A fort for the afflicted Wherein are ministered many notable & excellent remedies against…A fort for the afflicted VVherin are ministred many notable & excellent remedies against…

Now if the law, which by reason of our weakness can work nothing but wrath and auger, was so effectual, that remembered & rehearsed of purpose to do it, it brought to the people a corporal benediction: what shall we say the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus doeth work, so that with reverence it be entreated? Saint Paul calleth it the sweet odour of life to those that shall receive life, boro wing his similitude of odoriferous herbs, or precious ointments, whose nature is, the more that they be touched or moved, to send forth their odour more pleasant and delectable. Even such dear brethren, is the blessed Evangelie of our Lord Jesus: for the more that it be entreated, •he more comfortable and puissant is it to such as do hear, read, or exercise the same. I am not ⟨image 52⟩ignorant, that as the Israelites loathed the manna, because that every day they saw and eat but one thing, so some there be now adays (who will not be holden of the worst sort) that after once reading some parcels of the scriptures, do commit them selves altogether to profane authors, and humane lectures, because that the variety of matters therein contained, doeth bring with it daily delectation: where contrariwise, within the simple scriptures of God, the perpetual repetition of one thing, is fashions, & wearisome. This temptation I•confesse, may enter into Gods very elect for a time, but impossible it is, that therein they continue to the end: for Gods election besides other evident signs hath this ever joined with it, that Gods elect are called from ignorance (I speak of those that are come to the years of knowledge) to some taste and feeling of Gods mercy, of the which they are never so satisfied in this life, but from time to time they hunger and they thirst, to ea•e the bread that descended from heaven, and to drink the water that springeth to life everlasting: which they cannot do but by the means of Faith, and Faith looketh ever to the will of God, revealed by the word, so that Faith hath both her beginning and continuance by the word ⟨image 53⟩of God. And so I say, that impossible it is that Gods chosen children can despise or reject the word of their salvation of any long continuance, neither yet loath it to the end.