and hidden Traitors More particularly many of them have deserved well from the Church and State which in humane Probability had never been restored but for their Loyalty Religion and Conscience This made the most Renowned Sir Matthew Hale say whose sence may be as soon taken as most Men's alive for his Wisdom Loyalty Integrity and Impartiality in all Acts of Judgment Many of the Nonconformists had merited highly in the business of the King's Restauration and at least deserved Dr. Burnet ' s Life of Sir M. Hale p. 65 66. large Octavo that the Terms of Conformity should not be made stricter than they were before the War Yea to advance as high as I can in an unquestionable Authority His Majesty in his Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs said pag. 5. That while he was in Holland he was attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions and to Our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to Us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay present Distempers And in his Gracious Speech to the Lords July 27. 1660 to hasten the passing the Act of Oblivion My Lords if you do not joyn with Me in extinguishing this Fear which keeps the hearts of Men apprehensive of Safety and Security You keep Me from performing My Promise which if I had not made I am perswaded neither You nor I had been now here I pray let Us not deceive those who Brought or Permitted Us to come together The greatest Charge against them is That they are Separatists and Schismaticks Besides that this remains in debate between the Accusers and Accused Suppose them to be so Yet 1. The very Independents I mean the chief of them besides what they have declared in the above quoted Declaration of their Faith at the Savoy to be neither Brownists nor Donatists Besides many Passages in Dr. Owen's Books Mr. Nye hath declared himself Case of great and present use Lond. 1677. 35th Serm. on the Ephesians p. 477 fol. as to our National and Parochial Ministry and hearing us preach and Dr. Good lays down the Opinions of Brown and Donatist and saith And against these I for my part and many of my Brethren profess that they are in an Error c. The Turbulency of Brown's own Spirit ran him into many Oppositions and Troubles but he the greatest Schismatick of those days enjoyed his good Parsonage while he lived The first Emperor that made Laws against the Donatists was Theodosius but they were not punished for their Schism the greatest in the World as such but the occasion of the Penal Laws against them Augustin Bonifacio Ep l. 2. Epist 50. was their barbarous abuse and beating of Bishop Maximinian almost to Death tearing of his Altar c. and other insufferable Violences and Furies The Riots and Murders committed by them and the Circumcellions the same Faction was the cause of Severity against them But how far are our Nonconformists from breaking Peace offering Violence or any rude Incivilities by Word or Deed is apparent to all that are not given to wrong them or to take pardonable things too ill from them Lastly The Causes of their Sufferings have been spoken of before to be neither Heresy Sedition nor Rebellion The very Light of Nature seems to abhor punishing the Religious and Just therefore the Heathen Persecutors have falsly imputed horrid Crimes to holy Christians from which they are clearly vindicated in the Apologies of the Fathers The Arrians were Calumniators of the Orthodox and so are the Papists and unpeaceable Lutherans But we that live together should know one another better and be both just and modest The Papists damn us as Hereticks therefore curse and persecute the immoderate Lutherans charge the Calvinists with the denial of Gods Omnipotency Communication of Properties and many other Heresies and Blasphemies But what Heresy can we charge upon the Nonconformists Had Antiquity left us such Confessions and Explications of Faith such Treatises in Divinity Expositions of Scripture Defences of Religion we should have honoured them as much as now many dispise them they are full and firm in their learned and rational Opposition to Popery in all the parts of it And let us observe how we reckon some in former Ages as ours who came short of them and yet we must eject them and multiply Sufferings upon them as none of ours we reckon John Wicliff Jerom of Prague Husse and those plain and heroick Confessors the Waldenses and Albigenses Bohemians c. ours they are in our Martyrologies and among our Witnesses for the Truth in the dark times when nothing was almost visible but Popery Shall we account them Martyrs when the Papists had more colour for their Persecutions and bloody Usages of them considering the Principles of the Papists and the Opposition of those Martyrs than we have for loading our Brethren with Punishment upon Punishment considering the Principles of our Religion and the Quality of the Nonconformists both as to Religion yea and as to the Separation it self For surely the Separation of those Worthies