fulfilled which was the rule of the Primitive Church Absolution was granted immediatly upon Conâ—…ession without more ado as Arnaud has fully discovered to the world Certainly every body that considers these things must discern what merchandise the Roman Clergy have made of the power of the Keys to make themselves Masters of all mens secrets and of their Consciences then was the necessity of secret Confession set up tho there be nothing in Scripture that favours it any places that look that way being only meant of Confessing our Faults to those against whom they are Committed or of a publick Confession in the Cases of publick Offences Nor can it be pretended with any Colour of truth or reason that the Primitive Church did set up or Authorise Confession in any other way than as our Church does recommending it only as an excellent mean towards the quieting the Conscience and the avoiding of all Scruple and Doubtfulness Penitence is also a mean for humbling the sinner more for possessing him with deeper apprehensions of the guilt and evil of sin and of the Iustice of God and for ingaging him to more diligence and watchfulness for the future and by these Rules all the Primitive Discipline was contrived and managed that it might be a wholsome Medicine for the reforming the World and every honest Priest ought to consider these as the end he must drive at in all his dealings with Penitents and for this end the Absolution is to be withheld till it appears that the person is truely penitent and that both for the Priests sake that he may not give the Comforts of the Gospel nor make use of his Ministerial power of loosing sins without good grounds and also for the sinners sake that he may be kept under the fear of the wrath of God and be excluded from the comfortable Priviledges of the Christian Church till he had given some convincing proofs that he is a penitent indeed For if he be freed from these fears by a hasty absolution it is very like he will be slight in his Repentance There must be also some proportion between the penance and the sin committed such as fasting for sins of Intemperance bodily severities for Inordinate pleasures Alms-giving for sins of Covetousness great and frequent Devotions for sins of Omission that so the penance may prove Medicinal indeed for purging out the ill humours and recovering the sinner and to make the sin more Odious to him Therefore such slight penances as saying the Penitential Psalms and abstaining from some meats with other trifling things of that Nature are a betraying the power of the Keys which was given for Edification and not for Destruction and tend to an exposing of Religion and the Priestly Function to Contempt These practices are common and avowed in that Church and by these and such like have the Iesuites got all the world to make their Confessions to them of which such discoveries have been made by the Writers of the Port-Royal that we need say nothing but only look on with Astonishment and see the Impudent partiality of the Court of Rome and how obstinately they are resolved to reform nothing For tho the practice of the whole Church in all the Councils that were held for many ages be clearly of the side of the Iansenists yet they must be condemned their Books censured and the practices of the Iesuites encouraged and supported After all this of what Undanted Consciences must they be who charge our Church as opening a Sanctuary for Vice and Impurity because we retain not the necessity of secret Confession and Absolution Which whatever they may prove if well managed are according the practices of that Church and the Casuistical Divinity that is in greatest Credit there and by which their Priests are directed Engines for beating down all Religion and common Honesty But our Church owns still the power of the Keys which is not only Doctrinal when the Mercies of God are declared or his Iudgments denounced but is also Authoritative and Ministerial by which all Christians are either admitted to or rejected from the Priviledges of Church-Communion and their sins are bound or loosed With this we assert the Pastors of the Church are Vested For the Rites of our Ordinations we still retain those which are mentioned in the Scriptures which are Imposition of Hands and Prayer As for the forms of Prayer the Catholick Church never agreed on any nor decreed what were to be used Every Church had their own forms And though the Church of Rome did unmercifully enough impose divers things on the Greek Churches and because they would not yield to her Tyranny she left them to be a Prey to the Turk and did not interpose her Authority with the Princes of the West over whom she was then Absolute to arm them for the assistance and defence of the Greeks yet amidst all this desire of Rule they were never so unreasonable as to impose their Liturgies Rituals or Missals on them but in these they left them to their own Forms and so continue to do to this day Anciently they had no more Iurisdiction over the British Churches than over the Greek Churches So that by the division of Provinces confirmed by General Councils and by a particular decree of the Council of Ephesus no new Authority over any other Churches was to be assumed by any See but all were to be determined by the former practices and customs of the Church It is certain that before that time the Bishops of Rome had no Patriarchal Iurisdiction in Britain so that if the Decrees of General Councils will bind them they ought not to claim any Authority over us But if the Popes build new Pretentions on Austin the Monk's being sent hither by Pope Gregory the Great We are ready to refer this matter to his decision and will stand to his award for he being consulted by Austin about some particulars one of these was Since there is one Faith how comes it that the Customs of the Churches are so different and that one form of Missals is in the Roman Church and another is in the Churches of the Gaules or of France From this Question it appears that even France which was undoubtedly within the Patriarchat of Rome had Forms different from those used in Rome But let us now hear what Answer is given by Pope Gregory which may be reasonably believed ex Cathedra and so of great Authority with all who acknowledg the Infallibility of that See You know the custom of the Church of Rome in which you were educated but my opinion is that whatever you find either in the Holy Roman the Gallican or any other Church that may be more pleasing to Almighty God you shall diligently choose out that and infuse in the English Church which is yet but young in the Faith by careful Instruction what you can gather from many Churches for we ought not to love things for the
Booksellers Shop authorized and commanded in the Act of Uniformity made 1662. to be only used to St. Bartholomew ' s Day of that Year and that other Enacted to be only used from thenceforward and Printed in the Common-Prayer-Books of Cathedral Churches out of which I have found it hard to be got the Bishops as most think suppressing it for shame and leaving it only in those places where it was necessary to be made use of and not permitting it to be otherwise dispersed abroad although the Act of Uniformity which made it commands upon forfeiture of 3 l. for every Month after St. Bartholomew's Day 1662. that every Church Chappel Collegiate Church College and Hall should have a true printed Copy of it Thus I hope I have fully proved that the Church of England has no true Priest or Bishop for want of Ordination Now I shall also show that they have no Iurisdiction or Authority to Teach Preach exact Tythes inflict Censures to be Pastors or to exercise any Ecclesiastical Function whatsoever from Christ but only from the Parliament and my third Conclusion is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no Power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament This I prove because they have no more Power than the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had who was the Chief and from whom as it were the Conduit of all Iurisdiction was derived to the rest That he had no such Power or Iurisdiction I prove first because they that Confirmed and Consecrated him had no such Power to confer upon him of themselves to wit William Barlow late Bishop of Bath and Wells now Elect of Chichester John Scory late of Chichester now Elect of Hereford Miles Coverdale late of Exeter and John Hodgskins Bishop Suffragan who were none of them actual Bishops of any See but two Elect only and another quondam only and so had no actual Iurisdiction at all the fourth only Suffragan to Canterbury and who had no Iurisdiction but what he had from the Arshbishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Iurisdiction over himself and all the Bishops in the Land as the other three had no Power at all to give him much less so transcendent an one because none can give what he has not Secondly Because they had their sole Power from the Queen and she besides the incapacity of her Sex had no Power of her self but only according to the Statutes in that case provided as appears by her Letters Patent yet extant and to be seen in the Rolls in these words Elizabetha Regina c. Elizabeth Queen c. To the Reverend Father in Christ William c. Whereas the Archiepiscopal See of Canterbury being lately void by the natural death of my Lord Reginal Pool Cardinal the late and immediate Archbishop and Pastor of it at the humble Petition of the Dean and Chapter of our Cathedral and Metropolitan Church in Canterbury called Christs Church we did by our Letters Patents grant Licence to them to choose to themselves another for Archbishop and Pastor of the See aforesaid and they have chosen Matthew Parker c. We have given our Royal assent and favour to the said Election and we signifie this to you by the tenor of these presents requiring and by the fidelity and love wherein you are bound to us firmly enjoyning commanding you that you or four