Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Further, it followed that the one to whom Paul entrusted the administration of the gospel should administer it neither carelessly nor at random, in keeping with the Lord's own word: 'do not cast the pearl before swine, nor the holy thing before dogs.' The Lord declared his teaching openly, with no hint of any hidden mystery; he himself ordered that whatever came to their ears under cover of night and privacy, they were to announce openly, in daylight, from the rooftops. He himself, through a parable, had shown in advance that they must not hoard even a single mina — that is, a single word of his — unfruitful and out of sight. He himself taught that a lamp is not customarily hidden under a basket but set on a lampstand, so that it may shine on everyone in the house. The apostles either neglected these instructions or scarcely understood them, if they failed to carry them out and hid away some part of the light — that is, of God's word and Christ's mystery. They feared no one, so far as I know — neither the violence of the Jews nor of the pagans. All the more, then, they would have preached freely in the church, they who did not hold their tongues in synagogues and public places. Indeed, they could never have converted Jews or won over pagans unless they set out in full order the very things they wanted believed. Still less, then, would they have withheld anything from churches already believing, only to hand it over separately to a select few. And even granting that they discussed certain matters among their own household, so to speak, we still have no reason to believe these were matters that would introduce another rule of faith, different from and opposed to the one the catholic churches were publicly setting forth — as though they proclaimed one God in the church and a different one at a private lodging, designated one substance of Christ openly and another in secret, announced one hope of resurrection to everyone and a different one to a few — when they themselves, in their own letters, begged that all should say the very same thing, with one voice, and that there be no schisms and dissensions in the church, since Paul and the others preached the same message. Otherwise they would have remembered: 'Let your word be yes, yes, no, no; for whatever is more than this comes from evil' — so that they would not treat the gospel in a manner full of contradictions.