Matthew 10:39

Verse 39. He that findeth his life, c.] i.e. He who, for the sake of his temporal interest, abandons his spiritual concerns, shall lose his soul and he who, in order to avoid martyrdom, abjures the pure religion of Christ, shall lose his soul, and perhaps his life too. He that findeth his life shall lose it, was literally fulfilled in Archbishop Cranmer. He confessed Christ against the devil, and his eldest son, the pope. He was ordered to be burnt; to save his life he recanted, and was, notwithstanding, burnt. Whatever a man sacrifices to God is never lost, for he finds it again in God.

There is a fine piece on this subject in Juvenal, Sat. viii. l. 80, which deserves to be recorded here.

----------- ambiguae si quando citabere testis

Incertaeque rei, Phalaris liect imperet ut sis

Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,

Summum crede nefas ANIMAM praeferre PUDORI

Et propter VITAM VIVENDI perdere causas.

---------- If ever call'd

To give thy witness in a doubtful case,

Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie,

On pain of torture in his flaming bull,

Disdain to barter innocence for life;

To which life owes its lustre and its worth.

Wakefield.