as once mention'd Cum in Universâ Ecclesiâ unam Sacramentorum administrandorum rationem essentialem materiam nimirum formam statuere necesse est nec in Graeca illius portione alia quam manus Impositio queat assignari Indubie sequitur in Latinâ eandem quoque essentialem esse reputandam ibid. but Imposition of Hands and his Inference from all is very remarkable and much against the now prevailing Tenet of the Roman Church That since it 's necessary there should be some one Essential Rule or Method of dispensing Holy Orders in the Vniversal Church and that there can be no other Matter of Orders assign'd in the Eastern parts of that Church but only Imposition of Hands it must follow without Dispute that even in the Latine Church the same exclusive of all other Ceremonies is Essential to them And to this Opinion of his methinks that of St. Chrysostome agrees very well who tells us in plain terms This is Ordination The Hand is laid upon the Man but God Operates the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Act. Ap. Hom 14. and it 's Gods Hand which touches the Head of the Person Ordained if he be Ordained Regularly If then all this be true if we have indeed the concurrence of so large a part of the Catholick Church as the Greek is and that the Form of words us'd by them is no more Demonstrative of the Order to be conferr'd than ours in the Church of England was at the beginning of the Reformation we can be no more deny'd to have a Regular Succession of Church Officers than they And we may suppose such Considerations mov'd St. Clara P. Walsh and others of the Roman Communion to allow our Orders as full and valid to all intents and purposes But that we want a Power to offer other Sacrifices than those of Praise and Thanksgiving is a Want no more intolerable in our Priests or Presbyters than it was in the Apostles themselves And I have not yet heard of any Catholick Tradition that either our Saviour us'd those words Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifices c. to any Apostle or that the Apostles us'd it to any of those whom they afterwards Commission'd to Preach the Gospel 5. Our Orders then being valid as to to their Essentials notwithstanding that great Pretended defect it will follow that all that Charge laid upon our Church of Heresy and Schism can no way render them imperfect or ineffectual And if the Roman Doctrine of the Indelible Character be true those who assert that must for their own sake defend our Church especially since it 's apprehended by some as we observ'd before that a denial of the Indelible Character would irrecoverably ruine the Sacrament And such indeed was the Doctrine of the Ancient Church in which the Hereticks and Schismaticks are with all Severity prohibited to ordain any or to Administer Sacraments yet if they would still without fear of Ecclesiastical Censure presume to do such things their Actions were good and in full force Antiquity so concurring with that Common Law Maxime Quod fieri non debet factum valet That which of it self or so and so circumstatiated ought not to be done yet when it is once done stands good and irreversible I wonder not indeed that Baptism tho given by Hereticks should be approv'd in the Church of Rome since they allow Lay-men Women Persons unbaptiz'd nay Jews or Turks to baptize in cases of necessity But in so doing they seem much to forget a standing Rule of their own That none can give that to another which he never had himself For as I remember they tell us That Baptism is one of those Sacraments which imprint an indelible Character Yet such is the Doctrine of their great Aquinas They deny indeed that any can give Holy Orders except Bishops but He who is once made a Bishop must continue so to his lifes end nor can the Irregularity of his Conversation nor any Schism created by him in the Church nor any Heresy invested or propagated by him take away that Episcopal Power personally invested in him howsoever the Exercise of that Power may be restrain'd by Civil or Ecclesiastical Constitutions and consequently those capable of Orders who are consecrated by such Bishops are really Deacons Priests or Bishops according to the particular Character impress'd on them So we may find Arrian Bishops Ordaining others of equally Heretical Sentiments with themselves which Persons so Ordain'd if at any time they abjur'd their Heretical Pravity were receiv'd into the Orthodox Church and admitted to exercise the same Offices they were formerly assign'd to without Re-ordination To this purpose we read in the Answers to the Orthodox publish'd among the works of Justin Martyr That the Crime of an Heretick returning to the true Faith if it had been only some false Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resp ad Orthod 14. was to be rectified by a change of Judgment if it were an Error in Baptism by Confirmation if in Orders by laying on of Hands which laying on of Hands was no Reordination but only a particular Ceremony whereby