Ver. 18. — And you shall have confidence, hope being set before you. 36. The more surely he hopes in God, the harder the things he suffers for Him. — For hope in God rises the more solid, the graver the things anyone has endured for Him; because in no way is the joy of recompense gathered from eternity which is not first here sown by devout tribulation. For hence it is said through the Psalmist: Going they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps. cxxv, 6). Hence Paul says: If we die together, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together (2 Tim. ii, 11). Hence he admonishes the disciples, saying: Through many tribulations it behooves us to enter into the kingdom of God (Acts xiv, 21).
Hence the angel, revealing the glory of the saints to John, says: These are they who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. vii, 14). Since, therefore, now it is sown through tribulation, that afterward the fruit of joy may be reaped, the greater the confidence that strengthens the mind, the stronger the affliction that straitens it for the sake of truth. Whence fittingly it is at once added: