They looked in good truth upon these public pastimes, not only asscenes of folly and lewdness, but of idolatry ; as places where the devil eminentlyruled, and reckoned all his own who came there ; and accordingly Tertullian, deSpect. And in the house of Ashtaroth called by the LXX.0Asta&rth did the Philistines hang up Saul's armour after his death. xiii., and there you will find withwhat good reason the Fathers charged the philosophers in general, and Plato inparticular, for shirking from the Holy Scriptures, according to that of Eusebius,Praepar. Ecc. We pray then without a monitor, because dePectore, from the heart; which may either signify that we repeat not our prayersaloud after the priest, as you do, but join with him in our soul; or else, that wecan say our prayers by heart, and so have no occasion for such a monitor, andthen de Pectore answers exactly to For a Christian upon hisknees to his God is in a posture of defence against all the evilsyou can crowd upon him. Another way of disguising their thefts was by taking the Hebrew in itsliteral and proper sense, thus finding Noah (whom Bochartus has demonstratedto be the same with Saturn) to be called, Gen. xi. against Christians, like that which other malefactors are chargedwithal? THAT THE ROMANS ARE THE CRIMINALS IN POINT OF RELIGION, AND NOT THE CHRISTIANS. Bishop Bilson, in his Christian Subject, with greatmodesty says, "This seems to be meant of the miraculous gift of prayer, whichdured in the Church unto his time." ACCOUNT OF THEIR NAME. We choose to suffer as you choose to fight, but no man chooses fightingfor fighting's sake." manner of your resurrection. It is all at most but human wisdom, andthat (as Tertullian says) is as subject to error as human power is to contempt,and both consequently subject to dispute. Nor willyou ever rise to that height of glory by your Philippics, as you would havedone by labouring to undeceive the world, and dispute the people into theirsenses." 2 I conclude allwith that admirable collect of our own Church upon the festival of St. Stephen,so exactly conformable to the primitive spirit, "Grant, O Lord, that in all oursufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth, we may stedfastly lookup to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed, and beingfilled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by theexample of Thy first martyr St. Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee,O blessed Jesus, who standeth at the right hand of God to succour all thosethat suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. M. Aurelio—exempto, die decimo sexto Kalend. 93. army, a faithful senate, an honest people, and a peaceful world, andwhatever else either prince or people can wish for. 7—Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum etDialecticum Christianismum protulerunt. 125, same doctrine as Christians, namely, innocence, justice, patience,temperance, and chastity. They consider how far theirpower will go, and find it infinitely below the reach of heaven, andso come to be sensible of a God above them ; and consequentlythat the powers they have must be from God. laws ? is much safer, says Minutius, to swear falsely by the genius of Jove thanCaesar. first ? Et si Paradisum nominemus, Locum Divina: amoenitatis recipiendis Sanct- orum spiritibus distinatum, maceria quadam ignea illius Zonae segregatum. TerUillian frequently quotes Virgilexpressly, wliich makes it probable that in these words he alludes to a likepassage in that poet—, Tertullian's ad Uxor.-—Procedit de Janua Laureat a et lucernata, ut de novoConsistorio libidinum Publicarum. be spectators of dissolving nature; and while we pray for it to bedeferred, we pray for the subsistence of the Roman Empire. CONCERNING THE IRREVERENCE OF THE HEATHEN TO THEIR GODS. 112         Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. Ibidem etiam exhortationes, castigationes, et censura Divina,—Summumquefuturi Judicii Prejudicium est, si quis ita deliquerit ut a CommunicationeOrationis et conventus et omnis Sancti commercii relegetur. Unctaq. religion, that we should be such blockheads as to prefer ouropiniatretè to our lives. law, that which says, Thou shall dono murder, or that which restrains the very passion of anger?Which expresses greatest purity and perfection, the law whichprohibits the outward act of adultery, or that which condemns thebare lust of the eye? Let Cybele see to it,whether she transplanted her affections to Rome for the sake of herbeloved countrymen the Trojans, screened from the Grecian armsI warrant by her divine protection; let her say whether she wentover to the Romans upon this view, as foreseeing them the peoplethat would revenge her upon her enemies, and one day triumphover Greece, as Greece had done over Troy; and to prove thatshe did go over to the Romans upon this prospect, she hasgiven a most glorious instance of her foresight in our age, for M.Aurelius being taken off at Sirmium the seventeenth day of March,1her chief priest and eunuch on the twenty-fourth day of the samemonth, having lanced his arms, and let out his impure blood uponthe altar, offered up his usual vows for the life of the emperor, whowas dead some days before. It is more agreeable to me to see themfree and loose and scattered about in a grateful confusion; but yetwhen they are wreathed into a garland, even then it is my wayto apply them to my nose ; let them if they please apply them totheir head, who smell with their hair.1 We come not to yoursights, but if we want anything which is brought thither, we freelygo and buy it at those places where it is ordinarily sold. again, God shall make you what you were. Vid. Now in sucha swarm of deities and different invocations, a god might easily be passed over,or the invocation ill worded, or ill pronounced (which was looked upon veryominous, and hence perhaps that phrase of Bona Verba). Scaliger understands this 138         Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. L'apologétique de Tertullien : apologie du christianisme... (2e édition) / traduction littérale, par J. P. Waltzing,... Para calcular la clasificación global de estrellas y el desglose porcentual por estrella, no utilizamos un promedio simple. are we traitors to theemperors because we do not set them below their own possessions ?because we will not make mock addresses for their safety, con- cluding it cannot be in the keeping of hands of lead. The Salii cannotsup without the advance of a loan, and upon the feast of tithes toHercules the entertainment is so very costly that you are forced tohave a bookkeeper on purpose for expenses. As THAT CHRISTIANS CAN NEVER BE JUSTLY SUSPECTED OF DESIGNS AGAINST THE STATE. 