A Just Defense of Hearing the Sermons, Chapter 7 · Section 13
Sect. 13. The Ministers of England act not by vertue of an Office-power from Idolaters.
2. That the present Ministers of England act by vertue of an Office-power from this Combination and Assembly of Idolaters, they themselves will not deny: Succession from hence being one of the best pleas they have for the justification of their ministry: (which when they have proved, that ever the Lord Jesus did intrust an Assembly of the greatest Murderers, Adulterers, and Idolaters in the world, with any power, for the sending forth Officers, to act in the holy things of God, to, and for the Church his Spouse, will be admitted; but that they shall never be able to do) so hugely importunate are some of them herein, that they are not ashamed to ask us, VVhy Ordination may not be received from the Church (so called) of Rome, as well as the Scripture? To which we shall only say, That when it is proved, that we received the Scripture from that Apostate Church, by vertue of any Authority thereof, as such, somewhat of moment may be admitted in that enquiry, but this will never be done. Tis true, the Bible was kept among the people, in those parts, where the Pope prevaileth; yet followeth it not from hence, that we received it from their Authority, as Ordination is received: If we did, why did we not keep it, as delivered from them to us, in the Vulgar Latine? So that of these things there is not the same reason. It will not then be denied, but the present Ministers of England, act in the holy things of God, by vertue of an Office power received by succession from the Church of Rome, and so from Idolaters (that Church being eminently so, as hath been proved.)
Answ. This Objection, though it be but a slight thing, and of no real force, to nullifie or invalidate the Calling of the present Ministers; yet, because the well-affected Protestants are zealous against Popery, as having learned the Pope to be Antichrist, and that terrible threanings are, in the Revelation, against any communion with any thing that is suggested to them by those, to whom they adhere, to come from Rome, or the Pope, as being Antichristian, it is needful, that this thing should be cleared▪ for rectifying the mistakes of people, that their unadvised zeal against some things as Popish, which are not, may not occasion unnecessary Schism, and such other evils, into which persons, perhaps otherwise of honest hearts, cast themselves to their ruine. It is known to those that study Controversies between Protestants and Papists, that this hath been one grand Objection of the Papists against the Reformed Churches, that their Ministers are not rightly Ordained, and therefore they have no succession; which by Bellarmine, in his Book de Notis Ecclesiae, c. 8. is made a Note of the Church; and therefore they are not a true Church, but schismatical. The Answers given to this Objection, are,
1. For the truth of the Reformed Churches, the succession in them of true Doctrine, is sufficient to demonstrate them true Churches, as I have asserted in my Romanism discussed, against the Manuel of H. T. Art. 2.
2. That Ministers may be sent of God, who teach the Doctrine of God, though they have not Ordination according to Church-Canons▪ as was the case at the first beginning of the Reformation; in which there was something extraordinary, by reason of the long tyranny of Popes, and the great corruptions in the Latine Churches.
3. That their Ministers were at first ordained by the Popish Bishops; and though they did after renounce the offering Sacrifice for quick and dead, yet even by the Papists own Canons, and resolutions of their Casuists, their power to administer the Word and Sacraments, according to the Word of God, continued still.
4. That those who had been thus ordained, had power to ordain others, for which the French, and other Protestants of the Presbyterial Government, allege, That Presbyters may Ordain, even by the confession of the Romanists; and that Bishops, though they be hereticks in their account, yet they lose not the power of Ordaining, no, not when degraded; of which more may be seen in Rivet. sum. Controv. tract. 2. q. 1. Alsted. suppl. ad Chamier. panstrat. de memb. Eccl. milit c. 8. Ames. Bellar. Enerv. tom. 2. l. 3. de clericis, c. 2 sect. 10. and many more, who have still pleaded, That, notwithstanding the impurity of the Church of Rome, yet the Calling, which Luther, Zuinglius, and others had from Popish Bishops, was sufficient, without any other Ordination, for an ordinary calling to the Office of a Minister; and that those, who have succeeded them, have been true Pastours in their Churches. The English Protestants, who have had Bishops above Presbyters, have advantage above other Protestants, to plead for the regularity of the Ordination of their Ministers, because they have been ordained by Bishops, and those Bishops consecrated by other Bishops, according to the …anons of the Ancients, in a succession continued from Bishops acknowledged by the Papists themselves. To evacuate this plea, saith Dr. Prideaux, Orat. 8. de Vocatione Ministrorum: The Papists would fain find a defect in the succession of the English B…sh…ps from the preceding B…shops, and in the solemnity of their consecration: And being beaten off from the denial of Cranmers consecration▪ by the producing of the Popes acknowledging of him Arch-bishop, and the register of his consecration, as also of other Bishops in King Edwards dayes: After, Christophorus à sacr…b…sco, or Father Halywood of Dublin in Ireland, Anthony Champney, and James Wadsworth say, That Arch bishop Parker, Bishop Jewel, and those others, which were made Bishops in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth, though