tolerable shew of Learning and Honesty then they spread it about that there is an Answer ready but the Visitors of the Press are so careful that nothing can escape their diligence But if either their Papers be too barefaced to be owned or if they know them to be so weak that they dare not put them to a tryal then instead of Printing them they Copy them out and give them about Of the former sort the World has got a good Evidence in the Discourses lately published about the Oath of Allegeance which they intended to whisper in corners but are now Proclaimed openly And of the latter sort is the following Paper which begins and ends with the highest confidence that is possible but is so extreamly defective in the point of Argument that they did very wisely not to adventure on publishing it But they must write and do somwhat to keep Spirit in their party and since the defending their own Church has succeeded so ill with them they do wisely to change the Scene and carry in the War to our own Church and make her the Scene of it but they are as ill at attacquing as defending and if we be but safe from their Mines we need not fear their Batteries but their under-ground work is a better game and if they cannot wast us with Destruction at Noontide nor make their Arrows fly by day then they study to infect us with a Pestilence that walketh in darkness and by secret Contrivances and Concealed Papers to compass that which they know can never be brought about by fairdealings and avowed practices But truth is great and the God of truth is greater and will prevail over the fraud of the Serpent as well as the force of the Lion And if we study to adorn our Profession and walk worthy of our Holy Calling we need not fear our Cause nor all the endeavours of those that study to defame us Without this the most laboured Apologies will not signifie much to support our Credit for the World is more affected with lively Instances and great Examples than with the most Learned Composures Every Man's Understanding is wrought on by the one the other only prevail on considering and judicious persons And any charge that is put in against the Pastors or Orders of a Church will be but little regarded when those that bear Office in it chiefly in the highest degrees are burning and shining Lights few will then stumble or be shaken with any thing that can be said to Eclipse their brightness 'T is for the most part want of Merit in Churchmen that recommends any Arguments that are levelled at their persons or functions to the World And though Malice and Spite ferments with the more rage the worthier the persons are against whom it works yet all attempts must needs be not only unsuccessful but fall back with shame on the Authors when all the World sees the Unjustice of them The Contents ARguments to prove the Invalidity of the Orders of the Church of England page 2. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to the former Paper p. 19. An Appendix about the Forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church p. 107. Errata The first Paper is printed exactly according to the Copy that was sent me but these that follow seem to be the errors 〈◊〉 the Transcriber PAge 3. line 24. for such a Form Read to such a Poweâ—… p. 8. l. 27. for 1662. r. 1558. Page 28. l. 19. dele and p. 29. l. 26. for of r. for p. 38. l. 4. for are r. were p. 87. l. 15. for too soon r. too late p. 105 l. 25. after ground r. for p. 112. l. 19. for leges r. legis l. 22. for divum r. Deum p. 123. l. 12. for Sanctifica r. Sanctificatâ—… p. 126. l. 8. for novis r. novei p. 133. l. 26. dele as ARGUMENTS To prove the Invalidity of the ORDERS OF THE Church of England FIRST then I prove that the Ministers of the Church of England are no Priests through the defect of the Form of Ordination which was this pronounced to every one of them when they came to be Ordained Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven whose sins thou retainest they are retained and be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God and his Holy Sacraments in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen After which the Bishop delivers a Bible to him saying Take thou authority to Preach the Word and Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed And my first Reason is Because this Form wants one essential part of Priesthood which is to Consecrate the most Holy Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood giving only power to Administer this Sacrament which any Deacon may do That to Consecrate and make present Christs Body and Blood is necessary Dr. Bramhal the Bishop of Derry one of the chief Abettors of the Protestant Ordination grants in his Book of the Consecration and Succession of Protestant Bishops saying The Form of words whereby men are made Priests must express Power to Consecrate or make present Christs Body and Blood And a little after They who are Ordained Priests ought to have Power to Consecrate Christs Body and Blood that is to make it present page 226. which it is evident by the very terms themselves that this Form expresses nor gives not having not one word expressing that Power which it cannot give without expressing it Secondly Because it wants another essential part which is to offer Sacrifice which the Apostle requires Heb. 5. 1. saying Every High Priest taken from among men is Ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifice for sins Even according to the Protestant Bible and which cannot be meant only of Christ as some Protestants would have it for in the 3. verse he says And by reason hereof he ought as for the people so also for himself to offer for sins whereas Christ had no sins of his own to offer for Thirdly Because those words Whose sins c. at most gave Power to forgive sins and not to Consecrate and offer Sacrifice having nothing to signifie that which is the chief Office of Priesthood Fourthly Because none could Institute the Form of a Sacrament to give Grace and Power to make present the Body and Blood of Christ but the Author of Grace and who had power over that Sacred Body and Blood But those that Instituted this Form were neither Authors of Grace nor had power over the Sacred Body and Blood therefore they could not Institute such a Form That they who Instituted this Protestant Form had no such Power is proved by the Act of Parliament the 3. 4. of Edward the VI. Cap. 12. which could not pretend such a 〈◊〉 in these words Forasmuch as to Concord and Unity to be
had within the Kings Majesties Dominions it is requisite to have one Uniform fashion and manner for making and Consecrating Bishops Priests c. Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings Highness with the Assents of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same mark by which Authority they are made that such Form and manner of making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests c. as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Law by the Kings Majesty who was but a Child to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of them shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal of England before the first day of April next coming and shall by vertue of this present Act see what vertues be lawfully exercised and used and none other any Statute Law or Usage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding By Authority whereof those Prelates and meâ—… learned in the Law invented and made thâ—… Form before mentioned never heard of before either in Scripture or Church of God From which I thus argue and prove my Minor They that instituted the Form were thâ—… King and Parliament 3. 4. Edward VI. Buâ—… that King and Parliament were neither Authors of Grace not had power over the Body and Blood of Christ therefore they that Instituted this Form were neither Authors oâ—… Grace nor had power over the Body and Blood of Christ nor consequently could make it present Fifthly They are no true Priests because the Bishops that made them were no true Bishops nor so much as Priests and no man can give power to another which he hath not himself That they were no true Bishops nor Priests who pretended to make these Priests which shall be the second part of my Discourse I prove thus PROTESTANT BISHOPS NO BISHOPS NOR SO MUCH AS PRIESTS First They are no Priests because made by the same Form which other English Ministers were which I have clearly proved to be null That they are no true Bishops I prove first out of this very Principle already laid because they are no true Priests for as Master Mason a chief Champion of theirs says Epist. Ded. ad Episcop Paris Seeing he cannot be a Bishop who is not a Priest if it can be proved we are no Priests there 's an end to our English Church And the great Doctor of the Church St. Jerom Dial. cum Lucifero cap. 8. says Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem It is no Church that hath no Priests The Protestant Bishops therefore being no Priests can be no true Bishops nor their Church a Church