(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)
Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.
TERTULLIAN.
OF PATIENCE.[1]
(TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.)
CHAP. I.--OF PATIENCE GENERALLY; AND TERTULLIAN'S OWN UNWORTHINESS TO TREAT
OF IT.
I FULLY confess unto the Lord God that it has been rash enough, if not
even impudent, in me to have dared compose a treatise on Patience, for
practising which I am all unfit, being a man of no goodness;[2] whereas
it were becoming that such as have addressed themselves to the
demonstration and commendation of some particular thing, should themselves
first be conspicuous in the practice of that thing, and should regulate the
constancy of their commonishing by the authority of their personal conduct,
for fear their words blush at the deficiency of their deeds. And would that
this "blushing" would bring a remedy, so that shame for not exhibiting that
which we go to suggest to others should prove a tutorship into exhibiting
it; except that the magnitude of some good things--just as of some ills
too--is insupportable, so that only the grace of divine inspiration is
effectual for attaining and practising them. For what is most good rests
most with God; nor does any other than He who possesses it dispense it, as
He deems meet to each. And so to discuss about that which it is not given
one to enjoy, will be, as it were, a solace; after the manner of invalids,
who since they are without health, know not how to be silent about its
blessings. So I, most miserable, ever sick with the heats of impatience,
must of necessity sigh after, and invoke, and persistently plead for, that
health of patience which I possess not; while I recall to mind, and, in the
contemplation of my own weakness, digest, the truth, that the good health
of faith, and the soundness of the Lord's discipline, accrue not easily to
any unless patience sit by his side.[3] So is patience set over the things
of God, that one can obey no precept, fulfil no work well-pleasing to the
Lord, if estranged from it. The good of it, even they who live outside
it,[4] honour with the name of highest virtue. Philosophers indeed, who are
accounted animals of some considerable wisdom, assign it so high a place,
that, while they are mutually at discord with the various fancies of their
sects and rivalries of their sentiments, yet, having a community of regard
for patience alone, to this one of their pursuits they have joined in
granting peace: for it they conspire; for it they league; it, in their
affectation of[5] virtue, they unanimously pursue; concerning patience they
exhibit all their ostentation of wisdom. Grand testimony this is to it, in
that it incites even the vain schools of the world[6] unto praise and glory
!Or is it rather an injury, in that a thing divine is bandied among worldly
sciences? But let them look to that, who shall presently be ashamed of
their wisdom, destroyed and disgraced together with the world[7] (it lives
in).
CHAP. II.--GOD HIMSELF AN EXAMPLE OF PATIENCE.
To us[8] no human affectation of canine[9] equanimity, modelled[10] by
insensibility, furnishes the warrant for exercising patience; but the
divine arrangement of a living and celestial discipline, holding up before
us God Himself in the very first place as an example of patience; who
scatters equally over just and unjust the bloom of this light; who suffers
the good offices of the seasons, the services of the elements, the tributes
of entire nature, to accrue at once to worthy and unworthy; bearing with
the most ungrateful nations, adoring as they do the toys of the arts and
the works of their own hands, persecuting His Name together with His
family; bearing with luxury, avarice, iniquity, malignity, waxing insolent
daily:[1] so that by His own patience He disparages Himself; for the cause
why many believe not in the Lord is that they are so long without
knowing[2] that He is wroth with the world.[3]
CHAP.III.--JESUS CHRIST IN HIS INCARNATION AND WORK A MORE IMITABLE EXAMPLE
THEREOF.
And this species of the divine patience indeed being, as it were, at a
distance, may perhaps be esteemed as among "things too high for us; "[4]
but what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand[5] among
men openly on the earth? God suffers Himself to be conceived in a mother's
womb, and awaits the time for birth; and, when born, bears the delay of
growing up; and, when grown up, is not eager to be recognised, but is
furthermore contumelious to Himself, and is baptized by His own servant;
and repels with words alone the assaults of the tempter; while from being"
Lord" He becomes" Master," teaching man to escape death, having been
trained to the exercise of the absolute forbearance of offended
patience.[6] He did not strive; He did not cry aloud; nor did any hear His
voice in the streets. He did not break the bruised reed; the smoking flax
He did not quench: for the prophet--nay, the attestation of God Himself,
placing His own Spirit, together with patience in its entirety, in His Son-
-had not falsely spoken. There was none desirous of cleaving to Him whom He
did not receive. No one's table or roof did He despise: indeed, Himself
ministered to the washing of the disciples' feet; not sinners, not
publicans, did He repel; not with that city even which had refused to
receive Him was He wroth,[7] when even the disciples had wished that the
celestial fires should be forthwith hurled on so contumelious a town. He
cared for the ungrateful; He yielded to His ensnarers. This were a small
matter, if He had not had in His company even His own betrayer, and
stedfastly abstained from pointing him out. Moreover, while He is being
betrayed, while He is being led up "as a sheep for a victim," (for "so He
no more opens His mouth than a lamb under the power of the shearer,") He to
whom, had He willed it, legions of angels would at one word have presented
themselves from the heavens, approved not the avenging sword of even one
disciple The patience of the Lord was wounded in (the wound of) Malchus.
