THE

PRELATICAL DOCTRINE

OF

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION EXAMINED,

AND THE

PROTESTANT MINISTRY DEFENDED

AGAINST THE

ASSUMPTIONS OF POPERY AND HIGH-
CHURCHISM,

IN A SERIES OF LECTURES.

BY THOMAS SMYTH,

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
CHARLESTON, S. C.

CAN ANY REASONABLE RULE OF CONSTRUCTION MAKE THIS (I. E. THE EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION) AMOUNT TO MORE THAN ANCIENT AND APOSTOLICAL PRACTICE? THAT THE apostles aDOPTED ANY PARTICULAR FORM, AFFORDS A PRESUMPTION OF ITS BEINg the best, ALL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THAT TIME CONSIDERED; BUT TO MAKE IT UNALTERABLY BINDING, IT MUST BE SHOWN ENJOINED IN POSITIVE [BISHOP WHITE IN THE CAse of the EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.'

PRECEPT.

I AM, SAYS THE REVEREND THOMAS SCOTT, AN EPISCOPALIAN, BUT NOT A

PRELATIST.

THE R. L. BRYAN COMPANY
COLUMBIA, S.C.

THESE LECTURES

ARE DEDICATED, BY THEIR AUTHOR,

FIRST.

TO ALL EVANGELICAL, OR LOW-CHURCH EPISCOPALIANS, AND TO ALL NONEPISCOPAL, AND EVANGELICAL COMMUNIONS, WHOSE COMMON

INTEREST AND DUTY IT IS TO OPPOSE THE EXCLUSIVE

ASSUMPTIONS OF

POPERY AND HIGH-CHURCHISM.

SECONDLY.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S. c.

FOR WHOSE IMMEDIATE BENEFIT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY PREPARED;

BY WHOSE COUNSEL THEY WERE PUBLICLY DELIVERED; AND

BY WHOSE SUBSTANTIAL ASSISTANCE, THEY ARE

NOW PUBLISHED TO THE WORLD:

AND, THIRDLY.

TO THE REV. SAMUEL MILLler, d. d. anD REV. ARCHIBALD ALEXAnder, d. d. THE LONG-TRIED AND FAITHFUL ADVOCATES AND FRIENDS

OF THE

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH;

TO WHOSE LABORS ITS BISHOPS, ELDERS, and churCH MEMBERS,

ARE UNDER DEEP AND LASTING OBLIGATION.

FROM the unprecedented haste with which the Volume has been carried through the press, many mistakes in names and references, both in the body of the work and the Index, may have escaped the notice of the Author, who has done all he possibly could to avoid them.