[4], 89pp, [3]. With an initial imprimatur leaf and three terminal pages of publisher's advertisements. ESTC R22229, Wing S3330.

[Bound with:] SHERLOCK, William. The Second Part of the Preservative against popery: Shewing how Contrary popery is to the True Ends of the Christian Religion. Fitted for the instruction of Unlearned protestants. London. Printed for William Rogers, 1688. Second edition. [4], 91pp, [1]. With a half-tile and a terminal page of publisher's advertisements. ESTC R35181, Wing S3343.

Quarto. Contemporary panelled black morocco, richly tooled in gilt and blind. Rubbed, upper board held by two cords only, corners exposed. Marbled endpapers, recent bookplate of John Batty to FEP, early ownership inscriptions and later inscription of T. Carlyle, dated 1833, to recto of front blank fly-leaf, small burn-hole to half-title of second mentioned work, short marginal tear to leaf G2, text-block dampstained at foot.

Church of England clergyman and religious controversialist William Sherlock's (1639/40-1707) anti-Catholic polemic, intended to supply protestants lacking theological training with the necessary arguments to defend themselves against Catholic claims. It went through several editions in its first year and provoked a response from the Jesuit polemicist Lewis Sabran, An Answer to Dr Sherlock's Preservative against Popery (1688). Sherlock replied in A Vindication of the Preservative (1688).

Provenance: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish historian and essayist.