She withstood the Son of God in the flesh, and thou resistest the Son of God in the Spirit. He would have gathered her as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and she would not; so would he have gathered thee out of thy lifeless profession, and have brought thee to inherit substance, to have known his power and kingdom, for which he often knocked within by his grace and Spirit, and without, by his servants and witnesses; but thou wouldst not be gathered. On the contrary, as Jerusalem of old persecuted the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh, and crucified him, and whipped and imprisoned his servants; so hast thou, O land, crucified to thyself afresh the Lord of life and glory, and done despite to his Spirit of grace; slighting the fatherly visitation, and persecuting the blessed dispensers of it by thy laws and magistrates; though they have early and late pleaded with thee in the power and Spirit of the Lord; in love and meekness, that thou mightest know the Lord and serve him, and become the glory of all lands. But thou hast evilly entreated and requited them. Thou hast set at naught all their counsel, and wouldst have none of their reproof, as thou shouldst have done. Their appearance was too strait, and their qualifications were too mean for thee to receive them; like the Jews of old, that cried, “Is not this the carpenter’s son, and are not his brethren among us; which of the scribes, of the learned, (the orthodox) believe in him?” prophesying their fall in a year or two, and making and executing severe laws to bring it to pass; by endeavouring to terrify them out of their holy way, or destroying them for abiding faithful to it. But thou hast seen how many governments that rose against them, and determined their downfall, have been overturned and extinguished, and that they are still preserved, and become a great and a considerable people among the middle sort of thy numerous inhabitants. And notwithstanding the many difficulties, without and within, which they have laboured under, since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them, they are an increasing people, the Lord still adding unto them, in divers parts, such as shall be saved, if they persevere to the end. And to thee were they, and are they lifted up as a standard, and as a city set upon a hill, and to the nations round about thee, that in their light thou mayest come to see light, even in Christ Jesus, the Light of the world; and therefore thy Light, and Life too, if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways, and receive and obey it. For in the “Light of the Lamb, must the nations of them that are saved walk,” as the Scriptures testify. Remember, O nation of great profession! how the Lord has waited upon thee since the days of reformation, and the many mercies and judgments with which he has pleaded with thee; awake and arise out of thy deep sleep, and yet hear his Word in thy heart, that thou mayest live.