A VINDICATION Of a Sheet, concerning the ORDERS OF THE Church of England, Against some REASONS, &c.  
Printed at OXFORD.  

Imprimatur,  
A Vindication of a Sheet, &c.  
July 7. 1688. Guil. Needham.   
LONDON: Printed for John howel, Bookseller in Oxford. 1688.   

A VINDICATION, &c.  
SInce Popish Pamphlets of late have found so ill reception, and the dreadful Names of Henry Hills, and Henry Cruttenden, in the Title-page, have been a fair warning to the Reader not to venture any farther, it has been thought convenient, lest the Works of this Author, which fill four whole Pages, should perish, to try whether the World will condescend so far as to red them for the sake of the following Reflections. For tho' any consideration of so mean a Paper must be confessed to require an Apology, yet this being the Authors first attempt, and he giving some suspicion of sense in daring to Print his Trifle in Oxford, a few slight Remarks may upon these grounds be excusable: But for the future, unless he gives a cleaner Glove, he must not expect the Honour of an Answer.  
I shall not inquire why our Author tacks his Some Reasons, to another Mans Twenty One Conclusions: The coherence of the matters treated of is not very apparent: This may be done, perhaps, out of a complaisant imitation of a Popish Syllogism, where the conclusion commonly scorns any acquaintance with the premises. As for the Rigorous Demonstrator, what he has offered at second hand in Confutation of Dr. Hammond, and Bishop Bramhal, has by them been long since confuted, and a just Reply might from their Volumes be easily Reprinted, were it not an injustice to those Stationers who are owners of the Copies. But what at present I have in hand, is entirely new; the Design pretends to humour, the Folly is peculiar, and the Title fantastical.  
" Some Reasons, &c. Church of England.  
We expect a Reasoner, and meet with a Buffoon: He pretends to vindicate the Reverend licenser, who would sooner pardon him a satire, than an Apology. Had he been really traduced, if his weightier Occasions, and greater Zeal for the Service of his Church than for his own famed, had hindered him from defending himself, hundreds of Protestant Pens had been ambitious of the Employment; for Sense would be defended by Sense, and Learning disdains the Patronage of Ignorance. A Vindication of Father Sabran might have become this Author, and the brisk attack of the Protestant Footman has made it necessary. But here a Bill is given out for Impartial Persons, to come and see a Combat betwixt a Jesuit and a Chimaera; and an huge dust must be raised in a Vacuum betwixt a Traducer, who is No-body, and a Defender, who says Nothing. This Author neither did persuade himself, nor could hope to persuade others, That Dr. Maurice was not the Licenser: Yet his Sincerity prompted him to insinuate, what he knew to be false, and his Prudence put him upon the attempt, of what he despaired ever to effect.  
" § 1. Dr. Maurice is not, &c. as approved by Dr. Maurice.  
1. Be it allowed, that this Author after his Liberal Education in a Foreign Seminary can count Six. 2. We own that it is false, that schismatics, or heretics, cannot ordain, for Protestants have more than once proved it to be so. But there are some Reasons, why a Roman catholic ought not to have branded this as a notorious falsehood. 
