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First American edition of Barclay's seminal treatise, 8vo, pp. [12], 524 (i.e. 574), [32]; full contemporary and probably original paneled calf, spine with a number of hairline cracks, extremities rubbed and worn, corners showing, joints tender with gaps, title page slightly miscreased, but all in all a good, unrestored copy in a Rhode Island binding. One of the first ten pieces of printing done in Rhode Island, and exclusive of almanacs and broadsides, just the fifth (the first printed piece in Rhode Island is the 1727 Almanac, also printed by James Franklin). On the verso of the terminal flyleaf in a bold hand: "Gemima Arnold's book." James Franklin (1697-1735) was elder brother of Benjamin Franklin who taught him to print; but there was no love lost between the two. In 1723 Benjamin, tired of James's "harsh and tyrannical treatment," set out on his own for Philadelphia. "Though a brother," Franklin wrote in his Autobiography, "he considered himself as my master, and me as his apprentice, and accordingly expected the same services from me as he would from another, while I thought he demeaned me too much in some he required of me, who from a brother expected more indulgence." "Barclay's great book, The Apology, is remarkable as the standard exposition of the principles of his sect, and is not only the first defense of those principles by a man of trained intelligence, but in many respects one of the most impressive theological writings of the century" (DNB) Alden 11; Evans 3129; Hammett, p. 19; Sabin 3364.
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