the Ministry and disparks the inclosures and layes all in common and makes men supream controulers of the Orders of God and relies upon a false principle for in true Divinity and by the Oeconomy of the spirit of God there can be no Minister of any Divine Ordinance but he that is of Divine appointment there can be none but the ordinary Minister I do not say that God is tied to this way he cannot be tied but by himself and therefore Christ gave a special Commission to Ananias to baptize and to confirm St. Paul and he gave the Spirit to Cornelius even before he was baptized and he ordained St. Paul to be an Apostle without the ministry of man But this I say That though God can make Ministers extraordinary yet Man cannot and they that goe about to do so usurp the power of Christ and snatch from his hand what he never intended to part with The Apostles admitted others into a part of their care and of their power but when they intended to imploy them in any ministry they gave them so much of their Order as would enable them but a person of a lower order could never be deputed Minister of actions appropriate to the higher which is the case of Confirmation by the practise and tradition of the Apostles and by the Universal practise and Doctrine of the Primitive Catholick Church by which Bishops onely the successors of the Apostles were alone the Ministers of Confirmation and therefore if any man else usurp it let them answer it they do hurt indeed to themselves but no benefit to others to whom they minister shadows instead of substances SECT V. The whole procedure or Ritual of Confirmation is by Prayer and Imposition of Hands THE Heart and the Eye are lift up to God to bring Blessings from him and so is the Hand too but this also falls upon the People and rests there to apply the descending blessing to the proper and prepared suscipient God governed the People of Israel by the hand of Moses and Aaron Et calidae fecére silentia turbae Majestate manus and both under Moses and under Christ when ever the President of Religion did bless the People he lifted up his hand over the Congregation and when he blessed a single person he laid his hand upon him This was the Rite used by Jacob and the Patriarchs by Kings and Prophets by all the eminently Religious in the Synagogue and by Christ himself when he blessed the Children which were brought to him and by the Apostles when they blessed and confirmed the baptized Converts and whom else can the Church follow The Apostles did so to the Christians of Samaria to them of Ephesus and St. Paul describes this whole mystery by the Ritual part of it calling it the foundation of imposition of hands It is the solemnity of blessing and the solemnity and application of Paternal prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Clement of Alexandria Upon whom shall he lay his hands Whom shall he bless Quid enim aliud est impositio manuum nisi Oratio super hominem said St. Austine The Bishop's laying his hands on the People what is it but the solemnity of Prayer for them that is a prayer made by those sacred persons who by Christ are appointed to pray for them and to bless in his Name and so indeed are all the ministeries of the Church Baptism Consecration of the B. Eucharist Absolution Ordination Visitation of the Sick they are all in genere orationis they are nothing but solemn and appointed Prayer by an intrusted and a gracious Person specificated by a proper order to the end of the blessing then designed and therefore when Saint James commanded that the sick Persons should send for the Elders of the Church he adds and let them pray over them that is lay their hands on the sick and pray for them that is praying over them It is adumbratio dextrae as Tertullian calls it the right hand of him that ministers over-shadows the person for whom the solemn Prayer is to be made This is the Office of the Rulers of the Church for they in the Divine Eutaxy are made your Superiours they are indeed your servants for Jesus sake but they are over you in the Lord and therefore are from the Lord appointed to bless the People for without contradiction saith the Apostle the less is blessed of the greater that is God hath appointed the Superiours in Religion to be the great Ministers of Prayer he hath made them the gratious Persons them he will hear those he hath commanded to convey your needs to God and Gods blessings to you and to ask a blessing is to desire them to pray for you them I say whom God most respecteth for their piety and zeal that way or else regardeth for that their place and calling bindeth them above others to do this duty such as are Natural and Spiritual Fathers It is easie for prophane persons to deride these things as they do all Religion which is not conveyed to them by sense or natural demonstrations but the Oeconomy of the spirit and the things of God are spiritually discerned the spirit bloweth where it listeth and no Man knows whence it comes and whether it goes and the Operations are discerned by Faith and received by Love and by Obedience Date mihi Christianum intelligit quod dico None but true Christians understand and feel these things but of this we are sure that in all the times of Moses Law while the Synagogue was standing and in all the dayes of Christianity so long as men