(385)S15E8 Simplicity: Augustine's "On Patience"
Welcome back to the Fourth Wave podcast. Augustine, on patience. That virtue of the mind which is called patience is so great a gift of God that even in Him who bestows the same upon us, that, whereby He waits for evil men that they may amend, is set forth by the name of patience or long suffering. So although in God there can be no suffering, and patience has its name, A Patiendo, from suffering, yet a patient God we not only faithfully believe, but also wholesomely confess. But the patience of God, of what kind and how great it is, His, whom we say to be impassable, yet not impatient, nay, even most patient, in words to unfold this, Who can be able?
Derek:Ineffable is therefore that patience, as is His jealousy, as His wrath, and whatever there is like to these for if we conceive of these as they be in us, in Him are there none we namely can feel none of these without molestation but be it far from us to surmise that the impassable nature of God is liable to any molestation. But like as He is jealous without any darkening of spirit, angry without any perturbation, pitiful without any pain, repents Him without any wrongness in Him to be set right, so is He patient without anything of passion. Now, therefore, as concerning human patience, which we are able to conceive and beholden to have, of what sort it is, I will, as God grants and the brevity of the present discourse allows, essay to set forth. The patience of man, which is right and laudable and worthy of the name of virtue, is understood to be that by which we tolerate evil things with an even mind, that we may not with a mind uneven desert good things, through which we may arrive at better. Wherefore the impatient, while they will not suffer ills, affect not a deliverance from ills but only the suffering of heavier ills whereas the patient who choose rather by not committing to bear, than by not bearing to commit evil, both make lighter what through patience they suffer, and also escape worse ills in which through impatience they would be sunk.
Derek:But those good things which are great and eternal, they lose not while to the evils which be temporal and brief they yield not, because the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared, as the Apostle says, with a future glory that shall be revealed in us. And again he says, This our temporal and light tribulation does in inconceivable manner work for us an eternal weight of glory. Number three. Look, we then, beloved, what hardships in labors and sorrows men endure for things which they viciously love, by how much they think to be made by them more happy, by so much more unhappily covet. Now, much for false riches, how much for vain honors, how much for affections of games and shows is of exceeding peril and trouble most patiently borne, We see men hankering after money, glory, lasciviousness how that they may arrive at their desires, and having gotten, not lose them, they endure sun, rain, icy cold, waves, and most stormy tempests, the roughness and uncertainties of wars, the strokes of huge blows and dreadful wounds, not of inevitable necessity but of culpable will.
Derek:But these madnesses are thought in a manner permitted. Thus avarice, ambition, luxury, and the delights of all sorts of games and shows, unless for them some wicked deed be committed or outrage which is prohibited by human laws, are accounted to pertain to innocence nay, moreover, the man who without wrong to any shall, whether forgetting or increasing of money, whether for obtaining or keeping of honors, whether in contending in the match, or in hunting, or in exhibiting with applause some theatrical spectacle, have borne great labors and pains. It is not enough that through popular vanity he is checked by no reproofs, but he is moreover extolled with praises because, as it is written, the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul. For the force of desire makes endurance of labors and pains, and no man, save for that which he enjoys, freely takes on him to bear that which annoys. But these lusts, as I said, for the fulfilling of which they which are on fire with them most patiently endure much hardship and bitterness, are accounted to be permitted and allowed by laws.
Derek:Number four. Nay, more. For is it not so that even for open wickedness, not to punish but to perpetrate them, men put up with many most grievous troubles? Do not authors of secular letters tell of a certain right, noble parasite of his country, that hunger, thirst, cold, all these he was able to endure, and his body was patient of lack of food and warmth and sleep to a degree surpassing belief? Why speak of highway robbers, all of whom, while they lie in wait for travelers, endure whole nights without sleep, and that they may catch, as they pass by, men who have no thought of harm, will, no matter how foul the weather, plant in one spot their mind and body which are full of thoughts of harm.
Derek:Nay, it is said that some of them are won't to torture one another by turns, to that degree that this practice and training against pains is not a wit sort of pains. For not so much perchance are they excruciated by the judge, that through smart of pain the truth may be got at, as they are by their own comrades, that through patience of pain truth may not be betrayed And yet in all these the patience is rather to be wondered at than praised. Nay, neither wondered at nor praised, seeing it is no patience, but we must wonder at the hardness deny the patience for there is nothing in this rightly to be praised, nothing usefully to be imitated and you will rightly judge the mind to be all the more worthy of greater punishment the more it yields up to vices, the instruments of virtues. Patience is companion of wisdom, not handmaid of concupiscence patience is the friend of a good conscience, not the foe of innocence. Number five.
Derek:When therefore you shall see any man suffer anything patiently, do not straightaway praise it as patience, for this is only shown by the cause of suffering. When it is a good cause, then it is true patience when that is not polluted by lust, then is the distinguished from falsity but when that is placed in crime, then is this much misplaced in name for not just as all who know are partakers of knowledge, just so are all who suffer partakers of patience but they which rightly use the suffering, these in verity of patience are praised these with the prize of patience are crowned. Number six. But yet, seeing that for lust's sake or even wickedness, seeing in a word that for this temporal life and good men do wonderfully bear the brunt of many horrible sufferings, they much admonish us how great things ought to be born for the sake of a good life, that it may also hereafter be eternal life, and without any bound of time, without waste or loss of any advantage, in true felicity secure. The Lord says: In your patience you shall possess your souls.
Derek:He says not your farms, your praises, your luxuries, but your souls. If then the soul endures so great sufferings that it may possess that whereby it may be lost, how great ought it to bear that it might not be lost! And then, to mention a thing not culpable, if it bear so great sufferings for saving the flesh under the hands of surgeons cutting or burning the same, how great ought it to bear for saving of itself under the fury of any soever enemies. Seeing that leeches, that the body may not die, do by pains consult for the body's good, but enemies by threatening the body with pains and death would urge us on to the slaying of soul and body in hell. Number seven.
Derek:Though indeed the welfare, even of the body, is then more providentially consulted for if its temporal life and welfare be disregarded for righteousness' sake, and its pain or death most patiently for righteousness' sake endured. Since it is of the body's redemption, which is to be, in the end, that the Apostle speaks, where he says, Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting the adoption of sons, the redemption of our body, then he subjoins, For in hope are we saved. But hope which is seen is not hope for what a man sees, why does he also hope for? But if what we see not we hope for, we do by patience wait for it. When therefore any ills do torture us indeed, yet not exhort from us ill works, not only is the soul possessed through patience, but even when, through patience, the body itself for a time is afflicted or lost, it is unto eternal stability and salvation resumed, and has through grief and death an inviolable health and happy immortality laid up for itself.
Derek:Whence the Lord Jesus, exhorting His martyrs to patients, has promised of the very same body a future perfect entireness, without loss, I say, not of any limb, but of a single hair. Verily I say unto you, says he, a hair of your head shall not perish. That so, because, as the Apostle says, no man ever hated his own flesh. A faithful man may more be patient than by impatience take vigilant care for the state of his flesh, and find amends for its present losses, how great soever they may be in the inestimable gain of future incorruption. But although patience be a virtue of the mind, yet partly the mind exercises it in the mind itself, partly in the body.
Derek:In itself, it exercises patience when the body, remaining unhurt and untouched, the mind is goaded by any advertises or filthiness of things or words to do or say something that is not expedient or not becoming, and patiently bears all evils that it may not itself commit any evil in work or word. By this patience we bear, even while we be sound in body, that in the midst of the offenses of this world our blessedness is deferred, of which it is said, what I cited a little before, if what we see not we hope for, we do by patience wait for it. By this patience holy David bore the revilings of a railer, and when he might easily have avenged himself, not only did it not, but even refrained another who was vexed and moved for him, and more put forth his kingly power by prohibiting than by exercising vengeance nor at any time was his body afflicted with any disease or wound but there was an acknowledging of time of humility and a bearing of the will of God, for the sake of which there was a drinking of the bitterness of 'contumly with most patient mind.' This patience the Lord taught when, the servants being moved at the mixing inn of the tares and the wishing to gather them up, He said that the householder answered, Leave both to grow until the harvest, that, namely, must be patience put up with, which must not be in haste put away.
