Commentaries, that Rollock had previously lectured on the entire Book of John in his public preaching. We are told in the Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to the present work, that notes of these Lectures had been taken, especially by some of his students. The Editors' were thus enabled-from these notes and the Commentaries-to favour the world with two publications, of which the one first printed is now offered to the Society. The other, an 8vo volume, of 270 pages, has for its title, "FIVE-AND-TWENTIE LECTURES, vpon the last Sermon and Conference of our Lord Jesus Christ with his Disciples, immediately before his Passion: contained in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the Gospel of Sainct John. As also upon that most excellent Prayer, contained in the seuventeenth Chap. of the same Gospel. Preached by that Reuerend and faythfull seruant of God, M. Robert Rollok, Minister of the Kirke (and Rector of the Colledge) of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Printed by Andro Hart, anno 1619." The Editor, in executing the duty entrusted to him, has been anxious to furnish the Society with all the means in his power, of judging fairly of Rollock's claim to the high reputation which he enjoyed as a preacher. He has already, in the first volume, attempted to estimate his 1 Of these,-Henry Charteris, Rollock's successor in the Principalship, and William Arthur, minister of St Cuthbert's, as well as of Sir William Scot of Elie, the warm friend and literary legatee of our author,—notice has been already taken in the Life prefixed to vol. i. ? This work occupies, in the original, 576 pages of small pica 8vo. A fac-simile of the title-page is given with this reprint. characteristics, so far as these can be determined in the peculiar circumstances in which the vernacular works of the author, if they can with propriety be so called, were given to the world. Suffice it here to aver, that in fervour, fidelity, pathos, and a simplicity, which has often the effect of eloquence, they will be found, with all the disadvantages of not only a posthumous but a compiled publication, not unworthy of the high reputation which Rollock enjoyed in his own day, as a useful and an effective preacher of the Gospel. It may be proper to mention, that the texts at the head of each Lecture, as given by the original Editors, and here retained, are taken from the Geneva translation. To it however they seldom adhere, when quoting, in the Lectures themselves. For one instance of the diversity of expression produced by this irregularity, the reader may refer to the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth Lectures, where the same passages are repeated in very different forms. The spelling of the text has been modernized, slight slips in grammar, (where no peculiarity of style is involved,) and in references to passages of Scripture, have been rectified; and the punctuation has been attended to, so as best to bring out the Author's meaning. No other alteration has been made on the text except in a few instances, all of which are accounted for in the foot-notes. The Editor has throughout compared these Lectures with the Latin Commentary, and has noticed the passages in it which struck him as deserving observation, so far as this seemed desirable, or As to the foot-notes generally, it will only be necessary further HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH, b |