Chapter VIII.—Of Patience Under Personal Violence and Malediction.

We who carry about our very soul, our very body, exposed in this world81    Sæculo. to injury from all, and exhibit patience under that injury; shall we be hurt at the loss82    Delibatione. of less important things?83    i.e. money and the like. Compare Matt. vi. 25; Luke xii. 23. Far from a servant of Christ be such a defilement as that the patience which has been prepared for greater temptations should forsake him in frivolous ones. If one attempt to provoke you by manual violence, the monition of the Lord is at hand: “To him,” He saith, “who smiteth thee on the face, turn the other cheek likewise.”84    Matt. v. 39. Let outrageousness85    Improbitas. be wearied out by your patience.  Whatever that blow may be, conjoined86    Constrictus. I have rendered after Oehler: but may not the meaning be “clenched,” like the hand which deals the blow? with pain and contumely, it87    As Oehler says “the blow” is said to “receive” that which, strictly, the dealer of it receives. shall receive a heavier one from the Lord.  You wound that outrageous88    Improbum. one more by enduring: for he will be beaten by Him for whose sake you endure.  If the tongue’s bitterness break out in malediction or reproach, look back at the saying, “When they curse you, rejoice.”89    Matt. v. 11, 12; Luke vi. 22, 23. The Lord Himself was “cursed” in the eye of the law;90    Deut. xxi. 23; Gal. iii. 13. Tertullian’s quotations here are somewhat loose. He renders words which are distinct in the Greek by the same in his Latin. and yet is He the only Blessed One. Let us servants, therefore, follow our Lord closely; and be cursed patiently, that we may be able to be blessed. If I hear with too little equanimity some wanton or wicked word uttered against me, I must of necessity either myself retaliate the bitterness, or else I shall be racked with mute impatience. When, then, on being cursed, I smite (with my tongue,) how shall I be found to have followed the doctrine of the Lord, in which it has been delivered that “a man is defiled,91    Communicari—κοινοῦσθαι. See Mark vii. 15, “made common,” i.e. profane, unclean. Compare Acts x. 14, 15 in the Greek. not by the defilements of vessels, but of the things which are sent forth out of his mouth.” Again, it is said that “impeachment92    Reatum. See de Idol. i. ad init., “the highest impeachment of the age.” awaits us for every vain and needless word.”93    Matt. xii. 36. Tertullian has rendered ἀργόν by “vani et supervacui.” It follows that, from whatever the Lord keeps us, the same He admonishes us to bear patiently from another. I will add (somewhat) touching the pleasure of patience. For every injury, whether inflicted by tongue or hand, when it has lighted upon patience, will be dismissed94    Dispungetur: a word which, in the active, means technically “to balance accounts,” hence “to discharge,” etc. with the same fate as, some weapon launched against and blunted on a rock of most stedfast hardness. For it will wholly fall then and there with bootless and fruitless labour; and sometimes will recoil and spend its rage on him who sent it out, with retorted impetus. No doubt the reason why any one hurts you is that you may be pained; because the hurter’s enjoyment consists in the pain of the hurt. When, then, you have upset his enjoyment by not being pained, he must needs he pained by the loss of his enjoyment. Then you not only go unhurt away, which even alone is enough for you; but gratified, into the bargain, by your adversary’s disappointment, and revenged by his pain.  This is the utility and the pleasure of patience.

CAPUT VIII.

Ipsam animam ipsumque corpus in saeculo isto expositum omnibus ad injuriam gerimus, ejusque injuriae patientiam subimus; minorum deliberatione laedemur? Absit a servo Christi tale inquinamentum, 1262B ut patientia, majoribus tentationibus praeparata, in frivolis excidat. Si manu quis tentaverit provocare , praesto est dominica moneta : Verberanti te (inquit Matth., V, 39) in faciem, etiam alteram genam obverte. Fatigetur improbitas patientia tua. Cujus ictus ille sit, dolore et contumelia constrictus, gravius a Domino vapulat . Plus improbum illum caedis sustinendo; ab eo enim vapulabit, cujus gratia sustines. Si linguae amaritudo maledicto sive convicio eruperit, respice dictum (Matth., V, 12): Cum vos maledixerint, gaudete. Dominus ipse maledictus in lege est (Deut., XXI, 23), et tamen solus est benedictus (Gal., III, 13). Igitur Dominum servi consequamur, et maledicamur patienter, 1262C ut benedicti esse possimus. Si parum aequanimiter audiam dictum aliquod in me protervum aut nequam, reddam et ipse amaritudinis vicem necesse est, aut cruciabor impatientia muta. Cum ergo percussero maledictus , quomodo secutus inveniar doctrinam Domini, qua traditum est (Marc., VII, 15, 18), non vasculorum inquinamentis , sed eorum quae 1263A ex ore promuntur, hominem communicari ? Item (Matth., XII): manere nos omnis vani et supervacui dicti reatum? Sequitur ergo ut a quo nos Dominus arcet, idem ab alio aequanimiter pati admoneat. Hic jam de patientiae voluptate. Nam omnis injuria, seu lingua, seu manu incussa, cum patientiam offenderit, eodem exitu dispungetur , quo telum aliquod in petra constantissimae duritiae libratum , et obtusum. Coincidet enim ibidem irrita opera et infructuosa, et nonnunquam repercussum in eum, qui emisit, reciproco impetu saeviet. Nempe idcirco quis te laedit, ut doleas: quia fructus laedentis in dolore laesi est. Ergo cum fructum ejus everteris, non dolendo, ipse doleat necesse est amissione fructus sui: tunc tu non modo illaesus abis , quod etiam solum 1263B tibi sufficit, sed insuper adversarii tui et frustratione oblectatus, et dolore defensus. Haec est patientiae utilitas et voluptas .