ARSCOTT (Alexander):

Some Considerations relating to the Present State of the Christian Religion; wherein the Nature, End, and Design of Christianity, as well as the Principal Evidence of the truth of it, are explained and recommended out of the Holy Scriptures; with a general appeal to the experience of all men for confirmation thereof. In Three Parts. The Third Edition.

London: Printed and sold by J. Phillips..., 1779. 8vo, pp. viii, 289 [290 adverts], contemporary sheepskin; front joint wormed and holding by one cord, top and base of spine chipped. With the ownership notation "Henry Owen's Bot. at London in 1811" in pencil and ink on the front paste-down end-paper and copious marginal notes in pencil in the same hand, with another leaf of notes in ink and pencil loosely inserted. Arscott (1676 - 1737) published parts one and two of this work in 1730 - 1731, and Benjamin Franklin printed both parts in Philadelphia in 1731 and 1732. Part 3 was first published in 1734, but this is the first appearance of all three parts in one volume. Part 2 comments extensively on Matthew Tindal's Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730). ESTC T115189 locates copies in L, C, LANu; CaAEU, CaBViV, InRE.

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Book number: 4831

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity religion prose

BARTHOLOMEUS DE PISIS. BUCCHIO (Geremia):

 Liber Aureus Inscriptus Liber Conformitatum Vitae Beati, ac seraphici patris Francisci ad vitam Iesu Christi Domini nostri. Nunc denuo in lucem editus, atq: infinitis propemodum mendis correctus a Reverendo, ac doctissimo P. F. Jeremia Bucchio Utinensi sodali Franciscano Doctore Theologolaboriosis, ornatissimisq; lucubrationibus illustratus. Cui plane addita est perbrevis, & facilis historia omnium vivorum; qui samcotate, probitate, innocentia vitae, ac doctrina, eccleiasticisq; dignitatibus, in Franciscana Religion usq; ad nostra a haec tempora a excellurerunt. Accessit duplex rerum, & verboum, ac materierum toto operamemorabilium Index lucuple tissimus. Ad Illustris. atq; Amplissimum Sanctae Rom. Ecclesiae Cardinaem D. D. Hieronymum de Ruvere Ord. min Conventualium Protectorem vigilatissimum.

Bonoiae, Apud Alexandrum Benatium. Facultate a Suepeioribus concessa. 1590. FIRST EDITION. Folio, 295 x 208 mms., pp [xviii], [660], 330 numbered leaves, engraved title-page, with engraved vignette, printed in double columns, woodcut vignettes at start of each book, contemporary annotation on lower margin of title-page contemporary sheepskin, a monastery binding, with ownership stamps on title-page, and ownership inscripiton on recto of front free end-paper, printer's colophon on verso of last leaf, spine gilt in compartments (but worn), with what looks like an early repair; lower front joint cracked. A well-used copy but still in good condition; ex-library. "This treatise describes the many ways in which the saintly conduct of St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) conformed to the life and teachings of Christ. The original manuscript of this work, presented to the Franciscan Order by the Franciscan friar Bartholomeus de Pisis in 1399, featured a full-page drawing of Christ crucified on the allegorical 'Tree of Conformity'.... In 1542 the Lutheran scholar Erasmus Albertus (ca. 1500–1543) intentionally misread the book's representation of St. Francis as a saintly reflection of Christ in order to ridicule the Franciscan Order for believing that St. Francis was the equal of Christ. For Catholic scholars, however, the book long remained a highly regarded compendium of Franciscan principles" (Perkins School of Theology). NiritBen-Aryeh Debby: The Cult of St Clare of Assisi in Early Modern Italy (2017).

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Book number: 8907

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity biography prose

BIDDULPH (Thomas T.):

Essays on some Select Parts of the Liturgy of the Church of England; being the substance of A Course of Lectures delivered in the Parish Church of St. Werburgh, Bristol. The Third Edition.

Evesham: Printed for the Author by J. Agg: Sold by Bulgin and Shephard..., Bristol..., 1799. 12mo (in 6s), 172 x 95 mms., pp. xviii, 19 - 339 [340 Contents], contemporary tree calf, gilt spine black leather label; binding a little rubbed but a very good to fine copy. Thomas Tregenna Biddulph (1763 - 1838) wrote a number of religious works, but this was his first book, published in 1798. He was a fervent Calvinist and a leader of the evangelical movement in the west of England. The obituary notice for him in The Christian Guardian for 1838 said of this work, "his Essays on the liturgy stand deservedly high, even by the admission of adverse criticism." ESTC T85432 locates copies in BL, Durham; Notre Dame. This is a reissue of the second edition with the title-page reset.

