• Title: Notes on the Parables of the New Testament
• Author: Hosea Ballou
• Printed at the Gazette Office for sale at C. Pierce’s Bookstore, Daniel Street
• Estimated year of printing: 1812

Notes:

This is a book about the Bible, specifically providing commentary on 38 parables of Jesus.  It explores the events around each parable and provides an illustration for each parable to help readers understand its meaning. It was intended to be written in a way that would resonate with a general audience, interpreting scripture with theological insights.  This book was first published in 1804; this is the second edition from 1812.

Hoseau Ballou (1771 – 1852) was an American Universalist clergyman and theological writer.  Originally a Baptist, he converted to Universalism in 1789. He preached in a number of towns in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. He wrote a number of influential theological works, as well as hymns, essays and sermons, and edited two Universalist journals. 

This book was printed at the offices of the New Hampshire Gazette in Portsmouth — the first newspaper published in New Hampshire, starting in 1759, and still being published today.  

Historical context:

When this book was published in 1812, James Madison was President of the United States.  This is the year that the War of 1812 would begin, an offshoot of the Napoleonic Wars.  It was also the year that Daniel Webster was elected to the United States Congress to represent New Hampshire.  Just a few years earlier in 1809, John Stark coined the phrase “Live free or die”, which would go on to be the New Hampshire state motto.