kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer as also those meer Circumstances of Decency and Order the omission whereof would make the service of God either undecent or less decent As they worship God in the spirit according to the simplicity of Gospel Institutions so they rejoyce in Christ Jesus having no confidence in a legal Righteousness but desire to be found in him who is made unto us Righteousness by gracious Imputation Yet withall they affirm constantly that good works of piety towards God and of Justice and Charity towards men are necessary to salvation Their Doctrine bears full conformity with that of the Reformed Churches held forth in their publiek Confessions and particularly with that of the Church of England in the nine and thirty Articles only one or two passages peradventure excepted so far as they may import the asserting of Prelacy and humane Mysticall Ceremonies They insist much on the necessity of Regeneration and therein lay the groundwork for the practise of godliness They press upon themselves and others the severe exercise not of a Popish outside formall but a spirituall and reall mortification and self-denial according to the power of Christianity They are strict observers of the Lords day and constant in Family prayer They abstain from oaths yea petty oaths and the irreverent usage of Gods name in common discourse and in a word they are sober just and circumspect in their whole behaviour Such is the temper and constitution of this party which in its full latitude lies in the middle between those that affect a Ceremoniall Worship and the height of Hierarchical Government on the one hand and those that reject an ordained Ministery and setled Church order and regular Unity on the other hand Section VI. Within these extensive limits the Presbyterian party contains several thousands of learned godly orthodox Ministers being diligent and profitable Preachers of the Word and exemplary in their Conversation among whom there are not a few that excell in Polemical and Practical Divinity also of the judicious sober serious part of the people in whose affections his Majesty is most concerned they are not the lesser number By means of a practical Ministery this way like the Leaven in the Gospel parable hath spread and seasoned the more considerate and teachable sort in all parts of the Kingdom and especially in the more civilized places as Cities and Towns For indeed such as are of this minde and this way do make Religion their business and imitate the Bereans commended nobleness resolving not to take up Religion upon trust but to search the Scriptures daily whether those things which they hear are so that they may judiciously embrace the truth Adde hereunto that one of his Majesties Kingdoms is Presbyterian Certainly such a people may claim a portion in their Gracious Soveraign and surely he doth not he will not in any wise refuse them Section VII The men of this perswasion are not lukewarm but true Zealots Nevertheless they have no Fellowship with the spirit of Enthusiastical and Anabaptistical Fancy and Frenzy They are no Fanaticks although they begin to be by some abused under that name but they are persons of known learning prudence piety and gravity in great numbers besides of inferiour rank a vaste multitude of knowing serious honest people None of all which are led blindfold by Tradition or Implicite Faith or do run headlong into Fanatick Delusions but they give up themselves to the sole direction and authority of the holy Scriptures Wherefore impartial reason will conclude that they chose this way as with sincerity of affection so with gravity of Judgement and that the things themselves even the more disputable part thereof as that against the Hierarchy and Ceremonies as such as may frequently prevail with good and wise men in as much as they appear to those that have embraced them to have the Impress of Divine Authority and the Character of Evangelical Purity Section VIII For the reasons afore-going the infringement of due Liberty in these matters would perpetuate most unhappy Controversies in the Church from Age to Age. Let the former times come in and give Evidence As touching Ceremonies the Contest began early even in King Edward's Reign between Hooper and other Bishops The Consecration of Hooper Elect Bishop of Glocester being stayed because he refused to wear certain Garments used by Popish Bishops he obtained Letters from the King and from the Earl of Warwick to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others that he might not be burthened with certain Rites and Ceremonies and an Oath commonly used in the Consecration of Bishops which were offensive to his Conscience Nevertheless he found but harsh dealing from his Fellow Bishops whereof some were afterwards his Fellow Martyrs and Ridley among others who afterwards thus wrote unto him when they were both Prisoners for the Gospel However in time past in certain Circumstances and By-matters of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sence and judgement Now be assured that even with my whole heart in the Bowels of Christ I love you in the truth and for the truths sake which abideth in us Some godly Martyrs in Queen Maries days disliked the Ceremonies and none of them died in the defence of Ceremonies Liturgie and Prelacy in opposition to all other Ecclesiasticall Government and Order It was the Protestant Verity which they witnessed and sealed in blood in opposition to Popery especially the prodigious opinion of Transubstantiation and the abomination of the Romish Mass or Sacrifice In the same bloody dayes certain English Protestants being fled for refuge into Germany and setled in Frankford were divided among themselves about the Service-book even with scandalous breach of Charity and in the issue the Congregation was sadly broken and dissipated The Gospel returning under Queen Elizabeth these differnces were revived and held up by Disputes Writings and Addresses to severall Parliaments and there were great thoughts of heart for these Divisions Nevertheless the differences remain uncompounded in process of time severe Canons were framed and with much rigour imposed and so continued Ministers were distinguished into Conformists and Non-Conformists and a multitude of painfull Preachers suffered deprivation for Non-Conformity Be it here observed that the persons known by the name of Non-Conformists were not Separatists but earnestly opposed the separation of the Brownists and held Communion with the Church in publick worship upon this pacifick principle that we may not separate from a true Church blemished with some corruptions and errors while we are not compelled to subscribe to those errors nor in our own practice to submit to those Corruptions Howbe it the greatest part of the Ministers named Puritans yieded Conformity to those controverted Rites and Formes that were by Law or Ganons established as to things burdensom not desirable in their nature supposed indifferent but in their use many ways