And so, too, He cursed for the time to come the works of the sword; and, by
the restoration of health, made satisfaction to him whom Himself had not
hurt, through Patience, the mother of Mercy. I pass by in silence (the
fact) that He is crucified, for this was the end for which He had come; yet
had the death which must be undergone need of contumelies likewise?[8] Nay,
but, when about to depart, He wished to be sated with the pleasure of
patience. He is spitted on, scourged, derided, clad foully, more foully
crowned. Wondrous is the faith of equanimity! He who had set before Him the
concealing of Himself in man's shape, imitated nought of man's impatience
!Hence, even more than from any other trait, ought ye, Pharisees, to have
recognised the Lord. Patience of this kind none of men would achieve. Such
and so mighty evidences--the very magnitude of which proves to be among the
nations indeed a cause for rejection of the faith, but among us its reason
and rearing--proves manifestly enough (not by the sermons only, in
enjoining, but likewise by the sufferings of the Lord in enduring) to them
to whom it is given to believe, that as the effect and excellence of some
inherent propriety, patience is God's nature.
CHAP. IV.--DUTY OF IMITATING OUR MASTER TAUGHT US BY SLAVES. EVEN BY
BEASTS. OBEDIENT IMITATION IS FOUNDED ON PATIENCE.
Therefore, if we see all servants of probity and right feeling shaping
their conduct suitably to the disposition of their lord; if, that is, the
art of deserving favour is obedience,[9] while the rule of obedience is a
compliant subjection: how much more does it behove us to be found with a
character in accordance with our Lord,--servants as we are of the living
God, whose judgment on His servants turns not on a fetter or a cap of
freedom, but on an eternity either of penalty or of salvation; for the
shunning of which severity or the courting of which liberality there needs
a diligence in obedience[1] as great as are the comminations themselves
which the severity utters, or the promises which the liberality freely
makes.[2] And yet we exact obedience[3] not from men only, who have the
bond of their slavery under their chin,[4] or in any other legal way are
debtors to obedience? but even from cattle,[6] even from brutes;[7]
understanding that they have been provided and delivered for our uses by
the Lord. Shall, then, creatures which God makes subject to us be better
than we in the discipline of obedience?[8] Finally, (the creatures) which
obey, acknowledge their masters. Do we hesitate to listen diligently to Him
to whom alone we are subjected--that is, the Lord? But how unjust is it,
how ungrateful likewise, not to repay from yourself the same which, through
the indulgence of your neighbour, you obtain from others, to him through
whom you obtain it! Nor needs there more words on the exhibition of
obedience[9] due from us to the Lord God; for the acknowledgment[10] of God
understands what is incumbent on it. Lest, however, we seem to have
inserted remarks on obedience[11] as something irrelevant, (let us
remember) that obedience" itself is drawn from patience. Never does an
impatient man render it, or a patient fail to find pleasure[12] in it. Who,
then, could treat largely (enough) of the good of that patience which the
Lord God, the Demonstrator and Acceptor of all good things, carried about
in His own self?[13] To whom, again, would it be doubtful that every good
thing ought, because it pertains[13] to God, to be earnestly pursued with
the whole mind by such as pertain to God? By means of which
(considerations) both commendation and exhortation[14] on the subject of
patience are briefly, and as it were in the compendium of a prescriptive
rule, established.[15]
CHAP, V.--AS GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF PATIENCE SO THE DEVIL IS OF IMPATIENCE.
Nevertheless, the proceeding[16] of a discussion on the necessaries of
faith is not idle, because it is not unfruitful. In edification no
loquacity is base, if it be base at any time.[19] And so, if the discourse
be concerning some particular good, the subject requires us to review also
the contrary of that good. For you will throw more light on what is to be
pursued, if you first give a digest of what is to be avoided.
