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- Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
"The Sacred Writings Of ..." provides you with the essential works among the Christian writings. The volumes cover the beginning of Christianity until medieval times. This edition contains the following writings: Introductory Note. The Apology. On Idolatry. The Shows, or De Spectaculis. The Chaplet, or De Corona. To Scapula. Ad Nationes. A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen. An Answer to the Jews. The Soul's Testimony. A Treatise on the Soul. The Prescription Against Heretics. The Five Books Against Marcion. Against Hermogenes. Against the Valentinians. On the Flesh of Christ. On the Resurrection of the Flesh. Against Praxeas Scorpiace. Appendix. Against All Heresies. On Repentance. On Baptism. On Prayer. Ad Martyras. The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas. Of Patience. I. On the Pallium. II. On the Apparel of Women. III. On the Veiling of Virgins. IV. To His Wife. V. On Exhortation to Chastity. VI. On Monogamy. VII. On Modesty. VIII. On Fasting. In Opposition to the Psychics. IX. De Fuga in Persecutione. X. Appendix. 1. A Strain of Jonah the Prophet. 2. A Strain of Sodom. 3. Genesis. 4. A Strain of the Judgment of the Lord. 5. Five Books in Reply to Marcion.
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The Sacred Writings of Tertullian
Tertullian – A Biography
The Sacred Writings of Tertullian
Introductory Note.
THE APOLOGY.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.
Chapter XX.
Chapter XXI.
Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXIII.
Chapter XXIV.
Chapter XXV.
Chapter XXVI.
Chapter XXVII.
Chapter XXVIII.
Chapter XXIX.
Chapter XXX.
Chapter XXXI.
Chapter XXXII.
Chapter XXXIII.
Chapter XXXIV.
Chapter XXXV.
Chapter XXXVI.
Chapter XXXVII.
Chapter XXXVIII.
Chapter XXXIX.
Chapter XL.
Chapter XLI.
Chapter XLII.
Chapter XLIII.
Chapter XLIV.
Chapter XLV.
Chapter XLVI.
Chapter XLVII.
Chapter XLVIII.
Chapter XLIX.
Chapter L.
Elucidations.
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
On Idolatry.
Chapter I.-Wide Scope of the Word Idolatry.
Chapter II.-Idolatry in Its More Limited Sense. Its Copiousness.
Chapter III.-Idolatry: Origin and Meaning of the Name.
Chapter IV.-Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category.
Chapter V. -Sundry Objections or Excuses Dealt with.
Chapter VI.-Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It.
Chapter VII.--Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry.
Chapter VIII.-Other Arts Made Subservient to Idolatry. Lawful Means of Gaining a Livelihood Abundant.
Chapter IX.-Professions of Some Kinds Allied to Idolatry. Of Astrology in Particular.
Chapter X.-Of Schoolmasters and Their Difficulties.
Chapter XI.-Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided.
Chapter XII.-Further Answers to the Plea, How Am I to Live?
Chapter XIII.-Of the Observance of Days Connected with Idolatry.
Chapter XIV.-Of Blasphemy. One of St. Paul's Sayings.
Chapter XV.-Concerning Festivals in Honour of Emperors, Victories, and the Like. Examples of the Three Children and Daniel.
Chapter XVI.-Concerning Private Festivals.
Chapter XVII.-The Cases of Servants and Other Officials. What Offices a Christian Man May Hold.
Chapter XVIII.-Dress as Connected with Idolatry.
Chapter XIX.-Concerning Military Service.
Chapter XX.-Concerning Idolatry in Words.
Chapter XXI.-Of Silent Acquiescence in Heathen Formularies.
Chapter XXII.-Of Accepting Blessing in the Name of Idols.
Chapter XXIII.-Written Contracts in the Name of Idols. Tacit Consent.
Chapter XXIV.-General Conclusion.
Elucidations
I
II
III
IV
The Shows, or De Spectaculis.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XIX.
Chapter XX.
Chapter XXI.
Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXIII.
Chapter XXIV.
Chapter XXV.
Chapter XXVI.
Chapter XXVII.
Chapter XXVIII.
Chapter XXIX.
Chapter XXX.
The Chaplet, or De Corona.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Elucidations.
I
II
To Scapula.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Elucidations.
I
II
Ad Nationes.
Book I.
Chapter I. -The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance.
Chapter II. -The Heathen Perverted Judgment in the Trial of Christians. They Would Be More Consistent If They Dispensed with All Form of Trial. Tertullian Urges This with Much Indignation.
Chapter III. -The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated.
Chapter IV. -The Truth Hated in the Christians; So in Measure Was It, of Old, in Socrates. The Virtues of the Christians.
Chapter V. -The Inconsistent Life of Any False Christian No More Condemns True Disciples of Christ, Than a Passing Cloud Obscures a Summer Sky.
Chapter VI. -The Innocence of the Christians Not Compromised by the Iniquitous Laws Which Were Made Against Them.
Chapter VII. -The Christians Defamed. A Sarcastic Description of Fame; Its Deception and Atrocious Slanders of the Christians Lengthily Described.
Chapter VIII. -The Calumny Against the Christians Illustrated in the Discovery of Psammetichus. Refutation of the Story.
Chapter IX. -The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity.
Chapter X. -The Christians are Not the Only Contemners of the Gods. Contempt of Them Often Displayed by Heathen Official Persons. Homer Made the Gods Contemptible.
Chapter XI. -The Absurd Cavil of the Ass'shead Disposed of.
Chapter XII. -The Charge of Worshipping a Cross. The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial Frame.
Chapter XIII. -The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort.
Chapter XIV. -The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian.
Chapter XV. -The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen.
Chapter XVI. -Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method. The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents.
Chapter XVII. -The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of C¦sar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen.
Chapter XVIII. -Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death. Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen.
Chapter XIX. -If Christians and the Heathen Thus Resemble Each Other, There is Great Difference in the Grounds and Nature of Their Apparently Similar Conduct.
Chapter XX.-Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone. The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It.
Book II.
Chapter I.-The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain.
Chapter II.-Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God. The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations.
Chapter III.-The Physical Philosophers Maintained the Divinity of the Elements; The Absurdity of the Tenet Exposed.
Chapter IV.-Wrong Derivation of the Word Qe/oj. The Name Indicative of the True Deity. God Without Shape and Immaterial. Anecdote of Thales.
Chapter V.-The Physical Theory Continued. Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements.
Chapter VI.-The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine. Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods.
Chapter VII.-The Gods of the Mythic Class. The Poets a Very Poor Authority in Such Matters. Homer and the Mythic Poets. Why Irreligious.
Chapter VIII.-The Gods of the Different Nations. Varro's Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture. Serapis a Perversion of Joseph.
Chapter IX. The Power of Rome. Romanized Aspect of All the Heathen Mythology. Varro's Threefold Distribution Criticised. Roman Heroes (¦neas Included, ) Unfavourably Reviewed.
Chapter X.-A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina.
Chapter XI.-The Romans Provided Gods for Birth, Nay, Even Before Birth, to Death. Much Indelicacy in This System.
Chapter XII. -The Original Deities Were Human-With Some Very Questionable Characteristics. Saturn or Time Was Human. Inconsistencies of Opinion About Him.
Chapter XIII. -The Gods Human at First. Who Had the Authority to Make Them Divine? Jupiter Not Only Human, But Immoral.
Chapter XIV.-Gods, Those Which Were Confessedly Elevated to the Divine Condition, What Pre-Eminent Right Had They to Such Honour? Hercules an Inferior Character.
