no Church The step to Christian and Catholick Belief is the well-grounded Credibility excluding all prudent doubts of the Clergy we have the same of the Church and of the Faith and Doctrine proposed by its testimony and the true Faith admits of no such doubts Therefore Protestants before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be in the Catholick Church must clear all the doubts objected against their Ordination For though any Person shall not be convinced of the Nullity of their Ordination yet he cannot but harbour a prudent doubt thereof there being so many Reasons and Motives for it Now to Receive Sacraments from Priests of so doubtful Authority is without doubt a damnable Sacriledg it being in the highest degree against the light of Right Reason and Rule of Faith to expose the Reverence of the Sacraments and Remedy of our Souls to so manifest an hazard SECT V. J. S. THis Conclusion is of the same temper with the Premises these were a confused heap of Incredibles Improbables and Impossibles this is a wild distempered Sorites carried on with an affected Obscurity to distract and amuse the Reader by multiplying confounding and changing the Terms hudling up many Conclusions in this one If St. Hierome by Church meant the Vniversal Church this always has now hath and ever will have Bishops as Sacerdotes signifies with him but if he spoke of a particular Church then his is not is not to be taken absolutely but respectively not simply to deny it's being and existence but it 's integrity and complement viz. there is no through complete Church which hath not Bishops For we read in the Ancients of some Churches that had received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulness of Dispensations and of others which had not attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the complement of Necessaries though in St. Hierom's time all Churches were complete that he might truly affirm there was no Church without a Bishop But it may fall out also that all the Bishops of a well-formed complete Church may dye or by Persecution be so Scattered that they dare not appear or by an Infidel Conquerour be Banished or Murthered but if the remaining Christians in this distressed condition keep their first Faith they are in a salvable state and continue true members of the Vniversal Church as those Roman Converts were who believed upon St. Peter's first Sermon Act. 2. which was long before St. Peter came to Rome Rom. 16.7 2. He suggests It is impossible they should c. For once he guesseth right It is impossible any Church of one denomination can be the true Catholick Apostolick Church that is in the usual sense of the Romanists the Vniversal as it is impossible for a Part to be the Whole or their Catholick Church which is not the fourth part thereof to be Vniversal as they by their common restriction assume but it is possible a particular Church may be a true Catholick and Apostolick Church and the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of such a Nation For the Title Catholick is either taken properly for the Vniversal Church which is the Congregation of all Believers dispersed over all the World in opposition to the Herds of Jews Pagans and Infidels and then it is a contradiction to apply or appropriate it to any particular Church as the Romanists industriously do to huckster off their false Wares which otherwise would stick on their hands or else it is used in the more common signification of an Orthodox Church which participates in the true Faith with the Vniversal Church in a contradistinction to the Conventicles of all Heretical Blasphemers In this Notion the Protestant Church of England is not only a Catholick and Apostolick Church but in due Form of construction the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of England as several particular Churches viz. Rome Carthage c. have been honoured with the Title of the Catholick Church of those respective Nations (k) For as the Roman Church was called the Catholick Church of Rome Leo Ep. 12. So that of Antioch the Catholick Church of Antioch Conc. Constant 5. Act. 1. That of Carthage the Catholick Church of Carthage Aurel. Epist Eccl. Cathol Carthag So Polycarp was the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Smyrna Euseb lib. 4. hist c. 14. And that famous Epistle to the Smyrnians was directed to all the Holy and Catholick Churches id ib. in Princ. Greg. Naz. the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Constantinople in his last Will and Testament witnessed by four Bishops of their several Catholick Churches as of Iconium c. Provinces and Dioceses 3. His doubts and uncertainties have a rare virtue perhaps they may work strongly on weak minds they can demonstrate This is the noble demonstrating faculty of Romish Traditors they can raise doubts and uncertainties where there are none and by their Magick demonstrate first that the Protestant Church is not the Vniversal and then it is no Church first absurdly without Proof suppose the Nullity of its Ordinations and thence conclude the Nullity of its Christianity The best is this is but one Doctors opinion if more there be yet all his Colleagues are not so Magisterial in their nullifying Sentence The Bishop of Chalcedon is more solid and Prudent Persons (l) As Bishop Bramhal cites Reply to the Survey p. 33. saith he living in the communion of the Protestant Church if they endeavour to learn the truth which if they do not they are neither good Protestants nor good Christians and are not able to attain unto it but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds and are ready to receive it when God shall be pleased to reveal it they neither want Faith nor Church nor Salvation which elsewhere he confirms by this reason A Church may be Heretical and Schismatical really yet morally a true Church because She is (m) Bishop of Chalced. Survey c. 2. Sect. 4. invincibly ignorant of her Heresy and Schism Pope Innocent was so much offended at the irregularities of the Spanish Ordinations in his time that at first he inclined to null them but upon better thoughts be forbore declaring that for the number of those who were faulty therein he would not question nor doubt of any of them any ways passed but rather leave them to Gods Judgment Epist ad Conc. Tolk Car. sum Conc. p. 270. 