Works

MEMOIR.

PREFACE TO
ΤΟ THE MEMOIR.

A RECENT number (CXI.) of the Westminster Review contains the following remark: "A fault of the Americans, to which we fear they are becoming more and more addicted, is a certain tendency to decry the abilities and virtues of their most distinguished historical characters." The justness of this remark, is apparent in the disposition of some American authors to depreciate the merits of Samuel Hopkins. The ensuing Memoir is by no means a full vindication of this distinguished "historical" personage. An adequate account of his life and labors would fill a large volume. The materials for such a volume are still extant. A selection from them is now given to the public. This selection is sufficient to prove the strength and the piety of Hopkins, as well as his great influence upon the American churches.

In publishing his Journal, Letters, and other manuscripts, no attempt has been made to correct their faulty style; but they are printed, in the main, as they were originally written. In some few instances, where his words were illegible, or very obscure, the biographer has inserted, within brackets, the terms or phrases which seemed to express the idea intended in the original manuscript.

For many of the facts stated in the ensuing pages, the biographer is indebted to surviving parishioners or personal friends of Dr. Hopkins, and to several literary gentlemen who have interested themselves in antiquarian researches. He owes especial thanks to Hon. William R. Staples and John Kingsbury, Esq., of Providence, R. I., Walter Channing, M. D., of Boston, Mass., Professor James L. Kingsley, of New Haven, Conn., Rev. William B. Sprague, D. D., of Albany, N. Y., Rev. Brown Emerson, D. D., of Salem, Mass., Rev. Calvin Hitchcock, D. D., of Randolph, Mass., Rev. John Ferguson, of Whately, Mass., and to many others who have rendered him important aid. He has derived much information from the voluminous correspondence of Dr. Hopkins, from two manuscript letters of the late Rev. William E. Channing, D. D., of Boston, Mass., from the Literary Diary of President Stiles, and from the following printed works: "Sketches of the Life of the late Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., Pastor of the First Congrega

tional Church in Newport, written by himself; interspersed with margin notes extracted from his private diary:" with an Introduction by Steph West, D. D., Pastor of the Church in Stockbridge, Mass.; published in Ha ford, Conn., 1805;-"Reminiscences of the late Rev. Samuel Hopkin D. D., of Newport, R. I., illustrative of his character and doctrines, wi incidental subjects: from an intimacy with him of twenty-one years, whi Pastor of a sister Church in said town, by William Patten, D. D." 1843;"Memoir of the Life and Character of Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., forme ly Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Islan with an Appendix; by John Ferguson, Pastor of the East Church in Attl borough, Mass;" published in Boston, 1830. The author of the last-nam work was, for many years, a member of the church to which Dr. Hopki had ministered, was an intimate friend of the widow of Dr. Hopkins, a was personally acquainted with many facts illustrative of Hopkins's chara ter. The Memoir which Mr. Ferguson wrote has been very fully indors by Rev. Caleb J. Tenney, D. D., of Wethersfield, Conn. In a letter dat December 11, 1843, Dr. Tenney wrote to Mr. Ferguson:

"I have lately reperused, with increased interest, your brief Memoirs the Life of the late Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., of Newport, R. I.

"My residence in his family during several of the last months of his lif I recollect, now forty years ago, as a very highly-favored passage in my ow life. This acquaintance with one of the best men, and one of the ablest d vines, whom I have ever known, and my settlement with the same chur and people to whom he ministered, afforded me peculiar opportunity to lear his character and the facts in his history.

"Of many things in your Memoirs, I had personal knowledge, and of mo of the other things, I had the most authentic information, and can most u hesitatingly say, that the public may rely upon your Life of Hopkins a prepared with great accuracy and fidelity, and as approaching well to perfect presentation of the original in actual and real life."

It may be added, that nearly all the more important statements in the e suing Memoir have been submitted to some of Dr. Hopkins's former friend and have been inserted in the Memoir with their approval. Several of th manuscripts here published, have not been seen by the biographer, but wer copied for him by trustworthy friends.

ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
March 16, 1852.

EDWARDS A. PARK.

CONTENTS.

MEMOIR.

SECT. I. Family and Birth, pp. 9-12. Religious character of Hopkins's an-

cestors, p. 11. Dr. Hopkins, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, — Dr. Hop-

kins, of Hadley, Massachusetts, and Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, of Hartford, Con-

necticut, p. 10.