Well, as I mentioned earlier, our biographical address deals with Samuel Davies. And as we are meeting here in Virginia, it seemed appropriate, and as we look to plant Christ's flag here, it seemed appropriate to look at a servant of old who was mightily blessed of the Lord in this place. Some, as you might know, have called Samuel Davies the Apostle of Virginia. So he obviously has had my attention for a little while, so look to come to minister in this place. And though he seems to have fallen out of the attention of much of God's people this day, he was once one of the most popular preachers in colonial America. His sermons widely distributed, Benjamin Franklin himself publishing many of his works. He was mightily used of the Lord in colonial America, especially here in Virginia, and his influence was really felt in much of the nation later on in what would become Princeton as president there. And no less than Martin Lloyd-Jones has said that in his estimation, well, two things. One, the sadness that America doesn't know much of him anymore, Samuel Davies. And second, that in his estimation, he was one of America's greatest preachers. I believe he said the greatest preacher we have produced. That's high praise from one of the greatest preachers in recent history. Well, Davies was a dissenting Presbyterian in a time of an established Anglican church. Remember, this is colonial America. He was active during the time of the Great Awakening, and the established church was Anglican. And that church, sad to say, is not unlike many of our Reformed churches today. Formal, cold, not about the vitals of religion, but about the dressings and the trappings of religion. The established church was very much doing something like this. They were dressing up corpses, not about seeking that dry bones would live. But Davies and the other New Light Presbyterians, like his co-laborer Gilbert Tennant, who many of you know, stress the vitals of religion. That what saves us is not our baptism and our church attendance. You see that even today in something like the Federal Vision. These things are just repackaged in new packaging. But they're old, nothing new under the sun. But what they were after is the need for a new birth. That ye must be born again. This is vital. And so Davies and men of his sort were experimental preachers, also after experimental religion, decrying religious formalism, decrying religious nominalism, that men must close with Christ, that they must know him in the soul. Now Davies supported the Great Awakening, but he also avoided many of its excesses. He was a man who was always about the main thing, seldom distracted from the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. And in every area in which even the nation would be embroiled in controversy, like the French and Indian War, even though he would preach as a patriot, he was always preaching about the main thing. He was always preaching about things like the reason we want Christ to win this victory for us is we don't want the papacy to take over. It was not about patriotism for the sake of patriotism. He was a patriot, but he was always concerned of the gospel. And he did not want the Antichrist to take over America. He was evangelical in that way. And really, you might think that because of men like Davies, Christianity in America would be from that time evangelical. Unlike much of Europe, American churches would stress the need for conversion. Though sadly, not always for doctrinal purity. But the main thing was often there, the need for the new birth. I remember as an unbeliever going to university, the first time I heard this expression that there were people on campus, you know, I grew up as a Hindu, so I wasn't around a lot of Christian people. They would self-identify as born-again Christians. That's a feature even today. And a lot of that is coming out of historically what was stressed in times like the Great Awakening and men like Samuel Davies, the need for the new birth. And Davies, his powerful preaching, his oratory, his skill in the pulpit was also even a great influence on our nation. Patrick Henry, whom you know well for his great oratory skills, give me liberty or give me death. Well, he attended to Davy's preaching as a young man. And so certainly there's something of an impression left on him. And it was interesting that our brother last night even spoke of how it is that speech, right, even secular speech has power. And you see how a man like Patrick Henry is able to motivate a nation, right? But imagine what was even better than that. Spirit-filled preaching through a man like Samuel Davies that turned hearts. And that's what this man was about. So this is a minister whose influence reached into the birth of a nation, helped secure it as evangelical and not papist. And his influence is, we have several brethren here from the PCA. And you think about some of the fact that this is a denomination that still stresses itself highly as evangelical and about the Great Commission. A lot of that is the influence of this New Light Presbyterianism. While Davies would die young at 37 years of age, but he redeemed the time the Lord gave him. You think about that, 37 years. I'm 10 years almost older than that. And when you think about what the Lord accomplished in a short amount of time, it first chastises many of us like myself, but second gives you hope because it's the God who works through these men. And we ourselves may be used of the Lord if we would earnestly seek him to pursue experimental religion to spend and be spent. And so as we plant a congregation here in Virginia, it's good to remember what the Lord has blessed in times past, that we might plead with the Lord, wilt thou not revive us again? Again, that word is so key, isn't it? Revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee. And why should he not, if we humble ourselves and we seek after him in the same way? Well, with that, to introduce our topic, let's begin with Davy's early life. Well, he was from a family of Welsh immigrants, and perhaps that's why Martin Lloyd-Jones loved him so much. His father's name was David, and his mother was