Werke Tertullian (160-220) De oratione

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On Prayer

Chapter V.--The Fourth Clause.

"Thy kingdom come" has also reference to that whereto "Thy will be done" refers--in us, that is. For when does God not reign, in whose hand is the heart of all kings? 1 But whatever we wish for ourselves we augur for Him, and to Him we attribute what from Him we expect. And so, if the manifestation of the Lord's kingdom pertains unto the will of God and unto our anxious expectation, how do some pray for some protraction of the age, 2 when the kingdom of God, which we pray may arrive, tends unto the consummation of the age? 3 Our wish is, that our reign be hastened, not our servitude protracted. Even if it had not been prescribed in the Prayer that we should ask for the advent of the kingdom, we should, unbidden, have sent forth that cry, hastening toward the realization of our hope. The souls of the martyrs beneath the altar 4 cry in jealousy unto the Lord, "How long, Lord, dost Thou not avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?" 5 for, of course, their avenging is regulated by 6 the end of the age. Nay, Lord, Thy kingdom come with all speed,--the prayer of Christians the confusion of the heathen, 7 the exultation of angels, for the sake of which we suffer, nay, rather, for the sake of which we pray!

  1. Prov. xxi. 1. ↩

  2. Or, "world," saeculo. ↩

  3. Or, "world," saeculi. See Matt. xxiv. 3, especially in the Greek. By "praying for some protraction in the age," Tertullian appears to refer to some who used to pray that the end might be deferred (Rigalt.). ↩

  4. altari. ↩

  5. Rev. vi. 10. ↩

  6. So Dodgson aptly renders "dirigitur a." ↩

  7. [See Ad Nationes, p. 128, supra.] ↩

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De Oratione

V.

[1] VENIAT quoque REGNVM TUUM ad id pertinet quod et 'fiat uoluntas tua', in nobis scilicet. Nam Deus quando non regnat, in cuius manu cor omnium regum est? Sed quicquid nobis optamus, in illum auguramur et illi deputamus, quod ab illo expectamus. Itaque si ad Dei uoluntatem et ad nostram suspensionem pertinet regni dominici repraesentatio, quomodo quidam protractum quemdam saeculo postulant, cum regnum Dei, quod ut adueniat oramus, ad consummationem saeculi tendat? Optamus maturius regnare, et non diutius seruire. [2] Etiam si praefinitum in oratione non esset de postulando regni aduentu, ultro eam uocem protulissemus festinantes ad spei nostrae complexum. [3] Clamant ad Dominum inuidia animae martyrum sub altari Quonam usque non ulcisceris, Domine, sanguinem nostrum de incolis terrae? Nam utique ultio illorum a saeculi fine dirigitur. [4] Immo quam celeriter ueniat, Domine, regnum tuum, uotum Christianorum, confusio nationum, exultatio angelorum, propter quod conflictamur, immo potius propter quod oramus.

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