AN APOLOGY For and an INVITATION To the PEOPLE call'd QUAKERS TO Rectifie some ERRORS which through the Scandals given they have fallen into WHEREIN The true Original Causes both Humane and Divine of all the Divisions in the Church and Mischiefs in the State and among the People are plainly and briefly opened and detected LONDON Printed for the Author 1697. ADVERTISEMENT THAT whole Bodies or Societies of Men are subject to the same Infirmities which the Individuals of which they consist are and often Sick of the same Diseases and the very worst of all those of the Mind Blindness Conceitedness Perversness Obstinacy Incorrigibleness and Impatience of Reproof or even Friendly Admonition the Experience of all Ages doth abundantly manifest but in none is it more manifest than in the People of the Jews whom God raised up to be an Example Admonition and Warning to the rest of Mankind Their whole History and all their Prophets are Testimonies of this all along from first to last and of this height of the Disease to be most offended and inraged against their best Friends such as most earnestly desire and most faithfully seek and endeavour their Good and Recovery They reckon them their Enemies who tell them the Truth Isa 29.21 make a Man an Offender for a Word and lay a Snare for him who Reproveth in the Gate that is publickly for National Sins and those of the Great Ones Act. 7.52 Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers Persecuted saith Saint Stephen Besides this common Infirmity it is very obseravble in the unhappy Divisions which are now among Christians that generally in all there is a greater Zeal and concern for their own Church or Party than for the common Interest of Christianity and the real Service of God and Salvation of Souls And this being so What Entertainment is such a Discourse as this like to meet with in the World But if it be considered for what End and for whose Service it is written that may be sufficient for Encouragement to the Author and for Caution to the Reader how he treats it And that with the Lesson now to be read Decemb. 18. may serve for sufficient Advertisement Isa 50.7 8 9. The Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my Face like a Flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifieth me Who will contend with me let us stand together Who is mine Adversary let him come near to me Behold the Lord God will help me Who is he that shall condemn me lo they all shall wax old as a Garment the Moth shall eat them up Some things but briefly mentioned here upon this occasion which may seem doubtful or obscure are intended upon another more proper to be more fully explained and cleared An Apology for And an Invitation to The PEOPLE call'd QUAKERS To rectifie some ERRORS which through the Scandals given they have fallen into c. ALmighty God doth in many things govern the greater Collective Bodies of Men as he doth the lesser of Families and single Persons and therefore what is the Duty of single Persons or of the Heads of Families under several occurrences of the Providence of God the very same is the Duty of the Governors of those greater Bodies whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical And therefore again as when any Cross or Affliction befalls a Person if he have any Sense of God and Religion in him he ought not to neglect it as an insensible Creature or a brute Beast nor to look upon it as a meer Accident and Misfortune like an Atheist or Infidel but to acknowledge the Hand and Providence of God in it examin himself and consider well for what intent or purpose it may have been ordered or permitted by the Righteous Wise and Gracious Over-ruling Providence of God and without delay apply himself to do and perform what that Dispensation doth appear to him to call for When Divisions Schisms and Separations of Parties do fall out in a Church these are such Afflictions as ought to be looked upon as the Loss of one in a Family or of a Member in a particular Person and therefore not to be made light of or passed over as Misfortunes and Accidents but to be well considered as ordered or permitted by the Special Providence of God with great Justice and Wisdom and therefore for some special End to be inquired into taken notice of and observed by his Church that they may thereupon apply themselves to what he requireth of them for his Service and their own Good When this is neglected all other Means usually prove not only ineffectual but productive of more or greater Evils What was written afore-time was written for our Admonition and Instruction and as we are plainly told that in the Division and Separation of the Ten Tribes from the House of David the Cause was from the Lord 1 Ki. 12.15 So in that great Division of the Eastern and Western Churches and breach of Communion between them and in the Western Church that great Division and Separation of all those Churches call'd Reform'd and in the great Division again amongst them into Lutheran and Calvanist and the several Sub-divisions of several Parties and Sects amongst them and lastly to come nearer home in all the Divisions Sub-divisions Sects and Parties which have separated from the Church of England and afterward one from another there is as certainly the Hand of God and did we consider it well we might plainly see that the Cause is from the Lord. This we can all see in the Great Division and Separation of all these Churches call'd Reformed from that of Rome but she her self either cannot or will not see it And this to say no more of the