at Gods hands Hereof foloweth the reason of divers things both said and done by God in the scriptures and taught by Divines touching the punishment of sin which seeme strange unto the wisdome of the world and in deede scarce credible As first of al that dreadful punishment of eternal and irrevocable damnation of so manie thousands yea millions of Angels created to glorie with almost infinite perfection and that for one onely sin once committed and that only in thought as Divines do hold Secondly the rigorous punishment of our first parents Adam and Eve and al their posteritie for eating of the tree forbidden for which fault besides the chastising of the offenders themselves al the creatures of the earth for the same and al their children ofspring after them both before the incarnation of Christ since for albeit we are delivered from the guilt of that sin yet temporal chastisements remain upon us for the same as hunger thirst cold sicknes death and a thousand miseries mo besides also the infinite men damned for the same besides this I say which in mans reason may seeme severe inough Gods wrath and justice could not be satisfied except his own son had come downe into the world and taken our flesh upon him and by his pains satisfied for the same And when he was come down and had in our flesh subjected himselfe unto his fathers justice albeit the love his father bare him were infinite yet that God might shew the greatnes of his hatred and justice against sin he never left to lay on upon his own blessed deere son no not then when he saw him sorrowful unto death and bathed in a sweat of blood and water and crieng O Father mine if it be possible let this cup passe from me And yet more pitifully after upon the crosse O my God why hast thou forsaken me Notwithstanding al this I say his father delivered him not but laid on stripe upon stripe pain upon pain torment after torment until he had rendred up his life and soul into his said fathers hands which is a wonderful and dreadful document of Gods hatred against sin 7 I might here mention the sin of Esau in selling his inheritance for a little meat of which the Apostle saith He found no place of repentance after though he sought the same with teares Also the sin of Saul who his sin being but one sin and that only of omission in not killing Agag the king of Amalek and his cattel as he was willed was utterly cast off by GOD for the same though he were his annointed and chosen servant before and could not get remission of the same though both he and Samuel the prophet did greatly lament and bewail the same sin or at least that he was rejected 8 Also I might alledge the example of king David whose two sins albeit upon his hartie repentance God forgave yet notwithstanding al the sorrow that David conceaved for the same God chastised him with marvelous severitie as with the death of his son and other continual affliction on himselfe as long as he lived And al this to shew his hatred against sin and therby to terrifie us from committing the same 9 Of this also do proceed al those hard and bitter speeches in scripture touching sinners which comming from the mouth of the holie Ghost and therfore being most tru and certein may justly geeve al them great cause of fear which live in sin as where it is said Death bloud contention edge of sword oppression hunger contrition and whips al these things are created for wicked sinners And again God shal rain snares of fire upon sinners brimstone with tempestuous winds shal be the portion of their cup. Again God wil be knowen at the day of judgment upon the sinner who shal be taken in the works of his own hands many whips belong unto a sinner let sinners be turned into hel God shal scatter al sinners God shal dash the teeth of sinners in their mouths God shal scoff at a sinner when he seeth his day of destruction commeth on the sword of sinners shal turn into their own harts thou shalt see when sinners shal perish the arms of sinners shal be crushed and broken sinners shal wither from the earrh desire not the glorie and riches of a sinner for thou dost not know the subversion which shal come upon him God hath given him riches to deceave him therwith behold the day of the Lord shal come a cruel day and ful of indignation wrath and furie to make desolate the earth and to crush in peeces hir sinners within hir The just man shal rejoice seeing this revenge and then shal he wash his hands in the blood of sinners These and a thousand such sentences more of scripture which I omit uttered by the holy Ghost against sinners may instruct us of their pittiful estate and of the unspeakable hatred of God against them as long as they persist in sin 10 Of al these considerations the holy scriptures do gather one conclusion greatly to be noted and considered by us which is Miseros facit populos peccatum Sin bringeth men to miserie And again Qui diligit iniquitatem odit animam suam He which loveth iniquitie hateth his own soul. Or as the Angel Raphael uttereth it in other words They which commit sin are open enimies to their own soules Wherfore they lay down to al men this general severe and most necessarie commandement upon al the pains before recited Quasi á facie colubrifuge peccata And again Cave ne aliquando peccato consentias Beware thou never consent to sin for howsoever the world doth make litle account of this matter of whom as the scripture noteth The sinner is praised in his lusts and the wicked man is blessed Yet most certain it is for that the spirit of God avoucheth it Qui facit