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license to officiate in and about Hanover, at four meetinghouses." The Governor, Mr. William Gooch favoured the application. The council hesitated. The tall, slim, well-formed youth, pale and wasted by disease, dignified and courteous in manner, won the Governor's favour. It were better he should lead the people in Hanover, according to law, than to subject them to fines and imprisonment for receiving instructions according to the law of their conscience, but contrary to the law of the land. The Governor remembered his promise that the Presbyterians acting according to the provisions of the law, should be protected, especially on the frontiers. The General Court was in session, the highest court in the province, composed of the Governor and council. The Governor presided. In state and parade, Virginia surpassed all the other provinces. Davies in after years may have appeared more grand, but he never appeared more interesting than when he modestly asked of the court, and finally obtained by the influence of the Govenor, permission to preach the gospel unmolested, to the vexed and harassed people of God, in Hanover. The license was issued in the following form:

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"On the petition of Samuel Davies, a Dissenting Minister, who, this day in Court, took the usual oaths to his Majesty's person and government, and subscribed the Test, and likewise publicly declared his assent thereunto, he is allowed to assemble and meet any congregations of Dissenters, at the several meeting-houses, on the lands of Samuel Morris, David Rice, and Stephen Leacy, in Hanover county, and on the lands of Thomas Watkins in Henrico county, without molestation, they behaving in a peaceable manner, and conforming themselves. according to the directions of the acts of parliament in that behalf made."

In two days the trial of those indicted for worshipping contrary to law, while Mr. Roan was in the province, commenced. The granting Mr. Davies license to preach, and the licensing of houses, some of which were on the lands of the indicted, had no effect with the Council or Governor towards dismissing those arraigned for past offences of worshipping contrary to law and custom. In the opinion of the Court, justice required some

victims to preserve the sanctity of the law; and the incensed church must be appeased by fines.

On the 17th of April, 1747, the Governor present, with same council as above, with the exception of Messrs. Burwell and Dawson, the case of Thomas Watkins the son of Edward Watkins, was called, and,-" continued to the next court at the motion and costs of the said Thomas."

On the 20th of the same month, same court present as at the signing the license, with the exception of Lightfoot, Lee, and Burwell, the case of Joshua Morris was taken up, and-" the Attorney General of our Lord the King saith he will not further prosecute of and upon the premises. Therefore it is ordered, that the indictment aforesaid be dismissed." The same record is made in the case of Charles Rice.

In the case of Isaac Winston, senior, the following record is made under the date of the 20th of the month. "This day came as well the Attorney General of our Lord the King, as the defendant by his attorney; and thereupon came a jury—to wit-Thomas Guille, James Roe, Benjamin Cocke, James Patton, Theophilus Field, Thomas Addison, John Woodson, George Waller, Peter Fontaine, Littleton Scarburgh, Major W. Harding, and Thomas Gray, who being elected, tried and sworn the truth to speak upon the issue joined, brought in a special verdict, in these words, to wit-We find that people did assemble at the house of the defendant, but not in a riotous manner, and that John Roan preached in said house, but not against the canons of the Church of England as set forth in the information; and the cause is continued till the next court for the matters of law arising thereupon to be argued." This case was argued April, 1748.

On the same day, the case of Samuel Morris, labourer, was taken up and tried. The verdict rendered (the names of the jury omitted) was "We find that Roan preached at defendant's house; and that he is clear of all charge against him, in the information. The case is continued till the next court for the matters of law arising thereupon to be argued." It was argued April, 1748.

On the 2d day of May, of the same year, and at the same sessions of the court, there is the following notice of Mr. Morris—“On motion of his Majesty's Attorney General, the King's writ of Certiorari is awarded to remove hither certain presentments of the Grand Jury made in the County Court of Hanover in November last, against Samuel Morris, Bricklayer, John Sims son of John Sims, and Roger Shackelford, Planters,Thomas Green, Tailor, and William Allen, returnable here the sixth day of next court."

It may not be amiss to quote one more record of the General

Court, dated April 17th, 1747. "The Grand Jury appeared, &c.-They also presented Robert White Senr. Margaret White, and John White Junr. for impiously and blasphemously reviling our Holy Religion and the Common Prayer; for blasphemously asserting the Cross in Baptism to be nothing but a whore's mark,—and for reviling the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England." This suit was renewed in 1749, but dismissed in 1750. Unguarded and passionate expressions, in religious controversy, were avenged by the strong arm of the law, whose aid was invoked to sustain the privileged church; but no notice was taken of any harsh expressions used against dissenters, however unjust and severe.

From these scenes, in the court, Mr. Davies proceeded to Hanover, with an excited spirit; and was received with an outburst of joy. News had spread through the county that another preacher was expected by the people that worshipped in the Reading Houses; and a proclamation was attached to the door of the Reading House of Mr. Morris, warning all people against gathering to hear "itinerants," as the law would be enforced with rigour, on all delinquents. The Reading was omitted for a Sabbath-the alarm, in recollections of past sufferings, and of the suits still pending in the General and County courts, caused the people to pause and consult. The coming of Dr. Davies, with his license, was like a visit from the angel of mercy. His ardent sermons refreshed the congregations, and his legal protection turned the enmity of the opposers to their own mortification.

