A26965:616
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacify such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benj. Alsop, 1679
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.
6. At the said Chancellors court things are managed as at a civil judicature: There is not that endeavour to convince sinners by Scripture, and to draw them to true Repentance, by humbling evidence, entreaties and prayers for them, as should be for the saving of a soul from sin: But the charges of the court fees, and the fears of a prison after excommunication, maketh it an unacceptable and as unlikely means to convert men as the stocks.
6. At the said Chancellours court things are managed as at a civil judicature: There is not that endeavour to convince sinners by Scripture, and to draw them to true Repentance, by humbling evidence, intreaties and prayers for them, as should be for the saving of a soul from sin: But the charges of the court fees, and the fears of a prison after excommunication, maketh it an unacceptable and as unlikely means to convert men as the stocks.
7. Therefore for a minister to present all his Parishioners to such courts, whom he is bound to deny the Sacrament to, were but to make him seem their greatest and cruellest enemy, and to render him uncapable of ever (probably) profiting them by his Ministry any more; and consequently, greatly to promote their damnation and make them almost hopeless as to recovery. And if by this terror they tell the Chancellor that they Repent, how little satisfaction is that to the Minister, that never saw, himself, any signs of their repentance.
7. Therefore for a minister to present all his Parishioners to such courts, whom he is bound to deny the Sacrament to, were but to make him seem their greatest and cruellest enemy, and to render him uncapable of ever (probably) profiting them by his Ministry any more; and consequently, greatly to promote their damnation and make them almost hopeless as to recovery. And if by this terrour they tell the Chancellour that they Repent, how little satisfaction is that to the Minister, that never saw, himself, any signs of their repentance.