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| The Patience of the Heathen Very Different from Christian Patience. Theirs Doomed to Perdition. Ours Destined to Salvation.
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Chapter XVI.—The
Patience of the Heathen Very Different from Christian Patience. Theirs
Doomed to Perdition. Ours Destined to Salvation.
This is the rule, this the discipline, these the
works of patience which is heavenly and true; that is, of
Christian patience, not false and disgraceful, like as is that
patience of the nations of the earth. For in order that in this also
the devil might rival the Lord, he has as it were quite on a par
(except that the very diversity of evil and good is exactly on a par
with their magnitude9181
| 9181 One is finite, the
other infinite. | ) taught his
disciples also a patience of his own; that, I mean, which, making
husbands venal for dowry, and teaching them to trade in panderings,
makes them subject to the power of their wives; which, with feigned
affection, undergoes every toil of forced complaisance,9182
with a view to ensnaring the
childless;9183
| 9183 And thus getting a
place in their wills. | which makes the
slaves of the belly9184
submit to
contumelious patronage, in the subjection of their liberty to their
gullet. Such pursuits of patience the Gentiles are acquainted with; and
they eagerly seize a name of so great goodness to apply it to foul
practises: patient they live of rivals, and of the rich, and of
such as give them invitations; impatient of God alone. But let their
own and their leader’s patience look to itself—a
patience which the subterraneous fire awaits! Let us, on the other
hand, love the patience of God, the patience of Christ; let us repay to
Him the patience which He has paid down for us! Let us offer
to Him the patience of the spirit, the patience of the flesh,
believing as we do in the resurrection of flesh and
spirit.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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