THE INTEREST OF ENGLAND In the Matter of Religion The First and Second Parts Unfolded in the SOLVTION Of Three QVESTIONS The Second Impression Written by John Corbet LONDON Printed for George Thomason and are to be sold at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Church-yard 1661. The Preface THe Indeavours of Pacification between the Subjects of the Prince of Peace and the Children of the God of Peace may be well taken from one who hath obtained mercy to be an Embassadour of Peace in the Ministry of Reconciliation Likewise it may well become any sincere Protestant Loyal Subject and true Lover of dear England to study and bring forth whatsoever hath a tendency to Reconcile those Parties in whom both the King and the Kingdom and the Protestant Cause are so highly concerned I am therefore encouraged upon this confidence That the offer of a willing mind in this service is acceptable to God and good men The Peace here propounded is the Friend and Sister of Truth It offers not to inthrall or burden Consciences of either Perswasion By allowing some diversity of Opinion it takes away the difference of Parties and permits the Points of Difference to be matters of Speculation but not of Practice As to give an instance Some of the Episcopal way hold that a Bishop differs from a Presbyter in regard of Order that he is ordained ad speciale Ministerium Others of the same way do hold That they differ not in Order but Degree The Presbyterians believe they are the same in regard of Order yet that a difference in Degree may be admitted and so they accept of a President-Bishop Nevertheless all the Episcopal Divines do judg it ordinarily necessary that a Presbyter be ordained by a Bishop in conjunction with Presbyters and none of them as far as I understand do judge it unlawful that Acts of Church-Discipline and Government be administred by a Bishop in the like conjunction And consequently the persons of these several Perswasions need not divide but may easily be made one in practice by the regular consociation of Episcopacy and Presbytery The Peace here pursued was earnestly expected and promised in the late great Revolution Christian Charity common Honesty yea Necessity pleads for this Peace They who now contemn it if there be any such may come to know the want of it as well as others Let them who have gotten the advantage rejoyce with trembling for who knows what he is doing and where is the end of his working whose judgments are unsearchable and whose ways are past finding out The most subtile Politician whose Writings are not held to savour much of Religion hath this Religious Observation If we consider the course of humane Affairs we shall many times see things come to pass and chances happen for the preventing of which the heavens altogether would not that any order should be taken Mach. And for example he alleadgeth the great miscarriages of the Roman Common-wealth in the War with the French insomuch that they did nothing like to themselves nor worthy of the Roman Discipline either for equity or industry or courage or foresight even until they were brought to the brink of utter ruine Certainly if the voice of Peace cannot be heard in this remarkable time when it calls and cries unto us by so manifold pressing engagements it is of the Lord who hath not given an ear to hear nor an heart to consider I am far from presuming upon the force of my own reasoning in this matter it is the subject it self that is my confidence and my heart is in it Let the God of Heaven inspire and prosper the King in His Gracious Inclinations to the work of Peace that all who fear Gods Name may see that in Him the Sun of Righteousness is risen upon them with healing in his wings Let the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England prevail with a Protestant English Parliament Let all Ecclesiastical persons being the servants of Christ by special Office cease from seeking their own things and let them seek the things which are Jesus Christs Be it far from any of them to smite their fellow-servants whilest they are doing their Masters work If there be any consolation in Christ any comfort of Love any fellowship of the Spirit any bowels and mercies let all good Christians in their several places promote the Peace of Christs Kingdom and Family by all the ways of equal and reasonable Condescention and Forbearance Lastly Let the Candid Reader accept this Labour of Love and not undervalue the weight and worth of the Cause for the defects of these Discourses J. C. I. Q. Whether the Presbyterian Party should in Justice or Reason of State be Rejected and Depressed or Protected and Incouraged II. Q. Whether the Presbyterian Party may be Protected and Incouraged and the Episcopal not Deserted nor Disobliged III. Q. Whether the Vpholding of both Parties by a just and equal Accommodation be not in it self more desirable and more agreeable to the State of England than the absolute Exalting of the one Party and the total Subversion of the other The Interest of England in the Matter of Religion unfolded in the Solution of three Questions Section I. THe Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland legally united in one King but by violence subjected to one Usurped Power of different Forms successively were for divers late years reeling to and fro like a drunken man and driven hither and thither like a Ship in a troubled Sea The ancient Fundamental Constitution being overturned those who took to themselves the Government had gotten a plenary possession of all the strength by Sea and Land detected all Conspiracies quashed all Insurrections and by Policy Industry and wonderfull Success became formidable at home and abroad The people sorely bruised by a tedious civil War were glad of some present ease and generally desired nothing more then to lie down in rest and peace Likewise the more considerate part of men though little satisfied in the present state yet fearing other extreams were nothing forward to endeavour a totall change but thought it most adviseable to take things as they were and to bring them if it were possible to some reasonable temper and consistence Notwithstanding these advantages the Powers then in Being could never settle in a fixed stable posture and those who took the first Turn namely that Fragment of the Commons House could by no means advance or get ground in any degree towards it For besides the general hatred of their Usurpation and Selfish Practices their Republican Form and their Designs touching Religion were wholly aliene from the disposition of these Nations He who put them down from their Seats and exalted himself in their room reducing the Government to a single Person and a Parliament set up an Image of the ancient Form unto which the greater number were not unwilling to bow down not out of good will to the Person but for the Forms sake
be one with the Church of Rome unless we be subject to the Court of Rome and abandon all Protestantism Section XXXIV Whereupon all approaches and motions towards Rome are dangerous For popish Agents will easily over-act the Reconcilers peradventure lead them whither they would not If we walk on the brink we may soon fall into the pit Although it stands not with Christian Charity to disclaim agreement upon reasonable tearms with any that are named Christians yet it is not fit for a purer Church to incorporate with a Church defiled with such abominations Besides as to reason of State Enmity with Rome hath been reputed the Stability of England concerning which the Duke of Rhoan hath delivered this Maxime That besides the Interest which the King of England hath common with all Princes he hath yet one particular which is that he ought thoroughly to acquire the advancement of the Protestant Religion even with as much zeal as the King of Spain appears Protector of the Catholick Indeed that Scarlet-coloured Whore hath this bewitching ingredient in the cup of her Fornication that she disposeth Subjects to security and blind obedience and exalteth Princes unto absolute Dominion But against this poison a soveraign Antidote is given by a judicious Writer that this proves that subjects are more miserable not that Princes are more absolute among Papists forasmuch as where the Pope prevails there is a co-domination and rivalty in rule and this Protestant Princes are freed from and whereas Popery hath been ever infamous for excommunicating murthering deposing Princes the Protestant Religion aims at nothing but that the