of you effectually Confirm the said Matthew Parker Archbishop and Pastor Elect of the said Church and Confirm the said Election and Consecrate him Archbishop and Pastor of the said Church and do all other things which in this behalf are incumbent on your Pastoral Office according to the Form of the Statutes in this case made and provided Out of which words first I note that the Queen here and all the Clergy with her acknowledge Cardinal Pool the true and rightful Archbishop of Canterbury by which they own Catholic Ordination and Iurisdiction to be valid lawful and good Secondly I note and confirm the main assertion That the Queen knowing the Common Law and ancient Laws of the Kingdom required the Authority Consent and Commission or Bull of the Pope to empower the Confirmers and Consecrators of the Archbishop of Canterbury as the only Superior of that See and withal that he would not grant and give it to make a Protestant Archbishop she by her Supreme Authority as Head of the Church of England not only authorized them that were to Confirm and Consecrate him but also Pope-like supplied all defects whether in Quality faculty or any other thing wanting and necessary in the Consecrators for that performance by the Laws of the Church or Kingdom for so it followed in the same Patent Supplying nevertheless by our Supreme Regal Authority if any thing in you or any of you or in your condition state or faculty to the performance of the Premisses is wanting of these things that by the Statutes of our Realm or the Ecclesiastical Laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary which she therefore supposed and knew well enough to be necessary and wanting for otherwise it had been in vain for her to supply them the condition of the time and necessity of things requiring it By which you see they could do neither of these Acts of Confirming or Consecrating him Archbishop of Canterbury without her Commission which was not only necessary to empower them but also to dispense with them and make their Acts valid non obstante notwithstanding the Laws of the Land That these Letters Patents Authorized them is clear out of the Instrument of his Confirmation to be seen in the Records at Lambeth in their own words following In the name of the Lord Amen We William Barlow Iohn Miles c. by the Queens Commissional Letters specially and lawfully deputed Commissioners c. by the Supreme Authority of the Queen to us in this behalf committed confirm the said Election of Matthew Parker c. supplying by the Supreme Authority of the Queen to us delegated if any thing be wanting in us or any of us or in our Condition State or Faculty to the performance of the Premisses of these things that by the Statutes of the Realm or the Ecclesiastical Laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary c. as above And whereas the Popes Commission or Bull used to be produced by authority of which all Archbishops of Canterbury were Consecrated and their Election confirmed Now in place of that says the Act of it upon Parker's Records Proferebatur Regium Mandatum pro ejus Consecratione The Queens Mandate or Commission for Consecrating him was produc'd as the Authority for what they did Lastly I prove that the Queen had her Authority from the Parliament First from the Statute 25. Henry 8. cap. 20. where the Parliament repeats out of another Act made that present Parliament That if any Elected by the King and presented to the See of Rome to be Archbishop or
their Princes till they forced them afterwards to seek to them for shelter from the severity of their Princes and then the Tables were turned All this was not a little set forward by the credit which the begging Friers got every where in the 13th Century for the Monks were then become as scandalous as the Secular Clergy had ever been and were generally very ignorant so that they could not serve the ends of the Papacy any more but the austere lives of the Franciscans their poverty and coarse Garments girt about with Ropes their bare Legs and seeming Humility gained them great esteem and the Zealous Dominicans whose course of life was not so severe yet were as poor and Preached much and Aquinas Scotus and Bonaventure brought in among the Friers the learning of the Schoolâ—… which was then in great esteem in the World all which concurred to dispose the People to receive them with great Veneration These were also imployed by the Popes every where and were also exempted from Episcopal Visitation and had Priviledges to build Churches and Seminaries to Preach hear Confessions and Administer the Sacraments every where and by these means the Episcopal Iurisdiction was quite overthrown and the Papacy became absolute and those Orders of Mendicant Friers were clearly a Presbytery they being a company of Priests that acknowledged no Episcopal Iurisdiction over them and their Great Chapter was their General Assembly and their Annual or Triennial Generals and Provincials who are chosen by them were like the elected Moderators of Provincial and National Assemblies In this only did that Presbytery differ from the Geneva Form that it was subject only to Christ's pretended Vicar the other claims to be only subordinate to Christ himself but both did equally rebel against their Bishops Yet the Schism of the Papacy had almost overturned all for the Bishops met in a General Council at Constance I call all those Councils General according to the style of the Church of Rome for I know there was not a Conncil truly General among them all and there they thought to retrieve their Authority and to be quit with the Popes for bringing in Abbots and other inferior Prelates they brought in Deputies from Universities to sit and judg with them and they thought they had made sure work of all by their Acts that regulated the Popes Election restrained his power subjected him to the judgment of a General Council and above all by their Act for a Decennial General Council with such provisions in it that one would think the Act for Triennial Parliaments was copyed from that Original But alas all this proved to no purpose for as Aeneas Sylvius wisely said that since all Preferments were given by the Pope and none by the Council he must certainly have the better of it at long run which as it made himself turn about so it brought off many more and at length the Pope became Master of All and at the Council of Florence the Generals of Orders were brought in to have Votes there There was another great Engine also made use of by which all the rules of the Primitive Church was overturned which was the Popes assuming a power to hear and judg all causes originally All that the Popes pretended to for many Ages was to be the highest Tribunal to which the last Appeal did lie And this was not only never yielded to by the Eastern Churches but even the African Churches though a part of the Latin Church would never submit to it and yet the receiving an Appeal had a very favourable plea that a person who had been oppressed by a faction perhaps in his own Countrey might find relief and protection elsewhere But after the 8th Century and that the forged and now universally acknowledged spurious Decretals were received they set up a new pretension of Iudging Causes Originally taking matters out of the hands of the Iudg Ordinary and bringing the Cognizance of them to Rome and setting up many reserved Cases which could only be judged by the Pope and the Canonists that were a servile sort of people who wrote chiefly for Preferment did upon all occasions find new Distinctions for enlarging the Popes power But because it was intolerable tedious and expensive to carry all such matters to Rome therefore that it might not be too heavy a burden to the World Legantine Courts were every where set up where all those Tryals were made By all these ways were the Primitive Rules broken and such a confusion was brought in upon all Ecclesiastical Offices that no Ancient Landmark or Boundary was thought so sacred that they did not either leap over or change it I will not enlarge further on this Subject and having already transgressed the bounds of a Preface I will not lay open the other Violations of the Sacred Offices at the full length but as the value of every thing is no less prejudiced by exalting it too high than by depressing it too much for a string over bended must crack So the Popes did as much wrong these Functions by exalting them out of measure as they had done by encroaching so far upon them And this was done by the Croissades Indulgences Privileged Places Iubilees and Redemptions from Purgatory with other things of that nature which the Monks and Friers did every where preach and proclaim these things did savour of Interest so palpably that it was no wonder if most people were so alienated from them that the first Reformers found all persons disposed to forsake the Communion of a Church that had so long deceived them by such gross Impostures Many had groaned long under all these Corruptions and of such the greater part received the Reformation others hoping to have got things brought about to a better pass continued still in that Communion but how little either Erasmus 〈◊〉 Câ—…ssander or many more such could prevail the event shewed for in the Council of Trent which was not obtained but after many years sute frequent Addresses not without threatnings at length extorting it how little could be carried appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's own History two grand points upon which the Bishops that had honest designs intended to raise the Reformation of Discipline and Manners were the declaring the Episcopal Iurisdiction to be of Divine Right and that the Residence of all Ecclesiastical Incumbents was also of Divine Right but these could not be carried Lainez the General of the Jesuits and the whole Court Party appearing with great Vehemence against the first of these asserting that all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was wholly and only in the Pope And from this one thing it may appear how little Iustice or Fair-dealing was to be expected from that Council towards those whom they called Hereticks when the Bishops themselves being Iudges in a thing in which they were also parties I mean about the Divine Right of their own Iurisdiction they could not carry it for it was never heard of before that
Bishop should be delayed then he should be Consecrated by two Bishops appointed by the King and then in the same Statute grants further that all recourse be forbidden to Rome and Archbishops and Bishops be Confirmed and Consecrated by Bishops to be assigned by the King Secondly Out of the Act of 8. Eliz. 1. made purposely to set forth the Authority next under God by which Matthew Parker and the other first Protestant Bishops in the beginning of the Queens Reign were made by reciting how they were made by the Authority of her Majesty and how she was authorized to that end by the aforesaid Statute of Henry VIII and the Statute of 1. Eliz. 1. in these words First It is well known to all the degrees of this Realm that the late King Henry the Eighth was as well by all the Clergy then of this Realm in their several Convocations as also by all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in divers of his Parliaments justly and rightfully recognized and acknowledged to have the Supreme Power Jurisdiction and Authority over the Ecclesiastical State of the same and that the said King did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign set forth a certain order of the Manner and Form how Archbishops and Bishops should be made c. And although in the Reign of the late Queen the said Act was repealed yet nevertheless at the Parliament 1. Eliz. the said Act was revived and by another Act they made all Jurisdiction Priviledges c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath hitherto been or lawfully may be used over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm is fully and absolutely by Authority of the same Parliament mark by what Authority united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm mark here how she is made Pope and by the same Statute there is also given to the Queen mark Given Power and Authority by Letters Patents to Assign and Authorize such Persons as she shall think fit whether Clergy-men Lawyers Merchants Coblers or any other so they be naturally born Subjects of the Realm for the Statute requires no more to exercise under her all manner of Jurisdiction in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual Jurisdiction in this Realm Whereupon the Queen having in her order and disposition all the said Jurisdictions c. hath by her Supreme Authority caused divers to be duly made and consecrated Archbishops and Bishops according to such Order and Form and with such Ceremonies in and about their Consecration as were allowed and set out by the said Acts c. And further her Highness hath in her Letters Patents used divers special words whereby by her Supreme Authority she hath dispensed with all causes and doubts of imperfections or disability c. as is to be seen more aâ—… large in the same Act. In which you see declared by the Queen Matthew Parker himself and the whole Parliament That Matthew Parker the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury was made Archbishop as all the other Protestant Bishops in her time were by Authority of the Queen and that she had her Authority for it from the Statutes 25. Henry 8. 20. and 1. Eliz. 1. from whom all our Protestant Bishops since spring and descend and derive all the Power and Authority that they have From which you see clearly that Protestant Bishops have no Authority to teach Preach or to be Bishops but what originally they have from the Parliament Which is still more evidently confirmed by this Parliament now in being which in the year 1662. by the Act of Uniformity annulled the forementioned Forms of Ordination of Priests and Bishops as being deficient and appointed new ones by their own Authority So from the first to the last all the Protestant Priests and Bishops both heretofore and at this present are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and not so from Christ and his Church but only from their Kings Queen and Parliaments I must confess this present Parliament may easily answer the Parliaments of Edward the VI. and Queen Elizabeth why it hath lately altered the Form of Ordination instituted and used by them to wit because their Forms were null and invalid but what Authority either of them had to make alter or use any Form of Ordination or to give Power to Teach Preach Minister Sacraments or the like of themselves without Authority from Christ our Saviour there I must leave them to answer him From the Premisses I infer First That they being no Priests nor Bishops theirs is no Church as Mr. Mason and St. Jerom grant Secondly If no Church no part of the Catholic Church out of which and without whose Faith kept entire and inviolate no man can be saved as their own Common-Prayer-Book affirms Thirdly They can never eat the Flesh of Christ our Lord nor drink his Blood without which they cannot have life in them John 6. 54. Fourthly They commit a most hainous Sacriledge as often as they attempt to Consecrate or Minister the most Holy Sacrament having no such Power Fifthly They commit the like Sacriledge in presuming to hear Confessions or forgive Sins Sixthly All that Communicate with them and follow the same Religion are involved in the same sins so that the blind leading the blind they must necessarily both fall into the ditch of eternal perdition foretold by our Saviour Matth. 15. 14. Lastly It is to be noted that although I conceive I have clearly proved the Ordination and Iurisdiction of their Priests and Bishops to be invalid by every argument I have used to those ends yet to my purpose it is sufficient to have proved it by any one For as to prove a man to be a Thief or Forger it is sufficient to prove he has stoln one Horse or forged one Deed to hang him for the one or set him on the Pillory for the other so to prove by one argument alone that they are no Priests nor Bishops nor have any Iurisdiction is sufficient to prove them guilty of Sacramental Forgery and by that means of deluding and stealing away innumerable souls A VINDICATION OF THE ORDINATIONS OF THE Church of ENGLAND In answer to the former Paper THis Paper which you sent me being only a Repetition of those Objections which were long ago refuted by Master Mason with great learning and judgment and more lately by the most Ingenious Lord Primate of Ireland D. Bramhall there needs nothing else be said to it but only to refer the Reader to those learned and solid Writings on this Subject The same Plea was again taken up by the Writers of two little Books published since his Majesties Restauration entitled Erastus Senior and Erastus Iunior which was thought so unreasonable even to some of that Communion that one of the learnedst Priests they had in England did answer them and though he did not adventure on saying our Ordination was good and valid knowing how ingrateful that would have been to
the occasions of Cavilling is neither a change nor an annulling our former Orders Secondly The change of the Form of Consecration does not infer an annulling of Orders given another way for then all the Ordinations used in the Primitive Church are annulled by the Roman Church at this day since the forms of Ordination used by them now were not used in the former Ages and the Forms used in the former ages are not looked on by them now to be the Forms of Consecration but are only made parts of the Office and used as Collects or Anthems and yet here is a real change which by their own Principles cannot infer a nullity of Orders given before the Change made Thirdly If the addition of a few explanatory words invalidates former Orders then the adding many new Rites which were neither used by Christ nor his Apostles nor the Primitive nor Eastern Churches will much more invalidate former Orders especially when these are believed to be so essential as that they confer the power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood and of offering Sacrifices and were for divers Ages universally looked on in that Church to be the Matter and Form of Orders as was already observed of the Rite of giving the Sacred Vessels with the words joyned to it which Pope Eugenius in express words calls the matter of Priestly Orders and the words joyned to them the Form in his Decree for the Armenians in the Council of Florence and even the Form he mentions is also altered now for the celebrating Masses are not in the Form he mentions but are now added to that part of the Office in the Roman Church Let the Pontifical be considered in the Ordination of Priests we find the Priestly Vestiments given both the Stole and the Casula then their hands are anointed then the Vessels of the Sacrament are delivered to them with words pronounced in every of those Rites besides many other lesser Rites that are in the Rubrick In the Consecration of a Bishop his head is Anointed then his hands then his Pastoral Staff is blessed and put in his hands next the Ring is blessed and put on his singer then the Gospels are put in his hands then the Mitre is blessed and put on his head next the Gloves are blessed and put on his hands and then they seâ—… him on his Throne Besides many lesser Rites to be seen in the Rubrick Now with what face can they pretend that our adding a few explanatory words can infer the annulling all Orders given before that addition when they have added so many material Ceremonies in which they place great significancy and vertue Is not this to swallow a Camel and to strain at a Gnat and to object to us a Mote in our eye when there is a Beam in their own eye Fourthly This Addition was indeed confirmed by the authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire that to give it