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On Repentance
Chapter XII.--Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis.
If you shrink back from exomologesis, consider in your heart the hell, 1 which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and imagine first the magnitude of the penalty, that you may not hesitate about the adoption of the remedy. What do we esteem that treasure-house of eternal fire to be, when small vent-holes 2 of it rouse such blasts of flames that neighbouring cities either are already no more, or are in daily expectation of the same fate? The haughtiest 3 mountains start asunder in the birth-throes of their inly-gendered fire; and--which proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment--though they start asunder, though they be devoured, yet come they never to an end. Who will not account these occasional punishments inflicted on the mountains as examples of the judgment which menaces the impenitent? Who will not agree that such sparks are but some few missiles and sportive darts of some inestimably vast centre of fire? Therefore, since you know that after the first bulwarks of the Lord's baptism 4 there still remains for you, in exomologesis a second reserve of aid against hell, why do you desert your own salvation? Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you? Even dumb irrational animals recognise in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them. The stag, transfixed by the arrow, knows that, to force out the steel, and its inextricable lingerings, he must heal himself with dittany. The swallow, if she blinds her young, knows how to give them eyes again by means of her own swallow-wort. 5 Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass that by which restored the Babylonian king 6 to his realms? Long time had he offered to the Lord his repentance, working out his exomologesis by a seven years' squalor, with his nails wildly growing after the eagle's fashion, and his unkempt hair wearing the shagginess of a lion. Hard handling! Him whom men were shuddering at, God was receiving back. But, on the other hand, the Egyptian emperor--who, after pursuing the once afflicted people of God, long denied to their Lord, rushed into the battle 7 --did, after so many warning plagues, perish in the parted sea, (which was permitted to be passable to "the People" alone,) by the backward roll of the waves: 8 for repentance and her handmaid 9 exomologesis he had cast away.
Why should I add more touching these two planks 10 (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen 11 than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, 12 and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, 13 is not silent.
slaves.
Gehennam. Comp. ad Ux.ii. c. vi. ad fin. ↩
Fumariola, i.e. the craters of volcanoes. ↩
Superbissimi: perhaps a play on the word, which is connected with "super" and "superus," as "haughty" with "high." ↩
For Tertullian's distinction between "the Lord's baptism" and "John's" see de Bapt. x. ↩
Or "celandine," which is perhaps only another form of "chelidonia" ("Chelidonia major," Linn.). ↩
Dan. iv. 25 sqq. See de Pa. xiii. ↩
Proelium. ↩
Ex. xiv. 15-31. ↩
"Ministerium," the abstract for the concrete: so "servitia" = ↩
See c. iv. [Tabula was the word in cap. iv. but here it becomes planca, and planca post naufragium is the theological formula, ever since, among Western theologians.] ↩
See de Bapt. xii. sub init. ↩
Lit. "of all brands." Comp. c. vi.: "Does the soldier...make satisfaction for his brands." ↩
Cf. Gen. iii. 24 with Luke xxiii. 43, 2 Cor. xii. 4, and Rev. ii. 7. [Elucidation IV.] ↩
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De Paenitentia
XII.
[1] Si de exomologesi retractas, gehennam in corde considera, quam tibi exomologesis extinguet, et poenae prius magnitudinem imaginare, ut de remedii adoptione non dubites. [2] Quid illum thesaurum ignis aeterni existimamus, cum fumariola quaedam eius tales flammarum ictus suscitent, ut proximae urbes aut iam nullae extent aut idem sibi de die sperent? [3] Dissiliunt superbissimi montes ignis intrinsecus feti et, — quod nobis iudicii perpetuitatem probat —, cum dissiliant, cum devorentur, numquam tamen finiuntur! [4] Quis haec supplicia interim montium non iudicii minantis exemplaria deputabit? quis scintillas tales non magni alicuius et inaestimabilis foci missilia quaedam et exercitatoria iacula consentiet?
[5] Igitur cum scias adversus gehennam post prima illa intinctionis dominicae munimenta esse adhuc in exomologesi secunda subsidia, cur salutem tuam deseris, cur cessas adgredi quod scias mederi tibi? [6] Mutae quidem animae et inrationabiles medicinas sibi divinitus adtributas in tempore agnoscunt: cervus sagitta transfixus, ut ferrum et inrevocabiles moras eius de vulnere expellat, scit sibi dictamnum edendam; hirundo si excaecauerit pullos, novit illos oculare rursus de sua chelidonia: [7] peccator restituendo sibi institutam a domino exomologesin sciens praeteribit illam, quae Babylonium regem in regna restituit? Diu enim paenitentiam domino immolarat septenni squalore exomologesin operatus, unguium leoninum in modum efferatione et capilli incuria horrorem aquilinum praeferente. Pro malae tractationis felicitatem! quem homines perhorrebant, deus recipiebat. [8] Contra autem Aegyptius imperator qui populum dei aliquando adflictum, diu domino suo denegatum persecutus [in] proelio inruit, post tot documenta plagarum discidio maris, quod soli populo pervium licebat, revolutis fluctibus perit: paenitentiam enim et ministerium eius, exomologesin, abiecerat!
[9] Quid ego ultra de istis duabus humanae salutis quasi plancis, stili potius negotium quam officium conscientiae meae curans? Peccator enim omnium notarum cum sim nec ulli rei nisi paenitentiae natus, non facile possum super illa tacere, quam ipse quoque et stirpis humanae et offensae in dominum princeps Adam exomologesi restitutus in paradisum suum non tacet!