N00777:94
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.
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.
First; The Wonderful Providence of the Lord Jesus Christ, in discovering, of Secret Sinners, does plainly discover, that He Searches the most Secret Sins, in the Reins and Hearts of men. By various and curious and exquisite Methods, does the Wonderful Providence of the Lord Jesus Christ, bring about the Discovery of Secret Sinners. And those Methods of Providence do confirm This; That our Lord Jesus Christ knows the Sinners, and all their Secret Sins. Men must with some Agony of Soul, now cry out, [Psal. 90.8.] Lord, Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee, and our Secret Sin, in the Light of thy Countenance. Men may Cover their Sins a long while; but they don't prosper in their doing so: God makes a Discovery of them. Sometimes the Holy God ⟨p. 69⟩smites them with such Horror of Conscience, that as 'tis said, in Psal. 64.8. They shall make their own Tongue to fall upon themselves. An Achan is brought into such Distress and Horror of Conscience, that he shall not be able to forbear Confessing, Thus and thus have I Sinned, and thus hath my Sin found me out. And sometimes the Holy God leaves them to such horrible Scandals, that all the Neighbourhood shall with Abhorrence gaze upon them. There was an Impostor, that had bewitched the people; he seemed very pious, until God left him unto that Impiety, which made every one to say, as in Acts 8.21, 23. Thy Heart is not Right in the sight of God, I perceive thou art in the Gall of Bitterness and the Bond of Iniquity. A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing will go on, perhaps many months together, until God permits the Claws and the Teeth of a Wolf to be discerned upon him in some Scandalous Actions. The Lord Jesus Christ knew the Secret Villainies of these men, from the Beginning; but now he makes all men to know them; and when that which was done in Darkness is heard in the Light, when that which was done in Closets, is proclaimed on the House tops, Then 'tis proved, That the Lord Jesus Christ knew all along, what was done in Darkness, and in the Closets. The ⟨p. 70⟩Lord Jesus Christ says upon such occasions, as He said concerning those infamous False Prophets of Old, in