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A87658 The pretended antidoe [sic] proved poyson: or, The true principles of the Christian & Protestant religion defended, and the four counterfit defenders thereof detected and discovered the names of which are James Allen, Joshua Moodey, Samuell Willard and Cotton Mather, who call themselves ministers of the Gospel in Boston, in their pretended answer to my book, called, The Presbyterian & independent visible churches in New-England, and else-where, brought to the test, &c. And G.K. cleared not to be guilty of any calumnies against these called teachers of New-England, &c. By George Keith. With an appendix by John Delavall, by way of animadversion on some passages in a discourse of Cotton Mathers before the General Court of Massachusetts, the 28th of the third moneth, 1690. Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Delavall, John, d. 1693. 1690 (1690) Wing K192A; ESTC W42984 110,748 234

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unto Death that even in these visible Testimonies it might be learned that the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life And immediately in the following Chapter he saith Therefore what was done in Israel by the appointment of the Law and the Sayings or Oracles of the Prophets the Testimonies of the whole Creation and the Miracles of the divine Goodness did perform in all Nations And that the Rain-bow was a sign of Salvation the same Author expresseth in the following words lib. 2. cap. 4. And the Security of Salvation ●aith he is consecrated in the Testimony of the Rain-bow consisting of divers Colours that is in the sign of the manifold Grace the which Mysteries and Sacraments did not instruct these very few men of one Family only but in them all their Posterity that what was given for the Instruction of the Parents might be profitable to the knowledge of their Sons Thus he And in the same Book cap. 9. he saith And it is manifest that by divers and innumerable manners God will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth but who come they are directed by the help of God who come not they resist by their own pertinacy And in the beginning of that Chapter he saith The Grace of God indeed doth principally appear in all Justifications counselling with Exhortations admonishing with Examples terrifying with Dangers inciting with Miracles inspiring Counsel Note the word Inspiring and enlightning the Heart it self and induing it with the Affections of Faith And a little after Which help viz. of divine Grace ●● offered or applyed unto all by innumerable ways either hid or open and that it is rejected by many it is their own Wickedness but that it is received by many it is both of the divine Grace and of the Will of Man viz. co-operating And cap. 10. he saith We have laboured to prove so far as God hath helped us that not only in the last dayes but in all the fore-going Ages the Grace of God was present with all men with a like Providence and general Goodness but in a manifold manner of working and divers measure for either hidd●nly or openly he is as said the Apostle the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe The which Sentence of most subtil shortness and great strength if it be considered with a quiet sight doth end this whole Controversie for by saying He is the Saviour of all Men he hath confirmed the general goodness of God over all men but by adding especially of them that believe he showeth that there is a part of Mankind which by the merit of Faith divinely inspired Note the words Faith divinely inspired ye who deny divine Inspiration to be remaining ' is carried on to the highest and eternal Salvation by special benefits And a little after he saith ' And although that general Vocation doth not cease yet that special Vocation i● now made common to all And immediately before he saith No place of the World is destitute of the Gospel of Christ Where it is worth the observing how he holdeth forth a twofold Vocation and Calling both of Grace and belonging to the Gospel and Salvation the one general the other special and peculiar to such who have the Gospel preached to them by the Ministry of Men and have the benefit of the holy Scriptures And Luther in the Book called his Mensalia cap. 6. p. 101. saith In all Creatures we see a Declaration and Signification of the holy Trinity the Substance signifieth the Almighty Power of God the Father the Form and Shape declareth the Wisdom of God the Son the Power and Strength is a sign of the holy Ghost in so much that God is present in all his Creatures Thus far Luther expresly And since ye say Your Knowledge Faith of Christ in this Life as well as your Holiness Obedience is not perfect do ye not think if ye come to Heaven as I wish ye may by unfeigned Rep●ntance for your gain-saying the Truth that ye shall receive the more perfect