YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LIBRARY OF FATHERS HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, ANTERIOR TO THE DIVISION OF THE EAST AND WEST. TRANSLATED BY MEMBERS OF THE ENQLISH CHURCH. YET SHALL NOT THY TEACHERS BE REMOVED INTO A CORNER ANY MORE. BUT THINE EYES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS. Isaiah XXX, 20. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER ; J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLII. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN SOD WILLIAM LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND, FORMERLY REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, THIS LIBRARY OF ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS. OF CHRIST'S HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, is WITH HIS GRACE'S PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, IN TOKEN OF REVERENCE FOR HIS PERSON AND SACRED OFFICE, AND OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS EPISCOPAL KINDNESS. TERTULLIAN. TRANSLATED BY THE REV. C. DODGSON, M.A. PERPETUAL CURATE OF DARESBURT, l'.XAMIN#NG CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF RIPON, LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH. VOL. I. APOLOGETIC AND PRACTICAL TREATISES. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER: J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 1842. BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD. CONTENTS. Preface .... I Apology .... u Note A, On the Apostolic decree Acts xv. Note B, Absence of images in the early Church Note C, On the doctrine of Paradise Note D, On the early views as to the Millennium II Of the Witness of the Soul III Address to Scapula IV Address to the Martyrs V Of the Crown Note E, Of the early views as to military service K VI Of Public Shows i^VII Of Idolatry .... Note F, Of the human appearance of our Lord VIII Of Baptism . . Note G, Of the validity of heretical Baptism ^.IX Of Prayer . . Note H, On the title " Spirit" used of the Divine Nature of our Lord Note I, On " The Son" being called " The Will" of the Father ir- X Of Patience .... XI Of Repentance Note K, On the term " satisfaction" as used of works of repentance Note L, Exomologesis, the whole act of doing penance Note M, In what cases and for what ends Confession was required in the Ancient Church U XII To his Wife, Book 1. . Note N, On the early views as to the meaning of 1 Tim. 3, 1 XIII To his Wife, Book 2. . . . Note O, On the early views as to marriage after divorce Page I 1 107 109 116120 131 142 150158 184 187 220 252255280 298 321 32432734936937fi379-409419 421 431 Vlll CONTENTS. XIV On Prescription against Heretics Note P, On the early traces and variations of the Apostles Creed .... Note Q, On the title " Rock," Matt. 16, 18. Note R, " The keys of the kingdom of Heaven," Matt. 16 1 9. given to all the Apostles Additional Notes Pa«» 434480491 497 499 PREFACE. Of the life of Tertullian little is known, except what is contained in the brief account of St. Jerome". " Tertullian a presbyter, the first Latin writer after Victor and Apollonius, was a native of the province of Africa and city of Carthage, the son of a proconsular centurion : he was a man of a sharp and vehement temper", flourished under Severus and Anto ninus Caracalla, and wrote numerous works, which as they are generally known, T think it unnecessary to particularize. I saw at Concordia in Italy an old man named Paulus. He said that, when young, he had met at Rome with an aged amanuensis of the blessed Cyprian, who told him that Cyprian never passed a day without reading some portion of Tertullian's works, and used frequently to say, Give me my master, meaning Tertullian. After remaining a presbyter of the Church until he had attained the middle age of life, Tertullian was by the envy and contumelious treatment of the Roman clergy driven to embrace the opinions of Mon- tanus, which he has mentioned in several of his works under the title of the New Prophecy ; but he composed, expressly against the Church, the Treatises de Pudicitia, de Perse- cutione, de Jejuniis, de Monogamia, and six books de Ecstasi, to which he added a seventh against Apollonius. He is reported to have lived to a very advanced age, and to have composed many other works which are not extant." ¦ Catal. Scriptt. Eccles. the words, however, appear to me in- 0 " acris et vehementisingenii." Bp. dicative of intellectual as well as of Kaye's translation has been retained ; moral qualities. b ii PREFACE. In addition to these circumstances, it is known from his own writings that he was a convert from heathenism", and that he once despised the Gospel b, which he afterwards embraced. As a Heathen, he had taken pleasure in the savage sports of the gladiators0, and had fallen into the gross sins of Heathenism'1, but with these he contrasts his subse quent state6, although with a deep consciousness of abiding sinfulness f, and of his weakness of faith B. Of special infirmi ties, heh takes occasion of writing upon patience, to mention his own impatience. His conversion was probably A.D. 196' ; his continuance in the Church can thus have been scarcely five years, since in A.D. 201 k, it seems certain that he was a Montanist. He had then, at all events, reached middle age1. His Treatises addressed " to his wife," written while in the Church m, imply the likelihood of continued life ; the whole * Apol. c. 18. p. 41. de Posnit. init. p. 349. Two other passages quoted, de Fuga in Pers. c. 6. and adv. Marc. iii. 21. only imply Gentile origin. b Apol. 1. c. c de Spect. c. 19. d de Res. Carnis c. 59. - I.e. f de Cult. Fem. ii. 1. de Pcenit. c. 4. and fin. g de Bapt. u. 10. p. 267. >' de Pat. u. 1. p. 327. » It seems clear, from the conclusion of the de Pallio, that it was written on his conversion to Christianity, the palli um being the dress of Christians. " Thus far speaketh the Pallium. But as for me, I now transfer my life to that sect and discipline, which is [not merely philo sophical but] Divine also. Rejoice, Pallium, and be glad ; a better philo sophy hath accepted thee, from the time that thou becamest the Christian's dress." But the date of the de Pallio itself, in connection with Tertullian's other writings, then becomes fixed by the passage, in which he speaks of the peace consequent upon the harmony of the three Augusti, " How many cities hath the triple excellence of the existing rule either produced, or enlarged, or restored ? God favouring so many Augusti, making them as one, how many census have been formed! how many people purified ! how many ranks ennobled ! how many barbarians driven out ! Of a truth, the world, that most cultivated demesne of this Empire, all the aconite of hostility having been rooted out, with the cactus and bram bles of treacherous intimacy, is adorned and agreeable above the orchards of -Alcinous, or the rose-gardens of Midas." c. 2. The chief event* alluded to, seem to have been the suppression of the revolt of Niger, the victories over the Arabians, Parthians, Adiabenians, the capture of Byzantium. The three Au gusti, Severus, Antoninus Caracalla, and Albinus. The only other date would be two years later, when after the revolt and death of Albinus, Geta was made Caesar; but they of whom T. speaks were three Augusti, Geta was not entitled Augustus until A. 208. This is subsequent to the date of some of T.'s Apologetic writings. (Pamelius and Scaliger agree in the above.) k The date (as it seems) of the de Corona, (see notice, below, p. 158.) He was certainly a Montanist in A.D. 207. the date of the first book against Marcion. In the fifteenth year of Se verus." (c. 15.) 1 S. Jerome above. " Tillemont (Note 3. sur Tertullien) on this ground infers that T. wrote these Treatises in the interval between his conversion and his ordination. In the absence of any marks of their precise date, the assumption cannot be dis proved. PREFACE. in tenor of the two books implies that he was living in the ordinary course of married life. Previous to his conversion, he seems to have been engaged in the practice of the law", his accurate acquaintance with which Eusebius has occasion distinctly to specify"; on his conversion he abandoned if, and in the interval before his secession, was admitted to the Priesthood q. In this short interval, besides the works belonging to it now extant, he " detected, and as it seemed uprooted, the heresy of Praxeas," which had spread to Carthage, and brought Praxeas himself to sign a formal, though, it subsequently ap peared, a hypocritical recantation, which was preserved in the Church'. In the same period probably he wrote two treatises against Marcion, the first a sketch, the second a fuller work, lost through the treachery of an apostate Catholic ". A later author' mentions that he had " practised Rhetoric at Carthage for many years, with much distinction," and this is perhaps borne out by the very varied character of his learning u. An early work of his is also mentioned by S. Jerome % written as " The passage, quoted by Pamelius, (de Pallio, c. 5.) does not directly prove this ; for it is spoken by the Pallium personified ; it relates to other offices, judicial and military, (" non judico, non milito,") and declares that they which wore it had abandoned public life altogether. (" I have gone aloof from the people. My only business is within myself.") Yet, doubtless T. had reference to himself also, and the great prominence given to the law in the de scription makes it probable that he was previously engaged in it. ° H. E. ii. 2. " Tertullian, a man accurately acquainted with the Roman laws, and in other respects distin guished, and among those in great repute at Rome." This is said on occasion of the history of Tiberius' proposal to rank our Lord among the deities of Rome. P de Pallio 1. c. 4 S. Jerome above. The way in which in the de An. c. 9 he distin guishes himself from the people, implies plainly that he was a priest. In the de Monog. c. 12. and the de Exh. Cast. c. 7. in which he includes himself among the laity, he must be speaking communi cative. r adv. Prax. c. 1. 5 adv. Mare. i. 1. • Trithemius Abbas, de Script. Eccl. u Especially in the Apology and the de Corona. Yet in the de Idol. c. 4. p. 224. he speaks of the weakness of his memory. x adv. Jov. i. 7. " Here would be the place to descant on the straits of marriage, and to gwe full play to the language of Rhetoricians in their com mon-places. Certainly Tertullian also, when yet young, disported in this sub ject," and Ep. 22. ad Eustoch. §. 22. " Would you know from how many troubles the unmarried is free, by how many the wife beset, you may read ' Tertullian to a philosophic friend.' " Baronius, A. 197. §. 14. supposes that Tertullian was already a Christian, since S. Jerome in this very Epistle and elsewhere dissuades from reading Heathen writings. But this seems almost too large an inference, knowing, as we do, nothing of the circumstances of his conversion. Tertullian speaks of his own adult, but heathen, sins, (see b 2 iv PREFACE. an exercise after the manner of Rhetoricians. The greater part of his life was spent at Carthage, for although he mentions incidentally his having been at Rome y, the chief allusions in his writings are Carthaginian2; the small sect which bore his name, lingered on, until S. Augustine's time, in Carthage *. Of his mental qualities, the Ancient Church seems to have been much impressed with his acuteness, energy, learning, and eloquence b; what we have left, are apparently but a small portion of the great number of works which he com posed ; and these indicate no ordinary fertility of mind, in that he so little repeats himself, or recurs to favourite thoughts, as is so frequently the case even with the great St. Augustine. His character of mind is thus vividly described by Vincentius ° : "As Origen among the Greeks, so is Tertullian among the Latins to be accounted far the first of all our writers. For who was more learned than he ? Who in divinity or humanity more practised ? for by a certain wonderful capacity of mind, he attained to, and understood, all philosophy, all the sects of philosophers, all their founders and supporters, all their systems, all sorts of histories and studies. And for his wit, was he not so excellent, so grave, so forcible, that he almost undertook the overthrow of nothing, which either by quickness of wit or weight of reason he crushed not ? Further, who is able to express the praises which his style of speech deserves, which is fraught (I know not how) with that force of reason, that such as it cannot persuade, it compels to assent : whose so many words almost are so many sentences; whose so many senses, so many victories. This know Marcion and Apelles, Praxeas and Hermogenes, Jews, Gentiles, Gnostics, and divers others: ab. not. d.) It seems more probable • S. Aug. de Hser that he was not converted until middle b « What more f d & age. Like S.Augustine, he may have tullian ? what more acute P" S Jerome C°n?istianitvmSenng °n * °f Ef" 6°- ad MaSD' *• 5' " TertaUiTof / 3'f™ i 7 whom many Treatises, written most elo- / de Cult. iem. i. 7. fluently, are commonly read." S. aZ q ?K « f I ' °- \ *S ^Tpolo.gy' de Hffir- " He Pushed mogt £*£ c. 9. 45. fin. ad Soap. c. 3. ad TJx. i. 6. and fervid Treatises in defence of rt„ de Preescr. c. 36. adv. Marc. iv. 5. de truth." Auct. de Hasr. ce ot the Res. Carni, c. 45. Scorp. c. 6. c c. 18. p. 64. Oxf. Tr PREFACE. v whose blasphemous opinions he hath overthrown with his many and great volumes, as it had been with thunderbolts. And yet this man after all this, this Tertullian, I say, not holding the Catholic doctrine, that is, the universal and old faith, being far more eloquent than faithful, changing after wards his mind, at last did that which the blessed confessor Hilary in a certain place writeth of him ; ' He discredited (quoth he) with his later error his worthy writings :' and he also was a great temptation in the Church. But hereof I would not say more; only this I will add, that by his defending, against the precept of Moses, for true prophecies the new madness of Montanus springing up in the Church, and those mad dreams about new doctrine of frantic women, he deserved that we should also say of him and his writings, ' If a prophet shall rise up in the midst of thee,' and straight after, ' thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet.' Why so ? ' Because (quoth he) your Lord God doth tempt you, whether you love Him or no.' " It is then the more strange, though the more solemn warning, that such an one, so gifted, so honoured, should not only have fallen into heresy, but into one, which would seem to have such little temptation ; that he, who had seen his way clearly amid so much error, should have fallen, where there was so little apparently to attract, so much to repel. For it came not in a state of relaxed discipline, as in these latter days, when one might readily suppose that a mind ardent as Tertullian's might be led by the appearance of holiness, amid the degeneracy of the Church; he had not to advocate fasting when neglected or discountenanced, or the restoration of discipline, when sins the most grievous passed unnoticed. Tertullian himself even insists upon the slight difference between the Montanist fasts and those of the Church b; he does not even complain that the D de Jejun. c. 15. " How very slight Sabbaths and Lord's Days being ex- among us is the prohibition of meats ! cepted, abstaining too_ from things, two weeks of dry-food do we offer unto which we do not reject bnt defer God, and those too not entire, the only." vi PREFACE. Church discountenanced their optional use, but that she objected to their being imposed of necessity' ; the picture which he himself gives of the penitence publicly imposed", and the nature of the offences which were visited by excom munication, certainly imply no relaxation of discipline ; nor does it appear clearly that the Montanists followed out their own principles, so as to exclude all guilty of mortal sin from reconciliation with the Church. The only cases which he presses are sins of the flesh *. Again, how few comparatively the cases of second marriages at all times, and then the widowed state which the Montanists would enforce was held in honour by the Church. Yet this slight increase in fasting, the prohibition of second marriages, the extension of a discipline already strict, and the denial of the right to flee in persecution, were the only outward temptations to forsake the Church. On the other hand, they for whom he forsook it, had early the reputation of" making a gain of godliness," systematically levying money on their followers, under the character of Oblations, and that even on the poor, the orphans, and the widows, and of other acts of luxury, pomp, avarice, dissipation'. Tertullian himself also joined them c ib. c. 13. " Ye answer that these prophets have not received presents, things are to be done by choice, not by let them acknowledge this, that if con- command." victed of having received them, they d de Po?nit. c. 9. 11. see below, are no prophets; and then we will p. 364, 5. 367. bring proofs innumerable that they have e de Pudic. c. 19. 21. He declares received them. And since all the fruits them unpardonable as being " sins unto of a prophet must needs be put to the death." (1 John 5, 16.) " You have no test, tell me, does a prophet dye his choice left, but either to deny that adul- hair ?• does a prophet blacken his eye- tery and fornication are mortal sins, or to brows? is a prophet fond of dress? confess that they are irremissible ; for does a prophet play with tables and which it is not even permitted to pray." dice? does a prophet lend on usury? He does not however specify other let them confess whether these things mortal sin. are lawful or not: and that they have f Apollonius, who wrote about A. 211. taken place with them I will prove." ap. Eus. before our own eyes, been furnished by the change of temper, and, as one should fear, judicial blindness, which secession from our own Church has, in some saddening cases, brought over persons' minds. Any way, it is a solemn warning, that one, who had possessed himself of a rule of faith against heresy, or, as we should say, of Catholic truth, should, probably the rather through no unnatural misapplication of that rule, be betrayed into heresy; that the most powerful mind perhaps of antiquity should be ensnared by a heresy, in tellectually the least attractive ; that a heresy, which soon shewed the characteristic of heresy, (as Tertullian himself had pointed out",) in dividing into lesser sectsb, and which at no time numbered any eminent persons within it, should have been reserved to ensnare one, who was in other points on his guard, and but for this would have been a chief defender of the faith and Doctor in the Church ; that, as far as it seems, one single uncorrected fault should have been the chief in strument of his fall. " The more," says Tillemont % " Tertul lian seems to have been removed from the vices of men, the more reason had he to dread falling into those of devils," [pride and impatience, see de pat. c. 5.] Of a truth, the "deceivable- ness" of Satan and his cunning in adapting his snares, in doctrine as in life, to each man's peculiar temperament and failings, seem far greater than they probably suspect, who in these days fear it most. The fall of Tertullian was the one great triumph of Montanism. The warning seems to come the more providentially in an age, which on the one hand is so recklessly careless as to heresy on the highest doctrines, as though it were as difficult to fall into it, as the Church in the first ages, which knew what those doctrines were, found it to guard men against it; on the other hand, patience seems, in many ways, the grace which God is especially forming in our Church, which they who keep will abide, they who lose will be driven away. Instructive is it a de praescr. o. 42. bel. p. 477. Haer. 48. c. 14. 49. L.. 1. 2 * adv. omn. hser. e. 52. S. Epiph. ' Tertull. art. 8. PREFACE. xv again, in another way, to observe how nearly Tertullian, on other doctrine, was betrayed into heresy, while defending the truth ; how, contending against the heretic Praxeas, he so expressed himself, as to fall into suspicion of heresy, even on the doctrine of the Trinity, though indeed sound ; proving against Plato, that the soul has a beginning, he narrowly escaped materialism, and the doctrine of transmigration of the sould; arguing against those who denied Baptism, he so wrote, as to seem to deny original sin e. To the right use of Tertullian, then, more care and judg ment are required than for other fathers. His testimony to facts and doctrines, to the rites of the Church, is, of course, always of the highest value. In these respects he is of value even when writing against the Church, whereby some of his statements are elicited. Nor, in other respects, will any question his great instractiveness, whom S. Cyprian entitled his "Master." Still he requires a mature judgment; and it is on this account, perhaps, that his influence upon the Church has rather been mediated through those whose minds were formed by his writings, than direct. Among these, we may count not S. Cyprian only, but Pacian and S. Jerome, in both of whom the sayings of Tertullian re-appear in a form, which shew how great an influence his writings must have had upon them. The more, however, this mediate influence increased, and his writings moulded other minds within the Church, the more did the apparent necessity for them cease, and the office once assigned them was suspended. The rareness of MSS. of his works, with the single exception of the Apology, (and even these are in no great number,) illustrates what S. Hilary f says on his Treatise on Prayer, that it was indeed " excellently to the purpose, but that the subsequent error of the man had taken from the authority even of what he had written well." And this, not without reason ; for the maxims of Tertullian are often so * " Some object to Tertullian, that of soul as body of bodies." Preedest. he said that the soul came by trans- e See on thedeBapt.c.l8.p,277.n.o. mission, i. e. that Soul was generated f in Matt. cap. 5. xvi PREFACE. fascinating from their very condensation, as readily to gain admission, although involving unperceived consequences. Thus even S. Jerome admits the maxim, that what a man hath received, that he may impart*, which, although it may, in cases of necessity, apply to the immediate subject, Holy Baptism, would equally justify presbyterian ordination. In other instances, it is observable how Tertullian, as a Monta nist, misapplies the principles which were perhaps just safe in a Catholic sense, as that " Three formed a Church ;" again, the maxim of the undeservedness of repentance becomes a ground why it should not be believed to be bestowed1. Even on the ground of the evident maxim, that priority was in some sense the test of truth, since what was first in order would be truth, what was added subsequently was the error, he at least lightly hints that the Greek Church was more to be relied upon than the Roman, as being the priork, whereas both were Apostolic. Since, then, the abuse of Tertullian lies so very near the use, the young especially should be cautioned, how they use or apply his maxims, and that they apply them not according to any private judgment. With this caution, however, it was thought that the energy and fervor of Tertullian might have their office in a relaxed age ; and that the more, since our dangers do not lie in the same direction. And with this caution he should be read for edification also, since it were manifestly a perverted use of any Christian writer to read him (as some seem to do) merely as bearing testimony to facts or doctrines, to the disregard of the moral effect which he ought to have upon our own minds. The Treatises in the present Volume, with the exception of the de Corona, have no traces of Montanism; all the rest were also written probably before Tertullian's fall, (see Notices to each,) except the " address to Scapula," which furnishes no occasion for any allusion either way. t See on the de Bapt. „. 17. p. 275. i comp. de Pcen. c. 7. and de Pudic not. d. B. 10. h See de Bapt. c. 6. p. 263. not. p. k de Virg. Vel. quoted above, p. xiii. PREFACE. xvii With respect to the execution of the present work, the Editor found reason to adhere for the most part to the text ofRigaltius; the text accordingly, where not otherwise speci fied, is his. The previous Editions and most existing MSS. have, however, been collated, and where Rigaltius made alterations, on mere conjecture, the older text has been restored. It was intended that the present text should rest entirely upon authority. One exception, however, was un avoidable. This relates to the readings, published by Wouwer, under the title, " Emendationes Epidicticae in Tertullianum," as having been taken from ancient MSS. by F. Ursinus. These Rigaltius much relied upon and adopted into his text, there being no apparent ground to doubt their genuineness. M. Heyse, however, after searching in vain in the Vatican, at the request of the Editor, for the more ancient MSS. which F. Ursinus is said to have used, with a happy ingenuity discovered at last the original, from which Wouwer had printed his Emendationes. From this it appeared that they were never intended for any thing else than conjectural emendations, except here and there, where a MS. was quoted. They are then only ingenious con jectures of a good critic, often very probable, at other times mistaken, as applying classical criticism to Tertullian. This was not discovered until the treatise "on Idolatry" (p. 252.) had been printed ; in the subsequent treatises, the use of these corrections was relinquished ; and certainly in the case of these, as of other conjectures, readings which one should at first be inclined to lay aside as desperate, have seemed to the Editor to have more of the character of Tertullian, than what at first sight seemed very preferable. And this may be satisfactory amid the great dearth of MSS. of Tertullian, that as little can be done for rendering the text easier, so less is probably required than would at first sight appear to be the case. The object of the Translator has been to transfuse as faithfully as possible the whole and the precise meaning of the original : a task, as all know who are acquainted with c xviii PREFACE. Tertullian, of exceeding difficulty, and in executing which the Translator has often sacrificed his own ideas of English style. Faithfulness and a conciseness which might follow as nearly on the condensed style of Tertullian, as the genius of the two languages would permit, appeared a prior object; and the Editor cannot but hope that the work will thus become a good introduction to the study of the Author in the original, the very austerity and stern conciseness of whose style binds yet more to him those not deterred by its first exterior. With the same view of faithfully representing the original, the quotations from Holy Scripture have been rendered as they stand in Tertullian's version. The Translator has purposely abstained from the use of any previous translation, in order to give his own view of the meaning unbiassed. Of these, the translation of the Apology by the Rev. T. Chevallier might, from its elegance, almost have superseded any other; yet, in exhibiting together the chief works of Tertullian, it did not seem right to omit what has been the most celebrated and the most popular. Of his other Treatises, the book of " pre scription against heretics" and " the address to Scapula" alone (the Editor believes) have been hitherto translated into English. The notes (for which, as for the alterations in the text of Rigaltius, the immediate Editor is alone responsible) have been added more largely, partly, as once before, on account of the copious materials ready to hand in the collections of Pamelius and La Cerda, and, on the Apology, of Havercamp, partly on account of the allusive style of Tertullian, and to strengthen his authority as not making allusions at random ; again, partly to defend his statements, partly to guard against their abuse. In so doing, the Editor has freely used the existing materials, only verifying the references, (for aid in which on the Apology the Editor has to express his thanks to the Rev. J. B. Morris, Fellow of Exeter, to whom he is indebted for the Index, and the Rev. T. Morris, Student of Christ Church,) and since it would have been wearisome to note on every occasion the source or sources from which references were derived, these have mostly been omitted PREFACE. xix Thus guarded, it is hoped that the present volume, the first in which any number of the Treatises of Tertullian have been made accessible to English readers, may tend, under God's blessing, to form in them the earlier rather than the later character of that great mind, his sternness against self, and " boldness in rebuking sin," his uncompromising ad herence to the lightest admonition of God's law, and ready submission of his will, at whatever cost, so that his very fall was in misdirected submission to an authority without him ; And Cyprian's Master, as in age high-soul'd Yet choosing as in youth the better part1, may act alike as a fire to kindle, a light to guide, and a beacon to warn against what he now, his slough cast away, would most wish to warn, his own errors and the tempers in which they originated. So may the scandal caused by his fall be compensated, and he, with the rest of the holy company, from whom on earth he was disunited, be employed in " preparing" for the coming of his Lord, for Whom he looked so ardently, " by the preaching of repentance"1" in holy austerity and self-discipline. E. B. P. Feast of St. John the Baptist, 1842. Lyra Apostolica, No. 91. ¦» Collect for St. John Baptist's Day. THE BOOK OF APOLOGY AGAINST THE HEATHEN. [The Apology waiswrittenprobably A.D. 198. It was under Severus, because under one of the better Emperors (c. v. p. 13.) before he became a persecutor, (ib. and T. praises him c. 4.) and as the result of old laws, (c. 2 — 4.) i. e. before A. 202 ; after the conspiracy of Albinus (c. 35.) A.D. 396, 7., while the remains of the conspirators were being gleanedup, public rejoicings held at Rome, and a largess given, (ib.) as did Severus, upon his victory over Albinus, A. 198. (Herodian, Hist. iii. 8.) upon which he set out on the war against the Parthians (Spartian. in Sever, c. 14.) alluded to, probably, c. 37. (see Mosheim Disq. de aet. Apol.) Lumper, (Hist. S. Patr. t. vi. c. 1. §. 16.) places it A. 199, imagining the " gleaning" c. 25. to be that of the adherents of Niger. S. Clement Al: mentions " copious streams of the blood of martyrs shed daily," at the same time, before the edict of Severus, (Strom, ii. p. 494.) another proof that the sufferings of the early Christians were not confined to the great persecutions ; they were demanded by the populace. Allix infers, from the way in which T. speaks of Rome and the Romans, (c. 9. 21. 35.) that the Apology was not written at Rome ; it is addressed to the executive (c. i. 2. 9. 50.) in a Proconsulate, (c. 45. see Bp. Kaye, Terr. p. 52.) so that Eusebius is probably mistaken in saying it was addressed to the Roman Senate. (H. E. v. 5.1 S. Jerome says of it, (Ep. 70. ad Magnum, §. 5.) " What more learned than Tertullian, what more acute? His Apology and his Books against the Gentiles comprise the whole range of secular learning."] If it be not allowed you, Lords of the Roman empire, sitting above all, to judge, in an open and exalted spot, at the very summit almost of the city, openly to look about you, and publicly to examine what there be of very truth in the cause of the Christians ; if in this instance alone your authority be either afraid" or ashamed to make enquiry in public, touching the diligent use of justice ; if finally, as hath just now happened, the enmity against this sect, having too much exercised itself in private condemnations '', formeth an obstacle to their defence, let the truth be permitted to reach your ears even by the secret way of silent writings ". She asketh no favour for her cause, because she feeleth no John 15, a On account of the popular eager- Others, indieiis' informations;' T.com- 1 John ness inf. c. 35. 37. 40. 49. 50. Ep. of plains of treachery, c. 7. Add Justin M. 3, 13. Churches of Vienne, Eus. H. E. v. 1. Apol. 2. §. 12. Orig. c. Cels. i. 3. Heb.ll, inf. p. 10. n. k. Theodoret, 1. i. c. 6. v. 34. Ruf. H. E..13. i> Judiciis, i. e. having exercised v. 1. Ju and in are in MSS. often severity against their own families, scarcely distinguishable, and often tran- (see c. 3. and perhaps ad Scap. c. 3.) scribed wrongly. they were the less fitted to be judges. c Comp. ad Scap. 1. B Apol. I. 1. 2 Christianity hated unheard. Implies suspicion of its truth. wonder at her condition. She knoweth that she lijeth a _ stranger upon earth, that among aliens she easily nndeth foes; but that she hath her birth, her home, her hope, her favour, and her worth in the heavens -. One thing mean while she earnestiv desireth, that she be not condemned unknown. If she be heard, what loss cometh thereby to the laws, supreme within their own dominion ? Will riot their power boast the more in this, that they will condemn Truth even when she hath been heard ? But if they condemn her unheard, besides the ill-repute of injustice, they will merit also the suspicion of a certain consciousness, as being, namely, unwilling to hear that, which when heard, they could not condemn f. This therefore we lay before you as the first argument for the injustice of your hatred towards the name of Christians. Which injustice the same plea, namely, ignorance, which seemeth to excuse it, aggravateth and convicteth. For what more unjust than that men should hate that of which they know nothing, even if the thing deserve their hatred ? For then doth it deserve, when it be known whether it do deserve. But when knowledge of the desert be wanting, whence is the justice of the hatred maintained ? which ought to be approved, not by the event, but by previous conviction ! When then men hate for this reason, because they know not what manner of thing that, which they hate, is, why may it not be of such a sort as that they ought not to hate it ? Thus from either point we prove either against them, that they are both ignorant, in that they hate, and hate unjustly, in that they are ignorant. It is an evidence of that ignorance, which, while it is made the excuse, is the condemnation of injustice, when all, who aforetime hated because they iquale^ were ignorant what it was which they hated1, as soon as oderam they cease to be ignorant, cease also to hate. From being added such, they become Christians, to wit from conviction, and begin to hate what they were, and to profess what they hated, and are as numerous as indeed we are publicly declared to be. Men cry out that the state is beset, that the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their ¦ Aug. de Civ. Dei, i. 15. v. fin. < Wt. v. init. Minuc. p. 256, ap. Lae. A Number of Christians, extent of Christianity. 3 islands*. They mourn, as for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, and now even rank is going over to this sect1'. And yet they do not by this very means advance their minds to the idea of some good therein hidden : they allow not themselves to conjecture more rightly, they choose not to examine more closely. Here alone is the curiosity of man dull : they love to be ignorant, where others rejoice to know. How much more would Anacharsis ' have condemned these, the uninformed judging the informed, than the unmusical the musical ! They had rather be ignorant, because they already hate. Thus they determine in the outset that that which they know not, is such as, if they knew, they could not hate ; since if no due cause of hatred be found, surely it were best to cease to hate unjustly; but if it be clear that it is deserved, not only is their hatred nothing diminished, but stronger ground is gained for persevering in it, even with the sanction of justice itself. ' But,' saith one, ' it is not therefore at once determined1 to be good because it converteth many, for'praeju- how many are remoulded2 to evil ! how many are deserters to ^deT the worse cause!' Who denieth it? Nevertheless, that2refor- which is really evil not even those, whom it carrieth away, mantur dare to defend as a good. Nature hath cast over every evil either fear or shame. Finally, evil-doers delight in hiding themselves; shun appearing5; are bewildered when dis-3devi- covered ; being accused deny ; not even when tortured, „pparere readily or always confess ; certainly mourn when con- om- in lilg. e " There is no race of men, whether Lucian in Pseudom. " that Pontus was Barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever filled with Atheists and Christians." name called, not even the wandering Caecil. ap. Minuc. F. p. 80. Maximin. houseless tribes of Scythians, in which ap. Eus. ix. 7. rescript to Sabinus, ib. there are not prayers and Eucharists to 9. heathen ap. Aug. de Catech. rud. God the Creator of all things, through u. 25. and Christian, speaking of the the Name of the crucified Jesus." rapidity with which it spread, Arnob. (Justin M. Dial. §. 117. on Mai. 1,10.) 1. i. p. 33. ed. Lugd. ii. p. 50. Eus. See bel. c. 37. ad Scap. u. 2 and 5. adv. H. E. ii. 3. de Laud. Const, u. 16. of Jud. c. 7 and 12.de Cor. c. 12. ad Nat. its extent, Clem. Al. Strom, vi. fin. i. 8. " Consider, whether they whom Orig. de Princ. iv. 1. Lact. v. 13. Eus. ye call ' a third race' hold not the chief H. E. viii. 1. Orig. c. Cels. i. 7. 67. ii. place, seeing there is no nation not 13. hi. 24. J. Firmicus, p. 42. in Dan. Christian; therefore whatever nation be 2. Eus. H. E. x. 4. de laud. Const, <.-. first, is nevertheless Christian." Origen. 17. its continual increase, Minuc. F.p. c. Cels. i. speaks of the " myriads among 312. see passages ap. Kortholt in Epp. barbarians," and that Christianity had Plin. et Traj. p. 167—186. " gained possession of the greatest part i> Comp. Orig. c. Cels. iii. §. 9. Euseb. of Barbarism." Arnobius, 1. ii. p. 44. H. E. v. 21. of the times of Commodus. that " no barbarian was not softened." J Diog. Laert. in vit. ej. i. 103. ed. On the multitude of Christians, see Meib. Heathen Testimonies, Tac. xv. 44. B 2 4 Christianstreateddifferentlyfrom other criminals. Thenamehated. Apol. demned ; sum up against themselves, impute either to fate 1-2- or to the stars the impulses of a wicked mind": for they will not have, that to be their own, which they acknowledge to be evil'. But what doth the Christian like this? None is ashamed, none repenteth, save indeed that he was not such long ago. If he be marked down, he gloneth ; if accused, maketh no defence; being questioned, confesseth even of his own accord; being condemned, giveth thanks'". What manner of evil is this, which hath not the natural marks of evil, fear, shame, shrinking, penitence, sorrow ? What man ner of evil is this, whereof he that is accused, rejoiceth? whereof to be accused is his prayer, and its punishment his happiness " ? Thou canst not call that madness, of which thou art proved to know nothing. II. If finally it be certain that we are never so guilty, why even by you are we treated otherwise than our fellows, that is than other guilty men, since for the same guilt the same treatment ought to be introduced? Whatever we be called, when others are called the same, they employ both their own tongue, and hired advocates, to commend their in- nocency : the liberty of answering, of disputing, is open to them, since it is not even lawful that they should be condemned, undefended and altogether unheard. But the Christians alone are allowed to say nothing which may clear them, which may defend the truth, which may make the judge not unjust: but that alone is looked to, which is needed for the public hatred, a confession of the name0, not an examination of the charge : whereas, when ye take cognizance of any criminal, although he confess to the name of a murderer, or a sacrilegious or an incestuous person, or a public enemy", (to speak of our own titles,) ye are not content at once to pronounce him such, without enquiring out also attendant circumstances, the quality of k See de Idol. c. 9. Jul. Firm. i. 1.3. 301 s fl ,mj a ,*„ n/r . tt j S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, v. 10. Ep. 246\ .50 Mart &P' Her' * (al. 243) and others ap. Herald, and - See ad Scap. c. \ Hav. Aug. in Ps. 31. §. 16. o c-_ t„o*;„ a \ ¦ , . . , i Quinctil. iii. 8. * 2 . e„e :Lustm, AP°1- '• §• 4. Athenag. m c. 46. 50. Justin M. Apol. ii. 2. i-"-l a,remar>5aDle fulfilment of the m c. 46. 5U. Justin M. Apol. ii. 2. letter nr „ t •,, *"""""=""< ul ""= 11. « Thanks be to God" (Deo Gratias) haU be hated or" ' F***0*} ^e became a formula with which the sen- Name's sake " M ,? m Et sentence must needs be given. The culprit must discharge Jam the penalty due, not be discharged from it. Finally, none desireth to acquit him : it is not lawful to wish it : therefore neither is any compelled to a denial0. A Christian, thou deemest a man guilty of every crime, an enemy of the Gods, of the Emperors, of Law, of Morals, of all Nature a; and thou compellest to deny that thou mayest acquit, whom thou wilt not be able to acquit, unless he deny. Thou quibblest with the laws. Thou wilt have him therefore deny himself guilty, that thou mayest make him not guilty, un willing too as he now is, and not accounted guilty for the past. Whence this perverseness, not to consider this also, that more credit should be given to one that of his own will confesseth, than to one who from compulsion denieth, or that when compelled to deny, he may not deny in earnest, " Satan, see c. 27. ad Nat. i. 3. c Cypr. ad Demetr. c. 7. " The source of your hatred is the d Inf. c; 32. 37. Christians were said Name, which a certain hidden Power \m a-ajawW (Porph. ap. Euseb. vi. warreth against by your ignorance." 19.) to return to heathenism was •« to Lactant. Instt. ii. 1. Justin M. Apol. i. ««t« tpvem vt'vxwltu. (jEmilian Fraat. ol 5. ii. 1. Egypt, ib. vii. 11.) 