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tham, Mass., and Chaplin, Conn., and performed two missionary tours in New York and Maine; died in 1817. He is said to have been "an Edwardean in sentiment, and a Whitefieldian in warmth of manner."

The following is the title page of a sermon preached by him :

"The Lord is to be praised for the Triumph of His Power.

A SERMON

PREACHED AT GREENWICH IN CONNECTICUT,
ON THE 18TH OF DECEMBER, 1777,

BEING

A GENERAL THANKSGIVING THROUGH THE UNITED AMERICAN

STATES.

BY DAVID AVERY, V D M.,

CHAPLAIN TO COL. SHERBURNE'S REGIMENT.

Say continually, Let God be magnified.

NORWICH,

PRINTED BY GREEN & SPOENER 1778."

At the close of a few words, explaining that it is the author's belief that the extensive circulation of this discourse, in printed form, may do something to increase confidence in God and magnify His name, the author signs himself, "CAMP AT FISHKILL, 8th March, 1778."

The text is Ex. xv, II, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord"and includes the verse.

He makes brief divisions of the introduction, by considering separately the clauses, " Glorious in holiness," etc. Then he enumerates the events propitious and adverse of the campaign to the date given, drawing therefrom with considerable patience and persistence always the same lesson, that God. has helped and will give success to the American arms. He closes with an exceedingly lengthy exhortation, dwelling especially upon the careless and ungodly lives to which the

soldiers were sadly inclined, urging them to forsake profane and blasphemous speech.

T.

REV. EBENEZER BALDWIN was born at Norwich, July 3d, 1745; Yale College, 1763; tutor there from 1766 to 1770; ordained in Danbury, Oct. 1770; died Oct. 1st, 1776.

"About the time that Mr. Baldwin was settled in Danbury, the assumed power of the British Parliament to bind the colonies by their acts in all cases, and the measures of the British government respecting the colonies, produced a general alarm, and became the subject of universal discussion, as threatening the liberties of the people, both civil and religious. Not only were the civilians alarmed, but the clergy, the descendants of the emigrant Puritans, who were persecuted at home, and fled to this country to enjoy in peace both their civil and religious privileges, now claimed it as their duty to come forward boldly in defense of their rights.

"No class of our citizens were more conspicuous for their patriotism, or more powerfully contributed to arouse the spirit of resistance to the despotic acts of the British government, and prepare the minds of the people for the great struggle of the Revolution, than the Congregational clergy of New England; and among them, few, if any, exhibited greater zeal or more signal ability, than the subject of this notice. The history of the world had taught him that civil and ecclesiastical despotism had ever gone hand in hand together. He felt, therefore, that the religious, no less than the civil, liberties of the people were in peril, and that, when the latter should have fallen a sacrifice to despotic power and oppression, the former could not long survive, but ecclesiastical tyranny, in some shape or other, would, like a mighty torrent, soon overspread the land.

"In August, 1776, he accompanied a large number of his parishioners, as their chaplain, to the seat of war in the vicinity of New York, to whose defense they were called as militia-men. He there, while in the performance of his duties, amidst the hardships of the camp, in ministering to the sick and suffering soldiers, contracted the fatal disease of

which he died, soon after his return to his parish." (Sprague's Annals, p. 637–639.)

While a tutor in Yale College he published a number of articles on the principles of liberty, and against slavery, which exerted a great influence in hastening the abolition of slavery in New England.

"REV. DAVID ELY, D. D., was born at Lyme, July 7th, 1749; graduated at Yale College, 1769; settled at Huntington, Oct. 27, 1773, and died Feb. 16, 1816.

"Settled in the ministry just before the War of the Revolution, Dr. Ely participated in the anxieties of that momentous period. I infer this from the fact that, in the town of his residence, and in those adjacent, there were many adherents of the British Crown, and from a threat which one of the most prominent of those men made to him. It was to the effect that when the rebellion was put down, the Doctor should be hung on an oak tree which long flourished on the public square, and near the meeting-house in which he preached. (Sprague's Annals, vol. ii, p. 4.)

