st I came into it. And therefore if my being far
from hence be very grievous to me, and I find it a great pain that
I am not where I wish to be, that grief shall in great part grow
for lack of sure setting and settling my mind in God, where it
should be. And when I mend that fault of mine, I shall soon ease my
grief.

Now, as for all the other griefs and pains that are in captivity,
thraldom, and bondage, I cannot deny that many there are and great.
Howbeit, they seem yet somewhat the more--what say I, "somewhat"? I
may say a great deal the more--because we took our former liberty
for a great deal more than indeed it was.

Let us therefore consider the matter thus: Captivity, bondage, or
thraldom, what is it but the violent restraint of a man, being so
subdued under the dominion, rule, and power of another that he must
do whatever the other please to command him, and may not do at his
liberty such things as he please himself? Now, when we shall be
carried away by a Turk and be fain to be occupied about such things
as he please to set us, we shall lament the loss of our liberty and
think we bear a heavy burden of our servile condition. And we shall
have, I grant well, many times great occasion to do so. But yet we
should, I suppose, set somewhat the less by it, if we would
remember well what liberty that was that we lost, and take it for
no larger than it was indeed. For we reckon as though we might
before do what we would, but in that we deceive ourselves. For what
free man is there so free that he can be suffered to do what he
please? In many things God hath restrained us by his high
commandment--so many, that of those things which we would otherwise
do, I daresay it be more than half. Howbeit, because (God forgive
us) we forbear so little for all that, but do what we please as
though we heard him not, we reckon our liberty never the less. But
then is our liberty much restrained by the laws made by man, for
the quiet and politic governance of the people. And these too
would, I suppose, hinder our liberty but little, were it not for
the fear of the penalties that fall thereupon. Look then, whether
other men who have authority over us never command us some business
which we dare not but do, and therefore often do it full sore
against our wills. Some such service is sometimes so painful and so
perilous too, that no lord can command his bondsmen worse, and
seldom doth command him half so sore. Let every free man who
re