knowledge of Christ at or after Death and then why not faithful Gentiles as well as ye Pag. 96. Ye ask Where do I find three Baptisms in Scripture c I Answ I find in Scripture the Baptism of Moses for the Fathers were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea 2dly The Baptism of John 3dly the Baptism of Christ with Fire and the holy Ghost and some were under a divine Dispensation who knew God only as a general Father to Mankind but knew not that God had an only begotten Son and others knew that God was and Christ was the Son of God and believed knowing only the Doctrine of John and said They knew not that there was an holy Ghost viz. to inspire men and in this same Ignorance ye are at this day And without doubt every divine Dispensation hath it● inward peculiar Baptis● and Washing and that a mans Salvation may be begun under th● first but not perfected I still affirm and have proved and ye have not disproved it Pag. 99. Ye speak very igno●antly and scoffingly against Christ the Light in all men saying Is it the Light in men that was born of a Virgin hanged on a Tree I Answer Here ye more act the part of Socinians like your Brethren in Opposition Pardon Tillinghast and B. Keech who use the same Language and whom I have answered than like Orthodox and Sound Christians doth not the Scripture say They killed the Prince of Life and he who was killed and hanged on a Tree was not a meer Body but a Man consisting of Spirit Soul and Body and was not a meer Man but both God and Man and He who was hanged on a Tree said He was the Light of the World and in him it pleased the Father all fullness should dwell of Light Life and Grace and a measure of his Light and Spirit that neither is nor can be seperated from the fullness is in all men in a day of Visitation and dwelleth in the Saints and is revealed in great Glory in them but in Unbelievers it is very greatly vailed and hid and is the Light shining in Darkness c. and the Man Christ who did hang on the Tree is that second Man who is the quickening Spirit and ye may as well say Did the quickening Spirit hang on the Tree surely he who suffered Death on the Tree was both God and Man and not a meer Man and yet he suffered not as God nor in his Godhead but in his Manhood Your Ignorance is greatly to be lamented who are thus ignorant of the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ although ye profess your selves Ministers of the Gospel Take heed of willful Ignorance that unless men be in the Faith Christ is not in them in that peculiar sence of the word Inbeing as it signifieth union and in-dwelling and enjoyment is granted as we say in one
true Bishop or Preacher do equally require him to be really holy and pious and virtuous as to seem or appear so to be 1 Tim. 3.1 Tit. 1.7 8. A Bishop must be blameless c. sober just holy temperate c. he doth not say let him be a Hypocrite only let him seem to be so but let him be so Pag. 48. Ye say Grace hath a spiritual sence and when the Spirit of God influenceth it it can feel it Ye need to explain this further how Grace feeleth the influence of the Spirit is Grace an intelligent perceiving intellectual being doth not the Soul feel it or is it only the Grace that is sensible of the Spirits influence and the Soul insensible and stupid If a Quaker had so expressed himself ye would have called it Non-sence My application of H b. 12.27 to things of mens maki●g though ye call it most gross it is but your bare affirmation for why may not things of mens making be comprehended under thi●g made as well as the things of the old Law which though first appointed of God yet seeing men did seek to hold them up beyond their due season they were nothing as such but beggerly Rudiments and things of mens making and Christ ●aid Every plant that is not of my heavenly Fathers planting must be pulcked up and every work o● man wro●ght and not in the Wisdom Spirit and Power of God shall be burnt up Pag. 49. Ye grosly and most falsly accuse th● Quakers That they confound the witness of Gods Spirit and their own Spirit This is utterly false Pag. 50. Ye say The Spirit when he witnes●th doth it infallibly yet he doth not make our Spirits infallible Here ye use a little fallacy but it is a very thin fig-leaf and will not cover your Nakedness for though he doth not make the spirits of his Children absolutely and in all respects infallible yet when he speaketh to the spirits and hearts of his Children infallibly and fitteth and prepareth them to hear it and understand it have they not so far i● that particular thi●g or things an infallible knowledge and assurance for even among men he who tells me an infallible truth as that the Sun is risen and I hear him tell it and my sense of hea●ing i● sound I can say I did infallibly hear him for to say the Spirit is only infallible to himself but giveth us no infallible knowledge and ●aith of what