ause of the fiery
affection that we bear to our own filthy flesh, maketh us so dull
in the desire of heaven that the sudden dread of every bodily pain
woundeth us to the heart and striketh our devotion dead. And
therefore hath every man, cousin, as I said before, much the more
need to think upon this thing many a time and oft aforehand, ere
any such peril befall, by much devising upon it before they see
cause to fear it. Since the thing shall not appear so terrible unto
them, reason shall better enter, and through grace working with
their diligence, engender and set sure, not a sudden slight
affection of suffering for God's sake, but, by a long continuance,
a strong deep-rooted habit--not like a reed ready to wave with
every wind, nor like a rootless tree scantly set up on end in a
loose heap of light sand, that will with a blast or two be blown
down.

IV

Let us now consider, cousin, these causes of terror and dread that
you have recited, which in his persecution for the faith this
midday devil may, by these Turks, rear against us to make his
incursion with. For so shall we well perceive, weighing them well
with reason, that, albeit they be indeed somewhat, yet (every part
of the matter pondered) they shall well appear in conclusion things
not so much to be dreaded and fled from as they do suddenly seem to
folk at the first sight.

V

First let us begin at the outward goods, which are neither the
proper goods of the soul nor those of the body, but are called the
goods of fortune, and serve for the sustenance and commodity of man
for the short season of this present life, as worldly substance,
offices, honour, and authority.

What great good is there in these things of themselves, that they
should be worthy so much as to bear the name by which the world, of
a worldly favour, customarily calleth them? For if the having of
strength make a man strong, and the having of heat make a man hot,
and the having of virtue make a man virtuous, how can these things
be verily and truly "goods," by the having of which he who hath
them may as well be worse as better--and, as experience proveth,
more often is worse than better? Why should a man greatly rejoice
in that which he daily seeth most abound in the hands of many who
are wicked? Do not now this great Turk and his pashas in all these
advancements of fortune surmount very far above a Christian estate,
and any lords living under him? And was there not, some twenty
yea