It is marvelously strange, they say, how God, after having
chosen us for His children, allows us to be trampled upon and tormented
by the ungodly. I answer: Even were it not apparent why He does so, He
might well exercise His authority over us, and fix our lot at His
pleasure. But when we see that Jesus Christ is our pattern, ought we
not, without inquiring further, to esteem it great happiness that we are
made like Him? God, however, makes it very apparent what the reasons are
for which He is pleased that we should be persecuted. Had we nothing
more than the consideration suggested by St. Peter (I Peter i., 7), we
were disdainful indeed not to acquiesce in it. He says that since gold
and silver, which are only corruptible metals, are purified and tested
by fire, it is but reasonable that our faith, which surpasses all the
riches of the world, should be so tried.
It were easy indeed for God to crown us at once without requiring us to
sustain any combats; but as it is His pleasure that until the end of the
world Christ shall reign in the midst of His enemies, so it is also His
pleasure that we, being placed in the midst of them, shall suffer their
oppression and violence till He deliver us.
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