[Massachusetts Election Sermon] THE CHARACTER AND WORK OF A GOOD RULER; AND THE DUTY OF AN OBLIGED PEOPLE. A Sermon Preach'd before his Excellency William Shirley, Esq; The Honourable His Majesty's Council, and House of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, May 29th 1745

Boston: Daniel Gooking (sic) [Goodkin], 1745. Disbound. Very Good binding. Octavo. [2], 33, [3 (blank)] pp. Removed from volume and stitched into new wrappers. Lacking half title, else complete. Light to moderate foxing, largely to the margins of the leaves. Generally a very nice copy of the first state with the mis-spelling in the imprint. Ebenezer Gay was pastor in Hingham from 1718-1787. While the first decades of his pastorate were fairly calm, Robert Wilson writes in his biographical sketch in the Oxford American National Biography, "New England's Great Awakening (1740-1742) propelled Gay out of his relatively peaceful Hingham ministry into the thick of ecclesiastical and theological controversy. Although he controlled and even profited from the religious revival in Hingham, he was appalled by the social disruption that the Awakening engendered. He actively joined with his old friend Charles Chauncy, assistant minister at Boston's First Church, in organizing Old Light opposition to the great revivalist George Whitefield and the 'enthusiasts.'" But this was not the end of the limelight for Gay, in 1745 and 1746 he was selected to deliver the annual election and convention sermon respectively.

While the first half of the sermon enumerates the desirable qualities of rulers using Biblical Kings like David as a model, over several pages in the latter half of the sermon Gay speaks to the pressing matters of the colonies including King Philip's War which he calls an "expensive War." Gay notes his fear but for strong caring leadership this war will leave the province "impoverish'd with War, and sunk under a Load of Debt" and further Gay echoes the general fear of a "heavy Yoke of Taxes." More than just an admonishing sermon, Gay paints of picture of the worries of the day in Colonial New England but in the present and for the future. An important work that is rare in commerce. Evans 5602; Sabin 26782; Oxford American National Biography.