Foreigners here our Dissenters at home think they see and do see but we of the Church of England do not see or will not see to any purpose as we ought But as they of the Church of Rome lay all upon the Hereticks and will acknowledge nothing amiss among themselves so we of the Church of England lay all upon the Separatists and Dissenters but will acknowledge nothing amiss among our selves And that which dazzles the Eyes and blinds the Minds of People in both is chiefly the Pomps and Vanities of the World which are renounced at Baptism without and the God of this World who blinds their Minds within The things of this World to Earthly-minded People are like Sugar-Plumbs to Children which stop their Mouths and satisfie them that all is well with them But if things were more narrowly looked into it might be perceived That there is scarce any Party of Separatists or Dissenters that hath not something of Truth peculiar to them and that there is something in particular amiss in the Church which gave Occasion to that Separation and whereof something peculiar in that Sect may serve for Admonition And therefore that in all there is a
Subtilty of the Enemy and the supine Negligence and Inconsiderateness and Folly of Men. And woe be to them who dare presume to be the Instruments and Leaders in these Abuses and Doctrines It is certain that our Saviour gave Instructions to his Apostles for the Settling of his Church and that they accordingly in all places where there were a competent number of Converts did ordain Elders and gave Authority to others to do the like and so settled a Succession in the Church which hath continued all over the World to this day And it is certain that the State of the Jews was so corrupted in his time as provoked the Judgment of God upon them so that they are a Monument thereof all over the World to this day and yet neither He nor his Disciples did ever refuse communion with them till they were cast out and so far was he from allowing them to separate that he foretold their being cast out of the Synagogues as part of the Persecution they were to suffer It is also certain that our Saviour did foretell that many false Prophets that is false Teachers should come in his Name and deceive many and gave great Caution not to go out or believe them and that his Apostles did the like and did with great earnestness exhort all to beware of Divisions Schisms and Separations in the Church And accordingly in all Ages for Men to take upon them the Office of Elders or Ministers of the Gospel without a Regular Ordination derived by Succession from the Apostles or to draw away people after them and engage them in Separate Parties hath been looked upon as a heinous Sin and whoever have done so have been Infamous in the Church ever since And therefore if our Dissenters did continue daily with one accord at our Temples as the primitive Christians did and did continue their Assemblies at their own Meeting-places for Instruction and Edification without any Separation from the Church provided there was nothing but true Christian Doctrine taught amongst them I do not see but they might be of very good Use and deserve not only an Indulgence but Encouragement from the Publick Authority But they who make a Trade of it to engage Separate Parties I do verily believe have much to answer for before God and those who desire to be Christians indeed had need to beware of them And this I must in justice say after all I have said concerning what is amiss amongst us that thanks be to God we have those amongst us who for good Learning for profitable Preaching and for sincere Piety Devotion and all Virtue are no way inferior to any of the Dissenters if to be equalled by any of them and yet I cannot say they are so many but there may be reason enough to receive those Labourers also into our Lord's Harvest And I heartily wish it was well considered How they may be made more serviceable in so important and needful a Work without any thing of a Separation and that they would consider Who They are who sit in Moses or rather the Apostles Seat and What our Lord doth require in that respect And now to come more particularly to the PEOPLE of that Party call'd Quakers I must first acquaint them that I have not only had several Conferences with the Principal Persons of their Party whom they call Ministers but have also sent them several Letters and Papers to their Second Days Meetings And as our Conferences have hitherto been managed in a very friendly manner so I do desire to proceed in the same manner with them also and therefore what is directed at first only to the second days Meeting I shall desire them now to receive as intended from the first for them all though I thought it most fair and decent to proceed in that order And it is as followeth To William Penn and the rest of the Friends with him at their second days Meeting in Grace-Church-Street William and the rest of the Friends with thee MY Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is that ye may be saved for I am perswaded that you have a Zeal of God at least many of you though not according to Knowledge in some things Nevertheless whereto ye have attained in that I desire ye may be established and that God will be graciously pleased to reveal the rest to you that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing For which purpose I come I trust by the Grace of God with a Message of Grace and Peace to you I am well satisfied that it is no meer Humane Project or Artifice that at first raised you up and hath conducted you hitherto but a Supernatural Power and that it is of the Lord some way or other as was the Separation of the Ten Tribes from Rehoboam 1 King 12 â— for Correction and Reformation of something amiâ— in this Church And therefore I dare not presume either upon my own head or by my own Ability tâ— intermeddle in it But my Heart is inlarged towards you upon these Considerations 1. Thaâ— ye do assert one of the Great and Chief Principleâ— of the Christian Religion which I have observeâ— to be very unworthily and even despitefully treated by too many who have gotten into or seek Preferments and Imployment in the Church without Checâ— or Reproof and so unworthily deserted by most for fear of reproach or disgrace or hindrance in their Preferment that I have not known it generously asserted by above two or three in the Pulpit but those great Men indeed though it be plainly a Doctrine most authentickly and solemnly professed and declared in the Church of England 2. That ye do bear a good Testimony against other Abuses connived at or tolerated amongst us 3. I am moved with Pity towards you that you should have so great Causes of Offence or Scandal given you against the Holy and Established Institutions and Ordinances of Christ for the Ministerial Office for the Admission of Proselytes and for the great Solemnity of the Christian Worship which hath been so long abused with Controversies that I know very few Persons now amongst us who do rightly and compleatly understand it and even against the Person Satisfaction and Merits of Christ himself But when I consider your Notions and Sentiments concerning these things though I am well satisfied that you are under the Conduct and Energy of some Spiritual Power yet What that Spirit is and Whether One or Divers in my Judgment doth deserve very good Consideration Ye know what Spirit it was which God sent between Abimelech and the Shechemites Jud. 9.23 and what that was that was sent from the Lord to Saul 1 Sam. 6.14 and what that was that was commissioned by God in the case of Ahab 1 King 22.22 23. and what that was in the midst of the Princes of Noph Isa 19.14 which was from the Lord too And that such a Spirit hath been among some call'd Quakers is manifest both by
most Sublime most Holy and most August Sacrament as it is deservedly call'd by Dr. Morton be taken in effect for a needless Ceremony or of no great Importance by others besides the Quakers and used or rather neglected accordingly even to this day These are the great things in it which I have now mentioned but rare to be found in our Books now a days or heard of from our Pulpits Nor can it conveniently here be explained as it deserves But as to both these what is said before pag. 13 14. ought to be consider'd These things I say well consider'd cannot choose but make great Impression upon the Minds of those who are sincere and have a due sense of their own Spiritual and Eternal concerns But when they shall also understand That the great Principle of the Guidance of the Spirit of God is not so peculiar to themselves as they imagin but the constant Doctrine of the Church of Christ in all Ages and of the Church of England in particular as I have shew'd in a Discourse of Mystical Divinity and some others under the Title of Asceticks or the Heroick Piety and Vertue of the Ancients and notwithstanding the Extravagancies of some inconsiderate Opposers of Fanaticism asserted by most eminent Men of this Church as the profound Dr. Cradock lately deceased who himself told me he had Preached twenty or thirty Sermons upon that Subject and others now living and that there are and have been before George Fox appeared in the World Persons in the Communion of the Church of England as well acquainted with Spiritual things as themselves and by consequence how little necessity there is of venturing upon the Sin of Schism for that cause And moreover consider that Christ appointed an Order of Men for his Ministerial Office to succeed in his Church by an external Call and Commission and notwithstanding the Corruptions of those who sate then in Moses's Seat would not suffer his Disciples to break Communion with them or disregard their Authority and by consequence how dangerous it may prove in the end for Men to presume to set up Parties and draw People after them contrary to his Orders and to continue so to do after fair Warnings and unanswerable Admonitions to the contrary To conclude When they shall farther consider how horrid a Sin it must needs be to presume to attribute to the Holy Spirit of God the Workings of their own Imaginations or perhaps the Subtile Suggestions of some wicked Spirit of Delusion and to expose and scandalize the Holy Doctrine of the Guidance of the Holy Spirit by denying of certain and manifest Truths and using such little Shifts and Evasions to oppose plain Evidence as an honest and ingenious Lawyer would scorn and be ashamed to â—se for his Client When all these things and â—ore that might be observed are well understood and considered why may I not with reaâ—on hope that all who are really such as they â—ave appeared in the several Conferences I have had with them to be should answer the End of my Letters and Questions with more than civil and kind Words in real and solemn Actions Why should I not hope that no priâ—ate Interest nor any Temporal Concern should â—inder them Why should I not hope that â—nce God hath apparently again concluded all â—nder Sin which all Parties confess of all â—thers but their own and is true of all without â—xception that all should humble themselves â—efore Him return to mutual Charity one with â—nother and subject themselves and all their â—maginations to his Wisdom as well as their â—ctions to his Will to the intent that he may have Mercy upon all Why should I not hope I say since God hath done this and for thiâ— End that they if they be indeed partakeâ—â— of his Holy Spirit should be the first in giving Glory to God by such a just and reasonable Humiliation before his Divine Majesty and Acknowledgment of our Humane Infirmity if never so little left to our selves or but steping aside out of the Order of his Holy Conduct 〈◊〉 and subject themselves intirely and readily to aâ—â— the Orders he hath appointed in his Church No sober wise Man will expose himself and leaâ— others into Danger or Hazard when he maâ— without any Difficulty or Incumbrance put himself and them into Safety and Security Noâ— will any ingenious Man if he have committeâ— a Mistake stand it out and maintain it againsâ— a Grave and Judicious Man Much less will any considerate Man who hath any sense of God and regard to his tremendous Majesty dare tâ— persist in Opposing or Disputing his Institution or Orders and therefore I shall here concludâ— this But because I have received certain Question concerning these Matters but without anâ— Name of any who sent them or to whom 〈◊〉 should return Answer though I shall forbear tâ— expose them by making them publick yet bâ— cause I am debtor both to the wise and to thâ— unwise for their Satisfaction who are eitheâ— moved with such Scruples or rely upon such infirm Grounds I shall return a brief comprehensive Answer to the Eight Questions in these following Assertions The Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament is the only Rule of Faith and Practice rightly understood and used But it is in many Cases only a General Rule leaving the special Application in some to all Persons in others to certain determinate Persons And therefore to require Express and Plain Scripture for Faith and Practice in all things doth proceed from Ignorance and Weakness in some but too often from a disingenuous Spirit of Contention a dishonest Design or Satanical Delusion The Practices of the Primitive Christians were some Permanent to continue in the Church others Temporary and Alterable according as there might be occasion for Order Decency and Edification and did vary from the beginning in several Churches and parts of the World whereas the others were truly Catholick according to Vincentius Lirinensis his Rule that is universally observed without any known beginning since the Apostles The Spirit of God was poured forth upon all Flesh when the Gospel was Preached to all Flesh or to every Creature that is not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles also But as to individual Persons it was never so poured out upon all Flesh but there were some things pre-acquired as Faith in Christ Jesus and ordinarily Baptism with Water Obedience and Prayer c. Nor was the Manifestation thereof ever given to every one but to every one to whom it was given it was given to profit withall As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.14 9. But it is to be known and remembred that a great and principal and the most certain Leading of the Spirit of God is not sensible or easily perceivable how it comes but it is generally a Secret
observed or the Effect shall not follow If People be commanded to be Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus that their Sins may be forgiven and that they may receive the Holy Ghost Act. 2.38 41. if they presume to neglect and cavil at the Command their Sins are more like to be increased and faster bound than forgiven and they more like to receive Satan transformed in a Spirit of Delusion than the Holy Spirit of God and to die in their Sins though with many false Comforts than to come to true Rest in the Lord in any other way than he hath prescribed God's Command if it be but the forbearing of an Apple Gen. 2.17 3.3 6 11. or the doing that which our Reason cannot understand must be observed punctually Disobedience to the Wisdom of God is no less a Sin than Disobedience to his Will And therefore I dare not excuse this People in this for their Sin may be greater and their Case more dangerous than they or I can imagin but I cannot but pity them be ready to help them to hope the best because they were led into it and did it through Ignorance Prejudice and the Scandals of others and to speak comfortably to all that will receive it and submit to the Call of God humble themselves before Him and return to their Duty But the Sin of those who shall refuse and go on obstinately will be greatly aggravated and their Case more dangerous and difficult If they fall into the Ditch the company of a blind Guide will not save them If they die in their Sins it will be but a sorry Comfort to them that their Blood must be required of another But to help them out I know no better and more effectual way than to detect the Snare and Stratagem whereby they fell and the Stone at which they stumbled And it was no other than what I have mentioned already in general the Scandal given by others and Offence taken by them but it will be necessary to consider it more particularly and the first particular that I observe in the Journal of G. Fox was an empty Formality void of the Power of Godliness that he perceived and felt in all Parties the Professors as well as the Priests as he calls them that they were Ministers not of the Spirit but of the Letter only 