Let us fall to fasting, to prayer, and to almsdeed in time, and give unto God that which may be taken from us.  If the devil put in our mind the saving of our land and our goods, let us remember that we cannot save them long.  If he frighten us with exile and flying from our country, let us remember that we be born into the broad world, not to stick still in one place like a tree, and that whithersoever we go, God shall go with us.  If he threaten us with captivity, let us answer him that it is better to be thrall unto a man for a while, for the pleasure of God, than, by displeasing God, to be perpetual thrall unto the devil.  If he threaten us with imprisonment, let us tell him that we would rather be man’s prisoner a while here in earth than, by forsaking the faith, be his prisoners for ever in hell.  If he put in our minds the terror of the Turks, let us consider his false sleight, for this tale he telleth us to make us forget him.  But let us remember well that, in respect of himself, the Turks are but a shadow.  And all that they can do can be but a flea-bite in comparison with the mischief that he goeth about.  The Turks are but his tormentors, for he himself doth the deed.  Our Lord saith in the Apocalypse, “The devil shall send some of you to prison, to tempt you.”  He saith not that men shall, but that the devil shall, himself.  For without question the devil’s own deed it is, to bring us by his temptation, with fear and force, into eternal damnation.  And therefore saith St. Paul, “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood,” etc.

Thus may we see that in such persecutions it is the midday devil himself that maketh such incursion upon us, by the men who are his ministers, to make us fall for fear.  For until we fall he can never hurt us.  And therefore saith St. James, “Stand against the devil and he shall flee from you.”  For he never runneth upon a man to seize him with his claws until he see him down on the ground, willingly fallen himself.  For his fashion is to set his servants against us, and by them to make us fall for fear or for impatience.  And he himself in the meanwhile compasseth us, running and roaring like a ramping lion about us, looking to see who will fall, that he may then devour him.  “Your adversary the devil,” saith St. Peter, “like a roaring lion, runneth about in circuit, seeking whom he may devour.”

The devil it is, therefore, who, if we will fall for fear of men, is ready to run upon us and devour us.  And is it wisdom, then, to think so much upon the Turks that we forget the devil?  What a madman would he be who, when a lion were about to devour him, would vouchsafe to regard the biting of a little fisting cur?  Therefore, when he roareth out upon us by the threats of mortal men, let us tell him that with our inward eye we see him well enough, and intend to stand and fight with him, even hand to hand.  If he threaten us that we be too weak, let us tell him that our captain Christ is with us, and that we