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
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
but even of the natural Genius of their own Nation as if their Preferments had some Narcotick and stupifying quality or some secret Enchantment in them And so in truth they have they are like the Trojan Horse when they think they have got a great Prize they themselves are surprized and captivated by they little think what invisible Enemies When they return to the Pomps and Vanities of the World which they had renounced in their Baptism they desert the Heroick Christian State and enter into the Power of the Enemy and their true Christian Strength departs from them they have no longer any real strength to serve the Lord Christ but only such an Appearance of it as serves to deceive themselves and others and make them the more effectually subservient to that Interest which they do not design to serve for their Actions and Behaviour render their Preaching not only ineffectual but scandalous to Men and ridiculous to the invisible adverse Powers who are not a little gratified with the spectacle of it It puts a Slight and Contempt upon the great and noble Examples of our Saviour and the Ancient and most Heroick Christians but spreads the Devil's Snares and decoys Men into them promotes Christian Idolatry which is Covetousness to be as effectually destructive as any of the Jews ever was or any of Papists can be and tempts the World to believe that either Earthly-mindedness or to mind Earthly things is consistent with Christianity or that they are no Christians and do not themselves believe what they Preach unto others But to speak a little more distinctly there are two things to be consider'd in our English Clergy what they have originally from Christ and what they have originally from Man From Christ they have Authority to preach the Gospel to teach and instruct the People to administer the Sacraments and offer to God the solemn Prayers of the Church to admonish correct and execute Ecclesiastical Discipline where there is occasion and to receive the Oblations of the People for maintenance of themselves and for Pious Uses and a right to all the Respect and Submission which is due to the Ministers of Christ in so Holy an Imployment And from Man they have Houses and Lands and Revenues and Titles and Honours and Civil Power and Authority and Charges and Incumbrances And these are some good and useful and some evil pernicious inconsistent with their Christian State and to be plain Antichristian The Houses Lands and Revenues may be of good use if they be used as they should be but the rest are Antichristian under pretence of Honouring Degrading and under pretence of enlarging their Power with what they had not debasing and abridging what they had and subtilly enslaving the Ministers of Christ to be Servants of Men and not the outward Man only but their very Minds and Spirits And here lies the very Mystery of Iniquity They are deprived of one part of their Christian Authority and their Hands bound under pretence of State and Grandure by having Chancellors like the Grandees of the World They are subjected to the State by their Acceptance of their Honours and Dignities from thence the very Temptation that was offer'd by the Devil to our Saviour and a betraying of the Rights of the Church of Christ And the Papal Enchroachments and Usurpations being transferred to the Crown and all Ecclesiastical Preferments coming from the King this is first a Bait to allure Ambitious Minds and then an Enchantment upon them that they dare not displease the Creator of their Grandure though for the Service of their true Lord and Master and the Saviour of their Souls So that we are like to have a continual Succession of Flatterers of Princes instead of faithful Monitors as become the Servants of the great God to be and Nurseries of false Loyalty instead of true Piety and Devotion to God and of Instruments of incessant Dissentions between Prince and People instead of Healers of our Breaches a just Judgment or deserved consequence of Sacriledge and Usurpation upon the Church of Christ And here if I be not much mistaken lyeth the Root of all the Vnhappiness of this Nation and at this time in particular The Providence of God hath not at any time been wanting to us but we have been always wanting to our Duty to Him and to our own true Interest And though all have been wanting yet the beginning of this deficiency hath been in them who should have better attended to and wisely consider'd the Motions of Providence and been the first active vigorous Movers to the rest to have corresponded with it But alas they attended more to the Motions of Men and to please them or at least not displease them for their own Advancement or Security and this is call'd Prudence forsooth And so have we lost a most favourable Opportunity put into our hands When Men turn from God to Men for Counsel or Assistance or Advancement that Divine Power which doth ordinarily accompany the Ordinances and Orders of God doth usually depart from them though chosen or regularly commissioned by him as it did from Saul And then they are ready to fly to any mean things for support or safety The Church of England hath been in Bondage under the Civil Power ever since it was discharged from the Roman Usurpations which were not totally abolished but too much reserved to another Master and a Slavish Spirit hath ever since possessed it It did quietly acquiess in the greatest Sacriledge that ever was committed It contentedly suffer'd the most solemn part of its Liturgy composed by English Bishops and as was declared by Act of Parliament by the aid of the Holy Ghost to be dismember'd disorder'd and defac'd and the Christian Sacrifice abolished by Foreigners and a Factious Party which have ever since been Thorns in their Sides without the concurrence of the English Clergy The true Christian Discipline they never had the Courage to attempt to restore though an Office was prepar'd for a Memorial with a Wish to have it restor'd from the beginning which King Charles II. observing upon an Ash-Wednesday ask'd Why do they not restore it Who hinders ' em And for the Worship of God we have ordinarily only Mattens and Vespers and that too only on the Lord's-Day and in that too the Prayers short and deficient either to excite or to express the Devotions of the People where there is any and besides all this what we have commonly read with so little Devotion as gives Scandal to many and no little disturbance to others And our very Sacraments and most Holy Things no less than Holy-Days are scandalously prophaned Baptism which is the Solemnity of our engaging in the Christian Covenant not only permitted but even forced upon such as do not desire it either for themselves or their Children but bring their Infant Children either for fear of the Apparator or out of Custom to be like their Neighbours without any sense or
