set forth to them the severity of the Creator, in order that He might the more commend His own long-suffering^ in His beatitudes. Just as if it were not competent to the Cre- ator, in the pre-eminence of both His attributes as the good God and Judge, that, as He had made clemency' the preamble of His bene- diction so He should place severity in the sequel of His curses; thus fully developing His discipline in both directions, both in following out the blessing and in providing against the curse.* He had already said of old, " Behold, I have set before you blessing and cursing."^ Which statement was really a presage of" this temper of the gospel. Be- sides, what sort of being is that who, to in- sinuate a belief in his own goodness, invidious- ly contrasted " with it the Creator's severity? Of little worth is the recommendation which has for its prop the defamation of another. And yet by thus setting forth the severity of the Creator, he, in fact, affirmed Him to be an object of fear." Now if He be an object of fear. He is of course more worthy of being ' Motus est.
2 Deus optimus.
3 That is, apathetic, inert, and careless about human affairs. 4Demutat.
S Ejus erunt.
*Sufferentiam.
7 Benignitatem.
s Ad roaledictionem praeoavendam.
'o Portendebat in. " Opposuit. «*Timendum.
obeyed than slighted; and thus Marcion's Christ begins to teach favourably to the Crea- tor's interests. '3 Then, 071 the admission above mentioned, since the woe which has regard to the rich is the Creator's, it follows that it is not Christ, but the Creator, who is angry with the rich; while Christ approves of '"the incen- tives of the rich '^ — I mean, their pride, their pomp,'* their love of the world, and their con- tempt of God, owing to which they deserve the woe of the Creator. But how happens it that the reprobation of the rich does not pro- ceed from the same God^\\Q> had just before expressed approbation of the poor? There is nobody but reprobates the opposite of that which he has approved. If, therefore, there be imputed to the Creator the woe pronounced against the rich, there must be claimed for Him also the promise of the blessing upon the poor; and thus the entire work of the Creator devolves on Christ. — If to Marcion's god there be ascribed the blessing of the poor, he must also have imputed to him the maledic- tion of the rich; and thus will he become the Creator's equal,'' both good and judicial; nor will there be left any room for that distinction whereby two gods are made; and when this distinction is removed, there will remain the verity which pronounces the Creator to be the one only God. Since, therefore, "7w^" is a word indicative of malediction, or of some unusually austere '^ exclamation; and since it is by Christ uttered against the rich, I shall have to show that the Creator is also a de- spiser'5 of the rich, as I have shown Him to be the defender -° of the poor, in order that I may prove Christ to be on the Creator's side in this matter, even when He enriched Solo- mon.-' But with respect to this jnan, since, when a choice was left to him, he preferred asking for what he knew to be well-pleasing to God — even wisdom — he further merited the attainment of the riches, which he did not prefer. The endowing of a man indeed with riches, is not an incongruity to God, for by the help of riches even rich men are comforted and assisted; moreover, by them many a work of justice and charity is carried out. But yet there are serious faults^ which ac- company riches; and it is because of these that woes are denounced on the rich, even in the Gospel. " Ye have received," says He, " your consolation; " '^ that is, of course, from •3 Creatori docere. M Ratas habet. '5 Divitum causas. >6 Gloriam. '7 Erit par creatoris, '8 Austerioris.
'9 Aspernatorem.
20 Advocatorera MVitia.
criAr. XV.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
their riches, in the pomps and vanities of the world which these purchase for them. Ac- cordingly, in Deuteronomy, Moses says: " Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, as well as thy silver and thy gold, thine heart be then lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God."' In similar terms, when king Hezekiah became proud of his treasures, and gloried in them rather than in God before those who had come Dn an embassy from Babylon,- (the Creator) breaks forth ^ against him by the mouth of Isaiah: " Behold, the days come when ail that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store, shall be carried to Baby- lon."* So by Jeremiah likewise did He say: " Let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth even glory in the Lord." 5 Similarly against the daughters of Sion does He inveigh by Isaiah, when they were haughty through their pomp and the abundance of their riches,* just as in another passage He utters His threats against the proud and noble: "Hell hath enlarged her- self, and opened her mouth, and down to it shall descend the illustrious, and the great, and the rich (this shall be Christ's 'woe to the rich'); and man^ shall be humbled," even he that exalts himself with riches; " and the mighty man^ shall be dishonoured," even he who is mighty from his wealth. ^ Con- cerning whom He says again: "Behold, the Lord of hosts shall confound the pompous to- gether with their strength: those that are lifted up shall be hewn down, and such as are lofty shall fall by the sword." " And who are these but the rich? Because they have indeed re- ceived their consolation, glory, arid honour, and a lofty position from their wealth. In Ps. xlviii. He also turns off our care from these, and says: "Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, and when his glory is increased: for when he shall die, he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend along with him." " So also in Ps. Ixi.: " Do not desire riches; and if they do yield you their lustre, '- do not set your heart upon them." '^ Lastly, this very same woe is pronounced of old by Amos against the rich, who also abounded in delights. "Woe unto them," says he, "who = TertuIIian says, ex Pertide.
