forbid all Difference as well as contrariety Now it is clear those twelve new Doctrinals of Faith defined by the Pope Pius the fourth and set at the foot of the Old Creed if they be not contrary to them as most of them really are which might be proved by an Induction yet are they different from them for they are neither implicitly and virtually contained in them nor can by any direct or immediate consequence be deduced from them and therefore have no respect or relation to them nor connexion with them neither are they applied to the Old Creed as Explications thereof but were designed as so many supernumerary Articles of Faith the Catholick Church having only twelve Articles the Roman Church twenty four as some of their own sticklers confess which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved For they are dictated and proposed as so many distinct material objects of Faith to be believed in the same degree of necessity with the other to which they are superadded and therefore in the judgment of this Council and of the Latines themselves in their subterfuge the composition thereof is a dangerous Innovation and corruption in the Rule of Faith and the severe imposition of it is a Schismatical Presumption and a tyrannical Antichristian Usurpation 2. The second Conclusion is firmly deduced from another Canon of the same Council (b) C. 8. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis Nicene Council c. 6. which runs thus Let the same course be observed in other Diocesses and in all Provinces every-where that none of the Holy Bishops seiz upon another Province which was not of old and from the beginning under his Power This indeed particularly respected the exemption of the Cypriots from the encroachments of the Patriarch of Antioch yet for-as-much as the Decree passed in general words without any reservation to the Bishop of Rome he is thereby concluded as well as any other to be an ambitious Vsurper if he claim or exercise any Jurisdiction over the Churches which from the beginning were not under his Power Some of N. N's quick-sighted Gentlemen have apprehended the Decree to be so highly prejudicial to their pretensions and affections who therefore have endeavoured by Legerdemain to juggle it out of the Acts of this Council though if this unworthy Artifice had succeeded yet these Shufflers had gained nothing by it for the Nicene Council much earlier than this had confined the Bishop of Rome to his Bounds giving the like Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch within their respective Diocesses which the Bishop of Rome had within his The importance of which Order is That as certain Churches were consigned to the Bishop of Rome so were certain to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch and as those of his Diocess were not subject to them so neither those of their Diocesses were subject to him upon this account that it was not lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for any one to Invade (c) Nilus de primatu Papae and Soz. l. 7. c. 9. taketh this to be the Sense of the second General Council in Constantinople the words of the Canon confirm Nilus his Interpretation the Parilis mos and the ancient Customs As the Bishop of Rome had Power over all his Bishops so the Bishop of Alexandria was to have over his ex more according to Custom which Custom too was like which makes it appear the Roman Bishop was limited to his Diocess for there is no parity between an Vniversal Monarch and a Patriarchal Bishop and as it is absurd to say Alexandria must have bounds as Rome hath if Rome then had none so it is good Sense to say Let Alexandria be limited to her assignment and partition for Rome is the Sense then is Let the Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop be a Copy Pattern or Form for the Bishop of Alexandria as Pope Nicholas Epist 8. ad Mich. p. 690 expresseth it The Nicene Canon took from Rome an Example particularly what to give to Alexandria therefore if the Bishop of Rome his Jurisdiction was over all the World it could not be a Form or Reason for the limitation and distriction of Alexandria into Cantons so the African Fathers understood it Ep. Afric Conc. ad Coelest c. 105. anothers Jurisdiction The Bishop of Alexandria was to have under his charge Aegypt Lybia c. the Bishop of Rome had the oversight of the Churches of his Neighbourhood the (d) Ruff. l. 1. c. 6. Hincma p. 6. c. 4. C. R. was one of the seven Accidental Diocesses Berer Diatrib 1. c. 1. 3. and Britain was another id ib. p. 198. Suburbicarian Regions beyond which his Jurisdiction did not extend and which made up his Diocess viz. three Islands Corsica Sicilia and Sardinia and seven Provinces on the Continent Campania Tuscia Vicenum suburbicarium Apulia with Calabria Brutium Samnium and Valeria and further yet the Bishop of Rome had but one of the seven Diocesses as they were anciently called or chief Jurisdictions which were appointed to the Western Church and for those other seven or as some (e) Mr. Brerewod thinks there were but thirteen Diocesses in the whole Empire Enquir p. 170. number them six assigned to the Eastern Church they were never subject to his Jurisdiction Pope Agatho about (f) Confesseth in 6 Synod Act. 4. Conc. Tom. 5. p. 60 F. 64. E. 65. B. So Zonaras Ann. 680. confesseth his Authority did not reach the East but before that time when St. Ignatius lived the Church of Rome was only the Church of the chief City of the Regions (g) Inscription of his Epist ad Roman of the Romans and before him in St. Clements time it was but the Provincial Church of God at Rome as the Church of God was but the Provincial Church (h) Clemens Title of his Epist ad Corinth of God at Corinth to both which that Form of Prayer observed in the Church and exemplified in the Author of the Apostolical (i) Lib. 8. c. 10. Constitutions is very agreeable viz. Let us pray for the Episcopacy of the whole World for our Bishop James of Jerusalem and his Diocess for Clement of Rome and his Diocess for Evodius of Antioch and his Diocess So just was that Censure of a fast Friend to the Cause once (k) Aeneas Sylvius Ep. 288. the most was to preside over the West as Zonar a Pope which he bluntly delivered viz. before the Nicene Council little respect was had to the Roman See But what Respect She had then and like time after was only Arbitrary at the Courtesy of the Church which sometime gave her a large Apartment sometimes Cantoned it For a time the Church allotted the Bishop of Rome the Government of some Western Churches which anciently and from the beginning belonged not to his Diocess as the Macedonian (l) Zonar note on the 6 Sardican Canon Illyrian Peloponesian and
he or any of the rest for as all those of Rome might Appeal to their ovvn Patriarch so they might refuse and those of other Diocesses were prohibited to go to Rome and were bound either to their own Diocesan or else to the Patriarch of Constantinople But suppose the Bishop of Rome had been one of these two Plenipotentiaries the other joyned in Commission with him had a Coordinate Power because they were empowered to act severally and most certain it is that Coordinacy is inconsistent with Supremacy and Equality incompatible with Sovereignty But the Sultan Pontificians gave one of N. N's easy Answers to these Premises which their Wits will make use of viz. They are but wordish Testimonies which are easily despised or disguised Their great Achilles hath told us in plain terms A ready Invention will quickly find an Interpretation to transform them but withal he is so civil as to shevv a ready vvay how to deceive and baffle the Wits vvhich is to produce Matter of Fact and Practice of the Church vvhich is not so easily evaded nor so liable to misconstruction If therefore the Usage concur vvith the standing Lavvs the foregoing Conclusion is rightly deduced and the Romanists concluded guilty of those Crimes articled against them and vvhat the Practice hath been vvill be easily knovvn by the ensuing Instances Fortunatus Felicissimus and others being troubled that St. Cyprian having Intelligence hereof Writ (x) Lib. 1. Ep. 3. Ed. Pam. 55. to Cornelius and reproved him for assuming a Power to himself to judg of a Sentence passed in Africa telling him it was a Law amongst them and it is fit and just the Cause be there heard where the crime was committed which in plain English is The Fact was done in Africa under his Jurisdiction and what had an European to do to meddle with it for it follows in that Epistle A certain portion of the Lords Flock is assigned to each Pastor c. and the Authority of the African Bishops is no whit inferiour to that of the Bishops of Rome Nisi paucis perditis desperatis unless some few desperate lewd Companions think so The same St. Cyprian dealt as sharply with Stephen Bishop of Rome another of his contemporaries whom he charged with Perfidiousness in undertaking (y) Cypr. Ep. ad Pompeian Ed. Pam. 74. the Cause of Hereticks and with Ambition and Tyranny for that he made himself Bishop of Bishops and by Tyranny had driven his fellow-Bishops to a necessity (z) Conc. Carthag inter opera Cypr. of obedience Baron hath confessed that that Clause in the Council of Carthage beginning at Neque enim c. relates (a) Bar. An. 588 n. 24. particularly to Stephen But Firmilianus and (b) Ep. 45. Ed. Pam. the Eastern Bishops handled Stephen more roughly calling him a Schismatick and one that had made himself an Apostate from the Communion of Ecclesiastical Vnion and one who thought he might Excommunicate all thereby indeed Excommunicating himself alone from all St. Aug. (c) Ep. 162. Conc. Milev c. 22. Codex Afric c. 23. in the case of Cecilianus and Donatus a nigris causis severely rebuked Melchiades or Meltiades Bishop of Rome for that he with his Transmarine Colleague took upon them to discuss and reverse that Judgment which had been determined by a Council of Seventy Bishops in Africa Anastasius with the concurrence of his Bishops of Rome Decreed that the Donatists who had been preferred to Charges and Dignities though they should return to the Unity of the Church should not be continued but the African Fathers in Council made a Counter-Decree that the conforming and repenting Donatists should be received and retain their Places and Dignities with a non obstante Notwithstanding what had been decreed in the (d) About Ann. 401. Justel in Cod. Conc. Eccl. Afric c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bals c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug. Ep. 50. Transmarine Roman Synod Julius Bishop of Rome pressed the restitution of Athanasius whereupon the Eastern Bishops met in Council and signified to him that it was a Pragmatical presumption in him to (e) Soz. l. 3. c. 7. to be ordered by him Socr. l. 2. c. 11. interpose in their affairs he ought not to contradict them neither would they endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be ordered by him this was not the resolution only of the Eusebian and Semi-Arrian Bishops who yet were Conformists to the Orders of the Church but (f) Soz. l. 3. c. 12. Epiph. haer 68. Athan. or 1. contr Arr. of the Catholicks also acting in the Council who though they favoured Athanasius and his Cause yet thought fit to check the Bishop of Rome's insolency Juvenalis Bishop of Jerusalem moved the Council of Chalcedon that his Bishoprick might be promoted into a Patriarchate which motion the Fathers assembled did entertain and referred the ordering of the matter to himself and Maximus the Patriarch of Antioch who agreed that the Patriarch of Antioch should hold the two Phenicia's and Arabia and the Bishop of Jerusalem the three Palestines which Accord they represented to the Council desiring them to confirm it which they willingly (g) Conc. Chalc. act 7. p. 105. Evagr. l. 2. c. 18. Niceph. l. 5. c. 30. with the consent of the Popes Legats condescended to and over and above procured the Judges to add the Royal assent for its full settlement Baronius relates the Pope resisted what was done thus in Council and hindered the Execution thereof for a good while which was till the fifth Synod assembled where (h) Baron Ann. 553. n. 245 246. the Pope gave his Placet and then and not till then was the Accord put in execution but this is one of the great Annalists mistakes for fifteen years before that fifth Synod under Mennas assembled Peter Patriarch of Jerusalem did summon all the Bishops of the three Palestines two whereof were the Metropolitans of Caesarea and Scythopolis to convene in Council who accordingly without demur (i) Conc. Tom. 2. p. 472. obeyed his summons The Church and Bishops of Rome for a long time disallowed and rejected the second General Council yet the Catholick Church always owned it and as occasion offered acted by it That which moved the then Romanists to this dissatisfaction and aversness was that that Council had settled the See of Constantinople into a Patriarchate which Honour they repined at giving to the Bishop thereof precedency to the Patriarchs (k) Conc. 2.3 of Alexandria and Antioch and granting to him Power and Authority over the Churches in Asia minor (l) In all 28 Roman Provinces Brerewood's Enquiries p. 125. Thrace and Pontus and therefore soon after this Council determined the (m) Resisted it Baron An. 553. Bishop of Rome endeavoured to invalidate this Settlement for Statim post c. as soon as it was concluded Damasus then Bishop of Rome indicted a Roman Synod in which a Counter-Decree was enacted
which as (n) Alias Turcelline l. de 6 7 8 Synodis p. 65. Turrian relates is extant in the Vatican and it is very probable for Pope Leo seventy years after (o) Conc. Chalc. Act. 16. p. 136 137. Leo Ep. 53 54. Car. p. 201. by his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon opposed it though to no purpose for his resistance was not valued either by the Council or the Judges who indeed contemned it These two Popes then did withstand it but Caran adds That the Church of Rome would not by any means receive it though welfare a little touch of Ingenuity for the peace of the Church which it seems highly esteemed it it was not contradicted which in effect imports thus much The Popes and Church of Rome were so cunning as to dissemble their spight against this Council and that Act especially but durst not shew their teeth for fear of the Emperour For the proof of this relation he refers to Innocent the third and St. Gregory the great whom he cites truly for though in one Epistle he professeth to (p) Lib. 2. Ep. 24. embrace that Council as one of the four Evangelists and testifieth that the Church of (q) Ibid. Ep. 10. Rome then owned it yet in another Epistle he (r) Lib. 6. Ep. 31. confesseth that until his time or age wherein he lived that Council and the Acts and Canons thereof were not entertained by the Roman Church so that for the space of two hundred years and upwards for that Council convened Ann. 381. and Gregory flourished Ann. 600. it was opposed and rejected as far as in safe Policy it could be done by the Church of Rome but notwithstanding this opposition the Catholick Church still reputed it a lawful General Council and all the Acts and Canons thereof to be obligatory and occasionally practised according to them which is next to be demonstrated For by warranty of that Canon in this Council which so perplexed the Roman Church Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople in the right of his Sec did take place before and above the Patriarchs of Alexandria (s) In the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. Conc. Chalc. p. 8. Synod Ann. 553. Coll. 1. and Antioch and so did Eutychius in the fifth Synod Ann. 553. And when it was reported to the Fathers of Chalcedon that Flavianus Patriarch of Constantinople in the reprobated Council of Ephesus neglected himself sitting below the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem they were much offended saying in great zeal Why did not Flavianus sit in his proper place that was next to the Bishop of Rome or his Legates By authority of this Canon which so troubled the Popes Patience St. Chrysostom when he was Bishop of Constantinople (v) Conc. Chalc. Act. 11. in fine Soz. l. 8. c. 6. saith 14. in Ann. 400. Pallad in vit Chrys deposed fifteen Bishops in Asia the lesser and ordained and settled others in their Sees and Dignities and in Ann. 400 the same St. Chrysostom celebrated a Council at Ephesus to which he called all the Asian Bishops who readily attended him After this Justinian the Emperour commanded all the Canons of this Council which the Popes would if they durst have publickly rejected Dipticis inseri praedicari to be Recorded in the Eclesiastical Books Rolls or Registeries and publickly to be read in all Churches in token of their (w) Novel c. 1 2. Vniversal Approbation But albeit both Law and Usage the best Interpreter of Law concur for the proof of this Conclusion yet the cry still goes O the Mother O the Mother Church of Rome which is hotly pursued by the Bigots set on by the Boutefeu's of the Tribe This hath made a great clutter and bustle in the world which yet hath nothing in it but folly and disingenuity and impudence for can any man in his right Wits who is not tainted either in his Intellectuals or Morals ever hearken to such a Perswasion so contrary to all Records Divine and Human The Scriptures make Jerusalem the Mother-Church Gal. 4.16 But Jerusalem which is above or the New Jerusalem as it is stiled Revel 21.2 and the Holy Jerusalem ver 10 whose wall had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb which is Mother of us all Christians Believers of the Gospel where the Church of Christ was first planted by the Apostles and St. Peter Preached his first Sermon and begot many to the Faith and from whence they all departed after to execute their Apostolical Commission For this Jerusalem is not that which shall be but that in which the House of God shall be built with a Glorious building and all Nations shall turn and fear the Lord God truly and bury their Idols so shall all Nations praise the Lord and as old Tobit instructed his Son Tobit 14 5 6 7 as it is here allegorically expressed for that City was a Type of the Christian Church Psal 48.2 and 122.3 Isa 31.5 In the Old Testament it was foretold to be the Mother-Church of Christianity Out of Sion shall go forth the Law of Faith as it is universally Interpreted and the Word of the Lord the Gospel from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 Mic. 4.2 And in the New Testament the Prophecy is accomplished and verified where it is plainly declared that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in Christs Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem c. Luke 24.47 48 49. Act. 1.8 and fully compleated Act. 2. per tot So for Human evidences the first General Council at Constantinople is clear which expresly owneth Jerusalem for the Mother of all Churches to which Tert. (x) Cap. 20. which Pam. thus Gloseth this is the first from which the Church all the World over is disseminated so Hier. Interprets that of Isa 2. and this is the Mother Church from whence the Faith came to us as the same Tert. lib. 4. adver Marc. Rome is but one of the Sister Churches which yet are Mothers in their Precincts Id. ib. de praec c. 36. may be added in his Book de Prescr The Church was first founded at Jerusalem as the Seminary of the Churches all the World over and ex abundanti even in St. Bernard's time when the Church of Rome had exceeded her limits yet had she not the reputation of Vniversal Mother nor the Honour of Lady Mother at least in his judgment for thus he writ to (y) Lib. 4. de Consid Tom. 2. p. 141. tit L. Edit Venet. Pope Eugenius Above all things consider that the Holy Roman Church over which thou art placed by God is a Mother of Churches some not all and so every Apostolical Church is as well as Rome not a Lady or Mistriss of any and thou thy self not a Lord of Bishops but one of them It is true St. Cyprian saith Rome is the or rather a principal Church from whence the unity of Priesthood first began but this signifies nothing
