Patience is His gift Who gives Charity. 559 DE PATI ENTIA. 13. 15. 12. 2. 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 worketh to will. This good will therefore, that is, Phil. 2, a will faithfully subjected to God, a will set on fire by sanctity of that ardour which is above, a will which loves God and his neighbour for God's sake; whether through love, of which the Apostle Peter makes answer, Lord, Thou John21, knowest that I love Thee; whether through fear, of which says the Apostle Paul, In fear and trembling work out your Phil. 2, own salvation; whether through joy, of which he says, In Rom. hope rejoicing, in tribulation patient; whether through 12, 12. sorrow, with which he says he had great grief for his Rom. 9, brethren; in whatever way it endure what bitterness and hardships soever, it is the love of God which endureth all 1 Cor. things, and which is not shed abroad in our hearts but by Rom. 5, the Holy Spirit given unto us. Whereof piety makes no xxvi. 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 Ps.71,5. and 62, Patience art Thou, and, From Him is my patience; and 5. where another prophet saith, that we receive the spirit of Is. 11, 2. fortitude; but also in the Apostolic writings we read, Because Phil. 1 unto you is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on 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 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, nakedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments, sword, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through fear of hell and everlasting fire; in no wise 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 13, 7. 5. 29. DE PATI ENTIA. 560 Even patience for fear of God, without love, a gift of His. 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 1 Cor. Apostle saith, If I shall give my body to be burned, but have 13, 3. not charity, it profiteth 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. xxvii. See on inf. p. 577. 24. But it may well be asked, whether this patience likewise be the gift of God, or to be attributed to strength of Believ- the human will, by which patience, one who is separated ing, c.1. 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. 26. 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 Gal. 4, God possessed by the sons of that Jerusalem which is above, xxviii. 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 Gal. 4, it be written, Cast out the bondmaid and her son, for the son Gen.21, of the bondmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac: and 10. though God said to Abraham, In Isaac shall thy seed be 12. and called: which the Apostle hath so interpreted as to say, Rom. 9, That is, not they which be sons of the flesh, these be the sons 30. and Gen. 21, 7.8. of God; but the sons of the promise are counted for the seed; that we might understand the seed of Abraham in regard of 561 DE PATI ENTIA. Patience through love is of God's own Children. 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; nevertheless, even the sons Gal.5,6. 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 Gen.25, 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. 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 the heirs, to whom is said, Ye have Rom. 8, not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 5. 6. 15. 26. Cry we therefore with the spirit of charity, and until we come to the inheritance in which we are alway to remain, let us be, through love which becometh the free-born, not through fear which becometh bondmen, patient of suffering. Cry we, so long as we are poor, until we be with that inheritance made rich. Seeing how great earnest thereof 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. 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 Ps.9,18. patience shall not perish for ever: not that there will be patience there also, where ought to endure shall not be; but will not perish, meaning that it will not be unfruitful. But its fruit it will have for ever, therefore it shall not perish for ever. For he who labours in vain, when his hope fails for which he laboured, says with good cause, I have lost so much labour:' but he who comes to the promise of his labour says, congratulating himself, I have not lost my labour. Labour then is said not to perish (or be lost), not DE ENTIA. 562 Patience' perishes not' in respect of its fruit. because it lasts perpetually, but because it is not spent in PATI vain. So also the patience of the poor of Christ (who yet are to be made rich as heirs of Christ) shall not perish for ever: 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 giveth temporal patience unto the will because both the one and the other is of Him bestowed as a gift upon charity, Whose gift that charity is also. S. AUGUSTINE ON THE CREED: A SERMON TO THE CATECHUMENS. DE SYM BOLO. i. bolum 1. RECEIVE, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed1). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you with your Creed. SymThe Creed no man writes so as it may be able to be read: but for rehearsal of it, lest haply forgetfulness obliterate what care hath delivered, let your memory be your recordroll: what ye are about to hear, that are ye to believe; and codex what ye shall have believed, that are about to give back with your tongue. For the Apostle says, With the heart man Rom. believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession 10, 10. is made unto salvation. For this is the Creed which ye are to rehearse and to repeat in answer. These words which ye have heard are in the Divine Scriptures scattered up and down: but thence gathered and reduced into one, that the memory of slow persons might not be distressed; that every person may be able to say, able to hold, what he believes. For have ye now merely heard that God is Almighty? But ye begin to have Him for your Father, when ye have been born by the Church as your Mother. 2. Of this, then, ye have now received, have meditated, and having meditated have held, that ye should say, |