BY JOHN IRELAND, D. D. LATE OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD, PREBENDARY AND SUB-DEAN OF WESTMINSTER. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, 32, FLEET-STREET; AND J. BALLANTYNE, AND CO. PREFACE. THE preparation of the following course of Lectures devolved on me by an accident, with which it is not necessary to trouble the Reader. Whether the performance be entitled to any degree of publick esteem, must be left to the determination of others. For the motives which suggested it, I can decidedly answer. I was desirous of being useful to the Institution which I was called to serve; of shewing a mark of attachment to the Church to which I have the honour to belong; and of presenting to the Young Men, whom it became my province to instruct, something which might tend to the formation of the CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR. But, unacquainted with the mode of address which my office might require, it was necessary to obtain some better direction. On such an occasion, it was impossible to apply to an higher authority than the DEAN of Westminster, |