So long as the church endured hardship and affliction, she was greatly preserved from revolts and backslidings; but after she had turned her face from the sun, and had found the plain of Shinar, Genesis 11, that is, the fleshly delights that the pleasures and profits and honors of this world afford, she, forgetting the word and order of God, was content to dwell in the land of Babel.

As the sins of God’s people brought them into captivity, so their sins can hold them there; yea, and when the time comes that grace must fetch them out, yet the oxen that draw this cart may stumble, and the way, through roughness, may shake it sorely.  However, heaven rules and overrules:  and by one means and another, as the captivity of Israel did seem to linger, so it came out at the time appointed, in the way that best pleased God, that most profited them, and that most confounded those that were their implacable enemies.  This therefore should instruct those that yet dwell where the “woman” sitteth, to quietness and patience.

To quietness; for God rules and has the disposal of things.  Besides, it is a kind of arraigning of his wisdom, to be discontent at that which at present is upon the wheel.  Above all, it displeases him that any should seek, or go about to revenge their own injuries, or to work their own deliverances; for that is the work of God:  nor is he weak, nor has he missed the opportunity; nor does he sleep, but waketh, and waiteth to be gracious.

This also should teach them to be patient, and put them upon bearing what at present they may undergo, patiently Let them wait upon God; patiently let them wait upon men, and patiently let them bear the fruits of their own transgressions; which though they should be none other but a deferring of the mercy wished for, is enough to try, and crack, and break their patience, if a continual supply and a daily increase thereof be not given by the God of heaven.

And before I conclude this, let me add one word more, to wit, to exhort them to look that they may see what God at present may be doing among the Babylonians.

When God had his people into Babylon of old, he presented them with such varieties there as he never showed them in their own country.  And is there nothing now to be seen by them that are not yet delivered from that oppression, that may give them occasion to stay themselves and wonder?  What, is preservation nothing?  What, is baffling and befooling the enemies of God’s church nothing?  In the Maryan [Footnote:  Upon the accession of Mary to the throne of England, the sanguinary laws against heretics were revived, and those shocking scenes of cruelty followed which have fixed upon this princess the epithet of Bloody Queen Mary.  Her gloomy bigotry caused that two hundred and seventy-seven persons should be committed to the flames, including prelates, private clergymen, laymen of all ranks, women, and even children.

Among the number were archbishop Cranmer, bishops Ridley.  Latimer, and Hooper, John Rogers, John Bradford, and John Philpot.