Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 03 - Awake, Thou That Sleepest - Sermons on Several Occasions

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03 - Awake, Thou That Sleepest - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Awake thou that sleepest. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise
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Speaker 1: from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light Ephesians
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Speaker 1: five fourteen. In discoursing on these words, I shall, with
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Speaker 1: the help of God, first describe the sleepers to whom
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Speaker 1: they are spoken. Secondly enforce the exhortation Awake thou that sleepest,
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Speaker 1: and arise from the dead. And thirdly explain the promise
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Speaker 1: made to such as do awake and arise, Christ shall
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Speaker 1: give thee light. And first as to the sleepers here
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Speaker 1: spoken to by sleep, is signified the natural state of man,
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Speaker 1: that deep sleep of the soul into which the sin
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Speaker 1: of Adam hath cast all who spring from his loins,
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Speaker 1: that supineness, indolence and stupidity, the insensibility of his real condition,
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Speaker 1: wherein every man comes into the world and continues till
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Speaker 1: the voice of God awakes him. Now they that sleep
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Speaker 1: sleep in the night. The state of nature is a
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Speaker 1: state of utter darkness, a state wherein darkness cover the
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Speaker 1: earth and grows darkness the people. The poor, unawakened sinner,
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Speaker 1: how much knowledge soever he may have as to other things,
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Speaker 1: has no knowledge of himself. In this respect, he knoweth nothing.
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Speaker 1: Yet is he ought to know. He knows not that
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Speaker 1: he is a fallen spirit whose only business in the
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Speaker 1: present world is to recover from his fall, to regain
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Speaker 1: that image of God wherein he was created. He sees
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Speaker 1: no necessity for the one thing needful, even that inward
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Speaker 1: universal change, that birth from above, figured out by baptism,
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Speaker 1: which is the beginning of that total renovation, that sanctification
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Speaker 1: of spirit, soul and body, without which no man shall see.
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Speaker 1: The loud full of all diseases as he is, he
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Speaker 1: fancies himself in perfect health, vast bound in misery and iron.
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Speaker 1: He dreams that he is at liberty. He says peace, peace,
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Speaker 1: while the devil, as a strong man armed, is in
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Speaker 1: full possession of his soul. He sleeps on still and
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Speaker 1: takes his rest, though Hell is moved from beneath to
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Speaker 1: meet him, though the pit, from whence there is no return,
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Speaker 1: hath opened its mouth to swallow him up. A fire
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Speaker 1: is killed around him, yet he knoweth it not. Yea
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Speaker 1: it burns him, Yet he lays it not to heart.
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Speaker 1: By one who sleeps, we are therefore to understand, in
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Speaker 1: which to God we might all understand it. A sinner
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Speaker 1: satisfied in his sins, contented to remain in his fallen state,
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Speaker 1: to live and die without the image of God. One
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Speaker 1: who is ignorant both of his disease and of the
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Speaker 1: only remedy for it. One who never was warned or
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Speaker 1: never regarded the warning voice of God to flee from
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Speaker 1: the wrath to come. One that never yet saw he
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Speaker 1: was in danger of health fire, or cried out in
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Speaker 1: the earnestness of a soul, what must I do to
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Speaker 1: be saved? If this sleeper be not outwardly vicious, his
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Speaker 1: sleep is usually the deepest of all. Whether he be
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Speaker 1: of the Ladacian spirit, neither cold nor hot, but a quiet, rational, inoffensive,
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Speaker 1: good natured professor of the religion of his fathers, whether
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Speaker 1: he be zealous and orthodox, and after the most straitest
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Speaker 1: sect of our religion. Live a pharisee, that is, according
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Speaker 1: to the scriptural account, one that just suffies himself, one
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Speaker 1: that labors to establish his own righteousness as the ground
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Speaker 1: of his acceptance with God. This is he who, having
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Speaker 1: a form of guidliness, denies the power thereof Yea and
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Speaker 1: probably reviles it wheresoever it is found is mere extravagance
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Speaker 1: and delusion, Meanwhile, the wretched self deceiver, thanks God that
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Speaker 1: he is not as other men are, adulterers, unjust extortioners. No,
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Speaker 1: he doeth no wrong to any man. He fasts twice
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Speaker 1: in a week, uses all the means of grace, is
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Speaker 1: constant church at sacraments yea, and gives tithes of all
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Speaker 1: he has, does all the good that he can, touching
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Speaker 1: the righteousness of the law. He is blameless. He wants
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Speaker 1: nothing of Godliness but the power, nothing of religion but
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Speaker 1: the spirit, nothing of Christianity but the truth and the life.
