perducat ut per manus impositionem perfici possit let him be brought to the Bishop that he may be perfected by the imposition of hands To the same purpose is the 77th Can. Episcopus eos per bendictionem perficere debebit The Bishop must perfect those whom the Minister baptiz'd by his benediction The Council of Laodicea decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that are baptized must be anointed with the coelestial Unction and so be partakers of the Kingdom of Christ. All that are so that is are confirm'd for this coelestial Unction is done by holy prayers and the invocation of the Holy Spirit so Zonarus upon this Canon all such who have this Unction shall reign with Christ unless by their wickedness they praeclude their own possessions This Canon was put into the Code of the Catholick Church and makes the 152. Canon The Council of Orleans affirms expresly that he who is baptiz'd cannot be a Christian meaning according to the usual stile of the Church a full and perfect Christian nisi confirmatione Episcopali fuerit Chrismatus unless he have the Unction of Episcopal confirmation But when the Church had long disputed concerning the re-baptizing of Hereticks and made Canons for and against it according as the Heresies were and all agreed that if the first baptism had been once good it could never be repeated yet they thought it sit that such persons should be confirm'd by the Bishop all supposing Confirmation to be the perfection and consummation of the less perfect baptism Thus the first Council of Arles decreed concerning the Arrians that if they had been baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost they should not be re-baptized Manus tantùm eis imponatur ut accipiant Spiritum Sanctum That is let them be confirm'd let there be imposition of hands that they may receive the Holy Ghost The same is decreed by the second Council of Arles in the case of the Bonasiaci But I also find it in a greater record in the General Council of Constantinople where Hereticks are commanded upon their conversion to be received secundùm constitutum Officium there was an Office appointed for it and it is in the Greeks Euchologion sigillatos primò scil Vnctos Vnguento Chrismatis c. signantes eos dicimus Sigillum doni spiritus sancti It is the form of Confirmation used to this day in the Greek Church So many Fathers testifying the practise of the Church and teaching this Doctrine and so many more Fathers as were assembled in six Councils all giving witness to this holy Rite and that in pursuance also of Scripture are too great a Cloud of Witnesses to be despised by any Man that calls himself a Christian. SECT IV. The BISHOPS were alwayes and the onely Ministers of Confirmation SAint Chrysostome asking the reason why the Samaritans who were Baptized by Philip could not from him and by his ministry receive the Holy Ghost answers Perhaps this was done for the honour of the Apostles to distinguish the supereminent dignity which they bore in the Church from all inferiour Ministrations but this answer not satisfying he adds hoc donum non habebat erat enim ex septem illis id quod magis videtur dicendum Vnde meâ sententiâ hic Philippus unus ex septem erat secundus à Stephano Ideo Baptizans spiritum sanctum non dabat neque enim facultatem habebat hoc enim donum solorum Apostolorum erat This gift they had not who Baptized the Samaritans which thing is rather to be said than the other for Philip was one of the seven and in my opinion next to St. Stephen therefore though he baptized yet he gave not the Holy Ghost for he had no power so to do for this gift was proper onely to the Apostles Nam virtutem quidem acceperant Diaconi faciendi signa non autem dandi aliis spiritum sanctum igitur hoc erat in Apostolis singulare unde praecipuos non alios videmus hoc facere The Ministers that Baptized had a power of doing Signs and working Miracles but not of giving the holy spirit therefore this gift was peculiar to the Apostles whence it comes to pass that we see the cheifs in the Church and no other to do this St. Dionys sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is need of a Bishop to confirm the baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this was the ancient custome of the Church and this was wont to be done by the Bishops for conservation of Unity in the Church of Christ said St. Ambrose A solis Episcopis By Bishops onely said St. Austin For the Bishops succeeded in the place and ordinary Office of the Apostles said St. Hierom And therefore in his Dialogue against the Luciferians it is said That this observation for the honour of the Priesthood did descend that the Bishops onely might by Imposition of Hands confer the Holy Ghost that it comes from Scripture that it is written in the Acts of the Apostles that it is done for the prevention of Schismes that the safety of the Church depends upon it But the words of P. Innocentius I. in his first Epistle and third Chapter and published in the first Tome of the Councils are very full to this particular De consignandis infantibus manifestum est non ab alio quà m ab Episcopo fieri licere Nam Presbyteri licèt sint sacerdotes pontificatus tamen apicem non habent haec autem pontificibus solis deberi ut vel consignent vel paracletum spiritum tradant non solùm consuetudo Ecclesiastica demonstrat verùm illa lectio Actuum Apostolorum quae asserit Petrum Johannem esse directos qui jam Baptizatis traderent spiritum sanctum Concerning Confirmation of Infants it is manifest it is not Lawful to be done by any other than by the Bishop for although the Presbyters be Priests yet they have not the Summity of Episcopacy But that these things are onely due to Bishops is not onely demonstrated by the custom of the Church but by that of the Acts of the Apostles where Peter and John were sent to minister the Holy Ghost to them that were Baptized Optatus proves Macharius to be no Bishop because he was not conversant in the Episcopal Office and imposed hands on none that were Baptized Hoc unum à majoribus fit id est à summis Pontificibus quod à minoribus perfici non potest said P. Melchiades This of Confirmation is onely done by the greater Ministers that is by the Bishops and cannot be done by the lesser This was the constant practise and Doctrine of the Primitive Church and derived from the practice and tradition of the Apostles and recorded in their Acts written by St. Luke For this is our great Rule in this case what they did in Rituals and consigned to Posterity is our example and
Baptisma est nativitas unguentum vero est nobis actionis instar motus said Cabasilas In Baptism we are intitled to the inheritance but because we are in our infancy and minority the Father gives unto his Sons a Tutor a Guardian and a Teacher in Confirmation said Rupertus that as we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ So in Confirmation we may be renewed in the inner man and strengthned in all our Holy vows and purposes by the Holy Ghost ministred according to Gods ordinance The Holy Rite of Confirmation is a Divine ordinance and it produces Divine effects and is ministred by Divine persons that is by those whom God hath sanctified and separated to this ministration At first all that were baptiz'd were also confirm'd and ever since all good people that have understood it have been very zealous for it and time was in England even since the first beginnings of the reformation when Confirmation had been less carefully ministred for about six years when the people had their first opportunities of it restor'd they ran to it in so great numbers that Churches and Church-yards would not hold them insomuch that I have read that the Bishop of Chester was forc'd to impose hands on the people in the Fields and was so oppressed with multitudes that he had almost been trod to death by the people and had dyed with the throng if he had not been rescued by the Civil power But Men have too much neglected all the ministeries of grace and this most especially and have not given themselves to a right understanding of it and so neglected it yet more But because the prejudice which these parts of the Christian Church have suffered for want of it is very great as will appear by enumeration of the many and great blessings consequent to it I am not without hope that it may be a service acceptable to God and an useful ministery to the souls of my charges if by instructing them that know not and exhorting them that know I set forward the practise of this Holy rite and give reasons why the people ought to love it and to desire it and how they are to understand and practise it and consequently with what duteous affections they are to relate to those persons whom God hath in so special and signal manner made to be for their good and eternal benefit the Ministers of the Spirit and salvation S. Bernard in the life S. Malachias my Predecessor in the See of Downe and Connor reports that it was the care of that good Prelate to renew the rite of Confirmation in his Diocess where it had been long neglected and gone into desuetude It being too much our case in Ireland I find the same necessity and am oblig'd to the same procedure for the same reason and in pursuance of so excellent an example Hoc enim est Evangelizare Christum said S. Austin non tantùm docere quae suut dicenda de Christo sed etiam quae observanda ei qui accedit ad compagem corporis Christi For this is to preach the Gospel not only to teach those things which are to be said of Christ but those also which are to be observed by every one who desires to be confederated into the Society of the body of Christ which is his Church that is not only the doctrines of good life but the mysteries of godliness and the Rituals of Religion which issue from a Divine fountain are to be declar'd by him who would fully preach the Gospel In order to which performance I shall declare 1. The Divine Original Warranty and Institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation 2. That this Rite was to be perpetual and never ceasing ministration 3. That it was actually continued and practis'd by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Churches 4. That this Rite was appropriate to the Ministry of Bishops 5. That prayer and imposition of the Bishops hands did make the whole Ritual and though other things were added yet they were not necessary or any thing of the institution 6. That many great Graces and blessings were consequent to the worthy reception and due ministration of it 7. I shall add something of the manner of praeparation to it and reception of it SECT I. Of the Divine Original warranty and institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation IN the Church of Rome they have determin'd Confirmation to be a Sacrament proprii nominis properly and really and yet their Doctors have some of them at least been paulò iniquiores a little unequal and unjust to their proposition in so much that from themselves we have had the greatest opposition in this article Bonacina and Henriquez allow the proposition but make the Sacrament to be so unnecessary that a little excuse may justifie the omission and almost neglect of it And Loemelius and Daniel à Jesu and generally the English Jesuits have to serve some ends of their own family and order disputed it almost into contempt that by representing it as unnecessary they might do all the ministeries Ecclesiastical in England without the assistance of Bishops their Superiours whom they therefore love not because they are so But the Theological faculty of Paris have condemn'd their doctrine as temerarious and savouring of Heresie and in the later Schools have approov'd rather the Doctrine of Gamachaeus Estius Kellison and Bellarmine who indeed doe follow the Doctrine of the most eminent persons in the Ancient School Richard of Armagh Scotus Hugo Cavalli and Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris who following the Old Roman order Amalarius and Albinus doe all teach Confirmation to be of great and pious use of Divine original and to many purposes necessary according to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the primitive Church Whether Confirmation be a Sacrament or no is of no use to dispute and if it be disputed it can never be proov'd to be so as Baptism and the Lords Supper that is as generally necessary to Salvation but though it be no Sacrament it cannot follow that it is not of very great use and holiness and as a Man is never the less tyed to Repentance though it be no Sacrament so neither is he ever the less oblig'd to receive Confirmation though it be as it ought acknowledg'd to be of an use and Nature inferiour to the two Sacraments of Divine direct and immediate institution It is certain that the Fathers in a large Symbolical and general sense call it a Sacrament but mean not the same thing by that word when they apply it to Confirmation as they doe when they apply it to Baptism and the Lords Supper That it is an Excellent and Divine ordinance to purposes spiritual that it comes from God and ministers in our way to God that is all we are concern'd to inquire after and this I shall endeavour to prove not only against the Jesuits but against all opponents
reproov'd SECT II. The Rite of Confirmation is a perpetual and never ceasing Ministery YEa but what is this to us It belong'd to the dayes of wonder and extraordinary The holy Ghost breath'd upon the Apostles and Apostolical men but then he breath'd his last recedente gratiâ recessit disciplina when the Grace departed we had no further use of the Ceremony In answer to this I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by divers particulars evince plainly that this ministery of confirmation was not temporary and relative only to the Acts of the Apostles but was to descend to the Church for ever This indeed is done already in the preceding Sect. In which it is clearly manifested that Christ himself made the Baptism of the Spirit to be necessary to the Church he declar'd the fruits of this Baptism and did particularly relate it to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at and after that glorious Pentecost He sanctifyed it and commended it by his example just as in order to baptism he sanctified the Flood Jordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin viz. by his great example and fulfilling this righteousness also This Doctrine the Apostles first found in their own persons and experience and practised to all their Converts after Baptism by a solemn and external Rite and all this passed into an Evangelical Doctrine the whole mystery being signified by the external Rite in the words of the Apostle as before it was by Christ expressing onely the internal so that there needs no more strength to this Argument But that there may be wanting no moments to this truth which the Holy Scripture affords I shall add more weight to it And 1. The perpetuity of this Holy Rite appears because this great gift of the Holy Ghost was promised to abide with the Church for ever And when the Jews heard the Apostles speak with Tongues at the first and miraculous descent of the Spirit in Pentecost to take off the strangeness of the wonder and the envy of the power St. Peter at that very time tells them plainly Repent and be Baptized every one of you and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the meanest person amongst you all but shall receive this great thing which ye observe us to have received and not onely you but your Children too not your Children of this Generation onely sed Nati natorum qui nascentur ab illis but your Children for ever For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call Now then let it be considered 1. This gift is by promise by a promise not made to the Apostles alone but to all to all for ever 2. Consider here at the very first