Answer to a Popish Antichristian Catholic, Offer 12
The twelfth Offer.
Offerer.
I demaund of the learned Proteſtant to know cauſe and reaſon why their congregations; doo admit and receiue all biſhops, prieſts, deacons, and other officers ſpirituall, ordered by our Catholike church as men lawfull and ſufficient to preach the word of God, to miniſter the Sacramēts, & to exerciſe all ſpirituall iuriſdiction in no leſſe wiſe, but rather more then if they had bin ordred in their owne congregations: whereas the Catholike church of Chriſt dooth not acknowledge any man of their ordering and calling to be any whit the more fit, for any ſpirituall function in Chriſt his church, then other cōmon lay men. When therefore, the learned Proteſtant ſhalbe able to ſhew good cauſe and reaſon, why our Catholike church, hauing by their owne conſent and approouing lawfull prieſtes, biſhops, and ſpirituall miniſters, not to be alſo the lawfull, true, and Catholike church of Chriſt: I will then recant, and not before.
Crowley.
This Offer, is altogither friuolous and fooliſh. For what reaſon was it that mooued this vnreaſonable Offerer, to require the learned Proteſtant to ſhew cauſe and reaſon why our congregations doo thoſe things that neuer any of our congregations did? Can this Offerer prooue that euer any congregation of Proteſtants did admit and receiue all biſhops, prieſts, deacons, and other ſpirituall officers? &c. Wée doo in déede receiue the men that hauehave bin biſhops, Prieſts, and deacons, &c. And finding them meete to ſerue either in the places that they ſerued in before, or in any other, wée doo employ them in ſeruice in thoſe places that we finde them méete for. And thus we doo, not bicauſe they hauehave bin ordered after your Antichriſtian maner: but bicauſe wee ſée in them manifeſt ſignes of repētance that euer they yéelded to be made miniſters of Antichriſtian religion, & do deſire to be admitted to ſerue God in the miniſtration of the true & right religion of Chriſt. As for your ſhauing, your clipping, & annoynting that you doo vſe in the ordring & conſecrating of your biſhops, prieſts, & deacons: we eſtéeme as lightly of it as you either doo or can eſtéeme of our maner of ordering and conſecrating of miniſters of all ſortes.
Wée know that no ceremonies that are or can be vſed in this behalfe (either by you or by vsus) doo or can giuegive any ability to the perſons towards whom thoſe ceremonies are vſed, in ye admitting of them: but we doo vſe them as meanes to put thoſe perſons in remembrance of thoſe duties yt doo belonge to them in the office & calling, whereunto they are called & admitted. We doo not thinke, that you doo or can by your ceremonies imprimere characterē indelebilem, that is, imprint into ſuch as you doo order, a marke that can not be blotted out: ſo that your prieſtes being once made prieſtes muſt continue ſo for euer. Neither doo we thinke it neceſſary, to degrad your prieſts when they returne vntounto vsus, from your Antichriſtian religion, as you vſe to doo before you deliuer them to the ſeculer power, when you hauehave cōdemned them for hereſie. For we know that the marke of the beaſt (which they receiued at your hands) is blotted out, by their hearty, and vnfained repentance, the ſignes wherof, we ſée in them before we doo admit them to ſerue in any calling amongſt vsus, either Eccleſiaſticall or Ciuill.
You might much better hauehave charged vsus with conſenting vntounto, and allowing of the lawfulnes of your prieſts & biſhops, bicauſe we be not rebaptiſed: but then (perhaps) you think we would charge you with the like conſent, and approouing of ye lawfulnes of our miniſtery, for that you doo not rebaptiſe ſuch as hauehave bin baptiſed by vsus.
But to be ſhort, I conclude thus. Though we doo receiue ſuch as doo come from you, as S. Paule was receiued comming from the Phariſeis, & doo admit them to ſuch offices amongſt vsus as wee finde them méete for, as S. Paule was admitted to the office of preaching & miniſtration of ſacraments: yet we doo not thereby conſent vntounto, or allow of, the lawfulnes of your Antichriſtian miniſters, more then the church yt receiued S. Paule cōming from the Phariſeis, did thereby conſent vntounto, or allow of the ſect of the Phariſeis.
If this be a cauſe & reaſon ſufficient (as I think it is) why the Proteſtants ſhould neither take your Antichriſtian miniſters to be méete miniſters of Chriſtes religion, ſo longe as they remaine amongſt you, nor refuſe them when they ſhall repent, & bring forth fruits worthy & méete for repentance, and yet notwithſtanding account & take your church for Antichriſtian: then I require you (M. Offerer) to fulfill your promiſe and recant, although you hauehave hitherto refuſed ſo to doo.