for that Matter and Forme as we suppose by the second part of the Dilemma is not capable to confer upon him such a dignity notwithstanding the Promise SECT V. The Order of Priesthood according to the present Institution cannot be validly conferr'd by touching the Vessels with this Forme Accipe potestatem c. THe Ordinations and Institutions of Christ none can attempt to abrogate or alter without a Sacrilegious temerity for they carry with them an irrefragable Autority they are Juris Divini of Divine Right they are Sacred and therefore no Human Power upon Earth can make any change or alteration in them and more especially when by Divine Institution Supernatural effects are produced by Natural causes as it falls out in the Ordination of Priests for when it is validly conferr'd there is communicated to the Receiver a Spiritual capacity to exercise all the Functions of Priesthood there is a Power granted to him over the Real Body and the Mystical Body of Christ the first by Consecration in the Eucharist the second by Relaxing and Retaining sins There is also imprinted upon the Soul of the Ordained a Character which is a Real Physical and Supernatural quality neither is it Supernatural only quoad modum in the circumstances of producing it but quoad entitatem the very Intrinsecal Nature and Essence of it is Supernatural because no exigence of Nature can ever challenge it as due in any circumstances whatsoever From the same cause also proceeds an increase of Sanctifying and inherent Grace in the Soul of the Ordained as also a plentiful supply of Actual and Transient Graces whereby his Understanding is Illuminated and his Will Fortified in all occasions conducing to the Functions of his Order all which are according to their Intrinsecal Nature Supernatural And yet the causes from which these strange effects proceed are of themselves purely Natural having no proportion to such Supernatural products They have only a Radical Obediential capacity to be assumed and elevated above their Nature by the powerful hand of the Omnipotent to produce joyntly with him any effect that involves not a contradiction Thus the Natural Element of Water is Instituted by Christ to produce Spiritual and Supernatural Grace and to destroy Original Sin And in our present case the Imposition of Hands though Natural in it self was appointed by Christ our Redeemer to produce the forementioned effects waving the question whether the Causality of Sacraments be Physical or only Moral which the Divines Dispute And as there is no power upon earth that can abrogate or alter Christs Institutions or devest those Natural Causes of that Efficacity which by an Irrevocable Decree the Author of Grace hath given them so there is no Created Power neither Human nor Angelical that can validly institute appoint ordain or determine any Natural Cause whatsoever to produce any Supernatural effect because all Created Power how great soever is limited and confin'd within the bounds of Nature and so neither formally nor virtually nor eminently contains that Supereminent Vertue or proportion with Supernatural Effects which are far above its Sphear How then can it Communicate to other Causes that High Vertue which it no way contains in it self Hence it ensues that as all the power of Nature though it summon and muster up all its strength can never deprive those Natural Entities Instituted by Christ of this Supereminent Prerogative nor hinder their effects when duly applyed to Subjects capable according to Christs Institution so likewise neither can it remove or transfer this operative quality from those causes to which Christ hath affixt it and place it upon others of its own invention and determination For no pure Creature can alter change or abrogate a Divine Law And in this case the word Incarnate is the Legislator or Law-giver and therefore none but himself can make any Change in his own Law Except Man that is but a meer Creature will wage War with his Creator and Usurp to himself a Power that never was nor ever will be granted him it being peculiar to God alone The ground of this Doctrine is not New but Admitted by All and is common to both Churches For this is the Argument that St. Augustin used against the Pelagians who held a proportion in our Natural Acts to Merit Glory and the Semipelagians or Massilienses endeavouring a Moderation attributed to our Natural Acts a power of Meriting Supernatural Grace and this obtained rendered us capable of Meriting Glory Which Opinions are both condemned as Heretical chiefly upon this Principle That whatsoever is Natural hath no proportion with things Supernatural which common Reason dictates Thus far in General now we 'll descend to Particulars The Question in agitation is whether the touching the Vessels that is the Chalice with Wine and Water in it and the Patene with an Hoast be the Essential Matter and Forme of the Order of Priesthood I Assert that it is not because it was never assum'd nor appointed by the Divine Institutor for that end This being a thing of Fact must be made out by the Testimony of those that best knew None are more competent Witnesses nor were better acquainted with the Transactions of Christ then his Apostles who were eye-Witnesses of his proceedings and to whom Christ communicated such things as chiefly concerned his Church And they have left their Testimony in Writing to be inviolably observed in future times and yet have no where left the least mention of this Matter and Forme If any such thing had been Instituted by their Divine Master it is most unlikely and wholly incredible that in a matter of such moment and high concern wherein the very being of the Church depended they should have past it over in deep silence and never have given the lest intimation of it neither in Word nor Writing to those of the Primitive Church that immediately succeeded them But so it is the Apostles never mention it All Antiquity is wholly ignorant of it search all the Minutest Passages of Scripture read all the Authors of the Infancy and Growth of the Church Examine all the Liturgies and Rituals of Ordination the Latines Greeks the Syrian Maronites the Nestorians the Eutichians the Jacobites the Cophticks the Aegyptians the Babilonians the Aethiopians c. Peruse all the Records of Councils and you shall find nothing but a profound Silence and Ignorance of any such thing till about 700 years since as you may see above Section II. in the Ritual of Constantinus Caëtanus In the Antient Rituals as well of the Latines as the Greeks and others there is frequent mention made of the Imposition of Hands in Ordination which was ever held Essential to the Order of Priesthood but of Touching the Vessels not a word Whence we may certainly conclude that those Vessels were never Instituted by Christ as the Essential Matter of Priesthood nor the Words annexed thereunto as the Essential Forme Let us now Collect what hath been proved in this Section