from Rome as Babylon and the seat of Antichrist and a mortally infected Church was a greater provocation of the Roman Powers against them than a peaceable dissent from a Church acknowledged truly Christian only for some scrupled unnecessary things indifferent we say therefore may be spared sinful say they therefore cannot be assented to and some private Doctrines besides c. That which comes nearest our unhappy Case is the Interim that Book that was urged by Charles the V upon the reformed Churches in Germany requiring the Observation of Popish Ceremonies as indifferent things for a time until a General Council should be called What Divisions did it cause among the Princes and their Divines among the Divines differing one from another What woful Dispersions and Miseries attended the refusal of it are at large related by Sleidan in his Commentaries Sleidan p. 20 21. This Book contained Popish Doctrines which the Protestants rejected but the things that divided them were the Adiaphora or media Ceremonies and indifferent things which many refused and suffered to very great Extremities But he who terrified them and persecuted them was a great Emperor and a Papist and the Arguments used against it were because it was not consonant to Scriptures and went against their Conscience and Light received After this the Adversary the Devil stirred up another Controversy attended with a dreadful Division and Persecution to the desolation of Churches and Schools John Brentius invented the notion of Ubiquity of Christ's Body and propagated it by the Apostle of Ubiquity Jacobus Andreas but they gave it a pompous Title of the Majestick Communication of the Divinity and Divine Properties
the evil Intention or what was the cause or Reason of the Law and then I confess the Punishment is but moderate upon the least and weakest Infuser of Rebellion or mover of Insurrection Justice is impartial but never so impartial as not to examine Circumstances which make an alteration or difference between Things and Persons Crimes have their Mitigations as well as Aggravations and Judges will weigh them before they proceed to Sentence and temper Judgment with Mercy it moves a compassionate just Judg to pronounce a deserved Sentence The Justices are to require the Execution of these Penal Laws but with no distinction and no more Mercy than the hungry Informer who perhaps hath wasted his small Fortune in a sinful way and acts upon no better Principle than Covetousness and Anger against Religion which he never loved so well as to practise nor ever learned so far as the Church-Catechism Must a Loyal Learned Laborious Preacher that preacheth the greatest Truths of the Gospel and preacheth Holiness and Peace with the greatest Fervour that never taught any Defection but from the Prince of Darkness and the Law in the Members that perswades Men to be reconciled to God to take Christ's Yoke to learn of him which whosoever doth deserveth the esteem of the best of Men Must such a Preacher pay so dearly for spending his Days and Strength and Pains to do good to Souls to mend an evil World and no Consideration had either to his Merits Soundness of Judgment Holiness of Life Peaceableness of Behaviour but he must suffer as if he was a dangerous Novice a Corrupter of Manners and a Sower of Tares No respect to his Gray Hairs the chargeableness of a diseased Body to the many chargeable Removes he hath made to the Dependence of a Family for Subsistence c No Commiseration to the poor and needy Is there no allowance for a Man to preach where multitudes of Souls do perish for want of Knowledg and others hunger for the Word and have none to guide them but perhaps one that cannot guide himself What if a man spends his Pains in a place where there are many Parishes that consist of many Hamlets and all cannot that would come to Church especially in Winter-time What if a good Man preach in a Parish where are many that cannot hear in one Place What if a Man take Pains in a place where to many Churches there is not maintainance for one Minister to live like a studious and a sober Man such as no Man will accept but the young and unexperienced in hopes of a better in time yet shall there be no regard had to these or many more Circumstances that make the Labours of good Men necessary and profitable But it is hard when that which deserveth Thanks and Encouragement shall be rewarded with ruine to a Mans Estate to a Mans Health and Life and be baited by Reproaches as he goes to the Justice or as he is sent to his Prison so was good Mr. Joseph Allen used I have staid a great while upon the Positive before I am come to one step of the Comparative But if I have laid that ground-work well my Comparative will rise apace and stand firm For my clearer Procedure I will lay the Comparative between two 1. Compare the Good you aim at by the Execution of the Laws with the Good of forbearance of that Execution 2. The supposed Evil of the forbearance with the real Evil of the