men so far above his reach there had been no need of He having in those and divers other aspersions which he hath cast upon him in his late book which may hereafter be fully cleared done himselfe the chiefest wrong I commend the whole to the Readers charitable and impartiall censure that no prejudicate opinion doe obstruct his right apprehension THE CONTENTS Of the Severall TREATISES The First consists of three POSITIONS 1. THat a great City called Babylon shall be a Seducer 2. That by this City is meant ROME 3. Not Heathen Rome but since it was freed from the Government both of Heathen and Christian Emperours and became the possession of the Pope The Second How the Papacy may be said to be the Beast that was and is not and yet is Rev. 17.18 The Third being Bishop Bedels Sermon on Rev. 18.4 Come out of her my people c. The Speaker our Saviour Christ His people those within the Covenant of Grace A paralleling the Speeches here with those of the Prophets Of Litterall Babell who meant by Mysticall Babylon The judgement of Bellarmine Salmeron Viegas to be the City of Rome How the title of Babylon the great and her reigning over the Kings of the earth rather agrees to Rome Papal then Heathen The Cup of inchantment whereby she hath deceived all Nations and one in speciall in imitation of literall Babell Dan. 1. applyed to that See Her Wantonnesse Pride sitting as a Queen glorifying her self the blood of Christians shed by the Papacy to be beyond that of Heathen Romes persecution his conclusion from the Premises That there are some of Gods people in Babylon That they are to goe out not only in affection but the place also Of Baptisme Grounds of the Catechisme Faith taught there of the doctrine of of merits What is to be thought of those that doe yet live there and cannot come out Whether the Church of Rome be a true Church rightly stated p. 83. Of the Ordination had there by the use of these words Whose sins ye remit c. That the Papall Monarchy is Babylon proved by arguments at the barre of Reason and from common principles of Christianity p. 89. Answer to that motive of staying in Babylon because they are told they may be saved in it An exhortation of such as are yet in that captivity to come out and of our selves to come further out Of Impropriations Dispensations c. with a conclusive prayer for the destruction of Babylon The Fourth A Confirmation of the abovesaid judgment From some grounds out of the Ancient Fathers consenting in an expectation that Rome must be the place and the successor of the Emperour there the Person A clear application of it to the See of Rome by the Fathers and Writers in successive ages before and after the tenth Century The Judgment of the eminent Bishops of England since the reformation the book of Homilies especially in 2 places calling the Pope Antichrist and the Babylonical beast of Rome A Synod in France as Ireland How far confessed by the prime writers of the Church of Rome The mistake of such as have diverted the application of it some other way an Answer of a passage of Doctor Heylenes concerning it in relation to the Primate and Articles of Ireland The Fifth Of laying on of Hands Heb. 6.2 Reasons why not confirmation but ordination Paraeus and Mr. Cartwrights concurrence in it with the Primate The necessity of an ordained Ministry The neglect of it as undermining the foundation Objections answered with a seasonable application to the present times The necessity of an external call The Authority not from the People That objection against our ordination being derived from Rome at large answered p. 218. That personal faults in the ordainers doth not null the ordination Some application The 6. Of the old form of words in Ordination Receive the Holy Ghost not meant of the sanctifying grace of the spirit nor extraordinary gifts of it but of ghostly or spirituall Ministeriall authority 1 Cor. 3. verse 3.6 and 1 John 2.20 The anointing teacheth you c. illustrated An objection out of S. Augustine answered Whose sins thou forgivest c. In what sense Ministers are said to forgive sins The Primates judgement in his answer to the Jesuits Challenge defended to be according to the doctrine of the Church of England which Doctor Heylene hath scandalized him in it The 7th Of a Set Form of Prayer The judgment of Calvine Dutch and French divines with their Practice Examples out of the Old Testament and New The pattern of our Saviour giving a form to his disciples taking one to himself and observing the set forms made by others That objection of Stinting the spirit answered An Vniformity in publique prayer a means of reducing unity in Church and State The full concurrence of Mr. Rogers Mr. Egerton Dr. Gouge Mr. Hildersham Dr. Sibbs Dr. Preston c. Of the length and gesture in prayer Mr. Hildersham of an outward reverence in the publick A Character of Bishop Bedell his industry at Venice and at home humility moderation government and sufferings An answer to Mr. Thomas Pierces fifth Letter wherein three Certificates have been published by him for the justification of a change of judgement in the late Primate of Ireland in some points ERRATA SOme omissions of Accents Pointing and number of pages the intelligent Reader may correct himself Page 39. l. 2. r. professed p. 40. l. 8. r. Lo-ammi p. 41. l. 18. r. ir p. 45. l. 9. for there t is related that p. 46. l. 15. d. and p. 48. l. 8. circun p. 49. l. 6. ly p. 63. l. 21. d. p. 59. l. 11. although p. 60. l. 4. her p. 63. l. 1. As gods l. 21. dis p. 64. l. 22. they they p. 70. l. 10. val p. 82. l. 20. d. p. 92. l. 6. may p. 160. l. 23. p. 161. l. 11. Padre p. 162. mar l. 8. justif p. 185. l. 2. baptizing p. 189. l. 2. mining p. 198. l. 6. of the p. 248. l. 22. mediatly p. 250. l. 22. 2. p. 278. l. 12 there p. 317. l. 8. Wethersfield p. 322. l. 18. prayer p. 329 l. 21. and Mr. p. 362. l. 12. d. following p. 378. l. ult d. which The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland what is understood by Babylon in Apoc. 17. 18. Apoc. 18. v. 4. Go out from her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues IN these words we are straightly enjoyned upon our peril to make a separation from Babylon For the understanding of which charge these three Positions following are to be considered The first Position THat it is plainly foretold in the the Word of God that after the planting of the Faith by the Apostles the Kings and Inhabitants of the earth should be seduced and drawn into damnable errours and that the mother of all these Abominations of the Earth should
be in a great esteem with us Ye see they do not understand by this Vnction or anointing signifying the Holy Ghost an immediate teaching or inspiration as by some Enthusiasme but immediately through the Ministery ordained for that end by a Metonymy as they say of the Adjunct the oyntment for the hand which applyes it or delivers it to you and the teaching you all things is meant of all things necessary to salvation the credenda and agenda which by the Ministery had bin so fully taught them that they needed not to be taught by Saint John again here If any shall object as it hath been unto me that of Saint Augustine lib. 15. de Trinit cap. 27. Quomodo ergo Deus non est qui dat Spiritum Sanctum imò quantus Deus est qui dat Deum neque enim aliquis discipulorum ejus dedit Spiritum Sanctum orabant quippe ut veniret in eos quibus manus imponebant non ipsi eum dabant quem morem in suis praepositis etiam nunc servet Ecclesia c. i. e. How should not he be God who gives the Holy Ghost nay how great a God who gives God for neither any of his disciples gave the holy Ghost they prayed indeed that it might come upon those on whom they imposed hands they did not give it themseles which custom the Church now observes c. Answ 1. In the words before these he speaks of a double giving of the Holy Ghost by our Saviour the one on earth after his resurrection the other from heaven after his Ascension upon the day of Pentecost now in relation to the latter in those extraordinary gifts of the spirit the words objected have their principal application which doth not concern that we have in hand which is only of the former being meant of successive ministerial authority for the ordinarie dispensing of the office Secondly whereas he saith the Church hath observed that custome in imposition of hands to pray for the persons reciving of it hath bin formerly acknowledged to be one sense of that clause viz. by way of impetration Take the gift of the spirit pro dono infuso so we use the words per modum impetrationis take it pro officio so we use it per modum collationis ministerially conferring the power of executing the office of a Minister there is no contradiction but that in the same act there may meet a collation of the office with authority to execute and an impetration for the persons receiving an assistance of the spirit in the executing of it which in the old injunction immediately followed in a prayer for the person ordained accordingly so that the custome and intention of our Church is no other then what was in Saint Augustines time not presuming to give the Holy Ghost in the latter sense only praying it might be given of God to him but only in the former So much for opening of the first clause in ordination Receive the Holy Ghost which rightly understood is not such a rock of offence as some have taken it to be in the disuse of it The second clause is whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven whose sins thou doest retain they are retained At which as much if not more offence hath been taken then at the former as if it savoured of Popery which I shall give you the Primates sense of also That it may be retained in ordination and attributed safely to the office of the Ministery without the least savour that way which no man that knew him and what Popery is but will acquit him of the least grain of it Thus far it will be granted by all sober persons 1. The Ministers may be said to remit sins by way of preparative to it in being the instruments by preaching the word of reconciliation to dispose men towards it in bringing them to repentance whereby they are capable of it 2. By way of Confirmation in exhibiting the seales of remission in the Sacraments according as one well glosseth upon these words 'T is Gods act onely to forgive sins but the Apostles are said to do it (a) Non simplicitèr sed quia adhibent media per quae Deus remittit peccata haec autem media sunt verbum Sacramenta Fer. in loc not simply but because they apply the means appointed of God for that end viz. the word and Sacraments What is there more in forgivenesse of sins then in reconciliation of God and man now ye find this given to the Ministery 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word or ministery of reconciliation Gods act onely authoritate propria by his own supreme authority the Ministers act potestate vicaria as a substitute in Christs stead and the word doth include the Sacraments also as in our usual speech the Letters Pattents doth the Seale affixed to them as the Ministery doth the whole ministerial office 3. Declaratively in testifying this grace of God and declaring Gods good pleasure accordingly upon repentance unto the person like that of Nathan to David or Saint Peter to his Auditory Acts 3. as Ferus saith (b) Non quod homo propriè remittet peccatum sed quod ostendet certificet adeò remissum neque enim alia est absolutio ab homine quam si dicat En tibi certifico te tibi remissa esse peccata Annuncio tibi te habere Deum propitium c. Ferus lib 2. Comment in Matth. cap. 9. edit Mogunt 1559. man doth not properly forgive sin but doth declare and certifie that it is remitted of God so that absolution received from man is as much to say behold my son I certifie thee that thy sins are forgiven thee I declare unto thee that God is at peace with thee which I relate the rather out of him both for his being a writer of the Chutch of Rome and that this passage is purged out of his book by them as erroneous as may be seen by comparing the Edition of Mentz with the Edition at Antwerp 1559 and 1570 Which agrees with that in the Articles of Religion of Ireland num 71. God hath given power to his Ministers not simply to forgive sinnes which prerogative he hath reserved only to himselfe but in his name to declare and pronounce unto such as truly repent and unfeignedly believe his Holy Gospel the absolution and remission of sins But that ye may the more fully understand the Primates Judgement in this point whose authority prevails much with all good men and how remote our Church is from that of the Papists in the use of those words in ordination I shall give you some brief collections out of that Answer of his to the Jesuite Malones challenge concerning this subject and the rather to satisfy the Reader against the injury which among others Doctor Heylene hath done him in this as if
his judgement were opposite to the Doctrine of the Church of England First the Primate complains of the wrong done by the Papists in charging us with denying any power to be left by Christ to the Priests or Ministers of the Church to forgive sins being the formal words which our Church requireth to be used in the Ordination of a Minister and there states the question between them us That in the general it was ever the doctrine of our Church that the principal office of our Ministery is excercised in the forgivenesse of sins as the means and end of it The Question is of the manner of the execution and the Bounds of it which the Pope and his Clergy have enlarged beyond all measure of truth and reason We say that to forgive sinnes properly directly and absolutely is Gods propriety onely Esay 43.25 Psal 32.5 produced by our Saviour Matth. 9. to prove his Deity which is accordingly averred by all antiquity But the Papists attribute as much to the Bishop of Rome affirming (a) In summo Pontifice esse plenitudinem â—mnium gratiarum quia ipse solus confert plenam indulgentiam omnium peccatorum computet sibi quod de primo principe Domino dicimus quia de plenitudine ejus nos omnes accepimus de Regim Principum lib. 3. cap. 10. inter opuscula Thomae num 20. activè proximè efficit gratiam justificationis ut flatus extinguit ignem dissipat nebulas sic absolutio sacerdotis peccata c. Bell. de Sacram. libro 2. cap. 1. de poenitent libro 3. cap. 2. Attritio virtute clavium fit contritio Rom. Correctores Gloss Gratiani de poenitent dist 1. principio c. That in him there is a fulnesse of all graces and he gives a full indulgence of all sins that to him agrees that which we give to our Lord that of his fulnesse all we have received and not much lesse to the meanest Priest viz. That his absolution is such a Sacramental Act that it confers grace actively and immediately and effects the grace of Justification that as the wind doth extinguish the fire and dispell Clouds so doth his absolution sins and by it Attrition becomes Contrition We do not take upon us any such soveraignty as if it were in our power to proclaim warre or conclude peace between God and man at our discretion We remember we are but Embassadors and must not go beyond our commission and instructions We do not take upon us thus to be Lords over Gods heritage as if we had the absolute power of the Keyes This were Popery indeed No we only acknowledge a Ministerial limited one as Stewards to dispense things according to the Will of our Masters and do assent unto the observation which Cyrill Saint Basil Ambrose Augustine make upon these words of Ordination of the Apostle Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye forgive shall be forgiven viz. That this is not their work properly but the work of the Holy Ghost who remitteth by them for as St. Cyril saith (a) Cui enim praevaricatores legis à peccato liberare licet nisi legis ipsius autori in Joh. lib. 12. cap. 56. who can free transgressors of the Law but the Authour of the Law it self (b) Daturus erat D minus hominibus Spiritum Sanctum ab ipso Spiritu Sancto fidelibus suis dimitti peccata volebat intelligi nam quid es homo nisi ager sanandus vis mihi esse medicus mecum quaere medicum Homil. 23. Ex. 50. The Lord saith St. Augustine was to give unto men the Holy Ghost and he would have it to be understood that by the Holy Ghost himselfe sins should be forgiven to the faithfull what art thou O man but a sick man thou hast need to be healed wilt thou be a Physitian to me seek the Physitian togegether with me (c) Ecce per Spiritum Sanctum peccata donantur homines ministerium suum exhibent non jus alicujus potestatis exercent de Sp. Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Saint Ambrose Lo by the Holy Ghost sins are forgiven men bring but their Ministerie to it they exercise not the Authoritie of any power in it Now having acquitted our Church of Poperie in retaining these words in Ordination the Primate proceeds in shewing the Ministers exercise of his function in this particular viz. Forgivenesse of sins in these four things 1. Prayer 2. Censures of the Church 3. Sacraments 4. The word preached 1. Prayer Jam. 5.14 15. If any be sick let him send for the Elders of the Church let them pray over him and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him and so shewes it to have been the judgement and practice of the Fathers and the ancientest of the Schoolmen that the power of the Keyes in this particular is much exercised in our being petitioners to God for the persons remission not excluding the prayers of the whole Church in assisting them with theirs for which cause in publick offences S. Augustine exhorts men to shew their repentance accordingly that the Church might pray with the Minister for them for the more sure imparting of the benefit of absolution And that before Thomas Aquinas time the form of absolution was by prayer for the partie that a learned man in his time found fault with that indicative form newly introduced Then the form being not I absolve thee but absolutionem remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus the Almighty God give unto thee absolution and remission c. unto which the antient Ritualls of the Roman Church as the Greeke according to that of Damascenes form yet retained doth agree and 't is the Primates observation that the ancient Fathers never used any Indicative form but alwaies prayer-wise as ye have heard according to which were the ancient Liturgies of the Latine and Greek Churches howsoever the Popish Priests now stand so much upon it that they place the very essence and efficacie of that their Sacrament in it in the first person and not in the third Indeed our Church to shew it stood not upon forms did in its Liturgie observe each 1. In the absolution after the general Confession it is only declarative At the communion 't is in the form of a prayer at the visitation of the sick 't is both Declarative Optative and Indicative 2. In the Censures of the Church there is an exercise of this part of our function which we maintain against the Montanists Novatians who deny any ministeriall power of reconciling of such penitents as had committed heynous sins and receiving them to the Communion of the faithfull which is contrary to that of Saint Paul as 't is generally expounded by antiquity Gal. 6.1 If any man be overtaken in a fault i. e. in a scandalous one you who are spiritual restore i. e. upon his repentance such a one in the spirit of meeknesse as in the particular of the Incestuous Corinthian
whom as in the name and power of the Lord Jesus he had bin excommunicated by Saint Paul and the Elders there so upon his repentance he was in the same name and by the same power restored again even by such to whom was committed the Ministery of reconciliation 2 Cor. 27.10 c. And indeed this loosening of men is generally by the Fathers accounted a restoring them to the peace of the Church and admitting them to the Lords Table again as is evident by their frequent expressions that way which the Primate doth declare 3. In the administration of the Sacraments which being a part of the Ministerie of reconciliation and the Seales of the Promises must necessarily also have reference to remission of sins and so the ancient Fathers of whom the Primate alleadgeth diverse do hold that as these words whose sins ye remit are remitted unto them c. are a part of our Commission so 't is exercised by the Ministers of Christ in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Communion yet so that the Ministery only is to be accounted mans and the power Gods it being saith Saint Augustine (a) Aliud est baptizare per ministerium aliud per potestatem aâ—thâ—râ—tatem One thing to baptize by way of Ministerie another by way of power which the Lord hath retained to himself as to the Authority of remission of sins in it according to that of John Baptists distinction between the externall and internall Baptisme he baptized with the Baptisme of water to the remission of sins but attributes that of baptizing with the Holy Ghost to Christ onely 4. In the word of God preached there is exercised this part of our function in loosing men from their sins being a speciall part of this Ministery of reconciliation committed to us as the Embassadours of Christ here upon the earth for that end sinners are said to be holden with the cords of their own sins Prov. 5.12 The Apostles saith Saint Jerome according to their Commission given them by their Master Whosoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosened in heaven which beares the same sense with remitting and retaining of sins here (a) quos funes vincula solvunt Apostoli Sermone Dei testimoniis scripturae exhortatione lib. 6. Comment in Is cap. 14. Did loose those cords by the word of God and Testimonies of Scripture and exhortations unto vertues (b) Remjituntur peccata per Dei verbum de Abel Cain lib. 2. cap. 4. Saint Ambrose saith the same that sins are remitted by the word of God c. And so calls the Levite that interpreted the Law a Minister of remission As the Jewish Scribes by taking away this key of knowledge are said to shut up the Kingdom of heaven so a Scribe fitted for the Kingdome of God in the Ministery is a meanes by it to open the door of heaven to them by being an instrument to open mens eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins c. And by applying the word unto the consciences of their hearers the Ministers of Christ did discharge that part of their function which concerns forgivenesse of sins not only declaratively but operatively in as much as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospel as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sons of men and of working of faith and repentance whereby remission of sins is obtained thus John is said to have preached the Baptisme of repentance Mark 1.4 and to have given knowledge of salvation to the people for the remission of sins and Saint James cap. 5.20 saith he that converts a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soule from death and hide a multitude of sins This hiding or covering is meant forgivenesse as 't is accordingly set forth elsewhere Rom. 4.7 Jer. 31.28 blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven and whose iniquities are covered c. Now is there not as much offence in saying Ministers do save mens soules or save men from their sins the propriety of our Saviour as to say they forgive them their sins the turning men from their iniquities is Gods act alone according to the frequent prayer in the Prophets unto him first yet in regard the word of reconciliation is committed to them as the ordinary meanes of it by a usuall Trope of the Act of the agent given to the instrument it is attributed unto them of which might be given many instances Timothy 1 Ep. 1.4 is said to save them that hear him though there is but one Saviour because he preached the word of salvation by which they were saved Acts 12.14 the word of God preached by the Apostles is called by our Saviour their word John 17.20 and that which is properly the work of God is called their worke 1 Thes 5. The Corinthians who believed by Saint Pauls Ministery are said to be his Epistle i. e. the Epistle of Christ ministred by him as ye have it expounded in the next verse following And so why may not forgivenesse of sins be said to be the work of the Ministers i e. the work of Christ ministred by them being so far honoured as to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coworkers together with him According unto which is the judgement of Dr. Ward that Reverend and learned Professor of Divinity in Cambridge in that determination of his in Comitiis an 1637. mense Octob. Potestas clavium extenditur ad remissionem culpae where are many of the like observations which I found inclosed in a letter unto the Primate for his approbation where I find somewhat more then is in that which is printed viz. 80. Sic argumentatur Alensis part 4. q. 21. membr 1. Paris potestatis est interius baptizare à culpa mortali absolvere Sed Deus non debuit potestatem baptizandi interius communicare ne spes poneretur in homine ergo pari ratione non potestatem absolvendi ab actuali peccato fundamentum hujus rationis habetur apud Cyprianum de lapsis And the like may be said of the binding part of their office called here retaining of sins Do we not read how the Ministers are sometimes brought in like those seven Angels in the book of the Revelation which poure out the Vialls of Gods wrath upon the earth Saint Paul saith 2 Cor. 10.6 he had vengeance in readinesse against all disobedience yet vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord what other sense can it be but this he is said to be the inflicter because he was in Christs name the denouncer even as Jeremiah cap. 1.10 is said to be set over the Nations and Kingdomes to pluck up and to pull down to destroy and to root out because God had put these words in his mouth and was ordained by him as a Prophet to pronounce destruction to them accordingly or as Ezekiel cap.
