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
his Party yet he did overthrow all those Arguments against it that are brought in this Paper and shew'd they were of no force This Writing of his has not been yet Printed but I have perused it in the Manuscript Yet that this may not seem to be a declining of the task you have invited me to and because the Books I have mentioned are not perhaps in your hands I shall say as much in answer to it as I hope may fully satisfy you or any impartial Reader The Substance of the first argument to prove that our Ministers are not Priests is That by the form of our Ordination the Power of Consecrating the Sacrament of Christs most holy body and blood is not given the words only importing a Power to dispense the Sacraments which any Deacon may do Therefore the power of consecrating or making Christ's Body and Blood present being essential to the Priesthood and our form not expressing it and by consequence not giving it it wants one essential requisite to the Priesthood and therefore those that are ordained by it are not true Priests To which I answer 1. If our Form be the same in which Christ ordained his Apostles we may be very well satisfied that it is good and sufficient Now when our Saviour Ordained them S. Iohn tells us that he said Receive the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained this being that Mission which he gave them as the preceding words do clearly import As the Father hath sent me so send I you we can think no Form so good and so full as that he made use of It is true we do not judg any Form so essential as to annul all Ordinations that have been made by any other for then we should condemn both the Ordinations of the Primitive Churches and of the Eastern Churches at this day And this is the reason why even according to the ancient and most generally received Maxims of the Schools Orders can be no Sacrament tho in the general sense of the word Sacrament it being no term used in Scripture but brought into the Church we shall not much dispute against its being called so for by their Doctrin both Matter and Form of the Sacrament must be instituted by Christ and are not in the power of the Church Now they cannot but acknowledg that the Form of giving Orders in their Church was not instituted by Christ nor received in the Church for divers Ages which made Pope Innocent say that the Forms of Ordination were ordered and invented by the Church and were therefore to be observed otherwise it was sufficient in giving Orders to say Be thou a Bishop or be thou a Priest therefore though we do not annul Orders given by any other Form yet we have all reason to conclude that used by our Saviour to be not only sufficient but absolutely the best and fittest It is without all colour of reason that the writers of that Church will have the words our Saviour pronounced after he had instituted the Eucharist This do in remembrance of me to be the form by which he ordained them Priests for This do must relate to the whole action of the Sacrament the Receiving and Eating as well as the Blessing and Consecrating therefore these words are only a Command to the Church to continue the use of the Holy Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ. Nor do those of the Church of Rome think these were the words by which Christ ordained them Priests otherwise they would use them and think them sufficient but they use them not but instead of them say Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass both for the Living and the Dead 2. If this be ane essential defect in our Ordination then there were no true Priests in the Primitive Church for divers Ages and there are no true Priests at this day in the Greek Church and yet neither of these can be acknowledged by the Church of Rome for if they annul the Ordinations of the Primitive Church they likewise annul their own which are derived from them They do also own the Orders of the Greek Church to be valid as appears by their receiving them into their Communion at the Council of Florence and by their practice ever since which Morinus hath in the first part of his Work so fully proved from the decrees of Popes and Councils that the thing can no more be doubted and at this day there are Greek Churches at Rome maintain'd at the Popes charge in which Orders are given according to the Greek Pontificals as he informs us That in the Primitive Forms there were no express words of giving power to consecrate the Sacrament I appeal to the Collection of the most Antient Forms of Ordination that Morinus a Priest of that Church and a Penitentiary in great esteem at Rome has made where it will be found that for many Ages this power was not given expresly or in so many words The most ancient Rubrick about this is in the 4th Council of Carthage if those Canons be genuine When a Priest is ordained the Bishop blessing him and laying his hand on his head all the Priests that are present shall likewise lay their hands on his head about the Bishops hand Where we see that the Imposition of hands and the Bishop's blessing was all the matter and form of these Orders Denis called the Areopagite tells us that the Priest that was to be Ordained kneeled before the Bishop who laid his hand on his head and did Consecrate him with a holy Prayer and then marked him with the sign of the Cross and the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy that were present gave him the Kiss of Peace Here we find nothing but imposition of Hands and Prayer Now there being no general Liturgies nor Ordinals then in the World but every Countrey or perhaps every Diocess having their own Forms it was never defined in what form of words this Prayer and Benediction should be used but was left indifferent so the substance of the Blessing were preserved It is true the Author of those Constitutions that are ascribed to the Apostles sets down the Prayer of Ordination for which he vouches Saint Iohn Author which is That the Priest might be filled with the spirit of Grace and Wisdom to help and govern the Flocks with a pure heart that he might meekly teach the people being full of healing Operations and instructive Discourses and might serve God sincerely with a pure mind and willing soul and might through Christ perfect the sacred Services for the people in which there is nothing that gives in express words the power of Consecration In the most ancient Ritual that Morinus could find which belonged to the Church of Poictiers and has been composed about the middle of the 6th Century there is no mention in the
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
Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supream Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them Obligatory on the Subjects Which is all that is imported by the word Lawful in the Act of Parliament the ordinary use whereof among Lawyers is A thing according to Law The â—…th Argument against the Validity of our Priestly Orders is That we have them from those that are not Bishops which carries him to the next Conclusion that our Bishops are not Bishops But before I follow him to that I must desire you would consider with how much disingenuity this Paper is framed that would impose on the easy Reader the belief of our first Reformers not being true Bishops when the Writer cannot but know that Arch Bishop Cranmer was a Bishop as truly Consecrated and Invested as any of the Roman Church were and was confirmed by the Pope who sent him the Pall and to satisfy you that they knew him to be such they degraded him with the usuall Ceremonies before his Martyrdom So that he being the Fountain of our Clergy that succeeded him and being truly Consecrated himself all those he Ordained are by the doctrine of the Church of Rome Bishops or Priests since Orders according to their Doctrine leave an Indelible Character which can never be taken away So that by their Principles no following sentence could deprive him of the power of Ordaining It is true there were many disorderly practices of some Popes in the latter Ages in annulling Orders and re-ordaining those ordained by others for Pope Urban the second appointed those who were ordained Simoniacally to be re-ordained And Stephen the 4th in a Synod Decreed that all the Ordinations his predecessor Pope Constantine had made were null and void because he from a Layman was chosen a Pope and though he passed through the Intermedial degrees of Priest and Deacon yet he stopt not so long in them as was appointy by the Canons and upon the same account it was also judged that Photius the Learned Patriarch of Constantinople who in six days went through all the Ecclesiastical Decrees from a Layman to a Patriarch had no power of Ordaining lawfully and all the Orders he gave were annulled by Pope Nicolaus And to mention no more the Orders given by Pope Formosus were annulled by his Successor Pope Stephen the 6th upon the pretence of some Crimes and Irregularities with which he was charged these practices as they gave great Scandal so they gave occasion to much disputing about the Legality and Canonicalness of these proceedings for the Canonists and Schoolmen being generally very ignorant and prepossessed with an opinion of the Popes Infallibility studied to flatter the Court of Rome all that was possible Yet on the other hand there was so much to be said against these proceedings that as appears by Petrus Damiani Auxilius and other Writers of that time there was great perplexity and many different Opinions about them But the ignorance and passion of those Ages appears evidently in this particular for there is nothing more manifest than that the Ancient Church was of another opinion and as in the debate between Pope Stephen and Saint Cyprian about the re-baptizing of Heretiques the constant opinion and practice of the following Ages was against re-baptizing such as were baptized by those Heretiques who retained the essentials of Baptism So by the same parity of reason and upon the same Arguments they held the Ordinations of Heretiques valid that retained the essentials of Ordination In the case of Heretiques we have these Instances Faelix was consecrated Bishop of Rome by the Arians in the room of Liberius whose banishment they had procured and yet he was acknowledged a righteous Pope and his Ordinations were accounted valid In the General Council of Ephesus the Priests of the Messalian Heresie were appointed to be received into the Church and continue Priests upon renouncing their Heresie The same was also granted to Nestorians Pelagians Eutychians Monothelites and divers other Heretiques as Morinus proves at length And at this day though the Greek Church is condemned by the Roman as Heretical in the point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet they are received according to their Orders into their Communion when they renounce their Heresie And their great Vasques says that all the Schoolmen and Summists agree that an heretical Excommunicate or suspended Bishop has still the power of giving Orders for which he cites many Schoolmen and he likewise proves that a Bishop after degradation retains the same power And the case of Schismaticks is no less clear for to wave the Decision of the Council of Nice which seems somewhat dubious in the case of the Novatian Ordinations we find frequently in St. Austins Treatises and Conferences with the Donatists that they offered to them if they would return to the Unity of the Church to receive them according to their Orders So that they did not think Schism did take away the power of giving Orders And in the case of that long and scandalous Schism of the Papacy for fifty years together when the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon though beside their Schism Depositions Excommunications and Censures of all sorts passed on both sides by each of those Popes against the other and it must be confessed that one of them was the Schismatick and by consequence the Censures fell justly on him Yet both their Ordinations were held valid and when the matter was setled at the Council of Constance the Ordinations on no side were annulled or renewed And though Petrus de Lunay who was called Benedict the 13th refused to submit to them and lay down his pretensions as the others did yet when they gave sentence against him there is not a word in it of annulling Orders given by him From all which it follows that neither the pretence of Heresie Schism nor Censures will according to the practice either of the Primitive Church or of the Church of Rome even in these latter Ages be of any force to invalidate our Orders Which was well seen by Morinus and though he does not write upon this head with so much ingenuity as he does on other points yet he lays this down as a Maxim That all the Ordinations of a Heretiques and Schismatiques made according the forms of the Church and where the Heretiques that gave them were also rightly Ordained according to the forms of the Church are valid as to their Substance and are not to be repeated though they be unlawful and both he that gave and he that received them sinned grievously nor is it in any case lawful for a Catholick to receive Orders from Heretiques or Schismatiques Therefore in those Ordinations if all other things be done according to the form of the Church and only the Crime of Heresie be charged on the Orders given the substance of
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
had from Christ in such or such instances which command was just and good if the persons to be Ordained were so qualified as they ought to have been according to the Scriptures Sixthly Though the Command were unjust yet that cannot be imagined a sufficient ground to annul the Ordination for otherwise all the Ordinations appointed by the Anti-Popes of Avignon were null since done upon Mandates from a false Pope who had not power which will annul all the Ordinations of the Gallicane Church which did submit to these Popes And yet this cannot be admitted by the Church of Rome unless they also annul all the Eastern Bishops for the Patriarch of Constantinople is made by order from the Grand Signior and is upon that installed If this therefore invalidates our Ordinations it will do theirs much more except they will allow a greater power to the Turk than to the King So that this at most might prove the Church to be under an unjust violence but cannot infer an invalidating of Acts so done therefore if Matthew Parker was duely consecrated though it was done upon the Queens Mandate he was a true and lawful Bishop For let me suppose another case parallel to this if the Clergy should resolve they will no more administer the Sacraments upon the pretence perhaps of Interdicts Censures or some such thing And the Prince or State commands them to administer the Sacraments as was done by the Venetians in the time of the Interdict and by many Kings in the like cases can it be pretended that the Sacraments they administer upon such Commands are not the Sacraments of Christ but only of the King So in like manner Orders given upon the Kings Mandate by persons empowered to it by Christ and the Church are true Orders even though the Mandate for them were unjust tyrannical and illegal Seventhly Besides all that has been said it is to be considered that the power of choosing Bishops was in all Ages thought at most a mixed thing in which Laymen as well as Church-men had a share It is well enough known that for the first three Centuries the Elections were made by the people and the Bishops that came to assist in those Elections did confirm their Choice and Consecrate the person by them Elected Now whatever is a Right of the people they can by Law transfer it on another So in our case the people of this Realm having in Parliament annexed the power of choosing Bishops to the Crown by which their Right is now in the King's person Consecrations upon his Nomination must either be good and valid or all the Consecrations of the first ages of the Church shall likewise be annulled since he has now as good a Right to name the persons that are to be Consecrated as the people then had It is true the Tumults and other disscandal orders in those Elections brought great scandal on the Church and so they were taken away and Synodical Elections were set up but as the former Ordinations were good before these were set up so it cannot be said that these are indispensibly necessary otherwise there are no good Ordinations at at this day in the Church of Rome these being all now put down the Pope having among his other Usurpations taken that into his own hands Eighthly It is also known how much Christian Princes Emperors and Kings in all ages and places have medled in the Election of Bishops I need not tell how a Synod desired Valentinian to choose a Bishop at Millan when Saint Ambrose was chosen nor how Theodosius chose Nectarius to be Patriarch of Constantinople even when the second General Council was sitting Nor need I tell the Law Iustinian made that there should be Three presented to the Emperor in the Elections of the Patriarch and he should choose one of them These things are generally known and I need not insist on them It is true as there followed great confusions in the Greek Empire till it was quite over-run and destroyed so there was scarce any one thing in which there was more doing and undoing than in the Election of the Patriarchs the Emperors often did it by their own Authority Synodal Elections were also often set up at length the Emperors brought it to that that they delivered the Pastoral Staff to the Bishop by which he was invested in his Patriarchat but it was never pretended neither by the Latin Church nor by the contrary Factions in the Greek Church that Orders so given were Null And yet the Emperors giving the Investiture with his own hand is a far greater thing than our King 's granting a Mandate for Consecrating and investing them For proof of this about the Greek Church I refer it to Habert who has given a full Deduction of the Elections in that Church from the days of the Apostles to the last Age. For the Latin Church the Matter has been so oft examined that it is to no purpose to spend much time about it It is known and confessed by Platina that the Emperors Authority interveened when the Popes were created And Onuphrius tells that by a Decree of Vigilius the Custom had got in that the Elected Pope should not be Consecrated till the Emperor had confirmed it and had by his Letters Patents given the Elect Pope leave to be Ordained and that Licence was either granted by the Emperors themselves or by their Lieutenants or Exarchs at Ravenna And One and twenty Popes were thus Consecrated Pelagius the second only excepted who being chosen during the Siege of Rome did not stay for it but he sent Gregory afterwards Pope to excuse it to the Emperor who was offended with it it continued thus till the days of Constantine called Pogonatus who first remitted it to Benedict the second and the truth of it was the power of the Greek Emperors was then fallen so low in Italy that no wonder he parted with it But so soon as the Empire was again set up in the West by Charles the Great Pope Adrian with a Synod gave him the power of creating the Pope as is set down in the very Canon Law it self and of investing all other Arch-Bishops and Bishops and an Anathema was pronounced against any that should Consecrate a Bishop that was not named and invested by him This is likewise told by Platina out of Anastasius It is true though some Popes were thus chosen yet the weakness of Charles the Great 's Son and the divisions of his Children with the degeneracy of that whole Race served the ends of the growing power of the Papacy Yet Lewis laid it down not as an Usurpation but as a Right of which he devested himself but his Son Lothaire re-assumed it and did confirm divers Popes and Anastasius tells that they durst not Consecrate the Pope without the Imperial Authority and the thing was still kept up at least in a shadow till Hadrian the Third who appointed that the Emperors
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
opinion and it is certain that the general Doctrine of the Church of Rome is that the last Imposition of hands is the Matter of these Orders and parallel to this is the Imposition of hands in the consecration of a Bishop with the words Receive the Holy Ghost which is undoubtedly the matter of Episcopal Orders Therefore that same Rite with these words is also the matter of the Priestly Orders And it is a foolish and groundless Conceit to pretend there are two distinct powerâ—… essential to the Priesthood to be conferred by two several Rites for then aâ—… who 〈◊〉 ordained by one of these Riteâ—… without the other as were all thâ—… Priests of the Christian World till within these 700 years had not the Priestly Office entire and compleat And further according to their own Principles the Character is an Indivisible thing anâ—… inseparably joyned to the Sacrament Therefore that which gives the Character gives the Sacrament Now according to their Doctrine the Character is given by the Imposition oâ—… hands Therefore the Sacrament consists in that And all the other Rites are only Ceremonies added to it which are not of the essence of it from which iâ—… follows that we who use Imposition oâ—… hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. use all that according to the Doctrine of that Church is necessary to it and therefore they have no reason to except against the validity of our Orders even according to their own Principles Fourthly If by consecrating oâ—… making present Christ's blessed Body they understand the incredible Mystery of Transubstantiation we very freely confess there is no such power given to our Priests by their Orders But I shall not digress from this Subject to another therefore I may confine my Discourse to it I acknowledg that we do receive by our Orders all the power of consecrating the Sacraments which Christ has left with his Church First When we are ordained to be Priests there is given us all that which our Church declares inseparable to the Priesthood and such is the Consecrating the Eucharist Therefore it being declared and acknowledged on all sides what Functions are proper to the Priesthood if we be ordained Priests though there were no further Declaration made in the form of Ordination yet the other concomitant actions and offices shewing that we are made Priests all that belongs to that function is therein given tous this made Pope Innocent define that Be thou a Priest was a sufficient Form in it self Secondly The great end of all the Priestly Functions being to make reconciliation between God and Man for which cause Saint Paul calls it the Ministery of Reconciliation whatever gives the power for that must needs give also the means necessary for it therefore the Sacrament being a Mean instituted by our Saviour for the Remission of Sins which he intimated in these words This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood for the Remission of Sins and the death of Christ being also the great Mean in order to that end the power of forgiving sins Ministerially must carry with it the power of doing all that is instituted for attaining that end Thirdly The power of consecrating the Sacraments is very fully and formally given in our Ordination in these words Be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments where they bewray great inconsideration that think Dispensing is barely the distributing the Sacrament which a Deacon may do the word is taken from the Latin and is the same by which they render those words of Saint Paul Stewards of the Mysteries of God or according to the Style of the Church of Rome which translates Mystery Sacrament Dispensers of the Sacraments of God Therefore this being a phrase wherein St. Paul expressed the Apostolical Function one might think it could serve to express the office of a Priest well enough so that Dispensing is more than Distributing and is such a power as a Steward hath who knows and considers every ones condition and prepares what is fit and proper for them therefore the blessing of the Sacraments being a necessary part of the Dispensing of them they being Blessed for that end and the Dispensing them including the whole Office in which the Church appoints the Sacraments to be dispensed of which Consecration is a main part these words do clearly give and manifestly import the power of consecrating the Sacraments Now the Question comes to this what is meant by the word Dispensing they say it is only to distribute the Elements we say it is to administer the Sacrament according to the Office If what we say be the true signification of it then the power of consecrating the Elements is formally given with our Orders And that this is the true meaning of it appears both from common use which makes it more than barely to Distribute and from the declared meaning of those who use it which is the only rule to judg of all doubtful expressions Now the declared meaning of our Church in the use of this word being so express and positive from thence it follows that by Dispense must be understood to give the Sacrament according to the whole office of the Church The same is also to be said of the words Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God and to minister the Holy Sacraments for tho Minister and Serve in the Greek Tongue be the same yet Minister in our common acceptation is all one with Administer only Minister is more usual when the thing Ministred is Sacred or Holy therefore this takes also in it the whole Office of the Sacrament And as in the former words the Power is given so in these words it is applyed and restrained in its exercise to a due vocation to cut off idle it inerant and for the most part scandalous Priests And thus far I have considered this first Argument at great length both because it is that of which they make most use to raise Scruples in the thoughts of unlearned persons and the clearing of it will make way for answering the rest Therefore leaving this I go to the second Argument which is That the offering of Sacrifice is an essential part of Priesthood So Heb. 5. 1. and 3. therefore we having no such power conferred on us cannot be true Priests To this I Answer First It is strange Inconsideration to argue from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Pastors of the Christian Church ought to be Priests in the sense that is mentioned in that Epistle the scope of which is to prove That Christ is the only Priest of this New Dispensation And the notion of a Priest in that Epistle is a person called and consecrated to offer some living Sacrifice and to slay it and by the shedding of the blood of the Sacrifice slain to make reconciliation This being the sense in which the Iews understood it the Apostle among other Arguments to prove the
death of Christ to be the true Sacrifice brings this for one that there was to be another Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck For proving this he lays down in the first four Verses of the 5th Chapter the Jewish notion of a Priest then he goes on to prove that Christ was such a Priest called of God and Consecrated this he prosecutes more fully in the 7th Chapter where he asserts that Christ was that other Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck and v. 15. he calls him another Priest and v. 23. and 24. makes this plainer in these words And they truly were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood From which it is apparent that the Apostles design in these places is to prove that there is but one Priest in that sense mentioned chap. 5. v. 1. under the New Testament And had the Writer of this paper read over that Epistle he must needs have seen this but this is one of the effects of their not reading the Scriptures carefully that they make use of places of Scripture never considering any thing more than the general sound of some words without examining what goes along with them But as it is clear from that Epistle that there is but one Priest in the strict notion of it so it is no less clear that there is but one propitiatory Sacrifice among Christians in its strict notion for having mentioned the frequent Oblations to take away sins under the Mosaical Law chap. 5. v. 3. he makes the opposition clear chap. 7. v. 27. in these words Who needeth not daily as those High Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people for this he did once when he offered up himself And chap. 9. v. 7. having mentioned the High Priest's annual entring into the most Holy place he sets in opposition to it v. 12. Christ's entring in once to the Holy place having made Redemption for us by his own Blood And v. 22. he says Without shedding of Blood there was no Remission by which he does clearly put down all unbloody Sacrifices that are propitiatory And v. 28. he says Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many And chap. 10. v. 2. he says That when the worshippers are once purged then would not Sacrifices cease to be offered To prove that the Sacrifices of the Law had not that vertue Therefore we being purged by the Blood of Christ must offer no more propitiatory Sacrifices and all this is made yet clearer v. 11. and 12. And every Priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But this man after he had offered up one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God From all which you may see it is as plain as can be that there is but one Priest and one propitiatory Sacrifice under the New Testament for the places I have cited are not some ambiguous or dark Expressions but full and formal Proofs by which in a long Series of Discourse and Argument the thing is put out of doubt Therefore those of that Church do very unwisely ever to mention that Epistle or to say any thing that may oblige people to look upon it So that except to such as they are sure will read no more of it than they will shew them or cite to them they had best speak of it to no body else Secondly Though we deny all propitiatory Sacrifices but that which our Blessed Saviour offered for us once on the Cross yet we acknowledg that we have Sacrifices in the true strict and Scriptural notion of that word for propitiatory ones are but one sort of Sacrifice which in its general notion stands for any Holy Oblations made to God and in this sense Thank-Offerings Peace-Offerings and Free-will Offerings were Sacrifices under the Law so were also their Commemorative Sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb which were all Sacrifices though not Propitiatory And in this sense our prayers and praises a broken heart and the dedicating our lives to the service of God are Sacrifices and are so called in Scripture so also is the giving of Alms. And in this sense we deny not but the Holy Eucharist is a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving and it is so called in one of the Collects It is also a Commemoration of that one Sacrifice which it represents and by which the worthy receivers have the vertue of that applyed to them The Oblation of the Elements of Bread and Wine to be Sanctified is also a kind of Sacrifice and in all these Senses we acknowledg the Sacrament to be a true Sacrifice as the Primitive Church did But as we do not allow it to be a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living much less can we believe it such for the dead or that the Priests consecrating and consuming of it is a Sacrifice for the people it being a Sacrifice as it is a Sacrament which is only to those who receive it And in these three points First That it is no propitiatory Sacrifice 2. That the dead receive no good from it 3. That the Priests taking it alone does no good to the people who receive it not We are sure we have all Antiquity of our side But to digress upon that were to go too far out of the way and the Writers of Controversies have done it fully Therefore the power of Dispensing the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments gives all the Authority that is in the Christian Church for offering of Sacrifices And if they deny this they must deny the validity of all the ancient Ordinations for they can shew no such Form in any of their Ordinals Thirdly What was said before of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome about the matter and form of Orders as they are a Sacrament shews that the power they give in the Ordination of Priests of offering Sacrifices is not essential to it but only a Rite they have added to it the want whereof can be no essential defect and so can never annual our Orders What was said before in Answer to the first Argument is again to be remembred here that in all the Ancient Rituals there is no power of offering propitiatory Sacrifices given in the form of Ordination It is true in the M SS which lies in the Monastery of St. German there is a new Rite set down of delivering the Priestly Vestments in which among other words these are added And Do thou offer Propitiatory Sacrifices for the Sins and Offences of the People to Almighty God Which words are now omitted in that part of the Roman Pontifical and made a part of the final Blessing given at the end of the Office but this at most is but 800 years old and therefore cannot be essential to Orders since there were true Priests in the Christian Church
