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of Ordination were condemned as null by the Primitive Church. We have an Inftance of each of these pretended Ordinations about the Time of the Council of Nice. That which concerns Presbyterian Ordinations is the known Cafe of Ifchyras, (b) who with feveral others (as Athanafius tells us) were ordained by Colluthus a Presbyter, but the Ordination was declared null by the Church, and they were all looked upon as meer Lay-men, and treated as fuch. (1) And Socrates fays of this Ifchyras, who by virtue of this pretended Ordination took upon him to act as a Presbyter, that he deferved many Deaths for it. And as to the Cafe of enthufiaftical Lay Ordination, whereby the Epifcopal Succeffion was apparently. broke, we have an Inftance how the Church dealt with fuch Perfons in the Council of Nice it felf, (k) where they decree, that the Paulianifts returning to the Catholick Church, be re-baptized; and that they who were of their Clergy, if they be under no Blemish, be ordained by the Bishops of the Catholick Church, after they have first been re-baptized. that it is evident that great Council looked upon the Baptifm and Orders of the Paulianifts to be both entirely null and void. Balfamon in his Comment upon this Canon tells us, that these Paulianifts were a Sect of the Manichees. Now the Manichees, () as we learn from Epiphanius, had no Succeffion of Clergy from the Catholick Church, as the Novatians, Donatifts, Arians, &c. but Manes, the Founder of the Sect, fet himself up for an Apoftle, and pretended to an extraordinary Call, fuch as Calvin and his firft Collegues pretended to when they took upon them to

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(b) Athanaf. Apol. 2. (i) Hift. Ecclef. lib. 1. cap. 27. (k) Can. 19. (7) Hæref. 66.

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execute the Prieftly Functions. Therefore our Church very juftly, and agreeable to the Practice of the Primitive Church, rejects the pretended Ordinations by Presbyters, or by Enthufiafts, and for that reafon admits not either Calvinifts or Lutherans, or any Anti-Epifcopal Sectaries, to be received as Presbyters in the Church of EngLand, till they have been regularly ordained by a Bishop Because there neither were nor can be any fuch Ordinations derived from Christ and his Apoftles. But the Orders of the Church of Rome (being Epifcopal, and derived by an indifputable Succeffion from Christ and his Apostles, which Succeffion the Nicene Fathers (as I have fhewed in the Cafe of the Novatians) did not fuppofe to be broken by Schifm) we acknowledge as valid, and confequently our own Orders, as they are derived from them.

LV. To the first Objection of the Romanists concerning our Form of Ordination, which they pretend is defective in fome effential Points, we anfwer, that we know of no fuch Defect. (m) For whereas they tell us, that it is effential to the Office of a Priest to receive Power to offer Sacrifice to God, and to celebrate Maffes as well for the Quick as for the Dead in the Name of the Lord; but that we neither use thefe Words, nor any equivalent to them, in the Ordination of a Prieft: We fay, that thefe Words of the Roman Ordinal cannot be effential to the Ordination of a Priest, because they are but of a late Date, neither are they, or Words equivalent to them, to be found in any of the Primitive Forms of Ordination. That the Scripture does not tell us what Form of

(m) Mafon de Minifter. Anglican. lib. 5. cap. 1.

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Words the Apostles used on this Occafion; all that we learn from thence is, that Presbyters were ordained by them by Prayer and Impofition of Hands. But what particular Words were used in those Prayers the Scripture tells us not. Neither

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have we any greater Light from the Three first Centuries to the Time of the Council of Nice. We do indeed frequently meet with the Ordination of Priests, and other Clergy, and find they were always ordained by the Bishop, but as to the Form or Manner of Ordaining we have no Account, other than that Hands were laid upon them, as was done by the Apostles, and Prayers made fignifying to what Office they were appointed. From whence we infer, that Prayer and Impofition of Hands is all that is effential to Ordination: And therefore conclude, that whofoever receives Impofition of Hands from a Bishop, with a Prayer denoting that the Bishop does by that Impofition of Hands appoint him to execute the Priest's Office in the Church of Chrift, is thereby made a Prieft, whatever the particular Words may be And the fame we fay with regard to the Ordination of a Biop or a Deacon. Now this Prayer and Impofition of Hands is appointed in our Ordinal to be used in every Ordination. Thus in the Form for ordering Deacons there is this Prayer, Almighty God, which by thy Divine Providence haft appointed diverfe Orders of Minifters in the Church, and didft infpire thy holy Apostles to chufe into this Order of Deacons the firft Martyr St. Stephen, with other: MERCIFULLY BEHOLD THESE THY SERVANTS Now CALLED TO THE LIKE OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATION, &c. Then after having examined and inftructed them in the Nature of that Office, the Rihop lays his Hand feverally upon the Head of every one of them, and fays, Take thou Authority to execute the

Office of a Deacon in the Church of God committed unto thee: In the Name of the Father, &c. In the Ordination of Priests the Prayer runs thus: Almighty God, Giver of all good Things, which by thy Holy Spirit haft appointed diverfe Orders of Minifters in thy Church, MERCIFULLY BEHOLD THESE THY SERVANTS Now CALLED TO THE OFFICE OF PRIESTHOOD, &c. Then after proper Inftruction and Examination in the Nature of his Office, the Bishop, together with the Presbyters that are prefent, lay their Hands upon him, and the Bishop fays, Keceive the Holy Ghoft for the Office and Work of a Prieft in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Impofition of our Hands. Whofe Sins thou doft forgive, they are forgiven; and whofe Sins thou doft retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful Difpenfer of the Word of God, and of his holy Sacraments: In the Name of the Father, &c. At the Confecration of a Bishop the Prayer is: Almighty God, Giver of all good Things, who by thy Holy Spirit haft appointed diverfe Orders of Minifters in thy Church; MERCIFULLY BEHOLD THIS THY SERVANT Now CALLED TO THE WORK AND MINISTRY OF A BISHOP, &c. Then after a proper Examination, the Archbishop and Bifhops prefent lay their Hands upon his Head, faying, Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the Impofition of our Hands In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, Amen. And remember that thou ftir up the Grace of God which is given thee by this Impofition of our Hands: For God hath not given us the Spirit of Fear, but of Power, and Love, and Soberness. Thus are the feveral Orders of the Clergy amongft us fet apart or ordained to their feveral Offices by Impofition of Hands and Prayer, which is all that we find to have been practifed by the holy Apoftles in the

Scripture, or by the Fathers of the truly Primitive Church on this Occafion, and these Ordinations are made by the Bishop or Bishops: That is, every Prieft and Deacon is ordained by one Bishop, and every Bishop is confecrated by Three Bishops at least, according to the first and fecond Apoftolical Canons. So that there is nothing effential to Ordination but what is contained in our Ordinal,and practifed in our Church. Whereas therefore it is objected by the Romanifts, that our Priests have no Authority given them to offer Sacrifice, and for that reafon they are no proper Priefts: We anfwer, that they have Authority given them to execute all the Functions of the Chriftian Priesthood; and confequently to offer the Chriftian Sacrifice. The Reprefentative Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Chrift in the holy Eucharist, which is one of the Sacraments, acknowledged by us as fuch, they exprefly receive Power to offer, fince the Bishop, while his Hand is laid upon any one of them, bids him be a faithful Difpenfer of the Word of God, and of the Sacraments. But for the Sacrifice of the Mafs, as offered in the Church of Rome, as the individual Body and Blood of Christ broken and fhed upon the Crofs, we deteft and abominate it, as a fcandalous Corruption of his holy Inftitution. If it be faid, that in our first Ordinal, which was used in this Church from the first Reformation of the Book of Ordination, till after the Restoration of King Charles II. thofe Words, Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Prieft or of a Bishop in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the Impofition of our Hands, were not ufed, confequently those who were then ordained, could not be proper Bishops or Priests, fince when Hands were impofed upon them, there was not fo much as a Declaration made of the Order they were ordained to, which was cer

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