others not till afterwards and upon several days 5. But N. N. is wronged is being reproved for falshood and misadventures he good man will say nothing but that for which he hath good authorities and good proofs which whether they be regular and valid is next to be examined SECT II. N. N. THis Narration of the Consecration at the Nags-head I have taken out of Hollywood Constable and Dr. Champney's Works They heard it from many of the ancient Clergy who were Prisoners in Wisbitch-Castle as Mr. Bluel Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln and others these had it from Mr. Neal and other Catholicks who were present at Mr. Parker's Consecration at the Nags-head as Mr. Constable affirms The story was divulged yet being so evident a truth none durst contradict it notwithstanding both the Nullity and Illegality was objected against them in Print not long after by the Famous Dr. Stapleton's Counterblast fol. 301. SECT II. J. S. ALL this here presented amounts to thus much 1. Mr. Neal and Mr. Constable reported the story therefore it is true Neal was an eye-witness and Constable took it upon trust and all the rest hear-say men So that the whole depends upon their credit and honesty who have crack'd their credit by their holy Fraud and lying Legends and practising the black Art of Equivocation and their honesty is justly suspected who care not what they say so they say something for the advantage of the good old Cause as will hereafter be declared 2. Dr. Bishop a fast Friend to the Cause in his Repr of Dr. Abbot's Defence p. 120 confutes this way of Argumentation saying Any man not past all care of his Reputation would be ashamed to cite such late partial Writers it is either where their testimony is not contradicted by their Adversaries when they set themselves industriously to detect falsifications in their Allegations or else those Protestants do annex the Authorities and Reasons on which their testimonies are grounded Testimonies of private men or hear-say men when crossed by Authentick Records are always slighted and contemned If the Homagers of a Manor swear to a custom which is more than speaking to it yet if there be any Court-Roll extant and produced which declares the contrary to their Depositions their testimony is thereby utterly invalidated Baronius in the point of Maxentius his Birth presumed to correct all former Historians by the discovery of an ancient Coin certainly an ancient Record is better than an ancient Coin can be for standing Records have always by all Nations and the consent of Mankind been esteemed the strongest human testimonies and the best assurances of Faith which ought not to be disbelieved or disputed upon the reports of particular men because they have been purposely devised and preserved for the discovery of Truth and the decision of Controversies which might arise in after-Ages and the rectifying of particular mens several apprehensions Such as these we produce in this case which have convinced and fully satisfied more ingenuous Adversaries than N. N. or his Narrators seem to be When Dr. Reynolds shewed these Records to Mr. Hart he confessed they were undeniable The Bishop of Chalcedon acknowledged that Father Oldcorn alias Hall took the leisure and pains to search the Records who thereupon concluded them authentick Arch-Bishop Whitgift with four other Bishops prevailed with four Popish Priests to view these Records which when they had done they declared to them freely that they were not to be doubted of 3. It hath been the common practice of such as these Narrators were as shall after more fully appear to divulge stories by an holy fraud either to stagger weak minds or to settle the over-credulous Bigots of their party in a detestation of Arch-Bishop Whitgifts life whom the Romanists may believe if they please if they will not take his word let them choose and shew the contrary hath given us a pregnant testimony hereof for he informs us that that Arch-Bishop going to Dover at his entrance into the Town an Intelligencer from Rome landed who wondred to see an Arch-Bishop in England and so honourably attended but seeing him the Sunday following waited on with a nobler Train and hearing the solemn Service of the Church he was overtaken with admiration and told an English Gentleman Sir Edw. Hobby who accompanied him that they were led in great blindness at Rome by our own Nation who made the people there believe that there was not in England either Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Cathedral Church or any Church-Government but c. 4. These his Narrators could never agree in the most material circumstances of the story they cannot speak either to the number of the Consecrators or Consecrated nor to the determinate place and time 5. The Story was contradicted assoon as it was divulged as hereafter will be more fully declared 6. Dr. Stapleton's Objection did not run on the Nag's-Head Score he never so much as mentioned it and therefore may reasonably be presumed either not to have heard any thing of it or not to believe it the former is more probable for it was not divulged in his time 7. If the matter had been performed clandestinely or intended so to have been Mr. Neal and the other Catholicks could not have been admitted neither should its clandestine performance have rendered the Act invalid When John the twelfth ordained a Deacon in a Stable I demand whether in N. N's private judgement the Ordination were invalid SECT III N.N. THey being not able to make good the Ordination against Catholicks were forced to beg an Act of Parliament whereby they might enjoy their Temporalities notwithstanding the defect of their Ordination against the Canons of the Church and Law of the Land For albeit King Edwards Rite of Ordination was established