about the Year 420. first made Deacon and afterward Priest by his Abbot Paphnutius who was but a Presbyter and all the Schoolmen are not on the Gentlemans side for some of them say that Presbyters by the Popes Dispensation may without the concurrence of a Bishop ordain Deacons He Points at some Canons that forbid Presbyters to Ordain and say every Bishop must be Ordained by three Bishops at least but he that argues from their Canons to their Practice is a meer Sophister as appears by the Concession of Bellarmine just now mentioned and he may as well say no Bishop ever obtained the Promotion Con. Carth. 4. c. 23. by Simony or never Ordiained without his Presbyters for there are Canons against these things as well as the former and he may proceed and say that no Bishops were ever Ignorant Drunken Tit. 1.7 8. Unclean or Quarrelsome because by very Authentick Canons such are declared uncapable of the Office His forty seventh and three following Pages are all built upon a mistake which this Gentleman as well as T. W. fell into I know not how as if the Vindicator ever denied the Validity of the Ordination of Schismaticks whereas he only argues from his Adversaries Assertion that by Schism Men and Societies are utterly cut off from the Catholick Church and have no place nor Interest therein and then I am sure it will follow that they cannot be the Subjects of Apostolical Power which can never be found out of the Visible Church I hope it has been sufficiently proved in this Treatise that this is the just Conclusion from such premises and to talk of a remaining Character that includes the Power of Ordination in those that are utterly cut off from the Church is perfect gibberish and if this Gentleman thinks fit to answer what has been already said to it we shall willingly discourse him further about it In the fiftieth Page he speaks like himself We believe with St. Jerom that the Power of Ordination belongs only to the Bishop and your Ordinations made by Presbyters are void and null and we take you for no more but Lay Intruders We are not much concerned what this Gentleman believes of us nor what he takes us for but he should have been just to St. Jerom though he may think 't is no matter whether he be so to us or no it would be very strange if St. Jerom should say any such thing as he pretends and we should have been glad to have seen the Passage cited if he refers to that Quid enim facit Episcopus excepta Ordinatione quod non facit Presbyter that has been sufficiently explained in these Papers already to intend not any distinct Power that Bishops had by the Law of God but what the Custom and Practice of the Churches at that time had reserved unto them He tells us Review p. 50 51. of some nice Enquiries that have been made into our Mission and that they suspect many of our first Apostles from whom we derive our Orders were never Ordained and supposes the Vindicator had not met with this Observation And it may be he has not and therefore 't is ten to One but it is false for if it were true the Dissenters were much more like to know it than such as he with all his nice Enquiries and Suspicions He wonders the Vindicator should lose so many pages against this Line of Succession which if it would do no good would certainly do no harm Ay but it would do the greatest harm in the World to the Interest of the Church and Christianity to make the Salvation of men depend upon such a Line and that 's the Notion the Vindicator spends some pages upon and he cannot do a better Office to the Church or Protestant Religion than to expose it and if that be not done effectually already by my Consent either he or some Body else shall spend as many pages more upon it We come now to the Vindicators account of Ordination viz. That it is a publick Approbation of Ministerial Abilities by competent Judges This says the Gentleman is such a way of making Clergy men as never was heard of before will a publick Aprobation of a mans Abilities invest him in his Office will a Testimonial from the Inns of Court make a man a Judge without a Commission from the King Now here he confounds Commission and Investiture together as if they were the same thing which 't is certain they are not The Commission always goes before the Investiture and 't is that which gives the Power and the Investiture is only necessary to the regular Exercise of that Power which is given by the Commission If this Gentleman would have the World believe that it is the Bishops that give a Minister his Commission and Ministerial Power as the King gives the Judge his Authority he sets up Episcopacy in the Throne of Christ and is condemned by the Reformed Churches it is Christ alone who grants the Commission in the great Charter of the Gospel wherein he has declared that he will have a standing Ministry and tells us what the Ministerial Qualifications are and has promised to work them by his Spirit in Men in Order thereunto all the Ordainers do is designare personam to Point out the Person that has those Qualifications and this publick Designation with the mans own Dedication of himself to the Work is the Investiture and sets the man apart to the regular Exercise of that Power which Christ by his Charter without and those Qualifications within has given unto him The Case is something like to that of making a Person Mayor of a Corporation the People or Burgesses have the Power of choosing and the Recorder or Steward the Power of Swearing him and yet none of these confer the Authority but only design the Person who receives his Power from the Prince alone by the Charter of the place as his Instrument It is the great command of God to his Church that the Gospel be Preached Religion Propagated Churches Gathered and Governed and Sacraments Administred He has not named the Persons that are to do this but he has described them by their Qualifications and Persons so qualified if they find also a promptitude to undertake the Work which I suppose is that which the Church of England means when she enquires of the Candidates whether they be moved by the Holy Ghost to undertake that Office are to seek for a regular Investiture and the Ordainers are commanded to invest them by a solemn Approbation that is declaring that they find in them those Qualifications by which the Gospel describes a true Minister of Christ We grant that this Investiture is most regularly performed by the Ministers and should not ordinarily be without them which seems to be grounded on this Reason for all Gods commands are highly rational the Ministers are ordinarily to be thought the most competent Judges but as the Investiture it self is not
the World see his Talent in Controversie he should have taken up the true Question as it was laid before him VVhat is that which the Scripture calls Schism and should have proved in all those Instances where mention is made of it that there was not only Alienation of Affection but diversity of Communion and when he had done this it had been time enough to have boasted that he had answered Mr. H's Enquiry till then his Labour is impertinent and his Triumphs ridiculous But instead of observing this Proper and Necessary Method which by all the Laws of Argument he was bound to he ranges from the Point and Chimes upon those decantate terms Church Unity Communion Obedience Succession c. and is wonderfully pleased with the melodious Sound of words he does not understand for though he should from these Topicks prove the Practice of Dissenters to be sinful yet he cannot prove it to be that Sin which in Scripture is called Schism unless he can discover in it that Uncharitableness and want of Christian Affection which is the very thing called by that Name in sacred Writ This would be sufficient for the Defence of Mr. H's Enquiry without ever entring upon the Lawfulness or Fault of Nonconformity but since the Valiant Man has challenged us into that Field of Argument we have gone along with him into it and endeavoured to justifie our Practice not only from the Crime of Schism but any other of which it has been accused and how far we have succeeded in this Affair is with all possible respect referred to the Censure of the Learned and Moderate of both Perswasions The grand Impertinencies exposed in the Gentleman's first Paper he has endeavoured to defend in the latter but through the Common Misfortune of a Man that meddles with what he does not understand he is more bewildred and confounded than before and indeed of all things that ever set up for a Defence of so Learned a Party as the Episcopal I never saw any thing comparable to this for Stile and Argument unless it were the famous Works of Mrs. Eleanor James to which this Gentleman's Reply bears such a marvellous resemblance that a man would almost conclude it to be the issue of some Friendly Conference betwixt our Citizen and that renowned Heroine I wonder why he should be so much disturbed that the Vindicator has concealed his Name especially when he did not think fit to discover his own for T. W. Citizen of Chester is a Cypher so general as remits us to conjecture and common fame and leaves him room to escape if any such danger should happen as he portends concerning his adversary but what great matter is it who is meant by T. W. or what that mans name is that has adventured to encounter him it is not names but things that we have to examine and yet by his little contemptible menaces it is very apparent that he would gladly betake himself to their former way of Confuting Dissenters as that which was always found to be the most easie and effectual He Triumphs in the Effects of his former Paper one of which was few believed but that it was done by some Clergy-man who had prevailed with him to Print it in his Name That is to say they thought it beyond the longth of T. W. to write such a Book a shrewd sign that his Neighbours have no great Opinion of his Abilities if they thought such stuff was above him but as his Name is capable of giving little Reputation to another mans work so I dare say no Clergy man in Chester will grudge him the Honour of his own He would not be thought to have acted beneath himself in his Reply and therefore he magnifies the Stature of his Adversary and transforms the Vindicator into a Ship and by all means it must be one of the first Rate that was chosen to Attack and Fire all its Guns at his mighty Self so happy a thing it is to have Gazetts and News Letters always at hand where a man can never fail of being furnished with Admirable Metaphors but if we must needs speak in such Bombardick Language though the Vindicator was size enough for the Service assigned him yet there was no need of chusing a Man of War of the first Rate to engage a disabled Frigat Venus arta Mari. whose Mast and Tackling had suffered miserably in some hot Sea-fights heretofore But 't is no part of my design to vye with him in his Bantering Dialect I shall therefore apply my self in good earnest to the matter in Hand and in the Remainder of this Preface defend some lesser Passages in the Vindication which this Gentleman either does not understand or will not seem to do so and afterwards proceed to the more material parts of the Controversie In his first Paper he pretends to tell us of the Origination and first Existence of the Church which he dates only from the time of Pentecost mentioned Acts 2. The Vindicator thought there was Reason to find fault with that Account of the Matter not only because it excludes the Angels which but a few Lines before this Gentleman had told us were members of the Church but especially because it shuts out the Jewish Church as it stood in Old Testament Times but he has a Salvo ready such as it is and he that can content himself with such a one will never be at want for 〈…〉 â—oes The Church was never called Catholick before that 〈◊〉 â—ost the Wall of Partition not being broken down But if I mistake not he promised to shew us when the Church had its first Existence not when it acquired a new Title it 's an odd way of arguing The Church was first called Catholick at Pentecost therefore it had its first Existence then a miserable Consequence and yet as good as the Antecedent for it is not true that the Church was called Catholick at that time nor do we find it once so called in all the Scripture that I know of and the Wall of Partition was broken down at Christs Death when the Vail of the Temple was rent in sunder and if in spight of all Reason the Existence of a Church must needs commence with its acquest of a new Title he must still fix his Epocha much lower and yet I know not why the Name Catholick may not if men please be attributed to the Jewish Church which was before its Apostacy the whole and the true Visible Church of God upon Earth The Vindicator told him nothing could be proved from the bare Name of Bishops in Scripture-times to favour our English Prelacy till the Power of those Bishops the Extent of their Dioceses the Quality of their Under-Officers the Modes of their Worship and Terms of Communion be proved to be the same with ours or liable to the same Exceptions To this the Gentleman replies I cannot understand this last Sentence or liable to the same Exceptions unless he would make
