TO THE Rev. EDWARD CARDWELL, FELLOW AND TUTOR OP BRASB-NOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD. MY DEAR SIR, You will, I am sure, permit me to say, that it was my first intention to have prefixed to this work a name, which I am equally bound by duty and affection to revere, and which I shall ever hold in the highest admiration—the name of my Father. I was, however, induced to re-consider, and at length relinquish that idea, in consequence of an observation which I met with in a Dedication by the Rev. Thomas Young, late tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. That gentleman very justly re- marks, referring to his own work on Original Sin, &c. “ When the following sheets were first submitted to the public, although they were indeed the product of considerable labour and study; yet the acknowledged and experienced difficulty of the subjects of which they presumed to treat, impressed strongly the feeling upon my mind, that it was much fitter that a private clergyman should be wholly responsible for any deviation which might possibly," I add, quite unintentionally, “ occur from orthodox doctrine, than that the name of a Dignitary of the Church should in the slightest degree be called in question.” Even in dedicating this work to you, my oldest and best friend, to whom I was early in life under great obligations, and whose regard I still value as one of the chief blessings of my life, I think it right to observe, that neither you, nor any one else, are answerable for any thing contained in this Exposition: the merit, or demerit, the gain, or loss, from the undertaking, being wholly my own. |