Let us therefore consider, concerning Impatience, whether just as
patience in God, so its adversary quality have been born and detected in
our adversary, that from this consideration may appear how primarily
adverse it is to faith. For that which has been conceived by God's rival,
of course is not friendly to God's things. The discord of things is the
same as the discord of their authors. Further, since God is best, the devil
on the contrary worst, of beings, by their own very diversity they testify
that neither works for[18] the other; so that anything of good can no more
seem to be effected for us by the Evil One, than anything of evil by the
Good. Therefore I detect the nativity of impatience in the devil himself,
at that very time when he impatiently bore that the Lord God subjected the
universal works which He had made to His own image, that is, to man.[19]
For if he had endured (that), he would not have grieved; nor would he have
envied man if he had not grieved. Accordingly he deceived him, because he
had envied him; but he had envied because he had grieved: he had grieved
because, of course, he had not patiently borne. What that angel of
perdition" first was--malicious or impatient--I scorn to inquire: since
manifest it is that either impatience took its rise together with malice,
or else malice from impatience; that subsequently they conspired between
themselves; and that they grew up indivisible in one paternal bosom. But,
however, having been instructed, by his own experiment, what an aid unto
sinning was that which he had been the first to feel, and by means of which
he had entered on his course of delinquency, he called the same to his
assistance for the thrusting of man into crime. The woman,[1] immediately
on being met by him--I may say so without rashness--was, through his very
speech with her, breathed on by a spirit infected with impatience: so
certain is it that she would never have sinned at all, if she had honoured
the divine edict by maintaining her patience to the end. What (of the fact)
that she endured not to have been met alone; but in the presence of Adam,
not yet her husband, not yet bound to lend her his ears,[2] she is
impatient of keeping silence, and makes him the transmitter of that which
she had imbibed from the Evil One? Therefore another human being, too,
perishes through the impatience of the one; presently, too, perishes of
himself, through his own impatience committed in each respect, both in
regard of God's premonition and in regard of the devil's cheatery; not
enduring to observe the former nor to refute the latter. Hence, whence (the
origin) of delinquency, arose the first origin of judgment; hence, whence
man was induced to offend, God began to be wroth. Whence (came)the first
indignation in God, thence (came) His first patience; who, content at that
time with malediction only, refrained in the devil's case from the instant
infliction[3] of punishment. Else what crime, before this guilt of
impatience, is imputed to man? Innocent he was, and in intimate friendship
with God, and the husbandman[4] of paradise. But when once he succumbed to
impatience, he quite ceased to be of sweet savour[5] to God; he quite
ceased to be able to endure things celestial. Thenceforward, a creature[6]
given to earth, and ejected from the sight of God, he begins to be easily
turned by impatience unto every use offensive to God. For straightway that
impatience conceived of the devil's seed, produced, in the fecundity of
malice, anger as her son; and when brought forth, trained him in her own
arts. For that very thing which had immersed Adam and Eve in death, taught
their son, too, to begin with murder. It would be idle for me to ascribe
this to impatience, if Cain, that first homicide and first fratricide, had
borne with equanimity and not impatiently the refusal by the Lord of his
own oblations--if he is not wroth with his own brother--if, finally, he
took away no one's life. Since, then, he could neither have killed unless
he had been wroth, nor have been wroth unless he had been impatient, he
demonstrates that what he did through wrath must be referred to that by
which wrath was suggested during this cradle-time of impatience, then (in a
certain sense) in her infancy. But how great presently were her
augmentations !And no wonder, If she has been the first delinquent, it is a
consequence that, because she has been the first, therefore she is the only
parent stem,[7] too, to every delinquency, pouring down from her own fount
various veins of crimes.[8] Of murder we have spoken; but, being from the
very beginning the outcome of anger,[9] whatever causes besides it shortly
found for itself it lays collectively on the account of impatience, as to
its own origin. For whether from private enmities, or for the sake of prey,
any one perpetrates that wickedness,[10] the earlier step is his becoming
impatient of" either the hatred or the avarice. Whatever compels a man, it
is not possible that without impatience of itself it can be perfected in
deed. Who ever committed adultery without impatience of lust? Moreover, if
in females the sale of their modesty is forced by the price, of course it
is by impatience of contemning gain[12] that this sale is regulated.[13]
These (I mention) as the principal delinquencies in the sight of the
Lord,[14] for, to speak compendiously, every sin is ascribable to
impatience. "Evil" is "impatience of good." None immodest is not impatient
of modesty; dishonest of honesty; impious of piety;[15] unquiet of
quietness. In order that each individual may become evil he will be unable
to persevere[16] in being good. How, therefore, can such a hydra of
delinquencies fail to offend the Lord, the Disapprover of evils? Is it not
manifest that it was through impatience that Israel himself also always
failed in his duty toward God, from that time when,[17] forgetful of the
heavenly arm whereby he had been drawn out of his Egyptian affliction, he
demands from Aaron "gods[18] as his guides;" when he pours down for an idol
the contributions of his gold: for the so necessary delays of Moses, while
he met with God, he had borne with impatience. After the edible rain of the
manna, after the watery following[1] of the rock, they despair of the Lord
in not enduring a three-days' thirst;[2] for this also is laid to their
charge by the Lord as impatience. And--not to rove through individual
cases--there was no instance in which it was not by failing in duty through
impatience that they perished. How, moreover, did they lay hands on the
prophets, except through impatience of hearing them? on the Lord moreover
Himself, through impatience likewise of seeing Him? But had they entered
the path of patience, they would have been set free.[3]
CHAP. VI.--PATIENCE BOTH ANTECEDENT AND SUBSEQUENT TO FAITH.