the laps'd in time of Persecution as well as those who had fallen into Heresie Laymen as well as Clergy Men were readmitted into Catholick Communion So Dionysius of Alexandria in Eusebius tells us That it was an Ancient Custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 2. that such should be receiv'd into the Church by Prayer with laying on of hands and Aurelius Bishop of Carthage determining concerning the Schismatical Dotanists orders That seeing it was not lawful to iterate that which was to be given but once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. gen T. 2. p. 1083. if they heartily renounced that Error they may be receiv'd into that one Church the Mother of all Christians by laying on of hands And the same care is taken in the Eighth Canon of the first Council of Nice which is plain it self and so interpreted by Balsamon Zonaras and Aristenus and farther illustrated by our Learned Beverege The same is attested on the part of the Latin Church August cont Epist Par. l. 2. c. 13. Anastasii 2. Epistola ad Anast Imp. de Acacio Acacianis Conc. gen T. 4. c. 7. 8. by St. Austin in his answer to the Epistle of Parmenian the Donatist and by Anastasius the Second of that Name Bishop of Rome in an Epistle to Anastasius Emperour of Constantinople The care taken was only this That the persons should be qualified according to the Canons of the Church in that case provided and that the Persons ordaining should be really Bishops which things being secured the Ordain'd upon Readmission to Catholick Communion retain'd their Offices and Powers still To conclude this then If Orders be no Sacrament in a strict sense if the Essence of them consist only in Imposition of the hands of Bishops if the Greek and Antient Latin Church and the most
learned persons of the Latin Communion now agree in that Doctrine if the Church of England in her first reform'd Rituals gave as clear an Assignation to his particular Office to the Person ordain'd as either the Greek or Roman Church do at present and finally if real Heresy or Schism cannot annihilate Episcopal Sacerdotal power The consequence of all must be That our Orders are still good and valid and the Establish'd Church of England so far at least a true and sound Member of the Catholick Church of Christ And now it were no difficult Matter to retort the Objection against our Adversaries and prove the invalidity of their Orders upon the Principles and Practices of their own Church For 1. They tell us That it 's the Intention of the Priest not the Form or Matter of Institution that makes the Sacrament So that tho a Man be ordain'd a Priest or a Bishop with all the Ceremonies of the Pontifical and by a Bishop with those very words now made use of in the Exhibition of the Vessels yet if the Bishop minds not what he 's about or intend not to do what the Church intends the Ordain'd remains still without either Character or Power by which means if one Bishop has but once fail'd in the Collation of Orders they run down for ought they know in infinitum without any due Consecration and since humane Frailties are so many and the Artifices of Hell so incessant and prevailing as we must needs have a great many Doubts naturally grow upon us concerning the Intentions of those whole lives we see Extravagant and Impious so from thence we necessarily deduce an Infinity of Uncertaintys If this Conceipt were only the Caprice of some wild Head it were the less considerable But it 's the determination of their oraculous Council of Trent Si quis dixerit in Ministris dum Sacramenta conficiunt conferunt non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit Ecclesia Anathema sit Sessio 7. Can. 11. that If any shall say there is not required in Ministers while they Consecrate and dispence the Sacraments an Intention at least of doing what the Church does Let that Person so saying be accurs'd And the Annotators upon the Plantin Edition of that Council refers us to the Decrees of Eugenius the 4th in the Florentine Council where we are taught That the Sacraments are perfected by three things By outward Signs Omnia Sacramenta tribus persiciuntur videlicet Rebus tanquam Materia Verbis tanquam Forma Persona Ministri conferentis Sacramentum cum intentione faciendi quod facit Ecclesia quorum si aliquod desit non perficit Sacramentum Instruct ad Armenos Conc. gen T. 13. p. 535. as the Matter by Words as the Form and by the Person of the Minister dispensing the Sacrament with an intention of doing that which the Church does of which three things if any one be wanting there can be no Sacrament It were an easie work to confute this Opinion as being both Unscriptural and Irrational Sacramenta ministrari possunt à bonis à malis à fidelibus infidelibus infra Ecclesiam extra quia si dispensari possint tantum à bonis nullus esset certus de susceptione Sacramenti cum nullus fit certus de bonitate Ministri sicut nec de propria ita oporteret semper iterari malitia unius praejudicaret