THE EDITOR TO THE READERS.

As the present work would certainly not have seen the light without the will of the Editor, he must take upon himself the responsibility of an author, and indulge that anxiety to prevent misunderstandings which seems the most rational destination of a preface.

It is, however, to prevent one mistake in particular that the Editor begs the Readers to stop for a moment at the threshold. Of the work itself, including Notes and Illustrations, they are left to judge in perfect freedom; but in

regard to the intentions of the Editor, those who shall think it worth their while to read the following pages, are most earnestly requested to believe that the present work is not published with a view to support any party of Christians against another. The Editor will not conceal that he is a member of the Church of England. By this declaration he means, that in public worship and the administration of the Sacraments, he joins with Christians who use the formularies, which in these kingdoms, have the sanction of Parliament. He means also that he agrees with the substance of the Theory of the Christian Revelation, which is contained in the Declaration called the Thirty-nine Articles. But as he has no distinct and precise idea of any being, either individual or collective, to which the name of Church of England applies, nor can he obtain, from those who oftenest use that name, any one consistent explanation, in which they all agree, of what is meant by it, the

Editor is anxious to warn his readers that, in regard to the subject of this work, he cannot admit the validity of arguments derived from any acts or decisions, designated as acts or decisions of the Church of England.

It is true, that in former days, there was a convocation of the clergy: not that the clergy alone could ever have been, by a reflecting mind, regarded as exclusively constituting the Church; but there seems, for a time, to have been a kind of tacit acquiescence in their being considered as representing the Church, in the same manner as any civil community is represented by its existing government. There is now a nominal Convocation of the clergy which has much less claim to that kind of representation. Under these circumstances the Editor feels perfectly justified in repeating his protest, that nothing whatever adduced as an argument on the authority of the Church of England, can have any weight with him. No argumentum ad hominem

can, on that ground, be fairly objected to one who is not even acquainted with the existence

of any

definite acting body under the name and style of THE CHURCH OF ENGLand.

This protest has been entered chiefly with a view to avoid mistakes on the subject of Fathers and Councils. It is not unfrequently said that the Church of England receives the first four General Councils, and the authority of the ancient Fathers. In a very able Pamphlet, which the Editor has before him (but which, belonging to a controversy which he would not revive, he will not quote more distinctly) it is said, for instance, that the Church of England “has disclaimed in many solemn documents" certain views concerning the right of private judgment. "In the year 1571 (continues the Pamphlet) the following remarkable canon was sanctioned by a provincial Synod, and confirmed by the 'Let preachers above all things be careful, that they never teach aught in a sermon,

queen.