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the juft and merciful God: it would be a noble example of gravity and temperance to foreign ftates, and an unspeakable benefit to ourselves at home.

Alas! Why fhould men need perfuafions to what their own felicity fo neceffarily leads them? Had thefe vitiofos of the times but a fense of heathen Cato's generofity, they would rather deny their carnal appetites, than leave fuch noble enterprizes unattempted. But that they should eat, drink, play, game, and fport away their health, eftates, and, above all, their irrevocable precious time, which fhould be dedicated to the Lord as a neceffary introduction to a bleffed eternity, and than which, did they but know it, no worldly folace could come in competition; I fay, that they fhould be continually employed about these poor, low things, is to have the Heathens judge them in God's day, as well as Chriftian precepts and examples condemn them. And their final doom will prove the more aftonishing, in that this vanity and excefs are acted under a profeffion of the felf-denying religion of Jefus, whofe life and doctrine are a perpetual reproach to the moft of Chriftians. For he (bleffed man) was humble, but they are proud; he forgiving, they revengeful, he meek, they fierce; he plain, they gaudy; he abftemious, they luxurious; he chafte, they lafcivious; he a pilgrim on earth, they citizens of the world: in fine, he was meanly born, poorly attended, and obfcurely brought up; he lived despised,

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and died hated, of the men of his own nation. O you pretended followers of this crucified Jefus ! examine yourselves, try yourselves; know you not your ownfelves; if he dwell not, if he rule not, in you, that you are reprobates? Be ye not deceived, for God will not be mocked, (at laft with forced repentances) fuch as you fow, fuch you must reap in God's day. I be feech you hear me, and remember you were invited and intreated to the falvation of God. I fay; as you fow, you reap: if you are enemies to the crofs of Chrift, and you are fo, if you will not bear it, but do as you lift, and not as you ought, if you are uncircumcifed in heart and ear, and you are fo, if you will not hear, and open to him that knocks at the door within, and if you refift and quench the Spirit in yourselves, that ftrives with you, to bring you to God (and that you certainly do, who rebel against its motions, reproofs, and inftructions) then you fow to the flesh, to fulfil the lufts thereof, and of the flesh will you reap the fruits of corruption, woe, anguifh, and tribulation, from God the Judge of quick and dead, by Jesus Christ. But if you will daily bear the holy cross of Christ, and fow to the Spirit; if you will liften to the light and grace that comes by Jefus, and which he has given to all people for falvation, and square your thoughts, words, and deeds thereby, which leads and teaches the lovers of it, to deny all ungodlinefs, and the world's lufts, and to live 1. Cor.xii. 5. Gal. 6. 7. 8.

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Rom. ii. 8.

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foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent evil world, then may you with confidence, look for the bleffed hope, and joyful coming and glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift. Let it be fo, O you Chriftians, and efcape the wrath to come! Why will you die? Let the time past fuffice: remember, that No Crofs, No Crown. Redeem then the time, for the days are evil, and yours but very few. Therefore gird up the loins of your minds, be fober, fear, watch, pray and endure to the end; calling to mind, for your encouragement and confolation, that all fuch, as through patience and well-doing wait for immortality, fhall reap glory, honour, and eternal life in the kingdom of the Father; whofe is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever.

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Amen.

Tit. ii. 11, 12, 13.

Eph. v. 16.

• Rom. ii. 7.

The END of the FIRST PART.

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And that of divers Periods of Time, and Nations of

the WORLD.

All concurring in this one TESTIMONY, That a Life of strict VIRTUE, viz. To do well, and hear ill, is the Way to lafting Happiness.

Collected in Favour of the TRUTH delivered in the FIRST PART,

BY WILLIAM PENN.

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