Notes on the episcopal polity of the Holy Catholic Church: with some account of the development of the modern religious systems.

x, 531 p.; 22 cm. [Regarded, as with Newman's Essay on the development of doctrine, as author's preparation for conversion] `The course of argument pursued, which it may be convenient to state here, is as follows:-- I. The a priori objection to the truth of the Catholic System of Polity founded on the indeterminateness of the Sacred Records, and the antecedent probabilities in its favour derived from Prophecy and prescription, are briefly discussed. II. The positive evidence of Holy Scripture in recognition of the Episcopate is next adduced; and III. The testimony of Antiquity--as well that which has been supplied by the enemies as by the servants of the Church--incl.the first four ages of Christianity, is then cited. IV. The adversary is next referred to the witness of his own masters and teachers,who,even in the first setting up of their new schemes, acknowledged openly the divine origin of that primitive government which they loudly declared their reluctance to subvert,and for the restoration of which they prefessed,in the most animated terms,their sincere and unfeigned desire. The remarkable admissions of Knox and his confederates, together with many others, have been,for the sake of brevity,wholly omitted;--though "the views [of] the Scottish reformer on.episcopal superintendence.might be studied with advantage." V. The final argument is that which is supplied by the actual history ofthose religious bodies which have been severed from the Apostolical Succession,andwhich were originally founded either upon the deliberate rejection of the divine office of the Episcopate,or the supposed sufficiency of other modes of ecclesiastical discipline for preserving in its integrity "the faith once delivered to the saints."' (p. vi-viii) Good orig. board sides, black tape over spine.…