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| Of Patience Generally; And Tertullian's Own Unworthiness to Treat of It.
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VI.
Of Patience.9013
| 9013 [Written
possibly as late as a.d. 202; and is credited
by Neander and Kaye, with Catholic Orthodoxy.] |
[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]
————————————
Chapter I.—Of Patience Generally;
And Tertullian’s Own Unworthiness to Treat of It.
I fully confess unto the
Lord God that it has been rash enough, if not even impudent, in
me to have dared compose a treatise on Patience, for
practising which I am all unfit, being a man of no
goodness;9014
whereas it were
becoming that such as have addressed themselves to the demonstration
and commendation of some particular thing, should themselves first be
conspicuous in the practice of that thing, and should regulate the
constancy of their commonishing by the authority of their personal
conduct, for fear their words blush at the deficiency of their deeds.
And would that this “blushing” would bring a remedy, so
that shame for not exhibiting that which we go to suggest to
others should prove a tutorship into exhibiting it; except that the
magnitude of some good things—just as of some ills too—is
insupportable, so that only the grace of divine inspiration is
effectual for attaining and practising them. For what is
most good rests most with God; nor does any other than He
who possesses it dispense it, as He deems meet to each. And so to
discuss about that which it is not given one to enjoy, will be, as it
were, a solace; after the manner of invalids, who since they are
without health, know not how to be silent about its blessings. So I,
most miserable, ever sick with the heats of impatience, must of
necessity sigh after, and invoke, and persistently plead for, that
health of patience which I possess not; while I recall to mind, and, in
the contemplation of my own weakness, digest, the truth, that
the good health of faith, and the soundness of the Lord’s
discipline, accrue not easily to any unless patience sit by his
side.9015
So is patience set over the things of God,
that one can obey no precept, fulfil no work well-pleasing to the Lord,
if estranged from it. The good of it, even they who live outside
it,9016
honour with the name of highest
virtue. Philosophers indeed, who are accounted animals of some
considerable wisdom, assign it so high a place, that, while they are
mutually at discord with the various fancies of their sects and
rivalries of their sentiments, yet, having a community of regard for
patience alone, to this one of their pursuits they have joined in
granting peace: for it they conspire; for it they league; it, in their
affectation of9017
| 9017 Or, “striving
after.” | virtue, they
unanimously pursue; concerning patience they exhibit all their
ostentation of wisdom. Grand testimony this is to it, in that it
incites even the vain schools of the world9018
| 9018 Or,
“heathendom”—sæculi. |
unto praise and glory! Or is it rather an injury, in that a thing
divine is bandied among worldly sciences? But let them look to that,
who shall presently be ashamed of their wisdom, destroyed and disgraced
together with the world9019
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