the promises, invitations, warnings, and threats of God in Scripture needless or of no effect: some being absolutely elected and the rest reprobated, what then is there for man to do? Is not this a ground for sinners to be presumptuous or despair? And wherefore, then, do the priests preach or pray, and the people pay? See also chap. x., sec. 4. Fifth, Ibid., Chap. v., sec. 4.-"That His determinate counsel extendeth itself even to the first Fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission." This is like the Third, and still argues as if God had ordained it so to be, and so renders Him a hard master, and even more cruel than the worst tyrants, to punish men for that which they cannot avoid. Sixth, Chap. vi., page 8, sec. 5.-"This corruption of nature during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated;" and to the same purpose, chap. xiii., sec. 2, contrary to 1 Cor. i. 2, "To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus ;" and chap. vi., page 11, "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," &c.; "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thess. iv. 3. And 1 Jno. i. 7, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' Seventh, Chap. viii., page 9, sec. 8.-"To all those for whom Christ has purchased redemption, He doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same." This implies that Christ hath not purchased redemption for all men, whereas "He tasted death for every man," Heb. ii. 9; and "He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world."-1 Jno. ii. 2. Eighth, Chap. x., page 10, sec. 4.-"Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet, not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither do nor can come unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved." This still lays the fault upon God, and renders the offer of the Gospel a mere mockery. Ninth, Chap. xxiii., page 15, sec. 2.—That an "oath is warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament, as well as under the Old," whereas the Word of God saith, Matt. v. 34, "Swear not at all;" and the apostle James, "But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath."-James v. 12. And both Christ and His apostle enjoined only, "Yea, nay; yea, nay; for whatsoever is more than these," said Christ, "cometh of evil." Tenth, Chap. xxxi., page 19, sec. 1.-That the "souls of the righteous being then," viz., after death, "made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens," which smells too rank of purgatory for any Protestant to hold, as implying a cleansing or making perfect after death; whereas that must be done before, if ever, according to Christ's words, Matt. v. 48, "Be ye therefore perfect," &c.; in the present tense, not the future, and contrary to Jno. viii. 21, "And shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot come." Many other things I could instance worthy of detection and correction in this Confession of Faith, and also in that called "The Discipline of their Churches;" but the said Confession hath been more particularly examined and answered by one Parker, as also of later times by George Keith, in his book entitled The Presbyterian and Independent Visible Churches in New England brought to the Test and Examined, which so clearly confutes many of their doctrines, that though Cotton Mather, &c., wrote a pretended reply to it, yet they could never make them good, or according to Scripture. Pages 88, 89, &c.-He reckons up many sins and evils that have provoked the Lord to bring His judgments on New England, as a great and visible decay of the power of godliness, pride, contention, breach of the Second Commandment, saying, "Men have set up their thresholds by God's threshold, and their posts by His post; Quakers are false worshippers;" but tells not wherein, which therefore I charge him to do; for if they that worship God in spirit and truth, according to Jno. iv., are false worshippers, I know not who are true. But this, of setting their posts by God's post, &c., is but their old story, when they put our Friends to death, when it was they themselves did so, by intrench ing on His prerogative of the conscience. And to resume it is the wrong way to appease Divine vengeance; and among all the rest of the evils he reckons up, as "oaths, Sabbath-breaking, family duties, inordinate passions, intemperance, want of truth, inordinate affections, oppression, a worldly spirit, opposition to the work of reformation, want of a public spirit, and sins against the Gospel," he does not mention that of persecution, which to be sure is none of the least; and the only remedy for them he sets down was but the renewing of their covenant, which signifies little while the heart is the same. Book VI., pages 73, 74.