2 Cor. 3.6 that their Preaching was but with Wisdom of Words 1 Cor. 1.17 with the inticing Words of Man's Wisdom ibid. 2.4 or at best but a Ministration of the Letter not of the Spirit I do not write his Words but his Sense And this was an undeniable Evidence and Demonstration of the insufficiency of Vniversity Learning alone alone I say to qualifie Men to be Ministers of Christ for there were of both sorts those who wanted not that if that had been sufficient And if we inquire into the true reason of that how that comes to pass since a principal End of our Universities is to qualifie Persons for that Service we shall presently discover that which is the Root and true Cause both of that and of almost all the Unhappiness of this Nation and that is a great Defect and Neglect of Teaching and Learning the best and chief part of all Learning and Knowledge of true Heavenly Wisdom Their Learning is plainly such an ineffectual Learning which doth deceive their Souls being void of the chief solid Food like Chaff without the Corn and Husks without the Kernel it stops the Mouth satisfies the Stomach but famisheth the Soul and not only so but like unwholsome Food breeds only Wind Crudities a Knowledge that puffeth up and Diseases a superficial Notional Business without any thing of true Culture and Food of Souls a Form plainly without the Power such a Cheat and Deceit as the most virulent Expressions of any call'd Quakers could not exceed but even Indignation would extort almost as much from a sober Man duly sensible of it It deceives themselves it deceives the People whom they undertake to feed and it deceives the whole Nation The Teaching here is agreeable to the Design of those who come to learn a mixt Design of an unnatural Composure Heaven and Earth or rather Earth and Heaven not so much God and Mammon which according to our Saviour's Doctrine are inconsistent but Mammon and God for the principal in the Design in this Case ought first to be named and it is visible in their Actions which that is and even in their Common Expressions for if one propose a Place with all the Advantages of doing Good that may be presently comes this filthy fulsome Question But what Encouragement is there as if an Advantage for doing Good was not Encouragement enough to a Christian to enter into the Service of God without some humane assurance of I know not what temporal Income And Preferments are not only thought but plainly asserted to be the Encouragements of Learning and I doubt they have their Reward What unsatiable Greediness is observable generally in all to be scandalous in almost the best that can come at them And what is the Use they make of them when they have with great Study and Pains and Solicitations and Compliances and Flatteries and Costs at last obtained them but Pride and Luxury and Extravagancies of Wives and Children to which all * v. Fa. Paul Of Matters Beneficiary N. 236 237. s a Sin to â—ispend that which exceeds the moderate Necessity of a Clergy-Man That must be sacrificed which was designed for Provision for true Food of Souls of which Thousands are daily famished for want of a competent number of duly qualified Labourers in the Lord's Vineyard in the great Parishes about this City and other parts of the Nation where there is Maintenance enough if such Persons were imployed as did indeed make that their Business Care and Concern All their Learning raiseth but few above the Sensual to the Animal State but none to the truly Spiritual if any attain to that it is by such Means as may be used any where else as well as at the University as things are there ordered at present and not by University Learning which as it is ordinarily used doth more hinder than further it Nor is it likely it should have much better Effect upon others which hath no better upon themselves For in the Spiritual Generation as in the Carnal Men beget their like the strong such as are strong â—nd the weak and infirm such as themselves are But if we look farther into the Concerns of the whole Nation and their Duty to their Great Master in that respect are not they to be both severally and jointly not only Pastors but Watchmen severally over their own particular Charges and jointly over the whole Nation But what an insignificant Generation are they even the Chief of them in that respect not only far short of the Generosity and Magnanimity of genuine Christians and the more immediate Servants of the Great Jehovah
understanding of so much of the Christian Religion as was required anciently of Catechumens before they were admitted to Baptism And that other Sacrament the Holy Memorials of our Saviour's Passion which from the rising of the Sun to the setting of it that is all over the World hath in all Assemblies of Christians for the solemn Worship of God till the last Age been presented before God as a solemn Recognition of our Redemption by Christ and Subjection to him as our Lord hath been not only most shamefully neglected and so treated both in Sermons from the Pulpit and in Printed Books that it appears few amongst us rightly understand it at this day but most horribly profan'd not only by common admittance of all that will to it but even forcing the most wicked and profane Officers to it upon the Penalty of losing their Places And so unhappily have some of our Controversies with Papists and Fanaticks been managed and so superficially and impertinently our Preaching been generally throughout the Nation that we have disputed one part into disbelief of the Scriptures and Infidelity another