Christ's patience on earth as proof of divine nature
Tertullian has just described God's patience from afar in his forbearance toward the world; now he turns to the patience God displayed openly among human beings in the person of Christ.
And this is the appearance of divine patience, to be judged as it were from far off, perhaps from the heavens. But what of that patience which was grasped by hand, openly, among human beings on earth? God allows himself to be born in a mother's womb, and once born he endures growing up, and once grown he does not rush to be recognized. Moreover he allows himself to be insulted: he is baptized by his own servant, and he repels the tempter's attacks with words alone. When he who is God becomes a teacher, teaching a human being to escape death—trained in patience, of course, for the sake of salvation and the pardon of offenses—he does not strive or cry out, nor does anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he does not break, and smoking flax he does not quench (Isaiah 42:2-3). For the prophet had not lied—indeed it was the testimony of God himself, placing his Spirit in his Son with all patience. He refused no one who wished to cling to him; he despised no one's table or roof. He did not spurn sinners or tax collectors; indeed, he himself ministered in washing the disciples' feet. He was not even angry at the city that had refused to receive him, though his disciples wanted heavenly fires brought down on so insolent a town. He healed the ungrateful and yielded to those who plotted against him. This is little, if he did not also keep his own betrayer with him and did not firmly mark him out. And when he is handed over, when he is led away like a sheep to the slaughter—for he does not open his mouth any more than a lamb under the power of its shearer (Isaiah 53:7)—he who could have had legions of angels at his side from heaven with a single word, if he had wished, did not approve even one disciple's sword as an avenger. The Lord's patience was wounded in Malchus. And so he cursed the works of the sword for the future, and by restoring to health the one he himself had not harmed, he made satisfaction through patience, the mother of mercy. I say nothing of his being nailed to the cross; for this he had come. But was there any need for insults as well as undergoing death? He wished to be filled with the pleasure of patience as he was about to depart. He is spat upon, beaten, mocked, clothed in foul garments, crowned with fouler ones. What marvelous faith of equanimity: he who had resolved to hide in human form imitated nothing of human impatience. From this above all, Pharisees, you should have recognized the Lord; no human being would have accomplished patience of this kind. Such great and numerous proofs—whose greatness is a refusal of faith among the pagans, but among us is reason and edification—prove clearly, not only by words in commanding but also by the Lord's sufferings in enduring, to those to whom it has been given to believe, that patience is God's nature, the effect and excellence of a certain innate property.
Latin
Et haec quidem diuinae patientiae species, quasi de longinquo, fors ut de supernis aestimetur. quid illa autem, quae inter homines palam in terris quodammodo manu adprehensa est? nasci se deus in utero patitur matris [expectat] et natus adolescere sustinet et adultus non gestit agnosci, sed contumeliosus insuper sibi est et a seruo suo tinguitur et temptatoris congressus solis uerbis repellit. cum de deo fit magister docens hominem euadere mortem, ob salutem scilicet ueniam offensae patientiae eruditum, (non contendit, non reclamauit nec quisquam in plateis uocem eius audiuit; arundinem quassatam non fregit, linum fumigans non restinxit.) nec enim mentitus fuerat propheta, immo ipsius dei contestatio, spiritum suum in filio cum tota patientia collocantis. nullum uolentem sibi adhaerere non suscepit, nullius mensam tectumue despexit; [atquin ipse lauandis discipulorum pedibus ministrauit] non peccatores, non publicanos aspernatus est, non illi saltim ciuitati, quae eum recipere noluerat, iratus est, cum etiam discipuli tam contumelioso oppido caelestes ignes repraesentari uoluissent; ingratos curauit, insidiatoribus cessit. parum hoc, si non etiam proditorem suum secum habuit nec constanter denotauit. cum uero traditur, cum adducitur ut pecus ad uictimam, — sic enim non magis aperit os quam agnus sub tondentis potestate — ille, cui legiones angelorum, si uoluisset, uno dicto de caelis adfuissent, ne unius quidem discentis gladium ultorem probauit. patientia domini in Malcho uulnerata est. itaque et gladii opera maledixit in posterum et sanitatis restitutione ei, quem non ipse uexauerat, satisfecit per patientiam, misericordiae matrem. taceo, quod figitur; in hoc enim uenerat. numquid tamen subiendae morti etiam contumeliis opus fuerat? sed saginari uoluptate patientiae discessurus uolebat: despuitur, uerberatur, deridetur, foedis uestitur, foedioribus coronatur. mira aequanimitatis fides: qui in hominis figura proposuerat latere, nihil de impatientia hominis imitatus est. hinc uel maxime, Pharisaei, dominum agnoscere debuistis; patientiam huiusmodi nemo hominum perpetraret. talia tantaque documenta, quorum magnitudo penes nationes quidem detrectatio fidei est, penes nos uero ratio et structio, satis aperte non sermonibus modo in praecipiendo sed etiam passionibus domini (in) sustinendo probant his, quibus credere datum est, patientiam dei esse naturam, effectum et praestantiam ingenitae cuiusdam proprietatis.