horrid aspect then all the forenamed put together as arguing some signal inlargement of the power of darkness as being in a high degree diabolical prodigious portentous Heretical doctrine is not only a sin but profession of a doctrine which is both all sin a way of sin The speaking of lies against the Lord and his trueth destructive to the soules of men and all this in the name of the Lord. Heretical doctrine consists in the blaspheming of the trueth as it is in Jesus as a ly and publishing of a ly in the place thereof The first born of Satan not a little aggravated in respect of its propagation by apostates viz. those tongues which formerly bare testimony to the trueth now bent against it and for opposite errours Thine own nation the chief Priests have delivered thee unto mee what hast thou done If the people of God did well upon the hearing though of but single blasphemie to manifest deep detestation thereof by the rending of their cloathes should wee at the publishing of such a compiled Systeme frame of heresie which containeth many blasphemies befound insensible would not their pious zeale rise up in judgement against us It is from the Spirit of trueth to open our eyes to discern the Spirit of errour The remedie or Scriptural-prescript to be applied in times of heretical pestilence consists of some dueties common to all persons and orders Some proper to families Churches the Christian Magistrate The Dutyes common to all are 1. To sanctify God in respect of his present providence looke not upon these emissaries of Satan as casuall or despicable but as commissionated executioners of Gods coercive vindictive displeasure for our abuse of the Gospel without repentance of which before Chap. 2. 2. To justify God in the humble confession of our sin acknowledgment of this his righteous tremendous dispensation 3. Repentance 4. A speedie and effectuall endeavour to stablish our hearts in the trueth That wee henceforth be no more children tossed to fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine Ephe. 4.14 For when for the time yee ought to be teachers c Heb. 5.12 Hold fast that which is good 1. Thess 5.21 2. Tim. 1.13 Tit. 1.9 Rev. 2.13.25 3.3 11. Distingwish between questions of docility or teachablenes tending to cofirme us in the truth and questions of scepticisme tending to hold the mind in an irresolution concerning the trueth Affectation of uncertaintie in matters of religion is against religion Certainty is of the nature of faith Doubting Faith are opposite To reduce trueth unto the hazzard and promote errour unto the hope of a question is to render errour trueth of equall credit An anti-religious levelisme leading unto Atheisme and if the triall be before corrupt reason as the judge it is a notable stratageme to represent trueth for errour errour for trueth The serpents art in managing the first temptation was by way of question Yea hath God said Gen 3.1 Vncertainty between two Opinions was the cause of Israels halting Advantagious indeed unto Baal's followers but an evill unsufferable unto the holy spirit of Elijah zealous that the people of God should walk upright No marveil the state was distracted whilest religion was unsetled So farr as the way whereby we should serve God is a question it is out of question we cannot serve God Scopticism in all points of faith is deservedly abhorred See Kecker Gymnas Log. lib. 2. cap. 7. but especially in fundamentals Monstrous births saith Plato are not brought to light neither are portentous disputations and monstrous opinions to be suffered in the Common-wealth 5. Fidelity in walking according to the trueth If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self John 7.27 Duties incumbent upon the heads of families are Exemplarines Instruction Government Vpon the Churches Doctrine and Discipline All experience proveth that the bitter root of heresie hath never prevailed where Doctrine Catechism and Discipline have been upheld in their purity vigour Concerning the power and duty of the Christian Magistrate in matters of Religion it is summarily spoken to in the Authors preface unto the sufferings of Christ But full information is at hand in diverse elaborate and solid treatises upon that subject lately published It may therfore suffice at Present to present the Reader with some texts to that purpose And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying who soever curseth his God shall bear his sin And he that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord he shall surely be put to death and all the Congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger as he that is born in the land when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death Lev 24.15 16 But other Scriptures omitted I shall here transcribe only two more both which are eminently pregnant with this trueth wherein also are cases put between the cause of God and our neer relations on purpose to provide against obstructions in this great business of Religion The first we have Deut 13. per totum Relating to all times succeeding that constitution If thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wâ—fe of thy bosome or thy freind which is as thine own soul intice thee secretly saying Let us go and serve other gods thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pitty him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceale him but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death afterward the hand of all the people vers 6 8. The second wee have Zech. 13.1 3. Expressely relating unto the times of the Gospel In that day viz after the Comming of the Messiah in the time of the Gospel when the families of the tribes shall mourne Chapt. 