ckoneth his liberty to stand in doing what he please, consider
well these points, and I daresay he shall then find his liberty
much less than he took it for before.

And yet have I left untouched the bondage that almost every man is
in who boasteth himself for free--the bondage, I mean, of sin. And
that it be a true bondage, I shall have our Saviour himself to bear
me good record. For he saith, "Every man who committeth sin is the
thrall, or the bondsman, of sin." And then if this be thus (as it
must needs be, since God saith it is so), who is there then who can
make so much boast of his liberty that he should take it for so
sore a thing and so strange to become through chance of war,
bondsman unto a man, since he is already through sin become
willingly thrall and bondsman unto the devil?

Let us look well how many things, and of what vile wretched sort,
the devil driveth us to do daily, through the rash turns of our
blind affections, which we are fain to follow, for our faultful
lack of grace, and are too feeble to refrain. And then shall we
find in our natural freedom our bondservice such that never was
there any man lord of any so vile a bondsman that he ever would
command him to so shameful service. And let us, in the doing of our
service to the man that we be slave unto, remember what we were
wont to do about the same time of day while we were at our free
liberty before, and would be well likely, if we were at liberty, to
do again. And we shall peradventure perceive that it were better
for us to do this business than that. Now we shall have great
occasion of comfort, if we consider that our servitude, though in
the account of the world it seem to come by chance of war, cometh
unto us yet in very deed by the provident hand of God, and that for
our great good if we will take it well, both in remission of sins
and also as matter of our merit.

The greatest grief that is in bondage or captivity, I believe, is
this: that we are forced to do such labour as with our good will we
would not. But then against that grief, Seneca teacheth us a good
remedy: "Endeavour thyself evermore that thou do nothing against
thy will, but the things that we see we shall needs do, let us
always put our good will thereto."

VINCENT: That is soon said, uncle, but it is hard to do.

ANTHONY: Our froward mind maketh every good thing hard, and that
to our own more hurt and harm. But in this case, if we will be good
Christian men, we sha