But to what purpose is all this Stuff Are we to judge of our Constitutions by the blind Tale of a little Historian or the contradictory Saying of an old Moth-eaten Lawyer who wrote in diâ—â—icult Times trod upon Thorns and was under a kind of Necessity to write so as that he might avoid the Rage of the several incensed Parties What a woful Condition are the People of England in if they must look five six seven or eight hundred Years downward for what they are to do now and to learn wherein and how far they are to obey their King Such Things fall in few Hands and are read by fewer and perhaps well considered by fewest of all Will Mr. Johnson have the present State of Affairs reduâ—ed to what was so long since Or will he be content that his Almighty House of Commons should be lâ—id aside because there was no such House at the time from whence he seâ—cheth several of his Authorities or at least not such a House as is now under the prâ—sent Constitutions And therefore I must beg his Pardon if in this case I little regard his far-fetch'd Stories and am bold to tell him that we are not to be ruled or guided by odd Remnants of Antiquity in this matter but by our present Constitution and if he can make that agree with his Old Stories he will go near to carry the Cause but if he cannot then both he and all the Revolutionists will stand for ever condemned by it Now I know not how to come to the knowledg of our Constitutions better than by our Laws and then for a Protestant Kingdom it may be convenient to look so high as the first establishment of Religion under that odd Title and to compare and view the agreement of our Laws all along from the first enterance of the Protestant Religion to the very time of King James's pretended Aâ—dication And here if I go so high as Henry the 8th 〈◊〉 I think I need go no farther than Queen Elizabeth and so trace Things to our own Time we shall thence learn the present Obligations we lay under when this Revolution came upon us I am not willing to create a Quarrel whether Henry the 8th were Papist or Protestant I will freely give the Papists my share in him For he that so â—obb'd the Churches that many Parishes have not Revenues to find a Minister Bread and burnt Protestants because they would not become Papists I think is much fitter for them than for us But be he what he will I cannot find that either he or his Parliament owned Mr. Johnson's Doctrine In the â—â—th of his Reign cap. 12. you will find it thus Enacted Where by divers sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed That this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World governed by one â—upream Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same unto whom a Body Politick compact of all sorts and degrees of People divided in Terms and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality been boundâ—n and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience Here a Parliament declares him 〈◊〉 subjects him to none but God and in the next following Words gives him plenary whole and intire Power Pre-eminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction And this they declare to be no new thing but to be taught by old Histories and Chronicles whose authentickness they vouch Now one would think that such authentick Histories and such Vouchers should make a better Authority thâ—n Mr. Johnson's Knighton But it is so well known what Authority Henry the 8th challenged and was owned by his Subjects that I need not insisâ—â—pon it Had our Author come abroad then with his new Inventions he himself perhaps would have found little better usage than Dr. Burnet's Pastoral Letter As for King Edward the Sixth we do not find that he any ways departed from the Authority his Father left him but though a Prince of great Hopes and pious Inclinations yet by the Seducements of some ill Persons about him entered farther upon the Ecclesiastical Authority than ever his Father did how justly I leave others to judge I cannot commend it And then for Queen Mary all Dignities Prerogative Royal Power Pre-eminence Priviledges Authorities and Jurisdictions are as fully wholly absolutely and entirely invested in her as in her Father or any her Predecessors by the Statute 1 Mariae Par. Sec. Cap. 1. To avoid tediousness I shall only touch upon such Statutes as speak home to this purpose and now we come to that which all sorts of Persons except Papists as with one Month stile the best Reign I mean the admired times of Queen Elizabeth in the first Year of whose Reign the Oath of Supremacy was enacted or rather revived in which amongst others are these two things asserted 1st That the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal 2dly That no Foreign Prince Person I relate State or Potentate hath or â—ught to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm By the first her own Subject's Hands are tied up by the second the Usurpations of Foreignes are excluded She could not be Supream much less only Supream if any Men or body of Men in her own Dominions had a Superior Power to depose her and it being not only their Duty but they also farther obliged by Oath to assist and desend her in this Supremacy and this Oath and Statute being transmitted in force to all her Successors any attempt by them to the contrary must necessarily be invalid and unlawsul And those who have a mind to know the Penalties which the Law insticts on Offenders in this kind may at their leisure read them in the same Statute Let us now desâ—â—â—d from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King James the First and in the Act of Recâ—grâ—tion Anno 1. Jac. 1. cap. 1. after a long dutiful and humble Prâ—â—mble it is thus said We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man do recognize and acknowledg and thereby express our unspeakable Joys That immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood-Royal of this Realm as is aforesaid And that by the Goodness of God Almighty and lawful Right of Descent under one Imperial Crown your Majesty is of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by God's
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 obviaâ—ing that popular Plea against the Separation That the Original Question is only of Civil Coâ—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 â—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 Subjâ—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 â—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 â—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 whatâ—oeâ—â—â— would be so weak as to make a Law only against cutting of Throats â—nd leave bloudy Men free to use all other ways but their Law would be â—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 â—hing to make a Fence against the Encroachments and Usurpations of the â—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 Alâ—-assuming Man at Rome yet we have the same reason against all Usurpatâ—â—ns as being equally pernicious to us from what Quarter soever they â—â—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 theiâ— 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 iâ— 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
CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE Second CANON In the BOOK Entituled Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical c. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCâ—… 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 oâ— 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 ouâ— 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 bâ—ing continuâ—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 Degeneraâ—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 â—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 undoâ—bâ—â—d Pâ—inciples of the Church of England who is possest of the â—hrone according to the Civiâ— 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 sentâ—ntiae as they call it must neâ—â—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
pretend to the same nor can nor lawfully may raise or levy any War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs or lawful Successors c. And in the same Act the grounds of contrary proceedings they call Rebellious Principles the Governments set up against the lawful King they stile usurped Governments and the effect of such doings they say was almost the Ruine and Destruction of this Kingdom But what was wanting then we have just cause to fear will be made up now we are within a little of leaving out the almost and are upon the very brink of utter Ruine and Destruction Now if the sole Supream Government was in King James and the whole power and disposition of the Militia and all Forts and places of Strength were undoubtedly his Right and no War offensive or defensive may be raised against him then all those places were wrongfully taken from him and all the present Rebellions Proceedings and Usurpations are as void as the former It were no hard matter to heap up many other Statutes to this purpose but I think these sufficient for this was the Constitution when King Charles the Second died this was the state of the Government when King James the Second his lawful Successor entred upon it and all these Acts were in their full force when he was driven away and they assert maintain keep up and secure his Right and Supream Power as well against his own Subjects as Foreigners And therefore the Supremacy Authority and Right being still his as all proceedings against him are null in Law and condemned by it so all Persons thus unlawfully divesting him of that his rightful Supremacy and Authority have incurred the Centure of the fore cited Canon made pursuant to these Constitutions and must be adjudged to stand ipso facto excommunicate I am not insensible that by a certain side-wind an Objection may be here brought in which both Prerogative and Commonwealth-men have as it served their Turn insisted on That the Statute-Law is super-induced and to be in force according to the tenour of the old preceding Laws and Customs of England and if repugnant to them void if obscure and doubtful to be explained by them And I am informed that the Paltry I should have said the Poultrey Doctor in his private Pleas in making Converts or rather Perverts doth farther alledg That the Statute-Law is utterly insignisicant in it self and that we are wholly to be guided by antecedent Laws and Customs Whether he means by this to warrantize Rebellion by the worst of Precedents or would have all swallowed up in the Prerogative I cannot tell for he is as much for William as he was against King James so tempting a thing is even the bare hopes of a Bishoprick But against this I desire these few things may be considered 1st I humbly request this bold Doctor or any of his Complices to tell me in plain English Whether the august Court of Parliament which is brought together with so much Charge appears in such State and is stiled the highest Court in the Kingdom sits in all that Formality and Solemnity only to devise New-Nothings or to make Rattles and Baubles for Fools and Children For if his Objection be true I see not what they do more but must be the meerest piece of Pageantry that ever was 2dly It is observable that this Argument if not first trump'd up yet was most warmly managed in the time of King Charles the First when the matter of the Petition of Right was under debate and though they threw Dust in one another's Eyes and amused the Kingdom with sine Harangues about old blind antecedent Laws which no Body knew what to make of yet when they come to pen the Statutes they fairly leave them all to shift for themselves and found it wholly upon preceding Statutes as any Man may there see to his satisfaction 3 Car. 1. in initio 3dly That the fore-cited Statutes are so far from expressing any thing obscurely or doubtfully that they are as intelligible plain and easie as if they had been written with a Beam of the Sun Lastly and which indeed is most considerable all or most and the most pertinent of the fore-mentioned Statutes are not meerly constitutive but declaratory not barely telling us what for the future should be Law but informing us what by the old antecedent Laws were the undoubted Rights of the Crown and rule of Succession and indeed I can discover but two ways whereby the Crown can succeed according to our Constitutions viz. either bâ— Proximity of Bloâ—d in a lineal Succession or by the last Will and Testament of the present rightâ—ul Prince in Possession ratified in Parliament both which are mentioned in the Act of Settlement 35 Hen. 8. and made a rule of Succession for ever 1 Eliz. cap. 3. neither of which will do our Adversaries any Service And thus I think I have given as fair and full an answer to Mr Johnson as he hath done to the rest of his Brethren and the Obstacles being now removed may justly proceed to the Canon which declâ—res all such Persons as deny the Supremacy of their lawful King to be excommunicate ipso facto As to which I shall consider these several particulars First That this Canon is no Novelty but pursuant to and taking pattern from other Canons of the Church of Christ made all along for the security of Princes Secondly What is meant by Excommunication ipso facto Thirdly What is the State and Condition of Persons excommunicate Fourthly What ought to be the Behaviour of other Christians towards such as stand â—xcommunicate Lastly the particular restraint here laid as to reconciling such Persons who are censured by this Canon As to the first Christianity which not only teacheth but obligeth us to do good for evil took care of the Supremacy of the Supream Powers even when they were Persecutors but when Kings and Queens became Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers and took the Church into their Protection defending the Persons not only as Subjects but Christians and backing the Canons and Censures of the Church with Civil Laws and Penalties from thâ—nce the Church became bound not only in Duty but in Gratitude to contribute all she could to the protection of that lawful Government which protected her and to render the Civil Laws and Penalties more aweful and effectual did farther enforce them as occasion required but especially for the security of lawful Princes with the Threats and Terrors of Divine Vengeance which by Authority committed to her by God she had power to denounce against such Offenders The Doctrine of Obedience to lawful Powers has been a part of Christianity from its very first entrance into the World even then when it was the greatest Sufferer under them Thus our Blessed Saviour teacheth the Seditious Jews Mat. 22. 21. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods Thus his Apostle St. Paul to the Romans