Item #34800 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN HANCOCK, ESQ. GOVERNOUR; HIS HONOR SAMUEL ADAMS, ESQ. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR; ...OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 30, 1792. BEING THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION. David Tappan.
A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN HANCOCK, ESQ. GOVERNOUR; HIS HONOR SAMUEL ADAMS, ESQ. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR; ...OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 30, 1792. BEING THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION.

A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN HANCOCK, ESQ. GOVERNOUR; HIS HONOR SAMUEL ADAMS, ESQ. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR; ...OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 30, 1792. BEING THE DAY OF GENERAL ELECTION.

Boston: 1792. 39, [1 blank] pp, with the half title [loose and dusted]. Stitched, untrimmed. Light institutional rubberstamp, else Very Good.

Tappan recommends "a liberal and patriotick combination for the general good" of the Christian ministry and civil political leaders. He condemns a "set of philosophers and free-thinkers, who boast of their superiour reason and liberality... who have employed all the powers of metaphysical sophistry and licentious ridicule to shake the foundation of religion: and some of them have even denied its political importance and utility, and have proposed in its stead a kind of philosophical or civil morality, as fully competent to the purposes of general order and security."
But Tappan emphatically supports separation of Church and State: the civil establishment of religion is an unholy alliance "of political and priestly ambition, aided by equal cunning." He notes with approval, "In America a Catholic Priest is a good citizen, a good character, and a good neighbour; an Episcopalian Minister is of the same description; and this proceeds from there being no law-establishment in America."
FIRST EDITION. Evans 24841. Sabin 94366. Item #34800

Price: $450.00

See all items by