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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

Masters of their Liberty have said as much or enough to take off the edg from Imposers to require them or of wife Men to desire them I shall here produce the Judgment of some learned and judicious Conforming Divines concerning Ceremonies The first shall be the most eminent Dr. Stillingfleet in that excellent Irenicum the first born of his most learned Youth and mature Reason and Judgment and had it been the Work of his Age it had been a Birth at full growth in respect of Piety Gravity sweetness of Temper beauty of Complexion wise Observations and Experience that and Author of the renicum had filled up the Epitaph of the Dean of St. Pauls This is the last Proposal of Accommodation That Religion be not clogg'd with Ceremonies Christian Religion is a plain simple easy thing By Ceremonies I do not mean here Matters of meer Decency and Order for Order-sake But Ceremonies properly taken for Actions fignisicative their lawfulness may with better grounds be scrupled pag. 67. And before pag. 66. We see the Primitive Church did not make so much of any uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies I shall quote too much if I give way to what is mature and past his own mending without disparagement to his more grown Reason be it spoken The second is a great Scholar and Divine the late worthy Mr. G. Lawson Rector of Moor in Shropshire in his Exposition of the Second Commandment Theopolitica B. 2. c. 8. As for significant Ceremonies annexed to the Service of God no ways conducing to the better performance thereof I think they are better spared and omitted than used and observed For tho considered in themselves without any reference to God's Worship they be indifferent and so in general may be lawful yet if we examine their Original the first occasion of their Institution the Persons who use or rather abuse them and understand withal how needless and unprofitable they be and how offensive to some weak Brethren and also besides these may be instituted many more of that kind and may be imposed upon the same ground and that in the Church of Rome they have been an occasion of Superstition it must needs be included by impartial and judicious Men that they are not expedient To say and publickly declare that they have no sanctifying Power that they are neither Holy nor Unholy will not serve the turn for the same may be said of Images at first when they began to be used and do what we can many of the People do account them to be Holy make them parts of God's Worship and are more careful in the observation of them than they are of the more weighty Duties of Religion Doctrine in this case will not prevail if the thing that they trusted to be not taken from them Calfhill of the Cross again Martial p. 88 So it may be bating the degrees of Offence when Matters of Indifferency in themselves are by the generality of People not looked on as such but used as a necessary part of Divine Service Dr. Stilling Iren. p. 64. They who industriously labour to keep out Popery can never cleanse a People from Superstitions while they keep up Ceremonies an observation of present use My third Testimony is a Man of great Learning and of long standing in the Church Mr. John Lloyd B. D. now of North Tidworth in Wilts Treat of Epise Liturg. Rites c. Lond. 1660. Many have entertained a great fear which hath alienated their Minds from all Episcopacy namely that innumerable company of unnecessary and burdensome Ceremonies be inseparable Concomitants of Episcopal Government Indeed the fear is not vain and without grounds if we respect the degenerate Episcopacy as it is if we regard the Primitive which hath been and will be contented with a very few if need be p. 32. S. 15 the whole Section gives a short and full account of Primitive Simplicity One Reason why Ceremonies increased in the fourth Century may be this Because the Church more flourished in prosperity than at any time before and might be thought convenient that the External Glory of the Church should be proportioned to the Glory of the Empire p. 38. We may err as in defect so in excess of Ceremonies or in the choice or in accounting and compelling others to own them for unchangeable Apostolick Institutes or by too rigid pressing of every of them especially upon People of weak Capacity humble peaceable and scrupulous Conscience Antiquity is venerable yet it may not ought not continue a Rite or Ceremony in any Church with whose Edification and Peace it is become inconsistent There be but few Ordinances meerly Ecclesiastical which have not in some Churches become noxious or at least useless And there is a vicissitude of Profit or Detriment growing from them in the same Churches arising from notable changes in Persons and Circumstances If it should seem good to the Church of England to mend their Liturgie ☞ or compose a new one if need be more agreeable to the present Time they should do therein no more than the most famous Churches have done before and which can be no disparagement to the Wisdom and Piety of the Composers of it which intended only to make it as fit as could be for the state of the Church in their time and not to frame and impose an Unchangeable Form which could never prove incongruous to any possible variety in the state of the Church for this is not in the power of any persons or Churches P. 54 55. Thus far this great Student modest moderate good Man I will content my self with the Opinions of these three worthy Persons when disengaged and altho they conformed they were and are no doubt of the same mind free in their minds when obliged in their practice to submit What more than what I have shewed the Commissioners at the Savoy pleaded for may be seen in the Account of their Proceedings But what got they by those Debates besides satisfaction in their own Souls that they debated and petitioned for Peace A very little indeed And what the Bishops gave with the one hand they got with the other It was strange and hard that they could not prevail so far as to get the Commandments in the Church-Catechism Communion-Service to be after the last and best Translation in our Bibles but our Children must be taught the 4th Commandment after the manner of the Judaizing Seventh-day-Sabbath Sect for so they are taught Wherefore he blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it and our unwary People are taught to pray that God would encline their hearts to keep this Law that Law which enjoineth the seventh-Seventh-day as the Sabbath which God blessed and hallowed whereas the Law Remember the Sabbath day which extends to the First day as well as the Seventh day and makes the First day moral when appointed by the Lord of the Sabbath But this Doctrine was not consonant to the Opinions of Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike

Hist of the Sabbath Just Weights Measures Case of the Sabbath nor which I wonder at to the judicious Bp. Sanderson as much as the Seventh was from the Creation What if an inquiring Child that is catechised should ask his Parent What day do we keep as Sabbath the First hee 'l say But saith the Child Why do we keep the First what Commandment for that or what Promise for we are taught in the Catechism God blessed the Seventh day Is not this a temptation to keep the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath Had the Presbyterians pleaded for that Translation they might have heard of their ignorance in the Hebrew and demanding things not fit to be allowed they would not grant them lest they as the Puritans have been misrepresented should Judaize in keeping the Holy Sabbath The Doxologie or conclusion of the Lord's Prayer for thine is the Kingdom c. to be used always Query Whether they have not thereby taught us this Opinion that tho Forms of Prayers are lawful yet a variety is as lawful as a set form of words We prove the lawfulness by our Saviour's Prescription When ye pray say c. And may we not prove a liberty or a variety of expressions keeping still to the same matter when we read a difference in the same Prayer as delivered by two Evangelists inspired by the same Spirit and when we see the practice of the Church is sometimes to use and sometimes to omit the Doxologie and Conclusion And why shall the Church so severely enjoin the exact use of all her Forms and they who omit when their Prudence and Conscience as to some Prayers tells them they should sometimes concerning some Petitions and Persons are liable to censure when a part of the Lord's Prayer as delivered by St. Matthew is constantly omitted For ought I see a liberty and variety of Prayers strictly keeping to divine matter with abbreviations and enlargements is as lawful as a stinted invariable Form of words and is a matter of Christian Liberty to be used as shall best serve to the edification of the Church of Christ and divers expressions are as much from the same Spirit provided always they agree with the language of the Holy Ghost as diversities of Gifts and consistant with the Unity of the Spirit And they who plead for a necessity of Forms must also yeeld to a variety upon the same subject which we have for the King in the Service and a few others A Reformation was thought absolutely necessary to Union Hear what Mr. Herbert Thorndike one of the Commissioners for the Church in the Savoy wrote But now that Unity is not to be had without setling agreement in matters of Difference A due way of composing Differences printed with his Weights and Measures pag. 236. Edit 1662. to propose what may seem best for the Community of God's Church in the Cure of our Breaches is not to give offence but to take it away Nor do I know any Man professing the Reformation sincerely that could not wish with all his heart that the whole Order and Form to be setled with the Circumstance of