The New Jerusalem

in this world is more sour than sweet,
their medicine more wormwood than honey,
their life more a pilgrimage than
a permanent dwelling, so that they may better be called Mara
than Naomi In the Book of Ruth, Naomi asks to be called Mara—meaning "bitter"—because of her afflictions, rather than Naomi, which means "pleasant." may be named.
And thus the Sovereign God deals
with them, not because he hates them, but
because he loves them, not because they are
bastards, but children are, not to
destroy them, but to preserve
them: For when he thus,
the remainder of the afflictions of Christ
A reference to Colossians 1:24, regarding the shared suffering of the church and Christ., lets be fulfilled in their flesh, he
does it to humble them thereby,
so that they do not become proud,
to wean them from the love
of the world, and to drive them toward him:
to test their faith, to make their
patience lijdfaemheyt: a Dutch term for long-suffering, endurance, or submissive patience evident, to make them
fervent of spirit, to prepare
them for the coming of the Bridegroom A common biblical metaphor for Christ.,
to make them long
for their Father's house: so that they,
like the Bush of Moses The "burning bush" from Exodus 3, which burned with fire but was not consumed—a frequent symbol for the persecuted but surviving Church., do indeed
burn, but are not consumed; they
are indeed cast down, but not
destroyed: for after a humbling,