But he that shall persevere to the end, in the midst of this trying and afflicting scene, in faith and charity, (or as it is in the Greek; he that shall preserve his patience to the end, Greek: o upomeinas, proof against heresies, persecutions, hatreds, or scandals) shall be saved. To perseverance alone this promise is made; for, non quæruntur in Christianis initia sed finis. (Tertullian) A part of this prediction was, beyond all doubt, accomplished with regard to the faithful in the first persecutions raised by the Jews against the infant Christian Church; but the entire and literal completion of it is reserved for the latter times.

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