be Presbyters are the primary Successors of the Apostles and Bishops as Bishops that is as to their presidency are onely secondary Successors of the Apostles There is no great cause of doubt whether those words abovesaid used at this time in the ordination of Bishops or Presbyters Cum Ecclesia in ordinatione sacerdotum Christum imitata ritu perpetuo eisd verbis forma illa Accipite Spiritum Sanctum quorum remiseritis peccata c. Semper usa fuerit quis ambigat idem omnino quod Christum facere c. Vasq in 3. p. disp 239. c. 4. were together with imposition of hands therein used in and from the Primitive times because they are not expressely mentioned in any ancient Author for a thousand years and above for any thing I could learn for first the Fathers do often say that imposition of hands was used in those ordinations and ought to be used as also a benediction and prayers which prayers no question were accommodated in each ordination to the distinction made by the Apostles between Presbyters and Bishops and therefore the words Receive the Holy Ghost whosoevers sins ye remit c. might be used in the prayers of the Bishops ordination for an increase of the grace and power received by them in their Presbyterial ordination and omitted in the prayers of Presbyters ordination wherein they constitute the benediction because the fulness of the exercise of the power given by the ministery of those words and other parts of their ordination is something restrained by the constitution of Episcopacy The reason why those holy men did not set down in their writings the very words of benediction spoken at the imposition of hands In 2 Cor. hom 6. and the particular forms of prayers then used is declared by Chrysostome Nota patres concilia non consuevisse explicare totum ritum Sacramentorum non enim scribebant libros rituales sed solum attigisse unam partem essentialem ex qua caetera omnia intelligerentur Bellarm de Sacram Ord. l. 1. c. 9. who speaking of Bishops beginning the Act of ordination saith That such and such words were spoken which the initiated knew for it is not lawful saith he to detect all before the profane As for the forms of Ordination which were written between the years 700 and 1000 and the forms in Clements constitutions besides that they are of small credit they are imperfect and disagree among themselves In one form of Bishops consecration the book is not remembred to be held over the head of the person to be ordained in another form there is no mention of the imposition of hands In a form of the ordination of a Presbyter the Bishop and Presbyters holding their hands on the head of the ordained it is said det orationem super eum and let the Bishop pray above him then many sorts of prayers follow Whence we may gather that the prayer to be made over him differs from the other prayers and that under the word Prayer the words of benediction which are Receive the Holy Ghost Whosoever sins ye remit c. are comprehended For those words pronounced by the Bishop as the mouth of the Church are a virtual prayer the heavenly gift signified by them Manus impositiones verba sunt mystica quibus confirmatur ad opus electus accipiens auctoritatem teste conscientia sua ut audeat vice Domini sacrificium Deo offerre Ambros in Epist 2. ad Timoth. c. 4. Homo imponit manus Deus largitur gratiam homo imponit supplicem dexteram Deus benedicit potenti dextera Ambros de dignitate sacerd a Greg. Epist l. 7. Epist 63. and to be given in the use of them being begged of God in the preceding and also in the subsequent prayers And as they are pronounced by the Bishop supplying the place and instead of Christ they are Christs benediction and a signification of his operative will in giving the Holy Ghost unto some that 's Presbyters in their ordination to authorise them to do the external acts of binding and loosing c. and to accompany those acts duely exercised in the union and communion of the truely Catholick Church and unto others that is Bishops in their ordination to authorize and enable them for the eminent universal and presidential use and administration of the power of binding and loosing before received in their Presbyterial ordination and for the sole exercise of the power of ordination and to accompany their service duely performed in the union and communion of the true Church of Christ So the words of the institution of the Lords Supper are in themselves no prayers but considered as a part of the prayer preceding them called by Gregory the great the Canon which is not reputed to be ended before those words be prolated they are a virtual prayer being presented unto God in the supplication of the Church for the obtaining of an heavenly effect in the imitation of the act of Christ like unto that effect which was granted at the act of prolation of them by Christ himself Major Angel affirm that they saw some Pontificals which were both without the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. and also without imposition of hands Therefore those omissions are no sufficient arguments to prove that the foresaid words of benediction were not used in the Primitive times We may further prove them to be then in use by this that of all the integral parts of Presbyters ordination we find nothing proper to the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ad Amphilock Can. â—1 but onely those words of benediction for the Presbyters impose their hands as well as the Bishops the Presbyters and people fast and pray with the Bishop there 's nothing left but the prolation of the words of benediction in the name and place of Christ This is confirmed by the story of the purblind Bishop who having laid his hand to ordain a Presbyter and the Presbyters their hands used the eyes and mouth of a Presbyter to read and pronounce the benediction Cone Hispal 2. c. 5. It s not said that the Presbyter read the prayers although its most likely he read them but the benediction And why surely because the prayers were the common prayers of the whole Church and the benediction onely proper to the Bishop and therefore that ordination was rejected as unlawful and invalid a Presbyter and not a Bishop having prolated the benediction and the Bishops commission was of no value because prohibited by the Canons in force at that time Above 300 years before this Bishop in the time of Athanasius all the Presbyters and Ischyras among them which were ordained by Colythus a pretended Bishop were refused to be received by the Church in that degree Athanas in apolog 2. because Colythus was proved to be onely a Presbyter whose ordination in the judgment of the Church the constitution of the Apostles had made