Nothing but that which Christ Instituted is the Essential Matter and Forme of the Order of Priesthood But Christ never Instituted the Touching of the Vessels and the words annexed to it ergo the Touching of the Vessels and the Words annexed to it are not the Essential Matter and Forme of the Order of Priesthood the Premises have been here clearly proved and the Conclusion is legally inferr'd For a farther Proof of this Assertion we must drive it a little higher and consider the fatal consequences that would ensue from their Doctrine were it true For if the Matter and Forme specifyed in the Title of this Section be the Essentials of the Order of Priesthood then it inevitably follows that the Greeks and all the Christians disperst over all the East yea and the Latin Church also for a Thousand years after Christ had never any Valid Ordination because they all wanted the Essentials of Priesthood for al these never made use of the Vessels nor the Forme annexed to them as appears by their Rituals And to this day none but the Latines ever applyed this Matter and Forme to him that was to be Ordained Priest and therefore could have no True Patriarchs not Bishops nor Priests among them A very sad Illation and of vast consequence for no Priest no Church What then Must the Church of Rome to keep up and Maintain their Innovation which is a Meer Humane Invention Un-Church all the Professors of Christianity in the World for a Thousand years together and a considerable part of them to this day and leave them destitute of either Bishop or Priest Where was all this while the provident care that our great Master and Redeemer ever had of his Church which he had Established by the Price of his Precious Blood Where was that tender love that he ever testified to his Endear'd Spouse Could heabandon his whole Church so soon after he had Instituted and so firmly Founded it that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it What Christian can without a Sacred Horror entertain a thought of such a general devastation and deplorable desolation But this being so obvious could not but work the Church of Rome into an anxiety and sedulous industry to find a remedy wherefore to salve this Sore they would never Reordain their Proselites that had deserted the Communion of the Greek Church and imbraced theirs but on the contrary in all occasions declared the Ordinations of the Greek Church to be valid and consequently granted to those Greeks that were now Incorporated into their Church the free use of all their Priestly Functions though they had been created Priests according to the Rites of the Greek Church and never attempted to Re-ordain them By this they endeavor to evade this last imputation which otherwise would lye heavy upon them But in plain terms this evaasion is no better then a meer contradiction for How is it possible that the Ordination of the Greeks could be valid without the Essentials of Ordination which the Roman Church placeth in the Touching of the Holy Vessels with this Forme Accipe potestatem c. Receive a power to offer Sacrifice c. for these the Greeks never used You were as good tell me That one may be truly and properly a Man without either Body or Reasonable Soul which are the Essentials of Man If you should Reply That there may be Two Essences of Ordination so that each taken apart from the other makes the Ordination valid So when the Greeks Ordain they use for Matter the Imposition of Hands and for Forme these words Divina gratia c. The Divine Grace which always heals that which is infirm and supplies that which is defective promotes this most holy Deacon to be a Priest By this Matter and Forme the Greeks do validly confer the Order of Priesthood And when the Romanists Ordain they do the like by their peculiar Matter and Forme So that neither is rigorously necessary but either may suffice This Doctrine is very Paradoxical for in substance it asserts that one and the same thing may have two compleat and adequate Essences specifically and generically different from each other which is impossible for a thing and his adequate Essence is the same and nothing can be specifically or generically different from its self But you 'l say These are not two Essences of the same thing but two different causes of the same effect To solve this I must distinguish between the Order it self and the Ordination the Order is that Spiritual Power which is given to the Ordained by vertue of his Ordination from whence results the Order together with its concomitant Supernatural effects which are the Character and Sacramental Graces that are inseparable from it The Ordination is made up of those Actions and Words which the Ordainer exerciseth and applyeth to the Ordained so that the Ordination participates more of the nature of a causality then of a cause And the whole Essence of this Ordination is the Matter and Forme instituted by Christ for whatsoever was assum'd by the Original Instituter and by him elevated and impower'd to produce such admirable supernatural and Sacramental effects is the Essence of Ordination So that Order is the Effect and Ordination the Cause wherefore if you appoint new Essentials of Ordination you not only grant two Causes of the same effect but two Essences of the same thing whereby you render Ordination specifically and Essentially distinct from its self And because none but an Omnipotent Power can raise Natural Causes to such vigor and energy as to produce such extraordinary effects therefore that Matter and Forme which Christ hath Instituted to this end is the total Essence of Ordination And herein the Greeks have the advantage for they ever used the Imposition of Hands with the Forme above mentioned which the Primitive Church received from the Apostles and they from Christ so the Greeks are sure that their Ordination hath a legal and valid Institution But where shall we find another adequate Essence of Ordination by Divine Institution That of the Church of Rome hath no such Prerogative for we know its Origine and have scan'd its Pedigree whereby we find that there is nothing but Human Autority to authorise it which hath no proportion to such wonderful effects which are out of the reach of Nature and none but an Omnipotent Power can produce Hence we groundedly conclude that there is but one valid Ordination which hath but one certain and determinate Nature and Essence neither is there any power upon Earth that can add to it or take from it So that in vain you assign the Touching of the Vessels with its Forme for a second total and adequate Essence of Ordination For all Antiquity was a stranger to this the Apostles never heard of it Christ never mentioned it neither by word nor action Who then dares obtrude this as belonging to the Essence of Ordination which is of Divine Right as all
