him a very notorious defect in fulfilling his duty of which yet if there was any the least probable appearance of repentance he was not denied the necessary viaticum as the Council of Nice calls it The best men ready to depart to a better life desired and took this caelestial meat for their comfort and refreshment in their passage to God Some ministers are so strict and parsimonious in giving the Holy Sacrament that they deny the same unto a considerable part yea often to most part of their parish which before had been admitted to it without using the method prescribed by our Saviour in Matth. chap. 18. vers 15 16 17. Which text requires publick accusation and proof in the presence of the governours of the Church and their publick condemnation before the publick execution of so high a censure They are also so hard hearted to dying men earnestly desiring that soul-confirming most refreshing viaticum that although they cannot truely before God and men if put to it assure it that they remain in a state of sin inconsistent with any degree of saving grace as in case of denial they should be upon good grounds assured yet they can be so uncharitable and unmerciful as to deny it unto them These extreams on the one hand and on the other hand partly the not forgotten great abuse of the holy censures by Chancellors and Commissaries partly the late ejecting of the set publick formes of prayers out of the Churches and partly the general contempt of all the holy ordinances spread over the Kingdomes by the several Sects brought in and maintained by the Regicides to strengthen and perpetuate themselves if they could in their most impious usurpation and tyranny these I say have made the Communion of Saints in the publick prayers and the holy Sacraments to be of very small esteem with most insomuch that very many are brought to believe they may go to heaven notwithstanding the neglect of them for which most pestilent disease if seasonable and convenient medicine be not found out and wifely applied the Church of England will be uncapable of receiving any benefit by the meer Ecclesiastical Discipline and the onely restraint under God against the growing sad effects of irreligious profaness will lie in the sole power of the Regal auctority What gesture of body was used in those ancient times in receiving the holy Communion Sect. 17. whether standing or kneeling or at some times the one and at other times the other is not very clearly and expressely set down by the writers of that age that I can remember This onely is certain that they did not kneel in the receiving of it on the Lords days because it was against a Canon of the Church to adore God by bowing of the knee on those dayes It is probable that on other days except in the Pentecost they received kneeling Hieron in Esa c. 45. for St. Hierom saith that it was an Ecclesiastical Custome to bow the knee to Christ Idem in Epist ad Ephes c. 3. which we may understand to be in the receiving of that holy Sacrament as well as in the publick prayers notwithstanding that this holy Doctor saith in another place that every one that is subject unto Christ is said to bend his knee unto him and citing the words of St. Paul at the name of Jesus every knee shall be bowed addeth that the words do not pertain to the knees of the body but to the subjection of the mind and inclination of the soul and obsequiousness of the heart to God Which this most learned Father would never have said or written if the Custome of the Church had been in his time to kneel not onely unto Christ himself but also to his name Jesus or if he had thought that this place of the Apostle did signifie it to be every mans duty to make the name Jesus a co-object with Christ of his adoration by the bowing of the knee as some of the latter Schoolmen have taught In the time of St. Hierom and before the standing in receiving the Eucharist on the Lords day was accompanied with a low bowing of the body even nigh to a prostration for St. Augustine writing upon the 98 Psalm faith August in Ps 98. none eateth that flesh unless he first hath adored it And in the words following he speaketh of inclination and prostration to that earth that is the flesh of our Saviour not considered as apart from but as in and with the most blessed Divine person Cyrill Hierosol Catech. Mystagog 5. Cyrill of Jerusalem speaking of the Holy Communion saith take the body of Christ saying Amen and a little after come saith he to the Cup of his blood not extending thy hands but incurving them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in manner of adoring and worshiping saying Amen But now that the more urgent reasons which moved the Fathers of the Primitive Church not to use kneeling in adoring God on the Lords days are ceased it seems most convenient to kneel in taking the Holy Sacrament upon what day soever we receive it for the nearer Christ comes to us and the more he doth descend and condescend in coming to us yea and into us mystically in those external weak Elements the more should we descend humble and debase our selves by the inward bowing of our souls and the external bending of our knees in the receiving of him thereby testifying our own unworthiness of that Grace and commending the exceeding freeness of it In the Kingdome of Prester John they stand when they receive the holy Communion In giving the Sacrament the Bishop or Presbyter said Francisc Alvarus apud Cassandri liturg De Sacrament l. 4. c. 6. the body of the Lord and the receive said Amen saith Ambrose About the year 600 in the Sacramentary of Gregory the great it is said while the priest giveth the Lords body let him say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thee to eternal life Amen And in giving the Cup let him say The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thee to eternal life In the mass of some Armenians in Russia the priest communicating faith Apud Cassand liturg By faith I believe in the most holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost By faith I eate thy quickning and saving body O Lord Jesus Christ let it be unto me to the absolution and remission of my sinnes And in drinking the Cup I drink by faith thy holy unmixed blood blotting out sins Apud Eundem O Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins and of my Parents and of all the world Every Communicant of the Armernians in India goeth before the foot of the altar to receive It is provided in the Council of Laodic before the year 400 Can. 19. that only the ministers might go in to the altar and there take the Communion Can. 17. In the fourth Council of Tolet. it was appointed
against the Canons and that they will be obedient to the Bishop c. which oath because it is dangerous we do all with one consent ordain that it be prohibited A Canon of a Council celebrated an 1355 comes to my mind which saith lest the faithful whō the divine piety was mercifully pleased to put under a light burthen and a sweet yoke should be burthened with the weight of sin by reason of their transgressions against the Canons we ordain that the provincial constitutions of our predecessors and those which shall be hereafter made oblige not the trangressors to sin ad culpam but onely to punishment ad paenam Whether the moderation of these Synods be worthy of imitation I leave to others to judge Many have entertained a great fear Sect. 15. which hath alienated their minds from all Episcopacy namely that an innumerable company of unnecessary and burthensome ceremonies be inseparable concomitants of Episcopal government Indeed the fear is not vain and without ground if we respect the degenerated Episcopacy as it is if we regard the primitive which hath and will be contented with very few if need be Witness Gregory the great who saith that it was the custome of the Apostles Greg. Epist l. T. Ep. 63. to consecrate the Eucharist using only the Lords prayer with him agrees Walifridus Strabus it is the relation of our Ancestors saith he that the Mass was wont to be made in the first times as now in the Good Friday De rebus Eccl. c. 22. i. e. after the Lords Prayer and the commemoration of Christs passion as himself hath taught us the communion of the body and blood of our Lord was given to all that were prepared About forty years after the death of St. John the Apostle Justin Martyr relates In Apolog. ad Auton that when the people of the City and Countrey adjacent met together on the Lords day the Reader read out of the Apostles and Prophets and then the President made a Sermon upon the Scripture then read which ended all stood up to prayer which done they kissed one another then bread and wine and water were offered to the President which he having received prayed again and gave thanks as he was able which ended the people said amen Then the Deacons gave the consecrated bread wine and water to every one present to receive and they carried the same to the absent Here we have the substance of the ancient Liturgy of the Church in use at that time short and sweet Where the Lords prayer was not alone used in the consecration as in the Apostles time but also the Bishops prayer whereof the words as he was able may imply either that he prayed as well as his memory would serve him to utter a premeditated prayer without book or that he prayed as devoutly as he could which is the best construction of them So that hence it may not appear whether it was a read or a premeditated and memorially delivered prayer The same old author saith concerning Baptism as many as believe those things to be true which have been told and taught them by us and promise to live accordingly are instructed to pray fasting for the pardon of their sins we fasting and praying with them and then they are by us brought to the water and regenerated as we our selves were in the name of the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost being washed in the water Then we bring them to the Brethren who are met together making common prayers for themselves the baptized and all other wheresoever c. We are to note that he mentions a Reader which whether he were a Presbyter or a Deacon or a distinct degree instituted by the Church cannot be gathered from his writings which are now extant In the end of the second Century the Reader appears to be a distinct degree the ordinations of Haereticks saith Tertull. are rash light unconstant therefore one is with them to day a Bishop and another to morrow De praescript haeret c. 41. he is to day a Deacon which shall be the next day a Reader he is to day a presbyter which is the next day a Laick And it is to be seen in Cyprian about the year 250 2. Epist 5. l. 3. Ep. 22. that he ordained Aurelius and Saturus Readers in his Church and Optatus a subdeacon At the same time Cornelius Bishop of Rome writing to Fabius saith Apud Euseb l. 6. c. 42. that in the Church of Rome there were of Presbyters forty six of Deacons seven of sub-deacons seven of Acolythes 42 of Exorcists Readers and Porters 52 of Widows and Poor above 1500 all which the Church fed Here we find Exorcists and Readers both which were in Justin Martyrs time about the year 150 to be reckoned among the Clergy of the Church of Rome and the Reader distinguished from the Presbyter and Deacons After this about the year 400 the distinct ordinations of Bishops of Presbyters of Deacons of Sub-deacons of Acolythes of Exorcists or Readers and of Porters or Dore-keepers and of Singers are set down in the fourth Council of Carthage Conc. Carth. 4. c. 1. ad 10. It must not be imagined that any of these besides a Presbyter and Dore-keeper was in every Parochial Church but only in the Cathedral or mother Church of the Diocess and in some such parochial Churches as were able to maintain a greater or lesser number of them And therefore it seems hard to lay upon one minister in the parish Church the burthen of all the offices to be born by himself alone which in the Cathedral were executed by many As to read every Lords day all the service first and second being a thing above the strength of most if the Sermon be not omitted as the Bishops and Presbyters bordering upon the times of the Apostles with the peoples consent committed the office of reading the holy Scriptures in the Churches to men of an inferior ordination so their successors shortly after committed the office of teaching the Catechumens to the like persons but more learned and apt to teach Both these as also some others were separated from the Laicks and destinated for the Presbytery They were the Bishops and Presbyters Scholars bred up by them for the high and sacred ministery and advanced thereto if they became capable and the Church had need of them So that Readers and Catechisers were incomplete preachers of the Gospel until by the higher and divine ordination Christ breathed upon them giving them the Holy Ghost which made them complete preachers who do not perform a complete act of preaching unless with the publishing of the text wherein the Readers help them they also publish an exposition and exhortation thereupon as Justin Martyr did and the succeeding ancient Fathers who grounded their Homilies or Sermons upon a portion of the Scriptures then read before them One ordinance of God is not to
between the one adoration and the other and the beholding the same acts of worship to be done to God and a sacred thing doth puzzle the ignorant and unwary that either his zeal is as much to the creatures adoration as to the Creators or mingles in his mind both the adorations whereby the best is debased and corrupted Some may say may we not bow to God and kneel to him at the altar without danger It is soon answered That without doubt we may and must do so and in so doing our mind doth not intend the altar as the object of our bowing The danger is in bowing to the altar for then we make it the object to which we bow It may be demanded if the Magistrate make the naming of the name Jesus the name of the Saviour of the world to be a sign when in the divine service we must bow to the person of the Lord Jesus God and man and not to the name Jesus may we not without danger so do I answer first That it is our duty to bow our hearts and also in convenient time and place to bow our bodies to the man Jesus Christ in the unity of the divine person And this is intended in Philip. 2. Secondly to bow our bodies at the naming of the name of Jesus is no duty that we are bound unto It is indifferent then to bow or not to bow as it is at the naming of the name of Christ Thirdly if the magistrate command us either at the naming of the name Jesus or at the naming of the name Christ in the divine service to worship Christ God and man by bowing unto him and not intending the name Jesus or Christ as an object of our bowing it is our duty to obey our Superiours command Fourthly from the bowing at the name the vulgar easily fall to the bowing to the name These adorations of the Cross c. inward and outward may not be counted divine or properly and of their own nature religious because no rule of true religion doth require them but they are properly Ecclesiastical because the Churches did sometime create them and as things Ecclesiastical and things any way made pertinent to religion are counted religious things so may these adorations be accidentally called religious There is not that kind and degree of excellency in the Cross Communion-Table or name Jesus or in any such sacred thing which may in proper sense merit and require that mental regard from us which should of right be testified by those acts of worship Neither do we find that the Churches acknowledged any obligation upon them to make any Canon requiring those adorations but onely as circumstances then were a congruity to command their use under which command and judgement of the Church individual persons were to acknowledge those sacred things worthy those honours Wherefore if it please our Superiors to continue the use of these Ceremonies which are so easily abused it will be very necessary to state and determine the right use of them and to point at the dangers to be avoided and to command that the cautions be at set times read in the Churches that none may erre for want of knowledge or by forgetfulness The discreet followers of the holy ancient Fathers of the Church are worthy commendation but their apes are ridiculous To sow the foul raggs of some late slovenly School-men to the comely garment of our Church as the misinterpreters of the text in Philip. 2. have attempted is an act disgraceful to the authors derogating from the honour and dignity of our dear Mother and introductory of unwarrantable adorations being pretended to be commanded by Almighty God For if it be once obtained that the adoration used to the name Jesus is of divine institution it will by the necessity of like reason follow that the bowing to the cross and the Communion-Table and especially to the holy bread and wine is a duty which of divine right doth belong unto them But it is time to proceed to speak of some other Ecclesiasticall Customes of the fourth Century Sect. 17. whereof one was derived from former times Chrysost in 2 Cor. hom 2. that in the Churches no Our Father was said in the prayers so long as the Catechumen and Penicents for whom special prayers were made were permitted to stay in the Church Concil Leodicen can 19. Et Chrysost in Eph. hom 3. Aug. de temp ser 38. Amalar. de Offic missae c. 19. Vide concil Valentin c. 1. After their departure out of the Church began the second divine Service and prayers proper to the faithful among which was the Lords Prayer most of the rest were subservient to the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper When that Sacrament was to be administred which was then usually every Lords day they offered bread and wine for the use of the Sacrament instead of which we have offerings for the poor and the Bishop or Presbyter went from the Pulpit or place where he prayed for the penitents or his seat to the Communion-Table where it is to be noted that he had not so long and difficult a journey to go as in most parochial Churches the minister hath to pass from his reading Pew or Pulpit through a throng of people to the holy Table and therefore there is good reason to spare him that labour in the days wherein is no Communion Persons excommunicated were nor received into Communion of any Prayers in the Church Conc. Ancyram can 6. 25. Conc. Nicen. 6.11 no not with the Catechumens until they had humbled themselves before the Bishop and earnestly besought that they might be made partakers of his councel concerning what was needful to be done by them to the perfecting of meet repentance in them and whereby they might give sufficient proof thereof for the satisfaction of the Church offended by their transgressions promising to follow his counsel and to perform the enjoyned pennance Upon this serious petition and promise the Bishops and Presbyters enjoyned such works of unfained humiliation to be done by them as they thought most agreeable for their case and condition and praying for them admitted them to the number and order of the Penitents When these had fulfilled the enjoyned works of humiliation to be performed by them in that order then they were admitted to the Communion of the prayers proper to the faithful and after the works of repentance which were commanded to be done by them in that rank they were admitted to the Lords Supper wherein was the perfection of Communion Conc. Nicen. c. 12. If any Penitent in the course of humiliation was in an eminent and iminent danger of death it was alway provided by the Fathers of the Church that perfect Communion with the Church of God without which Church is no salvation should be granted him in the participation of the body and blood of our blessed Saviour except the governours of the Church had observed in
