as the whole Kingdome of Bohemia was through means of their Preaching and Doctrine reduced from obedience to the Pope and the Ceremonies of the Romish Church the Council of Constance required King Wenceslaus to send the said Huss thither to whom the Emperour Sigismond gave very ample Letters of safe-conduct to the end that he might not scruple to surrender himself yet notwithstanding without any regard had thereunto he was within twenty six dayes after his arrival committed to Prison and after an hard and tedious incarceration most unjustly condemned to be burnt alive as an Heretick howbeit he had clearly demonstrated to them the truth of his Doctrine by the Word of God and the pregnant Testimonies of Christian Antiquity in pursuance whereof he maintained that the Church of Rome had departed from the Doctrine of the Apostles in pursuit of the riches and delights of the world hunting after Dominion and Primacy embezeling Church-goods which did of proper right belong tâ— the Poor in pomps and filthy and infamous expences confounding herewith the Ordinances of God or at leastwise guilty of a voluntary and deliberate contempt of the same That the Pope hath no such Authority as he challengeth over the Church and that Indulgences are null That the Bread and the Wine remain untransubstantiated in the Supper and that the Communion should be equally distributed to all under both kinds That there is no such thing as Purgatory That Saints departed ought not to be invoked nor Images worshipped and that all those things with their like appendants have no other foundation than that of the corruption and vanity of a humane spirit But forasmuch as the Truth doth ever purchase hatred from the Wicked as being naturally averse and adverse thereunto this was the cause of that cruel usage which he met withall from his Enemies which he endured with a truly Christian-Constancy rehearsing as he was going to the place of Execution or rather of Triumph diverse verses of the Psalms especially of the 31st and 51st and oftentimes these words taken partly out of the 31st I recommend my spirit into thy hands for thou hast redeemed me Lord Jesus thou God of Truth and as the Executioner was setting fire to the Faggots he said three times with a strong and loud voice Jesus Christ thou Son of the living God have mercy upon me Thus did this holy Martyr finish all his labours resigning his soul to God upon the 6th of July 1415. That other faithful Witness of the Truth Jerome of Prague did likewise seal the same with his blood upon the 30th of May 1416 after many sharp conflicts with his Adversaries whom he confounded and struck dumb with the same weapons namely the Word of God and the Testimonies of the ancient Doctors of the Church being endued with an admirable eloquence and vigour of spirit He encountred death with such an extasie of joy that when-as they began to kindle the Faggots he began to sing Divine Praises with a holy hymn which by the very relation of Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope called Pius II and of Pogius of Florence who was one of the Spectators he continued in the midst of the flames till that his blisfull soul took wing for Heaven there to bear a part in the harmonious new Song in the presence of its Saviour and the company of Angels and all the Saints and faithfull ones whose tears are all for ever wip'd away in that beatisick Sabbatism of Glory and eternal bliss But what shall we say more for the time would fail us should we instance in all who after those two saithful Witnesses espoused the defence of the same Truth which the greatest part of them have as they before them sealed with their blood We behoved to make mention of that great Assembly of persons at Doway in the year 1421 who held the Doctrine of the Waldenses of whom a great number as is reported by Monstrelet was sacrificed to the flames of William White and Alexander Fabrice English-men who in the year 1429 wrote in the defence of Wickliff's Doctrine which Reynauld Peacock Bishop of Chichester in like manner maintained in the year 1457. We behoved likewise to shew that George Poggebrach King of Bohemia together with his Subjects owned to the day of his death the profession of the Truth against the Determinations of Rome and that the King of Poland stood inclined to its defence Likewise that in the year 1480 John of Vessalia Basil of Groningue Stephen Bralfer and Paul Notary of Tubinge Doctors in Divinity did in like manner in Germany withstand the Doctrine of the Romish-Church for controlling of whose vanity and many corruptions Jerome Savonarole was burnt at Florence in the year 1498 notwithstanding which John Francis Picus Count of Mirandula failed not to write in his behalf and in like manner to reprehend the very same abuses That in the year 1505 Paul Scriptoris did in his Lectures in the University of Tubinge publickly declaim against Transubstantiation And that in the year 1507 Thomas More of Brockford an English-man was burnt at Norwich for preaching against the then prevailing Superstitions of the Church We behoved moreover to produce that goodly Confession presented in the year 1508 to King Vladislaus by the persecuted Waldenses in Hungary which was exactly conformable to that of the Protestant and Reformed Churches And likewise observe all that is recorded by that great Lawyer Charles du Moulin in his History of the French Monarchy on purpose to give the World to understand what reception the Doctrine and Life of those of Cabrieres and Merindol found with King Lewis XII which gave such ample satisfaction to that great Prince as that upon the report therein made to him of the