Quarto. [36], 504, 509-619pp, [1]. Title in red and black. With a terminal page of publisher's advertisements. Contemporary richly gilt-tooled red morocco, A.E.G. Rubbed, a trifle marked, head-cap worn, joints split, upper board held by cords only, corners bumped. Marbled endpapers, slight stain to title page, small marginal burn-hole to leaf D1, short marginal tear to leaf O2, ink-stain to lower corner of Q3, slight loss to lower corner of leaf Gggg1. Later inked ownership inscription of J. Stillingfleet to recto of front blank fly-leaf.

A handsomely bound copy of a revised edition of Church of England clergyman, and scholar of dissenting Protestant Churches, Edward Stillingfleet's (1635-1699) monumental apologetic work of natural theology asserting the divine authority of the scriptures which has been described as the first methodical consideration of the rational religion of Latitudinarianism.

Following initial publication in 1662, on the strength of the work Stillingfleet was invited to respond to a Jesuit account of the debate between Archbishop Laud and the Jesuit, John Fisher, a response which brought him more approbation and led to a series of London preferments, and ultimately his appointment as royal chaplain.