THE PUBLISHER'S

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

THE following work ought to need no other recommendation than the name of its distinguished author, and none other has been found necessary, to secure the attention of the well informed and candid portion of the religious public.

Confident of this, the publisher sent forth his first edition without any words. of explanation or commendation; and such has been its reception, that a second edition is now required to meet the demand. Its success, however, has been in despite of a desperate attempt to depreciate the literary and theological pretensions of its author, and on this account the publisher takes occasion to adduce a few facts and testimonies, calculated to secure from all, a dispassionate perusal of the work.

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When the "Kingdom of Christ" was published in this country, two years ago, the editor of one of our periodicals described its author as one of "those men, who are indebted for all their importance and consideration, to the station which they happen to occupy." And the author of a recent review of that work, seems determined to deprive him of this only claim, by omitting all reference to the station which he occupies, either in the title page, or throughout his work-styling him simply Dr. Whateley. The admirers of our author need have no objection to this omission, since he is one of those men who have derived least notoriety from official station.

He had earned an extended fame, as a writer on many branches of science, and many departments in Theology; and it was on this account principally, that Dr. Whateley was preferred to the Arch Bishopric of Dublin. Previously, he was a Divine of Oxford, though not an "Oxford Divine," and how he was there esteemed is evident from the fact that he was appointed a Fellow of Oriel College, a Bampton Lecturer, and thrice "Select Preacher" before the University.

He has long been known in this country. Thirteen years ago, Dr. Whittingham, the present bishop of Maryland, introduced him more especially to our notice, by re-publishing his Essays on St. Paul's Epistles, with scarce a criticism, declaring himself "unwilling that a work combining so much candor and humility in the search for truth, with such abilities in its manifestation, should remain any longer inaccessible to his countrymen."

In all his subsequent writings Dr. Whateley has maintained his high reputation as a Theologian and a controversialist. Even the British Critic, in a review of his last work, has these candid observations "that Dr. Whateley's writings all display great sincerity, that the writer's strong conviction of the truth and importance of his principles has been the main reason of their publication, and that he carefully avoids giving utterance to any sentiment which is not the genuine expression of his own mind-all this it would be the height of prejudice to doubt. He possesses originality of expression, fertility of illus3

tration, ingenuity of argument, and what is much higher praise, general candour, simplicitly and moral courage."

Nor is he chargeable with any declension in his theological system during the interval which has elapsed. It was said indeed in the periodical first mentioned above, that he was "so fast descending from one heresy to another, that even dissenters must soon become ashamed of quoting him as authority." But it is often the case that, as we sail upon the stream of religious enquiry, objects on land seem to be changing their position while we ourselves are being carried away by various influences upon our own minds.

That Bishop Whateley has not changed his opinions is clear, for it is mentioned as a reproach in the British Critic, that since his change to his present official station, a period which the reviewer thinks the most momentous in theological history since the Reformation, "he has sent forth from Dublin, the same sentiments, arguments and even quotations, which had been heard from his lips in the University pulpit." This period has indeed been one of mighty changes, but those who regard them as retrogradations and not improvements, will not be displeased with Dr. Whateley, for continuing as he was from the beginning.

That his opinions, as expressed in the "Kingdom of Christ," have been thus permanent, is evident from the fact, that throughout his pages, he appeals to the work now re-published. This work was itself composed at Oxford, as will be seen by his dedication to Blancho White, from whom he derived the original suggestion of its plan. It should be known that it was published long before the Oxford Tracts were sent forth, and while it is powerful as an analysis of Romish Errors, and searching as a discovery of protestant fallibility, its chief interest is in the fact that it is almost prophetic of the results of tendencies which were only suspected by its author at the time of its publication. It is not our purpose to detain the reader longer from the perusal of the work itself. Upon one topic a single remark will be added.

The view here given of the Christian ministry, has been severely remarked upon, and there has seemed to be an attempt to throw all its odium upon Dr. Whateley, as if his opinion with regard to the use of the terms Priest, Altar and Sacrifice were peculiar to him. It ought therefore to be known by all who inquire, and not concealed by those who write upon this subject, that Whateley's view is no other than that strenuously maintained by Bishop White in all his publications; who declared that he "perceived in the writings of those opposed to it, a train of sentiment which by a consistent progression ended in the worst of the errors of the Romish System."

TO THE

REVEREND JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE, M.A.

OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD,

MY DEAR FRIEND

I AM aware that it is a violation of established forms to take the liberty of dedicating this work to you, without previously applying for your permission.

The ground on which I petition for your indulgence is, my fear that your modesty might have led you, if not to withhold your consent altogether, yet to prohibit me from speaking of you in the manner I could wish. Not that it is my design to make this dedication the vehicle of a formal panegyric; or to comment either on that part of your character and conduct which is before the public, and which it would be an affront to my readers to suppose them not to know and admire; or again, on the particulars of our private friendship, in which they have no concern. But I feel bound to take this occasion of acknowledging publicly one particular advantage which I have derived from my intercourse with you: I am indebted to you for such an insight into the peculiarities of the church of Rome, as I could never have gained, either from any one who had not been originally, or from any one who still continued, a member of that church. Your intimate acquaintance with it, has enlarged and cleared the view I had long since taken of its system; as being the gradual, spontaneous growth of the human heart;—as being, what may be called, in a certain sense, the religion of nature; viz., such a kind of religion as "the natural man" is disposed to frame for himself.

