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Hobart, Noah

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Hobart, John Henry, D.D.

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a Congregational minister, was born at Hingham Jan. 12, 1706. He graduated at Harvard College in 1724, and was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church at Fairfield, Connecticut, Feb. 7, 1733. About this time a controversy arose in the Eastern States respecting the Episcopalians, in which Hobart enlisted, and wrote in behalf of the validity of Presbyterian ordination a pamphlet entitled Serious Address to the Episcopal Separation (1748; 2nd address, 1751; 3rd address, 1761). His opponents were Dr. Johnson and other ministers who had swerved from Congregationalism. Of Mr. Hobart's ability and learning, Dr. Dwight, who was one of the men of his time, says: "He possessed high intellectual and moral distinction. He had a mind of great acuteness and discernment; was a laborious student; was extensively learned, especially in history and theology; adorned the doctrine which he professed by an exemplary life, and was holden in high veneration for his wisdom and virtue. Among the American writers of the last century, not one has, I believe, handled the subject of Presbyterian ordination with more ability or success." He died Dec. 6, 1773. Besides several sermons, he published Principles of the Congreg. Church, etc. (1754). — Contrib. to Eccl. History of Connecticut, p. 385; Smith's Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrines, 2. 448; Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 1, 375.