Who is Ezra Ripley, DD from Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and what is their importance?

Ezra Ripley was Emerson's step-grandfather and a man he admired. Ripley was a Harvard-educated preacher, like Emerson, and represented "the rear guard of the great camp and army of the Puritans", which in its heyday had been a driving force for the American Revolution. Emerson describes him as kind, sympathetic and a real gentleman who preached from his heart and not from texts.