3 i.e.. The demon, in gratitude for the incense which the man daily feeds him with, ought to depart out of the possessed at his request.
4 i.e., in baptism.
5 See above, chaps, v. and viii. [One is reminded here of the /amous pleasantry of Dr. Johnson; see Bosweli.']
8 Matt. vi. 25, 31, etc.; Luke xii. 22-24.
'°Matt. xix. 21; Luke xviii. 22.
" Luke ix. 62, where the words are, " is fit for the kingdom of God."
pie, it is necessary you " take your cross, and follow the Lord: " '^ your cross; that is, your own straits and tortures, or your body only, which is after the manner of a cross. Parents, wives, children, will have to be left behind, for God's sake."* Do you hesitate about arts, and trades, and about professions likewise, for the sake of children and parents? Even there was it demonstrated to us, that both "dear pledges," '^ and handicrafts, and trades, are to be quite left behind for the Lord's sake; while James and John, called by the Lord, do leave quite behind both father and ship; '* while Matthew is roused up from the toll-booth; '=" while even burying a father was too tardy a business for faith.'* None of them whom the Lord chose to Him said, " I have no means to live." Faith fears not famine. It knows, likewise, that hunger is no less to be contemned by it for God's sake, than every kind of death. It has learnt not to respect life; how much more food? [You ask] " How many have fulfilled these condi- tions? " But what with men is difficult, with God is easy.'5 Let us, however, comfort our- selves about the gentleness and clemency of God in such wise, as not to indulge our " ne- cessities " up to the point of affinities wit'i idolatry, but to avoid even from afar every breath of it, as of a pestilence. [And this] not merely in the cases forementioned, but in the universal series of human superstition; whether appropriated to its gods, or to the defunct, or to kings, as pertaining to the selfsame unclean spirits, sometimes through sacrifices and priesthoods, sometimes through spectacles and the like, sometimes through holy-days.
CHAP. XIII. — OF THE OBSERVANCE OF DAYS CONNECTED WITH IDOLATRY.
But why speak of sacrifices and priest- hoods? Of spectacles, moreover, and pleas- ures of that kind, we have already filled a volume of their own.^ In this place must be handled the subject of holidays and other ex- traordinary solemnities, which we accord sometimes to our wantonness, sometimes to our timidity, in opposition to the common faith and Discipline. The first point, indeed, on which I shall join issue is this: whether a servant of God ought to share with the very 13 Matt. xvi. 24; Mark viii. 34; Luke ix. 23, xiv. 27.
: testimony '4 Luke xiv. 26; Mark x. 29, 30; Matt xix. 27-30. Compare with Tertullian's words, and see the testimony he thui these texts gives to the deity of Christ.
15 i.e., any dear relations.
30 The treatise Ve Spectaculis [soon to follow, in this volume.]
CHAP. XIV.]
ON IDOLATRY.
69 nations themselves in matters of his kind, either in dress, or in food, or in any other kind of their gladness. " To rejoice with the rejoicing, and grieve with the grieving," ' is said about brethren by the apostle when ex- horting to unanimity. But, for ///t'^*? purposes, *' There is nought of communion between light and darkness," ■ between life and death; or else we rescind what is written, " The world shall rejoice, but ye shall grieve." ^ If we rejoice with the world, there is reason to fear that with the world we shall grieve too. But when the world rejoices, let us grieve; and when the world afterward grieves, we shall rejoice. Thus, too, Eleazar-* in Hades, ^ (attaining refreshment in Abraham's bosom) and the rich man, (on the other hand, set in the torment of fire) compensate, by an an- swerable retribution, their alternate vicissi- tudes of evil and good. There are certain gift-days, which with some adjust the claim of honour, with others the debt of wages. " Now, then," you say, " I shall receive back what is mine, or pay back what is another's." If men have consecrated for themselves this custom from superstition, why do you, es- tranged as you are from all their vanity, j)articipate in solemnities consecrated to idols; as if for you also there were some prescript about a day, short of the observance of a par- ticular day, to prevent your paying or receiv- ing what you owe a man, or what is owed you by a man? Give me the form after which you wish to be dealt with. For why should you skulk withal, when you contaminate your own conscience by your neighbour's ig- norance? If you are not unknown to be a Christian, you are tempted, and you act as if you were not a Christian against your neigh- bour's conscience; if, however, you shall be disguised withal,* you are the slave of the temptation. At all events, whether in the latter or the former way, you are guilty of being *' ashamed of God." ' But " whosoever shall be ashamed of Me in the presence of men, of him will I too be ashamed," says He, " in the presence of my Father who is in the heavens." ^ 2 See 2 Cor. vi. 14. In the De Sped. xxvi. Tertullian has the same quotation (Oehler). And there, too, he adds, as here, " be- tween life and death."
