CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE Second CANON In the BOOK Entitled Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, etc.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year MDCXC●…   

CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE Second Canon, etc.  
SO various and sickle are the Circumstances of Life, and so short and full of Encumbrances 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 recompensed 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 ourselves, and cheat ourselves 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 ourselves, 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 Persuasions, 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 case 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 continually 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 Degeneracy 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 rendering 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 herself 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 fanatics: And as for those who have retained their Integrity, and with whom the true Authority remains, the haughty Schismatics 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 Blood, 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 ware 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 myself 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, etc.  
By King, That Person is to be understood, (according to the undo●b●●d Principles of the Church of England) who is possessed of the ●hrone according to the Civi● Constitution of the English Hereditary Monarchy: Whosoever disowns his Authority, etc. 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 publicly, notoriously, and obst mately disown such a King's Authority: Such aught 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 Controversy 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 Gild of Schism: But if he has not lost his Right, than 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 Controversy. Besides, it may be useful for obviating that popular Plea against the Separation, That the Original Question is only of Civil Concern, 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 Judgement, and better skilled in the concerns of the Church of England, it shall, etc.  

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 Archbishop after his Repentance, and public 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, Knowledge 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 leveled 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 Supreme Governor, upon whose Safety and Welfare the Wellbeing 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 Subjection 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 own 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 itself 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 bloody Men free to use all other ways; but their Law would be ●ade general to prevent the kill 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 Usurpations, 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 〈◊〉 forecited Canon are equally acknowledged by both Parties engaged in 〈◊〉 present Controversy; both Nonjurors 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, than the Regal Authority is his; and consequently the Supremacy, which is the choicest and top Branch of that Authority; and if so, than the Jurors, who not only deny King James' Supremacy, but have to their Power divested him of all Authority, must inevitably stand excommunicated ipso facto by virtue of this Canon, the force of which themselves acknowledge. On the other hand, it is not to be doubted but the Jurors will not be wanting to themselves in charging the Nonjurors with the same Gild, 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-fashioned 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. Now the Right being supposed, the Powers and Authorities are inseparably annexed to it, though by prevailing Wickedness, or other Means, the Exercise may for a time be suspended; and then the denying or opposing this Authority doth incur the Censure of this Canon. Now that King James is our Lawful Rightful King hath been clearly proved by so many learned Pens, that I may well spare my pains; and therefore shall take notice of it only as it were in transitu, and so far forth as is needful to make for the directing the Censure of this Canon, and explaining it.  
Several Pleas are set up by our Adversaries, to prove that King James hath lost or some way or other quitted his Title; but as most of their Pleas fall foul upon each other, and as destroying one another cannot be all true, so neither dare they tell us which they will stand to; that which deserves to come in the Van is the Plea of a just Conquest, which swallows up not only the Title of the King, but the Rights of all the Subjects; and this no doubt will make a brave Deliverance from Slavery: I cannot tell whether this way of arguing be more base or bold; yet herein amongst others have engaged themselves the Welsh Prophet, the Scotch Apostle, and (lest the Mountebanks should want their Zany) the Bishopsgate-street Doctor, who whilst he thought himself fallen under Disgrace with his Master, and neglected, began to bellow, What! two Kings, two Arch-Bishops? etc. but see how great is the Policy in understanding the Proverb, da off am ●erbero: For no sooner was an Offer made of a good fat Prebend, but the Fowl not only came to the Lure, but Ingratitude undertook to rake into poor martyred Mr. Ashton s Ashes, and answer his dying Speech: But it seems to be much safer meddling with the Dead than the Living; for though he hath been somewhat roughly handled for this by the Author of the Loyal Martyr, yet ever since he hath been as mute as a Fish. But after all there is no Answerer like a thing called a Parliament; they do it effectually, as Dr. Burnet to his great Mortisication now very well knows: And though this be indeed only argamentum ad hominem; yet it is enough for me here, because our Adversaries must acquiesce in it: For they who own a Government▪ must not, ought not to set that Government upon such grounds, as the Government itself not only disowns but condemns: And so Farewell Conquest.  
The next celebrated Argument is a Jumble of Desertion and Abdication: But this, if it were true, would not do their work. For he that deserts or abdicates, deserts and abdicates for himself; the Rights of others are saved, it lies not in his Power to give them away: So that if it could be supposed, that King James had abdicated or deserted, yet that would give William and Mary no Right, unless they had it elsewhere; for upon such Abdication or Desertion, our Constitutions had immediately set the Crown upon the Head of the next Heir: And there is one before them, against whose innocence nothing can be pretended; and it is the height of Impudence to blast such Innocence with the Name of an Imposture, and never offer the least proof of it, though they have been so often provoked and dared to it. If therefore King James had really and truly abdicated or deserted, than the Prince of Wales at that instant had become our King. Now they deny the Authority of the Son, as well as of the Father; and therefore either the one way or the other must be entangled in this Censure. But after all, the Assertion itself is a notorious shameless Falsehood: For a Desertion in this case must be altogether voluntary, and so voluntary, that there ought nor in reason to be thought, that there was at that time so much as animus revertendi; nay let it be never so voluntary, yet an Author of their own, (who thinks himself no small Babe, and was no idle Promoter of the Revolution,) will not allow it to be good in Law, unless an Hue and Cry be sent after him, and forty days notice being given, he refuse to return. But how will this agree with his Proposal to the City by the Bishop of Winchester? With his Letter from Rochest●r? With his Letter to the Convention? 〈…〉 landing in Ireland, and using all Endeavours to regain his Right, 〈◊〉 betrayed and beaten back by his faithless Subjects? And with the 〈…〉 the aid of his Friends, and the claiming his Right, and calling upon his Subjects to return to their Allegiance, and come in to his Assistance: Wh●● they can prove that claiming is renouncing, and that the utmost 〈◊〉 a Man can use to regain his Right is the real and absolute quitting of 〈◊〉 than they may prove this to be Desertion: Certainly these Men never knew what blushing was. As for Abdication in this place it must be understood actively, as a Man is said abdicare se Magistratu; but that requires a formal Renunciation or Resignation: But why is it not produced? Or rather, Why have not these Men, who stick at nothing, forged one in all this time? Though it will be very difficult to impose upon Men with a counterfeit Resignation of a Man, who apparently all along hath so strongly and constantly claimed: But I need not insist on this any longer, because the very Arguments which confute Desertion, destroy Abdication; of which any may read enough to their Satisfaction in Des●●tion discussed, and many other learned Tracts handling that Subject.  
There is another Mongrel Plea set up by the de facto Men; I know not well what to call it, nor to what Topick to refer it. These Men without any regard to Conscience, Faith, or common Honesty, are for securing their Worldly Enjoyments, and making their present Markets; and they boldly tell you that you are bound in all things to obey the King in Possession. But what if a King in Possession should prove a Contradiction in terminis? When a Person is in Possession of a Throne without Right, and in opposition to a just Right, all the World hath hitherto accounted such an one an Usurper, not a King; but with these Men, all the World before them were Fools: For if they say true, there can be no such thing as an Usurper. But this is the least evil of this perfidious Notion: For it turns the World into a bloody Theatre, makes every thing a Prize to every Man, who by sighting, scrambling, cheating, or any other means can get Possession of it; destroys the nature of Right and Wrong; resolves all Right into Possession; and renders all Laws both Divine and Humane so far as relates to Property) unnecessary, useless, and insignificant.  
But I may very well spare any farther pains in this particular; because of late their much admired Juli●n Johnson, though he is pleased so liberally to make a Sacrifice of the Doctrine of the Cross, yet hath very pleasantly, and indeed sound confuted the whole Crowd of all his brethren's Arguments; and thereby to their great grief bereft them of all their Topics, wherewith they were used to blaspheme God in the Pulpits on their Mock-Thanksgiving-Days. Nor doth his Performance seem any way displeasing even to the Government itself: For though his Book was presented openly at the Parliament-Door, yet it not only stands uncensured, but is thought to have been the great occasion, that the Salisbury Dictator's Book was doomed to be burnt by the hands of the common Hangman. But to make some amends for this triumphant Squander he hath set up a Plea of his own; and indeed to do him justice, he hath bid the fairest to set the present Government upon som● bottom, if it could be possibly set on any: For if he could make it appear, that the late Proceed were warranted by our Constitutions, he would speak more to the purpose than all that hath been said hitherto; but I doubt not but to make it appear, that our Constitutions utterly overthrow his Plea.  
