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both to sproad abroad a lie, and heep bach a peopte tributa and submissive to them irom tho salth, gave it out that thobody of Christ had been stolen by His followers. For the Lord, yοu see, did not go sortii in to the public gaete, test thewiched should bo delivored from their error; that fatili also, destined to a great re ard, might hold iis mound in dissicut . But He spent sorty days With some of His discipies down in Galilee, a region of Judea, instructing them in the doctrinesthey mere to leach to othere. Therealter, hining given them commission to preach the gospei through the worid, He was
encompassed mith a cloud and talien up to heaven,-a factmore certain far than the assertions of your Proculi concern
in saet a Christian in his own convictions, he sent word of Ηim to the migning Caesar, Who was at the tims Tiberius. s, and the Caesars too Would have belloved on Christ, i fotther the Caesare had not been necessary for the worid, oris Christians could havo been Caesars. His discipies also spreading oVer the worid, did as their Divine Master badothem; and aster suffering greatly themselves hom the pe secutions of the Jews, and with no vn illing heari, as havingsaith undoubting in the truth, at last by Nero's cruei s ordsowed tho foed of Christian blood at Rome. Yes, and wo
sor Christ. It is a great matter is, to give you faith in Christians, I can bring sorWard the authori of the Very
3 Proculus mas a Roman senator, who animed that Romulus hin
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96 TERTULLIANUS a false account of his religion. For in the very faci that hosus he worships another god than he reatly does, he is miluos denying tho object of his morship, and transferring his
would bo known and bo adored. Is the JeWs objeci, meansWer that Moses, who mas but a man, taught them theirreligion; against the Greelis We urge that orpheus at Pieria, Musaeus at Athens, Μelampus at Argos, Trophonius in Boeotia, imposed religious rites; turning in yοurseives, Who
io enlighten men a ready civilised, and under illusions homtheir very culture, that they might come to the knowlων of the truth. Search, then, and seo is that divinity of Christbo true. Is it be of such a nature that the acceptance of it transforms a man, and mahes him truly good, there is implied in that the duu os renouncing What is opposed in ii as salse; especialty on every ground that whicli, hiding itself under
the names and images of the dead, labours to convince menos ita divinity by certain signs, and miracles, and oracles. 22. And wo affirm indeed the existence of certain spiritualessen ces. Nor is their name unsamiliar. The philosophersachnowledge there are demons ; Socrates himself matting on
are ali acquainted With demons too; even the ignorant commonpeopte mahe frequent use of them in cursing. In faci, theycali upon Satan the demon-chies in their execrations, as
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traordinary excesses. Their mamellous subileness and tenuitygive them access to both paris os our nature. As spirituat,
they can do great ham; sor, invisibis and intangibio, me amnot cognigant of their action save by iis effecta, When somo inexplicabie, unseen polson in the breege blighra the apples and tho grain whilo in the flower, or hilis them in the bud, ordestroys them When they have reached maturi as thoughby the lainted atmosphere in some unknown Way spreadingabroad ita pestilentiat exhalations. So, too, by an influencoequatly Obscure, demons and angeis breatho into sto foui androuse up iis corruptions With furious passions and vile excesses, or With cruei lusis accompanted by Various errors, of
whicli tho morsi is that by Whicli these deities ars commendedio tho favour os doceived and deluded human beings, thatthey may get their proper sood of flesh-fumos and blood when that is offered up to idol-images. And what is daintior nod to tho spirit os evit, than turning men's minds aWay homilio truo God by tho illusions os a falso divination ' Andhero I shali explain hoW these illusions are managed. Every spirit is possessed of Wings. This is a common proper of
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been to Lydia. From dwelling in the air, and their nea ness to the stare, and their commerce With the clouia, thoyhavo means of knowing the preparatory processes Ming on in these upper regions, and thus can give promise of tho
command the application of remedies either altogether nemor contrary to those in me, and straightWay withdraWinghurifes influence, they are supposed to have Wrqught a cure. What need, then, in speah of their other artifices, or yet further of the deceptivo poWer Whicli they havo as spirita l-of these Castor apparitions, and Water carried by a fleve,
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throat. The result of the frenety is the fame fin both case , and the manner os instigation is one. But thus far have been dealing only in Worda: κε noW proceed to a proos offacta, in Which we shali show that under different names youhave reat identi . Let a person be brought beiore Four tribunals, Who is plainly under demoniacal possession. The Wiehed spirit, bidden speah by a fosso er os Christ, Will asroadily mahe the truthiul confossion that he is a demon, aselsowhere he has falsely asserted that he is a god. Or, ityou Will, let there be produced one os the god-possessed, asthey are supposed, Whο, inhaling at the altar, conceive divinityiroin the fumos, Who are dolivered os it is retching, Who ventit forth in agonies os gasping. Let that fame Virgin Caelestis berself the rain-promiser, let Esculapius discoverer of media cines, ready to prolong the life of Socordius, and Tenatius, and Asclepiodotus, noW in the last extremi , ii they Would not confess, in their scar of lying to a Christian, that theymeris demons, then and there shed tho blood os that most impudent follower of Christ. What clearer than a Workliko that Τ What more trusi mrthy than such a proof ΤThe simplici of truth is thus set forth; ita oWn Worthsustains it; no ground remains for the least suspicion. Do
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100 TERTULLIANUS. v will not say anything os the fori, is you have been
and you surely can never ascribe deity to that whicli is undor
and worship Ηim, after the manner of our Christian faith and discipline. But at once they will say, Who is this Christwith his sablos Τ is ho an ordinary man is he a forcerer imas his bois stolen by his discipies from iis tomb Τ is ho
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aside at death ; let them declare it, say, before Dur tribunal, that this work has been allotted to Minos and Rhadamanthus,as Plato and the poeta agres ; let them put aWay srom themat least the mark of ignominy and condemnation. Theydisclaim being unctem spiriis, Which yet me must hold asindubitably proved by their relisit for tho blood and sumes and foetid carcases of sacrificiat animais, and even by the vile language of their ministers. Let them deny that, sor their ichednem condemned atready, they are hept for that Voryjudgment-dari With ait their Worshippers and their moas. Why, ali the authori and poWer We have ovor them is homour naming the nams of Christ, and recalling to their memory the woes With Whicli God threatens them at tholianda os Christ as Judge, and whicli they expect one day to overtas them. Maring Christ in God, and God in Christ,
of your deities to convert men to Christianity ; sor in givingsuli bellos to them, Wo aro ted in bellove in Christ. Yes, your very gods hindle up saith in Our Scriptures, they bulld
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102 TERTULLIANUS as Christians you might put them to the mut,-is under thopower of a follo er of Christ, Who destres to prove in Foutho Truth, it mere at ali possibio for them to lie. 24. This Whole confession of these beings, in Whicli theydeclare that they are not goti, and in Whicli they teli youthat thero is no God but one, the God whom me adore, isquite suffcient to clear us from the crime of treason, chieflyagainst the Roman religion. For is it is certain the godshave no existence, there is no religion in the case. Η themis no religion, because there are no gods, me are assuredly
Jupiter in the heavens, surrounded by an arrv at once of Mities and demons. It belloves us, thereiore, to fhoW eques respect in the procurators, prefecis, and govemors of the divino
empire. Aiad yet hoW great a crime does he commit, Who, Withthe object of gaining higher savour With the Caesar, transfers
his endeamurs and his hopes to another, and does not confessinat the appellation os God as of Emperor belοngs only totho Supremo Head, when it is held a capital offence amongus to cali, or hear called, by the hi est titie any othor than Caesar himselfi Let one man worship God, another Jupiter;
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longer morship according in my inclination, but am compelledio morship against it. Not even a human Ming Would caroto have unWilling homage rendered in him; and so the very Egyptians have been permitted the leges use of their ridiculous superstition, liberty to mahe gods of blads and beasti, nari in condemn to death any one Who hilis a god of thoirsori. Every province even, and evem es , has ita Md. Syria has Astarte, Arabia has Dusares, the Norici have Belenus, Africa has iis Caelestis, Mauritania has ira omprinces. I have spolien, I thinh, of Roman provinces, and yet I have not said their goti are Roman; for they are not
as deities over Italy ilaeti by municipes consecration, suchas Delventinus of Casinum, Visidianus os Narnia, Ancharia of Asculum, Nortia of Volsinii, Valentia of Ocriculum, Hostia os Satrium, Father Curis of Falisci, in honour of
resis not merely on debate and argument, but on the witness
controversy whicli is invited by the groundiem assertiori ofiliose Who maintain that, as a reward of their singular homageto religion, tho Romans have been raised in such hoi is of pomer as to have bisomo masters of the world; and that so
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to Sterculus, and Mutunus, and Larentinal For I can hardlythinh that foretgn gods Would have been disposed to fhow mors
mas her chariot, this hingdom, is the Fates permit, the god-
Jove's hapless Wife and sister hia no poWer to prevail against tho Fatest μ Jupiter himself is sustained by sate. Andyet the Romans have never done such homage to the Fates,