we whom you see so ready to meet death in all its formsof cruelty, was it not agreeable to our religion to be killed ratherthan to kill. THAT THE GENTILES ARE SET AGAINST CHRISTIANS BY THE INSTIGATION OF EVIL SPIRITS. BUT perhaps our vows and intercessions with heaven for the life ofthe emperor are to be looked upon merely as the spices of flattery,and a trick only to elude the severity of the laws; but if you willhave it a trick, it has had this advantage, to procure us the liberty. Ibidem etiam exhortationes, castigationes, et censura Divina,—Summumquefuturi Judicii Prejudicium est, si quis ita deliquerit ut a CommunicationeOrationis et conventus et omnis Sancti commercii relegetur. ——Putasne  This wasalways the way of heretics and designing men, set on foot, says our author, andcarried on by the agency of the spirits of darkness. Thus then how is it likely that they who are at Caesar'snod, as they all entirely are, should be the guardians of Caesar'slife ? THAT THE ROMANS ARE MIGHTY PRAISERS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THEIR RELIGION, AND YET ADMIT OF NOVELTIES INTO IT EVERY Sac.lib. cap. Max. It is enough to. We reverence the providence of God in thepersons of the emperors, who has made choice of them for thegovernment of the world. ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Aesculapius1 just upon the pointof expiring, in gratitude, I suppose, to his father Apollo, who hadgiven him out for the wisest of mortals. to pretend a mighty deal ofreverence to the Scriptures, and then crucify them to their own sense. But now if this comparison be just, andChristianity and philosophy be the same things, pray, what is thereason that we have not the same philosophic treatment? the notion into practice? 1 and the earth quakes ; if famine or pestilence take their marches Tully in his Offices, lib. x. ep. Dokei~ ga_r h!dh belti/on e0nai lousa&menon piei~n fa&rmakon, Can you say,then, that we must pay the same honours to his procurators andprefects and presidents, as to the emperor himself? Bishop Bilson, in his Christian Subject, with greatmodesty says, "This seems to be meant of the miraculous gift of prayer, whichdured in the Church unto his time." The mountains burn with per- petual fire, and are mountains still; why, therefore, may not thewicked and the enemies of God bum like these ? 1O4          cap. iii. with the history of the following calamities will meet with references in abun- dance in Pamelius, and therefore I shall say nothing to them. Plato tells of a tract of land bigger than Asia and Africatogether, devoured by the Atlantic Ocean. THAT HUMAN LAWS MAY ERR, AND THEREFORE MAY BE MENDED. Therefore when by their instinct you treat us like rebels,and condemn us to workhouses, or prisons, or the mines, and suchlike servile punishment; when thus, I say, by you their instrumentsthey break out against us, in whose power they are (for they knowtheir imparity full well, and their malice is but the more enraged attheir impotency), then we take another course, and engage theseodious spirits, as it were, upon equal terms, and resist with patienceimpregnable; that being the quarter they attack us upon with alltheir fury, and we never come off so triumphantly as when wesuffer victoriously, and resist unto death. p. 411. But do your worst, and rack yourinventions for tortures for Christians—it is all to no purpose; youdo but attract the world, and make it fall the more in love withour religion; the more you mow us down, the thicker we rise; theChristian blood you spill is like the seed you sow, it springs fromthe earth again, and fructifies the more. Such sports and plays which were exhibited by private men attheir own charges in order to ingratiate with the people, were called Ludihonorarii; and those of this nature were for the most part either fencing orstage-plays. BUT what need I say more to show the sacred tie which binds onthe duty of allegiance upon Christian subjects? Or rather will they not own Him to be inheaven, and that He will come down from thence, and put thewhole universe in a tremor at His coming, and all mankind, butChristians, into horror and lamentation? But we who know we must account to aGod who sees the secrets of all hearts; we who have a prospect ofthat eternal punishment He has in store for the transgressors of Hislaws; we, I say, may well, be looked upon under so much revela- tion, to be the only