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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	bishop_n	church_n	ordination_n	3,732	5	10.3279	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33902	A defence of the absolution given to Sr. William Perkins, at the place of execution, April the 3d with a further vindication thereof, occasioned by a paper, entituled A declararion of the sense of the arch-bishops and bishops, &c.	Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.	1696 (1696)	Wing C5247; ESTC R171438	9,760	16

Condemn'd who lie under fatal Sentence and irresistible Power Who have the Force of the County to dispatch them and are just ready to receive the Stroke As to the previous Questions they were put and answer'd the Absolution was desired and the Confession receiv'd in Prison and in short the Churches Directions were observed in every particular But we did not move them to make a special Confession of their Sins at that time With Submission where lies the Necessity or even the Expediency of such a Practise Does our Church oblige Dying Persons to publick Confession Does she require them to throw open the Retirements of Conscience and the Secrets of private Life to the view of the World I am at a loss to understand why we should be charg'd with Omissions on such accounts as these The Declaration c. proceeds with great vehemence p. 9. and charges us with manifest Transgression of the Churches Order and prophane Abuse of the Authority of Christ. These are hard words but I hope altogether undeserved 'T is true they instance only in Mr. Snatt and Mr. Cook but I must own the Objection lies equally against my self for I never saw Sir Iohn Friend during his whole Imprisonment But in assisting at his Absolution so far as laying on my Hand amounts to I did no more than what is easily defensible I grant I had no immediate and particular knowledge of his Condition neither was it necessary Our Church in conformity to Antiquity has made the Priest the proper Judge of the Qualifications of the Penitent and supposes him fit to be trusted and believed in that Affair Now Mr. Snatt and Mr. Cook upon whose Judgment and Integrity I can very well depend had given me a general Account of Sir Iohn's Pious Disposition and that he was well prepared for all the assistance the Church could give him The having so good Information from first hands from proper and authorized Judges is sufficient to warrant my part in Sir Iohn's Absolution This besides what has been said I shall make good from two parallel Instances First 'T is well known that Bishops of the antient Church used to give a sort of Certificates to those that Travell'd by vertue of which they were not only entertained and accommodated but admitted to full Communion all over Christendom Albasp Not. in Can. p. 115. From whence we may observe that personal Acquaintance and particular Examination are not necessary to give a Right to the Priviledges of Christianity Where the Credentials are good the Church is to enquire no farther she is to presume upon the probity of the person recommended and to treat him accordingly Secondly Our own Church in some of the highest Administrations acts upon Principles of Trust and Confidence She conveys her Priviledges and exercises her Authority without always insisting on personal Enquiry and immediate proof At the giving of Holy Orders neither the Bishops nor the assisting Presbyters are always personally acquainted with those they Ordain The prudence of our Church does not tie us up to such unreasonable Rigours Both Practise and the Ordination Form suppose the contrary And why then may not the Priest assist in Absolution as well as Orders without any previous Experiment of the State of the Person Why may not the first as well as the latter branch of his Authority act upon the Warrant of unexceptionable Testimony By all parity of Reason and force of Consequence the practise is no less defensible in one case than in the other If 't is objected That the joyning of all the three Clergy-men in the Imposition of Hands is unpresidented and exceptionable To this I answer That if the Action was lawful singly perform'd I can't imagine how a concurrence of more authorized Persons should make it otherwise Is there any harm in Union and Solemnity Or can Religion be treated with too many Circumstances of Advantage What Canon is there that stints the Assistance to One and forbids a plurality of Persons Timothy had the Hands of the Presbytery laid upon him 1 Tim. 4. 