A26911:343
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter of their nonconformity against Mr. J. Cheney's answer called The conforming nonconformist, and The nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benjamin Alsop, 1680
A DEFENCE OF THE NON-CONFORMIST'S Plea for Peace, AGAINST Mr. J. CH… › Chapter 28
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. You say, There was never such an Oath taken by any Person fearing God. Ans. How prove you that? Oh! very easily: You bid us prove the Affirmative. Pitiful! So you may affirm that never Man in the World said or did that, which we cannot prove that some said or did: or affirm an universal Negation, because we prove not the contrary. 2. Might not an Arian at Nice (Conc. 1.) say, Never such a Creed was drawn and imposed before. 3. May not the Pope say to the first Protestants, Never such a Protestation was made before? 4. But I pray you read better the Scottish History, and see whether no such Covenant was made in Scotland before.
1. You say, There was never such an Oath taken by any Person fearing God. Ans. How prove you that? Oh! very easily: You bid us prove the Affirmative. Pitiful! So you may affirm that never Man in the World said or did that, which we cannot prove that some said or did: or affirm an universal Negation, because we prove not the contrary. 2. Might not an Arrian at Nice (Conc. 1.) say, Never such a Creed was drawn and imposed before. 3. May not the Pope say to the first Protestants, Never such a Protestation was made before? 4. But I pray you read better the Scottish History, and see whether no such Covenant was made in Scotland before.
Your 5th is more pitiful, being a Game at Equivocation. 1. Did you think that the word [Prelacy] in the Common, or the Imposers sense, ⟨p. 96⟩did mean Pastors that excel in Gifts and Grace. You may next say, it meant Kings, or School-Masters; when yet they adjoined an expository Description. And I have told you, 1. That Doctor Burges, Mr. Gataker, and many more openly declared that they would not Covenant against the Primitive Episcopacy, and were ready to enter their Protestation; and the Assembly to satisfy them, added the Description, as meaning only the English concatenated frame. 2. And the House of Lords took it upon Mr. Coleman's making the same Exposition.
Your 5th is more pitiful, being a Game at Equivocation. 1. Did you think that the word [Prelacy] in the Common, or the Imposers sense,