The Preaching Of Samuel Davies

By Gerald M. Bilkes

I have been solicitously thinking in what way my life, redeemed from the grave, may be of most service to my dear people ... If I knew what subject has the most direct tendency to save your souls, that is the subject to which my heart would cling with peculiar endearment.... —Samuel Davies [1]

A Pennsylvania publisher (Pittsburgh: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993–96) has done English-speaking Christianity an immense service by republishing the extraordinary sermons of Samuel Davies. For two-and-a-half centuries these sermons have been hailed as impressive and even unsurpassed. Archibald Alexander acclaimed Davies as “first of American preachers” and augments his observations with these words:

[Davies] was so distinguished for dignity and solemnity in the pulpit, that one of the most excellent laymen I ever knew, told me, that he went to hear Mr. Davies preach, when he was just grown up, and that the sight of the man, and the mere utterance of his text “Martha, Martha, [thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful]” made a deeper impression on him, than all the sermons he had ever heard before.” [2]

Samuel Davies was born in 1723 and died in 1761 at the young age of 37 years. [3] He received his theological training from Samuel Blair at Fagg’s College in Pennsylvania. Blair modeled Fagg’s College after the Log College of New Jersey, from which he had graduated. Davies was later president of the Log College in New Jersey from 1759 until his death in 1761, a brief eighteen months.

Most of Davies’ ministerial life was devoted to Hanover County, Virginia, in the wake of the revivals throughout the colonies. Virginia had been almost exclusively Anglican in religion, with only a few dissenters of Puritan persuasion. They were congregating unofficially in small numbers until Samuel Davies took up the ministry of the Word there. During his stay in Hanover County, interrupted by a three-year tour of England, the congregation grew swiftly. After five years it numbered between 500 and 600 souls, including a number of African slaves. [4] His hearers urged Davies to prepare his sermons for publication.

As long as sermons such as those of Davies are still available, preachers will have an excellent model for preaching, and believers a high standard for their preachers. I will formulate some characteristics of Davies’ preaching in the following areas: his person, and the style and content of his preaching.

The Person Of The Preacher

It is very telling that Davies had a profound sense of personal insufficiency for preaching. In his sermon on Galatians 4:19–20 (Sermon 45), he laments: “You seldom hear a sermon from me but what fills me with shame and confusion in the review; and I almost cease to wonder that the gospel has so little success among you, while managed by so unskillful a hand.” Yet Davies paired a sense of personal ineptitude with a reliance upon and faith in the power of divine influences. He affirms that

the success of the ministry of the gospel with respect to saints and sinners, entirely depends upon the concurring influences of divine grace; or, that without the divine agency to render the gospel successful, all the labors of its ministers will be in vain (Sermon 57). [5]

Davies concerned himself with the welfare of souls without respect of persons. In his sermon on the lord of the banquet who turned to the highways and hedges (Luke 14:21–24), Davies appeals to the Africans in his audience who, in his mind, “with peculiar propriety” are representive of the latecomers to the banquet. They too have the same need of the blessings of the gospel, whether they realize it or not. With an open earnestness he beckons them: “[L]et this feast be adorned with your sable countenances, and furnished with guests from the savage wilds of African” (Sermon 55). Davies’ ministry among the African slaves was apparently blessed. He wrote in a letter to a friend that the slaves “wherever they could get an hour’s leisure from their masters, would hurry away to my house.” There they eagerly received instruction in literacy and divinity. Davies notes their particular predilection for learning Psalms and hymns. He continues:

Sundry of them have lodged all night in my kitchen; and sometimes, when I have awaked about two or three a-clock in the morning, a torrent of sacred harmony poured into my chamber, and carried my mind away to Heaven. In this seraphic exercise, some of them spend almost the whole night. [6]

So Davies ministered without respect of persons, and with deep interest in the welfare of souls.

The Manner Of His Preaching

Author of poems and hymns, Davies’ poetic ability is unmistakable both in his surviving poetry and in the sermons themselves. [7] As a lyrical preacher, Davies harnessed similes and images with the effectiveness that few can procure. The opening of his sermon “The General Resurrection” is illustrative: [8]

Ever since sin entered into the world, and death by sin, this earth has been a vast grave-yard, or burying-place, for her children. In every age, and in every country, that sentence has been executing, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. The earth has been arched with graves, the last lodgings of mortals, and the bottom of the ocean paved with the bones of men.

