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Virtue

On Patience

Tertullian · c. 200–203 AD

33 min read
Ante-Nicene

A meditation on the virtue of patience as foundational to Christian life, in which the famously fiery Tertullian confesses his own struggle with the virtue he commends.

Table of Contents

1Of Patience Generally; And Tertullian's Own Unworthiness to Treat of It2God Himself an Example of Patience3Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Work a More Imitable Example Thereof4Duty of Imitating Our Master Taught Us by Slaves. Even by Beasts. Obedient Imitation is Founded on Patience5As God is the Author of Patience So the Devil is of Impatience6Patience Both Antecedent and Subsequent to Faith7The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts8Of Patience Under Personal Violence and Malediction9Of Patience Under Bereavement10Of Revenge11Further Reasons for Practising Patience. Its Connection with the Beatitudes12Certain Other Divine Precepts. The Apostolic Description of Charity. Their Connection with Patience13Of Bodily Patience14The Power of This Twofold Patience, the Spiritual and the Bodily. Exemplified in the Saints of Old15General Summary of the Virtues and Effects of Patience16The Patience of the Heathen Very Different from Christian Patience. Theirs Doomed to Perdition. Ours Destined to Salvation