same he swore that they had more goodness and worth in them than himself and all his subjects besides Finally we behov'd in like manner for the honour of that incomparable Monarch to add how that after the example of Philip the Fair one of his Predecessors he quell'd the sauciness and petulancy of Julius II who had excommunicated him having assembled a Council at Pisa in order to the reforming of the Church both in its Head and Members and caused batter the Golden Species with this Inscription PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN C A D. I will utterly destroy the name of Babylon and had not injurious Death suddenly snatch'd him away he had undoubtedly put an happy essay to a thorow Reformation But enough of that we being now arrived at Anno 1517. MArtin Luther together with those his Contemporaries whom God raised up for the same work did in this year strike that great blow which did so mightily shake the Papal Power and restore to Soveraign Princes who heretofore trembled under the Censures of Rome that lawful though controll'd Authority which they hold of none but God himself and this was so marvellous that after that time the greatest part of Germany the
Thummim that is to say to the Light of the Old Testament and to the Perfection of the New which shall conduct you to Him who liveth for ever and ever and to JESUS the Mediator of the New-Covenant whose Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel What Joy when God shall no more be as a Barbarian to you and they shall no more bespeak you in Latine a Language which the greatest part of you understand not yea a sign of Wrath threatened by God to his People as is recorded by the Apostle Paul in that excellent Chapter 1 Cor. 14. which may suffice wholly to subvert such a monstruous and faulty procedure With what abhorrency will ye then loath that cursed Tradition of Men which like that of the Pharisees taxed by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel hath disannulled the Cōmandment of God Then shall ye soon acknowledg that from the beginning it was not so and that all those humane Observances bred in the night of Errour and Ignorance which are either taught or practised by you have not the least affinity with the simplicity and purity of the Ancient Christian Religion Herein the ensuing Treatise will be greatly subservient and advantagious to you which doth by way of Compend or Breviary present you with a true account of the Rise and Progress of so many fatal and unhappy Innovations to the end that ye may perceive and avouch that how specious soever they be yet there is not any thing more base and despicable But briefly if ye carefully traverse the Will and Testament of your Heavenly Father namely the holy Scriptures ye shall easily know and acknowledge how widely ye have deviated from that Canon of Truth besides or against which if a very Angel from Heaven should gospel unto you he ought to be with you accursed For this reason if ye will be perswaded to rank and enter your selves unto the society of those who wholly and precisely adhere thereunto owning and using it for the only Compass whereby they regulate both matters of Faith and the order of Divine Worship ye shall undoubtedly be constrained to say with the Patriarch Jacob Surely the Lord is in this place and we knew it not How dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God! this is the Gate of Heaven may our feet stand within thy Gates O Jerusalem As for your Believers whom God hath vouchsafed to congregate already into the Sheep-fold of the Lord Jesus ratifie the truth and purity of that Doctrine which ye profess with holiness and integrity of life that those who obey not the Word may be won without the Word by your truly Christian Conversation Make it appear to them that ye are no enemies to good works which ye are wrongfully charged with since we teach that those are the products of the Holy Ghost by those God is glorified by those our neighbours are edified and those be infallible marks and testimonies of our Election and the way leading to the Kingdome of Heaven If we thus fruitfully trade the Talent received from the bounteous liberality of God our Soveraign Master he will superadd many more and crown in us the first fruits of our new graces and blessings and because he is faithful who also hath so promised will another day own and remunerate them with all his Heavenly Glory and the inexpressible Joyes of a blessed Immortality and that upon the account not of any merit of condignity but purely a compact of grace and mercy since of a truth as the ways of sin is death as the great Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles hath taught us so the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now To the Father who hath from all Eternity appointed so great and glorious a Salvation for us in his Son To the Son who hath with his precious Blood merited and procured that Salvation And to the Holy Ghost who applieth the same sealing us up thereunto and giving us thereof infallible assurances To those Three glorious Persons of the thrice-holy and sacred Trinity one onely true God blessed for ever be Praise Honour and Glory Power Dominion and Kingdom henceforth even from everlasting to everlasting Amen Come Lord Jesus come Amen 1 Cor. 3. 