Like the other volumes in the four-volume series of which it is a part, this book breaks new ground in gathering and introducing texts relating to the origins of English and Welsh Dissent. Through contemporary writings it provides a lively insight into the life and thought of early Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers, as well as of smaller groups no longer extant.

""An incredibly impressive anthology of nonconformist life and thought, which transcends the value of most documentary series. Here we have a cornucopia of nonconformity from which scholars, students, conformists and nonconformists, the pious and the impious, may all benefit.
--Martin Fitzpatrick, co-editor of Enlightenment and Dissent

""The textual editing in all four volumes is of a very high standard.""
--Betty Hagglund, Project Development Officer for the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies

""A major aid to understanding the history and character of Nonconformity.""
--Henry D. Rack, author of Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism