The Truth, therefore, is, that until the Works of _Wyclyffe_, real and supposititious, be collected and published, it is vain to talk of determining his Opinions, or fixing his real Merits as a Reformer; and it is with the Hope of directing Attention to this Subject that the following Tract is now printed. The learned _Henry Wharton_[7] was willing to believe that all the Writings of _Wyclyffe_ might in his Time have been recovered: “_omnia ~Wiclefi~ scripta_,” he says, “_in Anglia adhuc delitescere, et ex Bibliothecis nostris qua publicis qua privatis in lucem erui posse, lubenter crederem_.” Perhaps we have still all the MSS. that existed in _Wharton’s_ Time, and it may be still within our Power to rescue them from the Oblivion in which they have so long been suffered to remain. But the Chances of their Destruction are every Day becoming greater, and Delay in such an Enterprize is highly dangerous. It is true that many of these Documents will be found dry, and to the popular Reader uninteresting; buried in the barbarous Latinity of the Schools, or concealed under the perhaps still more obsolete English of the fourteenth Century. But they who would engage in such a Labour as the Publication of the Works of _Wyclyffe_, must be above the narrow Influences of modern Utilitarianism. They must keep in View a higher Field of Learning than comes within the Sphere of Mercantile Speculators in Literature, or Useful Knowledge Societies. They must feel that the Value of these Documents as Compositions, is but a secondary Object in their Publication; the great End must be the Discovery of Truth, and the Preservation of the Remains of an illustrious Character in our History. What nobler, what more imperishable Monument could the Gratitude of England raise to her first Reformer, than a complete and uniform Edition of his extant Writings? The Editor is fully sensible that the Tract which is now for the first Time given to the public, is very far from being a favorable Specimen of the Works of _Wyclyffe_. But it commended itself for Publication on many Grounds: First, its Shortness. Secondly, its early Date; for it bears internal Evidence of having been composed in the Year 1356[8], and must, therefore, (if really by _Wyclyffe_,) have been the earliest of his Writings. Another Motive for publishing this Production is furnished by the Consideration, that, if it be genuine, it reveals to us a Fact not dwelt upon, so far as the Editor knows, by any of the Reformer’s Biographers; namely, the Connexion which existed between the earlier Doctrines of _Wyclyffe_, and the prophetical Speculations of the _Beguins_, circulated under the Name of the famous Abbot _Joachim_.