attending." [The two congregations worshipped together for a time after the revolutionary army left Newport.]

"September 29, 1782. Lord's Day, at Newport. Preached all day to my dear flock in the Sabbatarian meeting-house. I notified a sacramental lecture at Mr. Hopkins's meeting-house, he expecting to be absent, and proposing and desiring that the two churches should unite in communion together." "October 3. I preached a sacramental lecture."

"October 6. I preached all day at Mr. Hopkins's meeting, and administered the sacrament to both churches, united on the occasion, and for the first time," [i. e. the churches, although worshipping together, had not previously communed together.]

In his Memoir of Stiles, Dr. Holmes writes: "Dr. Hopkins held a stated evening lecture every week, which Dr. Stiles usually attended. On one of these occasions, having read his text, he was taken with a bleeding at the nose, and sat down. The blood not stopping, he requested Dr. Stiles to preach. Furnished to all good works, he took the same text and preached extemporaneously."

It is interesting to notice the regularity with which Dr. Stiles records from week to week his attendance upon the Thursday lecture of Hopkins, and the gratification which he expresses, now and then, at the "many fine and judicious observations" which the lecturer made.

When he lost his wife, he wrote, May 30, 1775: "I desired Mr. Hopkins to make a prayer at my house, before the corpse was carried out," and "Mr. Hopkins walked as a mourner' to the grave. "When I settled in the ministry at Newport," he says, "Mr. -, the Congregational minister of the other church, was suspicious and cold toward me. I disarmed him by silence and benevolence. When his ministry was ended, I hoped for a successor in whom I might be happy as a cordial brother. There was a prospect of this in an ingenious young man, Mr. ABut the church finally settled Mr.

[Hopkins], of some sentiments very different from mine, while we agreed well in the general system of orthodoxy. As the providence of God had brought us into a connection, I determined to learn and get all the good I could from him, treat him with respect and benevolence, and endeavor, as far as we were agreed, to cooperate with him in building up the Redeemer's kingdom. And we lived together in peace and love."

There were many particulars, indeed, in which these two divines felt a cordial union. They were both decided patriots, and both contended, shoulder to shoulder, against the Tory influence which made many of the Rhode Island clergy adverse to the revolution. I They were both thorough-going Congregationalists, and had sagacity enough to fear, and manliness enough to oppose, the growth of the Anglican church among the descendants of those who had fled from it to our shores. Above all, these two men were benevolent Christians, and as such they went before their age in pushing forward various schemes of philanthropy.

It deserves to be remembered, in proof of Dr. Hopkins's catholicism of temper, that not only during the six years of his connec

* Dr. Holmes's Life of President Stiles, p. 195.

+ Ib. pp. 273, 274.

Dr. Stiles gives a graphic account of the spinning matches, or " voluntary bees," which were held at his house, and also at the house of Mr. Hopkins, in 1770 and 1771. Ninety-two Daughters of Liberty spun and reeled, respiting and assisting one another," etc., etc.

tion with Dr. Stiles, but also during the thirty-three years of his pastorate at Newport, he lived in uniform friendship with the minister of the Second Church, and the relations between that church and his own were less hostile than they had been before his installation, or than they were for a quarter of a century after his death. Notwithstanding all his controversies, he was a "lover of peace."

SECT. XXIII. EARLY PROSPECTS AND SUCCESS AT NEWPORT.

To go from the hilly region of Berkshire to the ocean scenery of Rhode Island, was a great change. Greater still was the transition from the society of Massachusetts yeomen, to that of the nautical and mercantile community at Newport. In his forty-ninth year, and with the habits of rural life, Mr. Hopkins was not well fitted for such an alteration of his social intercourse. When he was installed at Newport, the town was larger than it is now, and far more enterprising. It was the second town of New England in commercial importance. Although the census taken in 1774 gave the place only 9209 inhabitants, yet the place is supposed to have actually contained about 11,000; * more than twice as many as Providence at that time. Newport has now only 9563 inhabitants,† less than one fourth as many as Providence. In 1773, New York had but 21,876 inhabitants, being only about twice as large as Newport, and having in many departments a much less extensive foreign trade. The merchants of what is now the commercial emporium then sent often to Newport for their foreign goods, as Newport sends now to that emporium. A mercantile house in London is said to have directed a letter to New York, near Newport." The town was noted, not only for the charms of its natural scenery, but also for the beauty of its private residences, for its fashionable and luxurious, as well as its intelligent and enterprising society, its culture of the fine arts, its scientific clubs, its refinement of taste and manners. Hence it was the favorite resort of learned men. The painters Stuart and Malbone were natives of the town; it was the favorite residence of Bishop Berkeley, and its medical practitioners were famed throughout the land. Not even in Virginia did there prevail a much more elegant hospitality, a much more sumptuous and Baronial style of living, than among a class of the Narraganset planters. Dr. McSparran, a celebrated Episcopal clergyman in Newport, said, in 1752, that "neither Epiphanius's nor Sir Richard Blackmore's catalogues contain more heterodox and different opinions in religion than are to be found in

