for this edition, that, when in 1852 I was finally ready for the press, I found it impossible, from circumstances I need not particularize, to bring out the work in London on my own account, and was accordingly induced to adopt the suggestion of submitting my revised copy and improvements to the Delegates of the Oxford University Press, under whose auspices and at whose expense this edition now appears.

I proceed to give some account, which may be expected, of previous editions, beginning with the history of Mr. Bingham's writings and the periods at which they respectively appeared, and concluding with some further explanation and notice of the chief and distinctive features of the present publication of his WHOLE WORKS.

The earliest of his publications may be designated as THE TRINITY SERMONS, being three, the first of which was preached before the University in 1695, and the second and third in the two following years before the Bishop and Clergy at Winchester. They are again published, for the fourth time since 1829, in the latter part of the tenth volume of this edition, of which volume THE FRENCH CHURCH'S APOLOGY FOR THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, originally issued in 1706, forms the first part; followed in the same volume by THE SERMONS AND LETTERS ON ABSOLUTION, the latter of which were written in February, 1712-13, while the former of them were first delivered severally at Winchester Cathedral on the 8th and 22nd of May, 1715, and repeated as one discourse, with omissions and abbreviations, at the annual Visitation at Bishop-Waltham on September the 24th, 1716: at least so I find the dates given on the fly-leaf of the Author's original manuscript of these Sermons, which I happily possess. It may appear strange that the Letters, which were written before the Sermons were preached, should be printed after them; but in that order

MR. LESLIE of Great Queen Street, and MR. STEWART of King William Street, West Strand. I must also make my due acknowledgments for occasional hints from Gentlemen, with whom I am not personally acquainted, either by letter to my address, or through the medium of "Notes and Queries."

they were published in 1720 by the Author himself in his Appendix to the eighth volume of the ORIGINES, at the end of the Nineteenth Book.

I have thought it desirable to place in the ninth volume, by themselves, THE FIRST AND SECOND PARTS OF THE SCHOLASTICAL HISTORY OF BAPTISM BY LAYMEN, which appeared in 1712 and 1714 respectively, between the third and fourth volumes of THE ANTIQUITIES, together with THE DISSERTATION ON THE EIGHTH CANON OF THE COUNCIL OF NICE, which is virtually THE THIRD PART OF LAY-BAPTISM, though it did not appear till 1716, as I apprehend. I have never seen a copy of the original pamphlet, which I observe advertised in Knaplock's list at the end of the Author's eighth volume in 1720, which was first republished at the end of the folio edition of his collected works in 1726.

6

These tracts, however, in answer to Mr. Lawrence and Dr. Brett, formed no inconsiderable portion of the Lay-baptism Controversy between the nonjurors and the moderate party of that time, and among them THE DISSERTATION ON THE EIGHTH NICENE CANON was intended as a final rejoinder to Mr. Lawrence, whose First Part appeared while Mr. Bingham was composing his own First Part, with a view to the controversy generally, and to which he replied in the Appendix to his First Part, containing Some Remarks on the Historical Part of Mr. Lawrence's Writings, &c.' Then followed in 1714 Mr. Bingham's Second Part on the same subject, in which he again answers Dr. Brett, and in a long Appendix replies very fully to Mr. Lawrence's Second Part. These writings drew from that gentleman the Supplement to that Second Part, finally replied to in the NICENE DISSERTATION, as mentioned just above.

I have no clue to the precise time of the first delivery from the pulpit of the excellent SERmon on the MERCY OF GOD TO PENITENT SINNERS, which I have placed last in order in my tenth volume. But finding it noticed, as well as the NICENE DissertaTION already spoken of, in Knaplock's rider at the end of the eighth volume of the Author's greater work, I apprehend that it had been previously published, perhaps about the time of the

DISSERTATION, or at any rate subsequently to the ABSOLUTIONSERMONS in 1715-16, to which probably it was intended to be a kind of sequel and conclusion. It was afterwards reprinted in the folio edition.