peccatum ex diabolo est He which committeth sin is of the divel And therfore is to receave his portion among devils at the latter day 11 And is not al this sufficient deer brother to make us detest sin and to conceave som fear in committing therof Nay is not al this strong inough to batter their harts which live in state of sin and do commit the same daily without consideration or scruple What obstinacie and hardnes of hart is this Surely we see the holy Ghost prophesied truly of them when he said Sinners alienated from God are possessed with a fury like a serpent and like a deafe cocatrice which stoppeth hir eares to the inchanter This fury I say is the fury or madnes of wilful sinners which stop their eares like serpents to al the holy inchantments that God can use unto them for their conversion that is to al his internal motions and good inspirations to al remorse of their own consciences to al
the king being offended highly with you both should notwithstanding pardon thee and put the noble man to death and further also being no other way to save thy life shuld lay the pains of death du to thee upon his onlie son and heir for thy sake how much wouldest thou think that this king loved thee How greatly wouldest thou esteeme thy selfe beholding and bounden to that yong prince which should offer himselfe to his fathers justice to die for thee a poore worm and not for the noble man as he would not die for the Angels and to put his head in the halter for thine onlie offences Couldest thou ever have the hart to become enimie to this man after or willingly and wittingly to offend him And yet such is our case and much more bounden towards Christ and his father whom the most of us notwithstanding do daily offend dishonor and injurie by sin 12 But yet there follow on mo benefits of God unto us as our vocation and justification vocation wherby he hath called us from infidelitie to the state of Christians and therby made us partakers of this our redemption which infidels are not For albeit he paid the ransom for al in general yet he hath not imparted the benefit therof to al but to such only as best it pleased his divine goodnes to bestow it upon After which followed our justification wherby we were not only set free from al our sins committed before and from al pain and punishment du to the same but also our souls beutified and inriched with his holie grace accompanied with the vertues theological as faith hope and charitie and with the gifts of the holie Ghost and by this grace we are made just and righteous in the sight of God and intitled to the most blessed inheritance of the kingdome of heaven 13 After these do insu a great number of benefits togither as to us being now made the children and deer frinds of God and everie one of them of infinite price and valu As the gift of the holie sacraments left for our comfort and preservation being nothing else but conduits to convey Gods grace unto us especially these two which appertain to al to wit the sacrament of Baptism and of his blessed bodie and blood wherof the first is to purge our souls from sin the second to feed and comfort the same after she is purged The first is a bath made of Christ his own blood to wash and bath our wounds therin the second as a most comfortable and rich garment to cover our soul withal after she is washed In the first Christ hath substituted in his place his spouse the church to pronounce in his name remission of sins in the second he hath left himselfe and his own flesh and blood Sacramentally to be a precious food to cherish hir withal 14 Besides al these there is yet another gift named our preservation wherby God hath preserved us from so many dangers into which others have fallen and wherin we had fallen also if Gods holie hand had not staied us as from superstition heresie and infidelitie and many other greevous sins and especially from death and damnation which long ago by our wickednes we deserved to have beene executed upon us Also there are the benefits of godlie inspirations and admonitions wherby God hath often both knocked inwardly at the doore of our conscience and warned us outwardly by so many wais and meanes as are good books good sermons good exhortations good companie good example of others and a hundred means else which he at divers times hath and doth use therby to gain us our souls unto his eternal kingdome by stirring us to abandon vitious life and to betake our selves to his holie and sweet service 15 Al which rare and singular benefits being measured either according to the valu of themselves or according to the love of that hart from which they do proceed ought to move us most vehemently to gratitude towards the giver which gratitude should be to resolve our selves at length to serve him unfainedly and to prefer his favor before al worldly or mortal respects whatsoever Or if we can not obtain so much of our selves yet at leastwise not to offend him any more by our sins and wickednes 16 There is not so fearce or cruel a nature in the world as I noted before but is mollified allured and woon by benefits and stories do make report of strange examples in this kind even among brute beasts as of the gratitude of lions dogs and the like towards their maisters and benefactors Only an obstinate sinner is he among al the savage creatures that are whom neither benefits can move nor curtesies can mollifie nor promises can allure nor gifts can gain to the faithful service of God his Lord and maister 17 The greatest sinner that is in the world if he give his servant