OF THE AMERICAN PULPIT; OR COMMEMORATIVE NOTICES OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN CLERGYMEN OF VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS, FROM THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY TO THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTIONS. BY WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D. VOLUME V. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 530 BROADWAY. 1859. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1858, BY ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. 9,8.60 with a view to obtain the best list of subjects possible, I cannot flatter myself that none have been overlooked, whose merits justly entitled them to a grateful and honourable notice. I can only say that, with all the helps within my reach, I have made the best selection I could; and that, whatever different phases of opinion may exist in the Episcopal Church, no one has been intentionally slighted,-no one has been intentionally preferred, my sole object having been to represent the Clergy of the whole Church with all impartiality and fidelity. As a general rule, I have endeavoured to secure the delineation of character, not only from some surviving friend who could testify from actual knowledge, but from some one whose theological and ecclesiastical sympathies were in harmony with those of the person commemorated. To this rule, however, there have been a few exceptions; though it is confidently believed that in no case has difference of opinion between the subject and the writer been the occasion of any distorted or unfair representation. Possibly it may occur to some that among the early Clergy several names are embraced, which have too slight a connection with this country to form legitimate subjects for American Biography. But though the greater part of their lives was passed in England, yet the influence which they exerted upon the destinies of the Church in this land seems worthy of an enduring record, and upon this principle is included the name of Commissary Bray, who, though his actual sojourn here was scarcely more than a brief visit, had more to do in giving character and direction to the infant Church of Maryland than perhaps any other Some, too, may doubt the propriety of giving the celebrated Whitefield a place, on the ground not merely man. |