by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. yet it was notorious that the Ordination of the Nags-Head was very different from it and framed ex tempore by Scories Puritanical Spirit The Words of the Act are Such from and order for Consecrating Archbishops Bishops c. as was set forth in Edward the sixth's time shall stand and be in full force and effect and all Acts or Things heretofore done or made by any person or persons elected to the Office and Dignity of Archbishop c. by virtue of the Queens Letters Patents or by Commission sithence the beginning of her Reign be and shall be by Authority of this Parliament declared and judged good and perfect in all respects and purposes c. See Poulton in his Kalendar p. 141. n. 5. by which Act it appears that not only King Edwards Rite but any other used since the first of the Queens Reign upon her Commission was enacted good and so consequently the Nags-Head might pass Hence it was they were called Parliament Bishops SECT III. J. S. THE chief Argument which N.N. framed in this Section runs thus 1. Their Ordinations were defective as not ordered according to the Canons of the Church and Laws of
the 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
the Land therefore they were invalid which is a gross Non sequitur for the validity of an Ordination is distinct from the Canonicalness and Legality thereof But the Antecedent is false for Archbishop Parker's Consecration was according to the Canons of the Church-Catholick but not of the Roman which obviates one of Dr. Stapleton's pretended illegalities and according to King Edwards Rite as hath been proved which was then established by Law as N. N. here confesseth which is another Counterblast to Dr. Stapleton who thought otherwise and was the ground of Bishop Bonners Plea 2. The Preamble of the Act which N. N. misrepresents shews the purpose of it viz. The Parliament finding by the reproaches of some and the suspition of others that many were not satisfied with the form then used therefore that form was then used and upon that usage the Parliament concluded their Ordination Legal conceiving and objecting it was not sufficiently provided for by the Statute of Repeal 1 Eliz. though N. N. and the Author of the Anker with his Superiours think it was to remove these surmises and slanders they did declare for the then and after Consecrations made according to the Queens Letters Patents as they all were that they were notwithstanding these surmises and slanders good in Law and if any such were these also which were made by Commission as none were provided they were performed by King Edward's Rite as they were directed and so consequently the Act confirms no Consecrations nor entitles to Temporalities where the Rite was not observed The subsequent clause of the Act which N. N. cunningly conceals clears this which restrains all former and subsequent Consecrations to the form and Order prescribed in the Ritual of Edward the sixth and so consequently if there had been any such Consecration as is suggested even by this Act they were not Bishops in Law and were debarred of the Temporalities because by no Law they could claim them and by this Law disenabled to enjoy them 3. N. N. falls here very flat and dull in his vapouring humour he was Positive and Magisterial thus it was performed but here he is so modest it might be or it might pass will serve his turn and so absurdly argues thus it might pass therefore thus it did pass endeavouring to prove a certain thus it was by an uncertain thus it might be 4. He adds Hence it was c. This Calumny hath been oft confuted before he vented it for our Bishops depend not on Authority of Parliament for the validity of their Ordination and was long before sharply retorted by Bishop Jewel in these words You had then viz. in Queen Maries Reign a Parliament Faith a Parliament Mass a Parliament Pope c. fol. 521. SECT IV. N. N. THE Story of the Nags-Head was first contradicted by Mr. Mason in the year 1613 yet so weakly and faintly that he feared to be caught in a lye by some aged persons that might be then living and remembred what past in Queen Elizabeth her time SECT IV. J. S. THis that is related by N. N. here is another Falsity For the Story was contradicted by the Act of Parliament and Archbishop Parker's Life and by Bishop Goodwin who wrote his Book 1600 as he averreth p. 534 the rest is idle talk however he contradicted as it was openly divulged SECT V. N. N. IN Ann. 1603 none of the Protestants durst call it a Fable or a Tale of a Tub as some now do SECT V. J.S. THis also is false for he cannot but know if he know any thing concerning this report who called it so and since hath proved it a Fable That which was used as a pretext to Huckster it was this At Archbishop Parkers Confirmation where he was not personally a Dinner as the Lord Chancellor Egerton related to Bishop Williams was provided at the Nags-Head for the Civilians who attended that work according to Custom this place was pitched on as most convenient for its nearness to bow-Bow-Church where he was Confirmed and a Dinner at a Tavern Dr. Reeves utterly resused for that he had heard the Dining at a Tavern gave all the colour to that malicious lye of Dr. Parkers being Consecrated at the Naggs-Head and for ought he knew captious and malicious people would be ready to say the like upon the same occasion SECT VI. N. N. BIshop Bancroft being demanded by William Alabaster how Dr. Parker and his Colleagues were Consecrated he answered he hoped in case of necessity a Priest alluding to Scory might ordain Bishops This Answer was objected in Print against him and all the Protestant Clergy by Hollinwood Bancroft being alive then but not a word replied SECT VI. J. S. 1. WHether this Relation have any truth in it may be justly doubted many of the Popish Priests