learned persons of the Latin Communion now agree in that Doctrine if the Church of England in her first reform'd Rituals gave as clear an Assignation to his particular Office to the Person ordain'd as either the Greek or Roman Church do at present and finally if real Heresy or Schism cannot annihilate Episcopal Sacerdotal power The consequence of all must be That our Orders are still good and valid and the Establish'd Church of England so far at least a true and sound Member of the Catholick Church of Christ And now it were no difficult Matter to retort the Objection against our Adversaries and prove the invalidity of their Orders upon the Principles and Practices of their own Church For 1. They tell us That it 's the Intention of the Priest not the Form or Matter of Institution that makes the Sacrament So that tho a Man be ordain'd a Priest or a Bishop with all the Ceremonies of the Pontifical and by a Bishop with those very words now made use of in the Exhibition of the Vessels yet if the Bishop minds not what he 's about or intend not to do what the Church intends the Ordain'd remains still without either Character or Power by which means if one Bishop has but once fail'd in the Collation of Orders they run down for ought they know in infinitum without any due Consecration and since humane Frailties are so many and the Artifices of Hell so incessant and prevailing as we must needs have a great many Doubts naturally grow upon us concerning the Intentions of those whole lives we see Extravagant and Impious so from thence we necessarily deduce an Infinity of Uncertaintys If this Conceipt were only the Caprice of some wild Head it were the less considerable But it 's the determination of their oraculous Council of Trent Si quis dixerit in Ministris dum Sacramenta conficiunt conferunt non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit Ecclesia Anathema sit Sessio 7. Can. 11. that If any shall say there is not required in Ministers while they Consecrate and dispence the Sacraments an Intention at least of doing what the Church does Let that Person so saying be accurs'd And the Annotators upon the Plantin Edition of that Council refers us to the Decrees of Eugenius the 4th in the Florentine Council where we are taught That the Sacraments are perfected by three things By outward Signs Omnia Sacramenta tribus persiciuntur videlicet Rebus tanquam Materia Verbis tanquam Forma Persona Ministri conferentis Sacramentum cum intentione faciendi quod facit Ecclesia quorum si aliquod desit non perficit Sacramentum Instruct ad Armenos Conc. gen T. 13. p. 535. as the Matter by Words as the Form and by the Person of the Minister dispensing the Sacrament with an intention of doing that which the Church does of which three things if any one be wanting there can be no Sacrament It were an easie work to confute this Opinion as being both Unscriptural and Irrational Sacramenta ministrari possunt à bonis à malis à fidelibus infidelibus infra Ecclesiam extra quia si dispensari possint tantum à bonis nullus esset certus de susceptione Sacramenti cum nullus fit certus de bonitate Ministri sicut nec de propria ita oporteret semper iterari malitia unius praejudicaret alienae saluti Lindwood Constit prov l. 1. tit 7. gl pro quibus citat B. Thom. Edit Oxon. 1679. Intra Catholicam Ecclesiam in Mysterio Corporis Sanguinis Domini nihil à bono majus nihil à malo minus perficitur Sacerdote quia non in merito Consecratis sed in verbo perficitur Creatoris virtute Spiritus Sancti Decreti p. 2. c. 1. Qu. 1. citat ex Augustino contra Epist Parmen l. 2. and how it thwarts the Doctrine of some great Men of your own may be seen by those Passages in the Margin but as they assert it it is Argumentum ad Homines the consequence of which we know well enough the Truth we shall leave them to make good as well as they can But if we look upon Consecration to Church Offices only as an Holy Ordinance but no Sacrament We may then challenge the Church of Rome as introducing a Nullity in their Orders by so notorious a deviation from the Examples of Christ and his Apostles from the Methods of the Ancient Vniversal Church and from their own Authentick Constitutions to prove which Crime of theirs we may recur to those Authorities before insisted on From which we learn That Imposition of Hands was the only Essence of Orders that their modern Ceremonies are meer Innovations and as by them us'd shameful