Martha. David was a farmer, nothing really notable about him, but he was a hard worker, and he seems to have loved the Lord. He was considerably older than his bride, Martha. He was about 20 years older than her. But they loved the Lord and they were Baptists when they were married. The family lived in Newcastle County, Pennsylvania in a Welsh community. Now within a year of marriage, the Davies family had a daughter, but she died soon after. But it's interesting that that death stirred up something in Martha. For five years, she prayed that the Lord would give her a son. Why a son? Just to continue on the family name? No, she wanted a minister. She wanted a son to serve her Redeemer. It's remarkable how even the death of an infant can be blessed of the Lord. To stir up the heart that we might serve the Lord with more fervency. The Lord answered her prayers. November 3rd, 1723, Samuel Davies was born into this world, his first birth. Davies would later say, 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 on my life I have looked upon as the immediate answers to the prayers of a pious mother. But alas, what a degenerate plant I am. How unworthy of such a parent and such a birth. It's interesting his own estimation and yet how he felt himself convicted that he must pursue what his mother prayed for. But striking how many men have been mightily used of the Lord because their fathers and mothers have asked for a son. We ought to encourage our congregants to consider praying that the Lord would give sons that would be dedicated to the Lord's cause. I think, you know, you might even just imagine, I know it's a little bit of an aside, you might see the spiritual temperature of our age based on how often parents pray that way, that they would have a son to serve the Lord as a minister. Well, Martha was excommunicated from the Baptist Church. What was her offense? She spoke to a Presbyterian minister on baptism, and she adopted Presbyterian principles. But why did she begin this conversation with the minister? Because the minister had a school, and might be able to give her little Samuel an education, because she knew that he needed to be educated to be a minister. but she was convicted from the scripture and they became Presbyterian. As for Samuel, he was a bright young boy and quite learned for his age. His family couldn't really afford an education, but his mother, ever mindful that she had asked the Lord of him, mindful that because he had answered that prayer, she was on the hook, so to speak, to produce a minister by God's help. She wanted him educated and this godly woman, I don't know how much is written about her, but just thinking about this, she who is Welsh learned English so that she could teach her son English. That's a godly woman. And if anybody thinks that a lady in her own sphere cannot be of mighty use to the Lord's kingdom, you look on these examples. And he was very bright, he outpaced those who were 10 years older than him. The Lord had given him good gifts to the son of prayer. Well, at 10 years of age, he was sent away to a school in New Jersey because in the Welsh community, the Davies family had no English school and his mother had hit the limits of what she could teach her boy. So he went to New Jersey to a Presbyterian boarding school. And at that time, Samuel was 12 and he was not religious. His studies, though, began during the Great Awakening, and it seems at this point the Lord was working anxiety in him over death. Death was common, as you well know, especially among children in those days. All the deaths around him, and the preaching in the Great Awakening concerning the reality of death at the same time, hell as the sinner's reward, was a very present illustration to match with the word of God preached, that these things are so. And so the Lord was awakening Davy's own soul in all the revival preaching. He began to feel anxieties over his own soul and mortality. And he began to pray for mercy as it seems like the Lord's grace was preparing him for conversion. That's something theological you might note there from his early days, that the spirit often prepares the elect for their conversion. He becomes the spirit of bondage before he becomes the spirit of adoption. Romans 8.15, Puritan Arthur Hildersom said, ordinarily the Lord useth by the spirit of bondage and legal terrors to prepare men for their conversion. And you see something of that in Davies and many others in the Great Awakening. The spirit poured out, He stood in terror of God's wrath and holiness for some time, but then in 1736, at 13 years of age, praise God, the Holy Spirit became the spirit of adoption to him, and he was converted, and he found the sweet release of all his sins in the blessed Redeemer. Now that pattern is important for us if we are to seek after revival again. The colonies were awoken through such preaching. And we can't forget that. We must not neglect the preaching of the terrors of the law and of hell. In the same way, the Spirit might bless us as he might cause men to run into the arms of the Savior as they hear of the terrors of hell. Now, some believe that Davies was converted under the ministry of Gilbert Tennant, whom, as I said, you probably know. Davies would call Tennant a spiritual father. But what is noteworthy then, as you think about Davy's own ministry, is he was well acquainted with the work of the Lord in his own soul. And he was able to take that experience and bring it out in the preaching of the Word. As he understood the terrors of the law, he had felt it himself. He had felt the Lord's wrath, as it were, hanging over and under him. He became a converted man, and he would later as a minister be a converted minister, and that brings us to consider Gilbert Tennant. Do you know one of the new light ministers of the Presbyterian Church? You know, the term new light is greater than just the Presbyterians. You had Congregationalists, Baptists, and others called new lights. And the term seems to have come from Edwards' work on revival. Edwards wrote, persons after their conversion often speak of things of religion as seeming new to them, that preaching is