the Ritual a needless Addition though in effect it is destructive of the Validity of Ordination by rendring the Essentials useless and drawing from them the intention of Ordaining as is above declared But if this Addition be not Essential Why is the power of offering Sacrifice exprest in it Surely the Council of Florence and Pope Gregory the Ninth thought it Essential as you may see above Sect. 4. And indeed that which is added is used as Essential and that which Christ Instituted is rejected as Circumstantial which vitiates the Ordination An Eighth Objection The ground of this Discourse against the Validity of Ordination according to the Roman Ritual depends upon that Opinion which allows to the Sacraments a Physical influence into the supernatural effects thereof for great difficulty is made how Natural Causes can produce Supernatural Effects on pretence that none but an Omnipotent Power can elevate them per potentiam obedientialem to render Nature proportionable to that which is above Nature wherefore admitting only a Moral Causality which is a probable opinion held and maintained by many Divines this difficulty will cease for then the Church may Ordain and determine the Matters and Formes of Sacraments without communicating to them that Supernatural Power of producing Physically and really such like Sacramental effects as are above Nature My First Answer is That many Grave and Learned Divines maintain That the Sacraments do Really and Physically produce their Supernatural Effects and they prove it by substantial Reasons wherefore this Opinion both by Autority and Reason claimes the preference especially as being more conformable to the expressions of the Councils who Teach That the Sacraments contain Grace that is virtually which signifies a power to produce it and also that they confer Grace ex opere operato c. that is the Sacraments by their due application confer Grace to the Receiver through the power and vertue wherewith they are indued by Divine Institution which is distinct from that Grace which is produced ex opere operantis that corresponds to the piety and devotion of the Receiver So the Council of Trent Si quis dixerit per ipsa novae legis Sacramenta Trid. Sess 7. Can. 18. ex opere operato non conferri gratiam c. Anathema sit If any one shall say that by the Sacraments of the New Law there is not Grace conferr'd which proceeds from the vertue of the Sacrament let him be Accursed My Second Answer is That the Doctrine above delivered depends not on either of these two Opinions determinately for admit which you please yet it cannot be deny'd but that the Sacraments duely applyed bring with them an exigence and infallible determination for the conferring Supernatural Graces Imprinting the Character c. by vertue of Christ's Institution Independant whereof Pray what power is there in Nature to indue the Matter and Forme of Sacraments with such vertue and exigence which all the force of Nature can never pretend to or challenge as due So that an Omnipotent Power is here rigorously necessary to institute and determine the Matter and Forme of Sacraments which is all their Essence and to communicate to them this high Prerogative which surpasseth all the strength of Nature as well Angelical as Humane A Ninth Objection In the Collation of Priesthood as well the Church as the Ordainer direct their intention to the whole Liturgy thereby to confer the Order not determining any one part more then another and certainly the whole contains all the Essentials and consequently thereby the Order must be Validly conferr'd there being nothing wanting neither the Essentials nor the intention of the Minister to the Validity thereof My First Answer is That though in some cases a denomination may be appropriated to the whole which cannot be applyed to the parts thereof if taken separately as the compound of a body and a reasonable Soul is a Man and yet neither the Body nor the Soul taken separately and by themselves is a Man So likewise a Number is made up of several Unities and yet never an Unity by it self is a Number Yet when there is a real and Physical effect to be produced and the parts of the whole are applyed successively so as that when one part is existent the other is past and not then in being and the subsequent parts are not yet extant In this case a real effect cannot proceed from them all neither by a Physical action nor by a Physical determination but this real effect must be produced in the same moment of time when the cause of it is existent whether its influence be Physical or Moral provided that its determination to such an effect be Physical Now for application In the same moment of time that the Order of Priesthood is conferr'd there is a Spiritual Power given to the Ordained there are several Real and Supernatural Graces produced there is a Real Character Imprinted These are the effects Now let us inquire into the Cause The Essential Matter and Forme of Ordination duely applyed are the cause of those real effects either by a real influence and principiating the action which produceth them or by a real determination or strict exigence of having then actually produced according to the Divine Decree of Institution so that the effect cannot be deferr'd or suspended when the cause either Physical or Moral is sufficiently applyed And certain it is that the Ritual contains many circumstantial and accidental Rites intermixt with the Essentials and several parts of the Mass as they successively occurre for they are not all Essentials neither is the Person to be Reordained if any one action of the whole Ritual be omitted Whence it ensues that some one determinate Matter and Forme in particular is the cause of the forementioned effects and in that cause consists the Essence of Ordination And yet if we run over all the parts of the Roman Ritual there is no Matter that can be Essential except it be the Tradition of the Instruments or the Imposition of Hands for nothing else was ever esteemed in the least as Essential The Tradition of the Vessels cannot be Essential as we have clearly proved above in the Fifth Section as for the Imposition of Hands we find it in three places only in the Roman Ritual and neither of these three Impositions of Hands belong to the Essential Matter of Ordination as we have proved in the Fourth Section by Induction or enumeration of parts My Second Answer is That notwithstanding the drift of this Objection which is to involve all in obscurity and confusion yet whether they will or no their Essential Matter and Forme are fixt from whence they cannot recede for the Tradition of the Instruments and the Forme that affects them which they have introduced can have no other end then to constitute the Essentials of Priesthood The Forme is this Receive a power of offering Sacrifice c. These words if they have any signification import a
the Principles of Philosophy and Scholastical Divinity which though Abstruse and Speculative yet is Avowed by their own Champions Dispute I. Of the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome The Preface THE natural and acquisite knowledge of Man's intellectual Faculty could never pretend to any specifical degree of Clarity above those obscure Notions which by foreign Species we draw from several Objects wherefore the Representation being weak the Vnderstanding is seldom certainly assured of the true State of the Object But the Church of Rome pretends to a higher Prerogative above the rest of Mankind viz. an Infallibility in her decisions that is a determination to Truth and an incapacity of falling into any Falsity or Error wherefore I deemed it worth the Examination whither this superexcellent Faculty be grounded upon any sure Foundation or an assumed and pretended Priviledge like his Holinesses usurped Power to Lord it over Kings and to Depose them and dispose of their Dominions at his pleasure as if Emperors Kings and Temporal Princes were but his Tenants at Will and he the Proprietor or Landlord SECT I. Wherein consists the true Notion of Infallibility TO the end we may with greater perspicuity trace the Divines of the Church of Rome in their Principles we must first premise a four-fold Knowledge that the Understanding is capable of There is an abstractive a quidditive an intuitive and a comprehensive Knowledge The first is a weak and imperfect representation fram'd by borrowed Species gathered first by the external and internal Senses and thence transmitted to the Understanding which are but virtual representations and as it were the Seeds of the Object by means whereof the Vital Power together with these Species as con-causes produce a formal image or representation of the Object And this abstractive Knowledge is peculiar to the State of Man in this Life A quidditive Knowledge is a clearer Representation framed by the Understanding instructed with proper Species by means whereof it penetrates into the essential Perfections and peculiar Faculties of the Prototypon or thing represented An intuitive Knowledge is that which by the proper Species of the exemplar distinguisheth in what State the Object is whither existent past or to come and herein it resembles that Science in God which the Divines call Scientia visionis A comprehensive Knowledge includes the two former and moreover represents all the Perfections Powers and Faculties of its Object explicitely in order to all its Connotates and Correlatives explicating distinctly all the variety of effects that may proceed from such a cause and discovering all and singular the innate Powers and Faculties thereof with reference to all external Objects that have any connexion dependence or relation to it And because these external Objects are infinite therefore this comprehensive Knowledge is peculiar to God alone but the two former are imparted to the Blessed Angels and Souls of the Faithful who by their Beatifical Vision see God quidditively and intuitively Moreover there are three degrees of clarity or certainty whereby various Acts of the Understanding do variously represent their Objects The first is Probability which by reason of its weakness and imbecillity is always accompanied with a virtual or formal Ambiguity and Fear that the contrary may be true because the motives that are inductive to the assent bring no assurance but only a seeming resemblance with the Truth The second is a Moral certainty which though there be a possibility of its failing yet seldom or never errs as one that never was at Rome yet hath a Moral certainty that such a City is extant because he hath often heard the concurring Testimonies of so many that have been there The third and highest degree is the certainty of Infallibility which is always accompanied with Truth and imports also an incapacity of Erring so that all Physical Mathematical and Metaphysical demonstrations and all those Truths which Philosophers call Prima Principia as Nihil potest simul esse non esse Omne totum est majus suâ parte Quae sunt eadem unitertio sunt eadem inter se c. all these are invested with the certainty of Infallibility To this also belongs all acts of supernatural Faith which are truly grounded on Divine Revelation This being premised we now come to inspect the peculiar nature of that Infallibility which the Doctors of Rome attempt to affix to their Church And though the word Church taken in its greatest latitude include all the Members thereof wheresoever dispersed yet their Divines commonly restrain the meaning thereof to an Oecomenical Council indicted by the Pope promulged by the Emperor furnished with a sufficient number of Fathers and Bishops wherein the Pope by himself or his Legate presides and confirms the Canons and Decrees of the same by his Apostolical Authority so that a Council with all these Requisites is that which they call the Church and assert it Infallible in all its Canons and Decrees yea and some of the Popes Candidates affirm That his Holiness also participates of this high Prerogative when he speaks ex Cathedra though no Council be then sitting which the Jesuits the Popes Minions struggle hard to maintain against others of the same Church Another difficulty hath been started amongst them How this Infallibility affects their Church Whither it be an inherent quality possessing the minds and understandings of the Fathers and Bishops in Council essentially determining them to truth or else an extrinsical assistance whereby the Holy Ghost inspires them with Truth and protects them from Error But I leave them to debate these difficulties among themselves for it is not the scope of this present discourse to examine what they call their Church and how this Infallibility affects it but only whither this singular favour be really granted to them or whither they unjustly pretend a Right to it for the better satisfaction of their Followers and making a more copious access of Proselites SECT II. The Grounds of the pretended Infallibity of the Church of Rome are proposed GReat Acquisitions are seldom made and maintained without great Art and Industry A considerable part of this sublunary World are wrought into a belief That the Church of Rome is the only Oracle of the Universe whose Doctrine is always true and not capable of Error how many Kings and Princes are swayed by this perswasion and by this means testifie a high Respect and Veneration for the See of Rome who Commissionates her Emissaries the Divines Preachers and Confessors to inculcate this Doctrine to the credulous Believers all the World over and he who writes best on this Subject expects no less than a Cardinal's Cap or a Bishoprick for his Reward The Divine Prints it the Preacher promulges it and the Confessor takes hold of opportunity times and seasons to settle it in the minds of his Penitents Princes have commonly Divines Preachers and Confessors of their own Subjects and Nation to whose conduct they presume they may safely trust
Power of offering Sacrifice then conferr'd upon the Ordained and nothing else And the offering of Sacrifice is the chief action of a Priest because it impowers him to Consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ which none but a Priest can do Albert. Mag. L. 6. Theolog. veritatis C. 36. Actus Presbyterorum saith Albertus Magnus est Consecrare corpus Sanguinem Christi est actus principalis Alius est consequens scilicet ligare solvere The Act of Priests is to Consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ and it is the principal Act. The other is consequent which is to Retain and Absolve which they all grant therefore they must acknowledge Priesthood to be hereby conferr'd For To what other sense can they draw those words Take Receive Accept the Power of offering Sacrifice and the Ordained comes with a full intention to Receive the Power whence there cannot be the least shadow of any other design then intending this Matter and Forme as the Essentials of Priesthood SECT VIII An Illation drawn from the Premises of the Invalidity of Ordination in the Church of England Solved THe Council of Trent seems to make no difference between Order and Ordination Trid. Sess 23. Can. 3. but confounds them together Si quis dixerit Ordinem sive Sacram Ordinationem non esse verè propriè Sacramentum à Christo Domino institutum c. Anathema sit If any one shall say That Order or Holy Ordination is not truly and properly a Sacrament Instituted by Christ c. let him be Accursed But I shall make it appear that there is a considerable difference between Order and Ordination the one is that which they call a Sacrament the other not The Order of Priesthood is a Spiritual Power whereby the Ordained is enabled and Commissioned to exercise all Priestly Functions with Autority The Ordination consists in the Essential Matter and Forme regularly and aptly applyed by the Bishop which is the Ordainer to him that is Ordained and from this Matter and Forme so applyed results in the Ordained that Spiritual Power which is properly the Order of Priesthood the Character is thereby Imprinted and the Graces accommodated to the Priestly Ministry are also conferr'd So that Order with its concomitants is the effect but Ordination is the cause That is permanent in the Ordained for terme of life this is transient and passeth away for it lasts no longer then while that power is in conferring That is the principal end intended by Christ This is the means Instituted by Christ to attain that end That is as it were a Patent or Commission which the Priest acts by this the cause either efficient or Moral which procured it wherefore these being so different from each other the Council of Trent could not intend to have them both Sacraments but that alone if any must be a Sacrament which confers the Order of Priesthood to the Ordained and also Imprints the Character c. all this is performed by Ordination not by Order for nothing can be the cause of it self Order is the effect and therefore cannot be the cause The Character and Sacramental Graces are not produced by the Order but by the Ordination so that if any be a Sacrament it must be this which being premised as evident in it self A Tenth Objection by way of Deduction is drawn from the precedent Doctrine For if the Ordination of the Church of Rome be Invalid it must of necessity draw with it the Nullity of the Church of Englands Ordination who received her Orders from the Church of Rome and cannot make out her Succession of Bishops from Christ and his Apostles without passing through the sides of the Roman Bishops who must integrate the linkes of continuation Wherefore if the Church of Rome have no true Bishops it inevitably follows that the Church of England must lye under the same Censure for one that hath no power of Order can never confer that power upon another because none can give that which he hath not Otherwise it would follow that meerly Men or Civil Magistrates might confer Orders which no Man will grant My Answer to this Objection is grounded in a Principle received by the Romanists themselves namely that where the true Essentials are regularly and orderly applyed though there be a defect in the Ordainer for want of the power of Order yet if he Ordain Cum titulo colorato bona fide the Ordination is valid Four things therefore are necessary to the Validity of Ordination conferr'd by such a Bishop First That none of the Essentials be wanting Secondly That nothing be added in the Ordination repugnant to the Essentials or destructive of their Operation Thirdly That there be in the Ordainer Titulus coloratus bona sides that is a general presumption that he is a true Bishop and that he Ordains according to his Conscience knowing nothing amiss Fourthly That he have a right Intention of conferring the Order Where these Requisites do concurre the Ordination is certainly valid The First Proof hereof is grounded upon that provident care that Christ ever had of his Church for when all the Essentials and necessary Conditions are applyed and no Moral defect to be imputed to the Ordainer nor the Ordained and no Humane prudence could ever detect that secret defect in the Ordainer it would be too severe that the Original Instituter of Ordination should refuse to the Ordained the power of Order nay in a short time it would prove destructive to the whole Church for Christ knew full well the fragility of Humane Nature and considering his infinite Wisdom and Protection of his Church would not oblige our imbecility to Moral Impossibilities or if we failed by our Natural Weakness without either sin or voluntary error would permit the utter ruine and destruction of his Church which would certainly insue if such Ordinations were not valid For I suppose the Ordainers and Ordained to proceed with a candid sincere and good Conscience and that Morally speaking have not the least suspicion of any default or want of power in the Ordainer nay he himself neither knows nor surmiseth any desiciency in his Order In this Case Should the Ordination be void and null Whom could we impute it to certainly to none but those who by their Super-inductions pretended to Correct Christ's Institutions and thereby rendred all defective But must this be so prejudicial to the Church of Christ as to involve all Posterity into the Imputation of the same Crime who were no way consenting to it nay who in due time reformed such abuses and wholly disclaimed from them No certainly our Great Redeemer is more equitable and knows who rejects his Ordinances and Institutions and who endeavors to maintain them But now since Pride Ambition or a vain Pretence to an Arbitrary Power against Divine Right or what Motive else I know not induced the Prelates of the Church of Rome to evacuate Christ's Institutions and in their
place to substitute their own and hereby to make Ordination void so likewise is Human frailty subject to many such defects whereof some are imputable of crime to the first Authors but not to those that succeed them for I suppose these to be blinded by invincible ignorance others proceed only from the weakness and limited capacity of Human nature without any deformity or Moral defect in their wills Wherefore should the Church of God so rely upon our weak capacities that a secret and clandestine defect in an Ordainer which no vigilance nor Human precaution can avoid when all other requisites are applyed and all have an invincible ignorance of that secret defect Should this I say render all his Ordinations invalid when all other requisites are applyed then another such defect may on the same account incidently fall on another considering our weakness or Malice in the beginners and so on a third and at length no Bishop nor Priest that 's validly Ordained will be found in the Church See how this is inductive to the Churches ruine which certainly had been long-since destroyed had not the Divine Instituter thereof maintained it by supplying such defects which we can neither avoid nor prevent which he can as easily do as he first Instituted the Sacraments and Ordination for it is he alone that gives the Spiritual Order to the Ordained and to give it in these circumstances is but congruous for none concerned in such an Ordination are blameworthy and not to give it is absolutely and by common providence inevitably destructive of the whole Church which certainly the Supreme Lord thereof will not deliver up to ruine since with so much difficulty care and tenderness he Instituted it and to the same it belongs first to Institute and then to Conserve But this Doctrine seems to administer the occasion of a reply for admitting that Titulus coloratus bona fides do supply the defect of Order in the Ordainer so that one who is by all esteemed and reputed a true Bishop yet in effect by reason of some secret default is not so when all other requisites and essentials are aptly and duely applyed do validly Ordain Why then cannot this Doctrine be applied to the Roman Bishops For if they should be defective in the Power of Order yet adhibiting all essentials and other necessary conditions their Ordinations would also be valid among themselves for we cannot in Charity presume that they proceed against their Conscience or that they want that sincerity and right intention which we suppose in others This being supposed the case is the same for if the Roman Bishops validly Ordained the Bishops of the Church of England Why should not they validly Ordain their own I Answer That they Ordain their own Priests and Bishops according to the Roman Ritual and consequently they want the maine requisite which is the essential Matter and Forme for they have Innovated a Matter and Forme of their own far different from that which Christ Instituted and they cleerly signifie by that Forme that they intend thereby to confer the Order of Priesthood so that they cannot intend to Ordain by the Essential Matter and Forme derived from the Apostles if any such be contained in their Ritual except they would be reputed deluders as hath been proved at large in the Fifth Sixth and Seventh Sections of this Disputation Wherefore according to the disposition of the Roman Ritual the Essence of Ordination cannot subsist And certainly nothing can have a being without its own Essence as all must grant For the Church of Rome partly by adding their new reputed Essentials to which their intention of Ordaining must be fixed and partly by Inverting the Order have made so great a confusion that one part destroys another and particularly their Essentials do absolutely destroy the Essentials Instituted by Christ if their Liturgy contain any such and hinder their effect But when the Bishops that were Ordained in the Church of Rome had deserted their Communion and Ordained the Bishops of the Church of England they did it by the English Ritual which contains the very Essential Matter and Forme Instituted by Christ and delivered to us by the Apostles which were so duely and regularly applyed to the Ordained as was ever in practise in the antient Church so that here nothing at all was wanting that in the case proposed was necessary to the validity of Ordination Wherefore this Ordination is far different from that which the Roman Bishops use when they Ordain according to the Roman Pastoral And consequently the Ordination which the Romans use among themselves is Invalid but the Ordination of the English Bishops reteins its Integrity A Second Proofe hereof is grounded upon the practise of the Greek Church whose Ordination the Church of Rome ever approved as valid yet they always used the Imposition of hands as the Essential matter of Priesthood with this Forme Divina Gratia quae semper infirma sanat deficientia complet promovet hunc Deo amabilem Diaconum in Presbyterum The Divine Grace that always cures that which is infirme and compleats that which is deficient promotes this pious Deacon to Priesthood Consider here what precaution the Greeks used in the Essential Forme of their Ordination for knowing how prone we are all to errors and mistakes they in a matter of such high concern have recourse to the Author of Grace to confirm and strengthen that which by Human Frailty might be weak and unstable as also to compleat the defects and supply the wants of their Ordination in case any thing else should be necessary not known to them And hereby they used their best endeavors to prevent the nullity of their Ordinations which might proceed from their own weakness or inadvertency as not being ignorant how many errors and mistakes we are subject to notwithstanding the best of our endeavors to the contrary Which implyes a confidence in them that using the true Essentials and a right intention Christ would supply all other secret defects whereof the want of the power of Order in the Ordainer is one especially when he is generally reputed by all and by himself also a true Bishop For as it is above observed in the beginning of this Section the Power of Order in the Ordained is no Essential part of Ordination but meerly the effect thereof so that the Ordination is Essentially and Specifically compleat without it and because Ordination is Instituted by Christ as a means to determine him to confer this Spiritual Power upon the Ordained How reasonable and congruous is it that the cause being compleat the effect should not be wanting especially since it exceeds our capacity to discover the defect For when a cause is hinder'd from producing his effect either by contrary agents or by the indisposition of the Medium or by the incapacity of the Passum we cannot thence infer that the agent is incompleat or wants vertue quantum est ex se for as much