14. which without doubt exceeded the Number now objected Our Church at her Ordination allows this Ceremony to all the Presbyters present And in the very case of Absolution the Penitent was to receive Imposition of Hands from the Bishop and Clergy as appears from the Testimonies of St. Cyprian above mentioned Farther These Reverend Prelates argue that we must either look on the Persons absolved as Impenitents or Martyrs and they make their advantage of each branch of the Supposition p. 10 11. But with submission I see no necessity of granting the Disjunction For there may be a third way of considering the matter To speak to my own case I absolv'd Sir William Perkins as a Penitent and I suppose every Body must be absolved under that Consideration For Absolution supposes both Sin and Repentance in the Notion of it But as for the Matter of Sir William's Repentance that is never likely to be known from me Neither am I in the least affected with the Bishop's Inference For supposing I receiv'd a defective Confession am I accountable for that However I neither do nor am obliged to declare my Opinion in this matter But thus far I am positive that there was nothing confes'd to me which the Canon obliges me to reveal And what the Canon does not enjoyn me to discover it enioyns me not to discover Can. 113. Vid. first Defence And so there is an end of this Dispute I hope by this time it may appear that I am neither unfurnish'd with Reason or Precedent to justifie what I have done However I shall give one late instance for the whole case and so conclude At the Execution of Mr. Ashton Ian. 1690. Absolution was given him in the same Form with Imposition of Hands at the same place and upon the same occasion and a justifying Paper left by the Person that Suffer'd Now at that time there was no Exceptions made either to Manner or Thing The performance was so far from displeasing that the Sheriff gave his Thanks for the Solemnity of the Office There was no Complaints either at Lambeth or White-Hall no publick Invective no seizing of Body and Goods in short no signs of the least Dissatisfaction And who could imagine that the bare repeating of an action should raise such a Storm upon us now which was so perfectly inoffensive before To punish in this manner without warning or Precedent without Canon or Law is with submission somewhat unintelligible And now having defended my self I shall reply nothing to all the unkind Reflections and Tragical Language of the Declaration 'T is probably within my power to turn some of these Reverend Prelates Artillery upon them But my regard to their Character and Inclination not to displease makes me wave the advantage However their extraordinary usage has done me the Honour of an Opportunity to forgive them which I thank God I heartily do Ap●il 21. 1696. I. C. POSTSCRIPT I Have just now receiv'd a Sheet call'd An Answer to my Defence c. As for that little which is material in this Paper 't is already satisfy'd and I don't love needless Repetitions And therefore to begin and end in a word with this Answerer If he has any thing remarkable 't is in my Opinion his Ill Language and that I can both Pity and Despise Apr. 25.

Testimonies of St. Cyprian whose Authority must be granted to be unexceptionable both with respect to the Antiquity and Character of the Person Indeed 't is to this Father that we are principally obliged for the Remains we have of the Discipline and Government of the Primitive Church Now St. Cyprian is categorical in the case and affirms roundly that in lesser Crimes than those of the Lapsed the Penitent could not be admitted to full Communion unless the Bishops and Clergy had laid their Hands upon him Nisi prius illi ab Episcopis clero manus fuerit imposita Ep. 17. p. 39. Ed. Oxon. Now where the Bishops and Clergy are thus contradistinguish'd the Order of Priests must be comprehended in the latter in the most restrain'd Construction I might produce his 15th and 16th Ep. p. 34 37. for the same purpose but because these Testimonies run much in the words of the former I shall wave the Recital This Father in his 18th Ep. tells his Priests and Deacons That they need not expect his coming Home to reconcile the Lapsed but if any of the Laiety were in danger of Death a Priest and if a Priest could not be had and the necessity was extream a Deacon was a sufficient Authority to hear their Confession to lay Hands upon them and consign them to the Peace of the Church The same Advice upon the same occasion is repeated Ep. 19. p. 41. From whence 't is evident that Imposition of Hands was no reserv'd incommunicable priviledge of the Bishops but delegated as low as the Deacons upon emergent necessity and visible Approaches of Death These Authorities of St. Cyprian are all double charged and prove two points at once They prove that Imposition of Hands was a general Appendix to Absolution and that it was within the Commission of the Priest to officiate in the Ceremony To proceed In the 13th Canon of the first Council of Nice the Viaticum is order'd to be given to those who are at the point of