Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 4
Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian & Origen
SECTION 41
Chapter X.--Application of the Subject. Advantages of Widowhood.
Chapter X.--Application of the Subject. Advantages of Widowhood. Renounce we things carnal, that we may at length bear fruits spiritual. Seize the opportunity--albeit not earnestly desired, yet favourable--of not having any one to whom to pay a debt, and by whom to be (yourself) repaid! You have ceased to be a debtor. Happy man…
732 wordsSECTION 42Chapter XII.--Excuses Commonly Urged in Defence of Second Marriage. Their Futility, Especially in the Case of Christians, Pointed Out.
Chapter XII.--Excuses Commonly Urged in Defence of Second Marriage. Their Futility, Especially in the Case of Christians, Pointed Out. I am aware of the excuses by which we colour our insatiable carnal appetite. [566] Our pretexts are: the necessities of props to lean on; a house to be managed; a family to be governed; chests […
716 wordsSECTION 43Chapter XIII.--Examples from Among the Heathen, as Well as from the Church, to Enforce the Foregoing Exhortation.
Chapter XIII.--Examples from Among the Heathen, as Well as from the Church, to Enforce the Foregoing Exhortation. To this my exhortation, best beloved brother, there are added even heathenish examples; which have often been set by ourselves as well (as by others) in evidence, when anything good and pleasing to God is, even amon…
893 wordsSECTION 44Chapter I.--Different Views in Regard to Marriage Held by Heretics, Psychic, and Spiritualists.
Chapter I.--Different Views in Regard to Marriage Held by Heretics, Psychic, and Spiritualists. Heretics do away with marriages; Psychics accumulate them. The former marry not even once; the latter not only once. What dost thou, Law of the Creator? Between alien eunuchs and thine own grooms, thou complainest as much of the over…
871 wordsSECTION 45Chapter III.--The Question of Novelty Further Considered in Connection with the Words of the Lord and His Apostles.
Chapter III.--The Question of Novelty Further Considered in Connection with the Words of the Lord and His Apostles. But (as for the question) whether monogamy be "burdensome," let the still shameless "infirmity of the flesh" look to that: let us meantime come to an agreement as to whether it be "novel." This (even) broader asse…
1,304 wordsSECTION 46Chapter IV.--Waiving Allusion to the Paraclete, Tertullian Comes to the Consideration of the Ancient Scriptures, and Their Testimony on the Subject in Hand.
Chapter IV.--Waiving Allusion to the Paraclete, Tertullian Comes to the Consideration of the Ancient Scriptures, and Their Testimony on the Subject in Hand. Waiving, now, the mention of the Paraclete, as of some authority of our own, evolve we the common instruments of the primitive Scriptures. This very thing is demonstrable b…
1,406 wordsSECTION 47Chapter VI.--The Case of Abraham, and Its Bearing on the Present Question.
Chapter VI.--The Case of Abraham, and Its Bearing on the Present Question. But let us proceed with our inquiry into some eminent chief fathers of our origin: for there are some to whom our monogamist parents Adam and Noah are not pleasing, nor perhaps Christ either. To Abraham, in fine, they appeal; prohibited though they are t…
760 wordsSECTION 48Chapter VII.--From Patriarchal, Tertullian Comes to Legal, Precedents.
Chapter VII.--From Patriarchal, Tertullian Comes to Legal, Precedents. After the ancient examples of the patriarchs, let us equally pass on to the ancient documents of the legal Scriptures, that we may treat in order of all our canon. And since there are some who sometimes assert that they have nothing to do with the law (which…
1,232 wordsSECTION 49Chapter VIII.--From the Law Tertullian Comes to the Gospel. He Begins with Examples Before Proceeding to Dogmas.
Chapter VIII.--From the Law Tertullian Comes to the Gospel. He Begins with Examples Before Proceeding to Dogmas. Turning now to the law, which is properly ours--that is, to the Gospel--by what kind of examples are we met, until we come to definite dogmas? Behold, there immediately present themselves to us, on the threshold as i…
888 wordsSECTION 50Chapter IX.--From Examples Tertullian Passes to Direct Dogmatic Teachings. He Begins with the Lord's Teaching.
Chapter IX.--From Examples Tertullian Passes to Direct Dogmatic Teachings. He Begins with the Lord's Teaching. But grant that these argumentations may be thought to be forced and founded on conjectures, if no dogmatic teachings have stood parallel with them which the Lord uttered in treating of divorce, which, permitted formerl…
810 wordsSECTION 51Chapter X.--St. Paul's Teaching on the Subject.
Chapter X.--St. Paul's Teaching on the Subject. From this point I see that we are challenged by an appeal to the apostle; for the more easy apprehension of whose meaning we must all the more earnestly inculcate (the assertion), that a woman is more bound when her husband is dead not to admit (to marriage) another husband. For l…
908 wordsSECTION 52Chapter XI.--Further Remarks Upon St. Paul's Teaching.
Chapter XI.--Further Remarks Upon St. Paul's Teaching. Grant, now, that you marry "in the Lord," in accordance with the law and the apostle--if, notwithstanding, you care even about this--with what face do you request (the solemnizing of) a matrimony which is unlawful to those of whom you request it; of a monogamist bishop, of …
1,596 wordsSECTION 53Chapter XII.--The Explanation of the Passage Offered by the Psychics Considered.
Chapter XII.--The Explanation of the Passage Offered by the Psychics Considered. Listen, withal, to the very subtle argumentation on the contrary side. "So true is it," say (our opponents), "that the apostle has permitted the iteration of marriage, that it is only such as are in the Clerical Order that he has stringently bound …
1,991 wordsSECTION 54Chapter XV.--Unfairness of Charging the Disciples of the New Prophecy with Harshness. The Charge Rather to Be Retorted Upon the Psychics.
Chapter XV.--Unfairness of Charging the Disciples of the New Prophecy with Harshness. The Charge Rather to Be Retorted Upon the Psychics. What harshness, therefore, is here on our part, if we renounce (communion with) such as do not the will of God? What heresy, if we judge second marriage, as being unlawful, akin to adultery? …
961 wordsSECTION 55Chapter XVII.--Heathen Examples Cry Shame Upon This "Infirmity of the Flesh." [690]
Chapter XVII.--Heathen Examples Cry Shame Upon This "Infirmity of the Flesh." [690] They will have plainly a specious privilege to plead before Christ--the everlasting "infirmity of the flesh!" But upon this (infirmity) will sit in judgment no longer an Isaac, our monogamist father; or a John, a noted voluntary celibate [691] o…
2,440 wordsSECTION 56Chapter II.--God Just as Well as Merciful; Accordingly, Mercy Must Not Be Indiscriminate.
[701] [Written not earlier than a.d. 208; probably very much later. See Bp. Kaye's very important remarks on this treatise, p. 224.] [702] Comp. 2 Tim. iii. 1-5; Matt. xxiv. 12. [703] Sæculi. [704] Sæculo. [705] Tit. iii. 5. [706] Comp. Matt. xxv. 46. [707] [This is irony; a heathen epithet applied to Victor (or his succes…
1,374 wordsSECTION 57Chapter III.--An Objection Anticipated Before the Discussion Above Promised is Commenced.
Chapter III.--An Objection Anticipated Before the Discussion Above Promised is Commenced. But before doing this, I will make short work with an answer which meets us from the opposite side, in reference to that species of repentance which we are just defining as being without pardon. "Why, if," say they, "there is a repentance …
1,490 wordsSECTION 58Chapter VI.--Examples of Such Offences Under the Old Dispensation No Pattern for the Disciples of the New. But Even the Old Has Examples of Vengeance Upon Such Offences.
Chapter VI.--Examples of Such Offences Under the Old Dispensation No Pattern for the Disciples of the New. But Even the Old Has Examples of Vengeance Upon Such Offences. Plainly, if you show by what patronages of heavenly precedents and precepts it is that you open to adultery alone--and therein to fornication also--the gate of…
1,414 wordsSECTION 59Chapter VII.--Of the Parables of the Lost Ewe and the Lost Drachma.
Chapter VII.--Of the Parables of the Lost Ewe and the Lost Drachma. You shall have leave to begin with the parables, where you have the lost ewe re-sought by the Lord, and carried back on His shoulders. [780] Let the very paintings upon your cups come forward to show whether even in them the figurative meaning of that sheep wil…
1,563 wordsSECTION 60Chapter VIII.--Of the Prodigal Son.
Chapter VIII.--Of the Prodigal Son. But, however, the majority of interpreters of the parables are deceived by the self-same result as is of very frequent occurrence in the case of embroidering garments with purple. When you think that you have judiciously harmonized the proportions of the hues, and believe yourself to have suc…
854 wordsSECTION 61Chapter IX.--Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son.
Chapter IX.--Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son. We, however, who do not make the parables the sources whence we devise our subject-matters, but the subject-matters the sources whence we interpret the parables, do …
1,677 wordsSECTION 62Chapter X.--Repentance More Competent to Heathens Than to Christians.
Chapter X.--Repentance More Competent to Heathens Than to Christians. When, therefore, the yoke which forbade the discussion of these parables with a view to the heathens has been shaken off, and the necessity once for all discerned or admitted of not interpreting otherwise than is (suitable to) the subject-matter of the propos…
989 wordsSECTION 63Chapter XI.--From Parables Tertullian Comes to Consider Definite Acts of the Lord.
Chapter XI.--From Parables Tertullian Comes to Consider Definite Acts of the Lord. From the side of its pertinence to the Gospel, the question of the parables indeed has by this time been disposed of. If, however, the Lord, by His deeds withal, issued any such proclamation in favour of sinners; as when He permitted contact even…
943 wordsSECTION 64Chapter XIII.--Of St. Paul, and the Person Whom He Urges the Corinthians to Forgive.
Chapter XIII.--Of St. Paul, and the Person Whom He Urges the Corinthians to Forgive. We know plainly at this point, too, the suspicions which they raise. For, in fact, they suspect the Apostle Paul of having, in the second (Epistle) to the Corinthians, granted pardon to the self-same fornicator whom in the first he has publicly…
1,564 wordsSECTION 65Chapter XIV.--The Same Subject Continued.
Chapter XIV.--The Same Subject Continued. And--these intervening points having accordingly been got rid of--I return to the second of Corinthians; in order to prove that this saying also of the apostle, "Sufficient to such a man be this rebuke which (is administered) by many," is not suitable to the person of the fornicator. Fo…
2,029 wordsSECTION 66Chapter XV.--The Same Subject Continued.
Chapter XV.--The Same Subject Continued. If you hammer out the sequel of that Epistle to illustrate the meaning of the apostle, neither will that sequel be found to square with the obliteration of incest; lest even here the apostle be put to the blush by the incongruity of his later meanings. For what kind (of hypothesis) is it…
773 wordsSECTION 67Chapter XVI.--General Consistency of the Apostle.
Chapter XVI.--General Consistency of the Apostle. Necessary it is, therefore, that the (character of the) apostle should be continuously pointed out to them; whom I will maintain to be such in the second of Corinthians withal, as I know (him to be) in all his letters. (He it is) who even in the first (Epistle) was the first of …
1,710 wordsSECTION 68Chapter XVII.--Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles.
Chapter XVII.--Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles. Challenge me to front the apostolic line of battle; look at his Epistles: they all keep guard in defence of modesty, of chastity, of sanctity; they all aim their missiles against the interests of luxury, and lasciviousness, and lust. What, in short, does he write …
1,277 wordsSECTION 69Chapter XVIII.--Answer to a Psychical Objection.
Chapter XVIII.--Answer to a Psychical Objection. "But these (passages)," says (our opponent), "will pertain to the interdiction of all immodesty, and the enforcing of all modesty, yet without prejudice to the place of pardon; which (pardon) is not forthwith quite denied when sins are condemned, since the time of the pardon is c…
1,284 wordsSECTION 70Chapter XIX.--Objections from the Revelation and the First Epistle of St. John Refuted.
Chapter XIX.--Objections from the Revelation and the First Epistle of St. John Refuted. But how far (are we to treat) of Paul; since even John appears to give some secret countenance to the opposite side? as if in the Apocalypse he has manifestly assigned to fornication the auxiliary aid of repentance, where, to the angel of th…
2,102 wordsSECTION 71Chapter XX.--From Apostolic Teaching Tertullian Turns to that of Companions of the Apostles, and of the Law.
Chapter XX.--From Apostolic Teaching Tertullian Turns to that of Companions of the Apostles, and of the Law. The discipline, therefore, of the apostles properly (so called), indeed, instructs and determinately directs, as a principal point, the overseer of all sanctity as regards the temple of God to the universal eradication o…
1,129 wordsSECTION 72Chapter XXI.--Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys.
Chapter XXI.--Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys. If the apostles understood these (figurative meanings of the Law) better, of course they were more careful (with regard to them than even apostolic men). But I will descend even to this point of contest now, making a separation between t…
1,328 wordsSECTION 73Chapter XXII.--Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders.
Chapter XXII.--Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders. But you go so far as to lavish this "power" upon martyrs withal! No sooner has any one, acting on a preconceived arrangement, put on the bonds--(bonds), moreover, which, in the nominal custody now in vogue, [986] are soft ones--than adulterers …
1,575 wordsSECTION 74Chapter I.--Connection of Gluttony and Lust. Grounds of Psychical Objections Against the Montanists.
Chapter I.--Connection of Gluttony and Lust. Grounds of Psychical Objections Against the Montanists. I should wonder at the Psychics, if they were enthralled to voluptuousness alone, which leads them to repeated marriages, if they were not likewise bursting with gluttony, which leads them to hate fasts. Lust without voracity wo…
1,334 wordsSECTION 75Chapter III.--The Principle of Fasting Traced Back to Its Earliest Source.
Chapter III.--The Principle of Fasting Traced Back to Its Earliest Source. Accordingly we are bound to affirm, before proceeding further, this (principle), which is in danger of being secretly subverted; (namely), of what value in the sight of God this "emptiness" you speak of is: and, first of all, whence has proceeded the rat…
1,423 wordsSECTION 76Chapter VI.--The Physical Tendencies of Fasting and Feeding Considered. The Cases of Moses and Elijah.
Chapter VI.--The Physical Tendencies of Fasting and Feeding Considered. The Cases of Moses and Elijah. Now, if there has been temerity in our retracing to primordial experiences the reasons for God's having laid, and our duty (for the sake of God) to lay, restrictions upon food, let us consult common conscience. Nature herself …
951 wordsSECTION 77Chapter VII.--Further Examples from the Old Testament in Favour of Fasting.
Chapter VII.--Further Examples from the Old Testament in Favour of Fasting. And thus we have already proceeded to examples, in order that, by its profitable efficacy, we may unfold the powers of this duty which reconciles God, even when angered, to man. Israel, before their gathering together by Samuel on occasion of the drawi…
938 wordsSECTION 78Chapter VIII.--Examples of a Similar Kind from the New.
Chapter VIII.--Examples of a Similar Kind from the New. We produce, too, our remaining (evidences). For we now hasten to modern proofs. On the threshold of the Gospel, [1058] Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, "who both recognised the infant Lord, and preached many things about Him to such as were expecting the redemptio…
1,319 wordsSECTION 79Chapter X.--Of Stations, and of the Hours of Prayer.
Chapter X.--Of Stations, and of the Hours of Prayer. In like manner they censure on the count of novelty our Stations as being enjoined; some, moreover, (censure them) too as being prolonged habitually too late, saying that this duty also ought to be observed of free choice, and not continued beyond the ninth hour,--(deriving t…
1,298 wordsSECTION 80Chapter XI.--Of the Respect Due to "Human Authority;" And of the Charges of "Heresy" And "Pseudo-Prophecy."
Chapter XI.--Of the Respect Due to "Human Authority;" And of the Charges of "Heresy" And "Pseudo-Prophecy." But all these (instances) I believe to be unknown to those who are in a state of agitation at our proceedings; or else known by the reading alone, not by careful study as well; in accordance with the greater bulk of "the …
703 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.