late to make any change or alteration in it or any way to repeal or abrogate it So they may talke of an indirect power of degrading the contract and depriving it of its wonted obligation and making it no civil contract but all in vain for Christ's Institution must stand Yet it may be Reply'd That those clandestine contracts which were to be after the Decree of the Council are no civil contracts and therefore not comprehended under the number of those that Christ Instituted as Sacraments I Answer That the Supreame Legislator in the Institution of Sacraments did not regulate himself by any subsequent and human Law made in prejudice of his Institution but well knowing those Clandestine Contracts to be of their own nature obligatory he confirm'd that mutual obligation in them by erecting them to the dignity of Sacraments which no human Decree can change for otherwise the Councils might prescribe him what Rules they pleased to regulate his proceeding The Second Objection Since we are destitute of any certain knowledge what those Contracts were that Christ Instituted as Sacraments we ought in this to take the testimony of the Church for the Rule of our Belief who by reason of her Infallibility is best able to informe us and secure us from Error Wherefore since the Church declares all succeeding Clandestine Contracts to be no Sacraments nor Civil Contracts we have no reason by our own fallible discourse to call in question the verity of the Churches Declaration I Answer That the Church of Rome not only declares those subsequent contracts to be void but as much as in her lies makes them so Prout eos presenti decreto irritos facit annullat which notwithstanding before this Decree were valid and obligatory As for the Church of Romes Infallibility we have in the precedent Disputation examin'd it and found it defective and shall hereafter prove it erroneous and therefore have no grounds to confide in it But in this case we have made it appear that the determination of those Contracts which of their own nature were Obligatory was made by Divine Institution and that such Contracts were deputed to be Sacraments long before this Decree of the Council yea and are still reputed Sacraments inducing a mutual obligation here in England and other places where the Council of Trent was never received which the Church of Rome acknowledges How then could this subsequent Decree of the Council have any influence upon those contracts which were establisht as valid and indued with a Sacramental vertue by a Divine Decree that was precedent to this human Decree of the Council This being but a fruitless attempt to render that invalid which was constituted as valid Jure Divino The Third Objection Clandestine Marriage was ever hold unlawful and therefore they who contract so commit a sin in doing it because they transgress against a precept of their lawful Superiors and it is not likely that Christ would affix his Supernatural Graces to a sinful action nay it is impossible that a Mortal sin and Grace can stand together in the same subject And therefore the Church might prudently presume that such sinful contracts were not Instituted by Christ as Sacraments First I Answer That the Romanists themselves must solve this Objection for they all grant that clandestine Marriages were Sacraments and valid contracts ever before the Council of Trent and are so still in England and Saxony and yet they ever were and still are unlawful which circumstance they must reconcile with Christ's Institution for notwithstanding the sin they acknowledge them to have been Instituted by Christ as Sacraments But Secondly I Answer That the circumstance of contracting clandestinely is wholly extrinsecal to the contract and therefore can never alter the nature nor essence of it for circumstances make no change in the substance and this is common to all Sacraments for whoever receives any Sacrament may out of the pravity of his own will add some unlawful circumstance to it or receive it when his Soul is contaminated with sin but we must not hence conclude that this deordinate proceeding of the Receiver layes any infection upon the Sacrament whose compleat substance and essence is wholly independant of the circumstances which are extrinsecal to it True it is that all Sacraments produce Grace as also that Grace and deadly sin are wholly inconsistent and therefore whosoever receives a Sacrament when he is actually in sin puts an Obstacle to the effect of the Sacrament and cannot then receive any Grace by it because sin makes him liable to the pains of Hell and Grace gives him whose Soul it informs a right to Glory and because these two are incompatible therefore Grace and Sin that are the necessary causes of them mutually exclude each other from the same Soul Yet they generally Teach in the Church of Rome That when the obstacle is removed and the Soul purged from sin that then the Sacrament revives and produceth that Grace which by the original Institution was annexed to it and this Doctrine they also apply to Moral actions in reference to Inherent and Sanctifying Grace which they Merit for when one falleth into sin he loseth all that habitual Grace which he possest before his fall it being inconsistent with sin but when he is again restored to the state of Grace then his Merits revive to render him the same quantity of Sanctifying Grace which he before had lost by sin So is it in those that contract clandestine Marriage if invincible ignorance doth not excuse them they sin and receive no Inherent and Sanctifying Grace till sin which is the obstacle be removed and in the same moment that this is done the Sacrament revives and produceth in their Souls its due proportion of habitual and inherent Grace See Suarez Opuscul 5. D. 2. S. 2. 3. And thus have I vindicated the Validity of Clandestine Marriage against the Church of Rome by the Principles of their own Doctors and consequently that Decree of the Council of Trent is but a vain attempt to render that void which by Divine Autority is establisht as valid which proceeding is originally drawn from a presumption of their pretended Infallibility And therefore whatsoever they decree though against Divine Right is held as Sacred and not liable to error as in this case it happens But this is certain that these private Matrimonial Contracts were by Christ appointed as Sacraments or they were not if not then the Church of Rome erred by ever acknowledging them as such if they were then the Council of Trent errs by endeavoring to repeal them You 'l say That those Contracts that proceeded the Council were Instituted by Christ because they were civil contracts but they which succeeded were not because they were no Civil contracts Yes because the Council will have it so But Who sees not that according to this Doctrine it is the Council and not Christ that is the proper Instituter of this Sacrament for the