alienae saluti Lindwood Constit prov l. 1. tit 7. gl pro quibus citat B. Thom. Edit Oxon. 1679. Intra Catholicam Ecclesiam in Mysterio Corporis Sanguinis Domini nihil à bono majus nihil à malo minus perficitur Sacerdote quia non in merito Consecratis sed in verbo perficitur Creatoris virtute Spiritus Sancti Decreti p. 2. c. 1. Qu. 1. citat ex Augustino contra Epist Parmen l. 2. and how it thwarts the Doctrine of some great Men of your own may be seen by those Passages in the Margin but as they assert it it is Argumentum ad Homines the consequence of which we know well enough the Truth we shall leave them to make good as well as they can But if we look upon Consecration to Church Offices only as an Holy Ordinance but no Sacrament We may then challenge the Church of Rome as introducing a Nullity in their Orders by so notorious a deviation from the Examples of Christ and his Apostles from the Methods of the Ancient Vniversal Church and from their own Authentick Constitutions to prove which Crime of theirs we may recur to those Authorities before insisted on From which we learn That Imposition of Hands was the only Essence of Orders that their modern Ceremonies are meer Innovations and as by them us'd shameful Corruptions of the first Institution For tho' we allow that Power to the Governors of every true Christian Church to add some significant Ceremonies to a Divine Ordinance provided they are neither Indecent Superstitious nor Troublesome and therefore might pass by that addition of touching the Consecrated Vessels among other little Fooleries of that Church Yet since they have fixt the Essence of that Ordinance in that touching of those Vessels and have made Imposition of Hands rather an impertinent Formality than a matter of Necessity as may appear from that of Gregory the Ninth In fragmentis Decretalium we cannot but conclude that they have gone beyond all bounds of Just Ecclesiastical Authority For in that Decree as it 's plain that Imposition of Hands is made a meer non-essential Circumstance so it infers a Power in persons Ordain'd to execute their Functions in all parts Presbyter Diaconus cum ordinantur Manus impositionem tactu corporali â—itu ab Apostolis introducto recipiunt Quod si omissum fuerit non est aliquatenus iterandum sed statuto tempore ad hujusmodi Ordines conferendos cautè supplendum quod per errorem extitit praetermissum Concil general T. 11. p. 384. c. 52. Epist ad Archiepiesc Lond. In margine vero decretalium melius legitur Lugdunensem as occasion requires without it for it lays no prohibition on them and yet orders the supplying of all defects only at Canonical times the Interstices of which are long enough to admit various exertions of Diaconal or Sacerdotal Power Nor does the Gloss upon this part of the Canon Law help the matter at all though it be clog'd with a Superfaetation of Notes For tho' the first be That a Deacon and Presbyter ought to be Ordain'd by Imposition of Hands the second that that manner of Ordination is deduc'd from Apostolical example Nota 1. Quòd Presbyter Diaconus per manus Impositionem debet Ordinari Item Nota. Quòd Ordinatio Sacerdotis Diaconi introducta est exemplo Apostolorum Item nota quòd idem est in parte quod in toto Item Quòd duo imperfecta faciunt unum perfectum Decretal Greg. l. 1. Tit. 16. c. 3. gl p. 282.
Materia est illud per cujus traditionem confertur Ordo sicut Presbyteratus traditur per Calicis cum vino patenae cum pane porrectionem Forma Sacerdotii talis est accipe potestatem offerendi c. Concil g. T. 13. p. 538. as the Order of Priesthood is given by offering the Chalice with Wine and the Patten with Bread to be touch'd by the person ordain'd and the Form of Priesthood is that Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice c. To which Passage the formerly-cited Merbesius gives a very trifling Answer That the Council of Florence forsooth did not determine this Conciliariter or as a Matter of Faith and Dogmatically but only at the rate of Common discourse without telling whether the Patten or Chalice were the Essential or only the Accidental matter of Orders which is wholly Impertinent and no way reconcileable to what follows in the Conclusion of that Decree viz. These things being thus explicated the Armenian Orators in their own name His omnibus explicatis Armenorum Oratores nomine suo sui Patriarchae omnium Armenorum hoc saluberrimum Synodale Decretum cum omnibus suis Capitulis declarationibus definitionibus traditionibus praeceptis statutis omnem que Doctrinam in ipsâ descriptam nec non quicquid tenet docet Sancta sedes Apostolica Romana Ecclesi cum omnia devotione obedientiâ acceptant suscipiunt amplectuntur P. 540. and in the name of their Patriarch and of all the Armenians do with all Devotion and Obedience submit to and embrace this most wholesome Synodical Decree with all its Canons Declarations Definitions Traditions Precepts and Appointments with all that Doctrine laid down in it and whatsoever else that holy