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
have a strict dependance on the first Matter as their proper Subject and on several qualities and accidents as their Natural disposition so that if their Matter should be Annihilated or their disposition destroyed by the Law of Nature they could not subsist though many of them Teach that the Heavens Planets and Fixt Stars admit of no such Composition but are Compleat yea simple substantial Bodies which cannot be dissolved but only into Integral and Homogeneal parts Thirdly They Assert That though according to Nature the same Individual Body cannot be in more then one place at the same time yet that by Divine Power one and the same Body may be collocated in several and distinct places the same moment of time how distant and remote soever these places are the one from the other Which is far different from the Manner how the Soul of Man exists in the Body for though the same Soul be at the same time in the head and in the foot and because it is a Spirit and hath no substantial nor integral parts it must of necessity be all in the head and all in the foot and other parts of the Body the same instant because it is indivisible yet in this Case the whole Body is but one adequate place of the Soul for if the head should be sever'd from the Body the Soul could not in that state of Separation be both in the head and the Body no not for one moment of time Fourthly They agree in the notion of Substantial Conversion that it is a Transmutation of one Substance into another which they distinguish into two Members the one is a partial or inadequate Conversion the other a total or adequate Commutation The first is common and proper to the present order of Nature for in all the Changes that we observe of several Substances destroy'd and others produc'd there never happens but a partial Conversion for example We see Wood or other Combustible Matter Converted into Fire the Form of Wood is destroyed but the Matter as being susceptible of any Form remains under the Forme of Fire that was before under that of Wood So that you see in all these Conversions one part is destroy'd but the other persists in being so in that which succeeds one part is newly produced but the other was extant before But in a total Conversion the precedent substance is wholly destroyed the Matter is Annihilated and the Forme Corrupted and the subsequent substance which succeeds in place of that which is destroyed both Matter and Forme is all Collocated under the same Collection of Accidents either by a new production or else by an adduction for if this substance into which the former was Converted were before extant then there needs only a new Ubication in the place where the Conversion is made without relinquishing its former Vbi or place where it was existent and so is now in two distinct places at once and this total Conversion can never be made without infringing the Laws of Nature for nothing in Nature can ever lay a disposition determining to the destruction of the first Matter which depends upon no dispositions but is produced by a Creative action independant of all things else And therefore its destruction exceeds the power of all Natural Causes Then the Constituting of a Body in two distinct and adequate places at once is not in the power of Nature as all grant Fifthly They grant That Quantity Qualities Dispositions and all other Accidents cannot naturally subsist without a Subject or Receptacle to support them and keep them in being for as Aristotle saith Accidens est ens in alio or entis ens it is ordained by Nature to be subservient to substance and so is not intended for it self but to dispose the substance to several Changes and Mutations upon which it hath consequently a strict dependance neither can it have any use in Nature without the Substance So that Accidents cannot remain without a Substance but by the Miraculous assistance of a Supernatural Power and where this intervenes they maintain that all Accidents except Moodes may be conserved in being without a Subject These several Points of Doctrine being premised they conclude That in the Sacrament of the Eucharist by the words of Consecration which are these Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body which are pronounced by the Priest assuming Christ's Person there is wrought a total substantial Conversion which they call Transubstantiation so that the whole substance of Bread both Matter and Forme is totally destroyed and the whole substance of Christ's Body is really placed there in lieu of the Bread which is really Converted into the Body of Christ yet so as that the Species of Bread which is the collection of Accidents that were before in the Bread keep their state of being though the Bread be destroyed and are Miraculously preserved without a Subject though they are Sacramentally united to the Body of Christ And though ex vi verborum only the Body of Christ be rendred present nothing else being signified by the words of Consecration nor requisite to verifie Concomitance and Connexion whereby all the parts of Christ are united with each other there is also put under the Species of Bread the Blood of Christ the Soul of Christ with the Natural Union between his Body and Soul the Divine Word the Hypostatical Union which Connects the Divine Word to the Humanity and consequently all the Sacred Trinity are all there really Existent under the Species of Bread which Species or Complex of Accidents were produced and conserved before the Bread was destroyed by an Action called Eduction that is a production dependant on another to wit the Substance of Bread to which they were the natural disposition but that substance being destroyed they are now