This page was updated 08/04/2008.

S. P. Wurth, Bookseller
2520 Vestal Parkway East; No. 322
Vestal, NY 13850

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Catalogue 84

Here are a few books for your consideration. Jot down the numbers that you are interested in as you go through the list, and email them to me and I will reply regarding availability. Credit cards are processed through PayPal.  Personal checks are fine.  Open accounts billed as per usual.  US shipping is 4.50 for the first item and 1.00 for each additional. Sets sent at cost.  We mail worldwide; inquire regarding shipping costs.  As always, please confirm before sending payment.

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To request availability of a book listed email us at spwurth@stny.rr.com You can refer to the books by number. You can also try reaching me at our office at 1-607-240-8767.

1744 Boston Imprint

 

 

8401. Meditations | Representing | A Glimpse of Glory: | or, a | Gospel-Discovery | of | Emmanuel’s Land. | Whereunto is subjoined, | A Spiritual Hymn, Intituled, The dying Saint’s | Song ; and some of his last Letters. | By Mr. Andrew Welwood, | Brother to Mr. John Welwood, late Minister | of the Gospel in Scotland. | [11 lines of scripture text] | Boston, Re-printed by Rogers and Fowle, | for W. Mc Alpine, near the Mill-Bridge.  1744.

 

Original leather binding, joints partially cracked, scuffed and worn, lacking blank fly pages, title page tattered at the long edge with some loss.  All printed pages present, with three leaves (xi-xii, 31-32, 33-34) suffering some loss of text from tattering & tearing.  Tattered edge to first 34 pages.  One leaf (245-246) with old sewn repair. Pages 245-260 loosely attached.  279 numbered pages with a 4-page index.  Complete.

 

OCLC: 13751575.  Four locations.  Evans 5510.

Covenanter.  “Son of James Wellwood of Tundergarth, and brother to John Wellwood.  He was designed for the ministry, but died early in London of consumption.  His book – a lasting monument to the glory of Emmanuel – had long a place in the dwellings of Jacob throughout the length and breadth of the land.” – Johnston, Treasury of the Scottish Covenant (1887).

 

$750.00

1749 Newport, Rhode-Island Imprint

 

 

8402. [Penn, William]  Some | Fruits of Solitude | in | Reflections | and | Maxims, | Relating to the | Conduct | of | Human Life. | In Two Parts. | The Eighth Edition | Newport, Rhode-Island: | Printed by James Franklin, at the Town | School-House, 1749.

second title

More | Fruits of Solitude: | being | The Second Part | of | Reflections | and | Maxims, | Relating to the | Conduct | of | Human Life. | Newport, Rhode-Island | Printed by James Franklin, at the Town | School-House, 1749.

 

Original leather binding over wooden boards, joints good with chips at the corners and head of the spine, 5 x 3, old inscriptions at front and on first few leaves, lacking fly pages and 2 leaves of text, pp. 105-108 of part II., and table leaf of part II.  There also appears to be a blank page missing between the end of part I. and the beginning of part II.  12 pages of preliminaries, followed by 158 numbered pages, 7 pages of table, 6 pages of preliminaries to part II., followed by 1-104 numbered pages. The corners are missing from the title page, please note pictures.  The first leaf of the preface to part I. has a closed tear.  All other pages are in good condition, and the book is generally clean.

 

To clarify: lacking two leaves of text, one leaf of table, all blank leaves including the one before the second title page.

 

Printed by James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s nephew.  His father, also James, was the first printer in Rhode Island, but died in 1735.  His mother, Anne, took over the printing business and ran it with the help of her daughters until James was old enough to work in the shop.  There is an entry for him in Isaiah Thomas’ The History of Printing in America.

 

Content: There are 556 maxims, or short insightful paragraphs, in part I. and 290 in part II., all designed to give sound counsel on how to live life as a humble, holy, Christian.

 

Evans 6392 & 6393.  I find only microform copies of this edition on WorldCat.

 

There are two copies for sale online, one with the last two leaves complete, but with a replaced rear board, at $1425.  The other is similar to this copy, somewhat less appealing in condition, at $975.  This copy, which you will be very pleased to own, I am offering at

 

$750.00

 

8403. [American Colonial Church Document]  Single-sheet document calling for a special meeting to consider the views and actions of Rev. Mr. Elisha Marsh, pastor of the Church of Christ in Narragansett No. 2, Massachusetts.  August 26, 1759.  Paper measures 12 ¼ x 7 ½, old wrinkles, fold marks, several small perforations, good condition.  This has a “GR” crown watermark for George II.   

The settlement of Narragansett No. 2 later changed its name to Westminster, Massachusetts.

 

Elisha Marsh was called to the place in 1742.  He had graduated at Harvard College in 1738, subsequently studying theology, although it is uncertain with whom.  He was about 29 years of age, and was the first minister of the settlement.  Rev. Marsh appears to have gotten along well with the congregation for a few years, but differences regarding the value of his salary on one side, and the value of his doctrine, on the other, provoked confrontation.  A complaint was brought against him in 1747, which resulted in his being cleared of all charges by a council of ministers.  One of the charges was “that Mr. Marsh proposed to swap powder horn Strings with Joseph Stevens Junr on Sabbath evening,” a profanation of the Sabbath.

 

The problems were not resolved on a personal level, however.  Mr. Marsh filed a complaint in civil court in 1749 regarding the adequacy of his salary.  He filed several suits over the next 8 or nine years, and was once fined 10 shillings for libel but had that judgment reversed by appeal.

 

In November, 1757, the members of the church voted to dismiss him, but Rev. Marsh would not accept the vote, for according to ecclesiastical law only a Council could dismiss a minister.  The action was running out of steam by the date of this document, for Rev. Marsh was holding out for back pay (which he was awarded in 1761), and the congregation was employing another minister.  The “some time ago” of the document is several years.

 

The document reads:  

“To the Revd Mr. Elisha Marsh Pastor of the Chh of Christ In Narragansett No. 2.

“Rev.d Sir:

“We the subscribers being member of sd Church do Signifi to your self that some Time ago we Laid some articles of Charge before your self with a request for your self to call a Church meeting Either to make up the difficultys Subsisting Between us or to Joyn with us in calling a mutual Council upon which your Self promised to call a Church meeting agreeable whereunto we once more desire that there may be a Church Meeting Called directly for the Ende before Expressed and for the Consideration of [?] articles further alleged against you which are as follows

1.      We suspect that you are unsound in the Beliefe of the great Doctrine of the Godhead of Christ concerning his being equal with God the Father

2.      Because we apprehend you greatly neglect your Study & are often absent from you People

3.      Because you deny & contemptuously Speake of the Revd Assembly of Divines Catechism commonly Taught to Children

“We subscribe &c

 

“Narragansett No. 2” [followed by two columns of names; the signatures appear to all be by the same hand.  20 male names in the columns.]

“Copy Examd for Timo Paine Cler”

The reverse reads, “Articles of Charge agst Mr Marsh & a Request for a Church meeting.  Copy”

 

The biographical information above is from Heywood’s History of Westminster, Massachusetts, (first named Narragansett No. 2), 1893.  Heywood notes the scarcity of exact documents relating to this whole matter.  He did not have an original for several of the later meetings, nor does he mention this late call for a further Council. 

 

Mr. Marsh remained at Narragansett No. 2 until 1770, when he moved to Walpole, New Hampshire.  He became a successful lawyer, rising to the judge’s bench of the court of the common pleas in Cheshire County.  He died in 1784, after falling off a horse.

 

A scarce and interesting item.  Frame it and give it to your pastor as a warning.  Shipped folded once at the center.

