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DE CORONA. 345 missi crowns,' it this practico had ovor had place in thethings of God.
is missi us a second idolatry. Wanting, then, the sense, it Will be thoirs to uso tho thing for Which the sense is manting, just as it in fuli possession of tho sense they Wished in abuseit. When there ceases to bo any reali in the use, thereis no distinction belWeen using and abusing. Who ean abusea thing, When the percipient naturo Mith which ho misitosto caro out his purpose is not his to uso it Τ The aposse,
But the wholo assair is mean ingleis, and is, in faci, a dead Work so far as concerns tho idols; though, Without doubi, aliVing one as respecis the demons to whom the religious rite
idols. But tho substances are themselves as creatures of
God mithout impurity, and in this their native state areheo to the use of all. But tho ministrios to whicli in their
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11. To begin with the real mound of the military croWn, I think wo must first inquire Whether mariare is proper atali for Christians. What senso is there in discussing thomerely accidental, When that on Whicli it resis is to be condemnodi Do wo bellovo it lawsul for a human oath to bosuperadded to ono divine, and sor a man to come under promise to another master aster Christ, and to abjure fatherand mollier and ali nearest hinsfoth, whom even the laW has commanded us to honour and lovo nexi to God Himself, to
And shali ho apply the chain, and the prison, and thstortum, and the punishment, Who is not the avenger even os
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Godi Shali ha bo disturbod in death by the trumpet of
the trumpeter, Who expecta to be aroused by the angers
camp rule, When he was not permitted to burn incenso to an idol, when to him Christ remitted the punishment of fire Then hoW many other offences thero are involved in the performance of camp offices, Whicli me must hold to involvo a transgression os God's la , you may see by a stight furvV. The Very car ing of the name over iroin the camp of light to the camp of darkness is a violation of it. Os course, itiaith comes later, and finds any preoccupied mitti militaryservice, their casu is different, as in the instance of thos Whom John used to receive for baptism, and of those mostfaithsul centurions, I mean the centurion Whom Christ ain proVes, and the centurion whom Peter instructis; yet, at the Same time, When a man has hecome a bellover, and salthlias been sealed, there must be Elthor an immediate aban-donment of it, Which has been the course With many; or
Ouiride of the military service.' By substituting eae militia sorthe corresponding motas eaetra militiam, ag has been proposed by Rigal tius, the sentence acquires a meming such that desertion from thon y is suggested as one of the methods by Which a soldier Who has como a Christian may continue faithful to Jesus. But tho mordaeatra militiam are a genuine part oi the text. There is no mod ground thereioro, for the statemunt of Gibbon : Tertullian de Corona Militis, c. H. suggesta to them the expedient of deserting ; a counsol Which, u ithad been generalty lino , maa not very proper to conciliate the imour of the emperora toWarda the Christian seci. -Τα
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DE CORONA. 349 whem does the Christian change his character. Thereis one gospei, and the fame Jesus, Who Will one day devevery one Who dentes, and acknowledge every one Whoacknowledges God,-Who Wili fave, too, the life whicli hasbeen lost sor His sae ; but, on the other hand, dest y that whicli for gain has been saved to His dishonour. With Ηimtho faithsul citigon is a soldior, just as tho faithsul soldieris a citiaen. Α stato os fatili admits no plea os necessity; they are under no necessity to sin, Whose one necessity is, that they do not sin. For is one is pressed to the offeringos sacrifico and tho fheer dental os Christ by the necessi of torture or of punishment, yet discipline does not connive even at that necessity; because there is a higher necessi todread denying and to undergo martyrdom, than to escape rom suffering, and to render the homage required. In fac
an excuse of this sori OVerturna the entire essence of o sacrament, remoVing QVen the obstacle to voluntary sins;
for it Will be possibis also to maintain that inclination is a necessity, as involving m it, forsooth, a sori of compulsion. I havo, in faci, disposed of this very allegation of necessitywith referenco to the pleas by Whicli crowns connected withossiciat position are vindicated, in support of whicli it is in
