Repinest thou when God requires obedience? Thou hearest to thine own condemnation. Mockest thou at God's threatenings? Thou shalt feel the weight and truth of them, albeit too late, when flesh and blood cannot deliver thee from his hand. But the visitation, whereof our prophet speaks, is only proper to the sons of God, who, in the time when God takes from them the pleasures of the world, or shows his angry countenance unto them, have recourse unto him, and, confessing their former negligence, with troubled hearts, cry for his mercy. This visitation is not proper to all the afflicted, but appertains only to God's children: for the reprobates can never have access to God's mercy in time of their tribulation, and that because they abuse his long patience, as well as the manifold benefits they receive from his hands; for as the same prophet heretofore saith, “Let the wicked obtain mercy, yet shall he never learn wisdom, but in the land of righteousness,” that is, where the true knowledge of God abounds, “he will do wickedly.” Which is a crime above all others abominable; for to what end is it that God erects his throne among us, but that we should fear him? Why does he reveal his holy will unto us, but that we should obey it? Why does he deliver us from trouble, but that we should be witnesses unto the world, that he is gracious and merciful?

Now, when men hearing their duty, and knowing what God requires of them, do malapertly fight against all equity and justice, what I pray you, do they else, but make manifest war against God? Yea, when they have received from God such deliverance, that they [pg 050] cannot deny but that God himself hath in his great mercy visited them, and yet they continue wicked as before; what deserve they but effectually to be given over unto a reprobate sense, that they may headlong run to ruin, both of body and soul? It is almost incredible that a man should be so enraged against God, that neither his plagues, nor yet his mercy showed, should move him to repentance; but because the Scriptures bear witness of the one and the other, let us cease to marvel, and let us firmly believe, that such things as have been, are even at present before our eyes, albeit many, blinded by affection, cannot see them.

Ahab, as it is written in the book of the Kings, received many notable benefits of the hand of God, who visited him in divers sorts, sometimes by his plagues, sometimes by his word, and sometimes by his merciful deliverance. He made him king, and, for the idolatry used by him and his wife, he plagued the whole of Israel by famine; he revealed to him his will, and true religion, by the prophet Elijah; he gave unto him sundry deliverances, but one most special, when proud Benhadad came to besiege Samaria, and was not content to receive Ahab's gold, silver, sons, daughters, and wives, but also required, that his servants should have at their pleasure whatsoever was delectable in Samaria. True it is, that his elders and people willed him not to hear the proud tyrant, but who made unto him the promise of deliverance? And who appointed and put his army in order? Who assured him of victory? The prophet of God only, who assured him, that by the servants of the princes of the provinces, who in number were only two hundred thirty-and-two, he should defeat the great army, in which there were two-and-thirty kings, with all their forces. And as the prophet of God promised, so it came to pass; victory was obtained, not once only, but twice, and that by the merciful visitation of the Lord.

But how did Ahab visit God again for his great benefit received? Did he remove his idolatry? Did he correct his idolatrous wife Jezebel? No, we find no such thing; but the one and the other we find to have continued and increased in their former impiety: but what was the end thereof? The last visitation of God was, that dogs licked the blood of the one, and did eat the flesh of the other. In few words then we understand, what difference there is betwixt the visitation of God upon the reprobate, and his visitation upon his chosen. The reprobate are visited, but never truly humbled, nor yet amended; the chosen being visited, they sob, and they cry unto God for mercy; which being obtained, they magnify God's name, and afterwards manifest the fruits of repentance. Let us therefore that bear these judgments of our God, call for the assistance of his Holy [pg 051] Spirit, that howsoever it pleaseth him to visit us, we may stoop under his merciful hands, and unfeignedly cry to him when he corrects us; and so shall we know in experience, that our cries and complaints were not in vain. But let us hear what the prophet saith further:

“Like as a woman with child, that draweth near her travail, is in sorrow, and crieth in her pains, so have we been in thy sight, O Lord; we have conceived, we have borne in vain, as though we should have brought forth the wind. Salvations were not made to the earth, neither did the inhabitants of the earth fall,” verses 17, 18.

