On Repentance 12
Summary: The fires of volcanoes foreshadow Gehenna; since exomologesis is the second remedy after baptism, the sinner should use it, like Nebuchadnezzar, and not reject it, like Pharaoh.
Latin text · Oehler 1:663–665
Si de exomologesi retractas, gehennam in corde considera, quam tibi exomologesis extinguet, et poenae prius magnitudinem imaginare, ut de remedii adoptione non dubites. Quid illum thesaurum ignis aeterni aestimamus, cum fumariola quaedam eius tales flammarum ictus suscitent, ut proximae urbes aut iam nullae extent aut idem sibi de die sperent? Dissiliunt superbissimi montes ignis intrinsecus fetu, et quod nobis iudicii perpetuitatem probat, cum dissiliant, cum devorentur, nunquam tamen finiuntur. Quis haec supplicia interim montium non iudicii minantis exemplaria deputabit? quis scintillas tales non magni alicuius et inaestimabilis foci missilia quaedam et exercitoria iacula consentiet? Igitur cum scias adversus gehennam post prima illa intinctionis dominicae munimenta esse adhuc in exomologesi secunda subsidia, cur salutem tuam deseris? cur cessas aggredi quod scias mederi tibi? Mutae quidem animae et irrationales medicinas sibi divinitus attributas in tempore agnoscunt. Cervus sagitta transfixus, ut ferrum et irrevocabiles moras eius de vulnere expellat, scit sibi dictamno medendum. Hirundo, si excaecaverit pullos, novit illos oculare rursus de sua chelidonia. 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 aquilinum in modum efferatione et capilli incuria horrorem leoninum praeferente. Proh malae tractationis! Quem homines perhorrebant, deus recipiebat. Contra autem Aegyptius imperator, qui populum dei aliquando afflictum, diu domino suo denegatum, persecutus in proelium irruit, post tot documenta plagarum discidio maris, quod soli populo pervium licebat, revolutis fluctibus periit. Paenitentiam enim et ministerium eius exomologesin abiecerat. 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.
English · Claude translation
If you draw back from exomologesis, consider in your heart Gehenna, which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and first picture to yourself the greatness of the punishment, so that you may not hesitate about adopting the remedy. What do we think of that storehouse of eternal fire, when certain little vents of it stir up such blasts of flame that the nearest cities either no longer exist or expect the same fate for themselves any day? The proudest mountains burst apart with the brood of fire within; and, what proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment, though they burst apart, though they are devoured, yet they are never brought to an end. Who will not reckon these present punishments of mountains as samples of the judgment that threatens? Who will not agree that such sparks are some missiles and practice darts from some great and immeasurable furnace? So, since you know that against Gehenna, after that first defense of the Lord's baptism, there is still a second aid in exomologesis, why do you abandon your salvation? Why do you delay to undertake what you know will heal you? Even dumb and irrational creatures recognize in time the remedies divinely assigned to them. The stag pierced by an arrow knows that it must heal itself with dittany, to force the iron and its lingering barb out of the wound. The swallow, if it has blinded its chicks, knows how to give them eyes again with its own swallowwort. Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass over that which restored the Babylonian king to his kingdom? For he had long offered repentance as a sacrifice to the Lord, performing exomologesis in seven years of squalor, his nails grown wild like an eagle's, his neglected hair showing the shagginess of a lion. What harsh treatment! Yet him whom men shuddered at, God received. On the other hand, the Egyptian king, who pursued God's people, long afflicted and long refused to their Lord, rushed into battle and, after so many lessons from the plagues, perished in the parting of the sea, which was permitted to be passable to the people alone, when the waves rolled back. For he had rejected repentance and its ministry, exomologesis. Why should I say more of these two planks, as it were, of human salvation, caring more for the business of my pen than for the duty of my conscience? For since I am a sinner of every mark, and born for nothing but repentance, I cannot easily keep silent about it, when even Adam, the head of both the human race and of offense against the Lord, restored to his paradise by exomologesis, does not keep silent about it.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Dan 4:33-36 (Nebuchadnezzar), Exod 14 (Pharaoh), and Gen 3. The stories of the stag and dittany and of the swallow and swallowwort (chelidonia) are commonplaces of ancient natural history. The tradition that Adam repented and was restored to paradise is not biblical; its source is uncertain (compare Wis 10:1-2). The two “planks” are baptism and the second repentance. The volcanoes are probably Etna and Vesuvius.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Paen. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-paenitentia/12/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Paen. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-paenitentia/12/).
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