1833.

BIBLI

REV. JOHN SINCLAIR, A.M.

OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH,
AND MINISTER OF ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL, EDINBURGH,

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL;
AND SOLD BY BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

PREFACE.

THE necessity for some work explaining in a popular form the peculiarities of the Church of England in respect to doctrine, to rules of faith, to discipline, and public worship, has for some time. been impressed upon the mind of the author. The unhappy continuance of a hostile spirit, both among Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, notwithstanding the repeated measures of conciliation taken by the legislature, has not tended to efface that impression. Publications of a tendency to disparage both in England and Ireland our established ecclesiastical institutions, and to withdraw from them the affections of the nation, seem to have increased in number, and perhaps in virulence, proportionably as the political causes of complaint and hostility have diminished.