Sacred Texts  Christianity  Early Church Fathers  Index  Previous  Next 

Chapter XI.—The Afflictions of the Righteous.

But Peter, hearing this, wept through sympathy, and immediately said to the gentlemen who were present:  “If any worshipper of God had suffered these things, such as this man’s father hath suffered, he would immediately have assigned the cause of it to be his worship of God, ascribing it to the wicked one.  Thus also it is the lot of the wretched Gentiles to suffer; and we worshippers of God know it not.  But with good reason I call them wretched, because here they are ensnared, and the hope that is thine they obtain not.  For those who in the worship of God suffer afflictions, suffer them for the expiation of their transgressions.”