ne wickedly, but takes you into His favor and gives
you--Eternal Salvation. Therefore let Him manage them; He will give a
just reward.

Of this we have an example in holy Job, when all his cattle and all
his sons were slain, and his property was taken away; when he said,
"The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; as it was well pleasing
to God, so has it been ordered, therefore praised be His name." And
when his wife came, deriding him, and railed at him, and said: "See!
what hast thou now, abiding in thine integrity? Curse God and die:"
then he answered her--"Thou hast spoken like a foolish woman: are we
to receive good at God's hands,--why should we not also receive evil
from Him, for He hath done as it hath pleased Him? God hath given,
and God hath taken away," he says; not God has given it, the devil
hath taken it away, while yet it was the devil that did it. This man
truly sanctified the Lord; therefore is he so highly praised and
exalted of God. It follows, further:

V. 15. _But be always ready to give an answer to every man that
asketh you, the reason of the hope that is in you._ We must here
acknowledge that St. Peter addressed these words to all Christians,
clergy and laity, male and female, young and old, of whatever state
or condition they may be. From thence it will follow that every
Christian should know the ground and reason of his faith, and be able
to maintain and defend it where it is necessary. But up to this time,
the idea that the laity should read the Scriptures has been treated
with derision. For in this matter the devil has hit on a fine
measure, in tearing the Bible out of the hands of the laity,--and
this is what he has thought: "If I can keep the laity from reading
the Scripture, I will then bring the priests over from the Bible to
Aristotle, so that gossip they what they will, the laity must hear
just what they set forth; while if the laity should read the
Scripture, the priests must study it too, in order that they may not
be detected and overcome." But look you now at what St. Peter tells
us all, that we should give answer and show reason for our faith.
When you come to die I shall not be with you, neither will the Pope;
and if you know but this one reason of your hope, and say, "I will
believe as the Councils, the Pope and the Fathers believed," then the
devil will answer, "Yes! but how if they were in error?" Then will he
have won, and will drag you down to hell. Therefore must we kn