Accordingly it is patience which is both subsequent and antecedent to
faith. In short, Abraham believed God, and was accredited by Him with
righteousness;[4] but it was patience which proved his faith, when he was
bidden to immolate his son, with a view to (I would not say the temptation,
but) the typical attestation of his faith. But God knew whom He had
accredited with righteousness.[3] So heavy a precept, the perfect execution
whereof was not even pleasing to the Lord, he patiently both heard, and (if
God had willed) would have fulfilled. Deservedly then was he "blessed."
because he was "faithful;" deservedly "faithful," because "patient." So
faith, illumined by patience, when it was becoming propagated among the
nations through" Abraham's seed, which is Christ,"[6] and was superinducing
grace over the law,[7] made patience her pre-eminent coadjutrix for
amplifying and fulfilling the law, because that alone had been lacking
unto the doctrine of righteousness. For men were of old wont to require
"eye for eye, and tooth for tooth"[8] and to repay with usury "evil with
evil; " for, as yet, patience was not on earth, because faith was not
either. Of course, meantime, impatience used to enjoy the opportunities
which the law gave. That was easy, while the Lord and Master of patience
was absent. But after He has supervened, and has united[9] the grace of
faith with patience, now it is no longer lawful to assail even with word,
nor to say "fool"[20] even, without "danger of the judgment." Anger has
been prohibited, our spirits retained, the petulance of the hand checked,
the poison of the tongue[11] extracted. The law has found more than it has
lost, while Christ says, "Love your personal enemies, and bless your
cursers, and pray for your persecutors, that ye may be sons of your
heavenly Father."[12] Do you see whom patience gains for us as a Father? In
this principal precept the universal discipline of patience is succinctly
comprised, since evil-doing is not conceded even when it is deserved.
CHAP.VII.--THE CAUSES OF IMPATIENCE, AND THEIR CORRESPONDENT PRECEPTS.
Now, however, while we run through the causes of impatience, all the
other precepts also will answer in their own places. If our spirit is
aroused by the loss of property, it is commonished by the Lord's
Scriptures, in almost every place, to a contemning of the world;[13] nor is
there any more powerful exhortation to contempt of money submitted[14] (to
us), than (the fact) the Lord Himself is found amid no riches. He always
justifies the poor, fore-condemns the rich. So He fore-ministered to
patience "loss," and to opulence "contempt" (as portion);[15]
demonstrating, by means of (His own) repudiation of riches, that hurts done
to them also are not to be much regarded. Of that, therefore, which we have
not the smallest need to seek after, because the Lord did not seek after it
either, we ought to endure without heart-sickness the cutting down or
taking away. "Covetousness," the Spirit of the Lord has through the apostle
pronounced "a root of all evils."[16] Let us not interpret that
covetousness as consisting merely in the concupiscence of what is
another's: for even what seems ours is another's; for nothing is ours,
since all things are God's, whose are we also ourselves. And so, if, when
suffering from a loss, we feel impatiently, grieving for what is lost from
what is not our own, we shall be detected as bordering on covetousness: we
seek what is another's when we ill brook losing what is another's. He who
is greatly stirred with impatience of a loss, does, by giving things
earthly the precedence over things heavenly, sin directly[17] against God;
for the Spirit, which he has received from the Lord, he greatly shocks for
the sake of a worldly matter. Willingly, therefore, let us lose things
earthly, let us keep things heavenly. Perish the whole world,[1] so I may
make patience my gain! In truth, I know not whether he who has not made up
his mind to endure with constancy the loss of somewhat of his, either by
theft, or else by force, or else even by carelessness, would himself
readily or heartily lay hand on his own property in the cause of
almsgiving: for who that endures not at all to be cut by another, himself
draws the sword on his own body? Patience in losses is an exercise in
bestowing and communicating. Who fears not to lose, finds it not irksome to
give. Else how will one, when he has two coats, give the one of them to the
naked,[2] unless he be a man likewise to offer to one who takes away his
coat his cloak as well?[3] How shall we fashion to us friends from
mammon,[4] if we love it so much as not to put up with its loss? We shall
perish together with the lost mammon. Why do we find here, where it is our
business to lose?[3] To exhibit impatience at all losses is the Gentiles'
business, who give money the precedence perhaps over their soul; for so
they do, when, in their cupidities of lucre, they encounter the gainful
perils of commerce on the sea; when, for money's sake, even in the forum,
there is nothing which damnation (itself) would fear which they hesitate to
essay; when they hire themselves for sport and the camp; when, after the
manner of wild beasts, they play the bandit along the highway. But us,
according to the diversity by which we are distinguished from them, it
becomes to lay down not our soul for money, but money for our soul, whether
spontaneously in bestowing or patiently in losing.
CHAP. VIII.--OF PATIENCE UNDER PERSONAL VIOLENCE AND MALEDICTION.
We who carry about our very soul, our very body, exposed in this
world[6] to injury from all, and exhibit patience under that injury; shall
we be hurt at the loss[7] of less important things?[8] Far from a servant
of Christ be such a defilement as that the patience which has been prepared
for greater temptations should forsake him in frivolous ones. If one
attempt to provoke you by manual violence, the monition of the Lord is at
hand: "To him," He saith, "who smiteth thee on the face, turn the other
cheek likewise."[9] Let outrageousness[10] be wearied out by your patience.