Corruptions of the first Institution For tho' we allow that Power to the Governors of every true Christian Church to add some significant Ceremonies to a Divine Ordinance provided they are neither Indecent Superstitious nor Troublesome and therefore might pass by that addition of touching the Consecrated Vessels among other little Fooleries of that Church Yet since they have fixt the Essence of that Ordinance in that touching of those Vessels and have made Imposition of Hands rather an impertinent Formality than a matter of Necessity as may appear from that of Gregory the Ninth In fragmentis Decretalium we cannot but conclude that they have gone beyond all bounds of Just Ecclesiastical Authority For in that Decree as it 's plain that Imposition of Hands is made a meer non-essential Circumstance so it infers a Power in persons Ordain'd to execute their Functions in all parts Presbyter Diaconus cum ordinantur Manus impositionem tactu corporali â—itu ab Apostolis introducto recipiunt Quod si omissum fuerit non est aliquatenus iterandum sed statuto tempore ad hujusmodi Ordines conferendos cautè supplendum quod per errorem extitit praetermissum Concil general T. 11. p. 384. c. 52. Epist ad Archiepiesc Lond. In margine vero decretalium melius legitur Lugdunensem as occasion requires without it for it lays no prohibition on them and yet orders the supplying of all defects only at Canonical times the Interstices of which are long enough to admit various exertions of Diaconal or Sacerdotal Power Nor does the Gloss upon this part of the Canon Law help the matter at all though it be clog'd with a Superfaetation of Notes For tho' the first be That a Deacon and Presbyter ought to be Ordain'd by Imposition of Hands the second that that manner of Ordination is deduc'd from Apostolical example Nota 1. Quòd Presbyter Diaconus per manus Impositionem debet Ordinari Item Nota. Quòd Ordinatio Sacerdotis Diaconi introducta est exemplo Apostolorum Item nota quòd idem est in parte quod in toto Item Quòd duo imperfecta faciunt unum perfectum Decretal Greg. l. 1. Tit. 16. c. 3. gl p. 282.
Materia est illud per cujus traditionem confertur Ordo sicut Presbyteratus traditur per Calicis cum vino patenae cum pane porrectionem Forma Sacerdotii talis est accipe potestatem offerendi c. Concil g. T. 13. p. 538. as the Order of Priesthood is given by offering the Chalice with Wine and the Patten with Bread to be touch'd by the person ordain'd and the Form of Priesthood is that Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice c. To which Passage the formerly-cited Merbesius gives a very trifling Answer That the Council of Florence forsooth did not determine this Conciliariter or as a Matter of Faith and Dogmatically but only at the rate of Common discourse without telling whether the Patten or Chalice were the Essential or only the Accidental matter of Orders which is wholly Impertinent and no way reconcileable to what follows in the Conclusion of that Decree viz. These things being thus explicated the Armenian Orators in their own name His omnibus explicatis Armenorum Oratores nomine suo sui Patriarchae omnium Armenorum hoc saluberrimum Synodale Decretum cum omnibus suis Capitulis declarationibus definitionibus traditionibus praeceptis statutis omnem que Doctrinam in ipsâ descriptam nec non quicquid tenet docet Sancta sedes Apostolica Romana Ecclesi cum omnia devotione obedientiâ acceptant suscipiunt amplectuntur P. 540. and in the name of their Patriarch and of all the Armenians do with all Devotion and Obedience submit to and embrace this most wholesome Synodical Decree with all its Canons Declarations Definitions Traditions Precepts and Appointments with all that Doctrine laid down in it and whatsoever else that holy Apostolick See and the Roman Church maintains and teaches And to the same purpose and almost in the same words speaks Cardinal Pool Concil T. 14. p. 1740. our Country-man in his Decree concerning the Reduction of England to the Roman Communion But notwithstanding the Expressiveness of three such very considerable Authorities others of the same Communion have presum'd to think otherwise and to fix the Essence of Ordination only in Laying on of hands without regard to any Form of Words whatsoever declaring Laying on of hands and Prayer to be the only Antient and Catholick Ceremonies in the conferring of Holy Orders So Durandus giving an account of what