Kings Prerogative and popular Liberty may be even balanced If it be said that this is true of Protestantism but Puritanism leads to sedition rebelIion Anarchy let the world know that Puritanism which is no other than sound Protestantism doth abhor these crimes and defie the charge thereof The people that were called Puritans and now Presbyterians have had no fellowship with Polititians and Sectaries in those pernicious ways but their principle is for subjection to Princes though they were Hereticks or Infidels and if they differ herein from the Prelatical Protestants it is only that they plead for liberty setled by known Laws and fundamental Constitutions Section XXXV From the reasons aforegoing we conclude That Protestantism will best consist in the middle way by reducing Prelacy to the ancient synodical government or moderate Episcopacy And this is a blessed work worthy of a pacifick King w th respect to his honor service whose title is The Prince of Peace Herein his Majesty with Gods help may over-rule without difficulty or hazzard He need not say of those that are averse as David sometimes did of the sons of Zerviah That they are too hard for him Prelacy is not popular but moderate Episcopacy is and the more because it is a healing expedient for our broken times The Bishops depend intirely on the King but he hath no dependance on them no need of advantage from them What if some interessed persons be discontented The sober of the Nation both Episcopal and Presbyterian will have great contentment in the King's prudence and moderation His Majesty is a Prince by Nature He is our Native King and the delight of the English Nation and may govern as he please without fear or hazard by continuing to shew himself a common Father For there is none other upon whom the Inrest of England can bottom it self but our gracious dread Soveraign King Charles whose House and Kingdom let the most High establish throughout all generations He hath all hearts that are of sober principles earnestly waiting upon him longing and panting after his moderation and rejoycing in the begun expressions thereof and of which the Presbyterians have had so great expectation that they wished He were both King Lords and Commons as to the setling of this grand Affair Section XXXVI The excessive dominion of the Hierarchy with the rigorous imposition of humane Ceremonies was accounted much of the malady of former times which ended in those deadly Convulsions of Church and State Do we here reproach our Mother the Church of England In no wise This National Church consists of the Body of the Nation combined in the Unity of Faith and substance of Divine worship according to God's holy Word But if the Church be taken in a more restrained sence for the Clergy or Ministery yet so the Hierarchy is not the Church either formally or virtually When as according to Camdens report there are in England above nine thousand four hundred Ecclesiastical promotions how comes all the Interest and virtue of such a numerous Clergy to be gathered up in six and twenty Bishops with their respective Deans and Chapters and Archdeacons And can the self-same state and frame of Ecclesiasticks be now revived after so great and long continued alterations by which the anti-prelatical party is exceedingly encreased and strengthened Machiavel whose reason in things political may challenge regard gives these two directions to a Prince to be alike observed for securing his hereditary Dominions First that he doth not transgress the institutions of his Ancestors Secondly That he serve the time according to new occasions by which if a Prince be inducd with ordinary diligence in action he will preserve himself in his principality His Majesty returns to the exercise of his Kingly power after a long interruption in Government and great alteration in the State Civil and Ecclesiastical And he hath this happy advantage presenting it self to his hand that he may give general satisfaction by retaining the ancient Episcopal Government with some necessary variation conformable to these times in abating the excess of former things and qualifying the same with some temperate ingredients Certainly it concerns an hereditary Prince as to maintain the ancient constitutions so to redress ancient grievances and to cure inveterate maladies The party dissatisfied in former things were not a company of precipitate Mutineers but a Parliament of judicious and consciencious persons and their adherents who for the major part never intended to dissolve the Government but have to their power endeavoured and contrived the setling of these Nations on their ancient basis Section XXXVII Moreover this dissatisfaction in the old frame of the Ecclesiastical Government is not a novelty of these times as appears by those prudent considerations touching the better pacification and edification of the Church presented to King James by that most learned Lord Verulam sometimes Lord Chancellour of England who was no Presbyterian nor enemy to Episcopacy in which are these passages There be two circumstances in the administration of Bishops wherein I confess I could never be satisfied The one the sole Exercise of their Authority the other the Deputation of their Authority For the first the Bishop giveth orders alone excommunicateth alone judgeth alone This seems to be a thing almost without example in Government and therefore not unlikely to have crept in in
Subjects of whatsoever degree in case of Delinquency it might be thought that a part of the supream power doth reside in them though they have not the honorary Title And this part of the supream power is indeed capable of doing wrong yet how it might be guilty of Rebellion is more difficult to conceive In this high and tender point it belongs not to me to determine And as touching the much debated point of resisting the higher powers without passing any judgement in the great Case of England I shall only make rehearsal of the words of Grotius a man of Renown and known to be neither Anti-monarchical nor Anti-prelatical which are found in his Book de jure belli pacis by himself dedicated to the French King Si Rex partem habeat summi Imperii partem alteram populus aut Senatus Regiin partem non suam involanti vis just a opponi poterit quia eatenus imperium non habet Quod locum habere censeo etiamsi dictum sit belli potestatem penes Regem fore Id enim de bellâ— externo intelligendum est cum alioqui quisquis imperii summi partem habeat non possit non jus habere eam partem tuendi lib. 1. c. 4. s. 13. With reverence to Soveraign Majesty I crave leave to speak this word of truth and soberness In a knowing age flattery doth not really exalt or secure the Royal Prerogative the Authority of Parliaments being depressed and undervalued is the more searched into and urged Concerning the utmost bounds and limits of Royal Prerogative and Parliamentary Power the Law in deep wisedom chuseth to keep silence for it always supposeth union not division between King and Parliament Wherefore the overstraining on either hand let all men forbear His Majesties wisedom and goodness and his peoples obedience and loyalty in all ways of mutual satisfaction will best secure His Prerogative and their Liberty Moreover as to the point of Loyalty now in question the subversion of the Fundamental Government of this Kingdome could not be effected till those Members of Parliament that were Presbyterian were many of them imprisoned others forcibly secluded by the violence of the Army and the rest thereupon withdrew from the House of Commons For they had voted the Kings Concessions a ground sufficient for the Houses to proceeed to settle the Nation and were willing to cast whatsoever they contended for upon a legal security In those times the Presbyterian Ministers of London in their publick vindication thus declare themselves We profess before God Angels and Men that we verily believe that that which is so much feared to be now in agitation the taking away of the life of the King in this present way of Tryal is not only not agreeable to the Word of God the Principles of the Protestant Religion never yet stained with the least drop of the blood of a King or the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom but contrary to them as also to the Oath of Allegiance the Protestation of May 5. 