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the Lord deceitfully; and curfed be be that keepeth back bis fword from blood. Jer. xlvii, 10.

I have had fome of the fame fighting against me as Jeremiah had against him. There was a knot of young wife men among us, who were great readers and admirers of Tom Paine; and when they became ftrong in the bonds of iniquity, Satan found access to their hearts, and by him they conceived no fmall degree of envy; and their malice and prejudice began to rise so high against me, that fome of them could hardly keep filence in the house of God. My difcourfe on the Books and the Parchments exasperated them to the highest pitch of defperation and madness; and when that fon of Belial came among you from Plymouth Dock, they then thought to feek revenge, or to avenge themfelves on me; the fecret leaven of malice and wickedness that had long worked within them boiled up, and ran over, the cockatrice eggs were broken, and out came the vipers. He whofe hatred is covered with deceit, bis wickedness fhall be fhewn before the whole congregation. Prov. xxvi. 26. God had fhewn me this, nine months before it happened, in à dream, which I then told to Mr. Morgan and Mr. Winkworth. And at this time he gave me. alfo another dream fimilar to the former, which fhewed me what we were to do; God had then discovered the vile, and we were to separate them from the precious, while the Spirit of God, in the fouls of the righteous, feparated them from their affections:

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fections: and what the Lord of life and glory foretold may be vifibly feen in many of them at this day; namely, that they who abide not in the vine are caft forth as a branch, and are withered, and men gather them, that is, wicked men gather them into their company, and they are burned. In lefs than fix months after the fecond arrival of the abovementioned fon of Belial, and after a fecond influence under his alluring through the luft of the flesh and much wantonnefs, not lefs than fix perfons were known to give themfelves up to the fin of adultery, and are now gone over to the awful tribunal of God:-the whoremonger and the adulterer God will judge.

I know, at this time, several individuals, who lay near to my heart, and who have drank into this fpirit of difaffection and rebellion, who are vifibly fmitten of God; the hand of God has gone out against two, in a way of providence, even till they wonder what can be the caufe. I know the caufe. Three more I know who are, or have been, under the arrefts of divine justice in their confciences, and fo fmitten with the terrors of God, and at the fame time cherishing rebellion and madness in their hearts, till their fleep has departed from them; and others have been fmitten in other ways, and it must be fo: for thofe who make to themselves crookedways fhall not know peace. Crooked ways are thofe ways that are contrary to God; and this is refifting his will, and refifting the ordinance of God, F 2

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and cherishing a fpirit of rebellion against the very powers which God hath fet up, and which protect us in the worship of God; and fuch can expect to fare no better than thofe who confpired with Abfalom against David.

I am not alone in my teftimony; I have two true yokefellows, whofe names ftand at the front of this difcourfe, whom God hath fet as iron pillars to refift this fpirit of Satan.

God hath visibly mingled a perverfe spirit among thefe oppofers; and many who have longed for the overthrow, and have at times been almost ready to fhout for victory, have hitherto been difappointed, notwithstanding all the mutterings and confpiracies which have taken place and I know they have erred in every work of theirs, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Ifa. xix. 14. And whatever it is to terminate in, whether in a peftilence, or what not, the promoters of it fhall moft furely fare the worst in it; and those who keep the word of the Lord's patience, fhall be kept from ruin and deftruction in this hour of temptation. And God fhall fhew you, in due time, whether this my work, or this my counfel, be of God, or of man.

Nor fhall you ever run from this my testimony, for I am made manifeft in your confciences; if you are fent to hell, as a favour of death unto death, Í shall purfue you, and my teftimony will stand against you, and you fhall fee me with the eyes of your mind, even there, as a witness against you:

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as fure as Mofes accufed the Jews in the days of Chrift for their rejection of him, and as fure as the rich glutton in hell faw the beggar Lazarus in the bofom of Abraham. And if And if you are obedient to the word of the Lord, as a favour of life unto life, you fhall acknowledge me to the end; for thofe that bear precious feed fhall return again rejoicing, bringing their fheaves with them. I know where this my teaching, and this my testimony,, came from, and I know it is of God; therefore remember that I have admonished you, cautioned you, and warned you this day. Thus I have complied, alfo, with the request of them who wished me fo much to print it, which is what I did not intend; but as I had feven discourses to deliver fo foon after the delivery of this, it cannot be expected that I could put it down just as it was delivered. And furthermore, as fome perfons wifhed me to publish the last Sunday morning's difcourfe, delivered from Dan. ii. 45, I have interwoven a few of the heads of that in this difcourfe, which muft fuffice for the fent, as I have fo little time on my hands,

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