Numb. I. itíP P E N D I X. I ID Reply to Sell. ,r6: r. It Cems you are confident of anuninterrupted Succeflion of authoritative Or- dination, though you teem to think none. authoritative but Epifcopal. But fo were not the Proteftant Bithops, who took the Reformed Churchesto have true Miniffers, and to be true Churches, when yet Epifcopal Ordination is interrupted with them. Such are all thofe with-whofe Words, you fay, I fill my Book, to whom I may add Men (which is ffrange) that were thought nearer your own way. As Bifhop Brombaff in his late Anfwer to illiliteriva, who yet would have the Pope to be the Principium Unirariu to the Church, and the Anfwer to Fonranus's Letter, fait to be Dr. Stewards, betides Dr. Fern ; yea, if you were one of chore that would yield that Presbyters may ordain, yet I am Bill. unperfuaded that you are able to prove an uninterrupted Succeffron of AuthoritativeOrdination,; and ifyou are able I lhould heartily thank you if you would perform it ; and feeing it is fo Neceffary, it is not well that no Epifcopal Divine will perform it If you are not able, methinks you fhould not judge it fo neceffary ; at leaf( except you know themthat are able: If you caft it on us todifprove that Succeffion, I refer you to our Anfwer to Bellarmine'and others in thofe Papers, as to that point. 2., Asfor Tertnllsan and Inmates, and others of the primitive Ages, pleading fuch.Succeflton, I anfwer, r. It is one thing to maintainan uninterruptedSucceflion, then when and where it was certain, and another tomaintain it now, whenit is not. z. It is one thing then tomaintain that fuch a Succeflion was de fall°, and another to affirm that is muff be, or would be to the end of the World, which thofe Fathers did not. It was the Scope of /resew andTertullian not to make an uninterrupted Succefliion of Banding abfolute neceflity ad effe Offrcü, nor to prophecy that fo it should (till be, and the Church fhouldnever want it ; but from the prefent certain- ty of fuch a Succeiion de fall°, to prove that theOrthodox Churches had better Evidenceof the Soundnefs of their Faith, than the Hereticks had. If this benot their meaning, I cannot underfiand them ; it was eafy then to prove the Succeflion, and therefore it might be made a Medium againft Hereticks,, toprove that the Churches-had better Evidence than they : But now the Cafe is altered, both through time and Sin. It might have been proved by Tradition without Scrip- ture, what was found Dottrine, and whatnot, before the Sèripture was written : An Heretick might have been confuted in theDays of the Apoltles without their Writings, andperhaps in a great meafure Come time after : but it follows not that theymay be fo to the End of the World: Thofe that heard it from the Mouth of theApoffles, could tell the Church what Doetrinethey taught; but how uncertain a way Tradition wouldhave been to acquaint the World with God's Mindby that time it had puffed through the puddle of depraved Ages, even to x653. Godwell knew, and therefore provided usa more certain way. So is it Aft) in this Cafe of Succeflion, as the Fathers pleadedit againft the Hereticks, to prove the Soundness of theTradition of thofe Churches. Except. to Sea. 07. Againft all which, a Quirk it kerns lay, that if fecretly anyof them had had but a fecret Canonical Irregularity,allthe following Suceefiìons were null: But the evidentTruth is much otherwife that the Church never anulled the Acts or Ordi- nationsmade by Bithops, which the CatholickChurch then had accepted and re- puted CatholickBithops; though afterwards they carne to know of any Secret Ir- regularities, or canonical Difablings had they then been urged or profecuted by any, againft thofe Bithops, and then they fhould have been accepted for.Bifhops by the Church no longer. Reply to Sell. r7. a. I haveproved, and more can do, open and not only fecret Irregularities in the Church ofRome's Ordinations, known a Priore, and not only after tiseOrdina- tions. The Multitude ofProteftant Writers, even EnglilhBithops have made that evident enough againft the Pope, whichyou call a Querk; general Councils have condemned Popes as Hereticks and Infidels, and yet theyhave ordained more. z. If it were otherwife, y,et all your Anfwer would only prove, that we muff fame - times take them for Bilhops who werenone (when the Nullity isfecret) but not that theyare Bithops indeed, orhave Authority. It isone thing to fay that God will make their Ads as ufeful to the honeff Receiver, as if the Ordainer had done it by juft Authority : and another to fay, that fuch an Ordainer had Authority, becaufe his Incapacity was not known or judged ; that is becaufe it was not then known that he had none. a. Moreover, ifthe Catholick Churches Acceptation and Reputation (which youmention would ferve turn, then r. It were well worth B ze the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=