III.

Of the three following notices of the Rev. Dr. Wharton, the first was written, by the author of the Memoir, for the Episcopal Recorder; the second appeared originally in the Philadelphia Daily Chronicle, and was afterwards privately circulated in a pamphlet form; and the third is taken from the Churchman.

OBITUARY.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."

Died, at the Rectory, on Tuesday morning, July 22d, the Rev. CHARLES HENRY WHARTON, D. D. Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, New-Jersey, in the 86th year of his age, the 61st of his ministry, and the 36th of his Rectorship-the senior presbyter of the American Protestant Episcopal Church.

Charles Henry Wharton was born at Notley Hall, in St. Mary's county, Maryland, on the 25th of May, O. S., A. D. 1748. His ancestors were Roman Catholics; and the family residence, so named from a former Governor of that province, was presented to his grandfather by Lord Baltimore. His mother, whose family was also among the original settlers, he described as "a woman of sweet manners, and uncommon beauty." He is to be added, on his own testimony, to the host of great and good men, whose greatness and goodness, under God, are due to a mother's precepts, piety, and prayers. At the age of seven years he was attacked by a dog, and rescued providentially by his father's singular promptness of action, who, seizing a gun, shot the furious animal, while the child's head was yet in his jaws. In 1760, then in his twelfth year, he was sent to the English Jesuits' College, at St. Omer's. He remained here, availing himself of its great advantages, two years; when the College was broken up by the suppression of the order. He then removed with the teachers and pupils of the College to Bruges, where, under the tuition of the Rev. Edmund Walsh, a learned and excellent man, of whom he never ceased to speak with deep affection, he pursued his scholastic education. Some subsequent years he spent at Liege, partly as a scholar, and partly in giving instruction in mathematics, in which science he was a great proficient. VOL. I.

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He was also, (so far are these branches of learning from being incom patible,) a classical scholar of the very highest order; and, it may be added, a writer of elegant verses. In short, the present writer has never met with one who exemplified in so many departments the richest, ripest, and most accomplished scholarship.

Mr. Wharton's letters of orders as sub-deacon, deacon, and priest, are all dated in 1772. The breaking out of the war of the American Revolution kept him unwillingly in Europe. He resided chiefly at Worcester, England, as Chaplain to the Roman Catholics of that city. His heart was true and warm in his country's cause. He wrote at this time a poetical epistle to General Washington, which had the rare fortune to be read in manuscript by Sir William Jones. The original, with suggested alterations in the hand writing of that distinguished man, is still preserved. The poem, with a sketch of General Washington's character, was published in England, and sold for the benefit of the American prisoners. In the year 1782, his mind is known to have been much distressed on the subject of his religious creed.

He returned to this country in the first vessel after the peace; and visited Philadelphia in May, 1784, for the purpose of publishing his celebrated letter to the Roman Catholics of the city of Worcester. "This production," says one, whose authority as a scholar and divine is surpassed only by his excellence as a Christian, the venerable Bishop WHITE, "was perused by me with great pleasure in manuscript; and the subject of it caused much conversation during his stay in our city. The result was my entire conviction that the soundness of his arguments for the change of his religious profession was fully equalled by the sincerity and disinterestedness which accompanied the transaction." Another occasion will be taken to speak more fully on this subject. No one who knew the stern integrity of Dr. Wharton's character, and his extremely delicate sensibilities, will question, however strong its language, the truth of his own declaration, that by the mental anxiety which accompanied that change, it nearly cost him his life. The first approaches to conviction he firmly resisted, and yielded only to compulsion. The transition, so painful in its process, was most thorough in its result. The subject of it fulfilled the precept of our SAVIOUR to St. Peter, "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." His controversial work is a standard authority. An English clergyman, second to none in his acquaintance with books, lately spoke of it in a letter to the present writer, as among the very best on that subject. It was characteristic with Dr. Wharton, the most amiable and honourable of men, and it ought to be received as no common evidence of since

rity, that though he so thoroughly renounced the errors of the Church of Rome, he never denounced its members. His reverence for its great lights was unfeigned. Of Archbishop Carroll, his antagonist in controversy, as he was his kinsman according to the flesh, he spoke, to the very last, with warm affection. Of the society of Jesuits, (rejecting of course the errors of their creed,) he was uniformly the bold and able champion, and he reprobated the dissolution of their order as among the foulest stains on the history of the Roman Church. A striking instance of his generosity should be here recorded. As elder son he inherited the ancestral estate. On taking orders in the Roman Church, he conveyed it to his brother. Long after he had renounced the errors of that Church, it was discovered that the conveyance was not complete. He immediately executed a sufficient instrument, and thus for the second time alienated a most valuable property, his only earthly possession.

After his return to America, he resided for one year at the family mansion. He was after that Rector of Emanuel Church, New-Castle, Delaware; then he officiated in the Swedish Church, at Wilmington; and thence removed, in 1798, to Burlington. In 1801, he was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, in the city of NewYork, which office, after attending one commencement, he resigned. He was also urged to accept the Presidency of the College at Beaufort, South Carolina, with the Rectorship of the parish, but declined the offer. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, under the presidency of Dr. Franklin. He was many years a trustee of Princeton College: and at the establishment of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he was nominated to one of the first professorships. In his pastoral relation, Dr. Wharton was loved, respected, and confided in as the father of all the people of his charge. The whole community in which he lived esteemed him as their friend. Indeed, he must have been a singularly bad man who was Dr. Wharton's enemy.

