The Practice of Piety

4 By affliction and sickness▪ God exerciseth his children, and the graces which he bestoweth upon them.¹ He refineth, and trieth their faith, as the Goldsmith doth his gold, in ^*the furnace, to make it shine more glistering, & bright: he stirreth us up to pray more […], ⟨p. 830⟩and zealously: and proveth what patience we have learned all this while in his ^*school. The like experience he maketh of our hope, love, and all the rest of our Christian virtues:⁴ which without this trial, would rust, like iron unexercised; or corrupt, like standing waters that either have no current: or else are not poured from vessel to vessel: whose taste remaineth and whose sent is not changed. And rather then a man should keep still the sent of his corrupted nature, to damnation; who would not wish to be changed from state to state, by crosses and sickness to salvation? For as the Camomill which is trodden, groweth best and smelleth ⟨p. 831⟩most fragrant: and as the fish is sweetest that lives in the saltest waters: so those souls are most precious unto Christ, who are most exercised and afflicted with his Cross.

4 By affliction and sicknesse▪ God exerciseth his children, and the graces which hee bestoweth vpon them.¹ He refineth, and trieth their faith, as the Goldsmith doth his gold, in ^*the furnace, to make it shine more glistering, & bright: he stirreth vs vp to pray more 〈…〉, ⟨p. 830⟩