THE HAPPINESS OF A PEOPLE IN THE WISDOME OF THEIR RULERS DIRECTING AND IN THE OBEDIENCE OF THEIR BRETHREN ATTENDING UNTO WHAT ISRAEL OUGHT TO DO: RECOMMENDED IN A SERMON

by Hubbard, William:

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Book Description

Boston: Printed by John Foster, 1676.. [8],63pp. Small quarto. 19th-century speckled calf, ruled in gilt, spine gilt, gilt morocco label, gilt inner dentelles. Two small closed tears in foredge of titlepage, with no loss. Scattered foxing. Very good. A rare and early American election day sermon, published in the second year of printing in Boston. In this sermon, delivered on May 3, 1676 and dedicated to John Leveret, governor of the colony of Massachusetts, William Hubbard, the minister of Ipswich, urges those eligible to vote to exercise their rights and cast ballots for their rulers. Hubbard supports his exhortation with biblical and historical precedents. He says that "you are now called to the exercise of your civil liberty (wherein much of your other libertys are bound up)," and urges "the regular, conscientious proceeding in this business of Election," by which the people "have the liberty to choose their own rulers." With much of New England being engaged in wars with the local Pequot Indians, Hubbard spends quite a bit of time offering council on the proper way to prepare for and undertake conflict: "war ought not to be made without good advice." The literary critic Sacvan Bercovitch calls it a "brilliant election-day oration," emphasizing Hubbard's belief that the Puritan faith will turn "the rough and barren wilderness" of New England into a "fragrant Sharon." The sermon was delivered before the governor, council, and deputies of the Massachusetts colony. Hubbard is best remembered for his history of King Philip's War, published in 1677. EVANS 214. NAIP w012661. SABIN 33444. BERCOVITCH, THE PURITAN ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN SELF, p.155.

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