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Treatise
IX.
On the Advantage of Patience.3584
| 3584
Having at the outset distinguished true patience from the false
patience of philosophers, he commends Christian patience by the
patience of God, of Christ, and of all righteous men. He further
proves, as well by Scripture as by reason, and, moreover, by the
instances of Job and Tobias, that not only is patience useful, but that
it is needful also; and in order that the excellence of patience may
shine forth the more by contrast with the vice opposed to it, he sets
forth what is the evil of impatience. Finally, he reproves the
desire of vengeance, and teaches that revenge ought, according to
Scripture, to be left to God rather than to be arrogated to
ourselves. If in any writing Cyprian is an imitator of
Tertullian, assuredly in this he imitates that writer’s treatise
On Patience. [See vol. iii. p. 707.] |
Argument.—Cyprian Himself Briefly Sets Forth the Occasion of This
Treatise at the Conclusion of His Epistle to Jubaianus as
Follows: “Charity of Spirit, the Honour of Our College, the
Bond of Faith, and Priestly Concord, are Maintained by Us with Patience
and Gentleness. For This Reason, Moreover, We Have, with the Best
of Our Poor Abilities, by the Permission and Inspiration of the Lord,
Written a Pamphlet ‘On the Benefit of Patience,’ Which, for
the Sake of Our Mutual Love, We Have Transmitted to You.”
a.d. 256.
1. As I am about to speak, beloved brethren,
of patience, and to declare its advantages and benefits, from what
point should I rather begin than this, that I see that even at this
time, for your audience of me, patience is needful, as you cannot even
discharge this duty of hearing and learning without patience? For
wholesome discourse and reasoning are then effectually learnt, if what
is said be patiently heard. Nor do I find, beloved brethren,
among the rest of the ways of heavenly discipline wherein the path of
our hope and faith is directed to the attainment of the divine rewards,
anything of more advantage, either as more useful for life or more
helpful to glory, than that we who are labouring in the precepts of the
Lord with the obedience of fear and devotion, should especially, with
our whole watchfulness, be careful of patience.3585
| 3585
[Hermas, vol. ii. 23, 49; also Tertullian, iii. 714, and elucidation,
p. 717.] |
2. Philosophers also profess that they
pursue this virtue; but in their case the patience is as false as their
wisdom also is. For whence can he be either wise or patient, who
has neither known the wisdom nor the patience of God? since He Himself
warns us, and says of those who seem to themselves to be wise in this
world, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reprove
the understanding of the prudent.”3586
Moreover, the blessed Apostle
Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, and sent forth for the calling and
training of the heathen, bears witness and instructs us, saying,
“See that no man despoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not
after Christ, because in Him dwelleth all the fulness of
divinity.”3587
And
in another place he says: “Let no man deceive himself; if
any man among you thinketh himself to be wise, let him become a fool to
this world, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, I will rebuke the
wise in their own craftiness.” And again: “The
Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are
foolish.”3588
Wherefore if the wisdom among them be not true, the patience also
cannot be true. For if he is wise3589
who is lowly and meek—but we
do not see that philosophers are either lowly or meek, but greatly
pleasing themselves, and, for the very reason that they please
themselves, displeasing God—it is evident that the patience is
not real among them where there is the insolent audacity of an affected
liberty, and the immodest boastfulness of an exposed and half-naked
bosom.
3. But for us, beloved brethren, who are
philosophers, not in words, but in deeds, and do not put forward our
wisdom in our garb, but in truth—who are better acquainted with
the consciousness, than with the boast, of virtues—who do not
speak great things, but live them,—let us, as servants and
worshippers of God, show, in our spiritual obedience, the patience
which we learn from heavenly teachings. For we have this virtue
in common with God. From Him patience begins; from Him its glory
and its dignity take their rise. The origin and greatness of
patience proceed from God as its author. Man ought to love the
thing which is dear to God; the good which the Divine Majesty loves, it
commends. If God is our Lord and Father, let us imitate the
patience of our Lord as well as our Father; because it behoves servants
to be obedient, no less than it becomes sons not to be degenerate.
