] a year comes into my hand; wherefore I will
wait and exercise patience. Thus might I multiply comparisons.
Be patient, then, my brethren. But how long? "To the coming of the
Lord." But when will that be? "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
How unseen the strength of the church under persecution is of all
that are without her. Alas, they think that she will be run down
with a push; or, as they said, "What do these feeble Jews? Will they
fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a
day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which
are burnt? Alas, if a fox go up, he will even break down their stone
wall."
But do you think these men saw the strength of the Jews? No, no;
their pillars were within, and so were shadowed from their eyes.
David himself could not tell what judgment to make of the way of the
world against the people of God, until he went into the sanctuary of
God.
How then can the world judge of the condition of the saints? Alas,
had they known the church's strength, surely they would not have so
furiously assaulted her. But what have they got by all they have
done, either, against the Head or body of the church?
She has yet being in the world, and will have, shall have, though
all the nations on earth should gather themselves together against
her.
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