Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n
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A60703
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Deo ecclesiæ & conscientiæ ergo, or, A plea for abatement in matters of conformity to several injunctions and orders of the Church of England to which are added some considerations of the hypothesis of a king de jure and de facto, proving that King William is King of England &c as well of right as fact and not by a bare actual possession of the throne / by Irænevs Junior ...
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Iraeneus, junior.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S4396; ESTC R14451
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122,821
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116
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Grace Of Confirmation by the Bishop BUT these are not the last Tears of our complaint whilst that excellent Rite of Confirmation labours or languishes under such apparent disadvantages And though I see no reason to sublime it into a Sacrament So is there as little to put the Administration of it under such hatches of restraint that there 's scarce one of five but for want of conveniencies is necessitated to live and die without it This Office being so narrowly circumscribed hâ—at (a) And that meerly in honorem ordinis But is not the Honour of God and good of Souls to be preferred to that one single Person in a Diocess only must be allowed to administer it to whom many either through Poverty or Infirmity are not able to travel for it which if it were thought fit might be brought nigher even to the Door for why should such Ministers as have the care of Souls committed to them be deprived of any expedient by which they might build them up in their most holy Faith or the People deprived of any means which may conduce to their Spiritual nourishment and * In confirmatione augmentum praestat scil sp 3tus ad gratiam in baptismâ— ablâ—imur post â—aptisâ—â—m roboramur inquit Papa Mâ—lâ—biades growth in Grace The Office cannot be pretended to be above those Ministers or they beneath it to whom is committed the Dispensation of the Oracles of God and holy Sacraments And though Bellarmine saith that the Grace which is initiated in Baptism is perfected in Confirmation and so ought to be dispensed by the chief Ministers of the Church yet allows that Presbyters may be Licensed to dispense it According to the daily Practice of our own Church which gives Licenses to Deacons to administer the Sacrament of Baptism Gregory granted Licenses for this purpose which Aquinas mentions and approves of 3. q. 72. viz. of Presbyters executing the Office of Confirmation Yea Richardus Armochanus though a Romish Catholick confesseth That the Office of Confirmation belongs to the Presbyters as well as Bishops This Bonaventure Durandus and Adrianus do deny but that they may do it by Dispensation all agree * Lib de Sacrament 2. Cap. 12. Bellarmine acknowledgeth it to be not only the Opinion of Aquinas but of all his Disciples and many other Divines as Richardus Paludanus Marsilins and others (a) The Waldenses in their Confession of Faith own that this Rite may be performed either by the Bishop or by the Presbyter Talis ad Episcopum aut sacerdotem duci statuique debet qui interrogatus de fidei veritatibus c. Manus postremo impositione ad firmanda Promissa dei Profess fidei fratr Waldens in Artic. de Confirmatione together with all the Canonists And shall we be so stanch and reserved as to confine the execution of this Office to the Person of the Bishop who by reason of the extent of the Diocess In which many times the Cure of more than a thousand Parishes is incumbent upon him as also Avocations by secular Concernments is incompetent to discharge And this done too for no other end than to aggrandize the Order of Episcopacy which will scarce refund or answer for the Omission of so useful a Rite and Ordinance in the Church For would it not very much conduce to the Honour of god Edification and building up of the People in their most holy Faith if every Person baptized into the Christian Faith should be obliged when he comes to Years of discretion to appear in the Publick Congregation there to make a Confession of his Faith to recognize his Primitive Engagement to avow that in his own Person which was done for him by proxy And that the Minister of the Congregation should by imposition of Hands where it is not scrupuled recommend the Person to the Grace of God that he might be strengthned setled stablished in the Christian Faith That he might persevere in the stedfast Profession and Practice of it and continue his for ever And let the Honour