GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS

First edition, first printing. Original dark blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, publisher's monogram in blind to front panel, in dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt fresh, the contents clean throughout. Lower edge untrimmed. In the dustwrapper, a little rubbed to edges, with a few light spots to the upper portion of the front panel and the flap folds. Not price clipped (35s. net to the front flap). A nice copy. Scarce.

"Bunyan's 'Grace Abounding', composed during the author's imprisonment for conscience sake after the Restoration, is an indispensable document of Puritan spirituality; it is also, after The Pilgrim's Progress, the highest expression of Bunyan's religious vision; and its record of his inner life anticipates the dramatic imagery of the great allegory. The present edition, the first to provide a reliable text, [...] is based on the first edition of 1666, with the numerous additional sections and passages added in the third, fifth and sixth editions appearing in the form in which they were first introduced. Many colloquial forms are thus restored. The volume includes the posthumous 'A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan', first published in 1765, and (in an appendix) the contemporary 'Continuation of Mr. Bunyan's Life', added to the seventh edition. The introduction and notes supply full elucidation and historical criticism." (from the jacket).