Fisherman's Friend

Anti-Marcion.

edited by Philip Schaff · ANF

ANF03. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian

Contents (281 chapters)

The Prescription Against Heretics.

  1. 1. Introductory. Heresies Must Exist, and Even Abound; They are a Probation to Faith.
  2. 2. 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.
  3. 3. 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.
  4. 4. Warnings Against Heresy Given Us in the New Testament. Sundry Passages Adduced. These Imply the Possibility of Falling into Heresy.
  5. 5. 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.
  6. 6. Heretics are Self-Condemned. Heresy is Self-Will, Whilst Faith is Submission of Our Will to the Divine Authority.  The Heresy of Apelles.
  7. 7. Pagan Philosophy the Parent of Heresies. The Connection Between Deflections from Christian Faith and the Old Systems of Pagan Philosophy.
  8. 8. 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.
  9. 9. The Research After Definite Truth Enjoined on Us. When We Have Discovered This, We Should Be Content.
  10. 10. 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.
  11. 11. 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.
  12. 12. A Proper Seeking After Divine Knowledge, Which Will Never Be Out of Place or Excessive, is Always Within the Rule of Faith.
  13. 13. 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.
  14. 14. Curiosity Ought Not Range Beyond the Rule of Faith. Restless Curiosity, the Feature of Heresy.
  15. 15. Heretics Not to Be Allowed to Argue Out of the Scriptures. The Scriptures, in Fact, Do Not Belong to Them.
  16. 16. 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.
  17. 17. Heretics, in Fact, Do Not Use, But Only Abuse, Scripture. No Common Ground Between Them and You.
  18. 18. 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.
  19. 19. Appeal, in Discussion of Heresy, Lies Not to the Scriptures. The Scriptures Belong Only to Those Who Have the Rule of Faith.
  20. 20. 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.
  21. 21. 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.
  22. 22. Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission.
  23. 23. 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.
  24. 24. 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.
  25. 25. 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.
  26. 26. The Apostles Did in All Cases Teach the Whole Truth to the Whole Church. No Reservation, Nor Partial Communication to Favourite Friends.
  27. 27. 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.
  28. 28. 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.
  29. 29. 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.
  30. 30. 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.
  31. 31. Truth First, Falsehood Afterwards, as Its Perversion. Christ's Parable Puts the Sowing of the Good Seed Before the Useless Tares.
  32. 32. 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.
  33. 33. 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.
  34. 34. 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.
  35. 35. 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.
  36. 36. 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.
  37. 37. 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.
  38. 38. 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.
  39. 39. 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.
  40. 40. 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.
  41. 41. The Conduct of Heretics:  Its Frivolity, Worldliness, and Irregularity. The Notorious Wantonness of Their Women.
  42. 42. 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.
  43. 43. 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.
  44. 44. 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.
  45. 45. Elucidations.

The Five Books Against Marcion.

  1. 46. Introductory Notes.
  2. 47. Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion.  He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God.
  3. 48. Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God.
  4. 49. Book III. Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world; to have been predicted by the prophets; to have taken human flesh like our own, by a real incarnation.
  5. 50. Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man.
  6. 51. Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture.

Against Hermogenes.