Now this knocking Argument, which will suffer nothing to stand before it, is only Abdication still; but than it is indeed a Passive Abdication, wherein the Person abdicated is a Sufferer, and is abdicated not by his own ●ct, but by another, who hath a certain Right in him, and Superiority over him; as a Father is said abdicare Filium. He seems inclinable rather to call it Abrogation, than Abdication; a Word which seems harsh with respect to Persons, though proper as to Laws; and yet in the Verb is sometimes used in that Sense by later Historians; but abdicare properly respects Persons. However to his purpose he tells us, That the People of England did actually abrogate or dethrone King James the Second for Misgovernment, and promoted the Prince of Orange in his stead. By the People I suppose he means not the dissusive Body, but their Representatives; for as the former seems impracticable, so it is evident that the Feat was done by what they called a Convention; and afterwards ratified by what they call a Parliament But herein he and his Masters cannot agree; sor they put it upon an Active Abdication, which Julian seems by no means willing to allow: For they say expressly, That King James abdicated the Government, and that thereby the Throne became vacant. So that all they pretend to is to supply a Vacancy, (whether there can be any such thing by our Constitutions in our Government, I do not here dispute,) and provide a Remedy against a grand defect, when there was no King in Israel; and in that very place, where he citys the Word abdicate in Tully, it is taken in an Active Sense: For after they had driven away their Kings, the highest share of the Regal Power was conferred on the Consuls; and when Mark Anthony offered a Crown to Caesar, if he did not expressly, yet he effectually renounced his Consulship: For had Caesar accepted it, he could no longer have been the Consul of a popular State, but must thenceforth have acted by Authority srom Caesar, or not at all: So that this would have been no Forseiture, but a real giving up his Power. But contrary hereto Mr Johnson sairly makes King James tenacious enough of his Authority, and tells us, that the People abrogated and dethroned him; a Power which the Convention knew not of, nor did so much as pretend to: they had done wisely, if they had consulted this Learned Man to understand their own Power, before they had gone about their work. For though he contradicts them, yet he makes them much greater than they were ware of; and hath not only set the Subjects above the Sovereign, but hath advanced the House of Commons into the place of the Almighty God of Heaven, giving them Power to pull down and set up Kings, as they shall 〈…〉 and convenient.  
But I hope we are not so bound to follow Mr. Johnson with an 〈◊〉 Faith, but that we may examine upon what Grounds he hath given Subjects such a Paramount Authority over their Sovereign: And for this he urges in the first place, a Message to King Richard the Second, then at El●ham, wherein his Parliament averrs, that in the case there mentioned, it is lawful for them ipsum Regem de regali solio abrogare, & propinquiorem aliquem de stirpe regia loco ejus in Regni solio sublimare: And for this Power in the same Message they plead only an unknown Statute, and the infamous Precedent, and Larbarous usage of Edward the Second. Had not Discontent and Anger blinded them, they would have been ashamed of their Precedent; and for their Statute, neither they nor any other have transmitted it to us: So that it seems they durst not trust any with the examination of it. But, if he please, to make amends for that Defect, I will recommend to Mr. Johnson's second Thoughts a known Statute in the Reign of the same King Richard the Second; wherein it is judged High-Treason for any Person to compass the King's Death, to depose him, or make War against him within the Realm, or to render up his Homage, 21 Ric. 2. Where we shall find his Statute I know not; but this is to be found in our Statute Book, and in the same King's Reign, against whom he sets up a contrary Plea: If no Subject can render up his Homage, (which by the way I take to be much the same with Dr. Burnet's transferring his Allegiance, wherein of late he hath had too many Followers,) nor raise War against his Prince, nor depose him, without being condemned by the Law for a Traitor; I would fain know how he will reconcile his unknown Statute to this known one.  
We are hard put to our Shifts when we are forced to run eight hundred Years backwards for a piece of a Sentence that may seem to look favourably on our Cause; And what good at last will King Alfred's Style do him, Dei Gratia & Benevolemia West-Saxonicae Gentis? I confess he has a hard Task, and bad Game to play, who, through the Artifices of designing Knaves, labours under the ill Opinion and hard Thoughts of his Subjects; and it was a singular Happiness to King Alfred, that he had the Good Will and the very Hearts of his People: But though King Alfred for his Piety, Justice, and Bravery, might stand for an eternal Pattern to all Kings that come after him; yet no Person that ever sat on the Saxon or English Throne ever acted with a freer or fuller Power than he did, as will plainly appear to any that read his History: Nor indeed was it possible for him to have done those great Things which he did, had he been shackled with those Fetters which our Demigogues endeavour now to hang upon Kings, with pretence indeed to curb their Extravagancies, and restrain their exorbitant Power, but with a real design to drive out all Kings, and introduce a Democracy. nicknamed a Commonwealth, the most unquiet, troublesome, and most arbitrary and tyrannical of all Governments.  
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 difficult 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 woeful 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 reduced to what was so long since? Or will he be content that his Almighty House of Commons should be l●id aside, because there was no such House at the time from whence he se●cheth several of his Authorities, or at least not such a House as is now under the present Constitutions? And therefore I must beg his Pardon, if in this case I little regard his far-fetched 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 knowledge 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 entrance of the Protestant Religion to the very time of King James' pretended Abdication. 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 ●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 fit 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 ●●th of his Reign, cap. 12. you will find it thus Enacted. Where by divers sundry old Authentic 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 supreme Head and King, having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same; unto whom a Body Politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of People, divided in Terms, and by Names of Spirituality and Temporality, been bound 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 entire 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 authenticness they vouch. Now one would think that such authentic Histories, and such Vouchers, should make a better Authority th●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 insis●●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, Privileges, 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 style 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 Supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all other her Highness' 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 ●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 Supreme, much less only Supreme, 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 descend 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 des●●●d from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King James the First; and in the Act of Rec●gr●tion, Anno 1. Jac. 1. cap. 1. after a long, dutiful, and humble Preamble, it is thus said: We (being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of God and Man,) do recognize and acknowledge, (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 Birthright, 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 Goodness more able to protect and govern us your Loving Subjects in all Peace and Plenty, than any of your noble Progenitors; and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit, and oblige ourselves, our Heirs, and Posterities for ever, until the last drop of our Blood be spent: And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same, as the First-Fruits in this High Court of Parliament, of our Loyalty and Faith to your Majesty, and your Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever. Which if your Majesty shall be pleased (as an Argument of your gracious Acceptation) to adorn with your Majesty's Royal Assent, (without which it can neither be complete and perfect, nor remain to all Posterity, according to our most humble Desires, as a Memorial of your Princely and tender Affection towards us;) we shall add this also to the rest of your Majesty's unspeakable and inestimable Benefits. Here they plainly acknowledge these two things; 1st. That the Crown descends by Proximity of Blood, and that immediately, even before any Ceremony of Coronation or otherwise; so that there can be no Inter-regnum or Vacancy of the Throne: And accordingly it is a Maxim in Law, that Rex non moritur. 2dly. That the assent of the King, is that which gives the Life, Being, and Vigour to Laws, without which they are of no force. Now how the late Proceed which were directly against both these can be valid, aught to be made very clear, at least it ought to be better proved than by the capricious Opinion of one single private Person against a full and lawful Parliament.  
