1788 HENRY PATILLO. North Carolina Presbyterian Rails against John Wesley and Francis Asbury.

Very scarce volume of sermons by influential 18th century North Carolina Presbyterian divine, a significant amount of which is spent publicly reproving and correcting Francis Asbury and an aged John Wesley, whose age is seen as adding to his shame for his false "Arminian" doctrines and his lack of understanding of the nature of "free grace," etc., During the late 18th century, the Arminian / Calvinistic controversy that had dogged Wesley and Whitefield was repeated in the Carolinas via the influence of Whitefield and the Presbyterians contrasted with the growing Methodist movement. Rare early American anti-Methodist work. 

Henry Pattillo [1726-1801] was a pioneer Presbyterian minister, educator, and Patriot in North Carolina. Born in and emigrated to Virginia in 1740. At first a merchant, he had long sensed a call to Christian minister and in 1750 began planning to attend seminary. While traveling to Philadelphia to begin his theological training he was stricken with pleurisy and was forced to remain in Virginia. During his convalescence, the young ministerial aspirant was invited by the venerable Presbyterian educator, Samuel Davies, to reside in his home. Pattillo continued to study with Davies until 1758, obtaining the equivalent of a college education.

Ordained into the ministry of the Presbyterian church in September 1758, Pattillo immediately accepted a call to become the resident minister of the congregations at Willis, the Byrd, and Buck Island churches in Virginia. He labored with these congregations for four years, then accepted a call to the Cumberland, Harris Creek, and Deep Creek churches, also in Virginia. After a stay of two years, the minister moved to Orange County, N.C., in 1765, to become the pastor of the Hawfields, Eno, and Little River churches.

He fulfilled his ministry with such influence he became known respectfully as "Father Pattillo." Following his mentor, Samuel Davies, he also began a school for men in his home. The success of this school inspired the teacher to continue it in Bute and Granville counties when he left the Orange churches after a nine-year ministry. The school became widely known and among its pupils were Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Pettigrew, and William Blount.

In 1770 Pattillo joined David Caldwell, Hugh McAden, Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, and James Creswell in the organization of the Presbytery of Orange, a new division of the Presbyterian church. In 1780 he accepted the pastorate of the Granville County churches at Nutbush and Grassy Creek.

As a testimony to his general influence, the Transylvania Company offered Pattillo a gift of 640 acres of its western land on condition that he settle on it, but he refused, though doubtless appreciated, the offer. In 1784 the minister's Granville parishioners presented him with a 300-acre farm on Spicemarrow Creek on condition that he remain their pastor permanently, and Pattillo lived there with his family until his death.

While engaged in political affairs, the clergyman did not neglect his ministry or his educational projects. In 1787 he published a treatise on Christian conduct entitled The Plain Planter's Family Assistant; Containing an Address to Husbands and Wives, Children and Servants; With Some Helps for Instruction by Catechisms; and Examples of Devotion for Families: With a Brief Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer. In the same year Hampden-Sydney College awarded him an honorary master of arts degree in recognition of his accomplishments. He published a book of his sermons (1788), which included homilies entitled "The Divisions Among Us" and "An Address to the Deists," as well as A Geographical Catechism (1796), a textbook on geography written in question-and-answer style, the first publication of its kind in North Carolina.

Pattillo, Henry. Sermons, Etc. I. On the Divisions Among Christians. II. On the Necessity of Regeneration to Future Happiness. III. The Scripture Doctrine of Election. IV. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Wesley. V. An Address to the Deists. By Henry Pattillo, A. M. of Granville, North-Carolina. Wilmington. Printed by James Adams, for the Author. 1788. 295pp.

A good + copy, bound in later buckram, generally solid, with light to moderate foxing, some scattered stains largely relegated to the first few signatures, and minor ex library remains.