Chauncy, Charles:

MINISTERS CAUTIONED AGAINST THE OCCASIONS OF CONTEMPT. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE MINISTERS OF THE PROVINCE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, IN NEW ENGLAND, AT THEIR ANNUAL CONVENTION, IN BOSTON; MAY 31. 1744.

Boston: Rogers and Fowle, for Samuel Eliot, 1744. 54pp, lacking the half title and final blank. Disbound, minor repair [expertly accomplished] to a small portion of the last leaf [no loss]. Good+.

This significant Great Awakening Sermon supports the established "Body of the Ministers" and opposes "meer Novices [who] may take upon them the Office of the ministry, expecting the Bestowment of the Spirit, in extraordinary Gifts; as in the Days of the Apostles..." He cautions ministers against "extempore Discourses."
Chauncy "was undoubtedly the most influential clergyman of his time in Boston, and, with the exception of Jonathan Edwards, in all New England." DAB. He was Edwards's most influential opponent of the Great Awakening and was, as DAB puts it, "a man of the intellect utterly distrusting the emotions as calculated to befog and pervert the mind."
FIRST EDITION. Evans 5357. ESTC 20760. Item #28077

Price: $500.00