ESSAYS

ON SOME OF THE

DANGERS TO CHRISTIAN FAITH,

WHICH MAY ARISE FROM

THE TEACHING OR THE CONDUCT OF ITS
PROFESSORS:

TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED

THREE DISCOURSES

DELIVERED ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

BY

RICHARD WHATELY, D.D.

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN;

LATE PRINCIPAL OF ST. ALBAN'S HALL, OXFORD, AND FORMERLY FELLOW
OF ORIEL COLLEGE.

Οὐ δέδοικα τὸν ἔξω πόλεμον, ὡς τὴν ἔνδον μάχην· ἐπεὶ καὶ ῥίζα, ὅταν ἦ
καλῶς ἡρμοσμένη τῇ γῇ, οὐδὲν πείσεται ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνέμων· ἂν δὲ αὐτὴ
σαλευήται, σκώληκος διατρώγοντος αὐτὴν ἔνδοθεν, καὶ μηδενὸς ἐνοχλοῦντος
πεσεῖται. Μεχρί τινος διατρώγομεν τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὴν ρίζαν, σκωλήκων
diknv; Chrysostom. Hom. in 2 Cor. xvii.

"I dread not so much the war without, as the contest within. A root
when well fixed in the earth will not be harmed by the winds: but if it
be made unstable itself by a worm gnawing it from within, it will fall
even though nothing assault it. How long shall we, like a worm, gnaw
through the root of the Church?"

LONDON:

B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET.

1839.

1048

LONDON:

PRINTED BY RICHARD CLAY, BREAD-STREET-HILL.

PREFACE.

A CONSIDERABLE part of this volume consists of the substance of several tracts which at the request of the parties to whom they had been respectively addressed -were published from time to time in the form of pamphlets. A similar request having been made in respect of some others also, hitherto unpublished, it was thought advisable to collect and arrange the whole in a volume, after making such additions and other alterations as seemed requisite.

The work might perhaps have been improved by developing more fully some topics which have been slightly touched