his grammar education at Westminster, and took the degree of M. D. at the
university of Cambridge. He emigrated to New England in 1638, and, after
serving for a number of years in the ministry at Scituate, was appointed,
in 1654, president of Harvard College. In this office he remained till his
death, in 1671, performing all its duties with industrious fidelity. He
was eminent as a physician, and was of opinion that there ought to be no
distinction between physic and divinity.
Roger Williams.
The founder of the Providence Plantations, born in Wales, in 1599, and was
educated at Oxford. Being a dissenter, he came to America, in the hope of
enjoying in freedom his religious opinions. He arrived at Hull, February
5, 1631, and was established at Salem, Massachusetts, as colleague with
Mr. Skelton. His peculiar notions soon subjected him to the severest
censure. He maintained that the magistrates were bound to grant toleration
to all sects of Christians, and in his actions and words avowed the
liberality of his principles. After the death of Mr. Skelton, he was sole
minister of Salem. Continuing to avow his opinions, which were considered
not only heretical, but seditious, he was summoned before the General
Court, to answer to numerous charges. He, however, refused to retract any
of his opinions, and was accordingly banished, 1635. He first repaired to
Seekonk: but, being informed that that territory was within the
jurisdiction of Plymouth, he proceeded to Mooshausic, where, with others,
in 1636, he began a plantation. The land was honestly purchased of the
Indians; and the town, in acknowledgment of the kindness of Heaven, was
called Providence. Mr. Williams’s benevolence was not confined to his
civilized brethren; he learned the language of the Indians, travelled
among them, won the entire confidence of their chiefs, and was often the
means of saving from injury the colony that had driven him from its
protection. In 1643, he was sent to England, as agent for both
settlements, and in September, 1644, returned with a patent for the
territory, with permission for the inhabitants to institute a government
for themselves. In 1651, he was again sent to England, in the capacity of
agent, and returned in 1654, when he was chosen president of the
government. Benedict Arnold succeeded him in 1657. He died in April, 1683,
aged eighty-four. Mr. Williams was consistent in his religious doctrines,
and set a bright example of that toleration which he demanded from others.
His mind was strong and well cultivated; and he read the Scriptures in the
originals. After his banishment from Massachusetts, he maintained a
correspondence with some of its principal men, and ever entertained for
them the highest affection and respect. In his writings, he evinces his
power at argument. In 1672, he held a public dispute with the most eminent
Quaker preachers, of which he has published an account. He also published
a “Key to the Indian Language,” octavo, 1643; an answer to Mr. Cotton’s
letters, concerning the power of the magistrate in matters of religion,
with other letters and discourses.
John Clarke.
A distinguished Baptist minister, and one of the first founders of Rhode
Island, was a physician in London, before he came to this country. Soon
after the first settlement of Massachusetts, he was driven from that
colony with a number of others; and March 7, 1638, they formed themselves
into a body politic, and purchased Aquetneck of the Indian sachems,
calling it the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island. The settlement commenced
at Pocasset, or Portsmouth. The Indian deed is dated March 24, 1638. Mr.
Clarke was soon employed as a preacher; and, in 1644, he formed a church
at Newport, and became its pastor. This was the second Baptist church
which was established in America.
In 1649, he was an assistant and treasurer of Rhode Island colony. In
1651, he went to visit one of his brethren at Lynn, near Boston, and he
preached on Sunday, July 20; but, before he had completed the services of
the forenoon, he was seized, with his friends, by an officer of the
government. In the afternoon, he was compelled to attend the parish
meeting, at the close of which he spoke a few words. He was tried before
the Court of Assistants, and fined twenty pounds; in case of failure in
the payment of which sum he was to be whipped. In passing the sentence,
Judge Endicott observed, “You secretly insinuate things into those who are
weak, which you cannot maintain before our ministers; you may try and
dispute with them.” Mr. Clarke accordingly wrote from prison, proposing a
dispute upon the principles which he professed. He represented his
principles to be, that Jesus Christ had the sole right of prescribing any
laws respecting the worship of God which it was necessary to obey; that
baptism, or dipping in water, was an ordinance to be administered only to
those who gave some evidence of repentance towards God and faith in Jesus
Christ; that such visible believers only constituted the church; that each
of them had a right to speak in the congregation, according as the Lord
had given him talents, either to make inquiries for his own instruction,
or to prophesy for the edification of others, and that at all times and in
all places they ought to reprove folly and open their lips to justify
wisdom; and that no servant of Jesus Christ had any authority to restrain
any fellow-servant in his worship, where injury was not offered to others.
No dispute, however, occurred, and Mr. Clarke, his friends paying his fine
without his consent, was soon released from prison, and directed to leave
the colony. His companion Obadiah Holmes shared a severer fate; for, on
declining to pay his fine of thirty pounds, which his friends offered to
do for him, he was publicly whipped in Boston.