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
Illumination of the Mind to perceive the Excellence of the things of God and the Emptiness and Deceitfulness of the things of the World from which proceeds an Appetite to those and an Indifference to these and in particular actions a like secret Illumination of the Mind to apply the general Rules of the Scriptures to the particular Sense and an Inclination of the Will to what is so perceived to be the Will of God And in more sensible Motions Impressions and Openings as some call them the Tryal is by their Agreement with what is agreed to proceed from the Spirit of God that is the Holy Scriptures what is contrary to that is to be rejected as coming from the Enemy what is not inconsistent with that ought to be followed or if doubtful be referred to the Judgment and Determination of the Elders according to the Observations of the Ancients or of the most Experienced Christians especially of such as by their Office and Place are authorized and obliged to be Guide of Souls And those who have presumed to reject these Ordinary Means which God hath appointed and established in his Church have frequently fallen into Mischief There are many of the Mind of Simon Magus Act. 8.18 they are desirous to purchase it but not at the Price our Saviour set it Mat. 13.44 46. And there are many false counterfeit Spirits very officious to offer themselves where they find hopes of Reception and they always suggest and instigate to the following of their Leading which is insensibly and as they find their Followers disposed from the Holy Scriptures and from Christ and when they cannot prevail with them in that manner they endeavour to fill them with Spiritual Pride and Conceitedness make them admired by others as extraordinary and very Holy Persons that they may make them think better of themselves than they ought and so get advantage of them that way And there are generally two great Faults committed by most Pretenders to the Guidance of the Spirit 1. They do not well consider themselves and teach others the necessary Qualifications pre-acquired for the obtaining of so great a Divine Favour 2. They neither consider nor teach others the necessary Cautions and Directions for Tryal of Spirits In general the Conscientious Observation of the Holy Scriptures is a principal thing for both For as the Law was our School-Master to bring us to Christ so the Conscientious Observation of the externally revealed Will of God which is Obedience is our School-Master to prepare us for and bring us to the true Spirit of God But for more particular Cautions and Directions that is a Subject too large for this Occasion and hath been largely treated of by others The Questions concerning Baptism with Water and the Eucharist or Holy Communion are e'en such as that of Naaman 2 Kin. 5.11 22. But they who make them are not like the Servants of that Heathen who gave him this prudent Admonition If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it How much rather when he saith unto thee Wash and be clean May they at least take Example from that Heathen who received the Admonition even from his Servants even with the like blessed Success And this with what I have said before is as much as I apprehend necessary to be said to the Questions for such serious considerate Persons as are willing to be satisfied and informed of the Truth and I shall be ready to give them all further Satisfaction when I understand where any real Scruple doth remain THE REVIEW WHAT I have written I have written with all Plainness and Simplicity with all Candor and Impartiality and Good Will to all without any other Design than for the Service of God and the Good of all and without any Affection of any Ornament as becomes the Majesty of the Truths of God Yet can I not expect but I must incurr the Censures of most in one thing or other when I consider the general Corruption of Mens Minds and Judgments as well as of their Manners at this time not only of the Scandalous and Prophane or Hypocritical Professors but even of such as are sincere in many things and deservedly esteemed in the World both for Parts and Honesty and yet in others not so compleat as might be wished partly through the Byass of their own Dispositions and partly through the Common Cheat of Honourable Names such as Prudence Moderation Discretion Charity c. and their Contraries calling Good Evil and Evil Good and partly through certain False Notions undermining the Integrity of the Evangelical Doctrine of Christ as the Pharisees did the Law of Moses and rendring it of none Effect in many things which have been introduced and recommended to the World by a late Sect appearing in a very plausible Form but in truth generated by an unnatural Copulation of Church of England with some Socinian Principles setting up their own Corrupt Humane Reason in the place of the Divine Wisdom and wresting the divinely inspired Scriptures to a Compliance with it perswading themselves and others that the Noble Heroick Virtues so much studied and practised by the ancient Christians such as Humility Contempt of the World Heavenly-mindedness c. were for times of Persecution but we are under another Dispensation as I my self have been told by a Principal Author and Promoter of it and encouraging such Temporizing Compliances under the specious Pretences of Moderation and Prudence as are not only Inlets to Sin and Hindrances of Graces but inconsistent with the Practices and Sentiments of the best Christians of all Ages with the Doctrines and Instructions of the Apostles the Example and Precepts of our Saviour himself to say nothing of Evangelical Counsels in this Age our Baptismal Engagements and the Genuine Spirit of Christianity and the Interest of the Kingdom of Christ in this World What Glosses they make upon our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount I must leave to others better acquainted with them to consider But What can be expected from persons so levened but as severe Censures of this Writing as they take this to be of others but that reasonable Expressions of just Indignation at Abuses and Corruptions in Matters of Religion or at abuse of Scriptures to patronize Vanity and by persons professing Religion should be censured for Passion but that such warm Expressions and Charges as were necessary to awaken such out of a Deadly Slumber as Experience had proved could not be moved by gentler touches should be censured as Vncharitableness and necessary plain Dealing with Mortals for the Service of God the Good of a Countrey and the Salvation of Souls be censured as Indiscretion Disrespect to Superiors and Sauciness But to leave such as are ready to wish and to talk but will do nothing but what may serve to recommend themselves to those whose Commendations are most desirable are willing to use others as the Cats foot but will not touch the Work