jamesgray2

Early Boston books are as rare as any books I sell, Most of these books are not represented fifty miles from the Atlantic seaboard, these examples offered here are in original condition, original Bindings, and with all faults never restored. The books have lead a life as hard as the early colonials.

I would like to sell them as a group, if you are interested please contact me .

292G   John    Cotton            1693-1757       Two sermons preach’d at Dorchester, on the Lord’s-Day, April, 9, 1727. By John Cotton, M.A. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Newtown. Published at the repeated desire of many that heard them. With a preface by the Rev. Mr. Danforth, Pastor of the Church in Dorchester

Boston:Printed by B. Green, Jun. for S. Gerrish, at the lower end of Cornhill,1727  $2,200

Duodecimo 5 1/4 X 3 inches.  A4 (of 6) B-F  G  [  Bookseller’s advertisements, p. [65-68].                             This copy is bound in its original full sheep binding over scabbord

291G   Thomas          Doolittle        1632-1707       A treatise concerning the Lords Supper: with three dialogues for the more full information of the weak, in the nature and use of this sacrament. By Tho. Doolitte

Boston: Reprinted by B. Green, for Benj. Eliot, at his shop under the west end of the town-house,1708     $3,300

Duodecimo    (A1 lacking and blank) A2-G12, H11 lacking H12 final leaf of “An Advertisement”        Second Boston edition                   This copy is bound in its original full sheep binding over scabbord            Thomas Doolittle (1632–1707), nonconformist tutor, third son of Anthony Doolittle, a glover, was born at Kidderminster in 1632 or the latter half of 1631. While at the grammar school of his native town he heard Richard Baxter preach as lecturer (appointed April 5, 1641) the sermons afterwards published as “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest” (1653). These discourses produced his conversion. Placed with a country attorney he scrupled at copying writings on Sunday, and went home determined not to follow the law. Baxter encouraged him to enter the ministry. He was admitted as a sizar at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, on June 7, 1649, being then “17 annos natus.” He could not, therefore, have been born in 1630, as stated in his “memoirs.” The source of the error is that another Thomas, son of William and Jane Doolittle, was baptised at Kidderminster on Oct. 20, 1630. His tutor was William Moses, afterwards ejected from the mastership of Pembroke. Doolittle graduated with an M.A. at Cambridge. Leaving the university for London he became popular as a preacher, and in preference to other candidates was chosen (1653) as their pastor by the parishioners of St. Alphage, London Wall. The living is described as sequestered in Rastrick’s list as quoted by Palmer, but James Halsey, D.D., the deprived rector, had been dead twelve or thirteen years. Doolittle received Presbyterian ordination. During the nine years of his incumbency he fully sustained his popularity. On the passing of the Uniformity Act (1662) he “upon the whole thought it his duty to be a nonconformist.” He was poor; the day after his farewell sermon a parishioner made him a welcome present of 20l. A residence had been built for Doolittle, but it appears to have been private property; it neither went to his successor, Matthew Fowler, D.D., nor did Doolittle continue to enjoy it. He removed to Moorfields and opened a boarding-school, which succeeded so well that he took a larger house in Bunhill Fields, where he was assisted by Thomas Vincent, ejected from St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street.
