Sermons by Samuel Clarke. London: W. Botham, 1730. [Together with] Forty-Five Sermons by Andrew Snape. London: S. Birt, 1745. [Together with] Sermons and Discourses by Thomas Coney. London: J.Coney, 1750. [Together with] Sermons and Discourses by Francis Atterbury after Thomas Moore's originals. London: T. Woodward, 1740 and 1751. [Together with] Sermons by Dr. John Gale. London: J. Darby, 1724 and 1726. [Together with] Some Important Points of Primitive Christianity by George Bull. London: Richard Smith, 1713.
A RARE AND VERY INTERESTING MIXED SET OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC WORKS INCLUDING AN EARLY EXPOSITION OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S PHYSICS, THE NATURE AND EXISTENCE OF GOD, THE NATURE OF JESUS CHRIST, THE GOSPELS, ETC.
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These sermons are incredibly interesting in terms of the apologetics of the time, as these Christian apologists were attempting, quite successfully, to integrate new scientific understanding with old theology, especially Clarke who discusses Sir Isaac Newton's science which is particularly significant as it's a very early exploration of Newton's ideas in English (1730), with the first English edition of Newton's Principia published only two years earlier in 1728 and thus with this ground-breaking new scientific understanding over Aristotle, theologians and philosophers were actively thinking, as they are today, of the integration of this with the Christian worldview.
This set of Sermons is a very important exploration of the ideas of the time apologetically, alongside more traditional theological doctrines such as temptation, blasphemy, friendship, the nature of sin, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, etc.
The Clarke set is again very interesting, especially in light of advances in Christian apologetics which one finds in modern theologians such as William Lane Craig, Andrew Loke, Richard Swinburne, etc. The sermons focus on subjects such as God's immutability (changeless nature), omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, wisdom, goodness (an early version of the moral argument), justice, etc - and that's just the first volume! The others contain incredibly interesting sermons on topics such as 'the qualifications of those that shall be saved', 'The miraculous birth of Christ' (immaculate conception, etc), 'The prediction of the Messiah', 'The Doctrines of Religion reasonable to be believed', 'The Inexcusableness of rejecting the Gospel', 'Providential Deliverances from Slavery', 'Of the unchangeable Difference of Good and Evil' (an early exposition of objective morality as a framework for theism), ''Of the nature of moral and positive duties', 'Men have natural abilities of knowing God', etc.
Indeed, there are some fantastic arguments throughout these sermons, and some fundamentally flawed, but they remain an incredibly interesting exposition of various matters in philosophy - ontology, metaphysics, epistemology, physics, etc, though these terms aren't generally referred to. If one reads a modern apologetic work such as Reasonable Faith, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, Time and Eternity, God and Abstract Objects, etc, one can see the root of many of the contemporary ideas expressed throughout these 18th century sermons.
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The George Bull sermons volume is a very rare first edition for which we could trace only a single sales record in the last 50 years, a finely bound example at Christie's 1st May 1996 lot 28 realising £1,725 (GBP) which is approximately £3,300 inflation adjusted. This is volume one only of the original three. The Atterbury and John Gale sermons are similarly scarce, indeed we couldn't trace any sales records for the John Gale sermons.
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Size: 145 x 229 mm (approx., largest)
Size: 130 x 200 mm (approx., smallest)
Condition:
Non uniformly bound but very similar in full calf, some in particularly excellent panelled bindings, such as the Clarke sermons which were most likely bound in Oxford, with the George Bull volume likely bound in Cambridge in a typical panelled manner. They do collectively show very attractively on the shelf indeed. In our view the non uniformity of the bindings and their sizes aids the aesthetic view of the books on the shelf. 7 of the original 9 volumes present of Clarke's sermons. All of the previously mentioned topics are present in the extant volumes here. Volume 2 only of 3 of the Andrew Snape sermons thus containing 15 sermons. Volume 2 only of the Thomas Coney sermons thus containing 26 sermons. Volume 1 only of Francis Atterbury's sermons together with a different edition of volume 4 of Atterbury's sermons uniformly bound. Volumes 2 and 4 only of John Gale's sermons. Volume one only, of three, of George Bull's sermons. Since these are all sermons and can be largely taken independently the incompleteness here isn't too significant as the reading experience is not continuous through the volumes of the set but individual arguments as chapters.
Some rubbing to the bindings with a little loss to the leather in places and the loss of most tooled labels. All boards attached, some fragile. Generally very clean through the text blocks. The volumes are uncollated for lack of an authoritative source to do so, but appear to be complete. The errata slip in the Snape volume is backed to the verso of the title page. There is a nice frontispiece in the first volume of the Atterbury sermons.
A lovely assortment of rare early Christian apologism in beautiful bindings.
