The child's portion, or, The unseen glory of the children of God asserted and…

Jer. 26. 12, 13. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the Princes, and to all the People, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this House, against this City, all the words that ye have heard. Vers. 13. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord with repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Jer. 26. 12, 13. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the Princes, and to all the People, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesie against this House, against this City, all the words that ye have heard. Vers. 13. Therefore now amend your wayes and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord with repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Such is the unhappy entertainment that plain-dealing and open-hearted reproofs do meet with in the World, that when they are most needed, they can be least born: The fouler the stomach, the more nauseous is the Physic: when the malady is come to a dangerous Crisis, and ⟨p. 164⟩every symptom bodes a sad and sudden▪ change men are better pleased with • cheating quack, that dissembleth the disease▪ and engageth all shall be well, then with an hone•• and faithful Physician, who tells them the distemper is malignant, the issue dubious, and, without the application of some speedy and extraordinary means, desperate. He that will undertake to lay open the true state of degenerous People, by ripping up their sins, displaying their impenitencies, and applying the threatenings of •••ine displeasure, shall expose himself to the hatred and injurious usage of those for whom he doth this kindness: Apostasy being a spiritual frenzy, and herein expressing an affinity with maden, in being enraged at none so much, as those that in love seek their cure. The truth of this our Prophet here experienced; who, being sent by God on an unthankful errand (for when men love the distemper, they do by consequence despise the remedy, and hate him that brings it. And I therefore call it unthankful, […] from its own nature, for what can be a more obliging courtesy than to give men timely notice of eminent dangers, & counsel how to avoid them But from the disposition of those who were to receive it, whom custom in sin had wedded to complacency in it; whose pride and presumption had made them inpatient of all threatenings; and in whom deep rooted impenitence had obstructed