This is the second part of the prophet's complaint, in which he, in the person of God's people, complains, that of their great affliction there appeared no end. This same similitude is used by our Master Jesus Christ; for when he speaks of the troubles of his church, he compares them to the pains of a woman travailing in child-birth. But it is to another end; for there he promises exceeding and permanent joy after a sort, though it appear trouble. But here is the trouble long and vehement, albeit the fruit of it was not suddenly espied. He speaks no doubt of that long and dolorous time of their captivity, in which they continually laboured for deliverance, but obtained it not before the complete end of seventy years. During which time, the earth, that is, the land of Judah, which sometimes was sanctified unto God, but was then given to be profaned by wicked people, got no help, nor perceived any deliverance: for the inhabitants of the world fell not; that is, the tyrants and oppressors of God's people were not taken away, but still remained and continued blasphemers of God, and troublers of his church. But because I perceive the hours to pass more swiftly than they have seemed at other times, I must contract that which remains of this text into certain points.

The prophet first contends against the present despair; afterwards he introduces God himself calling upon his people; and, last of all, he assures his afflicted, that God will come, and require account of all the blood-thirsty tyrants of the earth.

First, Fighting against the present despair, he saith, “Thy dead shall live, even my body (or with my body) shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,” verse 19.

The prophet here pierces through all impediments that nature could object; and, by the victory of faith, he overcomes, not only the common enemies, but the great and last enemy of all, death itself; for this would he say, Lord, I see nothing for thy chosen, but misery to follow misery, and one affliction to succeed another; yea, in the end I see, that death shall devour thy dearest children. But yet, O [pg 052] Lord! I see thy promise to be true, and thy love to remain towards thy chosen, even when death appears to have devoured them: “For thy dead shall live, yea, not only shall they live, but my very dead carcase shall arise;” and so I see honour and glory to succeed this temporal shame, I see permanent joy to come after trouble, order to spring out of this terrible confusion; and, finally, I see that life shall devour death, so that death shall be destroyed, and so thy servants shall have life. This, I say, is the victory of faith, when to the midst of death, through the light of God's word, the afflicted see life. Hypocrites, in the time of quietness and prosperity, can generally confess, that God is true to his promises; but bring them to the extremity, and there the hypocrite ceases further to trust to God, than he seeth natural means, whereby God useth to work. But the true faithful, when all hope of natural means fail, flee to God himself, and to the truth of his promise, who is above nature; yea, whose works are not so subject to the ordinary course of nature, that when nature fails, his power and promise fail also therewith.

Let us further observe, That the prophet here speaks not of all the dead in general, but saith, “Thy dead, O Lord, shall live:” in which words he makes a difference betwixt those that die in the Lord, and those that die in their natural corruption, and in the old Adam. Die in the Lord can none, except those that live in him, (I mean, of those that attain to the years of discretion;) and none live in him, but those that, with the apostle, can say, “I live, and yet not I, but Christ Jesus that dwelleth in me: the life that I now live, I have by the faith of the Son of God.” (Gal. ii.) Not that I mean, that the faithful have at all hours such a sense of the life everlasting, that they fear not the death and the troubles of this life; no, not so; for the faith of God's children is weak, yea, and in many things imperfect. But I mean, that such as in death, and after death shall live, must communicate in this life with Jesus Christ, and must be regenerated by the seed of life; that is, by the word of the everlasting God, which whosoever despises, refuses life and joy everlasting.

The prophet transfers all the promises of God to himself, saying, “Even my dead body shall arise;” and immediately after, gives commandment and charge to the dwellers in the dust, that is, to the dead carcases of those that were departed, (for the spirit and soul of man dwells not in the dust,) “That they should awake, that they should sing and rejoice;” for they should arise and spring up from the earth, even as the herbs do, after they have received the dew from above.

Time will not suffer that these particulars be so largely treated as ought, and as I gladly would do; therefore let us consider, that the prophet, in transferring the power and promise of God to himself, [pg 053] does not claim to himself any particular prerogative above the people of God, as that he alone should live and arise, and not they also; but he does it, to let them understand that he taught a doctrine whereof he was certain; yea, and whereof they should have experience after his death. As if he should say, My words appear to you now to be incredible, but the day will come, that I shall be taken from you, my carcase shall be inclosed in the bosom of the earth; and you shall be led away captives to Babylon, where you shall remain many days and years, as it were buried in your sepulchres.