Chapter XV.-The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much.
Chapter XVI.-Inventors of Useful Arts Unworthy of Deification. They Would Be the First to Acknowledge a Creator. The Arts Changeable from Time to Time, and Some Become Obsolete.
Chapter XVII. -Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their Imperial Power to Their Gods. The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms, He is the God of the Christians.
Appendix.
A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen.
------------
Elucidation.
An Answer to the Jews.
Chapter I.-Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated.
Chapter II.-The Law Anterior to Moses.
Chapter III.-Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law.
Chapter IV.-Of the Observance of the Sabbath.
Chapter V.-Of Sacrifices.
Chapter VI.-Of the Abolition and the Abolisher of the Old Law.
Chapter VII.-The Question Whether Christ Be Come Taken Up.
Chapter VIII.-Of the Times of Christ's Birth and Passion, and of Jerusalem's Destruction.
Chapter IX.-Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ.
Chapter X.-Concerning the Passion of Christ, and Its Old Testament Predictions and Adumbrations.
Chapter XI.-Further Proofs, from Ezekiel. Summary of the Prophetic Argument Thus Far.
Chapter XII.-Further Proofs from the Calling of the Gentiles.
Chapter XIII.-Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea.
Chapter XIV.-Conclusion. Clue to the Error of the Jews.
The Soul's Testimony.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Elucidations.
I
II
A Treatise on the Soul.
Chapter I.-It is Not to the Philosophers that We Resort for Information About the Soul But to God.
Chapter II.-The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us.
Chapter III.-The Soul's Origin Defined Out of the Simple Words of Scripture.
Chapter IV.-In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth.
Chapter V.-Probable View of the Stoics, that the Soul Has a Corporeal Nature.
Chapter VI.-The Arguments of the Platonists for the Soul's Incorporeality, Opposed, Perhaps Frivolously.
Chapter VII.-The Soul's Corporeality Demonstrated Out of the Gospels.
Chapter VIII.-Other Platonist Arguments Considered.
Chapter IX.-Particulars of the Alleged Communication to a Montanist Sister.
Chapter X.-The Simple Nature of the Soul is Asserted with Plato. The Identity of Spirit and Soul.
Chapter XI.-Spirit-A Term Expressive of an Operation of the Soul, Not of Its Nature. To Be Carefully Distinguished from the Spirit of God.
Chapter XII.-Difference Between the Mind and the Soul, and the Relation Between Them.
Chapter XIII.-The Soul's Supremacy.
Chapter XIV.-The Soul Variously Divided by the Philosophers; This Division is Not a Material Dissection.
Chapter XV.-The Soul's Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man.
Chapter XVI.-The Soul's Parts. Elements of the Rational Soul.
Chapter XVII.-The Fidelity of the Senses, Impugned by Plato, Vindicated by Christ Himself.
Chapter XVIII.-Plato Suggested Certain Errors to the Gnostics. Functions of the Soul.
Chapter XIX.-The Intellect Coeval with the Soul in the Human Being. An Example from Aristotle Converted into Evidence Favourable to These Views.
Chapter XX.-The Soul, as to Its Nature Uniform, But Its Faculties Variously Developed. Varieties Only Accidental.
Chapter XXI.-As Free-Will Actuates an Individual So May His Character Change.
Chapter XXII.-Recapitulation. Definition of the Soul.
Chapter XXIII.-The Opinions of Sundry Heretics Which Originate Ultimately with Plato.
Chapter XXIV.-Plato's Inconsistency. He Supposes the Soul Self-Existent, Yet Capable of Forgetting What Passed in a Previous State.
Chapter XXV.-Tertullian Refutes, Physiologically, the Notion that the Soul is Introduced After Birth.
Chapter XXVI.-Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting.
Chapter XXVII.-Soul and Body Conceived, Formed and Perfected in Element Simultaneously.
Chapter XXVIII.-The Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration Sketched and Censured.
Chapter XXIX.-The Pythagorean Doctrine Refuted by Its Own First Principle, that Living Men are Formed from the Dead.
Chapter XXX.-Further Refutation of the Pythagorean Theory. The State of Contemporary Civilisation.
Chapter XXXI.-Further Exposure of Transmigration, Its Inextricable Embarrassment.
Chapter XXXII.-Empedocles Increased the Absurdity of Pythagoras by Developing the Posthumous Change of Men into Various Animals.
Chapter XXXIII.-The Judicial Retribution of These Migrations Refuted with Raillery.
Chapter XXXIV.-These Vagaries Stimulated Some Profane Corruptions of Christianity. The Profanity of Simon Magus Condemned.
Chapter XXXV.-The Opinions of Carpocrates, Another Offset from the Pythagorean Dogmas, Stated and Confuted.
Chapter XXXVI.-The Main Points of Our Author's Subject. On the Sexes of the Human Race.
Chapter XXXVII.-On the Formation and State of the Embryo. Its Relation with the Subject of This Treatise.
Chapter XXXVIII.-On the Growth of the Soul. Its Maturity Coincident with the Maturity of the Flesh in Man.
Chapter XXXIX.-The Evil Spirit Has Marred the Purity of the Soul from the Very Birth.
Chapter XL.-The Body of Man Only Ancillary to the Soul in the Commission of Evil.
Chapter XLI.-Notwithstanding the Depravity of Man's Soul by Original Sin, There is Yet Left a Basis Whereon Divine Grace Can Work for Its Recovery by Spiritual Regeneration.
Chapter XLII.-Sleep, the Mirror of Death, as Introductory to the Consideration of Death.
Chapter XLIII.-Sleep a Natural Function as Shown by Other Considerations, and by the Testimony of Scripture.
Chapter XLIV.-The Story of Hermotimus, and the Sleeplessness of the Emperor Nero. No Separation of the Soul from the Body Until Death.
Chapter XLV.-Dreams, an Incidental Effect of the Soul's Activity. Ecstasy.
Chapter XLVI.-Diversity of Dreams and Visions. Epicurus Thought Lightly of Them, Though Generally Most Highly Valued. Instances of Dreams.
Chapter XLVII.-Dreams Variously Classified. Some are God-Sent, as the Dreams of Nebuchadnezzar; Others Simply Products of Nature.
Chapter XLVIII.-Causes and Circumstances of Dreams. What Best Contributes to Efficient Dreaming.
Chapter XLIX.-No Soul Naturally Exempt from Dreams.
Chapter L.-The Absurd Opinion of Epicurus and the Profane Conceits of the Heretic Menander on Death, Even Enoch and Elijah Reserved for Death.
Chapter LI.-Death Entirely Separates the Soul from the Body.
Chapter LII.-All Kinds of Death a Violence to Nature, Arising from Sin.-Sin an Intrusion Upon Nature as God Created It.
Chapter LIII.-The Entire Soul Being Indivisible Remains to the Last Act of Vitality; Never Partially or Fractionally Withdrawn from the Body.
Chapter LIV.-Whither Does the Soul Retire When It Quits the Body? Opinions of Philosophers All More or Less Absurd. The Hades of Plato.
Chapter LV.-The Christian Idea of the Position of Hades; The Blessedness of Paradise Immediately After Death. The Privilege of the Martyrs.
Chapter LVI.-Refutation of the Homeric View of the Soul's Detention from Hades Owing to the Body's Being Unburied. That Souls Prematurely Separated from the Body Had to Wait for Admission into Hades Also Refuted.
