A major early-Stuart Calvinist folio: Nicholas Byfield’s learned exposition of Colossians, dedicated to the Puritan patron the 3rd Earl of Bedford.

BYFIELD, Nicholas.  An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Collossians. Wherein, Not Onely the Text Is Methodically Analysed, and the Sence of the Words, by the Helpe of Writers Both Ancient and Moderne Is Explayned. But Also, by Doctrine and Vse, the Intent of the Holy Ghost Is in Euery Place More Fully Vnfolded and Vrged […]

London: William Stansby for Nathaniel Butter, 1627.

Folio (273 × 174 mm).

A substantial and learned Calvinist exposition of the Epistle to the Colossians, presenting a verse-by-verse theological, exegetical, and pastoral analysis by one of the most celebrated English preachers of the early seventeenth century. This 1627 edition is a corrected and expanded posthumous reissue of Byfield’s first edition of 1615.

Byfield combines close textual analysis with wide patristic and Reformation-era learning, integrating ancient and modern authorities with practical doctrinal application (“doctrine and vse”) throughout. Of particular interest is his emphasis on the centrality of preaching in the spiritual life of the godly, including a celebrated passage enumerating ten “singular benefits” mediated to believers through faithful pulpit ministry.

The work is dedicated to Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, a prominent Puritan patron and one of the great aristocratic supporters of Reformed preaching in early Stuart England.

Folio. Collation: [26], 173 [=179], [9], 90, [10], 116, 119–137, [9], 157–202, [14] pp. (¶4 *4 A–Q6 R4 S–Aa6 Bb8 Cc–Tt6). Title page within ruled frame; woodcut initials and ornamental chapter headers; text and marginalia within ruled frames throughout. Some browning; occasional early ink annotations and textual corrections.

Modern three-quarter calf with blind-stamped ornaments, brown buckram boards, green morocco spine label gilt, five raised bands, blind ruling and ornaments. A solid, textually complete, and very presentable copy of a major early-Stuart Puritan folio.

Nicholas Byfield (1579-1622) was one of the most admired Calvinist preachers and devotional theologians of the early Stuart Church of England. Educated at Oxford, he served first as preacher at St Peter’s, Chester, and later as vicar of Isleworth, Middlesex, where he attracted a large and devoted following.

Byfield was renowned for his powerful pulpit presence, practical divinity, and experiential preaching style. He was held in especially high esteem among the godly laity and Puritan gentry, and his works circulated widely among ministers, householders, and serious lay readers.

Although he died prematurely at the age of forty-three, Byfield left a considerable body of devotional and exegetical writing, much of it published posthumously. His works, including the present Exposition upon the Epistle to the Colossians, were repeatedly reprinted and remained influential well into the later seventeenth century.