But then call to mind what I said unto you before hand, that my body shall arise; even so shall you rise from your graves out of Babylon, and be restored to your own country, and city of Jerusalem; this, I doubt not, is the true meaning of the prophet. The charge that he gives to the dwellers in the dust, is to express the power of God's word, whereby he not only gives life, where death apparently had prevailed; but also, by it, he calls things that are not, even as though they were. True it is, that the prophet Isaiah saw not the destruction of Jerusalem, much less could he see the restitution of it with his corporeal eyes; but he leaves this, as it were, in testament with them—that when they were in the extremity of all bondage, they should call to mind what the prophet of God had before spoken.

And lest that his doctrine, and this promise of God made unto them by his mouth, should have been forgotten, as we are ever prone and ready to forget God's promises when we are pressed with any sorrow, God raised up unto them, in the midst of their calamity, his prophet Ezekiel, unto whom, among many other visions, he gave this—The hand of the Lord first led him in a place, which was full of dry and dispersed bones. (Ezek. xxxvii.) The question was demanded of the prophet, If these bones, being wondrous dry, could live? The prophet answered, The knowledge thereof appertained unto God. Charge was given unto him, that he should speak unto the dry bones, and say, “Thus saith the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will give you breath, and you shall live: I will give unto you sinews, flesh, and skin, and you shall live.” And while the prophet spake as he was commanded, he heard a voice, and he saw every bone join its fellow; he saw them covered with flesh and skin, albeit there was no spirit of life in them. He was commanded again to speak, and to say, “Thus saith the Lord God, Come, O Spirit, from the four quarters, and blow on these that are slain, that they may live.” And as he prophesied, the spirit of life came; they lived, and stood upon their feet. Then the Lord interprets what this vision meant, saying “O son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. [pg 054] Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, our hope is perished, we are plainly cut off. But behold, saith the Lord, I will open your graves, I will bring you forth of them, ye shall live, and come unto the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.”

This vision, I say, given to the prophet, and by the prophet preached to the people, when they thought that God had utterly forgotten them, compelled them more diligently to advert to what the former prophets had spoken. It is no doubt but that they carried with them both the prophecy of Isaiah and Jeremiah, so that the prophet Ezekiel is a commentary to these words of Isaiah, where he saith, “Thy dead, O Lord, shall live, with my body they shall arise.” The prophet brings in this similitude of the dew, to answer unto that part of their fidelity, who can believe no further of God's promises than they are able to apprehend by natural judgment; as if he would say, Think ye this impossible, that God should give life unto you, and bring you to an estate of a commonwealth again, after that ye are dead, and as it were rased from the face of the earth? But why do you not consider what God worketh from year to year in the order of nature? Sometimes you see the face of the earth decked and beautified with herbs, flowers, grass, and fruits; again you see the same utterly taken away by storms, and the vehemence of the winter: what does God to replenish the earth again, and to restore the beauty thereof? He sends down his small and soft dew, the drops whereof, in their descending, are neither great nor visible, and yet thereby are the pores and secret veins of the earth, which before by vehemence of frost and cold were shut up, opened again, and so does the earth produce again the like herbs, flowers, and fruits. Shall you then think, that the dew of God's heavenly grace will not be as effectual in you to whom he hath made his promise, as it is in the herbs and fruits which from year to year bud forth and decay? If you do so, the prophet would say your unbelief is inexcusable; because you neither rightly weigh the power, nor the promise of your God.

The like similitude the apostle Paul uses against such as called the resurrection in doubt, because by natural judgment they could not apprehend that flesh once putrified, and dissolved as it were into other substance, should rise again, and return again to the same substance and nature: “O fool,” saith he, “that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare corn, as it falleth, of wheat, or some other, but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him, even to every seed his own body.” In which words and sentence, the apostle sharply rebukes the gross ignorance of the Corinthians, who began to call in doubt the chief article of our faith, the resurrection of the flesh [pg 055] after it was once dissolved, because that natural judgment, as he said, reclaimed thereto.11 He reproves, I say, their gross ignorance, because they might have seen and considered some proof and document thereof in the very order of nature; for albeit the wheat, or other corn, cast in the earth, appears to die or putrify, and so to be lost, yet we see that it is not perished, but that it fructifies according to God's will and ordinance.

