ONE Oily way to life;

One Faith, delivered once for all ;

One holy Band, endow'd with Heaven high call:
One earnest, endless strife;-

This is the Church th' Eternal fram'd of old.

Smooth open ways, good store;

A creed for every clime and age,

By Mammon's touch new moulded o'er and 'a:
No Cross, no war to wage;

This is the Church our earth-dimmed eyes behold.

But ways must have an end,

Creeds undergo the trial-flame,

or with th' impure the saints for ever blend.

Heaven's glory with our shame :

Think on that home, and choose 'twixt soft and bu

Lyra Apostnisaa

CONTENTS.

I.

Introductory. Necessity for knowing the Reasons why we are Churchmen

13

MAN is a creature of extreines. The mild e path is generally the wise path but there are few wise enough to find it. Because Papists have made too muck of some things, Protestants have made too little of them. The Papists treat max as all sense; and, therefore, some Protestants would treat him as all spirit. Because one party has exalted the Virgin Mary to a Divinity, the other can scarcely think of that "most highly favored among women" with common respect. The Papist puts the Apocrypha into his Canon; the Protestant will scarcely regard it as an ancient record. The Popish Heresy, human merit in justification, drove Luther on the other side into the most unwarrantable and unscriptural statements of that doctrine. The Papists consider Grace as inseparable from the participation of the Sacraments-the Protestants too often lose sight of them as instituted means of conveying Grace.

Cecil's Remaina,

PREFACE TO THE FOURTE EDITION.

IN revising this fourth Edition for the press, the author would express his thankfulness for the many assurances he has received that this work has proved useful in spreading the knowledge of the Apostolic Church. Written during a time of excitement, and to meet a peculiar crisis in the state of religion around, he had no idea that at the end of five years it would be found with an increasing circulation. To the kindness of his brethren in the ministry much of this is owing; and now, the author may truly say, that with the added study of years and the wider experience he has gained from himself witnessing the workings of mere Protestantism in Germany and Romanism in Italy, he sees no necessity for changing any views which he formerly expressed in these pages. The last five years have been those of trial to the Church, when her principles were fully tested both in this country and in that from which she came, yet to his mind the result has proved her Catholic character, and increased his confidence in the truths he has endeavored to unfold in this volume. Once more then he sends it forth on its way, with the earnest prayer that it may not only strengthen the Churchman in his faith, but also prove useful to some among those, who in an age of doubt and skepticism, are "sounding on their dim and perilous way."

APRIL, 1848.