A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS; AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY MEETING IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17, 1764 BY THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, RICHARD LORD BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH

London, England: E. Owen and T. Harrison in Warwick Lane; and Siold by A. Millar at Buchanan's Head in the Strand, 1764. Pamphlet. Very Good. Pamphlet (8 1/2 in. x 6 1/2 in. ) in marbled paper covers, stringbound (stitched) thrice in sixteen signatures. While paper covers partially worn away to front of paper covers and a goodly portion of spine, yet holding together quite solidly. 124 pp. followed by a last leaf upon which appears a request for legacy bequeathments. Several brief marginal notations in manuscript as well as tick-mark placeholders. Text block is generally bright, with no spotting.

The sermon itself seems dedicated to the righteous mission of the Church of England to move out amongst the Heathen nations and bring the word of Christ to the uninformed and primitive. The sermon is 36 pp, in length, followed by a 69 pp. section entitled "An Abstract of The Charter, And of the Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from the 18th Day of February 1763, to the 17th Day of February, 1764." This is followed by a List of Members which continues through, till the book's conlusion. "...Terrick, Richard (1710-1777), bishop of London, was born probably at York and was baptized in York Minster on 20 July of that year...Of a clerical family, it is probable that he was from an early age destined for a career in the church;
Partly through the influence of William Cavendish, fourth duke of Devonshire, but more particularly due to the personal decision of George II, Terrick was nominated to the bishopric of Peterborough on 7 June 1757 and consecrated at Lambeth on 3 July. At this point he relinquished his preferments, with the exception of Twickenham. One of his first acts as bishop was to issue a letter to his clergy urging a more devout observance of Good Friday... n June of 1764 Just four months after delivering this sermon at the annual meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in February that same year, Terrick was named the Bishop of London... Though never a distinguished scholar he published six separate sermons and acquired a reputation as a conscientious, if not a particularly inspiring, diocesan. There is also evidence that he was a more than competent preacher", although this would of course be ameliorated by those not his champion: "...Horace Walpole, who disliked Terrick, said he lacked ability, save "a sonorous delivery and an assiduity of backstairs address". On the other hand, Alexander Carlyle thought him "a truly excellent man of a liberal mind and excellent good temper" and "a famous good preacher and the best reader of prayers I ever heard". (Excerpted from ONB & Wikipedia)



"It may seem indeed, as if our Saviour, when He opened his Commission to His Disciples, intended to confine the benefit of the Gospel to the Jewish Nation, by commanding them not to go into the way of the Gentiles...When they rejected it, the Commission was enlarged, and a more extensive plan declared to bring all Mankind into the same fold, by preaching the Gospel to every Creature...it affected no exclusive privilege, it was rather the Spirit of the Gospel to abolish every distinction, which seemed to set bounds to the Divine Mercy, to put the Jew and the Gentile upon the same terms, by opening the same common way of Salvation to all... (From the Bishop's sermon, which appears to suggest, that the only way to Salvation is through Jesus Christ as Saviour.).