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A SERIES OF DISCOURSES

ON THE TRUE COMPREHENSION OF THE CHURCH,

AS EXHIBITED

MAINLY IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

AND

SUBORDINATELY IN THE STANDARDS OF THE PROTESTANT

EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

WITH THOUGHTS ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND WORSHIP:

AND

A VIEW OF THE CHURCH IN HEAVEN.

BY THE REV. JOHN S. STONE, D. D.

RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN.

NEW-YORK:

HOUEL & MACOY, PRINTERS, 111 NASSAU STREET.

1846.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by

JOHN S. STONE,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

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ΤΟ

THE PARISHIONERS OF CHRIST CHURCH,

BROOKLYN,

Before whom the substance of the following LITTLE WORK was delivered in the form of a
Series of Discourses, it is now, in a somewhat enlarged form,

Most Respectfully Dedicated;

With fervent desires that, in connexion with their peculiar privileges as members of the VISIBLE Church, they may attain to all the graces which can adorn, and to all the blessings which shall follow, membership in that SPIRITUAL Church, which is the true mystical Body of Christ, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all;"

By their affectionate friend and Pastor,

Brooklyn, October 1, 1846.

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE form, in which this little work appears, is not such as it would have assumed had it been originally prepared with a view to its appearance from the press. Each Discourse has, indeed, been more or less enlarged; yet, the recasting of the whole into the form of a regular treatise, retaining none of the peculiarities of Pulpit address, would have been a labor incompatible with the concurrent discharge of parish duties. So far, however, as a passing change of phraseology could go, those peculiarities have been laid aside; and the work may therefore be considered as blending, with some of the proprieties of the Pulpit, others more befitting the Press:—whether to the advantage, or to the disadvantage of the book, its readers must judge.

To those, who have opportunity for the comparison, it will be seen,. that, in several points, both in the views advanced and in the authorities cited, there is a coincidence of thought and of reference with the Sermon of Bishop McIlvaine on "the Holy Catholic Church." Indeed, it would be wrong to suffer these pages to go forth without carrying a distinct acknowledgment as well of the author's great indebtedness to the contents, as of his cordial assent to the views, of that very able and eloquent Discourse and its truly valuable Appendix. In the Church Theory advanced, there is no difference between that Sermon and the present work. The main difference between the two lies in the less extensive citation of other writers, in the wider and more formal range of Scriptural authorities and of Liturgical illustrations, and in the introduction of a greater number of topics, which have been attempted in the ensuing pages.

In his more special appeal to Scripture, the author has been influ

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