The Fiery Change: OR, ALMIGHTY GOD, His Melting and Refining of his people, purging out their dross and drossy Metals, making them like unto Himself and to his Son who is the pure Word.  
Wherein is discovered, by the comparison of Metals, how the visible Church is corrupted, consisting of men of all degrees and conditions and how God hath begun to Refine them:  
Which have passed in the world a long time for good Metal: But now is discovering by fire.  
By Robert Read.  
When the Lord shall purge the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgement and the Spirit of Burning. Isaiah 4.4.  
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by the fire, and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. 1 Cor. 3.13.  
For even Our God is a consuming fire. Heb. 12.29.  
LONDON, Printed for the Author, and are to be sold by Giles Calvert, at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Paul's, and by Richard Moon, at the Seven Stars in Paul's Churchyard, near the great North door. 1656.   

To the right Christian Reader.  
MAny writings have been of late, in these distempered times, printed & published; which have proceeded, from the several author's desires, to have all men to agree unto them, which have, like as streams of water, run to and fro these Nations: Had they come from the pure fountain, there would not have been such difference; but issuing from the dirty, miry, and dreggy puddles of art, wit, & humane invention, together with corrupt learning, and imagination, wherein hath been seen much Pride, Passion, Avarice, Ambition, Novelty, and self conceit, it cannot be otherwise, but that instead of being medicinal, as the pure word is, those writings have proved to be killing, and destructive. True it is, where prevaricate and prejudicial complaints are made, out of the carnal and sinister ends of vain men, there can be no remedy, or relief to their satisfaction: But where complaints are, from just discoveries of God, there is a power goes along, to remedy that that is is complained of: Some would have the whole Orb guided after one manner, some after an other manner, each man seeking chief his own honour, interest and profit, and what is corruptly seen by them to be good, that they desire to be done; and conclude all to be evil that seemeth against their Tenants. Whence it comes to pass, that they revile, and persecute that truth; and that good thing, they see not, which others purely see, and do declare: dealing with many as Balaam did with his Ass, beating him because he stopped, and would not carry him along the way where he was going, contrary to the Word of God; the Ass saw an Angel, with his sword drawn, but Balaam saw not the Angel. It is even so, that many who are accounted Asses, & Idiots see, (the Lord makes them see and complain against) that, that many wise, and learned men of the world do not see; for the wisdom of the world cannot see nor know God: they see no Babylon, but what is against their judgement: no Antichrist, but that of Rome: no Whore, but what keeps not correspondency with the visible Church: no Beast but only the poor, profane, and breaker of the Civil Law. They see not the impure purity, the dissembled Christianity, the unsavoury Salt, the counterfeit Diamond, the drossy silver: But think that the late brustring of their own Garments, to be the Garment of Christ, the new guilding of their base mettle, to be very gold; that they are sufficiently changed, because Baptised, and Civilised; that they know the Lord, if they can tell the report that they have heard of him: and know themselves, if they can say, they are sinners. Here Antichrist, in the mystery, exalteth himself against Christ, in the mystery, and persecuteth him; laying stumbling blocks before the people of God, loving the wages of unrighteousness, more than the hidden treasure: The consideration of this, hath, together with the great fire that is kindled by providence, set more pens to work: for they that bear good will to Zion, cannot for its sake, hold their peace, but must declare, the things that they have heard and seen, and what will shortly be: Even the fall of Babylon, and the destruction of the great Whore, which hath been spoken of by the Prophets, by riddles, and comparisons, so twisted that the Clergy could not undo: as also the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, Christ's final conquest and exaltation, over sin, death and hell, the Saints spiritually and most purely refined, purified and sublimed, from sinful and carnal forms, and will-worship: Were it not, that that impurity lodgeth with purity, and Antichrist found to be in the seat of Christ, there would not have been such a fiery contention, but when curing compositions are found to be destroying potions, if vessels of truth, and simplicity, are changed to lies, and formality, what lamentation may be taken up, that our guides and our counsellors are fallen, in their wisdom, Surely the Lord is departed from his people.  
But thanks be to God, there is a still, and a soft voice, that rendeth the Mountains, shakes the Rocks, divideth the waters, and expelleth darkness apace, that true Religion, and Righteousness, that the enemies thereof, (or rather the seeming friends of it) would extinguish and bury, now beginneth to get rooting, and to grow from dry Bones, to an exceeding great Army.  
Should any one then be silent, whom the Lord biddeth to speak, waiting on the Learned, the Aged, and the Honourable men to speak, fearing the revile of the Disputer, and Opposer: No, although he be the least, and the worst of his Father's house, being thereunto appointed and enabled, he must do his duty, knowing that the Lord is risen and doth great things, by small and contemptible means, and that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, he ordaineth strength.  
Upon this account, was the ensuing matter presented to me, by that Imperial hand, which swayeth all, having no power to wave the meddling with this subject, that tendeth to the discoveries of a pure trimmed Whore, which gloriously glittereth, like the Sun, that speaketh so much of righteousness, and integrity, that none, without high presumption and very great affront, dareth to question, especially without a learned tongue, and a gilded pen.  
What here is spoken, is not to flatter any, neither is it unjustly to censure, but to advise from the Lord, the painted face to brinish tears & sad cheeks; the eleoquent and Oratory tongue, to silence in the glory of the flesh; the raking and greedy hand, to Charity, Liberality, and Sobriety, the impotent and lame feet, to walk according to their stage, and strength; yea, and the whole man, to his purging, and refining change. Perhaps some may ask whether this fiery Change shall be before the final Consumption of the whole world (having been taught that it is not till then.) Most certain, it is before: Have you heard and seen the late inventions, that men have had, in all nations by fire, (presaging that God may by fire do more strange things): the one of guns, and, that great slaughters, sudden batteries, speedy victories, and mighty conquests, have been made by them, both by Land, and Sea: the other of Tobacco, accounted to be as vital, to the support of the natural life of man, seeming to overpoise bread, in the traffic of it; which inventions our forefathers, never heard of; Hath man found out these fiery ways, the one for destruction, and the other for preservation? and cannot the great God, find out ways by fire, the one to consume his enemies, Antichrist, the Whore, and the beast; and the other to burn, and consume the dross, out of his Church, that they may be preserved (being by it made fit Temples) to eternal life? Tophet is ordained for the King; for that, that doth exalt, in the Church, or in any particular mind, against God: He will slay those, that will not he should reign over them, and he will melt his own people, that they may be rid of all their dross, he will consume their flesh, that he may be ever with them, in Spirit.  
Reader, the Lord hath manifested to me, that there is nothing more, that he will make war against, than against the impure Saints, the drossy Silver, the bad coin that hath, filius Dei, on the outside, and dross within.  
Would the Church visible of England, did but see, how they are cheated? a little light varnish silvering or gilt without is nothing, to the massey body of Brass, Tinn, Iron, and Led within, which God will melt and take away: He complaineth, and he will redress; his people shall not be his, only in name, but as he is himself, Gold: and, as Christ the Word is Silver: What God hath acquainted me with, I am to acquaint, as many as love the Lord Jesus. Read it in the Spirit.   

The Fiery Change.  Psalm 47.6. 
When the Nations raged, and the Kingdoms were moved, God uttered his voice, and the earth melted.  Psalm 102.13. 
Thou wilt arise, and have mercy on Zion, for the time to have mercy thereon, for the appointed time is come.  
THe State and condition, of England, in respect of God's worship, and service, the union and communion we ought to have with him, doth appear at this day, like as the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.15. which was neither fast nor lose, they did neither cleave to God, with all their hearts, nor forsake him, as the words are, they were neither hot, nor cold: And yet there was both heat and cold, confusedly lukewarm, talking and speaking much of their riches, gifts, graces, goodness, and goods, and of the late increase of the said goods; But know not they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. One of these conditions is misery enough, but to be in them all, not to have any sight, or any feeling, but to be blind, 
Ephes. 4.19.  and past feeling of their earthy, defiled, corrupted, drossy, and unrefined condition, is to be lamented, and deplored. And so it is by England's late Converts, bewailed and bemoaned, who have passed through the fire, and have been refined, and have bought of the most pure Gold, of their Maker, being clothed with the Garment of Christ, and have anointed their eyes with eye salve, that they can see the filthiness, from which they are escaped purged and cleansed, from complaining of it, and discovering it: Yea, uncovering the Whore, and making her bare taking her veil away, showing the filthiness of her secret parts: In prosecution of which, it comes to pass, that there is a very great difference, among men in the world, Tot homines, sententiae, So many men, so many minds; the corrupt Metal would seem to be, as good as that, that is refined; there is both good and bad, there is that, that is refined, and there is counterfeit. This is found to be among us in England: 
Hosea 7.8. verse 10.  We are a people that are mixed: we have adulterated ourselves: The pride of England doth testify to their faces, that they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this that he hath done; But do live in their own wills, and not submit unto his will, neither have they any respect, to be drawn up to a union with their God, nor with his people; All men having not a ●ike measure of the knowledge of him, neither do all men believe: for some have no faith, therefore they can have no love to God, nor to his people, being carnal; they are full of envying, strife, and divisions, and walk as men, (not as Christians) 1 Cor. 3.3. Hence it comes to pass, that there is much difference in judgement, and opinion, in matters of religion: Some walk by an absolute and perfect rule, obeying the ight, God shineth in them, being dead to their own wills, living in the will of God; others are hurried, and carried by the violent stream of their own wills, fleshly understandings and imaginations, into all manner of contradictions, dissentings, oppositions and dividings: owning a God, and a re igion too in show, but have no desire to attain to any other perfection then that which is external, to the visible sight of men, fearing to bring their deeds to the true light, to be tried there by it; but love darkness more than the light reviling, reproaching, and persecuting those that do ●o; and that endeavour to walk, according to the light, who worship God, as he ought to be worshipped; inwardly in Spirit, and in Truth: 
Gen. 6.22.  Yea such as walk with God, as Henoch did, and such as would, for God and to him, part with their dearest child, as Abraham did, and such as walk before God, 
2 Kings 20.3.  with a perfect heart, as Hezekiah did. Yea, and such, as now meekly wait for the appearance of the mighty God, and our Lord Christ, in the perfect consummation, and fullfilling of those prophecies which are near at hand, to be accomplished, and fulfilled to the overthrow of the Man of Sin, that Antichrist; and to the complete setting up of Christ in his Kigdome.  
The Apostles knew very well, what would come to pass, after their days: and therefore, Saint Paul saith, 
2 Thes. 2.8.  Then shall the wicked man be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume, with the spirit of his mouth, and shall abolish, with the brightness of his coming; Then, after that great Apostasy which should first come, which yet continueth: 
1 Pet. 4 7.  Saint Peter also saith, Now the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer: But above all things, have fervent love, for love covereth the multitiude of sins:  
Be sober in your minds, be not drunk, for drunkenness makes men fit for any evil: it makes men full of wrath, forgetful, sleepy, and ready to speak or do any evil; it doth infatuate the understanding, it weakens all the powers of man, it makes him as a beast, as a dead man, and not to know himself, where he is, or what he is. All these several evils, as to the natural sense, conduceth much to the undoing of the body and estate of man: But drunkenness, in the spiritual ●en●e, in the invisible and internal part of man, to be drunk, and not with wine, to stagger and not with strong drink to be drunk with the wine ot the fornication of the great Whore, 
Esa. 29 9  to sleep in sin, to forget God, to be full of wrath against God his will, his people, and his Word; to do e●ill and speak evil, to be infatuated, and to have the powers of darkness rule over us, and in us and not to know ourselves, nor where we are, but reel, and stumble, and fall; This is misery: Be sober in your invisible actings, 
Jer. 25.27.  in your thoughts, imaginations, understandings, affections, wills, passions, that nothing break into outward act against Almighty God, or his dear relations, either in revile, reproachings, or persecutions; But be patiented, bearing all things, and abiding in the will of our God, although never so cross to our wills:  
Furthermore, Watch: Watch as a Centinel doth, both to destroy and to discover: and by prayer call for help and assistance, against the potent Enemies of our souls, who doth continually assault us, by inward objects, injected into our minds, and thoughts, and some visibly presented before our eyes, which we cannot be freed from, so long as we are in the flesh, but are kept by the power of God, through Faith unto Salvation, which is prepared to be showed in the last time.  

1 Pet. 115.  Again, Have fervent love, etc. Above all things, especially, and chief, primarily, and in the first place, have fervent love, hot love, not cold, and frozen, but fervent, earnest: the want of this love, makes all things to be out of order, that we love not our superiors, inferiors, nor our equals, but differ with them all, and speak evil of all: We should love all, for God's sake, and be tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God for Christ's sake forgave us: 
1 John 4.11.  Beloved, if God so loved us, than ought we to love one another. For this want of love, all men are to be blamed; For those that are called Ministers, the teachers of the people at this day, they do speak bitterly, and would act cruelly, against divers poor people of God, that are otherwise enlightened, than themselves, and are led by the true light of God, living above the ordinances of man, which they call the ordinances of God: And they that are so highly enlightened, by the inward teachings of the Almighty, are full of censuring and condemning of those, that have not attained, to the same measure, nor yet come to that pitch and height, that they are come to; not considering, that that which they now live in, being darkness, was once their own light, and so seem to despise the small things of the Lord, which once they rejoiced in: 
Zach. 4.10. Ephes. 4.4.  There is but one body, that shall be saved; yet there are many members of that one body; the Presbyter, and the Baptised Churches are of that body, if they cleave to the Lord, with all their hearts, though they vary in the outward: Let not one member, therefore, despise another; for love covereth all: All Christian believers are but one body, of which there are many members. The head is the greatest and chiefest part of the body, the Spirit of God acteth all one and the same thing in every believer, in different forms. As the life of man's body is three ways, so is the life of the mystical body three ways: In the body of man the life thereof is, Animal in the brain, Vital in the heart, Natural in the liver, sinews and arteries. As it is thus in the body natural, so in the body mystical; yet but one life, though three distinct: for in the body mystical there is God in you, Christ in you, and the Spirit of Christ in you: where the Spirit of Christ is, there is God, be it in what opinion soever, For our life is hid with God in Christ, 
Col. 3.3. 2 Cor. 3.17.  where there is both secrecy and safety. Resist not the Spirit; For the Spirit is the Lord, and there is liberty: The Spirit is light, the Lord is that light: let the members of the body sympathise; if one part suffer, and is not in its perfection, let the other parts and members suffer with it, and lament for it. In the primitive time there was scarce a brother did differ with a brother; but now Churches against Churches differ, and are at great variance.  
O let brotherly love be among us, yea, that fervent love that covereth the multitude of sins. God's infinite and eternal love manifested to us, in the fullness of it, even in the Lord Christ, covereth all our sins: And our love one to another, covereth the sins and offences committed one against another: Let not our hearts burn within us one against another, because of opinions; but rather wait, to be delivered out of this apostate state the Church of Christ is now in: 
Matth. 24. 2●.  for God is beginning to gather his together, from the four winds, and to scatter and consume all fleshly worships and service done to him set up by the will of man, and to set up his King on the holy hill of Zion: let the heathen rage never so much, it will be all in vain; for he will come, and reign, and rule, over us and in us, he will be our guide, our counsellor, and our teacher, and will dwell with us; after we have passed thorough the fire of his indignation, and are purged, cleansed, purified, and refined. Therefore what our God shall do unto us, or bring upon us, either by wounding, squaring, sifting purging purifying cleansing, or refining; let us be patiented, with meekness of spirit, in it and under it, and rejoicing with gladness of heart, that out of his great mercy he will take us into his own hands, being unclean, filthy, impure earthy and drossy, and make us partakers of such and so great g ory, by being made like unto himself.  
Hear then the word of the Lord, you people of the Land, 
Rom. 11.25.  who are succenturiated from Israel; that, that did concern them, doth concern you, being in the same posture the same disease must have the same cure: the Lord will not ●et his people perish he will have judge mercy on them, and heal them; for the Lord wil● judge with fire and his sword, 
Esa. 66.16.  all flesh: And the slain of the Lord shall be many.  
Son of man, the how e of I●rael is unto me as dross; All they are brass and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace they are e en the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because you are all as dross; behold therefore I will gather you in the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver, and brass and iron, and tin and lead, into the midst oh the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger, and my wrath● and will put you there, and melt you: I will gather you, I say, and blow the fire of my wrath upon you, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof: As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof, and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you. Ezek. 22. vers. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Here is God's complaint against Israel, and his purpose what he will do to Israel: God is the agent, and his people are the patiented, he will melt them, and they shall be melted.  
The Almighty God, who is the searcher of the heart and the trier of the reins, 
Jerem. 17.9.  knoweth what his people are, although they think well of themselves, not knowing themselves, nor God; but have backslidden, 
Revel. 3.  and fallen into grievous sins, he will not suffer them so to lie, but will make them to know him, & that he is displeased with them, and they shall taste of his displeasure. In the former chapter the Lord doth threaten Jerusalem with the sword, and that he would remove the Diadem, and overturn o●erturn, overturn and it shall be no more the same, until he come, who●e right it is, and he widow l give it to him. In this chapter he reckoneth up their several sins, shedding of blood, idolatry, disobedience oppression uncharitableness, covetousness, and fornication. In these verses he positively concludeth what the how e of I rael is, The house of Israel is dross, unto God: Some re●d it, They are turned into dross: Further, they are brass, and tin, and irons and lead etc.  
First, here is I rael called a house, sometimes called the house of God.  
Secondly, that they are to God as dross.  
Thirdly, the denomination of the drossy metals, brass, tin, iron, and lead, which they are.  
Fourthly that God will gather them, and bring them into the midst of Jerusalem.  
Fifthly, the receptacle that must contain them, the furnace, and the midst of it.  
Sixthly, that he will blow the fire of his wrath upon them.  
Seventhly, that he will melt them.  
Eighthly, the end, they shall know that the Lord hath done it in his wrath.  
First, here Israel is called a house, the house of Israel: the people of God are the true Israelites, 
Gal. 6.16.  Christ the true Israel, Esa. 49.3. Nathaniel a true Israelite, Joh. 1. This how e this people, they are corrupted, Esa. 1. their wine is become as water their silver is become dross, Cant. 6.7. there are threescore queens, fourscore concubines, and virgins without number, they are dross, they are mixed and adulterated.  
A strange and a sad thing, that this people, this house should be thus. 
1 Pet. 2, 5.  What the people of God? that are in covenant with him? they to whom the promises do belong? who are built up to God? who are cemented to him, by a lively faith and hope? 
Rev. 19.18.  who are clothed with the garments of Christ? who obey the Gospel of God? who hear the voice of Christ? 
Esa. 57.15. Heb. 3.6. Psal. 144.15.  who have an humble heart? where God delighteth to dwell? who hold fast the confidence in God? and rejoice in him? that have the Lord for their God? These are the properties of God's house: was Israel thus? and is Israel not so? is Israel dross? how comes this house so to be?  
When his house, his people cleaves not to him with all their hearts, 
Judg. 8.7.  but falls to idolatry, as they did, and embrace other lovers, abusing the mercy, love, and grace of God, turning it to wantonness, when their righteousness is become as filthy rags, as a monstruous cloth, when their worship is barely external, when they draw near to God with their lips, and their hearts are far from him, when there is more respect to the beautifying of the outward man, than of the hidden man of the heart, when they commit spiritual whoredoms; that they can lie down with God in an outside ordinance, and the heart not there: and lie down with the world also in heart, agreeing to all the world's courses and fashions; when they have a religion, that they might enjoy their own wills and lusts; when they are become unthankful, murmurers, idolaters, oppressors, when they do forget God, and all his mercies, and deliverances past and present, when they cause God to complain, as he did of his Vineyard, 
Esa. 4.  and to say of it, What could I have done more for it, and it bring forth no fruit, but wild fruit? Such demeanour under the grace, mercy, and love of God, makes him not only to complain of them, but to punish them. For his people to revolt, backslide, and turn rebellious, wicked, and transgressive, God cannot bear it: therefore he saith by his Prophets in divers places, what he will bring upon them, as in Ezek. chap. 14. ●…ad 15. I will, saith the Lord, set my face against them: A fearful thing to have the face of the Almighty to be set against a people. And when they call, 
As by the example of a great man.  I will not answer, saith the Lord, Ezek. 20.31. And I will not be enquired of by them, saith the Lord, Amos 3.2. You only have I known, of all the families of the earth, therefore will I visit you for your iniquities. Hence it is that Sodom is called her sister, Ezek. 16.48. Should God keep his house, when the Devils haunt it? No: Apostate people must suffer severely: where God hath bestowed much mercy and love, there he requireth obedience, or else he will sorely punish them.  
Well, Israel is dross, God's people are revoltets, backsliders, rebellious, and yet the merciful God he owns them still: 
Jerem. 2.13. 2 Chron. 7.14▪  my people hath forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and digged themselves pits, broken pits that can hold no water; My people, if they do humble themselves and pray, then will I hear them, etc. God, he will heal their backsliding, and be merciful to their sins: he takes occasion by the greatness of his people's sins, to show mercy, as in the second of Hosea: at large the Lord speaks there, what he will do to his people in the 14 verse; I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak friendly to her. How willing is the Almighty God to accept of, and to receive sinners, although grossly sinful: notwithstanding his great mercy, when they were in their blood. To call a people to himself, 
Ezek. 17.  and to adorn them, and beautify them, and after to fall from him, to recall them again is an invaluable mercy: as in Jeremy the third, and first verse; Though thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet turn again to me, saith the Lord: as if he should have said, Bring the dregs of all thy wicked life to me, I will receive it, I will pardon all.  
The same that Israel was in her time, the same is the Church now, scattered upon the face of the whole earth, the Gentiles being succedaneous to Israel, whereof England is a particular. How hath God dealt with this Nation from time to time, & delivered it out of the hands of the Romish power, Antichristian heresies and worship, and from all the tyrannical government, and lords over our consciences; Heavy things were upon us, and some of us not sensible of it, the innovations, bowings, and cringings at the name of Jesus, and to the Altar: Jure divino: like to be long lived, reformation feared as much as vassalage: yet Almighty God with his own arm saved us, and snatched us as brands out of the fire, from the violence that was lately; and delivered us from our enemies, and hath wrought some reformation for us, he looked upon us as a people that were dross, and hath begun to refine. But we, like the Egyptians, love the garlic and onions of our Country; that that hath been vomited out, would we willingly take up again: And these few years wherein God hath showed us much mercy and love, both to our spiritual and temporal beings, in much tranquillity and peace, we have abused to our own lusts, and have not followed that light which God hath sent amongst us, but the dark and foggy mists of our own carnal hearts, despising and persecuting the same; so that we have given the Lord just occasion to complain of us, that we, we the church of England is dross, as the house of Israel was; yet nevertheless take comfort, thy God wilt melt thee, and thou shalt be as the word, pure silver.  
Secondly, The house of Israel is dross to me, saith God: as dross, and the dross of silver. Almighty God is a pure, a holy, and a good God; there is nothing can remain, or dwell with God, but holiness and purity: holiness becomes his habitation, 
Hag. 2.9.  the gold and the silver are his, the dross and drossy metals are ours. By gold, is understood the gifts and graces of Gods holy Spirit; and by silver, the word of truth, the word of God, yea the word, God. There can be no union between gold and silver, and dross: for dross is that imperfect matter which doth accompany metals, and is to be severed from them at the first rise of them out of the earth, and taken from the metal, as the scum and film of the metal, by a refining and a purging fire. Dross likewise is found among metals subject to rust, and apt to receive into itself corruption, being in vessels; and this likewise by melting and refining is cleansed and made clear. Dross of itself is worth nothing, yet it fixeth and abideth in metals, and may be by the skilful refiner brought to something, being washed and purified.  
Is England dross? see, are they not like the house of Israel, that were Idolaters, and other kinds of sinners; what sin is there that is not committed in England? Hath not God lately, and now at present, made trial of us, 
Mark 12.1, & ●  as the Husbandman did of those that kept his Vineyard; he hath sent his servants to see what fruit we have for him, and we yield him none at all; but beat, revile, reproach, and persecute his servants. That light that he hath sent amongst us, our fathers scarce heard of it, but never saw it, that discovers Antichrist, the Beast, and the Whore: Antichrist to be man exalted in the flesh, man & the righteousness of man, in us; the Beast to be the man of sin, that is, man deceiving himself, 
Gal. 6.3.  thinking to be something, when he is nothing; for man of himself is nothing without God, but as a beast: and the Whore to be, man, that seems to live with God in the outward appearance, or Church; and lives on the traditions and inventions of men, cleaving only to the wisdom and fashions of men, and not desiring God to be all in all. Do we not hate the messengers of truth, and sin with an high hand against the bounty and love of God? falling to spiritual whoredoms and fornications, like the Concubines and Harlots, having a seeming heart for God, but wholly yielding of it up to the service of the Devil, the world, and the flesh, hating those that tremble at the word of God, casting them out for his name's sake, and say, 
Esa. 66.5.  Let the Lord be glorified; but mark the end, the one shall have the appearance of God to their joy, and they the others shall be ashamed.  
