Sermons on Useful and Important Subjects

Bookseller Notes

'Although Simpson was an evangelical Arminian in his theology and associated most naturally with clergy of similar views, he maintained a wide acquaintance among evangelicals and was a regular correspondent of Rowland Hill, Thomas Robinson, and several others with whom he engaged in a concert of prayer. At Macclesfield he combined a regular ministry to a settled congregation with itinerant preaching in the surrounding area. He was a popular preacher and an energetic pastor, who visited regularly throughout his parish, ministered to the legal and medical needs of the poor, and founded friendly societies, charity schools, and Sunday schools. As a consequence, he attracted large congregations and often had six or seven hundred communicants. He was an early pioneer of congregational hymn singing, and a collection of hymns formed one of his earliest publications in 1776.' (ODNB). The final sermon is: 'Marriage honorable, Whoredom damnable.' Bound after a run of the Arminian Magazine, edited by John Wesley, July to December 1778, and before a copy of A Treatise concerning the Gospel-method of being Righteous, 1762, lacking title-page (2 copies only in ESTC).