As for the soul first, we shall need no rehearsal of any harm that
may attain to it by this kind of tribulation, unless by some
inordinate love and affection that the soul bear to the body, she
consent to slide from the faith and thereby do herself harm. Now
there remains the body, and these outward things of fortune which
serve for the maintenance of the body and minister matter of
pleasure to the soul also, through the delight that she hath in the
body for the while that she is matched with it.
Consider first the loss of those outward things, as being somewhat
less in weight than the body itself. What may a man lose in them,
and thereby what pain may he suffer?
VINCENT: He may lose, uncle, money, plate, and other movable
substance (of which I should somewhat lose myself); then, offices
and authority; and finally all the lands of his inheritance for
ever that he himself and his heirs perpetually might otherwise
enjoy. And of all these things, uncle, you know well that I myself
have some--little, in respect of that which some others have here,
but yet somewhat more than he who hath most here would be well
content to lose.
Upon the loss of these things follow neediness and poverty; the
pain of lacking, the shame of begging (of which twain I know not
which is the most wretched necessity); besides, the grief and
heaviness of heart, in beholding good men and faithful and his dear
friends bewrapped in like misery, and ungracious wretches and
infidels and his mortal enemies enjoying the commodities that he
himself and his friends have lost.
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