a new thing, that it seems to them they never heard preaching before, that the Bible is a new book. They find their new chapters, new Psalms, new histories, because they see them in a new light. That's his work, Revival of Religion in New England. So the new lights were after this kind of experimental religion, where the Bible is alive because the Spirit is at work, where the Psalms that are sung become new songs to us. They stress the conversion of souls and the life of God in the soul of man. In the Presbyterian church, the new lights were called new sides. And so the new sides, in contrast to the old, stress the need for religious experience, especially that one must have a sense of their sin and guilt before God and be converted. The old sides, we don't need to go into all the controversies, they were faithful and strict adherence to the confession, which in itself is a good and commendable thing, but weaker on experimental religion. Even their views on the ministry differed considerably. The new sides, as you might remember, believed that a minister must be born again to be a minister of the gospel. And they would inquire with ministerial candidates their religious experience over their sense of sin and their need for divine mercy freely offered in Jesus Christ. And it's on this point that Tenet preaches that sermon he was famous or infamous for, the dangers of an unconverted ministry. He preached that Jesus said to men like Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, if you think about who this is being addressed that ye must be born again, specifically to a teacher of Israel. And so men who are going to preach have to be born again. Yet the unconverted, in his estimation, were like the Pharisees. And beyond that, he said it was the duties of those under such ministries to leave. If you were under an unconverted minister, you must leave and go hearken even to itinerant ministers. And this, of course, the old sides did not necessarily approve of. Those days, if you had a preacher, why would you go to another? But Tennant says it is your duty to seek out spiritual men who are acquainted with the spirit of God to hear preaching from. Now Tennant may have been intemperate at points, and he seems to have regretted some of his fiery rhetoric, but in the main, this is what was believed, and it's good that experimental religion was vital. And this is the stream in which Davies would swim. Well, there's more that could be said of Davies' education, but we must move on. He would eventually get his theological training from Faggs Manor, a school founded by Samuel Blair, one of the leading New Light ministers, who himself was taught under William Tennant's famous Logg College, which you're probably acquainted with, which is the first theological college to train American Presbyterian ministers, a new side institution where men were trained to be experimental. But we'll have to go to our next head, which is Hanover and revival. Now at the time of the Great Awakening, we should consider the state of religion in the colonies. And we might draw some straight lines to our own day and age. Lots of immorality, lots of unconverted people who called themselves Christians. The Anglican Church was the established church of the colonies. And it's interesting that people will note that when the Great Awakening comes, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, all seem affected by it, but not the Anglicans. It's as though the Lord passed over them. And you remember George Whitefield, where does he get his flack from? Anglicans. Why? Because they were no friends to the New Lights and they were formalists. You think about what they often thought was fine in the ministry. You baptize someone, you faithfully have them attend your church, listen to something or another that you would so-called preach from, and then all is well. And then you go on your way. What is that? That's a ministry of death. That's what that is. Many Presbyterian churches, sad to say, are functionally like this today, even if they're not federal vision. It's a sad thing. Well that's the state of matters in Virginia in the thumbnail sketch at the time of the Great Awakening. Yet the Lord was beginning this reviving work in Virginia around 1740. Particularly it stirred the soul of a man named Samuel Morris in Hanover. Hanover's about 40 minutes southeast of us to give you an idea. Now Mr. Morris did not find true religion in the Anglican Church. He was convinced the gospel was not being preached by his parish minister. And he felt then it was his duty before the Lord to not attend those services. Perhaps he had been influenced by men like Tenet. But in an interesting providence, at the same time the Lord brought the same conviction to three other men, all four independently cited for not attending to their own church. And they were summoned to the court at the same day, and they met each other there, And it was interesting that what the Lord, what man had used to squash vital religion, the Lord had in his providence brought these four men together at the court. And after this, Morris and these men began to read together as they got acquainted with each other. Morris began to read Luther on Galatians, and he discovered, praise God, the gospel for the first time. And he was converted. Another of those men then discovered a fragment of Thomas Boston's fourfold state, and he too was converted. The Lord was at work. From that time, these four were determined, no matter the fines or the punishment, to spend every Sabbath in each other's homes to sit and read the works of the Puritans with their families. Soon they built a separate building to meet on Morris' property. It would be called the Morris Reading House. In this place, the works of the Puritans and Bunyan were read aloud. They prayed together and their hungry souls discovered what they could not find in the established church. They discovered the marrow of true religion and their souls met with Christ. And you think about What that is like, could you imagine being in, I think we take for granted our churches, don't we? Could you imagine being in churches like this? No