Dedication
TO THE
VERY REV. RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH, M.A.
DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S
My DEAR Dean,
When I lately asked your leave to prefix your name to this Volume of Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, I felt I had to explain to myself and to my readers, why I had not offered it to you on its first publication, rather than now, when the long delay of nearly thirty years might seem to have destroyed the graciousness of my act.
For you were one of those dear friends, resident in Oxford, (some, as Charles Marriott and Charles Cornish now no more,) who in those trying five years, from 1841 to 1845, in the course of which this Volume was given to the world, did so much to comfort and uphold me by their patient, tender kindness, and their zealous services in my behalf.
I cannot forget, how, in the February of 1841, you suffered me day after day to open to you my anxieties and plans, as events successively elicited them; and much less can I lose the memory of your great act of friendship, as well as of justice and courage, in the February of 1845, your Proctor’s year, when you, with another now departed, shielded me from the “civium ardor prava jubentium,” by the interposition of a prerogative belonging to your academical position.
But much as I felt your generous conduct towards me at the time, those very circumstances which gave occasion to it deprived me then of the power of acknowledging it. That was no season to do what I am doing now, when an association with any work of mine would have been a burden to another, not a service; nor did I, in the Volumes which I published during those years, think of laying it upon any of my friends, except in the case of one who had had duties with me up at Littlemore, and overcame me by his loyal and urgent sympathy.
Accept then, my dear Church, though it be late, this expression of my gratitude, now that the lapse of years, the judgment passed on me by (what may be called) posterity, and the dignity of your present position, encourage me to think that, in thus gratifying myself, I am not inconsiderate towards you.
I am, my dear Dean,
Your very affectionate friend,
JOHN H. NEWMAN.
Advent, 1871.
Advertisement
Of the following Sermons, the First, Third, and Sixth were preached by the Author in Vice-Chancellor’s Preaching Turns; the Second in his own; the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth in his turns as Select Preacher.
The Six since 1832, which close the series, were preached in private College turns, which were made available to him, as being either at his own disposal or at that of his personal friends.
Though he has employed himself for the most part in discussing portions of one and the same subject, yet he need scarcely say, that his Volume has not the method, completeness, or scientific exactness in the use of language, which are necessary for a formal Treatise upon it; nor, indeed, was such an undertaking compatible with the nature and circumstances of the composition.
The above is the Advertisement prefixed to the Original Edition, dated February 4, 1843, except that, an additional Sermon being added to the present Edition—viz., No. 3—alterations in its wording were unavoidable.
The Oratory,
December, 1871.
Preface
These Discourses were originally published, except as regards some verbal corrections, just as they were preached. The author would gladly at that time have made considerable alterations in them, both in the way of addition and of omission; but, professing, as they did, to be “preached before the University,” he did not feel himself at liberty to do so. Much less does he alter them now; all that he has thought it right to do has been, by notes in brackets at the foot of the page, to draw attention to certain faults which are to be found in them, either of thought or of language, and, as far as possible, to set these right.
Such faults were only to be expected in discussions of so difficult a character as some of them pursue, written at intervals, and on accidental, not to say sudden opportunities, and with no aid from Anglican, and no knowledge of Catholic theologians. He is only surprised himself, that, under such circumstances, the errors are not of a more serious character. This remark especially applies to the Discourses upon the relation of Faith to Reason, which are of the nature of an exploring expedition into an all but unknown country, and do not even venture on a definition of either Faith or Reason on starting. As they proceed, however, they become more precise, as well as more accurate, in their doctrine, which shall here be stated in a categorical form; and, as far as possible, in the words used in the course of them.