A09462:347
Satan's sophistry answered by our Saviour Christ and in divers sermons further manifested /…Satans sophistrie ansuuered by our Sauiour Christ and in diuers sermons further manifested /…
Satan's sophistry answered by our Saviour Christ and in divers sermons further manifested / by that worthy man Master William Perkins ; to which is added, a comfort for the feeble minded, wherein is set down the temptations of a Christian.Satans sophistrie ansuuered by our Sauiour Christ and in diuers sermons further manifested / by that worthy man Maister William Perkins ; to which is added, a comfort for the feeble minded, wherein is set downe the temptations of a Christian.
London: printed by Richard Field for E.E., 1604
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
To the right Honourable and virtuous Ladies, the Countess of Cumberland, and the Countess of Warwick, grace and peace.
To the right Honorable and vertuous Ladies, the Countesse of Cumberland, and the Countesse of Warwicke, grace and peace.
Right Honourable, in the former […] is the combat of Christ: in this latter is set down the combat of a Christian. He that fought with our head, will fight with the members▪ and he that assaulted Christ, will assail all Christians. But Christ did bear troubles, and was borne out of them: we must have troubles, and shall be borne out of them. If our afflictions were plagues, as to the Egyptians: curses, as to Ham: destruction, as to Sodom: desolation, as to Israel: then had we cause to fly from them, as Moses did from that miraculous serpent. But since they are but the trials of faith, corrections of a father, visitations from the Bishop of our souls: since they are as Phlebotomy to a Pleurisy, and a purgation to a Plethora, ⟨p. 146⟩they are to be endured with all patience. How Christ did endure them, you may read in that Treatise: how a Christian must, you may see in this. The former Treatise I presented to your honourable brother: this latter to you most honourable sisters. I desired to annex this to the former discourse, because it is suitable to that present argument: and I know not to whom I may better present it, then to you who have experience of this Christian warfare. If it please you but to read these holy meditations, and to entertain this poor mite into your rich treasury by the reading I doubt not but you shall have much comfort; and by your entertaining, the church shall have much good. Now that good God who hath given your mind to know him, give you also an heart to lo• him: and as you are Honourable in the eyes of this world, so he make you most honourable in the eyes of his Majesty. And thus craving pardon, I commit you to the grace of that God, who will honour them that love him, and comfort them that seek comfort from him.