conserved by another action which they terme Creation that is a production independant of all others By the Species of Bread they understand the Heat the Cold the Dryeth the Moysture the Quantity the Rarity the Density the Colour the Odour the Taste c. which were all appropriated to the Bread They also Affirm That these strange Wonders are wrought by the words of Consecration which are Instituted by Christ to this purpose and by their Obediential Power are elevated to effect what of themselves they are uncapable of the Divine Power Cooperating with them to accomplish this design so that these few words pronounced by a Priest who assumes Christ's Person and Officiates in his Name are not only representative but also practical they effect what they signifie and so reduce themselves to a Conformity with their Object which makes them true But it may be demanded In what Critical Moment of time this great Change is made For the words though few yet are pronounced by the Priest successively whence the doubt ariseth Whether this strange Conversision be made in the beginning the middle or the end of the words of Consecration To this they Answer
shun Evil. Wherefore this being the end intended by Christ it follows that apt and fit means were also appointed that had proportion with the obtaining of this end but one necessary means to accomplish what Christ designed is the Gift of Infallibility without which the Church might fall into Error and from one Error into another and hereby deviate and swerve from its original institution and at length utterly fall away and instead of conducting Souls to Heaven it would lead them to the precipice of eternal ruine and destruction and so evacuate the Fruit of Christs Passion and put an obstacle to the obtaining of that end which he efficaciously intended And yet we must all suppose that the incarnate word was endu'd with an illimited Power his Knowledge and Wisdom was infinite so that he perfectly knew what means were necessary to accomplish his design and wanted no Power to effect it which notwithstanding could never be efficaciously attained without this Infallibility whence it necessarily follows that Christ communicated to his Church this special Preservative of always teaching truth without being subject to Error This briefly is the full strength of their second Proof Thus you see the grounds of this Doctrin are seemingly convincing and plausible enough to induce such to an assent who either cannot or will not by a studious consideration penetrate into the depth of them but will rather acquiesce than stretch their understanding by a rigid scrutiny and inquisition to detect the fallacy thereof But certainly in a matter of such moment we are not to take up all this upon trust nor blindly to give our assent till we have industriously waighed and ponder'd the whole matter that so we may be the better able to give an account of our belief which is the drift of the subsequent Section SECT III. The Decision of the present Controversie THe Assertion is That the Church of Rome enjoys not this Infallibility which they so much pretend to The first Proof Such a previous necessity to Truth would destroy Liberty and take away the laudability and merit of human actions Note That in the progress of this Discourse I shall argue ad Hominem that is I shall take along with me their own Principles and for the most part ground my Refutation upon them They all grant Liberty and Merit in such human actions as have conformity to the dictamen of Conscience for in this consists the morality of our Actions that they are consonant or dissonant to the synderesis of the Agent but if an action be extorted by an antecedent necessity there can be no exercise of Free-will nor Merit in it nor Liberty because that Power only hath liberty which after all prae-requisites and causes are put hath a power to work and not to work whereas if there be a prae-ordination by Gods Decree that the Members of a General-Council shall be determined to Truth then their decisions are wholly destitute of Liberty and Free-will because Gods efficatious Decree that hath a previous influence upon the action draws with it an indispensable necessity which destroys Free-will neither can it be meritorious because Merit supposeth Liberty and consists in the laudability of the action and how can that action be laudable which a fatal necessity forces from the Will Can any one deserve Praise for doing that which he cannot avoid Hence I conclude that Merit and Free-will are not compatible with that Infallibility which the Church of Rome pretends to which is inconsistent with Gods Providence in order to Mankind who was Created and Born free in full possession of the liberty of his will and therefore shall be Judged according to his own Actions which could not be were there any necessity or restraint put upon them Thus we see how this doctrine inverts the order of Divine Providence and imposes a necessity either of contrariety or contradiction upon Humane actions A confirmation of this Proof may be drawn from the practical proceeding of Councils who seldom or never determine any thing till after a long and serious Debate and sometimes with great fervor and animosity of Parties in opposition to each other as it hapned in the Council of Trent upon contradictory Points one Party Affirming what another Deny'd All which supposeth a liberty in their debates and determinations for if by an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost they were all fixt in Truth What need any Debate or Consultation for this can only have place in such Resolutions as depend upon Humane Prudence alone And if each Member of a General Council hath the immediate Assistance of the Holy Ghost How comes it to pass that when two are of different Opinions the one Denies what the other Affirms and though they may both speak as they think yet in reality they cannot both speak Truth for two contradictories cannot be both true Must then the Spirit of God be made the Author of both as though he suggested Truth to the one and Falsity to the other if not then he that contends for the Erroneous part is deserted by the Holy Ghost and agitated by some other Spirit of the Prince of Darkness which allways opposeth truth but hence it would follow that Satan acts in General Councils and that some of the Members of Councils are not inspired by the Holy Ghost and consequently not Infallible The Second Proof is a Refutation of the Grounds of the Adverse Party A Negative Tenet as this is cannot be better prov'd than by shewing the falsity of the Affirmative Contradictory First then as to their Argument drawn from Christ's Promises exprest in Scripture I demand Whence they have an Assured Infallibility that Scripture contains the True Word of God They Answer That this Infallible Church of Rome hath Defined it so to be and proposed it to the People to be so believed I demand again how they make out the Infallibility of their Church They Answer By Christ's Promises in Scripture A special Argument no better than a plain vitious Circle for they prove the Infallibility of the Scripture by the Church and the Infallibility of the Church by Scripture and prove neither Independent of each other By this way of Arguing Mahomet and his Alchoran may be prov'd Infallible For the Alchoran saith That Mahomet was inspired by God who spoke in his eare in the forme of a Dove and Mahomet saith That the Alchoran is the Word of God manifested by Divine Inspiration therefore both Mahomet and the Alchoran are Infallible This is the same Argument apply'd to another subject The Protestant Church of England hath as great a Veneration for Scripture and as strong and firm adherence to it as any can have yet are not so highly presumptuous as to arrogate to themselves a degree of Evidence or Infallibility exceeding that which the Motives Inductive to their Beliefe bring with them But I shall not need to insist upon the Invalidity of this Argument because it hath lately been so Learnedly handled by that
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
as belongs to it to produce its effect But in this case the power of Order is no Physical but a Moral effect and in all Ordinations it is given by Christ alone ad exigentiam Ordinationis by a determination which proceeds from the Ordination by vertue of Divine Institution for it is Christ alone that impowers the Ordained validly to exercise the Functions of his Order which is but a Moral Power whose immediate cause is not the Ordainer but only Christ thereunto determin'd by the Ordination which doth very much facilitate and confirm the foresaid Doctrine A Third Proofe is drawn from an acknowledged Principle of those of Rome who after a vacancy when a new Pope is chosen the Cardinals in the Conclave only concur to make the Election Canonical which being done all the Power they have cannot communicate to the new elected Pope that Universal Jurisdiction over all the Church which they pretend to because they have no such Jurisdiction in themselves every Bishop and Cardinal being confined within the limits of his own Diocess and one Bishop cannot extend his Jurisdiction to the Subjects of another Diocess From whence then doth the Pope receive his pretended Universal Jurisdiction Here they must of necessity have recourse to the Supreame Lord of the Church which is Christ himself for the obtaining this Jurisdiction for their new Pope which neither they nor their Canonical Election can effect for this Election is only a Condition not the Cause of such an illimited Jurisdiction so that Christ alone is the only cause of this Pretended Papal Jurisdiction Why then in like case when the Ordination is compleated in foro externo and no error committed in foro interno Why I say in this case should not Christ in like manner confer to the Ordained the Spiritual Power of Order for though the Ordination be never so Canonical and compleat yet still it is Christ alone that grants the power of Order and it is he alone that gives Jurisdiction to every Bishop in his Ordination and even in the Church of Rome the Jurisdiction of Bishops comes not from the Pope but from Christ and therefore Jurisdictio Episcopalis est Juris Divini Episcopal Jurisdiction is of Divine Right because it proceeds immediately from Christ. So that in any Ordination when no essential nor necessary condition is wanting though the Ordainer have not the power of Order yet being universally reputed a true Bishop and this defect being secret that Morally speaking no Human Industry can discover it and all concencerned in the Ordination do proceed sincerely and with a good Conscience What true Christian can frame so hard a judgment of our Great Redeemer as to deny to the Ordained the power of Order and thereby permit so great a breach in his Church which hath an immediate tendency to the utter ruine thereof when it may be so easily remedied and when neither the Ordainer nor the Ordained can in the least have any imputation of blame As to the Point of Succession mentioned in the Objection I Answer That this succession is not to be understood in a Mathematical but a Moral Sense and it is the same in Ordination as it is in all other Dogmatical points and Principles of Faith contained under the Reformation For though the Latin Church which is but one Branch of the Universal Church was Guilty of many Errors in matter of Faith and for many years swerv'd from the Doctrine and