In the plague year (1665) Doolittle and his pupils removed to Woodford Bridge, near Chigwell, close to Epping Forest, Vincent remaining behind. Returning to London in 1666, Doolittle was one of the nonconformist ministers who, in defiance of the law, erected preaching-places when churches were lying in ruins after the great fire. His first meeting-house (probably a wooden structure) was in Bunhill Fields, and here he was undisturbed. But when he transferred his congregation to a large and substantial building (the first of the kind in London, if not in England) which he had erected in Mugwell (now Monkwell) Street, the authorities set the law in motion against him. The lord mayor amicably endeavored to persuade him to desist from preaching; he declined. On the following Saturday about midnight his door was broken open by a force sent to arrest him. He escaped over a wall, and intended to preach next day. From this he was dissuaded by his friends, one of whom (Thomas Sare, ejected from Rudford, Gloucestershire) took his place in the pulpit. The sermon was interrupted by the appearance of a body of troops. As the preacher stood his ground “the officer bad his men fire.” “Shoot, if you please,” was the reply. There was considerable uproar, but no arrests were made. The meeting-house, however, was taken possession of in the name of the king, and for some time was utilized as a lord mayor’s chapel. On the indulgence of March 15, 1672 Doolittle took out a license for his meeting-house. The original document, dated April 2, hangs in Dr. Williams’s library. The meeting-house is described as “a certaine roome adjoining to ye dwelling-house of Thomas Doelitle in Mugwell Street.” Doolittle owned the premises, but he now resided in Islington, where his school had developed into an academy for “university learning.” When Charles II (March 8, 1673) broke the seal of his declaration of indulgence, thus invalidating the licenses granted under it, Doolittle conducted his academy with great caution at Wimbledon. His biographers represent this removal as a consequence of the passing (it may have been an instance of the enforcing) of the Five Miles Act (1665). At Wimbledon he had a narrow escape from arrest. He returned to Islington before 1680, but in 1683 was again dislodged. He removed to Battersea (where his goods were seized), and thence to Clapham. These migrations destroyed his academy, but not before he had contributed to the education of some men of mark. Matthew Henry, Samuel Bury, Thomas Emlyn, and Edmund Calamy, D.D., were among his pupils. Two of his students, John Kerr, M.D., and Thomas Rowe, achieved distinction as nonconformist tutors. The academy was at an end in 1687, when Doolittle lived at St. John’s Court, Clerkenwell, and had Calamy a second time under his care for some months as a boarder. Until the death of his wife he still continued to receive students for the ministry, but apparently not more than one at a time. His last pupil was Nathaniel Humphreys.
The Toleration Act of 1689 left Doolittle free to resume his services at Mugwell Street, preaching twice every Sunday and lecturing on Wednesdays. Vincent, his assistant, had died in 1678; later he had as assistants his pupil, John Mottershead (removed to Ratcliff Cross), his son, Samuel Doolittle (removed to Reading), and Daniel Wilcox, who succeeded him. Emlyn’s son and biographer says of Doolittle that he was “a very worthy and diligent divine, yet was not eminent for compass of knowledge or depth of thought.” This estimate is borne out by his “Body of Divinity,” a painstaking and prolix expansion of the assembly’s shorter catechism, more remarkable for its conscientiousness and unction than for its intellectual grasp. His private covenant of personal religion (Nov. 18, 1693) occupies six closely printed folio pages. He had long suffered from stone and other infirmities, but his last illness was very brief. He preached and catechized with great vigor on Sunday, May 18, took to his bed in the latter part of the week, lay for two days unconscious, and died on May 24, 1707. He was the last survivor of the London ejected clergy.                        Evans 1349; Holmes Increase Mather #2 (“An advertisement, directed to the communcants in the churches of New-England.”–p. [177-180], signed: Increase Mather. Boston, N.E. May, 10th, 1708.)

