Excerpt from A Compleat View of Episcopacy, as Exhibited From the Fathers of the Christian Church, Until the Close of the Second Century: Containing an Impartial Account of Them, of Their Writings, and of What They Say Concerning Bishops and Presbyters IN a matter of fuch momentous concern, they would not have afied an unworthy part, if they had confined their pleas to the feered writings 5 producing I'uch paliages from them as fpeak to the point, not im plieitly and darkly 5 but no peremptory and cxprefs terms, lo as to leave no Ieafonable room for hefitation or doubt. It would be diihonorary to the, bible, and a grofs re fiee'tion on. The penmen _oi it, -to call that an fappointment of Chriiifl and an elf-s {entially neceilary one, which, is not. Contained in this {acred volume, and with fuchhclearnefs and precifion, that fober and impprtial inquirers may readily epercee It to be there, without foreign help to aliif'c their fight. And yet, fuch help is made Ineceilary by epifcopal-writers: They fcarcc ever tail of turning us to -the fathers' in vindication of their.caule5 hereby vir tually refieaing difgrace on the fcriptures, as though they were infufficient, fimply of themfelves, to bring this contioverfy to an iiiue.l'n'tir. O D U CT I O N. Iii. 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.