12.11 The familie of the house of David apart the familie of the house of Nathan apart c There shall be a fountain opened i.e. the doctrine of Christ under Moses dispensation is compared to a fountain vailed 2 Cor 3.13 c Under the Gospel-dispensation unto a fountain opened The vail of the Temple the ceremonial law being taken away And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet Prophecie then his father his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth These words thrust him through may be understood either of a Capital punishment Juridically dispensed or of any other smart punishment piercing though not Capital As God hath armed the Magistrate with Civil power for the defence of Religion so hath he animated him unto the regular and seasonable exercise thereof by holding forth many excellent fruits through the concurrence of divine benediction concomitant and consequent unto his fidelity in this duty 1. The vindication of the name trueth of God from
shall see Satan in a chaine The first aspect presents all formidable as the product of Satans will which conteining the extirpation of all good with the introduction of all iniquity confusion misery upon supposition it should obtaine what can be superadded in the way of evill therunto The secōd represents every thing beautiful in its time it being an impossibillity that he whose wayes to his end are past finding out should do any thing in relation either to way or end incongruous or indecent unto him who is absolute perfection it self Look upon the spirit of error in it self it is like the Lyon roaring upon Sampson look upon it in the Promise 't is as the Carkass of the Lyon but behold there is a swarm of Bees and honey in the carcass of the Lyon In its own nature it is a flood of waters cast out of the mouth of the Serpent In the promise it is as the waters of Noah unto the freinds servants of the Trueth When I thought to know this it was too painfull for mee untill I went into the sanctuary of the Lord then understood I their end Psal 73.10 17. CHAP 3. Of the destructivenes of the Doctrine and Practice of the Quakers Vnto Religion the Churches of Christ and Christian States DIseases may well be concluded malignant and mortal at least in their next tendency when they seize vpon the vitalls and Spirits The doctrine under examination being censured according to this proportion will soon be found guilty of the charge The destructivenes of the doctrine of the Quakers unto Christian States appeareth from The nature of the Object they single out imediately to fight against viz The Trinity Christ The Scripture as the Rule of life Order both Civil especially as acknowledged in al Christian States with Power in matters of Religion Ecclesiastical as instituted in the Gospel The Spirit they are acted by The suitablenes of their doctrine unto discontented seditous factious and tumultuous spirits especially if pressed with poverty or a suffering condition The experience of the examples of their predecessors in Germany acted by the same principles Fundamentals in Religion are so denominated Principally properly so Christ is a foundation Mat. 16.16 Doctrinally so the Scripture is a foundation in that it holds forth the doctrine of life 1 Cor 3.10 11. Eph. 2.20 Practically so Order is according to some not ineptly said to be of the foundation in that it is requisite in the way of means for the preservation of what is fundamentall For the making good the first maine article of the charge the clearenes of the trueth of the heads instanced in as the four parts thereof their fundamentality with the contrariety of the doctrine-impleaded thereunto being manifest is necessary In order whereunto the Trinity and Scripture being some-what spoken to above and that of the Person of Christ in this place not calling for it it remaineth onely to demonstrate 1 The nature and necessity of order 2 That in their opposing the Magistrats as now established in Christian estate they oppose civill order 3. That the visible-politicall-Churches Church-Officers Church-worship administrations are Gospel-institutions appointed by Christ to continue to the end of the world Order is a divine disposal of superior inferior relations in humane or Christian societies distributing to each one respectively what is due thereunto There was Order directive in Innocencie order both directive and coactive is necessary in mans fallen estate Order is Gods way of lapsed mans wel-doing wel-being It is the forme of societies Formes are essential without which things cannot be By Order plurality is formed into and subsists in unity Without it plurality is but an heap Neither