On the Advantage of Patience

Philosophers too profess to pursue this virtue. But patience there is as false as wisdom there is false. For how can one be either wise or patient who knows neither the wisdom nor the patience of God? Since He Himself warns and says concerning those who seem to themselves to be wise in the world: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. Likewise the blessed apostle Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit and sent to call and form the Gentiles, bears witness and instructs, saying: See that no one despoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ, because in Him dwells all the fullness of divinity. And in another place: Let no one, he says, deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks himself to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

For it is written: I will catch the wise in their craftiness. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Wherefore, if true wisdom is not there, neither can true patience exist there. For if that man is wise who is humble and meek, but we see philosophers to be neither humble nor meek, but greatly pleased with themselves, and by this very self-pleasing displeasing to God, it is plain that true patience does not exist where there is the insolent audacity of an affected freedom and the shameless boasting of a bared and half-naked breast.

But we, most beloved brethren, who are philosophers not in words but in deeds, who display wisdom not in our dress but in truth, who know the consciousness of virtues rather than their boasting, who do not speak great things but live them, as servants and worshippers of God, let us offer the patience which we learn from heavenly teachings in spiritual acts of service. For this virtue is common to us with God. Thence patience begins, thence its glory and dignity take their beginning. The origin and greatness of patience proceeds with God as its author. A thing which is dear to God ought to be loved by man: the divine majesty commends the good which it loves. If God is our Lord and Father, let us follow the patience of the Lord and Father alike; for servants ought to be obedient, and it does not befit sons to be degenerate.

How great and of what kind is the patience in God, who, bearing most patiently the profane temples and earthly images and sacrilegious rites established by men in contempt of His majesty and honor, causes the day to be born and the light of the sun to rise equally upon the good and the evil, and when He waters the earth with rains, no one is excluded from His benefits, so that He lavishes undiscriminating rains alike upon the just and the unjust! We see that by the inseparable equality of God's patience, the seasons obey and the elements serve, by God's will, for the harmful and the harmless, the religious and the impious, the thankful and the ungrateful; winds blow, springs flow, the abundance of harvests grows great, the fruits of the vines ripen, orchards overflow with fruit, groves put forth leaves, meadows flower. And though God is provoked by frequent, nay continual offenses, He tempers His indignation, and patiently awaits the day of retribution once appointed.

And though He has vengeance in His power, He prefers to hold patience long, bearing with clemency and deferring, so that, if it can be, wickedness prolonged for so long may at some point change, and a man wallowing in the contagion of errors and crimes may turn to God, even if late, He Himself warning and saying: I desire not the death of the dying, but rather that he turn back and live. And again: Return to me, says the Lord. And again: Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and gracious and patient and of great compassion, and who turns His sentence against the evils inflicted. Which likewise the blessed apostle Paul, recalling and calling the sinner back to repentance, sets forth and says: Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the goodness and patience of God leads you to repentance?

But you, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works. He said the judgment of God is just because it is late, because it is deferred long and much, so that by God's long patience provision may be made for man unto life. Then punishment is brought to bear upon the impious and the sinner, when repentance for sin can no longer avail.

And that we may understand more fully, most beloved brethren, that patience is a thing of God, and that whoever is gentle and patient and meek is an imitator of God the Father, when the Lord in His Gospel was giving commandments unto salvation, and drawing forth divine admonitions was instructing His disciples unto perfection, He set down and said: You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the publicans do the same? And if you greet only your brethren, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be you therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Thus He said that the sons of God are made perfect, thus He showed and taught that those restored by heavenly birth are brought to completion, if the patience of God the Father abides in us, if the divine likeness, which Adam had lost through sin, is made manifest and shines in our actions. What glory it is to be made like to God! What a happiness, how great and of what kind, to have in one's virtues what can be set equal to the divine praises!

Nor did Jesus Christ our God and Lord teach this only in words, most beloved brethren, but He fulfilled it also in deeds. And because He had said that He had descended for this purpose, to do the will of the Father, among the other wonders of His virtues by which He expressed the marks of divine majesty, He also preserved the patience of the Father by the tenor of His endurance. All His acts indeed, from the very moment of His coming, are marked with patience as His companion, in that first, descending from that heavenly height to earthly things, the Son of God does not disdain to put on the flesh of man and, though He Himself was not a sinner, to bear the sins of others. Setting aside immortality for a time, He suffers Himself to become mortal also, so that the innocent one may be slain for the salvation of the guilty.

The Lord is baptized by a servant; and, about to grant the remission of sins, He Himself does not disdain to cleanse His body in the washing of regeneration. He fasts forty days, through whom others are fed: He hungers and feels hunger, so that those who had been in hunger of the word and of grace might be filled with heavenly bread. He meets the tempting devil, and content to have overcome the enemy by words alone, He attempts nothing beyond words. He presided over His disciples not as a lord over servants with lordly power, but kind and meek He loved them with brotherly charity. He deigned also to wash the feet of the Apostles, so that, being such a lord toward servants, He might teach by His own example what a fellow-servant ought to be toward equals and peers.

Nor is it to be wondered at that He showed Himself such toward obedient equals, He who was able to bear Judas to the very end with long patience, to take food with an enemy, to know a domestic foe and not openly reveal him, not to refuse the kiss of the betrayer. In bearing with the Jews, moreover, how great the equanimity and how great the patience! To bend the unbelieving toward faith by persuasion, to cherish the ungrateful with kindness, to answer those who contradicted gently, to bear the proud with clemency, to yield humbly to those who persecuted, to wish to gather even the murderers of the Prophets and those always rebellious against God, even to the hour of the cross and passion.

But during the passion and the cross itself, before it came to the cruelty of death and the shedding of blood, what reproaches of insults were patiently heard, what mockeries of contempt were endured, so that He received the spittings of those who mocked Him, who a little before had formed the eyes of the blind with His spittle; and He by whose name the devil with his angels is now scourged by His servants, Himself endured scourging; He who crowns martyrs with eternal flowers was crowned with thorns; He who grants true palms to the victorious was struck in the face with palms; He who clothes others with the garment of immortality was stripped of His earthly garment; He who gave heavenly food was fed with gall; He who offered the saving cup was given vinegar to drink! He, innocent, He, just, nay innocence itself and justice itself, is reckoned among criminals, and truth is crushed by false testimonies; He who is to judge is judged, and the Word of God is led silent to the sacrifice.

And when the stars are confounded at the cross of the Lord, the elements are disturbed, the earth trembles, night closes in upon the day, the sun withdraws its rays and its eyes lest it be compelled to look upon the crime of the Jews, He does not speak, is not moved, nor does He declare His majesty even under the passion itself. All things are endured perseveringly and continuously to the end, so that full and perfect patience might be consummated in Christ.

And after all these things, He still receives His murderers if they come to Him converted; and kind and patient unto salvation, He is gracious to preserve them. He closes His Church to no one. Those adversaries, those blasphemers, those always enemies of His name, if they do penance for their offense, if they acknowledge the crime committed, He admits not only to pardon of the crime but also to the reward of the heavenly kingdom. What can be said more patiently, what more kindly? Even he who shed the blood of Christ is given life by the blood of Christ. Such and so great is the patience of Christ; which, had it not been such and so great, the Church would not have the apostle Paul either.

But if we also, most beloved brethren, are in Christ, if we have put Him on, if He Himself is the way of our salvation, let us who follow Christ with saving steps walk through the examples of Christ, as the apostle John instructs, saying: He who says he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Likewise Peter, upon whom the Church was founded by the Lord's condescension, sets down in his Epistle and says: Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, threatened not; but delivered Himself to him who judged Him unjustly.

We find moreover that the Patriarchs and the Prophets and all the just, who bore the figure of Christ with a prefiguring image going before, guarded nothing more in the praise of their virtues than that they maintained patience with strong and steadfast equanimity. Thus Abel, initiating and first dedicating the origin of martyrdom and the passion of a just man, does not resist or struggle against his brother the fratricide, but humble and meek he is patiently slain. Thus Abraham, believing God and first establishing the root and foundation of faith, when tested in his son, does not doubt or hesitate, but obeys the commands of God with all the patience of devotion. And Isaac, prefigured in the likeness of the Lord's sacrifice, when he is offered by his father to be immolated, is found patient. And Jacob, driven from his land by his brother, departs patiently, and with greater patience afterward, still as a suppliant, brings back the more impious and persecuting one to concord by peaceful gifts.

Joseph, sold by his brothers and sent into exile, not only forgives patiently, but also freely and liberally and mercifully distributes grain to those who come. Moses is frequently despised and nearly stoned by an ungrateful and faithless people, and yet gentle and patient he intercedes with the Lord for those same people. In David moreover, from whom according to the flesh the birth of Christ springs, how great and wonderful and Christian the patience, that he often had it in his hand to kill King Saul who was persecuting him and longing to slay him, and yet preferred to spare him when he was subject to him and delivered into his hands, and did not repay the enemy in kind, but even avenged him when he was slain! So many Prophets slain at last, so many martyrs honored with glorious deaths, all of whom came to heavenly crowns by the praise of patience. For the crown of sorrows and passions cannot be received unless patience in sorrow and passion goes before.

How useful and necessary patience is, dearly beloved brethren, that it may be known more plainly and fully, let us consider the sentence of God which Adam received at the very beginning of the world and of the human race, forgetful of the commandment and a transgressor of the law given to him.

Then we shall know how patient we ought to be in this age, we who are so born as to labor here under pressures and conflicts: Because thou hast hearkened, he says, to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of that tree of which alone I had commanded thee not to eat, cursed shall the earth be in all thy works: in sorrow and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, it shall bring forth thorns and thistles to thee, and thou shalt eat the food of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread until thou return to the earth from which thou wast taken; for earth thou art, and into earth thou shalt go. By the bond of this sentence we are all bound and constrained, until, death being blotted out, we depart from this age. In sorrow and groaning we must needs be all the days of our life, we must needs eat our bread with sweat and toil.

Whence each one of us, when he is born and received into the lodging of this world, begins with tears, and though still ignorant and unaware of all things, knows nothing else in that very first birth but to weep. By natural providence he laments, and the raw soul at its very outset testifies by its weeping and groaning to the anxieties and toils and storms of mortal life into which it enters. For one sweats and labors as long as one lives here.

And for those who sweat and labor, nothing can bring more relief than the consolations of patience: which, though fitting and necessary in this world for all men, are so the more for us, who are more shaken by the devil's assault; who, standing daily in the battle line, are wearied by the struggles of an old and practiced enemy; for whom, besides the varied and unceasing fights of temptations, in the contest of persecutions also, estates must be left behind, prison must be endured, chains must be borne, life must be laid down, the sword, beasts, fires, crosses, and finally all kinds of torments and punishments must be endured with faith and the virtue of patience, the Lord himself instructing us and saying: These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace: but in the world you shall have tribulation, but trust, because I have overcome the world.

But if we who have renounced the devil and the world suffer the pressures and assaults of the devil and the world more frequently and more violently, how much more ought we to hold fast to patience, with whose aid and companionship we may bear all adversities?

The saving precept of our Lord and Master is: He that shall endure, he says, unto the end, he shall be saved. And again: If you continue, he says, in my word, you shall be truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. We must endure and persevere, dearly beloved brethren, so that, having been admitted to the hope of truth and liberty, we may be able to attain to truth and liberty themselves; for the very fact that we are Christians is a matter of faith and hope; but in order that hope and faith may be able to come to their fruit, patience is needed. For we do not pursue present glory, but future glory, according to what the Apostle Paul also admonishes, saying: We are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience.

Therefore expectation and patience are necessary, that we may fulfill what we have begun, and receive what we believe and hope for when God presents it. Finally, in another place the same apostle instructs and teaches the righteous who are working and laying up heavenly treasures for themselves with the increase of divine interest, that they should also be patient, saying: Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith. And in doing good let us not fail; for in due time we shall reap. He warns lest anyone grow faint through impatience in his work, lest anyone, diverted or overcome by temptations, stop in the middle of the path of praise and glory, and what is past be lost, because what had been begun ceases to be completed, as it is written: The justice of the just shall not deliver him in whatsoever day he shall err. And again: Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

This voice exhorts to persevere patiently and bravely, so that he who strives toward the crown, already near at hand with its praise, may be crowned while patience endures.

But patience, dearly beloved brethren, not only guards good things, but also repels adversities. Favoring the Holy Spirit and cleaving to heavenly and divine things, it struggles against the deeds of the flesh and body by which the soul is assailed and taken captive, with the bulwark of its virtues. Let us then examine a few out of many, so that from the few the rest may also be understood. Adultery, fraud, homicide, are deadly crimes. Let patience be strong and steadfast in the heart; and neither shall the body, sanctified and made the temple of God, be defiled by adultery, nor shall innocence dedicated to justice be tainted by the contagion of fraud, nor shall the hand, after carrying the Eucharist, be stained with the sword and with blood.

Brotherly charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the tenacity and firmness of unity, which is greater than both hope and faith, which goes before both works and martyrdoms, which shall remain with us forever in the eternal presence of God in the heavenly kingdoms. Take patience away from it, and desolate it does not endure. Take away from it the substance of bearing and tolerating, and it perseveres with no roots and no strength. The Apostle, indeed, when speaking of charity, joined endurance and patience to it. Charity, he says, is long-suffering, charity is kind, charity envieth not, is not puffed up, is not provoked, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. He showed thereby that it can persevere tenaciously because it knows how to endure all things. And in another place: Bearing, he says, with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

He proved that neither can unity be preserved nor peace, unless brethren cherish one another with mutual tolerance, and guard the bond of concord with patience as the mediator.

What then of not swearing and not cursing, of not seeking back what has been taken from you, of offering the other cheek as well to one who strikes you, of forgiving a brother who sins against you not merely seven times but seventy times seven, indeed all sins altogether, of loving your enemies, of making prayer for adversaries and persecutors? Can you accomplish these things unless you hold fast with tenacious firmness to patience and endurance? Which we see done in Stephen; who, when he was being killed by the Jews with violence and stones, asked not vengeance for himself but pardon for his slayers, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. So it was fitting for the first martyr of Christ, who, running before the martyrs that were to follow with his glorious death, should be not only a proclaimer of the Lord's passion, but also an imitator of his most patient gentleness. What shall I say of anger, of discord, of enmity, which ought not to exist in a Christian?

Let patience abide in the breast, and these things cannot find place there; or if they attempt to enter, they are quickly shut out and depart, so that the peaceful dwelling perseveres in the heart where the God of peace delights to dwell. The Apostle accordingly admonishes and teaches, saying: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you. For if a Christian has withdrawn from fury and carnal contention, as from the storms of the sea, and has now begun to be calm and gentle in the harbor of Christ, he ought to admit neither anger nor discord within his breast, since it is not lawful for him either to return evil for evil or to hate.

Moreover, patience is also necessary for the various bodily ailments and the frequent and harsh torments of the body by which the human race is daily wearied and shaken. For since at that first transgression of the commandment the firmness of the body departed together with immortality, and with death infirmity came, and firmness cannot be recovered unless immortality too shall have been recovered, it is necessary always to struggle and contend in this fragility and bodily weakness. This struggle and contest can be sustained only by the strength of patience. Now, for our testing and proving, diverse pains are brought upon us, and a manifold variety of temptations is inflicted, from losses of property, from the burning of fevers, from the torments of wounds, from the loss of dear ones.

And nothing more distinguishes the unjust from the just than that the unjust man in adversity complains and blasphemes through impatience, while the just man is proved by patience, as it is written: In sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation have patience, for gold and silver are proved in the fire.

Thus Job was tested and proved and raised to the highest pinnacle of praise by the virtue of patience. How many darts of the devil were hurled against him, how many torments brought to bear! Loss of his household goods is inflicted, bereavement of his numerous offspring is imposed. Rich in wealth as a master, and richer still as a father in children, he is suddenly neither master nor father. There follows the vastness of his wounds, and the devouring punishment of worms also consumes his wasting and flowing limbs. And lest anything at all should remain which Job might not experience in his temptations, the devil arms even his wife, using that old device of his wickedness, as though he could deceive and beguile all men through a woman, as he did at the origin of the world; and yet Job is not broken by his heavy and dense conflicts so as not to proclaim the blessing of God amid those straits and pressures of his with victorious patience.

Tobias also, after the magnificent works of his justice and mercy, being tempted by the loss of his sight, in proportion as he bore his blindness patiently, in that same measure greatly won God's favor by the praise of his patience.

And, that the good of patience may shine more brightly, dearly beloved brethren, let us consider what evil impatience brings on the contrary. For as patience is the good of Christ, so on the contrary impatience is the evil of the devil; and as Christ, in whom it dwells and abides, is found patient, so he is always impatient whose mind the wickedness of the devil possesses. Let us then look at the very beginnings. The devil bore impatiently that man was made in the image of God; hence he both perished first and caused others to perish. Adam, impatient for the deadly food against the heavenly commandment, fell into death, and did not preserve with patience as its guardian the grace divinely bestowed upon him; and it was impatience at his brother's sacrifice and offering that led Cain to slay him; and that Esau descended from greater things to lesser, he lost his birthright through impatience for the lentils.

What of the Jewish people, faithless and ungrateful toward the divine benefits—was it not a crime of impatience that they first departed from God, when, unable to bear the delays of Moses speaking with God, they dared to demand profane gods to name as guides of their journey, a bull's head and an earthly image? Nor did they ever desist from that same impatience, but, always impatient of docility and divine admonition, by slaying their Prophets and all the just, they rushed forward even to the cross and to the blood of the Lord. Impatience also makes heretics in the Church, and, after the likeness of the Jews, drives those who rebel against the peace and charity of Christ into hostile and furious hatreds. And, not to make it long by reviewing each instance, absolutely everything that patience builds up by its works to glory, impatience destroys to ruin.

Wherefore, dearly beloved brethren, having carefully weighed both the goods of patience and the evils of impatience, let us hold fast with full observance to patience, through which we remain in Christ, so that we may be able to come with Christ to God; which, being copious and manifold, is not enclosed within a narrow limit, nor confined within brief bounds. The virtue of patience extends widely; and its freedom and abundance proceeds indeed from the fountain of one name, but is spread abroad through many paths of glory by its overflowing streams; nor can anything in our actions avail toward the consummation of praise, unless it receives from thence the firmness of its consummation. It is patience that commends us to God and preserves us for him.

It is patience that tempers wrath, that bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the onset of lust, suppresses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, restrains the power of the rich, refreshes the poverty of the poor, guards in virgins the blessed integrity, in widows the laborious chastity, in those joined and married the undivided charity. It makes men humble in prosperity, strong in adversity, gentle against injuries and insults. It teaches to forgive those who offend quickly; if you yourself offend, to entreat long and earnestly. It overcomes temptations, bears persecutions, consummates sufferings and martyrdoms. It is patience that firmly fortifies the foundations of our faith: it is patience that sublimely advances the growth of hope. It directs our action so that we may be able to hold the way of Christ, while we walk through his endurance: it brings it about that we persevere as children of God, while we imitate the patience of the Father.

But, since I know that very many, most beloved brethren, either under the weight of injuries pressing upon them, or from grief over those who rage and are savage against them, desire to be avenged swiftly, this too must not be passed over in the final part: that, placed amid the storms of this turbulent world and the persecutions of Jews, or of gentiles, and also of heretics, we should await the day of vengeance with patience, and not hasten in querulous haste toward the avenging of our pain, since it is written: Wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection as a witness, for my judgment is upon the assemblies of the nations, that I may receive kings and pour out my wrath upon them. The Lord commands us to wait and to endure the day of future vengeance with strong patience.

He also speaks in the Apocalypse, saying: Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is now near, so that those who persist in doing harm may do harm, and he who is in filth may be filthy still, but the just man may do yet more just things, and likewise he who is holy may do yet more holy things. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each one according to his deeds.

Whence also the martyrs who cry out and hasten, with grief breaking forth, toward their own vengeance, are commanded to wait yet longer and to show patience while the times are being completed and the number of martyrs fulfilled: And when he had opened, it says, the fifth seal, I saw beneath the altar of God the souls of those slain for the word of God and for their testimony, and they cried out with a loud voice saying: How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood upon those who dwell upon the earth? And there were given to them each white robes, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow servants and brethren who would afterward be slain in their example should be fulfilled.

But when the divine vengeance for righteous blood shall come, the Holy Spirit declares through the prophet Malachi, saying: Behold, the day of the Lord comes burning like a furnace; and all the foreigners and all the wicked shall be stubble, and the coming day shall set them ablaze, says the Lord. Which likewise we read in the Psalms, where the coming of God the judge is proclaimed, to be revered in the majesty of his judgment: God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not be silent. Fire shall burn before him, and round about him a mighty tempest. He shall call upon heaven from above and upon the earth below, to separate his people. Gather to him his just ones, those who set his covenant in order with sacrifices; and the heavens shall announce his justice, for God is judge. And Isaiah foretells the same things, saying: For behold, the Lord shall come as fire, and as a tempest his chariots, to render vengeance in wrath.

For in the fire of the Lord shall they be judged, and by his sword shall they be wounded. And again: The Lord God of hosts shall go forth and shall crush war, he shall stir up strife, and shall cry out over his enemies with strength. I have been silent; shall I be silent always?

But who is this who says that he was silent before and will not be silent always? Surely he who was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, without a voice, did not open his mouth; surely he who did not cry out, nor was his voice heard in the streets; surely he who was not contentious, nor did he contradict, when he offered his back to stripes and his cheeks to blows, and did not turn his face away from the foulness of spitting; surely he who, when accused by the priests and elders, answered nothing and, while Pilate marveled, maintained a most patient silence. This is he who, having been silent in his passion, will afterward not be silent in his vengeance. This is our God, that is, not the God of all, but the God of the faithful and believing, who, when he shall come manifestly at his second advent, will not be silent. For whereas in his humility he was previously hidden, he shall come manifestly in power.

Let us await him, most beloved brethren, our judge and avenger, who will vindicate the people of his Church together with the whole number of all the just from the beginning of the world. He who is too eager and hasty for his own vengeance, let him consider that he himself who avenges has not yet been avenged. God the Father commanded that his Son be adored, and the apostle Paul, mindful of the divine command, sets it down and says: God has exalted him, and has given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And in the Apocalypse the Angel resists John who wishes to adore him and says: See that you do not do this, for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren. Adore Jesus the Lord. How great is the Lord Jesus and how great is his patience! So that he who is adored in heaven has not yet been avenged on earth.

Let us reflect upon his patience, most beloved brethren, in our persecutions and sufferings. Let us render to his coming full and obedient expectation. And let us not, as servants, rush ahead of the Lord with irreverent and shameless haste to have ourselves defended. Let us rather press on and labor and, watching with our whole heart and standing firm in all endurance, keep the commandments of the Lord; so that, when that day of wrath and vengeance shall come, we may not be punished with the impious and sinners, but may be honored together with the just and those who fear God.