A Compleat Body of Divinity in Two Hundred and Fifty Expository Lectures on the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, Wherein the Doctrines of the Christian Religion are unfolded, their Truth confirm'd, their Excellence display'd, their Usefulness improv'd; contrary Errors & Vices refuted & expos'd, Objections answer'd, Controversies settled, Cases of Conscience resolv'd; and a great Light thereby reflected on the present Age

914 pp. volume comprising a posthumous publication of sermons by Reverend Samuel Willard, an early American-born Boston minister who served as the pastor of the Old South Church and Vice President of Harvard College, some pages misnumbered, complete as issued. Small folio. Contemporary leather with raised spine, abrasions, soiling, edgewear, some splitting along spine, some slight toning and foxing scattered throughout. Lacking engraved frontispiece portrait. Boston (Green and Kneeland for Eliot and Henchman) 1726. The preface to the work praises Willard as "universally and justly admir'd and celebrated in these Parts of the World, for his eminent Capacity Piety Wisdom, his deep and perspicuous Insight into the most difficult Points of Divinity, and his most judicious and accurate manner of expressing and clearing, as well as most useful application of them." They go on to say that the work was strongly desired and wished for ever since Willard's death, and describe the volume as "the first folio volume, other than laws, and the largest work up to this time printed in the United States....Besides a catalogue of the Author's works published in his lifetime, it contains a list of names of about five hundred subscribers. When the time, and the subject, extent, and size of the work is considered, this list is a remarkable tribute to the memory of the distinguished Author from his contemporaries; and has large genealogical value as representative of the helpful, public-spirited citizenship of the period. (Inventory #: 51134)