Church or the Salvation of her Members My Reasons are these 1st This would be to confound the Unity of the Church with its Order which must be distinguished here where we speak of Essential Unity that which belongs to the Order of the Church always supposes its Essence a thing must first be before it be capable of Order Thus the Excellent Monsieur Claude argues Histor Def. of the Reform Part 4. p. 57. To admit that to be a true Church where the Ministry is and deny that to be a true Church where the Ministry is not is a vain deceitful and illusory way of reasoning For the true Church naturally goes before the Ministry and does not depend upon the Ministry but the Ministry on the contrary depends upon it as in the Civil Society the Magistracy depends upon the Society and not the Society on the Magistracy In the Civil Society the first thing that must be thought on is That Nature made Men afterwards we conceive that she Assembled and United them together And lastly from that Union which could not subsist without Order Magistracy proceeded It is the same thing in a Religious Society The first thing that Grace did was to produce Faith in the hearts of Men after having made them believe she united them and formed a mutual Communion between them and because their Communion ought not to be without Order and good Government from thence the Ministry arose So that a Lawful Ministry is after the true Church and depending upon it And a great deal more to the same purpose 2dly This would make it utterly unlawful for the Laity to Reform the Church from idolatry or other Abuses unless the Clergy would joyn with them in it and so would condemn those Princes and Churches in Germany and elsewhere that Reformed without their Bishops yea against their Wills and repeated clamorous Prohibitions Either the Popish Bishops and Clergy were the regular Ministry of those Churches before the Reformation or no if they were not then there was no Regular Ministry amongst them and the Line of Succession failed and either they had no Churches or else their Churches reâ—ain'd their Beings without the Ministry But if the Popish Clergy were the Regular Ministry Then either those that Reformed without them were cut off from the Unity of the Catholick Church and Reformed themselves into Hell as the Papists speak or else they were still in the Unity of the Church though at present without a Regular Ministry Those that will needs thrust the Unity of the Episcopacy into the Desinition of the Catholick Church would do well to consider Every Nation was not so happy as England in having Bishops so willing to comply with their Rulers in a Secession from Rome or in having Rulers so Potent and resolved as ours were And yet God forbid any Protestant should say they ought to have delayed their Reformation till they had disgusted Princes and complying Bishops to lead them on Surely the lawfulness of our Departure from Rome does not depend upon such contingencies How few Bishops there were that gave the least countenance to Luther's Proceedings none can be ignorant that has read any thing of the History of that Reformation the Ministry they had was generally chosen by themselves out of the most learned of the Laicks some few of the Priests and Monks falling in the Nobles themselves sometimes devoted their Gifts to the Service of the Church as the Prince of Anhalt Du Plessis Sadeel and others they never insisted upon an uninterrupted Line but maintained That where the true Faith and Doctrine were there was the true Church Claudes Hist Def. Part 4. p. 58. and that it is the Call of the Church and the Approbation of the most competent Judges therein that makes a Lawful Call of Persons to that Office and that the Church has a full and entire Right to set up Ministers for its Government supposing it have the true Faith 3dly If there can be no true Church without a Regular Ministry what becomes of the Being of a Church when its Ministers are dead and banished and no other yet chosen By this Notion the Church must be dissolved and die with them and the Death of the Shepherd must be the Damnation of the Flock for if the Regular Ministry of each particular Church be the great Ligament by which that part is fastned to the whole it must needs follow that upon the Failure of the Ministry it falls off from the Body and consequently from Christ the Head If it be replied that such Societies remain in the Unity of the Church whilst they desire a true Ministry and endeavour to get one though at present they are without it That 's as much as we demand for then it is not essential to Catholick Unity that there be a Regular Ministry but that there be a desire of it and no doubt all true Christians have such desires and the great difference amongst them is which Ministry is most Regular and it is their apprehension of the greater Regularity of theirs than of others that makes each side of them prefer their own before others In short if we admit the absolute Necessity of such a Ministry under whose Conduct every Church must be what shall we say of those Scandalous Tumults and Contests that have happened about the Election of Bishops Vott de Dâ—sp Caus Pap. l. 2. § 2. Ch. 3. p. 143. one Party choosing this another that sometimes falling to downright blows and the stronger Side winning the day such things often happened in the earlier Ages of the Church and sometimes the Controversie was a long time undecided and yet far be it from us to think the Essence of those Churches was lost during those Contentions it is true some have invented a Metropolitan or Patriarch to whom those Churches remained United in the vacancy of the Episcopal Seer to save the Body from perishing and over these the Pope as the principal visible Head of Unity but I hope I need not prove that there may be Catholick Unity without these I expect to be assaulted with that Text Rom. 10.14 15. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they Preach unless they be sent by this sending I know many understand Regular Ordination to the Work of the Ministry and they would infer from hence that none can believe but by thâ— Preaching of a rightly Ordained Ministry which must therefore be necessary to the very being of the Church But it is certain the Word and Works of God never contradict one another and therefore this cannot be the sence of the place for we read of great Conversions made by the Preaching of those that were never so Ordained Ruffinus l. 1. c. 10. as those of the Abyssines by Frumentius and Edesius and the Roman Merchants and the Iberians by a Captive Maid as for this Text
the very worst character and mark of the highest hypocrisie a piece of Pharisaisme all over that strains at a Gnat when it swallows a Camel and I cannot avoid having at least a contempt of those kind of thoughts and a compassion for those who fill their Heads with them CHAP. III. An inference concerning Ordination The Point of Succession more largely debated Our English Bishops have no Jurisdiction nor their Canons any power but what is derived from the Civil Magistrates who has now left us to our Liberty in the case of Conformity reflections upon Mr. Norris his charge of Schisme continued I Will now venture to leave this point as sufficiently proved that Bishops have no Power or Jurisdiction given them by the Law of God but what Presbyters have as well as they I have been the larger upon it because it goes a great way in deciding the whole controversie and would save me all farther Labour about the cases of Ordination and Succession As to Ordination if Presbyters be the same with Scripture Bishops the Orders conferred by them must needs be valid for as Monsieur Claude says 't is a right that cannot be taken away from them by Humane Rules it is true indeed there may be such a prudent Order agreed upon for the due management of this work as may make it irregular to ordain without a President but such agreements cannot make the action null for my part I never knew any Ordination amongst Diffenters but there was a Moderator chosen who was chiefly concerned in the conduct of it and such a Moderator wants nothing of the Primitive Bishop And if there be some Antient Canons that say the Presbyters shall not ordain without the Bishop Concil Carth. 3 4. C. 22. so there are others that say the Bishop shall not ordain without the Presbyters and by requiring Presbyters to join in this office it is certain they have the power otherwise their laying on of hands would be a meer nullity The truth is neither a single Bishop nor a single Presbyter can regularly Ordain it ought to be done by a Classis and in that case there must be some President to avoid confusion and that is the general practice amongst us and therefore our Ordinations are not only valid but regular too Bishop Carleton in his Treatise of Jurisdiction saith P. 7. The Power of Order by all Writers that ever I could see even of the Church of Rome is understood to be immediately from Christ given to all Bishops and Priests alike by their Consecration And it is very considerable what Dr. Bernard mentions concerning Arch-bishop Usher's Opinion in this case The Judgment of the late A. B. of Armagh p. 134 135. wherein we have this Historical passage That in 1609 when the Scotch Bishops were to be consecrated by the Bishops of London Ely and Bath a question was moved by Dr. Andrews Bishop of Ely whether they must not first be ordained Presbyters as having received no ordination from a Bishop the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Dr. Bancroft who was present maintained That there was no necessity for it seeing where Bishops could not be had Ordination by Presbyters must be esteemed lawful otherwise it might be doubted whether there were any lawful vocation in most of the Reformed Churches this was applauded by the other Bishops and Ely acquiesced in it c. It was too great a hardship therefore that our Bishops put upon the poor banished Ministers of the French Churches in requiring them to be re-ordained which in the sence of the imposers was a renouncing the validity of their former Ordination and it is very remarkable that some of those that were most zealous in that severe usage of those poor Refugees and would admit none to be Ministers that did not submit to them in it are since divested of their Episcopal power themselves and have now time to consider whether to allow the Ordinations of the Roman Churches and reject those of the Reformed was not to use Monsieur Claudes words a piece of Pharisaisme all over that strains at a Gnat and swallows a Camel And for the pretended Succession if our Presbyters which have Ministerial Ordination and I know no other be really Bishops by the Laws and Language of Scripture We are in the Line still as the Vindicator speaks if such a Line there be though we look upon it as a most wretched piece of confidence and madness to make the Essence of the Ministry and Church depend upon a thing so lubricous and uncertain But that we may if it be possible lead this Man out of his foolish conceit about the necessity of an un-interrupted Line of Succession from the Apostles let us but state the case according to his own assertions and perhaps when it is rightly put it will not require much arguing His opinion in this matter take in these three points 1. Arch-Rebel p. 2 3. He affirms that the Bishops receive their Spiritual Jurisdiction from the Apostles by the Line of Succession this Succession he makes the foundation of their Title and Power 2. From hence he infers that he is no true Bishop who is not ordained by another Bishop and so upwards in a continued line of Episcopal Ordination to the Apostles themselves Arch-Rebel p. 3. so that if a Man could shew a Spiritual Pedigree in a Line of Episcopacy for a thousand years yet if so long ago there was failure he is but a Lay Impostor And 3. That those Churches or what you 'll please to call them that are not under the Government of such Bishops Reply p. 18. as are possess 't of their Authority by such a Line are out of the Communion of the Catholick Church have no Ministry no Sacraments no Salvation The first of these that Bishops have their power from the Apostles as being their Successors P. 20. will certainly infer that they could never be possessed of it till the Apostles were dead unless we can suppose that they were degraded or voluntarily resigned this the Vindicator has deservedly exposed To be the Apostles Successors in Apostolical power the Apostles still living and in Plenitude of Power is a very great Mystery and something like the honest Vicar of N's Prayer for King Charles the II. that he might outlive all his Successors What has the Gentleman to reply to this He puts on a marvellous grave aspect and charges the Vindicator with Scoffing at Timothy and Titus but this is a poor shift of his own when he has rendred himself ridiculous to turn it off to Timothy and Titus I do not believe there is any such Affinity or Line of Succession betwixt those blessed Evangelists and this Gentleman but a man may venture to expose the folly of the latter and still preserve a due Veneration for the former He confesses it was a piece of Ignorance to pray that the King might out-live all his Successors and why then is not he as