Apostolick See and the Roman Church maintains and teaches And to the same purpose and almost in the same words speaks Cardinal Pool Concil T. 14. p. 1740. our Country-man in his Decree concerning the Reduction of England to the Roman Communion But notwithstanding the Expressiveness of three such very considerable Authorities others of the same Communion have presum'd to think otherwise and to fix the Essence of Ordination only in Laying on of hands without regard to any Form of Words whatsoever declaring Laying on of hands and Prayer to be the only Antient and Catholick Ceremonies in the conferring of Holy Orders So Durandus giving an account of what constitutes a Priest assures us That according to Canonical Tradition when a Priest is ordain'd the Bishop giving him his Blessing Secundúm Canonicam traditionem Presbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo cum benedicente manum benedictoriam supra caput ejus tenente omnes Presbyteri qui adsunt manus suas juxta manus Episcopi teneant supra Caput illius Spiritum Sanctum invocantes quae Manus impositio operum Sancti Spiritus exercitationem significat Durand Rational l. 2. c. 10. and holding that hand with which he gave the Blessing upon his head all those Priests who are present lay their hands upon his head too by the hands of the Bishop invoking the influences of the Holy Ghost upon him which Imposition of hands signifies the power of exercising the gifts of the Holy Ghost In which words since he agrees so exactly with as to transcribe the third Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage I need not repeat that again It 's true he mentions afterwards the Ceremony of touching the Chalice and Patten but of that only as additional or accidental not Essential And Casalius in his Book concerning Ancient Christian Rites tho he plainly determine Orders to be one of the seven Sacraments of the new Law yet never mentions the touching the Vessels but only Imposition of hands which Ordo est Signaculum quoddam Ecclesiae quo Spiritualis potestas traditur Ordinato Impositio autem manuum confert gratiam cum effectu consistit Casal de vet Christ Rit c. 26. as he proves from Scripture confers Grace and has its due effects and yet he gives us Aquinas his Definition of that pretended Sacrament The first Council held at Cologne in the year 1536. asserts the same Doctrine That the Episcopal Office consists chiefly in two things the first of which is the laying on of hands Episcopi munus in ducibus poâ—â—ssimum consistit 1. In Imposiâ—iâ—ne manuum quae est Ordinum Ecclesiasti corum collatio Institutio Ministrorum Postea vero Impositio manuum est Ostâ—um per quod Intrant qui Ecclesiarum gubernaculis admoventur Conc. T. 14. p. â— 3. which is the Collation of Ecclesiastical Orders and the Institution of Ministers And afterwards Imposition of hands is that Door by which those are admitted who are rais'd to the Government of the Church So the Council at Mentz Anno 1549. Let the Parish Priests teach their People In collatione Ordinum quae cum Impositione manuum velut visibili signo traditur doceant Parochi ritè ordinatis gratiam divinitùs conferri quâ ad Ecclesiastica munera ritè utiliter exercenda apti idonei efficiantur quà rata sint efficacia quae à ritè ordinatis in Ecclesiâ juxta Christi Ecclesiae Institutionem geruntur Hanc vero gratiam esse Ordinis Muneris non Hominum aut personarum nec ad cujusquam privatam sed ad Communem totius Ecclesiae utilitatem accomodari Ideoque in ritè ordinatis sive boni sive mali sint efficacem esse atque ita inter dispares Ministros Domini nostri dona semper aequalia semper bona sacra permanere Concil T. 14. p. 679. That in the Collation of Orders which are given by the Imposition of hands as the visible sign That Grace is conferr'd by Heaven upon those who are regularly ordain'd by which they are made apt and fit to exercise Offices in the Church duly and profitably and by virtue of which those Church Matters which are managed by Men ordain'd according to the Institution of Christ and his Church are rarified and made efficacious That this Grace belongs not to the Person but to the Office and is accommodated not to any Mans private but to the publique benefit of the Church and therefore is effectual in those rightly ordain'd be they good or bad and therefore the gifts of our Lord tho given to Ministers very differently qualified are still the same always good and always holy Which Doctrine perhaps even in some other particulars is not very agreeable to those opinions espous'd by divers of the Roman Communion I need not add here the Sentiments of Habertus and Goar the learned Editors of the Greek Pontifical and Euchology intending to take notice of them afterwards But I cannot well pass by the Judgment of Bonus Merbesius in the Case who tho he take a great deal of pains to appear Neuter in it yet apparently enough inclines to this That the Essence of Orders consists in this Imposition of hands for which he refers