Chapter XIII.--Of Bodily Patience.
Thus far, finally, of patience simple and uniform, and as it exists merely in the mind: though in many forms likewise I labour after it in body, for the purpose of "winning the Lord;" [9150] inasmuch as it is a quality which has been exhibited by the Lord Himself in bodily virtue as well; if it is true that the ruling mind easily communicates the gifts [9151] of the Spirit with its bodily habitation. What, therefore, is the business of Patience in the body? In the first place, it is the affliction [9152] of the flesh--a victim [9153] able to appease the Lord by means of the sacrifice of humiliation--in making a libation to the Lord of sordid [9154] raiment, together with scantiness of food, content with simple diet and the pure drink of water [9155] in conjoining fasts to all this; in inuring herself to sackcloth and ashes. This bodily patience adds a grace to our prayers for good, a strength to our prayers against evil; this opens the ears of Christ our God, [9156] dissipates severity, elicits clemency. Thus that Babylonish king, [9157] after being exiled from human form in his seven years' squalor and neglect, because he had offended the Lord; by the bodily immolation of patience not only recovered his kingdom, but--what is more to be desired by a man--made satisfaction to God. Further, if we set down in order the higher and happier grades of bodily patience, (we find that) it is she who is entrusted by holiness with the care of continence of the flesh: she keeps the widow, [9158] and sets on the virgin the seal [9159] and raises the self-made eunuch to the realms of heaven. [9160] That which springs from a virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh; and, finally, by the patience of the flesh, does battle under persecution. If flight press hard, the flesh wars with [9161] the inconvenience of flight; if imprisonment overtake [9162] us, the flesh (still was) in bonds, the flesh in the gyve, the flesh in solitude, [9163] and in that want of light, and in that patience of the world's misusage. [9164] When, however, it is led forth unto the final proof of happiness, [9165] unto the occasion of the second baptism, [9166] unto the act of ascending the divine seat, no patience is more needed there than bodily patience. If the "spirit is willing, but the flesh," without patience, "weak," [9167] where, save in patience, is the safety of the spirit, and of the flesh itself? But when the Lord says this about the flesh, pronouncing it "weak," He shows what need there is of strengthening, it--that is by patience--to meet [9168] every preparation for subverting or punishing faith; that it may bear with all constancy stripes, fire, cross, beasts, sword; all which prophets and apostles, by enduring, conquered!
[9150] Phil. iii. 8.
[9151] "Invecta," generally = "movables", household furniture.
[9152] Or, mortification, "adflictatio."
[9153] i.e. fleshly mortification is a "victim," etc.
[9154] Or, "mourning." Comp. de Pæn. c. 9.
[9155] [The "water vs. wine" movement is not a discovery of our own times. "Drink a little wine," said St. Paul medicinally; but (as a great and good divine once remarked) "we must not lay stress on the noun, but the adjective; let it be very little."]
[9156] Christi dei.
[9157] Dan. iv. 33-37. Comp. de Pæn. c. 12. [I have removed an ambiguity by slightly touching the text here.]
[9158] 1 Tim. v. 3, 9, 10; 1 Cor. vii. 39, 40.
[9159] 1 Cor. vii. 34, 35.
[9160] Matt. xix. 12.
[9161] Ad. It seems to mean flesh has strength given it, by patience, to meet the hardships of the flight. Compare the pros plesmonen tes sarkos, of St. Paul in Col. ii. 23. [Kaye compares this with the De Fuga, as proof of the author's freedom from Montanism, when this was written.]
[9162] Præveniat: "prevent" us, before we have time to flee.
[9163] Solo.
[9164] [Elucidation III.]
[9165] i.e. martyrdom.
[9166] Comp. Luke xii. 50.
[9167] Matt. xxvi. 41.
[9168] "Adversus," like the "ad" above, note 21, p. 713.
Chapter XIV.--The Power of This Twofold Patience, the Spiritual and the Bodily. Exemplified in the Saints of Old.
With this strength of patience, Esaias is cut asunder, and ceases not to speak concerning the Lord; Stephen is stoned, and prays for pardon to his foes. [9169] Oh, happy also he who met all the violence of the devil by the exertion of every species of patience! [9170] --whom neither the driving away of his cattle nor those riches of his in sheep, nor the sweeping away of his children in one swoop of ruin, nor, finally, the agony of his own body in (one universal) wound, estranged from the patience and the faith which he had plighted to the Lord; whom the devil smote with all his might in vain. For by all his pains he was not drawn away from his reverence for God; but he has been set up as an example and testimony to us, for the thorough accomplishment of patience as well in spirit as in flesh, as well in mind as in body; in order that we succumb neither to damages of our worldly goods, nor to losses of those who are dearest, nor even to bodily afflictions. What a bier [9171] for the devil did God erect in the person of that hero! What a banner did He rear over the enemy of His glory, when, at every bitter message, that man uttered nothing out of his mouth but thanks to God, while he denounced his wife, now quite wearied with ills, and urging him to resort to crooked remedies! How did God smile, [9172] how was the evil one cut asunder, [9173] while Job with mighty equanimity kept scraping off [9174] the unclean overflow of his own ulcer, while he sportively replaced the vermin that brake out thence, in the same caves and feeding-places of his pitted flesh! And so, when all the darts of temptations had blunted themselves against the corslet and shield of his patience, that instrument [9175] of God's victory not only presently recovered from God the soundness of his body, but possessed in redoubled measure what he had lost. And if he had wished to have his children also restored, he might again have been called father; but he preferred to have them restored him "in that day." [9176] Such joy as that--secure so entirely concerning the Lord--he deferred; meantime he endured a voluntary bereavement, that he might not live without some (exercise of) patience.
[9169] Acts vii. 59, 60.
[9170] Job. See Job i. and ii.
[9171] "Feretrum"--for carrying trophies in a triumph, the bodies of the dead, and their effigies, etc.
[9172] Compare Ps. ii. 4.
[9173] i.e. with rage and disappointment.
[9174] Job ii. 8.
[9175] Operarius.
[9176] See 2 Tim. iv. 8. There is no authority for this statement of Tertullian's in Scripture. [It is his inference rather.]