800 years before this was used And to this day in the Greek Church there is no power given by the Consecration to offer propitiatory Sacrifices for though in the second Prayer said in Ordinations in which God's Holy Spirit is prayed for upon the Priest That he may be worthy to stand before the Altar of God without blame and may preach the Gospel of his Kingdom and holily administer the Word of his Truth It is added And may offer to thee Gifts and Spiritual Sacrifices but there is no reason to gather from these words that they give power for offering Propitiatory Sacrifices We acknowledg that we offer Gifts and Sacrifices in the Holy Eucharist but we reject Propitiatory ones and these words do not at all import them And the truth of it is when the Writers of the Roman Church are pressed with the Arguments before mentioned that the Eucharist can be no Propitiatory Sacrifice Since 1. there no Blood shed in it 2. No Destruction is made of the Sacrifice for it is only the Accidents and not the Blessed Body of Christ that the Priest consumes 3. That Christ's Cross is called one Sacrifice once offered 4. That his being now exalted at the Father's right hand shews his Body can no more be subject to be Sacrificed or mangled When these with many Authorities from the Father's are brought they are forced to fly to some Distinctions by which their Doctrine comes to differ little from ours but still those high and indecent Expressions remain in their Rituals and Missals which they are forced to mollifie as they do those Prayers in which the same things and in the same manner and words are asked of the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints which we ask of God And though they would stretch them to a bare Intercession which the genuine sense of the words will not bear yet they will never change them for it is the standing Maxim of that Church never to confess an error nor make any change to the better The third Reason against our Orders of Priesthood is a Repetition of the first and is already answered The fourth Argument is That none can Institute the Form of a Sacrament to give Grace and make present Christ's Body and Blood but the Authors of Grace and those that had power over his Body and Blood but they that Instituted this Form had only their Authority from the Parliament as appears by the Act it self by which some Prelates and other Learned men being impowered did Invent the Form before mentioned never before heard of either in Scripture or the Church of God To this I Answer First It is certain the Writer of this Paper did never think it would have been seen by any body that could examine it but intended only to impose on some Illiterate persons otherwise he would never have said that a Form which Christ himself used when he ordained his Apostles and which is used in their own Church as the proper Form of Ordination was never before heard of in the Scripture or the Church of God Secondly Those who compiled the Liturgy and Ordinal had no other Authority from the Parliament than Holy and Christian Princes did before give in the like cases It is a common place and has been handled by many Writers How far the Civil Magistrate may make Laws and give Commands about Sacred things 'T is known what Orders David and Solomon Iehosaphat Hezekiah and Iosiah gave in such cases They divided the Priests into several Courses gavâ—… Rules for their attendance turned out â—… High Priest and put another in his stead sent the Priests over the Cities to teach the People gathered the Priests and commanded them to Sanctifie themselves and the house of the Lord and offer Sacrifices oâ—… the Altar And gave orders about the Forms of their Worship that they should praise God in the words of David and Asaph and gave orders about the time 〈◊〉 observing the Passover that in a case oâ—… Necessity it might be observed on the second Month though by their Law it wâ—… to be kept the first Month. And for the Christian Emperors let the Code or the Novels or the Capitulars of Charles the Great be read and in them many Lawâ—… will be found about the Qualificationâ—… Elections and Consecrations of Church-men made by the best of all the Roman Emperors such as Constantine Theodâ—… sius c. They called Councils to judâ—… of the greatest points of Faith which met and sate on their Writ whose determinations they confirmed and added the Civil Sanction to them And even Pope Leo though a higher spiriteâ—… Pope than any of his Predecessors were did intreat the Emperor Martian to annul the second Council of Ephesus anâ—… to give order that the Ancient Decrees of the Council of Nice should remain in Force Now it were a great Scandal on those Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Powers So it is no less unjust to say because the Parliament Impowered some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully exercised in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these persons had no other Authority for what they did Let those men declare upon their Consciences if there be any thing they desire more earnestly than such an Act for Authorizing their own Forms and would they make any Scruple to accept of it if they might have it Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one and such Authority the Church of Rome thinks fit to accept of in all States and Kingdoms of that Religion Thirdly The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did empower them to teach the people the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other holy Functions according to the Scripture the practice of the Primitive Church and the rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done though the Civil Powers had opposed it in which case their duty had been to have submitted to whatever severities or persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ and the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the hearts of those that had the chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all Thankfulness acknowledg so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Powers for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the parts and branches of it So by the authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and
added for the more Solemnity but are not of the essence of Ordination according to what is now most generally received even in their own Church And Vasques does set down this very Objection against the form of their Episcopal Ordination as not sufficient because it does not specify the Episcopal power to which he answers that though the words express it not yet the other circumstances that accompany them do it sufficiently by which it appears that this Argument is as strong against their Ordination as ours and that they must make use of the same Answers that we give to it Fourthly The ancient Forms of Consecrating Bishops differing so much one from another and indeed agreeing in nothing but in an Imposition of hands with a convenient Prayer it has been already made out that there is no particular Form so necessary that the want of it annuls Orders and that the Church has often changed the words of these Prayers upon several occasions and it was ever thought that if the words do sufficiently express the mind of the Church there was no more scruple to be made of the validity of the Orders so given for if the Episcopal Character were begotten by any of those Rites which the Church of Rome has added of late such as the Chrism the giving the Gospels the Ring the Staff or any other set down in the Pontifical then there were no true Bishops in the Church for many Ages In the most Ancient Latin Ritual now to be found there is nothing in the Consecration of a Bishop but the Prayer which is now marked for the Anthem after the Consecration in the Pontifical In a Ritual believed to be 800 year old the anointing is first to be found but there is no other Rite with it in another Ritual somwhat later than the former the giving the Ring and the Staff were used which at first were the Civil Ceremonies of Investiture and in the Greek Church none of those Rites were ever used they having only an Imposition of hands and saying with it The Divine Grace that heals the things that are weakâ—… and perfects the things that imperfect promotes this very Reverend Priest to be 〈◊〉 Bishop Let us therefore pray that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come upon him then all that are assisting say thrice Kyrie Eleison Then the Consecratoâ—… lays the Gospels on the head and neck of him that is Consecrated having before Signed his head thrice with the sign of the Cross and all the other Bishopâ—… touch the Gospels and there is a Prayer said And thus it is clear that if those Rites in the Pontifical be essential to Episcopal Orders neither the Primitive Church nor the Greek Churches gave them truly which are things they cannot admit Therefore it is most disingâ—…nuously done of them to insinuate 〈◊〉 unlearned persons that our Orders anâ—… not good when in their Conscienceâ—… they know that they have all those Requisites in them which by the Principleâ—… of the most Learned men of their owâ—… Church are essentially and absolutely necessary to make them good and valid But I go next to see what Ingenuity there is in the Objections which he sets down in our Name against the former Arguments There is nothing in which any man that writes of Controversie shews his candor and fair dealing more than in proposing the Arguments of the adverse party with their full and just weight in them And it is a piece of Justice and Moral honesty to which men are obliged for to pretend that one brings what may be objected against his Opinion and then not to set down any strong and material Arguments but on the contrary to bring some trifling and ridiculous things that no Learned persons did ever make use of is to Lye and really I cannot think the Writer of this Paper has common honesty in him that will pretend to set down our Objections and yet passes them over every one Our Arguments are drawn 1. From Christ's own practices 2. From the practice of the Apostles and the Primitive Church 3. From the practice of the Greek Church at this day 4. From the Doctrine and the practice of the Church of Rome These are the Arguments on which our Cause does rest and upon these Authorities we are ready to put the thing to an Issue But he was wiser than to mention any of those for he knew he could not get ofâ—… them so well and therefore that he might deceive those that are ready to take any thing off his hands upon trust he brings Objections which he knows none of us will make To the first I need say nothing having I presume said enough already to shew that both our Priestly and Episcopal Orders are good and valid But his second is such a piece of foâ—… dealing that really he deserves to be very sharply reproved for it In it he makes us object That though the form of our Ordination since King Edward the 6th his days till his Majesties happy Restauration was invalid yet that is sâ—…lved by the Parliament that now sits that appointed the words of Ordination to be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest or for the office of a Bishop And having set up this Man of Straw he runs unmercifully at him he stabs him in at the heart he shoots him through the head and then to make sure work of him he cuts him all to pieces that he shall never live nor speak again and all this out of pure Chivalry to shew his valour He tells us the Salve is worse than the Sore that by the change the Form used before is confessed to be invalid else why did they change it He tells us Secondly By this we acknowledg all our Bishops and Priests till that time to be null Thirdly That they not being true Bishops cannot Ordain validly for no man can give what he has not And fourthly The power that Act gives is only from the Parliament and not from Christ and this destroys our Orders Root and Branch So there is an end of us we are all killed upon the spot never to live more Yet there is no harm done nor blood spilt all is safe and sound But to satisfie any person whom such a scruple may trouble Let it be considered First That we pretend not that there is any greater validity in our Orders since the last Act of Uniformity than was before for those words that are added are not essential to the Ordination but only further and clearer Explanations of what was clear enough by the other parts of these Offices before Therefore there is no change made of any thing that was essential to our Ordinations an Explanation is not a change for did the Fathers of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople change or annul the Faith and Creeds that the Church used before when they added Explanations to the Creed Therefore the adding of some explanatory words for cutting off
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
Pastors For the foreign Churches they are able to speak for themselves nor is it needful for me here to shew what grounds there are for our Churches holding Communion with them But it must be acknowledged to be a high pitch of boldness and injustice to charge us as if we did not ascribe all due honour to holy Orders and the Succession of Pastors We know and assert That no man can take this honor of Priesthood to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee We reject the extravagant and bold pretences of hot-headed or factious Enthusiasts and have learned out of the Gospel that a publick calling was necessary even to those who had the most extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost Our Savionr sent his Disciples as his Father had sent Him and laid his hands on them and gave them the Power of binding and loosing And tho God had by his Spirit called Saul and Barnabas to the Apostleship of the Gentiles yet they did not enter upon the discharge of that Function till by the direction of the Holy Ghost whether by a voice formed in the Air or by a secret Inspiration it matters not they were separated for the work of the Ministry by Prayer and Imposition of hands And tho Timothy was by some Prophesies marked out as a Sacred Person yet he was received into that Function by the Imposition of S. Pauls hands From these sacred Authorities backed with the constant Doctrine and practice of the Churches of God in all Ages we do hold a visible Vocation and Ordination of Pastors necessary in the Church But whether the Roman Pontifical or our Ordinal comes nearer the Rules and Instances in Scripture and the forms of the Primitive times for at least Eight hundred years any that will compare them will easily discern and it is the chief subject of the following Work fully to evince the advantage of our forms beyond theirs It is true we do not extol the Office of Priesthood to that height as to say the Priest can by a few words work the greatest miracle that ever was and can make God present as they love to Phrase it this we think is the honouring the Creature more than the Creator Nor do we exalt the Priest above Gods Vicegerent on Earth our Lawful Soveraign whom according to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church even when Persecuted by their Emperours we honour as next to God and one who is inferiour to God only And therefore we reject the Seditious comparing of the Dignity of the Priestly Office with the Kingly which has not satisfied the Ambition of the Romish Clergy since Hildebrands days but the one must be preferred to the other Nor do we pretend that our Character gives us an Immunity to commit Crimes and an Exemption from the Civil Courts when they are Committed This were to make the Altar a Sanctuary for the most Criminal and the house of Prayer a Den of Thieves and Robbers It is true Christian Princes granted these Immunities at first that Church-men might not be disturbed in their Callings nor vexed with troublesome suteâ—… But afterwards that would not suffice but the Doctrine of Ecclestastical Iurisdiction and Immunity was set up as a thing most sacred and no wonder was it that men durst not presume to lay hands on him who could bring down not only Legions of Angels but God himself with a word And in the beginning of this Century Italy had almost been imbroiled in a War of the Popes making for which he pretended this for one cause that the State of Venice had apprehended two notoriously lâ—…ud and flagitious Priests and were proceeding against them according to Law But he saw other Princes were not very ready to second him and yet he did not lay down the quarrel till the Frocess of the Priests was discharged and they were set at liberty Such Exemptions are very profitable for a corrupt Clergy but if any such be among us we claim no such Protection being willing to leave them to the Law We know as little ground for thinking the Priest by his saying Mass can bring Souls out of Purgatory the Scriptures have made no discoveries either of Purgatory or the ways to escape from it or get out of it The Primitive Church continued still as Ignorant as the Holy Pen-men had been but in the darkest Ages the night being a fit time for Dreams this other world was discovered which has brought greater returns of Power and Riches to that Prince under whose Protection the discovery was made than the world Columbus discovered has sent to the Crown of Castile And tho the trade is not of that advantage that it was yet in gratitude for past services it must never be neglected or as when the vein of a Mine fails they dig on through the hardest Rocks till they find it again for the works must still go on But we poor souls have nothing to do with that gainful Traffick and therefore the Glory of the discovery and the Monapoly of the Trade we freely resign up to them and acknowledg the profits of new Inventions by the Rules of all Government are only due to the Inventors so that they have no reason to quarrel with us for leaving this entirely to them For the power of binding and loosing we do assert that as our Saviour vested his Disciples with it so it is still in the Church but if the vigor and exercise of it be much weakened we have none to blame for it but the Church of Rome who have now in a course of many ages laid down all open and publick penance So that the world being once delivered from that which to licentious men seemed a heavy Bondage it is not to be wondred at if the Primitive strictness could not be easily retrieved 'T is true this is a defect in our Church it is confessed by her in the Office of Commination and she wishes it may be restored but the decay and disuse of it begun in the Church of Rome and every body knows that what is severe and uneasy to Flesh and Blood is not soon submitted to when the practice of it is for any considerable time intermitted But the Clergy of that Communion thought they had made a good bargain when the necessity of Auricular Confessors and private Absolution was received to which the Laity did more easily submit that they might be freed from the shame of open penance and they knew how to deal with their Priests when the penance was secret none knew either the heinousness of their sins or the nature of the penance so it was more safe for the Priest to enjoyn what he listed and give Absolution on what terms he pleased And then because it was painful to have the Absolution delayed till the penance was
