AN APPENDIX. THE following facts, drawn up by a gentleman, who was Mr. Davies' intimate friend, and lived in the same town with him, while he was president of the college, were collected partly from Mr. Davies' private papers, and partly from the gentleman's personal knowledge, and, as they illustrate several things just hinted in the preceding discourse, and contain some anecdotes not before mentioned, may be properly subjoined to the narrative already given. * The Rev. Mr. Samuel Davies, late president of the college of New-Jersey, was born on the 3d day of November, A. D. 1724, in the county of Newcastle, on Delaware. His father was a planter, who lived with great plainness and simplicity, and supported the character of an honest and pious man to his death; which happened about two years ago. His mother, who is still living, and greatly distinguished for her eminent piety, some time before the conception of this favourite only son, earnestly desired such a blessing; and as she then had only borne a daughter, who was near five years old, she had special occasion for the exercise of her faith, in waiting for the divine answer to her petition. In this situation she took example from the mother of the prophet Samuel, and "vowed a vow unto the Lord; that if he would indeed give her a man-child, she would devote him to his service all the days of his life."t It may well be supposed that the parents received this child as from God, and that the mother especially, who had reason to look upon him as a token of the divine favour, and an express answer to her prayers, would, with the greatest tenderness, begin the rearing of this beloved plant. As there was no school in the neighbourhood, she herself taught him to read: and, although he was then very young, he is said to have made such proficiency as surprised every person who heard it. He continued at home with his parents till he was about ten years old; during which time he appeared to have no remarkable' impressions of a religious kind; but behaving himself as is com * The reader is desired to observe that the following account was drawn up some years ago, since which time I find it has pleased Providence to remove from our world the mother of Mr. Davies, who is mentioned as living by the writer of the Appendix. 1 Sam. i. 11. mon for a sprightly towardly child, under the influence of pious example and instruction. He was then sent to an English school, at some distance from his father's, where he continued two years, and made great progress in his learning; but, for want of the pious instruction with which he was favoured at home, he grew somewhat more careless of the things of religion. It appears, that about this time of life, careless as he was, he made a practice of secret prayer, especially in the evening. The reasons (as he tells in his diary) why he was so punctual in the evening was, that "he feared lest he should perhaps die before morning." What is farther observable in his prayers at this time is, that " he was more ardent in his supplications for being introduced into the gospel-ministry, than for any other thing." [It is here presumed that Dr. Finley's sermon, preached on occasion of his death, by desire of the trustees, contains sufficient memorials of his life, from the time in which it pleased God more deeply to impress his mind with the important realities of another world, until he was elected president of the college.] It may perhaps not be amiss to mention that when he returned home from his voyage to Great-Britain, he entered again on his laborious and beloved task of preaching the gospel to his several congregations: and continued in this work until the year 1759, when he was elected president of the college of New-Jersey, in the room of the Rev. Mr. Jonathan Edwards. The college, before he came, had been in an unhappy situation; partly owing to the length of that melancholy period between the death of president Burr and his accession, and partly to the evil dispositions and practices of few members of the society. President Burr died in September, 1757 and although Mr. Edwards was elected a few days after, he did not take upon himself the government of the college till February, 1758; and about a fortnight after took the small-pox, of which he died in March following. Mr. Davies was not initiated in his office till the latter end of July, 1759. So that the college lay under the obvious disadvantages of a bereaved condition for almost two years. But the prudent measures taken by president Davies soon surmounted these disadvantages; so that in a few months a spirit of emulation in learning and morality, as had been usual, evidently characterized the students of Nassau-Hall. While he continued president, his labours were great, and his application to study was necessarily more intense than that of his predecessors. For he came to this seat of the muses, when its learning, by the eminent abilities of president Burr, was advanced to a very considerable degree; and he had just emerged from a sea of ministerial labour in various places, wherein a common genius would have been able to have made but little improvement in academical learning. Besides, the speedy passage he made through the course of his studies, previous to his entering into the ministry, made his after application the more necessary for so important and elevated a situation. He was determined not to degrade his office, but to be in reality what his station supposed him, and accordingly exerted himself to the utmost. The labours of the day seemed to him rather an incentive to study than to rest in the night; for he commonly sat up till twelve o'clock, and often later, although he rose by break of day. The success was proportionable; for by the mighty efforts of his great genius, and by dint of industry, he left the college of New-Jersey, at his death, in as high a state of literary merit as it ever had been in since its first institution. It is a piece of justice due to his memory to remark, that the few innovations he made in the academical exercises were certainly improvements upon the plans of his predecessors. Among other things the monthly orations he instituted deserve particular notice. In order to give his pupils a taste for composition, and to form them for public speaking, he directed the members of the senior class each to choose his subject, and compose a popular harangue to be delivered publicly in the college-hall before the masters and students, and as many of the inhabitants of the town as chose to attend. When each had written his