A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS; AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING IN THE PARISH- CHURCH OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 1740-1. BY THOMAS LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.
London: Printed for J. and H. Pemberton, at the Golden Buck against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, 1741. 84pp. Clean text. Disbound, else Very Good.
Secker was a staunch defender of the Society and its efforts to establish the religion of the Church of England in the Colonies. He became particularly prominent in rebutting Thomas Mayhew's and Charles Chauncy's defense of homegrown American religious institutions. The issue dramatically illustrated America's growing separation from the Mother Country. "In Massachusetts the attack on the evil of an over-all establishment of religion was a response [to] the efforts of the Church of England to extend its influence into the heartland of American dissent" [Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution 254]. Secker and his allies asserted that the Society's charter mandated conversion, not only of the Indians and Africans, but of white colonial 'heathen' as well
Beginning at Page 39, the pamphlet prints An Abstract of the Charter and of the Proceedings of the Society for the preceding two years, including contributions to the Society from residents of the American colonies; baptisms of Negroes in the American colonies and Jamaica. The missionaries were quite interested in baptizing and converting the Negroes, many of whom were doubtless slaves. Page 73 begins the printing, in alphabetical order, of the names of the members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Pages 82-84 list the names of the Preachers and Deans who have preached before the Society, beginning with Dr. Willis in 1701, and ending with Thomas Secker in 1740.
ESTC T47753. Sabin 78717. Item #42430
Price: $450.00