{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030517.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030517.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030517.htm","text":"Chapter II.\u2014These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.\nFor this reason we are branded 6629 by them as simple, and as being merely so, without being wise also; as if indeed wisdom were compelled to be wanting in simplicity, whereas the Lord unites them both: \u201cBe ye therefore wise as serpents, and simple as doves.\u201d 6630 Now if we, on our parts, be accounted foolish because we are simple, does it then follow that they are not simple because they are wise? Most perverse, however, are they who are not simple, even as they are most foolish who are not wise. And yet, (if I must choose) I should prefer taking 6631 the latter condition for the lesser fault; since it is perhaps better to have a wisdom which falls short in quantity, than that which is bad in quality 6632 \u2014better to be in error than to mislead. Besides, the face of the Lord 6633 is patiently waited for by those who \u201cseek Him in simplicity of heart,\u201d as says the very Wisdom\u2014not of Valentinus, but\u2014of Solomon. 6634 Then, again, infants have borne 6635 by their blood a testimony to Christ. (Would you say) that it was children who shouted \u201cCrucify Him\u201d? 6636 They were neither children nor infants; in other words, they were not simple. The apostle, too, bids us to \u201cbecome children again\u201d towards God, 6637 \u201cto be as children in malice\u201d by our simplicity, yet as being also \u201cwise in our practical faculties.\u201d 6638 At the same time, with respect to the order of development in Wisdom, I have admitted 6639 that it flows from simplicity. In brief, \u201cthe dove\u201d has usually served to figure Christ; \u201cthe serpent,\u201d to tempt Him. The one even from the first has been the harbinger of divine peace; the other from the beginning has been the despoiler of the divine image. Accordingly, simplicity alone 6640 will be more easily able to know and to declare God, whereas wisdom alone will rather do Him violence, 6641 and betray Him.\nIn the original the phrase is put passively: \u201cmalim eam partem meliori sumi vitio.\u201d\n504:6632\nHow terse is the original! minus sapere quam pejus.\n504:6633 504:6634 504:6635 504:6636\nTertullian\u2019s words are rather suggestive of sense than of syntax: \u201cPueros vocem qui crucem clamant?\u201d\n504:6637\nSecundum Deum: \u201caccording to God\u2019s will.\u201d\n504:6638\n1 Cor. xiv. 20, where Tertullian renders the \u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03af (A.V. \u201cunderstanding\u201d) by \u201csensibus.\u201d\n504:6639 504:6640 504:6641","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: These ...","type":"page"}