it not for what is in them, * they need not fear what is without;" but if the heart condemn, God is greater and will condemn also. "And hence," says he, "when he heard of any books left by the Quakers in his neighbourhood, he would presently repair to the houses and obtain those venomous pamphlets from them." Answer. See how fearful they were of the spreading of Truth; but this was just like the Popish commissaries' story, &c., to stifle the books of Protestants, to hinder the light of the Gospel from spreading. But why venomous? Did they ever bite or sting you, as Cotton Mather says the serpents did? If they did, the cause must be in you again, and that not without a metaphor, as he says the stench of the brimstone was, when the devils walked about their streets; and "that the wolves barked more at him than at any other man;" he mistakes, it was they themselves were the wolves that devoured the lambs; for lambs do not use to devour wolves. And that "they would sometimes come into his congregation with their faces hideously blacked, and their garments fearfully torn, whereby the neighbours were frighted, unto the danger of their lives," as he says, "is not at all to be wondered at." So, I say, it is not likely that they should come so as to frighten any to the danger of their lives, except the cause was in them, as he says; but perhaps he means the woman that went with her face made black, as a sign of the black-pox that soon after came upon them and cut off many of them; and if they would be frighted at that, who could help it? If the prophet warn not the wicked, and he die in his iniquity, his blood will I require at thy hand, saith the Lord; but if he warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. And that it hath "been remarkable that a very sensible possession of the. devil has attended the first arrest of Quakerism on the minds of men" is but some of his old devilism, as he calls it, over again, which "it is time to leave off," if he will take his own advice; as is also the following,-"That the seducers have, with a real and

* Book of Witches, page 11,

† Ibid., pages 46 and 48.

proper witchcraft, by certain ceremonies conveyed it unto them;" which he may take home to themselves, among whom the witches and witchcraft is, and keep his devilism to himself,* which he calls such slandering and backbiting, and confesses they have been devils for; but, as Nehemiah said unto railing Sanballat, thy predecessor, "there are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thy own (evil) heart;" and I charge him to tell what are those ceremonies he tells of, or confess his falsehood and wickedness for time to come.

And for thy story of "an inhabitant of Weymouth, who, having bought certain Bibles at Boston, lodged the night following in a tavern where two Quakers lodged with him, who fell to disgracing and degrading the Bible as a dead letter, and advised him to hearken to the light within, which would sufficiently direct him to heaven; and the effect of their enchantments was," says he, "that before morning the poor man was as very a Quaker as the best of them," perhaps so too, and that "in the morning he was carrying back his Bibles to the booksellers, as books now become altogether useless, and resolved to keep no dead letter, but in the way was met by Thatcher, who, seeing the man look wild, &c., persuaded him to go aside with him, and recovered him from the error of his ways, and the man was never any more a Quaker." Answer. This story we utterly disown, that ever any Quaker went to disgrace or degrade the Bible, or persuade him to return them as useless, which we always greatly valued, and through the grace of God have made good use of them, though, as the apostle says, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life;" and therefore no enchantment, as he calls it, to advise him and all men to hearken to the light within, which is all one with the Spirit and grace which the Lord said to Paul was sufficient for him, and consequently for others, not only to direct to heaven, but to lead them thither that follow it, and give the right use and understanding of Scripture, from whom it deriveth all its verity, perspicuity, and authority, as their great Owen said. † And though Cotton * Book of Witches, page 45.

† Exercit. 2, 7, and 9, against Quakers.

Mather says, Book VII., chap. i., page 5, "That Major-general Dennison's written Irenicum," relating to their differences, "has a good spirit breathing in it;" yet he must know that the best writings, even the Scriptures themselves, are but a dead letter without the quickening of the Spirit, as the apostle says above; and yet this is not to disgrace or degrade them of their right use; nay, we have them by us as a cloud of witnesses against thee and thy generation, and in behalf of the persecuted saints and people of God in all ages, "being profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