* Ross's Discourse, embracing the Civil and Religious History of Rhode Island, pp. 67, 68.

Still, it has at present eighteen churches-one for every five hundred and thirty inhabitants; whereas, in 1770, it had only ten churches.

this little corner. ""* When Mr. Hopkins went there, he found two vigorous Baptist churches, cach more than a century old. Three hundred Jews, many of them eminent for wealth and commercial skill, added interest to the town. Both Jewish and Sabbatarian worship had been maintained there for about a hundred years. A large number of Moravians, a still larger number of Quakers, diversified the social habits of the people. President Stiles loved to walk over the Parade with the Jewish Rabbies, learning from them the mysteries of the Cabala; but was this a place for Samuel Hopkins ? He could not harmonize with the Dutch farmers; what will he do with the French fashions? He was too severe for the moderate Calvinists of Connecticut and Massachusetts; will he not be a foreign element among the formalists and dilettanti of Newport?

Still he found here many attractions. He felt more religious liberty in Rhode Island than he could feel elsewhere, and religious liberty he loved. He had access to the rich library of Dr. Stiles, and to the still more extensive Redwood Library,† which was then, as now, a treasure to the town. But, above all,- for this he valued more than all, he"found here a number who appeared to be excellent Christians, and the best regulated church that he had seen.”‡ To the care of this church he addressed himself with fresh zeal. He says, in condensed language:

"I preached a lecture every Thursday evening, which was well attended. I invited the young people to meet at my house, the males on one week and the females on the next; and so to continue to meet every week alternately, to have questions proposed to them, which they were to answer, &c. Above forty young men subscribed to an engagement to attend those meetings; and more than seventy young women. After those meetings were attended a considerable time, I proposed that instead of these, which began to decline, I would attend a lecture every Sabbath evening at six o'clock in the meetinghouse, in which I would explain to the young people the Shorter Catechism, composed by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster; the young people to sit by themselves in the body of the meeting-house below, and elder people, who were disposed to come, to sit in the gallery and the pews round the sides of the house below. These lectures were crowded; the congregation being larger then than at the meetings in the former part of the day, as numbers attended them from other congregations in town. And the young people appeared attentive, gave constant attendance, and behaved decently. - When I had gone through the Catechism in this way, I undertook to give a history of the Bible, in a course of lectures, endeavoring to join entertainment with instruction, and religious, profitable reflections, particularly applicable to young persons. These lectures were continued, and well attended, till they were broken up by the war between Britain and America." §

In the year 1771, he admitted fifteen members into his church;

*See America Dissected, &c., in Sundry Letters from a Clergyman there. Updike's History of the Episcopal Church in Narraganset, pp. 483-533.

He was made an honorary member of the Redwood Library Company, in 1770. His own church also possessed a valuable collection of books.

Sketches, p. 69.

§ Ib. pp. 75, 76. He established his Thursday evening lecture July 6, 1770.

in 1772, four members; in 1774, three; in 1775, five; and, during his whole ministry, fifty-nine members, of whom six were received by letter. At the time of his death, thirty others were expecting to be soon added to his church. He catechised, weekly, more than a hundred children. Before he became pastor of the church, it had been numerically declining.* Its more pious members considered its existence as dependent upon his connection with it. His correspondence and church records evince that a new impulse was given to it during the first six years of his pastorate; new rules of ecclesiastical order and a new creed were formed; new arrangements were made for the care of the poor, for the music of the sanctuary, etc. This was evidently the sunniest period of his ministerial life. In a letter to Dr. Bellamy, dated January 8, 1771, he says:

"My lecture is well attended yet, and there are some instances of awakening among us. Several hope they have been converted lately, in my congregation. So far as I can judge, my congregation in general are more and more pleased. But many of the are more and more alarmed, as some doctrines which I preach are destructive of the religion most in vogue among them. While you are all in quarrels, in Connecticut, and Hopkintonians are cursed with bell, book, and candle, Divine Providence has led me out of the noise, and provided a quiet retreat, where all is peace, and I receive more kindness from the hands of my friends in one year than I ever received in my life before."

On the 2d of April, 1773, we find him at the ordination of Mr. Sanford, at Medway, and, on the 21st of that same month, at the ordination of Mr. Emmons, at Franklin-two young men over whom he was destined to exert a long-continued power. We often catch glimpses of him walking with his guests, Dr. Bellamy and Dr. West, to dine with President Stiles; or else calling on President Stiles's guests, Mr. Whittlesey and Dr. Dana, of New Haven. Still, even at this most comfortable and most flattering period of his ministry, we find him faithful as ever in purifying the house of God. He sought not his own ease. He might have retained a pleasant degree of popularity, if he had aimed to please inen. But he was artless as a child. In a little more than two months after he was installed, he became engaged in a process of discipline with a member of his church. The entire process continued until December 5, 1774. It resulted in the exclusion of the delinquent member from the Lord's table. But that member was himself a clergyman, and enlisted other ministers in his favor. He insisted that his own conduct and that of Mr. Hopkins, and of prominent individuals in the church, should be reviewed by a council. The council unanimously decided that the offending clergyman ought to have been excluded from fellowship, and that he had proved nothing

May 31, 1770, his congregation consisted of a hundred and thirty-five families; his church, of seventy members, and of these, less than twenty were males. h

"in any measure " injurious to the "ministerial or Christian character" of Mr. Hopkins. It is easy to see, however, that such unflinching perseverance, and such rigid faithfulness, as were manifested in this disciplinary process, were fitted to exalt the moral feelings of a church, rather than to make its pastor a favorite with the world. He exposed himself to the charge of severity in his treatment of offending brethren, and particularly in requiring of them a public confession of their sin. It must be confessed that he abhorred iniquity, and expressed his abhorrence with decision, and thus, even if he had been identified with no peculiarities of doctrine, would have given offence. But his severity came from his benevolence. My desire," he says, during the tedious process of this discipline, "my desire of usefulness to this congregation is so great, that I am willing to sacrifice every personal and family interest to this. In this cause I think I am willing to give my life, and every thing dear to me in this world."

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SECT. XXIV. VISIT FROM MR. WHITEFIELD.

It is pleasant to open the curtains of the past, and look upon our Newport minister, as, four months after his installation, he was enjoying a visit from Mr. Whitefield. Hopkins had listened with delight to Whitefield_thirty years before, at New Haven; and on the 3d of August, 1770, welcomed him as a guest at the old Newport parsonage. At five o'clock, on the afternoon of August 4, Whitefield "preached to a very crowded audience at Mr. Hopkins's meeting-house," from Ps. li. 11: "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." A young Jewess heard him, "and greatly admired his preaching the gospel of Christ." On the next morning, the Sabbath, he preached for Dr. Stiles, from Job xxii. 21: " Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace." At six o'clock in the afternoon, he preached from 1 Cor. iii. 11, in the fields adjoining Mr. Hopkins's meetinghouse, to a thousand or fifteen hundred hearers. While preaching, he stood on a table, which is still reverently preserved. On the 7th of August, he preached at five o'clock, P. M., from Zech. ix. 12, at Mr. Thurston's Baptist meeting-house, to an audience of thirteen hundred within the walls, and four or five hundred without. After preaching, he dined at Major Otis's, with Mr. Hopkins, and Mr. Thurston, and Dr. Stiles. At six o'clock on the next morning, he preached, from Gen. i. 2, to eleven hundred hearers, in Mr. Hopkins's meeting-house. After service, he dined with Messrs. Hopkins, Thurston, Stiles, and Rusmeyer, the Moravian pastor in Newport, at the house of Mr John Wanton, a Quaker.* In the afternoon, he left for Providence, and before two months had passed away, he died in Newburyport.

*The facts above stated are taken from Stiles's Literary Diary. The calculations, perhaps extravagant with regard to the number of Whitefield's hearers, were the common calculations of the time.