1641. and the Solemn League and Covenant from all which or any of which Engagements we know not any Power on earth able to absolve us or others And in conclusion they warn and exhort men to pray for the King that God would restrain the violence of men that they may not dare to draw upon themselves and the Kingdome the blood of their Soveraign Let prudent men weigh things in the ballance of Reason Is there any thing in the nature of Prelacy that frames the mind to obedience and loyalty or is there any thing in the nature of Presbytery that inclines to rebellion and disobedience If Loyalty be the innate disposition of Prelacy how comes it to pass that in ancient times and for a series of many ages the Kings of England have had such tedious conflicts with Prelates in their Dominions If Presbytery and Rebellion be connatural how comes it to pass that those States or Kingdomes where it hath been established or tolerated have for any time been free from broyls and commotions or that Presbyterians have never disclaimed or abandoned their lawful Prince that they have never ceased to sollicite and supplicate his regards and favour even when their power hath been at the highest and his sunk lowest yea that they have suffered themselves rather to be trodden under foot then to comply with men of violence in changing the Government Let us further examine are the persons that adhere to Prelacy more conscientious in duty to God and man then those that affect Presbytery Are the former only sober just and godly and the latter vicious unrighteous prophane Certainly if it hath been the lot of the one for a time to comply more with Kings then the other hath done it ariseth not from any peculiar innate disposition of the one or the other but somthing extrinsecal and accidental and what that may be let prudent men make their own observations Section XV. Their principles whose cause is now pleaded if faithfully received and kept will make good men and good Christians and therefore cannot but make good subjects When men have learned to fear God they will honour the King indeed and none are more observant of righteous Laws then they that are most a law to themselves yea their pattern and practice will be a law to many others and consequently a main help to civil Government in a Christian Nation Whosoever they be that teach blind obedience Presbyterians teach faith and holiness as also obedience active in all lawful things and passive in things unlawful injoyned by the higher power In the late distracted times the publick State was out of frame always ready to fall asunder the minds of people were unquiet and unsetled those that held the power could never gain half that awful regard and reverence which was given to Kings Nobles and men of Authority in former times Nevertheless prophaness intemperance revellings out-rages and filthy lewdness were not at any time in the memory of the present age held under more restraint Surely some special reason may be rendred why in such want of publick Order there should not be a greater disorder in mens lives and manners then at other times which I conceive is manifest to wit that by means of a practical Ministery more thick set throughout the Nation knowledge and restraining grace did more abound and the orderly walking of religious persons did keep others more within compass and withal strictness of life was not openly derided under the name of Puritanism Those places where Presbyterian Ministers had the greatest influence were evidently the most reformed and civiliz'd for which cause they were so much hated by men of loose principles and dissolute lives Whereupon we affirm boldly That those for whom we plead must needs be good Subjects to a Christian King and good members of a Christian Common-wealth Section XVI Neither are they wandring Stars a people given to change fit to overturn
the first place let us rightly understand the meaning of this prejudice Is it because this Discipline doth censure scandalous disorders and enquire into the state of the flock as watching over their souls This is its high commendation in the sight of God and good men Doth Episcopacy care for none of these things Surely a Bishop is an Overseer to exercise the Office of a Bishop is to take the oversight of the Church and those that are over us in the Lord watch for our souls as those that must give an account thereof Howbeit Presbytery is not more severe in censuring the breach of Gods Commandments then the Hierarchy in censuring the breach of their own constitutions Or is the offence taken upon pretence that Presbyterians affect and arrogate an arbitrary power would rule by faction and exercise a rigout to the stirring up of animosities and unquiet humours Since the friends of Prelacy are loudest in this crimination I crave leave to use this mild retortion Is there no appearance of domination in Prelacy Was nothing like unto it objected to the dignified Clergy If you say those invectives and clamours were false and scandalous then let reason and charity be permitted to make some Apologie for the other discipline which the Nation hath hitherto never experienced in any measure of national uniformity and settlement But there are remedies at hand to prevent the abuse of any Government that is of it self lawful and laudable Certainly the wisedom of the King and Parliament with the advice of grave Divines may prescribe sure and certain rules of discipline Moreover to cut off all occasion and prevent all appearance of domineering all political coercive jurisdiction in matter of Religion may be with-held if need require from Ecclesiastical persons and that meer spiritual power alone which is 〈◊〉 to their office may be left to their management which is in the Name of Christ and by Authority from him to admonish the untuly and if they continue obstinate by the same Authority to declare them unworthy of Church-Communion and Christian Society and to require the Lords people to have no fellowship with them that they may be afflicted and humbled And because spiritual censures appertaining only to the Conseience may be too little regarded when no temporal dammage is annexed to them there may be a collateral civil power always present in Ecclesiastical Meetings to take cognizance of all Causes therein debated and adjudged in order to temporal penalties Vpon the whole matter aforegoing we firmly build this position That the Presbyterian Party ought not in Justice or Reason of State to be rejected and depressed but ought to be protected and encouraged Nevertheless there being a seeming complication in this business and an other ample party appearing in competition a difficultie remains and the matter falls into a further deliberation And thereupon we are fallen upon the second main Enquiry II Qu. Whether the Presbyterian Party may be protected and encouraged and the Episcopal not deserted nor disobliged Section XIX The grand Expedient in this difficulty is a well grounded Accomodation producing an intire and firm union That the Accommodation may be true and solid not loose and hollow it must be such as will content and satisfie for continuance and that it may be such the tearms thereof must not be repugnant to the conscientious principles of either party Otherwise whatsoever it be it is but a botch and will never hold Wherefore we now examine whether those principles are such as set the parties at an irreconcileable distance or else make the proposed union possible and hopeful As touching holy Doctrine they both receive the nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England unless that one side may demurr upon one or two passages respecting the Form of Ecclesiastical Government and Ceremonies being the matters now in question and remote from the foundation And in very deed the Doctrine of the English Bishops in general that lived in the elder times of Protestantism as Jewel Pilkington Babington and of the latter Bishops their Followers as Abbot Carleton Morton Usher Hall Davenant is intirely imbraced by the Presbyterians when as many of the latter Prelatists departed from it in the great point of Predestination Redemption Free-will effectual Grace Perseverance and Assurance of Salvation and termed it Puritan Doctrine Whereupon I conclude that those Prelatists of this Age who are the genuine Off-spring of the old Episcopal Divines will not divide from Presbyterians upon the account of Doctrine and that the other sort need not divide from them any more then from the rest that are of the Episcopal Perswasion But in the Form of Church Government the breach is much wider and the Reconciliation seems more difficult Indeed the Dominion