Book IV., page 125.-He calls their college, "A river, without the streams whereof these regions would have been mere unwatered places for the devil;" and, chap. i., page 131, "that river, the streams whereof have made glad this city of God." Obs. The gross darkness and blasphemy of this man, to call or compare their unclean college for the making ministers, to that river "the streams whereof make glad the city of God," Psa. xlvi. 4, the same which is said, Rev. xxii. 1, "to proceed out of the throne of God and of the Lamb," and is indeed the water of the life of the Lamb which He gives to them that are athirst to drink freely; "the living water" that Christ spoke of, Jno. iv., which the Spirit and the bride invited "him that is athirst to come and take of the water of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17, (which none can of theirs, not being free,) and "whosoever drinketh of this water that Christ shall give him, shall never thirst" after their puddled waters of the rivers of Babylon any more, but it "shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life," Juo. iv. 14; when at the best proceeds out of their college or university but human learning, tongues and languages, which, though useful in its place, yet not of necessity to the being of a minister of Christ, nor to be gloried in as beginning at Babel; and consequently this city that he says it makes glad is but Babylon, the streams of those unclean fountains being so far from making glad the city of God, that from them have often proceeded such wickedness, cruelty,

and oppression as have made sad the city and people of God; and instead of being that river, without the streams whereof those regions would be unwatered places for the devil, they have rather watered it for the devil, yea, many times with the blood of saints and martyrs, as here in New England, so that this city that hath been watered with it hath been a bloody city, occasioned by that profane and ignorant ministry (as to the things of God) that hath proceeded from such schools and colleges for the making of ministers, and from thence spreading like locusts, as Luther called them, over the face of the earth, to the corrupting it and devouring every green thing; and have been so far from making "glad the city or church of God," that they have been one of the greatest causes of sorrow and trouble to it, and of obstacles and hinderances to the work of the Lord and a true reformation, though perhaps somewhat refined, as he pretends; yet the foundation being wrong as to the making of ministers, the building can never be right; for the Lord will choose and send forth into His vineyard whom, and how, and when He pleases, and not a tool of man's invention shall be lifted up or heard in building of this spiritual temple, which shall exceed in glory, as the latter house, the former.

Chap. ii., page 185:

"The Quakers trembling at his thunder fled,

And with Caligula resumed his bed." *

This is a poetical lie, being both for the rhyme, and neither for the reason; for they never trembled at his or any of their thunder, but stood it out and looked them in the face, though in the face of death, as the former treatise shows, much less with Caligula resumed his bed; though I have read of some of them, when in England, who would creep and hide themselves under a bed for fear of an apparitor, particularly Richard Bellingham.

Book V., chap. i., page 3.-He says, in relation to their Confession of Faith, which he sets down, that "in all the doctrinal parts of religion they have agreed entirely with the Reformed

Jon. Mitchell.

Churches of Europe;" and, chap. ii., page 4, that "he shall now give a plain and a pure Confession of their Faith, wishing the reader may now find an irresistible power of God and of grace irradiating his mind with all satisfaction in it," saying, "it is composed of things clearer than the beams of the sun;" I shall therefore, to show whether it is so agreeable, or satisfactory, or clear, examine a few things in it, being much the same with that of the Assembly of Divines, so called, at Westminster. As:

First, Chap. i., page 5, sec. 1.-"That the light, which they.call the light of nature, is not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation." Contrary to 2 Cor. xii. 9, "My grace," which is all one, "is sufficient for thee." And chap. iv. 6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." And Rom. i. 19, "That which may be known of God is manifest in them."

Second, Ibid.-"Those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased;" whereas the Lord changeth not, Mal. iii. 6, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," James i. 17; "The Lord's hand is not shortened," &c., Isa. lix. 1; "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."—Matt. xi. 27.

Third, Chap. iii., page 6, sec. 1.—“God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and uuchangeably ordain whatsoever cometh to pass ;" so that, according to them, He ordained the murderer to kill, the whoremonger to commit adultery, &c., and many other blasphemous consequences, as some of their own writers have confessed, which makes God the author of sin, &c., horrible to think on, yet plainly deduced from their principles. But I shall have occasion to touch further on this Third Article, 3 and 4, hereafter; but—

Fourth, Chap. iii., page 7.-Having spoken of God's electing some, he says, sec. 7, "The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, to pass by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath;" which renders all