Practise of Christ and his Apostles yet this could impose no necessity upon the Successors of this Branch ever to be excluded from the hopes of Salvation For when the Erroneous Principles of the Church of Rome were sufficiently detected they might yea they ought to Reforme such abuses and to conforme themselves to the Original Doctrine and Practise of the Primitive Church which were the immediate Successors to the Apostles and so to redintegrate their Faith and for the future to regulate their Faith and Practise by that never erring Rule of the Doctrine and Practise of Christ and his Apostles And shall then the Church of Rome Object against them that they cannot prove their Succession from Christ and the Apostles Which in plain termes signifies no more then this That they have not persisted in the Errors of the Church of Rome but have imbraced a new Doctrine New indeed to them but exactly conformable to the old Doctrine which Christ left to his Church and which the Church of Rome long since deserted and so Interrupted the Continuation of Professing the True and Orthodox Principles of Christ which we by our Reformation do Reassume and chuse rather to follow Christ and his Apostles then to adhere to the False and Erroneous Principles of the Church of Rome If this be a Crime then we are Guilty Must we lye under the Imputation of Blame because we would not run headlong to utter Ruine and Damnation by adhering to the Erroneous Doctrine of Rome Must that one word of Succession startle us and be inductive to perswade us to leave Heaven and go with them to Hell for Company 's sake They have made a long continued Breach in the Church themselves and interrupted their own Succession and Must they blame us for returning to the Truth because we will not succeed them in their Errors So then our Succession in Dogmatical Points in Practise and Ordination consists in this that after a Breach made by the Latin Church we having cleerly Detected the Error have reunited our selves again to the Antient and True Professors of Christianity and detested the opposite and Erroneous Doctrine of those that had Apostated from the True Church The last Clause contained in the close of the Objection that pursuant to this Doctrine a meer Secular Layman may confer Orders is easily solved because this no way follows for in this case he could neither Ordain with a colourable Title nor with a good Conscience which are both necessary for the validity of Ordination he wants the first because he never was esteemed to have the power of Order and he himself knows certainly that he never was in Orders nor ever attempted to receive them so that in presuming to Ordain he commits a heinous Sacrilege by a gross contempt of the Holy Ghost which is inconsistent with a candid sincere and conscientious proceeding so that he wants the second also and besides in so doing he can never have a right intention to confer Orders because he is conscious that he cannot have several requisites without which he cannot Ordain I only add this General Rule That according to the present Constitution and Institution of Christ practised by the Primitive Church it is impossible to confer Priesthood validly except the Imposition of Hands be applyed as the Essential Matter and accompanyed by the words of the Bishop signifying Priesthood to be thereby conferr'd as the Essential Forme which the Church of England Religiously observeth in their Ordination for while the Bishop with other
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
That during the time that the Priest is pronouncing those words nothing is done till he pronounceth the last Syllable of the last word meum and in that moment the whole business is effected and the Priest no sooner hath spoken that last syllable but he kneels to Adore Christ then present and Elevates the Hoast to shew it to the People that they also may adore it Another Query may be proposed How long the Body of Christ remains in the Hoast under the Species of Bread Their Answer is That as long as the dispositions of Bread remain there so long is Christ present but when by contrary Causes these Qualities and Accidents are so far Changed that the Forme of Bread could not Naturally there subsist then the Body of Christ is withdrawn This is a short but true Account of their Tenets whence they Conclude That by such a Transubstantiation as is above explicated the substance of Bread is truly and really Converted into the Body of Christ and this they propose to all to be Believed as an Article of Faith The Grounds of this Paradoxical Doctrine we shall propose in the Objections against those Assertions which we are going to establish in the next Section SECT II. The Orthodox Doctrine against Transubstantiation proposed and proved THe First Assertion The Doctrine of Transubstantiation as it is Taught by the Church of Rome is de facto false and Erroneous I add those words de facto because in this Conclusion I only design to prove That no such Transubstantiation is actually to be admitted waving the possibility of it but I shall afterwards prove that it is wholly Chymerical and Impossible and the Proofs of that Assertion will confirm this The First Proofe Christ came not into the World to destroy but to edifie and therefore was so zealous to fulfil the Old Law and certainly he stood not in opposition with his Eternal Father who was the great Framer and Conserver of the Universe who constituted it in its due order by providing for the proper Nature propensions and inclinations of each part thereof by ordaining the Natural Causes Effects Proprieties and Passions of all things and by that provident subordination of one thing to another in relation to the good and conservation of the whole