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soul_n	body_n	spirit_n	word_n	12,874	5	4.3910	3	true

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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

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

happy they who first arrive at the Haven tho upon the Planks of a torn and broken Church The Men of a Mosaic Spirit would have set the contending Israelites at one but our wise Men would not believe a Bill of Union They who had done the wrong thrust the Reconcilers away q. d. Who made you Judges But our Time was not and is not yet come altho we have had a great Body inspired with as great a Soul as ever breathed within those Walls that saw a like necessity of including Protestants as of excluding Papists These see the Things of our Peace but cannot overtake Peace Perfidious Protestants so called in the Humble Address Nov. 29. 1680. could not find the way of Peace in his Majesty's Restauration it was as far above them as Heaven is above the Earth nor knew how to imploy the Sword Treasure but against Protestants abroad nor then Power but upon Protestants at home who helped to restore them to it They may read their Character in his Majesty's Proclamation against Debaucheries 1660. printed and to be read in Churches nor their Peace but in Effeminacy Debaucheries contempt of God and the Power of that Religion which they either contracted into an uneasy corner of a Faction or else enlarged as far as Rome They who reared too high a Wall about the Church have not seen the influence of the Sun upon it to impregnate it into a desired fruitfulness the few Plants of a purer kind that spring up in it look pale and yellow faint and languid There is a great noise and sound of Religion but little Life and Soul What a brood of Atheists Papists Zealous Formalists and Contenders have grown up Since a Bill of Divorce was issued out to separate able Ministers from their Congregations an illegitimate Race sprung up who cry up Law Law and sin against the Confessions and Prayers imposed upon us by it And the Church which was the most pregnant Mother of solid and holy Christians of any in the World after many Years traveland pains sees more of the shape and form than of the lively Spirit and strength of true Piety They who take themselves to be wronged and the Divorce to be null in it self have come together tho but now and then and by stealth for most part till of late are liable to the Courts for unlawful Society with their espoused People have rather multiplied Sorrows than multiplied Joys Restore the Prophets their Wives or if they are dead by Law give them Licenses to marry where they can marry the unmarried and they will as they do pray for you and the Church that is now weak and sickly shall be the joyful Mother of Children born and brought up for God Take in more Labourers there is Field-room enough and the Harvest will be the greater and so the Joy in Heaven To draw to a Conclusion I will first point out the Obstructors of our Union 2. Give my Opinion that the Case of the Non-conformists that are found in Faith peaceable and godly is that which no Man need be ashamed of or to appear in as an Intercessor 1. Indeed I am troubled that there are any such to be found in a Reformed Church and of all other in this Church that oppose or hinder a Coaleseence But all are not Israel that are of Israel Many of the Church are for it and against it are for it in its present state of Confinement and not for it in an Enlargement which will be really for its Glory and just Authority What Multitudes are there of these both High and Low I will pray for them that are above me and speak of them that are near upon a level with me I might divide these into Clergy and Laity I will keep me to the first because they do influence many of the other But by the way I will take up a Remark It is so come to pass that our driving and compelling Clergy have fewer Admirers and Friends than they once had Many Men of little or no Religion in Judgment and Heart could not bear the plain and pressing Preaching of many able Ministers reputed to be unlearned because constant and popular Preachers they could easily part with these and give rest to their own Eats by striking them dumb They were tickled if not captivated by the florid and gentile Preaching and Writings of some of a more Romantick than true Majestick and Divine Stile of the Sons of the Church and therefore say Let these preach and the rest keep silence Some of these kept up the Repute of the Church of England under its Oppression that lost it in its Exaltation When their Feathers were grown and covered with yellow Gold they spared their Voices fled from Preferment to Preferment to gather Gold but spread not their Wings to sucker and cherish their Brood These were the Masters of the Religion of the Courtiers and many being tired with the Usurpation gave up their own Reason in complement to Courtiers for a time did easily submit to what was determined by our Leaders And who were they Church-Papists as well as Church-Protestants some of whom were carried beyond their own temper of Moderation first to strain hard to practice what really they adjudged of an evil Tendency tho of an indifferent Nature as they thought and then they were to exact of others what they could do themselves The more discerning and obstinate saw the Journeys end of these Charioteers and were resolved on their own way Others that were peaceable and facile complied in hopes of the establishment of the King's Declaration and were held in Parlee till their Enemies 't is a sad but too true a word got that Power as to force them to yeeld or fly The Gentleman understanding the Mystery of the Church-Government was Power and the Mystery of many Church-mens Zeal was Church-Dignities saw that he must Act and Vote not for the pure Interest of Religion but the temporal Interest of these Designing Men began to recoil and then to look to his own Ground Many of these rode in Company but seeing the Company were resolved for France and Rome when they had gone as far as Ganterbury and Dover and kept pace with them were resolved to go no further but to turn back and break from the Company The rest of the Church-Conformists were either the same or like them that were in before and continued the same painful course in their Ministry or took cold became idle hot intemperate and offensive The first have some respect the others no more than they deserve A new Generation come up within these eighteen or twenty Years many of them take the rising Side Cant some Scraps that fall from their Leaders Mouths preach as much with their Teeth as with their Tongues being neither studious nor considerate nor modest but venturers in Censures they are thought unfit to direct and oversee the Souls of Men. Upon some solemn Times upon some solemn

