CHAPTER XLVI

Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. laws?

Which an offender has oftentimes a chance to escape either by lying hid in his wickedness, or else by pleading inadvertency or - -compulsion.

Reflect likewise upon the shortness of human punishment, which always ends with life; for this reason you see how little Epicurus valued any kind of torment, by laying down this for his maxim of comfort, that a little pain is 'contemptible, and a — great one is not lasting.

But we who know we must account to a God who sees the secrets of all hearts; we who have a prospect of that eternal punishment He has in store for the transgressors of His laws; we, I say, may well, be looked upon under so much revelation, tobe the only men who always take innocence in their way; « — and considering the omniscience of our Law-giver, and that darkness and light to Him are both alike, and withal weighing the heaviness of future torment, torment not lasting only, but everlast-_ ing, we proportion our fear and obedience accordingly, fearing Him whom those judges ought to be afraid of, who condemn Christians for standing more in awe of God than the proconsul.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THAT CHRISTIANS HAVE A BETTER RIGHT TO A TOLERATION

THAN PHILOSOPHERS.

I HAVE now, as I think, stood the whole charge, and replied to every atticle, for which men have been so deadly clamorous for the blood of Christians.

I have likewise laid before you our whole state, and the ground of our faith, namely, the antiquity of the divine Scriptures most credibly attested, together with the testimony "a and confession of the very devils themselves ; he therefore that will

— take upon him to refute me ought to disprove these facts in the same method and simplicity as I have proposed them, and not to fold himself in quirks of logic or the disguise of eloquence.

In the meantime, I cannot but take notice of the strange incredulity of some men, who notwithstanding they are convinced of the excellency of our sect, which they are notoriously sensible of by their conversation and dealings with us, yet they will not be convinced that Christianity is of diviner original than, mere human.

. philosophy.

For, say they, philosophers prescribe and profess the |

be j .* 4 j /

Tertullian' s Apology Jor the Christians,

same doctrine as Christians, namely, innocence, justice, patience, temperance, and chastity., But now if this comparison be just, and Christianity and philosophy be the same things, pray, what is the reason that we have not the same philosophic treatment?

Why _are we not equalled to those in points of privilege and impunity, to . whom we are compared in points of discipline?

Why are not they who are of the like profession with us put upon the same offices with us, and which we for refusing run the risk of our lives?

But what philosopher is compelled to sacrifice or swear by your gods, or to hang out a parcel of insignificant lights at noonday upon your festivals?

And yet these philosophers destroy your gods openly,!

_ and write against your superstitions, and with your approbation into the bargain.

Nay, many of them not only snarl, but bark aloud against the emperors, and you bear it very contentedly ; and not only so, but give them statues and pensions instead of throwing them to the beasts for so doing; and all this, no doubt, with great reason, because they go by the name of philosophers, and not Christians,—a name? which gives no disturbance to the demons, and how should it? since the philosophers do these demons the honour as to place them next the gods.

For it was a constant form in the mouth of Socrates, By my demon's leave I will do so orso, Yet even this same philosopher after he had given such an instance of his true wisdom in denying the divinity of your gods, yet notwithstanding this (such was the inconstancy of the man) he

1 Quin imo et Deos vestros palam destruunt,—laudantibus vobis, These and the following words are plainly an imitation, or rather a translation of those in Justin Martyr, Afol/. i. sec. 4—xuxzivay rd Wddymara of wereprducvar ode elpyovrcs apes tuar, abrAa d: xa) ripes cois eudwyes vBpsCover rovros HOEAE.

* Nomen hoc Philosophorum Demonia non fugat.

When the more sober and inquisitive heathens took a stricter view of the lives of the preachers of the gospel, and of the genuine followers, instead of the common and rude name of impostors, they gave them the more civil title of philosophers, as we find from the beginning of this chapter: Sed dum unicudg. ; manifestatur veritas nostra, guod usu jam et de commercio innotuit, non utig. ; Divinum negoctum existimant,

_ sed magis Philosophie genus.

They could not but own Christianity to be a more _ exalted kind of philosophy, when they saw the Christians live above the very

_ notions of the philosophers.

But the difference between the life of a Christian _ and a philosopher was not the only characteristic; for, says our Tertullian, _ Nomen hoc Philosophorum Demonia non fugat.