One who has both been so deeply versed as yourself in the learning of that church, and has also had the opportunities you have enjoyed, of not merely forming a judgment of the apparent tendencies of each part of the system, but observing how it actually works, and what are the practical results-and who has subsequently been enabled, under the divine blessing, to embrace a purer faith-must, unless he fall far short of you in candour or intelligence, be much better qualified than either a Romanist, or one brought up in our church, to estimate the true character of the two religions. As, on the one hand, (like Moses, who was "skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians,") you may be reckoned, as far as knowledge is concerned, an eminent Roman Catholic divine, so, on the other hand, you may, in one point of view, be considered as more eminently Protestant, than most members of our church. For I cannot, of course, be certain, of others, or even of myself, that, if we had, like you, been educated in the Romish church, we should have escaped, like you, from that spiritual bondage; that we might not have either continued enslaved to her tenets, or have been plunged irrecoverably into that gulf of Atheism, to the brink of which she brings her votaries: which she does, as you have well pointed out, by sedulously presenting, as the sole alternative, implicit devotion to her decrees, or, no religion at all.

It is, as I have said, impossible to pronounce with certainty, of any one bred a Protestant, that he would have become so, had he been educated in the Romish system but it might safely be pronounced, that I should not have done so, were I one of those who stigmatize you as an apostate, for renouncing and testifying against the system in which you were brought up. I should then deserve to be characterized as Protestant only by the accidents of country and kindred.

You are doubtless familiar however with the principle long since noticed by the great historian of Greece, and ready to make allowance for its operation, that "most men are slow to give another credit for feeling nobler sentiments, and acting on higher motives, than any that have ever found a place in their own breasts."*

εἴτι ὑπὲς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν ἀκούοι. μέχρι γὰς τοῦδε ἀνεκτοὶ οἱ ἔπαινοί εἰσι περὶ ἑτέρων λεγόμενοι, ἐς ὅσον ἂν καὶ αὐτὸς ἕκαστος οἴηται ἱκανὸς εἶναι δρᾶσαι τι ὧν ἤκουσε. τῷ δὲ ὑπερβάλλοντι αὐτῶν φθονοῦντες, ἤδη καὶ ἀπιστοῦσιν. Thucyd. b. ii. ch. 35.

Posterity nevertheless will, I am convinced, do justice to your character, and appreciate your services.

Diram qui contudit Hydram,

Comperit invidiam supremo fine domari.

You have been led, by the circumstances in which you were placed and of which you have taken due advantage, to examine different systems carefully, and to make up your mind on mature deliberation. And the same circumstances which induced you to observe, and enabled you to estimate, the differences betwee Romanists and Protestants, have also qualified you to notice the points of resemblance in all men; to recognize in all, of whatever country or persuasion, the tendency towards each of those Romish errors which you have seen magnified and exaggerated in that church;-to detect the minutest drop, in the most disguised mixture, of those poisons which you have seen in their rectified and concentrated form, operating to produce their baneful results.

With a view, therefore, to the particular object of the present work, it must have been very much my own fault, if I have not derived from your conversation the most valuable suggestions and corrections. I only regret that you did not your. self undertake the task, for which no one else can be, on the whole, so well qualified.

As it is, I have only to express thus publicly my sense of the advantages I have enjoyed, and to beg your favourable acceptance of this dedication of a work, which you will thus have, indirectly, so much contributed. Should I be enableby placing in a somewhat new light, questions which have been long since copiously discussed, to awaken the attention even of a few, whether Romanists or Protestants, to the faults, either existing, or likely to arise, among them, you will, I am sure, rejoice to have had a share in contributing to such an effect, and to have your name connected with a work which shall have produced it. At all events, you will, I am sure, give me credit for good intentions: nor will you, I trust. be either surprised or mortified, if I should have to encounter, on this occasion especially, (the views set forth being far from flattering to human nature,) some of that opposition of various kinds, and from various quarters, with which many of my former publications have been assailed, and from which yours have not been exempt.

To myself this is not a matter of wonder, or of dissatisfaction. Not that I have any wish to excite controversy; or any intention of ever engaging in it: but he who endeavours to inculcate any neglected truths, or to correct any prevailing errors, must be prepared, if he succeed in attracting any share of public attention, to encounter more or less of opposition. It would be most extravagant to expect to convince at once, if at all, every one, or even many, who before thought differently. If, therefore, in such a case, he meet with no opposition, he may take that as a sign either that he has excited no interest at all, or that he was mistaken as to the state of the prevailing opinions among others, or that his own have not been fully understood. Opposition does not indeed, of itself, prove either that he is right, or that he is wrong: but, at all events, the discussion which results, is likely, if conducted with temper and sincerity, to lead to the ascertainment of the truth..

And it is worth remarking, that in many cases the opposition will appear even greater than it really is. For as the great majority of those who had before thought differently from an author, will, in general, continue to think so, and of course will be prepared, at once, loudly to censure him; so those, whether many or few, who are induced to alter, or to doubt, their former opinion, will seldom be found very forward to proclaim the change, at least till after a considerable interval. Even the most candid and modest, if they are also cautious, will seldom decidedly make up their minds anew, except slowly and gradually..

Hence it often happens, I believe, that while men are led, naturally enough, to estimate the effect produced by any work, from the comparative numbers and weight of those who applaud, and those who censure it, it shall, in fact, have produced little or no effect on either: those whom it may have really influenced, in bringing them to reconsider their former opinions, being rather disposed, for the most part, to say little about it.