loved Religion and walked in the Spirit and minded the affairs of their Souls to have the prayers and the blessing of the Fathers of the Synagogue and the Fathers of the Church was esteemed no small part of their Religion and so they went to Heaven But that which I intend to say is this That Prayer and Imposition of Hands was the whole procedure in the Christian Rites and because this ministery was most signally performed by this ceremony and was also by St. Paul called and noted by the name of the Ceremony imposition of hands this name was retained in the Christian Church and this manner of ministring Confirmation was all that was in the commandment or institution But because in Confirmation we receive the Unction from above that is then we are most signally made Kings and Priests unto God to offer up spiritual sacrifices and to enable us to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it and that the giving the holy spirit is in Scripture called the Unction from above the Church of God in early Ages made use of this Allegory and passed it into an External ceremony and representation of the mystery to signifie the inward Grace Post inscripta oleo frontis signacula perque Vnguentum Regale datum est Chrisma perenne We are consigned on the fore-head with Oyl
ΧΡΙΣΙΣ ΤΕΛΕΙâ—ΤΙΚΗ A DISCOURSE OF Confirmation For the use of the Clergy and Instruction of the People of Ireland By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down Publish'd by Order of Convocation AND Dedicated to His Grace James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormonde c. Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland DUBLIN Printed by John Crooke Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer next door to the Beare and Ragged-staffe in Castle-street 1663. To His Grace James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormonde Earl of Ossory and Brecknock Viscount Thurles Lord Baron of Arclo and Lanthony Lord of the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary Chancellor of the University of Dublin Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sommerset one of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Councils of His Majesties Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Lord Steward of His Majesties Houshold Gentleman of His Majesties Bed-Chamber and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter May it please Your Grace IT is not any Confidence that I have Dexterously performed this charge that gives me the boldness to present it to Your Grace I have done it as well as 〈◊〉 For I took not this task upon my self but was entreated to it by them who have power to Command me But yet it is very necessary that it should be addressed to Your Grace who are as Sozomen said of Theodosius Certaminum Magister orationum Judex constitutus You are appointed the great Master of our arguings and are most fit to be the Judge of our Discourses especially when they do relate and pretend to publick Influence and Advantages to the Church We all are Witnesses of Your Zeal to promote true Religion and every day find You to be a Great Patron to this very poor Church which groans under the Calamities and permanent effects of a War acted by Intervals for above 400. years such which the Intermedial Sun-shines of Peace could but very weakly repair our Churches are still demolished much of the Revenues irrecoverably swallowed by Sacriledge and digested by an unavoidable impunity Religion infinitely divided and parted into formidable Sects the People extreamly ignorant and wilful by inheritance superstitiously irreligious and uncapable of reproof and amidst these and very many more inconveniences it was greatly necessary that God should send us such a KING and he send us such a Viceroy who wedds the Interests of Religion and joynes them to his heart For we do not look upon your Grace only as a favourer of the Churches Temporal interest though even for that the Souls of the relieved Clergy do daily bless you neither are You our Patron only as the Cretans were to Homer or the Alenadae to Simonides Philip to Theopompus or Severus to Oppianus but as Constantine and Theodosius were to Christians that is desirous that true Religion should be promoted that the interest of Souls should be advanced that Truth should flourish and wise Principles 〈…〉 In order to which excellent purposes it is hoped that the reduction of the Holy Rite of Confirmation into use and Holy practice may contribute some very great moments For besides that the great usefulness of this Ministry will greatly endear the Episcopal order to which that I may use S. Hierom's words if there be not attributed a more than common Power and Authority there will be as many Schisms as Priests it will also be a means of endearing the Persons of the Prelates to their Flocks when the People shall be convinced that there is or may be if they please a perpetual entercourse of Blessings and Love between them when God by their Holy hands refuses not to give to the People the earnest of an eternal inheritance when by them he blesses and that the grace of our Lord Jesus and the Love of God and the Communication of his Spirit is conveyed to all Persons capable of the grace by the Conduct and on the hands and prayers of their Bishops And indeed