Philosopher is a name the devils value not ; they stand in no awe of a philosopher's beard, nor will the hem of his pallium cure any diseases.

But Christians did not only outlive them in _ virtue, but outdid them in power.

For Christ was a name that made the very ' deyils tremble ; a thing which the philosophers with all their mighty wisdom

_ were so far from pretending to, that they worshipped those very demons next to _ their gods.

So that Christianity and philosophy differ just as much as heaven and earth, as a name that can do everything, and a mere empty title.

Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. ordered a cock to be sacrificed to ZAEsculapius 1 just upon the point of expiring, in gratitude, I suppose, to his father Apollo, who had given him out for the wisest of mortals.

But forasmuch as men of corrupted minds have always a burning hatred to truth, so her strictest followers must expect to meet with the severest usage; but he who adulterates truth will be sure to have the thanks of her enemies for his service.

Accordingly, philo_ sophers affect truth only in appearance, and this affectation puts them upon corrupting her, for the glorious vanity of a name; but Christians are heartily and violently set upon pure truth, and perform her commands sincerely, as men who have nothing to care for here, but in order to their salvation hereafter ; and therefore

Christians, both in respect of conscience and discipline, notwithstanding your comparison, are very different persons.

And for a further proof of this difference, consider what was the answer that Thales the prince of naturalists made Croesus, when he was pressed by him plainly to declare his positive notions of the divine nature.

Did not the philosopher put off the prince from time to time with his "I will consider on it"?

But the meanest mechanic among Christians apprehends God, and can answer the question, and can assign substantial reasons, and very sensibly explain himself upon all these disquisitions about the divine nature; though Plato affirms it to be so difficult to find out the Creator of the universe, and when found, to express himself intelligibly upon that subject.

But if you make a challenge between Christians and heathens, in © point of morals, let us enter the lists, and begin with chastity ; and in thettrial of Socrates I read one article of the Athenians against him for sodomy; but a Christian keeps inviolably to one sex and one woman. I find also that Diogenes could not lie contentedly in his'tub without his mistress Phryne ; and I hear of one

~ | Speusippus of Plato's school, slain in the very act of adultery ; but a Christian is a man only to his own wife.

Democritus by putting out his eyes, because he could not look upon a woman with innocence, and was not easy within the bounds of chastity, sufficiently published his incontinence by his cure; but a Christian can

1 A sculapio tamen gallinaceum prosecari in fine judebat.

The last dying words of Socrates we have in the conclusion of Plato's Phedo, and they are

; ; a0 these—2 xpirwr, on, ra "Acxrnwig BPsirousy wArErrpuova, AAU arodor: xal bn \ausrnoare, 'a

Lertultian''s Apology for the Christians.

1» 7 look upon a woman securely, because his mind is blind to all impressions of that nature.

If the question is about probity or Sweetness of temper, behold Diogenes with his dirty feet treading upon Plato's stately carpets, and crying he trampled upon Plato's pride, though the sloven did it with a greater pride of his own; but the Christian expresses not the least air of haughtiness to the 'poorest man on earth.

If we contend about moderation with Tespect to worldly greatness, behold Pythagoras affecting tyranny at Thurium, and Zeno at Priene!

But a Christian has not the ambition to aspire even to the office of an zdile.

If we compare equanimity, remember Lycurgus made away with himself because he was unable to bear the thought of the Lacedeemonians correcting the severity of his laws ; but a Christian after condemnation is able to return thanks to those who have condemned him.

If you vie with us in fidelity, there is your Anaxagoras who had not fidelity enough to restore the strangers the goods they had deposited in his trust ; but a Christian has the name of faithful, even among the enemies of his faith.

If we dispute humility, I must tell you that Aristotle could not sit easy until he proudly made his friend

Hermias sit below him ; but a Christian never bears hard, so much -as'upon his enemy.

The same Aristotle was as gross a dauber of _ Alexander, to keep that huge pupil under his management, as Plato was of Dionysius for the benefit of his belly.

Aristippus in his purple, and under the greatest show of gravity, was an arrant debauchee; and Hippias! was killed while he was actually in ambush against the city, a thing which no Christian ever attempted for the deliverance of his brethren, though under the most barbarous usage.