he saith is most ab●ur● for all that t●ue real Knowledge and Faith ●hat God giveth to men is infallible and to think otherwise reflects upon Gods goodness wisdom and veracity for why should the infallible God give men only a fallible knowledge Well then let it so remain that your Doctrine is All the Knowledge and Faith that ye have of God and Christ and Christian Doctrine is fallible and may deceive you and be only a fancy or dream How will this relish to sober Pro●estants Is not this rather with a witness to betray the cause of the Protestants than to defend it But in contradiction again though ye say The Witness of your Spirit is fallibl● and ye may be mistaken yet so far as the Spirit of god confirms you by his Witness ye are infallibly assured What greater Contradiction can there be in mens words first to say The Spirit of God witness●th infallibly but your Spirits are not infallible Again ye say Ye are infallibly ass●red so far a● the Spirit o● God co●fi●ms you by his Witness So in one thing and at one time and in one and the same respect ye ●re fallible and yet not fallible This Logick is fittest for Bedlam But ye tell not whether the Spirit of God at any time confirms you of any Truth by his inward infallible Witness for if ye grant this ye grant all that the Quakers desire in the case for that is divine inward Revelation and Inspiration and none of us pretend to an absolute Infallibility but only so far as the Spirit of God witnesseth to us and in us Pag. 58. Ye most grosly pervert my words and cite them falsly when ye say I make the Ministers more than meerly instrumental and that they can by their own virtue heal and convert a Soul Nothing can be more falsly alledged for when Grace Spirit and Life or living Virtue doth emanate through the Ministers to the Hearers they are but Instruments and instrumental Pipes and Conduits yet not dead but living Instruments and that Grace Spirit Life and Virtue is not their own as of themselves derived but is Gods and Christs and is only freely given them Pag. 52. That ye say The Spirit of God cometh in betwixt the Mouth of the Speaker and the Hearts of the Hearers is granted but so it cometh in betwixt the heart of the Speaker and the hearts of the Hearers and a good Minister out of the good Treasure in his heart bringeth forth good things and that is more than bare words 1 Pet. 4.11 Ye say Relates only to an outward ability or estate enabling them to give Alms. Which as it is meerly begged so is singularly strange and will be strange to the Ears of many who hear it Doth ever the Scripture call outward Riches the manifold Grace of God And doth not vers 11. say If any man speak So it relates to a Ministry of the Mouth and not of giving by the Hands Pag. 55. Ye grosly pervert to say I am for pulling down Preaching Praying Singing that are Gods Ordinances for neither I nor we are against but for all preaching Praying and singing that is rightly performed viz. by the help and ability of the Spirit of God and that is Inspiration and is confessed so to be by better Protestants then your selves yea the Church of England prayeth in the Common Prayer for Inspiration as above noted That men without the Spirit are under a command to pray is granted but yet Prayer without the Spirit is no Obedience to that command as men who have no Money nor Goods equivelent to Money may owe a debt to a man and yet if they go to pay him without money or moneys worth they do nothing in order to the payment they only but mock their Creditor and offend him even so all Prayer without the Spirit is a Mockery and the like of Singing That want of Grace dischargeth none from moral Obligations is granted but yet without Grace none can perform their Obligations Ye grosly deny that the Prayers of Abraham and the saints were universally by divine Inspiration contrary to the sence of many sober Presbyterians and Episcopals and that Abraham prayed for Ishmael by a natural affection sanctified doth not prove that he prayed not by divine Inspiration what is Inspiration but the breathing of the spirit into mens hearts both to enlighten and to sanctifie them and to quicken and warm them with warm and fervent Affections Christ ascribes the work of Regeneration in men to the
