USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, N.J. : from the first settlement of the town > Part 7
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"Mr. Cowell represented to the Presbytery that he has been long indisposed in body, and unable to discharge the duties of the pastoral relation to his congregation in Trenton, and therefore requested that he might be dismissed from it; and the congregation also by their petition, and the declaration of their commissioners, intimate their acquiescence in it.
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"The Presbytery therefore consent to the request, and do hereby dis- miss Mr. Cowell from said congregation; yet they affectionately recom- mend it to him that, if it should please God to restore him to an ability to exercise his ministry, he would preach as often as he can in that congregation while vacant, and in other vacancies as he shall have opportunity."
The last session of Presbytery which Mr. Cowell attended was at Lawrenceville (Maidenhead), September 17, 1760, the sixth meeting held in that year. On the 28th of October Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Treat were deputed to supply Trenton.
Mr. Cowell's decease took place on the first day of De- cember, 1760, at his residence in Trenton. He was in the fifty-seventh year of his age, having served the Trenton people in the town and country congregations nearly twenty- four years.
His beloved friend Davies, who was then in the middle of the second year of his presidency of Nassau Hall, was called upon to preach in the church on the day of the interment. He fulfilled this office with great affection and fidelity, and it adds interest to the narrative to know that in a few weeks afterwards (February 4, 1761) that most eminent preacher, just past the thirty-sixth year of his age, was himself sud- denly removed by death from the new sphere of usefulness and fame upon which he had entered; so that on the page of the Synod's Minutes of May 20, 1761, is found the sen- tence: "The Presbytery of New-Brunswick further report, that it has pleased God to remove by death, since our last, the Rev. Mr. President Davies and the Rev. Mr. David Cowell."
In his fatal illness Mr. Davies remarked that he had been undesignedly led to preach his own funeral sermon. He alluded to the fact that he had delivered a discourse on New Year's day (1761) from the words in Jeremiah, "Thus saith the Lord, this year thou shalt die." He took this text, how- ever, after having been informed that President Burr had
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preached from it on the first day of the year in which he died. Davies' sermon at the College on the first day of the preceding year is entitled, "A New Year's Gift." The text of that is: "And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." It is the fifty-ninth in the pub- lished collection.
The autograph, from which Davies preached at Mr. Cowell's funeral, is now before me. It is a sermon on the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Let us labor, there- fore, to enter into that rest," adapted to the occasion by a new introduction, and by what appears to be an impartial and discriminating estimate of the character of the deceased. As these parts of the discourse are interesting as relics of the great preacher, as well as for their descriptions of a prominent person in our history, I shall quote them in full. The new opening was thus :
"While death reigns in our world, and spreads its pale trophies so often before our eyes, how gloomy and dismal would our prospect be, especially at funeral occasions, if Jesus had not brought life and im- mortality to light by the Gospel! And how intolerable would be the doubtful struggles, the toils and fatigues of life, if we had no prospect of rest! Add an everlasting duration to them, and they become too oppressive for human nature. But blessed be God, there remaineth a rest for the people of God; a rest that may be obtained by hard labor, though lost by unbelief. 'Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest.' Here heaven is represented under the agreeable idea of a time of rest; the way to obtain it pointed out, namely, by hard labor, and the necessity of laboring hard implied. These are the several topics I now intend to illustrate for the religious improvement of this melan- choly occasion."
Having completed this plan in the usual fullness of his manner, the discourse closed with the new matter prepared for the day, as follows :
"What remains of the present hour, I would devote more immed- iately to the memory of the dead. To pronounce a panegyric on the
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dead is supposed to be the principal design of funeral sermons; and to praise the dead is a debt which envy itself will allow us to discharge. But it is not a regard to ancient custom, nor an apprehension that the eulogium will not be envied nor disputed, that excite me at present to take some particular notice of the character of our worthy friend, who now lies a pale corpse before us. It is rather my desire to concur with the sentence of heaven, and to praise the virtue which I cheer- fully hope has ere now received the approbation of the Supreme Judge. It is my full conviction that the character of the deceased was in many respects worthy of the imitation of the living, and that in recommending it, I shall recommend virtue and religion with advan- tage, as exemplified in life.
