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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20863	The school of patience. Written in Latin by H. Drexelius. And faithfully translated into English, by R.S. Gent; Gymnasium patientiae. English	Drexel, Jeremias, 1581-1638.; R. S., gent.; Stanford, Robert, attributed name.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1640 (1640)	STC 7240; ESTC S109941	206,150	562

age and state of life Wee are no sooner borne but we beginne to be sicke and therefore may believe Saint Augustine for who is there Aug. in Psa 102. ante med mihi pag. 473. saith he that is not sicke in this life who is there that lingreth not in one languour or other our birth in this mortall body is no other then a preludium or entrance to infirmities Why then are wee affraid at the approach of diseases This life is a perpetuall disease But Idem Serm. 74. yet beleeve me there is a place for vertue in sicknesse which by the saying Senec. Epist 76. of Saint Ambrose is verified the infirmity of the body is the sobriety of the minde Infirmity is the forge of vertue and as Hierom saith it is better to have the stomack sick then the minde There have been some but very few who have lived to fourscore years of age in perfect health yet this old house began to decay and at last was dissolved and utterly ruinated Thus much let us be assured of that for the most part none behave themselves better in sicknesse then they who in time of health have often learned the Art of suffering amongst sick persons Here let every man question himselfe in this sort If thou wert in this state how wouldst thou demean thy selfe how mildly and pleasingly wouldst thou speake how patiently wouldst thou suffer thy pains To seek for health from witches or sorcerers is the property of a man desperate and wretchedly in love with his life Is there not a God in Israel that you go to seek counsell of Beelzebub the God of Accaron Let our sicknesse draw us to God not to the Divell the enemy of God The Hebrews when they were freed from diseases and slaughters forgat their God but no sooner were their infirmities multiplied but they made haste to return unto him Sometimes the neck foot or arme is cauterized to cure the head So God burns and cauterizes the body with diseases to heal the soul A painfull disease makes a sober soul saith the wise man And to say truth it is better to be scorched with a burning feaver then with the flames of sin Many then detest at last and loath their unlawfull pleasure when they are visited with sicknesse Rightly said S. Greg. hom 1● in Evang. propius finem Gregory By the divine goodnesse it comes to passe that an inveterate habit of vice is purged with a long ma●ady Our evill customes which have continued long without any amendment deserve oftentimes a long punishment and if God chastise so severely when he pardoneth how sharply will he strike when he is incensed How rigorously will he punish the reprobate seeing he beares so heavie a hand over his beloved children There was a certain religious man as testifieth Ruffinus Aquileiensis who earnestly requested an holy Anchoret named John to cure him of a tertian No said he for hereby you seeke to be deprived of a good thing and for you most necessary For as cloathes are washt with sope so is the soule purified by sicknesse The disease of the body is the health of the soule Vertue in infirmity is perfected This on a time moved a certaine religious old man as I finde written by many to say to his sicke Scholar ● Courage my child let not this disease of thy body trouble thee If tho● beest iron this fire will burne off thy rust if gold it will refine thee be not the fore discontented if it be Gods will to afflict thee with sickenesse who art thou that darest resist or repine against his blesled will beare it then couragiously and beseech God to conforme thy will to his in all things Sure if wee would consider of this matter as we ought should finde sicknesse to be so great a benefit sent from God that a hundred yeares service were too little to deserve it In sicknesse we are invited to make our peace with God whom perhaps before we opposed and grievously exasperated Blessed Saint Gregory saith that sicke persons are to be admonished to consider how much good they may reape by corporall afflictions which both expiate the sinnes formerly committed and restraine them from committing the like afterwards Most wisely said Salomon The blewnesse of the wound will wipe all evill for according to the interpretation of S. Gregory and smart of Gods chastisements purgeth all sinnes either of thought or deed Wherfore sicke persons are to be advertised that in this respect they Greg. part 3. pastor admo 3 med may think themselves the children of God for that they are chastized with the scourge of his discipline for were it not that he intended to bestow on them an inheritance after their correction he would never so carefully and to their trouble instruct them Wherefore he that is afflicted with bodily sickenesse may comfort himselfe and say let my body perish which of necessity must perish so my soule be saved Can any man be grieved to see his old rotten cottage pull'd downe and in stead thereof a faire new fabricke erected Let not then the sicke man though he have one foote in the grave be discomforted we know if our earthly house be dissolved we have another provided by God not a perishing manufacture but an eternall house in heaven But you will say it is an easie matter for him that is sound and in good health to comfort the sicke we would perhaps change our note were our health exchang'd for their sicknesse What sicke man will ever be perswaded that corporall infirmities are to be preferred before intire health By your good leave sir you expresse your selfe herein to be too much a man and altogether ignorant of Christian discipline Know you not that of Saint Paul When I am infirme then I am strong In this sence Saint Gregory said while rough adversity weakneth Oreg l. 29. Moral c. 15. propius finem holy men it maketh them stronger The flesh pampereth and cherisheth it selfe with delicious viands but the spirit is supported by sharp and rough entreaties the one is fed with delights the other nourished with bitternesse and so the flesh for a time lives sweetly that the spirit may dye eternally But give me leave I pray you to answer here your objections Pain say you is hard and unsufferable To which I may reply But you are a weakling and effeminate There have been but very f●w that cou●d endure pains and dolours Answ Let us be of those few But we are weak and frail by nature Answ Cast no imputation on Nature she hath brought us forth strong and vigorous Is there any man that seeks not to avoid pain Answ It pursues them that flye from it if the dolour or griefe be small let us bear it a little patience will suffice if the pain be great let us endure it the glory will be the greater But a man in perfect health might spend his time more vertucusly Answ Nay farre

captive who is fettered with the gives of luxury pride envy and avarice Those the divell needs never to hunt after they are his owne in sure custody But so soone as any of them endeavour to break prison and get away they shall finde satan and all the force of hell oppose them many wicked and malitious men will pursue and persecute them who therefore can ascribe this to their ill fortune that they have many persecutours and enemies seeing it is most certaine that all that desire to live piously in Jesus Christ must of necessity suffer persecution Pharoa● the king of Egypt with an oath threatned the Jewes I will persecute quoth he and apprehend you This certainly he would never have said at such time as they were bemired durtied and wearied but when he saw them ready to flie and scape away In like manner doe our enemies deale with us whilest we ly wallowing in the mud of sinne they seldome or never make warre against us but when we seek to save our selves by slight then they either actually invade us or at least seek to terrifie us by hostile incursions For which cause the wise man forewarning us saith sonne when thou comest to the service of God stand in justice and fear and prepare thy soule against temptation Sect. III. WOuldest thou go to the Schoole of Patience Provide and make ready thy selfe not for repose and ease not to sit downe and take thy pleasure but for a great conflict much temptation Art thou ignorant that whosoever goes to the fencing riding or wrastling schoole or to learne the art military must not look to sit still upon a soft cushion with a booke before him but you shall have the fencer give this man a blue eie the horse throw the other the riding master or he that tilts against him set him beside the sadle one unfortunately breakes his thigh with leaping another with wrastling puts his arme out of joint this man hath his head rudely broken another a tooth strucken out with the pummell of a sword another an eie put out with the point of a speare a man must here endure all kinds of wounds and incommodities Let us I pray you looke for no other or better intreatie in the Schoole of Patience we must not thinke here to sit still and take our ease and as in those Schooles I spoke of before of riding fencing and art military the masters themselves entertaine their scholars with blows and wounds so in the Schoole of Patience all paine and anguish all evill and punishment is from God himselfe the rectour thereof Prepare therefore thy soule for temptation From God proceede not only mild cheerfull faire and fortunate but likewise the unlucky darke duskish and dismall dayes which Ecclesiastes plainly affirming saith for as God hath made the one so also he hath the other that a man may find no just cause of complaints against him It was purposely the will of God to set a foule day against a faire adversity against prosperity and to temper and qualifie the force and acrimony of the one with the mixture of the other that it might be more wholsome and medicinable to mens humours and diseases wherefore be mindfull of adversity in prosperity and of prosperity in adversity Thinke of poverty in time of plenty and in the middest of thy riches of the poore mans necessity from morning unto evening time shall be changed and all these are sowne in the eies of God Let us therefore most attentively consider that all adversity is sent us from God that most just and supreme Judge Let us not impute the cause of our miseries to that which is not for they neither come from the east nor from the west nor from the desert mountaines because God is judge He humbleth this man and that he exalteth because there is a cup in the hand of the Lord of meer wine full of mixture And he hath powred it out of this into that but yet the dregges thereof are not emptied all the sinners of the earth shall drinke Behold O you Christians and engrave deeply in your hearts these documents This man God comforts that he afflicts The cup of all miseries and afflictions is in his hand this cup of the Lord is full of pure wine as it comes from the grape but withall it hath its mixture for not one sort but divers kinds of wine are powred into this cup. Excellent wine when it is mingled not with water but with wine more excellent then it selfe becomes infinitly strong So the revengefull justice of God aboundeth with multiplicity and variety of punishments as with severall kinds of wines Many men have suffered both great and manifold miseries to these doubtlesse pure wine is given but mingled as I said before Let them be of good courage all this notwithstanding is gentle and tollerable For by this meanes God inclines sometimes to this man sometimes to that one while he offers his cup to John another while to Peter and sometimes to James this honourable Cup passeth to all every one must taste thereof more or lesse as it hath seemed good to our Lord from all eternity this speech is used to every one either drinke or get thee gone But this may be a great comfort that no man especially in this world is compelled to drink up the dregs The dregs thereof are not emptied The greatest punishments and revenges of justice are reserved till the last day of judgement Then all the sinners of the earth shall drink Whatsoever tribulation we suffer now is but momentary and light it may seem but a sport and jest in comparison of the bitter dregs which the fury and indignation of God shall give eternally to the wicked to drink and never drink up Let us now O Christians joyfully drink up these cups though somewhat bitter seeing we are excused from drinking up the dregs The cup which most of us so much feare is filled with our Lords wine he it is that offers it the cup we refuse is in the hand of our Lord God is the authour of all punishment and calamity Sect. IV. ANd to go to the foundation of this verity let us heare what may be objected against it some there are that aske this question If God be the authour of all evill and punishment he is so likewise of sin My enemy by lying and flandering hath extreamly injured and damnified me he hath contrary to all law and justice entred in and made havock of my estate he hath most wickedly slandered and defamed me he would if it were possible swallow me at one bit And I pray you i● God the author of all this He is good sir the author of all this not that God commanded him to lye or calumniate God saith Ecclesiasticus hath commanded no man to do impiously and he hath given no man time to sin But I urge further What if I should say that God commanded him to do these injuries should