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
of the Protestant Religion cannot be built upon a narrow Interest Let it be considered that the adverse Kingdom to wit the Papacy is ample and powerful Should not the Protestant Religion and the Church of England aim at enlargement and lengthen their cords to take within their line all those that are intirely affected to them Then might they send forth much more numerous Forces of able Champions against the Armies of Antichrist So should this National Church become terrible as an Army with Banners Besides those reasons for Unity which concern all Kingdoms and Nations in the like case there is one reason peculiar to this Kingdom or rather to this Island of 〈◊〉 Brâ—ttain which is a little world apart It is a â—â—â—able saying which hath been taken up That England is a mighty Arrival that cannot dye except it destroy it self God hath so seaâ—ed and placed 〈◊〉 Island that nothing but 〈◊〉 within it self can hurt it 〈…〉 section do not make 〈…〉 Country and destroy 〈…〉 the hope of Forrein Enemies 〈…〉 for ever cut off Wherefore 〈…〉 s be the wisedom of this 〈…〉 â—â—ther all dividing 〈…〉 â—â—lish all partial Interests 〈…〉 â—â—â—mon Interest of England may 〈…〉 exalted I am not ignorant that designs of Pacification between disagreeing Parties are liable to much suspition misconstruction and hard censure that the attempts of Reconcilers have commonly proved fruitless and sometimes matter of disreputation to themselves and no marvel that such cross effects should commonly follow such attempts for sometimes they are made to reconcile light and darkness the Temple of God and Idols This was the way of a Great One even a Prince in Learnings Empire who would make an accord between the Augustane 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 judgment 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 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 mind whereby some through too great a sence 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 Jesuites 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 hopeful nor possible he testified by his writings how far distant he was from the aim of the Conciliators 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 Commandment 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 sence so it is meet that every one be perswaded in his own mind concerning his particular practice that nothing be done with a doubting conscience His MAJESTIES Wisedom hath rightly comprehended this Matter in His Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs wherein He saith VVe 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 VVe have had with the Learned men of several 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 wall 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 Nor will any defect in the State Ecclesiastical insue upon the removal of these matters in controversie for the points of Doctrine
which is here commended as so great a bond of loyalty and which Princes use to take for their best security The wisest way is not to reject and slight a party that are brought to hand and made for a Princes Interest upon a suspition that they may prove inconstant but to use the known means of preventing such inconstancy as is pretended and to manifest that regard to their encouragement and satisfaction as that they may rest assured that their own and the publick peace do run in the same channel From the Reasons aforegoing I conclude That the Presbyterians are sit and worthy to be imbodied with the whole number of the good People of England I proceed to perswade this Union by several Arguments England hath indured conflicts of almost twenty years by Wars Divisions Commotions and manifold changes it was abased enfeebled and brought very low all which do shew that some great distemper had taken hold of this Body Politique before these things could break forth There is at length by the late Revolution a providential offer of rest and peace After those sad conflicts and this happy offer of Providence shall the seeds of discord lodge perpetually in this Land I fear passions of bitterness are too ready to stir and provoke Take away this fewel of strife the urging of things to uphold distinctions of Parties Whilest things are at such a pass animosities will arise upon every occasion discontents and quarrels will be ready to break forth in every Town and Parish and almost in all mixed companies and occasional Meetings But let the propounded Accommodation be accepted and established and the former mutual injuries will pass into forgetfulness and persons formerly engaged against each other will be able to look one another in the face without provocation and new quarrels Where is our Charity and regard to publick tranquillity if we reject the sure and only means of Concord Uniformity in Religion is beautiful and amiable but we ought to consider not only what is desirable but what is attainable There have been are and always will be such points as the Apostle tearms doubtful disputations When the severity of Laws and Canons inforce external Uniformity in things of this nature it exerciseth a tyranny over mens judgments and holds them in a servile condition that they are not free but captivated to the Authority of men or suppressed from making a due search into matters of Religion yea this thraldom will inevitably reach to things of an higher nature even the vital parts of Christianity That servile Principle which hath the heart of Popery in it must be introduced to wit that the Laity should not search the Scriptures nor try the Doctrines delivered but acquiesce in what their Teachers say without the Exercise of their own reason or judgment of discretion Hereupon will follow gross ignorance and supine carelesness in the things of God and in those that any whit mind Religion which is the best of the matter a blind devotion And a people rude and servile in Religion will be rude and dissolute in Conversation as we see in Popish Countries and in all places where spiritual tyranny prevaileth This is so great an evil that it cannot be countervailed by all the imaginable benefit of Uniformity And the truth is all profitable Uniformity is mingled with sobriety and stands not in an indivisible point but admits a latitude and by a little variety in matters of lesser moment becomes more graceful because it is more unstrained and unaffected It is a chief point of knowledge in those whose work it is to mould and manage a Nation according to any order of things to understand what is the temper of the people what Principles possess and govern them or considerable Parties of them and to what pass things are already brought among them Those who duly observe and regard the disposition and present State of England and the principles and affections of the several considerable Parties will be able to give the best advice for a happy settlement For such a course as is wisely and succesfully taken in one Nation may in the like business prove unfortunate in another Nation or in the same at another time A State may probably root out such opinions as it conceives to be heterodox and inconvenient by using great severity in the beginning when the opinions are but newly sowed in mens minds and the people are of such a nature as to abhor dangers and aim to live securely and when the Nation in general is devoted to the ancient customs of their fore-fathers But the same course may not be taken when the opinions have been deeply rooted and far spread by long continuance in a Nation of a free spirit and zealous and the generality of those that in a Law-sence are called Cives do not detest them At this day England affords a multitude of Episcopal Zealots and a multitude of Presbyterian Zealots ballancing the former and between these two there lye a more indifferent sort of people whereof a great number care for none of these things but others are more intelligent and considerate and these