who are you, to take such authority upon yourself?' 'I am minister of the gospel,' says Mr. Robinson. 'Then you belie your looks very much,' was the reply. It is said that Mr. Ro binson had had the small pox very severely, which had giver him a very rough visage, and had deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes. It was with reference to his forbidding appearance, that the innkeeper seemed to question his ministerial cha racter. But,' says Mr. Robinson, if you wish certainly to know whether I am a minister or not, if you will accompany me to such a place, you may be convinced by hearing me preach.' 'I will,' says the innkeeper, if you will preach from a text which I shall give you.' 'Let me hear it,' says Mr. Robinson, ' and if there is nothing unsuitable in it, I will.' The waggish tavern-keeper, with the wish of turning him into ridicule, assigned him the text, Psalm cxxxix. 14. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' Mr. Robinson promised, if he would accompany him, he would preach, among his first sermons, one from that text. He did so, it is said; and before the sermon ended, this wicked man was made to see that he was the monster, and that he was indeed fearfully and wonderfully made himself; and it is said that he became a very pious and useful member of the church. It is thought that President Davies has a reference to this case, among others, in his letter to the Bishop of London, when he says, 'I have been the joyful witness of the happy effects of those four sermons upon sundry thoughtless impenitents and sundry abandoned profligates, who have ever since given good evidence of a thorough conversion from sin unto holiness.'

"Seldom did the preaching of the gospel produce such immediate and happy effects as the four sermons which he was allowed to preach at Morris' Reading House. Let this scene be described by one who was competent to do justice to it. On the sixth of July, Mr. Robinson preached his first sermon, and continued with us preaching four days successively. The congregation was large the first day, and vastly increased the three following. It is hard for the liveliest imagination to form an idea of the condition of the assembly on those glorious days of the Son of Man. Such of us as had been hungering for the word before, were lost in an agreeable surprise and astonishment, and

some could not refrain from publicly declaring their transports. We were overwhelmed with the thoughts of the unexpected goodness of God in allowing us to hear the gospel preached as we never had before, and in a manner which far surpassed our hopes. Many that came through curiosity were pricked to the heart, and but few in the numerous assemblies on these four days appeared unaffected. They returned alarmed with apprehensions of their dangerous condition, convinced of their former entire ignorance of religion, and anxiously inquiring what they should do to be saved. And there is reason to believe, there was as much good done by these four sermons, as by all the sermons preached in these parts since or before.' Supplies were regularly sent to them until Mr. Davies visited them, four years afterwards. It can readily be seen that Mr. Robinson visited them under very favorable circumstances. They had the advantage of giving timely notice of his coming;-they had never heard preaching that was worth the name before;-their minds had for some time been deeply impressed with the necessity and importance of religion;—it was not a mere transient visit, but a protracted meeting of four days and nights continuance, without intermission;-and it is probable there were few ministers who knew How to handle the word of God more dexterously, and to give to 11 each one his portion in due season. There were daily additions to sh this little flock of hopeful converts. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed among them.

"We have no right to inquire now what might have been the consequences if Mr. Robinson had been permitted to have prolonged his visit, and extended his labors through the regions round about, which were so white and ripe for the harvest. But he had to make a precipitate retreat, and commence his flight from the sheriffs, who were ordered out for his apprehension, by persecuting Episcopalians.

“As Mr. Robinson had to leave them so hastily and unexpect edly, his many warm friends had no opportunity to contribute anything as a compensation, or even to defray his expenses. A collection was raised the next day, and sent by some trusty friends to overtake him, and put it in his possession. They did overtake him, but he peremptorily refused to receive a penny of it; saying, he knew what his enemies would say if he should re

ceive any part of it, and he was determined he would give them no occasion to speak evil of either himself or his master's cause, which he advocated. He at last said, there was one condition upon which he would receive the money. He knew a very pious and promising young man, who was in very indigent circumstances, and had been for some years prosecuting his studies for the ministry; he would with their leave expend it upon him, with the promise that if he should enter the ministry, he should come and preach to them. To this they consented. Samuel Davies, then studying under the care of the Rev. Samuel Blair, at Fogg's Manor, Pennsylvania, was this youth; and by his coming and laboring among them, the pledge was redeemed.

