which bleyes not when his throate is cut so went he in sufferance and silence as he was carryed to death and as an innocent and still lambe which is silēt quiet whilest they sheere him so our most blessed Lord did in quiet silence and repose endure that fierce outrage wherewith his enemies tormented him and that most cruell fury wherewith they put him to death By these and other testimonies did Christ our Lord declare the immense loue and most ardent desire which he had to suffer the torments and death which he endured for man yea yet to endure greater torments to suffer more deathes if his enemies had power to giue him more wheereupon wee may inferre the vnspeakeable Patience and ioy wherewith he suffered them Wee must ponder and continually meditate with a very profound and deep consideration vpon these examples of Patience which shine in the life and Passion of Christ our Lord and thereby we must be animated to suffer endure with true Patience all those euills of punishment which may happē to vs in this life how great or tedious soeuer they may be For therefore saith Saint Efrem the afflictions and tribulations of this life seem grieuous and intolerable to vs because wee consider not the Passion and death of Christ our Lord. Let vs therefore allwaies carry before our eyes imprint in our hearts this death and Passion of his and all those examples which he gaue vs therin of Patience and let vs imitate him by suffering all the contradictions and penalties of this life with a good will And since it becomes a soldier to follow his captaine with much labour and with offering himselfe to troubles and wounds and dangers of death though he be but a mortall man who cannot giue him strength wherewith to fight nor can raise him from death if he should by in the combat nor can giue him who conquers any other reward then some tēporall thing of small value how much more is it reasonable that wee follow and imitate Christ our Lord Sauiour by suffering with Patience Since he giues strength to them who follow him wherewith to suffer and cōforts wherewith to do it cheerfully and deliuers them who imitate him from eternall death and and bestowes the most excellent reward vpō them of eternall life For as the Apostle saith it is a word most faithfull true worthy of all estimation that if wee dy with Christ our Lord that is to say if wee dy to our sinnes and ill desires abhorring and mortifying them as Christ our Lord died to his corporall life we shall lead a most glorious and blessed life together with him And if we suffer the sad and painfull things of this world and euen death it selfe with Patience for the loue of Christ our Lord and in imitation of him wee shall reigne with him for euer in his celestiall Kingdome THE VI. CHAPTER Of the Patience wherewith wee ought to suffer the losse of temporall goods and of the example which Christ our Lord gaue vs herein THough any one of the paines torments which were suffered by Christ our Lord may serue for a sufficient motiue to animate vs to endure all the afflictions and tribulations of this life with Patience yet that kind of paine endured by him which carries most resēblāce to the Crosse which most vsually is to be suffered by vs doth vse to comfort induce vs best to suffer it and for this reason wee will treat of some particular Crosses for which we may finde particular examples of Patience in the Passion of Christ our Lord. One of the ills of punishment which happens ordinarily to men is the losse of their estate temporall goods which befalles them sometimes because they are robbed sometimes they loose them by meanes of fier and shipwrackes sometimes by vniust suites in lawe sometimes they are coosened of them sometimes they are put to preiudice by the intemperate seasons of the yeare By what way or meanes soeuer we growe to loose our temporall goods wee must eudure it with Patience accepting it at the hand of God and conforming our selues to his holy will The particular example which must comfort vs in this afflictiō and giue vs heart to beare it with Patience is to see that Christ our Lord was vniustly stript of all his cloathes in his most sacred Passiō by those most base soldiers who crucified him He liued poore in this world and because he loued and extreamely delighted in pouerty he possessed no temporall goods at all Those things which he receiued by way of almes to sustaine his Apostles to deuide amongst the poore he had already bestowed There remained no more to him but his cloathes and of those they stript him and left him naked that nakednes was accōpanyed with great cold and great shame which he suffered by remayning in that sorte till he dyed From others who are executed mē take not their cloathes till they be dead but from our most blessed Lord they tooke his whilest yet he was aliue and he was pleased to ēdure this being dispoiled of his cloathes and this paine and shame in remaining naked that he might suffer for vs and withall might giue vs an example of Patience Let vs therefore animate our selues by this example of Christ our Lord to suffer any want or losse of temporall goods and let vs say thus in our owne hearts Since Christ the Kinge of glory and the vniuersall Lord of the whole world would needes for loue of me and for my saluation endure pouerty and the want of temporall goods was content that they should strip him of all his cloathes and expose him naked to the ayre and put him to the shame of appearing so to the