Fool not your self with such hopes, for I tell you, all you have yet seen, hath been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ, who will ere long fall under a sharper Persecution than ever it hath been upon them, and therefore said he, Look you be not found in the outward Court, but a worshipper in the Temple before the Altar, for Christ will measure all those that profess his name, and call themselves his People; and the outward worshippers he will leave out, to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The outward Court (says he) is the formal Christian whose Religion lies in performing the outside without showing any inward life and duties of Christianity, Power of faith and love, uniting them to Christ, and these God will leave to be trodden own, and Swept away by the Gentiles; but the worshippers within the Temple and before the Altar, are those who do indeed worship God in Spirit and in Truth, whose souls are made his Temples, and he is honoured and adored in the most Inward thoughts of their Hearts, and they Sacrifice their lusts and vile affections, yea, and their own wills to him, and these God will hide in the hollow of his hand, and under the shadow of his Wings; and this shall be one great difference between this last, and all the other proceeding Persecutions; for in the former, the most Eminent and Spiritual Ministers and Christians did generally suffer most, and were most violently fallen upon, but in this last Persecution, these shall be preserved by God as a seed to partake of that glory which shall Immediately follow and come upon the Church, as soon as ever this storm shall be over. For as it shall be the Sharpest, so it shall be the shortest Persecution of them all; and shall only take away the ⟨p. 3⟩gross Hypocrites and formal Professors, but the true Spiritual Believers shall be Preserved till the Calamity be overpast.
Fool not your self with such hopes, for I tell you, all you have yet seen, hath been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Protestant Churches of Christ, who will er'e long fall under a sharper Persecution than ever it hath been upon them, and therefore said he, Look you be not found in the outward Court, but a worshiper in the Temple before the Altar, for Christ will measure all those that profess his name, and call themselves his People; and the outward worshipers he will leave out, to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The outward Court (says he) is the formal Christian whose Religion lies in performing the outside without shewing any inward life and duties of Christianitie, Power of faith and love, uniting them to Christ, and these God will leave to be trodden own, and Swept away by the Gentiles; but the worshipers within the Temple and before the Altar, are those who do indeed worship God in Spirit and in Truth, whose souls are made his Temples, and he is honoured and adored in the most Inward thoughts of their Hearts, and they Sacrifice their lusts and vile affections, yea, and their own wills to him, and these God will hide in the hollow of his hand, and under the shadow of his Wings; and this shall be one great difference between this last, and all the other proceeding Persecutions; for in the former, the most Eminent and Spirituall Ministers and Christians did generally suffer most, and were most violently fallen upon, but in this last Persecution, these shall be preserved by God as a seed to partake of that glory which shall Immediately follow and come upon the Church, as soon as ever this storm shall be over. For as it shall be the Sharpest, so it shall be the shortest Persecution of them all; and shall onely take away the ⟨p. 3⟩grosse Hypocrites and formal Professors, but the true Spiritual Believers shall be Preserved till the Calamity be overpast.
