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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-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

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