as a sheep dumb before his shearers so we opened not our mouths. But those men like baalim being greedy for reward sold us into the hands of th[em] who loved them for the world loves his own. I would remember who come up before us as one of Jobs destroyers: God suffered such kind of beings to afflict Job— but it never entered their hearts that Job would get out of it,— all this poor man who profeses to be much of a prophet has no other dumb ass to ride only to forbid his madness when he goes up to curse Israel, and this ass not being of the same kind of Baalims, therefore the angel notwithstanding he appeared unto him he could not penetrate his understanding, sufficiently so, but what he brays out cursings instead of blessings, poor ass whoever lives to see it will see him and his rider perishing like those perished in the gainsaying of Core, or after the same condemnation. Now as for these and the rest of their company we will not presume to say that the world loves them but we presume to say that they love the world and we classify them in the error of Baalim and in the gainsaying Core, Dothan, and Abiram. Perhaps our brethren may say because we thus write that we are offended at these characters, if we are it not for a word neither because they reprove in the gate but because they have been the means of sheding innocent blood— are they not then murderers at heart? Are not their conscience’s seared as with a hot iron? We confess that we are offended, but the Saviour said, it must needs be that offences come but wo to him through whom they come, and again blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake— rejoice and be exceeding glad for greate is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Now brethren if any men ever had reason to claim this promis we are the men for we know that the world not only hates us but they speake all manner of evil against us falsely for no other reason than that we have been endeavouring to preach the gospel in its fullness of Jesus Christ. After we were bartered away by and were taken into the malitia’s camp we had all the witness we could have asked for that the world hated us, if there were priests among them [p. [3]]