 

$250.00

8404. Anderson, Rufus.  Memoir | of | Catherine Brown, | A | Christian Indian | of the | Cherokee Nation. | By Rufus Anderson, A. M. | Assistant Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners | for Foreign Missions. | Boston: | Samuel T. Armstrong, and Crocker and Brewster. | New York: John P. Haven. | 1825.

 

First edition.

 

Chipped leather spine with plain boards lacking paper coverings, front board detached, 6 x 3 ½, 180 pages, lacking fly pages.  Incomplete, lacking 4 leaves, pp. 143-150.

 

Catherine Brown was born about 1800 in what was then Cherokee territory in Alabama, between the Raccoon and Lookout mountains.  Her parents did not speak English.  Catherine entered a school at the missionary station named Brainerd, on the Chickamaugah Creek at the border of Alabama and Tennessee.  She is regarded as the first convert to Christianity among the Indians by a missionary sent out by the American Board of Missions.  This took place in December of 1817.  She was baptized January 25th, 1818.  Catherine returns to her home as a school teacher at Creek-Path.  Excerpts from her diary are included in this scarce work.  She died about age 25.

 

One later ASSU edition for sale online at $450.  This first (please note defect) for

 

$150.00

8405. A | Series of Letters | on | Courtship and Marriage. | To which are added, | Witherspoon’s Letters on Mar- | riage. – Mrs. Piozzi’s Letter to | a Gentleman newly married. - | Swift’s Letter to a newly mar- | ried Lady. - | Marriage, a Vision, | by Cotton. - | Nugent’s Epistle to | a Lady. | Elizabeth-Town: | Printed by Shepard Kollock. | M, DCC, XCVI. [1796]

 

Very good original leather binding with label, complete with endpapers, 5 ½ x 3 ¼, one leaf with tear at corner affecting a few lines of text, cut or tear at the top of the title page without loss.  152 pages.

 

Inscription behind title: “Melkiah Bowen Green’s Book presented him by Jabiz Monsell Tutor of Clinton Academy at East Hampton April 3rd 1790.”

 

A drawing on one of the pages of Peter Godfrey, sitting in a chair with possibly a cane.  Unsure of who this is.

 

A New Jersey imprint with a Long Island inscription.

 

Evans 47911.

 

$135.00 SOLD

 

8406. [Baptist] The Baptist Library: A Republication of Standard Baptist Works.  Edited by Rev. Charles G. Summers, Rev. William R. Williams, Rev. Levi L. Hill.  Volume I. & II.  Prattsville, Greene Co., N.Y.  1841.  Leather spine & corners, marbled boards, 10 x 6 1/2, 471 + 368 pages, fine condition.  Title page to vol. i. only; second vol. bound in.

This book contains

 

Volume I.

·         Pædobaptism Examined on the Principles, Concessions, and Reasonings of the most Learned Pædobaptists.  By Abraham Booth.

·         An Examination of Dr. Dwight's Discourses on Baptism contained in his system of Theology Explained and Defended.  By F. L. Cox, D.D., LL.D.

·         Letters on Christian Baptism.  By Rev. John Flavel Bliss, A.M.

Volume II.

·         Grace Abounding to the chief of Sinners: in a Faithful Account of the Life and Death of John Bunyan

·         The Practical Uses of Christian Baptism.  By Andrew Fuller.

·         The Backslider: or an Inquiry into the Nature, Symptoms, and Effects of Religious Declension; with the Means of Recovery.  By Andrew Fuller.

·         The Discouragements and Supports of the Christian Minister.  By Robert Hall, A.M.

·         An Address to the Rev. Eustace Carey, January 19, 1814, on his Designation as a Christian Missionary to India.  By Robert Hall, A.M.

·         Modern Infidelity Considered, with respect to Its Influence on Society.  By Robert Hall, A.M.

·         Expository Discourses on the Book of Genesis, interspersed with Practical Reflections.  By Andrew Fuller.

·         The Holy War.  Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the regaining the Metropolis of the World...&c.  By John Bunyan.

·         Foster's Essay on Decision.

$175.00SOLD

8407. [Baptist]  The | Commission | given by | Jesus Christ | to his | Apostles | Illustrated. | By | Archibald M’Lean, | One of the Pastors of the Baptist Church, Edinburgh. | The Third Edition, | Corrected and much Enlarged. | Edinburgh: | Printed by A. & J. Aikman, | [list of booksellers] | 1811.

 

Leather, 7 x 4, title page detached and laid in, 1st page of preface torn and laid in, tight, 359 clean pages.

 

Archibald M’Lean (1733-1812), Scotch Baptist elder and teacher; considered a founder of the Baptist Congregations in Scotland.  M’Lean wrote an exposition of Hebrews, of which Charles Spurgeon wrote: “One of the most judicious and solid expositions ever written.”

 

Scarce.  A detailed exposition of the “Great Commission,” with instruction on the gospel, the form and subjects of baptism, and the commandments that Christ instituted for believers to observe.

 

$185.00SOLD

 

8408. [Baptist]  The Sermons of the Rev. Josiah J. Finch; with a Memoir of his Life.  Charleston: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1853.

 

Cloth, 7 ¾ x 5, 314 pages, tight, some foxing & stains, lacking tissue guard between engraving & title page, lacking rear fly pages.

 

Twenty-four sermons by a native of Franklin County, North-Carolina.  Converted at 17, Mr. Finch was a member of the Baptist Church at Maple Springs, about four miles east of Louisburg.  In 1837 he was a student at Wake Forest College, afterwards settling as pastor of the church at Newbern.  In 1844 he was pastor at Raleigh, but had to resign due to his failing health in 1848.  He died in January, 1850, aged 36.

 

$75.00 SOLD

 

8409. Bossuet, James Benign.  History | of the | Variations | of the | Protestant Churches. | B James Benign Bossuet, | Bishop of Meaux; | One of His Most Christian Majesty’s Honorable Privy-Council, | Heretofore Precepter to the Dauphin, and Chief | Almoner to the Dauphiness. | In Two Volumes, [vol. i. only] | Translated from the last French Edition. | Vol. I. | New York: | D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 164 William Street. | Boston: - 128 Federal-street. | Montreal: | Corner of Notre-Dame and St. Francis Xavier Streets. “1850” written in pencil.

 

Faded cloth, 7 ½ x 5, 372 pages, index, library number in ink on spine, in pencil on the title page, NO cardholder or other markings.  VOL I ONLY.

 

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627 - 1704), French Roman Catholic bishop, theologian; a renowned pulpit orator and court preacher.
This volume goes through the year 1561, treating of John Calvin’s doctrine and character.


“If Protestants knew thoroughly how their religion was formed; with how many variations and with what inconsistency their confessions of faith were drawn up; how they first separated themselves from us, and afterwards from one another; by how many subtleties, evasions, and equivocations, they labored to repair their divisions, and to re-unite the scattered members of their disjointed reformation; this reformation of which they boast would afford them but little satisfaction, or rather, to speak my mind more freely, it would excite in themselves only feelings of contempt. It is the history of these variations, these subtleties, these equivocations, and these artifices, which I design to write…” – from the Preface.

 

$65.00

8410. [Christian Connexion – Elias Smith]  The | Life, Conversion, | Preaching, Travels, and Sufferings | of | Elias Smith. | Written by Himself. | [three lines of scripture] | Vol. I. | Portsmouth, N. H. | Printed by Beck & Foster; sold by the Author, No. 2. | Ladd-street, and James F. Shores, No. 1, Market-street; by | the Christian Preachers in the United States; and the | Booksellers. | 1816.

 

Worn leather binding, intact, worn through at edges & ends, 7 x 4 ½, 406 numbered pages, text complete.  Proposal for the second volume [which I do not think was printed], along with advertisement page of books published and sold by Smith.  Lacking rear fly page.  Some pages stained, a few tears, title & frontis portrait partially detached.  A fair, but complete, copy.

 

See next item for biography.

 

$150.00

   

 

8411. [Christian Connexion – Elias Smith] "Songs of the Redeemed, | for the followers of the | LAMB". | By Elias Smith. | Portsmouth: | Sold at No. 2, Ladd Street: John Makinze & Richard | Ransom, Woodstock, Vt.; and the Christian preach- | ers in the United States. | 1816.  | C. Norris & Co., printers.

 

Small pamphlet, 4" x 2 1/2", string-bound, 32 pages, words only.  3 leaves with tears in the upper margin or upper corner, with only the loss of a “3” before the third stanza of a song.

 

Rare.  No holdings on WorldCat.  Unknown to the collecting community generally, but in the list of Books appended to Smith’s 1816 autobiography: “A small volume of Hymns, just published, entitled “Songs of the Redeemed, for the followers of the Lamb.”  My thanks to McGarvey Ice of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville for his help in researching this piece.

 

Elias Smith (1769-1846), b. at Lyme, Connecticut, a minister associated with the movement that led to the establishment of the Christian Connection, author, and editor of the first religious newspaper in the United States.  He had joined the Baptist Church in 1789.  He devoted himself to the study of the Bible and theology, and began to preach in 1790.  His success was marked and he was ordained by the Baptists as an evangelist at Lee, N. H., in August 1792.  In 1798 he was installed pastor of the Baptist church in Woburn, Mass., but was unhappy in the relations of the settled pastorate, largely because he found no precedent for the installation in the New Testament.  His theological opinions underwent a radical change.  He rejected the Calvinistic system held by the Baptists, repudiated the doctrine of the Trinity, and disowned all systems of church order and all denominational names not found in the New Testament.  After a brief business venture that failed, he moved to Portsmouth and founded a church acknowledging no creed but the Bible and having no denominational name but “Christian”.  He was unsparing in his criticism of other churches with their settled and tax-supported clergy and their theological systems, which he regarded as having no Biblical foundation.  His denunciations coupled with his strong anti-Federalist political views, created for him a host of enemies who pursued him for many years, and often he narrowly escaped mob violence.  In order to reply more effectively to his opponents, he began to write, and his History of Anti-Christ (1803), The Clergyman's Looking-Glass (1803), The Whole World Governed by a Jew (1805), A Short Sermon to the Calvinist Baptists of Massachusetts (1806), only added fuel to the flames.  In 1805 he began a quarterly, The Christian's Magazine, Reviewer and Religious Intelligencer, which continued for two years.  On Sept. 1, 1808, he issued the initial number of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, the first weekly religious newspaper in the United States.  In 1818 Smith sold the paper, and became a Universalist.  In 1823 he renounced Universalism, but his restoration to the Christian fellowship was only partial. – adapted from DAB.   Smith is recognized today as one of the originators of what became known as The Restoration Movement.

 

$1200.00 SOLD

 

8412. [Christian Connexion]  The | Christian Register, | for the year of our Lord | 1836: | Being Bissextile or Leap Year; and, till | July fourth, the sixtieth of | American Independence. | Published under the Direction of the | Christian General Book Association. | By John Clark, | Book Agent for the Association. | Sold at the Christian Book-Room, Union Mills, N. Y. | and by the Christian Preachers Generally. | Union Mills: | Published by the Author. | 1836.

 

String-bound pamphlet with the strings now gone, pamphlet is loose with 12 leaves (24 pages), complete.  7 x 4 ½.  The folded edge is tattered with some leaves separated.

 

Rare.  OCLC number assigned (82686233), but no holdings are listed on WorldCat.  The NYS library at Albany lists one in their archive of NYS almanacs. 

 

Clark notes that “repeated expressions in favor of such a Register and Almanac to embrace a summary view of the rise and progress of the people called Christians, induced the Committee of the Christian General Book Association, at their Annual Meeting at Union Mills, N. Y. on the 8th of Oct. 1835, to pass the following: - “Resolved, That we appoint John Clark (our Book Agent) to edit and print an Almanac to be entitled “The Christian Register,” in a cheap plain form, as the commencement of a regular series.” 

 

I believe that this was the only year issued.  I am happy to amend this if anyone has further information.

 

Dates in the almanac include notices of events important to the movement, such as the death of Lorenzo Dow; the organization of the church at Piermont, N.H., by Elder Jones; the birth of Elias Smith, etc.  There are brief histories of the origins of the movement in the South, New England, and in the West.  There is a list of 17 “religious opinions we think would be approved by the majority of our brethren,” taken from the Gospel Luminary.  There is an article on The Government of the Church and one on The Support of the Ministry.  John Clark includes an advert for his printing business, and an advert for The Christian Palladium, Joseph Badger, Editor.

 

$850.00  SOLD

 

8413. [Congregational] Woods, Leonard.  Lectures on the Inspiration of the Scriptures.  Andover: Published and Sold by Mark Newman.  1829.  Cloth spine w/ paper boards, a few small holes in the spine & paper, 7 x 4 ½, 152 pages, foxing, dampstains on a few leaves.

 

Leonard Woods, Jr. (1807-1878), a scholar of high repute and standing.  His father was a Calvinistic Trinitarian Congregationalist  minister, and the son continued in those principles. “At the age of twenty-four years he had been the first scholar in the Phillips academy, the first in every branch at Union, had been graduated at the Theological Seminary the acknowledged foremost man of his period, and had published a translation of Knapp’s Christian Theology, [no. 147 in this catalogue; Pietist] enriched with a long and fully thought-out preface, with original notes showing profound scholarship…He edited the “Literary and Theological Review” in New York city in 1834-7, and although that periodical was the organ of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, he directly opposed the opinions of many of its supporters, objecting to the proposals of temperance and anti-slavery societies and popular revivalists, and to the German Reformation, and defending the few and simple conditions of admission into the Anglican communion, as compared with the minute requirements of doctrine in his own church.” – see Appleton’s Cyclopedia.  Woods went on to help establish the American Tract Society, the American Education Society, the Temperance Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

 

$75.00SOLD

8414. [Christmas]  Christmas, 1866.  Broadside measuring 9 ¼ x 6 ¾.  The text of three carols: Carol, Carol, Christmas; The Christmas Tree; Christ was Born on Christmas Day.  This was in a lot of Episcopal items. No other printing or marking. 

 

$45.00

 

8415. Cudworth, Ralph, D.D.  The True Intellectual System of the Universe: wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted, and its Impossibility Demonstrated.  A Treatise on Immutable Morality; with A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord’s Supper; and Two Sermons on I John 2:3,4 and I Cor. 15:27.

 

First American Edition; with References to the several quotations in the Intellectual System; and an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author: by Thomas Birch, M.A., F.R.S.  In two volumes.

 

Andover: Gould & Newman; New York: Corner of Fulton and Nassua Streets, 1837.

 

Cloth, university library bookplates (no other markings), 9 ½ x 6, spines faded, tight, vol. ii. with partial tear of outer cloth on rear joint, a very good set.  804 + 756 pages.

 

Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688), Anglican minister, educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge; philosopher and author.

 

“It contains the greatest mass of learning an argument that was ever brought to bear on atheism.  A thousand folio pages, full of learned quotations, and references to all heathen and sacred antiquity, demonstrate the fertility and laborious diligence of the author.  And whoever wished to know all that can be said respecting liberty and necessity, fate and free-will, eternal reason and justice, and arbitrary omnipotence, has only to digest the Intellectual System.” – Orme.

