1 Donatists.
2 Job ii. 10.
3 Ecclus. ii. 14.
ON PATIENCE.
531 have inflicted pain upon themselves, and hereafter not only for their impiety towards God but for the very cruelty which they have exercised upon themselves will deservedly suffer pains of His inflicting, do yet seek moreover the glories of Martyrs? since, even if for the true testimony of Christ they suf- fered persecution, and killed themselves, that they might not suffer any thing from their persecutors, it would be rightly said to them, " Woe unto them which have lost patience! " For how hath patience her just reward, if even an impatient suffering receives the crown? or how shall that man be judged in- nocent, to whom is said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,"1 if he commit mur- der upon himself which he is forbidden to commit upon his neighbor?
11. Let then the Saints hear from holy Scripture the precepts of patience: " My son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand thou in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation: bring thine heart low, and bear up; that in the last end thy life may increase. All that shall come upon thee receive thou, and in pain bear up, and in thy humility have patience. For in the fire gold and silver is proved, but acceptable men in the furnace2 of humiliation."3 And in another place we read: " My son, faint not thou in the discipline of the Lord, neither be wearied when thou art chidden of Him. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."4 What is here set down, " son whom He re- ceiveth," the same in the above mentioned testimony is, "acceptable men." For this is just, that we who from our first felicity of Paradise for contumacious appetence of things to enjoy were dismissed, through humble patience of things that annoy may be received back: driven away for doing evil, brought back by suffering evil: there against right- eousness doing ill, here for righteousness' sake patient of ills.
12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some 5 who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine as- sistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud."7 It is not therefore that "patience of the poor" which " perisheth not forever."8 For these 2 Receptibiles. 5 Pelagians.
3 Ecclus. ii. 1-5. 6 Ps. cxxiii. 4.
poor receive it from that Rich One, to Whom is said, " My God art Thou, because my goods Thou needest not:"8 of Whom is "every good gift, and every perfect gift;"9 to Whom crieth the needy and the poor, and in asking, seeking, knocking, saith, " My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the lawless and unjust: because Thou art my patience, O Lord, my hope from my youth up." IO But these which abound, and disdain to be in want before God, lest they receive of Him true patience, they which glory in their own false patience, seek to "confound the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope." " Nor do they regard, seeing they are men, and attribute so much to their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, "Cursed is every one who putteth his hope in man."12 Whence even if it chance them that they do bear up under any hardships or difficulties, either that they may not displease men, or that they may not suffer worse, or in self-pleasing and love of their own presump- tion, do with most proud will bear up under these same, it is meet that concerning patience this be said unto them, which concerning wis- dom the blessed Apostle James saith, " This wisdom cometh not from above, but is earthly, animal, devilish."13 For why may there not be a false patience of the proud, as there is a false wisdom of the proud? But from Whom cometh true wisdom, from Him cometh also true patience. For to Him sing- eth that poor in spirit, " Unto God is my soul subjected, because from Him is my patience."14 13. But they answer and speak, saying, " If the will of man without any aid of God by strength of free choice IS bears so many griev- ous and horrible distresses, whether in mind or body, that it may enjoy the delight of this mortal life and of sins, why may it not be that in the same manner the self-same will of man by the same strength of free-choice, not thereunto looking to be aided of God, but unto itself by natural possibility sufficing, doth, in all of labor or sorrow that is put upon it, for righteousness and eternal life's sake most patiently sustain the same? Or is it so, say they, that the will of the unjust is sufficient, without aid of God, for them, yea even to exercise themselves in undergoing torture for iniquity, and before they be tor- tured by others; sufficient the will of them which love the respiting of this life that, with- out aid of God, they should in the midst of 8 Ps. xvi. 2. " Ps. xiv. 6.
U Ps. lxii. 5.
9 James i. 17. 12 Jer. xvii. 5. JS Liber i arbitrii.
JO Ps. lxxi. 4, 5. '3 James iii. 15.