Death And by the Viaticum Albaspinaeus proves that Absolution with Imposition of Hands was meant and not the Eucharist And that such an Absolution might be given by those who were no more than Priests Albasp Not. in quosdam Can. p. 131. I could amasse a great many more Testimonies were it necessary but I conceive what has been said already may be sufficient to vindicate my Practise from the Charge of Encroachment and Singularity Thirdly Imposition of Hands is enjoyn'd the Assisting Presbyters by our own Church in the Office of Ordination and by parity of reason is fairly applicable to the present case If our Church had thought the Imposition of Hands too much for the Character of Priests she would not have prescrib'd them a share in 't at her Ordinations But since she has allow'd them this liberty in the most solemn Exercises of Authority why should she deny it in inferiour Cases To assist in the Conveyance of an Authority seems a greater mark of Power than the executing any Branch of the Authority conveyed If the Presbyters are permitted to lay their Hands upon the Clergy why not à fortiori upon the Laity St. Hierom affirms plainly Ep. ad Evagr. that the Powers of a Priest comprehend those of a Bishop excepting in the point of Ordination Our Church has never condemn'd this Father's Assertion why then may not the first Absolve with Imposition of Hands no less than the other But there is no Appointment of this Ceremony in the Absolution-Rubrick True Neither is there any Prohibition The Rubrick is perfectly silent both as to Posture and Gesture and yet some Circumstances of this Nature must of necessity be used Now since our Church allows the Priest Imposition of Hands in another case and does not forbid it in this Is it any harm if our Liberty moves upward and determines it self by general Usage and Primitive Practice Our Church has always professed a regard for the Patterns of Antiquity We can't do her a greater Honour than by conforming to the Solemnities of the purest Ages than by making the Discipline of Fathers and Councils the Rule of our Behaviour Especially when we are not bound up by National Law and particular Constitution Thus much for the Manner I come now to justifie the thing and the occasion 'T is objected by these Reverend Prelates that the three assisting Clergymen pronounced a Form of Absolution c. With submission I hope a Form is better than no Form Especially when it was a Form Rubrically appointed A Form drawn up by the publick Authority of the Church confirm'd by Canon and Act of Parliament A Form the most pertinent and proper to the occasion of any in the Liturgy I am sorry to see the solemn Offices of Religion mentioned with such seeming coldness and Abatements of Expression Were it not that I am unwilling to give these Reverend Prelates the trouble of a Question I would gladly understand what Form they could have fix'd on more suitable to so sad an occasion I 'm sure that Form of Absolution is the most solemn and Authoritative of any in the Service-Book Now if ever the Church exerts her self ought it not to be in cases of the greatest Necessity Can her most comfortable Administrations and the highest Acts of her Authority be better employ'd than for the Relief of Dying Persons who are combating the King of Terrours and stand just upon the brink of Eternity Upon the whole I am surprized they should say the Rubrick gave us no pretence of Authority to absolve those Persons Does not the Rubrick give the Priest a power to pronounce the Absolution and to judge of the Condition of the Peninent This cannot be deny'd And why then had we no pretence of Authority Because the Rubrick relates to the Sick To this I answer Had the Church left us a stated Office for Persons Condemn'd and we had refused to make use of it there had been some force in the Objection But as the matter stands I humbly conceive there is none at all The Church without question would have Condemned Persons taken care of as well as others and their Spiritual Necessities supplied And if so is it not more respect to the Church to officiate in Forms of her own setting forth than in private and unauthorized Compositions And if the Function was to be performed in the publick Devotions I desire to know whàt part of them could have been more proper than the Office of Visitation of the Sick If we consider the Design of the Church and especially the Rubrick before the Absolution we shall find that she intended this Office to prepare People for the other World and consider'd them rather as Dying than likely to recover This appears evidently from the Questions and Advices order'd to be ask'd and given so that where-ever Death is in view the Office cannot be unseasonable nor misapplyed And can any Persons be more certain of Death than those who are publickly