Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Likewise, that it is the custom of some to sit down once prayer is finished — I cannot see the reason, except a childish one. What then? If Hermas, the man whose book usually goes by the name 'The Shepherd,' had, once his prayer was over, done something other than take a seat on his bed, would we be turning even that into a rule to keep? Certainly not. The passage is simply recording, as it happens: When I had prayed and sat down on the bed — as part of the order of the narrative, not as a model of discipline. Otherwise there would be nowhere to pray except where there happened to be a bed. On the contrary, one would be acting against Scripture by sitting on a chair or a bench. Moreover, since the pagans do the very same thing, sitting down after worshipping their little idols, this custom deserves rebuke among us precisely because it is practiced at idols. And there is a further charge to add, that of irreverence — one that even the pagans, if they had any sense, ought to recognize: for it is irreverent to sit down in the sight of, and facing, the one you are supposed to be revering and honoring above all; how much more irreligious is it to do this in the sight of the living God, with the angel of prayer still standing by! Unless we mean to reproach God that our prayer has worn us out.