Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation

Chapter 16

ANTHONY: I said not, cousin, that for an undoubted rule, worldly

prosperity were always displeasing to God or tribulation evermore

wholesome to every man--or else I meant not to say it. For well I

know that our Lord giveth in this world unto either sort of folk

either sort of fortune. "He maketh his sun to shine both upon the

good and the bad, and his rain to fall both on the just and on the

unjust." And on the other hand, "he scourgeth every son that he

receiveth," yet he beateth not only good folk that he loveth, but

"there are many scourges for sinners" also. He giveth evil folk

good fortune in this world to call them by kindness--and, if they

thereby come not, the more is their unkindness. And yet where

wealth will not bring them, he giveth them sometimes sorrow. And

some who in prosperity cannot creep forward to God, in tribulation

they run toward him apace. "Their infirmities were multiplied,"

saith the prophet, "and after that they made haste." To some that

are good men, God sendeth wealth here also; and they give him great

thanks for his gift, and he rewardeth them for the thanks too. To

some good folk he sendeth sorrow, and they thank him for that too.

If God should give the goods of this world only to evil folk, then

would men think that God were not the Lord thereof. If God would

give the goods only to good men, then would folk take occasion to

serve him but for them. Some will in wealth fall into folly: "When

man was in honour, his understanding failed him; then was he

compared with beasts and made like unto them." Some men with

tribulation will fall into sin, and therefore saith the prophet,

"God will not leave the rod of the wicked men upon the lot of

righteous men, lest the righteous peradventure extend and stretch

out their hands to iniquity." So I deny not that either state,

wealth or tribulation, may be matter of virtue and matter of vice

also.

But this is the point, lo, that standeth here in question between

you and me: not whether every prosperity be a perilous token, but

whether continual wealth in this world without any tribulation be a

fearful sign of God's indignation. And therefore this mark that we

must shoot at, set up well in our sight, we shall now aim for the

shot and consider how near toward, or how far off, your arrows are

from the mark.

VINCENT: Some of my bolts, uncle, will I now take up myself, and

readily put them under my belt again! For some of them, I see well,

are not worth the aiming. And no great marvel that I shoot wide,

while I somewhat mistake the mark.

ANTHONY: Those that make toward the mark and light far too short,

when they are shot, shall I take up for you.

To prove that perpetual wealth should be no evil token, you say

first that for princes and prelates, and every man for others, we

pray all for perpetual prosperity, and that in the common prayers

of the church, too.

Then say you secondly, that if prosperity were so perilous and

tribulation so profitable, every man ought to pray God to send

others sorrow.

Thirdly, you furnish your objections with examples of Solomon, Job,

and Abraham.

And fourthly, in the end of all, you prove by experience of our own

time daily before our face, that some wealthy folk are good and

some needy ones very wicked. That last bolt, since I say the same

myself, I think you will be content to take up, it lieth so far

wide.

VINCENT: That will I, with a good will, uncle.

ANTHONY: Well, do so, then, cousin, and we shall aim for the rest.

First must you, cousin, be sure that you look well to the mark, and

that you cannot do so unless you know what tribulation is. For

since that is one of the things that we principally speak of,

unless you consider well what it is, you may miss the mark again.

I suppose now that you will agree that tribulation is every such

thing as troubleth and grieveth a man either in body or mind, and

is as it were the prick of a thorn, a bramble, or a briar thrust

into his flesh or into his mind. And surely, cousin, the prick that

very sore pricketh the mind surpasseth in pain the grief that

paineth the body, almost as far as doth a thorn sticking in the

heart surpass and exceed in pain the thorn that is thrust in the

heel.

Now cousin, if tribulation be this that I call it, then shall you

soon consider this: There are more kinds of tribulation

peradventure than you thought on before. And thereupon it followeth

also, since every kind of tribulation is an interruption of wealth,

that prosperity (which is but another name for wealth) may be

discontinued by more ways than you would before have thought. Then

say I thus unto you, cousin: Since tribulation is not only such

pangs as pain the body, but every trouble also that grieveth the

mind, many good men have many tribulations that every man marketh

not, and consequently their wealth is interrupted when other men

are not aware. For think you, cousin, that the temptations of the

devil, the world, and the flesh, soliciting the mind of a good man

unto sin, are not a great inward trouble and grief to his heart? To

such wretches as care not for their conscience, but like

unreasonable beasts follow their foul affections, many of these

temptations are no trouble at all, but matter of their bodily

pleasure. But unto him, cousin, that standeth in dread of God, the

tribulation of temptation is so painful that, to be rid of it or to

be sure of the victory, he would gladly give more than half his

substance, be it never so great. Now if he who careth not for God

think that this trouble is but a trifle, and that with such

tribulation prosperity is not interrupted, let him cast in his mind

if he himself come upon a fervent longing for something which he

cannot get (as a good man will not), as perchance his pleasure of

some certain good woman who will not be caught. And then let him

tell me whether the ruffle of his desire shall not so torment his

mind that all the pleasures that he can take beside shall, for lack

of that one, not please him a pin! And I dare be bold to warrant

him that the pain in resisting, and the great fear of falling, that

many a good man hath in his temptation, is an anguish and a grief

every deal as great as this.

Now I say further, cousin, that if this be true, as indeed it is,

that such trouble is tribulation, and thereby consequently an

interruption of prosperous wealth, no man meaneth precisely to pray

for another to keep him in continual prosperity without any manner

of discontinuance or change in this world. For that prayer, without

other condition added or implied, would be inordinate and very

childish. For it would be to pray either that they should never

have temptation, or else that if they had they might follow and

fulfil their affection. Who would dare, good cousin, for shame or

for sin, for himself or any other man, to make this kind of prayer?

Besides this, cousin, the church, you know, well adviseth every man

to fast, to watch, and to pray, both for taming of his fleshly

lusts and also to mourn and lament his sin before committed and to

bewail his offence done against God, as they did at the city of

Nineve, and as the prophet David did for his sin put affliction to

his flesh. And when a man so doth, cousin, is this no tribulation

to him because he doth it himself? For I know you would agree that

it would be, if another man did it against his will. Then is

tribulation, you know, tribulation still, though it be taken well

in worth. Yea, and though it be taken with very right good will,

yet is pain, you know, pain, and therefore so is it, though a man

do it himself. Then, since the church adviseth every man to take

tribulation for his sin, whatsoever words you find in any prayer,

they never mean, do you be fast and sure, to pray God to keep every

good man (nor every bad man neither) from every kind of tribulation.

Now he who is not in a certain kind of tribulation, as peradventure

in sickness or in loss of goods, is not yet out of tribulation. For

he may have his ease of body or mind disquieted (and thereby his

wealth interrupted) with another kind of tribulation, as is either

temptation to a good man, or voluntary affliction, either of body

by penance or of mind by contrition and heaviness for his sin and

offence against God. And thus I say that for precise perpetual

wealth and prosperity in this world--that is to say, for the

perpetual lack of all trouble and tribulation--no wise man prayeth

either for himself or for any man else. And thus I answer your

first objection.

Now before I meddle with your second, your third will I join to

this. For upon this answer will the solution of your examples

fittingly depend.

As for Solomon, he was, as you say, all his days a marvellous

wealthy king, and much was he beloved with God, I know, in the

beginning of his reign. But that the favour of God continued with

him, as his prosperity did, that cannot I tell, and therefore will

I not warrant it. But surely we see that his continual wealth made

him fall into wanton folly, first in multiplying wives to a

horrible number, contrary to the commandment of God, given in the

law of Moses, and secondly in taking to wife among others some who

were infidels, contrary to another commandment of God's written

law. Also we see that finally, by means of his infidel wife, he

fell into maintenance of idolatry himself. And of this we find no

amendment or repentance, as we find of his father. And therefore,

though he were buried where his father was, yet whether he went to

the rest that his father did, through some secret sorrow for his

sin at last--that is to say, by some kind of tribulation--I cannot

tell, and am content therefore to trust well and pray God that he

did so. But surely we are not so sure, and therefore the example of

Solomon can very little serve you. For you might as well lay it for

a proof that God favoureth idolatry as that he favoureth

prosperity; for Solomon was, you know, in both.