"Indeed, it would have relieved me from some anxiety, if my worthy friend had nominated some one to this service, whose long acquaint- ance with him would have enabled him to do justice to his memory, and exhibit a full view of his character. During the short time that I have been a resident of this Province, he has been my very intimate friend, and I have conversed freely with him in his most unguarded hours, when his conversation was the full image of his soul. But I had only a general acquaintance with him for ten of the years before, and of the earlier part of his life I had no personal knowledge, and have received but a very imperfect account from his earlier acquaint- ances. But from what I have heard from persons of credit, or have known myself, I shall give you the following general sketch of his character ; and as I would by no means incur the censure of flattery, or risk the reputation of my veracity, you may be assured I fully believe myself in the account I give of his character.
"The Rev. Mr. David Cowell was born at Dorchester, in the govern- ment of Massachusetts Bay, and educated at Harvard College. I am informed by one of his early friends, that the characteristics of his youth were a serious, virtuous, and religious turn of mind, free from the vices and vanities of the wild and thoughtless age, and a remark- able thirst for knowledge. The study of books was both his amuse- ment and serious business, while he was passing through his course of collegiate education, and even before he entered upon it, and I am witness how lively a taste for books and knowledge he cherished to the last.
"I am not able to give you an account of the sensations and impres- sions of his mind from divine things in early life, which were the beginnings of his religion. But as every effect must have an adequate cause, from what I have observed in him of the Christian temper, I, conclude he had been the subject of such impressions.
"He appeared to me to have a mind steadily and habitually bent towards God and holiness. If his religion was not so warm and passionate as that of some, it was perhaps proportionally more evenly uniform and rational. He was not flighty and visionary, nor yet dull
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and senseless. His religion was not a transient passion, but appeared to be a settled temper.
"Humility and modesty, those gentle virtues, seemed to shine in him with a very amiable lustre. Far from being full of himself, far from taking airs of superiority, or giving himself the preference, he often imposed a voluntary silence upon himself, when he could have made an agreeable figure in conversation. He was fond of giving way to his brethren, with whom he might justly have claimed an equality, and to encourage modest worth in his inferiors. He was not impudently liberal of unasked advice, though very judicious, impartial, and com- municative when consulted. He had an easy, graceful negligence in his carriage, a noble indifference about setting himself off. And though his intellectual furniture, his experience and seniority might have been a strong temptation to the usual foible of vanity and self-sufficiency, I never have seen anything in his conduct that discovered a high estimate of his own accomplishments. Indeed, he seemed not to know them, though they were so conspicuous that many a man has made a very brilliant appearance with a small share of them.
"He had a remarkable command of his passions. Nothing boisterous or impetuous, nothing rash or fierce, appeared in his conduct, even in circumstances that would throw many others into a ferment. Had I not been told by one who has long and intimately known him, that he was capable of a manly resentment upon proper occasions, I should have concluded that he was generously insensible to personal injuries, for I can not recollect that ever I heard him speak a severe word, or discover the least degree of anger against any man upon earth. He appeared calm and unruffled amidst the storms of the world, peaceful and serene amidst the commotion and uproar of human passions.
"Far from sanguine, prattling forwardness, he was remarkably cau- tious and deliberate; slow to pronounce, slow to determine, and espe- cially to censure, and therefore well guarded against extremes, and the many pernicious consequences of precipitant conclusions.
"In matters of debate, and especially of religious controversy, he was rather a moderator and compromiser than a party. Though he could not be neuter, but judged for himself to direct his own conduct, yet he did not affect to impose his sentiments upon others, nor set up his own understanding as an universal standard of truth. He could exercise candor and forbearance without constraint or reluctance ; and when he happened to differ in opinion from any of his brethren, even themselves could not but acknowledge and admire his moderation.
"His accomplishments as a man of sense and learning were very considerable. His judgment was cool, deliberate, and penetrating. His sentiments were well digested, and his taste elegant and refined. He had read not a few of the best modern authors, and though he did not often plod over the mouldy volumes of antiquity, he was no stranger to ancient literature, whether classical, philosophical, or
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historical. He could think as well as read, and the knowledge he collected from books, was well digested, and became his own. He had carefully studied the Sacred Scriptures, that grand accomplishment for a divine, and had a rational theory of the Christian system.
"He had an easy, natural vein of wit, which rendered his conver- sation extremely agreeable, and which he sometimes used with great dexterity to expose the rake, the fop, the infidel, and the other fools of the human species. But never did his humanity allow him to use this keen weapon to wound a friend, or the innocent, whether friend or foe. His wit was sacred to the service of virtue, or innocently volatile and lively to heighten the pleasure of conversation.
"He was a lover of mankind, and delighted in every office of benevo- lence. Benevolence appeared to me to be his predominant virtue, which gave a most amiable cast to his whole temper and conduct. Did he ever refuse to give relief or pleasure to any of his fellow- creatures, when it was in his power to do it? I never had reason to think he did.
"That he might be able to support himself, without oppressing a small congregation, he applied some part of his time to the study and. practice of physic, in which he made no inconsiderable figure. In this he was the friend of the poor, and spared neither trouble nor expense to relieve them.
"As I never had the happiness to hear him in the sacred desk, I can say but little of him in his highest character as a minister of the Gospel. But from what I know of his disposition, theological knowl- edge, and other religious performances, I doubt not but his sermons were judicious, serious, well-composed, and calculated to show men the way of salvation.
"In prayer, I am sure, he appeared humble, solemn, rational, and importunate, as a creature, a sinner in the presence of God; without levity, without affectation, without Pharisaical self-confidence.
"In the charter of the College of New Jersey he was nominated one of the trustees, and but few invested with the same trust discharged it with so much zeal, diligence, and alacrity. His heart was set upon the prosperity of the infant institution, and he exerted himself in its service, nor did he forget it in his last moments.1
"This church has lost a judicious minister of the Gospel, and, as. we hope, a sincere Christian; the world has lost an inoffensive, useful member of society; this town an agreeable, peaceable, benevolent in- habitant; the College of New Jersey a father, and I have lost a friend ; and I doubt not but public and private sorrow and lamentation will be in some measure correspondent, and express the greatness of the loss.
"Let us endeavor, my brethren, to copy his amiable character, and make his virtues our own. The character, indeed, is not perfect. The friend, the scholar, the minister, the Christian was still a man; a man.
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of like passions with ourselves; and, therefore, he undoubtedly had his blemishes and infirmities. He is at best but a sinner sanctified and saved. However, I shall not describe his faults, because I hardly knew them, and because greater can be found almost everywhere. His virtues and graces are not so common, and therefore I have exhibited them to your view for imitation.
"With him the dubious conflict of life is over, and we hope he has entered into rest, and sweetly fallen asleep in Jesus. Let us also labor to enter into that rest, lest any of us fall by unbelief."
Mr. Cowell's body was deposited in the church-yard at Trenton, and the grave, which is within a few feet of the western wall of of the church, is designated by a head-stone with the following inscription :
"In memory of the REVD. MR. DAVID COWELL. Born in Dorchester, 1704.
Graduated in Harvard College, Cambridge, N. E., 1732. Ordained at Trenton, 1736. Died December the Ist, Atatis sua 56, 1760. "A man of penetrating wit; solid judgment; strong memory; yet of great modesty, piety, and benevolence."2
Mr. Cowell was an industrious preacher. There lies before me a memorandum, kept by him, of the places and texts of his preaching, from June, 1735, to October, 1757.3 In those twenty-two years there is seldom a Sabbath with- out its record of service, besides the extra duties of sacra- mental seasons and funerals. On a very few Sabbaths is the entry of "non valui" (not well), and but one or two "pro- cellosus" (stormy). The only observable blank is from April 10 to June 5, 1748, which is accounted for by the line, "went to New England." He frequently administered the Lord's Supper at Maidenhead and Hopewell. Occasionally he supplied Fisher's Island, Rocky Hill, Bristol, Borden- town, Whippany, Elizabethtown, Abington, Norrington, Shrewsbury, Neshaminy. The few notes of funerals in this little register may be of some chronological use or family interest. 4
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1736, July 7. Mary Eli.
1739, January 31. Armitage.
1739, February 6. George Snow.
1741, December 26. Mrs. Green.
1742, January 10. Widow Furman.
1742, April 14. Slack's wife.
1742, July II. Higbee.
1742, September 6. Margaret.
1743, June 16. Jones's child.
1744, March 21. Widow Reed.
1744, December 8. Mr. Yard.
1746, June 17. Stephen Rose.
1747, September 22. Mrs. Snow.
1747, October 21. Mrs. Yard.
1749, July 30. Hart.
1749, November 7. Howell's wife.
1749, December 19. Mr. Griffin.
1750, July 18. Susan Osborn.
1750, September 17. Mr. Paxton.
1751, January 7. Mr. Taylor. 1752, May I. John Green.
1753, January 2. Rose's wife.
1754, December I. William Green.
1756, September 5. Mr. Dagworthy.5
The "widow Furman" in the list is commemorated by Profesor Kalm, who, among other instances of American longevity, states that "on January 8, 1742, died in Trenton Mrs. Sarah Furman, a widow, aged ninety-seven years; leaving alive at the time of her decease five children, sixty- one grandchildren, one hundred and eighty-two great- grandchildren and twelve great-great-grandchildren."*6
The sermon of January 31, 1739, was preached at Pen- nington, at the interment of the Elder Enoch Armitage,7 and I quote a passage as a specimen of the preacher's style. The text was: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word."
"The words of our text Mr. Armitage adopted as his own, and de- sired they might be discoursed upon at his funeral. Those' most acquainted with him testified his disposition for peace. God had given
* Kalm's Travels, vol. ii. 5.
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him by nature a calm and quiet spirit, which was his ornament and glory. He was not subject to anger-heats and passions, as many others are, and this happy natural talent, assisted and improved by a religious principle and the love of God, was so bright and shining, that his moderation was known to all men who had the happiness of an intimate acquaintance with him. In his dealings he was strictly just and honest ; to those in distress charitable, and ready to help and assist. In his conversation he was grave without moroseness, and pleasant without levity. From the quickness of his wit, and the strength and clearness of his judgment, he was ready on all occasions to bring out of the good treasure of his heart things new and old. The sum of his religion was love to God and his neighbor, without being rigid and contentious for things indifferent. The government of his family was with the greatest economy and religious order. His stated times for prayer, both private and secret, his times for instructing his family, for taking refreshment, and his times for following the works of his calling, fol- lowed one another so constantly by turns, and in the revolution of such certain periods, that they seldom interfered, much less jostled out each other; and such a vein of religion ran through the whole, that his life was like the life of Enoch, whose name he bore, a walking with God. If we consider him at church, we shall find he was constant and devout in attendance upon God's public worship. In the management of church affairs, which was early committed to him, and continued to the last, he deservedly obtained that character of a good steward to be faithful; and as his management was the product of religious prin- ciples and a sound judgment, he had the satisfaction to see them ap- proved by the wisest men and the best Christians. Such a religious, honest, and just walk in his own house, and in the house of God, procured to him the esteem of persons of all persuasions and all char- acters. If he was maligned by any self-conceited brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their anvil, as their ignorance was the cause, so that only can plead their excuse. A sovereign God gave him such a fiducial sight of Christ, and his own interest in him founded on the divine promises, that he adopted the words of good old Simeon for his own. He made it the business of his life to follow peace with all men, and it was his grief his endeavors succeeded no better. He desired to die in peace, and to have a hopeful prospect of peace after his death. With respect to himself, his prayer was eminently an- swered. When he passed through the valley of death, God was with him. Death gave one friendly stroke, and it was over-so that he rather seemed to conquer, than to be overcome."
One of the sermons is marked as preached on Friday, November 23, 1739, from the text of the crucified thieves,
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and a note is appended, "Execution, Trenton." This was the execution which brought Whitefield to Trenton on the 2Ist of November, as already quoted from his journal.
