On Repentance 4
Summary: God promises pardon to all who repent and even swears to it; the sinner should cling to repentance like a plank in a shipwreck, obeying because God commands.
Latin text · Oehler 1:649–651
Omnibus ergo delictis seu carne seu spiritu seu facto seu voluntate commissis qui poenam per iudicium destinavit, idem et veniam per paenitentiam spopondit, dicens ad populum, Paenitere, et salvum faciam te. Et iterum, Vivo, inquit, dominus, et paenitentiam malo quam mortem. Ergo paenitentia vita est, cum praeponitur morti. Eam tu peccator, mei similis (immo me minor, ego enim praestantiam in delictis meam agnosco), ita invade, ita amplexare, ut naufragus alicuius tabulae fidem. Haec te peccatorum fluctibus mersum prolevabit et in portum divinae clementiae protelabit. Rape occasionem inopinatae felicitatis, ut ille tu nihil quondam penes deum nisi stilla situlae et areae pulvis et vasculum figuli arbor exinde fias illa quae penes aquas seritur et in foliis perennat et tempore suo fructus agit, quae non ignem, non securem videbit. Paeniteat errorum reperta veritate, paeniteat amasse quae deus non amat, quando ne nos quidem ipsi servulis nostris ea quibus offendimur non odisse permittimus. Obsequii enim ratio in similitudine animorum constituta est. De bono paenitentiae enumerando diffusa et pro hoc magno eloquio committenda materia est. Nos vero pro nostris angustiis unum inculcamus, bonum atque optimum esse quod deus praecipit. Audaciam existimo de bono divini praecepti disputare. Neque enim quia bonum est, idcirco auscultare debemus, sed quia deus praecepit. Ad exhibitionem obsequii prior est maiestas divinae potestatis, prior est auctoritas imperantis quam utilitas servientis. Bonum est paenitere, an non? Quid revolvis? deus praecipit. At enim ille non praecipit tantum, sed etiam hortatur. Invitat praemio, salute; iurans etiam, Vivo, dicens, cupit credi sibi. O beatos nos, quorum causa deus iurat! O miserrimos, si nec iuranti domino credimus! Quod igitur deus tantopere commendat, quod etiam humano more sub deieratione testatur, summa utique gravitate et aggredi et custodire debemus, ut in asseveratione divinae gratiae permanentes in fructu quoque eius et emolumento proinde perseverare possimus.
English · Claude translation
So for all offenses, whether committed by flesh or spirit, by deed or by will, he who appointed punishment through judgment has also promised pardon through repentance, saying to the people: “Repent, and I will save you.” And again: “As I live,” says the Lord, “I prefer repentance to death.” Repentance, therefore, is life, since it is preferred to death. Sinner like me (or rather less than me, for I acknowledge my pre-eminence in sins), seize it, embrace it, as a shipwrecked man clings to the trustworthiness of some plank. It will lift you up when you are sunk in the waves of sins and carry you into the harbor of divine clemency. Seize the opportunity of unexpected happiness, so that you, who once were nothing with God but “a drop from a bucket,” “the dust of the threshing floor,” and “a potter's vessel,” may from then on become that “tree which is planted by the waters,” which is evergreen in its leaves and yields its fruit in its season, which will see neither fire nor axe. Having found the truth, repent of your errors; repent of having loved what God does not love, since not even we ourselves allow our little slaves not to hate the things by which we are offended. For the principle of obedience is set in likeness of minds. To enumerate the good of repentance is a broad subject, one to be entrusted to great eloquence. But we, in our narrowness, press one point: that what God commands is good and best. I think it audacity to dispute about the goodness of a divine command. For we ought to obey, not because it is good, but because God has commanded. In rendering obedience, the majesty of the divine power comes first; the authority of the one who commands comes before the advantage of the one who serves. Is it good to repent, or not? Why do you turn it over? God commands it. But he does not only command; he also exhorts. He invites with a reward, salvation; even swearing, saying, “As I live,” he desires to be believed. O blessed are we, for whose sake God swears! O most wretched, if we do not believe the Lord even when he swears! What God so earnestly commends, then, what he even attests under oath in human fashion, we ought certainly to undertake and guard with the greatest seriousness, so that, remaining in the assurance of divine grace, we may likewise persevere in its fruit and benefit.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Ezek 18:30-32 (loosely), Ezek 33:11, Isa 40:15, Isa 29:16 or Jer 18:6 (the potter's vessel), Ps 1:3, and Matt 3:10. The first quotation may also recall Isa 30:15 or Ezek 18:32 in the Old Latin; its exact source is uncertain.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (missing full stop in the digital text): committenda materia est Nos → committenda materia est. Nos.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Paen. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-paenitentia/4/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Paen. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-paenitentia/4/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text