of the Bishop give a yieldance to the Honour of God and good of the People although it will be hard to prove that 't is a more honourable act of the Ministry to confirm than to baptize Yet the Cardinal of Aâ—les owns it as due to Presbyters His words are At sâ—â—â—â—râ—sbyteri debent Ecciesiaâ—â— in comâ—uni regere satis notâ—m est quod ad eos quoque decide e â—es spectat Ecclesie dubias And that they have a governing Power he proves from St. Austine and he from Scripture Aen. Sylv. de gâ—st Con. Basil p. 25. or administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper though St. Jerom saith that for this Cause viz. The Honour of the Priesthood Bishops were only to lay on Hands but the Law did not injoin it Hieronimus in dialogâ— contra Luciferianos dicit ob honorem Sacerdotii fieri ut soli Episcopi manus imponant non oblegis necessitatem which our Church is not so stanch in the Bishop having always the Concurrence of Presbyters who lay on hands with him in conferring the Orders of Priesthood Concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline AS to the Matter of Discipline and Jurisdiction I shall say little lest it should be interpreted an itching desire after Rule and share of the Government of the Church Sir Edward Dering that great and learned Man in the first long Parliament where he laboured much to prevent the Extirpation of Episcopacy (a) Sir Edw. Der. Collect Speeches p. 32. did declare that they could never be able absolutely and utterly to root out Popery unless they took away the Soleship of Episcopacy I believe good Reasons might be given why the Minister of the Parish should be impowred to assist the Bishop when any of his Flock are called or convented as Criminals Forbs the Bishop of Edinburgh concludes against the Power of the keys being solely in the Bishop Post institutos Episcopos iâ—ud Preshyterium quod habet Episcopum Jurisdictionem non exerceat sine Episcopo suo neque Episcopo eam potestatem exercere fas est seorsim absque Presbyterio Bishop Hall saith that 't is universally agreed upon by all Antiquity that in the Primitive Government all things were ordered and transacted by the Consent of the Presbytery moderated by one constant President thereof The Primary and perpetual (b) Peace-maker pag. 48 49. Hanc formam commendâtunt patres observavit antiquissima Ecclesia iâ—o quod est totius rei caput instituisse videtur ipse Christus per Apostolos Theol. Gall. de Discipl Eccles Anno. 1622. Cap. de Episcop St. Austine upon these words of St. Matt. Tibi dabo claves saith that Jurisdiction was given to Presbyters as well as Bishops Dicit per illa verba datam esse Judiciariam potestatem toti Ecclesiam Episcopis Presbyteris Practice whereof no Man can doubt of that hath but seen the Writings of Clemens and Ignatius St. Ignatius in his
that which must be the Rule of our Faith and Worship From the beginning these things were not so Now if our Religion agree with the Primitive Rule of Faith and Practice of the most ancient Church 't is I am sure before theirs which hath been often made appear by the best records of Antiquity and Evidences of Scripture So that we are at no loss to tell them where our Church was before Luther and Religion we profess though it was sometimes Subterranea and fore'd to hide it self in the Clefts of the Rocks our Duck if they will have it so was sometimes fain to dive being often hunted and pursued by the Romish Spaniels those insatiable Blood-hounds We can very well tell where our Religion was of old which is that which Christ planted and delivered to the Saints But alas like the Spouse fallen into ill hands which wounded her and took her Vail from her yea deflowred and defiled her But it hath pleased God to deliver her and save her and us too out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him more purely In short Christ was both the Author and Finisher of our Faith not Luther not Calvin though we are very much obliged to them for putting us in a way to cleanse the Vessels of our Sanctuary and scowre off the Rust they had contracted But if Antiquity be necessary to legitimate the Doctrine of Faith what was the Romish Faith I mean their new framed Articles in their first Edition Particularly that main Point of it viz. The Pope's Supremacy which the (a) Later Coun. Sess 11. Dat. Rom. 1516. 