532 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
most atrocious and protracted torments per- severe in a lie, lest confessing their misdeeds they be ordered to be put to death; and not sufficient the will of the just, unless strength be put into them from above, that whatever be their pains, they should, either for beauty's sake of very righteousness or for love of eter- nal life, bear the same? " 14. They which say these things, do not understand that as well each one of the wicked is in that measure for endurance of any ills more hard, in what measure the lust of the world is mightier in him; as also that each one of the just is in that measure for endur- ance of any ills more brave, in what measure in him the love of God is mightier. But lust of the world hath its beginning from choice of the will, its progress from enjoyableness of pleasure, its confirmation from the chain of custom, whereas " the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts," * not verily from our- selves, but " by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." And therefore from Him cometh the patience of the just, by Whom is shed abroad their love (of Him). Which love (of charity) the Apostle praising and setting off, among its other good qualities, saith, that it " beareth all things." 2 " Charity," saith he, "is magnanimous."3 And a little after he saith, " endureth all things." The greater then is in saints the charity (or love) of God, the more do they endure all things for Him whom they love, and the greater in sinners the lust of the world, the more do they en- dure all things for that which they lust after. And consequently from that same source cometh true patience of the righteous, from which there is in them the love of God; and from that same source the false patience of the unrighteous, from which is in them the lust of the world. With regard to which the Apostle John saith; "Love not the world, neither the things that be in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him: because all that is in the world, is lust of the flesh, and lust of the eyes, and pride of life;4 which is not of the Father, but is of the world. " s This concupi- scence, then, which is not of the Father, but is of the world, in what measure it shall in any man be more vehement and ardent, in that measure becometh each more patient of all troubles and sorrows for that which he lusteth after. Therefore, as we said above, this is not the patience which descendeth from above, but the patience of the godly is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. And so that is earthly, this heavenly; 1 Rom. v. 5.
4 Ambitio saculi.
3 Magnanima.
that animal, this spiritual; that devilish, this Godlike.6 Because concupiscence, whereof it cometh that persons sinning suffer all things stubbornly, is of the world; but charity, whereof cometh that persons living aright suffer all things bravely, is of God. And therefore to that false patience it is possible that, without aid of God, the human will may suffice; harder, in proportion as it is more eager of lust, and bearing ills with the more endurance the worse itself becometh: while to this, which is true patience, the human will, unless aided and inflamed from above, doth not suffice, for the very reason that the Holy Spirit is the fire thereof; by Whom unless it be kindled to love that impassible Good, it is not able to bear the ill which it suffereth.
15. For, as the Divine utterances testify, "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." 7 Whoso therefore contends that love of God may be had without aid of God, what else does he contend, but that God may be had without God? Now what Christian would say this, which no madman would venture to say? Therefore in the Apostle, true, pious, faithful patience, saith exultingly, and by the mouth of the Saints; "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or dis- tress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- ness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us:" not through ourselves, but, " through Him that loved us." 8 And then he goes on and adds; "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Tesus our Lord." This is that "love of God" which "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." But the con- cupiscence of the bad, by reason of which there is in them a false patience, "is not of the Father," 9 as saith the Apostle John, but is of the world.
16. Here some man shall say; "If the concupiscence of the bad, whereby it comes that they bear all evils for that which they lust after, be of the world, how is it said to be of their will?" As if, truly, they were not themselves also of the world, when they love the world, forsaking Him by Whom the world was made. For " they serve the creature 6 Deifica.
8 Rom. viii. 35-39.
Ii.
ohn iv. 16. ohn ii. 16.
ON PATIENCE.
533 more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever." ' Whether then by the word " world," the Apostle John signifies lovers of the world, the will, as it is of themselves, is therefore of the world: or whether under the name of the world he comprises heaven and earth, and all that is therein, that is the creature univer- sally, it is plain that the will of the creature, not being that of the Creator, is of the world. For which cause to such the Lord saith, " Ye are from beneath, I am from above: ye are of this world, I am not of this world." 2 And to the Apostle He saith, " If ye were of the world, the world would love his own." But lest they should arrogate more unto them- selves than their measure craved, and when He said thatNthey were not of the world, should imagine this to be of nature, not of grace, therefore He saith, " But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." It follows, that they once were of the world: for, that they might not be of the world, they were chosen out of the world.
17. Now this election the Apostle demon- strating to be, not of merits going before in good works, but election of grace, saith thus: "And in this time a remnant by election of grace is saved. But if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace." 3 This is election of grace; that is, election in which through the grace of God men are elected: this, I say, is election of grace which goes before all good merits of men. For if it be to any good merits that it is given, then is it no more gratuitously given, but is paid as a debt, and consequently is not truly called grace; where "reward/' as the same Apostle saith, " is not imputed as grace, but as debt. " 4 Whereas if, that it may be true grace, that is, gratuitous, it find nothing in man to which it is due of merit, (which thing is well understood in that saying, " Thou wilt save them for nothing,''5) then assuredly itself gives the merits, not to merits is given. Consequently it goes before even faith, from which it is that all good works begin. " For the just,'' as is written, " shall live by faith." 6 But, moreover, grace not only assists the just, but also justifies the ungodly. And therefore even when it does aid the just and seems to be rendered to his merits, not even then does it cease to be grace, because that which it aids it did itself bestow. With a view therefore to this grace, which precedes all good merits of man, not only was Christ put to death by 5 Psalm Ivi. 7, Lat. and LXX. vnep toG /u.rjflei'b; cruxreis avroiis. But Heb. and E. V. " shall they escape by iniquity?"
