Complete Works of Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D.

THE subject-matter of the following Volume is the prelatical doctrine of apostolical succession, or the exclusive claim of highchurchmen and Romanists to the ONLY true church of Jesus Christ; his ONLY true and valid ministers; and the only sources of efficacious ordinances and covenanted salvation. This doctrine, and not episcopacy, is the subject of our animadversion. The principles involved in this assumption—and not the character or standing of the protestant episcopal church-we condemn. The tendencies of this doctrine, as exhibited in its past history and in its necessary influence-these, and not the persons of its abettors, who may utterly repudiate and deny many of these consequences, we reprobate as anti-protestant and dangerous. Our warfare is against principles and not men-in defence of truth against the aggression of this opposing system.

High-churchism, therefore, in contradistinction to lowchurchism; prelacy, considered as being the ultraism of episcopacy; the exclusive, bigoted and intolerant assumptions of the hierarchy, in their wide separation from the peaceful and equal claims of the episcopal denomination; this, we wish it to be distinctly understood, is the only object of our reprobation. Whether the arguments by which the episcopal form of church government is sustained, are valid, or of greater strength than those produced for presbytery, is another question, which we may have occasion to consider. This, however, is not our present inquiry. That inquiry is simply and in substance, this: IS THE PRELACY THE ONLY CHURCH OF CHRIST, IN THIS OR IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, AND THE ONLY SOURCE OF COVENANTED MERCY AND EFFICACIOUS GRACE? AND ARE PRESBYTERIAN AND ALL OTHER DENOMINATIONS, WHICH CLAIM TO BE CHURCHES OF CHRIST, HAVING MINISTERS AND ORDINANCES ACCORDING TO HIS APPOINTMENT,-ARE THEY IMPOSTERS, WHO ONLY DECEIVE IGNORANT PEOPLE, TO THEIR GREAT AND SERIOUS, IF NOT FATAL, INJURY? This is the question to be answered,-plainly, candidly either in the affirmative or in the negative.

SECTION II. Origin and Design of this Discussion.

NOTHING could have been more unexpected by the Author than an engagement in this discussion. The whole subject was foreign to his tastes and pursuits. In common with his brethren, he was accustomed to hold it in abeyance, as unworthy and undeserving of any mature deliberation. It was better, he thought, to occupy his own mind, and the minds of his people, with the practical and saving truths of the gospel, and leave ecclesiastical polemics to ecclesiastical agitators. Circumstances, however, led him to discover his own ignorance of the grounds of our denominational views-his inability to grapple with the arguments of our opponents—and his incapacity to satisfy the minds of those who sought for ministerial guidance and direction. The manifestation of alienation of feeling; of haughty reserve; of high-toned exclusiveness; of reluctance to associate with him, or in any way to acknowledge him as minister; and

the open declaration of sentiments at war with all charity, and which threw him out of the pale of christianity at various times and by various persons-were still further inducements to examine into the foundation upon which our church professed to build her claims. This desire was strengthened, by observing that by our total silence on these subjects, not only our members but also our ministers, were generally unacquainted with them in any thing beyond a mere general and superficial knowledge, and that many of the laity were perfectly ignorant of the first principles of our ecclesiastical polity. Hence he discovered they were open to the artful and insidious efforts of proselyters, and were easily made a prey by the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive and to insnare the unwatchful. For many years, too, there has been a growing interest in these subjects, gradually extending itself through the community. This interest has been excited to tenfold strength, and universally diffused, by the origination and efforts. of that association known as the Oxford Divines, and by the circulation of the Oxford Tracts, and various other volumes of a similar character and tendency.* The introduction of these writings into this country; the terms of praise and exultation with which they were noticed; their re-adoption by many individuals, religious newspapers and periodicals, as containing in the main their own cherished sentiments; the republication of these tracts, and of many of the separate volumes; the adoption of many of them by the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, among their issues; and the zeal with which they were put into circulation, not only among episcopalians, but through the com

*See a very satisfactory account of the origin of this system, in Note A., at the end of the Introduction.

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