I speak not this to condemn you : for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.
Ver. 3. I speak not this, &c.] Though cause enough he had to condemn them for their shameful tenacity toward him, whom they basely suffered to labour for his living and to preach gratis, against all right and reason.
To die and to live with you] Such faithful friends are in this age all for the most part gone on pilgrimage, and their return is uncertain, as once the Duke of Buckingham said to Bishop Morton in Richard III's time. Jonathan and David, Pylades and Orestes, Polistratus and Hippoclides, are famous for their love one to another. These two last, being philosophers of Epicurus' sect, are said to have been born the same day, to have lived together all their days, and to have died in the same moment of time, being well stricken in years. (Valer. Max.) But the love of Irish foster-brothers is said far to surpass all the loves of all men. (Camd. Elizab.)