ignorant in saying that Timothy and Titus and Linus were made the Successors of the Apostles in their Apostolical Power whilst the Apostles were still living for in this case the Apostles might have outlived their Successors and if we believe some Historians they did so and if this be ignorance in the Vicar it can be no extraordinary piece of Wisdom and Illumination in the Citizen he confesses this is a mystery and so he says is all the Gospel but he must not take upon him to obtrude such stuff of his own upon the World because the Gospel is a mystery thanks be to God a man may easily discern betwixt the mysteries of the Gospel and those of T. W's making But if this Notion won't pass under the pretence of Mystery he will invent a reason for it which we have in these Words They could not have been said to be Successors of Apostolical Power if the Apostles whilst living had not conferr'd it upon them could the Apostles have ordained then after they were dead No truly no more than give Scripture Rules after they were dead but were all that the Apostles ordained their Successors in Apostolical Power then the Presbyters which they ordained must be so too He says The Apostle by ordaining them in his Life-time secured the Succession to them and the Government too in the Apostles absence But I wish he had told us how they could secure the Succession to them unless they could have secured them from dying before them and for securing the Government to them in the Apostles absence that was no more than what they did for the Presbyters but if they were invested in Apostolical Power they had enjoyed the Government as much in the Apostles Presence as in their Absence for the Apostles had all the same Power and had it alike whether together or asunder In short if it be really true that the Bishops must either be the Apostles Successors in Apostolical Power whilst the Apostles lived or they could never be so we must conclude they could never be so for whilst the Apostles lived they could not have Successors in their Office especially such as claimed their Power by such Succession The second Point is equally censurable viz. That he is no true Bishop that was not ordained by another Bishop and so upwards to the Apostles This the Vindicator told him was altogether unproved and that the Papists whose Interest it is to make men believe so confess there are insuperable difficulties about the Succession of Popes in the Roman See The Gentleman replies I never discoursed with any of that Church who did not zealously affirm the Succession that all established Catholick Churches do assert it and that in every Diocess it is as sacredly recorded as the Succession of Kings and Emperors to their Thrones and challenges his Adversary to prove the contrary Well I 'll be so civil to him as to tell him that which it seems he knew not before touching the uncertainty of this Line of Succession Eusebius himself notwithstanding the Conjectures that he makes concerning the Successors of the Apostles Eccles Hist lib. 3. cap. 4. after all ingenuously confesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But how many or who were the true Successors of the Apostles and thought sufficient to govern the Churches founded by them is hard to say excepting those which perhaps some one may gather out of the writings of St. Paul upon which a Learned Prelate says What becomes then of our unquestionable Line of Succession of the Bishops of several Churches and the large Diagramms made of the Apostolical Churches with every ones Name set down in his Order as if the Writer had been Clarencieux to the Apostles themselves Is it come to this at last that we have nothing certain but what we have in the Scriptures Are all the outcries of Apostolical Tradition of Personal Succession of Unquestionable Records resolved at last into Scripture it self by him from whom all these Pedigrees are fetched Then let Succession know its place and vail Bonnet to the Scriptures and withal let men take heed of over-reaching themselves when they would bring down so large a Catalogue of single Bishops from the first and purest times of the Church for it will be hard for others to believe them when Eusebius professeth it is so hard to find them There are two things to be done before a man can prove this uninterrupted Line first He must have a true Catalogue of the Names of all such Bishops as have filled the See and then he must be able to demonstrate that none of them came in after a Surreptitious manner without Episcopal Ordination the former is difficult but the latter much harder and yet without it the former will amount to no more than a Wild-goose row of hard Words and Names 1. It is extreamly Difficult to get a satisfactory Catalogue even in that See whose Bishops have made the greatest noise and figure in the World and if this Gentleman has any Friend that will consult Baronius for him I suppose he will forbear making challenges for the future Licet plerique sive vitio Scriptoris acciderit sive alia ex causa c. the learned Annalist shews Tom. 1. ad Ann. 69. Num. 41. that Optatus Milevitanus rehearsing the Catalogue of Roman Bishops down to his own times begins thus In the principal Chair sate first Peter then Linus succeeded to him Clemens to him Anacletus passing by Cletus as thinking him the same with Anacletus but on the other hand Epiphanius omitting Anacletus mentions Cletus speaking thus The Succession of the Bishops of Rome is in this Order Peter and Paul Linus Cletus Clemens Evaristus St. Austin following Optatus omits Cletus thinking him the same with Anacletus St. Jerom speaking of Clemens says he was the fourth Bishop of Rome from Peter that Linus was the Second and Cletus the Third although many of the Latines think that Clemens was the second of these Jarring accounts Baronius says Num. 48. Si in ordine tempore primorum Romanorum Pontificum quempiam errare contigerit in multos errores ferri omnino cogetur The Author of the Roman Ceremonial endeavours to reconcile these things by a fine Conjecture Lib. 1. cap. 2. Ipse Jesus primum denominatione Successorem constituit ea ratione c. Jesus Christ appointed his Successor by Name and after the same manner Peter also named Clemens but on this Condition that the Senate of the Roman Church would admit of him but they knowing that this way of naming ones Successor would in time be very Prejudicial to the Church would not accept of Clemens but chose Linus to hold the Pontificate after Peter but that afterward when both Linus and Cletus were dead Clemens was chosen by the Senate it self Of these Primitive times the great Scaliger thus speaks Prolog in Euseb Chron. Intervallum illud ab ultimo c. That interval of time
from the last Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the Middle of the Reign of Trajan in which Quadratus and Ignatius flourished might be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an obscure confused time in which nothing is delivered to us certainly concerning the Affairs of the Christians besides a few things that the Enemies of the Church touch upon by the way as Suetonius Tacitus Pliny c. Now to fill up this Chasme Eusebius has carelesly fetch'd things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Hypotyposes of I know not what Clement for it is not Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and out of the Commentaries of Hegisippus a writer of no better Credit than the former These Perplexities the Learned Bishop of Worcester thus relates Irenic p. 322. Come we therefore to Rome and here the Succession is as muddy as the Tyber it self for Tertullian Ruffinus and others place Clemens next to Peter Irenaeus and Eusebius set Anacletus before him Epiphanius and Optatus both Anacletus and Cletus Augustine and Damasus make Anacletus Cletus and Linus all to precede him certainly if the Line of Succession fails us here where we most need it we have little cause to pin our Faith upon it as to the certainty of any particular form of Church Government which can be drawn from the help of the records of the Primitive Church And we do not â—â—â—ly meet with these Difficulties near the Head of the Line but many Ages lower The Series of Popes in the Roman See after the eighth Century is very much ruffled and confused as Onuphrius tells us Horum temporum Pontifices neque Praefat. act partem secund de Romano Pontif. perpetuum quendam habent Scriptorem c. The Bishops of those times have not any constant certain Writer and a great part of their Affairs are omitted whence it comes to pass that these times are so uncertain and obscure that we cannot tell in what Order the Names of divers Popes ought to be put and some new Popes have crept in which by Computation of the time can have no place in the Roll as Basilius one Agapetus and Dommus the second which are either the same with others under a different name or else were Schismaticks or perhaps were never in being but which of these to affirm is uncertain and doubtful and he tells us that as to John the 11th Leo the 16th Stephen the 8th Leo the 7th and Stephen the 9th He has not followed the common Opinion of Writers but of Luitprandus Ticinensis and says there is a foul mistake in the account of the Martins for there never were any such men as Martin the 2d and 3d. and in the Johns quanta bone Deus confusio exorta est ex veterum Historiarum ignorantia It seems our Learned Citizen never dreamed that Popish Writers should be so ingenuous as to confess these insuperable difficulties in the Succession for his part he never discours'd with any of them that did not zealously assert it and it may be so but certainly then he never discoursed with the wisest or honestest of them but had the good hap always to meet with men as bold and ignorant as himself But 2. Were these Catalogues of Names as clear and certain as they are otherwise yet unless it were equally certain that all of these were truly Bishops and had valid Consecration the Line of Succession is still unproved and how impossible is it to have this demonstrated with that clearness requisite unto a point upon which the Truth of our Churches and Salvation of our Souls is made to depend For it has been often observed that our Church Historians being left so much in the dark for the earliest Ages are forced to supply the defects of History with bold conjectures of their own and where-ever they met with the Apostles or Evangelists in any place presently they made them the Bishops of that place Irenic p. 302. so Philip is made Bishop of Trallis Ananias Bishop of Damascus Nicolaus Bishop of Samaria Barnabas Bishop of Millan Silas Bishop of Corinth Sylvanus Bishop of Thessalonica Crescens of Chalcedon Andreas of Byzantium and upon the same grounds Peter Bishop of Rome And through the loss of the Dyptychs of the Church which would have acquainted us with the time of the Primitive Martyrs Suffering called their Natalitia some have mistaken Martyrs for Bishops and the time of their Apotheosis for that of their Consecration and the Learned Junius reckons among these Anacletus Cletus and Clemens at Rome And how shall we prove that all the persons mentioned in the Lists had such Ordination as is made essential to Episcopacy it is not sufficient to say there were ancient Canons decreeing that no Bishop should be Consecrated but by three at the least this is arguing a jure ad factum which is no better than to argue a facto ad jus it is certain there were abundance of excellent Canons made and it is as certain they were very little regarded in that state of Apostacy and Antichristianism into which the Churches fell and lay for so long a time we know there are many examples of mens getting into the highest Church Preferments by Murther Simony Sorcery which by the Ancient Canons nullifie their Authority and Administrations It is certain there are many excellent Precepts in Scripture against judging hating and persecuting one another about Ceremonies but if any shall argue from hence there were never any such Practices every age will afford instances enough for their Confutation and if there has been so notorious a contempt of the Laws of Christ Why should we think it strange if the Canons of the Church have been despised too when they have stood in the way of mens Interest Every body knows Ecclesiastical Canons are meer Spiders Webs only to catch Flies whilst the greater sort of Vermine rush through The Council of Lateran decreed Electio facta per civilem Magistratum in sacris beneficiis vim nullam habeat and the Jus Orientale Lib. 3. Inter. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Carth. 4. and the seventh General Council as it is called determine Omnem Electionem quae fit à Magistratibus Episcopi vel Presbyteri vel Diaconi irritam esse and yet that de facto the Magistrates sometimes did elect will not be denied The second Council of Nice decreed that the Orders of all Symoniacal Bishops shall be null and void 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bernard con ad Eugen. l. 4. c. And yet Eugenius and others were notoriously guilty of it and therefore the late Examiner of the Notes of the Church says Notes of the Church p. 152. It is probable the Roman Church wants a Head and that there is now no true Pope nor has been for many Ages for that Church to be united to for by their own Confession a Pope Symoniacally chosen a Pope intruded by Violence a Heretick and therefore sure an
Atheist or an Infidel is no true Pope This c. Is to be supplied with Arch-Bishops Bishops and all other Orders Advertisement on the Hist of K. Charles p. 193. and many such there have been of one sort or other whose acts therefore in creating Cardinals c. Being invalid it is exceeding probable that the whole Succession has upon this account failed long ago c. I may add hereunto that it is the opinion of Dr. Heylin where there is no Dean and Chapter to elect and no Arch-Bishop to Consecrate there can be no regular Succession of Bishops now where there are so many junctures in which this Line may fail it would be very strange if in all that Series of Ordainers and Ordinations none of those things should happen which break in upon the Succession Nay farther when a Bishop has advanced by lawful paces to the Chair yet it is not impossible but he may lose this power again I know the Papists have invented the Chimaera of an indelible Character to support the other Chimaera of an uninterrupted Succession But Bishop Jewel affirms Apology c. 3. divis 7. That if the Bishop of Rome and I suppose it will hold of any other do not his Duty as he ought except he Administer the Sacraments except he instruct the People except he warn them and teach them he ought not to be called a Bishop or so much as an Elder for a Bishop as saith St. Augustin is a name of Labour and not of Honour and that man that seeketh to have the Pre-eminence and not to profit the People must know he is no Bishop Defence of Apâ—â— part 2. p. 135. And he vindicates this Saying against Harding from other of the Fathers Chrysostom Hom. 13. Multi Sacerdotes pauci Sacerdotes multi nomine pauci opere And St. Ambrose Nisi bonum opus amplectaris Episcopus esse non potes Lib. 4. Ep. 32. de dignit Sacerdot c. 4. And Gregory speaking in the name of wicked Prelates Sacer dotes nominamur non sumus And the Council of Valentia under Damasus c. 4. Quicunque sub ordinatione vel Diaconatus vel Presbyterii vel Episcopatus mortali crimine dixerint se esse pollutos à supra dictis ordinationibus submoveantur Whosoever he be whether of the Order of Deacon Presbyter or Bishop that is convicted of deadly Sin let him be removed from the said Orders Now can any man imagine that in a Line of above 1600 Years length running through Babylon it self there should be none of these who by their intolerable wickedness had nullified their Title Wo unto Mankind if their Salvation depend upon such a Supposition Thirdly The third Part of this Gentleman's Position is That those Churches Reply p. 18. or if they must not be so called those Societies that are not under the Government of such Bishops are out of the Communion of the Catholick Church have no Ministry nor Sacraments nor Salvation This cuts off at a blow the Church of Alexandria and damns all her Members for the First two Hundred Years Of the Government of that Church we have this remarkable Account from Entychius Patriarch there That the Evangelist Mark in the Ninth year of Claudius Caesar Eutychii Annal Pococks Edit p. 328. came unto the City of Alexandria and called the People to the Faith of Christ and as he was walking in the Street broke the Latchet of his Shoe and presently applied himself to one Ananias a Cobler to get it mended in the doing of it Ananias prick'd his Finger with the Aul after that dangerous manner as caused a great effusion of Blood and much Pain insomuch as that he murmured against Mark who said unto him If thou wilt believe on Jesus Christ thy Finger shall be healed and added In his Name let it be made whole and accordingly in the same moment it ceased bleeding and was well from this time Ananias believed and was baptized by Mark and made Patriarch of Alexandria and with him were appointed twelve Presbyters Hitrom Ep. ad Evagr. 85. that when the Patriarchate was vacant one of them should be chosen on whom the other Eleven should lay their hands and bless him and create him Patriarch and then should choose some worthy Person and constitute him a Presbyter in his room who was made Patriarch And this Custom continued till Alexander the Sixteenth Patriarch without interruption which was about 235 Years This Story St. Jerome likewise tells us and by it proves the Identity of Bishops and Presbyters and that Presbyters have not only Power to ordain those of the same degree with themselves but to consecrate Patriarchs too And this Assertion undoes all the Reformed Churches abroad that are governed by Presbyters To this the Gentleman replies That many very Learned and Pious Persons amongst them have declared their longing Desires for the Episcopacy but living in Popish Dominions cannot have any but those of the Popish Communion or in Republicks that will not admit of Episcopacy But are desires then of Episcopacy sufficient to bring a Man within Catholick Communion What then becomes of the Absolute necessity of Apostolical Succession if affectionate Desires after this Communion will free a Man from Schism Then surely Schism lies in the want of such Desires which comes nearer to Mr. H's Notion than this Gentleman I suppose was aware of but after all though 't is pity to put him out of a good humour since he happens so seldom into it if there be no Catholick Communion without Episcopacy and without such Communion our hopes for Salvation are but Fancies as this Gentleman tells us Desires after Episcopacy will not relieve Men it will only prove that they desire such Communion and to be in the way of Salvation but that at present they are not so And I wonder how it does appear that the Reformed Churches desire this Diocesan Episcopacy by what Publick Acts do they declare any such Desires What their Thoughts are concerning it we have already seen It may be indeed as the Honourable Mr. Feb. 9.40 Fines once replied in Parliament to this very thing there are some amongst them that desire Episcopacy that is the Dignities and Revenues of Bishops but that any desire Episcopacy as the fittest and best Government of the Church I do not believe for if they would have Bishops I know not what hindreth but they may they have Presbyteries and Synods and National Assemblies and Moderators therein and how easily might these be made Bishops Germany and Poland are Popish Countries and yet they have Superintendents or Bishops And why will not Republicks admit Episcopacy Is it because they have found it injurious to the Commonwealth Methinks that is no great Commendation of the Order or will they say it does not so well comport with that Form of Government That is a sign it is not of Divine Institution for as God will have Gospel-Churches in all Countries
so he has put nothing into their Constitution but what will consist with any form of Civil Polity and has not obliged Republican States to become Monarchies in order to their reception of the Gospel I know nothing the Church has to do with Civil Constitutions nor will I ever be of that Ecclesiastical Communion which cannot subsist in Common-wealths as well as in Monarchies but must overturn Publick Constitutions to make room for its own Settlement And as this Doctrine overturns the Primitive and the Reformed Churches so this Gentleman knows not how great a shock he has given his own by it For Historians tell us that those Famous Bishops who were instrumental in Converting so many in the Northern Parts of our Island to Christianity were ordained by the Abbot of Hye who was only a Presbyter and who knows how far the Line of those Bishops reaches To this the Gentleman has made some reply telling us Reply p. 22. That Archbishop Bramhall has cleared the Northumbrian Bishops from receiving their Consecration of the Abbot of Hye and shews that they had it from the Bishop of Derry under whose Visitation this Abbot lived and that this was to be found in the Records at Derry before the Irish Rebellion But it is a strange piece of Considence in these Men to set up a Story reported by themselves out of I know not what invisible Records Beda Eccles Hist. l. 3. c. 4. Haberesolet ipsa Insula rectorem semper Abbatum Presbyterum c. so to confront the direct words of our most ancient and credible Historians Bede expresly says that Island was wont to have an Abbot for its Governour who was always a Presbyter to whose Jurisdiction all the Province and even the Bishops themselves were subject after the example of their first Teacher Columbanus who was not a Bishop but a Presbyter and Monk and that King Oswald when he came to the Throne Vsher de Eccles Brit. Primordiis p. 701. sent to the Elders of Scotland amongst whom in his Exile he had been baptized to desire that a Bishop might be sent unto him by whose Doctrine and Ministry his Realm might learn and receive the Christian Faith From this Island of Hye and from the College of Monks there Aidan was sent having received the Degree of Episcopacy at that time when Segenius a Presbyter was the Abbot and that Aidan being dead Finan succeeded him being likewise sent by the same Monastery The Gentleman tells us we have the story in the Bishop of St. Asaph to the same purpose with Bramhal but he does not tell us that Sir George Mackenzie has answered him besides it is not the same story for St. Asaph will have it to be the Bishop of Dunkeld that joyned in this Consecration not Derry or Derry-magh if there was any such story in those Records 't is a wonder these Gentlemen should not agree better in the telling of it The ingenious Dr. Vindic. of some Protest Princ. p. 102. Sherlock wisely declines disputing the matter of fact concerning this Abbots Ordination of Bishops and fairly grants that the Church of Rome allows the Ordinations of Abbots Soveraign which are but Presbyters to be both valid and regular but says such Ordinations were an incroachment upon the Episcopal Authority and void in themselves which I shall not now question it being sufficient and indeed only proper to my present purpose to shew that Abbots did Ordain and were allowed to do it by the Church of Rome and if such orders be void then the Episcopal Line is broken And who can forbear declaiming against the wretched folly of Men of such principles that will thus unsettle the foundations of their own Churches that they may overturn others and like the Executioners of the three Children will venture a burning themselves that they may be sure to throw others far enough into the fiery Furnace Let us hear how this Gentleman will demonstrate this uninterrupted Line of Succession for He ought to make it as clear as any Article of his Creed there being none more essential to Salvation according to his own account of it And he tells us The very necessity of such a Line is a sufficient reason to prove it no man can be Minister of the Gospel that is not sent no man has power to send who hath not received it by Succession from the Apostles That is to say it is so because it must be so and it must be so because it is absolutely necessary it should be so and if this be not proof sufficient we must go to those that can give us better But 1st Why does he not prove that thore can be no true mission without such a Line we cannot give him credit in a matter of such value and though he repeat it a thousand times we will not regard it till we see it proved We do verily believe with the rest of the Reformed Churches that where-ever the Coetus Fidelium is there lies an inherent fundamental right of chusing and calling persons to the Ministry though this is most regularly exercised by those that are already Pastors and ought not to be done by others where such may conveniently be had but all the World besides the Papists and a few odd Bigotted persons in our own Nation distinguish betwixt an irregularity and a nullity and we believe that both Sacred and Civil Societies agree in this which is founded upon the essence and common principles of all Societies as such that they have a latent power to elect and invest their Officers though by Custom or the Laws of the Community the exercise thereof may be consigned to a particular Order of Men amongst them The Author of the Prejudices challenges Monsieur Claude to produce any Texts of Scripture that give Lay-Men a right to ordain Ministers in any case to which he replies This demand is but a vain wrangling Defence of the Reform P. IV. p. 94 95. for when Scripture recommends to the Faithful the taking diligent heed to the preservation and confirmation of their Faith and to propagate it to their Children it gives them by that very thing a sufficient right to make use of all proper means in order to that end and every body knows the Ministry is one of those means and therefore the obligation the faithful are under to preserve and propagate the Faith includes that of Creating to themselves Pastors when they cannot have them otherwise in short when the Scripture teaches that the faithful have a right to chuse their Pastors it teaches thereby that they have a right to instal them into their Office in case of necessity for that call consisting much more essentially in Election than in installation which is but a formality there is no reason to believe that God would have given the People a Right to chuse their Pastors and to have them installed by others and that he has not given them at the same