offensive and groaning more and more under that yoke of bondage as they coneeived they waited for deliverance and were in the main of one soul and spirit with the Non-Conformists And even then the way called Puritanism did not give but get ground But now the Tenents of this way are rooted more then ever and those things formerly imposed are now by many if not by the most of this way accounted not only burthensom but unlawfull And after a long time of search and practice the mindes of men are fixed in this opinion and are not like to be reduced to the practice of former times and therefore in al reason the imposing of such matters of controversie as by so many are held unlawfull and by those that have a zeal for them judged indifferent not necessary cannot procure the peace of Church and Kingdom Section IX That this numerous party will not vary from its self or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents doth hence appear in that it doth not rest upon any private temporary variable occasion but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting Those forementioned Principles of science and practice which give it its proper Being are of that firm and fixed nature that new contingencies will not alter them nor length of time wear them out They are the great things of God which have a great power over the spirit of man And they are imbraced by such as highly prize them not for temporal advantages whereof they have no appearance but for an internal excellency discerned in them as being necessary to the glory of God and the salvation of men And consequently to these men it is not satisfactory at all adventures to be of the State-Religion or to believe as the Church believes Neither will they be dissolved or much weakned by the declining haply of some principall Ones who being bought off by preferment may turn prevaricators For notwithstanding such a falling off the inward spirit that actuates the whole body of them and knits them to each other will remain in full strength and vigour And though many others through weakness or mildness should stagger and give ground in the points of lesser moment and more controverted yet the root of the matter may remain in them and as to the main they may be still where they were But what are those great things for which this sort of men contend Surely they are no other then the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel the upholding of all Divine Institutions particularly the strict observation of the Lords day a laborious and efficacious Ministry taking hold of the Conscience and reaching to the heart a godly Discipline correcting true and real scandals and disobedience in a word all the necessary and effectual means of unfained faith and holy life that the Kingdom of God may come in power And for these things sake they are alienated from the height of Prelacy and the pomp of Ceremonious Worship This was well known and provided against by the swaying part of the later Prelatists For in as much as they could not quell the Puritans by the rigid injunction of Conformity that they might give a blow at the root Lectures were suppressed afternoon Sermons on the Lords day prohibited under pretence of Catechizing which was only a bare rehearsal of the Form of Catechism for Children without explication or application of those principles a Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyned to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation sundry superstitious Innovations introduced a new Book of Canons composed and a new oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforced Far be it from me to impute these things to all that were in Judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations Nevertheless those others that were most vehement active watchful vigorous did not by all the aforesaid means advance but rather weaken their Cause and lessen themselves in the esteem of observing men and the oppressed party increased in number and vigour It is therefore evident that this Interest for which we plead is not like a Meteor which after a while vanisheth away but is of a solid and firme consistence like a fixed Constellation And the injuries done unto it are not of that nature as to be acted once and for all and then to pass into the grave of oblivion but they are lasting pressures to a perpetual regret and grievance And should not these be done away especially when the occasions thereof wil be found not necessary but superfluous Section X. There remaineth yet some greater thing which strikes deep into this Enquiry which at the first glance perhaps may seem a fancy but by impartial judgement will be found a manifest and weighry truth namely that as this Interest will never vary from its self so it will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant I do not now argue from Maximes of Faith and Religion as that the life and power of Christianity shall never fail that after the greatest havock of the true Church there will be a remnant a seed that shall spring up to a great increase after a little season but I have here entred upon a way of reason and let men of Reason judge Suppose that the Persons now in being of this strict profession were generally ruined and rooted out yet let but the Protestant Doctrine as it is by Law established in the Church of England be upheld and preached and it will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other then the life and power of that Doctrine as it is not onely received by tradition education example or any humane authority but also imprinted upon the spirit by a lively energy and operation And this I further say and testifie let but the free use of the Holy Bible be permitted to the common people and this generation of men will spring up afresh by the immortall seed of the Word For that pure spiritual and heavenly Doctrine pressing internal renovation or the new Birth and the way of holy singularity and circumspection and being written with such Authority and Majesty must needs beget though not in the most yet in may a disposition and practise in some sort thereunto conformable This is evident in reason if it be granted that the sacred Scriptures are apt to make deep and strong Impressions upon the minds of men And whosoever denies this as he is in point of Religion Atheistical so of Understanding bruitish For even those impious Politicians who in heart make no account of Religion yet will make shew of giving reverence to it because it is alwaies seen to have a mighty influence upon men of all ranks and degrees Wherefore upon the grounds aforesaid I hold it a matter of unquestionable Verity that the way in scorn called Puritanism will never utterly sink unto Protestantism it self shal fail
