knowledge of the principals of religion."22 Privately he confided to his poetry notebooks the greater danger of returning to the degeneracy of the national Church of England, ruled by bishops or prelates:
Apostasy wherewith thou art thus driven Unto the tents of Presbyterianism (Which is refined Prelacy at best) ...
Where open Sinners vile unmasked indeed Are welcome Guests (if they can say the Creed) Unto Christ's Table 23
In Boston Stoddard's leading opponents were the Mathers, Increase and his
