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,

 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 ei

 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

 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 rite

 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

 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 tha

 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

 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 benig

 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 salvati

 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 pr

 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, wh

 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

 13. It is the wholesome precept of our Lord and Master: “He that endureth,” saith He, “unto the end, the same shall be saved ” and again, “If ye conti

 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 ass

 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

 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,

 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

 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

 19. And, beloved brethren, that the benefit of patience may still more shine forth, let us consider, on the contrary, what mischief impatience may cau

 20. Wherefore, beloved brethren, having diligently pondered both the benefits of patience and the evils of impatience, let us hold fast with full watc

 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 avenge

 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

 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

 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

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.”3    Isa. xxix. 14. 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.”4    Col. ii. 8, 10. 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.”5    1 Cor. iii. 18–20.  Wherefore if the wisdom among them be not true, the patience also cannot be true. For if he is wise6    The Oxford edition (Treatise ix.), and many others read “patient.” 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.

II. Hanc se sectari philosophi quoque profitentur. Sed tam illic patientia falsa est, quam et falsa sapientia est. Unde enim vel sapiens esse vel patiens possit qui nec sapientiam nec patientiam Dei novit ? quando ipse de his qui sibi sapere in mundo videntur moneat et dicat: Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et prudentiam prudentium reprobabo (Isa. XXIX, 14). Item beatus apostolus Paulus, plenus Spiritu sancto et vocandis formandisque Gentibus missus, contestetur et instruat dicens: Videte ne quis vos depraedetur per philosophiam et inanem fallaciam, secundum 0623Btraditionem hominum, secundum elementa mundi, et non secundum Christum, quia in ipso habitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis (Coloss. II, 8). Et alio loco: Nemo se, inquit, decipiat. Si quis se putat sapientem esse in vobis, mundo huic stultus fiat, ut fiat sapiens. Sapientia enim mundi hujus stultitia est apud Deum. Scriptum est enim: Reprehendamsapientes in astutia ipsorum. Et iterum: Cognovit Dominuscogitationes sapientium, quia sunt stultae (I Cor. III, 18-20). Quare, si sapientia illic vera non est, esse non potest et vera patientia. Nam si sapiens ille est qui est humilis et mitis, philosophos autem nec humiles videmus esse nec mites, sed sibi multum placentes, et hoc ipso quod sibi placeant Deo displicentes, apparet illic veram non esse patientiam ubi sit insolens affectatae 0623C libertatis audacia et exerti ac seminudi pectoris inverecunda jactantia.