Chapter XXVI.--Of the Parting of Brethren.
You will not dismiss a brother who has entered your house without prayer.--"Have you seen," says Scripture, "a brother? you have seen your Lord;" [8931] --especially "a stranger," lest perhaps he be "an angel." But again, when received yourself by brethren, you will not make [8932] earthly refreshments prior to heavenly, for your faith will forthwith be judged. Or else how will you--according to the precept [8933] --say, "Peace to this house," unless you exchange mutual peace with them who are in the house?
[8931] I have ventured to turn the first part of the sentence into a question. What "scripture" this may be, no one knows. [It seems to me a clear reference to Matt. xxv. 38, amplified by the 45th verse, in a way not unusual with our author.] Perhaps, in addition to the passages in Gen. xviii. and Heb. xiii. 2, to which the editors naturally refer, Tertullian may allude to such passages as Mark. ix. 37; Matt. xxv. 40, 45. [Christo in pauperibus.]
[8932] I have followed Routh's conjecture, "feceris" for "fecerit," which Oehler does not even notice.
[8933] Luke x. 5.
Chapter XXVII.--Of Subjoining a Psalm.
The more diligent in prayer are wont to subjoin in their prayers the "Hallelujah," [8934] and such kind of psalms, in the closes of which the company respond. And, of course, every institution is excellent which, for the extolling and honouring of God, aims unitedly to bring Him enriched prayer as a choice victim. [8935]
[8934] Perhaps "the great Hallelujah," i.e. the last five psalms.
[8935] [The author seems to have in mind (Hos. xiv. 2) "the calves of our lips."]
Chapter XXVIII.--Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is.
For this is the spiritual victim [8936] which has abolished the pristine sacrifices. "To what purpose," saith He, "(bring ye) me the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full of holocausts of rams, and I desire not the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who hath required these from your hands?" [8937] What, then, God has required the Gospel teaches. "An hour will come," saith He, "when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such." [8938] We are the true adorers and the true priests, [8939] who, praying in spirit, [8940] sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,--a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to [8941] for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, [8942] we ought to escort with the pomp [8943] of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God's altar, [8944] to obtain for us all things from God.
[8936] 1 Pet. ii. 5.
[8937] Isa. i. 11. See the LXX.
[8938] John iv. 23, 24.
[8939] Sacerdotes; comp. de Ex. Cast. c. 7.
[8940] 1 Cor. xiv. 15; Eph. vi. 18.
[8941] Or, "provided."
[8942] "Agape," perhaps "the love-feast."
[8943] Or, "procession."
[8944] Altare.
Chapter XXIX.--Of the Power of Prayer.
For what has God, who exacts it ever denied [8945] to prayer coming from "spirit and truth?" How mighty specimens of its efficacy do we read, and hear, and believe! Old-world prayer, indeed, used to free from fires, [8946] and from beasts, [8947] and from famine; [8948] and yet it had not (then) received its form from Christ. But how far more amply operative is Christian prayer! It does not station the angel of dew in mid-fires, [8949] nor muzzle lions, nor transfer to the hungry the rustics' bread; [8950] it has no delegated grace to avert any sense of suffering; [8951] but it supplies the suffering, and the feeling, and the grieving, with endurance: it amplifies grace by virtue, that faith may know what she obtains from the Lord, understanding what--for God's name's sake--she suffers. But in days gone by, withal prayer used to call down [8952] plagues, scatter the armies of foes, withhold the wholesome influences of the showers. Now, however, the prayer of righteousness averts all God's anger, keeps bivouac on behalf of personal enemies, makes supplication on behalf of persecutors. Is it wonder if it knows how to extort the rains of heaven [8953] --(prayer) which was once able to procure its fires? [8954] Prayer is alone that which vanquishes [8955] God. But Christ has willed that it be operative for no evil: He had conferred on it all its virtue in the cause of good. And so it knows nothing save how to recall the souls of the departed from the very path of death, to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to purge the possessed, to open prison-bars, to loose the bonds of the innocent. Likewise it washes away faults, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited, escorts travellers, appeases waves, makes robbers stand aghast, nourishes the poor, governs the rich, upraises the fallen, arrests the falling, confirms the standing. Prayer is the wall of faith: her arms and missiles [8956] against the foe who keeps watch over us on all sides. And, so never walk we unarmed. By day, be we mindful of Station; by night, of vigil. Under the arms of prayer guard we the standard of our General; await we in prayer the angel's trump. [8957] The angels, likewise, all pray; every creature prays; cattle and wild beasts pray and bend their knees; and when they issue from their layers and lairs, [8958] they look up heavenward with no idle mouth, making their breath vibrate [8959] after their own manner. Nay, the birds too, rising out of the nest, upraise themselves heavenward, and, instead of hands, expand the cross of their wings, and say somewhat to seem like prayer. [8960] What more then, touching the office of prayer? Even the Lord Himself prayed; to whom be honour and virtue unto the ages of the ages!
[8945] Routh would read, "What will God deny?"
[8946] Dan. iii.
[8947] Dan. vi.
[8948] 1 Kings xviii.; James v. 17, 18.
[8949] i.e. "the angel who preserved in the furnace the three youths besprinkled, as it were, with dewy shower" (Muratori quoted by Oehler). [Apocrypha, The Song, etc., verses 26, 27.]
[8950] 2 Kings iv. 42-44.
[8951] i.e. in brief, its miraculous operations, as they are called, are suspended in these ways.
[8952] Or, "inflict."
[8953] See Apolog. c. 5 (Oehler).
[8954] See 2 Kings i.
[8955] [A reference to Jacob's wrestling. Also, probably, to Matt. xi. 12.]
[8956] Or, "her armour defensive and offensive."
[8957] 1 Cor. xv. 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16.
[8958] Or, "pens and dens."
[8959] As if in prayer.
[8960] This beautiful passage should be supplemented by a similar one from St. Bernard: "Nonne et aviculas levat, non onerat pennarum numerositas ipsa? Tolle eas, et reliquum corpus pondere suo fertur ad ima. Sic disciplinam Christi, sic suave jugum, sic onus leve, quo deponimus, eo deprimimur ipsi: quia portat potius quam portatur." Epistola, ccclxxxv. Bernardi Opp. Tom. i. p. 691. Ed. (Mabillon.) Gaume, Paris, 1839. Bearing the cross uplifts the Christian.]
tertullian martyras anf03 tertullian-martyras Ad Martyras /ccel/schaff/anf03.vi.v.html
Ad Martyras
IV.
Ad Martyras. [8961]
[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]
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