he religion which they professed,
appeared utterly to have been extinguished. I say, he brought freedom out
of bondage, light out of darkness, and life out of death. I am not
ignorant, that the building of the temple, and the reparation of the walls
of Jerusalem, were long stayed, so that the work had many enemies; but the
hand of God so prevailed in the end, that a decree was made by Darius, (by
him I suppose that succeeded to Cambyses,) not only that all things
necessary for the building of the temple, and for the sacrifices that were
to be burnt there, should be ministered upon the king's charges; but also,
that "whosoever should hinder that work, or change that decree, that a
tree should be taken out of his house, and that he should be hanged
thereupon; yea, that his house should be made a dunghill," (Ezra vi.); and
thereto he added a prayer, saying, "The God of heaven, who hath placed his
name there, root out every king and people, (O that kings and nations
would understand!) that shall put his hand, either to change or to hurt
this house of God that is in Jerusalem." And so, in despite of satan, was
the temple built, the walls repaired, and the city inhabited; and in the
most desperate dangers it was preserved, until the promised Messiah, the
glory of the second temple, came, manifested himself to the world,
suffered and rose again, according to the scriptures; and so, by sending
forth his gospel from Jerusalem, replenished the earth with the true
knowledge of God; and so did God in perfection increase the nation, and
the spiritual seed of Abraham.

Wherefore, dear brethren, we have no small consolation, if the state of
all things be this day rightly considered. We see in what fury and rage
the world, for the most part, is now raised, against the poor church of
Jesus Christ, unto which he has proclaimed liberty, after the fearful
bondage of that spiritual Babylon, in which we have been holden captives
longer space than Israel was prisoner in Babylon itself: for if we shall
consider, upon the one part, the multitude of those that live wholly
without Christ; and, upon the other part, the blind rage of the pestilent
papists; what shall we think of the small number of them that profess
Christ Jesus, but that they are as a poor sheep, already seized in the
claws of the lion; yea, that they, and the true religion which they
profess, shall in a moment be utterly consumed?

But against this fearful temptation, let us be a