With respect to the Author's immortal work, THE AntiquiTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, the first volume, containing the first and second books, was originally published in 1708; and the second, comprising the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books, in 1709. These two were reprinted in 1710, and this is the only part of the work that passed through a second edition during the Author's lifetime. The third volume, including the seventh, eighth, and ninth books, followed in 1711; but the fourth, which is made up of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth books, did not issue till 1715, while THE FIRST AND SECOND PARTS OF THE HISTORY OF BAPTISM BY LAYMEN intervened, as I have shown before. The fifth volume containing the thirteenth book, one of the longest, and the sixth volume, which has the fourteenth and fifteenth, came out consecutively in 1719. The production of the seventh volume, consisting of a single book, the sixteenth and the longest of all, was the work of the earlier part of 1720, but before the end of that year the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth books were printed as the contents of the eighth volume, with its Appendix, consisting of THE SERMONS AND LETTERS ON ABSOLUTION. The labor ultimus produced in 1722 the ninth volume, or the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second books, as well as the tenth, which was made up of the twenty-third book, the Index of Matter, and the Index of Authors. To his last two volumes the Author prefixed a long and learned Preface, replete with severe strictures on Mr. Blackamore's Summary of Christian Antiquities, as it was termed, which gave my

b Reproduced in the latter part of the Prolegomena prefixed to the present volume.

c This work was afterwards translated into German, and published in 1768-9, by F. E. Rambach, a compliment which it scarcely deserved, under the title of,-Ant. Blackamore's Chr. Alterthümer, aus dem Engl. übersetzt. I possess a copy of the Original, but I have not seen the Version.

Ancestor so much offence on account of its plagiarisms, deficiencies, and egregious errors.

The second edition of his works was that of 1726, in two volumes folio, by some booksellers in London, to whom the Author's widow sold the copyright, while his eldest son Richard, also Rector of Havant, superintended the press. This is a good reprint of all such parts of my Ancestor's writings as had been published under his own eye before his death in 1723, the year after the date of his last volume.

What I think may not improperly be termed the third edition, is the Latin Version by Grischovius, a Lutheran divine of the University of Halle, which he enriched by giving the citations in extenso, and accompanying the passages from the Greek Fathers with Latin translations also. The first part of this laborious work appeared in 1724, with an appropriate Introduction from the pen of the celebrated Buddeus. The remainder came out from time to time in detached volumes, ten in all, and was not completed till 1729. Still later, in 1738, Grischovius produced an eleventh tome, containing the version of the minor works: and the whole was reprinted at Halle in 1751-61. The Introduction of Buddeus and Prefaces of Grischovius I have prefixed to the second volume of this edition.

In the year 1766, an abridgment of the ANTIQUITIES, similar to Mr. Blackamore's, but without any due acknowledgment of the source from which it was derived, was brought out at Vienna under the following title,—Lucii Paleotini Antiquitatum sive Originum Ecclesiasticarum Summa, 1 vol. 4to.: and in 1788-96, an anonymous Roman Catholic author published at Augsburg, in 8vo., another Compendium of Christian Antiquities, in Germand, avowedly extracted from the works of Joseph Bingham, as he honestly admits in the title, though he prudentially withholds his own name, which probably he could not divulge with much prospect of personal impunity e.

d This Compendium was termed, Jos. Bingham's Alterthümer der Kirche, ein auszug aus der Engl. ausgabe.

e The following passage from Mrs. Trollope's

"Vienna and the

It is remarkable, that nearly a century elapsed before there seemed to be any call for a third edition of Mr. Bingham's works in this country; but in 1829, my Father brought out a reprint of all the contents of the old octavo and folio editions, introducing into the notes some further references from the Author's manuscript annotations in a private copy of his own book, and adding for the first time an impression of the THREE TRINITY SERMONS, of which I have spoken before.

These further references I have not only reproduced, but have given in extenso the quotations which respectively belong to them, wherever they occur: and this is one point in which my edition will be found superior to all others.

This publication encountered numerous obstacles in its progress through the press, and was much impeded in its distribution among the subscribers to it, as well as in the sale of the other copies, by a printer's bankruptcy during the period it was coming out. In fine, the remaining sheets were purchased by Mr. Straker, a theological bookseller in London, I believe early in the year 1837, who quickly disposed of them, and afterwards brought out, in 1840, a fourth edition of the Whole Works, together with the Life of the Author, and those additions in the Opuscula, of which the copyright belonged to my family. For this Mr. Straker had our permission. His editor, however, the Rev. J. R. Pitman, did not print the further references, to which I have alluded above. The quotations, too, in that reprint from the Latin Version were repeated, apparently, without collation, or verification, or correction, just as they came from the pen of Grischovius or his amanuensis. In justice, however, to Mr. Pitman, I am bound to add, that he considerably improved the next reprint between 1843-45, the fifth English edition of the Whole Works, or sixth, if we

Austrians" will not be out of place here: (Lond. 1837. vol. 1. p. 158.) 'At the Library of the Franciscans, [at Salzburg,] they found Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities behind a locked grating, and were told by the librarian, that it was a liber prohibitus; and that one monk only in the convent had the Pope's license to read prohibited books: that he might himself obtain the same permission if he applied for it, but that his avocations left him very little time to read at all.'