The Tryal of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus. NB Not only Mr. Woolston’s Objections in his Sixth Discourse on our Saviour’s Miracles, but those also which he and others have publish’d in other Books, are here considered. by [Sherlock, Thomas] - 1743

Printed for J. and H. Pemberton, at the Buck in Fleetstreet. London. MDCCXLIII (1743). 12mo. Title page with engraved vignette. 110pp. 2pp publisher's catalogue. Engraved headpiece and tailpiece. Eighteenth century half calf. Lacking spine strip. Upper board detached. The binding is firm. Light toning to endpapers and title. Occasional minor spots or marks. Silk ribbon marker. Oval Bookplate of Chas Henshaw to fep. "By Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of Salisbury" inscribed to title.

Thomas Sherlock (1677-1761) Bishop of Bangor Caernarvonshire 1728-34; Bishop of Salisbury Wiltshire 1734-48; Bishop of London 1748-1761. A supporter of Walpole he was no stranger to controversy and was forceful in debate. Involved in the Bangorian Controversy he entered into the pamphlet war. This work was written in response to Thomas Woolston's Discourses on the Miracles, and ran to thirteen editions as the argument progressed. Sherlock's work also called forth Peter Annet's Deist work The Resurrection of Jesus Considered: In Answer To the Tryal of the Witnesses "By a Moral Philosopher," in 1744; The Resurrection Reconsidered (1744); The Sequel of the Resurrection of Jesus Considered (1745); and The Resurrection Defenders stript of all Defence (1745). Both Woolston and Annet were prosecuted for blasphemy and profanity. Annet was made a scapegoat after the attempt to suppress the publication of David Hume's Four Dissertations of 1757. David Hume wrote 'Of Miracles' in 1748 as a counter to Sherlock's argument in this work. Jane Austen is on record as saying she preferred the sermons of Thomas Sherlock to 'perhaps any other'.

ESTC T26528