4. But what and how great is the patience in God,
that, most patiently enduring the profane temples and the images of
earth, and the sacrilegious
rites instituted by men, in contempt of His majesty and honour, He
makes the day to begin and the light of the sun to arise alike upon the
good and the evil; and while He waters the earth with showers, no one
is excluded from His benefits, but upon the righteous equally with the
unrighteous He bestows His undiscriminating rains. We see that
with undistinguishing3590
equality of patience, at God’s
behest, the seasons minister to the guilty and the guiltless, the
religious and the impious—those who give thanks and the
unthankful; that the elements wait on them; the winds blow, the
fountains flow, the abundance of the harvests increases, the fruits of
the vineyards ripen,3591
| 3591 The
original here is read variously “maturescere” and
“mitescere.” |
the trees are loaded with apples, the groves put on their leaves, the
meadows their verdure; and while God is provoked with frequent, yea,
with continual offences, He softens His indignation, and in patience
waits for the day of retribution, once for all determined; and although
He has revenge in His power, He prefers to keep patience for a long
while, bearing, that is to say, mercifully, and putting off, so that,
if it might be possible, the long protracted mischief may at some time
be changed, and man, involved in the contagion of errors and crimes,
may even though late be converted to God, as He Himself warns and says,
“I do not will the death of him that dieth, so much as that he
may return and live.”3592
And again, “Return unto me,
saith the Lord.”3593
| 3593
Mal. iii. 7. The Oxford edition omits this
quotation, and introduces the next with the words, “And again the
prophet.” | And again: “Return to
the Lord your God; for He is merciful, and gracious, and patient, and
of great pity, and who inclines His judgment towards the evils
inflicted.”3594
Which, moreover, the blessed apostle referring to, and recalling the
sinner to repentance, sets forward, and says: “Or despisest
thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering,
not knowing that the patience and goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou
treasurest up unto thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of revelation
of the righteous judgment of God, who shall render to every one
according to his works.”3595
He says that God’s judgment
is just, because it is tardy, because it is long and greatly deferred,
so that by the long patience of God man may be benefited for life
eternal.3596
| 3596
[“Deus patiens quia æternus” (Augustine).] | Punishment
is then executed on the impious and the sinner, when repentance for the
sin can no longer avail.
5. And that we may more fully understand,
beloved brethren, that patience is a thing of God, and that whoever is
gentle, and patient, and meek, is an imitator of God the Father; when
the Lord in His Gospel was giving precepts for salvation, and, bringing
forth divine warnings, was instructing His disciples to perfection, He
laid it down, and said, “Ye have heard that it is said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour, and have thine enemy in hatred. But I
say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them which persecute you;
that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, who
maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and raineth upon
the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you,
what reward shall ye have? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye shall salute your brethren only, what do ye more (than
others)? do not even the heathens the same thing? Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”3597
He said
that the children of God would thus become perfect. He showed
that they were thus completed, and taught that they were restored by a
heavenly birth, if the patience of God our Father dwell in us—if
the divine likeness, which Adam had lost by sin, be manifested and
shine in our actions. What a glory is it to become like to God!
what and how great a felicity, to possess among our virtues, that which
may be placed on the level of divine praises!
6. Nor, beloved brethren, did Jesus Christ, our
God and Lord, teach this in words only; but He fulfilled it also in
deeds. And because He had said that He had come down for this
purpose, that He might do the will of His Father; among the other
marvels of His virtues, whereby He showed forth the marks of a divine
majesty, He also maintained the patience of His Father in the constancy
of His endurance. Finally, all His actions, even from His very
advent, are characterized by patience as their associate; in that,
first of all, coming down from that heavenly sublimity to earthly
things, the Son of God did not scorn to put on the flesh of man, and
although He Himself was not a sinner, to bear the sins of others.
His immortality being in the meantime laid aside, He suffers Himself to
become mortal, so that the guiltless may be put to death for the
salvation of the guilty. The Lord is baptized by the servant; and
He who is about to bestow remission of sins, does not Himself disdain
to wash His body in the laver of regeneration. For forty days He
fasts, by whom others are feasted. He is hungry, and suffers
famine, that they who had been in hunger of the word and of grace may
be satisfied with heavenly bread. He wrestles with the devil
tempting Him; and, content only to have overcome the enemy, He strives
no farther than by
words. He ruled over His disciples not as servants in the power
of a master; but, kind and gentle, He loved them with a brotherly
love. He deigned even to wash the apostles’ feet, that
since the Lord is such among His servants, He might teach, by His
example, what a fellow-servant ought to be among his peers and
equals. Nor is it to be wondered at, that among the
obedient3598
| 3598
Baluzius reads, “compares obaudientes”—His
obedient peers. The mss. have
“obaudientes” only. | He showed
Himself such, since He could bear Judas even to the last with a long
patience—could take meat with His enemy—could know the
household foe, and not openly point him out, nor refuse the kiss of the
traitor. Moreover, in bearing with the Jews, how great equanimity
and how great patience, in turning the unbelieving to the faith by
persuasion, in soothing the unthankful by concession, in answering
gently to the contradictors, in bearing the proud with clemency, in
yielding with humility to the persecutors, in wishing to gather
together the slayers of the prophets, and those who were always
rebellious against God, even to the very hour of His cross and
passion!
7. And moreover, in His very passion and
cross, before they had reached the cruelty of death and the effusion of
blood, what infamies of reproach were patiently heard, what mockings of
contumely were suffered, so that He received3599
the spittings of insulters, who with
His spittle had a little before made eyes for a blind man; and He in
whose name the devil and his angels is now scourged by His servants,
Himself suffered scourgings! He was crowned with thorns, who
crowns martyrs with eternal flowers. He was smitten on the face
with palms, who gives the true palms to those who overcome. He
was despoiled of His earthly garment, who clothes others in the vesture
of immortality. He was fed with gall, who gave heavenly
food. He was given to drink of vinegar, who appointed the cup of
salvation. That guiltless, that just One,—nay, He who is
innocency itself and justice itself,—is counted among
transgressors, and truth is oppressed with false witnesses. He
who shall judge is judged; and the Word of God is led silently to the
slaughter. And when at the cross, of the Lord the stars are
confounded, the elements are disturbed, the earth quakes, night shuts
out the day, the sun, that he may not be compelled to look on the crime
of the Jews, withdraws both his rays and his eyes, He speaks not, nor
is moved, nor declares His majesty even in His very passion
itself. Even to the end, all things are borne perseveringly and
constantly, in order that in Christ a full and perfect patience may be
consummated.3600
| 3600
[This sublime passage recalls Bacon’s
Paradoxes. See p. 237, note 3, supra.] |
8. And after all these things, He still
receives His murderers, if they will be converted and come to Him; and
with a saving patience, He who is benignant3601
| 3601 Some
editors insert “and patient.” | to preserve, closes His Church to
none. Those adversaries, those blasphemers, those who were always
enemies to His name, if they repent of their sin, if they acknowledge
the crime committed, He receives, not only to the pardon of their sin,
but to the reward of the heavenly kingdom. What can be said more
patient, what more merciful? Even he is made alive by
Christ’s blood who has shed Christ’s blood. Such and
so great is the patience of Christ; and had it not been such and so
great, the Church would never have possessed Paul as an
apostle.3602
9. But if we also, beloved brethren, are in
Christ; if we put Him on, if He is the way of our salvation, who follow
Christ in the footsteps of salvation, let us walk by the example of
Christ, as the Apostle John instructs us, saying, “He who saith
he abideth in Christ, ought himself also to walk even as He
walked.”3603
Peter
also, upon whom by the Lord’s condescension the Church was
founded,3604
| 3604 [See
Elucidation VII. The Trent Council itself (on Matt. xvi. 18)
affirms this of the Creed, not Peter. Vol. iv. pp. 99 and
101.] | lays it down in
his epistle, and says, “Christ suffered for us, leaving you an
example, that ye should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was
deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again;
when He suffered, threatened not, but gave Himself up to him that
judged Him unjustly.”3605
10. Finally, we find that both patriarchs
and prophets, and all the righteous men who in their preceding likeness
wore the figure of Christ, in the praise of their virtues were watchful
over nothing more than that they should preserve patience with a strong
and stedfast equanimity. Thus Abel, who first initiated and
consecrated the origin of martyrdom, and the passion of the righteous
man, makes no resistance nor struggles against his fratricidal3606
| 3606
According to some, “parricidal.” | brother, but with
lowliness and meekness he is patiently slain. Thus Abraham,
believing God, and first of all instituting the root and foundation of
faith, when tried in respect of his son, does not hesitate nor delay,
but obeys the commands of God with all the patience of devotion.
