. McCanagher, John, Wilkesbarre, Pa. McCants, William, Haddrells, S.C. McCarter, Agnes, Newton, N.J. McCarter, Mrs. Eliza, Newton, N.J. McCarter, J. James, Newton, N.J. McCarter, Mary E., Newton, N.J. McCarter, Thomas N., Newton, N.J. McCaskie, Rev. James, Philadelphia. JlcCaskill, H., Clauselville, Ala. McChesney, R., M.D., Shelocta, Pa. McClay, Samuel, M.D., Milroy, Pa. McClellan, R. H., Galena, III. McClelland, H. T., Altoona, Pa. McClelland, Miss Jane, Belleville, Pa. McClerkin, John, Portersville, Tenn. McClintock, Andrew T., Wilkesbarre, Pa. MoClintock, Robert, Clinton Depot, S.C. McCloskey, R., Phcenixville, Pa. McClure, A. K., Chambersburg, Pa. McClure, Archibald, Albany, N.Y. McClure, H. K., Chambersburg, Pa. McClure, John, Philadelphia. McCollum,MissMaryA.,Williamsport,Pa. McConn, John T., Troy, N.Y. MoConneU, B. R., M.D., Summit Hill, Pa. ri2 A LIST OF SUBSCEIBERS TO THE JlcConnell, John, Philadelphia. McCoray, M. M., Monroeville, Ala. McCoi-ay, Neal, Monroeville, Ala. JlcCord, J. D., Pittsburg, Pa. McCord, Rev. W. J., Tribe's Hill, N.Y. McCormick, Hugh, Belleville, Pa. JJcCormick, Rev. W. J.,Yonguesville, S.C. iMuCoy, Daniel, Shelocta, Pa. JlcCoy, John A., Peoria, 111. McCrea, James, Mauch Chunk, Pa. McCrea, William, Mauch Chunk, Pa. McCreary, Irvine P., Moulton, Ala. McCue, Miss A. E., Mechanicsburg, Pa. McCullough, William, Belleville, Pa. McCullough, William, West Chester, Pa. JlcCune, Clement, Philadelphia. JlcCurdy, D.avid, Philadelphia. McDonald, Rev. S. H., Belleville, Pa. McDowell, John, D.D., Philadelphia. McDowell, Robert, Slatington, Pa. JIcEIvain, J. N., Litchfield, 111. McFadcn, Archibald, Hollidaysburg, Pa. McFarland, Rev. D., Elmwood, 111. JIcFarland, W., Kent, Pa. McFarlano, Andrew, Milroy, Pa. JIcFarlane, W. K., Minneapolis, Min. Ter. McGill, A. T., D.D., Princeton, N.J. McGill, William, Franklin, la. McGlashan, Cyrus, Meigsville, 0. JlcIIenry, Stephen, Philadelphia. Mcllwain, Rev. A., Indiana, Pa. .Uclntyre, Archibald, Germantown, Pa. Mclntyre, J. A. , Theo. Sem. , Allegheny,Pa. McKee, James, Kent, Pa. McKee, Mrs. Lilley, Greensburg, la. McKee, Samuel, Columbia, Ky. McKee, W. B., Theol. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. JIcKeen, Col. Thomas, Easton, Pa. McKeen, Mrs. Thomas, Easton, Pa. McKeever, WiUiam, Summit Hill, Pa. McKennan, Rev. Jas.W., West Liberty, Va. McKibben, Chambers, Chambersbiirg, Pa. SIcKinley, B. B., Philadelphia. JIcKinney, A., Philadelphia. McKinney,A.F.,M.D.,Germantown,Tenn. McLean, D. V., D.D., Easton, Pa. McLean, Rev. Heetor, Melrose, N.C. JlcLean, .Jiimes, Jr., Summit Hill, Pa. McLean, S. C, Mauch Chunk, Pa. McMullin, John S., Philadelphia. McMullin, Rev. J.P., Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Mciiullin, Rev. R. B., KnoxviUe, Tenn. McMullin, Rev. S. H., Newburg, N.Y. McMui-ray, A. S., M.D., Philadelphia. McMurray, Rev. Jos., Newportville, Pa. McMurtrie, J., Summit Hill, Pa. McNair, Rev. John, Clinton, N.J McNair, Robert, Macomb, 111. McNeil, B. F., Mauch Chunk, Pa. McNeill, W. H., Columbus, Ga. MoNite, William, Shirleysburg, Pa. McOmber, Philip H., Ballston Spa, N.Y. McPheeters, Joseph, Philadelphia. McPhersoD, James, Port Kennedy, Pa. MoVioker, James, WashingtonviUe, Pa. Mead, Miss Loretta, North Salem, N.Y. Mead, Sarah, North Salem, N.Y. ' Mears, H., Hazleton, Pa. Mears, H. H., Hazleton, Pa. Mears, John S., Shelocta, Pa. Mebane, Rev. Wm. N., Madison, N.C. Menaidi, A. E., Wysox, Pa. Merle de Aubigne, J. H., D.D., Geneva, Switzerland. Metcalfe, Rev. A. D., Macon, Tenn. Metcalf, Rowland, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Metz, John, Williamsburg, Pa. Meyer, M. H., Dobbs's Ferry, N.Y. Miles, George, Huntingdon, Pa. Miles, Samuel, Baltimore, Md. Millard, Walter, New Hamburg, N.Y. Millen, Hugh, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Miller, Charles H., Huntingdon, Pa. Miller, Mrs. C, Danville, Pa. Miller, Jacob, Huntingdon, Pa. Miller, Joseph, Bethel, Pa. Miller, Rev. J. E., Stroudsburg, Pa. Miller, Gen. J. W., Spartanburg, S.C. Miller, Rev. L. Merrill, Ogdensburg, N.Y. Miller, R. Allison, M.D., Huntingdon, Pa. Miller, Samuel, Memphis, Mo. Miller, Sarah, Sybertsville, Pa. Miller, William, Philadelphia. Miller, W. T., Spartanburg, S.C. Milligan, William, Potter's Mills, Pa. I Milliken, D. F., Kishacoquillas, Pa. Milliken, John, Aoademia, Pa. Milliken, Thomas J., Academia, Pa. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 713 Milton, John, Louisyille, Ky. Miner, Mrs. Joshua, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Mitchell, Joseph B., German town, Pa. Mitchell, Joseph G., Germantown, Pa. Mitchell, W. C, Milroy, Pa. Mitchell, William H., D.D., Florence, Ala. Moifatt, Rev. James C, Princeton, N.J. Mollison, Gilbert, Oswego, N.Y. Montgomery, Mrs. Jane B., DanTille, Pa. Montgomery, Rev.J. S., Yazoo City, Miss. Moodie, Thomas, Columbus, 0. Moody, S. S., Louisville, Ky. Moore, E. C, Newton, N.J. Moore, George W., Sinking Valley, Pa. Moore, .Jesse, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Moore, John, Boalsburg, Pa. Moore, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Moore, Perry, Sinking Valley, Pa. Moore, Samuel, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Moore, Samuel, Philadelphia. Moore, Silas, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Moore, Thomas B., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Moore, T. V., D.D., Richmond, Va. Moore, Hon. T. W., Lewistown, Pa. Moore, Rev. William E., West Chester, Pa. Morgan, E. D., West Chester, N.Y. Morgan, Rev. Gilbert, Harmony Coll., S.C. Morgan, Rev. J. J. A., Bridesburg, Pa. Morgan, Miss L., Hartford, Conn. Morris, Miss E., Thistle, Md. Morris, Rev. George, Mechanicsburg, Pa. Morris, Janet, Mechanicsburg, Pa. Morris, Rev. T. C. , Mountain Home, Ala. Morrison, Rev. A. A., Jones's Creek, 111. Morrison, Mrs. Hannah, SpringfieldyO. Morrison, H.M., Theo. Sem. , Columbia, S.C. Morrison, J. M., M.D., Waterloo, Pa. Morrison, Hon. J. R., Academia, Pa. Morrison, Rev. Robt., Cedar Creek, Ky. Morrison,Mrs. SallieB. , Shepherdsville,Ky. Morrow, Arthur, Bethel, Pa. Morrow, James, Wilmington, Del. Morrow, James S., HoUidaysburg, Pa. Jlorrow, Mrs. Marg., Sinking Valley, Pa. Moses, Lorenzo, New York. Mott, Rev. George S., Rahway, N.J. Mullen, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Mundy,RevE.F.,SmithtownBranch,N.Y. Munson, Rev. Asahel, Jackson, Mo. Murkland, Rev. S. S., Richmond, Va. Murphy, Rev. Thomas, Frankford, Pa. Murphy, W. R., Trenton, N.J. Murray, Joseph A., Dillsburg, Pa. Murray, Nicholas, D.D., Elizabeth, N.J. Murray, William, Dobbs's Ferry, N.Y. Musgrave, G. W., D.D., Philadelphia. Myriok, Mrs. H. A., Pontiac, Mich. Nace, Jacob D., White Haven, Pa. Naginey, J. D., Milroy, Pa. Nassau, C. W., D.D., Lawrenceville, N.J. Nassau, Rev. Joseph E., Warsaw, N.Y. Needham, B., Scran ton. Pa. Neff, John K., Williamsburg, Pa. Neil, John, Kent, Pa. Neill, William, D.D., Philadelphia. Nelson, John, Annapolis, 0. Nelson, R., Philadelphia. Nesbitt, Joseph, Norristown, Pa. Nevin, Alfred, D.D., Lancaster, Pa. Nevin, Rev. D. E., Sewicklyville, Pa. Nevins, William, Quincy, 111. New, C. B., M.D., Rodney, Miss. Newell, Rev. George W., Orangeville, Pa. Newell, Rev. T. M., Waynesville, 111. Newlands, Mrs. Francis, Troy, N.Y. Newton, Rev. Thomas H., St. Louis, Mo. Nicholas, William P., Newton, N.J. Nichols, Rev. James, Geneseo, N.Y. Nickle, James, Battle Swamp, Md. Nixon, Rev. J. Howard, Cambridge, N.Y. Nixon, J. T., Bridgeton, N.J. Nixon, W. G., Bridgeton, N.J. Norris, Isaac, Jr., M.D., Philadelphia. Norton, B., Newton Hamilton, Pa. Notson, W., M.D., Philadelphia. Nowell, Miss M. E. A., Newburyport, Mass. Oakes, E. W., New Topia, Ala. Oakes, W. F., Buzbeeville, Ala. Ogden, Rev. John W., Nashville, Tenn. Okeson, Samuel, Academia, Pa. Olcott, T. W., Albany, N.Y. Olmstead, H. M., Philadelphia. Olmstead, Rev. J. M., Philadelphia. Orbison, William P., Huntingdon, Pa. Orne, Mrs. S. T., Philadelphia. 714 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE OiT, Rev. Franklin, Kent, Pa. Orr, Jolin, Sinking Valley, Pa. Orr, Robert, Philadelphia. Orr, Rev. Samuel, Gordo, Ala. Orr, Thomas, Philadelphia. Osier, J. T., Princeton, N.J. Osmond, Rev. Jonathan, Bald Mount, Pa. Osmond, Rev. S. M., Lambertville, N. J. Owen, Rev. Griffith, Baltimore, Md. Owen, Hannah, Sr., Joifersonville, Pa. Owen, Rev. Roger, Chestnut Hill, Pa, Owens, William J., Trenton, N.J. Paddock, Mrs. E., Pontiao, Mich. Page, Rev. J. A., St. Louis, Mo. Painter, Rev. Joseph, Kittanning, Pa. Palmer, B. M., 1».D., New Orleans, La. Palmer, Rev. Edward, Pocotaligo, S.O. Palmer, John J., West Chester, N.Y. Palmer, S. C, Philadelphia. Pardee, Mrs. Anna M., Hazleton, Pa. Parish, ]Urs. Phoebe, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Parke, Rev. N. Grier, Pittston, Pa. Parke, T. H., Battle Swamp, Md. Parker, Mrs. Dr., Port Gibson, Miss. Parsons, Rev. W. S., Wilkesbarre, Pa. Paterick, John, Tamaqua, Pa. Patterson, Andrew, Academia, Pa. Putterson, A., Williamsburg, Pa. Patterson, A. L., Independence, Pa. Patterson, Mrs. George, Springfield, Md. Patterson, James, Academia, Pa. Patterson, James, Dobbs's Ferry, N.Y. Patterson, J. H., M.D., Baltimore, Md. Patterson, John, Academia, Pa. Patterson, John, Philadelphia. Patterson, Mrs. Mai-y, Academia, Pa. Patterson, N. Summit Hill, Pa. Patterson, Robert M., Princeton, N.J. Patterson, Robert, Richmond, 0. Patterson, Rev, R., Oakland College, Miss. Patterson, Rev. Wm., Poundridge, N.Y. Pattison, James, Waterloo, Pa. Pattison, Peobert, Holmesburg, Pa. Patton, Hon. R. M., Florence, Ala. Patton, Robert, Philadelphia. Patton, Thomas J., Knoxville, Ala. Paul, Sampson, Waltcrborough, S.C. Paull, Rev. Alfred, Wheeling, Va. Paxton, Rev. Thomas N., Marion, N.C. Paxton, Rev. William M., Pittsburg, Pa. Pease, Erastus H., Albany, N.Y. Peck, Rev. Thomas E., Baltimore, Md. Peebles, Matthew W., Bloody Run, Pa. Peeler, Jacob, Indiana, Pa. Pemberton, Ebenezer, Albany, N.Y. Perkins, Elisha H., Baltimore, Md. Perkins, Rev. Henry, AUentown, N.J. Peters, A. F., White Haven, Pa. Pettigrew, John, Sheloota, Pa. Pettigrew, John G., Philadelphia. Pettingell, Moses, Newburyport, Mass. Pharr, Edward, M.D., Houston, Ga. Pharr, Rev. Walter S., Park's Store, N.C. Phelps, Mrs. C, Pontiac, Mich. Phillips, Rev. B. T., Rondout, N.Y. Phillips, George C, Selma, Ala. Pierson, Rev. D. H., Elizabeth, N.J. Pierson, Rev. George, Florida, N.Y. Pierson, Rev. N. E., Unionville, N.Y. Piffard, Miss S., Piffard, N.Y. Pinkerton,J.A.,Theo.Sem.,Allegheny,Pa. Piper, G. W., M.D., Philadelphia. Piatt, Ebenezer, New York. Piatt, W. H., Scranton, Pa. Plumer, George, Independence, Pa. Plumer, W. S., D.D., Allegheny, Pa. Polk, James A., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Pollock, Hon. James, Harrisburg, Pa. Pollock, Samuel, M.D., Williamsport, Pa. Porter, Alexander, Springfield, 0. Porter, Rev. David H., Savannah, Ga. Porter, James M., Jr., Easton, Pa. Porter, J. Barron, M.D., Bridgeton, N.J. Porter, John, Alexandria, Pa. Porter, Hon. J. M., LL.D., Easton, Pa. Porter, Robert, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Porter, W. A., Philadelphia. Potter, R. B., Philadelphia. Potter, W. W., Boalsburg, Pa. Potts, Joseph C, Trenton, N.J. Potts, Stacy G., Trenton, N.J. Powell, Joseph B., Port Kennedy, Pa. Powell, S. D., Philadelphia. Powers, F. H., Theol. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Pratt, Rev. H. B., Bogota, New Granada, South America. Pratt, N. A., D.D., Roswell, Ga. HISTOKT OE THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 715 Prentice, E. P., Albany, N.Y. Price, Rev. Israel, Annapolis, 0. Price, Rev. R., Rodney, Miss. Price, Samuel B., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Priest, Rev. Thomas J., Pigeon Creek, Mo. Primrose, William, Philadelphia. Proudfit, E., Troy, N.Y. Proudfoot, H. "W., Roswell, Ga. Pui'cel, S. H., Bloomsbury, N.J. Purviance, Rev. G. D., Baltimore, Md. Purviance, J., D.D., Oakland Coll., Miss. Purviance, Miss M., Baltimore, Md. Quirk, John B., Keokuk, Iowa. Ramsey, William, Milroy, Pa. Randolph, B. P., Freehold, N.J. Rankin, Adam, Boalsburg, Pa. Rankin, James B., Asheville, N.C. Rankin, John, Troy, N.T. Rankin, Rev. JohnC, Baskenidge, N.J. Rankin, Rev. H. V., New York. Rankin, William, Jr., New York. Ransom, Albion, Albany, N.Y. Ransom, Samuel C, Albany, N.Y. Raphael, William, Holmesburg, Pa. Ray, Rev. J. D., Mount Ebenezer, 0. Raymond, Rev. Moses, Springfield, Va. Reardon, Rev. J. D., Sunbury, Pa. Redd, William A., Columbus, Ga. Reed, Alex., Theo. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Reed, Joel R., Albany, N.Y. Eeed, Mrs. Rhoda, KishacoquiUas, Pa. Reed, William, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Reed, W., Milroy, Pa. Reeves, James S., M.D., Meigsville, 0. Reeves, Joseph, Bridgeton, N.J. Reid, Rev. E. H., Spartanburg, S.C. Eeid, William G., Chambersburg, Pa. Reigart, Mrs. E. J., Windsor, Pa. Reiley, Rev. J. A., Blairstown, N.J. Eeinboth, Joseph D., Philadelphia. Reinhart, Rev. E. H., Elizabethport, N.J. Reynolds, Jliss Clara, Kingston, Pa. Reynolds, William C, Kingston, Pa. Rice, N. L., D.D., St. Louis, Mo. Rice, Philo H., Perrysville, Pa. Richardson, Rev. R. H., Rochester, N.Y. Richardson, William, Louisville, Ky. Richey, Augustus G., Trenton, N.J. Richman, Moses, Jr., Salem, N.J. Riddle, Joseph B., Hollidaysburg, Pa. Riddle, Rev. Wm., Oakland College, Miss. Riddle, William, Port Gibson, Miss. Righter, Mrs. J. P., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Ripley, Rev. J. B., Philadelphia. Ripple, Isaac, White Haven, Pa. Rittenhouse, Rev. J. M., Bart, Pa. Robbins, George S., West Chester, N.Y. Roberts, Rev. R. M. Hillsborough, 111. Robertson, Theodric, Richmond, Va. Robertson, Wm. C, Delaware City, Del. Robertson, Rev. W. W., Fulton, Mo. Robeson, Mrs. Sarah, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Robinson, Rev. C. S., Troy, N.Y. Robinson, B. Miles, Palmyra, Mo. Robinson, Rev. Stuart, Danville, Ky. Robinson, William, Gillespie, 111. Robinson, William, Kent, Pa. Robison, H. C., Shade Gap, Pa. Robison, John H., Perrysville, Pa. Robison, Mrs. Nancy, Perrysville, Pa. Robison, T. C, Washingtonville, Pa. Rockwood, Charles G., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Rodenbough, Rev. H. S., Eagleville, Pa. Rodgers, James B., Philadelphia. Rodgers, Rev. James L., Mount Joy, Pa. Rodgers, R. K., D.D., Bound Brook, N.J. Rogers, E. P., D.D., Albany, N.Y. Rogers, Rev. Jas. L., Atlanta, Ga. Rogers, Rev.J.M., Middletown Point,N.J. Rogers, W. E., M.D., Scranton, Pa. Roller, Joshua, Williamsburg, Pa. Roller, Joshua H. , Williamsburg, Pa. Roop, Edward, Philadelphia. Rose, Mrs. Jane, Philadelphia. Ross, James, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Ross, J. B., Philadelphia. Ross, Marine D., Greensburg, la. Roth, P., Sybertsville, Pa. Rowe, Rev. John, Gallipolis, 0. Rowe, Miss Susan, Woodbury, N.J. Rowell, Rev. Morse, New York. Rowland, C. A., Augusta, Ga. Rowland,Wm.B.,M.D., Battle Swamp,Md. Ruddle, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Rumple, Rev. J., Hemphill's Store, S.C. Rundle, L. J., Troy, N.5f. 716 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBEKS TO THE Kussell, RcY. D., Pike, N.Y. Kussell, E. A., Jr., Mkldletown, Conn. Russell, James, Sinking Valley, Pu. Eussell, Lawrence, Trenton, N.J. Eussell, Rev. P., Fillmore, Pa. Rutter, Rev. L. C, Chestnut Level, Pa. Rutter, Nathaniel, Wilkesbarre, Pa. Ryerson, Hon. Martin, Newton, N.J. Ryors, Alfred, D.D., Danville, Ky. Salkeld, J. H., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Sargent, Winthrop, Philadelphia. Sartain, John, Philadelphia. Saunders, Rev. H., Trowbridge, Wis. Saye, Eev. J. H., Unionville, S.C. Saye, Robert H., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Sayre, David A., Lexington, Ky. Schenck, Rev.W. E., Philadelphia. Schott, James, Philadelphia. Scott, A. G., Knoxville, Tenn. Scott, Jliss C, Adams's Mills, 0. Scott, Ezekiel, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Scott, George, East Palestine, 0. Scott, Geo. K., Theo. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Scott, Rev, James, Holmesburg, Pa. Scott, James, D.D., Newark, N.J. Scott, James A., Richmond, Va. Scott, John, Huntingdon, Pa. Scott, John W., D.D., Washington, Pa. Scott, Joseph, Independence, Pa. Scovel, Rev. Alden, Bordentown, N.J. Scranton, George W., Scranton, Pa. Scranton, Joseph H., Scranton, Pa. Scranton, Selden, T., Scranton, Pa. Scribner, Rev. WiUiam, Red Bank, N.J. Scudder, Jasper S., Trenton, N.J. Sechler, H. B. D., DanvUle, Pa. Sellars, Jacob M., Williamsburg, Pa. Service, L.N., M.D., Schuylkill Palls, Pa. Seward, Rev. A., Port Jervis, N.Y. Shade, George, Holmesburg, Pa. Shafer, Thomas H., Eahway, N.J. Shaiffer, G. W., Shirleysburg, Pa. Shane, Joseph, Richmond, 0. Sharon, J. D., MifHintown, Pa. Sharp, Richard, Council Ridge, Pa. Sharp, S. M., Theo. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Sharp, S. JIcD., Chambersburg, Pa. Sharswood, Hon. George, Philadelphia. Shaver, Peter, Mount Union, Pa. Shaw, Rev. P. H., Greenfield Hill, Conn. Shaw, W. D., Alexandria, Pa. Sheadle, Henry, Kishacoquillas, Pa. Sheafe, Mrs. J. P., New York. Shearer, Miss Ellen, Washingtonville, Pa. Shearer, J., Jeffersonville, Pa. Sheddan, Rev. S. S., Rahway, N.J. Sheets, A., Grandview, 0. Shepard, Furraan, Philadelphia. Sherrerd, John M., Belvidere, N.J. Sherrerd, Samuel, Scranton, Pa. Sherrill, Rev. R. E., DancyviUe, Tenn. Shields, Eev. Charles W., Philadelphia. Shields, James R., New Albany, la. Shinn, Rev. James G., Philadelphia. Shoemaker, C. D., Forty Fort, Pa. Shotwell, Rev. N., Milroy, Pa. Shumaker, J. H., Academia, Pa. Silliman, Rev. A. P., Clinton, Ala. Silliman, E. D., Troy, N.Y. Simonton, Eev. William, Williamsport, Pa. Simpson, F. T., Washington, Ga. Simpson, G. W., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Simpson, Rev. J., Portrush, Ireland. Simpson, J., Summit HaU, Pa. Simpson, J. B., Anderson, S. C. Simpson, Miss M., Farmington, HI. Simpson, Thomas, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Simpson, Thomas P., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Sinclair, William D., Trenton, N.J. Singletary, Rev. W. H., Claiborne, Miss. Sites, S. E., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Sitgreaves, Hon. C, Easton, Pa. Skidmore, Joseph R., New York. Skinner, E. W., Albany, N.Y. Slaughter, Mrs. E., Port Hudson, La. Slaughter, John E., Socotapoy, Ala. Sloan, G. W., Theo. Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Smalley, E., D.D., Troy, N.Y. Smith, Andrew, Wegee, 0. Smith, D. D., North Salem, N.Y. Smith, George W., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Smith, H. A., Clauselville, Ala. Smith, Isaac E., Philadelphia. Smith, Eev. James, Eochester, Pa. Smith, James, H., New Hamburg, N.Y. Smith, Mrs. Jane, Milroy, Pa. Smith, Eev. J. Henry, Charlottesville, Va. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 71T Smith, J. K., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Smith, J. P., Moro, 111. Smith, J. Sanford, Newton, N..J. Smith, Joseph, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Smith, Joseph, D.D., Baltimore. Smith, Matthew, Maueh Chunk, Pa. Smith, 0. P., Milroy, Pa. Smith, Robert B., Hat Creek, Va. Smith, R. D., Williamsburg, 0. Smith, Rev. S. Hume, Stewartstown, Pa. Smith, Silas E., Academia, Pa. Smith, William J., Bloomsbury, N.J. Smock, Rev. D. V., Birmingham, Iowa. Smyth, James