THE JUDGEMENT Of the late Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and PRIMATE of IRELAND Of BABYLON Rev. 18.4 being the present See of Rome With a Sermon of Bishop BEDELS upon the same words Of laying on of hands â—eb 6.2 to be an ordained Ministery Of the old Form of words in Ordination Of a Set Form of PRAYER Published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard D. D. and Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne London Unto which is added a Character of Bishop BEDEL And an Answer to Mr. Pierces Fifth Letter concerning the late PRIMATE LONDON Printed for John Crook at the Sign of the Ship in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO THE Right Worshipfull Sir WILLIAM ELLIS BARONET His HIGHNES Sollicitor GENERALL The Readers and Benchers With the Ancients Barresters and Students Of the Honourable Society of Graies-Inne YEe are thus intituled to these Treatises The occasion of publishing the First was a Sermon preached by the late Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH in your Chappell of the same subject Nov. 5. 1654. who out of his old love to this society whereof he was a member intended it as his last the request then made to him for the permission of printing that he did satisfy in his consent to the publishing of this For the other some parts of them have been long agone preached before you by the Authour though now in another manner enlarged which as a testimony of his due observance and respect to this Honourable Society he desires may be accepted from him who is Grayes-Inne Octob. 27. 1658. Yours in the service of Christ N. BERNARD To the Reader HOw Popery and (a) Though of late it hath had that latitude as to comprehend Episcopacy yet in Ancient Records which I have seen it was limited to the Deans and Chapters For this was then the form of the Arch-Bishops Provinciall visitation declaring that he would visit Episcopum Praelatos clerum populum Prelacy came first to be contracted is not my enquiry but sure I am they are here very far asunder such as do apply that of Babylon Rev. 17. and the Man of sin 2 Thes 2. to the Pope can hardly be accounted Popish which you find affirmed by the late Archbishop of Armagh and Bishop Bedell in their discussing of the same words And who are supported in it by the most Eminent Bishops of England and Ireland since the Reformation Archbishop Whitgift Bishop Jewell Abbot Bilson Andrews Downham Morton Hall Davenant Prideaux with others who have unanimously given their votes the same way as is hereafter shewn And indeed it could not be otherwise expected from some of them who had been taught to put him into their (b) Common Prayer in Edw. 6. Letany From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities Good Lord deliver us So that if any of later years professing themselves to be the sons of those old Prophets have so far favoured the See of Rome as to divert the stream of that application some other way it appears they have in it degenerated from their Ancestors The first Treatise being the Primates three positions concerning Babylon was wrot above 40 years agone which appears by the places of Scripture rendred according to the old Translation and sent to an Irish Jesuit in Dublin as I take it (c) The first that broached that figment of the Nagge 's head consecration in England after 45 yeares silence of any other Author which in Bishop Bedells Letters to Wadesworth p. 142. is confuted Christophorus à sacro bosco there called F. Halywood the summe of which having been delivered by the Primate in a Sermon which he preached at Grays-Inne Nov. 5. 1654. and being much desired by some of the Auditours to be published he did condescend to permit this with that other Letter following in their satisfaction The learned Sermon of Bishop Bedels being of the same subject I heard him preach it in Christ-Church Dublin 1634. before the Lord Deputy and Parliament The occasion of his giving a copy of it was at the request of a Papist to have shewen it to some learned men of his own Religion and my opportunity to have it was the near relation I had to him for divers years in that See which after these 22 yeares lying latent with me I have taken this fit occasion to publish it That which I have added is by way of confirmation from some grounds out of Ancient Fathers the successive votes both of the learned Writers in those ages who lived under the Tyranny of the See of Rome as of our eminent Bishops and Writers since that yoke was cast off in England with the concurrence of our book of Homilies severall Synods of our own and other reformed Churches the determination of the * Synops Theol. disp 4â— de Christo Antichristo conclus Ex quibus apparet Pontificem Papam Romanum revera Antichristum filium perditionis esse c. Dutch and French Divines It being very observable that whatsoever differences there are in the reformed Churches in other matters yet there is a marvellous unity in this To which is added the like judgement of Arminius and some of the Church of Rome continuing at least in that communion who professe it out-right others by way of consequence Their chief Writers who meet us halfe way granting the place only disputing the time contending as much as we that Babylon Rev. 17. must be meant Rome the difference between us whether Ethnick or Papall For that of the Primates judgement seconded by some eminent Writers what is meant Heb 6.2 by laying on of hands and of the sense of the old form of words in Ordination viz. Receive the holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest c. and the use of them to be continued I had leave from himself for the manifesting and enlarging of it And I suppose the last subject concerning a Set Form of Prayer will passe with the lesse opposition by the concurring of divers eminent and worthy Persons whom the contrary-minded cannot but highly esteem of Having both in the former and this taken up Saint Pauls manner of arguing with the Athenians as certain also of your own have said c. or as elsewhere one of themselves even a Prophet of their own c. And surely the Primates appearing so much against the See of Rome in the first cannot but be a preparative to the hearkning unto him the rather in the two later For my self I have no other design in the whole but the peace and unity of the Church which we are all bound to seek and without which end and aim all gifts whatsoever coveted by us are of no value and I hope to have that interpretation from such as are so affected Two things which have been enlarged by way of Vindication of the Eminent Primate from the injuries of Doctor Heylene came so in my way that I could not passe them which else by his being in the esteem of
doctrine in it that it should be a scandall to us either And yet we were not then to seek for an ordained Ministery there having been for many hundreds of years before that a flourishing Church among us which the Saxons whom he came to convert had been the persecutors and destroyers of as Gildas tells us so that in that or the former sense the objection is not worth the answering Answ 4 But fourthly I suppose they mean of later Centuries when that complaint of the Prophet concerning Jerusalem might be appliable to Rome How is that faithful City become a harlot it was full of judgement righteousnesse lodgeed in her but now murderers c. i. e. Since the Bishop of Rome became corrupt in doctrine and worship For this first we thus answer While we were under the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome it doth not appear that he ordinarily usurped more then a mandatory nomination of the Bishop to be consecrated which out of a blind fear of his excommunication was assented unto but the consecration was not by him but other Bishops here within our selves And I account the ordination or consecration to be derived from such as gave imposition of hands not from the mandate for them to do it Henry the eight and the Kings succeeding assumed the like power in the nomination of the person which accordingly might not be gainsaid but from thence it cannot be argued that our ordination or consecration was deduced from them for the Kings mandate served not to give power to ordain which those Bishops had before intrinsecally annexed to their office but only was a warrant to apply this power to the person named in that Mandate Now this being all which was usurped by the Bishop of Rome in relation to the consecrations of our Bishops in England when we were under the Tyranny of the Papacy there is as little force for our deriving our ordination from him also And if those Bishops of Sidon which as Arch-Deacon * De Minister Anglican Mason tells us assisted in the first consecration in Hen. 8. as in Edward the sixth's time were not meerly Titular but had their consecration from the Greek Church which is altogether a stranger to the See of Rome it would take off somewhat from the pretence of a totall derivation from thence Object But still it may be objected that we have at least received our Ordination from such as professed the Religion of Rome Answ First it could not be called properly the Religion of Rome till the Councell of Trent which determined many years after our falling