of Prelacy and the exact Presbyterian parity are opposite Extreams Nevertheless a regulated Episcopacy and Presbytery may be found so far from mutual opposition and inconsistency that they may close together in a sweet Harmony The Scripture Bishop and the Evangelical Pastor is one and the same Officer The Primitive Ecclesiastical Episcopacy was not reputed by the Antients a different Order of Ministery The Bishop was only a Presbyter in a higher degree the President of the Presbytery and ruled in consociation with all the Presbyters The better part of the Scool-men place the difference only in degree not in order Of the same judgement were the old Episcopal Divines in England and even in the last times Morton Hall and Usher Whereupon they held the Forreign Protestant Churches that had no Prelaies to be true Churches and their Pastors true Ministers of Christ. And this is very remarkable in the most rigid Prelatists of their times when upon the new erecting of Prelacy in Scotland certain Scottish Bishops were to be consecrated here in England Bishop Andrews moved this question whether they ought not first to be ordained Presbyters as having received no Ordination from a Bishop Arch-Bishop Bancroft being there present maintained there was no necessity of Re-ordination for where a Bishop cannot be had Ordination given by Presbyters must be esteemed lawful This Solution being applauded by the other Bishops Doctor Andrews acquiesced On the other side an absolute equality among Ministers is not essential to Presbytery but a prudential priority according to the Churches occasions and consequently a stated Presidency may be admitted For the main principle of Presbytery is this That every Minister is truly a Pastor and that pastoral Authority includes both teaching and ruling for which cause the Presbyters may not yield up themselves as the Bishops meer Curates or Subjects For that would nullifie their Pastoral Office as to one part thereof which is as essential to it as the other in regard whereof the Presbyters are in Scripture called Bishops or Overseers and are charged to take the oversight of the Flock But this is no way violated by admitting a stated Moderator or president Bishop As concerning Worship or Divine Service
parts of instituted Worship If it be only an outward shape and dress left to humane prudence it is variable according to the difference of times Whosoever observes impartially shall find that Political Prudence was joyned with Christian Piety in composing the English Service Book In the beginning of Reformation the wisdom of the State so ordered that so great a change might be made with as little noise as was possible and with regard to what the Nation would bear Accordingly when a Rebellion was raised in Coruwal and Devonshire about the change of Religion King Edward to appease the matter told the people That it was no other then the old Service in the English Tongue Likewise when this form was revived by Queen Elizabeth one might conjecture that care was taken that no passage offensive even to the Papists might remain therein for we find an alteration in the Letany very material Whereas King Edwards books ran thus From all sedition and privy conspiracy from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false Doctrine and Heresie These words From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities were left out in Queen Elizabeths time and ever since Whereupon the Papists throughout this Kingdom resorted to our Divine Service for the first ten years of that Queens Reign And this came to pass also by the Popes connivance who was not then in despaire of reducing England by fair means But sithence Papists have been Recusants Wherefore if forms be variable according to the difference of times and the present Liturgy was compiled with respect to the peace of former times and the reconciling of Papists to Protestants but is now become by change of times an occasion of dividing Protestants from each other without hope of regaining Papists Can Religion or Reason plead for the rigorous imposing of it especially without very much emendation upon godly peaceable Ministers and people that daie not use it throughout Doth the Life and Soul of Religion lye in the Common-Prayer Is it as ancient as Christianity yea or of equal extent with the Protestant Reformation Whence is it then that many will have no communion with those that do not use it or would cast out of the Church those that cannot use it throughout who nevertheless in all necessary parts of worship are conformable to Protestant Doctrine and practice Is that efficacy or excellency in it that the laying it aside would much impair and weaken Religion and darken its glory Let it be then examined whether it hath made the comers thereunto more perfect then others more knowing in Religion more pious and blameless in their conversation then those that frequent it not Let experience come forth and witness which if constant and universal is the best proof of the efficacy or imbecillity of any institution Suppose a Liturgy were framed of Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings wholly collected out of Sacred Scripture both for matter and expressions would it be inferiour to that which is now in question Doubtless such a form would be a happy expedient to put an end to this controversie Section XXVI Canonical subscription lately imposed is a yoke of bondage to be considered by all those that have a true regard to such liberty in Religion as equity and necessity pleads for Blessed be God who hath put it into the Kings heart to extend compassion to a multitude of his faithful Subjects and to remove this yoke let not this or the like be laid on their necks any more The Canon requires a subscribing to the thirty nine Articles to the Common-Prayer Book to the book of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons that all these contain in them nothing contrary to the Word of God This is unreasonable unprofitable and unnecessary It is unreasonable for were it just and reasonable it must suppose not only perfect verity throughout the whole without any mixture of error but also either a spirit of infallibility in the composers of those books or the like measure of judgment and perswasion in all Orthodox and pious Ministers concerning all particulars in so large a volume written by men subject to error That there is not perfect Verity without mixture or grounded suspition of error there is real evidence To assert a spirit of infallibility in the composers thereof is not consonant to Protestant principles To suppose the like measure of faith and judgement in all Orthodox godly Ministers concerning fallible writings is absurd and to rack men unto it is an imitation of that Tyrant that would stretch miserable creatures unto the length of that bed of torment upon which he laid them It is also unprofitable For these forced large subscriptions are known to be no sure hold-fast of the multitude drawn into them whereof many come hand over head meerly as to an injoyned form others more considerate do it in their own sence And indeed the best service which this Injunction doth is to lye as a bar to exclude the more deliberate sort or as a clog to oppress their consciences If to remedy this evil you allow men to use their own limitations and explanations the business it self is insignificant It to satisfie several parties you pen the Doctrines and Forms in ambiguous tearms the swaying part of the Church will draw them to their own peculiar sence and establish their own opinions to the crushing of dissenters as by the potency of some Prelates Arminianism was asserted for the Doctrine of the Church of England Lastly it is unnecessary for we suppose the benefits pretended by it are unity in Doctrine uniformity in Practice both which may be as well attained and far more kindely without this enforced Subscription if no Minister be suffered to preach or write any thing contrary to the established Doctrine Worship and Discipline nor ordinarily for the main to neglect the established Rule But what inconvenience if in things of lesser weight a latitude were allowed A little variety indulged in some particles is no impeachment of Uniformity but rather an establishment thereof with contentment and tranquility Contrariwise as the wringing of the Nose draws forth blood so over-straining and rigid injunctions distemper the mindes of men otherwise peaceable and stir up strife Section XXVII Moreover the publick state of these differences is such that the Prelatists may and ought to descend to the Presbyterians in the proposed moderate way but the Presbyterians cannot come up to the Prelatists in the height of their way For the Prelates condescention stands only in omission or forbearance of certain things which seem to them lawful and laudable but the subjection of the Presbyterians stands in subscribing and conforming to certain things which to them seem unlawful And common equity will soon pass its verdict that the condescention of the one is far more easie then the subjection of the other Bishop Davenant in his Determinations resolves in one question that a Protestant may
