A Prospect of Divine Providence, a rare English work 1672 loved by John Wesley

T.C. [CRANE, Thomas 1645-?] Isagoge ad Dei providentiam: or, A prospect of divine providence.
Published by London : printed by A. Maxwell for Edward Brewster, at the sign of the Crane in St. Paul s Church-yard, 1672.

First and only edition. 8vo. [16],544pp. Title page within ruled border. Pages generally very good, some marks and minor browning. Burn hole to 1 leaf, repaired and affecting a few letters. Otherwise collates complete and in original full C17th leather. A scarce title by an obscure C17th divine.

A scarce and substantial Restoration-era treatise on Divine Providence, issued in a single edition and running to over five hundred pages. Moving well beyond the sermon form, Crane offers a systematic “prospect” of providence—its operations, “aspects,” and the moral and pastoral uses to which the believer should put the observation of God’s workings in the world. The work is cited in later scholarly literature on early modern providentialism, and—an important indicator of its post-seventeenth-century reception—was known to John Wesley, who abridged it for his Christian Library. Wing C6818; ESTC R4623.

Thomas Crane (1631–1714) was an English Presbyterian minister, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and Gloucester Hall, where he took his MA in 1655. He was assisted in his studies by the ejected royalist divine Richard Sherlock and later served as assistant to the celebrated nonconformist Richard Alleine. In 1658 Crane became rector of Rampisham, Dorset, but was ejected in 1662 following the Restoration. He settled in Beaminster, where he was licensed as a Presbyterian in 1672 and became a respected and long-serving pastor. Known for his intense focus on divine providence, he was nicknamed “Providence” by his contemporaries. Crane was active in the Presbyterian ministry in Dorset, taking part in ordinations in 1687, and remained a prominent figure among nonconformists until his death in 1714.