fulfilled which was the rule of the Primitive Church Absolution was granted immediatly upon Conâ—…ession without more ado as Arnaud has fully discovered to the world Certainly every body that considers these things must discern what merchandise the Roman Clergy have made of the power of the Keys to make themselves Masters of all mens secrets and of their Consciences then was the necessity of secret Confession set up tho there be nothing in Scripture that favours it any places that look that way being only meant of Confessing our Faults to those against whom they are Committed or of a publick Confession in the Cases of publick Offences Nor can it be pretended with any Colour of truth or reason that the Primitive Church did set up or Authorise Confession in any other way than as our Church does recommending it only as an excellent mean towards the quieting the Conscience and the avoiding of all Scruple and Doubtfulness Penitence is also a mean for humbling the sinner more for possessing him with deeper apprehensions of the guilt and evil of sin and of the Iustice of God and for ingaging him to more diligence and watchfulness for the future and by these Rules all the Primitive Discipline was contrived and managed that it might be a wholsome Medicine for the reforming the World and every honest Priest ought to consider these as the end he must drive at in all his dealings with Penitents and for this end the Absolution is to be withheld till it appears that the person is truely penitent and that both for the Priests sake that he may not give the Comforts of the Gospel nor make use of his Ministerial power of loosing sins without good grounds and also for the sinners sake that he may be kept under the fear of the wrath of God and be excluded from the comfortable Priviledges of the Christian Church till he had given some convincing proofs that he is a penitent indeed For if he be freed from these fears by a hasty absolution it is very like he will be slight in his Repentance There must be also some proportion between the penance and the sin committed such as fasting for sins of Intemperance bodily severities for Inordinate pleasures Alms-giving for sins of Covetousness great and frequent Devotions for sins of Omission that so the penance may prove Medicinal indeed for purging out the ill humours and recovering the sinner and to make the sin more Odious to him Therefore such slight penances as saying the Penitential Psalms and abstaining from some meats with other trifling things of that Nature are a betraying the power of the Keys which was given for Edification and not for Destruction and tend to an exposing of Religion and the Priestly Function to Contempt These practices are common and avowed in that Church and by these and such like have the Iesuites got all the world to make their Confessions to them of which such discoveries have been made by the Writers of the Port-Royal that we need say nothing but only look on with Astonishment and see the Impudent partiality of the Court of Rome and how obstinately they are resolved to reform nothing For tho the practice of the whole Church in all the Councils that were held for many ages be clearly of the side of the Iansenists yet they must be condemned their Books censured and the practices of the Iesuites encouraged and supported After all this of what Undanted Consciences must they be who charge our Church as opening a Sanctuary for Vice and Impurity because we retain not the necessity of secret Confession and Absolution Which whatever they may prove if well managed are according the practices of that Church and the Casuistical Divinity that is in greatest Credit there and by which their Priests are directed Engines for beating down all Religion and common Honesty But our Church owns still the power of the Keys which is not only Doctrinal when the Mercies of God are declared or his Iudgments denounced but is also Authoritative and Ministerial by which all Christians are either admitted to or rejected from the Priviledges of Church-Communion and their sins are bound or loosed With this we assert the Pastors of the Church are Vested For the Rites of our Ordinations we still retain those which are mentioned in the Scriptures which are Imposition of Hands and Prayer As for the forms of Prayer the Catholick Church never agreed on any nor decreed what were to be used Every Church had their own forms And though the Church of Rome did unmercifully enough impose divers things on the Greek Churches and because they would not yield to her Tyranny she left them to be a Prey to the Turk and did not interpose her Authority with the Princes of the West over whom she was then Absolute to arm them for the assistance and defence of the Greeks yet amidst all this desire of Rule they were never so unreasonable as to impose their Liturgies Rituals or Missals on them but in these they left them to their own Forms and so continue to do to this day Anciently they had no more Iurisdiction over the British Churches than over the Greek Churches So that by the division of Provinces confirmed by General Councils and by a particular decree of the Council of Ephesus no new Authority over any other Churches was to be assumed by any See but all were to be determined by the former practices and customs of the Church It is certain that before that time the Bishops of Rome had no Patriarchal Iurisdiction in Britain so that if the Decrees of General Councils will bind them they ought not to claim any Authority over us But if the Popes build new Pretentions on Austin the Monk's being sent hither by Pope Gregory the Great We are ready to refer this matter to his decision and will stand to his award for he being consulted by Austin about some particulars one of these was Since there is one Faith how comes it that the Customs of the Churches are so different and that one form of Missals is in the Roman Church and another is in the Churches of the Gaules or of France From this Question it appears that even France which was undoubtedly within the Patriarchat of Rome had Forms different from those used in Rome But let us now hear what Answer is given by Pope Gregory which may be reasonably believed ex Cathedra and so of great Authority with all who acknowledg the Infallibility of that See You know the custom of the Church of Rome in which you were educated but my opinion is that whatever you find either in the Holy Roman the Gallican or any other Church that may be more pleasing to Almighty God you shall diligently choose out that and infuse in the English Church which is yet but young in the Faith by careful Instruction what you can gather from many Churches for we ought not to love things for the
sake of a place but places for the sake of good things therefore choose from all Churches the things that are Pious Religious and Right and gather all these in one bundle and leave them with the English that they may become familiar to them It will be hard for the Agents of that Church to find out a Reason why Austin Bishop of Canterbury might make such changes in the Liturgies by gathering out of the several Rituals that were then in the World what he thouhgt fit and yet to deny the same power to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and the Bishops in King Edward's days why might not they as well as Austin the Monk compare the Rituals of the Church of Rome with other more ancient Forms and gather together what they found most Pious Religious and Right not loving things for the sake of a place whether Rome or Sarum but loving places rather for the sake of good things So that in this we have on our side the decision of a Pope who was both more learned and more pious than any of all his Successors but this is not the only particular in which they will decline to be tryed by his Iudgment And in the changes that were made iâ—… is very clear that our Reformers did noâ—… design to throw out every thing that was in the Roman Rituals right or wrong but made all the good use that was possible oâ—… the Forms that were then received in thâ—… Western Church and in this our Church followed our Saviours method who thougâ—… he had the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and was to Antiquate the Jewisâ—… Religion and to substitute his more Divine Precepts to those of Moses Yet he did accommodate his Institutions as near aâ—… could be to the Customs of the Jews not only in lesser matters but even in those two great Sacraments by which his Church is knit together as hath been fully made out by many learned Writers If then the customs of a Religion that was ready to perish were made use of and by new and more sacred Benedictions were consecrated to higher ends Our Church shewed her Prudence and Moderation in not destroying Root and Branch but reserving such things as were good and by being cleansed from some Excrescencies might prove still of excellent use This though it has given some colour to many peevish complaints yet is that in which we have cause still to glory This care and caution does eminently appear in our Ordinal the Ceremonies which were invented by the latter Ages we laid aside the more Ancient and Apostolical are retained And for the formal words used in the Imposition of Hands though the saying Receive the Holy Ghost was a latter addition without any Ancient Authority yet because this comes nearer the practice of our Saviour it was retained as the form of giving Orders For since it is consest on all hands that the Form of Orders is in the power of the Church we had good reason to prefer that which our Blessed Saviour made use of to any other and it had been a sullen and childish peevishness to have changed this because it was used in the Church of Rome So that I cannot imagine what should move them to shew so much dislike to our Forms except it be the old Quarrel of hating them because they are better and their own are worse and so because their deeds are evil they envy and revile us In this whole matter we are willing to be tryed both by the Scriptures and the first eight Ages even of the Roman Church by the Greek Church to this day and by the Doctrine that is most commonly received even in their own Church There is but one Objection that may seem to have any force in it which can be made from the practices of the Primitive Church against the Ordinations in this Church which is that we have not the inferior degrees of Subdeacons Acolyths Exorcists Readers and Porters in our Church and indeed if the Popes Infallibility be well proved this will be of force sufficient to invalidate our Orders The case of Photius Patriarch of Contantinople is well known whom Pope Nicolaus denyed to be lawfully Ordained because he was suddenly raised up from being a Layman to be made a Patriarch and though he passed through the Ecclesiastical Degrees yet that was not thought sufficient by that Pope who certainly would have been more severe to us who have none of these Degrees among us But these Orders cannot be looked on as either of Divine or Apostolical Institution the Scripture mentions them not St. Clemens St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp say nothing of them Justin Martyr and Irenaeus are as silent about them so that till the third Century we find no footsteps of them the first mention that is made of them is in the Canons and Constitutions called Apostolical of whose Antiquity I shall now say nothing In the Canons mention is oft made of the rest of the Clergy as distinct from Bishops Priests and Deacons and particularly they mention Readers Subdeacons and Singers In the Constitutions there are Rules given about thâ—… Ordination of Subdeacons and Readers And though there is mention made of Exorcists yet it is plainly said there that they were not Ordained but were believed to have that power over Spirits by a free gift of God and that they were then Ordained when they were made Bishops and Priests Firmilian who lived in the midst of the third Century speaks of Exorcists but it does not appear from his words if they were a distinct or an inferior Order of Church-men and they may be well enough understood of such as had an extraordinary power over Spirits Yet in the beginning of the fourth Century we find in the Greek Church more inferior Orders for the Council of Laodicea reckons up Servants who it is like were Acolyths Readers Singers Exorcists Porters and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were it seems Monks or some persons that were imployed in servile works such as the diggers of Craves And by the Council of Antioch the Chorepiscopi might Ordain Subdeacons Readers and Exorcists And if the Epistle to the Church of Antioch said to be writen by Ignatius was forged in the same Century by it it appears that there were then in the Greek Church Subdeacons Readers Singers Porters and Exorcists for all these are saluted in that Epistle from which it appears that all these Orders were then in the Church of Antioch But there is no small difficulty about these Orders in the Greek Churches for in all their Rituals we find no inferior Orders but Subdeacons and Readers to whom in some Churches they have added Singers upon which it is that Morinus confidently pronounces there were never any other inferior Orders in the Greek Church but these two but it does not appear that he had considered well those Canons of Laodicea and Antioch which mention other Orders Abraham Ecchellensis
their Princes till they forced them afterwards to seek to them for shelter from the severity of their Princes and then the Tables were turned All this was not a little set forward by the credit which the begging Friers got every where in the 13th Century for the Monks were then become as scandalous as the Secular Clergy had ever been and were generally very ignorant so that they could not serve the ends of the Papacy any more but the austere lives of the Franciscans their poverty and coarse Garments girt about with Ropes their bare Legs and seeming Humility gained them great esteem and the Zealous Dominicans whose course of life was not so severe yet were as poor and Preached much and Aquinas Scotus and Bonaventure brought in among the Friers the learning of the Schoolâ—… which was then in great esteem in the World all which concurred to dispose the People to receive them with great Veneration These were also imployed by the Popes every where and were also exempted from Episcopal Visitation and had Priviledges to build Churches and Seminaries to Preach hear Confessions and Administer the Sacraments every where and by these means the Episcopal Iurisdiction was quite overthrown and the Papacy became absolute and those Orders of Mendicant Friers were clearly a Presbytery they being a company of Priests that acknowledged no Episcopal Iurisdiction over them and their Great Chapter was their General Assembly and their Annual or Triennial Generals and Provincials who are chosen by them were like the elected Moderators of Provincial and National Assemblies In this only did that Presbytery differ from the Geneva Form that it was subject only to Christ's pretended Vicar the other claims to be only subordinate to Christ himself but both did equally rebel against their Bishops Yet the Schism of the Papacy had almost overturned all for the Bishops met in a General Council at Constance I call all those Councils General according to the style of the Church of Rome for I know there was not a Conncil truly General among them all and there they thought to retrieve their Authority and to be quit with the Popes for bringing in Abbots and other inferior Prelates they brought in Deputies from Universities to sit and judg with them and they thought they had made sure work of all by their Acts that regulated the Popes Election restrained his power subjected him to the judgment of a General Council and above all by their Act for a Decennial General Council with such provisions in it that one would think the Act for Triennial Parliaments was copyed from that Original But alas all this proved to no purpose for as Aeneas Sylvius wisely said that since all