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fairly carry out her fundamental principles and well-compacted system. Whatever he has said, in endeavouring to set this, at the present moment highly important, truth in a clear light, he prays may not be attributed to a censorious or arrogant spirit, but to that fervent charity which, rising above the small considerations of momentary offence possibly attendant upon an uncompromising statement of unpalatable truths, desires earnestly to see all the members of the Church Catholic knit together "in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life."

May the God of grace and truth of his favourable goodness so prosper this book in the hands of its readers, that as it was begun, continued, and ended in Him, its effect may be to glorify His holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Coombe Wood,

April 2, 1840.

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THE

STANDARD OF CATHOLICITY.

CHAPTER I.

General Introduction of the Argument.

66 THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO SEND PEACE ON EARTH: I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE, BUT A SWORD."-Matth. x. 34.

66 THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL, BUT THROUGH GOD TO THE PULLING DOWN OF STRONG HOLDS."--2 Cor. x. 4.

MIGHTY

Of all the numerous changes for which our restless and excited age is so remarkable, there is none more striking than the transition which the public mind has undergone within the short space of a few years, from the most sanguine expectation of a universal reign of peace and truth, to the most serious apprehension of general convulsion. When we call to mind the loud and unanimous proclamation of a speedy advent of the blessed period when all differences and heart-burnings in the so-called Christian world were to cease, when with

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the olive-branch of charity borne before it, Gospeltruth would accomplish an easy conquest over the minds of an enlightened age; when we remember the too facile cordiality with which almost to a man the great body of sober-minded and truly pious Christians united their voices with those of speculative philanthropists, wild enthusiasts, and religious demagogues, in the delusive cry, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace; when we compare the present with the then state of the public mind, the anticipations of that day with the aspect of things at this moment, what a mighty change has come over the spirit of our dream! The sense of security has given place to that of alarm; a state of credulous confidence has been succeeded by one of uneasy suspicion; the shout of harmony and triumph is changed into the note of preparation for deadly war, for a desperate and gigantic struggle.

The fact that such a change has taken place, is of itself sufficiently afflicting to a mind imbued with the spirit of that Saviour whose first advent into this world was ushered in by the heavenly hosts with the song of " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men:" but the reflections to which that fact gives rise, are greatly embittered by the thought that the hands of the adversaries have been much

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