장음표시 사용
131쪽
APOLOGETICUS. 115 traiiors, with wliat verdant and branching laureis they cladtheir doo posts, With What losty and brilliant lamps in sinohed their porches, With What most exquisite and gaudycouches they divided the Forum among themselves, not thatthey might celebrate public rejoicings, but that they might get a foret te of their oKn votive seMons in partising of the festivities of another, and inaugurate the modet and image of their liope, chaning in their minti the emperor'sname. The samo homage is pald, dussully to those
Who consuli astrologere, and soothsayers, and augura, and magicians, about the lite os the Caesars,-arts Which, as madoknown by the angels who sinnod and forbidden by God, Christians do not even mine me of in their oWn assaire. But who has any occasion to inquire about the life of theemperor, is he have not some wish or thought against it, orsome liopes and expectations aster it For consultations of this sort havs not the fame motivo in tho caso os friends asin the caso of fovereigns. The anxiety of a hinsmin is something very different irom that os a subjeci. 36. Is it is the saei that men bearing the name os Romansare sound to be enemies os Rome, Why are me, on the ground that Wo are regarded as enemies, dented the name of Romans' Me may be at once Romans and laes of Rome, When men passing for Romans are discovered to be ene es of their count . So the affection, and sealty, and NVerenee, due to the emperors do not consist in such tokens os homageas these, Whicli even hostility may bo aealous in perso ing, chiefly as a cloah to ita purposes; but in those ways Whicli Deity as certainly enjοius on us, as they are held to bo neces
132쪽
133쪽
38. ought not Christians, therelare, to receive not merelya some hat milder triniment, but to have a place among thela toleratia societies, Meing they are not chameable With anysuch crimes as are commonly dreaded from societies of the illicit classi For, uniess I misi e the matter, the preventionos such associations is based on a prudentiat regard is publicorder, that the state may not be divided into parties, Whichwould naturali y lead to disturbanco in the electorat assem-blies, the counciis, the curiae, the species conventions, even intho public shows by tho hostilo collisions os rival parties, especialty When no , in pursuit os gain, men have begunto consider their violance an article in be bought and sold. But as those in Whom ali ardour in the purauit os glory and
134쪽
39. I shali at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian socie , that, as I havo resuted the ovit chargedagainst it, I may potnt outi iis positive good. We are a bovknit together as such by a common religious profession, is uni of discipline, and by the bond os a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as With united force, Me may wresue with Ηim in Our supplications. This violenco God delighis in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and sor ali in authori , for the weliare of the Worid, sor the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the finalconsummation. We assemble to read our sacred Writings, itany peculiari of the times mahes either fore-Warning orreminiscence needfui. However it be in that respect Withthe sacred mords, κε nourish our faith, We animale our liope, We mari our confidenco more stediast; and no less by inculcations os God's precepis Wo confirm good habiis. In the Same place also exhortations are made, rebuhes and sacrudcensures are administered. For With a great gravi is the
135쪽
tho most notabio examplo of judment to come When any one has sinned so grievousty as to require his severance Domus in prayer, and the meeling, and ali sacred intercourae. The tried men os our oldera preside over us, obtaining that
mother nature, though you are hardly men, because brothersso unkind. At the samo time, hoW much more fittinglythey are called and counted brothers who have been led totho knowledge of God as their common Father, Who havedrunk in one spirit of holiness, who from the fame Womb os a common ignoranco have agonized into the samo light of truth l But on this very account, perhaps, me are regarded
136쪽
120 TERT MANUS as haring tam claim in be held true brothere, stat no tragodymines a nolae about our brotherhood, or that the family
thv were never in diei' But one sees more readily the mole in another's eye than the beam in his o . Why, thevery air is mured Mith the eructations of so many tribes, and curiae, and decuriae; the Salii cannot have inela se twithout going into debi; you must get the accountanis toteli Du What the tenius of Hercules and tho sacrificialbanquela cost; the choic t moh is appianted for tho Ap turia, the Dionysia, the Attio mysteries; the smohs homine banquet of Serapis mill cali out tho fimmon. Yet about the modest suppe mom of the Christians alone a great adola made. Ο feast expiatas iraeli by iis name. Tho Groe cali it lavo. Whatover it costa, our ouilay in the name of
137쪽
APOLOGETICUS 121 to the Hory os satisfring tlieir licentious propensities, sellinginemsolves for a belly-feast to ali disgracesul treaiment, utas it is .ith God Himself, a peculiar respect is inomn totho lowly. Η the object os our feast bo good, in the liotos that consider iis surther regulations. As it is an act of religious service, it permits no vilenem or immodes . The participandi, belare reclining, iaste frat of prayer to God. As much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger; asmueli is druis as bessis the chaste. They say it is enough, as those Who remember that even during the night they havsto ποαhip God; they talh as those who know that tho Lordis one of their auditors. Aster manual ablution, and thebringing in of lighis, each is asked is stand sortii and sing, as lis can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his οὐ composing,-a proos of the measure
and chasti is Wo had been at a school os virtuo ratherthan a banquet. Give tho moeting of tho Christians ita due, and hold it unlainui, is it is lilio assomblies of tho illicit sori: by ali means let it bo condemned, is any complaint canbo validb laid against it, sucti as lies against secret sactions.
cry Out against innocent blood, offering as the justificationos their enmity the baseless plea, that they thinh the Chri tians the cause of every public dis ter, os every amictionwith which the peoplo aro visited. Is the Tiber rises as hi as the city malis, is the Nile does not send ita maters up over
138쪽
122 TERTULLIANUS tho fiolds, it the heavens givo no rain, is there is an earth- quake, is there is famine or pestilence, strai tWay the cryis, AWay mith tho Christians to tho lioni V Whati shall
race frona Whicli Christians sprung yet setiled down there, when iis neighboura Sodom and Gomorrha were consumed by fire from heaven. The count yet smolis of that conflagration ; and is there are apples there upon the trees, it is Only a promise to the Ve they give ou but touch them, and they turn to ashes. Nor had Tuscia and Campania tocomplain os Christians in the days when fire from heavenover helmed Vulsinii, and Pompeii mas destroyed by fi refrom ita own mountain. No one yet Worshipped the true God at Romo, when Hannibal at Cannae counted the Romanslain by the pecks of Roman rings. Your gods were ali objecis of adoration, universalty achnowledged, When the Senones
closely besieged the very Capitol. And it is in heeping withali this, that is adversiu has at any time besallen cities, the
139쪽
140쪽
124 TERTULLIANUS assaira ; on you lies the blame os public adversities, since you
overtaken by them, are in Our case gractous admonitions,
while in Durs they are divine punishments. We indeed arenot the least put about: for, first, only one thing in this liso greatly conceras us, and that is, to get quickly out of it; and nexi, ii any adversity besalis us, it is laid to the door of your
transgressions. Nam though we are liho ise involvod introubles because of our close connection With Fou, We are