Dr. Brindley and his Abettors. To the Inhabitants of Northampton. [a defence of Swedenborgianism against a Methodist critic]

Author: 
Rev. Woodville Woodman of Stoneclough, near Manchester (Swedenborgian, Minister of the New Jerusalem Church, Kearsley, Lancashire, 1839-1872) [John Brindley, Methodist; Northampton New Church]
Dr. Brindley and his Abettors. To the Inhabitants of Northampton
Publication details: 
Second Edition, with Postscript. [1861.] Taylor and Son, Steam Printers, Northampton.
£180.00
SKU: 9306

8vo, 11 + [i] pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Signed in type at end (p.11) 'WOODVILLE WOODMAN. | Stoneclough, near Manchester, | March 5th, 1861.' The final page is headed 'PUBLIC NOTICE.', and advertises services and a 'Reading & Tract Society' at Northampton New Church, Corn Exchange Buildings, ending 'The Library comprises the works of Swedenborg, and general New Church Literature. A passionate retort, in defence of Swedenborgianism, to the Brindley's Methodist interpretation of 'Swedenborg's doctrine of marriage', as set out in a lecture. 'The insinuation of Dr. Brindley that those who have Swedenborgian husbands may expect, when they cease to be mothers, to be supplanted by a more youthful paramour, is a vile slander.' Brindley had been attacking Swedenborgianism in print since at least 1858. Excessively scarce: no copy of either edition in the British Library or on COPAC. For more on the Brindley/Woodman controversy, see 'The Intellectual Repository and New Jerusalem Magazine', 1862, pp.135-138.