Derek:Of this patience Himself afforded and showed an example, when before the passion of His body, He so bore with His disciple Judas that ere He pointed Him out as the traitor, He endured Him as a thief, and before experience of bonds and cross and death, did to those lips so full of guile not deny the kiss of peace. All these, and whatever else there be, with it were tedious to rehearse, belong to that manner of patience by which the mind does, not its own sins but any evils so ever from without, patiently endure in itself, while the body remains altogether unhurt. But the other manner of patience is that by which the same mind bears any troubles and grievances whatsoever in the sufferings of the body, not as do foolish or wicked men for the sake of getting vain things or perpetrating crimes, but as is defined by the Lord for righteousness' sake. In both kinds the holy martyrs contended, for both with scornful reproofs of the ungodly were they filled, where, the body remaining intact, the mind has its own, as it were, blows and wounds, and bears these unbroken and in their bodies they were bound, imprisoned, vexed with hunger and thirst, tortured, gashed, torn asunder, burned, butchered, and with piety immovable, submitted unto God their mind, while they were suffering in the flesh all that exquisite cruelty could devise in its mind.
Derek:Number nine. It is indeed a greater fight of patience when it is not a visible enemy by persecution and rage would urge us into crime which enemy may openly and in broad day be by not consenting overcome. But the devil himself, he who does likewise by means of the children of infidelity, as by his vessels, persecute the children of light, does by himself hiddenly attack us, by his rage putting us on to do or say something against God. As such, had holy Job experience of him, by both temptations vexed, but in both through steadfast strength of patience and arms of piety, unconquered. For first, his body being left unhurt, he lost all that he had in order that the mind, before excruciation of the flesh, might through withdraw of the things which men were won't to prize highly be broken, and he might say something against God upon loss of the things for the sake of which he was thought to worship him.
Derek:He was smitten also, with sudden bereavement of all his sons, so that whom he had begotten one by one he should lose all at once, as though their numerousness had been not for the adorning of his felicity, but for the increasing of his calamity. But where, having endured these things, he remained immovable in his God, he cleaved to his will, whom it was not possible to lose but by his own will and in place of the things he had lost, he held him who took them away, in whom he should find what should never be lost. For he that took them away was not that enemy who had will of hurting, but he who had given to that enemy the power of hurting. The enemy next attacked also the body. And now, not these things which were in the man from without, but the man himself, in whatever part he could he smote.
Derek:From the head to the feet were burning pains, were crawling worms, were running sores still, in the rotting body, the mind remained entire and horrid as were the tortures of the consuming flesh with inviolate piety and uncorrupted patience, it endured them all. There stood the wife, and instead of giving her husband any help, was suggesting blasphemy against God for we are not to think that the devil, in leaving her when he took away the sons, went to work as one unskilled in mischief. Rather, how necessary she was to the tempter he had already learned in Eve. But now he had not found a second Adam whom he might take by means of a woman. More cautious was Job in his hours of sadness than Adam in his bowers of gladness.
Derek:The one was overcome in the midst of pleasant things, the other overcame in the midst of pains. The one consented to that which seemed delightsome this other quailed not in torments most affrightsome. There stood his friends too, not to console him in his evils, but to suspect evil in him. For while he suffered so great sorrows, they believed him not innocent, nor did their tongues forbear to say that which his conscience had not to say, that so amid ruthless tortures of the body his mind also might be beaten with truthless reproaches. But he, bearing in his flesh his own pains, in his heart others' errors, reproved his wife for her folly, taught his friends wisdom, preserved patience in each and all.
Derek:Number 10. To this man let them look who put themselves to death when they are sought for to have life put upon them, and by bereaving themselves of the present, deny and refuse also that which is to come. Why, if people were driving them to deny Christ or to do anything contrary to righteousness, like true martyrs, they ought rather to bear all patiently than to dare death impatiently. If it could be right to do this for the sake of running away from evils, holy Job would have killed himself, that being in so great evils in his estate, in his sons, in his limbs, through the devil's cruelty, he might escape them all. But he did not do it.
Derek:Far be it from him, a wise man, to commit upon himself what not even that unwise woman suggested. And if she had suggested it, she would with good reason here also have had that answer which she had when suggesting blasphemy. You have spoken as one of the foolish women if we have received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear evil? Seeing even he also would have lost patience if either by blasphemy, as she had suggested, or by killing himself which not even she had dared to speak of, he should die, and be among them to whom it is written, Woe unto them that have lost patience, and rather increase than escape pains if after the death of his body he should be hurried off to punishment, either of blasphemers or murderers, or of them which are worse even than parasites. For if a parasite be on that account more wicked than any homicide because he kills not merely a man but a near relative, And among parasites too, the nearer the person killed, the greater criminal he is judged to be.
Derek:Without doubt, worse still is he who kills himself because there is none nearer to a man than himself. What then do these miserable persons mean who, though both here they 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 suffered persecution, and killed themselves, that they might not suffer anything from their persecutors, it would be rightly said to them, Woe unto them which have lost patience for how is patience her just reward if even an impatient suffering receives the crown? Or how shall that man be judged innocent to whom it is said, you shall love your neighbor as yourself,' if he commit murder upon himself which he has forbidden to commit upon his neighbor? 11.
Derek:Let then the saints hear from Holy Scripture the precepts of patience. My son, when you come to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. Bring your heart low and bear up, that in the last end your life may increase. All that shall come upon you receive you, and in pain bear up, and in your humility have patience for in the fire gold and silver is proved, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. And in another place we read: My son, faint not on the discipline of the Lord, neither be wearied when you are chidden of Him for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.
Derek:What is here set down, son whom he receives, the same in the above mentioned testimony is acceptable men. For this is just, that we who from our first felicity of Paradise, for contumencies, appetents 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 righteousness doing ill, here for righteousness' sake, patient of ills. Twelfth. 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 who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it is by divine assistance, but which it has of free will.
Derek: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. It is not therefore that patience of the poor which perishes not forever. For these poor receive it from that rich one to whom is said, My God, are you because my goods you need not, of whom is every good gift and every perfect gift, to whom cries the needy and the poor, and in asking, seeking, knocking, says, My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner and from the hand of the lawless and unjust, because you are my patience, O Lord, I hope from my youth up. 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 of their own, that is, to the human will, that they run into that which is written, cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man, whence even if it chance them that they do bear up under any hardship 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 presumption, do with most proud will bear up under these same.
Derek:It is meet that concerning patience this be said to them, which concerning wisdom the blessed apostle James says, This wisdom comes not from above, but is earthly, animal, devilish. For why may there not be a false patience of the proud, as there is a false wisdom of the proud? But from whom comes true wisdom, from him comes also true patience. For to him sings that poor in spirit: Unto God is my soul subjected, because from him is my patience. 13.
Derek:But they answer and speak, saying: If the will of man without any aid of God by strength of free choice bears so many grievous 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, does 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 tortured by others, sufficient the will of them which love the respiting of this life, that without aid of God they should in the middle of the most atrocious and protracted torments persevere in a lie, lest confessing their misdeeds they be ordered to be put to death not sufficient the will of the just, unless strength to 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 eternal life, bear the same.
Derek:14. They which say these things do not understand that as well as 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 endurance of any ills more brave, in what measure in him the love of God is mightier. But lust of the world has 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 ourselves, but by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. And therefore from Him comes 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, says that it bears all things. Charity, says he, is magnanimous and the little after, He says, endures all things.
Derek: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 endure all things for that which they lust after. And consequently, from that same source comes 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 says, 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, lust of the eyes, and pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world. This concupiscence, 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 becomes each more patient of all troubles and sorrows for that which he lusts after.
Derek:Therefore, as we said above, this is not the patience which descends 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, that animal, this spiritual, that devilish, this godlike. Because concupiscence, whereof it comes that person's sinnings suffer all things stubbornly, is of the world, but charity, whereof comes that person's 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 becomes while to this, which is true patience, the human will, unless aided and inflamed from above, does not suffice for the very reason that the Holy Spirit is the fire thereof, by whom unless it be kindled to love that impassable good, it is not able to bear the ill which it suffers. 15.
Derek:For as the divine utterances testify, God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him. Whoever 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 says exultingly and by the mouth of the saints, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution, or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
Derek:As it is written: For your 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. 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 Jesus 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 concupiscence of the bad by reason of which there is in them a false patience is not of the Father, as says the Apostle John, but is of this world. 16.
Derek: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 loved the world forsaking him by whom the world was made. For they served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Whether then by the word world the apostle John signifies lovers of the world, the will as it is of themselves is therefore the world, or whether under the name of the world He comprises heaven and earth, and all that is therein, that is the creature universally, 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 says, you are from beneath, I am from above you are of this world, I am not of this world.
Derek:And the apostle, he says, if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But lest they should arrogate more unto themselves than their measure craved. And when he said that they were not of the world, should imagine this to be of nature, not of grace? Therefore he says, But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates 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.
Derek:17. Now this election the apostle demonstrating to be, not of merits going before in good works, but election of grace, says 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? 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.
Derek: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 says, is not imputed as grace but as debt. Whereas if that it may be true grace, that is gratuitous, it finds nothing in man to which it is due of merit, which thing is well understood in the saying, you will save them for nothing,' 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 it is written, shall live by faith, 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, but the ungodly, but died for the ungodly.
Derek:And ere that He died, He elected the apostles, not of course then just, but to be justified, to whom He says, I have chosen you out of the world, for to whom He says, You 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 already they were just. And again, if the reason 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 everyone who believes, who is made unto us wisdom of God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That, as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord, he then is himself our righteousness.
Derek: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 believing this to come which we believe come, And they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves but the gift of God, not of works, lest happily they should be lifted up. For their good works did not come before God's mercy, but followed it. For to them was it said, and by them written long ere Christ had 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. From which words of God the apostle Paul should so long after say, It is not therefore of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.
Derek:It is also their own voice long ere Christ had come in the flesh: My God, His mercy shall prevent me. How indeed could they be aliens from the faith of Christ, by whose charity even Christ was foreannounced unto us, without the faith of whom not any of mortals either has 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 could not be just. But it was not so, as Himself says to them, Not you have chosen me, but I have chosen you, of which the apostle John speaks, Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. 19.
Derek:Since the case is so, what is man while in this life he uses his own proper will he chooses and love God, but unrighteous and ungodly? What, I say, is man, a creature going astray from the Creator unless his Creator be mindful of him, and choose him freely and love him freely? Because he is himself not able to choose or love, unless being first chosen and loved, he be healed because by choosing blindness he perceives 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, You hate the Lord all that work iniquity. In what way, think we, but in a wonderful and ineffable manner?
Derek: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 regard to charity, without which in us there cannot be true patience because in good men it is the love of God which endures 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 comes in us love, of Him comes patience.
Derek:But the lust of the world, when it patiently bears the burdens 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 conspiring 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 marvelous endurance of intolerable evils.
Derek: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 contracted by sadness, and in all these perturbations of mind enduring and making light of whatever are to others, or at another time more grievous, this evil will may, without another 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 approaches itself, to the creature loving in fond contact and connection, to the giving experience of its sweetness.
Derek:22. But the pleasure of the Creator of which is written, and from the river of your pleasure will you give them to drink, is of far other kind, for it is not, like us, a creature. 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 works to will. This good will therefore, that is, a will faithfully subjected to God, a will set on fire by sanctity of the 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, you know that I love you whether through fear, of which says the apostle Paul, in fear and trembling work out your own salvation whether through joy, of which he says, in hope rejoicing in tribulation, patient whether through sorrow, with which he says he had great grief for his brethren in whatever way it endures, what bitterness and hardship soever, it is the love of God which endures all things, and which is not shed abroad in our hearts, but by the Holy Spirit given unto us.
Derek: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 Scriptures deceive or is deceived, which not only in the books has testimonies of this thing, when it is said to God, My patience are you, and From Him is my patience, and where another prophet says that we receive the spirit of fortitude, but also in the Apostolic writings we read: Because unto you is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for Him 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 pertains to the unity of spirit and the bond of peace whereby the Catholic Church is gathered and knit together, being involved in any schism, does that he may not deny Christ suffer tribulations, straits, hunger, nakedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments, swords, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through fear of hell and everlasting fire.
Derek: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, perhaps, be more tolerable for him in the judgment than if by denying Christ, he should avoid all those things, so that what the apostle says, If I shall give my body to be burned but have not charity, it profits me nothing, 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. But it may well be asked whether this patience likewise be the gifts of God or to be attributed to strength of the human will, by which patience one who is separated from the church does, not for the error which separated him, but for the truth of the sacrament or word which has remained with him, for fear of pains eternal, suffer pains temporal.
Derek:For we must take heed lest happily, 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 the sons of that Jerusalem which is above, 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.
Derek: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. And though God said to Abraham, in Isaac shall your seed be called, which the apostle has so interpreted 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 the seed, 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 works by love. Nevertheless, even the sons of the concubines, when Abraham 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 empty, but not that they should be held as heirs. For so we read: And Abraham gave all his estate unto Isaac, and to the sons of his concubines gave Abraham gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac.
Derek:If then we be sons of Jerusalem the free, let us understand that other be the gifts of them which are put out of the inheritance, other the gifts of them which be heirs. For these be heirs to whom is said, You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 26. Cry we therefore with the spirit of charity, and until we come to the inheritance in which we are always to remain, let us be, through love which becomes the free born, not through fear which becomes bondman, patient of suffering. Cry we, so long as we are poor, until we be with that inheritance made rich, seeing how great earnest therefore we have received in that Christ to make us rich made Himself poor who, being exalted unto the riches which are above, there was sent One who should breathe into our hearts holy longings, the Holy Spirit.
Derek:Of these poor, as yet believing, not yet beholding, as yet hoping, not yet enjoying, as yet sighing in desire, not yet reigning in felicity, as yet hungering and thirsting, not yet satisfied, of these poor then, the patience shall not perish forever. Not that there will be patience, there also, where anything to endure shall not be, but will not perish, meaning that it will not be unfruitful but its fruit it will have forever. Therefore, it shall not perish forever. For he who labors in vain, when his hope fails for which he had labored, says with good cause, I have lost so much labor. But he who comes to the promise of his labor says, congratulating himself, I have not lost my labor.
Derek:Labor then is said not to perish or be lost, not because it lasts perpetually, but because it is not spent in vain. So also the patience of the poor of Christ, who yet are to be made rich as heirs of Christ, shall not perish forever. Not because there also we shall be commanded patiently to bear, but because for that which we have here patiently borne, we shall enjoy eternal bliss. He will put no end to everlasting felicity, who gives temporal patience under the will, because both the one and the other is of Him bestowed as a gift upon charity, whose gift that charity is also. Okay.