In the Third Year of the same King James was Enacted the Oath, commonly called the Oath of Allegiance, (not but that the same thing was practised before, though not in the same Words;) which may be tendered to any above the Age of eighteen; which restraining the Subject not only from deposing, but from offering the least violence or harm to the King, and obliging all Subjects so faithfully to assist their King against both Domestic Traitors and Foreign Usurpers; and being so directly contrary to, and utterly inconsistent with Mr. Johnson's Doctrine, I think fit to insert it here at large.  
I A B do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare in my Conscience, before God and the World, That our Sovereign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm, and of all other. His Majesty's Dominions and Countries; and that the Pope neither of himself, nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome, or by any other means with any other, hath any Power or Authority to depose the King, or to dispose of any of his Majesty's Kingdoms and Dominions or to authorize any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him, or his Countries, or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to his Majesty, or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms, raise Tumults, or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person, State or Government, or to any of his Majesty's Subjects, within his Majesty's Dominions.  
Also I do swear from my Heart, That notwithstanding any Declaration, or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted, or to be made or granted, by the ●ope or hi● Successors, or by any Authority derived, or pretended to be derived from him, or his See, against the said King, his Heirs or Successors; or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience. I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, and him and them will defend to ●he uttermost of my Power, against all Conspiracies and Contempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his or their Persons, their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration, or otherwise, and will do my best endeavour to disclose, and make known, unto his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, all Treasons, and Traitorous Conspiracies, which I shall know or hear of to be against him, or any of them.  
I do farther swear, That I do from my Heart abhor, detest, and abjure, as Impious, and Heretical, this damnable Doctrine and Position, That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects, or any other whatsoever.  
And I do believe, and in Conscience am resolved, that neither the Pope, nor any Person whatsoever, hath Power to absolve me of thi● Oath or any part thereof; which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministered unto me: And do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary. And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to these express Words by me spoken, and according to the plain and common Sense and Understanding of the same Words, without any Equivocation, or Mental Evasion, or Secret Reservation whatsoever. And I do make this recognition and acknowledgement hearty, willingly, and truly, upon the true Faith of a Christian: So help me God.  
If foolish wicked Men did not make their Reservations, and endeavour to put Tricks even upon God, whom they call to be a Witness of the Truth of what they swear, and an Avenger if they swear falsely, there would need nothing more to co●●in Subjects in their Loyalty: But still to improve this matter farther, 7 Jac. 1. cap. 6. an Act tells us, That this Oath tends only to the Declaration ●f such Duty, as every true and well-affected Subject, not only by Bond of Allegiance, but also by the Commandment of Almighty God, aught to bear to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors. So that though this Act obliges all Persons of the Age of eighteen Years, upon pain of incurring a Praemun●●●, to take this Oath if tendered; yet it gives us to understand that it is only a supper added Obligation to secure our lawful Prince, and keep the Subject to his Duty; and that though the Oath be not taken, yet the natural Allegiance of every Subject binds him to the same thing: And though it was principally, yet not only made with relation to the Bishop of Rome, but to all others, as expressing that Allegiance which obliges Subjects to stand by their Prince against all his Opposers, Enemies, and Underminers whatsoever. I do not know that any Foreign Powers, (the Pope excepted,) so much as pretend to a Right to depose lawful Princes; nor did even the Prince of Orange, when he came over, pretend to any such Power by his Declaration; and it seems to me to be no better than an impudent Contradiction, when Men acknowledge that no Foreign Power can depose a lawful Prince, to say, that his own Subjects, who by the Laws of God and Man own him Allegiance, and are bound with the utmost hazard of their Lives to defend him, may do it. And it see us to me worth Observation, that Dr. Stillingfleet in his Preface to the Jesuits Loyalty, proves, that the Pope deposes Princes upon Commonwealth Principles: Now I would willingly know upon what Principle the Doctor hath joined with the Revolutionists in deposing his Prince. If he joins with Mr. Johnson in his Argument, it is Commonwealth all over; if he take up with the other Arguments of his Brethren, Julian hath fairly ●iss'd them out of Doors. I did once think that Men who raved against the Evasions, Equivocations, Mental Reservations, Dispensations, and other deceitful Arts and Tricks of the Jesuits, had been Men of Plain dealing, Simplicity and Integrity; But since I have discovered, that those very Men, who made the deposing Power their Bell-wether Argument against the Papists, were at that same time busy in contriving how to depose their own lawful Prince: I have been prone to think, that if you should take a Latitudinarian Protestant, and a Jesuit, and put them both in a Bag, and shake them well together, it would be hard to determine, whether he that came out ●irst or last was the greatest Knave.  
After the deplorable Consusions, Divisions, Wars, Devastations, and Oppressions, (they are the Words of the Act,) wherewith these Kingdoms were harassed in the former Rebellion, (the Wickedness of which no Man would have thought could have been exceeded, had he not seen this,) the People, jaded with their own Folly and Villainy, and seeing no ●nd of the Rapine, Madness and Cruelty of their Oppressors, call Home their Lawful Sovereign King Charles the Second: And in the 12th Year of his Reign, (but of his actual governing the first,) an Act passed, wherein his undoubted Hereditary, Sovereign and Regal Authority was acknowledged; a perpetual Thanksgiving for his Restoration ordered to be annually and publicly kept: All Ministers are thereby bound to celebrate it, and to give God Thanks, and publicly declare the extraordinary Mercies, Blessings and Deliverances received; all People are bound on that Day to repair to some Church or Chappel, where the Service appointed may be had; all Ministers to give notice of it the Lord's Day before; and upon the Day to read the Act pablickly and distinctly to the People: And this is again confirmed the 13th Car. 2. cap. 11. Certainly no Man that had a Grain of Honesty could think that any People could be guilty of such fulsome Hypocrisy, and such downright mocking of God, as to keep a public Thanksgiving for the restoring one Brother to his Right, and at the same time to plead the lawfulness of driving away and keeping out the other Brother by force of Arms, when the Right and Title of both Brothers was exactly the same. By what Authority do they call the other Rebels, when they do the same thing? Or is it a wicked thing in Presbyterians and Independents to depose Kings, but lawful and commendable in Latitudinarians?  
But if forty Parliaments had laid their Heads together to secure their Sovereign from any Violence or Harm against any Man, Men, or body of Men whatsoever of his own Subjects, or most effectually to confute Mr. Johnson's Argument; I cannot imagine how they could do it in more apt, proper and full terms, than is done by the Act 12 Car. 2. cap. 30. wherein it is declared, That by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, neither the Peers of this Realm, nor the Commons, nor both together in Parliament, nor the People collectively or representatively, nor any other Persons whatsoever, ever had, have, hath, or aught to have, any Coercive Power over the Persons of the Kings of this Realm. Here plainly by a full and free Parliament, and by universal consent, all sorts and all bodies of Men are restrained from using any Violence to their King; and this not only at present enacted, but declared to be so by the undoubted and fundamental Laws of this Kingdom. If this be true, Bracton must be mistaken; Or shall we esteem his Authority above that of the High Court of Parliament? Or what shall become of his respectuetur ad Magnam Curiam, when that very Court in this case denies it? And that too upon this very account, that the undoubted and fundamental Laws are against it.  
