1757 COLONIAL Saur SOWER American BIBLE Mysticism GERMANTOWN Anabaptist QUAKER
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1757 COLONIAL Saur SOWER American BIBLE Mysticism GERMANTOWN Anabaptist QUAKER:
$389.99
Presenting a super rare and highly coveted Early American imprint from Colonial Germantown, PA, by the legendary printer Christopher Saur (Sower) in 1757!
The author John Everard (1575-1650) was an English divine, preacher, and mystic. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge. Though a great scholar and philosopher, his younger days (as he confessed in the preface to Gospel Treasures Opened), were days of ignorance and vanity, when he walked as other gentiles and as men living without God in the world, and he became ashamed of his former knowledge, expressions, and preachings. A brave and popular preacher, he was in constant trouble and frequently imprisoned. Each time some lord or other begged his pardon of the King, and as often as Everard regained his liberty he again took up his attack on the unlawfulness of marching with idolaters. In 1636 Everard was charged before the high commission court with heresy, being accused indifferently of familism, antinomianism, and anabaptism. After being kept some months waiting for his trial he was dismissed, but was soon again prosecuted. Such of Everard\'s sermons as escaped confiscation by the persecuting bishops were first issued in 1653 under the title \'Some Gospel Treasures Opened\' The volumes are dedicated to Oliver Cromwell, and bear the imprimatur of Joseph Caryl. A second edition was issued in 1659; and in 1757 the sermons were reprinted at Germantown, by the greatest of German-American printers - Christopher Sauer (Sower) I [1695-1758]. Everard\'s neoplatonic mysticism apparently strongly appealed to the Pietist and Anabaptist leaning populations in early America. CORNELIUS D. WESTBROOK, D.D.,
was born in Rochester, Ulster Co., N.Y., on the 8th day of May, 1782. He was the only child of Gen. Frederick Westbrook, who was an officer both in the Revolutionary war and in that of 1812. Gen. Westbrook was of English ancestry, his wife, Sarah De Puy, being a descendant of the Huguenots, the blood of Puritan and Huguenot thus mingling in the veins of the son. The people of the two ancestries settled in considerable numbers in the region since become Ulster County. At an early period in the history of this country intermarriages were common not only among themselves, but between them and the Hollanders, who formed the most numerous part of the early settlers. In the blending of these races the Holland element predominated, giving gradually its own form to the customs, manners, and language of the whole people, compacting them together, virtually, into Dutch communities. The Holland language was the vernacular in the district where Dr. Westbrook\'s childhood was reared, and there he acquired the familiarity with it that enabled him in afterlife to translate with facility Dutch records in the State archives at Albany. The English tongue, however, held its own, destined as it was soon to supplant all others and become and remain the language of the land.
The father\'s purpose being to educate his son liberally, the latter was sent with this view to the Kingston Academy. This institution at that time ranked high among the few of its kind then existing in the State. Not a few of its pupils turned out to be men of mark, as well in the church as in various secular callings. Here he completed his preparatory training, and then entered Union College in 1798, from which he graduated in 1801. As an evidence of his character and standing as a scholar, he was made tutor in the college, and remained in this position for two years after his graduation. Designing to enter the Christian ministry as a profession, he pursued theological studies with this end I view, and after two years was licensed to preach in 1805, and in the same year was settled as pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of Fishkill, N.Y. His connection with this church extended to 1830, a period of a quarter of a century. He then took editorial charge of the Christian Intelligencer, a religious paper published in the city of New York in the interest of the denomination to which he belonged. He had his residence at Harlem, a locality then and now within the limits of the city, during the three years that he edited this paper. In 1833 he removed to New Brunswick, N.J., being chosen rector of the grammar school connected with Rutgers College. In 1836 he became pastor of the churches of Cortlandtown and Peekskill, N.Y., in which position re remained until 1850, when he returned to his native country, making his residence at Kingston. Here he lived without pastoral charge, though performing occasional services in surrounding churches, until his death, which occurred in 1858, when he had not quite completed his seventy-
sixth year. The office of trustee in Rutgers College, to which he was elected in 1829, he held until his life closed.
