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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56807	The conformists plea for the nonconformists, or, A just and compassionate representation of the present state and condition of the non-conformists as to I. The greatness of their sufferings, II. Hardness of their case, III. Reasonableness and equity of their desires and proposals, IV. Qualifications, and worth of their persons, V. Peaceableness of their behaviour, VI. The churches prejudice by their exclusion, &c. humbly submitted to authority / by a beneficed minister, and a regular son of the Church of England.	Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.	1681 (1681)	Wing P976; ESTC R1092	66,864	80

Ministers yet by the Divisions that have broken in upon us by these Impositions and their denying submission to them It nearly concerns Governors of the Church to weigh the Necessity of their Impositions as it doth others to weigh whether they may act or refuse to act according to them For if they rigorously extend their Power beyond the Lines to the hinderance of the Gospel they sin against Christ Caution and Tenderness must therefore be used If all these things and every one of them be necessary to be enjoined and practised for the Peace and Union and Edification of the Church of God then they condemn their Predecessors of Omission of what was necessary and contradict what they declare concerning some of these things that they are alterable and indifferent in themselves and may be altered And if ever any Time since their Imposition might require the Change of them or laying the Ceremonies aside that Time when they were anew enjoined and now when they are required might excuse it for many Reasons that are ready at hand Again some say It is their Fault that they suffer But who must be Judges of that Their own Consciences or they who censure them They are as confident it was not their Fault but their Duty and roundly write Of this afterwards either they that impose or they that refuse sin grievously and plead their Forbearance as no Sin but a Duty O most unhappy Contest and Strait when either Party must grievously sin against God Certainly our blessed Law-giver Christ never made such a Law as tends in the execution of it to the Hurt of any of his Subjects and Ministers or to stop the Encrease and Progress of the Gospel And who can justify any particular Law or Condition of Communion that is but a Stumbling-block in the way of any that are past being Babes and otherwise instructed to his Kingdom I conclude with this Observation That the general Rules of Christ and his Apostles were given to accommodate the Differences between Jews and Gentiles to end the Strife to give ease to the Conscience silence their uncharitable Censures and heal their Breaches about things indifferent and not to determine for one against another with Penalties St. Austin was grieved to see the Transgression of a Ceremony to be more severely reprehended than the Transgression of God's Law c. saith Reverend Mr. John Lloyd in his Treatise of Episcopacy pag. 53. But this is not a place to dispute Can any of the Imposers take the Comfort of their own Impositions and say they have Peace and Comfort in the things for which learned and holy Men do suffer Or if it were to do again I would do no less Then all I 'le say more is this Then blessed Act of Uniformity which brings Comfort to them that made or procured it and to them that suffer by it also Comfort from the Cause of other Mens great Sufferings and the great Loss to Souls must be rare indeed Consider these Sufferings of the Ejected They suffer really in their outward Estates in their Freedoms in their Dangers being obnoxious to the Canons as far as to Excommunication to the Temporal Laws in their Names and Honours as counted disobedient factious fanatical are the Objects of Virulence and Dirt and are represented as intolerable These are great Sufferings and a safe way to be redressed is worthy the Wisdom and Tenderness of Authority I am sure saith the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet it is contrary to the Primitive Practice and the Moderation then used to suspend or deprive Men of their Ministerial Functions for not consenting to Habits Gestures and the like Iren. p. 64. Rule 4. Then next let me consider what the Case is and if it will appear to be a hard Case it calls for the more speedy and effectual Relief And this is the next thing I humbly offer to prove II. The Case of the ejected Ministers is really a hard Case And I will endeavour the Proof of it in two things 1. Shewing what is required of them 2. The Penalties for not doing what is required 1. The things required of them are either 1. Ecclesiastical 2. Political and mixed with a Case of Conscience in the two Declarations they are bound by Law to make First The Ecclesiastical Part of their Subscriptions and Declarations For brevity sake I will pass the old Conformity They are bound to declare their unfeigned Assent and Consent c. That this is a heavy Injunction in it self tho abundance of us have made little of it for some good Teeth can eat the hardest Crust but it is Crust for all that It is hard for any Man 1. To assent and consent to any thing of another Man's Opinion and Judgment except first he that gives the Assent have as throughly studied and doth as clearly perceive the things as he doth that requires the Assent To assent to some things will not pass in this case it must be all and every thing What Parliament-Man will assent to any Bill except he first be satisfied in the reason of it c. Or 2. Except he that requires the Assent and Consent have a degree of Infallibility or be endowed with an absolute uncontroulable Power against whom no Scruple no Objection or Debate can or ought to be made 3. Would not every Practitioner in Physick think it hard that he must subscribe Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained in and bed by the London Dispensatory and use no other Would not the Judges in the Courts at Westminster think it hard to declare their Assent and Consent to all and every thing in the Statutes and Laws of England and not endeavour any Alteration And why is it not hard for us to subscribe to all and every thing contained in a Book of Divine Worship not composed by a Divine infallible Spirit Can more be required to the Scriptures or clearest Point of Doctrine or Faith 4. It is hard as appears by the Qualifications and Mitigations of the Sence of the Declaration If the Words were clear and easy for the Understanding and Will to digest there needed no soft Constructions to help them down It cost all that are careful what pass their hands some thoughts to make them easy And had it not been for that one word Vse and the help of that it would have stuck with many that are as great Pillars of the Church as any in it in their stations and degrees That which is easy and plain will easily pass with an ordinary Understanding The various Constructions of the Forms are impartially given by the Reverend Mr. Baxter Nonconformists Plea for Peace p. 158 c. I shall not run out to defend either the rigorous or milder Constructions but shew that the Case of Dissenters is hard and indeed of all Conformists that must take the Words without Salvo's or else must fall under the Censure of Hypocrisy and doing more Hurt by conforming than if

without the Common-Prayer See also Mr. Blake Covenant sealed p. 308. as I my self have known nor any Child rightly baptized without the Cross yet by this Act of Uniformity they must declare Assent and Consent to all and every thing to Cross as well as Baptism to Ceremony as well as Substance And how easie was it for sinful people and weak to say See what these Men can do Yea in case that in any after-time wise and moderate Governours should see a necessity of making Alterations Then again teaching Scorners to say Yea see what these Men can do to the great dishonour of Religion and disgrace of the best of Ministers And one would think that because the Courts continue to swear Churchwardens to present they had Spies enow upon our Nonconformists and Punishments smart enough they might have spared to require this Declaration or if they had thought us honest our promise to conform had been sufficient tho kept in the Registers and made at our Institutions Yet through this Dishonour we attain our Honour They are debarred from all exercise of their Ministerial Abilities their Wives and Children turned out of doors and when they had made a sad and chargeable Remove of late must remove again upon the Five-mile Act. And these Penalties were next to Death and I conceive proved the Death of many I remember the Renowned Bishop Morton wrote these words to the Nonconformists and desired them earnestly to consider the Censure of the Apostle's Wo being so dreadful I ought not to esteem any thing a just Cause why I should wilfully incur the Censure of Silencing my self from Preaching for which I ought not as willingly to adventure my Life The General Defence of the three Ceremonies Part 1. p. 163. The Nonconformists have suffered what is next to Death and too many have suffered even unto Death in Prisons where several caught their Death and others died it is a dreadful story of whom shall their Deaths be required And it is easie to retort those words of the Reverend Bishop Imposers should not esteem any thing a just Cause of bringing any under the censures of Silencing of Preachers from preaching for which they may not adventure to take away their Lives It is objected That they sin against the Law And they may answer Who procured the Law it is the Magistrate's Sword but who moved him to draw it They are told they have no cause to complain of Sufferings for the Magistrate hath been merciful and hath not execued the Laws Thanks be to God for the Mercy but all have not been so merciful as the King hath been or many inferiour Magistrates but their Mercy hath not been kindly taken by many who should have more tender bowels than any Man that wears a Sword To conclude A reasonable Understanding may judge that Law not fit to remain in force that is not fit to be put in execution That Law cannot be good that is not fit to be brought to act without more real hurt than good And if the wise and merciful God hath by many remarkable Providences put a stop to their execution it is time for Men to annul the Law 2. The Penalty is hard upon them that make their offers to be admitted into the Churches Service or that would come in but for these Injunctions It is but a narrow passage that is made for them that enter in yet what shall they do who have spent all they have in a Preparatory Education In they must tho but to a Curacy which is not easie to be had It is grievous to think with what Implicit Faith they do what is to be done yet must Assent to more than ever many have studied rather following Example than Reason or else there is nothing for them to do Others that are enclin'd to Learning and to serve in the Gospel are deterred upon many accounts and have great prejudices against Conformity because of the great reverence they have to Nonconformists and these are under a great temptation to perpetuate a Nonconformity which is more sutable to their inclinations as being a state of freedom to their Consciences from great Bonds and Obligations tho an Estate attended with hazard to their Bodies and Estates And all young Students are under this necessity either they must subscribe hand-over-head or else they must spend their time in these endless Controversies of the Church and be engaged in the dolefull and fearfull Wars of the Church on one side or other 3. The third Consideration that pleads for our Non-conforming Brethren is taken from the Reasonableness of their Demands I distinguish these Demands into those Proposals made by the Commissioners in the Savoy Anno 1662 with that Modesty Gravity Humility and Reason treating the Bishops and other Commissioners as Superiours 2. Into those which have been repeated by particular Persons and may be seen in the Writings of Laborious and Catholick Mr. Baxter Mr. John Corbet and Dr. Owen in his learned and moderate Book of Church-Peace Love and Unity I shall only generally compare what they humbly desired with what was declared 1. In his Majesties gracious Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs a most large and healing Plaister for the Churches Wounds and might have been a Pillar to have born up the Church in Unity as his Gracious Act of Indempnity and Oblivion hath held up the State if some Men who can be loyal for their own ends had not perhaps bin industrious to make Divisions by their Affected Terms of Union 2. They humbly moved but for what great Men and famous in the Church of God to all posterity thought fit to grant In that Year 1641 there was a Committee for Religion appointed in the House of Lords ten Earls ten Bishops ten Barons The Bishop of Lincoln Williams sent a Letter to some Divines to attend that Service who met in his House Breviat of his Life p. 24. the Deanery of Westminster upon which Arch-Bishop Laud hath this Note Upon the whole matter I believe this Committee will prove the National Synod of England to the great dishonour of the Church and what else may follow upon it God knows These Divines were no less Men than the most Venerable Arch-Bishop Vsher Bishop Williams of Lincoln Dr. Prideaux after Bishop of Worcester Dr. Brownrig after Bishop of Fxeter Dr. Ward Professor of Divinity in Cambridge and Arch-Deacon of Taunton Dr. Featly Dr. Hacket of late Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield All these subscribed a Paper called The Proceedings c. touching Innovations in Doctrine and Disoipline of the Church of England together with Considerations upon the Common-Prayer Book Out of which I draw a Parallel with the Proposals of the Divines appointed to treat by his Majesty's Commission with the Archbishop and Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England at the Savoy See Account of the Proceedings printed Lond. 1661. The Divines appointed to meet in the Dean's House 1641. Considerations on the