The only names of ministers that appear as relieving him in his own pulpit through all those years, are Guild, Huston, Leonard, Miller, Phillips of Boston, Munson of New England, and Spencer.
Mr. Cowell bequeathed fifty pounds to "the Presbyterian congregation of Trenton; the principal to remain good, and the interest thereof to be applied for the benefit of the con- gregation forever." He left an equal sum to the College of New Jersey. The will was signed only four days before his death, "being sick and weak in body, but of perfect mind and memory," and was witnessed by Samuel Tucker, Jr., Arthur Howell, Benjamin Yard,8 and George Davis. Many of the wills recorded at that time have the same religious phraseology as that of Mr. Cowell, the testamentary part of which begins thus: "Principally and first of all I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it; and for my body, I commit it to the earth, to be buried in a Chris- tianly and decent manner, nothing doubting but at the gen- eral resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God." It is to be feared that the scrive- ners' pious formulas are not always subscribed by testators with as much sincerity, as they doubtless were in this good man's case.9
Among the few extant manuscripts of Mr. Cowell is a fragment of notes of a funeral sermon, marked as preached April 1, 1744, at the "burying of Mr. Home." It con- tains an expression of the preacher's intention "not to make encomiums on the Honorable person to whose remains we have been paying the last friendly office. That is a task to which I am on several accounts unequal. Besides, I humbly conceive the proper use to be made of instances of mortality, is to instruct and exhort the living, according to
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that of the wise men, Eccles. 7:2." This defunct was undoubtedly Mr. Archibald Home,10 who was Deputy Sec- retary of the Province in the time of Governor Morris, and who upon his recommendation to the Lords of Trade (Oc- tober 18, 1740) was appointed to a seat in the Council, made vacant by the death of Robert Lettis Hooper .*
When the church was taken down in 1805, a vault was discovered under the broad aisle, containing the remains of two bodies in their respective coffins, the "dress and furni- ture" of which (according to the papers of the day), "and the habiliments of the corpses, denoted them to have been persons of distinction."" A year after the discovery, an- other newspaper made this publication: "A gentleman, on whom we can rely, and who says he will vouch for the authenticity of his statement, informs us, that the name of one of the persons found in the vault was FREEMAN, a man of considerable connections in the West Indies, who re- moved to and resided at Bloomsbury with his family, and was interred about seventy years ago. The other was ARCHIBALD HUME, Esquire, a Scotchman of very consider- able literary acquirements, and brother to the celebrated Sir John Hume,11 who came over and resided in Trenton some months after the decease of his brother.">
I have seen the will of Archibald Home,12 which was made February 24, 1743. The device of the testator's seal is an adder holding a rose, which is the crest of a Home family, in which there are several baronets named Sir John ; but I cannot find any trace of such a resident in Trenton. Mr. Archibald Home bequeathed all his property to his brother James Home, Esq., of Charleston, South Carolina.
* The Papers of Lewis Morris, pp. 122, 137, 219, 283. Analytical Index, 180, 181, 182, 193, 194. New Jersey Archives, vol. vi., 109, 127, 237. t Trenton Federalist, April 22, 1805.
# Trenton True American, April 21, 1806. "Home," or "Hume," is the same family-name. "My father's family is a branch of the Earl of Home's or Hume's." (Autobiography of David Hume.)
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His executors were Robert Hunter Morris, Thomas Cad- walader, and the legatee. The witnesses to the will were Joseph Paxton and Moreton Appleby. The probate was certified October 5, 1744, by "James Home, Secr'y." This suggests the conjecture that he was the brother re- ported in the newspaper as "Sir John," and that upon re- moving from Charleston to Trenton, upon Archibald's de- cease, he was put into the vacant secretaryship.
There is a tradition that connects one of the bodies in the vault with the family of Governor Cosby. I supposed this to be a mistake of the name of Cosby for Morris, and that the person referred to was Mr. Home, until I found the following item in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of March 7-14, 1737-38:
"We learn from Trenton that Thomas Freeman, Esquire, son-in-law to the late Governor Cosby, died there on Saturday last after a few hours' illness."
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