The Christian's Manual; Containing Some Thoughts on the following Subjects, viz. I.-On the Articles of the Christian Faith...II.-On Baptism...III.-On the Lord's Supper. IV.-On Prayer...V.-On Civil Government...to which is added, A part of a celebrated Sermon, on the neglect of Public Worship. .. by Hezekiah Packard (1761-1849)

84pp. 12mo. Amherst, NH: Samuel Preston, March 1801. Original sheep-backed blue paper covered boards. Very good.

Volume of doctrinal and practical theology by Hezekiah Packard, a 1787 graduate of Harvard College, Revolutionary War soldier, and clergyman. The book includes a sermon preached by Rev. Packard on the public worship of the Congregational church.

As an assistant to Harvard College Librarian Isaac Smith Jr. (1749-1829), Packard helped to prepare the third printed catalog of the library, published in 1790.¹ In 1794, while ministering in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Packard founded the town's first social library.

"[Packard] was the founder of the Bible society of Lincoln county, Maine, and of the Eastern Evangelical society, an overseer of Bowdoin college, 1802-13, and a member of the board of trustees, 1813-30. He was liberal Congregationalist, being classed in Sprague's 'Annals' as a 'Trinitarian-Unitarian.'"²

Shaw & Shoemaker 1084. Notes. 1. Collection: Early Catalogs and Shelflists of the Harvard College Library | HOLLIS accessed online. 2. Hezekiah Packard b.1761 MA accessed online.