but twentie nobles a yeere or his tenant some litle farm to liue upon and if for this they serve him not at a bek he crieth out of their ingratitude and if they should further maliciously seek to offend him and to joine with his professed enimie against him how intollerable a matter would it seem in his sight And yet he himself dealing much more ingratefully and injuriously with God thinketh it a matter of no consideration but easily pardonable I say he dealeth more ingratefully with God for that he hath receaved a thousand for one in respect of al the benefits that a mortal man can give to another for he hath receaved al in al from God the bread which he eateth the ground which he treadeth the light which he beholdeth togither with his eies to see the sun and finally whatsoever is within or without his body as also the mind with the spiritual gifts therof wherof ech one is more woorth than a thousand bodies I say also that he dealeth more injuriously with God for that notwithstanding al these benefits he serveth Gods open enimie the devil and committeth daily sin and wickednes which God hateth more than any hart created can hate a mortal enimie being that in very deed which persecuted his Son our savior with such hostilitie as it tooke his most pretious life from him and nailed him fast to the wood of the crosse 18 Of this extreem ingratitude and injurie God himselfe is inforced to complain in divers places of the scripture as where we saith Retribuebant mihi mala pro bonis They returned me home evil for good And yet much more vehemently in another place he calleth the heavens to witnes of this iniquitie saieng Obstupescite coeli super haec O you heavens be you astonished at this As if he should say by a figurative kind of speech go out of your wits you heavens with marvel at this incredible iniquitie of man towards me For so he expoundeth the whole matter more at large
their minds may be altered and they yeeld themselues unto the humble and sweet service of their Lord and Saviour and that the Angels in heaven may rejoice and triumph of their regaining as of sheepe most dangerously lost before CHAP. II. How necessarie it is to enter into earnest consideration and meditation of our estate THE prophet Ieremie after a long complaint of the miseries of his time fallen upon the Iewes by reason of their sins vttereth the cause thereof in these words Al the earth is fallen into utter desolation for that there is no man which considereth deeply in his hart Signifieng hereby that if the Iewes would haue entered into deepe and earnest consideration of their liues and estate before that great desolation fel vpon them they might haue escaped the same as the Niniuites did by the fore-warning of Ionas albeit the sword was now drawen and the hand of God stretched out within fortie daies to destroy them So important a thing is this consideration In figure wherof al beasts in old time which did not ruminate or chew their cud were accounted vnclean by the law of Moises as no dowt but that soule in the sight of God must needs be which resolveth not in hart nor cheweth in often meditation of minde the things required at hir hands in this life 2 For of want of this consideration and du meditation all the foul errors of the world are committed and many thousand Christians do find themselves within the verie gates of hel before they mistrust any such matter towards them being caried thorough the vale of this life blindfolded with the veile of negligence and inconsideration as beasts to the slawghter how 's and never suffered to see their own danger vntil it be too late to remedie the same 3 For this cause the holy scripture doth recommend vnto us most carefully this exercise of meditation and diligent consideration of our duties to deliver us thereby from the peril which inconsideration leadeth us unto 4 Moises hauing delivered to the people his embassage from God touching al particulars of the law addeth this clause also from God as most necessarie These words must remain in thy hart thou shalt meditate vpon them both at home and abroad when thou goest to bed and when thou risest again in the morning And again in another place Teach your children these things that they may meditate in their harts upon them The like commandement was given by God himselfe to Iosua at his first election to govern the people to wit that he should meditate vpon the law of Moises both day night to the end he might keepe and perform the things written therein And God addeth presently the commoditie he should reap thereof For then saith he shalt thou direct thy way aright and shalt vnderstand the same Signifieng that without this meditation a man goeth both amisse and also blindly not knowing himselfe whither 5 Saint Paul having described vnto his scholler Timothie the perfect dutie of a Prelate addeth this advertisement in the end Haec meditare Meditate ponder and consider vpon this And finally whensoever the holy scripture describeth a wise happie or iust man for all these are one in scripture for that justice is only tru wisdome and felicitie one cheefe point is this He wil meditate upon the law of God both day and night And for examples in the scripture how good men did use to meditate in times past I might here reckon vp great store as that of Isaac who went foorth into the feelds towards night to meditate also that of Ezechias the king who as the scripture saith did meditate like a dove that is in silence with his hart only without noise of words But above al other the example of holie David is singular herein who every where almost maketh mention of his continual exercise in meditation saieng to God I did meditate upon thy cōmandements which I loved And again I wil meditate vpon thee in the mornings And again O Lord how have I loved thy law It is my meditation al the day long And with what fervour and vehemencie he used to make these his meditations he sheweth when he saith of himselfe My hart did wax hot within me and fire did kindle in my meditations 6 This is recorded by the holy Ghost of these ancient good men to confound vs which are Christians who being far more bound to fervour than they by reason of the greater benefits we have received yet do we live so lazily for the most part of us as we never almost enter into the meditation and earnest consideration of Gods laws and commandements of the mysteries of our faith of the life and death of our Saviour or of our dutie towards him and much lesse do we make it our daily studie and cogitation as those holie kings did notwithstanding al their great busines in the cōmonwealth 7 Who is there of vs now adaies which maketh the laws and commandements or justifications of God as the scripture termeth them his daily meditations as king David did Neither only in the day time did he this but also by night in his hart as in another place he testifieth of himselfe How many of vs do passe over whole dais and months without ever entring into these meditations Nay God grant there be not many Christians in the world which know not what these meditations do mean We beleeve in grosse the mysteries of our Christian faith as that there is an hel an heaven a reward for vertu a punishment for vice a judgement to come an accompt to be made and the like but for that we chew them not wel by deepe consideration and do not digest them wel in our harts by the heat of meditation they helpe vs little to good life no more than a preservative put in a mans pocket can helpe his health 8 What man in the world would adventure so easily vpon sin as commonly men do which drink it up as easily as beasts drink water if he did consider in particular the great danger and losse of grace the losse of Gods favour and purchasing his eternal wrath also the death of Gods own son sustained for sin the inaestimable torments of hel for the everlasting punishment of the same Which albeit everie Christian in summe doth beleeve yet bicause the most part do never consider them with du circumstances in their harts therefore they are not moved with the same but do beare the knowledge thereof locked vp in their breasts without any sense or feeling even as a man carieth fire about him in a flint stone without heat or perfumes in a pommander without smel except the one be beaten and the other be chafed 9 And now to come nere our matter which we mean to handle in this booke what man living would not resolve himselfe thorowly to serve God in deed
a man What honor was that he did to Esay in the sight of king Ezechias when he made the sun to go bak ten degrees in the heavens What honor was that he did to Helias in the sight of wicked Achab when he yeelded the heavens into his hands and permitted him to say that neither rain nor dew should fal upon the ground for certein yeres but by the words of his mouth onlie What honor was that he did to Elizeus in the sight of Naaman the noble Syrian whom he cured onlie by his word from the leprosie and his bones after his death raised by onlie touching the dead to life Finallie not to alledge mo examples herein what singular honor was that he gave to al the Apostles of his Son that as many as ever they laid hands on were healed from al infirmities as Saint Luke saith Nay which is yet more the verie girdles and napkins of Saint Paul did the same effect and yet more than that also as many as came within the onlie shadow of Saint Peter were healed from their diseases Is not this marveilous honor even in this life Was there ever monarch prince or potentate of the world which could vaunt of such points of honor And if Christ did this even in this world to his servants wherof notwithstanding he saith his kingdome was not what honor shal we think he hath reserved for the world to come where his kingdome shal be and where al his servants shal be crowned as kings with him 10 Another declaration yet of this matter is laid down by Divines for opening of the greatnes of this beatitude in heaven and that is the consideration of three places wherto man by his creation is appointed The first is his mothers womb the second this present world the third is Coelum Empireum which is the place of blisse in the life to come Now in these three places we must hold the proportion by al reason which we see sensiblie to be observed between the first two So that look in what proportion the second doth differ from the first in like measure must the third differ from the second or rather much more seeing that the whole earth put togither is by al Philosophie but as a prik or smal point in respect of the marveilous greatnes of the heavens By this proportion then we must say that as far as the whole world doth passe the womb of one private woman so much in al beautie delites and majestie doth the place of blisse passe al this whole world And as much as a man living in the world doth passe a child in his mothers bellie in strength of bodie beautie wit understanding learning and knowledge so much and far more doth a Saint in heaven passe men of this world in al these things and manie mo besides And as much horror as a man would