TREATISE ON THE CHURCH, CHIEFLY WITH RESPECT TO ITS GOVERNMENT: IN WHICH THE DIVINE RIGHT OF EPISCOPACY IS MAINTAINED, THE SUPREMACY OF THE BISHOP OF ROME PROVED TO BE CONTRARY TO THE SCRIPTURES AND PRIMITIVE FATHERS; AND THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND, PROVED TO BE A SOUND AND ORTHODOX PART OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Compiled from the most Eminent Divines. BY EDWARD BARWICK, M. A. OF TRINITY COLLEGE, Dublin. Second Edition, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. BELFAST: PRINTED AND SOLD BY GEORGE BERWICK, 1. NORTH STREET, F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, J. HATCHARD, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. I AM persuaded that the following Treatise, which attempts to explain the nature of the government which Christ has established in his Church, will require no apology, since all who profess themselves christians are so closely interested in the subject. That gross ignorance on this subject prevails at present among all, even among the members of the Church (for whom this treatise is principally intended,) is too evident to require any proof. And how unnatural is it, that the members of any society should be ignorant of its origin and establishment, the principles on which it was instituted, and the rules by which its credit and dignity have been supported. This ignorance (as a laymember of the Church of England observes *,) which, on other occasions, is only extremely absurd,-when applied to the principles of our ecclesiastical constitution, is highly reprehensible in itself, and attended with the most dangerous. consequences. * Treatise on the Church, by William Stevens, Esq. 1799. a |