Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XII/Chapter 11

Chapter XI.&#8212;The Afflictions of the Righteous.

But Peter, hearing this, wept through sympathy, and immediately said to the gentlemen who were present:&#160; &#8220;If any worshipper of God had suffered these things, such as this man&#8217;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.&#160; Thus also it is the lot of the wretched Gentiles to suffer; and we worshippers of God know it not.&#160; But with good reason I call them wretched, because here they are ensnared, and the hope that is thine they obtain not.&#160; For those who in the worship of God suffer afflictions, suffer them for the expiation of their transgressions.&#8221;