The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-12-17 00:00:00

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Corraponbma.

THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY'S CHARGE

To dad Editor.

Sir,-00r Diocesan's late Charge oontained so many
astonishing propositions that we have only by degrees
awakened to the fulmar of their error and abmirdity.
la" 61 he recalls to the minds of his rev, brethren
that Rambla& reports, on the authority of Prilycrstee,
that John, the beloved disciple, assumed, as Bishop of
Enhesne, the mitre.plate which distinguished the
Antonia Priesthood, and that Epipharuus tells us that
James, as Bishop of Jerusalem, did the same," and, for
his authority, his lordship quotes, " Busebins, v. 24,
and Vslenius' notes."
May I ventais to invite attention to the fact that
Valeria, liirowilf, whilst smsrting that this mitre-plate
had been adoP4ed ss ate of lb* ornament/ of a Christian
Bishop, by no means anneal s@ his lordship of Salisbury
does, that this was a proof "that the Christian Priest-
hood was sithetituted for th•Jowish r On the contrary,
kis very words at.: "It is sallioiently dos, that thaw
*Janus sal to he oadsestood of WA Priesthood of
Jews.

Bet a still higher authority than Valades, the
maiseat Joseph Bingham in his Christian Antiquities,
Book IL, Asp, is., me. 5, not unsuocesefally coattests
1111110 the little that Vaiesies admits. "11 does not ap•
ppm (be says) that bishops had any such ornament in
Stair days. I know indeed that Valesias and Polerins
are very confident that all bishops (from the very first)
had an appendant, or badge of honour in their foreheads,
which they say was the some with the petoluat or golden
plate which the Jewish high-priests wore. ha, bet this
WM not spoken of them an Christian bishops, but on '
presnmptioe of their haring been Jewish priests, and of
the family of Amara Valenta* billiard eites • MS.
passion of St. Mark, which seta the same ornament On
his heed, and gives this very reason for it. "It is re-
ported,* says fie ' "that St. Mark, aesording to the rites
of the earns] seiaillea, wore the shlel.priest's petal=
among the Jews, whisk gives as plainly to understand,"
says that author, "that Its wag oat of the tribe of
Levi. and of the family of Aaron.* fio As did sae take
this for the onsasheit of. Christian bishop, bat ,Jewish
priest; and that opens the way for no to understand what
the other authors (i.e., Polyerstes and Bolphaniut)
Mani bY it, however Yawing ehanesd not to
awns It.
I most beg the perdon of yourself and your raiders
for bringing such &subject before you, bat when Popish
doctrines are pretentiously crammed down our throe*e
ex cathodes, it behoves us all to test them well, and to
communicate ae widely as posaible the truly shallow
foundations on which, as in this come, they will often be
Nand to rest.

I feel se sue as I do of my own existente, that if St.
Paid had men the Apostle John assuming the mitre-
plate of the Jewish High-Priest, in token a his tutees-
sum to the dignity, ke would have "withstood him to
the fees." and solemnly denounced his usurpetion of an
odes which belongs alone to Him, who Is the great
High-Priest "for ever after the ord.r of lialchise"
For be it remembered, in soechision, this mitre-plats
was the spells' ores:Deli, not of the Asronie priests in
fetters', bat of the High-Priest alone, so that. after all,
the Bishop's illustration proves too much for his argu-
ment. It might, Indeed, by possibility, prov, that St.
John assumed the Levitical Higb-Prl.sthood, but not
that the Christian Clergy are Levitical Priests.

Y;tra faithfully,
PRESBYTER SARUM.