constitutes a Priest assures us That according to Canonical Tradition when a Priest is ordain'd the Bishop giving him his Blessing Secundúm Canonicam traditionem Presbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo cum benedicente manum benedictoriam supra caput ejus tenente omnes Presbyteri qui adsunt manus suas juxta manus Episcopi teneant supra Caput illius Spiritum Sanctum invocantes quae Manus impositio operum Sancti Spiritus exercitationem significat Durand Rational l. 2. c. 10. and holding that hand with which he gave the Blessing upon his head all those Priests who are present lay their hands upon his head too by the hands of the Bishop invoking the influences of the Holy Ghost upon him which Imposition of hands signifies the power of exercising the gifts of the Holy Ghost In which words since he agrees so exactly with as to transcribe the third Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage I need not repeat that again It 's true he mentions afterwards the Ceremony of touching the Chalice and Patten but of that only as additional or accidental not Essential And Casalius in his Book concerning Ancient Christian Rites tho he plainly determine Orders to be one of the seven Sacraments of the new Law yet never mentions the touching the Vessels but only Imposition of hands which Ordo est Signaculum quoddam Ecclesiae quo Spiritualis potestas traditur Ordinato Impositio autem manuum confert gratiam cum effectu consistit Casal de vet Christ Rit c. 26. as he proves from Scripture confers Grace and has its due effects and yet he gives us Aquinas his Definition of that pretended Sacrament The first Council held at Cologne in the year 1536. asserts the same Doctrine That the Episcopal Office consists chiefly in two things the first of which is the laying on of hands Episcopi munus in ducibus poâ—â—ssimum consistit 1. In Imposiâ—iâ—ne manuum quae est Ordinum Ecclesiasti corum collatio Institutio Ministrorum Postea vero Impositio manuum est Ostâ—um per quod Intrant qui Ecclesiarum gubernaculis admoventur Conc. T. 14. p. â— 3. which is the Collation of Ecclesiastical Orders and the Institution of Ministers And afterwards Imposition of hands is that Door by which those are admitted who are rais'd to the Government of the Church So the Council at Mentz Anno 1549. Let the Parish Priests teach their People In collatione Ordinum quae cum Impositione manuum velut visibili signo traditur doceant Parochi ritè ordinatis gratiam divinitùs conferri quâ ad Ecclesiastica munera ritè utiliter exercenda apti idonei efficiantur quà rata sint efficacia quae à ritè ordinatis in Ecclesiâ juxta Christi Ecclesiae Institutionem geruntur Hanc vero gratiam esse Ordinis Muneris non Hominum aut personarum nec ad cujusquam privatam sed ad Communem totius Ecclesiae utilitatem accomodari Ideoque in ritè ordinatis sive boni sive mali sint efficacem esse atque ita inter dispares Ministros Domini nostri dona semper aequalia semper bona sacra permanere Concil T. 14. p. 679. That in the Collation of Orders which are given by the Imposition of hands as the visible sign That Grace is conferr'd by Heaven upon those who are regularly ordain'd by which they are made apt and fit to exercise Offices in the Church duly and profitably and by virtue of which those Church Matters which are managed by Men ordain'd according to the Institution of Christ and his Church are rarified and made efficacious That this Grace belongs not to the Person but to the Office and is accommodated not to any Mans private but to the publique benefit of the Church and therefore is effectual in those rightly ordain'd be they good or bad and therefore the gifts of our Lord tho given to Ministers very differently qualified are still the same always good and always holy Which Doctrine perhaps even in some other particulars is not very agreeable to those opinions espous'd by divers of the Roman Communion I need not add here the Sentiments of Habertus and Goar the learned Editors of the Greek Pontifical and Euchology intending to take notice of them afterwards But I cannot well pass by the Judgment of Bonus Merbesius in the Case who tho he take a great deal of pains to appear Neuter in it yet apparently enough inclines to this That the Essence of Orders consists in this Imposition of hands for which he refers
