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sickness, in loss of goods, and in all tribulations we be impatient; when our neighbour needeth our help, that we must depart with him of ours, then love is cold.

and readiness to do

good, cometh of God, and not of

ourselves.

A very good ex. ample.

And thus we learn and feel that there is no goodness All power nor yet power to do good, but of God only. And in all such temptations, our faith perisheth not utterly, neither our love and consent unto the law of God. But they be weak, sick, and wounded, and not clean dead. As a good child, whom the father and mother have taught nurture and wisdom, loveth his father and all his commandments, and perceiveth of the goodness shewed him, that his father loveth him, and that all his father's precepts are unto his wealth and profit, and that his father commandeth him nothing for any need that his father hath thereof, but seeketh his profit only, and therefore hath a good faith unto all his father's promises, and loveth all his commandments, and doth them with good will, and with good will goeth to school. And by the way, haply, he seeth company play, and with the sight is taken and ravished of his memory, and forgetteth himself, and standeth and beholdeth, and falleth to play also, forgetting father, and mother, all their kindness, all their laws, and his own profit thereto. Howbeit, the knowledge of his father's kindness, the faith of his promises, and the love that he hath again unto his father, and the obedient mind, are not utterly quenched, but lie hid, as all things do when a man sleepeth, or lieth in a trance. And as soon as he hath played out all his lusts, or been warned in the mean season, he cometh again unto his old profession. Neverthelater, many temptations go over his heart, and the law as a right hang-man tormenteth his conscience, and goeth nigh to persuade him that his father will cast him away and hang him, if he catch him; so that he is like, a great while, to run away, rather than to return unto his father again. Fear and dread of rebuke, and of loss of his father's love, and of punishment, wrestle with the trust which he hath in his father's goodness, and as it were give his faith a fall. But it riseth

The faith

ful though they slip, yet they

fall not.

Faith in the goodness of

God is our stay.

again as soon as the rage of the first brunt is past, and his mind more quiet. And the goodness of his father, and his old kindness cometh unto remembrance, either of his own courage, or by the comfort of some other. And he believeth that his father will not cast him away or destroy him, and hopeth that he will no more do so.

And upon that he getteth him home, dismayed. But not altogether faithless. The old kindnesses will not let him despair. Howbeit, all the world cannot set his heart at rest, until the pain be past, and until he have heard the voice of his father, that all is forgiven.

THE MANNER AND ORDER OF OUR ELECTION.

John xv.

If we consider how merciful God is unto us, we cannot

choose but

submit our

selves unto

bis laws.

EVEN so goeth it with God's elect. God chooseth them first, and they not God, as thou readest John xv. And then he sendeth forth and calleth them, and sheweth them his good will which he beareth unto them, and maketh them see both their own damnation in the law, and also the mercy that is laid up for them in Christ's blood, and thereto what he will have them do. And then when we see his mercy, we love him again, and choose him and submit ourselves unto his laws, to walk in them. For when we err not in wit, reason and judgment of things, we cannot err in will and choice of things. The choice of a man's will doth naturally and of her own accord follow the judgment of a man's reason, whether he judge right or wrong. So that in teaching only resteth the pith of a man's living. Howbeit, there be swine that receive no learning but to defile it. And there be dogs that rent all good learning with their teeth. And there be pope-holy, which, following a righteousness of their own feigning, resist the righteousness of God in Christ. And there be that cannot attend to hearken unto the truth for

rage of lusts, which when lusts abate, come and obey well enough.

And therefore, a Christian man must be patient and suffer long to win his brother to Christ, that he which attendeth not to day, may receive grace and hear to-morrow. We see some at their very latter end, when cold fear of death hath quenched the heat of their appetites, learn and consent unto the truth, whereunto, before they could give none care, for the wild rages of lusts that blinded their wits.

Christian

men must

be patient.

Mercy

waiteth

ever on the

elect.