8 Enemies of Christians unknowing agents of Satan. Apol. and being acquitted, may, on the spot, behind Ae jndgm^t- 1-3- seat, laugh at your rivalry, a Christian for the second time? Seeing then that in all things ye deal with us otherwise than with other criminals, in striving for this one thing, that we be debarred from this name, (for debarred we are, if we do what those who are no Christians do,) ye may perceive that it is no crime which is called in question, but a name, which a sort of plan of rival agency e persecuteth, aiming first at this, that men may be unwilling to know for certain that, which they know for a certain that they know not. There fore also they believe of us things which are not proved, and will not have them enquired into, lest those things be proved not to be, which they had rather should be believed to be ; so that the name opposed to that rival plan may, by its own confession alone, be condemned, on the presumption;; i not on the proof, of crimes. Wherefore we are tortured! when we confess, and punished when we persevere, and acquitted when we deny, because it is a war about a name. Finally, why read ye that man a Christian from the tablet '? why not a murderer also, if a Christian be a murderer5? Why is he not also a committer of incest, or whatever else ye believe us to be ? In our case alone ye are ashamed or loth to proclaim the very names of our crimes. If ' Chris tian' be the name of no crime, it is very absurd that there should be crime in the name alone". III. What when the generality run upon an hatred of this name with eyes so closed, that in bearing favourable testimony to any one, they mingle with it the reproach of the name. ' A good man Caius Seius, only he is a Chris tian.' So another, ' I marvel that that wise man Lucius 1 ™um Titius1 hath suddenly become a Christian.' No one. reflecteth whether Caius be not therefore good, and Lucius wise, be cause a Christian, or therefore a Christian because wise and good. They praise that which they know, they revile that which they know not; and that which they know, they spoil through that which they know not: whereas it were more JS^ charge. Thus in ^iZ^^T'' 'V ' r'' cX^co^dP^^;S: ^uS^Iu^a ^anasl tian." Euseb. H. E. 1. iv. 15. « This is h Cyprian adgernetrian. 1. c. Reformation in Christians owned but hated. i) just to prejudge things unseen by things seen, than to pre- condemn the seen through the unseen. Others condemn in the very thing, wherein in fact they praise, those whom in time past, before they had this name, they knew as vaga bonds, worthless, wicked. In the blindness of their hatred they fall upon commending them. What a woman ! how voluptuous! how gay! What a youth! what a rake! what a man of pleasure ! They have become Christians. Thus is this name applied to their reformation. Some even barter their own interests for this hatred, being content to suffer injury, so that they have not at home that which they hate. The husband now no longer jealous hath turned out of doors his wife now chaste. The father, patient before, hath dis owned his now obedient son. The master, once lenient, hath banished from his sight his now faithful servant. As each is reformed by this name, he offendeth. Virtue is not in such account as hatred of the Christians. Now then if the hatred be of the name, what guilt is there in names ? what charge against words ? unless it be that any word which is a name have either a barbarous, or an ill-omened, or a scurrilous, or an immodest sound. But the word 4 Christian,' as far as its meaning is concerned, is derived from ' anointing.' And even when it is by you wrongly pronounced, ' Chreestian1,' (for not even of the name is there any certain knowledge among you,) it is made from ' sweet ness,' or from ' kindness.' Wherefore in innocent men a name, also innocent, is hated. But in truth the sect is hated in the name of its Head. What new thing is it, if any School bring upon its followers a name from its master? Are not Philosophers named from their founders, as Platonists, Epicureans, Pythagoreans ? Even from the places of their meetings and stations, as Stoics, Academics ? So too Phy sicians from Erasistratus, and Grammarians from Aristarchus, 1 The heathen, to whom the name also in Lactant. Instt. iv. 7. Justin. Christus was unintelligible, substituted M. alludes to the same, Apol. i. 4. Chrestus, which was a name among Theoph. ad Autol. i. 1. Clem. Alex. themselves. (See instances in Hav.) Strom, ii.4." they who believe in Christ, Thus in the well-known passage of forthwith are, and are called, #{««¦«"' Suetonius, (vit. Claud, c. 25.) impulsore [good]. Clem. Alex, often substitutes Chresto. Tac. Ann. xv. 44. (corrected xi'Tr" for XZ*'™!, M equivalent, see intoChristiani,)Lucian. in Philopatr. so Coh. ad Gr. c. 9. and Potter ib. 10 Charges against the Christians to be retorted on the Heathen. Apol. and even Cooks from Apicius? And yet the profession of a _L±_name, handed down together with the institution, from its founder, doth not offend any. Clearly if any hath proved the sect bad, and thus the founder also bad, he will prove the name likewise bad, deserving of hatred from the guilt of the sect and of its founder. And therefore, before hating the name, it were meet, first to judge of the sect from the founder, or of the founder from the sect. But now, all examination and knowledge of either set aside, the name is laid hold of, the name is attacked, and a word alone pre-condemnetha sect unknown, and its founder also unknown, because they bear a name, not because convicted. IV. And so, having as it were premised these things, that I might set a mark upon the injustice of the public hatred against us, I will now take my stand on the ground of our innocence, and not only refute the charges which are brought against us, but even retort them upon the very men who bring them; that in this also all may know that those things exist not in Christians which they are not ignorant do exist in themselves; and at the same time may blush in accusing — I will not say the best, themselves being the worst, but — those who are now, on their own shewing, their compeers. We will answer touching all the things severally, which we are said to commit in secret, which are openly discovered against us, in which we are accounted wicked, in which foolish, in which to be condemned, in which to be laughed at. But since, when the truth of our cause meeteth you at every him, the authority of the laws is at last set up against it, so that it either is said that nothing must be reconsidered after the lawsj have decided, or the necessity of obedience is un willingly preferred to truth, I will first contend with you about the laws as with the guardians of the laws. And first, when ye harshly determine, saying, ' It is not lawful that ye should exist",' and prescribe this law without any gentler I Of Nero against the Christian^ ad not the Christians be ; (Christian! non Nat. i. 7. This institute of Nero sint;) away with the Atheists." See hath alone remained, when aU others Acta Sabini ap Baron A 301 18 have been reversed. See also c. 5. and Eus. H. E. iv. 15. " Which ' [the 'con- "l The common ory of the populace thfeft mthtTlt^ iTf* " was, « Away with the CMrtfai ; let reaS." jZ^nU -^^ ,\t ^ Other laios repealed ; only not those against Christians. 1 1 reconsideration, ye avow violence, and an unjust despotism from within your strong hold, if ye therefore say it is un lawful because ye will have it, not because it ought to be, unlawful. But if, because it ought not to be, therefore ye will not have it lawful, doubtless that ought not to be lawful, which is ill done, and surely it is, even hereby, already determined that what is well done is lawful. If I shall find that to be good, which your law hath forbidden, is it not by this previous determination, disabled from forbidding me1 that which, if it were evil, it would justly forbid ?' ex illo If your law hath erred, it was devised, methinks, by man;§™0u" for it hath not dropped down from the sky. Do we wonder Proh'- be re mc that man could either err in framing a law, or that he should non become wiser in disallowing it ? Why ! did not the amend- Potest ments by the Lacedaemonians in the laws of Lycurgus himself inflict such pain upon their author, that in retire ment he condemnedhimself to starve to death ? Do not even ye, as experience throweth light upon the darkness of antiquity, lop " and cut down, with the new axes of imperial 2 ''"»- rescripts and edicts, all that old and slovenly forest of laws ? Did not Severus, the steadiest1 of princes, repeal but yesterday, after an old age of such high authority, those most foolish laws of Papius, which enforce the bringing up of children before that those of Julius do the contracting of marriagem? but there were laws too aforetime, that men cast in a suit might be cut in pieces" by the creditors : yet was this cruelty afterwards erased" by public consent, the punishment of death being exchanged for a mark of disgrace. The confiscation of goods resorted to would in Ps. i. 90. p. 1. Kortholt ad Ep. Plin. i. 9.) probably refers to the Papian et Trai. p. 187. as the later, and so still in force under 1 " Severus, an earnest-minded Em- Constantine, who repealed them, it peror, answering to his name." Lam- seems, wholly, as imposing disqualifi- prid. in Comm. cations on religious celibacy. "> The first Julian law (they are - " If there were many to whom the commonly called laws) was proposed by debtor was assigned, the laws of the 12 Augustus, A. U. C. 736, after the Tables allowed them to cut, if they destructive civil war; the Papian, which willed, and divide his body." Aul. Gell. was an enforcement of them, 26 years Noct. Att.20. 1. quoting the law, At after, within 5 years of his death. The the third market-day, let them cut it in unmarried could not inherit, except pieces ; and if they cut more or less, let from the nearest relations ; but the age it be without any penalty. fixed by the Julian law is unknown ; » A. U. C. 630. that of 25, named by Sozomen, (H. E. 12 Tiberius' attempt to place Christ among heathen gols. Apol. rather have the suffusion than the effusion of a man's blood. -1*- How many laws still lurk behind needing to be purified ! ft is not length of years, nor the worth of their founders, which commendeth them, but equity alone; and therefore when they are acknowledged to be unjust, they are justly^ con- demned, although condemning. Why call we them unjust? yea, if they punish a name, we call them foolish also ; but if doings, why in our case do they punish doings, on the score of a name alone, which in others they maintain must be proved by the act, not by the name ? " I am guilty of incest,"— why do they not examine me ? " of child- murder,"— why do they not extort the proof? " I commit some act against the gods, against the Caesars," — why am I not heard;'' i qui who * have whereby to clear myself? No law forbiddeth that to be thoroughly sifted, which it forbiddeth to be done ; for neither doth a judge punish justly, unless he know that an act, which is not lawful, hath been committed ; nor doth a citizen obey the law honestly, not knowing what sort of thing it be which he punisheth. No law ought to satisfy itself merely of its own justice, but those also from whom it expecteth obedience. But the law is suspicious, if it will not have itself proved, and reprobate, if unapproved it domineereth. V. To treat somewhat of the origin of the kind of laws, there was an ancient decree, that no god should be consecrated by the Emperor", unless approved by the Senate. Witness Marcus iEmilius in the case of his own god Alburnus'. This also maketh for our cause, that with you deity is measured according to the judgment of man'. A god, unless he please man, shall not be a god. Man will now be obliged to be propitious to a god. Tiberius therefore, in whose time the name of Christ entered into the world, laid before the Senate, with his own vote to begin with, < P "Let no one have gods of his own, Senate to apply through theCity- or new gods; nor let him privately Praetor to the Senate. Liv. 1. xxxix.4 worship even foreign gods, unless they add iv. 30. against foreign rites, " that be pubhcly received. Cic.de Legg. „. none should be worshipped, but Roma*: 14 and 27. In this law the Emperor gods, nor with other than the countty'l would be included. Any one who "felt rites." mo v,uu i constrained to celebrate the Baceha- q See again adv Marc i 18 «l. nalia," was required by a decree of the r See inf. c. 13. Lact. Instt. i. 13. * None of the better Catsars persecuted the Christians. 13 things announced to him from Palestine in Syria, which had there manifested the truth of the Divinity of that Person8. The Senate, because they had not themselves approved it, rejected it'. Caesar held by his sentence, threatening peril to the accusers of the Christians. Consult your Annals : there ye will find that Nero was the first to wreck the fury of the sword of the Caesars upon this sect, nowr springing up especially at Rome. But in such a first founder of our condemnation we even glory. For whoever knoweth him, can understand that nothing save some great good was condemned by Nero. Domitian too, who was somewhat of a Nero x in cruelty, had tried it, but forasmuch as he was also a human being, he speedily stopped1 the undertaking, even restoring those whom he had banished. Such have ever been our persecutors ; unjust, impious, infamous, whom even yourselves have been wont to condemn, by whom who soever were condemned ye have been wont to restore. But out of so many princes thenceforward to him of the present day, who had any savour of religion and humanity, shew us any destroyer of the Christians. But we on the other hand have one to shew who protected them, if the letters of that most august Emperor Marcus Aurelius be enquired of, wherein he testifieth of that drought in Germany removed by the shower obtained by the prayers of the Christians who chanced to serve in his_ army*. As he did not 3 Justin. M. (Apol. i. 35. and 48.) t Bp. Pearson (Lect. iv. in Actt. n. also mentions incidentally that Pilate 14.) explains it, " because he (T.) had sent an official account (Acta) of His not approved of it in his own case," as Death and miracles; (as was usual to referring to Tiberius' refusal of divine transmit accounts of all important honours. (Suet. Tib. u. 26.) He is events, so that the omission had been followed by Tillemont, H. E. art. S. very improbable;) nor does there seem Pierre, n. 19. and Lardner. It seems any ground to question this statement, safer, however, to adhere to the sense which rests on Tertullian's authority; given by Euseb. (H. E. ii. 2.) S. for the supposed improbability that the Chrysostom, (in 2 Cor. Horn. 26.) P. Senate would venture to reject the Orosius, (vii. 4.) and otherwise there proposal of Tiberius is met by the fact had been no ground for the mention of that they did so, on different occasions, the " ancient law" just above. without displeasing Tiberius, (Suet. u See Scorp. c. 14. Euseb. H. E. ii. Tiber, c. 31.) This account, and those 25. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 52. Sueton. of Lampridins (a heathen) as to other Nero. c. 16. Emperors, who intended to associate x T. calls him " Subnero," de Pallio the Lord with the heathen gods, c. 4. mutually confirm each other, though Y Euseb. H. E. iii. 20. the dishonour was, by God's providence, z See ad Scap. c. 4. The greatness averted. aDd unexpectedness of the deliverance 14 Drought removed by prayers of Christians. Antonine s edict. Apol. openly take off the penalty from the men of that sect", — — — so in another way he openly made away with it by adding a sentence, and that a more homd one, against the accusers also. What sort of laws then be those which only the impious, the unjust, the infamous, the cruel, the foolish, the insane, execute against us? which Trajan in part foiled by forbidding that the Christians should be enquired after"; which no Adrian, though a clear searcher into all things curious", no Vespasian, though the vanquisher of the Jews, no Pius, no Verusd, hath pressed against us ? Surely the worst of men, it might be thought, ought to be more readily rooted out by the best, as being their antagonists, than by their own fellows. VI. Now I would have these most religious guardians and 'uliores avengers1 of the laws and institutions of their fathers answer touching their own fealty, and their respect and is confessed by the heathen also ; some referred to by Euseb. (H. E. v. 5.) and by extant writers, Dio. Cass. lxxi. 8 sqq. Jul. Capitolin. (Marc. Ant. i. 24.) Themistius (Or. 15.) Claudian (de sexto cons. Honor, v. 340 sqq.) and of these, Dio. §. 10. and Jul. Cap. mention the further fact stated in Euseb. from Apollinaris (Bp. of Hierapolis, a con temporary) and others, that lightning discomfited the enemy, while rain re freshed the Roman army, which is attested also by the Antonine column, according to the engraving in Baronius, A. 176. no. 23. The lightning alone is dwelt upon by Claudian ; the rain by Them, and visible on Antonine's medal (ap. Pagi ad A. C. 174.) The heathen differ only in ascribing it to the prayers of Antonine himself, (J. Cap. Them. Claud.) or (as was done in the first plagues of Egypt) to the incantations of Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician (so, Dio C. Claud.) invoking Mercury, (to whom the medal ascribes it, the column to Jupiter Pluvius,) Dio C. Though then there can be no doubt of a great interposition of Providence, obtained through the prayers of the Christians, Tertullian seems to have been mis informed as to the ground of the letter of Antonine, whether as Euseb. states (H. E. iv. 12.) it was sent by Titus Antoninus, or (as the copies now bear) by Marcus, (ib. e. 13.) a In the extant Rescript (Eus. 1. c.) it is taken off, " If any one persevere in troubling any such, as such, let him who is accused, be acquitted of the charge, though he appear to be such;!;, and let the accuser be subject to pu nishment." This, however, may have been local ; at Rome the old law was still enforced under Commodus, Apol lonius martyred, his accuser's legs broken. (Eus. v. 21.) b Ap. Plin. Ep. x. 98. c Spartianus in Adriano Hist. Rom. Scriptt. t. ii. p. 190 sqq. & The martyrdom of S. Polycarp and Justin, and many others in Asia Minor, took place under M. Aurelius Verus Antoninus, Eus. H. E. iv. 15— 17. as also those at Vienne and Lyons, (ib. v. 1.) It is supposed then, that by Verus, T. means L. Verus, the brother of M. Aurelius, after whose deatk. Paulus Diac. states the persecution under M. Aurelius to have taken place, or that be means that he passed no decrees against the Christians, though the persecutions were carried on under the old laws. This seems the more probable, on account of the character given to L. Verus; so Baronius, A. 164 init. Romans respected not laws opposed to their corruptions. 15 deference towards the decrees of their ancestors, whether they have fallen off from none, whether they have deviated in none, whether they have not annulled such as are necessary, and in proportion as they are the best fitted, to good discipline. Whither have gone those laws which checked extravagance and ambition ? which enacted that an hundred asses, and no more, should be allowed for a supper"; and that not more than one fowl, and that not a fatted one ', should be introduced ? which expelled from the Senate a Patrician on grave proof of ambition, because he possessed ten pounds of silver g ? which forthwith pulled down the theatres as they rose for the corruption of morals '' ? which suffered not the badges of dignities and honourable birth to be assumed without cause or without a penalty ? For I see centenarian suppers, which must now be so named from an hundred sesterces", and silver mines wrought out into dishes, (it were a small matter if only for Senators, and not for freed men k, or those who are even now having the whip broken upon them.) I see too that it is not enough that theatres should be single or uncovered. For it was for the games forsooth that the Lacedaemonians first invented their odious cloak1, that immodest pleasure might not be chilled even in the winter. I see too no distinction left in dress between matrons and harlots m. Touching women indeed, even those rules of their forefathers have dropped, which supported modesty and sobriety, when no woman knew ought of gold, save on the one finger on which her husband had placed the pledge of the nuptial ring ° ; when women were so entirely kept from wine, that her own friends starved a matron to death for unsealing the stores of a wine = And that on the great festivals ; £8072 18*. id. jEsop spent as only Lex Fannia, 11 years before the much on a single dish, Tert. de Pall. third Punic war, (" lex centussis" c. 5. See other instances ib. and in Lucilius,) renewed in the Lex Licinia. Adam's Rom. Ant. art. Money. (A. Gell. ii. 24. Macrob. Sat. ii. 13.) k Drusillanus, a slave of Claudius, de f Lex Fannia, Plin. x. 50. (al. 71.) Pall. c. 5. Plin. xxxiii. 52. e i.e. wrought silver, A. TJ. C. 458. ' Tiberius first used it to this end, The Censor was Fabric. Luscinius ; Dio. lvii. 13. the expelled, Corn. Rufinus, had been m De Cult. Fem. n. 12. de Palho, Dictator and twice Consul. (Val. Max. c. 4. " Varied and flond garments ii. 9. 4.) Five pounds only were allowed, harlots use for their trade, rich women Plin xxxiii 50 f°r ^e" luxury." Artemid. ii. 3. h See de'Spe'cta'c. c. 10. - See Plin. xxxiii. 4. De Idol. c. 16. Apol. 1 truci data sit 16 Romans changed in every thing, even in religion. , ... cellar"; and under Romulus one who had touched wine I-6; was slain ' with impunity by her husband Mecenius. Where fore also they were obliged to offer kisses to their nearest kinsfolk, that they might be judged by their breath p. Where is that happiness in marriages, favoured doubtless by good morals, through which, during nearly six hundred years" from the founding of the city, no one family wrote a writing of divorcement ? In the women, now, owing to their gold, no limb is light ', owing to their wine, no kiss is free : and for divorce, it is now even the object of a wish, as though it were the proper fruit of matrimony". As touching even your gods themselves, the decrees, which your fathers had providently enacted, ye, these same most obedient persons, have rescinded. Father Bacchus, with his mysteries, the Consuls by the authority of the Senate, banished not only from the city, but from the whole of Italy'. Serapis, and Isis, and Harpocrates with his dog-headed monster, having been forbidden the Capitol ", that is, turned out of the palace of the gods, the Consuls Piso and Gabinius (certainly not Christians) renounced, overturning even their altars, thus checking the vices of base and idle superstitions. These ye having bestowed, have conferred the highest dignity upon them. Where is your religion? Where is the reverence due from you to your ancestors ? In dress, food, establish* ment, income, finally in your very language, ye have renounced your forefathers. Ye are ever .lauding the ancients, yet fashioning your lives anew every day. By which it is manifest, that, while ye fall back from the good customs of your ancestors, ye retain and guard those things which ye ought not, while ye guard not those which ye n Plin. xiv. 13. (al. 12.) Val. Max. restored by popular tumult, but for- 6. 3. 9. bidden by Gabinius chiefly, A. U. C. P Ib.andArnob.l. ii.p. 91. ed.Lugd. 695. (Tert. ib.) Arnobius, ii. 96. men- Dio- hii- 2- and a mile from ap Tert. ad Nat. 1. 10.) by the Senate, it, liv. 6. The worship appears to have and allowed only to be without the been that of the populace. (Tert..l.e. walls, Dio. xl. 47. xln. 26. they were Val. Max. 1. c.) Christians, so beset with enemies, must have been detected. 1 7 ought. Besides1 that very thing, which being handed down ' rpsum from your fathers ye seem most faithfully to observe, ina which ye mark out the Christians as specially guilty of transgression, — I mean diligence in worshipping the gods, wherein antiquity hath mostly erred, — although ye have rebuilt the altars of the now Roman Serapis, although ye offer2 your frantic orgies to the now Italian Bacchus, I will ' imm°- shew in the proper place * to have been just as much despised and neglected and destroyed by you, contrary to the authority of your ancestors. For I shall now make answer to the evil report touching secret crimes, that I may clear my way to such as are more open. VII. We are said to be the most accursed of men, as touching a sacrament of child-murder, and thereon a feast, and incest after the feast, where the dogs that overturn the candles, our panders forsooth, procure darkness and an absence of all shame besides, for impious lusts. Yet ' said to be' is ever the word, and ye take no care to expose that which we have been so long said to be. Wherefore either expose it, if ye believe it, or be unwilling to believe it, seeing ye have not exposed it. Through your own connivance it is ruled against you, that that hath no existence which even your selves dare not expose. Far other is the task which ye impose on your executioner against the Christians, not that they should confess what they do, but deny what they arey. This religion dateth, as we have already set forth1, from Tiberius. Truth set out with being herself hated ; as soon as she appeared, she is an enemy 3. As many as are strangers 3inimica to it, so many are its foes3: and the Jews indeed appro- Lufc priately from their rivalry, the soldiers from their violence, 14. even they of our own household from nature. Each day are36at,l0> we beset, each day betrayed; in our very meetings and assemblies are we mostly surprised. Who hath ever in this way come upon a screaming infant ? Who hath kept for the judge the mouths of these Cyclopses and Sirens, bloody as he found them ? Who hath discovered any marks of im purity even in our wives ? Who hath concealed such crimes, « e. 13. a Athenag. Leg. §. 3. Orig. c. Cels. 1 See above, c. 2. i- 3. z c. 5. la Proverbial falsehood of report. Apol. when he hath discovered them, or hath taken a bribe to do L?- so while haling the men themselves6? If we be always concealed, when was that, which we commit, divulged? Yea, by whom could it be divulged? By the criminals themselves forsooth! Nay, verily: since the fidelity of ¦ vei ex secresy is, by the very rule of all mysteries ', due to them. omnium The Samothracian and Eleusinian are kept secret; how »?yste- much more such as, being divulged, will in the mean time norum voke even tne vengeance of man, while that of God • is k£pt in store ! If themselves then be not their own betrayers, it folio we th that strangers must be. And whence have strangers the knowledge, when even holy mysteries ever exclude the profane, and beware of witnesses ? unless it be that unholy men have the less fear ! The nature of fame is known to all. It is your own saying, " Fame is an ill, than which more speedy none." (VlEG.) Why " Fame an ill ?" because " speedy ?" because a tell tale ? or because mostly false ? who, not even at the very time when she beareth any thing true, is without the vice of falsehood, detracting, adding, changing from the truth ! What, when her condition is such, that she endureth only while she lieth, and liveth only so long as she proveth not her words ? for when she hath proved them, she ceaseth to be ; and, as having discharged her office of talebearer, delivereth up a fact. And thenceforward the fact is laid hold of, the fact is named, and no one saith, (for instance,) ' They say that this happened at Rome,' or ' The report is that he hath obtained the province,' but, ' He hath obtained the province/- and ' This happened at Rome.' Fame, a name for uncer tainty, hath no place when a thing is certain. But would any, but an inconsiderate man, believe Fame ? since a wise man believeth not that which is uncertain. All may judge that, over whatever extent it be spread, with whatever assurance framed, it must needs have at some time sprung from some one author, and thence creep into the channels of tongues and ears. And a fault in the first little seed doth so darken the rest of the tale, that none enquireth whether that i> i. B. had they been bribed, they had let them go altogether Internal evidence of falsehood of charges. lw first tongue have not sown a falsehood % which often hap- peneth either from the spirit of rivalry, or the wanton humour of suspicion, or that taste for falsehood which in some is not new, but inborn. But it is well that " time revealeth all things," which even your own proverbs and sayings testify, according to the general law of nature which hath so ordained that nothing long remaineth hidden, even that which fame hath not spread abroad. With good cause then hath Fame been so long the only witness of the crimes of the Christians'1. This informer ye produce against us, who even to this time hath not been able to prove that which she once threw out, and in so long a period hath strengthened into an opinion. VIII. That I may appeal to the authority of Nature herself against those who presume that such things are to be believed, lo ! we set before you the reward of these crimes. They promise eternal life. Believe it for the moment : for I ask this, whether even thou, who dost believe it, thinkest it worth while to attain to it by such a conscience e ? Come plunge thy knife into an infant, the foe of none, the accused of none, the child of all. Or, if this be the office of another, only stand by this human being, dying before it hath lived ; wait for the young soul's flight; catch the scarce-matured blood ; soak thy bread in it ; freely feed upon it. Meanwhile as thou sittest at the meal, calculate the places where thy mother, where thy sister is; note them diligently, so that when the darkness caused by the dogs shall fall upon thee, thou mayest not en-; for thou wilt incur pollution if thou commit not incest. Thus initiated and sealed thou livest for ever. I desire thee to answer whether Eternity be worth such a price ; or if not, therefore it ought not to be believed to be so. Even if thou shouldest believe it, I say that thou wouldest not do it; even if thou wouldest, I say that thou couldest not. And why should others be able, if ye are not able ? Why should ye not be able, if others are able ? We, c Obscurat, i. e. the original false- of the tale so disguise the fault in the hood is so mixed up in all the parts first little seed, that none considereth of the story, as to make it impossible &e." to see clearly what the truth really is. d Athenag. Leg. §. 2. (Tr.) According to another reading, e Salvian, 1. iv. (ubi sup.) p. 39. ed. (obscurant) " And the other appendages Manut. c 2 20 Those who joined Christians, must have discovered them. Apol. I suppose, are of another nature ! Are we Cynopeans or *-8- Sciapodes ' ? Have we other rows of teeth ? other nerves for incestuous lust? Thou that canst believe these things of a man, canst also do thems. Thou thyself also art a man, as is a Christian. Thou that canst not do them, oughtest not to believe them, for a Christian also is a man, and all that thou also art. But (say ye) men while in ignorance are cheated' and practised on1'. Because forsooth they knew not that any such thing was asserted of the Christians, a thing doubtless to have been looked to by them, and investigated with all diligence! But it is the custom, methinks, for those who desire to be initiated, first to go to the master of the mysteries, and to note down what things must be prepared1. Then saith be, ' An infant thou must needs have, still of tender age, who knoweth not what death is, who can smile under thy knife: bread too, with which thou must take up the mess of blood : candlesticks moreover, and candles, and certain dogs, and sops, which may make them stretch forward to overturn the candles: above all, thou wilt he bound to come with thy mother and sister.' What if they will not come, or if thou hast none ? What, in short, must solitary Christians do ? A man, I suppose, will not be a regular Christian, unless he be a brother or a son ! What now, even if all these things be prepared for men ignorant of them ? Surely they know them afterwards, and bear with and pardon them. They fear to be punished ! men, who, if they publish them, will deserve to be defended ; who should rather even die voluntarily, than exist under such a conscience. Well! grant that they do fear. Why do they still go on! for it followeth that thou canst not wish any longer to he that, which, if thou hadst known it before, thou wouldest not have been. IX. To refute these charges the more, I will shew that that is done by you, partly in public and partly in secret, through which perchance ye have come to believe them of us also. In the bosom of Africa, infants were publicly / ^ " d°g-feced'' and " feet-sha- h See details in Minut. F. p. 87. dowed," fabulous monsters, ap. Plm. 1. • Apul. Milesiarum sive Metemorph. T"- *• xi. pp. 255 et 269 e Salvian, iv. p. 93. Minut. F. p. 289. ™ Jb2, Heathen imputed what themselves did — bloodshed. 21 sacrificed to Saturn k, even to the days of a proconsul under Tiberius, who on the very trees of their temple which shaded their crimes, as on consecrated crosses', hung up, alive1, to'viv°3 public view the priests themselves; witness the soldiery of" my own country who executed that very office for that proconsul. But even now this consecrated crime is con tinued in secret. It is not the Christians only who defy you ; nor is any crime rooted out for ever, nor doth any god change his character. Since Saturn did not spare his own sons, doubtless he persisted in not sparing those of others, whom indeed their own parents offered of themselves, and willingly paid their vow, and fondled the infants, lest they should be slain weeping m- And yet murder by a parent differeth much from manslaying. Among the Gauls a riper age was sacrificed to Mercury. I leave to their own theatres the fables of Tauri ". Lo ! in that most religious city of the pious descendants of ^Eneas there is a certain Jupiter0, whom, in his own games, they drench with human blood. But, say ye, ' the blood of one condemned to the beasts:' and therefore, I suppose, not so bad as that of a man. Is it not therefore worse, because the blood of a bad man"? Still in any case it is shed by manslaying. O Christian Jupiter ! and ' the only son of his father' — through cruelty ! But since as touching child murder it mattereth not whether it be done from Religion or of mere wanton will, though in the case of murder by a parent there is a difference, I will appeal to the people. Of these who stand around and pant for Christian blood, of your own k Especially a Phomician, and so, a ' Hung them, as it were offerings, Punic idolatry, see Diod. Sic. xx. 14. on the trees, whereon they hung the The human sacrifices of Carthage and offerings to their God. the Phoenicians are spoken of by Plato, m Which was ill-omened, add. Minut. Politic, p. 315. Ennius, Ann. 7. Lact. F. 1. c. Instt. (1.21.) from Pescenius Festus. n Eurip. Iphig. Taur. add. Minut. F. Silius Ital. iv. 767. Porph. «j) &mx*i, 1- c. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. 19. and 1. 2. Euseb. Laud. Const. Athanas. adv. 26. &c. Gentes, c. 25. Orig. c. Cels. v. 27. and ° Latiaris, Tert. adv. Gnost. c. 7. others quoted on Minut. F. p. 291. ed. Minut. F. p. 198. and 297- Lact. i.21. Ouzel. Saturn is identified with Baal, Tatian. adv. Grac. §. 29. (whom it Procop. in Is. c. 46. ib. Athanas. 1. c. aided to alienate from Heathenism.) to whom human sacrifices were also Athanas. c. Gentes, c. 25. Porph. mjJ offered, Gesen. Monumm. Phcen. 453. &*>xts, 1. 2. p. 35. Plin. xxxiv. 7. and and who is perhaps the same as Moloch, others quoted, ib. id. Thes. v ita P Minut. F. p. 297. 22 Heathen admit their tasting human blood ; Apol. selves, magistrates most just and most severe against us» how L9- many will ye that I smite in their consciences, as slayers of the children born unto them ? If indeed there be a differ ence too as to the manner of death, surely it is with greater cruelty that ye force out their breath in the water, or expose them to cold and hunger and dogsq. For even those of Lam. 4, riper age would desire to die by the sword. But to us, 9- manslaying having once been forbidden, it is not lawful to undo even what is conceived in the womb, while the blood is as yet undetermined to form a man. Prevention, of birth is a precipitation of murder': nor doth it matter whether one take away a life when formed, or drive it away while forming. He also is a man, who is about to be one. Even every fruit already existeth in its seed. Touching the eating of blood, and such like tragic dishes, read whether it be not somewhere related, (it is in Herodotus s, I think,) that certain nations have ordained for the making of a treaty the shedding of blood from their arms, and the drinking it the one from the other '. Under Catiline'' also there was some drinking of the same sort. They say too that among some tribes of the Scythians every one that dieth is eaten by his relations \ I am travelling too far. In this age, in this country, blood from a wounded thigh, caught in the palm of the hand, and given to eat, sealeth those consecrated to Bellona *. They too, who in 1 ha"se- the games in the theatre have drunk • with greedy thirst 'deju- the fresh blood streaming from the neck2 of the butchered curren- crimillals to cure the falling sickness, where are they* ? they tem too, who from the stage sup on the meat of wild beasts, who fetch it from the boar, from the stag8? That boar hath 1 Ad Nat. ii. 12. Plin. Ep. x. 71. " Sail. Catil. i. 23. speaking doubt- Lactant. vi. 20 Justin. M. Apol. 1. fully. L. Floras (iv. 1.) positively, §. 27. Aug. de Nupt. l. 15. Minut. F. Minut. F. p. 297, 8. P- 289- i r, l , ., * Massagetae, adv. Marc. i. 1. Herod. * Exhort, ad Cast. c. 12. Athenag. i. ult. Leg. §. 35. Minut. F. p. 290 hence r « Signat Bellonas" corresponds the Christian Canons, Basil. Can. 2 with Minut. F. p. 298 9. Bellonam andS&c.ap.Bmgh .16. 10. 3. and 4. sacrum suum haustu human! cruoris • Vn \\l f*e ^edes and Lydians, imbuere. add Lactant. i. 21. the cutting iv 70. of the Scythians. of the arms isname(J b Lu(jan_ ^ ' Ta°- A n"- *"' 4£ °f *e ,natl°na P"d. in Comm. &c. Tib. Eleg. i. 6. ib. under Mithndates. Mela, u. 1. ofse- » Plin. xxviii. 6 Corn Celans > in veral tribes, Val. Max. ix. 11. of the 23. Minut. F. p. 299 ' Armenians: among American tribes, » Minut. F. 1. c. Lips, ad Tac. 1. v. confess, that Christians abhor that of animals. 23 from the man, whom he hath covered with blood, in strug gling with him, wiped it off. That stag hath lain in the blood of a gladiator. The paunches of the very bears are in request, reeking yet with undigested human entrails". The flesh which hath been fed on a man forthwith riseth in the stomach of a man. Ye that eat these things, how far removed are ye from the feasts of the Christians ? And they too, who with brutal appetite seize on human bodies, do they do the less because they devour the living ? Are they the less consecrated to filthiness by human blood, because what they take up hath yet to become blood ? They feed not indeed on infants, but on those of riper age. Let your sin blush before us Christians, who do not reckon the blood even of animals among meats to be eaten % who for this cause also abstain from things strangled, and such as die of themselves, Acts 15> that we may not be defiled by any blood even buried within Le'vit. their entrails. Finally, among the trials of the Christians, 22, 8- ye offer them also pudding-skins stuffed with blood, as being well assured that that, whereby ye would have them trans gress, is unlawful among them. Moreover what manner of thing is it to believe that they, who ye are assured abhor the blood of beasts, pant for human blood ? unless perchance ye have found it sweeter! Which very blood too it were meet should be applied as a test of Christians, in like manner as the altar, as the censer. For they would be proved Christians1 by desiring human blood, as by refusing to sacri- ' proba- fice, and would be to be slain on another ground if they chns- tasted, in the same way as if they had not sacrificed ". And t,anl 1U1 surely ye would have no lack of blood in your examination and condemnation of prisoners. Moreover, who are more incestuous than those whom Jupiter himself hath taught ? Ctesias relateth that the Persians are connected with their mothers c. And the Macedonians also are suspected, because when they first heard the Tragedy of CEdipus, laughing at *> The wild beasts were so fed in the negandi si non gustassent, quemadmo- arena, Salvian. de Prov. vi. p. 121. ed. dum si immolassent, " otherwise to be Baluz. declared not to be Christians, if they « The same argument was used by tasted not, in the same way as if they Biblias Ep. Lugd. et Vienn. ap. Euseb. had sacrificed." H. E. v. 1. see further Note A. at the e Tatian. c. Greec. §. 28. Brisson end of the Apology. gives many authorities, de reg. Pers. A The older Editions read alioquin 1. 2 sqq.. 24 Heathen defdemen—textent of Christian purity. Apol. the grief of the incestuous man they said, faewve t^v fx,>jrEg«; I-10- Now consider what an opening there is to involuntary sin for the commission of incest, the promiscuousness of your debauchery supplying the materials. In the first place ye expose your children ' to be taken up by the compassion of any passing stranger, or resign them to be adopted by nobler parents. Of a stock thus alienated, it must needs be that ¦semel the memory is sometimes lost; and when once1 a mistake shall have chanced upon them, thenceforward it will go on transmitting the incest, the generation creeping on with the crime e. Then, secondly, in whatever place ye be, at home, abroad, across the seas, lust is your companion, whose promiscuous sallies may any where easily make children for men unawares, so that the stock thus scattered, as it were, * ut vei out of some portion at least of the seed2, doth through the inter- semi'mlT course of man meet with its own reflected images, and portione kuoweth them not for mixtures of incestuous blood. Us a asper- most careful and most faithful chastity h hath fenced from sum such a consequence ; and in proportion as we are safe from adulteries, and from all transgression after marriage, so are we also from the chance of incest. Some men, much more secure, beat off by a pure continency the whole power of such error, little children to their old age '. If ye would consider that these things exist among you, ye would perceive forthwith that they exist not among the Christians. The same eyes would have testified of both. But two sorts of blindness easily unite, so that they who see not things which are, think also that they see things which are not. So I might shew it to be in every case. Now for the open sins. X. ' You do not,' say ye, ' worship the Godsk, and you offer f Justin M. Apol. i. 27. Clem. Al. i Atheism was one of the three Pa;dag. m. 3. Lact. vi. 20. Minut. F. charges against Christians. Athenag. P- 30<> • , «¦ 3. Justin, Dial. o. Tryph. c. 17. e Lact. 1. <=• Apol. i. 6. Epist. Anton, ap. Euseb. h Christian chastity is appealed to, H. E. iv. 13. Arnob. 1. i. init. and as a known fact, by Justin, Apol. i. p. 16. ed. LuKd. iii. p. 116 iv n 147. I. 15. add. $. 29 Tatian, c. 37. Athe- v. p. 178. Lact. v. 9P vii 27' Cyril nag. c. 32,33. Minut F. p. 307 Al.%. Julian, 1. ii. p. 4™ vll.'p. 238. ' ^TnLn t„T WM 1 y Sd P" 343' Prudent- Peri-Stephanon. were as children. Justin M. 1. c. Hymn 14. Dio Cass 1 67 S 83 ^T% ^ 310 °"S' "" CelS' *' 26' 1u°ted ,fey Korthcdt de Calumn. Pag'. Minut. F. p. 310. c. 8. Elmenhorst ad Arnob. 