Mr. Clarke died at Newport, April 20, 1676, aged about 66 years, resigning
his soul to his merciful Redeemer, through faith in whose name he enjoyed
the hope of a resurrection to eternal life.
His life was so pure, that he was never accused of any vice, to leave a
blot on his memory. His noble sentiments respecting religious toleration
did not, indeed, accord with the sentiments of the age in which he lived,
and exposed him to trouble; but at the present time they are almost
universally embraced. His exertions to promote the civil prosperity of
Rhode Island must endear his name to those who are now enjoying the fruits
of his labors. He possessed the singular honor of contributing much
towards establishing the first government upon the earth, which gave equal
liberty, civil and religious, to all men living under it.
Ann Hutchinson.
A woman who occasioned much difficulty in New England, soon after its
first settlement, came from Lincolnshire to Boston, 1635, and was the wife
of one of the representatives of Boston. The members of Mr. Cotton’s
church used to meet every week to repeat his sermons, and discourse on
doctrines. She set up meetings for women, and soon had a numerous
audience. After repeating the sermons of Mr. Cotton, she added reflections
of her own; she advocated her own sentiments, and warped the discourses of
her minister to coincide with them. She soon threw the whole colony into a
flame. The progress of her sentiments occasioned the synod of 1637, the
first synod in America. This convention of ministers condemned eighty-two
erroneous opinions, then propagated in the country. Mrs. Hutchinson, after
this sentence of her opinions, was herself called before the court in
November of the same year, and, being convicted of traducing the
ministers, and advancing errors, was banished the colony. She went with
her husband to Rhode Island. In the year 1642, after her husband’s death,
she removed into the Dutch country beyond New Haven; and the next year,
she, her son Francis, and most of her family of sixteen persons, were
killed by the Indians.
Michael Molinos.
Founder of the ancient sect of Quietists, was a Spaniard, of a rich and
honorable family. He entered into priest’s orders young, but would accept
no preferment in the church. He possessed great talents, and was ardently
pious, without any of the austerities of the Romish religious orders. He
went to Rome, where, in 1675, he published his “Spiritual Guide,” which
gave him universal reputation. The Jesuits and Dominicans, envious at his
success, charged him with heresy, and at last succeeded in getting him
condemned by the Inquisition. He died of torment in their dungeons, a few
years after.
John Wesley.
The great founder of Methodism was born at Epworth, in England, in 1703.
In 1714, he was placed at the Charter House; and two years after he was
elected to Christ Church, Oxford. In 1725, he was ordained deacon, and the
next year became fellow and tutor of Lincoln College.
Wesley’s character, says his biographer, is itself a study. He equalled
Luther in energy and courage, and Melancthon in learning and prudence. All
the excellences of both the Wittemberg reformers were combined, if not
transcended, in his individual character.
He possessed, in an eminent degree, the power of comprehending at once the
general outlines and the details of plans, the aggregate and the
integrants. It is this power which forms the philosophical genius in
science; it is indispensable to the successful commander and the great
statesman. It is illustrated in the whole economical system of Methodism—a
system which, while it fixes itself to the smallest localities with the
utmost detail and tenacity, is sufficiently general in its provisions to
reach the ends of the world, and still maintain its unity of spirit and
discipline.
No man knew better than Wesley the importance of small things. His whole
financial system was based on weekly penny collections. It was a rule of
his preachers never to omit a single preaching appointment, except when
the “risk of limb or life” required. He was the first to apply extensively
the plan of tract distribution. He wrote, printed, and scattered over the
kingdom, placards on almost every topic of morals and religion. In
addition to the usual means of grace, he introduced the band meeting, the
class meeting, the prayer meeting, the love feast, and the watch night.
Not content with his itinerant laborers, he called into use the less
available powers of his people by establishing the new departments of
local preachers, exhorters, and leaders. It was, in fine, by gathering
together fragments, by combining minutiæ, that he formed that stupendous
system of spiritual means which is rapidly evangelizing the world.
It was not only in the theoretical construction of plans that he excelled;
he was, if possible, still more distinguished by practical energy. The
variety and number of his labors would be absolutely incredible with less
authentic evidence than that which corroborates them. He was perpetually
travelling and preaching, studying and writing, translating and abridging,
superintending his societies, and applying his great plans. He travelled
usually _five thousand_ miles a year, preaching twice and thrice a day,
commencing at five o’clock in the morning. In the midst of all this
travelling and preaching, he carried with him the meditative and studious
habits of the philosopher. No department of human inquiry was omitted by
him. “History, poetry, and philosophy,” said he, “I read on horseback.”
