A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS; AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 1756. BY THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, FREDERICK LORD BISHOP OF LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY.
London: Printed by Edward Owen in Warwick-Lane; and sold by A. Millar, at Buchanan's Head in the Strande, 1756. 4to. 71, [1 blank] pp. Stitched [some loosening] and generously margined. Near Fine.
Bishop Cornwallis, later Archbishop of Canterbury, warns of the "Power of Satan" as he discusses "the Defence which St. Paul made for himself before King Agrippa, and Festus the Roman Governor." Originally attached "to the strictest sect of the Jewish Religion," Paul had been "delivered from the Malice of the Jews," and called to deliver the Gospel "as a Light to lighten the Gentiles." The Society serves a crucial function in doing so.
"I don't see how our Colonies, situated as they are, and little able, by their own Means, to provide themselves Pastors and Instructors, are likely to continue in their Protestant Principles, without our Aid and Liberality." Beware especially of "the Papists, laying always in wait to deceive, creeping into every House, and leading captive the Ignorant and Unwary."
The Bishop's Sermon is printed at pages 1-20. There follows "An Abstract of the Charter, and of the Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts from the 21st of February 1755, to the 20th of February 1756. Donations are listed, Missionaries and their activities in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New York, New Jersey, the other coastal American colonies, Bahamas, Barbadoes and Guinea. The Society warns that "the most Savage Barbarity," "every wicked Artifice" of "Popish Idolatry" seeks "the complete Ruin of All the British Settlements."
Pages 53 et seq list alphabetically the members of the Society, and the chronological list of Speakers at the Society's meetings, beginning in 1701.
ESTC T47755. Sabin 16817. Item #41060
Price: $500.00