What is the demeanour of the people of England in their profession? Is it not merely outside? The more mercy and love God doth bestow on us, the more we lift up our heels against him, when we should live and praise him in the admiration of his bounty, beholding our great dignity in and through Christ: he hath called us to be his sons, heirs of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, and fellow-heirs with Christ; in that Kingdom he calleth us unto a union with himself, my Tabernacle shall be among men, 
Ephes. 1. ult. Col. 2.19.  as he hath said. We are his portion, and he is our portion, we are his fullness, having the increases of God; yet notwithstanding all this, we are wedded to fleshly services and forms, and content ourselves with the bare names of Christians, denying the life and power of Christianity, and do hate those that live in that power.  
Our services and worship of God are as dead things, not being done by ourselves, but by an Attorney; we do not call on God by a dead Saint, but by a living man, who may be as dead, having not the life of God in him, neither hath attained to the first resurrection, a poor service that is not in our own persons, with our own hearts. Many there are that neither call on God themselves, neither do assent to the prayer of another; but custom and fashion causes them to bring their bodies to a public place, where the poor blind heart cannot tell what he comes for; neither is he careful, being benumbed, what the issues of his senseless coming will be. Is this the coming to Christ for life? Is this the way to get acquaintance with God? No, this is that dross, and more there is like to it that doth accompany the good metal; but it shall in time be cast out, and then we shall learn of Christ, for he is meek, and not learn of those that are proud boasters, haters of God, inventors of evil things, and despisers of the pure light and truth.  
O that the Lord, would show men the deceitfulness of their own hearts, that can be content, with the husk and shell of Religion, & be full of glorying in that Righteousness, which they have gotten by outward means, in their own wisdoms and imaginations, and utterly neglect, refuse, and abhor, the inward binding of their souls up in union, by Christ with the Father, in the free Covenant of Grace and life. Many will say, What, shall we we not pray? when they neither know, what God is, nor what themselves are; such as presume to pray, without knowledge, do break the command of God, in taking his Name in vain, when the heart is not according to the tongue, and sound; yea, when their Company, or their Congregation agreeth not: for there is the hater and the hated, the oppressor and the oppressed; the rich, that cares not for the poor; and the poor, that curseth the rich; What congregall prayer, can there be, in this mixture, when men's hearts, are one against the other? The rich and the poor goes together, but the Lord is the maker of them both; he knows their hearts, & their ends, in coming to public places: every sound & noise is not a prayer; then the Pharisee had been commended, for his long one; but it is the inward and deep sigh of the heart, in the singleness thereof, and being fervent: We are commanded to pray continually; and they that make long prayers, are condemned, being in ostentation as in public congregations, once or twice in a week, and have little converse with God all the rest of the week; be not deceived, God is not mocked; Whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye reap: 
Decipies alios verbis, vultuque benigno:  
Sed mihi jam notus, dissimulator eris.   
Be ashamed, and stand amazed, all ye that are under the great Light, that God hath caused to shine forth in this Nation. You will say, that you are the people of God, and that you know him, but it appears by your actions, that you know him not; for a man to know a thing, is to know the condition of it, as to know a piece of coin. To know God, is another manner of business, than the world makes it; to know God, is to have experience of him, and of all his Attributes, his Mercy, his Love, his Goodness, his long suffering, etc. To know God in Christ, is the true knowledge of him, to be in Union and Communion with him, to obey him, love him, and fear him, to honour him, and glorify him; this the world knoweth not, for the world seeks its own. Therefore many, that do profess, that they know God, and in their works do deny him, are not only Heathens, but they are worse than the heathens; 
Cato.  for they say, If there be a God, he ought to be worshipped, with a pure mind: miserable is the condition, of many that think it sufficient to have the bare name of a Christian, and say, Christ died for me, and rose again for me, and never felt the power of Christ's death, killing sin in them, nor the virtue of his resurrection, quickening, and raising them, to a new life, that cannot witness a new birth, a separation; But live in the old nature, and the old man of sin, remaining still. Deal plainly with yourselves, ye sons of men, for the case doth require it; do not lose your precious time here, and say, I hope to go to Heaven, whereas you know not, what heaven is, neither are you fit for it: for heaven is a Condition, rather than a Local place, and the heavenly condition, stands not in outward things, as to satisfy the flesh, neither is it found, any otherwise, then in the Cross here in this World, but it doth appear in us, by Peace of conscience, and joying in the Holy Spirit of God, being perfectly assured, and having a firm testimony, of our Resurrection; being Adopted, and made the Sons of God, 
1 John 1.3.  and having fellowship with the Father, and the Son.  
Deceive not yourselves, but strive to enter in at the straight gate; Go not the broad way of the World's profession, but the straight and narrow way of the Cross: Deny yourselves, your own works, your own righteousness, and whatsoever pleaseth, and agreeth with your own wills, and wait at Wisdoms gate, examining yourselves, whether you be not that, that cleaves to the pure Metal, and makes it the worse; whether you are not the corrupt matter of Silver, and not Silver itself; if you be the corrupt matter, if you be the dross, you must be purged out, you must be spewed out; if you come to the porch only, and go no further, if you come not to the Holy of Holies, you were better not come near, at all; 
Psal. 119.119.  for the Lord will take away the wicked like dross: The Lord will not have to do with such corrupt, impure, and unclean matter, Prov. 25.4. Take the dross from the silver, and there will proceed a vessel fit for the refiner: when the Almighty God, hath purged and purified the silver, and ejected and cast out the dross, than there is a vessel for himself, a temple for himself, to dwell in; for the Lords delight is in his Saints, and among them, and silver is as his Word is, when it is refined. Meddle not, nor have to do with the most Holy, and pure God, upon any account, living in your own wisdom, wills and lust; for it had been better for Cain, that he had offered no Sacrifice, then to account the best too good for God, and to offer the worst; better not to come to any Table, then to the Table of the Devils: the end of all Religion is to bring souls to God, not to make a greater separation by it from God. You were once a far off, but now ye are made nigh, by the Blood of Christ: that only brings us near to God; draw near through his Blood, and he will draw near to us, look to your hearts, and to the issues of all exercises, not what the exercise is, but to what it tendeth; for it is either life or death; If you serve God in the flesh; you shall have corruption, and death for your reward; if you live to the flesh, you shall die; but if through the Spirit, you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. God accepteth no sacrifice done in the flesh, but as he is a Spirit most holy, so he must be worshipped, in Spirit and in Truth, which was the Legacy Christ Jesus left with his Disciples, when he left them. We cannot come to the Lord with anything of our own, to be acceped of him, but what we come to him with, must be his; he heareth nothing but his own Spirit, and that he will not deny. What saith Christ, In vain do they worship me, etc. The Lord (Esay. 1.) saith, What have I to do with your Sacrifices? and in the same first of Esaiah, I hate your new Moons, and your appointed feasts, they are a burden unto me, I am weary to bear them.  
All the devices of men, all their art, all their invention, proceeding only from them, in drawing near to to God, is nothing worth, for it cannot but differ from the will of God; in God's worship, the more of man's wisdom the less of God's respect, the more plainer, and simplier we worship him, the more hope of acceptance. The ordinances of man, or of any Churches, if they differ in the least from the will of God, must be cast out: For not only humane reason, but divine reason, not sanctified, can may or aught to have any power, in the ordering, placing, or disposing of any worship of God: The will of God only is the reason of his own worship; and man's reason, can be no ground, for such a structure, which his art and science defileth as separate from the will of God.  
Non vox sed votum, non musica cordula, sed cor;  
Non clamans, sed amans; clamat in aure Dei.  
Much might be said concerning the dross, that is among the pure metal: In plain terms; the corruption the filth and the uncleanness, that is among professing people, that profess to be the people of God, and are civilised exceedingly, that to the eyes of the World are almost spotless, but when God comes to try by fire, then will their filth and dross appear. 
Prov. 7.3.  Solomon saith, As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so the Lord tryeth the hearts: The outward visible actions of professors, that is so much accompanied with outward decency in the behaviour, keeps off the inward purity, that the soul should be exercised in in the sight of God: Curisity in duties outwardly done in the sight of man, hinders the inward integrity, invisibly to be done with God. Therefore it is, that the exercise of Religion, which should cure, and eject our dross; by an addition of more filth and impurity, in that which should speak purity and life, it doth kill and brings death. The shining beams of Gods most pure and holy Spirit, shining in us, causeth our actions and duties, through that most pure Light, to be living, and become a living Sacrifice, acceptable to God; But duties done visibly, and audibly, 
Rom. 12. 1●.  only in the body, the mind and will being carried on, to the satisfaction of the outward spectacle, resting in the form, custom, use and manner, woundeth, and slayeth the spiritual, and invisible part, where the receptacle should be for the living Sacrifice. For men to go about to make themselves like God, in their own wills, doth derogate from the nature of obedience, and doth manifest that they are the sons of enmity: but yielding themselves up, submitting unto, & embracing that which is cross to their wills, desiring to be ruled and guided by that good counsel, which is of God, maketh the purest sacrifice.  
It pleased God, by these comparisons of metals, to discover what his people are, and how they are different in purity from himself, which is most pure and holy: let therefore all men that live in a profession, not stand upon the purity of it; for the Whore sits upon waters; there is many baptisms of water, but the baptism of fire, is that that God will purify his people withal: and that that hath quenched this many years, 
Mat. 3.  must now be dried up by the fire of the Lord, and it will burn up all, and dry up all, For our God is a consuming fire. Experience this ye that are called godly, you cannot be Godlike (which is the Old language) until the Lord God hath consumed all flesh within you, and there be nothing in you, but the Lord God All in All.  
Thirdly, God saith that Israel is Brass, and Tin, and Iron, and Led: What Israel was and what England is, by these comparisons of metals, the Lord will make known to us; These several metals, are of several natures, and qualities, some by art, counterfeiting the richer metals, of Gold, and Silver, which are figures of Himself and of his word:  
These metals, are very apt to rust, and to receive and embrace the same, and so are accounted drossy metals; yet very useful, as to the World, ordained by the great Creator in their several kndes, for several necessitous negotiations, in the world. They have their breeding, and their generation in the earth; and being from thence and thereout, they must pass through a strong blowing fire, before they come to perfection, and be fit to officiate the use, service, and the end, the great Creator made them for, as to the use of the world: wherein is seen, a great deal of the glory of God, in the excellency of his creation, in the various qualities of them, as doth also appear in all other things created by God.  
How is Israel Brass, and Tin, and Iron, and Led? wherein, and in what are they such metals?  
The people of Israel here named, are thus, in divers respects.  
First, They are Brass, in their men of power, Rulers, Governors, Magistrates, Justices, and Arbiters.  
Secondly, They are Tin, in their Prophets, Teachers, Guides, and Ministers.  
Thirdly, They are Iron, in the people of Traffic, Commerce, Trade, and merchandise, and in them that exercise to the support of the Nation.  
Fourthly, They are Led, in the poor and mean, in people of low degree.  
First, see what Brass is, and how it may be said, that Rulers, Governors, etc. May be as brass:  
Brass is a compound metal, made and contrived of Copper and Calamy, which metal so composed, hath a lustre, like gold by its mixture, and the more useful for its mixture: So are those that are called to high places, of Government; they are not barely naturalists, only men as borne simply themselves naturally; But there is a mixture composed with other ingredients in them, of natural endowments fit for their places, of learning, experience, knowledge, understanding and rightly to censure, as also to execute, as to the World, the things, matters, and causes that are under their dispensation, and their determination; and herein, as brass hath a lustre like gold, so have the Governors, etc. a lustre beyond other men; Hence it is, that there is and hath been, at all times, an honour and a respect given unto them, being the greatest instruments under the arm of God, for the peace, the welfare, and the good of people, in the Nations under them.  
I have said, You are Gods, and you are all, 
Psal. 82.6.  the children of the most High; Christians have had at all times, respect to their governor's, for God's sake, they are set up of God; By me kings reign, etc. 
Rom. 13.1.  There is no power but of God: wherefore resist not the powers; they that do, shall receive to themselves judgement.  
But whence is the complaint that the Lord makes, that Israel's Rulers are Brass, something is the matter; God Almighty expecteth, that they should not only do, and execute the common and ordinary business, as to the World, but that they should stand up like men, in the cause of God, to distribute justice impartially, and as in his stead; to curb; and punish the evil doers, and to defend and preserve those that do well, encouraging others also, to live in their ways; that they should be as nursing fathers, and nursing mothers; 
Esa. 49.23.  they should defend the innocent, and acquit him, and execute justice on the nocent.  
The cause why, the Lord complaineth of them, and that he will melt them is, that, as Brass will adulterate with Tin and with lead, with the false prophet, and with the rabble; So the Rulers and Governors, have not walked singly before God, but have mixed themselves, with that that hath been against his pure, and undefiled law, yielding to the Harlot, jezabel; 
1 King. 22.6.  and taking counsel of the multitude of false prophets, as Ahab did, embracing flatterers, and flatteries, which hath caused them to err; to do injustice, to punish the innocent, and not let the oppressed go free, and do in their ways, according to their own wills & fleshly lusts, walking according to their fleshly desires and understandings, minding their own profit, pleasure, & worldly advantages; and as the poor rabble of the world doth for their reward; so do they, out of their ambitious hearts, for further honour, and preferment not doing the thing that is right.  
Was it thus with Israel, and among their men of power and is it not so with England? It is nor my business to reckon up the wickedness that was heretofore, in former powers that are past and gone; But to the present being, my duty is to stir up all Christians to a hearty thanksgiving, and to a continual praising of God, for his mercies, that he hath set over us, such a valiant, and Godlike Joshua; and for that, through the late passages of war, and discord, wherein once we were in jeopardy to be dispeopled, and our religion to be traduced, we are arrived, to the greatest liberty of any people under Heaven, Religion, and godly people being much countenanced, and defended, superstition and heresy extirpated in a great measure, no man's conscience compelled, the designs of Antichristian plotters, and contrivers, not only weakened, but confounded, to their ignomy, and shame for ever, subordinare Magistrates in their pluces, more vigilant and knowing, and the professing people of the Nation, much increased by it.  
Hath God begun to melt the brass, to refine the men of power; Let no man murmur then, at the powers; for the effects, and issues of Christian and Godlike powers, we and our successors, may rejoice in; for it is of great consequence, to our eternal, and everlasting peace; That when pure truth doth begin to appear in our days, no violent heat of persecution can whither it, for upon all the glory there will be a defence: if God maketh us his glory, he will defend us, 
Esa. 4.3.  that neither the wild Boar of the forest, nor the little Foxes of the wilderness shall hurt us, God will keep his Vineyard, 
Esa. 54.11, 12.  that he himself hath planted; He will yet go forward, and be refining still, until he hath made the Pillars of his Church, like to the polished Saphires, and her windows of shining Emeralds; He will melt, and purify all that bear his Name, 
Psalm. 12.  and are for the cause of his people, that they shall be as pure, as his Word which is Silver. For God will not destroy his, but purge them; He will not lay his Garden waste, but weed out that that is hurtful, to the growth of the tender plants; he will not touch those flowers that have favour, but them that have no savour, but colour only.  
Great hope have we, that the Lord will be gracious unto us, because he hath begun so to be; surely what God gins, he will finish, who can hinder him, 
Job. 9.12.  or who can say, why dost thou so. But what means the crying out against unjust Judges, and Arbiers, who are concerned in this resemblance? There is in our nation, a great number who are as brass vessels, (I would they were vessels for God) But what are they? I fear that they are, as Saint Paul styles them that were in his time, 1 Cor. 6. In the first verse he calls them unjust, and in vers. 6, he calls them Infidels, how ever, they are such that he warns the Saints not to meddle withal, and questions whether there was a wise man among them, or no: a strange thing. It seems none but fools hath to do with them. Thief men are called in our language Lawyers, some say they are necessary evils, but they are such as hold evil to be necessary, and surely, if any evil be necessary; this is, it is as necessary as a disease which pains so sorely, that makes the patients cry to their God; for many thousands have been impoverished by their evil practices, and they still gainers. It is in their hands, to compose differences more easier: But they are covetous, double dealers, oppressors, exactours, and cruel. When matters come to them to view, skan, order, and to prepare for the determiner, what horrible false dealing is there? bribery, treachery, forgery, false testimony, underhand and partial dealing, as if they were made of purpose to act the Devil's part.  
These are like unto the brass vessels that are used in and upon the fire; for they are not only Incendiaries to strife, envy, malice, and contention, but are nourishers and pleaders for the continuance of it. Did not Christ say, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God? Whose children are they then that set at variance, who love not peace? is it against their profit? The vessels they are like to, are kettles and pans, which as to the business of the world are very useful; as the kettle holds water, so there is fire underneath it that makes it boil, and oftentimes the heat of the fire boils away the water, sometimes the fierceness of the fire makes the water to boil over, and put out the fire. It is so with this generation, that the exercise of their cruelty makes the watery Client, I mean the man that mourns to be in Law, to be the better, as water is by heating, for use. But it usually falls out, that the water overcomes the fire, or the fire dries up the water, and so the kettle or pan being washed, or scoured with some of pilate's water makes it shine as it did before, 
Matth. 26.  after the colour of gold, and stands up for a show in many Country Churches and Congregations, where the Minister there dares not speak a word, but smooth him up for a good Benefactor, for fear of his place, his tithe, or something he calls his deuce, or fearing to have his ill will.  
O what wretched, cruel, and foul enormities are committed by men of brazen faces, that should in their actions endeavour to set forth the glory of God in deciding controversies, and giving to every man his right; for that end were they first ordained, and therefore called Arbiters: 
Ezra 7.25.  the right use and end of such as they were, heretofore ordained among the people of God, was to do justice, equity, and right; that use is not among Lawyers, but the abuse is and remains, and God will purge it out, this sinful and abominable filthy dross, out of his Church and people, and will set up such as shall administer true justice with godly prudency, in their room: the time is come that their most horrid actions have made them to be in question, and some abatements have been lately. Oh that they were wise, that they would consider their latter ends, and have in mind that of Solomon and Paul, For we must all appear (if all, than Judges and Arbiters) before the judgement-seat of Christ.  

Numb. 21.9. 1 Sam. 17.5.  Brass is that which sets out the strength and fortitude, that the people of God have among them by good Rulers and Arbiters; the brazen Serpent, a type of Christ, 
2 Chron. 4.1. Psal. 107.16. Zach. 6.1. Jerem. 1.18.  overcoming the Devil, and vanquishing death, the helmet of brass, brass armour, altar of brass, pillars of brass, gates of brass, mountains of brass, and bars of brass, and walls of brass. How great good do the people of God receive and enjoy by the gracious Governors and government? how are they defended, protected, secured, and encouraged to all godly living? Ad exememplum Regis totus componitur orbis: Most commonly as the Governors are, ●o are the people: when good Laws, Edicts, and Institutions are set out by the good Governors, what an increase doth it make of good people? But when they are slack, negligent, given to pleasure, pride, 
Eccles. 10.16.  wantonness, lust, and other vices, how soon will the people learn all manner of evil, and misliving; when subordinate Magistrates do not diligently look to the cutting down of profaneness, nor put in execution Edicts concerning idle persons, and helps not the poor in their necessity; but takes only the honour, or grace, and credit of the place, as to their own ambitious humour, in their outward deportment among men, having no respect to glorify God in doing acts of righteousness; what defilements and irregular carriages is there among inferior people? The Lord hath cut down, & thrown down many that heretofore have so walked, and he will melt and refine in his time, all the dross that shall appear, he will scum it all off from the pure metal, then shall the land rejoice in the Lord their Saviour.  
Magistrates may be resembled to Bells, which are made and cast of brass; the sound of bells is heard far off, and near at hand; their warrants are like to that sound, which summons in those they have to do withal, and as bells should agree in the places of height, in a tuneable harmony, so should they all agree together in the same high places they are seated in, not differing one with another in matters of justice, but all jointly seeking the glory of God in the welfare of the people whom they are set over, not respecting any man's person, but keeping every man his place, ready to officiate and to do what shall be required of them: not like to brass Andirons, which stand in the chimneys, merely for show and not for any use at all; there they shine, but have no sound at all, to give warning to the people to live peaceably, neither is there any noise to give an alarm to the world, as to the destroying and cutting down of sin and iniquity. Happy are that people who live under a godlike Magistracy, in a Town or a City, who are continually stirred up to a godlike life, by the example of their walkings, and also to abhor vice, by seeing justice done upon it impartially. As men are naturally blind, that they cannot see the effect of Gods dealing in the world, so neither can they see what the changes of times and men in high places doth produce: But he that is enlightened can see that by this, God is setting up his Son Christ to reign and all the powers that seem to stand for God and his, and doth not in truth and sincerity of heart, shall not stand; for the Lord will melt the brass, yea, he will blow the fire of his indignation upon it, and melt it.  
In the second place let us see what Tin is, and how, as before mentioned, Israel's Prophets, Priests, Teachers, and Guides are as tin.  
Tin is first like to silver, in its lustre, in its sound, and in its weight.  
Secondly, it will adulterate with other metals.  
Thirdly, it will beautify and colour other metals, yea, the very earth.  
Fourthly, it is a dry metal, and therefore when it is bended, it will creek.  
Fifthly, it will receive any impression; yet not malleable.  
Sixthly, it is a metal that fire will utterly consume to ashes.  
The Prophets and Priests of old that were resembled to tin, the Lord much complained of, by Isaih, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and other of his Prophets: so that the Lord, when he saith by his Prophet Isaiah, 
Esa. 1.25.  chap. 1. vers. 25. that he would take away all the tin, it is to be understood, that he would take away all the Prophets, Priests, Ministers, and Dispenser's of his word, that were, as tin is to silver: for his Prophets that were called, and sent by him, they were as silver, even as the word; but the others were but counterfeit, false, and abominable, etc.  
Therefore in the ensuing matter, being a very large complaint against the picturall imagery, and similicall kind of Prophets, Priests, Teachers, and Dispenser's of the word, as they call themselves; as also against all proud, covetous, boasters, inventors of evil things, all idle drones, Ignoramusses, dunces, doters, illiterate, unexperienced, vain, profane, ambitious, envious, and contentious persons, that have undertaken to teach, instruct, reprove, comfort, pray for, and to visit, to stand in the gap, to mediate, and absolve, being unacquainted with the mysteries of God, and have not their union and communion with God and Christ; Let not those true Prophets, or Teachers, which do declare the mind of the eternal God plainly, who tells Jacob of his sins, and Israel of his transgression; let not them, I say, that are sent of God, and speak not their own testimony, which do believe, 
Psal. 116.  & therefore do speak without flattering, or fear of any man's person, or any cross power misled, be exempted from their most inward and invisible calling, to accompany these intruders, usurpers, and defilers of mankind.  
First, tin is like to silver: it was the Devil's policy, when he tempted our first parents, 
Genes. 3.  to tell them that they should be as gods, or like God: To be like that we are not, is still in the desire of the earthy and carnal mind: It is the only thing profession doth pursue, and rejoiceth in, to be like that another is; to be like silver, is to be like the pure word of God; for that the Word the Son of God is resembled to, they that should teach others, should not be only the image or the likeness of that they do teach, but they should be the very same not like the oracles of God and not them; like the true Prophets, but are false prophets; declaring the letter, either through their own practical art and science, or else by stealing that from others, which themselves had not art to compose. This cunning sophistry hath been much in use, and it is got into that garb that it deceiveth many, and they deceive themselves to speak & prate of that that is not within them, but without them; they teach not the testimony of Jesus, that should be the spirit of prophecy, but speaks out their lying vanities to deceive, yet taken by the world for teachers of the truth. 
2 Cor. 15.16.  But S. Paul bids other Apostles not to teach by another man's line, but to get praise of God; for he that seeketh his praise of men, or from himself, is not allowed of God. Such Apostles are deceitful workers, 
2 Cor. 11.12, 13, 14, 15.  that transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ; and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of life: therefore it is no great thing, though his Ministers transform themselves as though they were the Ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.  
1. Tin is like silver in colour, in lustre; silver is of a very bright colour, and shineth much, and tin doth resemble it in the colour and brightness as much; for we may find by things made of tin being in shape and form of the silver vessels, some are apt to take one for the other, b●ing not in their near view; so the Minister he shineth, and is a spectacle for his whole parish to look on, and for others where he resorteth, observing all the rules of civil carriage and behaviour, a fair outside, good words, courteous, seemingly thankful for courtesies, temperate sober, and ready to give advice, and every way seeming to be of a godlike behaviour, like the painted sepulchers that are fair on the outside, but within nothing but dead men's bones.  
2. Tin is like silver in its sound, silver hath a very sweet sound to the ear of man, and nothing can pass it; so the sound that the Minister doth make, 
Jer. ●. 14.  is very sweet to the ear, for they sound out the great love of God, according to the letter, and tell of his great mercies, like the sound of the pure word: but where is the true sound of the word that soundeth to us, the taking up the Cross, the submitting and yielding of our wills to Gods will, denying ourselves, losing of our lives: this is bitter, Durus sermo to themselves, and cannot say as Paul did, that he rejoiced in the Cross, that is the sweetest sound to the soul, when the mystery of God comes to be revealed by the Cross.  