have to turn into his mothers womb again so much would a glorified soul have to return into this world again The nine months also of life in the mothers womb are not so little in respect of mans life in the world as is the longest life upon earth in respect of the eternal in heaven Nor the blindnes ignorance other miseries of the child in his mothers womb are any way comparable to the blindnes ignorance and other miseries of this life in respect of the light cleer knowledge and other felicities of the life to come So that by this also some conjecture may be made of the matter which we have in hand 11 But yet to consider the thing more in particular it is to be noted that this glorie of heaven shal have two parts the one belonging to the soul the other belonging to the bodie That which belongeth to the soul consisteth in the vision of God as shal be shewed after that which belongeth to the bodie consisteth in the change and glorification of our flesh after the general resurrection that is wherby this corruptible bodie of ours shal put on incorruption as Saint Paul saith and of mortal become immortal Al this flesh I say of ours that now is so combersom and greeveth the mind that now is so infested with so many inconveniences subject to so many mutations vexed with so many diseases defiled with so many corruptions replenished with so infinite miseries and calamities shal then be made glorious and most perfect to endure for ever without mutation and to raign with the soul world without end For it shal be delivered from this lumpish hevines wherewith it is pestered in this life from al diseases likewise and pains of this life and from al trobles and incombrances belonging to the same as sin eating drinking sleeping and such like And it shal be set in a most florishing estate of health never deceaveable again So florishing that our Savior Christ saith that At that daie shal the iust shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father A marvelous saieng of Christ and in humane sense almost incredible that our putrified bodies should shine and become as cleer as the sun Wheras in the contrarie part the bodies of the damned shal be as blak and uglie as filth it selfe So likewise al the senses togither finding then their proper objects in much more excellencie than ever they could in this world as shal be shewed after even everie part sense member joint shal be replenished with singular comfort as the same shal be tormented in the damned I wil here alledge Anselmus his words for that they expresse lively this matter Al the glorified bodie saith he shal be filled with abundance of al kind of pleasure the eies the eares the nose the mouth the hands the throte the lungs the hart the stomak the bak the bones the marrow the entrals themselves and everie part therof shal be replenished with such unspeakable sweetnes and pleasure that truly it may be said that The whole man is made to drink of the river of Gods divine pleasures and made dronken with the abundance of Gods house Besides al which it hath perpetuitie wherby it is made sure now never to die or alter from his felicitie according to the saieng of scripture that The iust shal live for ever Which is one of the cheefest prerogatives of a glorified bodie for that by this al care and fear is taken away al danger of hurt and noiance remooved from us 12 But now to come to that point of this felicitie which pertaineth to the soul as the principal part it is to be understood that albeit there be many things that do concur in this felicitie for the accomplishment and perfection of happines yet the fountain of al is but one only thing called by divines Visio Dei beatifica The sight of God that maketh us happie Haec sola est summum bonum nostrum saith Saint Augustine This only sight of God is
as for example within are the rebellions of his concupiscence and other miseries of his mind wherwith he hath continually to make war if he wil save his soul. Without are the world and the devil which do never cease to assalt him now by fair means and now by fowl now by flatterie and now by threat now alluring by pleasure and promotion now terrifieng by affliction and persecution Against al which the good Christian hath to resist manfully or else he leeseth the crown of his eternal salvation 4 The verie same also may be shewed by the examples of al the most renowned saints from the beginning who were not only assalted internally with the rebellion of their own flesh but also persecuted and afflicted outwardly therby to confirm more manifestly this purpose of God As we see in Abel persecuted and slain by his own brother assoon as ever he began to serve God also in Abraham afflicted diversly after he was once chosen by God and most of al by making him yeeld to the killing of his own deer and only child Of the same cup drank al his children posteritie that succeeded him in Gods favor as Isaac Iacob Ioseph Moises and al the prophets of which Christ himselfe giveth testimonie how their blood was shed most cruelly by the world The affliction also of Iob is woonderful seeing the scripture affirmeth it to have come upon him by Gods special appointment he being a most just man But yet more woonderful was the affliction of holie Tobias who among other calamities was striken blind by the falling down of swallows dung into his eies of which the angel Raphel told him afterward Bicause thou wert a man acceptable to God it was of necessitie that this tentation should proove thee Behold the necessitie of afflictions to good men I