as there is a verbum a word of promise so there is sacramentum too I use the word as I have already premonished in a large sense onely and according to the stile of the Primitive Church it is a Rite partly Moral partly Ceremonial the first is Prayer and the other is laying on of the hands and to an effect that is but transient and extraordinary and of a little aboad it is not easie to be supposed that such a solemnity should be appointed I say such a solemnity that is it is not imaginable that a solemn Rite annexed to a perpetual Promise should be transient and temporary for by the nature of Relatives they must be of equal abode The promise is of a thing for ever the Ceremony or Rite was annexed to the Promise and therefore this also must be for ever 3. This is attested by St. Paul who reduces this Argument to this Mystery saying In whom after that ye believed signati estis spiritu sancto promissionis ye were sealed by that holy spirit of promise He spake it to the Ephesians who well understood his meaning by remembring what was done to themselves by the Apostles but a while before who after they had Baptized them did lay their hands upon them and so they were sealed and so they received the Holy spirit of promise for here the very matter of Fact is the clearest Commentary on St. Pauls words The spirit which was promised to all Christians they then received when they were consigned or had the Ritual seal of Confirmation by Imposition of hands One thing I shall remark here and that is that this and some other words of Scripture relating to the Sacraments or other Rituals of Religion do principally mean the Internal Grace and our consignation is by a secret power and the work is within but it does not therefore follow that the External Rite is not also intended for the Rite is so wholly for the Mystery and the outward for the inward and yet by the outward God so usually and regularly gives the inward that as no man is to rely upon the External Ministery as if the opus operatum would do the whole Duty so no man is to neglect the External because the Internal is the more principal The mistake in this particular hath caused great contempt of the Sacraments and Rituals of the Church and is the ground of the Socinian errors in these Questions But 4. what hinders any man from a quick consent at the first representation of these plain reasonings and authorities Is it because there were extraordinary effects accompanying this ministration and because now there are not that we will suppose the whole Oeconomy must cease if this be it and indeed this is all that can be supposed in opposition to it it is infinitely vain 1. Because these extraordinary effects did continue even after the death of all the Apostles St. Irenaeus sayes they did continue even to his time even the greatest instance of miraculous power in fraternitate saepissimè propter aliquid necessarium ea quae est in quoquo loco Vniversa Ecclesia postulante per jejunium supplicationem multam reversus est spiritus c. When God saw it necessary and the Church prayed and fasted much they did miraculous things even of reducing the Spirit to a dead man 2. In the dayes of the Apostles the holy spirit did produce miraculous effects but neither alwayes nor at all in all men Are all workers of Miracles Do all speak with Tongues Do all interpret Can all heal No the Spirit bloweth where he listeth and as he listeth he gives gifts to all but to some after this manner and to some after that 3. These gifts were not necessary at all times any more than to all persons but the promise did belong to all and was made to all and was performed to all In the dayes of the Apostles there was an effusion of the Spirit of God it run over it was for themselves and others it wet the very ground they trode upon and made it fruitful but it
licet sed quod ab Episcopo fuerit consecratum Non tamen frontem ex eodem oleo signare quod solis debetur Episcopis cum tradunt Spiritum Paracletum Now this the Bishops did not only to satisfie the desire of the baptized but by this ceremony to excite the votum confirmationis that they who could not actually be confirmed might at least have it in voto in desire and in Ecclesiastical representation This as some think was first introduc'd by Pope Sylvester and this is the consignation which the Priests of Egypt us'd in the absence of the Bishop and this became afterward the practice in other Churches But this was no part of the Holy Rite of Confirmation but a ceremony annexed to it ordinarily from thence transmitted to baptism first by imitation afterwards by way of supply and in defect of the opportunities of Confirmation Episcopal And therefore we find in the first Arausican Council in the time of Leo the first and Theodosius junior it was decreed That in baptism every one should receive Chrism de eo autem qui in baptismate quâ cunque necessitate faciente Chrismatus non fuerit in confirmatione sacerdos commonebitur If the baptized by any intervening accident or necessity was not anointed the Bishop should be advertiz'd of it in Confirmation meaning that then it must be done For the Chrisme was but a ceremony annexed no part of either rite essential to it but yet thy thought it necessary by reason of some opinions then prevailing in the Church