There are many other Statutes which seem to be pursuant of this; as 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. where that Opinion is condemned, That both Houses of Parliament, or either of them, have a Legislative Power without the King; by which alone all the Acts of the Convention are overthrown, and all the pretended Authorities thereupon founded. Hence in the same Act they proceed to condemn the Proceed in the former Rebellion, declaring, That the Oath usually called the Solemn League and Covenant, was in itself an unlawful Oath, and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom; and that all Orders and Ordinances, and pretended Orders and Ordinances, of both or either Houses of Parliament, for imposing of Oaths, Covenants or Engagements, levying of Taxes, or raising of Forces and Arms, to which the Royal Assent, either in Person or by Commission, was not expressly had or given, were in their first creation and making, and still are, and so shall be taken to be, null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever. Now, (as if they had had a Spirit of Prophecy,) this Act seems to be more strongly leveled against the Convention than the long Parliament; for the long Parliament were called by the King's Writ, and by his assent to a Bill were continued till they should dissolve themselves; but the Convention was a Mushroom, sprung up of itself, and remaining without root or foundation: They were so far from having any colour of Law to warrant them, that when they had traitorously driven away their King with Lies, Noise, and Threats; they met contrary to all Law, at the invitation of a Stranger, their King's Enemy, against whom they ought to have defended him; and therefore were Traitors in that very Act: The long Parliament indeed boldly assumed the whole Authority to themselves, but withal they seemed not before hand to be destitute of a very considerable Legal Authority; but the Convention as they had no manner of Authority in that case, so they pretend to give the Supreme Authority to one, who as a Stranger had less Authority than themselves: But neither could they give what they never had, nor he receive from them what they had not to give; and therefore this Act as strongly makes null and void all the Oaths, Acts, Orders, Ordinances and Proceed whatsoever of the present Government, as they call themselves, as it did the Solemn League and Covenant, and other the proceed of the Rump Parliament, and Oliver the First.  
13 Car. 2. cap. 6. There is an Act, wherein it is declared, That within all his Majesty's Realms and Dominions, the sole Supreme Government, Command, and Disposition of the Militia, and of all Forces by Sea and Land, and of all Forts and places of Strength, is, and by the Laws of England ever was, the undoubted Right of his Majesty, and his Royal Predecessors, Kings and Queens of England; and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot, nor aught to 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, etc. And in the same Act the grounds of contrary proceed they call Rebellious Principles; the Governments set up against the lawful King, they style usurped Governments; and the effect of such do they say was almost the Ruin 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 Ruin and Destruction. Now if the sole Supreme 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 Proceed 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 entered 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 Supreme Power, as well against his own Subjects as Foreigners: And therefore the Supremacy, Authority and Right being still his, as all proceed 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 tenor 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 Poultry) Doctor, in his private Pleas in making Converts, or rather Perverts, doth farther allege, That the Statute-Law is utterly insignisicant in itself, 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 Bishopric. 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 styled 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 merest piece of Pageantry that ever was. 2dly. It is observable that this Argument, if not first trumped 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 forecited Statutes are so far from expressing any thing obscurely or doubtfully, that they are as intelligible, plain and easy, 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  Statutes, are not merely 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 b● Proximity of Blo●d in a lineal Succession, or by the last Will and Testament of the present rightful 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 decl●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 excommunicate. 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 Supreme 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 thence 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 awful 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, 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Powers. To Titus, 3. 1. Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers, to obey Magistrates. And St. Peter, as if he had a mind to confirm the very terms of our Canon, and contradict his pretended Successor the Pope, gives this Charge, Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King as Supreme, etc. 1 Pet. 2. 13. The lose Answers which have been devised to take off the force of these Scriptures, and encourage eternal Confusions, have been of late so shamefully baffled by many learned Pens, that I need not concern myself farther with them; only I think it fit they should know what Penalty God's Word hath assigned to Offenders in this kind, which being no less than Damnation, I cannot but as a Christian wish them Repentance, that if possible they may escape it; though I cannot without deploring their Condition think of the Observation, That Rebellion in this is as the Sin of Witchcraft, that both Sins do so bewitch Men, and carry away their very Hearts and Souls, that they rarely, if ever, think on Repentance on this side Hell; and then I fear it will stand them in little stead, notwithstanding the comfortable Doctrine which their new Highpriest hath broached, for the benefit of the damned, and to encourage the Living to run the hazard of Damnation.  
If I should examine how the Church in succeeding Times trod in these steps of our Saviour, and his Apostles, it would be a tedious work; and therefore I shall only subjoin some few Citations as a Specimen: And I hope I shall be pardoned if I take the liberty to translate, since I writ only for the Instruction of the Ignorant, not for the Information of those who are wiser than myself. And in that early Collection of Canons, commonly known by the name of the Apostle's Canons, we find this, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. If any Man, against Right, do Wrong to the King or Governor, let him be severely punished; if he be a Clergy man, let him be deposed; if a Lay man, let him be excommunicated, Can. 84.  
In the Fourth Council of Toledo, we find both a neat Preamble and smart Canon to this purpose; thus, Multarum quippe gentium— tanta extat perfidia, etc. So false (say they) and perfidious are the Minds of many Men, that they will not keep that Faith which by Oath they have promised to their King, but whilst with their Mouths they profess to swear, in their Hearts retain Treachery; for they swear Fidelity to their Kings, but break their Oaths, not regarding the Judgement of God denounced (Jer. 7. 8, etc.) against those who swear by the Name of the Lord falsely. What hope can such have in War with their Enemies? What other Nations will trust such in Peace? What League at this rate can hold them? What Pledge or Assurance can they give, that they will keep their Faith with their Enemies, when they break that Faith which they have sworn to their own Kings? Then follows the Canon. Whosoever henceforth, either of us, any of the Spanish People, by any Machination or Contrivance, shall violate that Oath of Fidelity, which he hath sworn for the Safety of his Country, the State of the Gothick Nation, or the Security of his Prince, or shall murder his King, or divest him of his Authority, or by Tyrannical Presumption shall usurp the Throne, let him be Anathema in the sight of the Holy Ghost, and the Martyrs of Christ; and let him be ejected out of the Catholic Church, which he hath profaned by his Perjury; and let him be debarred from all Christian Communion; nor let him have any share with the Righteous, but let him be condemned to eternal Punishment with the Devil and his Angels. And then the whole Clergy and People give their Consent in these Words: Whosoever shall go contrary to this Decree, let him be Anathema Maranatha, i. e. let him receive Sentence of Damnation at the Coming of our Lord Jesus, and both he and his Associates have their Portion with Judas Iscariot. Amen. Certainly Christians had no light Opinion of the Sins of Rebellion and Usurpation, when they denounce such a dreadful Sentence against it; and I think Christianity is still the same it ever was, however the Professors of it may be altered.  
In the Seventh Council of Toledo, cap. 1. we have a Constitution to our purpose in these Words; Sed & quia plerosque Clericos tantae levitatis interdum pravitatis praesumptive ita elevat, etc. But because many Clergymen are so puffed up with Vanity and Wickedness, that unmindful of the gravity of their Order, and their Faith promised by Oath, they through a rash Levity consent to the setting up another King, their lawful King being living, it is sit that such licentiousness should be altogether taken away, and utterly extirpated out of our Communion: So that if any Layman within the bounds of the Country of the Goths shall ambitiously attempt the Crown, and shall receive any favour or assistance from Clergy-m●n, and by successful Wickedness shall prevail in his ambitious Attempt; from the time that any Bishop or Clergyman of what Order soever shall have involved himself in such Crime, it 〈◊〉 him to remain excommunicate for ever. (I think here is ipso facto Excommunication with a Witness.) But if by the prevailing Wickedness of that Prince, with whom ●e unjustly agreed, the Bishop shall not be able actually to suspend him from Communion; yet if he over live the said Prince, whosoever shall admit him to Communion (unless at the very Hour of Death, and upon sufficient proof of his true Repentance,) let that Person be liable to the aforesaid Sentence. Here you may see that the Church would not suffer even prosperous Villainy to rescue Offenders out of her Hands, but obliged her Members upon the severest Penalty, upon all Opportunities to make them know themselves. What Le●i●y may for several reasons be used sometimes, in such cases, belongs not to me to determine; only, if any think they may be concerned herein, I wish they may so think as seriously to repent, that they may find both God's and his Church's Mercy.  