3. Tin is like silver in its weight, herein is some difference, but yet many times Tin hath not been sum pected by wait, when a piece of coin hath been counterfeited by it, it is near it in the weight of it. So are Ministers like silver in the weight, they will speak of as weighty matters and as pressing, as if the very power of the Lord went along with their voices, when it is nothing but a mere pressure upon the mind for the present, and makes the melancholy man or woman (it may be) sermon-sick. Where is the alteration and change of the mind wrought? It cannot, though they press home with loud voices, terrible words, dreadful and threatening quotations, all is nothing, it is but as the weight of Tin. But the word itself figured to us by silver, is that that shows its perfect and absolute weight, when that without (as to the outward) makes a greater show; for when the Temple was builded, there was no noise of axes and hammers, 
1 King. 6.7.  nor any tool else, while it was building, so the inward work of the word is not by outward hammering, but by a low and still voice into the inward part.  
Fourthly, Tin will adulterate with other metals, and mix itself with them, it will adulterate and mix with brass, and so it becomes hard, joining with a hard severe metal. So doth the Clergy, they mix and adulterate with the power and authority, taking that upon them they are not called unto by the Lord: witness these late times, wherein the Episcopacy had great power and authority to do and undo, upholding by their power t e Beast and Antichrist, compelling men to observe days and meats, and the Orders of their Rubrique, who did punish with as severe a punishment, him that did deny Bishops to be Jure divino, as he that should deny Jesus Christ, or the Father, to be God. Blessed be God we are delivered from that horrible adulteration, and so far is tin refined, or melted, nay, in that case taken clean away: yet the seed of that power lies in the earthy mind; for the Clergy would (if possible) bear some sway, but because they cannot, they are gotten to be Incendiaries to the Magistrate against the Innocents', for that the mystery of Antichrist is by them a discovering and laying open to the Believer, which they cannot endure to hear of, because they are the chief concerned in upholding him, it is conceived that they are the greatest hinderers of the growth of the pure and infallible truth. But what can they do? their power, if they were so many Bishops, might be restrained: their behaviour concerning marriage heretofore did testify what they were, 
Psal. 76.10.  and now they rage: but the rage of man will turn to the praise of God, and the rest God will restrain. Job saith of his persecutors, Why persecute ye me, as God, is not my flesh sufficient? let them take heed who they persecute, for Christ is upon the earth, though not seen by them, nor heard out of the pulpit, and God is shaking the heavens, they are chief to look to it for they are as the pillars of that heaven that shall fade: It is said, when the Son of man shall come, shall he find faith on the earth? It is to be doubted, whether there will be any, or no; for the channel gins to be dried up: the Spirits presence is not where some say it is, and therefore suspect yourselves, you that would mix with the authority, take heed of kindling any more fire, if you do, you are like to be burnt in it.  
Again, Tin will adulterate and mix with lead. This is a strange thing, that tin such a shining metal should debase itself so to mix: yet so it is, the Clergy will mix themselves with the poor rabble of the world, 
Hosea 7.8.  those that are ignorant, and though not openly profane, yet secretly vile, making them the executioners of their designed purposes; what they will not be seen to do themselves, they encourage and countenance the poor to do, as in the persecution of the tongue, to mock and deride the poor Northern men, that goes about, speaking words of the kingdom, such as Noah was to the old world, a Preacher of righteousness. In this matter the Ministers of the land, show no spirit of meekness, 
2 Pet. 2.5.  neither are they Ministers of the Gospel that do not obey the Gospel of our Lord: he saith bless them that cur●e, pray for them, that hate you, and persecute you; and they neither bless nor pray, except they pray to have mi chief fall upon such as would show them their blindness and hypocrisy, which they do discover by their converse with the poor: for what is said unto the poor, weak, and ignorant by them, is voted for good, commended and applauded they speak well of them that know them not; for many do live by the rule of custom, and so the Minister is honoured more out of ignorance and custom, or for some preingagements, than any other way else but forsowing of pillows under the●e bows of men of higher degree, 
Ezek. 22.28. Jer. 6.14 8, 11 1 Thes. 5.3.  and speaking peace, when they have no warrant, from the Lord; this makes the rich worldling also to hold with them, and plead for them.  
3 Furthermore, besides Tin mixing with metals, it doth also beautify other metals, it doth put a fairer gloss and lustre upon metals, than they have of themselves, it becomes as a coat or a cloak on them, as for example, Tin covering brass makes it very like Silver, as that we call Alkemy, how many have been deceived by this sort of contrived metals, in vessels, instruments, and in coin, taking it for good Silver when being Brass, it hath only a coat of Tin upon it. Thus doth the Clergy, they put another hue and countenance, upon the Magistracy, than they have of themselves: their associating with them, their frequent conversing with them, their discoursing with them, and their advizing, and counselling of them, makes the world, seeing their familiarity, to judge them to be as they are, which suppose to be the pure metal of Silver, and so as in their judgement they conceive well of the Minister, so do they of the men in Authority, because are together often in converse, and in discourse; Thus the world comes to be deceived, to build their confidence upon hay and stubble, which the fire will consume, although the praise the minister giveth, makes the party the more in respect; it is but of the men of the world: but the Almighty God knoweth the heart, and that one doth spoil and corrupt the other: 
Esa. 5.20.  for the Ministers, as well as the old false prophets, are apt to call evil good, and good evil, and so there is a woe pronounced against them.  
Again, Tin it doth beautify iron, and makes it seem as Tin, by which iron, we understand the worldling, he that is nothing but Iron, that regardeth nothing but the world and the profits of it, it makes him seem to be that he is not, to be as the Tin is, that is, like his Preacher, and his teacher, witness many wretched worldlings, whose intimacy with their Preachers, 
Amos. 3.3.  their resorting to him, their familiar society, walking and talking with them, as agreed, makes the people of the world to take them for no worse than their Preachers, although like Iron, they be never so hard and cruel, lying as iron in the earth, until the earth hath turned them to earth; Thus doth the Ministry, for their worldly ends, keep company with the men of the world, as long as they live, and sometimes before they die, like Ravens about a beast, they visit him often for their prey sake; and when they are dead, they put an eternal fame upon them, worth sometimes five pounds: This good man, this just and upright man, this man that loved the word; a constant hearer, and frequenter of the Church, and the Ordinances of God, and charitable to the poor, as appeareth at his death: he is now in Heaven, after which, if a monument of him pietas, virtus, sanctus, if not, sanctissimus, etc. must be part of his Epitaph: and so the ministers do not only varnish, and colour the worldlings, and the corrupt minded here while living, but endeavour to perpetuate, and eternize their fame, and all this for the succeeding expectation of the like reward: Saint Paul became all things, to all men, that he might gain some, that is, some to Christ, into the house of God, into the Kingdom; but shame it is that Ministers are become all things to all men, that they might gain some of the world with them, but to gain them to God, to Christ, if a sermon or two, once or twice a week will do it, well, if not what care they: they look for their fleece, and therefore they do with their people of eminence, as servants that flatter their masters, fearing their frowns, and that they shall be losers, if they speak out their minds really, and not to their master's affection, or to his gain being asked, is this well done; though perhaps ill done; yea say they, it is well done or otherwise if they say it is best, or may it be lawful for me, to do thus or thus, though perhaps unlawful, says the servant knowing his master's affection, and the purpose of his mind; yea, you may lawfully do it: if otherwise that the master be crossed, away then; if they speak contrary to their minds and ways. Should a Minister speak against a rich worldling, and come to him as Nathan did to David, and say thou art the man, it is as much as his place is worth: witness certain places, and towns that might be named, where it is in the power of the chief men of the place: there the preacher must be wary.  
Lastly, it doth colour and set a gloss upon the earth, it makes that to shine: for all the earthen vessels, 
Matth. 6.  that are shining white vessels, they are made so with Tin very fair, clear●, and pure to the eye, but the matter chief whereof they are made, is earth; The Clergy doth beautify and colour the earth; and earthly minded people, who as their Disciples do follow them, making them, to seem that they are not, for they appear to men to pray, to hear, to live orderly among others, when they are but only civilised, there is nothing within that is changed, the same that came into the world, the same remains inwardly in their hearts; yet honest men, good men: this is the Tinny approbation, they give them, when poor ignorant souls, there is nothing in them but blindness of mind, darkness of understanding, and clean contrary to God and his Word, mere earth: They are told by their Minister, If they come and hear him, and pray and observe their Church duly, they need not be so scrupulous, and so full of inquiry, after things that do not concern them, tradesmen should not come from off their shopboard and leap into Election and Predestination, 
Bishop Pearce of Wells.  but follow their callings, so holding them in the outward form, feeding, cherishing and nourishing them in blind hypocrisy, they cannot perceive what the change means, 
john. 3.4.  like to Nicodemus, they wonder at a new birth, and yet they think themselves to be as good Christians, as any in the world, they see themselves to be full, 
Deut. 32.1. Isa. 34.1. Jer. 6.19, 22, 29.  and to need nothing, but more of the world, that they might provide for their posterity, there is all the care they have, which made the Prophet cry; Earth, earth, earth hear the Word of the Lord.  
In their Exercises they call a Psalm, and either they or their Clerk, read a verse at a time, not too much for fear of cloying them, and sweetened being metre; and the people must sing to the praise and glory of God, That they love the Lord with all their hearts, that God's Comandments are better to them then Gold and Silver, and sweeter than the Honey, and Honey Combe, and divers such words whereas it is not in their hearts. And thus the Almighty God is mocked, by a company of poor souls, that know not what they do: Yet by the report of their minister, they are good Christians, he daubs with untempered mortar, and lays a little of his Tin upon them and so they pass for currant. O what a reckoning will here be when the Lord comes to try, and refine the sons of Levi, who are resembled to Tin, they will be clean taken away, God will have in his temple no other vessels, but Gold and Silver, that they may bring offerings, to the Lord in righteousness; then shall the offerings, both of Judah and Jerusalem be acceptable unto the Lord, as in the old time.  
Aagain, Tin is a dry metal, and by reason of its dryness, when it is bended it will creek, those that are Mineralists know this, that Tin of all metals is dry: Shall it be said that the Clergy is so, it may be said they are dry and thirsty too; their dryness appears that they have but little good within them, and their thirst declares that they would draw what they could to them: for their dryness, it appears by their charity, peace, contentation and humility, let them examine themselves, I would none of them, were to be blamed, but found to be Zions bvilders, yet being my duty, I must speak what I know and have found them to be; I charge not all, that are or have, the name of Ministers, but the corrupt ones they are uncharitable, contentious, greedy, proud, and persecuting some there are; I would set down their goodness, if I could perceive any, they are quite dry of all goodness. But this is not all, they are thirsty, that is, they are covetous, their desire above all is large, for they desire rich Benefices, fair houses, farms, dairies, land, living, store of tithes, all men's good will, their servants, their cattles, their gold, and silver, what not: if these be not like Tin in its dryness, than no men are: But they are so, and therefore the Lord will melt-them. We may observe that in the Temple, there was much Gold & Silver, Brass, and Iron used, but no Tin: in the new heaven, 
Rev. 21.1.  and new earth that comes dowen from God, there will be no Tin: this Tin was never found but where Apostasy was, and when Almighty God, removeth away our Apostasy, then will he take away all our Tin.  
Again, Tin, when it is bended, it will creek, and cry, it makes a noise, and by that sign many knows it to be Tin, and different from mixed metals; will Tin, when it is bowed and bended creek and cry? And what do the Clergy, when things goes contrary to their outward peace and welfare, how do they cry till a deliverance comes, till a repair is made; this is sufficiently experienced, what excellent shifts they use? above all men, that lost in the late wars, they were soon repaired; they will not lie long in a trouble, or in adversity, but they will cry to their gods, whether favourers of Episcopacy, or Presbytery, they are sure to speed, rather than not, they will pass upon them a Romish sentence, which some poor Ignoramusses, stand in fear of, and helps them; out of his tender mind: (saith he) a minister of the Gospel! There be many such canonised for Saints, that have done much for the worst Ministers, which is to their further hardening. I must say of them, 
Matth. 6.5.  as our Saviour Christ said, verily they have their reward; they have it already, it is in their possession, they have all they shall have; let them look for no more, for the unrighteous, shall not enter into, the Kingdom of Heaven.  
What a do is there now, with the Clergy, there is news that their kingdom is at end, that there is no need of them, that they are Seducers, and Deceivers, that they preach for hire, here is a great matter to bow them, and bend them, to make them creek and cry: and do they not? Survey their demeanour under this strange Academy: they do cry out amain, they travel much, they spend their spirits much more than they did; having mended their pace, they say we are all undone, if this light do continue. If they cannot blow it out, they cry for help, help Judge, help Magistrate, help Justice, help Lawyer, help common men, help poor, help rabble and rascality: (I had almost forgot) they cry for help to their God too, and that at all public occasions and meetings: (I cannot assure them that the almighty God will hear them,) although some men of authority do hear them: my advice is from the Lord to them, Let all flesh be silent before the Lord, 
Zach. 2.13.  for he is raised out of his holy place:  
Fiftly, Tin, it will receive any impression easily: Filius Dei was once stamped on the clergy, when the sons of Levi: Since, was Jure Divino on some; & on others, such a Lords Chaplain. They were at the beginning only Prophets, and Priests, but of late, they have been (leaving out the Romish Catalogue) Bishops, Doctors, Bachelors, and Masters; As Tin will easily receive any stamp, cognizance, or badge, so will the Clergy, embrace any place or name, any title whatsoever, to make their benefit great; Yet in all this, and notwithstanding all other impressions, they claim the old stamp, Filius Dei: although they be not Silver, but a mixed deceivable metal, so that they are in the world like unto bad coin: which when some see the stamp, they own the piece for good; being afterwards, upon better view, or advice of others found to be bad, and that no experienced party will meddle with it for good, as it so passed before, then there is a stir and a mischief, being a loss and a detriment to him, that received and took it for good: Even so the studied doctrines, and speeches, which is squeezed through the corrupt brains of some called Divines, and brought through multitudes of words of Art, Eloquence, and Philosophy, which is not consistent with the mind of God, who is the Eternal, and most holy God; make much mischief in the world, among the sons of men, now. Insomuch that men that are truly and purely enlightened, will not meddle with it, and likewise doth forbid their brethren, to have any thing to do with it, knowing and understanding, how formerly they were at a loss by it, and that shortly all such, yea such base mixtures, and deceivable coin, shall be called in by the Great Supreme Commander, who will melt it, and refine it, (for there is little base coin but Tin is in it.)  
Again, as Tin will receive any impression, so it will not hold the hammering, it is not malleable, it will not endure strokes, as other metals, but it will break, and tear. So will the Clergy, when any stroke comes upon them, it rends them from their people, they then forsake their flock; reduce a hundred to fifty, they are gone: They will not be pliable to yield to the persuasions of any, but of their own Tribe, and rather than they would turn, they would if their power might, limit God, the Holy One of Israel; and do now breathe out impossibilities of things, that will come to pass, pleading; That this corrupted, defiled, and Apostate Church now being, 
Mal. 1.6.  is the very true Church of God, and that they are, as the Apostles in the Primitive times were, and that whosoever doth forsake them, forsakes their mother, and that there is no happiness in departing away from them to be expected; for that that is out of it, concerning God's worship, is heretical, and abominable, (Can the vote of a Synod, be such a vote, if there were one) I doubt it? for the sober modest Preacher, and the rebaptised, conclude that the Church visible, is not cleansed as it should be, or may be: if it were, then Quorsum haec dispendia, what means all this stir, more than ever? what means the complaints, such various Judgements and Opinions? what means so so much burn, one against another? inquire out the author, and the cause of it: Is not God by this, beginning to refine his people is not he a gathering of his people together, that were scattered, doth not the great day of the Lord, begin to dawn? But I am speaking to them, that care not to hear; for of all men, the worst man, is a bad Minister, (the Schools will say that). I know not, wherein they are the worst, except it be in matter of turning. It is a sad thing for a Leader to retreat, for a Teacher, to unteach, for a minister to change, Oh no, it is against his credit. The good Prophet Jona was faulty in this, but what became of him, you may read, a heavy punishment: the like sad things, may come upon such, as now rail, revile, and persecute, those men that now say, that the Lord will suppress all the teachings of men, and that there is a light, in every man, that directs him to obedience: shall poor vile wretched man, say out of his unbelief, God cannot this way bring men to himself: but it must be, by the ancient Apostatised way? be silent for ever, and let God alone, in his most wonderful Change.  
Sixtly, Tin is a metal that will consume by fire, and come to ashes contrary to other metals, Gold and Silver will not consume; neither will Brass consume by fire, waste it will. But Tin will suddenly be consumed, and then all the lustre, the glory and brightness of it is gone, and cannot appear any more, happy were it, that the messengers of the Lord, as they call themselves, were as Silver, that their lustre might continue, as shall the lustre and glory of the Word, the Son of God: But there is a time of fading, perishing, and consuming of all the glory of Tin, and so there will be, of all the Shinings, Glossing, Glister, Soundings, Likenesses, Adulterations, Shadows, Mixings, Cover, & Impressions, which are not purely of & from the Lord: but begotten in the corrupt mind, artificially, through the skill of vain man beautified, adorned, and set out as the glory of the eternal God, seeming to be as the Lords golden candlesticks; 
The ashes of Tin serves to scour iron, stone, and other things.  but the Lord will consume all with the breath of his mouth, and make the ashes of it, as the ashes of Tin serveth, to clear and to make bright other vessels, instruments and tools which may serve in his house for the future.  
Hear then, all you that boast of your callings, that are not called of the Lord, as Paul he saith, that he was by the will of God, and not by the will of man; you (I say) that are called by the will of man, and of men, to be speakers, and teachers, or ministers, know this, that Jesus Christ is the Minister of reconciliation, and the only teacher of his people, and you are the intruders among his people, taking up that liberty to yourselves that belongeth not to you; being you know not what you say, nor the word you speak, nor the Gospel that you profess, and pretend you preach to the world; for the Gospel is hid to them that perish, and if you be in that perishing and consuming condition, woe be to you from the Lord. Deceive not yourselves in these last times, wherein God in great love comes to manifest himself unto his: think not that the old vessels of Tin can now stand, that hath held all manner of most filthy poison for this many years, and that the boasting of bare ignorance & hypocrisy can uphold them. Hath not the outward visible Church, since the primitive Saints, been apostatised and corrupted this many hundred years? Do you conceive that the lopping of some boughs off the tree, that hath ever since brought forth bad fruit, will serve the turn? No, no, the tree itself must be cut down and cast into the fire, the corrupt and drossy metals must be refined. This the Almighty will do, he will gather his jewels and his wheat, his Saints, he will gather them together, and there shall be one Shepherd, and one sheepfold, there shall be no more hirelings that do forsake the sheep when the wolf cometh, for fear of their own persons; but the Lord God will be their everlasting light and defence, amidst all their enemies.  
Is it God's complaint, that his people are Tin? it concerns all to look about, although by his Prophets he complains only against the Prophets that sinned against him, and also the Priests for their behaviour towards him and his people, as by the resemblance of tin is at large set forth; yet other people, inclining to the ways of the Prophets and the Priests, are herein also concerned: Some there are that put their trust and confidence in the say and do of others for themselves, and not willing to rummage their inner man, to get a testimony of their own; but rely on the preaching, praying, and praisings of God, by those Prophets and Priests lips, being content to hazard their eternal welfare, not caring in their inward and invisible part, to answer and obey the light that acquaints them with their condition, and so live without the evidence and assurance of their eternal welfare. Fools and blind, can you be content to lie down, and be satisfied with the bare name of Christians, and not prove yourselves to be so in very deed? You should work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 
2 Cor. 13. ●  but, like Felix, you do not care for to tremble, you will hear of that another time, and so put it off until you have no time left, and then your trembling shall have no end; let not your religion be of that sort, that hath no union, or communion with God; 
Matth. 5.13.  if it be so, it is like that salt that is unsavoury, that is not good for any thing, but for the dunghill: but let your religion be that of the Saints of old, that could say, The Lord is my habitation. When we can truly say, I find Christ liveth in me, then shall we be able to draw conclusions of God's love in all conditions, either of prosperity, or adversity, and in it shall behold with great joy, through the Cross, our dignity that we are called the sons of God: then shall we find within ourselves the pure salt that preserveth us, being in the flesh, as natural salt doth keep flesh from tainting, so shall we be kept holy and blameless, till the coming of the Lord.  
In the third place, let us see how Israel is Iron, and how the people of traffic, Merchants, men of commerce and trade, their exercise being to the support of their Nation, City, Town, or place, where they dwell or inhabit, are resembled to iron.  
First, Iron is a metal that is very hard and strong, and is of very great use to the main business of the world, officiating various and sundry kinds of several services and uses.  
Secondly, it is a metal, that notwithstanding its strength and serviceableness, is subject above all metals to rust, to lose not only his beauty and colour, but to lose its strength; yea, utterly all, and its very substance changed and turned into earth.  
This metal of iron, there is no dealing with it without the fire, and with the fire it is very yielding, to the bringing forth, or making of any instrument, tool, or thing whatsoever is necessary for building, fencing, framing, foiling, securing, drawing, cutting, hammering, delving, ploughing, and all kinds of working, insomuch that there is no business concerning the world, but there, to the doing of that business, iron, and things and instruments made of iron, both on the land and on the sea are attending.  
The which doth set forth unto us the great business and service that the men of the world doth, as in the world, and to and for the love and sake of the world only: by them many great designs and enterprises are brought to pass of merchandizing, and trading, and commerce; as also much manufactory, husbandry, tillage, and labours, wherein is seen to the outward, the great providence of God in the world, in disposing of all the affairs of men, in their outward adventures and their more hard labours; some men sitting still, and living upon the adventures and labours of others, and others labouring and endeavouring themselves with much hardship to maintain themselves.  
Is iron a very hard and strong metal? So are the people of trade and merchandise, and all other signified by iron; they are hard, not easily plied and bowed, they are hard in their bargains, deal, hiring, and paying of wages; they are strong, for they have great substance, much art and cunning, and do gain great profits, possessions, and inheritances, having the exercise of buying and selling all commodities useful for men.  
As the Lord doth complain against them he sets up in authority, and against his Prophets; so doth he complain against others of his people, who were set by him, and appointed in callings, to furnish the Nations with things convenient for the outward necessity of man, and here says they are iron, they are as hard as iron, they will not ply (saith the Lord) nor bow to me, but are a stiffnecked people, a stubborn and a gainsaying people, a people that have deaf ears, blind eyes, hard hearts, as deaf as the deaf adder, that will not hear the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely; that walk according to the stubbornness of their own hearts, and their rebellious wills and understandings; and such Christ spoke of in his time, They will not come to me that they might have life: and others that will not come to the feast, they are set and resolved, and firmly determine, they will not yield, submit, and bow. And as they are hard and stiff, that they will yield no obedience to God, so likewise they are hard and cruel to their brethren in their bargains and deal, especially to their poor; they have no respect to equity, but to great gain, and herein they do use lying, deceit, guile, overreaching, and oppression, the one to the other; and as the more hard iron doth cut the soft iron, and makes it to be fit instruments for uses and purposes, so doth the hard and cruel man, he cuts his neighbour not only in his outside, but in his very inward, nay, to the taking of away the very marrow of his poor neighbour's bones: they are hard and cruel in their hiring of poor men, waiting and taking all the advantages that may be, to screw them and bring them to work so low, that they cannot maintain themselves, nor their families: they are hard in paying of wages, concerning the time and the place, not when they most need, or at the most convenient place, but putting them to the worst every way, to make them the more serviceable and tendable upon them. Some there be that do abate the poor man of his wages, or pay him in bad coin, or bad commodity. Thus, thus do the people deal that are signified by iron, and resembled to iron, wherein large complaints might be made against them.  
Again, they are strong, they have great substance and much art; they are still gaining great profits, inheritances and lands, having the exercise of buying and selling. God made man righteous, but he hath sought out many inventions; herein, in the traffic, merchandise, and trading of the world, is seen much of the wickedness of men: First, man makes himself strong by owning other gods, he is strong in his own might, making his merchandise, his trade, or his calling to be as his god; in it he puts his confidence and his trust more than in God. I would I could not say it, but true it is, that the worldly man doth put his trust in his merchandise, in his trade, in his husbandry in his manufactory, in his cunning, in his craft, in his deceit: hence it is, that some places and houses, that are and have been, are called houses of deceit; it is a very sad thing being well considered that any man should profess himself to be a Christian, and rely, confide, and wholly put his trust in his outward calling for the support and maintaining of his family, not trusting God in the least, but to wall in, to himself, all possible things within his own reach, to his visible eye, for to oer e him not only from wanting, but to get an estate▪ and to make himself great by deceit.  
Secondly, man becomes strong when he hath attained his own desires, and brought to pass his own ends. Resolution to be rich (being accomplished) makes the heart as strong as iron; for reason gives to man, that if once he hath gotten, he may keep what he hath gotten, and so poor blind man, having gotten a substance, doth glory in it, and boast of it, it may be not without some verbal expressions of the blessing of God to him in his trade, or his way that he did exercise himself in: But he is strong, he is able for great undertake, and to give assistance to others; he is strong, fearing no change, no alteration, he hath enough to maintain himself and his, he is not beholding to any, others are to him; he is strong concerning the noble achievements, in bringing about great designs, whereby many poor is set on work, much business, as to the livelihoods of many, is generated and born out of his care and casting about in the several undertake of himself, that it is merit sufficient for him to do so much public good, crying peace to himself, in the satisfaction of his earthly mind, that because of his conceived public good he doth, carrying a greater countenance than other men's business doth in the world, he blesseth himself in his own imagination, & so becomes strong, but not according as S. Paul saith, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  
Thirdly, man becomes strong in his own conceit, that after he hath gained an estate, and is the means of much employment of others to get their living, than man comes to preferment, to honour and dignity, to have many friends, to have all men to speak well of him, and to be friendly to him, to afford him any service and respect, to praise him and to pray for him: Solomon saith, The rich have many friends, but the poor is hated of his neighbour: the worldly rich man, what can he desire more: when he hath gotten that that makes him strong, he needs not to fear, nor to be afraid what evil can come to him; he is safe, he is well provided for, (as the word is.) Thus we see how worldly men, rich men, are of the strength of iron, strong every way to their hearts desire; surely these strong men may be concerned in the speech of our Saviour, 
Luk. 11.22.  when the strong man keeps the house all things are at peace; but when a stronger than he cometh upon him, than he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils: when men come to attain, besides the worldly contentments, some inward peace that nothing doth disturb them, disquiet them, or ail them, than they are strong and able in their own imagination, to overthrow power, to vanquish all things that shall rise up against them: Even then in the height of all this, there is sorrow in the midst of laughter, weakness in the midst of strength. There is an overruling power and strength that sees the folly and madness of men, to think themselves strong, and wise, and rich, when they are weak, foolish, and poor; for God will blast all the strength of men, and they shall know that the Lord is only strong.  
Again, as iron is a metal of great use & much strength, so it is a metal that is very subject to rust, and to come to earth again.  
Iron is a metal that will not mix with other metals, yet it may be gilded, silvered, and tinned: workmen do make many sundry sorts of things of iron, the which is gilded, and silvered, and tinned.  
That iron which is gilded, doth set out to us those worldly people, men of the world that are very high in profession and in seeming practice, as if they were the very sons of God, and of these men now, there is the greatest talk and the greatest stir, and the greatest plague will fall upon them; for they are not as the threescore queens that Solomon in the Canticles speaks of, but as the four●core Concubines, they are in show such as are married to the Lord, that are espoused to him; but in truth they love other gods besides, therefore they are iron for its strength, and as gilded iron in re pect of their exceeding fair show among men: I would our Nation had but a few of these, less than fourscore, but I fear there are thousands speaking according to the capacity of men. Would there were not thousands of them among the Presbyterians. But what shall I name them? may not there be some among the Independants, among the baptised Churches, and among the people called Quakers; these people compared to gilded iron are not to be found otherwhere; for they have protested against the common Protestant and Episcopalist, besides all other religions of that sort. O woe, woe, woe from the Lord against all such that have such costly and golden cover, and mere iron within, that seem above other professors and practisers, not only to be changed, but to be angelized; not only to be civilised, but to be (as it were) deified. These, these are hypocrites with a witness, which the Lord is now showing to the world, he is uncovering and taking away their gilt, and they shall show and appear what their inside is: These are the worst of all men, like to the Devil, that can transform himself into an Angel of light; of these I will say no more, but what is said of them, Heb. 10.26. For if we sin willingly after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgement, and violent fire which shall devour the adversary. 
Heb. 6.4, 6, 7, etc.  Again, Heb. 6.4. there are terrible things for the Apostate.  
Again, that iron which is silvered, are another sort of professors in the world, who are not upon so high a strain as the other, but yet they are not according to their show, they are as Martha was, that was cumbered with much business, but Mary had chosen the better part, which shall never be taken away, the gold and the silver, that is as a covering to iron, shall by means of lying on the iron wear away; for the iron will show itself, and break thorough its covering: These sorts of people are a worldly people but yet they are full of the Word in their mouths, always, talking of God, his word, and of religion; but they have not the power of it in their hearts, they are only in show; for these do persecute people that live in the power and life of what they do profess, which doth manifest by that, that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ. To be Silver without, and Iron within, is much like to that foolish builder, not building his house on a Rock, but on the Sands; when the winds came, and the rain fell, it blasted not only the glory of the profession, but the very house itself fell, for when the weather of affliction comes, it wears away the silvering, and then the Iron that rusteth, and becomes earth, and so all is worth nothing?  
Secondly, Iron is subject above all metals to rust, and so loses not only his beauty and his colour, but also his strength yea his very substance, for by lying in the earth, it is turned unto earth.  
Iron, never so well cleaned and beautified, will lose his colour, let it be from the fire, the fire doth preserve it standing, or being used near it. So long as the fire of God anger is near the worldling, so long is he of a bright hue, and countenance, and some appearance of God is in him: But when his corrupt heart, joineth itself to earth, or to the waters, that is to lie in the earth, in his earthly and carnal mind, and not be brought out of it, but there remains still, in its own element, it becomes afterwards, to be very earth itself, by rusting in it.  
How is the worldling by loving the world, cleaving to it, and delighting in it, loving it with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his soul, with all his strength exercising all his understanding, art, cunning, and wisdom, in the prosecution of it, adding more and more to his desire, and to his endeavours still unsatisfied? so that in the end, he becomes infinite in his desires being without bounds, or limits, no word or counsel can restrain him, but colours the unmeasurable desire, of still obtaining, with the show of good husbandry, and thrift, and therein thinks he doth God good service, in the exercising of his talon, and pleads for his most covetous and wretched practices, which is the height of all wickedness, to plead for it, and to defend it, against all the persuasions that can be urged: So that the lying in this earthly mind and will, without any remorse at all, makes him to be very earth, he is eaten up and devoured of his own earthly, sensual, and worldly pursuings, that there is nothing of God in him, neither of Religion, being thus centured, hence it comes to pass, that being present at any meeting, where any thing of God is spoken, though he be present in body, he is absent in mind, and either his mind wanders, & his thoughts runs out into the world, or else heavy, and sleepy, in such places, and at such exercises, declaring plainly, that he hath no love at all to God, his Word, or Religion; the talk of it is tedious to him, he cannot bear it; it is to him, as an unsavoury, or an unrelishable dish of meat, being offensive to him, it must be taken from him; or else he will departed.  
Lamentable is the case of worldlings, in respect of their loving the treasure of the world; whereas being men made with a face directed to look upward, they look downwards, always grovelling in the earth like beasts. And this is not all; but there are some, who live and centre themselves, in the pride and pleasure of the world: what the world affords them, they do embrace it, and make their chief delight and joy in it: the proud man that is proud of his estate, means, lands, live, friends, or his place or office is here concerned, in this resemblance of iron, and he living here, in the only service of his voluntary and high mind, advancing himself above others, and thinking himself, in his proud conceit, to be better than others, staveth off from himself all good, counsel to humility, that in the end he is swallowed up, into such an extreme deluge of pride, being hardened in it, that nothing will work upon him; his rust and filth of his proud mind doth devour him. The like may be said of such as give themselves up wholly to pleasure, and can see no benefit at all to themselves, but only the pleasure; yea, the pleasure that the world yields them, that they take as their portion, and dreams of a Heaven that is of such like condition. Beware oh ye that love pleasure more than God, for your end is damnation, and while you live thus, not owning God, or the pleasure: and pleasantness of His countenance, you are so rusted with lying in pleasure, that nothing but earth, and the transitoriness of that pleasure shall be your reward, and are devoured by that wherein your flesh delighted.  
Doth God complain that his people are Iron, great cause there is for it, for the greatest part of the world are as Iron, hard and stiff cruel and strong, worldly, covetous, proud, and living in pleasure; consider this ye that do forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you, although you are as strong, and as hard as Iron, the Lord can find away to weaken and soften you, the fire of his wrath will do it, there is nothing too hard for the Lord: hath he said and shall it not be done. Break off therefore your sins by repentance, and your iniquities by showing of mercy: be liberal and bountiful in the distribution of what God hath given you to the poor make not the earth your own, it is the Lords, and he giveth it to the sons of men, Boast not of any worldly thing, it is all vanity, your wisdom, your strength, your riches, honour and dignity, and all shall pass away as a vain thing. 
Eccles. 2.  Solomon had all his heart could desire, of all the pleasurable things of the world, and when he had considered all, he saw all to be vanity, and vexation of spirit, and that there is no profit under the Sun.  
Fourthly, and lastly, let us see how Israel is said to be Lead, in the poor, mean, and people of low degree.  
Lead is a metal that is soft and weighty, it is pliable, and will receive any impression, and it hath silver contained in it, not to be seen: it is also malleable:  
Of all the former metals, this hath the least esteem yet the best metal, considering the good qualities of it, being soft, and pliable, and retaining something of silver.  
1 Is Led soft and pliable, so are the poor of the world, they are soft in their answers, as Solomon saith, A soft word appeaseth strife: it is not for a poor man to stir up strife, his care is to peace, gi●ing good words, diligent attendance suffering wrong; he is soft, being gentle, and submissive, he is soft, in being friendly and serviceab e every way a poor man is soft, not rough, nor rigid, nor high minded, as the former sorts of men, exemplified by other sorts of metals are.  
2 A poor man is also pliable as lead, you may wind him▪ and turn him any way, put him to any bu●…nesse, speak any thing to him, he is content to be of another's judgement, being ignorant, ●oon persuaded, do any thing for a livelihood.  
3 Again, a poor man, like as lead will receive any impression any stamp; call him what you will any title serves him, he bears it because he cannot avoid it he is also as Led malleable; the hammer will fashion him to any thing; to this condition or to that, to any form.  
In all the●e qualifications the poor seemeth to be the best of all. Mo●t true it is, that there are a sort of poor, that in all the equalities, do appear in the world beyond the men of the world, (whom our precedent discourse hath made mention of): for the wisdom of Almighty God is such that he knoweth what is best for us, and to some, in his great and rich love, doth he give a very small pittance of the outward things of this life, that being hereby pinched they might be still calling to God, who is the giver of all things meat, and drink apparel, houses, and other necessaries, they are gifts of God; Dantur bonis quia non mala, dantur malis qu●a non bona, good men may be bettered by them, and e ill men may be made worse however it be, yet God is good, and loving to Israel and to all them that are true of heart; they shall want nothing that is good for them. Ha●h God appointed the poor to serve the rich, and are they th●s p●i●b●e, ●o●t and gentle, unto their earthly masters, Let us by them, yea, let all the great ones of the world, learn to be p iable to their Maker, in all t ings, as the poor man is to his master, be willing to go, to come, to be easily persuaded by the Word of our God, and not to live being ignorant according to our own judgements, and understandings, but according to the will of our God: 
Psalm. 7●  David when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, he was cast down, and thought he had cleansed himself in vain, But afterwards, when he had been at the Sanctuary of God, he understood, etc. and said, Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and after that receive me to Glory; In this, let us learn of the poor, and be poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God: the poor takes any impression, call him what you will, he is not angry neither offended; so should it be with us, take all manner of wrongs and injuries patiently, not seeking revenge, but be Malipiero eable, under the hammer of God, to be beaten, and fashioned to what he will have us to be.  
Again, Lead is weighty, and in that quality it is like Gold, for that is the weightiest of all metals. But this lead being a weighty and heavy metal, it serveth in the world to make weights, wherewith most commodities that are sold by weight, are weighed and balanced. So are they, the poor of the world, they are as the weights wherewith the deal of men, one with another, and towards themselves, are by them weighed, and considered; all their unjust actions, their oppressions, fraud, injuries, and hard dealing is by them seen, and felt, and known more than to others; for by such means, men are made poor, and kept so: and therefore the pressure of it lying on them chief, it is by them weighed, and considered, and also by them judged, censured, and execrated,  
Led also is weighty in another respect, and that is in respect of the poor themselves, being heavy, and burdensome, to the places, they are and do remain in: some of them, being aged, lame, impotent and blind, and destitute; these poor are chargeable, and burdensome, and such as these, are always in the world, and to be provided for.  
Thete is also poor that are vagarants, rogues, thiefs, and poor prisoners; the which are troublesome, to the Common Wealth, and burdensome where they are; these the civil Magistrate should take in hand to restrain, punish, and suppress:  
Here we see, that the poor here understood by the metal Led, are of two kinds, the one are very flexible, and tractable, and doth resemble the silver, that is in the Lead, as it lies in the drossy body unseen.  
The other poor is as the drossey body of the Lead, which must by refining be brought to a separation, forth from the Silver, and so the one makes a vessel for the refiner, and the other is as a weighty, and burdensome people in the world.  
Take Lead as it is in the original, and ye cannot perceive any Silver to be in it. So the poor; they are such that have some graces, and discoveries of God unto them, but they cannot show it; they are so trampled on by the men the world, and kept low, in a despised, forlorn, and mean condition, that they cannot exercise their graces as they should, it lies inwardly in the heart, and doth not appear outwardly; This is the condition of many, and yet the rich justify themselves very much, by the carriages of the poor, being contrary to them; for they frequent public preaching, and use long prayers, pay their deuce, speak the truth without avowing, and do acts of charity, being sober, and chaste outwardly, whereby it comes to pass, that the rich man in his demeanour, and carriage blesseth himself that he is not such a one as the poor, like the proud Pharisee, that did thank God he was not as other men, he did fast twice a week, etc. whereas there is a great difference between them; the rich can very well spare the time, to be seen of men, and spend much in the outward visible matter of service, and nothing troubles him, all things is in store for his use, without seeking after it. But the poor man, he must get his bread, and be employed, at all seasons, for that end, to have to sustain nature: but seeing the difference, he crieth to the Lord, from his heart, God be merciful to me a sinner, and so getteth inward comfort, and solace, though outwardly he cannot show it to the world.  
Other poor, that is signified by Lead, being parted from the Silver, is that fort of poor, that are wicked: of these there are, that are mockers, railers, revilers and verbal persecutors, slanderers of men in high places, for good acts of Justice, Piety, and Charity, having nor the fear of God before their eyes: they are ready to do any evil, as coadjutors to others, being thereunto engaged, wherein men of eminence, outwardly civil, forbear in their own persons, and force and compel those poor whom they can command. And thus the designs of evil men, are brought to pass, and executed as in these days, against the pure people of God, who are drawn from the the common practice of the world, to live more nearer with God, and to commune with him, out of the world's ordinances; these are much abused and mocked.  
Some of these poor are such, that are discontented that they are poor, falling from one wickedness to another, and most rudely do abuse the Name of God, his people, his creatures, and all the things of God, impatient, passionate, and charging of God, for aflicting them; some, as it hath been heard say, said: Can God do more to me then he hath done? some also that were before, 
A poor man at Cardiff.  of some ability and means, having lost it, are moved through the instigation of the evil One, to rage and foment evil against their Maker; for that they have not, as heretofore, to carry on the desires of their lustful hearts, into that, they formerly lived in?  
There are also poor that are idle, lazy, and swinish, that are as monsters among men, and the very shame, of nature, by their most filthy, nasty, and beastly behaviour, who are nor worthy the name of men, and women, who takes no care, neither will they be advised, and ruled by any good persuasion, or desire the same: but like brute beasts, which have no understanding to seek after any thing that savours of civility, or humanity; for these, let our pity and grief, make future prevention, that no more may fall into the like condition, that poor children may have some Christian education, a thing desired of all them that fear the Lord:  
Must the poor, the Lead be melted? Consider this, than ye that are the poor of the world, although you have not store of talents, put into your hands as others have: if you have but one, you must not hid it in a napkin, you must employ it. Demean yourselves, according to your measure, murmur not at your short allowance you have of the things of this life; but rather praise the Almighty God that you are kept short, seeing his great love in it, that you should not enjoy the desires of your own fleshly wills, and heart, which would make you to spurn and kick against your maker, 
Job. 11.12.  and to be as, Job saith, like the wild Ass' colt, to run away from him, and to be filled with high exaltations, living in, and loving of, the vanities the world affordeth, having not that way of procuring, and perfecting the full accommodation of these terrene and earthly treasures, neither able to reach them by any earthly means, or power in yourselves▪ but are kept low, depressed, and despised by the men of the world, who live in ease, pleasure, and delight, knowing little care, sorrow, or want, having all things to the full, and every thing prospereth and goes well with them, who are like unto the fatted Ox, that is fitted for the slaughter. You that are the poor of the world, know, that the Lord, out of his great mercy would not have you to perish with the world, but makes the world, to be bitter and grievous to you, that your minds might be set on Heaven and heavenly things. Observe but the manner of the world, and the several conditions of men in the world, and you shall find, that it is a more blessed thing▪ for to be kept short of the things of this life, then to have them to the full: David saith, before I was afflicted I went aastray; and the prophet saith from the Lord In their affliction they will seek me early: poverty is accounted an affliction for all affliction, that is outward, tendeth to that end, to make men poor; Seest thou a man, that some disease hath seized on him? that is pined for hunger, starved with cold, wounded, bruised, crippled, imprisoned, or any such like thing is come upon him, or either cross or loss? if there be any grace in that party, it will then be discovered; for there will be some symptoms, some cry and callings, some relent, some ejaculations, or other expressions of a penitent heart, which were not shown in time of prosperity and health; For the prosperous welfare of the sons of men in this life, doth cause corruption and infection in the inward man, so that it often falleth out, that the loss of a limb, of the fight, of goods, strength, or liberty, by the goodness and mercy of God in his providence, is the drawing and gaining of a soul unto God. Job he praised God for e●i● as well as for good, and made it to appear, that the evil of punishment, correction and affliction, is better than prosperity. Happy are those that see God to be good unto them in affliction and in poverty, surely the Lord is good to all, then to the poor that are the Lords; for they shall be melted and refined, and be made as the Lord will make others to be, his vessels; for he dwelleth with the humble, and men of low degree, he despiseth not the poor but setteth them up among Princes.  
By this that h●th been said concerning these several metals, Brass, Tin, Iron, and Led, we see what Israel was and what England is, and what would become of us, if the Lord God should not melt us; Surely, we can never enter into his Kingdom, we cannot be vessels, or temples for hi● Spirit to dwell in; except we are melted all are dross and drossy substances, all both high and low, rich and poor have erred, and do go astray from the Lord, and it is his great mercy that he doth acquaint his people what shall come upon them, and unto them; He will not deal with all as he doth with his own people; for all are not Israel, th●r are of Israel▪ Therefore saith the Lord, I will gather them, w●ich is the first thing that God will do, now they are discovered to be what they are.  
Fourthly, he will gather them, and bring them into the midst of Jerusalem. Will God gather his people? He will do it. Are his people scattered? It doth appear so. These words do not so much make it to appear, as the experience the people of God have had of their condition, at all times and in all ages of the world, as in Genesis; I will divide them in Jacob, 
Genes. 4.7. Nehem. 1.8. 1 King. 22.17. Ezek. 31.10. Ezek. 34.6.  and scatter them in Israel; Nehem. 1. Ye will transgress, and I will scatter you among the people. God doth scatter his people. And the shepherds that are over them doth scatter them, Ezek. 34.10. If God's people be a scattered people, that are not known by their multitudes and great numbers, at public places and meetings, but are expelled and driven out from those places; then there is matter of suspicion, what those places of great resort are, and what the people are, that do meet together by such multitudes.  
God will gather them: How will God gather them? He will gather them as men gather fruit, 
2 King. 4 39 Genes. 31.46. Psal. 106.47. Jerem 49.5. Matth. 3.  or herbs; he will with his own hand pull them from that whereunto they are fixed, and will draw them out, or from the place, or places, where they abide and remain, as men gather stones; he will gather his people from the Heathen, from the men of the world, he will bring them from among the Nations, he will gather him that wandereth, he will gather his out of the far Country. He will gather them into his house, into his garner, into his bosom; they shall be within his limits, near to himself, to have acquaintance with him, to be saved and defended by him.  
What great comfort is here to the people of God that are scattered, they shall be gathered. God will do it, here is his word for it, who can hinder him, who can scatter? when he saith he will gather, he will gather them to himself, to an acquaintance one with another; there shall be one God and one King, 
Zach. 14.7. Joh. 11.52.  they shall be taken from off their other Gods, their other lovers, My Beloved is but one: this was was propesied by Caiaphas. That he might gather together in one the children of God that are scattered, Ephes. 1.10. He will gather all things into one by Jesus Christ, who is the head of the body, that being knit and coupled together, it may increase together in love. That that God gathers to himself, he doth esteem of it, he loves it, he doth delight in it, taketh care of it, it continues with him for ever. 
Joh. 10.28, 29.  None shall be able to pull any thing out of God's hand that he hath gathered: them that God doth gather from wandering in the four elements, he doth not intent they shall return, but he will keep them as the apple of his eye, as the signet on his right hand.  
Was the people of God a scattered people, and are they not so now? Were the true Israelites scattered, and are not the true Believers so now? Many of the Saints are weeping in silent, for want of a solemn Assembly; but it cannot be, it is their lot to sit down and weep by the waters of Babylon, while others sing psalms, 
Psal. 137.1, 2.  they cannot sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, li●ing in Babylon, in flesh, and in self, in which they are sensible that they are in bondaged, and not in the life and liberty of God alone: they are encumbered with much of the filth of the world, it being centred in evil; yea, the pure things of the world are most defiled, the worship of God, the teachings and exhortations given out by men are full of impurity; the light of the world, 
Matth. 6.23.  that that is embraced by the world is full of darkness, and if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness?  
It must needs be, that the people and Saints of God, who live with God, walk with him, and commune with him inwardly, should not be bound up to apostate forms, and Church ordinances outwardly, being not consistent with the pure life of God, but as death they divide from them, & are scattered from such Church-fellowships that bring no true peace, having been taught to be essential, but now found to be only the name of an association, or agreement, when as there is nothing more than difference, dissension, and confusion, as Babel: Come our from among them, my people, saith the Lord, the holy One. And again, Associate yourselves, O my people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, 
Isai. 3.8.  and you shall be broken pieces. Let the world in their wisdoms, arts, learning, and goodliness of flesh, meet and congregate by multitudes together: let their teachers which conceive they can teach the Gospel, speak out what they are able of themselves, having not that gift of the Spirit to manifest the mystery, they shall be broken in pieces; that part which is built up to God, and they unto whom the Lord hath revealed himself, invisibly and individually, must turn out, must scatter from them. Thus it must be, the Lord God will save his, although it may be said, Many pastors, many teachers have destroyed and distracted thee. O England; yet God hath reserved to himself a scattered people, whom he will save, and which he will gather.  

Zach. 13.7, 8.  God will gather all the dispersed, scattered, and broken ones, he will bring them out of Babylon, out of confusion, from the false christs, which are the false churches, and bring them to Christ, to the true Church. It is impossible they should be deceived, who are in the hands of the Lord, who are with him, who have renounced the fair forms and flesh of the Whore, and wait only for the appearance of God in them, who shall not be ashamed, but shall rejoice, having a new name, having higher discoveries of God, living in more holy and righteous ways with men, the Almighty God being in them, all in all.  
God doth gather his people to this end, that they may live and abide with him for ever. But first he gathereth them to melt them, and to refine them, that they may be capable of all that he hath to bestow upon them, and therefore he will gather them, and bring them into the midst of Jerusalem, there to be melted.  

Matth. 4. Isai. 31.9. 1 King. 8.13.  He will bring them into the midst of Jerusalem, into Jerusalem the holy City, the City of God, where Christ was tried and tempted, being the vision of peace, where mount Zion is, the place of Saints, the City of David, in which the Temple of God's habitation was; Jerusalem which received many favours from God, and hath suffered for their disobedience. Is this the place where God will bring his people? to his own City Jerusalem, and into the midst of that City, where there is both safety and plenty, where there is the chief and the choice of all things that can be had, or obtained; 
Zach. 12.5.  where there is security and strength; where there is rest, peace, and tranquillity; where there is Governors and godly inhabitants; where there is Laws, and obedience to those Laws, where there is all manner of delight and comfort? To this place, this City, God will bring his people. Happy are the people that shall be brought to such a City, such a place, where there is no want, no manner of injurious, or wrongful dealing, but justice and equity exercised in its due manner; 
Heb. 12.23.  this place which the author to the Hebrews speaks of, in the commendation of the station of the Saints, that they are come to mount Zion, the City of the living God, the celestial Jerusalem.  
