Sammeband of Nine Works in Answer to Benjamin Hoadly’s controversial book A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper (1735).

London: V. p., 1735-36. Nine octavo pmphlets bound in one volume. All first editions but for the first entry which is a second edition. Contemporary calf over unadorned boards. Top of spine peeling away but present, old tidemark to upper blank margin of the first half of the first entry. Early (perhaps contemporary) owner's name (Will Preston) and list of contents, all in a very nice hand. Overall, a very clean and good copy in the original binding.Tiles are as follows:Remarks on a book lately published in titled, a plain account of the nature and end of the sacrament of the Lords supper. Second edition. London, 1735. 52 pp.A defense of the plane account…By Strickland GOUGH. London, 1735. 58 ppDitto. A Farther Defense of the Plain Account...London, 1735.44 pp.[Benjamin Hoadly]. An apologetical defence, or a demonstration of the usefulness and expediency of a late book… London, 1735. 39 pp.Christian exceptions to the plain account… By Thomas BRERR. London, 1736. 53 pp.The new true nature of the Eucharist… By T. Waiting WHITING. London, 1736. 25 pp.A Letter to A Lord, In Answer to his late book entitled, A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Dublin, 1736. 32 pp. Thomas BRETT. A true scripture account of the nature and benefits… London, 1736. 171 pp.The plain account etc. compared with the account given by Dr. Lancelot ANDREWS. London, 1736. 35, 1, publisher's ads] pp.Benjamin Hoadly (1676-1761) was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, of Hereford, of Salisbury, and finally of Winchester. One of the foremost Whigs of his time, his word was quite powerful. High Church Tory members saw him as an aggravation who used the ideas of the Deists to foster discord within the Anglican faith. In the late 17th and early 18th century religion (i.e. The Church of England) was intricately bound to politics. This is shown in the Corporation Act of 1661 which required all mayors, counselors, bureaucrats, etc., to swear their loyalty to the reigning monarch and to take the Lord's Supper in the manner proscribed by the Church of England. It was expanded to all military positions a few years later (The Test Act). Bishop Hoadly, who apparently must have been sympathetic to religious freedom, loathed these acts and in 1735 he issued (anonymously) his famous tract "A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper" in which he unlinked politics to the physical taking of the Eucharist. Of course at the time this was likely seen as a kind of treason and it raised a storm of controversy. Pamphlets both in support and against were issued in great abundance. These are nine of primary commentaries and reactions. Chief among the nine pamphlets is Hoadly's own defense of his work (An apologetical defence).