WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN. WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO EACH TREATISE, NOTES, AND A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND CONTEMPORARIES. VOLUME FIRST. EXPERIMENTAL, DOCTRINAL, AND PRACTICAL. EDITED BY GEORGE OFFOR, Esq. BLACKIE AND SON: FREDERICK STREET, GLASGOW; SOUTH COLLEGE STREET, EDINBURGH; MDCCCLX I. PREFACE. It is one of the curiosities of literature that the works of Bunyan, which have been the most popular of all books-rich with gospel truth, and eminently calculated to promote heavenly-mindedness-were for many years so exclusively patronized by the poor, as to have been most humbly and imperfectly published. Even that singularly popular book, The Pilgrim's Progress, was meanly printed in separate parts for half a century, on paper of the worst quality-in the cheapest form— with the rudest cuts. Innumerable copies of these were sold to the poor, and have been so devoured and worn out, as to have become rare in proportion to their age. Happy, indeed, is that inveterate book-collector who has secured one out of the 100,000 copies that were printed during the author's life. The British Museum, in its immense treasures, has one; it is of the second edition. Mr. Holford is the envy of all bibliomaniacs in having a fine copy of the first edition, published originally for one shilling, and which, in its old sheep's skin binding, he secured for the trifling sum of twenty guineas! In 1728, 'some persons of distinction and piety largely and generously subscribed' to print a handsome edition, with copper-plates by Sturt, in order that 'the general good this incomparable treatise has done to mankind, might be extended to the aged and to the rich.' Happy is that book-collector, who, like Lord Ashburnham, has a good copy of that comparatively elegant but incorrect edition. Bunyan's profound and inimitable allegory, The Holy War, was still more neglected; no edition so well printed as the first was published for more than 100 years. His other treatises were most numerously but inelegantly published for the use of the poor; and the early editions, like those of The Pilgrim's Progress, have been so worn out with fair but hard use, as to have become exceedingly scarce and difficult of access. Their contents were devoured by anxious readers, far more desirous to store up in their minds the sacred truths they contained, than to preserve the little books which were so blessed to them. Very soon after Bunyan's decease, an attempt was made to collect all his works, and print them uniformly. Proposals were issued and favourably received, but the copyrights of some of his treatises being in the hands of booksellers, only one volume was published. It is a very important one, containing twenty invaluable treatises, of which ten were found at his decease prepared by him for the press, none of which had been printed. This folio volume was published in 1692, by Bunyan's personal devoted friends, C. Doe, E. Chandler, and J. Wilson, three eminent ministers of the time. It has an index, dedicated to each subscriber; and the Struggler, containing some personal anecdotes of the author, and thirty sound reasons why his works above others ought to be held in the highest esteem. It is accompanied with an interesting list, showing the order in which sixty of these works were published. This curious and rare tract we have reprinted at the end of our Third Volume, and the original proposals will be found at end of the Life. The second effort made to publish his whole works was in 1736-7, by Samuel Wilson, in two volumes folio; this contained forty-seven treatises, with copper-plates to the Pilgrim. In 1769, it was republished at Edinburgh, in six volumes 8vo; and a still inferior edition, in eight volumes, in 1771. The same year they were printed by Henry Galbraith, in a thick folio, with rude cuts to the Pilgrim, four on a page, two of them on every leaf being upside down. In 1768, our great Christian reformer, George Whitefield, edited a handsome edition in two volumes folio, containing forty-nine treatises. In 1780, a more complete but very inaccurate edition was published in octavo, under the venerable names of W. Mason and J. Ryland; this included forty-five of his works. Although full of errors and on bad paper, it has become scarce. The difficulty of procuring some of the treatises appeared to us at one time to be insurmountable. Still it was essential, to secure accuracy, that every one should be obtained in its original state, the later copies being mutilated to an extraordinary degree. In the best edition of his works, the book on Justification, reprinted for the first time, had one whole leaf omitted; in other treatises, paragraphs were left out, and words changed so as completely to obscure or alter the sense. Nothing but the extraordinary zeal of the admirers of these works, most cheerfully devoted to our aid, could have enabled us to complete these labours. To the town of Spalding we are indebted for three unique tracts; and after searching through every city in England and Wales-the chief cities in Scotland, Ireland, and the United States, when on the brink of despair, The Book for Boys and Girls was discovered by our indefatigable friend, James Dix, Esq., at Liverpool. After some years of great anxiety and toil, the whole has been completed. The rarity of these valuable works will be more easily conceived by the fact, that we paid for three six-penny books, four guineas and a-half! The hope of having rendered some service to the Church of Christ, and the honour of having my humble name on the same page with that of the illustrious and holy John Bunyan, richly compensates for all the labour. The whole of these deeply-interesting and valuable works are now for the first time exactly reprinted from editions published in his lifetime, or from the editions printed directly from his MSS. after his death. Bunyan's Doctrinal and Practical Treatises, like most similar writings in those times, abound in divisions and subdivisions. These, through the carelessness of the printer, in some of the earlier editions, and in all the later ones, were printed in one uniform manner, no distinction being made between primary, secondary, and subsidiary divisions; and thus they became a source of much perplexity and confusion. Two were frequently thrown into one, and the number omitted, or the number erroneously placed to the following division—sometimes not only the number but the passage itself was omitted; in other cases, the numbers were transposed, and important divisions frequently commenced in the middle of paragraphs, as an ordinary sentence, without any mark whatever. This confusion prevented the beauty and clearness of the arrangement of the subject, as sketched out by Bunyan, from being perceived; while the reader would be perplexed among the mazes of firsts, seconds, and thirds, that were constantly occurring, and thus much of the profit and enjoyment of the perusal be lost. Great care has been bestowed to remedy these defects by the use of capitals, small capitals, Italic, |