or beeing unless ye will say That a Creature is any part or measure o● Gods Beeing or Substance And whereas ye say Graces are substantial things and are not meer Accidents but Adjuncts And thus ye seek to hide you from the ignorant in the Thicket of some Loicgal and School Terms and Phrases but when ye say Graces are substantial things ye do not tell whether ye call them so properly or metaphorically as when ye call God Light ye say it is not properly but metaphorically And for your distinction of Adjuncts and Accidents I suppose I learned that thing ye call Logick that ye seem to glory in as well as ye and do remember what is any wise useful in it as well as ye and I never understood that either Logicians or Philosophers so called did hold that the Soul of man had any Adjuncts that was neither the real Essence and Substance of the Soul nor yet Accidents and therefore if the Grace of God in the Soul be no Accident but the Adjunct of the Soul it must be the Soul it self and this is Pelaganism and Socinianism with a Witness for Pelagius and Socinus denyed the need of any inward Grace that was not th● S●ul it self for the Attributes of every being and so of the Soul are such Adjuncts as are either essential to that being or accidental and for this I can and do appeal to all who have any ordinary taste of that called Logick or Metaphysick but I shall not insist on this School-nicity And for your Proof that Grace is a Creature or created Principle from Ephes 4.29 If you mean the virtues brought forth in the saints called the fruits of the Spirit as Faith Hope Love Temprance Righteousness c. we own them in the Scripture sence to be the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness but that they are such a Created Principle as are neither the Soul it self nor Christ nor Accidents but a substance of another nature from all these is a novelty that I have not formerly heard of As for our Doctrine concerning Grace it is plain according to Scripture the Seed or Original Principle of Grace in the Soul is a measure of the Spirit and Life of Christ and is not Properly a Creature as commonly taken but a Pure divine Emanation and stream from Christ the Fountain and is of the same nature with the Fountain and is substantial and every Soul that is by a true and living Faith joyned to this Seed and Principle of Gods Grace is partaker of it Substantially and none else and is there by made fruitful to bring forth heavenly and divine Fruits as Love Joy Peace Me●kness Temperance Humility c. which are Divine Effects and may be said to be the New Creation or the Image of Christ formed and brought forth in us and where these effects are yea where that Seed is neither God nor Christ can be separated from the same Pag. 69. 70. Ye say Nor doth the Doctrine of Dr. Owen or Mr. Rutherford in the words of theirs which he cites at all run into the Quakers Blasphemy Ans Ye do then hold it Blasphemy for the Quakers to say that God and Christ dwell in the Saints and true Believers and therefore to avoid this Blasphemy ye will not own that God and Christ dwell in them and then surely ye preach an absent God and Christ for if Christ dwell not in Believers he is absent from them And yet ye contradict your selves herein as your manner is ye say The Person of the Holy Ghost dwells in us by his Operations And thus ye would falsly gloss upon the words of J. O. and S. R. for J. O. h●ld a peculiar Perswasion far differing from his Brethren the Presbyterians for which Cauldrey severely taxed him that whereas they held it that the holy Ghost dwelt not by himsel● or personally as they phrase it in Believers but by his Operations Graces and Gifts J. O. in his Book of Perseverence useth many reasons and words to prove That the holy Ghost himself together with his Operations and Graces he as well as they dwelt in Believers and not the Graces without him and upon this he buildeth the Doctrine of Perseverance And S. R. said He will not have the Graces of Christ without Christ. But ye plead that the Graces of Christ are in the Saints but not Christ himself and therefore if our Doctrine be blasphemous ye must allow J. O. and S. R. equally guilty but the guilt of Blasphemy is yours who would exclude Christ from the Saints and divide the Graces of Christ from Christ which is impossible and is contrary to all sound Reason as well as Scripture to divide and seperate the Operator from his Operations Pag. 70. Ye do acknowledge That ye agree with the Ranters in that Principle viz. That God doth all and hath unchangeably ordered all things good and bad are we therefore Ranters say ye Answ Let impartial men judge seeing this is the fundamental Error of the Ranters and the Root and Base of all their other Ranting Principles and Practices Pag. 72. Ye most falsly charge me as if I were restoring Maniche●sm into the World as if there were two Principles or first Causes the one of Good the other of Evil for ye are very ignorant if ye know not that the Manichism Principle was That there was an Evil first Cause or Principle essentially evil uncreated eternal independent and equal to the good But we hold no such Doctrine there is one only first cause of all things originally that is essentially good and goodness and all things were originally good and all the Evil that came afterwards into the World was not any real Creation or Production of any substance for Evil in the abstract i. e. Sin is no substance but either a privation as the sin of Omission or some depraved mode or modification or