The trembling period of time (wherein we now breath) is very like that Day spoken of by the Prophet Zachary in cap.14. v.6 & 7. In that Day the light shall not be cleare nor dark, but it shall be one Day known to the Lord, Not Day, Nor Night.
With such a strange mysteriousnesse doth Divine Providence ballance the Scales of the Church and her Adversaries attempts, that oftentimes the most criticall Believers stand amaz’d and unresolved: For the light is not so cleare that we can infallibly foresee what God will presently doe; Nor yet is it so dark that wee can peremptorily conclude, God will doe no more; Such a mixture, such a variation there is in Gods present dispensations, that we are like a Ship which is no sooner freed of one wave but is as immediately lifted up by another: This one Day (as that Scripture speaketh,) Is Not a Day (i) Not such a time of perfect successe as that wee can long rejoyce, and say, Now there is an end of All our Feares; Nor yet is it Night; (i) such a time of palpable losse, as that we need to dispaire and cry out, Now there is an end of all our Hopes.
And verily through such Dubious Methods doth that deep and unsearchable providence wheele and drive on his own great counsels and designs (perhaps) for these Reasons, That his minutes of vengeance might glide unexpectedly on his Adversaries, And the seasons of deliverances might be most welcome to his Servants, And the decisive events be most properly glorious to himselfe; There being no other Hand of good mens preservation and of wicked mens confusion, then that, which to our shallow sense, seemeth to neglect both.