But perhaps it may be replied that some Christians are far from living up to their profession, to which I reply again, that then they are as far from having the reputation of Christians among 'those who truly are so; but yet philosophers shall enjoy the name and honour of philosophy among you in spite of the wickedness of 1 Hippias dum Civitati insidias disponit, occrditur ; hoc pro suis omni atrocitate dissipatis nemo unguam Christianus tentavet.

Concerning the several crimes _ charged upon the philosophers in this catalogue, the reader may find them sufficiently dilated on by the commentators ; but that which I think mostly remarkable in this comparison between a philosopher and a Christian is, that he concludes the whole with the instance of rebellion in Hippias, ''a thing," says he, '' which no Christian was 'ever heard to have attempted for the rescue of his brethren, though under the most provoking and barbarous usage."

This upon all occasions he shows to be the distinguishing character of Christians, this he triumphs upon, and therefore concludes the period with non-resistance like an orator who gradually rises higher and higher, and clinches all with that he thinks most likely to leave the deepest impression.

Tertullian''s Apology for the Christians. their lives.

And where is now the similitude between a philosopher and a Christian? between a disciple of Greece and of heaven? a trader! in fame and a saver of souls? between a man of words and a man of deeds? between a builder up of virtue and a destroyer of it? between a dresser up of lies and a restorer of truth? between a thief and a guardian of this sacred depositum ?

1 Fame Negotiator, et Vite.

'A trader in fame, and asaver of souls."

Philosophus Glorie Animal, et popularis aure vile mancipium, says Jerome ad Julianum.

'¢ A philosopher is an animal of fame, one who basely drudges for the breath of the people."

Lactantius is not a little severe with Cicero upon this very score, for thus he delivers himself in his second book de Origzne Lrrorts, sec. 3, p67, Cantab. Edit., intelligebat Cicero Jalsa esse, etc.

"¢ Cicero," says he, «© was very sensible of the vanities in worship, and when he had said enough in all reason utterly to overthrow the established religions, yet he concludes that these were the truths not to be told the people for fear of unhinging the religions of the State.

Now what is to be done with a man who knows himself in an error, and yet knowingly dashes upon a rock, that the people may do so too? who pulls out his own eyes to secure others in darkness; who neither deserves well of those he permits to wander, nor of himself, whom he associates with practices he condemns ; who makes no use of his wisdom for the regulation of his life, but wilfully entangles himself to ensnare others, whom as the wiser person he was obliged to rescue from error.

But, O Cicero! if you have any regard for virtue, attempt rather-to deliver the people out of ignorance ; it is a noble enterprise, and worthy all your powers of eloquence; never fear — but your oratory will hold out in so good a cause, which never failed you in the defence of so many:bad ones.

But Socrates' prison is the thing you dread, and therefore truth must want a patron.

But certainly, as a wise man, you ought todespise death in competition with truth; and you had fallen more honourably by much for speaking well of truth, than for speaking ill of Antony.

Nor will you ever rise to that height of glory by your Philippics, as you would have done by labouring to undeceive the world, and dispute the people into their senses."

This I take to be a just character, Socrates excepted, of all the heathen philosophers ; they were traders for fame, and enriched their heads only to fill their pockets ; they never loved truth well enough to suffer for her, nor would plead her cause before the Areopagus or Senate, at the hazard of their lives ; their notions were inactive, and lay floating only on their fancies, nor were the people nor themselves the better men for their philosophy $ Socrates' prison spoiled all.

~ Elow unlike to this was the carriage of the apostles and their genuine followers !

How did they engage in the defence of truth! -With what zeal did they preach their crucified Master before Sanhedrim and Senate, in the face of all the discouraging tortures witty malice could invent!

They accounted no hazards ~ comparable to the advantage the world would enjoy by the propagation of Christian philosophy ; they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

This showed a truly noble and generous spirit, that would not be discouraged from doing the world good, though the benefactors met with such hard usage for their pains.

This likewise showed the divine power of the Christian religion, that it was able to raise its professors above all

considerations present, for the joy that was set before them.

Such was the difference between a philosopher and a Christian, between a disciple of Greece and _ a disciple of heaven,

Lertullian's Apology for the Christians.

oO their hypothesis, they took it and turned it and bent it to a compliance with their own curiosity; not considering these writings to be sacred and unalterable, nor understanding their sense, which was then under a cloud to those carnal minds, as it is at this day to the very Jews, to whom they were appropriated.

For if in any place truth appeared in its native simplicity without the disguise of _ type or metaphor, worldly wisdom, instead of submitting her faith, blended the certainties of revelation with her own philosophic uncertainties ; for having dipped in the Holy Scripture, and found there is no other God but one, they presently divided into various speculations about the divine nature, some asserting it to be incorporeal, others corporeal, as the Platonics and Stoics; some composing him of atoms, and others of numbers, as Epicurus and him, and by this cunning conceived by him.

In this fable of Plato, Origen observes the resemblance between Jupiter's garden and Paradise, and between Penia and the serpent, etc.

And he is the rather confirmed in his conjecture, because he knew it to be Plato's custom to wrap up his sublimest notions in fable, for fear of disobliging the fabulous Greeks, who hated the Jews, and who would have themselves pass for the wisest, if not the most ancient people ; and I may add, too, that nobody else might know from whence Plato had his notions.

Vid.

Orig. cont. lib. iv. And as Plato purloined his divinest discoveries from the. prophets, and perplexed them on purpose to hide the theft, so is it very remarkable that the latter Platonists, such as Jamblichus, Hierocles, Simplicius, etc., talk in a kind of evangelical strain, and as much above Plato as the apostles do above the prophets ; and at the same time vilify the Christians for a blind to make believe that there was nothing in the Christian doctrine worth borrowing, just as their master Plato had done before them.' For it is to be remembered that Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, and Hierocles were brought up under the great Ammonius of Alexandria, as well as Herennius and Origen.

This Ammo- ~ nius both lived and died a Christian, as Eusebius and Jerome testify, Hzst. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. 19, Hieron. de Script. Eccl., and so instructed his scholars in the Christian mysteries, as well as the pagan philosophy at the same time.

The not observing therefore that the admirable discourses of these latter Platonists had their rise from a Christian master, has been the ground of two scurvy mistakes amongst some learned critics, namely, of overvaluing the Platonic philosophy, as if in their notions of the origin of evil, and the degeneracy of our souls from their primitive purity, etc., they outdid revelation, though it is evident that their noblest flights took wing from the gospel.

Secondly, of charging the primitive Fathers with Platonizing, a charge (as I have proved) they utterly deny, and on the contrary tax the philosophers with Christianizing, or stealing from the doctrine of Christ ; which they wrested only to serve their hypothesis, and without telling a word whence they had the notion ; and not only the philosophers, but the heretics (says Tertullian) had got a trade of blending philosophy and Christianity together.

And our author complains not only here of this tampering with Scripture among Christians, but cries out in his

Prescription against Heretics, cap. 7—Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum et Dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt.

And it is notorious of late years what attempts have been made to reform religion by philosophy, instead of making philosophy bend to revelation.

Tertullian's A ology for the Christians, Pythagoras, and some of fire, as was the opinion of Heraclitus.

The Platonists likewise maintain his care and providence over his creation; on the contrary, the Epicureans make him a careless, inactive God, and, as I may say, nobody in the world.

Again, the Stoics place him without the world, and turning the globe about, like a porter sitting without his wheel.

The Platonists place him within the world like a pilot of a ship steering the universal vessel that contains him.

In like manner we find these sages at variance about the world itself, whether it was made or unmade, and whether it would dissolve or last for ever.

The same disputes we find about the state of the soul, some contending for it to be of a divine immortal nature, and others of a nature corruptible; every one inferring and reforming as the maggot bit.

Nor do I wonder to find the philosophic wits play such foul pranks with the Old Testament, when I find some of the same generation among ourselves who have made as bold with the New, and composed a deadly mixture of gospel and opinion, as the same philosophizing vanity led them; and out of one plain road have cut a world of labyrinths and inextricable mazes to confound men in the way of salvation ; which therefore I thought proper to advertise you of, that this noted diversity of opinions among Christians should not justify a parallel between us and philosophers, and make men condemn truth itself from the contentions about it.

But this in short is my prescription } against these adulterers of the faith, to try all their doctrines by the gospel, that rule of truth which came from. Christ, and was transmitted by His apostles, that, I say, is the 1 Expedite enim prescribimus Adulteris nostris, illam esse Regulam veritatis gue veniat 2 Christo transmissa per comites ipsius.

I shall not here enter into the necessary qualifications of a perfect rule of faith, and prove such qualifications to be in Holy Scripture, but observe only, that supposing philosophers to be in the right, yet all their reasonings were but the reasonings of mere men, and therefore fallible.