  1. 52. 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.
  2. 53. Hermogenes, After a Perverse Induction from Mere Heretical Assumptions, Concludes that God Created All Things Out of Pre-Existing Matter.
  3. 54. 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.
  4. 55. Hermogenes Gives Divine Attributes to Matter, and So Makes Two Gods.
  5. 56. 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.
  6. 57. The Shifts to Which Hermogenes is Reduced, Who Deifies Matter, and Yet is Unwilling to Hold Him Equal with the Divine Creator.
  7. 58. Hermogenes Held to His Theory in Order that Its Absurdity May Be Exposed on His Own Principles.
  8. 59. On His Own Principles, Hermogenes Makes Matter, on the Whole, Superior to God.
  9. 60. Sundry Inevitable But Intolerable Conclusions from the Principles of Hermogenes.
  10. 61. To What Straits Hermogenes Absurdly Reduces the Divine Being. He Does Nothing Short of Making Him the Author of Evil.
  11. 62. Hermogenes Makes Great Efforts to Remove Evil from God to Matter. How He Fails to Do This Consistently with His Own Argument.
  12. 63. The Mode of Controversy Changed. The Premisses of Hermogenes Accepted, in Order to Show into What Confusion They Lead Him.
  13. 64. Another Ground of Hermogenes that Matter Has Some Good in It. Its Absurdity.
  14. 65. Tertullian Pushes His Opponent into a Dilemma.
  15. 66. The Truth, that God Made All Things from Nothing, Rescued from the Opponent's Flounderings.
  16. 67. A Series of Dilemmas.  They Show that Hermogenes Cannot Escape from the Orthodox Conclusion.
  17. 68. The Truth of God's Work in Creation. You Cannot Depart in the Least from It, Without Landing Yourself in an Absurdity.
  18. 69. An Eulogy on the Wisdom and Word of God, by Which God Made All Things of Nothing.
  19. 70. An Appeal to the History of Creation.  True Meaning of the Term Beginning, Which the Heretic Curiously Wrests to an Absurd Sense.
  20. 71. 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.
  21. 72. A Retort of Heresy Answered. That Scripture Should in So Many Words Tell Us that the World Was Made of Nothing is Superfluous.
  22. 73. 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.
  23. 74. Hermogenes Pursued to Another Passage of Scripture. The Absurdity of His Interpretation Exposed.
  24. 75. Earth Does Not Mean Matter as Hermogenes Would Have It.
  25. 76. The Assumption that There are Two Earths Mentioned in the History of the Creation, Refuted.
  26. 77. The Method Observed in the History of the Creation, in Reply to the Perverse Interpretation of Hermogenes.
  27. 78. Some Hair-Splitting Use of Words in Which His Opponent Had Indulged.
  28. 79. A Curious Inconsistency in Hermogenes Exposed. Certain Expressions in The History of Creation Vindicated in The True Sense.
  29. 80. The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated.
  30. 81. Another Passage in the Sacred History of the Creation, Released from the Mishandling of Hermogenes.
  31. 82. A Further Vindication of the Scripture Narrative of the Creation, Against a Futile View of Hermogenes.
  32. 83. 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.
  33. 84. Statement of the True Doctrine Concerning Matter. Its Relation to God's Creation of the World.
  34. 85. 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.
  35. 86. Contradictory Propositions Advanced by Hermogenes Respecting Matter and Its Qualities.
  36. 87. Other Absurd Theories Respecting Matter and Its Incidents Exposed in an Ironical Strain. Motion in Matter. Hermogenes' Conceits Respecting It.
  37. 88. Ironical Dilemmas Respecting Matter, and Sundry Moral Qualities Fancifully Attributed to It.
  38. 89. Other Speculations of Hermogenes, About Matter and Some of Its Adjuncts, Shown to Be Absurd. For Instance, Its Alleged Infinity.
  39. 90. These Latter Speculations Shown to Be Contradictory to the First Principles Respecting Matter, Formerly Laid Down by Hermogenes.
  40. 91. 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.
  41. 92. Sundry Quotations from Hermogenes. Now Uncertain and Vague are His Speculations Respecting Motion in Matter, and the Material Qualities of Good and Evil.
  42. 93. Further Exposure of Inconsistencies in the Opinions of Hermogenes Respecting the Divine Qualities of Matter.
  43. 94. Other Discrepancies Exposed and Refuted Respecting the Evil in Matter Being Changed to Good.
  44. 95. Curious Views Respecting God's Method of Working with Matter Exposed. Discrepancies in the Heretic's Opinion About God's Local Relation to Matter.
  45. 96. 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.