1 Let them renounce themselves to be unclean spirits,though this is evident from the nature of their food, from the, Tertullian's Famae Negotiator, et Vita. " Itaque non sine foro, non sine macello, non sine balneis, etc. xiv. Alex. LET us now consider a little the different treatment of a philosopherand a Christian. II, f. 60. pleasure, a pleasure they usurp without a title, feed the Christiansufferers with just and substantial comforts, who choose to be con- demned rather than to fall from their affiance in God, and theexpectations of the other world; for would these people act conse- quently who thus hate us, they ought rather to grieve than rejoiceat our torments, because these torments put us in possession of our In this fable of Plato, Origenobserves the resemblance between Jupiter's garden and Paradise, and betweenPenia and the serpent, etc. If we contend about moderation withrespect to worldly greatness, behold Pythagoras affecting tyrannyat Thurium, and Zeno at Priene! Thus thatgreat prelate. And thus again, de Orat.Domin. filo&sofon. Upon which grounds " (says he at the conclusionof his discourse) " I do not scruple to affirm the recusants in England to be noless schismatics than any other separatists ; they are indeed somewhat worse, formost others do only forbear communion, these do rudely condemn the Church towhich they owe obedience, they strive to destroy it, they are most desperaterebels against it." Post Vindemiam Parricidarum Racematio Superstes. In allusion to this is thatof St. Jerome, Munerarius Pauperum, et Egentium Candidatus Epist. And it is notorious of late years whatattempts have been made to reform religion by philosophy, instead of makingphilosophy bend to revelation. 1 I only observe further, what great veneration is due to thewriters of those ages, when men valued nothing but religion, and followed Christin the highest expression of charity, in selling all they had for the support ofChristians. TRANSLATED INTO GREEK BY THE ENDEAVOURS OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS. I shall not here enter intothe necessary qualifications of a perfect rule of faith, and prove such qualificationsto be in Holy Scripture, but observe only, that supposing philosophers to be inthe right, yet all their reasonings were but the reasonings of mere men, andtherefore fallible. 119, 120. to_ Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. not to give Cybele notice before the emperor was dead ;in good troth, Christians must make a little merry with such a goddess. Unde Cassii, et Nigri, et Albini? then the reader is desired to observe, that Tertullian asserts a middle state L'apologetique de Tertullien by Tertullien, 9782012836884, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. ? entered into heaven, for they believed the souls of martyrs did, and this belief Booktopia has L'Apologetique de Tertullien, Apologie Du Christianisme (2e Edition) by Tertullien. Can we not beRomans without being rebels, because so many Romans have beenfound guilty of rebellion? sed more communi, etc. Cui bello non Idonaei, etc. 10, p. 1011 which is still a further proof that the passage sine monitoreought not to be understood of extempore prayer. FIRST therefore make it appear that those you sacrifice to canprotect either kings or subjects, and then charge us with treasonagainst gods and men; for if angels or demons, spirits essentiallywicked or of the most destructive nature, can be the authors ofany good; if spirits lost and undone themselves can save others,if the damned can give freedom, and lastly if the dead (as youknow in your conscience your gods to be) can defend the living,pray why do they not defend in the first place their own statues andimages and temples, which in my opinion are defended by Caesar'sguards, who keep watch and ward for their security. prepared for the refreshment of holy souls till the resurrection ; and therefore our Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. And this sort ofbusiness is not likely to be despatched without treading uponreligion ; for the walls of a town and those of a temple are batteredboth alike—priests and people slain without distinction; and theplundering soldier will no more pardon the riches of the gods thanthose of men. Does not the prison sweat with your heathen criminalscontinually ? For certainly it is a veryfine figure to see your houses upon holy days dressed up in thefashion of the stews. Evan. 2 Evang. tom. lib. Whereas wecould in a night's time with links and firebrands in our hands have. THE antiquity1 of the divine writings which I have alreadyestablished would be a proper topic to insist upon here, in orderto convince you that those writings have been the treasury of allsucceeding wisdom; and this topic I would pursue at large, was itnot for fear of swelling this Apology to a volume. 4—" For ifGod spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, anddelivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." También analiza las reseñas para verificar la fiabilidad. 99. to have been styled god; a flattery not only most fulsome, but of amost destructive influence to both parties. Were not all your gods everywhere inworship when the Gauls surprised the capitol? Apology for the Christians. etc. make a way into the pockets of the people. 2—Inprecationibus, ne quid Verborum praetereatur, Tertullian's Vide etiam Sueton.cap. This Ammonhad a temple in the city of No, as we find from that of Jeremiah xlvi. THROWN UPON THE CHRISTIANS. For, if Imistake not, such a multiplicity of sects is suppressed upon reasonsof State, that the city should not he split into parties, for suchbreaches would let in a general disorder into all your popularelections, councils, courts, assemblies, and public sights, by theambitious clashings of the contending factions; and never morereason to provide against such disorders than now, when the partiesare sure not to want violent hands for any design; if they want notmoney to pay them.