[1733 Manuscript Sermon Attributed to Calvinist Minister, Rev. Mr. Ward, likely Preached in Haverhill, Massachusetts during the First or Great Awakening].

Preached during the First Great Awakening

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Twelve-page, manuscript sermon preached on Sunday morning, July 15, 1733 during the First or Great Awakening. A small manuscript note, inserted under the stitching, attributes the sermon to a Rev. Mr. Ward of Haverhill Massachusetts.

The sermon, written in a very small hand and described on the first page as “Serm[on]. 3,” was preached upon St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans, chapter 5, verse 5: “Hope maketh not ashamed.”:

These words have been before brought under consideratio[n] the Doct[rine]. w[hi]ch I proposed to speak to from [indistinct] was Doct[rine].: That the true Believer’s hope of future blessedness is a hope w[hic]h maketh not ashamed. (p1)

The sermon may be attributed to Rev. John Ward, one of the founders of Haverhill, Massachusetts, but Ward died in 1693. In this case, then, it could be supposed that the sermon was re-preached in 1733, long after its original composition.

The sermon’s theme of shame perhaps suggests Rev. John Ward as its author. Cotton Mather in his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) writes of Rev. John Ward: “Of young persons, he would himself give this advice: ‘Whatever you do, be sure to maintain shame in them; for if that be once gone, there is no hope that they’ll ever come to good.’ Accordingly, our Ward was always ashamed of doing any ill thing.”¹

The closely written manuscript contains various numbered sections and sometimes follows a rhetorical question and answer format touching on issues of redemption in Christ and the “New Covenant.” Additional references are made within the sermon to Bible verses in both the Old and New Testaments.

A number of the passages are underlined to indicate emphasis. Conservatively, approximately 5,000 words in length.

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