Page:God's eye from heaven.pdf/18

18 Acts 8.3, 4. Therefore they that were scattered, went every where Preaching the Word, according to the Prophet Daniel, Many shal run to and fro, and knowledge shal be increased. There appears as great a power in God in preserving his Church in the midst of so much opposition, as there did appear in the preservation of the three Children in the fiery furnace; the more we are cut down the more still we are, saith Tertullian, the blood of Martyrs was the feed of the church: Pliny reports, that the Lilly is increased by the jucie that drop from it: so the Church, which is the lilly that growes amongst thorns, the very blood that fals from them multiplies them; the sufferings of one begets many to the truth. It is a report of one Cecilia a Virgin, that by her constancy and exhortation, before and at her Martyrdome, was the means to convert 400. people. By blood and Prayer, the Church converts the whole world saith Luther. Besides, God tries his People in afflictions, and then they