at all Secondly They are no Bishops because their Form of Ordination is essentially invalid and null seeing it cannot be valid no more than that of Priesthood unless it be in fit words which signifies the Order given as Mr. Mason says in his Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae lib. 1. c. 16. n. 6. in these terms Not any words can serve for this Institution but such as are fit to express the power of the Order given And the reason is evident because Ordination being a Sacrament as the same Author says lib. 1. n. 8. and Doctor Bramhal page 96. of the Consecration of Protestant Bishops that is a visible sign of invisible Grace given by it There must be some visible sign or words in the Form of it to signifie the Power given and to determine the matter which is the Imposition of hands of it self a dumb sign and common to Priests and Deacons Confirming Curing c. to the Grace of Episcopal Order otherwise it were sufficient to say at the Imposition of hands Be thou a Constable or God make thee an honest man But there is no such visible sign or words in the Protestant Form expressing this Episcopal Power given therefore no such power is given That there is no such sign or words in the Protestant Form I prove out of the Form it self which is this made in King Edward the VI. time and continued till the happy Restauration of his Majesty that now is Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace of God that is in thee by Imposition of hands for God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and Soberness In which is not any word signifying Episcopal Power or Ordination and therefore for this defect in their Form they are no true Bishops Against what has been said you will object first That I prove them to be no Priests because they are no Bishops that made them and on the other side I prove them no Bishops because they are no Priests which is a vicious Circle But I easily answer this because I first prove à priori that is from the essential which ought to give being to each of them tat they are severally null and each of them being null for that reason it is evident that it is a cause of Invalidity in the other for as he can be no Bishop who is proved to be no Priest so he can make no Priest who is proved to be no Bishop Secondly You will object and salve up all the Defects afore-mentioned in one word to wit That although the Form used in the Church of England were invalid in King Edward ' s Queen Elizabeth's King James ' s and King Charles the First 's time for want of a valid Form of Ordination yet now it is valid in our Sovereign King Charles the Second's with whom the Parliament now sitting hath appointed a true Form Enacting that for the future to wit after St. Bartholomew's Day 1662. the Form of Ordaining a Priest should be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest and of a Bishop Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Bishop But to this I 'le answer you in another word That the salve is worse than the sore because by this change of the Form before established they acknowledge it to be null for why else need they change it Secondly By it they in effect acknowledge all their Bishops and Priests till that time to be null because Ordained by a Form that was null and could not give Power it had not nor signified Thirdly Because being no Bishops already they cannot Ordain validly by any Form whatsoever for no man can give what he has not as has been said before Lastly Whatsoever Power this Act gives to Ordain is from the Parliament and not from Christ which is what I first undertook to show and destroys their Orders root and branch Now although the Bishops of the Church of England and their Ministers grant this change of their Form of Ordination yet if any one should deny it you need only look upon the Form of making Bishops and Priests made 〈◊〉 and which was only used in the Church of England for an hundred years to be found in every
Concurrence or Licence should not be thought necessary in the creating of a Pope And from Hadrian the First who dyed Anno 795. till Hadrian the Third there were 89 years and from Vigilius his days who dyed Anno 555. there were 330 years So long were the Popes made upon the Emperors Mandates Nor did the Emperors part easily with this Right but after that the Otho's and the Henry's kept up their Pretension and came oft to Rome and made many Popes and though most of the Popes so made were generally reckoned Anti-Popes and Schismaticks yet some of them as Clement the Second are put in the Catalogue of the Popes by Baronius and Binnius and by the late publishers of the Councils Labbee and Cossartius There was indeed great Opposition made to this at Rome but let even their own Historians be appealed to what a Series of Monsters and not Men those Popes were how infamously they were Elected often by the Whores of Rome and how flagitious they were we refer it to Barronius himself who could not deny this for all his partiality in his great Work But in the end Pope Gregory the Seventh got the better of the Emperors in this particular And now let the ingenuity of those Men be considered who endeavour to Invalidate our Orders and call our Priests and Bishops Parliamentary Priests and Bishops because they are made upon the King's Mandate according to the Act of Parliament When it is clear that for near 500 years together their own Popes were Consecrated for the most part upon the Emperors Mandate And it is certain the Kings of England have as much power to do the same here as the Emperors had to do it at Rome The Emperors were wont also to grant the Investitures into all the Bishopricks by giving the Ring and the Staff which were the Ceremonies of the Investiture and so they both named and invested all the Bishops and Abbots This Pope Gregory the Seventh thought was no more to be suffered than their creating the Popes both being done by the same Authority Therefore he resolved to wring them out of the Emperors hands and take them into his own and it was no wonder he had a great mind to bring this about for the Bishopricks and Abbeys were then so richly endowed that it was the Conquest of almost the third part of the Empire to draw the giving of them into his own hands Therefore he first disgraced these Laical Investitures by an ill name to make them sound odiously and called all so Ordained Simoniacks as he also called the Married Clergy Nicolaitans Now every body knows how much any thing suffers by a scurvy Nick-name raised on it But he went more roundly to work and deposed the Emperor and absolved his Subjects from their obedience What bloody Wars and unnatural Rebellions of the Children against the Father followed by the Popes instigation is well enough known In the end his Son that succeeded him was forced to yield up the matter to the Pope In Spain it appears both from the 12th and 16th Councils of Toledo that the Kings there did choose the Bishops which Baronius does freely confess And Gregory of Tours through his whole History gives so many Instances of the Kings of France of the Merovinian Race choosing and naming the Bishops that it cannot be questioned all the Writers of the Gallicane Church do also assert that their Kings gave the Investitures from the days of Charles the Great But the Popes were still making inroads upon their Authority for securing which Charles the Seventh caused the Pragmatic Sanction to be made It is true afterwards Pope Leo the Tenth got Francis the First to set up the Concordate in its place against which the Assembly of the Clergy at Paris did complain and appealed to a General Council and yet by the Concordate the King retains still the power of naming the Bishops In England there are some Instances of the Saxon Kings choosing Bishops and though so little remains of the Records or Histories of that time that it is no wonder if we meet but few Yet it is clear that King William the Conqueror and both his Sons did give the Investitures to the Bishops and though upon a Contest between King Henry the First and Anselm about them the King did yield them to him yet upon Anselm's death he did re-assume that power I need not say more to shew what were the Rights of the Crown in this matter nor how oft they were asserted in Parliament nor how many Laws were made against the Incroachments and tyrannical Exactions of the Court of Rome these are now so commonly known and have been so oft printed of late that I need add nothing about them Only from all I have said I suppose it is indisputably clear That if Ordinations or Consecrations upon the Kings Mandate be invalid which this Paper drives at then all the Ordinations of the Christian Church are also annulled since for many Ages they were all made upon the Mandates of Emperors and Kings By all which you may see the great weakness of this Argument I shall to this add some Remarks on a few particulars of less weight that are insinuated in this Argument First The Writer of it would infer from the Queens calling Cardinal Pool the late and immediate Arch-Bishop and Pastor of Canterbury that we acknowledg Catholick Ordination valid lawful and good If by Valid Lawful and Good be understood that which retained the Essentials of Ordination and was according to the then Law there is no doubt to be made of it but if he mean that all the Forms and Ceremonies of their Ordination are acknowledged to be Good he will never draw that inference from these words Secondly From the Clause of the Patents that is for supplying all defects considering the necessity of the times he would infer there was somwhat wanting in them which was thereby supplyed If by that Want he means an essential Defect there was none such for they were true Bishops If he means only that some things were not according to what the Law required it is of no Force for whoever makes a Law can also dispense with it Therefore the execution of these Laws being put in the Queens hands she might well dispense with some particulars all which the Parliament did afterwards confirm and any defect in the point of Law might make them liable to the Civil powers but it can by no means be pretended that this should annul the Ordinations though illegally gone about Thirdly He would infer from the Act of Parliament that the Queen is made Pope when he knows that both by one of the Articles of the Church and another Act of Parliament it is declared otherwise express words as follows where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slandrous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministry either
A VINDICATION OF THE ORDINATIONS OF THE Church of ENGLAND IN WHICH It is Demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in Our Church IN ANSWER To a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders And given to a Person of Quality By GILBERT BURNET LONDON Printed by E. H. and T. H. for R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1677. IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber cui Titulus A Vindication of the Ordinations c. Guil. Iane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris Domesticis THE PREFACE THE Agents of the Church of Rome studying to accommodate their Religion to every Man's taste and inclinations use their endeavours with all persons in those things wherein they think they may most likely succeed If they find some that love to live at their ease and to reconcile their hopes of pardon and Heaven with a lewd life then they offer to secure them by slight Confessions easie Penances cheap Pardons and Indulgences and the communication of the merits of other persons If they fall on others of a sowrer composition the severities of some Religious Orders and unmerciful Penances are laid before them If they meet with those that can easily believe every thing that is told them with much assurance then many Miracles and other wonderful Stories are mustered up If others seem not so tractable and credulous then they study to shew them there is no certainty at all about Religion if all their Traditions be not believed And so they can but shake them from our Church they carâ—… not whither such doubts may drive them were it headlong to Atheism If they finâ—… others that are fanciful and Enthusiâ—…stical in their Religion then they tell theâ—… of Visions Raptures and Ecstasies with out number Or if they fall on other that love the order and gravity of thâ—… Church then they think the Game is easâ—… and sure they tell them of the Antiquâ—…ty Universality and continued Succeâ—…sion of their Church and of the noveltâ—… the narrowness and want of Succession iâ—… ours And though the fallaciousness these Objections have been so oft laid pen that by this time it might have beâ—… reasonably expected men of ingenuity aâ—… probity should have been ashamed of coâ—…tinuing them yet these Gentlemen 〈◊〉 proof against all discoveries The Reader will easily discern hâ—… guilty the Writer of the following Paper 〈◊〉 of going in the beaten tract of assertiâ—… things confidently which if he be a man of learning he must needs know they have no strength in them And if he be not acquainted with Ecclesiastical Learning which in Charity to him I am bound to believe it is very presumptuously done of him to give out Papers of this Importance in a point that no man ought to engage in but he that has studied Antiquity to some competent degree For to charge any person much more a whole Church with the basest Sacriledg and Forgery unless one be well assured in his conscience that he is able to make it good is such a piece of uncharitableness and high presumption that I know no excuse it can admit of And if our Church be bringing Souls to Christ in the method proposed in the Gospel how much has the Writer of this Paper or any other that manages these Arguments to answer for that study to raise such scruples as tend to cross and defeat so good a design But this Paper weak as it is was thought fit to be copied out and given about and was brought to a person of Quality that had been educated under a deep sense of the reverence due to the Church and Churchmen So that they hoped if such a one could be once induced to believe that we had no Orders nor Church-men duly called among us it had been easie to have prevailed further But that Person being sincerely pious and devout and not easily shaken with every story that was made and being desirous to be fully satisfied in this matter conveighed the Paper into my hands and I was put upon the answering it I quickly saw that the Arguments were so weak and trifling that they were very easily answered Yet since I was to engage in such a subject I resolved to do it with as much care and industry as the importance of the Matters required And finding that for all that had been written on this Controversie there remained a great deal to be said I have so fully considered it as I hope no scruple will remain with discerning persons and for the endless doubtings of weaker minds and the restless endeavours of busie Emissaries nothing can satisfie or silence those It may seem too great a presumption in one that is a stranger in this Church to engage in a Question that so much concerns it But though I had not my Orders in this Church yet I derive them from it being Ordained by a Bishop that had his Ordination in this Church so that I am equally concerned in the issue of the Question And I am confident no body shall have cause to imagine that I engage in it with design to betray or give it up Among the many unjust and spiteful Calumnies with which the Clergy of the Roman Communion study to asperse and disgrace the Reformation there are none more frequently made use of than these That there are no Pastors Lawfully called or Ordained among us That we have not the Power of making God present on our Altars as they have nor the power of Absolving from sins much less of Redeeming Souls from the miseries they are under in another state They tell their Credulous followers that we were all at first no better than a Company of Tub-Preachers and that all the disorders we saw of that sort during the late Wars were as justifiable as the first beginnings of the Reformation And tho the ridiculous Fable of the Nags-head be so manifest a Forgery supported by no good Evidence and overthrown by the Authority of so many publick Records besides many other clear presumptions from the state of things and the time in which that was said to be done that one might very reasonably expect that all sober or discreet persons should be ashamed of so foul an Imposture yet it serves them still for many a good turn and so they will never lay it down tho I dare boldly say there is no matter of Fact of which there are no surviving witnesses that can be Demonstrated with clearer Evidences than the Regularity and Canonicalness of the Ordination of Arch Bishop Parker Others that are not so lost in impudence yet say that tho we have a shadow of a Succession among us yet we shew how little regard we have to Orders when we acknowledg the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas to be true Churches tho many of them do not so much as pretend to a continued succession of
