A26965:905
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.
And page 73. [They must be accountable at the last day, not only for their own sin, but for that very sin of Perjury, which the vicious Priest is guilty of: For he that inviteth a man to a sin, is reckoned as if he had committed the sin himself.]
What then would become of me, if I undertook to justify the Perjury of multitudes?—yea, if also I did by Press and Preaching, earnestly press Magistrates to execute the Laws upon many hundreds of Christs Ministers, because they dare not venture on that which they fear (on such reasons as are here rendered) to be a participation of many ⟨p. 338⟩thousand Perjuries, nor on the heinous sacrilege of deserting their sacred function, and encouraging near two thousand silenced Ministers to do the like by my example, besides many other feared sins. If I were the man that for this did plead and beg that they might be laid in Gaols with rogues, and pay forty pound a sermon and be banished five miles from all Corporations &c. and all this as necessary to the Church and as for God, fathering it all on him who is the God of Truth and Love; and pretending that there is no need of their Ministry, because that I and such as I, do better perform all that office against ignorance, ungodliness and popery without them, &c. How could I expect regard when I preached against the sins of others? Or with what face could I do it? When my sin shall be opened to me, must I not with Origen after his fall, instead of preaching, shut the book, and weep, remembering Psal. 50. 16, 17. and the dreadful third Commandment; and tremble when I thought of death and judgment? For a Judas in Christs family sinneth at a dearer rate than strangers, and will quickly find his gain too hot to hold, and those that hired him to be woeful Comforters, who will turn him off with a [see thou to that.]
What then would become of me, if I undertook to justifie the Perjury of multitudes?—yea, if also I did by Press and Preaching, earnestly press Magistrates to execute the Laws upon many hundreds of Christs Ministers, because they dare not venture on that which they fear (on such reasons as are here rendred) to be a participation of many