BEING AN EXAMINATION OF THE ORDINARY SUNDRY POINTS OF THEOLOGY AND PRACTICE, CONNECTED SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED. BY JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, D. D. THUS SAITH THE LORD, STAND YE IN THE WAYS, AND SEE, AND ASK BURLINGTON : VERNON HARRINGTON. 1836. •H8 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1835 By SMITH & HARRINGTON, in the Clerks office of the district of Vermont. 473293 TO THE CAUSE OF APOSTOLIC ORDER, AS IT WAS RECORDED IN THE SCRIPTURES OF TRUTH ESTABLISHED IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, AND STILL REMAINS IN ALL ITS ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES WITH THE PROMISE OF CHRIST TO INSURE ITS PERPETUITY, THIS VOLUME, AN IMPERFECT OFFERING OF A ZEALOUS WILL, IB DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. 5136 PREFACE. THE main design of the following book, was to give information to the very many persons in the author's field of labor, whose ideas of the Protestant Episcopal Church have been of the most erroneous, and consequently unfavorable character. Hence, he has endeavored to state the common objections to the Church, as they actually exist, and has confined himself, in answering them, to the kind of argument which he had found most satisfactory in the course of his past experience. The author is well aware that there are several valuable works in print, admirably adapted to the same end, and the more deserving of encouragement because they are the productions of our own writers. The apology of the late lamented Bishop Hobart, Dr. Bowden's letters to Dr. Miller, Dr. Cooke's excellent Essay, the popular Sermons of Dr. Chapman, the Episcopal Manual of the late pious Dr. Wilmer, are all works of merit, with the usefulness and acceptableness of which, the present volume is neither designed nor expected to interfere. The views of the author, however, are not, in all respects, the same with some of these highly esteemed writers; and the train of reflection which he has presented in the discussion of the nature and powers of the Episcopal office, although familiar to his thoughts and frequently expressed by him in conversation for many years, has not hitherto received so prominent a place in our publications, as it seems to require. He is also aware that some of his opinions will be found unacceptable to numbers of good and respectable men, as well within as without his own communion, and he knows of no |