Our Saviour saith himself, also, that if we
say well by them or yield them thanks who do us good, we do no
great thing, and therefore can we with reason look for no great
thanks in return.
And thus have I showed you, lo, no little pre-eminence that
tribulation hath in merit, and therefore no little pre-eminence of
comfort in hope of heavenly reward, above the virtues (the merit
and cause of good hope and comfort) that come of wealth and
prosperity.
XX
And therefore, good cousin, to finish our talking for this time,
lest I should be too long a hindrance to your other business:
If we lay first, for a sure ground, a very fast faith, whereby we
believe to be true all that the scripture saith (understood truly,
as the old holy doctors declare it and as the spirit of God
instructeth his Catholic church), then shall we consider
tribulation as a gracious gift of God, a gift that he specially
gave his special friends; a thing that in scripture is highly
commended and praised; a thing of which the contrary, long
continued, is perilous; a thing which, if God send it not, men have
need to put upon themselves and seek by penance; a thing that
helpeth to purge our past sins; a thing that preserveth us from
sins that otherwise would come; a thing that causeth us to set less
by the world; a thing that much diminisheth our pains in purgatory;
a thing that much increaseth our final reward in heaven; the thing
with which all his apostles followed him thither; the thing to
which our Saviour exhorteth all men; the thing without which he
saith we be not his disciples; the thing without which no man can
get to heaven.
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