A Catalogue of the several Sects and Opinions in England and other Nations. With a brief rehearsal of their false and dangerous tenants.  
 caricatures of heretical sects 
Jesuit  
One Evins a Welsh man was lately committed to Newgate for saying he was Christ  
Arminian  
Arian  
Adamite  
Libertin  
Ante Scripturian  
Heers one blasphemously That he was Christ did say Such spirits were foretold To riseith latter day.  
Soul Sleeper  
Anabaptist  
Familist  
Seeker  
Divorcer   

Jesuit.  
By hellish wiles the States to ruin bring,  
My tenants are to murder Prince or King:  
If I obtain my projects, or seduce,  
Then from my Treasons I will let them lose:  
And since the Roman papal State doth totter,  
I'll frame my sly-conceits to work the better.   

Socinian.  
By cunning art my way's more nearly spun,  
Although destructive to profession;  
Obscuring truths, although substantial,  
To puzzle Christians or to make them fall:  
That precious time may not be well improved,  
I'll multiply strange notions for the lewd.   

Arminian.  
Would any comfortless both live and die?  
Let him learn free wills great uncertainty:  
Salvation that doth unmoved remain,  
Arminian logic would most maintain,  
And faith that's founded on a firm decree,  
Is placed by them to cause uncertainty.   

Arrian.  
What they dare to deny, Christians know,  
Christ God and Man, from whom their comforts flow,  
'Tis sad, that Christians dive by speculation,  
Whereby they lose more sweeter contemplation:  
Where Christian practice acts the life of grace,  
There's sweet content to run in such a race.   

Adamite.  
Hath Adam's sin procured his naked shame,  
With leaves at first that thought to hide his stain?  
Then let not Adamites in secret dare  
Aparent sinful acts to spread; but fear,  
Since Adam's sin hath so defiled poor dust,  
Cast from this Paradise by wicked lust.   

Libertine.  
A pish at sin and open violation,  
By wilful lust, deserves just condemnation:  
Repentance, though a Riddle, this I'll say,  
Thou must unfold the same or perish aye.  
Then lest this holy Law thou yet dost slight,  
Shall press thee one day with a dreadful weight.   

Antiscripturian.  
By cursed words and actions to gainsay  
All Scripture-truth, that ought to guide thy way,  
Without all question, were it in thy power,  
Thou would it all sacred Rules at once devour:  
Poor man, forbear, thou strivest but all in vain,  
Since all man's might shall but confirm the same.   

Soul-sleeper.  
That souls are mortal, some have dared to say,  
And by their lives, this folly some bewray;  
Whilst (like the beast) they only live to eat,  
In sinful pleasures wast their time and state:  
Meantime forgetting immortality,  
To woe or joy for all eternity.   

Anabaptist.  
Poor men contrive strange fancies in the brain,  
To cleanse that guilt which is a Leopard stain:  
'Tis but a feigned conceit, contended for,  
Since water can but act its outward matter:  
Regenerate, newborn; these babes indeed  
of watery Elements have little need.   

Familists.  
Were all things gospel that H.N. bath said,  
A strange confused work were newly laid:  
A perfect state, like Adam's, is pretended,  
Whilst outwardly each day God is offended:  
No Sabbath, but alike all days shall be,  
If Familists may have their Liberty.   

Seeker.  
All Ordinances, Church and Ministry,  
The Seeker that hath lost his beaten way,  
Denies: for miracles he now doth wait,  
Thus glorious truths revealed are out of date:  
Is it not just such men should always doubt  
Of clearest truths, in Holy Writ held out.   

Divorcer.  
To warrant this great Law of Separation,  
And make one two, requires high aggravation:  
Adultery only cuts the Marriage-knot,  
Without the which God's Law allows it not.  
Then learn to separate from sin that's common,  
And man shall have more Comfort from a woman.   

Pelagian.  
What Adam's state had been with out a fall,  
Is but presumption to contend withal:  
But Adam's state of deprivation  
Profits by serious meditation;  
Men it keep back, Christ's all in all to all,  
Then live by faith obediential.   