time a power of installing them themselves when it cannot be done otherwise since naturally that which we have a right to do by another we have a right to do by our selves Nay what if not onely Monsieur Claude but Monsieur Dodwell too that speaking head of our high-flown Clergy acknowledges such a right in particular Societies of chusing and investing their Officers No matter whether it be reconcileable with the other parts of his Scheme or no Dodwel Separat of Churches p. 102. P. 52. In his Separation of Churches he speaks to this purpose The Church with whom God has made the Covenant is a Body Politick though not a Civil one and God has designed all persons to enter into this Society It is sufficient for my purpose that the Ecclesiastical Power be no otherwise from God than that is of every supream Civil Magistrate it is not usual for Kings to be invested into their Offices by other Kings but by their Subjects yet when they are invested that doth not in the least prejudice the absoluteness of their Monarchy where the Fundamental Constitutions of the respective places allow it to them much less doth it give any power over them to the persons by whom they are invested If the power of Episcopacy be Divine all that men can do in the case is onely to determine the person not to confine his power no act can be presumed to be the act of the whole Body P. 509. but what has passed them in their publick Assemblies in which Body is the Right of Government As nothing but the Society it self can make a valid conveyance of its right so it is not conceivable how the Society can do it by any thing but its own Act And when ever a person is invested into the Supream Power P. 522. and the Society over which he is placed is independant on other Societies such a person can never be placed in his power if not by them who must after be his subjects unless by his Predecessor which no Society can depend upon for a constant Rule of Succession I am apt to think this must have been the way of making Bishops at first how absolute soever I conceive them to be when they are once made This seems best to agree with the absoluteness of particular Churches P. 523. before they had by compact united themselves under Metropolitans and Exarchs into Provincial and Diocesan Churches And this seems to have been fitted for the frequent persecutions of those earlier Ages when every Church was able to secure its own succession without depending on the uncertain opportunities of the meeting of the Bishops of the whole Province And the alteration of this practice the giving the Bishops of the Province an interest in the choice of every particular Colleague seems not to have been so much for want of power in the particular Churches to do it as for the security of compacts that they might be certain of such a Colleague as would observe them It is probable that it was in imitation of the Philosophers Successions that these Ecclesiastical Successions were framed and when the Philosophers failed to nominate their own Successors the Election was in the Schools These are his words and they are too plain to need a Comment If every particular Church had Originally a power within it self to chuse and invest its Bishop and the concurrence of other Bishops herein was not for want of Power in that particular Church but only for securing the agreement of Bishops amongst themselves We have done with the necessity of a continued Line of Episcopal Ordinations and there may be true mission without it quod erat probandum But 2dly Should we grant that there is a necessity of an uninterrupted Line and that this as he learnedly speaks is a sufficient proof that there is such a Line yet it must be considered this necessity will onely prove that there must be some Bishops and Churches that are in the Line but it will not prove that they are all so nor that it is the case of those amongst us for though we may suppose that God has had a true Ministry in all Ages and will have that will not demonstrate that he hath such in England and therefore to prove the Ministry of the English Churches true he must have some better Evidence than the necessity of such a Line which will onely prove it is somewhere not that it is amongst us and it is but small satisfaction to us to know that there is a true Ministry some where in the World but no man in the World can tell where it is By this Gentlemans way of reasoning the Papists pretend to prove the Infallibility of their Church first they suppose the necessity of an Infallible Judge and then take it for granted that this Judge is to be found amongst them and truly Arcades ambo The Vindicator put a question to him and we should be glad of a better answer than he has yet thought fit to give us He desired T. W. to tell him whether this Line of Succession might be continued in a Schismatical Church for if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Catholick Church as this Man affirms such Schismatical Churches are indeed no Churches no parts of the Universal Church and so cannot be the Subjects of the Apostolical Power and if this Power cannot be derived through a Schismatical Church then must he grant either that the Church of England has not this Power or that the Papal Churches through which it runs are not Schismatical and if they be not his own Church must be so in separating from them for he holds separation to be utterly unlawful unless it be from a Schismatical Church His answer to this such as it is you have in the 23 page of his reply in these words I cannot understand his Logick in this if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Universal Church then such Schismatical Churches are no Churches But is not the consequence as plain as can be if Schism cut Men and Societies off from the Universal Church then such Schismatical Societies are no Churches Can they be Churches and yet cut off from the Universal Church Can they be cut off by Schism and still united to it He that does not understand the Logick of this does not understand the Logick of Common Sense but has he nothing farther to reply Yes he says Churches they are though Schismatical while they retain the Apostolical Succession But the Question is whether Schismatical Churches can retain the Apostolical Succession Since by Schism he says they are cut off from the Catholick Church and so Unchurched these things will require a second reading and a more direct reply and that I may provoke him to do it I shall lay the case before him in these three points 1. If any Schismatical Societies may still remain Churches then Schism as such does not cut Men and
Societies off from the Unity of the Catholick Church and then the whole thread of his discourse is spoiled which every where makes Schism to be Separation from the Communion of the Catholick Church out of which he says truly there is no true Ministry nor Sacrament 2. If all Schismatical Societies are Unchurched then either they lose the Apostolical Succession and Power or else there may be Apostolical Power where there is no Church And it would be very strange to find a Power to Ordain and to Administer Sacraments in Societies where there can be no Ministry nor Sacraments Church Power without a Church a Right to Gevern the Church by Apostolical Succession and yet no Right to the Church or any of its Priviledges The power which is an adjunct without the Church which is its Subject These are mysteries which I am no more worthy to understand than that of Transubstantiation 3. If the Papal Churches through which this Power is conveyed be not Schismatical then he makes the Founders of his own Church so for he says There 's no way of holding Communion with the Universal Church Arch-Rebel p. 6. but by holding Communion with the Particular Churches we live amongst if they be not Schismatical Instead of speaking plainly to these things he asks us whether Re-ordination of those that come over from the Church of Rome to the Reformed was ever required We answer No and can give a good reason for it upon our Principles but it will be hard to do so upon his We do not think the validity of the Ministry depends upon such Line nor do we believe that either Schism or Heresie as such do utterly destroy their Church state indeed a renunciation of any of the fundamental Articles of our Faith would do it but every heresie will not We believe the Church of Rome to be both Schismatical and Heretical but do not therefore say their Church state is utterly lost though greatly corrupted for then it would be hard to allow their Ordinations especially if we thought Ordination so necessary and that the Validity thereof depended upon the Administrators as this Gentleman affirms Therefore where he says the Vindicator attempts to unchurch the Church of England because our Bishops derive their consecration from Rome he utterly mistakes himself the Vindicator spoke ad hominem and only shewed him what would be the consequence of his own arguing He tells us It is the Judgement of all Reformed Divines that formal Schism can never invalidate the power of formal and regular Ordination But if those Reformed Divines thought as be that formal Schism utterly excludes out of the Catholick Church they must needs acknowledge that where there is formal Schism there can be no such things as regular Ordination and 't is strange this Gentleman that makes Schism such an unchurching thing shall talk of a regular Ordination in a formal Schism one would think the regularity would have been spoiled if the Essence thereof should happily escape Dr. Sherlock Vindic. of Prot. Princ. p. 107 108. And yet some of our Doctor make this the very reason why the Dissenters Ordinations are Null because they ordain in a Schism granting that in case of necessity they may do it But as to the Reformed Divines if they allow the Ordination of Schismaticks to be valid it is either because they think the validity of the Orders does not depend upon the quallfications of the person conferring there or that Schism does not necessarily exclude a Person or People out of the Communion of the Catholick Church and here lies this Gentlemans Error he would tack the candid conclusion of the Reformed formed Churches to the unmerciful Premises of his own but they will by no means comport This Notion of the Necessity of an uninterrupted Line of Succession for the conveyance of Power like Water by Pipes and Conduits the Vindicator made bold to call a Whimsie which has exceedingly raised the Gentlemans Spleen A Whimsie says he that 's some Phantastick device or the Creature of an unst able unsettled Brain which being applied to Prelates that bear the Authority of Christ can be no less than Blasphemy But the Vindicator never charged this Whimsie upon the Prelates the greatest part of whom I dare say will not thank this man for hanging their Authority upon so slender a thread 't is his own Whimsie and so silly a one that we will never charge it on any that do not expresly own it and yet if a Man should venture to say of some Prelates that they are unstable and their Brains unsettled as namely the late Bishops of Oxford and Ely c. I know not how it can be proved Blasphemy nor will any man call it so that has not made an Idol of the Mitre or the Head that wears it unless these clamours proceed from the same Principle with those of the Ephesians who were as tender of their Diana as these men are of the Hierarchy and this Image of Succession that dropt down from Jupiter After all we have said against the Necessity of such a Line yet if this Gentleman or any for him will clear it we will have as much Benefit by it as himself having largely proved that Presbyters are the same with Bishops by the Law of God and therefore our Ordinations are as valid as theirs but we will never so far betray the Honour of the Church nor the Peace of mens Consciences as to make all depend upon that which is impossible to be proved and certainly if it be a thing of that consequence this Gentleman makes it the proof should be as strong and clear as that of the most essential Doctrines of our Religion and to say as Mr. Dodwel is forced at last that a Presumptive Title may serve is to unsay all and to confess that it is not the reality of such a Line on which the Power depends but the strong Conceit and Presumption of men which is the worst Basis that Episcopacy has ever yet been fixed upon 2. The second thing in our Plea is That the whole Jurisdiction of our English Bishops and the Power of their Canons is derived from the Civil Magistrate and Laws of the Land And this I think will follow from the former if this Prelatical Power be not from the Laws of God it must be from the Laws of the Land Here I expect some will reply Datur tertium there is the Jus Ecclesiasticum resulting from the Customs and Canons of the Church by which Bishops formerly laid claim to this Power even when there was no Christian Magistrate but this will be soon answered For 1. This Jus Ecclesiasticum has not the proper nature of a Law nor does it oblige by virtue of strict Authority we are not bound in Conscience by the Canons of Ancient Foreign Churches any farther than the matter of them brings the stamp of Scripture along with it Grot. de Impsum Potestat p. 168. The
