Three letters to the bishop of Bangor

[ordina]tions, falls under the same category of trifles and dreams; and consequently, they are either all equally good or all equally trifling. Therefore, Quakers, Independents, and Presbyterians, according to your Lordship, have as much reason to think their teachers are useful to them—and are true ministers of Christ—as those in the Episcopal communion The Church of England and other churches governed by bishops. have to believe in their own teachers.

For if the regularity of ordination and uninterrupted succession Apostolic Succession: The doctrine that church authority is passed down in an unbroken chain from the Apostles to modern bishops. are merely trifles and amount to nothing, then every difference between us and other teachers must also be nothing, because they can differ from us in no other way. Thus, my Lord, if the Church of England has fought for the necessity of episcopal ordination derived from Christ, you have deserted her on this point. You not only abandon episcopal ordination by ridiculing the idea of a succession, but by the same argument, you prevent any ministers on earth from possessing Christ’s authority.

For if there is not a succession of people authorized by Christ to send others to act in His name, then both Episcopal and Presbyterian Presbyterians believe in a church governed by elders (presbyters) rather than bishops. teachers are equally usurpers Usurper: Someone who wrongfully takes a position of power or authority without a legal or divine right., and are as much mere laymen as anyone else. For there can be no other difference between the clergy and the laity The "laity" refers to the ordinary members of a church who are not ordained as clergy. except that the former has authority derived from Christ to perform offices which the latter does not.

But this authority can be obtained in no other way than through an uninterrupted succession of men from Christ, empowered to qualify others. For if the succession is ever broken, people must either enter the ministry of their own accord, or be sent by those who have no more power to send others than they have to go themselves. And, my Lord, can such people be called ministers of Christ, or re[ceived...]