And one of the twain is so very childish a
fancy, that in a matter almost of three chips (unless it were a
chance of fire) it should never move any man.
As for those other accidents of hard handling, I am not so mad as
to say that they are no grief, but I say that our fear may imagine
them much greater grief than they are. And I say that such as they
be, many a man endureth them--yea, and many a woman too--who
afterward fareth full well.
And then would I know what determination we take--whether for our
Saviour's sake to suffer some pain in our bodies, since he suffered
in his blessed body so great pain for us, or else to give him
warning and be at a point utterly to forsake him rather than to
suffer any pain at all? He who cometh in his mind unto this latter
point--from which kind of unkindness God keep every man!--he
needeth no comfort, for he will flee the need. And counsel, I fear,
availeth him little, if grace be so far gone from him. But, on the
other hand, if, rather than to forsake our Saviour, we determine
ourselves to suffer any pain at all, I cannot then see that the
fear of hard handling should anything stick with us and make us to
shrink so that we would rather forsake his faith than suffer for
his sake so much as imprisonment. For the handling is neither such
in prison but what many men, and many women too, live with it many
years and sustain it, and afterward yet fare full well.
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