14 Cal. Jan. cum de necessitate salutis existat omnes Christi fideles Romano Pontifici subesse Scult Ann. 1516. Council of Lateran first cast and moulded into an Article of Faith making the Belief of it necessary to Salvation This was decreed in the very same Year that Luther began to assault Rome as Scultetus observes I chose to instance in this though divers other of their Doctrines have no great Plea to Antiquity because several of our late Converts have when time was laught us to scorn and thought us extreamly at their Mercy if they did not hiss us out of our place for placing a Supremacy in the Chief Magistrate What say they Must the Son be Head of the Mother the Child Superintendant to the Parent According to this Divinity they make the Blessed Virgin to have a Command over her Son As thou art a * Jure matris impera redemptori Mother command thy Son But this is a piece of Popery which seems destructive of it self for Christ to be sure was the undoubted Head of the Church and to have one higher than the highest and Power to command him is neither good Sense nor Divinity But I never designed to have entred upon any thing of this nature if the Clamours of such as turned Renegado's to our Church the Pinacles of whose Temples they were once over-zealous for had not occasioned it whom I am apt to believe could they have foreseen that their Temptations to have deserted the Church of England would have been so great and that their Reign after their Conversion to Rome would have proved so short would not have been such Zealots against those who in some things dissented from the first nor so dogmatical and pert in asserting the Supremacy of the latter Which Gregory the Great though Bishop of that See was so far from pretending to that he declared it was a Sign of Antichrist for any other to claim it When Boniface Sozimus and Celestine sent to the Council of (*) At which Synod St. Austine was present and subscribed with his own hand Carthage to make challenge of it alledging the Sixth Canon of the general Council of Nice the Fathers of that Synod sent him word that they having only a Latin Copy by them in which they found no such Canon took the pains to send to Antioch Alexandria and Constantinople to procure and consult the Greek Copies But found nothing in the least favouring their demands and therefore wrote to Celestine that seeing no such thing was to be found in the Acts of Nice they desired him for the time to come to acquiesce denouncing to him that they would not suffer any cause either great or small to be carried out of their Country by way of (a) The Milevitan Synod decreed the same thing appeal for which they had better Authority from the Council of Nice than the Bishops of Rome for their Supremacy which defined that all Matters should be determinable in the Province and decreed the Patriarchs should be chief within their Precincts viz. The Bishop of Antioch in the East the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt and the Bishop of Rome about Rome He that reads the Epistles of Cyprian will find him no way favouring the Supremacy or universal Superintendency of the Roman Bishop nay in that ad Quintinum he argues expresly against it His Words are Nam nec Petrus quem primum dominus elegit super quem aedificavit Ecclesiam suam cum secum Paulus de circumcisione post modum discepsi aret vendicavit sebi aliquid insolenter aut arrogantèr assumpsit ut diceret se Primatum tenere obtemperari à novellis posteris sibi potius opportere Cypr. ad Quint. St. Peter did not saith he defend himself against St. Paul when he contended with him by alledging his Supremacy and that all succeeding Bishops were to bow before him and obey him (b) St. Austine and St. Jerome affirmed that the Rock of the Church was Christ or St. Peter's Confession But Stapleton saith they were mistaken Ferus the Monk did not think so who saith that fides Christiana veritas Evangelica firma in concussa est petra illa In Matth. Cardinal Cusanus makes all the Apostles equal in Power and Dignity But what need we any further Proof or Witnesses against our Adversaries whilst they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and may be condemned out of their own Mouths Fatentes habemus reos Did not Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester forswear and deny with an Oath the Supremacy of Rome and declare ex animo or ex mero motu freely and frankly that that Bishop had no Jurisdiction nor Power over the Church and Realm of England In pursuance and proof whereof he wrote his Book de Verâ Obedientiâ in which he defended the Supreme Power of Kings and his own Practice instancing in Solomon who according to his Father's appointment ordained the Offices of the Priests in their Ministries and Levites in their Orders To this he adds the Example of Hezekias 2 Chron. 29.5 6 c. Aron he saith obey'd Moses and Solomon gave Sentence against Abiathar the High Priest To this Book Edm. Bonner Bishop of London wrote an Epistle recommending the Work to the perusal of all that loved the Truth where he calls the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome