Origo protestantium, or, An answer to a popish manuscript (of N.N.'s.) that would fain make the Protestant Catholick religion bear date at the very time when the Roman popish commenced in the world wherein Protestancy is demonstrated to be elder than popery : to which is added, a Jesuits letter with the answer thereunto annexed / by John Shaw ...

CHAP. IV.

SECT. I.

N. N. goes on, BUT suppose their first Bishops were ordained by Catholicks, another Nullity is found in the Form of the Consecration; To wave the Matter of Ordination, let us examine the Form prescribed in the Protestants Ritual. It is a known Principle common both to Pro∣testants and Catholicks, that in the Form of Ordination there must be some words expressing the Authority and Power given to the Ordained. The intention of the Ordainer expressed by general words indifferent, and applicable to all, or divers degrees of Holy Orders, is not sufficient to make one a Priest or a Bishop. As for example, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. These words being indifferent to Priesthood and Episcopacy, and used in both Ordinations, are not sufficiently expressive of either in particular, unless Protestants will now at length profess themselves Presbyterians, making no distinction betwixt Priests and Bishops, but they are as far from that as we Catholicks. In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain, there is not one word expressing Episcopal Power and Authority. The Form is, Take the Holy Ghost, &c. Let Protestants search all the Catho∣lick Rituals, not only of the West, but of the East. they will not find any Form of Consecrating Bishops that hath not the word Bishop in it, or some other expressing the particular Power and Authority of a Bi∣shop, distinct from all other Degrees of Holy Orders. See Joh. Morin de Sacr. Ord. Par. 1655.

SECT. I.

J. S. 1. IT seems N. N's former tedious Harangue at length comes to this, Arch-Bishop Parker, &c. were not Ordained by his Catholicks, which is one Nullity. But this

is contrary to the Tenents of his Church; witness Bellarmine, who Lib. 1. de Sacr. in Gen. c. 21. determines, that Sacraments administred by Hereticks are valid; and to its Practice, allow∣ing the Ordinations of the Arrians and Bonasiosi, and these of Acacius, see in Morin. de Sacr. Ord. and of the Greeks, witness N. N. ut supra.

2. The other Nullity lies in the Form, he being contented to wave the Matter, but why so? this hath alwayes been ac∣counted an essential part of Ordination. Bellarm. lib. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. Sect. ex his, truly relateth, Concilium, &c. The Coun∣cil of Carthage makes mention only of Imposition of hands. His quarrel then being with the Form, it is to be considered, af∣ter some use made of his Concession in this Paragraph, which will by good consequence destroy his whole former discourse: for he confesseth,

1. That Protestants have a Form or Ritual; then undoubted∣ly they would use it, and not Bishop Scories extempore Spirit.

2. They are as far from being Presbyterians as his Catho∣licks; then they were not Puritans, unless his Catholicks be so too; then they rejected not Consecration as a Rag of Rome, nor were they contented with Extraordinary Calling; then they are as much for Bishops, and regularly Consecrated Bishops, as his Catholicks.

3. This Form is prescribed, and thereby they Ordained; there∣fore they did Ordain by their Prescript Form, and not as N. N. surmiseth and suggesteth.

4. The Form hath these words, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; there∣fore N. N's feigned Form was not used at Arch-Bishop Par∣ker's Consecration.

5. The Form requires the Consecration of a Bishop to be publick in the Church; therefore his suggestion of a Clandestine Consecration is a Calumny.

6. The Form hath the word Bishop in it; therefore it hath sufficient to express the particular Power and Authority of a Bishop.

7. The Form requires three Bishops to the Consecration of a Bishop; therefore they did not think the help of one was suf∣ficient: yet this is the Form N. N. is pleased to quarrel with. For,

3. He pretends there is a known Principle common, &c. But this he misrepresents, this Form must be used, and no other. Bell. inclines

to the Affirmative, Lib. 1. de Sacr. in gen. c. 1. Sect. 2. & 20. even the words are determinated (saith he) by God: yet withal he tells us, if they be corrupted, (as suppose the Priest after the old Mump∣simus rate should say, In nomino Patria, Filia & Spirito Sanctu,) or interrupted, (as if the Priest at the Consecration of the Eucharist should first numble (hoc est Cor) and after a little pause cough out (pus meum,) the Form would be good; but Alex. Hales, p. 4. q. 5. mem. 2. art. 1. states it otherwise; The Forms (saith he) of Rome Sacraments are determinate, the Forms of other Sacraments are not; The Forms of Baptism and the Eucharist being appointed by Christ, are kept inviolably without all change, but touching the words of Form to be used in any other of the supposed Sacraments, there is no certainty, but they are diversly and doubtfully declared; the reason whereof is, because they were of human devising. It is de∣clared otherwise by Pope Innocent the Father of the Canonists, saying, The words of Form were instituted by the Church, Hist. Counc. Trent, fol. 594. But Protestants stand not upon words, using only the Form which Christ instituted, and is retained in(a) the Western Church in terms, and in the Eastern to the sense. For the Grace or Gift of God creating and promoting, which is the Eastern Form, is the same in substance with receiving the Holy Ghost, for the Gift and Grace of God, Eph. 3.2, 8. 1 Cor. 15.9, 10. 1 Tim. 4. Heb. 12. Tim. 1.6. is exactly the same with power from on high, assured Lu. 24.49. and the promise of the Father, &c. Act. 1.4, 5. which is the receiving this power, and v. 8. These Protestants use, and trouble not themselves with nice Disquisitions and Disputes.

4. He affirms the intention of the Ordainer, &c. But it is very reasonable to presume the General words are sufficient upon N. N's grounds, because they are used and applicable to all degrees of Holy Orders; For if Episcopacy, and Priesthood, be only divers de∣grees of the same Order, as he intimates, and is declared in the Roman(b) Catechism, then the same Form will serve for both those disparate degrees of the same Order; and the rather, be∣cause in their opinion the higher Power, compared to Bishops, is only by extension of the Character; and Protestants stick to this, because it was only used in the Ancient Roman Church, as it was only prescribed in the Old Pontifical, and as the Church then an∣swered the Sophisters of these times, when this very Objection was writ against the Pontifical, so do Protestants now the present

Roman Cavillers, who have taken it from them, for thus the Church of Rome defends her self.