Notwithstanding his advanced years, and a very feeble constitution, Dr. Wharton retained his powers of intellect until the last. His last ministrations in his parish were on Whitsunday, May 26, when he preached, and administered the holy communion. His last public act was his attendance at the Convention of the Diocese of New-Jersey, at Camden, on the 29th of May; when, by the animation of his counte. nance and manner, the earnestness with which he engaged in the several discussions, and the manly and vigorous support which he gave to the measures proposed by the Bishop, he seemed like a man of less

than half his years. He had no violent disease, but rather sank from the inability of his constitution to rally its enfeebled energies. In his whole sickness he was perfectly resigned and tranquil. He put not his trust in any thing that he had done. His sole glory was in the Cross of Jesus Christ. His testimony to the power and excellence of the Gospel was full, explicit, and affecting. It was the triumph of a true and living faith. It left nothing to be desired but grace to imitate it, and to follow him, as he was the follower of Christ. Sinking gradually day by day, he, at last, fell tranquilly asleep, and rests with God. The funeral service at his interment, was performed by the Bishop of the Diocese, and was attended by the patriarchal Bishop White, who had been nearly fifty years his friend; by a number of the clergy of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania; by his weeping congregation; and by the whole community, uniting to honour him dead, whom living they had loved. By his will, of which the Bishop of the Diocese is executor, he has given his library to the parish of St. Mary's, and at the decease of his widow $1,000 to the General Missionary Society, and the residue of his estate, (having left no children,) as a fund to increase the salary of the rector of St. Mary's.

In Dr. Wharton there was a rare combination of great and varied excellencies. In purity of mind and heart he was almost like an infant. His character was transparent in its beautiful simplicity. He was a personification of that loveliest attribute of love, " charity thinketh no evil." Among the very first, (by confession of all,) of American divines, revered and honoured by all who ever knew him, he was the humblest and most diffident of men. He seemed not only unconscious of his distinction, but incapable of its consciousness. There was in him, as nearly as in humanity there can be, an absorption of the principle of self. He had literally learned, in whatsoever state he was, to be therewith content. To all mankind his heart overflowed with kindness and charity. He was emphatically a man of peace. His charities were constant, generous, and unostentatious. He was the most tender and affectionate of husbands. Constitutionally reserved, and rendered more so by education and early habits, he associated intimately with but few. To them he was the most agreeable of companions and the most engaging of friends. He was the lover of little children, and of course beloved by them. In sickness and in sorrow he was prompt and assiduous as the minister of consolation. The poor rise up and call him blessed. The tears of a whole congregation were mingled in his

grave.

While his rich and varied learning made him the most delightful

and instructive of companions, his wonderful simplicity was an effectual preservative from dogmatism and pedantry. With a true Christian devotion he had consecrated it all to God. He might have shone in science, distinguished himself as a classical scholar, or given delight as a poet. He chose to be known only as a divine. He brought his great learning, his sound wisdom, his singular moderation, to excellent use in the first counsels of our infant Church. To him, it is here stated on the authority of Bishop White, the revision of our Liturgy is much indebted. In the General and Diocesan Conventions he was always present and always useful. His last duty was performed at the Convention of the Diocese in May; thus dying, as it were, in the service of that Church, to which he had devoted so long a life.

As a preacher of the Gospel Dr. Wharton was always instructive, always persuasive. His sermons were in a chastened style of oratory, evidently written from the heart, and with a diction like chrystal for purity and perspicuity. He always preached Christ crucified. The Cross was the great central light of his system, both in faith and morals. The sinfulness and helplessness of man, salvation by grace through faith, the necessity of a new creation unto holiness, and the agency of the Divine Spirit in producing it, were his prevailing themes. Thus setting up the Cross, it was his purpose and his habit to set it up ever in the Church. He was indeed kindly affectionate to all of every name, and would gladly have gathered, by any compromise but that of principle, the pious of other denominations into the fold of the Church. Later experience rendered him more cautious than he once had been. He became more and more the admirer and the advocate of the primitive principles and intrepid policy which have been identified with the immortal name of HOBART. He again and again expressed his conviction that the entire Church was to be inviolately preserved; and that the strictest adherence to all its provisions and regulations was the surest path, not only of truth and duty, but of charity and peace.

The religion which Dr. Wharton proclaimed with his voice and de- ' fended with his pen, was the actuating principle of his life, as it was his stay and solace in death. It gave him the victory over himself, and that achieved, all other conquests were easy. The Cross in which he gloried, had crucified the world to him and him unto the world. His piety was deep, fervent, and unostentatious. The aliment on which it fed was the pure word of God. It was enkindled in him by the Holy Spirit. It was sustained and cherished by daily intercourse with heaHe was punctual every day in self-examination, and secret medi

ven.