Peace, peace, there in the belfry; service begins. Upon
their knees before they join falls John Leyden and his
fraternity very devoutly; they pray, they howl, they expostulate
with God to grant them victory, and use such unspeakable
vehemence a man would think them the only well-bent men
under heaven. Wherein let me dilate a little more gravely than
the nature of this history requires, or will be expected of so
young a practitioner in divinity, that not those that intermissively
cry, Lord open unto us, Lord upon unto us, enter first into the
kingdom, that not the greatest professors have the greatest
portion in grace, that all is not gold that glisters. When Christ
said the kingdom of heaven must suffer violence, He meant
not the violence of long babbling prayers, nor the violence of
tedious invective sermons without wit, but the violence of faith,
the violence of good works, the violence of patient suffering.
The ignorant snatch the kingdom of heaven to themselves
with greediness, when we with all our learning sink into hell.