( fometimes it expresseth the perfon, whether priest or deacon, who officiateth under the rector or vicar, employed by him as his assistant, or to supply the place in his absence; sometimes it denoteth the person officiating in general, whether he be rector, vicar, or assistant curate, or whosoever performeth the service for that time: sometimes it denoteth exclusively (as in this place) the rector, vicar, or person beneficed, who hath curam animarum. So far the office of a deacon is to be collected from the rubrick in the form of ordination, and from the form itself. And forasmuch as he is hereby permitted to baptize, to catechize, to preach, to assist in the administration of the Lord's supper; so also by parity of reason he hath used to folemnize matrimony, and to bury the dead. Wats. τ. 14. And in general it seemeth, that he may perform all the other offices in the liturgy, which a priest can do, except only confecrating the sacrament of the Lord's supper (as hath been faid), and except also the pronouncing of the abSolution. Indeed it is not clear from the rubrick in the book of common prayer; whether, or how far, a deacon is prohibited thereby to pronounce the absolution. For altho' it is there directed, that the same shall be pronounced by the priest alone; yet the word (alone) in that place seemeth only to intend, that the people shall not pronounce the abfolution after the prieft, as they did the confession just before: and the word priest, throughout the rubrick, doth not seem to be generally appropriated to a person in priest's orders only; on the contrary, almost immediately after it is directed, that the priest shall say the gloria patri, and then afterwards that the priest shall say the fuffrages after the Lord's prayer (which, by the way, in most of the occasional offices are called by mistake the fuffrages after the creed, or the fuffrages next after the creed), and it is not supposed that these expreffions are to be understood of the priest alone, exclusive of a deacon who may happen to perform the fervice. And here also we may observe the ambiguous fignification of the word priest, as before was observed of the words minister and curate: sometimes it is understood to fignify a person in priest's orders only; at other times, and especially in the rubrick, it is used to fignify the perfon officiating, whether he be in priest's or only in deacon's orders: and in general, the words priest, minifter, and curate seem indiscriminately to be applied throughout the liturgy, to denote the clergyman who is officiating, officiating, whether he be rector, vicar, assistant curate, priest, or deacon. But the argument to evince that the priest only, and not a deacon, hath power to pronounce the absolution, seemeth most evidently to be deduced from the acts of ordination before mentioned. To the deacon, it is faid; "Take thou authority to read the gospel, and to preach :" To the priest, it is faid, " Receive the Holy Ghost"Whose fins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and "whose sins thou doft retain, they are retained." Moreover, until a person is admitted to the order of priesthood, he is not capable of any benefice or ecclefiastical promotion. Gibf. 146. (1) And by the ftatute of the 135 14 G. 2. c. 4. No per. fon shall be capable to be admitted to any parsonage, vicarage, benefice, or other ecclefiaftical promotion or dignity, before he be ordained priest: on pain of 1001; half to the king, and half to be equally divided between the poor and the informer. /. 14. Neither is a person that is merely a layman, or that is only a deacon, capable of a donative: for although he who hath a donative may come into the same by lay donation, and not by admiffion and institution; yet his function is spiritual. Inst. 344. So that he who is no more than a deacon, can only use his orders either as a chaplain to some family, or as a curate to fome priest, or as a lecturer without title: for the prebendaries of fome prebends in cathedral and collegiate churches, are to read lectures there, by the appointment of the founders thereof, and may from thence be called lecturers; but these places are of the number of (1) Dr. Gibfon refers to the 13 Eliz. c. 12. which enacts, that no person shall be admitted to any benefice unless he be of the age of three and twenty years, and a deacon at the least; and directs that every person admitted to a benefice with cure shall be admitted to minister the facraments within one year after his induction, if he be not so admitted before, under pain of deprivation. See Deprivation, in not. But the 13 & 14 C. 2. c. 4. S. 14. extends the restriction by declaring, that no person shall be capable to be admitted to any benefice, nor to administer the sacrament, before such time as he shall be ordained priest, according to the form prescribed by the book of common prayer, under the penalty of 1001 and disability to be admitted into the order of priest for the space of one year next following. Wats. p. 142. 8 ecclefiaftical i ecclefiaftical promotions, to which the incumbents are admitted by collation or inftitution, of which a deacon as aforesaid is not therefore capable; yet the king's profeffor of the law within the university of Oxford, may have and hold the prebend of Shipton within the cathedral church of Sarum, united and annexed to the place of the same king's professor for the time being, although that the faid profeffor be but a layman. Watf. c. 14. 13 & 14 C. 2. c. 4. 5. 