12 13. If any man build on this Foundation Gold Silver Precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble every man's Work shall be made manifest for the Day shall declare it c. Tertullian in his Apologie for Christians chap. 6. TEll me where is your Religion where is that Reverence which is due from you to your Fathers whom ye are become so exceedingly unlike to in your habit in your course of life in your manners in your opinions and finally in your language Ye still applaud Antiquity and yet daily engross Novelties thus whilst ye as much as possibly ye can deviate from the laudable Institutions of your Ancestors ye plainly discover that of the things by them established ye retain only that which is of no value forasmuch as ye reject that which is A TREATISE OF Ancient Ceremonies THe desire of being inform'd by what means and degrees the Christian Religion is become degenerate from its ancient purity what Ceremonies have been introduc'd into it and upon what Foundations those have been raised wherein all the Romish Religion doth at this day consist is a piece of curiosity not less fruitfull than delightfull In pursuit of which setting aside many and divers particulars litigious Controversies fabulous Narratives and the vanity of spurious Books our purpose is to abridge and by way of succinct memorial to represent according to the genuine truth of History the original of the prime Ceremonies whic◠have been bred and broached from tim◠to time successively especially till abou◠six hundred years after the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ for from that tim◠forwards Superstition driving on with a ful◠Sail did so quickly and withall so generally spread it self that scarcely was there discernable the least tract of true Christianity When those grand Architects and Master-builders whom God had singled out to the Apostleship had built the Sanctuary upon that only Foundation and chief Corner-Stone Christ there was not in the whole Fabrick Bar nor Buckle which did not exactly correspond to the pattern shewed them from the Heavenly Mount The Declaration of the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all Men Worshipping of Him through one only Mediator Baptizing with Water unto the Remission of Sin Communicating in commemoration of the Lord's death under the two Signs of Bread and Wine singing of Hymns and Psalms of thanksgiving Reading of the Holy Scriptures in a known tongue c. was all the Ancient Religion Then was acknowledged no object of adoration other then God nor Intercessor than Christ nor Expiatory Sacrifice than that of his Death nor Justification other than through Faith There was not a word then of an Altar at the
A HISTORY OF ANTIENT CEREMONIES CONTAINING An Account â—f their Rise and Growth their first Entrance into the Church and their gradual Advancement to Superstition therein Written originally in French but now for general information and benefit faithfully translated into English The Second Impression Corrected the first being 1668. Mark 7. v. 7 8 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men for laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. He said likewise unto them Full well do ye frustrate the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own Tradition London Printed in the Year 1669. THE TRANSLATOR to the READER THe Degeneracy of the Church Christian Reader from that Faith which was by the Apostles delivered to the Saints by Christ himself to the Apostles and by God the Father to Christ is matter of sad and serious but seasonable speculation The Primitive Church was by reason of her more immediate Conjunction with the Sun of Righteousness a burning and shining Light but alas How is the Noble Vine become a Degenerate Plant yielding instead of the Clusters of Canaan the wild Grapes of Gomorrah What Tares have there been sown in God's Enclosure What Chaff mixt with his Wheat What store of Wood Hay and Stubble in stead of Gold Silver and precious Stones in his Sanctuary How is Christs Body Mystical become an Ichabod This burning and shining Light becoming successively ever after the first Century and Age of the Church for the space of fourteen hundred years downwards either 1. decayed and remitted cool'd or clouded the Light of Truth eclipsed with its common Bushel Ignorance the heat of Zeal rebated into its ordinary Quench-coal sinful Neutrality and Luke-warmness Or 2. divided and that with no lesse cruelty towards Christs Mystical Body than was used towards the Baptist's natural one she frequently shining when she did not burn or else burning when she did not shine Light and Heat Truth and Zeal very rarely concurring both together at least in any eminent degree in her declining state so that either her Faith was dead being without works the fruits of Zeal or else her Zeal blind being without Knowledge one degree of Faith she Sampson-like losing both sight and life in the Temple of Idols Or 3. and lastly which is worst of all depraved Light and Truth with Error and Heresie Heaâ— and Zeal with the strange Fire of Idoâ—latry and Superstition Jewish-Pagan Rites and Ceremonies the truest Marks of the False Church of Rome many or most of which my self have been an Eye-witness and Spectator of abroad both the one and the other gradually introduced into the Church and vigorously propagated even to an Universal Corruption in matter both of Doctrine and Worship therein especially since the Rise and during the Reign of Antichrist who hath not failed to joyn the Serpent with the Dragon Policy with Cruelty for that end for which very reason our Retreat and Secession from that Adulterous Church should be to speak with St. Jerome a thousand times the dearer and more precious to us and may we in conformity to a higher Oracle never say a Confederacy to her more except upon God's own terms of Accommodation Let her return unto thee but return not thou unto her till that blessed day of power whereon the jealous God zealous for his Truth and Worship raised