LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, DELIVERED AT ST MARY'S MOORFIELDS, DURING THE LENT OF 1836. BY NICHOLAS WISEMAN, D.D. NOW BISHOP OF MELIPOTAMUS. VOL. I. MAI SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. LONDON: CHARLES DOLMAN, 61, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCXLIV. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND THE VICAR APOSTOLIC, AND TO THE CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY OF LONDON, THESE LECTURES ARE INSCRIBED IN TOKEN OF SINCERE AND LASTING GRATITUDE FOR THE UNREMITTING KINDNESS AND MANY FAVOURS RECEIVED FROM THEM BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IN the Advent of 1835, I delivered a course of Evening Lectures, in the Royal Sardinian Chapel, Lincoln's-InnFields, upon controversial subjects. It was comprised in seven Lectures, and was honoured by a very numerous attendance. At the approach of Lent, this year, I was desired by the Venerable Prelate, whom the London District has just lost, to undertake another course in the more spacious Church of St Mary's, Moorfields, upon the same subjects. It was proposed to confine it to a few lectures upon one topic; that so no disappointment might ensue, in case my health, or occupations, or a want of interest on the part of the public, should render it expedient to discontinue it. The subject selected was the Rule of Faith, or the authority of the Church, which occupies the first volume of this publication. But, through God's blessing I found myself able to persevere in my undertaking; though, in the preceding Lent, I had been unequal to reading, in a room, two Lectures of half an hour's duration, in the week:* and, at the same time, I had the consolation of witnessing the patient and edifying attention of a crowded audience, many of whom stood for more than two hours, without betraying any The "Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion," just published. |