And Isaac, prefigured as the likeness of the Lord’s victim, when
he is presented by his father for immolation, is found patient.
And Jacob, driven forth by his brother from his country, departs with
patience; and afterwards with greater patience, he suppliantly brings
him back to concord with peaceful gifts, when he is even more impious and
persecuting. Joseph, sold by his brethren and sent away, not only
with patience pardons them, but even bountifully and mercifully bestows
gratuitous supplies of corn on them when they come to him. Moses
is frequently contemned by an ungrateful and faithless people, and
almost stoned; and yet with gentleness and patience he entreats the
Lord for those people. But in David, from whom, according to the
flesh, the nativity of Christ springs, how great and marvellous and
Christian is the patience, that he often had it in his power to be able
to kill king Saul, who was persecuting him and desiring to slay him;
and yet, chose rather to save him when placed in his hand, and
delivered up to him, not repaying his enemy in turn, but rather, on the
contrary, even avenging him when slain! In fine, so many prophets
were slain, so many martyrs were honoured with glorious deaths, who all
have attained to the heavenly crowns by the praise of patience.
For the crown of sorrows and sufferings cannot be received unless
patience in sorrow and suffering precede it.
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.”3607
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.
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
persecutions3608
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.”3609
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!
13. It is the wholesome precept of our Lord
and Master: “He that endureth,” saith He, “unto
the end, the same shall be saved;”3610
and again, “If ye continue,”
saith He, “in my word, ye shall be truly my disciples; and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.”3611
We must
endure and persevere, beloved brethren, in order that, being admitted
to the hope of truth and liberty, we may attain to the truth and
liberty itself; for that very fact that we are Christians is the
substance of faith and hope. But that hope and faith may attain
to their result, there is need of patience. For we are not
following after present glory, but future, according to what Paul the
apostle also warns us, and says, “We are saved by hope; but hope
that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he hope
for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we by
patience wait for it.”3612
Therefore, waiting and patience are
needful, that we may fulfil that which we have begun to be, and may
receive that which we believe and hope for, according to God’s
own showing.3613
| 3613
A common reading here is “giving” instead of
“showing,” scil. “præstante” for
“representante.” | Moreover,
in another place, the same apostle instructs the righteous and the
doers of good works, and them who lay up for themselves
treasures in heaven with the
increase of the divine usury, that they also should be patient; and
teaches them, saying, “Therefore, while we have time, let us
labour in that which is good unto all men, but especially to them who
are of the household of faith. But let us not faint in
well-doing, for in its season we shall reap.”3614
He admonishes that no man should
impatiently faint in his labour, that none should be either called off
or overcome by temptations and desist in the midst of the praise and in
the way of glory; and the things that are past perish, while those
which have begun cease to be perfect; as it is written, “The
righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in whatever day he
shall transgress;”3615
and again, “Hold that which thou
hast, that another take not thy crown.”3616
Which word exhorts us to persevere
with patience and courage, so that he who strives towards the crown
with the praise now near at hand, may be crowned by the continuance of
patience.
14. But patience, beloved brethren, not only
keeps watch over what is good, but it also repels what is evil.
In harmony with the Holy Spirit, and associated with what is heavenly
and divine, it struggles with the defence of its strength against the
deeds of the flesh and the body, wherewith the soul is assaulted and
taken. Let us look briefly into a few things out of many, that
from a few the rest also may be understood. Adultery, fraud,
manslaughter, are mortal crimes. Let patience be strong and
stedfast in the heart; and neither is the sanctified body and temple of
God polluted by adultery, nor is the innocence dedicated to
righteousness stained with the contagion of fraud; nor, after the
Eucharist carried in it,3617
| 3617
The older editions have “gustatam,”
“tasted,” instead of “gestatam,”
“carried,” as above. [See page p. 350,
supra. Also St. Cyril. Elucidation VIII.] | is the hand spotted with the sword and
blood.
15. Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the
foundation of peace, the holdfast and security of unity, which is
greater than both hope and faith, which excels both good works and
martyrdoms, which will abide with us always, eternal with God in the
kingdom of heaven. Take from it patience; and deprived of it, it
does not endure. Take from it the substance of bearing and of
enduring, and it continues with no roots nor strength. The
apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it
endurance and patience. “Charity,” he says, “is
large-souled; charity is kind; charity envieth not, is not puffed up,
is not provoked, thinketh not evil; loveth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, beareth all things.”3618
Thence he shows that it can
tenaciously persevere, because it knows how to endure all things.
And in another place: “Forbearing one another,” he
says, “in love, using every effort to keep the unity of the
spirit in the bond of peace.”3619
He proved that neither unity nor
peace could be kept unless brethren should cherish one another with
mutual toleration, and should keep the bond of concord by the
intervention of patience.
16. What beyond;—that you should not
swear nor curse; that you should not seek again your goods when taken
from you; that, when you receive a buffet, you should give your other
cheek to the smiter; that you should forgive a brother who sins against
you, not only seven times, but seventy times seven times,3620
| 3620
Manutius, Pamelius, and others add, “not only seventy times seven
times.” | but, moreover,
all his sins altogether; that you should love your enemies; that you
should offer prayer for your adversaries and persecutors? Can you
accomplish these things unless you maintain3621
the stedfastness of patience and
endurance? And this we see done in the case of Stephen, who, when
he was slain by the Jews with violence and stoning, did not ask for
vengeance for himself, but for pardon for his murderers, saying,
“Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”3622
It behoved the first martyr of
Christ thus to be, who, fore-running the martyrs that should follow him
in a glorious death, was not only the preacher of the Lord’s
passion, but also the imitator of His most patient gentleness.
What shall I say of anger, of discord, of strife, which things ought
not to be found in a Christian? Let there be patience in the
breast, and these things cannot have place there; or should they try to
enter, they are quickly excluded and depart, that a peaceful abode may
continue in the heart, where it delights the God of peace to
dwell. Finally, the apostle warns us, and teaches, saying:
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and anger, and wrath,
and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you.”3623
For if
the Christian have departed from rage and carnal contention as if from
the hurricanes of the sea, and have already begun to be tranquil and
meek in the harbour of Christ, he ought to admit neither anger nor
discord within his breast, since he must neither return evil for evil,
nor bear hatred.
17. And moreover, also, for the varied ills of the
flesh, and the frequent and severe torments of the body, wherewith the
human race is daily wearied and harassed, patience is necessary.
For since in that first transgression of the commandment strength of body departed with
immortality, and weakness came on with death—and strength cannot
be received unless when immortality also has been received—it
behoves us, in this bodily frailty and weakness, always to struggle and
to fight. And this struggle and encounter cannot be sustained but
by the strength of patience. But as we are to be examined and
searched out, diverse sufferings are introduced; and a manifold kind of
temptations is inflicted by the losses of property, by the heats of
fevers, by the torments of wounds, by the loss of those dear to
us. Nor does anything distinguish between the unrighteous and the
righteous more than that in affliction the unrighteous man impatiently
complains and blasphemes, while the righteous is proved by his
patience, as it is written: “In pain endure, and in thy low
estate have patience; for gold and silver are tried in the
fire.”3624
18. Thus Job was searched out and proved, and was
raised up to the very highest pinnacle of praise by the virtue of
patience. What darts of the devil were sent forth against him!
what tortures were put in use! The loss of his estate is
inflicted, the privation of a numerous offspring is ordained for
him. The master, rich in estate, and the father, richer in
children, is on a sudden neither master nor father! The wasting
of wounds is added; and, moreover, an eating pest of worms consumes his
festering and wasting limbs. And that nothing at all should
remain that Job did not experience in his trials, the devil arms his
wife also, making use of that old device of his wickedness, as if he
could deceive and mislead all by women, even as he did in the beginning
of the world. And yet Job is not broken down by his severe and
repeated conflicts, nor the blessing of God withheld from being
declared in the midst of those difficulties and trials of his, by the
victory of patience. Tobias also, who, after the sublime works of
his justice and mercy, was tried with the loss of his eyes, in
proportion as he patiently endured his blindness, in that proportion
deserved greatly of God by the praise of patience.
