The Judgment of the Extent of Christs Death, Animadversions – Part 1
Some Animadvertisements upon the aforesaid Letter, in prevention of any misinterpretations of it.
1. WHereas in the former part of it, he saith, he hath ever declared his opinion to be, &c. I can witnesse it from the time I have had the happinesse to be known to him, it being not (as some possibly might suggest) a change of judgement upon the occurrences of latter years.
2. For that superiority onelyonly in degree; which, he saith, a Bishop hath above a Presbyter, it is not to be understood as an arbitrary matter at the pleasure of men, but that he held it to be of Apostolical institution, and no more a diminution of the preheminencie and authority of Episcopacy, than the denomination of lights given in common by Moses, to all of them in the firmament (Genes. 1.) detracts from the Sun & Moon, whom he calls the greater, and were assigned of God to have the rule of the rest; though the difference between them be onelyonly graduall, yet there is a derivative subordination, as the preheminence of the first-born, was but graduall, they were all brethren, but to him was given of God the excellency, or supremacy of Dignity and power, to him they must bow, or be subject, and he must have the rule over them: And that this gradus is both derived from the pattern prescribed by God in the Old Testament (where that distinction is found in the Title of the Chief Priest, who had the rule of the rest, called by the LXX foreign) and from the imitation thereof brought in by the Apostles, and confirmed by Christ in the time of the New; The Primate hath so fully confirmed in that learned Tractate of his, of the Originall of Bishops, which he hath deduced from the Apostolicall times; that I know not what can be added; And even for that higher gradus of a Metropolitan, or Arch-Bishop, to have been also Apostolicall, he hath, from the superscription of John, to the seven Churches, (each of which Cities being Metropolitical, and the rest of the Cities of Asia daughters under them) given very strong probabilities, hard to be gain-said; unto which (as an excellent comment upon this Letter) I shall refer the Reader.
3. That in this judgement of his he was not singular; Doctor Davenant, that pious, and Learned Bishop of Salisbury, consents with him in it. (in his determinations, q. 42. produceth the principal pf the Schoolmen, Gulielmus Parisiensis, Gerson, Durand, &c. Episcopatus non est ordo praecisè distinctus à sacerdotio simplici, &c. non est alia potestas ordinis in Episcopis quam Presbyteris, sed inest modo perfectiori. And declares it to be the generall opinion of the Schoolmen. Episcopatum ut distinguitur à simplici sacerdotio non non esse alium ordinem; sed eminentiorem quandam potestatem & dignitatem in eodem ordine sacerdotali, &c. And as he grants the Bishop to have dignitatem altiorem, potestatem majorem, &c. so doth the Primate in that he saith he hath a superiority in degree above a Presbyter, and that the Churches which have no Bishops, are thereby become very much defective in their Government; Both of them being farre from a parity.
And whereas the Primate saith, That in cases of necessity, where Bishops cannot be had, the Ordination by Presbyters standeth valid, Bishop Davenaut concurres with him also: That where Bishops were Heretical, or idolatrous, and refuse to ordain Orthodox Ministers, that in such and the like cases he saith: Si Orthodoxi Presbyteri (ne pereat Ecclesia) alios Presbyteros cogantur ordinare, ego non ausim hujusmodi ordinationes pronuntiare irritas, & innanes, &c. Necessitas non inscitè lex temporis appellatur, & in tali casu defendat id ad quod coegit, and produceth the opinion of Richardus Armachanus (one of this Primates Predecessors, and one of the most Learned men in his time) to be accordingly. Armachani opinio est, quod si omues Episcopi essent defuncti, sacerdotes minores possunt ordinare, & applies it to the like Protestant Churches, which the Primate mentions. Hac freti necessitate si Ecclesiae quaedam protestantium quae ordinationes ab Episcopis Papistis expectare non poterant consensu Presbyterorum suorum Presbyteros ordinarunt, non inde Episcopali dignitati praejudicasse, sed necessitati Ecclesiae obtemperasse judicandi sint, Thus much for Bishop Davenants concurrence, to which divers others might be added, as in speciall, Doctor Richard Field sometimes Dean of Glocester, in his Learned Book of the Church, lib. 3. cap. 39. and lib. 5. cap. 27. where this judgement of the Primates, and this concurrence of Bishop Davenants is largely confirmed, without the least derogation from the preheminencie of Episcopacy.
But that book entituled, The defence of the Ordination of the Ministers of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas maintained by Mr Arch-Deacon Mason, against the Romanists (who wrote also a defence of Episcopacy, and of the Ministery of the Church of England) is sufficiently known, and I have been assured, it was not onelyonly the Judgement of Bishop Overal, but that he had a principal hand in it; He produceth many Testimonies. The Master of the Sentences, and most of the Schoolmen, Bonaventure, Tho. Aquinas, Durand. Dominicus, Soto, Richardus Armachanus, Tostatus, Alphonsus à Castro, Gerson, Petrus, Canisius, to have affirmed the same, and at last quoteth Medina, a principal Bishop of the Councel of Trent, who affirmed, That Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, Sedulius, Primasius, Chrysostome, Theodoret, Theophylact, were of the same judgement also. And I suppose there is none doubts, but that the Primate joyned with Arch-Deacon Mason in that conclusive wish of his, viz. That wherein the Discipline of France, or Holland is defective, they would by all possible means redresse, and reform it, and conforme themselves to the ancient custome of the Discipline of Christ, which hath continued from the Apostles time, that so they may remove all opinion of singularity, and stop the mouth of malice it selfe,
In a word, If the ordination of Presbyters in such places where Bishops cannot be had, were not valid, the late Bishops of Scotland had a hard task to maintain themselves to be Bishops, who were not Priests, for their Ordination was no other, And for this, a passage in the History of Scotland, wrote by the Arch-Bishop of Saint Andrews is observable, viz. That when tke Scots Bishops were to be consecrated by the Bishops of London, Ely, and Bath, here at London house, An. 1609. he saith, A question was moved by Doctor Andrews, Bishop of Ely, touching the consecration of the Scottish Bishops, who, as he said, must first be ordained Presbyters, as having received no ordination from a Bishop. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Doctor Bancroft, who was by; maintained, That thereof there was no necessity, seeing where Bishops could not be had, the ordination given by the Presbyters must be esteemed lawfull, otherwise that it might be doubted if there were any lawfull vocation in most of the reformed Churches, This applauded to by the other Bishops, Ely acquiesced, and at the day, and in the place appointed, the three Scottish Bishops were consecrated by the above-said three English Bishops, the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury forbearing for another cause there mentioned.
Now though the ordination of Presbyters in this case of necessity be granted to be valid, yet I have heard this learned Primate wonder at the neglect found in the late Presbyterian way of ordation, viz. That at imposition of hands, they neither used the ancient form of words, with which the first framers of it were themselves ordained, nor used any other to that sence in their room, at least there is no order, or direction for it. For suppose the words of our Saviour to the Apostles, (John 10. 21, 21.) at their ordination were scrupled at, viz. Receive the holy Ghost, whose sins thou dost forgive are forgiven: and whose sins thou dost retain are retained, (which rightly understood, gave no just cause) yet why might not the next words have been continued? viz. and be thou a faithfull dispenser of the word of God, and of his holy Sacraments, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost: or the other words upon the solemne delivery of the Bible, into the hands of the person ordained; Take thou authority to preach the word of God, and to minister the holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed. I can imagine no cause against the use of one of these, unlesse it be because they had been used there, as if in this sense, old things must be done away; and all must be new. To impose hands (according to the injunction of the Apostle, and to have it accompanied with prayer and thanksgiving for the person, is well done (wich in the former constitution was solemnly observed before, and after it) but why should the formal transmitting of Authority also in the name of Christ for the power of officiating be left undone, if the scruple in the instrumental cause be satisfied, why might it not have been prevented in the formall, who might have freely given what they had received. Now to give the seal of ordination (as some please to call imposition of hands) without any expresse commission annexed, or grant of Authority to the person, the Primate was wont to say, seemed to him to be like the putting of a seale to a blanck, which being so weighty a businesse, I wish prudent men would consider of, least in the future it arm the adversary with objections; and fill our own with further scruples; And so much (far larger then I intended) for the prevention of any offence, which might be taken at the one part of the Letter.
Now for the other clause of his judgement, which he leaves unto me to judge, what in reason I might apprehend to be his, I leave it accordingly to the judgement of others: All that can give any offence, is that term of Schisme. But in regard it is not directly determined, but onelyonly that he could not be an Advocate to excuse it; and being delivered in that Latitude, that it is dubious whether forreigne (to which the question chiefly relateth) or domestick, former times, or latter, may take the application. I shall not offend the Reader with any larger Apology, onelyonly wherein any shall find themselves concerned, I wish such humble and meek spirits, that the admonition of so pious, and eminent a Bishop, (whose fame is throughout the Churches) might prevaile to the amendmeut of what hath been amisse among us. If I have abounded beyond my measure, to the hazard of the offence of both parties in these advertisements, let it be excused by the impartiality of it, and the unbyassed intention for the setling of truth and peace so shaken of later dayes.
The Primates judgement of severall Subjects.
THe mifinterpretations, which have been already made of this most Reverend and Learned mate, of a change of judgement in him towards his latter end, (which I have been moved here to vindicate) giving it suspected to be the fore-runner of more of the like, which may be raised hereafter, I have been advised upon this occasion, both in answer to, and prevention of any other false rumours for the future to declare more fully what I did of him briefly in his Funerall Sermon, as to some particulars then whispering of him (omitted at the presse, but not with my will,) And I do it the rather in regard, as I was desired then by some of different judgement, to make an impartial relation of his there (there each like Israel and Judah, for David, claiming an interest in him) so finding that omission to be diversly interpreted to my censure, and conceived by some to be the occasion of those severall mistakes raised of him since, (whereby, as (praef. to disp. of Sacram.) Mr. Baxter complaines, The good Bishop must now be what every one will say of him, one feigning him to be of one extreame, and the other of the other extreame) which the publishing might have prevented, I have thought fit to discharge that trust reposed in me, both in relation to his Doctrine and practice, and I know no person of more generall reputation, and more like to be an exemplary pattern in this his moderation, which I conceived fit to be known unto all men.