Preferments were given by the Pope and none by the Council he must certainly have the better of it at long run which as it made himself turn about so it brought off many more and at length the Pope became Master of All and at the Council of Florence the Generals of Orders were brought in to have Votes there There was another great Engine also made use of by which all the rules of the Primitive Church was overturned which was the Popes assuming a power to hear and judg all causes originally All that the Popes pretended to for many Ages was to be the highest Tribunal to which the last Appeal did lie And this was not only never yielded to by the Eastern Churches but even the African Churches though a part of the Latin Church would never submit to it and yet the receiving an Appeal had a very favourable plea that a person who had been oppressed by a faction perhaps in his own Countrey might find relief and protection elsewhere But after the 8th Century and that the forged and now universally acknowledged spurious Decretals were received they set up a new pretension of Iudging Causes Originally taking matters out of the hands of the Iudg Ordinary and bringing the Cognizance of them to Rome and setting up many reserved Cases which could only be judged by the Pope and the Canonists that were a servile sort of people who wrote chiefly for Preferment did upon all occasions find new Distinctions for enlarging the Popes power But because it was intolerable tedious and expensive to carry all such matters to Rome therefore that it might not be too heavy a burden to the World Legantine Courts were every where set up where all those Tryals were made By all these ways were the Primitive Rules broken and such a confusion was brought in upon all Ecclesiastical Offices that no Ancient Landmark or Boundary was thought so sacred that they did not either leap over or change it I will not enlarge further on this Subject and having already transgressed the bounds of a Preface I will not lay open the other Violations of the Sacred Offices at the full length but as the value of every thing is no less prejudiced by exalting it too high than by depressing it too much for a string over bended must crack So the Popes did as much wrong these Functions by exalting them out of measure as they had done by encroaching so far upon them And this was done by the Croissades Indulgences Privileged Places Iubilees and Redemptions from Purgatory with other things of that nature which the Monks and Friers did every where preach and proclaim these things did savour of Interest so palpably that it was no wonder if most people were so alienated from them that the first Reformers found all persons disposed to forsake the Communion of a Church that had so long deceived them by such gross Impostures Many had groaned long under all these Corruptions and of such the greater part received the Reformation others hoping to have got things brought about to a better pass continued still in that Communion but how little either Erasmus 〈◊〉 Câ—…ssander or many more such could prevail the event shewed for in the Council of Trent which was not obtained but after many years sute frequent Addresses not without threatnings at length extorting it how little could be carried appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's own History two grand points upon which the Bishops that had honest designs intended to raise the Reformation of Discipline and Manners were the declaring the Episcopal Iurisdiction to be of Divine Right and that the Residence of all Ecclesiastical Incumbents was also of Divine Right but these could not be carried Lainez the General of the Jesuits and the whole Court Party appearing with great Vehemence against the first of these asserting that all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was wholly and only in the Pope And from this one thing it may appear how little Iustice or Fair-dealing was to be expected from that Council towards those whom they called Hereticks when the Bishops themselves being Iudges in a thing in which they were also parties I mean about the Divine Right of their own Iurisdiction they could not carry it for it was never heard of before that
where 〈◊〉 was both Iudg and Party he was cast And in the other trifling Reformations that were Enacted there what care was taken by Distinctions and Reservations chiefly that grand and General one of Saving the Dignity of the Apostolical See to leave a door open by which those very Corruptions which they seemed to condemn and cast out might be again taken up as most of them have been since So that the issue of that Assembly was to establish the Papal Authority to cut off all possible hopes of abating an ace of the errors of that Church when all controverted points were turned to Articles of Faith and the contrary Opinions condemned by Anathematisms to disover how in possible it is to get the Abuses of that Church effectually Reformed and in fine to cure all people of their expectations of any great good from such meetings for the future and this has since appeared very visibly For as it is not to be expected that the Popes should call any General Councils ex motu proprio so no Christian Princes have thought iâ—… worth the while to solicite that Court for a new Council And thus I have hinted at several particulars from which it may appear how much the Church of Rome has confounded those holy Functions how she has robbed some of them of the power and Iurisdiction which they have from Christ and has put a power in the hands of others which they never had from Christ. And if the vigour of Ecclesiastical Discipline is not set up among us as it ought to be we owe it for the greatest part to those Corruptions which they brought in and being once received are not easily to be rooted out of the minds of the people But to a great many all that can be said of the disorders that have been brought in or kept up in that Church by the Popes will seem sleight and of no force for they will plainly tell us that they do not all believe the Pope is Infallible but are satisfied there are many things done by him that are amiss and need to be amended they only adhere to the Catholick Church to whose definitions and decrees they submit and resign themselves and yet no body writes more sharply against the Reformation and the Protestant Churches than these men do charging them with Heresie and Schism and every thing that is hateful to mankind This way of writing was begun in the Sorbon and never more pompously than at this time by the Writers of the Port Royal and has been taken up here by some whom their adversaries call Blackloists who speak almost with equal indignation of the Court of Rome and the Reformation This I know works great effects on some and has a very specious appearance therefore I hope the Reader will pardon me if I hold him yet a little longer in the Preface to unmask this pretension of some which otherwise may impose upon him I shall then make it appear that the maintainers of these principle must either be men of no conscience at all and sucâ—… as stick not at mocking both God and man at perjury and the foulest kind of equivoâ—…tion or if they be true to these principles they must on many occasions do the samâ—… things for which they condemn us an count us Hereticks and Schismaticks An this I shall instance in three things whicâ—… are of the greatest consequence to a Church namely Doctrine Worship and Government For the first of these When the Poâ—… makes a decision in any controverted poinâ—… if I do not think him infallible I retaiâ—… still my own freedom to judge as I am con vinced and so I may perchance be of another mind but if the Pope will have 〈◊〉 Churchmen or all Bishops as was lateâ—… done in the case of the Five Proposition of Jansenius to condemn the contrary opinions or subscribe Formularies about iâ—… they must either do what is commanded and so act against their conscience â—… quivocate and be perjured or if they do it not they must be proceeded against first for contempt and contumacy and next for Heresie and then they shall be Hereticks as well as we are And if in one point a man reserves his private sentiments notwithstanding the Popes decision why not in a great many and if it be no fault to have different opinions then since a mans actions must be governed by his persuasions it will be no fault to maintain and teach them if they be of great importance at least it is a great sin to renounce and deny them Therefore if Pope Leo the X. was not Infallible Luther was no Heretick though condemned by him especially a great many of the Articles for which he was condemned having never been decided by any of their pretended General Councils nor do these men think that the present practice of the Church is a forcible Argument for those of the Port-Royal have both complained of it and studied to change it in the matter of Pennance and Absolution so that it will not be easie nay not possible for them to prove that Luther was a Heretick since he was never condemned by any Infallible power Therefore it is not the Authority of the condemnation but the merit of the cause that makes one a Heretiâ—…k which is what we plead for From which it is evident that let the Pope decree what he will all of that Communion must either acquiesce in it or they shall become Hereticks This to such as believe the Pope is Infallible is no matter of difficulty for if I be once perswaded of that all his decisions do captivate my reason but if I am not I must either subdue my Conscience to my Interest or be that Monster which is called an Heretick It is true both Civil and Ecclesiastical Government punishes all obstinate and refractory persons who stand out against publick conclusions but still the Subject if these Laws be Injust has a clear Conscience amidst his sufferings therefore this is not parallel to their Doctrine who make all that comply not with their decisions Hereticks which is a matter of great guilt before God Let them give an Argument that will make a Protestant a Heretick which will not infer the same against a Jansenist And if they go to the merits of the cause it is a tryal we have never declined So till these men learn to trie all their reasonings together there is no great account to be made of them The second particular in which I shall shew the fallaciousness of these mens Reasonings is in the matter of Divine Worship which of how great consequence it is needs not be made out it must be a sin of a high nature either to prophane the name of God by any piece of Worship which I judg sinful or to use any Devotions about which I am not at all or at least not fully perswaded Now the whole Worship of their Church coming Originally and onely from the Popes who have given
authority to what Offices they will have made Saints and added devotions to them as they pleased All persons in that Communion must either by a blind resignation accept of every thing in their Worship which the Pope imposes believing him infallible or if they are not of that perswasion but give themselves leave to examine the Offices whether they do it by the Scriptures the Fathers and Tradition or by the Rules of Reason they must needs see there are many injustifiable things in their Offices many Saints are in the Breviary about whose Canonisation they are not at all assured And in a word one shall not speak with one of these Principles but they will acknowledg there is great need of Reforming their Offices Yet they must worship God according to them as they are otherwise they are Schismaticks and fall under that same condemnation for which they are so severe upon us Therefore it must either be the merits of the Cause that makes a Schismatick or if a Condemnation for separating from Authorised Offices does it then they must resolve to be guilty of it or worship God contrary to their Consciences They have no rules for their Offices but the Popes pleasure for Councils never made any and indeed it is the most unreasonable thing that can be to put the direction of the whole worship of God in one Man or a succession of Mens power unless they be believed Infallible The last thing I shall mention to shew how unreasonable they are who deny the Popes Infallibility and yet condemn the Reformation so severely is in the point of Government which though it be not of so high nor so universal a Nature as the two former are yet it must be acknowledged to be of great Importance And that the Prelates of that Church are fast tied to the Pope without any Reserves or Exceptions unless it be that of saving my Order the sense whereof is not fully understood will appear from the Oath they make to the Pope before they are Ordained From the consideration of which it was that King Henry the 8th laid it out to his Parliament that they were but half his Subjects and by the Oath then taken by the Bishops of England as is set down by Hall it appears that since that time there are very considerable Additions made to that Oath which any that will compare them together will easily discern If men make Conscience of an Oath they must be in a very hard condition that believe the Pope to be Infallible and yet are so bound to him by such a Bond. If the Superior be Infallible the Subject may without any trouble in his Conscience swear Obedience in any terms that can be conceived But when the Superior is believed subject to error and mistake then their swallow must be very large that can swear to preserve defend increase and promote the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors foresaid The Decrees Orders or Appointments Reservations Provisions or Mandates Apostolical I shall observe with all my strength and make them to be observed by others And I shall according to my power persecute and oppose all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebells against the said our Lord and his Successors And I shall humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolical Commands Which words being full and without those necessary and just reserves of the Obedience promised to Ecclesiastical Superiors in all things Lawful and Honest all the Prelates of the Roman Communion are as fast tied to the Pope as if they believed him Infallible for if they believed him such they could be tied to nothing more than absolute and unlimited Obedience Therefore they are in so much a worse estate than others be which hold that opinion because they have the saâ—… Obligation bound upon them by Oath And let the Pope command what he will theâ—… must either obey him or confess themselveâ—… guilty of breach of Oath and Perjurâ—… And I hope the Reader will observe whâ—… mercy all whom they account Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels againâ—… their Lord the Pope are to expect at their hands who make their Bishops swear 〈◊〉 persecute all such according to their power so that we may by this be abundantly satisfied of their good Intentionâ—… and Inclinations when ever it shall be iâ—… their power to fulfil the Contents of thiâ—… Oath for let any of them speak ever 〈◊〉 softly or gently if he comes to be Consecrated a Bishop he must either be Perjured or turn a persecuter of all Protestants whâ—… are in their opinion the worst sort of Hereticks and Schismaticks And certainly it is much more reasonble to calculate what in reason we ought to expect from the Prelates of that Church if ever our sins provoke God to deliver us over to their Tyranny from the Oath they swear at their Consecration than from all the meek and good natured words with which they now study to abuse some among us which is so common an Artifice of all who aspire to Power and Government that one might think the trick should be tried no more but some love to be cheated a hundred times over From these Instances it is apparent that the Pope has every whit as much Authority in that Church and over all in it as if he were believed Infallible since both the Doctrine Worship and Government of their Church are determined by him to whose award all must not only submit but be concluded by it in their Subscriptions Worship and other practices So that the opinion of the Popes being fallible gives such persons no ease nor freedom except it be to their secret thoughts but brings them under endless scruples and perplexities by the Obligations and Oaths that are imposed upon them which bind them to a further obedience and compliance than is consistent with a fallible Authority And therefore their Principles being so Incoherent that they cannot maintain both their charge against us of Heresie and Schism and their opinion of the Popeâ—… Fallibility and keep a good Conscience withal There is one of three things to be expected from men of that Principle either that they shall quite throw off thâ—… Popes tyrannical Yoke and assert their own liberty reserving still their other Opinions as was done in the days of King Henry the Eighth or that they shall joynâ—… in Communion with us or that they shall continue as they are complying with every thing imposed on them by the Court oâ—… Rome preferring Policy to a good Conscience studying by frivolous Distinctions to reconcile these Compliances with their Principles which any man easily see are Inconsistent That those of the Port-Royal have done the last is laid to their charge both by Calvinists and Jesuits and as I am credibly informed by some of their own number who do complain of their subscribing Formularies and every thing else sent from Rome which they have opposed as long
