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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

suffer loss It is a small Parish indeed that will not find a pretty industrious Man work enough There is enough for us and for them to do if there were the greatest Vnion of Minds and wisest distributions according to each Mans Abilities 5. I have sometimes taken heart to vindicate what may be justified in them out of a just respect to the Common Faith and Protestant Religion and there is no more objected nor worse things imputed to them by Protestants than Papists impute to us all If I have no courage to plead for them so far as their Cause will bear it I may prove a Coward in mine own Cause Every good Man ought to be true to Truth and the common Christianity 6. Not to revile nor provoke them that differ from me If I have described any Persons of an imposing persecuting temper with any measure of severity if there be no such Persons it is a mistake and no injury if there be such Writing is Painting I have fitted my Colours to the Face I have not represented any sowrness of Countenance but what I saw upon it Let us all entertain Peace and give it place to rule in our Hearts seek Peace and pursue it and pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Farewel The Reader is entreated to excuse the Errata the Author being absent from the Press These few the Printer hath observed viz. Page 5. read Pasce P. 11. l. 22. r. As that many Ministers are poor P. 20. l. 21. r. Nonconformity P. 27. r. that maintained a Necessity P. 28. l. 37. r. Fort. P. 29. l. 39. r. concluded P. 30. the words of Calfnill should have been in the Margent P. 62. l. 28. r. Squama A Compassionate Representation of the present Case and Condition of the Non-conformists c. I Am a Christian and therefore a Member of the Body and as such am obliged by the Law of Christ and excited by his Grace to endeavour the Growth Perfection and Unity of that one Body and according to the measure of Grace and Life received I cannot but feel the pain of Diflocations Wounds Weakness Excision Sickness or Suffering of any Part or Member of it If I have any Faith or Love I cannot but pray for the Peace of Jerusalem But Ministers above all Christians must have Salt in themselves and be at peace one with another they must preach the Gospel themselves and rejoice that it is preached by others tho otherwise-minded and all Christians must pray that the Word of the Lord may have a free course and be glorified I have some feeling of the broken state of the Church of God in this Kingdom but alas how little do I feel how unfit am I to move those that have healing Hands and store of Ointments to heal our Wounds If I could but open the Case of a Church for many years in pain to be delivered of her Burden groaning to bring forth Unity and Peace but cannot followed long with strong Convulsions that it is a wonder she hath not died in every Fit I might move the compassions of her Physicians to hold a Consultation to expedite her Cure Many of her Sons have of late bemoan'd her and some have made enquiries into the Causes of her Illness but their Compassions have done themselves more good than her She is not at all the better for their trouble for her she is as ill at ease as at any time in a wasting complaining declining state And to say the truth there are many that make sad Complaints of her Passion Harshness and Severity They say that she procured the turning of many of her Ministers out of their Master's service that she is not kind to her own Children but locketh up her Bread from them or appoints Stewards that do not faithfully dispense unto them but sell their Bread and put the Money in their own pockets And those Stewards for small Wages hire under-Officers that feed them but once a day most commonly with that which costs them but little And that she is so severe that all that serve her must put in Bonds for more than they can pay and subscribe to impossibilities and in short they say she usurps authority over her Husband They say they can serve him but cannot please her they can serve him and die for him but cannot live in the same House with her For my part I will say no ill of her nor make bate between the Bride and the Bridegroom I am honoured to be a friend to him and indeed I cannot be his friend and not hers But this I 'le rather say that she hath taken some ill courses and no good courses for her own peace she hath been led and abused by ill Instruments about her and is indeed changed from what she was in former times and is not so kind and tender as she was wont to be by report of many that knew her heretofore I am exceeding sorry for her O that I could give her ease I am no Physician my self but a sorry Messenger may run and call the Doctor and beseech him that if he have any bowels or tenderness of heart he would make haste and apply all his skill to save the Life and restore the Health of the Mother of many Children who will fall into the cruel hands of Pope and Devil so soon as her eyes are closed O how they long to hear of her Dissolution O what a sick and divided House do I live in I cannot take rest in my Soul for the Contentions of my dear and loving Master's Wife I cannot lie dry in my Bed for the continual dropping My Pilgrimage and course for these many years hath been most uncomfortable unto me for the continual dropping in a rainy day The Contentions are grown notorious all our neighbours know them 'T is a most divided House I have no heart to make repetitions of what I have read and heard to pass between my dear Mother and my dear Brethren between my Brethren amongst themselves and the fellow-Servants It is a shame that the World should know it But it cannot be hid our very Enemies laugh among themselves and hope to turn us all out of doors and get possession They have been disputing stating of Cases petitioning pleading and appealing to the Judgment-seat that my heart akes to think of these things I have prayed for Peace and have denied my self to please my Mother I will not find fault with her my Soul longs for peace and if I might prevail I cannot tell what I would do on condition that her Servants that have been turned out may be taken in But because I cannot see how this will be without an Order of the Justices of Peace I will humbly represent the Case as truly as I can and intreat their Order for a speedy settlement of my displaced Brethren The Complaints are grievous The Mother complains of the disobedience of her Children they will not be ruled by her she would

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

got their Deaths as above-said It hath been a dear Separation to them The Nonconformity hath lost some Ministers many thousand pounds And what have all these things been for For their own Faults Humours factious Nature c. Have none of them any Wit Reason Policy Religion Conscience Are all so naught or so foolish such Babes or Mad-men that they hate Peace hate their Wives and Children and their own Flesh Or cannot chuse what 's best a good Living or a nasty Prison or be in peril of it O that we would forbear to judg our Fellow-Servants They declare plainly and truly They that think them to be against a Church-Government because they cannot conform to all particulars in this are much mistaken they cannot conform to the present Constitution Who should best know that They or We Will it follow we can therefore they may Or that good Men have therefore all good Men can Two things have been declared by them 1. That they cannot forbear then Ministry preach they must 2. As dear as Preaching is to them and the Magistrates favour and a portion of the setled Maintenance yet they cannot comply on the Legal Terms But have they attempted their Liberty by any treacherous Conspiracies Have they preached Seditiously or been Achans in the Camp or Nadabs and Abihu's They ask no Favour fear no Accusations They may say as that excellent Mr. Joseph Allen in his gallant Speech wise humble and fully to the Judg when sentenced to pay a hundred Mark and lie in Prison till it was paid He was glad that it had appeared before his Country that whatsoever he was charged with he was guilty of nothing but doing his Duty and that all that did appear by the Evidence was only That he had sung a Psalm and instructed his Family others being there and both in his own House and that if nothing which had been urged would satisfy he should with all chearfulness and thankfulness accept whatsoever Sentence his Lordship should pronounce upon him for so good and righteous a Cause Life of Mr. Jof Allen pag. 59. Object But some of them gather Churches Preach in time of Publick Service and are ill-tempered Men c. A. I meddle not in this as it is a Matter of Controversy stated and agitated by different Persuasions But as it is a Matter of Complaint and so I say we ought to do all that good Men can do for one Mind one Way to narrow Controversies by enlarging Conditions of Communion 2. Many cannot help preaching in time of publick Service 1. Because else they cannot preach at all for the distance of their Auditors 2. Against their Wills they are constrained because many that refuse to hear the Publick Ministers would be drawn to Meetings of Anabaptists And this was one reason which good Dr. Staunton in particular gave for his preaching at St. Albans at such times So many of the Non-conformists are a second Sieve if they preach not much Corn would fall to the gathered heaps of other Dissenters 3. Seeing they are under an Obligation of Preaching in one sence the more publick their preaching is the better for then they will be sure to preach nothing but what all may hear 4. The Law makes no difference between Publick and their own Houses if they exceed Five if therefore they Judg themselves and none can better judg than themselves obliged to preach upon peril of the Law they take the more publick Places no greater Penalties being to be suffered for that than a meer private Corner Lastly Hath any of them suffered as an evil Doer taking evil doing in the common sence or desarved to suffer these eighteen Years Have they not asserted the Common Interest sought the publick Welfare opposed Popery and been as obedient Subjects to the King as any other save only in this controverted Point What pity is that the Bosom of the Church were not as open and as large as the King 's gracious Protection is to them as leading peaceable and quiet Lives in all Godliness and Honesty What tho they complained have they sease or are they stupid Have they stirred Sedition and distracted the Government taking the advantage of a horrid Plot to play their own Game or laid a Counter-mine as it pleased one of our Moderators or Plot-discoverers to entitle his Book If they are so gracious with the rich Tradesmen and populace it shall be to their Honour and is to their Comfort that they have made no other use of the goodness of the People than to save their Souls How glad should all true Protestants he that the Presbyterian Plot is fallen together with their own Popish Plot upon the same Pates Or was the Separation of the Non-conformits the Door by which Popery was entering in Then indeed the Door must be stopt up by all means But by this time it is but too apparent and with grief be it written that the Church of England had bred such Birds as would have plucked out her Eyes The Heifers always went in the Church-yard with which the Papists plow'd shameless Hypocrites that cried up the Church to throw it down Not to multiply Objections and Answers It is or may be clear that nothing but Conscience of Sin and Duty doth govern the Learned Judicious and honest Non-conformists I suppose there are many of them that deserve these Characters and because they are governed by their Judgments and Consciences it is the great Duty of Governors to have respect to them and to take away all Occasions of our Bleeding Divisions It is in the Power of our Governors to remove the Causes and not in them If the Judgment and Consciences of our Governours be to walk strictly according to the Rule and Measure of our Conformity and cannot relax nor remove any part of it and the Judgment of the Non-conformists be that they cannot come up to it then the Divisions must remain as now they are and the Decision be deferred to the last coming of Jesus Christ But may it not be decided before that for where hath Christ made the Governors Consciences the exact Measure of other Ministers But our Laws declare most of the things in Controversy to be in their own nature indifferent to be mutable and therefore it is in their Power to take away both the Things and the Obligation to them and to bind us only to the Observation of necessary things and to leave things which they found indifferent as they found them without judging one another And for this reason Wisdom and Charity requires a relaxation upon their parts and they have this to plead for them that they have long tried to bring Ministers and People to an uniformity in these things but could not and therefore for Peace and Love Unity and Edification they have taken away their Obligation That the Non-conformists cannot subscribe and declare and subject themselves to this Yoke how easy soever it seems to many because they cannot in their