Are we so delicate as to be unwilling to endure anything?  Then we must renounce the grace of God by which He has called us to the hope of salvation.  For there are two things which can not be separated—­to be members of Christ, and to be tried by many afflictions.  We certainly ought to prize such a conformity to the Son of God much more than we do.  It is true, that in the world’s judgment there is disgrace in suffering for the gospel.  But since we know that believers are blind, ought we not to have better eyes than they?  It is ignominy to suffer from those who occupy the seat of justice, but St. Paul shows us by his example that we have to glory in scourings for Jesus Christ, as marks by which God recognizes us and avows us for His own.  And we know what St. Luke narrates of Peter and John (Acts v., 41); namely, that they rejoiced to have been counted worthy to suffer infamy and reproach for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Ignominy and dignity are two opposites:  so says the world, which, being infatuated, judges against all reason, and in this way converts the glory of God into dishonor.  But, on our part, let us not refuse to be vilified as concerns the world, in order to be honored before God and His angels.  We see what pains the ambitious take to receive the commands of a king, and what a boast they make of it.  The Son of God presents His commands to us, and every one stands back.  Tell me, pray, whether in so doing are we worthy of having anything in common with Him? there is nothing here to attract our sensual nature, but such notwithstanding are the true escutcheons of nobility in the heavens.  Imprisonment, exile, evil report, imply in men’s imagination whatever is to be vituperated; but what hinders us from viewing things as God judges and declares them, save our unbelief?  Wherefore, let the name of the Son of God have all the weight with us which it deserves, that we may learn to count it honor when He stamps His marks upon us.  If we act otherwise our ingratitude is insupportable.

Were God to deal with us according to our desserts, would He not have just cause to chastise us daily in a thousand ways?  Nay more, a hundred thousand deaths would not suffice for a small portion of our misdeeds!  Now, if in His infinite goodness He puts all our faults under His foot and abolishes them, and instead of punishing us according to our demerit, devises an admirable means to convert our afflictions into honor and a special privilege, inasmuch as through them we are taken into partnership with His Son, must it not be said, when we disdain such a happy state, that we have indeed made little progress in Christian doctrine?