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.