ADAMS Thomas

£1,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare first edition of this sermon preached before the Artillery Company by the puritan preacher Thomas Adams; of great interest in the of a link between puritan theology and the eventual formation of a puritan army under Cromwell. “Thomas Adams was a powerful preacher, much-quoted writer, and influential divine. Prominent leaders in church and state, such as John Donne and the earl of Pembroke, were among his friends… Nonetheless, Adams embraced Puritan theology, polemics, and lifestyle” Joel R. Beeke. “Like Puritans he craved careful observation of the Sabbath and was deeply hostile to Rome, the Jesuits, and the papacy, as well as to idleness, over-indulgence in worldly pleasures, and conspicuous consumption in all its forms” DNB. “Let us take as a representative early specimen a sermon by Thomas Adams entitled “The Soldier’s Honour”, preached before the Artillery Company and published (“on their second request,” according to Adams) in 1617. The sermon is dedicated to “the captains and truly generous gentleman, citizens of London, of the society of arms, practising in the Artillery Garden.” Notice here the unembarrassed apposition of the terms “gentlemen” and “citizens”. Adams, like other “artillery preachers”, is it pains to assert the legitimacy of just warfare, and thereby the honourability of a military calling. This encomium of righteous warfare then serves to justify the rhetorical “ennobling” of the preacher’s audience, allowing him to address men who were for the mos

• Binding: Hardcover

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