 

$125.00

8416. D’Aubigné, J. H. Merle.  History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century.  Translated by H. White.

 

American Tract Society, no dates, penciled owners inscription of 1857.  The English translation and the casting of the stereotype plates for this authorized edition were overseen by D’Aubigne in Edinburgh, with a copy of the plates shipped to New York for the American printing.

 

A very fine and desirable set in cloth bindings.  Five volumes, super clean with minimal foxing.  Obviously bought and kept as a set; the first four spine designs are uniform with differing vignettes, the vol. v. spine design is different.

Jean Henri Merle D’Aubigné (1794-1872), born in Geneva, Switzerland, to Huguenot (French Protestant) parents.  He was thoroughly educated, but without the benefit of a Christian education.  The Geneva of his day no longer reflected the teachings of Calvin and the Reformation.  A visit by the Scottish Presbyterian Robert Haldane to the city in 1817 resulted in the conversion of many, including D’Aubigné.  He commenced theological studies, was ordained, and in 1818 became the pastor of the French Reformed Church in Hamburg.  It was about this time that his great contribution to church history was begun – The History of the Reformation.  He eventually spent 41 years as professor of church history in Geneva. It was in 1835 that the first volume of The History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century was published in French. This five-volume work was completed in 1853.  It appeared in English in several different sets & bindings; the work was published in parts over the two decades before its completion. 

 

D'Aubigné had two basic presuppositions that guided him in his work: 1 - the historian must trace the hand of God directing history, and 2 - the historian should have an evangelical faith that is sympathetic to the Reformation.  He believed that the primary task of the historian was to trace the hand of God guiding and directing history.  To him providence was the key to understanding the history of the Reformation: “The impulse was given by an invisible and mighty hand: the change accomplished was the work of Omnipotence.  An impartial and attentive observer, who looks beyond the surface, must necessarily be led to this conclusion. "

$125.00SOLD

  

 

8417. Eastman, C. G.  Sermons, | Addresses & Exhortations, | by | Rev. Jedediah Burchard: | with an | Appendix, | Containing some account of proceedings during | protracted meetings, held under his direction, | in Burlington, Williston, and Hinesburgh, Vt., | December, 1835 and January, 1836. | By C. G. Eastman. | Burlington: | Chauncey Goodrich. | 1836.

 

Cloth spine, plain boards, 6 ¾ x 4 ¼, 119 pages, light stains, good condition.

 

Roberts 815.  “Jedediah Burchard was born in New York state.  Apparently his education was of a private nature.  His ministry commenced about 1820.  Licensed by the Black River Association, he was called to assist the Rev. Dr. Aiken of the First Presbyterian Church in Utica.  He soon launched into full-time ‘revival’ work.  It is claimed that both Orson Parker and Charles G. Finney were converted as a result of Burchard’s ministry in Adams, New York.  A very eccentric man, Burchard was severely criticized for the wild fire approach he employed.  In many cases the damage he wrought seemed to be equal if not greater than the good done.  Nevertheless, thousands appeared to have been converted under his preaching, and there is general agreement that he took great pains to instruct his converts and to provide them with a good foundation.  He was usually assisted by his wife who held meetings for women and children.” – Roberts.

 

Five sermons, remarks at communion, remarks at the anxious seats, followed by something of a short journal of evangelistic endeavors.

 

$85.00SOLD

 

8418. [Episcopal] Dixon, Joshua.  Scriptural Examinations on the Church Catechism: designed as a plain manual of divinity for Sunday-schools, catechetical and Bible classes, and general use.  By Joshua Dixon.  Revised and Adapted to the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with notes and an appendix.  By the Rev. George A. Smith, M.A.  Fifth thousand, Revised edition.  Philadelphia: Protestant Episcopal Book Society, no date, preface dated 1836.

 

Cloth, 6 x 4, 255 clean pages, fine condition.

 

$35.00

 

8419. [Episcopal]  A Biblical View of the Church Catechism, in reference to Baptismal Responsibilities: Elucidating, by numerous Texts of Scripture, the Doctrines and Principles of the Church, with a view to Confirmation.  By M. R. F.  Nashville, Tenn.: Published by the author, by Paul & Tavel, 1870.

 

Cloth, 7 ½ x 5, 272 clean pages, some wear at the corners, very good.

 

Mary Middleton Rutledge Fogg (1807-1872), “writer and leader in Nashville civic affairs, was a member of one of Nashville's early families, the Rutledges, and the granddaughter of two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Fogg was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church and served as the president of the Ladies Aid Society. She was also a founding member of the Protestant School of Industry.

“Fogg published seven books covering a variety of fields, including poetry, fiction, religion, and education, in addition to her memoirs. In 1858 she published The Elements of Natural Science, a textbook used in Tennessee prior to the Civil War. Her poetry expressed her grief at the deaths of her three children, who died as young adults between 1851 and 1862. These poems were collected and published as The Broken Harp.

“After the death of her third child, at the Civil War battle of Fishing Creek in Kentucky, Fogg worked with Felicia Grundy Porter's Soldiers' Aid Society to collect and send articles to the war front. Her last book, Biblical View of the Church Catechism, was published shortly before her death in 1872.” – The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

 

Scarce.  OCLC: 10576445, with three holdings.

 

$75.00

 

 

8420. [Episcopal]  Tyng, Stephen.  The Israel of God: A Series of Practical Sermons.  By Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., Rector of St. George’s Church, N.Y. 

 

Third Edition.  New-York: Robert Carter, 1845.

 

Cloth, 9 x 6, binding a bit soiled with some surface nicks, foxing, 307 pages, old dampstains.  8-page publisher’s catalogue.

 

Stephen Higginson Tyng, D.D. (1800-1885), an eminent Episcopal minister.  He graduated at Harvard College in 1817; was ordained in 1821; and was rector at Georgetown (1821-1823); in St. Anne’s Parish, Md. (1823-1829); in St. Paul’s, Philadelphia (1829-1833); and in the church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia (1833-1845); and at St. George’s, New York city (1845-1878).  “Dr. Tyng was one of the most evangelical, popular and useful preachers of his denomination.” – M’Clintock & Strong.

 

Twenty sermons, including “God’s Message to Israel,” “The New Creature,” “The Lord’s Side,” “The Protected People,” “The Rescued Brand,” “The Sinner’s Choice,” “The Christian’s Rock,” “A Spiritual Famine,” “Little Sins,” “Ineffective Repentance,” and “The Latter End.”

 

$60.00SOLD

 

8421. [Eschatology]  Trenwith, W. H.  The Star of Bethlehem | or | “The Sign of the Son of Man | In Heaven. “ | [10 lines of scripture] | By | W. H. Trenwith, | New York. | 1887 | (Not Copyrighted.)

 

Pamphlet, 7 ½ x 4 ½, 24 pages. 

William H. Trenwith of New York assures us that the return of Christ will take place in the year 1890.  He also reveals, that due to the vicissitudes of ancient methods of record-keeping, the year 1887 is actually, in real life, 1890.

Not listed in OCLC.  Be the first!

 

$40.00

 

8422. Fry, Caroline.  The | Scripture Reader’s Guide | to the | Devotional Use | of | The Holy Scriptures. | By Caroline Fry. | Author of “Christ our Law,” “Sabbath Musings,” “The Listener,” | “Christ our Example,” &c. | From the thirteenth London edition. | New York: | Robert Carter & Brothers, | No. 285 Broadway. | 1849.

 

Cloth, 6 x 4, 164 pages, publisher’s catalogue, some foxing & tidemarks.

