his Party yet he did overthrow all those Arguments against it that are brought in this Paper and shew'd they were of no force This Writing of his has not been yet Printed but I have perused it in the Manuscript Yet that this may not seem to be a declining of the task you have invited me to and because the Books I have mentioned are not perhaps in your hands I shall say as much in answer to it as I hope may fully satisfy you or any impartial Reader The Substance of the first argument to prove that our Ministers are not Priests is That by the form of our Ordination the Power of Consecrating the Sacrament of Christs most holy body and blood is not given the words only importing a Power to dispense the Sacraments which any Deacon may do Therefore the power of consecrating or making Christ's Body and Blood present being essential to the Priesthood and our form not expressing it and by consequence not giving it it wants one essential requisite to the Priesthood and therefore those that are ordained by it are not true Priests To which I answer 1. If our Form be the same in which Christ ordained his Apostles we may be very well satisfied that it is good and sufficient Now when our Saviour Ordained them S. Iohn tells us that he said Receive the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained this being that Mission which he gave them as the preceding words do clearly import As the Father hath sent me so send I you we can think no Form so good and so full as that he made use of It is true we do not judg any Form so essential as to annul all Ordinations that have been made by any other for then we should condemn both the Ordinations of the Primitive Churches and of the Eastern Churches at this day And this is the reason why even according to the ancient and most generally received Maxims of the Schools Orders can be no Sacrament tho in the general sense of the word Sacrament it being no term used in Scripture but brought into the Church we shall not much dispute against its being called so for by their Doctrin both Matter and Form of the Sacrament must be instituted by Christ and are not in the power of the Church Now they cannot but acknowledg that the Form of giving Orders in their Church was not instituted by Christ nor received in the Church for divers Ages which made Pope Innocent say that the Forms of Ordination were ordered and invented by the Church and were therefore to be observed otherwise it was sufficient in giving Orders to say Be thou a Bishop or be thou a Priest therefore though we do not annul Orders given by any other Form yet we have all reason to conclude that used by our Saviour to be not only sufficient but absolutely the best and fittest It is without all colour of reason that the writers of that Church will have the words our Saviour pronounced after he had instituted the Eucharist This do in remembrance of me to be the form by which he ordained them Priests for This do must relate to the whole action of the Sacrament the Receiving and Eating as well as the Blessing and Consecrating therefore these words are only a Command to the Church to continue the use of the Holy Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ. Nor do those of the Church of Rome think these were the words by which Christ ordained them Priests otherwise they would use them and think them sufficient but they use them not but instead of them say Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass both for the Living and the Dead 2. If this be ane essential defect in our Ordination then there were no true Priests in the Primitive Church for divers Ages and there are no true Priests at this day in the Greek Church and yet neither of these can be acknowledged by the Church of Rome for if they annul the Ordinations of the Primitive Church they likewise annul their own which are derived from them They do also own the Orders of the Greek Church to be valid as appears by their receiving them into their Communion at the Council of Florence and by their practice ever since which Morinus hath in the first part of his Work so fully proved from the decrees of Popes and Councils that the thing can no more be doubted and at this day there are Greek Churches at Rome maintain'd at the Popes charge in which Orders are given according to the Greek Pontificals as he informs us That in the Primitive Forms there were no express words of giving power to consecrate the Sacrament I appeal to the Collection of the most Antient Forms of Ordination that Morinus a Priest of that Church and a Penitentiary in great esteem at Rome has made where it will be found that for many Ages this power was not given expresly or in so many words The most ancient Rubrick about this is in the 4th Council of Carthage if those Canons be genuine When a Priest is ordained the Bishop blessing him and laying his hand on his head all the Priests that are present shall likewise lay their hands on his head about the Bishops hand Where we see that the Imposition of hands and the Bishop's blessing was all the matter and form of these Orders Denis called the Areopagite tells us that the Priest that was to be Ordained kneeled before the Bishop who laid his hand on his head and did Consecrate him with a holy Prayer and then marked him with the sign of the Cross and the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy that were present gave him the Kiss of Peace Here we find nothing but imposition of Hands and Prayer Now there being no general Liturgies nor Ordinals then in the World but every Countrey or perhaps every Diocess having their own Forms it was never defined in what form of words this Prayer and Benediction should be used but was left indifferent so the substance of the Blessing were preserved It is true the Author of those Constitutions that are ascribed to the Apostles sets down the Prayer of Ordination for which he vouches Saint Iohn Author which is That the Priest might be filled with the spirit of Grace and Wisdom to help and govern the Flocks with a pure heart that he might meekly teach the people being full of healing Operations and instructive Discourses and might serve God sincerely with a pure mind and willing soul and might through Christ perfect the sacred Services for the people in which there is nothing that gives in express words the power of Consecration In the most ancient Ritual that Morinus could find which belonged to the Church of Poictiers and has been composed about the middle of the 6th Century there is no mention in the
not given and therefore that the Bishop says in vain Receive the H. Ghost or by it a Character is not impressed Let him be an Anathema It is true their Doctors to reconcile the disagreement of those two Councils have devised the distinction of the power of Sacrificing and of the power of Jurisdiction in a Priest The last they confess is given by the Imposition of hands the former they say is given by the delivering of the Sacred Vessels And indeed as Morinus doth often observe the School-men being very ignorant both of the more Ancient Rites of the Church and of the practice of the Eastern Churches and looking only on the Rituals then received in the Latin Church have made strange work about the matter and form of Ordination but now that they begin to see a little further than they did then they are of a far different opinion so Vasques whom the School-men of this Age look on aâ—… an Oracle treating of Episcopal Orders says in express words That the Imposition of hands is the Matter and the words uttered with it are the Form of Orders and that the Sacramental Grace is conferred in and by the application of the Matter and Form It is true He joyns in with the commonly received Doctrine of the Schools about the two powers given to Priests by a double matter and form yet he cites Bonaventure and Petrus Sotus for this opinion that the Imposition of hands and the words joyned with it were the matter and form of Priestly Orders and though Vasques himself undertakes to prove the other Opinion as that which agrees best with the principles of their Church yet it is visible he thought the other Opinion truer for when he proves Orders to be a Sacrament he lays down for a Maxim that the outward Rite and Ceremony the promise of Grace and the command for the continuance must be all found in Scripture before any thing is to be acknowledged a Sacrament and when pursuant to this he proves that the Rite of Orders is in Scripture he assigns no other but the Imposition of hands so that according to his own Doctrine that is the only Sacramental Rite or the matter Orders And Cardinal de Lugo says The giving the Bread and the Wine we know is not determinately required by any divine Institution since the Greeks are ordained without it therefore it is to be confessed that Christ only intended there should be some proportioned Sign for the matter of Orders either this or that And it is now the most commonly received Oponion even amongst the School-men that Christ neither determined the Matter nor the Form of Orders but left both to the Church And Habert proves that the Greek form of Ordination is sufficient to express the grace of God then prayed for which is the chief thing in Ordination and though the Greek Fathers do not mention these words that are now used as the Form in their days yet he cites many places out of their writings by which they seem to allude to those words though the custom then received of speaking mystically and darkly of all the Rites of the Church made that they did not deliver themselves more plainly about it but he concludes his second Observation in these words In those Sacraments where the Matter and Form are not expressed in Scripture it must be supposed that Christ did only in general institute both to his Apostles leaving a power with the Church to design constitute and determine these in several ways so that the chief Substance Intention and Scope of the Institution were retained with some general fitness and analogy for signifying the effect of this Sacrament And if both the Eastern and Western Churches have made Rituals which though they differ one from another yet are good and valid it seems very unreasonable to deny the Church of England which is as free and independent a Church as any of them the same right for it is to be observed that the Catholick Church did never agree on one Uniform Ritual or Book of Ordination but that was still left to the freedom of particular Churches and so this Church has as much power to make or alter Rituals as any other has Therefore the substantials of Ordination being still retained which are Imposition of hands with fit Prayers and Blessings It is most unreasonable to except against our Forms of Ordination Let it be also considered that it is indeed true that the last Imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost appointed in the Pontifical is not above 400 years old nor can any Ancienter MSS be shewed in which it is found yet that is now most commonly received in the Church of Rome to be the matter and form of Ordination for all their Doctors hold that either the delivering the Vessels and saying Receive Power to offer Sacrifice c. or the Imposition of hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. is the Matter and Form of Orders Againsâ—… the former Morinus has said so much that I need add nothing for by unanswerable Arguments he proves that iâ—… not essential to Orders since neither thâ—… Primitive Church the Eastern Churcheâ—… nor the Roman Rituals or the Writers oâ—… the Roman Offices ever mention it tiâ—… within these 700 years and at first iâ—… was only done in the Consecration oâ—… Bishops and afterwards by custom noâ—… decree of Council or Pope being to bâ—… found about it it was used in the Ordination of Priests The same Author doth also study to prove that the Imposition of the Bishopâ—… hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost is not essential to Ordination buâ—… is only a Benediction superadded to it and shews that it was not used in the Primitive Church nor mentioned by any ancient Writer and therefore he is oâ—… opinion that the first Imposition of hands gives the Orders in which both Bishopâ—… and Priests lay on their hands and pray that God would multiply his Gifts oâ—… those whom he had chosen to the sunction oâ—… a Priest that what they received by hiâ—… savour they might attain by his help through Christ our Lord. If this bâ—… true then two things are to be well observed First That the Prayer which according to his opinion is the Prayer of Consecration was not esteemed so by the Ancient Rituals in which it is only called a Prayer for the Priests that were to be Ordained after which the Prayer of Consecration followed from which it appears that there was no constant rule in giving Orders and that what the Church once held to be but a preparatory Prayer was afterwards made the Prayer of Consecration and that which they esteemed the Prayer of Consecration was afterwards held but a Prayer of Benediction Secondly That in the formal words of Consecration if his Opinion be true there is no power given of consecrating the Sacraments But Morinus is alone in this
opinion and it is certain that the general Doctrine of the Church of Rome is that the last Imposition of hands is the Matter of these Orders and parallel to this is the Imposition of hands in the consecration of a Bishop with the words Receive the Holy Ghost which is undoubtedly the matter of Episcopal Orders Therefore that same Rite with these words is also the matter of the Priestly Orders And it is a foolish and groundless Conceit to pretend there are two distinct powerâ—… essential to the Priesthood to be conferred by two several Rites for then aâ—… who 〈◊〉 ordained by one of these Riteâ—… without the other as were all thâ—… Priests of the Christian World till within these 700 years had not the Priestly Office entire and compleat And further according to their own Principles the Character is an Indivisible thing anâ—… inseparably joyned to the Sacrament Therefore that which gives the Character gives the Sacrament Now according to their Doctrine the Character is given by the Imposition oâ—… hands Therefore the Sacrament consists in that And all the other Rites are only Ceremonies added to it which are not of the essence of it from which iâ—… follows that we who use Imposition oâ—… hands with the words Receive the Holy Ghost c. use all that according to the Doctrine of that Church is necessary to it and therefore they have no reason to except against the validity of our Orders even according to their own Principles Fourthly If by consecrating oâ—… making present Christ's blessed Body they understand the incredible Mystery of Transubstantiation we very freely confess there is no such power given to our Priests by their Orders But I shall not digress from this Subject to another therefore I may confine my Discourse to it I acknowledg that we do receive by our Orders all the power of consecrating the Sacraments which Christ has left with his Church First When we are ordained to be Priests there is given us all that which our Church declares inseparable to the Priesthood and such is the Consecrating the Eucharist Therefore it being declared and acknowledged on all sides what Functions are proper to the Priesthood if we be ordained Priests though there were no further Declaration made in the form of Ordination yet the other concomitant actions and offices shewing that we are made Priests all that belongs to that function is therein given tous this made Pope Innocent define that Be thou a Priest was a sufficient Form in it self Secondly The great end of all the Priestly Functions being to make reconciliation between God and Man for which cause Saint Paul calls it the Ministery of Reconciliation whatever gives the power for that must needs give also the means necessary for it therefore the Sacrament being a Mean instituted by our Saviour for the Remission of Sins which he intimated in these words This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood for the Remission of Sins and the death of Christ being also the great Mean in order to that end the power of forgiving sins Ministerially must carry with it the power of doing all that is instituted for attaining that end Thirdly The power of consecrating the Sacraments is very fully and formally given in our Ordination in these words Be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments where they bewray great inconsideration that think Dispensing is barely the distributing the Sacrament which a Deacon may do the word is taken from the Latin and is the same by which they render those words of Saint Paul Stewards of the Mysteries of God or according to the Style of the Church of Rome which translates Mystery Sacrament Dispensers of the Sacraments of God Therefore this being a phrase wherein St. Paul expressed the Apostolical Function one might think it could serve to express the office of a Priest well enough so that Dispensing is more than Distributing and is such a power as a Steward hath who knows and considers every ones condition and prepares what is fit and proper for them therefore the blessing of the Sacraments being a necessary part of the Dispensing of them they being Blessed for that end and the Dispensing them including the whole Office in which the Church appoints the Sacraments to be dispensed of which Consecration is a main part these words do clearly give and manifestly import the power of consecrating the Sacraments Now the Question comes to this what is meant by the word Dispensing they say it is only to distribute the Elements we say it is to administer the Sacrament according to the Office If what we say be the true signification of it then the power of consecrating the Elements is formally given with our Orders And that this is the true meaning of it appears both from common use which makes it more than barely to Distribute and from the declared meaning of those who use it which is the only rule to judg of all doubtful expressions Now the declared meaning of our Church in the use of this word being so express and positive from thence it follows that by Dispense must be understood to give the Sacrament according to the whole office of the Church The same is also to be said of the words Take thou Authority to preach the Word of God and to minister the Holy Sacraments for tho Minister and Serve in the Greek Tongue be the same yet Minister in our common acceptation is all one with Administer only Minister is more usual when the thing Ministred is Sacred or Holy therefore this takes also in it the whole Office of the Sacrament And as in the former words the Power is given so in these words it is applyed and restrained in its exercise to a due vocation to cut off idle it inerant and for the most part scandalous Priests And thus far I have considered this first Argument at great length both because it is that of which they make most use to raise Scruples in the thoughts of unlearned persons and the clearing of it will make way for answering the rest Therefore leaving this I go to the second Argument which is That the offering of Sacrifice is an essential part of Priesthood So Heb. 5. 1. and 3. therefore we having no such power conferred on us cannot be true Priests To this I Answer First It is strange Inconsideration to argue from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Pastors of the Christian Church ought to be Priests in the sense that is mentioned in that Epistle the scope of which is to prove That Christ is the only Priest of this New Dispensation And the notion of a Priest in that Epistle is a person called and consecrated to offer some living Sacrifice and to slay it and by the shedding of the blood of the Sacrifice slain to make reconciliation This being the sense in which the Iews understood it the Apostle among other Arguments to prove the
it is not thereby vitiated but there is a perfect and entire Character begotten only the use of it is forbidden yet he that neglects that Interdict though he becomes very guilty begets a new Character on the person Ordained by him Therefore Heretiques or Schismatiques so Ordained need no new Ordination but only a Reconciliation and what is said of Heretiques and Schismatiques does hold much more of those who are Ordained by persons that are Excommunicated deposed or degraded And for those things that are essential to Ordination enough has been said already to demonstrate what they be to which I shall only add what that Author the most learned of all that ever treated of this Subject says in the beginning of the next Chapter In the Rite of Holy Ordination there are some things of Divine Institution and Tradition which do always and in all places belong to holy Orders such as Imposition of hands and a convenient Prayer which the Scripture has delivered and the universal practice of the Church has confirmed Now these our Church has retained and therefore from all that has been said I may with good reason conclude that all the Ordinations that were derived from Arch-Bishop Cranmer having as has been already shewed the essentials of Ordination and being done with the due numbers of Ordainers as can be proved Authentically from the publick Registers must be good and valid And though we have separated from many errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and in particular have thrown out many superstitious Rites out of the Forms of Ordination that we might reduce these to a primitive simplicity yet as we acknowledg the Church of Rome holds still the fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we confess she retains the essentials of Ordination which are the separating of persons for sacred employments and the authorizing them with an Imposition of hands and a Prayer for the effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore we do not annul their Orders but receive such as come from that Church and look on them as true Priests by the Ordination they got among them and such were our first Reformers from whom we have derived our Ordination Having followed this Paper through the first Conclusion and the Arguments brought to confirm it I come now to the second which is That our Bishops are not true Bishops For which his first Argument is That our Bishops being no Priests they can be no Bishops This he thinks he has already proved therefore he sets himself to prove that none can be a Bishop till he be first a Priest About this I shall not dispute much for we acknowledg that Regularly and Canonically it must be so and assert that ours were truly such therefore we need not contend further about this though he must be very ignorant of Antiquity if he does not know that there are divers instances in Church History of Laymen nay and Catechumens chosen Bishops and we do not find those Intermedial steps were made of ordaining them first Deacons and then Priests but by what appears to us they at once made them Bishops But I shall wave this only I must put this Author in mind of a great Oversight he is guilty of when he goes about to prove our Bishops not to be true Bishops because they were not true Priests Does he not know that Bishop Ridley and the other Bishops of King Edward's days were Ordained Priests by the Rites of the Church of Rome And this was acknowledged by themselves when they degraded them at Oxford before they suffered if those then were Priests this is no Argument why they might not be Bishops For in this matter that which we ought to enquire into most carefully is what they were for if they were both Priests and Bishops and if the Forms by which they ordained others retained all the essential Requisites then we who are derived from them are also true Priests and Bishops His second Argument is No Ordination is valid unless there be fit words used to determine the outward Rites to signifie the Order given which he says our own Writers Mr. Mason and Dr. Bramhall do acknowledg But the words of Consecration do not express this they being only Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace c. which do not express the office of a Bishop and having proposed these Arguments that the unlearned Reader may think he deals fairly he goes on to set down our Objections and answer them First It has been already made out that the Form Receive the Holy Ghost was that which our Saviour made use of when he ordained the Apostles without adding To the office of an Apostle For which it is to be considered that all Ecclesiastical Orders being from the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost which being one yet hath different Operations for the different Administrations therefore the concomitant Actions Words and Circumstances must shew for which Administration the Holy Ghost is prayed for since that general Prayer is made for all but the Functions being different the same Holy Ghost works differently in them all Therefore it is plain from the practice of our Saviour that there is no need of expressing in the very words of Ordination what power is thereby given since our Saviour did not express it but what he had said both before and after did determine the sense of those general words to the Apostolical Function Secondly The whole Office of Consecrating Bishops shews very formally and expresly what power is given in these words Now though the Writers of the Church of Rome would place the Form of Consecration in some Imperative words yet we see no reason for that but the complex of the whole Office is that which is to be chiefly considered and must determine the sense of those words So that a Priest being presented to be made a Bishop the King's Mandate being read for that effect he swearing Canonical obedience as Bishop Elect Prayers being put up for him as such together with other circumstances which make it plain what they are about those general words are by these qualified and restrained to that sense We do not fly here to a secret and unknown Intention of the Consecrators as the Church of Rome does but to the open and declared intention of the Church appearing in this So that it is clear that the sense of those general words is so well explained that they do sufficiently express and give the power and office of a Bishop Thirdly In the Church of Rome the Consecration of a Bishop is made with these words Receive the Holy Ghost This being all that is said at the Imposition of hands which as has been already proved is the matter or sensible sign of Orders And in the Prayer that follows these words there is no mention made of the Episcopal Dignity or Function and all the other Ceremonies used in the Consecration of a Bishop are but Rites that are
added for the more Solemnity but are not of the essence of Ordination according to what is now most generally received even in their own Church And Vasques does set down this very Objection against the form of their Episcopal Ordination as not sufficient because it does not specify the Episcopal power to which he answers that though the words express it not yet the other circumstances that accompany them do it sufficiently by which it appears that this Argument is as strong against their Ordination as ours and that they must make use of the same Answers that we give to it Fourthly The ancient Forms of Consecrating Bishops differing so much one from another and indeed agreeing in nothing but in an Imposition of hands with a convenient Prayer it has been already made out that there is no particular Form so necessary that the want of it annuls Orders and that the Church has often changed the words of these Prayers upon several occasions and it was ever thought that if the words do sufficiently express the mind of the Church there was no more scruple to be made of the validity of the Orders so given for if the Episcopal Character were begotten by any of those Rites which the Church of Rome has added of late such as the Chrism the giving the Gospels the Ring the Staff or any other set down in the Pontifical then there were no true Bishops in the Church for many Ages In the most Ancient Latin Ritual now to be found there is nothing in the Consecration of a Bishop but the Prayer which is now marked for the Anthem after the Consecration in the Pontifical In a Ritual believed to be 800 year old the anointing is first to be found but there is no other Rite with it in another Ritual somwhat later than the former the giving the Ring and the Staff were used which at first were the Civil Ceremonies of Investiture and in the Greek Church none of those Rites were ever used they having only an Imposition of hands and saying with it The Divine Grace that heals the things that are weakâ—… and perfects the things that imperfect promotes this very Reverend Priest to be 〈◊〉 Bishop Let us therefore pray that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come upon him then all that are assisting say thrice Kyrie Eleison Then the Consecratoâ—… lays the Gospels on the head and neck of him that is Consecrated having before Signed his head thrice with the sign of the Cross and all the other Bishopâ—… touch the Gospels and there is a Prayer said And thus it is clear that if those Rites in the Pontifical be essential to Episcopal Orders neither the Primitive Church nor the Greek Churches gave them truly which are things they cannot admit Therefore it is most disingâ—…nuously done of them to insinuate 〈◊〉 unlearned persons that our Orders anâ—… not good when in their Conscienceâ—… they know that they have all those Requisites in them which by the Principleâ—… of the most Learned men of their owâ—… Church are essentially and absolutely necessary to make them good and valid But I go next to see what Ingenuity there is in the Objections which he sets down in our Name against the former Arguments There is nothing in which any man that writes of Controversie shews his candor and fair dealing more than in proposing the Arguments of the adverse party with their full and just weight in them And it is a piece of Justice and Moral honesty to which men are obliged for to pretend that one brings what may be objected against his Opinion and then not to set down any strong and material Arguments but on the contrary to bring some trifling and ridiculous things that no Learned persons did ever make use of is to Lye and really I cannot think the Writer of this Paper has common honesty in him that will pretend to set down our Objections and yet passes them over every one Our Arguments are drawn 1. From Christ's own practices 2. From the practice of the Apostles and the Primitive Church 3. From the practice of the Greek Church at this day 4. From the Doctrine and the practice of the Church of Rome These are the Arguments on which our Cause does rest and upon these Authorities we are ready to put the thing to an Issue But he was wiser than to mention any of those for he knew he could not get ofâ—… them so well and therefore that he might deceive those that are ready to take any thing off his hands upon trust he brings Objections which he knows none of us will make To the first I need say nothing having I presume said enough already to shew that both our Priestly and Episcopal Orders are good and valid But his second is such a piece of foâ—… dealing that really he deserves to be very sharply reproved for it In it he makes us object That though the form of our Ordination since King Edward the 6th his days till his Majesties happy Restauration was invalid yet that is sâ—…lved by the Parliament that now sits that appointed the words of Ordination to be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest or for the office of a Bishop And having set up this Man of Straw he runs unmercifully at him he stabs him in at the heart he shoots him through the head and then to make sure work of him he cuts him all to pieces that he shall never live nor speak again and all this out of pure Chivalry to shew his valour He tells us the Salve is worse than the Sore that by the change the Form used before is confessed to be invalid else why did they change it He tells us Secondly By this we acknowledg all our Bishops and Priests till that time to be null Thirdly That they not being true Bishops cannot Ordain validly for no man can give what he has not And fourthly The power that Act gives is only from the Parliament and not from Christ and this destroys our Orders Root and Branch So there is an end of us we are all killed upon the spot never to live more Yet there is no harm done nor blood spilt all is safe and sound But to satisfie any person whom such a scruple may trouble Let it be considered First That we pretend not that there is any greater validity in our Orders since the last Act of Uniformity than was before for those words that are added are not essential to the Ordination but only further and clearer Explanations of what was clear enough by the other parts of these Offices before Therefore there is no change made of any thing that was essential to our Ordinations an Explanation is not a change for did the Fathers of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople change or annul the Faith and Creeds that the Church used before when they added Explanations to the Creed Therefore the adding of some explanatory words for cutting off the occasions of Cavilling is neither a change nor an annulling our former Orders Secondly
The change of the Form of Consecration does not infer an annulling of Orders given another way for then all the Ordinations used in the Primitive Church are annulled by the Roman Church at this day since the forms of Ordination used by them now were not used in the former Ages and the Forms used in the former ages are not looked on by them now to be the Forms of Consecration but are only made parts of the Office and used as Collects or Anthems and yet here is a real change which by their own Principles cannot infer a nullity of Orders given before the Change made Thirdly If the addition of a few explanatory words invalidates former Orders then the adding many new Rites which were neither used by Christ nor his Apostles nor the Primitive nor Eastern Churches will much more invalidate former Orders especially when these are believed to be so essential as that they confer the power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood and of offering Sacrifices and were for divers Ages universally looked on in that Church to be the Matter and Form of Orders as was already observed of the Rite of giving the Sacred Vessels with the words joyned to it which Pope Eugenius in express words calls the matter of Priestly Orders and the words joyned to them the Form in his Decree for the Armenians in the Council of Florence and even the Form he mentions is also altered now for the celebrating Masses are not in the Form he mentions but are now added to that part of the Office in the Roman Church Let the Pontifical be considered in the Ordination of Priests we find the Priestly Vestiments given both the Stole and the Casula then their hands are anointed then the Vessels of the Sacrament are delivered to them with words pronounced in every of those Rites besides many other lesser Rites that are in the Rubrick In the Consecration of a Bishop his head is Anointed then his hands then his Pastoral Staff is blessed and put in his hands next the Ring is blessed and put on his singer then the Gospels are put in his hands then the Mitre is blessed and put on his head next the Gloves are blessed and put on his hands and then they seâ—… him on his Throne Besides many lesser Rites to be seen in the Rubrick Now with what face can they pretend that our adding a few explanatory words can infer the annulling all Orders given before that addition when they have added so many material Ceremonies in which they place great significancy and vertue Is not this to swallow a Camel and to strain at a Gnat and to object to us a Mote in our eye when there is a Beam in their own eye Fourthly This Addition was indeed confirmed by the authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire that to give it the force of a Law but the authority of these changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them and the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was Ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed indecent and too implicite to others and there was no change made in a Tittle by the Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done As for what he adds that the Book of Ordination is not to found in every Edition of the Common-Prayer-Book with his gloss upon it that most think the Bishops for shame suppress it Really the Writer of this Paper must pardon me to say it seems he has no shame that can set down in writing such a disingenious Allegation Pray who are these most that think so Most in our Language stands for the greater part now how many can he find that agree with him in this Gloss I doubt very few for I am sure not all his own Party and not one of ours So that upon a Calculation those Most think will be found to be no more but himself and a very few ignorant persons on whom he has imposed this conceit Every body knows that when a Book is once printed by publick Authority and universally sold in the Shops those in Authority cannot out of shame study to suppress it But the use of the Book of Ordination not being so universal as are the other Offices of the Church the Stationers and Printers who do chiefly consider their Interest in the ready sale and vent of Books do not print so many of them as of the other there being at least 500 that use the Common-Prayer for one that needs the other and a Common-Prayer-Book without it will sell cheaper than with it therefore a great many Copies have it not This is not as Most think but as every body knows the true reason why in many Copies of the Common-Prayer-Book the Ordinal is wanting Let him name one Bishop that would not permit it to be dispersed abroad or let him be looked on as a bold and impudent Slanderer Thus far I have followed this Paper in the two first Conclusions and now I come to the Third which is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament And this he proves because they have no more power than the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had from whom all Jurisdiction was derived to the rest Now he had no power from Christ for first They that Consecrated him had no such Jurisdiction being no actual Bishops two of them were only Elect and not actual Bishops and a third only a quondam Bishop but had no actual Jurisdiction and a fourth was a Suffragan Bishop to Canterbury who had no Jurisdiction but what he had from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Jurisdiction over himself and all the other Bishops of the Land because none can give what he has not This I must confess is such a piece that no man can read it but he must conclude the Writer of it has no sort of Ecclesiastical Learning or else has very little Moral honesty I need not tell him that Matthew Parker was not the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he knows Arch-Bishop Cranmer was both a Protestant and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but this may be easily passed over there being more material Errors in this period And First Does he believe himself when he says that none can instal a Bishop in a Jurisdiction above himself Pray then who invests the Popes with their Jurisdiction Do not
according to his usual way of flattering the Court of Rome in all his Writings is not a little puzzelled with this he confesses that in the Greek Church they have no other inferior Orders but Subdeacons and Readers but says some thought those other lower degrees were included in the Order of Readers but he thinks they were included in the Subdeacons Orders and strains all the wit he had to give some colours for this conceit of his In summ it is clear Exorcists were an inferior Office in the Greek Church once and afterwards it was laid aside It were an impertinent digression here to give an account of their Office but in a word they were Catechists who prepared the Catechumens for Baptism and by the Catechisms in the Church all that came from Heathenism to be Christians were often adjured to renounce the Devil and all Heathenish Idolatry Which Adjurations were call'd Exorcisms and from these the Catechists were called Exorcists of which he that desires further satisfaction may be directed to it by what he will find in the Margin But when or upon what occasion this Office fell in disuse in the Greek Church does not appear I shall only suggest that it is reasonable to conclude that upon the general suppression of Heathenism in the Greek Empire when there were no more Catechumens there being no further use of Exorcists the Function was no longer continued It appears likewise from the Name Acolyth that it was begun in the Greek Church from whence it is probable the Latin Church had that Order In the Latin Church St. Cyprian is the first that speaks of these Inferior Orders and we find them frequently mentioned in his Epistles he speaks of Subdeacons Acolyths Readers and Exorcists and contemporary with him was Cornelius who giving an account of the Clergy of Rome says there were forty six Priests seven Deacons forty two Acolyths fifty Exorcists Readers and Porters So it seems there were no Subdeacons then in Rome nor does St. Cyprian mention the Porters So that in that Century all these these Orders were not looked on as necessary in the Western Church much less was there a certain number of years determined for every one of them as was afterwards done by the Popes who appointed that before any might be made a Priest he should be five years a Reader and Exorcist and fourteen years an Acolyth and Subdeacon In the fourth Council of Carthage we have the full Catalogue of the sacred Functions as they are called in the Apostolical Canons with the rules and forms of Ordaining them and there Subdeacons Acolyths Exorcists Readers Porters and Singers are set down But besides these we find another Order of Fossarii or the diggers of Graves mentioned by St. Jerome who calls them the first Order of the Clergy they are also mentioned in that supposititious Letter of St. Ignatius to the Church of Antioch and are spoken of by Epiphamus by which it appears they were reckoned among the Clergy both in the Greek and Latin Churches But there is no mention of them in any latter Writers We find mention of another office in an Author to whom indeed little credit is due who are called the Keepers of the Martyrs who had the keeping of the Vault or Burying-place where the Martyrs bodies were laid up in those Churches that were built to their honor but we meet with these no where else And though the Order of Singers continued for several Ages in the Western Church and is mentioned by most of the Writers on the Roman Rituals in Hittorpius his Collection and also in the Ordo Romanus yet is now left out in the Roman Pontifical From all which it appears that there was no settled Order agreed on or received in the Catholick Church about these Inferior Degrees some of them that were received in some Churches were not in other Churches and what was generally received in one Age was laid aside in another and therefore there is no Obligation lying on us to continue those still But as the number of these Orders was different so the ways of Ordaining were not the same In the Eastern Church they were and are to this day conferred by Imposition of Hands which was perhaps taken from the custome of the Jews among whom all Offices were given with that Rite But in the Western Church they were conferred by the delivery of a Book Vessel or Instrument that related to their Function which perhaps was taken from the Roman custom of granting Offices by the Tradition of somewhat that belonged to it as Trajan made the Prefects by giving them a Sword The occasion of setting up all these Inferior Offices was certainly very just and good that there might be taken in them a long and full probation of all such as were to be admitted to the Offices that were of Divine Institution and so none might be admitted to any of them before there had been a full tryal and discovery made of their merit and good behaviour and were indeed like degrees in Universities But after that Constantine granted such Immunities and Exemptions to Churchmen then it is probable that many who desired to share in these and yet had no mind to be Initiated in the Offices of Divine Appointment came and entered in these lower degrees to regulate which Justinian made a Law that none who had been Souldiers or had any Offices about their Courts Curiales and obstricti curiae might be Ordained till they had got their Dimission and had been fifteen years in a Monastery and perhaps some of these offices were laid aside because of the complaints the Prefects made of the Interruption of Iustice by the great numbers of the Clergy who pleaded the Exemptions that were granted to them Upon the whole matter it is clear that all these Orders were only of Ecclesiastical Institution So that the want of them cannot be charged on our Church as an essential defect and our Church had as good Authority to lay all these aside as other Churches had to lay down sometimes one sometimes more of them And in the Church of Rome though these are still kept up yet all except the Subdeacons are meerly for Forms-sake for Acolyths Exorcists Readers or Porters never discharge any part of the Service that belongs to their Office and the Exorcisms are quite taken out of the hands of the Exorcists and are made only by Priests So that this whole Objection comes to nothing But we have much more material Objections against the Church of Rome upon this head For whereas by Divine Institution and the practice of the Primitive Church all Bishops were equal both in Order and Iurisdiction They have robbed the Bishops of the greatest part of their Iurisdiction of which I shall give some Instances Monks by their Original were Laymen and were under the Iurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocess this at first
had within the Kings Majesties Dominions it is requisite to have one Uniform fashion and manner for making and Consecrating Bishops Priests c. Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings Highness with the Assents of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same mark by which Authority they are made that such Form and manner of making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests c. as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Law by the Kings Majesty who was but a Child to be appointed and assigned or by the most number of them shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal of England before the first day of April next coming and shall by vertue of this present Act see what vertues be lawfully exercised and used and none other any Statute Law or Usage to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding By Authority whereof those Prelates and meâ—… learned in the Law invented and made thâ—… Form before mentioned never heard of before either in Scripture or Church of God From which I thus argue and prove my Minor They that instituted the Form were thâ—… King and Parliament 3. 4. Edward VI. Buâ—… that King and Parliament were neither Authors of Grace not had power over the Body and Blood of Christ therefore they that Instituted this Form were neither Authors oâ—… Grace nor had power over the Body and Blood of Christ nor consequently could make it present Fifthly They are no true Priests because the Bishops that made them were no true Bishops nor so much as Priests and no man can give power to another which he hath not himself That they were no true Bishops nor Priests who pretended to make these Priests which shall be the second part of my Discourse I prove thus PROTESTANT BISHOPS NO BISHOPS NOR SO MUCH AS PRIESTS First They are no Priests because made by the same Form which other English Ministers were which I have clearly proved to be null That they are no true Bishops I prove first out of this very Principle already laid because they are no true Priests for as Master Mason a chief Champion of theirs says Epist. Ded. ad Episcop Paris Seeing he cannot be a Bishop who is not a Priest if it can be proved we are no Priests there 's an end to our English Church And the great Doctor of the Church St. Jerom Dial. cum Lucifero cap. 8. says Ecclesia non est quae non habet Sacerdotem It is no Church that hath no Priests The Protestant Bishops therefore being no Priests can be no true Bishops nor their Church a Church at all Secondly They are no Bishops because their Form of Ordination is essentially invalid and null seeing it cannot be valid no more than that of Priesthood unless it be in fit words which signifies the Order given as Mr. Mason says in his Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae lib. 1. c. 16. n. 6. in these terms Not any words can serve for this Institution but such as are fit to express the power of the Order given And the reason is evident because Ordination being a Sacrament as the same Author says lib. 1. n. 8. and Doctor Bramhal page 96. of the Consecration of Protestant Bishops that is a visible sign of invisible Grace given by it There must be some visible sign or words in the Form of it to signifie the Power given and to determine the matter which is the Imposition of hands of it self a dumb sign and common to Priests and Deacons Confirming Curing c. to the Grace of Episcopal Order otherwise it were sufficient to say at the Imposition of hands Be thou a Constable or God make thee an honest man But there is no such visible sign or words in the Protestant Form expressing this Episcopal Power given therefore no such power is given That there is no such sign or words in the Protestant Form I prove out of the Form it self which is this made in King Edward the VI. time and continued till the happy Restauration of his Majesty that now is Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the Grace of God that is in thee by Imposition of hands for God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear but of Power and of Love and Soberness In which is not any word signifying Episcopal Power or Ordination and therefore for this defect in their Form they are no true Bishops Against what has been said you will object first That I prove them to be no Priests because they are no Bishops that made them and on the other side I prove them no Bishops because they are no Priests which is a vicious Circle But I easily answer this because I first prove à priori that is from the essential which ought to give being to each of them tat they are severally null and each of them being null for that reason it is evident that it is a cause of Invalidity in the other for as he can be no Bishop who is proved to be no Priest so he can make no Priest who is proved to be no Bishop Secondly You will object and salve up all the Defects afore-mentioned in one word to wit That although the Form used in the Church of England were invalid in King Edward ' s Queen Elizabeth's King James ' s and King Charles the First 's time for want of a valid Form of Ordination yet now it is valid in our Sovereign King Charles the Second's with whom the Parliament now sitting hath appointed a true Form Enacting that for the future to wit after St. Bartholomew's Day 1662. the Form of Ordaining a Priest should be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest and of a Bishop Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and work of a Bishop But to this I 'le answer you in another word That the salve is worse than the sore because by this change of the Form before established they acknowledge it to be null for why else need they change it Secondly By it they in effect acknowledge all their Bishops and Priests till that time to be null because Ordained by a Form that was null and could not give Power it had not nor signified Thirdly Because being no Bishops already they cannot Ordain validly by any Form whatsoever for no man can give what he has not as has been said before Lastly Whatsoever Power this Act gives to Ordain is from the Parliament and not from Christ which is what I first undertook to show and destroys their Orders root and branch Now although the Bishops of the Church of England and their Ministers grant this change of their Form of Ordination yet if any one should deny it you need only look upon the Form of making Bishops and Priests made 〈◊〉 and which was only used in the Church of England for an hundred years to be found in every
Bishop should be delayed then he should be Consecrated by two Bishops appointed by the King and then in the same Statute grants further that all recourse be forbidden to Rome and Archbishops and Bishops be Confirmed and Consecrated by Bishops to be assigned by the King Secondly Out of the Act of 8. Eliz. 1. made purposely to set forth the Authority next under God by which Matthew Parker and the other first Protestant Bishops in the beginning of the Queens Reign were made by reciting how they were made by the Authority of her Majesty and how she was authorized to that end by the aforesaid Statute of Henry VIII and the Statute of 1. Eliz. 1. in these words First It is well known to all the degrees of this Realm that the late King Henry the Eighth was as well by all the Clergy then of this Realm in their several Convocations as also by all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in divers of his Parliaments justly and rightfully recognized and acknowledged to have the Supreme Power Jurisdiction and Authority over the Ecclesiastical State of the same and that the said King did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign set forth a certain order of the Manner and Form how Archbishops and Bishops should be made c. And although in the Reign of the late Queen the said Act was repealed yet nevertheless at the Parliament 1. Eliz. the said Act was revived and by another Act they made all Jurisdiction Priviledges c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath hitherto been or lawfully may be used over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm is fully and absolutely by Authority of the same Parliament mark by what Authority united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm mark here how she is made Pope and by the same Statute there is also given to the Queen mark Given Power and Authority by Letters Patents to Assign and Authorize such Persons as she shall think fit whether Clergy-men Lawyers Merchants Coblers or any other so they be naturally born Subjects of the Realm for the Statute requires no more to exercise under her all manner of Jurisdiction in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual Jurisdiction in this Realm Whereupon the Queen having in her order and disposition all the said Jurisdictions c. hath by her Supreme Authority caused divers to be duly made and consecrated Archbishops and Bishops according to such Order and Form and with such Ceremonies in and about their Consecration as were allowed and set out by the said Acts c. And further her Highness hath in her Letters Patents used divers special words whereby by her Supreme Authority she hath dispensed with all causes and doubts of imperfections or disability c. as is to be seen more aâ—… large in the same Act. In which you see declared by the Queen Matthew Parker himself and the whole Parliament That Matthew Parker the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury was made Archbishop as all the other Protestant Bishops in her time were by Authority of the Queen and that she had her Authority for it from the Statutes 25. Henry 8. 20. and 1. Eliz. 1. from whom all our Protestant Bishops since spring and descend and derive all the Power and Authority that they have From which you see clearly that Protestant Bishops have no Authority to teach Preach or to be Bishops but what originally they have from the Parliament Which is still more evidently confirmed by this Parliament now in being which in the year 1662. by the Act of Uniformity annulled the forementioned Forms of Ordination of Priests and Bishops as being deficient and appointed new ones by their own Authority So from the first to the last all the Protestant Priests and Bishops both heretofore and at this present are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and not so from Christ and his Church but only from their Kings Queen and Parliaments I must confess this present Parliament may easily answer the Parliaments of Edward the VI. and Queen Elizabeth why it hath lately altered the Form of Ordination instituted and used by them to wit because their Forms were null and invalid but what Authority either of them had to make alter or use any Form of Ordination or to give Power to Teach Preach Minister Sacraments or the like of themselves without Authority from Christ our Saviour there I must leave them to answer him From the Premisses I infer First That they being no Priests nor Bishops theirs is no Church as Mr. Mason and St. Jerom grant Secondly If no Church no part of the Catholic Church out of which and without whose Faith kept entire and inviolate no man can be saved as their own Common-Prayer-Book affirms Thirdly They can never eat the Flesh of Christ our Lord nor drink his Blood without which they cannot have life in them John 6. 54. Fourthly They commit a most hainous Sacriledge as often as they attempt to Consecrate or Minister the most Holy Sacrament having no such Power Fifthly They commit the like Sacriledge in presuming to hear Confessions or forgive Sins Sixthly All that Communicate with them and follow the same Religion are involved in the same sins so that the blind leading the blind they must necessarily both fall into the ditch of eternal perdition foretold by our Saviour Matth. 15. 14. Lastly It is to be noted that although I conceive I have clearly proved the Ordination and Iurisdiction of their Priests and Bishops to be invalid by every argument I have used to those ends yet to my purpose it is sufficient to have proved it by any one For as to prove a man to be a Thief or Forger it is sufficient to prove he has stoln one Horse or forged one Deed to hang him for the one or set him on the Pillory for the other so to prove by one argument alone that they are no Priests nor Bishops nor have any Iurisdiction is sufficient to prove them guilty of Sacramental Forgery and by that means of deluding and stealing away innumerable souls A VINDICATION OF THE ORDINATIONS OF THE Church of ENGLAND In answer to the former Paper THis Paper which you sent me being only a Repetition of those Objections which were long ago refuted by Master Mason with great learning and judgment and more lately by the most Ingenious Lord Primate of Ireland D. Bramhall there needs nothing else be said to it but only to refer the Reader to those learned and solid Writings on this Subject The same Plea was again taken up by the Writers of two little Books published since his Majesties Restauration entitled Erastus Senior and Erastus Iunior which was thought so unreasonable even to some of that Communion that one of the learnedst Priests they had in England did answer them and though he did not adventure on saying our Ordination was good and valid knowing how ingrateful that would have been to
Prayer of Consecration of any such power The same Prayer of Consecration is also in another Ritual which he believes 900 years old and also in another that he believes 800 years old It is true in these Rituals there is a Blessing added in which among other things the Consecrator Prayes that by the obedience of the people the Priest may transform the Body and Blood of thy Son by an undefiled Benediction but here is no power given nor is this Prayer essential to the Orders so given but a subsequent Benediction Therefore the want of it cannot annul Orders And in another MSS. Ritual belonging to the Abbey of Corbey written about the middle of the 9th Century there is nothing but the Prayer of the Consecration of a Priest which is the same with what is in the other Rituals but the blessing which mentions the transforming of the Body of Christ is not in it by which it appears that it was not looked on as essential to Orders And in another Ritual compiled for the Church of England now lying in the Church of Roüen believed to be about 800 years old the Form of Consecration is the same that it is in the other Rituals The ancient Ritual of the Church of Rhemes about the same age and divers other ancient Rituals agree with these But the first mention of this power of saying Mass given in the Consecration of Priests is in a Ritual believed to be 700 years old compiled by some near Rome in which the Rite of delivering the Vessels with these words Receive power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses c. is first set down yet that is wanting in a Ritual of Bellay written about the Thousandth year so that it was not universally received for near an Age after it was first brought in Now in all these Rituals the Prayer of Consecration is that which is now in the Pontifical only one of the Prayers of the Office * but is not the Prayer of Consecration from which two things clearly follow First that no Form of Ordination is so essential but that the Church may change it and put another in its room and if the other be apposite and fit there is no fault committed by the Change much less such a one as invalidates the Orders so given Secondly It is clearly made out that in the Ordinations of the Primitive Church for 900 years after Christ there was no power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood expresly given in the forms and words of Ordination So that if the want of such words annuls our Ordinations it will do the same to theirs the consequence of which will be that there were no true Orders in the Church of God till the latter Rites in the Roman Pontifical were invented and if that be true then the Orders of the Roman Church which have descended from them are not true since they flow from men not truly ordained And at this day the Greek Church as is set down by the Learned and Pious Bishop of Vence treating of the matter and form of Orders when they ordain 〈◊〉 give no such power but the Bishop lays on his right hand on the Priest's head and says The grace of God that always heals the things that are weak and perfects things that are imperfect promotes this very Reverend Deacon to be a Priest Let us therefore pray for him that the grace of the most Holy Spirit come upon him Then those that assist say thrice for him Kyrie Eleison Then the Bishop makes the Sign of the Cross and prays for the grace of God on the Priest thus ordained holding his hand all the while over his head then he puts the Priestly Vestiments on him and gives him the Kiss of Peace which is also done by the rest of the Clergy there present And Habert a Doctor of Sorbonne who has published the Greek Pontifical with learned Observations on it gives us this same account of their Ordinations which Morinus has confirmed by the several ancient Greek MSS. which he has published one of them being 800 years old which agrees with it and neither in the first Prayer nor second during both which the Bishop holds his hands over the head of him that is to be Consecrated is there any mention made of this power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood And in the Rituals of the Maronites Nestorians and Copthites all which Morinus proves are held good and valid by the Church of Rome there is no such Power given in the words of Consecration their Forms being almost the same with those used in the Greek Church so that we generally find Imposition of hands with a Prayer of Grace and a Blessing were looked on as sufficient for Ordination and this was taken from the practices of the Apostles who ordained by Prayer and Imposition of Hands as appears from the places cited in the Margent and that these Prayers were that God might pour out the gifts and graces of his Spirit on them both the nature of the thing and some of the cited places do fully prove From all which it appears that either our Ordinations are valid or there are no true Orders in the whole Christian Church no not in the Church of Rome it self 3. The very Doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome shews that the essentials of Ordination remain still with us By the Maxims of the Schools there must be matter and form in every Sacrament the Matter is some outward sensible action or thing the Form are the words applyed to that action or thing which hallow it and give the Character when as they say the indelible Character is impressed which they believe is done by Orders The imposition of hands is held to be the Matter by almost all their Doctors as is acknowledged by Bellarmine Vasques and most of the Schoolmen are of this mind It is true Eugenius in his Instruction to the Armenians set down in the Council of Florence declares that the giving the Sacred Vessels is the Matter in Orders but the Council of Trent which was a far more learned and cautious Assembly than the other was in which there was nothing but Ignorance and Deceit determined that Priests have their Orders by the Imposition of hands for treating of extream Unction they decreed that the Minister of it was either the Bishop or Priests lawfully ordained by them by the Imposition of the hands of the Presbytery And Bellarmine both from the Scriptures and the Fathers proves that the Imposition of hands must be the Matter of this Sacrament since they speak of it and of it only Now if this be the Matter of this Sacrament then the Form of it must be the words joyned with it in their Pontifical Receive the Holy Ghost And the Council of Trent does clearly insinuate that this is the form of Orders in these words If any man say that in Ordination the H. Ghost is
death of Christ to be the true Sacrifice brings this for one that there was to be another Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedeck For proving this he lays down in the first four Verses of the 5th Chapter the Jewish notion of a Priest then he goes on to prove that Christ was such a Priest called of God and Consecrated this he prosecutes more fully in the 7th Chapter where he asserts that Christ was that other Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck and v. 15. he calls him another Priest and v. 23. and 24. makes this plainer in these words And they truly were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood From which it is apparent that the Apostles design in these places is to prove that there is but one Priest in that sense mentioned chap. 5. v. 1. under the New Testament And had the Writer of this paper read over that Epistle he must needs have seen this but this is one of the effects of their not reading the Scriptures carefully that they make use of places of Scripture never considering any thing more than the general sound of some words without examining what goes along with them But as it is clear from that Epistle that there is but one Priest in the strict notion of it so it is no less clear that there is but one propitiatory Sacrifice among Christians in its strict notion for having mentioned the frequent Oblations to take away sins under the Mosaical Law chap. 5. v. 3. he makes the opposition clear chap. 7. v. 27. in these words Who needeth not daily as those High Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people for this he did once when he offered up himself And chap. 9. v. 7. having mentioned the High Priest's annual entring into the most Holy place he sets in opposition to it v. 12. Christ's entring in once to the Holy place having made Redemption for us by his own Blood And v. 22. he says Without shedding of Blood there was no Remission by which he does clearly put down all unbloody Sacrifices that are propitiatory And v. 28. he says Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many And chap. 10. v. 2. he says That when the worshippers are once purged then would not Sacrifices cease to be offered To prove that the Sacrifices of the Law had not that vertue Therefore we being purged by the Blood of Christ must offer no more propitiatory Sacrifices and all this is made yet clearer v. 11. and 12. And every Priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But this man after he had offered up one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God From all which you may see it is as plain as can be that there is but one Priest and one propitiatory Sacrifice under the New Testament for the places I have cited are not some ambiguous or dark Expressions but full and formal Proofs by which in a long Series of Discourse and Argument the thing is put out of doubt Therefore those of that Church do very unwisely ever to mention that Epistle or to say any thing that may oblige people to look upon it So that except to such as they are sure will read no more of it than they will shew them or cite to them they had best speak of it to no body else Secondly Though we deny all propitiatory Sacrifices but that which our Blessed Saviour offered for us once on the Cross yet we acknowledg that we have Sacrifices in the true strict and Scriptural notion of that word for propitiatory ones are but one sort of Sacrifice which in its general notion stands for any Holy Oblations made to God and in this sense Thank-Offerings Peace-Offerings and Free-will Offerings were Sacrifices under the Law so were also their Commemorative Sacrifices of the Paschal Lamb which were all Sacrifices though not Propitiatory And in this sense our prayers and praises a broken heart and the dedicating our lives to the service of God are Sacrifices and are so called in Scripture so also is the giving of Alms. And in this sense we deny not but the Holy Eucharist is a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving and it is so called in one of the Collects It is also a Commemoration of that one Sacrifice which it represents and by which the worthy receivers have the vertue of that applyed to them The Oblation of the Elements of Bread and Wine to be Sanctified is also a kind of Sacrifice and in all these Senses we acknowledg the Sacrament to be a true Sacrifice as the Primitive Church did But as we do not allow it to be a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living much less can we believe it such for the dead or that the Priests consecrating and consuming of it is a Sacrifice for the people it being a Sacrifice as it is a Sacrament which is only to those who receive it And in these three points First That it is no propitiatory Sacrifice 2. That the dead receive no good from it 3. That the Priests taking it alone does no good to the people who receive it not We are sure we have all Antiquity of our side But to digress upon that were to go too far out of the way and the Writers of Controversies have done it fully Therefore the power of Dispensing the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments gives all the Authority that is in the Christian Church for offering of Sacrifices And if they deny this they must deny the validity of all the ancient Ordinations for they can shew no such Form in any of their Ordinals Thirdly What was said before of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome about the matter and form of Orders as they are a Sacrament shews that the power they give in the Ordination of Priests of offering Sacrifices is not essential to it but only a Rite they have added to it the want whereof can be no essential defect and so can never annual our Orders What was said before in Answer to the first Argument is again to be remembred here that in all the Ancient Rituals there is no power of offering propitiatory Sacrifices given in the form of Ordination It is true in the M SS which lies in the Monastery of St. German there is a new Rite set down of delivering the Priestly Vestments in which among other words these are added And Do thou offer Propitiatory Sacrifices for the Sins and Offences of the People to Almighty God Which words are now omitted in that part of the Roman Pontifical and made a part of the final Blessing given at the end of the Office but this at most is but 800 years old and therefore cannot be essential to Orders since there were true Priests in the Christian Church
