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Inhabitants, many great Families impoveriſhed and undone, and many thouſand Lives alſo had been loſt in that bloody War; and that Ireland and Scotland, well as England, had drunk very deep of the Cup of God's Anger, even to the Overthrow of the Government, and the utter Deſolation almoſt of a very great Part of thole Countries.
But this holy Man turning to me, and fixing his Eyes upon me with that ſerious and ireful Look which he uſually had when he ſpake God's Word and not his own, and when the Power of God ſeemed to be upon him, and to conſtrain him to ſpeak, which I could eaſily diſcern much to differ from the Countenance wherewith he fully ſpake to me; he ſaid thus:
[Fool not yourſelf with ſuch Hopes; for I tell you, All you have yet ſeen, hath been but the Beginning of Sorrows, in reſpect of what is yet to come upon the Proteſtant Churches of Chriſt, who will ere long fall under a ſharper Perſecution than ever yet has been upon them; and therefore (ſaid he to me) 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 troden down by the Gentiles. The outward Court (ſays he) is the formal Chriſtian, whoſe Religion lies in performing the outſide Duties of Chriſtianity, without having an inward Life and Power of Faith and Love uniting them to Chriſt; and theſe God will leave to be troden down, and ſwept away by the Gentiles. But the Worſhippers within the Temple, and before the Altar, are theſe who indeed worſhip God in Spirit and in Truth, whoſe Souls are made his Temple; and he is honoured and adored in the moſt inward Thoughts of their Hearts, and they ſacrifice their Luſts and vile Affections, yes, and their own Wills to him: And there God will bride 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 other preceeding Perſecutions: For, in this former, the moſt emi-nent
