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LONDON:

PRINTED BY G. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

ΤΟ

THE GENERAL, ASSOCIATION, AND DISTRICT COMMITTEES,

AND TO

THE GREAT BODY OF MEMBERS

OF

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY;

ONE OF

THE NOBLEST INSTITUTIONS EVER ESTABLISHED IN THE WORLD

FOR THE REGENERATION OF MANKIND;

FOR THEIR INSTRUCTION IN DIVINE WISDOM;

FOR THE

EMANCIPATION OF HEATHEN NATIONS FROM THEIR DEBASING

IDOLATRIES, AND DESTRUCTIVE SUPERSTITIONS;

FOR THE

ILLUMINATION OF THE BENIGHTED PLACES OF THE EARTH,

"FULL OF DARKNESS AND CRUEL HABITATIONS;"

AND FOR BRINGING ITS INHABITANTS TO

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ONLY TRUE GOD,

AND JESUS CHRIST WHOM HE HAS SENT,

THIS WORK

IS HUMBLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND,

THE AUTHOR,

Honorary Secretary for the Grosvenor District.

PREFACE.

As the profits of this work will be devoted to the cause, and in aid of the funds of the Church Missionary Society; and, preeminently, as the work itself is based on the religion of the Bible, the author can entertain no false delicacy iu 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 principles 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 deliberate 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 he pays for it will, in such case, be received by its treasurer.

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 check 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 twelfth chapter 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

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