Great expence ariseth in relation to that which is called Divine worship. A considerable part of this expence is applied toward outward greatness, and many poor people, in raising of tithes, labour in supporting customs contrary to the simplicity that there is in Christ, toward whom my mind hath often been moved with pity. In pure, silent worship, we dwell under the holy anointing, and feel Christ to be our shepherd. Here the best of teachers ministers to the several conditions of his flock, and the soul receives immediately from the Divine fountain that with which it is nourished. As I have travelled, at times, where those of other societies have attended our meetings, and have perceived how little some of them knew of the nature of silent worship, I have felt tender desires, in my heart, that we, who often sit silent in our meetings, may live answerable to the nature of an inward fellowship with God, that no stumbling-block, through us, may be laid in their way. Such is the load of unnecessary expence which lieth on that which is called Divine service, in many places, and so much are the minds of many people employed in outward forms and ceremonies, that the opening of an inward silent worship in this nation, to me, hath appeared to be a precious opening. Within the last four hundred years many pious people have been deeply exercised in soul on account of the superstition which prevailed amongst the professed followers of Christ, and, in support of their testimony against oppressive idolatry, some, in several ages, have finished their course in the flames. It appears by the history of the Reformation, that, through the faithfulness of the martyrs, the understandings of many have been opened, and the minds of people from age to age, been more and more prepared for a real, spiritual worship. My mind is often affected with a sense of the condition of those people who, in different ages, have been meek and patient, following Christ through great afflictions; and while I behold the several steps of reformation, and that clearness to which, through Divine goodness, it hath been brought by our ancestors, I feel tender desires that we, who sometimes meet in silence, may never, by our conduct, lay stumbling-blocks in the way of others, and hinder the progress of the reformation in the world. It was a complaint against some who were called the Lord's people, that they brought polluted bread to his altar, and said, the table of the Lord was contemptible. In real, silent worship the soul feeds on that which is Divine; but we cannot partake of the ta ble of the Lord, and that table which is prepared by the god of this world. If Christ is our shepherd, and feedeth us, and we are faithful in following him, our lives will have an inviting language, and the table of the Lord will not be polluted SAMUEL HOPKINS, The author of a System of Divinity, was born September 17, 1721, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was educated at Yale College. While at New S. Hophins. Haven, he took part in the religious excitement caused by the preaching of Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, and Jonathan Edwards. The missionary Brainerd was then in the college, and influenced Hopkins. On leaving Yale, he bent his way to Edwards, at Northampton, with whom he continued his studies for some time. He then, in 1743, was ordained at Sheffield (now Great Barrington), where he remained for twenty-five years-being soon joined by Edwards, in his neighborhood, at Stockbridge. In 1770, he was ordained minister of a congregation at Newport, which he was compelled to leave when the British took possession of the island. In 1780 he returned, and remained there till his death, December 20, 1803. "He died calmly," says Whittier, in a tribute to the memory of the man, "in the steady faith of one who had long trusted all things in the hand of God. The language of my heart is,' said he, 'let God be glorified by all things, and the best interest of His kingdom promoted, whatever becomes of me or my interest.' To a young friend, who visited him three days before his death, he said, 'I am feeble, and cannot say much. I have said all I can say. With my last words, I tell you, religion is the one thing needful. And now I am going to die, and I am glad of it. Many years before, an agreement had been made between Dr. Hopkins and his old and tried friend, Dr. Hart, of Connecticut, that when either was called home, the survivor should preach the funeral sernion of the deceased. The venerable Dr. Hart accordingly came, true to his promise, preaching at the funeral from the words of Elisha, My father, my father; the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' In the burialground adjoining his meeting-house, lies all that was mortal of Samuel Hopkins."