800 years before this was used And to this day in the Greek Church there is no power given by the Consecration to offer propitiatory Sacrifices for though in the second Prayer said in Ordinations in which God's Holy Spirit is prayed for upon the Priest That he may be worthy to stand before the Altar of God without blame and may preach the Gospel of his Kingdom and holily administer the Word of his Truth It is added And may offer to thee Gifts and Spiritual Sacrifices but there is no reason to gather from these words that they give power for offering Propitiatory Sacrifices We acknowledg that we offer Gifts and Sacrifices in the Holy Eucharist but we reject Propitiatory ones and these words do not at all import them And the truth of it is when the Writers of the Roman Church are pressed with the Arguments before mentioned that the Eucharist can be no Propitiatory Sacrifice Since 1. there no Blood shed in it 2. No Destruction is made of the Sacrifice for it is only the Accidents and not the Blessed Body of Christ that the Priest consumes 3. That Christ's Cross is called one Sacrifice once offered 4. That his being now exalted at the Father's right hand shews his Body can no more be subject to be Sacrificed or mangled When these with many Authorities from the Father's are brought they are forced to fly to some Distinctions by which their Doctrine comes to differ little from ours but still those high and indecent Expressions remain in their Rituals and Missals which they are forced to mollifie as they do those Prayers in which the same things and in the same manner and words are asked of the Blessed Virgin and the other Saints which we ask of God And though they would stretch them to a bare Intercession which the genuine sense of the words will not bear yet they will never change them for it is the standing Maxim of that Church never to confess an error nor make any change to the better The third Reason against our Orders of Priesthood is a Repetition of the first and is already answered The fourth Argument is That none can Institute the Form of a Sacrament to give Grace and make present Christ's Body and Blood but the Authors of Grace and those that had power over his Body and Blood but they that Instituted this Form had only their Authority from the Parliament as appears by the Act it self by which some Prelates and other Learned men being impowered did Invent the Form before mentioned never before heard of either in Scripture or the Church of God To this I Answer First It is certain the Writer of this Paper did never think it would have been seen by any body that could examine it but intended only to impose on some Illiterate persons otherwise he would never have said that a Form which Christ himself used when he ordained his Apostles and which is used in their own Church as the proper Form of Ordination was never before heard of in the Scripture or the Church of God Secondly Those who compiled the Liturgy and Ordinal had no other Authority from the Parliament than Holy and Christian Princes did before give in the like cases It is a common place and has been handled by many Writers How far the Civil Magistrate may make Laws and give Commands about Sacred things 'T is known what Orders David and Solomon Iehosaphat Hezekiah and Iosiah gave in such cases They divided the Priests into several Courses gavâ—… Rules for their attendance turned out â—… High Priest and put another in his stead sent the Priests over the Cities to teach the People gathered the Priests and commanded them to Sanctifie themselves and the house of the Lord and offer Sacrifices oâ—… the Altar And gave orders about the Forms of their Worship that they should praise God in the words of David and Asaph and gave orders about the time 〈◊〉 observing the Passover that in a case oâ—… Necessity it might be observed on the second Month though by their Law it wâ—… to be kept the first Month. And for the Christian Emperors let the Code or the Novels or the Capitulars of Charles the Great be read and in them many Lawâ—… will be found about the Qualificationâ—… Elections and Consecrations of Church-men made by the best of all the Roman Emperors such as Constantine Theodâ—… sius c. They called Councils to judâ—… of the greatest points of Faith which met and sate on their Writ whose determinations they confirmed and added the Civil Sanction to them And even Pope Leo though a higher spiriteâ—… Pope than any of his Predecessors were did intreat the Emperor Martian to annul the second Council of Ephesus anâ—… to give order that the Ancient Decrees of the Council of Nice should remain in Force Now it were a great Scandal on those Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Powers So it is no less unjust to say because the Parliament Impowered some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully exercised in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these persons had no other Authority for what they did Let those men declare upon their Consciences if there be any thing they desire more earnestly than such an Act for Authorizing their own Forms and would they make any Scruple to accept of it if they might have it Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one and such Authority the Church of Rome thinks fit to accept of in all States and Kingdoms of that Religion Thirdly The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did empower them to teach the people the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other holy Functions according to the Scripture the practice of the Primitive Church and the rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done though the Civil Powers had opposed it in which case their duty had been to have submitted to whatever severities or persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ and the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the hearts of those that had the chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all Thankfulness acknowledg so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Powers for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the parts and branches of it So by the authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and
of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie But that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should Rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers So that there is nothing of the Spiritual much less of the Papal and Tyrannical Power given to the King by the Law Fourthly From the power given to the Queen to Authorize such persons as she shall think fit to exercise that Jurisdiction he infers they may be either Clergymen Lawyers Merchants or Coblers since the Statute requires no more but that they be born Subjects of the Realm But this is as well grounded as all the rest for though that Statute does not name the qualification of the persons yet the other Statutes that Enacted the Book of Common-Prayer and the Ordinal do fully specifie what sort of persons these must be and it is not necessary that all things be in every Statute Fifthly He in the end of this Paper pretends that the reason why this present Parliament altered the Ancient Forms was because they were null and invalid The weakness and injustice of which was before shewed so that nothing needs to be repeated And in fine it has been also proved that as both the Greek and Latin Churches have made many alterations in their Rituals so the Church of England which made these Alterations had as good an Authority to do it by as they had To which I shall only add the words of the Council of Trent concerning the power of the Church for making such Changes when they give the reason for taking away the Chalice The Church has power in the Sacraments retaining the substance of them to change or appoint such things which she shall judg more expedient both for the profit of the Receivers and for the Reverence due to the Sacraments according to the variety of things times and places Where by their own confession it is acknowledged the Church may make alterations in the Sacraments So that it is a strange confidence in them to charge on us an annulling of former Orders because of a small addition of a few explanatory words And so much for his Paper Now having sufficiently answered every thing in it I hope I may be allowed to draw a few conclusions in opposition to his And First We having true Priests and true Bishops are a true Church since we believe all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the World Secondly We being thus a part of the Catholick Church every one that lives according to the Doctrine professed a mong us mayand shall be saved Thirdly We do truly eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood having the Blessed Sacrament administred among us according to our Saviour's Institution Fourthly We have as much power to Consecrate the Holy Sacrament as any that were Ordained in the Church for near a thousand years together Fifthly We have the Ministerial power of giving Absolution and the Ministry of Reconciliation and of forgiving Sins given us by our Orders Sixthly All men may and ought to joyn with us in the profession of the Faith we believe and in the use of the Sacraments we administer which are still preserved among us according to Christ's Institution and that whosoever repents and believes the Gospel shall be Saved Seventhly All and every of the Arguments he has used are found to be weak and frivolous and to have no force in them And thus far I have complied with your desires of answering the Paper you sent me in as short and clear terms as I could But I must add that this ransacking of Records about a succession of Orders though it adds much to the lustre and beauty of the Church yet is not a thing incumbent on every body to look much into nor indeed possible for any to be satisfied about for a great many Ages all those Instruments are lost So that how Ordinations were made in the Primitive Church we cannot certainly know it is a piece of History and very hard to be perfectly known Therefore it cannot be a fit Study for any much less for one that has not much leisure The condition of Christians were very hard if private persons must certainly know how all Ministers have been Ordained since the Apostles days for if we will raise scruples in this matter it is impossible to satisfie them unless the Authentick Registers of all the ages of the Church could be shewed which is impossible for tho we were satisfied that all the Priests of this Age were duly Ordained yet if we be not as sure that all who Ordained them had Orders rightly given them and so upward till the days of the Apostles the doubt will still remain Therefore it is an unjust and unreasonable thing to raise difficulties in this matter And indeed if we go to such nice scruples with it there is one thing in the Church of Rome that gives a much juster ground these than any thing that can be pretended in ours does which is the Doctrine of the Intention of the Minister being necessary to make a Sacrament Secret Intentions are only known to God and not possible to be known by any man Therefore since they make Orders a Sacrament there remains still ground to entertain a scruple whether Orders be truly given And this cannever becleared since none can know other mens thought or intentions Therefore the pursuing nice scruples about this cannot be a thing indispensably necessary otherwise all people must be per plext with endless disquiet and doubtings But the true touchstone of a Church must be the Purity of her Doctrine and the Conformity of her Faith with that which Christ and his Apostles taught In this the Scriptures are clear and plain to every one that will read and consider them sincerely and without prejudice which that you may do and by these may be led and guided into all Truth shall be my constant prayer to God for you AN APPENDIX About the forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church BEcause the decision of all the questions that can be made by those of the Church of Rome about the validity of our Orders must be taken from the Ancient Forms of Ordination as hath been fully made out in the foregoing Papers therefore I hope it will not be unpleasant to the Reader to see what the Forms of Ordinations were in the Latin Church for many Ages which he will more clearly understand when he sees them at their full Length then he can do by any Quotations out of them Morinus has published sixteen of the most Ancient Latin Rituals he could find composed from the end of the Fifth Century at which time he judges the most
A VINDICATION OF THE ORDINATIONS OF THE Church of ENGLAND IN WHICH It is Demonstrated that all the Essentials of Ordination according to the Practice of the Primitive and Greek Churches are still retained in Our Church IN ANSWER To a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders And given to a Person of Quality By GILBERT BURNET LONDON Printed by E. H. and T. H. for R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1677. IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber cui Titulus A Vindication of the Ordinations c. Guil. Iane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris Domesticis THE PREFACE THE Agents of the Church of Rome studying to accommodate their Religion to every Man's taste and inclinations use their endeavours with all persons in those things wherein they think they may most likely succeed If they find some that love to live at their ease and to reconcile their hopes of pardon and Heaven with a lewd life then they offer to secure them by slight Confessions easie Penances cheap Pardons and Indulgences and the communication of the merits of other persons If they fall on others of a sowrer composition the severities of some Religious Orders and unmerciful Penances are laid before them If they meet with those that can easily believe every thing that is told them with much assurance then many Miracles and other wonderful Stories are mustered up If others seem not so tractable and credulous then they study to shew them there is no certainty at all about Religion if all their Traditions be not believed And so they can but shake them from our Church they carâ—… not whither such doubts may drive them were it headlong to Atheism If they finâ—… others that are fanciful and Enthusiâ—…stical in their Religion then they tell theâ—… of Visions Raptures and Ecstasies with out number Or if they fall on other that love the order and gravity of thâ—… Church then they think the Game is easâ—… and sure they tell them of the Antiquâ—…ty Universality and continued Succeâ—…sion of their Church and of the noveltâ—… the narrowness and want of Succession iâ—… ours And though the fallaciousness these Objections have been so oft laid pen that by this time it might have beâ—… reasonably expected men of ingenuity aâ—… probity should have been ashamed of coâ—…tinuing them yet these Gentlemen 〈◊〉 proof against all discoveries The Reader will easily discern hâ—… guilty the Writer of the following Paper 〈◊〉 of going in the beaten tract of assertiâ—… things confidently which if he be a man of learning he must needs know they have no strength in them And if he be not acquainted with Ecclesiastical Learning which in Charity to him I am bound to believe it is very presumptuously done of him to give out Papers of this Importance in a point that no man ought to engage in but he that has studied Antiquity to some competent degree For to charge any person much more a whole Church with the basest Sacriledg and Forgery unless one be well assured in his conscience that he is able to make it good is such a piece of uncharitableness and high presumption that I know no excuse it can admit of And if our Church be bringing Souls to Christ in the method proposed in the Gospel how much has the Writer of this Paper or any other that manages these Arguments to answer for that study to raise such scruples as tend to cross and defeat so good a design But this Paper weak as it is was thought fit to be copied out and given about and was brought to a person of Quality that had been educated under a deep sense of the reverence due to the Church and Churchmen So that they hoped if such a one could be once induced to believe that we had no Orders nor Church-men duly called among us it had been easie to have prevailed further But that Person being sincerely pious and devout and not easily shaken with every story that was made and being desirous to be fully satisfied in this matter conveighed the Paper into my hands and I was put upon the answering it I quickly saw that the Arguments were so weak and trifling that they were very easily answered Yet since I was to engage in such a subject I resolved to do it with as much care and industry as the importance of the Matters required And finding that for all that had been written on this Controversie there remained a great deal to be said I have so fully considered it as I hope no scruple will remain with discerning persons and for the endless doubtings of weaker minds and the restless endeavours of busie Emissaries nothing can satisfie or silence those It may seem too great a presumption in one that is a stranger in this Church to engage in a Question that so much concerns it But though I had not my Orders in this Church yet I derive them from it being Ordained by a Bishop that had his Ordination in this Church so that I am equally concerned in the issue of the Question And I am confident no body shall have cause to imagine that I engage in it with design to betray or give it up Among the many unjust and spiteful Calumnies with which the Clergy of the Roman Communion study to asperse and disgrace the Reformation there are none more frequently made use of than these That there are no Pastors Lawfully called or Ordained among us That we have not the Power of making God present on our Altars as they have nor the power of Absolving from sins much less of Redeeming Souls from the miseries they are under in another state They tell their Credulous followers that we were all at first no better than a Company of Tub-Preachers and that all the disorders we saw of that sort during the late Wars were as justifiable as the first beginnings of the Reformation And tho the ridiculous Fable of the Nags-head be so manifest a Forgery supported by no good Evidence and overthrown by the Authority of so many publick Records besides many other clear presumptions from the state of things and the time in which that was said to be done that one might very reasonably expect that all sober or discreet persons should be ashamed of so foul an Imposture yet it serves them still for many a good turn and so they will never lay it down tho I dare boldly say there is no matter of Fact of which there are no surviving witnesses that can be Demonstrated with clearer Evidences than the Regularity and Canonicalness of the Ordination of Arch Bishop Parker Others that are not so lost in impudence yet say that tho we have a shadow of a Succession among us yet we shew how little regard we have to Orders when we acknowledg the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas to be true Churches tho many of them do not so much as pretend to a continued succession of
Pastors For the foreign Churches they are able to speak for themselves nor is it needful for me here to shew what grounds there are for our Churches holding Communion with them But it must be acknowledged to be a high pitch of boldness and injustice to charge us as if we did not ascribe all due honour to holy Orders and the Succession of Pastors We know and assert That no man can take this honor of Priesthood to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee We reject the extravagant and bold pretences of hot-headed or factious Enthusiasts and have learned out of the Gospel that a publick calling was necessary even to those who had the most extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost Our Savionr sent his Disciples as his Father had sent Him and laid his hands on them and gave them the Power of binding and loosing And tho God had by his Spirit called Saul and Barnabas to the Apostleship of the Gentiles yet they did not enter upon the discharge of that Function till by the direction of the Holy Ghost whether by a voice formed in the Air or by a secret Inspiration it matters not they were separated for the work of the Ministry by Prayer and Imposition of hands And tho Timothy was by some Prophesies marked out as a Sacred Person yet he was received into that Function by the Imposition of S. Pauls hands From these sacred Authorities backed with the constant Doctrine and practice of the Churches of God in all Ages we do hold a visible Vocation and Ordination of Pastors necessary in the Church But whether the Roman Pontifical or our Ordinal comes nearer the Rules and Instances in Scripture and the forms of the Primitive times for at least Eight hundred years any that will compare them will easily discern and it is the chief subject of the following Work fully to evince the advantage of our forms beyond theirs It is true we do not extol the Office of Priesthood to that height as to say the Priest can by a few words work the greatest miracle that ever was and can make God present as they love to Phrase it this we think is the honouring the Creature more than the Creator Nor do we exalt the Priest above Gods Vicegerent on Earth our Lawful Soveraign whom according to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church even when Persecuted by their Emperours we honour as next to God and one who is inferiour to God only And therefore we reject the Seditious comparing of the Dignity of the Priestly Office with the Kingly which has not satisfied the Ambition of the Romish Clergy since Hildebrands days but the one must be preferred to the other Nor do we pretend that our Character gives us an Immunity to commit Crimes and an Exemption from the Civil Courts when they are Committed This were to make the Altar a Sanctuary for the most Criminal and the house of Prayer a Den of Thieves and Robbers It is true Christian Princes granted these Immunities at first that Church-men might not be disturbed in their Callings nor vexed with troublesome suteâ—… But afterwards that would not suffice but the Doctrine of Ecclestastical Iurisdiction and Immunity was set up as a thing most sacred and no wonder was it that men durst not presume to lay hands on him who could bring down not only Legions of Angels but God himself with a word And in the beginning of this Century Italy had almost been imbroiled in a War of the Popes making for which he pretended this for one cause that the State of Venice had apprehended two notoriously lâ—…ud and flagitious Priests and were proceeding against them according to Law But he saw other Princes were not very ready to second him and yet he did not lay down the quarrel till the Frocess of the Priests was discharged and they were set at liberty Such Exemptions are very profitable for a corrupt Clergy but if any such be among us we claim no such Protection being willing to leave them to the Law We know as little ground for thinking the Priest by his saying Mass can bring Souls out of Purgatory the Scriptures have made no discoveries either of Purgatory or the ways to escape from it or get out of it The Primitive Church continued still as Ignorant as the Holy Pen-men had been but in the darkest Ages the night being a fit time for Dreams this other world was discovered which has brought greater returns of Power and Riches to that Prince under whose Protection the discovery was made than the world Columbus discovered has sent to the Crown of Castile And tho the trade is not of that advantage that it was yet in gratitude for past services it must never be neglected or as when the vein of a Mine fails they dig on through the hardest Rocks till they find it again for the works must still go on But we poor souls have nothing to do with that gainful Traffick and therefore the Glory of the discovery and the Monapoly of the Trade we freely resign up to them and acknowledg the profits of new Inventions by the Rules of all Government are only due to the Inventors so that they have no reason to quarrel with us for leaving this entirely to them For the power of binding and loosing we do assert that as our Saviour vested his Disciples with it so it is still in the Church but if the vigor and exercise of it be much weakened we have none to blame for it but the Church of Rome who have now in a course of many ages laid down all open and publick penance So that the world being once delivered from that which to licentious men seemed a heavy Bondage it is not to be wondred at if the Primitive strictness could not be easily retrieved 'T is true this is a defect in our Church it is confessed by her in the Office of Commination and she wishes it may be restored but the decay and disuse of it begun in the Church of Rome and every body knows that what is severe and uneasy to Flesh and Blood is not soon submitted to when the practice of it is for any considerable time intermitted But the Clergy of that Communion thought they had made a good bargain when the necessity of Auricular Confessors and private Absolution was received to which the Laity did more easily submit that they might be freed from the shame of open penance and they knew how to deal with their Priests when the penance was secret none knew either the heinousness of their sins or the nature of the penance so it was more safe for the Priest to enjoyn what he listed and give Absolution on what terms he pleased And then because it was painful to have the Absolution delayed till the penance was
sake of a place but places for the sake of good things therefore choose from all Churches the things that are Pious Religious and Right and gather all these in one bundle and leave them with the English that they may become familiar to them It will be hard for the Agents of that Church to find out a Reason why Austin Bishop of Canterbury might make such changes in the Liturgies by gathering out of the several Rituals that were then in the World what he thouhgt fit and yet to deny the same power to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and the Bishops in King Edward's days why might not they as well as Austin the Monk compare the Rituals of the Church of Rome with other more ancient Forms and gather together what they found most Pious Religious and Right not loving things for the sake of a place whether Rome or Sarum but loving places rather for the sake of good things So that in this we have on our side the decision of a Pope who was both more learned and more pious than any of all his Successors but this is not the only particular in which they will decline to be tryed by his Iudgment And in the changes that were made iâ—… is very clear that our Reformers did noâ—… design to throw out every thing that was in the Roman Rituals right or wrong but made all the good use that was possible oâ—… the Forms that were then received in thâ—… Western Church and in this our Church followed our Saviours method who thougâ—… he had the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and was to Antiquate the Jewisâ—… Religion and to substitute his more Divine Precepts to those of Moses Yet he did accommodate his Institutions as near aâ—… could be to the Customs of the Jews not only in lesser matters but even in those two great Sacraments by which his Church is knit together as hath been fully made out by many learned Writers If then the customs of a Religion that was ready to perish were made use of and by new and more sacred Benedictions were consecrated to higher ends Our Church shewed her Prudence and Moderation in not destroying Root and Branch but reserving such things as were good and by being cleansed from some Excrescencies might prove still of excellent use This though it has given some colour to many peevish complaints yet is that in which we have cause still to glory This care and caution does eminently appear in our Ordinal the Ceremonies which were invented by the latter Ages we laid aside the more Ancient and Apostolical are retained And for the formal words used in the Imposition of Hands though the saying Receive the Holy Ghost was a latter addition without any Ancient Authority yet because this comes nearer the practice of our Saviour it was retained as the form of giving Orders For since it is consest on all hands that the Form of Orders is in the power of the Church we had good reason to prefer that which our Blessed Saviour made use of to any other and it had been a sullen and childish peevishness to have changed this because it was used in the Church of Rome So that I cannot imagine what should move them to shew so much dislike to our Forms except it be the old Quarrel of hating them because they are better and their own are worse and so because their deeds are evil they envy and revile us In this whole matter we are willing to be tryed both by the Scriptures and the first eight Ages even of the Roman Church by the Greek Church to this day and by the Doctrine that is most commonly received even in their own Church There is but one Objection that may seem to have any force in it which can be made from the practices of the Primitive Church against the Ordinations in this Church which is that we have not the inferior degrees of Subdeacons Acolyths Exorcists Readers and Porters in our Church and indeed if the Popes Infallibility be well proved this will be of force sufficient to invalidate our Orders The case of Photius Patriarch of Contantinople is well known whom Pope Nicolaus denyed to be lawfully Ordained because he was suddenly raised up from being a Layman to be made a Patriarch and though he passed through the Ecclesiastical Degrees yet that was not thought sufficient by that Pope who certainly would have been more severe to us who have none of these Degrees among us But these Orders cannot be looked on as either of Divine or Apostolical Institution the Scripture mentions them not St. Clemens St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp say nothing of them Justin Martyr and Irenaeus are as silent about them so that till the third Century we find no footsteps of them the first mention that is made of them is in the Canons and Constitutions called Apostolical of whose Antiquity I shall now say nothing In the Canons mention is oft made of the rest of the Clergy as distinct from Bishops Priests and Deacons and particularly they mention Readers Subdeacons and Singers In the Constitutions there are Rules given about thâ—… Ordination of Subdeacons and Readers And though there is mention made of Exorcists yet it is plainly said there that they were not Ordained but were believed to have that power over Spirits by a free gift of God and that they were then Ordained when they were made Bishops and Priests Firmilian who lived in the midst of the third Century speaks of Exorcists but it does not appear from his words if they were a distinct or an inferior Order of Church-men and they may be well enough understood of such as had an extraordinary power over Spirits Yet in the beginning of the fourth Century we find in the Greek Church more inferior Orders for the Council of Laodicea reckons up Servants who it is like were Acolyths Readers Singers Exorcists Porters and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were it seems Monks or some persons that were imployed in servile works such as the diggers of Craves And by the Council of Antioch the Chorepiscopi might Ordain Subdeacons Readers and Exorcists And if the Epistle to the Church of Antioch said to be writen by Ignatius was forged in the same Century by it it appears that there were then in the Greek Church Subdeacons Readers Singers Porters and Exorcists for all these are saluted in that Epistle from which it appears that all these Orders were then in the Church of Antioch But there is no small difficulty about these Orders in the Greek Churches for in all their Rituals we find no inferior Orders but Subdeacons and Readers to whom in some Churches they have added Singers upon which it is that Morinus confidently pronounces there were never any other inferior Orders in the Greek Church but these two but it does not appear that he had considered well those Canons of Laodicea and Antioch which mention other Orders Abraham Ecchellensis
was not so much as disputed but when they grew insolent and factious it was declared by the General Council of Chalcedon that they were and ought to be subject to their Bishops and so it continues in the Greek Church to this day The same was also decreed in some Western Councils but when the Order of the Benedictines grew very considerable and many persons of Quality retired into it and it became a great piece of Religion to build and inrich Abbeys then the Founders moved their Kings to obtain Priviledges for them from their Bishops for the most ancient of these that I have met with is the Exempof the Abbey of St. Denis granted by the Bishop of Paris the next to that is the exemption of the Abbey of Corbie granted by the Bishop of Amiens which presidents were soon followed by a great many others By these Grants the Bishops did renounce their share of the Revenues of the Abbey of which according to the Ancient Division the fourth part did belong to the Bishop and for the further quiet of those Religious Houses the Bishops did exempt them from all Visitations and gave up the power they had over them wholly to the Abbot and these exemptions which at first were only for the Monasteries were afterwards extended further to all the Lands and Churches that belonged to the Abbeys of which some were exempted from the Visitations of the Arch-Deacons and the Bishops Vicars others were also exempted from the Bishops visiting in person But the Popes from the 8th Century downwards finding how much Abbeys wese enriched and it being a grateful thing in all places to favour the Monks they granted them fuller and larger Priviledges they gave many Abbots a right to a Miter and a Staff and declared them Prelates And the truth of it was the secular Clergy were for the most part both so ignorant and so corrupt that it was no wonder if all the World favoured the Monks whose vices being committed within their Cloysters were not so notorious and did not occasion so much scandal as the disorders of the Clergy did which were more publick And the very name Religious or Regular which the Monks took to themselves and the name Secular with which they loaded the Clergy did them great service for in ignorant Ages specious Titles and ill sounding Names affect the Vulgar mightily And the Monks of the Order of St. Austin being also possest of most of the Prebends from whence they were called Canons Regular those Chapterâ—… had exempted Iurisdictions given them From hence sprung all the peculiar Exemptions that are among us for in the suppressing of the Monasteries the Bishopâ—… were not fully restored to their Ancient Iurisdiction so that those Exemptionâ—… do still continue from whence the most scandalous disorders in our Clergy have risen So much are they mistaken who complain of the Episcopal Jurisdiction since the foulest Enormities among us flow from the want of it and from a Corruption brought in by the Popes which is not yet sufficiently purged out These Monasteries were so many separated and independent Congregations which did chose their own Pastors and this only difference in the point of Government is between our Modern Independents and them that these will depend on none in the rules of their Policy but upon Christ alone without acknowledging any superior Iurisdiction or Subordination and those did depend on Christ's Vicar without submitting to any other Authority But the Popes designing to subject the Episcopal Authority wholly to themselves used another Method toward that end which was to raise the Dignity of the Abbots very high and whereas by the Primitive Canons three Bishops were to concur in the Consecration of a Bishop the Popeâ—… brought in a custom of allowing two Mitered Abbots to assist a Bishop in those Consecrations which is acknowledged both by Binnius and Bellarmine And this with the Title Prelate and the use of the Miter and the Pastoral Staff raised them to an equality with the