wicked livers and Haereticks but it was not of the Church it was no part of the constitution of the Church although it did labour to insinuate and work it self into it it may be granted as very probable that the mystery of iniquity in particular and those dead members and by them working upon the Churches might more vitiate the Churches of the second century then the Churches in the first century and the Churches in the third century more then the Churches of the second and so of the rest to the end of the fifth century but that in any part of that time it prevailed so far as to become a part of the Ecclesiasticall Doctrine Discipline Liturgy or Ceremonies universally received and used is rather a surmise of an excess of jealousy then an opinion grounded upon probable reasons it is so far from being an approved truth After the year 500. and the division of the Empire and establishment of the Kings 2 Thes 2.3 Revel 17.12 13.16 which were to give their power and strength to the Beast and which in due time were to burn the Whore of Babylon the Churches grew generally more and more corrupt the civill and Ecclesiasticall confusions attending the Warrs in the severall Provinces giving advantage to the mystery of Iniquity to mingle it self first with the Discipline and Ceremonies and after with the publick Doctrine whereby first superstition then Idolatry and lastly Heresies took place in the publick profession of the Churches so that in persons who knowingly swallowed the good and bad together the infection of the mystery of Iniquity hindred the operation of the good portion of the whole lump and working the effect of its poyson into their vital parts corrupted and destroyed them And therefore these latter Churches were not by the first reformers of our Church proposed for patterns as the former were which preserved the purity of Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies without the addition of any thing causing Superstition much less Idolatry or Haeresy Our Church hath separated the Pretious from the Vile the good of Doctrine Discipline and Rites from the pestiferous and noxious additions and now if either the abuse of prosperity or the iniquity of the late times hath added any evil quality to any of our Ecclesiasticall things or made us incapable of good by some Rite or particle of the Discipline or Liturgy or if any defect appear to be in our former reformations and especially if any of these have happened in any Rite of adoration wherein is the greatest danger it is not to be doubted but that all these things will be carefully looked into and whether by omission explanation or otherwise the Discipline and Rites by the help and blessing of God shall be reformed according to the best patterns and as shall most conduce to the godly unity and peace of the Church and Kingdome What do I speak only of future Reformation seeing the deep Wisdome and the most sincere piety of his Sacred Majesty hath by the blessing of God upon his Royal indeavours found out the best temperament for the healing of the present distempers and by his gratious Declaration hath established a most happy Interim the fittest that could be devised for the preparing different apprehensions and affections unto an unity meet to entertain the best form of a Christian Church which the infirmities of these last dayes of the last time can well bear The Regicides of late had proceeded far in breaking down this our House of God Psal 74. 1 King 6.7 with their iron tooles their Axes and Hammers but as it is said of King Solomons Temple that there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any toole of iron heard while it was in building so our blessed Solomon in reedifying this decayed house of God doth the work without all iron instruments without all unpleasing sounds it goeth on sensim sine sensu and it is and will be the glorious effect of his Majesties incomparable providence guided by the most gratious direction of God cunctando restituisse rem But some of them which will read this small tractate may therein observe some passages which suppose the Church of England without the benefit of any proceedings of his Majesty towards her restauration and may therefore be ready to censure the Author as he well deserved if he had not this just Apology namely That he can make it good by many witnesses of worthy persons of known integrity that this treatise was ready written five months agon at the least at which time the Author could only write of the state and condition of things as they were then and not as they would be in times to come If any object It had been better if ever to have published this at that time for which it seemes more convenient to which I say That the Conscience of mine own infirmities retarded and had almost hindred the publication thereof But partly my desire to contribute my poor mite towards the restauration of Gods House prevailed with me partly believing the truth of that saying of Clemens of Alexandria that the science of preaching is in a manner Angelical and whether it be exercised by the tongue or hand writing profiteth either way and knowing my self to be not far from the time when the strength of voyce may decrease I thought it not amiss to put it to the trial by this beginning whether I might hereafter with any hope of acceptance and profit attempt to recompence the defect which if I live may likely happen in my voyce with the labour and pains of preaching by the pen. Some may think that I have made no good choise in preferring the judgment of St. Hierome a Presbyter and not well affected as many think to Episcopacy before the opinion of Epiphanius a Bishop and the elder of the two Aerius maintained that neither the Apostles were nor the Churches could lawfully be the authors of the preferment of a Bishop above the Presbyters and therefore he departed from the Communion of the Catholick Church and became an Independent Presbyter of an independant Congregation First I must deny that Hierome was disaffected to good Bishops or to the Episcopal dignity His works do abundantly testify that he bad in singular honour both the one and the other only he often reproveth and that sharply the Ambition Covetuousness and other vices of many Bishops which not he only but others before him and in his time even Bishops themselves did performe with no less sharpness and severity See one among others Gregory who was created Bishop of Sasimis executed his function in Nazianzum and after was advanced to the Arch-Bishoprick of Constantinople this Arch-Bishop wisheth there were no prerogative of the Throne nor Prelacy which saith he had indeed in former times been desired of good and prudent men but which now to shunne is counted an act of singular prudence What is this wise and holy Arch-Bishop for the abrogation of Episcopacy root
due acknowledgement of their transcendent worth and especially of the most reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of all Ireland who in an exact knowledge of all good learning in depth of judgment in the due stating and well cleering controversies of Religion and in sanctity of life was not much if at all inferior to any the best of Bishops since the Apostles dayes And lasty in an acceptable tast which I have had of the sweetness of your vertue in a particular favour for which I present my humble thanks to your Lordship May it please you right reverend father to take this small work into your honorable patronage and protection and pardoning my boldness in this attempt to take in good part the very humble and hearty tender of my best service to your Lordship God Almighty long continue your life and prosperous Estate and make you a happy instrument of much good to his Church Your Lordships in all Duty John Lloyd Praesb The PREFACE THis short treatise containeth the sum and substance of what the reverend Doctors of the Primitive Churches for the first four hundred years after the birth of our blessed Saviour have practised and written and thereby transmitted to our times concerning Episcopacy Presbytery Ecclesiastical Discipline Liturgy and Ceremonies omitting onely those which appear to be impertinent to the state and condition of the present times Every material point herein is proved out of authors received by all sides which caused the omission of the testimony of Ignatius c. and such authors against whom it cannot be reasonably presumed that they were deceived or erred in their relation of matters of fact and practise done or used in the times wherein they themselves or those with whom they conversed did live The authorities were not collected by the help of tables or received from second hands whence mistakes do easily and usually arise but were taken from the authors own work read and duely considered Because the Holy Scripture by reason of humane infirmities in all and perverseness in many is in many parts thereof-diversely understood it is very needful saith Vincentius Lirinensis that the line of Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation be directed according to the rule of Ecclesiastical and Catholick sense And also in the very Catholick Church great care must be had Adversus haeres c. 2. saith the same ancient author that we hold that which hath been believed every where alwayes and by all Which direction of this discreet Writer In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopre curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est c. 3. rightly understood and applied is very good and is and hath been of singular use especially against Schismaticks and Hereticks For when the consent of the Catholick Church in her principal members in all the parts of the world and in all ages beginning in and proceeding from the Apostolicall times unto any other set or proposed age doth clearly appear to be in any Divine Doctrine Discipline Liturgie Rites or any Ecclesiasticall usage who can gainsay that unanimous judgment of all the Saints of God which is a far better interpreter of the word of God then any generall councell can be who dare refuse to embrace the sentence of that just and impartiall Iudge except in decrees about things in their nature and morally mutable which may by the good leave of that Judge be with honour layed aside when they become unprofitable or dissentaneous to the edification and peace of the Church The Ecclesiasticall institutions which want sufficient evidence to prove their approbation by the Church flourishing in the Apostles dayes and are found to have the generall approbation of the Churches between the times of the Apostles and about the year of our Lord 500 although they be of less esteem and regard then the institutions known to be received by the Apostolicall Church yet are they Venerable and worthy of very great regard partly because of the propinquity of those Churches to the time of the Apostles from whom some of them might be probably thought to be derived although a certaine proofe of their derivation appeared not to succeeding ages partly because of the eminent wisdome of the Fathers and exemplary sanctity of the Churches in those times in comparison of the Churches in the following Generations The Churches of this space of time that is between the Apostles decease and the year 500. wanted the extraordinary Apostolicall Spirit which so guided the Church planted by them in all publick resolutions that she would make no Ordinance without the Apostles approbation and having it she could not erre in her determinations All other Churches therefore might easily erre and they that upon good occasion given them would modesty affirm that they did erre in some constitutions and usages generally approved by them and also in some remote conclusions of the Divine Doctrine are not to be thought to disparage them seeing upon the matter they say no more then that they were men which wanted the guide of the holy Spirit to lead them infallibly to truth and goodness in all things of Ecclesiasticall concernment but that those Churches within the first 500 years erred in any publick constitutions or customes unto Idolatry or which is less unto apparent superstition is a thing improbable and incredible to them who rightly consider the publick doctrine and Ecclesiasticall Ordinances of those times and take due notice of the great prudence and holiness of many of the chief Governors and Pillars of those Churches Hereticks Idolaters and superstitious persons were in many of the Churches but that the Churches themselves in any part of that time became Haereticall Idolatrous or Superstitious is very untrue and unworthy the thought of a prudent and charitable man And here by the way concerning the Church of England if we compare her in her legall constitution with any other Church after the year of our Lord 180. it will be found that they who charge her with Antichristianisme Idolatry or Superstition in her constitution established by Law do by clear consequence pass the sentence of the same condemnation upon every of those Churches especially them of the 4th and 5th century the rashness and injustice of which censure is very worthy of a very severe censure The Apostle indeed saith that the mystery of iniquity began to work in his time 2 Thes 2.7 Revel 2.24 but did he meane thereby that the mysterious iniquity and depth of Satan began to work in the publick constitutions of the Catholick Church in his dayes and that they were parts of the constitutions no surely neither can any Christian be so simple or so injurious to the Ministery of the Apostles and the purity of that Church as to think that the Apostle had any such meaning The mystery of Iniquity was indeed in the Church in some dead branches in some
denote confirmation alone but any other perpetual ordinance of God wherein this ceremony was to be used by the authority of the Apostles exampled and practise They which say that this ceremony was to last no longer in use then God was pleased to continue the miraculous operations usual in the Apostolick times seem to impute inconsiderateness to the Apostle in reckoning that one of the fundamentals of Religion which was not to be perpetually continued in the militant Church but we are assured that the Apostle being moved by the Holy Ghost could not speak inconsiderately and that every fundamental of Christian Religion shall continue in Christs Church unto the end of the world as this ceremony both in confirmation and in ordinations of Pastors hath hitherto been alwayes used in the universal Church and without doubt will so continue unto the end of time Pastors are called in the Apostolical Epistles by two other names Sect. 4. that is Bishops and Presbyters the Apostleship contained in it self the pastoral offices and therefore an Apostle was also called a Bishop and Presbyter The first mention of Pastors by the name of Presbyters of Elders is in Acts 11.30 where the Church of Antioch is said to have sent relief by Barnabas and Saul unto the Elders of the Churches in Judaea in the time of the great dearth which was in the days of Claudius Caesar in the 15 Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we finde the controversie concerning the necessity of circumcision and keeping of the Law of Moses brought by Paul and Barnabas before the Apostles and Elders or Presbyters in the Church of Jerusalem to be by them determined We see in the chapter of the Acts how that Paul with some of the brethren went in unto James and all the elders were present whence we may observe that the Apostles did not discuss and end the controversie concerning circumcision and keeping of the Law without the presence of the Presbyters of the Church where they then were nor did James alone heat Paul but together with his Presbyters did both hear him and give him that seasonable Councel to purifie himself for the avoiding the offence of the beleiving Jews which were numerous in Jerusalem Here ariseth a question Sect. 5. whether St. James was head of the Presbyters of the Church of Jerusalem onely as he was an Apostle having his ordinary residence in that Church or also as having an ordinary authority over the Presbyters which was to be continued to successors over the succeding Presbyters it is certain that as an Apostle he was the head of the Presbyters having a superiority over them but as the Apostleship was not to pass to successors so neither was his authority to be conveyed to any in succession but to be terminated with his life it is more then probable that at that time he was their superior onely as an Apostle settled in that Church neither had we need to conceive him in any subsequent times to become their head in any other sense then this if the unanimous testimony of the ancient Doctors of the Church did not constrain us to be of another judgment unless we will reject the witness of the Catholick Church constantly persevered in from the beginining of the second Centuary after our Saviours birth unto this day For the Fathers do constantly affirm that St. James was for some time before his decease Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem not onely in the sense of the word Bishop common to an Apostle and every Presbyter but in the sense which soon after the time of Clemens Romanus was appropriated to it that is signifying such a Presbyter as had a superiority over all the rest of the Presbyters of the same Church to continue in him during life and to be transferred to some other after him Hegesippus an Historian Apud Euseb hiss l. 4. c. 21. Ibid. l. 3. c. 29. who flourished about the year 170 relateth that after the death of St. James Simon Cleopa being chosen Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem one Thebulis began to corrupt the Church with vain Doctrine because he was not made Bishop there And the same Historian writeth that Simon Cleopa lived Bishop of that place until the times of Trajane the Emperor under whose government Simon suffered Martyrdome and John the Apostle died by which testimony of an historian who lived within 60 years after the death of the Apostle St. John it plainly appeareth that Simon was not after the death of St. James brother of our Lord constituted onely a single Presbyter of that Church nor James before him head thereof only as an Apostle or an extraordinary governour but that both were ordinary rulers of the whole Church as well Presbyters as the other members thereof Clemens Alexandrinus Paedagog l. 3. c. ult Strom. 6. who lived before the year of our Lord 200 makes a clear distinction between a Bishop and a Presbyter saying that in the Scriptures some precepts pertain to Bishops some to Presbyters and some to Deacons and in another place that a Presbyter doing and teaching according to Gods will although he be not on earth honoured with the first chair shall sit on the 24 thrones judging the people and a little after he saith that here in the Church the provections or proficiencies of Bishops Presbyters Deacons be imitations of the angelical glory Tertullian who flourished in the year of our Lord 200 De Monogamia c. 11. mentions an use in his time of asking leave of the Bishop of the Presbyters and of the Deacons to marry Elsewhere he calls upon the Hereticks to shew the beginnings of their Churches and so to reckon the order of their Bishops running from the beginning by successions that the first Bishop have an Apostle or an Apostolical man for his auctor or antecessor as the Church of Smyrna relates Polycarpus to be placed there Bishop by John the Apostle and the Church of Rome reporteth Clement to have been ordained there by Peter the Apostle Adversus Valentin c. 4. In another place the same author saith that Valentinus because he was ingenious eloquent had hoped an Episcopacy De Baptismo c. 17. and being angry that another by prerogative of Martyrdome had obtained it he departed from the Church In another place he hath this observation viz. the emulation of Episcopacy is the mother of Schismes Adversus haeres l. 3. c. 3. apud Euseb l. 5. c. 18. I must not forget the testimony of Ireaaeus who affirmeth of himself that he was a hearer of Polycarpus who was not onely taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of them which saw the Lord but was also by the Apostles in Asia Advers haeres l. 3. c. 3. Edit Paris 1567. in which is the Church of Smyrna constituted a Bishop the same Irenaeus doth enumerate the Bishops of Rome which succeeded one another from Peter unto Eleutherius who was the
our Lord God to which the people answered it is meet and right so to do and then the Priest went no saying it is very meet right c. Out of Authors now extant who flourished in the three first Centuties no more that I can remember concerning the divine service of the Church and the Ceremonies pertinent to our purpose is mentioned then what hath been already touched But the holy writers of the fourth Century and downward do affirm both that many other rites have been used in the three first Centuries whereof some were instituted by the Apostles as they write others by some Bishops of Rome and that many more were added in the fourth Century One reason why the Ceremonies increased in the fourth Century may be this because then the Church more flourished in prosperity then any time before and it might be thought convenient that the external glory of the Church should be proportioned to the glory of the Empite now made Christian The use of singing Psalmes and Hymnes in the Churches Epist 119. may as St. Augustine saith be defended out of Scripture seeing of this we have so profitable instructions examples and precepts of Christ and his Apostles But the manner of singing was various l. â— c. 8. hist Socrates relateth that Ignatius having in a vision seen Angels singing Hymnes Anthemewise unto the praise of the Holy Trinity delivered that manner of singing Psalmes unto his own Church in Antioch which was generally received thence by the Greek Churches and then by the Latines and West first by Ambrose in the fourth Century and after by the rest of the Western Bishops The Rubrick in our Common-prayer Book before Te Deum laudamus we praise thee O God hath these words that the people may the better hear in such places where they do sing there shall the Lessons be sung in a plain tune after the manner of distinct reading and likewise the Epistle and Gospel This Rubrick puts me in mind of a place in St. Augustine's Confessions l. 10. c. 33. where he saith that it was often told him that Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria made the reader of the Psalm to sound with so mean bending or turning of the Voyce that he might be nearer a pronouncer then a singer Epist 119. And in another place he saith when the Brethren are met in the Church when is it not time of singing holy songs unless it be the time of reading or preaching or of prayer c. By which words it seemeth that the Chapters Epistle and Gospel were not sung in those dayes And in truth any manner of singing them seemeth incongruous The Fathers use to reprove the abuses which were too often found in singing Psalms in the Churches especially that they were many times more pleased with the sweetness of the voyce then the divine matter or when onely a few of the Church did sing that they so sung that few understood what they sung In Epist ad Ephes c. 5. Let the servant of the Lord saith Hierome so sing that the words which he reads may more please then the voyce of him singing It is no perfect singing nor pleasing to God when mens hearts do not sing unto the Lord as well as their voyces I will not speak of singing with Organs in the Churches not that I think that God refuseth to be heartily praised in and with the use of them but because they were not brought into the Churches until much later times The Doxology Glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost for ever c. is by St. Basile proved to be used from the Apostles times both out of Clemens Rom. Irenaeus Orig. Gregor Thaumaturg Dionysius Rom. Dionysius Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil de Sp. S. c. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. and the Evening-candle light thanksgiving which had been used time out of mind of man wherein they said We praise the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit of God But this Doxology with the addition as it was in the beginning c. was first a Epist Hier. ad Damasum Conc. Vasens c. 7. ordained to be said in the Divine Service of the Church after the Psalms by Damasus Bishop of Rome about the year of our Lord 370. He first commanded b Greg. l. 7. Epist 63. inter Ep. Hier. Aug. de temp serm 151. de can observant praeposit 23. Gregor l. 7. Epist 63. Conc. Vasens c. 5. Radulfs Vigres de can observant praeposit 23. Alleluia to be used in the Roman Church following therein the Liturgie of the Hierosolymitane and Greek Churches Kyrie eleison and Christe eleison Lord have mercy and Christ have mercy often repeated were in imitation of some greek Liturgies received into the Romane Divine Service-book by the authority of Pope Sylvester about the year 330 saith Radulphus Tugr which many years after were omitted and at last restored by Gregory the great The collection of the Episties and Gospels for the whole year into the form like that in present use is attributed to Hierom and by Pope Damasus commanded to be read in the Churches The Symbole or Creed composed in the first Council of Constantinople was by the same Pope Damasus ordained to be said or sung after the Gospel Rupert l. 2. c. 21. Strab. c. 22. It was received into the â—ivine Service in Spain by the command of the third Synoâ— of Tolet. The reasons brought to prove the Apostles or the Nicene Creed to have been said in the Liturgies of the fourth Century or before are of small weight and therefore I omit them How Damasus can truely be said to have enjoyned the singing or saying of the Creed and yet that it was not sung at Rome until about the year 1014 is easily answered if we conceive his command to be directed unto all other Churches subject unto him Berno de offic myssae c. 1. Vide Conc. tolet 3. c. 2. excepting Rome for that special reason which Berno relates Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the time of the celebration of the Lords Supper Hierom. l. 1. dial contra Pelag Chrysost in Matt. hom 83. Conc. Carthag 4. c. 41. Et vide respenss Leonis 3. ad missos caroli M. sub Conc. aquisgranens used the white garment which we call the Surplice whether it was in use before the fourth Century is not related by any approved author living in those times Prayers composed after the manner of our Litany are to be seen in the Liturgies of Chrysostome and Basile In their time * Chrys in Ep. ad Eph. hom 14 24. glory be to God on high c. and †Idem in Epist ad Coloss hom 3. holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth were wont to be said in the Divine Service Chrysostome saith that the Bishop was wont often in the time of the publik worship of God to say to the people
nor was it made either improperly or analogically or by accident partaker thereof Augustine mentioning Abrahams adoring the Ancients of the people of the Land where he sojourned saith that therein he did not transgress Gods command who did onely forbid men to serve the creature with the service and adoration called Latreia So Augustine Latreia is when the Divine excellencies are the objects of the adoration and the outward acts of adoration are symboles of the submission of the heart to them The ancient Fathers did not of their own heads make a creature to supply the place of any Divine person as men do and may make a fellow-creature to supply the place of another and perform such acts of veneration to it as are due to the person represented such be the statues of Emperors and perhaps images and relicks of friends and benefactors Nor did the Fathers offer so to couple any creature unto the Divine person of our Saviour to partake in some sort of his adoration as his apparel when he lived on earth was by conjunction with his body made neer to his person even as many judge to an accidental participation of his Divine adoration It cannot be proved that it was the intention of the Church in those times to exhibite the external acts of divine adoration unto God in by or through any created thing as co-subjects or co-objects of them in all which cases the inward adoration proper to God is in some sort rendred to the co-adored creature The intention of those holy men was to adore the cross onely with an ecclesiastical adoration and so adore it for the sake of Christ and for the benefits sake redounding from the cross of Christ They adored its excellency Concil Constantinop quintesext Can. 73. which consisted in being an instrument of the meritorious triumph of Christ and in adoring they professed a service convenient to it in order to the commending and maintenance of that its excellency onely a created excellency was the object of this adoration When Christian subjects exhibite to the King acts of civil worship or adoration as kneeling c. they do this from a dutiful affection to God and a like affection of love to their prince which is Gods Vicegerent yet they do not perform those individual acts of adoration to God in by or through him that is they do not perform them to God and the King as two distinct objects of one and the same external and of two diverse inward adorations but terminate them onely in the King It is true that the Fathers many times seemed to present the same individual acts both to God as symbols of their inward adoration of him that is of their affection of submission to the divine excellencies and also to the cross as symbols of their inward adoration of it that is of their affection of service to its excellency so uniting two inward coordinate adorations in one and the same external adoration but whether so near a conjunction between the Divine and Ecclesiastical adoration if used indeed by them proceeded from humane frailty or may be defended by the Holy Scriptures or be not dissonant to them I refer to better consideration What hath been said of the adoration of the cross may be easily applied to the like adoration of the relicks of Saints of the Altar or Communion-Table by bowing Chrysost in 2 Cor. bom 20. Et Basil Liturg. c. of the book of the Evangels by kissing c. and the like which were used in the same time It may be easily discerned that these adorations of the Cross Altars Evangels Relicks and the like Ecclesiastical worshipings were very lubrick Liturg. Chrys so that it was a difficult matter to stand upright in them and not to fall to superstition or idolatry as too many Churches did in after times Chrysost in 2 Cor. hom 20. The bowing to the Altar which was done for the sake of the Sacrament which was much more to be partaker of the same adoration when it became idolatrous it easily advanced the Heresy of Transubstantiation The degeneration likewise of the adoration of the Cross and Relicks added to the former brought in in subsequent times the idolatrous adoration of images And all these idolatrous adorations brought in the idolatrous adoration of the name of Jesus either prolated or writen but not before about the year 1300. Conc. Lugdunens an 1374 Our Church admitted this last adoration of the name of Jesus purged as much as might be from idolatry and superstition restraining also the bowing to the naming of that comfortable name in the Divine Service Yet it is a slippery Ceremony and made the more slippery by the gloss of some of our own Divines upon Philip. 2. Whence they would prove the bowing of our knee due to that blessed name Jesus affirming the Fathers so to expound that Text. To speak in sober sadness and truth there is not one Father that so expounds it although you produce the Catalogue of the Fathers to sweet and holy Bernard There is not one Orthodox Author in all the length of that Catalogue of Fathers who speaks of any adoration given or to be given or exhibited to that most sweet name Jesus The places produced by some late School-men out of the Fathers to make good their novel exposition of that place in the Epistle of the Philippians which our men believed and were thereby deceived have in them very small appearance of proof and nothing truth as the inspection of the places themselves and especially if compared with other plainer places of the same authors will manifestly discover All the latter School-men maintain that adoration of the good name Jesus whether spoken or writen but all have not the brasen Foreheads to produce the ancient Fathers as Patrons of it or to expound the foresaid text to prove it a duty Let Vasques a Learned Jesuite be heard In p. 3. q. 25. disp 111. c. 11. where it is said saith he in the name of Jesus let every knee be bowed so many Ancients read the text c. by name not the word Jesus but the thing it self that is Christ is understood And a little after he faith out of this place it is not sufficiently proved that any honour no not by accident is to be exhibited to the word Jesus writen or spoken as to an image with its prototype Therefore although there may be an innocency in those adorations used in the right manner and sense yet it is hardly preserved I had almost said morally impossible by the vulgar it is so easie a lapse from the use of one of them to fall to the use of the rest and then to the abuse of every of them For those Ecclesiastical adorations of the altar Evangels and the name Jesus are used mostly in the time of divine service when the like external acts of adoration are exhibited to God which near conjunction in time and place
Antonianum Hier. ad Heliodorum Conc. Sardicens c. 13. Canon in use in the second Century when it was made it is not known which required that every one that would be an Ecclesiasticall Officer should begin with and for some set time officiate in the lowest Office and so by degrees ascend to the Episcopacy if the Church did desire his advancement Yet we find that some laicks yea some unbaptised persons have been by the Clergy and people chosen Bishops as Ambrose Nectarius and other Paulinus in vita Ambrosij Niceph. Callist Eccl. hist l. 12. c. 12. who leaping over the inferiour offices and the time wherein they should have given proofe of their faithfulness and industry in the order of Presbytery have been Baptised made Presbyters and then Bishops within few dayes and some it may be took these two last orders in the same houre But this was very rare and by dispensation or was liable to an Ecclesiasticall censure When any under the degree of a Presbyter was by the ignorance or perversness of some Bishops ordained a Bishop nothing done by him was esteemed valid but what his former degree did warrant or a Laick might in necessity do untill he was made a Presbyter Bellarmine saith truly that it is impossible that one should be ordained a Bishop fit to officiate which was not before a Presbyter or did not take both orders together For saith he Episcopacy includes Presbytery in its essence and a Bishop no Presbyter is a figment De Sacramento Ordinis l. 1. c. 5. a Bishop being nothing else but the first or chief Presbyter Whence he doth rightly infer that the Ordination of a Bishop compared with the Ordination of a Presbyter is being in it self precisely considered inferior to it as being of no efficacy as to acts meerly Ecclesiasticall and which the civil Magistrate cannot execute Here some doubts are raised which by divers are diversely resolved As whether Christ did ordaine the Apostles in the first place Presbyters and after that Bishops and if so when was this done or if it be said that Christ made them Apostles Presbyters and Bishops in one and the same Ordination how can it be proved that Christ gave the Apostles the powers now proper to Bishops not only as they were extraordinary Officers but also as they were to have successors and not rather that Christ reserved those powers as they were to be conveyed by succession to be given in a more convenient time it is generally acknowledged that Presbyters were vertually ordained when the Apostles were ordained If Christ made the Apostles both Presbyters and Bishops in one Ordination how durst the Church alter our Saviours Ordinance as to ordain them by two actuall Ordinations whom He Himself had ordained in one virtuall Ordination to say that our blessed Saviour ordained the Apostles first Presbyters and afterwards Bishops is to affirm that which the Evangelists do not mention To Preach Baptise administer the Lords Supper to feed the Sheep to bind and loose all these offices appear by clear Testimonies of the holy Scriptures and the consent of the Catholick Church to belong to Presbyters and therefore it may not be reasonably thought that any of those places of the Evangelists which promise those powers or intimate them to be given or require the execution of them conveigh an Episcopacy to the Apostles supposed before ordained Presbyters Some say that St. Cyprian and some other of the Fathers affirm Christ in ordaining the Apostles to have ordained Bishops and that Bishops are the Apostles successors and Presbyters the successors of the 70 Disciples To these Objections the answers are ready and easie Ad Drâ—â—contiam in Ps 44. First Athanasius saith that Christ by his Apostles constituted and ordained Bishops and Augustine saith that the Church conceived Bishops neither of them writeth that Bishops were vertually ordained in the Apostles Ordination neither is this expresly said in any ancient Author In Epist 1. ad Timoth c. 3. Secondly Ambrose the contemporary or elder then the true Ambrose saith that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is one and the same this may seem strange for in his and the preceding times they were distinct but his following words declare his meaning when he gives this reason namely Cyprian ad florentium c. Epist because both Presbyter and Bishop are Sacerdotes Priests which shews that in saying that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is the same he meant quatenus Sacerdotes as they were Priests or Presbyters their ordination was the same So the other auncient Doctors which say that Christ in speaking some things to the Apostles as He that heareth you heareth me Basil constit monast c. 22. c. 〈◊〉 spake in and by them to Bishops or that in them Christ ordained Bishops did mean That our Saviour spake in and by the Apostles to Bishops not as Bishops but as they were Sacerdotes Priests and Presbyters and only consequently and remotely by the means of a subsequent Ordinance as they were Bishops that is Presbyters having a presidency over their Brethren when the Pastors of that primitive Church say that Bishops are Successors of the Apostles and Presbyters successors of the 70 Disciples their meaning was That having respect to the Distinction which the Apostles made between one Presbyter and the rest by exalting one in every Church to a presidency over the rest The President Presbyter which is the Bishop succeeds the Apostles whose Successors and the subject Presbyters succeeded the 70 Disciples in some likeness of superiority and inferiority The Fathers could not mean That the Presbyters were ordained in the Ordination of the 70. For First None of them had any good ground to affirm That the 70 either had so ample an ordinary power if they had any ordinary power as the Presbytery have or that the power they received was rather the power of an Office to continue in them Ad Rodolphum Archiepiscopum Senonens in apparandarum rerum addend post tom 7. Concil then a power only to do some acts for a certain time after which the power was to leave them although Pope Nicholas the first affirms That the 70 Disciples had the Offices of Bishops and could ordain Presbyters Secondly The Form of Ordination both in our Church and in the Roman pontificial doth manifestly shew That Presbyters were virtually ordained in the Ordination of the Apostles after our Saviours Resurrection when he said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit c. the which entire words are used in Presbyters Ordination and only one member of the words are used in the ordination of bishops that is Receive the Holy Ghost which words do not serve to conveigh unto them all power to remit c. which they had received in their Ordination to Presbytery but they serve to give them the power of Presidency whereby the Bishop is constituted and therefore Presbyters and Bishops as they
hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. to be an other part thereof and both these parts to constitute the whole essence of the ordination As if our Saviour had made the Apostles Presbyters by two distinct ordinations the one before his death and the other after his resurrection whereof the first if we will without reason believe them made them Priests the second gave them the power of binding and loosing and made them complete Presbyters As concerning the ordination of Bishops Divines saith Vasq do not well agree at what time they were ordained In 3. p. d. 242. c. 7. Some think that Christ ordained them when he said Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins ye remit c. this opinion is justly rejected by Vasques unless it may be made good that Bishops and Presbyters had one and the same ordination for all grant that Presbyters were ordained by those words Other imagine Peter alone to have been imediately ordained by our Saviour and the rest of the Apostles by Peter c. so Bellarmine and others but this assertion doth not please Vasques and we cannot be pleased with such figments Others doe conceive our Saviour to have ordained them Priests and Bishops when he said Do this in remembrance of me This opinion is as false as the last Some think them ordained in the day of Pentecost and Vasques himself thinks them to have been ordained when Christ said unto them Go teach all nations c. which is as groundless an opinion as any of the rest Whereas in truth when they were ordained Apostles they were made Presbyters having the pastoral powers which were to be transmitted to successors and were also made extraordinary Bishops having as essential to their extraordinary function of Apostleship an extraordinary presidency and superintendency over the use and exercise of all the pastoral offices but were not made Bishops which were to be succeeded until they themselves by confirming the prudent choice of the Churches had instituted Episcopacy The Schoolmen found the Laicks impower'd by commission from Rome c. to excommunicate Hence they distinguish between the power of the Order and the power of jurisdiction We gather from the holy Scriptures and the practice of the Primitive Church that excommunication was ordained to be a mean to bring a person guilty of some scandalous sin committed after Baptism to the degree of repentance and humiliation meet first to receive pardon of sin through faith in Christs blood Secondly to satisfie and edifie the Church by good example in proportion to the offence given and harme done by his bad example Thirdly to take away the evil propensity the skars and blots made in the Soul by the sin committed and to restore the offender to the degree of purity of Soul and consequently of communion with God and of Gods love to him which he enjoyed before his fall which are obtained when God is glorified and pleased by the humiliation in proportion to the dishonour done to God and the divine displeasure incurred by sin Fourthly to receive more strength to make the penitent able to stand and avoid the like fall in time to come In the first four Centuries after our Saviours birth a full absolution was not granted to any Penitent except in case of necessity until the Bishop and Presbyters judged his repentance and humiliation to have restored him to Gods grace and favour Cyprian ad clerum De Presbyteris qui temerè pacem lapsis dederant the good opinion of the Church and to his former spiritual strength in grace And therefore we may be assured that no man was excommunicated from the Church militant but in order to receive grace to restore him to and fit him for the Church triumphant and that it was the same Key which did shut the dores of both Churches against the offender and was to open the dores unto him having given sufficient testimony of a due humiliation The Catholick Church in the Primitive times did not divide excommunication into two distinct kinds that is into excommunication from the Church triumphant and excommunication from the Church militant the first proper to the Bishop and Presbyter and the other peculiar to the Bishops and his Committees Presbyters or lay this to be exercised by the power of Jurisdiction the former to be exercised by the power of order that is the power which Bishops and Presbyters received from Christ by their ordination Whereby we understand the power of jurisdiction in this sense as opposed to the power of order to be the gift neither of Christ nor of his Apostles If the Church gave this power it was a corrupt Church that gave it for by this ordinance of man the ordinance of Christ is made void The ordinance of man is exalted above the ordinance of Christ for the excommunication which is Christs ordinance may be executed by the Presbyter in subordination to the Bishop but without his Commission the humane excommunication is made peculiar to the Bishop the chief officer in the Church to be executed by himself or some other by his commission Much good do it to the Roman Bishops whose cheif Bishop first invented it our Bishops like it not it hath been too importunate to stick in part unto them but they will perfectly shake it off as soon as they can The excommunication which is Christs ordinance hath parts or members whereby it may be more or less full greater or lesser but it ought not to be coupled with a mate a brat of mans invention De paenitentia l. 1. c. 2. Munus Spiritu Sancti est officium Sacerdotis jus autem Spiritus Sarcti in solvend ligandisque criminibusest Ibi Deus par jus saith Ambrose solvendi esse voluit ligandi God would that there should be equally as a right of loosing so a right of binding And therefore he that hath not the right of loosing saith he neither hath he the right of binding And a little after he that hath saith he a right to loose he hath a right to bind And a little after the same Father saith that this right or power of loosing and binding is permitted onely to Priests that is Bishops and Presbyters and thence concludes that Hereticks which had no Priests could not challenge this power Then this Holy man sheweth the spring of the same power he that receiveth the Holy Ghost saith he receiveth the power both of loosing and of binding as it is written Receive the Holy Ghost Jo. 20. whose sius ye remit c. Therefore he that cannot loose sin hath not the Holy Ghost that is Si fictus est Praesbyter aut Episcopus Spiritus Sanctus Disciplinae effugiet fictum deest saluti ejus ministerium tamen ejus non deserit quo per eum salutem operatur aliorum Aug. contra epist Parmen l. 2. c. 11. as making him an able minister of the New Testament and of the spirit for the