Divine Warrants, Ends, Advantages, and Rules, of the Fellowship Society, Held at the Meeting-House in Crown-Court, Russel-street, Covent-Garden, London, for Prayer, Spiritual Conversation, &c. London: Printed for the Society by T. Chapman, 1791. [12362]
Plain wrapper, front present only, "Jotham Sewalls 1807" in brown ink at top, tattered page edges, 8 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches. 10 pp. Fair. Pamphlet.
The meeting house at the address in the title was a Presbyterian church founded in 1711, which moved to this location in 1719. The church is still standing, and is on the National Heritage List for England. It is the oldest Church of Scotland congregation in London.
A defense, with Scripture support, of meetings to pray and discuss the Bible, and the founding of Societies in which to do so.
Includes a list of rules to be followed by members, and how meetings are to be conducted.
"Fellowship Societies are regular associations of Christians, who have voluntarily agreed to assemble together at stated times and places, for promoting of holy friendship, by joint prayer, spiritual conference, &c." - p. 3.
The signature and former owner, Jotham Sewall (1760-1850), born at York, Maine; died at Chesterville, Maine. He served in the Revolutionary Army in the winter of 1776-7, was a bricklayer at Augusta in 1784 & 1785, and was ordained to the ministry, serving Trinitarian Congregational churches. He was raised in a plain, pious, hardworking family, and “he had a distinct recollection of having heard Whitfield preach, and was able, to his dying day, to repeat some of his figures and illustrations, as well as to describe very vividly his personal appearance. – Sprague.
Sewall was converted after considering a sermon by Thomas Boston that he had heard read aloud. He was ordained an evangelist, and although he did attend to the needs of a church in Chesterville for some time, he was more widely useful and known for his itinerant work in the wilds of his home state, earning the reputation of being “The Apostle of Maine.”
It is an interesting point of research for someone, to determine whether the kind of Societies recommended by this pamphlet were adopted in the ministry of Jotham Sewall.
