ORIGINES SACRAE: OR A RATIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE GROUNDS OF NATURAL AND REVEAL'D RELIGION. The Seventh Edition. To which is now added part of another book upon the same subject Written A.D. MDCXCVII. Publish'd from the Author's Own Manuscript. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward Stillingfleet, D.D. Late Lord Bishop of Worchester. by Stillingfleet, Edward (1635-1699) - 1702.

Cambridge: Printed at the University-Press, for Henry Mortlock, at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1702., 1702.. Good. - Quarto, 12-3/4 inches high by 8-3/8 inches wide. Bound in full early brown calf, rebacked with a new calf spine. Roulette decorations in blind frame the decorative panels which enhance the covers. The binding is titled in gilt with raised bands on the spine. The covers are rubbed and scuffed with wear to the edges and corners. The pagination is as follows: [26], 328 pages, pages 339-424, [4], 126 & [2] pages, illustrated with a superb portrait frontispiece of the author engraved by R. White after M. Heal. A collective title page printed in red and black is followed by the two subsequent black & white title pages preceding the respective "parts". Pages 329 through 338 are skipped in the numbering, as issued, and without any loss of the text. The endpapers and pastedowns are foxed and their edges darkened. The pages are toned, some slightly darkened. There is some minor foxing to the first and last few pages and some occasional foxing within as well as small stains to the bottom edge of the frontispiece. There are some faint indentations to the edges of a few pages and the last several pages show evidence of an oval indentation. Good.

From the library of Edward Nelson, with his name penned in ink at the top of the front endpaper.

Contains the two parts, each with its own black & white title page dated 1701. The first part's title page reads "Origines Sacrae: or a rational account of the grounds of the Christian faith...", the second part's title page reads "Origines Sacrae: or a rational account of the grounds of natural and reveal'd religion: wherein the foundations of religion, ... are asserted and clear'd;..." This second part has its own pagination and register.

Making an argument against Isaac La Peyrere's Pre-Adamite theories, "Origines Sacrae" comprehensively analyses flaws in the works of ancient historians to defend the Book of Genesis.

The British theologian and scholar Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699) was considered an outstanding preacher and defender of Anglicanism. John Hough referred to him as "the ablest man of his time". Samuel Pepys reported that he couldn't get in to hear the sermon when Stillingfleet preached at St. Margaret in Westminster on the day following the Great London Fire. He was considered a leader of the group of Anglicans pejoratively referred to as "latidunarians" which grew out of the teachings of Cambridge Platonists. His thoughts and attitude were closely associated with those of Isaac Barrow, Robert South and John Tillitson, discarding allegorical readings in favor of a literal interpretation and preaching on behalf of reason and natural religion and thus contributing to the changing character of theology from dogmatic to rationalistic. Stillingfleet and the others were sympathetic to the new science of their time.