Background
He was born on April 29, 1718 at Perth, in Scotland, the eldest son of David and Margaret (Ramsay) Sandeman. His father was a merchant, and from 1736 until 1744 Robert was a linen manufacturer in partnership with his brother William.
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ National Library of Scotland N018994 Anonymous. By Robert Sandeman. London : printed for J. Chater, 1768. 2v. ; 12°
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(I i ONTENTS In general these Six Letters contain Reflecti...)
I i ONTENTS In general these Six Letters contain Reflections on Popular, on Fashionable, on Political, and on Apostolical Christianity, more especially tlie first and last of these ;and also on Philosopliical Religion. LETTER I. Serves as a General Introduction to the other five. Sublime Sentiments in the tvvo volumes of Meditations, c., in the Sermon called The Cross of Christ the Christiajis Glory, and Dialogues between Theron and A spasio. Several Passages quoted from the Dialogues. Capital Spring of all Mistakes about the Apostolic Gospel. A spasio s Account of Faith. Passages quoted from the Night Thoughts, page 1. LETTER II. Connection betwixt the Honour of the Clergy and Mistakes about the Christian Religion. Summary View of the Doctrine of many eminent Preachers concerning Redemption, Faith, Conversion, ,c. The Concurrence of three Things necessary to form the Conversion much contended for at present, 15. LETTER III. Ancient State of the Controversy about the Gospel applied to our own times, from beginning to end of this Letter. Particulars: Controversy stated, 36. A Passage in the Dialogues considered, 37. Paul s Rebuke to Peter Paraphrased, 42. Character of the Pharisees contrasted with that of Jesus Christ, 43. No difference among Men as to fitness for Acceptance with God, 51. Jonathan a Jew; first a Sadducee, then a Pharisee ;relates the Story of his Conversion to Christianity, 56. The refined Idolatry of the Jews, in the Apostolic age, compared to what takes place in our own, 67. Some remarkable Passages in Ezekiel considered, 77. Source of Mistakes about Justification, 81. LETTER IV. Divides itself into three heads, containing Reflections on Mystery, on Reason, and on Spirit. Mystery. The Scripture sense of this Word opposed to the common, 86. The noted Passage in 2P et. chap. 1, concerning the Vision on the Holy Mount, and the AV ord of Prophe (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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He was born on April 29, 1718 at Perth, in Scotland, the eldest son of David and Margaret (Ramsay) Sandeman. His father was a merchant, and from 1736 until 1744 Robert was a linen manufacturer in partnership with his brother William.
He attended Edinburgh University over a two-year period beginning in 1734.
He became an elder in the Glassite churches in 1744 and served successively at Perth, Dundee, Edinburgh, and London. Sandeman became widely known by his controversial writings, particularly Letters on Theron and Aspasio Addressed to the Author, published in Edinburgh in 1757, a criticism of James Hervey's Dialogues.
In 1760 he organized the London congregation of the sect. Perceiving the interest aroused in America by his writings and being in correspondence with Ebenezer White, pastor at Danbury, Connecticut, and others of the New England clergy, he sailed for America on Aug. 10, 1764, accompanied by James Cargill.
At Providence, R. I, he was joined by Andrew Oliphant. He and his associates preached in many towns of New England and within a few years organized congregations at Boston, Portsmouth, N. H. , Taunton, Massachussets, Newtown and Danbury, Connecticut In 1764, at Boston, he published Some Thoughts on Christianity. By 1767 he had made his home at Danbury, which became the chief stronghold of the sect in America and where remnants of the congregation existed until about 1900.
In 1770 Sandeman was brought before the judge at Danbury and fined for remaining in town four weeks after being warned to depart as an undesirable transient. Several of his disciples, however, were ordered out of New Haven in 1777 for the expression of Loyalist views.
He died at Danbury.
(I i ONTENTS In general these Six Letters contain Reflecti...)
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
He supported the Glassites, or Sandemanians as they were later called in England and America, originated in 1728 as a protest against the established Church of Scotland and formed an independent body, rejecting the Covenant, asserting the independence of church and state, preaching the doctrine that faith is mere intellectual assent, and practising many of the primitive Christian rites. The chief article of their belief was that "the bare Work of Jesus Christ without a Deed or Thought on the Part of Man is sufficient to present the chief of Sinners spotless before God" (Sandeman's epitaph, Edes, post, p. 112).
Sandeman and his followers were vigorously opposed by the leading New England ministers for their defense of "the voluntary principle. " They were especially suspect for their rejection of the Covenant of Grace and of the doctrine of justification by faith as an act of regeneration.
Quotations: Sandeman: "every one who obtains a just notion of the person and work of Christ is justified and finds peace with God simply by that notion".
Quotes from others about the person
Ezra Stiles described Sandeman as "of a middling Stature, dark Complexion, a good Eye, uses accurate Language, but not eloquent in utterance, has not a melodious voice, his expressions governed by Sentiment, his dialect Scotch, not graceful in his Air and Address, yet has something which deforces attention, and this is chiefly by the Sentiments he infuses or excites in his Auditory - generally grave and decent, and not a noisy speaker".
He married Catherine, daughter of John Glas in 1737. She died in 1746. They did not have any children by the time of her death.