835F    Robert            Russell          fl 1692            Seven Sermons: Viz. I. Of the Unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost: or, the Sin Unto Death. II. The Saint’s Duty and Exercise: in Two Parts. Being an Exhortation to, and Directions for Prayer. III. The Accepted Time and Day of Salvation. IV. The End of Time, and Beginning of Eternity. V. Joshua’s Resolution to Serve the Lord. VI. The Way to Heaven Made Plain. VII. The Future State of Man: or, a Treatise of the Resurrection. By Robert Russel, at Wadhurst, in Sussex

London: printed by W[illiam]. O[nley]. for J. Blare, at the Looking-glass on London-bridge, 1718.  $ 2,600

I recorded copy !!!

Duodecimo   6 X 3.25 inches          A-H12.                         Even the binding structure of this book seems American, it is bound in sheep over scabord and sewn on  two leather sewing supports Of Russell, I could find very little, yet he was immensely popular, especially in the colonies being reprinted in Boston in 1701, 1727 & 1728. There is no doubt that Russell’s style of sermonizing upon sin met with the Mather’s approval.
All early editions are quite rare.

Author – personal	Russel, Robert, active 1692.
Title	Seven sermons: viz. I. Of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost; or, The sin unto death. II. The saint’s duty and exercise: in two parts: being an exhortation to, & direction for prayer. III. The accepted time and day of salvation. IV. The end of time, and beginning of eternity. V. Joshua’s resolution to serve the Lord. VI. The way to heaven made plain. VII. The future state of man: or, A treatise of the resurrection. By Robert Russel, at Wadhurst, in Sussex.
Edition	The eleventh edition.
Publisher/year	Boston : Reprinted by John Allen, for John Eliot, at his shop in Orange-Street, 1718.
Physical descr.	178,[2]p. ;  12⁰.
Uncontrolled note	Signatures: A-P⁶ (P6 blank)
	Shipton & Mooney, 39691
Surrogates	Digital image available in the Readex/Newsbank Digital Evans series. Available via the World Wide Web. Access limited by licensing agreements.
Genre/form	Sermons — Collections.
Added name	Allen, John, 1660?-1727?, printer.
	Eliot, John, 1692-1771, bookseller.
Copies –            N.America
	American Antiquarian Society

       Childrens Book ! 

449G   Thomas  Vincent  (1634-1678,)   &   Charles Leslie, 1650-1722.

An explicatory catechism: or, An explanation of the Assemblies Shorter catechism. : Wherein all the answers in the Assemblies catechism are taken abroad in under-questions and answers, the truths explain’d, and proved by reason and Scripture ; several cases of conscience resolv’d, some chief controversies in religion stated, with arguments against divers errors. Useful to be read in private families, after examination in the catechism it self, for the more clear and thorough understanding of what is therein learn’d.

Boston in New-England : Printed for D. Henchman, over against the Brick-Meeting-House in Cornhill, John Phillips, at the Stationers-Arms, and T. Hancock, at the Bible and Three Crowns near the town-dock., 1729.       $,1500

Octavo  5 1/2 X 3 inches. A-V  X  (X3 verso, X4 blank)   Even the binding structure of this book seems American, it is bound in sheep over scabord and sewn on  two leather sewing supports      VINCENT, THOMAS (1634–1678), nonconformist divine, second son of John Vincent and elder brother of Nathaniel Vincent [q. v.], was born at Hertford in May 1634. After passing through Westminster school, and the grammar school at Felsted, Essex, he entered as a student at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1648, matriculated 27 Feb. 1650–1, and graduated B.A. 16 March 1651–2, M.A. 1 June 1654, when he was chosen catechist. Leaving the university, he became chaplain to Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester [q. v.] In 1656 he was incorporated at Cambridge. He was soon put into the sequestered rectory of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street, London (he was probably ordained by the sixth London classis), and held it till the uniformity act (1662) ejected him. He retired to Hoxton, where he preached privately, and at the same time assisted Thomas Doolittle [q. v.] in his school at Bunhill Fields. During the plague year (1665) he preached constantly in parish churches. His account of the plague in ‘God’s Terrible Voice in the City by Plague and Fire,’ 1667, 8vo, is very graphic. Subsequently he gathered a large congregation at Hoxton, apparently in a wooden meeting-house, of which for a time he was dispossessed. He did not escape imprisonment for his nonconformity. He died in his prime on 15 Oct. 1678, and was buried (27 Oct.) in Cripplegate churchyard. His funeral sermon was preached by Samuel Slater [q. v.]
Among his publications were, besides many sermons: 1. ‘A Spiritual Antidote for a Dying Soul,’ 1665, 8vo. 2. ‘The Foundation of God standeth Sure,’ 1668, 8vo; against William Penn [q. v.], the quaker. 3. ‘Wells of Salvation Opened,’ 1669, 8vo. 4. ‘Fire and Brimstone,’ 1670, 8vo. Posthumous was 5. ‘Holy and Profitable Sayings,’ 1680, broadsheet.
[Funeral Sermon by Slater, 1679; Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1174; Wood’s Fasti, ed. Bliss; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, iii. 2, 19, 95; Calamy’s Account, 1713, p. 32; Calamy’s Continuation, 1727, i. 30 sq.; Wilson’s Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, ii. 191 sq.; Neal’s Hist. of the Puritans, ed. Toulmin, 1822, iv. 451, 479; Foster’s Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]                        Evans, 3229: Rosenbach, A.S.W. Children’s books, 2