And sometimes he taketh them to him out
of the prison into heaven, and suffereth them not to come to their
torment at all, as he hath done by many a good holy man. And some
he suffereth to be brought into the torments and yet suffereth them
not to die in them, but to live many years afterward and die their
natural death, as he did by St. John the Evangelist and by many
another more, as we may well see both by sundry stories and in the
epistles of St. Ciprian also. And therefore, which way God will
take with us, we cannot tell.
But surely, if we be true Christian men, this can we well tell:
that without any bold warranty of ourselves or foolish trust in our
own strength, we are bound upon pain of damnation not to be of the
contrary mind but what we will with his help, however loth we feel
in our flesh thereto, rather than forsake him or his faith before
the world--which if we do, he hath promised to forsake us before
his Father and all his holy company of heaven--rather, I say, than
we would do so, we would with his help endure and sustain for his
sake all the tormentry that the devil with all his faithless
tormentors in this world would devise. And then, if we be of this
mind, and submit our will unto his, and call and pray for his
grace, we can tell well enough that he will never suffer them to
put more upon us than his grace will make us able to bear, but will
also with their temptation provide for us a sure way.
Pages:
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315