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In liho mannor Claudius teaches, when he telis ns that soldiemare Wont too to be Wreathed in myrtie. For the myrtio b longs to Venus, the mother of the AEneadae, the mistress also
of the god of War, Who through Ilia and tho Romuli is
Roman. But I do not belleve that Venus is Roman as wellas Mars, because of the vexation the concubine fIliaJ gaveher. When milita servico again is cro ned with olivo, thoidolatry has respect to Minerva, Who is equialy the goddess of
VoWs, What does that bear on iis face to bel It takes placo first in the part of the camp where the generat's tent is, and then in the temples. In addition to the places, observe themorda also: We VoW that you, O Jupiter, Will then havsan Ox vitii gold-decorated hortis.' What does the ulterance
Christian says nothing in these places With the mouth, homahes his response by having the crown on his head. The lauret is likowiso commanded sto be usedJ at tho distributionof tho largess. So you see idolatry is not Without iis gain, selling, as it does, Christ for pieces os gold, as Judas did forpisces of silvor. Will it bo Ys cannot serve God and
mammon, to devoto Four energies to mammon, and to
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.hich both havo an interest. 13. For state reasons, the Various orders of the citigens also are cro ned With laurei crowns ; but the magistrates besides With goiden ones, as at Athens, as at Rome. Even to those
palm branches, to conduci the chariois containing the images of the gods to the circus. There are also provinciat croWnsos Mid, needing noW the larger heads of images instead of those of men. But your ordera, and your magistractes, and Dur Very place of meeling, the church, are Chrises. You
robe, and your broad stripe is His o n cross ; thera the axeis Hready laid to tho trunk of tho troo ; thoro is tho branchout of the mot of Jesso.' Nover mind the state. horses Withtheir orown. Your Lord, When, according to the Scripture, ΗΟ Would enter Jerusalem in triumph, had nos even an ass
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no bondage to man; and noW, though man has giVen youliber , you are tho servant of Christ. Is you thinh tho seo dom of the worid to be reat, so that you even seat it With acrown, Fou have returned to the flavery of man, imaginingit to bo Doedom ; you havo tost the freedom of Christ, san ing it is flave . Will there bo any disputo as to the causeos croWn- earing, whicli contests in the games in their turn supply, Whicli, both as sacred to tho gods and in honour of the dead, their own roason at once condemns For itonly rem ains, that tho Olympian Jupiter, and the Nemean Hercules, and the wretched littio Archemorus, and the hap-less Antinous, should be crowned in a Christian, that he himself may become a spectacle disgusting to belloid. We have recounted, as I thinh, ali the various causes of the wearing of the crown, and thero is not one Whicli has any place With us: ali are soreigia to us, utilioly, unia sui. having been abjuredatready onco sor ali in the solemn declaration of the sacrament. For they Were os the pomp of the devii and his anget' ossices of the worid, honours, festivais, popularitu huntings, false Vows, exhibitions os human serclity, empty praises, base glories, and in them ali idolat , even in respect os the origin
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of the crowns alone, With Which they are est Wreathed. Claudius mill teli us in his preface, indeed, that in the poemaos Homer tho heaven also is crowned With constellations, and that no doubi by God, no doubi for man; thereiam man himself, too, should be crowned by God. But the woridcrowns brotheis, and ballis, and baeho es, and prisons, and schoois, and the very amphitheatres, and the chambera here the clothes are stripped from dead gladiatore, and the very biers of the dead. How sacred and holy, hoW Venerable and pure is this article of Mess, determine not hom the heavenos poetW alone, but from tho traffchings of the whole morid. But indoed a Christian will not even dishonour his oWn galewith laures crowns, it so bo ho knows hoW many gods thedovit has attached to doors; Janus a called hom gate, Limentinus hom inreshold, Forcus and Carna fram leaves
and hiuges; among the Greelis, i , the Thyraean Apollo, and tho ovit spirita, tho Anteiit. 14. Mucii tess may tho Christian put tho service of idol try on his oWn head-nay, Ι might have sald, upon Christ, sines Christ is tho Head of tho Christian man- for his headJ