It is as if Davies must restrain himself not to put his sentences into rhyme, so poetic is their tenor.

Besides being colorfully poetic, Davies’ sermons are also rigidly logical, even rhetorical. They are designed to persuade the audience as much as lies within ministerial ability, to leave off the way to perdition, and follow “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). An exceptional example of this is his sermon entitled “The Vessels of Mercy and the Vessels of Wrath Delineated,” based on Romans 9:22–23 (Sermon 43). Herein he explains that while the vessels of wrath have fitted themselves to destruction, the vessels of mercy did not fit themselves for mercy. Instead, as the text makes clear, they “were afore prepared unto glory.” The logical strain through the sermon consists of demonstrating the correlation of our habitual dispositions and the fitness for hell or the fittedness (!) for heaven. He reasons with his hearers:

Are you fit for heaven? Do you love and delight in God—in a God of infinite purity? If not, the enjoyment of his presence, and the beatific vision of his face, which is the principal ingredient of heavenly happiness, could afford no happiness to you. Do you delight in the service of God, in contemplating his glories, in celebrating his praises, and in the humble forms of worship in his church on earth? Do these afford you the most exalted pleasure? If not, heaven is no place for you; for these are the eternal exercises there: And to such of you as have no pleasure in them, the heavenly state would be an eternal drudgery.

Speaking generally, Davies is concerned that the Christian religion be understood as “a rational and well-grounded faith” (Sermon 1; Luke 16:27–31). His method is to “prove that Christianity answers all the ends of a religion from God” and “that no sufficient objections can be offered against it” (ibid). Davies coordinates both verification and falsification. As the law is a means in the hand of the preacher “to the pulling down of strong holds,” so also are the “troops of arguments, which one would think would soon overpower a reasonable creature” (Sermon 36; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5). One sermon of Davies is titled “Rejection of Christ A Common, But Most Unreasonable Iniquity” (Sermon 39; Mark 12:6). In this text the Almighty parabolically “represents himself as presuming or expecting” that persons will “receive his Son” (Mark 12:6). How great the obstinacy of the human heart appears!

Those who claim to persist in arguments for unbelief in truth, however, rarely make thorough work of it. [9] In spite of their affectation and delusion of triumph, “such men find the arms of their own reason often against them, and their own conscience forms violent insurrections in favour of religion, which they cannot entirely suppress” (Sermon 51; Acts 9:5). It is difficult “to kick against the pricks.” Davies observes that “the principle of reason is still alive” in fallen persons. Though it is “God alone that can quicken,” yet “he effects this by a power that does not exclude, but attends rational instructions and persuasions to your understanding” (Sermon 4; Ephesians 2:1, 5).

This does not entail that Davies thought of assent to true religion as a natural or automatic matter. Davies indefatigably preached the necessity of the divine implantation of the principle of new life. All religion is vain which “is gained in the same manner that a man learns a trade, or an uncultivated mind becomes knowing and learned, namely, by the repeated exercises of our natural powers in the use of proper means, and under the aids of common providence” (Sermon 50; Galatians 2:20). [10] Yet this is not because genuine godliness is unnatural or unreasonable in itself. It is because true piety does not extend from our depraved nature, that folly prevails over wisdom, prejudice over truth, and darkness over light (Sermon 36; 2 Corinthians 10:4–5). Our comportment accords with our crooked nature. In light of this, preaching must be designed to hold forth the total absurdity of sin and “fasten conviction upon the guilty” (Sermon 39).

There is evidence that Davies was somewhat unsettled with this logical aspect of his discourse. In a letter to his brother-in-law he confesses:

I do detest the Parade of Scholasticism, & the Formalities of Pedantry; but by some strange Fatality, I can seldom keep from them ... I have been long chastising myself for this Fault; but I almost despair of a Reformation. [11]

As unsettled as Davies was by the employment of reason, so unsettling would its effects be upon the hearers.

