〈◊〉 sayes the Text The Holy Ghost was not yet So almost all the Greek Copies Printed and Manuscript and so St. Chrysostom Athanasius Cyril Ammonius in the Catena of the Greeks Leontius Theophylact Euthymius and all the Greek Fathers read it So St. Hierom and St. Austin among the Latines and some Latine Translations read it Our Translations read it The Holy Ghost was not yet given was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them as some few Greek copies read it but the meaning is alike Confirmation was not yet actual the Holy spirit viz. of Confirmation was not yet come upon the Church but it follows not but he was long before promised designed and appointed spoken of and declared * The first of these collations had the Ceremony of Chrisme or Anointing joyned with it which the Church in process of time transferred into her use and ministry yet it is the last onely that Christ passed into an Ordinance for ever It is this onely which is the Sacramental consummation of our Regeneration in Christ for in this the Holy spirit is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present by his power but present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Gregory Nazianzen expresses it to dwell with us to converse with us and to abide for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So St. Paul describes this Spirit of Confirmation the Spirit which he hath poured forth upon us richly or plentifully that is in great measures and to the full consummation of the first mysteries of our Regeneration Now because Christ is the great Fountain of this blessing to us and he it was who sent his Fathers spirit upon the Church himself best knew his own intentions and the great blessings he intended to communicate to his Church and therefore it was most agreeable that from his Sermons we should learn his purposes and his blessing and our duty Here Christ declared re◠Sacramenti the spiritual Grace which he would afterwards impart to his Church by exterior ministry in this as in all other Graces Mysteries and Rituals Evangelical Nisi quis Vnless a Man be born both of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God But the next objection is yet more material 2. For if this be the meaning of our Blessed Saviour then Confirmation is as necessary as Baptism and without it ordinarily no man can be saved The solution of this will answer a case of conscience concerning the necessity of confirmation and in what degree of duty and diligence we are bound to take care that we receive this Holy rite I answer therefore that entring into the Kingdom of God is being admitted into the Christian Church and warefare to become Sons of God and Souldiers of Jesus Christ and though this be the outward door and the first entrance into life and consequently the Kings high way and the ordinary means of Salvation yet we are to distinguish the external ceremony from the internal mystery The Nisi quis is for this not for that and yet that also is the ordinary way Vnless a Man be baptized that is unless he be indeed regenerate he cannot be sav'd and yet baptism or the outward washing is the solemnity and Ceremony of its ordinary ministration and he that neglects this when it may be had is not indeed regenerate he is not renewed in the spirit of his mind because he neglects Gods way and therefore can as little be sav'd as he who having receiv'd the external Sacrament puts a bar to the intromission of the inward grace Both cannot alwayes be had but when they can although they are not equally valuable in the Nature of the thing yet they are made equally necessary by the Divine Commandment And in this there is a great but general mistake in the doctrine of the Schools disputing concerning what Sacraments are necessary necessitate medii that is as necessary means and what are necessary by the necessity of praecept or Divine Commandment For although a less reason will excuse from the actual susception of some than of others and a less diligence for the obtaining of one will serve than in obtaining of another and a supply in one is easier obtain'd than in another yet no Sacrament hath in it any other necessity than what is made meerly by the Divine Commandment But the grace of every sacrament or rite or mystery which is of Divine ordinance is necessary indispensably so as without it no man can be sav'd And this difference is highly remarkable in the words of Christ recorded by S. Mark He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Baptism it self as to the external part is not necessary necessitate medii or indispensably but baptismal Faith for the remission of sins in person capable that indeed is necessary for Christ does not say that the want of baptism damns as the want of Faith does and yet both Baptisme and Faith are the ordinary way of Salvation and both necessary baptism because it is so by the Divine Commandment and faith as a necessary means of salvation in the very Oeconomy and dispensation of the Gospel Thus it is also in the other Sacrament Vnless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood we have no life in us and yet God forbid that every Man that is not communicated should dye eternally But it means plainly that without receiving Christ as he is by Gods intention intended we should receive him in the Communion we have no life in us Plainly thus without