The Testimony of the Soul 6
Summary: The soul's testimony is the same in every nation, so every soul will stand at the judgment both as witness to the truth and as defendant for rejecting it.
Latin text · CSEL 20:142–144
Crede itaque tuis et de commentariis nostris tanto magis crede diuinis, sed de animae ipsius arbitrio perinde crede naturae. elige quam ex his fidelius sororem obserues ueritatis. si tu tuis litteris dubitas, neque deus neque natura mentitur. ut et naturae et deo credas crede animae, ita fiet ut et tibi credas. illa certe est quam tanti facis, quantum illa te facit, cuius es totus, quae tibi omnia est, sine qua nec uiuere potes nec mori, propter quam deum neglegis. cum enim times fieri Christianus, eam conueni. cur alium colens deum nominat? cur, cum maledicendo spiritus denotat, daemonia pronuntiat? cur ad caelum contestatur et ad terram detestatur? cur alibi seruit, alibi uindicem conuenit? cur de mortuis iudicat? cur uerba habet Christianorum, quos nec auditos uisosque uult? cur aut nobis dedit ea uerba, aut accepit a nobis? cur aut docuit aut didicit? suspectam habes conuenientiam praedicationis in tanta disconuenientia conuersationis. uanus es, si huic linguae soli aut Graecae, quae propinquae inter se habentur, reputabis eiusmodi, ut neges naturae uniuersitatem. non Latinis nec Argiuis solis anima de caelo cadit. omnium gentium unus homo, uarium nomen est, una anima, uaria uox, unus spiritus, uarius sonus, propria cuique genti loquella, sed loquellae materia communis. deus ubique et bonitas dei ubique, daemonium ubique et maledictio daemonii ubique, iudicii diuini inuocatio ubique, mors ubique et conscientia mortis ubique, et testimonium ubique. omnis anima suo iure proclamat quae nobis nec mutire conceditur. merito igitur omnis anima et rea et testis est, in tantum et rea erroris, in quantum et testis ueritatis, et stabit ante aulas dei die iudicii nihil habens dicere. deum praedicabas et non requirebas, daemonia abominabaris et illa adorabas, iudicium dei appellabas nec esse credebas, inferna supplicia praesumebas et non praecauebas, Christianum nomen sapiebas et Christianum nomen persequebaris.
English · Claude translation
Believe, then, your own writings, and of our commentaries believe the divine ones all the more; but, from the judgment of the soul itself, believe nature equally. Choose which of these you will observe as the more faithful sister of truth. If you doubt your own writings, neither God nor nature lies. That you may believe both nature and God, believe the soul; so it will come about that you believe yourself. She certainly is the one whom you value as much as she makes you of value, to whom you wholly belong, who is everything to you, without whom you can neither live nor die, for whose sake you neglect God. For when you fear to become a Christian, consult her. Why does she name God while worshiping another? Why, when she brands spirits as accursed, does she pronounce them demons? Why does she call heaven to witness and curse by the earth? Why does she serve in one place and call upon an avenger in another? Why does she pass judgment on the dead? Why does she have the words of Christians, whom she does not wish either to hear or to see? Why has she either given those words to us or received them from us? Why has she either taught or learned them? You hold suspect this agreement in speech amid such disagreement in way of life. You are foolish if you attribute such things to this language alone, or to Greek, which are thought to be close to each other, so as to deny the universality of nature. The soul does not fall from heaven for Latins and Greeks alone. Man is one in all nations, the name differs; the soul is one, the voice differs; the spirit is one, the sound differs; each nation has its own speech, but the substance of speech is common. God is everywhere and the goodness of God is everywhere; the demon is everywhere and the cursing of the demon is everywhere; the invocation of divine judgment is everywhere; death is everywhere and the awareness of death is everywhere; and the testimony is everywhere. Every soul by its own right proclaims aloud what we are not allowed even to mutter. Rightly, then, is every soul both defendant and witness: defendant for error as far as she is witness for the truth; and she will stand before the courts of God on the day of judgment with nothing to say. “You proclaimed God and did not seek him; you loathed demons and worshiped them; you appealed to the judgment of God and did not believe it existed; you anticipated the punishments of the underworld and took no precautions; you knew the taste of the Christian name and persecuted the Christian name.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Believe the soul” reads the digital text's “c/ede” as “crede”. “Knew the taste of” renders sapiebas, which may also mean “understood”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (doubled letter in the digital text; doubled syllable in the digital text; doubled syllables in the digital text; doubled word part in the digital text; garbled letter in the digital text): iipsius → ipsius; c/ede → crede; terterram detestaturstatur → terram detestatur; auditosditos → auditos; prapraedicationis → praedicationis; mutirere → mutire; testisis → testis; adoraadorabas → adorabas; persequebarisbaris → persequebaris.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Test. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-testimonio/6/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Test. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-testimonio/6/).
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