nature nor society whether humane or christian no not so much as a family can stand without order Ephe. 1.22 1 Cor 12.19 If all were one member i. e. if there were no order where were the body Order is a divine preservative of Trueth Peace and Communion The good of Order is further intelligible by the evill of confusion James 3.16 As confusion is not farr from every evill work so order hath a tendency to every good work Order without action is negligence action without order is presumption Action without knowledg is reprehensible and order unprofitable but Order Action Vnderstanding perfect bodies Politick The great good which is in order is the cause why the wicked one so restlesly oppugneth it The working of Satan against Order is a policy against a policy The policy of hell against the Policy of heaven Whilest we remember that God is the God of Order it is not hard to discern the maligning therof as proceeding from the Serpent For God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor 14.33 34. In Ecclesiasticks it is a maxime indispensable in Paul's motion Let all things be done decently and in Order 1 Cor 14.40 Doing nothing is more eligible then doing without order Many times there is not so much good in the matter done as there is evill in that it is disorderly done In Civills in case of non-administration wickedness reignes Judges 17.6 In case of mal-administration incorrigible in the Magistrate the Psalmist cryeth out that the foundations of the earth are out of course Psal 82.5 Such a foundation then is Order as it being cast down what shall the Righteous do Their Opposition to Civil Order is thus evinced That doctrine which denyeth obedience unto the order of Magistracy in its due subject Exod. 18.21 interpretatively and in effect denyeth the order of Magistracy i. e. Civil order But their doctrine denieth Obedience unto the order of Magistracy in its due subject Therefore their doctrine denyeth the order of Magistracy i. e. Civil order That they deny obedience unto the order of Magistracy in its due subject witness both their scripts behaviour wherin they deny obedience unto all Christian Magistrates who are not of their own mind Their pernicious principles herein from the execution of which the good hand of God hath hitherto restrained them are notoriously palpable in the practise of Storke Mancer their Predecessors About 1521. Nicholas Storke a ring-leader amongst a company of mutinous and seditious persons pretended to immediate visions and thereupon preached that there should come a new world wherein should dwell Righteousness therefore they ought to exterminate all the wicked withall the Princes unbelieving Magistrates from the earth They faith the Author called all those unbelievers which were not of their faith faction In Alstad a Town in the Earledome of Manifield one of the 4. Estates in upper Saxonie Thomas Mancer enrolls the names of them which were entered into league with him and by solemn Oath promised assistance to dispatch the wicked Prince to substitute new ones They saith the same Author generally accounted all Superiours wicked The being of Magistracy is from God immediately There is no
destruction of a nation Mat 24.5 For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ False teachers shall come and lest any should think their comming notwithstanding happily they shall not prevail it is added and shall deceive many Again verse 11. Many false prophets shall arise Forget not again what followeth and shall deceive many So verse 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes wonders in so much that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. Hereunto if with some learned interpreters we understand by the end mentioned Mat 24. that famous period destruction of the Nation of the Jewes we may not unaptly annex that of the Apostle 1 John 2.18 in the judgment of some as attesting unto Mat 24.3 6 33 34 Namely that these grand-deceivers were fore-runners of the then ensuing misery of that nation Little children it is the last time as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time The summ is that the doctrines of Devils audaciously disseminated by numerous false teachers pretending themselves to be immediately sent of God are SIGNAL or are signes of evill times in four respects i. e. They signifie four things 1. Greater light then Ordinary foregoing 2. The non-reception of that light by many in the love of it 3. The Judicial giving up of many non-recivers of the Trueth in the love of it to believe their lyes 4. Sometimes at least also a National Calamity impending when the prementioned iniquities are in Conjunction with other crying sinns without Repentance Sinning against the Gospel is very sinfull The Gospel is a constitution or effect tempered of the Grace of God and the blood of Christ ingredients neither of which are to be found in the Law So much as the Gospel excelleth the Law so much is sinning against the Gospel aggravated compared with sinning against the Law Sinning against the Gospel is yet heightned by circumstances that it is given to us after the transgression of the Law Given to some transgressors and not unto others Of them to whom it is given dispensed with greater light to some then to others What Nation gloryed in these priviledges above our own our selves being witnesses From the kind of sinning If the non-reception of the trueth in the love of it exposeth unto this vindictive deception according to what dreadfull degree shall they be counted obnoxious who persevere in scandals under the light Count it pleasure to riot in the day time yea fear not to commit that abomination in Israel of turning the grace of God into wantonness From the doctrine of free grace drawing a licence to sin to take their fill of lust and that without the guilt of sin without the conscience of sin yea with a pretended conscience of obedience In a word to feast the old man unto the highest with the blood of Jesus and compleat the mystery of iniquity by the mystery of the Gospel As the non-reception of the trueth of the Gospel is a fearfull sin so the fruit thereof is a fearfull evill Their unbelief is fearfull their belief is fearfull Vnbelief of the trueth is iniquity Belief of a ly is both iniquity folly The trueth they unbelieve is a trueth of the greatest wisdom The ly which they believe is an object of the greatest vanity To believe the trueth is a great mercy 1 Cor. 7.25 At one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithfull To believe a destructively is a great judgment 2 Thes 2.11 12. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a ly that they all might be damned who believed not the truth Not to believe Christ is to make him an Impostor remarkable is divine justice that the issue of such unbelief should be the believing of Impostors So legible is divine justice in that they who forsake the way of salvation should choose the way of damnation that the folly of that wisdom may be manifest whose wisdom is to disacknowledg the Wisdom of God and that the glory of that wisdom may be ever adored the contempt wherof delivereth the contemners unto such finall folly These lying Spirits with other like Pests howsoever inconsiderable despicable looked at as in themselves yet if looked at as messengers of Divine wrath witnesses of guilt and impenitence instruments of penalty and commissionated to do effectual execution they are now represented under a formidable aspect and become objects of great terrour God can plague Egypt with lice and make locusts wormes grashoppers a matter of horror unto Judah though there remained but wounded men amongst the Caldeans yet should they rise up every man in his tent burne this Citty with fire Alas t is sin that armes justice and disarmes the sinner When there is a concurrence of delinquency and authority the meanness of the executioner aggravates not extenuates the anguish of the malefactor What more formidable then a penall and vindictive-permission of a delusion-destructive Upon Gods willing the permission of sin sin falleth out infallibly Upon this antecedent Adam when all mankind was conteined in that one man yet in innocency is deceived sinneth away not only the Image of God from his posterity but also sinneth mankind into the guilt of eternal death The woman which thou gavest to be with me gave mee of the tree and I did eat Upon a permission penal-corrective Peter falleth as shamefully before the temptation of a poor maid as he engaged confidently No merveil then if upon a permission penal-vindictive foregoing we read and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him i. e. the Beast whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world And that Christ warneth us of the perill thereof as such which threatens to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. The strength of false prophecy lay not in the argument of the speaker but in the affection of the hearer My people love to have it so Jer. 5.32 The conjunction of a Judicial dispensation with a pleasing error an itching ear presents a sufficient reason why men otherwise rational are intoxicated with doctrines most irreligious irrational Why the success of false teachers at times hath been such as hath exceeded their own expectation Hence was the ground of that old saying of the Monk insulting over the peoples credulity Si mundus vult decipi decipiatur If the world will be deceived let it be deceived When the Duke of Saxony affected with Muncer's crying out under the severity of his tortures said unto him truely Muncer you indure at present but think also upon the ruine of so many poor people which at this day by occasion of your seduction are slain He answered after a laughing manner they would so have it Whether it were more wickedly done