up and animated those famous Champion-Worthies Luther and Calvin with their fellow-Reformers Wisdom's Advocates as well as Children unto a rescuing of the Truth holden so long in unrighteousness and an earnest contest for the above-named Faith which was once delivered to the Saints dictated by God's own Spirit recorded in his Word and by a continued series succession of his Servants Professors under both Testaments ever since the War was first commenced between the two Seeds without interruption owned and maintained professed preserved propagated and through his good Providence Truth 's chief Guardian happily transmitted and conveyed to us at last God having never left himself without a Witness of his Truth in the Church more then of his Power in the World which they polished and refined and for the hand of the Lord was with them recovered to a considerable degree of primitive light and lustre resolving all into original Authority the Law and the Testimony Howbeit our Adversaries of the Romish Church do ignorantly or insolently charge the Reformed Religion with Enthusiastick Novelty as being of an hundred and fifty years date and of yester-day calculating its Rise by its Resurrection the Sun-rising by a Sun-shine as if its Reformers were its Authours and they Founders where they were only Repairers Whereas themselves do in the mean time like the Gibeonites under colour of the rags and tatters of their superstitious Ceremonies and the dry and mouldy Bread of their corrupt Doctrines pretend to be come from far as if the Antient of Dayes were the Parent of their novel and spurious Brat but we who have consulted the mouth of the Eternal God have not so learned Christ being informed and ascertained by the only Infallible One that how specious plausible to flesh and blood soever their Religion be it being ever as I have observed fuller of carnal and meritricious Allurement than of Argument yet from the beginning it was not so Now Reader being that this ensuing Treatise dedicated under its first Edition by its Anonymus but judicious and sober learned Author to King Charles the First of blessed Memory and under the last with Additions by another very good hand to King Charles the Second our present Soveraign comprehendeth a brief Historical Account of the whole more especially of the Rise and Growth of Church-Rites and Ceremonies their first Introduction into the Church and their gradual propagation and advancement to Superstition in it of the witnesses of Truth all along that dark and tedious Interval of about fourteen hundred years under the greatest Defection Superstition and Torrid Zone of Antichristian Persecution namely Fathers Councils Confessors Martyrs and other pious Zealots and Votaries valiant for the Truth all which died in the Faith and many of them for it the Names and successful Endeavours of the first Reformers those Trees of Righteousness whereby the Waters of the Sanctuary imbittered with Romish Wormwood Revel 8. 11. were sweetned and many other particulars specified in the useful and fruitful Preface prefixed to the Treatise from which I have onely lopt off what I judged to be more luxuriant and superfluous at the beginning of it to which I refer thee so that what is contained in the Writings of Fathers and other Church-Histories as those of Sozomen Eusebius Epiphanius the Magdenburgian Centuriators c. at large is here represented by way of short Compend and Breviary I therefore conceiving the Translation of the same into our Vernacular Tongue a thing more recreative than laborious to be well worthy of my more spare-hours and the perusal thereof
demolishing of the Pantheon they have repaired it under another name and so far are they from christianizing of Pagans that they have paganized Christians It were an easie matter might we here expatiate to make those things more fully and exactly to appear as likewise how that many even great and learned persons in the Church of Rome do unanimously accord in the case and having lost all shame do glory in this same Mymmick and Apish substitution but what hath been said may suffice as it were by the way plainly enough to discover them Like-as Pagan Idolatry and Superstition hath been the cause of such a prodigious extravagancy we might likewise with no small probability assert that the Followers of Marcion Arrius Nestorius Eutiches and other Hereticks who marr'd or destroyed the Orthodox Doctrine concerning the Humanity of Jesus Christ were the Authors or Abettors of Transubstantiation and those that made way for the entrance of that gross opinion which is a stone of stumbling both to Jews and Mahometans and the main obstacle that forestalls their closure with the Truth of the Gospel witness on that behalf the famous Averrhoes who said He never found any Religion more absurd than that of those who pretend to make their own God and then to eat him This is the reason why thenceforth taking up a resolution he cryes out I would sooner chuse to die and that my soul might be with the Philosophers than to have any communion with the Christian Communion Whereunto may well be added what is reported by Seiur de Boulaye le Goux in his Travels namely that himself and his companions all Christians being by the Turks immur'd in some certain Prison in Natolia suffered many affronts and injuries from them who unto the rest super added this as the severest of all that they were the Disciples and Worshippers of Mange Dieu the Breaden God These many tumultuary Revolutions and fearful Disturbances that befel the Church which shall be noted hereafter should not notwithstanding scandalize the Faithful this being no other than