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Show Hor~ c hrifll sp~ufe i1 11 " DofJe in the writings of the Prophets and Apo!\les. Leuned men have £hewed them it was to be found in the \Witings of the An,ient9, ·· and we dare challenge them to fearch their own Archives. If we can but find a Bibl<thm ( not corrupted by them; J <;r the NtctHe C-rurlor Apof/ln Creed among II !hem ;.if we can btlt hnd~here t~e Lords Prayer, (if their Ave-M•ri~u have not [wallowed up t~~tr Pater·najrrri; ) and the ten-Commandments, which we !!'all hnd ten in 1he Bible, though for fear their Image-worllup ll10uld g.o down, their Catechtfms have l?fl· the feconch ~f- amon!'ill cheir fevcn S.crameHtr we can but find thofe two Chn(l appmn· ted Baptifm a11d the l:Ardr Supf>t~, which l ·think we £hall though · fo mufHi:d with their lace Superllitions-as 'tis hard to know-them: NJy, if they can but find us an old Service-book oF their own, we. !hall find' the Doctrine of· our Religion, before Luther. If they. mean, where will you find a Catholick vifible Church under one vifible head upon the Earth, or under Prtlaw.and Abboll, &c. de· rived from that Head;. we do not take our felv-es concerned co lock for any fuch thing. Stcondly, What you have heard offers to every Soul an ad~ vantaf¥ to try whether he be one of Chri!\s D011u,_ yea·or no.? In my !all Exercife we di!\ingui!hed fueh as had relanon to Chnfi by their Dove-like qualities and difpofitions; , but all that look like Dov.es are not fo, they arc not €hrifis Doves: Moral ve~tue counterfeits that Dove·like temper in many things, but by thiS !hall the. trial be perfe&:d. The Dove that dwells in the clefts of the Rock,. in the fecret places of the Meents; that i1 .Cbrijh Dove; it. affords t-wo chara~erifiical notes of a child t>f God, of the Spoufe o_f Chrifi: 1. She rlr~~tUttb .,. biF,b, £he Is not oft he Earth, earthly• ~ See nefiles in tbttltoc/{, Chrift Jtfu~; in the cltftJ of tbM·· R.oek, I" will begin with the fecond. t. Chrijb Dottt-nt{Un o11/y-in bim ; He is their Rock,his wounds-are their clefts of the -:Rock : and this, give me leave to tell you, hath been the Rock.of all the Saints of former Ages. Heretofore it was a mark of the Doves that bclongto the Romifh SynagogQt, to trull to; and rell in any thing but the righteoufnefs ofChri!\ for Salvation. We are now told that man hatk not!.ing bHI bi1 Ol>'ll· inherent rii,bteoll{ntfi to 1r11_f/ 1o': but what Pigeon-ho~fe thofc Jl)pvcs beloDg to that make this.noife is-not hard to con)e~ure; · . ' • yQu in the cleftt If the Rotf<: you may know ~hey are Galilea111, their fpeech agreeth thereto, -yet not to the wtfefi of them neither,a< leart-if that be true which is reported of their dying Cardinal chat he lhould cry out Tuti!Ji. mum t{t, &c. It was Ia fell to tru(l to the merits of Chrifi 'but lcavi? g thefe new Divines to fiand or fall to their own Maftcr. By -lhts you !hall know you ar~ the Doves of Chrill, if you be in the 4lt{IS ofthH Rock; no Soul rs fo, but he that is his beloveds and his beloveds, his. There area generation that have no nejt/at all, I mean for their Souls. The Foxes have hole; and the birds of the air have nefts, but how many thoufand so'uts have never a -nefi provide~ fo~ their immortal Souls_t they will ere long flie out of their bodtes ltke birds, and they wrll cry after them with the .poor Emperour, AninrHia q11o vadit? Poor Soul whither goe(l thou? they make nells and refiing-places for their bodies bur nc• er thi·nk what £hall become of their immertal Souls nev'er think of Eternity; they eat, they drink, they rife up to pl;y, and in a -moment go down to the grave, and their poor Souls into the 'Place prepared for the Devil and his Angels. They fpend theiT time, their money, their firength to ~arn and purchafc Downbeds for thofe poor Carcatfes, which when they have indulged wha~ the~ can, mutl be la1d upon th-e cold i!oor and t Jke up thei-r lod~mgs In t~e dull, but nevet regard their Souls, which cannot -ret\ In thefe ptllows, nor be ~!ways kept within the body. Surely thefe men have tlrange notions of Souls, (if indeed they think th:m of another fpeci~J f~om tha.t of brutes: ) Can they, (do they tlunk ) fpend Ecermty tn the aar? I win atfure them they £hall not, ( unle(< the Prince of the air 01all make hell there to all Eternity. ) _Others there are_ that ar-e moremen tllan thofe ~ they have thm tho~~hts fomettmes about Eterntty, long Eternity ! and ':"hat provtlton they !hall make for it, but have no patience to prov~de bette~ fo~ it than to perfuade themfelves, That God is merctful, Chnll dted for al~ &c. It may be in artjculomortif, at the point of death, they will be perfuaded to call for the Sacramen~. !his in~eed is a -kind of an offer at the hole of the Rock rwhtch tndeed IS full of ~ercy, but I fear the Souls lodging there fuould have been. provtded before; (though the Scripture tells us o~ o~e Vulture tn a moment by an Almighty power near to it turn~ mto a Dove which at that hour got in that no Soul might defpatr.) but l fear this is not to be trulled. There is a third fort of men who feem to be thus far convinced, hence they fo n•uch X K l prtfs |