But this Doctrine of Transubstantiation cannot be defended but by violating those Laws of Nature established by God himself in a high degree for in every Consecration there are as many Miracles which infringe the Laws of Nature as there are Minute Accidents and Qualities existing without their Subject it is a Miracle that the Forme of Bread should be destroyed and its disposition entire contrary to the exigence of Nature it is a Miracle and against Nature that the first Matter should be annihilated nothing in the Universe determining to it it is a Miracle that the Body of Christ should be in so many places the same time it is a Miracle that the Words of Consecration a meer Sound from a Mans Organ should be elevated to effect such Prodigies And in most places subject to the See of Rome there is a never interrupted continuation of all these Miraculous products by keeping the Consecrated Hoast in a Cyborium within the Tabernacle which is never intermitted Nay What a Prodigious Number of Miracles are daily and hourly multiplyed by so many Millions of Hoasts as are continually Consecrated in the whole extent of the Universe Who can be so impious as to impute so horrid a Fraction in Nature to Christ himself as though he waged War with his Eternal Father by endeavoring to subvert the Order and Nature of this Universe contrary to its first Institution all which being duely considered who can be so great a Contemner of his own Reason as blindly to inslave it to such incredible Doctrine The Second Proof If the Substance of Bread were really Transubstantiated into the Body of Christ and the Species of Bread should remain without a Subject that Collection of Species would be wholly incorruptible and consequently Christ's Body would never be separated from that Hoaste where it is once present The Illation I prove evidently for if that Collection of Accidents exist independant of any Subject and are preserv'd by a Creative Action then no Natural Cause nor Agent could have any influence upon them for no Natural Agent can operate but in order to some Subject which must receive and support the effect produced wherefore admit that a Consecrated Hoaste were applyed to the fire the Species of Bread extant in the Hoaste would suffer some Change or Alteration by the influence of the fire suppose then one degree of heate to be produced in the Hoaste then one degree of cold must be expelled from thence which is the contrary to heate if so then that degree of Heate which the fire produced must be Created and not Educted because there is no subject at all to receive it and so it must exist as the rest of that Complex doth independant of a Subject and that degree of cold that is destroyed must be annihilated not corrupted for it is destroyed independant of any Subject What then to maintain this Doctrine Must we admit that a meer Creature and a Natural cause as the Fire hath a power to create and annihilate you were as good say that a Creature may be Omnipotent for hitherto I never heard but of one Creator God himself who alone hath power to Create and Annihilate What is this but to rob God of his Prime Attributes and communicate them to his Creatures But What remedy for manifest experience sheweth that a consecrated Hoaste is as liable to alteration change and corruption as another that is not consecrated so there is no way but one to salve all these inconveniences which is by denying Transubstantiation out of which those gross errors inevitably follow But it may be Objected That the proper Subject of the Species of Bread is the quantity and not the substance it self for the quantity is the subject of other qualities and common accidents and that alone is Miraculously conserved in the Eucharist without a subject First I Answer That the proper function of quantity is to communicate impenetrability to the Bodies that it affects for two Bodies meeting together resist each other and cannot be both penetrated in the same place as our Soul is with our Body This proceeds from quantity which is the root of impenetrability Besides that is the subject of the common accidents which is by them disposed for several Formes but it is only the substance that is so disposed for quantity is of it self but an accident therefore the common accidents are received in the substance and not in the quantity Secondly I Answer That all the School of the Thomists all the School of the Scotists and a great part of the Jesuites and other Authors of the Church of Rome do absolutely assert that the substance and not the quantity is the proper subject of the
common accidents and consequently the Argument proceeds in its full strength against all these The Third Proof Insisting upon the Principles of Transubstantiation an irreconcileable difficulty will occur when that complex of first and second qualities and other accidents is so altered and changed that it becomes an apt disposition to a new specifical Forme As for example A Communicant receives a consecrated Hoaste which is log'd in the Stomach of the Receiver and by the natural activity of the Stomach is fitly disposed to receive the Forme of Chyle then there is a strict exigence in nature that the Forme of Chyle be introduced What is to be done in this case Nature may spend it self in clamoring to have this Forme introduced but alass here is no subject nor receptacle to receive it Some expedient must here be found you will say that in this case the Author of Nature must create new Matter to receive this Forme and to relieve the Accidents from that violent state wherein they have been detained Most excellent Philosophy How absurd would this seem to any of the Antients but meanly verst in this Science Aristotle never dreamt of such