SKETCHES OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE, Pastor of the first Congregational Church in Newport, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF ; INTERSPERSED WITH MARGINAL NOTES J3657 TO WHICH IS ADDED; A DIALOGUE, BY THE SAME HAND, ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF TRUE ALSO, A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS: CLOSED BY DR. HART's SERMON AT HIS WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WHOLE, BY THE EDITOR. PUBLISHED BY STEPHEN WEST, D. D. PUBLISHED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS. HARTFORD: PRINTED BY HUDSON AND GOODWIN. THE knowledge of the lives and char acters of fuch as have been eminent for piety and usefulness, can hardly fail of being inftructive and edifying. We trace, in them, the footsteps of divine power and providence in preparing them for fervice in the kingdom of Christ, and to be blessings to the world. And the examples we have, in them, of the manner and several steps by which they attained, through the bleffing of God, to eminence in knowledge and piety, are greatly fitted to inspire candid minds with a defire to imitate them. In these views, the memoirs of few lives have been prefented to the public, which may be expected to be more entertaining and useful, than thofe of the late Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins. These, the reader will find contained in "Sketches" written by the Doctor himself; which were compofed and arranged in a late period of his life. The former part was written before the attack of that paralytic diforder, which, finally, occafioned his death the latter, after it. By the last it appears, that however his nervous fyftem and bodily organs had been affected by the fhock, his mental powers remained entire ; being scarcely at all impaired, either by age, or by a diforder, which usually debilitates the mind as well as the body. The manner in which the following sketches are written, and the unaffected fimplicity in which they appear, cannot fail of engaging the attention and esteem of the pious and judicious reader. With a mind naturally clear and discerning, he appeared, in early life, to have felt the power of divine truth, and to have imbibed the fentiments and spirit of christianity. And so deep were the impreffions made, by the power and spirit of God, on his confcience, and on his heart, that he was foon brought to a fixed, settled determination of mind to devote himself-his powershis all-his life to the fervice of Chrift. The work of the gofpel miniftry being more congenial with the feelings of his heart than any other employment in life, he early, on leaving college, engaged in a courfe of ftudy with a view of being qualified for it. As this was the work for which his heart thirfted, he judged that, in this, he might be moft ufeful. The deep and folemn fense he had of its importance, and the views and fentiments with which he entered upon it, |