determine what Intention was necessary because they could not agree about the efficacy of the Sacraments it being impossible there should be the same Intention of two who differ in their judgments concerning it The common Salvo was that the Intention to do as the Church doth was sufficient but this satisfied not the scruple because men â—â—ffered in opinion what the Church is and their opinions herein being different their Intentions in administring the Sacraments would also prove different To evade this it was pretended all the Priests had the same design but as it is impossible for any to know the things that is the purposes of Man save the Spirit of Man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 so it is unconceivable how they should have the same end and aim who have different Judgments Humours Passions and Interests At last they were driven to this shift perhaps there may be some such wretched Priest yet this case is rare To this the Bishop of Minori replied would God said he that the case was rare and that in this corrupt age we had not cause to doubt there were many but suppose there are but a few or one only let a Knave Priest Baptize who hath not an Intention to administer the true Baptism to a Child who being after a grown Man is created a Bishop of a great City so that he hath Ordained a great part of the Priests in his Diocess it must be said that he being not Baptized is not Ordained nor they Ordained who are promoted by him Behold Millions of Nullities of Sacraments by the malice of one (z) Histor Council of Trent fol. 241. Priest in one Act only 4. To give full measures of Doubts and uncertainties in the most mysterious act of their Religion Dr. Holden (a) Apendix of Schism p. 445. Refert Dr. Ham. dispatcher Preface p. 14. averreth All Roman Catholicks do believe and reverence the Sacrifice of the Mass as the most substantial Act of their Religion but if it be demanded wherein the substance of this Sacrifice doth consist no substantial Resolution can be expected from them their Doubts and uncertainties about the Nature and Essence thereof are so cross and various There are divers opinions concerning it saith (b) Azor. l. 10. c. 9. or part 2. l. 2. c. 14. Azor. There are six Acts of which it is doubted in which one or more of them the Essence of the Sacrifice consisteth saith (c) Tom. 3. dist 75. art 1 2. Suarez Some place it in the one Act of Consecration but the doubters dispute against it for say they Consecration belongeth rather to the nature of a Sacrament than a Sacrifice and every external Sacrifice such as the Mass is must be sensible but the Conversion made by the words of Consecration is not sensible for the real change is not and again if the Act of Consecration then the outward Elements only are the Hoast and matter offered but we may not say the Species are the Hoast others set it in the Oblation but the dissenting Brethren oppose this because Christ used no Sacrificial Act at his Last Supper and if Christ did not the Priest ought not though some of them grant it belongs to the intergrity of the Sacrifice But how the Trent-Divines were divided in their judgment herein may be read Hist Counc of Trent fol. 544 c. Some of them again conceive Consecration Consumption or Sumption to be the Essence this others contradict because then say they the Body and Blood of Christ must be destroyed for that which is Offered in Sacrifice is to be destroyed but Sumption can be no part thereof because the Act of Receiving is not for although Christ be not received after the Consecration yet is he truly said to be Sacrificed and Doctors doubt whether Christ did receive in his last Supper and the Priest receiving doth nothing in Christs person but his own others stood for Fraction but this the doubters easily disprove for it is say they an Act purely Sacramental not at all Sacrificial and Fraction being before Consecration the Substance of the Bread and Wine remaineth When N. N. hath solved all these Doubts and satisfied all these Doubters he may be more confident of the demonstrative Power of Doubts and uncertainties in the mean time he may apply them to his own Church in his own words Mutatis mutandis Therefore the Romanists before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith or be the Catholick Church must clear all Doubts and uncertainties not objected by Protestants but started and pursued by their own Divines concerning their Church their Head of the Church their Ordinations and the most Substantial Act of their Religion the Mass for though any Person should not c. 7. N. N. goes one step forward the step to Christian and Catholick belief is c. This hath nothing of usefulness to his Conclusion unless he prove that a Clergy not regularly ordained cannot believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith c. that the Protestant Church hath a doubtful Clergy in which his attempts have hitherto been unsuccessful and unlucky to him and his Church If his meaning be the well-grounded Credibility of his Church is the foundation of Christian belief this is to beg the Question and is false for Christian Faith is not an assent and adherence to the Objects thereof upon the bare Testimony of the Church but on that of God neither is its warranty derived from the Church's Proposition but Divine Revelation True Faith is founded on the writings of Moses and the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles Eph. 2.20 which moved Durand thus to define it It is an habit whereby we assent to the Doctrines of the Scripture for the Authority of God revealing them But if he intend only that the Church's Proposition is to her members the first motive and preparative of Faith it will not be gainsaid but then he must remember that a prudent Christian will not take the Church for well-groundedly credible till he find by the Rule of Faith She deserves to be so esteemed for it is impossible the Church can appear so to him till he know the Faith it proposeth which he cannot do but by applying it to the Rule for every intellectual and moral habit must be sufficiently known before the Acts resulting from them can be predicated of any subject capable to exercise them As I must know what Prudence is before I can truly affirm of any man that he is Prudent 8. That which N. N. mainly drives at is to seduce the members of the Church of England from her Communion and solicite them to Apostate to Rome To effect this he took as he conceived a seasonable opportunity to perplex the minds of men with his Doubts and uncertainties by reason of our late sad divisions Then the Romanists bent all their forces to perswade easy seduceable tempers This Church was either a dead or (d) Bishop
to N. N's after-instance of Illustration if the word King be used at his Election this sufficiently expresseth all Kingly Power and Authority SECT II. N. N. farther adds THE Form or words whereby men are made Priests must express Authority and Power to Consecrate or make present the Body and Blood of Christ but their Form containeth not one word expressing this Power see the Ritual Lond. 1607. Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ in Ancient times but were never thought to have Power of Consecrating and making present Christ's Body and Blood SECT II. J. S. THat which N. N. designs by this is that that Form Receive ye the Holy Ghost is defective as to Priestly Ordination which must be supplied by their new one viz. Take thou power to offer Sacrifice to God and to Celebrate Mass both for the quick and the dead This he knows Protestants do reject because lately invented and foisted into the Romish Ritual to foster their gross Figments of Purgatory Transubstantiation and their Antichristian Sacrifice of the Mass and because some Romanists as St. Clara thinks it unnecessary and Bell. saith it is Sacrilegious for this he positively delivers It is Sacriledg to change the Form because determinate Bell. de Sacr. in gen l. 1. c. 21. Sect. apud haeret c. secunda prop. For Sacraments are instituted by God therefore the chief part thereof the Form and to add to or alter the words of the Scripture is not lawful therefore not the words of the Sacraments Id. ib. in Fin. yet this great Champion never did prove their new Form to be found in or founded on Scripture much less instituted by Christ 2. If that Form comprehends not all the Essentials of Priestly Ordination then the Apostles were not empowered to Consecrate for our Saviour used that and no other to enable them for the execution of the Priestly Office wherefore Scotus l. 4. dist 24. hath resolved verba illa c. those words Whosoever sins ye remit c. are declarative of the Power formerly given in these Receive ye the Holy Ghost by which Power is passed over all the Sacraments and therefore that of Sacrificing Biel l. 4. dist 19. quaest un concurs with him cul datur c. to whom the Principal is given to him also the accessory is given but by these words Receive ye c. Christ gave the power of the keys therefore by them he conveyed the power of Consecration which is a branch of the power of the Keys 3. What is added concerned Deacons is a pure piece of impertinency no way advantagious to him nor prejudicial to Protestants if he vvere put to it he vvould find it a difficult task to prove Deacons were Dispencers of the Mysteries vvho vvere only Assistants to the Dispensation SECT III. N. N. IN all Forms of Ordaining Priests that ever were used in the Eastern and Western Churches there is expresly set down the word Priest or some other word importing the particular and proper Function and Authority of Priesthood If any State or Country should choose a Person to be King in the word King is sufficiently expressed all Regal Power and Authority Therefore the Greeks using the word Bishop and Priest in their Form sufficiently express the respective Power of every Order SECT III. J. S. EAch Clause of this Section hath been sufficiently confuted SECT IV. N. N. BUT the reason why the English Form of making Bishops and Priests is so notoriously defective and invalid is because in Edward the sixth's time when Zwinglianism and Puritanism did so prevail in the Church the Real Presence was not believed by them of the Clergy who bore the sway therefore they did not put in the Form of Priesthood any word expressing Power and Authority to make Christ's Body present They held Episcopacy and Priesthood to be one and the same thing wherefore in the Form for making of Bishops they put not one word expressing the Episcopal Function only some general words which might seem sufficient to give them Authority to enjoy the Temporalities and Bishopricks This is also the true reason why Parker and his Collegues were content with the Nags-head Ordination and why others returned to extraordinary Vocation in Queen Elizabeth's time SECT IV. J. S. THis also is another vain Repetition Three who bore the sway in King Edward's Reign held the Real Presence but not in the Popish manner of determination Those in Queen Elizabeth's time had and did stand for ordinary and orderly Vocation The Church of England alwrys asserted the Divine Right of Episcopacy and her orderly Orderly Orthodox Sons have constantly maintained it If some have distinguished Priesthood into the degrees the higher and the lower as the Romanists generally do yet they still conclude the said different degrees of the Acts and Uses which could not be exercised in a due subordination of the lower to the higher for a distinct respective Consecration thereto and did hold those of them who should presume to exercise the Higher Power not being regularly Consecrated thereto were Schismatical Transgressors of the Apostolical Order and Catholick Practice and that every Act of that usurped Power when no real necessity to abate or excuse it to be null and void It is the Pope and his Collegues who are the (f) For it is not resolved in the Congregation of the Cardinals that the Pope's Legats should not suffer the determination of the Article of the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right to pass Hist Counc of Trent fol. 603. And it being perceived that Laynez his Speech was displeasing and opposed by the Spanish Bishops this distasted the Legats ib. fol. 615. therefore Canons came from Rome which the Pope moved to have proposed p. 657. which displeased the Fathers c. after much contention because the opinion of Divine Right was as displeasing to the Pope ib. fol. 737. it was waved leading Puritans It was the Pope who said the Absolute Divine Right of Bishops was a false and erronious Opinion it was the Pope who slighted and scorned those Bishops in the Trent-Assembly who affirmed (g) Ib. fol. 825. the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right It was the Pope who first devested them of their Jurisdiction and Power by his Commissions and Delegations (h) Caran p. 869. to inferior Priests SECT V. N. N. TO conclude the Matter I say with St. Hierome Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem How can the Protestant Church be the true Church which hath not one Bishop or Priest Though it were not evident it hath no Valid Ordination yet so many doubts and uncertainties as they must acknowledg concerning their Ordinations do demonstrate the Nullity of their Church for if there remain one solid and prudent doubt of the validity of Ordination in any Church it is impossible it should be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church because a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church and a doubtful Church is
if Polyidore Virgil's Caution as in reason it ought be (z) Lib. 4. de Invent. rerum admitted Ne quis erret c. Lest any man hereby deceive himself it cannot in any other way be said that the Order of Priesthood grew first from Rome unless we understand it within Italy only for liquido liquet it is clear and beyond dispute that Priesthood was orderly appointed at Jerusalem long before ever St. Peter came to Rome Polydore was in the right for Rome's Principality cannot entitle her to be Vniversal Mother because if we read the sentence thus Rome is a Principal Church this is as truly predicated of every Apostolical Church if the Principal Church neither will that enstate her in the challenged and claimed Motherhood because it was only accidental If a younger Sister for her external accomplishment be advanced to be a Lady of Honour or married to an Earl or Lord whereas her elder Sisters continue in their first State only or be married to Gentlemen or others of meaner condition She by virtue of her Qualifications may take Place of them but she cannot exercise the Authority of a Mother over them If Rome a younger Sister of the Mother Churches upon a forraign and extrinsecal account which was meerly contingent and arbitrary became the Principal Church the Principality might justly give her the precedency of Place but not precedency of Rule over them it made her the most Honourable of the Sisters but could not create her Mother to any or all of them because this Honour was Adventitious and Precarious which accrewed not to her till long after her first Foundation nor was derived to her by any Divine Institution Neither will that subsequent Clause from whence Vnity of Priesthood first began be any relevant to her if we consider that this is only spoken in reference to her own Precincts for then the whole Sentence would be verified of every Apostolical Church to instance in Corinth this is a or the principal Church of Achaia from whence the Vnity of Priesthood first began viz. In the Regions adjacent and belonging thereto and so of any other which were founded before her as many were for these Churches being compleatly formed when she was not in being she could not propagate the Faith to them nor consequently be a Mother Church to them The soonest that is pretended St. Peter came to Rome was in the second of Claudius but certain it is St. Mark Preached the Gospel at Alexandria and over all Aegypt Lybia Cyrene Pentapolis and the whole Region of Barbary in the Reign of Tiberius And St. Aug. affirms the Africans the more Western received the Faith not from Rome but the East The Southern Christians as the Abyssines and Aethiopians were Converted when St. Peter was still at Jerusalem at least eight years before he came to Rome by the Romanists account The Eastern Bishops told Julius as was before related Rome received the Faith from them and in Britain the Christian Faith was professed five years at least before ever St. Peter set his Foot in Rome and therefore Rome could not be Mother to those elder Sisters of Asia Africa Aethiopia and Britain unless an uncouth Hysterâ—sis be allowed or some Noble Roman would undertake to prove that Claudius reigned before Tiberius as a grave Burgess once did to prove that Henry the seventh was before Henry the sixth and therefore these Churches could not from the beginning be under her Jurisdiction and therefore also can justly claim the Cyprian Priviledg and plead it in the abatement of any Papal possession or prescription But to confirm this Title they make their Plea from Eusebius in his Chronicle or else it is insisted upon very impertinently who relates That St. Peter sat at Antioch seven years after which therefore Antioch is her elder Sister and Evodius Bishop there before St. Peter ordained any Bishop or Priest at Rome he travelled to Rome where he resided five and twenty years It is very probable this Book of Eusebius hath fallen into the hands of Interpolators Canus (a) Refert Rivet l. 3. their learned Bishop with much regret complains It hath been corrupted in many places through the negligence ignorance or haste of the Transcribers or Translators this place is probably one of them for in the Greek Edition published by Jos Scaliger Printed Lugd. Bat. An. 1606. there is no mention of any determinate time of St. Peter's coming or his abode and residence at Rome all that is said there is this Peter the chief as Aristotle is Princeps Philosophorum having first founded a Church at Antioch went to Rome to Preach the Gospel there and it is the more probable in that this Relation in the corrupted Chronicle is contradicted by Eusebius himself Lib. 3. Eccl. hist c. 1. Peter saith he having Preached the Gospel in Pontus Galatia Bithynia Cappadocia and Asia to the Jews which were of the dispersion which in all probability was before his residence at Antioch for we find in Scripture he was at Jerusalem Ann. 19. Tiber. and Ann. 2 Claudii Act. 8. and 12. at the last or at the end near the approach of his death being at Rome was put do death which makes some conceive that St. Paul whose first coming to Rome was in Ann. Dom. 58. Neron secundo had planted a Church at Rome ten years almost before St. Peter came there and others think that St. Peter continued in Judaea and in the adjacent Regions till Ann. 7 Claud. Ann. Dom. 49. and therefore this Story that he presided and resided at Rome for five and twenty years is hardly reconcileable with evidence of History in many particulars to which may be added what Onuphrius notes in Plat. de vit Pont. in Pet. Apost placing his third and last return to Rome in the last year of Nero and what Epiphanius (b) Haer. 3. testifies that St. Peter and St. Paul where they planted Churches ordained Bishops to preside over them as St. Paul did Titus in Creet and St. Peter Evodius at Antioch and after went to other Countries to Preach the Faith All these Reasons and Authorities being premised the Conclusions are irrefragable and the Church of Rome as it is now managed is found guilty of the Crimes articled against her and stands condemned of them by the four first General Councils which undoubtedly have so far convinced several ingenuous and judicious Romanists that they have not sticked to declare with Protestants that the present Church of Rome hath swerved in sincerity of Doctrine from the ancient Church whence it is derived that the Pope hath advanced his Authority beyond the bounds (c) Cusan Consult Art 7. set by Christ and his Church yea far beyond the bounds (d) Cusan concor l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 13. of Ancient observation and that he hath no Power over other Bishops either by Gods Law or Man's but such as was given him either absolutely or conditionally for a
restitution thereof but he defended his Invasion and Usurpation by the warranty of the Popes Excomunication and to prevent all after-Claims by virtue of the Popes Bull bequeathed it in his last Will and Testament to his Daughter Jane Queen of Castile and ordered the union of the two Kingdoms (d) New Heresy of the Jes p. 37. inde out of Monsieur de Hay in his Treatise of the right of the King of France from the Testimony of Spanish Historians against the Cavils of Card. du Perron who attempted the vindication of the Pope and forecited Spanish Historian from Guicciardine lib. 11. Castile and Arragon But the Pope had yet a further Game to manage a Council must be had whereupon he calls a Counter-Council as Eugenius before him had convened an Anti-Synod at Florence at the Lateran in Rome where some Cardinals and Bishops who favoured his Pretensions and some on other motives assembled to him before whom at first he (e) Concil Lat. Sess 1. excused his Perjury by reason of State his next endeavour was by the publication of a Bull to condemn the Pisan Synod and by a second to null its Acts together with the Pragmatical Sanction To gain validity to this Practice he procured Francis the first (f) So the Concordate and from it Relnffusc licet de seriis li. 1. ff de Offic. Cons or rather compelled him for he protested he complied with the Pope much against his mind being constrained so to do by his pressing necessities to condescend to the Abrogation of the Pragmatical Sanction But this Pope dying some ten Months after he had assembled his Partisans and Pensioners could not perfect his Project Leo the tenth succeeds him who falls afresh upon the Pragmatical Sanction yet upon second and better thoughts he stops the Carreer for two or three years resolving however having the work half done to his hand to compleat it in convenient time and so at long run in the eleventh Session of that Conventicle upon the 19 of December 1516 the certain Birth-day of the new Popish Church he passed a Decree point blank contrary to that of Constance continued and confirmed in those of Basil Bourges Tours and Pisa viz. That the Pope had authority over all Councils and that it was necessary to Salvation that all Christians should be subject to the Pope This is Origo Papistarum thus by such unauthorized Antichristian means then upon that 19th day of December and there at Lateran Popery commenced and had its rise both name and thing for though some Romanists pretend the title of Papist to be of more antient extraction deriving it from Pope Peter Pope Paul and Pope Christ yet Dr. Bristow a bitter enemy to Protestants and a fast friend to the Cause witness his great endeavours and attempts in the Rhemish Testament is better advised and (g) Demaund 8. speaks out the whole truth The name saith he of Papists was never heard of till the