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nor any contentious Perfon fhall be found there, for there is no fuch Cuftom among the Churches of Chrift, Ifa. xxxv. 8, 9. Prov. xxvi. 13. I Cor. xi. 16. But the Redeemed fhall walk there. And thus the Ranfomed of the Lord having received the Breathing Winds, (the Holy Spirit) fhall be enabled to mount up upon the Wings of Faith, from the dry Bone Valley of the Shadow of Death, and "return to Sion with Songs and everlafting Joy upon their Heads, they fhall obtain, Joy and Gladness, and Sorrow and Sighing fhall flee away," Ifa. xxxv. The Lord by his Spirit doth and will call and qualify Minifters" to preach good Tidings unto the Meek. He'll fend them to bind up the Broken-hearted, to proclaim Liberty to the Captives, and the opening of the Prifon to them that were bound (in Unbelief); To publish the acceptable. Year of the Lord; crying, Behold! now is the accepted Time, now is the Day of the Salvation of our God, to comfort all that mourn in Sion; to give unto them Beauty for Ashes, the Oil of Joy instead of Mourning, the Garment of Praife for the Spirit of Heaviness; that they might be called Trees of Righteoufnefs, the Planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified," Ifa. lxi. 1, 2, 3. Thus Chrift allures his Church, his Bride, bringing her up out of the Wilderness of Sin and Unbelief, and caufeth her to lean on him her Beloved, Cant. viii. 5. For God will make his People willing in the Day of his Power; he will put his Fear before their Eyes, and write his Law in their Hearts; and they fhall be his People, and he will be their God, Jer. xxxi. 33. Here we may obferve how inceffantly God works to prepare his intended Bride, and makes her ready. God the Father draws, God the Son receives, and God the Holy Ghoft fanctifies the Soul; for thefe Titles, Father, Son, and Spirit, fignify,

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not the Manner of Exifting in the Deity, but the Manner of Acting in the Oeconomy of Man's Salvation and thus the mysterious Efpoufals of Chrift and his Church is confummated, never to be put afunder. God having loved her once, he will love her to the End, John xiii. 1. Having betrothed her to himfelf for ever, Hof. ii. 19. And promifed to love her, and he declares that he hath loved her with an everlasting Love: "therefore with Loving-kindness (faith he) have I drawn thee unto me) Jer. xxxi. 3. Every Bride (every faithful Soul) being united to Chrift in Spirit receives the Word fowed into an honeft and good Heart, that is, in Sincerity, and brings forth Fruit unto God, fome Thirty, fome Sixty, and fome an Hundred Fold, Mark iv. 20. Such are like Trees planted by the Water-fide, that bring forth Fruit in due Seafon whofe Leaf shall not wither, but flourish for ever, Pfal. i. 3. Saint Paul was careful to efpouse the Church as a chafte Virgin to Chrift, who was raised from the Dead, that they might bring forth Fruit unto God, Rom. vii. 4. Implying that unless the Church as a chafte Virgin is married to Chrift, not to the Law, there is no Acceptance, and that Union is effected by the genuine Operation of the Holy Ghoft, whofe Anointing abides in Believers for ever, 1 John ii. 20, 27. Without this, I fay, they can in no Wife bring forth Fruit unto God. Hear what the Lord faith to the House of Ifrael, under the Similitude of a Vineyard which he had planted: "And he looked that it should bring forth Grapes, and it brought forth wild Grapes," Ifa. v. 2. And why? Because they went about to establish their own Righteoufnefs; to encompass themselves with Sparks of their own kindling, therefore (without the Righteousness of Christ) they must lie down in Sorrow, Ifa. 1. 11. Chrift

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Christ being the true Vine, and the Church the. Branches, therefore without him fhe can bear no good Fruit, fhe can do nothing, John xv. 5. But now, fhe being in Chrift, fhe is fruitful in every good Work, and increafing in the Knowledge of God, Col. i. 10. And whereas, in Chrift, there is no Difference of Male and Female, &c. but his Church collected out of every Nation, Tongue and People, which he has redeemed unto God by his Blood, for to reign with him for ever, Rev. v. 9, 10. Thus he compares them; " As the Lily among Thorns (faith Chrift) fo is my Love among the Daughters. And as the Apple-tree among the Trees of the Wood, fo is my Beloved among the Sons," Cant. ii. 2, 3. "Behold! (the Beauty and Glory of the Church) ye Despisers, and wonder, and perifh. For God works a Work, yea in the Hearts of his Chofen, in your Days, which you in no wife believe, though a Man declares it unto you,' Acts xiii. 41. View the Difference Chrift puts between you and Believers. O how beautiful does a full blown Lily appear among Thorns? and how pleafant is an Apple-tree in full Bloffom among the Trees of the Wood? and is not the Fruit thereof fweet to the Tafte? "The Fruit of the Righteous is a Tree of Life," Prov. xi. 30. Because when this Fruit, by divine Direction, drops into an honeft and good Heart, it converts and brings true Wisdom into that Soul for ever; for

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happy is the Man that findeth Wisdom, and retaineth her; for fhe is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her," Prov. iii. 13, 18. Therefore "he that winneth Souls is faid to be wife," Prov. xi.30. Having received true Wifdom and fpiritual Understanding, Col. i. 9. "Alfo they that be wife, (having been taught of God) fhall fhine as the Brightness of the Firmament; and they that turn

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many to Righteoufnefs, as the Stars for ever and ever," Dan. xii. 3. For the Words of the Wife are as Goads, and as Nails faftened in a fure Place, in the Hearts of the Godly, by the Masters of the Affemblies, viz. Minifters given them for that Purpose by Chrift himself, the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls, Ecclef. xii. 11. For their Words being seasoned with Salt, minifter Grace unto their Hearers, Eph. iv. 29.

FOrafmuch, O Lord, as thy Ifrael of old were faved by going through the Red Sea, having no other Way to escape from their Enemies; give us, we pray thee, a full Conviction of our Mifery by Nature, that the condemning Power of thy boly Law might force us likewife to escape for our Lives through the Red Sea of thy Son's atoning Blood; and also to act Faith in the Veracity of thine infallible Word, wherein thou haft graciously promised to drown our Sins in the Depth of the Sea, Mic. vii. 19.

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Perfecutors will be punished. The Righteous love Peace, in Order to enjoy their Lord. They build their Hope on CHRIST the Rock, a jure Foundation. CHRIST gives them the Dews of Heaven.

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Y and by the Ungodly, who are compared to Thorns that grieve God's Lilies, (his Church on Earth) fhall be gathered from out of God's

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Kingdom, with all other Things that do offend, with the Devil and his Angels, and be caft into Hell, the unquenchable Fire; there. fhall be wailing and gnashing of Teeth. of Teeth. And then fhall God's Lilies, the Righteous, fhine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He that hath Ears to hear, let him hear, what God will do in the Harvest of the World, unto all perfecuting, fcoffing, offenfive Thorns; God the Son will then fay to his Angels or Reapers, "Grub up thofe offenfive Thorns, which have wounded me fo often in my Church on Earth; and gather the Tares from among my Wheat, and bind them in Bundles, and caft both Thorns and Tares into Hell-Fire,' Ifa. xxxiii. 12. Matt. xiii. 30, 40, 41, 42, 43. and Matt. viii. 12. And there you fhall all lie down, pent up as Sheep, whilft Death, viz. the fecond Death fhall gnash upon you with his Teeth; nay, feed on you like a voracious Lion, Pfal. xlix. 14. And there you'll bewail your Folly, and fay one to another, (mark the Language of condemned Souls, ye Perfecutors in Gillingham, and refrain) "We Fools, accounted the Lives of Profeffors Madness, and their End to be without Honour, who defended the Truth on God's Behalf, (like Lot in Scdom) and thereby loft their worldly Goods; how are they numbered with the Juft, and their Lot among the Saints " Wifd. v. 4, 5. How are the Righteous Souls whom we held in Derifion, now had in everlafting Remembrance? Pfal. cxii. 6. While we

are rejected with Shame, and reprobated with everlafting Contempt, Dan. xii. 2. Burning alive in this Lake of Fire and Brimftone, Rev. xix. 20. How are we tormented in this Flame, in everlasting Defpair! where the Worm, the Guilt of Confcience dieth not, and the Fire is not quenched? Mark ix. 43, 44.

Now we fee the Devil that deceived us,

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