Whatever that blow may be, conjoined[11] with pain and contumely, it[12]
shall receive a heavier one from the Lord. You wound that outrageous[13]
one more by enduring: for he will be beaten by Him for whose sake you
endure. If the tongue's bitterness break out in malediction or reproach,
look back at the saying, "When they curse you, rejoice."[14] The Lord
Himself was "cursed" in the eye of the law;[15] and yet is He the only
Blessed One. Let us servants, therefore, follow our Lord closely; and be
cursed patiently, that we may be able to be blessed. If I hear with too
little equanimity some wanton or wicked word uttered against me, I must of
necessity either myself retaliate the bitterness, or else I shall be racked
with mute impatience. When, then, on being cursed, I smite (with my
tongue,) how shall I be found to have followed the doctrine of the Lord, in
which it has been delivered that "a man is defiled,[16] not by the
defilements of vessels, but of the things which are sent forth out of his
mouth." Again, it is said that "impeachment[17] awaits us for every vain
and needless word."[18] It follows that, from whatever the Lord keeps us,
the same He admonishes us to bear patiently from another. I will add
(somewhat) touching the pleasure of patience. For every injury, whether
inflicted by tongue or hand, when it has lighted upon patience, will be
dismissed[19] with the same fate as, some weapon launched against and
blunted on a rock of most stedfast hardness. For it will wholly fall then
and there with bootless and fruitless labour; and sometimes will recoil and
spend its rage on him who sent it out, with retorted impetus. No doubt the
reason why any one hurts you is that you may be pained; because the
hurter's enjoyment consists in the pain of the hurt. When, then, you have
upset his enjoyment by not being pained, he must needs he pained by the
loss of his enjoyment. Then you not only go unhurt away, which even alone
is enough for you; but gratified, into the bargain, by your adversary's
disappointment, and revenged by his pain. This is the utility and the
pleasure of patience.
CHAP. IX.--OF PATIENCE UNDER BEREAVEMENT.
Not even that species of impatience under the loss of our dear ones is
excused, where some assertion of a right to grief acts the patron to it.
For the consideration of the apostle's declaration must be set before us,
who says, "Be not overwhelmed with sadness at the falling asleep of any
one, just as the nations are who are without hope."[1] And justly; or,
believing the resurrection of Christ we believe also in our own, for whose
sake He both died and rose again. Since, then, there is certainty as to the
resurrection of the dead, grief for death is needless, and impatience of
grief is needless. For why should you grieve, if you believe that (your
loved one) is not perished? Why should you bear impatiently the temporary
withdrawal of him who you believe will return? That which you think to be
death is departure. He who goes before us is not to be lamented, though by
all means to be longed for.[2] That longing also must be tempered with
patience. For why should you bear without moderation the fact that one is
gone away whom you will presently follow? Besides, impatience in matters of
this kind bodes ill for our hope, and is a dealing insincerely with the
faith. And we wound Christ when we accept not with equanimity the summoning
out of this world of any by Him, as if they were to be pitied. "I desire,"
says the apostle, "to be now received, and to be with Christ."[3] How far
better a desire does he exhibit! If, then, we grieve impatiently over such
as have attained the desire of Christians, we show unwillingness ourselves
to attain it.
CHAP. X.--OF REVENGE.
There is, too, another chief spur of impatience, the lust of revenge,
dealing with the business either of glory or else of malice. But "glory,"
on the one hand, is everywhere "vain;"[4] and malice, on the other, is
always[5] odious to the Lord; in this case indeed most of all, when, being
provoked by a neighbour's malice, it constitutes itself superior[6] in
following out revenge, and by paying wickedness doubles that which has once
been done. Revenge, in the estimation of error,[7] seems a solace of pain;
in the estimation of truth, on the contrary, it is convicted of malignity.
For what difference is there between provoker and provoked, except that the
former is detected as prior in evil-doing, but the latter as posterior?
Yet each stands impeached of hurting a man in the eye of the Lord, who both
prohibits and condemns every wickedness. In evil doing there is no account
taken of order, nor does place separate what similarity conjoins. And the
precept is absolute, that evil is not to be repaid with evil.[8] Like deed
involves like merit. How shall we observe that principle, if in our
loathing[9] we shall not loathe revenge? What honour, moreover, shall we be
offering to the Lord God, if we arrogate to ourselves the arbitrament of
vengeance? We are corrupt [10]--earthen vessels.[11] With our own servant-
boys,[12] if they assume to themselves the right of vengeance on their
fellow-servants, we are gravely offended; while such as make us the
offering of their patience we not only approve as mindful of humility, of
servitude, affectionately jealous of the right of their lord's honour; but
we make them an ampler satisfaction than they would have pre-exacted[13]
for themselves. Is there any risk of a different result in the case of a
Lord so just in estimating, so potent in executing? Why, then, do we
believe Him a Judge, if not an Avenger too? This He promises that He will
be to us in return, saying, "Vengeance belongeth to me, and I will avenge;
"[14] that is, Leave patience to me, and I will reward patience. For when
He says, "Judge not, lest ye be judged,"[15] does He not require patience?