quam Sacerdotes efficiuntur cum neque per secundam Manuum Impositionem fiant Presbyteri ut vidimus nec per tertiam cum illa in fine ordinationis factitari solet Merb. de Sacr. Ord. D. 6. g. 52. since it 's certain they are neither made so by the second laying on of Hands the Exhortation annex'd to which as I observ'd before supposes the Priestly power already given nor yet by the third which is only us'd in the Conclusion of Ordination From all which it seems very probable That let our Ordination be never so Imperfect since we really use some Words at the instant of Imposition of hands and those very pertinent and authentick that Ordinance is at least more compleat in our Church than in theirs who lay on hands indeed but declare nothing at all either of their Reason for it or their Meaning in it 4. The greatest Bigots of the Roman Communion never charge the Greeks tho they account them Schismaticks for the most part with want of a lawful Priesthood yet their Rituals are certainly by Roman rules as defective as ours can be imagin'd In that Church He who was a Deacon before and now to be ordained Priest being brought according to prescription before the Bishop or Patriarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pontific Gr. de Consecr Presbyt the Patriarch makes the sign of the Cross three times upon his Head when he fixing his eyes upon the Holy Table and kneeling on both knees on the step the Chancellor calls aloud Silence Then the Patriarch holding his right hand upon his Head speaks aloud so that all may hear The Divine Grace which always makes sound those things that are weak and compleats what 's imperfect promotes N. N. the most reverend Deacon to be a Priest Let us therefore pray for him that the grace of the All-Holy Spirit may descend upon him Then again signing him three times and laying his hand upon his head when the Deacon has said Let us pray the Patriarch repeats that Prayer softly O God who art without beginning and without end c. After this follow the general Intercessions which when they are ended or while they are repeating the Patriarch laying his hand again upon his head as before Prays to God to fill him with the gifts of his Holy Spirit that He may be capable of doing all things belonging to his Function I need not insist upon other Ceremonies the Person ordain'd having receiv'd his Character before Where it 's observable that as the Greek Church assigns the Office no otherwise but as the Church of England does viz. by giving notice to the People what Order the Person is Consecrated to so the Greek Church differs much from that of Râ—me in the form of the Words used which argues their opinion of the no necessity of such a set Form and consequently that Orders are no Sacrament as that word Sacrament is understood in the strictest Sense by Ecclesiastical Writers Yet Habertus is so far from supposing any deficiency in the Greek Church that in Effect He charges the Church of Rome with Innovation for he tells us Traditionis potius quam Scriptorum Authoritate constat Pont. Gr. obs Hab. 1. That the words us'd upon touching the Vessels are rather built upon Oral Tradition than upon the Authority of any good Writers He refers us to several Testimonies of the Greek Fathers of greatest Reputation given to this Form Originally us'd in their Church He observes that the Church of Rome objected nothing to the Greek Rituals in the Florentine Council He shews that Ordination and Laying on of hands when apply'd to Men set apart for the Service of the Church are the same thing That therefore in their Ecclesiastical Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all signifying Laying on of hands are all indifferently us'd for Ordination He alledges that of the Writer De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia That the Imposition of the Bishops hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 5. gives both the Character and Authority of a Priest and gives us withal such an Instance of the Indulgence of the Roman See to those of the Greek Communion in Italy as must either prove their full satisfaction with the Grecian Priesthood or else that the Roman Bishops have very little care of their good It 's the Decree of Vrban the Eighth Let the Protector of the Greek Nation provide that some Eastern Bishop consecrated after the Greek manner reside at Rome to perform Divine Offices Caret Protector ut Graecus aliquis ex Oriente ritu Graeco consecratus Episcopus Romae sit ad Divina Officia atque Ordinationes ritu Graeco