Chapter LVII.-Magic and Sorcery Only Apparent in Their Effects. God Alone Can Raise the Dead.
Chapter LVIII.-Conclusion. Points Postponed. All Souls are Kept in Hades Until the Resurrection, Anticipating Their Ultimate Misery or Bliss.
The Prescription Against Heretics.
Chapter I.-Introductory. Heresies Must Exist, and Even Abound; They are a Probation to Faith.
Chapter II.-Analogy Between Fevers and Heresies. Heresies Not to Be Wondered At: Their Strength Derived from Weakness of Men's Faith. They Have Not the Truth. Simile of Pugilists and Gladiators in Illustration.
Chapter III.-Weak People Fall an Easy Prey to Heresy, Which Derives Strength from the General Frailty of Mankind. Eminent Men Have Fallen from Faith; Saul, David, Solomon.the Constancy of Christ.
Chapter IV.-Warnings Against Heresy Given Us in the New Testament. Sundry Passages Adduced. These Imply the Possibility of Falling into Heresy.
Chapter V.-Heresy, as Well as Schism and Dissension, Disapproved by St. Paul, Who Speaks of the Necessity of Heresies, Not as a Good, But, by the Will of God, Salutary Trials for Training and Approving the Faith of Christians.
Chapter VI.-Heretics are Self-Condemned. Heresy is Self-Will, Whilst Faith is Submission of Our Will to the Divine Authority. The Heresy of Apelles.
Chapter VII.-Pagan Philosophy the Parent of Heresies. The Connection Between Deflections from Christian Faith and the Old Systems of Pagan Philosophy.
Chapter VIII.-Christ's Word, Seek, and Ye Shall Find, No Warrant for Heretical Deviations from the Faith. All Christ's Words to the Jews are for Us, Not Indeed as Specific Commands, But as Principles to Be Applied.
Chapter IX.-The Research After Definite Truth Enjoined on Us. When We Have Discovered This, We Should Be Content.
Chapter X.-One Has Succeeded in Finding Definite Truth, When He Believes. Heretical Wits are Always Offering Many Things for Vain Discussion, But We are Not to Be Always Seeking.
Chapter XI.-After We Have Believed, Search Should Cease; Otherwise It Must End in a Denial of What We Have Believed. No Other Object Proposed for Our Faith.
Chapter XII.-A Proper Seeking After Divine Knowledge, Which Will Never Be Out of Place or Excessive, is Always Within the Rule of Faith.
Chapter XIII.-Summary of the Creed, or Rule of Faith. No Questions Ever Raised About It by Believers. Heretics Encourage and Perpetuate Thought Independent of Christ's Teaching.
Chapter XIV.-Curiosity Ought Not Range Beyond the Rule of Faith. Restless Curiosity, the Feature of Heresy.
Chapter XV.-Heretics Not to Be Allowed to Argue Out of the Scriptures. The Scriptures, in Fact, Do Not Belong to Them.
Chapter XVI.-Apostolic Sanction to This Exclusion of Heretics from the Use of the Scriptures, Heretics, According to the Apostle, are Not to Be Disputed With, But to Be Admonished.
Chapter XVII.-Heretics, in Fact, Do Not Use, But Only Abuse, Scripture. No Common Ground Between Them and You.
Chapter XVIII.-Great Evil Ensues to the Weak in Faith, from Any Discussion Out of the Scriptures. Conviction Never Comes to the Heretic from Such a Process.
Chapter XIX. Appeal, in Discussion of Heresy, Lies Not to the Scriptures. The Scriptures Belong Only to Those Who Have the Rule of Faith.
Chapter XX.-Christ First Delivered the Faith. The Apostles Spread It; They Founded Churches as the Depositories Thereof. That Faith, Therefore, is Apostolic, Which Descended from the Apostles, Through Apostolic Churches.
Chapter XXI.-All Doctrine True Which Comes Through the Church from the Apostles, Who Were Taught by God Through Christ. All Opinion Which Has No Such Divine Origin and Apostolic Tradition to Show, is Ipso Facto False.
Chapter XXII.-Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission.
Chapter XXIII.-The Apostles Not Ignorant. The Heretical Pretence of St. Peter's Imperfection Because He Was Rebuked by St. Paul. St. Peter Not Rebuked for Error in Teaching.
Chapter XXIV.-St. Peter's Further Vindication. St. Paul Not Superior to St. Peter in Teaching. Nothing Imparted to the Former in the Third Heaven Enabled Him to Add to the Faith. Heretics Boast as If Favoured with Some of the Secrets Imparted to Him.
Chapter XXV.-The Apostles Did Not Keep Back Any of the Deposit of Doctrine Which Christ Had Entrusted to Them. St. Paul Openly Committed His Whole Doctrine to Timothy.
Chapter XXVI.-The Apostles Did in All Cases Teach the Whole Truth to the Whole Church. No Reservation, Nor Partial Communication to Favourite Friends.
Chapter XXVII.-Granted that the Apostles Transmitted the Whole Doctrine of Truth, May Not the Churches Have Been Unfaithful in Handing It On? Inconceivable that This Can Have Been the Case.
Chapter XXVIII.-The One Tradition of the Faith, Which is Substantially Alike in the Churches Everywhere, a Good Proof that the Transmission Has Been True and Honest in the Main.
Chapter XXIX.-The Truth Not Indebted to the Care of the Heretics; It Had Free Course Before They Appeared. Priority of the Church's Doctrine a Mark of Its Truth.
Chapter XXX.-Comparative Lateness of Heresies. Marcion's Heresy. Some Personal Facts About Him. The Heresy of Apelles. Character of This Man; Philumene; Valentinus; Nigidius, and Hermogenes.
Chapter XXXI.-Truth First, Falsehood Afterwards, as Its Perversion. Christ's Parable Puts the Sowing of the Good Seed Before the Useless Tares.
Chapter XXXII.-None of the Heretics Claim Succession from the Apostles. New Churches Still Apostolic, Because Their Faith is that Which the Apostles Taught and Handed Down. The Heretics Challenged to Show Any Apostolic Credentials.
Chapter XXXIII.-Present Heresies (Seedlings of the Tares Noted by the Sacred Writers) Already Condemned in Scripture. This Descent of Later Heresy from the Earlier Traced in Several Instances.
Chapter XXXIV.-No Early Controversy Respecting the Divine Creator; No Second God Introduced at First. Heresies Condemned Alike by the Sentence and the Silence of Holy Scripture.
Chapter XXXV.-Let Heretics Maintain Their Claims by a Definite and Intelligible Evidence. This the Only Method of Solving Their Questions. Catholics Appeal Always to Evidence Traceable to Apostolic Sources.
Chapter XXXVI.-The Apostolic Churches the Voice of the Apostles. Let the Heretics Examine Their Apostolic Claims, in Each Case, Indisputable. The Church of Rome Doubly Apostolic; Its Early Eminence and Excellence. Heresy, as Perverting the Truth, is Connected Therewith.
Chapter XXXVII.-Heretics Not Being Christians, But Rather Perverters of Christ's Teaching, May Not Claim the Christian Scriptures. These are a Deposit, Committed to and Carefully Kept by the Church.
Chapter XXXVIII.-Harmony of the Church and the Scriptures. Heretics Have Tampered with the Scriptures, and Mutilated, and Altered Them. Catholics Never Change the Scriptures, Which Always Testify for Them.
Chapter XXXIX.-What St. Paul Calls Spiritual Wickednesses Displayed by Pagan Authors, and by Heretics, in No Dissimilar Manner. Holy Scripture Especially Liable to Heretical Manipulation. Affords Material for Heresies, Just as Virgil Has Been the Groundwork of Literary Plagiarisms, Different in Purport from the Original.
Chapter XL.-No Difference in the Spirit of Idolatry and of Heresy. In the Rites of Idolatry, Satan Imitated and Distorted the Divine Institutions of the Older Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures Corrupted by Him in the Perversions of the Various Heretics.
Chapter XLI.-The Conduct of Heretics: Its Frivolity, Worldliness, and Irregularity. The Notorious Wantonness of Their Women.
Chapter XLII.-Heretics Work to Pull Down and to Destroy, Not to Edify and Elevate. Heretics Do Not Adhere Even to Their Own Traditions, But Harbour Dissent Even from Their Own Founders.
Chapter XLIII.-Loose Company Preferred by Heretics. Ungodliness the Effect of Their Teaching the Very Opposite of Catholic Truth, Which Promotes the Fear of God, Both in Religious Ordinances and Practical Life.
Chapter XLIV.-Heresy Lowers Respect for Christ, and Destroys All Fear of His Great Judgment. The Tendency of Heretical Teaching on This Solemn Article of the Faith. The Present Treatise an Introduction to Certain Other Anti-Heretical Works of Our Author.
Elucidations.
I
II
III
IV
V
The Five Books Against Marcion.
Introductory Notice to the Five Books Against Marcion.
Dedication.
Preface by the Translator.
Book I.
Chapter I.-Preface. Reason for a New Work Pontus Lends Its Rough Character to the Heretic Marcion, a Native. His Heresy Characterized in a Brief Invective.
Chapter II.-Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God.
Chapter III.-The Unity of God. He is the Supreme Being, and There Cannot Be a Second Supreme.
Chapter IV.-Defence of the Divine Unity Against Objection. No Analogy Between Human Powers and God's Sovereignty. The Objection Otherwise Untenable, for Why Stop at Two Gods?
Chapter V.-The Dual Principle Falls to the Ground; Plurality of Gods, of Whatever Number, More Consistent. Absurdity and Injury to Piety Resulting from Marcion's Duality.
Chapter VI.-Marcion Untrue to His Theory. He Pretends that His Gods are Equal, But He Really Makes Them Diverse. Then, Allowing Their Divinity, Denies This Diversity.
Chapter VII.-Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous, for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in Its General Terms, Thus Far Treated.
Chapter VIII.-Specific Points. The Novelty of Marcion's God Fatal to His Pretensions. God is from Everlasting, He Cannot Be in Any Wise New.
Chapter IX.-Marcion's Gnostic Pretensions Vain, for the True God is Neither Unknown Nor Uncertain. The Creator, Whom He Owns to Be God, Alone Supplies an Induction, by Which to Judge of the True God.
Chapter X.-The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation. Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses.
Chapter XI.-The Evidence for God External to Him; But the External Creation Which Yields This Evidence is Really Not Extraneous, for All Things are God's. Marcion's God, Having Nothing to Show for Himself, No God at All. Marcion's Scheme Absurdly Defective, Not Furnishing Evidence for His New God's Existence, Which Should at Least Be Able to Compete with the Full Evidence of the Creator.
Chapter XII.-Impossibility of Acknowledging God Without This External Evidence Of His Existence. Marcion's Rejection of Such Evidence for His God Savours of Impudence and Malignity.
Chapter XIII.-The Marcionites Depreciate the Creation, Which, However, is a Worthy Witness of God. This Worthiness Illustrated by References to the Heathen Philosophers, Who Were Apt to Invest the Several Parts of Creation with Divine Attributes.
Chapter XIV.-All Portions of Creation Attest the Excellence of the Creator, Whom Marcion Vilifies. His Inconsistency Herein Exposed. Marcion's Own God Did Not Hesitate to Use the Creator's Works in Instituting His Own Religion.
Chapter XV.-The Lateness of the Revelation of Marcion's God. The Question of the Place Occupied by the Rival Deities. Instead of Two Gods, Marcion Really (Although, as It Would Seem, Unconsciously) Had Nine Gods in His System.
Chapter XVI.-Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works of the Creator, the One God-Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible.
Chapter XVII.-Not Enough, as the Marcionites Pretend, that the Supreme God Should Rescue Man; He Must Also Have Created Him. The Existence of God Proved by His Creation, a Prior Consideration to His Character.
Chapter XVIII.-Notwithstanding Their Conceits, the God of the Marcionites Fails in the Vouchers Both of Created Evidence and of Adequate Revelation.
Chapter XIX.-Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion's God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Between the Law and the Gospels.
Chapter XX.-Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contention of St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul's Position and Argument. Marcion's Doctrine Confuted Out of St. Paul's Teaching, Which Agrees Wholly with the Creator's Decrees.
Chapter XXI.-St. Paul Preached No New God, When He Announced the Repeal of Some of God's Ancient Ordinances. Never Any Hesitation About Belief in the Creator, as the God Whom Christ Revealed, Until Marcion's Heresy.
Chapter XXII.-God's Attribute of Goodness Considered as Natural; The God of Marcion Found Wanting Herein. It Came Not to Man's Rescue When First Wanted.
Chapter XXIII.-God's Attribute of Goodness Considered as Rational. Marcion's God Defective Here Also; His Goodness Irrational and Misapplied.
Chapter XXIV.-The Goodness of Marcion's God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion's Contempt of the Body Absurd.
Chapter XXV.-God is Not a Being of Simple Goodness; Other Attributes Belong to Him. Marcion Shows Inconsistency in the Portraiture of His Simply Good and Emotionless God.
Chapter XXVI.-In the Attribute of Justice, Marcion's God is Hopelessly Weak and Ungodlike. He Dislikes Evil, But Does Not Punish Its Perpetration.
Chapter XXVII.-Dangerous Effects to Religion and Morality of the Doctrine of So Weak a God.
Chapter XXVIII.-This Perverse Doctrine Deprives Baptism of All Its Grace. If Marcion Be Right, the Sacrament Would Confer No Remission of Sins, No Regeneration, No Gift of the Spirit.
Chapter XXIX.-Marcion Forbids Marriage. Tertullian Eloquently Defends It as Holy, and Carefully Discriminates Between Marcion's Doctrine and His Own Montanism.
Book II.
Chapter I.-The Methods of Marcion's Argument Incorrect and Absurd. The Proper Course of the Argument.
Chapter II.-The True Doctrine of God the Creator. The Heretics Pretended to a Knowledge of the Divine Being, Opposed to and Subversive of Revelation. God's Nature and Ways Past Human Discovery. Adam's Heresy.
Chapter III.-God Known by His Works. His Goodness Shown in His Creative Energy; But Everlasting in Its Nature; Inherent in God, Previous to All Exhibition of It. The First Stage of This Goodness Prior to Man.
Chapter IV.-The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual as Well as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man's Free-Will.
Chapter V.-Marcion's Cavils Considered. His Objection Refuted, I.e., Man's Fall Showed Failure in God. The Perfection of Man's Being Lay in His Liberty, Which God Purposely Bestowed on Him. The Fall Imputable to Man's Own Choice.
Chapter VI.-This Liberty Vindicated in Respect of Its Original Creation; Suitable Also for Exhibiting the Goodness and the Purpose of God. Reward and Punishment Impossible If Man Were Good or Evil Through Necessity and Not Choice.