seem to approve some things and again to disapprove some things on either side As far as I have observed the indifferent sort of men do accord with the Episcopal way in affecting the Common Prayer Book and those among them that are of any reckoning for worth or honesty do also according to the Presbyterian way affect the constant preaching of the Word and the residency of Ministers in their Parochial Charges and disaffect plurality of Benefices Knowledge hath so encreased that the people in general will more observe their Teachers Doctrine and conversation and the impertinencies of the one and the irregularities of the other shall not pass without noting The insufficient idle and scandalous will fall into contempt and be slighted by the common people The profanation of the Lords Day by open sports and pastimes is by the Civil part of the Nation accounted scandalous Furthermore the present Age being more discerning all sorts affect a greater liberty of Judgment and Discourse then hath been used in former times Whereupon the State of this Kingdom requires a temper or medium between two extreams to wit medium abnegationis in those unnecessary things wherein no accord can be expected between the Parties by abolishing or not injoyning them and medium participationis in things necessary to Order and Government wherein the moderate of both Parties do easily comply with each other When the State like a prudent Mother not led by the passions of her angry Children shal not ingage in their quarrels on this or that side but settle such a temperament for their common good love and peace may ensue between the Parties though difference of judgment still remains When the Nation shall not espouse to it self the interest of a party but intirely reserve it self for the good of the Universality those hot disputes and contests will
very deed this is the sure way of endlesse 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 severall Churches from each other and makes the rent incurable It is the way of the Church of Rome w th 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 a 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 Minds truly religious doe set an high price on matters of conscience and will expose all to sail 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 lesser differences Furthermore a great prejudice is taken up against Bishops ruling in consociation with Presbyters and against Classicall or Presbyterian meetings as inclining to Faction and likely to produce alterations which evils are supposed to follow the distributing of the power among many Whereupon the Government of a single Person or a Bishop having sole jurisdiction is apprehended to be the surest means of keeping Church affairs in a fixed state This prejudice having a great shew of truth we must stoop to pry into it more narrowly And first we have this political maxime to direct us in this inquiry that the condition of the people to be governed is the best rule of discerning the aptest form of Government And according to this principle we resolve that absolute Prelacy is the onely Government to hold a people that content themselves with a customary service and the Religion of their Country and of their fore-fathers whatsoever it be All Discourses Debates Disputations and all occasions of aontest touching Religion and particularly that exeâ—cise which is called prophesying must be avoided But this Government is not so agreeable to a people that are given to search the Scriptures and try Doctrines In England where the inferior Clergy or parochial Ministery is not rude and ignorant but in a great part learned conscientious where the common people in a great part try all things that they may hold fast that which is good the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction can not conveniently reside in a Prelate alone governing by severe Canons and denouncing excommunication against all those that express any dissent from any particulars of the received Forms of Worship and Discipline For among such a people this is a likelier way to beget some great distemper then to keep all in quietness and deep silence But a form of Government more free by distributing the power among many and regular meetings for free debates within certain limits will be much more peaceable and succesful It is here acknowledged that in such an order of things dissentions may arise and cause some interruptions Nevertheless no great inconvenience but sometimes much advantage may follow The stirrings of warm contests may be unadvisedly condemned For as Thunder purgeth the Air so these stirrings may purge the Church from Corruptions ingendering in it Let the frame and order of things be so established that both parties may be made hopeless concerning factious attempts of promoting this or that extream that the contests may not be on the one side for Dominion nor on the other side for inordinate liberty but on both sides for Truths due freedom and then they will end in peace If great mistakes should arise in such meetings and seem for a while to pass currently there may be found some persons of that wisedome integrity and reputation as to be able to shew the fallacy and to convince those of both sides that intend uprightly In which case if they perceive an evil spirit on work and an evil design hatching among some they will turn away with indignation from the contrivers of such mischief Wherfore let the frame of Ecclesiastical polity lean neither towards Tyranny nor Anarchy but be set upright for just liberty Let good orders be kept and priviledges not violated and the greater number of those who mean honestly will not be led into the snare of faction And selfish ambitious pragmatick spirits that trouble them will easily be detected and abandoned Unto this reasoning let the authority of an eminent pacifick Bishop be superadded concerning the way of order and stability in the conjunction of Episcopacy and Presbytery Bishop Hall in his Discourse Intituled A modest offer of some meet considerations to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster commends the method of the Church of Scotland for prevention of Error and Heresie by a gradual proceeding from the parochial meering to the Presbytery from thence to the provincial Synod and from thence to the general Assembly for determining any controversie saying This bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the well-willers to that Discipline But let me add That either we have or may have in this very state of things with some small variation in effect the very same Government with us Instead of Presbyteries consisting of several Pastors we have our combinations of Ministers in our several Deanries over whom the rural Dean is chosen every year by the Ministers of that Division as their Moderator This Deanry or Presbytery may be enjoyned to meet every moneth or oftner in some City or Town next to them and there they may have their exercise of Prophecying as I have known it practised in some parts of this Kingdom as it is earnestly wished and recommended by that Excellently Learned Lord Verulam in his prudent Considerations where if any Question fail of determination it may be referred gradually from the lesser to the greater Assemblies till it be brought to a National Synod In the same discourse the said Bishop commends one constant prudent vigilant Overseer superadded to a Grave Judicious Presbytery without concurrence of which Presbytery the Bishop or Overseer should not take upon him to inflict Excommunication or any other important Censure Having discovered certain general Impediments I proceed to Argue upon the particular Concernments of the King of the Nobility and Gentry and of the Episcopal Clergy His Majesties Concernment in this grand Affair transcends the particular concernments of all others whether Parties or Persons and that beyond all comparison Others may advance themselves and Families by the present occasions