peragendas qui quae ad Caeremonias ritus Orientalis Ecclesiae faciunt docere alumnos possit ipse per omnia fervet Jurent queque Italo Graeci statum Ecclesiasticum ac sacros Ordines usque ad Presbyteratum ritu Graeco suscepturos quandoque ubi Superioribus visum fuerit Ibid. and to Ordain according to the Graecian Rites who may be able to teach Novices those things which belong to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Eastern Church and may observe them exactly himself and let the Greeks living in Italy give Oath to take the Ecclesiastical Life and Holy as Orders upon them according to the manner of the Greeks as far as the Order of Priesthood when and where their Superiours shall think fit Which is not only a fair attestation to the validity of the Grecian Orders but seems to imply the Greeks dissatisfaction with the Roman Hierarchy and a strange kind of Condescension in the Universal Bishop to recede from his own Rights and to give leave to a suppos'd Schismatical Clergy to increase and thrive within his Jurisdiction And Romanists have sufficient reason to acquiesce in this Liberty of theirs if what Father Goar in his Notes upon the Euchology informs us be true That Imposition of Hands is not only an Adjunct of Holy Orders Neque enim Comes est solùm adventitia non Integrans tantum ex decentia requisita sed intrinseca omnino necessaria essentialis Materia quâ adhibitâ sicut olim Apostoli prout in eorum Actis Scriptis legimus Diaconos Presbyteros Episcopos creârunt absque illâ pariter nullum in sublimiores Hierarchiae Ecclesiasticae gradus successores Episcopi possunt evehere Goar in Euch. p. 256. or meerly adventitious not only an Integral part or a thing requir'd for Decencies sake but that it 's wholly the Intrinsical necessary and Essential Matter of them by which as the Apostles of old created Deacons Presbyters and Bishops as appears by their Writings and the History of their Acts so without that the Bishops who succeed them can raise no Man to Superior Orders in the Sacred Hierarchy And as he tells us afterwards If we examine the Euchology never so strictly we shall find no other matter of Orders so much
Edit Lugd. 1671. yet sure it 's concluded that there 's the same virtue in a Semi-Ordination as in our Compleated and that two Imperfects makes one Perfect We cannot deduce any thing from the whole but That an Ordinance unquestionably sacred and of Divine Original is so far perverted by those of the Roman Church as to have lost its Nature which conclusion we may be the more confirm'd in if we observe that Assertion of some Modern Casuists That where by any Mistake it has so happen'd that the Person to be Ordain'd did not touch both the Patten and Chalice with that exactness requir'd by the Roman Rubrick Bonacina D. 8. q. 2. puncto 3. or where it is rationally doubted whether they did touch them or not there they ought to be Ordain'd again the former Ceremonies being wholly Insignificant Which strange Sleight of Apostolical Practice and weight laid upon this new Invention I can no way reconcile to that Position of Alexander Alensis Those things which are order'd by Men may be alter'd by Men but those which are instituted by God Quae ab homine Ordinata sunt ab homine possunt mutari quae autem à Deo instituta sunt non nisi dictante Deo debent mutari Alonsis Sum. p. 4. q. 9. Memb. 1. 2. art 2. may not be changed but by the Command of the same God. Besides as to Sacraments they tell us They must be administred In Forma Ecclesiae Decret p. 2. c. 1. q. 1. c. 51. Hi qui c. 52. Si quis or that otherwise they are ineffectual What Church then must that be according to whose Form Orders must be conferr'd Must it be the Ancient or Modern Church of Rome The Question is Reasonable since they have varied from themselves so much for we can find no Western Ritual mentioning the Touch of the Vessels for the first Nine hundred years after Christ If at last the Ordination of Pastors in the Church of God be instituted by Christ and his Apostles and if the manner how those first Church-Governors collated Holy Orders be express'd on Sacred Writ Then those who have varied so much from their Prescriptions and yet pretend to confer the same Divine Grace still have to the utmost of their Power evacuated both the Diaconal and Sacerdotal Offices within their own Church and if urged severely with their own Principles must appear at best but an Embryo an