No one system of philosophy then could be collected from their writings (granting all necessary truths to lie scattered amongst them) for a standing authoritative rule in matters of controversy, for such a collection can be of no more authority than the collector, and must want a sanction more than human; for all men have a natural right to reason for themselves, till God determines it by a rule divine: the want of such rule therefore was a great. desideratum in the Gentile world ; and this was one of the great wants provided for by Christ's coming into the world, who is emphatically said to have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

The heathens then of old, and the deists at present, vainly object against Christianity the many differences about it; for, says Tertullian, there is an infallible-rule transmitted by Christ through His apostles, which we apply to upon all occasions to measure doctrines by, and which is wanting to the philosophers ; and therefore all the fundamental differences which arise among Christians do not rise for any fault in the rule but in themselves, ;

Tertullian's A [Pology for the Christians, 1 33 touchstone by which' all the different opinions of succeeding teachers is to be proved.

¢ All the arrows! that are shot at truth are taken from her own quiver, for the heresies are to look with a gospel face in emulation of divine truth, and the spirits of error have a great stroke in the picture.

These are they which suborn men to discolour the doctrines of salvation, and stain them with their own: inventions.

By the same spiritual wickednesses are fables foisted in, to invalidate the credibility of our religion, or rather to procure this credibility for themselves, that the doctrines of devils being dressed up like truth might have the same veneration with the word of God ; so that either a man might disbelieve a Christian, because he disbelieves a poet or a philosopher, or rather conclude he has the greater reason to give credit to a philosopher or a poet, because he cannot find in his heart to believe a Christian.

From this sacrilegious mixture it is that we are so ridiculed when we preach about 'the day of judgment, for in imitation of this the poets and philosophers have their tribunal in the infernal region; and if we

_ threaten them with hell, which is a subterranean treasure of secret fire reserved for the punishment of the wicked, we are hooted at ; for thus they ape us too with their Puriphlegeton 2 or burning river among the shades below; and if we mention Paradise,? a place of 1 Omnia adversus verttatem de isd veritate constructa sunt, operantibus emnulationem tstam spiritibus Erroris.

The Holy Scriptures being confessedly of divine 'authority, the most effectual way of doing mischief is not to descry them, but to put a crown on their head and a reed in their hands, and to bow before them, and cry, "' Hail King of the Jews!" to pretend a mighty deal of reverence to the Scriptures, and then crucify them to their own sense.

This was -always the way of heretics and designing men, set on foot, says our author, and carried on by the agency of the spirits of darkness.

And it is observable that the old serpent took the same course in tempting the second Adam with a text from Scripture ; and I know not any author ihat ever copied closer after the devil in this very thing than the author of the Lights of the Christian Church, who, with all the strength of delusion, has done his best to set up the kingdom of darkness, and to unchurch Christendom from Scripture.

2 Sic enim Pyriphlegeton apud mortuos amnis est. sak rom the 7th of Daniel and the 1oth verse, where it is said that ''a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him, and the judgment was set, and the books were opened ;" from this passage, I say, Eusebius shows the affinity between Plato and the prophet as to the future judgment, and particularly that the Puriphlegeton or burning river in Plato, rep) Wuxiis, is plainly the fiery stream in Daniel,

Vid. Euseb. Prep. Evan. lib. xi. cap. 58. iy Fe ee $ Et st Paradisum nominemus, Locum Divine amenitatis reciprendis Sanctorum spiritibus distinatum, macerié quddam ignea illins Zone seoregatune,

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Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. divine pleasure, destined for the reception of the spirits of holy men, and guarded from the notice of the common world by the torrid zone or wall of fire, immediately they trump upon us with their Elysium.

From whence now, I pray, had your poets and philosophers these resemblances?

Whence, if not from the books of our sacred mysteries?

And if they copied from them, then they have the prerogative of antiquity, and consequently are the more credible ; since you look upon an original of more authority than the copy.

But now, if they were the founders of these inventions, then we must take our religion from them, which is as impossible in ~

Paradise, says Philo, de Plaut, Nog, p. 171, is cupBoro Wuxis bad ranbovs xal esyiobous ups avacxiproons, "The representation of a soul exulting for fulness and excess of joy."

