De Paenitentia (Contd)

25 Isa. xl. 15.

26 Dan. ii. 35; Matt. iii. 12.

27 Ps. ii. 9; Rev. ii. 27.

28 Penes.

29 Ps. i. 3; Jer. xvii. 8. Compare Luke xxiii. 31.

30 Jer. xvii. 8; Matt. iii. 10.

31 Matt. iii. 10.

32 John xiv. 6.

33 Obsequii.

34 Or, "paramount."

35 See ref. 1 on the preceding page. The phrase is "as I live" in the English version.

36 "Asseveratione: " apparently a play on the word, as compared with "perseverare," which follows.

37 Or, "enjoyment."

38 [The formidable doctrine of I. John iii. 9, v. 18, etc. must excuse our author for his severe adherence to this principle of purifying the heart from habitual sin. But, the church refused to press it against St. Matt. xviii. 22. In our own self-indulgent day, we are more prone, I fear, to presumption than to over strictness. The Roman casuists make attrition suffice, and so turn absolution into a mere sponge, and an encouragement to perpetual sinning and formal confession.]

39 i.e., favour.

40 Which is solemnly done in baptism.

41 Adgultinaris.

42 Acts xiv. 15-17: "licet" here may = "lawful," "permissible," "excusable."

43 "Timent," not "metuunt." "Metus" is the word Tertullian has been using above for religious, reverential fear.

44 Timor.

45 Deut. xxxii. 2.

46 i.e., by baptism.

47 Adulantur.

48 "Commeatus," a military word = "furlough," hence "holiday-time."

49 i.e., repurchase.

50 Adulter; see de Idol. c. i.

51 i.e., in baptism.

52 Luke viii. 17.

53 1 John i. 5.

54 Symbolum mortis indulget. Comp. Rom. vi. 3, 4, 8; Col. ii. 12, 20.

55 Jer. xxxi. (LXX. xxxviii.) 34; Heb. viii. 11.

56 i.e., in baptism.

57 See John xiii. 10 and Matt. xxiii. 26.

58 Metus integer.

59 Metus.

60 Or, "disappoints," i.e., the hasty recipient himself.

61 i.e., before baptism.

62 [Elucidation I. See infra, this chapter, sub fine.]

63 [When our author wrote to the Martyrs, (see cap. 1.) he was less disposed to such remorseless discipline: and perhaps we have here an element of his subsequent system, one which led him to accept the discipline of Montanism. On this general subject, we shall find enough when we come to Cyprian and Novatian.]

64 Timor.

65 "Mortis opera," or "deadly works:" cf. de Idol. c. iv. (mid.), "perdition of blood," and the note there.

66 1 Cor. vi. 3.

67 Or, "has permitted somewhat still to stand open."

68 [See cap. vii. supra.]

69 To accept the satisfaction.

70 Evolve: perhaps simply = "read."

71 Rev. ii. 4.

72 Rev. ii. 20.

73 Rev. iii. 2.

74 Rev. ii. 14, 15.

75 Rev. iii. 17.

76 Jer. viii. 4 (in LXX.) appears to be the passage meant. The Eng. Ver. is very different.

77 Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13. The words in Hosea in the LXX. are, dio/ti e#leoj qe/lw h! qusi/an (al. kai\ ou0 qusi/an).

78 Luke xv. 7, 10.

79 Luke xv. 8-10.

80 Or, "suffered."

81 Luke xv. 3-7.

82 Luke xv. 11-32.

83 Cf. Matt. xxiii. 9; and Eph. iii. 14, 15, in the Greek.

84 Publicly enrolled as such in baptism; for Tertullian here is speaking solely of the "second repentance."

85 See Luke xv. 29-32.

86 Utter confession.

87 For the meaning of "satisfaction," see Hooker Eccl. Pol. vi. 5, where several references to the present treatise occur. [Elucidation II.]

88 Sordibus.

89 Cf. Ps. xxii. 1 (in LXX. xxii. 3), xxxviii. 8 (in the LXX. xxxvii. 9). Cf. Heb. v. 7.

90 Tertullian changes here to the second person, unless Oehler's "tuum" be a misprint for "suum."

91 "Suae," which looks as if the "tuum" above should be "suum." [St. James, v. 16.]

92 Prodactae.

93 Per. But "per," according to Oehler, is used by Tertullian as = "propter" -on your account, for your sake.

94 Metus.

95 1 Cor. xii. 26.

96 In uno et altero.

97 See Matt. xviii. 20.

98 i.e. as being His body.

99 Or, "the Son." Comp. John xi. 41, 42.

100 Or, "by the grace."

101 Quod securium virgarumque petitio sustinet.


This document (last modified February 03, 1998) from the Christian Classics Electronic Library server, at Wheaton College.  Amended for the Tertullian Project 14/12/01