The English Nonconformity Under King Charles II and James II, Chapter 36
Chap. XXXVI. Point XXXIII. Of the Excommunication of the three last Canons.
M.
THe quality of the rest of the Canons resolve me, that it is unlawful for me, if commanded, to publish an Excommunication against any upon the three last.
L.
What …e the three last?
M.
The 139th is [Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, that the Sacred Synod of this Nation in the Name of Christ, and by the King's Authority assembled, is not the true Church of England by Representation, let him be Excommunicate, and not restored till he repent and publickly revoke this his wicked Error.
L.
What fault can you find with this?
M.
1. No Man can tell what is the Church representative, till they know which is the Church real. And this they tell us not, either as to Matter or Form. 1. Whether the Church real be only the Clergy, or also the Laity? Whether the King and Parliament, Nobles, Gentry and Commons, be all Represented in the Convocation? If yea, by what Law or Power? And may we say that King and Parliament do what these do? What need they then after to confirm their Canons? And they that hold the Church Laws bind in Conscience as such before King and Parliament confirm them, will bring King and Parliament under their Obedience, if not Excommunication. But if they pretend not to represent the King and Laity, they falsly exclude them from being part of the Church.
2. They are utterly disagreed de Forma what the Church of England is: either it hath an Ecclesiastical constitutive Soveraign Power, or not. If not, it is not an Ecclesiastick Body Politick. And of late their disputing Doctors, plainly confess that it hath no such specifying Summa Potestas, and so is formally no Political governed Church. The King's Government of it by the Sword, which none deny, they say, is but an Accident of it, and not Essential to the Church. And so in sum, it is but a meer Community, or a voluntary Confederacy of many Churches, that make no unifying Politie. And that is, to be a Church only in a loose and not proper sence, as the Assembly at Nimegen was a Kingdom.
3. I doubt not but Thousands of L…y-Men, and many Dissenting Ministers, are true Parts of the Church of England; And therefore that the Convocation represented our part, only of that Church.
4. If they be but a Community, they can make no Laws; but only Contracts: Laws are only the Acts and Instruments of Rulers. Therefore we owe no Obedience to them as being no Commands of Rulers, till the Civil Power make them Laws: save as particular Pastors may make them Laws to their several Flocks.
5. If they make them obligatory Church-Laws as the Acts of the Convocation, then it seems the Representative Church governeth the Real; and the Presbyters in Convocation exercise a Legislative Power, which is the highest that Bishops can pretend to.
6. These being left thus in uncertainty in the dark, how comes that Man to deserve Excommunication, or be wickedly erroneous, that herein declareth his dissent. I dare not publish such an Excommunication if commanded.
L.
What is the 140th Canon?
M.
Whosoever shall affirm, that no manner of Person, either of the Clergy or Laity, not being then particularly assembled in the said sacred Synod, are to be subject to t…e Decrees thereof in Causes Ecclesiastical (made and ratifyed by the King's Majesty's Supream Authority) as not having given their Voice to them, Let him be Excommunicated, and not restored, &c.
Here craftily in a Parenthesis, they put in the King's Authority, and if they mean only his Obligation on us, no one of us denieth it: But because their disputing Doctors take that but as an Accident, we may say, that the Papists themselves are oft put to say, that General Councils bind not the absent, till they receive them; And the French long received not the Council of Trent, nor many Churches other Councils.
L.
What is the last Canon?
M.
The 141st (for so many Church-Commandments we have, God's Ten being but a little part of our Religion) is, Whoever shall affirm that the Sacred Synod assembled as aforesaid, was a Company of such Persons as did conspire together against Godly and Religious Professors of the Gospel, and that therefore both they and their Proceedings in making Canons and Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical by the King's Authority—Let them be Excommunicated and not restored, &c.
Here again we doubt not of the King's obligatory Power: But what the Persons and their Works were, I think a Point that Christians may differ about, and not deserve Excommunication. It seems they could foresee what Men would judge of them: and no wonder, tho' they had not the Gift of Prophecy. I am none of their Judge, but leave God's Work to himself: But I must say, that this Book of Canons doth no whit increase my esteem of Council, of Prelacy, of Humane Canons or Clergies Laws, nor of the particular Bishops and Clergy that made them. And that I will neither publish such Excommunications, nor promise or swear to do it: Tho' I know that stretching pretences satisfie some Men; like theirs that own the name of Sacred to that Synod, because Sacrum quod sanctum, simul execrabile signat, A professed and relative Sanctity may be granted them.