Author: Durandus

Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Published: 2012-08-07

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9781478157007

The first point that must be made of this book is that the dialect is older English."But now, my good uncle, the world is here waxen such, and so great perils appear here to fall at hand, that me thinketh the greatest comfort that a man can have is, when he may see that he shall soon be gone." (Pg 1-2)The reader will have to accustom themselves to a learning curve.In the first Chapter St. Thomas More, tells us that philosophers of old created ways to be comforted in tribulation. These pagan philosophers told their followers that they should place of little value on worldly goods and honors. But as the Saint continues on,"for they never stretched so far, but that they leave untouched, for lack of necessary knowledge, that special point which is not only the chief comfort of all, but, without which also, all other comforts are nothing. That is, to wit, the referring of the final end of their comfort unto God, and the repute and take for the special cause of comfort, that by the patient sufferance of their tribulation they shall attain His favour, and for their pain receive reward at His hand in Heaven." (Pg 9)He ends the first chapter by saying, "Honorsa medicum; propter necessitatem etenim ordinavit eum Altissimus." - honor the physician for him hath the high God ordained for thy necessity. (Eccl 38) St. Thomas more points to this heavenly physician as Christ Himself applying His own blood as our medicine.The second chapter tells us that it is faith that must be the foundation for men's comfort. "That is, to wit, the ground and foundation of faith, without which had ready before, all the spiritual comfort that any man may speak of can never avail a fly. For likewise as it were utterly vain to lay natural reasons of comfort to him that hath no wit, so were it undoubtedly frustrate to lay spiritual causes of comfort to him that hath no faith." (Pg 11)St. Thomas More in the third chapter assigns the first comfort as the following: "...the desire and longing to be by God comforted." (Pg 14) St. Thomas more writes that those who seek comfort in anything outside of God will never become comforted. He quotes St. Bernard: "He that in tribulation turneth himself unto worldly vanities, to get help and comfort by them, fareth like a man that in peril of drowning catcheth whatsoever cometh next to hand, and that holdeth he fast, be it never so simple a stick; but then that helpeth him not, for that stick he draweth down under the water with him, and there lie they drowned both together." (Pg 15)The fourth chapter bring forth the idea that tribulation was meant to bring men of good will (Luke 2:14) to closer to God. "Some are in the beginning of tribulation very stubborn and stiff against God, and yet at length tribulation bringeth them home." (Pg 18)St. Thomas More continues to bring this point home by writing: "The proud king Pharaoh did abide and endure two or three of the first plagues, and would not once stoop at them. But then God laid on a sorer lash that made him cry to him for help, and then sent he for Moses and Aaron, and confessed himself a sinner, and God for good and righteous, and prayed them to pray for him, and to withdraw that plague, and he would let them go. But when his tribulation was withdrawn, then, was he naught again. So was his tribulation occasion of his profit, and his help again cause of his harm. For his tribulation made him call to God, and his help made hard his heart again." (Pg 18)