to be against the Rules of Government to hold under a rigid yoke a free people of such a number and quality and intermingled in all estates and rauks and intimately conjoyned with all parts of the body Politique that it is almost impossible to exclude their Interest from a considerable share in publique actions Besides is it for the service of Christ and the encrease of his Kingdom the Church that so many able Divines should be debarred the use of their Lords Talents that so many laborious Ministers should sit still in silence that when Christ teacheth us to pray that the Lord would thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest those Labourers should be thrust out of his harvest Surely this would make a cry in the ears of the Lord of the Harvest Let me add this 'T is a hard matter to silence them that will preach virtually in pious Conferences whose occasional and Table Discourses will be a kind of Sermon Let me offer a third way Will they afford them liberty of Conscience and yet stave them off as a divided Party to stand alone in their Principles and Interest Verily I cannot think it is in their heart so to do What then remains but to prepare the way and to make the path straight for a solid and perfect closure by laying aside those unnecessary occasions of stumbling Section XVII If the neglect of brotherly Pacification hold on and the Hierarchy resolve upon their own advancement to the highest pitch one may well conclude That they make a full reckoning to wear out the Presbyterians and to swallow up their Interest conceiving they are able to effect it by degrees and that greater changes then these have been wrought without much ado And we confess indeed that a great change in Religion was made by Qu. ELIZABETH without much dispute or difficulty The alteration was not sudden but gradual Camden writes That in the entrance of the Queens Reign for a whole moneth and more the Roman Religion stood as it did at the death of Queen MARY On the 27. of December the Epistles and Gospels the Lords Prayer Creed and Ten Commandements together with the Letany were read in the English Tongue On the 22. of March the intire use of the Sacrament in both kinds was restored by Parliament On the 24. of June the Sacrifice of the Mass was abolished and the whole Liturgy restored into English In July the Oath of Supremacy was given to the Bishops And in August Images were taken out of the Churches and broken or burnt Why may not the Hierarchical Interest swallow up the Presbyterian as easily as Protestantism prevailed over Popery Surely I take these several cases to be very different And first because Queen ELIZABETH had this fundameutal maxime as agreeable to her Conscience and the Interest of Her State to banish hence the exercise of the Roman Religion But our Gracious King in His Christian Prudence and Compassion seeks the uniting of His Protestant Subjects and the healing of their breaches by His Wife and Gracious condescentions already Declared Besides in the beginning of the Queens Raign the inferiour Clergy of this Kingdom universally appeared to be but lukewarm Papists and many of them might be supposed to be Protestants in hearts and the most of them very unlearned and indifferent men in Religion And a great part of the Hierarchy were not more zealous than the rest For when at that time the Ecclesiastical Promotions in England were numbered above nine thousand four hundred in all there were not more then fourscore Rectors of Churches fifty Prebendaries fifteen Heads of Colledges twelve Arch-Deacons twelve Deans six Abbots and Abbesses and fourteen Bishops that refused the Oath of Supremacy Also the English Service was so prepared that it might be no abomination to the Papists no positive thing therein occurring repugnant to their Doctrine for which cause they frequented the same for the first ten years and the Pope did not in many years send forth his thunder lightning against the Queen And Popery being in substance a Religion contrary to what was publickly professed had no advantage for encrease by publick Preaching or Books publickly allowed All these accidents did help forward to an absolute settlement of the Protestant Religion But we may find the state of things far otherwise in point of disposition or inclination toward the Dominion of absolute Prelacy and the rigorous imposition of Ceremonies and the extirpation of the dissenting Party For there are now in England thousands of Ministers dis-satisfied in the Hierarchy and Ceremonies who are all competently and many of them eminently learned They are not generally of light spirits but steddy and well resolved and tenderly affected touching their spiritual liberties The way which in scorn is called Puritanism is not another Religion in substance than Protestantism but the very same or one branch thereof distinguished from the other by an accidental difference Protestant and Puritane Doctrine and Worship all men may know to be the same for substance and Puritanism will grow up with Protestantism notwithstanding all opposition as I have manifested in the former discourse Commonly those people who try all Doctrines by Scripture and are swayed more by its Authority than by the Ordinances and Customs of men do much hesitate and stagger concerning the sole Jurisdiction of Bishops the pomp of the Hierarchy and sacred mystical Ceremonies of Humane Institution And therefore let the Episcopal Party never look to be rid of these difficulties till they remove the matters in Question whereat a knowing people are always ready to stumble Neither in these times are the Presbyterians so hateful a generation as some would have them they are odious to none but those to whom they were ever odious or else to such Ignorants as follow the Cry and speak evil of they know not what They have had no considerable loss of their number by revolt and whatever comes to pass they think never the worse of their main Cause which I have expressed in the Character given of them And if some or many of them have a liberry in their own judgements touching conformity yet that conformity will not strengthen the designs of those Prelatists that are most rigid in such impositions and seek to tread down the Presbyterians It was a notable question which a Carthaginian Senator put to Hanibal's Agents after the great overthrow given to the Romans at Canna When they had magnified Hanibal's great Atchievements Hanno asked them Whether any of the Romans had come to demand Peace and whether any Town of the Latines or any of their Colonies had yet rebelled against the Romans The Agents denying the one and the other Hanno replied Then is the War as intire yet as at the first I apply this to shew how easily men mistake the progress of their own affairs and think themselves to be ready for a triumph when indeed they have gotten little and the state of the controversie is still
