The saints everlasting rest

First, Who art thou that thou shouldst bear the wrath of GOD? Art thou a God; or art thou a man? What is thy strength to undergo so much? is it not as the strength of wax or stubble to resist the fire? or as chaff to the wind; or as dust before the whirlwind? Was he not as stout a man as thyself, who cried to GOD, Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? If thy strength were as iron, and thy bones as brass, thou couldst not bear. If thy foundation were as the earth, and thy power as the heavens, yet shouldst thou perish at the breath of his indignation. How much more when thou art but a little, creeping, breathing clay, kept a few days from stinking, and from being eaten with worms, by the mere support and favour of him whom then thus resistest?

Secondly, If thou be so strong, and thy heart so stout, why do those small sufferings so dismay thee? If thou have but a sit of the gout or stone, what groans dost thou utter? The house is filled with thy complaints. If thou shouldst but lose a leg or an arm, thou wouldst make a great matter of it. If thou lose thine estate, and fall into poverty and disgrace; how heavily wouldst thou bear any one of these? And yet all these laid together, will be one day accounted a happy state, in comparison of that which is suffered ⟨p. 121⟩in hell. Let me see thee make as light of convulsive, gouty, rheumatic pains, when they seize upon thee, and then the strength of thy spirit will appear. Alas, how many such boasters as thyself have I seen made stoop and cat their words! And when GOD hath but let out a little of his wrath, that Pharaoh, who before asked, Who is the Lord? hath cried, I have sinned.

Thirdly, If all this be nothing, go try thy strength by some corporal torment; as Bilney before he went to the stake, would first try his finger in the candle; so do thou: hold thy singer awhile in the fire, and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of hell. Austin mentioneth a chaste christian woman, who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd ruffian, she desired him for her sake to hold his finger one hour in the sire; he answered, it is an unreasonable request: how much more unreasonable is it (said she) that I should burn in hell for the satisfying your lust? So say I to thee; if it be an intolerable thing to suffer the heat of the are for a year, or a day, or an hour, what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever? What if thou wert to suffer Lawrence's death, to be roasted upon a grid-iron; or to be scraped or pricked to death, as other martyrs were? If thou couldst not endure such things as these, how wilt thou endure the eternal flames?