The remedy of public confession against hell

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Tertullian is urging the sinner not to shrink from public confession by picturing the eternal fire it extinguishes and by examples from nature and Scripture.

If you shrink back from public confession, picture hell in your heart, which public confession will extinguish for you. First imagine the magnitude of the punishment, so that you will not hesitate to embrace the remedy. What do we think that storehouse of eternal fire is, when its mere smoke-vents stir up such eruptions of flame that nearby cities either no longer exist or expect the same fate any day? The proudest mountains burst apart from the fire conceived within them, and what proves to us the endlessness of the judgment is this: though they burst apart, though they are devoured, they are never finished. Who will not regard these torments of the mountains as previews of the threatening judgment? Who will not agree that such sparks are missiles and practice-darts from some great and immeasurable furnace? Therefore, since you know that against hell, after those first defenses of the Lord's baptism, there are still second aids in public confession, why do you abandon your salvation? Why do you hesitate to undertake what you know can heal you? Even mute and irrational creatures recognize in due time the medicines divinely assigned to them. A stag pierced by an arrow knows that it must be healed with dittany, to drive the iron and its unyielding delays from the wound. A swallow, if it has blinded its chicks, knows how to restore their sight with its own celandine. Will the sinner, knowing that public confession was established by the Lord for his restoration, pass by the very thing that restored the Babylonian king to his kingdom? For Nebuchadnezzar had long offered repentance to the Lord, performing public confession through seven years of squalor, with nails grown wild like an eagle's and neglected hair presenting a lion-like horror. What harsh treatment! The man whom humans shuddered at, God was receiving. The Egyptian ruler, by contrast, who had long persecuted God's people—once afflicted and denied to their Lord—rushed into battle, and after so many plague-signs, when the sea parted and made a way passable for God's people alone, he perished as the waves rolled back. For he had cast aside repentance and its ministry, public confession. Why should I say more about these two planks, so to speak, of human salvation? I am more concerned with the duty of my conscience than with the business of writing. For since I am a sinner of every mark, born for nothing but repentance, I cannot easily keep silent about the very thing that Adam—the originator of the human race and of offense against the Lord—does not keep silent about, having been restored to his paradise through public confession.

Latin

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.

About this text

Tertullian teaches what true repentance is, and warns Christians not to put it off or treat it lightly.

Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) wrote this treatise for Christians, especially newcomers beginning to hear divine teaching. He wrote to correct pagan misunderstandings of repentance and to warn believers against presumption that delays or cheapens it. His purpose was to instruct the church on the true nature and discipline of repentance as ordained by God.

The occasion is pastoral instruction within the church. Tertullian argues that repentance must be directed only toward sins, never toward good deeds, and that those who repent must not return to sin, since doing so insults God and exalts the devil. He warns newcomers not to presume on coming forgiveness by delaying repentance. For those who sin after baptism, God grants one further repentance, which must be carried out through public confession, a discipline of confession and humiliation that restores the sinner to God.

A reader will meet John the Baptist, who preached repentance before the Lord's coming, and Adam, the first human, whose sin brought condemnation and who was restored by public confession. Tertullian also cites Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king restored after seven years of penitential humiliation, and Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler who rejected repentance and perished in the sea. God's words are quoted directly, as are John the Baptist's, and Tertullian argues against imagined objectors who raise rhetorical questions. Tertullian uses the Old Latin version of Scripture, which follows the Septuagint for book names and Psalm numbering, so LXX Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 in modern numbering.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.