abundant comprehension of God's will--and certainly we ought to
have it in greater degree than the angels--until we, too, shall be
able to behold it eternally in the life everlasting, then we have but
a taste of that knowledge, a mere empty froth, which can neither
refresh nor satisfy us, cannot comfort us nor make us better.

WHY AFFLICTIONS ARE SENT.

15. To create and stimulate this hunger and thirst in us, and to
bring us to the attainment of full knowledge, God kindly sends upon
his Christians temptation, sorrow and affliction. These preserve them
from carnal satiety and teach them to seek comfort and help. So God
did also in former ages, in the time of the martyrs, when he daily
suffered them to be violently seized in person and put to death by
sword, fire, blood and wild beasts. In this way he truly led his
people to school, where they were obliged to learn to know his will
and to be able defiantly to say: "No, O tyrant, O world, devil and
flesh, though you may injure me bodily, may beat or torment me,
banish me or even take my life, you shall not deprive me of my Lord
Jesus Christ--of God's grace and mercy." So faith taught them and
confirmed to them that such suffering was God's purpose and immutable
will concerning themselves, which, whatever attitude towards them he
might assume, he could not alter, even as he could not in the case of
Christ himself. This discipline and experience of faith strengthened
the martyrs and soon accustomed them to suffering, enabling them to
go to their death with pleasure and joy. Whence came, even to young
girls thirteen and fourteen years old, like Agnes and Agatha, the
courage and confidence to stand boldly before the Roman judge, and,
when led to death, to go as joyfully as to a festivity, whence unless
their hearts were filled with a sublime and steadfast faith, a
positive assurance that God was not angry with them, but that all was
his gracious and merciful will and for their highest salvation and
bliss?

16. Behold, what noble and enlightened, what strong and courageous,
people God produced by the discipline of cross and affliction! We, in
contrast, because unwilling to experience such suffering, are weak
and enervated. If but a little smoke gets into our eyes, our joy and
courage are gone, likewise our perception of God's will, and we can
only raise a loud lamentation and cry of woe. As I said, this is the
inevitable condition of a heart to which the experience of af