might ad to this the example of David others but that the apostle giveth a general testimonie of al the saints of the old testament saieng That some were racked some reproched some whipped some chained some imprisoned others were stoned cut in peeces tempted and flain with the sword some went about in hair-cloth in skins of goats in great need pressed and afflicted wandring and hiding themselves in wildernesses in hils in caves and holes under ground the world not being woorthy of them Of al which he pronounceth this comfortable sentence to be noted of al men Non suscipientes redemptionem vt meliorem invenirent resurrectionem That is God would not deliver them from these afflictions in this life to the end their resurrection and reward in the life to come might be more glorious And this of the saints of the old testament 5 But now in the new testament founded expressedly upon the crosse the matter standeth much more plain that with great reason For if Christ could not go into this glorie but by suffering as the scripture saith then by the most reasonable rule of Christ affirming that The servant hath not privilege aboue his maister It must needs follow that al have to drink of Christs cup which are appointed to be partakers of his glory And for proofe herof look upon the deerest frinds that ever Christ had in this life and see whether they had part therof or no. Of his mother Simeon prophesied and told hir at the beginning That the sword of tribulation should passe hir hart Signifieng therby the extreme afflictions that she felt afterward in the death of hir son and other miseries heaped upon hir Of the apostles it is evident that beside al the labors travels needs sufferings persecutions and calamities which were infinite and in mans sight in tollerable if we beleeve S. Paul recounting the same beside al this I say God would not be satisfied except he had their blood also and so we see that he suffered none of them to die naturally but only Saint Iohn albeit if we consider what Iohn also suffered in so long a life as he lived being banished by Domitian to Pathmos at another time thrust into a tun of hot oil at Rome as Tertullian and Saint Ierom do report we shal see that his part was no lesse than others in this cup of his maister I might rekon up heer infinite other examples but it needeth not For it may suffice that Christ hath given this general rule in the new testament He that taketh not up his crosse and followeth me is not worthy of me By which is resolved plainly that there is no salvation now to be had but only for them that take up that is do bear willingly their proper crosses and therwith do follow their captain walking on with his crosse on his shoulders before them 6 But heer some man may say If this be so that no man can be saved without a crosse that is without affliction and tribulation how do al those that live in peaceable times and places where no persecution is no trouble no affliction or tribulation To which I answer first that if there were any such time or place the men living therin should be in great danger according to the saieng of the prophet They are not in the labor of other men nor yet whipped and punished as others are and therfore pride possessed them and they were covered with iniquitie and impietie and their iniquitie proceeded of their fatnesse or abundance Secondlie I answer that there is no such time or place so void of tribulation but that there is alwais a crosse to be found for them that wil take it up For either is there povertie sicknes slander enmitie injurie contradiction or some like affliction offered continually For that those men never want in the world wherof the prophet said These that do render evil for good did detract from me for that I followed goodnes At the least wise there never want those domestical enimies of which Christ speaketh I mean either our kinred and carnal frinds which commonly resist us if we begin once throughly to serve God or else our own disordinate affections which are the most perilous enimies of al for that they make us war upon our own ground Again there never want the temptations of the world devil the resisting wherof is much more difficult in time of peace and welth than in time of external affliction and persecution for that these enimies are stronger in flatterie than in force which a godly father expresseth by this parable The sun and wind saith he agreed on a day to prove their several strengths in taking a cloke from a waifairing man And in the forenoon the wind used al violence that he could to blow off the said cloke But the more he blew the more fast held the travailer his cloke and gathered it more closelie about him At afternoon the sun sent foorth his pleasant beams and by little and little so entered into this man as he
