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Of the affliction of good men.
IT is not a small occasion of sorrow vnto vigorous minds, and such as are touched with hu∣manity to see vertuous men vili∣pended or wronged: and truly it seemeth to be nothing lesse then a heauy heart-break & almost an vnsupportable paine to behold wise & peaceable men afflicted, troubled, and vexed, yea to bee ill-vsed, & trampled, as it were, vnder feete by the vaine world, and to say the truth, it seemeth
that this doth touch vs very neere: for when as wee weigh with our selues that the por∣tion and lot of vertuous men is no other but affliction, and la∣bour of minde, we do therupon presently imagine, that thereby our best hopes are hemmed in.
If then such a case disquiet you, (as ordinarily it doth) thinke with your selfe, that if they be honest and patient men then are they in that case so much the more happy, because that in this life, which is so short, they purchase to themselues a life eternall in the heauens, for ye must know that the first good which such as go to rest in Gods house do obtaine, is to be quit and discharged from the tentati∣ons and torments of this trou∣blesome life.
Moreouer, set before your eyes the roll and scroll of the ho∣ly men of old, the blessed Martyrs of Christ, of whom some haue beene beheaded, others haue beene hanged; some haue beene burnt, and others haue beene broyled; some haue beene cut in pee∣ces, and others haue had their skinne pulled off. Besides that, during their life they haue beene afflicted with hunger, nakednes, and neede: of whom certainly the world was not worthy, and therfore it had them in horrour, as those in whom it had no in∣terest at all. But God loued them deerely, and by his diuine pro∣uidence, which cannot bee de∣ceiued, appointed them to passe through such tribulations, as through a needles eie, into the place of perpetuall repose. Yea
the paines and perplexities that vertuous men do endure, do e∣uen pricke them forwards to haue a more earnest desire to loath, and to leaue this wretched world. So that in the end they dislodge out of a bad & sad pri∣son, they escape & slip out of the dark caues and obscure corners, and hauing no deepe apprehen∣sion of death, they finde the faire beaten way that leadeth them to a better life.