803 Compare above, chap. x., towards the end.
809 We have, by understanding res, treated these adjectives as nouns. Rigalt. applies them to the doctrina of the sentence just previous. Perhaps, however, "persecutione" is the noun.
815 Ipsius etiam carnis indignitatem; because His flesh, being capable of suffering and subject to death, seemed to them unworthy of God. So Adv. Judaeos, chap. xiv., he says: "Primo sordidis indutus est, id est carnis passibilis et mortalis indignitate." Or His "indignity" may have been 382, His "unkingly aspect" (as Origen expresses it, Contra Celsum, 6); His "form of a servant," or slave, as St. Paul says. See also Tertullian's De Patientia, iii. (Rigalt.)
818 Pecus. Julias Firmicus, iii. I, uses the word in the same way: "Pecus intra viscera matris artuatim concisum a medicis proferetur." [Jul. Firmicus Maternus, floruit circa, A.D. 340.]
819 Such is probably the meaning of "non decem mensium cruciatu deliberatus." For such is the situation of the infant in the womb, that it seems to writhe (cruciari) all curved and contracted (Rigalt.). Latinius read delibratus instead of deliberatus, which means, "suspended or poised in the womb as in a scale." This has my approbation. I would compare De Carne Christi, chap. iv. (Fr. Junius.) Oehler reads deliberatus in the sense of liberatus.
820 Statim lucem lacrimis auspicatus.
821 Primo retinaculi sui vulnere: the cutting of the umbilical nerve. [Contrast Jer. Taylor, on the Nativity, Opp. I. p. 34.]
822 Nec sale ac melle medicatus. Of this application in the case of a recent childbirth we know nothing; it seems to have been meant for the skin. See Pliny, in his Hist. Nat. xxii. 25.
823 Nec pannis jam sepulturae involucrum initiatus.
824 Volutatus per immunditias.
828 i.e., he never passed through stages like these.
838 Scilicet, in ironical allusion to a Marcionite opinion.
846 Informator, Moses, as having organized the nation.
847 Reformator, Elias, the great prophet.
848 It was a primitive opinion in the Church that Elijah was to come, with Enoch, at the end of the world. See De Anima, chap. xxxv. and l.; also Irenaeus, De Hoeres. v. 5. [Vol. I. 530.]
850 This Tertullian seems to have done in his treatise De Ecstasi, which is mentioned by St. Jerome-see his Catalogus Scriptt. Eccles. (in Tertulliano); and by Nicephorus, Hist. Eccles. iv. 22, 34. On this subject of ecstasy, Tertullian has some observations in De Anima, chap. xxi. and xlv. (Rigalt. and Oehler.)
854 He calls those the carnally-minded ("psychicos") who thought that ecstatic raptures and revelations had ceased in the church. The term arises from a perverse application of 1 Cor. ii. 14: yuxiko\j de\ a!nqrwpoj ou0 de/xetai ta\tou= Pneu/matoj tou= Qeou=. In opposition to the wild fanaticism of Montanus, into which Tertullian strangely fell, the Catholics believed that the true prophets, who were filled with the Spirit of God, discharged their prophetic functions with a quiet and tranquil mind. See the anonymous author, Contra Cataphrygas, in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 17; Epiphanius, Hoeres. 48. See also Routh, Rell. Sacrae, i. p. 100; and Bp. Kaye, On the Writings of Tertullian, etc. 3. pp. 27-36. (Munter's Primord. Eccles Afric. p. 138, quoted by Oehler.)
857 According to the hypothesis.
858 Totum ordinem, in the three periods represented by Moses, and Elijah, and Christ.
859 Compare Deut. xix. 15 with Luke ix. 28.
864 Compare above, book i. chap. 15, and book iv. chap. 7.
865 Precario. This word is used in book v. chap.xii. to describe the transitoriness of the Creator's paradise and world.
868 Isa. l. 10, according to the Septuagint.
870 Non praemisisti. Oehler suggests promisisti, "have given us no promise."
871 Censum: Some read sensum, "sense."
876 Tertullian, by introducing this statement with an "inquit," seems to make a quotation of it; but it is only a comment on the actual quotations. Tertullian's invariable object in this argument is to march some event or word pertaining to the Christ of the New Testament with some declaration of the Old Testament. In this instance the approving words of God upon the mount are in Heb. i. 5 applied to the Son, while in Ps. ii. 7 the Son applies them to Himself. Compare the Adversus Praxean, chap. xix. (Fr. Junius and Oehler.) It is, however, more likely that Tertullian really means to quote Isa. xliv. 26, "that confirmeth the word of His servant," which Tertullian reads, "Sistens verba filii sui," the Septuagint being, Kai\ i0stw=n r9h=ma paido\j au0tou=.
877 In Christo. In with an ablative is often used by our author for in with an accusative.
878 Or perhaps "by the Creator."
879 Isa. lxiii. 9, according to the Septuagint; only he reads faciet for aorist e!swsen.
883 Hab. iii. 2, according to the Septuagint. St. Augustine similarly applied this passage, De Vicit. Dei, ii. 32.
885 Commemoremur: be reminded, or call to mind.
886 Cognoscenter: gnwstw=j, "so as to know Thee."
888 Posterioribus temporibus. [The awful ribaldry of Voltaire upon this glorious revelation is based apon the Vulgate reading of Exod. xxxiii. 23, needlessly transferred to our Version, but corrected by the late Revisers.]
891 It is difficult to see what this inquit means.