former then it affirms an identity between Bread and the Body of Christ which is a Chymera and all the foregoing discourse stands firm and immoveable If the latter then with assured confidence I declare that there is not the least ground or appearance of Transubstantiation to be drawn from that so often reiterated Proposition Hoc est corpus meum which I prove evidently All Conversions and Transmutations whether partial or total whether Transubstantiations or Transaccidentations essentially import two extreams the one is terminus à quo the other terminus ad quem and a Medium that passeth from one to the other as in our present case the Bread is terminus a quo the Body of Christ is terminus ad quem because the Bread is said to be Converted or Transubstantiated into the Body of Christ so that the Bread is destroyed and the Body of Christ succeeds in heu thereof the Medium is that collection of Accidents which are proper to Bread and under which the substance of Bread existed before it was destroyed and after the Body of Christ exists under the same collection of Accidents Now if the foresaid Particle Hoc do not signifie the substance of Bread then it is most manifest that in the whole proposition there is not the least mention made of Bread but only of the Body of Christ which the Predicate expresseth and the Copula or Union represents nothing but only intentionally unites or identifies the two extreams and there is nothing else in the whole proposition but the Subject which is the Particle Hoc therefore if this do not signifie Bread then there is nothing that signifieth it in the whole proposition Whence I infer That the aforesaid proposition doth no way signifie import or make the least mention of Transubstantiation no nor doth it afford the least ground to infer it from thence because it mentions no extreams really distinct no terminum à quo no terminum ad quem no Change nor Transmutation but only signifies the Body of Christ there not as terminum ad quem for this is correlative to another extreame which is terminus à quo but this it not at all signifieth How then can it administer any the least ground to assert Transubstantiation Here I appeale to the Judgment of any indifferent or impartial Reader though but meanly capacitated how a Proposition can be capable to administer such an assured belief of Transubstantiation which notwithstanding it doth not in the least signifie It ensues therefore That as the Rabbies in those times did usually speak in Parables Tropes and Figures c. So our Great Master who in most things accommodated himself to the present times did frequently express himself by Parables Emblems Tropes and Figures and particularly in this passage whereof the words as you see can in no ways bear a literal sense especially because we find so much congruity for it in other passages of Scripture where our Saviour calls it Bread John 6. v. 51. I am the living bread if any Man eate of this bread The bread that I will give you is my flesh And How can it be understood in a litteral sense that Bread should be the flesh of Christ v. 58. This is that bread which came down from Heaven c. These and diverse other sayings of our Redeemer can in no wayes be understood in the rigor of the Letter but are to be expounded according to the congruity of the Subject for the Bread was a fit Emblem of the Body of Christ and equivalently the same because it was by Christ himself elevated to be a Sacrament and as Bread feeds the Body of Man so the Sacramental effect thereof feeds the Soul by such Spiritual Graces as incline to Vertue and Piety and by fencing the Understanding and the Will against all Suggestions of Vice and Iniquity Again the Body of Christ by Offering it self in that Bloody Sacrifice upon the Cross was the Meritorious Cause of those Graces and Spiritual Food of our Souls and so it was congruously Figur'd by Bread which feeds the Body and for this reason it was fitly Instituted in this Sacrament as a Commemoration of Christ's Passion and therefore our Lord himself tells us v. 63. That it is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing And again The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life and so ought to be understood in a Mystical sense and not according to the sound of the Letter for by participating of this Sacrament we become Members of the Mystical Body of Christ and are as it were made one with him so that the Bread being Instituted as a Sacrament and thereby adapted to produce all these effects it is equivalently the Body of Christ SECT IV. Objections for Transubstantiation Solved THe First Objection In this Proposition Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body the Subject which is the word Hoc hath no determinate signification for when it is pronounced it neither represents the Bread nor the Body of Christ but its true meaning is suspended till the Proposition be compleated and then whatsoever is the object of the Predicate must also be the object of the Subject so that the Predicate signifying explicitly the Body of Christ the Subject or the Particle Hoc signifies the same implicitly and so the Predicate being identify'd with the Subject the Proposition is true And in this manner all definitions are predicated of the things defined for that which the definitum signifieth implicitly and obscurely the definition declares explicitly and distinctly This is a strange kind of new Logick which will not bear the Test of the weakest Sophister nor ever get admittance into any Academy wherefore my First Answer is That in all vocal Propositions the subject hath its certain and determinate object then when it is pronounced whether it expresses the same clearly or absolutely which is not material for if the predicate could determine the subject to have the same object with it self no affirmative proposition could be false because the subject and predicate would be alwayes identified But in case of equivocation as in this proposition Canis est animal latrabile where the subject canis equally signifieth more things then one for it indifferently signifies an Animal called a Dog it signifies the Dog-Star and it signifies a Dog-Fish In this case I say the indifference of the word canis must be determined either by the present circumstances or by the predicate as if one with his finger should shew an Animal called a Dog and say hic canis then the indifference would be determin'd to that Species only and the Equivocation would be taken off So likewise by the predicate Animal latrabile the indifference of the word canis would be determin'd to one kind only but note that the predicate can never draw the subject to signifie any thing beyond the extent of its proper signification for the word canis must of necessity signifie one of