Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 4
Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian & Origen
SECTION 1
ANTE-NICENE FATHERS
ANTE-NICENE FATHERS VOLUME 4. Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second. Chronologically arranged, with brief notes and prefaces, by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D. T&T CLARK EDINBURGH WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Pa…
801 wordsSECTION 2Chapter I.--Time Changes Nations' Dresses--and Fortunes.
Chapter I.--Time Changes Nations' Dresses--and Fortunes. Men of Carthage, ever princes of Africa, ennobled by ancient memories, blest with modern felicities, I rejoice that times are so prosperous with you that you have leisure to spend and pleasure to find in criticising dress. These are the "piping times of peace" and plenty.…
2,229 wordsSECTION 3Chapter III.--Beasts Similarly Subject to the Law of Mutation.
[29] Comp. Gen. xi. 26-xii. 5 with Acts vii. 2-4, 15, 45, and xiii. 17-19. [30] Sæculum. [31] Oehler understands this of Clodius Albinus, and the Augusti mentioned above to be Severus and his two sons Antonius and Geta. But see Kaye, pp. 36-39 (ed. 3, 1845). Chapter III.--Beasts Similarly Subject to the Law of Mutation. Beas…
1,161 wordsSECTION 4Chapter IV.--Change Not Always Improvement.
Chapter IV.--Change Not Always Improvement. Why, now, if the Roman fashion is (social) salvation to every one, are you nevertheless Greek to a degree, even in points not honourable? Or else, if it is not so, whence in the world is it that provinces which have had a better training, provinces which nature adapted rather for surm…
2,162 wordsSECTION 5Chapter V.--Virtues of the Mantle. It Pleads in Its Own Defence.
Chapter V.--Virtues of the Mantle. It Pleads in Its Own Defence. "Still," say you, "must we thus change from gown [61] to Mantle?" Why, what if from diadem and sceptre? Did Anacharsis change otherwise, when to the royalty of Scythia he preferred philosophy? Grant that there be no (miraculous) signs in proof of your transformati…
1,461 wordsSECTION 6Chapter VI.--Further Distinctions, and Crowning Glory, of the Pallium.
Chapter VI.--Further Distinctions, and Crowning Glory, of the Pallium. "With speech,' says (my antagonist), you have tried to persuade me,--a most sage medicament.' But, albeit utterance be mute--impeded by infancy or else checked by bashfulness, for life is content with an even tongueless philosophy--my very cut is eloquent. A…
889 wordsSECTION 7Book I.
Book I. [Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.] ------------------------ Chapter I.--Introduction. Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women, in Memory of the Introduction of Sin into the World Through a Woman. If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of faith which is expected in the heavens, no one of you at al…
1,228 wordsSECTION 8Chapter III.--Concerning the Genuineness of "The Prophecy of Enoch."
Chapter III.--Concerning the Genuineness of "The Prophecy of Enoch." I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, [102] which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that, having been published before the deluge, it …
1,104 wordsSECTION 9Chapter VI.--Of Precious Stones and Pearls.
Chapter VI.--Of Precious Stones and Pearls. But, in the next place, what am I to interpret those jewels to be which vie with gold in haughtiness, except little pebbles and stones and paltry particles of the self-same earth; but yet not necessary either for laying down foundations, or rearing party-walls, or supporting pediments…
1,016 wordsSECTION 10Chapter IX.--God's Distribution Must Regulate Our Desires, Otherwise We Become the Prey of Ambition and Its Attendant Evils.
Chapter IX.--God's Distribution Must Regulate Our Desires, Otherwise We Become the Prey of Ambition and Its Attendant Evils. For, as some particular things distributed by God over certain individual lands, and some one particular tract of sea, are mutually foreign one to the other, they are reciprocally either neglected or desi…
1,854 wordsSECTION 11Chapter III.--Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious.
Chapter III.--Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious. Let it now be granted that excellence of form be not to be feared, as neither troublesome to its possessors, nor destructive to its desirers, nor perilous to its compartners; [161] let it be thought (to be) not expose…
718 wordsSECTION 12Chapter V.--Some Refinements in Dress and Personal Appearance Lawful, Some Unlawful. Pigments Come Under the Latter Head.
Chapter V.--Some Refinements in Dress and Personal Appearance Lawful, Some Unlawful. Pigments Come Under the Latter Head. These suggestions are not made to you, of course, to be developed into an entire crudity and wildness of appearance; nor are we seeking to persuade you of the good of squalor and slovenliness; but of the lim…
900 wordsSECTION 13Chapter VII.--Of Elaborate Dressing of the Hair in Other Ways, and Its Bearing Upon Salvation.
Chapter VII.--Of Elaborate Dressing of the Hair in Other Ways, and Its Bearing Upon Salvation. What service, again, does all the labour spent in arranging the hair render to salvation? Why is no rest allowed to your hair, which must now be bound, now loosed, now cultivated, now thinned out? Some are anxious to force their hair …
835 wordsSECTION 14Chapter IX.--Excess in Dress, as Well as in Personal Culture, to Be Shunned. Arguments Drawn from I Cor. VII.
Chapter IX.--Excess in Dress, as Well as in Personal Culture, to Be Shunned. Arguments Drawn from I Cor. VII. Wherefore, with regard to clothing also, and all the remaining lumber of your self-elaboration, [214] the like pruning off and retrenchment of too redundant splendour must be the object of your care. For what boots it t…
791 wordsSECTION 15Chapter X.--Tertullian Refers Again to the Question of the Origin of All These Ornaments and Embellishments. [233]
Chapter X.--Tertullian Refers Again to the Question of the Origin of All These Ornaments and Embellishments. [233] It was God, no doubt, who showed the way to dye wools with the juices of herbs and the humours of conchs! It had escaped Him, when He was bidding the universe to come into being, [234] to issue a command for (the p…
1,086 wordsSECTION 16Chapter XII.--Such Outward Adornments Meretricious, and Therefore Unsuitable to Modest Women.
Chapter XII.--Such Outward Adornments Meretricious, and Therefore Unsuitable to Modest Women. Let us only wish that we may be no cause for just blasphemy! But how much more provocative of blasphemy is it that you, who are called modesty's priestesses, should appear in public decked and painted out after the manner of the immode…
1,579 wordsSECTION 17Chapter I.--Truth Rather to Be Appealed to Than Custom, and Truth Progressive in Its Developments.
Chapter I.--Truth Rather to Be Appealed to Than Custom, and Truth Progressive in Its Developments. Having already undergone the trouble peculiar to my opinion, I will show in Latin also that it behoves our virgins to be veiled from the time that they have passed the turning-point of their age: that this observance is exacted by…
795 wordsSECTION 18Chapter II.--Before Proceeding Farther, Let the Question of Custom Itself Be Sifted.
Chapter II.--Before Proceeding Farther, Let the Question of Custom Itself Be Sifted. But I will not, meantime, attribute this usage to Truth. Be it, for a while, custom: that to custom I may likewise oppose custom. Throughout Greece, and certain of its barbaric provinces, the majority of Churches keep their virgins covered. Th…
1,059 wordsSECTION 19Chapter IV.--Of the Argument Drawn from 1 Cor. XI. 5-16.
Chapter IV.--Of the Argument Drawn from 1 Cor. XI. 5-16. But in so far as it is the custom to argue even from the Scriptures in opposition to truth, there is immediately urged against us the fact that "no mention of virgins is made by the apostle where he is prescribing about the veil, but that women' only are named; whereas, i…
756 wordsSECTION 20Chapter V.--Of the Word Woman, Especially in Connection with Its Application to Eve.
Chapter V.--Of the Word Woman, Especially in Connection with Its Application to Eve. But since they use the name of woman in such a way as to think it inapplicable save to her alone who has known a man, the pertinence of the propriety of this word to the sex itself, not to a grade of the sex, must be proved by us; that virgins …
1,043 wordsSECTION 21Chapter VI.--The Parallel Case of Mary Considered.
Chapter VI.--The Parallel Case of Mary Considered. Let us now see whether the apostle withal observes the norm of this name in accordance with Genesis, attributing it to the sex; calling the virgin Mary a woman, just as Genesis (does) Eve. For, writing to the Galatians, "God," he says, "sent His own Son, made of a woman," [296]…
1,178 wordsSECTION 22Chapter VIII.--The Argument E Contrario.
Chapter VIII.--The Argument E Contrario. The contraries, at all events, of all these (considerations) effect that a man is not to cover his head: to wit, because he has not by nature been gifted with excess of hair; because to be shaven or shorn is not shameful to him; because it was not on his account that the angels transgres…
1,142 wordsSECTION 23Chapter X.--If the Female Virgins are to Be Thus Conspicuous, Why Not the Male as Well?
Chapter X.--If the Female Virgins are to Be Thus Conspicuous, Why Not the Male as Well? Nor, similarly, (is it permitted) on the ground of any distinctions whatever. Otherwise, it were sufficiently discourteous, that while females, subjected as they are throughout to men, bear in their front an honourable mark of their virginit…
1,242 wordsSECTION 24Chapter XII.--Womanhood Self-Evident, and Not to Be Concealed by Just Leaving the Head Bare.
Chapter XII.--Womanhood Self-Evident, and Not to Be Concealed by Just Leaving the Head Bare. Recognise the woman, ay, recognise the wedded woman, by the testimonies both of body and of spirit, which she experiences both in conscience and in flesh. These are the earlier tablets of natural espousals and nuptials. Impose a veil ex…
837 wordsSECTION 25Chapter XIV.--Perils to the Virgins Themselves Attendant Upon Not-Veiling.
Chapter XIV.--Perils to the Virgins Themselves Attendant Upon Not-Veiling. They report a saying uttered at one time by some one when first this question was mooted, "And how shall we invite the other (virgins) to similar conduct?" Forsooth, it is their numbers that will make us happy, and not the grace of God and the merits of …
737 wordsSECTION 26Chapter XV.--Of Fascination.
Chapter XV.--Of Fascination. Nay, but true and absolute and pure virginity fears nothing more than itself. Even female eyes it shrinks from encountering. Other eyes itself has. It betakes itself for refuge to the veil of the head as to a helmet, as to a shield, to protect its glory against the blows of temptations, against the …
1,883 wordsSECTION 27Book I.
Book I. [Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.] ------------------------ Chapter I.--Design of the Treatise. Disavowal of Personal Motives in Writing It. I have thought it meet, my best beloved fellow-servant in the Lord, even from this early period, [338] to provide for the course which you must pursue after my departure from…
911 wordsSECTION 28Chapter III.--Marriage Good: Celibacy Preferable.
Chapter III.--Marriage Good: Celibacy Preferable. But let it not be thought that my reason for premising thus much concerning the liberty granted to the old, and the restraint imposed on the later time, is that I may lay a foundation for teaching that Christ's advent was intended to dissolve wedlock, (and) to abolish marriage t…
733 wordsSECTION 29Chapter IV.--Of the Infirmity of the Flesh, and Similar Pleas.
Chapter IV.--Of the Infirmity of the Flesh, and Similar Pleas. But we read "that the flesh is weak;" [370] and hence we soothe [371] ourselves in some cases. Yet we read, too, that "the spirit is strong;" [372] for each clause occurs in one and the same sentence. Flesh is an earthly, spirit a heavenly, material. Why, then, do w…
762 wordsSECTION 30Chapter V.--Of the Love of Offspring as a Plea for Marriage.
Chapter V.--Of the Love of Offspring as a Plea for Marriage. Further reasons for marriage which men allege for themselves arise from anxiety for posterity, and the bitter, bitter pleasure of children. To us this is idle. For why should we be eager to bear children, whom, when we have them, we desire to send before us (to glory)…
1,120 wordsSECTION 31Chapter VII.--The Death of a Husband is God's Call to the Widow to Continence. Further Evidences from Scripture and from Heathenism.
Chapter VII.--The Death of a Husband is God's Call to the Widow to Continence. Further Evidences from Scripture and from Heathenism. To us continence has been pointed out by the Lord of salvation as an instrument for attaining eternity, [410] and as a testimony of (our) faith; as a commendation of this flesh of ours, which is t…
1,171 wordsSECTION 32Book II.
Book II. Chapter I.--Reasons Which Led to the Writing of This Second Book. Very lately, best beloved fellow-servant in the Lord, I, as my ability permitted, entered for your benefit at some length into the question what course is to be followed by a holy woman when her marriage has (in whatever way) been brought to an end. Let…
1,655 wordsSECTION 33Chapter III.--Remarks on Some of the "Dangers and Wounds" Referred to in the Preceding Chapter.
Chapter III.--Remarks on Some of the "Dangers and Wounds" Referred to in the Preceding Chapter. If these things are so, it is certain that believers contracting marriages with Gentiles are guilty of fornication, [459] and are to be excluded from all communication with the brotherhood, in accordance with the letter of the apostl…
820 wordsSECTION 34Chapter V.--Of Sin and Danger Incurred Even with a "Tolerant" Husband.
Chapter V.--Of Sin and Danger Incurred Even with a "Tolerant" Husband. "But some husband does endure our (practices), and not annoy us." Here, therefore, there is a sin; in that Gentiles know our (practices); in that we are subject to the privity of the unjust; in that it is thanks to them that we do any (good) work. He who "en…
791 wordsSECTION 35Chapter VII.--The Case of a Heathen Whose Wife is Converted After Marriage with Him Very Different, and Much More Hopeful.
Chapter VII.--The Case of a Heathen Whose Wife is Converted After Marriage with Him Very Different, and Much More Hopeful. If these things may happen to those women also who, having attained the faith while in (the state of) Gentile matrimony, continue in that state, still they are excused, as having been "apprehended by God" […
1,927 wordsSECTION 36Chapter I.--Introduction. Virginity Classified Under Three Several Species.
Chapter I.--Introduction. Virginity Classified Under Three Several Species. I doubt not, brother, that after the premission in peace of your wife, you, being wholly bent upon the composing of your mind (to a right frame), are seriously thinking about the end of your lone life, and of course are standing in need of counsel. Alth…
1,297 wordsSECTION 37Chapter III.--Of Indulgence and Pure Volition. The Question Illustrated. [521]
Chapter III.--Of Indulgence and Pure Volition. The Question Illustrated. [521] For what things are manifest we all know; and in what sense these very things are manifest must be thoroughly examined. For, albeit some things seem to savour of "the will of God," seeing that they are allowed by Him, it does not forthwith follow tha…
969 wordsSECTION 38Chapter IV.--Further Remarks Upon the Apostle's Language.
Chapter IV.--Further Remarks Upon the Apostle's Language. However, touching second marriage, we know plainly that the apostle has pronounced: "Thou hast been loosed from a wife; seek not a wife. But if thou shalt marry, thou wilt not sin." [524] Still, as in the former case, he has introduced the order of this discourse too fro…
1,075 wordsSECTION 39Chapter VI.--The Objection from the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Answered.
Chapter VI.--The Objection from the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Answered. "But withal the blessed patriarchs," you say, "made mingled alliances not only with more wives (than one), but with concubines likewise." Shall that, then, make it lawful for us also to marry without limit? I grant that it will, if there still remain types…
1,078 wordsSECTION 40Chapter VIII.--If It Be Granted that Second Marriage is Lawful, Yet All Things Lawful are Not Expedient.
Chapter VIII.--If It Be Granted that Second Marriage is Lawful, Yet All Things Lawful are Not Expedient. Let it now be granted that repetition of marriage is lawful, if everything which is lawful is good. The same apostle exclaims: "All things are lawful, but all are not profitable." [546] Pray, can what is "not profitable" be …
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Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.