PREFACE. To record the history and virtues of the departed, is a duty which every generation owes to posterity, and is the appropriate design of biography. In the subjoined Appendix, we do not indeed profess fully to supply this important desideratum; yet we feel satisfied, that the present attempt to give greater publicity to the private and public character of three eminently devoted and useful ministers of Christ, will receive the approbation of the denomination by whom, as members, they were universally beloved and esteemed. Eminent men, in all ages, have generally been indebted for the splendour of their career, to the fortuitous advantages of birth and fortune; but, it is gratifying to contemplate amongst the most successful in every department of human life, the names of those who have emerged from obscurity, unaided either by wealth or an illustrious ancestry, and have risen to eminence by the force of native mental energy, the power of moral principle, and the blessing of God. In the history of such worthies, we may read Jehovah's own commentary upon the words of the Apostle Paul-" Not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, that no man should glory in his presence." To no other class of men are these remarks more applicable, than to the early Baptist ministers of this |