as they could but when the Court oâ—… Rome gets their Conquering King on their side so that they can withstand no longer unless they will suffer for their Conscience then they subscribe as formally and fully as others do And this Compliance is to be looked for from all the men of those Principles if they do not prefer their Conscience to their Interest and God knows there be many such for either they must comply though against their Conscience or retire themselves from that Communion and if they do this last then all that they accuse us for and all those common Topicks with which they ply the Vulgar against separating from the Catholick Church the setting up of private Iudgments against publick the multiplying new Errors by appealing to Scriptures or other Books which is the way of all Hereticks These I say with many more of the like nature will all fall as heavily upon themselves Nor is there any reason to think they will throw off the Pope as was done under King Henry the 8th for though a great and high spirited King was able to bring that about yet is it possible that a few Priests though they had the honesty and boldness to design such a thing could ever compass it Their followers would look upon them if they should but set about it as Hereticks and hate them no less if not more than they do us So that it seems a weak and too sanguine an Imagination to think such a design can ever come to any thing Therefore these persons must either turn over quite to the Intrigues of the Court oâ—… Rome with what Conscience let them seâ—… to it or joyn themselves to us And of this last there is no great cause to have any hope since we see none write more bitterly against us than they do as if they would thereby redeem their credit either with the Court of Rome or with their party here who being possest withsome suspitions of them they to clear these use the common shift of railing foully 〈◊〉 those with whom it is insinuated they have some correspondence This style Mr. Arnaud has thought fit to write in more than any body which was the more unseemly in him considering both his Noble Education and his other excellent and gentile Qualities and indeed I am heartily glad to find the grows ashamed and out of love with that way of writing in which none has more grosly exceeded all the bounds of Moderation than he has done They having declared themselves so fully and formally concerning the Reformation there is no reason to expect they should ever joyn with us and they are neither so numerous nor so considerable as to be able â—…o form themselves into a Society distinct from Rome Therefore what is it oâ—… be looked for from them but that for the most part shall herd in with the rest and comply even against their Consciences with all the corruptions of the Papacy And as a Noble and Ingenious person said the long Whip of Rome must bring in all these Straglers and if two or three will stand out and lie under their Censures they shall have little credit and small interest with their own party So that there is nothing to be expected from any thing they can do or signifie And therefore all the noise some make of the difference between the Court and Church of Rome is only a pretty Notion by which such as are speculative and consider not the World may be taken a little but when they examine it further they must see that it will be nothing in practice The Interest Favour and Preferments lie wholly the other way and the greatest part is led by these and such honest men as despise these are either thought Fools or Knaves some further design being suspected as the reason of why they pursue not present Advantages But Preferments being bountifully given by the Court of Rome to their creatures others who are loaded with their Censures can never be imagined so considerable as either to have great Interest at home with their party which being generally made up of Ignorance and Zeal hates those moderate men aâ—… Tamperers and love none so much as the thorough-paced Papist much less can they ever have any power in the Seminaries and Nurseries beyond Sea So that all that come over in the Mission shall be well leavened before they come among us with the high Principles of the Court of Rome Therefore I cannot apprehend any Advantage that can be reasonably looked fâ—…r from the cherishing the men of those Principles though I am very well satisfied some of them are honest men but as they be very few who will openly own and stick to them so I doubt not but if the owning these Maxims turned to a matter of Advantage and ease abundance that are not honest would pretend to be of the same perswasion We see that generally a few Instâ—…nces only excepted they joyn together in the same Intrigues and Designs and why we should think it possible to draw off any considerable party from the rest I see no reason for as it were undoubtedly both wise and good to cherish any motions that might disjoynt them one from another so a few individual Persons how deserving soever they may be cannot be of that Importance that for their sakes a Settlement should be altered and colour given for a great many to deceive and abuse us And I freely acknowledg that the plain dealing Papists who owns the Popes Infallibility and absolute Authority as he speaks and acts most sutably to the other Principles of their Church so is less to be suspected and feared since he goes roundly to work than others who speak more softly and yet are in the same designs and so may more safely and cunningly catch unwary persons who either are not much on their guard or are not well acquainted with their Artisices but the other are more open and less dangerous It is now high time for me to quit this Digression and to wind up a Preface that is already too long I shall only before I make an end lay before the Reader a few of the Arts of the Missionaries among us in the dispersing their Papers and Books They write them with great confidence and swell up the Arguments they offer with the biggest words and severest expressions that are possible which works mightily upon the Gentle Reader for tho modesty in Writing has great art in it to work upon an ingenuous mind yet that to the weak and credulous is a feeble and dispirited thing and they are never so apt to believe any thing as when it is confidently averred with great Pomp and much Vehemence If their Books be well written they want not Printing Presses neither beyond Sea nor in England and we shall soon hear of them if they find themselves so baffled as they have been of late by some great Writers in this Church that they cannot answer with any
Booksellers Shop authorized and commanded in the Act of Uniformity made 1662. to be only used to St. Bartholomew ' s Day of that Year and that other Enacted to be only used from thenceforward and Printed in the Common-Prayer-Books of Cathedral Churches out of which I have found it hard to be got the Bishops as most think suppressing it for shame and leaving it only in those places where it was necessary to be made use of and not permitting it to be otherwise dispersed abroad although the Act of Uniformity which made it commands upon forfeiture of 3 l. for every Month after St. Bartholomew's Day 1662. that every Church Chappel Collegiate Church College and Hall should have a true printed Copy of it Thus I hope I have fully proved that the Church of England has no true Priest or Bishop for want of Ordination Now I shall also show that they have no Iurisdiction or Authority to Teach Preach exact Tythes inflict Censures to be Pastors or to exercise any Ecclesiastical Function whatsoever from Christ but only from the Parliament and my third Conclusion is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no Power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament This I prove because they have no more Power than the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had who was the Chief and from whom as it were the Conduit of all Iurisdiction was derived to the rest That he had no such Power or Iurisdiction I prove first because they that Confirmed and Consecrated him had no such Power to confer upon him of themselves to wit William Barlow late Bishop of Bath and Wells now Elect of Chichester John Scory late of Chichester now Elect of Hereford Miles Coverdale late of Exeter and John Hodgskins Bishop Suffragan who were none of them actual Bishops of any See but two Elect only and another quondam only and so had no actual Iurisdiction at all the fourth only Suffragan to Canterbury and who had no Iurisdiction but what he had from the Arshbishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Iurisdiction over himself and all the Bishops in the Land as the other three had no Power at all to give him much less so transcendent an one because none can give what he has not Secondly Because they had their sole Power from the Queen and she besides the incapacity of her Sex had no Power of her self but only according to the Statutes in that case provided as appears by her Letters Patent yet extant and to be seen in the Rolls in these words Elizabetha Regina c. Elizabeth Queen c. To the Reverend Father in Christ William c. Whereas the Archiepiscopal See of Canterbury being lately void by the natural death of my Lord Reginal Pool Cardinal the late and immediate Archbishop and Pastor of it at the humble Petition of the Dean and Chapter of our Cathedral and Metropolitan Church in Canterbury called Christs Church we did by our Letters Patents grant Licence to them to choose to themselves another for Archbishop and Pastor of the See aforesaid and they have chosen Matthew Parker c. We have given our Royal assent and favour to the said Election and we signifie this to you by the tenor of these presents requiring and by the fidelity and love wherein you are