A scarce sermon by the first pastor of Reading, Nathaniel Hunn (1708-1749) who graduated from Yale in 1731.
While technically a sermon, this attractive work in contemporary wallpaper wrappers is better seen as a lecture on the nature of liberty. Furthermore, it provides a detailed analysis of the economic condition in the colony (and a critique of paper money) and includes news of the victory of New England forces at the Siege of Louisbourg on Cape Breton. Even this news was delivered through the lens of liberty:
“And no Doubt, it was the being brought up in a free Government, and maintaining a Sense of their native Liberty that inspired our Soldiers with such Courage & Bravery in the memorable Achievements at CAPE-BRETON; such Courage & Bravery as those brought up under popish Slavery were unacquainted with and unable to withstand.”
Of added note, this work was printed on the same press as the Bay Psalm Book. Timothy Green, Connecticut’s second printer, inherited his press from his father, the famous Samuel Green, who had succeeded Matthew Daye as printer in Cambridge, Boston. Matthew Daye inherited the press from his father, Stephen Daye, the first American printer and thus responsible for the printing of the Freeman’s Oath and the Bay Psalm Book.
This copy previously belonged to Nathaniel Stanley and later Marill Curtis.
Evans, 5975; Sabin, 33836; Trumbull, 872.
