ð

I shall not be surprised if it should be imagined by some, that I have discovered, in the ensuing sketch, more of the partiality of friendship, than of the sternness of historical justice. 1 can only say, that it has been my sacred aim to exhibit every feature that was attempted to be portrayed, true to the original. If I have in any case failed, the error was certainly unintentional. But it is a consolation to know, that, even after making the most liberal allowance on this score that can be required, there will still remain a large and solid mass of personal and professional worth, which we can scarcely too often, or too respectfully, contemplate. We may say concerning the character in question, what I have somewhere met with, as said concerning another"Take away nine parts out of ten, even of its "virtues, and there will be still enough left to "admire, to imitate, and to love."

For the introduction of so many minute details respecting the Church in New-York, I hope to be

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forgiven. Though they cannot fail of being comparatively uninteresting to many readers; yet by another, and perhaps equally large class, they will be considered as among the most valuable parts of the volume. There are not a few, indeed, who feel so great an interest in the affairs of that church, that they would be glad to possess a history still more minute of its rise and progress. I have been studious of the gratification of such persons, 'as far as my plan permitted. Nor can I forbear to add, that the sentiments of attachment and gratitude which I have long cherished, for that portion of the flock of Christ, with which my deceased Colleague laboured for near half a century, and which I have had the happiness of serving for more than nineteen years, led me to take peculiar pleasure in noticing and recording every thing important concerning it, which came to my knowledge.

That we may all have grace given us to imitate our departed Fellow-labourer, so far as he

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served our common Master; and that the following account of his Life may be made, in some degree, to promote that great Cause, in the advancement of which he lived and died, and to which we, as Ministers, have solemnly professed to devote ourselves, is the fervent prayer of,

Reverend Fathers and Brethren,

Your fellow-servant in the Gospel of

Jesus Christ.

SAMUEL MILLER.

New-York, Feb. 25, 1813.

Καὶ ὅτε ἐγένετο ετων δωδεκα-εἶπε πρὸς αυτους—όυκ ήδειτε ὅτι ἐν τοῖς τοῦ Πατρός με δεῖ εἶναι με;

MEMOIRS,
&c.

66

66

CHAPTER I.

Luke ii. 42. 49.

A MODERN writer, who, to no ordinary talents, unites great eccentricity and great errors, recommends the erection and preservation of some memorial of every one that dies. The sentiment embraced in this plan is as false, as the plan itself is chimerical. The celebrated English moralist, Dr. Johnson, is undoubtedly correct when he observes, that there are " many characters "which ought never to be drawn." "There "have been men," he adds, "splendidly wicked, "whose endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom scarcely any villany made perfectly detestable, because they never could "be wholly divested of their excellencies; but

From his Birth, to his Licensure to preach the Gospel.