3 Insilit.
4 Isa. xxxix. 6.
7 Homo: " the mean man," A.V.
8Vir.
'2 Relucent. '1 Ps. Ixii. II.
24 sleep upon beds of ivory, and deliciously stretch themselves upon their couches; who eat the kids from the flocks of the goats, and sucking calves from the flocks of the heifers, while they chant to the sound of the viol; as if they thought they should continue long, and were not fleeting; who drink their refined wines, and anoint themselves with the costli- est ointments." '" Therefore, even if I could do nothing else than show that the Creator dissuades men from riches, without at the same time first condemning the rich, in the very same terms in which Christ also did, no one could doubt that, from the same authority, there was added a commination against the rich in that woe of Christ, from whom also had first proceeded the dissuasion against the material sin of these persons, that is, their riches. For such commination is the neces- sary sequel to such a dissuasive. He inflicts a woe also on "the full, because they shall hunger; on those too which laugh now, because they shall mourn." '^ To these will corre- spond these opposites which occur, as we have seen above, in the benedictions of the Crea- tor: " Behold, my servants shall be full, but ye shall be hungry" — even because ye have been filled; "behold, my servants shall re- joice, but ye shall be ashamed"'* — even ye who shall mourn, who now are laughing. For as it is written in the psalm, " They who sow in tears shall reap in joy," '^ so does it run in the Gospel: They who sow in laughter, that is, in joy, shall reap in tears. These princi- ples did the Creator lay down of old; and Christ has renewed them, by simply bringing them into prominent view,'^ not by making any change in them. "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets."'' With equal stress does the Creator, by His prophet Isaiah, censure those who seek after human flattery and praise: " O my people, they who call you happy mislead you, and disturb the paths of your feet.""" In another passage He forbids all implicit trust in man, and like- wise in the applause of man; as by the proph- et Jeremiah: " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man."""' Whereas in Ps. cxvii. it is said: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man; it is better to trust in the Lord than to place hope in princes." ^ Thus everything which is caught at by men is adjured by the Creator, down to their good TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book IV.
words.' It is as much His property to con- demn the praise and flattering words bestowed on the false prophets by their fathers, as to condemn their vexatious and persecuting treatment of the (true) prophets. As the in- juries suffered by the prophets could not be imputed "" to their own God, so the applause bestowed on the false prophets could not have been displeasing to any other god but the God of the true prophets.
CHAP. XVI. — THE PRECEPT OF LOVING ONe's ENEMIES. IT IS AS MUCH TAUGHT IN THE creator's scriptures of THE OLD TESTA- MENT AS IN Christ's sermon, the lex TALIONIS OF MOSES ADMIRABLY EXPLAINED IN CONSISTENCY WITH THE KINDNESS AND LOVE WHICH JESUS CHRIST CAME TO PRO- CLAIM AND ENFORCE IN BEHALF OF THE CRE- ATOR. SUNDRY PRECEPTS OF CHARITY EX- PLAINED.
"But I say unto you which hear" (dis- playing here that old injunction, of the Crea- tor: "Speak to the ears of those who lend them to you "3), "Love your enemies, and bless * those which hate you, and pray for them which calumniate you.''^ These commands the Creator included in one precept by His prophet Isaiah: "Say, Ye are our brethren, to those who hate you."* For if they who are our enemies, and hate us, and speak evil of us, and calumniate us, are to be called our brethren, surely He did in effect bid us bless them that hate us, and pray for them who calumniate us, when He instructed us to reckon them as brethren. Well, but Christ plainly teaches a new kind of patience,' when He actually prohibits the reprisals which the Creator permitted in requiring " an eye for an eye,^ and a tooth for a tooth," « and bids us, on the contrary, "to him who smiteth us on the one cheek, to offer the other also, and to give up our coat to him that taketh away our cloak."'" No doubt these are supple- mentary additions by Christ, but they are quite in keeping with the teaching of the Creator. And therefore this question must at once be determined," Whether the disci- ' Nedum benedictionem.
2 Non pcrtinuissent ad.
3 2 Esdras xv. i, and comp. Luke vi. 27, 28.
4 Benedicite. St. Luke's word, however, is koXSx; jroieiT*, " do good."
5 Calumniantur. St. Luke's word applies to injury of speech as well as of act.
7 " We have here the sense of Marcion's objection. I do not suppose Tertullian quotes his very words." — Le Prieuk.
** Le Prieur refers to a similar passaj^e in TertuUian's De Piitientia^ chap. vi. Oehler quotes an eloquent passage in illus- tration from Valerianus Episc. Ho/it. xiii. '■ Renuntiandum est.
pline of patience be enjoined by " the Crea- tor? When by Zechariah He commanded, "Let none of you imagine evil against his brother," ^^ He did not expressly include his tieighbour; but then in another passage He says, " Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his tieighbour." ^'' He who counselled that an injury should be forgotten, was still more likely to counsel the patient endurance of it. But then, when He said, " Vengeance is mine, and I will repay," '^ He thereby teaches that patience calmly waits for the infliction of vengeance. Therefore, inas- much as it is incredible '* that the same (God) should seem to require " a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye," in return for an in- jury, who forbids not only all reprisals, but even a revengeful thought or recollection of an injury, in so far does it become plain to us in what sense He required " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," — not, indeed, for the purpose of permitting the repetition of the injury by retaliating it, which it virtu- ally prohibited when it forbade vengeance; but for the purpose of restraining the injury in the first instance, which it had forbidden on pain of retaliation or reciprocity;''' so that every man, in view of the permission to inflict a second (or retaliatory) injury, might abstain from the commission of the first (or provoca- tive) wrong. For He knows how much more easy it is to repress violence by the prospect of retaliation, than by the promise of (indefi- nite) vengeance. Both results, however, it was necessary to provide, in consideration of the nature and the faith of men, that the man who believed in God might expect vengeance from God, while he who had no faith (to re- strain him) might fear the laws which pre- scribed retaliation.'* This purpose " of the law, which it was difficult to understand, Christ, as the Lord of the Sabbath and of the law, and of all the dispensations of the Father, both revealed and made intelligible,^ when He commanded that " the other clieek should be offered (to the smiter)," in order that He might the more effectually extinguish all re- prisals of an injury, which the law had wished to prevent by the method of retaliation, (and) which most certainly revelation =" had mani- festly restricted, both by prohibiting the memory of the wrong, and referring the ven- geance thereof to God. Thus, whatever (new 12 Penes.
'SDeut. xxxil. 35; comp. Rom. xii. 19 and Heb. x. 30.
'* Fidem non capit.
'7 Talione, opposite.
»8 Leges talionis. [Judicial, not personal, reprisals.]
'9 Voluntatein.
■^ Compotem facit. That is, says Oehler, intellectus suu -' Prophetia.
CHAP. XVI.]
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
provision) Christ introduced, He did it not in opposition to the law, but rather in further- ance of it, without at all impairing the pre- scription' of the Creator. If, therefore,^ one looks carefully' into the very grounds for which patience is enjoined (and that to such a full and complete extent), one finds that it cannot stand if it is not the precept of the Creator, who promises vengeance, who pre- sents Himself as the judge (in the case). If it were not so,* — if so vast a weight of patience — which is to refrain from giving blow for blow; which is to offer the other cheek; which is not only not to return railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; and which, so far from keeping the coat, is to give up the cloak also ■ — is laid upon me by one who means not to help me, — (then all I can say is,) he has taught me patience to no purpose, ^ because he shows me no reward to his precept — I mean no fruit of such patience. There is re- venge which he ought to have permitted me to take, if he meant not to inflict it himself; if he did not give me that permission, then he should himself have inflicted it;^ since it is for the interest of discipline itself that an in- jury should be avenged. For by the fear of vengeance all iniquity is curbed. But if li- cence is allowed to it without discrimination,^ it will get the mastery — it will put out (a man's) both eyes; it will knock out^ every tooth in the safety of its impunity. This, however, is (the principle) of your good and simply beneficent god — to do a wrong to patience, to open the door to violence, to leave the righteous undefended, and the wicked unre- strained! " Give to every one that asketh of thee"' — to the indigent of course, or rather to the indigent more especially, although to the affluent likewise. But in order that no man may be indigent, you have in Deuterono- my a provision commanded by the Creator to the creditor.'" " There shall not be in thine hand an indigent man; so that the Lord thy God shall bless thee with blessings,"" — thee meaning the creditor to whom it was owing that the man was not indigent. But more than this. To one who does not ask. He bids a gift to be given. " Let there be, not," He says, " a poor man in thine hand; " in other words, see that there be not, so far as thy will can prevent;" by which command, too. He ' Disciplinas: or, "lessons."
