Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation: With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica StevensMore, Thomas, Saint
Religion
Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation: With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens
More, Thomas, Saint
Consolation
Let us fall to fasting, to prayer, and to almsdeed in time, and
give unto God that which may be taken from us. If the devil put in
our mind the saving of our land and our goods, let us remember that
we cannot save them long. If he frighten us with exile and flying
from our country, let us remember that we be born into the broad
world, not to stick still in one place like a tree, and that
whithersoever we go, God shall go with us. If he threaten us with
captivity, let us answer him that it is better to be thrall unto a
man for a while, for the pleasure of God, than, by displeasing God,
to be perpetual thrall unto the devil. If he threaten us with
imprisonment, let us tell him that we would rather be man's
prisoner a while here in earth than, by forsaking the faith, be his
prisoners for ever in hell. If he put in our minds the terror of
the Turks, let us consider his false sleight, for this tale he
telleth us to make us forget him. But let us remember well that, in
respect of himself, the Turks are but a shadow. And all that they
can do can be but a flea-bite in comparison with the mischief that
he goeth about. The Turks are but his tormentors, for he himself
doth the deed. Our Lord saith in the Apocalypse, "The devil shall
send some of you to prison, to tempt you." He saith not that men
shall, but that the devil shall, himself. For without question the
devil's own deed it is, to bring us by his temptation, with fear
and force, into eternal damnation. And therefore saith St. Paul,
"Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood," etc.
Thus may we see that in such persecutions it is the midday devil
himself that maketh such incursion upon us, by the men who are his
ministers, to make us fall for fear. For until we fall he can never
hurt us. And therefore saith St. James, "Stand against the devil
and he shall flee from you." For he never runneth upon a man to
seize him with his claws until he see him down on the ground,
willingly fallen himself. For his fashion is to set his servants
against us, and by them to make us fall for fear or for impatience.
And he himself in the meanwhile compasseth us, running and roaring
like a ramping lion about us, looking to see who will fall, that he
may then devour him. "Your adversary the devil," saith St. Peter,
"like a roaring lion, runneth about in circuit, seeking whom he may
devour."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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