19. And, beloved brethren, that the benefit
of patience may still more shine forth, let us consider, on the
contrary, what mischief impatience may cause. For as patience is
the benefit of Christ, so, on the other hand, impatience is the
mischief of the devil; and as one in whom Christ dwells and abides is
found patient, so he appears always impatient whose mind the wickedness
of the devil possesses. Briefly let us look at the very
beginnings. The devil suffered with impatience that man was made
in the image of God.3625
| 3625
[Admirably worked out in Messias and Anti-Messias, by the
Rev. C. I. Black, ed. London, Masters, 1854.] | Hence he was the first to perish
and to ruin others. Adam, contrary to the heavenly command with
respect to the deadly food, by impatience fell into death; nor did he
keep the grace received from God under the guardianship of
patience. And in order that Cain should put his brother to death,
he was impatient of his sacrifice and gift; and in that Esau descended
from the rights of the first-born to those of the younger, he lost his
priority by impatience for the pottage. Why was the Jewish people
faithless and ungrateful in respect of the divine benefits? Was
it not the crime of impatience, that they first departed from
God? Not being able to bear the delays of Moses conferring with
God, they dared to ask for profane gods, that they might call the head
of an ox and an earthen image leaders of their march; nor did they ever
desist from their impatience, until, impatient always of docility and
of divine admonition, they put to death their prophets and all the
righteous men, and plunged even into the crime of the crucifixion and
bloodshedding of the Lord. Moreover, impatience makes heretics in
the Church, and, after the likeness of the Jews, drives them in
opposition to the peace and charity of Christ as rebels, to hostile and
raging hatred.3626
| 3626 [The
downfall of Novatian and of Arius and others seems largely attributable
to this sin. They could not await God’s time to give them
influence and power for good. See quotation from Massillon, vol.
iii. p. 718, this series. Also Tertull., iii. p. 677.] | And,
not at length to enumerate single cases, absolutely everything which
patience, by its works, builds up to glory, impatience casts down into
ruin.
20. Wherefore, beloved brethren, having diligently
pondered both the benefits of patience and the evils of impatience, let
us hold fast with full watchfulness the patience whereby we abide in
Christ, that with Christ we may attain to God; which patience, copious
and manifold, is not restrained by narrow limits, nor confined by
strait boundaries. The virtue of patience is widely manifest, and
its fertility and liberality proceed indeed from a source of one name,
but are diffused by overflowing streams through many ways of glory; nor
can anything in our actions avail for the perfection of praise, unless
from this it receives the substance of its perfection. It is
patience which both commends and keeps us to God. It is patience,
too, which assuages anger, which bridles the tongue, governs the mind,
guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the force of lust, represses the
violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, checks the power of
the rich, soothes the want of the poor, protects a blessed integrity in
virgins, a careful purity in widows, in those who are united and
married a single affection. It makes men humble in prosperity,
brave in adversity, gentle towards wrongs and contempts. It teaches us
quickly to pardon those who wrong us; and if you yourself do wrong, to
entreat long and earnestly. It resists temptations, suffers
persecutions, perfects passions and martyrdoms. It is patience
which firmly fortifies the foundations of our faith. It is this
which lifts up on high the increase of our hope. It is this which
directs our doing, that we may hold fast the way of Christ while we
walk by His patience. It is this that makes us to persevere as
sons of God, while we imitate our Father’s patience.
21. But since I know, beloved brethren, that
very many are eager, either on account of the burden or the pain of
smarting wrongs, to be quickly avenged of those who act harshly and
rage against them,3627
| 3627 The
Oxford edition adds here, according to some authorities, “and
will not put off the recompense of evils until that day of last
judgment, we exhort you, for the meanwhile, embrace with us this
benefit of patience, that,” etc.; and it omits the following ten
words. | we must not withhold the fact in the
furthest particular, that placed as we are in the midst of these storms
of a jarring world, and, moreover, the persecutions both of Jews or
Gentiles, and heretics, we may patiently wait for the day of
(God’s) vengeance, and not hurry to revenge our suffering with a
querulous3628
| 3628 On
the authority of one codex, Pamelius here adds, “and
envious.” | haste, since
it is written, “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, in the day of my
rising up for a testimony; for my judgment is to the congregations of
the nations, that I may take hold on the kings, and pour out upon them
my fury.”3629
The
Lord commands us to wait,3630
and to bear with brave patience the day
of future vengeance; and He also speaks in the Apocalypse, saying,
“Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for now
the time is at hand for them that persevere in injuring to injure, and
for him that is filthy to be filthy still; but for him that is
righteous to do things still more righteous, and likewise for him that
is holy to do things still more holy. Behold, I come quickly; and
my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his
deeds.”3631
Whence
also the martyrs, crying out and hastening with grief breaking forth to
their revenge, are bidden still to wait, and to give patience for the
times to be fulfilled and the martyrs to be completed. “And
when He had opened,” says he, “the fifth seal, I saw under
the altar of God the souls of them that were slain for the word of God,
and for their testimony; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood
on them that dwell on the earth? And there were given to them
each white robes; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet
for a little season, until the number of their fellow-servants and
brethren is fulfilled, who afterwards shall be slain after their
example.”3632
22. But when shall come the divine vengeance
for the righteous blood, the Holy Spirit declares by Malachi the
prophet, saying, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as
an oven; and all the aliens and all the wicked shall be stubble; and
the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.”3633
And
this we read also in the Psalms, where the approach of God the Judge is
announced as worthy to be reverenced for the majesty of His
judgment: “God shall come manifest, our God, and shall not
keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and round about Him a great
tempest. He shall call the heaven above, and the earth beneath,
that He may separate His people. Gather His saints together unto
Him, who establish His covenant in sacrifices; and the heavens shall
declare His righteousness, for God is the Judge.”3634
And
Isaiah foretells the same things, saying: “For, behold, the
Lord shall come like a fire, and His chariot as a storm, to render
vengeance in anger; for in the fire of the Lord they shall be judged,
and with His sword shall they be wounded.”3635
And again: “The Lord
God of hosts shall go forth, and shall crumble the war to pieces; He
shall stir up the battle, and shall cry out against His enemies with
strength, I have held my peace; shall I always hold my
peace?”3636
23. But who is this that says that he has
held his peace before, and will not hold his peace for ever?
Surely it is He who was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb
before its shearer is without voice, so He opened not His mouth.
Surely it is He who did not cry, nor was His voice heard in the
streets. Surely He who was not rebellious, neither contradicted,
when He offered His back to stripes, and His cheeks to the palms of the
hands; neither turned away His face from the foulness of
spitting. Surely it is He who, when He was accused by the priests
and elders, answered nothing, and, to the wonder of Pilate, kept a most
patient silence. This is He who, although He was silent in His
passion, yet by and by will not be silent in His vengeance. This
is our God, that is, not the God of all, but of the faithful and
believing; and He, when He shall come manifest in His second advent,
will not be silent.3637
For although He came first
shrouded in humility, yet He shall come manifest in power.
24. Let us wait for Him, beloved brethren, our
Judge and Avenger, who shall equally avenge with Himself the congregation of His
Church, and the number of all the righteous from the beginning of the
world. Let him who hurries, and is too impatient for his revenge,
consider that even He Himself is not yet avenged who is the
Avenger. God the Father ordained His Son to be adored; and the
Apostle Paul, mindful of the divine command, lays it down, and
says: “God hath exalted Him, and given Him a name which is
above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things heavenly, and things earthly, and things
beneath.”3638
And
in the Apocalypse the angel withstands John, who wishes to worship
him,3639
| 3639
[Origen, vol. iv. p. 544, this series.] | and
says: “See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and
of thy brethren. Worship Jesus the Lord.”3640
| 3640
Bible:Col.2.18">Rev. xxii. 9; [also xix. 10.
And compare Acts x. 26, and xiv. 14, 15; also Col. ii. 18.] | How great is the Lord Jesus, and
how great is His patience, that He who is adored in heaven is not yet
avenged on earth! Let us, beloved brethren, consider His patience
in our persecutions and sufferings; let us give an obedience full of
expectation to His advent; and let us not hasten, servants as we are,
to be defended before our Lord with irreligious and immodest
eagerness. Let us rather press onward and labour, and, watching
with our whole heart, and stedfast to all endurance, let us keep the
Lord’s precepts; so that when that day of anger and vengeance
shall come, we may not be punished with the impious and sinners, but
may be honoured with the righteous and those that fear
God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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