20. Suppose that things come which are accounted terrible as regards the grief they cause, such as blindness, exile, hunger, violation of a daughter, loss of children. Who will deny that Isaac was blessed, who did not see in his old age, and yet gave blessings with his benediction? Gen. xxvii. 28. Was not Jacob blessed who, leaving his father’s house, endured exile as a shepherd for pay, Gen. xxxi. 41. and mourned for the violated chastity of his daughter, Gen. xxxiv. 5. and suffered hunger? Gen. xlii. 2. Were they not blessed on whose good faith God received witness, as it is written: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? Ex. iii. 6. A wretched thing is slavery, but Joseph was not wretched; nay, clearly he was blessed, when he whilst in slavery checked the lusts of his mistress. Gen. xxxix. 7. What shall I say of holy David who bewailed the death of three sons, 2 Sam. [2 Kings] xii. 16; xiii. 31; xviii. 33. and, what was even worse than this, his daughter’s incestuous connection? 2 Sam. [2 Kings] xiii. 21. How could he be unblessed from whom the Author of blessedness Himself sprung, Who has made many blessed? For: “Blessed are they who have not seen yet have believed.” S. John xx. 29. All these felt their own weakness, but they bravely prevailed over it. What can we think of as more wretched than holy Job, either in the burning of his house, or the instantaneous death of his ten sons, or his bodily pains? Job i. 14 ff. Was he less blessed than if he had not endured those things whereby he really showed himself approved?