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Show ( 136 ) always, with great Zeal, _opp?fe~ the RanterJ & and Libertims both in then· PnnCiples and ~ra- ' aices, and have ihewed their . Z~al aga~nft ~' them both in Difputing and Pnnung agamft ' rhem' more than any People have done ; and ' have 'been a great occafion and means of ~up- ' preffing that evil Spirit in them, fo that lm_Ie ' of it hath for many Years openly_ appea~e? 1~ ' Old-England; and the fame r~nnng Sputt ~s ( greatly decaying of late Years, m th~fe Amen' can pans, and we hope, ere lo~g! 1t fhall be ~ quite gone. And let the Imparua~ JUdge~ whe' rher it can be any other thing hue Mabee, as " well as Ralhn~fs-in this I~creafe Mather, ' to charge the Crim:s _of ~he GUthy ?~on the ' Innocent, without dtlhnlbon, when u ts not?' rioufly known, both in New-England, and m ' all other places, where the People called f2..!_takerl , live, rhat they never did own any of thefe ' People, from the firft Inftant that t~ey appear d ' in any of thefe Pratlices. At}d feemg ye of the ' Presbyterian and Independent Churches of New' Engl~¥nd cannot bur ackn?wledge., that roo ma· !;· ny unlucky and unchrifhan Pralbces·have fallen ' out and have been committed by your Church .. ' Me~bers, as Whoredom, Drunkennefs, and. the ,. like, &c. Yer, if when upon y~ur firft dtfco .. very of rhefe things, ye have d1fowned rhem, ' and fufficiently cleared your felves of them, we ' are more Men, and more reafonable, than tO 'charge thefe rhingt·upon you: And whenJu: ' Jas betrayed Chrifi his Lord and Mafier, tho ' he was one of the Twelve, and numbred among them, ihould therefore this great Crime of J~das be caft upon the Eleven that were Innocent . - Or fhould the Crime of the i-nceftuous Perfon at Corinth, becaufe of him, be caft upon all oth~r 'Chn· ·c '17 > : Chrillia~s ? If ~hi~ be not equal ( as all fober Men Will fay, It IS not equal) it is no more ' eq~al, bur abominably Unjufi, to throw the ' Crtrnes of Tho. Cafe, or his Crew, upon rhe ho: nell P~o_Ple called ~akers, of whofe Society and Spint they are nor. And rhe faid Inc. Ma: ther may,. with rhe fame Impudence, charge all the abommable Herefies of the Manic bees Nico' laitans, Ebionites, and all others upon th~ Chri' ftians, becaufe all wem under that general Name 'ofChrifii4ns in rhefe days. And rhefe of Cafe's ; Crew, they call rhemfei_ves Chrillians, and fo dorh Inc. Mather, dorh tt therefore follow char ' their Crimes, on that only account fhodJd be ' charged upon him ? Let him fee h~w he can ' anf wer to rhefe things, or any of his Brethren 'or Kindred for him, in his abfence, &c. ( rec2 konmg what had befallen him for his Rafhnefs and ~oily, in fome. other Palfages of his Life ( whtch occafioned h1s abfconding) as a remark-a~ Ie Judgment of God upon him, for his Inju-tbce to the QE~akers ) and he alfo anf wers rhe S£Ory C. M. mentions in H. More-but feeing he does nor rehearfe it, neirher will I, and this Inc. Mather never anf wered, or defended himfelf in rh~t e_ver I heard, as I faid, nor made good by this hts So_n ~otto?, that is, as to rheir being @a-kers, but dif~m~utfhed, as aforefaid, by rhe name ofrhe late Smgmg and _Dancing fl!.~akerJ, which yet would not excufe hts Father inafmuch as he publilhed it as an Argument, :a make appe11r unto Inc. Ma tz!l Mankind, that the ~t1kers are under the Jlrong ther·£S DelNjiovs of Satan, as his words are, p. 345. when falfe: they were no ~akers, but deny' d by rhem as qt!)at~ now C. M. contdfes, and fo could make ap~ear no fuch thing of the ~akers, whatever it did of h¢mfe!ves ; a-nd the abovefaid di!Hnttion yields ~ r ~ (he |
