On the Apparel of Women - Tertullian
Tertullian
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Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.
Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
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Book I
Chapter I. Introduction. Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women, in Memory of
the Introduction of Sin into the World Through a Woman.
If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of faith which
is expected in the heavens, no one of you at all, best beloved sisters, from
the time that she had first "known the Lord," [80] and learned (the truth)
concerning her own (that is, woman's) condition, would have desired too
gladsome (not to say too ostentatious) a style of dress; so as not rather to
go about in humble garb, and rather to affect meanness of appearance,
walking about as Eve mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of
penitence [81] she might the more fully expiate that which she derives from
Eve,'the ignominy, I mean, of the first sin, and the odium (attaching to her
as the cause) of human perdition. "In pains and in anxieties dost thou bear
(children), woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination, and he
lords It over thee." [82] And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve?
The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: [83] the guilt
must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you are the
unsealer [84] of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the
divine law: you are she who persuaded [85] him whom the devil was not
valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On
account of your desert'that is, death'even the Son of God had to die. And do
you think about adorning yourself over and above your tunics of skins? [86]
Come, now; if from the beginning of the world [87] the Milesians sheared
sheep, and the Serians [88] spun trees, and the Tyrians dyed, and the
Phrygians embroidered with the needle, and the Babylonians with the loom,
and pearls gleamed, and onyx-stones flashed; if gold itself also had already
issued, with the cupidity (which accompanies it), from the ground; if the
mirror, too, already had licence to lie so largely, Eve, expelled from
paradise, (Eve) already dead, would also have coveted these things, I
imagine! No more, then, ought she now to crave, or be acquainted with (if
she desires to live again), what, when she was living, she had neither had
nor known. Accordingly these things are all the baggage of woman in her
condemned and dead state, instituted as if to swell the pomp of her funeral.
Chapter II. The Origin of Female Ornamentation, Traced Back to the Angels
Who Had Fallen. [89]
For they, withal, who instituted them are assigned, under condemnation, to
the penalty of death,'those angels, to wit, who rushed from heaven on the
daughters of men; so that this ignominy also attaches to woman. For when to
an age [90] much more ignorant (than ours) they had disclosed certain
well-concealed material substances, and several not well-revealed scientific
arts'if it is true that they had laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and
had divulged the natural properties of herbs, and had promulgated the powers
of enchantments, and had traced out every curious art, [91] even to the
interpretation of the stars'they conferred properly and as it were
peculiarly upon women that instrumental mean of womanly ostentation, the
radiances of jewels wherewith necklaces are variegated, and the circlets of
gold wherewith the arms are compressed, and the medicaments of orchil with
which wools are coloured, and that black powder itself wherewith the eyelids
and eyelashes are made prominent. [92] What is the quality of these things
may be declared meantime, even at this point, [93] from the quality and
condition of their teachers: in that sinners could never have either shown
or supplied anything conducive to integrity, unlawful lovers anything
conducive to chastity, renegade spirits anything conducive to the fear of
God. If (these things) are to be called teachings, ill masters must of
necessity have taught ill; if as wages of lust, there is nothing base of
which the wages are honourable. But why was it of so much importance to show
these things as well as [94] to confer them? Was it that women, without
material causes of splendour, and without ingenious contrivances of grace,
could not please men, who, while still unadorned, and uncouth and'so to
say'crude and rude, had moved (the mind of) angels? or was it that the
lovers [95] would appear sordid and'through gratuitous use'contumelious,
if they had conferred no (compensating) gift on the women who had been
enticed into connubial connection with them? But these questions admit of no
calculation. Women who possessed angels (as husbands) could desire nothing
more; they had, forsooth, made a grand match! Assuredly they who, of course,
did sometimes think whence they had fallen, [96] and, after the heated
impulses of their lusts, looked up toward heaven, thus requited that very
excellence of women, natural beauty, as (having proved) a cause of evil, in
order that their good fortune might profit them nothing; but that, being
turned from simplicity and sincerity, they, together with (the angels)
themselves, might become offensive to God. Sure they were that all
ostentation, and ambition, and love of pleasing by carnal means, was
displeasing to God. And these are the angels whom we are destined to
judge: [97] these are the angels whom in baptism we renounce: [98]
these, of course, are the reasons why they have deserved to be judged by
man. What business, then, have their things with their judges? What commerce
have they who are to condemn with them who are to be condemned? The same, I
take it, as Christ has with Belial. [99] With what consistency do we mount
that (future) judgment-seat to pronounce sentence against those whose gifts
we (now) seek after? For you too, (women as you are, ) have the self-same
angelic nature promised [100] as your reward, the self-same sex as men:
the self-same advancement to the dignity of judging, does (the Lord) promise
you. Unless, then, we begin even here to prejudge, by pre-condemning their
things, which we are hereafter to condemn in themselves, they will rather
judge and condemn us.
Chapter III. Concerning the Genuineness of "The Prophecy of Enoch." [101]
I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch, [102] which has assigned this
order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not
admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not think that,
having been published before the deluge, it could have safely survived that
world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things. If that is the reason (for
rejecting it), let them recall to their memory that Noah, the survivor of
the deluge, was the great-grandson of Enoch himself; [103] and he, of
course, had heard and remembered, from domestic renown [104] and
hereditary tradition, concerning his own great-grandfather's "grace in the
sight of God," [105] and concerning all his preachings; [106] since
Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah than that he should hand on
the knowledge of them to his posterity. Noah therefore, no doubt, might have
succeeded in the trusteeship of (his) preaching; or, had the case been
otherwise, he would not have been silent alike concerning the disposition
(of things) made by God, his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory
of his own house.
If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a route, there
would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant [107] our assertion of
(the genuineness of) this Scripture: he could equally have renewed it, under
the Spirit's inspiration, [108] after it had been destroyed by the
violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Babylonian storming of it, every document [109] of the Jewish literature
is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra.
But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the
Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we
read that "every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.
[110] By the Jews it may now seem to have been rejected for that (very)
reason, just like all the other (portions) nearly which tell of Christ. Nor,
of course, is this fact wonderful, that they did not receive some Scriptures
which spake of Him whom even in person, speaking in their presence, they
were not to receive. To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch
possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude. [111]
Chapter IV. Waiving the Question of the Authors, Tertullian Proposes to
Consider the Things on Their Own Merits.
Grant now that no mark of pre-condemnation has been branded on womanly pomp
by the (fact of the) fate [112] of its authors; let nothing be imputed to
those angels besides their repudiation of heaven and (their) carnal
marriage: [113] let us examine the qualities of the things themselves, in
order that we may detect the purposes also for which they are eagerly
desired.
Female habit carries with it a twofold idea'dress and ornament. By "dress"
we mean what they call "womanly gracing; " [114] by "ornament," what it is
suitable should be called "womanly disgracing." [115] The former is
accounted (to consist) in gold, and silver, and gems, and garments; the
latter in care of the hair, and of the skin, and of those parts of the body
which attract the eye. Against the one we lay the charge of ambition,
against the other of prostitution; so that even from this early stage
[116] (of our discussion) you may look forward and see what, out of (all)
these, is suitable, handmaid of God, to your discipline, inasmuch as you are
assessed on different principles (from other women),'those, namely, of
humility and chastity.