Bishops This was not all they were next brought to sit in General Councils Originally Abbots were but Laymen but now they must all be Priests yet it was never before heard of that Priests did sit in Oecumenical Councils It is true the Rural-Bishops or Chorepiscopi did subscribe the Canons of the Council of Nice and other General Councils but whatever Morinus and some others have said to prove that they were no more than Priests yet if it were not an impertinent Digression â—… think it could be easily made appear that they were Bishops so that it is most certain that no Priests did subscribe and siâ—… in General Councils for many Ages in their own Names for what they did by Proxy from their Bishops has no relation to this matter But when the Popes were setting up their Monarchy in the West they resolved to ballance the Votes of the Bishops by bringing in Abbots to vote in their General Councils who were obliged by their Interest to support the Exaltation of the Papal power and suppressing of Episcopal Iurisdiction In the first General Council that was held by Calistus the second in the Latâ—…ran Sugerius who was present says there were 300 and more Bishops but Pandulphuâ—… says there were present 997. partly Bishops partly Abbots so that above 600. of these must have been Abbots In the third Council of Lateran we hear of none but Bishops but to make amends for that the Writs that summoned the fourth Council of Lateran were sent to Abbots as well as to Bishops and a vast number of them came The Writs for the second Council of Lions were issued out not only to Abbots but to inferior Prelates by Pope Gregrory the Tenth and Aquinas and Bonaventure being then in great esteem were also called to that Council though they were only Friers But Pope Clement the Fifth took care to have a full Assembly when he called the General Council at Vienna for the Writs were not only to Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots as had been done before but to all Priors Deans Provosts Archdeacons Archpriests and all other Prelates of Monasteries and Churches exempted and non-exempted And thus the Popes were sure to carry things in such Assembles as they pleased And it is no unpleasant thing to observe what were the Contests between the Popes and the Bishops which are plainly the same and have been managed by the same Arts and Intrigues that the Contests in Political matters between Prerogative and Privilege have been For near five Ages the matter was contested by the Prelates but the power of the Abbots and the other exemptions of the Deans and Chapters did much weaken the Bishops Authority and the Secular Princes did joyn with the Popes to bear down the Bishops who having great Revenues did generally joyn with the People for the asserting of publick Liberty But the Popes gave them up as Sacrifices to
their Princes till they forced them afterwards to seek to them for shelter from the severity of their Princes and then the Tables were turned All this was not a little set forward by the credit which the begging Friers got every where in the 13th Century for the Monks were then become as scandalous as the Secular Clergy had ever been and were generally very ignorant so that they could not serve the ends of the Papacy any more but the austere lives of the Franciscans their poverty and coarse Garments girt about with Ropes their bare Legs and seeming Humility gained them great esteem and the Zealous Dominicans whose course of life was not so severe yet were as poor and Preached much and Aquinas Scotus and Bonaventure brought in among the Friers the learning of the Schoolâ—… which was then in great esteem in the World all which concurred to dispose the People to receive them with great Veneration These were also imployed by the Popes every where and were also exempted from Episcopal Visitation and had Priviledges to build Churches and Seminaries to Preach hear Confessions and Administer the Sacraments every where and by these means the Episcopal Iurisdiction was quite overthrown and the Papacy became absolute and those Orders of Mendicant Friers were clearly a Presbytery they being a company of Priests that acknowledged no Episcopal Iurisdiction over them and their Great Chapter was their General Assembly and their Annual or Triennial Generals and Provincials who are chosen by them were like the elected Moderators of Provincial and National Assemblies In this only did that Presbytery differ from the Geneva Form that it was subject only to Christ's pretended Vicar the other claims to be only subordinate to Christ himself but both did equally rebel against their Bishops Yet the Schism of the Papacy had almost overturned all for the Bishops met in a General Council at Constance I call all those Councils General according to the style of the Church of Rome for I know there was not a Conncil truly General among them all and there they thought to retrieve their Authority and to be quit with the Popes for bringing in Abbots and other inferior Prelates they brought in Deputies from Universities to sit and judg with them and they thought they had made sure work of all by their Acts that regulated the Popes Election restrained his power subjected him to the judgment of a General Council and above all by their Act for a Decennial General Council with such provisions in it that one would think the Act for Triennial Parliaments was copyed from that Original But alas all this proved to no purpose for as Aeneas Sylvius wisely said that since all Preferments were given by the Pope and none by the Council he must certainly have the better of it at long run which as it made himself turn about so it brought off many more and at length the Pope became Master of All and at the Council of Florence the Generals of Orders were brought in to have Votes there There was another great Engine also made use of by which all the rules of the Primitive Church was overturned which was the Popes assuming a power to hear and judg all causes originally All that the Popes pretended to for many Ages was to be the highest Tribunal to which the last Appeal did lie And this was not only never yielded to by the Eastern Churches but even the African Churches though a part of the Latin Church would never submit to it and yet the receiving an Appeal had a very favourable plea that a person who had been oppressed by a faction perhaps in his own Countrey might find relief and protection elsewhere But after the 8th Century and that the forged and now universally acknowledged spurious Decretals were received they set up a new pretension of Iudging Causes Originally taking matters out of the hands of the Iudg Ordinary and bringing the Cognizance of them to Rome and setting up many reserved Cases which could only be judged by the Pope and the Canonists that were a servile sort of people who wrote chiefly for Preferment did upon all occasions find new Distinctions for enlarging the Popes power But because it was intolerable tedious and expensive to carry all such matters to Rome therefore that it might not be too heavy a burden to the World Legantine Courts were every where set up where all those Tryals were made By all these ways were the Primitive Rules broken and such a confusion was brought in upon all Ecclesiastical Offices that no Ancient Landmark or Boundary was thought so sacred that they did not either leap over or change it I will not enlarge further on this Subject and having already transgressed the bounds of a Preface I will not lay open the other Violations of the Sacred Offices at the full length but as the value of every thing is no less prejudiced by exalting it too high than by depressing it too much for a string over bended must crack So the Popes did as much wrong these Functions by exalting them out of measure as they had done by encroaching so far upon them And this was done by the Croissades Indulgences Privileged Places Iubilees and Redemptions from Purgatory with other things of that nature which the Monks and Friers did every where preach and proclaim these things did savour of Interest so palpably that it was no wonder if most people were so alienated from them that the first Reformers found all persons disposed to forsake the Communion of a Church that had so long deceived them by such gross Impostures Many had groaned long under all these Corruptions and of such the greater part received the Reformation others hoping to have got things brought about to a better pass continued still in that Communion but how little either Erasmus 〈◊〉 Câ—…ssander or many more such could prevail the event shewed for in the Council of Trent which was not obtained but after many years sute frequent Addresses not without threatnings at length extorting it how little could be carried appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's own History two grand points upon which the Bishops that had honest designs intended to raise the Reformation of Discipline and Manners were the declaring the Episcopal Iurisdiction to be of Divine Right and that the Residence of all Ecclesiastical Incumbents was also of Divine Right but these could not be carried Lainez the General of the Jesuits and the whole Court Party appearing with great Vehemence against the first of these asserting that all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was wholly and only in the Pope And from this one thing it may appear how little Iustice or Fair-dealing was to be expected from that Council towards those whom they called Hereticks when the Bishops themselves being Iudges in a thing in which they were also parties I mean about the Divine Right of their own Iurisdiction they could not carry it for it was never heard of before that
authority to what Offices they will have made Saints and added devotions to them as they pleased All persons in that Communion must either by a blind resignation accept of every thing in their Worship which the Pope imposes believing him infallible or if they are not of that perswasion but give themselves leave to examine the Offices whether they do it by the Scriptures the Fathers and Tradition or by the Rules of Reason they must needs see there are many injustifiable things in their Offices many Saints are in the Breviary about whose Canonisation they are not at all assured And in a word one shall not speak with one of these Principles but they will acknowledg there is great need of Reforming their Offices Yet they must worship God according to them as they are otherwise they are Schismaticks and fall under that same condemnation for which they are so severe upon us Therefore it must either be the merits of the Cause that makes a Schismatick or if a Condemnation for separating from Authorised Offices does it then they must resolve to be guilty of it or worship God contrary to their Consciences They have no rules for their Offices but the Popes pleasure for Councils never made any and indeed it is the most unreasonable thing that can be to put the direction of the whole worship of God in one Man or a succession of Mens power unless they be believed Infallible The last thing I shall mention to shew how unreasonable they are who deny the Popes Infallibility and yet condemn the Reformation so severely is in the point of Government which though it be not of so high nor so universal a Nature as the two former are yet it must be acknowledged to be of great Importance And that the Prelates of that Church are fast tied to the Pope without any Reserves or Exceptions unless it be that of saving my Order the sense whereof is not fully understood will appear from the Oath they make to the Pope before they are Ordained From the consideration of which it was that King Henry the 8th laid it out to his Parliament that they were but half his Subjects and by the Oath then taken by the Bishops of England as is set down by Hall it appears that since that time there are very considerable Additions made to that Oath which any that will compare them together will easily discern If men make Conscience of an Oath they must be in a very hard condition that believe the Pope to be Infallible and yet are so bound to him by such a Bond. If the Superior be Infallible the Subject may without any trouble in his Conscience swear Obedience in any terms that can be conceived But when the Superior is believed subject to error and mistake then their swallow must be very large that can swear to preserve defend increase and promote the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors foresaid The Decrees Orders or Appointments Reservations Provisions or Mandates Apostolical I shall observe with all my strength and make them to be observed by others And I shall according to my power persecute and oppose all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebells against the said our Lord and his Successors And I shall humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolical Commands Which words being full and without those necessary and just reserves of the Obedience promised to Ecclesiastical Superiors in all things Lawful and Honest all the Prelates of the Roman Communion are as fast tied to the Pope as if they believed him Infallible for if they believed him such they could be tied to nothing more than absolute and unlimited Obedience Therefore they are in so much a worse estate than others be which hold that opinion because they have the saâ—… Obligation bound upon them by Oath And let the Pope command what he will theâ—… must either obey him or confess themselveâ—… guilty of breach of Oath and Perjurâ—… And I hope the Reader will observe whâ—… mercy all whom they account Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels againâ—… their Lord the Pope are to expect at their hands who make their Bishops swear 〈◊〉 persecute all such according to their power so that we may by this be abundantly satisfied of their good Intentionâ—… and Inclinations when ever it shall be iâ—… their power to fulfil the Contents of thiâ—… Oath for let any of them speak ever 〈◊〉 softly or gently if he comes to be Consecrated a Bishop he must either be Perjured or turn a persecuter of all Protestants whâ—… are in their opinion the worst sort of Hereticks and Schismaticks And certainly it is much more reasonble to calculate what in reason we ought to expect from the Prelates of that Church if ever our sins provoke God to deliver us over to their Tyranny from the Oath they swear at their Consecration than from all the meek and good natured words with which they now study to abuse some among us which is so common an Artifice of all who aspire to Power and Government that one might think the trick should be tried no more but some love to be cheated a hundred times over From these Instances it is apparent that the Pope has every whit as much Authority in that Church and over all in it as if he were believed Infallible since both the Doctrine Worship and Government of their Church are determined by him to whose award all must not only submit but be concluded by it in their Subscriptions Worship and other practices So that the opinion of the Popes being fallible gives such persons no ease nor freedom except it be to their secret thoughts but brings them under endless scruples and perplexities by the Obligations and Oaths that are imposed upon them which bind them to a further obedience and compliance than is consistent with a fallible Authority And therefore their Principles being so Incoherent that they cannot maintain both their charge against us of Heresie and Schism and their opinion of the Popeâ—… Fallibility and keep a good Conscience withal There is one of three things to be expected from men of that Principle either that they shall quite throw off thâ—… Popes tyrannical Yoke and assert their own liberty reserving still their other Opinions as was done in the days of King Henry the Eighth or that they shall joynâ—… in Communion with us or that they shall continue as they are complying with every thing imposed on them by the Court oâ—… Rome preferring Policy to a good Conscience studying by frivolous Distinctions to reconcile these Compliances with their Principles which any man easily see are Inconsistent That those of the Port-Royal have done the last is laid to their charge both by Calvinists and Jesuits and as I am credibly informed by some of their own number who do complain of their subscribing Formularies and every thing else sent from Rome which they have opposed as long
Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supream Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them Obligatory on the Subjects Which is all that is imported by the word Lawful in the Act of Parliament the ordinary use whereof among Lawyers is A thing according to Law The â—…th Argument against the Validity of our Priestly Orders is That we have them from those that are not Bishops which carries him to the next Conclusion that our Bishops are not Bishops But before I follow him to that I must desire you would consider with how much disingenuity this Paper is framed that would impose on the easy Reader the belief of our first Reformers not being true Bishops when the Writer cannot but know that Arch Bishop Cranmer was a Bishop as truly Consecrated and Invested as any of the Roman Church were and was confirmed by the Pope who sent him the Pall and to satisfy you that they knew him to be such they degraded him with the usuall Ceremonies before his Martyrdom So that he being the Fountain of our Clergy that succeeded him and being truly Consecrated himself all those he Ordained are by the doctrine of the Church of Rome Bishops or Priests since Orders according to their Doctrine leave an Indelible Character which can never be taken away So that by their Principles no following sentence could deprive him of the power of Ordaining It is true there were many disorderly practices of some Popes in the latter Ages in annulling Orders and re-ordaining those ordained by others for Pope Urban the second appointed those who were ordained Simoniacally to be re-ordained And Stephen the 4th in a Synod Decreed that all the Ordinations his predecessor Pope Constantine had made were null and void because he from a Layman was chosen a Pope and though he passed through the Intermedial degrees of Priest and Deacon yet he stopt not so long in them as was appointy by the Canons and upon the same account it was also judged that Photius the Learned Patriarch of Constantinople who in six days went through all the Ecclesiastical Decrees from a Layman to a Patriarch had no power of Ordaining lawfully and all the Orders he gave were annulled by Pope Nicolaus And to mention no more the Orders given by Pope Formosus were annulled by his Successor Pope Stephen the 6th upon the pretence of some Crimes and Irregularities with which he was charged these practices as they gave great Scandal so they gave occasion to much disputing about the Legality and Canonicalness of these proceedings for the Canonists and Schoolmen being generally very ignorant and prepossessed with an opinion of the Popes Infallibility studied to flatter the Court of Rome all that was possible Yet on the other hand there was so much to be said against these proceedings that as appears by Petrus Damiani Auxilius and other Writers of that time there was great perplexity and many different Opinions about them But the ignorance and passion of those Ages appears evidently in this particular for there is nothing more manifest than that the Ancient Church was of another opinion and as in the debate between Pope Stephen and Saint Cyprian about the re-baptizing of Heretiques the constant opinion and practice of the following Ages was against re-baptizing such as were baptized by those Heretiques who retained the essentials of Baptism So by the same parity of reason and upon the same Arguments they held the Ordinations of Heretiques valid that retained the essentials of Ordination In the case of Heretiques we have these Instances Faelix was consecrated Bishop of Rome by the Arians in the room of Liberius whose banishment they had procured and yet he was acknowledged a righteous Pope and his Ordinations were accounted valid In the General Council of Ephesus the Priests of the Messalian Heresie were appointed to be received into the Church and continue Priests upon renouncing their Heresie The same was also granted to Nestorians Pelagians Eutychians Monothelites and divers other Heretiques as Morinus proves at length And at this day though the Greek Church is condemned by the Roman as Heretical in the point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet they are received according to their Orders into their Communion when they renounce their Heresie And their great Vasques says that all the Schoolmen and Summists agree that an heretical Excommunicate or suspended Bishop has still the power of giving Orders for which he cites many Schoolmen and he likewise proves that a Bishop after degradation retains the same power And the case of Schismaticks is no less clear for to wave the Decision of the Council of Nice which seems somewhat dubious in the case of the Novatian Ordinations we find frequently in St. Austins Treatises and Conferences with the Donatists that they offered to them if they would return to the Unity of the Church to receive them according to their Orders So that they did not think Schism did take away the power of giving Orders And in the case of that long and scandalous Schism of the Papacy for fifty years together when the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon though beside their Schism Depositions Excommunications and Censures of all sorts passed on both sides by each of those Popes against the other and it must be confessed that one of them was the Schismatick and by consequence the Censures fell justly on him Yet both their Ordinations were held valid and when the matter was setled at the Council of Constance the Ordinations on no side were annulled or renewed And though Petrus de Lunay who was called Benedict the 13th refused to submit to them and lay down his pretensions as the others did yet when they gave sentence against him there is not a word in it of annulling Orders given by him From all which it follows that neither the pretence of Heresie Schism nor Censures will according to the practice either of the Primitive Church or of the Church of Rome even in these latter Ages be of any force to invalidate our Orders Which was well seen by Morinus and though he does not write upon this head with so much ingenuity as he does on other points yet he lays this down as a Maxim That all the Ordinations of a Heretiques and Schismatiques made according the forms of the Church and where the Heretiques that gave them were also rightly Ordained according to the forms of the Church are valid as to their Substance and are not to be repeated though they be unlawful and both he that gave and he that received them sinned grievously nor is it in any case lawful for a Catholick to receive Orders from Heretiques or Schismatiques Therefore in those Ordinations if all other things be done according to the form of the Church and only the Crime of Heresie be charged on the Orders given the substance of
had from Christ in such or such instances which command was just and good if the persons to be Ordained were so qualified as they ought to have been according to the Scriptures Sixthly Though the Command were unjust yet that cannot be imagined a sufficient ground to annul the Ordination for otherwise all the Ordinations appointed by the Anti-Popes of Avignon were null since done upon Mandates from a false Pope who had not power which will annul all the Ordinations of the Gallicane Church which did submit to these Popes And yet this cannot be admitted by the Church of Rome unless they also annul all the Eastern Bishops for the Patriarch of Constantinople is made by order from the Grand Signior and is upon that installed If this therefore invalidates our Ordinations it will do theirs much more except they will allow a greater power to the Turk than to the King So that this at most might prove the Church to be under an unjust violence but cannot infer an invalidating of Acts so done therefore if Matthew Parker was duely consecrated though it was done upon the Queens Mandate he was a true and lawful Bishop For let me suppose another case parallel to this if the Clergy should resolve they will no more administer the Sacraments upon the pretence perhaps of Interdicts Censures or some such thing And the Prince or State commands them to administer the Sacraments as was done by the Venetians in the time of the Interdict and by many Kings in the like cases can it be pretended that the Sacraments they administer upon such Commands are not the Sacraments of Christ but only of the King So in like manner Orders given upon the Kings Mandate by persons empowered to it by Christ and the Church are true Orders even though the Mandate for them were unjust tyrannical and illegal Seventhly Besides all that has been said it is to be considered that the power of choosing Bishops was in all Ages thought at most a mixed thing in which Laymen as well as Church-men had a share It is well enough known that for the first three Centuries the Elections were made by the people and the Bishops that came to assist in those Elections did confirm their Choice and Consecrate the person by them Elected Now whatever is a Right of the people they can by Law transfer it on another So in our case the people of this Realm having in Parliament annexed the power of choosing Bishops to the Crown by which their Right is now in the King's person Consecrations upon his Nomination must either be good and valid or all the Consecrations of the first ages of the Church shall likewise be annulled since he has now as good a Right to name the persons that are to be Consecrated as the people then had It is true the Tumults and other disscandal orders in those Elections brought great scandal on the Church and so they were taken away and Synodical Elections were set up but as the former Ordinations were good before these were set up so it cannot be said that these are indispensibly necessary otherwise there are no good Ordinations at at this day in the Church of Rome these being all now put down the Pope having among his other Usurpations taken that into his own hands Eighthly It is also known how much Christian Princes Emperors and Kings in all ages and places have medled in the Election of Bishops I need not tell how a Synod desired Valentinian to choose a Bishop at Millan when Saint Ambrose was chosen nor how Theodosius chose Nectarius to be Patriarch of Constantinople even when the second General Council was sitting Nor need I tell the Law Iustinian made that there should be Three presented to the Emperor in the Elections of the Patriarch and he should choose one of them These things are generally known and I need not insist on them It is true as there followed great confusions in the Greek Empire till it was quite over-run and destroyed so there was scarce any one thing in which there was more doing and undoing than in the Election of the Patriarchs the Emperors often did it by their own Authority Synodal Elections were also often set up at length the Emperors brought it to that that they delivered the Pastoral Staff to the Bishop by which he was invested in his Patriarchat but it was never pretended neither by the Latin Church nor by the contrary Factions in the Greek Church that Orders so given were Null And yet the Emperors giving the Investiture with his own hand is a far greater thing than our King 's granting a Mandate for Consecrating and investing them For proof of this about the Greek Church I refer it to Habert who has given a full Deduction of the Elections in that Church from the days of the Apostles to the last Age. For the Latin Church the Matter has been so oft examined that it is to no purpose to spend much time about it It is known and confessed by Platina that the Emperors Authority interveened when the Popes were created And Onuphrius tells that by a Decree of Vigilius the Custom had got in that the Elected Pope should not be Consecrated till the Emperor had confirmed it and had by his Letters Patents given the Elect Pope leave to be Ordained and that Licence was either granted by the Emperors themselves or by their Lieutenants or Exarchs at Ravenna And One and twenty Popes were thus Consecrated Pelagius the second only excepted who being chosen during the Siege of Rome did not stay for it but he sent Gregory afterwards Pope to excuse it to the Emperor who was offended with it it continued thus till the days of Constantine called Pogonatus who first remitted it to Benedict the second and the truth of it was the power of the Greek Emperors was then fallen so low in Italy that no wonder he parted with it But so soon as the Empire was again set up in the West by Charles the Great Pope Adrian with a Synod gave him the power of creating the Pope as is set down in the very Canon Law it self and of investing all other Arch-Bishops and Bishops and an Anathema was pronounced against any that should Consecrate a Bishop that was not named and invested by him This is likewise told by Platina out of Anastasius It is true though some Popes were thus chosen yet the weakness of Charles the Great 's Son and the divisions of his Children with the degeneracy of that whole Race served the ends of the growing power of the Papacy Yet Lewis laid it down not as an Usurpation but as a Right of which he devested himself but his Son Lothaire re-assumed it and did confirm divers Popes and Anastasius tells that they durst not Consecrate the Pope without the Imperial Authority and the thing was still kept up at least in a shadow till Hadrian the Third who appointed that the Emperors
him but whether these were foisted in or not I cannot judge Now these Rites were afterwards a ball of Contention for the Emperours and Kings did give the Investiture by them which had they been given with our such words they might have more easily kept up their pretension but the words joyned with them relating wholly to Spiritual things were no doubt made a great Argument for taking them out of their hands Since it seemed very incongruous for a Secular and Lay person to pronounce them or perform a Rite to which such words were added The Fifth Ritual has only the Collects Adesto and Propitiare and the Prayer of Consecration without the Rubrick for giving the Chrism and the Collects Super Oblata leaving out in the Prayer of Consecration what is left out in the two former Rituals The Sixth Ritual has the Collects Adesto and Propitiare with the Prayer of Consecration as in the first in which the Rubrick about putting the Chrism on the head is also then follows a new Prayer that is in no other Ritual for the Bishop thus Ordained after which there is a Blessing called De septiformi Spiritu For the sevenfold Grace of the Holy Ghost then are the hands of the Bishop Consecrated with holy Oyl and the Chrism with these words Consecratio manuum Episcopi ab Archiepiscopo Oleo sancto Chrismate UNgantur manus istae sanctificentur in te Deo Deorum ordinentur Ungo has manus oleo sanctificato Chrismate unctionis purificato sicut unxit Moyses verbo oris sui Manus S. Aaron Germani sui sicut unxit Spiritus Sanctus per suos flatus manus suorum Apostolorum ita ungantur manus istae sanctificentur consecrentur ut in omnibus sint perfectae in nomine tuo Pater Filiique tui atque aeterni Spiritus S. qui es unus ac summus Dominus omnium vivorum mortuorum manens in Saecula Saeculorum LET these hands be annointed and Sanctified and Ordained for the God of Gods I annoint these hands with Sanctified Oyl and the purified Chrism of annointing as Moses by the word of his mouth annointed holy Aaron his brother and as the Holy Ghost by his breathings did annoint the hands of his Apostles so let these hands be Annointed Sanctified and Consecrated that they may be perfect in all things in thy name O Father and in thy Sons and thy Holy Spirit 's who art the only and great God of the quick and of the dead for ever and ever Amen Then his head is annointed with the following words Hic mittatur oleum super ejus UNgatur Consecretur caput tuum coelesti benedictione in Ordinem Pontificalem in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti LET thy head be annointed and Consecrated with a heavenly Blessing for the Pontifical Order in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Then the Staff is Blessed in these words in Verse Tu Baculus nostrae Rector per saecula vitae Istum sanctifica pietatis jure Bacillum Quo mala sternantur quo semper recta regantur Thou who art the Staff of our Life and our guide for ever sanctify this Staff by which ill things may be beaten down and right things always guided Then the Staff is given and after that the Ring almost with the same words that are in the Fourth Ritual then follows a Prayer that he may ascend the Episcopal Chair then he is put in the Chair and a Prayer is made for him that he may resemble the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Saints and in the end he is Blessed in these words Benedictio ejusdem Sacerdotis POpulus te Honoret adjuvet te Dominus quidquid petieris praestet tibi Deus cum honore cum castitate cum scientia cum largitate cum Charitate cum Nobilitate Dignus sis Iustus sis Humilis sis Sincerus sis Apostolus Christi sis Accipe Benedictionem Apostolatum qui permaneat in die ista in die sutura Angeli sint ad dexteram tuam Apostoli Coronati ad sinistram Ecclesia sit mater tua altare sit Deus Pater tuus sint Angeli amici tui sint Apostoli sratres tui Apostolatus tui gradum custodiant Confirmet te Deus in Iustitia in Sanctitate in Ecclesia Sancta Angeli recipiant te pax tecum indiscrepabilis per Redemptorem Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum qui cum Patre Spiritu Sancto vivit regnat in saecula saeculorum Amen MAY the people Honour thee may God assist thee and grant thee whatsoever thou shalt ask of Him with Honour Chastity Knowledg Bounty Charity and Nobility Be thou Worthy Just Humble Sincere and an Apostle of Christ. Receive a Blessing and an Apostleship which shall continue for this time and that which is to come Let Angels be at thy right hand and crowned Apostles at thy left Let the Church and the Altar be thy Mother and God thy Father Let the Angels be thy Friends and the Apostles thy Brethren and guard the degree of thy Apostleship May God strengthen thee in Justice in Holiness and in the Holy Church and may Angels receive thee and inseparable Peace be with thee Through our Lord Iesus Christ who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns and lives for ever and ever Amen The Seventh Ritual has first the second Canon of the Fourth Council of Carthage then the Exhortation to the people then the Collects Oremus Adesto and Propitiare then the Prayer of Consecration and then the annointing of the hands then follows the Communion Service The Eighth Ritual begins the Office of Consecrating a Bishop with the Collect Adesto Then follows a new Rite of giving the Gospel with these words ACcipe hoc Evangelium ito doce omnes Gentes REceive this Gospel and go and teach all Nations Then follows the Propitiare and the Prayer of Consecration and the Giving the Staff and Ring without any more This Rite of delivering the Gospels it seems was never generally received for it is in none of the other Rituals published by Morinus but is now in the Roman Pontifical The Ninth Ritual begins this Office with the Form in which the Kings of France did then choose their Bishops then follows an Oath of Obedience to the Patriarchal See no mention being made of the Pope or See of Rome then the Ring is Blessed with a particular Benediction and it is given with the words in the Fourth Ritual The Staff is next Blessed as in the Sixth Ritual and given as in the Fourth Ritual Then follow the Collects Oremus Adesto and Propitiare then the Prayer of Consecration as in the First Ritual then follows another long Prayer after which follows the Annointing of the hands and head and the Blessing for the sevenfold Grace of the Holy Ghost Then follows the Communion Service The Tenth Ritual has only the