under EzRA saith that it shall be untill the end of that Age. In natis ex Eusâ—bio Evang DemoÌ„stra t l. 7. Chapt. 14.5 And the Septuagint calleth Christ the Father of the age to come Esay 9 6. And conformably hereunto what wee read the ends of the world they read the Consummation of ages Heb 9.26 1 Cor 10.11 The Greek bearing either version conceiving that the Consummation of ages are therefore said to be come upon them that live under the Gospel because they who live under the Gospel have out-lived the legal dispensation the Cessation whereof was the consummation of the age before the Messiah and live under that dispensation the cessation whereof shall be the Consummation of the age after the Messiah i. e. the Gospel dispensation which shall be the shutting up of all ages consequently end with the end of the world The sum of this interpretations commeth to this I will be with you to the end of the age meaning thereby the age of the Messiah beginning at the Ascension of Christ and continuing unto the end of the world It is the same in effect with the translation though differing in expression Touching the Spirit they are acted from their dictates are represented by them both as infallible and divine Because of the pretence of their infallibility they must not be questioned By reason of the pretence of their divinity they must be obeyed What can be superadded to the destructive tendency of satanicall motions armed with the perswasion of the indispensable necessity of Gods own CoÌ„mand Their tumultuous motions are by grave Authors frequently styled Furies from the fiercenes of their Spirit in the propagation of their Errors Their agitation is like that of the ocean when one would think the deep to be hoarie raging waves of the sea foaming out their owne shame Jude v. 13. Erroneous zeal heightened with intoxicating fanatick animosities is so much wilde-fire But diabolical zeal is so much hell-fire A Spiritual frenzy Being exceedingly mad against them Acts. 26.11 Wicked persecutors who acknowledg not the faith are unreasonable men pray that wee may be delivered from unreasonable wicked men 2. Thess 3.2 wicked persecutors who pretend to the faith are mad men The very light of nature teacheth all nations that mad men acting according to their frantick passions are to be restrained with chaines when they can not be restrained otherwise It goeth ill with the Saints when they who kill them think they do God service whilest they rage according to their lusts Woe to them who call upon the name of Christ when he that verily thinks with himself that he ought to do many things unto the utmost contrary to Jesus of Nazareth not only breaths out slaughter but is also CoÌ„missionated with letters from Damascus Their Doctrine carryeth meat for its followers in the mouth of it so that its contagious influence in a short time upon the tumultuous nature of the discontented and irregenerate multitude needs not so much to be discovered as to be antidoted That these persons canonize themselves as the Saints of the most High is a strong delusion And if they also by vertue of a forged Saintship be heard intitling themselves unto the Kingdom and thereby unto the dignities estates of all who are not of their mind it will not be found more irrational then Satanical not more strange then pernicious It may well be looked at as a Serpentine and inebriating stratageme to make the power honours possessions of the godly and others also who are not of their way to become lawfull prize and plunder to the ravening lusts of their proselytes For what then remaineth but that a sufficient number accepting of their doctrine agree together to possess themselves of all that falleth within the compass of their rapine 'T is true the Devills tempting of Christ with all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them All these things will I give thee could take no effect with Him But upon the tryall thereof with men of John of Leyden's spirit the subtill tempter hath found better success About February 1534 Rotman Cniperdolling send unto the neighbouring townes of Munster thereby giving notice to them of their sect to leave all their goods to repaire unto them encouraging them that they should not fail to receive more then they left behind them Hereupon great multitudes both of men women hearkening unto those magnificent promises came in accordingly and upon hopes of preferment repair to Munster chiefly the poorer sort who knew not how to subsist Some oâ— those 28 Teachers of the world sent out from Munster upon the CoÌ„mandement of the Father pretended to be given to John Twiscoscur a goldsmith being demanded why they expelled the honest people from the city of Munster against their faith promise detained their goods and by what text of Scripture they could warrant that unrighteousnes They answered that the time was now come wherein the word of Christ should be fullfilled that the meek should possess the earth and that GOD in this manner gave the goods of the Egyptians to the Israelits About the latter end of June Twiscoscur calleth the multitude together into the market place telleth them that he had a command from the heavenly father that John of Leyden should have the Command of the whole earth Osiand cent 16. lib. 2. cap 33. Guide bresse Cap 4. that he should go forth with a mighty army kill all the Princes promiscuously sparing only the multitude viz those who loved Righteousness That the time was now come when the ungodly should be oppressed and the godly should reign in this life The King afterwards promiseth to his 12 select Captains that they should be Princes assigning unto each of them their Province by name as also Forts Lands which he would give them How potent a