Excerpt from Letters Concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry: Addressed to the Members of the Presbyterian Churches in the City of New York; To Which Is Prefixed, a Letter on the Present Aspect and Bearing of the Episcopal Controversy I take the liberty to inscribe this volume, in its present form, to you. The original publication was addressed to those united churches in the city of New York, of which I was, at the time of its date, one of the pastors. And although I still cherish the memory of that relation with grateful and affectionate respect, and still continue the address which was at first adopted; yet, as the circum stances which induce me to present the work a second time to the public, are of wider extent than the demands of afew single congregations; I wish to bespeak the attention of the whole ecclesiastical body, with which I have the hap piness to be' connected, to the subject here discussed a subject which the unscriptural and exorbitant claims of a particular denomination among us have invested with an interest beyond that which intrinsically belongs to it. It is the duty of Christians in every age, not only to make themselves well acquainted with important religious truth, but also to arm themselves against surrounding errors; especially those which, from the plausibility and confidence with which they are advanced, are peculiarly fitted to deceive the hearts of the simple. 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.