gh desire to see the flowing
of the blood, but to give you a specimen of steady purpose, to make
known throughout the world this worthy man, and to instruct all in
coming time that it is necessary to prefer the command of God before
children and nature, before all things, and even life itself. And so
Abraham descended from the Mount, bringing alive the martyr Isaac. How
can we be pardoned then, tell me, or what apology can we have, if we see
that noble man obeying God with so much promptness and submitting to Him
in all things, and yet we murmur at His dispensations? Tell me not of
grief, nor of the intolerable nature of your calamity; rather consider
how in the midst of bitter sorrow you may yet rise superior to it. That
which was commanded to Abraham was enough to stagger his reason, to
throw him into perplexity, and to undermine his faith in the past. For
who would not have then thought that the promise which had been made him
of a numerous posterity was all a deception? But not so Abraham. And not
less ought we to admire Job's wisdom in calamity; and particularly, that
after so much virtue, after his alms and various acts of kindness to
men, and tho aware of no wrong either in himself or his children, yet
experiencing so much affliction, affliction so singular, such as had
never happened even to the most desperately wicked, still he was not
affected by it as most men would have been, nor did he regard his virtue
as profitless, nor form any ill-advised opinion concerning the past.

By these two examples, then, we ought not only to admire virtue, but to
emulate and imitate it. And let no one say these were wonderful men.
True, they were wonderful and great men. But we are now required to have
more wisdom than they, and than all who lived under the Old Testament.
For "except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Gathering wisdom, then,
from all quarters, and considering what we are told concerning a
resurrection and concerning these holy men, let us frequently recite it
to our souls, not only when we are actually in sorrow, but also while we
are free from distress. For I have now addrest you on this subject, tho
no one is in particular affliction, that when we shall fall into any
such calamity, we may, from the remembrance of what has been said,
obtain requisite consolation. As soldiers, even in peace, perform
warlike exercises, so that when actually