tied us to this nice scrupulous disquisition or commanded us to be Annalists and Historians though Christ hath promised there shall be a perpetual visible Church which yet in your sense of visibility you will never be able to prove yet did he never assure us there should be Histories and Records of Professors in all Ages neither did he ever command us to search and read them he hath commanded both you and us to search and read the Scriptures that we may be able to bring them in evidence You might if your leisure or somewhat else had permitted have remembred what hath been returned to this demand long before you proposed it It is your usual rant it is unanswerable you may know the contrary if not I shall inform you after I have premised some Considerations to clear the procedure 1. What do you mean by Protestant if you intend to hook in all who challenge that Appellative the return is short all that call themselves Catholicks and Saints are not such 2. What by Faith if every Doctrine which hath been maintained by some Protestants as a probable Opinion or as a pious profitable Truth then you trifle and sophisticate but if by Faith you understand the object of Faith or things necessary to be believed by all that they may be saved as it is usually taken in Scriptures Fathers and Councels then the Protestants assert their Faith is the Faith of all good Christians who lived before them who all professed to believe as they believe which they thus evidence 3. Protestants earnestly contend for the Faith which was once or at once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Which you by the addition of your new super-numerary Essentials had corrupted and changed as Anthony of Valtelina a Dominican Friar affirmed in the Council of Trent and was seconded by the Bishops of five Churches therein Hist of Council of Trent ad An. 1562. Fol. 548 549. Their Reformation was not to compose a new but to retrieve the old Faith which you had so confounded and changed not to form a new Church but to free the old Church from your new Essentials The corruptible and incorruptible body are one in substance differing only in perfections and purities their Faith is the same in substance with the Faith of the whole Christian World differing from some part thereof in quality and goodness The end of the Reformation was to separate the pretious from the vile the chaff from the wheat to refine the Gold mixed with dross to dress the Garden overgrown with weeds to cure the body which was diseased to regain and recover that Faith which the Christian World had reputed and received for true and saving Faith even the same that hath the attestation of the universal Church in all Ages which is dispersed in the Scriptures but contracted and summed up in the Apostles Creed which was designed by them witness your own authorized Catechism to preserve Believers in the unity of Faith to be a badg and cognizance to distinguish Believers from Vnbelievers and Misbelievers This and nothing but this hath been professed always every-where by all persons ubique semper ab omnibus in Vinc. Lyr. Golden Rule of Catholicism This is evinced by Practice the Profession of this Faith and of this only was and is required of every person either by himself or Sureties before he be admitted into the Church by holy Baptism That Question and Answer doest thou believe I do believe had alwaies respect to this and no other into this and this alone both you and we are Baptized by this and this alone you and we are made Christians by this with the advantage of an holy Life according to the Precepts of Christ the Christians of all Ages have gone to Heaven for 1400 years without the knowledg or belief of your 12 new coined Articles For this they have the sentence and determination of the Ephesine Council which your Popes have been solemnly sworn to observe the judgment of the Ancient Fathers the concurrent suffrage of many of your Learned Divines and Schoolmen and which will weigh most with you the Remonstrance of your Trusty and Well-beloved Tridentine Assemblers who once in their good mood thought fit thus to express themselves The Apostles Creed is the shield of Faith by c. the firm and only Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail This Protestants profess with the whole Christian World in its several Successions and Centuries this they believe too as it is sensed by the four first General Councels and the traditious interpretation of the universal Church And for us of the Church of England as we admit no new Creed so we reject all new senses of the Old which thus sensed they own for the true Catholick Apostolick Faith Indeed other Articles we have but they are Articles of Peace not of Faith not all of them to be respected as Essentials of saving Faith but as pious Truths which none of the Pastors of the Church are to contradict or oppose 4. To retort your Question the Protestants offer these Proposals to you to nominate successive Professors since the Apostles of the whole Faith of the present Roman Church or a succession of Professors who since the Apostles have received these 12 new distinct Articles which Pius the 4th added at the foot of the 12 old ones as Essentials of Faith absolutely necessary to be believed by all necessitate medii without which they could not be saved We are sure they were never reputed for such for 1400 years Prove those your late forged Articles at Trent to have any relation to or analogy with those of the Apostles that they are evidently concluded from them or virtually contained in them as conclusions in their premises Lastly that the Apostles did deliver or teach by Word or Writing your new-found Faith or passage to Heaven Till these be satisfactorily performed by you we desire you to be wise unto sobriety and to consider whence you are fallen Answer to the second Question 1. WHat mean you by Mission if Ordination to the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests c. then such a Mission our Bishops and Priests have if you have any 2. What by Lawful what you fancy or the Pope resolves to be so you know we neither value your conceits nor the Pope's by-Laws the English have received and rejected them at their pleasure take and leave as they like with us those things pass for lawful which are so by the Law of Christ which gives them validity or by the Laws and Constitutions of the Church which makes them Canonical or by the Laws of the Kingdom whereby they become Legal accordingly as we averr 1. The English Clergy hath a lawful that is a valid Ordination by the Institution of Christ for the English Church in conferring Holy Orders observeth all the Essentials of Ordination by Authority of Holy Scripture Matter and Form as some of your own fast Friends
have confessed Imposition of Hands and the solemn words of Investiture Receive ye the Holy Ghost The Scripture knows no other Essentials but these which is also acknowledged by some of your Learned Partizans and these are constantly used by our Bishops who received their Ordinations from their Predecessors by an uninterrupted line of succession whether from British or French or Roman Bishops is not material because each of these had their Mission in your expression by a continued succession from the Apostles who planted the Faith and laid hands on their first Successors of these Nations Cardinal Pole the Papal Legat by his Dispensation and Pope Paul the 4th by his Ratification setled the Ordinations in King Edw. the 6th his Reign with this only Proviso that those then so Ordained would return to the Vnity of the Church that 's sure in their and your sense to adhere to the Pope and acknowledg his begged Sovereign Monarchical Power This they could not have granted neither would they if they had suspected any defect in the Essentials of their Ordination It is not in the power of the Pope or Cardinals to ratify their Orders who had none or dispence with them to execute any Function in the Church who had no Authority from Christ or his Apostles for it if they did your Church hath concluded the Act sacrilegious and null if we may believe some of your Controvertists 2. By the Constitutions of the Church what hath been universally observed and was decreed by the Councel of Carthage in St. Aug. time hath been and is still retained in the Church of England 3. By the Laws of the Kingdom both this and the others will appear by the Records upon both these accounts Bishop Jewel defended this Church against Mr. Harding Fol. 129. I am a Priest by the same Order c you were and after our Bishops succeed the Bishops before our days being Elected Confirmed Consecrated and admitted as they were Mr. Mason hath proved this beyond all cavil your own Associates Mr. Higgins Mr. Hart Father Garnet and Father Old-corn took the pains to search the Registers and after that Arch-Bishop Abbot caused them to be shewed to four more who after they had perused did acknowledg them Authentical and undeniable Ex abundanti Cudsemius the Jesuit Lib. 11. de Desp Cal. causa hath freely confessed the English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops Monsieur Militiere in his Letter to his Majesty Charles the Second hath declared the same Lastly look to your own Succession in which by your own Laws there be several Nullities by Vacancies Schisms and Simonies which if they were fully charged upon you would puzzel you to clear Having dispatched your Questions the Texts of Scripture are to be considered No man taketh this Honour c. True but this Honour is to be had in any Apostolical Church as well as yours which hath Elder Sisters particularly the British here in England confitente Baronio Faith cometh c. Very good But the Object of Hearing is not the Pope's decrees or Trent definitions but the word of Faith as before Gal. 118. The rest were true before there was a Church at Rome were true when she became an holy Church are true now it is an unsound rotten member of the Church would be eternally true if there were no Church at Rome nor Roman Bishop The Church shall not fail but Christ never setled this priviledg on the Roman or any Church of one denomination Christ's Church never faileth so long as there are Confessors through the World who contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS FINIS Some Books Printed for Henry Brome in Defence of the Church of England since the Year 1666. A Companion to the Temple or an Help to Devotion being an Exposition on the Common-Prayer in two Voll By Tho. Comber A. M. Lex Tallionis or an Answer to Naked Truth The Popish Apology reprinted and Answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery and the Defence on 't The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome considered Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical Account of the Reformation in England Friendly Advice to the Roman Cath. of England enlarged Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to the Lord Castlemain his Papal Tyrannie in England With two Sermons on Novemb. 5th Fourteen Controversial Lords for and against Popery in quarto Beware of two Extremes Popery and Presbytery octav The Reformed Monasterie or the Love of Jesus or a Sure Way to Heaven A Guide to Eternitie by John Bona. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers
account among the common People In this Confusion the Protector calls a Parliament 1547 but the Common-Prayer Book did not then pass yet all former Statures made against Hereticks or Sectaries were recalled and annulled In the ensuing Parliament the Book was approved because it seemed in matter of the Sacraments to humour divers Sectaries who before had opposed it yet the Common People of England took Arms in defence of the Old Roman Catholick Religion complaining that most Sacraments were taken from them and they had reason to fear the rest This was King Edwards Reformation which could not be perfected because he lived but six years It is remarkable how in this Kings time it was resolved that whatsoever should be determined by six Bishops such as they were and six Learned men in the Law of God or the major part of them concerning the Rights Ceremonies and Administration of the Sacraments that only should be followed Never did any Sectaries before this time presume so far as ours did in preferring the judgment of seven men for that is the major part of twelve before that of the Christian World in changing the matter and form of Sacraments abolishing the Sacrifice of the Mass and ancient Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Catholick confirmed by so many General Councils and approved by all the Ancient Fathers Heresy is always accompanied with presumption but this exceeds all Parallel SECT II. J. S. HEre again something in General is to be premised to remove those prejudices which N. N. hath raised against the procedure of Edward the sixth It is granted that King was but a Child yet it must not be denied that the Laws of the Kingdom committing the exercise of Supreme Power in that case to a Protector what was regularly done by him ought to be deemed as valid as if the King had been of age and done it himself The Reformation made in Jehoash his minority 2 Chron. 23 though it was the immediate Act of his Uncle Jehojada was firm to all intents and purposes It is acknowledged also That Images were pulled down a Body of English Liturgy formed c. But what was done in these particulars was done without confusion or contradiction For it was done by Authority of the Supreme Power with the advice and consent of the major part of the Bishops not opposed by the Convocations but rather approved for that the Clergy in the respective Diocesses generally practised the prescribed form and after confirmed by Parliament This appears from the Provisional Injunctions 1 Edw. 6. and the Acts of Parliament 2 3 Edw. 6. to which the Bishops had so great a respect that as they practised themselves so they took care for the uniform observation of these Injunctions and Statutes requiring conformity to them from the Inferiour Clergy which accordingly they submitted to For we find a charge was drawn against Stephen Gardiner one Article whereof was He observed not the Book of Common-Prayer nor ordered the observation thereof in his Diocess to which charge he made this Answer to the Duke of Somerset with five others of the Council viz. That he having deliberately perused the Book of Common Prayer although he would not have made it so himself yet he found such things in it as satisfied his Conscience and therefore he would use it himself and see his Parishioners do so too the same in effect he said to the Lord Treasurer Secretary Peters and Sir William Herbert when they came to him with Articles from the King himself To confirm this procedure it is to be observed 1. The whole affair was managed by an approved Catholick Rule which was to reform what was amiss according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and usage of the Primitive Church not to form any New Religion but retrieve the Old and to reduce it into that state as Christ had left it the Apostles practised and the Primitive Church had received and observed as the King declared to the Romish Rebels 2. It was ordered as the Tridentine Assemblers thought most fit Decreto de Celebratione Missae in which Institutions were read concerning abuses to be corrected in the Celebration of the Mass the substance whereof was that the Bishops ought to forbid all things brought in by Avarice Irreverence or Superstition If it be alleadged the Bishops were so to do as Delegates of the See of Rome the Return is obvious Our Bishops as Commissioners of the Supreme Power might do what they did with better Authority and Warranty For 1. Learned Romanists do confess that particular Nations have a Power to purge themselves from Corruptions as well in Church as State without leave from the See of Rome This is acknowledged by Seren. Cressy in his Answer to Dr. Pierce's Sermon p. 285. But what if the Pope issue out a Prohibition and interdict the whole Nation very many of them do conceive it may be waved and opposed because no reason can be assigned why the Church should continue under known Corruption for the Popes reâ—lyeness to have them redressed Aeneas (l) De Conc. Basil l. 1. Silvius after Pius the second was once of this mind for that if the Popes recusancy may hinder the proceedings of a General Council to the disturbance of the Church corruptions of the Minds of Men and the destruction of their Soul all would thereby be undonne without remedy Cardinal (m) De concord Conc. l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 15. Gusan goes yet higher affirming that the Emperour in duty was obliged by his Imperial Authority to Assemble a Synod when the great danger of the Church required it which determination was also resolved in the first (n) Conc. Pis impress Lutet 1612. fol. 69. Pisan Council Quintinus (o) A Lawyer and pablick Professor at Paris in repet lectione de Civitatis Christianae Aristocratia Heduus who lived in Henry the eighth's time hath aproved by many Canons that if the Pope command and the King forbid the King is to be obyed therefore when the King calls together the Prelats of the Church to reform the state thereof they are bound to obey though the Pope forbid it (p) Franc. praelect 4. a. 161. at this day a General Council may be called against the Popes mind by the Emperour and the Christian Princes whether he will or not Baron (q) Ad Ann. 553. n. 2. confesseth the second General Council is approved though Pope Damasus with might and main opposed it Vigilius though once he consented to the calling of the first General Council yet when he was called to give his personal appearance and afford his assistance and concurrence being commanded so to do by the Emperour and solicited thereto by twenty (r) Baron 553. n. 35. Metropolitans whereof three were Patriarcks the sturdy insolent Pope utterly refused whereupon the Emperour the necessity of the Church which was then in a general Tumult and Schism about the (s) Ibid. Ann.
547. n. 29. three Chapters so requiring Commanded the Holy men assembled to protract (t) Inst Ep. ad Synod Collat. 1. p. 520. the time no longer in expectation of the Popes presence but to debate and deliver a speedy Judgment upon the Controversy depending before them which they readily submitted to and accordingly did discuss and (v) Ibid. Coll. 2. p. 524. determine the matter without the Popes Placet and contrary to his good liking and (w) Baron Ann. 553. n. 212. affections 2. The practice not only of Heathen and Jewish Kings do confirm this but of Christian also who have challenged and exercised this Power as their Original Right derived to them from God The first famously known Christian Emperour Constantine the Great said to his Bishops You are the Bishops of those things within the Church but I am appointed of God to be Bishop of those things without the Church meaning thereby that the oversight of the external Government of things belonging to the Church was by God committed to him as the administration of Holy things of God within the Church was deputed to them (x) Cited in the Book De vera differentia written An. 1634. King Edgar in an Oration to the Clergy required them to make a Reformation by a conjunction of his and their Power committing the whole affair to so many Bishops as he then nominated Charles the Great convocated the Bishops to him to Counsel him how Gods Law should be recovered and in the Preface of the Capitulary wrote thus to the Clergy of his Empire We have sent our Deputies to you c. Let no man censure this as a Presumption to correct what is amiss c. For we have read in the Book of Kings how Josiah restored the Service of God in the Kingdom which he had given him Maximilian in Ann. 1512. Declared though he of his clemency had tolerated the Pope and the Clergy as his Father Frederick had done yet it appertained to his Duty that Religion decay not that the Worship and (y) Abbot Vrspreg Grth. Grat. Easc Whereupon he with Lewis the twelfth of France and some Cardinals called a Council at Pisa and cited the Pope in it Onupher in vit Julii secundi Service of God be not diminished 3. It is the Duty of Soveraign Princes to do as Josiah did by the directions of faithful men though the majority of the Priests express their unwillingness and averseness For many Kings have been severely reproved for not reforming the Idolatrous abuses of Gods Worship in their Reigns which would never have been done unless they in Duty had been obliged to do it and obliged they could not have been unless God had settled a Power in them to do it of which because there is no revocation or limitation in the Gospel therefore the first Grant and Commission standeth good for the Gospel doth not destroy the Law but perfect it 4. Ad hominem did not Queen Mary in her huddled reduction of Popery exercise this Power Did she not introduce the Popish form of Solemn Mass which was then abolished by standing Laws Did not she to drive on her design imprison one Archbishop displace two and deprive eight Bishops Did not she with the consent of a sorry Convention which she called five dayes after her Coronation repeal some Statutes made by Henry then eighth and others by Edward the sixth Sir Henry Spelman in his larger History of Tithes c. 29. p. 170. tells us he had heard there was but twenty persons to give their voice with the Bill and yet carried it Did not she for a colour when the work was done some few dayes after call a Convocation which she soon after dissolved by her peremptory Mandate but not a word of this from our cunning Origenist because it was done for the advancement of the Catholick Cause Popish Princes may do what they like in order to the Good old Cause and never be checked or censured for it but Protestant Sovereigns must be bound up till the Popes License or a Vote in Convocation loose them 5. Although Synods be the most prudential and safe way to determine Church-matters yet without them Gods Worship may be Reformed and the Catholick Doctrine restored In the case of the Catholicks and Arrians Nazianzen ad Procopium complained he saw no good end of Councils certainly in those where Faction prevailed and Votes passed not by weight but number Not that he thought so absolutely and Universally but pro hic nunc in respect of the Times and Persons assembled For he knew if a Council had been called when the Arrians were the overruling party in the Church the Catholicks would be overpowered by multiplicity of Votes yet for all this He and other Catholicks did endeavour the suppression of Arrianism 6. Neither in such times and cases must the business be delayed till a General Council be summoned especially when he who pretends to have the sole Power of calling it and the parties called are aforehand agreed by Clandestine correspondencies they will do nothing towards a Reformation but either obstruct or baffle it Henry the eighth said well A General Council would do well where all may speak their Judgments but it cannot be called a General Council where they only are heard who are resolved to be on the Popes side in all matters and where the same men are Plantiffs Defendants Advocates and Judges Hist Conc. Trid. Angl. fol. 85. 7. Supposing there wanted a formal Synodical concurrence in this Transaction of Edward the sixth there was in effect that which to all intents and purposes is equivalent viz. a General submission and conformity to the Provisional Injunctions and Acts ef Parliament by the Clergy 8. There was a Synod to carry on this matter in Edward the sixths time for though the first Edition of the Liturgy was only framed by the advice and suffrage of Bishops and elected Divines which yet was afterwards revised and compleated with the addition of a form of Making and Consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons but whether the Synod then in being composed and formed it or passed their Power which is more probable for the forming of it to the selected persons appointed by the King and so may properly enough be said to have done it because by those to whom they had consigned their Authority I shall not pretend to determine yet this may be safely resolved on a Synod there was which appears from the Statute-Book which makes mention of a Subsidy of six Shillings in the Pound granted by the Clergy unto the King 2 3 Edw. 6. and it is notoriously known such a Grant in those times passed not without a Convocation and it is certain mention was made of a Synod 1 Mariae held in King Edwards days and Mr. Philpot a member of the Convocation 1 Mar. maintained the Catechism exemplified in the Common-Prayer Book to be Synodical upon this account that the Convocation in King
Edward's time had passed their Authority to certain Persons Deputed by the King to make Spiritual Laws * Fox Act. Mon. So that though nothing appears apud Acta because perhaps not so carefully registred or not at all because it was the Personal Act of their Deputies or in that primo Mariae which is likely enough expunged and destroyed yet a Synod there was to carry on this work upon the foregoing Reasons to which may be added what Bishop Jewel def Apol. fol. 520 affirms which Mr. Harding (a) Scoffing at it as a small obscure meeting of a few Calvivinists Def. Apol. fol. 521. which Bishop Jewel farther avers Defen Apol. fol. 645. could not deny We have not done saith he what we have done altogether without Bishops or a Council the matter hath been treated in open Parliament with long Consultation and before a notable Synod and Convocation Having premised thus much the less shall be said to N. N's exceptions and reports and nothing at all to his angry scurrilous malicious invectives and expressions 1. Edward the sixth was a Child c. This is a close reflection on his incompetency to act in that kind but N. N. might have considered that Kings in the eye of the English Laws are never Minors and that though he was a Child in years yet not so in understanding for during the time of his Reign he kept a most exact judicious Journal of all the most principal (b) Haywards Ed. 6. affairs of State and his abilities were so great far beyond his years that he could encounter Gardan and disputed his new devised Paradoxes with so much acuteness and strength of Reason that Cardan reported his parts to be miraculous And as to his Knowledg in matters of Religion his Answer formerly related to the Romish Rebels sufficiently shews he was no Candidate thereof but a solid understanding Christian But if his being a Child be so great an offence to the Romish tender Consciences why should not their Universal Monarch's being a Child work the same effect in them Such they have had Benedict the ninth was a Lad almost ten years old John the eleventh a stripling and a Bastard to boot which one of their stout sticklers grants and makes a pleasant Phanatick (c) A. D. Soc. Jes in his Reply to Dr. White p. 289. Sect. to the seventh Apology for their youth viz. in these words The young years of our Bishops cannot be a hinderance to debar them of being Infallible Pastors and Universal Monarchs in the Church since out of the Mouth of Babes our Lord can work his own praise neither is Ignorance want of Learning or Discretion any lett when by the mouth of an Ass God can instruct a Prophet 2. They did vary as he runs on and so were in confusion The Antecedent is beggarly without proof and the consequence is naught every variation in judgment and opinion doth not infer or imply Confusion The members of the Trent-Assembly in far more and more importing Doctrines did vary almost at every turn yet I presume this man of confidence will not adventure to conclude that all was there in a Confusion But King Edwards Doctors did not vary for they were perfectly agreed and took an effectual course to prevent discord and confusion For 3. The Common-Prayer Book was not obstructed but generally and Religiously observed For in 1 Edw. 6. it was Authorized by Proclamation recommended to the Bishops by special Letters from the Lords of the Privy Council to see it practised and in 2. Edw. 6. a penalty was imposed by Act of Parliament on such as should deprave or neglect the use thereof if any disturbance therein it proceeded from the Popish party and their Preachers which occasioned a Proclamation to be issued out to silence them 4. He relates every one might Preach what he pleased c. This is false for a Proclamation was published none should Preach unless he were Licensed 5. Hugh Latimer saith he was in great esteem c. If so then probably the Common People would have sided with him for the Common-Prayer Book which he so highly esteemed that he judged all those who condemned it to be Factious and Seditious as in particular he charged Thomas Lord Seymour upon that account 6. He tells us the Common People took Armes c. Surely not those who so much respected Hugh Latimer they were some who affected Popery that is no news such should prove Rebels when they dare he might have spared this to save the Credit of his Old Religion This practice is sufficient to prove them no true Roman Catholicks for the Old Religion taught Subjects Submission and Suffering for Religion and forbad Resistance and Rebellion and taking up Arms against their lawful Sovereign 7. He supposeth Edward the sixth's Reformation could not be perfected c. In good time by the same reason Queen Mary's reduction of Popery could much less be perfected for she lived but five years 1. He presents his grand remarkable in this Kings time c. But he is so reserved and wary as not to specify the year of his Reign if he means 1 Edw. as is most probable he misseth one of the number for thirteen were appointed this is a pardonable mistake That which follows is a down-right Calumny as hath been sufficiently proved for those seven men had a real respect to the Judgment of the Christian World and Practice of the Catholick Church If he pitch on 2 3 Edw. 6. then 32 persons were nominated to examine Ecclesiastical Lawes viz. such as concerned the Jurisdiction and Rights of the Church in foro externo which indeed were but so many Regulators of the Canon-Law If he relate to 6 Edw. 6. only eight persons were named in the Kings Letters Patents with a power to call into their Assistance whom they pleased But this is remarkable that when N. N. lays claim to all the Christian World many General Councils and all the Fathers for their Matter and Form of Sacraments and their Sacrifice of the Mass he is then fallen into the braving humour of his old Thrasonical Bragadochio Colleagues Testor omnes patres omnia Concilia c. No less than all was the nothing Brag of Father Campian but the Author of the Apologetical Epistle published Ann. 1601 goes far beyond him in this swelling ranting ventosity That Faith which I defend is taught in all the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and all ancient Glosses and Scholies on their Latine and Greek by all the learned Fathers Historians Antiquaries and Monuments by all Synods Councils Laws Parliaments Canons and Decrees of Popes of Emperours and Kings by all Martyrs and Confessors and Schools by all Friends and Enemies even Mahumetans Jews Pagans and Infidels all former Hereticks and Schismaticks All these he had carefully and with diligence studied and considered them this is a right Don Glorioso But somewhat is still behind his Faith is approved by all the
Testimonies that can be devised not only of this World but of God of Angels and Glorious Souls of Devils and Damned Spirits in Hell the fittest Witnesses of all and here he stops his Carreer Other puling Hereticks have boasted of this or that Council or of some few Fathers but these have attained to that pitch of Impudency that all makes for them all is theirs when upon a just examination none at all appears for them Heresy is alwayes accompanied with Vanity and Insolency but this exceeds all Parrallel but that we find it the constant custom of the Romish Hectors SECT III. N. N. AFter Edward died his Sister Queen Mary Reigned who being a Catholick restored Religion by Act of Parliament Cardinal Pole the Popes Legate absolved the Kingdom from the Excommunication and Schism incurred Some Histories report that three thousand Sectaries all Strangers were Banished out of England and among the rest the two holy Apostles Peter Martyr and Bernard Ochine All King Edwards Bishops were Deposed and Imprisoned the Catholick Bishops set at liberty and restored to their Sees SECT III. J. S. 1. QVeen Mary did reintroduce Popery but this she did contrary to the solemn Promise made to the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk to violate such an obligation will scarce be proved either Honourable or Religious 2. She did not regularly restore her Religion but confusedly shuffled it up as hath been before declared that if any Protestant Prince had done the like an hideous Hubbub would have been raised Bishop Jewel relates the manner thus (a) Reply to Harding Art 13. fol. 358. The Papists first scattered it and forced their Mass against a Law then in force against them then established it by Law and next after had a Solemn Disputation at Oxford to try whether the Law were good or no. This saith he Mr. Harding is your Lidford Law for in order of nature the Disputation should have been first then the Law then the Execution thereof but as Tertullian saith Haeretici ex Conscientia infirmitatis suae nihil tractant ordinarie 3. He cannot but his hand must slip though he have no visible advantage by it for all King Edwards Bishops were not Deposed the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford were not the Bishops of Litchfield Salisbury Norwich Bangor St. Asaph and Landaffe complyed 4. If the deposed Bishops were but pretended Bishops then your restored Bishops were so too for some of these received their Ordination from them and those who ordained them But now the Originist after all these Sallies falls afresh on his great work on which he spends much Paper and time wherein he most triumphs and glories and thus he makes his first approach and onset CHAP. III. SECT I. N. N. QUeen Mary deceased without issue her Sister Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen The Reformation is established by Act of Parliament notwithstanding the great opposition made by all the Bishops and others in the Upper-house The Queen was resolved to pull down Catholick Religion because Cecil and others of her Council perswaded her she could not be secure as long as the Pope's Authority was acknowledged in England seeing the Apostolick See had declared her a Bastard and all Catholicks looked upon the Queen of Scots as true Heir to the Crown Nevertheless it was judged expedient for her quiet and the peace of the Realm to keep always a Resemblance of it in the Clergy as the best remedy against Puritanism which was thought by her Majesty dangerous to Monarchy The titles therefore of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters were retained as also in her own Chappel some Images the Altar and a Crucifix upon it But what will they do for Ordination That Form which was instituted in Edw. the sixth's time was judged invalid by publick Judgment in Queen Marie's days insomuch that Leases made by King Edward's Bishops though confirmed by Dean and Chapter were not esteemed good because saith the Sentence they were not consecrated nor Bishops see Brook's Novel Cases Plac. 463. fol. 101. impress London 1604. Seeing therefore it concerned the Queen to have consecrated Bishops she endeavoured by all means to have such as she named for Bishopricks consecrated by Catholicks but they all resolved not to make Bishops in the Church whereof themselves refused to be members The Queen notwithstanding the reluctancy of Catholick Bishops named in her Letters Patents Kitchin Bishop of Landaff among others to consecrate Mr. Parker and his Fellows he being the only man among all the Catholick Bishops that took the Oath of Supremacy in her Reign But many others who complied with Henry the eighth in that particular refused now to consecrate and Landaff was resolved to do the same yet at last by fair words and promises they prevailed with the old man to give them a meeting at the Nags-head in Cheapside where they hoped he would have ordained them Bishops despairing that ever he would do it in a Church because that would be too great and notorious a scandal to Catholicks among whom Landaff desired to be numbred Bonner Bishop of London hearing of this sent Mr. Neal his Chaplain to forbid the exercise of giving Orders in his Diocess under pain of Excommunication wherewith the old man being terrified and otherwise also moved in his Conscience refused to proceed in that Action alledging chiefly for reason of his forbearance want of sight This excuse being interpreted an evasion by Mr. Parker and his Fellows lessened his entertainment some of them reviling him and saying this old Fool thinketh we cannot be Bishops unless we be greased alluding to the Catholick manner of Episcopal Vnction Being thus deceived in their expectation they resolved to use Mr. Scories help an Apostate irreligious Papist who had born the name of Bishop in King Edward's time and was thought to have sufficient power to perform the Office he having cast off with his religious habit all scruple of Conscience willingly went about the matter which he performed in this sort having the Bible in his hand and they all kneeling down before him he laid it upon every one of their heads and shoulders saying Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God sincerely and so they rose up Bishops of the new Church of England SECT I. J. S. TO this long lying Section the fittest method will be to discover the several falsities and vain conjectures as they lie in order First He vainly surmiseth great opposition was c. This is one misadventure for there was but fourteen Bishops then living whereof four were absent and then a Question may be made whether all those ten who were present did oppose it for some of them had learned the Art of compliance so exactly that they could suit to the times without any opposition for the others there was but one Abbot of Westminster and only two Lords Temporal the Earl of Shrewsbury and Viscount Montacute who did oppose it these thirteen if they had all combin'd could not make any great opposition