translation it is not lawful say the Fathers of that Synod for the Choropiscopi Countrey or Village Bishops not for the Presbyters of the City to ordain Presbyters or Deacons unless that be committed to them by the Bishop being absent in another Diocess by his letters And therefore the Churches decree constituting Episcopacy abridged the Presbyters whether dividedly or conjunctly considered but onely in the exercise of their power Surely it must be beleeved that no ordination would be made by the Apostles excelling the ordination which our Saviour celebrated breathing upon his Apostles c. and giving them a comission to teach c. with promise to be with them unto the worlds end whereby the Presbyters were virtually ordained and comissionated astruly as the Bishops and therefore received thereby as much power as they in respect of the kind and nature which hinders not but that the exercise of some part of it might be taken from many of the persons ordained But some perhaps may say that Christ in that ordination ordained in the Apostles some as elder Brethren and others as the younger yet hence it will follow that the kind and nature of the ordination is the same in all as the nature of the Father is in all his Sons and that onely a principallity in the having and exercise of it belongs to the Bishops which is granted Others may say farther that Christ in ordaining the Apostles did virtually ordain some as the Sons of the Sons of the Apostles and others as their grand-children if this can be well proved it will indeed evince that the power of ordination as well as the exercise of it is proper to the Bishops but until it be made clear that this was the primary meaning and intention of Christ in that Act of ordination and not an effect onely of a consequent occasional providence of the Apostles and Churches it is probable that the power of ordination remaineth still in the presbyters restrained in the use by the canon of the Churches and Apostles The members of the Church which made the decree of Episcopacy and limited the use of the Eclesiastical power in the presbyters were the greater number of the presbyters themselves which remained in the unity of the mystical body with the greater part of the people and the Authors of it by way of approbation and confirmation were the holy Apostles The Apostles and Presbyters in the effecting of it exercised the ordinary Vicary Authority Basil constit mona c. 22. which they had as being by their ordination made the Vicegerents of the blessed Mediator Christ Jesus considered only as Mediator according to his own saying he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me the saying of the Apostle we are Embâ—ssadors for Christ and we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.20 That authority when it is duely exercised ought to be obeyed And because presbyters may erre in the using of it a spirit of discerning noxious doctrines and constitutions is given to Christians to examine and trie Bas l. reg 72. c. 1. with command to reject the evil and receive the good which good if the major part refuse being by their Pastors propounded to them Aug. de temp serm 143. they may do it upon their peril as they will answer it to God unity and peace interceding and forbidding that no Ecclesiastical constraint or censure proceed against the civil higher power or the major part of the people It is therefore requisite that constitutions to be made laws in the Church be by the leave of the supreme magistrate if he be a Christian propounded to the people that their consent being given the ministerial authority may make them laws Ecclesiastically obliging if no higher authority hinder Before these Law-makers constituted Episcopacy every singular Presbyter was to act according to the directions and rules of the Presbyterian Colledge which was the Church Law-giver and superintendent of the execution having the supreme dignity under the Mediator and preheminence in all things properly Ecclesiastical What is spoken concerning the Colledge of Presbyters must be applied proportionably to the several bodies of them in the Diocesan provincial imperial or universal Church The decree constituting Episcopacy took from the Colledge its high dignity and preheminence and conferred it upon one and so divided the exercise of the Legislative power among the Bishop and the Colledge that the one might not duely use it without the other For although the dignity and precedency of the Bishop may give more weight to his vote yet is the Vicary authority which cannot be separated from Presbyters as long as they be Presbyters as truly exercised in their votes whether in deciding controversies of faith or making of Canons c. as it is in the Bishops vote Which is manifest as by many testimonies of antiquity so by the practise of our English Synods which are conformable in the substance to the best and most ancient constitution of Councils The superintendency which the Colledge had over the execution of all Ecclesiastical duties and ordinances was chiefly in the Bishop yet so as without his Presbyters he could not regularly hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes as before was shewed out of the fourth Council of Carthage and might be further demonstrated out of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers Every suprem civil power on earth as Gods Vicegerent Sect. 10. is bound to advance and preserve the true Religion so far as the light of nature can manifest it or divine revelation doth make it known unto him so that a King which hath embraced Christian Religion which alone is the true Religion is obliged to maintain it and to cause that the Christian duties be by all in their several stations and charges duely performed and therefore a Christian King is a law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers but so that he ought not to hinder the due exercise of their legislative power and make laws purely or properly Ecclesiastical without their concurrence in Counsel and consent but by his Laws and power partly to cause them to meet for the due exercise of their duty partly to maintain and strengthen their right proceedings in performance of their office and lastly if their Edicts be cosistant with the peace of the common-wealth and meet for the edification of the Church to perfect and make them full and complete laws by putting the hand and seal of his highest Vicary authority as Gods Vicegerent to the resolves of the subordinate Vicary authority of the Vicegerents of our blessed Mediator as Mediator God and man the Lord Jesus Christ God is a God of order and hath ordained that this unity and harmony between these two authorities should be firmly kept otherwise by a supine neglect of duty or by an exorbitant usurpation on either side the unity and peace both of Kingdome and Church are equally in danger of being broken The
invalid Serm. de extellent sacrorum Ord. Ivo Carnotensis speaking of the ordination of Presbyters and having said that the Bishop and Presbyters had laid their hands he adds and they invocate the Holy Ghost upon them which are ordained where he leaves nothing proper for the Bishop but the words of benediction prolated by him and onely by him as in the place of Christ The Bishop invocated in the name of the whole congregation and blessed in the name and place of our Saviour St. Ambrose writing to a Bishop whom he had ordained Epist l. 1. Epist 3. ad Episcopum Comensem saith the ordination which thou hast received by the imposition of my hands and benediction in the name of the Lord Jesus is not reprehended in Esa c. 58. Hierome saith that ordination is not fulfilled onely by imprecation of the voyce but also by imposition of hand Now because the benediction was and ought to be said while the Bishop and Presbyters in the ordination of these impose and hold their hands on the head of the person to be ordained the formal prayer going before the imposition and following after it and because it is the principal part of the ordination to which the imposition of hand is subservient as it is a vertual prayer St. August saith De baptis contra Donatist l. 3. c. 16. what is imposition of hand but a prayer over a man And as it is spoken by the Bishop in Christs stead delivering the Ecclesiastical power in Christs name Ambrose saith In Epist 1. ad Timoth. c. 4. that the imposition of hands are mystical words whereby the elect to the office of the sacred ministery receiving authority is confirmed for his work that he may be bold to offer Sacrifice to God in Christs steed Whereby we see that imposition of hand and the benediction are distinct parts of ordination yet so conjunct and the benediction so excelling the imposition of hand that the whole is reckoned nothing else but a benediction or prayer I confess that I did sometime begin to suspect that when the Roman Court had determined ordination to be a Sacrament properly so called as baptism and instituted by our Saviour they put in those words in the solemnity of ordination for the better confirmation and propagation of their new opinion but considering the reasons aforesaid and especially that the blessed Reformers of our Church have retained the same words and nothing doubting but that in so doing they did not favour the popish opinion but were perswaded they did therein follow their pattern which was the usage of the Primitive Church I rejected that conceit and suspition The first Author that I can remember to have read more expressely intimating the said words of benediction to be used in the ordination of Presbyters is our Country-man Alexander of Hale in these words Summ. part 4. q. 21. membr 4. the Keyes saith he are given with the sacerdotal order when it is said whose fins you remit c. and when a Bishop is consecrated another Key is not conferred upon him but the use of that first Key is extended Thus far he who flourished about the year 1240. In the words Whose sins ye remit c. remission must not be taken precisely for the taking away the guilt of sin or the reconciling of paenitents upon their private or publick repentance for sins committed after baptism but also for the taking away the power and raign of sin