This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ... NATHANIEL WHITAKER, D. D. Among the preachers of the revolutionary period no one manifested a stronger dislike to the usurpations of the British crown than Doctor Whitaker. Possessed of great biblical learning and commanding powers of elocution, which he used upon every opportunity for the service of his suffering country, he exercised a wide influence among the people, and was looked upon as a "great political counsellor." He was a native of Long Island, New York, and was born on the twenty-second day of February, 1732. At the age of twenty, having passed his college life with marked attention to his studies and the cultivation of letters, he graduated at Princeton, and soon after was engaged in the ministry at Norwich, Connecticut. On the twenty-eighth of July, 1769, having agreed with the Third Church in Salem, Massachusetts, "that he would become their minister without public instalment, and that they should be under Presbyterian order, nntil they saw cause to alter," he preached a sermon and entered upon the duties of that church. Here he continued to labor with increased reputation. In the early part of 1775, his church was destroyed by fire, and his people were obliged to worship in a school-house. A letter of Doctor Whitaker, written at this time mentions the separation of many of his congregation from his church. This circumstance arose from a preference on the part of the seceders for the congregational form of government, under which Doctor Whitaker refused to preach. This spirit of dissension continued to increase until 1783, when the Third Church expressed a desire to return to Congregationalism, and Doctor Whitaker retired from the pulpit. Soon after he visited Virginia, where he died. The records of his life are scanty, ...