Zanchius, Jerom; Toplady, Augustus. The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted: with a Preliminary Discourse on the Divine Attributes; Translated, in great measure, from the Latin of Jerom Zanchius. And an Appendix concerning the Fate of the Ancients. To which is Affixed a Letter, to the Rev. John Wesley, Relative to his pretended Abridgement of Zanchius on Predestination, By Augustus Toplady, A. B...&c. Johnstown [NY]: Printed by Abraham Romyen, 1804. [9766]
Plain leather spine, blue paper over wooden boards, 6 5/8 x 4 inches. The book has an old leather wrapper that was stitched over the pastedowns, then the free end papers were pasted over the stitching both front and back. The leather wrapper section over the spine is worn away. "Aaron Cook Book June 4 1816" on fly page. There is worming to the end papers and first and last several leaves; this affects some letters in the final four leaves. The book is tight. Good. Hardcover.
Shaw & Shoemaker 7816.
Girolamo Zanchi [Latin: Hieronymus Zanchius, Anglicized to Jerom or Jerome Zanchius] (1516-1590), Italian Protestant theologian, exiled to Geneva (1551), then called to Strasbourg as professor of Old Testament at the college of St. Thomas. His differences with the Lutherans on some points caused him difficulties, and after serving briefly as a pastor in Chiavenna he was called to the University of Heidelberg (1568) to the chair of Dogmatics, previously occupied by Zacharias Ursinus. After the canton turned Lutheran, he left for a Reformed academy in Neustadt, which was under the control of the Palatine Count Johann Casimir. He has been described as "a Calvinist in terms of theological content, and a Thomist in terms of philosophy and methodology." - Girolamo Zanchi, On the Law in General. CLP Academic, 2012, p. xxii.
"One of the most learned and pious of the Reformers." - Darling.
Toplady published this translation of Zanchius in 1769, derived mainly from Zanchius' Confession of the Christian Religion. The original book was one of the main influences used to turn Toplady to Calvinism. It elicited from his former friend, John Wesley, a response in print, in which Wesley abridges and annotates Zanchius's work in such a way as to provoke ridicule. Toplady then responds, and his letter is appended to this edition.
The Advertisement to the reader presents a synopsis of the work, and includes the approbation of its being printed by Abraham Romyen, by the Montgomery Classis of the Reformed, Protestant, Dutch Church, with date of May 4th, 1802.
The printer, Abraham Romeyn (ca. 1761-1838); his father, the Rev. Thomas Romeyn (1729-1794), was the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Caughnawaga (now) Fonda, New York. Abraham was an interesting character who wore several vocational hats. He was married in 1783 to Mary Moore of Kinderhook. Abraham was a private in a New York regiment during the Revolution, and is listed among Revolutionary Patriot Burials of Ontario County (at Lyons Rural Cemetery). He was a printer and publisher at Johnstown, one of the judges of the common court of Montgomery Co., NY, as well as a colonel of militia, until he moved out of Montgomery County to to Sherburne, NY, about 1804. In Sherburne he erected a woolen mill, and published the Western Oracle (1804-1806). After moving north to Manlius, NY, where he began farming, and published the Derne Gazette, (1809-1807), "Derne" being a proposed name for Manlius. Romeyn retired from business in 1821, and died in 1839. He was unsuccessful as a newspaper publisher, for he only printed one side of any political position, angering a good portion of his readers. - information gleaned from Hamilton, The Country Printer, New York State, 1785-1830), p. 295.'; and from The Johnstown Daily Republican, 31 August, 1901 online.