4. But saith he a solid doubt c. This is not Universally true for a Church which hath a doubtful Clergy by irregularities of Ordination if She contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and cannot avoid those irregularities through not a pretended or contracted but a real necessity is a true part such an irregularity not absolutely and totally Un-Churching her of the true Catholick Church True but not Complete not Complete because it wants that which is required to the Integrity and Perfection of a Church yet True because it hath all things essential to
tied us to this nice scrupulous disquisition or commanded us to be Annalists and Historians though Christ hath promised there shall be a perpetual visible Church which yet in your sense of visibility you will never be able to prove yet did he never assure us there should be Histories and Records of Professors in all Ages neither did he ever command us to search and read them he hath commanded both you and us to search and read the Scriptures that we may be able to bring them in evidence You might if your leisure or somewhat else had permitted have remembred what hath been returned to this demand long before you proposed it It is your usual rant it is unanswerable you may know the contrary if not I shall inform you after I have premised some Considerations to clear the procedure 1. What do you mean by Protestant if you intend to hook in all who challenge that Appellative the return is short all that call themselves Catholicks and Saints are not such 2. What by Faith if every Doctrine which hath been maintained by some Protestants as a probable Opinion or as a pious profitable Truth then you trifle and sophisticate but if by Faith you understand the object of Faith or things necessary to be believed by all that they may be saved as it is usually taken in Scriptures Fathers and Councels then the Protestants assert their Faith is the Faith of all good Christians who lived before them who all professed to believe as they believe which they thus evidence 3. Protestants earnestly contend for the Faith which was once or at once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Which you by the addition of your new super-numerary Essentials had corrupted and changed as Anthony of Valtelina a Dominican Friar affirmed in the Council of Trent and was seconded by the Bishops of five Churches therein Hist of Council of Trent ad An. 1562. Fol. 548 549. Their Reformation was not to compose a new but to retrieve the old Faith which you had so confounded and changed not to form a new Church but to free the old Church from your new Essentials The corruptible and incorruptible body are one in substance differing only in perfections and purities their Faith is the same in substance with the Faith of the whole Christian World differing from some part thereof in quality and goodness The end of the Reformation was to separate the pretious from the vile the chaff from the wheat to refine the Gold mixed with dross to dress the Garden overgrown with weeds to cure the body which was diseased to regain and recover that Faith which the Christian World had reputed and received for true and saving Faith even the same that hath the attestation of the universal Church in all Ages which is dispersed in the Scriptures but contracted and summed up in the Apostles Creed which was designed by them witness your own authorized Catechism to preserve Believers in the unity of Faith to be a badg and cognizance to distinguish Believers from Vnbelievers and Misbelievers This and nothing but this hath been professed always every-where by all persons ubique semper ab omnibus in Vinc. Lyr. Golden Rule of Catholicism This is evinced by Practice the Profession of this Faith and of this only was and is required of every person either by himself or Sureties before he be admitted into the Church by holy Baptism That Question and Answer doest thou believe I do believe had alwaies respect to this and no other into this and this alone both you and we are Baptized by this and this alone you and we are made Christians by this with the advantage of an holy Life according to the Precepts of Christ the Christians of all Ages have gone to Heaven for 1400 years without the knowledg or belief of your 12 new coined Articles For this they have the sentence and determination of the Ephesine Council which your Popes have been solemnly sworn to observe the judgment of the Ancient Fathers the concurrent suffrage of many of your Learned Divines and Schoolmen and which will weigh most with you the Remonstrance of your Trusty and Well-beloved Tridentine Assemblers who once in their good mood thought fit thus to express themselves The Apostles Creed is the shield of Faith by c. the firm and only Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail This Protestants profess with the whole Christian World in its several Successions and Centuries this they believe too as it is sensed by the four first General Councels and the traditious interpretation of the universal Church And for us of the Church of England as we admit no new Creed so we reject all new senses of the Old which thus sensed they own for the true Catholick Apostolick Faith Indeed other Articles we have but they are Articles of Peace not of Faith not all of them to be respected as Essentials of saving Faith but as pious Truths which none of the Pastors of the Church are to contradict or oppose 4. To retort your Question the Protestants offer these Proposals to you to nominate successive Professors since the Apostles of the whole Faith of the present Roman Church or a succession of Professors who since the Apostles have received these 12 new distinct Articles which Pius the 4th added at the foot of the 12 old ones as Essentials of Faith absolutely necessary to be believed by all necessitate medii without which they could not be saved We are sure they were never reputed for such for 1400 years Prove those your late forged Articles at Trent to have any relation to or analogy with those of the Apostles that they are evidently concluded from them or virtually contained in them as conclusions in their premises Lastly that the Apostles did deliver or teach by Word or Writing your new-found Faith or passage to Heaven Till these be satisfactorily performed by you we desire you to be wise unto sobriety and to consider whence you are fallen Answer to the second Question 1. WHat mean you by Mission if Ordination to the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests c. then such a Mission our Bishops and Priests have if you have any 2. What by Lawful what you fancy or the Pope resolves to be so you know we neither value your conceits nor the Pope's by-Laws the English have received and rejected them at their pleasure take and leave as they like with us those things pass for lawful which are so by the Law of Christ which gives them validity or by the Laws and Constitutions of the Church which makes them Canonical or by the Laws of the Kingdom whereby they become Legal accordingly as we averr 1. The English Clergy hath a lawful that is a valid Ordination by the Institution of Christ for the English Church in conferring Holy Orders observeth all the Essentials of Ordination by Authority of Holy Scripture Matter and Form as some of your own fast Friends
others not till afterwards and upon several days 5. But N. N. is wronged is being reproved for falshood and misadventures he good man will say nothing but that for which he hath good authorities and good proofs which whether they be regular and valid is next to be examined SECT II. N. N. THis Narration of the Consecration at the Nags-head I have taken out of Hollywood Constable and Dr. Champney's Works They heard it from many of the ancient Clergy who were Prisoners in Wisbitch-Castle as Mr. Bluel Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln and others these had it from Mr. Neal and other Catholicks who were present at Mr. Parker's Consecration at the Nags-head as Mr. Constable affirms The story was divulged yet being so evident a truth none durst contradict it notwithstanding both the Nullity and Illegality was objected against them in Print not long after by the Famous Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast fol. 301. SECT II. J. S. ALL this here presented amounts to thus much 1. Mr. Neal and Mr. Constable reported the story therefore it is true Neal was an eye-witness and Constable took it upon trust and all the rest hear-say men So that the whole depends upon their credit and honesty who have crack'd their credit by their holy Fraud and lying Legends and practising the black Art of Equivocation and their honesty is justly suspected who care not what they say so they say something for the advantage of the good old Cause as will hereafter be declared 2. Dr. Bishop a fast Friend to the Cause in his Repr of Dr. Abbot's Defence p. 120 confutes this way of Argumentation saying Any man not past all care of his Reputation would be ashamed to cite such late partial Writers it is either where their testimony is not contradicted by their Adversaries when they set themselves industriously to detect falsifications in their Allegations or else those Protestants do annex the Authorities and Reasons on which their testimonies are grounded Testimonies of private men or hear-say men when crossed by Authentick Records are always slighted and contemned If the Homagers of a Manor swear to a custom which is more than speaking to it yet if there be any Court-Roll extant and produced which declares the contrary to their Depositions their testimony is thereby utterly invalidated Baronius in the point of Maxentius his Birth presumed to correct all former Historians by the discovery of an ancient Coin certainly an ancient Record is better than an ancient Coin can be for standing Records have always by all Nations and the consent of Mankind been esteemed the strongest human testimonies and the best assurances of Faith which ought not to be disbelieved or disputed upon the reports of particular men because they have been purposely devised and preserved for the discovery of Truth and the decision of Controversies which might arise in after-Ages and the rectifying of particular mens several apprehensions Such as these we produce in this case which have convinced and fully satisfied more ingenuous Adversaries than N. N. or his Narrators seem to be When Dr. Reynolds shewed these Records to Mr. Hart he confessed they were undeniable The Bishop of Chalcedon acknowledged that Father Oldcorn alias Hall took the leisure and pains to search the Records who thereupon concluded them authentick Arch-Bishop Whitgift with four other Bishops prevailed with four Popish Priests to view these Records which when they had done they declared to them freely that they were not to be doubted of 3. It hath been the common practice of such as these Narrators were as shall after more fully appear to divulge stories by an holy fraud either to stagger weak minds or to settle the over-credulous Bigots of their party in a detestation of Arch-Bishop Whitgifts life whom the Romanists may believe if they please if they will not take his word let them choose and shew the contrary hath given us a pregnant testimony hereof for he informs us that that Arch-Bishop going to Dover at his entrance into the Town an Intelligencer from Rome landed who wondred to see an Arch-Bishop in England and so honourably attended but seeing him the Sunday following waited on with a nobler Train and hearing the solemn Service of the Church he was overtaken with admiration and told an English Gentleman Sir Edw. Hobby who accompanied him that they were led in great blindness at Rome by our own Nation who made the people there believe that there was not in England either Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Cathedral Church or any Church-Government but c. 4. These his Narrators could never agree in the most material circumstances of the story they cannot speak either to the number of the Consecrators or Consecrated nor to the determinate place and time 5. The Story was contradicted assoon as it was divulged as hereafter will be more fully declared 6. Dr. Stapleton's Objection did not run on the Nag's-Head Score he never so much as mentioned it and therefore may reasonably be presumed either not to have heard any thing of it or not to believe it the former is more probable for it was not divulged in his time 7. If the matter had been performed clandestinely or intended so to have been Mr. Neal and the other Catholicks could not have been admitted neither should its clandestine performance have rendered the Act invalid When John the twelfth ordained a Deacon in a Stable I demand whether in N. N's private judgement the Ordination were invalid SECT III N.N. THey being not able to make good the Ordination against Catholicks were forced to beg an Act of Parliament whereby they might enjoy their Temporalities notwithstanding the defect of their Ordination against the Canons of the Church and Law of the Land For albeit King Edwards Rite of Ordination was established by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. yet it was notorious that the Ordination of the Nags-Head was very different from it and framed ex tempore by Scories Puritanical Spirit The Words of the Act are Such from and order for Consecrating Archbishops Bishops c. as was set forth in Edward the sixth's time shall stand and be in full force and effect and all Acts or Things heretofore done or made by any person or persons elected to the Office and Dignity of Archbishop c. by virtue of the Queens Letters Patents or by Commission sithence the beginning of her Reign be and shall be by Authority of this Parliament declared and judged good and perfect in all respects and purposes c. See Poulton in his Kalendar p. 141. n. 5. by which Act it appears that not only King Edwards Rite but any other used since the first of the Queens Reign upon her Commission was enacted good and so consequently the Nags-Head might pass Hence it was they were called Parliament Bishops SECT III. J. S. THE chief Argument which N.N. framed in this Section runs thus 1. Their Ordinations were defective as not ordered according to the Canons of the Church and Laws of
the Land therefore they were invalid which is a gross Non sequitur for the validity of an Ordination is distinct from the Canonicalness and Legality thereof But the Antecedent is false for Archbishop Parker's Consecration was according to the Canons of the Church-Catholick but not of the Roman which obviates one of Dr. Stapleton's pretended illegalities and according to King Edwards Rite as hath been proved which was then established by Law as N. N. here confesseth which is another Counterblast to Dr. Stapleton who thought otherwise and was the ground of Bishop Bonners Plea 2. The Preamble of the Act which N. N. misrepresents shews the purpose of it viz. The Parliament finding by the reproaches of some and the suspition of others that many were not satisfied with the form then used therefore that form was then used and upon that usage the Parliament concluded their Ordination Legal conceiving and objecting it was not sufficiently provided for by the Statute of Repeal 1 Eliz. though N. N. and the Author of the Anker with his Superiours think it was to remove these surmises and slanders they did declare for the then and after Consecrations made according to the Queens Letters Patents as they all were that they were notwithstanding these surmises and slanders good in Law and if any such were these also which were made by Commission as none were provided they were performed by King Edward's Rite as they were directed and so consequently the Act confirms no Consecrations nor entitles to Temporalities where the Rite was not observed The subsequent clause of the Act which N. N. cunningly conceals clears this which restrains all former and subsequent Consecrations to the form and Order prescribed in the Ritual of Edward the sixth and so consequently if there had been any such Consecration as is suggested even by this Act they were not Bishops in Law and were debarred of the Temporalities because by no Law they could