the internal grace we cannot live and the external ministery is the usual and appointed means of conveying to us the internal and therefore although without the external it is possible to be sav'd when it is impossible to be had yet with the wilful neglect of it we cannot Thus therefore we are to understand the words of Christ declaring the necessity of both these Ceremonies they are both necessary because they are the means of spiritual advantages and graces and both minister to the proper ends of their appointment and both derive from a Divine Original But the ritual or ceremonial part in rare emergencies is dispensable but the Grace is indispensable Without the grace of Baptism we shall dye in our sins and without the grace or internal part of Confirmation we shall never be able to resist the Divel but shall be taken captive by him at his will Now the external or ritual part is the means the season and opportunity of this grace and therefore is at no hand to be neglected least we be accounted despisers of the grace and tempters of God to wayes and provisions extraordinary For although when without our fault we receive not the sacramental part God can and will supply it to us out of his own stores because no man can perish without his own fault and God can permit to himself what he please as being Lord of
ΧΡΙΣΙΣ ΤΕΛΕΙâ—ΤΙΚΗ A DISCOURSE OF Confirmation For the use of the Clergy and Instruction of the People of Ireland By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down Publish'd by Order of Convocation AND Dedicated to His Grace James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormonde c. Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland DUBLIN Printed by John Crooke Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer next door to the Beare and Ragged-staffe in Castle-street 1663. To His Grace James Duke Marquess and Earl of Ormonde Earl of Ossory and Brecknock Viscount Thurles Lord Baron of Arclo and Lanthony Lord of the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary Chancellor of the University of Dublin Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sommerset one of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Councils of His Majesties Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Lord Steward of His Majesties Houshold Gentleman of His Majesties Bed-Chamber and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter May it please Your Grace IT is not any Confidence that I have Dexterously performed this charge that gives me the boldness to present it to Your Grace I have done it as well as 〈◊〉 For I took not this task upon my self but was entreated to it by them who have power to Command me But yet it is very necessary that it should be addressed to Your Grace who are as Sozomen said of Theodosius Certaminum Magister orationum Judex constitutus You are appointed the great Master of our arguings and are most fit to be the Judge of our Discourses especially when they do relate and pretend to publick Influence and Advantages to the Church We all are Witnesses of Your Zeal to promote true Religion and every day find You to be a Great Patron to this very poor Church which groans under the Calamities and permanent effects of a War acted by Intervals for above 400. years such which the Intermedial Sun-shines of Peace could but very weakly repair our Churches are still demolished much of the Revenues irrecoverably swallowed by Sacriledge and digested by an unavoidable impunity Religion infinitely divided and parted into formidable Sects the People extreamly ignorant and wilful by inheritance superstitiously irreligious and uncapable of reproof and amidst these and very many more inconveniences it was greatly necessary that God should send us such a KING and he send us such a Viceroy who wedds the Interests of Religion and joynes them to his heart For we do not look upon your Grace only as a favourer of the Churches Temporal interest though even for that the Souls of the relieved Clergy do daily bless you neither are You our Patron only as the Cretans were to Homer or the Alenadae to Simonides Philip to Theopompus or Severus to Oppianus but as Constantine and Theodosius were to Christians that is desirous that true Religion should be promoted that the interest of Souls should be advanced that Truth should flourish and wise Principles 〈…〉 In order to which excellent purposes it is hoped that the reduction of the Holy Rite of Confirmation into use and Holy practice may contribute some very great moments For besides that the great usefulness of this Ministry will greatly endear the Episcopal order to which that I may use S. Hierom's words if there be not attributed a more than common Power and Authority there will be as many Schisms as Priests it will also be a means of endearing the Persons of the Prelates to their Flocks when the People shall be convinced that there is or may be if they please a perpetual entercourse of Blessings and Love between them when God by their Holy hands refuses not to give to the People the earnest of an eternal inheritance when by them he blesses and that the grace of our Lord Jesus and the Love of God and the Communication of his Spirit is conveyed to all Persons capable of the grace by the Conduct and on the hands and prayers of their Bishops And indeed not only very many single Persons but even the whole Church of Ireland hath need of Confirmation We have most of us contended for false Religions and un-Christian propositions and now that by Gods mercy and the prosperity and piety of his Sacred Majesty the Church is broken from her cloud and many are reduc'd to the true Religion and righteous worship of God we cannot but call to mind how the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church often have declar'd themselves in Councils and by a perpetual Discipline that such Persons who are return'd from Sects and Heresies into the Bosom of the Church should not be rebaptiz'd but that the Bishops should impose hands on them in Confirmation It is true that this was design'd to supply the defect of those Schismatical Conventicles who did not use this Holy rite For this Rite of Confirmation hath had the fate to be oppos'd only by the Schismatical and Puritan Parties of old the Novatians or Cathari and the Donatists and of late by the Jesuits and new Cathari the Puritans and Presbyterians the same evil spirit of contradictions keeping its course in the same channel and descending regularly amongst Men of the same principles But therefore in the restitution of a Man or company of Men or a Church the Holy Primitives in the Council of C. P. Laodicea and Orange thought that to confirm such persons was the most agreeable Discipline not only because such persons did not in their little and dark assemblies use this rite but because they alwayes greatly wanted it For it is a sure Rule in our Religion and is of an eternal truth that they who keep not the Unity of the Church have not the Spirit of God and therefore it is most fit should receive the ministery of the spirit when they return to the bosom of the Church that so indeed they may keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And therefore Asterius Bishop of Amasia compares Confirmation to the ring with which the Father of the Prodigal adorn'd his returning Son Datur nempe prodigo post stolam annulus nempe Symbolum intelligibilis signaculi spiritus And as the Spirit of God the Holy Dove extended his mighty wings over the Creation and hatch'd the new-born World from its seminal powers to Light and Operation and Life and Motion so in the Regeneration of the souls of Men he gives a new being and heat and life Procedure and Perfection Wisdom and Strength and because that this was ministred by the Bishops hands in Confirmation was so firmly believ'd by all the Primitive Church therefore it became a Law and an Vniversal practice in all those ages in which Men desir'd to be sav'd by all means The Latin Church and the Greek alwayes did use it and the Blessings of it which they believ'd consequent to it they expressed
of the Holy Spirit like a Dove was the visible or ritual part and the voice of God was the word to make it to be Sacramental accedit verbum ad elementum fit Sacramentum for so the ministration was not only perform'd on Christ but consign'd to the Church by similitude and exemplar institution I shall only add that the force of this argument is established to us by more of the Fathers S. Hilary upon this place hath these words The Fathers voice was heard that from those things which were consummated in Christ we might know that after the baptism of water the Holy Spirit from the gates of Heaven flies unto us and that we are to be anointed with the Vnction of a coelestial glory and be made the Sons of God by the adoption of the voice of God the Truth by the very effects of things prefigur'd unto us the similitude of a Sacrament So S. Chrysostom In the beginnings alwayes appears the sensible visions of spiritual things for their sakes who cannot receive the understanding of an incorporeal nature that if afterwards they be not so done that is after the same visible manner they may be believ'd by those things which were already done But more plain is that of Theophylact The Lord had not need of the descent of the Holy Spirit but he did all things for our sakes and himself is become the first fruits of all things which we afterwards were to receive that he might become the first fruits among many Brethren The consequent is this which I express in the words of S. Austin affirming Christi in baptismucolombam unctionem nostram praefigurâsse The Dove in Christ's Baptism did represent and prefigure our Unction from above that is the descent of the Holy Ghost upon us in the rite of Confirmation Christ was baptized and so must we But after Baptism he had a new ministration for the reception of the Holy Ghost and because this was done for our sakes we also must follow that example and this being done immediately before his entrance into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil it plainly describes to us the order of this ministry and the blessing design'd to us after we are baptiz'd we need to be strengthned and confirm'd propter pugnam spiritualem we are to fight against the flesh the World and the Devil and therefore must receive the ministration of the Holy spirit of God which is the design and proper work of Confirmation For they are the words of the Excellent Author of the imperfect work upon S. Matthew imputed to S. Chrysostom The Baptism of Water profits us because it washes away the sins we have formerly committed if we repent of them But it does not sanctifie the soul nor