alteration in the Cr●ature that the Creature it self is the Author of and therefore Christ said The Devil was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning and when he speaketh a Lye he speaketh of himself Pag. 73. Ye require me to tell you How God did fore-know all evil Actions that should be done in Time unless he had pre-determined them Answ The way and manner of Gods fore-knowledge surpasseth all creaturely Understanding and therefore it is too great boldness and presumption in you to imagin ye can tell it and it is yet worse to think y● can tell it by a way that contradicts the Scripture and the invvard sense of God in mens hearts as Because God pre-determines all evil Actions Thefts Murders Adulteries therefore he fore-knoweth them This is to make God equally the Author of Evil as of Good It is suffici●nt to us to believe and know that the dec●ee of God is Permissive but not Pre-determinative of evil Actions and as he knoweth evil Actions that are at prese●t brought fo●th as they now are so
sence the seed is not in the ground though sown till it begin to take root but yet according to the more general sence he is in all men for his illumination and operation cannot be seperated from him Ye say I falsly render the place James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Innate Word But ye only say it without proof it is composed of en in and phyo nascor therefore in t●ue English it is innate is so used by Plutarch a Greek Author who saith There is a Faith innate emphutos in every reasonable Creature living and dwelling in the Soul and never leaving the Soul destitute of Guidance and it is used in the same signification by Clemens Alexandrinus writing to the Gentiles where speaking of the inward Witness which was in Unbelievers he calleth it Emphuton Martyra testem innatum fide dignum The innate Witness worthy of Faith and I suppose ye judge not your selves better or so well skilled in the Greek language as Plutarch and Clemens Alexandrinus who were Greek Authors and Grecians by Birth Ye say If the Light be connate with men what needed G. K. make such a splutter about Immediate Revelations It may be said to be both innate and connate with men not as ye imagine Accidents or Qualities to be in a subject but seeing the eternal Word and Wisdom hath created all Souls of men after his Image therefore in a special way of presence that etern●l Word and Wisdom is in all Souls of men by a measure of it planted or if ye will grafted in all men for grafted and innate may be of the same signification and this eternal Word and Wisdom hath its operation and influence on the Understanding of the Souls of men generally to enlighten them gradually first with the more common and plain things of Religion and then as the former are learned with the more special and peculiar Mysteries of the Christian Religion yet not without the use of the holy Scriptures in Gods ordinary way so distinctly and perfectly as Christians know them who have the use of the Scriptures and all internal divine Illumination is properly Revelation P. 102. Ye find great fault that I conclude That the inward Dispensation that is among the Gentiles that have not Christ outwardly preached viz. by the Ministry of men and the holy Scriptures hath its glory and great service to those that are faithful in it and ye say This is to talk at liberty my self and to deny all others a liberty to judge But herein ye wrong me I allow all spiritual men a liberty to judge I question not but to all such who have a spiritual discerning and ability to judge what I have affirmed of the glory and great serviceableness of the inward divine Dispensation in the Gentiles will be approved and my Reasons and Proofs both from Scripture and other Authors found vallid And though ye seek to untye that ye call a knot that I judge is indissolvable p. 91. I judge so still that ye shall never be able to untye it as ye persist in your Doctrine But yet ye pervert my words in that ye call the Knot for I did thus argue That seeing Infants by your confession might be saved by Christ and regenerated by the Spirit of Christ that worketh when and where and how he pleaseth Therefore might the honest and faithful Gentiles be saved by the same regenerating Spirit of Christ who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth and by faith in Christ But that ye may with some seeming show appear to loose the Knot ye word my Argument quite another way I Infants may be saved by the working of the Spirit in them why may not the Gentiles be so by giving obedience to the Light in them And thus ye would make me appear to the ignorant as if I did plead that the Gentiles were or could be saved without faith in Christ and the regenerating Spirit of Christ only by obedience to the general dictates of the Light within but I say though none are saved but who are obedient to the Light in them