Excerpt from Letters to an Episcopalian, on the Origin, History and Doctrine of the Book of Common-Prayer

The following letters were prepared with reference to the case of a particular individual, but it is believed that they will be found equally applicable to a very large class of readers. Episcopalians generally regard the "Book of Common-Prayer" as second only to the Bible, both in excellency and authority. To them, it is at once a treasury of spiritual reading, a book of devotion and worship, and a standard of faith and doctrine. Any treatise relating to a book so intimately bound up with their religious life, must at once awaken their interest and inquiry. However great may be their veneration for it, they will scarcely maintain that it is too perfect to admit of improvement. However much they may honor the memory of those who compiled it, they will not venture to pronounce them absolutely infallible. It is therefore believed that they will have too much good sense to put away from them a work which is designed to throw light upon these points. Esteeming their Prayer-Book so highly, they must also feel too much interested in its origin and history, to forego the opportunity afforded by these letters, to obtain the only complete account of the sources from which that book was compiled, as well as of the means by which it was first brought into use. Acknowledging it to be the authorised exponent of their doctrinal belief and of their ecclesiastical polity, they must feel concerned in any logical deductions which may be drawn from its creeds, articles of religion, and other theological statements.

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