(a) Solet quaeri, si Heretici ab Ecclesia precisi & damnati possint tradere sacros Ordines, & si ab eis ordinati redeuntes ad Ecclesiae unitatem, debeant reordinari. 〈◇〉 questionem perplexam ac pene insolubilem faciunt Doctorum verba, qui plurimùm dissentire videntur. Lomb. l 4. Pist. 28.  Peter Lombard sound the Doctors to be divided about it; he acknowledges the Question to be intricate, and leaves it undecided. It is to Protestants one Argument of its being a notorious falsehood, that some 
(b) So Innocent the 1st. Non videtur Clericos eorum( Arianorum) cum Sacerdotii aut Ministerii cujufpiam suscipi debere dignitate, quoniam quibus solum Baptismum ratum esse permittimus. Ep. 18. apud been. Tom. 1. p. 580. Asseritur eum qui honorem amisit, honorem dare non posse, nec eum aliquid accepisse, quia nihil in dante erat, quod ille posset accipere. Ep. 22. ibid. p. 581. So again John the 12th. forced them who were ordained by lo the 8th. a Schismatical Anti-pope, to say, Pater meus nihil habuit sibi, nihil mihi dedit. been. Tom. 3. p. 1066. So Nicholas the 1st. Gregorius qui Canonice ac Synodice depositus, atque Anathematizatus erat, quem ad modum posset provetiere vel benedicere nulla ratio docet: Igitur nihil Photius a Gregorio accepit, nisi quantum Gregorius habuit, nihil autem habuit, nihil dedit. Per eorum quip ut legitur, manus impositione, & invocationem dabatur Spiritus Sanctus, qui noverant mundas ad Deminum manus levare; laeterum Gregorius, qui transgressor, factus est Legis ad iracundiam sui, magis quam ad consecrationem alicujus Spiritum sanctum per impositionem suae manus sine dubio provocavit, &c. been. Tom. 3. p. 698, 699. Ed. Col. Agrip. 1606.  Popes have asserted it; but a Jesuit ought not to have given the flat lye to Infallibility. 3. If now it be false, that Papists argue from the Schism or heresy of the Ordainers, that the power of conferring Orders is null, it must be allowed us that a great part of Lombards Doctors, and the fore-cited Popes were no Papists. 4. The Reader will by this time judge to whom the weakness, illiterateness, forgery, falsehood, and the hard forehead, which we meet with in this Paragraph do of right belong.  
" § 2. Dr. Maurice knows, &c. responsible for any such.  
1. Lambeth Ordination depends not on the Veracity of Dr. Parker, but on authentic Registers, upon the sight of which the more 
(c) Bishop Bramhal's Consecr. of Prot. Bishops vindicated. Tom. 1. Disc. 5. p. 460. 461. Dubl.  Ingenious Papists have confessed themselves satisfied. 2. If one of his Society, in a good Cause, may tell us He has heard what he never heard, and a Popish assurance has often pretended to prove, that never could be proved, then this hearsay of a pretence of a proof is but a weak foundation for so severe a charge on the Memory of that Venerable primate: Pope I would have called him, but that that N me has been abused. 3. To prove that Dr. Parker was a corrupter of Records, will require more Industry than he allowed to this Paper, and will not be performed as he bragged this was at one sitting: But after all, it will remain to be proved that He corrupted this particular Record of the Lambeth Consecration, and here he will meet with Antagonists of his own Fraternity, who will have these Records to be forced several Years after Parkers death, and first produced by Mr. Mason: And here it may be no ill Advice to the Fathers to lay their Heads together, and to agree upon a false Verdict. 4. Our Primates leave the glory of forging Records to that Bishop, who, not content with his diocese, would by these means extend his Usurp'd Jurisdiction: The ill success which the spurious Canon of Nice, and Constantine's donation have found, would deter Men of Conduct, tho' they had no sense of Religion from such vile and Popish practices. 5. If four true Bishops be more than three, it has often been made out that Bishop Parker's Ordainers were more than three true Bishops: The Acts of his Consecration prove them to have been 4 in number; and the truth of their respective Orders is evident from other Records, which have been produced. 6. Dr. Maurice finds in the Archives of Canterbury the Record for which the Minister makes himself responsible; and when this Author can bring Certificates for his Honesty, I doubt not but he may be indulged a sight of the Originals: That Copies of these Acts, both from the Register at Lambeth, and from the memory of Corpus-Christi-College in Cambridge, are in all hands; he in all probability might have known, had he not to his other vows added that of Ignorance. 7. Our Author has promised upon this to be an Eternal Mute; and if he takes Sweden in his way to turkey, he will by that time qualify himself for an Office in the Serail.  
" § 3. All know, &c. proved at all.  
1. The Protestant have Succession in Doctrine, tho' the Arrians had it not. The Papists say our Plea is no better than theirs; but are content barely to say so. When he shall produce as good Authority from Scripture, and as Universal a Tradition from the Fathers for the Articles of the Trent-Council, as the Reverend and Learned Dr. Bull has shown us in favour of the Orthodox against the Arrians, we'll admit the Comparison: In the mean time Nice and Trent do not sound well in one Period: There a Christian Emperor presided, here an Anti-Christian Pope: There the caconical privileges of patriarches were asserted; here the Divine Right of Episcopacy was trampled on by an upstart Order: There the Holy-Ghost was called down by Prayers; here the Roman catholics observed it was dispatched to the Conventicle in a Cloak-bag. 2. The distinction betwixt Succession of Doctrine, and of Persons, was in this dispute necessary, but the latter only was to be insisted on: That we have Succession of Doctrine may at this time be boldly said, since it has been so often vigorously proved.  
" § 4. If then it be uncertain &c. which doth so.  
1. Whether the C. of England, pretend to a Personal Infallibility, or not, we are ready to prove there sits much as Infallibility at Lambeth, as at Rome, and that the more valuable, because it resides in one that can red Latin. 2. As for the Succession of our Bishops to the Reformation, He is as much concerned in it, as We: As for the continuance of it thence down-wards I sand him to Mr. Mason for satisfaction. 3. Since he is inquisitive concerning the foundation of our Church, he may know that our Church is Founded on a Rock, and that Rock is Christ. 4. The Minister doth not say, it is not necessary to prove a succession of Persons, but gives reasons, why it is not necessary to show a complete Catalogue of the particular Successors. The Paragraphs, wherein these Reasons are given, are passed over by the Author, because there are hard words in them. Thessalonica and Ephesus are places He is a Stranger to; but sure by his Complexion he has some Relation to Corinth. Cletus and Anacletus he might have took notice of, because it was observed, that these two make up one of his Popes. 5. Prove and approve in Italian Characters show that his Talent doth not lie so much towards crabbed History, as sheer Wit.  
" § 5. If these Western Fathers &c. expose his Ch.  
1. The Western Fathers proved innovation upon heretics, because they wanted true Succession both of Doctrine, and Persons. Their Plea of Succession of Doctrine, excused them not, because not proved. When the Fathers charged them with want of Succession of Persons, they did not take advantage from the loss or defect of Records, but from their never having had a line of Bishops to be recorded. They required the proof of a Personal Succession, which we have; they did not exact complete Catalogues, which the Minister has proved unnecessary, and which yet we are as able to show as any Church in Christendom. 2. That this Reverend Minister doth not in a Sheet Printed for the use of his Parish trouble the Heads of his parishioners with a Catalogue of Names, gives no just Occasion to any Papist to think that our Succession cannot be made out; That it can be done, We have one good Argument that it has been done; and this our Author, if he had not been a Yesterday-Man in Books, could not have been ignorant of. Even the Catholick-Almanack itself deduces our Arch-Bishops of Canterbury from Austin to Warham: Cranmer indeed is left out, as if his supposed heresy or Schism could blot out the indelible Character. What tho' he finds no Bishops there since the Reformation? Neither will he find any Princes there since Henry the 8th. An Index expurgatorius has past upon the Royal Line, as well as the Episcopal. Even Q. Mary could not merit a place in this Catalogue, tho' cranmers Memory is sacrificed as his Person was heretofore, to make room for Pole, her Contemporary. Protestant-Calendars bring down the Regal Table to K. James, the 2d. and honestly conclude with a God grant him long to Reign; but the Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, forgets his Royal Master, and his glorious Progenitors, as he would have done the late King, if he had Printed an almanac before sixty.  
" § 6. He approves not that Aphorism, &c. Dr. Maurice did.  
1. He diverts himself here with a pitiful sophism upon the word power, which He will needs take in another sense than it was meant. Neither yet doth his bantering elude the force of the Minister's Argument: For still an unordained may as well ordain, as an unbaptiz'd may Baptize; and if Orders are not the power of Ordaining( as 'tis agreed Sacerdotal Orders are not) then according to him, one not ordained, may have the Power of Ordaining, and if he exercises this power, He doth not confer a Power on another, which he has not himself. 2. None but a malicious Interpreter could find any such Innuendo as he pretends to fear in the Minister's Argument: The Papists are so impudent as to tell us, we had our Orders from Laymen; and we, whom Solomon advices to answer Fools according to their Folly, show that this Objection tho' it could be proved, ought not according to their own Principles to be insisted on. 3. He that saith that Mr. Savage allows that our Bishops had their Orders from Laymen, must himself allow, if he knows the design of Mr. Savage's Book, that Popish Bishops are Laymen. 4. As for the Novelty of our Church, tho' we should grant it to be no Ancienter than the Reformation, yet still it must be owned that Q. Elizabeth lived before the Bishop of Condom.  
" § 7. He says that Christ, &c. saying he did not.  