P., Philadelphia. Smyth, Thomas, D.D., Charleston, S.C. Smythe, Rev. W. M., Cahaba, Ala. Snodgrass, C. E., Richmond, Va. Solly, Robert, Frankford, Pa. Somerville, Rev. James, Bridgeville, AJa. Somerville, William, Bridgeville, Ala. Sparr, Isaac, Boalsburg, Pa. Speedy, James, Shelocta, Pa. Spilman, R. L., Albany, N.Y. Spottswood, J. B., D.D., Newcastle, Del. Sprague, W. B., D.D., Albany, N.Y. Sproat, H. L., Philadelphia. Sproat, Samuel, Annapolis, 0. Sprole, W. T., D.D., Newburg, N.Y. SprouU, Rev. A. W., Chester, Pa. Stackhonse, Caleb, Phoenixville, Pa. Stahl, Nicholas, Galena, 111. Stalker, John, Stover's Place, Ga. Stanford, Augustus G., Columbus, Ga. Starbird, A. P., Louisville, Ky. Stare, Peter, Nescopeck, Pa. Stead, Rev. B. F., Astoria, L. I., N.Y. Stearns, Rev.Timothy, Mt.Pleasant,Iowa. Stedman, Rev. J. 0., Memphis, Tenn. Steel, Robert, D.D., Abington, Pa. Steele, William, Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Steenson, Robert, Philadelphia. Sterling, Henry, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Sterling, Henry, Philadelphia. Sterrett, J. A., Lewistown, Pa. Stevenson, Rev. Boss, Johnstown, Pa. Stevenson, Rev. Samuel, Milford, Ireland. Stewart, Rev. C. B., Laurens C.H., S.C. Stewart, Rev. C. S., U.S.N., New York. Stewart, Rev. George D., Bath, N.Y. Stewart, James, Bloomsburg, Pa. Stewart, James, Bloomsbxiry, N.J. Stewart, Jessie, Bloomsbury, N.J. Stewart, Mrs. Nancy, Sinking Valley, Pa. Stewart, R., Williamsburg, Pa. Stewart, William, Bloomsbury, N.J. Stewart, William, Philadelphia. Stewart, William C, Philadelphia. Stewart, William J., Belleville, Pa. Stiles, R. D., Weatherly, Pa. Stillman, Rev. C. A., Gainesville, Ala. Stirling, John, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. Stitler, Jonathan, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Stoddard, Mrs. Sarah, White Haven, Pa. Storms, John J., Dobbs's Ferry, N.Y. Storrs, Miss Patsey, Richmond, Va. Stott, Charles, Washington City, D.C. Strahan, Rev. F. 6., Hopkinsville, Ky. Stratton, Rev. Daniel, Salem, N.J. Stratton, Thomas H., Trenton, N.J. Street, Rev. Robert, Union, N.J. Struble, Jacob, Zion, Pa. Struthers, J. R., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Stryker, J. T., Sinking Valley, Pa. Stryker, Thomas J., Trenton, N.J. Stuart, George H., Philadelphia. Studdiford, P. 0., D.D., Lambertville.N. J. Sturges, Rev. T. B., Greenfield Hill, Conn. Sullivan, Mrs. A. B., CoUiersville, Tenn. Summerville, G. W., Pleasant Ridge, Ala. Summey, A. T., Asheville, N.G. Summey, D. F., Asheville, N.C. Sutton, John, Indiana, Pa. Sutton, William, Springfield, 0. Swain, John L., Harper's Ferry, Va. Swank, Philip, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Swartwood, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Swartzell, John^ Milroy, Pa. Swift, E. P., D.D., Allegheny City, Pa. Symington, Wm., D.D., Glasgow, Scotland. Symmes, Rev. F. M., Pleasant, la. Symmes, Rev. Joseph G., Madison, la. T , Trenton, N.J. Tabb, R. M., Richmond, Va. Talmage, S. K., D.D., Talraage, Ga. Tas, Mrs. Jane H., Northumberland, Pa. Tate, Wm., Boalsburg, Pa. Taylor, A. A. E., Th. Sem., Aflegheny, Pa. 718 A LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE Taylor, Re¥. C. H., Ballston Centre, N.Y. Taylor, David H., White Haven, Pa. Taylor, Hon. George, Huntingdon, Pa. Taylor, John, White Haven, Pa. Taylor, John M., Shelocta, Pa. Taylor, Justus F., Albanj', N.Y. Taylor, Mrs. S. M., Thiladclphia. Thaoher, George H., Albany, N.Y. Thayer, Rev. Lorenzo, Windham, N.H. Then, George W., Augusta, Ga. Thomas, Dubre, Shelocta, Pa. Thomas, Rev. Enoch, Beverly, Va. Thomas, Israel, Shelocta, Pa. Thomas, W. H., Knoxville, Tenn. Thompson, Ira, Milroy, Pa. Thompson, James, Milroy, Pa. Thompson, J. B., Clinton, Ala. Thompson, J. J., Martha Furnace, Pa. Thompson, Lefferd, Bloomsbury, N.J. Thompson, Moses, Boalsburg, Pa. Thompson, Mrs. B. C, Oxford, Miss. Thompson, Rev. S. H., South Hanover, la. Thompson, Mrs. S., Milroy, Pa. Thompson, Rev. W. H., Bolivar, Tenn. Thorpe, John D., Cincinnati, 0. Timlow, Rev. Paul