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

XVIII. And when some men out of excessive caution, were ready to think that when that Plague was ceased (having killed about an hundred thousand) the Ministers should lay by that public work, and retire again into secret corners, God confuted them by his next dreadful judgement, burning down the City the next year, 1666: So that there were neither Churches to go to, nor Ministers in the Parishes to Preach, nor rich men to maintain them: And could any soul that hated not Christ and mens salvation, have wished the Nonconformists then to desert the miserable people. When they newly came ⟨p. 238⟩from under the terror of such a dreadful Plague, and when success and Gods protection had so greatly encouraged them, and when presently they were deprived of their worldly treasure, and had not houses, or goods, or money, but thousands utterly ruined in the world, and crept into holes and lived in poverty, when it was a wonder that they dyed not by hundreds of famine, and when such a sight as London in its ruins was before mens eyes, (which he that saw sure can never forget,) If then men, because that the Bishops or Parliament forbade them, should have refused to Preach the Gospel of Christ, and to teach men to lay up a treasure in Heaven, and to comfort such a ruined City, what excuse would such unfaithful servants have had at the bar of their great Judge?

XVIII. And when some men out of excessive caution, were ready to think that when that Plague was ceased (having killed about an hundred thousand) the Ministers should lay by that publick work, and retire again into secret corners, God confuted them by his next dreadful judgement, burning down the City the next year, 1666: So that there were neither Churches to go to, nor Ministers in the Parishes to Preach, nor rich men to maintain them: And could any soul that hated not Christ and mens salvation, have wished the Nonconformists then to desert the miserable people. When they newly came ⟨p. 238⟩from under the terrour of such a dreadful Plague, and when success and Gods protection had so greatly encouraged them, and when presently they were deprived of their worldly treasure, and had not houses, or goods, or mony, but thousands utterly ruined in the world, and crept into holes and lived in poverty, when it was a wonder that they dyed not by hundreds of famine, and when such a sight as London in its ruines was before mens eyes, (which he that saw sure can never forget,) If then men, because that the Bishops or Parliament forbad them, should have refused to Preach the Gospel of Christ, and to teach men to lay up a treasure in Heaven, and to comfort such a ruined City, what excuse would such unfaithfull servants have had at the bar of their great Judge?