Dr. Westbrook was twice married. His first wife was Hannah, a daughter of Isaac Van Wyck, of Fishkill, N.Y. By this marriage he had four children, - Frederick, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Isaac Van Wyck, - all living but the last. His second wife was Sarah, a daughter of Capt. Tjerck Beekman, who served in the Revolutionary war, and whose widow, a woman remarkable for her intelligence and energy, died in 1856 at the advanced age of ninety-three. There were seven children of this marriage, - J. Beekman, Theodoric R., Cornelius D., Gertrude, Charles R., Mary, and Hannah, - of whom all except Beekman and Gertrude are living; two sons and a daughter, with the two daughters of the former marriage, being residents of Kingston, and heads of well-
known families in the community. Mrs. Westbrook died in 1874, at the age of eighty-one.
The life of Dr. Westbrook was a fine commentary upon the power and influence of active benevolence, raised to its most benign exercise by Christian principle and consecration. The precepts of the Divine Master, exemplified in doing good to all men, were not only regarded by him as worthy of honor and reverence in the abstract, but as a practical system, containing truth adapted to all times, calculated to exalt and purify society, benefit men, and bless the world, had his heartiest belief and life-long advocacy.
As a religious teacher, Dr. Westbrook had qualities that made his utterances striking and impressive, especially to thoughtful hearers. He was not a popular preacher as this phrase is commonly understood; but no sober-minded, intelligent person could hear him without interest, and without feeling that an original, acute, and powerful mind prompted the words with which he sought to enlighten and persuade. His originality was marked, pervading his whole character, and showing itself as well in speech and manner as in thought. He did not and could not follow in the track beaten hard by the feet of others, but struck out boldly into paths which his quick vision pointed out. He was a rapid thinker as well as a bold one. He seemed to seize at once and almost intuitively the merits of a question, arrived at by others only after a long and wearisome process of induction. And his judgment as to the truth of the matter surveyed and brought to light was usually as sound as his method of reaching it was rapid. His speech was often like his thought - bold, sententious, original, incisive. It had sometimes an epigrammatic point and force that was really startling. A single brief, pithy sentence had, occasionally, the effect of a long argument, and would place the justness of a conclusion in a transparent light that forced the hearer\'s assent. This style of expression was his own, as natural and spontaneous seemingly as a child\'s utterance, yet none the less the outcome of a bold, suggestive thought or deeply sagacious opinion. He was not only an independent thinker himself, but taught and stimulated others to do likewise , - to take large views of the Maker and Lawgiver, of Hs Works and Word, - and in this light to do, with honest hearts and all their might, what their hand found to do for the glory of God and the welfare of men. His ministry, therefore, was a highly instructive and fruitful one, and left permanent influences for good in the communities where it was exercised.
There were some special occasions when his discourse, enlisting his own feelings warmly, and guiding those of an audience in sympathy with the event that assembled them, was remarkably apposite and effective, and produced impressions not to fade away from the memory of those who listened. One of these was his discourse on the death of Silas Wright, so honored in life, so lamented in death. Another was that delivered over the remains of his personal friend, the artist, John Vanderlyn, in the First Reformed church in Kingston. Though hastily prepared, and without the manuscript, - which Dr. Westbrook never used, - the impression was universal upon a large and appreciative audience that, for delicate and truthful discernment of the deceased artist\'s character, for dignified and persuasive assertion of the claims of genius and art, for genuine pathos and striking illustration, it was a performance of wonderful power. But it was wholly characteristic, evincing the rapidity of his conception, his facility of seizing instantly the salient points of a subject, and of combining them felicitously, which formed the most strongly marked feature of his mind. This quality was shown in his studies and reading, in public and private discourse, in debate, in prayer. In the last he was uncommonly happy, adapting himself with ready appreciation to the circumstances of varying occasions, and putting his petitions in words which tersely, fitly, and fully expressed the breathings of a devout and humble soul. When the veterans of the war of 1812 gathered around the grave of Washington in 1855, Dr. Westbrook was called upon to offer prayer on an occasion so interesting to the venerable survivors. This he did in a manner so strikingly adapted and impressive as to move all the assemblage to tears. In debate too, he was at times hardly less magnetic, and when fairly aroused a few sentences of trenchant argument or of felicitous retort not unfrequently carried his point against strong assailants, or brought down the house in favor of his views.