1. The design was fully notified by words in the Pontificial, to which of the respective Orders the Person presented was to be admitted.

2. The manner of Imposition of hands did sufficiently disco∣ver the intention of the Ordainer, and diversity the Act; for in the Consecration of a Bishop divers Bishops impose hands, but in the Ordination of a Priest, one only Bishop, with some assisting Priests. This is the Judgment of both the Ancient Western and Eastern Church, that, that Form, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, which is the Form prescribed both for Priesthood and Episcopacy in the Protestant Ordinal, is sufficient to confer Power and Authority to both Orders; so that it being duly applied, he that is presented to the Capacity of a Bishop, is thereby enabled to do the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God, and he who is presented for Priesthood, is thereby warranted and em∣powred for the Office and work of a Priest.

5. He surmiseth these words, (Receive ye the Holy Ghost,) are not, &c. this is to oppose Christ's Institution, and in effect, to make his Form of Commissionating his Apostles defective, and insuffici∣ent. For if that Form was sufficiently expressive of Apostolical Power and Authority, then is it of Episcopal, and it is most pro∣perly applied to them, because if not only, yet principally they are the Apostle's Successors, even in the Judgment of many Learned Romanists; and therefore this Form sealed by imposition of hands, Constitutes a Person presented to Episcopacy a full Bishop by the Law of Christ, without the supplement of any other auxiliary Form.

Father Davenport(c) alias St. Clara. hath evidenced from great Authority, their new Additionals to be unnecessary; Expos. Paraphr. Art. Confess Angl. p. 322. Alii putant, &c. Others think (saith he) Imposition of hands as the Matter, and those words (Receive ye the Holy Ghost) as the Form, is as much as is required by Divine Law to the Essence of Episcopal Ordination: and this they think from the Authority of the Scriptures, which often and only makes mention of these two, as(d) Arrudius largely proveth.

6. He assumes, In the Form whereby Protestants Ordain, &c. But this his Assumption is,

1. Frivolous; It is absurd to object that against Protestants,

which, if it were granted, would render all the Ordinations in the Romish Church for 800 years meer Nullities.

2. Fallacious; he equivocates in the word (Form,) which is either taken largely, for the whole Office of Administration exem∣plified in the Ordinal, or strictly, for an Essential part of his Discourse; and in the Conclusion he useth the word [Form] in the most comprehensive sense, for the whole Rite of the Ministery, which hath in it for the more Solemnity, Prayers, Exhortations, Interrogatories, &c. but in the Assumption and middle-part, he taketh it in the restrained sense, for the Essential words, which are the Constitutive Form, as Imposition of hands is concluded to be the Matter: this is their own distinction.

3. False; for in the Form, that is the Protestants Ritual, there are, and always were express words for the Authority given in the respective Functions of Bishops and Priests, for whose Ordi∣nations there are distinct Forms and distinct Words. The word [Bishop] oftner than three times used in the Office appointed for his Consecration, and the word [Priest] sometimes in that prescri∣bed for his Ordination. Just according to N. N's after-instance of Illustration, if the word [King] be used at his Election, this sufficiently expresseth all Kingly Power and Authority.

SECT. II.

N. N. far∣ther adds; THE Form or words whereby men are made Priests, must express Authority and Power to Consecrate, or make pre∣sent the Body and Blood of Christ, but their Form containeth not one word expressing this Power: see the Ritual Lond. 1607. Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ in Ancient times, but were never thought to have Power of Consecrating, and making present Christ's Body and Blood.

SECT. II.

J. S. THat which N. N. designs by this, is, that that Form (Receive ye the Holy Ghost) is defective as to Priestly Ordination, which must be supplied by their new one, viz. Take thou power to offer Sacrifice to God, and to Celebrate Mass both for the quick and the dead. This he knows Protestants do reject, because late∣ly invented, and foisted into the Romish Ritual to foster their gross

Figments of Purgatory, Transubstantiation, and their Antichri∣stian Sacrifice of the Mass; and because some Romanists, as St. Clara, thinks it unnecessary, and Bell. saith it is Sacrilegious; for this he positively delivers, It is Sacriledg to change the Form, because determinate, Bell. de Sacr. in gen. l. 1. c. 21. Sect. apud hae∣ret. &c. secunda prop. For Sacraments are instituted by God, there∣fore the chief part thereof the Form; and to add to, or alter the words of the Scripture, is not lawful, therefore not the words of the Sacraments, Id. ib. in Fin. yet this great Champion never did prove their new Form to be found in, or founded on Scripture, much less instituted by Christ.

2. If that Form comprehends not all the Essentials of Priestly Ordination, then the Apostles were not empowered to Consecrate, for our Saviour used that and no other to enable them for the exe∣cution of the Priestly Office, wherefore Scotus l. 4. dist. 24. hath resolved verba illa, &c. those words, Whosoever sins ye remit, &c. are declarative of the Power formerly given in these [Receive ye the Holy Ghost,] by which Power is passed over all the Sacraments, and therefore that of Sacrificing: Biel l. 4. dist. 19. quaest. un. con∣curs with him, cul datur, &c. to whom the Principal is given, to him also the accessory is given; but by these words, [Receive ye, &c.] Christ gave the power of the keys: therefore by them he conveyed the power of Consecration, which is a branch of the power of the Keys.

3. What is added concerned Deacons, is a pure piece of imper∣tinency, no way advantagious to him, nor prejudicial to Protestants; if he vvere put to it, he vvould find it a difficult task to prove Deacons were Dispencers of the Mysteries, vvho vvere only As∣sistants to the Dispensation.

