as intire and firm as ever Hitherto I have asserted the Interest of the Universality in opposition to the advancement of a partial Interest I have endeavoured to make it manifest That the several Parties by a mutual yielding and waving their partial Interests may be united to promote the Interest of the Universality for I have laid these ground-works to wit That the breach is not kept open by any formed Doctrine or Conclusion of either Party nor as I trust by the spirit of everlasting enmity but either by a humour of opposition that may be qualified and subdued or by some carnal design which may and must be denied when its errour and danger is discovered In the remainder of this Discourse I am to shew That the Presbyterians are fit and worthy to be imbodied with the whole number of the good people of England in the next place to perswade the Union by several Arguments and then to remove certain impediments and to argue from the particular concernments of the King of the Nobility and Gentry and of the Episcopal Clergy and lastly to offer some few essays concerning the paths of Peace Section XVIII Saint Paul was sometimes constrained by the weakness of some and the malice of others to boast on his own behalf and to Apologize again and again for speaking as a fool I trust therefore that wise men will bear with that unto which the like necessity compels me on the behalf of the people that are now denominated Presbyterian In estimating the numbers of this perswasion it is not the right way to go by the Poll throughout all sorts promiscuously but to take a survey of the intelligent and active sort of the people and in that sort to compare their number with others Howbeit in any way of reckoning suppose them the lesser yet they may be found a balancing number But I am willing to pass from number to weight They that will not acknowledge them to be sincere cannot deny them to be serious persons they that will not acknowledge them to be sober in their judgements cannot deny them to be sober in their conversations But we know they are both serious and sincere and sober as well in Religion as in Morality and a few sober people are more valuable both for Religious and Civil concernments than a multitude of dissolute or vain and empty persons One serious rational man will carry more in fit opportunities than all the vapourers in the neighbourhood Those that are ill affected to the Presbyterians commonly despise them as an unlearned dull sort of men knowing nothing Truly we will not herein boast beyond our line nor magnifie those of our own perswasion in derogation to any others but we think that this disparagement is cast upon them because they are commonly no vapourers Surely they have amongst them both Divines and Gentlemen who do not use to turn their backs upon gainsayers but have been and will be ready to render a reason of their judgment and practice to any that shall demand it of them Nevertheless we do not envy the learning of any Episcopal Divines but gladly acknowledge it and desire to partake in the benefit of it and wish that whatsoever gift is received by any may be more and more servicable to the Church of God Neither are they an ignoble abject sort it hath not at all appeared that they have degenerated from the English Virtue and Valour They have for common tranquility and safety closed with the first opportunity for a general accord and so have knowingly made way for the reviving of the other Party supposing that the former enmity would cease And they had reason to hope that amidst the joy of the Nation they should not be left in sadness The present interruption and check given to this expected reconciliation we attribute to the hurry of mens minds upon this great and unexpected change by which it happeneth that they scarce know where they are and hardly contain themselves within due bounds But we trust that these passions will be over and the spirits of all will settle in a calm and good temper Hitherto the contradictions may pass for the effects of passion not of inveterate malice wherefore dum res est integra let second thoughts be milder A quick passage of Count Olivares touching the right way of Accommodation may be pertinent to this business Our late Soveraign when Prince of Wales being in the Spanish Court in pursuance of the marriage with the Infanta of Spain and the Negotiation being clogged with many interruptions discontents and jealousies and all being like to fall asunder Olivares whether in humour or earnest propounded these three ways The first That Prince Charles should become a Catholique The second That the Infanta should be delivered unto him upon the former security without further Condition The third was To bind him as fast as they could and not to trust him with any thing Of these three ways he said the two former were good but the last was a bad one In like manner might a discerning Prelatist resolve that there be three ways of bringing these disputes to an issue The first That the Presbyterians should voluntarily become Episcopal and thorowly conformable The second That the way of brotherly accord should be held open and secure to them by an equal Accommodation The third That they be trusted in nothing but bound up fast by the hardest Condition that can be imposed Of these three ways let him conclude with respect to his own interest that the two former are good but the last very bad Section XIX Much partiality and prejudice hath gotten the sway in those men that speak and act as if there were cause to fear