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ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by

WILLIAM STAVELY AND CO.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE following Biography of the late Bishop Moore, undertaken at the request of his family, has been written in the hours which could be spared amidst the multiplied duties of a large parochial cure. The labours of the biographer have been lightened by the kindness of the Bishop's children, in copying from his letter-book the most interesting parts of his correspondence; and also in selecting and preparing for the press such of his sermons as they desired to have published. Whatever may be the faults and deficiencies of the Memoir, it claims to furnish a faithful portraiture of the life and character of a venerable Father in the Church, which her children may contemplate with satisfaction and profit.

The writer has found it necessary to touch upon some delicate points, affecting the policy and usages of the Church, about which there is an acknowledged diversity of sentiment. Without this, it would have been impracticable to present a faithful account of Bishop Moore's life and opinions. He has aimed, however, to perform this delicate part of his duty, less in the spirit of a partisan, than in that of a sincere inquirer after truth. He would not dogmatically enforce upon the reader an assent to all the views entertained either by himself or the subject of his memoir. For, however earnestly he may desire the extinction of party names and of party spirit, he is persuaded that the readiest means of attaining it is to infuse the Catholic spirit of the Church into all her ministers and members :-to recognize the wide difference which really exists between doc

trines of faith, and mere matters of opinion:-and to require nothing as essential to sound churchmanship, but a cordial agreement in the former, whatever diversity may exist respecting the latter. The only proper test of orthodoxy is belief of the truth, as taught in the Articles and creeds; and conformity to the laws of the Church, embodied in her rubrics and canons: and not an assent to the interpretation put upon them by any particular class of Church men. Whenever the great body of the ministry and laity shall be led, like the venerable subject of the following Memoir, to act upon this principle, which is the principle of the Church-we shall behold, throughout the length and breadth of our communion, an answer to our daily prayer that "all who profess and call themselves Christians, may hold the faith, in unity of spirit, and in the bond of peace." The Lord hasten it in his time!

J. P. K. H.

BALTIMORE, AUGUST, 1842.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

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