54 "A patient man is better than the mightiest?"114  Had she not heard, "All that is appointed thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience:  for in fire are gold and silver tried?"115  Had she not heard, "The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?"116  These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these books, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit who writes those in the New Testament. 114 Prov. xvi. 32. 115 Ecclus. ii. 4, 5. 116 Ecclus. xxvii. 6. 88 Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude.