1 2 . Oppojition made ttnto the C!Jurc!J \vhen God fhall help them by Faith to make ufe of his ex:. ample He calls them to take up his Crofs and follow him;· and he hath ihew~d them what is in it by his own bearing of it.' Contempt, reproach, defpightful ufage, calumnies,fal1e accufations, wrefiings of his words, blafpheming of his Do– chine, reviling of his Perfon, all that he faid and did as to his principles about Humane Government, .and Moral Con– verf~ltion,encompafTed him all his daies. And he hath afiured his followers, 'that fuch anJ no other, at leafi for the moil: part, 1hall be their lot in this world. And fome in all Ages have an experience of it in an eminent manner. But have they any reafon to complain? why fhould the fer·vant look for better meafure then the Ma}fer met withal? To be made like unto him in the worfi: of ·evils,. for his fake, is the bef1:· and moil honourable condition in this world. God help fome to believe it. Hereby was \vay made for his Death. But in the whole it.was manife{l:ed how infinitely in all his fubtilty and malice Satan falls flmrt of the contrivances of Divine Wifdom and Power. For all that he attained by effecting his. ' Death, in the hour of Darknefs, was but the breaking of his onm Head, the deftruElion of hiJ TYorks, with the Ruine of his Kingdom ; and what yet remains to· confummate his eternal mifery,he fhall himfelf work out in his oppo!ition un~ to the Church. His refilefs malice and darknefs will not · fuffer him to give over the purfuit ofhis rage, until no~hing remains to give him a full entrance into endlefs torments, which he hafieneth eveTy day. For when he ihall have·filled up the meafure of his fins, and of the fins of the world -in being infl:rumental unto his rage,. eternal Judgment ihall put all things unto their iffue. Through tbat fl1all he with the world enter into everlafl:iug flames, and the whole Church built on the Rock into Reil: and Glory. No fooner did the Church of the New Tefiament begin to . • · arifc '
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