1704. MR. THOMAS BOSTON. I39 the fame with other things which'feemed to be truth too. And I think, that among thefe frit rays of light, was a notion, that the fins of believers in Chrift, even while yet notaótually repent-. ed of, did not make them, being in a gate of grace, liable to eter- nal punifhment., And on this head I did, by a letter, confult Mr Murray in Penpont ; but was not thoroughly fatisfied with what he advanced upon it. Mean while, being !till on the fcent, as I was fitting 'one day in a houfe of Simprin, I efpied abovè the window -head two littleold books ; which when I had taken down, 3 found intitled, the one The marrow ofmodern divinity, the other, Chrift's bloodflowingfreely to /inners. 'Fliefe I reckon had been brought home from England by the mafter of the houfe, a lbldler in the time of the civil wars. Finding them to point to the fub- jeót I was in particular concern about, I brought them bothaway. The latter, a book of Saltmarlh's I relithed not ; and I thin!c I returned it without reading it quite through. The other, being the firf part only of the Marrow, I relithed greatly ; and having. purchafed at length from the 'owner, kept it from that time to this day ; and it is still tube found among my books. I found it to come dote to the points I was in queft of; and to Phew the confiftency of thefe, which I could not reconcile before : fo that I rejoiced in it, as a light which the Lord had feafonably ftrucit up to me in my darknefs. What time, precifely, this happened, I cannot tell : but I am very fure, that, by the latter end of the year 1700, I had not only feen that book, but digetted the doctrine thereof in a tolerable meafure; fince by that time I was begun to preach it, as I had occafion, abroad. Such opportunities I took, to give way to the then bent of my heart, which I could not fo direótly fatisfyat home, being on the ordinary aforefaid. The fìrft parcel of books I got added to my final( library, was in the `year 1702. The whichyear, in Auguft, Mr Simfon afore- faid being itimy clofet, and looking at my book- pref4, fmiled é the which,'from whatever principle he did it, touched me to the quick, being confeious ofmy want of a tolerable quantity.. Among thefe were Zanchy's works, and Luther on the Galatians, .-which I was much taken with : and Providence alto laid to my hand, g about that time, Beza's. Confection of Faith. Mott of the books mentioned in the 2d, 3d, and 4th pages of my catalogue yet in retentis, whofe prices are fet down with them, were purchafed hr that year, and the following 1703. And from the year 1701, the catalogue aforefaid goes on orderly, according to the years, generally, wherein the books came to my hand., Being thus provided, i was in better cafe to purfue my fearch, to my further mftru&tion and confirmation. In this manner, I. reached, through grace, a diftinétnefs and certainty, as to feverai points ofthe doctrineof grace, that I had not before. And what contributed much thereto was, that I purpofely fludied !base point* ,J thatitature, for my own fLtisfaCtic;rl,; and fet down tny thou tit
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