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THE RISE, SPRING AND FOUNDATION OF THE Anabaptists, Or RE-BAPTIZED of our Time.

VVritten in French by Guy de Brez, 1565. Minister of the Word, and MARTYR.

And Translated for the use of his Countrymen, by J. Sco [...]

Eccles. 1.9. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the Sun.

CAMBRIDGE: Printed, and to be Sold by Marmaduke Johnson. 1668.

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To the Reader.

AS the reviving of this Root of Bitterness in the Quaker, after its being dead above an hundred years, caused the Translation and first Impression of this small Book under another Title; so the sprouting forth of its fruits of gall and wormwood, and the issuings from this corrupt fountain of those streams which make sad the City of God, have occasioned its second Im­pression, under the Name and Title put upon it by its Author Guy de Brez: whose praise in the Churches by his labo­rious planting, and faithful watering of them by his blood, is largely set forth in the famous Book of Martyrs, the third Volume, in the Continuation of the History by Dr. Ed­ward Bulkly, pag. 37, 38, 41, 42, 43. where he is described to be not onely an eminent Witness of Christs Truth unto the death, but his Labours, Prayers and Sufferings are there re­corded to posterity; his rejoycing in God, when hands and feet were so laden with Iron Chains, as they eat through his Flesh to the very bones; his glorying in their ratling, more then if they had been Chains of Gold; his fulness of God, when shut up in the Dungeon, which for its darkness was called Brunain, where he had no more air but at one little hole, where drunkards vented their urine; even then his heart leaped for joy, provoking his wife to comfort, in that God had not onely given her a Husband who was a Minister of Christs Gospel, but to be honoured with Martyrdome; A Dignity (said he) which the Angels of Heaven are not [Page] capable of. All which declare him a more then ordinary Man of God, and how worthy of credence these Relations by him held forth are. There also is mention made of this Book, he being engaged in an holy Conflict (as the Author calleth it) against the pestilent Sect of the Anabaptists, which as Cockle mingle themselves among the good Corn.

This Translation is a small part of the Book; the rest is Doctrinal, and a solid Conviction of their Tenents: which whosoever shall intelligently reade, and compare his Rea­sons with those of our Worthies in these our dayes, he will finde that as Satan is the old Serpent, so Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. A three­fold Character he giveth of them in his Epistle to his Book: 1. That they multiplied quotations of Scripture against their true sense and meaning, to gain applause of the weak and unstable. 2. That they gloried in their specious Holiness of Conversation. 3. That they professed their readiness to suffer unto death. Of these he warneth Christs Flock scat­tered in Flanders, Brabant, &c. being his own Country. If by any thing the faithful then might be preserved from the scandal which hereby is cast upon the Gospel, and that they might be provoked to a more affectionate inquiry, and cordiall closing with the truth of Faith, and Order of the Gospel; which as then was his, so now is the weak desire of him who is

Thine in Christian duty, J. S.

THere is now in the Press, and will very shortly be ex­tant, an excellent and usefull Treatise, Entituled, The Righteous Man's Evidence for Heaven, &c. By Mr. Timothy Rogers, Minister of the Gospel.

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