J., Marietta, Pa. Timlow, Rev. B. H., Newburyport, Mass. Titus, B. Wesley, Trenton, N.J. Todd, Rev. Isaac, Milford, Pa. Toomer, Joshua, Haddrells, S.C. Townsend, D.W., Th.Sem., Allegheny, Pa. Townsend, Peter, Lewistoivn, Pa. Townsend, T., Albany, N.Y. Toy, John, Philadelphia. Treadwell, George, Albany, N.Y. TuUy, Rev. A., Harmony, N.J. TuUy, Rev. David, Ballston Spa, N.Y. Turbett, Stuart, Perrysville, Pa. Turbett, William, Perrysville, Pa Turner, Jesse, Port Carbon, Pa. Turner, Thomas, Knoxville, Tenn. Turner, William, Kent, Pa. Tussey, David, Sinking "Valley, Pa. Tyson, James L., M.D., Philadelphia. tJmsted, Rev. Justus T., Keokuk, Iowa. Upham, M.A., Troy, N.Y. Vail, George, Troy, N.Y. Vaill, Rev. Thomas S., Knoxville, HI. Van Artsdalen, Rev. G., Colerain, Pa. Van Cleve, A. H., Trenton, N.J. Vanderbilt, Mrs. H., Brooklyn, N.Y. Van Duzen, S. R., Newburg, N.Y. Vannuys, C. D., Franklin, la. Van Pelt, R., Elizabeth, N.J. Van Rensselaer, A., New York. Van Rensselaer, C, D.D., Philadelphia. Van Rensselaer, C, Jr., Burlington, N.J. Van Rensselaer, H., New York. Van Rensselaer, P. L., Burlington, N.J. Van Rensselaer, P. S., New York. Van Rensselaer, S., Albany, N.Y. Van Rensselaer, W. P., Port Chester, N.Y. Van Schoonhoven, J. L., Troy, N.Y. Vantries, S., Potter's Mills, Pa. Vanuxen, F. W., Knoxville, Tenn. Vaughan, Rev. C. R., Lynohburgh, Va. Venable, Rev. H. I., Oakland, 111. Vermilye, A. G., Newburyport, Mass. Vermilye, J. D., Newark, N.J. Vermilye, Thomas E., D.D., New York. Vermilye, W. Romeyn, New York. Veuve, Rev. P.de,Th.Sem.,Priuceton,N.J. Viele, Stephen, Troy, N.Y. Von Spreckleson, Mrs. J., Baltimore, Md. Vosburgh, J. W., Albany, N.Y. Voss, E. W. de, Richmond, Va. Waddell, John M., D.D., Oxford, Miss. Wadsworth, Rev. Charles, Philadelphia. Wait, Miss Mary F., Greenville, 111. Waike, J. H., Richmond, Va. Walker, Alexander, Shelocta, Pa. Walker, Cyrus, Macomb, 111. Walker, H. J., Williamsburg, 0. Walker, John, Shelocta, Pa. Walker, John R., St. Louis, Mo. Walker, Peter, Philadelphia. ^ Walker, R. F., Shelocta, Pa. Wallace, Rev. D. A., Nashville, 111. Wallace, Mrs. Elizabeth, Muncy, Pa. Wallace, James, Meigsville, 0. Wallace, Rev. James A., Kingstree, S.C. Wallace, Rev. R. M., Brownsville, Pa. Wallace, W. C, Lawrenceville, N.J. Waller, Rev. B. J., Bloomsburg, Pa. Walton, John, Summit Hill, Pa. HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 719 Walton, W. A., Augusta, Ga. Ward, Mrs. Alexis, Albion, N.Y. Ward, Rev. F. De W., Geneseo, N.Y. Ward, L. A., Rochester, N.Y. Ward, Levi, Rochester, N.Y. Wardlaw, Rev. T. De Laoey, Paris, Ky. Ware, H. B., Salem, N.J. Warren, Joseph, D.D., Greensburg, la. Warren, L. L., Louisville, Ky. Wasson, John, Albany, N.Y. Wasson, John D., Albany, N.Y. Watkins, F. N., Farmville, Va. Watson, Rev. A. M., Selma, Ala. Watson, David, HoUidaysburg, Pa. Watson, John, Bordeutovm, N.J. Watson, S. S., St. Charles, Mo. Watson, William E., Bordentown, N.J. Watts, Rev. Robert, Philadelphia. Waugh, David, Independence, Pa. Wayt, James, West Liberty, Va. Weakley, H. V., Lancaster, 0. Webster, Rev. C, Jliddletown Point, N.J. Weir, Duncan, Tamaqua, Pa. Weir, M., Hazleton, Pa. Weiss, Francis, Council Ridge, Pa. Welch, Ashbel, Lambertville, N.J. Welles, Rev. H. H., Kingston, Pa. Welles, Wm., Wyalusing, Pa. Wellford, F. P., Fredericksburg, Va. West, Nathaniel, D.D., Philadelphia. West, Rev. Nathaniel, Jr., Cincinnati, 0. Westcott, William, Haddrells, S.C. Whilden, Elias, Haddrells, S.C. Whitaker, Rev. J. A., Belvidere, N.J. W , Philadelphia. White, A., Albany, N.Y. White, Rev. A. D., Trenton, N.J. White, Rev. Charles, Berryville, Va. White, David S., KnoxviUe, Ala. White, Duncan, Philadelphia. White, John, Hackettstown, N.J. White, Robert, Philadelphia. White, S. S., Kittanning, Pa. Whitehill, Mrs. Margaret, Boalsburg, Pa. Whitlock, John W., West Chester, N.Y. Whitridge, Mrs. H. L., Baltimore, Md. Wiggan, George, Tamaqua, Pa. Wilbur, E., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Wilcox, D. F., Columbus, Ga. Wilcox, Hon. G. H., Rodney, Miss. Wilcox, J. S., Augusta, Ga. Wilcox, Timothy, Scranton, Pa. Wiley, Yancey, College