good will but also for perpetual necessity Section XX. Moreover a wise State is busie in finding out but not in making Enemies Who can produce one solid reason that renders this Party Enemies to the Government or the Person Governing They are lovers of Monarchy and of the Royal Family From neither of these have they any cause of distrust or dis-satisfaction They have nothing to hold in derogation to His Majesties Authority safety or benefit and His Majesty hath nothing to hold that stands in opposition to their security There have been indeed unhappy differences but whence proceeding Not from any thing intrinsecal to His Majesties Government or to their condition but from things very remote from the Interest of Soveraignty The Kings Affairs do allow Him to extend Favour and Clemency to them as to any other of His Subjects and His Condescention towards them will work as happy effects to His satisfaction Section XXI Some men resolving in all things to detract from the Presbyterians have said That they promoted the Kings Return not out of good will to His Majesty or a love of Order and Unity but out of fear of being destroyed by the Phanaticks Upon the occasion of this surmise and the evil design thereof I am willing to debate this Question Whether the Presbyterians closure with the King in all avowed subjection and service be sincere and solid that His Majesty may safely confide in them The pretended reason of their insincerity seems to me to add much to their reputation in that behalf For if the Phanaticks would destroy them it is manifest that they are none of them Phanaticks would not destroy themselves willingly The several various Sects will wrangle with each other in verbal contests but they never knowingly plotted or banded against each other upon the account of their different Opinions but did all unite in one common Principle of pretended liberty of Conscience and in one common cause of Universal Toleration Be it also granted that self-preservation engaged the Presbyterians by any means to obviate and overturn the designs of the Sectaries it shews that the Sectarian Interest and theirs are Inconsistent as also that they are not unreconcilable to the Episcopal part of Protestants and that they had pacifick inclinations willing to put a period to these contentions Let men surmise the worst they can of their intentions in declaring for the King yet in as much as they had a choice before them to turn this way or that way it is evident they would betake themselves to that way that had the lesser evil and the fairer shew of good And could any think that they would knowingly make a choice of that which should destroy their just liberty wherefore were it no more than this it might gain them some regard for that they hoped for some good in this way when they could hope for none at all from the wilde ways and fancies of Phanaticks But the truth is they turned not to a lesser evil but to a thing in it self desirable for it was a clear case to men of sound minds and sober Principles that there was no way to lead us out of that wilderness wherein we wandred but the uniting of all sound and sober Protestants in things wherein all agree and a mutual forbearance in things not necssary to peace and edification The Presbyterians knew their single Interest would not settle the Nation And the Episcopalians may know as well that their single Interest will prove dificient In such a case what well-minded persons affecting the peace of the Church and Kingdom would not promote the restitution of the Royal Family that the King in whom alone the whole Nation can settle may pare off the superfluities of particular partial Interests and make a Union in the general Interest of the Protestant Religion and of Great Britain This was the scope of the Presbyterian design in that particular And as touching their cordial affection to His Majesties Person and Government we have their own more affectionate and solemn professions for it which are graciously owned by His Majesty And if any persist to gainsay those expressions seeing they are not searchers of hearts it lies upon them to prove this pretended disaffection by something discernable in the outward behaviour But suppose that a peoples Conscience and good inclination and disposition be called into question yet this is a maxime unquestionable That the main ground of sure and constant benevolence between Prince and People is a firm perswasion that they are the mntual Interest of each other His Majesties Royal Person and His Princely Virtues are amiable to us He is a Crown of Glory to the English Nation But that which got the mastery over all difficulties in restoring Him to His Dominions was an undoubted knowledge that the Nations Interest was bound up in Him our indubitable Soveraign Lord. There is a necessity of meer compulsion that drives the unwilling and there is a necessity of Interest that draws a willing people When this latter necessity doth bring a Prince and People together ingenuous minds will turn this necessity into a virtue and so the joyning of Interests draws after it the joying of hearts The Presbyterians enjoyning the same protection and benefit which other sober Protestants and Loyal Subjects will see no other probable nor possible way of repose and safety but under His Majesties happy Government It is not therefore a necessity of present force but of constant Interest which is here commended as so great a bond of loyalty and which Princes use to take for their best security The wisest way is not to reject and slight a party that are brought to hand and made for a Princes Interest upon a suspition that they may prove inconstant but to use the known means of preventing such inconstancy as is pretended and to manifest that regard to their encouragement and satisfaction as that they may rest assured that their own and the publick peace do run in the same channel From the Reasons aforegoing I conclude That the Presbyterians are fit and worthy to be imbodied with the whole number of the good People of England I proceed to perswade this Union by several Arguments Section XXII England hath indured conflicts of almost twenty years by Wars Divisions Commotions and manifold changes it was abased enfeebled and brought very low all which do shew that some great distemper had taken hold of this Body Politick before these things could break forth There is at length by the late Revolution a providential offer of rest and peace After those sad conflicts and this happy offer of Providence shall the seeds of discord lodge perpetually in this Land I fear passions of bitterness are too ready to stir and provoke Take away this fuel of strife the urging of things to uphold distinctions of Parties Whilest things are at such a pass animosities will arise upon every occasion discontents and quarrels will be ready to break forth in
they pretend were taken out of the way This makes men to bear down their opposites more with scorn and contumely then with any temperate and solid reasoning This makes men wilful precipitate unmerciful and puts them forward by rigid injunctions and severe inquisitions to suppress those with whom they might walk in one way if they themselves did walk in love But there is as little of Reason as Religion in this self-admiring humour It is the part of weak and selfish minds to contract Religion to certain modes and forms which stand not by Divine Right but by the wills of men and which are of little efficacy and very disputable and if supposed lawful ought to be governed by the rule of Charity To think that none is a good Christian a sound Protestant a fit minister that cannot subscribe to such modes and forms proceeds from a narrow and ignoble judgment It is also as much pride as weakness to contemn the setled way of a knowing and serious people steddy in their Principles and practices as if they were worthy of no regard because they dissent in some points which in themselves are of little moment This is for men to think that they only are the people and that wisdom shall dye with them Noble and high capacities and judgments of a large and deep reach do know they cannot square the world by the narrow compass of those conceived Principles that have possessed and seasoned their own mindes But they look also without themselves rightly judging that as they have their own peculiar Notions so another sort have theirs and that divers men are carried divers ways as they are led by natural temper custom education or studious inquires They know likewise that there is no constraining of all mindes to one perswasion without imbasing their judgments to perfect slavery which we see put in practice in the Antichristian Kingdom of the Papacy Whereupon men of vastest parts and learning and of true nobleness of judgment have been ever favourable to those which dissented only in such opinions as amongst wise and sober men are not with one consent determined unless their peculiar Interest were bound up in those Opinions For this nobleness of judgment which naturally inclines to allow ones self and others this righteous liberty is sometimes driven back and streightned by politick Interests Verily a judgment truly noble is truly Catholick and true Catholicism is most contrary to that which is so called by pretended Catholicks For it is to maintain Christian Concord with all Christians as far as they hold Christ the Head Section