From the Concilium Calcuthense, I shall cite only part of a Canon, though the whole is pertinent enough. Let no Man dare to be privy to the murder of a King, because he i● the Lord's Anointed; and if any Man join in such Wickedness, if he be a Bishop or any of the Sacerdotal Order, let him be degraded, and removed from the Clergy as Judas was from the Apostolic Order; and whoever else shall be consenting to such a Sacrilegious Fact, he shall perish under the ●ternal bond of an Anathema, and coupled with the Traitor Judas shall be burnt in everlasting Fire; as it is written, not only they who do, but those who consent to the doing such Things shall not escape the Judgement of God. It is not long since, that a wise and pious Prince was barbarously murdered amongst us by his own Subjects; and though his Son by the Mercy of God made his escape, yet there are many who thirst for his Blood, which in the estimation of God is the same thing. To this I will here add part of a Canon of another of our own Councils, (Vid. Lind. l. 5. sol. 248. b.) Auctoritate Dei Patris, etc. By the Authority of God the Father, etc. — we excommunicate all those, who injuriously disturb the Peace and Tranquillity of our Lord the King; and those who labour unjustly to detain the Rights of our Lord the King. This is a Canon made amongst ourselves, and the Book is the great Director of our Ecclesiastical Co●●ts at this Day; and if the Rights of a King be not only detained, but wholly swallowed up by some at this time, we must never believe matter of Fact more; and as for the Cur●e, let them take it to whom it belongs. Indeed, while the Authority of God was reverenced in the Censures of the Church, Kings were very desirous that the Churches protected by them should contribute to the Security of the Royal Authority, by a denunciation of Spiritual Judgements on such as should any ways be injurious to it: Thus at the Request of K. Edward, a Constitution was made to this purpose, by John Stra●ford Archbishop of Canterbury; as is to be seen, Lind. fol. 254 b. But a very remarkable Instance in this kind the Concilium Engilhelmense, under Lewis the 4th, affords us, C●n. 1. De hinc ex Sessionis suae loco s● sub●●gens, etc. Then the Glorious King Lewis rising from his Seat,— made a most 〈◊〉 Complaint, viz. That ●e was stripped of his Royal Power by a certain Prince called Hugo; whose just Grief and Complaint we Holy Fathers (i. e. the Bishops there assembled) cond●●ing, being joined together in the Unity of Spirit, have made thereupon this Decree: Let no Man henceforth in ●ade the Kingly Power, nor deal treacherously therewith; for we have decreed by putting in execution the Council of Toledo, That H●go the Invader, and Ravisher of the Kingdom of K. Lewi●, shall be smitten with the Sword of Excommunication, unless by an appointed Time he com● to the Council, and repent of so soul a Fact, and make satisfaction. Had this Complaint been made to St. Asaph or Dr. Burnet, They would have told poor Lewis that Hugo had conquered him, that he had lost all his Right, and so long as he lived must only be called the late King Lewis; that for their parts they were bound to swear Allegiance to Hugo, and to assist him to the uttermost against Lewis: But contrariwise these Bishops own the Cause of the distressed Prince, and decree the Usurper excommunicate, if he restore not his ill-gotten Goods: Now whom shall we believe? For either this Council or some Bishops now living must be in the wrong.  
The Case of Ludovi●us Plus has too much Assinity with ours; for his own Children risen up against him; and a parcel of St. asaph's, Burnets, ●owlers, and such other Godly and Loyal Prelates met together, and made up that which is called Synodus Compendiensis, and by the Learned Baluzius justly styled Synodus Praedatoria; these join with the Rebellious Children against the Father, and formally strip him of his Authority in order to his being imprisoned by his Son Lotharius: But against these Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mogunce, then living, a Man of greater Reputation and Authority than a thousand such false Loon●, stoutly opposeth himself; and with the Courage and Fidelity of a Christian Bishop condemns the Fact, and writes a Tract on purpose, De reverentia Filiorum erga Patres, & subdi●●rum erga Reges, which I think may be worth any honest Man's reading. Much such another Case was that of the Emperor Henry the 4th, but the more abominable for this, that that whole Scene of Wickedness was managed by Gregory the 7th, otherwise called Pope Hildebrand, but more deservedly Pope Firebrand; who the better to colour over the matter excommunicates the Emperor, and absolves his Subjects from their Allegiance; but the Bishop of Liege being too Honest and Loyal to think himself so discharged of his Oath of Fealty, continued faithful to the Emperor; for which the Pope darts his Thunderbolts against both him and his Adherents, notwithstanding which his Clergy continue firm to him, justify their Proceed from the Obligation of their Oaths, and the Commandments of God, and look upon his Excommunication as merely brutum ful-men, and of no Force. It would be too tedious to heap up what might be brought of this kind from Examples, Canons, and declared Judgement of Holy Fathers: From all which it is plain, that the pious conscientious Clergy ever thought themselves in Duty bound, not only to adhere to their lawful Prince against all Usurpers and Rebels, but to censure those that did otherwise, which was sufficient to induce our Church to compose this Canon, and justify her in so doing, and aught to strike a terro●● in all those who incur the Censure of it; which that they may be the more ware of, I shall now proceed further to explain it in the other Particulars.  
The next Thing we have to do is to inquire after the meaning of an Excommunication ipso facto; where by the way take notice, that this sort of Excommunication is never denounced but against Crimes of more than an ordinary Size; either against such as are of themselves of so very ill Name, that being once known there needs not the canvasing of a Judge to induce any Persons to condemn them; or else of such pernicious and fatal Consequence that they ought not to be allowed the least encouragement, or so much as any sorbearance; by which you may easily perceive how heinous a Fault it is adjudged in the sense of the Ch. of England, for any Person to maim the Authority of his King, or dismantle him of it, she having denounced no less than an Excommunication ipso facto against it: And indeed, what Laws, or what Authority shall be able to restrain those Men, who shall dare to make an Attempt upon the Sovereign Authority, which is the Guardian of the Laws, and Security of the State? Before Wickedness can grow rank enough for such a desperate Experiment, it must have broke through and shook off the dread of all Laws, and become not only regardless of the Duties of Civility and common Honesty, but to be not so much as moved with the sense of the Public Good and Safety: Now what hopes can any Man cherish of such Men? And how miserable must that Government be which is ravished into such hands? But to return to our Business, Excommunication ipso facto is where the Discussion and definitive Sentence of the Judge is neither requisite or necessary as to the Offender; but the Fact being committed, the Excommunication immediately takes place, and the Law in a great measure executes itself: So that Excommunication ipso facto is Excommunication ab ipso jure, sive sententiae a jure latae, and is so called in Contradistinction to Excommunication ab Homine sive Judice, where the definitive Sentence must be waited for and pronounced, before the Excommunication can take effect.  