Chapter V. Gold and Silver Not Superior in Origin or in Utility to Other
Metals.
Gold and silver, the principal material causes of worldly [117] splendour,
must necessarily be identical (in nature) with that out of which they have
their being: (they must be) earth, that is; (which earth itself is) plainly
more glorious (than they), inasmuch as it is only after it has been
tearfully wrought by penal labour in the deadly laboratories of accursed
mines, and there left its name of "earth" in the fire behind it, that, as a
fugitive from the mine, it passes from torments to ornaments, from
punishments to embellishments, from ignominies to honours. But iron, and
brass, and other the vilest material substances, enjoy a parity of condition
(with silver and gold), both as to earthly origin and metallurgic operation;
in order that, in the estimation of nature, the substance of gold and of
silver may be judged not a whit more noble (than theirs). But if it is from
the quality of utility that gold and silver derive their glory, why, iron
and brass excel them; whose usefulness is so disposed (by the Creator), that
they not only discharge functions of their own more numerous and more
necessary to human affairs, but do also none the less serve the turn of gold
and silver, by dint of their own powers, [118] in the service of juster
causes. For not only are rings made of iron, but the memory of antiquity
still preserves (the fame of) certain vessels for eating and drinking made
out of brass. Let the insane plenteousness of gold and silver look to it, if
it serves to make utensils even for foul purposes. At all events, neither is
the field tilled by means of gold, nor the ship fastened together by the
strength of silver. No mattock plunges a golden edge into the ground; no
nail drives a silver point into planks. I leave unnoticed the fact that the
needs of our whole life are dependent upon iron and brass; whereas those
rich materials themselves, requiring both to be dug up out of mines, and
needing a forging process in every use (to which they are put), are helpless
without the laborious vigour of iron and brass. Already, therefore, we must
judge whence it is that so high dignity accrues to gold and silver, since
they get precedence over material substances which are not only
cousin-german to them in point of origin, but more powerful in point of
usefulness.
Chapter VI. Of Precious Stones and Pearls.
But, in the next place, what am I to interpret those jewels to be which vie
with gold in haughtiness, except little pebbles and stones and paltry
particles of the self-same earth; but yet not necessary either for laying
down foundations, or rearing party-walls, or supporting pediments, or giving
density to roofs? The only edifice which they know how to rear is this silly
pride of women: because they require slow rubbing that they may shine, and
artful underlaying that they may show to advantage, and careful piercing
that they may hang; and (because they) render to gold a mutual assistance in
meretricious allurement. But whatever it is that ambition fishes up from the
British or the Indian sea, it is a kind of conch not more pleasing in savour
than'I do not say the oyster and the sea-snail, but'even the giant muscle.
[119] For let me add that I know conchs (which axe) sweet fruits of the sea.
But if that (foreign) conch suffers from some internal pustule, that ought
to be regarded rather as its defect than as its glory; and although it be
called "pearl," still something else must be understood than some hard,
round excrescence of the fish. Some say, too, that gems are culled from the
foreheads of dragons, just as in the brains of fishes there is a certain
stony substance. This also was wanting to the Christian woman, that she may
add a grace to herself from the serpent! Is it thus that she will set her
heel on the devil's head," [120] while she heaps ornaments (taken) from
his head on her own neck, or on her very head?
Chapter VII. Rarity the Only Cause Which Makes Such Things Valuable.
It is only from their rarity and outlandishness that all these things
possess their grace; in short, within their own native limits they are not
held of so high worth. Abundance is always contumelious toward itself. There
are some barbarians with whom, because gold is indigenous and plentiful, it
is customary to keep (the criminals) in their convict establishments chained
with gold, and to lade the wicked with riches'the more guilty, the more
wealthy. At last there has really been found a way to prevent even gold from
being loved! We have also seen at Rome the nobility of gems blushing in the
presence of our matrons at the contemptuous usage of the Parthians and
Medes, and the rest of their own fellow-countrymen, only that (their gems)
are not generally worn with a view to ostentation. Emeralds [121] lurk in
their belts; and the sword (that hangs) below their bosom alone is witness
to the cylindrical stones that decorate its hilt; and the massive single
pearls on their boots are fain to get lifted out of the mud! In short, they
carry nothing so richly gemmed as that which ought not to be gemmed if it is
(either) not conspicuous, or else is conspicuous only that it may be shown
to be also neglected.
Chapter VIII. The Same Rule Holds with Regard to Colours. God's Creatures
Generally Not to Be Used, Except for the Purposes to Which He Has Appointed
Them.
Similarly, too, do even the servants [122] of those barbarians cause the
glory to fade from the colours of our garments (by wearing the like); nay,
even their party-walls use slightingly, to supply the place of painting, the
Tyrian and the violet-coloured and the grand royal hangings, which you
laboriously undo and metamorphose. Purple with them is more paltry than red
ochre; (and justly, ) for what legitimate honour can garments derive from
adulteration with illegitimate colours? That which He Himself has not
produced is not pleasing to God, unless He was unable to order sheep to be
born with purple and sky-blue fleeces! If He was able, then plainly He was
unwilling: what God willed not, of course ought not to be fashioned. Those
things, then, are not the best by nature which are not from God, the Author
of nature. Thus they are understood to be from the devil, from the corrupter
of nature: for there is no other whose they can be, if they are not God's;
because what are not God's must necessarily be His rival's. [123] But,
beside the devil and his angels, other rival of God there is none. Again, if
the material substances are of God, it does not immediately follow that such
ways of enjoying them among men (are so too). It is matter for inquiry not
only whence come conchs, [124] but what sphere of embellishment is
assigned them, and where it is that they exhibit their beauty. For all those
profane pleasures of worldly [125] shows'as we have already published a
volume of their own about them [126] '(ay, and) even idolatry itself,
derive their material causes from the creatures [127] of God. Yet a
Christian ought not to attach himself [128] to the frenzies of the
racecourse, or the atrocities of the arena, or the turpitudes of the stage,
simply because God has given to man the horse, and the panther, and the
power of speech: just as a Christian cannot commit idolatry with impunity
either, because the incense, and the wine, and the fire which feeds [129]
(thereon), and the animals which are made the victims, are God's
workmanship; [130] since even the material thing which is adored is God's
(creature). Thus then, too, with regard to their active use, does the origin
of the material substances, which descends from God, excuse (that use) as
foreign to God, as guilty forsooth of worldly [131] glory!
Chapter IX. God's Distribution Must Regulate Our Desires, Otherwise We
Become the Prey of Ambition and Its Attendant Evils.
For, as some particular things distributed by God over certain individual
lands, and some one particular tract of sea, are mutually foreign one to the
other, they are reciprocally either neglected or desired: (desired) among
foreigners, as being rarities; neglected (rightly), if anywhere, among their
own compatriots, because in them there is no such fervid longing for a glory
which, among its own home-folk, is frigid. But, however, the rareness and
outlandishness which arise out of that distribution of possessions which God
has ordered as He willed, ever finding favour in the eyes of strangers,
excites, from the simple fact of not having what God has made native to
other places, the concupiscence of having it. Hence is educed another
vice'that of immoderate having; because although, perhaps, having may be
permissible, still a limit [132] is bound (to be observed). This (second
vice) will be ambition; and hence, too, its name is to be interpreted, in
that from concupiscence ambient in the mind it is born, with a view to the
desire of glory,'a grand desire, forsooth, which (as we have said) is
recommended neither by nature nor by truth, but by a vicious passion of the
mind,'(namely, ) concupiscence. And there are other vices connected with
ambition and glory. Thus they have withal enhanced the cost of things, in
order that (thereby) they might add fuel to themselves also; for
concupiscence becomes proportionably greater as it has set a higher value
upon the thing which it has eagerly desired. From the smallest caskets is
produced an ample patrimony. On a single thread is suspended a million of
sesterces. One delicate neck carries about it forests and islands. [133]
The slender lobes of the ears exhaust a fortune; and the left hand, with its
every finger, sports with a several money-bag. Such is the strength of
ambition'(equal) to bearing on one small body, and that a woman's, the
product of so copious wealth:
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Book II
Chapter I. Introduction. Modesty to Be Observed Not Only in Its Essence, But
in Its Accessories.
Handmaids of the living God, my fellow-servants and sisters, the right which
I enjoy with you'I, the most meanest [134] in that right of
fellow-servantship and brotherhood'emboldens me to address to you a
discourse, not, of course, of affection, but paving the way for affection in
the cause of your salvation. That salvation'and not (the salvation) of women
only, but likewise of men'consists in the exhibition principally of modesty.
For since, by the introduction into an appropriation [135] (in) us of the
Holy Spirit, we are all" the temple of God," [136] Modesty is the sacristan
and priestess of that temple, who is to suffer nothing unclean or profane to
be introduced (into it), for fear that the God who inhabits it should be
offended, and quite forsake the polluted abode. But on the present occasion
we (are to speak) not about modesty, for the enjoining and exacting of which
the divine precepts which press (upon us) on every side are sufficient; but
about the matters which pertain to it, that is, the manner in which it
behoves you to walk. For most women (which very thing I trust God may permit
me, with a view, of course, to my own personal censure, to censure in all),
either from simple ignorance or else from dissimulation, have the hardihood
so to walk as if modesty consisted only [137] in the (bare) integrity of the
flesh, and in turning away from (actual) fornication; and there were no need
for anything extrinsic to boot'in the matter (I mean) of the arrangement of
dress and ornament, [138] the studied graces of form and brilliance:'wearing
in their gait the self-same appearance as the women of the nations, from
whom the sense of true modesty is absent, because in those who know not God,
the Guardian and Master of truth, there is nothing true. [139] For if any
modesty can be believed (to exist) in Gentiles, it is plain that it must be
imperfect and undisciplined to such a degree that, although it be actively
tenacious of itself in the mind up to a certain point, it yet allows itself
to relax into licentious extravagances of attire; just in accordance with
Gentile perversity, in craving after that of which it carefully shuns the
effect. [140] How many a one, in short, is there who does not earnestly
desire even to look pleasing to strangers? who does not on that very account
take care to have herself painted out, and denies that she has (ever) been
an object of (carnal) appetite? And yet, granting that even this is a
practice familiar to Gentile modesty'(namely, ) not actually to commit the
sin, but still to be willing to do so; or even not to be willing, yet still
not quite to refuse'what wonder? for all things which are not God's are
perverse. Let those women therefore look to it, who, by not holding fast the
whole good, easily mingle with evil even what they do hold fast. Necessary
it is that you turn aside from them, as in all other things, so also in your
gait; since you ought to be "perfect, as (is) your Father who is in the
heavens." [141]
Chapter II. Perfect Modesty Will Abstain from Whatever Tends to Sin, as Well
as from Sin Itself. Difference Between Trust and Presumption. If Secure
Ourselves, We Must Not Put Temptation in the Way of Others. We Must Love Our
Neighbour as Ourself.
You must know that in the eye of perfect, that is, Christian, modesty,
(carnal) desire of one's self (on the part of others) is not only not to be
desired, but even execrated, by you: first, because the study of making
personal grace (which we know to be naturally the inviter of lust) a mean of
pleasing does not spring from a sound conscience: why therefore excite
toward yourself that evil (passion)? why invite (that) to which you profess
yourself a stranger? secondly, because we ought not to open a way to
temptations, which, by their instancy, sometimes achieve (a wickedness)
which God expels from them who are His; (or, ) at all events, put the spirit
into a thorough tumult by (presenting) a stumbling-block (to it). We ought
indeed to walk so holily, and with so entire substantiality [142] of faith,
as to be confident and secure in regard of our own conscience, desiring that
that (gift) may abide in us to the end, yet not presuming (that it will).
For he who presumes feels less apprehension; he who feels less apprehension
takes less precaution; he who takes less precaution runs more risk. Fear
[143] is the foundation of salvation; presumption is an impediment to fear.
