Chapter 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,18 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 obedience19 as great as are the comminations themselves which the severity utters, or the promises which the liberality freely makes.20 And yet we exact obedience21 not from men only, who have the bond of their slavery under their chin,22 or in any other legal way are debtors to obedience,23 but even from cattle,24 even from brutes;25 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?26 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 obedience27 due from us to the Lord God; for the acknowledgment28 of God understands what is incumbent on it.  Lest, however, we seem to have inserted remarks on obedience29 as something irrelevant, (let us remember) that obedience30 itself is drawn from patience. Never does an impatient man render it, or a patient fail to find pleasure31 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?32 To whom, again, would it be doubtful that every good thing ought, because it pertains33 to God, to be earnestly pursued with the whole mind by such as pertain to God? By means of which (considerations) both commendation and exhortation34 on the subject of patience are briefly, and as it were in the compendium of a prescriptive rule, established.35

CAPUT IV.

Igitur si probos quosque servos et bonae mentis, pro ingenio dominico conversari videmus (siquidem 1255A artificium promerendi obsequium est, obsequii vero disciplina, morigera subjectio est, quanto magis nos secundum Dominum moratos inveniri oportet! Servos scilicet Dei vivi, cujus judicium in suos, non in compede aut pileo vertitur , sed in aeternitate, aut poenae, aut salutis. Cui severitati declinandae, vel liberalitati invitandae, tanta obsequii diligentia opus est, quanta sunt ipsa, quae aut severitas comminatur, aut liberalitas pollicetur. Et tamen nos non de hominibus modo servitute subnixis , vel quolibet alio jure debitoribus obsequii, verum etiam de pecudibus, etiam de bestiis obedientiam exprimimus, intelligentes usibus nostris eas a Domino provisas traditasque. Meliora ergo nobis erunt in obsequii disciplina, 1255B quae nobis Deus subdit? Agnoscunt denique, quae obediunt, nos. Cui soli subditi sumus, Domino scilicet auscultare dubitamus? At quam injustum est, quam etiam ingratum, quod per alterius indulgentiam de aliis consequaris, idem illi per quem consequeris, de temetipso non rependere! Nec pluribus de obsequii exhibitione, debita a nobis Domino Deo. Satis enim agnitio Dei, quid sibi incumbat, intelligit. Ne tamen ut extraneum de obsequio videamur interjecisse, ipsum quoque obsequium de patientia trahitur. Nunquam impatiens obsequitur, aut patiens quis non oblectatur . Quam ergo Dominus omnium bonorum et demonstrator et acceptor Deus in semetipso circumtulit, quis de bono ejus late retractet? 1256A Cui item dubium sit omne bonum, quia ad Deum pertineat, pertinentibus ad Deum tota mente sectandum? Per quae in expedito et quasi in praescriptionis compendio et commendatio et exhortatio de patientia constituta est.