From what hath been said it is evident, that the guilty Person in this Case is immediately in the state of Excommunication; so that he ought not to thrust himself into the Communion of the Ch. it being a thing which belongs not to him, and to which he hath no Right, and from which he can receive no Benefit; but aught to put himself into the state of a Penitent, to bewail his Fault, and make what Satisfaction he is able, and to endeavour his Reconciliation to the Church upon such Terms and Conditions, as the proper Judge in that case shall think fit for that end and purpose, of which a true and hearty Repentance, so far as Man can discern, is always one. But then whether all Persons are bound to treat this Person as an Excommunicate, is another Question. Indeed if he (as he ought) confess his Fault, declare his Condition and bewail it, there can be no doubt, but that others, though they may pity him, yet aught to treat him as an Excommunicate, till he be restored by due course; but than it too often happens, that the Fact is hid and secret; or, if the Fact be known, yet the Criminal is not; or, if both Fact and Criminal be known, yet it may not be known, or but to few, that there is any Canon or Law, which ipso facto puts such a Person under Excommunication; yea, after all, though Fact, Criminal, and Canon be known, yet it may be a doubtful and controverted case, whether the Crime be within the Verge and Censure of such Canon. Now, in such a case, I humbly conceive, that no Man is strictly bound to treat such a Person as an Excommunicate, until a declaratory Sentence of a proper Judge have passed on the thing, though a definitive one be needless; that is, that the Judge having true notice of the Crime, do declare, that it is the same, against which the Canon pronounces an Excommunication ipso facto; and this published, shall be sufficient to oblige others to treat the Person so declared against as under a state of Excommunication: But then again, there are Cases wherein so much as a declaratory Sentence is needless, and Persons may be bound to look on the Criminals as Excommunicates, without any such Sentence; as when the Fact, Criminals, and Canon passing Sentence thereon, are notoriously known; in such case the Church requires all persons without more ado to take notice of the Offenders, and to treat them as persons under the Sentence of the Canon, tho' the Judge hath given no Sentence in the case, and commends them for so doing, tho' in other cases it allows them not the Judgement. This Mr. Hody doubtless would have told us, if it had been for his turn; but thanks to more fair and ingenuous Persons, the Canon now speaks plain for itself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. But if any shall separate themselves from Communion with their Superior for any Heresy condemned by the H. Synods and Fathers, he publicly preaching the same Heresy to the People, and teaching it barefaced in the Church, such shall not only be free from Canonical Censure for separating from Communion with the Bishop so called before synodical Condemnation, but they shall be thought worthy of the Honour that is due to the Orthodox; because they have not condemned a Bishop, but a false Bishop, and a false Teacher, and have not divided the Unity of the Church by Schism, but have studiously endeavoured to preserve the Church from Schisms and Divisions. Thus in cases manifest and notorious Christians followed the Censure of precedent Canons, without staying for particular Sentence; the only Question than is, whether there be such notoriety in our particular case? And truly I think that there scarce ever appeared in the World a more notorious and manifest case; the Matter of Fact is evident to all, there being scarce a Child of five years old in the Kingdom who doth not know how the Authority of K. James is trampled on, despised, and denied, if he be not taught to do it himself; and as for the Persons, they are as well known, the Laymen glorying in it in all places, and the Clergy roaring it out before whole Congregations; and then the Canon which censures them as excommunicate ipso facto for so doing, is or aught to be as well known; for it is commanded with the rest once every year to be read in all Churches, which I think is fair notice; and if they will not take it, affected Ignorance will rather aggravate than excuse their Fault; from all which it is plain, that these Offenders ought to be treated as excommunicate ipso facto upon the Authority of the Canon without waiting for the declaratory Sentence of a living Judge.  
Having considered the nature of an Excommunication ipso facto, I shall next inquire into the state and condition of an excommunicated Person, which is very sad and dreadful as to any Man; but when it falls to be a Clergyman's Lot, it makes fatal Work: For, 1. It divests him of the Power of Exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and if nevertheless he will take upon him to exercise it, it renders all his Acts invalid and null: And I think it will be worth some men's pains to inquire whether this may not affect all the Ecclesiastical Courts in England; for I doubt it will not be sufficient to say, that many things are done in those Courts which were committed to them by the Civil Power, as things that seemed most fitting to be done by Ecclesiastical Persons, tho' they might be done by others; for though this tacitly acknowledges a Nu●…ity or what proceeds from their Spiritual Authority, yet I see not what Service it can do them as to what is entrusted to them by Secular Authority; for if it were entrusted in them as Ecclesiastical Persons, and as Ecclesiastical Persons th●y st●nd excommunicate, I cannot see how they continue capable of exercising such Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction: But let those Persons look after that who have or sha●l have any Suits there, or have occasion to prove any Wills wherein they are int●●est●d, or the like; for if ever things should come to Rights again, (which I hope is no hurt to wish,) if such Matters were not confirmed by a lawful Authority, perhaps some who at present are proud of their Rebellion, and the Effects of it, may live to curse the time that ever the Mob made Kings, or a Dutch man Archbishops. 2. Excommunication renders a Clergyman, so long as he continues in that state, uncapable of any Ecclesiastical Benesice or Promotion; and if he attempt to take any, all means used to conser it upon him become ineffectual; a Presentation of such a one cannot be accepted; or if it be, his Institution is void. They may chew the Cud upon this who have accepted any Preferments under these Schismatical Bishops, for the obtaining of which they have taken Oaths, whereby they denied their lawful King, and consequently then incurred an Excommunication ipso facto. 3. It makes the whole Administration of his Ministerial Office ineffectual: You can expect no Return of Prayers made with him with whom you ought not to communicate; the B. Sacrament consers no Benesit received from his Hands; he cannot authoritatively bless the People of God who is himself under a Curse, and excluded from being a part of them. And here I think all those who have joined themselves to such Persons, to be highly concerned to lay their Hands on their Hearts, and consider well what they have done in communicating with them hitherto, and whether they can think it safe to continue therein; for in communicating with them as they are Schismatics, they make themselves Schismatics, and in communicating with them as they are Excommunicates, not only all their Labour is lost, but they get a Curse instead of a Blessing.  
The matter were not altogether so bad, if this Censure extended only to Clergymen; but that a thorough Provision might be made to secure the Subject in Obedience, it spares none; and therefore I shall consider how Excommunication affects Persons in general, whether Laymen or Clergymen: 1st. Then, no excommunicated Person ought to be sussered to be present at the Service of the Church; and if the Minister who officiates, can no other ways get rid of him, he ought rather to break off and desist, than to suffer such a Person to join in Communion with his Flock. 'Tis indeed true, that he may be allowed to be present, when the Sermon is made, as supposed to make for his Information or Conviction; but even then he ought not to be intermingled with others, but to stand alone, and plainly distinguished from the rest of the Congregation: But to the Prayers such Persons never were nor ought to be admitted. 2dly. Every excommunicated Person is especially debarred from being a Partaker of the Lord's Supper; and anciently if any Priest did administer the Sacrament to such an one b●●ore he was Canonically reconciled to the Church, (which originally was done by the Bishop, or by Authority deputed from him,) he himself became liable to be deposed, and no longer entrusted in the Ministry. 3dly. Whosoever stands excommunicated, (non ●rrante clavae,) he is dismembered and cut off from the Church, and consequently deprived of those Supplies and Succours which the Members receive by being united together in one Body, and by means thereof to Christ their Head; they are like Branches cut off from the Vine, there is no way or means left whereby any gracious Succours can be conveyed unto them, unless there be a Reinsition, and they be received and grafted in again. 4ly. Every excommunicate Person is under a heavy Curse; the Devil has a peculiar Power over him; so that his Condition is very deplorable and desperate, whils● he remains under that Sentence: Hence the Scripture styles it a delivering unto Satan, 1 Cor. 5. 5. and 1 Tim. 1. 20. and Tertullian calls it summum futuri Judicii Praejudicium, the highest Presumption of what shall be his Sentence in the day of Judgement. God will ratify in Heaven the Sentence of his Church on Earth, when she proceeds against Offenders in vindication of his Laws and Ordinances. That Saying of our Saviour to his Apostles is enough to strike any Man with Horror, who justly incurs the Censure of the Officers of the Church, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall lose on Earth, shall be loosed in Heaven. Mat. 18. 18. 5ly. An excommunicated Person is or aught to be debarred from most of the Benesits and Comforts of civil Conversation; he is like a blown Dear, every one in the Herd, even for his own Safety, will push him from him; or like a Man that has the Plague, every one that would escape the Infection avoids him: But of this more presently, in its due place.  
