Offered in an online-only sale held by Forum (25/2/12.5% buyer’s premium) on August 31, the catalogue entry opened with a single word, ‘Wickedness’.
In a contemporary, if now rather rubbed and worn binding of speckled calf, this small folio work of 1610 is an alphabetically arranged treatise on hundreds of core beliefs and fundamental statements of the Christian faith as related to passages of the Bible by their ‘Reason’ and ‘Use’, as the middle columns of each page declare.
The entries on Jews (over 6pp) and the Wicked (32pp) reveal the author’s sympathies for the Puritans, said Forum, which also noted that those on 'Women' cover barely two pages and tend to be of a reproving character.
Intended to be used by ministers in preparing their sermons, the work presents the axioms, or doctrines, in plain vernacular phrases.