Derek:So you probably noticed, especially if you listened to the last two episodes and this one in, you know, short order, you probably noticed that Augustine's on patience is quite a bit different than the other two, whereas the other two were pretty similar with each other and in fact had quite a lot of the the same sorts of analogies and concepts. Augustine really deviates away from this, particularly in the second half of his book. The first half is is somewhat similar though. So in the first half, you know, he brings up the example of Judas, which was, I believe, an example used in the previous two treatises on patients. But he does add one part that I think is really interesting and a really good analogy or discussion point.
Derek:He talks about one of the previous authors, I don't remember if it was Cyprian or Tertullian, but they had mentioned that, you know, even the, like, the Gentiles, or not Gentiles, but like the pagans, they valued the concept of patience. And Augustine kind of brings that up here a little bit, but he talks about criminals in particular valuing patience. He's like, people to do really bad things will actually have great patience. I mean, they'll endure all kinds of things. And he talks specifically about highway robbers who will endure, you know, stalking their prey in the cold and the damp and endure all sorts of hardships to steal so they can have a bunch of money, you know, their lust of of money, of wealth, of whatever.
Derek:And they'll even torture each other so that if they get caught, they can endure torture by the government. So they'll they'll undergo not unnecessary torture because they would view it as necessary to becoming stronger, but they they undergo torture at the hands of their own friends to prepare them for possible, not even certain tortures by the government. So people are willing to undergo all kinds of things and patiently endure all kinds of things. A, for for their lusts. And another example that that Augustine gives would be not enduring something for lust, I guess, as we would view it, but undergoing the surgeon's knife, like undergoing medical pain to make our life better, healthier, or to save our life, to make our life last longer.
Derek:You know, think of chemotherapy to make your life last longer. And there are all kinds of different surgeries and procedures that people undergo in order just feel better, like hip replacement surgery. Well, then I can I can walk better, you know, I can I can move around more, which of course makes you healthier and probably extends your life? But there are plenty of things that people do, Plastic surgery, all kinds of things that people endure patiently, this pain, and Augustine kind of points that out. Like, you've got lots of non Christians who are willing to patiently endure and Christians who can patiently endure physical things.
Derek:So how much more ought we to be able to patiently endure for the sake of our souls and our eternal well-being, right? Now that's like in chapter three, but Augustine kind of comes back to that, I think, starting maybe in chapter 18, maybe it's a little bit before. But this kind of ties in because Augustine ends up in the second half of his book coming around to the point that he argues that people can't really do good apart from God. Like, this patience that you see in a robber or in somebody willing to preserve their life, right, self preservation, he's like, that's not really like that those are patients of lust or self interest. He's like, anybody can do those.
Derek:Right? And we see that anybody can do those. But he says the the patience that is of God, the patience for the eternal, that only can come from above. And so this is where we get into Augustine's free will. Now, I I would go against Augustine in a number of the things that that he says and does, but it it's kind of Augustine is really, like, spot on or spot off.
Derek:Right? He's like, you you love him in some ways and you just despise some of his conclusions in other ways. And so a lot of people despise Augustine's free will, his attacks on what we consider to be free will, like, as most people understand it. But this is actually one of the few places or one of the places where I'd be like, yeah, Augustine makes some some fantastic points. So here in regards to the will, he's like, okay, we've got pagans and robbers and all those things, they show patience.
Derek:But one thing that they will never show without God is they will not show the eternal sort of of patience. Right? And he talks about how people can show can reach down to lower things but they can't reach up to higher things. So, for example, a fallen human being will be able to have patience for lower things and lusts but they will not be able to reach up to the the higher things, and they need someone to pull them up there, which would be Holy Spirit, which would be Jesus, that kind of thing. So you really just need to listen to and read Augustine, especially the second half here, to to hear part of his argument.
