essentials of religion, and be like manna to you in the wilderness, till you come to Canaan."

The second course, entitled "Several Cases of Conscience practically resolved," were delivered at St. Giles's church, Cripplegate, of which the Rev. Samuel Annesley was the incumbent. He procured the services of his brethren, and edited the volume, which he inscribed "to my most unfeigned beloved parishioners."

The third course was not delivered till the spring of 1674, fifteen years after the preceding; and what a change had passed in that interval! Charles II. had been restored, Episcopacy re-established, the Act of Uniformity passed the Ejectment followed, the Five Mile and Canonical Acts made law, and most rigorously enforced. The deadly plague had desolated London and the provinces-a frightful conflagration had reduced the ancient metropolis to ruin, and infidelity and licentiousness had demoralised the people. All things were altered. But the Bartholomew confessors remained unchanged. By the grace of God, "they were stedfast, unmoveable;" and Manton and Charnock, Poole and Baxter, Bates and Owen, Cole and Wilkinson, were ready to renew their faithful testimony to "the truth as it is in Jesus." But where was this third course delivered? Not at Cripplegate church, most assuredly, for Dr. Annesley had been ejected thence. The volume is entitled, "A Supplement to the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate; or, several more cases of conscience practically resolved, by sundry ministers." It is a Supplement to Exercises at Cripplegate, but it does not say that these discourses were preached there. In that parish, indeed, there was "a certain room adjoining to a dwellinghouse of Thomas Doolittle, in Mugwell Street," "which, in pursuance of our declaration of the 11th of March, 167, we allow," says the royal license, "to be a place for the use of such as do not conforme to the Church of England, to meet and assemble in, in order to their public worship and devotion," &c. This was the first meeting-house built after the fire of London, 1666, and was new at the date of this course, and from Matthew Henry's description (July 18, 1680,) was a most attractive place of worship. To those who recollect the dismal old meeting-house before it was pulled down, the following description will be sufficiently amusing.

"Yesterday," says Matthew to his sisters, "yesterday we went to Mr. Doolittle's meeting place; his church, I may call it, for I believe there is many a church that will not hold so many people. There are several galleries; it is all pewed, and a brave pulpit, a great height above the people." Now, as Mr. Doolittle delivered one of the discourses of his third series, it is highly probable that he accommodated his brethren in "Cripplegate" still. If this conjecture be not true, then we should suppose they were delivered in Dr. Annesley's own meeting-house, in Little St. Helen's, Bishopsgate street, which is, indeed,

probable by the fact that this series is not inscribed to his "beloved parishioners," but, "to that part of Christ's flock to which I am now specially related."

The fourth course in the order of time, though the last in this edition, is, "The Morning Exercises against Popery"-"preached lately in Southwark," 1675. Those who recall the state of England at that period will see how opportunely and faithfully these non-conformists lecturers came forward to renew their protest against the man of sin. This course originated with Mr. Nathaniel Vincent, one of the ejected ministers, who had a large congregation at a meeting-house near Maese, or Maze, in the parish of St. Olave, Southwark. He also edited the volume; and in the address "To the Reader," Mr. V. remarks

"Since England was formerly such a tributary to the see of Rome, and such vast sums of money were carried yearly from hence thither; we are not to doubt, but the pope looks upon us with grief, that he has lost us, and with an earnest desire to regain us. His instruments are more than ordinary busy to this end, insomuch that both king and parliament have taken public notice of it. This lecture, therefore, against popery is very seasonable; and if (which I earnestly beg) this labour be made successful to redeem any of them who have been seduced, or to arm and defend the people against one of the greatest visible enemies that Christ has in the world, I shall exceedingly rejoice that my pulpit was so much honoured by my fathers and brethren when they preached in it, and that ever such a project against popery came into my mind."

This settles the history and locality of these lectures beyond dispute.