1. When the Question is concerning an Institution of our Saviour, he that holds there was such an one must prove it. It is Argument enough to us who hold the Negative, that there is no such Institution to be found in Scripture. 2. Christ Instituted no Form of Words as absolutely necessary; those which he used in the Mission of the Apostles we think the fittest, and therefore as such, use them in our Ordinations: But for that Form which the Ch. of Rome uses, there is no shadow of proof in Scripture, or Antiquity. 3. The delivery of the Vessels is so far from being instituted by Christ, that it is by the Romanists 
(d) By Morinus, and Arcudius, in his 6th Book De concordia, &c. which 6th Book is approved by Eud. Johannes de Soc. Jes. Ed. Par. 1626.  themselves, acknowledged a Novelty. 4. If he wants to meet a Man, who would evidently prove to him that Christ gave no power to offer Sacrifice, for the Quick and the Dead, I know none who has managed this Cause more for the Protestants advantage, than the inspired Writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews.  
" § 8. The Title says he, &c. concerned in it.  
1. A candid Reader who would have weighed Arguments, and not cavilled at words, would have easily understood the Ministers meaning, when he calls Imposition of Hands, that Form which the Apostolical Church used in giving Orders. It is palpable he could not mean a Form of words, but only a Rite of Ordination. The Objection was, That we had no true Form of Orders: The Answer is, That by Form, is either meant first a Form of words, and of that it is said that Christ Instituted none; or secondly, some Rites used in Ordination, and of those it is shew'd that We use that which was used by the Apostles, by Antiquity, and by the Greek Churches. 2. Tho' this Reverend Minister is also an able Divine, yet he ought not to build upon such Consequences. May not a Man be an Italian Bishop, who is nothing else but a bad Canonist? May not a Cardinal domineer over Arch-bishops and patriarches, tho' he be no more than a School-boy? Was 
(e) Journal of Mr. de St. Amour. p. 120. land. 1664.  Innocent the 10th no Pope, because when the Janfenists brought their controversy to him, he diverted the discoursing of it with saying, It is none of my Profession, I am Old, I have never studied Divinity. 3. His Latin Scrap may be counted Learning in a Papist, but we Protestants look upon it as Pedantry. Risum teneatis Theologi might have served for the end of an Hexameter at the Savoy; but at Dr. Tenisons School a Boy would be whipped for it. When he was picking a Flower out of Horace, I am glad he did not light upon the cervicem equinam; it had been the best Authority was ever yet urged for the Story of the Nags head. Humano capiti squints suspiciously upon Parker: Jungere si velit shows as evidently that Scory laid a Book on his Shoulders: Risum teneatis argues they went to be merry, and Spectatum admissii is Neal spying all through the Key-hole.  
" § 9. His Answer &c. near approves this.  
1. It has been shew'd that the third Objection was Popish; and therefore the Minister's Answer to it was pertinent. 2. As for the Second Innuendo the supposal of any such thing before was nonsense, and here is nauseous. 3. That Ordination of heretics should be valid, and yet not sufficient, is no Contradiction: It may be veiled to one end, not sufficient to another; veiled of itself to make a Succession of Bishops, not sufficient without Succession of Doctrine, to make a Church Orthodox. Thus Admission into the Order of Ignatius makes a valid Jesuit, but without the Doctrines of Equivocation, and King-killing he will still be Heterodox. 4. If this Gentleman will, as he is obliged in Charity to us heretics red the 6th Book of Thomas a Jesu de propaganda omnium gentium salute, He will have Occasion for another sort of Exclamation, used by a sort of Mortals, who in a surprise cry, Who would have thought it?  
" § 10. I conclude then, &c. allow me to believe.  
1. To this whole Paragraph I answer; first, That the Man is Whimsical. 2 My Opinion of the Nags-head Tavern I have  told him above, and have given him an Authority for it, which will pass in Spain, where 'tis believed that Protestants are Hairy, and go upon all four. 3 The Doctrine of Intention he leaves undefended, and pursues a Fagary of his own. 4. Did I believe this Doctrine, tho' I were a Roman catholic, I should be afraid to adore where this Man Consecrates, who has given us a shrewd suspicion by the Management of this Sheet that it is difficult for him in any thing to be intent.  
FINIS.