He desires here to record his sense of the most kind and most hearty encouragement he has met with from persons of all ranks and classes, capable of appreciating a work of this description, or of aiding in its publication: more especially of that afforded him by her Majesty THE QUEEN DOWAGER, by the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Prelates who have honoured him with their support, by the many persons distinguished either for station or for literary eminence, whose names will be found in the subjoined list, and by the warm-hearted friends, both of the clergy and of the laity, with whom he is either locally or personally connected.
His work, such as it is, he now sends forth, trusting that, through the blessing of the Divine HEAD of the Church, it may be available to the great ends of the ministry to which he has been called, and may tend to the unity, the strength, and the stability of the Church.
Before, however, he takes his leave of his readers, he wishes to add a few words on the Right Use of the Writings of the Fathers.
1. We use them as we do the writings of secular authors, to ascertain the _facts_ of the _history_ of their own or of preceding times; principally as concerning the Church, and secondarily as concerning the world. To this use of them no objection in principle can be raised; and in so doing, we treat them exactly as we do ordinary writers.
2. We use them, as _evidence_ of the state of the Church, in their own and preceding ages, as regards either _discipline_ or _morals_. In regard to the former, as it is a thing not in its nature liable to hasty alteration,--discipline established in one age continuing on, for the most part, into the next,--their testimony will avail for the immediately preceding generation, as well as for their own. In regard to the latter, it can scarcely be received for any thing anterior to their own age, unless where they record the observations of some older person. In both, moreover, it requires to be noted whether they are writing controversially or historically: because we all know that through the imperfection of our nature we are apt to overstate our own case, and to understate that of our opponents. And if that is the case now, when a more extended and more accurate education has disciplined the minds of writers to impartiality, how much more must it have been so in an earlier stage of controversial writing, when there had been no opportunity for any such discipline. It is necessary, therefore, in the perusal of their controversial writings to be on our guard, and to notice, in any particular case, whether the mind of the writer is likely to have been influenced in his statements by any such bias. It must be remembered, moreover, that no individual author can be considered as evidence for the state of the universal Church, unless we have sufficient proof that he had means of knowing the condition of the whole Church, and unless we can gather that, being so qualified, he intends to speak thus largely.