DR. WITHERSPOON was a branch of a very respectable family, which had long possessed a considerable landed property in the east of Scotland. He was lineally descended from the Rev. John Knox, well known as the prime instrument of spreading and establishing the reformed religion in Scotland. The Doc. tor was born on the 5th of Feb. ruary, 1722; and his father was at that time minister of the parish of Yester. He was a worthy man,-eminent not only for piety, but for literature, and for a habit of extreme accuracy in all his writingsand discourses. The father's example may be supposed to have contributed not a little to form in the son that taste and love of correctness, united with a dignified simplicity, for which he was so justly distinguished through the whole of his life.

Young Witherspoon was very early sent to the public school at Haddington; where no expense was spared in his education. Here he was distinguished for assiduity in his studies, for soundness of judgment, and for clear. VOL. II. New Series.

ness and quickness of perception.

At the age of 14 he was remov. ed to the University of Edinburgh; where he continued attending the different professors, with a great degree of credit in all the branches of learning, until the age of 21, when he was licensed to preach the gospel. When a student at the Divinity Hall, his characterstood remark ably high for his taste in sacred criticism, and for a precision of thinking, and a perspicuity of expression rarely attained at so early a period.

He had scarcely left the University when he was invited to be assistant and successor to his father, in the parish of Yester; but he chose rather to accept an invitation from the parish of Beith, in the west of Scotland; where he was ordained with the universal consent of the people, and where he afterwards received many pleasing tokens of their high esteem and cordial affection.

From Beith he soon received a call to the large and flourish. ing town of Paisley; where he

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resided with high reputation, and laboured in the work of the Lord with uncommon success; and there his name will long be held in sacred remembrance.

During his residence at Paisley he was invited to Dublin, to take the charge of a respectable congregation in that city. He was also invited to Rotterdam, in the United Provinces; and to Dundee, in his own country: but he could not then be induced to quit such a sphere of comfort and usefulness as Paisley afforded him. He rejected also, in the first instance, the invitation of the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, in America. He thought it almost impossible to dissolve connexions at home, which had been so long endeared to him, to leave a place where he was so much respected and so very happy but urged by the friends whose judgment he most respected, and whose friendship he most valued; hoping too, that his sacrifices might be more than repaid by his being made peculiarly useful in promoting the cause of Christ in the new world; and knowing that Jersey College had been consecrated from its foundation to those great objects to which he had devoted his life, he consented, on a second application, to wave every other consideration, and to take the important charge to which he had been called, with the concurrent wishes and the highest expecta. tions of all the friends of the College. Their expectations were not disappointed. The reputation and prosperity of the College under Dr. Witherspoon's administration, equalled the highest hopes that even the most sanguine entertained.

New Jersey College was founded, and has since been chiefly supported, by private liberality and zeal. Its finances were then in a very low and declining condition: but his reputation excited an uncommon liberality in the public; and his personal exertions, which extended from Massachusetts to Virginia, soon raised its funds to a flourishing state.

But its chief advantages were derived from his literature, his superintendance, his excellent example, and from the general tone which he gave to the literary pursuits of the students. For. merly, the course of instruction had been too superficial, and the metaphysics and philosophy that were taught, tinctured with the dry and unedifying forms of the schools. This defect, however, ought not to be imputed to the worthy men who had before presided over the institution; but rather to circumstances arising from the infant state of the country, over which it was not to be expected that they could, all at once, have a sufficiently com. manding power; but since the election of Dr. Witherspoon to the presidency, learning has received an extension, before unknown in the American seminaries. He introduced into their philosophy the most liberal and modern improvements of Europe. He included in the philosophical course the general principles of policy and public law; he incorporated with it sound and ra tional metaphysics, equally remote from the doctrines of fatality and contingency; from the bar. renness of the schools, and from the excessive refinements of those contradictory, absurd, and im

This he considered as his highest character, and honour in life.

verse.

The number of men of distinguished talents, in the different liberal professions, who received the elements of their education under Dr. Witherspoon, demonstrate how eminent his services were to the college of New Jersey. Under his auspices have been formed a great proportion of the cler. gy of the American Church; and to his able instructions, America owes many of her most distin. guished legislators. Above thir. ty of his pupils have arisen to the honour of being members of the Congress; and among these are to be found some of the first characters for reputation and usefulness.

Dr. Witherspoon continued directing the institution till the commencement of the American war. But that calamitous event suspended his functions and dispersed the College. He then entered upon a new scene, and ap. peared in a new character. Knowing his distinguished abil. ities, the citizens of New Jersey elected him as one of their delegates to that Convention which formed their Republican Constitution.

From the committees of the State he was sent early in the year 1766, as a representative of the people of New Jersey to the Congress of United America. But while he was thus engaged in serving his country in the character of a civilian, he did not lay aside his duty as a minister. He gladly embraced every opportunity of preaching, and of discharging the other duties of his sacred of.

re.

The College having been col. lected as soon as possible after its dispersion, instruction was commenced under the immediate care of the vice-president.* Dr. Witherspoon's name, however, continued to add celebrity to the institution; and it has fully recovered its former reputation.

