A comparison between the trve and false ministers in their calling, lives and doctrine that all who desire after the Lord may have a right discerning between the true and false, that they may truly know whom to hear and what Church to be gathered into, and wherein to have true communion with Christ, the head of his church : and also a faithful warning to the teachers and people of England / by Nicholas Knight.

Friends,

WHereas our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath fore-war∣ned of the false Christs and false Prophets that should arise before the End, &c. and say, Lo nere, and lo there is Christ, who if it were possible, should deceive the very Elect; but go not forth, for the Kingdom of Heaven was within; and the Apostle admonisheth to hearken to the Word nigh, in the Heart and in the Mouth: And accordingly, I having seen the fulfilling thereof in these our Dayes, and through Mercy have been brought to a Teacher near me, Christ Jesus revealed in me, the Hope of Glory: Wherefore in Commiseration of such as are seeking the living among the Dead, and are wandring upon the barren Mountains, where their Souls find nothing but Leanness, am I moved of the Lord, in Tenderness to their Souls Eternal Welfare, to warn them of the false Teachers and Leaders, that they follow not the blind Leaders, lest they fall into the Ditch with them: Therefore have I given a Comparison of the True Teachers with the False, who call them∣selves the Ministers of Christ, but are not, which by these following Marks and Characters may be known, that so they who are truly tender, and desire to walk in the Way of the Lord and of his Com∣mandments, may be directed therein, how to distinguish the True Doctrine of Christ and his Ministers, which is from Heaven, from the False and their Traditional Doctrine, which is from Men be∣low; considering that it is these False Teachers, who for Want of true saving Experimental Knowledge of Christ, do teach for Doctrine the Traditions of Men, and so have caused the People to err, and do keep them under Blindness, and in Ignorance of the Truth, as it is in Jesus: Wherefore desiring that People may no longer be decei∣ved, is this ensuing Treatise, in love unto their Immortal Souls, given forth, that such as are truly tender, and fear the Lord, may be brought to consider their Wayes, and see if they be according to the Truth, and examine whether in the Spirit and in the Truth they worship the Lord or not, learning to deny themselves, and take up their daily Cross, to follow Christ, whose Disciples they do profess to be, that they may be careful to be his true Followers, not in Shew

only, but in deed, having put on Jesus Christ, and so are cloathed with his Righteousness from within (the King's Daughter being all glorious within) that so they may be found truly in the Way of Christ, separated from Sinners, and called out of Babylon, from hearkning after the False Teachers, to be gathered into the Assem∣bly of the Saints in light, and there to be taught of God, as all his People are and shall be, from the least to the greatest, and which all must witness, before they can truly know God, and can be able rightly to speak of God and of his Truth and Wayes, that so all who fear the Lord may consider how they hear, and what they hear, that they be not deceived, but that they may be able to come more and more to the Knowledge of the Truth, as they wait upon the Lord in the Spirit, which is promised to such, to lead them into all Truth, whereby their Feet may be guided in the Way of Peace, so may come to a cer∣tain experimental Knowledge of God and Christ, and of his Spirit revealed and witnessed in them, and so come to have the Witness of the Spirit, that they are the Children of God, and the redeemed of the Lord, out of the World, its Wayes and vain Customs, and from the false Worships thereof, to come into the Obedience of the Truth, and so may be saved, and have Eternal Life, which is had in the true Knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, that whoso truly believe in him, should not perish, but have Everlasting Life; which that all may came truly to know, and wait in the Way thereof, is the Desire of my Soul, who daily prayes unto the Lord, for the Gathering in of the other Sheep, which are not of this Fold, that so only the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ may be exalted over the whole Earth, and his People may be the Praise thereof, and so Sion may be redeemed with Judgment, and her Converts with Righteousness, and so all may be gathered into the Unity of the Spirit, and Bond of Peace; so that the Lord may be One and the People One over the Earth.

N. Knight.

Godmenshead the 22d of the 9th Moneth, 1675.