A word in season

Notwithstanding this promise seemeth incredible both to us which suffer, and also to them which persecute and afflict us. For if we behold the same with our outward eyes, what can be ⟨p. 20⟩more false? yea the contrary seemeth to be most true. Behold our Saviour Christ, was he not so forsaken, hanging upon the Cross, that the Rod or Sceptre of the wicked rested upon him? Did it not rest likewise upon the Prophets, the Apostles, and other holy Martyrs? This matter then, if we consider it with our outward eyes, hath another meaning then the Words do import. For they promise that the Sceptre of the wicked shall have no power over the godly, and yet all stories and examples do testify the contrary. Therefore the Holy Ghost calleth us back to the purpose and Counsel of God revealed in his Word, and commandeth us to weigh and consider, not what we suffer and with our outward eyes behold, but what is decreed with the Lord in Heaven. And he that can so sequester himself from the beholding of his afflictions and tentations, and yield himself wholly over to the Will of God, and there rest, is a right Divine; yea he that is ignorant hereof, in true Divinity knoweth nothing at all. For what knoweth he which is ignorant that God is such a God as will not suffer the godly to be oppressed of the wicked? For seeing he hath said, I am the Lord thy God, he will never suffer that which is his own, to be wrested either by the World or by the gates of Hell out of his hands. If he then abide and continue, they shall also continue for ever which are his. Thus to believe, and thus to lay hold on things invisible, is true Divinity and true spiritual Wisdom indeed, whereupon we may ground this Proposition out of the invisible Counsel of God; God hateth the wicked, and loveth the just, ergo he will damn and destroy the wicked, and will deliver and save the just. And here we see that which is the chiefest thing in all the Psalms and Prophets, to spring of the first Precept: I am the Lord thy God.

Notwithstanding this promise seemeth incredible both to us which suffer, and also to them which persecute and afflict us. For if we behold the same with our outward eyes, what can be ⟨p. 20⟩more false? yea the contrary seemeth to be most true. Behold our Saviour Christ, was he not so forsaken, hanging upon the Cross, that the Rod or Scepter of the wicked rested upon him? Did it not rest likewise upon the Prophets, the Apostles, and other holy Martyrs? This matter then, if we consider it with our outward eyes, hath another meaning then the Words do import. For they promise that the Scepter of the wicked shall have no power over the godly, and yet all stories and examples do teftify the contrary. Therefore the Holy Ghost calleth us back to the purpose and Cousel of God revealed in his Word, and commandeth us to weigh and consider, not what we suffer and with our outward eyes behold, but what is decreed with the Lord in Heaven. And he that can so sequester himself from the beholding of his afflictions and tentations, and yield himself wholly over to the Will of God, and there rest, is a right Divine; yea he that is ignorant hereof, in true Divinity knoweth nothing at all. For what knoweth he which is ignorant that God is such a God as will not suffer the godly to be oppressed of the wicked? For seeing he hath said, I am the Lord thy God, he will never suffer that which is his own, to be wrested either by the World or by the gates of Hell out of his hands. If he then abide and continue, they shall also continue for ever which are his. Thus to believe, and thus to lay hold on things invifible, is true Divinity and true spiritual Wisdom indeed, whereupon we may ground this Proposition out of the invisible Counsel of God; God hateth the wicked, and loveth the just, ergo he will damn and destroy the wicked, and will deliver and save the just. And here we see that which is the chiefest thing in all the Psalms and Prophets, to spring of the first Precept: I am the Lord thy God.