Chapter VII.-If God Had Anyhow Checked Man's Liberty, Marcion Would Have Been Ready with Another and Opposite Cavil. Man's Fall Foreseen by God. Provision Made for It Remedially and Consistently with His Truth and Goodness.
Chapter VIII.-Man, Endued with Liberty, Superior to the Angels. Overcomes Even the Angel Which Lured Him to His Fall, When Repentant and Resuming Obedience to God.
Chapter IX.-Another Cavil Answered, I.e., the Fall Imputable to God, Because Man's Soul is a Portion of the Spiritual Essence of the Creator. The Divine Afflatus Not in Fault in the Sin of Man, But the Human Will Which Was Additional to It.
Chapter X.-Another Cavil Met, I.e., the Devil Who Instigated Man to Sin Himself the Creature of God. Nay, the Primeval Cherub Only Was God's Work. The Devilish Nature Superadded by Wilfulness. In Man's Recovery the Devil is Vanquished in a Conflict on His Own Ground.
Chapter XI.-If, After Man's Sin, God Exercised His Attribute of Justice and Judgment, This Was Compatible with His Goodness, and Enhances the True Idea of the Perfection of God's Character.
Chapter XII.-The Attributes of Goodness and Justice Should Not Be Separated. They are Compatible in the True God. The Function of Justice in the Divine Being Described.
Chapter XIII.-Further Description of the Divine Justice; Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulated the Divine Goodness, God's Claims on Our Love and Our Fear Reconciled.
Chapter XIV.-Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is the Author, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and Included in His Justice.
Chapter XV.-The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial.
Chapter XVI.-To the Severity of God There Belong Accessory Qualities, Compatible with Justice. If Human Passions are Predicated of God, They Must Not Be Measured on the Scale of Human Imperfection.
Chapter XVII.-Trace God's Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness.
Chapter XVIII.-Some of God's Laws Defended as Good, Which the Marcionites Impeached, Such as the Lex Talionis. Useful Purposes in a Social and Moral Point of View of This, and Sundry Other Enactments.
Chapter XIX.-The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God. The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness. Many Beautiful Passages from Them Quoted in Illustration of This Attribute.
Chapter XX.-The Marcionites Charged God with Having Instigated the Hebrews to Spoil the Egyptians. Defence of the Divine Dispensation in that Matter.
Chapter XXI.-The Law of the Sabbath-Day Explained. The Eight Days' Procession Around Jericho. The Gathering of Sticks a Violation.
Chapter XXII.-The Brazen Serpent and the Golden Cherubim Were Not Violations of the Second Commandment. Their Meaning.
Chapter XXIII.-God's Purposes in Election and Rejection of the Same Men, Such as King Saul, Explained, in Answer to the Marcionite Cavil.
Chapter XXIV.-Instances of God's Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated.
Chapter XXV.-God's Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, Admirably Explained and Defended.
Chapter XXVI.-The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God's Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ.
Chapter XXVII.-Other Objections Considered. God's Condescension in the Incarnation Nothing Derogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained by the Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils.
Chapter XXVIII.-The Tables Turned Upon Marcion, by Contrasts, in Favour of the True God.
Chapter XXIX.-Marcion's Own Antitheses, If Only the Title and Object of the Work Be Excepted, Afford Proofs of the Consistent Attributes of the True God.
Book III.
Chapter I.-Introductory; A Brief Statement of the Preceding Argument in Connection with the Subject of This Book.
Chapter II.-Why Christ's Coming Should Be Previously Announced.
Chapter III.-Miracles Alone, Without Prophecy, an Insufficient Evidence of Christ's Mission.
Chapter IV.-Marcion's Christ Not the Subject of Prophecy. The Absurd Consequences of This Theory of the Heretic.
Chapter V.-Sundry Features of the Prophetic Style: Principles of Its Interpretation.
Chapter VI.-Community in Certain Points of Marcionite and Jewish Error. Prophecies of Christ's Rejection Examined.
Chapter VII.-Prophecy Sets Forth Two Different Conditions of Christ, One Lowly, the Other Majestic. This Fact Points to Two Advents of Christ.
Chapter VIII.-Absurdity of Marcion's Docetic Opinions; Reality of Christ's Incarnation.
Chapter IX.-Refutation of Marcion's Objections Derived from the Cases of the Angels, and the Pre-Incarnate Manifestations of the Son of God.
Chapter X.-The Truly Incarnate State More Worthy of God Than Marcion's Fantastic Flesh.
Chapter XI.-Christ Was Truly Born; Marcion's Absurd Cavil in Defence of a Putative Nativity.
Chapter XII.-Isaiah's Prophecy of Emmanuel. Christ Entitled to that Name.
Chapter XIII.-Isaiah's Prophecies Considered. The Virginity of Christ's Mother a Sign. Other Prophecies Also Signs. Metaphorical Sense of Proper Names in Sundry Passages of the Prophets.
Chapter XIV.-Figurative Style of Certain Messianic Prophecies in the Psalms. Military Metaphors Applied to Christ.
Chapter XV.-The Title Christ Suitable as a Name of the Creator's Son, But Unsuited to Marcion's Christ.
Chapter XVI.-The Sacred Name Jesus Most Suited to the Christ of the Creator. Joshua a Type of Him.
Chapter XVII.-Prophecies in Isaiah and the Psalms Respecting Christ's Humiliation.
Chapter XVIII. -Types of the Death of Christ. Isaac; Joseph; Jacob Against Simeon and Levi; Moses Praying Against Amalek; The Brazen Serpent.
Chapter XIX.-Prophecies of the Death of Christ.
Chapter XX. -The Subsequent Influence of Christ's Death in the World Predicted. The Sure Mercies of David. What These are.
Chapter XXI.-The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.
Chapter XXII.-The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel, Foretold.
Chapter XXIII.-The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ, Foretold.
Chapter XXV.-Christ's Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints.
Book IV.
Chapter I.-Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion's Own Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments.these Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them.
Chapter II.-St. Luke's Gospel, Selected by Marcion as His Authority, and Mutilated by Him. The Other Gospels Equally Authoritative. Marcion's Terms of Discussion, However, Accepted, and Grappled with on the Footing of St. Luke's Gospel Alone.
Chapter III. -Marcion Insinuated the Untrustworthiness of Certain Apostles Whom St. Paul Rebuked. The Rebuke Shows that It Cannot Be Regarded as Derogating from Their Authority. The Apostolic Gospels Perfectly Authentic.
Chapter IV.-Each Side Claims to Possess the True Gospel. Antiquity the Criterion of Truth in Such a Matter. Marcion's Pretensions as an Amender of the Gospel.
Chapter V.-By the Rule of Antiquity, the Catholic Gospels are Found to Be True, Including the Real St. Luke's. Marcion's Only a Mutilated Edition. The Heretic's Weakness and Inconsistency in Ignoring the Other Gospels.
Chapter VI.-Marcion's Object in Adulterating the Gospel. No Difference Between the Christ of the Creator and the Christ of the Gospel. No Rival Christ Admissible. The Connection of the True Christ with the Dispensation of the Old Testament Asserted.
Chapter VII.-Marcion Rejected the Preceding Portion of St. Luke's Gospel. Therefore This Review Opens with an Examination of the Case of the Evil Spirit in the Synagogue of Capernaum. He Whom the Demon Acknowledged Was the Creator's Christ.
Chapter VIII.-Other Proofs from the Same Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, and Was Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of God, Was the Creator's Christ. As Occasion Offers, the Docetic Errors of Marcion are Exposed.
