A DISCOURSE ON THE MAN OF SIN; DELIVERED IN THE CHAPEL OF HARVARD COLLEGE, IN CAMBRIDGE, NEW-ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER 1, 1773: AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE HONORABLE PAUL DUDLEY, ESQ.
Boston: Printed and Sold at Greenleaf's Printing-Office, in Hanover-Street, 1774. 68pp, disbound and lacking the half title. Light to moderate foxing, Good+.
Cooper spent his career at the Brattle Square Church in Boston. He "was active in the cause of American freedom and intimately associated with its leaders" [DAB]. On the eve of Revolution he expresses keen anxiety that Roman Catholicism will destroy the liberties for which the Colonists were risking England's wrath. A second edition was printed by Mills and Hicks, in Boston, also in 1774.
In the "Popish colony" to our North, civil freedom has been "perverted...Popery is incompatible with the safety of a free government. It sets up a sovereign head, superior to all civil rulers; a spiritual power that reaches to every thing upon earth, and can brook no control. Trampling upon the rights of conscience, and assuming an authority to absolve every sacred obligation, what pledge can it possibly leave us, for the security of civil freedom?" DAB severely criticizes this Discourse, calling it "a diatribe against the Papacy."
FIRST EDITION. Evans 13227. Sabin 16603. ESTC W20204. Item #38025
Price: $850.00