Dwight, Timothy. A Discourse, in Two Parts, delivered July 23, 1812, on the Public Fast, in the Chapel of Yale College. New-Haven: Howe and Deforest, 1812. [10503]
Pamphlet with cardstock Gaylord pamphlet binder, no wrappers, ex libris of Timothy Dwight College, Yale University, with their bookplate on the binder. 8 1/2 x 5 inches, 54 pp., foxing. Good. Hardcover.
Two sermons on Isaiah 21: 11-12, "Watchman, what of the night?" Dwight gives this meaning to the verses: "If ye are really desirous to know your destiny, and to learn the things which belong to your peace, come, and inquire of the mouth of God. Return to him by returning to the religion from which you have departed, ever since the days of your first founder. Come again; and renew your allegiance to GOD."
He interprets his times as being in the sixth or seventh vial of the Revelation, that of fifth having been the Reformation. The kingdom of the Beast had been Papal Rome, overthrown by the Reformers. The period Dwight believed that he was in was proven to him by the violent oppositions of Deists, Voltaire, the French Revolution. He dwells at length upon the atrocities and results of that Revolution in France and elsewhere in Europe - Italy, Spain, Sardinia, Switzerland, Belgium, Batavia, Germany, Prussia, and Austria, all overrun by Napoleon and the French armies. He believes them to be the frogs! of the Revelation, and that their swift victories are ominous for the people of God.
Dwight speaks of revivals in America that should bring hope that the efforts of antichrist and infidels will not prevail against the Church. "Sixteen years since, a revival of religion commenced in the neighbouring town of Milford; and spread throughout a considerable portion of its inhabitants." He gives additional examples of revival work and missionary conquests.
And yet he gives reasons "why we should fear," naming the sins of America.
A very interesting sermon delivered at the outbreak of the War of 1812 finding both in prophecy and in the sinful state of America the reason for the war, and for much trepidation as to its outcome. That the United States would joining forces with infidel France "is to chain living health and beauty, to a corpse dissolving with the plague. The evils, which we have already suffered from this impure and monstrous connexion, are terrible omens of the destruction, which we are to expect from a connexion still more intimate. The horrors of war, compared with it, are mere amusement. The touch of France is pollution. Her embrace is death." p. 52.
Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., (1752-1817), grandson of Jonathan Edwards, born at Northampton, MA. Dwight graduated at Yale College at the age of 17, in 1769. He served in the army during the American Revolution, as a chaplain to General Parson’s brigade. His father’s death in 1778 necessitated a return to his family home to take care of his mother, which he did by teaching school and by preaching. In 1783 he accepted a call to become the pastor of the parish of Greenfield, CT. In 1795 he was elected president of Yale College and served in this capacity until 1817.
"During this period there were no less than four distinct revivals of religion at the College." - Roberts, Revival Literature: An Annotated Bibliography.
Dwight was an older cousin of Aaron Burr and his sister Sarah Burr, whom he raised in his own home after the parents of the children died.
