The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…

We come now to the fourth step of a Ministers¹ duty, and that is, as it relateth to those that are tainted with error, (we mean gross errors and delusions, such as this discourse runneth upon) We may consider it in these four steps, as it relateth, 1. to discovery, or trial, 2. to conviction, 3. to admonition, 4. to rejection.

We come now to the fourth step of a Ministers¹ duty, and that is, as it relateth to those that are tainted with errour, (we mean grosse errours and delusions, such as this discourse runneth upon) We may consider it in these four steps, as it relateth, 1. to discovery, or tryal, 2. to conviction, 3. to admonition, 4. to rejection.

1. 1What is a Minister's duty in reference to those that are seduced.

For the first, as the Apostle saith of men in general, 1 Tim. 5. 24. Some mens sins are open before hand, going before to judgment, and some mens follow after: So here, sometimes error discovereth it self, and there is no need of search; yet sometimes also there will be many secret objections moved and harboured against truths, which will not be avowed, though they be privately muttered; yea, sometimes corrupt teachers will endeavour the vailing and hiding of their tenets, or errors, by many shifts, even when they are studying to leaven others with their delusions. There is therefore a necessity in such a case, 1. to try what opinions are held and vented, and to discover the absurdness and grossness of them; for, many will maintain the premisses ignorantly, who will not know that such absurd conclusions do follow thereupon; It is fit therefore to lay by the names and expressions used by seducers, and to express the ⟨p. 221⟩