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Theological & Religious Tracks, Page 1.

1. Calebs Integrity;-
in Following the Lord Fully :
by Richard Vines;- 1646
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in a sermon preached at St. Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at their late solemne and publick fast, Novemb: 30th. 1642. By Richard Vines, Mr. of Arts of Magd. Colledge in Camb: and minister of the gospell at Weddington in the county of Warr;-Published 1646 in London :  by G. M. for Abel Roper, at the Signe of of [sic] the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleete-streete, 1646;- Original binding, A very scarce book and very rare in theis fine condition.  Re-binded leather spine with gilt lettering. A fine copy of a very collectable book;-

Richard Vines (1600–1656), puritan divine, was born at Blaston, Leicestershire, about 1600. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1622, M.A. 1627. He was an excellent Greek scholar. About 1624 he became schoolmaster at Hinckley, Leicestershire, where John Cleveland [q. v.], the cavalier poet, was among his scholars, and owed much to his training. On the death of James Cranford (1627) he was presented to the rectory of Weddington, Warwickshire, and instituted on 11 March 1627–8. In 1630 he was presented by William Purefoy [q. v.] to the neighbouring rectory of Caldecote, was instituted 10 June, and held both livings, worth together 80l. a year; but the parish register at Hinckley shows that he was still living there in 1640. Having gifts as a preacher, he conducted a weekly lecture at Nuneaton, which was largely attended, and attracted hearers from distant places, among them being Samuel Clarke (1599–1683) [q. v.], afterwards his intimate friend. In 1642 he was presented for Warwickshire as one of the ‘orthodox divines’ to be consulted by parliament ‘touching the reformation of church government and liturgie.’ He preached a fast sermon before the House of Commons (30 Nov. 1642) which made a great impression. Owing to the disturbed state of his county, he took refuge in Coventry early in 1643, with other puritans, and took part in the daily lecture there. Nominated a member of the Westminster assembly by the ordinance of 12 June 1643, he went up to London, and was placed in the rectory of St. Clement Danes, vacant by the sequestration of Richard Dukeson, D.D. (d. 17 Sept. 1678, aged 77). Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.], was his parishioner. On 18 March 1643–4 he was made, against his wishes, master of Pembroke Hall, Cam- bridge, by the Earl of Manchester, on the ejection of Benjamin Laney [q. v.] He kept his place in the assembly, but did good work in the college. He found it, according to Clarke, ‘very empty of scholars, and the buildings much out of order,’ having been used as military quarters; his reputation ‘quickly drew scholars,’ and he proved himself a capable administrator and promoter of learning. In June 1644 he was invited by the civic authorities to the vicarage of St. Michael’s, Coventry, but declined. He was placed on the parliamentary ‘committee of accommodation’ (13 Sept. 1644), and chosen chairman (20 Sept.) of the acting sub-committee; his defence of the validity of ordination by presbyters (though himself episcopally ordained) ‘was much applauded by his own party’ (Fuller). At the Uxbridge conference (30 Jan.–18 Feb. 1645) he was one of the assisting divines. On 22 May 1645 Essex presented him to the rectory of Watton, Hertfordshire, when he resigned St. Clement Danes. He preached at Essex’s funeral (22 Oct. 1646).

2. Epistolae D. Erasmi Roterodami
 Familiares;- 1546
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In tres centurias diuisae...ex toto epistolarum opere, non sine doctissimorum uirorum iudicio excerptae; adiunximus argumenta in omnes epistolas; ad haee Graeearum uocum interpretationem hactenus non uisam , adposuimus.;- 

Published 1546 by Apud Bartholomaeum Westhemerum in Basileae;- 1546. Written by Desiderius Erasmus 1546 ;- Interesting binding as in an older Medieval Parchment which was used to fully bind this book.  Epistolae D. Erasmi Roterodami
 Familiares;- 1546

While viewed as precious today, Medieval Manuscripts were routinely cut up and recycled for various purposes including use in book bindings. Very Scarce, and very Rare. Only one copy in North America, Held at Georgetown University Library. A few pages missing to the back of the book, otherwise an exceptional rare book with an equally exceptional Medieval Parchment to bind the book. Only one copy in North America, held at Georgetown University Library.


