to men; in whom the Apostles, and the
Fathers, and the great middle-age Schoolmen, and the Reformers
believed, and therefore learned more and more, and taught men more
and more concerning God and the dealings of God, as time went on.

And then, when they see ignorant people running after quacks and
impostors, spirit-rappers and table-turners, St. Simonians and
Mormons, and false prophets of every kind, they will have nothing to
say but 'This people which knoweth not the law is accursed.' While
when they see anything like new truth, or new teaching from God
appear, instead of welcoming the light, and going to meet the light,
and accepting the light, they will say, 'What shall we do? For all
men will believe on him, and then the powers of this world will come
and take away our station and our order?' As if Christ could not
take better care of his Church for which he died than they can in
his stead! And so they will persecute God's servants, in the name
of God, and call upon the law to put down by force the men whom they
cannot put down by reason.

From ever falling into that state of stupid lip-belief, and outward
religion, and loss of faith in the living God: Good Lord, deliver
us.

From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy;
from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness: Good Lord,
deliver us.

From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart
and contempt of thy word and commandment: Good Lord, deliver us.

For if people ever fall into that frame of mind (as did the scribes
and Pharisees), and the good Lord do not deliver them from it, it
will surely happen to them as it is written in the Bible.

The powers of this world will come and take away their place, and
their power, and their station: but meanwhile the truth which they
think that they have stifled will rise again, for Christ, who is the
truth, will raise it again; and it shall conquer and leaven the
hearts of men till all be leavened; and while the scribes and
Pharisees shall be cast into the outer darkness of discontented and
hopeless bigotry, the kingdoms of the world, which they fancied were
the devil's dominion, shall become the kingdoms of God and of his
Christ, and be adopted into that holy and ever-growing Church, of
which it is written, that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it, for in it is the Spirit of God to lead it into all
truth.

To which blessed end may God bring us,