PREFACE.

fascinating due to their very condensation that they are readily accepted, even when they involve unperceived consequences. Thus, even St. Jerome admits the maxim that "what a man has received, that he may impart"g. While this might apply to the immediate subject—Holy Baptism—in cases of necessity, it would equally justify Presbyterian ordination. In other instances, it is observable how Tertullian, as a Montanist, misapplies principles that might have been safe in a Catholic sense; for example, the idea that "Three form a Church," or the maxim regarding the "undeservedness" of repentance, which becomes a basis for doubting whether it should be grantedi. Even based on the evident maxim that priority was in some sense the test of truth—arguing that what was first in order was truth, and what was added subsequently was error—he lightly hints that the Greek Church was more reliable than the Roman because it was priork, even though both were Apostolic.

Since, then, the abuse of Tertullian lies so very close to his use, the young especially should be cautioned as to how they employ or apply his maxims, and they must not apply them according to their own private judgment. With this caution, however, it was thought that the energy and fervor of Tertullian might have their place in a relaxed age, especially since our dangers do not lie in the same direction. With this caution, he should also be read for edification, as it would be a perverted use of any Christian writer to read him (as some seem to do) merely as a witness to facts or doctrines, while disregarding the moral effect he ought to have upon our own minds.

The treatises in the present volume, with the exception of De Corona, have no traces of Montanism; all the rest were probably written before Tertullian's fall (see notices for each), except the Address to Scapula, which provides no occasion for any allusion either way.

g. See De Baptismo, ch. 17, p. 275. note d.
h. See De Baptismo, ch. 6, p. 263. note p.
i. Compare De Poenitentia, ch. 7, and De Pudicitia, ch. 10.
k. De Virginibus Velandis, quoted above, p. xiii.