from
evil.

But yet may we not always pray for the taking away from us of every
kind of temptation. For if a man should in every sickness pray for
his health again, when should he show himself content to die and to
depart unto God? And that mind must a man have, you know, or else
it will not be well with him. It is a tribulation to good men to
feel in themselves the conflict of the flesh against the soul and
the rebellion of sensuality against the rule and governance of
reason--the relics that remain in mankind of old original sin, of
which St. Paul so sore complaineth in his epistle to the Romans.
And yet may we not pray, while we stand in this life, to have this
kind of tribulation utterly taken from us. For it is left us by
God's ordinance to strive against it and fight with it, and by
reason and grace to master it and use it for the matter of our
merit.

For the salvation of our soul may we boldly pray. For grace may we
boldly pray, for faith, for hope, and for charity, and for every
such virtue as shall serve us toward heaven. But as for all the
other things before mentioned (in which is contained the matter of
every kind of tribulation), we may never well make prayers so
precisely but that we must express or imply a condition
therein--that is, that if God see the contrary better for us, we
refer it wholly to his will. And if that be so, we pray that God,
instead of taking away our grief, may send us of his goodness
either spiritual comfort to take it gladly or at least strength to
bear it patiently.

For if we determine with ourselves that we will take no comfort in
anything but the taking of our tribulation from us, then either we
prescribe to God that he shall do us no better turn, even though he
would, than we will ourselves appoint him; or else we declare that
we ourselves can tell better than he what is better for us. And
therefore, I say, let us in tribulation desire his help and
comfort, and let us remit the manner of that comfort unto his own
high pleasure. When we do this, let us nothing doubt but that, as
his high wisdom better seeth what is best for us than we can see it
ourselves, so shall his sovereign high goodness give us that thing
that shall indeed be best.

For otherwise, if we presume to stand to our own choice--unless God
offer us the choice himself, as he did to David in the choice of
his own punishment, after his high pride conceived in the numbering
of the people--we may foolishly c