of those times and both before and after trading in Lies some to gain Proselites others to keep up their Credit and the People in heart others to defame their Adversaries The Secular Priests of that time complained of the spight of the Jesuites (h) And that often passim in Import Consid Joh. Gee Foot out of the Snare against the State The pretended Brethren of the Society say they do in their Writings calumniate the Actions thereof be they never so judiciously proceeded in never so apparently proved true and known to be most certain to raise and nourish and manner of Reports to discredit their Adversaries c. And if they were so bold with the State they would not stick at the defaming of great Persons and eminent Offices of the Church The like might be said of them one of N. N's Narrators Dr. Watson may be an instance The Papists in their Pamphlets gave out that Dr. King Bishop of London was a little before his death Reconciled to the Church of Rome because Mr. Musket a Secular had averred in a Book entituled The Bishop of London 's Legacy This being proved a malicious Lye by the Testimony of eye-witnesses who were present at his departure being thus caught in it they resolved to forge another if possible to make it good adding sin to sin which was That Father Preston was the man who did Reconcile him whereupon he was summoned to appear before divers Honourable Commissioners appointed to take his Examination December 20. 1621 but the honestly declared protesting before God and as he hoped to be saved by Jesus Christ that he never saw that Bishop to his knowledg nor could know him from another man if he did see him and he knew nothing of any such Reconciliation 2. If such a demand was proposed probably he sleighted it as being a demand full of ignorance and impudence 3. His Answer if any such was was good and argumentative ad hominem not alluding to Scory whom he knew to be a lawfully Consecrated Bishop upon every account and in every respect but to the practice of the See of Rome which allows a single Priest both to Ordain and Confirm by
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 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
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
which as (n) Alias Turcelline l. de 6 7 8 Synodis p. 65. Turrian relates is extant in the Vatican and it is very probable for Pope Leo seventy years after (o) Conc. Chalc. Act. 16. p. 136 137. Leo Ep. 53 54. Car. p. 201. by his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon opposed it though to no purpose for his resistance was not valued either by the Council or the Judges who indeed contemned it These two Popes then did withstand it but Caran adds That the Church of Rome would not by any means receive it though welfare a little touch of Ingenuity for the peace of the Church which it seems highly esteemed it it was not contradicted which in effect imports thus much The Popes and Church of Rome were so cunning as to dissemble their spight against this Council and that Act especially but durst not shew their teeth for fear of the Emperour For the proof of this relation he refers to Innocent the third and St. Gregory the great whom he cites truly for though in one Epistle he professeth to (p) Lib. 2. Ep. 24. embrace that Council as one of the four Evangelists and testifieth that the Church of (q) Ibid. Ep. 10. Rome then owned it yet in another Epistle he (r) Lib. 6. Ep. 31. confesseth that until his time or age wherein he lived that Council and the Acts and Canons thereof were not entertained by the Roman Church so that for the space of two hundred years and upwards for that Council convened Ann. 381. and Gregory flourished Ann. 600. it was opposed and rejected as far as in safe Policy it could be done by the Church of Rome but notwithstanding this opposition the Catholick Church still reputed it a lawful General Council and all the Acts and Canons thereof to be obligatory and occasionally practised according to them which is next to be demonstrated For by warranty of that Canon in this Council which so perplexed the Roman Church Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople in the right of his Sec did take place before and above the Patriarchs of Alexandria (s) In the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. Conc. Chalc. p. 8. Synod Ann. 553. Coll. 1. and Antioch and so did Eutychius in the fifth Synod Ann. 553. And when it was reported to the Fathers of Chalcedon that Flavianus Patriarch of Constantinople in the reprobated Council of Ephesus neglected himself sitting below the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem they were much offended saying in great zeal Why did not Flavianus sit in his proper place that was next to the Bishop of Rome or his Legates By authority of this Canon which so troubled the Popes Patience St. Chrysostom when he was Bishop of Constantinople (v) Conc. Chalc. Act. 11. in fine Soz. l. 8. c. 6. saith 14. in Ann. 400. Pallad in vit Chrys deposed fifteen Bishops in Asia the lesser and ordained and settled others in their Sees and Dignities and in Ann. 400 the same St. Chrysostom celebrated a Council at Ephesus to which he called all the Asian Bishops who readily attended him After this Justinian the Emperour commanded all the Canons of this Council which the Popes would if they durst have publickly rejected Dipticis inseri praedicari to be Recorded in the Eclesiastical Books Rolls or Registeries and publickly to be read in all Churches in token of their (w) Novel c. 1 2. Vniversal Approbation But albeit both Law and Usage the best Interpreter of Law concur for the proof of this Conclusion yet the cry still goes O the Mother O the Mother Church of Rome which is hotly pursued by the Bigots set on by the Boutefeu's of the Tribe This hath made a great clutter