Now, if the power of God be so manifest in raising up of the fruits of the earth, unto which no particular promise is made by God, what shall be his power and virtue in raising up our bodies, seeing that thereto he is bound by the solemn promise of Jesus Christ his Eternal Wisdom, and the Verity itself that cannot lie? Yea, seeing that the members must once communicate with the glory of the Head, how shall our bodies, which are flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones, lie still for ever in corruption, seeing that our Head, Jesus Christ, is now exalted in his glory? Neither yet is this power and good-will of God to be restrained unto the last and general resurrection only, but we ought to consider it in the marvellous preservation of his church, and in the raising up of the same from the very bottom of death, when by tyrants it has been oppressed from age to age.

Now, of the former words of the prophet, we have to gather this comfort; that if at any time we see the face of the church within this realm so defaced, as I think it shall be sooner than we look for—when we shall see, I say, virtue to be despised, vice to be maintained, the verity of God to be impugned, lies and men's inventions holden in authority—and finally, when we see the true religion of our God, and the zealous observers of the same, trodden under the feet of such as in their heart say, that “There is no God,” (Psal. xiv.); let us then call to mind what have been the wondrous works of our God from the beginning—that it is his proper office to bring light out of darkness, order out of confusion, life out of death: and finally, that this is He that calleth things that are not, even as if they were, as before we have heard. And if in the day of our temptation, which in my judgment approaches fast, we are thus armed, if our incredulity cannot utterly be removed, yet shall it so be corrected, that damnable despair oppress us not. But now let us hear how the prophet proceeds:—

“Come, thou my people, enter within thy chamber, shut thy door after thee, hide thyself a very little while, until the indignation pass over.”

Here the prophet brings in God, lovingly, calling upon his people [pg 056] to come to himself, and to rest with him, until such time as the fury and sharp plagues should be executed upon the wicked and disobedient. It may appear at the first sight, that all these words of the prophet, in the person of God, calling the people unto rest, are spoken in vain; for we neither find chambers, nor rest, more prepared for the dearest children of God, so far as man's judgment can discern, than for the rebellious and disobedient; for such as fell not by the edge of the sword, or died not of pestilence, or by hunger, were either carried captives unto Babylon, or else departed afterwards into Egypt, so that none of Abraham's seed had either chamber or quiet place to remain in within the land of Canaan. For the resolution hereof, we must understand, That albeit the chambers whereunto God called his chosen be not visible, yet notwithstanding they are certain, and offer unto God's children a quiet habitation in spirit, howsoever the flesh be travailed and tormented.

The chambers then are God's sure promises, unto which God's people are commanded to resort; yea, within which they are commanded to close themselves in the time of greatest adversity. The manner of speaking is borrowed from that judgment and foresight which God has printed in this our nature; for when men espy great tempests appearing to come, they will not willingly remain uncovered in the fields, but straightway they will draw them to their houses or holds, that they may escape the vehemence of the same; and if they fear any enemy pursues them, they will shut their doors, to the end that the enemy should not suddenly have entry.

After this manner God speaks to his people; as if he should say, The tempest that shall come upon this whole nation shall be so terrible, that nothing but extermination shall appear to come upon the whole body. But thou my people, that hearest my word, believest the same, and tremblest at the threatenings of my prophets, now, when the world does insolently resist—let such, I say, enter within the secret chamber of my promises, let them contain themselves quietly there; yea, let them shut the door upon them, and suffer not infidelity, the mortal enemy of my truth, and of my people that depend thereupon, to have free entry to trouble them, yea, further to murder, in my promise; and so shall they perceive that my indignation shall pass, and that such as depend upon me shall be saved.

Thus we may perceive the meaning of the prophet; whereof we have first to observe, that God acknowledges them for his people who are in the greatest affliction; yea, such as are reputed unworthy of men's presence are yet admitted within the secret chamber of God. Let no man think that flesh and blood can suddenly attain to that comfort; and therefore most expedient it is, that we be frequently [pg 057] exercised in meditation of the same. Easy it is, I grant, in time of prosperity, to say, and to think, that God is our God, and that we are his people; but when he has given us over into the hands of our enemies, and turned, as it were, his back unto us, then, I say, still to reclaim him to be our God, and to have this assurance, that we are his people, proceeds wholly from the Holy Spirit of God, as it is the greatest victory of faith, which overcomes the world; for increase whereof, we ought continually to pray.

This doctrine we shall not think strange, if we consider how suddenly our spirits are carried away from our God, and from believing his promise. So soon as any great temptation apprehends us, then we begin to doubt if ever we believed God's promise, if God will fulfil them to us, if we abide in his favour, if he regards and looks upon the violence and injury that is done unto us; and a multitude of such cogitations which before lurked quietly in our corrupted hearts, burst violently forth when we are oppressed with any desperate calamity. Against which this is the remedy—once to apprehend, and still to retain God to be our God, and firmly to believe, that we are his people whom he loves, and will defend, not only in affliction, but even in the midst of death itself.

Again, Let us observe, That the judgments of our God never were, nor yet shall be so vehement upon the face of the earth, but that there has been, and shall be, some secret habitation prepared in the sanctuary of God, for some of his chosen, where they shall be preserved until the indignation pass by; and that God prepares a time, that they may glorify him again, before the face of the world, which once despised them. And this ought to be unto us no small comfort in these appearing dangers, namely, that we are surely persuaded, that how vehement soever the tempest shall be, it yet shall pass over, and some of us shall be preserved to glorify the name of our God, as is aforesaid.

Two vices lurk in this our nature: the one is, that we cannot tremble at God's threatenings, before the plagues apprehend us, albeit we see cause most just why his fierce wrath should burn as a devouring fire; the other is, that when calamities before pronounced, fall upon us, then we begin to sink down in despair, so that we never look for any comfortable end of the same.

To correct this our mortal infirmity, in time of quietness we ought to consider what is the justice of our God, and how odious sin is; and, above all, how odious idolatry is in His presence, who has forbidden it, and who has so severely punished it in all ages from the beginning: and in the time of our affliction we ought to consider, what have been the wondrous works of our God, in the preservation [pg 058] of his church when it hath been in uttermost extremity. For never shall we find the church humbled under the hands of traitors, and cruelly tormented by them, but we shall find God's just vengeance fall upon the cruel persecutors, and his merciful deliverance shewed to the afflicted. And, in taking of this trial, we should not only call to mind the histories of ancient times, but also we should diligently mark what notable works God hath wrought, even in this our age, as well upon the one as upon the other. We ought not to think, that our God bears less love to his church this day, than what he has done from the beginning; for as our God in his own nature is immutable, so his love towards his elect remains always unchangeable. For as in Christ Jesus he hath chosen his church, before the beginning of all ages; so by him will he maintain and preserve the same unto the end. Yea, he will quiet the storms, and cause the earth to open her mouth, and receive the raging floods of violent waters, cast out by the dragon, to drown and carry away the woman, which is the spouse of Jesus Christ, unto whom God for his own name's sake will be the perpetual Protector. Rev. xii.

This saw that notable servant of Jesus Christ, Athanasius, who being exiled from Alexandria by that blasphemous apostate Julian the emperor, said unto his flock, who bitterly wept for his envious banishment, “Weep not, but be of good comfort, for this little cloud will suddenly vanish.” He called both the emperor himself and his cruel tyranny a little cloud; and albeit there was small appearance of any deliverance to the church of God, or of any punishment to have apprehended the proud tyrants, when the man of God pronounced these words, yet shortly after God did give witness, that those words did not proceed from flesh nor blood, but from God's very Spirit. For not long after, being in warfare, Julian received a deadly wound, whether by his own hand, or by one of his own soldiers, the writers clearly conclude not; but casting his own blood against the heaven, he said, “At last thou hast overcome, thou Galilean:” so in despite he termed the Lord Jesus. And so perished that tyrant in his own iniquity; the storm ceased, and the church of God received new comfort.

Such shall be the end of all cruel persecutors, their reign shall be short, their end miserable, and their name shall be left in execrations to God's people; and yet shall the church of God remain to God's glory, after all storms. But now shortly, let us come to the last point:

“For behold,” saith the prophet, “the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them; and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more hide her slain.” (Verse 21.) Because that the final end of the troubles of [pg 059] God's chosen shall not be, before the Lord Jesus shall return to restore all things to their full perfection.

The prophet brings forth the eternal God, as it were, from his own place and habitation, and therewith shows the cause of his coming to be, that he might take account of all such as have wrought wickedly; for that he means, where he saith, “He will visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them.” And lest any should think the wrong doers are so many, that they cannot be called to an account, he gives unto the earth as it were an office and charge, to bear witness against all those that have wrought wickedly, and chiefly against those that have shed innocent blood from the beginning; and saith, “That the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more hide her slain men.”

If tyrants of the earth, and such as delight in the shedding of blood, should be persuaded that this sentence is true, they would not so furiously come to their own destruction; for what man can be so enraged, that he would willingly do even before the eyes of God that which might provoke his Majesty to anger, yea, provoke him to become his enemy for ever, if he understood how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God?

The cause then of this blind fury of the world is the ignorance of God, and that men think that God is but an idol; and that there is no knowledge above, that beholds their tyranny; nor yet justice that will, nor power that can, repress their impiety. But the Spirit of truth witnesses the contrary, affirming, that as the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and as his ears are ready to receive their sobbing and prayers, so is his visage angry against such as work iniquity; he hateth and holdeth in abomination every deceitful and blood-thirsty man, whereof he has given sufficient document from age to age, in preserving the one, or at least in avenging their cause, and in punishing the other.

Where it is said, “That the Lord will come from his place, and that he will visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them, and that the earth shall disclose her blood;” we have to consider, what most commonly has been, and what shall be, the condition of the church of God, namely, that it is not only hated, mocked, and despised, but that it is exposed as a prey unto the fury of the wicked; so that the blood of the children of God is spilt like unto water upon the face of the earth.

The understanding whereof, albeit it is unpleasant to the flesh, yet to us it is most profitable, lest that we, seeing the cruel treatment of God's servants, begin to forsake the spouse of Jesus Christ, because she is not so dealt with in this unthankful world, as the just and upright [pg 060] dealings of God's children do deserve. But contrariwise, for mercy they receive cruelty, for doing good to many, of all the reprobate they receive evil; and this is decreed in God's eternal council, that the members may follow the trace of the Head; to the end that God in his just judgment should finally condemn the wicked. For how should he punish the inhabitants of the earth, if their iniquity deserve it not? How should the earth disclose our blood, if it should not be unjustly spilt? We must then commit ourselves into the hands of our God, and lay down our necks; yea, and patiently suffer our blood to be shed, that the righteous Judge may require account, as most assuredly he will, of all the blood that hath been shed, from the blood of Abel the just, till the day that the earth shall disclose the same. I say, every one that sheds, or consents to shed the blood of God's children, shall be guilty of the whole; so that all the blood of God's children shall cry vengeance, not only in general, but also in particular, upon every one that has shed the blood of any that unjustly suffered.

And if any think it strange, that such as live this day can be guilty of the blood that was shed in the days of the apostles, let them consider, that the Verity itself pronounced, That all the blood that was shed from the days of Abel, unto the days of Zacharias, should come upon the unthankful generation that heard his doctrine and refused it. (Matt. xxiii.)

The reason is evident; for as there are two heads and captains that rule over the whole world, namely, Jesus Christ, the Prince of justice and peace, and satan, called the prince of the world; so there are but two armies that have continued battle from the beginning, and shall fight unto the end. The quarrel which the army of Jesus Christ sustains, and which the reprobate persecute, is the same, namely, The eternal truth of the eternal God, and the image of Jesus Christ printed in his elect—so that whosoever in any age persecutes any one member of Jesus Christ for his truth's sake, subscribes, as it were with his hand, to the persecution of all that have passed before him.

