N00027:111
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, teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston. Who was appointed thereunto by the order of the General Court. ; [Four lines from Revelation]
printed by Samuel Green, 1659
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.
These lying Spirits, with other like Pests, howsoever inconsiderable & despicable looked at as in themselves: yet if looked at as messengers of Divine wrath, witnesses of guilt, and impenitence instruments of penalty, and commissionated to do effectual execution, they are now represented under a formidable aspect: and become objects of great terror. God can plague Egypt with ••ce, and make locusts, worms, & grasshoppers, a matter of horror unto Judah: though there remained▪ but wounded men amongst the Chaldeans: yet should they rise up every man in his tent, & burn this City with fire. Alas tis sin that arms justice, and disarms the sinner. When there is a concurrence of delinquency and authority, the meanness of the executioner aggravates, not extenuates the anguish of the malefactor. What more formidable then a penal and vindictive-permission, of a delusion-destructive: Upon Gods willing the permission of sin, sin falleth out infallibly. Upon this antecedent Adam when all mankind was contained in that one man yet in innocency, is deceived & sinneth away, not only the Image of God from his posterity, but also sinneth mankind into the guilt of eternal death. The woman which thou gavest to be with me, gave me of the tree and I did eat. Upon a permission penal-corrective, Peter falleth as shamefully before the temptation of a poor maid, as he engaged confidently. No marvel then if upon a permission penal-vindictive foregoing, we read; and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, i. e. the Beast, whose names are not written in the book of the life of the Lamb, stain from the foundation of the world. And that Christ war••th us of the peril thereof, as such which threatens to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. The strength of false prophecy lay not in the argument of the speaker, but in the affection of the hearer. My people love ⟨p. 26⟩to have it so. Jer. 5. 32. The conjunction of a Judicial dispensation, with a pleasing error, & an itching ear, presents a sufficient reason why men otherwise rational, are intoxicated with doctrines most irreligious & irrational. Why the success of false teachers (at time) hath been such, as hath exceeded their own expectation Hence was the ground of that old saying of the Make, insulting over the peoples credulity, Si mundus vult decipt, decipiatur. If the world will be deceived, let it be deceived.