Like Luther, he knew the importance of the press; he kept it teeming with
his publications. His itinerant preachers were good agents for their
circulation. “Carry them with you through every round,” he would say;
“exert yourselves in this; be not ashamed, be not weary, leave no stone
unturned.” His works, including abridgments and translations, amounted to
about two hundred volumes. These comprise treatises on almost every
subject of divinity, poetry, music, history,—natural, moral, metaphysical,
and political philosophy. He wrote, as he preached, _ad populum_; and his
works have given to his people, especially in Great Britain, an elevated
tone of intelligence as well as of piety. He may, indeed, be considered
the leader in those exertions which are now being made for the popular
diffusion of knowledge.
Differing from the usual character of men who are given to various
exertions and many plans, he was accurate and profound. He was an adept in
classical literature and the use of the classical tongues; his writings
are adorned with their finest passages. He was familiar with a number of
modern languages; his own style is one of the best examples of strength
and perspicuity among English writers. He was ready on every subject of
learning and general literature. As a logician, he was considered by his
enemies, as well as his friends, to be unrivalled.
He was but little addicted to those exhilarations and contrarieties of
frame which characterize imaginative minds. His temperament was warm, but
not fiery. His intellect never appears inflamed, but was a glowing, serene
radiance. His immense labors were accomplished, not by the impulses of
restless enthusiasm, but by the cool calculations of his plans, and the
steady self-possession with which he pursued them. “Though always in
haste,” he said, “I am never in a hurry.” He was as economical with his
time as a miser could be with his gold; rising at four o’clock in the
morning, and allotting to every hour its appropriate work. “Leisure and I
have taken leave of each other,” said he. And yet such was the happy
arrangement of his employments, that, amidst a multiplicity that would
distract an ordinary man, he declares that “there are few persons who
spend so many hours secluded from all company as myself.” “The wonder of
his character,” said Robert Hall, “is the self-control by which he
preserved himself calm, while he kept all in excitement around him. He was
the last man to be infected by fanaticism. His writings abound in
statements of preternatural circumstances; but it must be remembered that
his faults in these respects were those of his age, while his virtues were
peculiarly his own.”
Though of a feeble constitution, the regularity of his habits, sustained
through a life of great exertions and vicissitudes, produced a vigor and
equanimity which are seldom the accompaniments of a laborious mind or of a
distracted life. “I do not remember,” he says, “to have felt lowness of
spirits one quarter of an hour since I was born.” “Ten thousand cares are
no more weight to my mind than ten thousand hairs are to my head.” “I have
never lost a night’s sleep in my life.” “His face was remarkably fine, his
complexion fresh to the last week of his life, and his eye quick, keen,
and active.” He ceased not his labors till death. After the eightieth year
of his age, he visited Holland twice. At the end of his eighty-second, he
says, “I am never tired (such is the goodness of God) either with writing,
preaching, or travelling.” He preached under trees which he had planted
himself, at Kingswood. He outlived most of his first disciples and
preachers, and stood up, mighty in intellect and labors, among the second
and third generations of his people. In his later years persecution had
subsided; he was every where received as a patriarch, and sometimes
excited, by his arrival in towns and cities, an interest “such as the
presence of the king himself would produce.” He attracted the largest
assemblies, perhaps, which were ever congregated for religious
instruction, being estimated sometimes at more than _thirty thousand_!
Great intellectually, morally, and physically, he at length died, in the
eighty-eighth year of his age and sixty-fifth of his ministry,
unquestionably one of the most extraordinary men of any age.
Nearly one hundred and forty thousand members, upward of five hundred
itinerant, and more than one thousand local preachers, were connected with
him when he died.
George Whitefield.
One of the founders of the sect of the Methodists, born at Gloucester,
where his mother kept the Bell inn, 1714. From the Crypt school of his
native town, he entered as servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was
ordained at the proper age by Benson, bishop of Gloucester. Enthusiasm and
the love of singularity now influenced his conduct, and in his eagerness
to obtain popularity, he preached not only in prisons, but in the open
fields, and by a strong persuasive eloquence, multitudes regarded him as a
man of superior sanctity. In 1738, he went to America, to increase the
number of his converts; but, after laboring for some time as the friend
and the associate of the Wesleys, he at last was engaged with them in a
serious dispute, which produced a separation. While he zealously asserted
the doctrine of absolute election and final perseverance, agreeably to the
notions of Calvin, his opponents regarded his opinion as unsupported by
Scripture, and therefore inadmissible; and in consequence of this arose
the two sects of the Calvinistic and the Arminian Methodists. Secure in
the good opinion of a great number of adherents, and in the patronage of
Lady Huntingdon, to whom he was chaplain, he continued his labors, and
built two Tabernacles in the city and in Tottenham Court Road for the
commodious reception of his followers. He died at Newburyport,
Massachusetts, while on a visit to his churches in America, and had the
satisfaction to know that his adherents were numerous on both continents.
At Newburyport, the Hon. WILLIAM BARTLETT has erected an elegant marble
monument, on which is the following inscription:—
“This Cenotaph is erected, with affectionate veneration, to the
memory of the Rev. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, born at Gloucester, England,
December 16, 1714; educated at Oxford University; ordained 1736.
In a ministry of thirty-four years, he crossed the Atlantic
thirteen times, and preached more than eighteen thousand sermons.
As a soldier of the cross, humble, devoted, ardent, he put on the
whole armor of God; preferring the honor of Christ to his own
interest, repose, reputation, and life. As a Christian orator, his
deep piety, disinterested zeal, and vivid imagination, gave
unexampled energy to his look, utterance, and action. Bold,
fervent, pungent, and popular in his eloquence, no other
uninspired man ever preached to so large assemblies, or enforced
the simple truths of the gospel by motives so persuasive and
awful, and with an influence so powerful on the hearts of his
hearers. He died of asthma, September 30, 1770, suddenly
exchanging his life of unparalleled labors for his eternal rest.”
During Mr. Whitefield’s visit to Philadelphia, he preached often in the
evening from the gallery of the court-house in Market Street. So loud was
his voice at that time, that it was distinctly heard on the Jersey shore,
and so distinct was his speech, that every word he said was understood at
Market Street wharf, a distance of upwards of four hundred feet from the
court-house. All the intermediate space was crowded with his hearers. Mr.
Whitefield was truly remarkable for his uncommon eloquence and fervent
zeal. His eloquence was indeed very great, and of the truest kind. He was
utterly devoid of all affectation; the importance of his subject, and the
regard due to his hearers, engrossed all his concern. Every accent of his
voice spoke to the ear, every feature of his face, every motion of his
hands, and every gesture, spoke to the eye; so that the most dissipated
and thoughtless found their attention arrested, and the dullest and most
ignorant could not but understand. He appeared to be devoid of the spirit
of sectarianism; his only object seemed to be to “preach Christ and him
crucified.”
The following anecdote respecting his manner of preaching will serve to
illustrate this part of his character. One day, while preaching from the
balcony of the court-house, in Philadelphia, he cried out, “Father
Abraham, who have you got in heaven; any _Episcopalians_?” “No!” “Any
_Presbyterians_?” “No!” “Any _Baptists_?” “No!” “Have you any _Methodists_
there?” “No!” “Have you any _Independents_ or _Seceders_?” “No! No!” “Why,
who have you, then?” “We don’t know those names here; all that are here
are _Christians_—believers in Christ—men who have overcome by the blood of
the Lamb, and the word of his testimony!” “O, is this the case? then God
help me—God help us all—to forget party names, and to become Christians in
deed and in truth.”
Selina Huntingdon.
Countess, second daughter of Washington, earl Ferrers, born 1707, and
married Lord Huntingdon, by whom she had four sons and three daughters.
From habits of gayety and scenes of dissipation, she became all at once,
after a serious illness, grave, reserved, and melancholy. Her thoughts
were wholly absorbed by religion, and she employed the ample resources
which she possessed in disseminating her principles by the popular arts of
Whitefield, Romaine, and others. Not only her house in Park Street was
thrown open for the frequent assembling of these pious reformers, but
chapels were built in various parts of the kingdom, and a college erected
in Wales for the education of young persons in the future labors of the
ministry. After many acts of extensive charity, and with the best
intentions, this enthusiastic lady died in 1791.
Robert Sandeman.
The founder of the sect called _Sandemanians_, born at Perth, in Scotland,
about the year 1718, and was educated at St. Andrews. Instead of entering
into the church, for which he was intended, he became a linen
manufacturer, and afterwards turned preacher. He came to America in
October, 1764, and from Boston he went to Danbury, Connecticut. In that
town he gathered a church the following year. He afterwards established
several societies in New England. Individuals are still found who adhere
to his peculiarities, and are known by the name of his sect. He wrote an
answer to Hervey’s “Theron and Aspasio,” said to be a work of talent, but
exhibiting great asperity.
The following is copied from the monument of Mr. Sandeman, in the
burying-ground at Danbury:—
“Here lies, until the resurrection, the body of ROBERT SANDEMAN, a
native of Perth, North Britain, who, in the face of continual
opposition from all sorts of men, long boldly contended for the
ancient faith, that the bare word of Jesus Christ, without a deed
or thought on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief
of sinners spotless before God. To declare this blessed truth, as
testified in the holy Scriptures, he left his country, he left his
friends, and, after much patient suffering, finished his labors at
Danbury, April 2, 1771, Æ. 53 years.
Deigned Christ to come so nigh to us,
As not to count it shame
To call us brethren, should we blush
At aught that bears his name?
Nay, let us boast in his reproach,
And glory in his cross;
When he appears, one smile from him
Would far o’erpay our loss.”
Samuel Hopkins.