be retained since they are neither good in themselves nor have a natural fitness to promote the Common Good were there any usefulness in them we would not reject them meerly because they have been abused but since by their own acknowledgment the Worship of God is not at all the better performed for them we cannot but judge it irrational to retain them a Wise Man will do nothing deliberately in his common Conversation but what he can give some account cui bono to what end he does it And really it is somewhat a hard case that we are in if we use these Ceremonies and know before hand our Duties are never the better for them Conscience and Reason tell us we are guilty of trifling in a Matter of the greatest Solemnity if we use them with an opinion that the Worship of God is better performed with them than otherwise their own Bishops and Doctors tell us we are guilty of Superstition and Will-worship 3. We observe that the Dealers in Ceremonies are apt to grow upon us and if we yield to a few they still urge us with more and indeed the Principle upon which they are defended leaves room to bring in as many as they please provided they be not expresly prohibited in the Word of God which in things of this Nature is not to be expected for it had been an endless task and would have swell'd our Bibles to a Prodigious Bulk to have precluded them all by Name which may be as various and indefinite as the fancies of Men Thus our Canons enjoyn several things which are not required by Law as bowing at the Altar at the Name of Jesus reading some part of the Service at the Communion Table c. and the Practice of some Zealous Men outgoes the very Canons themselves We are very loth to launch out into so vast an Ocean and commit our selves to be tost up and down by the Caprices and Humours of Men which are as uncertain as the Winds and Waves and we know not upon what dangerous Rocks or remote Shores they may at length drive us 4. Those things which we scruple are disapproved by the best Reformed Churches we know it to be so from their own words when the Ministers of the Helvetian and French Churches were desired to give their Opinion about these things they did generally express their dislike of them See a Book Intituled The Judgment of the Reformed Churches Printed at Geneva Octob. 24. 1547. Subscribed by Beza and many famous Divines of those Churches And we cannot forget the Exhortation of the poor Remains of the Bohemian Churches directed to the Reformed especially to that of England by the Learned and Pious Comenius writ in Latine and Dedicated to King Charles II. at his return into England I will transcribe a few Lines because the Book is not in every Bodies hand Contend then P. 8. Oh great Churches among your selves if you please about the Preheminence Strive about the Notion of Faith or for Ceremonies or the Hierarchy as fiercely as you can behold God presents you with a little Child an Infant stript of all Pomp and Dressing considerable for nothing but for Simplicity knows not any thing of preferring it self before others or quarrelling with any or coveting Wealth and Honours only understands how to keep at home to do its own Business not to intermeddle in other Mens Matters but to Serve God in Spirit and in Truth c. And in another Place thus P. 47. As for the Pomp of Church Ceremonies God indeed in the old way of Worship ordained such a thing therein by Shaddows to set forth the Spiritual Mysteries of Salvation which Christ at his coming was to disclose but seeing that since the coming of Christ they have been demolished and levelled by so many Apostolical Strains as Claps of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning directed against them why should we bring them up again still to make use of them Under the Papacy perhaps where the Light of the Gospel is obscured in their Barbarous Generations they might seem to be of some use at least with some colourable pretence but in a Reformed Church I beseech you what use can be made of them Those that have been hitherto retained in England under the Reformed Bishops have not the very Pentificians themselves laught them to Scorn and Derision It is plain to be seen in Weston's Theatre of Life Civil and Sacred Printed at Antwerp 1626. P. 564 c. Where having said that the Religion of the Protestants is without all Religion because they have no Sacrifice Priesthood nor Sacred Ceremonies he adds Some Protestants indeed that they may not appear absolutely Impious and Irreligious use our Missal and Breviary selecting what they please thereof for the Rubrick of their Liturgy and to make the Form of their Worship appear the more goodly they have their Canonical Persons forsooth after the Modes and Customs of the Church of Rome their Caps and Hoods and Holy-Days and such-like Stuff which they say they found in the Synagogue of Antichrist by which very thing it is apparent that the Religion of these Protestants stands guilty of Stealth and Robbery by which it first came into the World or if they will not be taken for Thieves let them go for our Apes These with their whole Service are derided and scorned not only by ours but also by their own the English seem to have driven the Pope out of England in such haste that they have forced him to leave his Cloaths behind him which they as Fools in a Play put on with a kind of Pompous Ceremony of Triumph and so lead the Quire a goodly Reformation it is that they dare not carry it through c. It will therefore be a glorious thing for the Reformed Churches to come back to the Practice of Christ and his Apostles leaving off the Baubles of earthly Riches Honours and Pomp and to look after and busie themselves about things of a higher Nature c. This and a great deal more to the same purpose is there to be seen by which it appears not only that those renowned Martyrs and Confessors called the Taborites disliked our Ceremonies but that the Papists themselves for whose sake they are retained despise and ridicule us for them 2. There are those amongst us that could bear with the use of these things but cannot declare their Approbation of them and their Assent and Consent to all of them this would be to espouse and commend those things which at best they look upon but as Tolerabiles Ineptiae and this Approbation must extend to all things required and they cannot so far dissemble with God and the World There are many things in the Book of Homilies which they like very well but they cannot say so of all there are some very odd Passages which they cannot Assent to P. 160. take one instance of many 2 Hom. of Alms. The same Lesson doth the Holy
the Body We cannot be joined to Christ our Head except we be glued with Concord and Charity one to another for he that is not of this Unity is not of the Church of Christ which is a Congregation or Unity together not a Division St. Paul saith that as long as Emulation or Envying Contention and Factions or Sects be amongst us we be carnal and walk according to the Fleshly Man And St. James saith if ye have bitter emulation or envying or contention in your hearts glory not of it for where contention is there is unstedfastness and all evil deeds c. Nothing is more evident than that the thing declaimed against in this Homily is Schism what else signifie the words cut and mangled divided rent and torn And as plain it is that this rending and tearing and cutting and mangling the Body of Christ is done by contention by the violation of concord and charity without which we cannot be joined to the Head nor one to another it is true it mentions Factions and Sects He speaks of contentious Sects but there may be Factions amongst those of the same external Communion and there are many Sects too in the Church of Rome where the external Communion is the same and so there were formerly amongst the Jews and at this day in the Church of England some are Arminians others Calvinists in points of Doctrine But both the Title of the Homily and the express words and general scope of it make the Rents and Schism in the Coat of Christ to consist principally in the want of Concord and Charity in Emulation envying and heart contentions Which I hope will justifie Mr H. from the censure of having advanced a wild and novel doctrine Now let us examine the Consequences which this Gentleman has drawn out of this Definition First of all From hence it will follow that he that was never truly admitted into the Christian Church may be guilty of Schism if he be called a Christian But before we can tell whether there be any absurdity in this we must desire him to explain himself and tell us what he means by a true admission into the Christian Church If by admission he means Baptism and by true admission Baptism after the form and mode prescribed by his Church I doubt not there are many may be justly called Christians that were never so admitted and if he will take upon him to assert that none can be guilty of Schism but who have been admitted according to their Canons he will fairly acquit a great number of Dissenters from that crime who though they have been Baptized yet not altogether according to their Rubrick As for Mr. H's Words they are plain enough Schism in the Scriptural Sence is only the fault of professed Christians and all professed Christians are visible Members of the Catholick Church 2. That Hereticks in fundamentals are no Schismaticks for Mr. H. sapposes that where there is a Schism both parties must agree in the Fundamentals of Religion Yes he does suppose so and very justly for those that deny fundamental Truths are without the Christian Faith without the Unity of the Church and where there is no such Union there can be no Schism which always supposes a previous Union As Treason always supposes that a Man be a Subject of the King and Member of the Common wealth If a Man never received the Fundamentals of Christianity he never was a Member of Christ's Body and therefore never a capable subject of that Christian Love and Brotherly kindness the violation whereof is the thing in Scripture called Schism if he has formerly professed the Faith and afterwards renounced it he has by so doing dissolved that principal Fundamental Union with the Christian Church upon which Brotherly Love is built and therefore after such Apostacy cannot be formally guilty of the breach of Christian Charity because he is indeed no Christian and so no capable Subject of such Charity and can no more properly be called a Schismatick than a Stone or Tree can be called blind or any other thing in which there is no capacity of Sight And if the Gentleman do not like this Notion he may if he pleases write a Book to convince the Grand Signior and the Great Mogul and Cham of Tartary See the Review p. 8. that they are all Schismaticks as were their Fathers Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian Sorcerers before them But he adds This is as much as to say the greater the fault the lesser the crime By no means for what if Hereticks be not Shismaticks are they therefore innocent Creatures What if Traytors Murderers Adulterers be not Schismaticks are they therefore Saints Heresie in Fundamentals is a greater crime than bare Schism and the less is merged in the greater And it seems very strange that the same Gentleman who but a line or two before thinks it absurd to call those Schismaticks who were never truely admitted into the Church should think it also absurd not to call those Schismaticks that either never embraced the Christian Faith or have since renounced it 3. The third inference is According to this Definition Alienation of Affection is Schism but Division or Alienation of Communion is not Here he ought to have told us what he means by Division or Alienation of Communion Communion with the same God and the same Mediator and in the same Essentials of Faith and Worship is necessary to the Being of Christianity and an Alienation here is something worse than Schism if he mean personal Communion in the Worship of God in the same place and after the same Mode 't is impossible this should be undivided if by Alienation of Communion be means withdrawing from that particular Church of which we have been members and joyning with another 't is no more but what is allowed to all upon the removal of their Habitations and may be lawful on many other accounts but if it be done without some good reason it is sinful if it be done out of Uncharitableness towards the Church we leave it is Schism now if he would be as plain with us as we desire to be with him there might be hopes of bringing the matter to some issue But the last Inference is most remarkable both for Phrase and Sence and I would desire the Author to review it No one can charge another with Schism except he be able to look into his Heart it is impossible to know according to this Description that People are Schismaticks if they profess themselves to be in Charity except we should enquire into the Secrets of their Hearts and on the contrary People may be the greatest Schismaticks under the outward Profession of Charity and yet no Body can accuse them with it But pray why is this last Sentence said to be on the contrary to the former it 's impossible to know that People are Schismaticks if they profess themselves to be in Charity and on the contrary People may
disagree and easie to be mistaken whereas the Fundamentals being more directly and positively asserted in the Word of God admit of clearer demonstration 'T is true indeed those that think it their duty in all the lesser matters of Religion to follow their Leaders and that make their Commands in these things the Standard of Sin and Duty have found out an easie Rule of Controversie and this seems to be his opinion for he says if Mr. H. were better acquainted with Church History he would find that whole Churches and Nations had their peculiar Customs and Ceremonies and yet their Members agreed well enough in their opinions about them And I will venture to add if this Gentleman be as well acquainted with Church History as he pretends he knows in his Conscience that he imposes upon his Reader and would obtrude a great fallacy upon the World The first Attempt for the introducing such Customs and Ceremonies into the Worship of God occasioned a great deal of Contention and Discord in the Apostles times and the Imposers were severely check'd by them for their Arrogance Gal. 5.1 and all Christians commanded to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ had made them free and not suffer themselves to be entangled with the yoak of Bondage and so great a Disturbance was raised by urgeing such Ceremonies v. 12. that the Apostle wishes they were cut off that troubled the Church with them And after the Apostles were dead when Ceremonies began to encrease though they were not for some time enjoyned but the People took them up partly of their own accord partly upon the example of those they had a great Veneration for yet they occasioned great Animosities and Discord in the Churches of which Socrates gives us many instances Lib. 5. c. 21 22. Sozom. l. 7.19 And when Victor would needs impose his Observation of Easter such Feuds and Heats were raised thereby as made them the scorn of the Pagans and were greatly lamented by all sober Bishops and Christians and both Cyprian and Irenaeus greatly blame him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as stretching the Rigour of his Government Euseb l. 5. c. 24. not only beyond his line but also to Causes of indifferency which would not admit of such severe Censures And as Ceremonies and Impositions encreased Contentions grew up with them till at last a great part of the Christian World was laid in a dead sleep with that Poison poured into the Church and for a long time became like Issachar a strong Ass submitting to every Burthen then indeed there was almost a Universal Agreement about Ceremonies and a general Prostitution of Conscience to the dictates of the pretended Catholick Church but that was the darkest and worst state wherein Christianity ever was in the World I come now to examine this Gentleman's Account of the Corinthian Schism and indeed hic pes figendus this is the Core of the Controversie and the hinge upon which it turns if he be right in this he has broken Mr. H's Measures and put him upon a new Enquiry Mr. H. supposes that these Corinthians who are reproved for their Schismatical Contentions were agreed in the fundamental Articles of Faith and great Truths of the Gospel but engaged in foolish and uncharitable Contests about the Apostles some commending Paul and preferring him before the rest others crying up Cephas and a third sort Apollos thus having the Faith of Christ with respect of Persons This Gentleman has learned from Dr. Hammend to say That the Persons reproved for these Contentions were the Gnostick Hereticks Review p. 20 21. that denied the Resurrection of the Dead and lived in Incest and disswaded the People from Marriage and sacrificed to Idols that they might escape Persecution some of them pretend they had their heretical Doctrines from St. Paul P. 22. others fathered theirs upon Apollos others upon Cephas and another sort pretended they had seen Christ himself and received those Doctrines from his Mouth And he affirms they were Heretical Gnosticks only and not the Orthodox P. 24. who are reprehended by the Apostle for saying I am of Paul and I of Apollos and concludes that the Schism of the Corinthians lay in opposing the sound Orthodox Doctors and maintaining their own wild Heresies under the Umbrage of these great Names Were it not for these Gnostick Hereticks I know not what some Men could do to misunderstand plain Scripture if we meet with any smart Reproofs in the Apostolical Epistles still they must be levell'd at the Gnostick Hereticks if any were guilty of Fornication it was the Gnosticks if any of Temporizing or of Schism they were Gnosticks as if all besides them had been Pure and Innocent This is too great partiality and savours much of the Pharisaical Humour of some Modern Men that are for casting the Odium of every ill thing upon those they are pleased to call Schismaticks that under this Blind all the Sons of the Church may come off clear and be thought in every thing blameless and inoffensive Now although I make no question but there were such Hereticks in those days and that they were as bad as he describes them that some of them lived amongst the Corinthians and that the Apostle sometimes speaks concerning them though I seldom find that he speaks directly to them yet that these were the persons here reproved for Schism much less the only persons I can never believe For these reasons 1. 1 Cor. 1. The Character which the Apostle gives of these contentious Corinthians in the context will by no means fit the Gnostick Hereticks for we find he calls them the Church of God Saints and in the 9th verse Persons that were called into the Fellowship of Christ Jesus our Lord and in the very same verses wherein he admonishes them of their Schismatical Contentions he calls them Brethren v. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions amongst you For it hath been declared unto me of you my Brethren that there are contentions among you Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul c. Can any Man imagine these such gross and damned Hereticks as the Gnosticks have been always described Can we believe the same Apostle that was so sharp upon those that urged the Jewish Ceremonies as to call them Dogs and Evil Workers and bid the Christians beware of them would be so tender and kind so affectionate and endearing to the vilest corrupters of the Christian Faith as to call them Saints and Brethren and all the good names imaginable I am sure the Church of England seldom speaks to Protestant Dissenters in such obliging language and yet I hope we are not altogether so bad as the Gnostick Hereticks 2. If the fault here reproved had been Herefie and such as this Gentleman speaks of there 's no question but the Apostle
proving the Dissenters Schismaticks and the Vindicator repay'd him with another of those that have defended them from that Charge And adds whether these have not done as much to prove the Imposers Schismaticks as the former to prove the Dissenters such is referred not to the judgment of an interessed Party but of all the unbyass'd part of Mankind Our famous Surveyor asks Where shall we have a Council of such For those that have a Liturgy and Ceremonies and Bishops are certainly for us and those that are for none of these are all byassed against us But Sir the Question to be referr'd is not whether a Liturgy and Ceremonies and Bishops are lawful but whether such as ours be so and whether it be lawful to take those Oaths and make those Declarations that have been required of us and as there is no Church upon Earth requires the same things as this of our Nation so we have judges enough of this matter that are disinteressed without going to Pagans or Atheists for them and what their thoughts are has been already in part discovered He would help T.W. to prove that a Man who is not divested of all Christian Temper Humility and Consideration Review p. 34. may yet be in a desperate condition because it seems He may not have Grains enough of these Virtues to save him What! must we have a statical Divinity too If a Man has Christian Faith though it be but as a Grain of Mustard-seed it will be effectual to Salvation and I know not why the same may not be said of all other Graces he that has them not in the prevailing degree has them not at all that Man in whom Pride is Habitually prevalent has not the least Grain of Christian Humility The Gentleman therefore must find out some other Salvo against the next time The Vindicator took notice of a blunder in the Citizen in calling the same Person Sceptical a Slighter of our Religion Obstinate and Perverse c. And thought Sceptical and Obstinate did not jump well together This Gentleman endeavours to help him here too and says T.W. intended these as so many several Characters and did not intend to unite them all in one Person But it is certain he did he speaks in the singular number if thou be Sceptical I shall altogether glory in thy Scoffs c. These are all joined together no disjunctive particle betwixt them all lodged in one single Person in a distinct Paragraph as a third Man distinct both from the Church-man and Dissenter and this is so plain that Alderman himself as this Author calls him was too honest to deny it The Question concerning the ninth Article of the Creed and in what sence T. W. sets it up as a Standard of Controversie is fully manifested in the Preface to this Paper And 't is a very groundless suggestion that we have any design to lay it aside that we may impose whatever Notions we please upon the World we very well approve of the Creeds and have subscribed to them and to the Doctrine of the Church as laid down in the Articles and it were to be wished your own Ministers kept as close to those Articles in their Preaching as ours do The Vindicator has been already defended in the exceptions he took at T. W's date of the Origination of the Catholick Church This Gentlaman says he spoke of it under the denomination of Christian which is very false as those that read the passage will see however the Alderman is beholden to his brisk Champion for he 'll say any thing in the World to help him at a dead lift He puts the question Whether when our Saviour said upon this Rock I will build my Church he did not speak of it as yet unbuilt I answer if by unbuilt he means unfinished it is true for the Church Universal is a building in fieri and will not be compleated till the End of the World But if by unbuilt he means unbegun I say there is no reason so to understand the words of our Saviour for he has been building his Church upon the same Rock there spoken of from the Fall of Man but I am loth to spend time upon such quibbles if the Gentleman had mentioned the Christian Church or if he had not said a few Lines before that the Angels were the most glorious Members of the Church I dare say the Vindicator would not have taken notice of it Review p. 35. nor have blamed him no more than Tertullian and Jerome for speaking of the Christian Church in its infancy And though the Vindicator acknowledges the Apostles and Disciples were the Church he did not say the whole Church much less that the Church then had its first existence I hope when these Gentlemen call the Church of England the Church they do not mean the Church Universal I desire this Gentleman to give us some better proof than his bare Word that ever the Apostles imposed upon the Disciples things indifferent P. 36. especially because they tell us it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them not to do so And he must also prove that the Bishops are their Successors in the same plenitude of power till then he beats the Air but gains no Victory The Vindicator bewails the slow Progress the Gospel has made in the World and imputes it in part to the needless Ceremonies with which Men have encumbred it and want of Personal worth in the managers To this he replies The Divines of the Church of England are no way concerned in it No What! not when there is so much notorious Debauchery amongst us that insolently out-faces all the Letters and Orders whereby our Pious King and Queen have stirred up Magistrates and Ministers to do what they can for the suppression of it And yet these Gentlemen see no want of success of the Gospel in England but are for recommending to the Dissenters a Journey to China or Tartary Alass Man The design of the Gospel is not onely to give Nations another Title but to make the Inhabitants other Men and if you be not sensible that has made but a slow Progress in England in that which is its main design you 'll make but an ill Watch-man upon the Walls of your Church And if our Ministers should take such a journey as you are pleased to assign them it is not the first time that they have been forced to leave the dear and pleasant land of their Nativity and expose themselves to the fatigues of a tedious Voyage and all the dangers and hardships of a Pagan Wilderness that there at least they might enjoy that liberty of serving God according to his Word Vid. The Life of Mr. Elliot amongst the Barbarous Indians to whom they brought the Glorious Gospel and what toils they under-went and what success God was pleased to give them the whole World has seen and admired The Citizen acknowledged that in the Primitive times there was
