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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80550	The second part of the interest of England, in the matter of religion, unfolded in a deliberative discourse, proving that it is not agreeable to sound reason to prefer the contracted and dividing interest of one party, before the general interest of Protestantism, and of the whole kingdom of England, in which the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties may be happily united. /; Interest of England in the matter of religion. Part 2	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6264; Thomason E1857_2; ESTC R210384	40,874	132

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 VVe must for the Honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have confered 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 VVe shall think Our Self very unfortunate and even suspect that VVe are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath entrusted Us. 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 such an Harmony of Affections and consequently that the laying aside of all the points in controversie would not cause any defect in the State Ecclesiastical What then is the root of these mischiefs of Division Is it the perpetual hatred between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent or is it an uncharitable and froward spirit of opposition by reason of irritated animosity and deep suspition or jealousie or is it some temporary carnal Design It is first inquired Whether the root hereof be the perpetual hatred between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent Nothing is more certain from Scripture and experience then that a form of the true Religion may be with a kind of Zeal embraced and the power thereof hated and impugned by the same persons The Scribes and Pharisees were zealous and exact in the outward forms of the law of Moses yet their hatred of the power of that Religion appeared by their obstinate rejecting and persecuting of Christ and those that believed on him Many do embrace a form of the Christian Verity in the general Doctrines and in some plausible yet superficial practice Nevertheless they cannot abide the genuine and spiritual explication and close application of the same Verity leading to the life and power thereof Now if this were the true state of the difference that those of the one perswasion only did urge the necessity of the New Birth and of a holy and circumspect walking in all Christians and to that end seek the advancement of such a Ministry as with blessed Paul travels in birth till Christ be formed in the Hearers and such as is quick and powerful entring to the dividing of the soul and spirit and discovers the secret rottenness and destroys the self-confidence of the deceitful heart and drives the soul out of self to draw it to Christ such a Ministry as is assiduous and instant in the dispensation of the word by instruction reproof and comfort and in all other parts of the Pastoral duty that as much as in it lies it may present every man perfect in Christ And if those of the other perswasion account the urging of these things sever foolishness peevishness pride hypocrisie affected singularity and suppose the way to heaven common and easie and accordingly seek the advancement of such a Ministry that is more smooth and plausible then searching and faithful more slack and cold in the publick dispensation of the Word and in private admonition indulging the peoples corruptions and generally temporizing with their carnal spirit I say if the case were so between them I could proceed no further for in such a case to propose ways of Accommodation were to make proposals of Peace to Parties divided by an everlasting enmity but God forbid that the state of the difference should be so deplorable We trust that neither the one nor the other have so learned Christ as to exalt a form of Godliness and deny the power thereof And that it is not or ought not to be so and that it is on all hands disavowed with detestation we take it for a principle or ground-work whereon to bottom our whole design The King Declares That the Professions and desires of all those of either perswasion with whom he hath conferred are the same for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness Let the joynt pursuance of these professions and desires set both Parties agreed especially since His Majesty hath thus Declared in these gracious words Our purpose and resolution is and shall be to promote the power of Godliness to encourage the exercises of Religion both publique and private and to take care that the Lords Day may be applied to holy exercises without unnecessary divertisements and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers may not be promoted in the Church Is an uncharitable and froward spirit of opposition by reason of irritated animosity and deep suspition and jealousie the root of these discords We fear indeed that too much tartness if not bitterness of spirit keeps the Breach open Differences of long continuance and setled prejudices do choak the exercise of Charity And the truth is formerly the current of occasions ran along to aggravare these differences and to exasperate these passions Let us now at length take hold of the right means to stop this current of contention Remove the occasions lay aside controverted matters whereof there will be no miss in the Church of God Let forms of Worship and Government be so cut out that they may not pinch and gall the consciences of either Party as it may be done by men of sober and charitable judgments without any impeachment of such order and decency as agrees with the simplicity and spiritual Glory of Gospel Administrations so after a while the froward humor that worketh on both sides would spend and lose it self Yea I am perswaded that some spirits now exulcerated through these distempers would not prove incurable or implacable After a little experience of such proper healing remedies both sides will find themselves brethren that had mistaken one another and forsaken their common Interest Most serious thoughts of heart have often led me to contemplate and lament the peculiar calamity of the Church of God in these Dominions that from time to time it hath been afflicted with