But here the rites themselves are clearly distinguish'd and this of Confirmation was never permitted to mere Presbyters Innocentius III a great Canonist and of great authority gives a full evidence in this particular Per frontis Chrismationem manus impositio designatur quia per eam Spiritus Sanctus per augmentum datur robur Vnde cum caeteras unctiones simplex sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere hanc non nisi summus Sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere id est Episcopus conferre By anointing of the forehead the imposition of hands is design'd because by that the Holy Ghost is given for increase and strength therefore when a single Priest may give the other Unctions yet this cannot be done but by the chief Priest that is the Bishop And therefore to the Question what shall be done if a Bishop may not be had The same Innocentius answers It is safer and without danger wholly to omit it than to have it rashly and without authority ministred by any other cum umbra quaedam ostendatur in opere veritas autem non subeat in effectu for it is a meer shadow without truth or real effect when any one else does it but the person whom God hath appointed to this ministration and no approved man of the Church did ever say the contrary till Richard Primate of Ardmagh commenced a new Opinion from whence Thomas of Walden sayes that Wiclâ—f borrowed his Doctrine to trouble the Church in this particular What the Doctrine of the ancient Church was in the purest times I have already I hope sufficiently declared what it was afterwards when the Ceremony of Chrisme was as much remarked as the Rite to which it ministred we finde fully declared by Rabanus Maurus Signatur Baptizatus cum Chrismate per sacerdotem in capitis summitate per Pontificem verò in fronte ut priori Vnctione significetur spiritus sancti super ipsum descensio ad habitationem Deo consecrandam in secundâ quoque ut ejus spiritus sancti septiformis gratia cum omni plenitudine sanctitatis scientiae virtutis venire in hominem declaretur Tunc enim ipse spiritus sanctus post mundata benedicta corpora atque animas liberè à patre descendit ut unà cum suâ visitatione sanctificaret illustraret nunc in hominem ad hoc venit ut signaculum fidei quod in fronte suscepit faciat cum donis coelestibus repletum suâ gratiâ confortatum intrepidè audacter coram Regibus Potestatibus hujus saeculi portare ac nomen Christi liberâ voce praedicare In Baptism the baptized was anointed on the top of the head in Confirmation on the fore-head by that was signified that the Holy Ghost was preparing a habitation for himself by this was declared the descent of the Holy Spirit with his seven-fold gifts with all fulness of knowledge and spiritual understanding These things were signified by the appendant Ceremony but the Rites were ever distinguished and did not onely signifie and declare but effect these Graces by the ministry of Prayer and Imposition of Hands The ceremony the Church instituted and us'd as she pleas'd and gave in what circumstances they would choose and new propositions entred and customes chang'd and deputations were made and the Bishops in whom by Christ was plac'd the fulness of Ecclesiastical power concredited to the Priests and Deacons so much as their occasions and necessities permitted and because in those ages and places where the external ceremony was regarded it may be more than the inward mystery or the Rite of Divine appointment they were apt to believe that the Chrism or exteriour Unction delegated to the Priests Ministery after the Episcopal consecration of it might supply the want of Episcopal confirmation it came to pass that new opinions were entertain'd and the Regulars the Fryers and the Jesuits who were alwayes too little friends to the Episcopal power from which they would fain have been wholly exempted publickly taught in England especially that chrisme ministred by them with leave from the Pope did doe all that which ordinarily was to be done in Episcopal confirmation For as Tertullian complain'd in his time Quibus fuit propositum aliter docendi eos necessitas coëgit aliter disponendi instrumenta Doctrinae They who had purposes of teaching new Doctrines were constrain'd otherwise to dispose of the Instruments and Rituals appertaining to their Doctrines These men to serve ends destroyed the article and overthrew the Ancient Discipline and Unity of the Primitive Church But they were justly censur'd by the Theological faculty at Paris and the censure well defended by Hallier one of the Doctors of the Sorbon whether I refer the Reader that is curious in little things But for the main It was ever call'd Confirmatio Episcopalis impositio manuum Episcoporum which our English word well expresses and perfectly retains the use we know it by the common name of Bishopping of Children I shall no farther insist upon it onely I shall observe that there is a vain distinction brought into the Schools and Glosses of the Canon Law of a Minister ordinary and extraordinary all allowing that the Bishop is appointed the ordinary Minister of Confirmation but they would fain innovate and pretend that in some cases others may be Ministers extraordinary This device is of infinite danger to the destruction of the whole Sacred order of