The Matter Of His Preaching

The content of Davies’ sermons disclose to us a man who is eschatological in vision and experiential at heart. He met the tremors of the eschaton with a sweetness in the soul. His eye beheld the two roads to travel, and his heart knew the one thing needful. In the midst of the shadows all around, he dwelt upon the life and immortality brought to light by the gospel. He warned about the nature and universality of spiritual death, and then portrayed the nature and process of spiritual life. He exposed the danger of making light of Christ, but showed forth the poor and contrite as objects of the divine favor. He proclaimed, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again,” and instead marveled at the unregenerate kicking against the pricks. With ardency he pointed to the signs of the times and the uncertain doom of kingdoms; he took heed to the earthquakes and rumors of wars; he registered the certainty of death and the doom of impenitent hearers, but there was also a word for the smoking flax and the bruised reed. Davies was an eschatological visionary and a spiritual physician. His eye was upon the tremulous turmoil, but his heart was grounded upon the one foundation. I will focus on three matters: the weight of eternity, the discrimination of states, and the method of salvation.

Regard For Eternity Urged. Paul bound it upon the hearts of the Corinthians that “the time is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29). Davies knew the time, namely, that it was high time to awaken (Sermon 59; Romans 13:11). Many of his sermons show a decidedly eschatological orientation. This is evident in the choice of texts: “Nation shall rise against nation” (Sermon 64; Luke 21:10); “The foundations of the earth do shake” (Sermon 67; Isaiah 24:18); “The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth” (Sermon 19; John 5:28); “This year thou shalt die” (Sermon 34; Jeremiah 28:16). It is evident in sermon titles such as “The Doom of the Incorrigible Sinner” (Sermon 40; Proverbs 29:1); “Indifference to Life Urged from its Shortness and Vanity” (Sermon 24; 1 Corinthians 1:22–24); “The Universal Judgment” (Sermon 20; Acts 17:30–31), etc. Very frequently, Davies provided eschatological commentary on natural disasters or political events, and especially the symmetry between them: the death of King George II (Sermon 60; 1 Samuel 1:19); the earthquake which occasioned the ruin of Lisbon (1755; Sermon 67; Isaiah 24:18); the defeat of General Edward Braddock of the Colonies against the French (1755; Sermon 69; Isaiah 22:12–14), etc. All these happenings are the works of God, which Davies terms “prognosticative” acts: they are harbingers of that great day of judgment. [12]

Beside these special events, there was the less observed and yet more certain reality of death for everyone. Davies emphasized its sudden and final character:

A creature treading every moment upon the slippery brink of the grave, and ready every moment to shoot the gulf of eternity, and launch away to some unknown coast ought always to stand in the posture of serious expectation (Sermon 23; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31).

The death of others speaks to us of the inevitability of our own: “Dying beds, the last struggles and groans of dissolving nature, pale, cold, ghastly corpses ... these are the very alarming monitors of our own mortality: these out-preach the loudest preacher” (Sermon 23; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31). Often Davies’ sermons open with a reference to the reality of death, e.g.: “My fellow-mortals! So I call you, because mortality is the certain doom of us all” (Sermon 66; Jeremiah 5:3).

Davies’ persistent reference to death is not simply a morbid preoccupation with natural death. Physical death speaks to us of spiritual death. Davies draws the parallel clearly in the opening of his sermon on Ephesians 2:1 and 5. He commences with a paragraph on physical death:

There is a kind of death which we all expect to feel, that carries terror in the very sound, and all its circumstances are shocking to nature. The ghastly countenance, the convulsive agonies, the expiring groan, the coffin, the grave, the devouring worm, the stupor, the insensibility, the universal inactivity, these strike a damp to the spirit, and we turn pale at the thought.

But then he transitions to a treatment of spiritual death:

But there is another kind of death little regarded in deed, little feared, little lamented, which is infinitely more terrible—the death, not of the body, but of the soul; a death which does not stupefy the limbs, but the faculties of the mind; a death which does not separate the soul and body, and consign the latter to the grave, but that separates the soul from God, excludes it from all the joys of his presence, and delivers it over to everlasting misery; a tremendous death indeed! (Sermon 4; Ephesians 2:1, 5).

