{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030808.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030808.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030808.htm","text":"(Unless patience sit by his side, cap. i. p. 707.)\nLet me quote words which, many years ago, struck me forcibly, and which I trust, have been blest to my soul; for which reason, I must be allowed, here, to thank their author, the learned and fearless Dean Burgon, of Chichester. In his invaluable Commentary on the Gospel, which while it abounds in the fruits of a varied erudition, aims only to be practically useful, this pious scholar remarks: \u201cTo Faith must be added Patience, the \u2018patient waiting for God,\u2019 if we would escape the snare which Satan spread, no less for the Holy One (i.e. in the Temp. upon the Pinnacle) than for the Israelites at Massah. And this is perhaps the reason of the remarkable prominence given to the grace of Patience, both by our Lord and His Apostles; a circumstance, as it may be thought, which has not altogether attracted the p. 718 attention which it deserves.\u201d He then cites examples; 9185 but a reference to any good concordance will strikingly exemplify the admirable comment of this \u201cgodly and well-learned man.\u201d See his comments on Matt. 4:7, Luke 21:19.\n(Under their chin, cap. iv. p. 709.)\nThe reference in the note to Paris, as represented by Virgil and in ancient sculpture, seems somewhat to the point:\n\u201cEt nunc ille Paris, cum semiviro comitatu.\nM\u00e6onia mentum mitra crinemq, madentem,\nHe had just spoken of the pileus as a \u201cCap of freedom,\u201d but there was another form of pileus which was just the reverse and was probably tied by fimbri\u00e6, under the chin, denoting a low order of slaves, effeminate men, perhaps spadones. Now, the Phrygian bonnet to which Virgil refers, is introduced by him to complete the reproach of his contemptuous expression (semiviro comitatu) just before. So, our author\u2014\u201cnot only from men, i.e. men so degraded as to wear this badge of extreme servitude, but even from cattle, etc. Shall these mean creatures outdo us in obedience and patience?\u201d\n(The world\u2019s misusage, cap. xiii. p. 716.)\nThe Reverend Clergy who may read this note will forgive a brother, who begins to be in respect of years, like \u201cPaul the aged,\u201d for remarking, that the reading of the Ante-Nicene Fathers often leads him to sigh\u2014\u201cSuch were they from whom we have received all that makes life tolerable, but how intolerable it was for them: are we, indeed, such as they would have considered Christians?\u201d God be praised for His mercy and forbearance in our days; but, still it is true that \u201cwe have need of patience.\u201d Is not much of all that we regard as \u201cthe world\u2019s misusage,\u201d the gracious hand of the Master upon us, giving us something for the exercise of that Patience, by which He forms us into His own image? (Heb. xii. 3.) Impatience of obscurity, of poverty, of ingratitude, of misrepresentation, of \u201cthe slings and arrows\u201d of slander and abuse, is a revolt against that indispensable discipline of the Gospel which requires us to \u201cendure afflictions\u201d in some form or other. Who can complain when one thinks what it would have cost us to be Christians in Tertullian\u2019s time? The ambition of the Clergy is always rebellion against God, and \u201cpatient waiting\u201d is its only remedy. One will find profitable reading on this subject in Massillon, 9186 de l\u2019Ambition des Clercs: \u201cReposez-vous sur le Seigneur du soin de votre destin\u00e9e: il saura bien accomplir, tout seul, les desseins qu\u2019il a sur vous. Si votre \u00e9l\u00e9vation est son bon plaisir, elle sera, aussi son ouvrage. Rendez-vous en digne seulement par la retraite, par la frayeur, par la fuite, par les sentiments vifs de votre indignit\u00e9\u2026c\u2019est ainsi que les Chrysostome, les Gr\u00e9goire, les Basil, les Augustin, furent donn\u00e9s \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9glise.\u201d\nSee\u2014A Plain Commentary on the Four Gospels, intended chiefly for Devotional Reading. Oxford, 1854. Also (Vol. I. p. 28) Philadelphia, 1855.\n718:9186\n\u0152uvres, Tom. vi. pp. 133\u20135. Ed. Paris, 1824.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part III: Eluci...","type":"page"}