MILNER, Joseph.
Practical Sermons, by the late Rev. Joseph Milner, M. A. Master of the Grammar School, and Vicar of the Holy Trinity Church, in Kingston upon Hull. To which is prefixed an Account of the Life and Character of the Author …
York: Printed by G. Peacock; and sold by Mathews … London; Deighton, Cambridge [and others in York, Hull, Leeds and Halifax]. 1800.
8vo., pp. [12], lx, 396; title-page dusty, paper laid to down to verso to obscure several early ownership inscriptions; early half calf, rubbed, later spine label; presentation inscription from J. Massey to Airedale College Library (bookplate, later library stamp of Nazarene College).
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Practical Sermons, by the late Rev. Joseph Milner, M. A. Master of the Grammar School, and Vicar of the Holy Trinity Church, in Kingston upon Hull. To which is prefixed an Account of the Life and Character of the Author …
First edition, rare, collecting 21 sermons with a biography of Milner (1745-1797), headmaster of Hull Grammar School and church historian. Milner was largely responsible for a revival in fortune of the Grammar School, where he took charge in 1767. As a clergyman he leaned towards a moderate Calvinism with Methodist influence, and helped established Hull as a major centre for Evangelicalism by the end of the century. The living of Holy Trinity came to him shortly before his death, at the persuasion of William Wilberforce.
ESTC and COPAC show two copies only: York Minster and Lampeter. A second edition followed in 1801, and several further editions and additional volumes appeared 1809-1830.
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First edition, presented by the author, of this scarce work on the Apostles’ Creed by the Veronese Oratorian, Biblical and liturgical scholar, and librarian Giuseppe Bianchini (1704–1764), with a delightful frontispiece depicting the city of Verona.