Chapter VIII.--Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon.
This if you doubt, unravel [8489] the meaning of "what the Spirit saith to the churches." [8490] He imputes to the Ephesians "forsaken love;" [8491] reproaches the Thyatirenes with "fornication," and "eating of things sacrificed to idols;" [8492] accuses the Sardians of "works not full;" [8493] censures the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; [8494] upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches; [8495] and yet gives them all general monitions to repentance--under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant. The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Saith He not, [8496] "He who hath fallen shall rise again, and he who hath been averted shall be converted?" He it is, indeed, who "would have mercy rather than sacrifices." [8497] The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. [8498] Ho! you sinner, be of good cheer! you see where it is that there is joy at your return. What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord's parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner? [8499] There strays, withal, one little ewe of the shepherd's; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled [8500] in straying. [8501] That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. [8502] Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; [8503] no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, [8504] back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked--just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; [8505] but only if you heartily repent--if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's "hired servants"--if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd--if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, "I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Thine." Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy.
[8489] Evolve: perhaps simply ="read."
[8490] Rev. ii. 7, 11, 17, 29; iii. 6, 13, 21.
[8491] Rev. ii. 4.
[8492] Rev. ii. 20.
[8493] Rev. iii. 2.
[8494] Rev. ii. 14, 15.
[8495] Rev. iii. 17.
[8496] Jer. viii. 4 (in LXX.) appears to be the passage meant. The Eng. Ver. is very different.
[8497] Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13. The words in Hosea in the LXX. are, dioti heleos thelo e thusian (al. kai ou thusian).
[8498] Luke xv. 7, 10.
[8499] Luke xv. 8-10.
[8500] Or, "suffered."
[8501] Luke xv. 3-7.
[8502] Luke xv. 11-32.
[8503] Cf. Matt. xxiii. 9; and Eph. iii. 14, 15, in the Greek.
[8504] Publicly enrolled as such in baptism; for Tertullian here is speaking solely of the "second repentance."
[8505] See Luke xv. 29-32.
Chapter IX.--Concerning the Outward Manifestations by Which This Second Repentance is to Be Accompanied.
The narrower, then, the sphere of action of this second and only (remaining) repentance, the more laborious is its probation; in order that it may not be exhibited in the conscience alone, but may likewise be carried out in some (external) act. This act, which is more usually expressed and commonly spoken of under a Greek name, is exomologesis , [8506] whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not indeed as if He were ignorant of them, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is settled, [8507] of confession repentance is born; by repentance God is appeased. And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, [8508] to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; moreover, to know no food and drink but such as is plain,--not for the stomach's sake, to wit, but the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed prayers on fastings, to groan, to weep and make outcries [8509] unto the Lord your [8510] God; to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his [8511] deprecatory supplication (before God). All this exomologesis (does), that it may enhance repentance; may honour God by its fear of the (incurred) danger; may, by itself pronouncing against the sinner, stand in the stead of God's indignation, and by temporal mortification (I will not say frustrate, but) expunge eternal punishments. Therefore, while it abases the man, it raises him; while it covers him with squalor, it renders him more clean; while it accuses, it excuses; while it condemns, it absolves. The less quarter you give yourself, the more (believe me) will God give you.
[8506] Utter confession.
[8507] For the meaning of "satisfaction," see Hooker Eccl. Pol. vi. 5, where several references to the present treatise occur. [Elucidation II.]
[8508] Sordibus.
[8509] Cf. Ps. xxii. 1 (in LXX. xxii. 3), xxxviii. 8 (in the LXX. xxxvii. 9). Cf. Heb. v. 7.
[8510] Tertullian changes here to the second person, unless Oehler's "tuum" be a misprint for "suum."
[8511] "Suæ," which looks as if the "tuum" above should be "suum." [St. James v. 16.]