that, as the prophet saith, the truth of his
promise shall so compass us with a shield that we shall never need
to fear. For either, if we trust in God well, and prepare us for
it, the Turk shall never meddle with us; or else, if he do, he
shall do us no harm but, instead of harm, inestimable good.
Wherefore should we so sore now despair of God's gracious help,
unless we were such madmen as to think that either his power or his
mercy were worn out already? For we see that so many a thousand
holy martyrs, by his holy help, suffered as much before as any man
shall be put to now. Or what excuse can we have by the tenderness
of our flesh? For we can be no more tender than were many of them,
among whom were not only men of strength, but also weak women and
children. And since the strength of them all stood in the help of
God; and since the very strongest of them all was never able to
himself to stand against all the world, and with God's help the
feeblest of them all was strong enough so to stand; let us prepare
ourselves with prayer, with our whole trust in his help, without
any trust in our own strength. Let us think on it and prepare
ourselves for it in our minds long before. Let us therein conform
our will unto his, not desiring to be brought unto the peril of
persecution (for it beseemeth a proud high mind to desire
martyrdom) but desiring help and strength of God, if he suffer us
to come to the stress--either being sought, found, and brought out
against our wills, or else being by his commandment, for the
comfort of our cure, bound to abide.

Let us fall to fasting, to prayer, and to almsdeed in time, and
give unto God that which may be taken from us. If the devil put in
our mind the saving of our land and our goods, let us remember that
we cannot save them long. If he frighten us with exile and flying
from our country, let us remember that we be born into the broad
world, not to stick still in one place like a tree, and that
whithersoever we go, God shall go with us. If he threaten us with
captivity, let us answer him that it is better to be thrall unto a
man for a while, for the pleasure of God, than, by displeasing God,
to be perpetual thrall unto the devil. If he threaten us with
imprisonment, let us tell him that we would rather be man's
prisoner a while here in earth than, by forsaking the faith, be his
prisoners for ever in hell. If he put in our minds the terror of
the Turks, let us consider his false sleigh