---
title: "Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen"
author: "Various Church Fathers"
translator: "S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 58 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/58/
cite: "Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen, section 58. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/58/"
---

# Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen

*Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)*

Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian, and Origen's On First Principles and Against Celsus.

## 58. Of the Divine Unity, and the Resurrection of the Flesh · 2 of 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/58/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/58/#p-N

[¶0] And hoping in his folly (alas!) to find

[¶1] Forgiveness of his wickedness, unware

[¶2] What sentence on his deed is waiting him;

[¶3] With words of wisdom’s weaving, and a voice

[¶4] 45 Presaging from God’s Spirit, speak a host

[¶5] Of prophets. Publicly he does not dare

[¶6] Nakedly to speak evil of the Lord,

[¶7] Hoping by secret ingenuity

[¶8] He possibly may lurk unseen. At length

[¶9] 50 The soul’s Light as the thrall of flesh is held;

[¶10] The hope of the despairing, mightier

[¶11] Than foe, enters the lists; the Fashioner,

[¶12] The Renovator, of the body He;

[¶13] True Glory of the Father; Son of God;

[¶14] 55 Author unique; a Judge and Lord He came,

[¶15] The orb’s renowned King; to the opprest

[¶16] Prompt to give pardon, and to loose the bound;

[¶17] Whose friendly aid and penal suffering

[¶18] Blend God and renewed man in one. With child

[¶19] 60 Is holy virgin: life’s new gate opes; words

[¶20] Of prophets find their proof, fulfilled by facts;

[¶21] Priests leave their temples, and—a star their guide—

[¶22] Wonder the Lord so mean a birth should choose.

[¶23] Waters—sight memorable!—turn to wine;

[¶24] 65 Eyes are restored to blind; fiends trembling cry,

[¶25] Outdriven by His bidding, and own Christ!

[¶26] All limbs, already rotting, by a word

[¶27] Are healed; now walks the lame; the deaf forthwith

[¶28] Hears hope; the maimed extends his hand; the dumb

[¶29] 70 Speaks mighty words: sea at His bidding calms,

[¶30] Winds drop; and all things recognise the Lord:

[¶31] Confounded is the foe, and yields, though fierce,

[¶32] Now triumphed over, to unequal arms!

[¶33] When all his enterprises now revoked

[¶34] 75 He sees; the flesh, once into ruin sunk,

[¶35] Now rising; man—death vanquisht quite—to heavens

[¶36] Soaring; the peoples sealed with holy pledge

[¶37] Outpoured; the work and envied deeds of might

[¶38] Marvellous; and hears, too, of penalties

[¶39] 80 Extreme, and of perpetual dark, prepared

[¶40] For himself by the Lord by God’s decree

[¶41] Irrevocable; naked and unarmed,

[¶42] Damned, vanquisht, doomed to perish in a death

[¶43] Perennial, guilty now, and sure that he

[¶44] 85 No pardon has, a last impiety