precedes the concupiscences of the heart and our evil thoughts nor drives them back nor represses our carnal desires But he therefore who is only so baptized that he does not also receive the Holy Spirit is baptized in his body and his sins are pardon'd but in his mind he is yet but a Catechumen for so it is written he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and therefore afterward out of his flesh will germinate worse sins because he hath not receiv'd the Holy Spirit conserving him in his baptismal grace but the house of his body is empty wherefore that wicked spirit finding it swept with the Doctrines of Faith as with besomes enters in and in a seaven fold manner dwells there Which words besides that they will explicate this mystery do also declare the necessity of Confirmation or receiving the Holy Ghost after baptism in imitation of the Divine precedent of our Blessed Saviour 2. After the example of Christ my next Argument is from his words spoken to Nicodemus in explication of the prime mysteries Evangelical Vnless a man be born of Water and of the Holy Spirit he shall not enter into the Kingdom of God These words are the great Argument which the Church uses for the indispensable necessity of Baptism and having in them so great effort and not being rightly understood have suffered many Convulsions shall I call them or Interpretations Some serve their own Hypothesis by saying that Water is the Symbol and the Spirit is the Baptismal Grace Others that it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one is onely meant though here be two Signatures But others conclude that water is onely necessary but the Spirit is super-added as being afterwards to supervene and move upon these Waters And others yet affirm that by Water is onely meant a Spiritual ablution or the effect produced by the Spirit and still they have intangled the words so that they have been made useless to the Christian Church and the meaning too many things makes nothing to be understood But truth is easie intelligible and clear and without objection and is plainly this Unless a man be Baptized into Christ and confirmed by the Spirit of Christ he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Christ that is he is not perfectly adopted into the Christian Religion or fitted for the Christian Warfare and if this plain and natural sense be admitted the place is not onely easie and intelligible but consonant to the whole Design of Christ and Analogy of the New Testament For first Our blessed Saviour was Catechising of Nicodemus and teaching him the first Rudiments of the Gospel and like a wise Master-builder first layes the foundation The Doctrine of Baptism and laying on of Hands which afterwards St. Paul put into the Christian Catechism as I shall shew in the sequel Now these also are the first principles of the Christian Religion taught by Christ himself and things which at least to the Doctors might have been so well known that our blessed Saviour upbraids the not knowing them as a shame to Nicodemus St. Chrysostom and Theophylact Euthymius and Rupertus affirm that this Generation by Water and the Holy Spirit might have been understood by the Old Testament in which Nicodemus was so well skilled Certain it is the Doctrine of Baptismes was well enough known to the Jews and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the illumination and irradiations of the Spirit of God was not new to them who believed the Visions and Dreams the Daughter of a Voice and the influences from Heaven upon the Sons of the Prophets and therefore although Christ intended to teach him more than what he had distinct notice of yet the things themselves had foundation in the Law and the Prophets but although they were high mysteries and scarce discerned by them who either were ignorant or incurious of such things yet to the Christians they were the very Rudiments of their Religion and are best expounded by observation of what St. Paul placed in the very foundation But 2. Baptism is the first mystery that is certain but that this of being born of the Spirit is also the next is plain in the very
the Ministry and disparks the inclosures and layes all in common and makes men supream controulers of the Orders of God and relies upon a false principle for in true Divinity and by the Oeconomy of the spirit of God there can be no Minister of any Divine Ordinance but he that is of Divine appointment there can be none but the ordinary Minister I do not say that God is tied to this way he cannot be tied but by himself and therefore Christ gave a special Commission to Ananias to baptize and to confirm St. Paul and he gave the Spirit to Cornelius even before he was baptized and he ordained St. Paul to be an Apostle without the ministry of man But this I say That though God can make Ministers extraordinary yet Man cannot and they that goe about to do so usurp the power of Christ and snatch from his hand what he never intended to part with The Apostles admitted others into a part of their care and of their power but when they intended to imploy them in any ministry they gave them so much of their Order as would enable them but a person of a lower order could never be deputed Minister of actions appropriate to the higher which is the case of Confirmation by the practise and tradition of the Apostles and by the Universal practise and Doctrine of the Primitive Catholick Church by which Bishops onely the successors of the Apostles were alone the Ministers of Confirmation and therefore if any man else usurp it let them answer it they do hurt indeed to themselves but no benefit to others to whom they minister shadows instead of substances SECT V. The whole procedure or Ritual of Confirmation is by Prayer and Imposition of Hands THE Heart and the Eye are lift up to God to bring Blessings from him and so is the Hand too but this also falls upon the People and rests there to apply the descending blessing to the proper and prepared suscipient God governed the People of Israel by the hand of Moses and Aaron Et calidae fecére silentia turbae Majestate manus and both under Moses and under Christ when ever the President of Religion did bless the People he lifted up his hand over the Congregation and when he blessed a single person he laid his hand upon him This was the Rite used by Jacob and the Patriarchs by Kings and Prophets by all the eminently Religious in the Synagogue and by Christ himself when he blessed the Children which were brought to him and by the Apostles when they blessed and confirmed the baptized Converts and whom else can the Church follow The Apostles did so to the Christians of Samaria to them of Ephesus and St. Paul describes this whole mystery by the Ritual part of it calling it the foundation of imposition of hands It is the solemnity of blessing and the solemnity and application of Paternal prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Clement of Alexandria Upon whom shall he lay his hands Whom shall he bless Quid enim aliud est impositio manuum nisi Oratio super hominem said St. Austine The Bishop's laying his hands on the People what is it but the solemnity of Prayer for them that is a prayer made by those sacred persons who by Christ are appointed to pray for them and to bless in his Name and so indeed are all the ministeries of the Church Baptism Consecration of the B. Eucharist Absolution Ordination Visitation of the Sick they are all in genere orationis they are nothing but solemn and appointed Prayer by an intrusted and a gracious Person specificated by a proper order to the end of the blessing then designed and therefore when Saint James commanded that the sick Persons should send for the Elders of the Church he adds and let them pray over them that is lay their hands on the sick and pray for them that is praying over them It is adumbratio dextrae as Tertullian calls it the right hand of him that ministers over-shadows the person for whom the solemn Prayer is to be made This is the Office of the Rulers of the Church for they in the Divine Eutaxy are made your Superiours they are indeed your servants for Jesus sake but they are over you in the Lord and therefore are from the Lord appointed to bless the People for without contradiction saith the Apostle the less is blessed of the greater that is God hath appointed the Superiours in Religion to be the great Ministers of Prayer he hath made them the gratious Persons them he will hear those he hath commanded to convey your needs to God and Gods blessings to you and to ask a blessing is to desire them to pray for you them I say whom God most respecteth for their piety and zeal that way or else regardeth for that their place and calling bindeth them above others to do this duty such as are Natural and Spiritual Fathers It is easie for prophane persons to deride these things as they do all Religion which is not conveyed to them by sense or natural demonstrations but the Oeconomy of the spirit and the things of God are spiritually discerned the spirit bloweth where it listeth and no Man knows whence it comes and whether it goes and the Operations are discerned by Faith and received by Love and by Obedience Date mihi Christianum intelligit quod dico None but true Christians understand and feel these things but of this we are sure that in all the times of Moses Law while the Synagogue was standing and in all the dayes of Christianity so long as men loved Religion and walked in the Spirit and minded the affairs of their Souls to have the prayers and the blessing of the Fathers of the Synagogue and the Fathers of the Church was esteemed no small part of their Religion and so they went to Heaven But that which I intend to say is this That Prayer and Imposition of Hands was the whole procedure in the Christian Rites and because this ministery was most signally performed by this ceremony and was also by St. Paul called and noted by the name of the Ceremony imposition of hands this name was retained in the Christian Church and this manner of ministring Confirmation was all that was in the commandment or institution But because in Confirmation we receive the Unction from above that is then we are most signally made Kings and Priests unto God to offer up spiritual sacrifices and to enable us to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it and that the giving the holy spirit is in Scripture called the Unction from above the Church of God in early Ages made use of this Allegory and passed it into an External ceremony and representation of the mystery to signifie the inward Grace Post inscripta oleo frontis signacula perque Vnguentum Regale datum est Chrisma perenne We are consigned on the fore-head with Oyl