Christ, no gospel, no exhortation to know the Redeemer. What would you do? It'd be a terrible thing. And that's what they lived through. But the Lord honored their desire for Christ. And so they built this separate building on Morris's property called Morris's Reading House, and many others came to join them, and they were being awoken as the sermons of the Puritans were being read. So much so that three other meeting houses had to be built as many were coming just to hear sermons read, just to pray, but that was so much better than what they were getting. in the established church. No minister, no preaching, but revival was happening without even a preacher. This is a sovereign work of the Lord, isn't it? He was still using his word to convert, but he shows himself as not needing men. He will work how he will to save his elect. Now the Hanover group was coming under the notice of the civil authorities. They saw them as malignants gathering against the established church. And so when Governor William Gooch summoned them, he inquired what their religion was. Now they did not know enough to identify as Presbyterians. But in interesting providence, they had found a copy of the Confession of Faith. And Morris and his friends said, this confession seems to agree to the scripture. And so they presented it to the governor and said, this is what we believe. He was acquainted with Presbyterianism. And he said, oh, you're Presbyterians. And they were granted toleration under the act of toleration part of the revolution. But this all coincided with headaches to the Anglicans. Presbyterian new side ministers were being sent, invading Virginia, so to speak, to preach the gospel. One minister met with the Morris Group, gave them copies of Erskine's sermons, and the preaching of these new side ministers was being well attended to. More headaches for the establishment as they're seeing more and more people come after these men who are preaching by the power of the Spirit, leaving a ministry of death. And in an interesting providence that reached into Davy's life, one of the ministers was named William Robinson, who came to the Hanover Group. They were very grateful for his ministry to them, and they gave him a large sum of money. They put it in his saddlebags, and he refused it. They insisted again. And so, seeing their determination, he said, I will not take this money, but I will use it for the theological education of a young man I know. And that man is Samuel Davies. So his education, you think of the Lord's strands of providence here. His education that his mother had pleaded for was being provided for by a group that had wanted Christ. And Christ has been preparing this man, and you'll see he'll come to this group through all of these providences. showing just how long the Lord's arm is and how he is able to provide and do things that we cannot even consider and imagine. A peek into the grand plan, fueling the education of their future minister, though they had no clue. Well, the Lord was going to revive the people of Virginia and no laws against the gospel ever stops him when he comes for his own. And in the same time period, George Whitefield comes to Virginia. And again, not liked by the Anglican establishment, but the Lord was at work reviving his people, and the people, having been revived and having been converted, wanted experimental religion. Could you imagine hearing life from the preaching of Whitefield, and then going back to death in the Anglican church? What a contrast. And the ministers were often, at the time, ungodly men. They're unconverted, remember. So of course, like the Pharisees, they're after vice and stealing widows' homes and everything else unregenerate man who labors in the field of religion will be after. Samuel Davies in 1751 wrote why so many left established churches. Listen to what he says carefully and see if our ministry reflects this. The whole system of what is distinguished by the nature of experimental religion was passed over in silence. the depravity of human nature, the necessity of regeneration, and its prerequisites, nature and effects, the various exercises of pious souls according to their several cases, et cetera. These were omitted. And without these, you know, sir, the finest declamations on moral duties or speculative truths will be but wretched entertainment to hungry souls. Such a maimed system is not the complete religion of Jesus, that glories in amiable symmetry, mutual dependency and subserviency of all its doctrines as its peculiar characteristic. Had the whole counsel of God been declared, had all the doctrines of the gospel been solemnly and faithfully preached in the established church, I am persuaded there would have been but few dissenters in these parts of Virginia. This is the state of religion among the Protestant dissenters in Virginia, written to Joseph Bellamy of New England. Davies' analysis of the state of religion is helpful for us as ministers. Notice what Christ's sheep needed to hear and what they were drawn to. Christ formed within us. Experimental religion, what Henry Schugel called the life of God in the soul of man, a shaft of divine light penetrating the soul, a living encounter with the Lord of heaven who convicts us of sin and draws us to Jesus Christ. You don't find that in bare ceremonies, rituals, and rites. not moral duties and theological speculation apart from the person of Christ, not the preaching of moral duties that tells the flesh it can do the will of the Lord when Jesus says, without me you can do nothing. Well, coming back to the people of Hanover, they were growing eager to have their own minister who would minister in this way. New light ministers would come at times, but there were great gaps. And in some ways you can imagine every time one would come, their soul would ache all the more. This is what we want, this is what we need. And they would pray for a man to be sent, and their prayers would be answered. And they had no idea that they had funded his own education. So next let's consider Davies as a dissenting minister. Davies would be licensed by Newcastle Presbytery, approved on February 19th, 