SECT. III.

N. N. IN all Forms of Ordaining Priests, that ever were used in the Eastern and Western Churches, there is expresly, set down the word [Priest,] or some other word importing the particular and proper Function and Authority of Priesthood. If any State or Country should choose a Person to be King, in the word King is sufficiently expressed all Regal Pow∣er and Authority. Therefore the Greeks using the word Bishop and Priest in their Form, sufficiently express the respective Power of every Or∣der.

SECT. III.

J. S. EAch Clause of this Section hath been sufficiently con∣futed.

SECT. IV.

N. N. BUT the reason why the English Form of making Bishops and Priests is so notoriously defective and invalid, is, because in Ed∣ward the sixth's time, when Zwinglianism and Puritanism did so prevail in the Church, the Real Presence was not believed by them of the Clergy who bore the sway, therefore they did not put in the Form of Priesthood any word expressing Power and Authority to make Christ's Body present. They held Episcopacy and Priesthood to be one and the same thing; where∣fore in the Form for making of Bishops, they put not one word expressing the Episcopal Function, only some general words which might seem suffici∣ent to give them Authority to enjoy the Temporalities and Bishopricks. This is also the true reason why Parker and his Collegues were content with the Nags-head Ordination, and why others returned to extraordinary Vo∣cation in Queen Elizabeth's time.

SECT. IV.

J. S. THis also is another vain Repetition: Three who bore the sway in King Edward's Reign held the Real Presence, but not in the Popish manner of determination: Those in Queen Elizabeth's time had and did stand for ordinary and orderly Vo∣cation. The Church of England alwrys asserted the Divine Right of Episcopacy, and her orderly Orderly Orthodox Sons have con∣stantly maintained it. If some have distinguished Priesthood into the degrees, the higher and the lower, as the Romanists generally do, yet they still conclude the said different degrees of the Acts and Uses (which could not be exercised in a due subordination of the lower to the higher) for a distinct respective Consecration thereto; and did hold those of them who should presume to ex∣ercise the Higher Power not being regularly Consecrated thereto, were Schismatical Transgressors of the Apostolical Order, and Ca∣tholick Practice; and that every Act of that usurped Power (when no real necessity to abate or excuse it) to be null and void. It is the Pope and his Collegues who are the(f) leading Puritans.

It was the Pope who said, the Absolute Divine Right of Bishops was a false and erronious Opinion; it was the Pope who slighted and scorned those Bishops in the Trent-Assembly, who affirmed(g) the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right. It was the Pope who first devested them of their Jurisdiction and Power, by his Com∣missions and Delegations(h) to inferior Priests.

SECT. V.

N. N. TO conclude the Matter, I say with St. Hierome, Ecclesia non est, quae non habet Sacerdotem: How can the Protestant Church be the true Church, which hath not one Bishop or Priest? Though it were not evident it hath no Valid Ordination, yet so many doubts and uncertain∣ties as they must acknowledg concerning their Ordinations, do demon∣strate the Nullity of their Church; for if there remain one solid and pru∣dent doubt of the validity of Ordination in any Church, it is impossible it should be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church, because a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church, and a doubtful Church is no Church: The step to Christian and Catholick Belief is the well-grounded Credibility excluding all prudent doubts, of the Clergy, we have the same of the Church, and of the Faith and Doctrine proposed by its testimony; and the true Faith admits of no such doubts. Therefore Protestants, before they can prudently believe themselves to have true Faith, or be in the Catholick Church, must clear all the doubts objected against their Ordination. For though any Person shall not be convinced of the Nullity of their Ordina∣tion, yet he cannot but harbour a prudent doubt thereof, there being so many Reasons and Motives for it. Now, to Receive Sacraments from Priests of so doubtful Authority, is without doubt a damnable Sacri∣ledg, it being in the highest degree against the light of Right Reason, and Rule of Faith, to expose the Reverence of the Sacraments, and Remedy of our Souls, to so manifest an hazard.

SECT. V.

J. S. THis Conclusion is of the same temper with the Premises; these were a confused heap of Incredibles, Improbables, and Impossibles; this is a wild distempered Sorites carried on with an affected Obscurity to distract and amuse the Reader, by multiplying, confounding, and changing the Terms, hudling up ma∣ny Conclusions in this one.

If St. Hierome, by Church, meant the Ʋniversal Church, this

always has, now hath, and ever will have Bishops, (as Sacerdotes signifies with him:) but if he spoke of a particular Church, then his [is not] is not to be taken absolutely, but respectively; not simply to deny it's being and existence, but it's integrity and complement, viz. there is no through complete Church which hath not Bishops. For we read in the Ancients of some Churches that had received 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the fulness of Dispensations, and of others which had not attained 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to the complement of Necessaries; though in St. Hierom's time all Churches were complete, that he might truly affirm there was no Church without a Bishop. But it may fall out also, that all the Bishops of a well-formed complete Church may dye, or by Persecution be so Scattered that they dare not appear, or by an Infidel Conquerour be Banished, or Murthered: but if the remaining Christians in this distressed condition keep their first Faith, they are in a salvable state, and continue true members of the Ʋniversal Church; as those Roman Converts were, who believed upon St. Peter's first Sermon, Act. 2. which was long before St. Peter came to Rome, Rom. 16.7.

2. He suggests It is impossible they should, &c. For once he guesseth right, It is impossible any Church of one denomination can be the true Catholick, Apostolick Church, that is in the usual sense of the Romanists, the Ʋniversal, as it is impossible for a Part to be the Whole, or their Catholick Church (which is not the fourth part thereof) to be Ʋniversal, as they by their common restriction assume; but it is possible a particular Church may be a true Catholick and Apostolick Church, and the true Catholick and Apostolick Church of such a Nation.

