IN HER PRIMITIVE PURITY, COMPARED WITH THE CHURCH OF ROME, AT THE PRESENT DAY: BEING A CANDID EXAMINATION OF HER CLAIMS TO UNIVERSAL DOMINION; ADDRESSED, IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIAN KINDNESS, TO THE ROMAN HIERARCHY. BY JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, D.D. BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, IN THE DIOCESE OF VERMONT, U.S. FIRST LONDON EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR, REV. HENRY MELVILL, B.D. Cur profers in medium, quod Petrus et Paulus edere noluerunt? Usque ad hunc LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 1839. TO THE CAUSE OF CATHOLIC UNITY, AS IT EXISTED IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, AND AS IT STILL EXISTS IN THE HEARTS AND HOPES OF CHRISTIANS, THIS VOLUME, AN HUMBLE OFFERING TO THE GOD OF TRUTH AND PEACE, IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. BARROW'S Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy was not published, as is well known, during the life of the author, but was delivered by him on his death-bed to archbishop Tillotson, with a special permission that it might be given to the world. In a notice to the reader, prefixed by Tillotson to this celebrated work, we have the following strong but deserved encomium: "It is not only a just, but an admirable discourse upon this subject, which many others have handled before, but he hath exhausted it, insomuch, that no argument of moment, nay, hardly any consideration properly belonging to it, hath escaped his large and comprehensive mind. He hath said enough to silence the controversy for ever, and to deter all wise men, of both sides, from meddling any farther with it.” It will not be disputed, by any who have well acquainted themselves with Barrow's Treatise, that it fully merits the archbishop's panegyric. It is a noble work, exhibiting throughout the massive erudition and the argumenta |