The duty of all to be ready for the future impending Events. A Sermon delivered June 16. 1756. At the second Parish in Lancaster. Occasioned by the General Muster and Inspection of Arms on that Day.

A WARNING OF WAR AND EARTHQUAKES IN MASSACHUSETTS

By John Mellen, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ there. 

 

First Edition. 8vo (193 x 115mm). [4], 23, [1] pp., with the half-title. A little browned in places, more heavily on the blank verso of the final leaf. Modern grey drab boards.

 

Boston: printed and sold by S. Kneeland, 1756

Sabin 47445. ESTC records no copies in the UK and eight in the USA.

 

A sermon warning of the impending French and Indian War in the British colonies of North America and attributing an earthquake in Massachusetts to God's, "vengeance upon the wickedness and impiety of men". 

 

John Mellen (1723-1807) warns his congregation in Lancaster, Massachusetts, "to be ready for Wars, and its dread alarms" (p.5). He states in a footnote beneath this that, "On this day, by order of his Honour the Lieut Governor, was a general muster of all the militia, in their several towns throughout the province, and a critical survey of their arms and martial accoutrements, and also of all other, of ever denomination, that are able to go forth to war, in case of alarm and sudden danger" (p.5). Mellen stirs his community by reminding them that, "We border upon the wilderness, and are not far enough from danger to indulge security...Should the great God of war and of armies, order a defeat to our troops, how similar would be the condition of our borders, to that of our brethren, and what ravages and depredations might we justly look for, especially if France succeeds in pouring in upon us such vast troops and armaments, as they have projected?" (p.5-6). 

 

Mellen also warns that "thunder and tempest, and dreadful Earthquakes" may be a sign of God's "artillery" that he might use in "vengeance upon the wickedness and impiety of men" (p.8). In a long footnote Mellen describes a "rupture" in the earth in the town of Holden (Massachusetts) caused by a "visible fracture in the earth" and warns that "had only such a rupture as this happened in a place inhabited and set with houses, the terrible effects of it are not hard to conceive" (p.10). 

 

In a reference to the Native American population of the country, Mellen describes them as being "invelop'd in pagan darkness" and calls for them to be cast "out of this part of the world" or have "the gospel to be preached in the remotest corners of this part of the earth" resulting in conversion and therefore, "trade would naturally bring them more and more acquainted with us, and with our customs, languages and manners; and us with them, and the countries they inhabit" (21).

 

Provenance: Rev. John Gillies, Church of Scotland minister at College Church, Scotland. Given to Revd Mr Ogilby of Aberdeen. Inscriptions on the half title (slightly cropped). Bought by Maggs in October 1951 at Sotheby's. 

Stock Code: 229843