The New Jerusalem

finally an exaltation comes; after a tearing, a healing; after blows, a binding original: "naer ſlagen een verbindinge" — referring to the biblical image of God binding up wounds after a period of discipline: weeping may endure for the length of the evening, but in the morning comes joy. Soon Noah was delivered from the Flood: the biblical deluge from which Noah and his family were saved in the Ark; Lot from Sodom; Jacob from Esau; Moses from Pharaoh; Israel from Egypt; David from Saul; the three youths: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were thrown into a furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar but were miraculously unharmed from the fiery furnace; Daniel from the lions' den; Joseph from Herod; the Apostles from the Jews: and meanwhile, the Lord is around them with His Angels, with them through His promises, among them with His healing hand, and in them through the Comforter: a traditional title for the Holy Spirit, translated from the Greek 'Paraclete', the Holy Spirit.

All of this, Your Excellency has truly experienced: for a short time it has pleased the Most High to humble Your Excellency through the hands of your and God’s enemies, who have pursued Your Excellency just as one might hunt a partridge: a reference to 1 Samuel 26:20, where David describes himself as being hunted like a partridge in the mountains. They have driven you from your Fatherland, made you an Exile: a person living away from their native country, usually for political or religious reasons, and sought to turn your life into death, your rest into unrest, your wealth into poverty, and your good fortune into misfortune;