Perseverance in the early church

Continuing in grace to the end, and whether it is God's gift. Part of Election and predestination.

Acts of John 67Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John teaches that faith, like every voyage, harvest and contest, is judged only at its end.
Acts of John 69Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John describes the soul that remains faithful to the end, unlike those that fall away.
Prescription against Heretics 3Tertullian · ca. 203 · The fall of prominent Christians proves nothing for heresy: even Saul, David, Solomon, and an apostle fell; persons are tested by the faith, not the faith by persons.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 39Origen · 235 · Christians hated by the world should endure to the end, not love the passing world, and see that they may have been spared for a martyr's baptism in their own blood.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 49Origen · 235 · Persecution tests whether the word fell on rocky ground or good soil; those who endure bear fruit a hundredfold and should despise the cares and riches of this world.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 4.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous may fall but are not laid prostrate, for they repent, like Peter and David, while those who despair after sin are; Origen urges sinners to rise and do penance, and compares Christians to athletes, some crowned even as boys, like Daniel, Jeremiah, Jacob, and the Holy Innocents.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 80Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Jesus did not name the traitor so that each heart might be tested; the faithful apostles were saddened because human nature can be turned to evil, and so everyone not yet perfect must fear his own fall and never boast, as Peter's denial shows.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 21Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Confession under persecution is only a beginning; confessors must persevere in humility and unity, or their guilt will be greater.
To Fortunatus 7Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Like Israel longing to return to Egypt, Christians freed from the devil and the world must not turn back to them.
To Fortunatus 8Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Only perseverance to the end wins the crown, as Moses' raised hands, a figure of the cross, won the victory over Amalek only while they stayed lifted.
On the Good of Patience 13Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ requires endurance to the end; since we hope for what is unseen, patience is needed to persevere in good works until we receive the crown.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 2.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The letter to Smyrna praises the poor who endure slander and promises that the persevering will escape the second death.
Oration III Against the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ's prayer that believers be one “in us” asks the Father to give them the Spirit through the Son; our being in God is the Spirit's gift, which the sinner can lose, as Saul did.
Life of Antony 18Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Like a servant who works every day, the monk must persevere daily, since past labors do not excuse present negligence, as Ezekiel and the fall of Judas show.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 39Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's thirty-ninth rule: Christians must stand firm in the faith and not be moved from the good things of the Lord.
Commentary on Philippians 3.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Even Paul, after all his sufferings, has not yet laid hold of Christ; he forgets even his good past deeds, lest he claim merit or grow careless, and presses on by the Christian rule toward the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ.
Oration 9.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Grace must be kept as well as received; Gregory asks his father and Basil to teach him the shepherd's art, reproaches Basil for forcing his consecration, and prays for himself and his flock.
Letter 71.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Lucinius to persevere to the end, following Abraham, who left his homeland for God.
Letter 96.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus compares Origen's denial of Christ's eternal kingship to the Jews' objection to Pilate's title, and rejects the idea that the saved may fall again.
Letter 148.32Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer closes by urging Celantia to persevere daily in righteousness to the end.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.35.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Perseverance is God’s gift; trials are his mercy, as Lazarus and Job show, while the rich man’s comfort here led to loss.
Letter 78.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reminds his people that Scripture foretold offences and the cooling of love before the end, so that they might persevere.
Letter 149.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who fall away were not among the predestined, as shown by baptized infants who later apostatize; why some are predestined and others not is hidden but never unjust.
Letter 217.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that believers pray for perseverance, and that God mixes those who will fall with those who will persevere so that all may walk in humble fear.
Letter 217.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine leaves open why some receive grace for a time and then fall, while insisting on holding firm to what is certain in the Catholic faith.
Letter 217.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that perseverance to the end is God's gift, since God controls the end of each life.
Letter 226.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hilary reports that the opponents reduce predestination to foreknowledge of faith, deny that perseverance is given irresistibly, and reject Wisdom 4:11 as non-canonical.
Letter 226.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hilary reports that the opponents object to Augustine's contrast between Adam's grace and the gift of perseverance to the elect, saying it produces despair.
Letter 248.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine consoles Sebastianus, grieved by sinners who abandon God's law, saying such grief is the persecution of the godly and urging perseverance; Alypius adds a greeting.
Homilies on Matthew 33.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ requires endurance to the end; the apostles, accused before tyrants as destroyers of the world, overcame by endurance, while Christians now, under pious emperors and in peace, grow soft.
Sermon 51.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine pays the debt deferred from Christmas morning, speaking to those who chose church over the games, and urges prayer for those who went to the amphitheatre.
Sermon 53.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The breadth, length, height, and depth of Ephesians are good works, perseverance, hope of heavenly reward, and the hidden grace of God.
Sermon 58.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread means all bodily necessities, the eucharist received by the faithful, from whose altar we pray not to be separated, and the word of God broken daily.
Sermon 88.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Persevering Christians win over their critics; within the Church good and bad are mixed until the harvest, and the good are not stained by the bad if they neither consent nor fail to rebuke.
Sermon 93.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The virgins’ sleep is not the cooling of love, since the wise persevered to the end, but the sleep of death, which all undergo.
Sermon 131.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Psalm 2 warns those already on the right way to rejoice with trembling, lest pride make them perish from it; blessed are those who trust in God, not in themselves.
Sermon 164.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The merciful should persevere in doing good even to the ungrateful; and if an avaricious man approaches the altar beside them, they need not fear, for each bears his own burden, provided they do not share his sin.
Sermon 165.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The cross's breadth is love that gives cheerfully, its length is perseverance to the end, and its height is the lifted heart that loves God freely and seeks him alone as reward.
Sermon 250.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first catch figures the Church now, full of good and bad; the good must not be discouraged by the apparent happiness of the wicked, and the bad must be tolerated, not separated, until the judgment.
Against Jovinianus 2.27Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the indwelling of Christ, the least and greatest in the kingdom, and Jacob's ladder that there are degrees among the saved and that one can fall.
On Continence 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Even the faithful must keep 'putting away' vices by continual continence, for whoever ceases is taken captive again; salvation belongs to those who persevere.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The ship of the church makes headway amid storms; the twenty-five and thirty stadia signify the Law (five times five) fulfilled by the gospel (five times six), to whom Jesus comes treading the waves.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 45.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The shepherd's voice that distinguishes his sheep is “He who perseveres to the end will be saved”; the predestined who stray return to it.
City of God 21.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Neither heretics nor lapsed catholics nor catholics living wickedly will be saved by the sacraments alone: those who do the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom, and only those who abide in Christ truly eat his body.
The Institutes 4.36John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The novice must never take back what he renounced, look back to his family, or grow proud, but persevere to the end.
The Conferences 3.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The manner of calling matters less than the end: Abba Moses, a murderer who fled to the monastery, became perfect, while Judas fell though called by Christ, and Paul, called against his will, ended gloriously.
The Conferences 7.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Clinging to God is possible for those who die to worldly desires; the labor must not be abandoned, for the kingdom suffers violence, and only those who taste God's being all in all now will possess it fully hereafter.
Chapter 9Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · God makes the elect worthy; grace makes the wicked good and frees free choice rather than destroying it, and perseverance too is God's gift.
Chapter 10Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Peter's faith stood only through Christ's prayer; and the fixed number of the predestined cannot be denied, since nature and God's gifts did not save the nations of past ages.
On Rebuke and Grace 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Those who fall away after receiving faith cannot plead that perseverance was not given them: they lost grace by their own will; yet perseverance is God's gift, as Scripture and Cyprian's exposition of the Lord's Prayer show, and rebuke remains useful.
On Rebuke and Grace 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Why God gives perseverance to some of the regenerate and not to others, like why some infants are baptized and others not, is among his inscrutable but just judgments; Augustine confesses he does not know.
On Rebuke and Grace 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Those who do not persevere were never truly sons of God or disciples in his foreknowledge; the predestined, called according to his purpose, cannot perish, and even their lapses work for their good; therefore rebuke is to be used, leaving the outcome to God's mercy or judgment.
On Rebuke and Grace 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Augustine distinguishes Adam's ability not to sin from the final inability to sin, and the help without which from the help by which; the predestined saints receive perseverance itself, so that their weak wills, moved by grace, persevere where Adam's strong will did not.
On Rebuke and Grace 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · The number of the predestined is fixed; it is hidden from each believer for the sake of humility, so that some who are not predestined live faithfully for a time and then fall; the rest are justly judged for original sin, added sins, or failing to persevere.
On the Gift of Perseverance 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine defines the perseverance he means as perseverance in Christ to the end of this life, which is God's gift; one who falls before death never had it.
On the Gift of Perseverance 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Perseverance, like suffering for Christ, is God's gift; it is asked for in prayer, as Cyprian's exposition of the Lord's Prayer (“Hallowed be your name”, “Your kingdom come”) shows, and Cyprian refuted the Pelagians in advance.
On the Gift of Perseverance 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Commenting on “Your will be done on earth as in heaven” with Cyprian, Augustine shows that the church prays both for the beginning of faith in unbelievers and for perseverance in the saints.
On the Gift of Perseverance 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Cyprian's exposition of “Give us this day our daily bread”, received daily in the Eucharist, shows that the petition also asks for perseverance, so as not to be separated from Christ's body.
On the Gift of Perseverance 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Answering the objection that perseverance must be able to be merited by prayer and lost by obstinacy, Augustine argues that perseverance to the end, once given, cannot be lost, and that “Lead us not into temptation” asks God to keep us from the temptation of our own evil will.
On the Gift of Perseverance 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · That some die unbaptized and others baptized, some persevere and others are kept until they fall, shows that grace to begin and to persevere is given by God's secret, just will; no one knows in this life that he belongs to the calling; even “Lift up your hearts” in the liturgy acknowledges God's gift.
On the Gift of Perseverance 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Perseverance is given by God, who can end a life before a fall; predestination is God's arranging of his future works in his foreknowledge; preaching it no more hinders exhortation to faith and perseverance than preaching that wisdom and continence are God's gifts hinders exhortation to them.
On the Gift of Perseverance 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Both the beginning of faith and perseverance must be confessed as God's gifts, or the Pelagian conclusion follows; Augustine points to his earlier writings (To Simplician, letters to Paulinus and Sixtus, On Rebuke and Grace), admits he has grown in understanding, and concludes that to dispute predestination is mere contentiousness.
Objection and reply 3Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 431-432 · Those who fall away after baptism were not predestined because God foreknew their voluntary fall; their fall is their own, not caused by God's giving them long life.
Objection and reply 7Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 431-432 · Some regenerated fall away by their own will; perseverance is God's gift, given in mercy to some and justly not given to others.