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Printed by Law and Gilbert, St. John's Square.

PART IV.

POPERY.

True Moderation: a Sermon on Phil. iv. 5. By Thomas

Brett, LL.D. Rector of Betteshanger, in Kent..

An Essay concerning Civil Government, considered as it
stands related to Religion, wherein the Magistrate's Right
to support and encourage true Religion, by human Laws,
is asserted, against the Modern Pleaders, for an absolute,
unrestrained Toleration. By Henry Stebbing, M. A.. 33

GENERAL PREFACE.

IN the Spring of 1813, a society was formed for the distribution of tracts and other smaller publications in defence of the constitution in church and state, as by law established.* Carefully to guard against any appearance of intrusion on the province of The SoCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, its objects were declared to be perfectly distinct; the office of the one being to distribute Bibles, Testaments, Prayer Books, and religious tracts among the inferior orders of the community; of the other, to reprint and circulate such tracts and pamphlets as might influence the minds of the higher orders on the most important constitutional questions. To prevent any interference or competition with the venerable institution in question, it was resolved, at the first establishment of this new society, to republish no tracts which were upon the list for distribution at Bartlet's Buildings, but to confine its exertions entirely within the limits of its own sphere.

Since its establishment, many scarce and valuable tracts have been re-edited under its direction. It appeared, how ever, to the committee, by whom its exertions are regulated, that, however useful such single publications might have been, a much more valuable and extended advantage might be derived to the public at large by embodying these and other pamphlets in a volume, so as to give them that permanent possession both of the attention and of the

* See the Resolutions of the Society at the end of this Preface.

libraries of their readers, which the loose pages of a single tract cannot be expected to command. That the objects of the society, in thus preserving the interest of their readers, might be still more fully accomplished, it was thought expedient, not only to embody, but to arrange, these publications in such a manner, as to form a regular and connected series of discussion on the very important subjects which they were intended to embrace.

The first object of this society was to impress upon the public mind, and particularly upon that of the rising generation, the strong and paramount claims of PUBLIC PRINCIPLE. By PRINCIPLE is not meant the airy speculations of vague and delusive theory; but that code of moral law, which is the joint result of reason and experience. These are the great guides of our judgment on things around us, the source of all that renders life a blessing either in an individual or a national view, and the origin of that PRINCIPLE upon which all public and private institutions are established, and are to be maintained. Without experience, all the efforts of the human mind, are to every practical purpose, little better than the phantoms of a visionary imagination, which have no foundation on which their utility can be grounded, or their permanency secured. Without reasoning upon the nature of things, experience sinks into a low and sordid calculation of temporal advantage, and man becomes a mere machine of selfish and degraded interest. PRINCIPLE is that compounded motive of action which reason informs us is consonant with the laws of abstract right, and experience teaches us is conducive to the welfare and happiness of

man.

Upon PRINCIPLE then, thus created and established, we

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