A word in season

Here the Prophet plainly declareth, that the People which rest under this Defence and Protection, are afflicted and subject to all Miseries and Calamities as touching the flesh; altho' they be compassed about with such high and mighty Mountains as touching the Spirit, as Satan can never surmount, yet touching the Flesh and the Old man, they lye open on every side to the Darts of Satan and the World; For God by these means will afflict and exercise the Flesh, that Sin and the foolishness of the Flesh may be mortified in them, and that spiritual Wisdom and the inward man may increase. This is the cause why we are according to the Flesh, as a broken Hedge, and as a City whose Walls are cast down, and so lieth open to the Enemies on every side. Wherefore there is no sort of men so vile and abject which do not think that they may do what they list against the true Professors of the Gospel. Hereof come such intolerable injuries, horrible blasphemies, cruel torments and bloody slaughters of the Saints of God. For the Flesh hath no Walls, no Munitions to defend it, but the Spirit. Therefore the flesh is in ⟨p. 19⟩danger to all Storms and Tempests, broken and trodden down of the wicked, as Isaiah saith, Chap. 51. Which have said unto thy Soul, Bow down that we may go over. Thou hast laid thy Body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over. These afflictions we must needs suffer and by patience overcome them, and withal we must beware that by these outward afflictions the inward man be not weakened or overcome; resting in this assured hope and trust, that the Lord will never forsake us, but that we are in the bosom of the Father, and are closed within most sure and strong holds. So that now, altho' our Goods, our Wives, our Children, yea and our Lives also be taken from us, yet we shall never be spoiled of our Christ, by whom we are so surely defended, that in the midst of all our Tentations he will make a way for us to escape, or else give us strength to bear them.

Here the Prophet plainly declareth, that the People which rest under this Defence and Protection, are afflicted and subject to all Miseries and Calamities as touching the flesh; altho' they be compassed about with such high and mighty Mountains as touching the Spirit, as Satan can never surmount, yet touching the Flesh and the Old man, they lye open on every side to the Darts of Satan and the World; For God by these means will afflict and exercise the Flesh, that Sin and the foolishness of the Flesh may be mortified in them, and that spiritual Wisdom and the inward man may increase. This is the cause why we are according to the Flesh, as a broken Hedge, and as a City whose Walls are cast down, and so lyeth open to the Enemies on every side. Wherefore there is no sort of men so vile and abject which do not think that they may do what they list against the true Professors of the Gospel. Hereof come such intollerable injuries, horrible blasphemies, cruel torments and bloody slaughters of the Saints of God. For the Flesh hath no Walls, no Munitions to defend it, but the Spirit. Therefore the flesh is in