PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As the profits of this work will be devoted to the cause, and in aid of the funds, of the Church Missionary Society, and, pre-eminently, as the work itself is based on the religion of the Bible, the author can entertain no false delicacy in recommending it to the patronage of the religious public. In an especial manner does he solicit for his book. the countenance and support of the numerous Branch Associations, District Committees, and Subscribers, of the great Evangelical Body to which they belong; which has conferred, and is daily conferring, such inappreciable blessings on mankind. Knowing, as the writer of the following pages does know, that their contents are founded on Scriptural truth, and that his single object has been to advance nothing that is not warranted by the Word of God; and, with the view of correcting the unsound prin ciples, and practices, by which worldly men are actuated, he feels that he can, with confidence, prefer a claim for his book to the regards of those whom he addresses. If, then, the author is justified in the estimate which he has formed of the orthodox opinions pervading his work, he cannot but humbly hope, that the purchaser of it may elicit a two-fold advantage from possessing a copy. In the first place, he may possibly benefit himself, by having his own views of doctrine confirmed by the perusal of it. Or should he, at present, differ from the sentiments which it contains, then, by being ultimately led to a more deli berate consideration of the divine authority on which those sentiments rest, and finally to embrace them. In the second place, he will,-on the supposition of a profit arising from the work,―certainly benefit the Society; inasmuch as a portion of the sum which pays for it will, in such case, be received by its Treasurer. he In either case, therefore, a sanguine confidence is entertained that a beneficial result will arise; and should the two alternatives combine to produce the double advantage, the author will consider himself happy indeed. Nothing would afford him a more heart-felt gratification than to be enabled, at the expiration of eighteen months from the issue of his volume from the press, to present a cheque to the Treasurer of the Society, worthy of his acceptance. In concluding this prefatory notice, the author particularly directs the attention of his reader to the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the book, in which the awfully-idolatrous worship of the Romish Church is fully exhibited, from its own authorized publications and documents. The knowledge of these facts appears to him more essentially necessary at a period, when that church is exerting her utmost strength, and all her delusive arts, to entrap the unwary, and to withdraw "unstable souls" from the true Protestant faith. The author now takes leave of his book with a prayerful spirit; humbly trusting that He who alone can advance the object which His servant has at heart, will bless the perusal of the following pages to all who may read them, to His honour and glory. London, November, 1847. CONTENTS. The death of the righteous-A man of the world-A lady of fashion-The lawfulness of dancing, considered by the standard of |
