Records of the General Baptist Churches in England. Edited by
W. T. Whitley, LL.D. Vol. I., 1654-1728. (Kingsgate Press. 21s.)—We cannot examine this volume in detail, but we may con- gratulate the Baptist Historical Society on its publication. It must be understood that the term "General Baptist" is not used in its popular acceptation. According to this, "General Baptists" are those who, having a fixed belief that baptism should be administered to adults by immersion, are willing to live in communion with those who do not accept this tenet. (It is true that in the list of Churches some few are marked with a "P," as indica- ting that they admit Paedobaptists to membership.) What is meant here is a corporate body which organised itself in the Commonwealth time and still exists under the title of "The General Assembly of the General Baptist Churches in England." Accordingly we find no mention of some well-known bodies, of the very flourishing Church, for instance, to which Baptist Noel ministered after his secession from the Church of England. This at one time must have numbered nearly a thousand members, who were about equally divided between Independents and Baptists. There is much interesting matter in the volume. Discipline in the beginning was very strict. Mixed marriages were forbidden, and it was only "in case of necessity, as between man and wife, members may eat common food with persons that are incommunicable in other things."
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