loveth us and tendereth our case most mercifully 31 But yet heer is one thing to be noted in this matter and that is that Christ suffered the ship almost to be covered with waves as the Evangelist saith before he would awake therby to signifie that the measure of temptations is to be left only unto himselfe it is sufficient for us to rest upon the apostles words He is faithful and therfore he wil not suffer us to be tempted above our strength We may not examin or mistrust his doings we may not inquire why doth he this Or why suffereth he that Or how long wil he permit these evils to reign God is a great God in al his doings and when he sendeth tribulation he sendeth a great deal togither to the end he may shew his great power in delivering us and recompenseth it after with as great measure of comfort His temptations oftentimes do go very deep therby to try the very harts and reins of men He went far with Elias when he caused him to fly into a mountain and there most desirous of death to say They have killed al thy prophets O Lord and I am left alone and now they seeke to kil me also He went far with David when he made him cry out Why dost thou turn thy face away from me O Lord Why dost thou forget my povertie and tribulation And in another place again I said with my selfe in the excesse of my mind I am cast out from the face of thine eies O Lord. God went far with the apostles when he inforced one of them to write We wil not have you ignorant brethren of our tribulation in Asia wherin we were oppressed above al measure above al strength insomuch as it lothed us to live any longer But yet above al others he went furthest with his own deer Son when he constrained him to utter those pittiful most lamentable words upon the crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Who can now complain of any proofe or temptation whatsoever laid upon him seeing GOD would go so far with his own deer only Son 32 Heerof then insueth the third thing necessarie unto us in tribulation which is magnanimitie grounded upon a strong and invincible faith of Gods assistance and of our final deliverance how long soever he delay the matter and how terrible soever the storm do seem for the time This God requireth at our hands as may be seen by the example of the disciples who cried not We perish before the waves had covered the ship as Saint Mathew writeth and yet Christ said unto them Vbi est fides vestra Where is your faith Saint Peter also was not afeard until he was almost under water as the same Evangelist recordeth and yet Christ reprehended him saieng Thou man of little faith why diddest thou dowt What then must we do in this case deer brother Surely we must put on that mightie faith of valiant king David who upon the most assured trust he had of Gods assistance said In Deo meo transgrediar murū In the help of my God I wil go through the wal Of which invincible faith Saint Paul was also when he said Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat I can do al things in him that comforteth and strengtheneth me Nothing is unpossible nothing is too hard for me by his assistance We must be as the scripture saith Quasi Leo confidens absque terrore Like a bold and confident Lion which is without terror That is we must not be astonied at any tempest any tribulation any adversitie We must say with the prophet David experienced in these matters I wil not fear many thousands of people that should inviron or besiege me togither If I should walk amidst the shadow of death I wil not fear If whole armies should stand against me yet my hart should not tremble My hope is in God and therfore I wil not fear what man can do unto me God is my aider and I wil not fear what flesh can do unto me God is my helper and protector and therfore I wil despise and contemn mine enimies And another prophet in like sense Behold God is my savior and therfore wil I deal confidently and wil not fear These were the speeches of holie prophets of men that knew wel what they said and had often tasted of affliction themselves and therfore could say of their own experience how infallible Gods assistance is therin 33 To this supreme courage magnanimitie and Christian fortitude the scripture exhorteth us when it saith If the spirit of one that is in authoritie do rise against thee see thou yeeld not from thy place unto him And again another scripture saith Strive for iustice even to the losse of thy life and stand for equitie unto death it selfe and God shal overthrow thine enimies for thee And Christ himselfe yet more effectually recommendeth this matter in these words I say unto you my frinds be not afraid of them which kil the body and afterward have nothing else to do against you And S. Peter addeth further Neque conturbemini that is Do not only not fear them but which is lesse do not so much as be troubled for al that flesh and blood can do against you 34 Christ goeth further in the Apocalips and useth marvelous speeches to intise us to this fortitude For these are his words He that hath an eare to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches To him that shal conquer I wil give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of my God This saith the first and the last he that was dead and now is alive I know thy tribulatition and thy povertie but thou art rich indeed and art blasphemed by those that say they are tru Israelites and are not but are rather the synagog of satan Fear nothing of that which you are to suffer behold the devil wil cause some of you to be thrust into prison to the end you may be tempted and you shal have tribulation for ten daies But be faithful unto death and I wil give thee a crown of life He that hath an eare to hear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches he that shal overcome shal not be hurt by the second death And he that shal overcome and keep my works unto the end I wil give unto him authoritie over nations even as I have received it from my father and I wil give him besides the morning star He that shal overcome shal be appareled in white garments and I wil not blot his name out of the booke of life but wil confesse his name before my father and before his angels Behold I come quikly hold fast that thou hast lest another man receive thy crown He that shal conquer I