substantial Piety by which they hope to be saved themselves Duresce duresce Peace upon Israel The Conformist's fourth Plea for the Non-Conformists containing chiesly Relations of the Sufferings of many Non-Conformists in several Parts of England will be shortly published The Case and Cure of Persons excommunicated according to the present Law of England With some friendly Advice to persons pursued in inferior Ecclesiastical Courts by malicious promoters both in order to their avoiding Excommunication or delivering themselves from prisons if imprisoned because they have stood excommunicated four by Days Mr. Jekyl's Sermon intituled Religion makes the best Loyalty which was prepared for that great Assembly of Protestant Lords Gentlemen and Citizens that was to meet at St. Michael's Corn-hill on 21 April last to give God thanks for the Preservation of his Majestie 's Person the Protestant Religion and Protestant Subjects from the Popish Plot and many Sham-plots c. is now published Sold by Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard THE Conformist's Third Plea FOR THE NON-CONFORMISTS WE may think a Suspension of Severity and a powerful Interposition between the Threatning and the Execution would be proper and seasonable of great Service and Advantage but the infinitely wise God Saviour and King of his Church whose Thoughts are deep and unsearchable may think it sufficient that they that love him have his Promise that all things shall work together for good to them Let them that are instructed to know his Will do it and that know his Promises believe him and that have renounced the World freely part with their small share in it But to me the state of things appears dark confused and disconsolate and being engaged further than I thought at first the same Motives that prevailed with me before prevail'd with me to go on not from a private or factious Discontent but to prevent as much as I can the horrid Sins of some and the greivous Sufferings of others and to discharge mine own Duty which will bring the greatest Peace to my now grieved broken and afflicted Spirit But to come to some special matter give me favour to run over these four things I. To represent the State of our Times II. The Sufferings of the Protestant Dissenters III. For what IV. By whom they suffer I. We are a most sinful and sinfully divided Generation so broken that none but God can keep us from falling to pieces like a Pot-sheard broken like a broken earthen Vessel in which there is no pleasure Our Reason cannot propose nor consult Expedients to make us whole and happy because Interests worldly Policy and a contemptible Art or private Cunning to get or save the things that perish in their use and by their Abuse undo and ruine the Owners doth stir up Sedition in our Passions against our Reasons The Gospel hath been so generally despised that it hath not begotten in us a Faith and Love that unites to Christ and to one another We have not Faith enough to purify our Hearts to overcome the World to act as for a Crown of Glory and a Kingdom that cannot be moved If we believed a World to come how little should we strive for this If we had Love enough to cover a multitude of Sins to forgive one another to love as Brethren and our Neighbour as our selves we should not be so jealous and suspicious nor contentious nor selfish as we are One great thing is wanting which is the Wisdom from above described by St. James Chap. 3.17 Which is first pure then peaceable gentle easy to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality without Hypocrisy There is a great Reproach cast upon the Church and the greatest of all cast upon the Dissenters as Dividers but it is an ignorant or malicious Reproach for there is nothing whole but the Church and Body of Christ They are united to Christ the Prince of Peace by one Spirit Faith and Love and to one another by the same Bonds and Principle Schism and Faction are from the Flesh and Devil No sooner do Joseph and his Brethren know one another to be Brethren but they fall upon one anothers Necks and kiss and weep and repent of all their Unkindnesses and express the dearest Love Paul and Barnabas dissent and part but both agree to promote the Kingdom of Christ They that are not and will not be reconciled to God are the great Dividers and Breakers of the Peace they are made up of Lusts of the Flesh which divide and draw several ways for their Satisfaction Whence come Wars and Fightings come they not hence even of your Lusts which war in your Members There is Dissention in the Mind and in the Passions between the Law in the Mind and Heart and the Lusts of the Mind and Flesh till the Conscience comes to be past feeling and the Sinner falls under a reprobate Mind and then what Confusion follows when they call Good Evil and Evil Good put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness what open Defiance is bid to God and Christ what dissenting from and Nonconformity to the sacred Baptismal Covenant the holy Rules of a Gospel-Conversation There is a Law of Faith of Love of Repentance and the Penalty is heavy upon them that do not obey it there is a Law of Righteousness of following Peace and Holiness without which no Man can see the Lord Who transgress these Laws and multitudes more Yea who is the Man that is guilty of all And what Sin so great now a days and in all times as Nonconformity Who rob by the High-ways who kill and steal who curse and damn who have Wo who have Sorrow who have Contentions who have Bablings who have Wounds without cause Who have Redness of Eyes Nonconformists Who make the greatest Trouble to Justices and Magistrates Nonconformists Who fill Prisons and breake them Who take leave of the World at Tyburn and other Places Nonconformists Who draw Swords send Challenges fight Duels and murder one another first with Wine and Drink and then kill their dear Companions Nonconformists and Dissenters But now there is a Distinction to be made some Dissenters are tolerable and some intolerable the drunken Nonconformist is tolerable he hath not only taken the Oaths but swears the other is a sober Nonconformist and taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy will not acquit him and he is intolerable The Nonconformists that assemble to worship God are intolerable and thousands that worship him not at all are too commonly let alone But are not Malefactors punished yes they are but their Crimes are against Civil Peace or Righteousness and not immediately for Irreligion But the Nonconformist Dissenters from arbitrary and variable Impositions are punished heavily and smartly for religious assembling and no other Cause as is proved in the second Plea and is cleared hereafter And upon this the Kingdom is extreamly divided and troubled There is a mighty Party in the Land that
ought to receive and obey the Truth and to believe no more than what Christ hath commanded to be believed and to worship God according to the Will of Christ Shall we say the Protestants in France do not hold the Faith nor worship God according to the Gospel then what are they who say so If they profess and believe the Truth they ought to be permitted that 's plain for the Truth 's sake and for the Lord's sake Doth Christian Love and Compassion prompt us to wish our persecuted Brethren in France enjoyed the Liberty of the true Religion there and if they should enjoy a Freedom there shall we deny a Liberty to Protestant Brethren here I can see no way to avoid a Justification of the barbarous Usage of Protestants there by them that prosecute Protestants here for far lesser Differences from our Establishments than theirs from the Papists Suppose an Embassador was sent to treat with the French King at this time of Prosecution of our Native Protestants for a Cessation of that cruel Persecution how readily might an Answer be made Why may not I suppress Hereticks when in England you suppress Protestants 4. A Diversity of Order and Manner of Discipline and Worship may be as well permitted without breach of Church-Unity in the same Nation as in divers Nations without breach of Christian and Catholick Unity If different Forms of Belief are allowed the matter being divine and the one more large and explicit than others why may not different Modes and Order of Discipline and Worship be allowed and permitted Our Worship is according to our Faith as we believe so we worship Notwithstanding our use of three Forms of Profession of our Faith we agree in one Faith so in different Forms of Worship we agree in one Evangelical Worship And our Reformers might with as great Reason have pitched upon one of the three Creeds and for Uniformity sake required Assent to that and the use of that and no other as our Modern Fathers pitch upon one Form of Worship and require our Assent and Use of that and no other For Uniformity in Faith is more necessary than Uniformity in Orders and Rites We use the Creed called the Apostles Athanasian and Nicen Creed Bishop Jewel hath written a larger Form in his Apology for the Church of England agreeing in Words with neither and in his Reply to Harding reckons up eight Forms composed by several Authors and Fathers Apol. 2d part 1. c. Divis 1. Diversity of Creeds fol. 38. Harding cavilling against his Declaration of our Faith as many in our days exclaim a-against Dissenters said In our Fathers days Christian People lived in perfect Vnity c. before Luther 's New Gospel But let us learn from our Reverend Father Jewel that Unity of Faith may agree with Diversity of Forms of Faith and by Consequence with Diversity of Forms of Worship Object But the Administration of God's Worship ought to be uniform in one Nation and variety of Rites in one National Church would Cause Division of Judgment and by Consequence Division of Affection and to tolerate divers ways of Administrations would be to tolerate matter of perpetual Discord and Schism Answ Besides what the learned and acute Sir Thomas Overbury answers to a part of the matter of this Objection pag. 106. and