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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41808	Considerations upon the second canon in the book entituled Constitutions and canons ecclesiastical, &c.	Grascome, Samuel, 1641-1708?	1693 (1693)	Wing G1569; ESTC R11703	35,734	45

CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE Second CANON In the BOOK Entituled Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical c. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXC●… CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE Second Canon c. SO various and sickle are the Circumstances of Life and so short and full of Incumbrances is it at the best that it were not worth while to be Man had he not a God to serve who could reward him with future Happiness and God having made this Life a state of Probationership wherein Man is upon his good Behaviour and according to his Demeanour here shall either be recompenced with Eternal Bliss after this painful Life ended o● fall into endless Misery Upon this account Religion becomes more dear to him than all the things of this World put together For what shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and lose his Soul But then Religion being the Worship of God according to his Will that it may be our Guide to Heaven it must not be sought for in our Fancies but from his Revelations and Discoveries we shall deceive our selves and cheat our selves out of our precious Souls if we will make a Religion by starting new Notions and setting up Novelties ou● Business is to find out the good Old way and walk in it deny our selves and to dread and abominate the running a whoring after our own Inventions and firmly to adhere to the Religion our Blessed Saviour hath left us in which alone Salvation is to be obtained And therefore though not only the smoothest Deceivers but an Angel from Heaven should teach us any other way we ought not only to turn the deaf Ear upon their Perswasions but account them accursed Now the Substance of what our Saviour taught his Apostles and Evangelists wrote but by reason of the distance of Time the different Customs of Countries the ignorance of the Occasions whereupon many things were wrote or spoken and divers like Matters in cafe of difficulty it seems to be the surest way to have recourse to those Apostolical Persons and their Successors treading in their Steps and to those first planted Churches who by reason of their nearness to the Apostles times had the best opportunity to understand their meaning and also b●ing continu●lly under such severe Persecutions or Expectations of them that they had no other hopes or comfort but Heaven could not with any reason be thought to have any temptation or itch either to be insincere in themselves or unfaithful to others And in the great Degenera●y of the present Christian World I think I may be bold to say that relation being had to her Constitutions no Church in the Universe came nearer to the Primitive Pattern than the Church of England which hath made her both the Envy and the Mark of all sorts of Sects and Parties but this though it might and did cause her much trouble yet by rendring her more wary and industrious more careful of her Constitutions and more watchful over her Members perhaps did rather contribute to her Preservation than Destruction in all likelihood not all their Malice could have prevailed against her had not Vipers within her eat out her Bowels or ●he by turning her Hand against her self become a Felo de se and to this the present fatal Schism hath well near brought it The proud swelling Swearers have carried away the greatest part of her Members and whilst they hug themselves in their 〈◊〉 and Wickedness are become the Scorn and Derision of the meanest Sectaries and wildest Fanaticks And as for those who have retained their Integrity and with whom the true Authority remains the haughty Schismaticks insolently reproach them as too few to bear the weight of so great a Cause and indeed in the Eye of Humane Reason it could not be thought that they could long hold out against so many who thirst for their Bloud were not their Cause God's Cause who can support them not withstanding the violence of any Arm of Flesh and doubtless will if they be not wanting to their own part But after all perhaps the boasting Apostates may deceive themselves in the fewness of their number For though the Clergy to the Eternal Shame of the Deserters be not exceeding numerous yet they are pious learned and stout and their Adherents as they are more than their Adversaries could wish or are aware of so are they steady devout and sober and Men now begin so generally to see through the Mask that they daily more incline to the one and become more averse to the other Neither are there wanting multitudes of sober Men abroad who are highly concerned for their Case as may in part appear by a Letter out of another Kingdom which hath occasioned the ensuing Discourse the Contents whereof so far as concerns this Matter are Verbatim as followeth SIR I Confess my self very much a Stranger to the Constitution and Policy of the Church of England I humbly crave Pardon therefore if this Line is useless if it proves useful I have my Reward I have seen some of those excellent Books which have been lately written in defence of the present Separation from the complying Church of England I am fully satisfied that it is defended on very firm Grounds Yet one Topick there is which I have not observed made use of it is this The second of those which are commonly called the Canons of the Church of England declares all those excommunicated ipso facto who do not own the King's Authority c. By King That Person is to be understood according to the undo●b●●d P●inciples of the Church of England who is possest of the ●hrone according to the Civi● Constitution of the English Hereditary Monarchy Whosoever disowns his Authority c. by the Canon incurs the Sentence of Excommunication ipso facto Excommunication ipso facto or latae sent●ntiae as they call it must ne●●s import at least That the Church of England declares those to be none of her Communion who publickly notoriously and obst mately disown such a King's Authority Such ought to be deemed and treated as Excommunicates without farther judicial Process or Sentence The Nature of ipso facto Excommunication cannot bear less as is evident to all who know any thing of the Canon Law by which that is made the proper difference betwixt Excommunicatio latae and ferendae Sententiae From these Grounds it seems to me to follow pretty naturally That King James has either quite lost his Right or the Compliers the Jurors the Revolutionists if I may so call them are not cannot be the Church of England so that the main of the Controversie hangs much on this Dilemma Either King James has lost his Right or he has not if he has and King William 's Right is good the Non Jurors or Anti Revolutionists are excommunicated ipso facto by the Canon and may be charged with the horrid Guilt of Schism But if he has not lost his Right then the Jurors the Revolutionists are