claim them and by this Law disenabled to enjoy them 3. N. N. falls here very flat and dull in his vapouring humour he was Positive and Magisterial thus it was performed but here he is so modest it might be or it might pass will serve his turn and so absurdly argues thus it might pass therefore thus it did pass endeavouring to prove a certain thus it was by an uncertain thus it might be 4. He adds Hence it was c. This Calumny hath been oft confuted before he vented it for our Bishops depend not on Authority of Parliament for the validity of their Ordination and was long before sharply retorted by Bishop Jewel in these words You had then viz. in Queen Maries Reign a Parliament Faith a Parliament Mass a Parliament Pope c. fol. 521. SECT IV. N. N. THE Story of the Nags-Head was first contradicted by Mr. Mason in the year 1613 yet so weakly and faintly that he feared to be caught in a lye by some aged persons that might be then living and remembred what past in Queen Elizabeth her time SECT IV. J. S. THis that is related by N. N. here is another Falsity For the Story was contradicted by the Act of Parliament and Archbishop Parker's Life and by Bishop Goodwin who wrote his Book 1600 as he averreth p. 534 the rest is idle talk however he contradicted as it was openly divulged SECT V. N. N. IN Ann. 1603 none of the Protestants durst call it a Fable or a Tale of a Tub as some now do SECT V. J.S. THis also is false for he cannot but know if he know any thing concerning this report who called it so and since hath proved it a Fable That which was used as a pretext to Huckster it was this At Archbishop Parkers Confirmation where he was not personally a Dinner as the Lord Chancellor Egerton related to Bishop Williams was provided at the Nags-Head for the Civilians who attended that work according to Custom this place was pitched on as most convenient for its nearness to Bow-Church where he was Confirmed and a Dinner at a Tavern Dr. Reeves utterly resused for that he had heard the Dining at a Tavern gave all the colour to that malicious lye of Dr. Parkers being Consecrated at the Naggs-Head and for ought he knew captious and malicious people would be ready to say the like upon the same occasion SECT VI. N. N. BIshop Bancroft being demanded by William Alabaster how Dr. Parker and his Colleagues were Consecrated he answered he hoped in case of necessity a Priest alluding to Scory might ordain Bishops This Answer was objected in Print against him and all the Protestant Clergy by Hollinwood Bancroft being alive then but not a word replied SECT VI. J. S. 1. WHether this Relation have any truth in it may be justly doubted many of the Popish Priests of those times and both before and after trading in Lies some to gain Proselites others to keep up their Credit and the People in heart others to defame their Adversaries The Secular Priests of that time complained of the spight of the Jesuites (h) And that often passim in Import Consid Joh. Gee Foot out of the Snare against the State The pretended Brethren of the Society say they do in their Writings calumniate the Actions thereof be they never so judiciously proceeded in never so apparently proved true and known to be most certain to raise and nourish and manner of Reports to discredit their Adversaries c. And if they were so bold with the State they would not stick at the defaming of great Persons and eminent Offices of the Church The like might be said of them one of N. N's Narrators Dr. Watson may be an instance The Papists in their Pamphlets gave out that Dr. King Bishop of London was a little before his death Reconciled to the Church of Rome because Mr. Musket a Secular had averred in a Book entituled The Bishop of London 's Legacy This being proved a malicious Lye by the Testimony of eye-witnesses who were present at his departure being thus caught in it they resolved to forge another if possible to make it good adding sin to sin which was That Father Preston was the man who did Reconcile him whereupon he was summoned to appear before divers Honourable Commissioners appointed to take his Examination December 20. 1621 but the honestly declared protesting before God and as he hoped to be saved by Jesus Christ that he never saw that Bishop to his knowledg nor could know him from another man if he did see him and he knew nothing of any such Reconciliation 2. If such a demand was proposed probably he sleighted it as being a demand full of ignorance and impudence 3. His Answer if any such was was good and argumentative ad hominem not alluding to Scory whom he knew to be a lawfully Consecrated Bishop upon every account and in every respect but to the practice of the See of Rome which allows a single Priest both to Ordain and Confirm by
Antichristian c. therefore he full well knew the Story to be true and the English Ordinations naught whereas their words were direct proper Answers to the Romish Objections against them viz. They were not Ordained by Romish Bishops after the Romish Rite and import no more but this Bishops and Priests are lawfully Ordained who were not Ordained after the Roman Rite and by Romish Bishops which is an undeniable truth assented to by the Romanists themselves 3 To confirm this N. N. is admonished to hear this Judgment concerning Episcopacy and Ordination Bellarmine Objects against Protestants that they had taken away Bishops Dr. Whitaker Contr. 2 de Eccles q. 5. c. 3. makes so bold with Bellarmine as to give him the Lye saying We do not condemn the Order of Bishops as he falfely slanders us but only those false Bishops of the Church of Rome near the same place condemning the antient Constitution that three Bishops be present at the Ordination of a Bishop for a Godly Sanction Dr. Fulk in Tit. 1. fol. 781. speaks as fully Among the Clergy for Order and seemly Government there was always one Principal to whom the name of Bishop was c. which in his defence against Gregor Martin c. 6. Sect. 20. p. 182. he thus expresseth That the Title of the Bishop was a very old time used to signify a degree Ecclesiastical higher than Presbyter or Priest or Elder we did never deny we know it right well and then will any man of an indifferent judgment ever believe N. N. to be a lover or reporter of Truth when he hath broached so prodigious a Lye that most of the Clergy of England in those times were Puritans these two Prime Protestants were not who thus apologized for themselves and their Brethren the Clergy But because N. N. will have them Puritans let him know that English Protestants are as far from being Puritans as he himself aterwards confesseth as his Catholicks are and the rather because they beg their Principles of Rebellion and Sedition against the King and their Schism against Bishops from the rest of the Papists the Jesuites and whatsoever else they hold contrary to sound Doctrine either from Regulars of another Order or from some of their Schoolmen But because perhaps he will except against these two Prime Protestants for his further satisfaction let him 4. Hear the judgment of the two Prime Pontificians Cudsenius (w) De desperata Calvini causa c. 11. the Jesuite ingeniously confesseth The English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops which Confession totally destroys all N. N's Fabrick Monsieur (x) To the King of Great Britain p. 6. Charles the second Militiere is not much short of him saying The English Nation retaining the antient Order of Episcopacy which is utterly inconsistent with the contempt and rejection of Consecration as a Rag of Rome and there being contented with the extraordinary Calling of God and the Spirit as instituted by Divine Authority have thereby preserved the Face and Image of the Church Catholick SECT XIII N. N. AS to the Opinion of forgeing so many Records in several Courts it is easily answered that is no more than that the Consecrators and others concerned should have conspired to have given in a false Certificate that the Consecration was performed with due Ceremonies and Rites and thereby deceive the Courts or make them dissemble and this is a thing more possible and probable Protestants being so dexterous in falsifying of Scriptures as appears by Gregory Martin's Discovery of Corruptions than that all the Protestant Clergy should have conspired not to produce the Registers when they were so hardly pressed by their Adversaries or that so many Catholicks should be so foolish to invent and maintain the Story when if it had been false they might have been convinced by Thousands of Witnesses or that so many grave and learned Divines who for Conscience sake lost all should without fear of Damnation engage themselves and Posterities in damnable Sacriledg by occasioning so many sacrilegious Ordinations upon their charging Protestants with no Ordination No moderate or prudent man can suspect such Persons should damn their Souls out of meer spight to the Church of England If we Catholicks should reordain Protestant Ministers which after their Conversion have been made Priests upon the title of Heresy and not of their known Invalidity we should also reordain the Grecian Priests which is against our known Practice and Tenents insomuch as we hold our selves obliged to examine with all diligence whether there be any probability of the Persons receiving valid Orders and finding but my probable appearance thereof the Practice is and hath been for divers Ages to give Orders not absolutely but conditionally whereas it is notorious that all such Ministers receive their Orders in absolute terms without any condition adjoyned in the same manner we use in the Ordination of Lay-men SECT XIII J. S. part 1. THis is N. N's last and worst Medium for his Fable such as if it held would destroy all human Faith and the best assurance that can be had for the confirmation of the Truth in matters of Fact But 1. This hath been an Old desperate shift of disingenuous Papists who have forfeited all Christian Meekness and Modesty when they are hardly pressed by their Adversaries with a pinching Authority to cry Forgery Protestants assert Pope Honorius the first was an Heretick because they find him condemned of Heresy by the sixth General Council under the Emperour Constantius Pogonatus to which Authority many learned Romanists have given credit But the more rigid sort have taken N. N's easy Answer for a subterfuge Forgery was used for this Condemnation was maliciously inserted into the Acts of the Council by the order of the Emperour who having the Original in his hand by a Conspiracy with the Actuaries consented to their satisfaction Pighius is (y) Hier. l. 4. c. 8. Sed quoniam resolute it must be so for the Pope in despight of all evidences to the contrary must be Infallible for he would have it so A certain learned man wished (z) Pighius diatrib in Epist ad lectorem Pighius to recant and draw in his easy Answer but he falls (a) Id. ib. de act sextae Synodi a-fresh on the matter and scorning to retract what he formerly had said still puts in the same easy Answer whereupon (b) Bannes 22. qu. 1. art 10. Dub. 2. Bannes being troubled at the obstinacy of the man jeers him for his ready Invention that after Nine hundred years Pighius being but a man of yesterday could find all those Witnesses which were produced against him to have been Conspirators in a Forgery and (c) Loc. l. 6. c. 8. ad 11. Canus puts this Question to him How can Pighius clear him whom Usellus Epiphanius and Pope Adrian c. affirm to have been an Heretick At this Baronius (d)
