THE LORD JESUS CHRIST THE ONLY, AND SUPREAM HEAD OF THE CHURCH. A SERMON, DELIVERED, IN PUBLICK, TO THE ASSEMBLY OF MINISTERS, AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION, IN BOSTON; WHICH WAS FOLLOWED WITH A COLLECTION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. JUNE 1. 1738

Boston: S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1738. [4], 34, [2 blanks] pp, with the half title [chipped at blank lower margin]. Disbound, scattered foxing and light wear, Good+.

A Harvard graduate and Congregational Minister in Marblehead for over fifty years, Barnard was, according to Charles Chauncy, "equalled by few in regard either of readiness of invention, liveliness of imagination, or strength and clearness of reasoning" [so quoted in DAB]. His early work, 'Ashton's Memorial', was "a worthy and early American addition to the literature of castaways" [II Streeter Sale 671].
Here Barnard makes a powerful argument for the self-government of New England congregations, with obvious implications for self-government of American political institutions. Religious self-government profoundly differed from Anglican practices across the Atlantic. New England congregations reflect the early practice of "the Primitive Church." For "the first three hundred Years after Christ, the Churches consisted of particular Congregations, each having their own Pastor, to minister unto them in the holy Things of God; and every such Assembly of professed Christians... had entire Power within it self, to manage the Affairs of the Kingdom of Christ, and the holy Discipline belonging to it, without any Dependance upon any superiour Power upon Earth." This "was the Principle of our Fathers, who laid the Foundation of these Churches, in this Wilderness."
Evans 4219. ESTC W20701.