For the Title Catholick is either taken properly for the Ʋni∣versal Church, which is the Congregation of all Believers dispersed over all the World, in opposition to the Herds of Jews, Pa∣gans, and Infidels; and then it is a contradiction to apply or appropriate it to any particular Church, as the Romanists in∣dustriously do to huckster off their false Wares, which otherwise would stick on their hands; or else it is used in the more com∣mon signification of an Orthodox Church, which participates in the true Faith with the Ʋniversal Church, in a contradistinction to the Conventicles of all Heretical Blasphemers: In this Notion the Protestant Church of England is not only a Catholick and Apostolick Church, but in due Form of construction the true Ca∣tholick and Apostolick Church of England, as several particular Churches, viz. Rome, Carthage, &c. have been honoured with

the Title of the Catholick Church of those respective Nati∣ons,(k) Provinces, and Dioceses.

3. His doubts and uncertainties have a rare virtue (perhaps they may work strongly on weak minds) they can demonstrate. This is the noble demonstrating faculty of Romish Traditors, they can raise doubts and uncertainties where there are none, and by their Magick demonstrate, first, that the Protestant Church is not the Ʋniversal, and then it is no Church; first, absurdly without Proof suppose the Nullity of its Ordinations, and thence conclude the Nullity of its Christianity. The best is, this is but one Doctors opinion, if more there be, yet all his Colleagues are not so Magisterial in their nullifying Sentence. The Bishop of Chalcedon is more solid and Prudent. Persons(l) (saith he) living in the communion of the Protestant Church, if they en∣deavour to learn the truth, (which if they do not, they are neither good Protestants nor good Christians) and are not able to attain unto it, but hold it implicitely in the preparation of their minds, and are ready to receive it, when God shall be pleased to reveal it, they neither want Faith, nor Church, nor Salvation; which elsewhere he confirms by this reason, A Church may be Heretical, and Schismatical really, yet morally a true Church, because She is(m) invincibly ignorant of her Heresy and Schism.

Pope Innocent was so much offended at the irregularities of the Spanish Ordinations in his time, that at first he inclined to null them; but upon better thoughts be forbore declaring that, for the number of those who were faulty therein, he would not question nor doubt of any of them any ways pas∣sed, but rather leave them to Gods Judgment. Epist. ad Conc. Tolk. Car. sum. Conc. p. 270.

4. But (saith he) a solid doubt, &c. This is not Universally true, for a Church which hath a doubtful Clergy by irregula∣rities of Ordination, if She contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints, and cannot avoid those irregulari∣ties through not a pretended, or contracted, but a real neces∣sity,

is a true part (such an irregularity not absolutely and totally Un-Churching her) of the true Catholick Church: True, but not Complete; not Complete, because it wants that which is required to the Integrity and Perfection of a Church; yet True, because it hath all things essential to a Church. For this reason the most eminent Protestants, who still maintained the Divine Right of Bishops, yet did they clear those Transmarine Churches which have not Bishops from sinning against Divine Right, because their want was not through their own default, but the Iniquity of the Times and Places they lived in; which cha∣ritable construction should seem very reasonable to the Roma∣nists, for that the Court of Rome gave the first occasion of all the contests about Episcopacy, by investing Priests with Epi∣scopal Jurisdiction and Power by their Commissions and Dele∣gations: and without doubt Necessity is as strong Dispensation for these Pastors to execute the Ministerial Office, as the Popes Mercenary Bulls granted upon unworthy avaritious ends can be for their Priests to exercise Episcopal Authority. Those Churches therefore under this want are True, though lame and maimed Members of the Catholick Church: Just as Canus(n) de∣termines of the Romish Church in a vacancy; It is then left Lame (saith he) and diminished, without Christs Vicar, that. one Pastor of the Church, the Pope; yet the Spirit of Truth should abide in it: and vvithout doubt the Spirit of Truth will as cer∣tainly abide in those Churches which want Bishops, as in their Church wanting a Pope, at least, they should think so, because in their account the Pope is as necessary, if not more, to the be∣ing of a Church than Bishops are. To clear this more distinctly, some things are required to the Essence(o) of a Church, as the Doctrine of saving Faith in the Profession and Practice there∣of; some only to the Perfection and Integrity of a Church, as the having Regular Pastors by a due Form of Ordination: both these are necessary, though not equally and in the same Degree; the former absolutely and indispensably, the latter de congruo & pos∣sibili: viz. it concerns the Church, if possibly it can be obtained to have lawfully Ordained Pastors, and every wilful Omission, much more Rejection, of the Catholick settled Order in this kind is Sacrilegious and Schismatical; yet those Pastors who high∣ly esteem Episcopal Ordination, and much affect it, but cannot obtain it through the Recusancy of Bishops in present Place and Power (who will not Ordain them without sinful com∣pliance and submission to gross Errours and Corruptions evi∣dently

contrary to the Law of Christ) if they hold and di∣vide the Word of Truth rightly may be accounted true Pastors, though not in a real Mission, yet by a moral designation, as being deputed and separated to that Divine Office; because in this case, the Necessity is invincible, which makes that allow∣able, which otherwise would be unlawful, as Dr. Cracken. contr. Spalet. c. 4. observes from the Gloss, and illustrateth from Sci∣pio's Example, who when the Questors denied him a supply of Monies out of the Publick Treasury, because it was against Law, presently replied, Necessity hath no Law. The Romanists con∣fess the desire of Baptism is sufficient to excuse the want there∣of, and they have it in effect who have it in desire; in all rea∣son, the want of an undoubted Sacrament is more dangerous, than the want of a Sacramental can be, especially where there is a Desire to have the Impediment removed. The Jews were prohibited to build private Altars, yet in case of Necessity, when they were not permitted to go to Hierusalem, the learned Jews determined the Prohibition ceased as to its present effect; and every one knows a Negative Prescript is not so dispensable as an Affirmative.

