REVIEWS. 1. The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, St.-Giles-in-the-Fields, and in Southwark: being Divers Sermons, preached A.D. 1659-1689. By several Ministers of the Gospel in or near London. Fifth Edition, carefully collated and corrected, with Notes and Translations, by James Nichols. In six volumes 8vo. pp. 688, 692, 624, 616, 728, 804. London: Thomas Tegg. 2. Memoirs of the Seventy-five Eminent Divines whose Discourses form the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, St.-Giles-in-the-Fields, and in Southwark with an Outline of a Sermon from each Author. By Samuel Dunn. 8vo. pp. 232. London: J. Snow. As a century has now passed away since the last formidable effort was made to rekindle in our fatherland the flames of civil conflict, and as two hundred years have elapsed since the soil of England was trodden by hostile armies, and saturated with the blood of her best and bravest sons, so it is extremely difficult to realise, in halcyon days like the present, what a furious and frightful thing civil war really is; or adequately to appreciate the goodness of Divine Providence in preserving us at peace amongst ourselves, and permitting "every man to sit under his vine, and under his fig-tree, none making him afraid." The invaluable lectures at the head of this article call to mind the circumstances under which "The Morning Exercises" were set up, when the last great national struggle for English liberty began, and when, amidst the terrors and dangers of that great war of passions and principles, myriads of devout Christians in this city were calmed and comforted by the exercises of devotion, and found their God to be " very present help in trouble." a On the 25th of August, 1642, Charles the First erected his standard at Nottingham, and commenced his march towards the capital, in which he was directed by the battle of Edge Hill, that was fought on Lord'sday, Oct. 23rd, when that dubious victory was mainly won by the heroism of Col. Hollis's regiment of London Red-coats. The timid tactics of the Earl of Essex, led him to withdraw the parliamentary forces towards Coventry, and thus left the king free to pursue his march towards the metropolis. At length the thunder of Prince Rupert's cannon was heard at Brentford, and the trained bands of London were marched out to Turnham Green to repel the enemy. Many city matrons and maidens had already tasted the bitterness of civil N. S. VOL. IX. 6 A war, in the loss of their sons and brothers at Edge Hill; and now that their fathers and husbands were called to arms, they had but one refuge left-the sanctuary of their God. At that time John Milton was living in a pleasant house, surrounded by a garden, in Aldersgate-street, at that time more open and airy than Regent's Park is now, for it was beyond the mouldering walls of the old city, and towards the open fields, all exposed to the assaults of the enemy. Having but little faith in the ability of the trained citizens to defend the capital against the practised army of the king, he who had provoked dislike as a politician, thought it prudent to throw the charm of poetry over his beloved dwelling-place. He, therefore, composed a noble sonnet, "when the assault was intended to the city," which reveals how near danger seemed even to one of London's boldest and most patriotic sons 66 Captain, or colonel, or knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, If deed of honour did thee ever please, Guard them and him within protect from harms." Happily, "this city of refuge, this mansion-house of liberty," the poet's own words, was encompassed and surrounded with the protec tion of God." The state of the king's artillery made it prudent for him to retreat, and the indecision of Essex prevented a battle, and the sad spectacle of pale and bleeding Englishmen, wounded by English hands, being brought to the hospitals of their native city to languish and to die. After a winter spent in fruitless negociations, the campaign was opened again in the spring, and prosecuted with such vigour, that by midsummer, 1643, the king seemed master of the field, and the city and parliament were without any fortifications but such as those old Sparta used, the hearts of her courageous sons. "But now was begun," says May, the historian of the Long Parliament, "the large intrenchment, which encompassed not only the city, but the suburbs on every side, containing about twelve miles in circuit. That great work was by many hands completed in a short time: it being then the practice for thousands to go out every day and dig, all professions, trades, and occupations, taking their turns: not the inferior tradesmen only, but gentlemen of the best quality, knights, and ladies, for the encouragement of others, resorted to the works daily, not as spectators, but as assisters, carrying themselves spades, mattocks, and other