Derek:And this probably isn't even his best argument discussing the will because he's focusing on patience. But you kinda get a taste of it here. Right? And he talks about how if we are saved by grace and not by works, but he's like, well, but if we choose God apart from God choosing and calling and working in us, he's like, well then God God's choice would be based on our first choosing and if God if if we choose him, then we are already righteous because we're we're choosing righteousness. Like, so God chooses us because we are already righteous?
Derek:He's like, that doesn't make any sense. Right? No. God loves us when we did not love him. So if you believe in grace, you gotta believe that God's gotta do something to our our nature and our wills and He makes us righteous before we choose righteousness.
Derek:That's a really simplistic way of of looking at it and saying it at this point. It's a whole lot deeper discussion, but you get a taste of that here in this book. Two other things I wanna point out that I just thought were interesting. The first one specifically related to patients would be, and I hate this word, I've seen it in a couple of the readings now, but contumaceous, right? There's chapter 11 that says like, contumaceous appetite or appittance.
Derek:Through contumaceous appittance of things to enjoy, right, so through through like inordinate, disobedient, appetites, desires of things to enjoy, Adam and Eve fell. Right? Well, how are we restored or or what does our restoration begin to look like? And Augustine says, through humble patience of things that annoy. So, contumacious appetence of things to enjoy, and humble patience of things that annoy.
Derek:I like the way that the whoever translated that kind of made that little rhyming thing. I don't know if it if it's that way in the the Latin, which I guess is what Augustine wrote in. But I thought that was really interesting, like, suffering, enduring is is something that counters the thing that caused our fall or that was a central role to our fall, which is inordinate desires, disobedience, a lack of trust in God, and now it's we endure things when we don't understand how they can produce good things. We endure things for hope, for the eternal, for that which we can't see. Adam and Eve, whether they were literal or figurative or however you look at it, right?
Derek:They saw the tree in front of them and they wanted to eat. They wanted to experience enjoyment, pleasure. And they couldn't hold out even though they were in a perfect setting where all their needs were provided for. And so, part of what curbs our desires and shapes us to be eternal creatures, to live with God eternally, to be glorified, to be merged in theosis, is, as Augustine says it, through patience of things that annoy. And sure, being sawn in half, being boiled in oil, okay, like what the martyrs endured and what a lot of people endure, Right?
Derek:That's more than to be annoyed. But in perspective of the eternal and what it's preparing us for and how it's shaping us to be, you know, in in one sense, like, it is just an annoyance. Okay. Last thing, and this really is not related to to patients at all, but it was just something that I I thought was interesting. And maybe one of the one of the things of of a number of things.
Derek:Right? He there's also the the mystery, like, the way that he talks about Eve and women, I also don't like. But this one thing that he said, which is the idea that suicides are are maybe the worst form of murder, because he talks about how we consider homicide bad, but homicide of a close family member even worse, like, that you would betray that closeness and that trust. And he said, who are you closer to than yourself? So for you to be willing to kill yourself is the most despicable thing that you can do.
Derek:It's the most heinous. I thought that was a really interesting perspective and, you know, this idea that you would despair so much and and that it could be so bad. I don't remember if Kierkegaard talks about it that way in in fear not fear and trembling, sickness under death, but I think he might kinda mention that kinda thing too. I know GK Chesterton also mentions how heinous suicide is. And it's one of those things that now, like in our culture where we understand mental health and mental illness and all that stuff, I don't know.
Derek:There that just doesn't it doesn't completely sit well with me. And even like a lot of a lot of murderers, like people a lot of people, maybe most people who do heinous things were formed by heinous circumstances, things that were done to them or things that were left undone for them. And so, I don't know, that that's just an interesting thing that I was pondering as I was reading through it and just thought I'd I'd point out. So anyway, that was Augustine's On Patience. It was written maybe like a hundred fifty years ish after Tertullian's.
Derek:And, yeah, you've gotten three glimpses of Patience and kind of the ways that the early church looked at him. But however you look at it, it was a very, very central concept and virtue to the early church. That's all for now. So peace, and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost Network.
Derek:Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to non violence and Kingdom Living.