and bustle in the world which yet hath nothing in it but folly and disingenuity and impudence for can any man in his right Wits who is not tainted either in his Intellectuals or Morals ever hearken to such a Perswasion so contrary to all Records Divine and Human The Scriptures make Jerusalem the Mother-Church Gal. 4.16 But Jerusalem which is above or the New Jerusalem as it is stiled Revel 21.2 and the Holy Jerusalem ver 10 whose wall had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb which is Mother of us all Christians Believers of the Gospel where the Church of Christ was first planted by the Apostles and St. Peter Preached his first Sermon and begot many to the Faith and from whence they all departed after to execute their Apostolical Commission For this Jerusalem is not that which shall be but that in which the House of God shall be built with a Glorious building and all Nations shall turn and fear the Lord God truly and bury their Idols so shall all Nations praise the Lord and as old Tobit instructed his Son Tobit 14 5 6 7 as it is here allegorically expressed for that City was a Type of the Christian Church Psal 48.2 and 122.3 Isa 31.5 In the Old Testament it was foretold to be the mother-Mother-Church of Christianity Out of Sion shall go forth the Law of Faith as it is universally Interpreted and the Word of the Lord the Gospel from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 Mic. 4.2 And in the New Testament the Prophecy is accomplished and verified where it is plainly declared that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in Christs Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem c. Luke 24.47 48 49. Act. 1.8 and fully compleated Act. 2. per tot So for Human evidences the first General Council at Constantinople is clear which expresly owneth Jerusalem for the Mother of all Churches to which Tert. (x) Cap. 20. which Pam. thus Gloseth this is the first from which the Church all the World over is disseminated so Hier. Interprets that of Isa 2. and this is the Mother Church from whence the Faith came to us as the same Tert. lib. 4. adver Marc. Rome is but one of the Sister Churches which yet are Mothers in their Precincts Id. ib. de praec c. 36. may be added in his Book de Prescr The Church was first founded at Jerusalem as the Seminary of the Churches all the World over and ex abundanti even in St. Bernard's time when the Church of Rome had exceeded her limits yet had she not the reputation of Vniversal Mother nor the Honour of Lady Mother at least in his judgment for thus he writ to (y) Lib. 4. de Consid Tom. 2. p. 141. tit L. Edit Venet. Pope Eugenius Above all things consider that the Holy Roman Church over which thou art placed by God is a Mother of Churches some not all and so every Apostolical Church is as well as Rome not a Lady or Mistriss of any and thou thy self not a Lord of Bishops but one of them It is true St. Cyprian saith Rome is the or rather a principal Church from whence the unity of Priesthood first began but this signifies nothing
ORIGO PROTESTANTIUM OR AN ANSWER TO A Popish Manuscript OF N. N's That would fain make the Protestant Catholick Religion Bear date at the very time when the Roman Popish commenced in the WORLD WHEREIN PROTESTANCY is demonstrated to be elder than POPERY To which is added a JESUITS LETTER With the ANSWER thereunto annexed By John Shaw Rector of Whalton in Northumberland and Preacher at St. Johns in New-Castle upon Tine Cypr. Pomp. contr Ep. Steph. Quod nunc facere oportet Dei Sacerdotes divina Precepta servantes ut in aliquo si nutaverit vacillaverit veritas ad Originem Dominicam Evangelicam Apostolorum traditionem revertamur inde surgat actus nostri ratio undè origo surrexit LONDON Printed for H. Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-Yâ—â—â— 1677. TO The Right Worshipful Sir RALPH CARR MAYOR Sir ROBERT SHAFTO RECORDER THE ALDER MEN SHERIFF And the rest of the Members of the Ancient Town and County OF Newcastle upon Tine J. SHAW Humbly presenteth this ensuing TREATISE The Preface WHen it pleased God in his great goodness and mercy to this Persecuted Church and Harassed Kingdom by a miraculous Providence to restore his Sacred Majesty to his just Rights and the Church to her Legal and Primitive settlement I also who was before necessitated to seek shelter elsewhere till the Tyranny was overpast returned to my own Native Countrey where I found diverse whom I left professed Sons of our Church turned Renegades having forsaken their own Mother in the day of Trial and betaken themselves to that flattering Stepdame of Rome This I reflected on with much regret and so much the more because I found that with this defection from their Mother they were also grown cool in their Affection to the common Father of their Countrey our Sovereign Lord the King as being sowred with Republican or Protectorian Leaven infused into them by the so much admired Thomas de Albiis amongst others I observed further that the Romanists in these parts grew every day more insolently active to bring more Grist to their own Mill and List more men in the Popes Service not only by Printed Books but also by private Letters and Manuscripts The first whereof that came to my hands was the short Letter subjoyned to this Treatise to which I have upon my Friends request framed an Answer and here annexed to the Letter The next I met with was a Manuscript that would fain usurp the Title of Origo Protestantium sent me by a Gentleman for my opinion thereof which after having perused and transcribed it I returned to him again and have here endeavoured to refute and therein vindicate the English Reformation The Author seems to be a man in great request amongst them especially if he be the same N. N. who assisted in the late Conference if not he is probably that N. N. who was Second to Father Knott as S. W. or W. S. was to Mr. White Be the Author who he will you are to understand that as the design of the former was to seduce unstable Souls from our Church by suggesting it to be no true Church through the defect both of Moral and Personal Successions so also the great business of this latter is to prove the Nullity of our Church for want of Personal Succession therein chiefly upon the old Nags-Head Story which might have passed for current Roman Coin perhaps in 57 when Lilly's Almanack and Mother Shipton's Prophesy were in vogue But they are much out in their Politicks who think such like Riff-raff as fitly Calculated for 75 the World is grown a little Older and so much Wiser too than to believe all is Gold that Glisters and can discern between Legends and true History however the insinuating Jesuit would fain become again a Pearl for a Lady Other Scripts and Prints of this nature and to this effect are since come to my sight which perhaps I may when I have nothing else to do animadvert upon holding my self obliged to lend my poor endeavours in scouring these Northern Coasts especially of those Popish Pirats who count all Fish that comes to the Net and will break all Laws to compass one unlawful Prize Mean while the Reader is desired to Correct such Errata as he may possibly meet with in this Treatise in regard of the Author 's great distance from the Pres and he will thereby oblige His Humble Servant J. Shaw Origo Protestantium OR PROTESTANCY Before POPERY CHAP. I. SECT I. N.N. IN the year 1516 there was no other Religion in our Parts of the World acknowledged Catholick and Apostolick but that which the Protestants now call Popery SECT I. J.S. 1. PRotestants on the contrary assert that which now is called Popery though it was then the prevailing Faction in the Church yet it was not the acknowledged Catholick Religion in these our parts of the World Erasmus (a) Epist ad Godeshal Ros hath declared there was nothing in Luther but might be defended by good Authors he had good reason to say so for that the Pope and his Great Council did politickly devise and erect an expurgatory Office which they industriously advanced to expunge out those very Doctrines which the Protestants embrace Particularly the Doctrine of Merits in and about that time was not reputed Catholick In a Book entituled A form of Baptisme according to the Practice of the Roman Church Printed at Paris (b) But since Corrected in 6 places or otherwise prohibited by the Inquisitors of Spain p. 249. 1575. And in the Roman Pontifical Venet. 1585 (c) Reformed at Rome Ann. 1602. under this head Questions to be made to a dying man this is one Credis quod c. Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ died for thy Salvation and that none be Saved by their own Merits or by any other means but only by the Merits of his Passion And in a Book much elder than these called Hortulus Animae (d) Since forbidden Index lib. prohib p. 156. A Garden of health for the Soul there are several Questions of the same nature and import which were daily used by the Ecclesiasticks in their visitation of the Laicks The like are to be found in Breviloq Bonav in Gerson de Agon interrog Ansel published by Cassander commended by Caspar Vtembergius and confessed by Martin Eisingreene (e) Tract Apol. de cert gratiae pro vero Germano intellectu Can. 13. Sess 6. Conc. Triden c. 8. a learned man and Chaplain to the Emperour to be the ordinary form used at the visitation of the Sick in their last Agonies further relating that he found an old Book in the (f) Called Rhasme id ib. p. 484. Covent of the Augustine Friers wherein the same Questions were and further adds that such there were in Agendis veteribus the ancient Liturgies of Wittenburg Salsburg Mentz c. 2. That which Protestants call Popery and is the Fundamental of all
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
the matter of Fact and then to discover the imperfections and mistakes therein It is the Papal Power which was challenged in Ecclesiastical Affairs and which was by Act of Parliament and Convocation cast out of this Kingdom but the method used therein was solemn and regular For it was debated in the Vniversities and chief Monasteries An aliquid Authoritatis c. Whether any Authority did of right belong to the Pope more than to any other Forreign Bishop in this Kingdom of England It was resolved in the negative which resolution was soon after concluded in (a) An. 1537. and validly asserted in a Book Entituled The Institution of a Christian Man the Convocation in which also a rude draught of Reformation was chalked out as may be seen in the (b) And the Kings Injunctions by the Lord Cromwel Fox Acts and Monuments in Henr. 8. p. 1104. Records whereupon some Superstitious abuses were suppressed For we find a Letter of Henry the eighth directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he was commanded to suppress the Worship of Images Reliques and Superstitious Pilgrimages as being contrary to his Injunctions and accordingly the Images of the Lady of Walsingham and and the Lady of Ipswich were burned (c) Speed in Hen. 8. n. 100. and l. 6. c. 9. n. 13. Sand. de Schis Angl. l. 1. p. 165. 