@booklet {10781, title = {A Discourse on the Christian Union: The Substance of Which Was Delivered Before the Reverend Convention of the Congregational Clergy in the Colony of Rhode Island; Assembled at Bristol. April 23, 1760}, year = {1761}, note = {

Rpt. Brookfield, MA: np, 1799. 164 pp.\ 

}, month = {1761}, pages = {139 pp.}, publisher = {Printed and sold by Edes and Gill}, address = {Boston, N.E.}, abstract = {

Projects New England into the next century. Most of the book is concerned with what Christians agreed upon and where they disagree. From page 145 (1799 ed.) a lot of space is devoted to the increase in population of each of the four sects he finds worthy of attention, Episcopalians, Friends (Quakers), Baptists, and Congregationalists, with the last showing the greatest increase in population and in the number of churches. His concern is that without unity among Christians, or at least Protestants, the coming generations will become indifferent or tempted by other churches. Therefore, he gives suggestions for those who in the future will found new communities. He stresses the need for such new communities to establish churches and bring in ministers. At page 154 (1799 ed.) he projects one hundred years into the future, when he foresees the plain churches of his day replaced \“with temples whose colonades [as spelled] are deckt with guilt busts of angels winged. . . .\” Seven million Congregationalists at that time.\ 

}, keywords = {Male author, US author}, author = {Ezra Stiles A.M. (1727-95)} }