men who always take innocence in their way;and considering the omniscience of our Law-giver, and that dark- ness and light to Him are both alike, and withal weighing theheaviness of future torment, torment not lasting only, but everlast- ing, we proportion our fear and obedience accordingly, fearing Himwhom those judges ought to be afraid of, who condemn Christiansfor standing more in awe of God than the proconsul. Eccl., and so instructed his scholars in theChristian mysteries, as well as the pagan philosophy at the same time. souls of just men in general ascended not into heaven till after the resurrection ; cap. 81, man worships the true supreme God, another Jove; one prays withsuppliant hands lifted up to heaven, another lays them upon thealtar of Fides,1 another (if you will think them deities) prays lookingupon the clouds,2 others upon the stately roofs of the temple; onedevotes his own life to his god, another the life of a goat. This among the Romans was the triumphal robe,all over embroidered with palm branches in token of victory. to just such a nothing will you return again when you cease to be. [The remaining pages, 145-270, containing Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, have been But now in all this conspiracy of evils againstus, in the midst of these mortal provocations, what one evil haveyou observed to have been returned by Christians ? Tertullian's Apology for the Christians. Evang. Nor does singing de proprio Ingenio psalms oftheir own composing, imply that they were extempore psalms, for psalms deproprio Ingenio are in this place opposed to psalms de Scripturis Sanctis, takenout of Scripture, and not to precomposed ones. And where is now the similitude between a philosopherand a Christian ? WeChristians think we can never be too expensive, because we thinkall is gain that is laid out in doing good; when therefore we are atthe charge of an entertainment, it is to refresh the bowels of theneedy, but not as you gorge those parasites among you who gloryin selling their liberty for stuffing their guts, and can find in theirhearts to cram their bellies in spite of all the affronts you can layupon them; but we feed the hungry, because we know God takesa peculiar delight in seeing us do it. Or ifangels and demons act the same with your gods, pray where is thedifference between them and Him you look upon as the Sovereignand supremest of powers ? But the Christians would not express their joy by lights and laurels; and forcandles, we find an express prohibition against them in the Apostolical Canons,can. Terceros autorizados también utilizan estas herramientas en relación con los anuncios que mostramos. Empedocles offered his wholeself to the flames of Aetna near Catana; O vigour of soul! It is plain, in fact, from the sad state of darkness whichoverspread the world at the coining of our Saviour, that human reason unassistedwas not sufficient for the establishment of true moral righteousness, or to makeone entire and perfect system of the law of nature. Assemb. The Romans therefore may compute their sacrilegesby their trophies, and tell how many gods they have triumphedover, by the nations they have conquered; and withal rememberthat all the statues of the captive deities now in the temple are butso many spoils of war. No wonder then such passive heroesplease not those they vanquish with such conquering sufferings;and therefore we pass for men of despair, and violently bent uponour own destruction. Not in truth to celebrate thepublic joy, but to take omens from hence of their own future empire,and to inaugurate this image of their hopes, even upon Caesar'sfestival, by calling themselves in their hearts by the name of Caesar.They likewise pay the same observances who are so officious inconsulting astrologers, 2 And you, O man! Nomen hoc Philosophorum Daemonia non fugat. And page 280 he goes on—"Butif separation be a sin, it must have a guilt of a high nature, and such as all whowould be thought zealous watchmen ought to warn their people of. in. DAY. ; Daeorum. filo&sofon. Myst. 77. spirit which possesses him be commanded by any Christian todeclare what he is, he shall confess himself as truly to be a devilas he did falsely before profess himself a god. Quippe tenet sudans hanc Publicus, et sibi Consul.Ne placeat, curru Servus portatur eodem. Thus then he expresses his zealwith a justifiable primitive warmth, p. 17—"Whatever