A89735:252
The heart of N-England rent at the blasphemies of the present generation. Or A…
The heart of N-England rent at the blasphemies of the present generation. Or A brief tractate, concerning the doctrine of the Quakers, demonstrating the destructive nature thereof, to religion, the churches, and the state, with consideration of the remedy against it. : Occasional satisfaction to objections, and confirmation of the contrary trueth. / By John Norton ...
Cambridge: printed by Samuel Green, 1659
Chapter 4: CHAP: 4. Of the Remedy against Heretical doctrines, and in particular, against the doct…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
That God makes use of Civil power, consequently of man: is not from his need of him, but his favour to him. Not from defect of power, but abundance of Goodness. Notwithstanding God could save his people without the assistance of man, and both could and did save them without Meroz, yet curse ye Meroz (said the Angel of the Lord) curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof, because thy came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the ⟨p. 57⟩Lord against the mighty. Judg. 5.23. If Esther seeth her opportunity, and that she is come to the Kingdom for such a time, Good. But if she altogether hold her peace, God can cause enlargement, and deliverance to arise to the Jews from another place.
That God makes use of Civil power, consequently of man: is not from his need of him, but his favour to him. Not from defect of power, but abundance of Goodness. Notwithstanding God could save his people without the assistance of man, and both could and did save them without Meroz, yet curse yee Meroz (said the Angel of the Lord) curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof, because thy came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the ⟨p. 57⟩Lord against the mighty. Judg. 5.23. If Esther seeth her opportunity, and that she is come to the Kingdom for such a time, Good. But if she altogether hold her peace, God can cause enlargement, and deliverance to arise to the Jewes from another place.
Albeit; as the Heterodoxy of the Sectaries pre-mentioned in the last Century, was universal, corrupting the whole body of Religion: so also Quakerism (as to the substance thereof) their genuine offspring, be in like manner a total heresy, yet both because the former is legible in many Authors, and the latter obvious from the pens and tongues of the present Dogmatists, and because the scope of this discourse is chiefly practical, the Reader may soon perceive way (other errors omitted) the principal heads of their doctrine, are herein only considered.