Rev. Benjamin Davis, D.D.

Dr. Davis was originally tutor of the Dissenting Academy at Oswestry where he had for one of his students Dr. Edward Williams, afterwards president of Rotherham College, and a writer, of no little celebrity, especially in the Baptismal and Calvinistic controversies.

I was anxious to learn from him, whether this pupil of his, when under his care, had any thing peculiar or superior about him, indicative of his future eminence. Nothing,” he said, “but more of a solitary disposition, a greater addiction to study, and a special seriousness of reflection.”

Do constitutional propensities, or accidental circumstances, lead men into those departments of action and science in which they have mostly figured? In many instances, perhaps, this cannot be decided; in some, it is obvious, both these causes unite and co-operate.

I remember eagerly perusing Dr. Williams’s famous work on ‘^ Divine Equity and Sovereignty,” but I found little satisfaction in reading it: perhaps I did not thoroughly comprehend it. I certainly did not feel, in consequence of it, more disposed for such investigations than before: and I had always felt a full persuasion that there are depths in which the mind is swallowed up; and that Young’s advice is wisdom here, —

“Wait the great teacher, Death;
And God adore!”

Did not Bacon say, “I am no metapliysician, for I am not an owl, I cannot see in the dark” Do not some good men impose upon themselves and others? They feel and express great confidence and certainty as to the result of their own perceptions and discussions: but —

First: — Are they not governed by terms and phrases of their own, hallowed and significant probably with those who use them; but as to others, are they not words without knowledge, and which darken counsel rather than enlighten it? For what are they when they come to be explained? Or what satisfactory explanation are they capable of receiving?

Secondly: — They imagine they have solved difficulties, when they have only shifted them. They push them into holes and corners, but after a while they are met with again by accidental approach, or revived research, to the awakening of their doubts, but seldom to the acknowledging of their mistakes.

Would it not be better for us to seize and improve the inviting and glorious truths of revelation, which are so plain and important, (and of which there are so many,) the experience of which we find useful to ourselves, and the communication of which we know to be useful to others? ‘The secret things belong unto the Lord; the things that are revealed are for us and for our children.^’

And what a difference must a Christian and a minister feel, between the trammels of some systems of divinity and the advantage of Scripture freedom, the glorious liberty of the sons of God! The one is the horse standing in the street, in harness, feeding indeed, but on the contents of a bag tossed up and down; the other, the same animal, in a large fine meadow, where he lies down in green pastures, and feeds beside the still waters.

But I remember hearing Mr. Owen, the Secretary to the Bible Society say, after a long interview and discussion with Dr.

Williams, that he never met with a systematize!, who seemed to have so clear a view, and so ready a command of his system.

To return. Dr. Davis was afterwards, for some years. Theological Tutor of Homerton Academy; alluding to which he often complained of the difficulties and trials of the situation and office, especially as they arose from the insubordination and manners of the young men, and which frequently induced him to exclaim,” Ye are too strong for me, ye men of Zeruiah.’^

He was also pastor of the church in Fetter Lane; but he was compelled to resign his public and pastoral labours, owing to an extraordinary pain in his head. After (in a remarkable manner) being relieved from this, he resided for a time at Reading, and preached often there. He then resided with his niece, who had married the Independent minister of Wells. There too he often preached, and was very useful. Lastly he came to Bath, and became a member of my church. Here he married again, and continued to reside to the end of life.

He occasionally preached for me, and always with much acceptance; and it is remarkable that, though for many years he had always read his discourses, he latterly laid his notes aside; and never, as it might have been supposed, felt embarrassment. His preaching was of a more evangelical and experimental and simple order than that of some of his contemporaries in London; and he was one of the few who, in contrast to the stiffer and drier brethren, openly countenanced and commended Whitfield and his assistants.

He was a man of very considerable learning, of great theological knowledge, and of pre-eminent piety and spirituality.

I derived much benefit from him, (I might have derived more,) as a hearer, a companion, an admonisher, and an example.

He published but little. I had some of his manuscriptsermons, and also his course of Theological Lectures, (exceedingly clear and good,) and a Treatise on Human Depravity and Regeneration; all of which are now in the possession of my grandson, the Rev. Cornelius Winter Bolton, a clergyman in the United States.

His reading towards the last was almost entirely of one kind; and his favourite authors were Leighton, Baxter, and Newton; Newton’s Letters in particular he delighted to reperuse, for he observed, what an advantage he derived, (owing to the declension of his memory,) as the same works seemed again new to him.

“When I informed him of the death of his distinguished pupil. Dr. Williams, he burst into a flood of tears, and said,” I am almost ashamed to be alive, and eighty years old, when so many good and great and useful men are taken away in the midst of their days.” He still lived considerably beyond this period, dying in a good old age, and gathered in like a shock of corn fully ripe in his season. His end was peace, but partaking more of trust than triumph. And I like best such modes of dying experience. Few can expect ecstasy and rapture, but many may die saying,” Let me not be ashamed of my hope,’’ —

“A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall;

‘Be Thou my strength and righteousness,

My Jesus and my all!”