Behold here the love of God to his, that he will bring them to such a place to be melted; by this appears his great love to them in every particular, he will not deliver up his people into the hands of the wicked; into dark, obscure, and uncomfortable places, there to be cruelly handled; but he will bring them among his people, to his house, to the assembly of his Saints, there to be melted and refined, and made conformable to himself.  
Fifthly, the receptacle that must contain them, and the place whereinto the Lord will put them is the furnace, and the midst of the furnace: What furnace is this, that the Lord will put his people into? 
Deut. 4.20.  Egypt is called an iron furnace. Abraham saw a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, Gen. 15.17. There is a furnace of affliction, Isai. 48.10, 
Dan. 3.23. Isai. 31.9.  Nebuchadnezars hot fiery furnace may be a type of this furnace which is in Jerusalem; for Isaiah speaks, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction; when the three children were in the furnace, God was with them; So long as we are in the furnace, we are in the hands of God, he is with us, for his help is still abiding: his gracious appearances and his furnace are inseparable, although the people of God may be brought to a very low condition by many pressures, yet deliverance is at hand: there will be a door opened, a most gracious discovery of the Lords presence and of his goodness towards them there will not be a separation of us from God, but there will be a separation made betwixt us and our defilements. Who shall separate us from the love of God? 
Rom. 8.35, 36, 37, 38.  shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, & c? By this, by this furnace we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us; for those that God loves once, he loveth ever: He is a sun and a shield unto his, 
Psal. 8.4.  he is a lamp unto them that are in the smoking furnace, it being the place of trial that God hath made for his to be tried, purified, and refined in.  
The afflictions, losses, and crosses of the world, are not so much the furnace, as the seeming loss of God's favour, the multitude of our sins lying before us, Satan continually assaulting, the horrible fear, and the pit, of our own wounded spirits, when we see all men hate us.  

Jerem. 30.17. Vers. 6.  This is Zion, whom no man regardeth: when our wounds stink and are festered, when our bones are broken, and our sinews shrunk, when we are in captivity, when we are dead when we are as dry bones; 
Ezek. 37.  then, than the Lord liveth in us, when we have eaten the little book which is bitter in the belly, even as death pangs. It is a mystery, that in the midst of death we then have our chiefest life, when our bones are broken, when our confidences are slain, then are we most firm, and best established in the power and might of the Lord, when we find in ourselves to be most out of the Lords love and favour, then are we most in his favour and love, when our spirits are most wounded, than the spirit of the Lord is upon us with healing, more especially then, than when we had a peace of our own gaining. Was not this fe●t by our Lord Jesus, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Was it upon him, and shall it not be upon us? Zion said, God hath forgotten me: When the glory and excellency of all flesh shall be crucified in us, 
Isa. 49.14. Phil. 3.  then shall we rejoice in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. The end of the Cross is to bring us to the Crown, and the putting us into the furnace, is to make us pure for the Lord, 
Psal. 12.6.  as pure as the silver that is tried, in the furnace of earth seven times: then shall we being dead with Christ, rise with him, and shall ever seek those things that are above, above the reach of the world, the capacity of mortals, we shall have no desire to seek and search after earthy treasures: for that desire is subjected and dead, by our present enjoyment, (although in tribulation,) having received a better hope of a more lively and lasting treasure.  
This furnace which the Lord will put his people into, is contracted of earth, as may appear in the twelfth Psalm forenamed: as brass, and iron, and other metals cannot be melted, but in furnaces of earth, so neither can the people of God be melted, but in an earthen furnace. Here we may see what use the Lord makes of all earthly minded wretches, of all despisers of his Word, and of his people, he makes them to be the furnace, wherein he melteth his people; their mockings, scoffings, revile, reproaches, and persecutions, their cruelty and oppression, their tyranny and their slaughters, are as the furnace of the Lord all the contentions, quarrelings and fightings against God's people, are as the refining pot. 
Prov. 27.21.  God's personal afflicting of the body, or wounding the spirit, usually comes not, but by the envy, malice, wrath, and hatred of man towards man. God is the chief refiner but he hath many instruments and weapons, wherewith he doth so refine us; Satan he desireth it, 
Luk. 22.32. Ezek. 21.31.  and his aim is utterly to undo us, and we are delivered up into the hands of beastly and cruel men, and we know not how we shall be delivered: but the Lord doth know how to deliver his, and to reserve the ungodly unto the day of judgement to be punished who by their malicious hating of the people of God, 
2 Pet. 2 9  do hate God himself, and his Word, and would, if it were possible, pull God from his throne: 
Job. 19.22.  they persecute me, as God, saith Job, their rage is against that of God, that is in men; so that whatsoever the persecutor doth speak, or act, against any of the people of God, that they may assure themselves, is good, and whatsoever they plead for, and would maintain, and defend it, may not be accounted for good, nor so received, and entertained: these times testify to us that in difficult matters, we may know good, by evil men's hating despising, and persecuting of it.  
Sixthly, God will blow the fire of his wrath, upon them, etc. Fire, is that element, that doth produce notable effects, both by making metals, that are very hard, to be soft and pliable, and by consuming the dross, out of them, making them to be pure: this natural fire doth many things that are excellent, as in divers arts, mysteries, and humane sciences, is to be seen, exceeding far the other elements.  

Esa. 66.15. Zach. 13.9. 1 King. 18.23. Ezek. 36.5. Amos. 7.4. 1 Cor. 3.13, etc.  It is by fire, that the Lord will purge his people he will Judge his people by fire, and sword, he will bring them through the fire, and refine them, he will show unto us, what sacrifice, he doth accept of by fire, Malachy 3.2. who can endure, when he appeareth, for he is like a purging fire, Amos 5.6. Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live, lest he break out, like fire, etc. Every man's work, shall be tried by fire of what sort it is.  

Gen. 3.15.  It was the great God for the sin of man, that first did put an enmity, between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the Serpent; which enmity hath continued, & doth by degrees, come to be as fire: it doth from enmity come to contention, from contention, to alienation, and separation; from that to hatred, loathing, and revenge; from that to anger, and wrath, which doth bring to pass the design of the one, vanquishing, and overthrowing of the other.  

Heb. 12.29. Psal. 2. last.  God is said to be as fire, which doth consume, our God is a consuming fire, he is so in his anger, and in his wrath, against the enmity, against the wicked, the profane, ungodly, against the despisers, and them that make a mock of his word; the breath of the Lord, as a river of brimstone shall devour them. As God placed, the enmity, 
Esa. 30.33.  so he will destroy it; there shall be nothing, that shall stand against him, he will burn up all, and consume all, that is not of himself; that that lies in the vain imagination of man, he will burn it up for nothing can come, from vain man, as he is guided, by the enmity, but what is fuel, 
Rev. 1.10.  fit for the fire of the Lord.  
Hence it is, that God terms his people to be dross, and drossy metals, & saith he will melt them, he will blow the fire of his wrath upon them, and they shall be melted: the Lord is the fire, and here he saith, he will blow the fire, etc. Much like to that, the Lord said permissively, concerning Ahab: I will go forth, and be a lying spirit, 
1. King. 22.22 Esa. 54.16. Esa. 40.7. Hag. 1.9.  in the mouth of all his prophets. I will blow the fire, saith the Lord, I will set men a work, to blow the fire, Behold then, what the Lord hath now done among us. What fire hath there been lately blown up, what Divisions, Dissensions, Dashing, Clashing, Fomenting, Renting, and Dividings, yea what Burn, and boilings is there, in the minds and hearts of men? some raging, tearing, spoiling and consuming themselves, in blind zeal; others wearied, and almost tired with patiented waiting for the accomplishent of the promises, being clouded, and vailed; and therein are afflicted, and tossed with tempest, and have no comfort. Is it not the Lord that hath kindled the fire, which Christ speaks of, which he wished it were kindled? 
Esa. 54.11. Luke 12.49. 2 Cor. 11.29.  I will blow the fire of my wrath upon you, I have caused men to be inflamed one against the other, I have blowed the fire, that is now among you; Your diversities of opinions, your contrary and different judgements, your various kinds of preaching, your several prayings, your fiery writings one against another, your impatient and passionate speakings, rail, and revile, your condemnings, and sentencing one another, this fire that is in each of your bosoms, will I blow, till it be such a strong fire, that it shall consume all that is of flesh, & the glory of it, for it doth deceive my people, and makes them to err, therefore the fire shall burn out all the dross and the Tin, and there shall be none left but the good metal.  
When therefore we take notice of the several contradictions, that is in the world, 
Rom. 8.28.  among the sons of men, let us know that all shall work for good in the end, to them that believe, and do, with faith and patience, wait for the accomplishment of the promises: for herein doth matter of comfort arise to them that have received an unction from the Holy One, 
1 John. 2.20.  for they know all things▪ if so that then as the Saints did, that there are many antichrists now in the world, and that the time is come, nay the very day doth appear, in the which, an overturn shall be, to all rereligions and professions, 
Isa. 66.22.  that were made, invented, and set up by men: And that there shall be a new Heaven, a new religion set up by God, which shall remain for ever. But before this is really accomplished, and brought to pass, there may be much persecution, occasioned by them who are the upholders of Antichrist, in the professed way of a religion, patched up in these times of Apostasy: which cannot endure to hear of the fiery change, that shall come, which will burn up all Envy, self-conceitedness, pride, self-love, ambition, discord and strife, and bring us to that pure love, that shall ever the Saints badge, 
1 Cor. 13.5, 6, 7, 8.  and cognizance, as in the first of John, Chapter the fourth.  
Seventhly, God will melt them, God will melt his people, as men melt Brass, and Tin, and Iron, and Led. This word, melting is often times used in the Scriptures, as in Joshua 7.5. the peoples heart melted away: Josiah his heart melted, 
2 Kings 22.19. 2 Chro. 34.27.  as you may read at large, the issue of it, Nahum. 1.5. Psal. 147.18. he sendeth his Word and meeteth them.  
God will melt his people, that is, he will dissolve them, he will make them soft and liquid, he will make them pliable to relent to faint, to be discouraged he will break them and mollify them: The end of melting is to make pliable and capable, the metal that is melted to accomplish, and to bring to pass the design of the workman, for his intended purpose as may be seen, by the several varieties of vessels, and other things, made founded, cast, and form, by men that are skilled in metals.  
Here the people of God, are as metal, 
Jer. 38.6. Rom. 9.21.  in the hands of the founder: in other places of Holy writ, they are as clay, in the hands of the potter, and he hath power over them.  
As clay is made soft by water, and so is wrought, and made to what fashion the potter pleaseth: So are metals made soft by fire, some having a more strong fire, than the others, according to their several qualities; and cast, wrought, and made up by the workman, in what fashion, he pleaseth.  
Even so it is with the Lord; he can melt us and cast us, frame us and form us, into what fashion, or condition he pleaseth.  
Will God deal thus with his people? Will he break them, undo them▪ melt them, dissolve them, discourage them, make them faint, and relent; Yea, God will do it, when no course else will serve the turn, he will do it: yet doth he appoint means, not to cast him out from Him, him that is expelled.  
Behold, here the goodness, the bounty, and the love of God to mankind and to his people! he will melt them, 
2 Sam. 14.4.  their heart's sh●● be melted, he wi●● not consume them, but their dross that is in them▪ he will new found them, that whereas their hearts were impure, he will purify them, he will renew them, he will open their hearts, 
Acts 15.9. Ezek 11.19. 1 King. 8.37.  as Lydias was, Acts 16.14. he will give them sincere hearts, Heb. 10.22.  
He will establish their hearts, with holiness, 
1 Th●s. 3.13. 2 Thes. 2.16.17.  he will give them upright heart's, as he did to Asa▪ 1 King. 15.14. A perfect heart, as he ga e Hezekiah, 2 Kings 20.3. a contrite heart, and a clean heart, as he gave Druid 〈◊〉 ●…0. he will gi●e his people humble, patiented m●●k 〈…〉 g and tender hearts.  
O, what a metamorphose will there 〈◊〉 ●h●re God doth melt, he will take all manner of evil away, and give and bestow all manner of good: will it not be a strange alteration among Christians, that of proud, they are become humble, of being contrary to God, they are Godlike?  
If I had not been undone; I had been undone.  
Consider, how fit this resemblance is: Man is as drossy metal, that must be melted, refined, and purified.  
These metals are all generated; and bread in the earth, and they are no way useful, or serviceable, as they come forth of the earth, but must pass through a strong blowing fire, before they can be made perfect, or useful for the Artificer.  
Even so it is with man, being brought forth into this world, he is not fit for any thing, nor to have to do with his Maker, until he hath passed through the fire, that all the earthy disposition, and incapable substance of dross, that fixeth to him, be clean taken away; A man canno● commune with his Maker, nor offer any sacrifice to him, as he is in nature, until he is new born, he cannot enter: all that earthiness, and drossiness, that is in the internal part, must by fire be scummed, cleared, and utterly taken away, and consumed: hence it is, that Saint John the Baptist saith, 
John 3.3.  I Baptism you with water, but there is one that cometh after me, who will baptise you with the Holy Ghost, 
Matth. 3.  and with fire; the baptism of fire, is that that will be hereafter, for the Whore sits upon the many waters, and she is in discovering.  
What is there in the world, that is fit for use and service, as it is brought forth? Children are apt and prone to all evil, and disobedience, and do whatsoever is contrary to right; if they be not educated, taught, corrected, and instructed; the natural disposition must be subdued and kept under, that the direction to a good demeanour, may work upon them, and they grow up into it.  
Survey the whole creation, and see where there is any thing, that is fit, in its body natural, by reason of its afaffixes, to make use of, before there is a change. Corn cannot be made into bread, before it be threshed, winnowed, ground, sifted, and baked: no flesh, can be fit to nourish, before it hath been ordered & dressed by fire. Trees cannot serve for building, but they must be squared, sawed, and fitted, stones must be hewed: and so must all things that doth belong to meat, and drink, apparel and manufactory, there must be a change of them, or an abatement from them: the earth itself cannot yield forth fruits, before it be tilled and manured.  
Canst thou then, Oh unbelieving man, conceive, although thou art lord of the Creatures, that thou art cleaner than other creatures? canst thou approach near to, canst thou serve, and obey thy Creator, in that nature of thine, thou wast brought forth in, before thou art cleansed, purified, purged, melted, ploughed, winnowed, and sifted? before thyself, thy will, wisdom, understanding, desires, 
Psal. 51.8.  and all in that nature be dead, and a new birth be witnessed? that the broken bones may rejoice over the dead body of sin, which is called the old man, because it is as old as thyself, having all the parts of a man, a head to imagine mischief and vanity, to plot and contrive against his Maker, a stiff neck, arms, and hands, full of oppression and guile, and stretched out against the innocent, feet swift to shed blood, heels to kick against the law of God, ears to hear folly, eyes to behold vanity: if this old man be not dead in thee, and thou art not a new creature, nothing that thou dost can be accepted, thou mayest dream of a happiness to be had, when thou hast gotten an artificial tongue, like a newborn creature, and art, through education and thine own wisdom, 
Esa. 1.  civilised in the outward garb; but if thy heart b● not changed, thou art fare off from happiness, Judgement must pass over thee, yea the fire of the Lord, must burn out thy dross, or else thou wilt be miserable, poor, blind, and naked.  
Thou must yield and submit thyself to thy God bring thy cursed nature to him, there to be slain, come willing y, 
Psal. 10.  humble thyself, under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt thee, learn of thy Maker to know him, and to believe in him, that for the love of the world, gave his only begotten Son, that they should not perish, but obtain through him everlasting life. Think on this, O man: of the great love of God, to thee, what satisfaction could the whole world give, for the Redemption of one soul? and hath Christ Jesus, equal to God his Father, purchased, Redemption for the whole world: and art thou so far from prising it, that thou wilt not accept of it, but think to live happy without change, in thy natural unclean, unpurified, and unrefined condition? Consider in thy hought it to mind, did thy Saviour Jesus Christ, that be no robbery, to be equal to God, as it were un-God himself, becoming man, and suffering a shameful death, to recover and Redeem thee? and art thou so desperately wicked, and so foolhardy, that thou wilt not unman thyself, to be like God, (that is to say) to put off, thy will, wisdom, righteousness, thy pride, lust, and carnal mind, to be invested into a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and holiness, and to be made like unto Christ, in whom all fullness dwells, and to be in union and communion, with the Father:  
Let him, that hath ears to hear, hear: what the Lord hath said. Know ye not that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates, and except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter: if you are the servants of sin, your wages is death, if you live after the flesh, you shall die, for they that are in flesh, cannot please God, for the wisdom of the flesh, is death, but the wisdom of the spirit is life, and peace: all that you can do, in the raw, uncouth, earthy, rough, drossy, vain, dark, uncircumcised, unprepared, and dead condition of nature, though never so much beautified, and adorned, with art learning, and outward wisdom, and glory, it is but hypocrisy, we are only Christians portrayed, and as it with a diamond, if not right, it is worth nothing; and as in a picture, if it be not to the life, than it hath no regard: so, except we are really changed, and metamorphosed, from that we were borne in, and are made like the Son of God, we are not free from the law of sin, and death, but it hath power over us, to eternal death.  
Will the almighty God melt his people? let them be of what sort soever? in their outward callings? either men of authority, men of the world, teaching men, or mean men? Then here, Behold, the great love of God unto you, he will will melt you, he will make you pliable, tractable, and vertible, that what you cannot do yourselves, he will do for you. Can the Leopard change his spots, or the Blackmore his skin, no more can a man change his nature of himself, or by any power within himself, but God only is the changer of all; Are his people Brass, Tin, Iron, and Led, such metals being of drossy, earthy substances, and qualities that are not fit for his service, that will be served with Gold, and Silver? how then can these metals be melted, and purified, and be made fit vessels, for the Lord? They cannot melt themselves, neither is it in the power of one to melt another, no more can man be humbled, mollified, or be made capable, tractable, or vertible of himself, by himself, or by any other man, burr only by the Lord himself who saith: I will melt them.  
Behold then, I say, the goodness, mercy, and love of God, that doth such great things for us, as to melt us, himself! we are still in his hands, we cannot do amiss, no hurt shall come to us, we have his presence, his love, his bounty; although in the Furnace, he owns us, he will not departed from us, what greater love than this? to be with us when we have most need, when we have the bitter cup, presented to us, then, then is our sanctification near, than the Lord is making of us like to Himself, and like to his Word, to be righteous, as he is righteous, pure as he is pure.  
Therefore those that have gone through this fire, and have been melted, humbled, broken, and refined, sound fort the praises of God, and declare, as David did, what the Lord hath done for your souls, how he hath severed, and separated you, from the world, and hath made you fit, to have fellowship, with the Father, and with the Son, which is a mystery to the World, 
1 John 1.3.  and to those, that have not passed from death to life, that have not passed through the fire, and known the indignation of the Lord, but liveth in the vanity of their minds, serving their lusts cohering to the corrupt forms, fashions, and customs, of the world, which have no life in them, but have the issues of death, proceeding from a raw, earthy, drossy, unmelted, and unpurified root, holding, and continuing, in itself, no true peace, nor joy, but what nature or art hath.  
Let the people, who have been dead, and are now alive, that were darkness, and are now light, in the Lord, that are made conformable to the Death, and Resurrection of Christ, being dead to all sin, and alive, to all Grace, who love not the world; nor the things of the world, but have attained the Kingdom of Grace, Love, Joy, and Peace, and have communion with their God, have a reciprocal, and correspondent love to God, and to their brethren, and echo back, everlasting thanks, and praises, to their God, who hath freely communicated of himself unto them, and hath made them, as kings, and priests, who have not only, the fruits, and effects of peace, but peace itself: 
Heb. 7.2. Ephes. 2.14. Col. 1.27.  for Christ in them, the hope of glory, he is their eternal Peace, and their everlasting Light, which proceeded from that fire, in which they were melted and purified, which hath consumed, in them, all their dross, and all manner of carnal lust, concupiscence, and self wisdom, all righteousness, invention, and imagination, that was in the will, and carnal mind, that led them into error, imitation, and separation, from the pure truth, that comes from God, the Fountain of all Truth, and the very essence of all true religion, and of all righteous living, being derived from him, and to be yielded up to him, with a pure conscience, being divided, and severed, from the world, which savours not of the things of God.  
Eighthly, and lastly, The end; They shall know that the Lord hath done it in his wrath, & in his indignation. What, my people Israel, are they such abominable sinners, as to commit such gross sins, bloodshed, idolatry, oppression, disobedience, uncharitableness, covetousness, and fornication? I have great indignation against my people, for these their great sins; you may think that you are still in my favour, and because your secret hiding of your sins makes the less cry among men, you think by my silence that I am like unto you: But I will reprove you, and set your sins in order before you, 
Psal. 50.21.  you shall know that I am angry and wrathful against you, you may apprehend in your carnal wisdoms and understandings, that I still love you, but you shall feel my fury, I will melt you, and then you shall know wherefore, because you transgressed against me. The Lord in the sixteenth of Ezekiel speaks much of his people, how they were, and what he did for them, 
Ezek. 16.  and what their behaviour was, vers. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, neither she, nor her daughters, as thou hast done and thy daughters. After many threats and menaces the Lord still owns them, and in vers. 62. saith, that he will establish his covenant with them, and they shall know that he is the Lord.  
The Lord here doth tell them that when he hath melted them, they shall know that it is the Lord hath done it in his wrath: they shall not say, This fiery change came upon them by chance, or fortune, or out of the dust, or by the transactions of differences that is among the Nations of the world, or through the envy and malice of men against them, and so blame the instruments, as the ignorant world doth; but they shall know that it is he that doth it, and by the power of his arm, and in his wrath.  
See here, and take notice of God's love and mercy in the midst of judgement: although he be angry and full of wrath, yet he will not destroy his people, in the midst of judgement he remembereth mercy; 
Psal. 83.3.  that what he doth bring upon them is to change them, not to confound them; it is to purify, not to consume them; it is that they may know the Lord, as in many places in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel of their prophecies, you shall find, that after judgements denounced, it is said, And they shall know that I am the Lord.  
The knowledge of God is that that the world is not acquainted with, although they talk much of it, they have none of it; 
Hos. 4.1.  God complains by his Prophet Hosea, that there was no knowledge of him in the Land, and that his people were destroyed for want of knowledge, vers. 6. We are Heathens by nature and by profession, we declare it; for we profess outwardly, what is not inwardly: It is the inward living, the life of grace, that makes us Christians; to be engrafted into Christ truly, to be as the branches to the Vine, to have experience of God's mercy and love to us, to know God by our acquaintance and fellowship with him, is to know him aright as Christians, not as the world, that says they are Christians, and know God no otherwise, but as a dreadful Judge, by the flashings that they have in their minds, living in disobedience to the light, and every thing that they do in profession is heavy, irksome, and burdensome to them; they worship God, because of his great power that can destroy them, not for the love of his great power tha● burns and consumes sin and dross in them; they fear him because they are sinful, and do not convert and change, but live in sin, love it, and plead for it. But because God hates sin, and sin is of such a defilin, nature, and makes us that we cannot be vessels for him therefore should we hate it.  
Search and examine yourselves, ye sons of men, tha● say you know God, and are Christians, and hope to b● saved by Christ. Do you know God? If you did, yo● would know his people, his Word, his will, his power his love, his mercy, his goodness, and his tender compassion. Can people say they know God, and hate an persecute his Saints, despise his Word, resist his will, regard not his power? take nothing from God, as love to them, but what doth appear visibly in the things of the world? that cannot see God merciful to them when he doth afflict them, that cannot conceive that God made them men out of his goodness, that cannot apprehend God to be tender unto them, in delivering them from their lusts, from the snares of Satan, and from the allurements of the world? that cannot praise God for afflictions, and rejoice under crosses? that fear death, and being never renewed; nor changed, cannot tell what Heaven is, neither is their desire to any other heaven, than that that is like the happiness of this world?  
Should there be such a strict survey and enquiry made of the knowledge of God among us, we should find very few that do know God aright and truly, as they ought, and as the Saints of old did; but imaginarily by relation, by hear-say, and by writings. Who is it that knoweth God experimentally, not only to be his Creator, but to be his God? Who is there that showeth forth in a lively practice, that he was made to glorify God, with and in his heart, mind, soul, and strength? that doth witness to the world, that all his members and senses were deputed in their several orders and places, to honour and glorify his Maker, and not to make them vassals and drudges in the service of sin and Satan? Who is there that doth exercise his affections in the things of God only, that leapeth and danceth as David did, because of the Ark of God, 
2 Sam. 6.14.  that was recovered and brought again among the people of God? Or who doth grieve and mourn to the death, as old Eli and his daughter Phineas wife, did, 
1 Sam, 4.13. Jerem 9.1. Isai. 22.3.  because the Ark of God was taken, they would not be comforted, The glory is departed from Israel; therefore life was nothing to them? Are men's affections carried on, or off, according to the tenor of God's will, as for the glory of God? Or are they set on the world, and carried on to the contrary, then there can be no true knowledge of God? Who is there, that the passions of his mind bends to the glory of God, that is angry when the Lord is dishonoured, his people abused, truth despised? Where is the zeal that David had, 
Psal. 69 9  which did eat him up, he was not himself, his zeal had devoured him? Who is there that will adventure his life, liberty, goods, estate, credit, or reputation for God? If there be any such, as are here enquired of, surely they know the Lord. And all others that live only in the Heathenish nature, and run together with the multitudes, to do they know not what, and to they know not whom. The Lord will make as many as doth belong to him, to know him by his furnace, and acknowledge him to be just, holy, and good, as he hath declared himself to be, so shall his people find in themselves, if there were no Scripture, by their own testimony, which is the best evidence and proof: for no true knowledge can be, but by the inward testimony, other knowledge deceiveth; for when men boast of their knowing God to be all-sufficient, and that he knoweth best, what is fit for them, and if this be not radical within, by inward testimony, when trouble and affliction cometh, and the evil day approacheth, they are ready to murmur against God, and disdain his deal, whereby they testify to their own hearts, their own failings, and that recoileth back that should go forwards, witnessing by their impatiency and unquiet spirits, that their knowledge of him was not true, neither can there be any thing true, but what will hold the fiery trial, that makes us to know the Lord, and to know ourselves.  
