4. They endeavoured herein to speak to every man severally as he had need. To the careless, to those who lay unconcerned in darkness and in the shadow of death, they thundered, _Awake thou that sleepest; arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light_: but to those who were already awakened out of sleep, and groaning under a sense of the wrath of God, their language was, _We have an Advocate with the Father; he is the propitiation for our sins_. Mean time those who had believed, they _provoked to love and to good works; to patient continuance in well-doing; and to abound more and more_ in that _holiness, without which no man can see the Lord_. 5. And their labour was not in vain in the Lord. His _word ran and was glorified_. It _grew mightily and prevailed_. But so much the more did offences prevail also. The world in general were offended, _because they testified of it, that the works thereof were evil_. The men of pleasure were offended, not only because these men were _made_, as it were, _to reprove their thoughts_. (_He professeth_, said they, _to have the knowledge of God: he calleth himself the child of the Lord: his life is not like other mens; his ways are of another fashion: he abstaineth from our ways, as from filthiness: he maketh his boast, that God is his Father_.) But much more, because so many of their companions were taken away, and would no more _run with them to the same excess of riot_. The men of reputation were offended, because, as the gospel spread, they declined in the esteem of the people; and because many no longer dared to _give them flattering titles_, or to pay man the homage due to God only. The men of trade called one another together, and said, _Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. But ye see and hear that these men have persuaded and turned away much people. So that this our craft is in danger to be set at nought._ Above all, the men of religion, so called, the men of _outside_ religion, “the saints of the world,” were offended and ready at every opportunity to cry out, _Men of Israel, help! We have found these men! Pestilent fellows, movers of sedition throughout the world. These are the men that teach all men, every where, against the people, and against the law._ 6. Thus it was that the heavens grew black with clouds, and the storm gathered amain. For the more Christianity spread, _the more hurt was done_, in the account of those who received it not, and the number increased of those who were more and more enraged at these _men who_ thus _turned the world upside down_; insomuch that more and more cried out, _Away with such fellows from the earth; it is not fit that they should live_, yea, and sincerely believed, that _whosoever_ should _kill them, would do God service_.