off from the See of Rome The Papists ask us Where was our Religion before Luther we might reply Where was the Popish Religion before that time 'T is true most of those poysonous errours were sowen up and down the world before but not collected fully into a body and so owned and headed by the Papacy till then For till that time scarce any point we hold now against them but there were some of their own Authours who held it also So that to speak properly the now Romish Religion in their new Creed with other appurtenances was established since our form of ordination 2. Suppose we received our ordination from such who were corrupted with Popish errours yet if they retained the Fundamentalls of Christian Religion their ordination may be valid those like some part of the barke of the tree uncut may convey the Sappe from the root to the preserving of life in the branches What Saint Augustine saith of the Donatists in some things mecum sunt they concurre with me in other things they are defiled may be applicable to the Church of Rome and if so why may we not receive through them what was of Christs remaining in them without being defiled with that corrupt part which is their own why may not there be in this a separation of the precicious from the vile And in our reformation we withdrew our selves no further from her then she hath declined from her self in the Apostles time and from the ancient state and condition of it then as one saith well Nostra Ecclesia ab hodierna Romana Ecclesia contaminata recessit ut ad pristinam puram Apostolicam Romanam accedere posset We forsook the present corrupted Church of Rome that we might be nearer a kin to the first pure Apostolical Roman Church in the primitive times 3. In a word we do affirme that neither their corruption in opinion or vitiosity of life do or did void it to the party ordained none doubts of the Baptisme of our fore-fathers administred by those of the like in the Church of Rome as if there needed any reiteration by them who survived our reformation neither do we renew the orders received in that Church when any Priest is converted and betakes himself to our communion and why should it be questioned here Let the Seal be of Silver or brasse the impression is alike valid if affixed by order to the deed Parents in generation convey to the child what is essentiall to humane nature not that which is accidentall A maimed Father begets a Son like himself as he was before he lost his arme as the circumcised did and doth an uncircumcised child the like application may be made to the transferring of ordination in such a wounded diseased Apostatized Church as the Roman now is and by such corrupted persons in life and doctrine continuing in it so they do observe the * See Bishop Bedels letter to Wadsworth p. 157. My defence for your Ministry is that the forme Receive the Hâ—ly Ghost whose sins ye remit are remitted doth suciffiently comprehend the authority c. essentials in ordination other superstructures or corruption in the ordainers doth not null it either to the persons themselves or successors which might be further manifested by the pâ—actice of the Church in all ages 1. That Ministration under the Law the Priests of which the Jewish Writers say were consecrated by laying on of hands had as much cause to stand upon succession as any yet ye find often that the Priests the sons of Aaron and the Levites had corrupted their wayes were defiled with Idolatry in Ahaz and Manasses time and others as bad or worse then the See of Rome yet after a reformation the succession which was by their hands was not questioned Though the Priesthood ran through much filth yet retaining the essentialls of the Jewish Religion as circumcision c. they were owned of God again in a successive ministration See in the height of their Idolatry when they were offering their children by fire unto their Idols yet by retaining the Sacrament covenant of circumcision their children are called the Lords children Ezek. 16.20 Thou hast taken thy sons which thou hast borne unto me c. thou hast slayn my children in causing them to pass through the fire etc. 2. In our Saviour Christs time there was as bad a succession as
ever in the Priests Pharises Scribes Sadduces c. yet as he permitted their administring of some rites for himselfe whether of circumcision or the offering made for him in the Temple at the purification after the custome of the Law in his infancy so at his manifestation about 30 yeares after he sends those that were healed by him to the Priests to offer what Moses commanded ye see he did not determine against the office for the personal defilements of their Predecessors or themselves 3. Nay under the Gospel about four hundred years after our Saviour Christ was not the world so over-run with Arrians that it groaned under it as St. Jerom saith when they had the commands of the Pulpits ordaining of Preachers children were baptized by them men put to receive the communion of them as Hilary and Basil say the Orthodox were hatched under the wings of the Arrian Priests yet upon a reformation and the renouncing of that heresie we read not of any rejecting of the succeeding Ministers because they were derived through such hands which I conceive to have been as bad as the Bishop of Rome and his followers The Church then was so wise as to consider a jewel looseth not his vertue by being delivered by a foul hand so neither is this treasure of the Ministry to be despised because it hath passed through some polluluted vessels to us which is appliable for the saving harmlesse our ordination though transmitted through the Popish defilements of some persons so much in vindicating the ordination of the Church of England from the scandall of being Popish Antichristian with which by some ignorant and rash people it is frequently aspersed Let me conclude with this short admonition Be not hereafter so unworthy as to blurre that Ministery with being Antichristian by whom ye have received the knowledge of Christ both by their translating of the Scriptures out of the Originalls into your Mother-tongue for your reading and their labour in the exposition of them for your understanding by whom you and your fathers have been baptized and instructed Be not such ill birds as thus to defile your own nests do not side with the agents of the Bishop of Rome in thus detracting and lessening the reputation and esteem of them Let them not say in their hearts so would we have it nor you with your tongues unlesse in your hearts you are Romish your selves Is it not strange that those who have been so great opposers of the errors of Popery wrot so learnedly and fully against them who have applyed that in the 2 Epist of the Thessalonians concerning the man of sin and that of Babylon in 17. Revel to the Papacy as Bishop Downham Abbot Jewell and the late eminent Primate with divers others that now they should with their very calling and profession be styled Popish can we think otherwise but that the hand of Joab I mean the Jesuit is privily in it Is it not a wonder it should so come about that such as have been the greatest enemies to the See of Rome should be reckoned as members and friends of it and thus perpetually yoked together as twins nay trod under foot as unsavory salt upon that very account as being Episcopall Is this a just reward of their labour in the defence of your profession thus to be aspersed by you as Absolon to Hushay Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend Certainly those of the See of Rome cannot but smile within themselves that they have thus covertly deluded us and so closely taken a revenge of those their adversaries How true is that speech of our Saviour A Prophet is not without honour save in his own country other nations French and German magnifie the Clergy of the Church of England by what is transmitted over Sea in many of their works onely despised at home as the off-scouring of the world what a preparative this is to the expectation of the Papists an able learned ordained Ministery having been hitherto the stop to the introduction of ignorance and superstition which if removed might flow in the more easily which God in his mercy prevent And thus I have endeavoured to confirm the Primates judgement upon this place viz. that by laying on of hands is meant an ordained Ministery The Primates judgement of the Sense and Vse of the Form of words in the former Constitution at the Ordination of Priests or Presbyters defended and enlarged viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven and whose sins thou doest retain they are retained Which as an Appendix to the former subject could not well be omitted THey are the words of our Saviour John 20.22 to the Apostles and why they may not be continued to their Successors who are to succeed in that office of the Ministery to the end of the world doth not yet appear and 't is possible that the late offence taken against them to the disuse of them may arise from a misapprehension of the sense of them The Primates judgement of which I think fit to manifest who in all his Ordinations constantly observed them They consist of two clauses 1. Receive the Holy Ghost 2. Whose sins thou forgivest they are forgiven and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained 1. For the first Receive the Holy Ghost We do not here understand the sanctifying graces of the spirit For the Apostles had received them before in that they were bid by our Saviour to rejoyce that their names were written in heaven the evidence of which is heaven wrot in the heart here and had his witnesse that they had believed and had kept his word for whom he had also also prayed in that sense Sanctifie them through thy truth John 17. And if this had been the gift there had been no particular thing given to them for all that will be saved must in some measure partake of it Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his And though it be the testimony of a good Christian yet 't is not a sufficient warrant for him to take upon him the Ministery 2. Again it cannot be meant of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost viz. Gifts of tongues c. For in that sense the Holy Ghost was not yet given till fifty dayes after viz. the Feast of Pentecost but this was given upon the day of his Resurrection So that a third sense must be had which was the Primates as followeth 3. Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. receive Ministeriall power of officiating and dispensing those sacred Ministrations unto which the promise of the holy Spirit is annexed and through which as the Conduit-Pipes this holy water is conveyed not so much meant for their own benefit as the good of others In this he gave them power as the Stewards of God to be dispensers of holy and spiritual things to the benefit of such over whom the Holy Ghost had made them overseers which is
accordingly attributed to the Elders of Ephesus whom S. Paul had ordained Mr. Hookers glosse in his Eccles Polit. is accordingly Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. Accipite potestatem spiritualem receive ghostly or spiritual Authority in order to the soules of men now to be committed to your charge And if you mark the context their Commission is here from the blessed Trinity the Father and Sonne in the verse before As my Father hath sent me so send I you And in this verse a reception of Authority from the third person the Father sends Matth. 9.38 Chap. 10.20 the Sonne Ephes 4. here the Holy Ghost as Acts 20. And so more fully thus Receive the Holy Ghost i. e. receive Authority from the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the efficacious preaching of the Word and Administration of Sacraments by and through which the graces of the holy spirit in repentance faith forgivenesse of sins and the like are ordinarily wrought and confirmed to the hearers and partakers of them yet not excluding it from being a Prayer also viz. that the person thus authorized might receive such a spiritual assistance in it Receive first by way of donation in the name of Christ as to the office and secondly by way of impetration as to the efficacious spiritual assistance of him in it which the accustomed succeeding prayer did confirm which as it was in both senses frequently effectual by the mouth and hands of the Apostles so hath it been accordingly from age to age in and by the Ministery succeeding and therefore why may not the same form of words be used at their Ordination also Can we think this solemn reception of the Holy Ghost in that sense as hath been explained was onely for the benefit of that age and withdrawn totally again in the next That his being with them thus by his spiritual assistance to the end of the world was to determine with the death of the Apostles some of which as Saint James Acts 12. were not long after No surely this oyle poured upon their heads descended further then so even to the skirts of their garments in these dayes The third Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians hath much in confirmation of this In the third verse Saint Paul styles the Minister ordained by Christ his Amanuensis ye are the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God Christ the inditer the Minister is as the hand of a ready writer or the Spirit is as the ink the Minister as the pen through which 't is diffused upon the fleshly Tables of your hearts and by saying us he doth not appropriate it to himselfe but gives the like to Timothy ordained by him which he continues in the sixth verse God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit as he calls the Word the sword of the spirit Ephes 6. committed into the hands of the Ministery so the whole office is called the Ministration of the Spirit v. 8. the Ministration of righteousnesse v. 9. i. e. instrumentally be it that of Justification or Sanctification by which he saith it did exceed in glory that under the law The shining of Moses face the glory of the Temple and vestments of the Priests were glorious but yet had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excelleth for if that which is done away were glorious how much more that which remaineth is glorious Now wherein lieth this glory but in being by this Ministration the Conduits through which the Spirit is conveyed and received or being cap. 6.1 co-workers together with him of it even as the glory of the latter Temple by the presence of Christ himselfe is said to be greater then the former though it had types of him in a more outward glorious lustre 't is therefore called v. 18. the glass of the glory of the Lord by which we are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which as it rebukes the Contemners of the office of the Ministery so it answers that frequent objection made against the use of these words at the Ordination to it viz. That the Sanctifying graces of the spirit were sometimes lacking both in the Ordainers transmitting and ordained the recipients It is answered the Transmission or reception of the Holy Ghost here is not meant in that sense as to the resting of it in the persons themselves but as the conveyers of it for the use and benefit of others viz. through these Administrations which they are now by this authorized to performe And that it may be so ye see it in Judas who by our Saviours Commission to him through preaching and baptizing was the instrument accordingly of the transferring of it i. e. remission of sins c. unto others without partaking of it himself our Saviour calls him a Devill and a son of perdition but yet in this Office the Devils were subject to him and he the means of dispossessing of others like Noahs Carpenters who were instruments to save others but were drowned themselves 'T is probable Saint Paul or some of the Apostles ordained Hymenaeus and Phyletus Phygellus Hermogenes and Diotrephas but as in neither of them doth there appear any sanctified grace of the spirit so we do not read it caused any suspension of the vertue of their ministerial acts to the receivers or that the Apostles gave order for any reiteration of them personal faults not voyding Acts of Office and so why should the like be a prejudice to it in these succeeding Ages Receiving supposeth a gift but 't is as the giving of a summe to a Steward by his Lord not to his own private use but for the dispensing of it to the family And to say no more there are some learned Interpreters do apply that passage 1 John Chap. 2.20 to an ordained Ministery yee need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth (a) Eadem unctio non potuit luculentiore testimonio Pastores doctores ornare à quibus illi instituti fuerant quotidie adhuc instituebantur quam quum ipsos diceret ab ipso Spiritu Sancto doceri jam antea esse doctos Beza's words upon the place are these the same anointing he could not with a more cleare Testimony have adorned the Pastors and Teachers from whom they were instructed and daily as yet are then to say they were taught by the holy Ghost had bin formerly c. (b) Piscator in loc Vnctio docet id est ministerium verbi i. e. Spiritus Sanctus efficax per praedicationem Evangelii quare ministerium verbi in pretio habendum est Piscators words are these The anointing teacheth i. e. the Ministry of the word or the Holy Ghost efficacious by the preaching of the Gospel wherefore the Ministery ought to