Days they Discharge freely but Aim with an evil Eye scare away some Birds but convince no Man of Sin or Duty The Judicious of all Degrees spare not to declare their dislike of these Men. In a word The growth of Popery and the antipathy that is kindled against it by the fiery Designs of Papists and the Light of Truth the Moderation of some eminent discerning Church-men the good Behaviour of Dissenters the weakness of the Protestant Interest by our needless Divisions the sobriety of our Gentry the unanimity both of them and the able Country-men and Citizens and their Zeal seeing all at Stake doth seem to open a way to a desired Union notwithstanding the aversation of such Opposers as I shall name 1. A Party of Rigid Imposers Imposers in Opinion not yet in Power that 's the best of it they mightily take the Yoke Saddle and Collar of Bells and the Rack in which we must follow as the only way We being Subjects must not judg but submit and they being Judges weigh to every Man the same weight the Weakest must bow down to as great a Load as the strongest whether they can bear it or not and measure to every Man his Omer whether he can digest it or not if it were all Manna directly from Heaven a weak Person must strive to swallow it but yet God that allowed an Omer to every one that could did not require it of every one that could not upon pain of turning out and not coming within five miles of the Family If Saul had been of these Mens Constitution David must not kill Goliah like a Non-conformist but go forth with his Armour his Helmet and Coat of Male and gird on his Sword but he was so reasonable that seeing David could not go with them he should go without the Formalities of a Champion There may be as great disproportions between the understandings of some young unstudied Conformists and the understandings of great Doctors as was between David's Head and Saul's Head and Helmet the things required for Assent are much too big for their Capacities But every I. A. B. that is but B. A. or a Deacon must Assent and Consent Declare Abbor as perfectly as any Professor of Divinity as positively as if he were an Arch Bishop They must see these things with other Mens Eyes or must not take the Work upon them and yet have not the help of a Licensed Comment upon as some think a hard Lesson I should think Catechise the Novises well in our Articles and when they Assent let them Assent to what they understand and no more and if Consent to the use be the meaning of the thing tell them plainly so I am for a plain and easy way and as light a Burden as may be laid that so we may have the more and better Company and the more comfortable Journey Pardon the hastiness of my Pen in saying what I am for Who am I and the Business is not come to my Voting But these large and intricate Impositions being equal upon all Unlearned as well as Learned do preserve a Notion somewhat like an Implicit Faith and not toto Coelo different from an Infallibility But say they it is necessary to eradicate bad Principles out of the minds of Men which grew up in the late Times I demand whether out of the minds of them that are planted with them But can my Declaration convert another and root out ill Principles out of his mind What if he doth not see the reason of my Opinion or out of the minds that never received those pernicious Principles Yet still I only declare for my self and if I was never infected with them there is no danger of my propagating of them let us propagate Godliness and Honesty and these Principles will never grow up by them The Principles had been buried in the Church like Weeds in a new-digg'd Garden had not our renouncing them kept them in memory 2. Some poor low narrow spirited Men superstitious and misled are for this Way as the only way of Entrance and Continuance in the Churches Service Spirits so poor that they cannot afford one token of Charity to Dissenters as if such a Spiritual Alms would undo them so low that having never stood upon the Shoulders of Wisdom and Experience they see not the Latitude of the way of Heaven so narrow-hearted that he thinks there is no room for any in Church-Communion especially in the Ministry that will not go into and stand in a little Frame like that in which he stands like an Image His Charity may extend to the Salvation of Heathens a Notion pretty rife but not to the Toleration of Christians especially of Preachers of the common Salvation if they will not conform Papists shall sooner enter into the Kingdom of God than a Presbyterian And who is the Presbyterian He may be a Bishop a Lord a Parliament-Man yea a whole Parliament a Lord Mayor if but moderate as well as a preaching moderate Conformist The Moderate of all Qualities is the Presbyterian but the Presbyterians are not moderate No a Presbyterian is an out-witted Jesuit and a Jesuit is an overwitting Presbyterian These new Character-makers are at this Wit and seeing he would be a Wit that makes the Character I doubt not but he is for being of the greatest sort of Wits that is the over-witting Presbyterian This piece of Formality makes himself and the Government all one that must be overthrown thinks he if any thing be abased that varies from his Conceptions Model and Measure of his Assent He is not a Papist something keeps him off but good Man he hath high thoughts of the old Way every Ceremony is in his Eye a kind of a hallowed thing and the Treasure of the Church is wrapped in the Rag of Antiquity which never was a piece of a Garment in fashion in the Apostles days or some Centuries after He contends for the gray Hairs which grow over the Eyes of the Church and the Nails which have pinched and nipt many tender Skins as for the Life and Soul of Religion Many are misled by their Informers not in Antiquity only but in Modern Times even in their own Days or the days of their immediate Fathers The Times of War and Usurpation are the only ill Times in their Chronicles which were ill indeed in respect of Punishment and Sin but have nothing but good to say of the ill Times of Provocation of Peace proceeding They do most partially and untruly charge the War upon the Presbyterians Much more falsly upon Praying and Preaching or the Divines that were in the Parliament Quarters and City many of which were forced thither It was as truly a Popish Plot and War and at first between Prerogative and Liberty tho not so bare-faced as this horrid Plot. These Men are abused by some of our Deceiving Writers and know as little of what they declaim against as they do of the Dissenters of this