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A

DISCOURSE

Shewing the

NATURE and DISCIPLINE

OF THE

Holy Cross of Christ;

AND THAT

The DENIAL of SELF, and daily bearing of CHRIST's CROSS, is the alone Way to the Reft and Kingdom of GOD.

To which are added,

The living and dying Teftimonies of many Perfons of Fame and Learning, both of ancient and modern Times, in Favour of this Treatife.

VOL. II.

In Two PARTS

BY WILLIAM

PENN.

'And Jefus faid unto his Difciples; If any Man will come after

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me, let him deny himself, and take up his Crofs daily, and follow 'me,' Luke iv. 23.

I have fought a good Fight, I have finished my Course, I have kept the Faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a CROWN ⚫ of Righteoufnefs, &c.' 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

Publifhed in the Year 1668.

THE

PREFACE.

READER,

TH

HE great bufinefs of man's life is, to answer the end for which he lives; and that is, to glorify God, and fave his own foul: this is the decree of heaven, as old as the world. But fo it is, that man mindeth nothing less than what he should most mind; and defpifeth to enquire into his own being, its original duty and end; chufing rather to dedicate his days (the steps he fhould make to bleffeḍnefs) to gratify the pride, avarice, and luxury of his heart; as if he had been born for himself, or rather given himself being, and fo not fubject to the reckoning and judgment of a fuperior power. To this wild and lamentable pass, hath poor man brought himself, by his difobedience to the law of God in his heart, by doing that which he knows he fhould not do, and leaving undone what he knows he fhould do. And as long as this disease continueth upon man, he will make his God his enemy, and himself uncapable of the love and falvation that he hath manifested by his fon, Jefus Chrift, to the world.

If, Reader, thou art fuch an one, my counsel to thee is, to retire into thyself, and take a view of the condition of thy foul; for Chrift hath given thee light with which to do it: fearch carefully and thoroughly; thy life is upon it; thy foul is at ftake. It is but once to be done; if thou abusest thyself in it, the lofs is ir reparable; the world is not price enough to ranfom thee: wilt thou then, for fuch a world, belate thyfelf, overstay the time of thy falvation, and lose thy foul? Thou haft to do (I grant thee) with great patience; but that also must have an end; therefore provoke not that God that made thee, to reject thee. Doft thou know what it is? It is Tophet, it is hell, the eternal anguish of the damned. Oh! Reader, as one knowing the terrors

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