PREFACE. ALTHOUGH I feel persuaded that no care of the Church, nor of her Rulers, can wholly prevent Schism, and the prevalence of doctrinal errors, yet I am confident that an unprejudiced statement of her Tenets, Formularies, and Government, such as they are, and not such as they are generally represented to be, is calculated to check such widely-spreading evils. For if we examine the strange aversion with which many of our Dissenting brethren regard our Church, we shall find it owing, in a great measure, to prejudice against her, and ignorance of what may be advanced in her favour: the opinions of their forefathers have been assumed for granted by most of them, having neither leisure, nor perhaps capacity, to examine them; and even the few who have, from many and different causes, made themselves acquainted and satisfied with the reasons generally alleged in favour of Nonconformity, have, I fear, but rarely considered whether their convictions, however strong, may not possibly be erroneous. Impressed with the truth of this conclusion, I have ventured to publish the following pages; to which I have been chiefly prompted by a conscientious attachment to the Church of which I am a Member, and a disinterested ambition of contributing, (although perhaps, but sparingly) to a clearer comprehension, and consequently a wider diffusion, of her principles. If I could but feel satisfied that every reader would be fully sensible of, strictly weigh, and duly appre B ciate, my motive and object in thus publicly avowing my "reasons for the hope that is in me," I should experience less hesitation in offering them to his notice, from a consciousness that every justifiable allowance would be made for the numerous errors and defects of which I have been unwillingly guilty. I have been chiefly induced to submit the result of my labours to the public, from an anxiety to effect a re-union between ourselves and Dissenters in general, by assisting them in the re-examination of those doctrines and opinions which they have (perhaps unthinkingly) adopted. In doing this, it has been my constant endeavour (where I could possibly avoid it) to abstain from all invidious and bitter expressions; because I feel persuaded that as they cannot tend to elucidate, so neither can they have any manner of connection with, religious controversies; that they certainly contribute nothing to the establishment of truth, which is never seen through the mists of passion, nor discovered by the heat of zeal; and that as they give no strength to a bad argument, they are much less a grace or advantage to a good one. I have, therefore, sought to confute my opponents without anger, and to conquer without triumph, to "admonish" each of them "as a brother," and to "speak the truth in love," because it is not the men, but the opinions, which I have attacked. But however I might wish to prevail upon my Dissenting brethren to atone for their Schism (for such I fear I must call it) by returning into the pale of that Church from which they have, I believe, so causelessly separated, yet this was not my sole inducement; other reasons equally cogent have thrust this presumptuous undertaking upon me reasons, founded upon a wish to deter (if possible) the wavering Episcopalian from a rash and * Eph. iv. 15. inconsiderate desertion of the principles in which he was educated. On a perusal of this work, he will discover, that the objections generally urged against our Church lose nothing of their weight by the manner in which I have stated them. Truth being my only object, I have candidly brought forward whatever has at any time been advanced by our opponents; and the impartiality with which their reasons for dissent have been examined, will give the sincere inquirer an opportunity of following up an unbiassed consideration of both sides of this important question, which will be found to afford the best foundation and most solid security for his continuance in the Communion of the Church. In the prosecution of the work I have necessarily trodden the same path with many illustrious individuals who have preceded me, with whose writings my humble and unpretending volume has no presumptuous wish to compete. Indeed I have not only adopted the arguments, but (in particular cases,) the very expressions of those authors, to some of whom I owe so much that it would be ungrateful to omit an opportunity of avowing the obligation.* But although I frankly acknowledge that it was not my original design to hold out the expectation of an entirely new mass of arguments, but rather to collect and arrange the most solid, scattered as they were through the numerous bulky and expensive volumes in which former writers have too frequently deposited their diffuse and learned compositions; yet I expect that very much that is new will be found in many parts of this volume,—as well in the matter, as in the arrangement. I have moreover sought to accommodate the whole to the capacity of the general reader, by disposing it in an easy and simple form, and wording it in a plain and concise manner; rejecting whatever seemed to me Particularly to Bishops Mant, Hall, and Tomline; Archdeacons Paley and Daubeny; and the Reverends Messrs. Hooker, Wilks, Wall, and Claggett, |