1. That virtue of the mind which is called Patience, is so
great a gift of God, that even in Him who bestoweth the same
upon us, that, whereby He waiteth for evil men that they may
amend, is set forth by the name of Patience, [or long-suffering.]
So, although in God there can be no suffering, and "patience"
hath its name a patiendo, from suffering, yet a patient God we
not only faithfully believe, but also wholesomely confess. But
the patience of God, of what kind and how great it is, His, Whom
we say to be impassible, yet not impatient, nay even most patient,
in words to unfold this who can be able? Ineffable is therefore
that patience, as is His jealousy, as His wrath, and whatever
there is like to these. For if we conceive of these as they be
in us, in Him are there none. We, namely, can feel none of these
without molestation: but be it far from us to surmise that the
impassible nature of God is liable to any molestation. But like
as He is jealous without any darkening of spirit, wroth without
any perturbation, pitiful without any pain, repenteth Him without
any wrongness in Him to be set right; so is He patient without
aught of passion. Now therefore as concerning human patience,
which we are able to conceive and beholden to have, of what sort
it is, I will, as God granteth and the brevity of the present
discourse alloweth, essay to set forth.
2. The patience of man, which is right and laudable and worthy
of the name of virtue, is understood to be that by which we tolerate
evil things with an even mind, that we may not with a mind uneven
desert good things, through which we may arrive at better. Wherefore
the impatient, while they will not suffer ills, effect not a
deliverance from ills, but only the suffering of heavier ills.
Whereas the patient who choose rather by not committing to bear,
than by not bearing to commit, evil, both make lighter what through
patience they suffer, and also escape worse ills in which through
impatience they would be sunk. But those good things which are
great and eternal they lose not, while to the evils which be
temporal and brief they yield not: because "the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared," as
the Apostle says, "with the future glory that shall be revealed
in us." Add again he says, "This our temporal and light
tribulation doth in inconceivable manner work for us an eternal
weight of glory."
3. Look we then, beloved, what hardships in labors and sorrows
men endure, for things which they viciously love, and by how
much they think to be made by them more happy, by so much more
unhappily covet. How much for false riches, how much for vain
honors, how much for affections of games and shows, is of exceeding
peril and trouble most patiently borne! We see men hankering
after money, glory, lasciviousness, how, that they may arrive
at their desires, and having gotten not lose them, they endure
sun, rain, icy cold, waves, and most stormy tempests, the roughnesses
and uncertainties of wars, the strokes of huge blows, and dreadful
wounds, not of inevitable necessity but of culpable will. But
these madnesses are thought, in a manner, permitted. Thus avarice,
ambition, luxury, and the delights of all sorts of games and
shows, unless for them some wicked deed be committed or outrage
which is prohibited by human laws, are accounted to pertain to
innocence: nay moreover, the man who without wrong to any shall,
whether for getting or increasing of money, whether for obtaining
or keeping of honors, whether in contending in the match, or
in hunting, or in exhibiting with applause some theatrical spectacle,
have borne great labors and pains, it is not enough that through
popular vanity he is checked by no reproofs, but he is moreover
extolled with praises: "Because," as it is written,
"the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul."
For the force of desires makes endurance of labors and pains:
and no man save for that which he enjoyeth, freely takes on him
to bear that which annoyeth. But these lusts, as I said, for
the fulfilling of which they which are on fire with them most
patiently endure much hardship and bitterness, are accounted
to be permitted, and allowed by laws.
4. Nay more; for is it not so that even for open wickednesses,
not to punish but to perpetrate them, men put up with many most
grievous troubles? Do not authors of secular letters tell of
a certain right noble parricide of his country, that hunger,
thirst, cold, all these he was able to endure, and his body was
patient of lack of food and warmth and sleep to a degree surpassing
belief? Why speak of highway robbers, all of whom while they
lie in wait for travellers endure whole nights without sleep,
and that they may catch, as they pass by, men who have no thought
of harm, will, no matter how foul the weather, plant in one spot
their mind and body, which are full of thoughts of harm? Nay
it is said that some of them are wont to torture one another
by turns, to that degree that this practice and training against
pains is not a whit short of pains. For, not so much perchance
are they excruciated by the Judge, that through smart of pain
the truth may be got at, as they are by their own comrades, that
through patience of pain truth may not be betrayed. And yet in
all these the patience is rather to be wondered at than praised:
nay neither wondered at nor praised, seeing it is no patience;
but we must wonder at the hardness, deny the patience: for there
is nothing in this rightly to be praised, nothing usefully to
be imitated; and thou wilt rightly judge the mind to be all the
more worthy of greater punishment, the more it yields up to vices
the instruments of virtues. Patience is companion of wisdom,
not handmaid of concupiscence: patience is the friend of a good
conscience, not the foe of innocence.
5. When therefore thou shall see any man suffer aught patiently,
do not straightway praise it as patience; for this is only shown
by the cause of suffering. When it is a good cause, then is it
true patience: when that is not polluted by lust, then is this
distinguished from falsity. But when that is placed in crime,
then is this much misplaced in name. For not just as all who
know are partakers of knowledge, just so are all who suffer partakers
of patience: but they which rightly use the suffering, these
in verity of patience are praised, these with the prize of patience
are crowned.
6. But yet, seeing that for lusts' sake, or even wickednesses,
seeing, in a word, that for this temporal life and weal men do
wonderfully bear the brunt of many horrible sufferings, they
much admonish us how great things ought to be borne for the sake
of a good life, that it may also hereafter be eternal life, and
without any bound of time, without waste or loss of any advantage,
in true felicity secure. The Lord saith, "In your patience
ye shall possess your souls:" He saith not, your farms,
your praises, your luxuries; but, "your souls." If
then the soul endures so great sufferings that it may possess
that whereby it may be lost, how great ought it to bear that
it may not be lost? And then, to mention a thing not culpable,
if it bear so great sufferings for saving of the flesh under
the hands of chirurgeons cutting or burning the same, how great
ought it to bear for saving of itself under the fury of any soever
enemies? Seeing that leeches, that the body may not die, do by
pains consult for the body's good; but enemies by threatening
the body with pains and death, would urge us on to the slaying
of soul and body in hell.
7. Though indeed the welfare even of the body is then more
providently consulted for if its temporal life and welfare be
disregarded for righteousness' sake, and its pain or death most
patiently for righteousness' sake endured. Since it is of the
body's redemption which is to be in the end, that the Apostle
speaks, where he says, "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting the adoption of sons, the redemption of our body."
Then he subjoins, "For in hope are we saved. But hope which
is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he also hope
for? But if what we see not we hope for, we do by patience wait
for it." When therefore any ills do torture us indeed, yet
not extort from us ill works, not only is the soul possessed
through patience; but even when through patience the body itself
for a time is afflicted or lost, it is unto eternal stability
and salvation resumed, and hath through grief and death an inviolable
health and happy immortality laid up for itself. Whence the Lord
Jesus exhorting his Martyrs to patience, hath promised of the
very body a future perfect entireness, without loss, I say not
of any limb, but of a single hair. "Verily I say unto you,"
saith He, "a hair of your head shall not perish." That
so, because, as the Apostle says, "no man ever hated his
own flesh," a faithful man may more by patience than by
impatience take vigilant care for the state of his flesh, and
find amends for its present losses, how great soever they may
be, in the inestimable gain of future incorruption.
8. But although patience be a virtue of the mind, yet partly
the mind exercises it in the mind itself, partly in the body.
In itself it exercises patience, when, the body remaining unhurt
and untouched, the mind is goaded by any adversities or filthinesses
of things or words, to do or to say something that is not expedient
or not becoming, and patiently bears all evils that it may not
itself commit any evil in work or word. By this patience we bear,
even while we be sound in body, that in the midst of the offenses
of this world our blessedness is deferred: of which is said what
I cited a little before, "If what we see not we hope for,
we do by patience wait for it." By this patience, holy David
bore the revilings of a railer, and, when he might easily have
avenged himself, not only did it not, but even refrained another
who was vexed and moved for him; and more put forth his kingly
power by prohibiting than by exercising vengeance. Nor at that
time was his body afflicted with any disease or wound, but there
was an acknowledging of a time of humility, and a bearing of
the will of God, for the sake of which there was a drinking of
the bitterness of contumely with most patient mind. This patience
the Lord taught, when, the servants being moved at the mixing
in of the tares and wishing to gather them up, He said that the
householder answered, "Leave both to grow until the harvest."
That, namely, must be patience put up with, which must not be
in haste put away. Of this patience Himself afforded and showed
an example, when, before the passion of His Body, He so bore
with His disciple Judas, that ere He pointed him out as the traitor,
He endured him as a thief; and before experience of bonds and
cross and death, did, to those lips so full of guile, not deny
the kiss of peace. All these, and whatever else there be, which
it were tedious to rehearse, belong to that manner of patience,
by which the mind doth, not its own sins but any evils so ever
from without, patiently endure in itself, while the body remains
altogether unhurt. But the other manner of patience is that by
which the same mind bears any troubles and grievances whatsoever
in the sufferings of the body; not as do foolish or wicked men
for the sake of getting vain things or perpetrating crimes; but
as is defined by the Lord, "for righteousness' sake."
In both kinds, the holy Martyrs contended. For both with scornful
reproofs of the ungodly were they filled, where, the body remaining
intact, the mind hath its own (as it were) blows and wounds,
and bears these unbroken: and in their bodies they were bound,
imprisoned, vexed with hunger and thirst, tortured, gashed, torn
asunder, burned, butchered; and with piety immovable submitted
unto God their mind, while they were suffering in the flesh all
that exquisite cruelty could devise in its mind.
9. It is indeed a greater fight of patience, when it is not
a visible enemy that by persecution and rage would urge us into
crime which enemy may openly and in broad day be by not consenting
overcome; but the devil himself, (he who doth likewise by means
of the children of infidelity, as by his vessels, persecute the
children of light) doth by himself hiddenly attack us, by his
rage putting us on to do or say something against God. As such
had holy Job experience of him, by both temptations vexed, but
in both through steadfast strength of patience and arms of piety
unconquered. For first, his body being left unhurt, he lost all
that he had, in order that the mind, before excruciation of the
flesh, might through withdrawal of the things which men are wont
to prize highly, be broken, and he might say something against
God upon loss of the things for the sake of which he was thought
to worship Him. He was smitten also with sudden bereavement of
all his sons so that whom he had begotten one by one he should
lose all at once, as though their numerousness had been not for
the adorning of his felicity, but for the increasing of his calamity.
But where, having endured these things, he remained immovable
in his God, he cleaved to His will, Whom it was not possible
to lose but by his own will; and in place of the things he had
lost he held Him who took them away, in Whom he should find what
should never be lost. For He that took them away was not that
enemy who had will of hurting, but He who had given to that enemy
the power of hurting. The enemy Next
attacked also the body,
and now not those things which were in the man from without,
but the man himself, in whatever part he could, he smote. From
the head to the feet were burning pains, were crawling worms,
were running sores; still in the rotting body the mind remained
entire, and horrid as were the tortures of the consuming flesh,
with inviolate piety and uncorrupted patience it endured them
all. There stood the wife, and instead of giving her husband
any help, was suggesting blasphemy against God. For we are not
to think that the devil, in leaving her when he took away the
sons, went to work as one unskilled in mischief: rather, how
necessary she was to the tempter, he had already learned in Eve.
But now he had not found a second Adam whom he might take by
means of a woman. More cautious was Job in his hours of sadness,
than Adam in his bowers of gladness, the one was overcome in
the midst of pleasant things, the other overcame in the midst
of pains; the one consented to that which seemed delightsome,
this other quailed not in torments most affrightsome. There stood
his friends too, not to console him in his evils, but to suspect
evil in him. For while he suffered so great sorrows, they believed
him not innocent, nor did their tongue forbear to say that which
his conscience had not to say; that so amid ruthless tortures
of the body, his mind also might be beaten with truthless reproaches.
But he, bearing in his flesh his own pains, in his heart others'
errors, reproved his wife for her folly, taught his friends wisdom,
preserved patience in each and all.
10. To this man let them look who put themselves to death
when they are sought for to have life put upon them; and by bereaving
themselves of the present, deny and refuse also that which is
to come. Why, if people were driving them to deny Christ or to
do any thing contrary to righteousness, like true Martyrs, they
ought rather to bear all patiently than to dare death impatiently.
If it could be right to do this for the sake of running away
from evils, holy Job would have killed himself, that being in
so great evils, in his estate, in his sons, in his limbs, through
the devil's cruelty, he might escape them all. But he did it
not. Far be it from him, a wise man, to commit upon himself what
not even that unwise woman suggested. And if she had suggested
it, she would with good reason here also have had that answer
which she had when suggesting blasphemy; "Thou hast spoken
as one of the foolish women. If we have received good at the
hand of the Lord, shall we not bear evil?" Seeing even he
also would have lost patience, if either by blasphemy as she
had suggested, or by killing himself which not even she had dared
to speak of, he should die, and be among them of whom it is written,
"Woe unto them that have lost patience!" and rather
increase than escape pains, if after the death of his body he
should be hurried off to punishment either of blasphemers, or
of murderers, or of them which are worse even than parricides.
For if a parricide be on that account more wicked than any
homicide, because he kills not merely a man but a near relative;
and among parricides too, the nearer the person killed, the greater
criminal he is judged to be: without doubt worse still is he
who kills himself, because there is none nearer to a man than
himself. What then do these miserable persons mean, who, though
both here they have inflicted pain upon themselves, and hereafter
not only for their impiety towards God but for the very cruelty
which they have exercised upon themselves will deservedly suffer
pains of His inflicting, do yet seek moreover the glories of
Martyrs? since, even if for the true testimony of Christ they
suffered persecution, and killed themselves, that they might
not suffer any thing from their persecutors, it would be rightly
said to them, "Woe unto them which have lost patience!"
For how hath patience her just reward, if even an impatient suffering
receives the crown? or how shall that man be judged innocent,
to whom is said, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself,"
if he commit murder upon himself which he is forbidden to commit
upon his neighbor?
11. Let then the Saints hear from holy Scripture the precepts
of patience: "My son, when thou comest to the service of
God, stand thou in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul
for temptation: bring thine heart low, and bear up; that in the
last end thy life may increase. All that shall come upon thee
receive thou, and in pain bear up, and in thy humility have patience.
For in the fire gold and silver is proved, but acceptable men
in the furnace of humiliation." And in another place we
read: "My son, faint not thou in the discipline of the Lord,
neither be wearied when thou art chidden of Him. For whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."
What is here set down, "son whom He receiveth," the
same in the above mentioned testimony is, "acceptable men."
For this is just, that we who from our first felicity of Paradise
for contumacious appetence of things to enjoy were dismissed,
through humble patience of things that annoy may be received
back: driven away for doing evil, brought back by suffering evil:
there against righteousness doing ill, here for righteousness'
sake patient of ills.
12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this
virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there
are some who attribute it to the strength of the human will,
not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of
free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error
of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A
scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the
proud." It is not therefore that "patience of the poor"
which "perisheth not forever." For these poor receive
it from that Rich One, to Whom is said, "My God art Thou,
because my goods Thou needest not": of Whom is "every
good gift, and every perfect gift;" to Whom crieth the needy
and the poor, and in asking, seeking, knocking, saith, "My
God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand
of the lawless and unjust: because Thou art my patience, O Lord,
my hope from my youth up." But these which abound, and disdain
to be in want before God, lest they receive of Him true patience,
they which glory in their own false patience, seek to "confound
the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope."
Nor do they regard, seeing they are men, and attribute so much
to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into
that which is written, "Cursed is every one who putteth
his hope in man." Whence even if it chance them that they
do bear up under any hardships or difficulties, either that they
may not displease men, or that they may not suffer worse, or
in self-pleasing and love of their own presumption, do with most
proud will bear up under these same, it is meet that concerning
patience this be said unto them, which concerning wisdom the
blessed Apostle James saith, "This wisdom cometh not from
above, but is earthly, animal, devilish." For why may there
not be a false patience of the proud, as there is a false wisdom
of the proud? But from Whom cometh true wisdom, from Him cometh
also true patience. For to Him singeth that poor in spirit, "Unto
God is my soul subjected, because from Him is my patience."
13. But they answer and speak, saying, "If the will of
man without any aid of God by strength of free choice bears so
many grievous and horrible distresses, whether in mind or body,
that it may enjoy the delight of this mortal life and of sins,
why may it not be that in the same manner the self-same will
of man by the same strength of free-choice, not thereunto looking
to be aided of God, but unto itself by natural possibility sufficing,
doth, in all of labor or sorrow that is put upon it, for righteousness
and eternal life's sake most patiently sustain the same? Or is
it so, say they, that the will of the unjust is sufficient, without
aid of God, for them, yea even to exercise themselves in undergoing
torture for iniquity, and before they be tortured by others;
sufficient the will of them which love the respiting of this
life that, without aid of God, they should in the midst of most
atrocious and protracted torments persevere in a lie, lest confessing
their misdeeds they be ordered to be put to death; and not sufficient
the will of the just, unless strength be put into them from above,
that whatever be their pains, they should, either for beauty's
sake of very righteousness or for love of eternal life, bear
the same?"
14. They which say these things, do not understand that as
well each one of the wicked is in that measure for endurance
of any ills more hard, in what measure the lust of the world
is mightier in him; as also that each one of the just is in that
measure for endurance of any ills more brave, in what measure
in him the love of God is mightier. But lust of the world hath
its beginning from choice of the will, its progress from enjoyableness
of pleasure, its confirmation from the chain of custom, whereas
"the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts," not
verily from ourselves, but" by the Holy Spirit which is
given unto us." And therefore from Him cometh the patience
of the just, by Whom is shed abroad their love (of Him). Which
love (of charity) the Apostle praising and setting off, among
its other good qualities, saith, that it "beareth all things."
"Charity," saith he, "is magnanimous." And
a little after he saith, "endureth all things." The
greater then is in saints the charity (or love) of God, the more
do they endure all things for Him whom they love, and the greater
in sinners the lust of the world, the more do they endure all
things for that which they lust after And consequently from that
same source cometh true patience of the righteous, from which
there is in them the love of God; and from that same source the
false patience of the unrighteous, from which is in them the
lust of the world. With regard to which the Apostle John saith;
"Love not the world, neither the things that be in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him:
because all that is in the world, is lust of the flesh, and lust
of the eyes, and pride of life; which is not of the Father, but
is of the world." This concupiscence, then, which is not
of the Father, but is of the world, in what measure it shall
in any man be more vehement and ardent, in that measure becometh
each more patient of all troubles and sorrows for that which
he lusteth after. Therefore, as we said above, this is not the
patience which descendeth from above, but the patience of the
godly is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. And
so that is earthly, this heavenly; that animal, this spiritual;
that devilish, this Godlike. Because concupiscence, whereof it
cometh that persons sinning suffer all things stubbornly, is
of the world; but charity, whereof cometh that persons living
aright suffer all things bravely, is of God. And therefore to
that false patience it is possible that, without aid of God,
the human will may suffice; harder, in proportion as it is more
eager of lust, and bearing ills with the more endurance the worse
itself becometh: while to this, which is true patience, the human
will, unless aided and inflamed from above, doth not suffice,
for the very reason that the Holy Spirit is the fire thereof;
by Whom unless it be kindled to love that impassible Good, it
is not able to bear the ill which it suffereth.
15. For, as the Divine utterances testify, "God is love,
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth
in him." Whoso therefore contends that love of God may be
had without aid of God, what else does he contend, but that God
may be had without God? Now what Christian would say this, which
no madman would venture to say? Therefore in the Apostle, true,
pious, faithful patience, saith exultingly, and by the mouth
of the Saints; "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake
we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us:" not through ourselves, but,
"through Him that loved us." And then he goes on and
adds; "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." This is that "love of God"
which "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which
is given unto us." But the concupiscence of the bad, by
reason of which there is in them a false patience, "is not
of the Father," as saith the Apostle John, but is of the
world.
