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
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
Ancient of them was written till within those last Four hundred years so that he gives us a clear view of the Ordinations of seven succeeding Ages of the Western Church His Book is scarce to be had and therefore I shall draw out of it what relates to the Ordination of Priests and Bishops Only as he has Printed these Forms Strictly as the Manuscripts were written without altering some things that are manifestly the Faults of the Transcribers so I shall set them down exactly as He has published them with the Emendations on the Margin from other Manuscripts and adde a Translation of them in English But I shall begin with the three first Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage in which we have the fullest and earliest Account of the Ordidinations of Bishops and Priests in the Latin Church and from the Simplicity of these and the many pompous Rites that are added in the latter Rituals the Reader will both perceive how the Spirit of Superstition grew from Age to Age and will be able to judge whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome comes nearest the most Primitive Forms These I set down according to the MSS. published by Morinus and Collationed on the Margin with a MSS. belonging to the Church of Salisbury that is judged to be six hundred year old and also with that Published by Labbée in the Tomes of the Councils Sacrarum Ordinationum Ritus Ex Concilio Carthaginensi quarto depromptus CANON I. QUI Episcopus Ordinandus est antea examinetur si natura sit prudens si docibilis si moribus temperatus si vita castâ—…s si sobrius si semper suis negotiis cavens si humilis si affabilis si misericors si literatus si in lege domini instructus si in scripturam sensibus caâ—…tus si in dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis exercitatus ante omnia si fidei documenta verbis simplicibus asserat id est Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unum Deum esse confirmans totamque Trinitatis Deitatem coessentialem consubstantialem coaeternalem coomnipotentem praedicans si singularem quamque in Trinitate personam plenum deum totas tres personas Unum deum Si incarnationem divinam non in Patre neque in Spiritu Sancto factam sed in Filio tantum credat ut qui erat in Divinitate Dei Patris ipse fieret in homine hominis Matris filius Deus verus ex Patre homo verus ex Matre carnem ex matris visceribus habens animam humanam rationalem simâ—…l in eo ambae naturae id est Deus Homo una persona unus filius unus Christus unus Dominus Creator omnium quae sunt autor Dominus Rector cum Patre Spiritu Sancto omnium creaturaram Qui passus sit vera carnis Passione mortuus vera corporis sui morte resurrexit vera carnis suae resurrectinoe vera animae resumptione in qua veniet judicarâ—… vivos mortuos Quaerendum etiam ab eo si Novi Veteris Testamenti id est leges Prophetarum Apostolorum unum eundemque credat autorem evâ—…m Si Diabolus non per conditionem sed per Arbitrium sit malus Quaerendum etiam ab eo si credat hujus quam gestamus non alterius carnis resurrectionem Si credat judicium futurum recepturoâ—… singulos pro his quae in carne gesserunt vel poenas vel gloriam Si nuptias non improbat si secunda Matrimonia non damnet si carnium perâ—…eptionem non culpet si poenitentibus reconciliatis communicet si in Baptismo omnia peccata id est tam illud originale contractum quam illa quae voluntate admissa sunt dimittantur si extra Ecclesiam Catholicam nullus salvetur Cum in his omnibus examinatus inventus fuerit plene instructus tunc cum consensu Clericorum Laicorum conventu totius provinciae Episcoporum maximéque Metropolitani vel Authoritate vel praesentia ordinetur Episcopus Suscepto in Nomini Christi Episcopatu non suae delectationi nec suis motibus sed his Patrum definitionibus acquiescat In cujus Ordinatione etiam aetas requiritur quam Sancti Patres in praeeligendis Episcopis constituerunt Dehinc disponitur qualiter Ecclesiastica Officia Ordinantur CAN. II. EPiscopus cum Ordinatur duo Episcopi ponant teneant Evangeliorum Codicem supra Caput cervicem ejus uno super eum sundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant CAN. III. PResbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneat In English thus CAN. I. LET Him that is to be Ordained a Bishop be first Examined if he be naturally prudent and teachable if in his Manners he be temperate if chast in his life if sober if he looks to his own Affairs be humble affable merciful and learned if he be instructed in the Law of the Lord and skilful in the sense of the Scriptures and acquainted with Ecclesiastical Doctrines and above all things if he assert the Articles of Faith in simple Words that is to say affirms that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God and teaches that the whole Deity of the Trinity is Coessential Consubstantial Coaeternal and Coomnipotent and that every Person of the Trinity is fully God and all the Three Persons are one God If He believes that the Holy Incarnation was neither of the Father nor the Holy Ghost but of the Son only that He who was the Son of God the Father by the Godhead becoming a Man was the Son of his Mother very God of His Father and very Man of His Mother who had Flesh of the Bowels of His Mother and a human reasonable Soul And both Natures God and Man were in Him one Person one Son one Christ one Lord the Creator of all things that are and the Author Lord and Governour of all Creatures with the Father and the Holy Ghost Who suffered a true Passion in His Flesh and was dead by a true death of His Body and rose again with a true Resurrection of His Flesh and a true Re-assumption of His Soul in which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead It must likewise be asked if He believes that one and the same God was the Author of the Old and New Testament of the Books of the Law the Prophets and the Apostles If the Devil be not wicked by his will and not by his Nature And if he believes the Resurrection of this Flesh which we now carry and not of any other and the Judgment to come and that every one shall receive either punishment
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
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