Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…

Among those who Compass the Camp of the Saints, and are as Disaffected unto you, as Good Men are Well-affected, there is a set of Strange Men who assault you and insult you, with Imagining a Vain Thing, wherein the Reformed Churches in these Parts of America, & on the whole Continent of Europe have equally with You, an Attempt made upon them; The Men who try to shake the Minds of the Faithful, with Cavils at The Validity of a Presbyterian Ordination: The Men who crying up the Necessity of an Episcopal Ordination, do as your Worthy Champion Willison Expresses it, advance a most Unmerciful Opinion, which Unchurches almost all the Protestant Churches in the World, and which does the greatest Service that can be done to the Church ⟨p. VI⟩of Rome, and the Kingdom of Satan; Inviting People to turn Papists, or Hardening them in their Vices and Immoralities. What these Men mean at This time of the Day,—'Tis Unaccountable?—In the mean Time, we are not left Uninformed, That even about the Beginning of the present Century, very Notable Treatises Published in Germany, Complain of Emissaries creeping in among the Churches there, who upon the Intention of carrying people back to Rome, do hold forth unto them, That the Protestant Ministers are mere Laymen for the want of Episcopal Ordination; and as the Acute Voigtius expresses it, Multis etiam illustribus animis persuadere Conati sunt, non esse Legitimos quos haberemus Ecclesioe Ministros. To stop the Mouths of these gainsayers, whom they call,—What I will not say?—we find such Eminent Persons as a Joachim Hildebrand, a Seckendorf, a Bebelius, an Osiander, & other great Men within these very few Years, appearing, to Allow indeed, that they have not Bishops of a Distinct order from their Presbyters; but then to Maintain that they do not Want them, and that the Sacred Scriptures know nothing of them, and that the Primitive Churches were Strangers to them; and that none but, Pontificij, et Hierarchici in Anglia, do Dispute the Validity of our Presbyterian Ordination. But this is not altogether so Unexpected, as it may be to find, that even in France it self, the Doctors of the Sorbonne have lately Published Instruments, Decrying and Condemning of Episcopacy, declaring it an Usurpation, and asserting in strong terms the old Aerian Heresy, as it was called, & all that Jerome writes ⟨p. VII⟩upon it.

Among those who Compass the Camp of the Saints, and are as Disaffected unto you, as Good Men are Well-affected, there is a set of Strange Men who assault you and insult you, with Imagining a Vain Thing, wherein the Reformed Churches in these Parts of America, & on the whole Continent of Europe have aequally with You, an Attempt made upon them; The Men who try to shake the Minds of the Faithful, with Cavils at The Validity of a Presbyterian Ordination: The Men who crying up the Necessity of an Episcopal Ordination, do as your Worthy Champion Willison Expresses it, advance a most Unmerciful Opinion, which Unchurches almost all the Protestant Churches in the World, and which does the greatest Service that can be done to the Church