17 Iron sharpeneth yron: so doth a man sharpen the face of his freende.
Wee knowe by experience that when we rubbe or whet the edge of a knife that is blunt, vpon some harde or sharpe thing, as vpon some peece of yron, or whet the same vpō an other knife, it is made to cut better then it did before: euen so also when man, which of himselfe, is not throughly awake, nor quick vnto worke, is stirred vp, and as it were pricked & spurred vp by an other, which wil not let him sleepe, then is his face sharpened: then doth he take courage, and shewe himselfe free and willing to yeelde his duetie, and to doe his office more readily then he was before, except he be vntractable, obstinate, and hardened. For then so farre it is of, that hee should be sharpened to doe wel, that rather his minde is stirred vp vnto wrath and furie, to contentions and debates, vnto murmu∣rings and seditions against him that prouoketh him: as Noe, Lot, Moses, the Prophets, Iesus Christ and his Apostles haue tried it by experience: and also nowe we haue trial thereof, in the scorners and contemners of the woorde of the Lorde, when wee labour to sharpen and quicken them vp by wholesome doctrine, by holy ad∣monitions, exhortations, and declarations, by reprehensions, cor∣rections, and threatninges. Such kind of men are like vnto swords which haue their edge so thicke and so blunt, that it wil not cut, doe what you can, albeit that you take great paines to whet and sharpen it. Now to the end that we may not be of the number of such indu∣rates, let vs be counselled to awake out of our sinnes, when dayly we are laboured to be sharpened by the word of the Lord, without any regarding whither we be strong & mighty, learned and wyse. We must therfore be folowers of Dauid, in that that hee patiently suffred Nathan to sharpen his face: and of S. Peter, which wept, when Iesus Christ sharpened his face by his countenance: and re∣sisted not: when S. Paule did also sharpen by his reprehension.