1. i. p. 16. genus Charge of atheism — heathen gods dead men. 25 not sacrifices for the Emperors.' It followeth that we sacri fice not for others for the same reason for which we do not even for ourselves, simply from not worshipping the gods. It is for sacrilege, therefore, and treason that we are arraigned. This is the chief point in the case : nay it is the whole, and certainly worthy of being considered, if neither presumption nor injustice are to judge it, the one despairing to find, the other rejecting, truth. We cease to worship your gods from the time when we discover that they are no gods. This therefore ye ought to require, that we prove that they be no gods, and therefore not to be worshipped, because then only ought they to have been worshipped, if they had been gods. Then also ought the Christians to be punished, if it were proved that those are gods, whom they worshipped not, because they thought them not to be so. ' But to us,' ye say, ' they are gods.' We challenge this, and appeal from yourselves1 to your conscience. Let that judge us: let! a.vobis that condemn us, if it shall be able to deny that all these 'ps's gods of yours were men. If she too herself would go about to deny it, she shall be convicted out of her own documents of Antiquity, from whence she hath learned to know them, which bear witness, to this day, both to the cities in which they were born, and to the countries wherein, having wrought any thing, they have left traces of themselves, nay even those in which they are proved to have been buried '. Nor shall I run through all separately, so many as they are and so great, new, old, barbarian, Grecian, Roman, foreign, taken in war, adopted, peculiar, common, male, female, of the country, of the town, of the fleet, of the army. It is idle to go over their very titles. Let me sum up all in brief: and that, not that ye may learn, but be reminded of them ; for certainly ye act as though ye had forgotten them. Before Saturn there is, according to you, no god"1. From him is The grounds were, not worshipping the translated and followed by Ennius,) heathen gods, (Athenag. 1. c. and c. 13. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. v. fin. c. 42. He Justin, Apol. 1. c. Arnob. i. p. 16.) and is alsojreferred to by Euseb. Pr Principles of heathen, against their being made gods. 27 moved by the appearance, as though divine, of any strange man, when even polished as they are at this day, men con secrate as gods those whom a few days before they acknow ledged by a public mourning to be dead". Enough now, little as it is, of Saturn. I shall shew that Jupiter also was as well a man as born of a man ; and so, in order, that the whole swarm of his descendants were as mortal as they were like the seed whence they sprung. XI. And since, as ye dare not deny these to have been menc, so ye have determined to affirm that they became gods after their death, let us treat of the causes which have worked out this effect. In the first place indeed ye must needs allow that there is some superior God, and some dispenser of Deity, who hath made gods out of men. For neither could they have assumed to themselves that Deity which they had not, nor could any give it to them which had it not, save one who in his own proper right ' possessed it. But if there ^pud se were no one to make them gods, in vain do ye presume that they were made gods, when ye refuse them a maker. Surely if they could have made themselves, they would never have been men, to wit as possessing in themselves the power of belonging to an higher state of being. Where fore if there be one who maketh gods, I return to examine the reasons for making gods out of men, and I find none, unless it be that that great God lacked their services and aid in divine functions. First it is unworthy of Him that He should need the aid of any man, and that a dead one, seeing that He, who was about to lack the aid of a dead man, might more worthily have made some god from the first. But I do not even see any room for such aid : for all this body of the universe, whether, according to Pythagoras, without beginning and without a maker, or, according to Plato, having a beginning and a maker, in any case being once for all, in the very act of its conception ",disposed, andfurnished, a in ipsa and ordered, was found with a government of perfect reason". ^"g6p" That could not be imperfect, which perfected3 all things, ^perfecit b On the deifying of the Emperors see with certain laws, and self-governed, Dio, 1. 59. k. 28. of Caligula. (according to their view,) it needeth c Athenag. v. 28. and above on c. 10. not the aid of Saturn and his race. d i. e. being provided once for all 28 gods discoverers not creators of goods, themselves bad. Apol. Nothing awaited Saturn and the race of Saturn. Men must be JLii- fools, if they be not assured that from the beginning rain hath fallen from heaven, and stars have beamed, and light hath shot forth, and thunders have roared, and Jupiter himself hath feared those bolts which ye place in his hands; that all fruit likewise sprang abundantly from the earth before Bacchus, and Ceres, and Minerva, yea before that first man whosoever he was ; because nothing provided, for the maintenance and support of man, could have been intro duced after man. Finally they are said to have discovered these necessaries of life, not to have made them": but that which is discovered, was, and that which was, will not be accounted his who discovered, but his who made it : for it was, before it was discovered. Further, if Bacchus be there fore a god, because he first made known the vine, Lucullus, who first introduced cherries generally into Italy, hath been lo"7tD' hardty dealt with, because, being the pointer out, he was omitted not thereupon deified as the author of a new fruit. Where fore if the universe hath existed from the beginning, both ordered and dispensed by fixed laws for the exercise of its functions, there lacketh a cause in this particular for ad mitting man to the Godhead, because the posts and powers which ye have assigned to them, have existed just as much from the beginning as they would have, even if ye had not created these gods. But ye betake yourselves to another reason, and answer that the conferring Deity upon them was a means of rewarding their merits, and hence ye grant, I suppose, that this god-making God is excellent in justice, one who would not rashly, nor unworthily, nor lavishly, dispense so great a reward. I would therefore recount their merits, whether they be such as should raise them to heaven, ^ and not rather sink them down* into « the nethermost hell," which when ye choose, ye affirm to be the prisonhouse of eternal punishments'. For thither are the wicked wont to be thrust, and such as are unchaste towards their parents, and their sisters, and the debauchers of wives, and th ravishers of virgins, and the corrupters of boys/and they who are of angry passions and they who kill, and they who steal, and they who deceive, and whosoever are like some e Lact. i. 18. rjba Many men better than the gods, even though good. 29 god of yours*, not one of whom will ye be able to prove free from crime or vice, unless ye shall deny that he was a man. But as ye cannot1 deny that they were men, ye have, besides, ' potestis these marks which do not either allow it to be believed that they were afterwards made gods. For if ye sit in judgment for the punishment of such men, if all who among you are honest refuse the intercourse, the con versation, the company, of the evil and the base, and if that God hath admitted their compeers to a fellowship in his own majesty, why then condemn ye those whose fellows ye worship ? Your justice is a stigma upon heaven. Make all your worst criminals gods, that ye may please your gods. The deifying of their fellows is an honour to them. But to omit farther discussion of this their unworthiness, grant that they be honest, and pure, and good. Still how many better men have ye left in the shades below ! in wisdom a Socrates, in justice an Aristides, in warlike arts a Themistocles, in greatness of soul an Alexander, in good fortune a Polycrates, in wealth a Croesus, in eloquence a Demosthenes ! Which of these gods of yours was more grave and wise than Cato ? more just and warlike than Scipio? Which more great of soul than Pompey ? more fortunate than Sylla ? more wealthy than Crassus ? more eloquent than Tully ? How much more worthily would he have waited for these to be adopted as gods, foreknowing, as he must, the better men ! He was hasty I trow, and shut up heaven once for all, and now blusheth doubtless to see better men grumbling in the shades below. XII. I say no more now of these, as knowing that, when I have shewn what they are, I shall by the very force of truth shew what they are not. As touching your gods therefore, I see names only, the statues2 of certain dead men of olden time, and 2 statuas I hear fables, and in their fables I read their mysteries. ~Q\itadded as touching the images themselves I find nothing else than33 esse materials akin to vessels and instruments of common use, or from these same vessels and instruments, as though changing their destiny by their consecration, the wantonness of art transforming them, and that too most insultingly, and in the work itself sacrilegiously : so that in very truth it may be a % Athenag. u. 30. 30 Process of image-making disgrace to image-worship- Apol. consolation to us in our punishments, especially since we are i-ig- punished on account of these very gods, that they themselves also suffer the same things in order that they may be made, Ye put the Christians upon crosses and stakes h. What image doth not the clay first form, moulded upon a cross and a stake ' ? It is on the gibbet that the body of your god is first consecrated ! Ye tear the sides of the Christians with claws k : but upon your gods hatchets, and planes, and files, are more stoutly laid over all their limbs. We lay down our necks : until lead and glue and pegs have been used, your gods are headless. We are driven to the beasts; those surely which ye attach to Bacchus, and to Cybele, and to Caelestis'. We are burned with fire : so too are they in their original mass. We are condemned to the mines: it is thence that your gods are derived. We are banished to islands : in an island also one or other of your gods useth to be born or to die ,u. If by such means any deity is formed, then those who are punished are deified, and your Con demned criminals ought to be called gods. But clearly your gods feel not these injuries and insults in the forming of them ; as neither do they the honours paid to them. 0 impious words ! O sacrilegious revilings ! Gnash your teeth and foam upon us. Ye are the same men who approve of a Seneca declaiming against your superstition in more copious and bitter words". Wherefore if we worship not statues" and cold images, very like their dead originals, which the kites, and the mice, and the spiders, well knowp, did not the renouncing of the discovered error deserve praise rather than punishment ? For can we think that we injure : those, who we are sure have no being at all ? That which is not, suffereth nothing from any, because it is not. h By impaling, (Theod.de Cur. Gr. They were pictured as drawn by lions, s Aff. Disp. vm. mit.) or when exposed tigers, or lynxes to the wild beasts Eus. H. E. ,. 1. or » Jupiterin Crete, Apollo and Diana burnt alive, Lips, de Cruce. in Deiog, Jtmo in Samo£ i Justin M. Apol. i. 9. Ep. ad Diogn. * See in Aug. de Civ. D. vi. 10. c. 2. Clem. Al. Cohort, c. 4. p. 15. » Spp ™t» -R .. Ii. j * « Minut. F. p. 218. Arnob. vi. p. 200. ApoWy °f k Cyprian, de Laps. c. 10. Auct. de PSeeBarueh vi 1Q ri„™ Al Laud. Mart. init. Prudent, in Roman. Cohort, civ u lfi' A £ i •* Mart. 451. They are still preserved at 202. Minut. F. pP; £{. £acMi \ Ve .Home. in ps, 113. & 2 ... g. 1 The tutelary goddess of Carthage. Profanations in heathenism toward their own gods. 31 XIII. ' But,' sayest thou, ' they are gods to us.' And how is it that ye on the other hand are found to be impious, and sacrilegious, and irreligious, towards those xgods?! Deos neglecting those, whom ye presume to exist; destroy in gneghga- those, whom ye fear, and even mocking those, whom ye 'is> &c- avenge ! Mark whether I speak falsely. First in that", when2 qui ye worship, some one, some another, of course ye offend those whom ye worship noti. The preference of one cannot go on without the slight of another, because there is no choice without rejection. Ye despise then at once those whom ye reject; whom ye fear not, by rejecting, to offend. For as we have before shortly hinted, the case of each god depended upon the judgment of the Senate. He was not a god, whom man, after consultation, had refused, and, by refusing, had condemned. Your household gods, whom ye call Lares, ye deal with according to your household rights, by pledging, selling, changing them, sometimes from a Saturn into a chamber vessel, sometimes from a Minerva into a pan, as each hath become worn and battered by being long worshipped, as each man hath found his household need the more sacred god. Your public gods ye equally profane by public right, whom ye have in the register as a source of revenue. Thus the capitol, thus the herb-market is bid for'. Under the same proclamation of the crier, under the same spear, in the same catalogue of the quaestor, Deity is con signed and hired. But in truth lands charged with a tribute are of less value : men assessed for a poll-tax are less noble. For these are the marks of villenage. But the gods who pay the highest tribute are the most holy ; yea, rather, they who are the most holy pay the highest tribute. Their majesty is made a source of gain : Religion goeth about the taverns begging". Ye exact payment for a footing in the temple, for access to the sacred rite. Ye may not know the gods for nothing : they have their price. What do ye at all to honour them, which ye do not bestow on your dead men also ? i Athenag. u. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. Mater, whence the term fivrgayvgirai ; vii. 1. ftfirgayvgevyTts, Diouys. Hal. ii. 20. r The fees for visiting the capitol p.2/6.ed.Reisk. Aristot.B.het.iii.2. 10. were let by auction every five years Clem. Al. Cohort, p. 20. ed. Pott. (ad Nat. i. 10.) like the tolls of the Minut. F. p. 224. Aug. de Civ. D. vii. herb market. 26. see below, u. 42. s Chiefly the Dea Syria, Magna 32 Degraded objects of Roman worship— Simon Magus. Apol. Temples all the same, altars all the same— the same dress T-13- and badges on the statues. As the dead man hath his age, hath his profession, hath his occupation, so hath the god. How doth the funeral feast differ from the feast of Jupiter ? a bowl from a chalice'? an embalmer from a soothsayer? for a soothsayer also attendeth on the dead. But rightly do ye offer divine honours to your deceased Emperors, to whom even when living ye assign them. Your gods will count themselves your debtors, yea will be thankful because their masters are made their equals. But when among your Junos, and Cereses, and Dianas, ye worship Larentina", a public harlot, (I would at least it had been Lais or Phryne;) when ye instal Simon Magus1 with a statue and the title of an holy god ; when ye make I know not whom out of the court pages a god of the synody; although your ancient toritatepnblica,") that discovered, is by an individual : 2. that the words are not the same, nor the order: '3. that Justin speaks of it, as a 3ingle case, and asks for one statue to be removed, whereas there were many statues of Simon ; (so Baronius, who mentions one on the Quirinal :) 4. that S. Augustine, wbo makes the same statement, knew of the Sabine Semo (de Civ. D. xviii. 19.) [as did Lact. i. 15.] 5. that Theodoret, Hser. Fab. i. 1. says, that the statue was of brass, that this was of stone, [but it does not seem that any statue was found, but the base only, Baron. 1. c] There is then to set against the authority of Justin, only a similarity of inscription and the identity of die place, which however was full of temples, and was hence called the sacred island, (Liv. ii. 5. Plut. 1. c.) Another contrast would be suggested by Baronius A. 44. §. 55. who says on the authority of S. Irenaeus, i. 20. [23, 4.] Epiph. xxi. 3. that_ Simon's statue was in the form of Jupiter, while that of Semo represented Hercules. But these fathers are not here speaking of the Roman statue, but of that which his followers had and worshipped, of which S. Irenaeus speaks positively, of the Roman, as a report, (ib. §. 1.) 7 The degraded Antinous, by the Emp. Adrian, see Orig. c. Cels. iii. 36. Hegesippus ap. Eus. H. E. iv. 8. Spar- tian. in Adriano. An ancient inscription calls him " enthroned" (cn(mm) " with the Egyptian gods." 1 Out of which libations to the dead were poured. The sameness of the rites argues that the gods also were but dead men. u Area Larentia, the nurse of Romu lus, Plin. xviii. 1. Licinius Macer ap. Macrob. Sat. i. 10. A. Gell. vi. 7. x Justin M. Apol. i. c. 26. gives the inscription " Simoni Deo Sancto," and says that the statue with this inscription " stood by the Tiber between the two bridges." This was the title of the Island of jEsculapius, (Plutarch, in Poplic. p. 221. ed. Bryan.) where A.D. 1572 was dug up a statue with the inscription, " SemoniSanco"(or " San- go") Deo Fidio sacrum Sex. Pom- peius, &c. whence some have thought that he confounded Semo [the Sabine Hercules] with Simon Magus, and that the more, since the i and e are inter changed in inscriptions, e. g. Mircurius, Gimina, and that the Sabine god is called Sanctus, Ov. Fast. vi. 214. Grabe ad Euseb. H. E. ii. 13. [This however is doubtful. Sancto is thought to be a corrupt reading, derived from the abbreviation SCO. Yet he is called Sanctus in the edd. of Sil. Ital. viii.422. and in a second inscription it is used as an epithet " Sango Sancto Semoni Deo," which comes nearer to the use in Justin, see Comm. in Ovid. 1. c. ed. Burmann.] Tillemont, on the other hand, remarks, (t. ii. Notes sur Simon le Mag.) 1. that Justin implies (ib. c. 56.) that the statue was erected by Claudius and the Senate, (and S. Augustine affirms it, Hser. i. 6. " auc- ^Heathen neglected, their poets degraded, their gods. 33 gods be not more noble, yet they will account it a slight on your part that that hath been allowed to others also, which they alone had from the earliest ages preengaged. XIV. I am unwilling1 to recount also your sacred rites. I > Nolo say not what your behaviour is in sacrificing, when ye offer up all your dying, and rotting, and scabbed animals ; when from those that are fat and sound ye cut off all the super fluous parts, the heads and the hoofs, which, even in your own houses, ye would have set aside for your slaves and your dogs ; when of the tithe due to Hercules ye lay not even one third part upon his altar. I will rather praise" your 2 Lau- wisdom, for that ye save somewhat of that which is thrown away. But turning to your books, by which ye are in structed in prudence and in honourable duties, what mock eries do I find ! gods fighting, on account of the Trojans and Greeks, matched against each other like pairs of gladiators'! Venus wounded with an arrow by a man, because she would fain deliver her own son JEneas, lest he should be slain by the same Diomede a ! Mars almost wasted to death by imprisonment in chains for thirteen months b! Jupiter delivered by the aid of a kind of monster0, lest he should suffer the same violence from the rest of the gods ! and now weeping for the fall of Sarpedond, now foully lusting after his own sister, and recounting to her his mistresses, not loved, for a long time past, so much as her e. Thenceforward what poet is not found to be a degrader of the gods, after the example of his master ? One assigneth Apollo to King Admetus for feeding his cattle f : another letteth out to Laomedon the services of Neptune as a builder e: and there is that one among the Lyric Poets, Pindar I mean, who singeth of iEsculapius b being punished by a thunderbolt, as the reward of his covetousness, because he had practised medicine sinfully. Wicked Jupiter, if the bolt be his ! unnatural towards his grandson ! jealous ¦ II. T. 66 sqq. found together in Justin Cohort, init. » II'. E. 335 sqq. Rig. omits this see also Athenag. c. 21. 29. Clem. Al. sentence, '" quod filium suum .ffinean, Strom, i. 21. t. i. p. 383. ed. Pott. ne interimeretur ab eodem Diomede, ' II. 3. 