temptation the opening of an opportunity to the irregenerate hungry multitude of changing places with their Superiours and possessing themselves with their power honour estates is When this temptation is managed in a way of duty and that duty also insinuated from the highest nature principle end viz Saintship of the highest form inspiration divine infallible a super-scriptural reformation guilded ouer with specious pretences of the exaltation of Christ and extirpation of Babylon I say how threatning this temptation is English men may not unprofitably collect by recalling that perillous rebellion in the dayes of Richard the second raised from the doctrine of one man by a temptation of this nature though then managed in a way of lawfulness only not of duty The summ whereof take thus One John Woll a man of a factious spirit perceiving the discontent of those times by two arguments one taken from the equality of all men as descended from Adam the other from the injustice of the Laws upholding great inequality amongst men viz some Lords and in large estates whilest others continued
The question is not concerning God's Power but concerning his Will God can preserve his Truth immediatly without any external meanes but his pleasure is ordinarily to doe it mediately Hence he surrounded the Arke according to divine Institution with a double fence both Ecclesiastical and Civil God can also save man immediately from evils committed against the second Table but hee ordinarily effects it by the helpe of the magistrate The injurie done unto the trueth hurteth man whose welfare depends upon the imbracing of it It hurts not God nor the Trueth in it self but only in the estimation of man As Satan is permitted to raise up men to be offendors so Christ raiseth up men to be defenders thereof to manifest that through Grace the Trueth hath even amongst men as great lovers as it hath haters When there was no Christian Magistrate God watched over the cause of Religion in an extraordinary manÌ„er The continuance of the gift of miracles together with the then recent fresh memory therof conducing not a little for that end But extraordinarie gifts ceasing and the Christian Magistrate succeeding God now expects the Civil power in an ordinary way of Providence to be subservient therunto God can bring up his sons daughters without making any use of Civil power but it hath pleased him to appoint Kings to be nursing Fathers and Queens to be nursing Mothers unto them They are but ill nurses who seing the danger of those committed to their trust so much as in them lyeth save not their nurse-lings from the poyson of the destroyer A late memorable testimony of Gods owning blessing Civil Authority in the defence of Religion who so consulteth History shall find in the many flourishing Citties and Churches with other places of name in upper Germany Helvetia lower Germany and else where Saved from the pestilence of the Heretical and blasphemous sectaryes of the last Centurie then destroying at noone-day with and not without the interposal of Civil-Authority and that not once nor twice but frequently by the very sentence of Banishment Lysander's counsel of old was when the lions skin will not hold out to piece it with a fox-skinne Why should it seeme strange that men speaking doctrines of devils and lies in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron and therefore past feelling of spiritual weapons object may that serve their turn against obnoxiousnes to Civill weapons of which they remain only sensible that so priviledged with impunity they may proceed in their madness without all restraint That ancient stratagem of destroyers otherwise often frustrated in their attempts to open their way unto their flock by endeavouring the removal of the keepers is famously notable from Demosthenes's recital of the folly of the sheep sometimes delivering up the doggs that kept them at the motion of the wolves Whereby he stayed the Athenians from delivering up their Orators unto Alexander upon his proposal out of whose hands they had been instrumental to save the City Should the People not of Athens but of Sion suffer themselves to be abused by heretical deceivers destroyers into a persuasion that whil'st it is Lawfull for them under a praetence to invade it is unlawfull for Civil power to defend Religion they would render themselves more like those sheep in the Fable then men of understanding in Israel not to make regular seasonable use of the meanes instituted blessed unto such an end in time of danger is to Tempt not to Trust God That God makes use of Civil power consequently of man is not from his need of him but his favour to him Not from defect of power but abundance of Goodness Notwithstanding God could save his people without the assistance of man and both could and did save them without Meroz yet curse yee Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because thy came not to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 If Esther seeth her opportunity and that she is come to the Kingdom for such a time Good But if she altogether hold her peace God can cause enlargement and deliverance to arise to the Jewes from