C.6128.41 TH 5443 HARVAND COLLEGE APR 25 1888 LIBRARY John Harvey Treat, Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by EUGENE CUMMISKEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. CONTENTS. PREFACE. THE idea of composing the following work, was first suggested to me by the proposed publication of a small collection of tracts, on the subject of the ordinations of the Anglican Church, announced in the Catholic Herald, of this city. It appeared to others, as well as to myself, that such a collection, however in itself desirable, would not fully answer the end contemplated in its publication; as it would not be calculated to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject, and might sometimes embarrass the reader by the necessity of too frequent reference, in order to collect, on any one particular fact, whatever evidence might be found scattered throughout. I accordingly resolved to avail myself of the contents of the intended publication, and of such other sources of information on the subject, as were within my reach, and to give a full, and, as I hoped, a methodical view of the important controversy on English ordinations. Many motives have induced me to undertake this labour. The high claims to church authority, lately put forward, and very powerfully urged by a learned and respectable body of English Protestant Divines, are well calculated to make men not only examine the soundness of these principles, but also see that they do not err in their practical application. If, then, it can be shown that these principles are of, at least, very dubious application to the church which these Divines would willingly invest with the privileges contained in the commission given by Christ to his apostles; if it can be shown that it is, to say the very least, an extremely doubtful matter, whether the very root and basis of the principle of church authority,a validly ordained ministry,-subsists in the Anglican Church; surely those who are sincere in the maintenance of such a principle will turn their eyes towards that Great Church, through which they claim to have derived their orders, but which has constantly refused to acknowledge the validity of their ordinations. Another motive which had its influence with the writer of the following examination, was a sincere desire to promote what can never be a hopeless project to the christian heart, the re-union of the Anglican with the Catholic Church. At first, indeed, it might appear, that the present publication is calculated to mar, rather than promote, the accomplishment of so desirable an object, on account of the bitter feelings it may excite, especially among the clergy, whose judgment cannot but be somewhat influenced by their personal interest in the controversy. Even others may regard the present appeal to public |