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A56809
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The conformist's second plea for the nonconformists wherein the case of the non-conformists is further stated and the suspension of the penal laws against them humbly moved with all due submission to the magistrate / by a charitable and compassionate conformist, author of the former plea.
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Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P979; ESTC R11214
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81,044
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88
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His Majesties Declaration from Breda April 14. 1660. We do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no Man shall be disquieted or called in question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom And that We shall be ready to Consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature Deliberation shall be offered to Vs for the full granting that Indulgence House of Commons Jan. 10. 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom THE Conformist's second Plea FOR THE Nonconformists WHEREIN The Case of the Non-Conformists is further stated and the Suspension of the Penal Laws against them humbly moved with all due submission to the Magistrate By a Charitable and Compassionate Conformist Author of the former PLEA Sed neque Imperiale est Libertatem dicendi denegare neque Sacerdotale quod sentiat non dicere S. Ambros ad Theodos Ep. 29. There hath been left for any thing I find to the contrary in all well-govern'd Polities a kind of latitude more or less and power in the Magistrates even in those Courts that were Strictissimi Juris upon fit occasion to qualify and mitigate something the Rigor of the Laws by the Rules of Equity Bp Sanderson's Sermons 1 Vol. p. 112. Ad Magistratum LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. To all that are entrusted with the Administration of Justice and Conservation of the Peace by what Title soever they are honoured The Charitable and Compassionate Conformist doth most humbly present these Papers Noble and Worshipful NO Cause can come before you wherein you are so nearly concerned as you are sincere Protestants than in this of the Dissenting Protestants because your Religion is touched and concerned in it you cannot hurt that in any sound part of the Professors of it tho in a few things differing from you but very sensibly one of you must be affected with it and what you do to them you do to your selves and your own Religion except you account Life and Soul and Body to be nothing without Formalties As you are Gentlemen of noble Birth and Education and as Persons of Estates and of Hospitality of Wisdom Justice and Experience you are most obliged with all Skill Judgment Tenderness Mercy and Impartiality to give your selves true Information in the state and deserts of this great Matter and so to proceed with them as shewing a Copy of those Characters of Vertue impressed upon your Spirits in your Proceedings with them As Gentlemen by Birth and Blood your Extraction derives to you the most amiable Qualities and purest Endowments of human Nature this Extract of noble Nature sublimated by ingenuous much more by pious and christian Education must needs dispose you to a nobler kind of Behaviour and a greater Benignity than inferiour Persons of a courser and more mixed Metal A truely vertuous Gentleman comes nearest to the true gracious Christian but when the true Gentleman is become a true Christian then even Enemies and Offenders may expect much more than Humanity from him You are not troubled with Parricides Murderers and Robbers not with obstinate Hereticks nor with perjured Persons but such as fear an Oath nor traiterous equivocating Jesuits when the Nonconformists are brought before you but with Men of an ingenuous Education and what they want of a noble Birth they have made up in the better sort of natural Endowments improved by liberal Education advanced by Grace and preferred to be the Ministers of God and therefore in a sort your Equals as in other respects your Inferiors and therefore worthy to be treated with a due respect They may expect from you the highest Civility patient hearing the calmest Arguing Courtesie and Condescension and an extream unwillingness to act nigh to a Rigor You should sooner from a Generosity proper to your Degree give them what they want than take from them the little which they have and be as much troubled to send them to a Prison as to be sent into one your selves He that can easily be severe or cruel hath put off Humanity and doth act with great Negligence and Forgetfulness and is so far unfit to act If a Man be a Prisoner of War at the Mercy of a Gentleman the Gentleman considering what he is himself acts like himself and useth him as a distressed Friend that was but a while before an open Enemy The Nonconformists for whom I plead are your own if you please 〈◊〉 think them so and you may with as much ease and more honour with less troubâ—â— and more safety and comfort make them your own than disown and use them as tho they were your Enemies As Ministers they have chosen a Calling which the Prince of Darkness hates and persecutes they need your Countenance and Succor against the Powers of Darkness their business in the World is rightly to inform to better and save the World they deserve your Assistance and Prayers for success Had they chosen a secular way of Life they might with the same Education and Parts have filled and adorned other Seats as well as the Pulpit had they all turned Physicians Lawyers States-men as some have done or to other Trades and Arts they might have had a greater Plenty without disturbance Dangers Losses or Indignities But shall all these Miseries and Afflictions come upon them First Because they cannot change and desert their Calling Next because they cannot be idle or unprofitable in it Consider and compare them dishonoured and afflicted with your honoured selves Are you Christians so are they are you Scholars so are they are you Gentlemen they come not far behind you are you Protestant Magistrates they are Protestant Ministers The difference between you is you are in Power and they are out of Favour I will not so far dishonour you as to compare you with those infamous broken ravenous vile sort of Men that witness against them If I may not be pardoned those Epithets I will prove that and much more of many of them But noble Sirs how much beneath you is it as Men of Honour to give Countenance to many of such as are not fit to come within your Doors except to receive Justice from you against any that have the unstained repute of honest Men only because they are Preachers of our same common Faith But noble Gentlemen let me compare the Informers and them against whom they witness and for whom I plead the one is a Teacher of the way of Life the other is ignorant or walks in the way of Darkness the one makes Conscience of an Oath and of his Word but the other knows not what an Oath is and fears not to be forsworn I say nothing in this
proceeds to the Punishments and that perhaps for doing the best Duties and some of the best Works they can do then he punisheth Men for well-doing 5. He must be a merciful Man not stretching the Law as far as he can in severity to oppress or break the Persons for certainly it is not the end of the Law to ruine the Subject but to preserve him as much as may be They that proceed to the rigor of the Law have a spight at the Persons and let their love to Religion be as they think sound yet they persecute the Person How such can excuse themselves is unknown to me that if the Preacher be gone or be so poor as it hath often been found then to multiply Sums 20 l. for the House 20 l. for every poor Preacher 5 s. for hearing upon the Master of the House for hearing besides the 20 l. for his House 5 s. for the Wife 5 s. for every Child and so on or else to lay as heavy a Sum upon a poorer Man as upon the richer is unequal and unmerciful and if Justices are not merciful they have the Countenance of the Law for Unmercifulness and Revenge upon whom they please Certainly that Man is unmerciful who would seize upon a Bed of a poor aged Widow for a Debt or Rent but whether it be merciful to do so as it is said it hath been somewhere so done for being at a Conventicle let Christians judg 6. He must beware lest by his Justice he doth put a stop to the Gospel and hinder the growth and exercise of true Piety for if he hinder the Gospel he doth not the part of a Friend and Servant of Christ If by the suppression of Conventicles the serious profession and exercise of Religion be discouraged he doth evil by his doing good if he doth good by executing his Office yet if the Execution of his Office be to the hurt and decay of Religion he doth ill by doing well and doth as a Friend the real if not the intentional part of an Enemy 7. He must really be perswaded in his Conscience that all ways of Worship not contrary to but different in Form and Ceremony from the Church of England is meritorious of personal Ruine and the Ruine of Children in their Parents for it will quickly rise to that that it is Evil-doing that it deserves greater punishments than common Swearing or riding Journeys on the Lord's Day that he must be sure that he intends no hurt or disadvantage to serious Piety that he loves the Persons of the Dissenters as he doth other Men wisheth no ill to any of them and that judging their Practises to be Evil-doing that he punisheth them meerly and only for Evil-doing without respect to Anger private Displeasure or secret Gain either by Bribes or Rewards either of Favour Honour or Estimation or saving of himself He that punisheth rightly must sincerely bend himself against Evil-doing as Evil-doing for the good of the Person or if not for the Benefit of that Person that suffereth for the good of others If you can chastise the Religious for Religious Exercises and save Religion harmless you have divided the finest Hair that ever was seen Nonconformity implies Conscience or else it is flat irrational Madness to suffer for a whimsy or humor and to punish them for Religious Duties and not for Religion and Conscience is too Metaphysical a Notion to be brought to Practise I have now opened the Case let others judge whether it be not Persecution It hurts the Sufferer it molests and vexeth him his Vexation is for Religious Exercises materially good finally good effectually good to many without harm to any faulty in an outward Form or Circumstance which may be born with without danger to the Kingdoms Peace or to true Religion If this should prove to be a Persecution in any Magistrate or other then it follows Fourthly Be perswaded from this Course of proceeding and wait for healing Applications and Remedies for it is one of the most unkind unnatural Prosecutions that have been ever carried on The Persons are our peaceable and loyal Fellow-Subjects useful in the Common-wealth make up our strength against our common Enemies they are related to us in the Flesh baptized with the same Baptism believe in the same God and Father Son and Holy Ghost with one Faith and that have offered to unite with us in the same Form of Government and of Prayer as far as they could without danger of sinning we are not under the Temptation of complying with an Heterodox Prince against the Orthodox Christians our King professeth the same Faith It was an unhappinss to the Church when an Arian Emperour or Empress drew the Flatterers and timerous Bishops to persecute the Orthodox This is not our case the Controversy now is not between the Heretick and the Orthodox we do not in them prosecute the Arrian Nestorian Eutichian or Donatist Nor doth the Papist persecute the Protestant but the Protestant disobeys the Protestant and the Protestant doth afflict if not persecute the Protestant which is a doleful Consideration Oh! how bitter is it if there can be no difference found in Religion there shall be a difference made by some Acts of Policy if none in Articles of Faith there shall be in Conditions of Communion and Ceremony Here the professed sincere Protestant takes up a Complaint against them who are as sincere as he The Orthodox did communicate with the Heterodox yea with the Heretick the Heretick broke off first and begun the Persecution and followed it But the Orthodox when he had Favour and Power for him did not revenge Let Heresy which is from the Flesh and the Devil be propagated and enforced by carnal and diabolical Weapons but let Truth which is from God be carried on with Love Truth goes forth with Evidence and Conviction like the Sun but Heresy comes into the World sometimes with Silence but is carried about in a Storm attended with Lightnings Who but an Ismael will persecute an Isaac If the Papists will persecute who are by another Mother a second Hagar which gendreth to Bondage and scares us with Thundrings and Excommunications as from Mount Sinai or Ebal let Peace be in the Walls of Jerusalem If Papists persecute Protestants O let not Protestants persecute Protestants To open this that I may move both Reason and Compassion I will consider Who punisheth who are punished and for what and see where we can find the like and whether Hereticks and Papists and the immoderate Lutherans are not justified by us in the Cruelties which they have exercised 1. The Magistrate is professedly a sincere Protestant or else he must be an abominable perfidious Hypocrite because of his Oaths and Renuciation of the Pope and Popery 2. They who are punished are as Orthodox holy Christians as any in the World out of our own Church They are profitable and peaceable Subjects notwithstanding many discouragements and provocations from fellow-subjects