166. at Chelsey and more than so that King declared esse sibi c. He and the King of France were thinking to abolish the Mass in their respective Dominions About this time a Tract was written de vera differentia c. Of the true difference of Regal and Ecclesiastical Power Composed by John Stokesley Bishop of London Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Stephen Gardiner of Winchester and Dr. Thirlby after of Westminster in which the Resolution of the Vniversities Monasteries and Convocation was asserted from the practice of the Saxon and first Norman Kings and then what was thus concluded and asserted was confirmed by Act of Parliament All which is agreeable to the Canon-Law which fully settles the Kings Supremacy Inter personas Ecclesiasticas intro Regni sui terminos Rex est Supremus Gubernator qui in Ecclesia summum potestatis culmen obtinet c. citante Drezouch de Script Jur. Jud. Eccles Part. 1. Sect. 2. p. 3. This being premised and the main of it acknowledged by Learned Romanists the cavils which N. N. hath framed are next to be considered 1. He tells us Henry the eighth first gained c. If by gaining he mean this Title was not assumed by the former Kings of England or that Henry the eighth acquired a right thereto by the bounty of the Pope he may be mistaken for our Kings have a right thereto (d) From a Parliament in the Conquerours time the first words of Magna Charta and the Kings Coronation Oath and Stat. of 24 Henr. 8. c. 12. Jure Coronae and it was anciently used by them as appears by several Charters by former Kings to the University of Oxford particularly that of Richard the second and long before in Ann. 435 Guithilinus Archbishop of London in his speech to Constantine then King of England stiles him the Defender and Restorer of the Faith assuring him he was Christs immediate Vicar and Vicegerent in his Kingdom by for and under whom he should Reign and Conquer as well as Constantine the great He that would be farther satisfied in this particular may consult Sir Isaak Wake his (e) And the Present State of England first Treatise p. 88. Rex Platonicus Certain it is all this King gained by this Complement of Pope Leo was just as much as his Daughter Queen Mary gained by the courtship and cunning of Paul the fourth who forsooth for her sake would undertake to form Ireland into a Kingdom which had been one long before and would bestow on her the Title of Queen of Ireland which her Father had assumed and her Brother enjoyed 2. He talks of his lawful Wife c. This is but one Doctors opinion he may give his betters leave to speak who were not of N. N's private judgment For this matter was debated at Oxon before the Bishop of Lincoln and at Cambridge before Stephen Gardiner and Dr. Fox who concluded the Kings marriage with Katherine to be unlawful so did the Universities of Paris Orleans Anjou Burges Padua but none of them more fully than that of Bononia the Popes retiring place and part of St. Peters Patrimony confidently averring the Marriage was horrible accursed and abominable c. and that the Pope had no power to grant a Dispensation in that case Our own Historians report that the Pope privately gave out a Bull to declare the Marriage unlawful if his Legat Cardinal Campeius could have obtained his desires from the King but the Author of the History of the Council of Trent fol. 68. confidently affirmes that there was a Brief framed in which the King was declared free from that Marriage with the most ample Clauses that were put into any Popes Bull. Whereas therefore N. N. saith King Henry borrowed of the New Religion his Supremacy to marry Ann Bullen it is most false For Stephen Gandiner assures us that whereas the Sentence of Gods Word that is the Old Religion had been sufficient in that affair yet his Majesty disdained not to use the censures of the gravest men and most famous Vniversities and Guicciardine (f) Lib. 19. p. 891. relates that the Pope himself thought that the Divorce of King Henry was lawful 3. N. N. is offended that the Popes Jurisdiction is taken away by the extinguishing Act. This he misunderstands That Power which the Pope was devested of was termed Spiritual but not in that sense that the Power of the Keys is Spiritual for this is properly and formally Spiritual extending only to the Conscience but in that sence the Courts of the Church are stiled Spiritual Courts because of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Those words in the Act No Forreign Prelate shall exercise any Spiritual Power c. any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not meant of Power properly such but external and coactive which as Rivet distinguisheth is Spiritual Objective though not formaliter That this is the true sense is evident from (g) 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. provis 1. and in the extinguishing Act. 28 Hen. 8. c. 10. the Act it self which is a purely Political Ordinance framed upon reasons and respecting only such ends and uses as are meerly civil viz. to preserve this Realm from Rapin c. as it is declared Proviso the first Hereupon the Title of Supreme was (h) By the King 26 Hen. 8. c. 1. Staplet de tribus Thom. in Thom. Cant. complained and cryed out that Henry the second clandestinely demanded what Henr. 8. openly usurped reassumed by the King which signifies only a Political Governing Head as Saul was of the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15.17 to see that all Subjects
account among the common People In this Confusion the Protector calls a Parliament 1547 but the Common-Prayer Book did not then pass yet all former Statures made against Hereticks or Sectaries were recalled and annulled In the ensuing Parliament the Book was approved because it seemed in matter of the Sacraments to humour divers Sectaries who before had opposed it yet the Common People of England took Arms in defence of the Old Roman Catholick Religion complaining that most Sacraments were taken from them and they had reason to fear the rest This was King Edwards Reformation which could not be perfected because he lived but six years It is remarkable how in this Kings time it was resolved that whatsoever should be determined by six Bishops such as they were and six Learned men in the Law of God or the major part of them concerning the Rights Ceremonies and Administration of the Sacraments that only should be followed Never did any