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Book number: 7307

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity religion prose

GIBBON (Edward). WATSON (Richard):

An Apology for Christianity, in A Series of Letters, addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esq. Author of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Second Edition.

Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon...For T. and J. Merrill...[et al], 1777. Small 8vo, pp. [ii], 304, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, red leather label (chipped); lacks blank prelims, corner cut from title-page and succeeding leaf, front joint cracked, binding scratched and worn. This above work was written in a month, and Gibbon in his Vindication referred to Watson respectfully, describing him as "the most candid of adversaries." This second edition not listed in Norton.

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Book number: 5291

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity History prose

GIBBON (Edward). WATSON (Richard):

An Apology for Christianity. In A Series of Letters, Addressed to Edward Gibbon, Esq; Author of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The Sixth Edition.

London: Printed for Messrs. Cadell and Davies..., 1797. 12mo, pp. 250, contemporary tree calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments to a bird motif, red morocco label; slight wear to top and base of joints, but an attractive copy, with the contemporary armorial bookplate of (probably) Thomas Mills, the Bristol bookseller on the front paste-down end-paper.. Not in Norton.

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Book number: 5293

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity History prose

GLASSE (Samuel):

A Course of Lectures on the Holy Festivals; with practical remarks on each, and Exhortations to a more Devout and Solemn Observance of them.

London: Printed for F. and C. Rivington..., 1797. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 203 x 125 mms., pp. [iii] iv - xvi, 508, with two preliminary leaves, a-a2, pp. xix - xx and [xvii] - xviii misbound between pages 498 and 499 and [xxiii] - xxiv, and xxi -xxii misbound between pages 502 and 503, but complete, contemporary lightly speckled calf, gilt rules across spine, red leather label; corners slightly crushed, mild wear to extremities, but a very good to fine copy with the armorial bookplate of Lady Frances Bentinck on the front paste-down end-paper, and the autograph "J. Bentinck/ April 1797" on the recto of the front free end-paper. Samuel Glasse (1734 – 1812) had a very good academic career, receiving at B. A. from Oxford in 1756, an M. A. in 1759, and his B. D. and D. D. in 1769. The British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review for 1798 reviewed the book favourably, concluding that a reader would be "instructed in the history of these pre-eminent Christians, and in the advantages which he ought to derive from their examples. The principal Festivals are also introduced into the Lectures and are treated with ability, and with that warm but judicious attachment to the genuine doctrines of Christianity, which is highly honourable to the author, and is calculated to produce the best effects upon the reader."

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Book number: 9004

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity theology prose

HERVEY (James):

Meditations and Contemplations. Containing, Meditations among the Tombs...The Twenty-First Edition.

London: Printed for John and Francis Rivington..., 1774. 12mo, pp. xxxiii [xxxiv - xxxvi blank], 341 [342 blank, 343 - 347 Table, 348 adverts], engraved frontispiece, contemporary sheepskin; front joint cracked and front cover holding on for dear life, spine defective. Editions of this work in 1774 include the "Thirty-Third" in New York; one with no edition statement but also printed for the Rivingtons; two "New Edition(s)" in Edinburgh with two different imprints, a "Twentieth Edition" in London for the Rivingtons; and a "Twenty-Sixth Edition" for Donaldson in Edinburgh. For this "Twenty-First Edition" ESTC records only the copies at PETm and CtY. COPAC adds the BL.

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Book number: 4537

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity religion prose

JORTIN (John):

Discourses concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion. The Second Edition.

London: Printed for John Whiston..., 1747. 8vo, pp. x [xi Contents, xii Errata and Addenda], 268 [269 - 272 adverts], contemporary calf; covers detached, spine and corners worn. Jortin (1698–1770) published an early form of this work as Four Sermons in 1720, and this longer book first appeared in 1746; there were at least four further editions in the 18th century. B. W. Young in his fine Oxford DNB entry for Jortin notes that the work " laid out the grounds for Christian belief by presenting a providential reading of the time of Christ's appearance, the miraculous propagation of the faith by unlettered followers, and the assuredly divine testimony of the scriptures—all of which were typical resources for eighteenth-century apologetic, and were presented by Jortin with eloquent and economic conviction."

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Book number: 5869

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity religion prose

LEWIS (James):

Church of Scotland. The Crisis and Preparation; With Directions to the Collectors of Congregational and Parochial Associations. Delivered at the Formation of St John's Congregational Association, Leith. Second Thousand.

Leith: W. S. Sutherland..., John Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1843. Large 12mo (in 6s), pp. 12, [3] - 69 [70 postscript], disbound.