 

Caroline Fry - Mrs. Caroline Wilson (1787-1846), English author and poet. 

 

$37.50

 

8423. [Greek Church] Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow.  The Present State of the Greek Church in Russia, or a Summary of Christian Divinity; by PLATON, Late Metropolitan of Moscow.  Translated from the Slavonian.  With a Preliminary Memoir on the Ecclesiastical Establishment in Russia; and an Appendix, containing an Account of the Origin and Different Sects of Russian Dissenters.  By Robert Pinkerton.  New-York: Printed and Sold by Collins & Co.  1815.  Leather, chipped spine, front joint cracked & glued, 7 x 4, 276 pages, binding fragile, interior good.

 

Platon (1737-1812), “a celebrated Russian prelate of modern times,” the son of a village priest near Moscow.  He was a proficient student in the University at Moscow, his talents early recognized and rewarded with a teaching position while yet a student of theology.  About 1760 he entered the Church, became successively hieromonach, prefect of the seminary, and, in 1762, rector and professor of theology.  After several occasions in which he preached before Catherine II. he was appointed court preacher and preceptor in matters of religion to the grand duke (afterwards the emperor Paul), for whose instruction he drew up his Orthodox Faith, or Outlines of Theology.  His service to the royal court was extensive and influential.  He was instrumental in having schools for religious instruction established in Russia.  In 1787 he was made Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1801 he crowned the emperor Alexander, at Moscow.  “His works, printed at different times, amount in all to twenty volumes, containing, besides various other pieces, 595 sermons, discourses, and orations, many of which are considered masterpieces of style and eloquence.” – M’Clintock & Strong.

 

It is hard to find works this early on the Orthodox church published in English.  [I am building a bibliography of such; if you know of any, please email me.]

 

$295.00

 

8424. Johnson, John.  The | Clergyman’s | Vade-Mecum: | Or, An Account of the | Ancient and Present | Church of England; | the | Duties and Rights | of the | CLERGY; | and of | Their Privileges and Hardships. | Containing | Full Directions relating to Ordination, | Institution, Induction, and most of the | Difficulties which they commonly meet | with in the Discharge of their Office. | The Fifth Edition, Corrected and much Enlarged. | Fear the LORD, and honour the Priest, and give | him his portion, Eccles. Viii. 31. | London: Printed for Robert Knaplock | in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and Sam. Ballard | in Little Britain. MDCCXXIII [1723].

 

The second volume has a different title page, also 1723.

 

The Clergyman’s | Vade-Mecum: | containing | The Canonical Codes of the Primitive and | Universal Church, translated at large from | the Original Greek. | And | The Canonical Codes of the Eastern and Western | Church, down to the Year of our LORD, | DCCLXXXVII. in which those Canons and De- | crees that belong not to the two former Codes, | are so done from the Greek and Latin, that no- | thing that is Curious, or Instructive, is omitted. | With | Explanatory Notes, a large Index, and a Preface, | shewing, The Usefulness of the Work: Also some | Reflections on Moderate Nonconformity, and the | Rights of the Church. | Part II. | The Third Edition with Additions. | [three lines of Greek] | By John Johnson, M.A., | Vicar of Cranbrook in the Diocese of Canterbury. | London, Printed for R. Knaplock, in | St. Paul’s Church-yard; and S. Ballard, | in Little Britain.  1723.

 

Very good decorated leather bindings, lacking spine labels, 6 ½ x 4, 336 + 378 numbered pages, + lengthy indices and appended material.  Clean, tight, a very good set.

 

John Johnson (1662-1725), “an eminent and learned divine of the Church of England…His works display the highest scholarship, a mastery of both the Greek and Hebrew languages, and a deep research into the Holy Scriptures.” – M’Clintock & Strong.

 

The ancient Canons and Creeds of the Church researched and explained.  He distinguishes between codes accepted by all and those accepted by only the Eastern or Western churches, and notes those formulated in Africa and elsewhere.

 

$195.00

 

8425. McCosh, James.  The Laws of Discursive Thought: being a Text-Book of Formal Logic.  New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1874.

 

Cloth, 7 ½ x 5, 212 pages, shaken, nothing detached but some gatherings loosening, top of spine tattered.

 

James M‘Cosh (1811-1894), Scottish philosopher, studied under Thomas Chalmers and was active in the formation of the Free Church in 1843.  The publication of The Method of Divine Government  led to his appointment as Professor of Logic and Mathematics in Queen’s College, Belfast.  In 1868 he became President of Princeton College, where he served until 1887.  

 

$35.00

 

8426. McCulloh, J. H.  On the | Credibility of the Scriptures. | A Recast, | With Enlarged Views, | Of a Former Work on the Subject, | Together with a | Copious Analysis of the Religious System | Promulgated during the | Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian | Dispensations, | and of | Human Developments Under Them. | By J. H. McCulloh, M. D. | Author of Researches Philosophical and Antiquarian on America, Analytical | Investigations on the Credibility of the Scriptures. | [Vol. number] | Baltimore: | James S. Waters & Son | 1867. 

 

Two volume set in cloth, 9 ¼ x 6, 402 + 414 pages, very good condition, no problems.

James Haines McCulloh “author, born in Maryland about 1793.  He was educated as a physician, receiving his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1814, but devoted himself mainly to archaeological studies, after serving as garrison surgeon until the close of the war of 1812-'15.  He became curator of the Maryland academy of science and vice-president of the Baltimore apprentices' library in 1822.  In 1836 he succeeded his father, James H. McCulloh, as collector of the port of Baltimore.  He was also president of the National bank of Baltimore, but declined a re-election in 1853.  He published Researches on America, being an Attempt to settle some Points relative to the Aborigines of America (Baltimore, 1816); Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aboriginal History of America (1829); Analytical Investigations concerning the Credibility of the Scriptures and of the Religious System Inculcated in them, together with a Historical Exhibition of Human Conduct during the several Dispensations under which Mankind have been placed by their Creator (1852); An Important Exposition of the Evidences and Doctrines of the Christian Religion, addressed to the Better Educated Classes of Society (1856); and On the Credibility of the Scriptures, a Recast and Enlarged View of a Former Work on the Subject, together with a Copious Analysis of the Systems promulgated during the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations, and of Human Developments under them (1867).  – Appleton.

 

$95.00 

 

8427. Marshall, Walter.  The Gospel Mystery | of | Sanctification | opened in | Sundry Practical Directions, | suited especially to | The Cases of Those, who Labor under the Guilt | and Power of Indwelling Sin. | To which are added, | A Sermon on Justification, | and a Table of the Texts Illustrated. | By the Rev. Walter Marshall, | Formerly Fellow of New College, Oxford, and afterwards Fellow | of Winchester College. | [three lines of scripture] | To which is prefixed, | A Recommendatory Preface by the late Rev. Mr. Hervey. | London: James Duncan, 37, Paternoster-Row. | MDCCCXXXVI. [1836]

 

Scuffed leather spine & corners, marbled boards, hinges & joints fine, light foxing & pencil marks, tight, 7 ¼ x 4 ½, 304 pages + 4-page publisher’s catalogue. 

Walter Marshall, “d. 1690, Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Winchester College; Vicar of Hursley, Hampshire; ejected at the Restoration; subsequently pastor of a Dissenting congregation at Gosport.  The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification Opened in Sundry Practical Directions.  To which is added a Serm. on Justification.  Lon., 1692, 8vo.  Often preprinted. “ – Allibone.

 

“Were I to be banished to some desolate island, possessed only of two books beside my Bible, this should be one of the two; perhaps the first that I would choose.” – Rev. James Hervey.

 

“The most spiritual expositor of Scripture I ever read.” – William Cowper.