As for Job, since our question hangeth upon prosperity that is

perpetual, the wealth of Job, which was interrupted with so great

adversity, can, as you yourself see, serve you for no example. And

that God gave him here in this world all things double that he

lost, little toucheth my matter, which denieth not prosperity to be

God's gift, and given to some good men, too; namely, to such as

have tribulation too.

But in Abraham, cousin, I suppose is all your chief hold, because

you not only show riches and prosperity perpetual in him through

the course of all his whole life in this world, but after his death

also. Lazarus, that poor man, who lived in tribulation and died for

pure hunger and thirst, had after his death his place of comfort

and rest in Abraham's--that wealthy man's--bosom. But here must you

consider that Abraham had not such continual prosperity but what it

was discontinued with divers tribulations.

Was it nothing to him, think you, to leave his own country, and at

God's sending to go into a strange land, which God promised him and

his seed forever, but in all his life he gave him never a foot? Was

it no trouble, that his cousin Loth and himself were fain to part

company, because their servants could not agree together? Though he

recovered Loth again from the three kings, was his capture no

trouble to him, think you, in the meanwhile? Was the destruction of

the five cities no heaviness to his heart? Any man would think so,

who readeth in the story what labour he made to save them. His

heart was, I daresay, in no little sorrow, when he was fain to let

Abimelech the king have his wife. Though God provided to keep her

undefiled and turned all to wealth, yet it was no little woe to him

in the meantime. What continual grief was it to his heart, many a

long day, that he had no child begotten of his own body? He that

doubteth thereof shall find in Genesis Abraham's own moan made to

God. No man doubteth but Ismael was great comfort unto him at his

birth; and was it no grief, then, when he must cast out the mother

and the child both? As for Isaac, who was the child of the promise,

although God kept his life, that was unlooked for. Yet while the

loving father bound him and went about to behead him and offer him

up in sacrifice, who but himself can conceive what heaviness his

heart had then? I should suppose (since you speak of Lazarus) that

Lazarus' own death panged him not so sore. Then, as Lazarus' pain

was patiently borne, so was Abraham's taken not only patiently

but--which is a thing much more meritorious--of obedience

willingly. And therefore, even if Abraham had not far excelled

Lazarus in merit of reward (as he did indeed) for many other things

besides, and especially for that he was a special patriarch of the

faith, yet would he have far surpassed him even by the merit of

that tribulation well taken here for God's sake too. And so serveth

for your purpose no man less than Abraham!

But now, good cousin, let us look a little longer here upon the

rich Abraham and Lazarus the poor. And as we shall see Lazarus set

in wealth somewhat under the rich Abraham, so shall we see another

rich man lie full low beneath Lazarus, crying and calling out of

his fiery couch that Lazarus might, with a drop of water falling

from his finger's end, a little cool and refresh the tip of his

burning tongue. Consider well now what Abraham answered to the rich

wretch: "Son, remember that thou hast in thy life received wealth,

and Lazarus likewise pain, but now receiveth he comfort, and thou

sorrow, pain, and torment." Christ described his wealth and his

prosperity: gay and soft apparel with royal delicate fare,

continually day by day. "He did fare royally every day," saith our

Saviour; his wealth was continual, lo, no time of tribulation

between. And Abraham telleth him the same tale, that he had taken

his wealth in this world, and Lazarus likewise his pain, and that

they had now changed each to the clean contrary--poor Lazarus from

tribulation into wealth, and the rich man from his continual

prosperity into perpetual pain. Here was laid expressly to Lazarus

no very great virtue by name, nor to this rich glutton no great

heinous crime but the taking of his continual ease and pleasure,

without any tribulation or grief, of which grew sloth and

negligence to think upon the poor man's pain. For that ever he

himself saw Lazarus and knew that he died for hunger at his door,

that laid neither Christ nor Abraham to his charge. And therefore,

cousin, this story of which, by occasion of Abraham and Lazarus,

you put me in remembrance, well declareth what peril there is in

continual worldly wealth; and contrariwise what comfort cometh of

tribulation. And thus, as your other examples of Solomon and Job

nothing for the matter further you, so your example of rich Abraham

and poor Lazarus hath not a little hindered you.