* 6 Dr. Channing, though widely differing from Hopkins in theology, has celebrated the moral grandeur of the man. Their points of sympathy were a common ardor of independence, shown by Hopkins in his modification of Calvinism and theory of benevolence. "His system," says Channing, however fearful, was yet built on a generous foundation. He maintained that all holiness, all moral excellence, consists in benevolence, or disinterested devotion to the greatest good. He taught that sin was introduced into the creation, and is to be everlastingly punished, because evil is necessary to the highest good. True virtue, as he taught, was an entire surrender of personal interest to the benevolent purposes of God. Self-love he spared in none of its movements. The system of Dr. Hopkins was an effort of reason to reconcile Calvinism with its essential truths. Allen, who has pointed out his modifications of the Calvinistic theology, with less sympathy for his free spirit of inquiry, pronounces him " a very humble, pious, and benevolent man. Humility pervaded his whole conduct. It preserved him from that overbearing zeal, which is the offspring of self-confidence and pride."t Hopkins early took part in the abolition of the slave trade, announcing his views on the subject to his congregation at Newport, who were interested in the traffic, and giving to the cause, not • Whittler's Old Portraits and Modern Sketchos, p. 161. + Discourse at Newport, 1836, Works, iv, 842, Dr. Allen's Blog. Dict, Art. Hopkins, 151 merely his arguments, but a liberal contribution | wrote an account of the manners and customs of from his limited resources. Ilis Dialogue Con- the Montauk Indians, which has been published cerning the Slavery of the Africans; showing it to be the Duty and Interest of the American States to Emancipate all their Slaves, was published in 1776, with a dedication to the Continental Congress. In literary industry he was of the school of Edwards, having been engaged at times eighteen hours a day in his studies. His publications are three sermons-Sin through Divine Interposition an Advantage to the Universe, and yet this no Excuse for Sin or Encouragement to it, 1759; An Inquiry concerning the Promises of the Gospel, whether any of them are made to the Exercises and Doings of Persons in an Unregenerate State, containing remarks on two sermons by Dr. Mayhew, 1765; on the Divinity of Christ, 1768, and several other discourses, embracing points of his peculiar views, which he set forth systematically in the System of Doctrines, contained in Dicine Revelation, in 1793. He wrote also the Life of Susannah Anthony, 1796, and of Mrs. Osborn, 1798, and left sketches of his life, written by himself, and several theological tracts, published by Dr. West, of Stockbridge, in 1805. Tamson Sccom in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. "His discourses," says Dr. Dwight, though not proofs of superior talents, were decent, and his utterance in some degree eloquent." He now and then succumbed to strong drink, but maintained in other respects a good character. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON. THE Livingston family was founded in America by Robert Livingston, the son of a clergyman of Teviot, in Roxburghshire, Scotland. He einigrated about the year 1672, and appears to have soon after filled the office of Secretary to the Commissioners of Albany and parts adjacent. Ho purchased an extensive tract of land from the Indiaus, which was incorporated into the Manor SAMSON OCCOM. SAMSON OCCOM, a Mohegan Indian, was born at Moliegan, on the Thames river, Connecticut, about the year 1723. He wandered through the vicinity with his parents, who lived after the vagrant manner of their tribe, until during a visit to his neighborhood by several clergymen of the adjoining settlements, he became subject to religious impressions, and was induced to devote his future career to the spiritual education of his people. He was at the age of nineteen an inmate of Mr. Wheelock's school at Lebanon, for the education of Indians, an institution which led to the foundation of Dartmouth College, where he remained four years. In 1748, he taught a school for a short time in New London, and then removing to Long Island, again taught a school, and preached among the Montauk Indians, residing at East Hampton, where he eked out a living by hunting and fishing, binding books, making wooden spoons, stocking guns, and working as a cooper. He was regularly ordained, Aug. 29, 1759. In 1766 he was sent by Wheelock with Mr. Whittaker, the minister of Norwich, to England, in behalf of the Indian Charity School, endowed by Moor. From February 16, 1766, to July 22, 1767, he preached in various parts of the country, from three to four hundred sermons, to crowded audiences, and received much attention. On his return he remained for some time at Mohegan, and in 1786 removed with a number of Indians of that neighborhood to Brotherton, near Utica, New York, where a tract of land had been granted by the Oneidas. Ho afterwards resided among the Stockbridge Indians, who had been previously instructed in Christianity by Edwards, and received a tract near the lands of the Mohegans, where he died in July, 1792. His funeral was attended by over six hundred Indians. Occom published a sermon on the execution of Moses Paul, at New Ilavon, Sept. 2, 1772, and Wet Lis ingetou of Livingston, by patent dated July 22, 1686. He took an active part in colonial affairs, and died about 1726. His son Philip succeeded to the estate and married Catherine, daughter of Peter Van Brugh of Albany, in which city their fifth child, William, was born in November, 1723. A year of his boyhood was passed with a missionary among the Mohock Indians, during which he noquired a knowledge of the language and manners of the tribe which was of much service to him subsequently. In 1787 he entered Yale College, and was graduated at the head of his class in 1741. He studied law in the City of New York with Mr. James Alexander. Two essays, which he published under the signature Tyro Philolegia, in Wheelock's Brief Narrative of the Indian Charity School A letter from the Rev. John Devotion, of daybrook, to Rev. Dr. Styles, in closing Mr. Occom's account of the Montauk Indiana A.D. 1761. Mass. Hist. Boo. Coll, First Beries, X. 106. Parker's New York Weekly Post Boy, August 19, 1745, probably his first published compositions, on the mode of studying law, which then and now prevails, offended his instructor, and led to his withdrawal to the office of Mr. William Smith, with whom he completed his course. While a student he married Susannah, daughter of Philip French. In 1747 he issued his Poem entitled Philosophic Solitude. In 1752, in pursuance of an act of the legislature, he published, with William Sinith, Jr., the first digest of the Colony Laws; and in the same year commenced a weekly political and miscellaneous journal of four pages folio, containing essays and correspondence on the model of the Spectator, The Independent Reflector. It was conducted with spirit, and made a stir, being on one occasion denounced from the pulpit. It entered warmly into the discussion relative to the religious formation of the Board of Trustees of King's, afterwards Columbia College, seven of whom were, by the act of November, 1751, vesting the funds raised by lotteries for the future institution, to be of the Episcopal, two of the Dutch, and one (Livingston himself) of the Presbyterian denominations. The publication closed in consequence of the outcry made against it, with the fifty-second number. In 1754 he published several of a series of communications entitled The Watch Tower, in Hugh Gaine's Mercury, on the still agitated topic of King's College. In 1757 he issued a work, first published in London, entitled, A Review of the Military Operations in North America, from the commencement of French hostilities on the frontiers of Virginia in 1753, to the surrender of Oswego on the 14th April, 1756, in a Letter to a Nobleman. It was written in defence of Governor Shirley. In the same year he published a funeral eulogium on the Rev. Aaron Burr, President of the College of New Jersey. In 1758, Livingston was elected from his brother's manor a member of the Assembly, as a representative of the opposition to the De Lancey or church party, which the King's College controversy had contributed to form. In 1765 he published a series of Essays entitled The Sentinel, in Holt's New York Weekly Post Boy. One of the most striking of these is entitled, A New Sermon to an Old Text. Touch not mine anointed; in which his design is to show that the "anointed" are not the monarchs but the people. These extended to twenty-eight numbers. His next publication was a pamphlet on the proposed American Episcopate, in answer to some strictures on the colonies by the Bishop of Llandaff. He also wrote some of the articles on the same subject which appeared under the title of The American Whig, in the New York Gazette. This subject was one fiercely contested in New York and Philadelphia, as well as New England. The opposition to the measure was based on political jealousy of a union of church and state, which it was feared would follow the introduction of bishops, more than on sectarian grounds, a fact proved by the unopposed establishment of the American Episcopate after the revolution. In 1770, Mr. Livingston published A Soliloquy, a pamphlet reflecting severely on Governor Colden. In 1772 he retired to a country-seat, to which he gave the genial name of Liberty Hall, at Elizabethtown, New Jer Liberty Hall. sey. The progress of the Revolution did not, however, permit the fulfilment of his long cherished desire for rural retirement. In 1774 he was elected a delegate to the continental congress. He was reelected the following year, but recalled on the 5th of June to take command as brigadier-general of the militia of his native state, at Elizabethtown Point. In 1776 he was elected governor of the state. During his administration he published several essays under the signature of Hortensius, in the New Jersey Gazette, a paper established to oppose Rivington's Royal Gazette, which was especially virulent against the "Don Quixote of the Jerseys," as it unceremoniously styles the Governor. Ile also wrote under the same signature, in 1779, in the United States Magazine, published in Philadelphia, but soon after ascertaining that several members of the Legislature had expressed "their dissatisfaction, that the chief inagistrate of the state should contribute to the periodicals, he discontinued his communications altogether." Governor Livingston's correspondence shows the high estimation in which his services to the nation throughout the war were appreciated by Washington and his fellow patriots, and the repeated attempts made by the enemy to surround his house and capture his person, bear a like honorable testimony to his efficiency. He supported not only the military, but what was perhaps more rare, the financial measures of Congress, declining, on one occasion, to appoint an individual to the office of postmaster on the ground that he had refused to take continental money. In 1785 he was elected Minister to the Court of Holland, but declined the appointment. In the next year he resumed his contributions to the press under the title of The Primitive Whig, in Collins's New Jersey Gazette. In 1787 he exerted himself in obtaining materials for Morse's Geography, and in correcting the sheets of the work, which appeared at Elizabethtown, 1789, with a dedication to the governor. In 1787 he was also appointed a delegate to the Federal Convention. He was an active member, though not a prominent debater, of that body. In June, 1790, he was attacked by a dropsy, which put an end to his life, while still governor of the state, on Sunday, July 25, 1790. In his private, Livingston maintained the high tone of his public life. His intercourse with his numerous family, and with those about him, was kindly and simple. He retained his love of rural pursuits throughout his official career, and in the words of Brissot, who mentions him in his travels in 1788, was “at once a writer, a governor, and a ploughman." In person Governor Livingston was tall, and so thin as to have been called by "some female wit," the " whipping post." A Memoir by Theodore Sedgwick,* was published in 1833. It contains numerous extracts from his correspondence, and is admirably executed. THE RETREAT. FROM THE POEM, PHILOSOPHIC SOLITUDE Let ardent heroes seek renown in arms, Far from the painted belle, and white-glov'd beau, Full in the centre of some shady grove, By nature form'd for solitude and love: On banks array'd with ever-blooming flowers, Near beauteous landscapes, or by roseate bowers, My neat, but simple mansion I would raise, Unlike the sumptuous domes of modern days; Devoid of pomp, with rural plainness form'd, With savage game, and glossy shells adorn'd. No costly furniture should grace my hall; But curling vines ascend against the wall, Whose pliant branches should luxuriant twine, While purple clusters swell'd with future wine: To slake my thirst a liquid lapse distil From craggy rocks, and spread a limpid rill. Along my mansion, spiry firs should grow, And gloomy yews extend the shady row: The cedars flourish, and the poplars rise, Sublimely tall, and shoot into the skies: Among the leaves, refreshing zephyrs play, And crowding trees exclude the noon-tide ray; Whereon the birds their downy nests should form, Securely shelter'd from the battering storm; And to melodious notes their choir apply, Soon as Aurora blush'd along the sky: While all around th' enchanting music rings, And ev'ry vocal grove responsive sings. Me to sequester'd scenes ye muses guide, Where nature wantons in her virgin pride; To mossy banks, edg'd round with op'ning flowers, Elysian fields and amaranthine bowers, To ambrosial founts, and sleep-inspiring rills, To herbag'd vales, gay lawns, and sunny hills. Welcome, ye shades! all hail, ye vernal blooms! Ye bow'ry thickets, and prophetic glooms! Ye forests, hail! ye solitary woods! Love-whispering groves, and silver-streaming floods: A Memoir of the Life of William Livingston, Member of Congress in 1774, 1775, and 1776: Delegate to the Federal Convention in 1787, and Governor of the State of New Jersey from 1776 to 1790, with extracts from his correspondence, and notices of various members of his family. By Theodore Sedgwick, Jun. New York. 1688. Ye meads, that aromatic sweets exhale! No trumpets there with martial clangor sound, Gay, rosy-bosom'd Spring, and April show'rs, The rufiling cures, which the vex'd soul annoy, Th' insidious foe, and false, designing friend, FAVORITE BOOKS. But to improve the intellectual mind, Reading should be to contemplation join'd First I'd collect from the Parnassian spring, What muses dictate, and what poets sing.Virgil, as prince, shou'd wear the laurel'd crown, And other bards pay homage to his throne; The blood of heroes now effus'd so long, Will run forever purple thro' his song, See! how he mounts toward the blest abodes, On planets rides, and talks with demigods! How do our ravish'd spirits melt away, When in his song Sicilian shepherds play! But what a splendor strikes the dazzled eye, When Dido shines in awful majesty! Embroidered purple clad the Tyrian queen, Her motion graceful, and august her mien; A golden zone her royal limbs embrac'd, A golden quiver rattled by her waist. See her proud steed majestically prance, Contemn the trumpet, and deride the launce! In crimson trappings, glorious to behold, Confus'dly gay with interwoven gold! He champs the bit, aud throws the foam around, Impatient paws, and tears the solid ground. How stern Æneas thunders thro' the field! With tow'ring helmet, and refulgent shield! Coursers o'erturn'd, and mighty warriors slain, Deform'd with gore, lie welt'ring on the plain, Struck through with wounds, ill-fated chieftains lie, Frown e'en in death, and threaten as they die. Thro' the thick squadrons see the hero bound! The far-fam'd bards that grac'd Britannia's isle, Or God himself th' immortal bard inspir'd, Eternal adamant, and burning gold! Then tuneful Pope, whom all the nine inspire, Th' embow'ring groves, and Windsor's blissful plains, Next should appear great Dryden's lofty muse, The gentle Watts, who strings his silver lyre To sacred odes, and heav'n's all-ruling Sire; Who scorns th' applause of the licentious stage Compels my thoughts to wing th' heav'nly road, Not then with plays the lab'ring press would groan, These for delight. For profit I would read Him whom ungrateful Athens doom'd to bleed, And scann'd the unfathomable works of God! A WIFE By love directed, I would choose a wife, Love, friendship, honour, truth, and pure delight |