whole people most iust it is that I for loue of him and for the saluatiō of mine owne soule should endure this want of meanes and this losse or wrong whereby I am depriued of the temporall goods which once I had And let vs consider for the better exercise of our Patience that whatsoeuer preiudice or temporall losse wee haue doth come to vs from the hand of God and for the good of our soules This did Christ our Lord discouer to vs by another example and testimony of the holy Ghospell Matt. 8. Luc. 5. Mar. 8. He went into the country of the Gerasens where he found two men tormented with diuells He cast the diuells out and so cured the men by the power of his word The diuells besought him that since he had cast thē out of those men he would giue them leaue to enter into a great heard of swine which was feeding in those fields hard by and which belonged to the inhabitāts of that Citty Our Lord gaue them leaue to doe it and instantly they possessed those swine which might arriue to the number of two thousand they carried them with extreame fury into the sea where they were drowned Hereby wee are
to heare his diuine word He was pleased to feed fiue thousand mē with fiue loaues of bread and before he would allow them this Regalo he made them stay till towards might when his disciples sayd Lord the houre of eating is come and gone let these troupes diuide thēselues amongst these neighbouring villages that so they may haue meanes to eate When already they had exercised their Patience by suffering hunger he vouchsaffed to shew them so great a mercy as it was to refresh them with a plentifull and sweet food whereby their bodies were sustained and he also made faith and confidence encrease in their soules So saith Saint Chrysostome Those troupes of people declared their faith by suffering hunger and expecting till the euening In this sorte doth God impart illustrious fauours to such as cōserue and exercise Patience in their aduersities and troubles to whom he is pleased to vouchsaffe particular fauours mercies he sends crosses and tribulations that so exercising Patiēce therein they may grow more capable and be more worthy of the especiall gifts and graces which he will impart So saith Saint Isidorus Then are the eyes of our Lord behoulding iust persons with greater piety and mercy when they are afflicted and persecuted by the wicked and then doth he prouide greater blessings for them and more eminent rewards of glory when once they are tried by some tribulation which they suffer with Patience Let not therefore any man cōceiue that when he is afflicted he is forgotten by Almighty God nor that he hath lost the vertue and grace he had when he is abased and persecuted by men Let him not permit the diuell to deceiue him who would faine perswade him to this errour but let him be very confident that God hath then a more particular care of him and loues him more and comunicates more gifts more singular fauours to him and that then he growes vp more in vertue augments his merits both of grace and glory Thus saith Saint Chrysostome Let vs not conceiue it to be a signe as if God did forsake or forget or esteem vs little because he sends vs aduersities or troubles but rather let vs hould it for a most certaine tokē that he hath particular care of vs and that then he is to shew vs greater mercies when he afflicts and tries vs. For if we haue committed many and very grieuous sinnes wee may free our selues from them by Patience and thanksgiuing in tribulatiō which grows from a contrite heart And supposing that we should not be liable to those many grieuous sinnes yet by suffering tribulation with a thankefull minde we shall obtaine most abundant grace at the hand of God For so good he is so liberall in doing vs good that when he sends vs any aduersity he giues vs matter to exercise more vertue that he may shew vs more mercy This is deliuered to vs by Saint Chrysostome And this so excellent and admirable effect of Patience which is exercised in tribulations Christ our Lord declared when he said Io. 15. I am the true vine For as much as concernes the nature of man which I haue taken I resemble some very fruitfull and perfect vine which yeelds most excellent fruite My celestiall father is the husband man it is he who planted this vine of my humanity and who cultiuates the same he it is who made mee man and who placed in mee the immense fullnes of grace and glory which I haue he who workes all that fruite in mee which either I doe or shall herafter yeeld Euery brāch that is euery man who being vnited to me by faith shall not yet yeeld the fruite of a good life my father will cut off from me either whilest he is to liue by letting him fall into errours whereby he will loose his faith or els when he comes to dy by despoyling him of those supernaturall giftes through which he was once vnited to mee and also of power to doe penance and so to be saued And euery branch that is to say euery true faithfull man who is vnited to mee through faith quickened by charity who shall produce the fruit of good works my father will purge by celestial doctrine and by inspirations and interiour gifts and by aduersities also and tribulations that suffering them with Patience and charity he may yeeld both faire and most abundant fruite of holy actions most pleasing to God and full of profit to soules which shall deserue most pretious gifts of grace be crowned with that most sublime reward of eternall glory THE XIIII CHAPTER