not only very many single Persons but even the whole Church of Ireland hath need of Confirmation We have most of us contended for false Religions and un-Christian propositions and now that by Gods mercy and the prosperity and piety of his Sacred Majesty the Church is broken from her cloud and many are reduc'd to the true Religion and righteous worship of God we cannot but call to mind how the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church often have declar'd themselves in Councils and by a perpetual Discipline that such Persons who are return'd from Sects and Heresies into the Bosom of the Church should not be rebaptiz'd but that the Bishops should impose hands on them in Confirmation It is true that this was design'd to supply the defect of those Schismatical Conventicles who did not use this Holy rite For this Rite of Confirmation hath had the fate to be oppos'd only by the Schismatical and Puritan Parties of old the Novatians or Cathari and the Donatists and of late by the Jesuits and new Cathari the Puritans and Presbyterians the same evil spirit of contradictions keeping its course in the same channel and descending regularly amongst Men of the same principles But therefore in the restitution of a Man or company of Men or a Church the Holy Primitives in the Council of C. P. Laodicea and Orange thought that to confirm such persons was the most agreeable Discipline not only because such persons did not in their little and dark assemblies use this rite but because they alwayes greatly wanted it For it is a sure Rule in our Religion and is of an eternal truth that they who keep not the Unity of the Church have not the Spirit of God and therefore it is most fit should receive the ministery of the spirit when they return to the bosom of the Church that so indeed they may keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And therefore Asterius Bishop of Amasia compares Confirmation to the ring with which the Father of the Prodigal adorn'd his returning Son Datur nempe prodigo post stolam annulus nempe Symbolum intelligibilis signaculi spiritus And as the Spirit of God the Holy Dove extended his mighty wings over the Creation and hatch'd the new-born World from its seminal powers to Light and Operation and Life and Motion so in the Regeneration of the souls of Men he gives a new being and heat and life Procedure and Perfection Wisdom and Strength and because that this was ministred by the Bishops hands in Confirmation was so firmly believ'd by all the Primitive Church therefore it became a Law and an Vniversal practice in all those ages in which Men desir'd to be sav'd by all means The Latin Church and the Greek alwayes did use it and the Blessings of it which they believ'd consequent to it they expressed
Baptisma est nativitas unguentum vero est nobis actionis instar motus said Cabasilas In Baptism we are intitled to the inheritance but because we are in our infancy and minority the Father gives unto his Sons a Tutor a Guardian and a Teacher in Confirmation said Rupertus that as we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ So in Confirmation we may be renewed in the inner man and strengthned in all our Holy vows and purposes by the Holy Ghost ministred according to Gods ordinance The Holy Rite of Confirmation is a Divine ordinance and it produces Divine effects and is ministred by Divine persons that is by those whom God hath sanctified and separated to this ministration At first all that were baptiz'd were also confirm'd and ever since all good people that have understood it have been very zealous for it and time was in England even since the first beginnings of the reformation when Confirmation had been less carefully ministred for about six years when the people had their first opportunities of it restor'd they ran to it in so great numbers that Churches and Church-yards would not hold them insomuch that I have read that the Bishop of Chester was forc'd to impose hands on the people in the Fields and was so oppressed with multitudes that he had almost been trod to death by the people and had dyed with the throng if he had not been rescued by the Civil power But Men have too much neglected all the ministeries of grace and this most especially and have not given themselves to a right understanding of it and so neglected it yet more But because the prejudice which these parts of the Christian Church have suffered for want of it is very great as will appear by enumeration of the many and great blessings consequent to it I am not without hope that it may be a service acceptable to God and an useful ministery to the souls of my charges if by instructing them that know not and exhorting them that know I set forward the practise of this Holy rite and give reasons why the people ought to love it and to desire it and how they are to understand and practise it and consequently with what duteous affections they are to relate to those persons whom God hath in so special and signal manner made to be for their good and eternal benefit the Ministers of the Spirit and salvation S. Bernard in the life S. Malachias my Predecessor in the See of Downe and Connor reports that it was the care of that good Prelate to renew the rite of Confirmation in his Diocess where it had been long neglected and gone into