314 sqq. rapere vellet." ' E™"P- Alc- Pro1- Athenag. c. 21. t> II. E. 385 sqq. g Eurip. Troad. Prol. <= Briareus, P.. A. 399 sqq. h Pytb. iii. 96. Athenag. c. 29. * II. n. 433 sqq. The instances are 34 Heathen gods alike degraded by their philosophers, con§diam apol. towards his craftsman ! These things ought neither to be J-1B- disclosed if true, nor invented if false, amongst the most ' ne/T religious of all people. Not1 even the tragic and comic writers spare them ; or forbear to cite in their prologues the distresses and the frailties of the family of some one of the gods. Of the philosophers I say nothing, content with Socrates, who, in mockery of the gods, swore by an oak, and a goat, and a dog1. But (say ye) Socrates was on that account condemned, because he disparaged the gods. Verily, of old time, indeed at all times, truth is hated. Nevertheless when, in repenting of their sentence, the Athenians both punished afterwards the accusers of Socrates, and set up a golden" statue of him in a temple, the reversal of his condemnation bore testimony in behalf of Socrates. But Diogenes1 too has some jest upon Hercules: and the Roman Cynic Varro introduceth three hundred Joves, or perhaps I should say Jupiters, without heads. XV. The rest of your licentious wits work even for your amusement through dishonour of the gods. Consider the pretty trifles of the Lentuli m and Hostilii, whether in those jokes and tricks ye are laughing at the buffoons, or at your own gods; 'The adulterer Anubis,' 'The male Luna",' ' Diana ° scourged,' and ' The will of the deceased Jupiter' read aloud, and ' The three starved Herculeses p' turned to ridicule. But the writings also of the stage shew up all their baseness q. The Sun mourneth for his son cast down 1 Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 2. Philostr. infers that Socrates meant symbolically de vit. Apoll. vi. 9. Lucian in Icarome- his " genius" as a " guardian." nipp. (ap. Her.) mention " a dog, goose, k Probably " brazen ;" " auream" for (xim xos) xnm by a sort of alliteration " seream." probably,) and plane." Schol. on Aris- > The Cynics continually jested on toph. " a goose, dog, ram, and the like." Hercules, whose followers they pro- It seems to have been a sort of protest fessed to be in their coarseness. Lucian against perjury and swearing by the Vit. Auct. c. 8. Cynic. 13. and in part gods at all : so the Schol. 1. c. Porph. Apuleius, Apol. p. 288. ed. Elm. de Abstin. ni. Suidas ; saying that it ™ De Pallio, c. 4. Hieron. adv. Ruf. was in imitation of Rhadamanthus. Apol 2 S. Augustine de Vera Rel c. 2. inter- n Th; moon was a d ¦ the East. prete as Tert., that Socrates meant to (in Heb. and Arab, it is masc.) imply that they were better gods, than • Horn. II j-ij? i ¦ 1 1. sect- who had risen in Galilee: al. (of Nerva's edict forbidding any (Just.'M. Dial. c. 17 108) and so to be " accused for impiety on a Jewish ponnPr.rori tv, -li. J, V ¦£- tenor of life.") by Seneca ap. Aug de SKS66*4 them _*>* themselves. Kor- Civ.D. vi. 11. and confused with them by Sueton. Claud. 25. Ulpian. de Procons. Off. 1. 3. (ap. Lac. ad o. 3.) Sulpitius to ne •• accusea ior impiety on a Jewish connected them with themselves Kor- tenor of life.") by Seneca ap. Aug. de tholt rpfero +„ a.* rnemseives. n.oi Civ.D. vi.ll.andconfusedwiththemby proL t seot^ fi" P,eIseoutt- EccK Sueton. Claud. 25. Ulpian. de Procons. a c 9 V> 33, Worship of the Cross; retorted not admitted by Tertullian. 37 represented, it would be no where more seen than in its own holy place, the rather because the worship, however vain, had no fear of strangers to witness it ; for it was lawful for the priests alone to approach thither; the very gaze of the rest was forbidden by a veil spread before them. Yet ye will not deny that beasts of burden and whole geldings", with their own Epona, are worshipped by yourselves. On this account perchance we are disapproved, because, amidst the worshippers of all beasts and cattle, we are worshippers of asses alone. But he also who thinketh us superstitious respecters of the Cross, will be our fellow worshipper % when prayer is made to any wood. No matter for the fashion, so long as the quality of the material be the same ; no matter for the form, so long as it be the very body of a god. And b i. e. the whole animal, not his head only. c Tert. does not imply that the Christians worshipped the Cross, but the contrary. Here, and in the charges, as to the ass's head, and the imuris, in all which there was no foundation in fact, he answers by mere irony ; where there was plausible ground for a heathen so to think, as in the worship of the Sun, he says so, and names the ground. The irony too is such, as one would not have used, who paid reverence to thefigureof the Cross. Minut. F.p. 284, imitating the passage, says, " Crosses we neither worship nor wish for," in allusion to the charge of the heathen, p. 86. " so that they worship what they deserve :" and p. 105. " so here are Crosses for you, not to be worshipped, but to be undergone." Julian (ap. Cyril Al. vi. p. 195.) grounds the same charge on their painting the figure of the Cross, " Ye worship the wood of the Cross, painting (mixy^xfeVtris) figures thereof on the forehead and before the doors," (tyyguQavres -rgi rZv otxnparatv.) S. Cyril states, at great length, that it was a memorial only of the mercies and duties of the Cross ; to the same end that they signed themselves with it. (de Cor. c. 3. ad Uxor. ii. 5.) Of instances, later than Tertullian's age, of homage to the visible Cross, the followingplainly prove nothing. Ambr. de ob. Theod. in signisyour standards* are the appendages of crosses ; those hanging! on your standards and banners are the robes ' of crosses. I commend your care : ye would not consecrate your crosses naked and unadorned. Others certainly, with greater sem blance of nature and of truth, believe the sun to be our God. If this be so, we must be ranked with the Persians ; though we worship not the sun painted on a piece of linen, because in truth we have himself in his own hemisphere. Lastly, this suspicion ariseth from hence, because it is well known that we pray towards the quarter of the east k. But most of yourselves too, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping the heavenly bodies also, move your lips towards the rising of the sun. In like manner, if we give up to rejoicing the day of the sun, for a cause far different from the worship d Justin M. Apol. i. §. 55. Minut. F. were toward the East. (Tert. c. Valent, P- 286- . u. 3. Const. Ap. ii. 57. so that other e Claudian. in Rufin. 5. 366. Dionys. positions were rare exceptions, Socr. v. Hal. vi. 45. p. 1142. They sacrificed 22. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever.) as the to them, Joseph, de B. J. vi. 32. place of our lost Paradise ; (Cyril Jerus. » .< iVXT,A.48i ,_• , r„ Lect *ix- 6- P- 2fil- ed. Oxf. S. Basil. 8 "Follow the Koman birds [Eagles], de Sp. S. c.27. Const. Ap. ii. 57- Greg. the special deities of the legions," Nyss. Horn. 5. de Or. Dom. t. i. p. 758. German.cus, ap. Tac. Ann ii 17. Qusstt. adAntioch.q.37. Damasc.l.c.) turning to the standards and gods of as the more eminent part of the world, WiTnf ri^f:,"^ ™. (unde Cffilum ^gitf Aug. de serm: h Of the gods and emperors. They Dom. in Monte, ii 5. Qusestt. ad were of gold and silver. r»rrt.™i t ^ »«¦ ?,T, ,, ¦ ¦ The banner was of silk and gold. £s antd t A°' ^V**1^ V k Christians prayed to the East/as S fS 1 Apostolic tradition by the type of Christ the Sun of rightecC Ou^tt L n & T? S° £?* £ *" ness, (S. Clem. Al. Strom, vii. 7 p. 856 5 fn nI^" ^ U C" •0"gen ^ Damasc.iv.l2.)whencealsoinBaptiSm ti^KST, '!" a ^5 theyturnedtotheEasttoconfesscList, wwTwJ^^^8 ffi £ (S. Jer. in Am. vi. 14. Ambros. de iis most. odvious u> qui initiantur c. 2.) and their Churches Other calumny — Whom they did worship. 39 of the sun, we are only next to those, who set apart the day of Saturn ' for rest and feasting, themselves also deflecting from the Jewish custom, of which they are ignorant. But now a new report of our God hath been lately set forth in this city, since a certain wretch, hired to cheat the wild beasts m, put forth a picture with some such title as this, " The God of the Christians conceived of an ass." This was a creature with ass's ears, with a hoof on one foot", carrying a book, and wearing a gown. We have smiled both at the name and the figure. But they ought instantly to adore this two-formed god, because they have admitted gods made up of a dog's" and a lion's head p, and with the horns of a goaf and a ramr, and formed like goats from the loins', and like serpents from the legs, and with wings on the foot ' or the back". Of these things we have said more than enough, lest we should have passed over any rumour un- refuted, as though from a consciousness of its truth. All which charges we have cleared, and now turn to shew you what our Religion is. XVII. That which we worship is the One God, Who through the Word by Which He commanded, the Reason by Which He ordained, the Power by Which He was able1, hath framed out of nothing this whole material mass with all its furniture of elements, bodies, and spirits, to the honour, of His Majesty ; whence also the Greeks have applied to the universe the name KoVftos. He is invisible though seen, 1 The seventh day of the month, Mithra, c. 3. p. 128. c. 5. p. 202. Porph. sacred to Saturn, as the seventh planet, also de Abstin. 1. iv. p. 54. ap. Elmenh. was regarded as an ill-omened day for ad Minuc. p. 261. mentions in Egyptian business, and so spent in idleness and idolatry, human figures " with the head dissipation. Little reason had they of a bird or a lion," (whence the Nomos then to reproach the Christians. On Leontopolites) and Arnob. 1. vi. p. the seventh day among the Heathen, 116. ib. see at greatlength, Seldende Jur.Nat. 1 Sispita or Lanuviana, Pan, and et Gent. 1. iii. c. 15 sqq. Satyrs, see Spanheim. de Usu Numism. m An apostate Jew, ad Nat. i. 14. p. 354. The Mendesians worshipped the n The Empusa, or mid-day Hecate, goat. Strab. 1. c. Herod, ii. Clem. Protr. had one ass's foot. Philostr. de vit. I.e. Minuc. p. 261. " de capro ethomine Apollon. ap. Hav. mixtos Deos." 0 " The Hermopolitee worship a dog- ' Jupiter Ammon. headed animal." Strabo, 1. 17. ap. Ouz. ! Pan. Porph. de Abstin. 1. 3. ad Minuc. p. 263. also Athan. c. Gent. • Mercury, and sun-images. Macr. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 13. Clem. Protr. Sat. i. 19. "pennata vestigia" Martian. 2. 39. of the Cynopolitas. The dog was Capell. de Nupt. Philol. p. 20. worshipped throughout Egypt. Strabo, u Cupido, &c. 1. c. &c. * Minuc. p. 141. 148. P Probably Mithra. Ph. a Turre de 40 Natural language of Heathen attested Christian truths. Apol. incomprehensible though present through His grace, incon- I-17- ceivable though conceived by the sense of man. Therefore. He is true ; and such is His greatness. Now that which can ordinarily be seen, which can be comprehended, which can be conceived, is less than the eyes by which it is scanned, and the hands by which it is profaned, and the senses by which it is discovered: but that which is immeasurable is known to itself alone. This is it which causeth God to be conceived of, while He admitteth not of being conceived: thus the force of His greatness presenteth Him to men, as both known and unknown. And this is the sum of their offending, who will not acknowledge Him of Whom they cannot be ignorant. Will ye that we prove Him to be, from His own works, so many and such as they are, by which we are maintained, by which we are supported; by which we are delighted, by which also we are made afraid ? Will ye that we prove it by the witness of the soul itself, which although confined by the prison of the body, although straitened by evil training, although unnerved by lusts and desires, although made the servant of false gods, yet when it recovereth itself as from a surfeit, as from a slumber, as from ' i sani- some infirmity, and is in its proper condition of soundness ', 't^am it nameth God, by this name only, because the proper name patitur of the true God. ' Great God,' ' Good God V and ' which God grant1,' are words in every mouth. It witnesseth also that He is its Judge. ' God seeth ",' ' I commend to God,' ' God shall recompense me.' O testimony of a soul, by nature Christian ! Finally, in pronouncing these words, it looketh not to the Capitol, but to Heaven ; for it knoweth the dwelling-place of the true God : from Him and from thence it descended. y " O bone Deus " Seribon. Larg. ' c.6. and by S.Cyprian, de Idol.Vanit. compos. 84. m fine ap. Facciol. v. bonus, c. 6. p. 18. ed. Oxf. Arnob. 1. ii. hit * „v &Jis «*e<«'Xo,, passim ap. Her. Lactant. ii. 1. Minut. F. p. 144. CyriU Anstoph. Pint 347 .405. "But how 14. Breviarium in Ps. 95. v. 10. must we speak P'Socr « If God . u TWe ., a Go(J ( Dena) in T 4fi°SrPSnh %l°sl6~^n ?lat~° A1°lb- h He^en, who both heareth and seed. p. 135. Steph. Iv, ™ e,,, «,«.! rx? what we do ., p, c H xuiunrai. Soph. Al. 383. |i/v©ss> Mar0al> agreement of their translation, of which g Clem Al «*. • „, ,„n Pam. understands it. The anachronism TatianT'rw « T" '¦ 21, P* 139' as to Menedemus is noticed by Hod™ PHrf TpraBp. Ev.^'s EuSebl Ch™ added memo riarum inde jam et Superior antiquity of Moses and the Prophets. 43 like manner consequently1 of ours also. If ye have ever1 pro heard of a certain Moses, he is of the same age with Inachus"" of Argos'; he precedeth by almost four hundred years, (for it is seven years less than this",) Danaus, himself also a very ancient among you: he goeth before the overthrow of Priam by about a thousand years ' ; I could say also, having some authorities with me", that he was five hundred years more before Homer. Our other prophets also, although they come after Moses, yet are not, even the very last of them, found to be later than your first philosophers, and lawgivers, and historians". For me to expound by what train of proofs these things may be established, is a task not so much out of reach as out of compass, not difficult, but at the same time tedious. We must apply closely to many documents and many calculations : unlock the archives of. even the most ancient nations, the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans, the Phoe nicians : call in the aid of their countrymen, by whom such knowledge is supplied, a Manetho from Egypt, a Berosus from Chaldaea, an Iromus king of Tyre moreover from Phoenicia ; their followers also, Ptolemy the Mendesian, and Menander of Ephesus, and Demetrius Phalereus, and king Iuba", and Appion, and Thallus, and if any" confirmeth or3 si qui refuteth these, as Josephus p the J8w, the native champion or" qm Jewish antiquities. The Greek annalists likewise must be compared with them, and the transactions of the various periods, that the mutual connection of dates may be un folded, through which the order of the annals may be made 1 Polemo Hellen. 1. i. Appion. c. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. p. 141. " some" Jud. i. Hist. iv. ap. Justin. Cohort. §. 9. ap. Tatian. §. 31. who names other Porph. adv. Christian. 1. iv. Africanus dates assigned, viz. 80, above 100, 140, Ann. 1. v. ap. Euseb. 1. c. Ptolemy 180, 240, 317, after the Trojan war. Mendes, ap. Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. The expression shews that Tertullian init. p. 138. Eusebius himself places was not anxious about the facts : his Inachus 300 years prior to Moses, he is concern was but to arrest attention by followed by S. Aug. de Civ. D. xviii. 8. shewing the impression which their own k Joseph, e. Ap. i. 16. writers had of the superior antiquity of ' Joseph. 1. v. " nearly 1000." Euseb. Moses. Praep. Ev. 1. u. from Porph. " above n Justin. Dial. u. Tryph. §.7. Theoph. 800." Theoph. ad Autol. iii. 21. " 900 iii. 23. Clem. Al. 1. c. p. 143. Euseb. or even 1000." Tatian. §. 38, 39. and Praep. Ev. 1. c. Lact. iv. 5. Aug. de Clem. Al. 1. c. more correctly " twenty Civ. D. xviii. 37. generations," or, " 400 years." Cyril. ° He wrote an Assyrian history, c. Jul. 1. i. "410." Eusebius himself (Tatian, 1. c. c. 36.) and is often quoted Chron. " 228." by Plin. N. H. "> Theopompus and Euphorion ap. p Ap. i. 13 sqq. 44 Present fulfilment of prophecy guarantee of the future. Apol. clear. We must travel into the histories and literature of }¦ 20-_ the world. And yet we have, as it were, already produced a part of our proof, in dropping these hints of the means by which the proof may be made. But it were better to defer this, lest through haste we pursue it not far enough, or, in pursuing it, stray too far from our course. XX. To make up for this postponement, we now proffer the more; the majesty of our Scriptures, instead of their antiquity. If it be doubted that they are ancient, we prove them divine. Nor is this to be learned by tedious method, or from foreign sources. The things which shall teach it you, are before your eyes, the world, and time, and its events. Whatsoever is doing was foretold ; whatsoever is seen was Matt, before heard of: that the earth swalloweth up cities, that 2 ' ' the sea stealeth away islands, that wars within and without tear asunder; that kingdoms dash against kingdoms, that famine, and pestilence, and all the special plagues of 1 fre- countries, and deaths for the most part ever haunting1, pUjmrn* ma^e havoc well nigh of every thing ; that the humble are que . exalted, and the lofty ones abased ; that righteousness Ezek. groweth scant2, iniquity increaseth ; that the zeal for all 21, 26. g0od ways waxeth cold : that the offices of the seasons, and omitted the proper changes of the elements are out of course ; that Mat.24,the order of natural things is disturbed by monsters and prodigies — all these thingshave been written of foreknowledge. While we suffer them, we read of them ; while we review them, they are proved to us. The truth of the divination is, methinks, sufficient proof that it is divine q. Hence therefore we have a sure confidence in the things to come also, as being in truth already proved, because they were foretold at the same time with those things which are proved every dayr: the same voices utter them, the same writings note them, the same spirit moveth within them. To prophecy, time is but one, the time of foretelling things to come : with men (if they deal with it) it is divided, while it is fulfilling, while from the future it cometh to be reckoned the present, and then from the present the past. What do we amiss, I pray 1 De Anima, c. 28. Orig. «. Cels. ' Justin M. Apol. i 30- 52. Dial. "• 10- c- T)7ph- o. 7. Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 9. Endof 'Jews proof 'they sinned,not Christians fell away fromthem. 45 you, in believing in the future also, who have already learned to believe the same things through two stages of time ? XXI. But since we have declared that this sect is sup ported by the most ancient records of the Jews, although almost all know, and we ourselves also profess, that it is somewhat new, as being of the age of Tiberius, perchance on this account a question may be mooted touching its state, as though it sheltered somewhat of its own presumption under the shadow of a most famous, at least a licensed, religion; or because, besides the point of age, we agree not with the Jews, neither touching the forbidding of meats, nor in the solemnities of days, nor even in their " sign" in the flesh, nor in community of name, which surely we ought to do, if we served the same God; but even the common people knoweth Christ as one among men, such as the Jews judged Him to be, whence one might the more easily suppose us worshippers of a man*. But neither are we ashamed of Christ, seeing that we rejoice to be ranked, and condemned, under His Name, nor do we judge otherwise than they, respecting God. We must needs therefore say a few words concerning Christ as God. The Jews alone had favour with God, because of the excellent righteousness and faith of their first fathers; whence the mightiness of their race and the majesty of their kingdom flourished, and so great was their blessedness, that they were forewarned by words of God, whereby they were taught l to ' quibus deserve the favour of God, and not to offend. But howDantUj greatly they sinned, puffed up, even to doting 2, with a vain stored confidence in their fathers, turning their course s from their randum Religion after the way of the profane, though they them- 3 deri- selves should not confess it, the end of them at this dayvantes would prove. Scattered abroad, wanderers, banished from their own climate and land, they roam about through the world, with neither man nor God for their king, to whom it is not permitted, even in the right of strangers, to greet their native land so much as with the sole of their foot'. s Trypho ap. Justin. Dial. c. 10. and 13. Justin M. Apol. i. 62. and ' Adrian's decree after the rebellion Hieron. Chron. Euseb. MMCXL. of Barchochebas, Euseb. iv. 6. from Hilary (in Ps. 58.) speaks of the Aristo PelltEus. see adv. Jud. c. 11, 12, prohibition as continuing, and S. Jerome 46 Immaculate conception.— The Word owned by Heathen. Apol. While holy voices threatened them aforetime with these I^h- things, all the same voices ever added this besides, that it should come to pass, in the ends of the world's course, that God would henceforward out of every nation, and people, and country, choose unto Himself worshippers much more faithful than they, to whom He should transfer His grace, and that, more abundantly according to the measure of His greatness, Who is the Author of. their religion. Of this grace therefore and religion the Son of God was proclaimed the Dispenser and the Master, the Enlightener and the Guide of the human race, not indeed so born as that He should be ashamed of the name of " Son," or of His descent from His Father; not from the incest of a sister", nor the defilement of a daughter ; nor had He for His father a god, the lover of another's wife, with scales, or horns, or feathers, or transformed into gold; for these are the godheads of your Jupiter*. But the Son of God hath no 1 de pu- mother, no not of pure wedlock ' : even she, whom He lclt,a seemeth to have, had not known her husband. But first I will declare His substance, and then the quality of His birth will be understood. We have already set forth, that God formed this universal world by His Word, and His Reason, and His Power. Among your own wise men also it is agreed, that Ao'yoj, that is, ' Word' and 'Reason,' should be accounted the Maker of all things. For Zeno determineth that this Maker, who hath formed all things and ordered them, should also be called Fate, and God, and the Mind of Jupitery, and the Necessity of all things. These titles doth Cleanthes confer upon the Spirit which, he affirmeth, pervadeth the universe. And we also ascribe, as its proper substance, to the Word, and the Reason, and the Power also, through Which we have said that God hath formed all things, a Spirit, in Which is the Word when It declareth1, in Soph. v. 2. except that on the day of Fate, and Jupiter, were one." Cie. de the destruction of Jerusalem, they paid Nat. Deor. i. 14. describes both as for the permission, Seal. Anim. ad Pantheists, as Tatian (of Zeno) c. 3. Eus. Chron. p. 216 Minut. F. p. 150. Yet, in as far as «,, *% ad„Gr£°:.C- 2- AIo1, '• they sPake of G°d> ^ a Spirit, they Ttotric^Gr^^Distlil- ptS " *" ^ ^ ** Zenon^^^ind^ "^i"^!