Samuel Davies would have loved to get his hands on these “free” books. He wrote to John and Charles Wesley and received assistance with literature to assist in the literacy training he conducted with the slaves in his region. He was always giving away tracts and books to everyone who had a desire to read and gain knowledge in the Lord and Saviour.

My friend Nick Kennicott posted this on his blog. It is worth a post here, Nick is leaving this PM {Friday 13th} for a Youth Retreat. Lift him up and all the youth as they search out God’s Word this weekend.

from Nick-Nacks, Notes, & Notions by Nick Kennicott

PastorBookShelf.com is giving away another Free book. Get in on the goodness. Matt Wireman got hooked up last week.

This week’s free book is Preaching God’s Word: Preaching God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Preparing, Developing, and Delivering the Sermon by Terry G. Carter, J. Scott Duvall, and J. Daniel Hays. Find out more about this book at our PastorBookshelf Overviews entry.

To enter to win the book, you have two options:

1. Blog Option: Link from your blog to the post that announces the week’s free book and then post the link to your blog post in the comments section of our post (not necessary if your blog sends out pingbacks automatically).
2. Email Option: For those of you who don’t have a blog and don’t want to start one, send out our post via email to at least 10 people and carbon copy matt at jcacompany.com on the email.

On Friday we will randomly select a winner and mail the book to you free of charge—usually by the following Monday. We’d love for you to review the book for PastorBookshelf Reviews, but this is entirely optional. However, keep in mind that you would get another free book for submitting your review. (Find out more about our Review Program.)

Our plan is for this to be a nearly weekly occurrence, so spread the word!

One qualification: you must be (1) preparing for pastoral ministry, (2) in pastoral ministry, or (3) a trainer of ministers.

I am going to post some excerpts from one of Davies’ sermons. It will give a good sense of his style and his directness. Recently, my friend, Eric Carpenter utilized several texts that are generally quoted as proof texts by the Arminian camp; John 3:16 is one of those texts. Davies’ sermon title from this text is posted above, and his quotes reveal his position on the issue. Enjoy Samuel Davies as he speaks again:

This is from the second paragraph of his sermon; yes, it is one sentence!

“And when I consider I am speaking to an assembly of sinners, guilty, depraved, helpless creatures, and that, if ever you be saved, it will be only through Jesus Christ, in that way which the gospel reveals; when I consider that your everlasting life and happiness turn upon this hinge, namely, the reception you give to this Saviour, and this way of salvation; I say, when I consider these things, I can think of no subject I can more properly choose than to recommend the Lord Jesus to your acceptance, and to explain and inculcate the method of salvation through his mediation; or, in other words, to preach the pure gospel to you; for the gospel, in the proper sense, is nothing else but a revelation of a way of salvation for sinners of Adam’s race.”

Well, not exactly “emergent-ese” but a great example of his eighteenth century eloquence. You should catch the sense of his style and approach to turn the light of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the dark hearts of sinners.

Immediately following the above quote:

“My text furnishes me with the proper materials for my purpose. Let heaven and earth hear it with wonder, joy, and raptures of praise! ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, or that every one that believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’” {Davies inserted the words in italics.}

His points were:

1. My text implies, that without Christ you are all in a perishing condition:

2. My text implies, that through Jesus Christ a way is opened for your salvation.

3. That the grand pre-requisite to your being saved in this way, is faith in Jesus Christ.

a. Faith pre-supposes a deep sense of our undone, helpless condition.

b. Faith implies the enlightening of the understanding to discover the suitableness of Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and the excellency of the way of salvation through him.

c. The sinner is enabled to embrace this Saviour with all his heart, and to give a voluntary, cheerful consent to this glorious scheme of salvation.

d. Faith in Jesus Christ implies an humble trust or dependence upon him alone for the pardon of sin, acceptance with God, and every blessing.

4. My text implies, that every one, without exception, whatever his former character has been, that is enabled to believe in Jesus Christ, shall certainly be saved.

A final quote towards the end of the message reveals much:

“But before I proceed any farther, I would remove one stumbling-block out of your way. You are apt to object, ‘You teach us that faith is the gift of God, and that we cannot believe of ourselves; why then do you exhort us to it? Or how can we be concerned to endeavour that which it is impossible for us to do?’”

