[18] _The Heart of New England Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Generation._ Printed by _Samuel Green_, _Cambridge in New England_, 1659. The arguments used in this declaration are so characteristic of the spirit of the times that the following extract may be useful. The author has been demonstrating that the Quakers were heretical on various points of the faith, and that the Scriptures authorize the punishment of false believers. He continues: “But other Scriptures omitted, I shall here transcribe only two more, both of which are eminently pregnant with this truth: wherein also are cases put between the cause of God and our near relations, on purpose to provide against obstructions in this great business of religion. The first we have _Deut._ xiii. _per totum_. Relating to all times succeeding that constitution; ‘_If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shalt thine eyes pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him._’ vers. 6, 8. The second we have _Zech._ xiii. 1, 3. _Expressly relating unto the times of the Gospel. In that day_, viz.: after the Coming of the Messiah in the time of the Gospel _when the families of the tribes shall mourne Chapt._ xii. 11. _The familie of the house of David apart, & the familie of the house of Nathan apart, etc. There shall be a fountain opened_, _i. e._ the doctrine of Christ under Moses’ dispensation is compared to _a fountain vailed_, 2 Cor. iii. 13, etc. Under the Gospel dispensation to a _fountain opened_. The vail of the Temple & the ceremonial law being taken away. _And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet Prophecie, then his father & his mother that begat him, shall thrust him through, when he prophecieth._ These words [thrust him through] may be understood either of a Capital punishment judicially dispensed, or of any other smart punishment piercing though not Capital. * * * * * “Wee through grace abhorre prejudicing the liberty of conscience the least measure, and account such report of us to be a slander. And through the same grace; Wee both dread, and beare witness against, liberty of heresy, liberty to Blaspheme the Blessed Trinity, the Person and Office of Christ, the holy-Scripture, the tabernacle of God, and those that dwell in heaven. Howsoever fallaciously transformed into, and misrepresented under the plausible vizard of liberty of conscience falsely so called. We say Religion is to be perswaded with Scripture-reasons, not Civil weapons: with Arguments, not with punishments. But blasphemies immediate and heresies carried on with an high hand, and persisted in are to be suppressed with weapons and punishments; where reasons, and arguments cannot prevail.