And this ought the tyrants of this age deeply to consider; for they shall be guilty, not only of the blood shed by themselves, but of all, as is said, that has been shed for the cause of Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world.

Let the faithful not be discouraged, although they be appointed as sheep to the slaughter-house; for He, for whose sake they suffer, shall not forget to avenge their cause. I am not ignorant that flesh and blood will think that kind of support too late; for we had rather be preserved still alive, than have our blood avenged after our death. [pg 061] And truly, if our felicity stood in this life, or if temporal death should bring unto us any damage, our desire in that behalf were not to be disallowed or condemned: but seeing that death is common to all, and that this temporal life is nothing but misery, and that death fully joins us with our God, and gives unto us the possession of our inheritance, why should we think it strange to leave this world and go to our Head and sovereign Captain, Jesus Christ?

Lastly, We have to observe this manner of speaking, where the prophet saith, that “the earth shall disclose her blood:” in which words the prophet would accuse the cruelty of those that dare so unmercifully and violently force, from the breasts of the earth, the dearest children of God, and cruelly cut their throats in her bosom, who is by God appointed the common mother of mankind, so that she unwillingly is compelled to open her mouth and receive their blood.

If such tyranny were used against any woman, as violently to pull her infant from her breasts, cut the throat of it in her own bosom, and compel her to receive the blood of her dear child in her own mouth, all nations would hold the act so abominable, that the like had never been done in the course of nature. No less wickedness commit they that shed the blood of God's children upon the face of their common mother, the earth, as I said before. But be of good courage, O little and despised flock of Christ Jesus! for He that seeth your grief, hath power to revenge it; he will not suffer one tear of yours to fall, but it shall be kept and reserved in his bottle, till the fulness thereof be poured down from heaven, upon those that caused you to weep and mourn. This your merciful God, I say, will not suffer your blood for ever to be covered with the earth; nay, the flaming fires that have licked up the blood of any of our brethren; the earth that has been defiled with it, I say, with the blood of God's children; for otherwise, to shed the blood of the cruel blood-shedders, is to purge the land from blood, and as it were to sanctify it: the earth, I say, shall purge herself of it, and show it before the face of God; yea, the beasts, fowls, and other creatures whatsoever, shall be compelled to render that which they have received, be it flesh, blood, or bones, that appertained to thy children, O Lord! which altogether thou shalt glorify, according to thy promise, made to us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, thy well-beloved Son; to whom, with thee, and the Holy Ghost, be honour, praise, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us now humble ourselves in the presence of our God, and from the bottom of our hearts let us desire him to assist us with the power of his Holy Spirit; that albeit, for our former negligence, [pg 062] God gives us over into the hands of others than such as rule in his fear; that yet he let us not forget his mercy, and the glorious name that hath been proclaimed amongst us; but that we may look through the dolorous storm of his present displeasure, and see as well what punishment he has appointed for the cruel tyrants, as what reward he has laid in store for such as continue in his fear to the end. That it would further please him to assist, that albeit we see his church so diminished, that it appears to be brought, as it were, to utter extermination, we may be assured, that in our God there is great power and will, to increase the number of his chosen, until they are enlarged to the uttermost parts of the earth. Give us, O Lord! hearts to visit thee in time of affliction; and albeit we see no end of our dolours, yet our faith and hope may conduct us to the assured hope of that joyful resurrection, in which we shall possess the fruit of that for which we now labour. In the mean time, grant unto us, O Lord! to repose ourselves in the sanctuary of thy promise, that in thee we may find comfort, till this thy great indignation, begun amongst us, may pass over, and thou thyself appear to the comfort of thine afflicted, and to the terror of thine and our enemies.

Let us pray with heart and mouth,

Almighty God, and merciful Father, &c. Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit; for the terrible roaring of guns,12 and the noise of armour, do so pierce my heart, that my soul thirsteth to depart.

Be merciful to thy flock, O Lord! and at thy good pleasure put an end to my misery.

John Knox.