  1. 97. 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.
  2. 98. These Heretics Brand the Christians as Simple Persons. The Charge Accepted, and Simplicity Eulogized Out of the Scriptures.
  3. 99. 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.
  4. 100. 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.
  5. 101. Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy. These the Author Makes His Own Guides.
  6. 102. 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.
  7. 103. The First Eight Emanations, or Æons, Called the Ogdoad, are the Fountain of All the Others.  Their Names and Descent Recorded.
  8. 104. The Names and Descent of Other Æons; 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?
  9. 105. Other Capricious Features in the System. The Æons Unequal in Attributes. The Superiority of Nus; The Vagaries of Sophia Restrained by Horos. Grand Titles Borne by This Last Power.
  10. 106. 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.
  11. 107. The Profane Account Given of the Origin of Christ and the Holy Ghost Sternly Rebuked. An Absurdity Respecting the Attainment of the Knowledge of God Ably Exposed.
  12. 108. The Strange Jumble of the Pleroma. The Frantic Delight of the Members Thereof. Their Joint Contribution of Parts Set Forth with Humorous Irony.
  13. 109. First Part of the Subject, Touching the Constitution of the Pleroma, Briefly Recapitulated.  Transition to the Other Part, Which is Like a Play Outside the Curtain.
  14. 110. The Adventures of Achamoth Outside the Pleroma. The Mission of Christ in Pursuit of Her. Her Longing for Christ. Horos' Hostility to Her. Her Continued Suffering.
  15. 111. Strange Account of the Origin of Matter, from the Various Affections of Achamoth. The Waters from Her Tears; Light from Her Smile.
  16. 112. Achamoth Purified from All Impurities of Her Passion by the Paraclete, Acting Through Soter, Who Out of the Above-Mentioned Impurities Arranges Matter, Separating Its Evil from the Better Qualities.
  17. 113. Achamoth in Love with the Angels. A Protest Against the Lascivious Features of Valentinianism. Achamoth Becomes the Mother of Three Natures.
  18. 114. Blasphemous Opinion Concerning the Origin of the Demiurge, Supposed to Be the Creator of the Universe.
  19. 115. Palpable Absurdities and Contradictions in the System Respecting Achamoth and the Demiurge.
  20. 116. The Demiurge Works Away at Creation, as the Drudge of His Mother Achamoth, in Ignorance All the While of the Nature of His Occupation.
  21. 117. The Vanity as Well as Ignorance of the Demiurge. Absurd Results from So Imperfect a Condition.
  22. 118. Origin of the Devil, in the Criminal Excess of the Sorrow of Achamoth. The Devil, Called Also Munditenens, Actually Wiser Than the Demiurge, Although His Work.
  23. 119. The Relative Positions of the Pleroma. The Region of Achamoth, and the Creation of the Demiurge. The Addition of Fire to the Various Elements and Bodies of Nature.
  24. 120. The Formation of Man by the Demiurge. Human Flesh Not Made of the Ground, But of a Nondescript Philosophic Substance.
  25. 121. An Extravagant Way of Accounting for the Communication of the Spiritual Nature to Man. It Was Furtively Managed by Achamoth, Through the Unconscious Agency of Her Son.
  26. 122. The Three Several Natures--The Material, the Animal, and the Spiritual, and Their Several Destinations.  The Strange Valentinian Opinion About the Structure of Soter's Nature.
  27. 123. The Christ of the Demiurge, Sent into the World by the Virgin. Not of Her. He Found in Her, Not a Mother, But Only a Passage or Channel. Jesus Descended Upon Christ, at His Baptism, Like a Dove; But, Being Incapable of Suffering, He Left Christ to Die on the Cross Alone.
  28. 124. The Demiurge Cured of His Ignorance by the Saviour's Advent, from Whom He Hears of the Great Future in Store for Himself.
  29. 125. The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth.
  30. 126. The Lax and Dangerous Views of This Sect Respecting Good Works. That These are Unnecessary to the Spiritual Man.
  31. 127. At the Last Day Great Changes Take Place Amongst the Æons as Well as Among Men. How Achamoth and the Demiurge are Affected Then. Irony on the Subject.
  32. 128. Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doctrine.
  33. 129. These Remaining Chapters an Appendix to the Main Work. In This Chapter Tertullian Notices a Difference Among Sundry Followers of Ptolemy, a Disciple of Valentinus.
  34. 130. Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the Deity, Characteristic Raillery.
  35. 131. Yet More Discrepancies.  Just Now the Sex of Bythus Was an Object of Dispute; Now His Rank Comes in Question. Absurd Substitutes for Bythus Criticised by Tertullian.
  36. 132. Less Reprehensible Theories in the Heresy. Bad is the Best of Valentinianism.
  37. 133. Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the Æons and Creation, Stated and Condemned.
  38. 134. Diversity in the Opinions of Secundus, as Compared with the General Doctrine of Valentinus.
  39. 135. Their Diversity of Sentiment Affects the Very Central Doctrine of Christianity, Even the Person and Character of the Lord Jesus. This Diversity Vitiates Every Gnostic School.