 

 “Dr. Owen’s excellent book on Justification, and Marshall’s book of the Mystery of Sanctification by Faith in Jesus Christ, are such indications and confirmations of the Protestant doctrine against which I fear no effectual opposition.” – Robert Trail.

$65.00SOLD

8428. Memoirs | of  | The Life | of | Martha Laurens Ramsay, | who died in Charleston, S. C. | On the 10th of June, 1811, in the 52d year of her age. | With an Appendix, | Containing extracts from her Diary, Letters, and other private Papers. | And also | From Letters written to her by her Father, | Henry Laurens, 1771-1776. | By David Ramsay, M.D. | The experimental part of religion has generally a greater influence than its | theory.   Mrs. Rowe’s Posthumous Letter to Dr. Watts. | Second Edition. | Charlestown: | Printed and Sold by Samuel Etheridge, Jun. | 1812.

 

Leather, front board nearly detached, 6 x 3 ½, 270 pages, one leaf torn with loss, lacking blank fly pages, 1871 inscription in ink on preface page.

 

Anglican wife of the patriot physician David Ramsey, member of the Continental Congress and president of the South Carolina Senate.  Daughter of Henry Laurens, slave-holding plantation owner, who served as President of the second Continental Congress.  A biography has been recently written about her by Joanna Bowen Gillespie.

 

$125.00SOLD

 

 

8429. [Methodist]  The Principal | Doctrines of Christianity | Defended Against the | Errors of Socinianism: | being | An Answer | to | The Rev. John Grundy’s Lectures. | By Edward Hare. | New-York, | Published by B. Waugh and T. Mason, | For the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Conference | Office, 200 Mulberry Street. | J. Collard, Printer. | 1835.

 

Leather with cracked joints, 7 x 4 ½, 396 pages.

 

Edward Hare (1774-1818), “an English Methodist minister…received his education under Milner, author of the Church History.   Having a turn for the sea, he became a sailor, and in 1793, while a ship-boy, was converted, and began to hold religious services among the sailors.  During the French war he was twice taken prisoner; and after his second liberation, in 1796, he abandoned the sea.  He was admitted into the itinerant ministry of the Wesleyan Church in 1798, and for twenty years was an acceptable and faithful minister of the Gospel.  His last station was Leeds…Hare was a clear and forcible writer, and produced several valuable apologetical and controversial works on Methodist doctrine.” – M’Clintock & Strong.   “Highly esteemed by the Methodists.” – Allibone.  “The author [Hare] was an acute reasoner, and very familiar with the holy scriptures.” – Dr. Williams.

 

A defense of revelation, the Trinity, virgin birth, propitiatory sacrifice, &c.

 

$45.00SOLD

8430. [Methodist]  The | Trumpet. | A Fragment, | Dedicated to the | Wesleyan Society. | [Line in Greek] | Sound the Trumpet – Proclaim | “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth,” – James. | London: | Published by Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly; | [List of booksellers] | 1830.

 

Yellow wrapper, 8 ¼ x 5 ½, 16 pages, very good.

 

Anonymous pamphlet written in the style of Gulliver’s Travels, indicating the development of “an interesting sect of religionists in Laputa,” which, after throwing off the oppression of their first Priests, descend into squabbles regarding trifling matters, particularly one Penny Trumpet.  This is addressed to the Ministers and Members of the Wesleyan Society as a comical response to the uproar occasioned by the introduction of an organ into their chapel at Leeds.

 

$65.00SOLD

8431. Myer, Mrs.  The Author of the Peep of Day.  Being the Life Story of Mrs. Mortimer.  By her niece Mrs. Meyer, with an Introduction by the Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A.  With Photogravure Portrait and Seven Illustrations.  London: Religious Tract Society, no date, owner's signature 1908.  Cloth, 7 1/2 x 5, 210 pages, fine condition.

An interesting religious and literary biography of this author of children's books.  Perhaps you have read "Peep of Day," or "Line Upon Line" to your children or grandchildren?

 

$35.00

 

8432. [Presbyterian] Brown, John.  A Brief View of the Figures; and Explication of the Metaphors, contained in Scripture.  By John Brown, Minister of the Gospel at Haddington.  First American Edition.  Middlebury, Vt.: Samuel Swift.  1812.  Leather, 7 x 4 ½, 480 pages, lacking rear fly page, front fly torn with loss, old inscriptions in front, good condition.

 

John Brown (1722-1787) Scottish Presbyterian minister of the Associate Synod.  Brown “was entirely self-taught: by great perseverance he acquired a considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek; with Hebrew he became critically conversant.  He could also read and translate the French, Italian, German, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopic; but all these were subordinate to his favorite study of divinity, in which he became eminently skilled, as well as in history, both ecclesiastical and civil.  He passed a long life as Professor of Divinity to the Succession Church of Scotland, and minister of a large congregation at Haddington.” – Allibone.  Brown is best remembered today for his Self-Interpreting Bible, and his Bible Dictionary.

 

$95.00

8433. [Presbyterian] Brown, John.  An Essay towards an Easy, Plain, Practical, and Extensive Explication of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism.  Carlisle [Pennsylvania]: Printed for Archibald Loudon, by George Kline, 1797.  Evans 31879. Leather, 7 x 4, 354 pages, ex church lib with ink stamps, removed cardholder, good condition.

 

John Brown (1722-1787) Scottish Presbyterian minister of the Associate Synod.  Brown “was entirely self-taught: by great perseverance he acquired a considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek; with Hebrew he became critically conversant.  He could also read and translate the French, Italian, German, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopic; but all these were subordinate to his favorite study of divinity, in which he became eminently skilled, as well as in history, both ecclesiastical and civil.  He passed a long life as Professor of Divinity to the Succession Church of Scotland, and minister of a large congregation at Haddington.” – Allibone.  Brown is best remembered today for his Self-Interpreting Bible, and his Bible Dictionary.

 

$150.00

8434. [Presbyterian] Brown, John.  An Introduction to the Right Understanding of the Oracles of God.  Albany: Barber & Southwick.  1793.  Leather, 6 1/4 x 4, red leather label, 261 pages, one leaf damaged with text loss, old library markings & bookplates of the Western Reserve Historical Society (Cleveland), good condition.

 

With an "Address to the Reader," dated January, 1794, by John M'Donald, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Albany, and John Bassett, pastor of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Albany.

 

John Brown (1722-1787) Scottish Presbyterian minister of the Associate Synod.  Brown “was entirely self-taught: by great perseverance he acquired a considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek; with Hebrew he became critically conversant.  He could also read and translate the French, Italian, German, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopic; but all these were subordinate to his favorite study of divinity, in which he became eminently skilled, as well as in history, both ecclesiastical and civil.  He passed a long life as Professor of Divinity to the Succession Church of Scotland, and minister of a large congregation at Haddington.” – Allibone.  Brown is best remembered today for his Self-Interpreting Bible, and his Bible Dictionary.

 

Chapters: Of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; Of Rules for Understanding the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; Of the Jewish Laws and Types; A short view of the Geography and History of nations, necessary for the right understanding of the historical, and especially the prophetical, parts of scripture, the corresponding texts of which are, all along, generally quoted, and ought to be carefully compared; A Chronological Harmony of the Scripture Histories, and the fulfilment of its predictions.

 

$150.00

8435. [Presbyterian]  Twelve Discourses, | upon | Interesting Subjects, | by the | Late and Lamented | Rev. Robert Bryson, A. B. | Missionary of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, | Northumberland County. | Printed at the Office of the States’ Advocate, | 1838.