XXXI It is incident to ruling men to cherish the passion of indignation against the dissenting Party Hence ariseth a great perturbation of judgment For by reason of the dominion of this passion when dissenters modestly assert their Principles and do not instantly comply as much as is expected it is taken for petulancy and peevishness When some degree of frowardness breaks forth it is encountred with that severity which hazards the undoing of the weak Part that should and might be healed And their dis-satisfaction is judged the effect of incurable pride and malice This perturbation of judgment begets a great distemper in publick Councils Wherefore let persons bearing Rule watch over this dangerous passion and dread its tyranny First let not perversness be always imputed to the non-compliancs of the inferiour Party God hath put it into the Kings heart to extend compassion to multitudes of His Loyal Subjects in taking off the rigour of sundry impositions in matters Ecclesiastical and they think it good to make use of those His Majesties Concessions without the prejudice of any part of Religion or of order and decency in the Church Others that should have helped forwards His Majesties design of Peace are offended saying The Presbyterians yield in nothing the late indulgence hath made them more resolved against all points of Conformity but why should their eye be evil because His Majesties eye is good Have the Presbyterians abated nothing when for peace sake they have declared a readiness to part with the Presbyterian platform of Church-Government which is used in other Reformed Churches and to submit to a regulated Episcopacy as also to wave the Directory for Worship and to accept a Reformed Liturgy Indifferent men would judge that this is a good advance towards peace and that a closure is hereby really intended But what have the Prelatists done in testimony of their moderation Have they desisted from the use of any one of the former Ceremonies even such as be not injoyned by any Law or Canon Suppose some of the Presbyterians be they few or many do as yet forbear the using of some Forms which they apprehend not simply unlawful perhaps some reason of scandal may cause this forbearance otherwise to the injudicious they might seem to contradict their own Principles out of servile fear or for worldly ends and the malicious might take occasion though none were given to reproach them for temporizing Now it concerns Christs Ministers to prevent what in them lies not onely a just but even an unjust and causeless contempt of their Ministry Besides they are not willing that some persons of good affections but weaker judgments should take offence at their early and easie compliance and so fall into down-right separation The Presbyterians attend a good Reformation and all necessary inlargement that may encompass and gather together in one all that are of sound belief and good life who have been so long scattered abroad Nothing therefore appears but that they have hitherto conscienciously and judiciously made use of His Majesties Favour and with great thankfulness have they expressed their sence thereof in their acknowledgments to God and men His Royal and Paternal Charity is precious to them But suppose that some of this way were guilty of some provoking frowardness should grave Patriots and wise Counsellors thereupon destroy the weak part or rather heal it A prudent Father is not so provoked by the stubbornness of a Child as to cast him out and make him desperate whilest there is yet hope concerning him It is meet indeed for Princes to express their just indignation when Subjects presuming on their clemency do not contain themselves within their duty and the seasonable expression of such disdain wisely managed is of great force in Government nevertheless if it get the mastery it is exceeding perillous It was the Counsel of indignation that proceeded from Rehoboam's young Counsellors But there is yet a greater mischief when the cloud of this passion darkens the Understanding that it cannot distinguish between present dis-satisfaction and incurable pride and malice When a peoples present dis-satisfaction about remediable grievances shall be deemed implacable enmity commonly pernicions councels take place Then it will be suggested to a Prince that the Acts of Grace bestowed upon such a people make them but the more insolent For none may hope to overcome pride by condescention or
changes it may be concluded that they will not easily run the hazard of abetting any Parties in contradiction to Him But this is happily or unhappily suggested as it is turned to a good or a bad use Though evil Counsels may turn it to a bad use yet it yields unspeakable advantage to the wholesome Counsels both of King and People for the good of both The people knowing that acquiescence in present things is their best security will not be given to change and the King knowing the peoples indisposition to abet a change will have little occasion of jealousie And their mutuall confidence which is the strongest bond of peace will lead them without rub or let into a setled mutuall happiness But it is not good advice to neglect a peoples interest or to use them with less regard because they are willing to hug their own peace in any tolerable condition The Soveraigns greatness and the peoples freedom are but one fabrick resting upon the same fundamental constitution If you shake the one you shake the other also I detest and abhorre the tumults and insurrections of the people and the resisting of the Soveraign power Let wickedness proceed from the wicked But let none that seek a righteous end tread in unrighteous ways let no wel-minded person be drawn into such a snare of reproach and ruine I am perswaded that the generality of the Presbyterian denomination would indure extremities before they would revenge or defend themselves by unlawfull means as rebelling against their lawfull Soveraign As I finde my own heart so do I judge of others Nevertheless let a wise Prince consider that the divine providence can by ways without number change the face and state of things when a dissatisfied conscientious party shall not stir one foot to indeavour a change Wherefore let Counsels of safety and stability take place that a Princes interest may stand firm against all assaults of unexpected accidents Section XXXVIII It hath been judged a Maxime in Policy that to head faction is agreeable to one aspiring to soveraignty but not to one possessed of it Also that to uphold division is the way to subdue a people but not to hold them in firm obedience when subbu'd Machiavel shews the inconvenience that ariseth to a Prince by holding a people under his Government divided into factions because he will be inclined as all by nature are to take part in any thing that is divided and to be pleased more with this then with that party whereupon the other is discontented And he brings in a pertinent story That in the year 1501. a Gentleman sent by the King of France into Italy to cause restitution of certain lost Towns to the Florentines finding in every one of those Fortresses men who when they came to visit him said that they were of such a faction much blamed their division saying that in France if one of the Kings subjects should say he were of the Kings party he should be punished because such a speech would signifie no less then that there were in the Country people enemies to the King whereas the King willeth that all those Towns be his friends and united within themselves Let me rehearse the Counsell of our late Soveraign to His Majesty that now is Take heed of abetting any Faction or applying to any publick discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your own judgement and the Churches well settled Your partial adhering as head to any one side gains you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion as it loseth you in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either with calmnesse and charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of power that you need not to fear or flatter any Faction Now if the case were such that one party were the Kings onely Confidents and that the other cannot be faithful to him upon immutable grounds and reasons then policy would advise him so to order things in point of power that he need not fear nor flatter the adverse party But it is evident that the Presbyterians love the King and Kingly Government and account themselves happy in His Majesties clemency