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

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.42    [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.43    [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.

XIX. Atque, ut magis, fratres dilectissimi, patientiae bonum luceat, quid mali e contrario impatientia importet consideremus. Nam, ut patientia bonum Christi est, sic e contra impatientia diaboli malum ; et sicut in quo habitat et manet Christus, patiens invenitur, ita impatiens semper existit cujus mentem diaboli nequitia possidet. Exordia denique ipsa videamus. 0634B Diabolus hominem ad imaginem Dei factum impatienter tulit: inde et periit primus et perdidit. Adam, contra coeleste praeceptum, cibi lethalis impatiens, in mortem cecidit, nec acceptam divinitus gratiam patientia custode servavit; et ut fratrem Cain perimeret, sacrificii ejus et muneris impatiens fuit; et quod Esau de majoribus ad minora descendit, primatus suos per impatientiam lentis amisit. Quid Judaïcus populus circa beneficia divina perfidus et ingratus, nonne quod a Deo primum recessit, impatientiae crimen fuit, dum Moysi cum Deo colloquentis moras non potest ferre, profanos deos ausus est postulare , ut itineris sui duces nuncuparet caput bubulum et terrestre figmentum; nec umquam ab eadem impatientia destitit, quominus, semper docilitatis et divinae 0634C admonitionis impatiens, Prophetas suos et justos quosque perimendo, ad crucem quoque et ad sanguinem Domini prosiliret. Impatientia etiam in Ecclesia haereticos facit, et, ad Judaeorum similitudinem, contra Christi pacem et charitatem rebelles ad hostilia et furiosa odia compellit. Et, ne longum sit singula recensere, omnia omnino quae patientia operibus suis aedificat ad gloriam, impatientia destruit ad ruinam.