bound to us firmly enjoyning commanding you that you or four of you effectually Confirm the said Matthew Parker Archbishop and Pastor Elect of the said Church and Confirm the said Election and Consecrate him Archbishop and Pastor of the said Church and do all other things which in this behalf are incumbent on your Pastoral Office according to the Form of the Statutes in this case made and provided Out of which words first I note that the Queen here and all the Clergy with her acknowledge Cardinal Pool the true and rightful Archbishop of Canterbury by which they own Catholic Ordination and Iurisdiction to be valid lawful and good Secondly I note and confirm the main assertion That the Queen knowing the Common Law and ancient Laws of the Kingdom required the Authority Consent and Commission or Bull of the Pope to empower the Confirmers and Consecrators of the Archbishop of Canterbury as the only Superior of that See and withal that he would not grant and give it to make a Protestant Archbishop she by her Supreme Authority as Head of the Church of England not only authorized them that were to Confirm and Consecrate him but also Pope-like supplied all defects whether in Quality faculty or any other thing wanting and necessary in the Consecrators for that performance by the Laws of the Church or Kingdom for so it followed in the same Patent Supplying nevertheless by our Supreme Regal Authority if any thing in you or any of you or in your condition state or faculty to the performance of the Premisses is wanting of these things that by the Statutes of our Realm or the Ecclesiastical Laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary which she therefore supposed and knew well enough to be necessary and wanting for otherwise it had been in vain for her to supply them the condition of the time and necessity of things requiring it By which you see they could do neither of these Acts of Confirming or Consecrating him Archbishop of Canterbury without her Commission which was not only necessary to empower them but also to dispense with them and make their Acts valid non obstante notwithstanding the Laws of the Land That these Letters Patents Authorized them is clear out of the Instrument of his Confirmation to be seen in the Records at Lambeth in their own words following In the name of the Lord Amen We William Barlow Iohn Miles c. by the Queens Commissional Letters specially and lawfully deputed Commissioners c. by the Supreme Authority of the Queen to us in this behalf committed confirm the said Election of Matthew Parker c. supplying by the Supreme Authority of the Queen to us delegated if any thing be wanting in us or any of us or in our Condition State or Faculty to the performance of the Premisses of these things that by the Statutes of the Realm or the Ecclesiastical Laws in this behalf are requisite or necessary c. as above And whereas the Popes Commission or Bull used to be produced by authority of which all Archbishops of Canterbury were Consecrated and their Election confirmed Now in place of that says the Act of it upon Parker's Records Proferebatur Regium Mandatum pro ejus Consecratione The Queens Mandate or Commission for Consecrating him was produc'd as the Authority for what they did Lastly I prove that the Queen had her Authority from the Parliament First from the Statute 25. Henry 8. cap. 20. where the Parliament repeats out of another Act made that present Parliament That if any Elected by the King and presented to the See of Rome to be Archbishop or
Prayer of Consecration of any such power The same Prayer of Consecration is also in another Ritual which he believes 900 years old and also in another that he believes 800 years old It is true in these Rituals there is a Blessing added in which among other things the Consecrator Prayes that by the obedience of the people the Priest may transform the Body and Blood of thy Son by an undefiled Benediction but here is no power given nor is this Prayer essential to the Orders so given but a subsequent Benediction Therefore the want of it cannot annul Orders And in another MSS. Ritual belonging to the Abbey of Corbey written about the middle of the 9th Century there is nothing but the Prayer of the Consecration of a Priest which is the same with what is in the other Rituals but the blessing which mentions the transforming of the Body of Christ is not in it by which it appears that it was not looked on as essential to Orders And in another Ritual compiled for the Church of England now lying in the Church of Roüen believed to be about 800 years old the Form of Consecration is the same that it is in the other Rituals The ancient Ritual of the Church of Rhemes about the same age and divers other ancient Rituals agree with these But the first mention of this power of saying Mass given in the Consecration of Priests is in a Ritual believed to be 700 years old compiled by some near Rome in which the Rite of delivering the Vessels with these words Receive power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses c. is first set down yet that is wanting in a Ritual of Bellay written about the Thousandth year so that it was not universally received for near an Age after it was first brought in Now in all these Rituals the Prayer of Consecration is that which is now in the Pontifical only one of the Prayers of the Office * but is not the Prayer of Consecration from which two things clearly follow First that no Form of Ordination is so essential but that the Church may change it and put another in its room and if the other be apposite and fit there is no fault committed by the Change much less such a one as invalidates the Orders so given Secondly It is clearly made out that in the Ordinations of the Primitive Church for 900 years after Christ there was no power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood expresly given in the forms and words of Ordination So that if the want of such words annuls our Ordinations it will do the same to theirs the consequence of which will be that there were no true Orders in the Church of God till the latter Rites in the Roman Pontifical were invented and if that be true then the Orders of the Roman Church which have descended from them are not true since they flow from men not truly ordained And at this day the Greek Church as is set down by the Learned and Pious Bishop of Vence treating of the matter and form of Orders when they ordain 〈◊〉 give no such power but the Bishop lays on his right hand on the Priest's head and says The grace of God that always heals the things that are weak and perfects things that are imperfect promotes this very Reverend Deacon to be a Priest Let us therefore pray for him that the grace of the most Holy Spirit come upon him Then those that assist say thrice for him Kyrie Eleison Then the Bishop makes the Sign of the Cross and prays for the grace of God on the Priest thus ordained holding his hand all the while over his head then he puts the Priestly Vestiments on him and gives him the Kiss of Peace which is also done by the rest of the Clergy there present And Habert a Doctor of Sorbonne who has published the Greek Pontifical with learned Observations on it gives us this same account of their Ordinations which Morinus has confirmed by the several ancient Greek MSS. which he has published one of them being 800 years old which agrees with it and neither in the first Prayer nor second during both which the Bishop holds his hands over the head of him that is to be Consecrated is there any mention made of this power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood And in the Rituals of the Maronites Nestorians and Copthites all which Morinus proves are held good and valid by the Church of Rome there is no such Power given in the words of Consecration their Forms being almost the same with those used in the Greek Church so that we generally find Imposition of hands with a Prayer of Grace and a Blessing were looked on as sufficient for Ordination and this was taken from the practices of the Apostles who ordained by Prayer and Imposition of Hands as appears from the places cited in the Margent and that these Prayers were that God might pour out the gifts and graces of his Spirit on them both the nature of the thing and some of the cited places do fully prove From all which it appears that either our Ordinations are valid or there are no true Orders in the whole Christian Church no not in the Church of Rome it self 3. The very Doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome shews that the essentials of Ordination remain still with us By the Maxims of the Schools there must be matter and form in every Sacrament the Matter is some outward sensible action or thing the Form are the words applyed to that action or thing which hallow it and give the Character when as they say the indelible Character is impressed which they believe is done by Orders The imposition of hands is held to be the Matter by almost all their Doctors as is acknowledged by Bellarmine Vasques and most of the Schoolmen are of this mind It is true Eugenius in his Instruction to the Armenians set down in the Council of Florence declares that the giving the Sacred Vessels is the Matter in Orders but the Council of Trent which was a far more learned and cautious Assembly than the other was in which there was nothing but Ignorance and Deceit determined that Priests have their Orders by the Imposition of hands for treating of extream Unction they decreed that the Minister of it was either the Bishop or Priests lawfully ordained by them by the Imposition of the hands of the Presbytery And Bellarmine both from the Scriptures and the Fathers proves that the Imposition of hands must be the Matter of this Sacrament since they speak of it and of it only Now if this be the Matter of this Sacrament then the Form of it must be the words joyned with it in their Pontifical Receive the Holy Ghost And the Council of Trent does clearly insinuate that this is the form of Orders in these words If any man say that in Ordination the H. Ghost is