Execution First The Good you aim at by the Execution of the Laws may I think be reduced to these Heads expressed in the Acts of Parliament for you cannot aim at any Good by the Execution but that which was aimed at by the Laws which you execute I will name them particularly First for the preventing and avoiding of such Inconveniences and Perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous Practises of seditious Sectaries and Disloyal Persons by setling in Corporations thereby taking occasion to distil the poisonous Principles of Schism and Rebellion Act XVII Ch. II. Nonconformists restrained from inhabiting Corporations An. Car. H. 22. c. 1. to the danger of the Church and Kingdom For providing speedy Remedies against growing and dangerous Practises of Seditious Sectaries c. contrive Insurrections as was said before These are the Benefits you aim at if you aim according to the Law Compare the Histories of the times with the Laws and you will find that the Nonconformist Divines who pleaded for the Discipline were not so branded such as Mr. Cartwright and others of his way But besides the Papists Vid. Cambden Annales Eliz. Anno 1591. which that Law strikes at also before that Law was made Hacket Arthington and Copinger had shewed themselves and what were they but brainsick mad ranting Phanaticks and Blasphemers And after the Law was made who were taken and punished as Mr. Cambden observes but Barrow and Perry and what did they suffer for Annales An. 1593. but for Seditious Books Barrow and his Sectaries did sow monstrous Opinions condemned the Church did derogate from the Queen's Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And what dangers the Queen and State were in Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercies c. 13. from the Papists at that time may be seen both in Mr. Cambden and the Reverend Bp Carleton both from publick Enemies secret Conspiracies Dr. Lopez the Sir George Wakeman of those days being then Physician to the Queen's Family was to poison the Queen Protestant Princes should beware of Jewish and Popish Physicians But Lopez ended his days at Tyburn What Poison our Nonconformists did infuse into Corporations or what Insurrections they moved I do not hear nor read of any Insurrection but in the North by some of the discontented Army when frustrated of their Hopes and of Venner and that desperate Company Another Plot I have some where read of of Green and other Phanaticks blown up and incensed by the Jesuites to take away the King and burn the City when those deluded Men were engaged The Story touched by Sir H. C. in his Speech October 26th 1680. the Jesuits gave them the slip and left them the Halter April 1666. But which of all the Nonconformist Preachers was in any of those Designs There is a difference between the time of making and of executing the Laws suppose that there was apparent danger suppose it which is more than I or others know then from Nonconformists yet if now we have the Experience of almost twenty Years of their Loyalty and Peaceableness why should the Laws made against them that may be Trangressors be executed upon them that are not Transgressors The Law is to prevent a Fact but the Execution follows it The Law may proceed upon Supposition and suspect such a thing may be but the Execution goes upon proof that such a thing there was If such an Evil. cannot be proved why should the Penalties be imposed Now they who are urgent for the
Banishment to Abjuration How will it sound in that Day I was in Prison and ye committed me I was banished and ye banished me I was impoverished and ye impoverished me what ye did to the Preachers whom I sent yet did to me When you shall be judged what will you plead or how can you pray Thy Kingdom come and obstruct the coming of it to any People in any place in the Land If there be nothing in what I humbly offer reject it if there be any Conviction in any thing be pleased to consider of it Philagathus THE Conformist's second Plea FOR THE NON-CONFORMISTS IT must be confessed that there is some turpitude in all Apologies either imputed or committed To Preface a Book with an Apology when the matter is good is to put a foul face upon a good matter but then it is a foul face only in some Men's Eyes which are diseased and will appear if not beautiful yet tolerably handsom to the eye of them that look for nothing perfect and free from humane frailty and that make daily use of a Towel and fair Water themselves Plead for my self I must and I shall make some requests with my Pleas that so if I may not come off without guilt and blame I may come off with my Pardon I did not think the Reverend Non-Conformists so few or weak as to need an Advocate in some things of another Judgment and so far of the other side for as they are most sensible of their own condition so they can both rationally and pathetically open and plead their own Cause and in my mind they have said a great deal to purpose if after all it will be to purpose