A sermon wherein is showed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…A sermon wherein is shewed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…

3. Formality in Religion. When professors are generally grown cold, and lifeless in Religion; God casts them into a fiery furnace of Persecution: that life, and heat might be brought into them again. Thus does the Lord Jesus say to the Church at Sardis, Rev. 3. Init. Thou hast a Name to live, & art dead: Therefore I will come on thee as a Thief. h. e. Suddenly. Storms of persecution arise suddenly for this. The truth is, Formalists in Religion, are many times the most bitter persecutors. Though Formalists may be professors of the same Religion with the sincere; (as Cain & Abel were of the same Religion; only Cain was a mere Formalist, when Abel had the power of godliness) yet the former sometimes persecute the latter to the Death. And it is just with God to punish His degenerate people by those that they are become like unto. And if we search the Records of former ages, we shall find, that an eminent Persecution, whether of the Church in general, or of the Churches in this or that particular Land, have seldom happened, except great decays as to Zeal, & the power of godliness amongst professors, have gone before it, and made way for it. The British Churches of old, retained the Name, and Form of Christianity, (just as some in these days, have the Name of Protestants) but they were, many of them, persecutors of those that had the power of godliness in their profession, and conversations, (as Gildas a faithful preacher of their own, ¹Testifieth) therefore the Lord first plagued them by the Picts, (a sort of men not unlike our Indians) and after that, rooted them out of their own Land by those Saxons & Angles which came out of Germany.

3. Formality in Religion. When professors are generally grown cold, and lifeless in Religion; God casts them into a fiery furnace of Persecution: that life, and heat might be brought into them again. Thus does the Lord Jesus say to the Church at Sardis, Rev. 3. Init. Thou hast a Name to live, & art dead: Therefore I will come on thee as a Thief. h. e. Suddenly. Storms of persecution arise suddenly for this. The truth is, Formalists in Religion, are many times the most bitter persecutors. Though Formalists may be professors of the same Religion with the sincere; (as Cain & Abel were of the same Religion; only Cain was a meer Formalist, when Abel had the power of godliness) yet the former sometimes persecute the latter to the Death. And it is just with God to punish His degenerate people by those that they are become like unto. And if we search the Records of former ages, we shall find, that an eminent Persecution, whether of the Church in general, or of the Churches in this or that particular Land, have seldome hapned, except great decayes as to Zeal, & the power of godliness amongst professors, have gone before it, and made way for it. The British Churches of old, retained the Name, and Form of Christianity, (just as some in these dayes, have the Name of Protestants) but they were, many of them, persecutors of those that had the power of godliness in their profession, and coversations, (as Gildas a faithful preacher of their own,