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| Preface.
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The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and
Felicitas.
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Preface.8974
| 8974 [Both Perpetua and
Felicitas were evidently Montanistic in character and impressions, but,
the fact that they have never been reputed other than Catholic, goes
far to explain Tertullian’s position for years after he had
withdrawn from communion with the vacillating Victor.] |
If ancient illustrations
of faith which both testify to God’s grace and tend to
man’s edification are collected in writing, so that by the
perusal of them, as if by the reproduction of the facts, as well God
may be honoured, as man may be strengthened; why should not new
instances be also collected, that shall be equally suitable for both
purposes,—if only on the ground that these modern examples will
one day become ancient and available for posterity, although in their
present time they are esteemed of less authority, by reason of the
presumed veneration for antiquity? But let men look to it, if they
judge the power of the Holy Spirit to be one, according to the times
and seasons; since some things of later date must be esteemed of more
account as being nearer to the very last times, in accordance with the
exuberance of grace manifested to the final periods determined for the
world. For “in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of
my Spirit upon all flesh; and their sons and their daughters shall
prophesy. And upon my servants and my handmaidens will I pour out of my
Spirit; and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams.”8975
| 8975 Joel ii. 28, 29. [The quotation here is a note of
Montanistic prepossessions in the writer.] | And thus
we—who both acknowledge and reverence, even as we do the
prophecies, modern visions as equally promised to us, and consider the
other powers of the Holy Spirit as an agency of the Church for which
also He was sent, administering all gifts in all, even as the Lord
distributed to every one8976
| 8976 [Routh notes this as
undoubted evidence of a Montanistic author. Reliquiæ,
Vol. I. p. 455.] | as well needfully
collect them in writing, as commemorate them in reading to God’s
glory; that so no weakness or despondency of faith may suppose that the
divine grace abode only among the ancients, whether in respect of the
condescension that raised up martyrs, or that gave revelations; since
God always carries into effect what He has promised, for a testimony to
unbelievers, to believers for a benefit. And we therefore, what
we have heard and handled, declare also to you, brethren and little
children, that as well you who were concerned in these matters may be
reminded of them again to the glory of the Lord, as that you who know
them by report may have communion with the blessed martyrs, and through
them with the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honour, for ever
and ever.8977
| 8977 [St. Augustine takes
pains to remind us that these Acta are not canonical. De
Anima, cap. 2, opp. Tom. x. p. 481.] |
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