It is the opinion of Cornelius a Lapide in Numb. 20.26. that Eleazar was m••de High-Priest, praeter legem & morem, other∣wise than by standing Law and Custom he ought; First, be∣cause his Father was then living; next, in that the right only of putting on his Fathers Garment was used, without any So∣lemn-Unction or Consecration to the Priesthood.

5. He subjoyns a doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church. This is a Doubtful Proposition: the most he can make of it is, that a Doubtful Clergy makes a Doubtful Church only in Part, not in the Whole; for even Schismaticks in those things wherein they have made no separation from the Church (otherwise the Romanists would be in a sad condition) do so far still remain uncorrupted to the Church; so that if that Doubtful Clergy keep the wholesom words of sound Doctrine, (if N. N. doubt of this, he may remember, there is a Clergy of a beyond-Sea Church which hath no Bishops, hath made this good against the choicest Champions of the Roman See) so far they are Ca∣tholicks.

6. He is very positive, a doubtful Church is no Church. It is true, he who harboureth a doubt (which he will conclude Prudent, because the issue of his own Imagination, or the sug∣gestion of some over-admired Teacher) of that Church whereof

he is a Member, that Church to him is no Church; but where such a doubt is entertained, the Case is only disputable, and questioning doth not disprove or destroy certainty and truth. But such doubtful Propositions as N. N. hath here conjured up, will without doubt damnify his good old Cause, because thereby his Church will be concluded a no Church, by the de∣monstrating Power of those many doubts and uncertainties, which her chief Members have conceived and uttered against her in∣stances of most important concern. For,

Part 2. 1. It is a rule with them, that a doubtful Pope, is no(p) Pope, and that there cannot be two Popes at one and the same time, etiam ex urgentissima causa (as Jac. Castellon. cites out of Navar—verb. Papa p. 485.) no not upon the most weighty Consideration, because there is but one Monarch, and one Mo∣narchy only for Spiritual concerns by the appointment of Christ: hence they generally conclude, that all those who are not united to that one determinate Head are in the state of dam∣nable Schism, and those who are united to him, are united to the true Catholick-Church. viz. The Church is a Society of men united in the Profession of the same Faith, and participating of the Sacraments under the Government of lawful Pastors, chiefly of one Vicar of Christ upon Earth, the Roman Pope. This then is obvious at the first view from these Premises, that an undoubted Pope is as fully, and by the word chiefly in the definition, more necessary to the being and Constitution of the Church than an undoubted Clergy; and a doubtful Pope is as destructive to the Church, as a doubtful Clergy; from whence it neces∣sarily follows, that if a doubtful Clergy makes a doubtful Church, a doubtful. Pope must do so too: and then if this be proved, (there hath been a doubtful Pope, and no one undoubted Pope, by N. N's demonstration,) it is impossible the Roman can be the true Catholick and Apostolick Church; but this is easily made evident from the many doubts and uncertainties which of the several pretending Popes hath been the one undoubted Pope.

In the year 1378, upon the death of Gregory the eleventh, a grievous(q) Schism began which continued more or less till Ann. 1414. the Italians created Ʋrban the sixth Pope, who(r) resided at Rome; The French elected Clement the seventh, who(s) betook

himself to Avignion. The Abbot of St. Pedest endeavoured to prove Ʋrban was the true undoubted Pope: Joh. de Bigniaco, and the Council of Paris defended Clement's title, Ʋrban during this Schism had three Successors, Bon. the ninth, Innocent the seventh, and Gregory the twelfth: Clement had but one, Ben. the thirteenth, in Ann. 1409 a Council of Cardinals met at Pisa, who thought fit for the peace of the Church to depose the two surviving Popes and set up another; but for all the Cardi∣nals could do to repair the breach, it proved wider, the two contesting Popes, Gregory the twelfth, and Ben. the thirteenth being unwilling to be so dishonourably ejected, kept their ground, till at last in Ann. 1414, the three Popes, the Italian, French, and Pisan, were Deposed by the Council of Constance, and Mar∣tin the fifth was Created. All this while even in the judg∣ment of observing learned Ramanists none could know which of the broken Heads was the true Head of the Church, and lawful(t) Successor to St. Peter. Azor(v) saith, It was doubt∣ful and uncertain which of the claiming Popes had the right title; Caran. saith, ut supra, It was not known who was the true Pope; and Bellarm.(w) adds, It was not easy to be determined; and the famous Chancellor of Paris, John(x) Gerson goes higher, The Church it self (saith he) was then so full of doubts in this case, that She could not know on what side, or party the Ro∣man See was, unless God himself had been pleased to reveal it to her. It then being proved, that a doubtful Pope makes a doubtful Church, and that there hath been a doubtful Pope in the Romish Church, the conclusion is irrefragable, the Roman Church hath been for a long space of time a Doubtful Church, and by N. N.'s Logick and Peremptory Position, the Church of Rome was then a no Church.

2. There are many Doubts and uncertainties harboured in the Romish Church concerning the Church it self; as whether their Virtual Church (the Pope) be that Church they would commend to us, for it's well-grounded Credibility and Infalli∣bility; or their Representative (a General Council), or the Es∣sential (the diffused body of the Faithful all the world over), or a body compounded of some of these or any others. Some will be contented that the Pope and his Conclave should be that

