52 A .pefcription of .the C/Jt!firnzed ' any, to keep off fiumb1ing at the Work of Providence ; and be thus tried accord– ing to the Meafure of thefe Confirmations. \ 2. The/ the Churches Declinings, un- · der greatefl Meafures of Light, n1ay be toovifible, and that Religion gains n'ot . by Perfecution as forrnerlJ, with fuch an · ,atn·a'zing Change as is now in her external Condition, . yet he fees it to be no ftrang~ Thing, when n1oft fignal Warnings have I gone before of fuch a Trial, 1.vith too evi– dent Difpofitions towards the fatne, and Difcov~ry of its Approach in all the-eau· fes thereof; yea~ n1ight be forefeen by all, 1 that the holy Gud would not ftill bear ·with an impure and.unenlivenedProfeHion of the pure and glorious 'Truth of Chri- ~ . · ftianity, which hath now long , been~ one of the moft fad and n1ortal Signs in the ) l)Ublic State of Religion; nor can ir ·be found, that ever any Church did ~ecline ~' and fall from _the Purity ot the Truth, and lofe Ground herein . by exte~nal Per- · · fecution, where a j~dicial Departure of its Life and ~ ower did not retnarkablygo , before; [o as. it is no,t of late, tbls_~ hath been clearly prefaged., that fotne dark · and unufuaf Meafure of 'Trial frol1) Anti- , chrift, ...
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