none to curb none to provide remedies against none but Presbyterians Was England acquainted with no troubles or infested with no intestine broyls before this kind of men arose Are these the proper enemies of England Let them know that the true intestine Enemies of any State are those within it that depend upon Forreign Interests and on whom Forreign States have influence A great States-man makes it one fundamental maxime of Queen ELIZABETH to banish hence the exercise of the Roman Religion because it was the onely means to break all the plots of the Spaniards who under this pretext did here foment Rebellion Upon the same ground the Law banisheth Popish Priests that Forreign influences might not distemper this Kingdom But the Presbyterians can have no temptation to tamper with Forreign Combinations for their Interest is precisely and perfectly Protestant and for their unreconcilableness to the Church of Rome their greatest adversaries will bear them witness And when ever this Land shall have need of help against its chiefest Enemies they will be found so true to the Interest of England as none more and consequently must and will be interessed in its defence Wherefore let England have regard to those that must be her fast friends not only for
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
and hope of Order And by his able Conduct of Affairs he became less hated and more feared then at the first yet not beloved His chiefest Grandees in Council and Army he made nothing to cashiere when they appeared to take check at his Proceedings and so he seemed to have made a fair progress in the establishing of his new Dominion But the truth is that Party and those means by which he obtained the Power would in no wise permit him to make it sure His Army was not like that of Caesar who had no other aim than to make their General Lord of the Roman World and to share in his fortunes But it was acted by working Spirits zealous of peculiar Notions touching things both Religious and Civil utterly repugnant to the way of generall Satisfaction and National Settlement And not onely those of the standing Army but the whole body of that irregular Party throughout the Nation did generally oppose the Kingship of this Person who was their head and Chief conceiving that the best insuring of their Interest was not by way of legal Stability but Sword-security This old Leaven their chief Commander could not purge out and this Veterane Party could not with safety be abandoned or neglected until a larger tract of time might beget a better confidence between him and the sober part of the people But in this unsetled posture being taken off by death he leaves all to a Successor depending rather upon the Courtesie of the present Grandees and the peoples peaceable inclination than any potent abilities or interest of his own After a while the wild spirit of the Army before manacled brake loose and instantly dissolved the whole frame of that new Model Forthwith they run into inextricable Errours and Mazes through unstable and head-long Counsels they do and undo build up and pull down the samethings and are always reeling upon the brink of a Precipice And at last to hasten an inevitable ruine the Army and Party combined with it is divided against it self the bonds of Union are broken and things brought into extream disorder by a spirit of Ambition Giddiness Perversness Fury Section II. The Nation grows impatient of these confusions and conceives just indignation at the disgrace and scorn cast upon it by such ridiculous changes and absurd motions in Government Considerate men saw plainly that the state of England was grown poor and feeble and must needs langush more and more till it hath no strength left to resist any Invader or to subsist under its own charge and burthen The thoughts of men in general fix upon the exiled Royal Family as alone sacred to Soveraignty and alone able by reason of its extensive and grounded Interest to hold and manage it In this juncture of time the unruly motions and projects of the prevailing part of the Army received some check by a Chieftain of High Trust yet not of the Army-spirit Presently the three Kingdoms gaze upon him musing what is the design and what may be the issue of his single opposition Being a Person deliberate reserved and resolute by ambiguous expressions and winding Traverses he amuzes all parties and feels his way step by step till he finds when to declare and where to fix himself At length a full Tide of concurring accidents carries him to a closure with the sober part of the Parliamentary party who from first to last intended only a Reformation and due regulation of things in Church and State but abhorred the thought of destroying the King or changing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Whereupon the doors were set open to the Re-admission of the Secluded Members which necessarily drew after it the restoring of King Lords and Commons according to the ancient constitution Nor was it possible in that state of things that any other party could peaceably bring about this much desired and long expected end For the Souldiery however changed and much qualified were not so manageable as to have indured the stirring of those who were then called Royalists but in any such appearance they were in all reason likely to have deserted their General and from that rooted principle of self-preservation to have taken such ways and counsels as might put things to a stand if not to the utmost hazard But those prudent and