Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

3. The power of God is glorious, not only in preserving his Church, in raising the spirits of his servants in their greatest afflictions, but in increasing his Church by them: if it be a wonder to be upheld in ¹them, it is much more to be increased by them; the more we are cut down, the more still we are, saith Tertullian. The Church never grew so fast, as when it was under most affliction. Sulpitius says of the Christians in the primitive times, that they then were ⟨p. 41⟩as greedy of Martyrdom, as in his time men were greedy of Bishoprics. The blood of Martyrs was the seed of the Church. Pliny reports of the lily, that it is increased by its own juice that drops from it: so the Church which is the lily that grows among the thorns, the very blood that falls from them, multiplies them; the sufferings of one begets many to the love of the truth. Mr. Knox in his History of Scotland, reports of a Gentleman one John Lindsay, familiar to Bishop James Bettoun, that he said to the Bishop upon the occasion of the burning of Mr. Patrick Hamilton, My Lord, if you burn any more, you will destroy your selves; if you will burn them, let them be burnt in hallow cellars, for the smoke of Mr. Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon. It is a report of one Cecilia a ²Virgin, that by her constancy and exhortations, before and at her Martyrdom, was the means to convert four hundred people. By blood and prayer the Church converts the whole world, says Luther.

3. The power of God is glorious, not onely in preserving his Church, in raising the spirits of his servants in their greatest afflictions, but in increasing his Church by them: if it be a wonder to be upheld in ¹them, it is much more to be encreased by them; the more we are cut down, the more still we are, saith Tertullian. The Church never grew so fast, as when it was under most affliction. Sulpitius says of the Christians in the primitive times, that they then were ⟨p. 41⟩as greedy of Martyrdom, as in his time men were greedy of Bishopricks. The blood of Martyrs was the seed of the Church. Pliny reports of the lilly, that it is increased by its own juyce that drops from it: so the Church which is the lilly that grows among the thorns, the very blood that falls from them, multiplies them; the sufferings of one begets many to the love of the truth. Mr. Knox in his History of Scotland, reports of a Gentleman one John Lindsay, familiar to Bishop James Bettoun, that he said to the Bishop upon the occasion of the burning of Mr. Patrick Hamilton, My Lord, if you burn any more, you will destroy your selves; if you will burn them, let them be burnt in hallow cellars, for the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon. It is a report of one Cecilia a