a Church For this reason the most eminent Protestants who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right because their want was not through their own default but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in which charitable construction should seem very reasonable to the Romanists for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy by investing Priests with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Delegations and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority Those Churches therefore under this want are True though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church Just as Canus (n) Loc. l. 4. c. ult ad 10. determines of the Romish Church in a vacancy It is then left Lame saith he and diminished without Christs Vicar that one Pastor of the Church the Pope yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as certainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops as in their Church wanting a Pope at least they should think so because in their account the Pope is as necessary if not more to the being of a Church than Bishops are To clear this more distinctly some things are required to the Essence (o) This is Stapleton's distinction of a Church as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice thereof some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination both these are necessary though not equally and in the same Degree the former absolutely and indispensably the latter de congruo possibili viz. it concerns the Church if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors and every wilful Omission much more Rejection of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical yet those Pastors who highly esteem Episcopal Ordination and much affect it but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power who will not Ordain them without sinful compliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evidently contrary to the Law of Christ if they hold and divide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors though not in a real Mission yet by a moral designation as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office because in this case the Necessity is invincible which makes that allowable which otherwise would be unlawful as Dr. Cracken contr Spalet c. 4. observes from the Gloss and illustrateth from Scipio's Example who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury because it was against Law presently replied Necessity hath no Law The Romanists confess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want thereof and they have it in effect who have it in desire in all reason the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous than the want of a Sacramental can be especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars yet in case of Necessity when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb 20.26 that Eleazar was mâ—de High-Priest praeter legem morem otherwise than by standing Law and Custom he ought First because his Father was then living next in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used without any Solemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood 5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church This is a Doubtful Proposition the most he can make of it is that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part not in the Whole for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine if N. N. doubt of this he may remember there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See so far they are Catholicks 6. He is very positive a doubtful Church is no Church It is true he who harboureth a doubt which he will conclude Prudent because the issue of his own Imagination or the suggestion of some over-admired Teacher of that Church whereof he is a Member that Church to him is no Church but where such a doubt is entertained the Case is only disputable and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up will without doubt damnify his good old Cause because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church by the demonstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her instances of most important concern For Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them that a doubtful Pope is no (p) Crespet in verb. Papa Caran p. 827. Pope and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time etiam ex urgentissima causa as Jac. Castellon cites out of Navar verb. Papa p. 485. no not upon the most weighty Consideration because there is but one Monarch and one Monarchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ hence they generally conclude that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of damnable Schism and those who are united to him are united to the true Catholick-Church viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth the Roman Pope This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises that an undoubted Pope is as fully and by the word chiefly in the definition more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church as a doubtful Clergy from whence it necessarily follows that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church a doubtful Pope must do so too and then if this be proved there hath been a doubtful Pope and no one undoubted Pope by N. N 's demonstration it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope
of Chalcedon Survey c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden Anal. of Faith saying the present State of the Protestant Church consisting of Protestant Bishops c. and their Protestant Flock not being likely to continue long no Church If this design prevailed with some crasy minds they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions as This then did for besides that long Schism formerly related in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa c. as Car. speaks p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp and in this very juncture of time their contests were so high that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists were then so hot that both Parties pressed a decision and by consent referred the matter to the Pope who because he did not understand the points in debate would fain have declined it pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles waved it and commanded silence to both Parties which pleased neither and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity but both sides still moving for a hearing because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy at last being overcome with importunity he condescended But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest at one Congregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting (e) 2 Congregation July 8. St. Augustin at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen and not producing the Evidences of Scripture Councils (f) 10 Congregation and Fathers In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day but it proved otherwise the Pope passed his Sentence in favour (g) Ann. 1653 whom before he had branded and paradigmatized with Insincerity of the Molinists All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch vvhich so startled him that he durst trifle no longer but the main reason vvas he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project in fomenting our intestine broils to reduce this Kingdom into a State This is certain his Nuncio Joh. (h) â—lench mot nuper in Angl. par 2. p. 7. inde Bapt. Renuncino after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels he Excommunicated them This was not all the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion to add it to the Triple Crown All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Successors Net if the Kings be Guelphs their Kingdoms are Gibelins if they be Catholicks their Crowns are Hereticks It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies but upon forced put his main work is to rule over Nations to rout out c. Jer. 1.10 as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change they did not act according to the common received measures of Prudence which is to stay where we are till we know where to be better For this Church at the worst was much better than that they revolted to this was a Distressed Church that a Depraved this had Scars in the Face that Ulcers in the Heart this Wounded in the Skin that Rotten in the Vitals this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound that Heretical and Corrupt For to state the case between the Church of England and that of Rome impartially the Quaere will be Whether for some defects in Rituals be they really such or only pretended it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism Heresy and Idolatry at least less subject to a suspition of any of these or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty or most justly presumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions If Prudence must resolve the Quaere the issue and verdict will be It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Proselyte to Rome for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more more apparent and more real danger for fear of a less less evident and more remote danger This only remains to be proved that the Church of Rome is Guilty or justly presumed to be so of dangerous Innovations and Corruptions which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions constringently asserted 1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered and hath been since the times of Julius the second and Leo the tenth at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court thereof hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith by Composing a new Creed or which is as bad hath clogged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Additionals which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation 2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline by setting up her Bishop as the Vniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Supremacy over he whole Body of Christ and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church for not submitting thereto CHAP. V. SECT I. 1. THE first Conclusion is fully evident from the famous Council (a) C. 7. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis difference as well as contrariety Conc. Flor. Sess 10. Conc. Tom. 7. p. 641. D. 644. B. at Ephesus for the maintenance wherof the Popes are sworn and therefore cannot without the guilt of Perjury reject its Sentence This Decreed That it should not be lawful for any man to Publish or Compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to Compose or offer any such thing to any Persons willingly to be Converted from Judaism or Heresy if they be Bishops and Clerks as the Popes be should be Deposed if Lay-men should be Anathematized When this Authority was urged by the Greeks to the Latines in the Council of Florence they only Answered That this Canon did not forbid another explication agreeable to the truth contained in that Creed but did indeed