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
we conclude that those who agree in the Doctrine of Faith cannot disagree in the substance of Worship They differ only about the Liturgy and Ceremonies And the dissenting side oppose not all Liturgy but desire that the present form may be changed or reformed They oppose not any circumstance of Decency and Order but desire that mystical Ceremonies of humane institution may be abolished or not injoyned Section XX. Thus the Coalition of these two Interests into one appeareth possible because their conscientious principles on both sides have not that repugnancy but that they may well close together in a due temperament and constitute one solid Ecclesiastical politie And nothing hinders this conjunction but the obstinacy either of one or both parties from a humour of opposition or incurable enmity or some carnal designe Among the Bishops and Episcopal Doctors some of the most eminent have witnessed to the world their desires of Accommodation by their endeavours and proposals that way The Presbyterians preferr an uniting accommodation though upon yielding terms before division with an intire Toleration The incomparable Bishop Usher in the beginning of the late Troubles proposed his model Intituled The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church as an expedient for the comprimizing of the now differences thus declaring That by Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to minister the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded therein the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Mark well how this pious learned Prelate declares his own sence and interprets the meaning of the Church of England that the Holy Ghost hath made all Ordained Ministers Bishops or Overseers to rule the Congregation of God He saith further Though in our Church this kinde of Presbyterial Government hath been long dis-used yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church and to minister the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispense the Doctrine and Sacraments And the restraint of the exercise of this Right proceeds onely from the custom now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hinderance may be well removed If the Presbyterians imbrace these or such like Proposals what hinders the agreement in that great and most difficult point in difference to wit Church-Government Section XXI If both parties refuse to meet each other and to walk together in a middle way the weaker party must needs be tolerated There is indeed a third way by subverting the rejected side but we believe that in the present case it is so abhorrent to humane reason and Christian Charity thâ—â—we will not take it into consideration Wherefore the Question lies between an Accommodation and a Toleration which of these two shall be chosen and why the former is more desirable for both sides then the latter I offer these arguments And first Multiformity of Religion publickly professed doth not well comport with the spirit of this Nation which is free eager zealous apt to animosities and jealousies besides that it hath ever had a strong propension to Uniformity Also it is too well known that the dividing of Church communion is the dividing of hearts and that we shall not live like brethren till we agree to walk in one way Only let this be well observed and ever remembred that the necessary and injoyned terms of this Unity be not in things superfluous but necessary at least for edification order and peace Moreover Toleration being not the daughter of Amity but of Enmity at least in some degree supposeth the party tolerated to be a burden especially if conceived dangerous to the way established and commonly holds no longer then meer necessity compels and consequently neither party take themselves to be safe the one alwaies fearing to lose its authority and the other its liberty And if men will lay aside self-conceit and fond indulgence to the way of their own perswasion they will quickly finde that the temper of this Kingdom doth not well accord with extreams on either hand Certainly well-minded and serious people were never better prepared for an equall Accommodation They are weary of tedious dissentions in Church and State and have seen felt the sad consequents thereof and could they once attain to setled union upon the same grounds they would do their utmost to hold and keep it inviolable Without controversie the earnest thoughts of such a compoture did expedite the peaceable return of his Majesty The Presbyterians vigorously acted for it although they knew there were some that breathed out revenge and cruelty against them yet they hoped that the prevailing part would be sober and carry it with all moderation But they relyed chiefly upon his Majestie 's Wisdom Equity and Goodness whose Virtues attested by faithfull witnesses proclaimed him the Soveraign Reconciler and Healer of our breaches And surely they will never repent of their honesty and loyalty And let them rest assured that their moderation shall plead for them in the time to come Section XXII If one party coming forward to meer their brethren make a tender of such propositions as in al reason may procure unity and order in the Church and cannot pass further without regret of Conscience in this case for the other party to go about to strain them higher is most unreasonable and uncharitable Let them remember his Rule who is Lord and Head of the Church Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye the same unto them Now such proposals may suffice for peace which will not satisfie humour and faction and carnal interest Unity and order may be obtained by those terms that do not prejudice the conscientious principles of either party and are not defective in things necessary I mean not onely to salvation but to the Churches peace and edification and verily to insist upon such terms alone is the most Christian and most rational way to a solid and sure peace As for the Presbyterians what they offer will sufficiently attain the said ends and what they stand upon doth not cross the said rule of Charity and Prudence Their proposals touching Prelacy Liturgy Ceremonies and Canonical Subscription are in no wise repugnant to the Churche's being or wel-being Section XXIII That Prelacy as it stood in England is not essential to a Church-State we call to witness the far greater number of Protestant Episcopal Divines yea the whole current of them till the times next fore-going our Civil wars Archbishop Bancroft no way
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
