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[John Brown, Execution of:] The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1859.
[John Brown, Execution of:] The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1859.
[John Brown, Execution of:] The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1859.

[John Brown, Execution of:] The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1859.

Two sermons on American slavery and on the recently executed John Brown


Two anti-slavery sermons preached by Nathaniel Hall 1805–1875) in Dorchester, Massachusetts just days after the December 2, 1859 execution of radical abolitionist John Brown. The pamphlet’s cover title describes its content: Two Sermons on Slavery and Its Hero-Victim.

In the sermon, The Man, — The Deed, — The Event: A Sermon Preached in The First Church, Dorchester…1859... Hall preached:

Call him, if you will, mistaken, foolish—mistaken as to the justifiableness of the means employed, foolish in his estimate of the efficiency of those means in relation to his end. What has it to do with the moral rightness and wisdom of the man? If you deny him the attribute of a prudential rationality, you must accord him the virtues, in glorious measure, of courage, magnanimity, humaneness, truth. ... If you say he believed in a “God of battles,” he believed, at any rate, in a God who battled for right as against wrong, for the oppressed as against the oppressor, and who puts swords into his servants’ hands, to do, if need be, likewise. (pp26–27)

The additional sermon titled, The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in The First Church, Dorchester…1859 involves American slavery and urges slaveholders and their abettors to “Repent [and] reform.” Further: “We will no longer be partners in the upholding and cherishing of this accursed barbarism.” (p17–18)


Description: [John Brown, Execution of:] The Iniquity: A Sermon Preached in the First Church, Dorchester, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1859.

Boston: Printed by John Wilson & Son, 1859. 37, [3(blanks)]pp. First Edition. 9¼ x 5¾ inches. Printed wrappers. With separate title page (same imprint) for second sermon. Upper wrappers toned; expertly reinforced along spine with tissue; else bright, very good.

[3727847]

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