12. Whence every one of us, when he is born and received in the inn of this world, takes his beginning from tears; and, although still unconscious and ignorant of all things, he knows nothing else in that very earliest birth except to weep. By a natural foresight, the untrained soul laments the anxieties and labours of the mortal life, and even in the beginning bears witness by its wails and groans to the storms of the world which it is entering. For the sweat of the brow and labour is the condition of life so long as it lasts. Nor can there be supplied any consolations to those that sweat and toil other than patience; which consolations, while in this world they are fit and necessary for all men, are especially so for us who are more shaken by the siege of the devil, who, daily standing in the battle-field, are wearied with the wrestlings of an inveterate and skilful enemy; for us who, besides the various and continual battles of temptations, must also in the contest of persecutions25 [How practical this treatise in an age when to be a Christian meant to be prepared for all these things! “Fiery trials” the chronic state.] forsake our patrimonies, undergo imprisonment, bear chains, spend our lives, endure the sword, the wild beasts, fires, crucifixions—in fine, all kinds of torments and penalties, to be endured in the faith and courage of patience; as the Lord Himself instructs us, and says, “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. But in the world ye shall have tribulation; yet be confident, for I have overcome the world.”26 John xvi. 33. And if we who have renounced the devil and the world, suffer the tribulations and mischiefs of the devil and the world with more frequency and violence, how much more ought we to keep patience, wherewith as our helper and ally, we may bear all mischievous things!
XII. Unde unusquisque nostrum cum nascitur et hospitio mundi hujus excipitur, initium sumita a lacrymis, et quamvis adhuc omnium nescius et ignarus, nihil aliud novit in illa psa prima nativitate quam flere. Providentia naturali lamentatur, vitae mortalis anxietates et labores et procellas mundi quas ingreditur, in exordio statim suo ploratu et gemitu rudis anima testatur. Sudatur enim quamdiu istic vivitur et laboratur. Nec sudantibus et laborantibus possunt alia magis quam patientiae subvenire solatia: quae cum apta sint et necessaria in isto mundo universis, tum magis nobis, qui diabolo impugnante plus quatimur; qui, in acie quotidie stantes, inveterati et exercitati 0630B hostis colluctationibus fatigamur; quibus, praeter varias et assiduas tentationum pugnas, in persecutionum quoque certamine patrimonia relinquenda sunt, subeundus carcer , portandae catenae, animae impendendae, gladius, bestiae, ignes, cruces, omnia denique tormentorum ac poenarum genera fide et virtute patientiae perferenda, Domino ipso instruente et dicente: Haec locutus sum vobis ut in me pacem habeatis: in mundo autem pressuram habebitis, sed fidite , quoniam ego vici mundum (Joan. XVI, 33). Si autem qui diabolo et mundo renuntiavimus, pressuras et infestationes diaboli et mundi crebrius ac violentius patimur, quanto magis patientiam tenere debemus, qua adjutrice et comite omnia infesta toleremus?