 

Leather spine, plain boards, 9 x 5 ½, I believe the boards were once covered, 82 pages, last fly leaf torn with loss, errata sheet pasted in at rear.  Large inscription, “1835 Martha Swisher’s Book Presented By her Mother Susanah McClure Bloomsburg Columbia County Pa.” 

Robert Bryson (1808-1832), son of Rev. John Bryson of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.  Robert earned the A. B. degree from Dickenson College in 1828, studied theology with his father for a further year, and was received on trial by the Presbytery of Northumberland in 1829.  He then studied at Princeton Seminary for a year, and was in 1831 licensed to preach.  He spent about six months in the areas of Williamsport, Pennsborough, and Mooresburg.  Afterwards he spent some months in the wilds of western New York.  Then the Presbytery sent him to the areas of Bloomsburg and Briar Creek, Pennsylvania.  He was ordained to the Gospel ministry on the first Wednesday of October, 1832, and died on the 20th of the same month.  His last sermons were preached at Shamokin, Pa.

 

This collection of sermons was gathered by his father, and includes twelve discourses, “among which are included all his trial exercises both for Licensure and Ordination.”

$60.00SOLD

8436. [Presbyterian] The Constitution and Standards of the Associate-Reformed Church in North America.  Pittsburgh: Published by Johnston and Stockton.  1832.

 

Very worn leather binding with front board almost detached.  Shaken, with a couple of detached pages.  Complete (I counted) with 479 pages. 

The Confession, Catechisms, Government, Discipline, Directories, Sum of Saving Knowledge, &c.

The original owner, Margaret Willyards, purchased the book for 87 ½ cents.

 

$25.00

8437. [Presbyterian]  Fleming, Robert.  The | Fulfilling | of | The Scripture, | for | Confirming Believers | and | Convincing Unbelievers. | By Robert Fleming. | Abridged from the Third Edition, A. D. 1681. | [3 lines of scripture] | Philadelphia: | Presbyterian Board of Publication. | William S. Martien, Publishing Agent. | 1840. 

Leather spine, 6 x 4, 376 pages, tight, some foxing and faded dampstains. 

 

Robert Fleming (1630-1694), “An esteemed Presbyterian divine.  Born at Bathens, in Scotland, 1630.  Educated at the University of Edinburgh.  At St. Andrews he studied under the celebrated Samuel Rutherford.  Became minister of Cambuslang.  Ejected 1662 for nonconformity.  Went to Rotterdam about 1673.  Died 1694.  His Fulfilling of the Scripture is an interesting and elaborate work; the best edition is that of 1726.” – Darling. 

 

“An elaborate view of the operations of Providence in preserving the Church through all the vicissitudes of ecclesiastical history.” – anonymous quotation in Allibone. 

 

$55.00

 

8438. [Presbyterian]  Miller, Samuel.  The Primitive | and | Apostolical Order | of  | The Church of Christ | Vindicated. | By the | Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D. | Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton. | Philadelphia: | Presbyterian Board of Publication.  1840.

 

Faded green cloth in excellent condition, gilt device on the front board, 7 ¾ x 5, frontispiece engraving of Miller, 384 pages, light foxing.

 

Samuel Miller, D.D., LL. D. (1769-1850), b. at Dover, Delaware.  Educated at the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated at the top of his class in 1789, and continued his studies at Dickenson College, Carlisle, Pa.  He was a leading light of the Presbyterians in America, and was instrumental in the establishment of Princeton Seminary.  He was appointed Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government, which chair he held for 36 years.  Dr. Miller was an accomplished theologian, teacher, author, and historian.

 

$75.00

 

8439. [Presbyterian] Sprague, W. B.  Hints designed to regulate the Intercourse of Christians.  With a Recommendatory Preface, by W. Urwick, D.D.  Second American Edition.  New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1835.  Faded cloth, 8 x 5, old Bangor Seminary Library markings, including paper spine label & cardholder, some tears in the cloth along the rear joint, 307 pages, foxing.

 

William Buell Sprague (1795-1876), graduate of Yale who afterward studied at Princeton for two years, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Albany for forty years. A prolific author and biographer, his Annals of the American Pulpit are perhaps his best-known work.

 

The lengthy preface first appeared in the English edition, and is reprinted in this 2nd American edition.  Only about twenty years had passed since American & England were at war, and the publishers express their gratitude for “the esteem in which our countryman, the author, is held abroad, but tend to cherish in the christian public of America, that candid and liberal sentiment towards British Christians, which would seem, from this Preface…to be felt by them towards us.”

 

Instructions on the proper way for Christians to conduct themselves among each other, in the family, as youth, between higher and lower classes, among those different in age, in the world, social circle, and with the renewed sinner.

 

$95.00SOLD

 

 

8440. [Puritan] Flavel, John.  The | Method of Grace, | in the | Holy Spirit’s Applying to the Souls of Men | The Eternal Redemption | contrived by | The Father and Accomplished by the Son. | A Sequel to | “The Fountain of Life, or Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory” | By Rev. John Flavel, | who died A. D. 1691. | First American Edition. – Revised and somewhat abridged. | Which things the angels long to look into. – I Pet. 1:12 | Published by | The American Tract Society, | 150 Nassau-street, New-York. | D. Fanshaw, Printer.  Owner’s signature 1846.

 

Quarter leather, edges worn, tight, 7 ½ x 4 ½, 560 pages, foxing and a few dampstains, good condition.

 

John Flavel (1627-1691), English nonconformist, ejected in 1662.  “He was a man of exemplary piety, in doctrine a Calvinist; an experimental, affectionate, practical, and popular writer.”–Darling.

 

“Reader – It is the one thing needful for thee to get an assured interest in Jesus Christ; which being once obtained, thou mayest with boldness say, Come, troubles and distresses, losses and trials, prisons and death, I am prepared for you; do your worst, you can do me know harm: let the winds roar, the lightnings flash, the rain and hail fall never so furiously, I have a good roof over my head, a comfortable lodging provided for me: ‘My place of defence is the munition of rocks, where bread shall be given me and my water shall be sure.’

“The design of the ensuing treatise is to assist thee in this great work…” – from the Preface.

 

$60.00SOLD

 

8441. [Puritan]  Mather, Cotton.  Magnalia Christi Americana; | or, | The Ecclesiastical History | of | New-England, | From Its First Planting, in the year 1620, unto the year of our Lord 1698. | In Seven Books. | By the | Reverend and Learned Cotton Mather, D.D. F.R.S. | and Pastor of the North Church in Boston, New-England. | In two volumes. | [volume number] | With | An Introduction and Occasional Notes, | By the Rev. Thomas Robbins, D.D. | and | Translations of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Quotations | By Lucius F. Robinson, LL. B. | Hartford: | Silas Andrus & Son. | 1853.  Buckram, 9 ¼ x 6, some loss of cloth at the edges & corners, joints & hinges good, contemporary bookplates, tight, 626 + 682 clean pages (actually I see a few light pencil notations).

 

There is an interesting story behind our acquisition of this set.  I was in a small part-time bookshop in Otesgo Co., NY, last fall.  After spending a few hours going through the shelves and piles of books the owner invited me to take a look in a small room that was no larger than a closet.  Most of what was in that room was junk, but I found a single volume of this set and bought it with a few other odd items.  I remembered that a fellow bookdealer and friend of mine, Doug Swarthout of Berry Hill Books in Deansboro, NY, had an odd volume of the Magnalia in a back room where he keeps accumulations and uncatalogued treasures.  I saw it there 6 or 8 years ago when I was helping him set up for his annual sale.  I had no idea if it was the right volume for the set, but I emailed him to see if he still had it and to check the volume number for me.  Not only was it the right volume number, it was the exact matching volume with the identical bookplate!  So, two odd volumes, stashed away in the back rooms of bookstores 100 miles apart, are reunited here as the original set.  Both have the bookplates & signatures of Geo. P. Tyler, dated 1853.

