THE CHURCH AND STATE RESPONSIBLE ΤΟ CHRIST, AND TO ONE ANOTHER. A Series of Discourses ON DANIEL'S VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS. BY THE REV. EDW IRVING, A. M. MINISTER OF THE NATIONAL SCOTCH CHURCH, LONDON LONDON: JAMES NISBET, BERNERS STREET. SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET STREET. MDCCCXXIX. REVEREND SAMUEL MARTIN, D.D., MY VENERABLE GRANDFATHER-IN-LAW; THE REVEREND JOHN MARTIN, MY HONOURED FATHER-IN-LAW; THE REVEREND SAMUEL MARTIN, MY FAITHFUL BROTHER-IN-LAW; AND TO ALL MY FATHERS AND BRETHREN THE ORDAINED MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.. REVEREND and well-beloved, the peace of God be with you, and with your flocks; the blessing of the great Head of the church preserve you from all heresy and schism; and the Holy Ghost give you plentiful fruit of your ministries. I, who am your brother in the care of the baptized children of the Church of Scotland, having written this book upon the responsibility of the church and state to God, and to one another, can think of none to whom it may be so well dedicated, as to you, the heads of the Scottish Church, the Established Ministers of the Scottish kingdom. Accept, I pray you, the offering of my thoughts and labours, however unworthy the great subject, as a tribute of my gratitude to the Church of Scotland, and a token of my fealty to the good cause in which our Fathers laboured, many of them sealing their testimony with their blood. |