what was foretold and we know what that dreadful Comination of our Lord is touching the removing of the Candlestick out of his place in those Churches which did not continue in their first works and that of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans whom considering as proselyted from Gentilisme and upon that account calling them the Branches of a wild Olive-tree who were transplanted and ingraffed into the genuine and true Olive namely JESUS CHRIST descended of the Jews according to the flesh in whom all the Promises were made to the Fathers He declares unto them that in case they should through supercilious pride and ambition magnifie and over-advance themselves above the native branches who for their sakes were broken off they might justly expect the like entertainment and non-indulgence But that which is yet more considerable is the grand Apostacy and defection which the Spirit of God has advertised us should happen under the manifestation of the Man of Sin having been pleased in divers places to notifie to us both the time of his Rise and the place of his Residence the colour of his Apparel the number of his Name the nature of his Doctrine even to the very least Circumstances which may any wise tend to a particular designation of him to the end that he might be discerned when exhibited and fellowship with him shunned as being of all things in the world the most pestilential St. Paul informs us that in his time the Mystery of Iniquity should begin to work and that that which should hinder his manifestation should be the then prevailing Power in the Earth upon whose ruines the Kingdom of Antichrist should be erected And it is very probable that this was the main Reason why the primitive Christians ever were so importunate in their prayers to God for the preservation of the Roman Empire as wisely foreseeing that the destruction and overthrow thereof would produce a lamentable revolution in the Church and the revelation of that Man of Sin whereof without all doubt they had some previous advertisement given them by the Apostle â—â—r in the same Chapter where that Propâ—ecy is contained he bespeaks them thus Yâ— know what withholdeth c. and remember you not that when I was yet with you I told ye these things Where out of a holy prudence he expresseth himself in a covert manner left otherwise he might expose himself to the rancour and malice both of Potentates and People who were already but too much fomented and incensed into an opposition to the Faithful This is the very perswasion of the Antient Doctours of the Church touching this matter some of whose Testimonies in regard of the importance of the subject and for justification of our own sense therein we shall here subjoyn Tertullian answering to a Question by himself propounded in the case What else is this saith he than the Roman Empire whose Apostate-party dispersing themselves into ten several Kingdoms shall gain Followers to Antichrist and then shall that Wicked be revealed St. Jerome expresseth himself thus Antichrist shall not appeaâ— till the Roman Empire be destroyed and the Nations revolt from it that which St. Paul durst not speak openly for fear lest by so doing he might have accelerated upon the Church a Persecution which was then but newly hatched St. Chrysostome gives the same reason for it For saith he as long as the dread of that great Empire shall continue no person will with his good will submit himself to Antichrist but when that shall be once overthrown he shall possess himself of the vacant Empire and usurp Dominion over both God and man Furthermore That is well worthy of our consideration which the beloved Disciple of our Lord teacheth us in his first general Epistle namely that in the last time for thus he describes the Gospel-Oeconomy since we ought not to expect any other in which they had learn't that Antich should appear there were already many Antichrists and such in effect were Ebion and Cerinthus who taught that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God nor co-essential with the Father those would have destroyed his Divinity and he who should by way of eminency bear the name of Antichrist being as the same Apostle teacheth guided by the very self-same spirit of impiety and error should endeavour what in him lies the ruine of the truth of his Humanity the glory of his Royalty the dignity of his Priesthood and the excellency of his Prophecy and indeed what less can be said of him who is represented to us as the person that should oppose himself to all that is called God or is worshipped and that even to the being seated in the Temple of God that is to say according as all the Fathers do interpret it the Church of Christ which may give us to understand according to the dialect of Holy Scripture that he
shall therein preside and exercise a Soveraign and Absolute Dominion demeaning himself as if he were God But let us see how the great and famous Lights of Antiquity have expressed themselves in reference hereunto behold how S. Chrysostom speaks in the Temple of God not that which is in Jerusalem but in the Temple of the Churches And Theodoret more particularly The Apostle calls the Temple of God the Churches wherein Antichrist shall possess himself of the first and chief place commanding that he be therein acknowledged for a God But S. Augustin instrusts us herein yet farther Shall his seat be saith he upon the ruines of the Temple of Solomon or rather shall it not be in the Church for the Apostle would never have called the Temple of God the Temple of a Devil and therfore some conceive Antichrist to be a Prince with a great company of attendants and judge