A26911:596
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
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.
And can you believe that this was Christ's Institution, q. d. [Come and solemnly be Perjured, and Lye, and say, Thou consentest to the Covenant when thou dost not, that this may convert thee to Consent. All your mistaken row of words, will never make this soul Cause fair.
2. But what if it be a Man that consenteth not but thinketh he doth, or yet doth not know?
Ans. It is his Sin not to know that he consenteth not; and that will not make it lawful for him to Lye, and Vow falsely. But the harder it is for him to know his own Mind, the more excusable he is: And a false entrance is not a Sin that is unpardonable, nor is the Sinner uncurable, but may be converted in the Church, though he came in unlawfully.
Ans. It is his Sin not to know that he consenteth not; and that will not make it lawful for him to Lye, and Vow falsly. But the harder it is for him to know his own Mind, the more excusable he is: And a false entrance is not a Sin that is unpardonable, nor is the Sinner uncurable, but may be converted in the Church, though he came in unlawfully.