By Paradise or Abraham's bosom, or Abraham's port, as the Greek word xaos truly signifies, the primitive Christians: understood a place of ease and divine happiness, next to heaven, but not heaven itself, or the perfect fruition of the beatific vision; they were of opinion that the departed souls of just men in general ascended not into heaven till after the resurrection ; which Irenzeus and Tertullian prove from the example of Christ, to which we must be conformed ; for Christ Hithself did not ascend into heaven till after His resurrection, but as His body rested in the grave, so His soul went into the place ~ of departed souls, and when He rose again, then He ascended into heaven; and ~~ thus, say they, we must do also.

Not that they affirmed no souls immediately entered into heaven, for they believed_the souls of martyrs did, and this belief o> seems to have increased the passion so much for martyrdom in that age.

Here.' then the reader is desired to observe, that Tertullian asserts a middle state ~ without a Purgatory, for he asserts Paradise to be a garden of divine pleasure prepared for the refreshment of holy souls till the resurrection; and therefore our author could not possibly imagine it to be a place of torment, to expiate the temporal punishment due to sin, when the eternal punishment is remitted, which is the popish Purgatory; an invention not only against the current doctrine of the Fathers, but highly derogatory to the all-sufficient merits of-our crucified Master, — a most discouraging and barbarous representation of the Christian religion, and such a one as had never been framed, had it not been a convenient engine to make a way into the pockets of the people.

This Paradise (says our author) is guarded about with a wall of fire, like what the torrid zone is commonly

— supposed to be, plainly alluding to the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life; hereby intimating, as. I conceive, that.as Paradise was the blissful seat of man in innocence, so Abraham's bosom or port was such an Eden of happiness for righteous spirits; and as that was guarded from the re-entrance of sinful Adam and his posterity by those ministering spirits, which the psalmist, and after him the author to the Hebrews. calls a flame of fire, so was this blessed mansion of pure souls, this port after the storms of life, secured by the same ministers from the incursion of evil spirits : the devil they knew to be prince of the air, and this lower region to be filled with his legions, who in the opinion of the Fathers stood always ready to seize on a departed soul; and therefore as the soul of Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, so they concluded that every righteous soul in the like manner was conducted in triumph through the dominions of the devil, and lodged in the same port of happiness till the day of judgment.

4 a i a at e

Tertullian's A pology for the Christians.

1 35 hature as for a shadow to be before the substance,! or the image before the reality,

CHAPTER:

XLVIIT.

CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF THE Bopy,

Ler us now consider a little the different treatment of a philosopher and a Christian.

If a philosopher affirms, as Laberius from Pythagoras has done, that after death the soul of a man departs into a mule, and that of a woman into a serpent, and turns all the sails of eloquence to carry this absurd point, shall not he find credit, and harangue some of you into abstinence even from the flesh of -animals?

And will not many scruple to eat_a piece of beef, for fear of eating a piece of their ancestors?

But now if a Christian » shall affirm that man shall be made man again after death, and Caius rise the very same Caius again, he is in danger of being mobbed, and having all the sticks and stones in the street presently about his ears.

But if you can find it reasonable to believe the transmigration of human souls from body to body, why should you think it incredible for the soul to return to the substance it first inhabited?

For this is our notion of a resurrection, to be that again after death, which we were before ; for, according to the - Pythagorean doctrine, these souls now are not the same they were, because they cannot be what they were not without ceasing to be what they were.

A man might be very merry upon this subject, had he leisure and inclination to give himself a loose, and hunt

1 Nunguam enim corpus Umbra, aut veritatem _Imago Precedit.

It was a mighty objection with the heathens, that Christianity was a novel upstart religion, formed out of the corruption of the heathen mythology; but this Tertullian argues to be as impossible as for the shadow to _be before the substance, or an imitation before the reality.

This very objection we find almost continually in the mouth of Celsus the Epicurean ; for, says he, "the building of _ the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues were patched up out of the + fable of the Aloidze in Homer's Odyssey ; the story of the flood, from Deucalion ;

Paradise, from Alcinous's gardens ; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, from the story of Phaeton; the folly of which objection Origen answerably demonstrates by showing the far greater antiquity of those relations among the Jews, than of these or any other fables among the Greeks ; and therefore the corruption

of the tradition must be in them, and not in the Jews."

V7, Orig. cont, Cels, lib. iv. pp. 174, 179.

Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. after all the animals in which all the departed souls from the beginning have taken up their lodgings.

But instead of digressing, I think it of more consequence to establish this doctrine of the resurrection; and we propose it as more agreeable to reason and the dignity of human nature>to believe that man will be remade man, and every person after death himself again; so that the soul shall be habited with the same qualities it was invested with in its former union, though the man may receive some alteration in his figure.

For certainly the reason of a-resurrection is only in order to judgment; and therefore it is necessary that the bodies which have been instrumental to the actions should be the same bodies which are summoned from the grave to judgment, "that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or

whether it be evil."

; The graves then shall repay the bodies at the day of judgment, because it is not conceivable perhaps how a mere soul should be passible without a union with matter, I mean the flesh; but especially because the divine justice will have souls suffer in the body they have sinned.

- But perhaps you will ask how the particles of a body dissolved to dust can be made to rally and reunite after such a dissolution?

Reflect upon yourself, O man! and in yourself you will find an answer.

Consider what you were before you had existence—you were nothing at all; for if you had been a man, you might have remembered something of it.

As therefore you may be said to be nothing before you were in being, to just such a nothing will you return again when you cease to be.

Why then cannot you be recalled from this second nothing, as you think it, by the same Almighty word which called you from your first?

Where now is the wonderful difference in these two cases?

You who were not are made to be, and when you shall not be again, God shall make you what you were.

Be pleased now, if you can, to solve me the mode of your creation, and then demand the _manner of your resurrection.

And yet methinks you may easily conceive the possibility of restoring you to a former being, since you were with the same ease made something out of nothing.

Is the power of that God to be disputed who raised this universe from nothing, from nothing as it were but the death of privation or pure void, and animated it with that spirit which is the universal life? And He has impressed upon this world for your conviction many testimonials of the human resurrection.

For the light which

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S f « Tertullian's A Dology for the Christians.

daily departs rises again with its primitive splendour; and darkness succeeds by equal turns; the stars which leave the world revive ; the seasons, when they have finished their course, renew it again ; the fruits are consumed and bloom afresh; and that which we sow

As not quickened except it die, and by that dissolution rises more fruitful.

Thus you see how all things are-renewed by corruption, and reformed by dying.

And you, O man! did you but under_ stand the nobility of that title, and which you might have understood even from Apollo's oracle, how could you imagine that man, the lord of all these dying and reviving things, should himself die forever?

In what place soever therefore the cord of life is broken, whatsoever element has your body in destroying, in abolishing, in annihilating, it shall deliver up the pledge, and return you whole; for pure nothing is as much at the divine word as His whole creation.

But then, say you, here will be nothing but dying and rising in endless succession.

If the Sovereign of the world has ordered it thus, you must have taken your destined turns whether you would or no; but now He has established a resurrection once for all, as He has taught by His Word ; that Word or Reason which composed the universe of various elements, and made it a consistent harmonious system by a due temperament of opposite principles, of vacuum and matter, animate and inanimate, comprehensible and incomprehensible, light and darkness, life and death.

The same Word who thus made and preserved the world has likewise so pointed and distinguished time, that the first period from the creation shall run out the determined stage of years, but the succeeding space on which all our thoughts are fixed is endless duration.

But between these two there is an isthmus or middle term of time,! and when this period is over, and the beauty of this

1 Cum ergo finis, et limes medius gut interhiat adfuerit, etc.

'' Between the conclusion of this world and the commencement of the world eternal there is an isthmus or middle term of time."

By which he undoubtedly means the Chiliasm, or thousand years' reign upon earth ; for this he maintains in his books avaznst

Marcion, lib. iii. cap._23, p. 411.

Now this is an error (if it be one) wherein Tertullian stands not alone, but in the good company of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis, Iraeneus Bishop of Lyons, Justin Martyr, Nepos, Apollinaris, Victorinus, Lactantius, and Severus Gallus, with many others,

But then it is to be remembered that this was an opinion they laid no stress-upon, for Justin

Martyr confesses, and without any censure, that there were many sincere and _ devout Christians who did not hold it, and many others also of the same mind with himself, and so leaves it as a matter indifferent.

Vid. Dial. cum Tryphones, pp306, 307, 369.

