ON PASTORAL THEOLOGY. BY THE REV. JAMES SPENCER CANNON, D.D., LATE PROFESSOR OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY, AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT, IN THE THEOLOGICAL Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by ABRAHAM R. VAN NEST, JR., AND PETER VAN ZANDT, M. D., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New-York. JOHN A. GRAY, 95 & 97 Cliff, cor. Frankfort Street. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. BY REV. PROF. CAMPBELL, D.D., OF NEW-BRUNSWICK. JAMES SPENCER CANNON, the author of the lectures contained in this volume, was born in the island of Curaçoa, January 28, 1776. His father was a sea-captain, and of Irish extraction; his mother was a native of NewEngland. Captain Cannon's home was in the city of New-York, from which port he usually sailed; and Mrs. Cannon seems to have frequently accompanied her husband upon his voyages. The latter fact will account for the birth of James at Curaçoa, and also for the interment of Mrs. Cannon in the Friends' burying-ground in the city of Baltimore, Md. Upon the death of Mrs. C., the captain placed his three children, Joseph, William, and James Spencer, the youngest, in the academy of Peter Wilson, LL.D., at Hackensack, N. J. Here they remained three or four years, when death deprived them of their father. Captain C. had taken passage for Charleston, S. C., in a vessel commanded by Philip Freneau, the poet. During the progress of the voyage, a violent storm arose, and Mr. Freneau, who was not a practical navigator, being unable to manage the vessel, gave up the command to Captain Cannon; and while the gale was still raging, Captain C. was knocked overboard by the jib-boom and lost. The orphans were made to feel the cruelty of the wicked; two persons took charge of the estate of the deceased, and the lawful heirs never received a penny of their father's property. But the Father of the fatherless raised up a warm friend for James in the person of Henry Brevoort, Esq., of Hackensack, who from the time of Captain C.'s decease down to James's licensure defrayed all the expenses of his education. James began his classical studies under that able and pious teacher, Dr. Wilson, and finished them under the Doctor's successor, the Rev. Alexander Millar. The Rev. Dr. Peter Labagh, who was a fellow-student of Dr. Cannon, declares that he was an indefatigable student, and enjoyed, in an eminent degree, the affection and confidence of his teachers. In the year 1794, James, together with Dr. Labagh and the Rev. Garret Mandeville, made a profession of religion in the Reformed Dutch church of Hackensack, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Solomon Freligh; and Dr. C. then prosecuted his theological studies under the care of his pastor until the spring of 1796. As, however, Dr. Freligh was not a Professor of Theology, and could not give the certificate which was required by the Classis, Dr. C. went to Dr. Livington on Long Island, and for two months prosecuted his studies, at the end of which time Dr. L. gave him the usual professional certificate. Hereupon he and Mr. Peter Labagh presented themselves to the Classis of Hackensack, and after a thorough and satisfactory examination, protracted through two days, they were both licensed to preach the gospel. After his licensure, Dr. C. received several calls from churches then vacant, but finally determined to devote himself to the care of the united churches of Millstone and Six-Mile-Run, which had recently become vacant by the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Van Harlingen. Upon the termination of the collegiate relation between these two churches, Dr. C. devoted the whole of his time to the church at Six-Mile-Run. This was his only field of labor, where for thirty years he quietly but most successfully cultivated the vineyard of the Lord. One who knew him well, thus speaks of him as a minister: "His preaching was characterized by a clear exhibition of divine truth, and was thought to be peculiarly adapted to the tastes and various exercises of the pious. He was a Barnabas rather than a Boanerges. His labors were attended with an even and gradual success, rather than by any thing of the nature of |