'Oh! my dearly beloved, if we shall gain comfort from
afflictions, if rest from labours, if health after sickness, if from
death immortality, it is not right to be distressed by the temporal ills
that lay hold on mankind. It does not become us to be agitated because
of the trials which befall us. It is not right to fear if the gang that
contended with Christ, should conspire against godliness; but we should
the more please God through these things, and should consider such
matters as the probation and exercise of a virtuous life. For how shall
patience be looked for, if there be not previously labours and sorrows?
Or how can fortitude be tested with no assault from enemies? Or how
shall magnanimity be exhibited, unless after contumely and injustice? Or
how can long-suffering be proved, unless there has first been the
calumny of Antichrist? And, finally, how can a man behold virtue with
his eyes, unless the iniquity of the very wicked has previously
appeared? Thus even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ comes before us,
when He would show men how to suffer, Who when He was smitten bore it
patiently, being reviled He reviled not again, when He suffered He
threatened not, but He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to
buffetings, and turned not His face from spitting (1 Peter 2:23; Isaiah
50:6) and at last, was willingly led to death, that we might behold in
Him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we,
conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents
and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy.'