^ Zenon. That God, and Mind, and was upon my tongue." God the Son, God of God, Light of Light. 47 and with Which is the Reason when It ordereth, and over Which is the Power when It executeth. This, we have learned, was forth-brought from God, and by this Forth- bringing, was Begotten, and therefore is called the Son of God, and God, from being " of one substance with" Him ; for that God also is a Spirit. Even ' when a ray is put forth ' Etiam from the sun, it is a part of a whole ; but the sun will be in the ray because it is a ray of the sun, and the substance is not divided, but extended. So cometh Spirit of Spirit and " God of God," as " light" is kindled " of light »," the parent matter" remaineth entire and without loss, although 2 materia mfttrtx" thou shouldest borrow from it many channels of its qualities b * Tertullian here uses the very words adopted in the Nicene Creed, " God of God, Light of Light, 'Oftoaima! ;" his object, in the further application of the metaphor, is, to shew the Heathen, that they could not consistently object a priori to theChristi an doctrine; these analogies, though, as physical, imperfect, at least silence objections. If in earthly things, the same substance might exist, distinct in some way but united, and procession implied no diminution of the substance whence it proceeded, how little were they entitled to argue against the truth, thus shadowed forth ! Tertullian else where distinctly asserts the Consub- stantiality of the Father and the Son, (" of one individual Substance," adv. Prax. c. 13. " Christ and the Spirit are both of the Substance of the Father, and they who acknowledge not the Father, neither can they acknowledge the Son, through the Oneness of Substance." c. Marc. iii. 6. " In the Spirit is The Trinity of One Divinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." de Pudic. c.2. "I every where hold One Substance in Three Conjoined." c. Prax. c. 12. add. c. 4, and8.ap. Bull. Def.Fid.Nic. ii. 7.1,2.) and His Coequality, (c. Marc. iv. 25. de Res. Cam. c. 6. adv. Prax. c. 7, and 22. ib. §. 4. and adv. Herm. c. 7. 18.) whence itis the more hard that Petavius should press these analogies, as though they implied that, as the whole sun does not exist in the ray, neither does the whole Divinity in the Son, (de Trin. i. 5. 3.) In Bp. Bull's words (1. c. |. 5.) " such comparisons are not to be pressed too close, but to be taken candidly, attending to the mind of the author, as explained elsewhere more clearly and unfiguratively. Tn some things the likeness holds ; in some, not. It agrees herein, 1. That as a ' portion' does not alone and by itself constitute the whole, so also the Son is not All which is God ; but beside the Son, other Hypostases, namely, the Father and the Holy Spirit subsist in the Divine Essence. 2. That as a portion is taken from the sum or whole, and the whole is by nature anterior to its portions or paTts, so also is the Son derived from the Substance of the Father, and the Father, as the Father, is, as it were, by Nature anterior to the Son. But the likeness fails in this ; 1. By ' portion' we understand what is divided and sepa rated from the whole ; but the Son is ^nd ever was undivided from the Father. This Tertullian every where and uni formly asserts, (adv. Prax. c. 8. 9. 19.) 2. A ' portion' is less than that whence it is taken, but the Son is in all things (save that He is the Son) like and equal to the Father, and hath and possesseth all the things of the Father. Which also Tertullian clearly teaches in the places just adduced. Add to this, that adv. Marc. iii. 6., after he had said that the Son was a portion out of the fulness of the Divine Substance, he presently subjoins expressly that that Portion was " a sharer in His fulness." t> Justin M. Dial. c. Tryph. §. 128. " I said this Power was begotten of the Father — butnotby severance, as though the Essence of the Father were divided off, as all things besides, when divided and cut, are not the same as before they were cut; and, as an example, I took, how from fire we see other fires kindled, that being nothing minished, whence 48 Relation of the Son to the Father.— He took our flesh of the Virgin. Apol. So likewise that which hath come forth from God is God, l. 21.' and the Son of God, and Both are One. And so this Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, hath become ' the secondc' in mode not in number'1, in order not in condition", and hath Mic.5.i.gone forth, not gone out, of the original Source'. Therefore this ray of God8, as was ever foretold before, entering into a certain virgin, and in her womb endued with the form of flesh, is born Man joined together with Godh. The flesh many may be kindled, but remaining the same." §. 61. " As in fire, we see other fire produced, that not being minished, whence the kindling was produced, but remaining the same ; and that which was kindled from it, itself also manifestly existeth, not mi- nishing thatfrom which it was kindled." The came likeness is used by Tatian, §. 5. (Bull, ii. 4. 4.) Athenag. Legat. §. 24. (of the Holy Ghost.) Bull, ii. 4. 9. Hippolytus in Noet. ap. Fabr. t. ii. p. 13. (Bull, ii. 8. 5.) Origen. e. g. de Princ. i. 4. (see Bull, ii. 9. 14.) Theognostus (ap. Athanas. Ep. 4, ad Serap. §. 25. Bull, ii. 10. 7.) Dionysius Alex. Apol. 1. 3. ap. Athanas. Ep. de Sent. Dionys. 118. (Grabe. ad Bull, ii. 11. fin.) Respons. ad qusestt. Paul. Sam. t. i. p. 240. (Bull, iii. 4. 3.) Lact. iv. 29. (Bull, ii. 14. 4.) Carm. adv. Marc. v. 9. ap. Tert. ' genitum de lumine lumen.' (Bull, iii. 10. 19.) Aug. de Trin. vi. init. E Hippol. M : Horn, de Deo trino et uno, " When I speak of ' another,' I speak not of two Gods, but as Light from Light, and water from the source, or a ray from the Sun." d i. e. in mode of existence, as The Son, not The Father, but not as to be numerically distinct. e i. e. in the " Order" of Persons, within the Divine Unity, not in any difference of Being. " Three, not in Condition, but in Order ; not in Sub stance, but in Form ; not in Power, but Property ; but of One Substance, and One Condition, and One Power ; because One God, from Whom both those Orders, and Forms, and Pro perties are reckoned in the Name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit." Adv. Prax. c. 2. f Adv. Prax. c. 8. " We say that the Son was forth-brought (prolatus) from the Father, not separated." S Heb. 1, 3. K.v»vyafffjt.tt cne "tiofyis Aimv. Theognostus 1. c. founds the language upon this passage, ix rm ™ Vlarfibs ot/ffias * ^e sun veiling his orb. They thought it forsooth an eclipse, who knew not that this also had been » Am. 8, foretold3 concerning Christ: when they discovered not its advT cause> they denied it ; and yet ye have this event, that befel Jud. I.e. -J" f?.el=" aP" 0r[g- %Cels- i- c 6. 28. nia et faceret et fecisset, with the 38 viii.9.; the then Jews, ap. Orig. c. Fulda MS. It has however a good £t\w Vo,00^1;,?- °- 56- Tdm- sense' tha* " He shewed Himself to be Schahb.fl04.paut. Wagenseil confa. the Word, in that He did, or He had Tol. Jesch. p. 16. 17. of the Heathen done, all things by a word." Comp. (apparently from the Jews) Arnob. i. Heb 13 ¦W ' M ^T^rf't Ep\, ad ,?M- ° " Multa mortis illius propria osten- Just M. Apol. i. 30 Au£ de Cons, dit insignia ; nam" restored^ Ev. i. 8. 9 10. 14. Eus. Dem. m. 6. P Dies media, orbem signante sole. The miracles were confessed. Others morli„m n 7BTT. in « Rig. omite Eundem qui verbo om- ^ C°mp- ^' Jud> °- * Miraculous darkness at the Crucifixion recorded by Heathens. 51 the world, related in your own records i. Him being taken down from the cross, and buried in a sepulchre, they caused moreover to be surrounded with great diligence by a guard of soldiers, lest, because He had foretold that He should rise on the third day from the dead, the disciples removing the body by stealth should deceive them, though suspecting it. But, lo ! on the third day, the earth being suddenly shaken, and the massive body being rolled away which had closed the sepulchre, and the watch being scattered through fear, and no disciples being to be seen, nothing was found in the sepulchre save the grave clothes only of the buried1. ' sepuiti Yet the chief men notwithstanding, whom it concerned to spread a wicked tale, and to draw back from the faith* the people, their tributaries and dependents, reported that He was stolen away by the disciples. For neither did He shew Acts 10, Himself to all the people, lest the wicked should be delivered from their error, and that the faith which was reserved unto no mean reward should cost some difficulty. But He continued forty days with certain disciples in Galilee, a region of Judaea, teaching them what things they should teach. After that, having ordained them to the office of preaching throughout the world, He was taken from them 1 " archivis" or" arcanis." Probably rities quoted by Eusebius, make it the aceount sent by Pilate, spoken of probable that they referred to the c. 5. : at all events, public documents, events at the Crucifixion. This pro- So Lucian Martyr (ap.Ruf. H. E. ix. 6. bability would be diminished, if it be p. 149.) refers to their own annals. This correct that there was a great eclipse of statement then is independent of the the Sun in the same Olympiad. (Kepler, question whether Phlegon (Orig. c. Cels. Eclogae Chroniese, p. 87. 126.) Origen's ii.33.59.Euseb.Chron.p.202.ed-Scal.) argument (in Matt. Tr. 35. p. 922, 3. in speaking of a very great eclipse ed. de la Rue) is, that no heathen about this time, or Thallus, as sup- author (and especially not Phlegon) had posed by Africanas. (Chron. ap. Routh explicitly related the darkness to have Reliq. S. t. ii. p.] 83.) alluded to that been produced by an eclipse, (as some event. Eusebius mentions also other Christians thought that it had, rniracu- Greek memoirs, which he clearly dis- lously,) he does not imply that Phlegon's •tinguishes from that of Phlegon, giving account might not refer to it, as him- also the words of each (mi h li\Xon self had supposed it might, (c. Cels. fi'iv cEAX;ivi«o7j v&ef&vtifiucriv tvtfoftiv Itrra- and, if it be his, Fragm. in Matt, in pavfttva xetra Xi%tv Tttvra — y»a.Q}n 5 i App. Biblioth. Gall, quoted Routh, 1. c. xtu\iym) which Lardner (Test. P.ii. p. 337.) Tillemont, Note 35. sur J. C. c. 13.) overlooked. With regard to these and Dr. Routh, 1. c. think, (it seems, latter statements, the Heathen, not rightly,) that the mention of Phlegon knowing the circumstances, might very in Afrieanus did not originally stand in naturally have concluded that the dark- the text. ness was produced by an eclipse, and ' A fide, others " ad fidem,'' " to the combined mention of the earthquake their allegiance to themselves." and the eclipse in the several autho- E 2 52 " Godto be worshipped inandthrough Christ '," substance of Faith. Apol. into Heaven in a cloud which covered Him ; an account far T-21- better than that which your Proculi s are wont to affirm of your Romuli. These things concerning Christ did Pilate, himself also already in his conscience a Christian ', report to Tiberius the Caesar of that day. But the Caesars also would have believed on Christ, if either Cassars had not been necessary for the age, or if Christians also could have been Caesars. Moreover the disciples, spread throughout the world, obeyed the commandment of their Divine Master; who, themselves also, having suffered many things from the persecuting Jews, with good will assuredly, in proportion to their confidence in the truth, did finally at Rome, through the cruelty of Nero, sow the seed of Christian blood u- But 1 mon- we will shew ' that the very beings whom ye worship, are mus " sufficient witnesses to you of Christ. It is a great thing if I can employ, in order that ye may believe the Christians, those very beings on whose account ye believe not the Christians. Meanwhile such is the system of our Religion ; such an account have we set forth both of our sect and name with its Founder. Let no man now charge us with infamy, let no one imagine aught besides this, since it is not lawful for any to speak falsely concerning his own Religion.' For in that he saith that aught else is worshipped by him than that which he doth worship, he denieth that which he worshippeth, and transferreth his worship to another, and, in transferring it, he already ceaseth to worship that, which he hath denied. We say, and we say openly, and while ye torture us, mangled and gory we cry out, ' We worship God through Christ:' believe Him a man: it is through Him and in Him that God willeth Himself to be known and worshipped. To answer the Jews, they themselves also learned to worship God through the man Moses: to meet the Greeks, Orpheus in Pieria, Musseus at Athens, Melam- pus at Argos, Trophonius in Boeotia, bound mankind by their rites : to look to you also, the masters of the world, Numa Pompilius was a man, who loaded the Romans with the most burthensome superstitions. Let Christ also be permitted to pretend to the divine nature, as a thing proper • Liv. i. 16. also above, c. 5. ' In that he held Him guiltless. See » See c. ult. Damons acknowledged by philosophers, poets, human nature. 53 to Himself, Who did not, as Numa, soften to a state of gentler culture rude and as yet barbarous men, by con founding them with so great a multitude of gods to be propitiated ; but Who opened lo a knowledge of the truth the eyes of men already polished, and blinded through their very refinement. See then whether this Divine Nature of Christ be real : if it be such that by the knowledge of it any one be changed unto that which is good, it followeth that any other, which is found to be contrary to it, must be pronounced false; specially that, by all means1, which, hiding1 omni itself under the names and images of the dead, doth by^^rf certain signs, and miracles, and oracles, work out the proof of a divine character. XXII. And therefore we say that there are certain spiritual substances : nor is the name new. The Philosophers acknow ledge daemons, and Socrates himself looked unto the will of a daemon. Why not ? since it is said that a daemon clave unto him from childhood, dissuading him*: doubtless — from good. The poets acknowledge daemons y; and now the untaught vulgar oft putteth them to the use of cursing. For even Satan the chief of this evil race, doth it, as though from a special consciousness of the soul, name in the same word of execration *. Moreover Plato * denied not that there x The Daemon of Socrates dissuaded not to act, the daemon fore-signify- him only. Plato puts this assertion re- ing," is obviously a less precise ac- peatedly in Socrates' own mouth, and count. Tertullian gives it an ironical that in words so similar, that there turn. seems no doubt that they are those of y " Of the Greeks, Homer appears Socrates. "With me this hath been, to use both names [gods and daemons] beginning from a child that a certain in common, sometimes calling the gods, voice hath come, which, when it daemons. But Hesiod clearly and defi- cometh, ever turneth me away from nitely first set forth four kinds of being, what I may be about to do, but im- having reason, gods, then daemons, then pelleth me never (is) kveergaeu fu a-jo- heroes, lastly men." ("Ejy. x. 'Hft. rji«i Tt „S crvrt)-" Apol. Socr. §. 19. ed. 107—199.) Plut. de Orac. Def. p. 431. Bekk. " There is wont to follow me, E. quoted by Euseb. Praep. Ev. v. 4. by the Divine appointment, a certain On Hesiod, see Plato Cratyl. (§. 32. daemon, beginning from a child. And ed. Bekk.) Rep. v. §. 15. Proclus. this is, a voice, which when it cometh Schol. ad Hesiod. 1. c. 1. 121. p. 119. ever signifieth to me to turn away ed. Gaisf. Lact. ii. 15. from what I may he about to do, but z See de Testim. Anim. c. 3. impelleth me n.rver." trnfutUucartr^- * Sympos. t. v. p. 72. §. 28. ed. Bekk. *h, TjoTjwi/ ti aviiriTi Theages, §. 10. " All Daemon-nature is between God add Pheedrus, §. 43. and in part Apol. and mortal. Endued with what power ? §.31. Xenophon's account (Mem. i. 1.) said I. Interpreting and transmitting that " whereas others were withheld to the gods the things from men, and to and impelled from action by omens, men those from the gods; of the one, the and Socrates was directed to act or prayers and sacrifices ; of the other, the added 54 Second, more corrupt, race of dasmons. Apol. be angels also. Even the Magi " are at hand to bear *• 22\ witness of both names. But how from certain angels cor rupted of their own will a more corrupt race of daemons proceeded, condemned by God together with the authors of their race, and with that prince of whom we have spoken, is made known in order in the Holy Scriptures'. It will suffice at this time to explain the nature of their work. Their work is the overthrow of man. Thus hath spiritual wickedness begun to act from the first for the destruction of man. Wherefore they inflict upon the body both sicknesses and many severe accidents, and on the soul, perforce, sudden s mira and strange extravagances. Their own wondrous * subtle, and slight nature furnisheth to them means of approaching either part of man. Much is permitted to the power of spirits, so that, being unseen and unperceived, they appear rather in their effects than in their acts : as when some lurking evil in the air blighteth the fruit or grain in the blossom, killeth it commands and requitals of the sacri- e. Cels. v. 55. mentions the spiritual fices. But being in the midst between interpretation which he adopts, as de- both, it fills up, so that the whole is vised by one before him, and so, con- mutually bound together." Theodoret, trary to the received opinion, (xai t»» Orat. 4. de Nat. et Mund. " Plato wgo nftm ns tkht* dmyaytv tls to", frig) calls them gods and daemons, whom we ^v^m Kiym.) It is not however a entitle angels, and said that they were Catnolie interpretation, (see on S. the ministersof the God ofthe universe." Cyprian, xi. 12. p. 261. n. a. ed. Oxf.) Minuc. F. p. 246. Cypr. de Idol. Van. S. August, also, who (Quaestt. ad Gen. c. 4. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei,ix. 9. quotes 1. 1. qu. 3.) speaks doubtingly as on a Labeo as affirming the same. point " difficult to be decided," main- b Cypr. 1. c. Arnob. 1. p. 35. Lact. tains what is now the ordinary view, ii. 15. Minuc. p. 245. de Civ. D. xv. 23. (rejecting however c Gen. 6, 2. It is so interpreted also in both places abstract arguments :) and by Justin M. Apol. i. 21. ii. 6. S. S. Ambrose seems so to take it in Ps. Irenaeus, adv. Haer. iv. 36. 4. v. 29. 2. 118, 25. Serm. 4. y. 8. S. Cyril Alex. Athenag. c. 24. (followed by Methodius c. Julian, 1. ix. init. and adv. Anthrop. de Resurr. p. 307. ed. Paris from c. 17. Theodoret (Qu. 47. in Gen.) S. Photius.) Clem. Al. Peed. iii. 2. fin. Chrysostome (Horn. 22. in Gen.) and Strom, iii. 7. p. 193. v. 1. p. 235. S. Ephraem (Serm. 19. adv. Haer. Opp. S. Cyprian, de Hab. Virg. e. 9. de Syr. t. 2.p. 478. add. ad loc.t. 1. where Patientia, v. 11. Lact. ii. 15. Euseb. he gives that now received,) speak Serm. 8. y. 58. Naz. Carm. 3. p. 64. sive Angelos." " Et angelis— et sanc- hy Tert. again, de Idol. c. 9. de Cult, torum liberis eonvenit Somen caden- Fem. „. 10. de Hab. Mul. e. 2. de Vei. tium." The context would lead the i 'rg- U'I' eA1Marc; v- 18- lt °c™™ one way, that those who called on God also in the Clement. Horn. 8. c. 13- were called « the sons of God :" on thd 15. and in Philo de Gigant. 1. 1. p. 262. „«,„.. v, „j ,— ,.„t,.. .._ . .... ed. Mang. Joseph. Antiq. i. 43. in the T^T f d *= '"^ '« » a title giTO» book of Inoch, Grab.Spk i.34™and ^re fnTe 6 T \> 6" 2' ^ 38''' "" the Test, xii Patr. ib. 150. 