A little history;-

Fragmentology is the study of surviving fragments of manuscripts (mainly manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance  in the case of European manuscript cultures). Leaves and parts of Parchment leaves have been used in bindings of manuscripts since the Middle Ages. The use of manuscript fragments in bindings increased greatly at the end of the 15th century when printed books began to appear in increasing numbers, supplanting many older manuscripts. Most interesting is that some of the Fragments can very more valuable than the book itself. 

3. The Heavenly Trade;-  1679;-
Bartholomew Ashwood
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or, the best merchandizing the only way to live well in impoverishing times: a discourse occasioned from the decay of earthly trades, and visible wastes of practical piety in the day we live In 1679;- Bartholomew Ashwood (1622–1680) 

was an English Puritan Divine. 

Published by Samuel Lee; London 1679. Re-bound in fine dark brown leather, with gilt lettering to the spine and gilt lines;- Very scarce...no original copies to be found  world wide...nor on the internet....Very Rare, a Highly collectable book. Fine condition and complete.

Ashwood was 'a Warwickshire man,' son of a clergyman of the same name (who matriculated at  Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1591, also as a Warwickshire man, aged 13, and proceeded M.A. in 1601). He became a batter or commoner of St. Alban’s Hall in the latter end of 1638, aged 16 years, and so was born 1621-2. But Anthony  Wood informs us: 'Having been puritanically educated, he was translated, after some continuance in the said hall, to Exeter College, and there put under a tutor puritanically then esteem'd, and took one degree in arts as a member of that college, and was soon beneficed and became a man of the times.'

His 'benefice' was Bickleigh, Devonshire, and he is enrolled by Walker as one of the 'loyalist sufferers' (p. 182) of that parish. Walker assumes that he 'died under the usurpation,' i.e. the Commonwealth. But he lived to form one of the 'two thousand' by being 'ejected' in 1662 from Axminster in Devon. He continued to preach for many years, in spite of the severe restrictions imposed on nonconformists. In his old age he seems to have been left in sore straits, and died 'about 1680.' He was the father of  John Ashwood. 

4. The Unbishoping of Timothy and Titus,
by William Prynne .
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Published London;- 1661;- First compiled, and published in the year 1636;- by Edward Thomas. Original binding with rebacked spine with a black label with gilt lettering to the label; The scarce book is complete, and no other original copies can be found world wide, and none on the internet. Fine condition of a scarce and rare book.

and of the angel of the church of Ephesus, or, A brief elaborate discourse, proving Timothy and the angel to be no first, sole, or diocaesan bishop of Ephesus, nor Titus of Crete  and that the power of ordination, or imposition of hands, belongs jure divino to prebyters, as well as to bishops, and not to bishops only, as bishops, who by divine institution are evidenced to be one and the same with presbyters, and many over one city, church, not one over many cities or churches : wherein all objections, pretenses to the contrary are fully answered : and the pretended superiority of bishops over other ministers and presbyters and their sole right of ordination jure divino, now much contended for, are utterly subverted in a most perspicuous manner .

William Prynne was born at Upper Swainswick near Bath in Somerset, the son of a farmer. He was educated at Bath Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford. In 1621, he entered Lincoln's Inn to study law and was called to the bar in 1628. Prynne adopted a militant form of Puritanism and began publishing pamphlets critical of the Arminian doctrines of the Anglican Church. He also condemned the fashions of the age and achieved notoriety in 1632 with the publication of Histriomastix, an attack on stage plays, which he denounced as immoral and contrary to Scripture. It was unfortunate for Prynne that in January 1633, Queen Henrietta Maria took part in a performance of Walter Montagu's Shepherd's Paradise at a court entertainment. Prynne's denunciation of women actors as "notorious whores" was regarded as a personal attack on the Queen. He was brought before Star Chamber and found guilty of sedition, for which he was sentenced to have his ears cropped, fined £5,000 and imprisoned for life.