sober-minded Patriots being re-assembled after so long Exclusion to put a Period to those disorders did not only prevent the aforesaid mischief but also beget a good measure of quietness and confidence in the minds of that party which conscientiously adhered to them in the first Cause asserted by both Houses of Parliament in as much as these longed for nothing more then the securing of the true Reformed Protestant Religion and their Civil Rights and Liberties upon the ancient Foundations and esteemed the legal settlement of the Kingdom to be that regular way wherein they might expect that God should meet them and bless them and give them peace and wherein whatever happens they should finde security and satisfaction to their own Consciences Thus the Divine Providence having first prepared the way brings back King Charles the Second drawn in the swiftest Chariots even the affections of his willing people and amidst their triumphant acclamations peaceably sets him upon the Throne of his Royal Progenitors And there let him long sit and reign and let his House and Kingdom be established throughout all Ages And verily in this great turning time it is of the highest importance to inquire and search how the King and Kingdom who in so wonderful manner have been restored to each other may be put into a stable possession of peace happiness and security unto all mutual complacency and satisfaction Section III. After a dreadful Earthquake shaking all the Powers of the Kingdom and overturning the very Foundations and after a new frame of things erected standing for divers years and seemingly stated for perpetuity the Regal Family and Government is raised up again not by the power or policy of that party who fought under the Banner of his late Majesty in the Wars between Him and both Houses of Parliament But by the restless desire of the Nation and the vigorous actings of the City of London with the concurrence of the Secluded Members of the Long Parliament in conjunction with that Renowned Person who then held the power of the Sword Which it pleased the King to take notice of according to His Princely Condescention in His Gracious Speech to the House of Peers for hastening the Act of Indempnity My Lords if you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing those fears which keep mens hearts awake and apprehensive of safety and security you keep Me from performing my promise which if I had not made I am perswaded that neither I nor you had been now here I pray you let Us not deceive those who brought Us or permitted Us to come together His Majesty thus brought back to a willing and free-spirited people by their own Act
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 contest with Princes and Nobles and all ranks and degrees about their Immunities Priviledges Pre-eminencies to multiply Constitutions and Ceremonies for props to their own Greatness but not to promote the Spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of people according to the life and power of Christianity The above-named Venetian Gentleman in his Narrative of the Popes Nuncio delivers this Maxime That the Court of Rome in perpetual pursuance of its old pretences is more sollicitous and laborious to reverse and destroy the Oath of Allegiance because it seems contrary to its temporall grandeur then to extirpate such Heresies as the Realm of England is infected with Even so such an Hierarchy will be more industrious and careful to establish and enlarge their own Power Dignity then to maintain and propagate Christs true Religion What are the weapons of the Warfare by which this Mystical State prevails Not such as are mighty through God working upon the conscience but pecuniary Mulcts and greater temporal penalties not to the wounding of the spirit but to the breaking of the outward estate By what wayes and methods must it be advanced The constant and practical preaching of the Word must be discountenanced Snares must be laid for the most zealous Ministers Sports and pastimes on the Sabbath dayes must be held forth with allowance and approbation Men of strict lives and serious in Religion must be reproached for Fanaticks By these means a people being first enthralled to ignorance superstition and profaness will be disposed unto blinde obedience and perfect spiritual bondage For in very deed the State here described will never stand safely among a people that are free serious searching and discerning in matters of Religion For this cause an Hierarchy of this nature hath a strong bias towards Popery Nay it must for its own safety approach as near it as the Nation can well bear The Reformed Religion doth not glory in the vast riches outward pomp and splendour of Ecclesiastical persons Wherefore when the grandeur of Prelates and pomp of Ceremonies is affected and admired the Church of Rome is sure to finde favour in the eyes of the Clergy The said Venetian reports That the Universities Bishops and Divines of this Realm dayly imbrace Catholick Opinions though they profess them not with open mouth for fear of the Puritans In this matter let them stand or fall by the evidence of their own writings Let it be well observed that the designes of suppressing Puritans and complying with Papists in this Nation had their beginning both at once and proceeded in equal paces And it hath appeared that the moderate Cassandrian Grotian Popery was no abomination to many Prelatists The Conciliators of our age have judged Papists and moderate Protestants as they call them very reconcileable