These things I put you in mind of, beloved mother, that, albeit your pains sometimes are so horrible, that you find no release nor comfort, neither in spirit nor body; yet if the heart can only sob unto God, despair not; you shall obtain your heart's desire, and you are not destitute of faith. For at such time as the flesh, natural reason, the law of God, the present torment, and the devil, at once do cry, "God is angry, and therefore is there neither help nor remedy to be hoped for at his hands" at such time, I say, to sob unto God is the demonstration of the secret seed of God, which is hid in God's elect children; and that sobs only are a more acceptable sacrifice unto God, than, without this cross, to give our bodies to be burnt, even for the truth's sake. For if God is present by [the] assistance of his Holy Spirit, or no doubt is in our conscience, but we stand assuredly in God's favor, what can corporeal trouble hurt the soul or mind? seeing the bitter frosty wind cannot hurt the body itself, which is most warmly covered and clad from violence of the cold. [John Knox]
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