that it were more proper to pronounce in the Latin as it is in the Greek into the Temple of God and not in the Temple of God in that he shal be seated as if himself were the Temple of God himself the Church What will this be other then to expel our Lord Jesus Christ his Chair and to deny that he is come in the flesh to be King and Head of the Church to vilify his Priesthood and to deride his sacred Doctrine with a no less then Diabolical Impudency This moreover should be a sign of his coming namely that ten Kings shall begin to reign at the same time having all one and the same Counsel and shall give their Power and Authority to the Apocalyptick Beast which is represented to us drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus and in all probability it is not without some special import that the Holy Ghost doth so plainly distinguish the Witnesses of the Truth into two Bands but that we are to understand by the one those whose blood was shed under the Pagan Emperours by the other those whose blood should be in like manner spilt and poured out under the Tyranical Reign of the grand Enemy of Jesus Christ. His Residence is also noted to be in the great City scituated upon seven Mountains which in St. John's time reigned over the Kings of the Earth which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified in the person of his members and spiritual Babylon which God exhorts his People to come out of lest being partakers of her sins they might likewise receive of her plagues We are informed also that that great Whore should be arrayed with Purple and Scarlet and deck'd with Gold and precious stones having upon her head a name written MYSTERY whereby is insinuated to us that there should be nothing in her but what is altogether secret and mysterious or at least pretended to be such The number of his name 666. is another Riddle in the Mystery of Iniquity which we leave to be read by any that list to undertake it whatever the interpretation of it be whether what Irenaeus others gather from the numeral value and signification of the Greek Characters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latine or somewhat else Finally This Mother of Fornications is represented to us having in her hand a Golden Cup full of Abominations and filthiness of her Fornication for our further instruction namely that she should propound and obtrude such Doctrines as carried with them some outward decorum a gilded and specious outside and of such an enchanting quality and influence as that all the Kings and People in the Earth shall run after her to drink of this her envenomed Cup And that which obliegeth us to stand more strictly upon our guard is Jesus Christ's prediction that many should come in his Name and say Lo here is Christ or lo there is Christ but that we should not believe it that those Impostors should aspire to teach in his Name and make ostentation of their extraordinary gifts mock-miracles and Exorcisms in casting out of Devils by his Authority to whom notwithstanding he should infallibly say to their everlasting confusion in that great day whereon he is to judg the quick and the dead I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity But behold an Advertisement well-worthy of our most serious consideration which the Spirit of God hath given us in these terms Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving themselves up to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils speaking lies in hypocrisie having their consciences cauterized forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created for them which believe and know the Truth to be received with thanksgiving Henceforth a Believer should be greatly deficient to his duty should he not narrowly examine all those Circumstances and Marks of that grand Apostacy and Defection whereof God hath given so accurate and exact an enumeration and arm himself with matter both of Caution â—nd Confidence where-ever he shall chance to meet with them resolving to shun the company of all that bear those Marks in their foreheads or bear any cursed conformity thereunto Christians as many of you as embrace the Faith of a stranger if ye belong indeed to the Flock of the Lord Jesus hearken to the Voice of that good Shepherd and know that his Prophetick Spirit hath not declared those things unto us in vain take occasion from hence to glorifie God who hath made known unto us his Counsels in his Word wherein whatsoever is contained was written for our instruction that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope There be who conceal the truth of those Oracles of God fomenting in you malicious prejudices against such as do in strictness adhere thereunto They tell you that the Word of the living God is no more than a dead letter whereas it is no less than the very Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth that it is obscure notwithstanding what the Royal Prophet hath taught us namely that it is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our paths and that Man after God's own heart hath employed the greatest part of his Divine Hymns in magnifying of those Celestial Rayes and that Admirable Splendour which is universally refulgent in all its parts They presume moreover to taxit of Imperfection and Insufficiency notwithstanding those glorious surpassing Elogies given it by the great Apostle of the Gentiles S. Paul namely that it is inspired of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished to every good workâ— They alledge that it is not the common peoples part to reade it albeit our Lord Jesus Christ hath said in express terms Search diligently the Scriptures