discourse, he brought it to the president, who made such observations and corrections as he judged proper; and, after their discourses were spoken, they severally attended him again for his remarks on their delivery. About six of the young gentlemen usually delivered their orations in the afternoon of the first Wednesday in every month, to crowded audiences; and it is hard to say, whether the entertainment of the hearers, or the improvement of the students, was the greater. There is reason to believe, that the intense application with which Mr. Davies attended to the duties of his office was one great cause of his death. The habit of his body was plethoric : and it is not to be doubted but that his health for some years had very much depended upon the exercise of riding, to which he was necessarily obliged while he lived in Virginia, though even then he had several severe fevers, supposed to arise principally from his application to study in the intervals of riding abroad. When he came to the college he scarcely used any bodily exercise save what was required in going from his own house to Nassau-Hall, which is a space about ten rods, five or six times a day. In the latter end of January, A. D. 1761, a bad cold seized him, and for his relief he was bled. The same day he transcribed for the press the sermon, which was soon after published, on the death of the late king, and the day after preached twice in the college-hall; by all which the arm, in which he was bled, became much inflamed, and increased his former indisposition. On the Monday morning after, at breakfast, he was seized with a violent chilly fit, which was succeeded by an inflammatory fever, and in ten days brought on the period of his important life. Although premonitions of death in the present state of the world are seldom, if ever, given to mankind; and they who are disposed to interpret ordinary occurrences into such premonitions, when, by something similar in the event those occurrences would seem as if predictive, generally discover their weakness; yet the circumstances of the death of an eminent person are commonly very acceptable to the public, and for this reason it may not be amiss to mention an anecdote which Mr. Davies more than once took notice of in his last sickness. An intimate friend of his, a few days before the beginning of the year in which he died, in conversation told him, that a sermon would be expected from him on the new-year's day; and, among other things, happened to mention that the late president Burr on the first day of the year wherein he died, preached a sermon on Jer. xxviii. 16, Thus saith the Lord, This year thou shalt die ; and after his death, the people took occasion to say it was premonitory; upon which Mr. Davies observed, that "although it ought not to be viewed in that light, yet it was very remarkable.” When new year's day came he preached; when the congregation were not a little surprised at his taking the same text of scripture. Upon his being taken with his last sickness, about three weeks after, he soon adverted to this circumstance, and mentioned it as remarkable that he had been undesignedly led to preach, as it were, his own funeral sermon. It is much to be lamented that the violence of the disorder, of which this excellent man died, deprived him of the regular exercise of his reason the greater part of the time of his sickness, otherwise the public would undoubtedly have been gratified with his remarks on the views of an approaching eternity, and would have received another evidence of the superior excellency and power of that religion, which alone can support the soul, and make the, otherwise gloomy, prospect of death cheerful. For the issues of this decisive period his life had been eminently calculated from his youth. It abundantly appears, that from twelve or fourteen years of age, he had continually maintained the strictest watch over his thoughts and actions, and daily lived under a deep sense of his own unworthiness, of the transcendent excellency of the christian religion, of the great importance of a public spirit, and the necessity of exerting it in promoting the general good. Even in his delirium his mind discovered the favourite objects of his concern, the prosperity of Christ's church, and the good of mankind. His bewildered brain was continually imagining, and his faltering tongue expressing some expedient for these important purposes. Alas! for us that so great a light could no longer continue in this dark world! OR, THE Operations of God shown to be the Operations of Wisdom ; PREACHED AT HABERDASHERS-HALL, LONDON, MARCH 29, 1761. OCCASIONED BY THE DECEASE OF THE REV. SAMUEL DAVIES, A. M. BY THOMAS GIBBONS, D. D. Sive tribulemur & augustemur, sive lætemur, & exultemus, Deus laudandus est, qui & in Tribulationibus erudit, & in Lætitia consolatur. Laus enim Dei a Corde & Ore Christiani recedere non debet, non ut laudet in prosperis & maledicat in adversis: sed quemadmodum Psalmus ille scribit, semper Laus ejus in Ore meo. Gaudes, agnosce Patrem blandientem: tribularis agnosce Patrem emendantem: sive blandiatur, sive emendet, eum erudit, cui parat Hæreditatem. AUGUSTIN. in Psal. liv. EPHESIANS i. 11. Who works all things after the counsel of his own will. THE last week gave me the awful assurance of the sudden and unexpected death of that most excellent and amiable man and minister of Jesus Christ, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Davies, president of the college of Nassau-hall, in New-Jersey, by a most moving and melting letter from a gentleman of Philadelphia, an acquaintance of Mr. Davies, and who well knew his worth, to a correspondent of the gentleman's here in London. A greater loss, all things considered, could not perhaps befal the church of God in the death of a single person. The God of nature had endowed Mr. Davies with extraordinary talents. Perhaps in sublimity and strength of genius there were very few, if any, who surpassed him. To the brightest and richest intellects, Mr. Davies had superadded the improvements of science, and a large acquaintance with books, and possibly, had he lived, there would have been scarcely a man in our world a more accomplished divine, or a more eminent scholar. His character in life was wonderfully accommodated both to his natural and acquired abilities. He was President of New-Jersey college, in the discharge of which office there would have been a demand for the exertion of his amazing talents, and the exhibition of all his treasures of literature and knowledge. Thus, as he was a star of |