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every minister of that church ought to have at heart. With this view I have placed myself at the door of the temple with my torch; in the full confidence, that whoever shall be induced to enter in, will abide there

for ever.

But though I am too well acquainted with mankind to expect that, after what has been heretofore written on the subject of church communion, any thing now faid upon it will produce effect on those in whose minds judgment in this matter has been already paffed; yet, if I may prove the inftrument of confirming one wavering member of the church in a rational attachment to it, I fhall not think my time to have been wholly thrown away. Should it, however, be the will of that Divine Master, in whose fervice I feel myself engaged, that I fucceed not even there is one confolation remaining, which I fhall ftill enjoy in common with all those of my brethren, who have exerted themselves in a fimilar caufe; that fo far at least as this fubject is concerned,

thus far;

LIBERAVI ANIMAM MEAM.

PREFACE TO THE READER.

THE

'HE writer who feeks not popularity, must not expect to be popular; whilst he whofe object is truth, will be fatisfied with the conviction, that the pofitions laid down by him are capable of being fubstantiated by their proper proofs. Should it be his misfortune to be writing to a world too much en gaged with itself, or too indifferent to the subject he is handling, to give it due attention, he will confider himself as one born out of due time; and that his words are not true, only because they are not seasonable;-a confideration, which, to a man who has learned that the truth of God is of more value than the whole world, cannot, in the present day, be fo much a fubject for furprise, as it is for regret.

An endeavour to rouse Christians from an appa_ rent apathy to a due fenfe of the tremendous danger attendant on that unfettlement of principles, and un

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fettlement of institutions, which characterise the prefent revolutionary age; and to guard against the desertion of those old and tried paths, by which, under GOD, this country has been conducted to the acmé of national pre-eminence; by opposing a barrier to those licentious opinions, and irregular practices, which, if not counteracted, must terminate in the destruction of our excellent conftitution; and by expofing the fallacy of that specious reasoning on Church fubjects in particular, by which uninformed minds are continually drawn aftray from the established road of truth into the bye-paths of error and fchifm; is an endeavour, for my engagement in which, as a minister of the Church of England, I have no apology to offer. At the 'fame time, when I confider the viti ́ated taste of a faftidious public, which causes the generality of readers to pay more attention to polifhed periods than to the matter they contain, and, from an infatiable thirst after new things, to neglect the laying in that fundamental information neceffary to qualify them to diftinguifh the chaff from the wheat in any fubject of importance; I certainly feel it neceffary to claim indulgence for a work, which, rejecting all meretricious ornaments unfuited to its dignity, profeffes only to deliver thofe plain words of truth and fober nefs, which are beft calculated for general edification. Whilft to every one seriously attending to the fubjects contained in the following pages, (and to no other we write) it muft, it is pre

fumed, evidently appear, that the opinion of the world can conftitute no ftandard, by which the judgment of any reader of them ought to be determined.

The kingdom of CHRIST, Confeffedly, is not of this world: it was established with the intent, that this world fhould be conformed to it; not that this kingdom fhould, from time to time, be made conformable to the fluctuating opinions of a capricious world. As this kingdom then, according to the account given of it in Scripture, is to endure to the end of time; it is to be expected, that the government of it fhould correfpond with its nature. no less than with the character of the faith it was intended to preferve, that of being "the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

That fuch is the cafe, (we have authority for af ferting) no honeft enquirer, properly qualified, can entertain a doubt. It is evident (fays our Church, in the preface to her Confecration Service) unto all men diligently reading Holy Scripture, and ancient authors, that from the Apoftles' time there have been these orders of minifters in CHRIST's ChurchBithops, Priefts, and Deacons. And, therefore, to the intent that these orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed, in the Church of England, no man fhall be accounted, or taken to be, a lawful Bifhop, Prieft, or Deacon in the Church of England, or fuffered to execute any of the faid functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and ad

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