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but such a deceiver as Christ hath warned his people was to come upon the earth to deceive many, and, if possible, the very elect. For I confess your craft of keeping out of sight your errors, and your warm-spirited effusions, though in some things I allow more fitted to engage the eye than either the ear or understanding; yet, with the allowance I make for a young preacher, and the partiality I have to an affectionate preacher, you had nearly caught me, as one of the fools that turneth aside to the snare. But though I esteem affectionate preaching, yet, not opposed to truth; for I believe God can only be worshipped in spirit and truth, and therefore I believe not every spirit, but try them by the truth of God's word, whether they are of God with truth, or opposed to God without it. Neither will my warm attachment to old books, especially the Bible, and that old truth which was before the foundation of the world, God's choosing of his elect in Christ, to call them from the others under wrath, to believe in his name and merits for salvation, suffer me to stop long where these are denied. And if I should be such a fool as to stop and dispute with such enemies of truth, yet, I trust, never to run with such, like so many Gaderean swine, by the devil's influence, without stopping or disputing with such guides, till choked in the gulf of endless despair.
"Allow me, Sir, to caution you not to think it a light thing to fill up the judgment of God's word upon yourself, and those that hearken to your deception, as is to be seen in Mark xiii. 22, by seeking to deceive the elect of God, teaching them they are only fools who contend about election, and who are for striving to make it sure to themselves. For that, Sir, of seeking to deceive the elect of God, to make them threw themselves down from