Infallible thing; others will have him to sit in the Assembly of the Bishops of his Province; others will go no less than he must Head a General Council to pronounce an Infallible Sen∣tence. If it be put to the Vote, and most Voices must carry it, the Pope runs loose away with it; he hath the Patronage of the best and most Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments. But be it so for once, upon this a fresh Fry of Doubts and un∣certainties appears in this very foundation of their Faith and Ʋnity, whether this Man be Pope or no? Whether Gregory the twelfth, or B••n. the thirteenth, or Alexander the fifth, or Martin the fifth. Let Martin be the Man, presently a new Covy of Doubts spring up, whether he be an Infallible Judg? and if so, whether as a Doctor or the Pope? If as Pope, whe∣ther when he gives Laws de Concilio Fratrum, by the advice of his Colledg of Cardinals, passing his Decrees upon the Gates of St. Peter at Rome, and in Campo de Flori, or when he speaks E Cathedral, which is (as it is commonly interpreted) when he Proclaims his Decrees, however he be assisted, for a general reception with an intention to Teach and Govern the whole Church, though this be very uncertain? Let this also be presumed, another Set of Doubts is started, wherein is he Infallible? Whether in matters of Right, and Fact, or of Faith? The Jesuits of late will have him Universally Infallible upon all these accounts, as they determined at Clermont, Ann. 1661. but suppose with the soberer sort his Infallibility extends only to Definitions of Faith, yet another Doubt remains unsatisfied, Whether this his restrained Faith be conditional, or absolute? some conceive an absolute Infallibility is too high an intrench∣ing upon God's Prerogative; but others of them will not have him tied to Conditions, viz. To observe the Order of the Primitive Church, and use such holy and needful means as God by his Son Jesus Christ hath appointed for the finding out the Truth: For(y) (say they) if Conditions be required to Perfect and Le∣gitimate the Popes Definitions besides his own Act of decreeing them, the Faithful (which is very remarkable and apposite) would be Doubtful whether he had observed them or no, and so their Faith would be wavering, and so it must needs be if Doubts do the feat.

3. It is the Doctrine of their new-founded Church, that the intention of the Bishop or Priest Officiating is so necessary to any Sacrament, that without it none of them is perfected; but to receive the Sacraments from such of whom we can have

no assurance, that their intentions be serious and sincere, (and there be many evident reasons and motives to perswade us the Priests are oft Formal in their Ministeries, and False in their intentions) is certainly to expose the reverence (in N. N.'s Language) of the Sacraments, and remedy of our Souls to a ma∣nifest hazard. For we are informed by their own Historians, that in some Centuries the Clergy were so ignorant and wic∣ked, that many of them knew not what to do; others cared not what they did. In what a perplexed condition would a prudent man be cast, who being married by a Popish Priest, soon after detected to be a Villain, should consider with him∣self, very likely this wicked man had no Intention to marry him, or an Intention not to marry him. It is a wonder those Trent-Assemblers should be so rash, and yet so Magisterial in their Definition, when they would not determine what Inten∣tion was necessary, because they could not agree about the efficacy of the Sacraments, it being impossible, there should be the same Intention of two who differ in their judgments concerning it. The common Salvo was, that the Intention to do as the Church doth was sufficient, but this satisfied not the scruple, because men ••••ffered in opinion what the Church is, and their opinions herein being different, their Intentions in ad∣ministring the Sacraments would also prove different. To evade this, it was pretended, all the Priests had the same design; but as it is impossible for any to know the things (that is the pur∣poses) of Man, save the Spirit of Man, which is in him, 1 Cor. 2.11. so it is unconceivable how they should have the same end and aim, who have different Judgments, Humours, Passions, and Interests. At last they were driven to this shift, perhaps there may be some such wretched Priest, yet this case is rare. To this the Bishop of Minori replied, would God (said he) that the case was rare, and that in this corrupt age we had not cause to doubt there were many: but suppose there are but a few, or one only; let a Knave Priest Baptize, who hath not an Intention to administer the true Baptism to a Child, who be∣ing after a grown Man is created a Bishop of a great City, so that he hath Ordained a great part of the Priests in his Diocess, it must be said, that he being not Baptized, is not Ordained, nor they Ordained who are promoted by him—Behold Millions of Nullities of Sacraments by the malice of one(z) Priest in one Act only.

4. To give full measures of Doubts and uncertainties in the

most mysterious act of their Religion; Dr. Holden(a) averreth, All Roman Catholicks do believe and reverence the Sacrifice of the Mass as the most substantial Act of their Religion; but if it be demanded wherein the substance of this Sacrifice doth con∣sist, no substantial Resolution can be expected from them: their Doubts and uncertainties about the Nature and Essence thereof are so cross and various, There are divers opinions concerning it, (saith(b) Azor.) There are six Acts of which it is doubted, in which one, or more of them the Essence of the Sacrifice con∣sisteth, saith(c) Suarez. Some place it in the one Act of Con∣secration, but the doubters dispute against it; for, say they, Con∣secration belongeth rather to the nature of a Sacrament than a Sacrifice, and every external Sacrifice (such as the Mass is) must be sensible, but the Conversion made by the words of Con∣secration is not sensible, for the real change is not; and again, if the Act of Consecration, then the outward Elements only are the Hoast and matter offered, but we may not say the Species are the Hoast: others set it in the Oblation, but the dissenting Brethren oppose this, because Christ used no Sacrificial Act at his Last Supper; and if Christ did not, the Priest ought not, though some of them grant it belongs to the intergrity of the Sacrifice. But how the Trent-Divines were divided in their judg∣ment herein, may be read, Hist. Counc. of Trent, fol. 544, &c. Some of them again conceive Consecration, Consumption, or Sumption to be the Essence: this others contradict, because then (say they) the Body and Blood of Christ must be destroyed, for that which is Offered in Sacrifice is to be destroyed, but Sumption can be no part thereof, because the Act of Recei∣ving is not; for although Christ be not received after the Con∣secration, yet is he truly said to be Sacrificed, and Doctors doubt whether Christ did receive in his last Supper, and the Priest receiving doth nothing in Christs person but his own: others stood for Fraction, but this the doubters easily disprove, for it is (say they) an Act purely Sacramental, not at all Sacrificial, and Fraction being before Consecration, the Substance of the Bread and Wine remaineth.

When N. N. hath solved all these Doubts, and satisfied all these Doubters, he may be more confident of the demonstra∣tive Power of Doubts and uncertainties; in the mean time, he may apply them to his own Church in his own words, Mu∣tatis mutandis.

