Wisner, William Carpenter, D.D., a Presby- terian minister, was born at Elmira, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1808. He was prepared for college in the Homer Academy, and graduated at Union College in 1830. He did not pursue any regular theological course at the sem- inary, but prosecuted his studies under his venerable father. Rev. Dr. Wisner, of Ithaca. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Rochester, and in 1832 was ordained and installed pastor of the Third Presby- terian Church of that city. After remaining there for a short time, he removed to Athens, Pa., where he preach- ed for a while, and then served the Church in East Avon, N. Y'., for eighteen months. In 1836 he accepted a call to the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis, Mo. In 1837 he was called to the Church at Lower Lockport, and in 1842 became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Lockport, and resigned on account of failing health after a successful pastorate of thirty-four years. He was for many years a trustee of Hamilton College and Auburn Seminary. He was moderator of the New School General Assembly at St. Louis in 1855. He died at Lockport, N. Y., July 14, 1880. His manner as a public speaker was peculiar, and strangers to it would at first find it unpleasant; but becoming familiar with it, they would come under his power, and find him a teacher of great originality, and would become fasci- nated with him. His principal publication was a work entitled. Prelacy and Parity. (W. P. S.)
Witch is the rendering, in the A. V., at Exod. xxii, 18, of nsti'w^ {inehtshshephdh, Sept. ipappaKoi, Vulg. vialefict), and in Dent, xviii, 10, of the masc. form, of the same word (r]t'3p, viekashshtph, Sept. (pap/jaKug, Vulg. vialeficus), which is elsewhere rendered "sorcer- er" (Exod. vii, 11 : Dan. ii, 2; Mai. iii, 5). WITCH OF Endor. See Saul. "Withers, Philip, D.D., an English clergyman, be- came chaplain to lady dowager Hereford in 1783. He was sentenced Nov. 21, 1789, to a fine of £50 and a year's imprisonment for a libel on JNIrs. Fitzherbert, wife to the prince of Wales, in his History of the Ro§ul ^falady (Loud. 1789). He died in Newgate, July 24, 1790. He also published a work entitled A listaichus; or. The Prin- ciples of Composition (1791).
Witherspoon, John, D.D., LL.D., a distinguish- ed Presbyterian divine, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in the parish of Yester, near Edinburgh, Scotland, Feb. 5, 1722. His father was a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, much respected for his piety and learning; on his mother's side, he traced an unbroken line of ministerial ancestry, through a periotl of more than two hundred j'cars, to the great Reformer, John Knox. He experi- enced religion at a very early period ; pursued his pre- jiaratory studies in the public school at Haddington, where he soon evinced remarkable powers; graduated at the University of Edinburgh, where he stood ''un- rivalled for perspicuity of st3-le, logical accuracy of thought, taste in sacred criticism, and all those intel- lectual qualities and accomplishments which, in after- life, conspired to render him one of the great men of the age and of the world ;" was licensed to preach in 1743; ordained as minister of the popular parish of Beith, in the west of Scotland, in 1745 ; and of the Low
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Church in Paisley, Jan. IG, 1757; here lie continued till tlie j'ear 17G8, when he was elected president of the College of New Jersej', and inaugurated at a meeting of the trustees, called specially for the purpose, Aug. 17, 17G8. The fame of his talents and learning had pre- ceded him, and consequently he brought to the college a large accession of students, and was the means of "•reatlv increasing its funds, and placing it on a foun- dation of permanent usefulness. Indeed, few men could combine more important qualifications for the presi- dency of a literary institution — " talents, extensive at- tainments, commanding personal appearance, and an admirable faculty for governing young men, and ex- citing in them a noble emulation to excel in their studies." He introduced many important improve- ments in the system of education —particularly the method of teaching by lecture, which seems previously to have been unknown to American colleges; and he actually delivered lectures on four different subjects — viz., Eloquence and Composition, Taste and Criticism; ]\[oral Philosophy ; Chronology and. History ; and Di- vinity. He likewise rendered most important service to the college by increasing its library and philosophical apparatus, and introducing the study of the Hebrew and French languages; he was also chiefly instrumen- tal ill obtaining the first orrery constructed by the cel- ebrated Rittenhouse. In connection with his duties as president, he was pastor of the Church in Prince- ton during the whole period of his presidency. But he was soon to enter upon a new sphere of duty. He was selected by the citizens of New Jersey, in 1776, as a delegate to the Congress that promulgated the Decla- ration of Independence. He continued to represent the State of New Jersey in the General Congress from 1776 to 1782, and in practical business talent and devotion to public affairs he was second to none in that body. Many of the most important state- papers of the day were from his pen. During the whole period in which he was occupied in civil life ho never laid aside his ministerial character, but wished it understood that he was " a minister of God," in a sacred as well as in a civil sense. When he retired from the national coun- cils, he went to his country-place near Princeton, N. J., having two years before partially given up his duties as president of the college to the vice-president, his son-in- law. Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith. He died Nov. 15, 1794. Dr. Witherspoon was undoubtedly one of the ablest, as well as one of the most voluminous, writers of his time. He \)\.\h\is\\ti\, Ecclesiastical Characteristics; or, The Ar- cana of Church Policy (Glasgow, 1753, 8vo ; 3tl ed. 1754, 8vo ; at least five edits.). This work was aimed at certain principles and practices which then prevailed extensive- ly in the Church of Scotland, and by its acknowledged ability, and particularly by the keenness of its satire, it liroduced a great sensation and acquired immense popu- larity:— A Serious A poloyy for the Characteristics, in which he avows himself the author of the preceding work : — Essay on the Connection between the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputed Riyhteousness of Christ and Holiness of Life, etc. (Edinb. 1756, I'imo; often repub- lished). " This work has always been regarded as one of the ablest Calvinistic expositions of that doctrine in any language. I hope you approve Mr. Witherspoon's books. I think his Treatise on Reyeneration is the best I have seen upon this important subject" (Itev. John Newton to Mr. Cunningham, in Bull's Life <f Newton [18G8, p. 150]): — Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage (Glasgow, 1757 ; with Sermon bv Samuel Miller, D.D., N. Y. 1812, 12mo). This work had its origin in the fact that Mr. John Home, a cler- gyman of the Church of Scotland, had published his well-known tragedy oi Douglas, which was acted re- l)eatedly in the Edinburgh Theatre, where a number of the author's clerical friends attended. The Rev. John Newton, speaking of this work, says he "wishes every person who makes the least pretence to fear God had an opportunity of perusing" it : — Essays on Important Sub-