Hill, Miss. Will, Adam, Hazleton, Pa. Willcox, L. F., La Grange, Ga. Williams, Rev. F. T., New Hamburg,N.Y. Williams, James C, Philadelphia. Williams, J. D., Pittsburg, Pa. Williams, Owen, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Williams, Rev. W. G., La Grange, Ala. Williamson, Rev. A., Warren Grove, N.J. Williamson, Rev. James, Athens, Pa. Willis, Rev. H. P. S., Memphis, Mo. Wilson, Alexander, Millville, N.C. Wilson, Alexander, Pittsburg, Pa. Wilson, A., Shade Gap, Pa. Wilson, Mrs. Catharine, Boalsburg, Pa. Wilson, Charles, Hillsborough, 0. Wilson, David, Perrysville, Pa. Wilson, Henry R., D.D., Sewicklyville.Pa. Wilson, Rev. H. N., H.ackettstown, N.J. Wilson, Rev. J. Leighton, New York. Wilson, J.M.,P.M., Grindstone Point, Mo. Wilson, John, Bordentown, N.J. Wilson, John, Philadelphia. Wilson, John, Jr., Philadelphia. Wilson, Rev. John, Portersville, Tenn. Wilson, John K., Sewickly Bottom, Pa. Wilson, John, Sr., Belleville, Pa. Wilson, Mrs. Martha, Sinking Valley, Pa. Wilson, Miss M. V., Shepherdsville, Ky. Wilson, Napier, Columbia, Tenn. Wilson, Rev. S. T., Rock Island, HI. Wilson, Rev. T. B., Xenia, 0. Wilson, Thomas J., Belleville, Pa. Wilson, Hon. Wm., Lambertville, N.J. Wilson, William D., Philadelphia. Wilson, W. H., Beaver Meadow, Pa. Wilson, W. P., Bellefonte, Pa. Wilson, Rev. W. S., Warsaw, la. Wilson, Rev. Wm. V., Moorefield, Va. Wilson, W. W., MifBintown, Pa. Winne, John, Albany, N.Y. Winning, Rev.Robt., Eaglesham,Scotland. Winterstein, A. J., Summit Hill, Pa. Winterstein, P., Sybertsville, Pa. Wissler, Jacob, White Haven, Pa. Witheron, S., Newton Hamilton, Pa, 720 LIST OF SUBSCEIBERS. Withcrspoon, A. J., Linden, Ala. Wolfe, G. B., Milroy, Pa. ^y , Philadelphia. Wood, Eev. Charles, Philadelphia. Wood, Rev. D. T., Middletown, N.Y. Wood, Edward P., Lawrenoeville, N.J. AVood, F. M., Princeton, N.J. Wood, James, D.D., Philadelphia. Wood, Rev. Jeremiah, May field, N.Y. Wood, John R., Lawrenoeville, N.J. Wood, Rev. M. D., Walterborough, S.C. Woodruff, Jonathan, Rahway, N.J. Woods, J., D.D., Lewistown, Pa. Woods, Eev. J. E., Bentonport, Iowa. Woodside, John, Waterford, Pa. Work, Samuel, Holmesburg, Pa. Work, Rev. William R., Pottstown, Pa. Worrell, Rev. C. F., Perrinesville, N.J. Worthington, W., M.D., West Chester, Pa. Wray, Wm., Mauch Chunk, Pa. Wright, Rev. William, Quincy, 0. Wurts, Rev. J. H., Princeton, N.J. Wycoif, Cornelius, Richmond, 0. Wycoff, C. W,., Richmond, 0. Wycoflf, Isaac, Richmond, 0. Wyers, Wm. P., West Chester, Pa. Wylie, J. D., M.D., Oakland, 111. Wylie, Eev. T. A., Bloomington, la. Wylie, Eev. T. W. J., Philadelphia. Wynkoop, Rev. S. R., Wilmington, Del. Yorks, William, Danville, Pa. Young, G., Holmesburg, Pa. Young, 0. F., Rome, Pa. Young, William S., Philadelphia. ADDENDA. Adamson, William, Philadelphia. Alexander, T. T., Columbia, Ky. AlUbone, S. Austin, Philadelphia. Bennett, Mrs. P., Newburg, N.Y. Campbell, John, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Clements, Thomas, Philadelphia. Connell, Henry, Philadelphia. Craig, James, Philadelphia. Craig, William, Philadelphia. Crane, Rev. Wm. H., Tallahassee, Fa. Cross, Rev. A. B., Baltimore, Md. Ourran, John P., M.D., Philadelphia. Downs, Thomas, Philadelphia. Doyle, Richard, Academia, Pa. Edgar, Eev. Cornelius H., Easton, Pa. Findlay, Charles, Baltimore, Md. Finney, Eev. William, Churchville, Md. Fleu, Charles, Sr., Germantown, Pa. Gabel, John, Philadelphia. Gorham, John B., Newburg, N.Y. Guy, Eobert, Philadelphia. Haldeman, John, Philadelphia. Hodge, Rev. Samuel, Lyons's Store, Tenn. Jackson, Alexander, Philadelphia. Johnes, Edward R., Newburg, N.Y. Livingston, George, Bellefonte, Pa. Maxwell, William, Easton, Pa. McKinney, D., D.D., Pittsburg, Pa. Paul, James, Philadelphia. Pike, Rev. John, Rowley, Mass. Sprat, J., Philadelphia. Storrie, Thomas, Philadelphia.