For who will refrain from judging another, but he who shall be patient in
not revenging himself? Who judges in order to pardon? And if he shall
pardon, still he has taken care to indulge the impatience of a judger, and
has taken away the honour of the one Judge, that is, God. How many
mischances had impatience of this kind been wont to run into! How oft has
it repented of its revenge! How oft has its vehemence been found worse
than the causes which led to it!--inasmuch as nothing undertaken with
impatience can be effected without impetuosity: nothing done with
impetuosity fails either to stumble, or else to fall altogether, or else to
vanish headlong. Moreover, if you avenge yourself too slightly, you will be
mad; if too amply, you will have to bear the burden.[1] What have I to do
with vengeance, the measure of which, through impatience of pain, I am
unable to regulate? Whereas, if I shall repose on patience, I shall not
feel pain; if I shall not feel pain, I shall not desire to avenge myself.
CHAP. XI.--FURTHER REASONS FOR PRACTISING PATIENCE. ITS CONNECTION WITH THE
BEATITUDES.
After these principal material causes of impatience, registered to the
best of our ability, why should we wander out of our way among the rest,--
what are found at home, what abroad? Wide and diffusive is the Evil One's
operation, hurling manifold irritations of our spirit, and sometimes
trifling ones, sometimes very great. But the trifling ones you may contemn
from their very littleness; to the very great ones you may yield in regard
of their overpoweringness. Where the injury is less, there is no necessity
for impatience; but where the injury is greater, there more necessary is
the remedy for the injury--patience. Let us strive, therefore, to endure
the inflictions of the Evil One, that the counter-zeal of our equanimity
may mock the zeal of the foe. If, however, we ourselves, either by
imprudence or else voluntarily, draw upon ourselves anything, let us meet
with equal patience what we have to blame ourselves for. Moreover, if we
believe that some inflictions are sent on us by the Lord, to whom should we
more exhibit patience than to the Lord? Nay, He teaches[2] us to give
thanks and rejoice, over and above, at being thought worthy of divine
chastisement. "Whom I love," saith He, "I chasten."[3] O blessed servant,
on whose amendment the Lord is intent! with whom He deigns to be wroth!
whom He does not deceive by dissembling His reproofs! On every side,
therefore, we are bound to the duty of exercising patience, from whatever
quarter, either by our own errors or else by the snares of the Evil One, we
incur the Lord's reproofs. Of that duty great is the reward--namely,
happiness. For whom but the patient has the Lord called happy, in saying,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the
heavens?"[4] No one, assuredly, is "poor in spirit," except he be humble.
Well, who is humble, except he be patient? For no one can abase himself
without patience, in the first instance, to bear the act of abasement.
"Blessed," saith He, "are the weepers and mourners."[5] Who, without
patience, is tolerant of such unhappinesses? And so to such, "consolation"
and "laughter" are promised. "Blessed are the gentle:"[6] under this term,
surely, the impatient cannot possibly be classed. Again, when He marks "the
peacemakers"[7] with the same title of felicity, and names them "sons of
God," pray have the impatient any affinity with "peace?" Even a fool may
perceive that. When, however, He says, "Rejoice and exult, as often as they
shall curse and persecute you; for very great is your reward in heaven,"[8]
of course it is not to the patience of exultation[9] that He makes that
promise; because no one will "exult" in adversities unless he have first
learnt to contemn them; no one will contemn them unless he have learnt to
practise patience.
CHAP. XII.--CERTAIN OTHER DIVINE PRECEPTS. THE APOSTOLIC DESCRIPTION OF
CHARITY. THEIR CONNECTION WITH PATIENCE.
As regards the rule of peace, which[10] is so pleasing to God, who in
the world that is prone to impatience[11] will even once forgive his
brother, I will not say "seven times," or[12] "seventy-seven times?"[13]
Who that is contemplating a suit against his adversary will compose the
matter by agreement,[14] unless he first begin by lopping off chagrin,
hardheartedness, and bitterness, which are in fact the poisonous outgrowths
of impatience? How will you "remit, and remission shall be granted" you?
if the absence of patience makes you tenacious of a wrong? No one who is at
variance with his brother in his mind, will finish offering his "duteous
gift at the altar," unless he first, with intent to "re-conciliate his
brother," return to patience.[16] If "the sun go down over our wrath," we
are in jeopardy:[17] we are not allowed to remain one day without patience.
