The Reverend William Jay ( 6 May 1769 - 27 December 1853 ) was an English nonconformist divine who preached for sixty years at Argyle Chapel in Bath . He is considered to be one of the most eminent English Congregationalist preachers of Regency England ; one of the first Independents or Congregationalists to articulate the Great Awakening or Religious Revival championed by George Whitfield and John Wesley .