Tertullians apology, or, Defence of the Christians against the accusations of the gentiles now made English by H.B. Esq.

CHAP. II.

IF notwithstanding you cannot part with the o∣pinion you have conceived, but beleeve us indeed guilty, why are wee handled otherwise then they who, being like us, are in like maner guilty? Seeing by the rules of justice the same fault ought to have the same maner of punishment. When men, not of our Religion are accused of the same crimes they impute to us, it is permitted them to have their innocency made knowne, to defend themselves by word of mouth, to take counsell of an Advocate; they are suffered to give an answer unto what ob∣jected against them, and to make good their justifi∣cation; for the Laws do not allow those to bee con∣demned whose offences have not been heard. It is on∣ly from the Christians they take the liberty to speak in their justification, to uphold the truth, and to de∣clare to the Judges the things they ought necessarily to know, that their judgements might not bee suspe∣cted of injustice. They require for the condemning of us, but only the confession of the name Christian, they stay not till the crimes wherewith they charge us be examined, and it is the confession only that exposeth us to publick hatred. When you put up a processe against a Criminall, you doe not pronounce his condemnation so soon as confest hee is a murthe∣rer, sacrilegious, incestuous, an enemy of the State, which are the titles they give us: But you examine

the circumstances, you consider the qualities of the fact, in what place, in what maner, and at what time the crime was committed, then you informe your selves against the complices; you do not keep these forms when you proceed against us, and yet you will condemne us without shew of justice; you must make us appear guilty of the things which are falsly imputed to us; for example, how many children a Christian denounced after inhumanely cut their throats, how many times darkness give him the assu∣rance of satiating his incontineney with incestuous imbraces, who the Cooks dressed the flesh of these bodies so cruelly murthered, & of what sort the dogs (as you suppose) brought into our assemblies, to serve to put out the lights. Oh what great glory to a Judge to have convinced by due proof a Christian to have caten the fieash of an hundred children? seeing we read it hath otherwise beene hecretofore forbid even so much as to make any maner of inquiry after us. Pliny the second, whilest Governor of Asia, after sentencing to death many Christians, & depriving others of their dignities, wondred his severity did not diminish their number, and consutred with the Emperour Trajan to know in what maner hee should governe for the time to come, in the behalf of Christians that should bee presented to him. Hee wrot to him that besides their firm resolution of not sacrificing to the Gods, he could learn no other thing touching their Religion, but of their assembling together before day to sing prayses to Jesus Christ, and to God, and to unite their wills to the conservation of the discipline esta∣blished

amongst them: forbidding expresly murder, adultery, fraud, persidiousnesse, and other crimes. Trajan by way of answer, returnes him a command not to make inquiry after them, but being brought before him to punish them. O judgement wrapt up in a necessary and inexplicable ambiguity.! How is it possible to accord things so opposite? Hec for∣bids to seek after Christians, as being innocent, and commands to punush them as criminalls. He is mer∣cifull and cruell, pardons, and punisheth at the same time. How comes it you are contrary to your selves, that your owne judgement beares witnesse of your own Injustice? If you think wee deserve punishment, why forbid to enquire after us? If thought fitting not to enquire after us, why then not acquit us? Pro∣vosts are established in all Provinces, to discover and take theeves. Arms are lawfull in the hands of all men to be employed against traytors, and against the enemies of the State. When once made ac∣quainted with a villany committed, wee apprehend in the pursuit all wee suspect to bee Pertakers with them that commit it. They are only Christians are forbid to be sought after, and yet permitted at the same time to bee dragd before the Tribunals of Ju∣stice, as if the enquiry made to no other end then to present men before the Judges. So you condemn a Christian when once found out, although according to the design of your Lawes, hee should bee assured against all searches; and when you condemn them, I doe not beleeve you judge them worthy of the pu∣nishment you ordain them, because guilty, but onely

because discovered; and that there are people found bold enough to enquire of their life against the pub∣lick ordinances. But when a Christian is in your hands, you doe not act against him as you are used to act when you would pursue the vengeance of a crime, for when the other accused boldly maintaine they are not guilty, you ordayn they should bee put to the rack, to the end that torture may force them to confesse, and contrarily you apply it to the Chri∣stians only to force them to deny. If our Religion were evill, without doubt wee should flie to deny∣ings in the same maner as criminalls doe, and you would be forced to draw confessions from us by the force of torments; you say you doe not think your selves obliged to seek by tortures the proofe of the evill we doe, because you certainly beleeve the con∣fession of the name Christian carries enough with it of all crimes. But this pretence is not lawfull: for if a man be accused of murder, although you know well enough of what nature his crime is, yet you doe not content your selves with the confission, but you force him to declare the order hee took to com∣mit it; you doe not deal so with us, and the strange∣ness of your proceeding discovers visibly your inju∣stice. You hold that to confesse the name Christian makes us guilty, and you make use of violence to force us to retract it, in disavowing the name of Christian, we discharge our selves, at the same time of the crimes you impute to us because of this con∣fession. But I think you do so, because you will not have us destroy our selves, wee whom you take for

