Patience

Ipsam animam ipsumque corpus in saeculo isto expositum omnibus ad iniuriam gerimus eiusque iniuriae patientiam subimus: et minorum delibatione laedemur? Absit a seruo Christi tale inquinamentum, ut patientia maioribus temptationibus praeparata in friuolis excidat! Si manu quis temptauerit prouocare, praesto est dominica monela: Verberanti te, inquit, infaciem etiam alteram genam obuerte. Fatigetur inprobitas patientia tua: quiuis ictus ille sit dolore et contumelia constrictus, grauius a domino uapulabit; plus inprobum illum caedes sustinendo: ab eo enim uapulabit cuius gratia sustines. Si linguae amaritudo maledicto siue conuicio eruperit, respice dictum: Cum uos maledixerint gaudete. Dominus ipse maledictus in lege est et tamen solus est benedictus. Igitur dominum serui consequamur et maledicamur patienter, ut benedicti esse possimus! Si parum aequanimiter audiam dictum aliquod in me proteruum aut nequam, reddam et ipse amaritudinis uicem necesse est aut cruciabor inpatientia muta. Cum ergo percussero maledictus, quomodo secutus inueniar doctrinam domini, qua traditum est non uasculorum inquinamentis, sed eorum quae ex ore promuntur hominem communicari, item manere nos omnis uani et superuacui dicti reatum? Sequitur ergo ut, a quo nos dominus arcet, idem ab alio aequanimiter pati admoneat.   Tertullianus, Liber De Patientia

This same soul and body we bear in this age we expose to injury from everything, and we submit patiently to the hurt; and by the loss of lesser things shall we be wounded? Let it not be that a servant of Christ be defiled by a thing that the patience prepared for grave trials should forsake him in frivolous affairs. If someone attempts to provoke you by physical violence, ready is the counsel of the Lord: ' To him who strikes you,' He says, ' Turn the other cheek.'1 Let shamelessness be fatigued by your patience. Whatever that blow may be, conjoined with pain and insolence, it shall receive a heavier beating from the Lord. By enduring a wound from a shameless man, the more he will be beaten, by him whose grace sustains you. If a bitter curse or reproach break forth from the tongue, attend to the saying, ' When they curse you, rejoice.'2 The Lord Himself was 'cursed' in the the law; and yet He alone is Blessed. Therefore, let us servants follow our Lord and be cursed patiently, that we may be able to be blessed. If I hear with too little patience some impudent or wicked word spoken against me, I must of necessity either return it with bitterness, or else be tortured with mute impatience. How, therefore, on being provoked by a curse, shall I be found to have followed the teaching of the Lord, where it is said 'not by the dirt of vessels, but of the things which are sent forth out of his mouth is a man defiled,'3 and impeachment awaits us for every vain and needless word.4 It follows then that from what the Lord wards us, the same thing He admonishes us to suffer patiently from another. Tertullian, On Patience 1 Mt 5.39 2 Mt 5. 11  3 Mt 15.10 4. cf. Mat 12.36