suitable implements so that it became a pleasant spectacle at London, to see them going out in such order, and numbers with drums beating before them which put life into the drooping people, being taken for a happy omen, that in so low a condition they yet seemed not to despair." It was well for the people that they possessed springs of hope and consolation more enduring than martial music and congregated multitudes could inspire. Neal, in his History of the Puritans, informs us, that "besides the monthly fast, the opening of the war gave rise to another exercise of prayer and exhortation to repentance, for an hour every morning in the week. Most of the citizens of London, having some near relation or friend in the army of the Earl of Essex, so many bills were sent up to the pulpit every Lord's-day, (requesting prayer) for their preservation, that their ministers had neither time to read them, or to recommend their calls to God in prayer: it was, therefore, agreed by the London divines, to separate an hour for this purpose every morning, one-half to be spent in prayer, and the other in a suitable exhortation to the people. The Rev. Thomas Case began it in his church, at seven in the morning, and when it had continued there a month, it was removed by turns to other churches at a distance, for the accommodation of the several parts of the city, and was called The Morning Exercises. The service was performed by divers ministers, and earnest intercessions were made in the presence of a numerous and crowded audience, for the welfare of the public as well as particular cases.' A similar statement is given by Matthew Henry, in the Life of his father, Philip Henry. "Soon after these unhappy wars began, there was a daily morning lecture set up at the Abbey Church, (Westminster,) between six and eight of the clock, and preached in course, by seven worthy members of the Assembly of Divines, (then sitting,) viz., Mr. Marshall, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Herle, Dr. Staunton, Mr. Nye, Mr. Whitaker, and Mr. Hill. It was the request of his pious mother to Mr. Busby, the master of Westminster School, that he would give her son, then a lad, leave to attend that lecture daily, which he did, and the Lord was pleased to make good impressions on his soul, by the sermons he heard there." Mr. Case, therefore, referring "to his time of England's troubles, and to those who were of a fearful heart, and a troubled spirit," observes with much beauty, and we doubt not with equal truth" Many poor Christians, who in times of public dangers and confessions, have come to these morning-assemblies, like the Marys to the sepulchre of our Lord, with their hearts full of fears, and their eyes full of tears, have been dismissed from those assemblies 'with fear and great joy:' their hearts have been revived, and their hands strengthened in the Lord their God." "The Morning Exercises," he adds, "have had some advantages above other assemblies :-Partly, by reason of the frequency and assiduity of them. Sabbath-day sermons and weekly lectures being distanced with such long intervals of worldly encumbrances, are for the most part forgotten before the return of their weekly course; whereas, these exercises treading so close upon the heels one of another, * Part ii. chap. xii. they that have constantly attended them have, as it were, lived under a constant vision, the sun of the Gospel arising upon them as assiduously as the sun in the firmament; whereby they have been carried on in a daily progress of Gospel-proficiency. "And partly, the preachers, by a kind of secret instinct of the Spirit, having been directed in their order to preach seasonable things, Tapovany àλnocíav, as the apostle calls it, present truth,' (2 Peter i. 12,) truth most proper to the present state of things; carefully obviating the errors of the times. And not only so, but sometimes, as if there had been a design laid by mutual consent, they had been guided to preach methodical truths. Their sermons have been knit together, and not without some natural connexion, into a kind of inоTOTάσis, or module,' of evangelical doctrine; at least, so far as [that] it had not been difficult to find out, not only consent, but a kind of dependence between their successive discourses, that might be of more than ordinary help to their auditors; as in this place [St.-Giles-in-the-Fields] about this time four years; [May 1655;] and since, in a neighbouring congregation, [at St.