yet no Obedience can save without faith in Christ and the Spirit of Christ regenerating them that is altogether necessary to every mans eternal Salvation Whereas I produced divers very convincing Arguments to prove That the Light in men that did accuse or reprove for sin could not be some natural faculty of mans Soul these Arguments some of them ye pass over very slightly answering by your bare Affirmations without proof and some ye give no answer unto at all nor take any notice of see my Book p. 119 120 121. which I again recommend to the Readers serious consideration I argued That since ye confess that man is wholly defiled and darkned so that he i● called Darkness in Scripture therefore the Light in natural men could not be any part or faculty of their Souls for that were to say Men are not fallen totally nor totally defiled but in part And I further argued That since your Confession saith All Sin is a Transgression against the Righteous Law of God and since the Heathen are sinners this righteous Law of God must be in them against which they transgress and this righteous Law cannot be any part o● faculty of the Soul which ye confess is wholly unrighteous and d●filed for a thing cannot be wholly unrighteous and defiled yet in part righteous holy and clean To this I find not that ye say any thing Ye say I mistake when I think ye reckon it any distinct Faculty but the Mistake is yours not mine I did not think that ye do reckon it any distinct Faculty but on the contrary I blame you for saying It is nothing else but the natural Conscience or some natural Faculty of mans Soul so that ye are wonderfully careless of what ye say see my Book pag. 119. and your Book pag. 98. And yet ye seem to make it now Not the natural Vnderstanding but something there imprinted Well let it be something there imprinted this evinceth that it is properly Gods Word for I hope ye will not deny but that which God writeth or printeth with his own Hand or Finger is Gods Word and doth as well or rather more deserve to be accounted the Word of God as that printed in the Bible seeing God is the immediate Printer of this without the Ministry of men but the Print of the Bible is the work of Men though the Truth there witnessed is immediately of God and therefore by your Confession there is an inward written or printed Word of God in Heathens and generally in all men and that immediately without the use or help of the Scriptures commonly called the outward Word Hence it clearly followeth that the Word without is not the whole Word of God nor the only Rule in contradiction to you who affirm it And seeing by your Confession the Word of God is in the Gentiles or Heathen who have not the
were once in a ready way to have broken up all the Good Order whether Civil or Sacred in the Infancy of this Plantation which occasioned the Authority whom they would have undermined then to turn a Sharp upon them by Laws not so severe as those in the Realm of England against their Fathers the Jesuites on the same Account yet those Troublesom Hereticks who had no Business here at all but the overthrowing of our whole Government would push themselves on the Swords point and tho' repeated Banishments with merciful Entreaties to be gone were first used unto them nevertheless two or three of them would rather Dye than leave the Plantation undisturbed Reply How or after what manner the Plantation in its infancy was in such danger our Author is silent in True it is that upwards of thirty Years past some of our Friends as faithful Servants in obedience to their Lord and Masters command the great God of heaven by the spirit of his Son in their hearts did visit N. England in true and tender Love to the Inhabitants thereof for whose Immortal Wellfare they earnestly travailed and were bowed down before the Lord being amongst them in much brokenness of Heart and contrition of Spirit they were grieved and weighted in their Souls with the Hypocrisie in New-England against which they witnessed sealing it with their Blood their hearts being filled with that Message the holy Apostle Paul in his day was imployed in Acts 26.17 18. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God directing them to the manifestation of the Spirit of God in them A Teacher not to be removed into a corner nor that would any ways deceive them or suffer them to be at ease in sin This High way of the Lord cast up in his Son Christ Jesus the Light of the World the Sound thereof offended the Ears of New-England's Teachers who not unlike Demetrius the Silver-smith Acts 19.24 proved notable Incendiaries against the Lords Servants left their craft should be in danger so far did they kindle the Rage and Fury of their bigotted Rulers that by cruel Usage and inhumane Laws they far exceeded any thing in the Realm of England against the Jesuites And whilst I am writing there livingly springs up in my