TO THE READER.

Having never before had any necessity of appearing before the Public, especially on such an occasion as this, it is with much reluctance I am, in defence of my character, now compelled to give a fair and candid statement of the motives that induced me to leave the Church of Rome; which I did not do, until I tried every means to quiet an anxious mind, and troubled conscience, and after many private and public interviews with my Pastor, each of which only augmented, nay, confirmed my doubts of several of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, (hereafter stated,) because I found by such interviews I had nothing from God’s word to rely upon; nothing but tradition and the assertions of interested men to rest my hope of salvation upon; and even these when fairly examined could not afford me any plausible authority for the articles of religion doubted of. I little thought, after having acted as I did, by continuing to meet the Priest at every time and place he appointed, to remove my doubts of certain doctrines which I conceive were unauthorised by God’s Holy Word, and therefore not taught by our Lord and his Apostles; (these interviews I continued, until he candidly told me he was not able to satisfy me, and said he could not blame me to follow the dictates of my conscience.) I say, then, I little thought that after this I would be obliged to vindicate myself from aspersions, resorted to evidently to deter others from pursuing a similar course; that, at the expense of my reputation, they might suppress the general and so much dreaded inquiries of the public mind after truth. I therefore lay before the public and the candid reader a plain statement of facts, and let my motives, and necessity for so doing, be my apology for its inaccuracies.

THE AUTHOR.