Chapter XII.—Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis.

If you shrink back from exomologesis, consider in your heart the hell,105    Gehennam. Comp. ad Ux.ii. c. vi. ad fin. which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and imagine first the magnitude of the penalty, that you may not hesitate about the adoption of the remedy. What do we esteem that treasure-house of eternal fire to be, when small vent-holes106    Fumariola, i.e. the craters of volcanoes. of it rouse such blasts of flames that neighbouring cities either are already no more, or are in daily expectation of the same fate? The haughtiest107    Superbissimi: perhaps a play on the word, which is connected with “super” and “superus,” as “haughty” with “high.” mountains start asunder in the birth-throes of their inly-gendered fire; and—which proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment—though they start asunder, though they be devoured, yet come they never to an end. Who will not account these occasional punishments inflicted on the mountains as examples of the judgment which menaces the impenitent?  Who will not agree that such sparks are but some few missiles and sportive darts of some inestimably vast centre of fire? Therefore, since you know that after the first bulwarks of the Lord’s baptism108    For Tertullian’s distinction between “the Lord’s baptism” and “John’s” see de Bapt. x. there still remains for you, in exomologesis a second reserve of aid against hell, why do you desert your own salvation? Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you?  Even dumb irrational animals recognise in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them. The stag, transfixed by the arrow, knows that, to force out the steel, and its inextricable lingerings, he must heal himself with dittany. The swallow, if she blinds her young, knows how to give them eyes again by means of her own swallow-wort.109    Or “celandine,” which is perhaps only another form of “chelidonia” (“Chelidonia major,” Linn.). Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass that by which restored the Babylonian king110    Dan. iv. 25 sqq. See de Pa. xiii. to his realms? Long time had he offered to the Lord his repentance, working out his exomologesis by a seven years’ squalor, with his nails wildly growing after the eagle’s fashion, and his unkempt hair wearing the shagginess of a lion. Hard handling! Him whom men were shuddering at, God was receiving back. But, on the other hand, the Egyptian emperor—who, after pursuing the once afflicted people of God, long denied to their Lord, rushed into the battle111    Proelium.—did, after so many warning plagues, perish in the parted sea, (which was permitted to be passable to “the People” alone,) by the backward roll of the waves:112    Ex. xiv. 15–31. for repentance and her handmaid113    “Ministerium,” the abstract for the concrete: so “servitia” = slaves.exomologesis he had cast away.

Why should I add more touching these two planks114    See c. iv. [Tabula was the word in cap. iv. but here it becomes planca, and planca post naufragium is the theological formula, ever since, among Western theologians.] (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen115    See de Bapt. xii. sub init. than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye,116    Lit. “of all brands.”  Comp. c. vi.: “Does the soldier…make satisfaction for his brands.” and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise,117    Cf. Gen. iii. 24 with Luke xxiii. 43, 2 Cor. xii. 4, and Rev. ii. 7. [Elucidation IV.] is not silent.

CAPUT XII.

Si de exomologesi retractas, gehennam in corde 1247B considera, quam tibi exomologesis exstinguit: et poenae prius magnitudinem imaginare, ut de remedii adeptione non dubites. Quid illum thesaurum ignis aeterni aestimamus, cum fumariola quaedam ejus tales flammarum ictus suscitent, ut proximae urbes aut jam nullae exstent, aut idem sibi de die sperent. Dissiliunt superbissimi montes ignis intrinsecus foetu: et quod nobis judicii perpetuitatem probat, cum dissiliant, cum devorentur, nunquam tamen finiuntur. Quis haec supplicia interim montium non judicii minantis exemplaria deputabit? Quis scintillas tales non magni alicujus et inaestimabilis foci missilia quaedam et exercitoria jacula consentiet? Igitur cum scias adversus gehennam post prima illa intinctionis dominicae munimenta, esse adhuc in exomologesi secunda subsidia, 1248A 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 ejus 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 (Dan IV)? quae Babylonium regem in regna restituit? Diu enim poenitentiam Domino immolarat, septenni squalore exomologesin operatus, unguium leoninum in modum efferatione, et capilli incuria horrorem aquilinum praeferente. Proh malae tractationis ? quem homines 1248B perhorrebant, Deus recipiebat (Exod., XIV). Contra autem aegyptius imperator, qui populum Dei aliquando afflictum, diu Domino suo denegatum persecutus, in praelium irruit, post tot documenta plagarum, dissidio maris, quod soli populo pervium licebat, revolutis fluctibus perit. Poenitentiam enim et ministerium ejus exomologesin abjecerat. Quid ergo ultra de istis duabus humanae salutis quasi plancis , styli potius negotium quam officium conscientiae meae curans ? peccator enim omnium notarum cum sim, nec ulli rei nisi poenitentiae 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.