More useful, then, is it to apprehend that we may possibly fail, than to
presume that we cannot; for apprehending will lead us to fear, fearing to
caution, and caution to salvation. On the other hand, if we presume, there
will be neither fear nor caution to save us. He who acts securely, and not
at the same time warily, possesses no safe and firm security; whereas he who
is wary will be truly able to be secure. For His own servants, may the Lord
by His mercy take care that to them it may be lawful even to presume on His
goodness! But why are we a (source of) danger to our neighbour? why do we
import concupiscence into our neighbour? which concupiscence, if God, in
"amplifying the law," [144] do not [145] dissociate in (the way of)
penalty from the actual commission of fornication, [146] I know not
whether He allows impunity to him who [147] has been the cause of
perdition to some other. For that other, as soon as he has felt
concupiscence after your beauty, and has mentally already committed (the
deed) which his concupiscence pointed to, [148] perishes; and you have
been made [149] the sword which destroys him: so that, albeit you be free
from the (actual) crime, you are not free from the odium (attaching to it);
as, when a robbery has been committed on some man's estate, the (actual)
crime indeed will not be laid to the owner's charge, while yet the domain is
branded with ignominy, (and) the owner himself aspersed with the infamy. Are
we to paint ourselves out that our neighbours may perish? Where, then, is
(the command), "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself? " [150] "Care
not merely about your own (things), but (about your) neighbour's? " [151]
No enunciation of the Holy Spirit ought to be (confined) to the subject
immediately in hand merely, and not applied and carried out with a view to
every occasion to which its application is useful. [152] Since, therefore,
both our own interest and that of others is implicated in the studious
pursuit of most perilous (outward) comeliness, it is time for you to know
[153] that not merely must the pageantry of fictitious and elaborate beauty
be rejected by you; but that of even natural grace must be obliterated by
concealment and negligence, as equally dangerous to the glances of (the
beholder's) eyes. For, albeit comeliness is not to be censured, [154] as
being a bodily happiness, as being an additional outlay of the divine
plastic art, as being a kind of goodly garment [155] of the soul; yet it
is to be feared, just on account of the injuriousness and violence of
suitors: [156] which (injuriousness and violence) even the father of the
faith, [157] Abraham, [158] greatly feared in regard of his own wife's
grace; and Isaac, [159] by falsely representing Rebecca as his sister,
purchased safety by insult! [160]
Chapter III. Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be
Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious
Let it now be granted that excellence of form be not to be feared, as
neither troublesome to its possessors, nor destructive to its desirers, nor
perilous to its compartners; [161] let it be thought (to be) not exposed
to temptations, not surrounded by stumbling-blocks: it is enough that to
angels of God [162] it is not necessary. For, where modesty is, there
beauty is idle; because properly the use and fruit of beauty is
voluptuousness, unless any one thinks that there is some other harvest for
bodily grace to reap. [163] Are women who think that, in furnishing to
their neighbour that which is demanded of beauty, they are furnishing it to
themselves also, to augment that (beauty) when (naturally) given them, and
to strive after it when not (thus) given? Some one will say, "Why, then, if
voluptuousness be shut out and chastity let in, may (we) not enjoy the
praise of beauty alone, and glory in a bodily good? "Let whoever finds
pleasure in "glorying in the flesh" [164] see to that. To us in the first
place, there is no studious pursuit of "glory," because "glory" is the
essence of exaltation. Now exaltation is incongruous for professors of
humility according to God's precepts. Secondly, if all "glory" is "vain" and
insensate, [165] how much more (glory) in the flesh, especially to us? For
even if "glorying" is (allowable), we ought to wish our sphere of pleasing
to lie in the graces [166] of the Spirit, not in the flesh; because we are
"suitors" [167] of things spiritual. In those things wherein our sphere of
labour lies, let our joy lie. From the sources whence we hope for salvation,
let us cull our "glory." Plainly, a Christian will "glory" even in the
flesh; but (it will be) when it has endured laceration for Christ's sake,
[168] in order that the spirit may be crowned in it, not in order that it
may draw the eyes and sighs of youths after it. Thus (a thing) which, from
whatever point you look at it, is in your case superfluous, you may justly
disdain if you have it not, and neglect if you have. Let a holy woman, if
naturally beautiful, give none so great occasion (for carnal appetite).
Certainly, if even she be so, she ought not to set off (her beauty), but
even to obscure it. [169]
Chapter IV. Concerning the Plea of "Pleasing the Husband."
As if I were speaking to Gentiles, addressing you with a Gentile precept,
and (one which is) common to all, (I would say, ) "You are bound to please
your husbands only." [170] But you will please them in proportion as you
take no care to please others. Be ye without carefulness, [171] blessed
(sisters): no wife is "ugly" to her own husband. She "pleased" him enough
when she was selected (by him as his wife); whether commended by form or by
character. Let none of you think that, if she abstain from the care of her
person, [172] she will incur the hatred and aversion of husbands. Every
husband is the exactor of chastity; but beauty, a believing (husband) does
not require, because we are not captivated by the same graces [173] which
the Gentiles think (to be) graces: [174] an unbelieving one, on the other
hand, even regards with suspicion, just from that infamous opinion of us
which the Gentiles have. For whom, then, is it that you cherish your beauty?
If for a believer, he does not exact it: if for an unbeliever, he does not
believe in it unless it be artless. [175] Why are you eager to please
either one who is suspicious, or else one who desires it not?
Chapter V. Some Refinements in Dress and Personal Appearance Lawful, Some
Unlawful. Pigments Come Under the Latter Head.
These suggestions are not made to you, of course, to be developed into an
entire crudity and wildness of appearance; nor are we seeking to persuade
you of the good of squalor and slovenliness; but of the limit and norm and
just measure of cultivation of the person. There must be no overstepping of
that line to which simple and sufficient refinements limit their
desires'that line which is pleasing to God. For they who rub [176] their
skin with medicaments, stain their cheeks with rouge, make their eyes
prominent with antimony, [177] sin against Him. To them, I suppose, the
plastic skill [178] of God is displeasing! In their own persons, I
suppose, they convict, they censure, the Artificer of all things! For
censure they, do when they amend, when they add to, (His work; ) taking
these their additions, of course, from the adversary artificer. That
adversary artificer is the devil. [179] For who would show the way to
change the body, but he who by wickedness transfigured man's spirit? He it
is, undoubtedly, who adapted ingenious devices of this kind; that in your
persons it may be apparent that you, in a certain sense, do violence to God.
Whatever is born is the work of God. Whatever, then, is plastered on [180]
(that), is the devil's work. To superinduce on a divine work Satan's
ingenuities, how criminal is it! Our servants borrow nothing from our
personal enemies: soldiers eagerly desire nothing from the foes of their own
general; for, to demand for (your own) use anything from the adversary of
Him in whose hand [181] you are, is a transgression. Shall a Christian be
assisted in anything by that evil one? (If he do, ) I know not whether this
name (of "Christian") will continue (to belong) to him; for he will be his
in whose lore he eagerly desires to be instructed. But how alien from your
schoolings [182] and professions are (these things)! How unworthy the
Christian name, to wear a fictitious face, (you,) on whom simplicity in
every form is enjoined!'to lie in your appearance, (you,) to whom (lying)
with the tongue is not lawful!'to seek after what is another's, (you,) to
whom is delivered (the precept of) abstinence from what is another's!'to
practise adultery in your mien, [183] (you,) who make modesty your study!
Think, [184] blessed (sisters), how will you keep God's precepts if you
shall not keep in your own persons His lineaments?
Chapter VI. Of Dyeing the Hair.
I see some (women) turn (the colour of) their hair with saffron. They are
ashamed even of their own nation, (ashamed) that their procreation did not
assign them to Germany and to Gaul: thus, as it is, they transfer their
hair [185] (thither)! Ill, ay, most ill, do they augur for themselves with
their flame-coloured head, [186] and think that graceful which (in fact)
they are polluting! Nay, moreover, the force of the cosmetics burns ruin
into the hair; and the constant application of even any undrugged moisture,
lays up a store of harm for the head; while the sun's warmth, too, so
desirable for imparting to the hair at once growth and dryness, is hurtful.
What "grace" is compatible with "injury? "What "beauty" with "impurities?
"Shall a Christian woman heap saffron on her head, as upon an altar? [187]
For, whatever is wont to be burned to the honour of the unclean spirit,
that'unless it is applied for honest, and necessary, and salutary uses, for
which God's creature was provided'may seem to be a sacrifice. But, however,
God saith, "Which of you can make a white hair black, or out of a black a
white? " [188] And so they refute the Lord! "Behold!" say they, "instead
of white or black, we make it yellow,'more winning in grace." [189] And
yet such as repent of having lived to old age do attempt to change it even
from white to black! O temerity! The age which is the object of our wishes
and prayers blushes (for itself)! a theft is effected! youth, wherein we
have sinned, [190] is sighed after! the opportunity of sobriety is
spoiled! Far from Wisdom's daughters be folly so great! The more old age
tries to conceal itself, the more will it be detected. Here is a veritable
eternity, in the (perennial) youth of your head! Here we have an
"incorruptibility" to "put on," [191] with a view to the new house of the
Lord [192] which the divine monarchy promises! Well do you speed toward
the Lord; well do you hasten to be quit of this most iniquitous world,
[193] to whom it is unsightly to approach (your own) end!