16. Here some man shall say; "If the concupiscence of
the bad, whereby it comes that they bear all evils for that which
they lust after, be of the world, how is it said to be of their
will?" As if, truly, they were not themselves also of the
world, when they love the world, forsaking Him by Whom the world
was made. For "they serve the creature more than the Creator,
Who is blessed for ever." Whether then by the word "world,"
the Apostle John signifies lovers of the world, the will, as
it is of themselves, is therefore of the world: or whether under
the name of the world he comprises heaven and earth, and all
that is therein, that is the creature universally, it is plain
that the will of the creature, not being that of the Creator,
is of the world. For which cause to such the Lord saith, "Ye
are from beneath, I am from above: ye are of this world, I am
not of this world." And to the Apostle He saith, "If
ye were of the world, the world would love his own." But
lest they should arrogate more unto them selves than their measure
craved, and when He said that they were not of the world, should
imagine this to be of nature, not of grace, therefore He saith,
"But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." It
follows, that they once were of the world: for, that they might
not be of the world, they were chosen out of the world.
17. Now this election the Apostle demonstrating to be, not
of merits going before in good works, but election of grace,
saith thus: "And in this time a remnant by election of grace
is saved. But if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise
grace is no more grace." This is election of grace; that
is, election in which through the grace of God men are elected:
this, I say, is election of grace which goes before all good
merits of men. For if it be to any good merits that it is given,
then is it no more gratuitously given, but is paid as a debt,
and consequently is not truly called grace; where "reward,"
as the same Apostle saith, "is not imputed as grace, but
as debt." Whereas if, that it may be true grace, that is,
gratuitous, it find nothing in man to which it is due of merit,
(which thing is well understood in that saying, "Thou wilt
save them for nothing,") then assuredly itself gives the
merits, not to merits is given. Consequently it goes before even
faith, from which it is that all good works begin. "For
the just," as is written, "shall live by faith."
But, moreover, grace not only assists the just, but also justifies
the ungodly. And therefore even when it does aid the just and
seems to be rendered to his merits, not even then does it cease
to be grace, because that which it aids it did itself bestow.
With a view therefore to this grace, which precedes all good
merits of man, not only was Christ put to death by the ungodly,
but "died for the ungodly." And ere that He died, He
elected the Apostles, not of course then just, but to be justified:
to whom He saith, "I have chosen you out of the world."
For to whom He said, "Ye are not of the world," and
then, lest they should account themselves never to have been
of the world, presently added, "But I have chosen you out
of the world;" assuredly that they should not be of the
world was by His own election of them conferred upon them. Wherefore,
if it had been through their own righteousness, not through His
grace, that they were elected, they would not have been chosen
out of the world, because they would already not be of the world
if already they were just. And again, if the reason why they
were elected was, that they were already just, they had already
first chosen the Lord. For who can be righteous but by choosing
righteousness? "But the end of the law is Christ, for righteousness
is to every one that believeth. Who is made unto us wisdom of
God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that,
as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
He then is Himself our righteousness.
18. Whence also the just of old, before the Incarnation of
the Word, in this faith of Christ, and in this true righteousness,
(which thing Christ is unto us,) were justified; believing this
to come which we believe come: and they themselves by grace were
saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God,
not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up. For their
good works did not come before God's mercy, but followed it.
For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere Christ
was come in the flesh, "I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will have compassion."
From which words of God the Apostle Paul, should So long after
say; "It is not therefore of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." It is also
their own voice, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, "My
God, His mercy shall prevent me." How indeed could they
be aliens from the faith of Christ, by whose charity even Christ
was fore-announced unto us; without the faith of Whom, not any
of mortals either hath been, or is, or ever shall be able to
be, righteous? if then, being already just, the Apostles were
elected by Christ, they would have first chosen Him, that just
men might be chosen, because without Him they could not be just.
But it was not so: as Himself saith to them, "Not ye have
chosen Me, but I have chosen you." Of which the Apostle
John speaks, "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us."
19. Since the case is so, what is man, while in this life
he uses his own proper will, ere he choose and love God, but
unrighteous and ungodly? "What," I say," is man,"
a creature going astray from the Creator, unless his Creator
"be mindful of him," and choose him freely, and love
him freely? Because he is himself not able to choose or love,
unless being first chosen and loved he be healed, because by
choosing blindness he perceiveth not, and by loving laziness
is soon wearied. But perchance some man may say: In what manner
is it that God first chooses and loves unjust men, that He may
justify them, when it is written, "Thou hatest, Lord, all
that work iniquity?" In what way, think we, but in a wonderful
and ineffable manner? And yet even we are able to conceive, that
the good Physician both hates and loves the sick man: hates him,
because he is sick; loves him, that he may drive away his sickness.
