To Florus 2.166
To express more fully the power and assurance of this teaching, he goes on to describe what Christian philosophy confers on believers: ‘And not only that, but we also glory in afflictions, knowing that tribulation produces endurance, endurance proven character, proven character hope; and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us’ (Romans 5:3–5). That is: these benefits have not merely enabled us to rejoice someday in the abundance of gifts. Even now, placed amid the burning heat of distress, we are cheerful in the possession of virtue itself. We laugh at the fury of persecutors, judging the wicked’s cruelty a training in endurance rather than a disruption of joy. Thus we do not merely refrain from sin because of rewards; we regard refraining from sin as itself a reward.
Latin
Verum ut magis exprimeretur virtus istius securitasque doctrinae, quid conferat fidelibus philosophia christiana, persequitur: Non solum autem, sed et gloriamur in pressuris scientes, quoniam tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia autem probationem, probatio autem spem, spes autem non confundit, quia caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis [n248] . Id est: Non solum nobis haec beneficia contulerunt, ut amplitudine quandoque munerum gaudeamus, sed iam impraesentiarum in mediis angorum aestibus constituti alacres sumus ipsius possessione virtutis et de persequentium furore ridemus impiorum crudelitatem, eruditionem patientiae magis quam perturbationem laetitiae iudicantes, ut non solum propter praemia non peccemus, sed hoc ipsum non peccare praemium censeamus.