Persecutions make way for Zion's stability. Never was she firmer and purer than in the time of the Apostles, and those immediately following them, when the Witnesses for the Truth, to the loss of their blood, were as numerous as the Survivors: she was then, when the flood was cast out against her, clothed with the Sun, and crowned with a Crown of twelve Stars, Rev. 12.1, 2. Such troubles now may dim the outward splendour, but increase her inward Spirit, and refine her to that temper she was in in the Primitive Ages of Christianity. Prosperity was never much the Churches Friend: Poison was flung in her dish when she gained an earthly felicity, and the fondness of great ones. Her stability consists not in this, but in the graces and spirit of Christianity: That which established her Head, establisheth the Body; her Captain ascended not from Mount Oliver, till he had suffered on Mount Calvary. The Church was never described so glorious in her outward Attire, as her greatest Enemy, that is clothed in Scarlet, and decked with Gold, Rev. 17.4. Zion's glory is internal, Psal. 45.13. The King's Daughter is all glorious within. All those Persecutions that are yet to come upon her, shall not demolish her Walls: The rigours of her Enemies, and the Treasons of her pretended Friends, have not yet expelled her out of the Earth; she hath not yet sunk, though her Masts have been sometimes cut close to the Deck, and her visible Pilots flung over-board into the Sea; and shall she sink when she is not far from an entrance into the Harbour? She hath been a Brand plucked out of the fire, Zach. 3.2. She was plucked out of the Furnace of Babylon, and shall be plucked out of the Furnace of Mystical Babylon. Though she should be mown down as Grass by the Sith of her Enemies, yet the presence of Christ shall be as Rain upon her, to make her sprout and spread after all her Afflictions, Psal. 72.6. Though she hath been in the midst of the Fire, she never yet was, nor ever will be consumed: She hath had joy in her disgraces, and greatness by her flames: She hath always had a God to inspire her with vigour, to sustain her weakness, and prop her by his Arm, and hath often swam to a safe Harbour in a Tide of her own Blood. Is not that God still a sufficient Defence, and the Promise a sufficient Charter against the Violence of the world: The Highest himself shall establish her;
Persecutions make way for Sion's stability. Never was she firmer and purer than in the time of the Apostles, and those immediately following them, when the Witnesses for the Truth, to the loss of their blood, were as numerous as the Survivors: she was then, when the flood was cast out against her, clothed with the Sun, and crowned with a Crown of twelve Stars, Rev. 12.1, 2. Such troubles now may dim the outward splendour, but increase her inward Spirit, and refine her to that temper she was in in the Primitive Ages of Christianity. Prosperity was never much the Churches Friend: Poyson was flung in her dish when she gain'd an earthly felicity, and the fondness of great ones. Her stability consists not in this, but in the graces and spirit of Christianity: That which establisht her Head, establisheth the Body; her Captain ascended not from Mount Oliver, till he had suffered on Mount Calvary. The Church was never described so glorious in her outward Attire, as her greatest Enemy, that is clothed in Scarlet, and deckt with Gold, Rev. 17.4. Sion's glory is internal, Psal. 45.13. The King's Daughter is all glorious within. All those Persecutions that are yet to come upon her, shall not demolish her Walls: The rigours of her Enemies, and the Treasons of her pretended Friends, have not yet expelled her out of the Earth; she hath not yet sunk, though her Masts have been sometimes cut close to the Deck, and her visible Pilots flung over-board into the Sea; and shall she sink when she is not far from an entrance into the Harbour? She hath been a Brand pluckt out of the fire, Zach. 3.2. She was pluckt out of the Furnace of Babylon, and shall be pluckt out of the Furnace of Mystical Babylon. Though she should be mown down as Grass by the Sythe of her Enemies, yet the presence of Christ shall be as Rain upon her, to make her sprout and spread after all her Afflictions, Psal. 72.6. Though she hath been in the midst of the Fire, she never yet was, nor ever will be consumed: She hath had joy in her disgraces, and greatness by her flames: She hath alwaies had a God to inspire her with vigor, to sustain her weakness, and prop her by his Arm, and hath often swam to a safe Harbour in a Tyde of her own Blood. Is not that God still a sufficient Defence, and the Promise a sufficient Charter against the Violence of the world: The Highest himself shall establish her;