Although he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, Prynne continued to write attacks on Archbishop Laud and the Anglican church, which were smuggled out and published. In 1637, he was again brought before Star Chamber with two other writers of seditious pamphlets: the clergyman Henry Burton and the physician John Bastwick. He was sentenced to stand in the pillory, to have what was left of his ears hacked off, his nose slit and the letters SL, for "seditious libeller" branded into his cheeks. Prynne, Burton and Bastwick bore the ordeal with defiant courage and were supported by the crowds who witnessed the punishments. Prynne was imprisoned at Mount Orgueil Castle in Jersey until November 1640, when to great popular rejoicing, he was released by order of the Long Parliament,  and returned to London with Burton and Bastwick.

On the outbreak of civil war in 1642, Prynne wrote justifications of the parliamentarian cause, using historical precedents to demonstrate the legality of opposing a tyrannical monarch. He also turned wholly against episcopacy and claimed that the bishops had co-operated with the King's evil counsellors in attempting to re-introduce Catholicism into England. In 1644, Prynne led the prosecution of Archbishop Laud with vindictive relish, collecting and arranging evidence to prove the charges against him and humiliating the Archbishop by conducting a search of his room in the Tower, and even his pockets, for papers to be used against him. After Laud's execution, Prynne was commissioned by Parliament to write the official record of the trial, Canterburie's Doom, in which he claimed that Laud had subverted the righteous rule of King Charles. Throughout the 1640s, Prynne wrote a steady stream of pamphlets attacking the excesses of the Independent sects, but he was equally critical of the Presbyterians,  rejecting the establishment of a Presbyterian system in England and insisting upon the the supremacy of the State over the Church.

In November 1648, Prynne was elected to Parliament as MP for Newport in Cornwall. He supported Denzil Holles in his opposition to the New Model Army, argued that the Treaty of Newport was a satisfactory basis for a peace settlement with the King and led the parliamentary opposition to the Army remonstrance.  Within weeks of his election, Prynne was among the MPs expelled from Parliament by Pride’s Purge,  during which he had to be forcibly restrained from taking his place in the House of Commons. Prynne was overpowered by Colonel Pride himself and briefly imprisoned with other "secluded" MPs.

After the trial and execution of King Charles, Prynne retired to Somerset from where he issued a steady stream of pamphlets harshly critical of the new Commonwealth government, for which he was arrested in June 1650. Prynne was imprisoned for three years without trial. After his release in February 1653, he resumed his pamphleteering but made fewer direct criticisms of the government. Prynne attacked Catholics and Quakers and wrote against the proposal to re-admit the Jews into England, though his pamphlets attracted little attention. He returned to prominence after the fall of Richard Cromwell and the return of the  Rump Parliament  in 1659 when he campaigned for the re-admission of the secluded MPs who had been expelled at Pride's Purge. When General Monck ordered the re-admission of the secluded Members in February 1660, Prynne, wearing an old basket-hilted sword, marched in at their head amid the cheers of the spectators in Westminster Hall. As they entered the House, however, Sir William Waller tripped over Prynne's sword and fell over, which caused laughter in the crowd. Prynne was elected to the  Convention Parliament and the succeeding Cavalier Parliament as MP for Bath. He emerged as one of the most vindictive and unforgiving of those who demanded the punishment of regicides and others associated with the Interregnum government.

In recognition of his support for the Restoration, Charles II appointed Prynne keeper of records at the Tower of London. In this role, he was a pioneer in the transcription, organisation and preservation of historical records. Prynne died unmarried at his lodgings in Lincoln's Inn in October 1669.

5. Letters To Serena,
by Mr. Toland 1704
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Containing: The Origin And Force Of Prejudices; The History Of The Soul's Immortality Among The Heathens 

Published by Bernard Lintet in London 1704;- Original binding with re-backed spine, a brown label to the top of the spine. Very scarce book and very rare..no other copies to be found world-wide, and none on the internet. Fine condition and complete.
John Toland (30 November 1670 - 11 March 1722)

Toland was a rationalist philosopher, whose written views about religion are among the earliest examples of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment.

