Burnet on Article XXVI: Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacrament

THE occasion that was given to this Article, was the heat of some in the beginnings of the Reformation; who being much offended at the publick Scandal which was given by the enormous Vices, that were without any Disguise practised by the Roman Clergy, of all Ranks, did from thence revive the conceit of the Donatists, who thought that not only Heresy and Schism did invalidate Sacred Functions, but that personal Sins did also make them void.

It cannot be denied but that there are many Passages in St. Cyprian that look this Way; and which seem to make the Sacraments depend as much on the good State that he was in who administred them, as the Answer of their other Prayers did.

In the Progress of the Controversy with the Donatists they carried this Matter very far; and considered the Effect of the Sacraments as the Answer of Prayers: So since the Prayers of a wicked Man are Abomination to God, they thought the Vertue of these Actions depended wholly on him that officiated.

Against this St. Augustin set himself very zealously; He answered all that was brought from Cyprian, in such a manner, that by it he has set us a Pattern, how we ought to separate the just Respect, that we pay the Fathers, from an Implicite receiving of all their Notions. If this Conceit were allowed of, it must go to the secret Thoughts and inward State in which he is, who officiates; for if the Sacraments are to be considered only as Prayers offered up by him, then a Man can never be sure that he receives them: Since it is impossible to see into the Hearts, or know the Secrets of Men. Sacraments therefore are to be considered as the publick Acts of the Church; and though the Effect of them as to him that receives them depends upon his Temper, his Preparation and Application, yet it cannot be imagined that the Vertue of those federal Acts, to which Christians are admitted, in them, the Validity of them, or the Blessings that follow them, can depend on the secret State or Temper of him that Officiates. Even in the case of publick Scandals, though they may make the holy things to be loathed by the aversion that will naturally follow upon them; yet after all, though that aversion may go too far, we must still distinguish between the things that the Ministers of the Church do, as they are publick Officers, and what they do as they are private Christians. Their Prayers and every thing else that they do, as they are private Christians, have their effect only according to the state and temper that they are in when they offer them up to God; but their publick Functions are the appointments of Christ in which they Officiate; they can neither make them the better nor the worse, by any thing that they join to them. And if miraculous Vertues may be in Bad Men, so that in the great Day some of those, to whom Christ shall say, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity, ¹ may yet say to him, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works; then certainly this may be concluded much more concerning those standing Functions and Appointments that are to continue in the Church. Nor can any difference be made in this matter between publick Scandals and secret Sins; for if the former make void the Sacraments, the latter must do so too. The only reason that can be pretended for the one, will also fall upon the other; for if the vertue of the Sacraments is thought to be derived upon them as an Answer of Prayer, then since the Prayers of Hypocrites are as little effectual as the Prayers of those who are openly Vicious; the Inference is good, that if the Sacraments Administred by a scandalous Man are without any effect, the Sacraments Administred by a Man that is inwardly Corrupted, though that can be only known to God, will be also of no effect; and therefore this Opinion that was taken up, perhaps from an inconsiderate Zeal against the sins and scandals of the Clergy, is without all foundation, and must needs cast all Men into endless scruples, which can never be cured.

The Church of Rome, though they reject this Opinion; yet have brought in another very like it, which must needs fill the Minds of Men with endless distractions and fears; chiefly considering of what necessity and efficacy they make the Sacraments to be. They do teach that the Intention of him that gives the Sacrament is necessary to the Essence of it, so that without it no Sacrament can be Administred. This was expresly affirmed by Pope Eugenius in his Decree, and an Anathema past at Trent against those that deny it. They do indeed define it to be only an Intention of doing that which the Church intends to do; and though the surest way they say is to have an actual Intention, yet it is commonly taught among them, that a habitual or virtual Intention will serve. But they do all agree in this, that if a Priest has a secret Intention, not to make a Sacrament, that in that case no Sacrament is made; and this is carried so far,² that in one of the Rubricks of the Missal it is given as a Rule, that if a Priest who goes to Consecrate Twelve Hosties, should have a general Intention to leave out one of them from being truly Consecrated, and should not apply that to any one, but let it run loosely through them all, that in such case he should not Consecrate any one of the Twelve; that loose exception falling upon them all, because it is not restrained to any one particular. And among the Articles that were condemned by Pope Alexander the Eighth, the 7th of December, 1690. the 28th runs thus, Valet Baptismus collatus a Ministro, qui omnem ritum externum formamque Baptisandi observat, intus vero in corde suo apud se resolvit, non intendo quod facit Ecclesia. And thus they make the secret acts of a Priest’s mind enter so far into those Divine Appointments, that by his Malice, Irreligion, or Atheism, he can make those Sacraments which he visibly Blesses and Administers, to be only the outward shews of Sacraments, but no real ones. We do not pretend that the Sacraments are of the nature of Charms; so that if a Man should in a way of open Mockery and Profanation go about them, that therefore because Matter and Form are observed, they should be true Sacraments. But though we make the serious appearances of a Christian action to be necessary to the making it a Sacrament, yet we carry this no further, to the inward and secret acts of the Priest, as if they were essential to the being of it. If this is true, no Man can have quiet in his Mind.

It is a Profanation for an Unbaptized Person to receive the Eucharist; so if Baptism is not true when a Priest sets his Intention cross to it, then a Man in Orders must be in perpetual doubts whether he is not living in a continual state of Sacriledge in Administring the other Sacraments while he is not yet Baptized; and if Baptism be so necessary to Salvation, that no Man who is not Baptized can hope to be Saved, here a perpetual scruple must arise which can never be removed. Nor can a Man be sure but that when he thinks he is Worshipping the true Body of Jesus Christ, he is committing Idolatry and Worshipping only a piece of Bread; for it is no more according to them, if the Priest had an Intention against Consecrating it. No Orders are given if an Intention lies against them, and then he who passes for a Priest is no Priest; and all his Consecrations and Absolutions are so many invalid things, and a continued course of Sacriledge.

Now what reason soever Men may have in this case to hope for the pardon of those sins, since it is certain that the Ignorance is invincible; yet here strange thoughts must arise concerning Christ and his Gospel; if in those actions that are made necessary to Salvation, it should be in the power of a false Christian, or an Atheistical Priest or Bishop, to make them all void; so that by consequence it should be in his power to damn them; for since they are taught to expect Grace and Justification from the Sacraments, if these are no true Sacraments which they take for such, but only the Shadows and the Phantasms of them, then neither Grace nor Justification can follow upon them. This may be carried so far as even to evacuate the very being of a Church; for a Man not truly Baptized can never be in Orders; so that the whole Ordinations of a Church, and the Succession of it, may be broke by the Impiety of any one Priest. This we look on as such a chain of Absurdities, that if this Doctrine of Intention were true, it alone might serve to destroy the whole credit of the Christian Religion; in which the Sacraments are taught to be both so necessary and so efficacious, and yet all this is made to depend on that which can neither be known nor prevented.

The last Paragraph of this Article is so clear that it needs no explanation, and is so evident that it wants no proof.³ Eli was severely threatned for suffering his Sons to go on in their Vices, when by their means the Sacrifice of God was abhorred. God himself struck Nadab and Abihu dead when they offered strange Fire at his Altar; and upon that these words were uttered, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, ⁴ and before all the People will I be glorified. Timothy was required to receive an accusation of an Elder, when regularly tendered to him;⁵ and to rebuke before all, those that sinned; and he was charged to withdraw himself from those teachers who consented not to wholsome words, and that made a gain of godliness. A main part of the Discipline of the Primitive Church lay heaviest on the Clergy: and such of them as either Apostatized, or fell into scandalous Sins, even upon their Repentance, were indeed received into the Peace of the Church, but they were appointed to Communicate among the Laity, and were never after that admitted to the Body of the Clergy, or to have a share in their Priviledges. Certainly there is nothing more incumbent on the whole Body of the Church, than that all possible care be taken to discover the bad practices that may be among the Clergy; which will ever raise strong prejudices, not only against their Persons, but even against their Profession, and against that Religion which they seem to advance with their Mouths, while in their Works and by their Lives they detract from it, and seem to deny its Authority. But after all, our Zeal must go along with Justice and Discretion: Fame may be a just ground to enquire upon, but a Sentence cannot be founded on it. The Laity must discover what they know, that so these who have Authority may be able to cut off those that trouble the Church. ⁶ Discretion will require that things which cannot be proved, ought rather to be covered, than exposed when nothing but clamour can follow upon it. In sum, this is a part of the Government of the Church, for which God will reckon severely with those, who from partial regards, or other feeble or carnal Considerations, are defective in that, which is so great a part of their Duty, and in which the Honour of God and of Religion, and the Good of Souls, as well as the Order and Unity of the Church are so highly concerned.

Footnotes

1. Mat. 7.22. ↩

2. Miss. Rom. Rubr. de defectu Intent. art. 1. ↩

3. 1 Sam. 3.11. ↩

4. Levit. 10.3 ↩

5. 1 Tim. 5.1, 19, 20.6. c. 3, 4, 5. ↩

6. Gal. 5.12. ↩