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
it is not thereby vitiated but there is a perfect and entire Character begotten only the use of it is forbidden yet he that neglects that Interdict though he becomes very guilty begets a new Character on the person Ordained by him Therefore Heretiques or Schismatiques so Ordained need no new Ordination but only a Reconciliation and what is said of Heretiques and Schismatiques does hold much more of those who are Ordained by persons that are Excommunicated deposed or degraded And for those things that are essential to Ordination enough has been said already to demonstrate what they be to which I shall only add what that Author the most learned of all that ever treated of this Subject says in the beginning of the next Chapter In the Rite of Holy Ordination there are some things of Divine Institution and Tradition which do always and in all places belong to holy Orders such as Imposition of hands and a convenient Prayer which the Scripture has delivered and the universal practice of the Church has confirmed Now these our Church has retained and therefore from all that has been said I may with good reason conclude that all the Ordinations that were derived from Arch-Bishop Cranmer having as has been already shewed the essentials of Ordination and being done with the due numbers of Ordainers as can be proved Authentically from the publick Registers must be good and valid And though we have separated from many errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and in particular have thrown out many superstitious Rites out of the Forms of Ordination that we might reduce these to a primitive simplicity yet as we acknowledg the Church of Rome holds still the fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we confess she retains the essentials of Ordination which are the separating of persons for sacred employments and the authorizing them with an Imposition of hands and a Prayer for the effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore we do not annul their Orders but receive such as come from that Church and look on them as true Priests by the Ordination they got among them and such were our first Reformers from whom we have derived our Ordination Having followed this Paper through the first Conclusion and the Arguments brought to confirm it I come now to the second which is That our Bishops are not true Bishops For which his first Argument is That our Bishops being no Priests they can be no Bishops This he thinks he has already proved therefore he sets himself to prove that none can be a Bishop till he be first a Priest About this I shall not dispute much for we acknowledg that Regularly and Canonically it must be so and assert that ours were truly such therefore we need not contend further about this though he must be very ignorant of Antiquity if he does not know that there are divers instances in Church History of Laymen nay and Catechumens chosen Bishops and we do not find those Intermedial steps were made of ordaining them first Deacons and then Priests but by what appears to us they at once made them Bishops But I shall wave this only I must put this Author in mind of a great Oversight he is guilty of when he goes about to prove our Bishops not to be true Bishops because they were not true Priests Does he not know that Bishop Ridley and the other Bishops of King Edward's days were Ordained Priests by the Rites of the Church of Rome And this was acknowledged by themselves when they degraded them at Oxford before they suffered if those then were Priests this is no Argument why they might not be Bishops For in this matter that which we ought to enquire into most carefully is what they were for if they were both Priests and Bishops and if the Forms by which they ordained others retained all the essential Requisites then we who are derived from them are also true Priests and Bishops His second Argument is No Ordination is valid unless there be fit words used to determine the outward Rites to signifie the Order given which he says our own Writers Mr. Mason and Dr. Bramhall do acknowledg But the words of Consecration do not express this they being only Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace c. which do not express the office of a Bishop and having proposed these Arguments that the unlearned Reader may think he deals fairly he goes on to set down our Objections and answer them First It has been already made out that the Form Receive the Holy Ghost was that which our Saviour made use of when he ordained the Apostles without adding To the office of an Apostle For which it is to be considered that all Ecclesiastical Orders being from the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost which being one yet hath different Operations for the different Administrations therefore the concomitant Actions Words and Circumstances must shew for which Administration the Holy Ghost is prayed for since that general Prayer is made for all but the Functions being different the same Holy Ghost works differently in them all Therefore it is plain from the practice of our Saviour that there is no need of expressing in the very words of Ordination what power is thereby given since our Saviour did not express it but what he had said both before and after did determine the sense of those general words to the Apostolical Function Secondly The whole Office of Consecrating Bishops shews very formally and expresly what power is given in these words Now though the Writers of the Church of Rome would place the Form of Consecration in some Imperative words yet we see no reason for that but the complex of the whole Office is that which is to be chiefly considered and must determine the sense of those words So that a Priest being presented to be made a Bishop the King's Mandate being read for that effect he swearing Canonical obedience as Bishop Elect Prayers being put up for him as such together with other circumstances which make it plain what they are about those general words are by these qualified and restrained to that sense We do not fly here to a secret and unknown Intention of the Consecrators as the Church of Rome does but to the open and declared intention of the Church appearing in this So that it is clear that the sense of those general words is so well explained that they do sufficiently express and give the power and office of a Bishop Thirdly In the Church of Rome the Consecration of a Bishop is made with these words Receive the Holy Ghost This being all that is said at the Imposition of hands which as has been already proved is the matter or sensible sign of Orders And in the Prayer that follows these words there is no mention made of the Episcopal Dignity or Function and all the other Ceremonies used in the Consecration of a Bishop are but Rites that are
the occasions of Cavilling is neither a change nor an annulling our former Orders Secondly The change of the Form of Consecration does not infer an annulling of Orders given another way for then all the Ordinations used in the Primitive Church are annulled by the Roman Church at this day since the forms of Ordination used by them now were not used in the former Ages and the Forms used in the former ages are not looked on by them now to be the Forms of Consecration but are only made parts of the Office and used as Collects or Anthems and yet here is a real change which by their own Principles cannot infer a nullity of Orders given before the Change made Thirdly If the addition of a few explanatory words invalidates former Orders then the adding many new Rites which were neither used by Christ nor his Apostles nor the Primitive nor Eastern Churches will much more invalidate former Orders especially when these are believed to be so essential as that they confer the power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood and of offering Sacrifices and were for divers Ages universally looked on in that Church to be the Matter and Form of Orders as was already observed of the Rite of giving the Sacred Vessels with the words joyned to it which Pope Eugenius in express words calls the matter of Priestly Orders and the words joyned to them the Form in his Decree for the Armenians in the Council of Florence and even the Form he mentions is also altered now for the celebrating Masses are not in the Form he mentions but are now added to that part of the Office in the Roman Church Let the Pontifical be considered in the Ordination of Priests we find the Priestly Vestiments given both the Stole and the Casula then their hands are anointed then the Vessels of the Sacrament are delivered to them with words pronounced in every of those Rites besides many other lesser Rites that are in the Rubrick In the Consecration of a Bishop his head is Anointed then his hands then his Pastoral Staff is blessed and put in his hands next the Ring is blessed and put on his singer then the Gospels are put in his hands then the Mitre is blessed and put on his head next the Gloves are blessed and put on his hands and then they seâ—… him on his Throne Besides many lesser Rites to be seen in the Rubrick Now with what face can they pretend that our adding a few explanatory words can infer the annulling all Orders given before that addition when they have added so many material Ceremonies in which they place great significancy and vertue Is not this to swallow a Camel and to strain at a Gnat and to object to us a Mote in our eye when there is a Beam in their own eye Fourthly This Addition was indeed confirmed by the authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire that to give it the force of a Law but the authority of these changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them and the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was Ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed indecent and too implicite to others and there was no change made in a Tittle by the Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done As for what he adds that the Book of Ordination is not to found in every Edition of the Common-Prayer-Book with his gloss upon it that most think the Bishops for shame suppress it Really the Writer of this Paper must pardon me to say it seems he has no shame that can set down in writing such a disingenious Allegation Pray who are these most that think so Most in our Language stands for the greater part now how many can he find that agree with him in this Gloss I doubt very few for I am sure not all his own Party and not one of ours So that upon a Calculation those Most think will be found to be no more but himself and a very few ignorant persons on whom he has imposed this conceit Every body knows that when a Book is once printed by publick Authority and universally sold in the Shops those in Authority cannot out of shame study to suppress it But the use of the Book of Ordination not being so universal as are the other Offices of the Church the Stationers and Printers who do chiefly consider their Interest in the ready sale and vent of Books do not print so many of them as of the other there being at least 500 that use the Common-Prayer for one that needs the other and a Common-Prayer-Book without it will sell cheaper than with it therefore a great many Copies have it not This is not as Most think but as every body knows the true reason why in many Copies of the Common-Prayer-Book the Ordinal is wanting Let him name one Bishop that would not permit it to be dispersed abroad or let him be looked on as a bold and impudent Slanderer Thus far I have followed this Paper in the two first Conclusions and now I come to the Third which is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament And this he proves because they have no more power than the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had from whom all Jurisdiction was derived to the rest Now he had no power from Christ for first They that Consecrated him had no such Jurisdiction being no actual Bishops two of them were only Elect and not actual Bishops and a third only a quondam Bishop but had no actual Jurisdiction and a fourth was a Suffragan Bishop to Canterbury who had no Jurisdiction but what he had from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Jurisdiction over himself and all the other Bishops of the Land because none can give what he has not This I must confess is such a piece that no man can read it but he must conclude the Writer of it has no sort of Ecclesiastical Learning or else has very little Moral honesty I need not tell him that Matthew Parker was not the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he knows Arch-Bishop Cranmer was both a Protestant and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but this may be easily passed over there being more material Errors in this period And First Does he believe himself when he says that none can instal a Bishop in a Jurisdiction above himself Pray then who invests the Popes with their Jurisdiction Do not
the Cardinals do it and are not they as much the Popes Suffragans as Hodgskins was Canterburiâ—… So that if inferiors cannot invest one with a superior Jurisdiction then the Popes can have none legally since they have theirs from the Cardinals that are inferior in Jurisdiction This also holds in all the Patriarchal Consecrations For Instance when Iohn commonly called Chrysostome a Priest of Antioch was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople and Consecrated by the Bishops of that Province according to the Canons if there be any force in this Argument it will annul his Orders as well as Arch-Bishop Parker's for the Writer must needs see the case is parallel Secondly Or if he insists upon their being Elect to others Sees and that one of them had no See at all Let me ask him if when St. Athanase was banished out of Alexandria and others thrust in his place or when Liberius was banished out of Rome and Felix whom they acknowledg a righteous Bishop put in his place they had ordained Priests and Bishops had these Orders been null because they were violently thrust out of their Sees Certainly Persecution and Violence rather makes the glory of Ecclesiastical Functions shine more brightly but cannot be imagined to strip them of their Character and to disable them for exercising the Offices of their function Thirdly There are two things to be considered in the consecration of a Primate the one is the giving him the Order of a Bishop the other is the investing him with the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitan for the former all Bishops are equal in Order none has more or less than another therefore any Bishop duly Consecrated how mean soever his Diocess be is no less a Bishop than the greatest the Bishop of Man is a Bishop as well as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury so that the Consecrators of Matthew Parker being Bishops by their Order they had sufficient power and authority to Consecrate him By which it appears there can be no question made of his being truly a Bishop And as for his Jurisdiction Two things are also to be considered the one is The Jurisdiction annexed to that See The other is his being rightly cloathed and invested with it For the former it cannot be denied but the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs has no Divine Institution for all that any Bishop has by divine Institution is to seed the flock of his own Diocess but the Canons and practice of the Church and the Civil Laws have introduced a further Jurisdiction over the Bishops of a District or Province this did rise by Custom upon the division of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was settled over the World before any general Council did meet to make Decrees about it And therefore the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon only approved what they found practised and confirmed some new Divisions of Provinces that were made by the Emperors and so the Kings in the Western Church did first give those Preheminences to some Towns and Sees for the original Dignity of Sees rose out of the Dignity of the Towns which appears clearly in all the Patriarchats chiefly in that of Rome and Constantinople This is a thing so fully inquired into by many but chiefly by the most Learned Petrus de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris that I need say no more of it And the Dignity of the See of Canterbury was from King Ethelbert who first Erected that See It is true the Popes did afterwards usurp a new Jurisdiction over all Churches they took upon them to Judg of the Dignity of all Sees to send the Pall to have reserved Cases to grant Exemptions to the Regulars with many other Encroachments on the Episcopal Jurisdiction which has been very fully inquired into not only by Protestant Writers but by many of the Roman Communion chiefly those of the Gallicane