Chapter VII.Of Elaborate Dressing of the Hair in Other Ways, and Its
Bearing Upon Salvation.
What service, again, does all the labour spent in arranging the hair render
to salvation? Why is no rest allowed to your hair, which must now be bound,
now loosed, now cultivated, now thinned out? Some are anxious to force their
hair into curls, some to let it hang loose and flying; not with good
simplicity: beside which, you affix I know not what enormities of subtle and
textile perukes; now, after the manner of a helmet of undressed hide, as it
were a sheath for the head and a covering for the crown; now, a mass (drawn)
backward toward the neck. The wonder is, that there is no (open) contending
against the Lord's prescripts! It has been pronounced that no one can add to
his own stature. [194] You, however, do add to your weight some kind of
rolls, or shield-bosses, to be piled upon your necks! If you feel no shame
at the enormity, feel some at the pollution; for fear you may be fitting on
a holy and Christian head the slough [195] of some one else's [196]
head, unclean perchance, guilty perchance and destined to hell. [197] Nay,
rather banish quite away from your "free" [198] head all this slavery of
ornamentation. In vain do you labour to seem adorned: in vain do you call in
the aid of all the most skilful manufacturers of false hair. God bids you
"be veiled." [199] I believe (He does so) for fear the heads of some
should be seen! And oh that in "that day" [200] of Christian exultation,
I, most miserable (as I am), may elevate my head, even though below (the
level of) your heels! I shall (then) see whether you will rise with (your)
ceruse and rouge and saffron, and in all that parade of headgear: [201]
whether it will be women thus tricked out whom the angels carry up to meet
Christ in the air [202] If these (decorations) are now good, and of God,
they will then also present themselves to the rising bodies, and will
recognise their several places. But nothing can rise except flesh and spirit
sole and pure. [203] Whatever, therefore, does not rise in (the form of)
[204] spirit and flesh is condemned, because it is not of God. From things
which are condemned abstain, even at the present day. At the present day let
God see you such as He will see you then.
Chapter VIII. Men Not Excluded from These Remarks on Personal Adornment.
Of course, now, I, a man, as being envious [205] of women, am banishing
them quite from their own (domains). Are there, in our case too, some things
which, in respect of the sobriety [206] we are to maintain on account of
the fear [207] due to God, are disallowed? [208] If it is true, (as it
is,) that in men, for the sake of women (just as in women for the sake of
men), there is implanted, by a defect of nature, the will to please; and if
this sex of ours acknowledges to itself deceptive trickeries of form
peculiarly its own,'(such as) to cut the beard too sharply; to pluck it out
here and there; to shave round about (the mouth); to arrange the hair, and
disguise its hoariness by dyes; to remove all the incipient down all over
the body; to fix (each particular hair) in its place with (some) womanly
pigment; to smooth all the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder
or other: then, further, to take every opportunity for consulting the minor;
to gaze anxiously into it: -while yet, when (once) the knowledge of God has
put an end to all wish to please by means of voluptuous attraction, all
these things are rejected as frivolous, as hostile to modesty. For where God
is, there modesty is; there is sobriety [209] her assistant and ally. How,
then, shall we practise modesty without her instrumental mean, [210] that
is, without sobriety? [211] How, moreover, shall we bring sobriety [212]
to bear on the discharge of (the functions of) modesty, unless seriousness
in appearance and in countenance, and in the general aspect [213] of the
entire man, mark our carriage?
Chapter IX. Excess in Dress, as Well as in Personal Culture, to Be Shunned.
Arguments Drawn from I Cor. VII.
Wherefore, with regard to clothing also, and all the remaining lumber of
your self-elaboration, [214] the like pruning off and retrenchment of too
redundant splendour must be the object of your care. For what boots it to
exhibit in your face temperance and unaffectedness, and a simplicity
altogether worthy of the divine discipline, but to invest all the other
parts of the body with the luxurious absurdities of pomps and delicacies?
How intimate is the connection which these pomps have with the business of
voluptuousness, and how they interfere with modesty, is easily discernible
from the fact that it is by the allied aid of dress that they prostitute the
grace of personal comeliness: so plain is it that if (the pomps) be wanting,
they render (that grace) bootless and thankless, as if it were disarmed and
wrecked. On the other hand, if natural beauty fails, the supporting aid of
outward embellishment supplies a grace, as it were, from its own inherent
power. [215] Those times of life, in fact, which are at last blest with
quiet and withdrawn into the harbour of modesty, the splendour and dignity
of dress lure away (from that rest and that harbour), and disquiet
seriousness by seductions of appetite, which compensate for the chili of age
by the provocative charms of apparel. First, then, blessed (sisters), (take
heed) that you admit not to your use meretricious and prostitutionary garbs
and garments: and, in the next place, if there are any of you whom the
exigencies of riches, or birth, or past dignities, compel to appear in
public so gorgeously arrayed as not to appear to have attained wisdom, take
heed to temper an evil of this kind; lest, under the pretext of necessity,
you give the rein without stint to the indulgence of licence. For how will
you be able to fulfil (the requirements of) humility, which our (school)
profess, [216] if you do not keep within bounds [217] the enjoyment of
your riches and elegancies, which tend so much to "glory? "Now it has ever
been the wont of glory to exalt, not to humble. "Why, shall we not use what
is our own? "Who prohibits your using it? Yet (it must be) in accordance
with the apostle, who warns us "to use this world [218] as if we abuse it
not; for the fashion [219] of this world [220] is passing away." And
"they who buy are so to act as if they possessed not." [221] Why so?
Because he had laid down the premiss, saying, "The time is wound up."
[222] If, then he shows plainly that even wives themselves are so to be had
as if they be not had, [223] on account of the straits of the times, what
would be his sentiments about these vain appliances of theirs? Why, are
there not many, withal, who so do, and seal themselves up to eunuchhood for
the sake of the kingdom of God, [224] spontaneously relinquishing a
pleasure so honourable, [225] and (as we know) permitted? Are there not
some who prohibit to themselves (the use of) the very "creature of God,"
[226] abstaining from wine and animal food, the enjoyments of which border
upon no peril or solicitude; but they sacrifice to God the humility of their
soul even in the chastened use of food? Sufficiently, therefore, have you,
too, used your riches and your delicacies; sufficiently have you cut down
the fruits of your dowries, before (receiving) the knowledge of saving
disciplines. We are they "upon whom the ends of the ages have met, having
ended their course." [227] We have been predestined by God, before the
world [228] was, (to arise) in the extreme end of the times. [229] And
so we are trained by God for the purpose of chastising, and (so to say)
emasculating, the world. [230] We are the circumcision [231] 'spiritual
and carnal'of all things; for both in the spirit and in the flesh we
circumcise worldly [232] principles.
Chapter X. Tertullian Refers Again to the Question of the Origin of All
These Ornaments and Embellishments. [233]
It was God, no doubt, who showed the way to dye wools with the juices of
herbs and the humours of conchs! It had escaped Him, when He was bidding the
universe to come into being, [234] to issue a command for (the production
of) purple and scarlet sheep! It was God, too, who devised by careful
thought the manufactures of those very garments which, light and thin (in
themselves), were to be heavy in price alone; God who produced such grand
implements of gold for confining or parting the hair; God who introduced
(the fashion of) finely-cut wounds for the ears, and set so high a value
upon the tormenting of His own work and the tortures of innocent infancy,
learning to suffer with its earliest breath, in order that from those scars
of the body'born for the steel!'should hang I know not what (precious)
grains, which, as we may plainly see, the Parthians insert, in place of
studs, upon their very shoes! And yet even the gold itself, the "glory" of
which carries you away, serves a certain race (so Gentile literature. tells
us) for chains! So true is it that it is not intrinsic worth, [235] but
rarity, which constitutes the goodness (of these things): the excessive
labour, moreover, of working them with arts introduced by the means of the
sinful angels, who were the revealers withal of the material substances
themselves, joined with their rarity, excited their costliness, and hence a
lust on the part of women to possess (that) costliness. But, if the
self-same angels who disclosed both the material substances of this kind and
their charms'of gold, I mean, and lustrous [236] stones'and taught men
how to work them, and by and by instructed them, among their other
(instructions), in (the virtues of) eyelid-powder and the dyeings of
fleeces, have been condemned by God, as Enoch tells us, how shall we please
God while we joy in the things of those (angels) who, on these accounts,
have provoked the anger and the vengeance of God?
Now, granting that God did foresee these things; that God permitted them;
that Esaias finds fault with no garment of purple, [237] represses no
coil, [238] reprobates no crescent-shaped neck ornaments; [239] still
let us not, as the Gentiles do, flatter ourselves with thinking that God is
merely a Creator, not likewise a Downlooker on His own creatures. For how
far more usefully and cautiously shall we act, if we hazard the presumption
that all these things were indeed provided [240] at the beginning and
placed in the world [241] by God, in order that there should now be means
of putting to the proof the discipline of His servants, in order that the
licence of using should be the means whereby the experimental trials of
continence should be conducted? Do not wise heads of families purposely
offer and permit some things to their servants [242] in order to try
whether and how they will use the things thus permitted whether (they will
do so) with honesty, or with moderation? But how far more praiseworthy (the
servant) who abstains entirely; who has a wholesome fear [243] even of
his lord's indulgence! Thus, therefore, the apostle too: "All things," says
he, "are lawful, but not all are expedient." [244] How much more easily
will he fear [245] what is unlawful who has a reverent dread [246] of
what is lawful?
Chapter XI. Christian Women, Further, Have Not the Same Causes for Appearing
in Public, and Hence for Dressing in Fine Array as Gentiles. On the
Contrary, Their Appearance Should Always Distinguish Them from Such.
Moreover, what causes have you for appearing in public in excessive
grandeur, removed as you are from the occasions which call for such
exhibitions? For you neither make the circuit of the temples, nor demand (to
be present at) public shows, nor have any acquaintance with the holy days of
the Gentiles. Now it is for the sake of all these public gatherings, and of
much seeing and being seen, that all pomps (of dress) are exhibited before
the public eye; either for the purpose of transacting the trade of
voluptuousness, or else of inflating "glory." You, however, have no cause of
appearing in public, except such as is serious. Either some brother who is
sick is visited, or else the sacrifice is offered, or else the word of God
is dispensed. Whichever of these you like to name is a business of
sobriety [247] and sanctity, requiring no extraordinary attire, with
(studious) arrangement and (wanton) negligence. [248] And if the
requirements of Gentile friendships and of kindly offices call you, why not
go forth clad in your own armour; (and) all the more, in that (you have to
go) to such as are strangers to the faith? so that between the handmaids of
God and of the devil there may be a difference; so that you may be an
example to them, and they may be edified in you; so that (as the apostle
says) "God may be magnified in your body." [249] But magnified He is in
the body through modesty: of course, too, through attire suitable to
modesty. Well, but it is urged by some, "Let not the Name be blasphemed in
us, [250] if we make any derogatory change from our old style and
dress." Let us, then, not abolish our old vices! let us maintain the same
character, if we must maintain the same appearance (as before); and then
truly the nations will not blaspheme! A grand blasphemy is that by which it
is said, "Ever since she became a Christian, she walks in poorer garb!" Will
you fear to appear poorer, from the time that you have been made more
wealthy; and fouler, [251] from the time when you have been made more
clean? Is it according to the decree [252] of Gentiles, or according to
the decree of God, that it becomes Christians to walk?
Chapter XII. Such Outward Adornments Meretricious, and Therefore Unsuitable
to Modest Women.
Let us only wish that we may be no cause for just blasphemy! But how much
more provocative of blasphemy is it that you, who are called modesty's
priestesses, should appear in public decked and painted out after the manner
of the immodest? Else, (if you so do,) what inferiority would the poor
unhappy victims of the public lusts have (beneath you)? whom, albeit some
laws were (formerly) wont to restrain them from (the use of) matrimonial and
matronly decorations, now, at all events, the daily increasing depravity of
the age [253] has raised so nearly to an equality with all the most
honourable women, that the difficulty is to distinguish them. And yet, even
the Scriptures suggest (to us the reflection), that meretricious
attractivenesses of form are invariably conjoined with and appropriate
[254] to bodily prostitution. That powerful state [255] which presides
over [256] the seven mountains and very many waters, has merited from the
Lord the appellation of a prostitute. [257] But what kind of garb is the
instrumental mean of her comparison with that appellation? She sits, to be
sure, "in purple, and scarlet, and gold, and precious stone." How accursed
are the things without (the aid of) which an accursed prostitute could not
have been described! It was the fact that Thamar "had painted out and
adorned herself" that led Judah to regard her as a harlot, [258] and
thus, because she was hidden beneath her "veil,"'the quality of her garb
belying her as if she had been a harlot,'he judged (her to be one), and
addressed and bargained with (her as such). Whence we gather an additional
confirmation of the lesson, that provision must be made in every way.
against all immodest associations [259] and suspicions. For why is the
integrity of a chaste mind defiled by its neighbour's suspicion? Why is a
thing from which I am averse hoped for in me? Why does not my garb
pre-announce my character, to prevent my spirit from being wounded by
shamelessness through (the channel of) nay ears? Grant that it be lawful to
assume the appearance of a modest woman: [260] to assume that of an
immodest is, at all events, not lawful.
Chapter XIII. It is Not Enough that God Know Us to Be Chaste: We Must Seem
So Before Men. Especially in These Times of Persecution We Must Inure Our
Bodies to the Hardships Which They May Not Improbably Be Called to Suffer.
Perhaps some (woman) will say: "To me it is not necessary to be approved by
men; for I do not require the testimony of men: [261] God is the
inspector of the heart." [262] (That) we all know; provided, however, we
remember what the same (God) has said through the apostle: "Let your probity
appear before men." [263] For what purpose, except that malice may have
no access at all to you, or that you may be an example and testimony to the
evil? Else, what is (that): "Let your works shine? " [264] Why, moreover,
does the Lord call us the light of the world; why has He compared us to a
city built upon a mountain; [265] if we do not shine in (the midst of)
darkness, and stand eminent amid them who are sunk down? If you hide your
lamp beneath a bushel, [266] you must necessarily be left quite in
darkness, and be run against by many. The things which make us luminaries of
the world are these'our good works. What is good, moreover, provided it be
true and full, loves not darkness: it joys in being seen, [267] and
exults over the very pointings which are made at it. To Christian modesty it
is not enough to be so, but to seem so too. For so great ought its plenitude
to be, that it may flow out from the mind to the garb, and burst out from
the conscience to the outward appearance; so that even from the outside it
may gaze, as it were, upon its own furniture, [268] '(a furniture) such
as to be suited to retain faith as its inmate perpetually. For such
delicacies as tend by their softness and effeminacy to unman the
manliness [269] of faith are to be discarded. Otherwise, I know not
whether the wrist that has been wont to be surrounded with the palmleaf-like
bracelet will endure till it grow into the numb hardness of its own chain! I
know not whether the leg that has rejoiced in the anklet will suffer itself
to be squeezed into the gyve! I fear the neck, beset with pearl and emerald
nooses, will give no room to the broadsword! Wherefore, blessed (sisters),
let us meditate on hardships, and we shall not feel them; let us abandon
luxuries, and we shall not regret them. Let us stand ready to endure every
violence, having nothing which we may fear to leave behind. It is these
things which are the bonds which retard our hope. Let us cast away earthly
ornaments if we desire heavenly. Love not gold; in which (one substance) are
branded all the sins of the people of Israel. You ought to hate what mined
your fathers; what was adored by them who were forsaking God. [270] Even
then (we find) gold is food for the fire. [271] But Christians always,
and now more than ever, pass their times not in gold but in iron: the stoles
of martyrdom are (now) preparing: the angels who are to carry us are (now)
being awaited! Do you go forth (to meet them) already arrayed in the
cosmetics and ornaments of prophets and apostles; drawing your whiteness
from simplicity, your ruddy hue from modesty; painting your eyes with
bashfulness, and your mouth with silence; implanting in your ears the words
of God; fitting on your necks the yoke of Christ. Submit your head to your
husbands, and you will be enough adorned. Busy your hands with spinning;
keep your feet at home; and you will "please" better than (by arraying
yourselves) in gold. Clothe yourselves with the silk of uprightness, the
fine linen of holiness, the purple of modesty. Thus painted, you will have
God as your Lover!
Elucidation
I
The Prophecy of Enoch, p. 15.
Dr. Davidson is the author of a useful article on "Apocalyptic
Literature," from which we extract all that is requisite to inform the
reader of the freshest opinion as seen from his well-known point of view. He
notes Archbishop Lawrence's translation into English, and that it has been
rendered back again into German by Dillman (1853), as before, less
accurately, by Hoffmann. Ewald, Lucke, Koestlin, and Hilgenfeld are referred
to, and an article of his own in Kitto's Cyclopoedia. We owe its
re-appearance, after long neglect, to Archbishop Lawrence (1838), and its
preservation to the Abyssinians. It was rescued by Bruce, the explorer, in
an Aethiopic version; and the first detailed announcement of its discovery
was made by De Sacy, 1800. Davidson ascribes its authorship to pre-Messianic
times, but thinks it has been interpolated by a Jewish Christian.
Tertullian's negative testimony points the other way: he evidently relies
upon its "Christology" as genuine; and, if interpolated in his day, he could
hardly have been deceived.
Its five parts are: I. The rape of women by fallen angels, and the giants
that were begotten of them. The visions of Enoch begun. II. The visions
continued, with views of the Messiah's kingdom. III. The physical and
astronomical mysteries treated of. IV. Man's mystery revealed in dreams from
the beginning to the end of the Messianic kingdom. V. The warnings of Enoch
to his own family and to mankind, with appendices, which complete the book.
The article in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible is accessible, and need only
be referred to as well worth perusal; and, as it abounds in references to
the entire literature of criticism respecting it, it is truly valuable. It
seems to have been written by Westcott. [272]
The fact that St. Jude refers to Enoch's prophesyings no more proves that
this book is other than apocryphal than St. Paul's reference to Jannes and
Jambres makes Scripture of the Targum. The apostle Jude does, indeed,
authenticate that particular saying by inspiration of God, and doubtless it
was traditional among the Jews. St. Jerome's references to this quotation
may be found textually in Lardner. [273] Although the book is referred to
frequently in the Patrologia, Tertullian only, of the Fathers, pays it the
respect due to Scripture.
Footnotes
[79] [Written about a.d. 202. See Kaye, p. 56.]
[80] Comp. Heb. viii. 11; Jer. xxxi. 34 (in the LXX. it is xxxviii. 34).
[81] Satisfactionis.
[82] Comp. Gen. iii. 16, in Eng. ver. and in LXX.
[83] Saeculo.
[84] Resignatrix. Comp. the phrase "a fountain sealed" in Cant. iv. 12.
[85] "Suasisti" is the reading of the mss.; "persuasisti," a conjectural
emendation adopted by Rig.
[86] See Gen. iii. 21.
[87] Rerum.
[88] i.e., Chinese.
[89] Comp. with this Chapter, de Idol., c. ix.; de Or., c. xxii.; de
Cult. Fem., l. ii. c. x.; de Virg. Vel., c. vii.
[90] Saeculo.
[91] Curiositatem. Comp. de Idol., c. ix., and Acts xix. 19.
[92] Quo oculorum exordia producuntur. Comp. ii. 5.
[93] "Jam," i.e., without going any farther. Comp. c. iv. et seqq.
[94] Sicut. But Pam. and Rig. read "sive."
[95] i.e., the angelic lovers.
[96] Comp. Rev. ii. 5.
[97] See 1 Cor. vi. 3.
[98] Comp. de Idol., c. vi.
[99] Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 14-16.
[100] See Matt. xxii. 30; Mark xii. 25; Luke xx. 35, 36; and comp. Gal.
iii. 28.
[101] [Elucidation.]
[102] Comp. de Idol., c. iv.
[103] See Gen. v. 21, 25, 28, 29.
[104] "Nomine;" perhaps = "account."
[105] Comp. Gen. vi. 8.
[106] Praedicatis.
[107] Tueretur.
[108] In spiritu.
[109] Instrumentum.
[110] See 2 Tim. iii. 16.
[111] See Jude 14, 15.
[112] Exitu.
[113] Matrimonium carnis.
[114] Mundum muliebrem. Comp. Liv. xxxiv. 7.
[115] Immundum muliebrem.
[116] Jam hinc; comp. ad. Ux., i. 1 ad init. and ad fin., and 8 ad fin.
[117] Saecularis.
[118] De suo. Comp. de Bapt., c. xvii. sub fin.
[119] Peloris. Comp. Hor., ii. 4, 32, and Macleane's note there.
