Tenenda nobis est Christiana religio, et ejus Ecclesiæ communicatio, quæ Catholica est, et Catholica nominatur, non solum a suis, verum etiam ab omnibus inimicis. S. AUGUSTIN. de vera Relig. Cap. v11. BACON AND KINNEBROOK, PRINTERS, NORWICH. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. In presenting the following work to the public, it may be requisite to state the circumstances which have led to its composition. They are briefly these. Some years ago the Abbé Trevern, formerly Vicargeneral of Langres, being an emigrant to England in consequence of the French Revolution, published in London a French work, in two volumes, entitled "Discussion Amicale sur L'Eglise Anglicane, et en general sur la Reformation, dedieé au clergé de toutes les Communions Protestantes." When the London edition of this work was exhausted, its learned and highly respected Author, being then in France, and raised to the episcopal see of Aire, published a second edition of it in Paris, in the year 1824. An English translation of this valuable work has not yet appeared, but one is on the point of being published by the Rev. Wm. Richmond, of Swinnerton Park. It was not till the year 1826 that any attempt was made to refute the above masterly composition. In that year there appeared a work from the pen of a clergyman of the Church of England, of wellknown talent and erudition, the Rev. G. S. Faber, B. D. Rector of Long Newton, bearing for title "The Difficulties of Romanism." No sooner did the worthy prelate become acquainted with this work-which professes to adopt his Lordship's Discussion Amicale as a text-book, and to furnish a refutation of it, than he applied himself with indefatigable exertion to vindicate his own book, and answer the alleged Difficulties of Mr. Faber's-and this amid the confusion, anxiety, and pressure of affairs of every kind attendant upon his Lordship's being translated from the see of Aire to that of Strasbourg. The good bishop transmitted his work in M.S. as he wrote it, to the translator, who now confidently presents it to the public. |