Hopkins

different modes of thinking discredited its prem-
ises and antiquated its methods. He was the
first of the New England theologians to form his
teachings into a closely articulated scheme, and
his System of Doctrines Contained in Divine
Revelation, Explained and Defended (2 vols.,
1793) is the presentation of the matured thought
which he had preached and written in pamphlets
during his long life. He taught that a sovereign
God does all things for his own glory and the
greatest happiness of the whole; sin and evil are
the occasion of great good as through his deal-
ings with them the Deity displays his divine jus-
tice and mercy. Every one should gladly take
his place in the divine plan, live for the good of
the whole, and love God supremely without mak-
ing any personal conditions whatever, even be-
ing willing to be among the reprobate, if such a
fate would make for the glory of God. This "will-
ing-to-be-damned" doctrine was not original
with Hopkins, and Edwards had repudiated it,
but critics seized upon it as making too strenuous
a demand upon frail human nature. Extreme and
irrational though this feature was, the "system"
as a whole, with its teaching of disinterested
benevolence as the supreme motive of the indi-
vidual, was of great ethical value, and its concep-
tion of a universe steadily set towards the great-
est happiness of all had real spiritual grandeur.
In power of comprehensive and thoroughgoing
reasoning, in sustained elevation of tone, and in
ability to bring ideas to bear persuasively upon
the will it was a solid contribution to advancing
ethical thought. The System of Doctrines had
an unusual sale of twelve hundred copies and
brought to the author the needed and substantial
sum of nine hundred dollars. Hopkins was a
voluminous and controversial writer, and among
his other published works are: Sinf thro' Divine
Interposition, an Advantage to the Universe
(1759); An Enquiry Concerning the Promises
of the Gospel. Whether Any of Them Are Made
to the Exercises and Doings of Persons in an
Unregenerate State (1765); The True State and
Character of the Unregenerate, Stripped of All
Misrepresentation and Disguise (1769); Re-
marks on President Edwards's Dissertation Con-
cerning the Nature of True Virtue (1771); An
Inquiry into the Nature of True Holiness
(1773); A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of
the Africans; Shewing It To Be the Duty and
Interest of the American States to Emancipate
all Their African Slaves (1776); A Discourse
upon the Slave Trade and the Slavery of Afri-
cans (1793) 5 A Treatise on the Millennium
(1793), and The Life and Character of the Late
Rev. Jonathan Edwards (1765). His first wife

Hopkins

died in 1793, and in 1794, when he was seventy-
three years of age, he married Elizabeth West,
a member of his congregation, long a boarding-
school principal in Newport, and learned in the-
ology.

[Memoir by E. A. Park, published as an introduction
to The Works of Samuel Hopkins (3 vols., 1852); Ste-
phen West, Sketches of the Life of the Late Samuel
Hopkins (1805), containing Hopkins' autobiography;
John Ferguson, Memoir of the Life and Character of
Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D. '(1830); F. B. Dexter
Biog. Sketches Grads. Yale Coll 1701-45 (1885); Wm.
A. Patten, Reminiscences of Samuel Hopkins Illustra-
tive of his Character and Doctrines (1843) ; Williston
Walker, Ten New England Leaders (1901) ; W. B.
Sprague, Annals Am. Pulpit, vol. I (1857); F. H. Fos-
ter, A Genetic Hist, of the New England Theology
(1907) ; Early Religious Leaders of Newport (1918) ;
Newport Mercury, Dec. 24, 1803.] CAD

HOPKINS, SAMUEL (Apr, 9, 1753-Sept.
16, 1819), soldier, senator, was born in Albe-
marle County, Va., the son of Dr. Samuel Hop-
kins and Isabella (Taylor) Hopkins. His father
was the son of Dr. Arthur Hopkins of Gooch-
land; his mother, a daughter of John and Cath-
erine (Pendleton) Taylor of Caroline County.
Having reached young manhood by the time of
the Revolution, he took an active part in the
struggle and through his resourcefulness and
daring won the good opinion of General Wash-
ington. He fought in the battles of Trenton,
Princeton, Monmouth, Brandywine, and Ger-
mantown. In the last-named engagement he
commanded a battalion of light infantry which
was nearly annihilated. He himself was badly
wounded. When the British transferred the war
to the South, he became lieutenant-colonel of the
loth Virginia and took part in the defense of
Charleston. On the death of his colonel, he suc-
ceeded to the command of the regiment. When
Charleston fell he was taken prisoner and trans-
ported by sea back to Virginia. Transferred to
the 1st Virginia, he served till the end of the
war. On Jan. 18, 1783, he married Elizabeth
Branch Bugg, daughter of Jacob Bugg of Meck-
lenburg County, Ky. He was one of the original
members of the Society of the Cincinnati. In
1797 he settled in the newly opened Green River
country of Kentucky which was to play a promi-
nent part in the history of the state. Here he
practised law and took an interest in politics,
though he was never politically ambitious. Like
most other Kentuckians, he favored the Ken-
tucky Resolutions of 1798 and of 1799. He also
favored constitutional reform, which found ex-
pression in the constitution of 1799. He repre-
sented Henderson County in the lower branch
of the legislature at four different times between
1800 and 1806 and he served in the state Senate
from 1809 to 1813. In 1809 he was one of Ken-

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