the French King Hist Counc of Trent fol. 411. An. 1558. 4. He fancieth Ordination of Bishops was not to be had c. why so The Form c. how comes it to pass the Leases c. But if the Leases were adjudged not good yet consecrated Bishops they were for the goodness of a Lease depends on the Laws of a Kingdom the validity of Consecration is derived from the Law of Christ according to whose Institution they were Ordained But how is it the Leases were not good this doth not appear for Brooks doth not say adjudicatur but dicitur it vvas so suggested not it vvas so adjudged but if he and all the Temporal Judges had passed this Sentence and publick Judgment yet it vvas null in Lavv for sententia juris c. even a legal Sentence vvhen pronounced by an improper incompetent Judg is void in Lavv and it is certain they have no povver to determine either the Regularity or the Validity of either the Form or the Ordination it self It belongs to others to meddle vvith the Institutions of Christ Alas they did exceed their bounds in giving such a judgment Pope Paul and Cardinal Pool judged othervvise for their ratification of the Ordinations in King Edward's time could not be valid unless the Ordinations themselves vvere valid antecedently to the Pope's superfluous Confirmation It implies to confirm a Nullity and ratify a Nothing Hovvever N. N. is desired to declare his private Judgment hovv he liketh the publick Judgments vvhich have palled on his Fellovvs in and since Queen Elizabeth's time and so farevvel to N. N.'s publick Judgment and his private Judgment to boot 5. He conceiveth Queen Elizabeth endeavoured to employ his Catholicks c. as if none else could consecrate but they This is a false supposition in the judgment of his Catholicks as after vvill appear but this he vents at a venture for Mr. Harding vvho had reason to knovv more of this matter than N. N. could not say so the ancient Bishops said he were not required or else refused but if they did refuse yet her concern could not be prejudiced thereby for she had sufficient in readiness to perform that office N. N. acknowledgeth Landaff and others were named in the Queens Letters Patents if it had been for his interest he could have named those others those seven whereof six were Bishops one a Suffragan for whose Authority see Bell. de Sacr. Ord. lib. 1. c. 7. 6. He reckons Landaff among his Catholicks c. But a Friend of his told Mr. Harding we had but one Fool meaning Landaff and him they have gotten and at last many of his good Catholicks complied Bishop Jewel told Mr. Harding so and he could not gainsay it At first they subscribed against us with the very same hands with which not long before they had openly protested and solemnly sworn against the Pope and with which sithence they have received and embraced our whole Religion Bishop Jewel def Apol. f. 521. 7. He suggests they prevailed with Landaff c. But he did not meet with them neither did they meet for Dr. Parker's Consecration but his Confirmation at which he was not present himself being confirmed by his Proxy Dr. Bullingham 8. But Bonner terrified Landaff c. But he was secure enough from his thunderings he himself being then secured and imprisoned for his obstinacy and legally deprived of his Bishoprick But had he been at liberty and in power Landaff needed not to fear his Scarecrows for the Bishop of London hath no Authoritative Jurisdiction over the Bishop of Landaff they are Pares in all accounts of Power neither was bow-Bow-Church subject to his Jurisdiction being a peculiar under the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and this was the place where the meeting was for Dr. Parker's Confirmation But why should Bonner forbid the exercise especially if he thought as N. N. seems to do that the performance of that action in that clandestine place and irregular manner renders the act invalid for Bonner would have rather connived at it that thereby he might take an occasion as a subtil enemy would do to make the scandal stick more close to them 9. He further adds they were deceived in their expectation But N. N. is deceived in his Relation which is false for 1. They had no need of Landaff neither did he refuse as that signifies an obstinate Recusancy such as is alledged in his Catholicks who as N. N. reports refused 2. He alledgeth they resolved to use Mr. Scories help c. If they did they resolved well for Mr. Scorie did not only bear the name of a Bishop but was a regular valid Bishop being Consecrated Aug. 30. 1551 by Canterbury London and Bedford But N.N. thinks they thought him to have sufficient power to perform that Office this is false too for there were three besides him ready to joyn with him in the performance who were all employed and did Act and he with others were sufficiently empowered by the Canons of the Church to perform that Office and yet if he alone had done it his Consecration had been as Canonical and valid as that of Pope Pelagius who was but a Deacon whom the Western-Bishops refused to Consecrate and had an un-canonical (g) Only by two Bishops and a Presbyter of Octia Consecration only and yet he passed for Pope And in some cases the performance of Consecration by one Bishop only is justifiable from good Precedents and the Authority of Gregory the Great to boot N. N. having cast off all scruples of Conscience adds sin to sin one lye to another in reporting he performed it in this sort having c. For he only did not perform it neither in that sort he suggesteth which is demonstrated by as good Evidences as are to be found in the Vatican for thus as appears by them it was performed On the 17th of Decemb. 1559 the Persons nominated in the Queens Letters Patents viz. Bishop Barlow Coverdale Scory and the Suffragan of Bedford assembled at Lambeth-Chappel for Arch-Bishop Parker 's Consecration where first Morning-Prayer was read then a Sermon Preached this Bishop Scory did and it was all he did along then the Sacrament of the Eucharist was Administred then they all four proceeded to the Consecration whereat the Prescript-form in the Book of Ordination was strictly observed not laying the Bible c. as N. N. falsely relateth though if so it had been done there is a Book-Case for it Conc. Carth. 4. C. 2. But delivering to him according to an old Roman rite neither saying only take thou Authority c. which N. N. only takes notice of but using the solemn formal words of Consecration Receive ye the Holy Ghost and then Remember c. according to the method of the Ritual 4. N. N. hath the ill-luck to be still out and deceived for whereas he surmiseth others were Consecrated when Arch-Bishop Parker was he is much mistaken For he only was Consecrated then the
others not till afterwards and upon several days 5. But N. N. is wronged is being reproved for falshood and misadventures he good man will say nothing but that for which he hath good authorities and good proofs which whether they be regular and valid is next to be examined SECT II. N. N. THis Narration of the Consecration at the Nags-head I have taken out of Hollywood Constable and Dr. Champney's Works They heard it from many of the ancient Clergy who were Prisoners in Wisbitch-Castle as Mr. Bluel Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln and others these had it from Mr. Neal and other Catholicks who were present at Mr. Parker's Consecration at the Nags-head as Mr. Constable affirms The story was divulged yet being so evident a truth none durst contradict it notwithstanding both the Nullity and Illegality was objected against them in Print not long after by the Famous Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast fol. 301. SECT II. J. S. ALL this here presented amounts to thus much 1. Mr. Neal and Mr. Constable reported the story therefore it is true Neal was an eye-witness and Constable took it upon trust and all the rest hear-say men So that the whole depends upon their credit and honesty who have crack'd their credit by their holy Fraud and lying Legends and practising the black Art of Equivocation and their honesty is justly suspected who care not what they say so they say something for the advantage of the good old Cause as will hereafter be declared 2. Dr. Bishop a fast Friend to the Cause in his Repr of Dr. Abbot's Defence p. 120 confutes this way of Argumentation saying Any man not past all care of his Reputation would be ashamed to cite such late partial Writers it is either where their testimony is not contradicted by their Adversaries when they set themselves industriously to detect falsifications in their Allegations or else those Protestants do annex the Authorities and Reasons on which their testimonies are grounded Testimonies of private men or hear-say men when crossed by Authentick Records are always slighted and contemned If the Homagers of a Manor swear to a custom which is more than speaking to it yet if there be any Court-Roll extant and produced which declares the contrary to their Depositions their testimony is thereby utterly invalidated Baronius in the point of Maxentius his Birth presumed to correct all former Historians by the discovery of an ancient Coin certainly an ancient Record is better than an ancient Coin can be for standing Records have always by all Nations and the consent of Mankind been esteemed the strongest human testimonies and the best assurances of Faith which ought not to be disbelieved or disputed upon the reports of particular men because they have been purposely devised and preserved for the discovery of Truth and the decision of Controversies which might arise in after-Ages and the rectifying of particular mens several apprehensions Such as these we produce in this case which have convinced and fully satisfied more ingenuous Adversaries than N. N. or his Narrators seem to be When Dr. Reynolds shewed these Records to Mr. Hart he confessed they were undeniable The Bishop of Chalcedon acknowledged that Father Oldcorn alias Hall took the leisure and pains to search the Records who thereupon concluded them authentick Arch-Bishop Whitgift with four other Bishops prevailed with four Popish Priests to view these Records which when they had done they declared to them freely that they were not to be doubted of 3. It hath been the common practice of such as these Narrators were as shall after more fully appear to divulge stories by an holy fraud either to stagger weak minds or to settle the over-credulous Bigots of their party in a detestation of Arch-Bishop Whitgifts life whom the Romanists may believe if they please if they will not take his word let them choose and shew the contrary hath given us a pregnant testimony hereof for he informs us that that Arch-Bishop going to Dover at his entrance into the Town an Intelligencer from Rome landed who wondred to see an Arch-Bishop in England and so honourably attended but seeing him the Sunday following waited on with a nobler Train and hearing the solemn Service of the Church he was overtaken with admiration and told an English Gentleman Sir Edw. Hobby who accompanied him that they were led in great blindness at Rome by our own Nation who made the people there believe that there was not in England either Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Cathedral Church or any Church-Government but c. 4. These his Narrators could never agree in the most material circumstances of the story they cannot speak either to the number of the Consecrators or Consecrated nor to the determinate place and time 5. The Story was contradicted assoon as it was divulged as hereafter will be more fully declared 6. Dr. Stapleton's Objection did not run on the Nag's-Head Score he never so much as mentioned it and therefore may reasonably be presumed either not to have heard any thing of it or not to believe it the former is more probable for it was not divulged in his time 7. If the matter had been performed clandestinely or intended so to have been Mr. Neal and the other Catholicks could not have been admitted neither should its clandestine performance have rendered the Act invalid When John the twelfth ordained a Deacon in a Stable I demand whether in N. N's private judgement the Ordination were invalid SECT III N.N. THey being not able to make good the Ordination against Catholicks were forced to beg an Act of Parliament whereby they might enjoy their Temporalities notwithstanding the defect of their Ordination against the Canons of the Church and Law of the Land For albeit King Edwards Rite of Ordination was established by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. yet it was notorious that the Ordination of the Nags-Head was very different from it and framed ex tempore by Scories Puritanical Spirit The Words of the Act are Such from and order for Consecrating Archbishops Bishops c. as was set forth in Edward the sixth's time shall stand and be in full force and effect and all Acts or Things heretofore done or made by any person or persons elected to the Office and Dignity of Archbishop c. by virtue of the Queens Letters Patents or by Commission sithence the beginning of her Reign be and shall be by Authority of this Parliament declared and judged good and perfect in all respects and purposes c. See Poulton in his Kalendar p. 141. n. 5. by which Act it appears that not only King Edwards Rite but any other used since the first of the Queens Reign upon her Commission was enacted good and so consequently the Nags-Head might pass Hence it was they were called Parliament Bishops SECT III. J. S. THE chief Argument which N.N. framed in this Section runs thus 1. Their Ordinations were defective as not ordered according to the Canons of the Church and Laws of
the Land therefore they were invalid which is a gross Non sequitur for the validity of an Ordination is distinct from the Canonicalness and Legality thereof But the Antecedent is false for Archbishop Parker's Consecration was according to the Canons of the Church-Catholick but not of the Roman which obviates one of Dr. Stapleton's pretended illegalities and according to King Edwards Rite as hath been proved which was then established by Law as N. N. here confesseth which is another Counterblast to Dr. Stapleton who thought otherwise and was the ground of Bishop Bonners Plea 2. The Preamble of the Act which N. N. misrepresents shews the purpose of it viz. The Parliament finding by the reproaches of some and the suspition of others that many were not satisfied with the form then used therefore that form was then used and upon that usage the Parliament concluded their Ordination Legal conceiving and objecting it was not sufficiently provided for by the Statute of Repeal 1 Eliz. though N. N. and the Author of the Anker with his Superiours think it was to remove these surmises and slanders they did declare for the then and after Consecrations made according to the Queens Letters Patents as they all were that they were notwithstanding these surmises and slanders good in Law and if any such were these also which were made by Commission as none were provided they were performed by King Edward's Rite as they were directed and so consequently the Act confirms no Consecrations nor entitles to Temporalities where the Rite was not observed The subsequent clause of the Act which N. N. cunningly conceals clears this which restrains all former and subsequent Consecrations to the form and Order prescribed in the Ritual of Edward the sixth and so consequently if there had been any such Consecration as is suggested even by this Act they were not Bishops in Law and were debarred of the Temporalities because by no Law they could claim them and by this Law disenabled to enjoy them 3. N. N. falls here very flat and dull in his vapouring humour he was Positive and Magisterial thus it was performed but here he is so modest it might be or it might pass will serve his turn and so absurdly argues thus it might pass therefore thus it did pass endeavouring to prove a certain thus it was by an uncertain thus it might be 4. He adds Hence it was c. This Calumny hath been oft confuted before he vented it for our Bishops depend not on Authority of Parliament for the validity of their Ordination and was long before sharply retorted by Bishop Jewel in these words You had then viz. in Queen Maries Reign a Parliament Faith a Parliament Mass a Parliament Pope c. fol. 521. SECT IV. N. N. THE Story of the Nags-Head was first contradicted by Mr. Mason in the year 1613 yet so weakly and faintly that he feared to be caught in a lye by some aged persons that might be then living and remembred what past in Queen Elizabeth her time SECT IV. J. S. THis that is related by N. N. here is another Falsity For the Story was contradicted by the Act of Parliament and Archbishop Parker's Life and by Bishop Goodwin who wrote his Book 1600 as he averreth p. 534 the rest is idle talk however he contradicted as it was openly divulged SECT V. N. N. IN Ann. 1603 none of the Protestants durst call it a Fable or a Tale of a Tub as some now do SECT V. J.S. THis also is false for he cannot but know if he know any thing concerning this report who called it so and since hath proved it a Fable That which was used as a pretext to Huckster it was this At Archbishop Parkers Confirmation where he was not personally a Dinner as the Lord Chancellor Egerton related to Bishop Williams was provided at the Nags-Head for the Civilians who attended that work according to Custom this place was pitched on as most convenient for its nearness to bow-Bow-Church where he was Confirmed and a Dinner at a Tavern Dr. Reeves utterly resused for that he had heard the Dining at a Tavern gave all the colour to that malicious lye of Dr. Parkers being Consecrated at the Naggs-Head and for ought he knew captious and malicious people would be ready to say the like upon the same occasion SECT VI. N. N. BIshop Bancroft being demanded by William Alabaster how Dr. Parker and his Colleagues were Consecrated he answered he hoped in case of necessity a Priest alluding to Scory might ordain Bishops This Answer was objected in Print against him and all the Protestant Clergy by Hollinwood Bancroft being alive then but not a word replied SECT VI. J. S. 1. WHether this Relation have any truth in it may be justly doubted many of the Popish Priests of those times and both before and after trading in Lies some to gain Proselites others to keep up their Credit and the People in heart others to defame their Adversaries The Secular Priests of that time complained of the spight of the Jesuites (h) And that often passim in Import Consid Joh. Gee Foot out of the Snare against the State The pretended Brethren of the Society say they do in their Writings calumniate the Actions thereof be they never so judiciously proceeded in never so apparently proved true and known to be most certain to raise and nourish and manner of Reports to discredit their Adversaries c. And if they were so bold with the State they would not stick at the defaming of great Persons and eminent Offices of the Church The like might be said of them one of N. N's Narrators Dr. Watson may be an instance The Papists in their Pamphlets gave out that Dr. King Bishop of London was a little before his death Reconciled to the Church of Rome because Mr. Musket a Secular had averred in a Book entituled The Bishop of London 's Legacy This being proved a malicious Lye by the Testimony of eye-witnesses who were present at his departure being thus caught in it they resolved to forge another if possible to make it good adding sin to sin which was That Father Preston was the man who did Reconcile him whereupon he was summoned to appear before divers Honourable Commissioners appointed to take his Examination December 20. 1621 but the honestly declared protesting before God and as he hoped to be saved by Jesus Christ that he never saw that Bishop to his knowledg nor could know him from another man if he did see him and he knew nothing of any such Reconciliation 2. If such a demand was proposed probably he sleighted it as being a demand full of ignorance and impudence 3. His Answer if any such was was good and argumentative ad hominem not alluding to Scory whom he knew to be a lawfully Consecrated Bishop upon every account and in every respect but to the practice of the See of Rome which allows a single Priest both to Ordain and Confirm by
