the degenerate and corrupt times We see the greatest Kings and Monarchs have their Councels There is no Temporal Councel in England of the higher sort where the Authority doth rest in one person Again he saith Bishops have their infirmities and have no exception from that general malediction which is pronounced against all men living Vaesoli c. Nay we see the first warrant in spiritual causes is directed to a number Dic Ecclesiae which is not so in temporal matters Again we see that the Bishop of Rome fas est ab hoste doceri and no question in that Church the first Institutions are excellent performeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as in Consistory and whereof consisteth this Consistory but of the Parish Priests of Rome which term themselves Cardinals à Cardinibus Mundi because the Bishop thereof pretendeth to be universal over the whole world Touching the second point the deputation of their Authority he saith the Bishop exerciseth his Jurisdiction by his Chancellor and Commissary official c. We see in all Laws in the world offices of confidence and skill cannot be put over nor exercised by Deputy except it be especially contained in the Original Grant and then it becomes dutiful There was never any Judge that made a Deputy The Bishop is a Judge and of an high nature whence cometh it that he should depute considering all trust and confidence is personal and inherent and cannot or ought not to be transposed Surely in this again ab initio non fuit ita But it is probable that Bishops when they gave themselves too much to the glory of the world and became Grandees in Kingdomes and great Councellors to Princes then did they deleague their proper Jurisdiction as things of too inferiour a nature for their greatness and then after the similitude of Kings and Count Palatines they would have their Chancellours and Judges This and much more hath that great Scholar Lawyer and States-man observed in that excellent discourse Yea our late Soveraign in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two Houses in point of Church-Government declares in these words that he is not against the managing of the Episcopal presidency in one man by the joynt counsel and consent of many Presbyters but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errours and corruptions and partialities which are incident to any one man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men besides it will be a means to take away that odium and burden of affairs which may lye too heavy on one mans shoulders as he thought it did formerly on the Bishops here Section XXXVIII By the desired reduction of Prelacy to the coalition of Episcopacy and Presbytery in a due temperament His Majesty will be so far from giving up or weakning that power and influence which in right and reason he ought to have over Church and State that he will thereby gain a surer and a larger interest Bishops lessened in power and encreased in number and resident in the Churches and duly dispencing the Word and Sacraments are not like to alienate the King from Parliaments nor Parliaments and people from the King but will become more popular and able to fix the hearts of the people to obedience and loyalty And this popularity of Bishops and Presbyters being alone without potency is no rational ground of distrust or jealousie to the King For their influence upon others will not be from greatness of power and command but from venerable esteem and reputation and that stands upon their prudent pious and peaceable behaviour Besides his Majesty can easily keep them in such dependence on himself as that he shall not hold this interest at their courtesie Do any suggest the Presbyterians may grow upon him Surely there are and will be enough to balance them Certainly they have seen so little good of changes that a reasonable condition with security will be acceptable to them Undoubtedly the union of both parties by an equal accommodation is the interest of Prince and people the strength and stability of King and Kingdom Let neither side lay hold on present mutable advantages to press them too far but let all consider what will stand with lasting tranquillity And above all let his Majesties wisdom who hath the high concernment of three Kingdoms for himself and his Heirs for ever lay a good and solid foundation for the time to come Section XXXIX Finally this accomodation is the interest of Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Head of the Church in as much as it takes in and secures thousands of godly able Orthodox Ministers thousands and ten thousands of godly peaceable Christians who otherwise might be rejected and oppressed And it may well be acceptable to the whole Christian world because it bears conformity to the whole State of Christendom to the forreign reformed Churches in Presbytery to the rest of the Churches in Episcopacy and to the ancient Church next to the Primitive times in the orderly conjunction of Episcopacy and Presbytery FINIS THE Second Part OF THE Interest of England In the Matter of Religion Unfolded in a Deliberative Discourse PROVING That it is not agreeable to sound Reason to prefer the Contracted and Dividing Interest of one Party before the general Interest of Protestantism and of the whole Kingdom of England in which the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties may be happily United Written by J. Corbet Rector of Bramshot The second Impression Corrected and amended LONDON Printed for George Thomason and are to be sold at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Church-yard 1661. I Intreat the Reader to take notice That in these Discourses I do not mention parties to maintain Division but to procure Vnion That necessity compels me to use those names of difference which I heartily wish might be no more remembred But whilst disagreeing Parties last names of difference cannot cease and to forbear their use is to little purpose My business is to take things as I find them and to state the Case between the Dissenters and to shew how far they agree and how little they differ for this end That Parties both Name and Thing might cease for ever Moreover as I use not the name of Presbyterian in the way of glorying so I use not the name of Prelate or Prelatist in way of reproach but meerly for distinction sake and I have warrant for it from the friends of Prelacy with whom it is not unusual to mention the name of Prelate in an honourable Sence The Second Part of the Interest of England in the Matter of Religion THe former Treatise of the Interest of England in the Matter of Religion makes known the way of peace in the reconciling of those two grand Parties the Episcopal and Presbyterian which if made one would take in and carry along the strength of almost the whole Nation The whole structure thereof rests upon these Positions as
indulgent to Presbytery withstood the re-ordaining of those Scottish Presbyters elect Bishops upon this reason That they might not seem to question the Ministry of the Reformed Churches For which cause who can forbear to censure the palpable absurdity of some latter Prelatists that unchurch all the forreign Reformed Churches and nullifie their Ministery and Ordinances They have taken up a most destructive killing opinion which 〈◊〉 the unspeakable advantage of the Romish Church lets out the Vitals of the Protestant Cause and Religion And shall any that are hearty Protestants be fond of such Opinionists Moreover it is no less evident that the Prelacy as it stood in England is without the warrant of Divine right and that not only in regard of Lordly titles and exercise of temporal Dominion but also in regard of sole Jurisdiction and deputation of power Is there any text in the Scripture where the name and work of a Bishop is appropriated to a superior Order or degree in the Ministery Do not all the texts of Scripture that mention the name and work of a Bishop attribute both to all ordained Ministers Can there be a clearer evidence that a Bishop and Presbyter is the same spirituall Officer Besides to maintain the Divine right of Prelacy it sufficeth not to shew from Scripture any kinde of difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter unless it can be likewise proved that the Bishop is the alone subject or receptacle of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that he alone hath rule and government over all the Presbyters within his limits yea and over all the Churches leaving no power to the Presbyters but to execute his Injunctions But there is nothing more express then that the Holy Ghost hath made all Presbyters to be Bishops or Overseers and hath commanded them to rule the Church and to exercise Episcopacy or to take the oversight thereof And that this is the sence of the Church of England is manifest by appointing the exhortation of Saint Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus and the character and qualification of Bishops written by the same Apostle unto Timothy to be read unto Presbyters at the time of their Ordination Hereupon a late famous Defender of Prelacy was driven to leave the beaten path of Episcopal Divines and to take a new way but to the ruine of the Cause maintained by him He saith That although the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders hath been extended to a second Order in the Church and is now in use onely for them under the name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture times it belonged principally if not only to Bishops there being no evidence that any of that second Order were then instituted though soon after before the Writings of Ignatius such were instituted in all Churches Here it is fully granted that the Scripture Presbyters were Bishops and that the second Order of meer Presbyters which were no Bishops was not then instituted whereupon it follows that a meer Presbyter who is no Bishop is not of divine institution but a meer humane Creature if the holy Scriptures be the perfect Rule of all Divine Institutions Neither is the abatement of Prelacy unto moderate Episcopacy or Presidency any departure from the practice of the ancient Church but a true reviving of the same which was an election made by the Presbyters of one of their own number to preside amongst them and that upon no pretence of Divine Right but for remedy of Schism as Jerome witnesseth And with this Bishop or President the whole Presbytery joyned in the common Government of the Church Bishop Usher plainly shews how easily the ancient form of Government may be revived again and with what little shew of alteration namely by erecting a Suffragan Bishop in every rural Deanery into which every Diocess is subdivided who may every moneth assemble a Synod of all the incumbent Pastors within the Precinct and according to the major part of voices conclude all matters that should be brought into debate before them yet with a liberty to appeal if need require to the Diocesan Provincial National Synods That the number of Bishops should be very much augmented doth evidently appear to all that know and consider the weight of Episcopal Superintendency and the learned Bishop now mentioned gives a hint that their number might be very well conformed to the number of rural Deaneries Surely so many hundred populous Parishes now under the Government of one Bishop might be well divided into many Diocesses ample enough And such a course would make not only for the edifying of the Church by the more effectual inspection of many Bishops for one but also for the advancement of Learning by the multiplication of preferments Wherefore nothing of the Churches being or well-being nothing of Divine Institution or primitive practise doth withstand the reduction of Prelacy to moderate Episcopacy or the ancient Synodical government to which the Presbyterians may conform without repugnancy to their principles Section XXIV The point of Ceremonies comes next under debate And for as much as it concerns Divine Worship it is of high importance and a tender point of Conscience And herein we affirm that the Presbyterian concessions are no way defective but sufficient and ample unto all regular devotion in divine Service All natural expressions of devotion or natural external worship they readily acknowledge as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer and such like which are called natural because nature it self teacheth all Nations to use them without any divine or humane Institution and a rational man by the meer light of nature is directed to them yet not without some government of counsel and discretion For in these things nature is in part determined and limited by the custome of several Ages and Countries and by the difference of several Cases In the act of adoration the prostration of the body is used according to nature in some ages places and occasions and not in others In ancient times the wearing of fackcloth and ashes and renting of clothes were fit expressions of humiliation and that according to nature yet the same suits not with our times For herein nature is subject unto some variety and now adays the wearing of the meanest apparel were sutable in a day of Humiliation because it is now a convenient natural expression of self-abasement and a kind of abstinence Likewise kneeling is a natural prayer-posture but where it cannot be used conveniently standing is naturally agreeable nevertheless neither the one nor the other is necessary where infirmity or other necessity makes it inconvenient Moreover they do not scruple the meer circumstances of order as time place and method without which humane actions cannot be performed They allow and commend all matters of decency as decent Churches or meeting places and furniture as a Pulpit Cloth Communion Cup and a grave habit for a Minister and in holy duties a grave posture of body composed countenance and
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