Popish Idolatry: A discourse delivered in the Chapel of Harvard-College in Cambridge, New-England, May 8. 1765. At the lecture founded by the Honorable Paul Dudley, Esquire

Boston: R. & S. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & J. Fleet, 1765. Very Good-. Boston: R. & S. Draper, Edes & Gill, and T. & J. Fleet, 1765. First Edition. Octavo; 19th-century half calf over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, gilt-lettered spine; 52pp. ([A]4 B-F4 G2, bound without half title otherwise collated and complete); woodcut vignette at head of p. 5. Boards a bit scuffed at extremities, front joint quite tender, spine crown pulled; overall a Good or better copy, internally clean and sound.

Late sermon by the imminent colonial Congregational minister Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) whose affirmation of human agency and free will provided a building block for the nascent patriotic movement in the colonies that culminated in the Revolutionary War more than a decade after his death. This virulently anti-Catholic oration employs similar language as of that of his more overtly political pieces: "But a defence of our laws, liberties, and civil rights as men, in opposition to the proud claims and encroachments of ecclesiastical persons, who under the pretext of religion, and saving mens [sic] souls, would engross all power and property to themselves, and reduce us to the most abject slavery" (p. 48-9).

ESTC W28937; EVANS 10068.