A dialoge of comfort against tribulacion, made by Syr Thomas More Knyght, and set foorth by the name of an Hu[n]garie[n], not before this time imprinted

¶The .xxv. Chapter. The cōsideracion of the pain•• of hell, in vvhich vve fall if vve forsake our sauiour•• maye make vs set all the painefull death of thys vvorlde at right nought.

HOwebeit, what shoulde we nede to make anye such cōparisō betwene the natural death & the violent. For the matter y^• we be in hand w^t here, may put it ••ut of doubt, that he whych for feare of the violent death, forsaketh the faith of Christ, putteth him self in y^e perel to find his natural death more paineful, a thousande times. For his naturall death, hath hys

euerlasting payne so sodeinly knyt vnto it, that there is not one moment of an houre betwene, but the ende of the tone is the beginning of the tother, that after shall neuer haue ende. And therfore was it not wyth∣out greate cause that Christ gaue vs so good warning before, when he sayed as, S. Luke in the .xii. chapit••r reherseth. Dico ••obis amicis meis ne terreamini ab iis qui occidunt corpus & post hac non habent amplius quod faciant, Ostendam autem vobis quem ••imeatis, Timete eum qui postquam occiderit habet potestatem mittere in ge∣••ennam, Ita dico vobis hunc timete•• I say to you y^t are my frēdes, be not afrayd of them that kil the body, and which whē that is done are able to do no more. But I shal shewe you whom you shal feare: Feare hym that, which whē he hath killed, hath in his power farther to caste hym whom he killeth, into euerlasting fyre. So I saye to you, be af••ayd of him. God meaneth not here that we should nothing dreade at al any man y^t can but kill y^• body, but he meaneth y^t we shoulde not in such wise dreade any such, y^t we should for dreade of thē displease him y^t can euerlastingly kil both body & soule w^t a death euer dying, and y^t shall yet neuer dye. And therfore he addeth and repeateth in the end againe•• the feare that we should haue of him, & saith. Ita dico vobis hun•• timete, so I saye to you, feare him. Oh good god Cosin, if a man would wel waygh these wordes & let thē sinke as they should do, doune depe into his heart, & often bethinke him self theron, it would, I doubt not be able inough ••o make vs set at nought al y^e great Turkes threates & esteme him not at a strawe, but wel cōtent to endure al the paine that al the world could put vpō vs (for so shorte while as all they were able to make vs dwell therin) rather than by the shrinking frō those paines (though neuer so sharpe, yet but short (to caste our self

into the payne of hel, an hūdreth thousand times more intolerable, & wherof there shall neuer come an ende. A woful death is that death, in which folke shall euer∣more be dying, & neuer can once be dead, wherof the scripture sayth. Vocabunt mortem & mors fugiet ab eis. They shal cal & crye for death & death shal flye from thē. O good lord, if one of thē were nowe put in y^e choise of y^e both, they would rather suffer the whole yere together the most terrible death that all the Turkes in Turkeye could deuise, thā y^• death y^t they lie in for y^• space of half an howre. In howe wreched foly fall thā these faith∣lesse or feble faithed folke, y^t to auoide y^e paine so farre the lesse and so short, fal in the stede therof into paine a thousand thousand times more horrible, & of which terrible tormēt, they be sure they shal neuer haue end. Thys matter Cosin lacketh as I beleue but eyther full faith or sufficient minding. For I thinke on my faith if we haue the grace verely to beleue it, and oftē to thinke wel theron, the feare of al the Turkes perse∣cuciō (with al this midde day deuil were able to make them doe, in the forcing vs to forsake our faith) should neuer be able to turne vs.

Vincent.

By my trouth Uncle, I thinke it is as you say, for sure if we would, as oftē thinke on these paines of hel, as we be very loth to do & seke vs peuish pastimes of purpose to put suche heauy thynges oute of oure thought thys one pointe alone were able inough to make I thinke many a martyre.