A brief ENQUIRY into the General IN A CONVERSATION BETWEEN A Young GENTLEMAN and his PRECEPTOR. Divided into FOUR DIALOGUES. 2 C O R. xiii. v. 5. Prove all Things: hold fast that which is good. ANTWERP: Printed for R. C. and C. F. 1725. 6 Feb. 24. EHW English THE PREFACE. T HE following Dialogues are chiefly intended for the Benefit of young Gentlemen, as ftanding moft in Need of being strongly fortified with found Principles, and a deep Senfe of Religion against the dangerous Temptations of Worldly Intereft, Liberty, and Eafe. In order to this End, the whole Subject of the firft Dialogue is an Enquiry into thofe general Grounds of reveal'd Religion, which young Perfons, already well inftructed in the firft Rudiments of the Chriftian Doctrine, ought to be throughly acquainted with. And for this Reason I have endeavoured to bring them into as fmall a Compafs, and render them as eafy as the Matter would bear: being fenfible, that young Men are no Lovers either of long or hard Leffons; and learn with Pleasure when neither their Memories are over-charg'd, nor their Understandings put upon the Rack. But the abovesaid Enquiry is intended only as an Introduction to my principal Defign, A 2 which which is to direct them in the Choice of their Religion, and lead them by clear Marks to that One, Holy, Catholick, and Apoftolick Church, in which the Faith and Religion reveal'd by God, has been inviolably preferved throughout all Ages, and will continue to be taught in its full Purity to the World's End. Now fince no Man can either make a rational Choice of his Religion, or continue rationally in that, wherein he has been educated, unless he has folid Motives to determine him to it, (which is effectually Choofing his Religion, as being a deliberate Preference of one before another) I could not think of a more proper Method to direct my young Gentleman (who is fuppofed to have been brought up in the Principles of the Church of Rome) in this important Choice, so as to make it wholly the Result of a full Conviction of Judgment, than by Comparing the Roman Catholik Religion, which was brought into England by its Converfion from Paganifm to Christianity, with the Religion now established by Lam, which was introduced nine hundred Years after by the fo much celebrated English Reformation. For by Comparing the one with the other, a Judgment may be form'd even by Perfons of no Learning, which of the two has the clearest Marks of Truth on its Side, anḍ of having had the holy Ghoft for its principal Director. And tho' for the fake of Brevity, as well as of Perfpicuity, my Comparison will, for the moft Part, go no farther, than the Roman Catholick Religion on the one Side, and that of the reform'd Church of England on the other, it will nevertheless be equally applicable to all the other reform'd Churches, and they will all have their Share either in the Advantage or Difadvantage of of the Iffue of this Caufe, to what Side foever the Balance fhall appear to incline. The whole Subject therefore of the fourth and laft Dialogue, is an hiftorical Comparison between the moft material Circumftances of England's Converfion on the one Hand, and of its Reformation on the other. But fince this Comparison cannot appear in its true Light without a competent Knowledge of the Hiftory of these two great Ecclefiafti cal Revolutions, I prefent my young Readers in the fecond and third Dialogues with a brief but faithful Account of the most important Facts relating to the one as well as to the other; I mean, the Converfion of the English Saxons by the Preaching of S. Auguftine and his Followers, and the ftupendious Changes made by our English Reformers in the Religion brought into this Ifland by those Apoftolical Preachers. To which I have nevertheless premifed a Relation of the Converfion ofthe ancient Britons four hundred Years before that of the Saxons; by reafon of the frequent Mention I fhall make of it, and the Connection it has with a material Point difcuffed in the 8th Section of the 2d Dialogue. But being fenfible, that in Compiling my fhort Hiftory of the English Reformation I was travelling in an Enemy's Country, I found myself obliged to take my Steps very warily, and not truft to any but Proteftant Guides to conduct me forward in my Way. Because all others, tho' never fo unexceptionable in themselves, might be fufpected at leaft of fome Degree of Partiality, or Prepoffeffion in Favour of their own Cause. When with this Caution I had almoft gone through the three reforming Reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and Q. Elizabeth, the Bishop of Meaux's Hiftoire des Variations, &c. was put into A 3 my |