TWO TREATISES, ON THE CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD, AND ON THE DIGNITY OF THE EPISCOPAL ORDER: WITH A PREFATORY DISCOURSE IN ANSWER TO A BOOK ENTITLED, THE RIGHTS OF THE CHRISTIAN AND AN APPENDIX. BY GEORGE HICKES, D.D. SOMETIME FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLege, and dean of worcester. THE FOURTH EDITION. VOL. I. OXFORD: JOHN HENRY PARKER. MDCCCXLVII. VOLUME I. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF ADDITIONS TO THE THIRD EDITION, A LETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH ASSERTED, AND A PREFATORY DISCOURSE IN ANSWER TO THE RIGHTS. ADVERTISEMENT. THE first edition of this work was published in one volume 8vo. in 1707. The volume consisted of the Letter to the Author of the Rights, the Prefatory Discourse, the Two Treatises (on the Christian Priesthood, and on the Dignity of the Episcopal Order), and an Appendix containing the first three numbers of the present Appendix, (namely, the Communion Service of King Edward VI.'s first Book, that of the Scottish Prayer-Book of 1637, and the representation of a medal of King Henry VIII.) The Two Treatises, which were originally Letters, as they are often called by the Author, had been written in or soon after the year 1695. The circumstances which led to their composition will be found detailed at the opening of the Prefatory Discourse, pp. 59-63 of this volume, and in the notes. They were at first intended only for private perusal. The publication of Tindal's work, The Rights of the Christian Church asserted, in 1706, led Hickes to publish them, with the Discourse in answer to that work prefixed; see p. 67 of this volume. A second edition, with some slight alterations, also in one volume 8vo., came out in the same year, and was issued with a new title-page in 1709. The second edition, whether of 1707 or 1709, is rarely met with. A third edition was published in 1711, in which the work was enlarged to two volumes, by considerable additions to the first Discourse, on the subject of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; additions throughout the second Discourse; and nearly the whole of the present Appendix, (namely, No. IV. to No. [He also calls them Discourses, and that name is generally used by the editor.] A |