On the Flesh of Christ.

  1. 136. The General Purport of This Work. The Heretics, Marcion, Apelles, and Valentinus, Wishing to Impugn the Doctrine of the Resurrection, Deprive Christ of All Capacity for Such a Change by Denying His Flesh.
  2. 137. Marcion, Who Would Blot Out the Record of Christ's Nativity, is Rebuked for So Startling a Heresy.
  3. 138. Christ's Nativity Both Possible and Becoming. The Heretical Opinion of Christ's Apparent Flesh Deceptive and Dishonourable to God, Even on Marcion's Principles.
  4. 139. God's Honour in the Incarnation of His Son Vindicated. Marcion's Disparagement of Human Flesh Inconsistent as Well as Impious.  Christ Has Cleansed the Flesh.  The Foolishness of God is Most Wise.
  5. 140. Christ Truly Lived and Died in Human Flesh. Incidents of His Human Life on Earth, and Refutation of Marcion's Docetic Parody of the Same.
  6. 141. The Doctrine of Apelles Refuted, that Christ's Body Was of Sidereal Substance, Not Born.  Nativity and Mortality are Correlative Circumstances, and in Christ's Case His Death Proves His Birth.
  7. 142. Explanation of the Lord's Question About His Mother and His Brethren. Answer to the Cavils of Apelles and Marcion, Who Support Their Denial of Christ's Nativity by It.
  8. 143. Apelles and His Followers, Displeased with Our Earthly Bodies, Attributed to Christ a Body of a Purer Sort. How Christ Was Heavenly Even in His Earthly Flesh.
  9. 144. Christ's Flesh Perfectly Natural, Like Our Own. None of the Supernatural Features Which the Heretics Ascribed to It Discoverable, on a Careful View.
  10. 145. Another Class of Heretics Refuted. They Alleged that Christ's Flesh Was of a Finer Texture, Animalis, Composed of Soul.
  11. 146. The Opposite Extravagance Exposed. That is Christ with a Soul Composed of Flesh--Corporeal, Though Invisible.  Christ's Soul, Like Ours, Distinct from Flesh, Though Clothed in It.
  12. 147. The True Functions of the Soul. Christ Assumed It in His Perfect Human Nature, Not to Reveal and Explain It, But to Save It. Its Resurrection with the Body Assured by Christ.
  13. 148. Christ's Human Nature.  The Flesh and the Soul Both Fully and Unconfusedly Contained in It.
  14. 149. Christ Took Not on Him an Angelic Nature, But the Human. It Was Men, Not Angels, Whom He Came to Save.
  15. 150. The Valentinian Figment of Christ's Flesh Being of a Spiritual Nature, Examined and Refuted Out of Scripture.
  16. 151. Christ's Flesh in Nature, the Same as Ours, Only Sinless. The Difference Between Carnem Peccati and Peccatum Carnis: It is the Latter Which Christ Abolished. The Flesh of the First Adam, No Less Than that of the Second Adam, Not Received from Human Seed, Although as Entirely Human as Our Own, Which is Derived from It.
  17. 152. The Similarity of Circumstances Between the First and the Second Adam, as to the Derivation of Their Flesh. An Analogy Also Pleasantly Traced Between Eve and the Virgin Mary.
  18. 153. The Mystery of the Assumption of Our Perfect Human Nature by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  He is Here Called, as Often Elsewhere, the Spirit.
  19. 154. Christ, as to His Divine Nature, as the Word of God, Became Flesh, Not by Carnal Conception, Nor by the Will of the Flesh and of Man, But by the Will of God. Christ's Divine Nature, of Its Own Accord, Descended into the Virgin's Womb.
  20. 155. Christ Born of a Virgin, of Her Substance. The Physiological Facts of His Real and Exact Birth of a Human Mother, as Suggested by Certain Passages of Scripture.
  21. 156. The Word of God Did Not Become Flesh Except in the Virgin's Womb and of Her Substance.  Through His Mother He is Descended from Her Great Ancestor David. He is Described Both in the Old and in the New Testament as “The Fruit of David's Loins.”
  22. 157. Holy Scripture in the New Testament, Even in Its Very First Verse, Testifies to Christ's True Flesh.  In Virtue of Which He is Incorporated in the Human Stock of David, and Abraham, and Adam.
  23. 158. Simeon's “Sign that Should Be Contradicted,” Applied to the Heretical Gainsaying of the True Birth of Christ. One of the Heretics' Paradoxes Turned in Support of Catholic Truth.
  24. 159. Divine Strictures on Various Heretics Descried in Various Passages of Prophetical Scripture. Those Who Assail the True Doctrine of the One Lord Jesus Christ, Both God and Man, Thus Condemned.
  25. 160. Conclusion. This Treatise Forms a Preface to the Other Work, “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” Proving the Reality of the Flesh Which Was Truly Born, and Died, and Rose Again.
  26. 161. Elucidations.

