first edition [32], 413, [3] pp., including final blank leaf; and with a [20] pp. manuscript "Table of Contente" in a contemporary hand, bound
1638 · Oxford
by Chillingworth, William
Oxford: Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the University, 1638. First edition. [32], 413, [3] pp., including final blank leaf; and with a [20] pp. manuscript "Table of Contente" in a contemporary hand, bound in at rear. 1 vols. Folio. Contemporary dark brown calf, much worn and defective, lower over detached, upper joint cracked, spine defective; interrnally, very good. Institutional bookplates on fronts pastedown, and previous owner's inscription on free endpaper, "Joseph Fletcher 1886. First edition. [32], 413, [3] pp., including final blank leaf; and with a [20] pp. manuscript "Table of Contente" in a contemporary hand, bound in at rear. 1 vols. Folio. A Cornerstone of the Anglican Church. Chillingworth (1602-1644), grandson of Archbishop Laud, was one of the brilliant circle of wits and divines who gathered at Great Tew after the Restoration to discuss poetry as well as theological issues. After converting to Catholicism, then back to Protestantism, Chillingworth wrote this his magnum opus, which became a cornerstone of post-Restoration theology. His book and the clarity of his reasoning was praised by Locke, and, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "the whole gist of his argument, is expressed in a single sentence, 'I am fully assured that God does not, and therefore that men ought not to, require any more of any man than this, to believe the Scripture to be God's word, and to endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it.'". STC 5138; ESTC S2558; Madan, I, p. 205
(Inventory #: 256890)