At the close of the American struggle, the Doctor feeling age advancing upon him, was desir. ous of retiring from Congress, and, in a measure, from the bur. dens of the College. But, notwithstanding his wish for repose, he was induced, through his attachment to the institution over which he had so long presided, once more to cross the ocean to

promote its benefit. He again visited Britain; but the fruit of his voyage was not answerable to the wishes of his American friends; yet they felt not the less indebted to his enterprize and zeal.

Doctor, Witherspoon had now educated five hundred and twenty three young men, one hundred and fifteen of whom were afterwards ministers of the gospel. He had the satisfaction to see many of his former pupils filling the first offices of trust under the govern. ment and on returning one day from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, then sitting in Philadelphia, he remarked to his particular friend, 'I cannot, my dear Sir, express the satisfaction I feel, when I observe that a majority of our General

The Rev. Dr. Samuel S. Smith, who was unanimously chosen Dr. With. erspoon's succesor, May 6, 1795,

Assembly were once my own pupils.'

For more than two years after his death, he suffered the loss of his sight; which contributed to hasten the progress of his other disorders. These he bore with a patience and cheerfulness rarely to be met with, even in those eminent for wisdom and piety. His activity of mind and anxiety to be useful, would not permit him, even in this depressing situation, to desist from the exercise of his ministry, and his duties in the College. He was fre. quently led into the pulpit, both at home and abroad, during his blindness; and he always acquitted himself, even then, in his usually accurate, impressive, and excellent manner. He had the felicity of enjoying the full use of his mental powers to the very last. He died on the 15th day of November, 1794, in the 73d of his age.

year

He was buried in the public burying-ground in Princeton, where a handsome monument is erected to his memory, with a Latin inscription, detailing many of the leading events in his life.

Of Dr. Witherspoon's char. acter as an author, it is not necessary to say much his writings are before the public; and, to every serious, intelligent reader, they must discover an uncom. mon knowledge of human nature, and a deep and intimate acquaint. ance with the Holy Scriptures. They generally strike us as being at once eloquent and convincing, grave and attractive, profound and plain, energetic and simple. They evidently shew that the au, thor's learning was very extensive; that God had given him a

great and understanding mind, a quick apprehension, and a solid judgment.

Dr. Witherspoon's talents were various. He was not only a serious writer, but one who possessed also an uncommon fund of refined humour and delicate satire. A happy specimen of this is seen in his Ecclesiastical Characteristics. The edge of his wit in that performance was directed against certain corrup tions in principle and practice, prevalent in the church of Scotland; and no attack that was ever made upon the moderate clergy gave so deep a wound or was so severely felt.

As a preacher, Dr. Witherspoon's character stood remark. ably high. In this department he was, in many respects, one of the best models on which a young pulpit-orator could form himself. It was a singular felicity to the students in the College of NewJersey, that they had such an example before them. Religion, from the manner in which it was treated by him, always commanded the attention of the hearers, even when it did not savingly reach their hearts. An admira ble textuary, a profound theolo. gian, an universal scholar, simple, yet dignified, in his manner, he brought forth all the advan. tages derived from these sources, to the illustration of divine truth.

Though always solemn, affecting, and instructive, he was by no means the most animated orator. A peculiar affection of his nerves, which generally overcame him when he allowed himself to feel very keenly on any subject; obliged him, from his earliest entrance on public life, to impose a strict restraint on his sensibility.

He was, therefore, under the necessity of substituting a gravi. ty of manner in room of that warmth and fire of which he was so capable by nature, and which he so much admired in others, when managed with prudence.

It was impossible to hear him without attention; or to attend to him without improvement. He had a happy talent at unfolding the true meaning of the sacred writer of his text ;-at concentrating and giving perfect unity to every subject which he treated, and presenting to his audience the clearest and most com. prehensive views of it.

The sermons of Doctor Witherspoon were distinguished for judicious division, for profound remarks on human nature and human life, and for luminous illustrations of Scripture. In his discourses, he delighted to dwell chiefly on the great and distinguishing doctrines of the gospel; and these he brought, as far as possible, to the level of every understanding, and to the feelings of every heart. He sel.

dom chose to lead his hearers in to speculative discussions; and never to entertain them by a mere display of talents. All ostentation in the pulpit he viewed with

the utmost aversion and contempt. During the whole of his presidency, he was extremely solicitous to train those studious youths who had the ministry of the gospel in view, in such a manner as to secure the greatest: respectability as well as useful. ness, in their sacred profession. It was his constant advice to young preachers, never to enter the pulpit without the most care. ful preparation. It was his am. bition to render those in the holy ministry the most pious and exemplary body of men in America.

His personal religion is well known. Few men were ever more anxious to walk closely with God; and by a sober, right. eous, and pious life, to adorn the doctrines of the gospel. Besides the daily devotions of the closet and the family, he regularly set apart, with his household, the last day of every year for fasting, humiliation, and prayer. He was also in the practice of spending days in secret exercises of this kind, as occasion requir. ed. He was enabled while on earth, to continue patiently in well-doing ;'-and he is now in heaven enjoying his everlasting reward.

he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign