Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian
LATIN CHRISTIANITY: ITS FOUNDER, TERTULLIAN: TERTULLIAN (C. 160-C. 230)
ANTE-NICENE FATHERS VOLUME III. LATIN CHRISTIANITY: ITS FOUNDER, TERTULLIAN I. APOLOGETIC; II. ANTI-MARCION; III. ETHICAL
THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS DOWN TO A.D. 325.
TERTULLIAN
Part First
Apologetic
Part Second
Anti-Marcion
Part Third
TERTULLIAN
Part First
Apologetic
I
Apology
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Chapter XXXV
Chapter XXXVI
Chapter XXXVII
Chapter XXXVIII
Chapter XXXIX
Chapter XL
Chapter XLI
Chapter XLII
Chapter XLIII
Chapter XLIV
Chapter XLV
Chapter XLVI
Chapter XLVII
Chapter XLVIII
Chapter XLIX
Chapter L
II
On Idolatry
Chapter I
Wide Scope of the Word Idolatry
Chapter II
Idolatry in Its More Limited Sense. Its Copiousness
Chapter III
Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name
Chapter IV
Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category
Chapter V
Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with
Chapter VI
Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It
Chapter VII
Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry
Chapter VIII
Other Arts Made Subservient to Idolatry. Lawful Means of Gaining a Livelihood Abundant
Chapter IX
Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular
Chapter X
Of Schoolmasters and Their Difficulties
Chapter XI
Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided
Chapter XII
Further Answers to the Plea, How Am I to Live?
Chapter XIII
Of the Observance of Days Connected with Idolatry
Chapter XIV
Of Blasphemy. One of St. Paul’s Sayings
Chapter XV
Concerning Festivals in Honour of Emperors, Victories, and the Like. Examples of the Three Children and Daniel
Chapter XVI
Concerning Private Festivals
Chapter XVII
The Cases of Servants and Other Officials. What Offices a Christian Man May Hold
Chapter XVIII
Dress as Connected with Idolatry
Chapter XIX
Concerning Military Service
Chapter XX
Concerning Idolatry in Words
Chapter XXI
Of Silent Acquiescence in Heathen Formularies
Chapter XXII
Of Accepting Blessing in the Name of Idols
Chapter XXIII
Written Contracts in the Name of Idols. Tacit Consent
Chapter XXIV
General Conclusion
III
The Shows, or De Spectaculis
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
IV
The Chaplet, or De Corona
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
V
To Scapula
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
VI
Ad Nationes
Book I
Chapter I
The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance
Chapter II
The Heathen Perverted Judgment in the Trial of Christians. They Would Be More Consistent If They Dispensed with All Form of Trial. Tertullian Urges This with Much Indignation
Chapter III
The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated
Chapter IV
The Truth Hated in the Christians; So in Measure Was It, of Old, in Socrates. The Virtues of the Christians
Chapter V
The Inconsistent Life of Any False Christian No More Condemns True Disciples of Christ, Than a Passing Cloud Obscures a Summer Sky
Chapter VI
The Innocence of the Christians Not Compromised by the Iniquitous Laws Which Were Made Against Them
Chapter VII
The Christians Defamed. A Sarcastic Description of Fame; Its Deception and Atrocious Slanders of the Christians Lengthily Described
Chapter VIII
The Calumny Against the Christians Illustrated in the Discovery of Psammetichus. Refutation of the Story
Chapter IX
The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity
Chapter X
The Christians are Not the Only Contemners of the Gods. Contempt of Them Often Displayed by Heathen Official Persons. Homer Made the Gods Contemptible
Chapter XI
The Absurd Cavil of the Ass’s Head Disposed of
Chapter XII
The Charge of Worshipping a Cross. The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial Frame
Chapter XIII
The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort
Chapter XIV
The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian
Chapter XV
The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen
Chapter XVI
Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method. The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents
Chapter XVII
The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Caesar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen
Chapter XVIII
Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death. Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen
Chapter XIX
If Christians and the Heathen Thus Resemble Each Other, There is Great Difference in the Grounds and Nature of Their Apparently Similar Conduct
Chapter XX
Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone. The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It
Book II
Chapter I
The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain
Chapter II
Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God. The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations
Chapter III
The Physical Philosophers Maintained the Divinity of the Elements; The Absurdity of the Tenet Exposed
Chapter IV
Wrong Derivation of the Word Theos. The Name Indicative of the True Deity. God Without Shape and Immaterial. Anecdote of Thales
Chapter V
The Physical Theory Continued. Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements
Chapter VI
The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine. Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods
Chapter VII
The Gods of the Mythic Class. The Poets a Very Poor Authority in Such Matters. Homer and the Mythic Poets. Why Irreligious
Chapter VIII
The Gods of the Different Nations. Varro’s Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture. Serapis a Perversion of Joseph
Chapter IX
The Power of Rome. Romanized Aspect of All the Heathen Mythology. Varro’s Threefold Distribution Criticised. Roman Heroes (AEneas Included,) Unfavourably Reviewed
Chapter X
A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina
Chapter XI
The Romans Provided Gods for Birth, Nay, Even Before Birth, to Death. Much Indelicacy in This System
Chapter XII
The Original Deities Were Human—With Some Very Questionable Characteristics. Saturn or Time Was Human. Inconsistencies of Opinion About Him
Chapter XIII
The Gods Human at First. Who Had the Authority to Make Them Divine? Jupiter Not Only Human, But Immoral
Chapter XIV
Gods, Those Which Were Confessedly Elevated to the Divine Condition, What Pre-Eminent Right Had They to Such Honour? Hercules an Inferior Character
Chapter XV
The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much
Chapter XVI
Inventors of Useful Arts Unworthy of Deification. They Would Be the First to Acknowledge a Creator. The Arts Changeable from Time to Time, and Some Become Obsolete
Chapter XVII
Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their Imperial Power to Their Gods. The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms, He is the God of the Christians
Appendix
A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen
VII
An Answer to the Jews
Chapter I
Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated
Chapter II
The Law Anterior to Moses
Chapter III
Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law
Chapter IV
Of the Observance of the Sabbath
Chapter V
Of Sacrifices
Chapter VI
Of the Abolition and the Abolisher of the Old Law
Chapter VII
The Question Whether Christ Be Come Taken Up
Chapter VIII
Of the Times of Christ’s Birth and Passion, and of Jerusalem’s Destruction
Chapter IX
Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ
Chapter X
Concerning the Passion of Christ, and Its Old Testament Predictions and Adumbrations
Chapter XI
Further Proofs, from Ezekiel. Summary of the Prophetic Argument Thus Far
Chapter XII
Further Proofs from the Calling of the Gentiles
Chapter XIII
Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea
Chapter XIV
Conclusion. Clue to the Error of the Jews
VIII
The Soul’s Testimony
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
IX
A Treatise on the Soul
Chapter I
It is Not to the Philosophers that We Resort for Information About the Soul But to God
Chapter II
The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us
Chapter III
The Soul’s Origin Defined Out of the Simple Words of Scripture
Chapter IV
In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth
Chapter V
Probable View of the Stoics, that the Soul Has a Corporeal Nature
Chapter VI
The Arguments of the Platonists for the Soul’s Incorporeality, Opposed, Perhaps Frivolously
Chapter VII
The Soul’s Corporeality Demonstrated Out of the Gospels
Chapter VIII
Other Platonist Arguments Considered
Chapter IX
Particulars of the Alleged Communication to a Montanist Sister
Chapter X
The Simple Nature of the Soul is Asserted with Plato. The Identity of Spirit and Soul
Chapter XI
Spirit—A Term Expressive of an Operation of the Soul, Not of Its Nature. To Be Carefully Distinguished from the Spirit of God
Chapter XII
Difference Between the Mind and the Soul, and the Relation Between Them
Chapter XIII
The Soul’s Supremacy
Chapter XIV
The Soul Variously Divided by the Philosophers; This Division is Not a Material Dissection
Chapter XV
The Soul’s Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man
Chapter XVI
The Soul’s Parts. Elements of the Rational Soul
Chapter XVII
The Fidelity of the Senses, Impugned by Plato, Vindicated by Christ Himself
Chapter XVIII
Plato Suggested Certain Errors to the Gnostics. Functions of the Soul
Chapter XIX
The Intellect Coeval with the Soul in the Human Being. An Example from Aristotle Converted into Evidence Favourable to These Views
Chapter XX
The Soul, as to Its Nature Uniform, But Its Faculties Variously Developed. Varieties Only Accidental
Chapter XXI
As Free-Will Actuates an Individual So May His Character Change
Chapter XXII
Recapitulation. Definition of the Soul
Chapter XXIII
The Opinions of Sundry Heretics Which Originate Ultimately with Plato
Chapter XXIV
Plato’s Inconsistency. He Supposes the Soul Self-Existent, Yet Capable of Forgetting What Passed in a Previous State
Chapter XXV
Tertullian Refutes, Physiologically, the Notion that the Soul is Introduced After Birth
Chapter XXVI
Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting
Chapter XXVII
Soul and Body Conceived, Formed and Perfected in Element Simultaneously
Chapter XXVIII
The Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration Sketched and Censured
Chapter XXIX
The Pythagorean Doctrine Refuted by Its Own First Principle, that Living Men are Formed from the Dead
Chapter XXX
Further Refutation of the Pythagorean Theory. The State of Contemporary Civilisation
Chapter XXXI
Further Exposure of Transmigration, Its Inextricable Embarrassment
Chapter XXXII
Empedocles Increased the Absurdity of Pythagoras by Developing the Posthumous Change of Men into Various Animals
Chapter XXXIII
The Judicial Retribution of These Migrations Refuted with Raillery
Chapter XXXIV
These Vagaries Stimulated Some Profane Corruptions of Christianity. The Profanity of Simon Magus Condemned
Chapter XXXV
The Opinions of Carpocrates, Another Offset from the Pythagorean Dogmas, Stated and Confuted
Chapter XXXVI
The Main Points of Our Author’s Subject. On the Sexes of the Human Race
Chapter XXXVII
On the Formation and State of the Embryo. Its Relation with the Subject of This Treatise
Chapter XXXVIII
On the Growth of the Soul. Its Maturity Coincident with the Maturity of the Flesh in Man
Chapter XXXIX
The Evil Spirit Has Marred the Purity of the Soul from the Very Birth
Chapter XL
The Body of Man Only Ancillary to the Soul in the Commission of Evil
Chapter XLI
Notwithstanding the Depravity of Man’s Soul by Original Sin, There is Yet Left a Basis Whereon Divine Grace Can Work for Its Recovery by Spiritual Regeneration
Chapter XLII
Sleep, the Mirror of Death, as Introductory to the Consideration of Death
Chapter XLIII
Sleep a Natural Function as Shown by Other Considerations, and by the Testimony of Scripture
Chapter XLIV
The Story of Hermotimus, and the Sleeplessness of the Emperor Nero. No Separation of the Soul from the Body Until Death
Chapter XLV
Dreams, an Incidental Effect of the Soul’s Activity. Ecstasy
Chapter XLVI
Diversity of Dreams and Visions. Epicurus Thought Lightly of Them, Though Generally Most Highly Valued. Instances of Dreams
Chapter XLVII
Dreams Variously Classified. Some are God-Sent, as the Dreams of Nebuchadnezzar; Others Simply Products of Nature
Chapter XLVIII
Causes and Circumstances of Dreams. What Best Contributes to Efficient Dreaming
Chapter XLIX
No Soul Naturally Exempt from Dreams
Chapter L
The Absurd Opinion of Epicurus and the Profane Conceits of the Heretic Menander on Death, Even Enoch and Elijah Reserved for Death
Chapter LI
Death Entirely Separates the Soul from the Body
Chapter LII
All Kinds of Death a Violence to Nature, Arising from Sin
Sin an Intrusion Upon Nature as God Created It
Chapter LIII
The Entire Soul Being Indivisible Remains to the Last Act of Vitality; Never Partially or Fractionally Withdrawn from the Body
Chapter LIV
Whither Does the Soul Retire When It Quits the Body? Opinions of Philosophers All More or Less Absurd. The Hades of Plato
Chapter LV
The Christian Idea of the Position of Hades; The Blessedness of Paradise Immediately After Death. The Privilege of the Martyrs
Chapter LVI
Refutation of the Homeric View of the Soul’s Detention from Hades Owing to the Body’s Being Unburied. That Souls Prematurely Separated from the Body Had to Wait for Admission into Hades Also Refuted
Chapter LVII
Magic and Sorcery Only Apparent in Their Effects. God Alone Can Raise the Dead
Chapter LVIII
Conclusion. Points Postponed. All Souls are Kept in Hades Until the Resurrection, Anticipating Their Ultimate Misery or Bliss
Part Second
Anti-Marcion
I
The Prescription Against Heretics
Chapter I
Introductory. Heresies Must Exist, and Even Abound; They are a Probation to Faith
Chapter II
Analogy Between Fevers and Heresies. Heresies Not to Be Wondered At: Their Strength Derived from Weakness of Men’s Faith. They Have Not the Truth. Simile of Pugilists and Gladiators in Illustration
Chapter III
Weak People Fall an Easy Prey to Heresy, Which Derives Strength from the General Frailty of Mankind. Eminent Men Have Fallen from Faith; Saul, David, Solomon. The Constancy of Christ
Chapter IV
Warnings Against Heresy Given Us in the New Testament. Sundry Passages Adduced. These Imply the Possibility of Falling into Heresy
Chapter V
Heresy, as Well as Schism and Dissension, Disapproved by St. Paul, Who Speaks of the Necessity of Heresies, Not as a Good, But, by the Will of God, Salutary Trials for Training and Approving the Faith of Christians
Chapter VI
Heretics are Self-Condemned. Heresy is Self-Will, Whilst Faith is Submission of Our Will to the Divine Authority. The Heresy of Apelles
Chapter VII
Pagan Philosophy the Parent of Heresies. The Connection Between Deflections from Christian Faith and the Old Systems of Pagan Philosophy
Chapter VIII
Christ’s Word, Seek, and Ye Shall Find, No Warrant for Heretical Deviations from the Faith. All Christ’s Words to the Jews are for Us, Not Indeed as Specific Commands, But as Principles to Be Applied
Chapter IX
The Research After Definite Truth Enjoined on Us. When We Have Discovered This, We Should Be Content
Chapter X
One Has Succeeded in Finding Definite Truth, When He Believes. Heretical Wits are Always Offering Many Things for Vain Discussion, But We are Not to Be Always Seeking
Chapter XI
After We Have Believed, Search Should Cease; Otherwise It Must End in a Denial of What We Have Believed. No Other Object Proposed for Our Faith
Chapter XII
A Proper Seeking After Divine Knowledge, Which Will Never Be Out of Place or Excessive, is Always Within the Rule of Faith
Chapter XIII
Summary of the Creed, or Rule of Faith. No Questions Ever Raised About It by Believers. Heretics Encourage and Perpetuate Thought Independent of Christ’s Teaching
Chapter XIV
Curiosity Ought Not Range Beyond the Rule of Faith. Restless Curiosity, the Feature of Heresy
Chapter XV
Heretics Not to Be Allowed to Argue Out of the Scriptures. The Scriptures, in Fact, Do Not Belong to Them
Chapter XVI
Apostolic Sanction to This Exclusion of Heretics from the Use of the Scriptures. Heretics, According to the Apostle, are Not to Be Disputed With, But to Be Admonished
Chapter XVII
Heretics, in Fact, Do Not Use, But Only Abuse, Scripture. No Common Ground Between Them and You
Chapter XVIII
Great Evil Ensues to the Weak in Faith, from Any Discussion Out of the Scriptures. Conviction Never Comes to the Heretic from Such a Process
Chapter XIX
Appeal, in Discussion of Heresy, Lies Not to the Scriptures. The Scriptures Belong Only to Those Who Have the Rule of Faith
Chapter XX
Christ First Delivered the Faith. The Apostles Spread It; They Founded Churches as the Depositories Thereof. That Faith, Therefore, is Apostolic, Which Descended from the Apostles, Through Apostolic Churches
Chapter XXI
All Doctrine True Which Comes Through the Church from the Apostles, Who Were Taught by God Through Christ. All Opinion Which Has No Such Divine Origin and Apostolic Tradition to Show, is Ipso Facto False
Chapter XXII
Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission
Chapter XXIII
The Apostles Not Ignorant. The Heretical Pretence of St. Peter’s Imperfection Because He Was Rebuked by St. Paul. St. Peter Not Rebuked for Error in Teaching
Chapter XXIV
St. Peter’s Further Vindication. St. Paul Not Superior to St. Peter in Teaching. Nothing Imparted to the Former in the Third Heaven Enabled Him to Add to the Faith. Heretics Boast as If Favoured with Some of the Secrets Imparted to Him
Chapter XXV
The Apostles Did Not Keep Back Any of the Deposit of Doctrine Which Christ Had Entrusted to Them. St. Paul Openly Committed His Whole Doctrine to Timothy
Chapter XXVI
The Apostles Did in All Cases Teach the Whole Truth to the Whole Church. No Reservation, Nor Partial Communication to Favourite Friends
Chapter XXVII
Granted that the Apostles Transmitted the Whole Doctrine of Truth, May Not the Churches Have Been Unfaithful in Handing It On? Inconceivable that This Can Have Been the Case
Chapter XXVIII
The One Tradition of the Faith, Which is Substantially Alike in the Churches Everywhere, a Good Proof that the Transmission Has Been True and Honest in the Main
Chapter XXIX
The Truth Not Indebted to the Care of the Heretics; It Had Free Course Before They Appeared. Priority of the Church’s Doctrine a Mark of Its Truth
Chapter XXX
Comparative Lateness of Heresies. Marcion’s Heresy. Some Personal Facts About Him. The Heresy of Apelles. Character of This Man; Philumene; Valentinus; Nigidius, and Hermogenes
Chapter XXXI
Truth First, Falsehood Afterwards, as Its Perversion. Christ’s Parable Puts the Sowing of the Good Seed Before the Useless Tares
Chapter XXXII
None of the Heretics Claim Succession from the Apostles. New Churches Still Apostolic, Because Their Faith is that Which the Apostles Taught and Handed Down. The Heretics Challenged to Show Any Apostolic Credentials
Chapter XXXIII
Present Heresies (Seedlings of the Tares Noted by the Sacred Writers) Already Condemned in Scripture. This Descent of Later Heresy from the Earlier Traced in Several Instances
Chapter XXXIV
No Early Controversy Respecting the Divine Creator; No Second God Introduced at First. Heresies Condemned Alike by the Sentence and the Silence of Holy Scripture
Chapter XXXV
Let Heretics Maintain Their Claims by a Definite and Intelligible Evidence. This the Only Method of Solving Their Questions. Catholics Appeal Always to Evidence Traceable to Apostolic Sources
Chapter XXXVI
The Apostolic Churches the Voice of the Apostles. Let the Heretics Examine Their Apostolic Claims, in Each Case, Indisputable. The Church of Rome Doubly Apostolic; Its Early Eminence and Excellence. Heresy, as Perverting the Truth, is Connected Therewith
Chapter XXXVII
Heretics Not Being Christians, But Rather Perverters of Christ’s Teaching, May Not Claim the Christian Scriptures. These are a Deposit, Committed to and Carefully Kept by the Church
Chapter XXXVIII
Harmony of the Church and the Scriptures. Heretics Have Tampered with the Scriptures, and Mutilated, and Altered Them. Catholics Never Change the Scriptures, Which Always Testify for Them
Chapter XXXIX
What St. Paul Calls Spiritual Wickednesses Displayed by Pagan Authors, and by Heretics, in No Dissimilar Manner. Holy Scripture Especially Liable to Heretical Manipulation. Affords Material for Heresies, Just as Virgil Has Been the Groundwork of Literary Plagiarisms, Different in Purport from the Original
Chapter XL
No Difference in the Spirit of Idolatry and of Heresy. In the Rites of Idolatry, Satan Imitated and Distorted the Divine Institutions of the Older Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures Corrupted by Him in the Perversions of the Various Heretics
Chapter XLI
The Conduct of Heretics: Its Frivolity, Worldliness, and Irregularity. The Notorious Wantonness of Their Women
Chapter XLII
Heretics Work to Pull Down and to Destroy, Not to Edify and Elevate. Heretics Do Not Adhere Even to Their Own Traditions, But Harbour Dissent Even from Their Own Founders
Chapter XLIII
Loose Company Preferred by Heretics. Ungodliness the Effect of Their Teaching the Very Opposite of Catholic Truth, Which Promotes the Fear of God, Both in Religious Ordinances and Practical Life
Chapter XLIV
Heresy Lowers Respect for Christ, and Destroys All Fear of His Great Judgment. The Tendency of Heretical Teaching on This Solemn Article of the Faith. The Present Treatise an Introduction to Certain Other Anti-Heretical Works of Our Author
II
The Five Books Against Marcion
The Five Books Against Marcion
Book I
Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God
Chapter I
Preface. Reason for a New Work. Pontus Lends Its Rough Character to the Heretic Marcion, a Native. His Heresy Characterized in a Brief Invective
Chapter II
Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God
Chapter III
The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme
Chapter IV
Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powers and God’s Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, for Why Stop at Two Gods?
Chapter V
The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground; Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, More Consistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting from Marcion’s Duality
Chapter VI
Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He Really Makes Them Diverse. Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity
Chapter VII
Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous, for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in Its General Terms, Thus Far Treated
Chapter VIII
Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion’s God Fatal to His Pretensions. God is from Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New
Chapter IX
Marcion’s Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown Nor Uncertain. The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplies an Induction, by Which to Judge of the True God
Chapter X
The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation. Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses
Chapter XI
The Evidence for God External to Him; But the External Creation Which Yields This Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are God’s. Marcion’s God, Having Nothing to Show for Himself, No God at All. Marcion’s Scheme Absurdly Defective, Not Furnishing Evidence for His New God’s Existence, Which Should at Least Be Able to Compete with the Full Evidence of the Creator
Chapter XII
Impossibility of Acknowledging God Without This External Evidence Of His Existence. Marcion’s Rejection of Such Evidence for His God Savours of Impudence and Malignity
Chapter XIII
The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witness of God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the Heathen Philosophers, Who Were Apt to Invest the Several Parts of Creation with Divine Attributes
Chapter XIV
All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion’s Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use the Creator’s Works in Instituting His Own Religion
Chapter XV
The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion’s God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System
Chapter XVI
Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works of the Creator, the One God—Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible
Chapter XVII
Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should Rescue Man; He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Proved by His Creation, a Prior Consideration to His Character
Chapter XVIII
Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation
Chapter XIX
Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion’s God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Between the Law and the Gospels
Chapter XX
Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contention of St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul’s Position and Argument. Marcion’s Doctrine Confuted Out of St. Paul’s Teaching, Which Agrees Wholly with the Creator’s Decrees
Chapter XXI
St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God’s Ancient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the Creator, as the God Whom Christ Revealed, Until Marcion’s Heresy
Chapter XXII
God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of Marcion Found Wanting Herein. It Came Not to Man’s Rescue When First Wanted
Chapter XXIII
God’s Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion’s God Defective Here Also; His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied
Chapter XXIV
The Goodness of Marcion’s God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion’s Contempt of the Body Absurd
Chapter XXV
God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness; Other Attributes Belong to Him. Marcion Shows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good and Emotionless God
Chapter XXVI
In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion’s God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike. He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration
Chapter XXVII
Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God
Chapter XXVIII
This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right, the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Regeneration, No Gift of the Spirit
Chapter XXIX
Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and Carefully Discriminates Between Marcion’s Doctrine and His Own Montanism
Book II
Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God
Chapter I
The Methods of Marcion’s Argument Incorrect and Absurd. The Proper Course of the Argument
Chapter II
The True Doctrine of God the Creator. The Heretics Pretended to a Knowledge of the Divine Being, Opposed to and Subversive of Revelation. God’s Nature and Ways Past Human Discovery. Adam’s Heresy
Chapter III
God Known by His Works. His Goodness Shown in His Creative Energy; But Everlasting in Its Nature; Inherent in God, Previous to All Exhibition of It. The First Stage of This Goodness Prior to Man
Chapter IV
The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual as Well as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man’s Free-Will
Chapter V
Marcion’s Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man’s Fall Showed Failure in God. The Perfection of Man’s Being Lay in His Liberty, Which God Purposely Bestowed on Him. The Fall Imputable to Man’s Own Choice
Chapter VI
This Liberty Vindicated in Respect of Its Original Creation; Suitable Also for Exhibiting the Goodness and the Purpose of God. Reward and Punishment Impossible If Man Were Good or Evil Through Necessity and Not Choice
Chapter VII
If God Had Anyhow Checked Man’s Liberty, Marcion Would Have Been Ready with Another and Opposite Cavil. Man’s Fall Foreseen by God. Provision Made for It Remedially and Consistently with His Truth and Goodness
Chapter VIII
Man, Endued with Liberty, Superior to the Angels, Overcomes Even the Angel Which Lured Him to His Fall, When Repentant and Resuming Obedience to God
Chapter IX
Another Cavil Answered, I.e., the Fall Imputable to God, Because Man’s Soul is a Portion of the Spiritual Essence of the Creator. The Divine Afflatus Not in Fault in the Sin of Man, But the Human Will Which Was Additional to It
Chapter X
Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creature of God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God’s Work. The Devilish Nature Superadded by Wilfulness. In Man’s Recovery the Devil is Vanquished in a Conflict on His Own Ground
Chapter XI
If, After Man’s Sin, God Exercised His Attribute of Justice and Judgment, This Was Compatible with His Goodness, and Enhances the True Idea of the Perfection of God’s Character
Chapter XII
The Attributes of Goodness and Justice Should Not Be Separated. They are Compatible in the True God. The Function of Justice in the Divine Being Described
Chapter XIII
Further Description of the Divine Justice; Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulated the Divine Goodness. God’s Claims on Our Love and Our Fear Reconciled
Chapter XIV
Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is the Author, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and Included in His Justice
Chapter XV
The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial
Chapter XVI
To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities, Compatible with Justice. If Human Passions are Predicated of God, They Must Not Be Measured on the Scale of Human Imperfection
Chapter XVII
Trace God’s Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness
Chapter XVIII
Some of God’s Laws Defended as Good, Which the Marcionites Impeached, Such as the Lex Talionis. Useful Purposes in a Social and Moral Point of View of This, and Sundry Other Enactments
Chapter XIX
The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God. The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness. Many Beautiful Passages from Them Quoted in Illustration of This Attribute
Chapter XX
The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil the Egyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter
Chapter XXI
The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days’ Procession Around Jericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation
Chapter XXII
The Brazen Serpent and the Golden Cherubim Were Not Violations of the Second Commandment. Their Meaning
Chapter XXIII
God’s Purposes in Election and Rejection of the Same Men, Such as King Saul, Explained, in Answer to the Marcionite Cavil
Chapter XXIV
Instances of God’s Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated
Chapter XXV
God’s Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, Admirably Explained and Defended
Chapter XXVI
The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God’s Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ
Chapter XXVII
Other Objections Considered. God’s Condescension in the Incarnation. Nothing Derogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained by the Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils
Chapter XXVIII
The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God
Chapter XXIX
Marcion’s Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted, Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True God
Book III
Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world; to have been predicted by the prophets; to have taken human flesh like our own, by a real incarnation
Chapter I
Introductory; A Brief Statement of the Preceding Argument in Connection with the Subject of This Book
Chapter II
Why Christ’s Coming Should Be Previously Announced
Chapter III
Miracles Alone, Without Prophecy, an Insufficient Evidence of Christ’s Mission
Chapter IV
Marcion’s Christ Not the Subject of Prophecy. The Absurd Consequences of This Theory of the Heretic
Chapter V
Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation
Chapter VI
Community in Certain Points of Marcionite and Jewish Error. Prophecies of Christ’s Rejection Examined
Chapter VII
Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the Other Majestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ
Chapter VIII
Absurdity of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions; Reality of Christ’s Incarnation
Chapter IX
Refutation of Marcion’s Objections Derived from the Cases of the Angels, and the Pre-Incarnate Manifestations of the Son of God
Chapter X
The Truly Incarnate State More Worthy of God Than Marcion’s Fantastic Flesh
Chapter XI
Christ Was Truly Born; Marcion’s Absurd Cavil in Defence of a Putative Nativity
Chapter XII
Isaiah’s Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name
Chapter XIII
Isaiah’s Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ’s Mother a Sign. Other Prophecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names in Sundry Passages of the Prophets
Chapter XIV
Figurative Style of Certain Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms. Military Metaphors Applied to Christ
Chapter XV
The Title Christ Suitable as a Name of the Creator’s Son, But Unsuited to Marcion’s Christ
Chapter XVI
The Sacred Name Jesus Most Suited to the Christ of the Creator. Joshua a Type of Him
Chapter XVII
Prophecies in Isaiah and the Psalms Respecting Christ’s Humiliation
Chapter XVIII
Types of the Death of Christ. Isaac; Joseph; Jacob Against Simeon and Levi; Moses Praying Against Amalek; The Brazen Serpent
Chapter XIX
Prophecies of the Death of Christ
Chapter XX
The Subsequent Influence of Christ’s Death in the World Predicted. The Sure Mercies of David. What These are
Chapter XXI
The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold
Chapter XXII
The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel, Foretold
Chapter XXIII
The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ, Foretold
Chapter XXIV
Christ’s Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints
Book IV
In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke’s Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian’s Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.” It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man
Chapter I
Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion’s Own Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments. These Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them
Chapter II
St. Luke’s Gospel, Selected by Marcion as His Authority, and Mutilated by Him. The Other Gospels Equally Authoritative. Marcion’s Terms of Discussion, However, Accepted, and Grappled with on the Footing of St. Luke’s Gospel Alone
Chapter III
Marcion Insinuated the Untrustworthiness of Certain Apostles Whom St. Paul Rebuked. The Rebuke Shows that It Cannot Be Regarded as Derogating from Their Authority. The Apostolic Gospels Perfectly Authentic
Chapter IV
Each Side Claims to Possess the True Gospel. Antiquity the Criterion of Truth in Such a Matter. Marcion’s Pretensions as an Amender of the Gospel
Chapter V
By the Rule of Antiquity, the Catholic Gospels are Found to Be True, Including the Real St. Luke’s. Marcion’s Only a Mutilated Edition. The Heretic’s Weakness and Inconsistency in Ignoring the Other Gospels
Chapter VI
Marcion’s Object in Adulterating the Gospel. No Difference Between the Christ of the Creator and the Christ of the Gospel. No Rival Christ Admissible. The Connection of the True Christ with the Dispensation of the Old Testament Asserted
Chapter VII
Marcion Rejected the Preceding Portion of St. Luke’s Gospel. Therefore This Review Opens with an Examination of the Case of the Evil Spirit in the Synagogue of Capernaum. He Whom the Demon Acknowledged Was the Creator’s Christ
Chapter VIII
Other Proofs from the Same Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, and Was Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of God, Was the Creator’s Christ. As Occasion Offers, the Docetic Errors of Marcion are Exposed
Chapter IX
Out of St. Luke’s Fifth Chapter are Found Proofs of Christ’s Belonging to the Creator, E.g. In the Call of Fishermen to the Apostolic Office, and in the Cleansing of the Leper. Christ Compared with the Prophet Elisha
Chapter X
Further Proofs of the Same Truth in the Same Chapter, from the Healing of the Paralytic, and from the Designation Son of Man Which Jesus Gives Himself. Tertullian Sustains His Argument by Several Quotations from the Prophets
Chapter XI
The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as the Bridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ with the Creator
Chapter XII
Christ’s Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from Pharisaic Neglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples Who Plucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath
Chapter XIII
Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus—Such as His Ascent to Praying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon’s Name to Peter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him
Chapter XIV
Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles the Creator’s Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore the Conclusion that Jesus is the Creator’s Christ. The Beatitudes
Chapter XV
Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator’s Disposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This
Chapter XVI
The Precept of Loving One’s Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator’s Scriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ’s Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses Admirably Explained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaim and Enforce in Behalf of the Creator. Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained
Chapter XVII
Concerning Loans. Prohibition of Usury and the Usurious Spirit. The Law Preparatory to the Gospel in Its Provisions; So in the Present Instance. On Reprisals. Christ’s Teaching Throughout Proves Him to Be Sent by the Creator
Chapter XVIII
Concerning the Centurion’s Faith. The Raising of the Widow’s Son. John Baptist, and His Message to Christ; And the Woman Who Was a Sinner. Proofs Extracted from All of the Relation of Christ to the Creator
Chapter XIX
The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ’s Teaching by Parables. The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ’s Remark, When Told of His Mother and His Brethren. Explanation of Christ’s Apparent Rejection Them
Chapter XX
Comparison of Christ’s Power Over Winds and Waves with Moses’ Command of the Waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Christ’s Power Over Unclean Spirits. The Case of the Legion. The Cure of the Issue of Blood. The Mosaic Uncleanness on This Point Explained
Chapter XXI
Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown from Several Incidents in the Old Testament, Compared with St. Luke’s Narrative of the Mission of the Disciples. The Feeding of the Multitude. The Confession of St. Peter. Being Ashamed of Christ. This Shame is Only Possible of the True Christ. Marcionite Pretensions Absurd
Chapter XXII
The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent in Associating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses and Elijah. St. Peter’s Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle
Chapter XXIII
Impossible that Marcion’s Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. Such Loving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for the Other. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ in Samaria
Chapter XXIV
On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ’s Charge to Them. Precedents Drawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion’s Christ Could Have Given the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions
Chapter XXV
Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed from the Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke’s Chap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator’s Christ
Chapter XXVI
From St. Luke’s Eleventh Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from the Creator. The Lord’s Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ’s Discourse on Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd
Chapter XXVII
Christ’s Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign. His Censure of Their Love of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scripture Abounds with Admonitions of a Similar Purport. Proofs of His Mission from the Creator
Chapter XXVIII
Examples from the Old Testament, Balaam, Moses, and Hezekiah, to Show How Completely the Instruction and Conduct of Christ Are in Keeping with the Will and Purpose of the Creator
Chapter XXIX
Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ’s Teaching in the Rest of This Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, in His Judicial Capacity, Show Him to Have Come from the Creator. Incidental Rebukes of Marcion’s Doctrine of Celibacy, and of His Altering of the Text of the Gospel
Chapter XXX
Parables of the Mustard-Seed, and of the Leaven. Transition to the Solemn Exclusion Which Will Ensue When the Master of the House Has Shut the Door. This Judicial Exclusion Will Be Administered by Christ, Who is Shown Thereby to Possess the Attribute of the Creator
Chapter XXXI
Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator’s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion’s Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation
Chapter XXXII
A Sort of Sorites, as the Logicians Call It, to Show that the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Drachma Have No Suitable Application to the Christ of Marcion
Chapter XXXIII
The Marcionite Interpretation of God and Mammon Refuted. The Prophets Justify Christ’s Admonition Against Covetousness and Pride. John Baptist the Link Between the Old and the New Dispensations of the Creator. So Said Christ—But So Also Had Isaiah Said Long Before. One Only God, the Creator, by His Own Will Changed the Dispensations. No New God Had a Hand in the Change
Chapter XXXIV
Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptist and Herod. Marcion’s Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in the Parable of the Rich Man and the Poor Man in Hades Confuted. The Creator’s Appointment Manifested in Both States
Chapter XXXV
The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted in Contradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old Testament Analogies. The Kingdom of God Within You; This Teaching Similar to that of Moses. Christ, the Stone Rejected by the Builders. Indications of Severity in the Coming of Christ. Proofs that He is Not the Impassible Being Marcion Imagined
Chapter XXXVI
The Parables of the Importunate Widow, and of the Pharisee and the Publican. Christ’s Answer to the Rich Ruler, the Cure of the Blind Man. His Salutation—Son of David. All Proofs of Christ’s Relation to the Creator, Marcion’s Antithesis Between David and Christ Confuted
Chapter XXXVII
Christ and Zacchaeus. The Salvation of the Body as Denied by Marcion. The Parable of the Ten Servants Entrusted with Ten Pounds. Christ a Judge, Who is to Administer the Will of the Austere Man, I.e. The Creator
Chapter XXXVIII
Christ’s Refutations of the Pharisees. Rendering Dues to Caesar and to God. Next of the Sadducees, Respecting Marriage in the Resurrection. These Prove Him Not to Be Marcion’s But the Creator’s Christ. Marcion’s Tamperings in Order to Make Room for His Second God, Exposed and Confuted
Chapter XXXIX
Concerning Those Who Come in the Name of Christ. The Terrible Signs of His Coming. He Whose Coming is So Grandly Described Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, is None Other Than the Christ of the Creator. This Proof Enhanced by the Parable of the Fig-Tree and All the Trees. Parallel Passages of Prophecy
Chapter XL
How the Steps in the Passion of the Saviour Were Predetermined in Prophecy. The Passover. The Treachery of Judas. The Institution of the Lord’s Supper. The Docetic Error of Marcion Confuted by the Body and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
Chapter XLI
The Woe Pronounced on the Traitor a Judicial Act, Which Disproves Christ to Be Such as Marcion Would Have Him to Be. Christ’s Conduct Before the Council Explained. Christ Even Then Directs the Minds of His Judges to the Prophetic Evidences of His Own Mission. The Moral Responsibility of These Men Asserted
Chapter XLII
Other Incidents of the Passion Minutely Compared with Prophecy. Pilate and Herod. Barabbas Preferred to Jesus. Details of the Crucifixion. The Earthquake and the Mid-Day Darkness. All Wonderfully Foretold in the Scriptures of the Creator. Christ’s Giving Up the Ghost No Evidence of Marcion’s Docetic Opinions. In His Sepulture There is a Refutation Thereof
Chapter XLIII
Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion’s Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point
Book V
Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul’s epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke’s gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture
Chapter I
Introductory. The Apostle Paul Himself Not the Preacher of a New God. Called by Jesus Christ, Although After the Other Apostles, His Mission Was from the Creator. States How. The Argument, as in the Case of the Gospel, Confining Proofs to Such Portions of St. Paul’s Writings as Marcion Allowed
Chapter II
On the Epistle to the Galatians. The Abolition of the Ordinances of the Mosaic Law No Proof of Another God. The Divine Lawgiver, the Creator Himself, Was the Abrogator. The Apostle’s Doctrine in the First Chapter Shown to Accord with the Teaching of the Old Testament. The Acts of the Apostles Shown to Be Genuine Against Marcion. This Book Agrees with the Pauline Epistles
Chapter III
St. Paul Quite in Accordance with St. Peter and Other Apostles of the Circumcision. His Censure of St. Peter Explained, and Rescued from Marcion’s Misapplication. The Strong Protests of This Epistle Against Judaizers. Yet Its Teaching is Shown to Be in Keeping with the Law and the Prophets. Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Writings Censured
Chapter IV
Another Instance of Marcion’s Tampering with St. Paul’s Text. The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the Creator Himself. Marcion’s Tricks About Abraham’s Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountain of the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion’s Docetism Refuted
Chapter V
The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shown to Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed by the Creator. Marcion Only Perpetuates the Offence and Foolishness of Christ’s Cross by His Impious Severance of the Gospel from the Creator. Analogies Between the Law and the Gospel in the Matter of Weak Things, and Foolish Things and Base Things
Chapter VI
The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God’s Hiding of Himself, and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion’s God Such a Concealment and Manifestation Impossible. God’s Predestination. No Such Prior System of Intention Possible to a God Previously Unknown as Was Marcion’s. The Powers of the World Which Crucified Christ. St. Paul, as a Wise Master-Builder, Associated with Prophecy. Sundry Injunctions of the Apostle Parallel with the Teaching of the Old Testament
Chapter VII
St. Paul’s Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ Our Passover—A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of the Ancient Dispensation. Christ’s True Corporeity. Married and Unmarried States. Meaning of the Time is Short. In His Exhortations and Doctrine, the Apostle Wholly Teaches According to the Mind and Purposes of the God of the Old Testament. Prohibition of Meats and Drinks Withdrawn by the Creator
Chapter VIII
Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man. Spiritual Gifts. The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle and the Prophet Compared. Marcion Challenged to Produce Anything Like These Gifts of the Spirit Foretold in Prophecy in His God
Chapter IX
The Doctrine of the Resurrection. The Body Will Rise Again. Christ’s Judicial Character. Jewish Perversions of Prophecy Exposed and Confuted. Messianic Psalms Vindicated. Jewish and Rationalistic Interpretations on This Point Similar. Jesus—Not Hezekiah or Solomon—The Subject of These Prophecies in the Psalms. None But He is the Christ of the Old and the New Testaments
Chapter X
Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Continued. How are the Dead Raised? and with What Body Do They Come? These Questions Answered in Such a Sense as to Maintain the Truth of the Raised Body, Against Marcion. Christ as the Second Adam Connected with the Creator of the First Man. Let Us Bear the Image of the Heavenly. The Triumph Over Death in Accordance with the Prophets. Hosea and St. Paul Compared
Chapter XI
The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The Creator the Father of Mercies. Shown to Be Such in the Old Testament, and Also in Christ. The Newness of the New Testament. The Veil of Obdurate Blindness Upon Israel, Not Reprehensible on Marcion’s Principles. The Jews Guilty in Rejecting the Christ of the Creator. Satan, the God of This World. The Treasure in Earthen Vessels Explained Against Marcion. The Creator’s Relation to These Vessels, I.e. Our Bodies
Chapter XII
The Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle’s Consolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to Arise Under Anti-Christian Oppression. The Judgment-Seat of Christ—The Idea, Anti-Marcionite. Paradise. Judicial Characteristics of Christ Which are Inconsistent with the Heretical Views About Him; The Apostle’s Sharpness, or Severity, Shows Him to Be a Fit Preacher of the Creator’s Christ
Chapter XIII
The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeak the Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion Particularly Hard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgment at Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peace with God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the Same Hand
Chapter XIV
The Divine Power Shown in Christ’s Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul’s Phrase. Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide Chasm Made in the Epistle by Marcion’s Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle for Their Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given that St. Paul’s God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed, Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator’s Scriptures
Chapter XV
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The Shorter Epistles Pungent in Sense and Very Valuable. St. Paul Upbraids the Jews for the Death First of Their Prophets and Then of Christ. This a Presumption that Both Christ and the Prophets Pertained to the Same God. The Law of Nature, Which is in Fact the Creator’s Discipline, and the Gospel of Christ Both Enjoin Chastity. The Resurrection Provided for in the Old Testament by Christ. Man’s Compound Nature
Chapter XVI
The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. An Absurd Erasure of Marcion; Its Object Transparent. The Final Judgment on the Heathen as Well as the Jews Could Not Be Administered by Marcion’s Christ. The Man of Sin—What? Inconsistency of Marcion’s View. The Antichrist. The Great Events of the Last Apostasy Within the Providence and Intention of the Creator, Whose are All Things from the Beginning. Similarity of the Pauline Precepts with Those of the Creator
Chapter XVII
The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians. Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of the Creation. No Room for Marcion’s Christ Here. Numerous Parallels Between This Epistle and Passages in the Old Testament. The Prince of the Power of the Air, and the God of This World—Who? Creation and Regeneration the Work of One God. How Christ Has Made the Law Obsolete. A Vain Erasure of Marcion’s. The Apostles as Well as the Prophets from the Creator
Chapter XVIII
Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion’s Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressions of the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passages of This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets. All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator
Chapter XIX
The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Application of the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in the Creator’s Ancient Dispensations. What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The Epicurean Character of Marcion’s God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to Christ What the Shadow is to the Substance
Chapter XX
The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ No Argument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul’s Phrases—Form of a Servant, Likeness, and Fashion of a Man—No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as Marcion Alleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain Contrasts Mentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body, and the Change Thereof
Chapter XXI
The Epistle to Philemon. This Epistle Not Mutilated. Marcion’s Inconsistency in Accepting This, and Rejecting Three Other Epistles Addressed to Individuals. Conclusions. Tertullian Vindicates the Symmetry and Deliberate Purpose of His Work Against Marcion
III
Against Hermogenes
Chapter I
The Opinions of Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to Be Heretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy. Some of the Tenets Mentioned
Chapter II
Hermogenes, After a Perverse Induction from Mere Heretical Assumptions, Concludes that God Created All Things Out of Pre-Existing Matter
Chapter III
An Argument of Hermogenes. The Answer: While God is a Title Eternally Applicable to the Divine Being, Lord and Father are Only Relative Appellations, Not Eternally Applicable. An Inconsistency in the Argument of Hermogenes Pointed Out
Chapter IV
Hermogenes Gives Divine Attributes to Matter, and So Makes Two Gods
Chapter V
Hermogenes Coquets with His Own Argument, as If Rather Afraid of It. After Investing Matter with Divine Qualities, He Tries to Make It Somehow Inferior to God
Chapter VI
The Shifts to Which Hermogenes is Reduced, Who Deifies Matter, and Yet is Unwilling to Hold Him Equal with the Divine Creator
Chapter VII
Hermogenes Held to His Theory in Order that Its Absurdity May Be Exposed on His Own Principles
Chapter VIII
On His Own Principles, Hermogenes Makes Matter, on the Whole, Superior to God
Chapter IX
Sundry Inevitable But Intolerable Conclusions from the Principles of Hermogenes
Chapter X
To What Straits Hermogenes Absurdly Reduces the Divine Being. He Does Nothing Short of Making Him the Author of Evil
Chapter XI
Hermogenes Makes Great Efforts to Remove Evil from God to Matter. How He Fails to Do This Consistently with His Own Argument
Chapter XII
The Mode of Controversy Changed. The Premisses of Hermogenes Accepted, in Order to Show into What Confusion They Lead Him
Chapter XIII
Another Ground of Hermogenes that Matter Has Some Good in It. Its Absurdity
Chapter XIV
Tertullian Pushes His Opponent into a Dilemma
Chapter XV
The Truth, that God Made All Things from Nothing, Rescued from the Opponent’s Flounderings
Chapter XVI
A Series of Dilemmas. They Show that Hermogenes Cannot Escape from the Orthodox Conclusion
Chapter XVII
The Truth of God’s Work in Creation. You Cannot Depart in the Least from It, Without Landing Yourself in an Absurdity
Chapter XVIII
An Eulogy on the Wisdom and Word of God, by Which God Made All Things of Nothing
Chapter XIX
An Appeal to the History of Creation. True Meaning of the Term Beginning, Which the Heretic Curiously Wrests to an Absurd Sense
Chapter XX
Meaning of the Phrase—In the Beginning. Tertullian Connects It with the Wisdom of God, and Elicits from It the Truth that the Creation Was Not Out of Pre-Existent Matter
Chapter XXI
A Retort of Heresy Answered. That Scripture Should in So Many Words Tell Us that the World Was Made of Nothing is Superfluous
Chapter XXII
This Conclusion Confirmed by the Usage of Holy Scripture in Its History of the Creation. Hermogenes in Danger of the Woe Pronounced Against Adding to Scripture
Chapter XXIII
Hermogenes Pursued to Another Passage of Scripture. The Absurdity of His Interpretation Exposed
Chapter XXIV
Earth Does Not Mean Matter as Hermogenes Would Have It
Chapter XXV
The Assumption that There are Two Earths Mentioned in the History of the Creation, Refuted
Chapter XXVI
The Method Observed in the History of the Creation, in Reply to the Perverse Interpretation of Hermogenes
Chapter XXVII
Some Hair-Splitting Use of Words in Which His Opponent Had Indulged
Chapter XXVIII
A Curious Inconsistency in Hermogenes Exposed. Certain Expressions in The History of Creation Vindicated in The True Sense
Chapter XXIX
The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated
Chapter XXX
Another Passage in the Sacred History of the Creation, Released from the Mishandling of Hermogenes
Chapter XXXI
A Further Vindication of the Scripture Narrative of the Creation, Against a Futile View of Hermogenes
Chapter XXXII
The Account of the Creation in Genesis a General One, Corroborated, However, by Many Other Passages of the Old Testament, Which Give Account of Specific Creations. Further Cavillings Confuted
Chapter XXXIII
Statement of the True Doctrine Concerning Matter. Its Relation to God’s Creation of the World
Chapter XXXIV
A Presumption that All Things Were Created by God Out of Nothing Afforded by the Ultimate Reduction of All Things to Nothing. Scriptures Proving This Reduction Vindicated from Hermogenes’ Charge of Being Merely Figurative
Chapter XXXV
Contradictory Propositions Advanced by Hermogenes Respecting Matter and Its Qualities
Chapter XXXVI
Other Absurd Theories Respecting Matter and Its Incidents Exposed in an Ironical Strain. Motion in Matter. Hermogenes’ Conceits Respecting It
Chapter XXXVII
Ironical Dilemmas Respecting Matter, and Sundry Moral Qualities Fancifully Attributed to It
Chapter XXXIII
Other Speculations of Hermogenes, About Matter and Some of Its Adjuncts, Shown to Be Absurd. For Instance, Its Alleged Infinity
Chapter XXXIX
These Latter Speculations Shown to Be Contradictory to the First Principles Respecting Matter, Formerly Laid Down by Hermogenes
Chapter XL
Shapeless Matter an Incongruous Origin for God’s Beautiful Cosmos. Hermogenes Does Not Mend His Argument by Supposing that Only a Portion of Matter Was Used in the Creation
Chapter XLI
Sundry Quotations from Hermogenes. Now Uncertain and Vague are His Speculations Respecting Motion in Matter, and the Material Qualities of Good and Evil
Chapter XLII
Further Exposure of Inconsistencies in the Opinions of Hermogenes Respecting the Divine Qualities of Matter
Chapter XLIII
Other Discrepancies Exposed and Refuted Respecting the Evil in Matter Being Changed to Good
Chapter XLIV
Curious Views Respecting God’s Method of Working with Matter Exposed. Discrepancies in the Heretic’s Opinion About God’s Local Relation to Matter
Chapter XLV
Conclusion. Contrast Between the Statements of Hermogenes and the Testimony of Holy Scripture Respecting the Creation. Creation Out of Nothing, Not Out of Matter
IV
Against the Valentinians
Chapter I
Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old Eleusinian Mysteries. Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error and Sin to Proclamation of Truth and Virtue
Chapter II
These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures
Chapter III
The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity. Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdities of the Valentinian System is to Destroy It
Chapter IV
The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Respect to the Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School
Chapter V
Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides
Chapter VI
Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity. Not to Discuss the Heresy But Only to Expose It. This with the Raillery Which Its Absurdity Merits
Chapter VII
The First Eight Emanations, or AEons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded
Chapter VIII
The Names and Descent of Other AEons; First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pleroma. But Why Be So Capricious as to Stop at Thirty?
Chapter IX
Other Capricious Features in the System. The AEons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power
Chapter X
Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus. Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected from the Pleroma, But Only Her Enthymesis
Chapter XI
The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the Knowledge of God Ably Exposed
Chapter XII
The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous Irony
Chapter XIII
First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated. Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like a Play Outside the Curtain
Chapter XIV
The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos’ Hostility to Her. Her Continued Suffering
Chapter XV
Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth. The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile
Chapter XVI
Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, Who Out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities Arranges Matter, Separating Its Evil from the Better Qualities
Chapter XVII
Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three Natures
Chapter XVIII
Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge, Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe
Chapter XIX
Palpable Absurdities and Contradictions in the System Respecting Achamoth and the Demiurge
Chapter XX
The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation
Chapter XXI
The Vanity as Well as Ignorance of the Demiurge. Absurd Results from So Imperfect a Condition
Chapter XXII
Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the Demiurge, Although His Work
Chapter XXIII
The Relative Positions of the Pleroma. The Region of Achamoth, and the Creation of the Demiurge. The Addition of Fire to the Various Elements and Bodies of Nature
Chapter XXIV
The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance
Chapter XXV
An Extravagant Way of Accounting for the Communication of the Spiritual Nature to Man. It Was Furtively Managed by Achamoth, Through the Unconscious Agency of Her Son
Chapter XXVI
The Three Several Natures—The Material, the Animal, and the Spiritual, and Their Several Destinations. The Strange Valentinian Opinion About the Structure of Soter’s Nature
Chapter XXVII
The Christ of the Demiurge, Sent into the World by the Virgin. Not of Her. He Found in Her, Not a Mother, But Only a Passage or Channel. Jesus Descended Upon Christ, at His Baptism, Like a Dove; But, Being Incapable of Suffering, He Left Christ to Die on the Cross Alone
Chapter XXVIII
The Demiurge Cured of His Ignorance by the Saviour’s Advent, from Whom He Hears of the Great Future in Store for Himself
Chapter XXIX
The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth
Chapter XXX
The Lax and Dangerous Views of This Sect Respecting Good Works. That These are Unnecessary to the Spiritual Man
Chapter XXXI
At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the AEons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony on the Subject
Chapter XXXII
Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doctrine
Chapter XXXIII
These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of Ptolemy, a Disciple of Valentinus
Chapter XXXIV
Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the Deity, Characteristic Raillery
Chapter XXXV
Yet More Discrepancies. Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an Object of Dispute; Now His Rank Comes in Question. Absurd Substitutes for Bythus Criticised by Tertullian
Chapter XXXVI
Less Reprehensible Theories in the Heresy. Bad is the Best of Valentinianism
Chapter XXXVII
Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the AEons and Creation, Stated and Condemned
Chapter XXXVIII
Diversity in the Opinions of Secundus, as Compared with the General Doctrine of Valentinus
Chapter XXXIX
Their Diversity of Sentiment Affects the Very Central Doctrine of Christianity, Even the Person and Character of the Lord Jesus. This Diversity Vitiates Every Gnostic School
V
On the Flesh of Christ
Chapter I
The General Purport of This Work. The Heretics, Marcion, Apelles, and Valentinus, Wishing to Impugn the Doctrine of the Resurrection, Deprive Christ of All Capacity for Such a Change by Denying His Flesh
Chapter II
Marcion, Who Would Blot Out the Record of Christ’s Nativity, is Rebuked for So Startling a Heresy
Chapter III
Christ’s Nativity Both Possible and Becoming. The Heretical Opinion of Christ’s Apparent Flesh Deceptive and Dishonourable to God, Even on Marcion’s Principles
Chapter IV
God’s Honour in the Incarnation of His Son Vindicated. Marcion’s Disparagement of Human Flesh Inconsistent as Well as Impious. Christ Has Cleansed the Flesh. The Foolishness of God is Most Wise
Chapter V
Christ Truly Lived and Died in Human Flesh. Incidents of His Human Life on Earth, and Refutation of Marcion’s Docetic Parody of the Same
Chapter VI
The Doctrine of Apelles Refuted, that Christ’s Body Was of Sidereal Substance, Not Born. Nativity and Mortality are Correlative Circumstances, and in Christ’s Case His Death Proves His Birth
Chapter VII
Explanation of the Lord’s Question About His Mother and His Brethren. Answer to the Cavils of Apelles and Marcion, Who Support Their Denial of Christ’s Nativity by It
Chapter VIII
Apelles and His Followers, Displeased with Our Earthly Bodies, Attributed to Christ a Body of a Purer Sort. How Christ Was Heavenly Even in His Earthly Flesh
Chapter IX
Christ’s Flesh Perfectly Natural, Like Our Own. None of the Supernatural Features Which the Heretics Ascribed to It Discoverable, on a Careful View
Chapter X
Another Class of Heretics Refuted. They Alleged that Christ’s Flesh Was of a Finer Texture, Animalis, Composed of Soul
Chapter XI
The Opposite Extravagance Exposed. That is Christ with a Soul Composed of Flesh—Corporeal, Though Invisible. Christ’s Soul, Like Ours, Distinct from Flesh, Though Clothed in It
Chapter XII
The True Functions of the Soul. Christ Assumed It in His Perfect Human Nature, Not to Reveal and Explain It, But to Save It. Its Resurrection with the Body Assured by Christ
Chapter XIII
Christ’s Human Nature. The Flesh and the Soul Both Fully and Unconfusedly Contained in It
Chapter XIV
Christ Took Not on Him an Angelic Nature, But the Human. It Was Men, Not Angels, Whom He Came to Save
Chapter XV
The Valentinian Figment of Christ’s Flesh Being of a Spiritual Nature, Examined and Refuted Out of Scripture
Chapter XVI
Christ’s Flesh in Nature, the Same as Ours, Only Sinless. The Difference Between Carnem Peccati and Peccatum Carnis: It is the Latter Which Christ Abolished. The Flesh of the First Adam, No Less Than that of the Second Adam, Not Received from Human Seed, Although as Entirely Human as Our Own, Which is Derived from It
Chapter XVII
The Similarity of Circumstances Between the First and the Second Adam, as to the Derivation of Their Flesh. An Analogy Also Pleasantly Traced Between Eve and the Virgin Mary
Chapter XVIII
The Mystery of the Assumption of Our Perfect Human Nature by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is Here Called, as Often Elsewhere, the Spirit
Chapter XIX
Christ, as to His Divine Nature, as the Word of God, Became Flesh, Not by Carnal Conception, Nor by the Will of the Flesh and of Man, But by the Will of God. Christ’s Divine Nature, of Its Own Accord, Descended into the Virgin’s Womb
Chapter XX
Christ Born of a Virgin, of Her Substance. The Physiological Facts of His Real and Exact Birth of a Human Mother, as Suggested by Certain Passages of Scripture
Chapter XXI
The Word of God Did Not Become Flesh Except in the Virgin’s Womb and of Her Substance. Through His Mother He is Descended from Her Great Ancestor David. He is Described Both in the Old and in the New Testament as “The Fruit of David’s Loins.”