20. Let thus much have been said with regard to charity, without
which in us there cannot be true patience, because in good men
it is the love of God which endureth all things, as in bad men
the lust of the world. But this love is in us by the Holy Spirit
which was given us. Whence, of Whom cometh in us love, of Him
cometh patience. But the lust of the world, when it patiently
bears the burdens of any manner of calamity, boasts of the strength
of its own will, like as of the stupor of disease, not robustness
of health. This boasting is insane: it is not the language of
patience, but of dotage. A will like this in that degree seems
more patient of bitter ills, in which it is more greedy of temporal
good things, because more empty of eternal.
21. But if it be goaded on and inflamed with deceitful visions
and unclean incentives by the devilish spirit, associated and
conspiring therewith in malignant agreement, this spirit makes
the will of the man either frantic with error, or burning with
appetite of some worldly delight; and hence, it seems to show
a marvellous endurance of intolerable evils: but yet it does
not follow from this that an evil will without instigation of
another and unclean spirit, like as a good will without aid of
the Holy Spirit, cannot exist. For that there may be an evil
will even without any spirit either seducing or inciting, is
sufficiently clear in the instance of the devil himself, who
is found to have become a devil, not through some other devil,
but of his own proper will. An evil will therefore, whether it
be hurried on by lush whether called back by fear, whether expanded
by gladness, whether contracted by sadness, and in all these
perturbations of mind enduring and baking light of whatever are
to others, or at another time, more grievous, this evil will
may, without another spirit to goad it on, seduce itself, and
in lapsing by defection from the higher to the lower, the more
pleasant it shall account that thing to be which it seeks to
get or fears to lose, or rejoices to have gotten, or grieves
to have lost, the more tolerably for its sake bear what is less
for it to suffer than that is to be enjoyed. For whatever that
thing be, it is of the creature, of which one knows the pleasure.
Because in some sort, the creature loved approaches itself to
the creature loving in fond contact and connection, to the giving
experience of its sweetness.
22. But the pleasure of the Creator, of which is written,
"And from the river of Thy pleasure wilt Thou give them
to drink," is of far other kind, for it is not, like us,
a creature. Unless then its love be given to us from thence there
is no source whence it may be in us. And consequently, a good
will, by which we love God, cannot be in man, save in whom God
also worketh to will. This good will therefore, that is, a will
faithfully subjected to God, a will set on fire by sanctity of
that ardor which is above, a will which loves God and his neighbor
for God's sake; whether through love, of which the Apostle Peter
makes answer, "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee;"
whether through fear, of which says the Apostle Paul, "In
fear and trembling work out your own salvation;" whether
through joy, of which he says, "In hope rejoicing, in tribulation
patient;" whether through sorrow, with which he says he
had great grief for his brethren; in whatever way it endure what
bitterness and hardships soever, it is the love of God which
"endureth all things," and which is not shed abroad
in our hearts but by the Holy Spirit given unto us. Whereof piety
makes no manner of doubt, but, as the charity of them which holily
love, so the patience of them which piously endure, is the gift
of God. For it cannot be that the divine Scripture deceiveth
or is deceived, which not only in the Old Books hath testimonies
of this thing, when it is said unto God, "My Patience art
Thou," and, "From Him is my patience;" and where
another prophet saith, that we receive the spirit of fortitude?
but also in the Apostolic writings we read, "Because unto
you is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him,
but to suffer for Him." Therefore let not that make the
mind to be as of its own merit uplifted, wherewith he is told
that he is of Another's mercy gifted.
23. But if moreover any not having charity, which pertaineth
to the unity of spirit and the bond of peace whereby the Catholic
Church is gathered and knit together, being involved in any schism,
doth, that he may not deny Christ, suffer tribulations, straits,
hunger, nakedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments,
swords, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through
fear of hell and everlasting fire; in nowise is all this to be
blamed, nay rather this also is a patience meet to be praised.
For we cannot say that it would have been better for him that
by denying Christ he should suffer none of these things, which
he did suffer by confessing Him: but we must account that it
will perhaps be more tolerable for him in the judgment, than
if by denying Christ he should avoid all those things: so that
what the Apostle saith, "If I shall give my body to be burned,
but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing," should be
understood to profit nothing for obtaining the kingdom of heaven,
but not for having more tolerable punishment to undergo in the
last judgment.
24. But it may well be asked, whether this patience likewise
be the gift of God, or to be attributed to strength of the human
will, by which patience, one who is separated from the Church
doth, not for the error which separated him but for the truth
of the Sacrament or Word which hath remained with him, for fear
of pains eternal suffer pains temporal. For we must take heed
lest haply, if we affirm that patience to be the gift of God,
they in whom it is should be thought to belong also to the kingdom
of God; but if we deny it to be the gift of God, we should be
compelled to allow that without aid and gift of God there can
be in the will of man somewhat of good. Because it is not to
be denied that it is a good thing that a man believe he shall
undergo pain of eternal punishment if he shall deny Christ, and
for that faith endure and make light of any manner of punishment
of man's inflicting.
25. So then, as we are not to deny that this is the gift of
God, we are thus to understand that there be some gifts of God
possessed by the sons of that Jerusalem which is above, and free,
and mother of us all, (for these are in some sort the hereditary
possessions in which we are "heirs of God and joint-heirs
with Christ:") but some other which may be received even
by the sons of concubines to whom carnal Jews and schismatics
or heretics are compared. For though it be written, "Cast
out the bondmaid and her son, for the son of the bondmaid shall
not be heir with my son Isaac:" and though God said to Abraham,
"In Isaac shall thy seed be called:" which the Apostle
hath so interpreted as to say, "That is, not they which
be sons of the flesh, these be the sons of God; but the sons
of the promise are counted for the seed;" that we might
understand the seed of Abraham in regard of Christ to pertain
by reason of Christ to the sons of God, who are Christ's body
and members, that is to say, the Church of God, one, true, very-begotten,
catholic, holding the godly faith; not the faith which works
through elation or fear, but "which worketh by love;"
nevertheless, even the sons of the concubines, when Abraham sent
them away from his son Isaac, he did not omit to bestow upon
them some gifts, that they might not be left in every way empty,
but not that they should be held as heirs. For so we read: "And
Abraham gave all his estate unto Isaac; and to the sons of his
concubines gave Abraham gifts, and sent them away from his son
Isaac." If then we be sons of Jerusalem the free, let us
understated that other be the gifts of them which are put out
of the inheritance, other the gifts of them which be heirs. For
these be the heirs, to whom is said, "Ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the
spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
26. Cry we therefore with the spirit of charity, and until
we come to the inheritance in which we are alway to remain, let
us be, through love which becometh the free-born, not through
fear which becometh bondmen, patient of suffering. Cry we, so
long as we are poor, until we be with that inheritance made rich.
Seeing how great earnest thereof we have received, in that Christ
to make us rich made Himself poor; Who being exalted unto the
riches which are above, there was sent One Who should breathe
into our hearts holy longings, the Holy Spirit. Of these poor,
as yet believing, not yet beholding; as yet hoping, not yet enjoying;
as yet sighing in desire, not yet reigning in felicity; as yet
hungering and thirsting, not yet satisfied: of these poor. then,
"the patience shall not perish for ever:" not that
there will be patience there also, where aught to endure shall
not be; but "will not perish," meaning that it will
not be unfruitful. But its fruit it will have for ever, therefore
it "shall not perish for ever." For he who labors in
vain, when his hope fails for which he labored, says with good
cause, "I have lost so much labor:" but he who comes
to the promise of his labor says, congratulating himself, I have
not lost my labor. Labor then is said not to perish (or be lost),
not because it lasts perpetually, but because it is not spent
in vain. So also the patience of the poor of Christ (who yet
are to be made rich as heirs of Christ) shall not perish for
ever: not because there also we shall be commanded patiently
to bear, but because for that which we have here patiently borne,
we shall enjoy eternal bliss. He will put no end to everlasting
felicity, Who giveth temporal patience unto the will: because
both the one and the other is of Him bestowed as a gift upon
charity, Whose gift that charity is also.
