On Patience

 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 wait

 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 a

 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

 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 n

 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 suff

 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 bru

 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

 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 pati

 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 open

 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 pres

 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 righteousnes

 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

 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 distr

 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

 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 conte

 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 wor

 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

 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 u

 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,

 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

 21. But if it be goaded on and inflamed with deceitful visions and unclean incentives by the devilish spirit, associated and conspiring therewith in m

 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

 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

 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,

 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 th

 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 b

15. For, as the Divine utterances testify, “God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him.”41    1 John iv. 16 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.”42    Rom. viii. 35–39 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,”43    1 John ii. 16 as saith the Apostle John, but is of the world.

CAPUT XVIII.

15. Ut charitas ex Deo, ita ex ipso patientia vera quae manat a charitate. Sicut enim divina testantur eloquia, Deus charitas est, et qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in illo manet (I Joan. IV, 16). Quisquis ergo contendit haberi posse Dei charitatem sine Dei adjutorio, quid aliud contendit, nisi haberi Deum posse sine Deo? Quis autem hoc dicat Christianus, quod nullus dicere audeat insanus? Exsultans ergo apud Apostolum vera, pia, fidelisque patientia, dicit ore sanctorum : Quis nos separabit a charitate Christi? Tribulatio? an angustia? an persecutio? an fames? an nuditas? an periculum? an gladius? sicut scriptum est, Quia propter te mortificamur tota die, deputati sumus sicut oves victimae. Sed in his omnibus supervincimus per eum qui dilexit nos:0620 non per nos, sed per eum qui dilexit nos. Deinde sequitur et adjungit, Certus sum enim, quia neque mors, neque vita, neque angeli, neque principatus, neque potestates, neque praesentia, neque futura, neque altitudo, neque profundum, neque creatura alia poterit nos separare a charitate Dei, quae est in Christo Jesu Domino nostro (Rom. VIII, 35-39). Haec est illa charitas Dei, quae diffusa est in cordibus nostris: non ex nobis, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis. Malorum autem concupiscentia, propter quam in eis est falsa patientia, non est ex Patre, sicut dicit apostolus Joannes, sed ex mundo est.