unshaped and incompleat Church their Priesthood Sacraments and Government falling at once to the ground 2. It 's obvious to any to object to them That Laying on of hands without using any Words at all whereby the meaning of that action should be guest at is a Ceremony of no Consequence at all Yet the very Essence of Orders according to their Schoolmen before cited consists in such a mute Imposition of hands by which it appears That the Sacrament of Orders as they call it is of a very different Nature from all the rest For should the Priest Anoint a Man with Oyl tho in a Dying State and say nothing who would call it Extreme Vnction Who would dream that the Priest Baptiz'd every Man whom he should Sprinkle Water on unless he us'd the words of Institution And we conclude That those of the Roman Communion would scarce believe the Bread and Wine Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ by the bare Contact of the Priests Hand without those powerful Words Hoc enim est Corpus meum the words being as Essential to the Sacrament as the Elements or the particular action of the Priest Now if a Bishop lay his hand upon my Head and say nothing who knows whether it be to give me his Blessing to confirm me after Baptism to Consecrate me to some sacred Employ or whether it were not an action purely accidental or a mark of some personal kindness to me For a Bishop as a Bishop may intend by such an action any one of these things as well as Ordination It 's true they have some circumstantials and appendages in their present Rituals demonstrative enough but those may be omitted and a perfectly mute Imposition of hands be made use of alone as being only Essential to the thing design'd for if the Essentials of an Ordinance be us'd the Circumstances can add nothing to its Perfection or Imperfection So the Roman Church allows Baptism of Infants a compleat Sacrament when administred by such persons who have no Authority to Consecrate the Elements or by Priests in such streights of time as render their Consecration impracticable If we should grant what some would fain perswade us That Imposition of hands and touching the Vessels are both Essential to Ordination Notwithstanding this As when they allow Bread and Wine both as Essentials to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper yet they esteem it enough to administer that Sacrament in one kind to all Communicants so it may upon the same grounds be determin'd sufficient to give Orders only by one Mean the virtue of the other Essential being suppos'd to be in that one by Concomitancy But a Ceremony wholly silent is so very unintelligible to the vulgar that though they could be brought to apprehend its general meaning yet unless there were so many different Modes of laying on of Hands it were impossible for them to distinguish between Bishops Priests and Deacons to the great trouble and dissatisfaction of those who among a thousand Doubts and Uncertainties must partake of the Ordinances of God by their hands And this defect themselves are so sensible of that though Imposition of hands be only a dumb Circumstance yet when the Vessels are exhibited in which Action they now generally fix the Essence of Orders the Bishop ordaining uses a particular Form expressive of the Office then conferr'd But it is 3. Such a Form as if well examin'd would leave us more at a loss for the validity of their Priesthood than all their precedent silence Take thou Power c. where it would give us very great satisfaction if they would inform us what kind of Sacrifices their Priests offer Whether Typical and so Carnal and Sensible Or else Spiritual If Spiritual we know of none such relating to their publick Duties but Prayers and Praises in their largest extent Spiritual Sacrifices indeed acceptable to God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 We know of none concerning them in private but such as all Christians may offer as well as Priests Presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 which is their reasonable Service If their Sacrifices are Typical by whom were they Instituted Or what are they Types of If of the Messiah to come their Priesthood must be either Judaic or Pagan whose various Sacrifices either more expresly as commanded by God or more darkly as taken up from Arguments of Gratitude or from Imitation were their great expressions of their Hope of a Messiah to come or of some extraordinary