Excerpt from A Dissertation on the Validity of the Ordinations of the English and of the Succession of the Bishops of the Anglican Church: With the Proofs Establishing the Facts Advanced in This Work, the Old Translation of Mr. Williams Collated Throughout With the Original The fact that after an interval, apparently, of an hundred and sixteen years, a new Edition of the most celebrated Work yet published in defence of the validity of the Anglican Orders, has at length been loudly called for, is of itself both a safe indication of the great and favourable change which has taken place in the direction of English thought, and also a happy earnest of what, with the Divine blessing, may be hoped from the future. Under these circumstances, particularly, it was felt that all reasonable pains ought to be taken in editing so important a Work. At first, indeed, it was naturally supposed that, with a letter so complimentary as that from the author to Mr. Williams (see p. 11 - 16), no better warrant could have been desired for reprinting that gentleman's translation as it stood; to have done which would of course have made the republication a comparatively easy task. This process, however, had scarcely commenced, when the present Editor, having occasion to consult the original, was surprised to find that it by no means corresponded so accurately as that letter seemed fairly to imply. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.