which is done by infused grace which having removed the spiritual darkness and death illuminates the soul and makes it alive to God Every part of the Presbyterial function tends to this last effect as well as to the former although one pastoral office may be more especially directed to the former and another in a more special manner to the latter effect The Fathers do often apply those words in St. John now frequently remembred and the like in Matth. ch 16. and chap. 18. to the act of reconciling Paenitents to God and the Church and much oftner then they do to any other kind of the ministerial loosing or remission and they had good reasons moving them so to do For first Haereticks began in the second Century to deny that Christ left any ministerial power in his Church for the remission of any great sin committed after baptism and this Heresie was revived by Novatian and Novatus in the third Century and quickned by the Donatists in the fourth Century Against which the Orthodox Pastors of the Church used those places of Scripture to prove that the power of reconciling such Penitents was given to the Church of Christ Secondly the zeal of the people in the Primitive Times and the encouragements of the Ministers and after the Canons of the Church inclined the people to make confession of their secret enormities to the Church or Pastors not because necessary to salvation but because it was found very profitable as the times and persons were then qualified and publick offendors were brought to publick repentance and this being duely performed were publickly reconciled to God and his Church These things being so frequent and solemn yet very irksome and grievous to flesh and blood it was very necessary for the Fathers of the Church to put the people dayly in mind of the benefit of those confessions and penitence and the necessity of both as to scandalous offences in order to a publick reconciliation which they could not otherwise do better then by making use of those places of Scripture for the Demonstration and proof of the peoples Duty and the certainty and comfort of their reconciliation None of those holy Pastors denyed the ministerial power of remission or loossing to be exercised in the other ministerial offices instituted as the means which God would bless if not abused for the begetting and increasing of saving grace Yea some of them have expressely taught that the preaching of the word baptism and consequently the Lords Supper are Keyes which open Heaven to some and shut Heaven against others and are the instruments of Gods power to loose some from the bonds of the guilt and power of sin and to bind those that refuse to be loosed by them For doth not the Lords Supper bind the unworthy receivers who eat and drink their own damnation and doth it not set at liberty and open Heaven to them who in eating and drinking according to the will of Christ eat and drink their own salvation but le ts hear what holy Hierome saith the Apostles do loose men saith he by the words of God In Esa c. 14. the testimony of the Scriptures and exhortation of vertues Epist ad Hedib q. 9. And again in another place the Apostles saith he in the first day of Christs resurrection received the grace of the Holy Ghost whereby they might remit sins and baptise and make sons of God and give the spirit of adoption to believers our Saviour himself saying
Whosoevers sins ye remit they shall be remitted Thus far Hierome The powers promised unto St. Peter in Matth. ch 16. and the powers given unto the Apostles when our Saviour breathed upon them and said Receive the Holy Ghost c. and the powers mentioned in the 18 chap. of St. Matthew supposed before given or to be in a special manner given in time to come are one and the same powers Chrysost de sacerdotio l. 3. Ambros l. 1. deâ—â—aenit c. 1. 6. Hier. ad Heliod de vita solit Athanas serm in illud pâ—â—ofecti in pagum c. Cypr. de simplicit Praelat and so taken to be by the Doctors of the Primitive Church which they do unanimously acknowledge to be given unto the Apostles both in right and possession as to the essential parts of the powers before Christs death although there is some seeming variety among them concerning the punct of time before his death wherein Christ gave them declaratively unto them and the immediate subject to whom they were given Considering their sayings concerning this matter and comparing them together and so expounding them that they may agree with the Scriptures and among themselves these following assertions may be gathered from them First They do not deny the said powers to have been given as to their essentials unto the Apostles when he called them to the Apostleship and gave them the name of Apostles For they could not think that Christ gave them the name of the office without the office it self And it appears that the Apostles preached and baptised before the promise of them was made unto Peter They received with the name of Apostles the powers to minister all the doctrine and means of salvation which Christ intended in due time to deliver unto them Act. 1.24 25. Act. 26.16 And therefore when the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted they needed not a new ordination but onely a signification of Christs pleasure that they should use the power before given them in the administration of this ordinance which is but an extention of the power to a new object Secondly they agree Chrysost in Joh. hom 85. Cyprian de simplicit Praelatoruus Aug. de Trinitate civitate Dei c. 4. quaest ex vet Novi Testam c. 93. that all the Apostles received those powers when our Saviour breathed upon them c. and that this was a solemn ordination of them giving them more grace to accompany their ministery then they had in their first call and less solemn ordination or in the subsequent manifestation thereof before his death This is the more proper ordination of the ministers of the new testament the full original and seminal tradition of the ministerial powers whereby all future ordinations of the like kind are sanctified and for these causes our Saviour iterated their ordination to the pastoral extraordinary and ordinary offices and the rather least his death might be thought to have made void their first more secret and covert ordination Some late writers think that Christ lest his ascension into heaven might seem to have nullified the second ordination did ordain the Apostles the third time in the day of Pentecost Hier. epist ad Hedib q. 9. but it s more likely that he did then onely complete their ordination in the measure of extraordinary and ordinary gifts of the spirit enabling them and in them the succeeding Pastors for the better execution of their pastoral functions Thirdly the fathers agree also in this that Christ gave equal power and authority unto all the Apostles and made them all ministerial rocks and fundations Cyprian de simplicit Praelat gave unto them the Keyes of the heavenly Kingdome and gave them with the Keyes in their hands unto the Church Aug. de verbis Domini serm 11. de doct Christ l. 1. c. 18. for whose aedification onely they and their successors were to use them The eyes are not more the bodies then Pastors and their Keyes are the Churches and as the body cannot see but by the eyes so the Church cannot enter into heaven by any other member under Christ of the mystical body without the service of the Pastors opening with their Keyes the gates of heaven for her As the Apostles were ministerial rocks so was Peters confession an instrumental rock and in a second place the confession and preaching of the rest of the Apostles were so too by the means of which rocks the Church is built upon the foundation of foundations the principal rock our Lord Jesus Christ Hilar. in Math. Can. 11. Matth. 16. Yet Peters confession was not without a great reward He had the first promise of the Keyes to be given unto him after Christ's resurrection with the more abundant measure of the grace of the Holy Ghost which he then received with the rest of the Apostles yet so that he was the first in order which received them before the rest He had a name given him by our Saviour from the principal rock Ambros serm 89. Cyprian de habiiu virgin He was made the first in order and head of the Apostles the first ministerial rock and his preaching was made the first instrumental rock He was made the first preacher to and convertor of the Jews and Gentiles Joh. 10. Ambros ser 47. De Petro vide Aug. retract l. 1. c. 21. Ambros de incarn Dom. sacramento Cypr. nbi sup ad Antonianum the Apostle and Pastor of the first Christian Church after Christs ascension which was the mother of all other Churches And because it was believed that he had his choycest and longest residence in Rome wherein by his ministery the Gospel was first planted that Church was counted the Princess of Churches the mother of Churches as he was accounted and called the Prince of the Apostles All these priviledges did serve to shew the unity of the Church and the unity of the holy ministery and ministers thereof and to commend unto all the sons of the Church the preservation of unity in doctrine worship Discipline and charity There be many particular Churches of Christ yet all but one Church as Peters Church was one there be many Bishops and Presbyters yet as Peter was alone the Apostle of the first Church which represented all the succeeding Churches Basil constitut Monast c. 22. so the many ministers of the Gospel are one in Peter and the ministery one in him And as the Churches and ministers were one in their fountains and roots so they ought to preserve the like unity among themselves the ministers imitating the faithfulness of Peter and the flock imitating the obedience and holiness of the Church of Peter If Rome had persisted in and contented her self with the doctrine of St. Peter and not added thereto Idolatry superstitions and haeresies we would gladly have owned and honoured her Bishops as the prime successors of Peter and the Church of Rome as the