A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many useful questions and cases of conscience are…A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many usefull questions and cases of conscience are…

Tis one of the greatest objections against the suppressing and punishing of Heresies, errors and Schisms. O say they, this is a persecuting of those that are godly, this is a wound to Piety, and the power of godliness. I do not deny but there may be, and is true piety in many who are somewhat infected with the leaven of false Doctrine, & live in some erroneous opinion, I dare not appropriate the name of the godly party to those who are free from any of the errors of the times: those that are truly godly may in diverse things differ in opinion, every error is not inconsistent with holiness, yet every error doth pro tanto, and proportionably, retard, hinder, and prejudge holiness, and although the Devil sow his tares among Christs wheat (I mean in the same persons as well as in the same Church) yet who will say that a field of wheat is nothing the worse of the tares, for then to what end did the enemy watch an opportunity of that malicious hostile act, to sow the tares among the wheat? 2. Dangerous and damnable errors can no otherwise consist with true grace, then dangerous and damnable sins, and this I will hold as a good rule in practical Divinity, that as the want of true piety makes a person (if tempted) apt to be infected with error, so error of judgement, if continued in, doth not only hinder growing, but makes a dangerous decreasing