and pull down but not to build up They do not hang in the air bur build upon a firm ground they have setled principles consistent with the rules of stable policy Contrariwise Fanaticks truly and not abusively so called do build castles in the air and are fit instruments to disturb and destroy and root out but never to compose and plant and settle for which cause their Kingdom could never hold long in any time or place of the world Upon this ground Presbytery not sectarian Anarchy hath been assaulted with greatest violence by the more observing Prelatists against this they have raised their main batteries this appeared formidable for it is stable and uniform and like to hold if once setled in good earnest This party do not run so fast but they know where to stop they are a number of men so fixed and constant as none more and a Prince or State shall know where to find them They do not strain so high but they consider withal what the Kingdoms of the world will bear and are willing to bring things to the capacity of political Government They can have no pleasure in commotions and alterations for order and regular unity is their way and therefore stability of Government and publick tranquility is their interest It is most unreasonable to object that the late wilde postures extravagancies and incongruities in Government were the work of Presbytery or Presbyterians The Nation had never proof of Presbytery for it was never setled but rather decryed and exposed to prejudice by those that were in sway and that in the more early times of the late Wars The truth of this matter is cleared by a passage of our late Soveraign in a Letter to his Majesty that now is All the lesser Factions were at first officious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till time and Military Success discovering to each their particular advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their party the trade of profits and preferments to the breaking and undoing not only of the Church and State but of Presbytery it self Thus the joynt stock of uniform Religion was left and Presbytery neglected before the first War was ended Yea and those that stedsastly adhered to it were maligned and reviled by the exorbitant party for opposing their new models or agreements of the people Section XVII Neither can Sects or Schisms with any truth or justice be reckoned the Off-spring of Presbytery Consider the French Dutch Helvetian Churches how intire they keep themselves in Orthodox Vnity from the Gangreen of Sects and Schisms A wide Breach was once made in the Netherlands by Arminius and his Followers but after some years conflict it was healed by the Synod of Dort The Church of Scotland is inferiour to none in the unity of Doctrine and Church-Communion and their form of Ecclesiastical Policy and method of Discipline is very effectual to prevent the broaching of Errour King James in discourse with an English Bishop is reported to have rendred this account why so few Heresies and Errours of Doctrine are united and prosecuted to the publick disturbance of that Church Every Parish hath their Pastor ever present with them and watching over them and he with his Elders and Deacons hath a weekly meeting for censure of manners by which he perfectly knows his Flock and every abberation of them in doctrine practise and lest any heresie might seize upon the Pastor they have their Presbyters which meet together once also every week in the next chief Town or City and there they have their exercise of prophesying after which the Moderator asks the judgement of all the Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtful point then propounded and if the Presbytery be divided in their opinions the question is under an injoyned silence put over 〈◊〉 the next Synod which is held twice a 〈…〉 which the Pastors of that quarter or province do duly resort accompanied with their Elders and any question of doubt is either decided by that Assembly or with charge of silence reserved to a national Synod which they hold every year once whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himself or his Commissioners and some of all orders and degrees sufficiently authorized for determining of any controversie that shall arise among them Could the Bishops in former times procure a greater unity in the Church of England Whence therefore should this charge arise peradventure some Presbyterians have turned Sectaries Surely it would be taken for a weak arguing to say That Prelacy is the way to Popery because some Prelatists have turned Papists The truth is Sectarianism grew up in a Mystery of Iniquity and State policy and it was not well discerned till it became almost triumphant by Military successes But after that its growth and strength did manifestly appear Presbytery began to struggle with it and so continued until by the power of the Army it was inforced to sit down but never to comply Whereupon the tongues and pens of Sectaries were imployed against none more then the Presbyterians And I should be glad to hear of such bitter Invectives of the Papists against the Prelatists not that I rejoyce in the sin of the one or the suffering of the other but that the Protestant friends of Prelacy might more incline to their Protestant Presbyterian Brethren Surely the way to prevent the growth of the two utmost extreams is for the two middle parties to draw up and close together But however the world goes the Presbyterians shall ever keep as good a distance from the Sectaries or Fanaticks as the Prelatists shall from Papists And verily there is no greater bar against Fanaticism then the right Presbyterian principles as not to sever but joyn the written word and spirit for direction the spirit and use of Ordinances for Edification to erect a stated Church-Order and Discipline to allow to the Church a directive and to every Christian a discretive judgment to insist only upon Divine Scripture Warrant and to wave humane authority in matters of Religion For such is the temperament of these Maximes that they commend and require a distinct knowledge and illumination in the mind and in the affections lively motions and stirrings against Formality and blind Devotion and so do satisfie the minds of those who conceive that in true Religion there is spiritual light and life and power and also they shew the necessity of the written Word of constant publick Ordinances and private Exercises of Religion and of the direction and discipline of the Church all which do serve to settle the mind against dilusive impulses and wild fancies and raptures Section XVIII But of all the prejudices and scandals taken against this way there is none greater then this that it is represented as tyrannical and domineering and that those who live under it must like Issachar crouch under the burdens In
