not be partakers of that displeasure, punishment and wrath, but you will inherit grace, mercy and life, as the prophet says: But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. (Ezek. 18.) The gracious and merciful Lord, grant you all his grace, knowledge, spirit, wisdom, light and truth, that you may cordially awaken, repent, and be eternally saved, Amen.

APPEAL TO THE COMMON PEOPLE.

Give ear you people, and take it to heart, you who trust in lies, and boast you are christians; tear your bands asunder, and suffer yourselves to be led no longer as asses bound and under a heavy burden of sin, by these aforementioned drivers, for they deceive you; they preach to you according to their own opinion, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; they comfort you in your wicked ways; they call and cry only mercy and peace, though it is displeasure and judgment, as the prophet says. The priests and prophets teach falsely, and comfort my people in their calamity, that they shall esteem it lightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace; (Jer. 6) they are the blind leaders, who lead you and themselves right into the pit, (Matt. 15) and the blind watchmen who watch not over the city of God. (Ezek. 33.) Thieves and murderers, who slay your poor souls with the sword of their false doctrine, and steal from you the Lord's word and kingdom; (John 10) greedy shepherds who seek your wool, milk and flesh, and not your souls. (Ezek. 34.) In short, they are those who wholly desolate the kingdom of Christ, and promulgate in high honor, the kingdom of anti-christ through the whole world, and who always comfort and defend you poor children in your dissolute abominations and in obdurate, blind life, so that, alas! there is none who is cordially

converted to the Lord, laments his sins, and says: What do I?

O, worthy children and brethren, my heart in my body quakes and fears, when I reflect, that such a numberless class of men are born in vain and to no purpose; who will have eternally to endure the wrath, and judgment of the Lord, if they repent not, and shall never find grace.

Beloved children, take heed, for thus Christ Jesus teaches you: I tell you of a truth, except ye be converted and become like little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18.) O, dear Lord, this is spoken by God's eternal truth, which cannot lie, (Heb. 8) and how ungodly you ignorant people live, and how far you are from the innocence of children, your fruits testify and show; for you despise God and his word; you hate all righteousness and truth, (Tit. 1) many of you live as the irrational creatures, others litigate, quarrel, curse and swear, are covetous, hoard up, practice usury, lie, cheat, injure and defraud each other; fidelity and piety scarcely exist among you; but perfidy and knavery prevails generally-eating to excess, drinking and gambling are pastime with you; to pollute women and defile virgins is called courting and loving. To take the advantage of, and to defraud one another, is called understanding and wisdom; you are valiant at beer and mighty at wine; (Isa. 5; Rom. 3) unrighteousness and destruction are in all your ways, the poor and weak you oppress and you revile the afflicted, the godfearing and pious; to do evil you think and practice, you are without understanding says the prophet, (Hos. 4) as a frantic heifer. Pomp and pride, you call the fashion and custom of the country, you lie in wait for blood, you hunt every man his brother with a net, says the prophet, (Mich. 7) your faith is hypocricy, your divine service idolatry, your whole life is world and flesh, as may be seen, and then you say, he that walks in simplicity, walks right, as if ignorance, blindness and despising of the truth, of godliness, were a pious life. Dear children, be ashamed of your offensive wantonness and accursed folly.

Do you suppose that Christ is a liar, and his word a fable? O no! his sentence stands immoveable, and shall never be altered; if you live in pride, avarice, voluptuousness, unchastity and in sensual lusts, believe not Christ and his word, and continue to be earthly minded, and are not born of God, you

must die eternally, or the spirit of God is not true, but is false. (John 3; Rom. 8; 1 Cor. 5; Gal. 5; Eph. 5; Rev. 21, 22.)

Say, beloved, why do you extol the apostles and prophets, and consider their doctrine heresy, and their lives madness? And why do you suffer yourselves to be called christians, and hate and are opposed to Christ's word and example?

Say you, we are without understanding, untaught, and kno.v not the scriptures? (Deut. 10; Matt. 22; Mark 12; Rom. 13; Gal. 5.) I then again reply, the word is plain and needs no comment, namely: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy.strength, (Deut. 6) and thy neighbor as thyself. (Num. 19.) Again, you shall give bread to the hungry and entertain the needy. (Isa. 58.)

If you live according to the flesh, you shall die; for, to be carnally minded is death; (Rom. 8) the avaricious, drunkards and the proud, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6.)

God will judge adulterers and fornicators, (Heb. 13) and many like passages. All who do not understand such passages, we must confess and acknowledge, are more like irrational creatures than men, more like blocks than christians.

O my children, my beloved children, do not deceive your own souls; seek wisdom and understanding, even as you do your daily food, that you may find great riches; for the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. (Matt. 11.) Strive, says Christ; to enter in at the strait gate; (Luke 13) pray and you shall receive; seek and you shall find: knock and it shall be opened to you. (Matt. 7.) The almighty great God is not satisfied with a bare name, (John 3, 7, 14, 15; Matt. 5) but he desires a true, sincere faith, unfeigned, ardent love, a new, converted and changed heart, true humility, mercy, chastity, patience, righteousness and peace; he desires the whole man, heart, professions and actions, who delights in the word of the Lord, speaks the truth from the heart, crucifies his flesh, and will give his goods and blood for the word of the Lord, if it be required. (Ps. 1, 15; Gal. 5; Matt. 10, 16; Luke 14.)

Behold, dear children, this is te way in which we all have to walk, if we would be saved; therefore, awaken and learn wisdom. Hear the inviting voice of God, open unto him, and meet him, that he complain not of you, as he did formerly through his prophets, of obdurate and stiffnecked Judea and Jerusalem: I have nourished, says he, and brought up child

ren, and they have rebelled against me; the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. (Isa. 1.)

Jeremiah says: Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle; yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my. people know not the judgment of the Lord. (Jer. 8.)

Remember, dear children, how greatly Jesus Christ took to heart the obstinacy and blindness of the Jews; when he said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not, (Matt. 23).he wept and said: If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hidden from thine eyes. (Luke 19.)

Wherefore, lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1.) Seek God with a full heart, repent sincerely, cleanse yourselves inwardly before the Lord, let go world, flesh, false doctrine, and every thing contrary to God's honor, will and word, hear, believe and follow the only and true shepherd of your souls, Jesus Christ, who sought you in such great love, and purchased you with such a precious price, then you may of a truth boast that you are God's people and church. To him, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, be praise and the eternal kingdom, Amen.

APPEAL TO CORRUPT SECTS.

Christ said: False christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed, behold I have told you all things. (Matt. 7; Mark 13.) O, you backsliding, erring children! if you had taken to heart the faithful warning of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ-if you had acknowledged his spirit, doctrine and holy life as perfect, and had received him for a true prophet, (as promised in the scriptures) and for the true and living Son of God, never would you have suffered yourselves to be misled so far from Him, nor would you have given place to such abominable errors. But now, some of you, O Lord! are so far gone and bewitched, that I fear you will never come to Christ, the true shepherd, for the abominable, ungodly works (which are not only contrary to Christ's spirit, word and will, but also against all honest modesty, nature and reason,) you maintain as right and good, and with a dark perverted understanding, defend the scriptures.

Is it not a grievous error, that you suffer yourselves to be so miserably bewitched and so lamentably mislead from one unclean sect to another, first to that of Munster, next to Battenberg, now Davidists; from Beelzebub to Lucifer and from Belial to Behemoth ? Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth: You suffer yourselves to be led about by every wind of doctrine. You choose out a way for yourselves, as do also the priests and monks; you hɔla not to the head from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment administered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. (Col. 2.)

Such, I fear shall lead to the punishment of your sins; for by your earthly, fleshy mind, you have thrust front you the pure knowledge of Christ, and hated his cross; and in pride, haughtiness, eating, drinking, dissimulation and false worship, you conform to this arrogant, unprofitable, idle, ungodly world, (which you should teach by a godly, humble walk,) in oppo