Church and many of the Bishops at the Council of Trent studied to recover their Liberties that were troden under foot by the Court of Rome but the Intrigues and cunning of that Court were too hard for them The other thing in Episcopal Institution is the Installing or Inthroning the Metropolitan that this was always done by the Bishops of the Province is a thing so clear in Antiquity that I am sure no man ever questioned it Was not the famous Decision of the Council of Ephesus in the case of the Cypriotic Bishops a full proof of this when upon the pretension of the Patriarch of Antioch the thing was examined and it was found that he had never used to Ordain Bishops there and therefore the Rites of the Bishop of Constantia the Metropolitan were confirmed to him by that General Council nor can one Instance be shewed in the first three Ages of a Metropolitan coming to be Ordained by a Patriarch as was afterwards for Orders sake appointed And this appears more evidently by a Canon of the Council of Orleans where it was decreed That in the Ordination of Metropolitans the Ancient Custom should be renewed which was generally neglected and lost that a Metropolitan being Elected by the Bishops of the Province with the Clergy and the People should be Ordained by all the Bishops of the Province met together This was Anno 538. By which we see they thought not of any Bull or Confirmation from Rome but that Bishops though subject to the Metropolitan's Jurisdiction might Ordain him It is true afterwards the Patriarchs chose the Metropolitans but the Patriarchs were either chosen or at least confirmed by the Emperor and though they sent Circulatory Letters to the Pope and the other Patriarchs to confirm their Elections which the Bishops of Rome did likewise to them this was only for keeping up the Unity of the Church and for a more friendly and brotherly Correspondence but was not of necessity or as an homage which they owed the Pope much less did they delay their Consecrations till they obtained his Mandate or abstain from any Act of Jurisdiction till they had his Confirmation as is now appointed by the Pontifical till they get the Pall. I have not given you the trouble of enlarging on many Proofs for making these things out for they are so clear and uncontested that I am confident no man is so disingenuous as to deny them under his hand whatever some may whisper among illiterate persons who cannot contradict them And though there has been so much already written to make those particulars out that more needs not and indeed cannot be said yet if these things be questioned by any body I shall make them out fully And now I come to his Second Argument which is That Matthew Parker and all the other Protestant Bishops since his days had his power of Jurisdiction only from the Queen as appears by the Queens Letters Patents and the Form of his Ordination which was done upon the Queens Mandate without any Bull from the Pope in which she acknowledges Cardinal
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
years Old agrees with the former in the forementioned Rites and Collects but has this Addition that the Bishop lays on his hands on the Priests and says Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose sins you retain they are retained But in two other Pontificals which Morinus believes are of the same Age these words and that Rite are wanting In the Ordo Romanus which some believe is a work of the Ninth Century others that it is of the Eleventh Century there are set down first some Questions and Answers to the Priests to be Ordained then the two Collects with the Prayer of Consecration follow as in the Rituals before set down only it is marked in the Rubrick that the Bishop and Priests lay on their hands at the first Collect then follow all the other Rites of Giving the Vestments annointing and delivering the sacred Vessels but the last Imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost are not in it From all which it clearly appears what must be Essential to Ordination and what not none of those Rites that are only found in Later Rituals are essential for the Ordinations were good and valid before these were added But that in which all these Rituals agree must be acknowledged of greatest weight and chief Importance and that is the Prayer of Consecration with the two Collects that go before it For in those they all agree but vary in every thing else and therefore Morinus thinks the former of these Collects is now the form of Priestly Orders for which He has another strong Argument which is that as he proves both by the ancient Canons and even by the Doctrine of the Council of Trent the Imposition of the Priests hands with the Bishop is necessary in these Ordinations and they only lay on hands with the Bishop when that Collect is pronounced from which he infers that then the Priests Orders are conferred But it is clear from all those Rituals that these Collects were Preparatory to the Prayer of Consecration which only is the form of these Orders according to those Rituals And thus far of the office of Ordaining Priests I shall next set down from those Rituals the Office Rubricks Rites and Prayers used in the Consecration of a Bishop The Office begins with an Exhortation to the people declaring the Necessity of substituting one Pastor to another and that therefore upon the former Bishops Death there is another chosen by the Priests and the whole Clergy with the advice of the Citizens and people who is well qualified for it therefore they are desired to approve of the Choice by their Voices and to declare him worthy of it Then follows Oratio Precis de Ordinandis Episcopis ORemus Dilectissimi nobis ut his viris ad utilitatem Ecclesiae providendis benignitas omnipotentis Dei gratiae suae tribuat largitatem per dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Alia Benedictio Episcoporum EXaudi Domine supplicum Preces ut quod nostrum gerendum est ministerium tua potius virtute firmetur Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Alia PRopitiare Domine supplicationibus nostris inclinatus super hos famulos tuos cornu gratiae Sacerdotalis Benedictionis tuae in eos effunde virtutem Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Coll. sequitur DEum totius Sanctificationis ac Pietatis actorem qui placationem suam sacrificia sacra constituit Fratres Dilectissimi deprecemur ut hunc famulum suum quem ex altari in Ecclesia seniorum Cathedra concordibus sua inspiratione judiciis effusis super plebem suam votis fidelibus ac vocum testimoniis voluit imponi collocans eum cum principibus populi sui ad eorum nunc precim universam eundem summum sacerdotium debita honoris plenitudine Charismatum gratia sanctificationum ubertate hac praecipue humilitatis virtute locupletet ut Rector potius non extollatur sed in omnibus se quantum est major humilians sit in ipsis quasi unus ex illis omnia judicii Domini nostri non pro se tantum sed pro omni populo qui solicitudinis suae creditur contremiscens ut qui meminerit de speculatorum manibus omnium animas requirendas pro omnium salute pervigilet pastorali erga creditas sibi oves Domini diligentiae ejus semper se flagrantissimum adprobans Te dilectorum adigitur praefuturus ex omnibus electus ex quibus universis sacris sacrandisque idoneus fiat sub hac quae est homini per hominem postrima benedictio confirmata atque perfecta suae consecrationis nostrae supplecationis adtentissime concordissimisque omnium precibus adjovemur omnium pro ipso oratio incumbat cui exorandi pro omnibus pondus imponitur Impetret ei affectus totius ecclesiae virtutem pietate sanctificationem caeteras summi Sacerdotii sacras dotes universae ecclesiae profuturas Domino Deo nostro qui Sacrorum numerum profluus fons est qui dat omnibus affluenter quod Sacerdoti pro affectu poscitur ad exundandam in omnibus sanctificationem suorum omnium promptissimè ac plenissimè conferentem Per Dominum nostrum A Collect and Prayers for the Bishops to be Ordained BEloved let us pray that the bounty of Almighty God may give of the fulness of his Grace to those men who are to be provided for the use of the Church Through our Lord. HEar O Lord the Prayers of thy Supplicants that the Ministry which we are to bear may be confirmed by thy power Through our Lord Iesus Christ. BE favourable to our Supplications O Lord and put upon these thy Servants the horn of thy Priestly Grace and pour upon them the vertue of thy blessing Through our Lord Iesus Christ. BEloved Brethren let us pray to God who is the Author of all Holiness and Piety who appointed Sacrifices and holy Offices by which he is pleased that he would upon the Prayer of all his people enrich this his Servant whom he has appointed by the agreeing voices according to his Inspiration and the faithful desires which he has infused in the people and the testimony of their voices to be raised from the Altar in the Church and the seat of the Elders placing him with the Princes of his people with the fulness of the honour of the High-Priesthood and the Grace of sanctifying Gifts in great measure and chiefly with the vertue of Humility that being a Governour he be not lifted up but that in all things he humble himself the greater he grows and be among others as one of them trembling at all the judgments of God not only for himself but for all the people trusted to his care remembring that all their souls shall be required at the hands of the Watchmen and therefore may watch for all their safety approving himself always most inflamed with Pastoral diligence about the Lord's Sheep trusted
to him I cannot make sense of the rest for this Collect is in no other Ritual and the Copy out of which it is printed as it is very Ancient so it has been most uncorrectly written CONSECRATIO DEus honorum omnium Deus omnium dignitatum quae gloriae tuae sacris samulantur honoribus Deus qui Moysen samulum tuum secreti samiliaris affectu inter caetera coelestis documenta culturae de habitu quoque indumenti Sacerdotalis instituens Electum Aaron Mystico amictu vestire inter Sacra jussisti ut intelligentiae sensum de exemplis priorum caperet secutura Posteritas ne eruditio Doctrinae tuae ulli deesset aetati cum apud veteres reverentiam ipsam significationum species obtineret apud nos certiora essent experimenta rerum quam aenigmata figurarum Illius namque Sacerdotii anterioris habitus nostrae mentis ornatus est Pontificalis Gloriae non jam nobis honorem commendat vestrum sed splendorem animarum Quia illa quae tunc carnalibus blandiebantur obtutibus ea potius quae ipsis erant intelligenda poscebant Et idcirco famulis tuis quaesumus quos ad summi Sacerdotii sacerdotium elegisti hanc quaesumus Domine gratiam largiaris ut quidquid illa velamina in fulgore auri in nitore gemmarum multimodi operis varitate signabant hoc in horum moribus claresoat *** Comple Domine in Sacerdotibus tuis mysterii tui summam ornamentis totius glorificationis instructum coelestis unguenti flore Sanctifica *** Hoc Domine copiosè in eorum caput influat hoc in oris subjecta decurrat hoc in totius corporis extrema descendat ut tui Spiritus virtus interiorum ora repleat exteriora circumtegat Abundet in his constantia fidei puritas Dilectionis sinceritas pacis Sint speciosi munere tuo pedes horum ad Evangelizandum pacem ad Evangelizandum bona tua Da eis Domine mysterium reconciliationis in verbo in virtute signorum prodigiorum Sit sermo eorum praedicatio non in persuasibilibus humanae sapientiae verbis sed in ostensione Spiritus virtutis Da eis Domine claves Regni coelorum Utantur neâ—… glorientur Potestate quam tribuis in aedificationem non in destructionem Quodcunque legaverint super terram sit legatum in coelis Et quodqunque solverint super terram sit solutum in coelis Quorum detinuerint peccata detenta sint quorum demiserint tu demittas Quibenedixerit eis sit benedictus qui maledixerit eis maledictionibus repleatur Sint servi fideles prudentes quos constituas tu Domine super samiliam tuam ut dent illis cibum in tempore necessario ut exhibeant omnem hominem perfectum Sint solicitudine impigri sint spiritu serventes oderint superbiam diligant veritatem nec eam unquam deserant aut lassitudine aut timore superati Non ponant lucem ad tenebras nec tenebris lucem non dicant malum bonum nec bonum malum Sint sapientibus insipientibus debitores sructum de prosectu omnium consequantur Tribuas eis Domine Cathedram Episcopalem ad regendam Ecclesiam tuam plebem universam Sis eis autoritas sis eis Potestas sis eis firmitas Multiplices super eos benedictionem gratiam tuam ut ad exorandam semper misericordiam tuam munere idonei tua gratia possint esse devoti per Dominum nostrum c. The CONSECRATION O God of all the Honours O God of all the Dignities that serve in the Holy offices to thy glory O God who when thou instructedst Moses thy servant with a secret and familiar affection among other Instructions of the heavenly Ornaments didst teach him the Priestly Garments and commandedst him to cloath Aaron thy Chosen when he did officiate that the following ages might be instructed by those who went before them that the knowledge of thy Doctrine might be wanting in no age the appearance of the things signified being Reverenced among the Ancients but among us the real Experiments are more certain than the riddles of figures For the habit of the former Priesthood in us is the Ornament of our minds and it is not the shining of our Cloaths but of our Souls that commends in us the honour of the Priestly Glory because they did more desire those things that pleased their carnal eyes than the things they should have understood by them And therefore we beseech thee O Lord grant this grace to those thy Servants whom thou hast chosen to the Ministry of the High Priesthood that whatever those garments signified in the shining of the Gold in the brightness of the Gems and in the curiousness of the Workmanship all that may appear in their Manners ** Accomplish O Lord in thy Priests the fullness of thy Mystery and having adorned him with all the Ornaments of Glory Sanctifie him with the flower of the heavenly Oyntment ** Let that O Lord fall plentifully on their head and run down the rest of their face and descend to the extremities of their body that the vertue of thy Spirit may fill them inwardly and compass them about outwardly Let the Constancy of Faith the Purity of Love and the sincerity of peace abound in them Let their feet through thy favour be beautiful to preach peace and to preach thy good things Give them O Lord the ministry of Reconciliation in word and in power in signs and wonders Let their Discoursâ—… and Preaching be not in the perswading words of human Wisdom but in the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Give them O Lord the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven Let them use but not glory in their Power which thou givest them to Edification and not to Destruction Whatsoever they shall bind on earth let it be bound in heaven and what they shall loose on earth let it be loosed in heaven whose sins they retain let them be retained and whose they remit do thou remit Who blesses them let him be blessed and who curses them let him be filled with Curses and let them be faithful and wise Servants whom thou shalt appoint over thy houshold to give them meat in due season that they may present every man perfect Make them diligent in business and fervent in Spirit Make them hate pride and love truth and let them never forsake it either through weariness or fear Let them not put light for darkness nor darkness for light nor call evil good nor good evil Let them be debtors both to the wise and unwise that they may gather fruit from the profiting of all men Give them O Lord an Episcopal Chair for the Governing of thy Church and whole people Be thou to them Authority Power and Strength Multiply upon
and by this thy most Sacred Body That I shall shew forth all the Faith and purity of the Holy Catholick Faith and that God assisting me I shall persist in the Unity of the same Faith in which the Salvation of all Christians does without all doubt consist and that I shall in no sort and upon no persuasion concur against the Unity of the common and Universal Church but that as I have said I shall shew forth my Faith and Purity and give my concurrence in all things to thee and the advantages of thy Church to whom the power of binding and loosing is given by the Lord God and to thy Vicar and his Successors And if I shall know the Bishops carry themselves contrary to the antient appointments of the Holy Fathers I shall have no communion nor conjunction with them but rather if I can I shall hinder it and if I cannot I shall presently give notice of it faithfully to My Apostolical Lord. And if which God forbid I shall endeavour to do any thing against the Contents of this my Promise any manner of way either on design or by accident let me be found guilty in the Eternal judgment and let me incur the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira who presumed to lie and deal fraudulently even about their own goods to thee This Breviate of an Oath I Boniface a small Bishop have written with my own hand and having laid it on thy most blessed Body as is before mentioned I have made my Oath God being witness and Judge which I promise to keep But it appears from another letter written in the 26. year of the Reign of Constantine the Emperour two and twenty years after the taking the former Oath which was in the Fourth year of Constantine that he had taken another Oath Eight years before that for he begins that Epistle written to Pope Zacharias with these words POstquam me ante Annos prope triginta sub familiaritate servitio Apostolicae sedis annuente jubente venerandae memoriae antistite Apostolico Gregorio anteriore voto constrinxi c. ALmost Thirty years ago I bound my self by a former vow under the Observance and service of the Apostolical See by the Consent and Command of Pope Gregory of venerable Memory c. This is all I can find before Pope Gregory the seventh But he pretending to a higher Title not only over Bishops but secular Princes made some Princes swear Allegiance to him it ought to be called by no other name for the first part of the Oath in the Pontifical of Being faithful and obedient to the Pope being in no. Council against him and assisting him to defend the Papacy and the Royalties of St. Peter c. Was sworn both by Richard Prince of Capua and Robert Prince of Calabria and Sicily when they received Investiture from that Pope in those Dominions But the Oath which the Bishops swore is almost the same with that which is in the Pontifical as we find it taken by the Bishop of Aquileia after the sixth Roman Council in which Berengarius was condemned under that same Pope Afterwards the Council of Lateran under Pope Paschal the second appointed a more modest Oath in the form of an Anathematism in these words ANathematizo omnem haeresin praecipue eam quae statum praesentis Ecclesiae perturbat quae docet astruit Anathema contemnendum Ecclesiae ligamenta spernenda esse Promitto autem Obedientiam Apostolicae sedis Pontifici Domino Paschali ejusque successoribus sub testimonio Christi Ecclesiae Affirmans quod affirmat damnans quod damnat sancta Universalis Ecclesia I Anathematize every Heresie and in particular that which disturbs the State of the present Church which teaches and asserts that an Anathema is to be contemned and the Censures of the Church to be despised And I promise obedience to the Apostolick See and to our Lord Pope Paschal and his successors under the Testimony or in the sight of Christ and the Church affirming all that the Holy Universal Church affirms and condemning all that she condemns This Oath if the References which Labbe and Cossartius make to the fifth and sixth Epistles of Pope Paschal be well grounded was all that was imposed by that Pope and that not on all Bishops but only on Archbishops to whom he sent the Pall and yet from the first words of these Epistles it appears that the Princes and the States of Christendom looked on it with amazement as a new and unheard of thing the one is to the Arch-bishop of Palermo in Sicily and the other is directed to the Arch-bishop of Poland I suppose it was of Gnesna and they both are almost the same only the later has a great deal more than the former They begin with these words SIgnificasti Regem Regni Majores admiratione permotos quod pallium tibi ab Apocrisariis nostris tali conditione oblatum fuerit si Sacramentum quod à nobis scriptum detulerant jurares THou hast signified to me that the King and the chief of the Kingdom are amazed that the Pall was offered to thee by our Legates on this condition that thou shouldst swear the Oath which they brought to thee written by us And if any Body desire to be satisfied about the excellent Reasonings with which the infallible Chair directed his Pen he may read the rest of those Epistles The next Step made in this Oath was by Pope Gregory the Ninth which is in the Canon Law where the Oath is set down to be taken by all Bishops which differs from that in the Pontifical in these heads The Royalties of St. Peter are not mentioned in it nor those clauses of every Bishops sending one in his name to Rome in case he could not go in person nor is that of not alienating the Bishops lands without the Popes consent in it But when these additions were made I do not find The Importance of that Oath is little Considered since few among us read the Roman Pontifical carefully therefore I shall set it down with a translation of it from which it may be easily inferred what all Princes may or ought to expect from persons so tyed to the Pope since a fuller and more formal allegeance can be sworn by no Subjects to their Prince than is sworn in it to the Pope Forma Juramenti EGo N. Elect us ecclesiae N. ab hac hora in antea fidelis obediens ero Beato Petro Apostolo sanctaeque Romanae Ecclesiae Domino nostro Domino Papae N. suisque successoribus canonice intrantibus Non ero in consilio aut consensu vel facto ut vitam perdant aut membrum seu capiantur mala captione aut in eos violenter manus quomodolibet ingerantur vel injuriae aliquae inferantur quovis quaesito colore Consilium vero quod mihi credituri sunt per se aut nuntios suos seu literas ad eorum
damnum me sciente nemini pandam Papatum Romanum Regalia Sancti Petri adjutor eis ero ad retinendum defendendum salvo meo ordine contra omnem hominem Legatum Apostolicae sedis in eundo redeundo honorificè tractabo in suis necessitatibus adjuvabo Iura honores privilegia auctoritatem Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Domini nostri Papae Successorum praedictorum conservare defendere augere promovere curabo neque ero in consilio vel sacto seu tractatu in quibus contra ipsum Dominum nostrum vel eamdem Romanam ecclesiam aliqua sinistra vel praejudicialia personarum juris honoris status potestatis eorum machinentur Et si talia à quibuscunque tractari vel procurari novero impediam hoc pro posse quanto citius potero significabo eidem Domino nostro vel alteri per quem possit ad ipsius notitiam pervenire Regulas Sanctorum Patrum decreta Ordinationes seu dispositiones reservationes provisiones mandata Apostolica totis viribus observabo saciam ab aliis observari Hae-reticos Schismaticos Rebelles eidem Domino nostro vel successoribus praedictis pro posse persequar impugnabo Vocatus ad Synodum veniam nisi praepeditus suero canonica praepeditione Apostolorum limina singulis trienniis personaliter per me ipsum visitabo Domino nostro ac successoribus praesatis rationem reddam de toto meo pastorali officio ac de rebus omnibus ad meâ—… Ecclesiae statum ad Cleri populi disciplinam animarum denique quae meae fidei traditae sunt salutem quovis modo pertinentibus Et vicissim mandata Apostolica humiliter recipiam quam diligentissime exequar Quod si legitimo impedimento detentus suero praefata omnia adimplebo per certum nuntiam ad hoc speciale mandatum habentem de gremio mei Capituli aut alium in dignitate Ecclesiastica constitutum seu alias personatum habentem aut his mihi desicientibus per diaecesanum sacerdotem clero deficiente omnino per aliquem alium Presbyterum saecularem vel Regularem spectatae probitatis Religionis de supradictis omnibus plenè instructum De hujusmodi autem impedimento docebo per legitimas probationes ad sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem proponentem in Congregatione sacri Concilii per supradictum Nuntium transmittendas Possessiones vero ad mensam meam pertinentes non vendam nec donabo neque impignorabo nec de novo inâ—…eudabo vel aliquo modo alienabo etiam cum consensu Capituli Ecclesiae meae inconsulâ—…o Romano Pontifice si ad aliquam alienationem devenero paenas in quadam super hoc edita Constitutione contentas eo ipso incurrere volo IN. Elect of the Church N. from this hour forward shall be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle and the Holy Roman Church and our Lord the Pope N. and his Successors that shall enter canonically I shall be in no Council Consent or Fact that they lose life or member or be taken with any ill taking or that violent hands be any way laid on them or any injuries be done them on any pretended colour And whatever Council they shall trust me with either by themselves their Nuntio's or Letters I shall knowingly reveal to none to their hurt I shall help them to retain and defend the Roman Papacy and the Royalties of Saint Peter against all men saving my own Order I shall treat the Legate of the Apostolick See honorably both in his going and coming and shall help him in his necessities I shall take care to preserve defend increase and promote the Rights Honors Priviledges and Authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors foresaid I shall neither be in Council Fact or Treaty in which any thing shall be contrived against the said our Lord or the same Roman Church or any thing that may be prejudicial to their Persons Right Honor State or Power And if I know such things to be treated or procured by any body I shall hinder it all I can and as soon as is possible shall signifie it to the said our Lord or any other by whom it may come to his knowledg The Rules of the Holy Fathers and the Decrees Orders or Appointments Reservations Provisions or Mandates Apostolical I shall observe with all my strength and make them to be observed by others and I shall according to my power persecute and oppose all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebells against the said our Lord and his Successors I shall come to a Council when called if I be not hindred by some Canonical Impediment I shall personally visit the thresholds of the Apostles every third year and shall give an account to our Lord and his said Successors of my whole pastoral charge and of all things that shall any way belong to the State of my Church and the Discipline of my Clergy and People and the salvation of the Souls committed to my trust And I shall on the other hand humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolical Command And if I be detained by any lawful Impediment I shall perform the foresaid things by a special Messenger that shall have my particular Mandate being either of my Chapter or in some Ecclesiastical Dignity or in some Parsonage or these failing by any Priest of my Diocess or failing any of these by any Priest secular or regular of signal Probity and Religion who shall be fully instructed in all things aforesaid And I shall give lawful proofs of the foresaid Impediment which I shall send by the foresaid Messenger to the Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church that is Proponent in the Congregation of the Holy Council I shall neither sell give Mortage nor invest of new nor any way alienate the possessions that belong to my Table notwithstanding the consent of the Chapter of my Church without consulting the Pope of Rome And if I make any such Alienation I am willing to incur the penalties contained in a Constitution thereupon set forth The Inferences that may be drawn from this Oath are so obvious that I shall not trouble the Reader with any knowing that every one will easily make them FINIS See the 23. Art of our Church Hist. Interdict Venet Lib. de Fregn Comun Art 33. Act. 7. 3. Inter. Epist. 31. l. 12. Ind. 7. Can. 42. Lib. 8. cap. 21. and 23. Cap. 26. Inter Epi. Cypr. Ep. 75. Can. 64. Can. 10. Not. 18. in Can. Nic. Arab. See Nazianz Orat. in Bapt. Cyr. Pref. ad Catech. Balsam in Schol. in Con. Laod. Ant. Harmen in Con. Antioch a Ep. 24. 21. b Ep. 28. c Ep. 24. 33. 34. d Ep. 76. e Apud Eus. lib. 6. cap. 43. Grat. dist 77. cap. 1. 2. Can. 14. 62. a Can. 5. b Can. 6. c Can. 7. d Can. 8. e Can. 9. f Can. 10. Vit. Pontif in vita Silvestri Nove. 123.
cap. 15. Grat. Dist. 53. Cap. 4. Con. Agath can 37 38. Con. Aurel can 19. An. 659. An. 664. a Can. â—… Apost Con. Nic. can 4. Con. Arel 1. can 21. Arel 2. can 5. Carth. 2. Can. 12. See Grat. Dist. 64. b In Can. 1. Apost c Bell. de notis Eccl. lib. 4. cap. 8. An. 1123. Tom. Con. 10. pag. 893. Tom. Con. 11. par 1. pag. 127. An. 1311. Tom. Con. 11. par 2. pag. 1550. An. 1214. An. 1209. See pag. 176. Hall fol. 205. Jesuits Loyalty Psal. 92. 5 6. S. Ioh. 20. 22. * Vasques in 3. parte D. 129. c. 5. n. 71 72. Says it is the constant opinion of the Catholicks that the Sacraments consist of some things and words Instituted by God which men cannot alter or change and that Christ delivered both the words and things of which the Sacraments consist Which he says are necessary in all Churches and rejects the Opinion of Pope Innocent the 4th and others who pretend that some things are necessary to the Sacraments in some Churches which are not necessary in other Churches and Disp. 239. in 3. p. c. 4. n. 36. He again resumes the same thing and refutes Tapperus who thought that in some Sacraments in which Christ did not determine the Matter and Form he left the power of assigning these with his Church Which he denies and says no Power about the determination of the Matter and Form was left with the Church but the assignation of those is believed done by Christ for since the institution of the Sacrament is by Divine right the matter and form must be assigned by the same right for proving which he cites the Council of â—…rent De ord Sac. Can. 3. De Eccles. Hierar Lib. 8. Cap. 16. Dâ—…s Sanctification Discourse sur les Ordres Sacres Acts 6. 6. Whom they see before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them Acts 13. 3. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away Acts 14. 23. And when they had Ordained or literally imposed Hands them Elders in every Church and had prayed with fasting 1 Tim. 4. 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man neither be thou partaker of other mens sins 2 Tim. 1. 6. 7. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands For God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and of a sound mind Bellarm. de Sac. Ord. cap. 9. Cap. de extr Unct. De Sacr. Ord. Can. 4. Tom. 3. m. 3. Disp. 24. c. 3. Disp. 239. Cap. 2. n. 5. b Lib. de Iu. Sacer. Lect. 5. de Sacr. a In 4. Disp. 24. pract quaest 4. Disp. 235. c. 3. Disp. de Sacr. 5. n. 87. Observ. 1. 2. de ord Pres. Tit. 8. de Cons. Pres. Exerc. 7. cap. 1. Exerc. 7. cap. 2. 1 Cor. 4. 1. * Psal. 142. 2. Let my Prayer be set forth beforethee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice Psal. 52. 27. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Hebr. 13. 15. By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving Thanks to his Name Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Philip. 4. 18. But I have all and abound I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you an Odor of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God 1 Chro. 23. 6. 1 Chro. 24. 19. â—… Kings 2. 27. 2 Chro. 17. 7 8 9. 2 Chro. 29. 4. 5. 15. 27. Vers. 30. 2 Chro. 30. 2. Ep. 43. Ath. Ep. ad Solit. Bar. ad An. 355. n. 56 57. Bar. ad An. 357. n. 63 64. Cap. 10 11. Exerc. 5. Disp. 141. cap. 1. N. 8. Collat. 2. cum Donat. Ep. 50. * Sect. 3â—… Cap. 8. Exer. 5. num 7. 1 Cor. 12. 5 6. Disp. 240. c. 5. n. 60. Deus Honorum omnium 7. De Concor Imp. Sacer Action â—… Can. â—… â—…e Pallio Tit. 17. Rit Elec. Patr. In vita Silverii In Plat. in Pelag. 2. Dist. 63. In Pasch. 1. In Leo. 4. Can. 6. Can. 12. Ad Anno 681. numb 60. Article 37. of the Civil Magist. â—…ess 21. cap. 2. * See what Vasques has said of Changes in the forms of the Sacraments * Vacans * Si omnibus affabilis * Deest * In Trinitate * Singulam * Desunt haec in Labbee * Utraque natura * Deest * Deest * Receptione * Hab. Lab. Factus Cod. Saris. * Hac vita * Proemia * Desunt haec in in MSS. Cod. Saris. * In aliis Cod. Et. * In aliis MSS. Congrua ratione * Mysticis * Pontifices †Sequentis ordinis * Mentem * Ut ad hostias salutares frequentioris Officii Sacramenta Ministerium sufficeret sacerdotum * Pluribus †Hunc famulum tuum †Probus * Eo * Hic * Ad Presbyterii honorem * Gratiam tuae Benedictionis infunde †Omnium †Legerit * Imitetur †Deest * Admonitione †Mysterii * Corpore sanguine filii tui immaculata benedictione transformetur ad inviolabilem caritatem Orat. 20. 4. 5. Lib. 2. de Eccles. Offic. cap. 5. Lib. 2. c. 3. In Eccles. Ord. Epist. 19. ad Radol Bitur c. 3. Which is also in the Canon Law Dist. 23. c. 12. Tom. 5. * Preces * Providendam vel providens In other Rituals thus Adesto supplicationibus nostris omnipotens Deus quod humilitatis nostrae gerendum est Ministerio virtutis impleatur effectu Per. * Inclinato * Sacratis * Affatu * Honor. * Splendor * Ministerium *** * Instructos eos *** †Interiora eorum * Signis prodigiis †Virtute * Ligaverint †Ligatum * Dimiserint †Dimittas Desunt haec in in plurimis MSS. ** ** All this betweâ—… is wâ—…ting in many Rituals a Sâ—…rm 8. de pass Dom. b in 1 Reg. cap. 10. c Lib. c. 14. Lib. 3. de Tab. cap. 9. See Morin Ex. 6. c. 2. a De 〈◊〉 offiâ—… liâ—… 2. caâ—… 5. b Lib. dâ—…â—…i offic â—…ap Qâ—…aliter Eâ—…opus orâ—…etur in Eccles. Romana c Lib. 2. de Eccles. offic cap. 14. d Lib. de Instit Cler. cap. 4. See Pet. de Marca Concor Sac. Imp. l. 8. c. 19. n. 9. Li. De Div. Offiâ—… See inter opera Bernar. Con. ad Clerum â—…rope â—…inem He died â—… Anno 755. Post Epist. 11â—… L. 1. vit e. 19. Mogunt p. 343. Mat. 16. Joh. 21. â—… Act. 1. 5. Epist. 135. Lib. 1. Ep. Greg. post Ep. 21. lib. 8. post Ep. 1. Ann. 1079. Ann. 1002. Ep. 5. 6. Pasch. 2. Lib. 2. Decret Greg. Tit. 24. c. 4. set out by him Anno 1236.