For God has prescribed that our conscience must rest on the bare rock. This is said also of government in general, that no one might follow his own darkness, and that nothing might be done of which he was not sure that God would sanction it. Whence you perceive how St. Peter so long ago thrust down to the ground the government of Popes and bishops, as we have it at the present day. Now follows: V. 11. _That God in all things may be glorified through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever; Amen._ For this reason it is, you are to be so confident, (he means), that God speaks and does all that you speak and do. For if you perform a work of which you are not sure that God has done it, you cannot praise and give thanks. But where a man is certain of it, in that case he may praise and thank Him for His word and works' sake, though he should be belied and held up for derision. Therefore it is a shameful and ruinous thing that in Christendom any one should govern in opposition to the word and works of God. Therefore, from necessity, has St. Peter subjoined that in which he instructs how government should be ordered among christian people. Then follows, further: V. 12. _Beloved, be not surprised at the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you._ That is a mode of speech not common in our language. But St. Peter uses this very phraseology, in order to remind us of that concerning which the Holy Scripture speaks. For the Scripture is accustomed to speak of suffering as though it were a furnace full of fire and heat. St. Peter has spoken in the same manner, above, in the first chapter: "That the trial of your faith be found far more precious than the perishing gold that is tried by fire." We may also read in the prophet Isaiah, chap. xlviii., God says: "I have tried thee in the furnace of affliction;" and Ps. xvi., "With fire hast thou tried me;" and Ps. xxv., "Lord, thou wilt consume and destroy my nerves and my heart;" also, Ps. lxv., "We have passed through fire and water." Thus the Scriptures are accustomed to illustrate what we call suffering, by burning or trial by fire. This is St. Peter's conclusion, that we should not suffer ourselves to be surprised, or to think it strange and wonderful that the heat or fire should meet us, whereby we are tried, just as gold is when it is melted in the fire.