Chapter IX.-Out of St. Luke's Fifth Chapter are Found Proofs of Christ's Belonging to the Creator, E.g. In the Call of Fishermen to the Apostolic Office, and in the Cleansing of the Leper. Christ Compared with the Prophet Elisha.
Chapter X.-Further Proofs of the Same Truth in the Same Chapter, from the Healing of the Paralytic, and from the Designation Son of Man Which Jesus Gives Himself. Tertullian Sustains His Argument by Several Quotations from the Prophets.
Chapter XI.-The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as the Bridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ with the Creator.
Chapter XII.-Christ's Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from Pharisaic Neglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples Who Plucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath.
Chapter XIII.-Christ's Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus-Such as His Ascent to Praying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon's Name to Peter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him.
Chapter XIV.-Christ's Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles the Creator's Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore the Conclusion that Jesus is the Creator's Christ. The Beatitudes.
Chapter XV.-Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator's Disposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This.
Chapter XVI.-The Precept of Loving One's Enemies. It is as Much Taught in the Creator's Scriptures of the Old Testament as in Christ's Sermon. The Lex Talionis of Moses Admirably Explained in Consistency with the Kindness and Love Which Jesus Christ Came to Proclaim and Enforce in Behalf of the Creator. Sundry Precepts of Charity Explained.
Chapter XVII.-Concerning Loans. Prohibition of Usury and the Usurious Spirit. The Law Preparatory to the Gospel in Its Provisions; So in the Present Instance. On Reprisals. Christ's Teaching Throughout Proves Him to Be Sent by the Creator.
Chapter XVIII.-Concerning the Centurion's Faith. The Raising of the Widow's Son. John Baptist, and His Message to Christ; And the Woman Who Was a Sinner. Proofs Extracted from All of the Relation of Christ to the Creator.
Chapter XIX.-The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ's Teaching by Parables. The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ's Remark, When Told of His Mother and His Brethren. Explanation of Christ's Apparent Rejection Them.
Chapter XX.-Comparison of Christ's Power Over Winds and Waves with Moses' Command of the Waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Christ's Power Over Unclean Spirits. The Case of the Legion. The Cure of the Issue of Blood. The Mosaic Uncleanness on This Point Explained.
Chapter XXI.-Christ's Connection with the Creator Shown from Several Incidents in the Old Testament, Compared with St. Luke's Narrative of the Mission of the Disciples. The Feeding of the Multitude. The Confession of St. Peter. Being Ashamed of Christ. This Shame is Only Possible of the True Christ. Marcionite Pretensions Absurd.
Chapter XXII.-The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent in Associating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses and Elijah. St. Peter's Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle.
Chapter XXIII.-Impossible that Marcion's Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. Such Loving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for the Other. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ Samaria.
Chapter XXIV.-On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ's Charge to Them. Precedents Drawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion's Christ Could Have Given the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions.
Chapter XXV.-Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed from the Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke's Chap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator's Christ.
Chapter XXVI.-From St. Luke's Eleventh Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from the Creator. The Lord's Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ's Discourse on Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd.
Chapter XXVII.-Christ's Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign. His Censure of Their Love of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scripture Abounds with Admonitions of a Similar Purport. Proofs of His Mission from the Creator.
Chapter XXVIII.-Examples from the Old Testament, Balaam, Moses, and Hezekiah, to Show How Completely the Instruction and Conduct of Christ Are in Keeping with the Will and Purpose of the Creator.
Chapter XXIX.-Parallels from the Prophets to Illustrate Christ's Teaching in the Rest of This Chapter of St. Luke. The Sterner Attributes of Christ, in His Judicial Capacity, Show Him to Have Come from the Creator. Incidental Rebukes of Marcion's Doctrine of Celibacy, and of His Altering of the Text of the Gospel.
Chapter XXX.-Parables of the Mustard-Seed, and of the Leaven. Transition to the Solemn Exclusion Which Will Ensue When the Master of the House Has Shut the Door. This Judicial Exclusion Will Be Administered by Christ, Who is Shown Thereby to Possess the Attribute of the Creator.
Chapter XXXI.-Christ's Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator's Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion's Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation.
Chapter XXXII.-A Sort of Sorites, as the Logicians Call It, to Show that the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Drachma Have No Suitable Application to the Christ of Marcion.
Chapter XXXIII.-The Marcionite Interpretation of God and Mammon Refuted. The Prophets Justify Christ's Admonition Against Covetousness and Pride. John Baptist the Link Between the Old and the New Dispensations of the Creator. So Said Christ-But So Also Had Isaiah Said Long Before. One Only God, the Creator, by His Own Will Changed the Dispensations. No New God Had a Hand in the Change.
Chapter XXXIV.-Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptist and Herod. Marcion's Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in the Parable of the Rich Man and the Poor Man in Hades Confuted. The Creator's Appointment Manifested in Both States.
Chapter XXXV.-The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted in Contradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old Testament Analogies. The Kingdom of God Within You; This Teaching Similar to that of Moses. Christ, the Stone Rejected by the Builders. Indications of Severity in the Coming of Christ. Proofs that He is Not the Impassible Being Marcion Imagined.
Chapter XXXVI.-The Parables of the Importunate Widow, and of the Pharisee and the Publican. Christ's Answer to the Rich Ruler, the Cure of the Blind Man. His Salutation-Son of David. All Proofs of Christ's Relation to the Creator, Marcion's Antithesis Between David and Christ Confuted.
Chapter XXXVII.-Christ and Zacch¦us. The Salvation of the Body as Denied by Marcion. The Parable of the Ten Servants Entrusted with Ten Pounds. Christ a Judge, Who is to Administer the Will of the Austere Man, I.e. The Creator.
Chapter XXXVIII.-Christ's Refutations of the Pharisees. Rendering Dues to C¦sar and to God. Next of the Sadducees, Respecting Marriage in the Resurrection. These Prove Him Not to Be Marcion's But the Creator's Christ. Marcion's Tamperings in Order to Make Room for His Second God, Exposed and Confuted.
Chapter XXXIX.-Concerning Those Who Come in the Name of Christ. The Terrible Signs of His Coming. He Whose Coming is So Grandly Described Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, is None Other Than the Christ of the Creator. This Proof Enhanced by the Parable of the Fig-Tree and All the Trees. Parallel Passages of Prophecy.
Chapter XL.-How the Steps in the Passion of the Saviour Were Predetermined in Prophecy. The Passover. The Treachery of Judas. The Institution of the Lord's Supper. The Docetic Error of Marcion Confuted by the Body and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter XLI.-The Woe Pronounced on the Traitor a Judicial Act, Which Disproves Christ to Be Such as Marcion Would Have Him to Be. Christ's Conduct Before the Council Explained. Christ Even Then Directs the Minds of His Judges to the Prophetic Evidences of His Own Mission. The Moral Responsibility of These Men Asserted.
Chapter XLII.-Other Incidents of the Passion Minutely Compared with Prophecy. Pilate and Herod. Barabbas Preferred to Jesus. Details of the Crucifixion. The Earthquake and the MID-Day Darkness. All Wonderfully Foretold in the Scriptures of the Creator. Christ's Giving Up the Ghost No Evidence of Marcion's Docetic Opinions. In His Sepulture There is a Refutation Thereof.
Chapter XLIII.-Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion's Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point.
Elucidations.
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
Book V.
Chapter I.-Introductory. The Apostle Paul Himself Not the Preacher of a New God. Called by Jesus Christ, Although After the Other Apostles, His Mission Was from the Creator. States How. The Argument, as in the Case of the Gospel, Confining Proofs to Such Portions of St. Paul's Writings as Marcion Allowed.
Chapter II.-On the Epistle to the Galatians. The Abolition of the Ordinances of the Mosaic Law No Proof of Another God. The Divine Lawgiver, the Creator Himself, Was the Abrogator. The Apostle's Doctrine in the First Chapter Shown to Accord with the Teaching of the Old Testament. The Acts of the Apostles Shown to Be Genuine Against Marcion. This Book Agrees with the Pauline Epistles.
Chapter III.-St. Paul Quite in Accordance with St. Peter and Other Apostles of the Circumcision. His Censure of St. Peter Explained, and Rescued from Marcion's Misapplication. The Strong Protests of This Epistle Against Judaizers, Yet Its Teaching is Shown to Be in Keeping with the Law and the Prophets, Marcion's Tampering with St. Paul's Writings Censured.
Chapter IV.-Another Instance of Marcion's Tampering with St. Paul's Text. The Fulness of Time, Announced by the Apostle, Foretold by the Prophets. Mosaic Rites Abrogated by the Creator Himself. Marcion's Tricks About Abraham's Name. The Creator, by His Christ, the Fountain of the Grace and the Liberty Which St. Paul Announced. Marcion's Docetism Refuted.
Chapter V.-The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shown to Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed by the Creator. Marcion Only Perpetuates the Offence and Foolishness of Christ's Cross by His Impious Severance of the Gospel from the Creator. Analogies Between the Law and the Gospel in the Matter of Weak Things, and Foolish Things and Base Things.
Chapter VI.-The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God's Hiding of Himself, and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion's God Such a Concealment and Manifestation Impossible. God's Predestination. No Such Prior System of Intention Possible to a God Previously Unknown as Was Marcion's. The Powers of the World Which Crucified Christ. St. Paul, as a Wise Master-Builder, Associated with Prophecy. Sundry Injunctions of the Apostle Parallel with the Teaching of the Old Testament.
Chapter VII.-St. Paul's Phraseology Often Suggested by the Jewish Scriptures. Christ Our Passover-A Phrase Which Introduces Us to the Very Heart of the Ancient Dispensation. Christ's True Corporeity. Married and Unmarried States. Meaning of the Time is Short. In His Exhortations and Doctrine, the Apostle Wholly Teaches According to the Mind and Purposes of the God of the Old Testament. Prohibition of Meats and Drinks Withdrawn by the Creator.
Chapter VIII.-Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man. Spiritual Gifts. The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle and the Prophet Compared. Marcion Challenged to Produce Anything Like These Gifts of the Spirit Foretold in Prophecy in His God.
Chapter IX.-The Doctrine of the Resurrection. The Body Will Rise Again. Christ's Judicial Character. Jewish Perversions of Prophecy Exposed and Confuted. Messianic Psalms Vindicated. Jewish and Rationalistic Interpretations on This Point Similar. Jesus-Not Hezekiah or Solomon-The Subject of These Prophecies in the Psalms. None But He is the Christ of the Old and the New Testaments.
Chapter X.-Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Continued. How are the Dead Raised? and with What Body Do They Come? These Questions Answered in Such a Sense as to Maintain the Truth of the Raised Body, Against Marcion. Christ as the Second Adam Connected with the Creator of the First Man. Let Us Bear the Image of the Heavenly. The Triumph Over Death in Accordance with the Prophets. Hosea and St. Paul Compared.
Chapter XI.-The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The Creator the Father of Mercies. Shown to Be Such in the Old Testament, and Also in Christ. The Newness of the New Testament. The Veil of Obdurate Blindness Upon Israel, Not Reprehensible on Marcion's Principles. The Jews Guilty in Rejecting the Christ of the Creator. Satan, the God of This World. The Treasure in Earthen Vessels Explained Against Marcion. The Creator's Relation to These Vessels, I.e. Our Bodies.
Chapter XII.-The Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle's Consolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to Arise Under Anti-Christian Oppression. The Judgment-Seat of Christ-The Idea, Anti-Marcionite. Paradise. Judicial Characteristics of Christ Which are Inconsistent with the Heretical Views About Him; The Apostle's Sharpness, or Severity, Shows Him to Be a Fit Preacher of the Creator's Christ.
Chapter XIII.-The Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul Cannot Help Using Phrases Which Bespeak the Justice of God, Even When He is Eulogizing the Mercies of the Gospel. Marcion Particularly Hard in Mutilation of This Epistle. Yet Our Author Argues on Common Ground. The Judgment at Last Will Be in Accordance with the Gospel. The Justified by Faith Exhorted to Have Peace with God. The Administration of the Old and the New Dispensations in One and the Same Hand.
Chapter XIV.-The Divine Power Shown in Christ's Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul's Phrase. Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide Chasm Made in the Epistle by Marcion's Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle for Their Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given that St. Paul's God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed, Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator's Scriptures.
Chapter XV.-The First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The Shorter Epistles Pungent in Sense and Very Valuable. St. Paul Upbraids the Jews for the Death First of Their Prophets and Then of Christ. This a Presumption that Both Christ and the Prophets Pertained to the Same God. The Law of Nature, Which is in Fact the Creator's Discipline, and the Gospel of Christ Both Enjoin Chastity. The Resurrection Provided for in the Old Testament by Christ. Man's Compound Nature.
Chapter XVI.-The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. An Absurd Erasure of Marcion; Its Object Transparent. The Final Judgment on the Heathen as Well as the Jews Could Not Be Administered by Marcion's Christ. The Man of Sin-What? Inconsistency of Marcion's View. The Antichrist. The Great Events of the Last Apostasy Within the Providence and Intention of the Creator, Whose are All Things from the Beginning. Similarity of the Pauline Precepts with Those of the Creator.
Chapter XVII.-The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians. Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of the Creation. No Room for Marcion's Christ Here. Numerous Parallels Between This Epistle and Passages in the Old Testament. The Prince of the Power of the Air, and the God of This World-Who? Creation and Regeneration the Work of One God. How Christ Has Made the Law Obsolete. A Vain Erasure of Marcion's. The Apostles as Well as the Prophets from the Creator.
Chapter XVIII.-Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion's Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressions of the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passages of This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets. All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator.
Chapter XIX.-The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Application of the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in the Creator's Ancient Dispensations. What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The Epicurean Character of Marcion's God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to Christ What the Shadow is to the Substance.
Chapter XX.-The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ No Argument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul's Phrases-Form of a Servant, Likeness, and Fashion of a Man-No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as Marcion Alleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain Contrasts Mentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body, and the Change Thereof.
Chapter XXI.-The Epistle to Philemon. This Epistle Not Mutilated. Marcion's Inconsistency in Accepting This, and Rejecting Three Other Epistles Addressed to Individuals. Conclusions. Tertullian Vindicates the Symmetry and Deliberate Purpose of His Work Against Marcion.
Elucidations.
I
II
Against Hermogenes.
Chapter I.-The Opinions of Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to Be Heretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy. Some of the Tenets Mentioned.
Chapter II.-Hermogenes, After a Perverse Induction from Mere Heretical Assumptions, Concludes that God Created All Things Out of Pre-Existing Matter.