His account of his mission is short-"I preached frequently in Hanover, and some of the adjacent counties; and though the fervour of the late work was considerably abated, and my labours were not blessed with success equal to that of my brethren, yet I have reason to hope they were of service in several instances. The importunities they used with me to settle with them were invincible; and upon my departure, they sent a call for me to the Presbytery. After I returned from Virginia, I spent near a year under melancholy and consumptive languishments, expecting death.'

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Soon after his return from Virginia, his wife was taken from him, in a sudden and afflictive manner. The brief notice in his Bible is "September 15th, 1747, separated by death, and bereaved of an abortive son. Grief for her loss oppressed his languishing frame, and thoughts of his own speedy dissolution mingled with his sighs for the departure of his beloved. His hectic assumed a more alarming cast, and his prospects of prolonged usefulness vanished. Dr. Gibbons relating the circumstances, as he received them from Mr. Davies, says "finding himself upon the borders of the grave, and without any hopes

of a recovery, he determined to spend the little remains of an almost exhausted life, as he apprehended it, in endeavouring to advance his Master's glory in the good of souls; and as he told me, he preached in the day, and had his hectic by night, and to such a degree as to be sometimes delirious, and to stand in need of persons to sit up with him."

Unwilling, in his weak state, to take charge of any congregation, he travelled from vacancy to vacancy, and from desolation to desolation, as much as his feeble strength would permit, and was every where made welcome. In the spring of 1748— "he began slowly to recover, though he then looked upon it. only as the intermission of a disorder that would finally prove mortal. Many earnest applications were made for his pastoral services. The one from Hanover, "signed by about one hundred and fifty heads of families," came with renewed importunity, and aided by the voice of the living messenger despatched by the people to urge their call, moved his heart. He says"but upon the arrival of a messenger from Hanover, I put my life in my hand and determined to accept their call, hoping I might live to prepare the way for some more useful successor, and willing to expire under the fatigues of duty rather than in voluntary negligence." It is scarcely possible for a missionary to have gone to Virginia in circumstances better calculated to make an impression in favour of the gospel which he preached. In his domestic afflictions and bodily weakness, Davies felt the sentence of death gone out and already in execution. His soul burned with the desire of usefulness, and his tongue uttered the earnest persuasions of a spirit that would reconcile man to God, and lay some trophies at the Redeemer's feet, before his lips. should be locked up in the grave. He longed to carry with him to the heavens some gems for the eternal crown. The people of Hanover were ready for an elevated spirit to lead them on through common and uncommon difficulties, through trials incident to all men, and the trials peculiar to their situation from the laws of the province, complaints, ridicule, indictments, fines and heavy costs of court,-to virtue and honour and eternal life. Davies was the man for the situation; for what were all these difficulties to such a man expecting soon to be giving in to God the account of his stewardship?

In his second visit to Virginia he was accompanied by his fellow student and warm friend John Rodgers, whose biography has been so ably written by his associate in the ministry, Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., of the Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.

These friends had pursued their studies for the ministry in times of the greatest religious excitement the country had ever known, a parallel to which is seldom found in any age or any

part of the world. The great awakening in which the Presbyterian church in Ireland was gathered, more than a century previous, and the great excitement, commonly spoken of as "the great Revival of 1802," that spread over the Southern, and Western, and portions of the Middle States," with a power almost terrific, were of a similar nature, and like abiding consequences. Together, these form three links in the chain of God's remarkable gracious dealings with the Presbyterian portion of his church, especially that part found in America. The influence of the great Revival in Ireland was felt in every Presbyterian band of emigrants from the "Emerald Isle," that came in such numbers to the Middle, and Southern, and Western States, from Makemie's time to the American Revolution. That of 1740 and onwards, in New England, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, laid broad and deep foundations for the spiritual church to arise in the wilderness. And that of 1802 lighted up the fires of the sanctury in the South and West like a pioneer chain of forts, both a refuge and a temple for the adventurous emigrants. In all these there were, in places, many very exceptionable things. Extravagances in feeling and action arose in them all. Errors in doctrine crept in; many tares were sown with the wheat. But the seed was not all tares; neither did the tares possess the field. There were some wild vines; but many plants of Sorek struck deep roots, whose fruits have refreshed the world. We do not believe the good and the evil were inseparable, either in the nature or the circumstance of the case. could it be established that the good flowing from these great awakenings could not be separated from the evils that accompanied, a soul that loves the race of men, and reverences the Redeemer of the lost, might, in view of these awakenings, pray pour out thy Spirit, O Lord, O Lord review thy work-shake the earth, and let the desire of all nations come.

But,

These young friends also received their education under the preaching and instruction of one who took a leading part in the excitements and agitations of that peculiar period; whose piety, and talents, and ministerial usefulness, and academical success, made the school at Fagg's Manor a rival of the Log College of the Tennents. Virginia can never forget Samuel Blair, or his school, while she holds the pupil, Davies, in becoming esti

mation.

At the earnest solicitation of Mr. Davies, Mr. Rodgers was appointed, by Presbytery, to accompany him, and engage, for a few months, in the work of Evangelist in Virginia. They commenced their journey in April, 1748, and proceeded directly to Hanover. On their way, as related by Dr. Miller, Mr. Rodgers was relieved from his distressing fear of thunder, by being

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