On this date [30 November] in 1670, John Toland was born in Ireland, where he was rumored to be the son of a Catholic priest. He was "Educated from the cradle in the grossest superstition and idolatry," he later wrote in Apology (1697). By age 15, he had rejected Roman Catholicism by "his own reason." He studied at Glasgow College from 1687-1690, aligning himself with Presbyterianism. He earned a Master's Degree in Glasgow in 1690. He then studied at Leyden, Holland. A Dutchman, Benjamin Furley, wrote John Locke that Toland had become "a free-spirited, ingenious man," but "having cast off the yoke of spiritual authority . . . has rendered it somewhat difficult for him to find a way of subsistence in the world." Patrons, including the deistic Lord Shafesbury, helped him. The Encyclopedia of Unbelief (source of quotes) terms Toland "perhaps the first professional freethinker." Toland directed the bulk of his writing, more than 100 works, against established religion while shrewdly qualifying his statements to avoid prosecution. Toland was the first to be called a "freethinker" (by Bishop Berkeley). At Oxford, Toland wrote Christianity not Mysterious (1696), in which he credited "cunning priests" with the promotion of irrationality. Toland returned to Ireland for a visit, where his book was castigated from the pulpits and by the Irish House of Commons, which ordered the book burnt and the author arrested. One member of the House even moved "that Mr. Toland himself should be burnt." Toland moved to London. By 1704, Toland, who had translated the pantheistic work of Giordano Bruno, called himself "a Pantheist," and is believed to be the first to use the term. In his History of the Soul's Immortality, Toland asserted that this doctrine was a self-serving invention by Egyptian priests. He also wrote a Life of Milton (1698) and political tracts. The courts of Holland, Hanover, Vienna and Berlin received Toland; he dedicated his Letters to Serena (1694) to the Queen of Prussia. His pamphlet "Nazarenus" (1718) contained early samples of biblical criticism. "Pantheisticon" (1720) rejected supernaturalism. His essay "Tetradymas" contains bible criticism and a description of the murder of Hypatia..

J.M. Robertson considers Toland “a thorough deist until he became pantheist,” saying a certain amount of evasion was forced upon him because of the Blasphemy Law of 1697. Jonathan Swift described Toland as “the great Oracle of the anti-Christians.”

For some years before his death, according to Robertson, Toland lived in obscure lodgings with a carpenter at Putney. His health was broken, and his circumstances were poor. His last illness was painful, but he bore it with fortitude. According to one of his most intimate friends, Toland looked earnestly at those in the room a few minutes before breathing his last, and on being asked if he wanted anything, he answered, “I want nothing but death.” His biographer, Des Maizeaux, said that “he looked upon death without the least perturbation of mind, bidding farewell to those that were about him, and telling them he was going to sleep.” Wheeler added that Toland “died with the calmness of a philosopher, at Putney. Lange praises him highly.”

6. STILLINGFLEET, EDWARD (1635-1699)
ORIGINES SACRAE 168
Price: $750 SOLD Buy now

or a Rational Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith, as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures, And the matters therein contained.

       London, Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St.Paul's Churchyard 4th edition corrected and amended 1680 Titlepage in red & black. . THREE BOOKS in One but through-paginated. . Original tan brown bindings with red label to the top of the spine with gilt lettering within.  *Biblical truth asserted from historical sources and especially to show that the Christian faith was established in Britain before the Papal Catholic missions of St.Augustine and as these were a much later development so that the Pope had no historic authority in Britain. It claimed a proper independence of the Christian Church in Britain directly from the foundation by the apostle, St.Paul. Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism;-

