Anf-03 v.iv.iii.xiv Pg 7
Num. xi. and xxi.
Against young lads, too, did He send forth bears, for their irreverence to the prophet.2872 2872
Anf-03 vi.iii.xx Pg 10
Viz. by their murmuring for bread (see Ex. xvi. 3; 7); and again—nearly forty years after—in another place. See Num. xxi. 5.
For the people, after crossing the sea, and being carried about in the desert during forty years, although they were there nourished with divine supplies, nevertheless were more mindful of their belly and their gullet than of God. Thereupon the Lord, driven apart into desert places after baptism,8752 8752
Anf-02 vi.iii.ii.x Pg 33.2
Anf-03 v.x.iii Pg 4
Num. xxv. 1.
turned aside at Sethim, the people go to the daughters of Moab to gratify their lust: they are allured to the idols, so that they committed whoredom with the spirit also: finally, they eat of their defiled sacrifices; then they both worship the gods of the nation, and are admitted to the rites of Beelphegor. For this lapse, too, into idolatry, sister to adultery, it took the slaughter of twenty-three thousand by the swords of their countrymen to appease the divine anger. After the death of Joshua the son of Nave they forsake the God of their fathers, and serve idols, Baalim and Ashtaroth;8248 8248
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xlv Pg 21
The interpretation of Tertullian, however, has the all-important merit (which Bacon and Hooker recognize as cardinal) of flowing from the Scripture without squeezing. (1.) Our Lord sent the message to John as a personal and tender assurance to him. (2.) The story illustrates the decrease of which the Baptist had spoken prophetically (John iii. 30.); and (3.) it sustains the great principle that Christ alone is without sin, this being the one fault recorded of the Baptist, otherwise a singular instance of sinlessness. The B. Virgin’s fault (gently reproved by the Lord, John ii. 4.), seems in like manner introduced on this principle of exhibiting the only sinless One, in His Divine perfections as without spot. So even Joseph and Moses (Psalm cvi. 33., and Gen. xlvii. 20.) are shewn “to be but men.” The policy of Joseph has indeed been extravagantly censured.
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 20
VERSE (21) - Nu 21:5; 25:1-8 De 9:23,24; 31:27 Ps 106:29-33 Ac 13:18
