many in the time when the Messiah came did both receive him as king, and were heirs of his kingdom; and so there are many at this day: but you that rejected the Messiah, rejected both king and kingdom, and God's teaching on his mountain. Mic. iv. And so the saying of Habakkuk i. 5, is come upon you, 'behold ye among the heathen, and hearken and wonder; for I work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you;' for ye would not believe Jeremy the prophet, nor the other prophets, nor the Son, the Messiah, the Immanuel, born of the virgin; though they that did believe in him, the just, shall live by his faith. So you may see in Habakkuk ii. 4, for the vision was for an appointed time, and in the end it did speak, the vision or the sign, as you may read in Daniel, and Isaiah.

And Zach. xii. 10, where the Lord saith, I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication, and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his son, his only son; and they shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born.' And now mark, ye Jews, what him is it that ye have pierced? is it not the Immanuel, born of a virgin, the Messiah, which came according to Daniel's number of years? they that did believe in him did mourn bitterly, and were pricked in their hearts; so you may look back above one thousand six hundred years since; they came to be the learners of him: and you that stand still in your blindness and hardness of heart, and have not mourned, and do not believe in him that you have pierced, you cannot witness the spirit of grace and supplication upon you yet, as they had that did look upon him that they had pierced. Mal. iii. 'And behold, saith the Lord, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, &c. But who shall abide the day of his coming? for he shall sit as a refiner's fire,' &c. Mal. iv. 5. Behold, I will send you Elias the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord: and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.' And when this Elias did come, did not ye do to him what ye listed? and so, did not he come before the Messiah, and prepare the way before him? for ye did believe that John Baptist was a prophet, some of you; and some said, that he was a devil: for did not Isaiah prophesy of him in the 40th chapter, and the 3d verse? 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight; every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' Now was not this John, the son of Zachariah, that Isaiah prophesied of? Did not John here fulfil Isaiah's prophecy, the forerunner of Christ? so,

if you will neither believe the prophet Isaiah, nor John the prophet, nor the Messiah, the Immanuel, born of a virgin, which came according to the number of the angel to Daniel, but your crooked paths are not made straight, nor your rough spirit and mind is not made smooth, and your mountain of sin is not brought low; and therefore how were ye like to see the salvation of God when he came; but you hid your faces from him, and so fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy. But when God had given you a temple, when the Messiah came, he found in the temple such as sold oxen, sheep, and doves; and money changers sitting there, which should have been a house of prayer: and so was not here the Psalm fulfilled? Psalm lxix. 9. The zeal of my Father's house hath eaten me up.'

Zach. ix. 9. 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh to thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Now consider, did not he come so into your Jerusalem, this Immanuel, this Messiah? and did not many of your daughters rejoice, and cried Hosanna? but your priests that were blind, and the rest of the scribes and pharisees and Jews, railed at him, and blasphemed against him. But he is he that speaks peace to the heathen, and his dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. And as for thee also, in the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.' Zach. ix. 10, 11.

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And in Zach. xi. 12, 13. And I said to them, if ye think good, give me my price; if not, forbear: so ye weighed to me my price thirty pieces of silver; and the Lord said to me, cast it to the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at by them; so I cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.' And did not your high priest give Judas thirty pieces of silver, to betray the Messiah? so was not this prophecy fulfilled upon you, as David says in Psalm xli. 9, 'yea, my own familiar friend, that did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me:' was not this fulfilled in your Judas?

Also, David saith, in Psalm lxix. 21, 22, 23, They gave me gall for my meat, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink: let their table become a snare before them, and their posterity a ruin: let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; make their joints continually shake; let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents.' Now, consider when the Messiah was come, and when ye crucified him, did not ye give him vinegar and gall to drink? and was not your table become a snare and a trap to you, and your eyes blinded, and your habitations desolate, which ye had at Jerusalem in David's time? so how can you say, that that was not the Messiah in all these prophecies you have so fulfilled upon the Messiah? and in Psalm cix. 8, &c. 'let his days be few; let another take his office:' this was spoken of Judas, to whom your chief priests gave thirty pieces of silver, that he might betray the

Messiah into your hands: 'let another take his office;' so another disciple of Jesus, the Messiah, the Lord, was put in his room: so this was fulfilled, Psalm xxii. 16, 17, for dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet; they parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.' and now, ye Jews, did not ye often assemble together to crucify him? and when you did crucify him, did not you pierce his hands and feet? and did not you part his garments among you, the Messiah, when they crucified him? and did not your soldiers cast lots upon his vesture? and doth not Moses say, in Deut. xviii. 'the Lord thy God will raise up a prophet in the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like to me, to him shall ye hearken.' And further he saith, I will raise them up a prophet of their brethren, like to thee, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall not hearken to my words that he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.' Now this prophet, like to Moses, was the Messiah, which was the sign born of a virgin, according to the prophecy of Isaiah: and Daniel numbered the years to the Messiah, and the time that he should be cut off, should make his soul a sacrifice, according to the prophet: and there rose not a prophet since in Israel, like to Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,' as it is said in Deut. xxxiv. So this prophet that God has raised up, like Moses, whom the people should hear in all things, was not Joshua, but the Messiah, whom you would not, nor did not hear; and so not hearing him, you hear not the prophets. And God said to Abraham, 'in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' Gen. xii. And Gen. xviii. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham's seed; and I know he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment.' And in Gen. xxii. 'The Lord said to Abraham, by my self have I sworn, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee as the stars of heaven, and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.' And so was not Abraham's offering up his only son Isaac, a type of the Messiah's making his soul an offering, the Messiah's making his soul a sacrifice for the sins of men, who according to the flesh was of the seed of Abraham, who was the son of God, a sign and wonder to you to this day, that a virgin should have a child? and did not Jacob say on his death-bed, Gen. xlix. 10, 11, when he called his sons together, he said to Judah, when he prophesied to them all; Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee; the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet till Shilo come, and unto him

upon the Jews and their prophets, shepherds, priests, and pastors; and what misery they brought the people into, and what judgments God sent his prophets to denounce against them, and to disown them, and what misery he brought them into, that spoke and run, and used their tongues, and stole God's words from their neighbour, when the Lord never spoke to them, nor sent them: and these were such as taught for hire, and for filthy lucre, and handsful of barley, and for pieces of bread, and were the flatterers and daubers with untempered mortar; and filthy dreamers, and followed the divination of their own hearts and brains, and followed their own spirit, seeing nothing, and strengthen the hands of the wicked. and saddened the righteous, seeking for their gain from their quarter, where they have got their quarter, there they are seeking for their gain; speaking peace to people whilst they put into their mouths, but if not, they prepared war against them, and these turned against the Lords' prophets, and cast his law behind their backs, and cast off the Lord, though they might get the form of words, of the law and of the prophets, yet out of the life these were all judged, by the Lord, and his prophets that spoke from the mouth of the Lord; therefore such cannot be owned now that be found in their steps in Christendom, and that are found in their practices, if they own God and his prophets that declared against them, as you may see in the prophets of the old testament, and therefore try yourselves by these scriptures.

And now let us see in the new testament what sort of preachers Christ and the apostles cried against, and what sort they owned and sent forth.

Christ said, Woe unto the scribes and blind pharisees, which made clean the outside of the platter, and appeared beautiful outwardly, but inwardly were full of bribery, and excess, and dead men's bones, and filthiness.' Now these were high professors that had a beautiful outside, and shined like a cup or a platter on the outside? and did not many of these professors outstrip many of the professors of Christ's words now a-days in the outside?

Again, Christ speaks to the multitude, and his disciples, and tells them how they shall know the false teachers with their marks; 'They bind heavy burdens, grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders,' here is one mark, but they themselves will not bear them with one of their little fingers; they will not move that which they lay upon others, and that is contrary to the law; for all their works they do to be seen of men, they make their phylacteries broad, and make long the fringes of their garments;' here is another mark, (by their garments) and doing what they do to be seen, which these in our days may try themselves by, whether these marks be not found upon them.

"They love the chiefest place in feasts, and to have the chiefest place

in the assemblies;' here is another mark: they love greetings in the market-place, and to be called of men, rabbi or master.' here is another mark.

But saith Christ to his disciples, Be not ye called of men master or rabbi; for one is your master, even Christ, and all you are brethren; he that is the greatest among you let him be your servant. Here is Christ's doctrine to his ministers, Matt. xxiii. and the marks or tokens by which people may know the false; and therefore, try yourselves, ye preachers, and priests in Christendom, have ye not all these marks and badges, and to be cried against by the spirit?

And the false teachers were such as 'garnished the sepulchres of the righteous,' and said, 'If we had been in the days of our forefathers, we would not have killed the prophets, or have been partakers with our forefathers in the blood of the prophets; so then be ye witnesses, saith Christ, unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them that murdered the prophets. Oh, generation of vipers! how can you escape the damnation of hell,' saith Christ? And do not many say so now, that are found in the practise of their forefathers, the scribes and pharisees?

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And further, Christ saith, Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets and wise men, and scribes, and of them ye shall kill and crucify, and of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;' mark, these were such as Christ should send amongst those professors, and that was then to be fulfilled, that upon you might come all the righteous blood that was shed upon the earth, &c.

Now have not many christians in profession, but not in possession fulfilled these sayings of Christ upon his servants, in scourging and persecuting, and putting them out of their synagogues in these our days.

And in Matt. x. where Christ sent forth his disciples to preach, and said, As ye go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick, cleanse the leprous, cast out devils, freely you have received, freely give, possess not gold or silver in your purses, nor take a scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff; for the workman is worthy of his meat; and into what city or town ye shall come, enquire who is worthy in it, and there abide till you go thence; and when ye come into an house, salute the same, and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it, but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you again, and whosoever will not receive you, nor hear your words; [mark] nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet for a testimony aginst them; truly I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city,' saith Christ.

'Behold I send you, as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents, and innocent as doves, beware of men, for they will