not given and therefore that the Bishop says in vain Receive the H. Ghost or by it a Character is not impressed Let him be an Anathema It is true their Doctors to reconcile the disagreement of those two Councils have devised the distinction of the power of Sacrificing and of the power of Jurisdiction in a Priest The last they confess is given by the Imposition of hands the former they say is given by the delivering of the Sacred Vessels And indeed as Morinus doth often observe the School-men being very ignorant both of the more Ancient Rites of the Church and of the practice of the Eastern Churches and looking only on the Rituals then received in the Latin Church have made strange work about the matter and form of Ordination but now that they begin to see a little further than they did then they are of a far different opinion so Vasques whom the School-men of this Age look on aâ—… an Oracle treating of Episcopal Orders says in express words That the Imposition of hands is the Matter and the words uttered with it are the Form of Orders and that the Sacramental Grace is conferred in and by the application of the Matter and Form It is true He joyns in with the commonly received Doctrine of the Schools about the two powers given to Priests by a double matter and form yet he cites Bonaventure and Petrus Sotus for this opinion that the Imposition of hands and the words joyned with it were the matter and form of Priestly Orders and though Vasques himself undertakes to prove the other Opinion as that which agrees best with the principles of their Church yet it is visible he thought the other Opinion truer for when he proves Orders to be a Sacrament he lays down for a Maxim that the outward Rite and Ceremony the promise of Grace and the command for the continuance must be all found in Scripture before any thing is to be acknowledged a Sacrament and when pursuant to this he proves that the Rite of Orders is in Scripture he assigns no other but the Imposition of hands so that according to his own Doctrine that is the only Sacramental Rite or the matter Orders And Cardinal de Lugo says The giving the Bread and the Wine we know is not determinately required by any divine Institution since the Greeks are ordained without it therefore it is to be confessed that Christ only intended there should be some proportioned Sign for the matter of Orders either this or that And it is now the most commonly received Oponion even amongst the School-men that Christ neither determined the Matter nor the Form of Orders but left both to the Church And Habert proves that the Greek form of Ordination is sufficient to express the grace of God then prayed for which is the chief thing in Ordination and though the Greek Fathers do not mention these words that are now used as the Form in their days yet he cites many places out of their writings by which they seem to allude to those words though the custom then received of speaking mystically and darkly of all the Rites of the Church made that they did not deliver themselves more plainly about it but he concludes his second Observation in these words In those Sacraments where the Matter and Form are not expressed in Scripture it must be supposed that Christ did only in general institute both to his Apostles leaving a power with the Church to design constitute and determine these in several ways so that the chief Substance Intention and Scope of the Institution were retained with some general fitness and analogy for signifying the effect of this Sacrament And if both the Eastern and Western Churches have made Rituals which though they differ one from another yet are good and valid it seems very unreasonable to deny the Church of England which is as free and independent a Church as any of them the same right for it is to be observed that the Catholick Church did never agree on one Uniform Ritual or Book of Ordination but that was still left to the freedom of particular Churches and so this Church has as much power to make or alter Rituals as any other has Therefore the substantials of Ordination being still retained which are Imposition of hands with fit Prayers and Blessings It is most unreasonable to except against our Forms of Ordination Let it be also considered that it is indeed true that the last Imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost appointed in the Pontifical is not above 400 years old nor can any Ancienter MSS be shewed in which it is found yet that is now most commonly received in the Church of Rome to be the matter and form of Ordination for all their Doctors hold that either the delivering the Vessels and saying Receive Power to offer Sacrifice c. or the Imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. is the Matter and Form of Orders Againsâ—… the former Morinus has said so much that I need add nothing for by unanswerable Arguments he proves that iâ—… not essential to Orders since neither thâ—… Primitive Church the Eastern Churcheâ—… nor the Roman Rituals or the Writers oâ—… the Roman Offices ever mention it tiâ—… within these 700 years and at first iâ—… was only done in the Consecration oâ—… Bishops and afterwards by custom noâ—… decree of Council or Pope being to bâ—… found about it it was used in the Ordination of Priests The same Author doth also study to prove that the Imposition of the Bishopâ—… hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost is not essential to Ordination buâ—… is only a Benediction superadded to it and shews that it was not used in the Primitive Church nor mentioned by any ancient Writer and therefore he is oâ—… opinion that the first Imposition of hands gives the Orders in which both Bishopâ—… and Priests lay on their hands and pray that God would multiply his Gifts oâ—… those whom he had chosen to the sunction oâ—… a Priest that what they received by hiâ—… savour they might attain by his help through Christ our Lord. If this bâ—… true then two things are to be well observed First That the Prayer which according to his opinion is the Prayer of Consecration was not esteemed so by the Ancient Rituals in which it is only called a Prayer for the Priests that were to be Ordained after which the Prayer of Consecration followed from which it appears that there was no constant rule in giving Orders and that what the Church once held to be but a preparatory Prayer was afterwards made the Prayer of Consecration and that which they esteemed the Prayer of Consecration was afterwards held but a Prayer of Benediction Secondly That in the formal words of Consecration if his Opinion be true there is no power given of consecrating the Sacraments But Morinus is alone in this