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Book number: 5632

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity economics prose

MACLAINE (Archibald):

A Series of Letters, addressed to Soame Jenyns, Esq. On Occasion of his View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity.

London: Printed for Charles Bathurst…, 1777. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, pp. [vi], 274, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments to a floral motif, red leather label; spine a little rubbed, but a very good copy. Maclaine (1722 - 1804) was born in Ireland and studied with Francis Hutcheson and William Leechman at the University of Glasgow. He became a Presbyterian minister in 1747, and in 1752 became the sole minister of the Scots Presbyterian church in The Hague. He was, as one might expect a student of Hutcheson to be, familiar with contemporary philosophy as well as other intellectual activities. He published this work just a few months after Gibbon published the first volume of his Decline and Fall, and he mentions Gibbon briefly in this work. ESTC N22995 locates copies in Cambridge, St Patrick's College Library, Maynooth; McMaster University Mills Memorial Library, Union Theological Seminary, and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

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Book number: 6882

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity impiety prose

PRIESTLEY (Joseph):

Discourses on Various Subjects, including several on Particular Occasions.

Birmingham, Printed for the Author, by Pearson and Rollason..., 1787. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 212 x 129 mms., pp. xvi, 464 [465 - 468 adverts], recent full plum calf, gilt spine, red morocco label; some foxing of text. Inscribed on title-page, "The Author to / Bellas & Latitia / 1801", apparently in the hand of the first-named of the two recipients. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) published these discourses -- mostly sermons and essays on theological matters -- while living in Birmingham, and in them engaged in a certain amount of controversy about monotheism. He must have had a copy of the book with him in his home in the village of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, as it was there that he was in 1801. The first recipient named in the inscription is Priestley's young friend and sometime amanuensis Hugh Bellas (1780-1863), later in life an attorney-at-law, and the lawyer for the local Unitarian congregation. Bellas was also one of the earliest biographers of Joseph Priestley, as his vivid memoir of Priestley's life in America from 1796 to his death in 1804, printed by Dr Sprague in the mid-nineteenth century, is regarded as a valuable account of the last years of the great scientist's life (William B. Sprague, ed., Annals of the American Unitarian Pulpit [1865], pp. 305-308). In it, Bellas refers in fact to the year in the inscription here, 1801, as follows: "In the autumn of 1801, Northumberland suffered severely from fevers; and Dr. Priestley, among others, was prostrated for some weeks. During his illness, I happened to reside in the same house with him, and heard his expressions of resignation to the Divine will, which were uttered in such a tone and so frequently as to be exceedingly affecting" (p. 306). Earlier in the memoir, Bellas speaks of the close relationship he had not only with Priestley but with Priestley's books: "In 1796, at the age of sixteen, I was employed as an apprentice in a store which the Doctor frequented. From the close of that year until the autumn of 1803, I was in the practise, with but little interruption, of borrowing from him miscellaneous books. As he perceived my ardour in acquiring knowledge, and was always on the alert to aid the improvement of young men, he uniformly treated me with great kindness and indulgence when I called upon him. During the period of about seven years, I saw and conversed with him, I suppose, upon an average, once every two weeks" (p. 305). Who is the second named recipient, "Latitia"? Did Priestley simply misremember the name of Hugh Bellas's wife? Her name was actually Esther. Another possibility is that Hugh's sister, or some other female relative known to Priestley, is referenced here. Crook TR/58. ESTC T32018 records no presentation copies at all (to anyone) of Priestley's Discourses on Various Subjects (1787). The ESTC records two presentation copies of other books Priestley gave to his young friend Hugh Bellas -- these are Letters to Mr. Volney (Philadelphia, 1797), 28 pages in length, and Observations on the Increase of Infidelity (Philadelphia, 1797), 179 pages in length -- both held by the Library Company of Philadelphia. The presentation volume on offer is by far the most substantial -- at nearly five hundred pages.

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Book number: 9597

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity religion prose

SHERLOCK (William):

The Present State of the Socinian Controversy, and the Doctrine of the Catholick Fathers Concerning a Trinity in Unity.

London: Printed for William Rogers..., 1798. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to, 208 x 154 mms., pp. [xxiv], 388, contemporary panelled calf; upper rear joint slightly cracked, spine a bit dried, but a very good copy. The emergence of Socianism as an element in the history of Christian theology can be dated to the Anabaptist movement of the 1540s. Father Fausto Sozzini (1539 - 1604) was the most notable of the early exponents, and the movement, if it could be called that, takes its name from him. Socinians doubt or deny doctrines of soteriology, the virgin birth, the pre-existence of Christ before his earthly conception, etc. Sherlock (1639 - 1707) seems to have been born into controversy about Christian doctrines, with his earliest publications in opposition to various dissenters. A prolific author of anti-Catholic publications, e. g., A Preservative Against Popery (1688), and his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity (1690) put forth a new interpretation of the trinity based on the notion of mutual consciousness. The Present State of the Socinian Controversy was his last polemic on the subject.

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Book number: 7911

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity Church of England prose

TERTULLIAN.

The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian, to Scapula Tertullus, Proconsul of Africa. Translated By Sir David Dalrymple.

Edinburgh: Printed by Murray & Cochrane, 1790. 8vo (in 4s), pp. viii, 139 [140 blank], uncut, original boards, paper label on spine; front joint worn, spine a little worn, binding soiled. Tertulian (c. 160 - c. 225) appears to have written this in 212 to persuade Scapula that Christians should not be persecuted, as they are not "atheists," nor are they disloyal. Sir David Dalrympe (1726 - 1792) had a wide circle of literary friends, including David Hume, Adam Smith, James Boswell, and James Beattie among others. He met Edmund Burke in 1791, shortly after this work was published and just before his death. Burke said of him, that he was "the pleasantest, the most good humoured, the most unaffected, & the most communicative man of letters I ever conversed with." In this work, his considerable knowledge of the classics and of early Christian writings is very much on display: the text occupies the first 32 pages, and pages 35 - 139 are notes and commentary, including a further criticism of Edward Gibbon's account of the effect of Christianity on the Roman Empire.

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Book number: 7772

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity classics prose Scottish Enlightenment

THOMASON (Thomas):

An Essay tending to shew that The Christian Religion has in its Effects been favourable to Human Happiness.

Cambridge, Printed by J. Burnes...and sold by J. Deighton, and J. Nicholson..., 1800. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 46, disbound; lacks half-title. Thomas Truebody Thomason (1727 - 1816) had earlier published An essay tending to prove that the Holy Scriptures, rightly understood, do not give encouragement to enthusiasm or superstition in 1795, and his arguments here are not dissimilar. ESTC T102022 locates three copies: L, C; TxU.

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Book number: 4574

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity morality prose

URSINUS (Zacharias):

The Summe of Christian Religion: Delivered by Zacharias Ursinus in his Lectures upon the Catechism authorised by the noble Prince Frederic, throughout his dominions. Wherein are debated and resolved the Questions of whatsoever points of moment, which have been or are controversed in Divinitie. Translated into Enlighs by Henrie Parrie, out of the last & best Latin Editions, together with some supplie of ways out of his Discourse of Divinitie, and with corrections of sundrie faults & imperfections, which are as yet remaining in the best corrected Latine.

At Oxford, Printed by Joseph Garnes, & are to be sold in Pauls Churchard at the signed of the Tygres head. 1587. 8vo, 156 x 103 mms., pp. [xvi], 1047 [1048 blank, 1049 - 1056 index], woodcut border on title-page, historiated initials, contemporary ownership inscription dated 1788 on top margin of dedicated page (closely shaved with loss of several letters,) ownership repeated on blank page [1048], occasional marginal annotation, bound in 19th century half calf, marbled boards, gilt spine, red morocco label; top margins of most leaves very closely shaved, with loss of running title and page number, but text spared, rear joint cracked, a good copy. Zacharias Ursinus (1534 - 1583) was, as Wikipedia notes, "was a sixteenth-century German Reformed theologian and Protestant reformer, born Zacharias Baer in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). He became the leading theologian of the Reformed Protestant movement of the Palatinate, serving both at the University of Heidelberg and the College of Wisdom (Collegium Sapientiae). He is best known as the principal author and interpreter of the Heidelberg Catechism." The Heidelberg Catechism was published in Germany on 19 January 1563. The Heidelberg Catechism received its name from the place of its origin, Heidelberg, the capital of the German Electorate of the Palatinate. It was written at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince, in order that the Reformed Faith might be maintained in his province, commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers. Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. Second and third German editions, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year. While the first edition had 128 questions and answers, in the second and third editions, at the request of the Elector, the eightieth question and answer, which refers to the popish mass as an accursed idolatry, was added. In the third edition the 129 questions and answers were divided into 52 "Lord's Days" with a view to the Catechism's being explained in one of the services on the Lord's Day. From the blog, drmatt@apuritansmind.com Founded in 1869, Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, celebrates the life of Ursinus.

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Book number: 9548

Catalogue: Christianity

Keywords: Christianity Catholicism prose