TO

THE REVEREND WILLIAM AINGER, D.D.

PRINCIPAL OF ST. BEES' COLLEGE

AND

PREBENDARY OF CHESTER,

AN

HUMBLE TESTIMONY OF RESPECT AND REGARD,

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED.

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN the Christian principles formerly maintained in this Church and Country by a Hooker, a Nicholls, or a Wheatley, shall be once more understood, and appreciated, it will be found that this Work contains nothing entirely new; while it is in accordance, as I hope and trust, with the Holy Scriptures, and with the practice of the Apostolic ages.

I do not profess to be capable of adding much to the stores of knowledge; nor am I presumptuous enough to attempt to add any thing new to that which is "the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Nevertheless, I have reason to believe that I have presented the old principles of the Church in a dress somewhat suitable to the circumstances of the present times. The success with which the public delivery of these Discourses has, in some respects, been blessed, leads to this conclusion, and is one material cause of their publication.

While my desire has been to "give offence to no man;" yet I but too painfully know that the truth can never be publicly spoken without giving offence to many. My main object therefore is to convince and to confirm those who are members of the Church-in times, and under circumstances, in which the wisdom of man displays itself in

opposition to the high and heavenly wisdom of God, and the progress of latitudinarian and dissenting principles is attempting to "make havoc" of the Catholic and Apostolic Church.

With whatever reception the following pages may meet, I feel the strongest confidence in the truth and justice of the cause. I know that I have written consistently with the doctrine and practice of the earliest and purest ages of Christianity, with the views of the best and wisest Reformers, and with the sentiments still maintained by those whose learning, whose piety, and whose authority, we, in the present age of the Church, should especially regard.

The following Lectures will be shortly succeeded by similar Discourses on the Thirty-nine Articles, in which the doctrines of the Church will be entered into more fully, and elucidated and confirmed by the plain declarations of Holy Scripture. In the mean time I send forth this small Volume to the world, conscious that its Author has thereby intended to do good, and that he has not omitted to supplicate the "Giver of all good" to favour it with His blessing-awaiting the public sentence however, at the same time, in perfect tranquillity, and with the most entire composure.

Swinton,

Christmas Eve, 1835.