REV. NATHANIEL BARTLETT was ordained the second pastor of the church in Reading, Conn., in 1753, and died in 1810, after a pastorate of 57 years. He was a sturdy patriot, and during the Revolution his house was made a magazine for arms and ammunition for the patriot troops. This house is still standing, in excellent repair, and is occupied by Mr. Bartlett's heirs. Two of his sons served in the army.

L.

REV. SAMUEL SHERWOOD was graduated at Yale College in 1749; tutor at Nassau Hall; ordained at Weston, Aug. 17, 1757; died May 25, 1783, in the 54th year of his age, and the 26th of his ministry. He preached for liberty, and roused the people; and thus he became so obnoxious to the British and tories, that it was not deemed safe for him to sleep in his own house; but he retired to some neighbors, leaving his family in charge of an old Swiss soldier. A published sermon of his, delivered on a "Public Fast," in 1774,

which was full of patriotic and courageous sentiments, with an appendix by Rev. Ebenezer Baldwin, of Danbury, was lately deposited in the library of Yale College.

B.

REV. SETH SAGE was installed pastor in Canton, 1774, and dismissed, 1778. If we may use the proverb, "Like people like priest," the conclusion is that Mr. Sage was thoroughly patriotic and zealously engaged in the Revolutionary struggle. His people made great sacrifices, and many of them went into the army.

The position of the pastor may be inferred from another fact. Some of his people were dissatisfied, left the church and society, and became "Separatists "—afterwards Baptists. These constituted a "hot bed of tories."

The community was in a divided state, the church broken, and their records lost, after the dismission of Mr. Sage.

REV. TIMOTHY PITKIN, the fourth pastor of the ancient church in Farmington, was there through the whole Revolutionary period. He was the son of Governor Pitkin, born in East Hartford, 1727. He was graduated at Yale College, 1747, was a tutor in the same, 1750-51; he was ordained pastor of the church in Farmington, June, 1752; was dismissed on account of ill health, June, 1785, and died July 8, 1812, in the 86th year of his age. He was a member of the corporation of Yale College from 1777 to 1804. His son, the Hon. Timothy Pitkin, was distinguished both as a historian and a statesman.

One item, incidentally gathered, affords cheering evidence that Mr. Pitkin was deeply interested in the Revolutionary War. He preached to the soldiers in Simsbury, as they were about to go forth to the field of conflict. Efforts have been made, but in vain, to find the discourse then delivered. If he performed such service abroad, what must he have done among his own people! For all that combines to make a "good minister of Jesus Christ," the name of Timothy Pitkin is held in everlasting remembrance.

Even to the present day it is like "incense poured forth."

REV. WILLIAM ROBINSON was the first minister in Southington; his father was a merchant; graduated at Yale College, 1773, and ordained, 1780; was dismissed in 1821, and died on his birth-day, August 15, 1825, aged 71. He was married four times; had six children by his last wife, one of whom was the distinguished biblical scholar, Rev. Prof. Edward Robinson.

For native talent, and a strong, comprehensive intellect, he had no superior among his ministerial brethren. When he was settled in Panthorn (Southington), it was a povertystricken place, and he was obliged to resort to farming to support his family. The result was, he became the wealthiest man in town, but not so distinguished in his profession as he otherwise would have been, though he ranked high among his brethren. When Mr. Robinson graduated, he was one of the first scholars of his class; was afterwards tutor, and always in close relations of friendship with such men as Timothy Dwight and Joseph Buckminster, and esteemed in most respects as fully their equal.

REV. JOHN SMALLEY, D. D., a famous divine, and celebrated as a teacher of students in theology, was born at Columbia, 1734. He was pastor of the church in New Britain from 1758, when the church was first organized, and he ordained its pastor, until 1810, when Rev. Newton Skinner was settled as his colleague. It was no secret that at the outbreak of the War of the Revolution his sympathies were very strongly with the Royalists, and he had the reputation of a Tory.

Dr. Smalley was a man of very austere manners; dignified and reserved in his intercourse with his people-maintaining to the last the peculiarities of dress, manners, and dignified reserve of the old Puritan divines. He was never a man to be carried away by any sudden or popular impulse. Accordingly, when his people evinced their sympathy with the cause of their country, he did not go with them, or favor their cause —and he took no pains to conceal his dislike.

It is stated of him, that when, during the war, two hostile

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