Presbytery And Not Prelacy The Scriptural And Primitive Polity Proved From The Testimonies Of Scripture The Fathers The Schoolmen The Reformers And The English And Oriental Churches

Author : Thomas Smyth
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331804147
Total Pages : 572 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Download or read book Presbytery and Not Prelacy written by Thomas Smyth and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-19 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Presbytery and Not Prelacy: The Scriptural and Primitive Polity, Proved From the Testimonies of Scripture; The Fathers; The Schoolmen; The Reformers; And the English and Oriental Churches; Also, the Antiquity of Presbytery; Including an Account of the Ancient Culdees, and of St. Pat As a sufficient demand has been made upon the patience of the reader, in the body of this work, it will not be increased by any lengthened preface. All that will be done, therefore, will be to offer a few words of explanation. As to the necessity of the work, nothing need be said. This is now universally admitted. A renewed and thorough discussion of the great principles involved in the exclusive assumptions of prelacy, is forced upon us by the open and repeated assaults made by this bold enemy, upon the rights and privileges of all other christian denominations. The conviction is therefore general, that this controversy must become the leading topic of the age. Manuals are needed, ecclesiastical catechisms are needed, tracts, sermons, and discourses are needed, and treatises, like the present, are also needed. The one does not supersede the other, nor render it the less necessary. Let every man, in his place, and according to his opportunity, come up to the help of the cause of truth, charity, purity, and liberty, against a power which is once more forging for us the chains of spiritual despotism and superstition. The aim of this work is catholic, and not sectarian. The author appears as the advocate, not of a party, but of all non-episcopal denominations. He includes under the term presbytery, those generic principles which are common to Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Reformed Dutch, Lutherans, Baptists, and Methodists. In some points he will be found differing with members of each of these bodies, but most generally he hopes to be found agreeing with the liberal-minded of them all. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.