The fifth course, which was delivered in October, 1682, is entitled, "A Continuation of Morning Exercise Questions, and Cases of Conscience, practically resolved by sundry Ministers." This is the third series, edited by Dr. Annesley, and made the third volume of the present edition. He says to the reader

"What I have formerly endeavoured in these exercises, I need not here tell you; my design is still the same: when too many are contending about comparatively trifles or worse, I would do my utmost, by calling in better help than mine own, to promote practical godliness."

In conclusion, he refers to the persecutions against the Nonconformists, which were then reviving

"Several of these had been more polished, had not the authors and their books been separated; and I must confess, that the tolerable errors of the press are as many, as an ingenuous reader can well pardon: what then can I say for those which are inexcusable ? Bear with this word of alleviation; it was next to impossible for every one (in our present circumstances) to correct his own sermon, and none else could so well do it."

The sixth and concluding series of Lectures was not preached till after the blessed revolution had taken place. They are entitled, "Casuistical Morning Exercises at Cripplegate. The fourth volume,

preached in October, 1689;" and, we doubt not, at Mr. Doolittle's meeting-house there. The fine old men who delivered them, rich in the learned treasures of a studious life, and yet more eminent for their Christian graces and ministerial usefulness, after struggling through more than forty years of public service, in times of unprecedented dangers, temptations, and sufferings, were permitted to see the civil and sacred liberties of their country placed on a firm and, we trust, immovable basis. How must the languid pulsations of their hearts have been quickened, and what tears of joy must have filled their eyes, at the thought that they had been spared to witness the triumph of those principles of truth and liberty for which they had prayed so often, and suffered so much! Blessed men! "their works do follow them." They laboured, and we have entered into their labours, and by the enterprise of a liberal bookseller of their beloved city, those labours will now be transmitted to future ages. Complete sets of these lectures were extremely rare and very costly, and when acquired were found to be disfigured by untold typographical and other errors, the effects of the circumstances under which they were printed and reprinted. We congratulate Mr. Tegg on the completion of his noble monument to the memory of the Morning Lecturers of the seventeenth century, which is worthy of the men and of the great topics upon which they discoursed. Mr. James Nichol, the editor, has brought to his task the tact of a printer and the learning of a scholar, and thus has made the fifth the standard edition of "The Morning Exercises." Nor can we omit to notice the laborious and invaluable services of Mr. Prebendary Horne and his assistants, Messrs. Grabham and Higdon, who have reduced the multifarious contents of these six volumes under "five copious and useful Index's," extending over more than a hundred closely printed octavo pages, and forming, what every minister and scholar will know how to appreciate, "an ample body of references, directing the attention to every topic and passage of consequence." Nor can we look through the index of the principal matters contained in these six closely-printed octavo volumes, spread over more than four thousand crowded pages, and observe the doctrinal and practical, the polemical and casuistical discussions they contain, and the stores of secular and sacred learning by which they are illustrated, without concluding that this work now forms one of the most valuable repositories of theological knowledge in the English language.

Mr. Dunn's biographical sketches of the seventy-five authors of these Lectures are creditable to his industry, and will form a very appropriate companion and supplement to the larger work.

1. Confessions of a Convert from Baptism in Water to Baptism with Water. 1 vol. 12mo. pp. 130. London: Snow.

2. The Right of Infants to Baptism; with a Brief Essay on the Mode of Baptizing. By W. Davis, Hastings. London: Ball, Arnold, and Co.