the force of a Law but the authority of these changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them and the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was Ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed indecent and too implicite to others and there was no change made in a Tittle by the Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done As for what he adds that the Book of Ordination is not to found in every Edition of the Common-Prayer-Book with his gloss upon it that most think the Bishops for shame suppress it Really the Writer of this Paper must pardon me to say it seems he has no shame that can set down in writing such a disingenious Allegation Pray who are these most that think so Most in our Language stands for the greater part now how many can he find that agree with him in this Gloss I doubt very few for I am sure not all his own Party and not one of ours So that upon a Calculation those Most think will be found to be no more but himself and a very few ignorant persons on whom he has imposed this conceit Every body knows that when a Book is once printed by publick Authority and universally sold in the Shops those in Authority cannot out of shame study to suppress it But the use of the Book of Ordination not being so universal as are the other Offices of the Church the Stationers and Printers who do chiefly consider their Interest in the ready sale and vent of Books do not print so many of them as of the other there being at least 500 that use the Common-Prayer for one that needs the other and a Common-Prayer-Book without it will sell cheaper than with it therefore a great many Copies have it not This is not as Most think but as every body knows the true reason why in many Copies of the Common-Prayer-Book the Ordinal is wanting Let him name one Bishop that would not permit it to be dispersed abroad or let him be looked on as a bold and impudent Slanderer Thus far I have followed this Paper in the two first Conclusions and now I come to the Third which is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament And this he proves because they have no more power than the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had from whom all Jurisdiction was derived to the rest Now he had no power from Christ for first They that Consecrated him had no such Jurisdiction being no actual Bishops two of them were only Elect and not actual Bishops and a third only a quondam Bishop but had no actual Jurisdiction and a fourth was a Suffragan Bishop to Canterbury who had no Jurisdiction but what he had from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Jurisdiction over himself and all the other Bishops of the Land because none can give what he has not This I must confess is such a piece that no man can read it but he must conclude the Writer of it has no sort of Ecclesiastical Learning or else has very little Moral honesty I need not tell him that Matthew Parker was not the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he knows Arch-Bishop Cranmer was both a Protestant and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but this may be easily passed over there being more material Errors in this period And First Does he believe himself when he says that none can instal a Bishop in a Jurisdiction above himself Pray then who invests the Popes with their Jurisdiction Do not
the Cardinals do it and are not they as much the Popes Suffragans as Hodgskins was Canterburiâ—… So that if inferiors cannot invest one with a superior Jurisdiction then the Popes can have none legally since they have theirs from the Cardinals that are inferior in Jurisdiction This also holds in all the Patriarchal Consecrations For Instance when Iohn commonly called Chrysostome a Priest of Antioch was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople and Consecrated by the Bishops of that Province according to the Canons if there be any force in this Argument it will annul his Orders as well as Arch-Bishop Parker's for the Writer must needs see the case is parallel Secondly Or if he insists upon their being Elect to others Sees and that one of them had no See at all Let me ask him if when St. Athanase was banished out of Alexandria and others thrust in his place or when Liberius was banished out of Rome and Felix whom they acknowledg a righteous Bishop put in his place they had ordained Priests and Bishops had these Orders been null because they were violently thrust out of their Sees Certainly Persecution and Violence rather makes the glory of Ecclesiastical Functions shine more brightly but cannot be imagined to strip them of their Character and to disable them for exercising the Offices of their function Thirdly There are two things to be considered in the consecration of a Primate the one is the giving him the Order of a Bishop the other is the investing him with the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitan for the former all Bishops are equal in Order none has more or less than another therefore any Bishop duly Consecrated how mean soever his Diocess be is no less a Bishop than the greatest the Bishop of Man is a Bishop as well as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury so that the Consecrators of Matthew Parker being Bishops by their Order they had sufficient power and authority to Consecrate him By which it appears there can be no question made of his being truly a Bishop And as for his Jurisdiction Two things are also to be considered the one is The Jurisdiction annexed to that See The other is his being rightly cloathed and invested with it For the former it cannot be denied but the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs has no Divine Institution for all that any Bishop has by divine Institution is to seed the flock of his own Diocess but the Canons and practice of the Church and the Civil Laws have introduced a further Jurisdiction over the Bishops of a District or Province this did rise by Custom upon the division of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was settled over the World before any general Council did meet to make Decrees about it And therefore the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon only approved what they found practised and confirmed some new Divisions of Provinces that were made by the Emperors and so the Kings in the Western Church did first give those Preheminences to some Towns and Sees for the original Dignity of Sees rose out of the Dignity of the Towns which appears clearly in all the Patriarchats chiefly in that of Rome and Constantinople This is a thing so fully inquired into by many but chiefly by the most Learned Petrus de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris that I need say no more of it And the Dignity of the See of Canterbury was from King Ethelbert who first Erected that See It is true the Popes did afterwards usurp a new Jurisdiction over all Churches they took upon them to Judg of the Dignity of all Sees to send the Pall to have reserved Cases to grant Exemptions to the Regulars with many other Encroachments on the Episcopal Jurisdiction which has been very fully inquired into not only by Protestant Writers but by many of the Roman Communion chiefly those of the Gallicane Church and many of the Bishops at the Council of Trent studied to recover their Liberties that were troden under foot by the Court of Rome but the Intrigues and cunning of that Court were too hard for them The other thing in Episcopal Institution is the Installing or Inthroning the Metropolitan that this was always done by the Bishops of the Province is a thing so clear in Antiquity that I am sure no man ever questioned it Was not the famous Decision of the Council of Ephesus in the case of the Cypriotic Bishops a full proof of this when upon the pretension of the Patriarch of Antioch the thing was examined and it was found that he had never used to Ordain Bishops there and therefore the Rites of the Bishop of Constantia the Metropolitan were confirmed to him by that General Council nor can one Instance be shewed in the first three Ages of a Metropolitan coming to be Ordained by a Patriarch as was afterwards for Orders sake appointed And this appears more evidently by a Canon of the Council of Orleans where it was decreed That in the Ordination of Metropolitans the Ancient Custom should be renewed which was generally neglected and lost that a Metropolitan being Elected by the Bishops of the Province with the Clergy and the People should be Ordained by all the Bishops of the Province met together This was Anno 538. By which we see they thought not of any Bull or Confirmation from Rome but that Bishops though subject to the Metropolitan's Jurisdiction might Ordain him It is true afterwards the Patriarchs chose the Metropolitans but the Patriarchs were either chosen or at least confirmed by the Emperor and though they sent Circulatory Letters to the Pope and the other Patriarchs to confirm their Elections which the Bishops of Rome did likewise to them this was only for keeping up the Unity of the Church and for a more friendly and brotherly Correspondence but was not of necessity or as an homage which they owed the Pope much less did they delay their Consecrations till they obtained his Mandate or abstain from any Act of Jurisdiction till they had his Confirmation as is now appointed by the Pontifical till they get the Pall. I have not given you the trouble of enlarging on many Proofs for making these things out for they are so clear and uncontested that I am confident no man is so disingenuous as to deny them under his hand whatever some may whisper among illiterate persons who cannot contradict them And though there has been so much already written to make those particulars out that more needs not and indeed cannot be said yet if these things be questioned by any body I shall make them out fully And now I come to his Second Argument which is That Matthew Parker and all the other Protestant Bishops since his days had his power of Jurisdiction only from the Queen as appears by the Queens Letters Patents and the Form of his Ordination which was done upon the Queens Mandate without any Bull from the Pope in which she acknowledges Cardinal
