A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

2 That miseries are not only incident to men, but more proper to Christian men,^m All that will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution. This was Christs prognostication; In the world you shall have sorrow, Joh 16. This the Apostles prediction; Through many tribulations you must enter the kingdom of heaven, Act. 14. What Saint was ever crowned before he had combated? Jerome. Search the whole Bible over; Et quem legisti in coelis triumphantem, quem non legisti priùs in terris tolerantem? But it is said;ⁿ The Churches had rest through-out all Judea, &c. And there was peace in the days of Solomon; peace in the days of Constantine; peace in the milken times of Queen Elizabeth; and yet still greater peace under the reign of our present Sovereign, that King of peace. Yet though we be freed from public oppressions inflicted by Magistrates, not from private molestations. In the most Halcyon days we find bitterness: Sine miseria vixisse miserrimum est. If there be not an Esau, there will be an Ishmael: if the hand of mischief cannot reach us, yet Penetrabunt spicula linguae; The arrows of slander and contumely will stick in our ribs. All men are necessitated to miseries, that bend their course toward the kingdom of heaven, Aug. Hence it is that S. Paul gives a piece of armour to the feet.^o Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Our feet are naturally tender: if they be bare, clods, flints, thorns will gall them. Our affections, if they be not shod with Patience, will be so pricked with crosses, that we shall be weary of our journey to heaven. It is no unusual stratagem in war, to stick the way full of thorns, and ends of pikes, to wound and dis-rank the adversary. So the Devil besets our way of peace, that we had need of leg-harness, Patience. Though all parts be armed, yet if the feet be naked, Satan will wound us there: as Achilles was wounded in the heel, when all other places of him were invulnerable. Thus was Job armed, Jam. 5.11. S. John speaking of great war, and greater victory, concludes;^p