anxieties and distresses of Nature And the Divinity is yet worse which makes God subject to submit to the extravagant exigences of his creatures no way grounded in his own Providence and Disposition for the great Author of Nature Created the whole Mass of first Matter independant of any thing else and since that original creation no Matter hath been destroyed none produced but the same succeeds indifferently to all the variety of Formes that are produced and destroyed But now here comes a strict exigence of a substantial Forme to be produced dependant on the Matter and yet there is no matter to receive it but the Supreme Creator must be summoned by his creatures to supply this defect by Creating new Matter as though he had been ignorant in the Beginning what quantity of Matter was sufficient who created all things by his Infinite Wisdom and Providence in pondere mensura out of his own Free-will without any exigence or determination of his creatures Must then the Order of this Systeme be inverted and God as it were necessitated to exercise his Omnipotence in a New creation not grounded in his former Instituon But here it may be Alleg'd That the drift of all these Proofes is no other then to make it appear that the whole business of Transubstantiation is Supernatural and Miraculous which the Church of Rome freely acknowledgeth and are induced to this belief by the Autority of Christ himself who holding Bread in his hand in the Last Supper plainly told his Apostles Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body If Christ affirms it Who dares gainsay it We all know that the Substance of Bread cannot by Natural Means be converted into the Body of Christ but by the illimited power of God it may be done and Christ tells us That it is done Why therefore should we not believe it First I Answer That what is possible though Miraculous and Supernatural may be believed yet not slightly and without sufficient reason but if by an urgent and indispensable necessity or an irrefragable autority which brings with it a perfect assurance of the true sense and meaning thereof we are pressed to an assent this is a sufficient Motive to induce us to believe But in the next Proofe I shall make it appear that here is no such inductive no necessity of yielding our assent to such a prodigious number of Miracles not once only but daily and hourly repeated and constantly continued and so to last till the Worlds end Secondly I Answer That in the Second Proofe of this Assertion it appeareth that from this Doctrine of Transubstantiation it unavoidably follows That all Natural Causes both can and do actually create and annihilate who promiscuously have their insluences when duly applyed upon a consecrated Hoaste as much as they have upon one that is not consecrated which plain experience maketh manifest and to have such a power to create and annihilate or to produce something out of nothing is so peculiar to God alone as wholly depending on an Omnipotent Power that it is absolutely impossible that it should be communicated to any pure creature The Fourth Proofe There is no necessity neither from Scripture nor Reason nor from any other Revelation to admit Transubstantiation The greatest necessity that hath been hitherto alledged is drawn from those words of Christ Hoc est corpus meum but from hence no necessity can be derived for they that hold Consubstantiation and assert That Christ's Body exists in the Sacrament together with the Substance of Bread these I say as rigorously stand to the literal sense of Christ's words and as properly verify them as they who hold Transubstantiation for the words of themselves imply no conversion or change of one substance into another but if taken in a literal sense they only signifie Christ's Body there present wherefore there is no necessity from these words to multiply so many Miracles yea and Impossibilities as are inferr'd from Transubstantiation because the literal sense of the words may be saved without them But in reality there is no more necessity of understanding those words of Christ in a literal sense then when he saith I am a Door I am a Vine c. For since the Scripture is capable of so many Senses and Interpretations there is no Reason nor Necessity of wresting it to that sense alone which brings with it the greatest difficulties of any especially when by congruities and other places of Scripture it may be connaturally understood in another sense and since it was usual with our Great Redeemer to speak by Allegories Parables by Tropes and Figures it is most likely he spoke so here which is sufficiently intimated by Christ himself telling his Disciples John 6. vers 63. that It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are Spirit and Life and yet the words that he then spoke were concerning his Body Hence I Conclude That the words of Christ above rehersed can ground no necessary inference of Transubstantiation SECT III. Of the Possibility of Transubstantiation as held by the Church of Rome IN order to the determination of this difficulty I must first premise That according to the Rules of Logick no affirmative proposition or enunciation can be true except it have a conformity with its Object that is the Object must be in its self as the act represents it All Enunciations consist of two parts the subject and the predicate the subject is that of which it enunciates the predicate is that which it enunciates of the subject if the proposition be negative it separates the predicate from the subject but if it be affirmative it intentionally identisies the one with the other as in this Proposition Angelus est Spiritus Angelus is the subject and Spiritus is 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