Concurrence or Licence should not be thought necessary in the creating of a Pope And from Hadrian the First who dyed Anno 795. till Hadrian the Third there were 89 years and from Vigilius his days who dyed Anno 555. there were 330 years So long were the Popes made upon the Emperors Mandates Nor did the Emperors part easily with this Right but after that the Otho's and the Henry's kept up their Pretension and came oft to Rome and made many Popes and though most of the Popes so made were generally reckoned Anti-Popes and Schismaticks yet some of them as Clement the Second are put in the Catalogue of the Popes by Baronius and Binnius and by the late publishers of the Councils Labbee and Cossartius There was indeed great Opposition made to this at Rome but let even their own Historians be appealed to what a Series of Monsters and not Men those Popes were how infamously they were Elected often by the Whores of Rome and how flagitious they were we refer it to Barronius himself who could not deny this for all his partiality in his great Work But in the end Pope Gregory the Seventh got the better of the Emperors in this particular And now let the ingenuity of those Men be considered who endeavour to Invalidate our Orders and call our Priests and Bishops Parliamentary Priests and Bishops because they are made upon the King's Mandate according to the Act of Parliament When it is clear that for near 500 years together their own Popes were Consecrated for the most part upon the Emperors Mandate And it is certain the Kings of England have as much power to do the same here as the Emperors had to do it at Rome The Emperors were wont also to grant the Investitures into all the Bishopricks by giving the Ring and the Staff which were the Ceremonies of the Investiture and so they both named and invested all the Bishops and Abbots This Pope Gregory the Seventh thought was no more to be suffered than their creating the Popes both being done by the same Authority Therefore he resolved to wring them out of the Emperors hands and take them into his own and it was no wonder he had a great mind to bring this about for the Bishopricks and Abbeys were then so richly endowed that it was the Conquest of almost the third part of the Empire to draw the giving of them into his own hands Therefore he first disgraced these Laical Investitures by an ill name to make them sound odiously and called all so Ordained Simoniacks as he also called the Married Clergy Nicolaitans Now every body knows how much any thing suffers by a scurvy Nick-name raised on it But he went more roundly to work and deposed the Emperor and absolved his Subjects from their obedience What bloody Wars and unnatural Rebellions of the Children against the Father followed by the Popes instigation is well enough known In the end his Son that succeeded him was forced to yield up the matter to the Pope In Spain it appears both from the 12th and 16th Councils of Toledo that the Kings there did choose the Bishops which Baronius does freely confess And Gregory of Tours through his whole History gives so many Instances of the Kings of France of the Merovinian Race choosing and naming the Bishops that it cannot be questioned all the Writers of the Gallicane Church do also assert that their Kings gave the Investitures from the days of Charles the Great But the Popes were still making inroads upon their Authority for securing which Charles the Seventh caused the Pragmatic Sanction to be made It is true afterwards Pope Leo the Tenth got Francis the First to set up the Concordate in its place against which the Assembly of the Clergy at Paris did complain and appealed to a General Council and yet by the Concordate the King retains still the power of naming the Bishops In England there are some Instances of the Saxon Kings choosing Bishops and though so little remains of the Records or Histories of that time that it is no wonder if we meet but few Yet it is clear that King William the Conqueror and both his Sons did give the Investitures to the Bishops and though upon a Contest between King Henry the First and Anselm about them the King did yield them to him yet upon Anselm's death he did re-assume that power I need not say more to shew what were the Rights of the Crown in this matter nor how oft they were asserted in Parliament nor how many Laws were made against the Incroachments and tyrannical Exactions of the Court of Rome these are now so commonly known and have been so oft printed of late that I need add nothing about them Only from all I have said I suppose it is indisputably clear That if Ordinations or Consecrations upon the Kings Mandate be invalid which this Paper drives at then all the Ordinations of the Christian Church are also annulled since for many Ages they were all made upon the Mandates of Emperors and Kings By all which you may see the great weakness of this Argument I shall to this add some Remarks on a few particulars of less weight that are insinuated in this Argument First The Writer of it would infer from the Queens calling Cardinal Pool the late and immediate Arch-Bishop and Pastor of Canterbury that we acknowledg Catholick Ordination valid lawful and good If by Valid Lawful and Good be understood that which retained the Essentials of Ordination and was according to the then Law there is no doubt to be made of it but if he mean that all the Forms and Ceremonies of their Ordination are acknowledged to be Good he will never draw that inference from these words Secondly From the Clause of the Patents that is for supplying all defects considering the necessity of the times he would infer there was somwhat wanting in them which was thereby supplyed If by that Want he means an essential Defect there was none such for they were true Bishops If he means only that some things were not according to what the Law required it is of no Force for whoever makes a Law can also dispense with it Therefore the execution of these Laws being put in the Queens hands she might well dispense with some particulars all which the Parliament did afterwards confirm and any defect in the point of Law might make them liable to the Civil powers but it can by no means be pretended that this should annul the Ordinations though illegally gone about Thirdly He would infer from the Act of Parliament that the Queen is made Pope when he knows that both by one of the Articles of the Church and another Act of Parliament it is declared otherwise express words as follows where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slandrous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministry either
or glory for what they have done in the Flesh. If he does disapprove Marriage or condemn second Marriage or blames the Eating of Flesh. If He Communicates with Penitents being reconciled If he believes that in Baptism all Sins both that which is Originally contracted and those which are willingly committed are pardoned and that none is saved out of the Catholick Church When being examined in all these things he is found fully Instructed then let him be Ordained Bishop with the Consent of the Clergy and Laity and the meeting of the Bishops of the whole Province and chiefly in the presence or by the Authority of the Metropolitan And he having undertaken the Bishoprick in the name of Christ must acquiesce in the Definitions of the Fathers and not in his own pleasure or inclinations And in Ordaining him that Age is necessary which the Holy Fathers appointed in the choosing of Bishops After this it is appointed how all Ecclesiastical Offices are Ordained CAN. II. WHEN a Bishop is Ordained two Bishops shall lay and hold the Book of the Gospel upon his Head and Neck and one saying the Blessing over Him all the other Bishops that are Present shall touch his Head with their Hands CAN. III. WHEN a Presbyter is Ordained the Bishop blessing Him and holding his hand upon his Head all the Presbyters that are present shall hold their hands beside the Bishops hand upon his Head The most Ancient of the Rituals Morinus proves was written some time between the year 511. and 560. in which the Ordination of the Priests is in this Fashion It begins with an Exhortation to the People to tell what they know of the Person to be Ordained and to make a publick Election of Him Then follows the Collect with this Rubrick Oratio ad Presbyteros Ordinandos ORemus Dilectissimi Deum Patrem omnipotentem ut super hunc famulum suum quem ad Presbyterii munus eligit coelestia dona multiplicet quae ejus dignatione suscipiunt ejus exequantur auxilio per Dominum Item alia Exaudi nos Deus salutaris noster ut super hunc famulum tuum benedictionem Spiritus Sancti gratiae Sacerdotalis effunde virtutem ut quem tuae pietatis suspectibus offerimus Consecrandum perpetua muneristui largitate persequaris per Dominum In English thus A Prayer for the Priests that are to be Ordained LEt us pray Beloved to God the Father Almighty that he may multiply heavenly Gifts on this his Servant whom he has chosen to the Office of Priesthood that what they receive by his favour they may execute through his help Through our Lord. And another HEar us O God our Saviour and pour upon this thy Servant the blessing of the Holy Ghost and the vertue of Priestly Grace that thou maist follow him with a perpetual largeness of thy gift whom we offer up to thy holy eyes to be Consecrated Through our Lord. CONSECRATIO DOmine Sancte Pater Omnipotens aeterne Deus honorum omnium dignitatum quae tibi militant distributor per quem cuncta firmantur amplificatis semper in melius naturae rationalis incrementis per ordinem congruam rationem dispositum unde Sacerdotalis gradus Officia Levitarum Sacramentis Mystici instituta creverunt