Bunyan's Works, 1832

The Works of the Eminent Servant of Christ, John Bunyan, Minister of the Gospel, and Formerly Pastor of a Congregation at Bedford. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia: James Locken, No. 8 South Front Street. Stereotyped by L. Johnson. 1832. 
 
Original full brown tree calf, now heavily scuffed, with red title labels and gold ornamentation on spines. Tears to tail of vol 1 spine and head of vol 2 spine. Corners bumped and split. Marbled page edges. Some rodent chewing of corner of vol 1 text block. Vol 1 lacks ffep and frontis (if one was ever present); in vol 2 the ffep has several losses, and frontis has one tear with loss slightly involving the image. Both volumes lack rear blank and rfep. Some small damp stain and scattered pencil scribbles. Toned. Set in two columns. With plates (at least one missing). 414 and 352 pages. 
 
John Bunyan (1628-1688) was born poor in Elstow. He was rebellious in his youth, and fought in the English Civil War for Cromwell’s New Model Army. In 1648 he married and was convicted of his sin when reading some of his wife’s books. In 1655 he became a deacon and he began preaching. He was arrested in 1661 for preaching without authority to do so. During imprisonment he was occasionally let out of prison by his jailors to preach. He was repeatedly set free and rearrested over the following years. John Owen said, he “would gladly exchange all of (his) learning for Bunyan’s power of touching men’s hearts.” He was a prolific writer. His Pilgrim’s Progress has never been out of print and is one of the best-selling books of all time.