6 Habak. ii. 4.
6 Habak. ii. 4.
the ungodly, but " died for the ungodly."7 And ere that He died, He elected the Apos- tles, not of course then just, but to be justi- fied: to whom He saith, " I have chosen you out of the world." For to whom He said, "Ye are not of the world," and then, lest they should account themselves never to have been of the world, presently added, " But I have chosen you out of the world; " assuredly that they should not be of the world was by His own election of them conferred upon them. Wherefore, if it had been through their own righteousness, not through His grace, that they were elected, they would not have been chosen out of the world, because they would already not be of the world if al- ready they were just. And again, if the rea- son why they were elected was, that they were already just, they had already first chosen the Lord. For who can be righteous but by choosing righteousness? "But the end of the law is Christ, for righteousness is to every one that believeth.8 WTho is made unto us wisdom of God, and righteousness, and sane- tification, and redemption: that, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 9 He then is Himself our righteous- ness.
18. Whence also the just of old, before the Incarnation of the Word, in this faith of Christ, and in this true righteousness, (which thing Christ is unto us,) were justified; be- lieving this to come which we believe come: and they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God, not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up.10 For their good works did not come before God's mercy, but fol- lowed it. For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will have compassion."11 From which words of God the Apostle Paul, should so long after say; "It is not therefore of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." It is also their own voice, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, " My God, His mercy shall prevent me )' 12 )' 12 How indeed could they be aliens from the faith of Christ, by whose charity even Christ was fore-announced unto us; without the faith of Whom, not any of mor- tals either hath been, or is, or ever shall be able to be, righteous? If then, being already just, the Apostles were elected by Christ, they would have first chosen Him, that just men might be chosen, because without Him they 534 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
could not be just. But it was not so: as Himself saith to them, " Not ye have chosen Me, but I have chosen you." Of which the Apostle John speaks, " Not that we loved God, but that He loved us."1 19. Since the case is so, what is man, while in this life he uses his own proper will, ere he choose and love God, but unrighteous and ungodly? " What," I say, " is man," a crea- ture going astray from the Creator, unless his Creator "be mindful of him,"2 and choose3 him freely, and love 4 him freely? Because he is himself not able to choose or love, un- less being first chosen and loved he be healed, because by choosing blindness he perceiveth not, and by loving laziness is soon wearied. But perchance some man may say: In what manner is it that God first chooses and loves unjust men, that He may justify them, when it is written, " Thou hatest, Lord, all that work iniquity?"5 In what way, think we, but in a wonderful and ineffable manner? And yet even we are able to conceive, that the good Physician both hates and loves the sick man: hates him, because he is sick; loves him, that he may drive away his sickness.
20. Let thus much have been said with re- gard to charity, without which in us there cannot be true patience, because in good men it is the love of God which endureth all things, as in bad men the lust of the world. But this love is in us by the Holy Spirit which was given us. Whence, of Whom cometh in us love, of Him cometh patience. But the lust of the world, when it patiently bears the bur- dens of any manner of calamity, boasts of the strength of its own will, like as of the stupor of disease, not robustness of health. This boasting is insane: it is not the language of patience, but of dotage. A will like this in that degree seems more patient of bitter ills, in which it is more greedy of temporal good things, because more empty of eternal.
21. But if it be goaded on and inflamed with deceitful visions and unclean incentives by the devilish spirit, associated and conspir- ing therewith in malignant agreement, this spirit makes the will of the man either frantic with error, or burning with appetite of some worldly delight; and hence, it seems to show a marvellous endurance of intolerable evils: but yet it does not follow from this that an evil will without instigation of another and unclean spirit, like as a good will without aid of the Holy Spirit, cannot exist. For that there may be an evil will even without any spirit either seducing or inciting, is sufficiently clear in the instance of the devil himself, who is found to have become a devil, not through some other devil, but of his own proper will. An evil will therefore, whether it be hurried on by lust, whether called back by fear, whether expanded by gladness, whether con- tracted by sadness, and in all these perturba- tions of mind enduring and making light of whatever are to others, or at another time, more grievous, this evil will may, without an- other spirit to goad it on, seduce itself, and in lapsing by defection from the higher to the lower, the more pleasant it shall account that thing to be which it seeks to get or fears to lose, or rejoices to have gotten, or grieves to have lost, the more tolerably for its sake bear what is less for it to suffer than that is to be enjoyed. For whatever that thing be, it is of the creature, of which one knows the pleasure. Because in some sort, the creature loved ap- proaches itself to the creature loving in fond contact and connection, to the giving experi- ence of its sweetness.