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Speaker 1: But know ye not that, however highly esteemed among men,
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Speaker 1: such a Christian as this may be, he is an
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Speaker 1: abomination in the sight of God, and an air of
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Speaker 1: every woe which the Son of God, yesterday to day
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Speaker 1: and forever denounces against scribes and pharisees hypocrites. He hath
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Speaker 1: made clean the outside of the cup and the platter,
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Speaker 1: but within is full of all filthiness, an evil disease
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Speaker 1: cleaveth still unto him, so that his inward parts are
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Speaker 1: very wickedness. Our Lord fitly compares him to a painted suppulcher,
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Speaker 1: which appears beautiful without, but nevertheless is full of dead
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Speaker 1: men's bones. And of all uncleanness. The bones indeed are
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Speaker 1: no longer dry. The sinews and flesh are come upon them,
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Speaker 1: and the skin covers them above. But there's no breath
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Speaker 1: in them. Most spirit of the Living God. And if
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Speaker 1: any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is
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Speaker 1: none of his. Ye are Christ's, if so be that
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Speaker 1: the spirit of God dwell on you. But if not,
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Speaker 1: God knoweth that ye abide in death. Even until now.
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Speaker 1: This is another character of the sleeper here spoken to
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Speaker 1: He abides in death, though he knows it not. He
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Speaker 1: is dead unto God, dead and trespasses in sins for
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Speaker 1: to be carnly minded as death. Even as it is
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Speaker 1: written by one man, sin entered into the world, and
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Speaker 1: death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
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Speaker 1: not only temporal death, but likewise spiritual and eternal. In
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Speaker 1: that day that thou eidst said God to Adam, thou
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Speaker 1: shalt surely die, not bodily, unless as he then became mortal,
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Speaker 1: but spiritually thou shalt lose the life of thy soul.
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Speaker 1: Thou shalt die to God, shalt be separated from him
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Speaker 1: thy essential life and happiness. Thus first was dissolved the
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Speaker 1: vital union of our soul with God, insomuch that in
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Speaker 1: the midst of natural life we are Thou in spiritual death,
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Speaker 1: and herein we remain till the second atom becomes a
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Speaker 1: quickening spirit to us, till he raises the dead, the
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Speaker 1: dead and sin in pleasure, riches or honors. But before
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Speaker 1: any dead soul can live, he hears, hearkens to the
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Speaker 1: voice of the Son of God, he is made sensible
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Speaker 1: of his lost estate and receive the sentence of death,
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Speaker 1: and himself he knows himself to be dead, while he
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Speaker 1: liveth dead to God and all the things of God,
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Speaker 1: having no more power to perform the actions of a
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Speaker 1: living Christian than a dead body to perform the functions
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Speaker 1: of a living man. And most certain it is that
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Speaker 1: one dead in sin has not senses exercise to discern
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Speaker 1: spiritual good and evil. Having eyes, he sees not, he
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Speaker 1: hath ears, and hears not. He doth not taste and
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Speaker 1: see that the Lord is gracious. He hath not seen
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Speaker 1: God at any time, or heard his voice, or handled
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Speaker 1: the word of life. In vain is the name of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: like white men poured forth, and all his garments smell
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Speaker 1: of myrrh aloes. And Cassia. The soul that sleepeth and
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Speaker 1: death hath no perception of any objects of this kind.