ut cum Pontifice summos regendis populis praefecisses ad eorum Societatis operis adjumentum sequentes ordines viros secundae dignitatis elegeris sic in eremo per Septuaginta virorum prudentium mentis Moysi Spiritum propagasti quibus ille adjutoribus usus in populo innumeras multitudines facilè gubernavit Sic Eleazaro Ithamar filiis Aaron paternae plenitudinis abundantiam transfudisti ad hostias salutaris frequentiores officii Sacramenta sufficeret merétum Sacerdotum Hac providentia Domine Apostolis filii tui Doctores fidei Comites addedisti quibus illi orbem totum secundis praedicatoribus impleverunt Quapropter infirmitati quoque nostrae Domine quaesumus haec adjumenta largire qui quanto magis fragiliores sumus tanto his plurius indigemus Da quaesumus Omnipotens Pater in hoc famulo tuo ill Presbyterii dignitatem Innova in visceribus ejus Spiritum Sanctitatis acceptum à te Deus secundi meriti munus obtineat censuramque morum exemplo suae conversationis insinuet Sit providus cooperator Ordinis nostri eluceat in eum totius forma justitiae ut bonam rationem dispensationis sibi creditae redditurus aeternae beatitudinis praemia consequatur The Consecration O Lord holy Father Almighty and Eternal God the distributer of all Honors and Dignities that fight for thee by whom all things are strengthned the improvements of the rational nature being always enlarged by Thee to the better through a settled Order and congruous Reason from whence the Priestly Degrees and the Offices of the Levites which were instituted by Mystical Sacraments did grow up so that when thou set the High-Priests to govern the people thou didst choose for the help of their Society and work men of an inferiour Order and a second Dignity So also in the Wilderness thou didst propagate the Spirit that was in Moses into seventy prudent men whom he using as helpers with him over the people did easily govern innumerable multitudes So thou didst transfuse into Eleazar and Ithamar the Sons of Aaron abundance of the fulness that was in their Father that the Ministry of the Priests might be sufficient for the expiatory Sacrifices and the Sacraments that were more frequent By the same providence thou O Lord didst add companions to the Apostles of thy Son who were Teachers of the Faith with which Preachers of a second rank they filled the whole World Wherefore O Lord we beseech thee grant likewise those helps to our Infirmity who by so much the weaker as we are do need these the more Grant we beseech thee Almighty Father to this thy Servant the dignity of Priesthood Renew in his inward parts the Spirit of Holiness and let him obtain the Office of the Second Merit received from thee O God and make him Insinuate by the example of his Conversation a censure of Manners Let him be a provident Fellow-labourer with our Order and let the form of all Righteousness shine forth in him that when he shall render a good account of the Dispensation trusted to he may obtain the rewards of Eternal Blessedness Consummatio Presbyteri SIt nobis Fratres Communis Cratio ut his qui in adjutorium utilitatem vestrae Salutis eligetur Presbyteratus Benedictionem divini indulgentia muneris consequatur S. Spiritus Sacerdotalia dona privilegio virtutum ne impar loco deprehendatur obtineat per suum Per. The Consummation of a Priest BRethren Let us joyn in one Prayer that he who is chosen for the help and profit of your Salvation may obtain the Blessing of the Office of Priesthood by the
was not so much as disputed but when they grew insolent and factious it was declared by the General Council of Chalcedon that they were and ought to be subject to their Bishops and so it continues in the Greek Church to this day The same was also decreed in some Western Councils but when the Order of the Benedictines grew very considerable and many persons of Quality retired into it and it became a great piece of Religion to build and inrich Abbeys then the Founders moved their Kings to obtain Priviledges for them from their Bishops for the most ancient of these that I have met with is the Exempof the Abbey of St. Denis granted by the Bishop of Paris the next to that is the exemption of the Abbey of Corbie granted by the Bishop of Amiens which presidents were soon followed by a great many others By these Grants the Bishops did renounce their share of the Revenues of the Abbey of which according to the Ancient Division the fourth part did belong to the Bishop and for the further quiet of those Religious Houses the Bishops did exempt them from all Visitations and gave up the power they had over them wholly to the Abbot and these exemptions which at first were only for the Monasteries were afterwards extended further to all the Lands and Churches that belonged to the Abbeys of which some were exempted from the Visitations of the Arch-Deacons and the Bishops Vicars others were also exempted from the Bishops visiting in person But the Popes from the 8th Century downwards finding how much Abbeys wese enriched and it being a grateful thing in all places to favour the Monks they granted them fuller and larger Priviledges they gave many Abbots a right to a Miter and a Staff and declared them Prelates And the truth of it was the secular Clergy were for the most part both so ignorant and so corrupt that it was no wonder if all the World favoured the Monks whose vices being committed within their Cloysters were not so notorious and did not occasion so much scandal as the disorders of the Clergy did which were more publick And the very name Religious or Regular which the Monks took to themselves and the name Secular with which they loaded the Clergy did them great service for in ignorant Ages specious Titles and ill sounding Names affect the Vulgar mightily And the Monks of the Order of St. Austin being also possest of most of the Prebends from whence they were called Canons Regular those Chapterâ—… had exempted Iurisdictions given them From hence sprung all the peculiar Exemptions that are among us for in the suppressing of the Monasteries the Bishopâ—… were not fully restored to their Ancient Iurisdiction so that those Exemptionâ—… do still continue from whence the most scandalous disorders in our Clergy have risen So much are they mistaken who complain of the Episcopal Jurisdiction since the foulest Enormities among us flow from the want of it and from a Corruption brought in by the Popes which is not yet sufficiently purged out These Monasteries were so many separated and independent Congregations which did chose their own Pastors and this only difference in the point of Government is between our Modern Independents and them that these will depend on none in the rules of their Policy but upon Christ alone without acknowledging any superior Iurisdiction or Subordination and those did depend on Christ's Vicar without submitting to any other Authority But the Popes designing to subject the Episcopal Authority wholly to themselves used another Method toward that end which was to raise the Dignity of the Abbots very high and whereas by the Primitive Canons three Bishops were to concur in the Consecration of a Bishop the Popeâ—… brought in a custom of allowing two Mitered Abbots to assist a Bishop in those Consecrations which is acknowledged both by Binnius and Bellarmine And this with the Title Prelate and the use of the Miter and the Pastoral Staff raised them to an equality with the Bishops This was not all they were next brought to sit in General Councils Originally Abbots were but Laymen but now they must all be Priests yet it was never before heard of that Priests did sit in Oecumenical Councils It is true the Rural-Bishops or Chorepiscopi did subscribe the Canons of the Council of Nice and other General Councils but whatever Morinus and some others have said to prove that they were no more than Priests yet if it were not an impertinent Digression â—… think it could be easily made appear that they were Bishops so that it is most certain that no Priests did subscribe and siâ—… in General Councils for many Ages in their own Names for what they did by Proxy from their Bishops has no relation to this matter But when the Popes were setting up their Monarchy in the West they resolved to ballance the Votes of the Bishops by bringing in Abbots to vote in their General Councils who were obliged by their Interest to support the Exaltation of the Papal power and suppressing of Episcopal Iurisdiction In the first General Council that was held by Calistus the second in the Latâ—…ran Sugerius who was present says there were 300 and more Bishops but Pandulphuâ—… says there were present 997. partly Bishops partly Abbots so that above 600. of these must have been Abbots In the third Council of Lateran we hear of none but Bishops but to make amends for that the Writs that summoned the fourth Council of Lateran were sent to Abbots as well as to Bishops and a vast number of them came The Writs for the second Council of Lions were issued out not only to Abbots but to inferior Prelates by Pope Gregrory the Tenth and Aquinas and Bonaventure being then in great esteem were also called to that Council though they were only Friers But Pope Clement the Fifth took care to have a full Assembly when he called the General Council at Vienna for the Writs were not only to Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots as had been done before but to all Priors Deans Provosts Archdeacons Archpriests and all other Prelates of Monasteries and Churches exempted and non-exempted And thus the Popes were sure to carry things in such Assembles as they pleased And it is no unpleasant thing to observe what were the Contests between the Popes and the Bishops which are plainly the same and have been managed by the same Arts and Intrigues that the Contests in Political matters between Prerogative and Privilege have been For near five Ages the matter was contested by the Prelates but the power of the Abbots and the other exemptions of the Deans and Chapters did much weaken the Bishops Authority and the Secular Princes did joyn with the Popes to bear down the Bishops who having great Revenues did generally joyn with the People for the asserting of publick Liberty But the Popes gave them up as Sacrifices to