1747 for ordination as an evangelist to the vacant congregations in Virginia, especially to this group in Hanover. After he preached for them six weeks, Hanover wanted to call him to be their minister. And he had a choice of established congregations in Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was in demand. It wasn't as though he had to go to Hanover because nobody else wanted him. But he took the call to Hanover. On accepting the call, listen to what he said. I put my life in my hand and determined to accept their call, hoping I might live to prepare the way for some more useful successor and willing to expire under the fatigues of duty rather than involuntary negligence. Remarkable, the way the man thought. willing to expire in the fatigues of duty rather than voluntary negligence. A man who would spend and be spent. So he felt he was called there and it was exhausting work, but he would do it because it was his duty to the Lord and he felt called to it. If I must expire, I will expire. Well, Davies had to register his dissent and get it approved by the government. His dissent involved five of the 39 Anglican articles of religion. It's interesting to note these. He dissented from article three because he did not believe Christ descended into hell, but rather he entered the grave. We heard that in the theological exam. He dissented from article six, which said the Apocrypha was to be read in public worship. Presbyterian can't do that. He dissented from Article 20, which said that the church had power to decree rites and ceremonies, but he believed in the regulative principle of worship. He dissented from Article 21, for he believed the church can call its own synods without the civil magistrate. He believed in the spiritual independence of the church with Christ as its head. He dissented from Article 37, for he believed that Christ, and not the King of England, was the head of the church. In other words, he was a Presbyterian. His dissent was granted, and he became the first dissenting minister to be licensed in Virginia. This was a significant providence, and it did not make the Anglicans happy at all. Here's a man now who's not an itinerant coming in, but he actually has a license from the government to preach. And it was the act of toleration from 1689 that allowed him to preach as a dissenter. So it's interesting how our own history intersects with Davy's and Virginia. Later, as more Presbyterian ministers poured into Virginia, the government with the established church sought to halt any more coming in, You get the sense of the Pharisees in John 12, 19. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him. The world is going after Christ and they are feeling as though these people in the land are slipping through their fingers and they're wanting to put an end to it. Virginia was gone after Christ. Crowds much larger than attended to the Anglican churches were coming to hear him, and it was glorious to them, and they craved more. You cannot help but think, I was recently at our Nobleford work, and you see how souls are coming to hear the gospel preached. Crowds will come if they're not getting the gospel. And so, in established churches, while opposition grew, to these experimental dissenting preachers, smear campaigns would be conducted publicly against them. You've likely heard how Whitfield was denigrated. No different with Davies and the other New Light ministers. Davies spoke of his treatment. Though the pulpits around me, I am told, ring with exclamatory harangues, accusations, railings, warnings, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, against New Lights, Methodists, enthusiasts, deceivers, itinerants, pretenders, et cetera. Yet I never designed a prostitute mind to such mean purpose. He would not enter the fray. He was not going to lower himself and to be distracted. John Rogers, a friend since childhood, said, I never saw him angry during several years of unbounded intimacy, though I have repeatedly known him to be ungenerously treated. A man who knows how to turn the other cheek. Dewey Roberts, Davies' most recent biographer, he made an excellent point, I thought worthy of bringing out, that the persecutors of Christ's men, ministers, they do to them what the persecutors of Christ did. When the Pharisees persecuted Christ and could not impugn his doctrine, they attempted to smear his character. They called him a glutton, a wine bibber, eating with sinners, breaking the Sabbath. And many of us may have faced this kind of opposition. Things said about us because we simply want to promiscuously preach Christ and all the counsel of God, experimental religion, and it will happen to those who are the enemies of these things, from those who are the enemies of these things. And we are not greater than our master. And Davies experienced that himself. but he wouldn't lower himself. And there's a lesson in that too. Davies pressed on. Doesn't answer their scrolls charges, always about his master's business. And in our social media age, it's good to keep our head above the fray. And not dive into every little controversy, even if they call us names. Davies only had a few years in his ministry, brothers. And we act like we have an infinite amount of time before us. We don't know if this day our soul will be required of us though. Are we going to spend it getting into the muck with the swine? Or are we going to be about our master's business? If he got embroiled in every controversy, he would have preached less. He would have established fewer meeting houses. He would have seen less work done in the field itself. I cannot even keep track of the manifold controversies on X, Twitter, whatever it is, and Facebook these days. Do we have time for it? Or are we about our master's business, dedicated to prayer, and as you heard last night, the preached word, instead of doom scrolling? So Davies understood where the real battle was, in other words. It wasn't about the battle over what they're calling me and what these Anglicans should be called. That's the noise and chaff. He knew what the real battle is, which is a battle for the souls. And that if he is going to win souls, he's going to use the ordinary means of salvation. He's going to preach the gospel. He's going to spend himself for the Lord. He's going to preach, you must be born again. And that's the real battle. For instance, in 1750, So he would get into the battle even outside of preaching when it was necessary. Here's an example. In 1750, there was a petition for more meeting houses in New Kent County by the heads of 15 families. But the Anglican minister in the area was a man whose ministry resulted in loose morals and irreligion. He opposed this petition, took up the matter with the council, and the council sides with the Anglican minister. They denied the petition on the grounds that the act of toleration did not apply to the colonies, that no more applications for dissenter places of worship could be made. This is the kind of battle Davies would enter. This was important. And it was said when Davies came and appealed and represented the petition himself before the general court that the attorney general that day met his match. Davies astutely noted that if this is the main argument, that the act of toleration does not apply to the colonies, then neither does the act of uniformity. And so no dissenters would need a license at all. And of course, everyone was astonished by his learning at that point. The matter would eventually reach the Bishop of London. And in his correspondence with the Bishop of London, Davies described the Anglican clergy this way. They are more zealous and laborious in their attempts to regain those that joined with other denominations or to secure the rest from the contagion by defaming the dissenters than to convert men from sin to holiness. I think some of us have experience with that, don't we? That's what he saw as the problem with the Anglicans. so much interest in holding on with a tight grip to these people but had no interest in converting men from sin to holiness. So there's another lesson in small and large ways our main aim must be to convert men from sin to holiness in Christ and not even to fight over territory. Also, do not be surprised that there are men who are not going to like us those like us, not just in the FCC, those like us in this room, because they want to hold on to ecclesiastical turf. And when their people are hearing experimental religion, they're encountering Christ through the ministry, and they start to leave churches that maybe even on paper are very much like ours, they're not going to be happy about it. And they're going to defame many of us over it. But this happened to the men of God of old. But in any case, licenses were granted for the dissenters. And the Lord used this man with a great zeal for the flock and for the glory of Christ. Well, as time is going by quickly, let's next consider Davies as a preacher. What were Davies' views on preaching? They're helpful for us to consider. In a sermon to Newcastle Presbytery on October 11th, 1752, a sermon later printed by no less than Benjamin Franklin, he unfolded his main points on preaching. And over all his points, he said earnestness in preaching would be blessed of the Lord. He said, quote, certainly when we feel the almighty energy of eternal things, we cannot but give evident indications of it in our delivery. Let us therefore throw off the mask of so awkward and hypocrisy and discover the inward ardor and passionate concern of our hearts if we would act the orator, the minister, or the Christian. The heart of the minister is to be gripped with earnestness because he has met with God himself. And you can see all these things come together as you think about Tenet and you think about Davy's early life. And this pleading that you find with men is what the preacher ought to be gripped with in his own sense of the Almighty. Not an earnestness for performance to put on the mask of an orator, but an earnestness from a man gripped by his God. He unfolded four points to his presbytery on ministers and preaching that would be blessed. First, he said ministers must cast off laziness and make proper preparations. He said ministers cannot be men of trifles and foolishness, to not let the affairs of this life consume them, but to spend their time to be diligent and careful in study, and not to be about light things. How unlike the enthusiasts he was in that seeking preparation in the study. Second, ministers are to preach with prayerfulness. He said the study is not just a study, it's a place for prayer, earnest prayer. that the minister's activity is supernatural. See his ties to the new birth, experimental religion, that the preaching is supernatural and must be blessed by the Lord's spirit. He cried out to God many times in the preparation of a sermon. And he knew that the insights of the text were not necessarily coming out of commentaries and other things, but it was often given to him by the Lord's spirit in prayer. and prayer, especially for unction in the pulpit. Third, ministers are to preach evangelical doctrines. He said the minister must preach against the corrupt nature of man. He must preach to alarm the conscience. He must preach to convince them of the terrors of the Lord. He must preach to overturn presumption and carnal confidence and to wound them that they would turn to Jesus. He told his presbytery, quote, Let us principally dwell upon what is generally distinguished by the name of experimental religion, the nature and necessity of regeneration, of faith, repentance, and other Christian graces. Let us adapt our discourses to the various cases of saints and sinners, to instruct, to wound, to comfort and support according to their respective exegesis. Now he made sure to say all of this was in view of our glorious Redeemer. Let us exhibit the blessed Jesus to a guilty world in all its glories, and in all the sufferings of his mediatorial character, the infinite dignity of his divinity, and the innocence of his humanity, and the infinite merit of his obedience resulting from both these sources. You hear a little bit of what our brother spoke of in examination in that. Fourth, Ministers would have a concern for their own personal holiness. He said, a deviation