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Speaker 1: His heart is past feeling, and understandeth none of these things,
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Speaker 1: and hence, having no spiritual senses, no inlets of spiritual knowledge,
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Speaker 1: the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit
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Speaker 1: of God. Nay, he is so far from receiving them,
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Speaker 1: that whosoever is spiritually discerned is mere foolishness. Unto him
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Speaker 1: is not content with being utterly ignorant of spiritual things,
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Speaker 1: but he denies the very existence of them, And spiritual
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Speaker 1: sensation itself is to him the foolishness of folly. How
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Speaker 1: saith he can these things be? How can any man
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Speaker 1: know that he is alive? To God? Even as you
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Speaker 1: know that your body is now alive, is the life
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Speaker 1: of the soul? If ye have this life abiding in you,
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Speaker 1: ye want no marks to evidence it to yourself. But
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Speaker 1: electos Numatos, that divine consciousness, that witness of God, which
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Speaker 1: is more and greater than ten thousand human witnesses. If
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Speaker 1: he doth not now bear witness with thy spirit that
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Speaker 1: thou art a child of God, oh that he might
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Speaker 1: convince thee thou poor and awakened sinner by his demonstration
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Speaker 1: and power, that thou art a child of the devil.
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Speaker 1: Oh that I prophesy, there might now be a noise
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Speaker 1: in a shaking, and may the bones come together bone
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Speaker 1: to his bone. Then come from the four winds, O
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Speaker 1: breath and breathe on thee slain, that they may live,
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Speaker 1: and do not ye harden your hearts and resist the
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Speaker 1: Holy ghost whom ye've been. Thou hast come to convince
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Speaker 1: you of sin because you believe not on the name
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Speaker 1: of the only begotten Son of God. Wherefore awake thou
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Speaker 1: that sleepest, and arise from the dead. God calleth thee
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Speaker 1: now by my mouth and bids thee know thyself, thou
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Speaker 1: fallen spirit, thy true state, and only concern below what
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Speaker 1: meanest thou, O sleeper, arise, Call upon thy God. If
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Speaker 1: so be thy God will think upon thee, that thou
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Speaker 1: perish not. The mighty tempest is stirred up around thee,
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Speaker 1: and thou art sinking into the depths of perdition, the
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Speaker 1: gulf of God's judgments. If thou wouldst escaped them, cast
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Speaker 1: thyself into them. Judge thyself, and thou shalt not be
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Speaker 1: judged of the Lord. Awake, awake, stand up this moment,
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Speaker 1: lest thou drink at the Lord's hand the cup of
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Speaker 1: his fury. Stir up thyself to lay hold on the Lord,
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Speaker 1: the Lord, thy righteousness mighty, to save, shake thyself from
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Speaker 1: the dust. At least, let the earthquake of God's threatenings
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Speaker 1: shake thee awake and cry out with the trembling jailer,
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Speaker 1: what must I do to be saved? And never rest
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Speaker 1: till thou believest on the Lord Jesus with the faith
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Speaker 1: which is his gift by the operation of His spirit.
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Speaker 1: If I speak to any of you more than to another,
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Speaker 1: it is to THEE, who thinkest thyself unconcerned. In this exhortation,
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Speaker 1: I have a message from God unto THEE and his name.
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Speaker 1: I warn thee to flee from the wrath. To come Thou,
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Speaker 1: unholy soul, see thy picture and condemn Peter lying in
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Speaker 1: the dark dungeon, between the soldiers, bound with two chains,
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Speaker 1: the keepers before the door, keeping the prison. The night
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Speaker 1: is far spent, the morning is at hand when thou
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Speaker 1: art to be brought forth to execution. And in these
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Speaker 1: dreadful circumstances the art fast asleep, the art, fast asleep
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Speaker 1: in the devil's arms, on the brink of the pit,
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Speaker 1: in the jaws of everlasting destruction. Oh, may the Angel
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Speaker 1: of the Lord come upon thee and the light shine
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Speaker 1: into thy prison. And mayst thou feel the stroke of
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Speaker 1: an almighty hand raising thee with a rise up. Quickly,
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Speaker 1: gird thyself and bind on thy sandals. Cast thy garment
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Speaker 1: about thee, and follow me. Awake thou everlasting spirit, out
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Speaker 1: of thy dream of worldly happiness? Did not God create
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Speaker 1: THEE for himself? Then thou canst not rest till thou
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Speaker 1: restest in him. Return, Thou wanderer, fly back to thy ark.
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Speaker 1: This is not thy home. Think not of building tabernacles
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Speaker 1: here Thou art but a stranger, is sojourn or upon earth,
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Speaker 1: a creature of a day, but ist launching out into
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Speaker 1: an unchangeable state. Make haste. Eternity is at hand. Eternity
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Speaker 1: depends on this moment, an eternity of happiness or an
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Speaker 1: eternity of misery? In what state is thy soul? Was God?
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Speaker 1: Why aing yet speaking to require it of thee? Art
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Speaker 1: Thou ready to meet death in judgment? Canst thou stand
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Speaker 1: in His sight? Who is of purer eyes than to
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Speaker 1: behold iniquity. Art thou meet to be partaker of the
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Speaker 1: inheritance of the saints and light. Hast thou fought a
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Speaker 1: good fight and kept the faith. Hast thou secured the
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Speaker 1: one thing needful. Hast thou recovered the image of God,
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Speaker 1: even righteousness and true holiness. As thou put off the
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Speaker 1: old man and put on the new, art thou clothed
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Speaker 1: upon with Christ. Hast thou oil in thy lamp grace
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Speaker 1: in thy heart. Dost thou love the Lord, thy God
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Speaker 1: with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all
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Speaker 1: thy soul, and with all thy strength. Is that mind
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Speaker 1: in Thee which was also in Christ Jesus. Art thou
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Speaker 1: a Christian? Indeed, that is a new creature. Old things
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Speaker 1: passed away, and all things become new. Art thou a
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Speaker 1: partaker of the divine nature. Knowest thou not that Christ
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Speaker 1: is in Thee, except thou be reprobate. Knowest thou that
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Speaker 1: God dwelleth in THEE, and thou in God, by His Spirit,
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Speaker 1: which He hath given Thee. Knowest thou not that thy
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Speaker 1: body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which thou
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Speaker 1: hast of God, hast all the witness in thyself, the
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Speaker 1: earnestness of thine inheritance. Hast thou received the Holy Spirit?
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Speaker 1: Or hast thou started the question not knowing whether there
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Speaker 1: be any Holy Ghost? If it offends thee be thou
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Speaker 1: assured that thou art neither a Christian nor desirest to
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Speaker 1: be one. Nay, thy very prayers turned into sin, and
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Speaker 1: thou hast solemnly mocked God this very day by praying
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Speaker 1: for the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, when thou didst
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Speaker 1: not believe that there was any such thing to be received. Yet,
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Speaker 1: on the authority of God's word in our own church,
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Speaker 1: I must repeat the question, hast thou received the Holy Ghost?
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Speaker 1: If thou hast not thou art not yet a Christian?
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Speaker 1: For a Christian is a man that is anointed with
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost and with power. Thou art not yet
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Speaker 1: made up artaker of pure religion and undefiled. Dost thou
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Speaker 1: know what religion is? Use it as a participation of
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Speaker 1: the divine nature, the life of God and the soul
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Speaker 1: of man Christ formed in the heart Christ. In thee
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Speaker 1: the hope of glory, happiness and holiness heaven begun upon earth,
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Speaker 1: a Kingdom of God within thee, not meat and drink,
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Speaker 1: no outward thing, but righteousness and peace and joy in
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost and everlasting Kingdom, brought into thy soul,
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Speaker 1: a peace of God that passeth all understanding, a joy
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Speaker 1: unspeakable and full of glory. Knowest thou that in Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh
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Speaker 1: by love, but a new creation. Seest thou the necessity
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Speaker 1: of that inward change, that spiritual birth, that life from
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Speaker 1: the dead, that holiness, and art thou thoroughly convinced that
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Speaker 1: without it no man shall see the Lord. Art thou
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Speaker 1: laboring after it, give all diligence to make thy calling
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Speaker 1: and election sure, working out thy salvation with fear and trembling,
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Speaker 1: agonizing to enter in at the strait gate. Art thou
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Speaker 1: in earnest about thy soul? And canst thou tell the
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Speaker 1: surture of hearts? Thou, O God, art the thing thy
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Speaker 1: long for Lord? Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that
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Speaker 1: I would love thee Thou hopest to be saved. But
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Speaker 1: what reason hast thou to give of the hope that
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Speaker 1: is in THEE. Is it because thou hast done no harm,
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Speaker 1: or because thou hast done much good? Or because thou
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Speaker 1: art not like other men, but wise or learned, or
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Speaker 1: honest and morally good, esteemed of men, and of a
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Speaker 1: fair reputation. Alas all this will never bring THEE to God.
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Speaker 1: It is in his account lighter than vanity. Dost thou
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Speaker 1: know Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Hath He taught
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Speaker 1: THEE that by grace we are saved through faith, and
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Speaker 1: that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God,
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Speaker 1: not of works. Lest any man should boast. Hast thou
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Speaker 1: received the faithful, saying as the whole foundation of thy hope?
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Speaker 1: That Jesus Christ came into the world to save Sinnersest
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Speaker 1: thou learned what that meaneth I came not to call
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Speaker 1: the righteous, but to sinners to repentance. I am not
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Speaker 1: sent but unto the lost sheep. Art thou he that
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Speaker 1: heareth Let him understand lost dead damned? Already? Dost thou
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Speaker 1: know thy deserts, Dost thou feel thy wants? Art Thou
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Speaker 1: poor in spirit? Mourning for God and refusing to be
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Speaker 1: comforted is the prodigal come to himself and will content
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Speaker 1: to be therefore thought beside himself by those who are
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Speaker 1: still feeding upon the husks which he hath left. Art
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Speaker 1: thou willing to live godly in Christ Jesus, And dost
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Speaker 1: thou therefore suffer persecution? Do men say all manner of
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Speaker 1: evil against thee falsely for the son of man's sake? Oh,
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Speaker 1: then are all these questions? Ye may hear the voice
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Speaker 1: that wakes the dead, and feel that hammer of the
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Speaker 1: Word which breaketh the rocks and pieces. If ye will
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Speaker 1: hear his voice to day at is called today hard
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Speaker 1: not your hearts now awake Thou that sleepest in spiritual death,
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Speaker 1: Thou sleep not in death eternal, Feel thy lost estate,
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Speaker 1: and arise from the dead. Leave thine old companions and
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Speaker 1: sin and death follow thou Jesus, and let the dead
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Speaker 1: bury their dead. Save thyself from this untoward generation. Come
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Speaker 1: out from among them, and be thou separate, and touch
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Speaker 1: not the unclean thing, And the Lord shall receive thee.
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Speaker 1: Christ shall give thee light. This promise I come lastly
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Speaker 1: to explain. And how encouraging a consideration is this, that
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Speaker 1: whosoever thou art, who obeyest his call, thou canst not
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Speaker 1: seek his face in vain. If thou even now awakest
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Speaker 1: and arisest from the dead, he hath bound himself to
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Speaker 1: give thee light. The Lord shall give thee grace and glory,
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Speaker 1: the light of his grace here and the light of
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Speaker 1: his glory. When thou receivest the crown that fadeth not away,
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Speaker 1: thy light shall break forth as the morning, and thy
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Speaker 1: darkness be as the noonday. God, who commanded the light
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Speaker 1: to shine out of darkness, shall shine in thy heart
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Speaker 1: to give the knowledge of the glory of God. In
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Speaker 1: the face of Jesus Christ. On them that fear the Lord,
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Speaker 1: shall the Son of righteousness or rise with healing in
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Speaker 1: his wings. And in that day, it shall be said,
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Speaker 1: unto thee arise shine, for thy light is, and the
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Speaker 1: glory of the Lord has risen upon Thee. For Christ
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Speaker 1: shall reveal himself in THEE. And he is the true Light.
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Speaker 1: God is Light, and will give himself to every awakened
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Speaker 1: sinner that waiteth for him. And thou shalt then be
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Speaker 1: a temple of the Living God. And Christ shall dwell
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Speaker 1: in thy heart by faith and being rooted and grounded
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Speaker 1: in love, thou shalt be able to comprehend with all saints.
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Speaker 1: What is the breath and length, and depth and height
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Speaker 1: of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. You see
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Speaker 1: your calling, brethren. We are called to be an inhabitation
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Speaker 1: of God through his spirit, and through his spirit, dwelling
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Speaker 1: in us to be saints here and partakers of the
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Speaker 1: inheritance of the saints and light. So exceeding greater are
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Speaker 1: the promises which are given unto us, actually given unto
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Speaker 1: us who believe. For by faith we receive not the
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Speaker 1: spirit of the world, but the spirit which of God,
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Speaker 1: the sum of all the promises, that we may know
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Speaker 1: the things that are freely given to us of God.
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Speaker 1: The Spirit of Christ is that great gift of God, which,
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Speaker 1: at sundry time and in divers manners he hath promised
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Speaker 1: to man and hath fully bestowed. Since the time that
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Speaker 1: Christ was glorified, those promises before made to the fathers
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Speaker 1: he hath thus fulfilled. I will put my spirit within
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Speaker 1: you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Ezek
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Speaker 1: you thirty six twenty seven. I will pour water upon
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Speaker 1: him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.
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Speaker 1: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my
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Speaker 1: blessing upon Thine offspring Isaiah forty four. Three. Ye may
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Speaker 1: all be living witnesses of these things, a remission of
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Speaker 1: sins in the gift of the Holy Ghost. If thou
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Speaker 1: canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth
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Speaker 1: Who among you is there that feareth the Lord, and
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Speaker 1: yet walketh on in darkness and hath no light. I
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Speaker 1: ask THEE in the name of Jesus, believest thou that
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Speaker 1: his arm is not shortened at all, that he has
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Speaker 1: stole mighty to save, that He is the same yesterday
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Speaker 1: to day and forever, that he hath now power on
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Speaker 1: earth to forgive sins. Son, be of good cheer. Thy
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Speaker 1: sins are forgiven God for Christ's sake hath forgiven. THEE
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Speaker 1: receive this not as the word of man, but as
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Speaker 1: it is indeed the word of God. And thou art
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Speaker 1: justified freely through faith. Thou shalt be sanctified also through
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Speaker 1: faith which is in Jesus. And thou shalt set to
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Speaker 1: thy seal even thine that God hath given unto us
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Speaker 1: eternal life in this life is in His son. Men
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Speaker 1: and brethren, let me freely speak to you, and suffer
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Speaker 1: ye the word of exhortation, even from one the least
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Speaker 1: esteemed in the Church. Your conscience beareth you witness in
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost that these things are so. If so be,
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Speaker 1: ye hath tasted that the Lord is gracious. This is
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Speaker 1: eternal life. To know the only true God, in Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: whom he hath sent. This experimental knowledge, in this alone
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Speaker 1: is true Christianity. He is a Christian who hath received
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of Christ. He is not a Christian who
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Speaker 1: hath not received him. Neither is it possible to have
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Speaker 1: received him and know it not. For that day when
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Speaker 1: he cometh, saith, our Lord, ye shall know that I
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Speaker 1: am in my Father and you and me, and I
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Speaker 1: in you. This is that spirit of truth, whom the
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Speaker 1: world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him.
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Speaker 1: But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and
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Speaker 1: shall be in you John fourteen seventeen. The world cannot
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Speaker 1: receive him but utterly reject the promise of the Father,
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Speaker 1: contradicting and blaspheming. But every spirit which confesseth not this
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Speaker 1: is not of God. Yea, this is the spirit of Antichrist,
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Speaker 1: whereof ye have heard that it should come into the world,
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Speaker 1: even now it is in the world. He is Antichrist
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Speaker 1: who serve denies the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or
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Speaker 1: that the dwelling Spirit of God is the common privilege
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Speaker 1: of all believers, the blessing of the Gospel, the unspeakable gift,
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Speaker 1: the universal promise, the criterion of a real Christian. If
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Speaker 1: nothing helps them to say, we do not deny the
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Speaker 1: assistance of God's Spirit, but only this inspiration, this receiving
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost and being sensible of it. Is only
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Speaker 1: this feeling of the Spirit, this being moved by the
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Speaker 1: Spirit or filled with it, which we deny to have
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Speaker 1: any place in sound religion. But in only denying this,
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Speaker 1: you deny the whole script, the whole truth and promise
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Speaker 1: and testimony of God. Our own excellent Church knows nothing
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Speaker 1: of this devilish distinction, but speaks plainly of feeling the
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Speaker 1: Spirit of Christ, of being moved by the Holy ghosts.
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Speaker 1: In knowing and feeling, there is no other name than
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Speaker 1: that of Jesus, whereby we can receive life and salvation.
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Speaker 1: She teaches us all to pray for the inspiration of
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, yea, that we may be filled with
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost. Nay, and every presbyter of hers professes
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Speaker 1: to receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands.
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Speaker 1: And therefore to deny any of these is in effect
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Speaker 1: to renounce the Church of England, as well as the
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Speaker 1: whole Christian revelation. But the wisdom of God was always
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Speaker 1: foolishness with the men no marvel. Then that the great
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Speaker 1: mystery of the Gospel should be now also hid from
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Speaker 1: the wise and prudent, as well as in the days
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Speaker 1: of old, there should be almost universally denied, ridiculed, and
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Speaker 1: exploded is mere frenzy. And that all who dare avow
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Speaker 1: it still are branded with the names of madmen and enthusiasts.
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Speaker 1: That is that falling away which was to come, that
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Speaker 1: general apostasy of all orders and degrees of men, which
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Speaker 1: we even now find to have overspread the earth. Run
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Speaker 1: to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see
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Speaker 1: if you can find a man, a man that loveth
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Speaker 1: the Lord is God with all his heart, and serveth
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Speaker 1: him with all his strength. How does our own land
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Speaker 1: mourn that we look no farther under the overflowings of
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Speaker 1: ungodliness the villanies of every kind are committed day by day,
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Speaker 1: yea too often with impunity by those who sin with
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Speaker 1: a high hand and glory in their shame. Who can
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Speaker 1: reckon up the oaths, curses, profaneness, blasphemies, the lying slandering,
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Speaker 1: evil speaking, the sabbath breaking, gluttony, drunkenness, revenge, the hortems,
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Speaker 1: adult trees, and various uncleanness, the frauds injustice, oppression, exhortation,
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Speaker 1: which overspread our land is a flood. And even among
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Speaker 1: those who have kept themselves pure from those grosser abominations,
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Speaker 1: how much anger and pride, how much sloth and idleness,
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Speaker 1: how much softness and efhemasy, how much luxury and self indulgence,
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Speaker 1: how much covetousness and ambition, how much thirst of praise?
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Speaker 1: How much love of the world, How much fear of
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Speaker 1: man is to be found? Meanwhile, how little of true religion?
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Speaker 1: For where is he that loveth either God or his neighbor,
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Speaker 1: as he hath given us commandment? On the one hand,
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Speaker 1: are those who have not so much as the form
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Speaker 1: of godliness? On the other, those who have the form
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Speaker 1: only there stands open. They are the painted supprochler so
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Speaker 1: that in very deed, whosoever were earnestly to behold in
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Speaker 1: the public gathering together of the people, I fear those
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Speaker 1: in our churches are not to be accepted, might easily
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Speaker 1: perceive the one part were Saducees and the other Pharisees,
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Speaker 1: one having almost as little concern about religion as if
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Speaker 1: there were no resurrection, either angel nor spirit, and the
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Speaker 1: other making it as a mere lifeless form, a dull
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Speaker 1: round of external performances, without either true faith or the
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Speaker 1: love of God or joy in the Holy Ghost. Would
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Speaker 1: to God, I could accept us of this place. Brethren,
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Speaker 1: my heart's desire and prayer to God for you is
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Speaker 1: that ye may be saved from this overflowing of ungodliness,
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Speaker 1: that here may its proud waves be stayed. But is
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Speaker 1: it so? Indeed, God knoweth yea and our own consciences.
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Speaker 1: It is not ye have not kept yourselves pure? Corrupt
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Speaker 1: are we also and abominable? And few are there that
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Speaker 1: understand any more, few that worship God in spirit and
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Speaker 1: in truth. We too are a generation that set not
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Speaker 1: our hearts aright, and whose spirit leaveth not steadfastly. Unto God,
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Speaker 1: y hath appointed us, indeed to be the salt of
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Speaker 1: the earth. But if the salt hath lost its savor,
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Speaker 1: is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out
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Speaker 1: and to be trodden under foot of men. And shall
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Speaker 1: I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, shall
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Speaker 1: not my soul be avenged in such a nation as this. Yea,
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Speaker 1: we know not how soon he may say to the sword, sword,
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Speaker 1: go through this land. Yeth given us long space to repent,
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Speaker 1: he lets us alone this year also, But he warns
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Speaker 1: and awakens us by thunder. His judgments are abroad in
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Speaker 1: the earth, And we have all reason to expect, the
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Speaker 1: heaviest of all, even that he should come unto us
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Speaker 1: quickly and remove our candlestick out of its place, except
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Speaker 1: we repent and do his works first, lest we return
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Speaker 1: to the principles of the Reformation, the truth and simplicity
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel. Perhaps we are now resisting the last
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Speaker 1: effort of divine grace to save us. Perhaps we have
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Speaker 1: well nigh filled up the measure of our iniquities by
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Speaker 1: rejecting the counsel of God against ourselves and casting out
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Speaker 1: His messengers. O God, in the midst of wrath, Remember
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Speaker 1: mercy be glorified in our reformation, not in our destruction.
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Speaker 1: Let us hear the rod and him that appointed it.
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Speaker 1: Now that Thy judgments are abroad in the earth, let
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Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. My brethren, it
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Speaker 1: is high time for us to awake out of the sleep,
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Speaker 1: before the great trumpet of the Lord be blown and
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Speaker 1: our land become a field of blood. What may we
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Speaker 1: speedily see the things that make for our peace before
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Speaker 1: they are hid from our eyes. Turn thou us, O
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Speaker 1: good Lord, Let thine anger cease from us. O Lord,
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Speaker 1: look down from heaven, behold and visit this vine, and
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Speaker 1: cause us to know the time of our visitation. Help us, O,
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Speaker 1: God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. Oh,
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Speaker 1: deliver us, and be merciful to our sins for thy
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Speaker 1: name's sake, And so we will not go back from
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Speaker 1: thee Oh, let us live, and we shall call upon
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Speaker 1: thy name. Turn us again, O, Lord, God of Hosts,
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Speaker 1: show the light of thy countenance. We shall behole now
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Speaker 1: unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above
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Speaker 1: all that we can ask or think, according to the
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Speaker 1: power that workethin us. Unto him be glory in the
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Speaker 1: Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end amen.
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Speaker 1: End of Section three,