objections against the appointment of successors to the deprived Bishops. The Publisher further mentions, that the forty propositions had been printed at the end of "The Character of a Primitive Bishop," though in an imperfect state, and that many copies had been circulated in the life-time of the Author.[1] His arguments need not be largely entered into, since they are similar with those, to which we have previously referred in the works consequent on Dodwell's and Nelson's return to the National Church. One passage, however, respecting Anti-Bishops is remarkable. He makes several kinds of Anti-Bishops, some being so by usurpation, others by professing false doctrines, others in both these respects. Alluding to the second sort he says, "such Anti-Bishops are also the Popish Bishops, now in all parts of the world, to the reformed Bishops, more particularly in Ireland."[2] This is a strong assertion, and confutes
- ↑ In one Letter to the Serjeant, Hickes had submitted twentythree propositions concerning the Constitution of the Catholic Church. These he enlarged to forty in a subsequent Letter. In the year 1710 a Tract appeared under the following title: "The High Church Catechism, with Riches's Thirty-Nine Articles." The number of propositions was forty; but the Author of this Tract omits the seventeenth altogether, making the eighteenth take its place, thus reducing the number to thirty-nine, merely for the purpose, as is evident, of insinuating, that Hickes wished to substitute them instead of the Articles of the Anglican Church. The preface to the Tract shews, that the writer was an enemy, not only to the Nonjurors, but also to the Church of England. His omission of one of the propositions, for the purpose of making the number correspond with the Articles of the Anglican Church, was a dishonest attempt to blacken the character of a pious and learned man.
- ↑ The Constitution of the Catholic Church and the Nature and Consequences of Schism, set forth in a collection of Papers written by the late R. Reverend George Hickes, D. D. 8vo. Printed in the year 1716.