2 Denique.
3 Considerem, or, as some of the editions have it, consideremus.
4 Alioquin.
5 In vacuum.
'PrsEstare, i.e. debuerat prxstare. / Passim.
8 Excitatura.
«o Datori.
" The author's reading of Deut. xv. 4. •= Cura ultro ne sit.
all the more strongly by inference requires *> men to give to him that asks, as in the following words also: " If there be among you a poor man of thy brethren, thou shalt not turn away thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him as much as he wanteth. ' ' '•* Loans are not usually given, except to such as ask for them. On this subject of lending,'^ however, more here- after.'* Now, should any one wish to argue that the Creator's precepts extended only to a man's brethren, but Christ's to all that ask, so as to make the latter a new and different precept, (I have to reply) that one rule only can be made out of those principles, which show the law of the Creator to be repeated in Christ.'' For that is not a different thing which Christ enjoined to be done towards all men, from that which the Creator prescribed in favour of a man's brethren. For although that is a greater charity, which is shown to strangers, it is yet not preferable to that'* which was previously due to one's neighbours. For what man will be able to bestow the love (which proceeds from knowledge of character,'' upon strangers? Since, however, the second step^ in charity is towards strangers, while the first is towards one's neighbours, the second step will belong to him to whom the first also belongs, more fitly than the second will belong to him who owned no first. =" Ac- cordingly, the Creator, when following the course of nature, taught in the first instance kindness to?ieighbours,''' intending afterwards to enjoin it towards strangers; and when fol- lowing the method of His dispensation. He limited charity first to the Jews, but aftenvards extended it to the whole race of mankind. So long, therefore, as the mystery of His gover7i- ment^^ was confined to Israel, He properly commanded that pity should be shown only to a man's brethren; but when Christ had given to Him " the Gentiles for His heritage, and the ends of the earth for His possession," then began to be accomplished what was said by Hosea: " Ye are not my people, who were my people; ye have not obtained mercy, who 13 Praejudicat.
15 De fenore.
16 Below, in the next chapter.
'7 This obscure passage runs thus: " Immo unum erit ex his per quae lex Creatoris erit in Christo."
18 Prior ea.
'9 This is the idea, apparently, of Tertullian's question: " Quis enim poterit diligcre extraneos? " But a different turn is given to the sense in the older reading of the passage: Quis enim non diligens proximos poterit diligere extraneos? " For who that loveth not his neighbours will be able to love strangers?" The inserted words, however, were inserted conjecturally by Fulvius Ursinus without MS. authority, =0 Gradus.
2' Cujus non extitit primus 22 In proximos.
23 Sacramentura.
TERTULLIAN AGAINST MARCION.
[book it once obtained mercy " ' — that is, the (Jewish) nation. Thenceforth Christ extended to all men the law of His Father's compassion, ex- cepting none from His mercy, as He omitted none in His invitation. So that, whatever was the ampler scope of His teaching. He received it all in His heritage of the nations. "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."'' In this command is no doubt implied its counterpart: " And as ye would not that men should do to you, so should ye also not do to them like- wise." Now, if this were the teaching of the new and previously unknown and not yet fully proclaimed deity, who had favoured me with no instruction beforehand, whereby I might first learn what I ought to choose or to refuse for myself, and to do to others what I would wish done to myself, not doing to them what I should be unwilling to have done to myself, it Avould certainly be nothing else than the chance-medley of my own sentiments ^ which he would have left to me, binding me to no proper rule of wish or action, in order that I might do to others what I would like for my- self, or refrain from doing to others what I should dislike to have done to myself. For he has not, in fact, defined what I ought to wish or not to wish for myself as well as for others, so that I shape my conduct '* accord- ing to the law of my own will, and have it in my powers not to render* to another what I would like to have rendered to myself — love, obedience, consolation, protection, and such like blessings; and in like manner to do to another what I should be unwilling to have done to myself — violence, wrong, insult, deceit, and evils of like sort. Indeed, the heathen who have not been instructed by God act on this incongruous liberty of the wiir and the conduct.^ For although good and evil are severally known by nature, yet life is not there- by spent ^ under the discipline of God, which alone at last teaches men the proper liberty of their will and action in faith, as in the fear of God. The god of Marcion, therefore, al- though specially revealed, was, in spite of his revelation, unable to publish any summary of the precept in question, which had hitherto been so confined,' and obscure, and dark, and admitting of no ready interpretation, except according to my own arbitrary thought, '° be- cause he had provided no previous discrimina- • The sense rather than the words of Hos. i. 6, 9.
3 Passivitatem sententiae meae.
4 Parem factum.
7 Hac inconvenientia voluntatis et facti. Will and action.
8 Non agitur. 9Strictuni.
» Pro meo arbitrio.