This notion seems to be first set on foot by the forementioned -Papias, a very good man but of no great reach, as Eusebius remarks, Zec/, Hist,

Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. new world likewise had its season, which is but a goodly curtain between us and eternity, then all human kind shall be restored to life, to answer for their several works, whether they be good or evil ; and then consigned over to a state of immense perpetuity ; and then death and resurrection shall be no more, but we shall be the same we now are, and the same for ever. The worshippers of God shall be clothed upon with a substance proper for everlasting duration, and fixed in a perpetual union with God; but the profane and the hypocrite shall be doomed to a lake of everflowing fire, and fueled with incorruptibility from the divine indefectible nature of that flame which torments them.

Philosophers are not unacquainted with the difference of secret and common fire ; the fire which serves for the use of man is quite of another nature from that which ministers to the justice of God; whether it be that which shoots the thunderbolts from heaven, or that which belches from the bowels of mountains, for it burns without consuming, and repairs what it preys upon; the mountains therefore burn, and maintain themselves by burning, and the man who is blasted from heaven is insured from being burnt to ashes ; and this may be a testimony of . the eternal fire, an emblem of those flames which are decreed to nourish the damned in torment.

The mountains burn with perpetual fire, and are mountains still ; why, therefore, may not the wicked and the enemies of God burn like these? lib. iii, cap. 39, p. 112, who by not seeing into the mystical meaning of the apostle's discourses, ran presently away with it as an apostolical tradition ; just perhaps as we find from the misunderstanding of our Saviour's words to St.

Peter: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple (namely John) should not die."

Now from a doctrine so harmless in itself and consequences, according to the sense of the orthodox (though abused indeed by Corinthus and his followers), recommended by the venerable antiquity of an apostolical person, as Papias was, an opinion that has so much to be said for it from Scripture, from the Revelation especially, as appears by the learned Mr,

Mede and others, and which we are freely lelt to believe or disbelieve at our discretion ; is it not, I say, very disingenuous as well as very trifling in Mr.

Daillé to argue from hence against the authority of the Fathers?

As if their authority was the less valuable in matters of faith wherein they are all unanimous and pressing, and in matters of fact wherein they cannot be mistaken, because, forsooth, in some cases of tradition or reasoning it is possible they may be mistaken, and wherein they expressly, declare that it is no matter of consequence if they are, '

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Tertullian's Apology for the Christians.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THAT THE CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINE

OUGHT NOT -TO BE PERSECUTED,

BECAUSE THE WORLD CANNOT BE WELL WITHOUT

IT.

'THESE things then are decried as groundless whimsy and capricious in us alone ; but in the philosophers and poets who stole them from us are deemed prodigious attainments, the brightest discoveries and noblest flights of human wit; for the same things, they are the sages and we the simpletons ; they are laden with respect, and we with derision, and what is worse, with punishment.

But allowing our tenets to be as false and groundless presumptions as you would have them, yet I must tell you that they are presumptions the world cannot be well without ; if they are follies, they are follies of great use, because the believers of them, who under the dread of eternal pain, and the hope of everlasting pleasure, are under the strongest

- obligations possible to become the best of men.

It can never therefore be a politic expedient to cry down doctrines for false and foolish, which it is every man's interest to presume true; it is upon no account advisable to condemn opinions so serviceable to the public.

You, then, are the presumptuous.and impertinent, and not we ; you who rashly adventure to pass sentence against principles so palpably conducing to general good ; however, if you will upbraid our religion with folly and impertinence, yet certainly you can never charge it with mischief to any pérson breathing; you can at most but look upon it like abundance of other romances, which by the laws are not penal, and which, though vain and fabulous, are not criminal, but as harmless stories, without accusation or punishment, pass freely among you.

For errors of such inoffensive nature at worst should only be condemned to ridicule, and not to fire and sword, gibbets and beasts ; at which savage executions, not only the mob are transported with insolence and cruel satisfaction, but even some of you magistrates pride yourselves in the same barbarities, the better to recommend yourselves to the populace; as if the whole of your power against us was not dependent upon our own will, and defeatable at pleasure.

For instance, I am certainly a Christian because it is my will and pleasure so to be, then you shall condemn me, if I please to be condemned; and if you could

not condemn me if I would not persist in my religion, it is plain "your power depends upon my will.

In like manner, the people show as much folly as brutishness in rejoicing at the sufferings of Christians ; for these sufferings which give them only a malicious

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