It is not, however, as a philanthropist, but as a the- ologian, that Hopkins is generally known. In his ex- treme indigence he writes : " I have been saved from anxiety about living, and have had a thousand times less care and trouble in the world than if I had had a great abundance. Being unconnected with the great and rich, I have had more time to attend to my studies, and par- ticidarly have had leisure to -vmte my ' System of Di- vinity,' which I hope will not prove useless." By this system, and by his various independent treatises, he gave occasion for the name " Iloplinsiim," as applied to the views of eminent New ICngland divines. He regarded himself as an Edwardean. He had been the most inti- mate of president Edwards's companions, had revised the president's manuscripts, had carefully edited some of them, and was more exactly acquainted than any oth- er man with the president's original speculations. He wrote the first memoir of Edwards, of which the Enct/- dopcedia Britcmnica says, it is "equal in simplicity, though by no means in anything else, to the most ex- quisite biographies of Izaak Walton."
The prominent tenets of Hopkinsianism are the fol- lowing : 1. All real holiness consists in disinterested be- nevolence. 2. All sin consists in selfishness. 3. There are no promises of regenerating grace made to the do- ings of the unregenerate. 4. The impotency of sinners with respect to believing in Christ is not natural, but moral. 5. A sinner is required to approve in his heart of the divine conduct, even though it shoidd cast him off forever. 6. God has exerted his power in such a manner as he puqwsed woidd be followed by the exist- ence of sin. 7. The introduction of moral evil into the universe is so overruled by God as to promote the gen-
eral good. 8. Repentance is before faith in Christ. 9. Though men became sinners by Adam, according to a divine constitution, yet they have, and are accountable for, no sms but personal. 10. Though believers are jus- tified through Christ's righteousness, yet his righteous- ness is not transferred to them. Dr. Nathanael Emmons (q.v.), who -was the most eminent defender of Hopkin- sianism, and who described it as characterized by the ten preceduig articles, added the following (see Park, Memoir of Emmoiis) as his own views, and as supple- mental to those of his friend Hopkins: 1. Holmess and sin consist in free voluntary exercises. 2. Men act free- ly mider the divine agency. 3. The least transgression of the divme law deserves eternal punishment. 4. Right and wrong are founded in the nature of things. 5. God exercises mere grace m pardoning or justifying penitent beUevera through the atonement of Christ, and mere goodness in rewarding them for their good works. 6. Notwithstanding the total depravity of sinners, God has a right to require them to turn from sin to holmess. 7. Preachers of the Gospel ought to exhort sinners to love God, repent of sin, and believe m Christ immediately. 8. Men are active, not passive, in regeneration. Some of these eight propositions are distinctly avowed, others more or less clearly impUed in the writings of Hopkms. Emmons regarded Hopkinsianism as in some respects high and intense Calvinism ; as, in other respects (the doctrine of general atonement for example), moderate Calvuiism ; and as, on the whole, " consistent Calvin- ism."
Amid his labors as a reformer and theologian, Dr. Hopkins vigorously discharged his parochial duties, un- til he was struck with paralysis, in his seventy-eighth year. He continued to preach during the next four years. With a revival of religion his ministry had com- menced, with a revival also it ended — the rising and the setting of his sun. He wrote out a list of his con- gregation, and offered a separate prayer for each indi- vidual. Thirty-one conversions followed. After his dis- courses on the 16th of Oct. 1803, he exclaimed, "Now I have done ; I can preach no more." He staggered from the pidpit to his bed, from which he never rose. He died on the 20th of December, 1803.
In person Dr. Hopkins was tall and vigorous ; in his movements dignified, though unwieldy. His head was large and square, and his face beamed with intelligence. The movements of his mind were like those of his body, powerful, but often clumsy. Inflexible faithfulness to what he deemed his duty, with utter self-sacriiice for the right, was his main characteristic. " Love to being in general" was with him not the mere by-word of a sect, but the enthusiastic purpose of his life. He had not the temperament which inspires enthusiasm, and he had but little tact in personal intercourse with men ; but in the depths of his indigence he was true to him- self, and showed all the coiu-age of a Hampden. He studied harcUy ever less than fourteen hours a day, and sometimes even as many as eighteen, in a little room of eleven feet by seven. Every Saturday he fasted, and thus gained spiritual strength for the toils of earth by communion with Heaven. He labored for Indians and selfish white men ; for poor negroes who had then no other friend ; and for theological science, which gave him respect, but little bread— r/a-zV propter alios. In 1 854 his Worlcs (before repeatedly reprinted) were published by the ]\Iassachusetts Doctrinal Tract Society (3 vols. 8vo), containing over 2000 pages, with a Memoir by Prof. Edward A. Park of 266 pages.