irruption upon the Prebyterians even as vehemently as now I pursue the design of peace and I verily think my reasoning however it takes with them will convince them of my good intention If they decline moderate counsels and resolve to run high they may attain to a lofty standing howbeit they will always stand on a pinacle In a little time they have greatly inlarged their borders and lengthened their cords it were good that now they should strengthen their stakes and make good their ground By moderation only can they be established Some may say in their hearts The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones the Sycomores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars Indeed their advantage is well known nevertheless let them consider their constant strength and accordingly limit their hopes for this is an high point of wisedom Let them that have gotten a victory use it wisely and take care that they lose it not in hope of a greater The issue of things oft times have proved unfortunate to those that have waxed insolent and unreasonable upon unexpected successes There is not a greater errour then to refuse tearms of Agreement that are profered by a Party which cannot be rooted out but will be alwaies considerable either as friends or enemies especially when those tearms do comprise some part of their victory that should accept them Let the Episcopal Clergy observe the spirit of the Nation and the condition of the Times that they may rightly comprehend the measure of their own hopes The English are a generous Nation and as they delight in the Majesty and Glory of their King so also in the splendid condition of subordinate Governours that their manner of living be in some sort conformable to the dignity and opulency of the Nation Accordingly they seem to take pleasure that the Ecclesiastical State be upheld by a fair Revenue and competent Dignity yet with moderation For if the Clergy do rise to Princely or Lordly wealth and power they may become the envy of the Nobility and Gentry Let them remember they stand by Grace not by their own strength but by their Prince His Favour The Nation in general may be taken with a grave and masculine decency in all Sacred things sutable to their spiritual Majesty but I make a Question whether in this noon-tide of the Gospel they will fall in love with excessive gaudiness pompous shews and various affected gestures in Sacred Administrations and not rather esteem them vanities too much detracting from the dignity and purity of Gospel Worship In this noon-tide of the Gospel the Bishops cannot magnifie their Office but by other courses then what were taken in former and darker times Meer formalities will no longer dazle our eyes We shall think they have work of an higher nature then to look only to the observation of outward Forms and Rites and Ceremonies they must make a nearer approach to the Presbyterian practice in the constant Preaching of the Word in the strict observation of the Lords Day in keeping a true watch over the Flock and in correcting the real scandals that break forth in mens conversations And if they walk in these paths the Prelatists and Presbyterians will not be far asunder Perhaps the friends of Prelacy may imagine that in this coalition Presbytery may at length undermine Episcopacy but reason shews that Episcopacy will stand more firm in conjunction with Presbytery then by it self alone In the body natural there is some predominant humour as sanguine cholerick melancholy or phlegmatick yet none of these do subsist alone without the mixture of the rest in a due temperament In like manner the Body Ecclesiastical may be of several complexions or constitutions as Episcopal or Presbyterial according to the predominant quality Now if the Presbyterian Churches would become more firm and stable by the superintendency of one grave President and the truth is in all Presbyteries there appeareth some Episcopacy either formal or vertual so an Episcopal Church may be judged more firm and stable by a Bishops superintendency in consociation with assistant Presbyters And to remove the fear of the incroachments of Presbytery it is easie to discern that Episcopacy if it contains its self within moderate bounds will be always in this National Church the predominant quality In the Conclusion of this Discourse let me offer these few Essayes concerning the pathes of peace The glorifying and pleasing of the highest Potentate and universall Monarch and the eternall happiness of immortal precious souls are the most noble and blessed ends of Government Let his Majesties Raign be happy and glorious in attaining these ends A Christian King esteems it the excellency of his regal Power to hold and manage it as the servant of Jesus Christ to be a Protector of the true Church the Body of Christ the Lambs wife for whose redemption Christ dyed and for whose gathering and perfecting the world is continued It is the Character of this true Church to make the holy Scriptures the perfect rule of their faith and life to worship God in spirit and in truth according to the power and spiritual worship of the Gospel to walk by the rule of the new Creature in spiritual mortification and crucifixion to the world to study holinesse in sincerity to strive to advance it in themselves and others and to have influence upon others unto sound knowledge faith humility godlinesse justice temperance charity The true Church lies in the middle between two extreams Formalists and Fanaticks They are of circumspect and regular walking no way forward in attempting or desiring alterations in a civill State A Prince doth hold them in obedience under a double bond For they know they must needs be subject not onely for wrath but for conscience sake Indeed we will not conceal that in lawful wayes they assert that liberty which is setled by the known Lawes and fundamentall Constitutions the maintaining whereof is the Prince's as much as the Peoples safety That being the happiest Politie that is founded in true Religion and most fully suited to mens everlasting concernments it greatly behoveth Governors to mark and avoid those things which bring Religion into contempt and tend to the increase of Atheism and infidelity The many various Sects and absurd opinions and fancies and pretended Revelations of these latter times have much lessened the reverence of Religion in England This is a great evill and much observed and decryed by the present times There is an other evill no less injurious to the honour and estimation of Christian piety to wit Ceremonial strictnesse with real prophaness or at the most but lukewarmness in the real part of Religion And this is the true state of the Papacy by occasion whereof Atheists have so abounded in Italy Machiavel observes in his time that Christianity was no where less honoured then in Rome which is the pretended Head thereof Let this evil be seen prevented and remedied that the

The primitive spirit of the Christian Church was a spirit of power and glory and the primitive order was most spiritual and powerful Let Christs holy Institutions let Apostolicall precept and practice be the pattern of our Reformation What sound Protestant will deny the holy Scriptures to be a perfect rule of all divine Institutions To them we appeal by them would we stand or fall and they mention no Ministers of the Gospel that were not Bishops ruling the flock But in pursuance of peace touching the matter of Episcopacy the moderate Presbyterians are willing to descend to the times lower by one degree and to come to the Ages next following the Scripture-times and to accept what they do present unto us to wit a President-Bishop ruling in consort with Presbyters and Officer not of an other Order then Presbyters but of an higher degree in the same Order We appeal to those times concerning this matter And they that admire and almost adore antiquity should not deny our just appeal And wherein stands the power and glory of the Church militant Doth it stand in the pompous shews of Ceremonious worship with the glistering furniture thereof in the secular dignities and jurisdictions of the higher rank of Ecclesiasticks in the implicite faith of the Laiks 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 saith 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 comly order with a grave and sober decency Let all unprejudiced minds give judgment which of these two different stares 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 wisdom 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 raigning and raging in them all Wherefore let us minde the true way of restoring the Christian Religion to its primitive power and glory 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 general way of 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 spiri●s would quickly be out of breath in their rash attempts Likewise the way of stability that none may successfully 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 heightned 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 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 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 inconvenient 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 Laws 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 generall 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 two 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. ERRATA Page 78. line 5. read frowardness p. 80. l. 5. r. injudicious p. 18. l. 8. r. frowardness p. 89. l. 6. r. sale p. 90. l. 19. r. contest p. 119. l. 7. r. Clergy