days of Leo the tenth All which premises being laid together a mean accomptant may easily compute of how long standing Popery is according to the true reformed Roman account The total of all which those (h) Sess 1. And Cassander thinks Papists to be Pseudo-Catholicks they being such who will not permit the Church to be reformed though corrupt Lib. de Offic. boni viri Sect. sunt alii c. very Lateran Assemblers could not deny but have so far honestly witnessed that by reason of the malignity of the times the Popes seemed to have tollerated the Pragmatical Sanction because they could not help it thanks for nothing in as much as for all the Popes could do even to that very day it stood in full force and virtue But for all was then done the true Roman Catholicks even then did not think the Pragmatical Sanction was sufficiently annulled neither did that Lateran Decree find any kind reception amongst them but soon after was stoutly rejected as Heterodox for within four Months after towards the latter end of March ensuing the Divines of Paris spoke as undervaluingly of this Lateran Synod as it had done of the Council of Basil contemning and condemning it as Conciliabulum Conventiculum a Conspiracy or Conventicle (i) Appel Vnivers Paris à Leon. 10. facta die 27 Martii An. 1517. Bochell lib. 8. de decret Gal. Eccl. c. 4. not assembled in Gods name and the Cardinal Lorraine writ expresly after that to Pope Pius the fifth that as the French Church would never receive that of Florence so they also had always protested against the Lateran made up of a (k) New Heresy of the Jesuites p. 103. out of the History of the Concordate composed by Monsieur de Puy few Italian Bishops And that this Lateran Decree would be opposed Pope Leo foresaw who therefore cunningly contrived a way if not to prevent yet to smother and stifle all opposition For (l) 70 Decret p. 534. Caran p. 893. in a certain Decretal he ordained that hereafter for ever no man should Print or cause to be Printed any Book or Writing in the City of Rome nor in any other place unless first by his Vicar or Minister of his Palace or by some Bishop or other deputed thereto it be diligently examined and Subscribed and after the Trent-sticklers finding that Books notwithstanding this Policy were published and did creep abroad they made a Rule which they gave in charge to the Inquisitors That if in the Books of latter Catholicks written since the year 1315 that which needs Correcting can be amended by taking away or adding a few things that course should be followed otherwise let it be (m) Caran p. 894. instruct post indicem c. Index l. Prohib p. 25. altogeeher blotted out But neither the Popes Authority Power nor Policy could prevail so far with the Roman Catholicks of that time as to over-rule the Council of Basil or confirm the Lateran for many of them constantly adhered to the (n) As the Germans Kings of England and France ad Ann. 1422. in the Margin of his life p. 101. c. Ep. Synod Concil Basil Council of Basil because Eugenius the fourth by an Authentick Bull recited in the sixteenth Session acknowledged that it was Lawful and General from the beginning of it to that moment and in the last of the Bulls which he revoked after he had (o) But not till after admonition and citation Acts of Superiority 8 pronouncing him contumacious for threatning of a dissolution Caran p. 856. rejoyned himself to that Council he declared that in matters of Faith the opinion of a Council ought to be preferred to that of the Pope which cannot hold if the Pope be Infalible as the Lateran crew suggested because there is no opinion which can or ought to be preferred to the judgment of an Infallible Monarch and Umpire and as those Romanists stuck to the Council of Basil so did they to the Council
to be scandalous because he was of that Order To clear this Proposition N. N. thus sets out SECT II. N. N. ANno 1517. Leo the tenth granted Indulgences to such as voluntarily contributed towards the War against the Turk who at that time threatned all Christendom having added Syria and Egypt to the Ottoman Empire The business of divulging these Indulgences in Germany was committed to the Arch-Bishop of Mentz who appointed John Tetizel a Dominican Friar to Preach which Office long time before had been given to the Augustine Friars amongst whom Martin Luther a Famous Preacher expected the place but seeing his hopes frustrated he resolved now to write against Indulgencies and the Pope as he had prepared to Preach in favour of both before The first occasion which offered it self were certain abuses unavoidable in things which pass through many hands in the management of this affair against which or rather Indulgencies he framed certain Libels and Conclusions which were condemned and burnt as heretical by John Titzell his Competitor who then exercised the Office of Inquisitor in Germany This fire did so warm Luther and added such flames to his hot disposition that most part of Europe felt the smart of it for being once engaged and enraged by Titzell's declaration against him he would not recant his first error but added others denying Purgatory the Pope's Authority Merits the necessity of good Works c. SECT II. J. S. 1. THis Narrative concerns not the Church of England they who desire to be informed how the Affairs were managed in Germany may consult Sleidan and Guicciardine It will not be amiss to recite one testimony from him ad An. 1520. where he chargeth N. N's certain not as he suggesteth unavoidable abuses on Leo the tenth affirming he was the cause of what was done in Germany because he after complaint upon complaint that his Indulgencies and Bulls were sold in Shops the Buyers and the Sellers playing the money at Dice did not redress those faults nor attempted to redress them further adding all the World knew the Money was not gathered as was pretended to make War against the Turk but indeed to maintain the Pomp and Lust of the Pope's Sister Magdalen See the Author of the Hist. of the Council of Trent fol. 5. and withal reporting that Adrian the sixth immediate Successor to Leo the tenth intended to reform the abuses fol. 22. c. but first he would reform the corrupt manners of the Court of Rome because he saw all the World desired it earnestly fol. 26. 2. Be it so for once that Luther was engaged and enraged yet this was no bad Argument of the Cause he had undertaken for to satisfy N. N. that which engaged him was the sorry shifting defences the Indulgence-mongers framed for themselves for they finding themselves too weak for Luther in the particular case of Indulgencies which had no other foundation than the Bull of Clement the sixth made for the Jubilee an 1350. betook themselves for shelter to common-places such as the Pope's Authority the Churches Treasury of Merits the Doctrine of Penance and Purgatory (r) Hist Coun. Trent fol. 6. Thus Tetzel and Eckius managed their Plea and would have avoided Luther's objections but Sylvester Prierias (Å¿) Contra Lutherum Jewel def of Apol. fol. 49. Master of the Pope's Palace above all other gave Martin the occasion to pass from Indulgencies to the Authority of the Pope for he having upon a forced-put delivered that Indulgentiae scripturarum c. Indulgencies are not warranted by Authority of Scripture but of the Roman Church and Popes which is greater put Luther upon it to examine and discuss this bold Affirmation That which enraged Luther if it were so oppression maketh a wise man mad was that he knew very well what counsel Friar Hogostrate (t) Hist Counc of Trent fol. 7. had given to Pope Leo not to meddle with him by Argument but to confute him with Chains Fire and Flames and he knew this would be his Fate if he fell into the Pope's Power Neither could he expect to find further favour from Adrian his Successor for the Cardinal of Praenestâ— who had been employed in Civil Affairs in the Papacies of Alex. Julius and Leo and was then Adrian's Confident told him No man ever extinguished Heresies by Reformation the Council of Trent it seems was not convened for that end whatsoever was pretended but by Crusadoes and by exciting Princes and People to vote them out That Innocent the third did by such means a sure evidence of Usurpation by the known measures of Tyranny and that their Religion cannot endure a fair trial happily suppress the Albigenses in the Province of Languedock and the next Popes by the same means in other places rooted the Waldenses Picards poor people of Lions Arnoldists Speronists and Patavines so that now there remaineth no (u) Hist. Coun. Trent fol. 23. more of them but the name only And Adrian himself exhorted the Princes themselves assembled at the Diet of Noremberge 1522. to reduce Martin and his followers into the right way by fair means if they could but if not to proceed to sharp and fiery remedies to cut the dead members from the body as anciently was done to Dathan and Abiram to Ananias and Saphira to Jovinian and Vigilantius and finally as their Predecessors had done to John Huss and Hierom of Prague whose example in case they cannot otherwise do (w) Hist. Counc of Trent fol. 25. they ought to imitate The forementioned Cardinal declared no Reformation could be made that would not totally diminish the Rents of the Church for that if Indulgencies were stopped one quarter of the Revenues of the Church would be cut off there being but four Fountains whereof this was one CHAP. II. SECT I. N. N. HENRY the Eighth among others who writ against Luther composed a Learned Book in defence of the Seven Sacraments the Pope's Authority c. which gained him the Title of Defender of the Faith But being weary of his lawful Wife Q. Katherine despairing to have issue-male by her and enamoured of Ann Bullen cast off all obedience to the Pope because he would not declare his Marriage with Q. Katherine invalid and by Act of Parliament made it Treason to acknowledg any Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Pope in his Dominions himself being proclaimed Spiritual Head of the Church This was the occasion and beginning of the pretended Reformation in England Notwithstanding Henry the Eighth observed the old Religion in all Points except the Pope's Supremacy which he borrowed of the new to marry Ann Bullen and enrich himself by the spoils of the Monasteries and persecuted all other Novelties and Heresies in such degree that though many crept into England in his Reign yet very few durst profess them because as many as did were burnt by his command SECT I. J. S. TO this suggestion it will be seasonable to premise a general Narrative of