into contempt of one of the chief Principles of Christianity and generally all into Neglect and Contempt of the Examples Precepts and Counsels of greatest Perfection in the Christian Religion and together with that preached the People generally into a careless tepid state of Indifferency so that in the Country especially it is rare to meet with two or three good sensible intelligent lively Christians in a Parish And who of our principal Clergy can deny any of this And if it be all true why is it not reformed If they cannot reform all why not as much as they can Why is not the Christian Worship restored in their Cathedrals And if those be so burden'd by prophane Officers imposed upon them that they fear to expose it why do they not reform their own Families and restore it at least in their own Chappels What Account will this Glorious Church as carnal Flatterers call it give of their Neglect of Propagating the Gospel in Foreign parts at least in our own Plantations and suffering them to be such Nourseries of Scandals to the Infidels What Account of the many things fit to be done at home for the Service of their Master and fit to be considered by them jointly in a Body and promoted in Parliament which yet are neither studied nor considered nor so much as thought on by any of them no more than if they did not belong to their Care or were not of any Concern to their Master though they sit Session after Session in the Parliament But how can it be expected that they should ever extend their care to things so remote who take no more care of what doth concern them in their own Chappels and Families It is an amazing thing for one whose Eyes are open to consider these things But it fairs with collective Bodies of Men as with single Persons they are subject to the like Diseases the State of this Church is plainly a Tepid Scorbutick Latitudinarian Laodicean State quite sick of the Prudentials and has been so in a manner from the first Settlement of the Reformation And to speak freely as becomes an honest Man though there was great need of a Reformation when it was begun by Luther and long before yet hath that great Work been so ill managed with more of the Antichristian than Christian Spirit that I cannot see by any growth in Grace and Virtue that the Blessing of God hath ever been with it only he seems to have preserved these Reformations rather as Judgments and Corrections for the Obstinacy of that Church which would not reform and raised up and preserved the several Sub-divisions of Parties amongst us for the very same cause and purpose For the True Cause of all the Divisions and Separations amongst us is no other but our Scandals Abuses and Corruptions both by way of Natural Causation and by the special Judgment of God to awaken us if it be possible And though the Blessing of God the true Spiritual Christian Blessing be not upon them because he doth not favour Schisms and Divisions yet is his Protection over them as his Instruments in the Nature of a Judgment and in some things to raise an Emulation in those of the Church iâ— they would lay it to heart and understand it For there is none of them all but there is some thing in them which may serve for Admonition and Notice of something amiss in the Church This which I have now said may be of usâ— not only to them of the Church but also to aâ—â— the several separate Parties and deserve theiâ— very serious and deep Consideration For it iâ— not a light matter to Make a Schism or Divisioâ— in any particular Church or in the Catholicâ— Church It hath been looked upon in all Ages to be a damnable Sin and who-ever doth well consider the several weighty Admonitions in the Scriptures concerning it if he have not a benumed Conscience will not make light of it nor yield to plausible pretences there is nothing so bad but the Wit of Man and subtile Suggestions of Satan can put a colour upon it nor so good but they can mis-represent it and disparage it but it is dangerous and very imprudent to play tricks with Sacred things Any thing else may be more safely medled with in that manner This does concern them all in general and I must add a word or two more There are none of the best of them that I have yet talked with that could or would deny that their Party was much sunk in Piety and Virtue from those degrees of it which was in those before them of the same Party And this being so it concerns us all to consider well whether the Apostacy foretold be not an Apostacy in Practice as well as in Principles and Whether while we are gazing to see the Judgments of God upon it abroad it may not be found amongst us at home and we feel in a surprize upon the Nation at home what we expect to see elsewhere at Rome as was upon this City in sixty six And certain I am that there are not only Antichristian Principles amongst us all but whole Antichristian Sects and Parties which deceived by the Subtilty of Satan under the most specious appearances of the most pure and refined Christianity do undermine and enervate the true Genuine Christianity and the Power of Godliness It is one of the Devil 's most subtile Policies by abuse of Scripture and mis-application of certain Truths to impose upon People and overturn them So he began with our Saviour and so he goes on with Professors to and at this day The Holy Scriptures are abused the Honour of God is abused the Merits of Christ are abused the Guidance of the Spirit is abused the Moderation and Condescention of the Gospel is abused and whatever is most Excellent and Admirable is abused by the