the same might be according to the Primitive Simplicity and naked plainness of the Ancient Church p. 245. The form of Service now in force by Law may be acknowledged capable of Amendment without disparagement either to the Wisdom of the Church that prescribed it or of the Nation that enacted it Some promised much but granted little others begg'd more pleaded hard but obtained not And may not this justify the Nonconformists waiting for and earnestly desiring a redress of material things since they could obtain but very little then and cannot in conscience subscribe and declare now If they had been gratified then and had now been discontented without more there had been more reason for the prejudice that is propagated against them If it be objected Why could not they have Conformed as some of their Fellow-Commissioners did I Answer 1. Some very worthy Persons did Conform Dr. Wallis Dr. Horton Dr. Lightfoot and after about seven Years silence to the great loss of Exeter College Oxford and the Church of God Dr. Conant conformed and these were all 2. The Reasons why these did not is because as the same Spectacles will not serve all Mens sight so because they could not as they oft declared both to the shaking off some and the displeasure of others within the Pale My last Observation shall be upon the Persons that managed that Debate The Commissioners that pleaded for the Union as it was without a Reformation were the strongest and stiffest of any in the Church of England Men of great Learning long experience in the Ecclesiastical Government and that had suffered much and were much exasperated as being several of them next the Bishops most obnoxious to the Parliament as most guilty of Innovations in Doctrine and Discipline by the Informations and Complaint of as Learned and as great Men as any of them in the Church of England as may easily be produced out of the best account of those Times all except Dr. Morley Dr. Earle Dr. Sanderson against whom I remember no Complaints and a few beside Their Constancy and Sufferings did recommend them to the King's Favour and the great Agreement in their Persuasions held them to one another and having the disposing of Preferments as they pleased or at least the Recommendation of Candidates Expectants complied with them and were forward to walk according to their Measures The moderating Bishop Hall was gone to Heaven Prideaux Brownrig and others of another temper and so it was easier for them to carry all their own way and two things as conducing to their designs was necessary 1. To frame a Convocation to their minds and to that end great care and pains were used to keep out and to get in by very undue Proceedings Protestations were entred against all Incumbents not ordained by Bishops though it was not through their faults and to exclude others that they feared had any inclination to Moderation indeed under the name of Presbytery And such an Election being made as there was no great fear of calling any thing to free Debates few leading Men being of another mind so there were no Debates to speak of the greatest that I could hear of was between the Cambridg Professor Dr. Gunning and the Oxford Professor Dr. Creed about a hard Point indeed the Age of Children to be Confirm'd 2. For all his Majesty's most gracious and excellent Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs they laboured by all their Interest and Endeavours to have a Parliament that would pass what they would contrive and prepare for them And so they instead of sending more Labourers into the Vineyard hired as some say Labourers to turn out or keep out Labourers from entring in And the Labourers in Pension were not imployed only in State but also in Church-Work Their Interest was so great in that Parliament as to enact what was

Common-Prayer 2. Whether the Reading of Psalms Sentences of Scripture concurring in divers places in Hymns the Epistles and Gospels should not be set out in the New Translation 4. Whether Lessons of Canonical Scripture should not be put in the Kalendar instead of the Apocrypha 5. That the Doxologie should be always printed at the end of the Lord's Prayer 6. Whether the Rubrick should not be mended where it is that the Lessons should be sung in a plain Tune why not read with a distinct Voice 7. Whether Gloria Patri should be repeated at the end of every Psalm Consider 9. Whether the Hymns Benedicite Omnia Opera c. may not be left out 3. Whether the Rubrick should not be mended where all Vestments in time of Divine Service are now commanded which were used 2. E. 6. 10. In the Prayer for the Clergy that phrase perhaps to be altered which only workest great marvels 11. In the Rubrick for the Administration of the Lord's Supper Whether this Alteration to be made that such as intend to Communicate shall signify their Names to the Curat over Night or in the Morning before Prayers 12. The next Rubrick to be cleared How far a Minister may repulse a scandalous and notorious Sinner from the Communion 13. Whether that Rubrick is not to be mended where the Church-wardens are straitly appointed to gather the Alms for the Poor before the Communion begins for by experience it is proved to be done better when the people depart 14. Whether the Rubrick is not to be mended concerning the party that is to make his general Confession upon his Knees before the Communion that it should be said only by the Minister and then at every clause repeated to the people 16. Whether it be not fit to insert a Rubrick touching kneeling at the Communion that is to comply in all humility with the Prayer which the Minister makes when he delivers the Elements 19. Whether in the first Prayer at the Baptism these words Didst sanctify the Flood Jordan and all other Waters should not be thus changed Didst sanctify the Element of Water 20. Whether it be not fit to have some discreet Rubrick made to take away all Scandal from signifying the Sign of the Cross upon the Infants after Baptism or if it shall seem more expedient to be quite disused whether this Reason should be published that in Ancient Liturgies No Cross was consigned upon the Party but where Oil also was used and therefore Oil being now omitted so may also that which was concomitant with it the Sign of the Cross 21. In private Baptism the Rubrick mentions that which must not be done That the Minister may dip the Child in Water being at the point of Death 22. Whether in the last Rubrick of Confirmation those words be to be lest out and be undoubtedly saved 23. Whether the Catechism may not receive a little more enlargement 24. Whether the Times prohibited for Marriage are quite to be taken away 25. Whether none hereafter shall have Licenses to Marry nor be asked their Baues of Matrimony that shall not bring with them a Certificate from their Ministers that they are instructed in their Catechism 26. Whether these words in Matrimony with my Body I thee worship shall not be thus altered I give thee power over my Body 27. Whether the last Rubrick of Marriage should not be mended that the new married Persons should receive the Communion the same day of the Marriage may it not well be or upon the next Sunday following when the Communion is celebrated 28. In the Absolution of the Sick were it not plain to say I pronounce thee Absolved 29. The Psalm of Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth Were it not fit to be composed out of proper Versicles taken from divers Psalms 32. In the Order of the Burial of all Persons 't is said We commit this Body to the Ground in sure and certain hope of Resurrection to eternal Life Why not thus Knowing assuredly that the Dead shall rise again 34. In the Litany instead of Fornication and all other deadly Sin Would it not satisfy thus From Fornication and all other grievous Sins 35. It is very fit that the Imperfections of the Meeter in the Singing Psalms should be mended and then lawful Authority added unto them to have them publickly sung before and after Sermons and sometimes instead of the Hymns of Morning and Evening Prayer The Commissioners in the Savoy 1661. In regard of the many defects which have been observed in that Version of the Scriptures which is used throughout the Liturgy We therefore desire in stead thereof the New Translation allowed by Authority may alone be used 8. p. 5 -9 It is therefore desired that nothing may be read in the Church for Lessons but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Exception 3. We desire that the words For thine is the Kingdom may be always added to the Lord's Prayer Except p. 13. The Lessons and Epistles and Gospels being for the most part neither Psalms nor Hymns we know no Warrant why they should be sung in any place and conceive that the distinct reading of them with an audible Voice tends more to the edification of the Church Excep We desire it may be used but once in the Morning and once in the Evening Except We desire that some Psalm or Scripture-Hymn may be appointed instead of that Apocryphal Except We desire it may be left out The Prefaces of many Collects seem not to have any clear and special respect to the Petitions c. Partic. p. 7. In the Order for the Lord's Supper Except The time here assigned in the Rubrick for notice to be given to the Minister is not sufficient Except We desire the Ministers power both to admit and repulse from the Lord's Table may be according to his Majesty's Declaration Octob. 25. 1660. Except Collections for the Poor may be better made at or a little before the departure of the Communicants We desire it may be made by the Minister only We desire that the following Rubrick in the Common-Prayer Book of 5. of Edw. 6. may be restored for the Vindication of the Church in the matter of kneeling at the Sacrament c. It being doubtful whether either the Flood Jordan or any other Waters were sanctified to a Sacramental use by our Saviour's being baptized We desire this may be otherwise expressed 18. General Proposal After strong arguing they conclude We therefore most earnestly entreat the right reverend Fathers and Brethren to whom these Papers are delivered as they tender the Glory of God the Honour of Religion the Peace of the Church the Service of his Majesty in the accomplishment of that happy Union which his Majesty hath so abundantly testified his Desires of to join with us in importuning his most Excellent Majesty that his most gracious Indulgence as to these Ceremonies granted in his Royal Declaration may be continued and confirmed to us and

you at this present which is That you would seriously think of some course to beget a better Union and Composure in the minds of my Protestant Subjects in Matters of Religion whereby they may be induced not only to submit quietly to the Government but also chearfully give their assistance to the support of it And in his Speech to both Houses Nov. 9. 1678. He saith I meet you here with the most earnest desire that Man can have to unite the Minds of all my Subjects both to Me and to one another and I resolve it shall be your Fault if the Success be not sutable to my Desires Besides that end of Union which I aim at and which I wish could be extended to Protestants Abroad as well as at Home I purpose by this last step I have made to discern whether the Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by Me. Some Bishops formerly and of late have most pathetically pleaded the Case of the Non-conformists whose Apostolical Zeal and Charity are worthy the Consideration and Imitation of the present Bishops and Fathers of our Church at this Time especially A former Bishop of St. Davids in the Convocation-House May 23. 1604. speaking of those who were scrupulous only upon some Ceremonies c. Being otherwise Learned studious grave and honest Men whose Labours have been painful in the Church and profitable to their several Congregations he says tho I do not justify their Doings yet surely their Service would be missed at such a Time as need shall require them and us to give the right hand of Fellowship one to another and to go Arm in Arm against the common Adversary that so there might be Vis unita fortior If these our Brethren aforesaid should be deprived of their Places for the Matters premised I think we should find cause to bend our Wits to the uttermost extent of our skill to provide some Cure of Souls for them where they may exercise their Talents Furthermore if these Men being divers hundreds as it is bruited abroad should forsake their Charges as some do presuppose they will who I pray you should succeed them Besides this for so much as in the Life-time of the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury these things were not so extreamly urged but that many Learned Preachers enjoyed their Liberty herein conditionally that they did not by Word or Deed openly disgrace or disturb the State established I would know a Reason why it should not be so generally and exceeding strictly called upon especially considering these Men are now the more necessary by so much as we see greater encrease of Papists to be now of late than were before To conclude I wish that if by Petition made to the King's Majesty there cannot be obtained a quite remove of the Premises which seem so grievous to divers nor yet a Toleration for them which be of the more staid and temperate carriage yet at the least there might be procured a mitigation of the Penalty if they cannot be drawn by other Reasons to a Conformity with us Thus far this Bishop in those days when the Terms of Conformity were not so hard The present Lord Bishop of Hereford in his Naked Truth with hearty Compassion and Zeal pleads the Case of our present Non-conformists both with the then two Houses of Parliament and the Bishops in particular First In his Address to the Lords and Commons in general he thus expresses himself My Lords and Noble Gentlemen you have fully expressed your Zeal to God and his Church in making Laws for Unity c. I call God the searcher of all Hearts the God of Life and Death to witness That I would most readily yea most joyfully sacrifice all I have in this World my Life and all that all Nonconformists were reduced to our Church but it falls out most sadly that your Laws have not the desired effect our Church is more and more divided c. And concludes with earnest Prayers That God would direct them to that which may make for the Vnity of our Church by yeelding to weak Ones c. And in pag. 10. Edition in Folio he thus earnestly and seriously Addresses him to the Bishops My Reverend Fathers and Judges of the Church I with St. Paul Col. 3. beseech you put on fatherly bowels of Mercies Kindness humbleness of Mind Meekness Long-suffering towards your poor weak Children and so long as they hold fast the Body of Christ be not so rigorous with them for Shadows if they submit to you in Substance have patience tho they do not submit in Ceremonies and give me leave to tell you my poor Opinion This violent pressing of Ceremonies hath I humbly conceive been a great hinderance from embracing them Men fearing your Intentions to be far worse than really they are and therefore abhor them And pag. 11. This force-urging Uniformity in Worship hath caused great division in Faith as well as Charity for had you by abolishing some Ceremonies taken the weak Brethren into your Church they had not wandred about after seducing Teachers nor fallen into so many gross Opinions of their own Now I beseech you in the fear of God set before your Eyes the dreadful Day of Judgment when Christ in his Tribunal of Justice shall require an account of every Word and Deed and shall thus question you Here are several Souls who taking offence at your Ceremonies have forsaken my Church have forsaken the Faith have run into Hell the Souls for which I shed my precious Blood Why have you suffered this Nay why have you occasioned this Will you Answer It was to preserve our Ceremonies Will not Christ return unto you Are your Ceremonies more dear unto you than the Souls for which I died Who hath required these things at your hands Will you for Ceremonies which you your selves confess to be indifferent no way necessary unto Salvation suffer your weak Brethren to perish for whom I died Have not I shewed you how David and his Souldiers were guiltless in eating the Shew-bread which was not lawful but only for the Priests to eat If David dispensed with a Ceremony commanded by God to satisfy the hunger of his People Will not you dispence with your own Ceremonies to satisfy the Souls of my People who are called by my Name and profess my Name tho in weakness Or will you tell Christ they ought to suffer for their own wilfulness and perverseness who will not submit to the Laws of the Church as they ought Will not Christ return Shall they perish for transgressing your humane Laws which they ignorantly conclude Erroneous And shall not you perish for transgressing my Divine Laws which you know to be Good and Holy Had I mercy on you and should not you have mercy on you fellow Servants With the same measure you meeted it shall be measured unto you again I tremble to go farther but most humbly beseech you for Christ's sake endeavour to regain these strayed Sheep for which he shed his precious Blood and think it as great an advantage as great an honour to you as it was to St. Paul to become all things to all Men that you may gain some as doubtless you will many tho not all and the few standers off will be the more convinced and at long running wearied out and gained also I close this Bishop's earnest Requests with one of the Prayers made by the Bishops for the late Fast on Decemb. 22. 1680. appointed by the King's Proclamation among other ends to Unite the Hearts of all Loyal Protestants and I hope my Lords the Bishops will join their sincere endeavours with this devout Prayer Viz. For Union among our Selves BLessed Jesu our Saviour and our Peace who didst shed thy precious Blood upon the Cross that thou might st abolish and destroy all Enmity among Men and reconcile them in one Body unto God Look down in much pity and compassion upon this distressed Church and Nation who 's bleeding Wounds occasion'd by the lamentable Divisions that are among us cry aloud for thy speedy Help and saving Relief Stir up we beseech thee every Soul of us carefully as becomes sincere Christians to root out of our Hearts all Pride and Vain-glory all Wrath and Bitterness all unjust Prejudice and causless Jealousy all Hatred and Malice and desire of Revenge and whatsoever it is that may any way exasperate our Minds or hinder us from discerning the things that belong unto our Peace And by the Power of thy Holy Spirit of Peace dispose all our Hearts to such meekness of Wisdom and lowliness of Mind such calm and deliberate Long-suffering and Forbearance of one another in Love with such due esteem of those whom thou hast set over us to watch for our Souls as may turn the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the Hearts of the Children to the Fathers that so we may become a ready People prepar'd to live in Peace and the God of Peace may be with us To this End give us all Grace O Lord seriously to lay to heart not only the great Dangers we are in at present by these unhappy Divisions but also the great Obligations to this godly Vnion and Concord which lie upon us That as there is but one Body and one Spirit and one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all so we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul closely united in one holy bond of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity and may with one Mind and one Mouth glorify thee O Lord the Prince of Peace who with thy blessed Father in the Vnity of the Holy Spirit livest and reignest ever one God World without end Amen FINIS