The people of God that are and have been melted, they only shall know the Lord and his indignation they shall not need to fear the wrath to come, for wrath seizeth on them here, & they shall know the Lords wrath, that it hath past o●er them, and that there shall be no more; and that his trial is that they might be the better, that they might know, God knoweth what all men are, though men know not themselves. Where no trial hath been, and none of God's indignation hath passed over, to melt, refine, purify, and purge out the dross, the filth and corruption, which lieth hidden and covered within, what ever metall-like shining there is, or what gilded profession soever there is, or whatsoever art, or worldly wisdom there is, there is nothing but death. To know God inwardly, savingly, experimentally, in all his attributes, in all his deal, to know that his wrath here, & his indignation here, worketh for our eternal good, is the right, knowledge that God will endue his people with; for the true knowledge of God and a pure mind goes together, being attained unto by the Cross, and by the true revelation of the Son of God, made manifest in the flesh by his sufferings, that as he overcame death, and now sits at the right hand of the Father, so might we also overcome, and be fellow-heirs with him.  
Away with the knowledge the world hath, that cannot apprehend God to be good to them in time of distress, sorrow, misery and calamity, in the time of their trial; but deem that they are out of God's favour, and lie down either despairing of happiness, looking without themselves, and revile others, which they conceive have been the cause of that that is fallen upon them. The case of England is so at present, because men cannot enjoy their pleasures and profits as heretofore, and things are not according to their wills, they lie down in discontent, and rage against those that rule over them, emulating & reviling of them, if not seeking their destruction.  
Mark, and behold what man is, he is a polluted, 
Psal. 3. Isai. 6.  unclean, filthy, and a defiled creature, how unable is he to do any thing to the cleansing of himself: and to enter into life he cannot, let him be what he will, except he be cleansed: as the brass cannot make itself to be gold, nor the Tin to be silver, so cannot man approach near to God, to be in union and communion with him, except he be changed and renewed, and this God must alone do, he is the Agent, and we must be the Patient; the work is Gods, man can but resign himself up, and yield himself to him; his obedience is passive, God works all in all: 
1 Sam. 2.30.  Resignation and submission is that that God requireth, Honorantes me honorabo, Those that honour me I will honour, 
1 Thess. 4.4.  and those that despise me shall be despised; those that will honour God by their resignation, he will honour them by his communication & those that do despise God, when he calleth, shall be despised when they call, 
1 Thess. 5 19, 20.  S. Paul saith, Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesying: Doth it not appear that such there are that do? Our Saviour Christ saith, The children of this world are wiser in their generation, than the children of light. Wherein is that? The children of this world, let any man but nod, or because to them, be it in some hope of profit, away they get, and they take much pains and travel to get the wealth of this world. But in matters concerning God, neither the light that shines in the mind, the motions of the good Spirit, the prophesyings, nor any verbal persuasion will work upon them, to take any pains, so much as to yield, or submit, to endeavour to subdue a lust. But still men say, What shall we do, or how shall we do this, or that, in matters between God and them? but do not that they can. If man hold up his finger, or wink, although never a word be spoken, it is presently understood. 
2 Pet. 3.5.  But let God, notwithstanding the light that shineth into every man's conscience, speak by his Messengers plainly, Turn, return, repent, come, submit, draw near, why will you die? and the like invitations, yet poor miserable men refuse. Speak conscience; 
Prov. 1.24, 25.  may not a man be passively obedient in resigning and yielding himself up to his Maker, taking up the Cross, & waiting on the light which directeth him to his God, 
Rom. 1.19, 20, 21.  answering the motions of the good Spirit, and submitting to the will of God? Must man of necessity be acting & doing in his own will, or else nothing to be done? Surely the Lord will be served after the manner he prescribeth, that is in spirit and truth▪ no flesh, no will of man must be in any thing, wherein we have to do with God; we cannot read of any that did walk according to his own heart, but that he did wickedly.  
Observe the commands of Christ, if we will have our flesh mortified, we shall find them to be easy, 
Matth. 11.29.  Come, love, believe, submit, embrace, kiss, follow, and the like: If he bid us take up his yoke, he meaneth to draw with us, we shall not be overburdened, he will assist us, and make it easy and light. Consider this then, O man, what canst thou do less than come to thy Saviour, to resign, yield, and roll thyself on him, to embrace, to depend, and trust on him. O Israel, thy destruction is of thyself: thou canst move and stir forwards in thine own will, and in thy misled understanding, and wilt not thou move or stir in submitting thyself unto his will? You will not come to me that you may have life: It appeareth then, that men love death, that they love darkness, 
Joh. 1.5.  most true it is, for they cannot comprehend the light: Let therefore the consideration of the miserable effects: that follow the neglect of not coming to Christ, make us to be wise, and come, move and stir, yield and submit, ask, seek and knock, inquire, not as Ahaziah did, 
1 Kihg. 1.2.  but as David did, Psal. 37. at the Sanctuary of God, and as the Prophet Isa saith, Should not they inquire of their God? 
Isai. 8.8.   
Hitherto, that that hath been said, hath been to show what is signified by dross and drossy metals, whereunto God doth liken his people: it remains now that somewhat be said to each particular people, as a direction from the Lord to walk by. If the Apostles, Paul, Peter, 
1 Thess. 5.2, 3. 2 Pet. 3.10, 11, 12. Jam. 5.8.  James, and John foresaw a change that would be in the world, as if it had been at hand in their days: what do the people and Saints of God foresee now, now Antichrist the man of sin is revealed; for Saint Paul saith, 2 Thess. 2.8. That the Lord shall consume him with the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming: When man fell from God, he fled away, and his posterity hath ever been feeding upon the four elements, and would not willingly be beholding to God, but eternally live in them: what will mankind do, when these elements shall be melted with the heat of fire? surely not one jot or tittle of God's word, shall evade; but in his du time, all that hath been prophesied of, 
Esa. 40.8.  shall come to pass; It seemeth clear to some, that the day of the Lords coming, is now begun, and that the apostasy, which hath continued many hundreds of years, is declining, and the light beginneth to shine, that along time hath been simulated, which declareth what the visible church is now upon the earth, even like to Israel, they are dross to the pure, and holy God, they are Brass, Tin, Iron, & Led. These four metals, which signify four sorts of men, men of power, teaching men, men of Traffic, & poor men, may be further resembled, to the four elements, S. Peter speaketh of, that shall likewise melt, fire, 
2 Pet. 3.12.  air, earth, and water: The man of power, being as the fire which doth predominate, and do the greatest execution, to the regularity of the rest; the teaching man, which is as the air in which men do breath, and live in, yet as air; the man of traffic, which is as the earth, that beareth forth fruit, to the support of the life of man; the poor man which is as the water, that doth refresh and ease, and bring much comfort, and help to man.  
Will God not only melt the forenamed metals, but also the elements, in which man, hath, and doth live in, being the only support of man (for what can man do, if any one of these elements be taken away, he cannot subsist, in his natural being) Then here see the great goodness of God, that will not only pruge, and refine man, but he will also refine the elements, that man lives in, and whereby, he doth subsist. God will not only, make man pure, but the place and seat, where man's station is, he will make it pure, also; there shall be a pure world, as well as pure inhabitants, the fire shall be pure fire, like the fire of the Lord, that consumeth all the combustible matter, of dross and filth, that remaineth now: the air shall be pure, cleared, and purged, from all humane, and terrene vapours wherein, the defilements of it, did consist; there shall be no more of of noisome and infectious air, but an air, 
1 Thes. 4.17.  like that Saint Paul speaketh of, or the same: where we shall meet the Lord, and ever be with him.  
The earth also, shall be made pure, 
Rev. 21.2.  for it shall be made new, there shall be a new earth, all the actions, commerce, converse, that is in the world, that were corrupted, through deceit, oppression, and cruelty, shall all be burnt up, and there shall be a clear, and a pure converse, and commerce, without fraud, covetousness, or guile; equity, and honesty, shall then be exercised, according to the Christian rule to do, as others should do unto us, the waters shall no more remain, there shall be no more Sea, all the waters shall be dried up, by the fire of the Lord; 
Rev. 21.1. Esa. 11.6.7. Acts 3.19.  there shall be no more poor, and oppressed, by the rich the Lion shall lie down with the Lamb, and our refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.  
Again, Saint Peter saith, in the forenamed chapter, that the heavens shall pass away, that the Heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and further saith: 
Ver. 10. ver. 12. ves. 13.  We look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Many heretofore, and some now, do from this Scripture, tell the people, of the final end, and dissolution of the whole world for ever. But Christ saith, To you it is given, to know the mysteries or secrets of the the Kingdom: And the Prophet Amos chapter the third, 
Matth. 13.11.  and the seventh, saith surely, the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth, his secrets to his servants, the Prophets. It cannot be then so understood, as our common Expositors, have concluded, but it must be truly, and clearly taken, for the fiery change, that shall be by the anger, and wrath of God, upon the world, which shall dissolve the Heavens; That is, the religions, that are in the world, for Religion, is as Heaven, by it we do converse with God, and commune with him, and it hath been, from the beginning, that the people of God, have had a way, to draw near to God, by religious worship, and services of him: But so it is come to pass, that the man of sin, that is, sin deceiving man, and Satan's temptations, prevailing with man, hath so corruptly and so confusedly, so hypocritically, & so adulterately, worshipped and obeyed God, in the outward form, in the show, in the history, with the lip only, in the outward man, by and in the will of man; That the Spouse is become an Harlot; Man is become a beast, and that body which the now-religion boasteth that it is Christ, is Antichrist; This heaven wherein the sons of men, do solace themselves, this strong City, this fenced Jerusalem, This mountain, which they trust unto, plead and fight for, This heaven, where righteousness dwelleth not, that is but the husk, the shell, the sheath, the outside, the carcase, where the inward man, is prisoned, captivated, and embondaged, and suffereth: This heaven, which is counterfeit, full of dross, falsehood, lies, whoredoms, witchcrafts, abominations, mockings, and persecutions, This heaven shall pass away, with a noise, This heaven shall be dissolved.  
This is the great wonder of the world, at this time, that the heavens shall melt, that the earth shall quake, that the stars shall fall; But he that hath eyes to see, seethe it now plainly, for the sixth seal is opened, and it doth manifestly appear, 
Rev. 6.12.  that the change now is begun; men's confidences are slaying, Babylon is besieged, Antichrist is discovered, persecution increased, the iniquity of the Whore revealed, her secrets uncovered, and the man of sin dismantled, upon which there is arisen, a great war, between Michael, and the Dragon, in this heaven, they are both within the limits of heaven: a strange thing that the Dragon, the great old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, should have his abode in heaven, and claim a right there, and now fighteth, against that power of M chael, 
Rev. 12.  to maintain, keep up, and to continue this heaven, which is designed to pass away, and to be dissolved: Yet so it is, This heaven, must pass away, this corrupted, simulate, and drossy religion, must fade, 
Luke 16.17. Mat. 5.18. Rev. 6.14. Esa. 66.22. Rev. 21.1.  the Dragon shall be overcome, there will be a new heaven, and a new earth, which shall continue and remain for ever, that God himself will make, which John saw, wherein there is no visible temple, but the Lord God, and the Lamb are the temple thereof, where righteousness dwelleth, and abideth for ever; Not as the old heaven, that yet continueth, which is full of ceremonies, ordinances, humane institutions, and injunctions, which hath caused much confusion, contentions, and entanglements, the Nations being in controversy, how it shall go, every one thinking his own way to be right, and that he shall have the conquest, at last, exercising themselves, in the corrupt and infatuated matter, proceeding from the four elements, within them, of pride, malice, covetousness, and murmuring, awaking, and stirring up the wrath and fiery indignation of the Lord, to the bringing of sore, sad, heavy, and, lamentable tribulation, by which, and through which tribulation, the Lord will make known, the great mysteries of the Kingdom, that lieth now hidden, veiled, and unrevealed, that men shall know the Lord, even in nature, in which knowledge, the stranger, and the Heathens, shall be converted, and turn to the Lord, as Christians; and all Art, cunning, skill, humane learning, forms, customs, and inventions of men, shall be clean dispelled, and God alone shall be all in all.  
That which hath been said, concerning metals let it be seriously considered, How the Almighty God, doth set out the condition of his people by metals, and declareth, his purpose, concerning them, as by the comparison of metals, is largely discoursed, how he will melt them in all manner of their conditions, degrees, and qualities, and not only so, but he will melt the Elements, the Heavens also shall be dissolved, the Earth and all the works therein shall be burnt, let it then be considered, as in the forenamed Epistle of Peter, what manner of persons, ought we to be? To this inquiry he doth advise, That our conversation should be holy, and Godlike, that we may be found, when the Lord cometh, without spot and blameless, having peace within us: To this end is the Prophecies, the say of Christ, and his Apostles, 
2 Pet. 3.  that we might be betttered, and amended. The disease then being discovered, and the cause of it, there remaineth now the remedy to be applied.  
First then, to the men of power, signified by brass, Let it be said to them, from the Lord, although they may think well of themselves: they are dross, and they are Brass; 
Hag. 1.7, 8.  Consider in your minds you great ones, God will be glorified by you, you are his servants, and his work you must do, you are not to act, any thing in, and according to your own wills, neither to and for your own ends; you are not to look to the glory and fame of your callings, and places, but to have respect unto the glory of God above all, as the Prophet Micha speaketh, you should do justly, 
Mica. 6.8.  love mercy and walk humbly with God; Justice & mercy should be exercised, after the most perfect, pattern of God himself, for God saith, Be holy, as I am holy, perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect: the justice dispensed by men on earth, 
Matth. 5.48.  should be suitable to the justice, and judgement of God, answering to his holiness, and to his righteousness, and that not in some things, as do the Heathens, but in all things whatsoever, and that exactly, and completely, that the will of God may be done, on Earth, as it is done in Heaven; In this deportment, the wise and faithful, that are in authority, do manifest themselves, to be the children of God their Father, when that among all the prune, 
Matth. 5.9.  and loppings of injustice, the equitable, and clear reducement, stands consistent with the most free, single, and perfect righteousness of the most Holy God.  
And as God requireth justice, so doth he require also mercy, mercy to the poor that are oppressed, wronged, and trampled on; Justice and Mercy must go together; it is justice to punish the offender and oppressor, 
Psalm. 101.1.  and it is mercy to relieve the poor and the innocent. It is the counsel of Christ; Be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful, and there is a blessing pronounced, to them that are merciful, full of mercy.  

Matth. 5.7.  Again, men of power, should walk humbly with God, men that do walk humbly, as they ought to do, do walk with God, as Noah did: the Lord he will dwell with the humble man, he giveth grace to the humble, and resisteth the proud; Pride hath been much among men of power, some have smarted, 
1 Pet. 5.5.  for their pride, as our late times can testify, and through that, and by that means, the powers are some way refined: the taking away of the Ecclesiastical power, is a great sign, that God intendeth good unto us; and it should cause the opposites derived from them, to be humbled.  
Let men of power consider, how the Lord, for the pride of Nabuchadnezzar, dealt by him, taking from him his reason, making him to feed, as the beasts; They may also look back, to the times that we have known of late: how were the powers of this Nation, shaken and shivered, yea broken to pieces, that when they thought, to make a greater addition to tyranny and oppression, they became powerlesse? What were tho●e that were in authority, or how were they set up? was is not more because of their wealth, then of their grace? or because of their sinister relations, than their qualifications? more that they might act, and do the will of man, then to do according to Gods will?  
Hath God begun to refine the powers, have we seen some amendment? Doubtless, God will proceed. For he will have those to rule, that are Godlike, that are as Himself is, he will be the Shepherd of his sheep, he will correct them with his rod, and bear them up with his staff, he will have no cruelty, exercised on his, nor partiality on the evil doers, but the Judges, and the Arbiters, shall deal justly, and impartially, in dubious matters.  
Most strange effects of God's providence in this Nation, is to be taken notice of: how hath God begun among us, as it were were with a bosom, to sweep away all adverse power, in the great mutation of Governors and of Government, laying aside some persons, and powers, 
Psalm. 23.  and deposing of them, who thought themselves, on a sure foundation, and setting up others, that never thought of being capable of it, being of mean descent: 
Luke. 1.43.  Surely this cannot, but show unto us, that the Decree of God is gone forth, to overturn all Nations, Kingdoms, Kings, Governors, and Rulers of the earth, until they be wise, and learned, in the the fear of their God, and are willing to kiss the Son, 
Psal. 2.  to embrace the Lord Christ, the chief Head of all kingdoms, and do yield up themselves, their greatness, laws, interest, and affairs, into perfect subjection, and conformity, to the most absolute, and perfect power of Christ; and to rule men, no further, nor no otherwise, then as they are the servants of Christ, their Lord; Thus God will have his people, that rule over others, under himself, when they are melted, to be such, as shall curb the evil doers, and to defend, preserve, sustain, maintain, and uphold, them that do well.  
Truth and right government, according to the perfect Law of God, is most serviceable, in its place, and it cannot be performed, rightly, but by such as fear God, and hate covetousness, that are impartial. God that hath by the spirit of burning,  and consumed the fleshly mind, and will of Governors, causeth them to act ac-according to his own will, and for his glory, being led by his Holy Spirit, into all wisdom, endeavouring to please him, not winking at any deceit for carnal ends, but administering, and distributing true justice, for God's sake, saving the innocent, and punishing the nocent, giving forth according to Gods will, and not according to their own, without respect of persons, but for conscience sake, to do the thing that is right, and as becomes men, given wholly up, to serve and obey the living God:  

1 Cor. 6.1. Matth. 19.28.  Let the Arbiters, they that were of old called so, now the Lawyers of our times, learn to dread the Lord, and not to screw, and wrest the proposals, made to them of peace, into a long contrived debate, to enrich themselves by others ruin, and cloth themselves by the nakedness of others: It is an office for Saints, and not for the covetous, and cruel; there will be a time, in the new Jerusalem, that the Saints shall judge the earth, they shall give the Law forth, from the Spirit of the Lord; for the Evangelicall Righteousness, shall comprehend, more than the the Moral, the love of the Father shall be in the Arbitrer, and he shall administer judiciously, equally, and impartially, which shall cast out the oppressor, and restore again the prey, taken from the spoiled, and be in that love and meekness, as becometh a Saint, doing no wrong.  
Secondly, Those that are called, by the will of man, to teach, and to instruct men, let them consider, what they are, and how they are to be qualified: it is not for them to be as Tin, to have the likeness of the better metals, and to adulterate with all mean metals, it is not sufficient for them, to have an artificial, humane, pregnant, and Scholastic manner of delivering speeches and sermons, and with it, set forms of prayer, but they must have the theory within them, that is, such a testimony that their spirits can bear witness within them, of the truth, of what they do speak: for Saint John saith, The testimony of Jesus, 
Rev. 19.10.  is the spirit of prophecy. They are not to teach by letter, or by another man's lines, nor by transmission of other authors, for that is as theft, which the Lord by his prophets complains of, and also they are not, to teach the visions, the divinations, the falsities, vanities, 
Jer. 14.14.15.  and deceitfulness of their own hearts, but clearly and exactly, what is within themselves, of the truth of God, and of the power, and life of the Spirit of God.  
Wherefore, let all the Teachers, that are at this day, who have took upon them, to teach; examine, and try themselves, whether they are of the same Spirit, that their Lord Christ was of, when he taught upon the mount, 
Matth. 5.  after he had foiled the Tempter, he pronounceth happiness, and blessedness to divers; As to the poor, to the mourner, to the meek, to the hungry, to the merciful, to the pure, to the peacemakers, and to them that are persecuted: prove yourselves, ye teachers of men, whether the same mind be in you, as was in Christ Jesus; he was according to all these several sorts of people, & he giveth them comfort, whom comfort belongeth unto, and blessedness to them that are pure, etc.  
Is it so with you, do you do the like? then are you the Light of the world, and the Salt of the earth. It is to be feared, that the world's preachers are not so to be found, but rather in stead of being poor in spirit, they are rich, like the Laodiceans; 
Revel. 3.  in stead of mourning for the abominations that are in the land, as spiritual whoredoms, they are blind to it, and think themselves to be the very Spouse of Christ, and rejoice in the fleshly service of God, which is not accepted; in stead of being meek, they are filled full of envy, breaking out into revile & persecutings; in stead of being hungry, they are full, they have need of nothing, 
Luke 2●  when they are poor, blind and naked; in stead of being merciful, they are cruel, Incendiaries to authority against the innocent; in stead of being pure in heart, they are pure in tongue, they prophesy in the name of God, but God may say unto them, I know you not, I have had no inward acquaintance with you; in stead of being peacemakers, I would it could not be said, that they are the greatest peace-breakers, dividing, rending, railing, fomenting and dissenting with those, that they suppose are risen up, to justle them out of their live.  
Are the teachers of the world contrary to Christ? Surely then they are not to be heard: Take heed how you hear, saith our Saviour: Come learn of me, saith he also. Those that have the holy Spirit of God in them, have the gift of discerning, 
1 Joh. 3.  and they are guided to hear nothing, but what the Spirit speaks, he that hath ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches: They were all faulty, and would our Churches now were not so. It is the scattered people in Babylon, the despised remnant that deserteth the world's fashions, that are persecuted by the Churches, that are now gathering together by the hands of the Almighty, which will be the people, that will grow up to an invincible mountain, which shall for e●er stand.  
Can the Teachers of the world say? that they are the light of the world, 
Job 18.6.21.17.  and live in blindness and darkness, and have not the true light shining in them, can they give light to others that have no light? They may have a certain kind of light in dark and obscure places, like that rotten wood that is called Dadock, which shineth until the true light comes; and when It comes, no light at all appears in it. Can they say they are the salt of the earth? Salt is of that quality, that it doth as it were give life to that which is dead, it preserveth from putrefaction, it is medicinal, and of a healing quality, Sal sapit omnia, It is an emblem of love: would this were so, that the teachers of the world were as salt, that they could introduce into their dead hearers, the living and eternal Gospel of God, that it might be to them as life, and that their exhortations, instructions, rebukes, and comforts, were medicinal and healing to the diseases and wounds of their people's souls and spirits, as salt is to the body, and that there were pure love and a godly jealousy in them, as was in Saint Paul, 
2 Cor. 11.2.  that had prepared the Corinthians for one husband, to present them as pure virgins to Christ, but feared they were beguiled, as Eve was by the Serpent, and their minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  
None should be teachers of others, but those that are Believers; for the simple and plain Believer is the best speaker: David said, I did believe, therefore I spoke; 
Psal. 116.10.  intimating, had he not truly believed, he had not been capable of speaking; a true Believer may be a right expositor, and a right Interpreter. But pity it is, that where the Teacher is defective, there is joined the traditions of men with the pure Word, & with Christ's commands; carnal paganish Philosophy, with the anointing of the Spirit; the orders and degrees of Schools, rudiments of the world with the ministry of Christ which is from Heaven. These things cannot stand together, and therefore there is a great rent made, and will still divide and rend, until all be made new; for new wine must be put into new bottles; the old bottles of the flesh cannot hold the wine of the spirit of God; the new Covenant requires another manner of obedience than the old did, 
Prov. 4.18▪  and the Gospel ministration is for the perfecting of the Saints; the way of the righteous is light, that shineth more and more to the perfect day, to build them up into the unity of faith, and to lead them from faith to faith, into the perfect knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  
When will the time come, that there shall be no more complaint against unsavoury salt, blind guides, & divine Merchants? Surely the time is now coming, it is begun, that the Lord will expel and drive out from his Church all those that are pernicious, unnecessary & unprofitable teachers and guides, who by the will of man are educated and brought to learning and humane art, fitted, as to the eyes of men, for to teach, and instruct, and no way, as by the election of God inwardly posited and habituated by the Lord, but rather suffered and continued for the sins and transgressions of the people, who do collect matter together out of Authors, keeping it in memory to deliver it, not fixed by the Spirit in themselves, but are as a channel or pipe, that conveyeth to the outward, certain positions framed and compiled out of the letter, chosen by themselves to serve their own turns, for the advance of their functions. Most certain it is, that there is a generation of teachers that are not sent by the Lord, who are desperate enemies to the pure truth, 
Jer. 23.21. Ezek. 13.2, 3, 4  and cannot endure those that do discover their weakness, defections, or wickedness, and upon this ground will be raised a far greater contest than is yet, not consonant to the mind of God; for disputing should be laid aside, and be no longer among us, but advice given, to turn, amend, repent, or else for ever perish.  
