N00777:47
A warning to the flocks against wolves in sheeps clothing. Or, A faithful advice,…A warning to the flocks against wolves in sheeps cloathing. Or, A faithful advice,…
A warning to the flocks against wolves in sheeps clothing. Or, A faithful advice, from several ministers of the Gospel, in and near Boston, unto the churches of New-England, relating to the dangers that may arise from impostors, pretending to be ministers. : With a brief history of some impostors, remarkably and seasonably detected written, by one of the ministers in Boston, to assert that advice, and prevent future mischiefs. : [Five lines of Scripture texts]A warning to the flocks against wolves in sheeps cloathing. Or, A faithful advice, from several ministers of the Gospel, in and near Boston, unto the churches of New-England, relating to the dangers that may arise from impostors, pretending to be ministers. : With a brief history of some impostors, remarkably and seasonably detected written, by one of the ministers in Boston, to assert that advice, and prevent future mischiefs. : [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by B. Green and J. Allen, 1700
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Letter: Boston, 25 d. 10 m. 1699. A LETTER, Containing a Remarkable HISTORY, OF AN Impostor.
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.
but I soon observed something that made me say to some of my Intimate Friends, That I feared, he ⟨p. 32⟩would prove at last, a smutty, filthy, wanton Fellow. However, Things not being yet come to that maturity, I contented my self with calling to mind, the Rule which the Old Briton gave his Country-men, to discover whether Austin the Monk were a Man of God or no. Thought I, If this be an Honest man, he is an Humble man: If he be a Faithful Servant of Christ, he'll plainly let his Fellow Servants know what he is, what he intends, what he can do, and humbly refer himself to Them for Direction and Assistance. We found nothing of This; but though he were wholly Illiterate, and not able, even to write a little Common English. (for instance, there were Eighteen horrid false Spells, and not One point, in one very short. Note, that I received from him,) yet this proud Thraso, would in his Preaching, Ostentate skill in Latin, and in Greek, yea, and in Hebrew; But God left him to such Folly in his pride, that he frequently pronounced the Exotic Words, in a manner so ridiculous, as to render it plain, that he kn•w nothing of them: & in one of those two or three private Preachments, by which 'twas hoped, we might have some Taste of his Faculties, he was under such an Infatuation, that he would needs give some Hebrew to us; but what he gave us, might be Welsh or Irish, or the Vagabonds ⟨p. 33⟩Cant, for ought I knew; One Minister present, knew it was not in six or seven Languages, in all which himself had in various Writings Addressed the world, and others of his Hearers besides I, knew that there was no such Hebrew in the Lexicon. Who, but one Hypocritically disposed would have done so? If he were a Shaver, 'twas plain however, he was not the most Cunning in the world: In the mean time, 'twas a strange Enchantment upon the people, that they should after these things, put themselves into his Hands. But that his Humility might be the more notorious, I was presently informed, that the Blade with an Arrogance equal to his Ignorance, began to complain, That the Ministers of the Town, did not immediately Invite him, into their Pulpits; and upon his Complaints, many sinful people, (who have great cause to take no little shame unto themselves, for their causeless and shameless Iniquity) began to Defame the Ministers, with Slanderous Outcries, That they were always uncivil to Strangers;