-He tells of a maid that was bewitched or possesssed, that when a "Quaker's book was brought her, she could quietly read whole pages of it, only the names God and Christ she still skipped over, being unable to pronounce them, except sometimes stammeringly; but a book against Quakerism they would not allow her to meddle with," as if they, the witches or evil spirits, liked the Quakers' books better, or that they were more favourable to them than such as were against them, saying, "Such books as it might have been profitable and edifying for her to read, and especially her Catechism, if she did but offer to read a line in them, she would be cast into hideous convulsions, and be tossed about the house like a foot-ball;" yet to his own confutation, a little lower, chap. i., page 74, he says, "A certain prayer-book being brought her, she not only could read it very well, but also did read a large part of it over, calling it her Bible, and putting a more than ordinary respect upon it; if she were going into her tortures, at the tender of this book she would recover herself to read it; only when she came to the Lord's Prayer, she would have her eyes put out so that she must turn over a new leaf, and then she could read again." Yea, chap. ii., he tells how, "entering into a closet, she sat reading of the Bible and other good books for a good part of the afternoon." So that her reading a Quaker's book argues no more against the Truth, or soundness of it, than it does against their own Prayer-book, or even the Bible itself, and only shows his envy against the Quakers and their books, by suggesting it, which he confesses himself, "there might be a snare in it." Book II., chap. i., ii., page 64.—He says "the people of New England are, to this hour, full of doubts about the steps which were taken," viz., as to the executing of the witches, "whether they did not kill some of their own side," that were innocent, I suppose he means; and Book VI., chap i., page 80, he observes, "In the prosecution of these affairs, that there was in the justices, judges, and others concerned, a conscientious endeavour to do the thing that was right; and to that end they consulted the precedents of former times, and precepts laid down by learned writers about witchcraft." And chap. i., page 82, "Fearing they had gone too far before, it was thought safer to underdo than overdo, especially in matters capital, where what is once completed cannot be retrieved." Obs. Here were great doubts, fears, &c., concerning the putting of these witches to death; but where were any such doubts, fears, or conscientious concerns as to our Friends, in putting them to death, lest they should "overdo it or go too far in matters capital"? Or, what precedents or precepts of former times, laid down by learned writers about persecution, did they consult either in the Bible or Book of Martyrs, except the worst precedents they could find of heathens and Papists against martyrs; and not the precepts of God, Christ, the prophets and apostles against it, in the sufferers' behalf, and against persecution? Great caution about witches lest any should suffer wrongfully, which I do not discommend in that case; but where does any such appear in relation to our Friends, called Quakers, lest they should be put to death wrongfully, though on a higher, viz., a religious account, or any doubts to this hour about the steps taken with them, in putting them to death? No, no, little enough of that; but as to the other, I may apply that verse of John Cotton's concerning the ceremonial Puritans, for it seems there were two sorts in those days: "His tender conscience makes his fleshly heart Book VI., chap. i., page 72.-When a notorious witch "had confessed all," as he says, "she was heard to tell the devil she had; however, to make all clear, the Court appointed five or six physicians to examine her very strictly, whether she were no way crazed in her intellectuals; divers hours did they spend with her, and divers days passed between her being arraigned and condemned," so cautious and tender were they now to witches; yet, Book VII., chap. i., page 23, accuses our Friends, that they put to death, with being madmen, and with frenzy; but wherein did it appear by any word or action of theirs, or what caution had they, or did they use to try them, as to that, whether they were so or not? No, no, no such thing. "Hang them" (said their Priest Wilson, that he commends so much) out of the way, right or wrong, hand over head, without any more ado, and without fear or wit, though never to be retrieved; yet this Cotton Mather to his own confutation, and to show how little credit there is in what he says, as to Friends being madmen, &c., Book II., chap. i., page 1, he represents the rulers of New England as mad, and says they were "wise men whom that spirit of oppression betrayed not into this madness;" and to be sure they were more likely to be mad, as their actions bespeak, than our Friends whom they put to death, or else they would never have done as they did, if they had been in their right senses, when the whole Scriptures, the martyrs, and several admonitions from among themselves were against it, and would have persuaded them to the contrary had they had any remorse or tenderness left; and all they could expect to get by it was the wrath of God, abhorrence of good men, and Divine vengeance, which hath followed them ever since; and I dare leave it to any that are not "betrayed into that madness," as he says, viz., of oppression or envy, to judge by the inhuman actions of the one, and innocent behaviour of the other, who were most likely to be mad, the harmless sufferers or their cruel persecutors. Book VII., chap. i.-He gives a character of their churchmembers, by telling the "temptations," as he calls them, "with which the Churches of New England have been exercised;" which shows the differences that have been amongst them, after a strange manner, and about the smallest matters, as "the re |