another place Albeit as the Heterodoxie of the Sectaries pre-mentioned in the last Centurie was universal corrupting the whole body of Religion so also Quakerism as to the substaÌ„ce therof their geniune offspring be in like manner a total heresie yet both because the former is legible in many Authors and the latter obvious from the penns and tongues of the present Dogmatists and because the scope of this discourse is chiefely practical the Reader may soon perceive way other errors omitted the principal heads of their doctrine are herein onely considered It remaineth that all orders persons amongst us respectively Sanctifie God according unto the prescript of Scripture and that at such a time in the regular excercise whereof wee may secure our selves of a greater blessing then the adversary threatens trouble Vnto former trials of our love unto the trueth by leaving of our countrey kinred and Fathers house and by the sufferings of this wilderness God in his wisdome now addeth this of trying us by false doctrine That this divine fatal season appointed for the revealing of the thoughts of many hearts through the judicial discovery of not a few who have had a name that they lived by their defection to heresie may amongst the rest of the Saints be also through Grace New-Englands manifestation to be approved That the evill example of the Apostacie of formerly fellow-professors may as sometimes the like did with the Apostles John 6. bring forth so much the more zealous luculent a confession of the Trueth As the enmity of opposers increaseth so the testimony of the witnesses increaseth Though the Beast blasphemeth the witnesses overcome Ye are of God little children and have overcome him because greater is hâ—e that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 The Apostacie of Adam ends in the confession of Adam The apostacy of both reprobate Angels men ends in the confession of the Elect. The Apostacy from the Covenant of workes ends in the most Illustrious confession of the Covenant of Grace The greatest Apostacie in a farr greater confession The threatning example of the revolt of many disciples with that of Judas foreseen superadded notwithstanding Christ well knowing how to improve the apostacy of hypocrites unto the furtherance of his interest in the very height of the scandal put forth that question triumphantly not timerously Then said Jesus unto the Twelve will yee also goe away The Rule of doctrine discipline and order is the Center of Christianitie Sincere and grave spirits are like grave bodies they cannot rest out of their Center i e. the Rule Religion admitts of no eccentrick motions Doctrine and actions not according to Rule when quickened with erroneous zeal are but runÌ„ing so much the faster out of the way This people bought the trueth with Realities Countrey Relations Estates oportunities as to the things of this life were Realities should wee now sell it for that which is not Bread yea for Fanatick Frantick worse then sick ImaginatioÌ„s What advantage will it be to have departed from praelacie to ataxie From the Tradition of man unto delusions not onely contrarie to Scripture but also unworthie rational men Many momentous are the peculiar considerations whereby wee are engaged in our respective stations to own our profession stand in the regular and effectual defence of the trueth with perseverance unto the end in both It concerneth N. -E alwayes to remember that Originally they are a Plantation Religious not a plantation of Trade The profession of the purity of doctrine worship discipline is written upon her forehead A spot of this vast Jeshimon converted into Corn-fields Orchards streets inhabited and a place of Merchandize cannot denominate New-England All these notwithstanding if shee fall away from her profession call her Ichabod the Glory is departed In such case what was said of Samnium sometime a famous Citty in Italy viz that they could not find Samnium in Samnium will be verified concerning these Churches viz that N. -E is not to be found in N. -E God forbid that after N. -E hath now shined twenty years and more like a light upon an Hill it should at last go out in the snuff of Morellianism The converting of these and the like meditations into so many Nayles Goades is not the least part of the scope of this poor Script but the work of that one Shepheard in the effectual looking unto whom for wisdom faithfulness in such a season the welfare of his few â—heep in this wilderness doth in a great degree depend That wheresoever the Trueth lyeth in the points now controverted between the godly-Orthodox of the Presbiterian and Congregational way which the day will declare We may yet when we shall ly in dust leâ—ve this report to posterity that as we renounced the pollutioÌ„s under Episcopacie on the one hand So we kept far from the Tents of Morellianism Scepticism and confusion on the other hand And also that having given in our Testimonie against the Heterodoxies Heresies and Blasphemies of this Generation We both lived and dyed in the FAITH and ORDER of the Gospel Err. page 33 l. 17. Read Pastors Teachers are to continue c Pastors Teachers are Church-Offic erg FINIS