Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England. A Treatise in Five Parts

8vo.  195 x 120 mm., [7 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches].  xxx, 18, 424 pp.  Bound in contemporary mottled calf, raised bands, red leather label.  The binding shows minor rubbing at joints, some discoloration due to age, but a very good copy in contemporary American binding.  Stamped "Ex Libris Wilson H. Kimnach" on front pastedown and the 19th century signature of John Clarke dated 1848.

First edition.  Charles Chauncy (1705-1787) was one of the leading American theologians who served his congregation in Boston for nearly 60 years.  He broke with the strict tenants of Calvinism rejecting the doctrine of justification by faith alone and the total depravity of mankind.  He adopted a more liberal view having been influenced by the Enlightenment and became one of the leaders Liberal Protestantism and Unitarianism.  He was a stanch supporter of the American caused during the revolution and wrote a number of sermons advocation separation.  Norman and Lee Gibbs, historians of American religion, called him the "theologian of the American Revolution."

Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion is a manifesto against enthusiasm in religion and with its publication, Chauncy become a leader of the Old Lights arguing against the First Great Awakening and the establishment of the New Lights lead by Whitfield and his followers.  His book is snapshot of American religion during the middle years of the 18th century and it provides in great detail the evolution of the awakening of the evangelical spirit taking place in America and the theological debate that he constructed in order to combat its spread. 

A fundamental book in the history of American religion.  A second edition, also printed by Rogers and Fowle appeared in 1748.

Evans, Charles.  American Bibliography, 5151.  Sabin, Dictionary of Books Relating to America, 12327.  Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, I p. 594.