“In answer to this I grant the premises are true; and God forbid I should so much as intimate that faith is the spontaneous growth of corrupt nature, or that you can come to Christ without the Father’s drawing you: but the conclusions you draw from these premises are very erroneous. I exhort and persuade you to believe in Jesus Christ, because it is while such means are used with sinners, and by use of them, that it pleases God to enable them to comply, or to work faith in them. I would therefore use those means which God is pleased to bless for this end. I exhort you to believe in order to set you upon the trial; for it is putting it to trial, and that only, which can fully convince you of your own inability to believe; and till you are convinced of this, you can never expect strength from God.”

His concluding statement is sharp and cutting for sure!

“Many sermons forgotten upon earth are remembered in hell, and haunt the guilty mind for ever. Oh that you would believe, and so prevent this dreadful effect from the present sermon!”

This is why we need to read and learn from the Rev. Samuel Davies! He was young and energetic, but more importantly he was filled with passion for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that passion fueled his life and compelled him in his work in the colony.

Sola Fide!

Samuel Davies’ grandfather came to America in 1684 from Wales. Landing at Delaware Bay in early autumn, they settled on land that was part of William Penn’s domain. Like most of passengers in the ship, they were Baptists and were seeking to find religious freedom and the freedom to pursue their dreams.

Several years passed and Samuel’s father, David, moved to New Castle County, Delaware, an area known as the Welsh Tract. There, they began to use the surname Davies. David married Martha Thomas soon after moving to Delaware. Several years later, on November 3, 1723, an answer to his mother’s prayers, Samuel Davies was born. When he was grown, he commented on his name:

“I am a son of prayer, like my namesake Samuel the prophet; and my mother called me Samuel because, she said, I have asked him of the Lord. . . . This early dedication to God has always been a strong inducement to me to devote myself to Him by my own personal act; and the most important blessings of my life I have looked upon as immediate answers to the prayers of a pious mother^.”[1]

Samuel was raised in a pious home, and Reverend Abel Morgan, pastor to the local Baptists, schooled him. When Samuel was nine or ten years old, his mother was involved in a disagreement with the Baptist congregation and was put out of the church. Her friendship with some Presbyterians may have sparked this disagreement. The young Samuel came under the spiritual care and schooling William Robinson, the Presbyterian minister in New Castle County. His relationship with William Robinson providentially led Davies to minister in Hanover County, Virginia.

William Robinson was an itinerant preacher, who later gained popularity among the Dissenters in Virginia. Nevertheless, Davies would learn the basics of education at the instruction of Robinson. He also would unite with the Presbyterians with his mother. By the age of fifteen, Samuel was prepared to move on with his studies. The colleges at Cambridge, New Haven and Williamsburg were too distant from the Middle Colonies, and were not fitting for prospective Presbyterian clergymen. Samuel Blair’s “Log College” at Fagg’s Manor in Chester County, Pennsylvania, became the school for Davies. Blair had been trained at William Tennent’s first “Log College” on Neshaminy Creek, in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania.

---

^[1] Davies to Thomas Gibbons, n.d., Sermons on the Most Useful and Important Subjects, Adapted to the Family and Closet. By the Rev. Samuel Davies, A.M., Late President of the College at Princeton in New Jersey. To Which are Prefixed , a Sermon on the Death of Mr. Davies, by Samuel Finley, D. D., And Another Discourse on the Same Occasion, Together with and Elegiac Poem to the Memory of Mr. Davies, by Thomas Gibbons, D. D., ed. Thomas Gibbons (5 vol., London, 1766-1771), Vol. I, lxi. This edition also contains AAn Appendix@ written anonymously by David Bostwick.

 

 

Polegreen Church Memorial

Introduction

New Light in the Old Dominion

The First Great Awakening had already touched Virginia, when the Rev. Mr. Samuel Davies arrived there in 1747. George Whitefield preached in Williamsburg during his first visit to America in 1739. He came at the personal invitation of Commissary James Blair, the highest-ranking official of the Church of England in the colony. In Hanover County, a growing number of believers under the leadership of Samuel Morris were gathering to read printed sermons and other religious materials they could obtain. A new light of revival was dawning upon the colony.

Several Presbyterian preachers from northern colonies made short preaching journeys following Whitefield’s visit in Williamsburg. William Robinson, John Blair, John Roan, Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Finley were among the notable preachers who made an impact on the growing frontier region. George Whitefield returned and preached several days in 1745, spending time with the group at Hanover and Samuel Morris.

These Presbyterian preachers were called “New Lights” because they taught that a divine infusion of spiritual light into the soul was necessary for eternal salvation^[1]. They stressed a definite and powerful conversion experience followed by a life shaped by the teachings of Jesus. Many had received ministerial training at the Log College founded by William Tennent, Sr. located in Pennsylvania a short distance from Philadelphia.

