BY JOHN BROWN, D. D.

MINISTER OF LANGTON, BERWICKSHIRE.

J. NISBET & CO. AND DUNCAN & MALCOLM, LONDON.

MDCCCXLII.

"Nothing has so effectually thrown contempt upon a regular succession of the ministry, as the calling no succession regular but what was uninterrupted, and the making the eternal salvation of Christians to depend upon that uninterrupted succession, of which the most learned can have the least assurance, and the unlearned can have no notion, but through ignorance and credulity." HOADLY.

"They who would reduce the Church to the form of government thereof in the primitive times would be found pecking towards the Presbytery of Scotland: Which, for my part, believe in point of government cometh nearer than either yours (the Popish) or ours of Episcopacy to the first age of Christ's Church." LORD DIGBY.

Printed by James Walker,

6. James's Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.

Ungenerous and unprovoked attack by Puseyite Episcopalians

on Presbyterian Churches.-Alarming view presented by the

former, of the spiritual condition of the latter.-Necessity

imposed on Presbyterians to defend their principles,

LETTER II.

1-5

Exclusive claims of Puseyite Episcopalians to the Christian mi-

nistry by no means of recent origin.—Saravia not the author

of them, but Laud.- Account of the principal individuals in

the Church of England who have brought them forward at

different periods, when they considered her to be in danger.

-Their doctrines proved to be contrary to her principles,

from the Thirty-nine Articles, the writings of the Bishops

who composed her Formularies, and their immediate succes-

sors, their conduct towards Presbyterian Churches, the char-

ter granted by Edward the Sixth to these Churches in Lon-

don, and the establishment of Presbytery by Elizabeth in

Jersey and Guernsey,
6-28

LETTER III.

These doctrines condemned in the strongest terms by the most

distinguished Protestant Statesmen after the Reformation;

Cecil, the Lord President of Queen Elizabeth's Council, Sir

a

Francis Knollys, and Lord Bacon, and denounced as

a Po-

pish conceit," by the leading bishops and clergy.—Dissimi-

larity between the Church of England, beyond whose pale,

and that of the Church of Rome, Puseyites deny that there

is any hope of salvation, and the Apostolic Church, in the

extent of its bishoprics, the civil power exercised by its pre-

lates, the multitude of its ceremonies, and " its want," ac-

cording to its own acknowledgment, "of a godly disci-

pline,"

29-59

LETTER IV.

Extracts from the Oxford Tracts asserting the doctrines of Pusey-

ite Episcopacy to be the doctrines of Scripture.—A contrary

opinion avowed by the whole of the bishops and clergy who

were zealous for the spiritual improvement of the Church for

five hundred years before the Reformation, by the whole of

the Protestant Churches at that memorable period, and by

eight thousand Protestant ministers, who subscribed the Arti-

cles of Smalkald, which declare that bishops are not superior

to presbyters by divine right.-Improbability that these dis-

tinguished individuals and the whole Protestant Churches

were wrong, and Puseyite Episcopalians right,

60-73

LETTER V.

Presumptive evidence that diocesan bishops have not been ap-

pointed by God, because the only bishops mentioned in Scrip-

ture among the standing ministers of the Church are presby-

ters, and no passage can be produced specifying the qualifica-

tions required in bishops as distinct from presbyters.-This in-

explicable, if there was to be an order of ministers, denomi-

nated bishops, superior to presbyters.-Presbyter, a name of

higher honour than bishop.-No minister of an inferior order

distinguished by the name of a minister of a superior order.

Deacons never called presbyters, but presbyters always repre-

sented as bishops. The powers of ordination and govern-

ment ascribed in Scripture to presbyters.-Wickliff held the

principles of Presbytery, and maintained that Scripture gave

no countenance to diocesan Episcopacy,

LETTER VI.

74-92

Additional evidence that the principal Reformers of the Church

of England rejected the divine right of Episcopacy, and

pleaded for that form of ecclesiastical polity, chiefly on the

ground that they considered it as better adapted to absolute

monarchy.-Testimonies against the divine right of Episco-

pacy, and acknowledging that Presbyterianism is sanctioned

by Scripture, from the writings of Tindal, Barnes, Lambert,

Cranmer, Tonstall, Stokesley, Jewel, Redman, Robertson,

George Cranmer, Willet, Bedel, and Lord Digby,

93-103

LETTER VII.

The argument for diocesan Episcopacy, from the different or-

ders in the ministry under the Jewish dispensation, examined,

and proved to be more favourable to Popery than to Prelacy.

-As far as it establishes the latter, it furnishes a precedent

merely for a single bishop in a nation, with far more limited

powers than those of any modern bishop.-No resemblance

between the powers and functions of the Jewish priests and

Levites, and those of priests and deacons in Episcopalian

Churches. Argument acknowledged to be inconclusive by

some of the leading defenders of Episcopacy,

LETTER VIII.

104-117

The argument of Dr Brett and Bishop Gleig for diocesan Epis-

copacy from the different orders in the ministry, during our

Lord's ministry, inconclusive.-The Old Testament Church

had not then ceased to exist, nor was the New Testament

Church established. Their account of the ministry which