generally believe him to be a deceiver, a dangerous person, and a disturber of the peace, and that therefore he ought to be put to death.

Finally, they bribed Judas Iscariot to betray him into their hands; and in that great concourse which was assembled at his trial before Pilate, (where only two of his disciples dared to come,) there was not so much as one who raised his voice against his being put to death.

By these high professors he was put to death-under great pretensions, and professions of religion, and a zeal for the support of the law and covenant which God had ordained to them as a people; making great boasts of their ancestors, and of being the children of Abraham, whilst they were doing the works of their father, the devil, and were his children.

We are assured that eleven out of the twelve of his Apostles, and many others who stood faithful to His Gospel, suffered the like from their cruel hands.

With these wicked rulers, the chief Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the learned Rabbis, terminated the Jewish dispensation.

When the spirit of this world rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, whatever they profess as to religion, or whether they make no profession at all; whether priests or levites, scribes or pharisees, or mere men of the world, it matters not, if destitute of the spirit and love of God, they persecute the Saviour of men, and his disciples the children of light: for there is an enmity existing between the spirit of the world and the spirit of God—the flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh-consequent

PREFACE.

ly the children of this world war against the children of God.

It was, by that spirit of this world and of darkness which rebels against the light, that Christ and his followers were persecuted and put to death, by the Jews first, and also by the Gentiles: for [his religion truly was, to the high professing Jews, a stumbling block, and to the wisdom of the Greeks foolishness; because the darkness which was in them, could not comprehend it.

But after the Jewish nation was dispersed, the Christian church continued to grow and increase greatly, although her sons were persecuted and slain in large numbers by the heathen nations: and death

-to them welcome death-was almost continually inflicted by the hand of man, and became to them the happy passport to an entrance into the fruition of light, and the realms of eternal glory with Him, for whose cause they had dared to die.

Thus the tribulations of those who were loyal to their Lord, whose mission to this lower world was made perfect through sufferings, were sanctified and productive of a crown of life; whilst those who were not faithful unto death, through the fear of man or love of the world, were cast off forever and denied the tree of life.

What a glorious pattern, therefore, were the early Christians in suffering for the name of Him who had given the example before them; and to which example has been added these precepts-that it is enough for the servant to be as his Master, and the disciple as his Lord. Fear not them that kill the body, and have no more that they can do ; but I will forewarn you whom

ye ought to fear, &c.; for to those who know God, and the Will of God, his fear surpasses the fear of man.

What shame and blushing, therefore, ought modern professors to take to themselves, flinching as they do, when their sufferings, whether by the hand of false brethren, or from the world, are so entirely incomparable with the sufferings of Christ and his early followers. But in process of time the Head of the Church was pleased to say it is enough, and saw meet to prove his people by the reverse of personal suffering; then persecution ceased, and ease and luxury succeeded; a soil in which the life and power of religion was less prolific and a trust and reliance on the Divine support was gradually less apparent, the love and friendship of the world began to take root in too many of the influential members of the Church; a plant which could not so well flourish under persecution.

Subsequently, for want of sufficient self-denial and true humility, the love of power increased in some of the honorable, and in time a junction with the earthly power ensued, and a disposition for greatness, and to give and receive honor one from another, began to prevail, and that honor which cometh from God and belongeth unto God, was less regarded and less inculcated, and at length profanely transferred to men.

And the title of Reverend, Right Reverend, Holy Father, and Most Holy Father, was ascribed to men -was called for and most sacrilegiously given and received by men! by vain and sinful men! to the pampering of the pride and haughtiness of man: thus shamefully robbing God of that reverence and honor only due to His Great and Holy Name. This constitutes idolatry in its legitimate form.

The sin of avarice, and love of rule, and of absolute power, took deep root in the hearts of those seekers after divine honors. And as their authority increased and became established, great and most oppressive requisitions were made upon men's consciences and estates: and the Christian discipline by which the church in its purer days had been conscientiously and faithfully governed, was now disregarded and made to give place to the will and pleasure of Popes, Bishops, and Synods.

These men, or this body of men, thus assuming divine honors, did, in their collective capacity, claim to be the Church, or body of Christ-the Holy Mother Church, and with great boldness asserted their own infallibility, and that the Church could not err—that her decrees and determinations were imperious and paramount to all former doctrines or discipline, or even to the Holy Scriptures themselves; and punished all gainsayers of their doctrines and practices, with excommunication, or imprisonment, or with death.

It is abundantly evident, that the deeper the church became involved in error, the more boldly she proclaimed her authority and infallibility. It is no less evident that an apostacy of the church has always led to persecution; and that sufferings under persecution, faithfully and patiently endured, have tended to a reformation.

The Christian exercise of the true church's labor and care towards those, who have lost their way, is Discipline. But the annoyance of honest men and women for well doing, is Persecution. The former was ordained of him who is supremely good-the latter is an abomination in the sight of God. Again, the

former is exercised in the love of God, but the latter in the hatred of the wicked One.

The advancement of any people, in moral or religious righteousness, is truly more cheering and hopeful to an honest mind, and vastly more well pleasing in the sight of God, than a retrograde course, and that without any reference to the point already arrived at.

But that body which descended from the primitive Christian church, and became degenerated, has never been wholly reformed, although divers notable attempts were made for that purpose, at different times between the third and sixteenth centuries, notwithstanding a solitary remnant of sincere believers came out and stood in a situation of detachment from it, during that period. But the regal power of the Romish church was exceedingly great-combining with, and encompassing the authorities of many earthly kingdoms and empires; and before whom, with a Pope at their head, a Huss and a Jerome, with a great number of others, fell victims to their ferocity.

Will any protestant say, that these martyrs were not raised up of God as witnesses against the ecclesiastical corruptions, because of their failure of success? Will any such presume to make that failure chargeable upon a want, on their part, of integrity or purity of intentions, or yet upon the want of a Divine commission, to testify against the atrocities of the church? For is it not a true saying, that the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church? And can there be a doubt, that the death of those unflinching and undaunted men, gave energy and resolve to those who followed after? So that their lives and sufferings are not lost, but cherished in the sympathies of all honest protestants and does not their patient indurance of