Of the meanes whereby the vertue of Patience may be obtained which is that wee be watchfull to consider the fruite thereof and the examples whereby wee haue been taught it by Christ our Lord. NOt only did Christ our Lord instruct vs by his example concerning the necessity which wee haue of Patience and the effects and merits thereof but he also taught vs the meanes wherby wee are to obtaine it and of this wee are going now to speake And because wee treated thereof abundantly in another booke we will heer content our selues to declare briefly some examples whereby Christ our Lord hath instructed vs. The first meanes towardes the receiuing and suffering with Patience all the euills of punishmēt which may happen to vs in this life is that we be prepared and armed with the particular knowledge and consideration thereof It would not faile to be matter of most grieuous affliction paine to the disciples of Christ our Lord euen the greatest which they euer felt in this world that their Master must suffer such a death therfore our most blessed Lord did arme them for it long before announcing his Passion to them many times At the first he tould them of it thus in couert termes Io. 2 dissolus this Temple and I will build it againe in three dayes and Io. 3. As Moyses lifted vp the serpent in the the desere so must the sonne of man be raised up on high After this he spake of it in a more distinct and cleer manner saying once Matt. 16. I must goe to Ierusalem to suffer and dy and another time Matt. 20. Luc. 18. Behould wee ascend to Ierusalem and the sonne of man is to be deliuered ouer to the Gentiles and he is to be scorned and scourged and spit vpon and crucified In this manner did he giue them notice of his Passion a long time before that so they might be prouided and prepared to endure it and that when it should be present to them they might not be scandalized nor troubled nor dismaied thereby but might endure it with Patience So saith Saint Hierome Our Lord spake often of his Passiō to his disciples prouiding them against the temptation to the end that they might not be scandalized when the persecutiō should arriue and should see the ignominy of the Crosse He also aduertised them a long time before Matt. 23.
it in this manner in the interiour part of his hart O most happy Crosse how long is it since I haue loued desired thee it is now three and thirty yeares since I liue enamoured of thee and I all enkindled with the flames of this desire and loue to see myselfe conioyned to thee O thou most pretious wood wherupon the iust price for sinne shall be payed and the diuine iustice shall remaine fully satisfied and my Father shall be perfectly glorified and man shall be saued freed from sinne and death and eternall damnation shal make his entry into the Kingdome of heauen O with how good a will I suffer my selfe to be nayled to thee and will so continue vpon thee till I leaue to liue And because the affection and desire which Christ our Lord had to suffer was the cause of that vnspeakable Patience wherewith he endured all the sorrowes and torments of the Crosse let vs cōsider the testimonies of the Ghospel wherin he declared the frāke will desire which he had to suffer and wherwith he offered himselfe to his Passion and death He discouered this his pleasure in that he manifested and declared many times and in particular manner to his disciples how he was to suffer in Ierusalem and the torments kinde of death which he was to suffer Once he said thus to them Matt. 16. It is fit that I goe to Ierusalem and that I suffer many torments at the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees and chief Priests and that I be put to death by them And Saint Peter perswading him not to endure it he reproued him in sharpe manner for seeking to hinder his Passion It is cleer that since he knew so long before what he was to suffer he might haue auoided it and fled from it if he would and since he did not so it is plaine he had an affection and desire to suffer it Another time going vp to Ierusalem some few dayes before that Easter when he suffered he said thus to them Matt. 20. Behould we are going vp to Ierusalem and the son of man is to be deliuered vp to the Princes of the Priests to the Scribes who will condemne him to death and will deliuer him ouer to the Gentiles to the end that he may be scorned scourged and crucified by them As if he had said Behould how without being carryed or compelled we goe in a most voluntary manner to Ierusalem where those thinges which concerne my Passion and death are to be accomplished to the end that you may vnderstād how willingly I offer my selfe to that Passion and death whereby I am to saue the world He also discouered the great affection and desire which he had to suffer by his going to that garden which was so notorious a place and where he knew his enemies would seeke and finde him out as also in that being there and knowing that his enemies came to apprehend him he went not thence to some other place where they might not finde him but he went by that very way where they were cominge towards him he went to meet them and animated his disciples to goe with him saying Matt. 26. Rise vp and let vs goe for he who will betray mee is neer at hand So saith Saint Ierome when he declares these words Our Lord wēt to encounter his persecutors without any feare at all of his Passion and he voluntarily deliuered himself to them that they might depriue him of his