second edition, after the very rare 1713 first edition printed in New York, 12mo, [4], (testimonial leaf, title leaf), 116 pp., original calf, over birch boards, spine and boards tooled in blind double rules, front and rear free end papers lacking, end-sheets are leaves from contemporary almanacs, some minor wear and scuffing to binding, some loss of leather to corners, mainly lower corner of front board, occasional mild foxing and staining, but text quite clean, contemporary ownership signature of John Bailey on title-page, upper right hand corner of title page worn away, from acidic ink of a contemporary manuscript note or signature, else a very good copy of this work which is usually found in later re-bindings.

      John Wise (1652-1725) clergyman and political controversialist, has been called "the first American democrat."  This great work was aimed at bringing the New England churches back to the Cambridge Platform as their fundamental law, but in fact generated a momentum which overthrew the Platform.

       Wise's most important political writings, The Churches Quarrel Espoused and A Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches were contributions to a protracted battle in the early eighteenth century over the governance of New England's established Congregational church. Led by Cotton and Increase Mather, the more conservative ministers sought to establish a Presbyterian church polity, in which consociations of clergy would rule on doctrine and the acceptability of neighboring ministers instead of the congregations themselves. They threby hoped to avoid fiascos like the appointment of "liberal" Benjamin Colman to preach to Boston's Brattle Street Church in 1699. Wise, however, linked self government in church affairs with civil autonomy:

      "By the suffrage of our Nation, that Government which sensibly Clogs Tyranny, and Preserves the subject free from slavery, under the ambition of men of great Fortune and Trust, is the only government in the state to advance man's temporal Happiness; and we in the Country Honour the Resolve in Civil Affairs, and also affirm (upon Great Experience) that such a Constitution in Church Government is also the only way to achieve Grace and man's Eternal Happiness."

      Wise criticized the Mathers' proposed innovations as "the beggared prerogatives of clergymen" that "come so thick in this place, and smell so strong of the POPE'S cooks and kitchen, where his broths and restoratives are prepared, that they are enough to strangle a Free-Born English-Man."

      Such vivid prose justifies Wise's place in American literature. "He stands almost alone among our early writers for the blending of a racy and dainty humor with impassioned earnestness" (Tyler, p. 114). However it does not support the claims of previous scholars that he was the first American democrat. Wise's defenses of traditional New England church and civil government only stood out among those of many of his contemporaries' for their stylistic flair, according to modern scholarship. For that reason they were reprinted in Boston in 1772 as the colonial crisis worsened.

       Wise is remembered for his eloquent defense of American liberty and his exciting pamphlets. These so vividly stand out among his contemporaries more pedestrian essays that historians have credited him with pioneering modern ideas as well as a modern style.

Evans 1795; Howes W-594, "aa"; Sabin 104897; American National Biography, vol. 23, pp., 686-687