22. But the pleasure of the Creator, of which is written, "And from the river of Thy pleasure wilt Thou give them to drink," 6 is of far other kind, for it is not, like us, a crea- ture. Unless then its love be given to us from thence, there is no source whence it may be in us. And consequently, a good will, by which we love God, cannot be in man, save in whom God also worketh to will. This good will therefore, that is, a will faith- fully subjected to God,7 a will set on fire by sanctity of that ardor which is above, a will which loves God and his neighbor for God's sake; whether through love, of which the Apostle Peter makes answer, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee; "8 whether through fear, of which says the Apostle Paul, " In fear and trembling work out your own salva- tion;"9 whether through joy, of which he says, " In hope rejoicing, in tribulation patient;"10 whether through sorrow, with which he says he had great grief for his brethren;" in whatever way it endure what bitterness and hardships soever, it is the love of God which " endureth all things," I2 and which is not shed abroad in our hearts but by the Holy Spirit given unto us.13 Whereof piety makes no manner of doubt, but, as the charity of them which holily love, so the patience of them which piously endure, is the gift of God. For it cannot be that the divine Scripture deceiveth or is deceived, which not only in the Old Books hath testimonies of this thing, when it is said unto God, " My Patience art Thou," and, " From Him is my 2 Ps. viii. 4.
5 Ps. v. 5.
£ligere.
6 Ps. xxxvi. 9.
9 Phil. ii. 12.
12 1 Cor. xiii. 7.
8 John xxi. 15, 11 Rom. ix. 2.
ON PATIENCE.
535 patience; " x and where another prophet saith, that we receive the spirit of fortitude;2 but also in the Apostolic writings we read, " Be- cause unto you is- given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for Him."3 Therefore let not that make the mind to be as of its own merit uplifted, wherewith he is told that he is of Another's mercy gifted.
23. But if moreover any not having charity, which pertaineth to the unity of spirit and the bond of peace whereby the Catholic Church is gathered and knit together, being involved in any schism, doth, that he may not deny Christ, suffer tribulations, straits, hunger, na- kedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments, swords, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through fear of hell and everlasting fire; in nowise is all this to be blamed, nay rather this also is a patience meet to be praised. For we cannot say that it would have been better for him that by denying Christ he should suffer none of these things, which he did suffer by confessing Him: but we must account that it will per- haps be more tolerable for him in the judg- ment, than if by denying Christ he should avoid all those things: so that what the Apostle saith, " If I shall give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing/'4 should be understood to profit nothing for obtaining the kingdom of heaven, but not for having more tolerable punishment to undergo in the last judgment.
24. 5 But it may well be asked, whether this patience likewise be the gift of God, or to be attributed to strength of the human will, by which patience, one who is separated from the Church doth, not for the error which separated him but for the truth of the Sacrament or Word which hath remained with him, for fear of pains eternal suffer pains temporal. For we must take heed lest haply, if we affirm that patience to be the gift of God, they in whom it is should be thought to belong also to the kingdom of God; but if we deny it to be the gift of God, we should be compelled to allow that without aid and gift of God there can be in the will of man somewhat of good. Because it is not to be denied that it is a good thing that a man believe he shall undergo pain of eternal punishment if he shall deny Christ, and for that faith endure and make light of any manner of punishment of man's inflicting.
25. So then, as we are not to deny that this is the gift of God, we are thus to understand that there be some gifts of God possessed by 1 Ps. lxxi. 5; and lxii. 5. 2 Is. xi. 2.
the sons of that Jerusalem which is above,6 and free, and mother of us all, (for these are in some sort the hereditary possessions in which we are " heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: ") but some other which may be received even by the sons of concubines to whom carnal Jews and schismatics or heretics are compared. For though it be written, " Cast out the bondmaid and her son, for the son of the bondmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac:"7 and though God said to I Abraham, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called:" which the Apostle hath so inter- preted as to say, " That is, not they which be sons of the flesh, these be the sons of God; but the sons of the promise are counted for J the seed; " 8 that we might understand the seed of Abraham in regard of Christ to pertain by reason of Christ to the sons of God, who are Christ's body and members, that is to say, the Church of God, one, true, very-begotten, catholic, holding the godly faith; not the faith which works through elation or fear, but "which worketh by love;"9 nevertheless, even the sons of the concubines, when Abra- ham sent them away from his son Isaac, he did not omit to bestow upon them some gifts, that they might not be left in every way