Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Repentance — a thing which we ourselves once were, blind without the Lord's light, know only in a natural way, as a kind of passion of the mind arising from displeasure at a prior choice. [2] But they are as far removed from its true rationale as they are from the very author of reason. For reason belongs to God, since God, the founder of all things, has foreseen, arranged, and ordered nothing without reason, and has willed nothing to be handled or understood except by reason. [3] Therefore whoever does not know God must inevitably fail to know as well what pertains to him, since no man's storehouse stands open at all to outsiders. And so, sailing through the entire course of life bereft of reason's tiller, they do not know how to dodge the storm bearing down on this age. [4] How irrationally they conduct themselves in the very act of repentance may be shown sufficiently by this one point alone: that they apply it even to their good deeds. They repent of faith, of love, of simplicity, of generosity, of patience, of mercy: [5] to the extent that any of these has turned out to their disadvantage, they curse themselves for having done good, and they fix in their hearts — taking care to remember it — above all that brand of repentance that gets inflicted on their best works, so that they may never again perform any good. By contrast, they brood far less over repentance for their evil deeds: indeed, they more readily sin again by that same road than they do right by it.