Revival and the "seraphic Pearce"

Though scarcely known today, Samuel Pearce (1766–1799) was in his own day well known for the anointing that attended his preaching and for the depth of his spirituality. It was said of him that “his ardour…gave him a kind of ubiquity; as a man and a preacher, he was known, he was felt everywhere.”[1] William Jay (1769–1853), who exercised an influential ministry in Bath for the first half of the nineteenth century, said of his contemporary’s preaching: “When I have endeavoured to form an image of our Lord as a preacher, Pearce has oftener presented himself to my mind than any other I have been acquainted with.” In fact, for some decades after his death it was not uncommon to hear him referred to as the “seraphic Pearce.”[2]