N00442:49
Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which…
Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which are most exposed unto assaults, from the modern teachers of the misled Quakers. : In a letter, which impartially discovers the manifold heresies and blasphemies, and the strong delusions of even the most refined Quakerism; and thereupon demonstrates the truth of those principles and assertions, which are most opposite thereunto. : With just reflections upon the extreme ignorance and wickedness, of George Keith, who is the seducer that now most ravines upon the churches in this wilderness. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; A character of the ring-leaders among the Quakers. ; [Four lines from Timothy]Little flocks guarded against grievous wolves. An address unto those parts of New-England which are most exposed unto assaults, from the modern teachers of the misled Quakers. : In a letter, which impartially discovers the manifold haeresies and blasphemies, and the strong delusions of even the most refined Quakerism; and thereupon demonstrates the truth of those principles and assertions, which are most opposite thereunto. : With just reflections upon the extream ignorance and wickedness, of George Keith, who is the seducer that now most ravines upon the churches in this wilderness. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; A character of the ring-leaders among the Quakers. ; [Four lines from Timothy]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1691
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.
A Person that pretends the Instruction of Souls, in the only way of Life, and yet is full of shameful Self-contradictions in his Instructions, is one, from whom all that are concerned for their Souls are to Turn away.
But such a Person is George Keith.
Verity is a thing marvellously Consistent with it self; where you see Inconsistencies, you may suspect a cheat is intended for you; now Keith has good store of them. Among these, I will not insist upon this, That George Keith all over his Writings does exclaim against our Fathers ⟨p. 34⟩that lived near forty years ago, as the most hideous Murderers and Bloodsuckers in the world, and a most persecuting generation: And yet in that printed paper, which he calls A call to us▪ his words are, O unthankful Nation; ye are gone from that tenderness, sobriety, and simplicity, that was among you and your Fathers sometime ago. What? is he angry because we don't continue the Tenderness, which two pages after he styles, more Inhumane, cruel, and Barbarous, than what is in most of all sorts of mankind? But I shall confine my self to this mans more Doctrinal Contradictions. Keith and his Friends are mighty Ready to find Contradictions in other men; and will make what they can't […] Thus one D•laval, in an Appendix to a L•te Book of Keiths, raises hideous Tragedies against my self, as a self-contradicter; because, in one page of a Discourse, Entitled, The Serviceable Man, speaking of the present Generation in this Country, I say, There are Churches in it, Where we may s•e proportionably as much of God as in any sp•• of Ground which the Children of Adam walk upon. And almost thirty pages after, speaking to the Rising Generation, I do to awaken them (not Affirm, but) Enquire, Whether as they grow up, they will not give their Fathers cause (if the Dead could express themselves) to Rebuke them for their not walking in their ways? And if this be any Contradiction! Ridicula Capita! A Dutch Woman's unintelligible Babbling at one of their private