Let not Teachers be slight in the examination of themselves in that large charge which is laid against them, lest that come upon them which Saint Paul endeavoured to avoid, that after he had preached to others, himself might not be a castaway; 
1 Cor. 9.27.  therefore did he beat down his body, and kept it in subjection. But how far are many from this duty? How do they feed and pamper their bodies in every manner of way as much as any? It is a strange recoil for a diseased man to say, Physician, heal thyself: or for an Auditor to say to the preacher, Pull the beam out of thine own eye. That light which is sprung up & sent among us from the Lord, let them obey it, though never so cross to their wills, lest that, after all their learning, teaching, preaching, praying and exercising, 
Psal. 2.1.  they be found among the raging Heathen; or, which is worse, to be their Abettors and Ringleaders. Think upon the complaints that the Lord often hath made against the Prophets, who caused his people to err: Judge yourselves, that you be not judged and condemned of the Lord; Try and examine yourselves, ye that call yourselves sons of Levi, for the Lord is coming to try and to refine you.  
Great is the goodness of God to his Church, that he hath made such a discovery, that they in whom we trusted, and have been our introduction, we must forsake, being called to a better, and a more lively hope to the indwellings of God, than to attend the ordinances of man; that speaks nought but death: the Priests lips should preserve knowledge, 
Mal. 2.7.  but they have destroyed the true saving knowledge; they have known the will of the Lord; but they have not done it; they have thrust themselves into Christ's office, merely to get profit, favour, and honour. It is a great mischief, and a deadly injury to be blinde-led; Christ saith, If the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch, that is, they fall into that they cannot easily get out, and when they are, through mercy, helped out, they must be cleansed from the filth of the ditch which they have received, in the ditch. If by leading men fall, where their desire is to avoid, what are they better by leading? what a heavy account have these leaders to give above all others?  
Are not the teachers moved, to hear of the fall of Babylon? Surely some are, but those that are not, that endeavour to uphold Antichrist in the mystery, shall suffer with the Whore, and be partaker of her plagues. Is there 〈◊〉 in Heaven, and cannot those hear of it that are still talking of Heaven? Is there a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven, and shall our Supervisours not see it? Hath that City but one street in it, and no cross-ways at all, tending to unity and concord, and shall our peaceful Preachers not know it? Certainly God will dwell himself with his people, and they shall know all things, 
1 Joh. 3.19.  through that light and love of his, wherewith many Nations shall be joined to him, and whereby he will be all in all, that that which was above the reach of the highest Apostle, will come down and appear to the lowest and meanest of his people.  
The great discoveries that Almighty God hath made, concerning the fall and overthrow of Antichrist, which fall is beginning; the wise and the learned of the world are so far from waiting to see it, that they are blind, yea wilfully blind, concerning it; being friends to that worship of God, which is according to the oldness of the Letter, 
Rom. 7.6.  and great enemies to that of the newness of the Spirit, holding forth for good the outward Circumcision, the outward Baptism, the outward lip-labour, and auricular attendance in divine Ordinances, that now is wounded; and condemneth the Circumcision and the Baptism of the heart, the invisible and spiritual Communion in the Spirit with the Father, and the Son, which is the marrow of all religion, 
Rom. 2.27, 28, 29.  not holden by men worthy of praise, or commendation, and therefore maligned and envied, as Stephen was, Acts 7.54. etc. being stoned for speaking the truth which the people could not apprehend. All the Apostles spoke somewhat of the great change that would be in the world, 
Rom. 8.23. 1 Joh. 3.2. 2 Pet. 3 13.  and do declare evidently, that there is a third dispensation, which is of the Spirit; that of the Law had its period; that of the Gospel, as the Gospel had its limit bound up to the outward administrations of men gifted, hath had its Apostate-being, digressing from Gospel graces and faith, being as the night of the world, to the revelation of the great light that God would after shine into the spirits and hearts of men, spoken of by Saint Paul. 
1 Cor. 2.9, 10, 11.  Now the night of Apostasy is beginning to pass away, and the day approacheth, wherein the Almighty will manifest himself to be the God and Father of his people, by his dwelling in them, foretold by the Prophets, seen a far off by the Apostles, and witnessed by some now, the which hath a very great opposition, not by scandalous and profane persons only, but by great Professors, acute and learned Teachers, which will not yield to any reproof, nor subscribe to any other man's revelation, and therefore do charge the unchangeable God, that he changeth not, nor disturbeth not, neither doth he rend and divide the visible Church, but that some do, they do conclude, they are suborned of the evil one, and endeavour to stop their mouths, and punish those persons that say as Malachi did, 
Mal. 2.17.  Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, Why use you so many words, so much pharisaical prayers, and such counterfeit and heedless singing and praising? Why such variety of humane learning, philosophy, and pleasing the fleshly minds of men? And, wherein have we wearied the Lord, are we not his people, and are not our exercises the exercises of Faith and Love, derived from the primitive time? we know nothing of it, but what is agreeable to the Word, and if we should desist, what will become of religion? Mark the Text when ye say, Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them, or where is the God of judgement? Look to this, O ye Teachers of men, your case is so, that God hath found you great enemies to the most pure light and truth that floweth from himself; 
Mal. 3.  and as in the third chapter of the same Prophet, being the next words, hear there your doom, God will try you.  
Judgement beginneth at the house of God, among the righteous, among them that are full, that are rich, 
1 Pet. 4.17, 18.  that are wise: Oh that this sort of people could see but their unrighteousness, their emptiness, their poverty, and their folly; until men come to see that they are so, 
Joh. 3.39. Isa. 29.18, 19  they are not happy; the blind only shall see, and the deaf only shall hear; and he that is hungry shall be satisfied, for the Lord hath sealed the book, that he that can read cannot open it, and he that can read will not meddle with it, 
Isa. 29.11, 12.  but persecute it; witness the late times since that the hidden mysteries that John saw hath been opened, which the Teachers of our times yielded themselves willingly to be blind unto, 
2 Pet. 3.5.  how is it like to be persecuted further? Is the rise of their persecution, because that some illiterate men speak, accounted not worthy in their esteem to meddle with such things? 
Rev. 18.7, 16.  Or, is it because that Babel, the seat of the Whore, with all her ornaments, shall be destroyed? Or, is it because divine merchandising shall have an utter end? Saint Paul did intimate in his Epistle to the Corinthians, that there were some, 
2 Cor. 2.17.  but he and the rest of the Apostles were no such, that did make merchandise of the Word.  
Tremble then all you that are Teachers, that say you are Apostles and are not, 
Rev. 2.2.  that would be canonised for Saints here, and have not yet bowed to the Sceptre of the Lord Christ, that have only tasted of the little book which is sweet in the mouth, Emanuel, God with us, but have not eaten it up, 
Rev. 10.9. etc. Rev. 21.8.  because of its bitterness in the belly, that are fearful of losing the glorious things of the world, if they should embrace Christ really, loving such a religion and profession that agreeth with the conditions of the great men, driving still at those that would separate worldly same, pomp, ease and wealth, from the inward, 
1 Joh. 2.15.  invisible, and spiritual worship of God, which cannot stand together, joining the humane and corrupt ordinances and will-worship, with the inward worship of God in spirit, limiting the holy One to their traditional service.  
Learn to know that the Almighty hath power to change all things at his own will and pleasure, yea, the very Heavens, which is the Church, and the religion we live and converse with God in; and that there shall not such adulteries and fornications be committed among his people, and in his house there shall be no more inticers to love the strange woman, 
Prov. 7.  who hath all comeliness and excellent entertainment to the satisfaction of the desires of the flesh. There is other discoveries made, and they who are the sons of Levi, that wait at the Altar must be changed, and not cry, Templum Domini, not the temple of the Lord, because once it was so, and now it hath not the Spirits presence to say all one words, but they must cry, Dominus in templo, 
Rev. 21.3. Rev. 3.20.  The Lord in his temple; the Lord is now coming to dwell, he standeth at the door and knocketh.  
Observe with a discerning eye, whether it be not in vain for the Teachers of the world to go about to uphold that which God hath designed down; if Antichrist shall fall, it will not be in part, but in the whole, the stars shall fall; therefore envy not, and despise not the small beginnings, neither trample on any springing up, that is of the Lords planting, for it may prosper the better. Contend not, neither fight against them unto whom the Lord hath made great discoveries of Christ his coming forth in the glory of God, censuring, reproaching, and persecuting those doctrines that you are not able to comprehend, as the devout women did, and the chief men did against Paul and Barnabas; 
Acts 13. 5●.  such are the great opposers of pure truth, that live in the profession of truth and teach others, carried out with a zeal kindled from the outward letter, endeavouring to open the mysteries, by and with their outward gifts, which cannot be. But in stead of opening Heaven, they open Hell, having the key of the bottomless pit, stirring up contentions and strifes, rather manifesting themselves to be the apostles of God's anger and infliction, than the peace-exercising and teaching Apostles of Christ were. Show forth your Evangelicall fruits, you that style yourselves so; let your love, your patience, meekness, righteousness, and long-suffering appear in your behaviour towards all men, and your rendering good for evil, blessing for cursing, praying for persecuting.  
Behold, and see ye Teachers of the world, whether there hath not been and now is amongst you, such which have been as you say, called to the function and place of the Ministry, vile and vicious persons. A great grief it hath been to many souls who have received somewhat from God, 
Mills Flavell Wells.  by the conscientious and right dividers, to see such covetous, proud, oppressing, drunken, idle, lying, vain & incontinent persons to stand up, to speak, as if sent from God, striking terror & amazement to the poor tender hearted hearer, being ignorant of God, that such as are reprovers of evil, should be examples of committing evil: This, blessed be the Lord is taken notice of by our Governors, and there is a beginning in some places of the Nation, to call such to the bar, and to try them for those gross evils; and there is hope that they being taken in hand for their open wickedness, others that live in the secret, shall also be detected; it is manifest that God is coming forth to refine and purify all.  
Thirdly, to the men of Traffic, Merchants and others, that by their commerce, are as the earth, to support and bear up, and yield sufficiency to others, through the exercise of their worldly employments, Let them learn here to know God as he is, and to know themselves what they are, for God is the chiefest good, & there is no happiness in the enjoyment of any thing without God, all things created by him, having not their use for, & to his glory, are abused, and become as so many hindrances, and let's unto us in the way to life, 
Ester. 1.5.  They are all vanity, there is no worth in them; all the world, and the things therein are not worth one soul; 
Luke. 16.1.  and as for themselves, let them know that they are but as stewards, which must give an account, 
1 Tim. 6.17.  of their stewardship, and they are not to put their trust, in uncertain riches, nor to be high minded, but to do good and to distribute, laying up in store a good foundation, against the time to come, etc.  
The men of the world setteth their minds on the world wholly, 
Pro. 1.19.  all their study and care, all their diligence, and watchfulness is to get gain, to add to what they have, to make themselves great, to be in esteem in the world, to have an abundance, contriving to get large possessions, great inheritances, fair buildings store of moneys, potent friends, all which is nothing; this procures no inward peace, no forgiveness, no spiritual satisfaction to the soul, no communion with God; but doth corrupt infect and misled the soul, into the snares of death, for by loving, affecting, and delighting in the things of the world, the poor soul is everlastingly captivated, and hardened in the worldly walkings, that they come to plead for their sins of covetousness, calling it good husbandry, and exercising of their talents, 
Psal. 73.  and so the Lord God their Maker comes to be forgotten of them, all things going well with them, that they break out into pride, ambition, cruelty, and oppression, all under the colour of living according to their degree and their calling. Thus do men of the world, that are without God in the world, 
Ephes. 5.17.  demean themselves towards God; ut Papa, sic populus.  
They still entertain the religion of the word, that that is most in use, and best agreeth with their palate, although there is inwardly in them, nothing but plotting, contriving, devising, studying, and indeavoring after the world, the pleasures and profits thereof; Yet they would be known to be of some religion, as well as others: and, these times do afford them a receptacle, they are welcome to the teachers of the world, in all their exercises, praying, preaching, singing, and conference, and have the chiefest room, and the best applause, for constant hearers, and very good encouragement, to rejoice, and boast of their religious carriage, especially because they pay their deuce, keep their church, being quiet, and not meddling with the differences, that now are, but takes all for good that the ministers saith or doth.  
Be not deceived, O worldling, God knoweth the secrets of thine heart, and seethe the bend thereof, Thou canst not serve God, and Mammon; 
Luke 16.13.  Although thou lovest thy minister pliest the Church, and payest thy deuce, and all seems to be at peace, with thee: Thou art nothing but as earth, thou mayest make a show of some religion to men, 
Jams. 2.18.  but the Lord seethe, that thou hast no religion at all, let it appear by thy works, what thou art: the Lord cannot endure, a half Christian, an outside one, he requireth the inside, the heart, the Spirit of the mind; there is nothing can make thee happy, but the enjoyment of the Lord Christ, 
Ephes. 4.  and his benefits; Silver and Gold cannot deliver thee, in the day of the Lords wrath, neither will God be served, but with the male of thy flock, thou must sacrifice the best for an offering to the Lord, and think nothing too dear to part withal, 
Luke. 16.9.  in comparison of gaining Christ. Make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitation: make you friends, Abraham believed God, and was called his friend? what great happiness it is for a man to have God for his friend, nothing can go ill with him, if God be on our side, who can be against us: Make Christ thy friend, 
Rom. 8.31. John 15.14.  O worldly man; the benefit of His friendship, will be great, he is thy Saviour, Mediator, and Intercessor. What privilege like to this, to be the friend of Christ? we cannot, but must participate of all, he hath obtained for us, and hath in store also. Make the poor your friends, give them of your substance, and of your store, spare something of your abundance, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take pity on the sick, and entertain the stranger; that their prayers to God, and praises of God, for such reaching of outward comforts to them, by their frequency, and fervency, may cause the dew of heaven, to distil down upon you.  
Do not forget thy Maker? O worldling, but remember him, and do works of pity, and mercy, of love, and charity, and as thou hast received freely, from the Lord; so for the Lords sake give freely, that thou mayest not be liable, to the sentence, that God doth pronounce against the covetous, not to enter into life; nor to have the curses, and the execrations of the poor, to lie at thy door.  

1 Cor. 6.9, 10.  Make the people of God thy friends, love them, acquaint thyself with them: Do not revile, mock, scoff, scorn, and despise them, either because of their plainness, 
Matth. 19.29.  nor because thou art reproved by them, nor because they love that thou hatest, and hate that thou lovest; but go to the Sanctuary of God, and learn to love, that that God loveth, to forsake all, and follow the Lord Christ, not to go from that thou dost possess, but out of that covetous will, that is within thee; that will must be destroyed, and brought to nothing, thou must account thy Mastership, thy Wealth, thy Wisdom, thy great Place, thy Credit, thy great Prosperity, thy Authority, and thy costly Garments, to be all one, as Service, Poverty, Plainness, Disesteem, Disgrace, Adversity, and Scarcity: such a temper should men, that have the wealth of the world be of, that they should be as willing to lose as win, to wear course garments, as fine garments, and whatsoever is conferred upon them, either of honour, wealth or goods, to return, and give it back again to God, and say unfeignedly, Lord it is thine; I am unworthy to have the command over it, but being thou hast put it into my hands, make me to do thy will with it, and that thou mayest have the glory of it, and that all the exercises and undertake, I am called unto, may produce good to thy people.  
How far otherwise, is the practice of worldly men, that live in the anxiety of their Spirits, both in the getting, and keeping earthly treasure, and how do they expatiate their desires: the earthly father, would have an earthly son, nothing can bring an earthly, worldly minded man's will, to a limit, but only the love, and power of God; Man is apt to run all his stock, out upon the world, his confidence, trust, joy, comfort, his love, and fear, and all, and wholly to forget God, as if they were made for nothing else, but to get the things of the world, and joy in them, which many through much care, travel and watch, do not possess, but sees them a fare off, and cannot attain to that joy: miserable is the condition of earthly minded men; some wanteth, that they have, and some are at an eternal loss, by joying in them.  
Let the advice of our Saviour Christ be followed, by the men of the world. Ye men of traffic, take heed to yourselves, 
Luke 21.34.  that ye be not ourcome with the cares of the world, for worldly things, cannot produce any comfort, it is one of the greatest baits, the evil one hath to catch men by: what profit is there in winning the world, and losing the soul by it, How hardly can a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? Strive therefore, in the exercise of piety, and Godlike life, and not by grovelling in the earth, as an earthworm, but cast off the evil desire of gaining, which causeth oppression, cruelty, and exaction, and much detaining of the labourer's hire: be ye renewed, from the condition of old man, which is from the earthearthy.  

1 Cor. 15.47.  Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that that endureth, vex not yourselves, in the anxiety of your minds, that you are not so rich, and have such large possessions, as others, neither strive, in the attaining of riches, as the manner of the world is, and that among professors, having dark, & deceivable lights, false weights, and measures, fraud cozenage, and lying, with swearing; Take heed of these things, you that say you are Christians, these things ought not to be among them, the Lord seethe all your actions, and will punish the evil doers, yea even him that is as the Wolf, that devoureth his neighbour, by subtlety to increase unto himself unlawful gain; and also the usurer, that commonly drinks the blood of the poor: these, like to a Wolf that hath blind whelps, go down into the pit, with their children, the one for gathering, and the other for scattering.  
Fourthly and lastly, the poor of the world, are here to learn, whether impotent poor, or aged poor, to be rich, in God. Ask of God in faith and he will give freely; he giveth to all that asketh, and upbraideth none, you that are still ready to open your lips to the men of the world, your brethren for relief; call and cry, mightily to God, for his mercy, learn to be of a poor & a low spirit, what will you do, if poor, and not poor in spirit, you shall not see God. You poor that are hungry, learn to hunger, and thirst after righteousness, 
Mat. 5.  and you shall be satisfied, a strange saying that the hungry shall be satisfied, and the full sent empty away, so it is that the fullness that is in men, cording to the wisdom of their flesh, agreeable to the lusts thereof, speaks satisfaction to the carnal mind, 
1 King. 8.38.  but it is the plague of the heart. Better it is for a vessel to be empty then to be filled, with filthy corruptible and evil matter.  
Let no outward engagement make you that are poor to offend, and sin against God: or to forsake him, for the Lord is with you while you be with him, 
2 Chro. 15. ●…  in what state or condition soever, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you: Hazard all, endure all, that you may enjoy your God, your Saviour, and the gifts, and graces of his Holy Spirit, subject yourselves, to none, whereby you might break your peace, with God; do nothing for any man's sake, friendship or money, but what may stand with a good conscience, spend what time you may, in the service of God, and in accompanying his people: and if the necessary endeavours for bread, takes away preparation, know thus much, that God doth accept of all those that cleave to him with all their hearts, 
2 Chr. 30.19.  though they may not be outwardly cleansed: the poor Publican, was commended and justified, through the fervency of his short prayer, being not with with ostentation, but in humble confession, contrition, and animadversion.  
The poor may take comfort in this, that they are not in the way of sinners, the great enormities, and impieties, 
Psalm. 3.  that are committed by the wanton ones of the world; they are bard from them, through their poverty, as not fit companions, being not fitted in outward deportment, for such company, neither can they so walk, in the counsel of the ungodly, for ungodly counsels, are most among the wealthy of the world: happy are they, that are expelled from such ungodly counsels, that do conspire against God and Christ, and that are not exercised, 
Psal. 2.2.1, 2, etc.  in the seat of the scorners: usually the proud, and the rich of the world are sornefull, it is a heinous sin, to be a scorner, 
Prov. 1.  the Lord will laugh at their destruction, many plagues are denounced against them: if men are blessed, that are none of these, then happy are the poor that are not so.  
Take heed thou that art poor, and be low in thine own estimation, walk humbly with God, because thou art constrained, to walk humbly to man, let God be in all thy thoughts, he it is that will bless thee; and give thee thy hearts desire, 
Psal. 37.  if thou delight in him, he will feed thee: Commit thy way to him, and he will bring it pass; that for thy povery here he hath eternal riches for thee hereafter.  
Now seeing that all sorts of person, signified by these metals, have had advice from the Lord, in particular, let them here take warning in this their day, and repent, for the day of the Lord is drawing near: if we be washed, cleansed, purified, & purged, then are we fit vessels for him, if not then know, that notwithstanding all, that we boast of, as concerning Oidinances, Ministers, Churches, Professions, and Services, we are no way fit, but without God, in the world, in carnal sacrifices.  
O that England did know the day of its visitation, and could but see how gracious & merciful the Lord bathe been, & still is, in forbearing, and forgiving, and standing at the door there knocking, waiting, when we will open unto him, that he may come in, and sup with us, his kindness is so great, that he would have us eat of the same that He doth, that there may be both union and communion, He would not have us lay out our money, and not for bread, that, that doth not profit: but would have us to come, and buy milk, and wine, without money, yea, to buy Gold, of him, and eye salve, to anoint our eyes, that we may see; But foolish people as we are, we think ourselves happy, in our old customary services, and do not consider from whence they were derived, and had their rise. And that the night of Apostasy, hath been over the face of the whole world, this many hundred years; It appeareth plain, that England, as well as Israel, is dross; and who is there, that hath the spirit of discerning, but doth perceive the very fiery beginnings, that God hath made among us, as to destroy, and consume, all will of man, fleshly wisdom, and Antichristian church policy, which hath kept us, from the sincere, and the most pure, and unblameale service of God in the spirit.  
Know thyself O England, to be not that, what thou boastest thou art. Thou art ready to say, thou art a reformed Church; See where thy reformation lieth, if it lie in words, in show, in form, in letter, this is not that, that God requireth, he will have it in actions, in substance, 
Pro. 1.7, 26, 12. Jer. 4.22. Esa. 1.  in the inner man, in the spirit. See how the Lord of old, did reprove his people, for their being well conceited of themselves, having nothing, but the external sacrifices, the husk and shell of purity, the internal, and spiritual life being departed. Sooth not thyself up, see thy poverty, thy need, and lukewarmeness. It is in vain to bring a dead sacrifice, to the living God, It is to very great loss, so to do, Witness the sacrifices of Cain, and others, who found no acceptance, but were cast off.  
It is a hard thing for men to be convinced of their impurity, and drossines, that do love live in a strict profession godliness and have not the life, 
Pro. 28.13.  and the power of it within them. Solomon saith, he that hideth his sins shall not prosper, hence men infer, that such as hid the sins of murder, adultery, deceit, lying, stealing, and the like, they shall not prosper: and very well may it be, but yet that speech of Solomon, is more nicely, and closely spoken to, and directed to professing people, being in other languages rendered Defection: as thus, 
Mat. 19.22. Luke 18.22.  if so be a man were even a perfect, spotless, and an unblameable man, observing all things, from his youth up, as the Ruler did, yet being defective in one particular, endeavouring to cover it, and hid it from the Lord, he shall not prosper: it is the covering, the hiding from the Lord, that makes the Whore. The honest and chaste wife, she hideth nothing from her husband; but it is the whorish woman, she that loveth another, and that doth commit folly privately, secretly, in dark places, & yet seemeth to be as honest, and chaste as any; The varnish, and gilt of a profession, makes the base metal, to be of great esteem, being it appeareth not, the corruption lieth within, and cannot be discerned, but by the fiery light and heat of God: Corruption cannot see corruption, it is grace, that can see it, and discover it, no light in man, 
Psal. 36.9. 1 John 3.18. Exod. 27.20.  can make his defilements, visible to his inward, and internal mind, until the perfect, and real light of God appeareth, that is a searching light, a lasting light, a pure light, a powerful light, and a discerning light: where this light is, there is God, and there is no darkness, for where God is, the patient may see himself; and what he is, and that sight is the cure. When thou wast in thy blood, then said I, Live, when we are as dead, and as dry bones, 
Ezek. 16. and 37.12.  Then oh my people, saith God, I will open your graves, I will do it by mine own power, I will not let you lie in the fleshly outward forms, as great professors, and small practizers, but you shall see yourselves, as dead and dry bones, then will I bring you to live, in the spirit, that you may see your life in the Lord alone, not hid in Christ only, but Christ appearing to be life, in you; your life may appear to be in God.  
