PORTRAIT

OF AN

English Churchman.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

OF AN

English Churchman.

BY THE REV.

WILLIAM GRESLEY, M.A.

AUTHOR OF

ECCLESIASTES ANGLICANUS, A TREATISE ON PREACHING.

"From both love and hate,

Affections vile, low cares, and envy's blight,
And controversial leanings and debate,
Save me! from earthly film my mental sight
Purge thou, make my whole body full of light!
So may my eyes from all things Truth convey,

My ears in all thy lessons read aright,

My dull heart understand, and I obey,

Following where'er THE CHURCH hath marked the Ancient Way."

LYRA APOSTOLICA.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD,

AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL.

1838.

PREFACE.

THE present Volume is an attempt to paint the feelings, habits of thought, and mode of action, which naturally flow from a sincere attachment to the system of belief and discipline adopted in our Church.

Church principles have been so much discussed of late, that I would willingly have passed over that part of the subject; but daily experience proves that they are still very imperfectly understood, or little considered, by the mass of those who call themselves Churchmen. I have therefore devoted some Chapters in the earlier part of the work, to a brief, though not a careless or hasty, discussion of the principles of the

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