"The Episcopal Church of England had been established by law in Virginia, from its first settlement;-the ministers, generally speaking, were men sent from Great Britain to seek their fortunes, or to recover broken ones in America. Although nominally belonging to the see of the Bishop of London, yet, in fact, they were subject to no supervision, amenable for misconduct to no human authority; and it is not wonderful that the most of them were addicted to horse-racing, cock-fighting, card-playing, and drinking, and, in fact, were the mere parasites of the rich and the great. This being generally their character, with here and there rare exceptions, religion was and had long been at a very low ebb. The common people had lost all confidence in their clergy, and were generally ready to hear any pious minister gladly, and would have easily been led off to another church, had they not been restrained by high-handed civil authority. There perhaps could no other people be found where the great mass of the community were more open to conviction and accessible by the gospel, whenever and wherever it was faithfully preached. Thus impressible did Mr. Davies find Virginia when he settled in Hanover. He was the solitary Presbyterian minister of the 'new light' order then settled in the colony. The three ‘old side' ministers who were settled, one in Albemarle, and two in Augusta, were mere drones, and did the cause more injury than benefit; two of whom fell under the heavy censures of the church before their death."

"The labors Mr. Davies had to undergo, and the difficulties and opposition with which he had to contend, when he first undertook his charge in Virginia.

"It should be recollected that when Mr. Davies nrst settled in Virginia, there was not another minister in the same ecclesiastical connection with himself in the whole bounds of Virginia, or within less than between two and three hundred miles of him.

"It is true there were three other Presbyterian ministers who settled in the colony about the same time, and some one or more of them might have preceded him. These were the Rev. Samuel Black, in Albemarle county, near Rock-fish Gap, of the Blue Ridge; the Rev. John Craig, and Alexander Miller, in what was then Augusta county, in the Valley of Virginia, west of the Blue Ridge. But these were old side Presbyterians, and belonged to the old side Presbytery of Donegal and the Synod of Philadelphia, and were so far from rendering him any assistance, that they were among his inveterate enemies and bitterest revilers, as authentic records and testimony of another character can abundantly establish if necessary. There is no better way of making known the task he had undertaken, and the labor he actually did undergo, than to take it from Mr. Davies' own pen, in his letter addressed to the Bishop of London, dated May 21st, 1752, which was four years after his settlement in Virginia.

"The frontier counties of this colony,' he says, 'about one hundred miles west and south-west from Hanover, have been lately settled by people that chiefly came from Ireland originally, but immediately from the northern colonies, who were educated Presbyterians, and had been, during their residence there, under the care of ministers belonging to the Synod of New York, of which I am a member. Their settling in Virginia has been many ways beneficial to it, which I am sure, however, most of them would not have done, had they expected any restraints on the inoffensive exercise of their religion, according to their consciences. After their removal, they continued to petition the Synod of New York, and particularly the Presbytery of New Castle, which was nearest to them, for ministers to be sent to them. But as the ministers of the said Synod and of the country were few, and vastly disproportioned to the many congregations under their care, they could not provide these vacancies with settled pastors

And what could they do in this case? The only expedient in their power was to appoint some of their members to travel alternately into these destitute congregations, and officiate among them as long as would comport with their circumstances.' 'The same method was taken, and for the same reason, to supply the dissenters in and about Hanover, before my settlement among them, and this raised the clamor still higher.

"There are now in the frontier counties at least five congregations of Presbyterians, who, though they have long used the most vigorous endeavors to obtain settled ministers among them, have not succeeded yet, by reason of the scarcity of ministers, and the number of vacancies in other parts, particularly in Pennsylvania and the Jerseys; and we have no way to answer their importunate petitions, but by sending a minister now and then to them to officiate transiently among them. And as the people under my charge are so numerous, and so dispersed, that I cannot allow them at each meeting-house such a share of my ministrations as is correspondent to their necessity, the said Synod has twice or thrice, in the space of three years, sent a minister to assist me for a few Sabbaths. These are the only itinerations that we have been charged with, in this colony; and whether we should not rather run the risk of this causeless charge, than suffer these vacancies, who eagerly look to us for the bread of life, to perish through a famine of the word of the Lord, who can entertain a doubt?

"But as I am particularly accused of intrusive schismatical itinerations, I am more particularly concerned to vindicate myself. It will be necessary therefore to inform your lordship, [addressed to the Bishop of London,] of the circumstances of the dissenters in and about Hanover, who are under my ministerial care.

"The dissenters here and hereabout are only sufficiently numerous to form two distinct organized congregations, or particular churches and did they live contiguous, two meeting-houses would be sufficient for them, and neither they nor myself would desire more. But they are so dispersed, that they cannot convene for public worship, unless they have a considerable number of places licensed;-and yet they are so few, that they cannot form a particular organized church at each place. There are meeting-houses licensed in five different counties in this part of