8vo. 38pp, [2]. Stapled in modern cloth-backed paper wrappers, loosely inserted in a modern library folder. Spine split, tears to edges of upper and lower wrapper, small hole to lower wrapper. Inked gift inscription addressed to the New York Historical Society from John Pritchard, 1807 to head of title. Perforated and ink-stamp of the General Theological Seminary, New York, to recto and verso of title respectively. Leaves browned, very occasional light spotting.

The first edition of a sermon preached in 1793 by Presbyterian theologian Samuel Miller (1769-1850), professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, at the request of Tammany Hall, the primary local Democratic pressure group and a major authority over New York state politics. Miller's address, preached on Independence Day, addressed the ongoing, and divisive, French Revolution, questioning, in support of the revolt: 'Can we turn our eyes to the European states and kingdoms—can we behold their convulsive struggles, without considering them as all tending to hasten this heavenly aera?'

Provenance: Dispersed from the library of the General Theological Seminary, New York.