from our own instruction will disqualify us. He said, the people will smell a hypocrite, and they will know it's just play acting in the pulpit, and they will not follow after the Lord, and it would remove the minister's authority. Four points for us to remember ourselves. It was also not for an uneducated ministry of enthusiasts going out and preaching. One must be grounded in solid doctrine. In 1754, he went on a fundraising tour to the United Kingdom with tenant for what would become Princeton. He was raising money for Princeton. And he met the Wesley brothers and Davies observed of them. I'm afraid they're encouraging so many illiterate men to preach the gospel will have bad consequences. I heard one of them last Tuesday night, but he explained nothing at all. His sermon was a mere huddle of pathetic confusion, and I was uneasy as it might bring a reproach upon experimental religion." You see that today, right? You see in charismatic circles and so on, they say they want an experience of the Lord. They're literally babbling in some cases. And then when we say we desire the Holy Spirit, we love his work in our hearts, we seek after him, then we start being looked on as enthusiasts. But he was balanced and sober in the pulpit. As a preacher, he was extraordinarily well-received, effective at Hanover. Hodge relates that a few years after his departure, the Baptists spread over Virginia like a torrent, and their converts proceeded to give a public account of their religious awakening and experience. Nothing was more common than for a person to begin by saying, at such a time and place, I heard the Reverend Mr. Davies preach and had my mind deeply impressed. No wonder he was called the Apostle of Virginia. He was instrumental in forming Hanover Presbytery in 1755 under the Synod of New York, the first presbytery formed in Virginia. And it was created so that inroads, there was a beachhead now in Virginia, so that more inroads could be made among the formal establishment as more souls cried out for true religion. You can see even the mentality in forming a presbytery. so that now we have a place here that we can take the land. Now there are some issues here with this strain of American Presbyterianism. It was against establishment. It had an adopting act which made system subscription, not strict subscription, the norm for American Presbyterians. But I think you can understand, though it's not right, you can understand why. When you think about all the ways that they are fighting against a nominal establishment, they needed to be licensed and dealt with corrupt unregenerate ministers and magistrates, but at the same time there's a lesson there. We are to buy the truth and sell it not. We are to swear to our own hurt. No matter how much easier our life would be, we cannot relinquish God's truth. That's a lesson from the negative side, but imagine what it would be like if we held everything together. Full confessional subscription, establishment principle, experimental religion. That sounds like us in this room, but we must pursue all of it. Next, I want to consider Davies as a patriot. Davies was a patriot. He loved this country, he loved Virginia, he cared for the souls here, and he was in that way a patriot in the best and truest sense of the word, meaning he cared about the spiritual good of the land. One striking example of this was his conduct during the French and Indian War. He was a patriot and he preached fiery sermons to support the cause, but what was his concern? And oh, that patriots today would have his concern. It was for the gospel. The defining issue for Davies was now seeing the papacy encroach into the colonies. He did not want to lose the Protestant faith. He saw Antichrist coming. And Davies sounded the alarm in his preaching. He preached about the papacy. You that love your religion enlist, for your religion is in danger. When was the last time that was a recruitment drive? Can Protestant Christianity expect quarters from heathen savages and French papists? For the experimental minister hates the papacy more than he despises just formalism. because the papacy is soul-murdering and blasphemous. He saw the Pope as that man of sin, that antichrist, and he preached war to protect true religion. His preaching helped spur Virginia into war, and the success of this war helped keep America from being papist, but it became evangelical. And so there's something there too, right? The preaching of experimental religion and the vitals of faith will protect us from Rome. And when there were setbacks, he warned Virginia of its irreligion, causing the Lord's chastisement. And he did that very often in his ministry. Well, next I want to consider, and I'm going through these headings quickly because of time, Davies and the African slaves. Now Davies had a concern for every soul. even that of the slaves. And that's really the heart of the minister of God. He loves every soul made in the image of God, whether it is white or black or brown, Jew or Greek. He once reported he had 60 slaves at his communion table. He saw them as spiritual equals made in the image of God and in the need of Christ. Some converted slaves astonished him with their zealousness for the Lord. He wrote some of his converted slaves were without parallel in spirituality amongst either black or white Christians. Doesn't sound like the man thought that because they were black they were morally inferior. This experimental preacher saw all men made in the image of God and he took seriously Christ's charge, preach the gospel to every creature. And he was a strong supporter of Indian missions. He persuaded Hanover Presbytery to establish a missionary society to evangelize the Indians. So I'll have to leave that head there, more could be said, he was not an abolitionist, I believe he had a couple of slaves, but when it came to the spiritual independence and equality of all men, he was right there. And he doesn't necessarily in writing polemics for necessarily the institution of American slavery, but in his time, there he was seeing the slaves converted to Christ. Now eventually Davies did leave his beloved Virginia. The College