6. But yet, seeing that for
lusts’ sake, or even wickednesses, seeing, in a word, that for
this temporal life and weal men do wonderfully bear the brunt of
many horrible sufferings, they much admonish us how great things
ought to be borne for the sake of a good life, that it may also
hereafter be eternal life, and without any bound of time, without
waste or loss of any advantage, in true felicity secure. The Lord
saith, “In your patience ye shall possess your souls:”2634
He saith
not, your
farms, your
praises, your luxuries; but, “your
souls.” If then the
soul endures so great sufferings that it may
possess that whereby it may be lost, how great ought it to bear
that it may not be lost? And then, to mention a thing not culpable,
if it bear so great sufferings for
saving of the
flesh under the
hands of chirurgeons cutting or burning the same, how great ought
it to bear for
saving of itself under the fury of any soever
enemies? Seeing that leeches, that the body may not
die, do by
pains
consult for the body’s good; but enemies by threatening the
body with pains and death, would urge us on to the slaying of soul
and body in hell.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