But, however, since Patience takes the lead in[18] every species of
salutary discipline, what wonder that she likewise ministers to Repentance,
(accustomed as Repentance is to come to the rescue of such as have fallen,)
when, on a disjunction of wedlock (for that cause, I mean, which makes it
lawful, whether for husband or wife, to persist in the perpetual observance
of widowhood),[1] she[2] waits for, she yearns for, she persuades by her
entreaties, repentance in all who are one day to enter salvation? How
great a blessing she confers on each! The one she prevents from becoming
an adulterer; the other she amends. So, to, she is found in those holy
examples touching patience in the Lord's parables. The shepherd's patience
seeks and finds the straying ewe:[3] for Impatience would easily despise
one ewe; but Patience undertakes the labour of the quest, and the patient
burden-bearer carries home on his shoulders the forsaken sinner.[4] That
prodigal son also the father's patience receives, and clothes, and feeds,
and makes excuses for, in the presence of the angry brother's
impatience.[5] He, therefore, who "had perished" is saved, because he
entered on the way of repentance. Repentance perishes not, because it finds
Patience (to welcome it). For by whose teachings but those of Patience is
Charity[6]--the highest sacrament of the faith, the treasure-house of the
Christian name, which the apostle commends with the whole strength of the
Holy Spirit--trained? "Charity," he says, "is long suffering;" thus she
applies patience: "is beneficent;" Patience does no evil: "is not emulous;"
that certainly is a peculiar mark of patience: "savours not of
violence:"[7] she has drawn her self-restraint from patience: "is not
puffed up; is not violent;"[8] for that pertains not unto patience: "nor
does she seek her own" if, she offers her own, provided she may benefit her
neighbours: "nor is irritable;" if she were, what would she have left to
Impatience? Accordingly he says, "Charity endures all things; tolerates all
things;" of course because she is patient. Justly, then, "will she never
fail;"[9] for all other things will be cancelled, will have their
consummation. "Tongues, sciences, prophecies, become exhausted; faith,
hope, charity, are permanent:" Faith, which Christ's patience introduced;
hope, which man's patience waits for; charity, which Patience accompanies,
with God as Master.
CHAP. XIII.--OF BODILY PATIENCE.
Thus far, finally, of patience simple and uniform, and as it exists
merely in the mind: though in many forms likewise I labour after it in
body, for the purpose of "winning the Lord;"[10] inasmuch as it is a
quality which has been exhibited by the Lord Himself in bodily virtue as
well; if it is true that the ruling mind easily communicates the gifts" of
the Spirit with its bodily habitation. What, therefore, is the business of
Patience in the body? In the first place, it is the affliction[12] of the
flesh--a victim[13] able to appease the Lord by means of the sacrifice of
humiliation--in making a libation to the Lord of sordid[14] raiment,
together with scantiness of food, content with simple diet and the pure
drink of water[15] in con joining fasts to all this; in inuring herself to
sackcloth and ashes. This bodily patience adds a grace to our prayers for
good, a strength to our prayers against evil; this opens the ears of Christ
our God,[16] dissipates severity, elicits clemency. Thus that Babylonish
king,[17] after being exiled from human form in his seven years' squalor
and neglect., because he had offended the Lord; by the bodily immolation of
patience not only recovered his kingdom, but--what is more to be desired by
a man--made satisfaction to God. Further, if we set down in order the
higher and happier grades of bodily patience, (we find that)it is she who
is entrusted by holiness with the care of continence of the flesh: she
keeps the widow,[18] and sets on the virgin the seal[19] and raises the
self-made eunuch to the realms of heaven.[20] That which springs from a
virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh; and, finally, by the patience
of the flesh, does battle under persecution. If flight press hard, the
flesh wars with[21] the inconvenience of flight; if imprisonment
overtake[2] us, the flesh (still was) in bonds, the flesh in the gyve, the
flesh in solitude, and in that want of light, and in that patience of the
world's misusage.[3] When, however, it is led forth unto the final proof of
happiness,[4] unto the occasion of the second baptism,[5] unto the act of
ascending the divine seat, no patience is more needed there than badly
patience. If the "spirit is willing, but the flesh," without patience,
"weak,"[6] where, save in patience, is the safety of the spirit, and of the
flesh itself? But when the Lord says this about the flesh, pronouncing it
"weak," He shows what need there is of strengthening, it--that is by
patience--to meet[7] every preparation for subverting or punishing faith;
that it may bear with all constancy stripes, fire, cross, beasts, sword;
all which prophets and apostles, by enduring, conquered!
CHAP. XIV.--THE POWER OF THIS TWOFOLD PATIENCE, THE SPIRITUAL AND THE
BODILY. EXEMPLIFIED IN THE SAINTS OF OLD.