execrable persons: It may be you are wont to bid a murtherer deny the murther he is accused of, and in∣joyne a sacrilegious person to suffer more torments if he persevers inconfessing his impiety. Now seeing you proceede not against us as against Criminals, its a figne you thinke us very innocent; Then ther∣fore it is without doubt you will not have us per∣sist in this confeission, whereas you know very well that condemnation is grounded on the necessity im∣posed on you to obey the lawes of the state, and not on the rules of justice. A man cryes out in the midst of his torments, and saith, I am a Christian, he de∣clares openly what he is; you would heare from his mouth what he is not. You are resolved, purposed, de∣termined to draw the proofe of the truth by the con∣fession of the accused, and of all other men, but there are none but we of whom you strive to heare lies. You ask me (saith one of us) if I be a Christian, and I answer, I am. Why endeavour you to corrupt me by force of tortures? I confesse and you torment mee. What would you doe if I should deny? when those that are guilty protest they are innocent, you be∣lieve not the truth from their words; and you be∣lieve us so soone as wee say wee are not Christians. Certainely this unjust affection which so unhapplly troubles your reason, is to be suspected, and ought to make you thinke ther's some secret violence that workes in your minds, and makes you proceed in our cause against the order and nature of judgement, and also against the Laws. If I bee not deceived the laws command us to discover, and not conceale of∣offenders

in withdrawing them from punishment, it or daines that those who confess themselves guil∣ty should be condemned, and not absolved.

These are the rules established by the authority of your Senate, and custome of your Princes: these are the maximes which are in use in the exercise of the power whereof you are ministers; for the autho∣rity of your magistracy is lawfull, and not Tyrani∣call. Tyrants are accustomed to add tortures to or∣dinary punishments to render them more cruell: but as your pollicy is full of humanity, you make no use of it, but force the accused 10 confesse. Keepe this Law in its vigour, and stretch it not further then its bounds; its necessary to draw confession from the mouth of criminalls, but if they prevent its rigour men must not use it, there remaines nothing in this case but to judge and punish it. Punishment establi∣shed by the laws is a debt which they are bound to acquit, and whereof its unjust to discharge it after it is confest. Indeed wee see nojudge that strives o∣penly to save a wicked person. Neither is he permit∣ted to have a will to it; and from thence it comes in order of judgement wee doe not force men to de∣nie. You believe a man cannot make profession of Christianity without being tainted with all sorts of crimes; without being an enemy to the Gods, to Princes, to the lawes, to good manners, and to na∣ture, and that a Christian cannot be acquitted unless he denyes himselfe to be a Christian; you force him to deny that you may acquit him, which is appa∣rantly tobetraye the justice of the lawes. What

would you have him deny he is guiltie that you may make him innocēt, even against his wil, & that a man cannnot after impute to him what is past to render him criminall? tell us what motion inspires you with an affection so, unreasonable? and from whence comes it you resolve not to believe him that volunta∣rily confesseth rather then the party that denyes what hee is accused of by constraint: This last being forced in his judgement mayspeake against his con∣science, and keeping in his heart the Christian Reli∣gion, after hee is absolved, deride you at the same time you come to judge him, because of the partia∣lity you shew in maintaining your opinions at the charge of justice. Now seeing you treat us in every thing otherwise then criminalls, and your onely end is to make us foregoe the name wee beare,(and wee undoubtedly relinquish the same if wee doe what they doe who are not Christians) you may easily ap∣prehend we are not guiltie of any wickednesse: that our being named Christians is our onely crime, that his appellation is unjustly prosecuted by the motions of a rash and blinde hatred, whereof the first effect is to take from men the desire of knowing certain∣ly the things which they know they have no assured knowledge of at all. So they believe all that is pub∣lished against us, although they see no proofes, and they will not let our lives be enquired after, for feare a lawfull proceeding discover onely the things they will not have to bee believed to bee true, and they take occasion to condemne this name, which is the object of their hatred, on the onely confession wee

make as if the confession of the name were suffici∣ent for the conviction of those crimes, they attribute to it without any other ground then their owne o∣pinion. Then as our contention is but a contention a∣bout a name, they torment us when wee confesse it, they punish our constancy, and acquit us when wee denie it. But after all, when you pronounce sentence against a Christian, why doe you not declare ano∣ther cause of his condemnation then that hee is a Christian? Why say you not hee is guilty of mur∣ther, and of incest? that he hath committed all other crimes imputed to us by your selves. It seemes there are none but wee against whom you are asha∣med to pronounce judgement under the notion of these execrable actions. If the name of Christian bee not a name of naughtinesse, then what you attribute to it is nothing pertinent, it being the name onely, and not any wickedness that name importeth, Which you finde fault with.