Works of Joseph Hall, Book 1 · Section 17
SECT. XVII.
HEe hath done with their owne vowes, and now deſcends to vsus, whom hee confeſſes vowleſſe; His ſcorne cannot ſtrip vsus of the benefit of that Truth, which hee confeſſeth; Thus then hee writes; I freely with other Catholikes grant, Refut. p. 89.that our Engliſh Miniſters, according to their calling, make no vowes; I grant their mariage to be lawfull; I grant that eueryevery one of them may bee the Husband of one Wife, &c. And why did not this liberalitie of my wiſe Detector tye vp his Tongue in his purſe all this while? No more was required, no leſſe is yeelded; whereto is all this iangling? But, that his grant may proue worſe then a deniall, thus hee proceeds: But wee deny them to bee truely Clergie-men, or to hauehave any more authoritie in the Church, then their wiues or daughters hauehave: and this, becauſe they want all true calling and Ordination; For, they entred not in at the doore, like true Paſtors, but ſtole in at the window like theeues; We deny their miniſterie (I ſay) to be lawfull becauſe they did runne before they were ſent, tooke their places by intruſion, &c. Let Maſter Hall diſproue this, and I will ſay, Tu Phyllidaſolus habeto. Thus he.
A deep crimination, and ſuch, as if it could be proued, would rob our queſtion of the State, and vsus of our duely challenged honour. Reader, this vehemency ſhewes thee where his ſhoo wrings him: It is the gall of Romiſh hearts that we proſper, and are not theirs; Where they hauehave preſumed vponupon credulitie, they hauehave not ſtucke to ſay, we are not men like others, but more frequently and boldly, that wee are no Chriſtian men; and here moſt peremptorily, that we are no Clergie-men: There is no Church, no Chriſtianitie, no Clergie not theirs; Neither can we be in Orders, whiles we are out of Babylon.
The man dreames of the Nags-head in Cheape-ſide, where his lying Oracle Tradition hath not ſhamed to report, Iewel, Sands, Horne, Scory, Grindall, and others in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths time (being diſappointed of the Catholike Biſhop of Landaffe) to hauehave laid hands mutually on each other; and that from hence hauehave flowed our pretended Orders. This our ſhameleſs*Alias Halywell the Ieſuite. Sacroboſco heard of ſome good old folks, & they had it of one Neale, Profeſſor Ebrius in Oxford; Kelliſon took it of Sacroboſco, and C. E. of him. Concordat cum Originali; Diabolus eſt mendax & pater eius. And is not this a worthy engine to batter down the wals of a whole Church, to blow vp all our ordination? Is it poſſible that any Chriſtian face ſhould be ſo graceleſſe, as to beare out ſuch an apparent and ridiculous falſhood, againſt ſo many thouſands of witneſſes, againſt the euidence of authenticall Records, againſt reaſon, and ſenſe it ſelfe? For can they hope to perſwade any liuing man, that theſe hauing at that time a lawfull Archbiſhop of their owne religion, legally eſtabliſhed in the Metropoliticall chaire, by an acknowledged authority, the ſway of the times openly fauoring them, when all Churches, all Chappels gladly opened to them, that they would bee ſo mad as to goe and ordaine themſelues in a Tauerne? He that would beleeue this, may be perſwaded that their adored blocks can weepe, and ſpeake, and moue; that their Cake is God; Neuer truth could be cleared, if not this; No leſſe then the whole Kingdome knew, that Q. Mary dyed in the yeare 1558, Nouember 17; and her Cardinal (then Archb. of Canterbury) accompanied her ſoule in death the ſame day. The ſame day was Q. Elizabeths Initium Regni; her Coronation, Ianuary 15 following. That leaſure enough might be taken in theſe great affaires, the See of Canterbury continued void aboue a yeare. At laſt, in the ſecond yeare of Q. Elizabeth 1559, December 17, was Matthew Parker legally conſecrated Archb. of Canterbury, by foure Biſhops: William Barlow formerly Biſhop of Bathe, then elect of Chicheſter. Iohn Scory before of Chicheſter, now elect of Hereford. Miles Couerdale Biſhop of Exeter. Iohn Hodgeskins Suffragan of Bedford. Mathew Parker thus irrefragably ſetled in the Archiepiſcopall See, with three other Biſhops, in the ſame MonethMonth of December, ſolemnely conſecrated Edmund Grindall, and Edwin Sands; The publike Records are euident and particular, relating the Time, Sunday morning after Prayers; The place, Lambeth-Chappell; The manner, Impoſition of hands; The conſecrators; Mathew Cant. William Chicheſter, Iohn Hereford, Iohn Bedford, The Preacher at the Conſecration, Alexander Nowell, afterwards the worthy Deane of Pauls; The Text, Take heed to your ſelves, and to all the flocke, &c. The Communion, laſtly adminiſtred by the Archbiſhop.
For Biſhop Iewel, he was conſecrated the MonethMonth following in the ſame forme by Mathew Cant. Edmund London, Richard Ely, Iohn Bedford.
Laſtly, for Biſhop Horne, he was conſecrated a whole yeare after this, by Mathew Cant. Thomas S. Dauids, Edmund London, Thomas Couentry and Lichfield; The circumſtances, Time, Place, Form, Preacher, Text, ſeuerally recorded. The particulars whereof, I referre to the faithfull and cleare relation of Maſter Francis Maſon; whoſe learned and full diſcourſe of this ſubiect, might hauehave ſatisfied all eyes, and ſtopped all mouthes. What incredible impudency is this then, for thoſe which pretend not Chriſtianitie onelyonly, but the Conſecration of God, wilfully to raiſe ſuch ſhamefull ſlanders from the pit of Hell, to the diſgrace of Truth, to the diſparagement of our holy calling?
Let me therefore challenge my Detector in this ſo important a point, wherein his zeale hath ſo farre out-run his wit, and with him all the Brats of that proud Harlot, that no Church vnderunder Heauen can ſhew a more cleere, eeuen, vncontrolable, vntroubled line of the iuſt ſucceſsion of her Sacred Orders, then this of ours; if his Rome, for her tyrannous Primacie, could bring forth but ſuch Cards, the world vvould bee too ſtraight for her. He ſhall (maugre) be forced to confeſſe, that either there were neuer true Orders in the Church of England (which he dares not ſay) or elſe that they are ſtill Ours. The Biſhops in the time of King Henry the eight, were vndoubted; If they left Rome in ſome corrected opinions, their Character was yet, by confeſsion,aQuis ignorat Cathol. &c. & ſimiliter Ordinatos verè eſſe Ordinatos, quando Ordinator verè Epiſcopus fuerat & adhuc erat, ſaltem quantum ad characterem, Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 10. indeleble. They laid their hands according to Eccleſiaſticall conſtitution, vponupon the Biſhops in King Edwards dayes; And they both, vponupon the Biſhops in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths; They againe, vponupon the ſucceeding Inheritors of their holy Sees, and they laſtly vponupon vsus; ſo as neuer man could ſhew a more certaine and exquiſite Pedigree from his great Grand-father, then wee can from the acknowledged Biſhops of King Henries time, and thence vpwards to hundreds of Generations. I confeſſe indeed, our Archbiſhops and Biſhops hauehave wanted ſome Aaronicall accuſtrements, Gloues, Rings, Sandals, Miters, and Pall, and ſuch other traſh; and our inferiours Orders hauehave wanted G…eazing and Shauing, and ſome other pelting Ceremonies. But let C. E. proue theſe eſſentiall which we want, or thoſe Acts and Formes not eſſentiall, vvhichwhich we hauehave, Et Phyllida ſolus habeto. In the meane time, the Church of England is bleſſed with a true Clergy, and glorious; and ſuch a one, as his Italian generation may impotently enuy, and ſnarle at, ſhall neuer preſume to compete vvith, in worthineſſe and honour; And (as Doctor Taylor, that couragious Martyr, ſaid at his parting) Bleſſed bee God for holy Matrimonie.