tolerable shew of Learning and Honesty then they spread it about that there is an Answer ready but the Visitors of the Press are so careful that nothing can escape their diligence But if either their Papers be too barefaced to be owned or if they know them to be so weak that they dare not put them to a tryal then instead of Printing them they Copy them out and give them about Of the former sort the World has got a good Evidence in the Discourses lately published about the Oath of Allegeance which they intended to whisper in corners but are now Proclaimed openly And of the latter sort is the following Paper which begins and ends with the highest confidence that is possible but is so extreamly defective in the point of Argument that they did very wisely not to adventure on publishing it But they must write and do somwhat to keep Spirit in their party and since the defending their own Church has succeeded so ill with them they do wisely to change the Scene and carry in the War to our own Church and make her the Scene of it but they are as ill at attacquing as defending and if we be but safe from their Mines we need not fear their Batteries but their under-ground work is a better game and if they cannot wast us with Destruction at Noontide nor make their Arrows fly by day then they study to infect us with a Pestilence that walketh in darkness and by secret Contrivances and Concealed Papers to compass that which they know can never be brought about by fairdealings and avowed practices But truth is great and the God of truth is greater and will prevail over the fraud of the Serpent as well as the force of the Lion And if we study to adorn our Profession and walk worthy of our Holy Calling we need not fear our Cause nor all the endeavours of those that study to defame us Without this the most laboured Apologies will not signifie much to support our Credit for the World is more affected with lively Instances and great Examples than with the most Learned Composures Every Man's Understanding is wrought on by the one the other only prevail on considering and judicious persons And any charge that is put in against the Pastors or Orders of a Church will be but little regarded when those that bear Office in it chiefly in the highest degrees are burning and shining Lights few will then stumble or be shaken with any thing that can be said to Eclipse their brightness 'T is for the most part want of Merit in Churchmen that recommends any Arguments that are levelled at their persons or functions to the World And though Malice and Spite ferments with the more rage the worthier the persons are against whom it works yet all attempts must needs be not only unsuccessful but fall back with shame on the Authors when all the World sees the Unjustice of them The Contents ARguments to prove the Invalidity of the Orders of the Church of England page 2. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to the former Paper p. 19. An Appendix about the Forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church p. 107. Errata The first Paper is printed exactly according to the Copy that was sent me but these that follow seem to be the errors 〈◊〉 the Transcriber PAge 3. line 24. for such a Form Read to such a Poweâ—… p. 8. l. 27. for 1662. r. 1558. Page 28. l. 19. dele and p. 29. l. 26. for of r. for p. 38. l. 4. for are r. were p. 87. l. 15. for too soon r. too late p. 105 l. 25. after ground r. for p. 112. l. 19. for leges r. legis l. 22. for divum r. Deum p. 123. l. 12. for Sanctifica r. Sanctificatâ—… p. 126. l. 8. for novis r. novei p. 133. l. 26. dele as ARGUMENTS To prove the Invalidity of the ORDERS OF THE Church of England FIRST then I prove that the Ministers of the Church of England are no Priests through the defect of the Form of Ordination which was this pronounced to every one of them when they came to be Ordained Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven whose sins thou retainest they are retained and be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God and his Holy Sacraments in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen After which the Bishop delivers a Bible to him saying Take thou authority to Preach the Word and Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed And my first Reason is Because this Form wants one essential part of Priesthood which is to Consecrate the most Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood giving only power to Administer this Sacrament which any Deacon may do That to Consecrate and make present Christs Body and Blood is necessary Dr. Bramhal the Bishop of Derry one of the chief Abettors of the Protestant Ordination grants in his Book of the Consecration and Succession of Protestant Bishops saying The Form of words whereby men are made Priests must express Power to Consecrate or make present Christs Body and Blood And a little after They who are Ordained Priests ought to have Power to Consecrate Christs Body and Blood that is to make it present page 226. which it is evident by the very terms themselves that this Form expresses nor gives not having not one word expressing that Power which it cannot give without expressing it Secondly Because it wants another essential part which is to offer Sacrifice which the Apostle requires Heb. 5. 1. saying Every High Priest taken from among men is Ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifice for sins Even according to the Protestant Bible and which cannot be meant only of Christ as some Protestants would have it for in the 3. verse he says And by reason hereof he ought as for the people so also for himself to offer for sins whereas Christ had no sins of his own to offer for Thirdly Because those words Whose sins c. at most gave Power to forgive sins and not to Consecrate and offer Sacrifice having nothing to signifie that which is the chief Office of Priesthood Fourthly Because none could Institute the Form of a Sacrament to give Grace and Power to make present the Body and Blood of Christ but the Author of Grace and who had power over that Sacred Body and Blood But those that Instituted this Form were neither Authors of Grace nor had power over the Sacred Body and Blood therefore they could not Institute such a Form That they who Instituted this Protestant Form had no such Power is proved by the Act of Parliament the 3. 4. of Edward the VI. Cap. 12. which could not pretend such a 〈◊〉 in these words Forasmuch as to Concord and Unity to be
had within the Kings Majesties Dominions it is requisite to have one Uniform fashion and manner for making and Consecrating Bishops Priests c. Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings Highness with the Assents of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same mark by which Authority they are made that such Form and manner of making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests c. as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Law by the Kings Majesty who was but a Child to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of them shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal of England before the first day of April next coming and shall by vertue of this present Act see what vertues be lawfully exercised and used and none other any Statute Law or Usage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding By Authority whereof those Prelates and meâ—… learned in the Law invented and made thâ—… Form before mentioned never heard of before either in Scripture or Church of God From which I thus argue and prove my Minor They that instituted the Form were thâ—… King and Parliament 3. 4. Edward VI. Buâ—… that King and Parliament were neither Authors of Grace not had power over the Body and Blood of Christ therefore they that Instituted this Form were neither Authors oâ—… Grace nor had power over the Body and Blood of Christ nor consequently could make it present Fifthly They are no true Priests because the Bishops that made them were no true Bishops nor so much as Priests and no man can give power to another which he hath not himself That they were no true Bishops nor Priests who pretended to make these Priests which shall be the second part of my Discourse I prove thus PROTESTANT BISHOPS NO BISHOPS NOR SO MUCH AS PRIESTS First They are no Priests because made by the same Form which other English Ministers were which I have clearly proved to be null That they are no true Bishops I prove first out of this very Principle already laid because they are no true Priests for as Master Mason a chief Champion of theirs says Epist. Ded. ad Episcop Paris Seeing he cannot be a Bishop who is not a Priest if it can be proved we are no Priests there 's an end to our English Church And the great Doctor of the Church St. Jerom Dial. cum Lucifero cap. 8. says Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem It is no Church that hath no Priests The Protestant Bishops therefore being no Priests can be no true Bishops nor their Church a Church at all Secondly They are no Bishops because their Form of Ordination is essentially invalid and null seeing it cannot be valid no more than that of Priesthood unless it be in fit words which signifies the Order given as Mr. Mason says in his Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae lib. 1. c. 16. n. 6. in these terms Not any words can serve for this Institution but such as are fit to express the power of the Order given And the reason is evident because Ordination being a Sacrament as the same Author says lib. 1. n. 8. and Doctor Bramhal page 96. of the Consecration of Protestant Bishops that is a visible sign of invisible Grace given by it There must be some visible sign or words in the Form