nation. And thus not continuing in the Growth of Reformation, the Priesthood, and the Words of Ordination importing facrificing Power, which was before the Reformation, they loft it. Pray, Sir, favour me fo far as to give me a fatisfactory Answer to this Query, and for the Future I fhall cease to trouble you, unlefs any thing extraordinary intervene, and then I hope you will not deny your Affiftance to MADAM, Tour Friend and Servants February 20. 1707. Am glad to find by your Letter of the 17th, that your Ladyship intends to perufe thofe Books you gave me occafion to mention in my last, and in this you will find I must refer you to more. Your Ladyfhip's arguing from 2 Cor. xii. 14. where the Apostle tells the Corinthians, that he defires not them to spend their Money or Goods on him, but that he would gladly spend all he had on them, as Parents are wont to do on their Children, and not Children on their Parents; would be a better Argument for the People to prove, that they should not provide for their Priests, but their Priests for them, if any had a mind, for his Diversion, fo to argue from that Text. But to mifapply it as your Ladyship hath been taught to do, to prove, without any limitation, that the Church of Rome ought to be our Guide now, because formerly fhe was our Parent, is an Inconfequence, or if you pleafe, a Confequence which when turn'd upon the Church of Rome, I believe our Adverfaries will not grant. For the Church of Rome, Madam, to ufe your Expreffion, deriv'd her Orders with her Christianity most certainly from the Church of Je rufalem, which was the Mother of all Churches, as much as Eve was of Mankind; and yet the Romish Clergy will not grant from thence, that those of D their their Church fhould have the Church or Clergy of Jerufalem for their Guides, tho' one fhould urge the 2 Cor. xii. 14. never fo much unto them. But I fuppofe it was the intention of your Ladyfhip, by using this Argument to object, that we have left the Church of Rome, tho' we had our Orders from her. To which I anfwer; We had the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, the Law and the Prophets, yea, and our Lord himself from the Jews; and yet we have all departed entirely from them ever fince the Time of the Apostles, who turned from them unto the Gentiles. I use this inftance only for illuftration, to fhew your Ladyfhip, that our having our firft Orders from the Church of Rome doth not indifpenfably tye us to them, or oblige us now to take that Church for our Guide; tho' it were true that we ought our Chriftianity folely to her, as I am fure we do not. Your Ladyfhip will make no difficulty to grant, that we are not to take our Parents right or wrong, for our Guides, tho', under God, we owe our Being to them. We are not to take them for our Guides when they would lead us out of the Way, when they would lead us into New and dangerous By-paths; or to speak more properly to the purpofe, when they would mislead us from Right to Wrong, and from Truth to Error. This, Madam, is our Cafe with respect to the Church of Rome; we left them because they mislead us; we left them because we would not follow them in the Wrong; we left them because we perceived they would lead us out of the Catholick Paths to our Destruction; and because that Church which once, as many others, had been a true Guide for several Ages, afterwards became a falfe one. In fhort, Madam, we left her not in any thing wherein fhe was fafe and right, but only where fhe is dangerous, and in the Wrong; and we have departed no farther from her, than the hath departed from the Primitive Catholick-Church. Thus Thus far, Madam, in Anfwer to your 'Argu ment drawn from 2 Cor. xii. 14. But your main Argument is taken from this, That though we derive our Orders from the Church of Rome, and that there was no other Priesthood in England at the Reformation but the Roman, which was a facrificing Priesthood, the Priests being then made by thefe words, Receive thou a Power to offer Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead, yet we have left out that Form of Words ever fince the Reformation, and devised others instead of them, and that therefore we have loft our true Ordinations with those Words, and by confequence that our Orders are Unlawful, and Null ever fince the Reformation. I think, Madam, I have put your Objection in its true Light and full Force; and in Answer to it, give me leave to condole your Ladyship's Cafe, who have put your self into the Hands of fuch Men, as thus abuse your Credulity, and misguide you with an Argument which unchurches all the Churches, and Invalidates and Nulls all the Orders of the Chriftian World: For, believe me, Madam, that Form of Words was never us'd in Christendom for above a Thousand Years from Chrift. It was not us'd in the Church of Rome it felf when Pope Gregory the Great fent Auguftin the Monk to convert the English Saxons eleven Hundred Years ago: 'Neither St. Augustin, nor St. Gregory himself were made Priefts with that Form of Words; nor do the Greek or any of the Oriental Churches ufe it, or the Ceremony that attends it, in their Ordination of Priests to this Day. But, Madam, why do I fay believe me? Believe one of the most learned and zealous Writers of the Roman Church, who hath many Years fince prov'd all this in a Latin Book, Intituled, COMMENTARIUS de Sacris ECCLE SIA ORDINATIONIBUS, printed at Paris, 1655. None of the Priefts of the Roman Church can, or dare deny this, or will undertake to dis D 2 prove prove this Author, who hath fhewed at large what I have afferted in fhort. But if any of them are fo hardy as to deny it, tell them I refer them to the Author's Preface before the Ordinals of the Latin or Roman Church, p. 257; to what he writes de Sacris Ordinationibus, pars III. p.8. 17; And to Exercitatio 7. de Presbyteratus Materia & Forma, p. 129. Defire any of them to turn the Paffages I have here referred to into English, and then your Ladyship will find what a frivolous Objection they have proposed to you. An Objection, Madam, which hath been anfwer'd, and confuted again and again fince the Reformation, particularly in Two Tracts, whereof the one was Re-printed at London for R. Chifwell at the Rofe and Crown in St. Paul's ChurchTard, 1688. with this Title, A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England, c. The other was printed at London for Brabazon Aylmer, 1688. with this Title, The Validity of the Orders of the Church of England, &c. by Humphrey Prideaux, D. D. To these Books, Madam, I refer your Ladyship, and hope you will patiently and confcientiously perufe them without byafs, and with a Mind entirely difposed to submit to Truth. I forgot to tell your Ladyship the Name of the Author of the Latin Book mentioned above; it is JOHANNES MORINUS, a Name well known to all learned Divines MADAM, I am faithful, humble Servant Geo. Hickes. Four Months after the Date of this Letter I fent the next to her Ladyship, in which I defired to know whether the had received any Satisfaction from from my Letter, or the Books mentioned in it, as to the Objection fhe made against the Validity of our Ordinations. MADAM, June 22. 1758. N the last Letter I received from your Ladyship, I dated February 17. you promis'd me to perufe I the Books I recommended to your reading. hoped to have heard from your Ladyship whether or no you had received Satisfaction from them; in particular, whether the Letter I fent you in Anfwer to your Objection against the Validity of our Ordinations, and the Two Books upon that Subject, to which I directed your Ladyfhip, had given you Satisfaction. The Correfpondence I have had with your Ladyship will justify, at least excufe this Enquiry; and if you please to let me know, whether you have been fatisfy'd in part, or in whole, or not at all, that our Ordinations are valid, you'll very much oblige, MADAM, Your Ladyship's most faithful, bumble Servant, Geo. Hickes. The ANSWER. HONOURED SIR, I July 15. 1708. Acknowledge the Obligation of your Concern for me, and thank you for all Favours, particularly that of your laft; in Anfwer to which I have not yet feen the Anfwer to Nubes Teftium. As to the Validity of the Ordination of the Church of England (of which I ftill continue a Member hoping D 3 |