The State and Condition of a Person under the Sentence of Excommunication being thus briefly explained, I think it may be sufficiently dreadful to any who have any sense of Christianity, or apprehensions of the Wrath of God; and if this be the state of the Revolutionists, they have no great cause to brag of their Bargain; and if others did carry themselves towards them, as they ought to do towards Men in such a State, I am apt to think they would quickly hang their Heads, and, if their Hearts were not as hardened as Pharaoh's, very Shame would work in them remorse, and bring them to Repentance: But tho' I have little hopes of this, both Priests and People being so generally infected; yet to discharge my own part, I shall proceed in my Method before propounded, and shall now examine what ought to be the Behaviour and Carriage of other persons towards a person that is under Excommunication; and 1. All persons ought to stand upon their Guard against him, and not only keep him from the public Service, and drive him out of their Churches, as a Profaner of their Communion, and one who has no Right to it, and as one who is infectious and injurious to them, and makes their Communion ineffectual; but farther they ought to take care that they join not in any private Devotions with him, nor admit him to Prayers with them, tho' in their own Houses: I do not say but they may pray for, instruct, admonish, and endeavour what they can to reclaim such a one; but they must not pray with him, nor join in any other Act of Christian Communion with him. Procul ite profani, was proclaimed at the Celebration of the Heathen Mysteries; and do not the Christian Mysteries deserve much more Reverence and Aw●? Ought we not as nigh as we can to have a care that we admit none of his Enemies, none that have notoriously provoked him, and not attoned their Crime, when we perform those Acts and Offices wherein we have Access to, and Communion with the great God of Heaven and Earth? I confess, that particular Persons ought not to take upon them by their own Authority to exclude any from Communion; but i● they know any person to be guilty of a notorious Crime, or live in a scandalous Way, they ought to complain to proper Judges; but when the Church has passed her Censure upon them, they have a kind of Cain's Brand, and are marked out for all Men to avoid; it is our B. Saviour's own Direction to us concerning every such person, that he be unto us as a Heathen Man, and a Publican, Mat. 18. 17. and such, tho' they had been Emperors, the primitive Christians were so far from admitting to their Communion, that they would not so much as allow them to be bare Spectators; not only the Honour, but the very Being of the Church cannot be long upheld, if People will admit a mingle of such p●rsons in divine Offices; and therefore heretofore if the Church Censures were not taken notice of, she excommunicated those who received her Excommunicates; and till her Discipline can be revived, her Doctrine cannot be secured. I desire all those seriously to consider this, who flock to the Parish Churches, where they not only join in Communion with Excommunicated, but the very persons, who perform all the Ministerial Offices, lie under the censure of Excommunication by virtue of the forecited Canon; what mad Men would turn their very Prayers, their Sacraments, and all their Christian Offices into sin? For thus they do, who take this course; no● do I value their upbraiding me with th●ir numbers, for certainly we had never been forewarned, not to run with a multitude to do evil, if numbers could excuse us. Christ calls his Flock little, and I had rather be of it, when at the least, than of the Devil's monstrous Herd, even then when he boasted of a power to dispose of all the Kingdoms of the World.  
The very nature of Christian Religion requires that the excommunicated Party be excluded from Christian Communion; but then farther, that they might make such weary of their sin, and shame them out of it, they would not afford them the benefit of civil conversation, Charity advising them by that means, if possible, to pull them out of the fire. Hence St. Paul bids us Note such a Man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed, (2 Thess. 3, 14.) Upon this account Christians were wont, as far as possible, to avoid all conversation with such; they would not willingly live with them under the same Roof, they would not eat with them at the same Table, and indeed the Scripture requires no less, charging us with such an one, no not to eat, (1 Cor. 5, 11.) they would not promiscuously use with them even those things which made for Health, as St. John would not wash with Cerinthus in the same Bath. They would not give them the common Compliment or Salutation in the street; they would have no Traffic or Commerce with them, and many other things, which both for memory and warning sake, are briefly comprehended in this odd ●erse. Os, Orare, Vale, Communio, Mensa negato.  
And as their behaviour was thus towards them living, so if they persevered in their sin, they refased to allow them Christian Burial when dead. And indeed he that will obstinately persist in his evil course, and regard neither the Admonition, nor the Censures of the Church to his very death, deserves no better than the Burial of an Ass.  
But that I may not seem to encourage Christians to outrun their Duty, I must not only acquaint them with what they may withhold from such, but also what they may or aught to allow them; Excomm●●catiion doth by no means dissolve relative Duties, as that between Parent● and Children, Husband and Wife, King and Subjects; but these Duties ought to be paid, if possible, more carefully than ever, that no offence be given to the excommunicate person, nor a●y encouregement to continue in his sin, but rather all lawful means used to win and draw him off from it; if Contracts or Bargains have been made with him, they must be performed; if Debts be owing to him, they must be paid; if either his or others Spiritual or even Temporal good may be signally advanced by a cautious temporary converse with him, it ought not to be neglected, for no Man's lying under Excommunication, can warrant another to be either unjust or uncharitable. So likewise necessities of life, as Meat, Drink, Raiment, and the like, either for himself or his Family, aught to be sold him for his Money; or otherwise ministered to him, if through extreme poverty he be not able to buy; nor can I see reason to condemn him who hath any commerce with an excommunicate person, if he be ignorant of his Crime, or the Law that condemns it under that penalty. The Duties and Allowances in this case have been generally comprised in much such a Verse as the former.  
Vtile, lex, Humilis, Res ignorata, necesse.  
In short, whatsoever Duties we own them, must be duly paid; and in case of necessity, so far as the necessity constrains, civil Conversation or Traffic may be allowed, but then even these things must be done with mourning over them, letting them see that you do not countenance their sin, and using all honest and sitting mean, to convince and reclaim them; but then not pretended necessity can excuse you in such a compliance, as to join with them in the Acts o● Christian Worship and Communion; ●or let the case be never so hard, there can be no necessity of sinning; and such communicating will be a very great sin on many accounts, as admitting them to those Office and Ordinances, where●n they ought to have no share, as entitling them to those Benefits and Blessing, to which they have no right, as being a downright contempt of the Authority of God's Church, and consequently the ready means to destroy all Order and Discipline, and thereby to introduce Confusion, and in the end to overthrew and utterly root out the Church itself.  
As the Sentence is dreadful and heavy in this case upon the guilty Persons, so their Condition is still the worse upon the score of the difficulty they lie under of being reconciled: For the Canon saith peremptorily, that no such Person shall be restored but only by the Arch●bishop after his Repentance and public Revocation of those his wicked Errors. Here are a gradation of Difficulties, all which they must pass through▪ and even those Men who love the Sin commonly hate the Shame, and will use all the shuffling Tricks imaginable to shift it off, tho' it naturally follow them; but here they are obliged to give God the Glory, and take the Shame to themselves; they must not only repent but recant; and this must be done openly and solemnly, that the World may see, and take warning to avoid the same Wickedness: This is no small piece of Mortification to proud rebellious Spirits, who for the most part (as we see by sad Experience) will rather choose to run the hazard of their eternal Damnation, than to seem to lessen their Esteem and Reputation by acknowledging their Errors or Crimes; and yet when all this is done there is a Difficulty sti●l remaining: For they cannot be restored but only by the Archbishop. So great a care hath our Church taken that Christians might be good Subjects, and so highly did she think herself concerned what in her lay to make them so; she did not think it her Business only to stand still and look on, and cry it was a matter merely of Civil Concern, whilst Subjects risen up in Rebellion, and dethroned, or so much as opposed or denied the true Rights and Authority of their lawful King; but to show her deep Sense how scandalously the Christian Religion was injured hereby, she not only severely censures such Offenders, but also clogs their Restoration with great Difficulties, and makes it a reserved Case.  