desuetude It being too much our case in Ireland I find the same necessity and am oblig'd to the same procedure for the same reason and in pursuance of so excellent an example Hoc enim est Evangelizare Christum said S. Austin non tantùm docere quae suut dicenda de Christo sed etiam quae observanda ei qui accedit ad compagem corporis Christi For this is to preach the Gospel not only to teach those things which are to be said of Christ but those also which are to be observed by every one who desires to be confederated into the Society of the body of Christ which is his Church that is not only the doctrines of good life but the mysteries of godliness and the Rituals of Religion which issue from a Divine fountain are to be declar'd by him who would fully preach the Gospel In order to which performance I shall declare 1. The Divine Original Warranty and Institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation 2. That this Rite was to be perpetual and never ceasing ministration 3. That it was actually continued and practis'd by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Churches 4. That this Rite was appropriate to the Ministry of Bishops 5. That prayer and imposition of the Bishops hands did make the whole Ritual and though other things were added yet they were not necessary or any thing of the institution 6. That many great Graces and blessings were consequent to the worthy reception and due ministration of it 7. I shall add something of the manner of praeparation to it and reception of it SECT I. Of the Divine Original warranty and institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation IN the Church of Rome they have determin'd Confirmation to be a Sacrament proprii nominis properly and really and yet their Doctors have some of them at least been paulò iniquiores a little unequal and unjust to their proposition in so much that from themselves we have had the greatest opposition in this article Bonacina and Henriquez allow the proposition but make the Sacrament to be so unnecessary that a little excuse may justifie the omission and almost neglect of it And Loemelius and Daniel à Jesu and generally the English Jesuits have to serve some ends of their own family and order disputed it almost into contempt that by representing it as unnecessary they might do all the ministeries Ecclesiastical in England without the assistance of Bishops their Superiours whom they therefore love not because they are so But the Theological faculty of Paris have condemn'd their doctrine as temerarious and savouring of Heresie and in the later Schools have approov'd rather the Doctrine of Gamachaeus Estius Kellison and Bellarmine who indeed doe follow the Doctrine of the most eminent persons in the Ancient School Richard of Armagh Scotus Hugo Cavalli and Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris who following the Old Roman order Amalarius and Albinus doe all teach Confirmation to be of great and pious use of Divine original and to many purposes necessary according to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the primitive Church Whether Confirmation be a Sacrament or no is of no use to dispute and if it be disputed it can never be proov'd to be so as Baptism and the Lords Supper that is as generally necessary to Salvation but though it be no Sacrament it cannot follow that it is not of very great use and holiness and as a Man is never the less tyed to Repentance though it be no Sacrament so neither is he ever the less oblig'd to receive Confirmation though it be as it ought acknowledg'd to be of an use and Nature inferiour to the two Sacraments of Divine direct and immediate institution It is certain that the Fathers in a large Symbolical and general sense call it a Sacrament but mean not the same thing by that word when they apply it to Confirmation as they doe when they apply it to Baptism and the Lords Supper That it is an Excellent and Divine ordinance to purposes spiritual that it comes from God and ministers in our way to God that is all we are concern'd to inquire after and this I shall endeavour to prove not only against the Jesuits but against all opponents
reproov'd SECT II. The Rite of Confirmation is a perpetual and never ceasing Ministery YEa but what is this to us It belong'd to the dayes of wonder and extraordinary The holy Ghost breath'd upon the Apostles and Apostolical men but then he breath'd his last recedente gratiâ recessit disciplina when the Grace departed we had no further use of the Ceremony In answer to this I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by divers particulars evince plainly that this ministery of confirmation was not temporary and relative only to the Acts of the Apostles but was to descend to the Church for ever This indeed is done already in the preceding Sect. In which it is clearly manifested that Christ himself made the Baptism of the Spirit to be necessary to the Church he declar'd the fruits of this Baptism and did particularly relate it to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at and after that glorious Pentecost He sanctifyed it and commended it by his example just as in order to baptism he sanctified the Flood Jordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin viz. by his great example and fulfilling this