For therefore saith the prophet that the truth of God
shall compass that man round about who dwelleth in the faithful
hope of his help with a shield "from the incursion and the devil of
the midday," because this kind of persecution is not a wily
temptation but a furious force and a terrible incursion. In other
of his temptations, he stealeth on like a fox, but in this Turk's
persecution for the faith, he runneth on roaring with assault like
a ramping lion.
This temptation is, of all temptations, also the most perilous. For
in temptations of prosperity he useth only delectable allectives to
move a man to sin; and in other kinds of tribulation and adversity
he useth only grief and pain to pull a man into murmuring,
impatience, and blasphemy. But in this kind of persecution for the
faith of Christ he useth both twain--that is, both his allectives
of quiet and rest by deliverance from death and pain, with other
pleasures also of this present life, and besides that the terror
and infliction of intolerable pain and torment.
In other tribulation--as loss, or sickness, or death of our
friends---though the pain be peradventure as great and sometimes
greater too, yet is not the peril nowhere nigh half so much. For in
other tribulations, as I said before, that necessity that the man
must perforce abide and endure the pain, wax he never so wroth and
impatient with it, is a great reason to move him to keep his
patience in it and be content with it and thank God for it and of
necessity make a virtue, that he may be rewarded for it.
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