the…e were an attempt of their consecration at a Tavern, at the Nags-head in Cheapside, yet could not they procure an old Catholick Bishop to joyn with them, and therefo…e their consecration was disappointed. To shew the falshood of this fable, and to make evident the compleat solemnity of Pa…kers, and others consecration; and the truth of the Ordination of the English Ministers,Dr. Rainold in his Letter to Mr. Barker, testifies his sil…ncing Hart the Jesuite herewith; which is extant in Mr. …yfords Apology, p. 11. even by the Canons of the Papists, Bishop B…del in his Answer to Wadsworth, ch. 11. and Mr. Francis Mason in his Vindication of the English Ministry, have fully proved the solemnity of the consecration, out of the A…ch-bishops Begister, to have been …ight, and the succession to have been legitimate, even according to the Canon Law; and the Ministers Ordination to have been good, though not ordained sacrificing Priests for quick and dead, against the exceptions of Bellarmine, …, and such other of the Papists' as have denied Protestant Ministers true Pastours, and their Churches true Churches. It is not unlikely, that some of the Prela…ical party, have vented in writings and conference, such expressions, as carry a shew of their disclaiming the Churches which have not Bishops, and extolling the Popish Churches Government, and avouching their Ordination from Rome; which hath caused a great ave…seness in many zealous persons from Bishops, and the conforming Ministers; and is taken hold of by this Author, and other promoters of Separation, as an engine sutable to that end. But as those learned men, Bedel, Mason, Prideaux, and others, have pleaded the succession of Bishops from the Popish Bishops, and the Ordination of Ministers by them, there is no cause given of that out-cry, that is made of the Bishops Antichristianism, declining to Popery, or of Separation, for that reason: the Presby…erian Churches making the like plea for themselves, That the first Reformers had ordinary calling, even according to the Papists own Canons; and the Episcopal Divines pleading only the same thing more fully. Yet it is not true, which this Author saith, That either the one or other make the succession from Popish Bish…ps, one of the best pleas they have for the just…fication of their minist…y: For, though they plead this succession against the clamorous and violent actings of the Popish party, which Petrus Molinaeus, in his 3d. Epistle to Bishop Andrews, mentions to have been in France, by Arnola the Jesuite; and the writings of Champney, Wadsworth, and others, shew to have been in England: yet they have justified their ministry without it, as may be seen in Amos, Als…ed, B…del, and others. And for the present Ministers of England, I conceive they will deny, that they act by vertue of an Office-power from the Combination and Assembly of Idolaters in the Church of Rome; their Office-power being not such as Priests are ordained to in the Church of Rome, to offer Sacrifice propitiatory for quick and dead, but to preach the Gospel, administer Sacraments, and Discipline, according to Christs institution: And in the solemnity of their Ordination, the Rom…sts rites being relinquished by the Ordainers, who are not a Combination or Assembly of Idolaters, but professors of the true Faith, and haters of popish Idolatry, though some succession of their Predecessors from Idolaters be alleged to stop the mouths of Papists, who pervert their proselytes, by impu…ation of novelty to the reformed Churches, and their Ministers, rather than by proving their Doctrine out of Scripture. As for that which is ob…ected, That Christ would never entrust such, to send forth Officers, to act in the holy things of God, for his Church, it is without reason objected, sith many of them might be, and in charity we are to conceive, were the servants of God, who abode in the communion of the Roman Church. Dr. Ames himself, in his Animadversions on the Remonstrants Scripta Synodalia, Artic. 5. c. 7. saith, We believe there were, and yet are many, who have not so farr separated themselves from the Papists, but that they are polluted with their manifold Idolatry, who yet have their part in the Kingdom of God. Even in the dayes of King Henry the 8th. and Q Mary, all the Bishops were not like Gardiner, Bonner, and such as were inhumane persecutors. Why Christ should not entrust Cranmer, Tonstall, and such like, to send forth Officers, to act in the holy things of God, as well as Judas to be an Apostle, I find not cause. The baptism received in the Church of Rome, the Brownists in their Apology, p. 112. acknowledge to be so farr valid, as not to need rebaptization; and why not then the Ordination by their Bishops? Bishops and Ministers, though they be evil men, and unduly get into power; yet, as it is with other Officers, their actings are valid: as Caiaphas, Ananias, and such like persons, who by bribes unjustly and irregularly usurped the High-Priests Office; yet their sentence and ministration were not therefore disannulled. He who said, We received the Bible from the Church of Rome, it is not likely meant it to have been received by vertue of their authority, but their ministry, Preachers having been sent by the Pope, to instruct the Saxons in the Faith: But whatever was meant by that speech, this we may safely say, That if the Office-power of the present Ministers had been (as it is not) received by succession from the Church of Rome, and so from Idolaters; yet being no other Office-power, than what hath been instituted by Christ, it no more proves the present Ministers Idolaters, than the receiving of baptism, or the Scriptures, by the ministry of men in that Church. It is further added,