-Martin's-in-the-Fields,] by some short notes, published for the help of weaker Christians may appear. But now, brethren, behold I show you a more excellent way.' That which sometime hath fallen out providentially, and but in a very imperfect way, is now, de industrid, [of set purpose] and by preagreement and consent, intended, and designed among you in this course of The Morning Exercise;' namely, that which the apostle commends to Timothy's care and custody,—a vπотоάois, or 'form of sound words;' a series, or delineation of some of the chief points and heads of Gospel doctrine methodically collected and digested, as far as the narrow circle of so few days will contain. And this will we do if God permit.'" Such are the historical accounts which the Rev. Thomas Case gave of these lectures, when, in May, 1659, he began in his own church, the first series which was published; for he had then been preferred from St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street, where it will be remembered he commenced these Exercises, to St.-Giles-in-the-Fields, where he was attended by a noble and influential auditory. We have seen how, at the first outbreak of the civil war, the Londoners fled to the sanctuary, and sought after God as their fortress, their high tower, and their deliverer. But when the city was entirely surrounded by an earthly rampart, with bastions and redoubts, from Wapping to Whitechapel, thence to Shoreditch, and by St. John Street, to Islington, and on again towards Bloomsbury, St. Giles's, Soho, Hyde Park, and Constitution Hill, and so by Chelsea and Tothillfields, to the Thames, and then across the river from Vauxhall, St. George's Fields, Blackman Street, and Kent Street, Southwark, to the shore of the Thames again; when these lines were regularly defended, and, what was more soothing still, the brunt of the conflict was falling upon distant counties, it is probable that the panic abated in the city, and with it, the zealous attendance of the people, day by day, on the morning exercises declined also. The campaign of 1645 was commenced with hopeful appearances for the Royalist party, and Charles, in order to produce a sensation in the capital, resolved to make a spirited attack upon some Parliamentary garrison in the centre of England. Leicester was the devoted town selected. Rupert invested it on the last day of May, and by a vehement and persevering assault, which quite suited the temperament of that fiery soldier, it was carried the very same day that the army sat down before it. "The governor, and all the officers and soldiers, to the number of twelve hundred, threw down their arms, and became prisoners of war: whilst the conquerors pursued their advantages," says Clarendon, "with the usual license of rapine and plunder, and miserably sacked the whole town, without any distinction of persons or places churches and hospitals, as well as other houses, were made a prey to the enraged and greedy soldiers, to the exceeding regret of the king, who well knew that, how disaffected soever that town was generally, there were yet many who had faithful hearts towards him, and who he heartily wished to distinguish from the rest; but those seasons admit no difference of persons." : The tidings of this horrible affair reached London, and while they "made a wonderful impression of terror upon the hearts of those at Westminster," the citizens began to fear that if the stone walls of Leicester would not resist the fierce cannonade of Prince Rupert, the earthen bastions of their own suburbs might be soon carried by his brave but dissolute and cruel soldiery. Hence there was a revival of the Morning Exercises at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, in May, 1645, and from which Mr. Case dates his commencement of the more systematic lectures. "Truly God has been pleased to make his morning lecture a great mercy to this city ever since it was first erected: which was when Leicester was besieged." The battle of Naseby quickly followed, which the Royalists lost, and, to use Clarendon's words, "the king and the kingdom with it." The tide of war now receded from the metropolis, and the last waves of that frightful storm broke upon the distant provinces. The establishment of a settled government, enabled the ministers to give themselves time for erudite and systematic study, and that "Exercise" which was daily held during the war throughout the year, was now delivered only day by day throughout the month. Mr. Case edited the first course, entitled The Morning Exercise Methodised, or certain chief Heads and Points of the Christian Religion opened and improved in divers Sermons, which was published 1660. He tells us that every preacher "took the care of transcribing his own discourse, and sending me the copy; accordingly I submit it to the press." He dedicated the volume to Lords Warwick, Scarsdale, Wharton, and others of his noble hearers, and urges his friends to purchase these sermons; which, if the ministry should fail, (a judgment which England was never in such danger of, since the Gospel was restored,) and all other helps, both in public and private, should be cut off, (which God forbid!) yet this one book, next to the Bible, would be a stock of divinity which might furnish you with the knowledge of the |