As long as we be in health and prosperity, we
care not for him; we be slothful, we have no stomach at all; and
therefore these sauces are very necessary for us. We have a common
saying amongst us, when we see a fellow sturdy, lofty, and proud, men
say, "This is a saucy fellow;" signifying him to be a high-minded fellow,
which taketh more upon him than he ought to do, or his estate requireth:
which thing, no doubt, is naught and ill; for every one ought to behave
himself according unto his calling and estate. But he that will be a
christian man, that intendeth to come to heaven, must be a saucy fellow;
he must be well powdered with the sauce of affliction, and tribulation;
not with proudness and stoutness, but with miseries and calamities: for
so it is written, _Omnes qui pie volunt vivere in Christo persecutionem
patientur_; "Whosoever will live godly in Christ, he shall have
persecution and miseries:" he shall have sauce enough to his meat. Again,
our Saviour saith, _Qui vult meus esse discipulus, abneget semetipsum et
tollat crucem suam et sequatur me_; "He that will be my disciple must
deny himself and take his cross upon him, and follow me." Is there any
man that will feed upon me, that will eat my flesh and drink my blood?
Let him forsake himself.
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