not with a safe conscience be present at the Popish Mass because he wounds his conscience by impious dissimulation thereby making a shew of approving that pretended expiatory sacrifice In another Question he resolves That Papists are bound to be present at the English Divine Service because nothing occurs therein that can be by themselves reproved In applying this to our case it is far from my thoughts to make the comparison between Presbyterians and Prelatists parallel with that between Protestants and Papists but I make the reason of both cases parallel for as Papists find nothing in the Protestant Liturgy according to their own principles impious or unsound in like manner the Prelatists can find no positive thing in the propounded terms of accommodation contrary to divine right and primitive practice only as the Papists find not so much as they would have in our Liturgy so the Prelatists in the said proposals Nay the Papists have better colour of reason to separate from our publique Service because although they find nothing positively unsound yet according to the Roman Faith they may pretend fundamental defects therein as the want of the sacrifice of the Mass but the Prelatists can here alledge no such thing the supposed defects and omissions being only in things remote from the foundation of Faith and Religion For we trust the greater number of them do not hold that there is no Church without a Prelate having sole jurisdiction over the Clergy That there is no Ministry but what is ordained by such a Prelate That there is no true divine Service where the Common-Prayer Book is not used and that there is no acceptable worship without humane mystical Ceremonies Let them that have taken up such opinions sadly consider whether they are led therein by conscience or by humour and designe Section XXVIII The greatest shew of reason opposing this moderation is a pretended fixation in Religion and indeed it is but a shew and colour That Religion is a thing unmoveable all that be truly religious do from the heart acknowledge and for the immobility thereof none contend more earnestly then the Presbyterians But they fix its unmovable state in the Canonical Scripture and they continually cry to the Law and to the Testimony against humane Traditions and Inventions in one Extream and against Enthusiasms in the other Upon occasion of any aberration in Doctrine or practice they recall us to the primitive rule and pattern and what is received from the Lord that deliver they to the Churches That sacred Rule they willingly suffer not to be captivated in its interpretation by the Churches infallibility as do the Papists nor by proud and arrogant reason as the Socinians nor by impulse and imagination as the Euthusiasts but they maintain it in its full authority to interpret it self whose authentick interpretation we are inabled to discern by rational inferences and deductions wherein we make use of reason not as an argument but as instrument As for the Decrees and Canons of the Church what rightful Authority doth make them as the Law of the Medes and Persians that altereth not Must things be enacted by the Church once and for ever And whether they be little or great clear or doubtful necessary or superfluous must they be held unquestionable and indisputable Surely this is to Idolize humane Constitutions and to equalize them with Divine and to lead the people to a blind implicite faith and a neglect of searching the Scriptures And upon this ground those large Churches as the Roman Grecian Aethiopick Armenian Indian and the rest are obstinately divided for many ages from each other and holding to this principle of unalterable Traditions and Constitutions they will be divided to the end of the world Had not all Ecclesiastical Canons and Decrees a beginning and that at sundry times and in divers manners And are not many of them as it were but of yesterday And when they were brought in where was the pretended fixation Doubtless Religion may be alike altered by Addition as by Substraction Nay Hath there not been Substraction also Are not divers Customs and Ceremonies of great antiquity now quite abolished among us If the Church of Rome may erre why not the Church of England Indeed the Papists that hold their Church infallible may hold the Decrees thereof unalterable but the Church of England claims no such priviledge Was it necessary that our first Reformers should see all things at the first day-break out of the night of Popery Or if they saw all things requisite for their own times could they foresee all future events and provide remedies for inconveniencies which time might bring forth It is a wise saying of a learned man That time it self is the greatest Innovator and again That Physick is an Innovation Surely as the naturall so the body politick sometimes needs physick and oftentimes moderate Reformations do prevent abolitions and extirpations Besides a great alteration in this kind hath continued in a stated posture for many years which inferres a greater necessity of an accommodation Nevertheless there is no attempt or question made of changing any thing that toucheth sound faith and good life or the substance of divine worship Yet in the Doctrine of the Church somthing possibly may have been inserted as an Article of Faith which is but problematical and in a fundamental Article some inconvenient expression may be used and this questionless may be altered without any imputation of uncertainty to the established Doctrine Some change in the outward Form and Ceremonies which are but a garb or dress is no real change of the Worship some change in the late external jurisdiction of the Church which was not formally Ecclesiastical and spiritual but temporal and coercive invested in the Bishops by the Law of the Land is no change in the true spiritual power that is intrinsecal to their spiritual office Nay the reformation may be encompassed with little variation as to the outward model and platform the Kingdom being already squared for it as hath been above shewed in the offers made by some Bishops Only the power will be more diffused being distributed among Bishops and Presbyters in due proportion Is it objected once remove the ancient bounds and we know not where to stop we must serve every humour and an inundation of errour and Schism will break in Surely Papists have as much to say herein against the Protestants as the Prelatists against the Presbyterians For they say that Protestantism is the womb of all Sects and that we having forsaken the infallible Guide the Church of Rome have lost our selves in a Wilderness of errour besides who were they that removed the ancient bounds set in the first English Reformation by introducing many innovations but to give a direct answer are not the sacred Scriptures and Christs holy Institutions sufficient bounds and land-marks Cannot prudent and faithful Church-guides keep the flock from wandring unless they hedge them in by unchangeable Canons
would make an accord between the Augustine Confession and the Council of Trent and also of a certain Romish Ecclesiastick who would make the like accord between the said Council and the Articles of the Church of England than which nothing could be more absurd and vain for it could be nothing else but a violent wresting of those Decrees and Articles to a forced sence against the propriety of language and the scope of the whole matter and the apparent judgement of both Parties and so it could never heal the breach For if both Parties were drawn to subscribe the same forms of Confession but with meanings so far distant from each other as are the Doctrines of the Protestant and Roman Churches they would not really advance one step the nearer to peace and concord Section VIII Such designs as these sometimes proceed from lukewarmness or indifferency in Religion and an undervaluing of main Truths together with a contempt of godly Zeal as a thing superfluous and impertinent And sometimes they proceed from vastness of minde whereby some through too great a sense of their vast abilities assume to themselves a Dictatorship in Religion to approve or condemn admit or reject according to their own estimation of things which is a dangerous kind of ambition and as a learned man speaks is to take up the Office of an Umpire between God and men But many times such a design is set on foot with much craftiness for the undoing of one of the Parties as it hath been undertaken by some Romish spirits for the undermining of the Protestant Churches A Divine of chief rank observes the arts and stratagems of some Popish Preachers even of those Orders that have been held most implacable whereby far otherwise than the accustomed manner they extenuate the controversies and acknowledge that too much rigor hath been used in some points and in others too little sincerity yea some Jesuits went about making fair promises yet in the mean time abating no point of the chief foundations of Papal Authority which standing firm they knew that the other Concessions granted for a time might easily be drawn back and the opposite rigors imposed on those that had been taken in the snare by a pretended yielding to some reformation Philip Melancthon as the same Author observes being a most Pious and Learned man and zealous of the Churches peace at first whilst he conceived that some Reformation might be hoped for from a General Council was free and forward in some points of yielding to the Papists but when he found that such a benefit was neither hopefull nor possible he testified by his writings how far distant he was from the aim of the Conciliators Section IX But the Pacification here propounded is not by aggregating things inconsistent nor by devising mongrel ways and opinions made up out of both extreams which can satisfie the consciences of neither Party but by taking out of the way such extreams on both sides as both may well spare and part with being such as are acknowledged no part of the Foundation nor yet of divine Institution but mutable according to times and occasions and therefore cannot be of that importance as to break unity amongst brethren that agree in the Doctrine of Faith and the substance of Divine Worship This desired Union is grounded upon the Apostles Commandement and the pursuing thereof is no other then the urging of St. Pauls Doctrine throughout the whole fourteenth Chapter to the Romans That none judge or despise another about things indifferent or Ceremonious Observances wherein as several men will abound in their own sense so it is meet that every one be perswaded in his own minde concerning his particular practice that nothing be done with a doubting conscience His MAJESTIES Wisdom hath rightly comprehended this Matter in His Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs wherein He saith We are the rather induced to take this upon Us that is to give some determination to the matters in difference by finding upon a full Conference that We have had with the Learned men of severall perswasions that the mischiefs under which both Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the passion and appetite and Interest of particular persons which contract greater prejudice to each other by those affections then would naturally arise from their Opinions In old time there was a partition wall of legal Ceremonies and Ordinances raised up between Jews and Gentiles but when the fulness of time was come wherein God would make both Jews and Gentiles one in Christ he was pleased to take down that partition wall which himself had reared up In these latter times there hath been a partition wal of mans building namely controverted mutable Rites and forms of Religion which have kept asunder Christians of the same Nation and of the same Reformed Protestant Profession Both reason and charity pleads for the removing of these offences that brethren may dwell together in Unity And to transgress this rule of Charity is not only to lay a yoke upon the necks of Christians but also to lay snares for their Consciences Section X. Nor will any defect in the State Ecclesiastical insue upon the removal of these matters in controversie for the points of Doctrine Worship and Discipline acknowledged by both Parties are a sufficient and ample Foundation for the edification and peace of the Church to rest upon for which we cannot have a fuller Testimony than what is given by His MAJESTY in His aforesaid Declaration We must for the Honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have conferred Declare That the Professions and desires of all for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their Professions of Zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of affection and duty to Us the same they all approve Episcopacy they all approve a set Form of Liturgy and they all disapprove and dislike the sin of Sacriledge the alienation of the revenue of the Church And if upon these excellent Foundations in submission to which there is such an Harmony of Affections any Superstructure should be raised to the shaking of these Foundations and to the contracting and lessening of the blessed gift of Charity which is a vital part of Christian Religion We shall think Our Self very unfortunate and even suspect that We are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath entrusted Vs These His Majesties Words I receive with much veneration for they are a Divine Sentence in the Mouth of the King and they fathom the depth of this grand business It is therefore manifest as from Reason so from His Majesties Testimony that those unhappy discords do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion that either toucheth or borders upon the Foundation and that excellent Foundations are contained in those points in submission to which there is found