I am sure had I been one of them I could not have said for them what they have done But knowing how ill they are represented I was resolved in what I could to do them right and therein to express my Compassion proportionable to my Religion which as such is not confined but Catholick and if my Charity and Compassion must extend to all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus I am certain I must shew it to them whom I take to be sound in Faith and Worship and whom I have known and heard and by whose Works I may profit if I have not My request to them is that they would believe there are many in the Church of England that wish an Union they with us and we with them and it must needs be so in all them that are animated by the same Holy-Spirit of Truth Faith and Love I do also beg their pardon that I have pleaded for them with no more Life and Strength I do understand and I easily believe that many of the Reverend Conforming Church-Men are offended that a Conformist should plead for the Non-Conformists It hath seemed to some almost incredible and to look like a Cheat or a Jesuit in Masquerade I am glad I am not to be tried by Judges of that Complexion by whom I am condemned at the very first sight of the Title Page and that it hath found Approbation from them whom I take to be of a better Temper Before I plead I do humbly beg their Pardon and Excuse who have been dishonoured by the Suspicion of being the Authors of the Plea for the Non-Conformists by my concealment of my Name It hath been a greater Honour to me than I ever expected or thought of that it hath passed under some very Reverend Names but it is a Dishonour to them to be counted the Fathers of such a Birth which represents neither their Strength nor Statures neither Feature nor Speech These worthy Men may vindicate themselves with one Negative but I cannot undeceive the Inquirers without running upon considerable Trouble and Temptations I perceive the Injury is so common that I cannot without a greater distrust their Pardoning Ingenuity Having said this I next put in my Apology That Book was fitly called the Conformists Plea because it becomes the Conformist to read and weigh the Case and having done so to be righteous and compassionare to be a good Instrument between his Mother and his Brethren at such a time when ill Agents pass between them and because the greatest Authorities he hath used have been eminent Fathers or Sons of the Church of England Why should it seem strange to any Man in such an Age as this when many that seem Enemies to Popery yet plead for Papists Why should it seem strange that one should labour to prepare the Hearts of Men of the same Faith to meet or to receive Dissenting Protestants into Church-Communion with them by opening the hardness of their Case the Worthiness of their Persons and of their Ministerial Abilities Soundness of their Faith Exemplary Morals peaceable Demeanour c. Why should it offend any Man that I should open their Case and testify for them when we all that have any sense bewail our Divisions and from thence fore-tell our Destruction and profess a desire of Union tho upon different Terms How many in the Land do declaim against their Principles and Practises and are ready to raise a Wind if it were in their Power to carry them away that know neither the Men nor their declared Principles Is it not necessary first to remove Prejudices and next to beget good Thoughts of them in all that through unacquaintance with them or Disaffection towards them before ever we can either desire or admit an Union with them It is a good preparation for an intire affectionate Closure to shew how near they come to us what Abatements other great and excellent Men would have made had they had the management of Church-Affairs in our Days and what Concessions they formerly thought fit to make and more especally in a time when the great Counsellours and Trustees of our Peace and Liberties have unanimously voted for a Legal Union or that which is to some a hateful Word Comprehension It is most unlike a Minister of Christ and a Member of a Christian Reformed Church to kick and spurn at Protestant Brethren that would gladly come into the Arms of a Legal Constitution upon no other terms and by no other ways than such as Wisdom shall find out and the Government resolve upon for the Honour of Christ and his Religion and the safety of the Church In vain do we use the names of Unity and Peace and Uniformity and yet at the same time in the same Discourses revile and bear false witness against our Brethren To commend Peace and dislike fair Proposals is flatly to hate Peace to commend Peace and with Tongues and Pens to persecute them with whom the Peace is to be made is a Method for Peace which I never learned To invite Men to my House and keep the Doors shut as against Thieves and Contentious Persons that will never be quiet or that are not fit to be trusted in it is such a kind of Civility and Complement that can never