heart to you the Inhabitants of Boston New-England a weighty Exhortation and that in tender Love That you would mind the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation and as the holy Scripture testifies hath appeared unto all men 2 Tit. 11. that in the same you may see your blind Guides for if the Blind lead the Blind both shall fall into the Ditch Beware that it be not your Condemnation that Light is come into the World and that you love Darkness rather than Light because your Deeds are Evil I have neither Envy nor Malice against the Priests or People of New-England but earnestly desire the Eternal Well-fare of both yet I cannot but lament the present state of New-England as well as its former whose Priests to the life are drawn out in the 3d of Micah v. 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my People Err that bite with their Teeth and cry Peace and he that putteth not into their Mouthes they even prepare War against him vers 11. The Heads thereof judge for Reward and the Priests thereof Teach for Hire and the Prophets thereof divine for Money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none Evil can come upon us O New-England New-England is not this your present state Are not your Priests crying Peace unto you as if no Evil could come upon you in the midst of these Cloudes of Dangers that are hanging over your heads some of them you have for more than a Twelve Moneth felt to wit A Bloody Cruel War with the Heathen the loss of so many Lives hath humbled me before the Lord and at this time the earnest Cry and Supplication of my Soul unto God is That you may by your speedy sincere Repentance unto him prevent his Judgments for the future That the Jesuits may be properly termed the Fathers of New-England Priests none can doubt if they differ not from their Brother John Cotton of Hampton who in a publick Dispute with G. K. owned To have received his Ministry by the Pope of Rome whose Emisaries they are Beside as they can never prove the Quakers guilty of any one Jesuitical Error yet we can prove these Priests of Boston guilty of many and more especially in their being Incendiaries against the Peace of the Government The further calumniating those who suffered Death to answer your Crucity is but a mean way to expiate the Crime of their innocent Blood which crys aloud for Vengeance and the Lord unto whom it belongs will repay it Thou Cotton Mather nor all thy Fraternity will never be able to prove these 4 Worthies troublesom Hereticks that patiently endured Martyrdom for the Testimony of Jesus by their crul Hands neither will thy poor Insinuation help That two or three of them would rather dye than leave the Plantation undisturbed They had no reason to hearken unto your Hypocritical entreaties to be gone it was their Birth-right as free-born Subjects of the Kingdom of England and so might claim it to inhabit N. England as well as any that there resided as not being forbid to them by either the Law of God or the Realm of England so that being innocent they feared not man that could only hurt the Body but feared him that could cast both Body and Soul into Hell Fire C. M. It is possible a Bedlam had been fitter for those Frantick People than what was inflicted on them and for my own part I must profess with regard unto such Hereticks Ad Judicium sanguinis Tardus sum nor have I the least inclinations to Hereticide as a fit way to suppress their Errors Reply Here our Author doth not a little impeach the Authority of N. England at that time who were accessary to the Death of those ● Worthies by him call'd Frantick People for if according to him a Bedlam had been fitter surely they greatly sinned in passing and executing Sentence of Death upon them the present Governour Simon Broadstead then a Magistrate is greatly concerned in this Charge which amounts to no less than the taking away four Lives by an unjust Judgment for how can that Sentence of Hanging be just against such for whom a Bedlam had been fitter Such as this Author renders our Friends to have been are by the Laws of England exempted from the punishment of Death as also it s reckoned amongst the Abuses of the common Law That such who kill People by false Judgment be not destroyed as other Murderers as may be seen in that noted Book called The Mirror of Justice C. 5. Sect. 108. in express words thus It is abuse that Justices and other Officers who kill People by false Judgment be not destroyed as other Murderers which K. Alfred cause to be done who caused forty four Judges in one Year to be hanged as Murderers for their false Judgments which in the said Book are particularly noted and in the 4th Case he instances how King Alfred hanged Cole because he judged Ive to death when he was a Mad-man Cotton Mather forgot his respect to the venerable Mordocai of his Country as he at other times terms him when he thus exposed him M. C.