in Worship and Church-Communion and also in the whole body of Ecclesiasticks compacted by several joynts and ligaments under one Papal Head Thus the children of this world are wise in their generation and let the children of Light borrow this point of Wisdom from them which is to take care that our different opinions do not brangle our Church-Communion and Ecclesiastical Polity And in as much as Protestants have not that Popish way of quick dispatch for all controversies which is to acquiesce in the Churches infallibility but according to their Principles they must seek their Warrant from Scripture by the help of the Churches directive and their own discretive Judgment the only way for them to hold themselves in the bond of Peace is to avoid all imposition of things unnecessary in which it is exceeding difficult or morally impossible for all sound Protestants to be of the same perswasion Section XIV Let us here take notice of another singular point of Wisdom followed by the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent which was to shun as a rock the determining of such Doctrines as were controverted among the Catholicks and according to this setled Rule the debates of that Council were governed Oft times indeed there arose hot contests among the Divines about Scholastical niceties the several Orders of Friers being therein passionately addicted to their several opinions but the Prelates who alone had the decisive Voice would always bring things to a temper and the Decrees were so framed that the Opinions of neither Party were condemned Let the Church of Christ mingle this Wisdom of the Serpent with his Dove-like Innocency to wit not to urge with severity things disputed amongst sound and sober Protestants But it hath seemed good to some Protestants to walk by a contrary rule to heighten differences between themselves and those whom they called Puritanes and to judge them irreconcileable and to lessen differences between themselves and the Romanists in order to a Pacification We hope that this errour is or may be perceived by those that have been inchanted into it I am informed by a Writer of our Ecclesiastical History who is of the Episcopal perswasion That an Episcopal Doctor of great note and now a Bishop did within these few years use his utmost endeavours to gain upon the Sorbonists in Paris and thereupon that he complyed with them as far as he could do in Christian prudence and with a safe conscience Now the Sorbonists are the most moderate Papists and the said Doctor is known to be far enough from the least smatch of Puritanism yet not any Accommodation could be heard of between them but rather the contrary even in the point of the Apocrypha Seeing these things are so one might wonder that any learned men zealous of the Protestant Religion should remain averse from the true way of Unity among disagreeing Protestants when the pacification between Protestants and Papists is become desperate One would conclude that Wise and Learned men could not be so overseen if there were not a deeper mystery in this business Whereupon I pass to a further Inquiry Whether the fomenting of these discords do not proceed from a carnal design And I shal argue even upon the case of a worldly Interest Whether the way of severe Imposing or of moderate Condescending be the more advisable Section XV. If the settlement of the Churches Peace by giving needful satisfaction and security to the Presbyterians and the inlargement of the Churches Interests by taking in the multitudes of that denomination be neglected in this discerning age we must needs believe that the root of this dissention goes deeper then passions prejudices and mis-apprehensions and that some carnal and partial Interest is that root of bitterness that bears this gall and wormwood Papists themselves have noted that the Court of Rome had rather abandon the hopes of regaining three Kingdoms to their pretended Catholick Church then declare it lawful for the English Papists to take the Oath of Allegiance When the Council of Trent was held most of the Princes that sent Embassadors to the Council were instant that some regard might be had of the Protestants and their recovery endeavoured by moderation and reformation the Pope knowing that their return upon such tearms could never be hoped for without the diminution of the Revenue and Authority of his Court judged it most necessary for the Interest of his pretended Apostolique See to make the division strong and the Parties irreconcileable that those Countries and People which continued in obedience to him might be kept intirely Popish When men contend for the immutability of mutable Orders and stifly oppose the due regulation of things exorbitant and excessive and resolve to give no ground for the gaining of dissenting brethren it is not the love of Christ but perverse self-love and the love of the world that constrains them Such interested persons are never good Counsellors for the public weal. Section XVI Now in as much as some particular carnal Interest is justly suspected in the impetuous and obstinate pursuance of the things in controversie we are willing here to make it a question of Interest and upon that account to make an address to the reason even of those that are carried forth with greatest vehemence in favour of the Episcopal and in opposition to the Presbyterian Party All enterprises that have their beginning in judgment and not in passion are directed to a certain end set up as a mark and that end is not a business at rovers but some particular steddy issue of things certainly or probably apprehended and expected Wherefore let wise men consider the mark whereat they level and to what issue and state of things their actions tend Here is a numerous party not of the dreggs and refuse of the Nation but of the judicious and serious part thereof What will they do with them and how will they order the matter concerning them Would they destroy them I solemnly profess that I abhor to think so by the generallity of the Episcopal perswasion I would disdain to mention such an unreasonable impiety were it not to shew the inconsiderate and absurd proceedings of an unalterable opposition as that it cannot drive to any formed end and issue That Protestants should destroy Protestants for dissenting in the point of Ceremonies and sole jurisdiction of Bishops is so dreadful a violation of Charity and common honesty that it is a most uncharitable and dishonest thing to suppose it of them What then would they bear them down or keep them under hard Conditions Shall all persons that cannot yield exact obedience to Ecclesiastical injunctions concerning all the parts of the Liturgy and Ceremonies be suspended and deprived as formerly Shall Ministers of this Judgment be cast and kept out of Ecclesiastical preferment and imployment Shall all private conferences of godly peaceable Christians for mutual edification be held unlawful Conventicles It hath been thought by wise men
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
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
