It has, undoubtedly, excited surprise, and it has even been made a matter of reproach against us by well-meaning readers, that we have not, prior to all the subjects here discussed, treated of the article of Church authority. For it appears a matter of self-evidence, that any discussion respecting the doctrines of a confession, should be postponed to the enquiry into the authority which that confession follows, and the sources from which it derives its tenets. In fact, this appears indeed to be self-evident, if we merely look at the matter from without; and such an appearance has misled many.