[120] See Gen. iii. 15.
[121] Smaragdi. Comp. Rev. iv. 3.
[122] Or, "slaves."
[123] Comp. de Paen., c. v. med.
[124] Comp. c. vi. above.
[125]Saecularium.
[126] i.e., the treatise de Spectaculis.
[127] Rebus.
[128] "Affici" ' a rare use rather of "afficere," but found in Cic.
[129] Or perhaps "is fed" thereby; for the word is "vescitur."
[130] "Conditio" ' a rare use again.
[131] Saecularis.
[132] Or, "moderation."
[133] "Saltus et insulae," i.e., as much as would purchase them.
[134] Postremissimus.
[135] Consecrato.
[136] See 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17, vi. 19, 20.
[137] Comp. de Idol., c. ii.
[138] Cultus et ornatus. For the distinction between them, see b. i. c. iv.
[139] Comp. de Paen., c. i.
[140] Or, "execution."
[141] See Matt. v. 48.
[142] Substantia. Comp. Heb. xi. 1, esti de pisti
[143] Timor.
[144] Matt. v. 17. Comp. de Or., c. xxii. mid.; de Pa., c. vi. mid.; de
Paen., c. iii. sub fin.
[145] The second "non," or else the first, must apparently be omitted.
[146] Matt. v. 28. See de Idol., c. ii.; de Pa., c. vi.; de Paen., c.
iii.
[147] "Qui," Oehler; "quae," Rig.
[148] Comp. de Paen. c. iii. (latter half).
[149] Tu facta es.
[150] Lev. xix. 18; Matt. xix. 19, xxii. 39; Mark xii. 31; Luke x. 27;
Rom. xiii. 9; Gal. v. 14; Jas. ii. 8.
[151] Comp. 1 Cor. x. 24, xiii. 5; Phil. ii. 4.
[152] Comp. 2 Pet. i. 20.
[153] Jam sciatis.
[154] Accusandus.
[155] Comp. Gen. xxvii. 15.
[156]Sectatorum.
[157] Comp. Rom. iv. 11, 16.
[158] Gen. xii. 10-20, and xx.
[159] Gen. xxvi. 6-11.
[160] "Salutem contumelia redemit;" the "insult" being the denial of her
as his wife.
[161] Conjunctis.
[162] Angelis Dei. Comp. the opening sentence of the book.
[163] Comp. ad Ux., b. i. c. iv.
[164] See Gal. vi. 13 and 1 Cor. iii. 21, v. 6.
[165] Stuporata.
[166] Bonis.
[167] Sectatores.
[168] Comp. 2 Cor. xi. 18, xii. 10; Phil. iii. 3, 4.
[169] Non adjuvare, sed etiam impedire, debet.
[170] Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 34.
[171] Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 32.
[172] Compositione sui.
[173] Bonis.
[174] Bona.
[175] Simplicem.
[176] Urgent. Comp. de Paen., c. xi.
[177] "Fuligine," lit. "soot." Comp. b. i. c. ii.
[178] See c. ii. ad fin.
[179] Comp. b. i. c. viii.
[180]Infingitur.
[181] i.e., subject to whom.
[182] Disciplinis.
[183] Species.
[184] Credite.
[185] Jam capillos: so Oehler and Rig. But the others read patriam
capillo: "they change their country by the instrumentality of their hair."
[186] Comp. ad Ux., b. i. c. vi.
[187] Aram.
[188] See Matt. v. 36.
[189] Gratia faciliorem.
[190] Comp. Ps. xxv. 7 (in LXX. xxiv. 7).
[191] Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 53.
[192] Comp. 2 Cor. v. 1.
[193] Saeculo.
[194] Mensuram. See Matt. vi. 27.
[195] Exuvias.
[196] "Alieni:" perhaps here = "alien," i.e., "heathen," as in other
places.
[197] Gehennae.
[198] Comp. Gal. iv. 31, v. 13.
[199] See 1 Cor. xi. 2-16; and comp. de Or., c. xxii., and the treatise
de Virg. Vel.
[200] Comp. ad Ux., b. ii. c. iii.
[201] Ambitu (habitu is a conjectural emendation noticed by Oehler)
capitis.
[202] See 1 Thess. iv. 13-17.
[203] Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 50 with 1 Thess. v. 23.
[204] Or, "within the limits of the flesh and the spirit."
[205] Aemulus.
[206] Gravitatis.
[207] Metus.
[208] Detrahuntur.
[209] Gravitas.
[210] Comp. de Pa., c. xv. ad fin.
[211] Gravitate.
[212] Gravitatem.
[213] Contemplatione.
[214] Impedimenta compositionis.
[215] De suo. Comp. de Bapt., c. xvii. (sub. fin.), de Cult. Fem., b. i.
c. v. (med.).
[216] See c. iii.
[217] Repastinantes.
[218] Mundo; kosmō. See 1 Cor. vii. 31.
[219] Habitus; schēma, ib.
[220] Kosmou, ib.
[221] 1 Cor. vii. 30.
[222] 1 Cor. vii. 29.
[223] 1 Cor. vii. 29.
[224] Matt. xix. 12.
[225] Fortem.
[226] Comp. 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.
[227] 1 Cor. x. 11,
[228] Mundum.
[229] In extimatione temporali. See Eph. i. 4 and 1 Pet. i. 20.
[230] Saeculo.
[231] Comp. Phil. iii. 3.
[232] Saecularia.
[233] Comp. i. cc. ii. iii. v. vii. viii.
[234] Universa nasci.
[235] Veritate.
[236] Illustrium.
[237] De conchylio.
[238] kosumbou. Isa. iii. 18 (in LXX.).
[239] Lunulas = mēniskou, ib.
[240] Or, "foreseen."
[241] Saeculo.
[242] Or, "slaves."
[243] Timuerit.
[244] 1 Cor. x. 23.
[245] Timebit.
[246] Verebitur.
[247] Gravitatis.
[248] Et composito et soluto.
[249] See Phil. i. 20.
[250] Comp. de Idol., c. xiv.
[251] Sordidior.
[252] Or "pleasure:" placitum.
[253] Saeculi.
[254] Debita.
[255] Or, "city."
[256] Or, "sits on high above."
[257] Comp. Rev. xvii.
[258] Comp. Gen. xxxviii. 12-30.
[259] Congressus.
[260] Videri pudicam.
[261] Comp. John v. 34; 1 Cor. iv. 3.
[262] Comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 7; Jer. xvii. 10; Luke xvi. 15.
[263] See Phil. iv. 5, 8; Rom. xii. 17; 2 Cor. viii. 21.
[264] See Matt. v. 16; and comp. de Idol., c. xv. ad init.
[265] Matt. v. 14.
[266] Matt. v. 15; Mark iv. 21; Luke viii. 16, xi. 33.
[267] See John iii. 21.
[268] Supellectilem.
[269] Effeminari virtus.
[270] Comp. Ex. xxxii.
[271] Ex. xxxii. 20.
[272] See also Pusey's reply to Dr. Farrar.
[273] Credibility, etc. iv. pp. 460-462.
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