I am not ignorant that the Bishop of Rome, who grasps at and claims no less than all, has made Reservations, till he has reserved away in a manner the whole Authority of all the Bishops in his Communion; but the best things may be abused, or usurped upon: For in the first Ages of the Church we find Cases reserved, but than it was by Canons made in Council, where it was thought necessary for the benefit of the Church to restrain the exercise of Jurisdiction of single Bishops in some special Case; hence it was decreed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nothing of moment should be done without the Bishop of the Prime See, whom we now call a Metropolitan or Archbishop; and herein our Church hath trod in the Steps of the Primitive Fathers: For she leaves the Bishops their just Authority, and yet reserves some matters of more universal Influence and concern to the Metropolitan; and that she hath done it in this and some other cases perhaps there are weighty Reasons: As, 1st. To preserve and secure the Discipline of the Church in matters of great importance and public concern; Favour, Affection, Interest, or Importunity of Friends, might perhaps be apt to sway sometimes with the particular Bishop, either to overlook the thing, or too easily to reconcile the Persons; whereas the Metropolitan is less obnoxious to such Motives: Besides if he should neglect to do his part, the Suffragan Bishop would have just cause to complain, and desire the exercise of his Jurisdiction in that particular to be restored, if the other answer not the end of the Reservation; and thus they are made a mutual Spur to and Watch upon each other. 2dly. For more public Satisfaction, the Crime may be notorious, and the Offence given to a whole Nation, or more; and if the Person should be reconciled by his Ordinary, it might be known to few, and consequently the Scandal remain; but being done by the Metropolitan it must necessarily be more notorious; the Party's Repentance will be more public, and a more ample Satisfaction made for the Dishonour done to the Laws of God and his Church. 3dly. For a particular Brand upon the Crime, and to testify the Judgement of the Church as to her high detestation of it: For every one must think that she hath a singular Abhorrence of that Crime which she declares she will not forgive but upon such severe conditions. 4thly. For the more effectual punishing and reclaiming the Offender; he is by this means more surely held, and his Trouble and Pains much greater to get out of the Snare he hath run into: He must be more thoroughly mortified before he will submit to such open Penance and Recantation; and when it is over, it's very being so well known will in all probability be a means to prevent his relapsing. Lastly, The more powerfully to deter others, that they may not dare to run in that Wickedness which entangles Men with such great Difficulties, and brings them to such open Shame. Now as big and scornfully as our Adversaries look upon us, I think I have proved that these are the Circumstances they are under; and having done my endeavour to convince them of their Sin and Danger, I know not what I can now do more or better for them, than to pray to God to give them Repentance; they have not only brought a Flourishing Church into a most miserable condition, but have razed the very Foundations and set her on no Bottom; she is not only lest at the discretion of the Secular Power, but prostituted to the frantic Will and Humour of every Usurper; which is little better than putting God's Church under the Devil's Protection. The Breach of Promises and Oaths, the renouncing our natural Allegiance and Canonical Obedience are made no Sins, if the adhering to them should chance to bring us under any Inconvenience: And thus the Doctrine of the Cross so particularly entailed on Christianity is huffed and scoffed out of Doors. Men may join with the Devil to delude themselves and others, but certainly God will visit for such Sins as these, and sooner or later make such Sinners know themselves: May God in Mercy give them a sight and sense of their Sins, that they may repent and return, and God's Judgements averted, and our Breaches healed; tho' I abominate the Crimes, yet I have no ill-will to their Persons, and wish them reconciled; but as for the methodus reconciliandi I leave it to my Superiors, the proper Judges, who doubtless will faithfully assist and advise their Metropolitan how the Canon may be satisfied. And provided that some sort of Reparation were made for the Dishonour done to God and his Church, and the Wrongs done to the Lawful King; I should very readily acquiesce in almost any Terms, and rejoice to see an end o● the sad Thoughts of Heart caused by the Divisions of Reuben.  
I had here concluded, but that as I was penning these few Considerations News was brought me, that, after so long consulting and caballing, Stillingfleet-Hody was come abroad, laying about him like Goliath, knocking down no less than 6 or 7 at once, and making bolder Challenges than ever did that mighty Philistine: I did think myself as to my present Subject out of his reach, but not knowing what a Madman, who lays about him at all Adventures, might hit upon; I procured the Book: Now tho' his Principles well improved will vindicate any Villainy, or destroy any thing honest or true, yet not finding my present Subject particularly affected; I shall dismiss him and his Book with only some few Observations, which may serve a little to stay honest Men's Stomaches till they can have a full Meal. The Jackdaw in the Fable set out with the Peacock's Plumes did never strut and bristle at half the rate as doth this Vainglorious Fellow; and if every Bird should seize his own Feather, he might be left as naked and ridiculous as was his Emblem. The very Title is insolent and amazing: For what honest or modest Man would discourse and set up for S●es Vacant by an unjust or uncanonical Deprivation? For if the Deprivation be uncanonical, the Persons are not by Canon deprived; if it be unjust, the Law (and I hope there may be some Law left, tho' we have so little benefit of it,) affords every Man a Remedy against Injustice, and will help him to recover his right against it; and the very Plea which the Law assigns in this case, is Ecclesia plena, just opposite to his Vacancy: But right or wrong, if it be done by a Power irresistible, there must be a Submission. Now I would know what he means by irresistible; for properly speaking perhaps only God is so; but if by it he means a Power by any wicked means, and in any wicked courses become Superior to us and able to crush us, I think that then his new Notion will warrant us to comply with the Devil, if God in Judgement should let him lose upon us. The Proposition, which is the Key of his whole Book, and which he calls a certain and self-evident Maxim, is, That whatsoever is necessary for the present Peace and Tranquillity of the Church, that aught to be made use of, provided it is not in itself sinful, and the ill Consequences which may possibly attend it, are either not so mischievous to the Church, or at least not so likely to happen, as the Evils w● endeavour to avoid. Now this, tho' in other Words, is the main Principle which the Author of the unreasonableness of the New Separation found'st his Discourse upon, by which any Man may guests at the Genius that runs through the whole Book: It is somewhat bold to call that a certain and self-evident Maxim, which depends upon so many Contingencies and Possibilities, and that also in such cases wherein Men for worldly Interest or carnal Security are too prone to judge amiss. But to pass by several Exceptions that might be made against it, he knows, that we deny not, but that Bishops in several cases may (I do not say are always bound) recede from their own Right for the real good of the Church; but then we say there are Cases, wherein they ought not to give it up for a pretended Peace or Good; and whether the present be not one of those Cases is the Dispute: To this purpose he ought to have proved much more clearly than he any where has, That Canonical Bishops are bound not only to quit their Churches, and give up the whole disposal of Church-Affairs to a Lay Usurper, but to renounce their natural Allegiance, and violate their Oaths, whenever they fall under an unjust Force▪ and farther to make it self-evident, that Perjury and Rebellion are matters in themselves not sinful. For all the Pretences, how specious soever, which are set up to take off the Obligations which we lie under, either as Subjects or Christians, are mere sham's and Impostures: For we are under no necessity, no irresistible Force, nay not any Force at all, except that of our own Wickedness, Vndutifulness, and Rebellion; the very return to our Obedience would be our Deliverance, our Duty would infallibly save us, and put an end to all these Miseries and Confusions, unless such a senseless Imagination could possess men's Brains, that a little shriuled Thing with a crooked Nose could be too strong for all England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging: They will never say any thing to the purpose in the present Case, till they prove that Men may plea● their own Sins in their Justification, and that having engaged themselves in wicked Courses, they are thereby authorized to go on, and do worse. As to the incomparable Vindicator, he in a Bravado tells us That he shall answer all that he has said, or ever will be able to say, etc. chap. 4. pag. 41. One would suspect that this Man had a mind to invade the Prerogative of God Almighty, and pretend to Omniscience; Did ever any Man, tho' endued with a Spirit of Prophecy, pretend to know all that ever another will be able to say? For his own sake he ought to have used more Modesty towards a Person, who has as much Learning and an hundred times more Honesty and Goodness than he and all his Confederates. But he tells us, that his Eye is particularly on the Learned Vindicator; and to him I am willing to leave him: For tho' he may justly glory in so great an Adversary, as being too great an honour to him; yet I make no question, but that all he will gain thereby will be to necessitate that Learned Person to expose him to open Shame.  
I should wrong these few Considerations, if I should farther wander after a Treatise, in the contriving of which more Persons have been concerned than Mr. Hody's Name hath Le●ters; and if Persons will not suffer themselves to be suddenly carried away with vain Boast, and super-fine Sophistry, I doubt not but e'er long they will see that this Swaggering Wadhamite has to do with Men that will not fl●nch, as h●ving a Cause so good, that they are neither afraid nor ashamed to maintain: In the mean time, retaining my former Principles, I have added another Foot for the Cause to stan● upon, which if it prove good, they must be cast, notwithstanding whatever Mr. Hody or any other hath hitherto pleaded in their behalf, and I think it the more pinching, in that they are obliged to acquit themselves against the Church of England and her Canons, which have cast them out; and till the can get off, in that State I leave them, with the same Prayer commonly used for Men that have the ●lague, The Lord have Mercy upon them.  
FINIS.