7. Edward Ward, 1667-1731.
Dancing Devils, or, The Roaring Dragon: 1724
Price : $1,500  Buy now

A dumb farce, as it was lately acted at both houses, but particularly at one, with unaccountable success (London: Printed and sold by A. Bettesworth ... J. Bately ... J. Brotherton ... , 1724). This is the original Tract without covers in a very fine condition. Its Rare for Tracts to survive from the 18th. Century. It has 68 pages and is very clean. it’s the last copy in private hands. A very Rare Tract, for Edward "Ned" Ward (1667-1731) Edward Ward became a prolific and popular writer during the era of British settlement of the Caribbean. Born in England, Ward eventually learned how to earn a living by writing. He traveled to Port Royal, Jamaica, and returned the following year to publish A Trip to Jamaica (1698), a parody of the promotional tracts often used to recruit settlers to the Americas. His popular account, originally published anonymously, appeared in at least seven editions, and Ward's future publications bore his name, followed by the inscription, "By the Author of A Trip To Jamaica." The following year, he drew upon the success of A Trip to Jamaica, by publishing A Trip to New England (1699). Scholars who have studied Ward agree that Ward's claim to have traveled to New England is dubious. He probably drew his materials primarily from John Josselyn's accounts of his 1638 and 1663 voyages to that area. Ward built upon and exaggerated Josselyn's description of the people, customs and laws, climate, and natural life of New England. Ward remained a popular and prolific journalist throughout the first decade of the eighteenth-century. He died in Fulwood's Rents in 1731. Ward's A Trip to Jamaica (1698) is printed in Early American Writings, Gen. Ed. Carla Mulford, Assoc. Eds. Angela Vietto and Amy E. Winans (Oxford University Press, 2001). A Trip to New England (1699) is presented in its entirety below.

8. John Arrowsmith (1602 –1659) 
The Covenant-Avenging Sword Brandished;- 1643.
Price : $1,500 Buy now

Published by Samual Man, London, 1643/1644. Original binding, some slight wear, otherwise a fine copy of a Rare book. Made up of many Tracts of Sermons by Arrowsmith. With index to the back page. . Its Rare/scarce. John Arrowsmith was born near Gateshead and entered St Johns College, Cambridge in 1616. In 1623 he entered the fellowship of St Catherine Hall, Cambridge.[1] In 1631 he became a preacher at King's Lynn, Norfolk. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly and preached to the Long Parliament on a number of occasions. He was elected as Master of St Johns, Cambridge on 11 April 1644. In 1645 he became rector of St Martin Pomary, London.[2] He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1647-48. In 1651, he was elected Regius Professor of Divinity, and, in 1653, Master of Trinity College. He resigned his professorship in 1655 and died February 1659, in Cambridge. The Covenant-avenging Sword Brandished (1643) Englands Eben-ezer (1645) A Great Wonder in Heaven (1647) Armilla Catechetica (Cambridge, 1659)

9. John Selden,  or, 
God made Man.
Price : $400 SOLD Buy now

A Tract Proving the Nativity of Our Saviour to be on the 25. of December. London, Printed by J. G. for Nathaniel Brooks ... 1661. Description 8vo, title within border of type-ornaments, the last 21 pp. being a catalogue of books sold by Brooks 'at his Shop at the Angel in Cornhill', including 'Books in the Press and now printing'. Contemporary binding, wrapping the original Tract; Seldon who is perhaps responsible for two long and scholarly notes at p. 40, on Selden's treatment of eastern church history in other works. First and only edition. The C17 version of the controversy over the birth-date of Jesus was fueled in part by Puritan antiquaries, to whom the popular celebration of Christmas was repugnant. Selden, while admitting that the traditional date stems from 'about 400 years after our Saviour', took his arguments from the history of its observance in the early Church, and its relation to the pagan winter solstice festival. I offer this Rare book for $400 as is. A must for any serious collector.

The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, an historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchic by Prynne, William -1641 Book description: London: Michael Sparke senior, 1641. 2 vols. 4to. (significant pagination errors, text complete). First edition, in two volumes. Part II has "Articles of accusation and impeachment by the Commons House of Parliament against William Pierce, Doctor of Divinity, and Bishop of Bath and Wells" bound between pp. 304 and 305. The two parts in this case came from not only different binders but also different printing variants: ESTC describes two states of the title-page, one with line 10 ending ’anti-monarchi-’ and the other ’anti-mo-’. Prynne was a Puritan pamphleteer whose attackes on the established Church lead to his imprisonment, judicially ordered mutilation and branding as a seditious libeler. He supported the return of Charles II to the throne. The 2 Vol. is bounded together in one vol. its again very Rare, in original binding with the spine re-backed, with gilt lettering to the top. Beautiful throughout…and very collectable.

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