Suffering For Heaven

Dominus autem benedixit novissimis Job... Ex magna nimirum divinae gratiae dispensatione praecessit afflictio, ut post moerorem gaudium, post naufragium portus, post laborem requies, dulcedo post amaritudinem, post persecutiones prosperitas gratius arriderent. Porro ideo super dorsum justi, qui positus est inter malleum et incudem, de permissione divina fabricant peccatores, ut post dies malos, quibus afflictus et humiliatus est, plenior laetitia subsequatur, sicut propheta dicit: Laetati sumus pro diebus quibus nos humiliasti, annis quibus vidimus mala. Juxta Sapientis verbum: Ante ruinam exaltatur cor: et e contrario gloriam praecedit humilitas. Humilitas enim via est ad exaltationem, dolor ad gaudium, persecutio ad felicitatem, ad risum gemitus, mors ad vitam. Flagellat itaque Dominus suos, ne flagellentur in posterum: et temporaliter eos punit, ne aeternaliter puniantur. Legitur in Libro Regum, quia quum Salomon aedificaret templum Domini, lapides omnes extra tunsi fuerunt, ut in aedificatione templi sine sonitu mallei ponerentur. Sancti enim per flagella tunduntur temporaliter, ut in aedificio coelestis Jerusalem, quae aedificatur ut civitas sine flagello disciplinae, sine poenitentiae gemitu caritatis glutino uniantur. In alia siquidem vita inter ardores sempiternos non est locus veniam promerendi, quia in inferno nulla est redemptio; nec homini in peccatis mortuo relinquitur hostia pro peccato. Petrus Blenensis, Compendium In Job: Ad Henericum II Illustrissimum Anglorum Regem, Caput XLII Source:  Migne PL 207.823b-d

The Lord blessed the final days of Job... 1 By the great dispensation of Divine grace affliction comes first, that after grieving there is joy, after shipwreck the haven, after labour rest, after bitterness sweetness, and that after persecution prosperity might shine more pleasantly. Thus it is that with Divine permission sinners labour over the back of the righteous man, who is placed as between the hammer and the anvil, that after evil days, by which he is afflicted and humbled, greater joy shall follow. As the prophet says: 'We rejoiced over the days you humiliated us, the years in which we saw evil.' 2 And according to the word of Wisdom it is said that the heart is exalted before ruin, and on the contrary humility comes before glory. 3 For the way of humility leads to exaltation, grief to joy, persecution to happiness, groans to laughter, death to life. In this way the Lord whips his own, lest they be whipped later. For a time He punishes them, lest they be punished eternally. It is written in the book of Kings that when Solomon built the temple of the Lord every stone was worked on outside, that in the building of the temple, they might be placed together without the sound of the hammer. 4 So the holy are worked on for a time by blows so that in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is built up like a city, 5 there is unity in the bond of charity without the whip of discipline and without the groans of penitence. Indeed in the other life among eternal flames there is no place for the earning of forgiveness, because in hell there is no salvation, nor for a man dead in his sins is there left any space for a sacrifice for sin. Peter of Blois, Compendium On Job, To Henry II Most Illustrious King Of The English, Chapter 42 1 Job 42.12 2 Ps 89.15 3 Prov 16.18 4 3 Kings 6.7 5 Ps 121.3