Chapter XXII
Holy Scripture in the New Testament, Even in Its Very First Verse, Testifies to Christ’s True Flesh. In Virtue of Which He is Incorporated in the Human Stock of David, and Abraham, and Adam
Chapter XXIII
Simeon’s “Sign that Should Be Contradicted,” Applied to the Heretical Gainsaying of the True Birth of Christ. One of the Heretics’ Paradoxes Turned in Support of Catholic Truth
Chapter XXIV
Divine Strictures on Various Heretics Descried in Various Passages of Prophetical Scripture. Those Who Assail the True Doctrine of the One Lord Jesus Christ, Both God and Man, Thus Condemned
Chapter XXV
Conclusion. This Treatise Forms a Preface to the Other Work, “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” Proving the Reality of the Flesh Which Was Truly Born, and Died, and Rose Again
VI
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter I
The Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body Brought to Light by the Gospel. The Faintest Glimpses of Something Like It Occasionally Met with in Heathenism. Inconsistencies of Pagan Teaching
Chapter II
The Jewish Sadducees a Link Between the Pagan Philosophers and the Heretics on This Doctrine. Its Fundamental Importance Asserted. The Soul Fares Better Than the Body, in Heretical Estimation, as to Its Future State. Its Extinction, However, Was Held by One Lucan
Chapter III
Some Truths Held Even by the Heathen. They Were, However, More Often Wrong Both in Religious Opinions and in Moral Practice. The Heathen Not to Be Followed in Their Ignorance of the Christian Mystery. The Heretics Perversely Prone to Follow Them
Chapter IV
Heathens and Heretics Alike in Their Vilification of the Flesh and Its Functions, the Ordinary Cavils Against the Final Restitution of So Weak and Ignoble a Substance
Chapter V
Some Considerations in Reply Eulogistic of the Flesh. It Was Created by God. The Body of Man Was, in Fact, Previous to His Soul
Chapter VI
Not the Lowliness of the Material, But the Dignity and Skill of the Maker, Must Be Remembered, in Gauging the Excellence of the Flesh. Christ Partook of Our Flesh
Chapter VII
The Earthy Material of Which Flesh is Created Wonderfully Improved by God’s Manipulation. By the Addition of the Soul in Man’s Constitution It Became the Chief Work in the Creation
Chapter VIII
Christianity, by Its Provision for the Flesh, Has Put on It the Greatest Honour. The Privileges of Our Religion in Closest Connection with Our Flesh. Which Also Bears a Large Share in the Duties and Sacrifices of Religion
Chapter IX
God’s Love for the Flesh of Man, as Developed in the Grace of Christ Towards It. The Flesh the Best Means of Displaying the Bounty and Power of God
Chapter X
Holy Scripture Magnifies the Flesh, as to Its Nature and Its Prospects
Chapter XI
The Power of God Fully Competent to Effect the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XII
Some Analogies in Nature Which Corroborate the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XIII
From Our Author’s View of a Verse in the Ninety-Second Psalm, the Phoenix is Made a Symbol of the Resurrection of Our Bodies
Chapter XIV
A Sufficient Cause for the Resurrection of the Flesh Occurs in the Future Judgment of Man. It Will Take Cognisance of the Works of the Body No Less Than of the Soul
Chapter XV
As the Flesh is a Partaker with the Soul in All Human Conduct, So Will It Be in the Recompense of Eternity
Chapter XVI
The Heretics Called the Flesh “The Vessel of the Soul,” In Order to Destroy the Responsibility of the Body. Their Cavil Turns Upon Themselves and Shows the Flesh to Be a Sharer in Human Actions
Chapter XVII
The Flesh Will Be Associated with the Soul in Enduring the Penal Sentences of the Final Judgment
Chapter XVIII
Scripture Phrases and Passages Clearly Assert “The Resurrection of the Dead.” The Force of This Very Phrase Explained as Indicating the Prominent Place of the Flesh in the General Resurrection
Chapter XIX
The Sophistical Sense Put by Heretics on the Phrase “Resurrection of the Dead,” As If It Meant the Moral Change of a New Life
Chapter XX
Figurative Senses Have Their Foundation in Literal Fact. Besides, the Allegorical Style is by No Means the Only One Found in the Prophetic Scriptures, as Alleged by the Heretics
Chapter XXI
No Mere Metaphor in the Phrase Resurrection of the Dead. In Proportion to the Importance of Eternal Truths, is the Clearness of Their Scriptural Enunciation
Chapter XXII
The Scriptures Forbid Our Supposing Either that the Resurrection is Already Past, or that It Takes Place Immediately at Death. Our Hopes and Prayers Point to the Last Great Day as the Period of Its Accomplishment
Chapter XXIII
Sundry Passages of St. Paul, Which Speak of a Spiritual Resurrection, Compatible with the Future Resurrection of the Body, Which is Even Assumed in Them
Chapter XXIV
Other Passages Quoted from St. Paul, Which Categorically Assert the Resurrection of the Flesh at the Final Judgment
Chapter XXV
St. John, in the Apocalypse, Equally Explicit in Asserting the Same Great Doctrine
Chapter XXVI
Even the Metaphorical Descriptions of This Subject in the Scriptures Point to the Bodily Resurrection, the Only Sense Which Secures Their Consistency and Dignity
Chapter XXVII
Certain Metaphorical Terms Explained of the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XXVIII
Prophetic Things and Actions, as Well as Words, Attest This Great Doctrine
Chapter XXIX
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Dry Bones Quoted
Chapter XXX
This Vision Interpreted by Tertullian of the Resurrection of the Bodies of the Dead. A Chronological Error of Our Author, Who Supposes that Ezekiel in His Ch. XXXI. Prophesied Before the Captivity
Chapter XXXI
Other Passages Out of the Prophets Applied to the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XXXII
Even Unburied Bodies Will Be Raised Again. Whatever Befalls Them God Will Restore Them Again. Jonah’s Case Quoted in Illustration of God’s Power
Chapter XXXIII
So Much for the Prophetic Scriptures. In the Gospels, Christ’s Parables, as Explained by Himself, Have a Clear Reference to the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XXXIV
Christ Plainly Testifies to the Resurrection of the Entire Man. Not in His Soul Only, Without the Body
Chapter XXXV
Explanation of What is Meant by the Body, Which is to Be Raised Again. Not the Corporeality of the Soul
Chapter XXXVI
Christ’s Refutation of the Sadducees, and Affirmation of Catholic Doctrine
Chapter XXXVII
Christ’s Assertion About the Unprofitableness of the Flesh Explained Consistently with Our Doctrine
Chapter XXXVIII
Christ, by Raising the Dead, Attested in a Practical Way the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapter XXXIX
Additional Evidence Afforded to Us in the Acts of the Apostles
Chapter XL
Sundry Passages of St. Paul Which Attest Our Doctrine Rescued from the Perversions of Heresy
Chapter XLI
The Dissolution of Our Tabernacle Consistent with the Resurrection of Our Bodies
Chapter XLII
Death Changes, Without Destroying, Our Mortal Bodies. Remains of the Giants
Chapter XLIII
No Disparagement of Our Doctrine in St. Paul’s Phrase, Which Calls Our Residence in the Flesh Absence from the Lord
Chapter XLIV
Sundry Other Passages of St. Paul Explained in a Sentence Confirmatory of Our Doctrine
Chapter XLV
The Old Man and the New Man of St. Paul Explained
Chapter XLVI
It is the Works of the Flesh, Not the Substance of the Flesh, Which St. Paul Always Condemns
Chapter XLVII
St. Paul, All Through, Promises Eternal Life to the Body
Chapter XLVIII
Sundry Passages in the Great Chapter of the Resurrection of the Dead Explained in Defence of Our Doctrine
Chapter XLIX
The Same Subject Continued. What Does the Apostle Exclude from the Dead? Certainly Not the Substance of the Flesh
Chapter L
In What Sense Flesh and Blood are Excluded from the Kingdom of God
Chapter LI
The Session of Jesus in His Incarnate Nature at the Right Hand of God a Guarantee of the Resurrection of Our Flesh
Chapter LII
From St. Paul’s Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life
Chapter LIII
Not the Soul, But the Natural Body Which Died, is that Which is to Rise Again. The Resurrection of Lazarus Commented on. Christ’s Resurrection, as the Second Adam, Guarantees Our Own
Chapter LIV
Death Swallowed Up of Life. Meaning of This Phrase in Relation to the Resurrection of the Body
Chapter LV
The Change of a Thing’s Condition is Not the Destruction of Its Substance. The Application of This Principle to Our Subject
Chapter LVI
The Procedure of the Last Judgment, and Its Awards, Only Possible on the Identity of the Risen Body with Our Present Flesh
Chapter LVII
Our Bodies, However Mutilated Before or After Death, Shall Recover Their Perfect Integrity in the Resurrection. Illustration of the Enfranchised Slave
Chapter LVIII
From This Perfection of Our Restored Bodies Will Flow the Consciousness of Undisturbed Joy and Peace
Chapter LIX
Our Flesh in the Resurrection Capable, Without Losing Its Essential Identity, of Bearing the Changed Conditions of Eternal Life, or of Death Eternal
Chapter LX
All the Characteristics of Our Bodies—Sex, Various Limbs, Etc
Will Be Retained, Whatever Change of Functions These May Have, of Which Point, However, We are No Judges. Analogy of the Repaired Ship
Chapter LXI
The Details of Our Bodily Sex, and of the Functions of Our Various Members. Apology for the Necessity Which Heresy Imposes of Hunting Up All Its Unblushing Cavils
Chapter LXII
Our Destined Likeness to the Angels in the Glorious Life of the Resurrection
Chapter LXIII
Conclusion. The Resurrection of the Flesh in Its Absolute Identity and Perfection. Belief of This Had Become Weak. Hopes for Its Refreshing Restoration Under the Influences of the Paraclete
VII
Against Praxeas
Chapter I
Satan’s Wiles Against the Truth. How They Take the Form of the Praxean Heresy. Account of the Publication of This Heresy
Chapter II
The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity and Unity, Sometimes Called the Divine Economy, or Dispensation of the Personal Relations of the Godhead
Chapter III
Sundry Popular Fears and Prejudices. The Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity Rescued from These Misapprehensions
Chapter IV
The Unity of the Godhead and the Supremacy and Sole Government of the Divine Being. The Monarchy Not at All Impaired by the Catholic Doctrine
Chapter V
The Evolution of the Son or Word of God from the Father by a Divine Procession. Illustrated by the Operation of the Human Thought and Consciousness
Chapter VI
The Word of God is Also the Wisdom of God. The Going Forth of Wisdom to Create the Universe, According to the Divine Plan
Chapter VII
The Son by Being Designated Word and Wisdom, (According to the Imperfection of Human Thought and Language) Liable to Be Deemed a Mere Attribute. He is Shown to Be a Personal Being
Chapter VIII
Though the Son or Word of God Emanates from the Father, He is Not, Like the Emanations of Valentinus, Separable from the Father. Nor is the Holy Ghost Separable from Either. Illustrations from Nature
Chapter IX
The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points. Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blessed Trinity
Chapter X
The Very Names of Father and Son Prove the Personal Distinction of the Two. They Cannot Possibly Be Identical, Nor is Their Identity Necessary to Preserve the Divine Monarchy
Chapter XI
The Identity of the Father and the Son, as Praxeas Held It, Shown to Be Full of Perplexity and Absurdity. Many Scriptures Quoted in Proof of the Distinction of the Divine Persons of the Trinity
Chapter XII
Other Quotations from Holy Scripture Adduced in Proof of the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead
Chapter XIII
The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance. There is No Polytheism Here, Since the Unity is Insisted on as a Remedy Against Polytheism
Chapter XIV
The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their Distinctness, Thus Supplied
Chapter XV
New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son’s Visibility Contrasted with the Father’s Invisibility
Chapter XVI
Early Manifestations of the Son of God, as Recorded in the Old Testament; Rehearsals of His Subsequent Incarnation
Chapter XVII
Sundry August Titles, Descriptive of Deity, Applied to the Son, Not, as Praxeas Would Have It, Only to the Father
Chapter XVIII
The Designation of the One God in the Prophetic Scriptures. Intended as a Protest Against Heathen Idolatry, It Does Not Preclude the Correlative Idea of the Son of God. The Son is in the Father
Chapter XIX
The Son in Union with the Father in the Creation of All Things. This Union of the Two in Co-Operation is Not Opposed to the True Unity of God. It is Opposed Only to Praxeas’ Identification Theory
Chapter XX
The Scriptures Relied on by Praxeas to Support His Heresy But Few. They are Mentioned by Tertullian
Chapter XXI
In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a Minute Analysis of St. John’s Gospel, that the Father and Son are Constantly Spoken of as Distinct Persons
Chapter XXII
Sundry Passages of St. John Quoted, to Show the Distinction Between the Father and the Son. Even Praxeas’ Classic Text—I and My Father are One—Shown to Be Against Him
Chapter XXIII
More Passages from the Same Gospel in Proof of the Same Portion of the Catholic Faith. Praxeas’ Taunt of Worshipping Two Gods Repudiated
Chapter XXIV
On St. Philip’s Conversation with Christ. He that Hath Seen Me, Hath Seen the Father. This Text Explained in an Anti-Praxean Sense
Chapter XXV
The Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. He is Distinct from the Father and the Son as to Their Personal Existence. One and Inseparable from Them as to Their Divine Nature. Other Quotations Out of St. John’s Gospel
Chapter XXVI
A Brief Reference to the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Their Agreement with St. John, in Respect to the Distinct Personality of the Father and the Son
Chapter XXVII
The Distinction of the Father and the Son, Thus Established, He Now Proves the Distinction of the Two Natures, Which Were, Without Confusion, United in the Person of the Son. The Subterfuges of Praxeas Thus Exposed
Chapter XXVIII
Christ Not the Father, as Praxeas Said. The Inconsistency of This Opinion, No Less Than Its Absurdity, Exposed. The True Doctrine of Jesus Christ According to St. Paul, Who Agrees with Other Sacred Writers
Chapter XXIX
It Was Christ that Died. The Father is Incapable of Suffering Either Solely or with Another. Blasphemous Conclusions Spring from Praxeas’ Premises
Chapter XXX
How the Son Was Forsaken by the Father Upon the Cross. The True Meaning Thereof Fatal to Praxeas. So Too, the Resurrection of Christ, His Ascension, Session at the Father’s Right Hand, and Mission of the Holy Ghost
Chapter XXXI
Retrograde Character of the Heresy of Praxeas. The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity Constitutes the Great Difference Between Judaism and Christianity
VIII
Scorpiace
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
IX
Appendix. Against all Heresies
Chapter I
Earliest Heretics: Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Nicolaus. [The Work Begins as a Fragment.]
Chapter II
Ophites, Cainites, Sethites
Chapter III
Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion
Chapter IV
Valentinus, Ptolemy and Secundus, Heracleon
Chapter V
Marcus and Colarbasus
Chapter VI
Cerdo, Marcion, Lucan, Apelles
Chapter VII
Tatian, Cataphrygians, Cataproclans, Cataeschinetans
Chapter VIII
Blastus, Two Theodoti, Praxeas
Part Third
I
On Repentance
Chapter I
Of Heathen Repentance
Chapter II
True Repentance a Thing Divine, Originated by God, and Subject to His Laws
Chapter III
Sins May Be Divided into Corporeal and Spiritual. Both Equally Subject, If Not to Human, Yet to Divine Investigation and Punishment
Chapter IV
Repentance Applicable to All the Kinds of Sin. To Be Practised Not Only, Nor Chiefly, for the Good It Brings, But Because God Commands It
Chapter V
Sin Never to Be Returned to After Repentance
Chapter VI
Baptism Not to Be Presumptously Received. It Requires Preceding Repentance, Manifested by Amendment of Life
Chapter VII
Of Repentance, in the Case of Such as Have Lapsed After Baptism
Chapter VIII
Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord’s Willingness to Pardon
Chapter IX
Concerning the Outward Manifestations by Which This Second Repentance is to Be Accompanied
Chapter X
Of Men’s Shrinking from This Second Repentance and Exomologesis, and of the Unreasonableness of Such Shrinking
Chapter XI
Further Strictures on the Same Subject
Chapter XII
Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis
II
On Baptism
Chapter I
Introduction. Origin of the Treatise
Chapter II
The Very Simplicity of God’s Means of Working, a Stumbling-Block to the Carnal Mind
Chapter III
Water Chosen as a Vehicle of Divine Operation and Wherefore. Its Prominence First of All in Creation
Chapter IV
The Primeval Hovering of the Spirit of God Over the Waters Typical of Baptism. The Universal Element of Water Thus Made a Channel of Sanctification. Resemblance Between the Outward Sign and the Inward Grace
Chapter V
Use Made of Water by the Heathen. Type of the Angel at the Pool of Bethsaida
Chapter VI
The Angel the Forerunner of the Holy Spirit. Meaning Contained in the Baptismal Formula
Chapter VII
Of the Unction
Chapter VIII
Of the Imposition of Hands. Types of the Deluge and the Dove
Chapter IX
Types of the Red Sea, and the Water from the Rock
Chapter X
Of John’s Baptism
Chapter XI
Answer to the Objection that “The Lord Did Not Baptize.”
Chapter XII
Of the Necessity of Baptism to Salvation
Chapter XIII
Another Objection: Abraham Pleased God Without Being Baptized. Answer Thereto. Old Things Must Give Place to New, and Baptism is Now a Law
Chapter XIV
Of Paul’s Assertion, that He Had Not Been Sent to Baptize
Chapter XV
Unity of Baptism. Remarks on Heretical And Jewish Baptism
Chapter XVI
Of the Second Baptism—With Blood
Chapter XVII
Of the Power of Conferring Baptism
Chapter XVIII
Of the Persons to Whom, and the Time When, Baptism is to Be Administered
Chapter XIX
Of the Times Most Suitable for Baptism
Chapter XX
Of Preparation For, and Conduct After, the Reception of Baptism
III
On Prayer
Chapter I
General Introduction
Chapter II
The First Clause
Chapter III
The Second Clause
Chapter IV
The Third Clause
Chapter V
The Fourth Clause
Chapter VI
The Fifth Clause
Chapter VII
The Sixth Clause
Chapter VIII
The Seventh or Final Clause
Chapter IX
Recapitulation
Chapter X
We May Superadd Prayers of Our Own to the Lord’s Prayer
Chapter XI
When Praying the Father, You are Not to Be Angry with a Brother
Chapter XII
We Must Be Free Likewise from All Mental Perturbation
Chapter XIII
Of Washing the Hands
Chapter XIV
Apostrophe
Chapter XV
Of Putting Off Cloaks
Chapter XVI
Of Sitting After Prayer
Chapter XVII
Of Elevated Hands
Chapter XVIII
Of the Kiss of Peace
Chapter XIX
Of Stations
Chapter XX
Of Women’s Dress
Chapter XXI
Of Virgins
Chapter XXII
Answer to the Foregoing Arguments
Chapter XXIII
Of Kneeling
Chapter XXIV
Of Place for Prayer
Chapter XXV
Of Time for Prayer
Chapter XXVI
Of the Parting of Brethren
Chapter XXVII
Of Subjoining a Psalm
Chapter XXVIII
Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is
Chapter XXIX
Of the Power of Prayer
IV
Ad Martyras
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
V
Appendix
The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas
Chapter I
Argument
When the Saints Were Apprehended, St. Perpetua Successfully Resisted Her Father’s Pleading, Was Baptized with the Others, Was Thrust into a Filthy Dungeon. Anxious About Her Infant, by a Vision Granted to Her, She Understood that Her Martyrdom Would Take Place Very Shortly
Chapter II
Argument. Perpetua, When Besieged by Her Father, Comforts Him. When Led with Others to the Tribunal, She Avows Herself a Christian, and is Condemned with the Rest to the Wild Beasts. She Prays for Her Brother Dinocrates, Who Was Dead
Chapter III
Argument. Perpetua is Again Tempted by Her Father. Her Third Vision, Wherein She is Led Away to Struggle Against an Egyptian. She Fights, Conquers, and Receives the Reward
Chapter IV
Argument. Saturus, in a Vision, and Perpetua Being Carried by Angels into the Great Light, Behold the Martyrs. Being Brought to the Throne of God, are Received with a Kiss. They Reconcile Optatus the Bishop and Aspasius the Presbyter
Chapter V
Argument. Secundulus Dies in the Prison. Felicitas is Pregnant, But with Many Prayers She Brings Forth in the Eighth Month Without Suffering, the Courage of Perpetua and of Saturus Unbroken
Chapter VI
Argument. From the Prison They are Led Forth with Joy into the Amphitheatre, Especially Perpetua and Felicitas. All Refuse to Put on Profane Garments. They are Scourged, They are Thrown to the Wild Beasts. Saturus Twice is Unhurt. Perpetua and Felicitas are Thrown Down; They are Called Back to the Sanavivarian Gate. Saturus Wounded by a Leopard, Exhorts the Soldier. They Kiss One Another, and are Slain with the Sword
VI
Of Patience
Chapter I
Of Patience Generally; And Tertullian’s Own Unworthiness to Treat of It
Chapter II
God Himself an Example of Patience
Chapter III
Jesus Christ in His Incarnation and Work a More Imitable Example Thereof
Chapter IV
Duty of Imitating Our Master Taught Us by Slaves. Even by Beasts. Obedient Imitation is Founded on Patience
Chapter V
As God is the Author of Patience So the Devil is of Impatience
Chapter VI
Patience Both Antecedent and Subsequent to Faith
Chapter VII
The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts
Chapter VIII
Of Patience Under Personal Violence and Malediction
Chapter IX
Of Patience Under Bereavement
Chapter X
Of Revenge
Chapter XI
Further Reasons for Practising Patience. Its Connection with the Beatitudes
Chapter XII
Certain Other Divine Precepts. The Apostolic Description of Charity. Their Connection with Patience
Chapter XIII
Of Bodily Patience
Chapter XIV
The Power of This Twofold Patience, the Spiritual and the Bodily. Exemplified in the Saints of Old
Chapter XV
General Summary of the Virtues and Effects of Patience
Chapter XVI
The Patience of the Heathen Very Different from Christian Patience. Theirs Doomed to Perdition. Ours Destined to Salvation
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