Five Dissertations I: On the Athanasian Doctrine. II: On the Socinian Scheme. III: On the Person of Christ. IV: On the Rise, Progress, Perfection, and End of Christ’s Kingdom. V: On the Causes with probably conspired to produce our Saviour’s Agony.

Description

Attractive 19th or early 20th century rebind in quarter brown calf, paper marbled in Stormont pattern to boards. Raised bands, gilt ruling, and dark green gilt label to spine. Spine slightly faded. Top edges darkened. Replacement laid paper endpapers, slightly foxed. Lacking original blank front endpage. Tiny ink annotation to title page (the number 8). Minor foxing to early and late pages. Lower corners of a few pages (pp. 125-36) very slightly folded in. With final advertisement leaf. Edward Harwood (1729-1794), prolific classical scholar and biblical critic. Harwood’s parents were Dissenters, and he himself was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1765, serving in Bristol until he was removed for his unorthodox views in 1772. These views included a strong sympathy for Arianism (Harwood was a friend of the semi-Arian Presbyterian minister John Taylor, and preached his funeral sermon), and were to see Harwood inclining towards Socinianism by the 1780s (DNB). The ‘Dissertations’ in this volume thus represent a significant development in Harwood’s theological thought: sufficiently outside the Presbyterian mainstream to be published the year he lost his Bristol post, they still see him, in his discussion of ‘the Socinian Scheme’, dismissing Socinian denial of the pre-existence of Christ as ‘strange and extravagant’ (p. 119). Scarce. ~Robust packaging. All UK orders trackable, others on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs.