ave one, thrice have I been beaten with rods, once was I stoned,
thrice have I been in shipwreck, a day and a night was I in the
depth of the sea; in my journeys oft have I been in peril of
floods, in peril of thieves, in peril by the Jews, in perils by the
pagans, in perils in the city, in perils in the desert, in perils
in the sea, perils by false brethren, in labour and misery, in many
nights' watch, in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in cold and
nakedness; beside those things that are outward, my daily instant
labour, I mean my care and solicitude about all the churches," and
yet saith he more of his tribulations, which for the length I let
pass. This blessed apostle, I say, for all these tribulations that
he himself suffered in the continuance of so many years, calleth
all the tribulations of this world but light and as short as a
moment, in respect of the weighty glory that it winneth us after
this world: "This same short and momentary tribulation of ours that
is in this present time, worketh within us the weight of glory
above measure on high, we beholding not these things that we see,
but those things that we see not. For those things that we see are
but temporal things, but those things that are not seen are
eternal."

Now to this great glory no man can come headless. Our head is
Christ, and therefore to him must we be joined, and as members of
his must we follow him, if we wish to come thither. He is our guide
to guide us thither, and he is entered in before us. And he
therefore who will enter in after, "the same way that Christ
walked, the same way must he walk." And what was the way by which
he walked into heaven? He himself showed what way it was that his
Father had provided for him, when he said to the two disciples
going toward the village of Emaus, "Knew you not that Christ must
suffer passion, and by that way enter into his kingdom?" Who can
for very shame desire to enter into the kingdom of Christ with
ease, when he himself entered not into his own without pain?

XXVII

Surely, cousin, as I said before, in bearing the loss of worldly
goods, in suffering captivity, thraldom, and imprisonment, and in
the glad sustaining of worldly shame, if we would in all those
points deeply ponder the example of our Saviour himself, it would
be sufficient of itself alone to encourage every true Christian man
and woman to refuse none of all those calamities for his sake.

So say I now for painful death also