of New Jersey, better known later as Princeton, wanted him as their president. In 1759, he accepted a call to go and be its fourth president. He was already associated with them. In 1753, he had gone on a fundraising tour to the UK with Gilbert Tennant for the sake of raising funds. In England, he met with Whitefield and John Gill. He visited the Scottish General Assembly. That would be an interesting address another time to see their impression of him and his of theirs. But in 1759, Davies left Hanover after 11 years to become president of the college. In 1758, America's great Jonathan Edwards suddenly died. who was president of the college. It's interesting that Davies preached that Edward's death was a sign of God's judgment on America's irreligion. Because an earthquake had also shaken the colonies that same day. Now at first Davies resisted the call to be the president of the college. And when he told his congregation the news, you can imagine how much they loved him. Evidently he was taken aback by their feelings towards him. and he was afraid that they were idolizing him. I'm not sure if that was part of his decision to leave, but leave he did after much reluctance. Many tears were shed. July 1759, he preached his farewell sermon. Lastly, let's consider Davies at death. Davies felt he was not up to the task to succeed men like Edwards. He immersed himself into studies and rarely slept because he felt like he could not be fit to be the president without much more study. But in all this, he exhorted his students to know the Redeemer and to live for him. He was evangelical through and through. Davies would die February 1761, less than two years in. He had contracted a severe cold and he died. But what was striking was the text that he preached New Year's Day, just a bit over a month before his death. It was from Jeremiah 28 16. This year thou shalt die. He preached to all his hearers that this year one or another of us might die. So you must close with Christ. He said, each of you must say to yourself, this year I may die. And what does that mean? A strangely prophetic word. And he did die. And he was mourned throughout the country. The college seemed inconsolable. And Virginia did not hear until almost a month later and she mourned her most blessed preacher. Undoubtedly, the man received the commendation, well done, good and faithful servant. He had kept the faith, he had run his race to the end and was removed from this world when his master's work was done in him. Not far too soon as some might say, but just at the right time. The last work the master had prepared had been done and he was taken. We go back to Martha. It's a sad providence when a mother outlives her son. You'd seen her faith when she had fervently prayed for this child, but it is a glorious thing when the mother who has faith to ask also has faith to believe the Lord did her good when he takes her son from her. Martha Davies said at his grave, there is the son of my prayers and hopes, my only son, my only earthly supporter, but there is the will of God, and I am satisfied. Oh, to have such faith, brethren. Oh, much more could be said, I am treated as family. But let's reflect that through men like Davies, America's Christianity would be more known in American Presbyterianism, known for the new birth, and not cold dead orthodoxy. And because he motivated the colony to fight for the sake that Papists would not win, America was Protestant, not having a Roman Catholic president until John F. Kennedy. The problem may be seen with some looseness of theology even among the Presbyterians of that time, but if we can wed airtight theology with experimental religion, the next time the Lord revives a place like Virginia, it may be truly blessed. But may we learn from men such as this to have an encouragement to press on and be about the main things and not be distracted from the vitals of religion, to have the heart of men like this. And do please pray for Virginia and the United States. Ask the Lord, wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Further resources, real quick, William Henry Foote's Sketches of Virginia, there's much of Davies' ministry in it, wonderful work. Dewey Roberts not too long ago released a full-length biography of Davies, out of print now but there's several copies online. A collection of Davies' sermons has just this week in God's Providence was contacted about it, published to Monergism. Really well done. You can download it, even this minute, and read it. And you'll be blessed that he, though he is dead, still speaks through the word preached. Amen. May the Lord bless our consideration of God's servant. Let's arise and go to the Lord in prayer. Oh, Father in heaven, help us to run our race well. and help us to always be about the work of the Lord. Let us be in season and out of season, O God, to preach the word. And help us to have this desire for experimental religion in the souls of our people. We pray, O Lord, for this country. We pray for this state. And we pray that what Thou has done before, Thou may do again. And we even humbly ask with trembling faith Would thou use us? Here we are, O God. Here we are. What would you do with us? Would you send us into the highways and hedges? Would you help us to compel others to come into thine house? We pray, Father, that thou wouldst bless the memory of thy servant and that we would be encouraged that the same God who is at work in him is at work in us. And so give, Father, what we have asked, and revive this place, that it would be a beacon of righteousness, and that we would bless and praise the name of the Redeemer in this place, and that His Psalms would be sung from house to house, that families would be blessed in the Lord, And rather than debating over gender reassignment surgeries and whatever other sort of darkness of mind has been given to these people, that through the light of Christ, oh God, that they would pursue a love for the Lord and that many would be blessed, many generations. Father, we pray these things in faith to the only one who can answer. So answer, oh Lord, we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.