The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…

We must still repeat, that the esse is before the scire; and the Being of the case and Truth, before the judging of it: either the Preacher deserveth Silencing or not, before you come to judge the case: If he ought to be silent the Rulers ought •o judge so, and do well: If not, but he be innocent, or one that ought not to be forbidden his Office, no man hath power from God to judge contrary and causelessly to forbid him; And his conscience is not formerly bound by that prohibition; Though he must still keep his Loyalty and subjection, and his care of the public peace and welfare.

We must still repeat, that the esse is before the scire; and the Being of the case and Truth, before the judging of it: either the Preacher deserveth Silencing or not, before you come to judge the case: If he ought to be silent the Rulers ought •o judge so, and do well: If not, but he be innocent, or one that ought not to be forbidden his Office, no man hath power from God to judge contrary and causelesly to forbid him; And his conscience is not formerly bound by that prohibition; Though he must still keep his Loyalty and subjection, and his care of the publick peace and welfare.

LX. We conclude again, that seeing we meet with none that will say that Rulers may Judge that we shall not worship God, or that the Gospel shall not be preached, or that men must obediently forsake Christ, or go to Hell; Nor with any Christian that will say that without faith and holiness we may be saved, we dread the consequence ⟨p. 98⟩of such arguing, as taketh this up as the last defence, that [those people that visibly live in Sensuality, Drunkenness, Fornication, Covetousness, Pride, Ungodliness or Gross Ignorance, are indeed in a safe condition for salvation, and therefore that Preaching which should bring them to repentance is not necessary; But that its safer to continue Ignorant and ungodly, than to join with the Religious for fear of Schism: For we cannot deny that they that have no other Medium to defend their Assertion, that [the lifeless unskilful Ministry of Novices, which maketh very few seriously Religious, doth more good than the contrary, which hath contrary success, if it be by men forbidden] do too plainly persuade us from our Christianity it self, that is, from the chiefest evidence of its truth and glory: For if there were no better Christians in the world, than such unholy persons before described; and if Christ had not a holy peculiar people, of heavenly minds and lives, and zealous of good works, we could never prove (or believe) him to be the Christ that came to save his people from their sins. He is not the Physician whom we can trust, that doth not cure men. And if they will resolve the case into the question of fact, whether such different Ministers have usually different success? and serious Christianity be not much more rare under Reading Novices, and unexperienced lifeless men, than under skilful serious godly Pastors, we are unable to doubt of it, against all experience.