And though God's elect cannot so fall that they rise not again, because that the mercy of God ever waiteth upon them, to deliver them from evil, as the care of a kind father waiteth upon his son, to warn him and to keep him from occasions, and to call him back again if he be gone too far: yet they forget themselves ofttimes, and sink down. into trances and fall asleep in lusts for a season. But as soon as they be awaked they repent and come again without resistance. God now and then withdraweth his hand and leaveth them unto their own strength, to make them feel that there is no power to do good but of God only, lest they should be proud of that which is none of theirs. God laid so sore a weight of persecution upon David's back that passed his strength to bear. So that David. he cried oft out of his Psalms, saying, that he had lived well, and followed the right way of God in vain. For the more he kept himself from sin, the worse it went with him, as he thought; and the better with his enemy Saul, the worse he was. Yet God left him not there, but comforted him, and shewed him things which before he wist not of, how that the saints must be patient, and abide God's harvest, until the wickedness of ungodly sinners be full ripe, that God may reap it in due season.

God also suffered occasions, stronger than David, to fall upon him, and to carry him clean out of the way.

Was

he not ready for a churlish answer to have slain Nabal, and all the males of his house, so much as the child in the

The elect of God patience and be long sufferers.

must have

God trieth his elect by suffering

them to fall into temptation.

We may commit sin

and yet not

forget God.

The apostles being amazed

with temptations for

gat all Christ's miracles.

A great temptation laid upon the apostles.

cradle? howbeit, God withheld him and kept him back from that evil, through the wisdom of Abigail. How long slumbered he, or rather how hard in sleep was he in the adultery of Bathsheba! And in the murder of her husband Uriah! but at both times as soon as he was rebuked, and his fault told him, he repented immediately, and turned again meekly. Now in all that long time, from the adultery of Bathsheba, until the prophet Nathan rebuked him, he had not lost his faith, nor yet his love unto the laws of God, no more than a man loseth his wits when he is asleep. He had forgot himself only, and had not maliciously cast off the yoke of God's commandments from off his neck. There is no man so good, but that there cometh a time upon him, when he feeleth in himself no more faith or love unto God, than a sick man ofttimes feeleth the taste of his meat which he eateth.

And in like manner the apostles of Christ at his passion were astonished and amazed, and in such a storm of temptations, for the sudden change from so great glory, into so vile and shameful death, that they had forgot all the miracles and all the words which he had told them before, how that he should be betrayed and delivered on the same manner unto death. Moreover, they never understood that saying of his death because their hearts were alway heavy, and overladen with earthly thoughts. For though they saw him raise up other, yet who should raise him up, when he were dead, they could not comprehend.

Read what thou canst read, and thou shalt find no temptation like unto that from the creation of the world, or so great as it, by the hundred part. So that the wonderful sudden change and the terrible sight of his passion, and of his most cruel and most vile death; and the loss of whom they so greatly loved, that their hearts would fain have died with him; and the fear of their own death; and the impossibility that a man should rise again of his own power; so occupied their minds, and so astonished them. and amazed them, that they could receive no comfort,

either of the Scripture, or of the miracles which they had seen Christ do; nor of the monitions and warnings wherewith he had warned them before; neither of the women that brought them tidings that he was risen. The sword of temptations, with fear, sorrow, mourning, and weeping, had deeply pierced their hearts, and the cruel sight had so cumbred their minds, that they could not believe, until Christ himself came, death put off and overcome: The apos yea, and when they first saw him, they were astonished for wondering and joy together, that thoughts arose in their doubtful. hearts, alas, Is this he or doth some spirit mock us? He was fain to let them feel him, and to eat with them, to strengthen their faith.

Howbeit there was none of them that was fallen in his heart from Christ. For as soon as the women brought word, Peter and John ran unto the sepulchre, and saw, and wondered, and would fain have believed that he was risen; and had longed for him; but could not believe, the wound of temptation being greater than that, that it could be healed with the preaching of a woman, without any other miracle.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, which while he yet lived, durst not be known of him, as soon as he was dead, begged his body and buried him boldly. And the women, as soon as it was lawful to work, prepared their anointments with all diligence. And the hearts of the disciples that went to Emmaus burned in their breasts to hear him spoken of.

tles were very

Christ, his

resurrec

tion.

The Disci

And Thomas had not forsaken Christ, but could not believe until he saw him; and yet desired and longed to see him, and rejoiced when he saw him, and for joy cried out My Lord, my God. There was none of them that ever railed on him, and came so far forth to say he was a deceiver, ples were and wrought with the devil's craft all this while, and see whereto he is come in the end: we defy him and all his but yet the works, false wretch that he was, and his false doctrine also. And thereto must they have come at the last, when fear,

not without faith,

same was very doubtful.

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