Separatist or Independent.  
The Saints Communion Christians do profess,  
Most necessary to the life of grace,  
But whilst some shroud them by this bare notion,  
Condemning all the rest for Antichristian,  
Preferring much confused sad distraction:  
They thus disturb a settlement i'th' Nation.   

Antinomians.  
Under this name shrowds many desperate  
Destroying Doctrines, unregenerate,  
Express opposing grace in its true power,  
And glories lustre some do much abhor;  
Repentance and obedience are condemned,  
And rarest Christian duties much contemned.   

Anti-Sabbatarian.  
This cursed opinion long hath been on foot,  
A Christian Sabbath from our Isle to root:  
When for base pleasures or cursed recreation,  
On Lord's day's duties lost by profanation,  
Divine example hints sufficiently,  
A first days sabbaths full Authority.   

Anti-Trinitarians.  
That dare to search into the Trinity,  
And in divine distinctions much to pry:  
Christ's human nature they would dare to stain,  
As ours by Adam's guilt, but all in vain:  
Then let's beware, least diving thus too far,  
We lose our love, and much increase sad jar.   

apostolics,  
That now expect a new revealed way,  
Unknown in Scripture, they have dared to say,  
Beyond the way of usual dispensation  
Gifts infallible with Revelation,  
And miracles again with Ministry,  
Thus men are lost, when they too far do pry.   

Thraskites.  
The Jewish Sabbath these would have remain,  
As warrantable by command most plain:  
But since the Priest and sacrifice are ceased,  
That Sabbath Judaical is decreased:  
The Lord's day's ravishment divinely is  
Confirmed by Practice which unerring is.   

Hetheringtonians.  
That England's Church is false do firmly hold,  
What truths are therein taught deny thus bold  
Without true ground, there's many yet that say  
As much as these that err and go astray:  
Oh could we keep within a Christian bound,  
That should such sad division not be found.   

The Tatians  
In what time that Eusebius lived, have  
All Paul's Epistles dared reject and have  
The Acts of the Apostles ser at nought,  
Thus strange opinions have confusion brought:  
Not far from those are some now in our days,  
That leave the Word and act contrary ways.   

The Marchionites.  
All Matthew, Mark, and John's divine  
Most sacred Writ, these gospel's trine,  
Tertullian doth report, rejected were,  
By this strange Sect, thus heretofore:  
As now we see, division greatly spread,  
And from the bounds of practice get a head.   
We read how that in the last days many false Prophets shall arise, and many shall say, lo here is Christ, lo there is Christ, and shall deceive many, 2 Pet. 2.1. there were false Prophets also among the people, as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, therefore we had need to be established in the truth, as in 1 Cor. 16.13. stand fast in the faith, 1 Pet. 5.9. whom resist steadfast in the faith, 1 Joh. 2.23. Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning, and ye shall continue in the son and in the Father; Vers. 25. These things I have written unto you, concerning them that seduce you. Many, strange Sects and Opinions are held amongst us, so that it is to be feared, that what rule soever our wise and honourable Parliament shall establish it will not content the unquiet spirits of a lawless generation, which would have no rule; for set any Rule in the Church they will call it persecution, and they say they dislike some things commanded because they are Imposed. Some there are that look for a temporal kingdom of Christ, that shall last a thousand years this opinion is most dangerous for all States, for they teach that all the ungodly must be killed, and that the wicked have no propriety in their estates Others out of confidence that they are ruled by the spirit, despite all ordinary calling to the Ministry, all written prayers, all helps of study: Some make no conscience to hear and sing Psalms, but rather follow their own inventions, as he that would not believe the sun because it went not with his watch: Likewise this ordinary saying of theirs; Be in Christ and sin if thou canst; meaning, that regenerate men cannot sin; this is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists: also that to receive the Communion with a profane person, is to partake of his sin; that the Lord's Prayer was never taught to be said; that the gospel was never purely taught since the Apostles times; that a liberty of prophesying must be allowed; that all human laws must be abolished; that Ministers of God's Word should rule both the spiritual and the temporal; that distinction of Parishes is Antichristian. Should these absurd and gross opinions take place, what division and confusion would they work amongst us? but such is the wisdom and care of our worthy and pious Parliament, to provide an Ordinance for preventing of the growing and spreading of heresy.   

Printed by R.A. 1647.