allowing them a just and inoffensive liberty in certain matters of Conscience It is also evident to all impartial Judgements that his Majesties calmness and charity may remove the seeming differencies and offences on their part They are ready to comply with Episcopacy regulated and Liturgy corrected and they preferre union by accommodation before Toleration with Division Section XXXIX If it be obiected that the King by carrying an even hand between both parties will insure neither for both will remain dissatisfied I reply this argument were of force if the differences must remain uncompounded and the parties publickly divided into two opposite societies but we lay this for a ground-work that these twain are to be made one as to publick communion in divine worship and to an agreement in one common interest relating both to the Protestant Religion and to this Kingdom which His Majesties wisedom may accomplish by a prudent disposing of those things which indifferently belong to both and wherein they both agree and in divers things that are peculiar to this or that side he may gratifie the one and the other with moderation as when the favours vouchsafed to the one are not injurious to the others peace In which case indeed here may remain men of different perswasions but not of divided parties and interests Besides if some on either hand should become turbulent and cry we will have all or none yet the greater number yea the main body of either side may be found of calmer judgments and affections who together with a multitude of wise and well minded persons that are indifferent between both perswasions would cause the violent ones to keep within bounds And as many of those passionate men as have any judgment will discern that they are without hope of prevailing and disadvantage themselves by opposing the common interest and quiet of the Nation Section XL. His Majesty is a great King he is King indeed and reigns in great power over a willing people He hath in his hands the joynt stock or common interest of the whole Nation Neither of these grand parties can subsist without him and this gives him assurance that they are and must be both his It is manifest that his interest hath gotten the preheminence over all partial interests as indeed it ought For if the Prince be not in this regard transscendent he is ready to be laid low Wise men inform us that a Prince by adhering to one Faction may in time lift it up above his own Imperial interest which will be forced to give way to it as the lesser to the greater And the prime leaders of the potent
glistering furniture thereof in the secular dignities and jurisdictions of the higher rank of Ecclesiasticks in the implicite faith of the Laicks and in a formal uniformity in the outside of Religion Or in the powerful preaching of the Gospel by able Ministers of the New Testament in the lively and spiritual manner of prayer in the dispensation of Sacraments after a manner most effectual to the increase of knowledge faith and virtue in the exercise of discipline to correct all contumacious disobedience against the known laws of Christ our King and Law-giver and all performed in a comely order with a grave and sober decency Let all unprejudiced minds give judgement which of these two different states of Religion doth most express the Gospel-ministration which is called the ministration of the Spirit and is incomparably more glorious and powerful then the Mosaical dispensation with all its outward and visible splendor Let them also judge which of these two is most conformable to the state of the primitive times wherein the Christian Church not by an arm of flesh and the wisdom of this world but by weapons mighty through God as the Evangelical doctrine and discipline the holiness of believers the constancy of Martyrs overturned the Kingdom of Satan and advanced the Kingdom of Christ where Satans Throne was in opposition to the power of the Roman Empire the wisedom of the learned Heathens the counsels of Polititians the potency of ancient Customs the inveterate prejudice of all sorts of people and lastly in opposition to the Devil reigning and raging in them all Wherefore let us mind the true way of restoring the Christian Religion to its primitive power and glory Section LI. It is a happy frame and order when things are setled for general satisfaction that none or very few of the serious people desire an alteration but all or most of them dread it as also when things are setled for stability that none who have a will to it can encompass an alteration It is a happy thing to light upon the way that leads to this satisfaction and to this stability In religion the way of general satisfaction is not to gratifie the humour and appetite of one or more parties but to secure the consciences of the judicious and sober minded in general For such on all sides will sway most for continuance and if they be satisfied intemperate and unquiet spirits would quickly be out of breath in their rash attempts Likewise the way of stability that none may succesfully project a change is to prevent mens running into extreams on either hand For when one extream prevaileth a change easily followeth In this case it fares with the Church as with civil States A principality heightened into Tyranny tumbles down into Anarchy and a Republick too much cherishing popular extravagancies lifts up a tyranny Now the way to prevent extreams is either to chuse moderate spirits or else a ballancing number of the opposite parties to the managing of publick affairs In which election a Prince doth not appear as a Neuter but as a moderator and true Governour that hath the command of all interests Section LII And now having pursued Peace to the utmost of my small ability in these pacifick Discourses I hope this diligent search after the knowledg of good and evil in this kind will not be judged an eating of the forbidden fruit an ambitious and bold inquiry into things not to be made known For it is not a curious or presumptuous intruding into the Counsels of Princes and secrets of Government but a modest and sober deliberation upon things open and manifest and of publick inquisition and discourse Besides it is an extraordinary time wherein there are great thoughts yea great searchings of heart in men of all degrees and all perswasions It is true that this Nation is not erecting a new Kingdom nor laying new foundations of Government yet it is no less true that this restauration is as it were life from the dead and we are in some sort beginning the world anew It is a notable Epocha or period of time giving opportunity to cut off excesses to make up defects and to make crooked things straight before we be fixed and ingaged in particular wayes from which though never so incenvenient we may not be able to draw back or turn aside It is affirmed by one of piercing knowledge in affairs of this nature that it is a profitable order in a Commonwealth for any one to propose what is for the publick good Surely the Kingdom cannot suffer by the proposals of the meanest persons when they touch not upon the fundamental Constitution nor disturb publick peace and order This Discourse offers no disturbance to such Forms and Orders as have attained a quiet stated posture in these times The Lawes have made some alteration in things of former use and practice as the Act for abolishing the high Commission The times have made more alterations in mens minds and wayes and his Majesty hath observed a necessity or at least expediency of some alterations whereby the minds of men may be composed and the peace of the Church established declaring That he hath not the least doubt but the present Bishops will think that the Concessions made by him to allay the present Distempers are very just and reasonable Lastly The scope of this Treatise doth justifie and defend it self whereof the bare narration is a full Vindication For the sum of the whole matter is to perswade a turning from the advancement of a partial Interest and a turning to the obvious and easie way of giving general satisfaction to all those that acknowledge the Church of England to be a true Church and are willing to abide in her Communion FINIS An Advertisment to the Reader THere are lately Printed twenty one Sermons Preached upon severall occasions By Edward Reynolds D. in Divinity and Bishop of Norwich in quarto None of which are contained in his large Volume And are to be sold at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1661.