The English Nonconformity Under King Charles II and James II, Chapter 26
Chap. XXV. Point XXIII. Of Publishing the Seventh Canons Excommunications.
M.
THe Seventh Canon is [Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the Government of the Church of England, under His Majesty, by Arch-bishops, Bishops, Deans, Arch-deacons, and THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE in the same, is Antichristian, or repugnant to the Word of God; Let him be Excommunicate ipso facto, and so continue till he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked Errors.
L.
Mark here that [And] connexeth all these Offices, it is not [OR] disjunctively: So that you fall not under this Canon if you condemn every Church Office save one, if you condemn not all.
M.
That's a meer violent unjust exposition. The Government is the thing named as consisting of many Offices, as a Body of many Members, or a Chain of many Links; as we say, Bonum est ex Causis integris. And he that wounds any one Member, wounds the Man; and he that breaketh one Link, breaketh the Chain: And he that accuseth any one part of the Government, accuseth the Government thereby: And there is no doubt in the World but they so intended that made this Canon.
L.
And what have you against your Obedience to this.
M.
You may easily know what, by what is already said; 1. I have fully proved as aforesaid in my Treatise of Episcopacy, that if Episcopacy were never so certainly of Divine Institution, this Form of Diocesan Prelacy deposeth quantum in se, the old Church Form, the old Episcopacy, the old Presbytery, and almost all true Discipline, and in stead of each, sets up that which is repugnant to the Word of God. And must we all confederate to maintain this Church Corruption; and all agree to renounce Reformation, or any Conviction tending to Repentance?
2. I have told you what it is for Lay-men and Courts to arrogate the Decretive Power of the Church Keys, and for single Priests and Officials to rule all the Clergy and People as under them; And for our Prelate to undertake to be the sole Bishop over many Hundred Clergy; And then to Govern per alios, in a secular manner, even by Lay-men, that do that in his Name which he knows not of, and this in order to Gaols and Ruine. If all this be agreeable to God's Word, what is contrary to it?
3. I have told you what it is to make every Church Officer so necessary, as that it should be Excommunication to say Any one of them is sinful, when as Learned good Men as most the World hath, have written to prove almost all of them sinful corrupt Inventions of Arrogance; and that it's far worse for Men to presume to make new Forms and Offices of Church Government, than new Ceremonies.
4. The Parliament of England condemned the Oath called the & caetera Oath in the Canon of 1640. And the late long Parliament of 1662. never restored it, nor any since. And was it not formed according to this Canon? What's [&c.] but [And the rest that bear Office therein] (reliquos ad ejusdem gubernaculum constitutos) For my part, tho' I have oft read over Cousins Tables, and the Canons, I do not yet know and remember all the Church Governing Courts and Offices? How many there be besides the Bishop, the Chancellors Court, the Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Arch-deacons, Commissaries, Officials, Surrogates, I know not. And are every one of these become as necessary to be taken for lawful as the twelve Apostles, or the Articles of our Creed. For my part I am far from thinking that those Bishops and Doctors should be Excommunicated or Damned, who by Faction are drawn to deny the Ministry and Churches that have not Prelatical Ordination and Government; and shall all be condemned that think as ill of Civilians Excommunicatings?
5. I have told you what it is for every Lord, Knight and Gentleman that doth but say, that any of these Church Governing Offices are against the Word of God, to be ipso facto an Excommunicate man. And for the people to be put to question whether they may chuse them for Parliament men? and whether they may sit in Parliament while Excommunicate?
L.
This Canon with the three or four adjoining make me begin to think hardlier of the Canoneers than I thought I should ever have done, as to their honesty.
M.
I would not have you think too hardly of them; but only to think truly of Nonconformity.