the Roman Enclosure and so he fairly begged the Question and what he affirms he proves not for Dr. Harding he was taken with the same beloved fallacy which they always make use of when they are put to a pinch Thus their Argument proceeds they were not Ordained by Romish Bishops nor after the Rite then used in the Romish Church therefore they were not lawful Bishops which is all one with this Dr. Stapleton and Dr. Harding did not Commence Doctors at Oxon. or Cambridg therefore they were not lawful Doctors The Antecedent is granted and for this reason it vvas improper and impertinent to produce the Records for to what purpose is it to produce them in proof of that vvhich is confessed no more than for to produce the Registeries of Oxon. for a Doctor 's taking his Degree at Lovain but the Consequence is denied being impossible to be proved for there have been and there are novv lawful Bishops in the Christian World vvho vvere neither Ordained by Roman Bishops nor according to the Prescript of the Roman Church as confessedly the novv Bishops of the Greek Church are vvhom they all acknovvledg for lawful Bishops 2. Whereas he saith Bishop Jewel answered not a word to the main Point it vvill be found he searched the Point to the quick both in relation to his Priesthood being Ordained Priest the same time Mr. Harding vvas def fol. 125 and 129 and in relation to his Episcopacy saying Our Bishops succeed the Bishops that have been ever before our days being Elected Confirmed and Consecrated c. as they have been Further adding that Mr. Harding himself was one of his Electors none of this Mr. Harding could deny and therefore he fell to the old Game of Tergiversation turning his back from the main Question and starts a nevv one for a desperate shift having nothing else to say but this they vvere not forsooth Confirmed by the Bishop of Rome which is an implicit confession that all those recited Acts were performed only they wanted the Pope's Confirmation which yet the Bishop with great evidence of Reason and Primitive Authority proved to be unnecessary and is contrary to all Antiquity and the Practice of the Greek Church and withal told Dr. Harding in civil terms he would never give over that idle trade of begging Thus this Bishop Jewel maintained both the Regularity and the Legality both of his Priesthood and Episcopacy though not with express reference to the Records themselves yet implicitly to the Subject-matter thereof particularly Election Confirmation and Consecration to his Episcopal Dignity and Office and also propugned the Validity of both Orders from Scriptures and the perpetual Tradition of the Catholick Church pursuing Dr. Harding in all his shifts from Post to Pen till he drives him to his Non ultra 3. All that N. N. durst conclude from Dr. Harding is only that by his sharp Reply he directly affirmed the Nullity of Dr. Parker 's Consecration but Protestants are not so lame as to take every Affirmation of Mr. Hardings for a proof they expect he should make his bold Affirmation good by good Authority or Reason neither by N. N's good leave did any thing that he affirms affirm a Nullity what he alledged if it were true and home would only have rendred those Ordinations Irregular or Illegal but not Null his no lawful Consecration respected only the manner of the Catholick Church that is theirs in their usual restriction and such as they had used 4. Whether the Records were extant N. N. cannot affirm but in his indifferent judgment if they were then they were forged which in the judgment of all indifferent men will certainly pass for a desperate shift Just such a work Dr. Harding made about the (k) From his counterfeit Athanasius Bishop Jewel's Reply fol. 157. Nicene Canons they were burnt yet falsified they were falsified yet burnt c. Such a Blunder also Baronius made concerning a pretended Edict of the Emperor Justinian it was an Edict and it was not an Edict it was (l) Baron an 564. n. 3. an Edict put out by the Emperor in favour of the Aphthardokites who denied the Body of Christ to be subject to Passions and Death for these two Reasons the (m) Id. an 564. n. 1. Orthodox contemned it and the Emperor persecuted all those (n) Id. ib. n. 3. an 563. n. 12. vid. n. 3.8 9. who did oppose it and it was not an Edict it was only a Cabinet-paper for this Reason the Emperor indeed writ it but never (o) Id. an 565. n. 4. so Evagr. l. 4. Hist Eccl. c. 40. published it if so then no Edict the Popes as bad as they are make a Publication of their Decrees But this is all meer impostures for his Edict oppugned that Heresy of the Aphthardokites Edict Justin p. 492 495. which Pope Agatho witnesseth in his Epistle directed to the Emperor Constant Pogonat as it is to be seen Act. 4. Conc. gen 6th p. 21. which Baron himself confesseth An. 681. n. 21 24. n. 25. to be approved of the whole Roman Synod consisting of 125 Bishops 5. But N. N's Catholicks triumphed c. Did they so that is an old trick of their Men of War to do as Agesilaus commanded his Souldiers still to shout Victoria to brag when they are worsted which they must do to keep up their Credit with their deluded Partisans and Proselytes But who triumphed when his Grave and Learned Divines pitched a Field time place and order of Battel contrary to the rules of all Combatants yet like the Children of Ephraim who being harnessed and carrying Bows as if they would do strange seats of Chivalry who but they turned their backs in the day of Battel For did not your old Friends both challenge and order a Disputation 1 Eliz. upon the Points in Controversy and did not they upon the approach of the Enemy after a Pickeer or two face about and dastardly forsake the field How often have the Protestants triumphed over you with the story of Madam Donna Seamore Pope Joan Bishop Goodwin hath produced thirty several well-known Authors to attest the Story and it is not much above an hundred years since her Picture was standing in the Church of Sienna in Italy where (q) Papir Massin de Episc Vrbis l. 6. in Pio. 3. the Pictures of the Popes were set up which so moved Baronius his patience that he sollicited the Pope and Duke of Florence to take it down which accordingly at his intercession they caused (r) Florimund Fab. Joan. c. 22. n. 2. to be done Such an ancient Picture in confirmation of other reports is as good an evidence that there was such a Madam Pope as Baronius his ancient Coin in contradiction to all former Histories was to prove the determinate time of Maxentius his birth and had N. N. and his Narrators such a proof for their dusty weather-beaten Nags-head they would do wonders with
it and pursue it hotly with Hue and Cry from Country to Country 6. Though several Reasons have before been assigned and more might why our Writers in those times such as Bishop Jewel c. did not expresly appeal to the Records yet I take the Chief to be this The then Romanists did pretend to a mixt Succession but chiefly insisted upon the Moral and Doctrinal so Dr. Stapleton Graeca Ecclesia c. The Greek Churches though they have lineal Succession yet because of the Heresies which they hold and the Schism they make they have not lawful (Å¿) Staplet Princ. doctr l. 13. c. 6. Succession and again Successio de qua agitur c. The Succession of which we dispute is not of places and persons but of true (t) Id. relect c. 1. qu. 4. art 1. 2. notab 5. and sound Doctrine Thus also Mr. Harding def fol. 119. Did Capon Shaxton or ever any Bishop of that See before you teach your Doctrine whom have you succeeded as well in Doctrine as in outward sitting in that Chair To which Question if Bishop Jewel had appealed to the Records he had trifled because they are only evidences of meer matter of Fact not at all of Doctrines taught 7. But N. N. is a man of confidence he believes there were many living in Queen Elizabeth's time could have proved them Forged this is strange forgery is a work of darkness carried on by a few these are too many to be privy to the Fact and very closely with all the securities of secrecy and therefore a man of indifferent judgment will hardly be perswaded that many can be accessory and privy to a designed Forgery 8. On a sudden this great Undertaker grows dull for he supposeth that to make the Records more incredible which to all others makes them most credible To N. N. they are more incredible upon testimony of publick Authority which is indeed to destroy all human security and contrary to the common notices of mankind But N. N. is resolved to speak the Truth at last SECT XI N. N. THE truth is most of the Clergy of England in those times were Puritans and inclined to Zwinglianism they therefore contemned and rejected Consecration as a Rag of Rome and were contented with the extraordinary calling of God and his Spirit as all other Churches do who pretend to Reformation neither is it credible there was any other Consecration of Parker and his Camrades but that which passed at the Nags-head SECT XI J. S. THE truth is there is no truth in any of these Affirmations for 1. The Clergy of England then had a Liturgy with Rites and Ceremonies witness N. N. in what he said before which they orderly observed they did own and defend the three Orders (u) Bishop Jewel Apol. c. 3. divis 1. defence fol. 85. of Bishops Priests and Deacons witness the Ritual which N. N. also acknowledgeth to be the allowed Form of the Church of England to have been ever in Christ's Church since the time of the Apostles which the Puritans do not if they did the Romish Emissaries would lose some Proselytes and therefore N. N.'s suggestion that the Clergy then did condemn Consecration as a rag of Rome is a most malicious untruth 2. The Clergy then neither followed Zwinglius nor any other Person nor any Sect or Sectaries of Men farther than they followed the Scripture and the Practice of the Primitive Church these they took for their rule 3. If by Zwinglianism he intends as it is usually called Zwinglianism the rejecting that monstrous Figment of Transubstantiation they were therein followers of the Apostles and Doctors of the Catholicks if he conceive Zwinglius opposed Episcopacy he is deceived for he and the Helvetians did honour it What he adds of other Reformed Churches is most false for most of them have and do own Bishops either name or thing or both as in the Dominions of the King of Sweden Denmark and the most of them in High Germany even as many as subscribed to the Augustane Confession those under the Duke of Saxony Luxenburg the Marquess of Brandenburg the Prince of Anhault and many others and those of the Reformed Churches which have no Bishops account it their want an infelicity It is a bad Cause which must be underpropped with impious Frauds and is supported only with hideous and palpable Lies 4. In the close of this Section N. N. brings by head and shoulders his Nags-head again to shew he can write as well against common sense as without common honesty for his suggestion neither is it credible and is contrary to the apprehensions of all Impartial Judges for it is morally impossible the Fable should be credible because Dr. Parker's Consecration was performed as is before related in the presence of four of the most eminent Notaries Publick in the Kingdom one whereof was principal Actuary at Cardinal Pool's Consecration SECT XII N. N. HEar the Judgment of Whitaker and Fulk who lived in and about that time the English Ordinations were first called in Question I would not have you think saith Whitaker we make such reckoning of your Orders as to hold our own Vocation unlawful without them Cont. Dur. p. 821. Mr. Fulks more plainly you are highly deceived if you think we esteem your Offices of Bishops c. better than Laymen Ans to Counterf Cath. p. 50. and in his Retentive p. 67. with all our hearts we difie abhor detest and spit at your stinking greasy Antichristian Orders Is it credible these prime Protestants would answer thus if they had not known that the Story of the Nags-head was true SECT XII J. S. HItherto N. N. hath been a fabulous Romancer and Legendary he now falls under the suspition of a Plagiary for in all probability he hath by a trick of Legerdemain filched these Quotations from some Puritan Pamphleteers many of which have made use of them upon another design But 1. In the different Judgment of N. N. the Question was started in Arch-Bishop Parker 's time though not pursued indeed nor moved for many years after at which time Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Fulk were either but School-boys or Freshmen but when they were Writers the Romanists thought fit to let it lie in a Saint-solitude and smother it with profound silence hoping to get a better opportunity to market the Fable 2. Supposing the English Ordination was first questioned in their times by what Magick will N. N. infer his conclusion or prove his Fable credible His Argument â—â—us from the Staff to the Corner for thus he demonstrates Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Fulke defied and sleighted yea scorned the Popish Ordinations therefore they believe the jolly merry Fable Dr. Whitaker saith We hold our Vocation lawful without their Form and Orders N. N's wild inference from hence is Therefore he knew the Story to be true which if it had been so would have rendered it unlawful Dr. Fulk The Romish Orders are stinking greasy
Antichristian c. therefore he full well knew the Story to be true and the English Ordinations naught whereas their words were direct proper Answers to the Romish Objections against them viz. They were not Ordained by Romish Bishops after the Romish Rite and import no more but this Bishops and Priests are lawfully Ordained who were not Ordained after the Roman Rite and by Romish Bishops which is an undeniable truth assented to by the Romanists themselves 3 To confirm this N. N. is admonished to hear this Judgment concerning Episcopacy and Ordination Bellarmine Objects against Protestants that they had taken away Bishops Dr. Whitaker Contr. 2 de Eccles q. 5. c. 3. makes so bold with Bellarmine as to give him the Lye saying We do not condemn the Order of Bishops as he falfely slanders us but only those false Bishops of the Church of Rome near the same place condemning the antient Constitution that three Bishops be present at the Ordination of a Bishop for a Godly Sanction Dr. Fulk in Tit. 1. fol. 781. speaks as fully Among the Clergy for Order and seemly Government there was always one Principal to whom the name of Bishop was c. which in his defence against Gregor Martin c. 6. Sect. 20. p. 182. he thus expresseth That the Title of the Bishop was a very old time used to signify a degree Ecclesiastical higher than Presbyter or Priest or Elder we did never deny we know it right well and then will any man of an indifferent judgment ever believe N. N. to be a lover or reporter of Truth when he hath broached so prodigious a Lye that most of the Clergy of England in those times were Puritans these two Prime Protestants were not who thus apologized for themselves and their Brethren the Clergy But because N. N. will have them Puritans let him know that English Protestants are as far from being Puritans as he himself aterwards confesseth as his Catholicks are and the rather because they beg their Principles of Rebellion and Sedition against the King and their Schism against Bishops from the rest of the Papists the Jesuites and whatsoever else they hold contrary to sound Doctrine either from Regulars of another Order or from some of their Schoolmen But because perhaps he will except against these two Prime Protestants for his further satisfaction let him 4. Hear the judgment of the two Prime Pontificians Cudsenius (w) De desperata Calvini causa c. 11. the Jesuite ingeniously confesseth The English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops which Confession totally destroys all N. N's Fabrick Monsieur (x) To the King of Great Britain p. 6. Charles the second Militiere is not much short of him saying The English Nation retaining the antient Order of Episcopacy which is utterly inconsistent with the contempt and rejection of Consecration as a Rag of Rome and there being contented with the extraordinary Calling of God and the Spirit as instituted by Divine Authority have thereby preserved the Face and Image of the Church Catholick SECT XIII N. N. AS to the Opinion of forgeing so many Records in several Courts it is easily answered that is no more than that the Consecrators and others concerned should have conspired to have given in a false Certificate that the Consecration was performed with due Ceremonies and Rites and thereby deceive the Courts or make them dissemble and this is a thing more possible and probable Protestants being so dexterous in falsifying of Scriptures as appears by Gregory Martin's Discovery of Corruptions than that all the Protestant Clergy should have conspired not to produce the Registers when they were so hardly pressed by their Adversaries or that so many Catholicks should be so foolish to invent and maintain the Story when if it had been false they might have been convinced by Thousands of Witnesses or that so many grave and learned Divines who for Conscience sake lost all should without fear of Damnation engage themselves and Posterities in damnable Sacriledg by occasioning so many sacrilegious Ordinations upon their charging Protestants with no Ordination No moderate or prudent man can suspect such Persons should damn their Souls out of meer spight to the Church of England If we Catholicks should reordain Protestant Ministers which after their Conversion have been made Priests upon the title of Heresy and not of their known Invalidity we should also reordain the Grecian Priests which is against our known Practice and Tenents insomuch as we hold our selves obliged to examine with all diligence whether there be any probability of the Persons receiving valid Orders and finding but my probable appearance thereof the Practice is and hath been for divers Ages to give Orders not absolutely but conditionally whereas it is notorious that all such Ministers receive their Orders in absolute terms without any condition adjoyned in the same manner we use in the Ordination of Lay-men SECT XIII J. S. part 1. THis is N. N's last and worst Medium for his Fable such as if it held would destroy all human Faith and the best assurance that can be had for the confirmation of the Truth in matters of Fact But 1. This hath been an Old desperate shift of disingenuous Papists who have forfeited all Christian Meekness and Modesty when they are hardly pressed by their Adversaries with a pinching Authority to cry Forgery Protestants assert Pope Honorius the first was an Heretick because they find him condemned of Heresy by the sixth General Council under the Emperour Constantius Pogonatus to which Authority many learned Romanists have given credit But the more rigid sort have taken N. N's easy Answer for a subterfuge Forgery was used for this Condemnation was maliciously inserted into the Acts of the Council by the order of the Emperour who having the Original in his hand by a Conspiracy with the Actuaries consented to their satisfaction Pighius is (y) Hier. l. 4. c. 8. Sed quoniam resolute it must be so for the Pope in despight of all evidences to the contrary must be Infallible for he would have it so A certain learned man wished (z) Pighius diatrib in Epist ad lectorem Pighius to recant and draw in his easy Answer but he falls (a) Id. ib. de act sextae Synodi a-fresh on the matter and scorning to retract what he formerly had said still puts in the same easy Answer whereupon (b) Bannes 22. qu. 1. art 10. Dub. 2. Bannes being troubled at the obstinacy of the man jeers him for his ready Invention that after Nine hundred years Pighius being but a man of yesterday could find all those Witnesses which were produced against him to have been Conspirators in a Forgery and (c) Loc. l. 6. c. 8. ad 11. Canus puts this Question to him How can Pighius clear him whom Usellus Epiphanius and Pope Adrian c. affirm to have been an Heretick At this Baronius (d)
nothing less than Spite in your Popes to thunder out their Interdicts and publish their seditious and malicious Bulls against this Church and State It might be error or mistake in your Grave Learned Divines to pronounce Protestants Hereticks and Schismaticks but it was the extremity of Spight to condemn them to Fire and Faggot without benefit of the Clergy and doom them to Eternal Flames without the priviledg of Purgatory Indeed the main spight of the whole Sect is against the Church of England down with it cry they and the Puritan-rabble will soon be crushed and quelled and the little undersets which spring from them either dwindle away into nothing or drop into their hands 5. He assures us upon his word which is not worth a rush they hold themselves obliged to hold to their known Tenents and Practices this is tattle and empty talk According to their Tenent the Character is indelible yet Pope Stephen nulled the Orders of Formosus and caused all those Ordained by him to be Re-ordained He tells us it is their Tenent and Practice to Ordain Lapsed Ministers in absolute terms as Lay-men are upon the sole account of the invalidity of their former Ordinations but Pope Paul and Cardinal Pool either thought or practised otherwise when they confirmed and settled the Ordinations made in Edward the sixth's time He saith 't is their Tenent to allow those to officiate who have not valid Orders is to commit damnable Sacriledg but the Pope and the Cardinal did allow those who were Ordained as they speak qui ampullas jactant in the time of Schism to officiate and therefore either did think their Orders valid or committed damnable Sacriledg N. N. dare not affirm the latter if he take to the former then all his confused heap of Possibles Probables and Credibles are at once blown up with a Puff of the Popes breath and are driven away like Down It hath been the Practice of their Grave and Learned Divines when any Protestants revolted to exercise them as if they had been possessed for thus was the Form The Revolter was brought to a Bishop and falling down on his Knees before him the Bishop said I adjure thee thou unclean Spirit by the name of God to depart out of the Man If thus they practised now they would mar their market and a half-gained Proselite before he was thus charmed would either start aside or wheel about Whatsoever their Tenents or Practices be or have been which yet are not heeded by Protestants there is an old Sitter at Rome who can change them at his pleasure which when he is disposed to do all that N. N. or his Fellovvs dare do is to Bless themselves holding up their hands and some crying Benedicite others after the old Mumpsimus mode bennistee or vvhich is all one make use of a grave Nod or discontented Shrug and so sit dovvn in silence This is no more than for the Pope to give out Orders to the contrary or impose Silence by a Decree of Taciturnity then let the Tenent and Practice be vvhat it vvill all is quashed they are the Popes Vassals and must most tamely obey his Orders CHAP. IV. SECT I. N. N. goes on BUT suppose their first Bishops were ordained by Catholicks another Nullity is found in the Form of the Consecration To wave the Matter of Ordination let us examine the Form prescribed in the Protestants Ritual It is a known Principle common both to Protestants and Catholicks that in the Form of Ordination there must be some words expressing the Authority and Power given to the Ordained The intention of the Ordainer expressed by general words indifferent and applicable to all or divers degrees of Holy Orders is not sufficient to make one a Priest or a Bishop As for example Receive ye the Holy Ghost These words being indifferent to Priesthood and Episcopacy and used in both Ordinations are not sufficiently expressive of either in particular unless Protestants will now at length profess themselves Presbyterians making no distinction betwixt Priests and Bishops but they are as far from that as we Catholicks In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain there is not one word expressing Episcopal Power and Authority The Form is Take the Holy Ghost c. Let Protestants search all the Catholick Rituals not only of the West but of the East they will not find any Form of Consecrating Bishops that hath not the word Bishop in it or some other expressing the particular Power and Authority of a Bishop distinct from all other Degrees of Holy Orders See Joh. Morin de Sacr. Ord. Par. 1655. SECT I. J. S. 1. IT seems N. N's former tedious Harangue at length comes to this Arch-Bishop Parker c. were not Ordained by his Catholicks which is one Nullity But this is contrary to the Tenents of his Church witness Bellarmine who Lib. 1. de Sacr. in Gen. c. 21. determines that Sacraments administred by Hereticks are valid and to its Practice allowing the Ordinations of the Arrians and Bonasiosi and these of Acacius see in Morin de Sacr. Ord. and of the Greeks witness N. N. ut supra 2. The other Nullity lies in the Form he being contented to wave the Matter but why so this hath alwayes been accounted an essential part of Ordination Bellarm. lib. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. Sect. ex his truly relateth Concilium c. The Council of Carthage makes mention only of Imposition of hands His quarrel then being with the Form it is to be considered after some use made of his Concession in this Paragraph which will by good consequence destroy his whole former discourse for he confesseth 1. That Protestants have a Form or Ritual then undoubtedly they would use it and not Bishop Scories extempore Spirit 2. They are as far from being Presbyterians as his Catholicks then they were not Puritans unless his Catholicks be so too then they rejected not Consecration as a Rag of Rome nor were they contented with Extraordinary Calling then they are as much for Bishops and regularly Consecrated Bishops as his Catholicks 3. This Form is prescribed and thereby they Ordained therefore they did Ordain by their Prescript Form and not as N. N. surmiseth and suggesteth 4. The Form hath these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost therefore N. N's feigned Form was not used at Arch-Bishop Parker's Consecration 5. The Form requires the Consecration of a Bishop to be publick in the Church therefore his suggestion of a Clandestine Consecration is a Calumny 6. The Form hath the word Bishop in it therefore it hath sufficient to express the particular Power and Authority of a Bishop 7. The Form requires three Bishops to the Consecration of a Bishop therefore they did not think the help of one was sufficient yet this is the Form N. N. is pleased to quarrel with For 3. He pretends there is a known Principle common c. But this he misrepresents this Form must be used and no other Bell. inclines
to the Affirmative Lib. 1. de Sacr. in gen c. 1. Sect. 2. 20. even the words are determinated saith he by God yet withal he tells us if they be corrupted as suppose the Priest after the old Mumpsimus rate should say In nomino Patria Filia Spirito Sanctu or interrupted as if the Priest at the Consecration of the Eucharist should first numble hoc est Cor and after a little pause cough out pus meum the Form would be good but Alex. Hales p. 4. q. 5. mem 2. art 1. states it otherwise The Forms saith he of Rome Sacraments are determinate the Forms of other Sacraments are not The Forms of Baptism and the Eucharist being appointed by Christ are kept inviolably without all change but touching the words of Form to be used in any other of the supposed Sacraments there is no certainty but they are diversly and doubtfully declared the reason whereof is because they were of human devising It is declared otherwise by Pope Innocent the Father of the Canonists saying The words of Form were instituted by the Church Hist Counc Trent fol. 594. But Protestants stand not upon words using only the Form which Christ instituted and is retained in (a) Both in Episcopal and Priestly Ordination Filicius tract 9. c. 2. ex Pontifical Rom. and in the Roman Catechism de Sacr. Ord. Bell. de Sacr. in gen c. 21. l. 1. de Sacr. Ordin c. 9. the Western Church in terms and in the Eastern to the sense For the Grace or Gift of God creating and promoting which is the Eastern Form is the same in substance with receiving the Holy Ghost for the Gift and Grace of God Eph. 3.2 8. 1 Cor. 15.9 10. 1 Tim. 4. Heb. 12. Tim. 1.6 is exactly the same with power from on high assured Lu. 24.49 and the promise of the Father c. Act. 1.4 5. which is the receiving this power and v. 8. These Protestants use and trouble not themselves with nice Disquisitions and Disputes 4. He affirms the intention of the Ordainer c. But it is very reasonable to presume the General words are sufficient upon N. N's grounds because they are used and applicable to all degrees of Holy Orders For if Episcopacy and Priesthood be only divers degrees of the same Order as he intimates and is declared in the Roman (b) Ib. n. 24. p. 266. Bell. de Sacr. Ord. c. 5. Sec. sequitur secunda only by the extension of the Character id ib. Sect. tertia Sect. seq with this only difference that the same efficacy is required to the extension of the character as to the first impression id ib. Sect. respond Catechism then the same Form will serve for both those disparate degrees of the same Order and the rather because in their opinion the higher Power compared to Bishops is only by extension of the Character and Protestants stick to this because it was only used in the Ancient Roman Church as it was only prescribed in the Old Pontifical and as the Church then answered the Sophisters of these times when this very Objection was writ against the Pontifical so do Protestants now the present Roman Cavillers who have taken it from them for thus the Church of Rome defends her self 1. The design was fully notified by words in the Pontificial to which of the respective Orders the Person presented was to be admitted 2. The manner of Imposition of hands did sufficiently discover the intention of the Ordainer and diversity the Act for in the Consecration of a Bishop divers Bishops impose hands but in the Ordination of a Priest one only Bishop with some assisting Priests This is the Judgment of both the Ancient Western and Eastern Church that that Form Receive ye the Holy Ghost which is the Form prescribed both for Priesthood and Episcopacy in the Protestant Ordinal is sufficient to confer Power and Authority to both Orders so that it being duly applied he that is presented to the Capacity of a Bishop is thereby enabled to do the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God and he who is presented for Priesthood is thereby warranted and empowred for the Office and work of a Priest 5. He surmiseth these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost are not c. this is to oppose Christ's Institution and in effect to make his Form of Commissionating his Apostles defective and insufficient For if that Form was sufficiently expressive of Apostolical Power and Authority then is it of Episcopal and it is most properly applied to them because if not only yet principally they are the Apostle's Successors even in the Judgment of many Learned Romanists and therefore this Form sealed by imposition of hands Constitutes a Person presented to Episcopacy a full Bishop by the Law of Christ without the supplement of any other auxiliary Form Father Davenport (c) Expos Paraphr artic confess Angl. p. 322. ad 325. alias St. Clara. hath evidenced from great Authority their new Additionals to be unnecessary Expos Paraphr Art Confess Angl. p. 322. Alii putant c. Others think saith he Imposition of hands as the Matter and those words Receive ye the Holy Ghost as the Form is as much as is required by Divine Law to the Essence of Episcopal Ordination and this they think from the Authority of the Scriptures which often and only makes mention of these two as (d) Bell. l. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. saith we cannot convince Hereticks that Order is a Sacrament because we cannot prove the external Symbol thereof from Scripture which is not possible for him to do of their new additional either Matter or Form Arrudius largely proveth 6. He assumes In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain c. But this his Assumption is 1. Frivolous It is absurd to object that against Protestants which if it were granted would render all the Ordinations in the Romish Church for 800 years meer Nullities 2. Fallacious he equivocates in the word Form which is either taken largely for the whole Office of Administration exemplified in the Ordinal or strictly for an Essential part of his Discourse and in the Conclusion he useth the word Form in the most comprehensive sense for the whole Rite of the Ministery which hath in it for the more Solemnity Prayers Exhortations Interrogatories c. but in the Assumption and middle-part he taketh it in the restrained sense for the Essential words which are the Constitutive Form as Imposition of hands is concluded to be the Matter this is their own distinction 3. False for in the Form that is the Protestants Ritual there are and always were express words for the Authority given in the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests for whose Ordinations there are distinct Forms and distinct Words The word Bishop oftner than three times used in the Office appointed for his Consecration and the word Priest sometimes in that prescribed for his Ordination Just according
to N. N's after-instance of Illustration if the word King be used at his Election this sufficiently expresseth all Kingly Power and Authority SECT II. N. N. farther adds THE Form or words whereby men are made Priests must express Authority and Power to Consecrate or make present the Body and Blood of Christ but their Form containeth not one word expressing this Power see the Ritual Lond. 1607. Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ in Ancient times but were never thought to have Power of Consecrating and making present Christ's Body and Blood SECT II. J. S. THat which N. N. designs by this is that that Form Receive ye the Holy Ghost is defective as to Priestly Ordination which must be supplied by their new one viz. Take thou power to offer Sacrifice to God and to Celebrate Mass both for the quick and the dead This he knows Protestants do reject because lately invented and foisted into the Romish Ritual to foster their gross Figments of Purgatory Transubstantiation and their Antichristian Sacrifice of the Mass and because some Romanists as St. Clara thinks it unnecessary and Bell. saith it is Sacrilegious for this he positively delivers It is Sacriledg to change the Form because determinate Bell. de Sacr. in gen l. 1. c. 21. Sect. apud haeret c. secunda prop. For Sacraments are instituted by God therefore the chief part thereof the Form and to add to or alter the words of the Scripture is not lawful therefore not the words of the Sacraments Id. ib. in Fin. yet this great Champion never did prove their new Form to be found in or founded on Scripture much less instituted by Christ 2. If that Form comprehends not all the Essentials of Priestly Ordination then the Apostles were not empowered to Consecrate for our Saviour used that and no other to enable them for the execution of the Priestly Office wherefore Scotus l. 4. dist 24. hath resolved verba illa c. those words Whosoever sins ye remit c. are declarative of the Power formerly given in these Receive ye the Holy Ghost by which Power is passed over all the Sacraments and therefore that of Sacrificing Biel l. 4. dist 19. quaest un concurs with him cul datur c. to whom the Principal is given to him also the accessory is given but by these words Receive ye c. Christ gave the power of the keys therefore by them he conveyed the power of Consecration which is a branch of the power of the Keys 3. What is added concerned Deacons is a pure piece of impertinency no way advantagious to him nor prejudicial to Protestants if he vvere put to it he vvould find it a difficult task to prove Deacons were Dispencers of the Mysteries vvho vvere only Assistants to the Dispensation SECT III. N. N. IN all Forms of Ordaining Priests that ever were used in the Eastern and Western Churches there is expresly set down the word Priest or some other word importing the particular and proper Function and Authority of Priesthood If any State or Country should choose a Person to be King in the word King is sufficiently expressed all Regal Power and Authority Therefore the Greeks using the word Bishop and Priest in their Form sufficiently express the respective Power of every Order SECT III. J. S. EAch Clause of this Section hath been sufficiently confuted SECT IV. N. N. BUT the reason why the English Form of making Bishops and Priests is so notoriously defective and invalid is because in Edward the sixth's time when Zwinglianism and Puritanism did so prevail in the Church the Real Presence was not believed by them of the Clergy who bore the sway therefore they did not put in the Form of Priesthood any word expressing Power and Authority to make Christ's Body present They held Episcopacy and Priesthood to be one and the same thing wherefore in the Form for making of Bishops they put not one word expressing the Episcopal Function only some general words which might seem sufficient to give them Authority to enjoy the Temporalities and Bishopricks This is also the true reason why Parker and his Collegues were content with the Nags-head Ordination and why others returned to extraordinary Vocation in Queen Elizabeth's time SECT IV. J. S. THis also is another vain Repetition Three who bore the sway in King Edward's Reign held the Real Presence but not in the Popish manner of determination Those in Queen Elizabeth's time had and did stand for ordinary and orderly Vocation The Church of England alwrys asserted the Divine Right of Episcopacy and her orderly Orderly Orthodox Sons have constantly maintained it If some have distinguished Priesthood into the degrees the higher and the lower as the Romanists generally do yet they still conclude the said different degrees of the Acts and Uses which could not be exercised in a due subordination of the lower to the higher for a distinct respective Consecration thereto and did hold those of them who should presume to exercise the Higher Power not being regularly Consecrated thereto were Schismatical Transgressors of the Apostolical Order and Catholick Practice and that every Act of that usurped Power when no real necessity to abate or excuse it to be null and void It is the Pope and his Collegues who are the (f) For it is not resolved in the Congregation of the Cardinals that the Pope's Legats should not suffer the determination of the Article of the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right to pass Hist Counc of Trent fol. 603. And it being perceived that Laynez his Speech was displeasing and opposed by the Spanish Bishops this distasted the Legats ib. fol. 615. therefore Canons came from Rome which the Pope moved to have proposed p. 657. which displeased the Fathers c. after much contention because the opinion of Divine Right was as displeasing to the Pope ib. fol. 737. it was waved leading Puritans It was the Pope who said the Absolute Divine Right of Bishops was a false and erronious Opinion it was the Pope who slighted and scorned those Bishops in the Trent-Assembly who affirmed (g) Ib. fol. 825. the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right It was the Pope who first devested them of their Jurisdiction and Power by his Commissions and Delegations (h) Caran p. 869. to inferior Priests SECT V. N. N. TO conclude the Matter I say with St. Hierome Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem How can the Protestant Church be the true Church which hath not one Bishop or Priest Though it were not evident it hath no Valid Ordination yet so many doubts and uncertainties as they must acknowledg concerning their Ordinations do demonstrate the Nullity of their Church for if there remain one solid and prudent doubt of the validity of Ordination in any Church it is impossible it should be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church because a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church and a doubtful Church is
no Church The step to Christian and Catholick Belief is the well-grounded Credibility excluding all prudent doubts of the Clergy we have the same of the Church and of the Faith and Doctrine proposed by its testimony and the true Faith admits of no such doubts Therefore Protestants before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be in the Catholick Church must clear all the doubts objected against their Ordination For though any Person shall not be convinced of the Nullity of their Ordination yet he cannot but harbour a prudent doubt thereof there being so many Reasons and Motives for it Now to Receive Sacraments from Priests of so doubtful Authority is without doubt a damnable Sacriledg it being in the highest degree against the light of Right Reason and Rule of Faith to expose the Reverence of the Sacraments and Remedy of our Souls to so manifest an hazard SECT V. J. S. THis Conclusion is of the same temper with the Premises these were a confused heap of Incredibles Improbables and Impossibles this is a wild distempered Sorites carried on with an affected Obscurity to distract and amuse the Reader by multiplying confounding and changing the Terms hudling up many Conclusions in this one If St. Hierome by Church meant the Vniversal Church this always has now hath and ever will have Bishops as Sacerdotes signifies with him but if he spoke of a particular Church then his is not is not to be taken absolutely but respectively not simply to deny it's being and existence but it 's integrity and complement viz. there is no through complete Church which hath not Bishops For we read in the Ancients of some Churches that had received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of Dispensations and of others which had not attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the complement of Necessaries though in St. Hierom's time all Churches were complete that he might truly affirm there was no Church without a Bishop But it may fall out also that all the Bishops of a well-formed complete Church may dye or by Persecution be so Scattered that they dare not appear or by an Infidel Conquerour be Banished or Murthered but if the remaining Christians in this distressed condition keep their first Faith they are in a salvable state and continue true members of the Vniversal Church as those Roman Converts were who believed upon St. Peter's first Sermon Act. 2. which was long before St. Peter came to Rome Rom. 16.7 2. He suggests It is impossible they should c. For once he guesseth right It is impossible any Church of one denomination can be the true Catholick Apostolick Church that is in the usual sense of the Romanists the Vniversal as it is impossible for a Part to be the Whole or their Catholick Church which is not the fourth part thereof to be Vniversal as they by their common restriction assume but it is possible a particular Church may be a true Catholick and Apostolick Church and the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of such a Nation For the Title Catholick is either taken properly for the Vniversal Church which is the Congregation of all Believers dispersed over all the World in opposition to the Herds of Jews Pagans and Infidels and then it is a contradiction to apply or appropriate it to any particular Church as the Romanists industriously do to huckster off their false Wares which otherwise would stick on their hands or else it is used in the more common signification of an Orthodox Church which participates in the true Faith with the Vniversal Church in a contradistinction to the Conventicles of all Heretical Blasphemers In this Notion the Protestant Church of England is not only a Catholick and Apostolick Church but in due Form of construction the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of England as several particular Churches viz. Rome Carthage c. have been honoured with the Title of the Catholick Church of those respective Nations (k) For as the Roman Church was called the Catholick Church of Rome Leo Ep. 12. So that of Antioch the Catholick Church of Antioch Conc. Constant 5. Act. 1. That of Carthage the Catholick Church of Carthage Aurel. Epist Eccl. Cathol Carthag So Polycarp was the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Smyrna Euseb lib. 4. hist c. 14. And that famous Epistle to the Smyrnians was directed to all the Holy and Catholick Churches id ib. in Princ. Greg. Naz. the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Constantinople in his last Will and Testament witnessed by four Bishops of their several Catholick Churches as of Iconium c. Provinces and Dioceses 3. His doubts and uncertainties have a rare virtue perhaps they may work strongly on weak minds they can demonstrate This is the noble demonstrating faculty of Romish Traditors they can raise doubts and uncertainties where there are none and by their Magick demonstrate first that the Protestant Church is not the Vniversal and then it is no Church first absurdly without Proof suppose the Nullity of its Ordinations and thence conclude the Nullity of its Christianity The best is this is but one Doctors opinion if more there be yet all his Colleagues are not so Magisterial in their nullifying Sentence The Bishop of Chalcedon is more solid and Prudent Persons (l) As Bishop Bramhal cites Reply to the Survey p. 33. saith he living in the communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to learn the truth which if they do not they are neither good Protestants nor good Christians and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it they neither want Faith nor Church nor Salvation which elsewhere he confirms by this reason A Church may be Heretical and Schismatical really yet morally a true Church because She is (m) Bishop of Chalced. Survey c. 2. Sect. 4. invincibly ignorant of her Heresy and Schism Pope Innocent was so much offended at the irregularities of the Spanish Ordinations in his time that at first he inclined to null them but upon better thoughts be forbore declaring that for the number of those who were faulty therein he would not question nor doubt of any of them any ways passed but rather leave them to Gods Judgment Epist ad Conc. Tolk Car. sum Conc. p. 270. 4. But saith he a solid doubt c. This is not Universally true for a Church which hath a doubtful Clergy by irregularities of Ordination if She contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and cannot avoid those irregularities through not a pretended or contracted but a real necessity is a true part such an irregularity not absolutely and totally Un-Churching her of the true Catholick Church True but not Complete not Complete because it wants that which is required to the Integrity and Perfection of a Church yet True because it hath all things essential to
a Church For this reason the most eminent Protestants who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right because their want was not through their own default but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in which charitable construction should seem very reasonable to the Romanists for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy by investing Priests with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Delegations and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority Those Churches therefore under this want are True though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church Just as Canus (n) Loc. l. 4. c. ult ad 10. determines of the Romish Church in a vacancy It is then left Lame saith he and diminished without Christs Vicar that one Pastor of the Church the Pope yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as certainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops as in their Church wanting a Pope at least they should think so because in their account the Pope is as necessary if not more to the being of a Church than Bishops are To clear this more distinctly some things are required to the Essence (o) This is Stapleton's distinction of a Church as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice thereof some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination both these are necessary though not equally and in the same Degree the former absolutely and indispensably the latter de congruo possibili viz. it concerns the Church if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors and every wilful Omission much more Rejection of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical yet those Pastors who highly esteem Episcopal Ordination and much affect it but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power who will not Ordain them without sinful compliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evidently contrary to the Law of Christ if they hold and divide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors though not in a real Mission yet by a moral designation as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office because in this case the Necessity is invincible which makes that allowable which otherwise would be unlawful as Dr. Cracken contr Spalet c. 4. observes from the Gloss and illustrateth from Scipio's Example who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury because it was against Law presently replied Necessity hath no Law The Romanists confess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want thereof and they have it in effect who have it in desire in all reason the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous than the want of a Sacramental can be especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars yet in case of Necessity when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb 20.26 that Eleazar was mâ—de High-Priest praeter legem morem otherwise than by standing Law and Custom he ought First because his Father was then living next in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used without any Solemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood 5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church This is a Doubtful Proposition the most he can make of it is that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part not in the Whole for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine if N. N. doubt of this he may remember there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See so far they are Catholicks 6. He is very positive a doubtful Church is no Church It is true he who harboureth a doubt which he will conclude Prudent because the issue of his own Imagination or the suggestion of some over-admired Teacher of that Church whereof he is a Member that Church to him is no Church but where such a doubt is entertained the Case is only disputable and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up will without doubt damnify his good old Cause because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church by the demonstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her instances of most important concern For Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them that a doubtful Pope is no (p) Crespet in verb. Papa Caran p. 827. Pope and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time etiam ex urgentissima causa as Jac. Castellon cites out of Navar verb. Papa p. 485. no not upon the most weighty Consideration because there is but one Monarch and one Monarchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ hence they generally conclude that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of damnable Schism and those who are united to him are united to the true Catholick-Church viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth the Roman Pope This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises that an undoubted Pope is as fully and by the word chiefly in the definition more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church as a doubtful Clergy from whence it necessarily follows that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church a doubtful Pope must do so too and then if this be proved there hath been a doubtful Pope and no one undoubted Pope by N. N 's demonstration it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope
of Chalcedon Survey c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden Anal. of Faith saying the present State of the Protestant Church consisting of Protestant Bishops c. and their Protestant Flock not being likely to continue long no Church If this design prevailed with some crasy minds they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions as This then did for besides that long Schism formerly related in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa c. as Car. speaks p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp and in this very juncture of time their contests were so high that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists were then so hot that both Parties pressed a decision and by consent referred the matter to the Pope who because he did not understand the points in debate would fain have declined it pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles waved it and commanded silence to both Parties which pleased neither and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity but both sides still moving for a hearing because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy at last being overcome with importunity he condescended But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest at one Congregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting (e) 2 Congregation July 8. St. Augustin at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen and not producing the Evidences of Scripture Councils (f) 10 Congregation and Fathers In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day but it proved otherwise the Pope passed his Sentence in favour (g) Ann. 1653 whom before he had branded and paradigmatized with Insincerity of the Molinists All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch vvhich so startled him that he durst trifle no longer but the main reason vvas he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project in fomenting our intestine broils to reduce this Kingdom into a State This is certain his Nuncio Joh. (h) â—lench mot nuper in Angl. par 2. p. 7. inde Bapt. Renuncino after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels he Excommunicated them This was not all the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion to add it to the Triple Crown All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Successors Net if the Kings be Guelphs their Kingdoms are Gibelins if they be Catholicks their Crowns are Hereticks It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies but upon forced put his main work is to rule over Nations to rout out c. Jer. 1.10 as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change they did not act according to the common received measures of Prudence which is to stay where we are till we know where to be better For this Church at the worst was much better than that they revolted to this was a Distressed Church that a Depraved this had Scars in the Face that Ulcers in the Heart this Wounded in the Skin that Rotten in the Vitals this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound that Heretical and Corrupt For to state the case between the Church of England and that of Rome impartially the Quaere will be Whether for some defects in Rituals be they really such or only pretended it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism Heresy and Idolatry at least less subject to a suspition of any of these or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty or most justly presumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions If Prudence must resolve the Quaere the issue and verdict will be It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Proselyte to Rome for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more more apparent and more real danger for fear of a less less evident and more remote danger This only remains to be proved that the Church of Rome is Guilty or justly presumed to be so of dangerous Innovations and Corruptions which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions constringently asserted 1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered and hath been since the times of Julius the second and Leo the tenth at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court thereof hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith by Composing a new Creed or which is as bad hath clogged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Additionals which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation 2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline by setting up her Bishop as the Vniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Supremacy over he whole Body of Christ and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church for not submitting thereto CHAP. V. SECT I. 1. THE first Conclusion is fully evident from the famous Council (a) C. 7. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis difference as well as contrariety Conc. Flor. Sess 10. Conc. Tom. 7. p. 641. D. 644. B. at Ephesus for the maintenance wherof the Popes are sworn and therefore cannot without the guilt of Perjury reject its Sentence This Decreed That it should not be lawful for any man to Publish or Compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to Compose or offer any such thing to any Persons willingly to be Converted from Judaism or Heresy if they be Bishops and Clerks as the Popes be should be Deposed if Lay-men should be Anathematized When this Authority was urged by the Greeks to the Latines in the Council of Florence they only Answered That this Canon did not forbid another explication agreeable to the truth contained in that Creed but did indeed
the Church of Epirus yet the Great Council of (m) Conc. penult 28. Act. 16. Chalcedon thought fit to remand this liberality and enstate them upon the Bishop of Constantinople upon this ground that then Constantinople was the Imperial City for thus the Order goes The Fathers orderly gave the Priviledg of Chiefty and Headship to the See of Old Rome because that Ally had the Empire and moved with like Consideration gave (n) Evagr. ◠◠c. ult the like Priviledges to the See of Constantinople thinking it agreeable to reason that the City of Constantinople being honoured with the Empire and Senate as Rome had been should enjoy the like Priviledges These Priviledges were not only some Honorary Titles and Dignities as some Romanists fancy but the like that Rome had which in express words is said to be a Priviledg of the Chiefty or Headship which some learned Romanists have observed and therefore render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (o) Anton. Salm. Dr. Ham. Schis disarm p. 94. Privilegia Dignitates Authoritates Priviledges Dignities and Authorities It is true the Precedency of Place which is meerly Honorary was reserved to the Bishop of Rome for which Respect and Honour there was great reason because the Church of Rome was a Metropolitical Church of long standing whereas the Church of Constantinople was not long before only a Suffragan This Canon hath put the Romanists to all their Shifts some pretending the whole last Action to be Spurious and Clandestine but why then did the Popes Legats oppose it a Spurious Act is of it self void and a Clandestine Act could not prejudice their Master and his Interest and why do they produce this Scandalous as they judg Act as a Proof for the Popes Plenitude of Power over that of a General Council These men will play at small game rather than stick out Counterfeit stuff must pass for the maintenance of the Papal Prerogative Others of them are so bold as to tell the World that after the Canon was passed the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch for he of Alexandria was dead and that See vacant were ashamed to move it this is a most disingenuous shameless falsity for it is notoriously known and most certain they (p) Conc. Tom. 3. p. 475. E. both subscribed it others would make the World believe this Council was not then free and the Canon extorted by tumultuous importunity This is another scandalous Calumny for all the Fathers did own it as their (q) Ibid. p. 463. Act and Deed both by Subscriptions and Attestations before the Judges deputed by the Emperour to see that Synodal Order was regularly observed for confirmation whereof they published a Manifesto But they of all other Shufflers seem to have taken the wisest course who very cautiously and industriously have left it out of their Editions of the Councils which saved them the labour of beating their Brains to invent such handsom Excuses Cavils and Calumnies which yet were much more than needed for this Canon was not Operative but Declarative not Introductory but Confirmative in Confirmation of what fifty years before had passed at the first General Council of Constantinople which resolved That the Bishop of Constantinople ought to have the Honour of Primacy next after the Bishop of Rome for that Constantinople (r) Conc. Constant 1. c. 1 2 3. Soz. l. 7. c. 9. is new-Rome And if both these were suspected and failed or not extant yet there is another Canon of this Council of Chalcedon which the Roman Censors have not as yet traduced either as Spurious or Clandestine or Forced and is received in their Editions which will quite foil and rout out Monarchical Sovereignty It is this (s) Conc. Chalced. c. 9. Act. 15. Si vero c. If any have a Complaint against the Metropolitan of the Province let him either repair to the Primate of the same Diocess or chief Jurisdiction or to the Royal City of Constantinople and let him be judged there Caran approved by Bell. in his Annot. will have the Bishop of Rome to be the Exarch for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not a Primate but a Prince and the Roman High-Priest is that Prince This shift is refelled in the third Council (t) Conc. 26 juxt Car. of Carthage which determined The Bishop of the first See which the Bishop of Rome is acknowledged to be shall not be called Prince of the Bishops As for the word Exarch in the Ecclesiastical notion it is sometimes applyed to an Arch-Bishop thus in the Greek Euchologue Notice being given to the Patriarch that a Church was building and near finished he directed a Letter for its Consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Metropolitan thereof or in his absence to some of the Bishops in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Province but ordinarily or more frequently it is attributed to the (v) Dr. Ham. Ans to the Animad on the dissert p. 177. Primate as here which is confirmed by Anaclitus who in a Decretal Epistle received by the Romanists which therefore is of good Authority against them thus informs us viz. In the head of the Province Primates are placed by Divine Ecclesiastical Laws that to them the Bishops when it is needful may resort and make their appeals this also is entered into and recited in the Body of the Canon-Law approved and published by Gregory the thirteenth All which is perfectly consonant to the directions for Appeals given in the Council of Chalcedon Let Appeal be made from the Bishop to the Metropolitan from him to the Primate or Exarch and that Law of the Emperour Justinian Let Patriarchs according to the Laws and Canons hear and make an end But the Bishop of Rome cannot be this Exarch for here are two Plenipotentiaries appointed in the same Commission strengthned with equal Power and Authorized to act jointly and severally in taking Cognisance of the Appeal and to give Sentence upon it and the Pope was neither of these Plenipotentiaries or Commissioners but only in a reserved case when the Bishop complainant should appeal to him which Bishop too must be one of his own Diocess and so had no Power conferred on him but that which the rest of the Patriarchs enjoyed equally with him for the respective Bishops of their Diocesses might if they pleased (w) Conc. Constan 1. c. 3. Appeal to their own Primate or the Bishop of Constantinople it was at their discretion to choose which of these they liked to hear and determin their cause of Complaint and were tied to make choice of one of these two but not at all to Appeal to Rome and the Bishop agrieved though he were one of the Roman Patriarch's Diocess might vvave him and seek remedy from the Bishop of Constantinople and therefore the Bishop of Rome had but the same Povver vvhich the other Patriarchs enjoyed and the Patriarch of Constantinople had the like in a more ample manner than either
if Polyidore Virgil's Caution as in reason it ought be (z) Lib. 4. de Invent. rerum admitted Ne quis erret c. Lest any man hereby deceive himself it cannot in any other way be said that the Order of Priesthood grew first from Rome unless we understand it within Italy only for liquido liquet it is clear and beyond dispute that Priesthood was orderly appointed at Jerusalem long before ever St. Peter came to Rome Polydore was in the right for Rome's Principality cannot entitle her to be Vniversal Mother because if we read the sentence thus Rome is a Principal Church this is as truly predicated of every Apostolical Church if the Principal Church neither will that enstate her in the challenged and claimed Motherhood because it was only accidental If a younger Sister for her external accomplishment be advanced to be a Lady of Honour or married to an Earl or Lord whereas her elder Sisters continue in their first State only or be married to Gentlemen or others of meaner condition She by virtue of her Qualifications may take Place of them but she cannot exercise the Authority of a Mother over them If Rome a younger Sister of the Mother Churches upon a forraign and extrinsecal account which was meerly contingent and arbitrary became the Principal Church the Principality might justly give her the precedency of Place but not precedency of Rule over them it made her the most Honourable of the Sisters but could not create her Mother to any or all of them because this Honour was Adventitious and Precarious which accrewed not to her till long after her first Foundation nor was derived to her by any Divine Institution Neither will that subsequent Clause from whence Vnity of Priesthood first began be any relevant to her if we consider that this is only spoken in reference to her own Precincts for then the whole Sentence would be verified of every Apostolical Church to instance in Corinth this is a or the principal Church of Achaia from whence the Vnity of Priesthood first began viz. In the Regions adjacent and belonging thereto and so of any other which were founded before her as many were for these Churches being compleatly formed when she was not in being she could not propagate the Faith to them nor consequently be a Mother Church to them The soonest that is pretended St. Peter came to Rome was in the second of Claudius but certain it is St. Mark Preached the Gospel at Alexandria and over all Aegypt Lybia Cyrene Pentapolis and the whole Region of Barbary in the Reign of Tiberius And St. Aug. affirms the Africans the more Western received the Faith not from Rome but the East The Southern Christians as the Abyssines and Aethiopians were Converted when St. Peter was still at Jerusalem at least eight years before he came to Rome by the Romanists account The Eastern Bishops told Julius as was before related Rome received the Faith from them and in Britain the Christian Faith was professed five years at least before ever St. Peter set his Foot in Rome and therefore Rome could not be Mother to those elder Sisters of Asia Africa Aethiopia and Britain unless an uncouth Hysterâ—sis be allowed or some Noble Roman would undertake to prove that Claudius reigned before Tiberius as a grave Burgess once did to prove that Henry the seventh was before Henry the sixth and therefore these Churches could not from the beginning be under her Jurisdiction and therefore also can justly claim the Cyprian Priviledg and plead it in the abatement of any Papal possession or prescription But to confirm this Title they make their Plea from Eusebius in his Chronicle or else it is insisted upon very impertinently who relates That St. Peter sat at Antioch seven years after which therefore Antioch is her elder Sister and Evodius Bishop there before St. Peter ordained any Bishop or Priest at Rome he travelled to Rome where he resided five and twenty years It is very probable this Book of Eusebius hath fallen into the hands of Interpolators Canus (a) Refert Rivet l. 3. their learned Bishop with much regret complains It hath been corrupted in many places through the negligence ignorance or haste of the Transcribers or Translators this place is probably one of them for in the Greek Edition published by Jos Scaliger Printed Lugd. Bat. An. 1606. there is no mention of any determinate time of St. Peter's coming or his abode and residence at Rome all that is said there is this Peter the chief as Aristotle is Princeps Philosophorum having first founded a Church at Antioch went to Rome to Preach the Gospel there and it is the more probable in that this Relation in the corrupted Chronicle is contradicted by Eusebius himself Lib. 3. Eccl. hist c. 1. Peter saith he having Preached the Gospel in Pontus Galatia Bithynia Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews which were of the dispersion which in all probability was before his residence at Antioch for we find in Scripture he was at Jerusalem Ann. 19. Tiber. and Ann. 2 Claudii Act. 8. and 12. at the last or at the end near the approach of his death being at Rome was put do death which makes some conceive that St. Paul whose first coming to Rome was in Ann. Dom. 58. Neron secundo had planted a Church at Rome ten years almost before St. Peter came there and others think that St. Peter continued in Judaea and in the adjacent Regions till Ann. 7 Claud. Ann. Dom. 49. and therefore this Story that he presided and resided at Rome for five and twenty years is hardly reconcileable with evidence of History in many particulars to which may be added what Onuphrius notes in Plat. de vit Pont. in Pet. Apost placing his third and last return to Rome in the last year of Nero and what Epiphanius (b) Haer. 3. testifies that St. Peter and St. Paul where they planted Churches ordained Bishops to preside over them as St. Paul did Titus in Creet and St. Peter Evodius at Antioch and after went to other Countries to Preach the Faith All these Reasons and Authorities being premised the Conclusions are irrefragable and the Church of Rome as it is now managed is found guilty of the Crimes articled against her and stands condemned of them by the four first General Councils which undoubtedly have so far convinced several ingenuous and judicious Romanists that they have not sticked to declare with Protestants that the present Church of Rome hath swerved in sincerity of Doctrine from the ancient Church whence it is derived that the Pope hath advanced his Authority beyond the bounds (c) Cusan Consult Art 7. set by Christ and his Church yea far beyond the bounds (d) Cusan concor l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 13. of Ancient observation and that he hath no Power over other Bishops either by Gods Law or Man's but such as was given him either absolutely or conditionally for a
determine what Intention was necessary because they could not agree about the efficacy of the Sacraments it being impossible there should be the same Intention of two who differ in their judgments concerning it The common Salvo was that the Intention to do as the Church doth was sufficient but this satisfied not the scruple because men â—â—ffered in opinion what the Church is and their opinions herein being different their Intentions in administring the Sacraments would also prove different To evade this it was pretended all the Priests had the same design but as it is impossible for any to know the things that is the purposes of Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 so it is unconceivable how they should have the same end and aim who have different Judgments Humours Passions and Interests At last they were driven to this shift perhaps there may be some such wretched Priest yet this case is rare To this the Bishop of Minori replied would God said he that the case was rare and that in this corrupt age we had not cause to doubt there were many but suppose there are but a few or one only let a Knave Priest Baptize who hath not an Intention to administer the true Baptism to a Child who being after a grown Man is created a Bishop of a great City so that he hath Ordained a great part of the Priests in his Diocess it must be said that he being not Baptized is not Ordained nor they Ordained who are promoted by him Behold Millions of Nullities of Sacraments by the malice of one (z) Histor Council of Trent fol. 241. Priest in one Act only 4. To give full measures of Doubts and uncertainties in the most mysterious act of their Religion Dr. Holden (a) Apendix of Schism p. 445. Refert Dr. Ham. dispatcher Preface p. 14. averreth All Roman Catholicks do believe and reverence the Sacrifice of the Mass as the most substantial Act of their Religion but if it be demanded wherein the substance of this Sacrifice doth consist no substantial Resolution can be expected from them their Doubts and uncertainties about the Nature and Essence thereof are so cross and various There are divers opinions concerning it saith (b) Azor. l. 10. c. 9. or part 2. l. 2. c. 14. Azor. There are six Acts of which it is doubted in which one or more of them the Essence of the Sacrifice consisteth saith (c) Tom. 3. dist 75. art 1 2. Suarez Some place it in the one Act of Consecration but the doubters dispute against it for say they Consecration belongeth rather to the nature of a Sacrament than a Sacrifice and every external Sacrifice such as the Mass is must be sensible but the Conversion made by the words of Consecration is not sensible for the real change is not and again if the Act of Consecration then the outward Elements only are the Hoast and matter offered but we may not say the Species are the Hoast others set it in the Oblation but the dissenting Brethren oppose this because Christ used no Sacrificial Act at his Last Supper and if Christ did not the Priest ought not though some of them grant it belongs to the intergrity of the Sacrifice But how the Trent-Divines were divided in their judgment herein may be read Hist Counc of Trent fol. 544 c. Some of them again conceive Consecration Consumption or Sumption to be the Essence this others contradict because then say they the Body and Blood of Christ must be destroyed for that which is Offered in Sacrifice is to be destroyed but Sumption can be no part thereof because the Act of Receiving is not for although Christ be not received after the Consecration yet is he truly said to be Sacrificed and Doctors doubt whether Christ did receive in his last Supper and the Priest receiving doth nothing in Christs person but his own others stood for Fraction but this the doubters easily disprove for it is say they an Act purely Sacramental not at all Sacrificial and Fraction being before Consecration the Substance of the Bread and Wine remaineth When N. N. hath solved all these Doubts and satisfied all these Doubters he may be more confident of the demonstrative Power of Doubts and uncertainties in the mean time he may apply them to his own Church in his own words Mutatis mutandis Therefore the Romanists before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be the Catholick Church must clear all Doubts and uncertainties not objected by Protestants but started and pursued by their own Divines concerning their Church their Head of the Church their Ordinations and the most Substantial Act of their Religion the Mass for though any Person should not c. 7. N. N. goes one step forward the step to Christian and Catholick belief is c. This hath nothing of usefulness to his Conclusion unless he prove that a Clergy not regularly ordained cannot believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith c. that the Protestant Church hath a doubtful Clergy in which his attempts have hitherto been unsuccessful and unlucky to him and his Church If his meaning be the well-grounded Credibility of his Church is the foundation of Christian belief this is to beg the Question and is false for Christian Faith is not an assent and adherence to the Objects thereof upon the bare Testimony of the Church but on that of God neither is its warranty derived from the Church's Proposition but Divine Revelation True Faith is founded on the writings of Moses and the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles Eph. 2.20 which moved Durand thus to define it It is an habit whereby we assent to the Doctrines of the Scripture for the Authority of God revealing them But if he intend only that the Church's Proposition is to her members the first motive and preparative of Faith it will not be gainsaid but then he must remember that a prudent Christian will not take the Church for well-groundedly credible till he find by the Rule of Faith She deserves to be so esteemed for it is impossible the Church can appear so to him till he know the Faith it proposeth which he cannot do but by applying it to the Rule for every intellectual and moral habit must be sufficiently known before the Acts resulting from them can be predicated of any subject capable to exercise them As I must know what Prudence is before I can truly affirm of any man that he is Prudent 8. That which N. N. mainly drives at is to seduce the members of the Church of England from her Communion and solicite them to Apostate to Rome To effect this he took as he conceived a seasonable opportunity to perplex the minds of men with his Doubts and uncertainties by reason of our late sad divisions Then the Romanists bent all their forces to perswade easy seduceable tempers This Church was either a dead or (d) Bishop