other cases allow of,certainly the defence of religion by arms is never to be admitted ; for the nature ofthe Christian religion is such that it excludes all carnal weapons from its defence.And when I consider how expressly Christ forbids His disciples to resist evil,Matt. Reflect likewise upon the shortness of human punish- ment, which always ends with life; for this reason you see howlittle Epicurus valued any kind of torment, by laying down this forhis maxim of comfort, that a little pain is contemptible, and agreat one is not lasting. p. 275—"If therefore the worship of God among us continue undefiled, evenin the confession of all; if the sacraments be administered as before; if thepersons who officiate be ministers of the gospel, then certainly such as separatefrom our public meetings do forsake the assemblies of the saints, and so breakthe unity of the spirit and the bond of peace." Majores nostri esse voluerunt. Juvenal, speaking in theperson of the people applauding the emperor's happiness upon the overthrow ofhis enemy, says, Pone domi Lauros. Can we not beRomans without being rebels, because so many Romans have beenfound guilty of rebellion? I find also that Diogenes could not lie con- tentedly in his tub without his mistress Phryne ; and I hear of oneSpeusippus of Plato's school, slain in the very act of adultery : buta Christian is a man only to his own wife. This is just such anotherobscure passage as the 23, p. 411. is much safer, says Minutius, to swear falsely by the genius of Jove thanCaesar. But maybe we cannot pass for right brotherswith you, because you want a tragedy about the bloody feuds of theChristian fraternity; or because our brotherly love continues evento the division of our estates, which is a test few brotherhoods willbear, and which commonly divides the dearest unions among you. 89. Eus. between a builder up of virtue and a destroyer ofit? This charge of sequesteringthemselves from the public sports and pleasures is urged against the Christiansby the heathen in Minutius ; and it is certain they thought themselves obliged soto do by their baptismal vow, vhich was an engagement upon their admission torenounce the devil and all his works, pomps, and pleasures, that is, saith St.Cyril, Cat. Tarquinii Corpus bona foemina lavit et unxit. THAT THE ROMANS ARE THE CRIMINALS IN POINT OF                               Shorten my thread of life, good Jove ! Tertullien, Apologétique: L'apologétique de Tertullien Apologie du christianisme écrite en l'an 197 ap.J.C. Wild uncultivated Rome; in which state Virgil thusdescribes it, Aen. But these are blessings I cannot persuade myself to ask of any,but Him who I know can give them, and that is my God, and myGod only, who has them in His disposal; and I am one to whomHe has obliged Himself by promise to grant what I ask, if 7 ask asI should do; for I am His servant, and serve Him only, and for. 3 van. ii.—"And now ye know whatwithholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time," etc. what, so many people to one lion ! The Salii cannotsup without the advance of a loan, and upon the feast of tithes toHercules the entertainment is so very costly that you are forced tohave a bookkeeper on purpose for expenses. However, if we enter into a comparison of past and presentcalamities, we shall find the account much abated since the comingof Christianity ; for since that time the innocence of Christians hastempered the iniquities of the age, and there have been a set ofmen who knew the right way of deprecating the vengeance of God.Lastly, when we are in great want of rain, and the year in anxietyabout the succeeding fruits, then you are at your baths anddebauches, and offering your water sacrifices to Jupiter,1 andordering processions on barefoot for the people. : with notes [&c.] by W. Reeves.London 1709. Apologie du Manteau 50 et martyr (l'an 252) 122 Avis à Scapula 30 CHAP. ———Huc undique Troia Gaza, Spectaculis vestris in tantum renunciamus, etc. Utilizamos cookies y herramientas similares para mejorar tu experiencia de compra, prestar nuestros servicios, entender cómo los utilizas para poder mejorarlos, y para mostrarte anuncios. Was there any worshipper of the true God atRome when Hannibal made such havoc of the Romans at Cannae, andcomputed the numbers of the slaughtered gentry by bushels of ringspicked up after the battle ? A CONTINUATION OF THE UNLIMITED LOVE OF CHRISTIANS.