Henry Fielding

1517-1644 were momentous years in the history of the church – from the break with Rome to the rise of the Particular Baptists. David Gay tells the moving story with clarity and passion. In these pages, the main characters are brought vividly to life. Many endured horrific sufferings – hunger, prison, torture and exile. Why? Because they wanted New Testament church life. But they had powerful enemies – enemies who exacted a price in blood by means of branding iron, stake and hangman’s noose. Even so, those believers who ‘did not love their lives to the death’ took up spiritual arms in the battle for the church. Trusting in God, by his grace they triumphed. This book traces the course of their life-and-death struggle. But here you have far more than a list of facts. The author, who is a preacher, makes pointed application throughout. You may not always agree with his conclusions, but you will be made to think – and not only about events which took place 400 years ago. Many of today’s churches are in a tragic condition, and must be reformed. What lessons can you learn from the past?

"Joseph Andrews: Hero and shortened title of The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his friend, Mr Abraham Adams, written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, a novel by Henry Fielding. Joseph Andrews, a prudent, brawny, pleasant young man, is intended to be the brother of Samuel Richardson's heroine Pamela. His widowed employer, Lady Booby, dismisses him from his position as footman for refusing her advances, and he flees London to rejoin his own true love, Fanny Goodwill. On hearing the news of his disgrace, Fanny rushes to meet him. Both are set upon by thieves but are providentially rescued by Parson Adams, and the three return to their parish, where Joseph and Fanny, after comic-opera reversals and discoveries, are married in triumph. The time of the novel is coincident with Pamela, which it parodies and transcends."- - from Benet's Readers Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition

The foundling Tom Jones is found on the property of a benevolent, wealthy landowner. Tom grows up to be a vigorous, kind-hearted young man, whose love of his neighbor's well-born daughter brings class friction to the fore. The presence of prostitution and promiscuity in Tom Jones caused a sensation at the time it was published, as such themes were uncommon. It is divided into 18 shorter books, and is considered one of the first English-language novels.

An edition of fragments of Henry Fielding's unpublished treatise on eighteenth century law.

The play tells the story of Catholic priest's attempt to manipulate a man to seduce the man's daughter, ultimately unsuccessfully.

4 p.l., 58 p. ; 20 cm. Originally published in 1730 in two acts under title: Tom Thumb, a tragedy. This item is from the Stockton Axson Collection of 18th Century British Drama, Woodson Research Center, Rice University.