Churches We now come to the proof of an uninterrupted Succession and let us see whether this Gentleman can demonstrate it better than his Alderman it must be remembred that according to these men the Truth of their Church the Authority of their Ministry the Validity of their Sacraments and the Salvation of their Souls depend upon this Line and therefore it requires a proof suitable to the vast weight that is laid upon it and whether he has given us such evidence let the Reader judge He tells us As far as we have an account we find the Succession regular and we have no Reason to doubt of the like care in former Ages we rely upon the Providence of God and the Care and Integrity of our Ancestors and no man shall bereave us of our Confidence Confidence indeed in the highest degree but what if God has never promised such an unbroken line how can we think his Providence should be engaged to preserves it or where has he said it should be preserved in England and what if our Ancestours who were Idolatrous Papists had no integrity nor took no care of any thing but to flatter the Pope and enrich themselves and enslave the World a miserable Faith and Hope that depends upon the Care and Integrity of Apostate Antichristian Bishops and Churches What he says about the Vindicators descending from Adam as if it were as impossible for a Priest to come into a Bishoprick without Episcopal Consecration as for a Man to come into the World without ordinary Generation is so perfectly ludicrous that as I suppose it was only designed to make the Club merry so I shall leave it wholly to them But that which goes before must not be so soon dismist he pretends that we have as good Evidence of an uninterrupted Succession of Ministers Episcopally ordain'd as of pure and genuine Scriptures Vid. Review p. 44. and says he although we have not the Original Manuscripts to compare the One nor entire Fasti in the other Case yet unless any will produce matter of Fact to shew that we are deceived no man shall bereave us of our Confidence But this will satisfie no Body but those that are resolved to be Confident right or wrong for That we have true Scripture is a thing much more capable of Demonstration than that none of our Bishops have ever wanted Episcopal Ordination it is much more easie to impose an unordained Person upon a particular Church Nor could men lye under the same temptations to the one as to the other than a false Bible upon the whole World in the latter all the World would be equally concerned to discover and reject the imposture in the other a particular Diocess is only interested in the one they had a great number of Copies spread abroad by which they might compare and try any that was offered to them in the other they might have nothing but the Credentials or Certificates of Persons dead or living remote which might easily be forged and they not able to find it out And for the Authority of the Scriptures we do not depend upon the single Credit and care of the Antichristian Churches but of many others that have not been made so drunk with the Wine of her Fornication We have the Greek Armenian and African Churches to assure us of this great point but as to the continued Episcopal Ordination of our Bishops we solely depend upon the credit of a blind and deceitful Generation that have out-done all Mankind in deceiving the Nation and putting a thousand cheats upon the World In the matter and stile of the Scriptures themselves we have most excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Indications of their divine Original but no such inherent Mark or Character of Divinity is found upon the whole Line and Order of Episcopacy It was always accounted the most horrid Sin in the World to forge or adulterate the Scriptures but I have already proved in this Treatise that in Popish Ages the Power of Ordination was sometimes given to those that were no Bishops and though this was one of the incroachments which the Popes made upon the rights of Episcopacy as Dr. Sherlock tells us yet if they assumed such a power it is greatly to be suspected they did not fail to execute it Besides none ever pretended that the Salvation of mens Souls does absolutely depend upon having a compleat and entire Canon of Scripture but according to these men it does wholly lye upon an entire Line of Succession In these and many other Circumstances these two Cases vastly differ and he that has no more to say for the Authority of Scripture than this man has said for his Line would greatly betray the Honour of his Profession and he that would perswade the World that we have no better Evidences of the Truth of our Bibles than of such a Line does the worst Office imaginable to the Interests of Christianity and to use his own Words it is one of the slyest Libels upon Scripture that I have lately met with Here again the business of the Abbot of Hye falls in our way but having sisted it already I shall not make Repetitions This Gentleman would Salve and Patch up the Business by Suppositions Suppose the Succession of Bishops from that Abbot were extinct and true Bishops called in to Consecrate then the Line would be pieced again And yet all the Churches and Christians that lived under the Successors of that Abbot were damned by their Doctrine but what if they were not all extinct which is unreasonable to suppose and impossible to prove suppose that Line should reach to our times then all within it are Lay Impostors I think the Bishops ought to oblige these men that talk at this rate to demonstrate that the Line is Right or else Chastise them severely for making their Authority depend upon a Supposition impossible to be proved The Gentleman denies that the Church of Rome allows an Abbot Presbyter to Consecrate a Bishop and makes challenges and oppresses his Margin with Citations out of the Schoolmen and indeed to give him his due he has endeavoured all along by the redundancy of the Margin to make amends for the emptiness of the Page which looks like a shallow muddy stream hemm'd in with a flowry Bank on each side but who knows not that there is a manifest difference betwixt what the Court of Rome Practises and what the Schoolmen determine Bellarmine himself upon the Note of Succession confesses that the Pope may by particular Delegation impower Mytred Abbots though meer Presbyters to supply the place of two of the Bishops in the business of Consecration The Presbyters of Alexandria Consecrated their Patriarch for several Generations Cassianus tells us of a young man called Daniel Sum. Angelic Ord. Sect. 13. Filuc Jesu de Casibus Cons par 1. Tract 9. c. 5. Alens sum Theol. par 4. q. 9. m. 5. who lived amongst the Monks of Egypt
See Fuller lb. But Cranmer and Ridley and others who by Politick compliances had weathered out the Storm very stiffly defended them under the pretences of Antiquity and Decency The Unhappy differences betwixt Ridley and Hooper about these things are sufficiently known and so is that happy agreement to which they came when they were Prisoners for the Truth in the Marian days And by Ridleys Letter to Hooper it appears that his sufferings had changed his Thoughts concerning those by-matters as he calls them for which in Prosperity he had so warmly contended he confesseth it was Hoopers Wisdom to reject them and his Simplicity to urge them Your Wisdom and my Simplicity I grant hath a little jarred A learned and worthy Person that has lately descanted upon that Letter B. of S. seems to think that this was only spoken out of Ridleys abundant humility and condescention and that it should be taken for granted that Ridley was in the right and Hooper in the wrong especially because a Law interposed but with all possible respect to that great Man we cannot easily admit this supposition We do verily believe Ridley was in the wrong and though he acted according to his Judgment which was really great in other matters yet in this it was misinformed and we think our selves obliged to believe him when he expresly says it was his simplicity to jarr with Hooper in this matter And that which made his Rigor the more blameable was that he persisted in it notwithstanding the King 's earnest Request to the contrary first by the Earl of Warwick then under his own Signet wherein he highly commends Hooper's Learning Judgment Discretion and Probity and promises to save the Bishops from all Penalties they might incur by passing over those Rites and Ceremonies that were offensive to his Conscience but instead of complying herewith Hooper is sent to Prison no wonder if this caused Ridley to make such reflections upon himself when he was under the like Confinement The Learned Author adds That Ridley spoke these diminishing things of himself in the absence of the Law when it was repealed but that I suppose does not in the least alter the case for if his contending with Hooper was justifiable at first it would have remained so still and the quality of the action could not be changed by any thing ex post-facto but must needs stand good or bad as it was when first done and under those Circumstances no doubt it was reviewed when the simplicity thereof was acknowledged and I fear it will not so well consist with the honour that is due to the Memory of that blessed Martyr to think that out of meer Complement to Hooper he would disapprove of what he had done had he really believed he had done well in it He that was ready to suffer the utmost extremity for the great Truths of Religion would not upon any account have recanted his Judicious Zeal for the Unity of the Church and Decency of Religion if he had so esteemed of it but his Sentiments were now changed and that which before he thought to be Wisdom and Zeal he now confesses was simplicity Whilst this good Bishop was thus acknowledging his weakness and gladly embracing those to whom he had been formerly somewhat troublesome others of his Brethren who had escaped the Fiery Tryal and were not humbled enough to see their folly werefomenting differences even in the Sanctuaries to which they fled The most famous Congregation of English Exiles was seated at Frankfort where they had a Church granted them by the Magistrates Troubles of Frankfort printed 1575 who required them to observe the Model of the French Churches in their Service which they willingly consented to forbearing to answer aloud after the Minister omitting the Litany Surplice and other Ceremonies as superfluous and superstitious instead of the Confession in the English Liturgy used another better fitted to the present time and state of Affairs then sang a Psalm in Metre in a plain Tune then the Minister prayed for the Divine Assistance and so proceeded to the Sermon then followed a prayer for all States particularly for England which ended with the Lord's Prayer then the rehearsal of the Articles of our Belief then another Psalm and the Minister concluded with the Blessing In this posture the Affairs of that Church stood Fuller Ch. Histor Cent. 16. l. 8. p. 30. when Dr. Cox arrived there out of England who being a man of a high Spirit as Dr. Fuller speaks of him came one day into the Congregation and made a great disturbance amongst them answering aloud after the Minister and the next Lord's day one of his company without the knowledge and consent of the Congregation got up into the Pulpit and there read all the Litany using the English Ceremonies therein this no doubt was done for the sake of Decency and Order and Church-Unity though impartial men will think it was a very improper Method for the accomplishment of such designs These Irregular proceedings Dr. Burnet acknowledges that this Dr. Cox was the unhappy occasion of all the Troubles at Frankfort Observat upon Ridleys Letter to Hooper p. 4. Dr. Fuller ib. had almost ruined all for the Principal Magistrates of the Place protest if the Reformed Order of the Churches of Frankfort were not observed the Doors should be shut upon them again and thus says Fuller the Coxan Party depressed embrac'd a strange way to raise themselves accusing Mr. Knox the Pastor of the Church of High Treason against the Emperor in words spoken several years before in another Land and Language when he owed no Allegiance to him and this was so zealously urged that the Magistrates could do no less than will him to depart the City lest they should not seem tender enough of the Emperor's Honour so that at last Dr. Cox might say as the Historian observes With great rather than good Wrestlings have I wrestled and have prevailed When Queen Elizabeth came to the Throne there seemed a fair prospect of further Reformation and Union and divers of the Bishops that had been sufferers were willing to have promoted it but others were still tenacious of their Old Customs and greatly affected External Pomp and Gallantry in Divine Service and the Queen her self was very much of that humour as appears by Grindal's Letter to Bullinger dated August 27. Burnets Letters p. 52. 1566. where he writes that all the Bishops who had been beyond Sea dealt with the Queen to let the matter of the Habits fall but she was so prepossest that though they endeavoured to divert her from prosecuting that matter she continued still inflexible And Bishop Jewel in a Letter to the same Person dated July 16. 1565. writes of the Act concerning the Habits with great regret and expresses some hopes that it might be Repealed the next Session of Parliament Ibid. p. 53. if the Popish Party did not hinder it And the present Bishop