A superb 14pp sermon on early piety by important New England divine, Samuel Backus [1701-1746] of Newington, Connecticut. Born in 1701, he graduated Yale in 1724 and was ordained in 1727 to succeed Elisha Williams, who was both Jonathan Edwards uncle and the Rector of Yale College during Edwards' time there. Furthering the Edwards family connection, Samuel Backus then married Eunice Edwards, Jonathan's sister. Jonathan would visit his sister in Newington with some regularity, and almost always occupied Backus' pulpit on the Sabbath when present.
His ministry of nearly 20 years was by all accounts effective, with occasional seasons of revival and zealous participation in the Awakening that broke out under Jonathan Edwards' ministry. Unfortunately, his life was cut short by smallpox. He had been commissioned by the Connecticut colony to serve as Chaplain at Cape Breton, where troops were stationed to prevent its recapture by the French. He took ill there and died in 1746. Sent by colony authorities to Louisburg, Cape Breton as chaplain to the 350 Connecticut troops stationed there to prevent a recapture of the post by the French. Was taken ill and died there.
The theme of early piety was critical to the New Light clergy of the era; because young souls were in the balance, early conversion and earnest piety were anticipated at a very young age. Its importance to Backus is perhaps indicated by the fact that he preached this sermon very shortly after being ordained at Newington, i.e. April 31, 1727, making it one of the very first sermons he would deliver to the faithful of the town. He also notes in a note at the base of the first leaf that has repeated the sermon in 1741, at a meeting of young people in the town, during the full heat of the Great Awakening.
The text is Proverbs 8.18, And those that seek me early shall find me. We find Backus in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God style, warning the youth of the coming judgment already in paragraph 1. This seems to have likely been a later addition, perhaps for the 1741 era. There are many "new light" lines of reasoning throughout. The youth are called to seek him betimes, when they are in a season of conviction that the day of conviction not pass and mercy be unavailable; they are urged to act immediately as delay is scoffing at God and presumptuous; etc. An unusually full-throated example of early American preaching of a revivalistic nature to the young and nearly unique.
14pp, seemingly complete. Disbound, but in a generally very good state. Highly legible.