Testimonies that can be devised not only of this World but of God of Angels and Glorious Souls of Devils and Damned Spirits in Hell the fittest Witnesses of all and here he stops his Carreer Other puling Hereticks have boasted of this or that Council or of some few Fathers but these have attained to that pitch of Impudency that all makes for them all is theirs when upon a just examination none at all appears for them Heresy is alwayes accompanied with Vanity and Insolency but this exceeds all Parrallel but that we find it the constant custom of the Romish Hectors SECT III. N. N. AFter Edward died his Sister Queen Mary Reigned who being a Catholick restored Religion by Act of Parliament Cardinal Pole the Popes Legate absolved the Kingdom from the Excommunication and Schism incurred Some Histories report that three thousand Sectaries all Strangers were Banished out of England and among the rest the two holy Apostles Peter Martyr and Bernard Ochine All King Edwards Bishops were Deposed and Imprisoned the Catholick Bishops set at liberty and restored to their Sees SECT III. J. S. 1. QVeen Mary did reintroduce Popery but this she did contrary to the solemn Promise made to the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk to violate such an obligation will scarce be proved either Honourable or Religious 2. She did not regularly restore her Religion but confusedly shuffled it up as hath been before declared that if any Protestant Prince had done the like an hideous Hubbub would have been raised Bishop Jewel relates the manner thus (a) Reply to Harding Art 13. fol. 358. The Papists first scattered it and forced their Mass against a Law then in force against them then established it by Law and next after had a Solemn Disputation at Oxford to try whether the Law were good or no. This saith he Mr. Harding is your Lidford Law for in order of nature the Disputation should have been first then the Law then the Execution thereof but as Tertullian saith Haeretici ex Conscientia infirmitatis suae nihil tractant ordinarie 3. He cannot but his hand must slip though he have no visible advantage by it for all King Edwards Bishops were not Deposed the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford were not the Bishops of Litchfield Salisbury Norwich Bangor St. Asaph and Landaffe complyed 4. If the deposed Bishops were but pretended Bishops then your restored Bishops were so too for some of these received their Ordination from them and those who ordained them But now the Originist after all these Sallies falls afresh on his great work on which he spends much Paper and time wherein he most triumphs and glories and thus he makes his first approach and onset CHAP. III. SECT I. N. N. QUeen Mary deceased without issue her Sister Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen The Reformation is established by Act of Parliament notwithstanding the great opposition made by all the Bishops and others in the Upper-house The Queen was resolved to pull down Catholick Religion because Cecil and others of her Council perswaded her she could not be secure as long as the Pope's Authority was acknowledged in England seeing the Apostolick See had declared her a Bastard and all Catholicks looked upon the Queen of Scots as true Heir to the Crown Nevertheless it was judged expedient for her quiet and the peace of the Realm to keep always a Resemblance of it in the Clergy as the best remedy against Puritanism which was thought by her Majesty dangerous to Monarchy The titles therefore of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters were retained as also in her own Chappel some Images the Altar and a Crucifix upon it But what will they do for Ordination That Form which was instituted in Edw. the sixth's time was judged invalid by publick Judgment in Queen Marie's days insomuch that Leases made by King Edward's Bishops though confirmed by Dean and Chapter were not esteemed good because saith the Sentence they were not consecrated nor Bishops see Brook's Novel Cases Plac. 463. fol. 101. impress London 1604. Seeing therefore it concerned the Queen to have consecrated Bishops she endeavoured by all means to have such as she named for Bishopricks consecrated by Catholicks but they all resolved not to make Bishops in the Church whereof themselves refused to be members The Queen notwithstanding the reluctancy of Catholick Bishops named in her Letters Patents Kitchin Bishop of Landaff among others to consecrate Mr. Parker and his Fellows he being the only man among all the Catholick Bishops that took the Oath of Supremacy in her Reign But many others who complied with Henry the eighth in that particular refused now to consecrate and Landaff was resolved to do the same yet at last by fair words and promises they prevailed with the old man to give them a meeting at the Nags-head in Cheapside where they hoped he would have ordained them Bishops despairing that ever he would do it in a Church because that would be too great and notorious a scandal to Catholicks among whom Landaff desired to be numbred Bonner Bishop of London hearing of this sent Mr. Neal his Chaplain to forbid the exercise of giving Orders in his Diocess under pain of Excommunication wherewith the old man being terrified and otherwise also moved in his Conscience refused to proceed in that Action alledging chiefly for reason of his forbearance want of sight This excuse being interpreted an evasion by Mr. Parker and his Fellows lessened his entertainment some of them reviling him and saying this old Fool thinketh we cannot be Bishops unless we be greased alluding to the Catholick manner of Episcopal Vnction Being thus deceived in their expectation they resolved to use Mr. Scories help an Apostate irreligious Papist who had born the name of Bishop in King Edward's time and was thought to have sufficient power to perform the Office he having cast off with his religious habit all scruple of Conscience willingly went about the matter which he performed in this sort having the Bible in his hand and they all kneeling down before him he laid it upon every one of their heads and shoulders saying Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God sincerely and so they rose up Bishops of the new Church of England SECT I. J. S. TO this long lying Section the fittest method will be to discover the several falsities and vain conjectures as they lie in order First He vainly surmiseth great opposition was c. This is one misadventure for there was but fourteen Bishops then living whereof four were absent and then a Question may be made whether all those ten who were present did oppose it for some of them had learned the Art of compliance so exactly that they could suit to the times without any opposition for the others there was but one Abbot of Westminster and only two Lords Temporal the Earl of Shrewsbury and Viscount Montacute who did oppose it these thirteen if they had all combin'd could not make any great opposition
shall appear from a pretended discovery of Turrians who brought to light that which lay in darkness for a good store of hundred years 3. Bishop Jewel and other Protestants of those times were not required to produce the Records by Dr. Stapleton Dr. Harding Mr. Rascal and other Romanists of those times who never urged any thing in defence of N. N's Story and to the prejudice of the Records 4. They were virtually and in effect produced by the Parliament in their reference to them and were alledged and mentioned in Dr. Parker's Life as N. N. acknowledgeth in the next Paragraph 5. The advantage got by producing them could only have proved their Legality and the advantage lost by concealing might have brought their Legality into dispute but could not destroy their Validity 6. The producing them would not have foiled their enemies for produce them unless it be to an ingenious Adversary the Sticklers have a despeâ—â—te shift they were forged if this be cleared they produce another desperate shift now most in request with them supposing say they there be materialâ— Mission in the Church of England yet it is not to the true intent and purpose or as some express it their Ordination doth not enable them to offer true substantial Sacrifice and so from one desperate shift unto another in infinitum 7. They did not produce them therefore they were not extant is another of N. N's absurd inconsequences for it is an Argument from Authority negatively which though in some cases it may hold yet here it cannot for it is as if we should thus argue Neither N. N. nor any of his Camrades were so quick-sighted as to spie such a Sentence in St. Aug. therefore there is not any such extant in his Writings 8. What he affirms of Dr. Fulk we are not directed where to find it probably if he had been at leisure he would have referred to his Answer to the Rhemish Annotators and if there it he then it is to be found in Rom. 10. Sect. 5. p. 471. where he hath so strongly proved his Position out of Ruff. Theodor. c. that all his Nags-head Narrators durst never undertake a refutation neither was this any desperate shift in him upon that pretended reason which N. N. hath alledged for this he had bassed in the foregoing Sentence which N. N. unworthily and purposely conceals saying No man ought to intrude himself into that Priestly Office without lawful Calling How lewd and desperate then was N. N. to tell the World he was put to desperate shifts when he giveth God thanks he had no temptation nor occasion to use any thing If it be suggested he bluntly declared any such expressions he will be found still to be the same man and of the same Judgment SECT IX N. N. DR Bristow Motive 21. what Church is that whose Ministers are very Lay-men unsent uncalled c. Mr. Rainolds Calv. Tarc l. 4. c. 15. There is no Herdman in all Turkie which doth not undertake the Government of his Herd upon better Reason Right Order and Authority than those your magnificent Apostles and Evangelists can shew for this Divine Office of governing of Souls Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast against Horn fol. 7 8 9. To say truly you are no Lord of Winchester c. Is it not notorious that you and your Collegues were not Ordained according to the Prescript I will not say of the Church but even of the very Statutes c. fol. 301. You are without any Consecration at all your Metropolitan himself poor man being no Bishop at all Dr. Harding in his detection against Mr. Jewel fol. 129. You tell not half my tale c. I ask you of your Priesthood and Bishoply Vocation and Sending c. These being my Questions you answor neither by what example hands were laid on you nor who sent you c. Those who took upon them to give Orders in King Edward's days were altogether out of order themselves and ministred them not according to the rite and manner of the Catholick Church as who had forsaken the succession of Bishops in all Christendom c. and had erected c. Mr. Jewel answers this with profound silence only he says without any proof our Bishops c. To this Dr. Harding replies your Metropolitan who should give authority to all your Consecrations himself had no lawful Consecration the Ancient Bishops were either not required or refused to Consecrate you which is an evident sign you sought not for such a Consecration as had ever been used but such an one whereof all the former Bishops were ashamed To this sharp Reply directly affirming the Nullity of Mr. Parker's Ordination and by consequence of all the English Clergy Mr. Jewel answers not one word to the main Point nor mentions Mr. Mason's Records what then can any man of an indifferent Judgment think in this case but the Records were not then extant or forged How is it they should not be produced by Horn Jewel Parker and the rest whom it specially concerneth to make proof of their own calling being so often and so earnestly urged thereto by their Adversaries triumphing over them for want of due Authentick proof thereof yet the Records were never mentioned by any of them If they were extant and not produced against the Catholicks it was because in Queen Elizabeth's time many were living who could have proved them to be forged so that the Act of Parliament and Parker's Life makes them more incredible than if no mention were made SECT X. J. S. TO this tedious nothing for N. N. hath now almost emptied his Budget of broken Wares which deserves no return in it self that shall be replied only which will discover how willing some Romanists are to fight with their own shadows and like drowning men to catch at sticks and straws to buoy up their sinking Cause 1. Those Authors he here mentions never touched at the Nags-head if they had known or heard of any such thing they would have divulged it with open mouth neither did they in all these Quotations ever so much as hint at or reflect upon the Records only Dr. Stapleton presumes they were not Ordained according to the Prescript of the Statutes themselves because he conceived as formerly hath been said that the Statute was not revived in Law primo Eliz. if otherwise he thought the Parliament may be presumed to be more knowing than he was in that Case and we may further and justly presume that those who left no stone unturned for the advantage of the good old Cause would not over-leap such Stumbling-blocks for the two first of these Authors they were so deep in rage that they quite stifled reason but Dr. Bristow met with his match one that paid him home in his own Coin for Mr. Rainolds he acted the part of a Renegado who would be sure by the fortiter calumniari his high calumnies to decline the shame of his Revolt Dr. Stapleton by Catholick Church meant
the Roman Enclosure and so he fairly begged the Question and what he affirms he proves not for Dr. Harding he was taken with the same beloved fallacy which they always make use of when they are put to a pinch Thus their Argument proceeds they were not Ordained by Romish Bishops nor after the Rite then used in the Romish Church therefore they were not lawful Bishops which is all one with this Dr. Stapleton and Dr. Harding did not Commence Doctors at Oxon. or Cambridg therefore they were not lawful Doctors The Antecedent is granted and for this reason it vvas improper and impertinent to produce the Records for to what purpose is it to produce them in proof of that vvhich is confessed no more than for to produce the Registeries of Oxon. for a Doctor 's taking his Degree at Lovain but the Consequence is denied being impossible to be proved for there have been and there are novv lawful Bishops in the Christian World vvho vvere neither Ordained by Roman Bishops nor according to the Prescript of the Roman Church as confessedly the novv Bishops of the Greek Church are vvhom they all acknovvledg for lawful Bishops 2. Whereas he saith Bishop Jewel answered not a word to the main Point it vvill be found he searched the Point to the quick both in relation to his Priesthood being Ordained Priest the same time Mr. Harding vvas def fol. 125 and 129 and in relation to his Episcopacy saying Our Bishops succeed the Bishops that have been ever before our days being Elected Confirmed and Consecrated c. as they have been Further adding that Mr. Harding himself was one of his Electors none of this Mr. Harding could deny and therefore he fell to the old Game of Tergiversation turning his back from the main Question and starts a nevv one for a desperate shift having nothing else to say but this they vvere not forsooth Confirmed by the Bishop of Rome which is an implicit confession that all those recited Acts were performed only they wanted the Pope's Confirmation which yet the Bishop with great evidence of Reason and Primitive Authority proved to be unnecessary and is contrary to all Antiquity and the Practice of the Greek Church and withal told Dr. Harding in civil terms he would never give over that idle trade of begging Thus this Bishop Jewel maintained both the Regularity and the Legality both of his Priesthood and Episcopacy though not with express reference to the Records themselves yet implicitly to the Subject-matter thereof particularly Election Confirmation and Consecration to his Episcopal Dignity and Office and also propugned the Validity of both Orders from Scriptures and the perpetual Tradition of the Catholick Church pursuing Dr. Harding in all his shifts from Post to Pen till he drives him to his Non ultra 3. All that N. N. durst conclude from Dr. Harding is only that by his sharp Reply he directly affirmed the Nullity of Dr. Parker 's Consecration but Protestants are not so lame as to take every Affirmation of Mr. Hardings for a proof they expect he should make his bold Affirmation good by good Authority or Reason neither by N. N's good leave did any thing that he affirms affirm a Nullity what he alledged if it were true and home would only have rendred those Ordinations Irregular or Illegal but not Null his no lawful Consecration respected only the manner of the Catholick Church that is theirs in their usual restriction and such as they had used 4. Whether the Records were extant N. N. cannot affirm but in his indifferent judgment if they were then they were forged which in the judgment of all indifferent men will certainly pass for a desperate shift Just such a work Dr. Harding made about the (k) From his counterfeit Athanasius Bishop Jewel's Reply fol. 157. Nicene Canons they were burnt yet falsified they were falsified yet burnt c. Such a Blunder also Baronius made concerning a pretended Edict of the Emperor Justinian it was an Edict and it was not an Edict it was (l) Baron an 564. n. 3. an Edict put out by the Emperor in favour of the Aphthardokites who denied the Body of Christ to be subject to Passions and Death for these two Reasons the (m) Id. an 564. n. 1. Orthodox contemned it and the Emperor persecuted all those (n) Id. ib. n. 3. an 563. n. 12. vid. n. 3.8 9. who did oppose it and it was not an Edict it was only a Cabinet-paper for this Reason the Emperor indeed writ it but never (o) Id. an 565. n. 4. so Evagr. l. 4. Hist Eccl. c. 40. published it if so then no Edict the Popes as bad as they are make a Publication of their Decrees But this is all meer impostures for his Edict oppugned that Heresy of the Aphthardokites Edict Justin p. 492 495. which Pope Agatho witnesseth in his Epistle directed to the Emperor Constant Pogonat as it is to be seen Act. 4. Conc. gen 6th p. 21. which Baron himself confesseth An. 681. n. 21 24. n. 25. to be approved of the whole Roman Synod consisting of 125 Bishops 5. But N. N's Catholicks triumphed c. Did they so that is an old trick of their Men of War to do as Agesilaus commanded his Souldiers still to shout Victoria to brag when they are worsted which they must do to keep up their Credit with their deluded Partisans and Proselytes But who triumphed when his Grave and Learned Divines pitched a Field time place and order of Battel contrary to the rules of all Combatants yet like the Children of Ephraim who being harnessed and carrying Bows as if they would do strange seats of Chivalry who but they turned their backs in the day of Battel For did not your old Friends both challenge and order a Disputation 1 Eliz. upon the Points in Controversy and did not they upon the approach of the Enemy after a Pickeer or two face about and dastardly forsake the field How often have the Protestants triumphed over you with the story of Madam Donna Seamore Pope Joan Bishop Goodwin hath produced thirty several well-known Authors to attest the Story and it is not much above an hundred years since her Picture was standing in the Church of Sienna in Italy where (q) Papir Massin de Episc Vrbis l. 6. in Pio. 3. the Pictures of the Popes were set up which so moved Baronius his patience that he sollicited the Pope and Duke of Florence to take it down which accordingly at his intercession they caused (r) Florimund Fab. Joan. c. 22. n. 2. to be done Such an ancient Picture in confirmation of other reports is as good an evidence that there was such a Madam Pope as Baronius his ancient Coin in contradiction to all former Histories was to prove the determinate time of Maxentius his birth and had N. N. and his Narrators such a proof for their dusty weather-beaten Nags-head they would do wonders with
nothing less than Spite in your Popes to thunder out their Interdicts and publish their seditious and malicious Bulls against this Church and State It might be error or mistake in your Grave Learned Divines to pronounce Protestants Hereticks and Schismaticks but it was the extremity of Spight to condemn them to Fire and Faggot without benefit of the Clergy and doom them to Eternal Flames without the priviledg of Purgatory Indeed the main spight of the whole Sect is against the Church of England down with it cry they and the Puritan-rabble will soon be crushed and quelled and the little undersets which spring from them either dwindle away into nothing or drop into their hands 5. He assures us upon his word which is not worth a rush they hold themselves obliged to hold to their known Tenents and Practices this is tattle and empty talk According to their Tenent the Character is indelible yet Pope Stephen nulled the Orders of Formosus and caused all those Ordained by him to be Re-ordained He tells us it is their Tenent and Practice to Ordain Lapsed Ministers in absolute terms as Lay-men are upon the sole account of the invalidity of their former Ordinations but Pope Paul and Cardinal Pool either thought or practised otherwise when they confirmed and settled the Ordinations made in Edward the sixth's time He saith 't is their Tenent to allow those to officiate who have not valid Orders is to commit damnable Sacriledg but the Pope and the Cardinal did allow those who were Ordained as they speak qui ampullas jactant in the time of Schism to officiate and therefore either did think their Orders valid or committed damnable Sacriledg N. N. dare not affirm the latter if he take to the former then all his confused heap of Possibles Probables and Credibles are at once blown up with a Puff of the Popes breath and are driven away like Down It hath been the Practice of their Grave and Learned Divines when any Protestants revolted to exercise them as if they had been possessed for thus was the Form The Revolter was brought to a Bishop and falling down on his Knees before him the Bishop said I adjure thee thou unclean Spirit by the name of God to depart out of the Man If thus they practised now they would mar their market and a half-gained Proselite before he was thus charmed would either start aside or wheel about Whatsoever their Tenents or Practices be or have been which yet are not heeded by Protestants there is an old Sitter at Rome who can change them at his pleasure which when he is disposed to do all that N. N. or his Fellovvs dare do is to Bless themselves holding up their hands and some crying Benedicite others after the old Mumpsimus mode bennistee or vvhich is all one make use of a grave Nod or discontented Shrug and so sit dovvn in silence This is no more than for the Pope to give out Orders to the contrary or impose Silence by a Decree of Taciturnity then let the Tenent and Practice be vvhat it vvill all is quashed they are the Popes Vassals and must most tamely obey his Orders CHAP. IV. SECT I. N. N. goes on BUT suppose their first Bishops were ordained by Catholicks another Nullity is found in the Form of the Consecration To wave the Matter of Ordination let us examine the Form prescribed in the Protestants Ritual It is a known Principle common both to Protestants and Catholicks that in the Form of Ordination there must be some words expressing the Authority and Power given to the Ordained The intention of the Ordainer expressed by general words indifferent and applicable to all or divers degrees of Holy Orders is not sufficient to make one a Priest or a Bishop As for example Receive ye the Holy Ghost These words being indifferent to Priesthood and Episcopacy and used in both Ordinations are not sufficiently expressive of either in particular unless Protestants will now at length profess themselves Presbyterians making no distinction betwixt Priests and Bishops but they are as far from that as we Catholicks In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain there is not one word expressing Episcopal Power and Authority The Form is Take the Holy Ghost c. Let Protestants search all the Catholick Rituals not only of the West but of the East they will not find any Form of Consecrating Bishops that hath not the word Bishop in it or some other expressing the particular Power and Authority of a Bishop distinct from all other Degrees of Holy Orders See Joh. Morin de Sacr. Ord. Par. 1655. SECT I. J. S. 1. IT seems N. N's former tedious Harangue at length comes to this Arch-Bishop Parker c. were not Ordained by his Catholicks which is one Nullity But this is contrary to the Tenents of his Church witness Bellarmine who Lib. 1. de Sacr. in Gen. c. 21. determines that Sacraments administred by Hereticks are valid and to its Practice allowing the Ordinations of the Arrians and Bonasiosi and these of Acacius see in Morin de Sacr. Ord. and of the Greeks witness N. N. ut supra 2. The other Nullity lies in the Form he being contented to wave the Matter but why so this hath alwayes been accounted an essential part of Ordination Bellarm. lib. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. Sect. ex his truly relateth Concilium c. The Council of Carthage makes mention only of Imposition of hands His quarrel then being with the Form it is to be considered after some use made of his Concession in this Paragraph which will by good consequence destroy his whole former discourse for he confesseth 1. That Protestants have a Form or Ritual then undoubtedly they would use it and not Bishop Scories extempore Spirit 2. They are as far from being Presbyterians as his Catholicks then they were not Puritans unless his Catholicks be so too then they rejected not Consecration as a Rag of Rome nor were they contented with Extraordinary Calling then they are as much for Bishops and regularly Consecrated Bishops as his Catholicks 3. This Form is prescribed and thereby they Ordained therefore they did Ordain by their Prescript Form and not as N. N. surmiseth and suggesteth 4. The Form hath these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost therefore N. N's feigned Form was not used at Arch-Bishop Parker's Consecration 5. The Form requires the Consecration of a Bishop to be publick in the Church therefore his suggestion of a Clandestine Consecration is a Calumny 6. The Form hath the word Bishop in it therefore it hath sufficient to express the particular Power and Authority of a Bishop 7. The Form requires three Bishops to the Consecration of a Bishop therefore they did not think the help of one was sufficient yet this is the Form N. N. is pleased to quarrel with For 3. He pretends there is a known Principle common c. But this he misrepresents this Form must be used and no other Bell. inclines
to the Affirmative Lib. 1. de Sacr. in gen c. 1. Sect. 2. 20. even the words are determinated saith he by God yet withal he tells us if they be corrupted as suppose the Priest after the old Mumpsimus rate should say In nomino Patria Filia Spirito Sanctu or interrupted as if the Priest at the Consecration of the Eucharist should first numble hoc est Cor and after a little pause cough out pus meum the Form would be good but Alex. Hales p. 4. q. 5. mem 2. art 1. states it otherwise The Forms saith he of Rome Sacraments are determinate the Forms of other Sacraments are not The Forms of Baptism and the Eucharist being appointed by Christ are kept inviolably without all change but touching the words of Form to be used in any other of the supposed Sacraments there is no certainty but they are diversly and doubtfully declared the reason whereof is because they were of human devising It is declared otherwise by Pope Innocent the Father of the Canonists saying The words of Form were instituted by the Church Hist Counc Trent fol. 594. But Protestants stand not upon words using only the Form which Christ instituted and is retained in (a) Both in Episcopal and Priestly Ordination Filicius tract 9. c. 2. ex Pontifical Rom. and in the Roman Catechism de Sacr. Ord. Bell. de Sacr. in gen c. 21. l. 1. de Sacr. Ordin c. 9. the Western Church in terms and in the Eastern to the sense For the Grace or Gift of God creating and promoting which is the Eastern Form is the same in substance with receiving the Holy Ghost for the Gift and Grace of God Eph. 3.2 8. 1 Cor. 15.9 10. 1 Tim. 4. Heb. 12. Tim. 1.6 is exactly the same with power from on high assured Lu. 24.49 and the promise of the Father c. Act. 1.4 5. which is the receiving this power and v. 8. These Protestants use and trouble not themselves with nice Disquisitions and Disputes 4. He affirms the intention of the Ordainer c. But it is very reasonable to presume the General words are sufficient upon N. N's grounds because they are used and applicable to all degrees of Holy Orders For if Episcopacy and Priesthood be only divers degrees of the same Order as he intimates and is declared in the Roman (b) Ib. n. 24. p. 266. Bell. de Sacr. Ord. c. 5. Sec. sequitur secunda only by the extension of the Character id ib. Sect. tertia Sect. seq with this only difference that the same efficacy is required to the extension of the character as to the first impression id ib. Sect. respond Catechism then the same Form will serve for both those disparate degrees of the same Order and the rather because in their opinion the higher Power compared to Bishops is only by extension of the Character and Protestants stick to this because it was only used in the Ancient Roman Church as it was only prescribed in the Old Pontifical and as the Church then answered the Sophisters of these times when this very Objection was writ against the Pontifical so do Protestants now the present Roman Cavillers who have taken it from them for thus the Church of Rome defends her self 1. The design was fully notified by words in the Pontificial to which of the respective Orders the Person presented was to be admitted 2. The manner of Imposition of hands did sufficiently discover the intention of the Ordainer and diversity the Act for in the Consecration of a Bishop divers Bishops impose hands but in the Ordination of a Priest one only Bishop with some assisting Priests This is the Judgment of both the Ancient Western and Eastern Church that that Form Receive ye the Holy Ghost which is the Form prescribed both for Priesthood and Episcopacy in the Protestant Ordinal is sufficient to confer Power and Authority to both Orders so that it being duly applied he that is presented to the Capacity of a Bishop is thereby enabled to do the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God and he who is presented for Priesthood is thereby warranted and empowred for the Office and work of a Priest 5. He surmiseth these words Receive ye the Holy Ghost are not c. this is to oppose Christ's Institution and in effect to make his Form of Commissionating his Apostles defective and insufficient For if that Form was sufficiently expressive of Apostolical Power and Authority then is it of Episcopal and it is most properly applied to them because if not only yet principally they are the Apostle's Successors even in the Judgment of many Learned Romanists and therefore this Form sealed by imposition of hands Constitutes a Person presented to Episcopacy a full Bishop by the Law of Christ without the supplement of any other auxiliary Form Father Davenport (c) Expos Paraphr artic confess Angl. p. 322. ad 325. alias St. Clara. hath evidenced from great Authority their new Additionals to be unnecessary Expos Paraphr Art Confess Angl. p. 322. Alii putant c. Others think saith he Imposition of hands as the Matter and those words Receive ye the Holy Ghost as the Form is as much as is required by Divine Law to the Essence of Episcopal Ordination and this they think from the Authority of the Scriptures which often and only makes mention of these two as (d) Bell. l. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. saith we cannot convince Hereticks that Order is a Sacrament because we cannot prove the external Symbol thereof from Scripture which is not possible for him to do of their new additional either Matter or Form Arrudius largely proveth 6. He assumes In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain c. But this his Assumption is 1. Frivolous It is absurd to object that against Protestants which if it were granted would render all the Ordinations in the Romish Church for 800 years meer Nullities 2. Fallacious he equivocates in the word Form which is either taken largely for the whole Office of Administration exemplified in the Ordinal or strictly for an Essential part of his Discourse and in the Conclusion he useth the word Form in the most comprehensive sense for the whole Rite of the Ministery which hath in it for the more Solemnity Prayers Exhortations Interrogatories c. but in the Assumption and middle-part he taketh it in the restrained sense for the Essential words which are the Constitutive Form as Imposition of hands is concluded to be the Matter this is their own distinction 3. False for in the Form that is the Protestants Ritual there are and always were express words for the Authority given in the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests for whose Ordinations there are distinct Forms and distinct Words The word Bishop oftner than three times used in the Office appointed for his Consecration and the word Priest sometimes in that prescribed for his Ordination Just according
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
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
forbid all Difference as well as contrariety Now it is clear those twelve new Doctrinals of Faith defined by the Pope Pius the fourth and set at the foot of the Old Creed if they be not contrary to them as most of them really are which might be proved by an Induction yet are they different from them for they are neither implicitly and virtually contained in them nor can by any direct or immediate consequence be deduced from them and therefore have no respect or relation to them nor connexion with them neither are they applied to the Old Creed as Explications thereof but were designed as so many supernumerary Articles of Faith the Catholick Church having only twelve Articles the Roman Church twenty four as some of their own sticklers confess which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved For they are dictated and proposed as so many distinct material objects of Faith to be believed in the same degree of necessity with the other to which they are superadded and therefore in the judgment of this Council and of the Latines themselves in their subterfuge the composition thereof is a dangerous Innovation and corruption in the Rule of Faith and the severe imposition of it is a Schismatical Presumption and a tyrannical Antichristian Usurpation 2. The second Conclusion is firmly deduced from another Canon of the same Council (b) C. 8. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis Nicene Council c. 6. which runs thus Let the same course be observed in other Diocesses and in all Provinces every-where that none of the Holy Bishops seiz upon another Province which was not of old and from the beginning under his Power This indeed particularly respected the exemption of the Cypriots from the encroachments of the Patriarch of Antioch yet for-as-much as the Decree passed in general words without any reservation to the Bishop of Rome he is thereby concluded as well as any other to be an ambitious Vsurper if he claim or exercise any Jurisdiction over the Churches which from the beginning were not under his Power Some of N. N's quick-sighted Gentlemen have apprehended the Decree to be so highly prejudicial to their pretensions and affections who therefore have endeavoured by Legerdemain to juggle it out of the Acts of this Council though if this unworthy Artifice had succeeded yet these Shufflers had gained nothing by it for the Nicene Council much earlier than this had confined the Bishop of Rome to his Bounds giving the like Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch within their respective Diocesses which the Bishop of Rome had within his The importance of which Order is That as certain Churches were consigned to the Bishop of Rome so were certain to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch and as those of his Diocess were not subject to them so neither those of their Diocesses were subject to him upon this account that it was not lawful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for any one to Invade (c) Nilus de primatu Papae and Soz. l. 7. c. 9. taketh this to be the Sense of the second General Council in Constantinople the words of the Canon confirm Nilus his Interpretation the Parilis mos and the ancient Customs As the Bishop of Rome had Power over all his Bishops so the Bishop of Alexandria was to have over his ex more according to Custom which Custom too was like which makes it appear the Roman Bishop was limited to his Diocess for there is no parity between an Vniversal Monarch and a Patriarchal Bishop and as it is absurd to say Alexandria must have bounds as Rome hath if Rome then had none so it is good Sense to say Let Alexandria be limited to her assignment and partition for Rome is the Sense then is Let the Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop be a Copy Pattern or Form for the Bishop of Alexandria as Pope Nicholas Epist 8. ad Mich. p. 690 expresseth it The Nicene Canon took from Rome an Example particularly what to give to Alexandria therefore if the Bishop of Rome his Jurisdiction was over all the World it could not be a Form or Reason for the limitation and distriction of Alexandria into Cantons so the African Fathers understood it Ep. Afric Conc. ad Coelest c. 105. anothers Jurisdiction The Bishop of Alexandria was to have under his charge Aegypt Lybia c. the Bishop of Rome had the oversight of the Churches of his Neighbourhood the (d) Ruff. l. 1. c. 6. Hincma p. 6. c. 4. C. R. was one of the seven Accidental Diocesses Berer Diatrib 1. c. 1. 3. and Britain was another id ib. p. 198. Suburbicarian Regions beyond which his Jurisdiction did not extend and which made up his Diocess viz. three Islands Corsica Sicilia and Sardinia and seven Provinces on the Continent Campania Tuscia Vicenum suburbicarium Apulia with Calabria Brutium Samnium and Valeria and further yet the Bishop of Rome had but one of the seven Diocesses as they were anciently called or chief Jurisdictions which were appointed to the Western Church and for those other seven or as some (e) Mr. Brerewod thinks there were but thirteen Diocesses in the whole Empire Enquir p. 170. number them six assigned to the Eastern Church they were never subject to his Jurisdiction Pope Agatho about (f) Confesseth in 6 Synod Act. 4. Conc. Tom. 5. p. 60 F. 64. E. 65. B. So Zonaras Ann. 680. confesseth his Authority did not reach the East but before that time when St. Ignatius lived the Church of Rome was only the Church of the chief City of the Regions (g) Inscription of his Epist ad Roman of the Romans and before him in St. Clements time it was but the Provincial Church of God at Rome as the Church of God was but the Provincial Church (h) Clemens Title of his Epist ad Corinth of God at Corinth to both which that Form of Prayer observed in the Church and exemplified in the Author of the Apostolical (i) Lib. 8. c. 10. Constitutions is very agreeable viz. Let us pray for the Episcopacy of the whole World for our Bishop James of Jerusalem and his Diocess for Clement of Rome and his Diocess for Evodius of Antioch and his Diocess So just was that Censure of a fast Friend to the Cause once (k) Aeneas Sylvius Ep. 288. the most was to preside over the West as Zonar a Pope which he bluntly delivered viz. before the Nicene Council little respect was had to the Roman See But what Respect She had then and like time after was only Arbitrary at the Courtesy of the Church which sometime gave her a large Apartment sometimes Cantoned it For a time the Church allotted the Bishop of Rome the Government of some Western Churches which anciently and from the beginning belonged not to his Diocess as the Macedonian (l) Zonar note on the 6 Sardican Canon Illyrian Peloponesian and
the Church of Epirus yet the Great Council of (m) Conc. penult 28. Act. 16. Chalcedon thought fit to remand this liberality and enstate them upon the Bishop of Constantinople upon this ground that then Constantinople was the Imperial City for thus the Order goes The Fathers orderly gave the Priviledg of Chiefty and Headship to the See of Old Rome because that Ally had the Empire and moved with like Consideration gave (n) Evagr. ◠◠c. ult the like Priviledges to the See of Constantinople thinking it agreeable to reason that the City of Constantinople being honoured with the Empire and Senate as Rome had been should enjoy the like Priviledges These Priviledges were not only some Honorary Titles and Dignities as some Romanists fancy but the like that Rome had which in express words is said to be a Priviledg of the Chiefty or Headship which some learned Romanists have observed and therefore render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (o) Anton. Salm. Dr. Ham. Schis disarm p. 94. Privilegia Dignitates Authoritates Priviledges Dignities and Authorities It is true the Precedency of Place which is meerly Honorary was reserved to the Bishop of Rome for which Respect and Honour there was great reason because the Church of Rome was a Metropolitical Church of long standing whereas the Church of Constantinople was not long before only a Suffragan This Canon hath put the Romanists to all their Shifts some pretending the whole last Action to be Spurious and Clandestine but why then did the Popes Legats oppose it a Spurious Act is of it self void and a Clandestine Act could not prejudice their Master and his Interest and why do they produce this Scandalous as they judg Act as a Proof for the Popes Plenitude of Power over that of a General Council These men will play at small game rather than stick out Counterfeit stuff must pass for the maintenance of the Papal Prerogative Others of them are so bold as to tell the World that after the Canon was passed the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch for he of Alexandria was dead and that See vacant were ashamed to move it this is a most disingenuous shameless falsity for it is notoriously known and most certain they (p) Conc. Tom. 3. p. 475. E. both subscribed it others would make the World believe this Council was not then free and the Canon extorted by tumultuous importunity This is another scandalous Calumny for all the Fathers did own it as their (q) Ibid. p. 463. Act and Deed both by Subscriptions and Attestations before the Judges deputed by the Emperour to see that Synodal Order was regularly observed for confirmation whereof they published a Manifesto But they of all other Shufflers seem to have taken the wisest course who very cautiously and industriously have left it out of their Editions of the Councils which saved them the labour of beating their Brains to invent such handsom Excuses Cavils and Calumnies which yet were much more than needed for this Canon was not Operative but Declarative not Introductory but Confirmative in Confirmation of what fifty years before had passed at the first General Council of Constantinople which resolved That the Bishop of Constantinople ought to have the Honour of Primacy next after the Bishop of Rome for that Constantinople (r) Conc. Constant 1. c. 1 2 3. Soz. l. 7. c. 9. is new-Rome And if both these were suspected and failed or not extant yet there is another Canon of this Council of Chalcedon which the Roman Censors have not as yet traduced either as Spurious or Clandestine or Forced and is received in their Editions which will quite foil and rout out Monarchical Sovereignty It is this (s) Conc. Chalced. c. 9. Act. 15. Si vero c. If any have a Complaint against the Metropolitan of the Province let him either repair to the Primate of the same Diocess or chief Jurisdiction or to the Royal City of Constantinople and let him be judged there Caran approved by Bell. in his Annot. will have the Bishop of Rome to be the Exarch for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not a Primate but a Prince and the Roman High-Priest is that Prince This shift is refelled in the third Council (t) Conc. 26 juxt Car. of Carthage which determined The Bishop of the first See which the Bishop of Rome is acknowledged to be shall not be called Prince of the Bishops As for the word Exarch in the Ecclesiastical notion it is sometimes applyed to an Arch-Bishop thus in the Greek Euchologue Notice being given to the Patriarch that a Church was building and near finished he directed a Letter for its Consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Metropolitan thereof or in his absence to some of the Bishops in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Province but ordinarily or more frequently it is attributed to the (v) Dr. Ham. Ans to the Animad on the dissert p. 177. Primate as here which is confirmed by Anaclitus who in a Decretal Epistle received by the Romanists which therefore is of good Authority against them thus informs us viz. In the head of the Province Primates are placed by Divine Ecclesiastical Laws that to them the Bishops when it is needful may resort and make their appeals this also is entered into and recited in the Body of the Canon-Law approved and published by Gregory the thirteenth All which is perfectly consonant to the directions for Appeals given in the Council of Chalcedon Let Appeal be made from the Bishop to the Metropolitan from him to the Primate or Exarch and that Law of the Emperour Justinian Let Patriarchs according to the Laws and Canons hear and make an end But the Bishop of Rome cannot be this Exarch for here are two Plenipotentiaries appointed in the same Commission strengthned with equal Power and Authorized to act jointly and severally in taking Cognisance of the Appeal and to give Sentence upon it and the Pope was neither of these Plenipotentiaries or Commissioners but only in a reserved case when the Bishop complainant should appeal to him which Bishop too must be one of his own Diocess and so had no Power conferred on him but that which the rest of the Patriarchs enjoyed equally with him for the respective Bishops of their Diocesses might if they pleased (w) Conc. Constan 1. c. 3. Appeal to their own Primate or the Bishop of Constantinople it was at their discretion to choose which of these they liked to hear and determin their cause of Complaint and were tied to make choice of one of these two but not at all to Appeal to Rome and the Bishop agrieved though he were one of the Roman Patriarch's Diocess might vvave him and seek remedy from the Bishop of Constantinople and therefore the Bishop of Rome had but the same Povver vvhich the other Patriarchs enjoyed and the Patriarch of Constantinople had the like in a more ample manner than either
