Brittan, Thomas S. An Apology for Conforming to the Protestant Episcopal Church, contained in a Series of Letters addressed to the Right Reverend Benjamin T. Onderdonk, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of New-York. New-York: Swords, Stanford, and Co., 1833. Second Edition, with Additions. [10545]
Leather spine, marbled paper boards, small chip at top of backstrip, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches, old church library bookplate inside front. [i]-xii, [13]-134, [2]. Last page with short "erratum" note; text has some foxing with the last few leaves having a round stain about the size of a quarter dollar. Good. Hardcover.
Nine letters: Introductory; Episcopacy considered on the Ground of Expediency; Episcopacy Sanctioned by the Institutions of Judaism; Testimony of Presbyterians and other Anti-Episcopalians in Favour of Episcopacy; Episcopacy Sustained by the Testimony of the Fathers; Episcopacy Sustained by Scripture; A Prescript Form of Prayer preferable in Publick Worship; Surpassing Excellence of the American Episcopal Liturgy; Concluding Letter.
The author was an Englishman brought up among Dissenters and ordained in London among the Congregationalists. He had been taught to abhor the Anglican Church "as the beast in the Apocalypse," and had strong prejudices against Episcopal church government. His association, in the course of his ministry, with Anglican ministers, changed his views. Upon understanding that the Episcopal Church in America was unfettered by civil establishment, he went to New York and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church and was priest in at least two places before removing to Canada, in Brooklyn and in Philadelphia.
