INTO

THE HISTORY AND THEOLOGY

OF THE

ANCIENT VALLENSES AND ALBIGENSES;

AS EXHIBITING, AGREEABLY TO THE PROMISES,
THE PERPETUITY OF THE SINCERE
CHURCH OF CHRIST.

BY

GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.

MASTER OF SHERBURN HOSPITAL AND PREBENDARY OF SALISBURY.

"Thou art Peter: and upon this Rock I will build my Church; and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. xvi. 18.

"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world. Amen." Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.

PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE:

AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY,

FLEET STREET, LONDON.
MDCCCXXXVIII.

L. AND O. SEELEY, THAMES DITTON, SURREY.

TO THE MOST REVEREND THE LORD PRIMATE,

AND THE RIGHT REVEREND AND REVEREND

THE BISHOPS AND CLERGY OF IRELAND,

This Work,

TREATING OF THE DIVINELY APPOINTED OFFICE AND

THE FULLY CORRESPONDING CHARACTER OF

THE TWO ANCIENT AND

LONG SUFFERING CHURCHES OF THE

VALLENSES AND ALBIGENSES,

IS,

WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT

AND ADMIRATION,

FITLY INSCribed,

BY THEIR SERVANT IN CHRIST,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE Bishop of Meaux, the very able and acute Bossuet, has constructed an ingenious argument from the Prophetic Promises of Christ, which is for ever to establish the Roman Church and the Churches in communion with her as the sole visible Church Catholic, while it is for ever to exclude the Protestant Churches from all share and participation of that venerable title.

His argument cannot be given with more of fairness and propriety than in his own words.

The doctrine of the Catholic Church subsists in four points: the connection of which is inviolable.

The first point is that The Church is visible.

:

The second point is that It always exists. The third point is that The truth of the Gospel is there always professed by the whole Society.