The trial & triumph of faithThe tryal & triumph of faith

The condition of the people of God in the three Kingdoms calleth for this, that we now wisely consider what the Lord is doing; there is a Language of the Lords fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem; If we could understand the voice of the crying Rod: The Arrows of God flee beyond us, and beside us, but we see little of God in them. We Sail, but we see not shore, we fight, but we have no Victory, the efficacy of second causes is the whole burden of the business, and this burden we lay upon creatures (and its more then they can bear) and not upon the Lord; God is crying lameness on creatures and multitude, that his eminency of working may be more seen. 2. Many are friends to the success of Reformation, not to Reformation; Mens Faith go along with the promises, until Providence seem to them to belie the promise: through light at a key-hole many see God in these confusions in the three Kingdoms, but they fall away, because their joining with the Cause was violent kindness to Christ; it is not a friends visit to be driven to a friends house to be dry in a shower, and then occasionally to visit wife and children; Christ hath too many occasional friends, but the ground of all is this; I love Jesus Christ, but I have not the gift of burning-quick for Christ: O how securely should Faith land us, out of the Gun-shot of the prevailing power of a black ⟨image 6⟩hour of darkness? Faith can make us able to be willing for Christ to go through a quarter of Hells pain: Lord give us not leave to be mad with worldly wisdom: 3. When the Temptation sleepeth, the mad man is wise, the harlot is Chaste; But when the vessel is pierced, out cometh that which is within, either Wine or Water. Yet if we should attentively lay our ears to hypocrites, we should hear that their Lute-strings do miserably jar, for Hypocrisy is intelligible, and may be found out. Would Parliaments begin at Christ, we should not fear, that which certainly we have cause to fear, One woe is past, and another woe cometh; The Prophets in the three Kingdoms have not repented of the Superstition, will-worship, Idolatry, Persecution, Profanity, Formality which made them vile before the people, and the Judges and Princes, who turned judgement into gall and wormwood, are not humbled, because they were a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor:

The condition of the people of God in the three Kingdoms calleth for this, that we now wisely consider what the Lord is doing; there is a Language of the Lords fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem; If we could understand the voice of the crying Rod: The Arrowes of God flee beyond us, and beside us, but wee see little of God in them. We Saile, but we see not shoar, we fight, but we have no Victory, the efficacy of second causes is the whole burden of the businesse, and this burden we lay upon creatures (and its more then they can bear) and not upon the Lord; God is crying lamenesse on creatures and multitude, that his eminency of working may be more seen. 2. Many are friends to the successe of Reformation, not to Reformation; Mens Faith go along with the promises, untill Providence seem to them to belie the promise: through light at a key-hole many see God in these confusions in the three Kingdoms, but they fall away, because their joyning with the Cause was violent kindenesse to Christ; it is not a friends visite to be driven to a friends house to be dry in a showre, and then occasionally to visite wife and children; Christ hath too many occasionall friends, but the ground of all is this; I love Jesus Christ, but I have not the gift of burning-quick for Christ: O how securely should Faith land us, out of the Gun-shot of the prevailing power of a black