29. XI. General office of priests. A priest by his ordination receiveth authority to preach the word of God, and to confecrate and administer the holy communion, in the congregation where he shall be lawfully appointed thereunto. Yet, notwithstanding, by Can. 36. he may not preach without a licence either of the archbishop, or of the bishop of the diocese where he is placed, under their hands and feals, or of one of the two universities under their seals likewife. But a licence by the bishop of any diocese is sufficient, altho' it be only to preach within his diocese; the ftatute not requiring any licence by the bishop of the diocese where the church is. Watf. c. 14. Dr. Watson says, that if a person, who is a mere layman, be admitted and instituted to a benefice with cure, and doth adminifter the facrament, marry, and the like; thefe, and all other spiritual acts performed by him during the time he continues parfon in fact, are good; so that the persons baptized by him are not to be rebaptized, nor persons married by him to be married again, to fatisfy the law. Watf. c. 14. Cro. El. 775. XII. Exhibiting letters of orders. 1. Can. 137. Every parson, vicar, and curate, shall at the bishop's first visitation, or at the next visitation, after his admiffion, shew and exhibit unto him his letters of orders, to be by him either allowed, or (if there be just cause) disallowed and rejected; and being by him approved, to be figned by the register; the whole fees for which, to be paid but once in the whole time of every bishop, and afterwards but half the said fees. 2. Arund. No curate shall be admitted to officiate in another diocese, unless he bring with him his letters of orders. Lindw. 48. 3. Can. 3. Can. 39. No bishop shall institute any to a benefice, who hath been ordained by any other bishop, except he first shew unto him his letters of orders. 4. By the 4 H. 7. c. 13. If any person, at the second time of afking his clergy, because he is within orders, hath not there ready his letters of orders, or a certificate of his ordinary witnessing the same; the justices afore whom he is arraigned, shall give him a day to bring in his faid letters or certificate; and if he fail in so doing, he shall lose the benefit of his clergy, as he shall do that is without orders. XIII. Archbishop Wake's directions to the bishops of his province in relation to orders. It is judged proper here to subjoin archbishop Wake's letter to the bishops of the province of Canterbury, dated June 5, 1716, which, although it concerneth other matters befides those of ordination, yet since the due conferring of orders appeareth to be the principal regard thereof it feemeth best to infert the fame intire in this place; and to refer to it here at large from those other titles, unto which it hath some relation. As to its authority, it is certain (as hath been observed before) that in itself it hath not the force of law, nor is it so intended, or to be of any binding obligation to the church, further than the archbishops and bishops from time to time shall judge expedient; I mean, as to those parts of it which only concern matters that the law hath left indefinite, and difcretionary in the archbishops and bishops. Other parts thereof are only inforcements of what was the law of the church before; and those, without doubt, are of perpetual obligation: not by the authority of these injunctions, but by virtue of the laws upon which they are founded. My very good lord, Being by the providence of God called to the metropo litical fee of this province, I thought it incumbent upon me to confult as many of my brethren, the bishops of the fame province, as were here met together during this feffion of parliament, in what manner we might best employ that authority which the ecclefiaftical laws now in force, and the cuftom and laws of this realm, have vested in us, for the honour of God, and for the edification of his church, committed to our charge: And upon feriou's confideration of this matter, we all of us agreed in the fame opinion that that we should, by the blessing of God upon our honeft endeavours, in some measure promote these good ends, by taking care (as much as in us lieth) that no unworthy persons might hereafter be admitted into the facred ministry of the church: nor any be allowed to serve as curates, but fuch as should appear to be duly qualified for fuch an employ; and that all who officiated in the room of any abfent ministers, should reside upon the cures which they undertook to fupply; and be ascertained of a suitable recompence for their labours. In pursuance of those resolutions, to which we unanimously agreed, I do now very earnestly recommend to you; (I) That you require of every person who defires to be admitted to holy orders, that be fignify to you his name and place of abode, and transmit to you bis teftimonial, and a certificate of his age duly attesled, with the title upon which he is to be erdained at least twenty days before the time of ordination; and that be appear on Wednesday, or at farthest on Thursday in ember-week, in order to his examination. (II) That if you shall reject any person, who applies for holy erders, upon the account if immorality proved against him, you fignify the name of the person so rejected, with the reason of your rejecting him, to me, within one month, that so I may acquaint the rest of my suffragans with the case of such rejected person before the next ordination. (III) That you admit not any person to holy orders, who having refided any confiderable time out of the university, does not send to you, with his testimonial, a certificate figned by the minifter, and other credible inhabitants of the parish where he so refided, expreffing, that notice was given in the church, in time of divine fervice, on some funday, at least a month before the day of ordination, of his intention to offer himself to be ordained at fuch a time; to the end that any person who knows any impediment, or notable crime, for which he ought not to be ordained, may have opportunity to make his objections against bim. (IV) That you admit not letters teftimonial, on any occafion whatsoever, unless it be therein expressed, for what particular end and defign fuch letters are granted; nor unless it be declared by those who shall fign them, that they have perfonally known the life and behaviour of the perfon for the time by them certi fied'; and do believe in their confcience, that he is qualified for that order, office, or employment, to which be defires to be admitted. . VOL. III, E (V) That |