Chapter 1 [I.]—Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of.

I Have now to consider the subject of perseverance with greater care; for in the former book also I said some things on this subject when I was discussing the beginning of faith. I assert, therefore, that the perseverance by which we persevere in Christ even to the end is the gift of God; and I call that the end by which is finished that life wherein alone there is peril of falling. Therefore it is uncertain whether any one has received this gift so long as he is still alive. For if he fall before he dies, he is, of course, said not to have persevered; and most truly is it said. How, then, should he be said to have received or to have had perseverance who has not persevered? For if any one have continence, and fall away from that virtue and become incontinent,—or, in like manner, if he have righteousness, if patience, if even faith, and fall away, he is rightly said to have had these virtues and to have them no longer; for he was continent, or he was righteous, or he was patient, or he was believing, as long as he was so; but when he ceased to be so, he no longer is what he was. But how should he who has not persevered have ever been persevering, since it is only by persevering that any one shows himself persevering,—and this he has not done? But lest any one should object to this, and say, If from the time at which any one became a believer he has lived—for the sake of argument—ten years, and in the midst of them has fallen from the faith, has he not persevered for five years? I am not contending about words. If it be thought that this also should be called perseverance, as it were for so long as it lasts, assuredly he is not to be said to have had in any degree that perseverance of which we are now discoursing, by which one perseveres in Christ even to the end. And the believer of one year, or of a period as much shorter as may be conceived of, if he has lived faithfully until he died, has rather had this perseverance than the believer of many years’ standing, if a little time before his death he has fallen away from the stedfastness of his faith.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

1. Jam de perseverantia diligentius disputandum est: nam et in priore libro, cum ageremus de initio fidei, etiam de hac aliqua diximus. Asserimus ergo donum Dei esse perseverantiam qua usque in finem perseveratur in Christo. Finem autem dico, quo vita ista finitur, in qua tantummodo periculum est ne cadatur. Itaque utrum quisque hoc munus acceperit, quamdiu hanc vitam ducit, incertum 0994 est. Si enim priusquam moriatur cadat, non perseverasse utique dicitur, et verissime dicitur. Quomodo ergo perseverantiam, qui non perseveravit, accepisse vel habuisse dicendus est? Nam si habeat aliquis continentiam, et ab ea decidat atque incontinens fiat, si justitiam similiter, si patientiam, si ipsam fidem, recte dicitur habuisse et non habere: continens enim fuit, vel justus fuit, vel patiens, vel fidelis 0995 fuit, quamdiu fuit; cum vero esse destitit , non est quod fuit: qui vero non perseveraverit, quomodo perseverans fuit; cum perseverando quisque ostendat se perseverantem, quod iste non fecit? Sed ne quisquam reluctetur et dicat, Si ex quo fidelis quisque factus est, vixit, verbi gratia, decem annos, et eorum medio tempore a fide lapsus est, nonne quinque annos perseveravit? Non contendo de verbis, si et illa perseverantia putatur esse dicenda, tanquam temporis sui: hanc certe de qua nunc agimus perseverantiam, qua in Christo perseveratur usque in finem, nullo modo habuisse dicendus est, qui non perseveraverit usque in finem; potiusque hanc habuit unius anni fidelis, et quantum infra cogitari potest, si donec moreretur fideliter vixit, quam multorum annorum, si exiguum temporis ante mortem a fidei stabilitate defecit.