Item #38790 AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, TO REVEREND BENJAMIN LORD, FROM BOSTON, 15 SEPTEMBER 1742. Thomas Foxcroft.
AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, TO REVEREND BENJAMIN LORD, FROM BOSTON, 15 SEPTEMBER 1742.
AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, TO REVEREND BENJAMIN LORD, FROM BOSTON, 15 SEPTEMBER 1742.

AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, TO REVEREND BENJAMIN LORD, FROM BOSTON, 15 SEPTEMBER 1742.

Boston: 1742. Single leaf, entirely in neat, legible ink manuscript. Signed at the end, "Your obliged & affectionate Bro. Thomas Foxcroft." Some early archival repairs, expertly repaired closed tear, none affecting the text. Light dusting and soil. Good+.

Foxcroft, Pastor of the Old Church in Boston, "was learned, devout, and a good logician, and was admired both for his talents and for the elegance of his manners" [Appleton's]. He was also a fan of the Great Awakening, a friend of Jonathan Edwards, and an opponent of the cold rationalism of much of New England theology.
Lord had asked Foxcroft to review a Sermon which Lord had delivered and wished to publish. It would be printed later in 1742 under the title, "Believers in Christ, only, the true children of God, and born of Him alone. A discourse delivered at the Old Church in Boston, Lord's-Day, June 27. 1742. And publish'd at the desire of some of the hearers, with enlargements. By Benjamin Lord, A.M. Pastor of a church in Norwich. With a preface by Mr. Foxcroft."
Foxcroft says he "shall hasten the Work as much as I can. The Stationer, with whom Mr. Tenney agreed to publish it, happens at this Juncture to be out of Town, which will necessarily retard the Affair for a week or two. Upon his Return I shall put it forward. I know not well what to say to the Motion Some have made, that I would introduce your Sermon with a Preface. It needs no Recommendation: and if it did, I am the unfittest to write it. Nothing will apologize for my presumption in such an Attempt, but that it was preach'd in my Pulpit, and is printed at my Desire, among many others of my people, who also desire me to preface it. If you will forgive me, I know not but that I shall comply to do it.
"I rejoyce to hear, that the Work of God has had a fresh Revival since your Return home and that you have the Blessing of Union & Peace accompanying it. May the God of Peace still be with you! And may the Pleasure of the Lord continue to prosper in your hands! Alas for us in this & the neighbouring Towns, the Enemy of all Righteousness hath found the Means to put a dreadful obstruction tot eh Progress of the glorious Work, that had been happily begun among us. But I trust, the only wise God will confound his Devices; and revive us again, and take out of the Way that which letteth ... Your obliged & affectionate Bro. Thomas Foxcroft." Item #38790

Price: $1,500.00

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