Public oratory and direct questioning in the classroom sessions prepared these men well for public discourse and ministry. Samuel Davies was the beneficiary of this classic and formal education under the Rev. Samuel Blair, a Log College graduate himself. The New Light fervor merged with strong Presbyterian doctrine imparted a strong foundation upon which Samuel Davies would build his ministry. Samuel Davies, a God-chosen and fully prepared young minister was prepared to shine a new light of revival in the Old Dominion.

King Charles II had given Virginia the name Old Dominion when he reclaimed the British throne in 1660. Virginia had remained loyal to the British crown throughout Britain’s Civil War years and the king recognized their loyalty. Colonial Virginia was also loyal to the Anglican Church. From the beginnings of the colony in 1607, the Church of England was the official church in Virginia. Davies would preach and serve as a pastor in a spiritual environment that was not open to new ways, particularly if those ways were different from Anglican Church observances.

The ministry of Samuel Davies provides a powerful example of God’s direction in an individual committed to seeking revival. Samuel Davies ministered in a relatively small geographical region, but he was an integral part of a significantly greater movement of God. Great revivals of the past should encourage us that revival is possible in our world today. The twenty-first century church desperately needs revival. Revival, we have recorded, researched, and analyzed it. All the recording, researching, and analyzing will not bring about revival apart from a sovereign movement by the Holy Spirit of God.

What is required for the church to experience revival today? Studying past revivals and effective ministries can serve to identify common ground realities. Key individuals reveal those characteristics and qualities present in those used by God. Davies effectively labored in the sweeping movement of the spiritual awakening in Virginia. Well known and highly respected by his contemporaries, today we have forgotten him. We must hear the voice of Samuel Davies again.

Davies’ work in Virginia deserves more attention, predominantly for his work as a pastor under difficult and challenging conditions, and especially for his pioneering work for religious freedoms. Pastoral care was his calling, and that call powered one of America’s most eloquent preachers. His pastoral work required him to effectively speak out for religious freedoms for the dissenters in Virginia.

In our twenty first century world, Eugene Peterson has sounded a warning about the changing face of pastoral care. Peterson points out pastors must live out the eternal truths of the Scriptures. These truths must be cultivated into the lives of their congregations. Peterson believes the current models for pastoral care are highly secular, and are similar to fast-food store marketing. He contends these models have produced religious shopkeepers and not pastors. We need biblically based, Christ-centered pastors serving in God-shaped ministries. Pastors revived by the Holy Spirit bringing about revival in their churches; pastors with a spirit like Samuel Davies who will radiate a new light in the old dominion of the kingdom of God.

---

1. Allan Dale Strange, “Samuel Davies Promoter of Religion and Public Spirit” (M.A. diss., William and Mary College, 1985), 7.

The Rev. Samuel Davies was ordained as an evangelist to congregations without pastors in Colonial Virginia. Just twenty three years old {in 1747}, Davies presented himself to the Colonial Court in Williamsburg to obtain a license to preach the gospel. He represented himself before the court and gained a favorable ruling. Davies was the first non-Anglican {Dissenter} to be officially licensed in the colony in its one hundred and forty year history. During his ministry in Virginia {until 1759 when he succeeded Jonathan Edwards as president at the College of New Jersey} Davies would appear many times to secure licensing for new preaching sites and to secure religious freedoms for the Dissenters in the colony.

Samuel Davies’ preaching was evangelistic Calvinism at its best. He was a New Light Presbyterian and the congregations he initially ministered to were fledgling groups of believers who had experienced spiritual renewal as the First Great Awakening moved throughout the colony. He almost immediately drew large gatherings of people, who wanted to hear this young man proclaim the gospel with an energy and vitality lacking in most of the local Anglican clergy of his day.

My intention with this blog is to re-introduce Samuel Davies preaching and thought into our current culture. His style is dated by its eighteenth century language and imagery, but his zeal for God and His Kingdom is abundantly evident and hopefully contagious. He fanned the flames of the Great Awakening and stirred the hearts of people. He struggled against a hard lifestyle, religious and political persecution and his own poor physical health. He endured these hardships and left an indelible mark upon the spiritual landscape of the United States.

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones made a comment during a lecture in reference to Samuel Davies, “You Americans do not even know one of your most eloquent preachers!” Volumes of Davies’ sermons have been published, most recently by Banner of Truth Trust, unfortunately they are now out of print. I am certain Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ comment is still true today. My prayer is that this lack of knowledge will be rectified and many will come to appreciate and learn from a man who deserves to be remembered.

Soli Deo Gloria!