Therefore the Romanists before they can prudently believe

themselves to have true Faith, or be the Catholick Church, must clear all Doubts and uncertainties (not objected by Pro∣testants, but started and pursued by their own Divines) con∣cerning their Church, their Head of the Church, their Ordina∣tions, and the most Substantial Act of their Religion, the Mass, for though any Person should not, &c.

7. N. N. goes one step forward, the step to Christian and Ca∣tholick belief is, &c.

This hath nothing of usefulness to his Conclusion, unless he prove, that a Clergy not regularly ordained cannot believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, &c. that the Protestant Church hath a doubtful Clergy, in which his attempts have hitherto been unsuccessful and unlucky to him and his Church. If his mean∣ing be, the well-grounded Credibility of his Church is the foun∣dation of Christian belief, this is to beg the Question, and is false; for Christian Faith is not an assent and adherence to the Objects thereof, upon the bare Testimony of the Church, but on that of God: neither is its warranty derived from the Church's Proposition, but Divine Revelation. True Faith is founded on the writings of Moses and the Prophets, of Christ and his Apostles, Eph. 2.20. which moved Durand thus to de∣fine it, It is an habit whereby we assent to the Doctrines of the Scripture for the Authority of God revealing them.

But if he intend only, that the Church's Proposition is to her members the first motive and preparative of Faith, it will not be gainsaid: but then he must remember, that a prudent Chri∣stian will not take the Church for well-groundedly credible, till he find by the Rule of Faith, She deserves to be so esteemed; for it is impossible the Church can appear so to him till he know the Faith it proposeth, which he cannot do but by applying it to the Rule; for every intellectual and moral habit must be sufficiently known before the Acts resulting from them can be predicated of any subject capable to exercise them. As I must know what Prudence is, before I can truly affirm of any man that he is Prudent.

8. That which N. N. mainly drives at is, to seduce the mem∣bers of the Church of England from her Communion, and so∣licite them to Apostate to Rome. To effect this, he took (as he conceived) a seasonable opportunity to perplex the minds of men with his Doubts and uncertainties, by reason of our late sad divisions. Then the Romanists bent all their forces to

perswade easy seduceable tempers, This Church was either a dead, or(d) no Church.

If this design prevailed with some crasy minds, they were as imprudent as the Romish Solicitors were impudent. For the Romish Church has suffered as Tragical and durable divisions, as This then did; for besides that long Schism formerly related, in Alexander the third's time a Schism lasted till fere eversa, &c. as Car. speaks, p. 794. That Church was at her last Gasp: and in this very juncture of time, their contests were so high, that their great Head of Unity was put to all his Pope-craft to smother them; the Disputes betwixt the Jansenists and Moli∣nists were then so hot, that both Parties pressed a decision, and by consent referred the matter to the Pope, who because he did not understand the points in debate, would fain have declined it, pretending that his Predecessor Clement the eighth, after he had appointed Congregations to discuss the Articles, waved it, and commanded silence to both Parties (which plea∣sed neither) and that he was an Old Man and had not studied Divinity: but both sides still moving for a hearing, because each aspersed the other with the guilt of Heresy, at last, be∣ing overcome with importunity he condescended. But hear how the Infallible Judg determined the contest; at one Con∣gregation he rebuked the Molinists for corrupting(e) St. Au∣gustin, at another for urging the Authority of the Schoolmen, and not producing the Evidences of Scripture, Councils,(f) and Fathers. In all probability the Jansenists had the better of the day; but it proved otherwise, the Pope passed his Sen∣tence in favour(g) of the Molinists. All that can be said in excuse of this rash resolution, was the most Christian King commanded the dull Canonist to dispatch, vvhich so startled him, that he durst trifle no longer; but the main reason vvas, he was at that time so busily bent upon his Papal and Donna's concernments, that he was not at leisure to attend the serious discussion of that too hard Controversy for his soft Head. For then he and his Propagators were consulting how to manage Campanella's Project, in fomenting our intestine broils to re∣duce this Kingdom into a State. This is certain, his Nuncio Joh.(h) Bapt. Renuncino, after his arrival in Ireland endeavoured

the destruction of all that stood for the King and the English Interest, animating the Rebels to the most villainous outrages; and because two Noble persons of the Roman Communion would not be perswaded by him to join with the Rebels, he Excommu∣nicated them. This was not all, the Pope by the instigation of the Barbarini's had another design on foot, as Abbot Gualdi p. 143. relates, even to expel his Catholick King out of his Dominions in Naples upon Ma's Anello's Rebellion, to add it to the Triple Crown. All is Fish that comes to St. Peter's Suc∣cessors Net; if the Kings be Guelphs, their Kingdoms are Gi∣belins; if they be Catholicks, their Crowns are Hereticks. It is the Popes business to determin emergent Controversies, but upon forced put, his main work is to rule over Nations, to rout out, &c. Jer. 1.10. as his Parasites have prophaned that Text. But as the Pope and his Propagators failed in his Enterprises, so N. N. and his Comrades were deceived in their design. For though some were gulled with these Holy Frauds, yet in that levity of disposition and easiness of change, they did not act ac∣cording to the common received measures of Prudence: which is, to stay where we are, till we know where to be better. For this Church at the worst was much better than that they re∣volted to; this was a Distressed Church, that a Depraved; this had Scars in the Face, that Ulcers in the Heart; this Wounded in the Skin, that Rotten in the Vitals; this in it's Constitution Orthodox and Sound, that Heretical and Corrupt. For to state the case between the Church of England, and that of Rome impartially, the Quaere will be, Whether for some defects in Rituals (be they really such or only pretended) it be more prudent to desert a Church free from Schism, Heresy, and Idolatry, at least less subject to a suspition of any of these, or to lapse to a Church most deeply Guilty, or most justly pre∣sumed to be so in all these Carnalities and Corruptions. If Prudence must resolve the Quaere, the issue and verdict will be, It is easier to remain in the Church of England than to Prose∣lyte to Rome; for no Prudent man will precipitate himself into more, more apparent, and more real danger for fear of a less, less evident and more remote danger. This only re∣mains to be proved, that the Church of Rome is Guilty, or justly presumed to be so, of dangerous Innovations and Cor∣ruptions, which will be evidenced by these two Conclusions con∣stringently asserted.

