verily, who of his goodness hath created heaven and earth and all that is therein for the use of men, which even feedeth the ravens’ young ones, will not cause the just man to die with hunger and penury. Moreover, that man doth not lose his treasure in this world, which gathereth treasure as the Lord hath commanded him; with whom the faithful know that a most wealthy treasure is laid up in heaven for them, which are in this world spoiled of their terrestrial goods for their Lord and master’s sake. That worthy and notable servant Of God, Job, doth ery: Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I turn to the earth again’: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as the Lord pleased, so is it happened 2. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” the Last of all, it is manifest, that to deny the truth, thereby not.. 0 escape persecution, is not the way to keep our wealth and quiet state, but rather the means to lose them; yea, by so doing we are made infamous to all good men of every age and nation. For we see that they which would not for Christ and the cause of his truth hazard their riches, but chose rather by dissimulation and renouncing of the truth to keep their worldly wealth3, did retain for ever infamous reproach, and daily augment most terrible torments, which vexed horribly their guilty conscience, losing nevertheless in the devil’s name the wealth which they would not once hazard in the cause of their Saviour. But they, on the other side, which jeoparded themselves and all their substance in the quarrel of Christ, despising manfully all dangers that could happen, did always find a sweet and pleasant comfort, which strengthened the minds of their afflicted bodies. For they ery with the apostle: “We have learned, in whatsoever state we are, therewith to be content. We know how to be low, we know also how to exceed: every where and in all things we are instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to have plenty and to suffer need. We can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth us.” They know that the same
[1 Heb. mY, thither, Auth. Ver. Cyprian quotes it,—naked also]
[shall I go under the earth. Ady. Jud. Lib. mr. cap. 6.] [2 So the Vulgate and Coverdale, The Lord hath done his pleasure:]
[and Cyprian. ] [3 vel retinere vel augere, Lat.; either to keep, or to increase. ] [ non jam in nomine Christi, sed in nomine diaboli, Lat.]]
apostle hath said: “Ye have suffered with joy the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have in heaven a far more excellent substance, which will endure.” For the Lord in the gospel also said: Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath forsaken house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold now at this present, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” Mark x. So then the saints and faithful servants of God are oppressed with servitude in this present world: but therewithal they know and consider that the Lord himself became a servant for us men’; whereby they, that are servants in this world, are made free through Christ, and by terrestrial servitude a way is made to celestial liberty.
The faithful are exiled, or banished their country: but the heathen poet saith, “A valiant-hearted man takes every country for his own”.” Verily, in what place of the world soever we are, we are in exile as banished men. Our Father is in heaven, and therefore heaven is our country. Wherefore, when we die, we are delivered from exile, and placed in the heavenly country and true felicity. In like manner, whom the tyrant killeth with hunger and famine, those doth he rid of innumerable evils, And again, whomsoever famine doth not utterly kill but only torment, them doth it teach to live more sparingly, and afterward to fast the longer and devoutly. Now in this case the faithful, which suffer famine, do call to remembrance the examples of the ancient saints, of whom when Paul speaketh, he saith: “They wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, and tormented; of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in wilderness, and in mountains, and in dens, and caves of the earth.” Christians also consider, that the state of famished Lazarus, who died among the tongues of the dogs that licked his blains, was far better than the surfeiting of the strut-bellied glutton, who being once dead was buried
[6 prius, Lat.; before us.] [9 adeoque, Lat.; and that so.] [7 Omne solum forti patria est. Ovid. Fast. Lib. 1. 493.] [8 ceu morbus aliquis, Lat. omitted; like some disease.]]
In in hell. Moreover, it is to be abhorred, detested, and (yet) of lamented of all men, to see a crew of barbarous villains and unruly soldiers abuse perforce, not honest matrons only, but tender virgins also, that are not fit yet nor ripe for a man. But the greatest comfort that we have in so great a mischief and intolerable ignominy is, that chastity is a virtue of the mind. For if it be a treasure of the mind, then is it not lost though the body be abused: even as in like sort the faith of a man is not thought to be overcome, although the whole body be consumed with fire. And chastity is not lost, verily, where the body is defloured; because the will of the abused body persevereth still to use that chastity, and doth what it may to keep it undefiled. For the body is not holy therefore, because the members thereof are undefiled, or because the secret parts thereof are not undecently touched: considering that the body, being wounded by many casualties, may suffer filthy violence; and since physicians for health’s sake may do to the members the thing that otherwise is unseemly to the eyes. Wherefore so long as the purpose of the mind (by which the body must be sanctified) remaineth, the violent deed of another’s filthy lust taketh not from the body that chastity, which the persevering continency of the defloured body doth seek to preserve. And in the meanwhile there is no doubt but the most just Lord will sharply punish those shameless beasts and monsters of nature, which dare undertake to commit such wickedness. in The saints are confirmed in their tribulation by the innufeel merable examples of their fore-fathers; whereby they gather, that it is no new thing that happeneth unto them, since God from the beginning hath with many afflictions and tribulations exercised his servants and the church, his spouse, whom he loveth so dearly. And here I think it to be very expedient, and available to the comforting of afflicted minds, to reckon up the best and choicest examples that are in scriptures: of which there are many both private and public. The chances and pilgrimages of the latter patriarchs (because I mean ποῦ to speak of them before the deluge?) are those, which I call