N00027:241
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.
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 w•y (other errors omitted) the principal heads of their doctrine, are herein only considered.
Albeit; as the Heterodoxie of the Sectaries pre-mentioned in the last Centurie, was universal, corrupting the whole body of Religion: so also Quakerism (as to the substāce therof) their geniune offspring, be in like manner a total heresie, yet both because the former is legible in many Authors, and the latter obvious from the penns and tongues of the present Dogmatists, and because the scope of this discourse is chiefely practical, the Reader may soon perceive w•y (other errors omitted) the principal heads of their doctrine, are herein onely considered.
It remaineth that all orders & persons amongst us respectively, Sanctify God according unto the prescript of Scripture, and that at such a time: in the regular exercise whereof, we may secure ourselves of a greater blessing then the adversary threatens trouble. Unto former trials of our love unto the trueth, by leaving of our country, kindred, and Fathers house, and by the sufferings of this wilderness: God in his wisdom, now addeth this of trying us by false doctrine. That this divine fatal season, appointed for the revealing of the thoughts of many hearts, through the judicial discovery of not a few (who have had a name that they lived) by their defection to heresy may amongst the rest of the Saints, be also through Grace) New-Englands manifest […] to be approved. That the evil example of the Apostasy, of formerly fellow-professors, may (as sometimes the like did with the Apostle. John 6.) bring forth so much the more zealous & luculent a confession of the Trueth. As the enmity of opposers increaseth, so the testimony of the witnesses increaseth. Though the Beast blasphemeth, the witnesses overcome. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome him, because greater is […] that is in you, then he that is in the world.