Gay Ebenezer, Dd

Gay Ebenezer, D.D., a Unitarian clergyman, was born in Dedham, Mass., August 15, 1696. He graduated at Harvard College in 1714; was admitted into the ministry in 1718, and installed as pastor of the church in Hingham, which position he held till his death. While quite ,a young man he gained a high reputation for scholarship, and he received many testimonials of public respect, both in his earlier and later days. He was opposed to all creeds and confessions of faith considered as binding, and is often mentioned as the father of American Unitarianism. He had no sympathy with the "great revival" of 1740. His name is signed to a paper entitled "The Sentiments and Resolutions of an Association of Ministers, convened at Weymouth January 15, 1745," in which they bear testimony against Whitefield's "enthusiastic spirit." In 1781 he delivered a sermon on his eighty-fifth birthday, which was published under the title of "The Old Man's Calendar." It has passed through several editions in this country, been reprinted in England, and translated into the Dutch language and published in Holland. He died March 8, 1787. He printed a number of occasional sermons.- Sprague, Annals, 8:1.