And yet, albeit that I think that what has been said sufficeth,
yet here and there I shall in the second kind show some such
comfort as shall well serve unto this last kind too.
IV
The first kind also will I shortly pass over, too. For the
tribulation that a man willingly taketh himself, which no man
putteth upon him against his own will, is, you know as well as I
(for it was somewhat touched the last day), such affliction of the
flesh or expense of his goods as a man taketh himself or willingly
bestoweth in punishment of his own sin and for devotion to God.
Now, in this tribulation needeth he no man to comfort him. For no
man troubleth him but himself, who feeleth how far forth he may
conveniently bear, and of reason and good discretion shall not
pass that--and if any doubt arise therein, it is counsel that he
needeth and not comfort. And so the courage that kindleth his
heart and enflameth it for God's sake and his soul's health shall,
by the same grace that put it in his mind, give him such comfort
and joy therein that the pleasure of his soul shall surpass the
pain of his body.
Yea, and while he hath in heart also some great heaviness for his
sin, yet when he considereth the joy that shall come of it, his
soul shall not fail to feel then that strange state which my body
felt once in a great fever.
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