but have cast the Calvinists or Puritans without the limits of the pacification Wherefore we cannot conceive that the excessive height of Prelacy I say not this of regulated Episcopacy to be the strongest Bulwark against Popery unless by Popery is meant no more then what the Trent Fathers except the Italians generally opposed to wit the stupendious exorbitant power of the Pope who pretends to be not only Supream but in effect sole Bishop of the Universe as reputing all other Bishops his meer subjects and delegates We confess Popery in this new and strict notion might be controlled by the height of Prelacy But according to a vulgar sence we take Popery in the height thereof for the Heresies and Idolatries and in the lower degree thereof for the gross errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome Section XXXII Moreover pure necessity in that state will constrain the Hierarchy to negotiate with Rome if they subvert and ruine the Presbyterians If in such a case they intend to uphold a Protestant State they understand not their own concernment The Bishops must either retreat to a moderate compliance with Presbyteriaus or advance to a reconciliation with Papists If they had a design to extirpate the Presbyterians and could accomplish it are they able afterwards alone and by themselves to bear up against the main force and to withstand all the wiles and methods of the popish Faction at home and abroad They mistake themselves if they think their unalterable adherents are so numerous and powerful In case they dissipate that other party which hath been always found most active vigorous and vigilant against Romish Encroachments what remains besides themselves and their zealots but a common dronish multitude that will do little for any religion or men of loose principles that would easily embrace Popery as a flesh-pleasing Religion When the common people are left to ignorance and prophaness for servile ends and purposes they are thoroughly prepared for Popery which is a gross sensual formal pompous way agreeable to the multitude whereas Fanaticism the other extreme takes but with a few in comparison because it hath something of pretended illuminations spiritual notions and raptures to which the common multitude is not propense If you ask how hath Prelacy held it out hitherto against Popery even from the first Reformation take notice that the Episcopal Clergy did not go about to exterminate the Puritans before their latter times and then he that had half an eye could discern the notable advance and the confident expectations of the Popish faction Section XXXIII Do any persons conceive a Reconciliation with Rome hopeful or possible upon moderate tearms as they suppose namely the permission of the marriage of Priests the Popes Dispensation for the Oaths of Allegiance and Supermacy so far as it concerns the Kings temporal power the administring of the Communion in both kinds and the Liturgy officiated in the English Tongue Let them observe that Panzani the Popes Nuncio in England declared privately to his intimate friend that the Pope would never admit any man to govern here as Bishop meaning over the Catholicks that should favour the Oath of Allegiance And the reason hereof is evident because it is a thing contrary to the maxims of Rome Moreover in that little History of the said Nuncio there is a passage which being well considered doth evince that the Courts of England and Rome are irreconcileable unless England become intirely papal That Author saith That this Realm is so perversly addicted to maintain its own resolute opinion of excluding the Popes authority that this hath been the cause why the Catholicks who for the first twelve years conformed themselves unto the Politie introduced into the Church of England have since separated from it and to testifie their uniting to the Pope have refused to frequent the Protestant Churches and have therby framed one party in that State Let a fair accord in the general be supposed yet the sole point of the Popes Supremacy shal dash the whole agreement We know that Jesuitism is the predominant humour in the Papacy and nothing can be done without their influence and therefore we cannot
hath not happened by the prevailing force of one Party but by the unstrained motion of all England what reason is there that one Party should thrust the other out of its due place of rest upon the common Foundation When common consent hath laid this excellent Foundation of peace and quietness let not the Superstructure of particular unnecessary forms cast off some as a divided and rejected Party but let that which hath made peace keep peace which by Gods help it will surely do if timely observed and followed Section XXVI We cannot gain say but the composure of these differences hath much difficulty and requires much prudence care and patience in those that are at the helm of Government Nevertheless it may be effected if the judicious on both sides will give consent and they will give consent if they have a single aim to procure the peace of Gods Church and the increase thereof and particularly the increase and stability of Protestant Religion Suppose the Roman Grecian Armenian Ethiopick together with all the Protestant Churches yea and the whole Christian world might be drawn into one Church-Communion and Order upon as easie tearms as English Prelatists and Presbyterians may if they have a heart to it were it not prodigious uncharitableness and fury of opposition to withstand it As all the Lovers of Christianism