43.3 is said to have destroyed the City by being said to pronounce destruction to it The Primate observes that we often meet with these speeches concerning the Leprosie which was a Type of the pollution of sin the Priest shall cleanse him the Priest shall pollute him Lev. 13. according to the Hebrew and the Greek version and out of (a) Contaminatione contaminabit eum haud dubium quin Sacerdos non quo contaminationis Author sit sed quo ostendat eum contaminatum Hieron lib. 7. Esa cap. 23. Saint Jerom that 't is said verse 44. the Priest with pollution shall pollute him not that he is the Authour of his pollution but that he declares him to be polluted and uncleane whereupon the Master of the sentences and others do observe (b) In remittendis vel retinendis peccatis id Juris Officii habent Evangelici sacerdotes quod olim habebant sub lege legales in curandis leprosis Hi ergo peccata dimittunt vel retinent dum dimissa adeo vel retenta indicant ostendant Ponunt enim sacerdotes nomen Domini super filios Israel sed ipse benedixit sicut legitur in Num. Petr. Lomb. l. 4. sent dist 14. that in remitting and retaining of sins the Priests of the Gospel have the like power and office which the Priests of old had under the Law in curing the Lepers who therefore accordingly may be said to forgive and retaine sins whilst they shew and declare they are forgiven or retained of God (a) Num. 6. So the Priests put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel and were commanded to blesse the people in saying The Lord blesse thee but it was the Lord himself that blessed them according to the next words and I will blesse them And thus in these four things I leave it to be calmly considered of if the Ministers have not power left them by Christ in relation to forgivenesse of sins and with these limitations whether that part of the old form of the words of Ordination might not be continued also which seems to me to be explained in the next following them viz. And be thou a faithfull dispenser of the word and Sacraments c. through both which the graces of the Holy Ghost and remission of sins are conveyed and sealed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost According as in the words at the Communion used to the recipient the former clause was added in Q. Elizabeths dayes to give the more full sense of the latter And let not any by this Moderate expression extenuate the office of the Ministery as Bellarmine would by this inferre that any Lay-man Woman or Child may absolve as well as the Minister as we have among our selves too many of that judgement For it consisteth not in speech but in power or Authority he being as the officer of a King Authorized to make Proclamation of his pleasure Every man may speak one to another to the use of edifying but to them is given 1 Cor. 10.16 power to edification God hath made them able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit That from them it comes 1 Thess 1.5 not only in word but in power also and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance which accordingly hath been experimentally found that howsoever another may from the Scripture shew as truly unto the penitent what glad tidings are there intended to him yet to drooping and doubting soules it hath not been so efficacious in quieting them and giving satisfaction to their consciences either in sicknesse death-bed or otherwise as by the Ministery ordained and commissionated for that end That as 't is their office to pray and exhort you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God so having listened to that Motion and submitted your selves accordingly 't is their office to declare and assure unto you in Christs stead that God is reconciled with you All which appeares to be the ancient doctrine of the Church of England by what is publickly declared in the exhortation before the Communion to be read sometimes at the discretion of the Minister which is the recitd and approved by the Primate as followeth And because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet conscience therefore if there be any of you which by meanes aforesaid i. e. Private examination and confession of sinnes to God cannot quiet his own conscience but requireth further Councell and Comfort then let him come to me or some other discreet and learned Minister of Gods word and open his grief that he may receive such Ghostly Councel Advice and Comfort as his Conscience may be relieved and that by the Ministery of Gods word he may receive comfort and the benefit of absolution to the quieting of his conscience and avoyding of all scruple and doubtfulnesse And now let the Reader judge if Dr. Heylene hath not cause to repent of his rash censure of the Primate in his late book p. 108. as if in this part of his Answer to the Jesuite he had as he saith in this particular utterly subverted as well the doctrine of this Church as her purpose in it c. when those two arguments which himself urgeth from the words of Ordination and the exhortation at the communion are produced and defended by the Primate also What would he have he saith the doctrine of the Church of England is that The Priest doth forgive sins authoritativè by a delegated and commissionated power committed to him from our Lord and Saviour doth not the Primate say the same that 't is not only declarativè but designativè not only by way of information out of the word of God as another understanding Christian may do to the penitent that his sins are pardoned but he doth it authoritative as having a power and commission from God to pronounce it to the party and by the seale of the Sacrament to assure the soule of the penitent that he is pardoned of God which no other man or Angel can do ex officio but the Minister of Christ according to that of the Apostle To us is committed the word of reconciliation this is the summe of the Primates judgement He that would have more must step over into the Church of Rome for it I shall only make a trial whether Doctor Heylene will so conclude against Mr. Hooker as he hath against the Primate who in his sixth book of Ecclesiasticall Policy consents fully with him where after his declaring that for any thing he could ever observe those Formalities which the Church of Rome do so esteem of were not of such estimation nor thought to be of absolute necessity with the Ancient Fathers and that the form with them was with invocation or praying for the penitent that God would be reconciled unto him for which he produceth Leo Ambrose (a) Sacerdos
imponit manum subjecto reditum Spiritus sancti invocat indicta in populum oratione altari reconciliat c. advers Lucifer Jerome c. p. 96. He thus declares his judgement viz. As for the Ministerial sentence of private absolution it can be no more then a declaration what God hath done it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan 's absolution God hath taken away thy sins then which construction especially of words judiciall there is nothing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God the Jewes in Malachy to have blessed the proud man which sin and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy but to blesse to justifie and to absolve are as commonly used for words of judgement or declaration as of true and reall efficacy yea even by the opinion of the Master of sentences c. Priests are authorized to loose and bind that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed c. Saint Jerome also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth directly affirmeth That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies so the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit sinnes do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free Tom. 6. Comment in 16. Mat. So saith Mr. Hooker when conversion by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served onely to declare men innocent p. 108. When any of ours ascribeth the work of remission to God and interprets the Priests sentence to be but a solemn declaration of that which God himselfe hath already performed they i. e. the Church of Rome scorne it And so after much to this purpose he thus concludes p. 113. Let it suffice to have shewen how God alone doth truly give and private Ministerial absolution but declare remission of sinnes And thus I leave Mr. Hooker under Doctor Heylen's Censure who hath already concluded that forgivenesse of sins by the Priest onely declarativè doth not come up to the doctrine of the Church of England Though the reason he gives because it holds the Priest doth forgive sins authoritativè I do not see the force of The former supposing the latter for the Officer whose place it is solemnly to make Proclamation of the Kings pardon doth it authoritativè nay dares not do it unlesse he were authorized accordingly And so much for the Primates judgement of those words of Ordination Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou forgivest are forgiven whose sins thou retainest are retained The PRIMATES judgment of the Vse of a set Form of Prayer heretofore declared and now more fully enlarged and confirmed with the concurrence of the Votes of such eminent persons who are so esteemed by the contrary-minded THis Subject hath been so sufficiently discussed and determined by others that no new thing can be expected from me onely you have here the Judgement and Approbation of this eminent Primate which being of so great esteem with all good men 't is possible now upon near an even scale of mens opinions in it his may be of that weight as to give satisfaction First that the Vse of a set Form of Prayer is not a setting up of any new doctrine as the Athenians judged of Saint Paul appeares in that 't is the practise of the Belgick Churches for which ye have the determination of the Divines of Leyden Polyander Rivetus Walaeus Thysius in their (a) Disput 36. de cultu invocat Sect. 33. non tantum licitas sed valde utiler esse contendimus c. in magnis conventibus atientio auditorum per usitatas formulas non parum juvatur Synopsis Theologiae And the resolution of Mr. Aimes our countryman who lived and died a Professor of Divinity among them in his cases of conscience who saith 't is (b) Licitum hoc esse manifestum est ex approbata sanctorum praxi quam in praescriptis Psalmis benedicendi formulis scriptura nobis