An Essay on Justification, and A Practical Treatise on Regeneration

WHEN the works of men, eminent both for their intelledlaa'l and moral excellence, are prefented to the Public, it is natural to prefume that the Pubhc will feel a defire to be favoured with fome account of them. It is from a prefumption of this 'kind, that the following brief ac-' count has been drawn up of the late eminent Dr WiTHERSpooN. Thofe who take pleafure in acquainting themfelves with the hiftory of perfons who have been blelTed with fuperior talents, and enabled ftrenuoufly to devote thetxifelves to truth, to virtue, and to the befl: interefts of mankind, will feel peculiar intereft in perufing a faithi\il memoir of this eminent divine%

3tll ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE

Dr WiTHERSPooN was a branch of a very refpedable family, which had long poffelTed a confiderable landed property in the eaft of Scotland. He was lineally defcended from that eminent man of God, the Rev. John Knox, well known as the prime inftrument of fpreading and eflablifhing the reformed religion in this part of the United Kingdoms. The Dodlor was born on the 5th day of February 1722 ; and his father was,, at that time, minifter of the parifh of Yefter, about 18 miles from Edinburgh. His father was a worthy man — eminent not only fox piety, but for hterature, and for a habit of extreme accuracy in all his writings and difcourfes. Any propenfity, when it has once become charaderiftical of a race, is peculiarly apt to be propagated by the influence of early alTociations. The father's example, therefore, may be fuppafed to have contributed not a little to form in the fon that tafle and love of corrcdlnefs, united with a dignified, iimplicity, for which he was fo much and fo juftly diilinguifhed through the whole of his life.

Young WiTHERSFooN was very early^fent to the public fchool at Haddington, where his father Jpared no iCiXpence in his educa-

tion. He liad been at that feminary but a little while when he attraded particular notice. He was diilinguilhed for alTiduity in his fludies, for foundnefs of judgment, and for clear nefs and quick nefs of conception, among his fchool-fellows, many of w^hom have lince filled fome of the higheit llations in the literary and political world..

At the age of fourteen, he was removed to the Univerfity of Edinburgh, where he continued attending the different Profeflbrs with a great degree of credit in all the branches of learning, until the age oFtwenty-one, when he was licenfed to preach the gofpel. When a ftudent at the Divinity Hall, his character ilood remarkably high for his ta^e in facred criticifm, and for a precifion of thinking, and a perfpicuity of expreffion, rarely attained at fo early a period.

He had fcarcely left the Univerfity when he was invited to be Affiflant and Succefibr to his father in the pariih of Yefter. However, he chofe rather to accept an invitation from the parifh of Beith, in the weft of Scotland, where he was ordained with the univerful confent of the people, and where

he afterwards received many plealing tokens of their high efteem and cordial affection. It is devoutly to be wifhed that fuch happy fettlements were more frequent in the Church of Scotland, and that they were not fo often prevented by the impolitic excrcife of the law of patronage.

From Beith, he foon received a call to the large and flourifhing town of Pailjey, fo celebrated for its various and excellent manufadures. There he relided with high reputation, and laboured in the work of the Lord with uncommon fuccefs. There his name will long be held in facred remembrance.

During his refidence at Paifley, he was invited to Dublin, in Ireland, to take the charge of a numerous and refpedable congregation in that city. He was alfo invited to Rotterdam, in the republic of the United Provinces, and to the town of Dundee, in his own country. But he could not then be induced to quit fuch a fphereof comfort and ufefulnefs a3 Paifley afforded him. He rejeded alfo, in the firfl: in(lance,the invitation of the Truftees of the College of New Jerfey, in America. He thought it almoft iinpoffible to diflblve connedions at home,

which had been fo long endeared to him ; to leave a place where he was fo much refpedled and fo very happy ; and, in the middle of his career, to bury himfelf, as he apprehended, in a new and diftant country. But, urged by all the friends whofe judgment he moft refpedled, and whofe friendfhip he moft valued ; hoping too that his facrifices might be more than repaid by his being made peculiarly ufeful in promoting the caufe of Chrift, and the interefts of learning in the new world, and knowing that Jerfey College had been confecrated from its foundation to thofe great objeds to which he had devoted his life, he confented, on a fecond application, to wave every other conlideration, to crofs the Atlantic, and to take the important charge to which he had been called, with the concurrent wifhes and the higheft expectations of all the friends of the College *. Their expedations were not difappointed. The reputation and profperity * Dr WiTHERSPOON arrived with his family in America in the month of Auguft 1768. He was the fixth Prefident of the College fince its foundation in the year 1746. His five predeceffors were, the Rev. MeiTrs Jonathan Dickenson-^Aaron Burr— Jokathan Edwards

of the College under Dr WiTHhRSPooN's adminiilration equalled the higheft hopes that even the mod fanguine entertained.

'New Jerfey College w^as founded, and has fince been chiefly fupported, by private liberality and zeal. Its finances, from a variety of caufes, wxre in a very low and declining condition, when Dr Witherspoon arrived in America. But his reputation excited an uncommon liberality in the Public, and his peVfonal exertions, which extended from Maflachufetts to Virginia, foon raifed its funds to a flourifhing Hate. The war of the Revolution, indeed, afterwards obilrudled its growth, and almofl annihilated its re-