213. Origen Ul T' to man- Power, swiftness, sensuality, of daemons — they ape God. 55 in the blade, woundeth it in its full growth, and when the atmosphere tainted in some secret way poureth over the earth its pestilential vapours". By the same unseen course of contagion therefore doth the blast of daemons and of angels hurry onward the corruptions of the mind, through foul madness and foolishness, or1 fierce lusts, with manifold ! aut delusions, of which that is the chief, by which it commendeth those gods to the captive and narrowed understandings of men, that they may procure for themselves as their own, the food of sweet savour and of blood offered to statues and images'1; and what food is more cared for by them, than to turn aside man from the thoughts of the true Divinity by the delusions of a false divination f ? touching which very delusions I will shew how they work. Every spirit is winged : in this both angels and daemons agree : therefore in a moment they are every where : the whole world is one spot to them : whatever is done any where they know as easily as they report it. Their swiftness is believed to be divinity, because their substance is unknown s. So also they would sometimes be thought the authors of those things which they report ; and manifestly of evil things they sometimes are so, but of good never. The counsels also of God they both snatched, at the times when the Prophets were proclaiming them ", and now also they cull in the readings which echo them. And so taking from hence also certain of the allotted courses of the future, they ape the power, while they steal the oracles, of God. But in the oracles, with what d Orig. u. Cels. viii. 31. c. 6. Lact. ii. 15. 16. Minuc. F. p. 248. e See Cypr. de Id, Van. c. 4. The Chrys. in Ps. 113. §. 4. 134. §. 7. lurking of daemons in images and their ' Plato, Sympos. 1. c. " Through sensual delighting in the idol-sacri- this (the Daemon-agency) doth the fices are mentioned by Athenag. Leg. whole of divining art hold its course ; c. 27. That they fed on the sacrifices and the skill of the priests, and of those is the opinion of Justin M. Apol. ii. engaged about the sacrifices and initia- §. 5. Tatian. c. 12. Tert. again, u. 23. de tions and incantations, and the whole Idol. c. 7. ad Scap. c. 2. Orig. c. Cels. of divination, and sorcery. But God iii. 28. 37. iv. 32. vii. 5. 6. 35. 56. 64. doth not mingle with man, but through viii. 18. Minut. F. p. 250. Chrys. de this is all intercourse of the gods with S. Babyla, u. 14. Aug. de Civ. D. ii. 4. men, whether waking or sleeping." Greg. Naz. Orat. 5. in Jul. 24. de ? Athanas. vit. Ant. §. 31. 32. S. Cypr. §. 10. The same was held by h Justin, Apol. i. 54. 64. 66. Dial. Celsus, ap. Orig. c. C. viii. 60 — 62. §. 70. 78. S. Cyril. Jer. xv. 11. speaks Proph. de Abstin. 1. 2. (de Orac. ap. of Satan's spreading abroad semblances Theod. c. Grsec. Disp. 3.) On their of the truth, to prevent the truth itself presence in statues, Bel and the Drag, from being received. ,%• Chicanery of ' damons. Apol. cunning they shape their double meanings to events, witness L23- the Croesi ', witness the Pyrrhi k. But it was in the manner in which I have before spoken of, that the Pythian god sent back the message that a tortoise was being stewed with the i fuerant flesh of a sheep '. They1 had been in a moment in Lydia. By dwelling in the air, and by being near the stars, and by dealing with the clouds, they are able to know the threaten- ings of the skies, so that they promise also the rains, which ' venefici they already feel. They are sorcerers 2 also about the cures of sicknesses; for they first inflict the disease, and then prescribe remedies wonderfully new or of a contrary nature, after which they cease to afflict, and so are believed to have cured'". Why then should I speak at large touching the other subtleties or even the powers of spiritual delusion? the apparitions of Castor and Pollux ", and the water carried in a sieve", and the ship drawn forward by a girdle p, and the beard turned red by a touch q, that both stones might be believed to be gods, and the true God not be sought after. XXIII. Moreover if magicians also produce apparitions and disgrace the souls of the departed; if they entrance children to make them utter oracles' ; if, by means of juggling tricks, they play off a multitude of miracles; if they even send dreams to men, having, to assist them, the power of angels and daemons, when once invoked, (through whom both goats8 and tables' have been accustomed to 1 Herod, i. 53. 55. 91. children," (fiptpoftttm'ut,) in which the k Ennius, ap. Cic. de Div. 1. ii. 56. children were slain and their entrails 1 Herod, i. 46 — 48. inspected ; and this, which is more m Justin M. Apol. ii. 6. Dial. §. 30. frequently mentioned, (Eus. H. E. vii. and 76. Iren. ii. 32. Orig. c. Cels. vii. 10. viii. 14.Socr. H. E. iii. 13.Recogn. 4. p. 325. Tatian. c. 18. Cypr. 1. c. ii. 13.) suits better with the more e. 4. Minuc. F. p. 251. Lact. ii. 16. obvious meaning of " elidunt," "slay ;" Jerome in TMah. c. 7. Aug. de Div. but the context is here of chicanery, Daem. c. 5. de Trin. iii. 9. not of cruelty. For this inspection of » Announcing victories, Plin. ii. 37. them, inspection by them in mirrors Floras, n. 12. m. 3. &c. was afterwards substituted. Peucer de ° By a Vestal Virgin, Val. Max. Mag. p. 155. The reading " eliciunt" viii. 1 Plin. xxviii. 3. Lact. ii. 17. is, probably, a comment o£ " elidunt," P Claudia Quinta Liv. xxix. 14. and as such, favours the sense given i Domitius /Enoharhus, Suet. Ner. 1. in the text 'Apuleius describes this Apol. t ii. ¦ See Bulenger, 1. 3. de Divin. c. 22. p. 497, 8 ed Elmenhorst. The first p. 215. Euseb? Praep. Ev. 1. ii. Clem. words of the returning soul (as it were) Protrept. p. 9. quoted by Fabr. Bibl. were regarded as oracular. See further Antiq. p. 416 Amrn Marc 1 2<) Peucer de Div. p. 166. and Elmenh. ad Sozom. vi 35 atT„I.H W loc. Justin M. Apol. i. c. 18 (whom 1. ii. ™ 30. P" g- Tert. apparently had here in view.) t TheoramlnrT.; j tt c .peaks of the " inspection of immaculate Lex. v TripDS V°A*> S> repraesen'taneae potestatis. Casaabon Lacerda lays down that mgratis is = ad Suet. v. p. 179. explains this in an gratuito, but without authority. active sense, " exacting at once," so. gods dependent on Casars, not Casars on gods. 69 in this also ye are found to be irreligious towards your gods, seeing that ye shew more of awe towards a human power. Finally, among you, men more readily swear falsely by all the gods than against the single Genius of Caesar c- XXIX. Let it then first appear whether those, to whom sacrifice is offered are able to impart health to the Emperor ',' impe- or to any human being, and so adjudge us guilty of high rat0" treason2. If angels or daemons, in substance the worst of2 majc-s- spirits, work any good deed, if the lost save, if the con-'*j)^. d demned deliver, if finally, as is within your own knowledge, the dead defend the living, then assuredly would each first defend his own statues, and images, and temples, which, as I think, the soldiers of the Caesars keep in safety through their watches'1- But methinks these very materials too33et come from the mines of the Caesars, and the entire temples" stand according to the nod of Caesar6. Finally many gods have had Caesar in wrath with them ; it maketh for my argument if some too have found him propitious, when he conferreth any bounty or privilege upon them. How then shall they, who are in Caesar's power', whose also they wholly are, have the health of Caesar within their power, so that they may be thought to bestow that which they more readily themselves obtain from Caesar? For4 therefore do4enim we sin against the majesty of the Emperors, because we subject them not to their own creatures ! because we make not a mockery of our services for their health's sake, not thinking it to be in hands soldered with lead ! But ye are religious8, who seek it where it is not, ask it of those by wdiom it cannot be given, passing Him by, in Whose power it is! moreover ye put down by force those who know how to ask it, and, in that they know how to ask it, are able also to obtain it. XXX. For we pray for the health of the Emperors to the punishment; as in Val. Max. viii. 5. tit. 1. ap. Elmenh. ad Minuc. p. 284. pcenam repra?sentare maluit; and Sue- Ulpian, de Jurejur. 1. 13. tonius 1. c. poenasque parrieidarum re- ° Ep. ad Diogn. u. 2. Cypr. ad De- praesentabat. So also Hav. ad loc. ; and metrian. c. 8. Ambros. de Virg. 1. 2. (ap. words in aneus aremostly neuters, only Lac.) Lact. ii. 4. Jul. Firm. p. 31. (of because derived from neuters. Here, the Palladium) ap. Hav. - punishment not being expressed, a e As in the impieties of Caligula, middle term has been adopted. Suet. Cal. u. 22. c The one were left unpunished, the f Ad Scap. c. 2. other beaten with staves. Dig. 13. §. 5. J Above, c. 6. de Jurej. Harmenop. Prompt. J. C. 1. 7. 70 Emperors above man, therefore feel themselves under God. Apol. eternal God, the true God, the living God, Whom even the I-30-_ Emperors themselves would rather have propitious to them than all the rest. They know Who hath given them their kingdom': they know, as human beings, Who hath given them also their life. They feel that this is the only God, in Whose power alone they are, to Whom they are the second in power, after Whom they are the first, before all, and above all gods. And why not ? since they are above all men, who, as living, surely stand before the dead. They reflect how far the powers of their empire avail, and thus they understand God1. They acknowledge that they prevail through Him, against Whom they cannot prevail. In a word let the Emperor con quer Heaven, carry Heaven captive in his triumph, send his guards to Heaven, lay on Heaven his taxes. He cannot. Therefore is he great because he. is less than Heaven; for he himself is of Him, of Whom is both Heaven and every creature. Thence is he an Emperor, whence he was also a man, before he was an Emperor; thence cometh his power, whence also came his breath. Thither we Christians, looking up with hands spread openj, because without guilt, with head uncovered", because we are not ashamed, finally cantes witnout a prompter1, because we pray from the heart; sumus are ever praying ' for all kings, that they may have a long semper restored h Plin. Paneg. Traj. i. init. Iii. init. to recall the names of those whom they ' i. e. how He can rule afar off, were to salute, Nomenclator,) and to re- whole lands, and unseen : in part also, hearse the words which they were to from his own power being limited repeat, (de scripto praeire,) lest any though so great, he feels that there is word should be missed, or their order one unlimited. transposed, (Plin. xxxviii. 2.) which j Expansis, (not merely, as the had been ill-omened. Tertullian is oh- Heathen, tendons ad sidera palmas) the viously contrasting the free glowing attitude betokening openness; also as devotion of the Christians with this the figure of the Cross, de Orat. mechanical service ; it " comes from c. 11. Minuc. F. p. 288. Aster ap. the heart," as exh. ad cast. c. 10. " it i'hot. cod. 2/1. Paulm. Vit. Ambros. comes forth from the conscience." It p. 12. Prudent. Perist. Hymn 6 in was plainly a mistake of Tertullian's iructuos. 1. 106 Chrys. quod Christus style, that the words were ever pressed n- i"^ o' 8< , ™ '• Po 569, aP" as an argument that prayer was ex- B.ngh. 13. 8 10. (as Moses, S. Barnab. tempore only ; and the more, since T. Ep. c. 12. Maximus Hom 2. de Pass, recognizes forms of prayer, besides ST" /T? in ral- V 90' - H1 • other contemporary evidence. See Bing- Chrv's % n Vq -T- \eSt-J,i- 21- ham 1S" 6- 6" I* 4 like the preceding, n 320 ) % P P m t- **' a° ir0nioal "gumentum ad hominem ; k »'.«,.i™*i, j- j j .., . tne heathen claimed, alone to pray for t t-Su ' ^V™ m^ the emPerors> while'their very attitude l As the heathen had to remind and garb were emblems of their guilt, them of the names of their gods, (alius their rites of their indifference. The ™pae£n lesfthev sCld ?iAUg' ^T11® WOTds °f TertuE hL very p. R9. as their great men had a prompter Christians' prayers for Emperors. 71 life, a secure dominion, a safe home, valiant armies, a faithful senate, a righteous people, a world at peace, and whatever be the desire both of the man and of the king. These things I cannot ask of any other than Him, from Whom I know that I shall obtain them ; since it is He Who alone giveth them, and it is I to whom the obtaining of them is due, I His servant who alone give Him reverence, who for His Religion am put to death, who offer to Him a sacrifice rich and of the highest rank ", which He Himself hath com manded, the prayer that proceedeth from a chaste body, from a soul that sinneth not, from the Holy Spirit; not a single penny's worth" of grains of frankincense, ltheIn?" droppings of an Arabian tree, nor two drops of wine, nor the blood of a discarded beast that longeth to die, and after all these foul things a filthy conscience also, so that I marvel, when the victims are being tried before you by the most wicked priests, why the heart of the beasts rather than of the sacrificers themselves are examined. Whilst then we are thus spread forth before God, let your claws of iron pierce us, your crosses hang us up, your fires play about us, your swords cut off our necks, your beasts trample on us ; the very posture of the praying Christian is prepared for every punishment0. This dop, ye worthy rulers, tear from us that breath which is praying to God for your Emperor. Here will be the crime, where is truth and devotion to God '. XXXI. Now (ye will say) we have been flattering the Emperor, and have feigned these prayers, of which we have spoken, that we may escape forsooth your violence. Much profit clearly doth the deceit bring us ! for ye allow us to prove whatsoever we maintain. Thou therefore, that thinkest that we care nothing for the health of Caesar, look into the oracles of God, our writings, which we do not ourselves suppress, and which very many accidents transfer to the hands of strangers. Learn from them, that it is commanded us, in the overflowing of kindness, to entreat God even for our m De idol. c. 6. his Lord. » Lact. i. 20. v. 19. Jerome, Ep. 28. ad P A proclamation appointed by N u- Heliod.§. 5. Lucian.in Jov.Trag. c. 15. ma at religious rites. v.2.p. 659.Asin.c. 12. p. 580.Hemsterh. 1 Hie erit crimen, ubi Veritas et Dei 0 In that it represented the Cross of devotio est, omitted by Rig. 72 Christians interested in Rome, as state, and letter of Anti-Christ ; apol. enemies', and to pray for blessings on our persecutors. And J-32- who more the enemies and persecutors of us Christians, than 44JC&. those, concerning whose majesty we are charged with guilt? 4,i2.i3.But even by name, and in plain words: Pray, saith the 3,^!'' Scripture, for kings, and for princes, and for powers, that l Tim. ye may have all things in quietness '- For when the kingdom is shaken, all its other members being shaken with it, surely we also, although we stand aloof from tumults, are found to have some place in the misfortune. XXXII. We have also another and a greater need to pray for the Emperors, and moreover for the whole estate of the Empire, and the fortunes of Home, knowing, as we do, that the mighty shock which hangeth over the whole world, and the end of time itself, threatening terrible and grievous things, is delayed because of the time allowed to the Roman Empire". We would not therefore experience these things, and while we pray that they may be put off, we favour the long con tinuance of Rome. But moreover as we swear not by the Genii of the Caesars1, so we do swear by their health', ¦ Just. Apol. i. 14. Dial. c. 133. Athenag. Leg. c. 11. * See Arnob. iv. fin. Cypr. ad Demetr. §. 11. p. 211. ed. Oxf. Orig. c. Cels. viii. Dionysius ap. Eus. H. E. vii. 11. Maximin's edict, viii. 17. App. ad viii. 8. de vit. Const, i. 15, 17. Prudent, in Roman, xiv. 426. ap. Kortholt, Comm. in Plin. etTraj. Epp. p. 149. Athenag. Leg. fin. ad Scap. 2. Chrys. Hom. 6. in 1 Tim. Constt. Ap. viii. 12, 13. u The belief that the Roman Empire was " that which letteth," 2 Thess. ii. 6, 7. that which delayed the coming qf Anti-Christ, occurs in S. Cyrill. (Cat. xv. 11, 12.) Jerome (Ep. 121. ad Algas. qu. 11.) Chrysostome and Ambrosiaster ad loc. Lactantius vii. 25. Damasc. iv. 28. Theodoret ad loc. says, " some say the Roman Empire, some the grace of the Spirit," " but this last," he argues, " will not cease." S. Augustine speaks doubtfully, Ep. 199. §. 11. " We who know not what they [the Thess.] knew, desire to attain laboriously to the Apostle's meaning, and are unable ;" somewhat more confidently in the de Civ. D. xx. 19. " it is not without reason [non absurde] believed to be spoken of the Roman Empire itself." Tertullian repeats this statement, below c. 39. and ad Scap. c. 2. he views the subject on the opposite side, De Orat. c. 5. de Res. Carn. c. 24. that the end of the world should be longed for; both are consistent, though belonging to dif ferent frames of mind ; the Christian should long for the coming of his Lord, and the consummation of all things, and yet may shrink from the terrible period which is to precede it. So Lac tantius, 1. c. " She, she is the city, which yet upholds all things, and the God of Heaven is to be prayed by us, (if so be that His purposes and decrees may be delayed,) that that hateful tyrant should not come sooner than we think, who shall essay so great an offence, and extinguish that light, through whose destruction the world itself shall fall to pieces." K See c. 28. fin. It was refused as idolatry, Eus. H. E. iv. 15. (martyrdom of Polyearp.) See ad Nat. i. 17. ad Scap. 2. Orig. c. Cels. viii. 65. Act. Mart. Scillit. ap. Baron A. 202. n. 2. y Perhaps in conformity with Gen. 42, 15. See Basil in Ps. 14. and Rescr. Arcad. et Honor. Impp. 1. 41. in fin. cod. in transact, ap. Westhen. ad Orig. Exh. Mart. 7. Athanas. Ep. ad Monach. t. i. p. 866. Veget. de re Milit. i. 5. ap. Bingham, 16. 7. 4. honour Emperor most, and most safely, by honouring him truly. 73 which is of greater dignity than all Genii. Ye know not that Genii are called " Daemones," and hence by a diminutive title, " dsemonia." We in the Emperors reverence the judgment of God, Who hath set them over the nations. We know that in them is that which God hath willed, and therefore we would have that safe which God hath willed, and this we hold to be a great oath ; but as to the daemons, that is, the genii, we are wont to adjure them that we may cast them out of men, not to swear by them, so as to confer on them the honour pertaining to God. XXXIII. But why should I say more of the Religion and the reverential affection of the Christians towards the Emperor, whom we needs must look up to as the man whom our Lord hath chosen ? I might even say with good cause, Caesar is rather ours, being appointed by our God. Where fore in this also I do him more service towards his welfare, not only because I ask it from Him, Who is able to grant it, nor because I that ask it am such an one as to deserve to obtain itz, but also because, by keeping down the majesty of Caesar beneath God, I commend him the more unto God to Whom alone I subject him. But I subject him to one to whom I make him not equal. For I will not call the Emperor a god, both because I cannot speak falsely, and because I dare not mock him, and because he himself will not desire to be called a god. If he be a man, it concerneth a man to yield to a god. He hath enough in being called an Emperor: this also is a great name which is given him of God. He who calleth him a god, denieth that he is an Emperor. Unless he be a man, he is not an Emperor. Even when triumphing in that most lofty chariot, he/ is warned that he is a man, for he is prompted from behind, " Look behind thee — remember that thou art a man "." And, in truth, his joy is on this very account the greater, for that he glittereth with so much glory, as to need reminding of his proper nature. He were not so great, if he were then called a god, because he would not be truly called so; he is greater, in that he is reminded not to think himself a god. XXXIV. Augustus, the founder of the Empire, would not * in that, as a Christian, I worship a Juv. ». 42. Plin. 33. 1. Jerome Him, see above, c. 29, 30. Ep. ad Paulam de ob. Blesillse. 74 Christians use titles of affection and respect to Emperors; Apoi.. even have himself called Lord b ; for this also is a name of 1 ,f>' God c. I will by all means call the Emperor lord, but only when I am not compelled to call him lord in the stead of God. Nevertheless to him I am a freeman, for there is One that is my Lord, the Almighty and eternal God, the Same who is his Lord also. He that is the father of his country, how is he its lord ? But a title of natural affection is more pleasing also than one of power. Even of a family men are rather called the fathers than the lords d. So far is it from being due to the Emperor to be called a god, (which cannot be i quod believed ',) with a flattery not only most disgraceful, but potest dangerous also, as though when thou hast one Emperor, credi thou wert to call another so. Wilt thou not incur the highest and most implacable displeasure of him whom thou hadst for thine Emperor, a displeasure to be feared even by him to whom thou gavest the title? Be religious towards God, thou that wouldest have Him propitious to the Emperor. Cease to believe any other to be God, and so likewise to call him god who hath need of God. If flattery of such sort blusheth not for its falsehood in calling a man a god, let it at least fear for its evil omen : it is ill-augured to call Caesar a god before he be deified e. XXXV. It is on this acconnt then that the Christians are public enemies, because they offer to the Emperors neither vain, nor lying, nor unconsidered honours ; because, being men of true religion, they celebrate even their solemn days with honest hearts rather than wanton acts. A mighty service truly ! to drag out into public view fireplaces and couches f, to feast from street to street, to bury the whole city under the disguise of a tavern8, to make mud with wine, to b Suet. Aug. c. 53. Tertullian gives