time by (e) Marsil Petav. def part 2. c. 18. the Nicene Council But because N. N. stands so much upon his points of Prudence it may be neither an imprudent nor impertient digression to compare the Romish Principles and Practices with the Protestant and by discussing one of them more largely to judg of the rest more clearly It is universally acknowledged that the Doctrine of all Apostolical Churches disseminated over the whole Christian World is Infallibly certain because attested by Vniversal Tradition which in it self is so but it is generally confessed that the Tradition of an Apostolical Church of one denomination may prudently be traversed because often found certainly False Now Protestants rely upon Vniversal Tradition truly such for Time Place and Persons and the Authority of all Apostolical Churches Papists content themselves and sit down in security with the Tradition and Authority of the Roman Church and which is worse of the present Romish Church of this age Protestants prescribe for Sixteen hundred years there is no Law nor Custom to destroy or over-rule a Prescription of so long standing Papists plead as N. N. doth the acknowledgment of the sixteenth Century over-leaping all the rest and that but in our parts of the World Protestants believe the Scripture to be the adequate Rule of Faith as to the essentials thereof Papists hold unwritten Traditions are to be received with the same reverence and respect Protestants esteem those Books to be Canonical Scripture which the Catholick Church hath so adjudged Papists singularly superadd others to the Canon Protestants believe the Truths they profess to be Divine Revelation because God by his Son Jesus Christ hath delivered and promulgated them to Mankind Papists believe their supernumerary Articles which they assume to themselves because defined by an Infallible Pope with the advice and consent of a presumed General Council Protestants assert the Pope is not Infallible for Pope Honorius was a Convicted Heretick as before hath been proved The Catholick Church hath always resolved against his Infallibility and the Doctors of that Church cannot agree about it and some of them oppose it neither was that Council General say the Protestants because no Southern nor Eastern Bishops was there nor any Northern but one titular only Olaus magnus the Goth who for that time passed as an Arch-Bishop of Sweethland no English Bishops nor Irish save another blind Sir Robert the Scot who for that time being was reputed the Primate of Ireland only two French Bishops six Spanish the rest were Italians who when they came to be arrayed were mustered but to Forty three in all This was a Plot of the Pope to keep what his Predecessor Leo the tenth had got by the Lateran Assemblers and after him others still maintained but he was for all this contrivance possessed with fears and jealousies the Council would be tampering with his Jurisdiction as other Councils had done and therefore was very careful to have fresh supplies in readiness for a reserve and according as the Pope suspected it hapned for the Council began to form Canons for the redress and reformation of several abuses and to abridg the Popes unlimited Power in granting Dispensations of which design he received early intelligence from his Legates and thereupon moved the Council to desist from any further progress therein for six weeks which being accepted and condescended to he dispatched his new recruits of Auxiliaries forty Italian and Sicilian Bishops who within the time limited ariving at Trent over-voted the reformers in the Council and quite quashed their attempts which made the Apulean Bishops cry out in open Council O we are the Popes Creatures we are the Popes (f) Carol. Malin l. de ton Frid. n. 21. Slaves Protestants rely only upon the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ for their Salvation This Bellarm. saith is the safest way and therefore it is the most Prudential Papists will join in their own Merits of Works done by Grace which Bellarm. confesseth is a more uncertain way and therefore less Prudential Protestants ascribe all Religious Worship to God and to God only Papists give it to Images and the Consecrated Host Protestants know it is an indispensable duty to Pray to God for all things necessary both for Soul and Body and direct their Prayers only to God the Father through and for the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ alone Papists Pray to God by Jesus Christ for which Duty Zanchee entertains a charitable opinion of them but withall they invocate Angels and Saints departed as Conductors secondary and subordinate Mediators for which Practice Protestants aver there is no warranty in Scripture no Authority from Primitive Antiquity nor any rule in Reason to approve it either a necessary lawful or an expedient Duty But because some eminent Protestants have declared that Papists have more to say for this particular than in any of their other eleven additional new forged Articles if this Principle and Practice of theirs be cogently proved unscriptural unpractical and irrational the same may be concluded of the rest CHAP. VI. SECT I. IT is Vnscriptural The Scripture teacheth us and commands us to ask the Father in the name of his Son Jesus Christ it prescribeth no rule to ask in any other name but declareth against it For it proposeth Christ to us as our only Mediator and Intercessor there is one God to whom we are to make our requests known by Prayer and Supplication and there is one Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. 2.5 the God-man Jesus Christ by whom we have boldness of access to the Throne of Grace The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is emphatical importing thus much as there is one God only and no more even so there is one Mediator betwixt God and Man in reference to our Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgivings ver 2. one God and no other besides him even so one Mediator and none but he who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 who as he performed all Righteousness for us so the virtue and value thereof qualifies and capacitates him for the Office of being Advocate for us viz. to recommend open and plead our Cause for us and procure our Prayers to be granted none can effectually Mediate for us but he who did Redeem us he only can be our Advocate who is the Propitiation for our Sins which was Jesus only who for the more effectual execution of his Office of Advocate after he had offered himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins was advanced to sit on the right hand of God the Father Rom. 8.34 where it may be observed that it is the same Person that died for us and therefore as Jesus alone died for our Sins and rose again for our Justisication so for the application of these Benefits and Priviledges to us he only sits at God's Right-hand and makes Intercession for us this Office being as proper and
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
have confessed Imposition of Hands and the solemn words of Investiture Receive ye the Holy Ghost The Scripture knows no other Essentials but these which is also acknowledged by some of your Learned Partizans and these are constantly used by our Bishops who received their Ordinations from their Predecessors by an uninterrupted line of succession whether from British or French or Roman Bishops is not material because each of these had their Mission in your expression by a continued succession from the Apostles who planted the Faith and laid hands on their first Successors of these Nations Cardinal Pole the Papal Legat by his Dispensation and Pope Paul the 4th by his Ratification setled the Ordinations in King Edw. the 6th his Reign with this only Proviso that those then so Ordained would return to the Vnity of the Church that 's sure in their and your sense to adhere to the Pope and acknowledg his begged Sovereign Monarchical Power This they could not have granted neither would they if they had suspected any defect in the Essentials of their Ordination It is not in the power of the Pope or Cardinals to ratify their Orders who had none or dispence with them to execute any Function in the Church who had no Authority from Christ or his Apostles for it if they did your Church hath concluded the Act sacrilegious and null if we may believe some of your Controvertists 2. By the Constitutions of the Church what hath been universally observed and was decreed by the Councel of Carthage in St. Aug. time hath been and is still retained in the Church of England 3. By the Laws of the Kingdom both this and the others will appear by the Records upon both these accounts Bishop Jewel defended this Church against Mr. Harding Fol. 129. I am a Priest by the same Order c you were and after our Bishops succeed the Bishops before our days being Elected Confirmed Consecrated and admitted as they were Mr. Mason hath proved this beyond all cavil your own Associates Mr. Higgins Mr. Hart Father Garnet and Father Old-corn took the pains to search the Registers and after that Arch-Bishop Abbot caused them to be shewed to four more who after they had perused did acknowledg them Authentical and undeniable Ex abundanti Cudsemius the Jesuit Lib. 11. de Desp Cal. causa hath freely confessed the English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops Monsieur Militiere in his Letter to his Majesty Charles the Second hath declared the same Lastly look to your own Succession in which by your own Laws there be several Nullities by Vacancies Schisms and Simonies which if they were fully charged upon you would puzzel you to clear Having dispatched your Questions the Texts of Scripture are to be considered No man taketh this Honour c. True but this Honour is to be had in any Apostolical Church as well as yours which hath Elder Sisters particularly the British here in England confitente Baronio Faith cometh c. Very good But the Object of Hearing is not the Pope's decrees or Trent definitions but the word of Faith as before Gal. 118. The rest were true before there was a Church at Rome were true when she became an holy Church are true now it is an unsound rotten member of the Church would be eternally true if there were no Church at Rome nor Roman Bishop The Church shall not fail but Christ never setled this priviledg on the Roman or any Church of one denomination Christ's Church never faileth so long as there are Confessors through the World who contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS FINIS Some Books Printed for Henry Brome in Defence of the Church of England since the Year 1666. A Companion to the Temple or an Help to Devotion being an Exposition on the Common-Prayer in two Voll By Tho. Comber A. M. Lex Tallionis or an Answer to Naked Truth The Popish Apology reprinted and Answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery and the Defence on 't The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome considered Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical Account of the Reformation in England Friendly Advice to the Roman Cath. of England enlarged Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to the Lord Castlemain his Papal Tyrannie in England With two Sermons on Novemb. 5th Fourteen Controversial Lords for and against Popery in quarto Beware of two Extremes Popery and Presbytery octav The Reformed Monasterie or the Love of Jesus or a Sure Way to Heaven A Guide to Eternitie by John Bona. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers