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All Will Be Pure, Unmingled Happiness, or Pure, Unmingled Misery
Samuel Davies
Samuel Davies (1723–1761). Born on November 3, 1723, in New Castle County, Delaware, to Welsh Baptist parents, Samuel Davies became a pivotal American Presbyterian minister and evangelist. Raised in a devout home, he studied under Rev. Samuel Blair at Faggs Manor, Pennsylvania, and was licensed to preach in 1746 by the New Castle Presbytery. Ordained in 1747, he served multiple congregations in Virginia, notably in Hanover County, where his eloquent sermons revitalized Presbyterianism during the Great Awakening. Davies was a key figure in the 1750s revival, preaching to diverse audiences, including enslaved African Americans, whom he taught to read and baptized in significant numbers, a bold move for his time. In 1753, he raised funds in Britain with Gilbert Tennent to establish the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), succeeding Jonathan Edwards as its president in 1759. His poetry and hymns, like “Great God of Wonders,” reflected his piety, and his writings included Sermons on Important Subjects. Married twice—first to Sarah Kirkpatrick, who died in 1747, then to Jane Holt, with whom he had five children—he died of pneumonia on February 4, 1761, in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 37. Davies said, “The Word of God is the only foundation for true happiness.”
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This sermon emphasizes the stark contrast between the temporary nature of earthly pleasures and pains, and the eternal consequences of either pure unmingled happiness or pure unmingled misery in the afterlife. It highlights the importance of focusing on securing a heavenly inheritance and being prepared for the eternal joys or pains that await every individual. The speaker urges listeners to consider the insignificance of worldly enjoyments and sufferings compared to the weight of eternal consequences, stressing the need for a title to heaven to avoid the horrible miseries of eternity.
Sermon Transcription
All will be pure unmingled happiness or pure unmingled misery. From Life's Shortness and Vanity. A Funeral Sermon by Samuel Davies Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Matthew 25, 46 In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations. But in the eternal world, good and evil shall be entirely and forever separated. All will be pure unmingled happiness or pure unmingled misery. But what gives infinite importance to these joys and sorrows is that they are enjoyed or suffered in the eternal world, and they are themselves eternal. Eternal joys, eternal pains. Joys and pains that will last as long as the King Eternal and Immortal will live to distribute them, as long as our immortal spirits will live to feel them. Oh, what joys and pains are these! And these eternal joys or pains, my friends, are awaiting every one of us. These pleasures or these pains are felt this moment by all our friends and acquaintances who have died before us, and in a little, little while, you and I must feel them. Alas, what then have we to do with time and earth? Are the pleasures and pains of this world worthy to be compared with eternal pleasures and pains? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The enjoyments and sufferings, the labours and pursuits, the laughter and tears of the present state, are all nothing in comparison. What is the loss of an estate or of a dear relative compared to the loss of a blissful immortality? And if our heavenly inheritance is secure, what does it matter, even if we should be reduced into Job's forlorn situation? What does it matter, even if we are poor, sickly, wracked with pains, and submerged in every human misery? Heaven will more than make amends for all. But if we have no evidences of a title to heaven, the sense of these transitory distresses may be swallowed up in the fear of the horrible miseries of eternity. Alas, what does it avail that we play away a few years in mirth and gaiety, in grandeur and pleasure, if when these few years have fled, we lift up our eyes in hell, tormented in eternal flames? Oh, what are all these transitory things to a candidate for eternity, an heir of everlasting happiness or everlasting misery? If we spend our immortality in eternal misery, what sorry comfort will it be when we laughed and played and frolicked away our few years upon earth? As Christians, we are to be nobly indifferent to all the little amusements and pleasures of so short an earthly life. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Matthew 25, 46
All Will Be Pure, Unmingled Happiness, or Pure, Unmingled Misery
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Samuel Davies (1723–1761). Born on November 3, 1723, in New Castle County, Delaware, to Welsh Baptist parents, Samuel Davies became a pivotal American Presbyterian minister and evangelist. Raised in a devout home, he studied under Rev. Samuel Blair at Faggs Manor, Pennsylvania, and was licensed to preach in 1746 by the New Castle Presbytery. Ordained in 1747, he served multiple congregations in Virginia, notably in Hanover County, where his eloquent sermons revitalized Presbyterianism during the Great Awakening. Davies was a key figure in the 1750s revival, preaching to diverse audiences, including enslaved African Americans, whom he taught to read and baptized in significant numbers, a bold move for his time. In 1753, he raised funds in Britain with Gilbert Tennent to establish the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), succeeding Jonathan Edwards as its president in 1759. His poetry and hymns, like “Great God of Wonders,” reflected his piety, and his writings included Sermons on Important Subjects. Married twice—first to Sarah Kirkpatrick, who died in 1747, then to Jane Holt, with whom he had five children—he died of pneumonia on February 4, 1761, in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 37. Davies said, “The Word of God is the only foundation for true happiness.”