3 John xvi. 20. It is observable that Tertullian here translates Koo-MOf by "seculum."
Hi.e., Lazarus, Luke xvi. 19-31.
5 " Apud inferos," used clearly here by Tertullian of a place of happiness. Augustine says he never finds it so used in Scripture. See Ussher's " Answer to a Jesuit " on the Article, " He descended into hell." [See Elucid. X. p. 50, supra.'\ f i.e., if you are unknown to be a Christian: " dissimulaberis." This is Oehler's reading; but Latinius and Fr. Junius would read " Dissimulaveris," = " if you dissemble the fact " of being a Chris- tian, which perhaps is better.
7 Go Mr. Dodgson renders very well.
8 Matt. I. 33; Mark viii. 38; Luke ix. 26; 2 Tim. ii. 12.
CHAP. XIV. OF BLASPHEMY. ONE OF ST.
PAUL'S SAVINGS.
But, however, the majority (of Christians) have by this time induced the belief in their mind that it is pardonable if at any time they do what the heathen do, for fear *' the Name be blasphemed." Now the blasphemy which must quite be shunned by us in every way is, I take it, this: If any of us lead a heathen into blasphemy with good cause, either by fraud, or by injury, or by contumely, or any other matter of worthy complaint, in which " the Name " is deservedly impugned, so that the Lord, too, be deservedly angry. Else, if of al/ blasphemy it has been said, " By your means My Name is blasphemed,"' we all perish at once; since the whole circus, with no desert of ours, assails "the Name" with wicked suffrages. Let us cease (to be Chris- tians) and it will not be blasphemed! On the contrary, while we are, let it be blasphemed: in the observance, not the overstepping, of discipline; while we are being approved, not while we are being reprobated. Oh blas- phemy, bordering on martyrdom, which now ^/rtests me to be a Christian,'" while for that very account it ^<?tests me! The cursing of well-maintained Discipline is a blessing of the Name. "If," says he, " I wished to please men, I should not be Christ's servant."" But the same apostle elsewhere bids us take care to please all: " As I," he says, " please all by all means."" No doubt he used to please them by celebrating the Saturnalia and New-year's day! [Was it so] or was it by moderation and patience? by gravity, by kindness, by integrity? In Hke manner, when he is saying, " I have become all things to all, that I may gain all," '^ does he mean " to idolaters an idolater?" " to heathens a heathen? " "to the worldly worldly? " But albeit he does not prohibit us from having our conversation with idolaters and adulterers, and the other criminals, saying, " Otherwise ye would go out from the world," '-» of course he does not so slacken those reins of con- versation that, since it is necessary for us both to /i've and to mingle with sinners, we may be able to sin with them too. Where there is the intercourse of life, which the apostle con- cedes, there is sinning, which no one permits. To live with heathens is lawful, to die with 9 Isa. Hi. 5; Ezek. xxxvi. 20, 23. Cf. 2 Sam. xii. 14; Rom. ii.
'"[This play on the words is literally copied from the original—' " quae tunc me testatur Christianum, cum propter ca me detest* tur."]
70 ON IDOLATRY.
[chap. XV.
them ' is not. Let us live with all; "^ let us be glad with them, out of community of nature, not of superstition. We are peers in soul, not in discipline; fellow-possessors of the world, not of error. But if we have no right of communion in matters of this kind with strangers, how far more wicked to celebrate them among brethren! Who can maintain or defend this? The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy-days. "Your Sab- baths, and new moons, and ceremonies," says He, "My soul hateth."^ By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange, "• and the new moons and festivals formerly iDeloved by God, the Saturnalia and New-year's and Midwin- ter's festivals and Matronalia are frequented — presents come and go — New-year's gifts — games join their noise — banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord's day, not Pentecost, even if they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Chris- tians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! If any indulgence is to be granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say your own days,^ but more too; for to the heathens each festive day occurs but once annually: you have a festive day every eighth day.* Call out the individual solemnities of the nations, and set them out into a row, they will not be able to make up a Pentecost. 7 CHAP. XV. CONCERNING FESTIVALS IN HONOUR OF EMPERORS, VICTORIES, AND THE LIKE. EXAMPLES OF THE THREE CHILDREN AND DANIEL.
But "let your works shine," saith He;^ but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians. What does the case seem to be with regard to that species (of ceremony) also? If it is an idol's honour, without doubt an idol's honour is idolatry. If it is for a man's sake, let us again consider that all idolatry is for man's sake;' let us again consider that • i.e., by sinning (Oehler), for " the wages of sin is death."
2 There seems to be a play on the word " convivere " (whence "convivium," etc.), as in Cic. de Sen. xiii.
4 [This is noteworthy. In the earlier days sabbaths (Saturdays) were not unobserved, but, it was a concession pro tempore^ to Hebrew Christians.]
5 i.e., perhaps your own birthdays. [See cap. xvi. infra.'\ Oehler seems to think it means, " all other Cliristian festivals be- side Sunday."
*[" An Easter Day in every week." — Keble."]
7 i.e., a space of fifty days, see Deut. xvi. 10; and comp. Hooker, all idolatry is a worship done to men, since it is generally agreed even among their wor- shippers that aforetime the gods themselves of the nations were men; and so it makes no difference whether that superstitious homage be rendered to men of a former age or of this. Idolatry is condemned, not on account of the persons which are set up for worship, but on account of those its observances, which pertain to demons. " The things which are Cjesar's are to be rendered to Caesar." "^ It is enough that He set in apposition thereto, "and to God the things which are God's." What things, then, are Caesar's? Those, to wit, about which the consultation was then held, whether the poll-tax should be furnished to Caesar or no. Therefore, too, the Lord demanded that the money should be shown Him, and inquired about the image, whose it was; and when He had heard it was Caesar's, said, "Render to Caesar what are Caesar's, and what are God's to God;" that is, the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man," to God; so as to render to Caesar in- deed money, to God yoursel/ Otherwise, what will be God's, if all things are Caesar's? " Then," do you say, " the lamps before my doors, and the laurels on my posts are an honour to God? " They are there of course, not because they are an honour to God, but to him who is honoured in God's stead by ceremonial observances of that kind, so far as is manifest, saving the religious perform- ance, which is in secret appertaining to de- mons. For we ought to be sure if there are any whose notice it escapes through ignorance of this world's literature, that there are among the Romans even gods of entrances; Cardea (Hinge-goddess), called after hinges, and Forculus (Door-god) after doors, and Limentinus (Threshold-god) after the thresh- old, and Janus himself (Gate-god) after the gate: and of course we know that, though names be empty and feigned, yet, when they are drawn down into superstition, demons and every unclean spirit seize them for themselves, through the bond of consecration. Otherwise demons have no name individually, but they there find a name where they find also a token. Among the Greeks likewise we read of Apollo Thyrseus, i.e. of the door, and the Antelii, or Anthelii, demons, as presiders over entrances. These things, therefore, the Holy Spirit foreseeing from the beginning, fore-chanted, through the most ancient proph- et Enoch, that even entrances would come ■|5 Matt. xxii_. 21; Mark xii. 17; Luke xx. 25.
" See GcB. i. a6, 27, ix. 6; and comp. 1 Cor. xi. 7.
CHAP. XVIl.]
ON IDOLATRY.
71 into superstitious use. For we see too that other entrances ' are adored in the baths. But if there are beings which are adored in entrances, it is to them that both the lamps and the laurels will pertain. To an idol you will have done whatever you shall have done to an entrance. In this place I call a witness on the authority also of God; because it is not safe to suppress whatever may have been shown to one, of course for the sake of all. I know that a brother was severely chastised, the same night, through a vision, because on the sudden announcement of public re- joicings his servants had wreathed his gates. And yet himself had not wreathed, or com- manded them to be wreathed; for he had gone forth _//<?;« home before, and on his re- turn had reprehended the deed. So strictly are we appraised with God in matters of this kind, even with regard to the discipline of our family.* Therefore, as to what relates to the honours due to kings or emperors, we have a prescript sufficient, that it behoves us to be in all obedience, according to the apos- tle's precept, 3 " subject to magistrates, and princes, and powers;" * but within the limits of discipline, so long as we keep ourselves separate from idolatry. For it is for this reason, too, that that example of the three brethren has forerun us, who, in other re- spects obedient toward king Nebuchodonosor, rejected with all constancy the honour to his image, 5 proving that whatever is extolled be- yond the measure of human honour, unto the resemblance of divine sublimity, is idolatry. So too, Daniel, in all other points submissive to Darius, remained in his duty so long as it was free from danger to his religion;* for, to avoid undergoing that danger, he feared the royal lions no more than they the royal fires. Let, therefore, them who have no light, light their lamps daily; let them over whom the fires of hell are imminent, affix to their posts laurels doomed presently to burn: to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of their penalties are suitable. You are a light of the world,' and a tree ever green. ^ If you have renounced temples, make not your own gate a temple. I have said too little. If you have renounced stews, clothe not your I The word is the same as that for "the mouth" of a river, etc. Hence Oehler supposes the " entrances " or " mouths" here referred to to be the mouths oi /oitntains, where nyinphs v/ere supposed to dwell. Nympha is supposed to be the same word as Lympka. See Hor. Sat. i. 5, 97; and Macleane's note.
* [He seems to refer to some Providential event, perhaps an- nounced in a dream, not necessarily out of the course of common occurrences. J 3 Rom. xui. I, etc.; i Pet. ii, 13, 14.
4 Tit. iii. I.
5 Dan. iii.
* Dan. vi.
own house with the appearance of a new brothel.
CHAP. XVI. CONCERNING PRIVATE FESTIVALS.
Touching the ceremonies, however, of pri- vate and social solemnities — as those of the white toga, of espousals, of nuptials, of name- givings — I should think no danger need be guarded against from the breath of the idola- try which is mixed up with them. For the causes are to be considered to which the cere- mony is due. Those above-named I take to be clean in themselves, because neither manly garb, nor the marital ring or union, descends from honours done to any idol. In short, I find no dress cursed by God, except a woman's dress on a man:' for "cursed," saith He, " is every man who clothes himself in woman's attire." The toga, however, is a dress of manly tiavie as well as of manly iise.^'^ God no more prohibits nuptials to be cele- brated than a name to be given. " But there are sacrifices appropriated to these occa- sions." Let me be invited, and let not the title of the ceremony be " assistance at a sac- rifice," and the discharge of my good offices is at the service of 7ny friends. Would that it were " at their service " indeed, and that we could escape seeing what is unlawful for us to do. But since the evil one has so surrounded the world with idolatry, it will be lawful for us to be present at some ceremonies which see us doing service to a man, not to an idol. Clearly, if invited unto priestly function and sacrifice, I will not go, for that is service pe- culiar to an idol; but neither will I furnish advice, or expense, or any other good office in a matter of that kind. If it is on account of the sacrifice that I be invited, and stand by, I shall be partaker of idolatry; if any other cause conjoins me to the sacrificer, I shall be merely a spectator of the sacrifice."
CHAP. XVII. THE CASES OF SERVANTS AND OTHER OFFICIALS. WHAT OFFICES A CHRIS- TIAN MAN MAY HOLD.
But what shall believing servants or chil- dren'^ do? officials likewise, when attending on their lords, or patrons, or superiors, when sacrificing? Well, if any one shall have handed the wine to a sacrificer, nay, if by any 9 Tertullian should have added, " and a man's on a woman." See Deut. xxii. 5. Moreover, the word " cursed " is not used there, but " abomination " is.
1° Because it was called to^a in'rilis — " the manly toga." " [i Cor. viii. The law of the inspired apostle seems as rigor- ous here and in i Cor. x. 27-29.]
1= This is Oehler's reading; Regaltius and Fr. Junius would read " liberti " = freedmen. I admit that in this instance I prefer their reading: among other reasons it answers better to " patroni* = " patrons."
ON IDOLATRY.
[chap. XVIII.
single word necessary or belonging to a sacri- fice he shall have aided him, he will be held to be a minister of idolatry. Mindful of this rule, we can render service even "to magis- trates and powers," after the example of the ]-)atriarchs and the other forefathers,' who obeyed idolatrous kings up to the confine of idolatry. Hence arose, very lately, a dispute whether a servant of God should take the ad- ministration of any dignity or power, if he be able, whether by some special grace, or by adroitness, to keep himself intact from every species of idolatry; after the example that both Joseph and Daniel, clean from idolatry, administered both dignity and power in the livery and purple of the prefecture of entire Egypt or Babylonia. And so let us grant that it is possible for any one to succeed in moving, in whatsoever office, under the mere tianie of the office, neither sacrificing nor lending his authority to sacrifices; not farm- ing out victims; not assigning to others the care of temples; not looking after their trib- utes; not giving spectacles at his own or the public charge, or presiding over the giving them; making proclamation or edict for no solemnity; not even taking oaths: moreover (what comes under the head oi po7uer), neither sitting in judgment on any one's life or char- acter, for you might bear with his judging about money; neither condemning nor fore- condemning; ^ binding no one, imprisoning or torturing no one — if it is credible that all this is possible.