inveterate malice by good turns which is indeed a true saying but perverted by mis-application In this case to judge rightly of things that differ let a Prince consider diligently whether the present averseness proceeds from rooted Principles and a fixed Interest inconsistent with the security of his Estate or from the pressures of the grieved Party in things which are not the necessary props of his Power and without which his greatness may well consist and let him never question the gaining of such a people whose Principles and designs are not against the true and proper Interest of his Estate whatsoever their present distempers be for the grievances being redressed time will wear out those distempers And in that case a people will not less value their Prince because he yieldeth to them with respect to his own concernments for they will not judge it a forced yielding because that proceeds from force which is yielded for present necessity and against the main Interest but they will cleave to him the more by discerning that his and their good do agree in one for it makes them hope that he will seek their good as his own When Governours resent the non-compliances of a party their best remedy is to remove the occasions when it may be done without crossing the Interests of State or Maximes of Government then will the honest-minded be mollified and moulded and towards the residue of obstinate persons if there be any such severity will be used more succesfully It is the wisedom of rulers by all means to lessen offences and to contract the number of offenders For where there are many sufferers upon a Religious account whether in truth or pretence there will be a kind of glory in suffering and sooner or later it may turn to the Rulers detriment Section XXXII Another great impediment of publick concord is an erroneous confidence in the more numerous Party that they need not seek nor mind the way of peace for they reckon themselves sure to carry it by the major Vote in all Councils and Conventions they see wind and tide serving them But they who consider but few things do make a sudden judgment which commonly falls short Great prosperity oft-times blinds the wise as well as fools and great advantages divert the mind from heeding many important circumstances of a business that the judgment made concerning it is most imperfect Wherefore in the present case it should be minded that the dissenting party is not small that it is not made up of the rabble multitude nor yet of Phanatique spirits but of honest and sober people who act from principles of knowledge and can render a reason of their practice in things pertaining to conscience with as much discretion as any sort of men in the Nation that the instances which they make do not concern by-matters and mutable occasions but matters of conscience that will never cease nor vary that they are not a party far distant but very near I mean not only in respect of place for so the Papists that live among us cannot be far from us but of agreement in Principles of Religion that they cannot be well severed nor kept in a divided State nor yet be rooted out but they will grow up under the influence of the Doctrine professed in the Church of England that in many deliberations they may be able to put things to a stand and in debates of great consequence to lead the indifferent sort of men and also many temperate spirits of the other perswasion by the apparent equity of their proposals All these things and more of the like nature do challenge a due regard from those that would see through a business and make a perfect judgment Besides the judicious should consider not only the bulk and corps of a party but what spirit doth quicken them and with what vivacity and constancy their motions do proceed and their Interest is pursued It comes also within the compass of this inquiry to know the intrinsick strength of the Hierarchy and what they can do when they stand by themselves alone for their adventitious strength may fail them We need not tell them that on their side at present the advantage is very great yet haply it may appear in shew greater then it is indeed Though the English Nation appear to affect a stated Order in the Church nevertheless they may not serve the designs of the Hierarchy nor yet be conscious thereof Upon the late great revolution the multitude do easily run from one extream to an other thinking they cannot run too far from those troubles and discomposures which last oppressed them But as the prudent ponder their paths at present so the passionate multitude may at length know where they are and discern alike the evil of both extreams Many that are lifted up may give offence and fall under great displeasure they that are cast down may be better advised by their sufferings and remove the occasions of stumbling and so become if not indeared yet inoffensive to the Nation Such vicissitudes of love and hatred do happen in every age and there is no new thing under the Sun Section XXXIII Another obstacle in the way of this conjunction is an opinion of many that the sure and only means of preventing schism and maintaining unity in the Church is by multiplying Ceremonial injunctions and Canons by requiring full conformity to controverted forms which might well be spared by exacting not only submission of practice but assent of judgment declared by subscription to all particulars of Doctrine Worship and Discipline in every jot and tittle thereof But in very deed this is the sure way of endless dissention among a people that are not bottomed on this principle of believing as the Church believes This kind of imposing hath discomposed all Christendom and rends the several Churches from each other and makes the rent incurable It is the way of the Church of Rome which upon this account is guilty of the foulest schism that was ever made in the Christian world It is a notable saying of Chillingworth Not Protestants for rejecting but the Church of Rome for imposing on the faith of Christians Doctrines unwritten and unnecessary and for disturbing the Churches peace and dividing Unity in such matters is in an high degree presumptuous and schismatical God is jealous for his worship and consciences well informed and duly tender are likewise jealous concerning it lest they should provoke God to jealousie Mindes truly religious do set an high price on matters of conscience and will expose all to sale rather then cross their principles Wherefore if in matters of perpetual controversie between godly wise persons the Church shall make peremptory decrees and severe injunctions it must needs dissolve the band of unity But the best and surest means of preventing and suppressing Schisms is to prevent corrupt administrations and real scandals in matters Ecclesiasticall and seasonably to reform abuses and not to interpose in
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.