Beecher, Lyman. The Faith once delivered to the Saints: A Sermon, delivered at Worcester, Mass. Oct. 15, 1823, at the Ordination of the Rev. Loammi Ives Hoadly, to the Pastoral Office over the Calvinist Church in that place. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1824. Second Edition. [10678]
Plain brown wrapper, front detached, 9 1/2 x 6 inches, untrimmed page edges, 40 pages. Good. Pamphlet.
The text is Jude 3. "By the faith once delivered to the saints, is to be understood the doctrines of the Gospel." His main points are, That the doctrines of the evangelical system are in accordance with the most direct and obvious meaning of the sacred text. It is the uniform testimony of the Bible, that the righteous love the truth, and that the wicked are opposed to it. The evangelical system produces the same effects, universally, as were produced by the faith delivered to the saints. Several of the effects produced are hatred towards the gospel and its ministers, genuine revivals of religion, personal reformation from vicious habits, and a spirit of missions. The fourth main point is that a departure from the faith delivered to the saints, producing divisions in the church, was denominated a heresy during the three first centuries. He then gives six ways that Christians and churches can defend the faith once delivered to the saints.
Lyman Beecher, D.D. (1775-1863), “an eminent Presbyterian minister, was born at New Haven, Connecticut…was sent to Yale College, where he graduated A.B. in 1797…In 1825 he accepted a call to the Hanover Street Church, Boston, where he spent six years of immense activity and popularity, distinguished also by his boldness and success with which he opposed Dr. Channing and grappled Unitarianism…In 1832 he accepted the Presidency of Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, in which service, and that of the Second Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, he remained during twenty eventful years…The doctrinal views of Dr. Beecher has always been moderately Calvinistic, and he was charged by some of the stronger Calvinists with heresy. A trial ensued, ending in 1835, by the adoption of resolutions to which Dr. Beecher assented; but the controversy went on until at last the Presbyterian church was rent in twain by it. In 1852 Dr. Beecher resigned the presidency of the seminary and returned to Boston.” – M’Clintock & Strong.
Dr. Beecher was the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the father of the preachers Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, and Thomas Beecher.