righteousness also This Doctrine the Apostles first found in their own persons and experience and practised to all their Converts after Baptism by a solemn and external Rite and all this passed into an Evangelical Doctrine the whole mystery being signified by the external Rite in the words of the Apostle as before it was by Christ expressing onely the internal so that there needs no more strength to this Argument But that there may be wanting no moments to this truth which the Holy Scripture affords I shall add more weight to it And 1. The perpetuity of this Holy Rite appears because this great gift of the Holy Ghost was promised to abide with the Church for ever And when the Jews heard the Apostles speak with Tongues at the first and miraculous descent of the Spirit in Pentecost to take off the strangeness of the wonder and the envy of the power St. Peter at that very time tells them plainly Repent and be Baptized every one of you and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the meanest person amongst you all but shall receive this great thing which ye observe us to have received and not onely you but your Children too not your Children of this Generation onely sed Nati natorum qui nascentur ab illis but your Children for ever For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call Now then let it be considered 1. This gift is by promise by a promise not made to the Apostles alone but to all to all for ever 2. Consider here at the very first as there is a verbum a word of promise so there is sacramentum too I use the word as I have already premonished in a large sense onely and according to the stile of the Primitive Church it is a Rite partly Moral partly Ceremonial the first is Prayer and the other is laying on of the hands and to an effect that is but transient and extraordinary and of a little aboad it is not easie to be supposed that such a solemnity should be appointed I say such a solemnity that is it is not imaginable that a solemn Rite annexed to a perpetual Promise should be transient and temporary for by the nature of Relatives they must be of equal abode The promise is of a thing for ever the Ceremony or Rite was annexed to the Promise and therefore this also must be for ever 3. This is attested by St. Paul who reduces this Argument to this Mystery saying In whom after that ye believed signati estis spiritu sancto promissionis ye were sealed by that holy spirit of promise He spake it to the Ephesians who well understood his meaning by remembring what was done to themselves by the Apostles but a while before who after they had Baptized them did lay their hands upon them and so they were sealed and so they received the Holy spirit of promise for here the very matter of Fact is the clearest Commentary on St. Pauls words The spirit which was promised to all Christians they then received when they were consigned or had the Ritual seal of Confirmation by Imposition of hands One thing I shall remark here and that is that this and some other words of Scripture relating to the Sacraments or other Rituals of Religion do principally mean the Internal Grace and our consignation is by a secret power and the work is within but it does not therefore follow that the External Rite is not also intended for the Rite is so wholly for the Mystery and the outward for the inward and yet by the outward God so usually and regularly gives the inward that as no man is to rely upon the External Ministery as if the opus operatum would do the whole Duty so no man is to neglect the External because the Internal is the more principal The mistake in this particular hath caused great contempt of the Sacraments and Rituals of the Church and is the ground of the Socinian errors in these Questions But 4. what hinders any man from a quick consent at the first representation of these plain reasonings and authorities Is it because there were extraordinary effects accompanying this ministration and because now there are not that we will suppose the whole Oeconomy must cease if this be it and indeed this is all that can be supposed in opposition to it it is infinitely vain 1. Because these extraordinary effects did continue even after the death of all the Apostles St. Irenaeus sayes they did continue even to his time even the greatest instance of miraculous power in fraternitate saepissimè propter aliquid necessarium ea quae est in quoquo loco Vniversa Ecclesia postulante per jejunium supplicationem multam reversus est spiritus c. When God saw it necessary and the Church prayed and fasted much they did miraculous things even of reducing the Spirit to a dead man 2. In the dayes of the Apostles the holy spirit did produce miraculous effects but neither alwayes nor at all in all men Are all workers of Miracles Do all speak with Tongues Do all interpret Can all heal No the Spirit bloweth where he listeth and as he listeth he gives gifts to all but to some after this manner and to some after that 3. These gifts were not necessary at all times any more than to all persons but the promise did belong to all and was made to all and was performed to all In the dayes of the Apostles there was an effusion of the Spirit of God it run over it was for themselves and others it wet the very ground they trode upon and made it fruitful but it