commendat Vtile etiam necessarium est quibusdam istiusmodi formam sequi quamvis ex libelloisit denotanda l. 4. cap. 17. de oratione mentali vocali lawfull from the approved practice of the Saints in the Psalmes and other Formes of blessing in the Scripture nay profitable and necessary for some though it be read out of a book Then for the judgement and practice accordingly of the Reformed Church of France Ludovicus Capellus gives us a sufficient account of who is Professor of Divinity in the University of Somer in one of his Theses lately published de Liturgiae formulis conceptis or a set form of a Liturgie where after hee hath answered all the pretended arguments against it which it seemes he had gleaned up out of some of our English Writers of late he concludes (a) Vbi sunt eâ—uditi Pastores S. Liturgiae publica formula est apprimè utilis necessaria ad communem Ecclesiae aedificationem c. earum usus jure damnari â—on potest nec debet cum semper ubique in universa Ecclesia Christiana toto terrarum orbe jam à plusquam 1300 annis perpetuo obtinuerit etiamque hodie ubique obtineat nisi apud novâ—tios c. Donec tandem nuperimè exorti sunt in Anglia c. de Liturg. concept form paâ—s 3. that 't is very necessary both for the most learned Pastors and congregations as unlearned and the edification of both being used throughout the Christian world in all ages at least for these 1300 years and is still at this day in all places excepting only as he saith some of late with us in England whose censure of them is so severe that it would be offensive in me to repeat it And surely the general custome and practice of the reformed Churches which Saint Paul urgeth 1 Cor. 11.16 cap. 14.33 cannot be contemned by any sober Christian unto which may be added the judgement of diverse pious and eminent men of onr own nation and so esteemed by such as have asserted the contrary whose judgements being too large to be inserted here I shall deferre them till the last who do very fully concurre with the Primate in it Calvin was a wise and learned man now as Beza tells us it was his constant practice to use a set form of Praier before Sermon without alteration So was it his advice in his Epistle to the Protector of England in Edward the sixth's time which hath bin mentioned elsewhere for the establishing of a set form of a Liturgy here from which it might not be lawfull for pastors to depart both for the good of the more ignorant preventing of an affected novelty in others and the declaring of an unanimous consent in all the Churches For which practice and advice he had sufficient warrant from the President of the Ancient
God though they live very dangerously under the captivity of Babylon as did Daniel Mordecay Hester Nehemiah and Ezra and many Jewes more notwithstanding both Cyrus Commission and the Prophets Command to depart This point may give some light in a Question that is on foot among learned and good men at this day Whether the Church of Rome be a true Church or no where I thinke surely if the matter be rightly declared for the tearms there will remain no question As thus whether Babylon pretending to be the Church of Rome yea the Catholick Church be so or not or this Whether the people of Christ that are under the captivity be a true Church or no either of both waies declare in these tearms and the matter will be soon resolved Object Except some man will perhaps still Object Though there be a people of God yet they can be no true Church for they have no Priesthood which is necessary to the Constitution of a Church As Saint Cyprian describes it Plebs sacerdoti adunata Epistola 6 9. people joyned to their priest They have no Priesthood being by the very form of their Ordidination Sacrificers for the quick and the dead Answ I answer under correction of better judgements they have the Ministery of Reconciliation by the Commission which is given at their Ordination being the same which our Saviour left in his Church John 20.23 Whose sins ye remit they are remitted whose sinnes ye retain they are retained As for the other power to sacrifice if it be any otherwise then celebrating the Commemoration of Christs sacrifice once offered upon the Cross It is no part of the Priesthood or Ministery of the New Testament But as superfluous additions thereunto which yet worketh not to the destruction of that which is lawfully conferred otherwise This Doctrine I know not how it can offend any unless it be in being too Charitable that I am sure is a good fault and serves well for a sure mark of Christs sheep And hath very good opportunity to help Christs people out of Babel John 13.35 by this saith he shall men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have Charitie one to another But they call us Hereticks miscreants Doggs c. and persecute us with more deadly hatred then Jewes and Turks yea this is Babylon and perhaps some of Gods People in it that are misinformed of us Thus did Saul for a while yet a chosen vessel to bear Christs Name over the world But let us maintain our Charitie to them as we are wont to bear with the weakness of our friends or children when in hot Fevers or Plurisies they miscal us Let us remember if they be Christs people how little loving soever they be to us they must be our beloved Brethren and this of the Persons Now let us see their dutie It is the Duetie of those people of Christ to come out of Babylon that is as we have already shewed the Obedience of the present Roman Monarchy And for this the very authority of Christs Voyce from Heaven should suffice For his sheep hear his voice But if that be yet doubted whether the Papal Monarchy be Babylon let us for the present set aside the mystical Arguments from this place and all other Prophetical Circumstances And let the matter be tried by plainer Arguments at the Bar of Reason out of the common Principles of Christian Doctrine as thus John 5.39 Luke 11.52 1 Cor. 14. Matthew 28.20 Jer. 17.5 Rom. 6.9 Where the use of Christs Word is forbidden to his people where they lay away the Key of Knowledge and Gods Worship is without understanding in an unknown tongue where Christs Sacraments are corrupted and maimed where Divine worship is communicated to Creatures where Christs Glorious Body is defended to be torn not onely with the teeth of the faithful but also of faithlesse men yea of Rats and Mice where besides a number of other superstitions the effects of Christs blood are communicated to Purgatory fire to Saint Francis frock and the Carmilites scapular where the sole infallible interpretation of Scripture decission of Crntroversies last resolution of our Faith is placed in the brest of one man who may be without true Faith and sound Knowledge of Religion or morall honesty it self where the Doctrine is maintained as Catholike that the Pope is Vice God Monarch of the Christian World Almightie that he can Depose Princes and Expose them to their subjects to be killed Command the Angels with many more like blasphemies From this place and society Christs people are to depart and separate themselves But the present Romane Monarchy is such The conclusion follows undenyable Goe out of her my People Object Here will I crave leave to answer on Objection that may be made by flesh and blood to be retentive to keep Gods people from hearkning to this voyce of Christ and is used for a motive to draw more also to the Obedience of Rome Gods people of which number I hope I am one may be saved nay which is more cannot perish why should I then be so solicitous if salvation may be had there on the contrary they deny that you have either Church or salvation Therefore it is the safest course by the Opinion of both sides to continue there still Answ I answer This is not the discourse of Christs sheep who make the hearing of his Voice and doing of his Will a higher end then their own salvation but well may become the mouth of those deceivers that would seduce them It is the very language of the old Serpent ye shall not surely die The reason and rule of Obedience is not the avoyding of hell fire or the attaining of bliss of Heaven but the doing of the Will of God And yet supposing this to be true that salvation mae be had in Babylon yet it is attained with great difficulty and as it were through the fire As the Apostle speaketh of those builders which foolishly lay upon the precious foundation of Christ the hay straw and stubble of mens Traditions And there is again a large entrance to be afforded into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 2. 2 Peter 1.11 If the graces of Gods Spirit abound in us and make us not barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ Again ignorance so that it be not wilful and affected may have some pardon but to hold the Truth of God in unrighteousness as all do that receive not the love of the Truth and knowing how they which commit such things are worthy of death yet doe the same and favour those that doe them The wrath of God from heaven is revealed against such Romans 1.18.31 Even the danger of temporal punishment threatned to the sinnes of Rome is not to be neglected Suppose a man were sure to goe to Heaven but although to humane infirmity it may perhaps seem otherwise even the Eternal punishments