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pious Livingston, will readily admit, that he was opposed to sectarian party feelings, as leading to unchristian
animosities, and an impediment to the peace and harmony of the church. Hear what the wisdom of God
says on such an occasion, by his apostle Paul, reproving the Corinthians, and exhorting them to unity: I.
Corinthians, 12th and 13th verses: - "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized
in the name of Paul?" Again, in chapter iii. 21, 22, 23, "Therefore let no man glory in men: for all
things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." Again, in chapter xvi. 21, 22,
"The saluation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema, Marana-tha." And chapter xiii.13, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three: but the
greatest of these is charity."
I do not remember to have heard him, but on some very extraordinary occasions, introduce the subject of
politics while in the pulpit; and then with very great reluctance, considering the occupation of a minister of
the Gospel to be more immediately concerned with the spiritual and peaceable repose of the souls of men, rather
leaving their temporal concerns to be settled by themselves in their own way.
This eulogium is not written in the spirit of an ostentatious display of flattery, adulation, and unmeaning
indiscriminate praise; far from it: my object will be more satisfactorily attained by communicating
merely a few plain matters of fact, on the exemplary
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life of the pious Livingston: to say that he was a perfect man, would be vain, illusive, and presumptous in
any one. "There is none perfect, no! not one:" he was a son of Adam, therefore subject to all the infirmaties
and frailities of human nature; of which he was conscious himself, in all his prayers to the throne of
grace, his petitions uniformly commenced with the plural number, we have sinned, and we have come short of
the glory of God. Have we not, however, reason to believe that his prayers have been answered - the closing
scene of his life is instructing; it counsels us to take the advice of our blessed Lord Jesus, "FOLLOW ME" -
"COME AND SEE."
With feelings of no ordinary solicitude, I have, with great diffidence, approached this subject, conscious of
my inability to do justice to the merits of this eminent divine; and it is with equal deference that I have
undertaken to relate the substance of a sermon he preached on a memorable occasion - it is written from
memory, and must therefore be considered imperfect; and I shall leave it to be maturely illustrated by more
competent hands.
"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, thenceforth saith the Spirit, they rest from their labours, and
their works do follow them."
TOBIAS VAN ZANDT.
New-York, 22d February, 1825.
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