hamed,
but glorify God._ Here he makes the suffering and anguish the more
welcome, because it is great, insomuch that we praise God through it,
and because we are not worthy of it. Yet now all will shrink
therefrom. Of what advantage is it to embrace the cross in
monasteries? The cross of Christ does not save me. I must, indeed,
believe in His cross, but I must myself bear my own cross. His
suffering must I experience inwardly, if I would possess the true
treasure. Let St. Peter's bones be holy, yet how does it help you?
You and your bones should be holy, too, which can take place only
when you suffer for Christ's sake.

V. 17. _For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of
God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the Gospel of God?_ He here brings two passages from the
prophets together in one. As to the first, Jeremiah says, xxv.:
"Behold, I send my judgments upon the city which is called by my
name; and if first of all I afflict my dearly beloved children who
believe on me, who first of all must suffer and past through the
fire, do ye who are my enemies, ye who do not believe, suppose that
ye shall escape punishment?" So in chap. xlix. he says: "They whose
judgment was not to drink the cup, have assuredly drunken, and
thinkest thou that thou art he that shall not drink?" That is, I
strike my beloved, that you may see how I shall treat my enemies.
Observe here the force of the words: if God holds his saints in such
esteem, yet has been willing to have them judged and exposed with
such severity, what will then be done with the others?

So also Ezekiel, chap. ix., saw armed men with their swords, who were
to slay all, to whom God said, begin at my sanctuary. That is what
St. Peter means in this place. Therefore he says, the time is come,
as the prophets have foretold, when judgment must begin with us. When
the Gospel is preached, God arrests and punishes sin, since it is He
that kills and makes alive. The pious he gently strokes, and first of
all is the rod of kind correction: but what then will be done with
those that do not believe? As though he had said, if He proceeds with
such severity toward His own children, you may infer what must be the
punishment of those who do not believe.

V. 18. _And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the
ungodly and the sinner appear?_ This passage is also taken from the
book of Proverbs, chap. ii. 31.: "If the righ