excommunicated ipso facto by the Canon by consequence they cannot be the Church of England they have incurred her Censures are cut off from her Communion her sound Members ought not to communicate with them And the Anti-Revolutionists how few soever are the only Church of England I have stated this Reasoning but very briefly you may easily examine it more fully and if it holds I have my purpose For when it is enquired into and found solid it may deserve its proper place in some Book or other that may after this be written on the Controversie Besides it may be useful for obvia●ing that popular Plea against the Separation That the Original Question is only of Civil Co●cern and ought not to affect the Interests of the Church For from these Grounds it appears that in the Opinion of the Church of England which made the Canons it was of such concern as to have the highest Censures of the Church interested in it and to be made a fundamental term of her Communion If after it is examined by Men of better Judgment and better skill'd in the concerns of the Church of England it shall c. The Canon to which the Author of the Letter resers WHosoever shall hereafter affirm that the King's Majesty hath not the same Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical that the Godly Kings had amongst the Jews and Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church or impeach in any part his Regal Supremacy in the said Causes restored to the Crown and by the Laws of the Realm therein established Let him be excommunicated ipso facto and not restored but only by the Arch-Bishop after his Repentance and publick Revocation of those his wicked Errors Before I come to explain the intent and force of this Canon I think it convenient to set down a Position in the first Canon which all Persons having ●ure of Souls and all other Preachers and Readers of Divinity are obliged to the uttermost of their Wit Knowledg and Learning purely and sincerely without any Colour or Dissimulation to teach manifest open and declare four times every Year at the least And whether this hath been done or if done with what Sincerity by the greatest part let the World judge by their present and late Actings And it may be farther observed that this Position is levelled as well against all Civil as Ecclesiastical Foreign Powers as may appear not only from the Words in it but from our Laws and Statutes which shall hereafter be produced which this was designed to strengthen and confirm That the Spiritual Sword might afford what assistance it could to the Secular and both Powers concur to secure the Lawful Supream Governour upon whose Safety and Welfare the Well-being of both so much depended The Position in the first Canon That all Usurped and Foreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no establishment nor ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolished and that therefore no manner of Obedience or Subj●ction within his Majesty's Realms and Dominions is due unto any such Foreign Power But that the King's Power within his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries is the highest Power under God to whom all Men as well Inhabitants as born within the same do by God's Laws owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all other Powers and Potentates in Earth I do not deny but that the Usurpations of the Court of Rome were the ●ccasion of laying down this Position but then though the occasions of Laws or Canons are particular yet the Law or Canon it self is general ●gainst all Mischiefs whatsoever of the like kind If the occasion of the first Law against Murder had been the cutting a Man's Throat no State what●oe●●● would be so weak as to make a Law only against cutting of Throats ●nd leave bloudy Men free to use all other ways but their Law would be ●ade general to prevent the killing any Man either with Knife Sword Pistol 〈◊〉 or any other way or means whatsoever otherwise at this rate we must have a particular Law for every particular Fact It were a ridiculous ●hing to make a Fence against the Encroachments and Usurpations of the ●oman Court and to leave open a wide Gap for all others to enter in at pleasure For though we may justly have particular Apprehensions of the Al●-assuming Man at Rome yet we have the same reason against all Usurpat●●ns as being equally pernicious to us from what Quarter soever they ●●me But that we may come nearer to the Business both this Position and 〈◊〉 fore-cited Canon are equally acknowledged by both Parties engaged in 〈◊〉 present Controversie both Non-Jurors and Jurors assert themselves to 〈◊〉 the Church of England and lay claim to the Canon as a Canon of thei● Church if therefore the Canon be violated there can be no Cotroversie betwixt either Party but that the Penalty mentioned in the Canon belongs to the Violators so that if either Party appear guilty the Penalty must be fixed by consent Now for both Parties to get quit of it is impossible this Thunderbolt must unavoidably fall upon the one or the other For i● King James be our true and lawful Sovereign then the Regal Authority is his and consequently the Supremacy which is the choicest and top Branch of that Authority and if so then the Jurors who not only deny King James's Supremacy but have to their Power divested him of all Authority must inevitably stand excommunicated ipso facto by vertue of this Canon the force of which themselves acknowledg On the other hand it is not to be doubted but the Jurors will not be wanting to themselves in charging the Non-Jurors with the same Guilt for not worshipping the Idol which they have set up and which hath been more chargeable than ever was Nebuchadnezzar's Golden Image Now the Mighty Dr. Sherlock tells us That we cannot have two Kings at once and though I am not satisfied that the Doctor 's Proposition is universally true for David caused Solomon to be anointed and proclaimed King in his Life-time without divesting himself and the like did our King Henry II. to his no small Trouble yet in this Case where the two Titles clash and mutually destroy each other so that if the former be Rightful King the latter must be an Usurper if the latter have acquired a Right the former must have lost his there it is most certain that we cannot have two Kings at once Now for their New-fashion'd King they may take the best care of him they can that which lies on us is to prove the Right in King James which even Dr. Sherlock acknowledgeth and that very thing makes his de facto King to be but another Name for an Usurper For a bare de facto King is no more a King than a Possessor malae sidei is the true Proprietor of an Estate which he hath unlawfully and unjustly thrust himself into