De arte praedicatoria

By these authorities one is admonished toward perseverance: He who perseveres to the end, he will be saved.¹ Likewise elsewhere: If he perseveres in knocking, I say to you, even if he will not give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.² And the Apostle says: All run in the race, but one receives the prize.³ And: He who has competed lawfully will be crowned.⁴ Likewise it is said elsewhere, that the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. And: Where the tree falls, whether to the south, or to the north, there it will lie.⁵ And elsewhere: "It is the end, not the fight, that crowns."

Many undertake great things, but fail along the way. Many leave Sodom, but quickly look back. Many go out from Babylon, but die on the way, and do not arrive at the city of eternal peace, the heavenly Jerusalem. Perseverance shapes merit, colors a good resolve, rewards the runner, crowns the fighter. It leads to the prize, leads to harbor, gives form to work, a rule to action. This is the ankle-length tunic of Joseph, reaching to the end of life; this is the priestly tunic reaching down to the feet, this is the tail of the sacrifice which we are bound to offer to God.

This is the heel of good work, which we must guard against the bite of the serpent. This is the virtue that gives form to every good vow, by which martyrs are crowned with laurel, by which virgins are crowned. This is what brings difficult things within our capacity, and conquers every difficulty. This is a garment without a wrinkle, a tunic without a stain. This is what makes a good action all of one color, a virtue uniform. And it must be noted that a certain perseverance is, as it were, like hay, which, in the manner of hay, is green for a time, and withers in a time of adversity. This kind rises up like a flower, and is trampled down, and flees like a shadow, and never remains in the same state; final perseverance, however, is that which lasts to the end. This is a living fountain, a sealed garden, which no stranger shares in, which always flows, always wells up. Let the faithful labor to have this, let the cloistered strive to hold onto it, let virgins shape themselves by it, let widows persevere in it.

The devil sometimes provokes a man to good, so as to draw out a worse evil from that good. Against this assault of the demon, perseverance is of value, so that good beginnings may be concluded with a good end:

Let not the middle differ from the beginning, nor the end from the middle.

Bonum enim inchoare, et malo fine concludere, est monstruosa conficere. Illa namque actio est quasi chimera, quae initium habet a ratione, finem in sensualitate. Cum sic agitur:

The painter joins a horse's neck to a human head, and thus introduces various feathers of fruitlessness.

There are some whose life produces a wondrous monster, whose beginning presents, as it were, a human head, but whose middle, descending into lust, displays the belly of a she-goat, and which, at the last, straying into greed, has the feet of a she-wolf. O man, what good does it do you to begin something good, and not conclude it with a right ending? It is better not to have known the way of truth, than to turn back after having known it.⁶ Through this you are convicted of the inconstancy of fickleness, you incur apostasy, you set aside the stability of the mind. Seneca says: "It belongs to a well-ordered mind to be able to remain steady and to abide in the good." Nothing is so useful that it can profit merely in passing. Perseverance brings forth good, leads what is tender to maturity. It does not seek a childish spirit, but a grown one; it seeks mature character, not tender or ill-formed. If perseverance does not illuminate the whole of life, let final perseverance at least conclude its end. If you offered the flower of your youth to the devil, at least offer the dregs of your old age to Christ. In the evening the calm of the day is praised, at the end, the state of a good work. See from how great a good Judas fell, who did not persevere in the good.

See what Solomon lost through instability of mind, into what calamity Saul fell. We can conjecture how great the merit of perseverance is from the crime of the opposite vice, namely impenitence. For it is said of impenitence that the ruin of this sin is so great that it cannot bear the humility of asking for pardon. For this is the sin against the Holy Spirit, this is the sin unto death, of which John says: There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for it.⁷ Impenitence, however, is born from despair, or arises from presumption, and, insofar as it is present, either derogates from the justice of God, or detracts from his mercy. Happy, then, is perseverance, which shuts out impenitence, drives out obstinacy, eliminates contempt, defeats hardness of heart.