On the Resurrection of the Flesh.

  1. 162. The Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body Brought to Light by the Gospel. The Faintest Glimpses of Something Like It Occasionally Met with in Heathenism.  Inconsistencies of Pagan Teaching.
  2. 163. The Jewish Sadducees a Link Between the Pagan Philosophers and the Heretics on This Doctrine.  Its Fundamental Importance Asserted.  The Soul Fares Better Than the Body, in Heretical Estimation, as to Its Future State. Its Extinction, However, Was Held by One Lucan.
  3. 164. Some Truths Held Even by the Heathen. They Were, However, More Often Wrong Both in Religious Opinions and in Moral Practice.  The Heathen Not to Be Followed in Their Ignorance of the Christian Mystery. The Heretics Perversely Prone to Follow Them.
  4. 165. Heathens and Heretics Alike in Their Vilification of the Flesh and Its Functions, the Ordinary Cavils Against the Final Restitution of So Weak and Ignoble a Substance.
  5. 166. Some Considerations in Reply Eulogistic of the Flesh. It Was Created by God. The Body of Man Was, in Fact, Previous to His Soul.
  6. 167. Not the Lowliness of the Material, But the Dignity and Skill of the Maker, Must Be Remembered, in Gauging the Excellence of the Flesh. Christ Partook of Our Flesh.
  7. 168. The Earthy Material of Which Flesh is Created Wonderfully Improved by God's Manipulation. By the Addition of the Soul in Man's Constitution It Became the Chief Work in the Creation.
  8. 169. Christianity, by Its Provision for the Flesh, Has Put on It the Greatest Honour. The Privileges of Our Religion in Closest Connection with Our Flesh. Which Also Bears a Large Share in the Duties and Sacrifices of Religion.
  9. 170. God's Love for the Flesh of Man, as Developed in the Grace of Christ Towards It. The Flesh the Best Means of Displaying the Bounty and Power of God.
  10. 171. Holy Scripture Magnifies the Flesh, as to Its Nature and Its Prospects.
  11. 172. The Power of God Fully Competent to Effect the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  12. 173. Some Analogies in Nature Which Corroborate the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  13. 174. From Our Author's View of a Verse in the Ninety-Second Psalm, the Phœnix is Made a Symbol of the Resurrection of Our Bodies.
  14. 175. A Sufficient Cause for the Resurrection of the Flesh Occurs in the Future Judgment of Man. It Will Take Cognisance of the Works of the Body No Less Than of the Soul.
  15. 176. As the Flesh is a Partaker with the Soul in All Human Conduct, So Will It Be in the Recompense of Eternity.
  16. 177. The Heretics Called the Flesh “The Vessel of the Soul,” In Order to Destroy the Responsibility of the Body. Their Cavil Turns Upon Themselves and Shows the Flesh to Be a Sharer in Human Actions.
  17. 178. The Flesh Will Be Associated with the Soul in Enduring the Penal Sentences of the Final Judgment.
  18. 179. Scripture Phrases and Passages Clearly Assert “The Resurrection of the Dead.” The Force of This Very Phrase Explained as Indicating the Prominent Place of the Flesh in the General Resurrection.
  19. 180. The Sophistical Sense Put by Heretics on the Phrase “Resurrection of the Dead,” As If It Meant the Moral Change of a New Life.
  20. 181. Figurative Senses Have Their Foundation in Literal Fact. Besides, the Allegorical Style is by No Means the Only One Found in the Prophetic Scriptures, as Alleged by the Heretics.
  21. 182. No Mere Metaphor in the Phrase Resurrection of the Dead. In Proportion to the Importance of Eternal Truths, is the Clearness of Their Scriptural Enunciation.
  22. 183. The Scriptures Forbid Our Supposing Either that the Resurrection is Already Past, or that It Takes Place Immediately at Death. Our Hopes and Prayers Point to the Last Great Day as the Period of Its Accomplishment.
  23. 184. Sundry Passages of St. Paul, Which Speak of a Spiritual Resurrection, Compatible with the Future Resurrection of the Body, Which is Even Assumed in Them.
  24. 185. Other Passages Quoted from St. Paul, Which Categorically Assert the Resurrection of the Flesh at the Final Judgment.
  25. 186. St. John, in the Apocalypse, Equally Explicit in Asserting the Same Great Doctrine.
  26. 187. Even the Metaphorical Descriptions of This Subject in the Scriptures Point to the Bodily Resurrection, the Only Sense Which Secures Their Consistency and Dignity.
