for the
best. He believes that the honest pursuit of the truth, undertaken with
an humble zeal for God's glory, and in dependence on his guidance and
light, is often made successful beyond our own sanguine expectations.

With these views the following pages are offered, as the result of an
inquiry into the doctrine and practice of the Invocation of Saints and
Angels, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

To prevent misconception as to the nature of this work, the author would
observe, that since the single subject here proposed to be investigated
is, "The Invocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin Mary,"
he has scrupulously avoided the discussion of many important and
interesting questions usually considered to be connected with it. He has
not, for example, discussed the practice of praying for the dead; he has
investigated no theory relating to the soul's intermediate state between
our dissolution and the final judgment; he has canvassed no opinion as
to any power in the saints and the faithful departed to succour either
by their prayers or by any other offices, those who are still on earth,
and on their way to God. From these and such like topics he has
abstained, not because he thinks lightly of their importance, nor
because his own mind is perplexed by doubts concerning them; but because
the introduction of such points would tend to distract the thoughts from
the exclusive contemplation of the one distinct question to be
investigated.

He is also induced to apprise the reader, that in his work, as he
originally prepared it, a far wider field, even on the single subject of
the present inquiry, was contemplated than this volume now embraces. His
intention was to present an historical survey of the doctrine and
practice of the invocation of Saints and Angels, and the Virgin, tracing
it from the first intimation of any thing of the kind through its
various progressive stages, till it had reached its widest prevalence in
Christendom. When, however, he had arranged and filled up the results of
the inquiries which he made into the sentiments and habits of those
later writers of the Church, whose works he considered it necessary to
examine with this specific object in view, he found that the bulk of the
work would be swollen far beyond the limits which he had prescribed to
himself; he felt also that the protracted investigation would materially
interfere with the solution of that one independent question which he