WE most heartily wish that the controversy on baptism were termiminated, if not in perfect agreement of opinion, at least in agreement to live together in love. We know of nothing more disgraceful than the separation from each other, of pædo and anti-pædobaptists. We believe that it straitens the Spirit of God, and does serious mischief to the churches concerned. We do not think that we are in the fault in this matter; we are ready, we have long been ready, for a truce. But unhappily so long as our Baptist friends, following such pertinacious oracles as Dr. Carson, will insist that the word means to dip and nothing else, whilst all the world besides knows that it is not a modal verb at all; and so long as they refuse to acknowledge the validity of our baptisms with water rather than in water, denying them to be conscientious, and ascribing our conduct to wilful blindness, there appears no remedy for our divisions; and at present we can only weep at such a strife among brethren. But there is no feature of the case more melancholy to contemplate, than the spirit which characterises, to so great an extent, the holders of these views; as if to compensate for the comparative fewness of their numbers, the zeal of each for dipping seems to be systematically cultivated to a fanatical height; no sooner does man, woman, or child pass under the water, than such person is made to compass sea and land to make one proselyte: having himself done the heroic, he acquires the esprit du corps peculiar to the sect ;from the self-complacent height to which the performance of the tremendous act of self-denial has raised him, insinuates that whoever is reluctant to encounter the baptismal flood, is lacking in courage or honesty, and not unfrequently speaks of such in the language of bitter or contemptuous pity. There is another fault not less common, nor less offensive to an upright mind; we mean the iteration and reiteration to youthful and ignorant persons of arguments, known to be worthless and unsound, just because they are adapted ad captandum vulgus. We really have been grieved at the pertinacity with which such silly proofs of primitive immersion as are derived, e. g., from the much water of Enon, and the going down into and coming up out of the water, &c., have been urged on recent unsuspecting converts.* Now it is as a rebuke to this class of persons that the Confessions were written, and we are

* The ink of this sentence was hardly dry, when a young man entered our study to tell us, how he was assailed in this very manner, and how perplexed his mind was by this very argument.

glad that the author has distinctly stated this in the preface, for we believe with him that among Immersionists are to be found very many of the excellent of the earth, and who would scorn designedly to employ an unworthy argument: and yet, while this book is intended for the former, we think it may do good service in some respects to the latter also; for if our observations have been correct, there are a spirit and tone attendant on baptism, as there are on Methodism, which seem infectious, and which to an easily perceptible though smaller extent is caught by even the best and most intelligent members of either body, without their knowing it. We well recollect the eagerness with which, in our younger days, we embraced every opportunity of hearing that great and good man, the late Richard Watson; we never listened to his ministry but with intense delight yet when he came to offer the concluding prayer of the service, we were always amazed that a man of so much taste and refinement could stoop to the artifice of constructing his sentences, making the frequent and solemn pause, as if to invite the sigh, and the groan, and to produce the discordant sounds of Glory, Hallelujah, Amen. We are sure, however, there was no artifice in him. Habit had familiarised him to it, so that he felt no impropriety in what is apt, unduly perhaps, to offend our quiet and decorum. In like manner our more intelligent Baptist brethren, ever breathing an atmosphere of false and intemperate zeal for dipping, are scarcely aware of its unhappy effects upon their spirit. Judging from their conduct one would conclude, that the getting of a convert under water was to them a matter of such vast consequence, that in the use of measures, good or bad, to secure it, the end sanctified the means.

We ourselves, when first awakened to a just sense of the importance of religion, were placed in circumstances very similar to those of our autobiographer. We were waylaid by Baptist brethren on every side. Nothing could be plainer, we were told, with an air of most arrogant infallibility, than that the first baptisms were dippings; only as it was a trial to flesh and blood, men would not see it—or, seeing it, tried to persuade themselves it was not necessary now; and well do we remember how long and sorely our uninstructed mind was disturbed by a variety of superficial reasonings, and unworthy insinuations; and by what distressing fears our conscience was pained, lest we should be found guilty of disobedience to one of the positive commands of our dear and adorable Redeemer. Fortunately for us we had a pastor of great sagacity and shrewdness; we made up our minds at length to tell him our difficulty and ask his aid. He replied by proposing some halfdozen questions on the most popular points that had been urged upon us, and sent us to seek an answer. It was enough; we soon saw, or thought we saw, the shallowness of the reasonings by which we had been posed, and were convinced that from the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist, to the close of the life of the beloved disciple, no