With this strength of patience, Esaias is cut asunder, and ceases not
to speak concerning the Lord; Stephen is stoned, and prays for pardon to
his foes.[8] Oh, happy also he who met all the violence of the devil by the
exertion of every species of patience! [9]--whom neither the driving away
of his cattle nor those riches of his in sheep, nor the sweeping away of
his children in one swoop of ruin, nor, finally, the agony of his own body
in (one universal) wound, estranged from the patience and the faith which
he had plighted to the Lord; whom the devil smote with all his might in
vain. For by all his pains he was not drawn away from his reverence for
God; but he has been set up as an example and testimony to us, for the
thorough accomplishment of patience as well in spirit as in flesh, as well
in mind as in body; in order that we succumb neither to damages of our
worldly goods, nor to losses of those who are dearest, nor even to bodily
afflictions. What a bier[10] for the devil did God erect in the person of
that hero! What a banner did He rear over the enemy of His glory, when, at
every bitter message, that man uttered nothing out of his mouth but thanks
to God, while he denounced his wife, now quite wearied with ills, and
urging him to resort to crooked remedies! How did God smile,[11] how was
the evil one cut asunder,[12] while Job with mighty equanimity kept
scraping off[13] the unclean overflow of his own ulcer, while he sportively
replaced the vermin that brake out thence, in the same caves and feeding-
places of his pitted flesh! And so, when all the darts of temptations had
blunted themselves against the corslet and shield of his patience, that
instrument[14] of God's victory not only presently recovered from God the
soundness of his body, but possessed in redoubled measure what he had lost.
And if he had wished to have his children also restored, he might again
have been called father; but he preferred to have them restored him "in
that day."[15] Such joy as that --secure so entirely concerning the Lord-
-he deferred; meantime he endured a voluntary bereavement, that he might
not live without some (exercise of) patience.
CHAP. XV.--GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE VIRTUES
AND EFFECTS OF PATIENCE.
So amply sufficient a Depositary of patience is God. If it be a wrong
which you deposit in His care, He is an Avenger; if a loss, He is a
Restorer; if pain, He is a Healer; if death, He is a Reviver. What honour
is granted to Patience, to have God as her Debtor! And not without reason:
for she keeps all His decrees; she has to do with all His mandates. She
fortifies faith; is the pilot of peace; assists charity; establishes
humility; waits long for repentance; sets tier seal on confession; rules
the flesh; preserves the spirit; bridles the tongue; restrains the hand;
tramples temptations under foot; drives away scandals; gives their crowning
grace to martyrdoms; consoles the poor; teaches the rich moderation;
overstrains not the weak; exhausts not the strong; is the delight of the
believer; invites the Gentile; commends the servant to his lord, and his
lord to God; adorns the woman; makes the man approved; is loved in
childhood, praised in youth, looked up to in age; is beauteous in either
sex, in every time of life. Come, now, see whether[16] we have a general
idea of her mien and habit. Her countenance is tranquil and peaceful; her
brow serene[17] contracted by no wrinkle of sadness or of anger; her
eyebrows evenly relaxed in gladsome wise, with eyes downcast in humility,
not in unhappiness; her mouth sealed with the honourable mark of silence;
her hue such as theirs who are without care and without guilt; the motion
of her head frequent against the devil, and her laugh threatening;[1] her
clothing, moreover, about her bosom white and well fitted to her person, as
being neither inflated nor disturbed. For Patience sits on the throne of
that calmest and gentlest Spirit, who is not found in the roll of the
whirlwind, nor in the leaden hue of the cloud but is of soft serenity, open
and simple, whom Elias saw at his third essay.[2] For where God is, there
too is His foster-child, namely Patience. When God's Spirit descends, then
Patience accompanies Him indivisibly. If we do not give admission to her
together with the Spirit, will (He) always tarry with us? Nay, I know not
whether He would remain any longer. Without His companion and handmaid, He
must of necessity be straitened in every place and at every time. Whatever
blow His enemy may inflict He will be unable to endure alone, being without
the instrumental means of enduring.
CHAP. XVI.--THE PATIENCE OF THE HEATHEN VERY DIFFERENT FROM CHRISTIAN
PATIENCE. THEIRS DOOMED TO PERDITION. OURS DESTINED TO SALVATION.
This is the rule, this the discipline, these the works of patience
which is heavenly and true; that is, of Christian patience, not false and
disgraceful, like as is that patience of the nations of the earth. For in
order that in this also the devil might rival the Lord, he has as it were
quite on a par (except that the very diversity of evil and good is exactly
on a par with their magnitude[3]) taught his disciples also a patience of
his own; that, I mean, which, making husbands venal for dowry, and teaching
them to trade in panderings, makes them subject to the power of their
wives; which, with feigned affection, undergoes. every toil of forced
complaisance,[4] with a view to ensnaring the childless;[5] which makes the
slaves of the belly[6] submit to contumelious patronage, in the subjection
of their liberty to their gullet. Such pursuits of patience the Gentiles
are acquainted with; and they eagerly seize a name of so great goodness to
apply it to foul practises: patient they live of rivals, and of the rich,
and of such as give them invitations; impatient of God alone. But let their
own and their leader's patience look to itself--a patience which the
subterraneous fire awaits! Let us, on the other hand, love the patience
of God, the patience of Christ; let us repay to Him the patience which He
has paid down for us! Let us offer to Him the patience of the spirit, the
patience of the flesh, believing as we do in the resurrection of flesh and
spirit.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 3, Roberts and Donaldson.) The original digital version was by
The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-
WORD.
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