The inevitable and abrupt character of natural death lends urgency to serious concern with the gospel. Thus he writes: “Time, like an ever-running stream, is perpetually gliding on, and hurrying us and all the sons of men into the boundless ocean of eternity” (Sermon 59; Romans 13:11). Beyond Davies’ attention to death lies a solemn view on things eternal. This might seem an obvious and negligible point; nevertheless it is important. Most of our world lives in denial of death; yet there can also be a maligned preoccupation with death. Behind the reality of death we must consider the weight of things eternal, and of the eternal one. Otherwise a concern with death is nothing but natural and unsanctified. For Davies the urgency of regarding eternal things is subservient to the gospel of reconciliation.

The Two Ways Delineated. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ speaks of the two gates and the two ways (Matthew 7:13–14; cf. Psalm 1). The emphasis on this same discriminating division pervades Davies’ sermons. The following sermon titles serve to illustrate: “Saints Saved with Difficulty, and the Certain Perdition of Sinners” (Sermon 22; 1 Peter 4:18); “The Characters of the Whole and Sick, in a Spiritual Sense, Considered and Contrasted” (Sermon 52; Matthew 9:12); “The Vessels of Mercy and the Vessels of Wrath Delineated” (Sermon 43; Romans 9:22–23), etc. In these sermons the two ways are contrasted. Other times a sermon focused on one of the two ways. There are titles such as “The Doom of the Incorrigible Sinner” (Sermon 40; Proverbs 29:1) and “The Guilt and Doom of Impenitent Hearers” (Sermon 81; Matthew 13:14). On the other hand, there are titles such as “Poor and Contrite Spirits the Objects of Divine Favor” (Sermon 6; Isaiah 66:2) and “The Compassion of Christ to Weak Believers” (Sermon 8; Matthew 12:20).

These titles might give the impression that the focus is the person. In actuality, Davies’ emphasis is more upon the states of spiritual life and spiritual death. Thus there are also sermons with titles such as “Primitive and Present State of Man Compared” (Sermon 73; Romans 5:17); “Religion the Highest Wisdom, and Sin the Greatest Madness and Folly” (Sermon 38; Psalm 111:10); and “Things Unseen to be Preferred to Things Seen” (Sermon 11; 2 Corinthians 4:18). Very clear are two sermons, one titled “The Nature and Universality of Spiritual Death” (Sermon 4; Ephesians 2:1, 5), and the other “The Nature and Process of Spiritual Life” (Sermon 5; Ephesians 2:3–5).

In these two sermons, the state of spiritual death is described by analogy to natural death. Granted, there is this difference between nature and spirit: natural death effects the finality of all powers; spiritual death constitutes the finality of certain powers. Thus, physical, intellectual, psychological, and religious power are still operative, albeit corrupted and limited. Notwithstanding, “there is a kind of spiritual life of which he is entirely destitute,” namely, “the innate passions of the new man.” Spiritual death entails that persons by nature are spiritually inactive, insensible to their inactivity, and incapable of quickening themselves. They are dead “in trespasses and sins.” This points to the cause of death and the nature of death: Original and actual sins have effected this death, and the soul lies buried in the midst of trespasses and sins.

Spiritual life can also be described by analogy to natural life:

[The] soul pants and breathes after God; it feeds upon his word, it feels an almighty energy in eternal things, and receives vital sensations from them. It discovers life and vigour in devotion, and serves the living God with pleasure, though it is also subject to fits of languishment, and at times seems just expiring, and to lose all sensation.

As a result of the Lord speaking his Word (for “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and live” [John 5:25]), the soul is animated with new life-one feels the instincts, the appetites, the sympathies, and antipathies of spiritual life. Davies mentions “the pulse of sacred passions,” “the vital warmth of love,” the breathings of “desires and prayers before God,” the lisping “Abba Father,” the “hungering and thirsting after righteousness,” the impressions of religion and eternity, and the service unto God. This quickening is with Christ and by the Spirit of Christ. [13]

The two ways correspond to the two states, that of spiritual life and spiritual death. Preaching for Davies draws these distinctions for the congregation, within the congregation, and from out of the Scriptures.

Salvation Explained And Recommended. The above paragraph may leave the impression that the subject of Davies’ preaching was more the nature and process of the two ways than it was “Christ and him crucified.” Caution should be advised at this point. Davies saw the preaching of the cross, or “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (Sermon 24; 1 Corinthians 1:22–24), as the centerpiece of preaching. In the midst of a “perverse and untoward generation,” this preaching is on the one hand a “stumbling-block” and “foolishness,” and on the other hand “wisdom to those who are called.” This division is effected by, but is also embodied in, preaching. Preaching of the cross of Christ and preaching of the two ways are therefore not mutually exclusive.

To gather together Davies’ explanation of the method of salvation, I will focus on his two sermons on John 3, the one on verse 7 (“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again”; Sermon 48), the other on verse 16 (“For God so loved”; Sermon 2). The former explicates the doctrine of regeneration, its nature, its author, and its method; the latter the doctrine of redemption and faith.

Christ speaks of regeneration by analogy to natural birth. It signals a great change, from infidelity to faith, from hate to love, from corruption to incorruption, etc. With the phrase “Marvel not” Christ intimates that persons must learn not to be astonished at the necessity of this change. The origin of this birth is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” specifically the Spirit of God. The method whereby the Spirit leads is to convince of the need of change, to implant the principle of divine life, to crucify and to lead into holiness and divinity. The Spirit takes out of Christ and declares Christ to the believer.

In his sermon on John 3:16 (Sermon 2), Davies elaborates upon the work of Christ in close connection with the plan of the Father. This is inherent in the text: “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” To focus solely on the initiative of the Father and to disregard the willingness of the Son is dangerous, says Davies. For Christ was most willing, at his own disposal, above the law, and beloved of the Father. On the other hand, apart from the perfections and love of the Father, the nature and purpose of Christ’s work is not understood. Christ must always be preached as the power of God and the wisdom of God, that is to say, in relation to the Father. The Trinitarian framework and thrust of salvation must be kept in view.

John 3:16 also speaks of the necessity of faith. Through faith the benefits and person of Christ are appropriated to the heart. Davies describes the nature of faith as both “speculative” and “experimental” or “practical.” These aspects correspond to the “certain knowledge” and “assured confidence” of Lord’s Day 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism.

The “whosoever” of the text (John 3:16) puts all sinners on equal footing and reinforces the absolute necessity of faith and faith alone. To substitute the “whosoever” with any qualification of a person is to nullify the nature of faith. The proper understanding of faith is intimately related to a Trinitarian view of the divine work. Faith is rooted in God, directed toward God, and maintained by God. Human work would impinge upon the work of God.

There is not a sermon in which Davies does not show concern to recommend this way of salvation to those in his hearing. This is evident in the quote at the opening of this paper. Conversely, Davies vigorously denounced the way of unbelief, presumption, and impenitence. I conclude this section with a piercing quote directed at the impenitents in his audience:

Yes, sinners, God forbid that I should cease to pray for you and pity you. While my tongue is capable of pronouncing a word, and you think it worth your while to hear me, I will send the calls of the gospel after you, and if you perish after all, you shall drop into hell with the offers of heaven in your ears. Fain would I clear myself and say, “Your blood be upon your own heads: I am clean.” But alas! my heart recoils and fails. I have no doubt at all, but the gospel I have preached to you is indeed the gospel of Christ, and I cheerfully venture my own soul upon it. But in dispensing it among you, I am conscious of so much weakness, coldness, and unskillfulness, that I am at times shocked at myself, lest I should be accessory to your ruin. However, this is certain, great guilt will fall somewhere. I desire to take my own share of shame and guilt upon myself, and to humble myself for it before God. And I pray you do the same. O humble yourselves before God, for your past conduct; and prepare, prepare to meet him, in the midst of a burning world. 

Or, if you continue obstinately impenitent still, prepare to make your defense against your poor minister there, when he will be obliged to appear as a swift witness against you, and say, “Lord, I can appeal to thyself, that I warned them to prepare for this day, though with so many guilty infirmities, as nothing but thy mercy can forgive. But they would not regard my warnings, though given in thine awful Name, and sometimes enforced with my own compassionate tears.” There, sirs, at the supreme tribunal, prepare to meet me; and thither I dare appeal for the truth and importance of the things I have inculcated upon you. (Sermon 67; Isaiah 24:18–19, 30).

Conclusion

Davies combined eschatological fervor with experiential splendor to proclaim the need for and beauty of the awakening of the soul from the sleep of death. With poetic profusion and logical precision Davies poured forth utterance on this theme. His speech embodied Paul’s “if by any means” (Romans 11:14). Davies was an envoy concerning eternal things, a watchman to wake a sleeping city. He brought a message of woe to the ungodly and wellness to the righteous. He preached salvation as it was rooted in the work of Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Spiritual life has a Trinitarian ground and thrust, and Davies ceased not to recommend it.

Come, thou life of souls! Thou [S]pirit of the gospel! Thou quickener of ordinances! Thou assistant of poor ministers! Thou opener of their hearers’ hearts! ... and Christ shall be formed in us, the hope and the earnest of glory. [14]

About the Author

Gerald Bilkes is guest instructor of Old and New Testaments at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, on behalf of the Free Reformed Churches of North America. He is presently completing a Ph.D. at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is married and lives in Grand Rapids. This is his first contribution to Reformation & Revival Journal.

Notes

1. Sermon 2; John 3:16. I have consulted the following editions: Samuel Davies, Sermons on Important Subjects, 3 vols. (New York: Carter, 1845). An edition by the Presbyterian Board of Publication (1854) has been recently reprinted: (Pittsburgh: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993–96). To facilitate ease in conferring with the sermons in the various versions, I refer to the sermons by number. Introductory literature on Samuel Davies includes lain H. Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism, 1750–1858 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994), 1–31; Thomas Talbot Ellis, “Samuel Davies: Apostle of Virginia,” The Banner of Truth 235 (April 1983), 21–27; “Samuel Davies: Characteristics of Life and Message,” The Banner of Truth 236 (May 1983), 10–18.
2. Archibald Alexander, Biographical Sketches of the Founder, and Principal Alumni of the Log College (Princeton: Robinson, 1945), 262–64. Also published by the Banner of Truth Trust, 1968.
3. Details concerning Davies’ life can be found conveniently in introductions prefaced to his Sermons. Cf. Albert Barnes, “Introductory Essay on the Life and Times of the Author,” in Sermons (vol. 1; 4th ed.; New York: Robert Carter, 1845), xi-lxix; or Howard Griffith’s introduction to Sermons, vol. 1 (Pittsburgh: Soli Deo Gloria, 1993). Otherwise, the aforementioned treatments by Murray and Ellis provide some background (vide footnote 1). The most extensive source on his life I have consulted is George William Pilcher, “Preacher of the New Light, Samuel Davies, 1724–1761,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois, 1963 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, n.d.).
4. Pilcher, “Preacher of the New Light,” 100.
5. The sermon is fittingly based on 1 Corinthians 3:7, “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
6. Davies to J.F., March 2, 1756, Davies, Letters, pp. 15–16 [quoted in Pilcher 1963].
7. For Davies’ poetry, vide Richard B. Davis, ed., Collected Poems of Samuel Davies, 1723–1761 (Gainesville: Scholars Facsimiles and Reprints, 1968).
8. The text is “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29).
9. Davies rightly observes that “a professed speculative atheist” is not as often found as “practical” atheists, those who operate with a disjunction between principle and practice. Davies has dedicated an entire sermon to the exposition of this breed by means of the text: “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees; that say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil” (Zeph. 1:12; Sermon 72).
10. This is probably Davies’ most intellectually challenging sermon. Despite its difficult, the tenor is both clear and profound. Anyone seeking clarity on the relationship of faith and reason will find here an important and edifying treatment of the matter. It deserves separate treatment in order to do it justice.
11. Quoted in Pilcher, “Preacher of the New Light,” 235.
12. As was his discomfiture with his scholastic style, so was his unease with dwelling upon profane subjects. He writes: “I am by no means fond of employing your sacred time in harangues upon political or military subjects; and last Sunday I intended to touch upon them once for all, and then confine myself to the more important concerns of religion and eternity.” Apparently some new military developments warranted, he felt, some further commentary (Sermon 71; Ezek. 20:43–44).
13. This Christological and pneumatological strain is not as clear in sermons 4 and 5 as it is, e.g., in 49.
14. Sermon 45; Gal. 4:19–20.