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| General Summary of the Virtues and Effects of Patience.
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Chapter XV.—General
Summary of the Virtues and Effects of Patience.
So amply sufficient a Depositary of patience is
God. If it be a wrong which you deposit in His care, He is an Avenger;
if a loss, He is a Restorer; if pain, He is a Healer; if death, He is a
Reviver. What honour is granted to Patience, to have God as her Debtor!
And not without reason: for she keeps all His decrees; she has to do
with all His mandates. She fortifies faith; is the pilot of peace;
assists charity; establishes humility; waits long for repentance; sets
her seal on confession; rules the flesh; preserves the spirit; bridles
the tongue; restrains the hand; tramples temptations under foot; drives
away scandals; gives their crowning grace to martyrdoms; consoles the
poor; teaches the rich moderation; overstrains not the weak; exhausts
not the strong; is the delight of the believer; invites the Gentile;
commends the servant to his lord, and his lord to God; adorns the
woman; makes the man approved; is loved in childhood, praised in youth,
looked up to in age; is beauteous in either sex, in every time of life.
Come, now, see whether9177
| 9177 Si. This is
Oehler’s reading, who takes “si” to be ="an.”
But perhaps “sis” (="si vis”), which is Fr.
Junius’ correction, is better: “Come, now, let us, if
you please, give a general sketch of her mien and habit.” | we have a general
idea of her mien and habit. Her countenance is tranquil and
peaceful; her brow serene9178
| 9178 Pura; perhaps
“smooth.” | contracted by no
wrinkle of sadness or of anger; her eyebrows evenly relaxed
in gladsome wise, with eyes
downcast in humility, not in unhappiness; her mouth sealed with the
honourable mark of silence; her hue such as theirs who are without care
and without guilt; the motion of her head frequent against the devil,
and her laugh threatening;9179
her clothing,
moreover, about her bosom white and well fitted to her person, as being
neither inflated nor disturbed. For Patience sits on the
throne of that calmest and gentlest Spirit, who is not found in the
roll of the whirlwind, nor in the leaden hue of the cloud, but is of
soft serenity, open and simple, whom Elias saw at his third
essay.9180
| 9180 i.e., as
Rigaltius (referred to by Oehler), explains, after the two
visions of angels who appeared to him and said, “Arise and
eat.” See 1 Kings
xix. 4–13. [It
was the fourth, but our author having mentioned two,
inadvertently calls it the third, referring to the “still
small voice,” in which Elijah saw His
manifestation.] | For where God is,
there too is His foster-child, namely Patience. When God’s Spirit
descends, then Patience accompanies Him indivisibly. If we do not give
admission to her together with the Spirit, will (He)
always tarry with us? Nay, I know not whether He would remain
any longer. Without His companion and handmaid, He must of
necessity be straitened in every place and at every time. Whatever blow
His enemy may inflict He will be unable to endure alone, being without
the instrumental means of enduring.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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