 

The famous Cotton Mather was a third-generation American puritan divine, a brilliant scholar and interesting antiquarian.  The Magnalia was first published in 1702.

 

“The Publisher of this second edition of Dr. Mather’s Magnalia, has long been sensible of the great demand for the Work, both by literary men and all others who wish to be acquainted with the early history of our country.  The first Edition was published in London in the year 1702, in a Folio Volume of 788 pages.  A considerable number of copies were soon brought to New-England; yet, as many of these are lost, and the work is not to be obtained in England but with difficulty, it has become very scarce.  In some instances it has been sold at a great price, but, in most cases, those who have been desirous to possess, or even to read the volume, have been unable to procure it.

“The Magnalia is a standard work with American Historians, and must ever continue to be such, especially, respecting the affairs of New-England…The work now presented to the American public contains the history of the Fathers of New-England, for about eighty years, in the most authentic form.  No man since Dr. Mather’s time, has had so good an opportunity as he enjoyed to consult the most authentic documents.  The greater part of his facts could be attested by living witnesses and the shortest tradition, or taken from written testimonies, many of which have since perished…The work is both a civil and an ecclesiastical history. – The large portion of it devoted to Biography, affords the reader a more distinct view of the leading characters of the times, than could have been given in any other form…” from the preface to the 1820 printing.

 

General Contents (each section includes great further detail)

The rare first edition now retails for $12,000.  The first American edition (1820 and identical to this) runs as high as $1500 in leather.  You will be very happy with this set, priced at

 

$250.00

 

8442. [Puritan]  The | Autobiography | of |THOMAS SHEPARD, | the celebrated minister of Cambridge, N.E. | With Additional Notices of His Life and | Character, | By Nehemiah Adams, | Pastor of the First Church in connexion with the Shepard Society, | Cambridge. | Boston: | Published by Pierce and Parker.  | 1832.

 

Cloth, 6 x 4, 129 pages, facsimile plate of Shepard’s handwriting, cloth torn at front joint with joint still firm internally.

 

Thomas Shepard (1605-1649), b. in England.  He graduated at Oxford in 1627, was ordained in the Anglican church, and was silenced in 1630 for nonconformity.  Shepard immigrated to Boston, Mass. in 1635 and succeeded Thomas Hooker as the pastor of the church in Cambridge that same year.  He was the minister of this church until his death in 1649.  A Puritan divine, he was active in the founding of Harvard, and wrote several useful theological works.

 

The editor’s advertisement for the book states that this is the first time that this work had been put into print.  Shepard’s church in 1832 (some 200 years after his pastorate) came into possession of the manuscript, and due to financial straits decided to offer a printing to the public. The editor surmises that this work was the basis for Cotton Mather’s entry in his Magnalia for Shepard.  “It is in the form of a 24mo. about 5 inches by 3, bound, and containing 200 pages, 94 of which are filled with the Biography, Diary, and a few scattered accounts of the Author’s pecuniary concerns.  The book evidently had many owners…This MS. is in all probability the source from which Cotton Mather, in the Magnalia, drew his interesting notices of Shepard…This book, in addition to the interest which it will give to the lovers of antiquity, and of the curiosities of religious literature, is invaluable as a specimen of simple, childlike confidence in God, of heartfelt and earnest piety, and of an unaffected devotional spirit.  It will be found highly instructive from the minute account given of the writer’s religious experience, in which it is believed many will find great light and direction.”

 

The work contains an introduction, in which Shepard tells of his voyage (with wife and son) to New England; an Autobiography; several meditations and spiritual accountings; some entries that are book-keeping; and letters.  This reprint of the original manuscript retains original spellings, and is rather quaint.

 

OCLC 198356332, microform only.

 

$135.00

8443. [Scotland – Pre-Reformation] Hamilton, Archbishop John.  The Catechism set forth by Archbishop Hamilton printed at Saint Andrews – 1551.  Together with The Two-Penny Faith, 1559.  With preface by Rev. Professor Mitchell, D.D., University of St. Andrews.  Edinburgh: William Patterson, 1882. Cloth, 8 ½ x 6, thin tear in cloth at front joint, marginal ink stain at front (not affecting text); lacks leaf before title (which gives the copy number).  (2) xxxiii pages, (13) ccv (8) leaves.  A facsimile edition in black letter on handmade paper; one of 140 copies printed.

 

John Hamilton (c. 1511-1571), Scottish prelate and politician.  “At a very early age he became a monk and abbot of Paisley, and after studying in Paris he returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and influence under his half-brother, the regent Arran.  He was made keeper of the privy seal in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546 he followed David Beaton as archbishop of St. Andrews, and about the same time he became treasurer of the kingdom.  He made vigorous efforts to stay the growth of Protestantism, but with one or two exceptions ‘persecution was not the policy of Archbishop Hamilton,’ and in the interests of the Roman Catholic religion a catechism called Hamilton’s Catechism (published with an introduction by T. G. Law in 1884) was drawn up and printed, possibly at his instigation.  Having incurred the displeasure of the Protestants, now the dominant party in Scotland, the archbishop was imprisoned in 1563.  After his release he was an active partisan of Mary queen of Scots; he baptized the infant James, afterwards King James VI., and pronounced the divorce of the queen from Bothwell.  He was present at the battle of Langside, and some time later took refuge in Dumbarton Castle.  Here he was seized, and on the charge of being concerned in the murders of Lord Darnley and the regent Murray he was tried, and hanged on the 6th of April 1571.  The archbishop had three children by his mistress, Grizzel Semphill.” – Encylopædia Brittanica, 11th edition.

 

“Knox’s Historie gives evidence of the hopes entertained by the reformers of winning him over, but he soon showed himself a strong partisan of Cardinal Beaton and the Catholic party, and was instrumental in overcoming the Protestant sympathy of Arran and reconciling him with the cardinal…He was taken to Stirling, three days after his capture, and hanged there in his pontifical garments on the common gibbet.  No record remains of any formal trial; he was put to death on the strength of his previous forfeiture as a traitor on the fall of Mary.  Though a man of wisdom and moderation, possessed of many sterling qualities, and a valiant champion of the Catholic cause, Hamilton was not free from grave irregularities in his private life, as records of legitimation of his natural children testify.  [Archbishop Hamilton’s Catechism] consists of an introduction commending its use to the clergy, followed by another addressed to the laity on the necessity of a thorough knowledge of the doctrines of faith.  The body of the book is divided into four parts: I, “Of the ten commandis”, consisting of 26 chapters; II, “The twelf artiklis of the Crede,” in 13 chapters; III, “The sevin Sacramentis,” 13 chapters; IV, “Of the maner how Christin men and wemen suld mak thair prayer to God,”; 10 chapters are devoted to an explanation of the seven petitions of the Pater Noster, followed by instructions on the Ave Maria, invocation of saints, and prayer for the dead.  The whole work is in the vernacular Scottish of the period.  The catechism is thoroughly Catholic in tone, while it has been highly recommended, even by Protestant writers, such as Bishop Keith and Hill Burton, as an excellent work of its kind – learned, moderate, and skillfully compiled.  It is especially valuable as a specimen of pure Scottish speech, unadulterated by foreign idioms.  The original work is very rare.  There have been two reprints; one a facsimile in 1882, edited by Professor Mitchell; the other published in 1884 with a preface by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.” – Catholic Encyclopædia, 1913.

 

“John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrew’s, h