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

On the Advantage of Patience.1    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.]

LIBER DE BONO PATIENTIAE.