of it to signifie the Power given and to determine the matter which is the Imposition of hands of it self a dumb sign and common to Priests and Deacons Confirming Curing c. to the Grace of Episcopal Order otherwise it were sufficient to say at the Imposition of hands Be thou a Constable or God make thee an honest man But there is no such visible sign or words in the Protestant Form expressing this Episcopal Power given therefore no such power is given That there is no such sign or words in the Protestant Form I prove out of the Form it self which is this made in King Edward the VI. time and continued till the happy Restauration of his Majesty that now is Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace of God that is in thee by Imposition of hands for God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and Soberness In which is not any word signifying Episcopal Power or Ordination and therefore for this defect in their Form they are no true Bishops Against what has been said you will object first That I prove them to be no Priests because they are no Bishops that made them and on the other side I prove them no Bishops because they are no Priests which is a vicious Circle But I easily answer this because I first prove à priori that is from the essential which ought to give being to each of them tat they are severally null and each of them being null for that reason it is evident that it is a cause of Invalidity in the other for as he can be no Bishop who is proved to be no Priest so he can make no Priest who is proved to be no Bishop Secondly You will object and salve up all the Defects afore-mentioned in one word to wit That although the Form used in the Church of England were invalid in King Edward ' s Queen Elizabeth's King James ' s and King Charles the First 's time for want of a valid Form of Ordination yet now it is valid in our Sovereign King Charles the Second's with whom the Parliament now sitting hath appointed a true Form Enacting that for the future to wit after St. Bartholomew's Day 1662. the Form of Ordaining a Priest should be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest and of a Bishop Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Bishop But to this I 'le answer you in another word That the salve is worse than the sore because by this change of the Form before established they acknowledge it to be null for why else need they change it Secondly By it they in effect acknowledge all their Bishops and Priests till that time to be null because Ordained by a Form that was null and could not give Power it had not nor signified Thirdly Because being no Bishops already they cannot Ordain validly by any Form whatsoever for no man can give what he has not as has been said before Lastly Whatsoever Power this Act gives to Ordain is from the Parliament and not from Christ which is what I first undertook to show and destroys their Orders root and branch Now although the Bishops of the Church of England and their Ministers grant this change of their Form of Ordination yet if any one should deny it you need only look upon the Form of making Bishops and Priests made 〈◊〉 and which was only used in the Church of England for an hundred years to be found in every
Pool to have been a righteous Arch-Bishop and so confesses Catholick Ordination and Jurisdiction to be lawful valid and good which was necessary by the Laws of England as appears from her Mandate in which she supplies any Defects they might have been under Now all the Authority the Queen had flowed from the Parliament which annexed all Jurisdiction Spiritual or Temporal over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm to the Crown by which they made her Pope So that by the very words of the Act Matthew Parker had his Jurisdiction from the Queen and she hers from the Parliament Therefore the Protestant Priests and Bishops are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and are not from Christ and his Church but from their Kings Queen and Parliaments Here is such a heap of things so unjustly and weakly said that it must needs grieve all honest men to see a company of Priests going up and down the Kingdom studying to abuse weak and unlearned persons with such disingenuous Stories or Writings Which I hope will appear more fully if you consider the following particulars First It is certain that King and Parliament have the Supream Legislative Authority in this Realm and this they have from the Laws of God Nature and Society confirmed by the Gospel which commands us to be subject to the Higher Powers Therefore whatever they Enact that is within the Limits of their Jurisdiction is Law and if it be not sinful is to be obeyed if it be sinful it is to be submitted to For instance if they set up a false Religion by Law it does not make it a true Religion but adds the sanction of Law and is the civil Warrant and Security for the Subject therefore the Civil Power cannot change the nature of things to make Good Evil or Evil Good but only gives Authority and Security and in this they are restrained in things Civil as well as Spiritual for if they make unjust Laws in Civil things the case is the same with their unjust Laws about Spirituals Therefore it is to be concluded as the Fundamental Maxim of Civil Government that whatever may be done lawfully and without Sin ought to be done when the Supream Civil Authority commands it and that the Subjects ought to obey Secondly Whosoever is empowered by the King and Parliament to execute this their Supream Authority has a full Right and Title to apply that Power so given or committed to him having the execution of that Law put in his hands and if any shall without their Warrant or Authority from them usurp or assume any sort of Power or Jurisdiction within this Kingdom they are Intruders and Usurpers and the success they have in it does no more justifie that Force than a Robber's does his Title to Goods unjustly taken And although some weak Princes in hard times did yield it up to the Pope yet both the Clergy themselves and the Parliaments did often assert their own Authority which was most eminently done by King Edward the First and King Edward the Third So that the Popes power here had no just Title but was a violent Invasion for that they neither had it from Christ nor Saint Peter nor by any Decree of General Councils and that for 800 years after Christ it was never allowed them that they never had it in the Eastern Churches and that what they had in the Western Churches was only extorted by force and fraud from the Princes and States of Europe and that they had no Law for it in England are things so certain that for proof of this I shall refer my self to the Writers of their own Church De Marca Launoy and Balusius with many others And at this very day the Pope has neither more nor less power in the other Kingdoms of Europe than the Connivence of Princes or the Laws give him Therefore the Pope had no power in England but what was unjustly usurped from the King and Parliament Thirdly When the Supream Authority the King and Parliament have long endured an Encroachment upon them that gives no just Title to it nor hinders them from asserting their own Rights when they find a fit opportunity for it and neither devests them of their Authority nor the Subjects of their due Rights and Freedoms Therefore the Government of the Kingdom and all the exercise of coercive Jurisdiction being inseparably annexed to the Supream Authority it was incumbent on them to shake off all Forrein Jurisdict they should have done it sooner but could never do it too soon Fourthly The King and Parliament asserting their Authority in this Particular and condemning the Popes Usurpations they might commit the execution of it to whom they would Therefore they putting it into the Queens hands and her Successors she had a good Right to exercise it having a Law for it This then being annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm by the Supream Authority of King and Parliament the King hath the power of exercising it fully and only in his hands and is to be obeyed in all his Injunctions that are not sinful by the Laws of the Supream Authority in this Kingdom which comes from God and is confirmed by the Gospel Fifthly Though the power of the Ministers of the Gospel comes only from Christ yet the exercise of that Power and this or that person being put in this or that Living or Preferment and having the right to the Tythes and all the Jurisdiction of the Spiritual and Prerogative Courts being things not appointed in the Gospel the King having the Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State does not exceed his Limits when he reserves to himself such power that no person shall be vested with the Legal Authority for those things but by his knowledg or upon his Order It is true he cannot make a man a Bishop or a Priest nor can he take away Orders for if Bishops should Ordain or Consecrate without or against his pleasure he may proceed against both the Ordainers and Ordained and can hinder their exercising any Function in his Dominions by Banishing or Imprisoning them but â—…he cannot destroy or annul their Orders So that the power of Ordination comes from Christ and has a Spiritual Effect whatever opposition the King may make but the exercise of that power must be had from him If the King commands an Heretick or a Scandalous person to be Elected or Ordained Churchmen may well demur and offer their reasons why they cannot give Obedience not for the want of Authority in the King but because the matter is Morally evil As they must also do if the King should command them to commit Theft or Murther So that all Consecrations in this Land are made by Bishops by the power that is inherent in them only the King gives orders for the execution of that their power Therefore all that the Queen did in the Case of Matthew Parker and the Kings do since was to command so many Bishops to exercise a power they