Sectaries before this time presume so far as ours did in preferring the judgment of seven men for that is the major part of twelve before that of the Christian World in changing the matter and form of Sacraments abolishing the Sacrifice of the Mass and ancient Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Catholick confirmed by so many General Councils and approved by all the Ancient Fathers Heresy is always accompanied with presumption but this exceeds all Parallel SECT II. J. S. HEre again something in General is to be premised to remove those prejudices which N. N. hath raised against the procedure of Edward the sixth It is granted that King was but a Child yet it must not be denied that the Laws of the Kingdom committing the exercise of Supreme Power in that case to a Protector what was regularly done by him ought to be deemed as valid as if the King had been of age and done it himself The Reformation made in Jehoash his minority 2 Chron. 23 though it was the immediate Act of his Uncle Jehojada was firm to all intents and purposes It is acknowledged also That Images were pulled down a Body of English Liturgy formed c. But what was done in these particulars was done without confusion or contradiction For it was done by Authority of the Supreme Power with the advice and consent of the major part of the Bishops not opposed by the Convocations but rather approved for that the Clergy in the respective Diocesses generally practised the prescribed form and after confirmed by Parliament This appears from the Provisional Injunctions 1 Edw. 6. and the Acts of Parliament 2 3 Edw. 6. to which the Bishops had so great a respect that as they practised themselves so they took care for the uniform observation of these Injunctions and Statutes requiring conformity to them from the Inferiour Clergy which accordingly they submitted to For we find a charge was drawn against Stephen Gardiner one Article whereof was He observed not the Book of Common-Prayer nor ordered the observation thereof in his Diocess to which charge he made this Answer to the Duke of Somerset with five others of the Council viz. That he having deliberately perused the Book of Common Prayer although he would not have made it so himself yet he found such things in it as satisfied his Conscience and therefore he would use it himself and see his Parishioners do so too the same in effect he said to the Lord Treasurer Secretary Peters and Sir William Herbert when they came to him with Articles from the King himself To confirm this procedure it is to be observed 1. The whole affair was managed by an approved Catholick Rule which was to reform what was amiss according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and usage of the Primitive Church not to form any New Religion but retrieve the Old and to reduce it into that state as Christ had left it the Apostles practised and the Primitive Church had received and observed as the King declared to the Romish Rebels 2. It was ordered as the Tridentine Assemblers thought most fit Decreto de Celebratione Missae in which Institutions were read concerning abuses to be corrected in the Celebration of the Mass the substance whereof was that the Bishops ought to forbid all things brought in by Avarice Irreverence or Superstition If it be alleadged the Bishops were so to do as Delegates of the See of Rome the Return is obvious Our Bishops as Commissioners of the Supreme Power might do what they did with better Authority and Warranty For 1. Learned Romanists do confess that particular Nations have a Power to purge themselves from Corruptions as well in Church as State without leave from the See of Rome This is acknowledged by Seren. Cressy in his Answer to Dr. Pierce's Sermon p. 285. But what if the Pope issue out a Prohibition and interdict the whole Nation very many of them do conceive it may be waved and opposed because no reason can be assigned why the Church should continue under known Corruption for the Popes reâ—lyeness to have them redressed Aeneas (l) De Conc. Basil l. 1. Silvius after Pius the second was once of this mind for that if the Popes recusancy may hinder the proceedings of a General Council to the disturbance of the Church corruptions of the Minds of Men and the destruction of their Soul all would thereby be undonne without remedy Cardinal (m) De concord Conc. l. 2. c. 12. l. 3. c. 15. Gusan goes yet higher affirming that the Emperour in duty was obliged by his Imperial Authority to Assemble a Synod when the great danger of the Church required it which determination was also resolved in the first (n) Conc. Pis impress Lutet 1612. fol. 69. Pisan Council Quintinus (o) A Lawyer and pablick Professor at Paris in repet lectione de Civitatis Christianae Aristocratia Heduus who lived in Henry the eighth's time hath aproved by many Canons that if the Pope command and the King forbid the King is to be obyed therefore when the King calls together the Prelats of the Church to reform the state thereof they are bound to obey though the Pope forbid it (p) Franc. praelect 4. a. 161. at this day a General Council may be called against the Popes mind by the Emperour and the Christian Princes whether he will or not Baron (q) Ad Ann. 553. n. 2. confesseth the second General Council is approved though Pope Damasus with might and main opposed it Vigilius though once he consented to the calling of the first General Council yet when he was called to give his personal appearance and afford his assistance and concurrence being commanded so to do by the Emperour and solicited thereto by twenty (r) Baron 553. n. 35. Metropolitans whereof three were Patriarcks the sturdy insolent Pope utterly refused whereupon the Emperour the necessity of the Church which was then in a general Tumult and Schism about the (s) Ibid. Ann.