The great work that God is doing, is by melting of us, to make us see, that in the flesh, we are the dead body of Christ, that is the end; why the Lord doth rend, divide, disquiet, and destroy all our comforts, for we would willingly, 
Jer. 50, 34.  establish a righteousness, of our own, and it is a great mercy that God doth shake us, he will disquiet the inhabitants of Babel, they have no rest, until they return to his land: happy are we, when we see ourselves the dead body, 
Esa. 26.19.  of the Lord Christ, than we shall arise: With my body saith he, shall they raise, the same spirit, that raised his body, raiseth ours, together with him; we that truly see ourselves, 
Ephe. 2.12. Ephe. 5.  to be darkness, are light in the living Lord, let us walk as children of the light.  
What great change will there be, when a believer seethe, and doth know, what he is? before that time, his heart and his apprehensions, doth deceive him: every man naturally, desireth good to his own sense, and apprehension but our enemies, the Devil, the world, and the flesh, do so cunningly deceive us, that we cannot come, to understand what Almighty God is, neither what good is, but conceive amiss of both, taking good for evil, and evil for good, and are ready to yield up, our engagements to God, upon the account of our base, fleshly reasonings about Gods dealing with us: and unless we are become dead to all things of ourselves, and in ourselves, we cannot have power from God to vanquish. This mortal must put on immortality, this dross must be purged and refined out, we must be as the gold, and as the silver that is Gods; for how can two be together except they be agreed: when God hath refined his people, 
Amos 3.3.  they shall be like to himself, and they shall set forth his glory, and witness the coming of Christ in them, having felt the power of his death, and the virtue of his resurrection, being changed out of the world's nature into the perfect image of God, glorifying God, that they are passed the condemnation, the war, the refining furnace, the slaughter, the enmity, the undoing the strong man, and the taking away of his goods: rejoicing, that they have been baptised with the Baptism of fire, being assured of their union and communion with God, the life of God dwelling and abiding with them; that there is begun in them an eternal and everlasting peace, which shall have no end; here is comfort, that they are passed from death to life; death being overcome, shall have no more dominion over them: Blessed and happy are they that have their part in the first resurrection, 
Rev. 20.  for over them the second death hath no power.  
A sad thing it is, being well weighed, to see England in such a posture, a great, goodly, gilded profession, but a miserable, a desperate, and wretched practice, exercise, and execution in that profession: it is plain by the words of Christ; If you are not in the Vine, you are not of him; except you be in Christ, you are reprobates: 
John 15.  we love the form, the beauty, and goodliness of religion, but do hate the power, the life, and the cross, that true religion doth present. Salomons advice is, Buy the truth, and sell it not; truth must be bought, it must be purchased, it is not to be had by one days going in a week to hear, spending that day chief in decking and adorning the body, in feasting or high feeding, in idle and vain discourse, and proud walkings, and think all is well, and that we are good Christians, because we can talk of Christ having not found the true doctrine, being hid from us in a mystery; so that our knowledge, without the mystery, becomes a snare, a bar, to keep us from the life and light of God, being proud, thinking thou art something, when thou art nothing. 
Gal. 6.  Get out of thyself into single-hearted humility, deny the glory and same of thine own wit, wisdom and understanding, which is sprung up in thee from that evil seed, & is become that dross in thee, that hath defiled and corrupted the good metal: so shalt thou find the Lord, and he will teach thee, and instruct thee, 
Psal. 16.7. Psal. 45.  he it is that will give thee counsel, without which thou art Antichrist, and of the Whore, let thy profession be never so shining, for the King's daughter is all glorious within.  
Try and examine thyself, O England, whether thou dost obey the Lord thy God, whether thou dost love him with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, thou hast been catechised unto this, 
Psal. 81.8.  but where is the exercise of it? Hadst not thou need to learn it again of the Lord, hear what God saith of Israel, If they would have harkened unto him, and not have any other gods, what blessings would he have brought upon them, & c? The like might the Lord say of England, See and behold thy gods of silver, of gold, of high places, lands, live, friends, trade, and the like. Are not thy teachers, thy gods whom thou servest and praisest? Dost not thou idolise them for their parts of wit, art, humane learning and invention, speaking things agreeable to thy palate, and dost despise, reject, and refuse the inward teachings of God, being thereunto wilfully blinded: Why dost thou take the Covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reform? 
Psal. 50.20. Esa. 1. 1 Cor. 4.5. Mat. 10.26.  Or why shouldest thou think, that God is as thou art? consider this ye that forget God, he will reprove you by his creatures, the Ox, and the Ass, and other creatures, by his judgements, and by thine own conscience: Forsake therefore thine hypocrisy, and leave off thy lip-labour, go from the falsehood, dwell no longer in Babylon, neither delight thyself in the abominations of the Whore; for her flesh shall be burnt, and happy are they that have attained to this in particular, and who are by the teachings of God made like to himself; he that is built on the Rock need not fear undermining.  
Tremble all you that live in blindness and ignorance, that see not the mystery of God manifested among men, God in union with man being new created, cleansed, purged, purified, and refined. Will you still continue as young children, to be bound up, and swaddled in swaddling clouts: Time was when the Church was in its infancy, that it was needful, that it should be bound and limited with ordinances, and fed with a little at a time being chewed by the Pastor, which used catechistical forms, having then no other attainments: which salting, kept the Church from a farther declension or putrefaction, being introducible to a further and more clear demonstration, which now is lifted up and held forth, namely, the accomplishment of the promises, whereby we do not only enjoy by faith the benefit of God's goodness, mercy and love, as disjoined, but his presence and abiding with us. Are you not glad to hear of the beginnings, of that which your forefathers did long to see? are you content with the rudiments and traditions of men, and forsake the inward teachings of God? Take heed you do not turn the grace of God into wantonness, and consult with the arm of flesh, and be found fighters against God and his pure truth, accounting the times of darkness to be better than the taking up the Cross, by embracing and obeying the pure light, without which you shall never see light, nor enjoy the Crown.  
Much might be said concerning the times, and of the people that are in controversy in these our days, the one would have this way, the other that way, every one seeking to be master over others their words and actions, yea of their spirits too, contemning one another, and contending one with another, insomuch that England is become (as it were) a Chaos of confusion, and a nursery of Sects and Orders, some binding up the spirit of Christ to the forms and orders of disputation, setting foolish reason to be the Master, or Judge, in things concerning the kingdom of Christ, giving out the meaning of the spirit of God without inward testimony, perverting the holy Scriptures to their own destruction; and others, in several various ways, broaching new doctrines, not consistent with the mind of God, insomuch, that brotherly love hath been much impaired, divisions increased, and many revolted, and rebel in their minds, against the Law and love of God: Some stand much upon the ordinances and divine orders in stone-houses called Churches, that their devout duties of lip-labour and preaching, wherein is counterfeited somewhat of Christ, is the only way to life, calling themselves the true Church; and their Teachers true Apostles. Others spend rheir time in disputing, contending, and brawling about sects, idolatries, opinions, and judgements, so that one party doth condemn and sentence another, so that the ears and hearts of the Auditors are much infected with gall and bitterness, wilfully opposing one another, crying down that for diabolical, that is not their own judgement; whence proceedeth very dangerous effects of daily and most deadly provocations, through a secret inward pride of mind, working by envy and malice, generated and bred in that gall, exercising and urging one another by evil entreating, by which it doth appear, 
1 Joh. 2.18.  that there are many Antichrists in the world, one persecuting and speaking evil of another, Ephraim against Manasses, and Manasses against Ephraim, and both against Judah.  
These contentions among us do perfectly declare, that the war spoken of is begun, 
Rev. 12.7.  betwixt Michael and the Dragon: they that have received the unction, 
1 Joh. 2.20.  Saint John speaketh of, they know all things, they need not be taught of men, but they speak of it, and that great tribulation shall be, such as was not from the beginning, all to bring to pass the promised thing. It is much that the Devil, the great red Dragon, should make Heaven his place to war in; so it is, he is now warring against Michael in Heaven, that is, in religion, in and among the Professors thereof; but the comfort is, he shall not prevail, although his angels make sport and recreation to fulfil the anger of God, being the very fire of God, and his bellows also to blow up the fire; they do only his will, in purging away the dross of his people, by their most fiery contentions, brawlings, revile, 
Zach. 8.10. Isa. 66.5.  and persecutions, as if it were the very zeal of the Lords glory. The people of God knowing that the Lord will purge and refine them, do willingly yield themselves thereunto to be tried and purified, so that the cruel and wicked practices of the one, is the means of purging out the defilements of the other, being set in opposition, through the wisdom of our most holy God.  
Comfort thyself, O Christian, thy God will purge thee through the fiery contentions that is among true Believers and hypocrites; the fire is kindled, 
Jer. 6.28.  and the bellows do blow, thy dross shall be clean purged out, and thou shalt be as the silver and gold, for the Lord hath enough, and he will fill thee out of his own fullness: Read the thirteenth of Zachariah and the three last verses, God saith there of the small number of his people, 
Zach. 13.7, 8. 9  that after he hath refined them, than he will be their God, and they shall say, The Lord is my God: where no dross is to purge out, there God will not cast into the fire, but he will there dwell, and abide for ever; thou shalt never need to mourn for the want of a Minister, for God will be thy Minister, and he will minister light and peace unto thee; the Sun shall shine seven times brighter than at noon, for the Lord himself will be thy light.  
When Almighty God hath melted his people, and burnt up their dross, and utterly consumed it, then shall they come to be in union with him, living and abiding with him for ever. This is that new Jerusalem that John saw, that came down from God out of Heaven, wherein there is no temple nor ordinance, being there is no need. In the time of the Apostasy, after the Apostles days, which yet remains (although wounded) then there was a need of Pastors and Teachers, as the only means of distributing light to the world, like unto the light of the Moon, always changing, sometimes Popery, sometimes Episcopacy, sometimes Presbytery, Independent, and Baptised. So that God was always well pleased, to make some cloudy discoveries of himself, by the ministry of men. But the day of the Lord being now dawned, Christ who is our light shall appear again, and the power of Antichrist, which waxed so great, shall be clean taken away, and the rent that was made, shall be made whole: God will cement his people to himself, and he will be their light and defence. 
Psal. 83. ult.  And this is Babylon's plague, yea, the vexation of the grand Professors that are now full, and will not obey the true light, but do persecute it, calling it the new light, or new lights, being blind to the discoveries that God hath made to his people of the Whore, and of her destruction, and of the purest flesh, and the glory thereof, which must be burnt, that God may be all in all in his people, and never be any more forms.  
Rest not then, oh thou doubting soul, until thou hast found the Lord, 
Cant. 3.  as the Church in the Canticles, he it is that gives light and life, he is our peace, he shall be thy Minister, and thy Church, and the house thou livest in, for the Temple of Christ is within you, and thou shalt hear Christ teach within thee, incline therefore thine heart to the temple within, cast away all thine abominations, and bring thy will to the Father, regard not the glory and vanity of the world, but humble thyself under his mighty hand, and know that there is no time to be when the holy Spirit of God, will force itself into the will of the hardened. But thou must bring thy will into the holy Spirit, and then shalt thou hear it, teaching thee by another way and means than formerly thou hast waited in; for most certain it is, that the change is now begun, and God will finish that long expected and waited for, 
Psal. 45.6, 7.  even his own presence and fellowship with the Saints; prise thy dignity, and give praises, yea, eternal praises to the Lord of glory, that showeth himself unto thee, in the fellowship of sufferings. Oh the height, the depth, the breadth, and length of the love of God, that doth invest poor worms into such glory, that neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, neither can enter into the heart of man, to conceive the riches of that glory!  
Now seeing that there must be such a fiery change, as is spoken of, which through the great mercy of God doth free us from wrath to come; What manner of persons ought we to be, now in the body of flesh? We ought to attend and wait on the inward calling of God, and to obey the light that shineth into our minds, living according to our measure, exercising ourselves in all godlike conversation, redeeming the time, because the days are evil, shaking off the things that cleave so close to us, even our lusts, crush the Serpent in the head, kill the Cockatrice in the shell, wait upon God with weeping, fasting, and mourning, praying, and ever praying, that the Kingdom of Christ may be enlarged that the wickedness of the world may be abated, and the dross among his people utterly consumed & that the Nations that yet know not the Lord, may be insightened and instructed to know him, glorifying God the Father, that he hath been so gracious, so long suffering, so merciful, and so patiented, in bearing with such a wicked and hypocritical a generation as we are.  
You that are enemies to the pure truth now declared, and despisers of the light of Jesus made manifest, and do live in contention for the upholding of the outward profession, being blind to the inward and invisible power that should rule within: Learn to know that there are but two ways, the broad way, and the narrow way; the one a way of death, the other of life, the one without God in the world, the other God with us, living and abiding with us; the one way directeth and leadeth to God, as a merciful Father and all-sufficient Redeemer; the other way directeth and leadeth to God, as a terrible Judge, and Avenger, knowing this: Be you led by the light that shineth in you, the light of Christ, to the narrow way, to the straight gate, thorough which you cannot enter, until you are new born, new creatures, new moulded, new melted, which cannot be with the taking of the ease, pleasure, and profits of the world, living in an external, professed, and visible way of outward observances, but it must be by the inward breaking, bruising, and killing of that serpentine life, will, and wisdom of the carnal man; Either you must fall on the stone and be broken, 
Luke 10.18.  or else it will fall upon you, and it will grind you to powder; there is no middle way to life, salvation and happiness: Either you must yield, bow, submit, and embrace Christ upon terms of loss, and death to the carnal; or else you cannot have Christ at all, keeping the carnal mind, although never so much covered and gilded.  
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, get oil into your lamps, now there is an opportunity of having of it; come to the wedding now the dinner is ready, make no worldly, or flesh-pleasurable excuses; get among the people of God into his Sanctuary, stand not gazing about, expecting happiness without you, by other ways and means, than by the death of sin within you, and a resurrection from that death of sin, to a life of God within you, for there are none saved by the report of Christ's dying at Jerusalem, and of his resurrection and ascension into Heaven, but by the virtue and efficacy of it within them, finding the powers of sin and darkness, by his death, to be utterly vanquished within, and a new creation, a new life within.  
Examine yourselves, and see whether you are yet still as you were born, and brought forth into the world, whether there be the same terrene thoughts, & affections, 
2 Cor. 13.5.  and actions, the same will, and wisdom, whether the old man be dead or no, Thou mayst by the light of Christ, keep court within thine own self, thou mayest Apprehend, Arraign, Try, Judge, and Condemn thyself, that thou mayest be freed from the judgements of the Lord: what is done by the light within thee, is of and from the Lord, and the judgement is his which passeth, 
1 Cor. 11, ●1.  and delivereth thee from wrath: Wilt thou then be tried in this court, what thou art, & what thou dost deserve, thou shalt cry out, what have I done, what am I become, and what shall I do? Thou shalt see thou hast offended, a most gracious, a most merciful, and a long suffering God, That thou art a filthy, a polluted, defiled, and a disobedient wretch, and knowest not what to do, running up and down, in disquietness of mind, not finding any comfort at all, in any creature: but wait in patience, the Lord is nigh, when thou thinkest, he is farthest off, in thine own apprehension, then is he nearest, 
Psa. 34.18. & 145.18. Luke 21.18.  yea, to them that are afflicted in spirit he will come in and be thy peace, after thou hast had a conflict in thyself, and hast made war aginast thyself.  
If thou dost examine thyself, thou shalt find what thou art, better than an another can tell thee, whether thou hast observed the checks of thy conscience, wherefore thou didst restrain from committing sin, at any time, whether for the love of God, or for fear of outward disgrace, discredit, or repute among men, what thy end is, in all thy actions, whether thou art offended with thyself, after sin committed, whether thou dost cover or hid any sin, or defection in thyself, or whether thou dost let lose the reins of thy affections to all impiety, not caring to be changed, but in the outward Garb; only Civilised without, the powers of darkness reigning and ruling within, thy desires after carnal treasures, thy confidence on that, that fadeth, thy felicity and joy in the prosperity of the world. When thou hast found what thou art, and that thou art not willing to unveil, strip, and lay thyself open, before thy maker, hear then thy doom, thou shalt be cast into utter darkness, for thou hast not obeyed the light of Jesus within thee and darkness will for ever overshadow thee, that thou shalt not see thyself, but in a condition of peace, gotten by outward observances of reading, hearing, praying discoursing, disputing, and talking of Heaven, not knowing, what it is, so that notwithstanding, all things that seemeth to be of God, and in power is not, thou art in death, and art a stranger to the life of Jesus. Consider this, ye that smother, dim, and put out the light in you, and will not be guided by it, to walk up, to the everlasting light; for the time will come, that there will be no remedy, the gates will be shut and cannot be opened.  
Awake therefore thou that sleepest, stand up, & Christ shall give thee light, 
Jer. 50.5.  defer no time, make no delay, but ask the way to Zion, with thy face thitherwards, get out of Babel, the place of confusion, wait only on the teachings of God, be renewed in the spirit of thy mind, exercise thyself, in all low and humble matters, lean not to thine own understanding, be meek to all men, render good for evil, despise not prophesying, quench not the spirit, pray continually, that the Lord would give thee an understanding heart and enlightened mind, to abhor the Whore, with all her gay glitterings, and smiling enticements to alienate from the true enjoyments.  
Now to conclude, let England in general, and every man in particular, learn, what to do, Remember thy Creator, in the days of thy youth, 
Eccles. 12.1.  before the evil days cometh, while liberty, strength, peace, and opportunity is: embrace that, that customary, and stiff old age cannot embrace, let no man marvel when he heareth, that the church is impure, or that being a member of the church, he is in controversy with other members, for so it is, we are under the changing and overturning arm of God, and we must dash one against the other, 
Rev. 12.1.  until the time come that we shall know the Lord, and shall be clothed with the Sun, having the Moon under our feet, all these sublunary metals, and things before mentioned, shall lie beneath our affections, being not worthy of them, although much of God's glory is seen in them, there lies in them the tempter, and subtle enemy; that it is a hard matter to escape, by the use of them or any terrene things, from the defilement and corruption.  
Be therefore lifted up, oh thou dejected soul, that waitest on the Lord, Thy God O Israel reigneth in Zion. 
Psa. 39.1.  Do waters, and the overflowing floods trouble thee? God will come with his fire, and dry up all those waters and floods: thou thoughtest that thou didst well, to be washed and cleared by water, being an element of refreshing; But thou shalt now understand from the Lord, 
Mat. 23.25, 26.  that the element of fire, is the most excellent to purge & refine thee; the element of water hath had its use, and its time, which did very well clean the outside of the vessel, but it is the fire, that purifies the inward body of the metal whereof the vessel is made, wherein corruption lieth, and water cannot wash, scour, rinse or purge it out; It is fire that will consume all thy tin, & base metal within thee, or amongst thy Silver; the seeing of thy God, to be such a consuming fire within thee, is the greatest matter that can be for thee to lift the head, and rejoice: When the brook in the way, is drunk up, it will be otherwise with thee, 
Psal. 110.7.  then when thou wast in the watery element, for then thy Christianity was in show, and Christlesse in power within, in profession: then the believing, the report of a Saviour dying for thee, was faith; but now the entertaining, the receiving in, and possession of Christ within, hath made thee faithful, and faithfulness to appear within thee.  
O ye despisers, tremble before the Lord, and quake, O ye mockers, for the day of the Lord is come, in which he will not only search Jerusalem with candles but he will change Jerusalem by fire: what can you expect, that when the great and dreadful God who is holy and cannot endure uncleanness, and dross to be among his people, but will consume it, by the fire of his anger, but to be utterly consumed, as these sublunary metals: you can have no other end, for the Silver and the Gold, the pure metals, you ever hated, and made no reckoning of, but rested, and trusted, in the shinings of your own base metals, not regarding to know God, and therefore, God will give you up to a reprobate mind, 
Rom. 1.28.  let seasonable advice take hold on you: What ever you do, or suffer, get Gold; buy Truth, dig deep for Silver; and let not all the metals beneath these metals, gain thy heart, let them have what lustre, gilding, or shining soever, they will deceive thee. 
Jona. 3.8.  They that trust, in lying vanities, forsake their own mercy.  
What will become of our Nation, if it should neglect so great salvation; is there not a deluge of pride, hypocrisy, idolatry, covetousness, and murmuring, now? God would be merciful to us, if we would but resign ourselves up to him, but we are proud and exalted in the fleshly wisdom, being blind, thinking ourselves in an excellent good condition, giving ourselves up to the lusts of our own hearts, not caring to see the visions of God in the inward and internal way; and so perish, through our own carnal understandings, in an outward profession.  
Let us be humbled, under the mighty hand of God, who will exalt us, the humble he will teach, and those that dread and fear him, he will reveal his secrets unto, what greater blessedness, can be to any of the sons of men, than this, to be his scholars, 
Pro. 29.18.  and to know his will.  
The teachers of the world are corrupted, 
Psal. 25.9, 14.  and need to be taught themselves; for it appeareth, they are not as the Apostles were in the primitive time, but alienated from their practice, having not the inlivening power within them, of the spirit: whence it comes to pass, that living and speaking according to the letter, they are by an Artifice of Satan, strengthened by the outward profession to oppose strongly, from their form, the inward and true spiritual worshipper; and so Antichrist comes, to be taken for Christ, and Christ for Antichrist. As the Scriptures are, such are the Ministers of it: the letter serveth as a shelter or an hiding place for Antichrist, to lurk and save himself in, where now he is striving for superiority, as the Pharisees did in the time of Christ, against whom he did chief speak, but the Spirit is of that pure, simple, individual, and virgin like, holy quality, proceeding from the Father of light, that it needeth not to be urged, either by letter or word, being given up wholly to the invisible and internal enjoyment of the life of God, which by his inspiration, the letter was first monumented: to enjoy the letter, without the spirit, is to enjoy the picture, and not the person. Christ saith, you think to have eternal life, in the Scriptures: No, you cannot, they testify of me, 
John. 5.39.  that giveth life to all, that do believe: His ministration, is a ministration of reconciliation, to salvation, and we are to look after no other, although there may be excellent pretences.  
Should the men of the world study but half so much, for their eternal welfare, as they do for their temporal, they could not but give strong reasons, and gain strong resolutions, against their own practices: to be in Israel, and not an Israelite; to be of the visible Church, and to have no invisible light and truth; this is worth nothing: to talk of grace with the mouth, and have none in the heart, to say they know, and do not, there sin remaineth: Stir up thyself, 
Joh. 9.14.  O worldling, lie not still, consider what thou art, and wherefore thou wast created: 
1 Joh. 3.20.  let not the natural light that is within, condemn thee to perdition, and make no further use of any thing wherein others meet with the Lord their God, then that thou mightest so really and truly meet him also: Let not the outward performances of duties, 
Eccles. 5.7. Job 34.19. Psal. 113.7.  serve thine own will, to the increase of worldly gain, or preferment, but serve God with a pure mind, and heart-performance, which he only accepteth of.  
Let the poor, and mean, Yea the servants of men, endeavour chiefly that the Lord may be their portion: the sin of murmuring is, as among all people, so especially among people of low degree; they murmur because God hath not given them, such a portion of the world, as oothers, because they are impotent, or that they are under the command of others: many ways is there a murmuring against God; learn patience, and know that the very worst estate, that can be, is beyond thy desert, and that thy Maker will do with his own, as He pleaseth. Happy art thou if thou findest within thyself the God of love and infinite mercy, anyway to appear: if in that thou hast received thou hast seen a hand directing it to thee, though it be bitter, take it from the Lord, as a token of his infinite love; rejoice in thy low condition, the Lords eye is over thee, and will nevertheless judge thine oppressor, he hath a regard to the poor, he will defend them, he will bring them them out of the dust, and set them among Princes: all that wait upon the Lord, shall see his goodness, in the Land of the Living. Let all therefore say, that have not to their desire in outward appearance of God's favour, Verily thou O God hidest thyself, O God thou Saviour of Israel.  
Lastly, whatever thou art, that dost draw near to God in any outward performance, meditate with thyself to what end thou dost it, and be more near to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools; 
Eccles. 4.17, ●, 1.  neither be rash with thy mouth to utter a thing before God, for he is in Heaven, and thou art on earth; therefore let thy words be few. 
Eccles. 4.17.5.1.  Lamentable it is to see, how sinfully men present themselves before the Lord in Congregations, petitioning for that their hearts are not affected with, and promising that they have no intent to perform. Consider in your minds: would a mortal man be so served, that is in some regal authority, and do you think the great God can bear it? No, if this be your resolved practice, he will cast you into utter darkness, that doth thus counterfeit and dissemble with him, who seethe the heart; you shall never have the light of his countenance here, nor that Heaven which you care little for, hereafter. Behold, the day of the Lord is very near at hand, and he cometh as a thief in the night: 
Revel. 3.2.  Who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall endure when he appeareth? 
Mal. 3.2. 1 Thess. 5.6.  for he is like a purging fire, and like Fuller's soap. Watch therefore, Luke 12.33. to the 41. (read it in the Spirit, that being forewarned, you may be fore-armed.) Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things pertain to love, 
Phil. 4.8.  whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, or if there be any praise, think on these things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in Paul, or in any of the Saints of God; those things do, and the God of peace shall be with you.  
FINIS.