would pursue the Union of all Christian Churches upon such tearms so should all the Lovers of Protestantism pursue the Union of all Protestant Churches seeing the Doctrines wherein they harmoniously agree will enable them to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace if the heart be not opposite to the power of those professed Doctrines To heal the wounds of the Protestant Cause how glorious is it But to refuse and withstand this healing how doth it cause the Popish faction to glory against us Let not our adversaries rejoyce nor the uncircumcised glory in our shame Section XXVII We have the examples of Christian Princes even of those of the Roman Faith who would gladly have made up breaches in Religion among their people by yielding in things of greater moment in the Church of Rome then any of the points in question are among disagreeing Protestants In the Council of Trent Ferdinand the Emperour and Maximilian his son King of the Romans and the French King and the Duke of Bavaria made it their business by their Embassadors for quieting of their Dominions that the Communion of the Sacrament in both kinds the Marriage of Priests and Divine Service in the vulgar tongue might be allowed These things are of greater importance among the Papists then the things now in question are among the Protestants of either perswasion if we judge by their declared Opinions and not by some hidden design And those forenamed Princes would surely have taken that way for uniting their people had their power been independent in matter of Religion but having dependance upon the See of Rome they could do nothing without the Authority either of the Pope or the Council from either of which they perceived after much instance that such Reformation could not be hoped for Moreover those Princes being of the Roman Faith had a fairer pretence according to Popish Principles to crush the dissenting Part of their Subjects by laying Heresie to their charge and so in time to root them out then any Protestant State can have to extirpate the Presbyterians Likewise the Emperour Charles the fifth after his great Atchievements designing to establish an intire Dominion in Germany conceived that his way was to unite the German Nation in point of Religion by a kind of reformation or Accommodation for which he laboured so much in procuring and upholding the Trent-Council until at length despairing of his Sons succession in the Empire he laid aside all thoughts of restoring the ancient Religion in Germany and by consequence all care of the Council though he continued many years after in the Imperial Authority Now though all these Princes were deceived in expecting such a Union by means of that Council which by reason of divers and important Interests of Princes and Prelates could not possibly have such an end as was by some of them desired yet herein they took not their aim amiss that the re-uniting of their broken people by using a Temper and Accommodation was the best way to keep their Estates intire Section XXVIII I am the more importunate in pressing home the motion of brotherly Agreement considering the time which may be the only time For the present condition of these Affairs seem like to the state of a sick body which Physitians call a Crisis when nature and the disease are in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the conflict to carry it for life or death Peace and Concord in Religion seems now to approach to its Crisis whether it shall prevail and live or dye and fail for ever It may justly be feared that the time is now or never For if after so long and sad divisions and the calamitous effects thereof an implacable spirit shall be seen to bear sway in this time of restauration and expected union it may beget a despair of all future reconciliation If after such and so long calamities all the concurring circumstances of the late Revolution will not incline mens heares to Peace what will do it This is a day of gracious Visitation Happy England if in this its day it knows the things that belong to its Peace Having pressed the Vnion by these Arguments I proceed to remove certain impediments Section XXIX One great impediment is an erroneous judgment touching the times foregoing the late Wars For as much as great and manifold distempers have happened and continued in this Land since the beginning of these troubles the defects of former times are quite forgotten as it commonly comes to pass that latter miseries it drawn out to any length do drown the rememberance of by-past evils but he who discerns only things at hand and not affar off is purblind I abhor to take upon me the defence of our late distracted times the distempers whereof I would not in any wise palliate Nevertheless let this be noted distempers have their times of breeding as well as of breaking forth Certainly that dismal Tempest which succeeded the long Calm in this Nation had its time of gathering in the Clouds To heal the symptomes of a disease its rooted cause being neglected is but a palliative cure To take away the irregularities of these latter times and not to inquire into the former causes is to hide but not to heal the maladies of this Kingdom Section XXX Another errour which turns away mens eyes from beholding the true state of their own affairs is a contempt of the dissenting Party and of their Opinions as silly and irrational with which is joyned a vain conceit that the whole Party with their Opinions would soon fall to the ground if a few turbulent and factious spirits as