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
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
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
of Chalcedon Survey c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden Anal. of Faith saying the present State of the Protestant Church consisting of Protestant Bishops c. and their Protestant Flock not being likely to continue long no Church If this design prevailed with some crasy minds they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions as This then did for besides that long Schism formerly related in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa c. as Car. speaks p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp and in this very juncture of time their contests were so high that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists were then so hot that both Parties pressed a decision and by consent referred the matter to the Pope who because he did not understand the points in debate would fain have declined it pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles waved it and commanded silence to both Parties which pleased neither and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity but both sides still moving for a hearing because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy at last being overcome with importunity he condescended But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest at one Congregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting (e) 2 Congregation July 8. St. Augustin at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen and not producing the Evidences of Scripture Councils (f) 10 Congregation and Fathers In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day but it proved otherwise the Pope passed his Sentence in favour (g) Ann. 1653 whom before he had branded and paradigmatized with Insincerity of the Molinists All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch vvhich so startled him that he durst trifle no longer but the main reason vvas he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project in fomenting our intestine broils to reduce this Kingdom into a State This is certain his Nuncio Joh. (h) â—lench mot nuper in Angl. par 2. p. 7. inde Bapt. Renuncino after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels he Excommunicated them This was not all the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion to add it to the Triple Crown All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Successors Net if the Kings be Guelphs their Kingdoms are Gibelins if they be Catholicks their Crowns are Hereticks It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies but upon forced put his main work is to rule over Nations to rout out c. Jer. 1.10 as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change they did not act according to the common received measures of Prudence which is to stay where we are till we know where to be better For this Church at the worst was much better than that they revolted to this was a Distressed Church that a Depraved this had Scars in the Face that Ulcers in the Heart this Wounded in the Skin that Rotten in the Vitals this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound that Heretical and Corrupt For to state the case between the Church of England and that of Rome impartially the Quaere will be Whether for some defects in Rituals be they really such or only pretended it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism Heresy and Idolatry at least less subject to a suspition of any of these or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty or most justly presumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions If Prudence must resolve the Quaere the issue and verdict will be It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Proselyte to Rome for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more more apparent and more real danger for fear of a less less evident and more remote danger This only remains to be proved that the Church of Rome is Guilty or justly presumed to be so of dangerous Innovations and Corruptions which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions constringently asserted 1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered and hath been since the times of Julius the second and Leo the tenth at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court thereof hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith by Composing a new Creed or which is as bad hath clogged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Additionals which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation 2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline by setting up her Bishop as the Vniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Supremacy over he whole Body of Christ and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church for not submitting thereto CHAP. V. SECT I. 1. THE first Conclusion is fully evident from the famous Council (a) C. 7. Caran in can Pelt Jesuit in summa illius capitis difference as well as contrariety Conc. Flor. Sess 10. Conc. Tom. 7. p. 641. D. 644. B. at Ephesus for the maintenance wherof the Popes are sworn and therefore cannot without the guilt of Perjury reject its Sentence This Decreed That it should not be lawful for any man to Publish or Compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defined by the Nicene Council and that whosoever shall dare to Compose or offer any such thing to any Persons willingly to be Converted from Judaism or Heresy if they be Bishops and Clerks as the Popes be should be Deposed if Lay-men should be Anathematized When this Authority was urged by the Greeks to the Latines in the Council of Florence they only Answered That this Canon did not forbid another explication agreeable to the truth contained in that Creed but did indeed
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
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