and leave it dying in its own stupefaction? But if it gluts the wound, it drives the poison inwards, and makes it hasten into the bowels; forthwith all the former senses become dull, the blood of the mind freezes, the flesh of the spirit pines away, loathing for the Christian name is accompanied by a sense of sourness. Already the understanding also seeks for itself a place where it may throw up; and thus, once for all, the weak- ness with which it has been smitten breathes out wounded faith either in heresy or in heathenism. And now the present state of matters is such, that lae are in the midst of an intense heat, the very dog-star of per- secution,— a state originating doubtless with the dog-headed one himself.* Of some Christians the fire, of others the sword, of others the beasts, have made trial; others are hungering in prison for the martyrdoms of which they have had a taste in the meantime by being subjected to clubs and claws ^ be- sides. We ourselves, having been appointed for pursuit, are like hares being hemmed in from a distance; and heretics go about accord- ing to their wont. Therefore the state of the times has prompted me to prepare by my pen, in opposition to the little beasts which trouble ' The opponents of martyrdoms arc meant. — Tr.
3 Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
<i.e. the devil.— Tr.
S An instrument of torture, so called. — Tr.
our sect, our antidote against poison, that I may thereby effect cures. You who read will at the same time drink. Nor is the draught bitter. If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the honeycombs,* the juices are from that source. If the promise of God flows with milk and honey,' the in- gredients which go to make that draught have the smack of this. " But woe to them who turn sweet into bitter, and light into dark- ness."^ For, in like manner, they also who oppose martyrdoms, representing salvation to be destruction, transmute sweet into bitter, as well as light into darkness; and thus, by pre- ferring this very wretched life to that most blessed one, they put bitter for sweet, as well as darkness for light.
CHAP. II.
' But not yet about the good to be got from martyrdom must we learn, without our having ifirst //^ar^ about the duty of suffering it; nor must we learn the usefulness of it, before we jhave heard about the necessity for it. The (question of the) divine warrant goes first — whether God has willed and also commanded ought of the kind, so that they who assert that it is not good are not plied with argu- ments for thinking it profitable save when they have been subdued. » It is proper that here- tics be driven" to duty, not enticed. Obsti- nacy must be conquered, not coaxed. And» certainly, that will be pronounced beforehand quite good enough, which will be shown to have been instituted and also enjoined by/ God. Let the Gospels wait a little, while I set forth their root the Law, while I ascertain the will of God from those writings from which I recall to mind Himself also: "/am," says He, "God, thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalt have no other gods besides me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a likeness of those things which are in heaven, and which are in the earth beneath, and which are in the sea under the earth. Thou shalt not worship them, nor, serve them. For I am the Lord thy God." " Likewise in the same book of Exodus: "Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make unto you gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." '- To the following effect also, in Deuteromy: " Hear, O Israel; The Lord thy God is one: and thou shalt love the 9 By those in favour of its having been divinely enjoinad. '" By argument, of course. — Tk.
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Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy might, and with all thy soul."' And again: " Neither do thou forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee forth from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him only, and cleave to Him, and swear by His name. Ye shall not go after strange gods, and the gods of the nations w'hich are round about you, because the Lord thy God is also a jealous God among you, and lest His anger should be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."- But setting before them blessings and curses. He also says: "Blessings shall be yours, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, whatsoever I command you this day, and do not wander from the way which I have commanded you, to go and serve other gods whom ye know not." ^ And as to rooting them out in every way: " Ye shall utterly de- stroy all the places wherein the nations, which ye shall possess by inheritance, served their gods, upon mountains and hills, and under shady trees. Ye shall overthrow all their al- tars, ye shall overturn and break in pieces their pillars, and cut down their groves, and burn with fire the graven images of the gods themselves, and destroy the names of them out of that place." -* He further urges, when they (the Israelites) had entered the land of promise, and driven out its nations: " Take heed to thy self, that thou do not fol- low them after they be driven out from before thee, that thou do not inquire after their gods, saying. As the nations serve their gods, so let me do likewise." 5 But also says He: "If there arise among you a prophet himself, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and it come to pass, and he say. Let us go and serve other gods, whom ye know not, do not hearken to the words of that pro- phet or dreamer, for the Lord your God prov- eth you, to know whether ye fear God with all your heart and with all your soul. After the Lord your God ye shall go, and fear Him, and _ keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve Him, and cleave unto Him. But that prophet or dreamer shall die; for he has spoken to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."* But also in another section. ^ "If, however, thy brother, the son of thy father or of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend who is as thine own soul, solicit thee, saying se- •Deut. vi. 4. SDeut. xii. 30. * Deut. xiii. i.
7 Of course our division of the Scripture by chapter and verse 4id not exist in the days of TertuUian. — Tr.
cretly. Let us go and serve other gods, which thou knowest not, nor did thy fathers, of the gods of the nations which are round about thee, very nigh unto thee or far off from thee, do not consent to go with him, and do not hearken to him. Thine eye shall not spare him, neither shalt thou pity, neither shalt thou preserve him; thou shall certainly inform upon him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterwards the hand of thy people; and ye shall stone him, and he shall die, seeing he has sought to turn thee away from the Lord thy God."^ He adds likewise concerning cities, that if it appeared that one of these had, through the advice of unrighte- ous men, passed over to other gods, all its inhabitants should be slain, and everything belonging to it become accursed and all the spoil of it be gathered together into all its places of egress, and be, even with all the people, burned with fire in all its streets in the sight of the Lord God; and, says He, " it shall not be for dwelling in for ever: it shall not be built again any more, and there shall cleave to thy hands nought of its accursed plunder, that the Lord may turn from the ^ fierceness of His anger. "^ He has, from His abhorrence of idols, framed a series of curses too: " Cursed be the man who maketh a graven or a molten image, an abomination, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place." '° But in Leviti- cus He says: "Go not ye after idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God."" And in other passages: " The children of Israel are my household servants; these are they whom I led forth from the land of Egypt: " I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not make you idols fashioned by the hand, neither rear you up a graven image. Nor shall ye set up a remarkable stone in your land (to worship it): I am the Lord your God." '3 These words indeed were first spoken by the Lord by the lips of Moses, be- ing applicable certainly to whomsoever the Lord God of Israel may lead forth in like manner from the Egypt of a most superstitious world, and from the abode of human slavery. But from the mouth of every prophet in suc- cession, sound forth also utterances of the same God, augmenting the same law of His by a renewal of the same commands, and ini the first place announcing no other duty in sol special a manner as the being on guard against all making and worshipping of idols; as when 8 Deut. xiii. 6.
9 Deut. xiii. 16. 19 Deut. xxvii. 15.
"The words in the Septua^int are: on efiol o'luioiT 'lo-patjA oiKCTdi flaiv, nalSU fiou ouTOt naiv ovi efijyayoi' e<c 7^9 AtyuiToi/.
SCORl'lACK.
[chap, iv: by the mouth of David He says: *' The gods of the nations are silver and gold: they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; they have a nose, and smell not; a mouth, and they speak not; hands, and they handle not; feet and they walk not. Like to them shall be they who make them, and trust in them."'
CHAP. HI.
Nor should I think it needful to discuss whether God pursues a worthy course in for- bidding His own name and honour to be given '' over to a lie, or does so in not consenting that such as He has plucked from the maze of false religion should return again to Egypt, or does so in not suffering to depart from Him them whom He has chosen for Himself. Thus that, too, will not require to be treated by us, whether He has wished to be kept the rule which He has chosen to appoint, and whether He justly avenges the abandonment of the rule which He has wished to be kept; since He would have appointed it to no pur- pose if He had not wished it kept, and would have to no purpose wished it kept if He had ..'been unwilling to uphold it. My next step, ^indeed, is to put to the test these appoint- [ ments of God in opposition to false religions, i the completely vanquished as well as also the \ punished, since on these will depend the entire ' argument for martyrdoms. Moses was apart iwith God on the mountain, when the people, not brooking his absence, which was so need- ful, seek to make gods for themselves, which, for his own part, he will prefer to destroy.' Aaron is importuned, and commands that the earrings of their women be brought together, that they may be thrown into the fire. For the people were about to lose, as a judgment upon themselves, the true ornaments for the ears, the words of God. The wise fire makes for them the molten likeness of a calf, re- proaching them with having the heart where they have their treasure also, — in Egypt, to wit, which clothed with sacredness, among the other animals, a certain ox likewise. There- fore the slaughter of three thousand by their nearest relatives, because they had displeased their so very near relative God, solemnly marked both the commencement and the de- serts of the trespass. Israel having, as we are told in Numbers,^ turned aside at Sethim, the people go to the daughters of Moab to gratify their lust: they are allured to the idols, so that they committed whoredom with the spirit also: finally, they eat of their defiled sacrifices; ' Ex. xxxii.
\ then they both worship the gods of the nation, and are admitted to the rites of Beelphegor. For this lapse, too, into idolatry, sister to adultery, it took the slaughter of twenty-three thousand by the swords of their countrymen to appease the divine anger. After the death of Joshua the bon of Nave they forsake the God of their fathers, and serve idols, Baalim and Ashtaroth;" and the Lord in anger de- livered them up to the hands of spoilers, and they continued to be spoiled by them, and to be sold to their adversaries, and could not at all stand before their enemies. Whitherso- ever they went forth. His hand was upon them for evil, and they were greatly distressed. And after this God sets judges {critas), the same as our censors, over them. But not even these did they continue steadfastly to obey. So soon as one of the judges died, they proceeded to transgress more than their fathers had done by going after the gods of others, and serving and worshipping them. Therefore the Lord was angry. "Since, in- deed," He says, "this nation have trans- gressed my covenant which I established with their fathers, and have not hearkened to my voice, I also will give no heed to remove from before them a m.an of the nations which Joshua left at his death." ^ And thusj throughout almost all the annals of the judges and of the kings who succeeded them, while the strength of the surrounding nations was preserved. He meted wrath out to Israel by war and captivity and a foreign yoke, as often as they turned aside from Him, especially to idolatry.
CHAP. IV.
If, therefore, it is evident that from the beginning this kind of worship has both been forbidden — witness the commands so numer- ous and weighty — and that it has never been engaged in without punishment following, as examples so numerous and impressive show, and that no offence is counted by God so presumptuous as a trespass of this sort, we ought further to perceive the purport of both the divine threatenings and their fulfilments, which was even then commended not only by the not calling in question, but also by the enduring of martyrdoms, for which certainly He had given occasion by forbidding idola- try. For otherwise martyrdoms would not take place. And certainly He had supplied, as a warrant for these. His own authority, willing those events to come to pass for th'- occurrence of which He had given occasioti. At present (it is important), for we are getting severely stung concerning the will of God, CHAl'. v.]
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and the scorpion repeats the prick, denying jthe existence of this will, Anding fault with it, I so that he either insinuates that there is an- ', other god, such that this is not his will, or I none the less overthrows ours, seeing such is lliis will, or altogether denies /his will of God, if 'he cannot deny Himself. But, for our part, con- tending elsewhere about God, and about all the rest of the body of heretical teaching, we now ilraw before us definite lines' for one form of encounter, maintaining that this will, such as to have given occasion for martyrdoms, is that of not another god than the God of Israel, on the ground of the commandments relating to an always forbidden, as well as of the judg- ;,pients upon a punished, idolatry. For if the keeping of a command involves the suffering of violence, this will be, so to speak, a com- mand about keeping the command, requiring nie to suffer that through which I shall be able i() keep the command, violence namely, what- ever of it threatens me when on my guard gainst idolatry. And certainly (in the case supposed) the Author of the command extorts compliance with it. He could not, therefore, have been unwilling that those events should come to pass by means of which the compliance will be manifest. The injunction is given me not to make mention of any other god, not even by speaking, — as little by the tongue :jas by the hand, — to fashion a god, and not to M worship or in any way show reverence to an- W other than Him only who thus commands me, whom I am both bid fear that I may not be forsaken by Him, and love with my whole being, that I may die for Him. Serving as a soldier under this oath, I am challenged by .the enemy. If I surrender to them, I am as j';they are. In maintaining this oath, I fight i furiously in battle, am wounded, hewn in pieces, slain. Who wished this fatal issue to his soldier, but he who sealed him by such an oath?
CHAP, V.
I You have therefore the will of my God.
.,We have cured this prick. Let us give good 'heed to another thrust touching the character of His will. It w^ould be tedious to show that my God is good, — a truth with which the Marcionites have now been made acquainted by .ns. Meanwhile it is enough that He is called God for its being necessary that He should \ be believed to be good. For if any one make Hhe supposition that God is evil, he will not be able to take his stand on both the constituents thereof: he will be bound either to affirm that he whom he has thought to be evil is not God, I An allusion to what occur-ec in the games, there being lines to mark the space within which the contests were to be waged. — Tr.
or that he whom he has proclaimed to be God is good. Good, therefore, will be the will also of him who, unless he is good, will not be God. The goodness of the thing itself also which God has willed — of martyrdom, I mean — will show this, because only one who is good has willed what is good. I stoutly maintain that martyrdom is good, as required by the God by whom likewise idolatry is forbidden and punished. For martyrdom strives against and opposes idolatry. But to strive against and oppose evil cannot be ought but good. Not as if I denied that there is a rivalry in evil things with one another, as well as in good also; but this ground for it requires a different state of matters. For martyrdom contends with idolatry, not from some malice whicli they share, but from its own kindness; for it delivers from idolatry. Who will not proclaim that to be good which delivers from idolatry? What else is the opposition between idolatry and martyrdom, than that between life and death? Life will be counted to be martyr- dom as much as idolatry to be death. He who will call life an evil, has death to speak of as a good. This frowardness also apper- tains to men, — to discard what is wholesome, to accept what is baleful, to avoid all dangerous cures, or, in short, to be eager to die rather than to be healed. For they are many who flee from the aid of physic also, many in folly, many from fear and false modesty. And the healing art has manifestly an apparent cruelty, by reason of the lancet, and of the burning iion, and of the great heat of the mustard; yet to be cut and burned, and pulled and bitten, is not on that account an evil, for it occasions helpful pains; nor will it be refused merely because it afflicts, but because it afflicts inevi- tably will it be applied. The good accruing is the apology for the frightfulness of the work. In short, that man who is howling and groan- ing and bellowing in the hands of a physician will presently load the same hands with a fee, and proclaim that they are the best operators, and no longer affirm that they are cruel. Thus martyrdoms also rage furiously, but for salvation. God also will be at liberty to heal for everlasting life by means of fires and swords, and all that is painful. But you will admire the physician at least even in that respect, that for the most part he employs like properties in the cures to counteract the prop- erties of the diseases, when he aids, as it were, the wrong way, succouring by means of those things to which the affliction is owing. For he both checks heat by heat, by laying on a greater load; and subdues inflammation by leaving thirst unappeased, by tormenting rather; and contracts tlie superabundance of SCORPIACE.
[chap. VI.
bile by every bitter little draught, and stops hemorrhage by opening a veinlet in addition. But you will think that God must be found fault with, and that for being jealous, if He has chosen to contend with a disease and to do good by imitating the malady, to destroy death by death, to dissipate killing by killing, to dispel tortu'res by tortures, to disperse ' punishments by punishments, to bestow life by withdrawing it, to aid the flesh by injuring it, to preserve the soul by snatching it away. The wrongheadedness, as you deem it to be, is reasonableness; what you count cruelty is kindness. Thus, seeing God by brief (suffer- ings) effects cures for eternity, extol your God for your prosperity; you have fallen into His hands, but have happily fallen. He also fell into your sicknesses. Man always first provides employment for the physician; in short, he has brought upon himself the dan- ger of death -He had received from his own Lord, as from c. physician, the salutary enough rule to live according to the law, that he should eat of all indeed (that the garden produced) and should refrain from only one little tree which in the meantime the Physician Himself knew as a perilous one. He gave ear to him whom he preferred, and broke through selfrestraint. He ate what was forbidden, and, surfeited by the trespass, suffered indigestion tending to death; he certainly richly deserving to lose his life altogether who wished to do so. But the inflamed tumour due to the trespass having been endured until in due time the medicine might be mixed, the Lord gradually prepared the means of healing — all the rules of faith, they also bearing a resemblance to (the causes of) the ailment, seeing they annul the word of death by the word of life, and diminish the trespass-listening by a listening of allegiance. Thus, even when that Physi- cian commands one to die, He drives out the lethargy of death. Why does man show re- luctance to suffer now from a cure, what he was not reluctant then to suffer from a dis- order? Does he dislike being killed for sal- vation, who did not dislike being killed for destruction? — Will he feel squeamish with reference to the counter poison, who gaped for the poison?
CHAP. VI.
But if, for the contest's sake, God had ap- pointed martrydoms for us, that thereby we might make trial with our opponent, in order that He may now keep bruising him by whom man chose to be bruised, here too generosity rather than harshness in God holds sway. For He wished to make man, now plucked ' Literally, " disperse in vapour." — Tr.