1. The Church of Rome as it is now ordered, and hath been since the times of Julius the second, and Leo the tenth, at least by the Pope and his Propagators in the Court there∣of, hath chopped and changed the Apostolical Rule of Faith, by Composing a new Creed, or which is as bad, hath clog∣ged and charged the Catholick Creeds with new-patched Ad∣ditionals, which She hath defined to be Essentials of Faith necessary to be believed by all Christians in order to their Salvation.

2. This Church so managed hath depraved and subverted the Catholick and Apostolick Government and Dicipline, by set∣ting up her Bishop as the Ʋniversal Monarch and Pastor of the Church, claiming and challenging to him an unlimited Su∣premacy over he whole Body of Christ, and exercising this Power by Excommunicating full three parts of the Catholick Church, for not submitting thereto.

Notes

• (a)

  Both in Episcopal and Priest∣ly Ordina∣tion, Fili∣cius tract. 9. c. 2. ex Pon∣tifical Rom. and in the Roman Ca∣techism de Sacr. Ord. Bell. de Sacr. in gen. c. 21. & l. 1. de Sacr. Ordin. c. 9.
• (b)

  Ib. n. 24. p. 266. & Bell. de Sacr. Ord. c. 5. Sec. sequitur se∣cunda, only by the ex∣tension of the Chara∣cter, id. ib. Sect. tertia: & Sect. seq. with this only difference, that the same efficacy is required to the exten∣sion of the character, as to the first impression, id. ib. Sect. respond.
• (c)

  Expos. Paraphr. artic. confess. Angl. p. 322. ad 325.
• (d)

  Bell. l. 1. de Sacr. Ord. c. 9. saith, we cannot convince Hereticks that Order is a Sacrament, because we cannot prove the external Symbol thereof from Scripture, which is not possible for him to do of their new additional either Matter or Form.
• (f)

  For it is not resol∣ved in the Congrega∣tion of the Cardinals, that the Pope's Legats should not suffer the determination of the Article of the Institution of Bishops by Divine Right to pass, Hist. Counc. of Trent, fol. 603. And it being perceived that Laynez his Speech was displeasing, and opposed by the Spanish Bishops, this distasted the Legats, ib. fol. 615. therefore Canons came from Rome, which the Pope moved to have proposed, p. 657. which displeased the Fathers, &c. after much contention, because the opinion of Divine Right was as displeasing to the Pope, ib. fol. 737. it was waved.
• (g)

  Ib. fol. 825.
• (h)

  Caran. p. 869.
• (k)

  For as the Roman Church was called the Catholick Church of Rome, Leo Ep. 12. So that of Antioch, the Catholick Church of An∣tioch, Conc. Constant. 5. Act. 1. That of Carthage, the Catholick Church of Carthage, Aurel. Epist. Eccl. Cathol. Carthag. So Polycarp was the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Smyrna. Euseb. lib. 4. hist. c. 14. And that famous Epistle to the Smyrnians was directed to all the Holy and Catholick Churches, id. ib. in Princ. Greg. Naz. the Bishop of the Catholick Church of Constantinople in his last Will and Testament, witnessed by four Bishops of their several Catholick Churches, as of Iconium, &c.
• (l)

  As Bishop Bramhal cites, Re∣ply to the Survey, p. 33.
• (m)

  Bishop of Chalced. Survey, c. 2. Sect. 4.
• (n)

  Loc. l. 4. c. ult. ad 10.
• (o)

  This is Stapleton's distinction.
• (p)

  Crespet. in verb. Pa∣pa; Caran. p. 827.
• (q)

  Caran. p. 823. The∣odoric. de Niem. Bi∣shop of Perda, Ʋrban's Secretary wrote the History of this Schism, so did Bonin. Segino in the Florentine History, &c. Friar John de Pineda, l. 22. c. 37. Sect. 3, 4.
• (r)

  England. Almain, and Italy favoured him.
• (s)

  France, Castile, Arragon, and Catalonia owned him.
• (t)

  Marian de reb. Hisp. l. 18. c. 1. Naucler. Val. 2. Ge∣ner. 46. for that every one of them had learned Patrons, id. ibid. Gener. 480.
• (v)

  Instit. Moral. part. 2. lib. 25. c. 14.
• (w)

  Lib. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 14. So doth Aemil. de Gest. Franc. lib. 9. Aut. Sum. Hist. part. 3. tit. 22. c. 2.
• (x)

  Lib de signis ruinae Eccl. Sign. of which the same is to be found in Otho Fris. Hist. l. 6. Baron. Tom. 11. Ann. 1044. n. 2.
• (y)

  De Pont. Rom. lib. 4. c. 2. Stapl. relect. c. 4. qu. 3. art. 3. conclus. 5.
• (z)

  Histor. Council of. Trent. fol. 241.
• (a)

  Apendix of Schism, p. 445. Re∣fert Dr. Ham. di∣spatcher. Preface p. 14.
• (b)

  Azor. l. 10. c. 9. or part 2. l. 2. c. 14.
• (c)

  Tom. 3. dist. 75. art. 1, 2.
• (d)

  Bishop of Chalcedon Survey, c. 2. Sect. 9. Dr. Holden, Anal. of Faith, saying the present State of the Pro∣testant Church, consisting of Protestant Bishops, &c. and their Protestant Flock, not be∣ing likely to continue long.
• (e)

  2 Con∣gregation, July 8.
• (f)

  10 Con∣gregation.
• (g)

  Ann. 1653, whom be∣fore he had branded and para∣digmatized with Insin∣cerity.
• (h)

  ••lench. mot. nuper in Angl. par. 2. p. 7. & inde.