  27. 188. Certain Metaphorical Terms Explained of the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  28. 189. Prophetic Things and Actions, as Well as Words, Attest This Great Doctrine.
  29. 190. Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Quoted.
  30. 191. This Vision Interpreted by Tertullian of the Resurrection of the Bodies of the Dead. A Chronological Error of Our Author, Who Supposes that Ezekiel in His Ch. XXXI. Prophesied Before the Captivity.
  31. 192. Other Passages Out of the Prophets Applied to the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  32. 193. Even Unburied Bodies Will Be Raised Again. Whatever Befalls Them God Will Restore Them Again. Jonah's Case Quoted in Illustration of God's Power.
  33. 194. So Much for the Prophetic Scriptures. In the Gospels, Christ's Parables, as Explained by Himself, Have a Clear Reference to the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  34. 195. Christ Plainly Testifies to the Resurrection of the Entire Man. Not in His Soul Only, Without the Body.
  35. 196. Explanation of What is Meant by the Body, Which is to Be Raised Again. Not the Corporeality of the Soul.
  36. 197. Christ's Refutation of the Sadducees, and Affirmation of Catholic Doctrine.
  37. 198. Christ's Assertion About the Unprofitableness of the Flesh Explained Consistently with Our Doctrine.
  38. 199. Christ, by Raising the Dead, Attested in a Practical Way the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Flesh.
  39. 200. Additional Evidence Afforded to Us in the Acts of the Apostles.
  40. 201. Sundry Passages of St. Paul Which Attest Our Doctrine Rescued from the Perversions of Heresy.
  41. 202. The Dissolution of Our Tabernacle Consistent with the Resurrection of Our Bodies.
  42. 203. Death Changes, Without Destroying, Our Mortal Bodies. Remains of the Giants.
  43. 204. No Disparagement of Our Doctrine in St. Paul's Phrase, Which Calls Our Residence in the Flesh Absence from the Lord.
  44. 205. Sundry Other Passages of St. Paul Explained in a Sentence Confirmatory of Our Doctrine.
  45. 206. The Old Man and the New Man of St. Paul Explained.
  46. 207. It is the Works of the Flesh, Not the Substance of the Flesh, Which St. Paul Always Condemns.
  47. 208. St. Paul, All Through, Promises Eternal Life to the Body.
  48. 209. Sundry Passages in the Great Chapter of the Resurrection of the Dead Explained in Defence of Our Doctrine.
  49. 210. The Same Subject Continued. What Does the Apostle Exclude from the Dead? Certainly Not the Substance of the Flesh.
  50. 211. In What Sense Flesh and Blood are Excluded from the Kingdom of God.
  51. 212. The Session of Jesus in His Incarnate Nature at the Right Hand of God a Guarantee of the Resurrection of Our Flesh.
  52. 213. From St. Paul's Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life.
  53. 214. Not the Soul, But the Natural Body Which Died, is that Which is to Rise Again. The Resurrection of Lazarus Commented on. Christ's Resurrection, as the Second Adam, Guarantees Our Own.
  54. 215. Death Swallowed Up of Life. Meaning of This Phrase in Relation to the Resurrection of the Body.
  55. 216. The Change of a Thing's Condition is Not the Destruction of Its Substance. The Application of This Principle to Our Subject.
  56. 217. The Procedure of the Last Judgment, and Its Awards, Only Possible on the Identity of the Risen Body with Our Present Flesh.
  57. 218. Our Bodies, However Mutilated Before or After Death, Shall Recover Their Perfect Integrity in the Resurrection. Illustration of the Enfranchised Slave.
  58. 219. From This Perfection of Our Restored Bodies Will Flow the Consciousness of Undisturbed Joy and Peace.
  59. 220. Our Flesh in the Resurrection Capable, Without Losing Its Essential Identity, of Bearing the Changed Conditions of Eternal Life, or of Death Eternal.
  60. 221. All the Characteristics of Our Bodies--Sex, Various Limbs, Etc.--Will Be Retained, Whatever Change of Functions These May Have, of Which Point, However, We are No Judges.  Analogy of the Repaired Ship.
  61. 222. The Details of Our Bodily Sex, and of the Functions of Our Various Members. Apology for the Necessity Which Heresy Imposes of Hunting Up All Its Unblushing Cavils.
  62. 223. Our Destined Likeness to the Angels in the Glorious Life of the Resurrection.
  63. 224. Conclusion. The Resurrection of the Flesh in Its Absolute Identity and Perfection. Belief of This Had Become Weak. Hopes for Its Refreshing Restoration Under the Influences of the Paraclete.
  64. 225. Elucidations.

Against Praxeas.

  1. 226. Satan's Wiles Against the Truth. How They Take the Form of the Praxean Heresy. Account of the Publication of This Heresy.
  2. 227. The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity and Unity, Sometimes Called the Divine Economy, or Dispensation of the Personal Relations of the Godhead.
  3. 228. Sundry Popular Fears and Prejudices. The Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity Rescued from These Misapprehensions.
  4. 229. The Unity of the Godhead and the Supremacy and Sole Government of the Divine Being. The Monarchy Not at All Impaired by the Catholic Doctrine.
  5. 230. The Evolution of the Son or Word of God from the Father by a Divine Procession. Illustrated by the Operation of the Human Thought and Consciousness.
  6. 231. The Word of God is Also the Wisdom of God. The Going Forth of Wisdom to Create the Universe, According to the Divine Plan.
  7. 232. The Son by Being Designated Word and Wisdom, (According to the Imperfection of Human Thought and Language) Liable to Be Deemed a Mere Attribute. He is Shown to Be a Personal Being.
  8. 233. Though the Son or Word of God Emanates from the Father, He is Not, Like the Emanations of Valentinus, Separable from the Father. Nor is the Holy Ghost Separable from Either. Illustrations from Nature.
  9. 234. The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points. Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
  10. 235. The Very Names of Father and Son Prove the Personal Distinction of the Two. They Cannot Possibly Be Identical, Nor is Their Identity Necessary to Preserve the Divine Monarchy.
  11. 236. The Identity of the Father and the Son, as Praxeas Held It, Shown to Be Full of Perplexity and Absurdity. Many Scriptures Quoted in Proof of the Distinction of the Divine Persons of the Trinity.
  12. 237. Other Quotations from Holy Scripture Adduced in Proof of the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead.
  13. 238. The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance. There is No Polytheism Here, Since the Unity is Insisted on as a Remedy Against Polytheism.
  14. 239. The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their Distinctness, Thus Supplied.
  15. 240. New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son's Visibility Contrasted with the Father's Invisibility.
  16. 241. Early Manifestations of the Son of God, as Recorded in the Old Testament; Rehearsals of His Subsequent Incarnation.
  17. 242. Sundry August Titles, Descriptive of Deity, Applied to the Son, Not, as Praxeas Would Have It, Only to the Father.
  18. 243. The Designation of the One God in the Prophetic Scriptures. Intended as a Protest Against Heathen Idolatry, It Does Not Preclude the Correlative Idea of the Son of God. The Son is in the Father.
  19. 244. The Son in Union with the Father in the Creation of All Things. This Union of the Two in Co-Operation is Not Opposed to the True Unity of God. It is Opposed Only to Praxeas' Identification Theory.
  20. 245. The Scriptures Relied on by Praxeas to Support His Heresy But Few. They are Mentioned by Tertullian.
  21. 246. In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a Minute Analysis of St. John's Gospel, that the Father and Son are Constantly Spoken of as Distinct Persons.
  22. 247. Sundry Passages of St. John Quoted, to Show the Distinction Between the Father and the Son. Even Praxeas' Classic Text--I and My Father are One--Shown to Be Against Him.
  23. 248. More Passages from the Same Gospel in Proof of the Same Portion of the Catholic Faith. Praxeas' Taunt of Worshipping Two Gods Repudiated.
  24. 249. On St. Philip's Conversation with Christ. He that Hath Seen Me, Hath Seen the Father. This Text Explained in an Anti-Praxean Sense.
  25. 250. The Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. He is Distinct from the Father and the Son as to Their Personal Existence. One and Inseparable from Them as to Their Divine Nature. Other Quotations Out of St. John's Gospel.
  26. 251. A Brief Reference to the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Their Agreement with St. John, in Respect to the Distinct Personality of the Father and the Son.
  27. 252. The Distinction of the Father and the Son, Thus Established, He Now Proves the Distinction of the Two Natures, Which Were, Without Confusion, United in the Person of the Son. The Subterfuges of Praxeas Thus Exposed.
  28. 253. Christ Not the Father, as Praxeas Said. The Inconsistency of This Opinion, No Less Than Its Absurdity, Exposed. The True Doctrine of Jesus Christ According to St. Paul, Who Agrees with Other Sacred Writers.
  29. 254. It Was Christ that Died.  The Father is Incapable of Suffering Either Solely or with Another. Blasphemous Conclusions Spring from Praxeas' Premises.
  30. 255. How the Son Was Forsaken by the Father Upon the Cross. The True Meaning Thereof Fatal to Praxeas. So Too, the Resurrection of Christ, His Ascension, Session at the Father's Right Hand, and Mission of the Holy Ghost.
  31. 256. Retrograde Character of the Heresy of Praxeas. The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity Constitutes the Great Difference Between Judaism and Christianity.
  32. 257. Postscript.
  33. 258. Elucidations.

Scorpiace.

  1. 259. Chapter I.
  2. 260. Chapter II.
  3. 261. Chapter III.
  4. 262. Chapter IV.
  5. 263. Chapter V.
  6. 264. Chapter VI.
  7. 265. Chapter VII.
  8. 266. Chapter VIII.
  9. 267. Chapter IX.
  10. 268. Chapter X.
  11. 269. Chapter XI.
  12. 270. Chapter XII.
  13. 271. Chapter XIII.
  14. 272. Chapter XIV.
  15. 273. Chapter XV.

Appendix: Against All Heresies.

  1. 274. Earliest Heretics:  Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Basilides, Nicolaus.
  2. 275. Ophites, Cainites, Sethites.
  3. 276. Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebion.
  4. 277. Valentinus, Ptolemy and Secundus, Heracleon.
  5. 278. Marcus and Colarbasus.
  6. 279. Cerdo, Marcion, Lucan, Apelles.
  7. 280. Tatian, Cataphrygians, Cataproclans, Catæschinetans.
  8. 281. Blastus, Two Theodoti, Praxeas.

Source: CCEL