the Commissioners in the Savoy Account of Proceedings p. 8 9. I 'll return my Answer in two things 1. Without Controversy our Lord Jesus took care for the Preservation of Unity such a Unity as is necessary among his Disciples and yet took no such Course as these Men build all Unity upon 2. The Church of Corinth was doubtless a particular Church and according to the Sense of the Reverend Bishop Bilson quoted before there was no Form of Liturgy prescribed p. 619 620. To be short Multitudes of learned and able Men living in one Kingdom have diversity of Apprehensions and Notions of things as well as in divers Nations and except Uniformity of Words might produce an inward Uniformity of Conceptions it hath not that Influence upon Unity as some Men think by their too violent urging of it 3. I am for Uniformity according to General Rules not excluding Prudence which must judg what 's necessary what 's expedient what 's edifying or what not for to exclude Prudence is to limit Divine Providence to particular Rules Divine Providence proceeds from Soveraignty Prudence observes it and Conscience must obey it Saving the Dominion of Providence and the Exercise of Ministerial Prudence let 's be as uniform as we can This prudential Latitude is allowed to every Curate in the choice of Homilies in dividing them leaving a part for the After-noon and changing of Lessons reading one for another as shall be most for Edification in the Admonition to all Ecclesiastical Ministers before the second part of the Homily To conclude this Question I desire the violent and active and the violent and oppressive Disputants of these times to answer Whether they think that our Protestant-Dissenting-Brethren that preach the Faith and labour to convert and build up precious Souls are unworthy to enjoy Liberty to preach the Gospel or to enjoy their Estates or to live in any part of the World If not what ground have they for their ill Opinion What Christian Charity have they How do they conspire with Bloody Inquisitors and French Persecutors yea Irish Rebels and Inhuman Rooters out of Heresy But if not worthy to live among us retaining their Liberty of Conscience and Religion Whither shall they go Where are they like to sind more natural Affection than among their Native Country-men and Acquaintance Where shall they be more wel-come among the Papists among Infidels where Satan bears so much Rule or among Protestants abroad Alas where who can entertain them Would you banish them to Scotland Ireland there are too many already Whither would you have them go for they are bid begon if they 'll not conform by some where they may do good there 's work enough for them where ever they are Why may they not do good here among us To be short they who turn them out of their Hearts and Charity upon the same reason banish them out of the Land if not out of the World And what if they should say as their Ejectors do We had better live or be in any Land or Nation even among the Papists or Insidels than live among such as these Would it not sound worse than all that yet they have said And what a Division or Schism at the very root would that be if it grew to it Which it hath not done and I wish never may But we may see that Violence is a Wedg to make the most ghastly Schism that ever was seen in a Christian Church But rather than be guilty of so unpeaceable and uncharitable a Thought or Carriage capable of such a Construction which all Christians should as ill endure to lodg within them as the
Schism p. 32. The only Steps by which we can mutually move to Peace I with all submission conceive to be these 1. That we all would seriously study Self-denial and that with a peculiar Eye and regard to Accommodation one perhaps of Popularity another of a particular Humor another of somewhat else All of whatsoever good Conscience tells us is less valuable than common Vnion p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the Excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do conceive the Alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies in loco I do not conceive such Relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Vnion and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps some Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better pag. 118 119. This honourable Embassador of Peace speaks home and from his heart and shall for ever sit high in the esteem of all the Sons of Peace Here are Proposals conditional indeed with the consent of Authority as they should be that will certainly be imbraced by Dissenters But now if the Church should condescend if I may call that a Condescension which is done for Christ as far as it can without Schism and the Dissenters as far as they can with a good Conscience What shall be done if they cannot come up to a full and perfect closure Shall the Dissenter have no benefit by his Consent to the great things and the greatest number of things in which they agree already shall he be not only excluded but punished altho he continue peaceable in his Dissent In such a case here is an apparent Necessity of mutual Forbearance in Love and of the Bond of Peace to keep in the Vnity of the Spirit And here I cannot without a great respect to another Conformist of Worth and Quality as I am informed repeat the Words which are like a healing Plaister to a heart bruised between our grating Differences The way to make National Religion most National is by comprehending all the Differences that can be reconciled with true Religion while they that dissent in some things receive one another with a good peaceable holy and publick Temper of Mind as the great Argument and Inducement of which we should all pray for the Acceptance of the holy Service of all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle distinguishes Christians but immediately unites them again both theirs and ours they and we whatever smaller Distinctions make the They and the We are both one in our Lord Jesus Christ We ought to pray for the common Benefit of all so united though not bound up in the same common Form with us for a gracious Audience and Reception of their and our Worship of God that so the Spirit of Love and Vnion in the main may convey all our Services into one before God where indeed if they are as he requires they meet stript of all their outward Circumstances Form and Ceremony Faith and Obedience being alone able to mount thither with them And Services so raised can by no means be spared for small Differences in a National Religious Interest for the Angels of all such behold the Face of our Father in Heaven Thus that excellent Person The whole Duty of Nations p. 61. who writes himself a Minister of the Catholick Church as it is National in England The same Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation breaths forth in peaceable Discourses of true Protestant Christian Gentlemen of excellent Learning and hearty Concernment for their and our Religion taking several ways The Learned Sir Thomas Overbury hath proposed many Questions of great Weight and discoursed upon them piously and smartly Sir John Mallet hath drawn up the Contents that might be Heads of useful and necessary Discourses for Gentleness towards Protestant Dissenters tho he himself and Family come duely to Church-Service and Sacraments Letter to the Author of the Guide to the English Juries printed after it and use some of the Common-Prayers in his Family The Author of the Appendix to Mr. Hunt's Argument hath discovered a good Will to Peace and Accommodation But most fully and of set-purpose a very learned and true Christian Gentleman that holds constant Communion with the Church of England hath turned aside answering the Title of his Book like a good Samaritan to help up a bleeding Church and powr a Composition of choice Preparations to heal her Wounds But alas have not and do not our Sins separate between us and our God Oh! how are they increased that make that Separation O! how hot are they against a Separation that is both curable and tolerable in comparison of theirs If their Assemblies if their Exercises were called seditious and Twenty Pounds upon the Houses of their Assemblies and but 5 s. upon every one that communicates in their Sins it would be more pleasing to God and more for the Establishment and Prosperity of the Kingdom than their Prosecutions of Dissenters in point of Ceremony many of these consult keep their Meetings sedulously concur unanimously and lay Spies in wait to apprehend the Preachers of the Word of Salvation These breath out Threatnings and what they will do But if this chanee to fall into any of their Hands I will present one warning more and a notable Example to them William Lantgrave of Hasse Casp Peucer Historia Carcerum Part 2. pag. 773. made Intercession with Augustus the Elector of Saxony for Dr. Peucer Prisoner a long time for his dissent in the Vbiquitarian Controversy The Elector promised his release if Anne his Duchess would be willing and desired him to try her first she replied according to her Obstinacy If she lived he should not be released Which Answer of hers the Lantgrave and other wise Men did thus interpret That the Dutchess should shortly dy that Peucer by her Death might be released and so it proved according to their Interpretation she died saith Dr. Peucer in that very moment in which I dreamed in my Sleep of a great and noble Funeral and a Bell ringing and as the Bell-rope brake that Verse of the Psalm came into my Mind Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped And among what Prodigies she died is known to all I am confident if the Persecutors of our peaceable and religious Nonconformists were studious to prepare for Death they would forbear this Work and as it is dreadful for any of them to dy in their Sins unrepented of and to dy in this Sin so let them take heed that some of the greatest of them do not fall by an apparent Hand of God I do profess if I had any Friend engaged in this horrid Work I would perswade him if possible to forbear