Sermons on Important Subjects Author:Samuel Davies, Albert Barnes, Thomas Gibbons Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR. By the Rev. DAVID BOSTWICK, M. A. OF N E W- YORK. " TT will doubtlefs be acknowledged on all hands, £ that a decent refpe... more »ct, and a proportionable tribute of honour are due to the memory of thofe de- ceafed, whom the God of Nature and Grace had fur- nifhed with every valuable endowment, and in his providence had advanced to an extenfive fphere of ufeful- nefs while they lived: and that this was eminently the cafe of my reverend friend and brother, no one, who had the happinefs of his perfonal acquaintance, or could rely on the teftimony of univerfal fame, will pretend to difpute. " I am, however, truly fenfible that to exhibit a juft portraiture of Prefident Davies, and draw the lineaments of his amiable character, is a tafk too arduous for me, and would require a genius not inferior to his own; but however, the friendmip with which he was pleafed to honour me, the efteem and veneration I had for him while he lived, with the juft fenfe I ftill entertain of his uncommon worth, unitedly demand the prefent exertion of my feeble attempts, efpecially as his death has taken place in the intervening time between the preaching of the following Difcourfe, and its publication, which was committed to my care. " Mr. Davies was a man of fuch uncommon furniture, both of gifts and grace, and adorned with fuch an aflemblage of amiable and ufeful qualities, and each K Aliningfilming with fuch diftinguifhed luftre, that It is truly hard to fay in which he moft excelled, and equally hard to mention one valuable or ufeful accomplifhment irl which he did not excel. A large and capacious under- ftanding—a folid, unbiafled, and well-regulated judgment—a quick apprehenfion—-a genius truly penetrating—.a fruitful invention—an elegant tafte,—were all happily ...« less