Pool to have been a righteous Arch-Bishop and so confesses Catholick Ordination and Jurisdiction to be lawful valid and good which was necessary by the Laws of England as appears from her Mandate in which she supplies any Defects they might have been under Now all the Authority the Queen had flowed from the Parliament which annexed all Jurisdiction Spiritual or Temporal over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm to the Crown by which they made her Pope So that by the very words of the Act Matthew Parker had his Jurisdiction from the Queen and she hers from the Parliament Therefore the Protestant Priests and Bishops are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and are not from Christ and his Church but from their Kings Queen and Parliaments Here is such a heap of things so unjustly and weakly said that it must needs grieve all honest men to see a company of Priests going up and down the Kingdom studying to abuse weak and unlearned persons with such disingenuous Stories or Writings Which I hope will appear more fully if you consider the following particulars First It is certain that King and Parliament have the Supream Legislative Authority in this Realm and this they have from the Laws of God Nature and Society confirmed by the Gospel which commands us to be subject to the Higher Powers Therefore whatever they Enact that is within the Limits of their Jurisdiction is Law and if it be not sinful is to be obeyed if it be sinful it is to be submitted to For instance if they set up a false Religion by Law it does not make it a true Religion but adds the sanction of Law and is the civil Warrant and Security for the Subject therefore the Civil Power cannot change the nature of things to make Good Evil or Evil Good but only gives Authority and Security and in this they are restrained in things Civil as well as Spiritual for if they make unjust Laws in Civil things the case is the same with their unjust Laws about Spirituals Therefore it is to be concluded as the Fundamental Maxim of Civil Government that whatever may be done lawfully and without Sin ought to be done when the Supream Civil Authority commands it and that the Subjects ought to obey Secondly Whosoever is empowered by the King and Parliament to execute this their Supream Authority has a full Right and Title to apply that Power so given or committed to him having the execution of that Law put in his hands and if any shall without their Warrant or Authority from them usurp or assume any sort of Power or Jurisdiction within this Kingdom they are Intruders and Usurpers and the success they have in it does no more justifie that Force than a Robber's does his Title to Goods unjustly taken And although some weak Princes in hard times did yield it up to the Pope yet both the Clergy themselves and the Parliaments did often assert their own Authority which was most eminently done by King Edward the First and King Edward the Third So that the Popes power here had no just Title but was a violent Invasion for that they neither had it from Christ nor Saint Peter nor by any Decree of General Councils and that for 800 years after Christ it was never allowed them that they never had it in the Eastern Churches and that what they had in the Western Churches was only extorted by force and fraud from the Princes and States of Europe and that they had no Law for it in England are things so certain that for proof of this I shall refer my self to the Writers of their own Church De Marca Launoy and Balusius with many others And at this very day the Pope has neither more nor less power in the other Kingdoms of Europe than the Connivence of Princes or the Laws give him Therefore the Pope had no power in England but what was unjustly usurped from the King and Parliament Thirdly When the Supream Authority the King and Parliament have long endured an Encroachment upon them that gives no just Title to it nor hinders them from asserting their own Rights when they find a fit opportunity for it and neither devests them of their Authority nor the Subjects of their due Rights and Freedoms Therefore the Government of the Kingdom and all the exercise of coercive Jurisdiction being inseparably annexed to the Supream Authority it was incumbent on them to shake off all Forrein Jurisdict they should have done it sooner but could never do it too soon Fourthly The King and Parliament asserting their Authority in this Particular and condemning the Popes Usurpations they might commit the execution of it to whom they would Therefore they putting it into the Queens hands and her Successors she had a good Right to exercise it having a Law for it This then being annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm by the Supream Authority of King and Parliament the King hath the power of exercising it fully and only in his hands and is to be obeyed in all his Injunctions that are not sinful by the Laws of the Supream Authority in this Kingdom which comes from God and is confirmed by the Gospel Fifthly Though the power of the Ministers of the Gospel comes only from Christ yet the exercise of that Power and this or that person being put in this or that Living or Preferment and having the right to the Tythes and all the Jurisdiction of the Spiritual and Prerogative Courts being things not appointed in the Gospel the King having the Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State does not exceed his Limits when he reserves to himself such power that no person shall be vested with the Legal Authority for those things but by his knowledg or upon his Order It is true he cannot make a man a Bishop or a Priest nor can he take away Orders for if Bishops should Ordain or Consecrate without or against his pleasure he may proceed against both the Ordainers and Ordained and can hinder their exercising any Function in his Dominions by Banishing or Imprisoning them but â—…he cannot destroy or annul their Orders So that the power of Ordination comes from Christ and has a Spiritual Effect whatever opposition the King may make but the exercise of that power must be had from him If the King commands an Heretick or a Scandalous person to be Elected or Ordained Churchmen may well demur and offer their reasons why they cannot give Obedience not for the want of Authority in the King but because the matter is Morally evil As they must also do if the King should command them to commit Theft or Murther So that all Consecrations in this Land are made by Bishops by the power that is inherent in them only the King gives orders for the execution of that their power Therefore all that the Queen did in the Case of Matthew Parker and the Kings do since was to command so many Bishops to exercise a power they
of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie But that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should Rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers So that there is nothing of the Spiritual much less of the Papal and Tyrannical Power given to the King by the Law Fourthly From the power given to the Queen to Authorize such persons as she shall think fit to exercise that Jurisdiction he infers they may be either Clergymen Lawyers Merchants or Coblers since the Statute requires no more but that they be born Subjects of the Realm But this is as well grounded as all the rest for though that Statute does not name the qualification of the persons yet the other Statutes that Enacted the Book of Common-Prayer and the Ordinal do fully specifie what sort of persons these must be and it is not necessary that all things be in every Statute Fifthly He in the end of this Paper pretends that the reason why this present Parliament altered the Ancient Forms was because they were null and invalid The weakness and injustice of which was before shewed so that nothing needs to be repeated And in fine it has been also proved that as both the Greek and Latin Churches have made many alterations in their Rituals so the Church of England which made these Alterations had as good an Authority to do it by as they had To which I shall only add the words of the Council of Trent concerning the power of the Church for making such Changes when they give the reason for taking away the Chalice The Church has power in the Sacraments retaining the substance of them to change or appoint such things which she shall judg more expedient both for the profit of the Receivers and for the Reverence due to the Sacraments according to the variety of things times and places Where by their own confession it is acknowledged the Church may make alterations in the Sacraments So that it is a strange confidence in them to charge on us an annulling of former Orders because of a small addition of a few explanatory words And so much for his Paper Now having sufficiently answered every thing in it I hope I may be allowed to draw a few conclusions in opposition to his And First We having true Priests and true Bishops are a true Church since we believe all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the World Secondly We being thus a part of the Catholick Church every one that lives according to the Doctrine professed a mong us mayand shall be saved Thirdly We do truly eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood having the Blessed Sacrament administred among us according to our Saviour's Institution Fourthly We have as much power to Consecrate the Holy Sacrament as any that were Ordained in the Church for near a thousand years together Fifthly We have the Ministerial power of giving Absolution and the Ministry of Reconciliation and of forgiving Sins given us by our Orders Sixthly All men may and ought to joyn with us in the profession of the Faith we believe and in the use of the Sacraments we administer which are still preserved among us according to Christ's Institution and that whosoever repents and believes the Gospel shall be Saved Seventhly All and every of the Arguments he has used are found to be weak and frivolous and to have no force in them And thus far I have complied with your desires of answering the Paper you sent me in as short and clear terms as I could But I must add that this ransacking of Records about a succession of