Directions for weak distempered Christians, to grow up to a confirmed state of grace…

When the godly man ceaseth, and the faithful fail from among the children of men, when every man speaketh vanity to his neighbour, and the poor are oppressed, and the needy sigh, and the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, Psal. 12.1, 2, 5, 8. The Times are Good, when the Men are good; and Evil when the Men are evil, be they never so great or prosperous. As Nehemiah when he was Cup bearer to the King ⟨p. 155⟩himself, yet wept and mourned for the desolations of Jerusalem, Neh. 1.3, 4. & 2.2, 3. Whoever prospereth, the Times are ill when there is a famine of the Word of the Lord, and when the chief of the Priests and people do transgress, and mock Gods messengers, and despise his words, and misuse his Prophets, 2 Chron. 36.14, 16. Amos 8.11, 12. When the Apostles are charged to speak no more in the name of Christ, Act. 4.18. & 5.40. It is a text enough to make one tremble, to think into what a desperate condition the Jews were carried by a partial selfish zeal, 1 Thes. 2.15, 16. who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own Prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved; to fill up their sin alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. When the interest of themselves and their own Nation and Priesthood did so far blind and pervert them, that they durst persecute the Preachers of the Gospel, and forbid them to speak to the people that they may be saved, it was a sign that wrath was come upon them to the uttermost: A Christian indeed had rather be without Jeroboam's Kingdom, than make Israel to sin, & make the basest of the people Priests, and stretch out his hand against the Prophet of the Lord,