MATHETES. In the New Testament we may also read, That our Saviour Christ, even in his infancy, Of Herod the king might stand in great dread, Who sought to destroy him, such was his insolency: Afterward of the Pharisees he did with constancy Suffer shameful death: his apostles also For testimony of the truth did their crosses undergo. PHILOLOGUS. James, under Herod, was headed with the sword: The rest of the apostles did suffer much turmoil. Good Paul was murthered by Nero his word: Domitian devised a barrel full of oil, The body of John the Evangelist to boil, The Pope at this instant sundry torments procure, For such as by God's holy word will endure. By these former stories two things we may learn And profitably record in our remembrance: The first is God's Church from the devil's to discern: The second to mark what manifest resistance The truth of God hath, and what encumbrance It bringeth upon them that will it profess; Wherefore they must arm themselves to suffer distress. MATHETES. It is no new thing, I do now perceive, That Christ's Church do suffer tribulation; But that the same cross I might better receive, I request you to show me for my consolation, What is the cause, by your estimation, That God doth suffer his people to be in thrall, Yet help them, so soon as they to him call? PHILOLOGUS. The chiefest thing which might us cause or move, With constant minds Christ's cross for to sustain, Is to conceive of heaven a faithful love; Whereto we may not come, as Paul doth prove it plain, Unless with Christ we suffer, that with him we may reign: Again, sith that it is our heavenly Father's will By worldly woes our carnal lusts to kill. Moreover, we do use to loathe that thing we alway have, And do delight the more in that which mostly we do want: Affliction urgeth us also more earnestly to crave, And when we once relieved be, true faith in us it plant, So that to call in each distress on God we will not faint: For trouble brings forth patience, from patience doth ensue Experience, from experience hope, of health the anchor true. Again, ofttimes God doth provide affliction for our gain, As Job, who after loss of goods had twice so much therefor. Sometime affliction is a means to honour to attain, As you may see, if Joseph's life you set your eyes before: Continually it doth us warn from sinning any more, When as we see the judgments just which God, our heavenly King, Upon offenders here in earth for their offences bring. Sometime God doth it us to prove, if constant we will be; As he did unto Abraham: sometime his whole intent Is to declare His heavenly might; as in John we may see, When the disciples did ask Christ why God the blindness sent Unto that man that was born blind? to whom incontinent Christ said: Neither for parents' sins, nor for his own offence, Was he born blind, but that God might show his magnificence.