11. But that it may be more manifestly and fully known how useful and necessary patience is, beloved brethren; let the judgment of God be pondered, which even in the beginning of the world and of the human race, Adam, forgetful of the commandment, and a transgressor of the given law, received. Then we shall know how patient in this life we ought to be who are born in such a state, that we labour here with afflictions and contests. “Because,” says He, “thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which alone I had charged thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works: in sorrow and in groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it give forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the food of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return into the ground from which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou go.”24 Gen. iii. 17–19. We are all tied and bound with the chain of this sentence, until, death being expunged, we depart from this life. In sorrow and groaning we must of necessity be all the days of our life: it is necessary that we eat our bread with sweat and labour.
XI. Quam sit autem patientia utilis et necessaria, fratres dilectissimi, ut manifestius possit et plenius nosci, Dei sententia cogitetur quam in origine statim mundi et generis humani Adam, praecepti immemor 0629C et datae legis transgressor, accepit . Tunc sciemus quam patientes esse in isto saeculo debeamus, qui sic nascimur ut pressuris istic et conflictationibus laboremus: Quia audisti, inquit, vocem mulieris tuae, et manducasti ex illa arbore de qua sola praeceperam tibi ne manducares , maledicta terra erit in omnibus operibus tuis: in tristitia et gemitu edes ex ea omnibus diebus vitae tuae, spinas et tribulos ejiciet tibi , et edes pabulum agri; in sudore vultus tui edes panem tuum donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es; quia terra es, et in terram ibis (Gen. III, 17 sqq.). Hujus sententiae vinculo colligati omnes et constricti sumus, donec, expuncta morte, de isto saeculo recedamus. In tristitia et gemitu simus necesse est omnibus diebus vitae 0630A nostrae, edamus panem necesse est cum sudore et labore.