eak further. But he who, referring the
manner of his comforting to God, desireth of God to be comforted,
asketh a thing so lawful and so pleasing to God that he cannot fail
to fare well. And therefore hath he, as I say, great cause to take
comfort in the very desire itself.

Another cause hath he to take of that desire a very great occasion
of comfort. For since his desire is good, and declareth to him that
he hath a good faith in God, it is a good token unto him that he is
not an abject, cast out of God's gracious favour, since he
perceiveth that God hath put such a virtuous, well-ordered appetite
in his mind. For as every evil mind cometh of the world and
ourselves and the devil, so is every such good mind inspired into
man's heart, either immediately or by the mean of our good angel or
other gracious occasion, by the goodness of God himself. And what a
comfort then may this be to us, when we by that desire perceive a
sure undoubted token that towards our final salvation our Saviour
is himself so graciously busy about us!

IV

VINCENT: Forsooth, good uncle, this good mind of longing for God's
comfort is a good cause of great comfort indeed--our Lord in
tribulation send it to us! But by this I see well, that woe may
they be who in tribulation lack that mind and who desire not to be
comforted by God, but either are of sloth or impatience
discomfortless, or else of folly seek for their chief ease and
comfort anywhere else.

ANTHONY: That is, good cousin, very true, as long as they stand in
that state. But then you must consider that tribulation is a means
to drive them from that state, and that is one of the causes for
which God sendeth it unto man. For albeit that pain was ordained by
God for the punishment of sins (so that they who never do now but
sin cannot but be ever punished in hell) yet in this world, in
which his high mercy giveth men space to be better, the punishment
that he sendeth by tribulation serveth ordinarily for a means of
amendment.

St. Paul himself was sorely against Christ, till Christ gave him a
great fall and threw him to the ground, and struck him stark blind.
And with that tribulation he turned to him at the first word, and
God was his physician and healed him soon after both in body and in
soul by his minister Ananias and made him his blessed apostle. Some
are in the beginning of tribulation very stubborn and stiff against
God, and yet at length tribulation bringeth them home. The