How long will you stop your ears against him, that still crieth, _Why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks_; for a man to _contend with his Maker_. How long will you despise the well-known advice of a great and learned man, _Refrain from these men, and let them alone. If this work be of man, it will come to nought. But if it be of_ God, _ye cannot overthrow it_. And why should you _be found even to fight against_ God? If a man fight with God, shall he prevail? _Canst thou thunder with a voice like him?_ Make haste. Fall down. Humble thyself before him. Lest he put forth his hand and thou perish! 12. How long will you fight under the banner of the great enemy of God and ♦man? You are now in his service: you are _taking part with the devil_ against God. Even supposing there were no other proof, this would undeniably appear, from the goodly company among whom you are enlisted, and who war one and the same warfare. I have heard some affirm, that the most bitter enemies to the present work of God, were _Pharisees_. They meant, men who had the _form_ of godliness, but denied the _power_ of it. But I cannot say so. The sharpest adversaries thereof whom I have hitherto known (unless one might except a few honourable men, whom I may be excused from naming) were the scum of _Cornwall_, the rabble of _Bilston_ and _Darlaston_; the wild beasts of _Walsal_, and the turnkeys of _Newgate_. ♦ “man: you” replaced with “man? You” per Errata 13. Might not the very sight of these _troops_, shew any reasonable man, to what _general_ they belonged? As well as the _weapons_ they never fail to use; the most horrid _oaths_ and _execrations_, and lawless _violence_, carrying away as a flood whatsoever it is which stands before it: having no eyes, nor ears, no regard to the loudest cries of reason, justice or humanity. Can _you_ join heart or hands with these any longer? With such an infamous, scandalous rabble-rout, roaring and raging, as if they were just broke loose, with their captain _Apollyon_, from the bottomless pit? Does it not rather concern you, and that in the highest degree, as well as every friend to his king and country, every lover of peace, justice and mercy, immediately to join and stop any such godless crew, as they would join to stop a _fire_ just beginning to spread, or an _inundation_ of the sea?