After studying theology at Andover, he held the office of Tutor in Yale College, from 1814 to 1816, and at the close of this service he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Congregational church in Norfolk, Connecticut.
The next five years he resided at Newburyport, Massachusetts, after which he removed to Rockford, Illinois, for the sake of being near his children.
While there, he repeated by request his lectures on the History of Christian Doctrine, to the students of the Chicago Theological Seminary.
He also published a life of his brother, the Reverend Joseph Emerson, and a translation, with notes, of a work on Augustinism and Pelagianism, by C. F. Wiggins.
A sermon was preached at his funeral by his son-in-law, Rev Prof. Haven, and his body was interred at Beloit, Wisconsin.