life and he said to his disciples Rise vp and let vs goe as if he had said let not our enemies finde vs heer like fearfull men but let vs goe with good courage to receiue them and let them see the confidence and cheerfullnes wherewith we offer our selues to death Being gone forth to meet his enemies and already standing before them and they hauing many lights wherby they looked vpō him he being well knowen to them and especially to Iudas yet was it not in their power to know him then because he gaue them not that power not concurred with that faculty of their minde wherby they were to haue knowen him till such time as he discouered himselfe to them by saying It is I declaring thereby how truly it was in his owne hād not to be takē or so much as touched by thē vnles he would himselfe So saith Saint Chrysostome Our Lord stāding in the middest of his enemies did blinde their eyes this he did to make them know that not onely they could not haue apprehended him but not so much as haue seen him if himselfe had not giuen thē power to doe it He also declared thus much by making them returne and fall backward to the ground like dead men and that with one onely word discouering cleerly thereby how easy a thing it had bene for him to defend himselfe from them to take away both their strength and life if he had bene pleased He had formerly bene in feare in the garden to declare the weakenes of mans nature and by the immense loue which he bore to man he ouercame all that naturall feare and he being ouercome by that very loue and by the extreame desire which he had to suffer for the saluation of mankinde wēt forth to receiue his enemies as if they had bene his most beloued friēds And first hauing made it plaine that they could not once haue touched him nor so much as haue knowen him if he had not bene so pleased he then gaue thē leaue and power to doe what they would to him And this he declared by saying This is your houre and the power of darcknes This is that hower wherein liberty is giuen you to the end that you and the Princes of darcknes by your meanes may execute both his power his cruell wil vpon my person This affection wherewith Christ our Lord offered himselfe to the torments of death and this inuincible Patience wherewith he endured them had bene prophecied by Esai 53. chap. in these words He offered himselfe to death because he would The same Prophet had said The eternall Father had layd all our sinnes vpon Christ our Lord to the end that he might satisfy for them all and all those sinnes might be destroyed consumed by the vertue of his Passion And instantly he declares the manner how he layd them vpon him which was not by forcing or constraining him to suffer but by infusing an immense charity into him and by inspiring mouing his heart thereby to the end that voluntarily and freely with extreame readines and gladnes he might offer himselfe to death And declaring the Patience wherewith he suffered that death he saith As a sheepe he opened not his mouth So great was the Patience the desire and loue wherewith he endured the torments which he tooke vpō him for the discharge of our sinnes that he opned not his mouth either to defend himself or complaine of others Like a quiet sheepe
from sinne An admirable mercy of God i◠this and a most singular testimony of his loue and of the most ardent desire which he hath of our saluation For man being forgetfull of himselfe and carelesse of his saluation and in stead of vertue louing vice not walking on towards heauen but towards hell Almighty God is pleased to visit him with sicknesse and tribulation against his will whereby he makes him enter into himselfe and to abhorre the sinne which he loued before and to forsake the way of hell wherin he was going and to pursue the way of heauen which he had left and to fly from many sinnes into which formerly he had fallen This is that mercy of God which Saint Isidorus ponders saying Almighty God seeing that many men will not reforme themselues vpon the motion and at the instance of their owne will sends them aduersities that being troubled afflicted they may be amended and so growe to loue those things which formerly they loued not And finding that some are so inclined and prompt to sinne he scourges them with infirmities of the body to the end that they may giue it ouer and he leaues them sicke because it is better for them to be broken by sicknesse and paine and so to obtaine the eternall saluation of their soules then to liue full of health and full of sinne and so to walke on towards hell This is the saying of Saint Isidorus And because sicknesse doth not produce so excellent and diuine effects in all Christians to take away their former sinnes and to hinder such as are future but onely in some who when they are sicke doe enter seriously into their owne hearts and haue contrition for their sinnes and change their liues it is therefore necessary for all men vpon obseruing that they are sicke to opē the eyes of their soule to examine their consciences well and to consider seriously of all those thinges which may giue impediment to their saluation and confessing their sinnes with sorrow giue a faithfull account of all to their ghostly Father instantly put all things in order with great diligence which concerne the amendment and reformation of their liues least otherwise that sicknesse which God did send a man with loue and mercy and to the end he might be clensed from sinne and so be saued doe not growe to serue but as a preface and beginning of those endles torments which are to be suffeby him in the next life as it will be to all them who will not profit by the sicknesses which God sends So saith the same Saint The scourge of aduersity and tribulation doth then clense the soule from sinne when the man changes his manner of life for vnles he change his life his sinnes remaine where they were So that vpon the whole matter euery scourge aduersity which God sends a man in this life is either to be as a spirituall Purgatory for his sinnes committed and of the penalty to which he is subiect for the same or els it will serue for a beginning of that other paine which he is to suffer afterward For certainly the paines and torments which are eternally to be suffred by some in the life to come are begun to be suffered some of them euen in this life The truth which this holy Doctor hath drawē out of holy scripture carries great force with it and the Holy Ghost therein doth teach vs and confirme by the example of many sinners that God did scourge them with great infirmities and because they profited not thereby they passed on from temporall paine and death to eternall And this ought to moue vs much to receiue any sicknesse as a most pretious gift of God and to giue him great thankes for it and to profit by it making a change of our life to the better to the end that being cleer both of guilt and paine we may make a short and certaine entry into eternall life And so that may be fulfilled in vs which Ecclesiasticus chap. 3 saith A great infirmity of the body makes a mās minde sober that is it cleers it from sinne and doth moderate and iustify it in all thinges THE VIII CHAPTER Of other great benefits which are drawen from corporall infirmities when they are borne with Patience BEsides this so excellent effect of clensing and freeing the soule from sinne infirmity of the body vses to produce diuers others which are very high of incomparable benefit Which dispose the soule to the end that it may receiue giftes from God that it may better and perfect it selfe more in vertue and increase in merit and that it may praise and glorify almighty God more and that a man may so become a particular instrumēt of the glory of God which shines in him either by his freeing him from that sicknesse with particular prouidence and loue or by giuing him admirable vertue and strength wherby to endure it with so great Patience that it may be seen how it is God who helpes him to endure so much and with so good a will in contemplation of eternall life Those blinde men to whom Christ our Lord gaue their sight at his entry and issue out of the Citty of lericho Luc. 18 Mat. 20. had neither seen his miracles nor heard his doctrine but had onely met with the fame of the wonderfull thinges which he did and of the mercy which he vsed towards all and thereby they grew to beleeue in him with so great faith and deuotion that before all those troopes which followed him they did with great cries confesse him to be the true Messias and the Sauiour of the world saying Iesus thou sonne of Dauid haue mercy on vs. And after when they receiued their sight they followed our Lord praising and glorifying God Many of the children of Israell and of the wise and prudent men of the people had heard the doctrine of Christ our Lord and seen his miracles with their owne eyes yet they had not embraced his faith nor had they bene moued by his works to glorify Almighty God whilest yet these blinde men by the onely fame of the workes of Christ our Lord which had come to their eares receiued his faith and glorified and confessed our Lord. And the cause thereof was in regard that the blindenes and pouerty of these men made them more capable and better disposed to consent to those diuine inspirations wherewith Christ our Lord toucht their hearts and called them to receiue the light of faith which Christ our Lord offered thē as also to the end that the fier of diuine loue might more easily inflame their soules with true deuotion and moue them to glorify the diuine Maiesty The Ghospell expresses not that Christ our Lord did pardon their sinnes or that he bad them sinne no more as he had done to other sicke persons but that he gaue them light both in body and soule to the end that they might see and beleeue
remedy thereof ANother meanes which wee must vse for the conseruing of Patience in aduersity is to consider the many sinnes which wee haue committed in this life and how iustly we deserue the aduersity which we suffer for the same and indeed all these which may possibly come vpon vs in this world and to moue our selues to compunction for the same and euen to a desire that wee may be punished for them by Almighty God with mercy in this life Christ our Lord himselfe admonished vs of this meanes in the holy Ghospel There fell a Tower neer the Poole of Siloe by the Citty of Ierusalem which killed eighteene persons Luc. 13. and againe after this some of the Galileans being in oblation of the Sacrifice of certaine beasts Pilate sent out a squadrō of soldiers who killed them and so mingled their blood with the blood of the beasts which they had sacrificed Now when they related this accident to Christ our Lord he said thus to them Doe not conceiue that those Galileans were the greatest sinners of all the Galileans in regard that this aduersity of suddene death came thus vpō them for it is not so but I say to you that if you doe not penance you all shall perish And so also doe not thinke that those eighteene men vpon whom the tower of Siloe fell were the wickedst men who d'welt in Ierusalem for it is not so but I declare to you that if you doe not penance you all shall perish By these diuine speeches Christ our Lord taught vs two thinges The one that those sad accidēts and deaths which men call disastrous doe many time come in the way of punishment for sinne but yet that God doth not alwaies punish sinners in this life with such calamities as these but he doth often either reserue thē for their punishment in the other world or els expect that they should voluntarily doe penance and so inflict some punishment vpon themselues in this life And secondly he lets vs knowe that when such afflictions and tribulations happen to others we must be sure to enter into our owne soules and to consider the sinnes which wee haue committed and how iustly wee merit all kinde of punishment for them we must conceiue in our hearts a great repentance and grief for hauing committed them in penance and satisfaction for the same we must punish and mortify our bodies with penall workes and be willing to accept whatsoeuer troubles or tribulations it may please God to send vs. A most certaine truth it is that God sends aduersity to his true and faithfull seruants who yet haue sinned in this life to the end that suffering them with Patience they may discharge and satisfy for those sinnes which they haue committed As that holy Virgin Sara confessed saying Iob. 3. Blessed be thou ô God of our fathers for that when thou art offended with vs and doest send vs troubles and afflictions it is then that thou shewest great mercy towards vs For in the time of tribulation wherby thou punishest thou pardonest the sinnes of them who inuoke thy name with a true heart Thus doth God proceed with mā by meanes of tribulation Some who are in sinne he induces by this meanes to do penance wherby they grow to be free from the offences into which they had fallen and such as are in the state of grace he occasions to exercise Patience whereby he deliuers them from those penalties which they had incurred for their former sinnes And so great care hath God to shew this mercy to this elect that he permits other men either through ignorance or malice to afflict and trouble them and by occasion and vnder the title of faults which they haue not cōmitted in the sight of God Iust as the brethren of Ioseph Exod. 1. who finding themselues to be afflicted and punished in Aegypt for the supposed offence of being spies which they had not committed came to know that indeed God sent them that punishment for the sinne which they had cōmitted in selling their brother And so they confessed it saying This punishment is iustly inflicted on vs for wee haue sinned against our brother and this trouble is come vpon vs for that sinne Saint Esrem relateth of himselfe that being a boy and going into the fields to play he hunted a calfe of another mans so hard and threw so many stones at it as that he killed it at length And walking about a moneth after through that field againe he fell out to take him rest amongst some shepheards who were looking to their flockes a parte of which flocke was wanting that night for it had bene scattered by some rauenous beasts The Lords of the flocke thought they had been theeues who did that hurt that Efrem was some Camerade of theirs They accuse him and take him for a theefe And whilest he was in prison and much afflicted an Angell appeared to him in his sleepe demaunding the cause of his being there He answered that he had been taken without any fault of his Then the Angell said I know well that thou art free from any fault in this but remember that thou madest a fault not long agoe in killing the calfe of that poore man and so thou wilt see that now thou art iustly taken made prisoner in the part of God and that his iudgments are very iust He also tould him of others who were there imprisoned for offences which indeed they had not committed but they had committed other sinnes in regard whereof God sent them that punishment which they had iustly deserued The Angell vanished Efrem speaking after with those prisoners found that to be true which the Angell had told him and they were executed for offences which they had not committed and satisfied thus for others which had been committed by them These are the iust iudgments of God whereby he gouernes the world and addresses his elect to the end of eternall happines for which he chose them And from hence wee must learne to thinke holily of God in all those tribulations and aduersities which he may send vs in this life confessing and acknowledging that he proceedes most iustly with vs because for our sinnes wee deserue those punishmēts which he sends vs yea and others which are incomparably greater And we must know confesse moreouer that herein he shewes vs an vnspeakable kinde of mercy for as much as by the light and short punishments of this life he not onely deliuers vs from those fierce paines of Purgatory but also from the eternall torments of Hell Thus did that holy Tobias proceed in the tribulations which God sent him for he receiued thē willingly for his sinnes and acknowledged that the punishment was very iust that he deserued both that a farre greater And he acknowledged that God shewed him a soueraigne kind of mercy for as much as he punished him that so he might deliuer him both from the faults and from the