Orders though it adds much to the lustre and beauty of the Church yet is not a thing incumbent on every body to look much into nor indeed possible for any to be satisfied about for a great many Ages all those Instruments are lost So that how Ordinations were made in the Primitive Church we cannot certainly know it is a piece of History and very hard to be perfectly known Therefore it cannot be a fit Study for any much less for one that has not much leisure The condition of Christians were very hard if private persons must certainly know how all Ministers have been Ordained since the Apostles days for if we will raise scruples in this matter it is impossible to satisfie them unless the Authentick Registers of all the ages of the Church could be shewed which is impossible for tho we were satisfied that all the Priests of this Age were duly Ordained yet if we be not as sure that all who Ordained them had Orders rightly given them and so upward till the days of the Apostles the doubt will still remain Therefore it is an unjust and unreasonable thing to raise difficulties in this matter And indeed if we go to such nice scruples with it there is one thing in the Church of Rome that gives a much juster ground these than any thing that can be pretended in ours does which is the Doctrine of the Intention of the Minister being necessary to make a Sacrament Secret Intentions are only known to God and not possible to be known by any man Therefore since they make Orders a Sacrament there remains still ground to entertain a scruple whether Orders be truly given And this cannever becleared since none can know other mens thought or intentions Therefore the pursuing nice scruples about this cannot be a thing indispensably necessary otherwise all people must be per plext with endless disquiet and doubtings But the true touchstone of a Church must be the Purity of her Doctrine and the Conformity of her Faith with that which Christ and his Apostles taught In this the Scriptures are clear and plain to every one that will read and consider them sincerely and without prejudice which that you may do and by these may be led and guided into all Truth shall be my constant prayer to God for you AN APPENDIX About the forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church BEcause the decision of all the questions that can be made by those of the Church of Rome about the validity of our Orders must be taken from the Ancient Forms of Ordination as hath been fully made out in the foregoing Papers therefore I hope it will not be unpleasant to the Reader to see what the Forms of Ordinations were in the Latin Church for many Ages which he will more clearly understand when he sees them at their full Length then he can do by any Quotations out of them Morinus has published sixteen of the most Ancient Latin Rituals he could find composed from the end of the Fifth Century at which time he judges the most
Ancient of them was written till within those last Four hundred years so that he gives us a clear view of the Ordinations of seven succeeding Ages of the Western Church His Book is scarce to be had and therefore I shall draw out of it what relates to the Ordination of Priests and Bishops Only as he has Printed these Forms Strictly as the Manuscripts were written without altering some things that are manifestly the Faults of the Transcribers so I shall set them down exactly as He has published them with the Emendations on the Margin from other Manuscripts and adde a Translation of them in English But I shall begin with the three first Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage in which we have the fullest and earliest Account of the Ordidinations of Bishops and Priests in the Latin Church and from the Simplicity of these and the many pompous Rites that are added in the latter Rituals the Reader will both perceive how the Spirit of Superstition grew from Age to Age and will be able to judge whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome comes nearest the most Primitive Forms These I set down according to the MSS. published by Morinus and Collationed on the Margin with a MSS. belonging to the Church of Salisbury that is judged to be six hundred year old and also with that Published by Labbée in the Tomes of the Councils Sacrarum Ordinationum Ritus Ex Concilio Carthaginensi quarto depromptus CANON I. QUI Episcopus Ordinandus est antea examinetur si natura sit prudens si docibilis si moribus temperatus si vita castâ—…s si sobrius si semper suis negotiis cavens si humilis si affabilis si misericors si literatus si in lege domini instructus si in scripturam sensibus caâ—…tus si in dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis exercitatus ante omnia si fidei documenta verbis simplicibus asserat id est Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unum Deum esse confirmans totamque Trinitatis Deitatem coessentialem consubstantialem coaeternalem coomnipotentem praedicans si singularem quamque in Trinitate personam plenum deum totas tres personas Unum deum Si incarnationem divinam non in Patre neque in Spiritu Sancto factam sed in Filio tantum credat ut qui erat in Divinitate Dei Patris ipse fieret in homine hominis Matris filius Deus verus ex Patre homo verus ex Matre carnem ex matris visceribus habens animam humanam rationalem simâ—…l in eo ambae naturae id est Deus Homo una persona unus filius unus Christus unus Dominus Creator omnium quae sunt autor Dominus Rector cum Patre Spiritu Sancto omnium creaturaram Qui passus sit vera carnis Passione mortuus vera corporis sui morte resurrexit vera carnis suae resurrectinoe vera animae resumptione in qua veniet judicarâ—… vivos mortuos Quaerendum etiam ab eo si Novi Veteris Testamenti id est leges Prophetarum Apostolorum unum eundemque credat autorem evâ—…m Si Diabolus non per conditionem sed per Arbitrium sit malus Quaerendum etiam ab eo si credat hujus quam gestamus non alterius carnis resurrectionem Si credat judicium futurum recepturoâ—… singulos pro his quae in carne gesserunt vel poenas vel gloriam Si nuptias non improbat si secunda Matrimonia non damnet si carnium perâ—…eptionem non culpet si poenitentibus reconciliatis communicet si in Baptismo omnia peccata id est tam illud originale contractum quam illa quae voluntate admissa sunt dimittantur si extra Ecclesiam Catholicam nullus salvetur Cum in his omnibus examinatus inventus fuerit plene instructus tunc cum consensu Clericorum Laicorum conventu totius provinciae Episcoporum maximéque Metropolitani vel Authoritate vel praesentia ordinetur Episcopus Suscepto in Nomini Christi Episcopatu non suae delectationi nec suis motibus sed his Patrum definitionibus acquiescat In cujus Ordinatione etiam aetas requiritur quam Sancti Patres in praeeligendis Episcopis constituerunt Dehinc disponitur qualiter Ecclesiastica Officia Ordinantur CAN. II. EPiscopus cum Ordinatur duo Episcopi ponant teneant Evangeliorum Codicem supra Caput cervicem ejus uno super eum sundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant CAN. III. PResbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneat In English thus CAN. I. LET Him that is to be Ordained a Bishop be first Examined if he be naturally prudent and teachable if in his Manners he be temperate if chast in his life if sober if he looks to his own Affairs be humble affable merciful and learned if he be instructed in the Law of the Lord and skilful in the sense of the Scriptures and acquainted with Ecclesiastical Doctrines and above all things if he assert the Articles of Faith in simple Words that is to say affirms that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God and teaches that the whole Deity of the Trinity is Coessential Consubstantial Coaeternal and Coomnipotent and that every Person of the Trinity is fully God and all the Three Persons are one God If He believes that the Holy Incarnation was neither of the Father nor the Holy Ghost but of the Son only that He who was the Son of God the Father by the Godhead becoming a Man was the Son of his Mother very God of His Father and very Man of His Mother who had Flesh of the Bowels of His Mother and a human reasonable Soul And both Natures God and Man were in Him one Person one Son one Christ one Lord the Creator of all things that are and the Author Lord and Governour of all Creatures with the Father and the Holy Ghost Who suffered a true Passion in His Flesh and was dead by a true death of His Body and rose again with a true Resurrection of His Flesh and a true Re-assumption of His Soul in which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead It must likewise be asked if He believes that one and the same God was the Author of the Old and New Testament of the Books of the Law the Prophets and the Apostles If the Devil be not wicked by his will and not by his Nature And if he believes the Resurrection of this Flesh which we now carry and not of any other and the Judgment to come and that every one shall receive either punishment