DIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT ABOUT WATER-BAPTISM, NO BAR TO COMMUNION: OR, TO COMMUNICATE WITH SAINTS, AS SAINTS, PROVED LAWFUL by BUNYAN, JOHN - 1673

London: John Wilkins, 1673. FIRST EDITION. 160 x 100 mm. (6 3/8 x 3 7/8"). 122 pp., [2] leaves (ads). FIRST EDITION. FINE NAVY BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO, GILT, BY FRANCIS BEDFORD (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with French fillet border, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with central fleuron within a lozenge of small tools, curling cornerpieces, gilt titling, richly gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With woodcut frontispiece of "Pilgrim's Progress Part 2d" inserted at front. Front free endpaper with armorial bookplate of George Goyder; flyleaves with Goyder's pencilled signature (dated 1947) and his neat bibliographical notes. Wing B-5509: Sotheby's, Valuable Early English Works on Theology, Divinity &c. from the Renowned Library formerly at Britwell Court (January 31, 1921), Lot 109 (this copy). Text lightly washed and pressed, in keeping with bibliophilic fashion at the time of binding, tiny expert repair to corner of title page, head edge trimmed a bit close (but no loss), isolated minor stains, otherwise A FINE COPY, clean and generally fresh internally, in an unworn binding. This is the excellent Britwell-Harmsworth-Goyder copy of Bunyan's remarkably rare statement of his belief that baptism by water was not necessary before a worshipper was allowed to take communion. This put him at odds with many of his fellow Baptists, and many of the arguments in this volume reply directly to the work written by Thomas Paul and published by William Kiffin concerning Bunyan?s "A Confession of my Faith and a Reason of my Practice." For Bunyan, only faith in Jesus Christ and adherence to the Ten Commandments were necessary to admit a person to membership in the church. It is a debate that continues to this day: pastors still cite this work, modern theologians still study it, and religious publishers still offer it for sale. Our volume has a distinguished provenance, gracing, in turn, the Christie-Miller collection at Britwell Court, the impressive collection of early English books assembled by Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth (1870-1937), and the library of George Goyder, a scholar and collector of English Reformation works. This first edition is almost never seen in the marketplace: ABPC and RBH list no sales except that of the Bute copy (1995) and our own (which sold at Sotheby's in 1993 for the hammer price of £3,500, or about $5,237).