John Trapp on Isaiah 43:2

Ver. 2. When thou paſſeſt through the waters] Fire and water, we ſay, have no mercy, when once they get above us: extream calamities are hereby denoted, Pſal. 66.12. But Gods gracious preſence kept the buſh from burning (burn it did, but was not conſumed, through the good will of him that dwelt in it, ſaith Moſes, Deut. 33.16.) the Iſraelites in the red ſea from drowning, Exod. 14. His preſence made the fiery furnace a gallery of pleaſure, the Lyons den an houſe of defence, the Leonine priſon a delectable Orchard, as that Italian Martyr phraſed it; the fiery tryal a bed of roſes, as another, Tua praeſentia, Domine, Laurentio ipſam craticulam dulcem fecit. Hierom of Prague and other Martyrs ſang in the very flames. Bleſſed Bilney being condemned to be burnt for the Teſtimony of Jeſus, when he was comforted by ſome againſt the extremity of the fire: he put his hand toward the flame of the candle burning before them: and feeling the heat thereof, Oh ſaid he, I feel by experience, and have learned by Philoſophy, that fire by Gods Ordinance, is naturally hot; But yet I am perſwaded by Gods holy Word, and by the experience of ſome ſpoken of in the ſame, that in the flame they felt no heat, and in the fire no conſumption. I conſtantly believe, that howſoever the ſtubble of this my body ſhall be waſted by it, yet my ſoul and ſpirit ſhall be purged thereby: a pain for the time, wherein notwithſtanding followeth joy unſpeakable; and here he much treated on this text, Fear not when thou paſſeſt through the waters, &c. So that ſome of his friends there preſent took ſuch ſweet benefit therein,Act. & Mon. fol. 923. that they cauſed the whole ſaid ſentence to be fair written in Tables, and ſome in their books: the comfort whereof in divers of them was never taken from them to their dying day.