CHAP. XVIII. — DRESS AS CONNECTED WITH IDOLATRY, But we must now treat of the garb only and apparatus of office. There is a dress proper to every one, as well for daily use as for office and dignity. That famous purple, therefore, and the gold as an ornament of the neck, were, among the Egyptians and Babylonians, en- signs of dignity, in the same way as bordered, or striped, or palm-embroidered togas, and the golden wreaths of provincial priests, are now; but not on the same terms. For they used only to be conferred, under the name of /lonour, on such as deserved the familiar friendship of kings (whence, too, such used to be styled the " purpled-men " ^ of kings, just as among us,* some, from their white toga, are called " candidates " s); but not on the ' Majores. Of course the word may be rendered simply "an- cients:" but I have kept the common meaning "forefathers."
■^ " rhe judge condemns, the legislator fore-condemns."— Ri- GALTius (Oehler.)
3 Or, " purpurates."
4 [Not us Christians, but us Roman citizens.]
5 Or, " white-men."
understanding that that garb should be tied to priesthoods also, or to any idol-ceremonies. For if that were the case, of course men of such holiness and constancy' would instantly have refused the defiled dresses; and it would instantly have appeared that Daniel had been no zealous slave to idols, nor worshipped Bel, nor the dragon, which long after did appear. That purple, therefore, was simple, and used not at that time to be a mark of dignity ' among the barbarians, but of nobility. "^ For as both Joseph, who had been a slave, and Daniel, who through 5 captivity had changed his state, attained the freedom of the states of Babylon and Egypt through the dress of barbaric no- bility; " so among us believers also, if need so be, the bordered toga will be proper to be conceded to boys, and the stole to girls," as ensigns of birth, not of power; of race, not of office; of rank, not of superstition. But the purple, or the other ensigns of dignities and powers, dedicated from the beginning to idol- atry engrafted on the dignity and the powers,"* carry the spot of their own profanation; since, moreover, bordered and striped togas, and broad-barred ones, are put even on idols them- selves; and fasces also, and rods, are borne before them; and deservedly, for demons are the magistrates of this world: they bear the fasces and the purples, the ensigns of one college. What end, then, will you advance if you use the garb indeed, but administer not the functions of it? In things unclean, none can appear clean. If you put on a tunic defiled in itself, it perhaps may not be defiled through you; but you, through it, will be un- able to be clean. Now by this time, you who argue about " Joseph " and " Daniel," know that things old and new, rude and polished, begun and developed, slavish and free, are not always comparable. For they, even by their circumstances, were slaves; but you, the slave of none,'= in so far as you are the slave of Christ alone, '^ who has freed you like- wise from the captivity of the world, will incur the duty of acting after your Lord's pattern. That Lord walked in humility and obscurity, with no definite home: for " the Son of man," said He, " hath not where to lay His head; " '* unadorned in dress, for else He had not said, 6 Or, " consistency."
9 Or, "during."
•o i.e., the dress was the sign that they had obtained it.
»' I have departed from Oehler's reading here, as 1 have not succeeded in finding that the " stota " was a boy^s garment; and, for grammatical reasons, the reading of Gelenius and Pamclius (which I have taken) seems best.
M St. Paul in his epistle glories in the title, " Paul, a slave," or " bondman," " of Christ Jesus."
CHAP. XX.]
ON IDOLATRY.
"Behold, they who are clad in soft raiment are in kings' houses:"' in short, inglorious in countenance and aspect, just as Isaiah withal had fore-announced. = If, also. He ex- ercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He discharged menial ministry; 3 if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom,^ He shrank back from be- ing made a king,^ He in the fullest manner gave His own an example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as of power. For if they ivcre to be used, who would rather have used them than the Son of (iod? What kind and what number oi fasces would escort Him? what kind of purple would bloom from His shoulders? what kind of gold would beam from His head, had He not judged the glory of the world to be alien both to Himself and to His? Therefore what He was unwilling to accept, He has rejected; what He rejected, He has condemned; what He condemned. Fie has counted as part of the devil's pomp. For He would not have con- demned things, except such as were not His; but things which are not God's, can be no other's but the devil's. If you have forsworn "the devil's pomp,"* know that whatever there you touch is idolatry. Let even this fact help to remind you that all the powers