To His Highness Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of AND To the Right Honorable, The Council of State. SIRS, I F the Higheft himself shall efta. Palm 87.5. blifh Zion, there is encouragement, fufficient and abundant for You his Servants rejoycingly to ferve him,in the countenancing of his Truth, and contending with the men of this Generation for the Faith once given unto the Saints, by the moft proper means and methods which the Lord of lords in his wifdom hath directed, and fhall lead you unto. The Liberty proclaimed to Godly-Gofpel-Preachers, and your foftering of Orthodox Paftors and Teachers, will much conduce, by the Spirit of Chrifts mouth, to the confumption of the Man of Sin; and what abuse foever is made of the Prefs for the fpreading of Anti-Scriptural and Antichriftian Errors, yet it needeth not to be feared, while Pulpits and Preffes are open (through Your Highness and Honors favors) for a Teftimony against them, but that God will confound their Language, who by false and perverfe Interpretations of the Scriptures, would feduce the mindes of the fimple, into an expectation of nothing but Immédiate Raptures and Revelations. Some indeed cry up nothing but Clublaw against the men, called Quakers, and can give no other measure then their Prelatical Fathers to those that diffented from them But by Your Indulgence and Forbearance of Saints erring and otherwise minded, many have confcientiously made enquiry after thofe Truths which lay hid, or were defaced; and have the more heartily embraced them, and do hold them fast,after Scripture-conviction. And how eyer ever the Men, I deal with, for the present do debase the Scriptures, and decry the Miniftery, Churches, all New Teftament external Worfhip, and whatsoever beareth the ftamp of Divine Authority, as not to be found among us, yet by Your Lenity and Gentleness exercised towards them (while You efpoufe, or patronize none of their Errors) it may be firmly expected that the Elect (fuppofing fuch among them) fhall be reduced: And as for others that are evil men and feducers (from that perverfe Principle of their Self-adoring Light) they fhall wax worfe and worse, and as the madness of some is evident, fo fhall the folly of other be made manifeft avoid to all who are not bewitched with their Tim.3.9. Spiritual forceries. MY LORDS, Let but the Saints, and the Churches of Saints,according to Scriptureevidence, be protected and cherished (as) You have graciously begun) and the Officeminiftery will foon be known, fetled and eftablished. Let every ftumbling-block, as speedily and fafely as lyeth within Your Power, be removed from the way of the blinde, b 2 blinde, and occasion cut off from them that feek occafion, and ere long the Lord himfelf will rebuke them to filence, that they shall neither talk nor write so presumptuoufly,nor fhall arrogancy come out of their Prov.12.19. mouth. The lip of truth jhall be established for ever : but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Let Learning be advanced among pious men (for God hath his Wits, and his Learned ones) and through the fanctified Improvement thereof, Ignorance (its froward enemy) will creep into corners, as darkness vanisheth before the light.Some of these men * Lip of truth begin to appeal unto the Consciences of opened, by the Learned, for Idioms and propriety of fpeech, in Hebrew and Greek, with the Docency pleaded rick dialect: they will give us leave then to Epiftle, with make ufe of our English dialect alfo, and vered Clergy. fpeak vulgarly, while we think as the Phimac unvail'd, lofopher. Our contentions with them are not about p, q, tu,or rù,or Tum, pro dris & focis,for the lamp & life of our Religion, the Rule of the Holy Scriptures, the Glory of the Blessed Trinity, the peculiarnefs of the Covenant of Grace; the fole matter of our Juftification before God, the continu Tho. Lawful, Pige 13. by Tho, Speeds his Guilty co разе 69. * ance |