Chapter III.-An Argument of Hermogenes. The Answer: While God is a Title Eternally Applicable to the Divine Being, Lord and Father are Only Relative Appellations, Not Eternally Applicable. An Inconsistency in the Argument of Hermogenes Pointed Out.
Chapter IV.-Hermogenes Gives Divine Attributes to Matter, and So Makes Two Gods.
Chapter V.-Hermogenes Coquets with His Own Argument, as If Rather Afraid of It. After Investing Matter with Divine Qualities, He Tries to Make It Somehow Inferior to God.
Chapter VI.-The Shifts to Which Hermogenes is Reduced, Who Deifies Matter, and Yet is Unwilling to Hold Him Equal with the Divine Creator.
Chapter VII.-Hermogenes Held to His Theory in Order that Its Absurdity May Be Exposed on His Own Principles.
Chapter VIII.-On His Own Principles, Hermogenes Makes Matter, on the Whole, Superior to God.
Chapter IX.-Sundry Inevitable But Intolerable Conclusions from the Principles of Hermogenes.
Chapter X.-To What Straits Hermogenes Absurdly Reduces the Divine Being. He Does Nothing Short of Making Him the Author of Evil.
Chapter XI.-Hermogenes Makes Great Efforts to Remove Evil from God to Matter. How He Fails to Do This Consistently with His Own Argument.
Chapter XII.-The Mode of Controversy Changed. The Premisses of Hermogenes Accepted, in Order to Show into What Confusion They Lead Him.
Chapter XIII.-Another Ground of Hermogenes that Matter Has Some Good in It. Its Absurdity.
Chapter XIV.-Tertullian Pushes His Opponent into a Dilemma.
Chapter XV.-The Truth, that God Made All Things from Nothing, Rescued from the Opponent's Flounderings.
Chapter XVI.-A Series of Dilemmas. They Show that Hermogenes Cannot Escape from the Orthodox Conclusion.
Chapter XVII.-The Truth of God's Work in Creation. You Cannot Depart in the Least from It, Without Landing Yourself in an Absurdity.
Chapter XVIII.-An Eulogy on the Wisdom and Word of God, by Which God Made All Things of Nothing.
Chapter XIX.-An Appeal to the History of Creation. True Meaning of the Term Beginning, Which the Heretic Curiously Wrests to an Absurd Sense.
Chapter XX.-Meaning of the Phrase-In the Beginning. Tertullian Connects It with the Wisdom of God, and Elicits from It the Truth that the Creation Was Not Out of Pre-Existent Matter.
Chapter XXI.-A Retort of Heresy Answered. That Scripture Should in So Many Words Tell Us that the World Was Made of Nothing is Superfluous.
Chapter XXII.-This Conclusion Confirmed by the Usage of Holy Scripture in Its History of the Creation. Hermogenes in Danger of the Woe Pronounced Against Adding to Scripture.
Chapter XXIII.-Hermogenes Pursued to Another Passage of Scripture. The Absurdity of His Interpretation Exposed.
Chapter XXIV.-Earth Does Not Mean Matter as Hermogenes Would Have It.
Chapter XXV.-The Assumption that There are Two Earths Mentioned in the History of the Creation, Refuted.
Chapter XXVI.-The Method Observed in the History of the Creation, in Reply to the Perverse Interpretation of Hermogenes.
Chapter XXVII.-Some Hair-Splitting Use of Words in Which His Opponent Had Indulged.
Chapter XXIX.-The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated.
Chapter XXX.-Another Passage in the Sacred History of the Creation, Released from the Mishandling of Hermogenes.
Chapter XXXI.-A Further Vindication of the Scripture Narrative of the Creation, Against a Futile View of Hermogenes.
Chapter XXXII.-The Account of the Creation in Genesis a General One. Corroborated, However, by Many Other Passages of the Old Testament, Which Give Account of Specific Creations. Further Cavillings Confuted.
Chapter XXXIII.-Statement of the True Doctrine Concerning Matter. Its Relation to God's Creation of the World.
Chapter XXXIV.-A Presumption that All Things Were Created by God Out of Nothing Afforded by the Ultimate Reduction of All Things to Nothing. Scriptures Proving This Reduction Vindicated from Hermogenes' Charge of Being Merely Figurative.
Chapter XXXV.-Contradictory Propositions Advanced by Hermogenes Respecting Matter and Its Qualities.
Chapter XXXVI.-Other Absurd Theories Respecting Matter and Its Incidents Exposed in an Ironical Strain, Motion in Matter. Hermogenes' Conceits Respecting It.
Chapter XXXVII.-Ironical Dilemmas Respecting Matter, and Sundry Moral Qualities Fancifully Attributed to It.
Chapter XXXIII.-Other Speculations of Hermogenes, About Matter and Some of Its Adjuncts, Shown to Be Absurd. For Instance, Its Alleged Infinity.
Chapter XXXIX.-These Latter Speculations Shown to Be Contradictory to the First Principles Respecting Matter, Formerly Laid Down by Hermogenes.
Chapter XL.-Shapeless Matter an Incongruous Origin for God's Beautiful Cosmos. Hermogenes Does Not Mend His Argument by Supposing that Only a Portion of Matter Was Used in the Creation.
Chapter XLI.-Sundry Quotations from Hermogenes. Now Uncertain and Vague are His Speculations Respecting Motion in Matter, and the Material Qualities of Good and Evil.
Chapter XLII.-Further Exposure of Inconsistencies in the Opinions of Hermogenes Respecting the Divine Qualities of Matter.
Chapter XLIII.-Other Discrepancies Exposed and Refuted Respecting the Evil in Matter Being Changed to Good.
Chapter XLIV.-Curious Views Respecting God's Method of Working with Matter Exposed. Discrepancies in the Heretic's Opinion About God's Local Relation to Matter.
Chapter XLV.-Conclusion. Contrast Between the Statements of Hermogenes and the Testimony of Holy Scripture Respecting the Creation. Creation Out of Nothing, Not Out of Matter.
Against the Valentinians.
In which the author gives a concise account of, together with sundry caustic animadversions on, the very fantastic theology of the sect. This treatise is professedly taken from the writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenaeus, and Proculus.
Chapter I.-Introductory. Tertullian Compares the Heresy to the Old Eleusinian Mysteries. Both Systems Alike in Preferring Concealment of Error and Sin to Proclamation of Truth and Virtue.
Chapter II.-These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.
Chapter III.-The Folly of This Heresy. It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity. Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdities of the Valentinian System is to Destroy It.
Chapter IV.-The Heresy Traceable to Valentinus, an Able But Restless Man. Many Schismatical Leaders of the School Mentioned. Only One of Them Shows Respect to the Man Whose Name Designates the Entire School.
Chapter V.-Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides.
Chapter VI.-Although Writing in Latin He Proposes to Retain the Greek Names of the Valentinian Emanations of Deity. Not to Discuss the Heresy But Only to Expose It. This with the Raillery Which Its Absurdity Merits.
Chapter VII.-The First Eight Emanations, or ¦ons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others. Their Names and Descent Recorded.
Chapter VIII.-The Names and Descent of Other ¦ons; First Half a Score, Then Two More, and Ultimately a Dozen Besides. These Thirty Constitute the Pleroma. But Why Be So Capricious as to Stop at Thirty?
Chapter IX.-Other Capricious Features in the System. The ¦ons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power.
Chapter X.-Another Account of the Strange Aberrations of Sophia, and the Restraining Services of Horus. Sophia Was Not Herself, After All, Ejected from the Pleroma, But Only Her Enthymesis.
