leth not to believe
well and hope well, God will never fail in all temptation to
defend him. For unto such a faithful well-hoping man the prophet
in the same psalm saith further, "With his shoulders shall he
shadow thee, and under his feathers shalt thou trust." Lo, here
hath every faithful man a sure promise that in the fervent heat of
temptation or tribulation--for, as I have said divers times
before, each is in such wise incident to the other that the devil
useth every tribulation for temptation to bring us to impatience,
and thereby to murmur and grudge and blasphemy; and every kind of
temptation, to a good man who fighteth against it and will not
follow it, is a very painful tribulation. In the fervent heat, I
say therefore, of every temptation, God giveth the faithful man
who hopeth in him the shadow of his holy shoulders. His shoulders
are broad and large enough to cool and refresh the man in that
heat, and in every tribulation he putteth them for a defence
between. And then what weapon of the devil may give us any deadly
wound, while that impenetrable shield of the shoulder of God
standeth always between?

Then goeth the verse further, and saith unto such a faithful man,
"Thine hope shall be under his feathers." That is, for the good
hope thou hast in his help, he will take thee so near him into his
protection that, as the hen, to keep her young chickens from the
kite, nestled them together under her wings, so from the devil's
claws--the ravenous kite of this dark air--will the God of heaven
gather the faithful trusting folk near unto his own sides, and set
them in surety, very well and warm, under the covering of his
heavenly wings. And of this defence and protection, our
Saviour spoke himself unto the Jews, as mention is made in the
twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew, to whom he said in this wise:
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets and stonest unto
death them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered
thee together, as the hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and thou wouldst not."

Here are, cousin Vincent, words of no little comfort unto every
Christian man. For by them we may see with what tender affection
God of his great goodness longeth to gather us under the
protection of his wings, and how often like a loving hen he
clucketh home unto him even those chickens of his that wilfully
walk abroad into the kite's danger and will not come at his
clucking, but ever, the mo