His patriotism all knew well who knew him at all. He served as chaplain in the war of 1812, and found delight in praying for and serving to the best of his ability the commonwealth that he loved. His country and her institutions had a high place in his heart, and he never wearied in speaking of her greatness, and of the greater future which the Providence of God was opening before her. Attached his life long to Democratic principles, as most in harmony with the genius of our institutions, there was not a particle of narrow partisanship in his love, not a spice of bitterness toward those who differed from him, but a generous tolerance toward the honest and patriotic of all parties, among whom he numbered many of his most valued friends.
In the cause of education he always took the liveliest interest, and was a patron, as far as his power went, of all institutions and of all measures designed to lift the masses to a higher plane of intelligence and knowledge. The common school, the academy, the college, and seminary were all regarded by him with favor as efficient means toward making our liberties stable and secure, by erecting safeguards against the vices and excesses springing from popular ignorance. He loved to encourage poor young men sighing for an education, but seeing no prospect open before them of reaching the object of their wishes. He not only cheered such with hopeful words, but gave at times more substantial aid, and there are instances in which young men owed directly to his timely helpfulness their rising, through education, to positions of honor and usefulness. He felt it a pleasure as well as duty to impart knowledge, to scatter light for others\' benefit, and freely opened the stores of his own large library for the benefit of any who needed and sought for information therein contained. He was not selfish even in the hoarding of his books, but gave them on occasion to persons likely to prize and profit by a gift of this kind; and this was so frequently done, that the number of his volumes, long and carefully gathered, had much dwindled before his death. The doing good by communicating in this way is a form of benevolence as rare as it is pleasant to see.
As showing how unselfish his nature was, and how freely he rendered services to others from the love of doing it, and without the least thought of his own personal advantage or interest prompting him, the following extract from a letter written by the late Hon. A. Bruyn Hasbrouck on the demise of his life-long friend, may be fittingly presented:
"The generous impulses of his nature were always aroused in my behalf upon every occasion that presented itself to him; and, in one or two of the most important events of my life, his zealous and efficient support conferred upon me a weight of obligation which I was proud to acknowledge while he was living, and which will not be diminished by his death. I feel his kindness the more deeply now, when I reflect how entirely disinterested it ever was. He never asked me for the slightest favor in return, and left me only with a sense of unrequited interest in me and my family, saved from being irksome by the remarkable nobleness of his own character."
His disposition was eminently social. He loved his many friends with steadfast constancy; was a prized visitant in the humblest abodes; took delight in the society of little children, into whose artless feelings he entered with a freshness and zest which attracted them irresistibly, and made them fastest friends thenceforth. There was about him wherever seen the outgush of kindly sympathies, disclosing a genial, warm heart, retaining its youthful buoyancy in spite of advancing years. Thus he seemed far younger than he was; and when during the summer of 1857 he revisited the shrine of his Alma Mater, at the season of her annual celebration, and rejoiced to meet many of the friends of his earlier years, and uttered in a meeting of her Alumni one of his short, pithy, telling speeches, and conveyed to other hearts the cheeriness which welled up from his own, it was a remark often made that it was hardly credible he had taught in the institution nearly fifty-
five years before!
He died in the spring succeeding this summer, in a good old age, surrounded by friends who honored and loved him, and followed to the grave by many who sorrowed that they should see his face no more. What remains is the record of strong powers devoted to high purposes, issuing in a worthy and beneficent life-work. Having "served his generation faithfully by the will of God," and passed from among the actors still playing their several parts on the mortal stage, he has left the impress of what he was and what he did as a monument to perpetuate his
1757 COLONIAL Saur SOWER American BIBLE Mysticism GERMANTOWN Anabaptist QUAKER:
$389.99