Page images
PDF
EPUB

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND CHA

RACTER OF THE AUTHOR.

Extracted from a Sermon preached on the occasion of his death, at Princeton, 6th May 1795, by John Rodgers D.D.

DR

R JOHN WITHERSPOON was defcended from a refpectable parentage; which had long poffeffed a confiderable landed property in the east of Scotland. His father was minifter of the parifh of Yefter, a few miles from Edinburgh, where he was born on the fifth day of February, 1722.* This worthy man was eminent for his piety, his literature, and for a habit of extreme accuracy in all his writings and difcourfes. This example contributed not a little to form in his fon that

[blocks in formation]

Dr Witherspoon was lineally defcended from the Rev. Mr John Knox, whofe daughter Elizabeth married the famous M. John Welsh, who strongly resembled his father in law in genius, character, and ufefulness in the church: And in his line Dr Witherspoon defcended from this honourable ancestry.

taste and that love of accuracy, united with a noble fimplicity, for which he was fo distinguished through his whole life. He was fent, very young, to the public fchool at Haddington: his father fpared neither expence nor pains in his education. There he foon acquired reputation for his affiduity in his ftudies, and for a native foundnefs of judgment, and clearnefs and quickness of conception, among his fchool-fellows; many of whom have fince filled the highest stations in the literary and political world.

At the age of fourteen, he was removed to the univerfity of Edinburgh. Here he continued, attending the different profeffors, with a high degree of credit, in all the branches of learning, until the age of twenty-one, when he was licensed to preach the Gofpel. In the theological hall, particularly, he was remarked for a most judicious taste in facred criticifm, and for a precifion of idea and perfpicuity of expreffion rarely attained at that early period.

Immediately on his leaving the university, he was invited to be affiftant minifter with his father, with the right of fucceffion to the charge. But he chofe rather to accept an invitation from the parish of Beith, in the weft of Scotland. Here he was ordained to the work of the Gofpel ministry, and fettled with the univerfal acquiefcence, and even with the fervent attachment of the people. His character as a preacher, which rendered him fo acceptable and popular, will come more natu

rally

« PreviousContinue »