The Writings of Quintus Sept Flor Tertullianus

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1869. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... XVI. AD NAT10NES.1 Chap. I.1--The hatred felt by the heathen against the Christians is unjust, because based on culpable ignorance. -NE proof of that ignorance of yours, which condemns8 whilst it excuses4 your injustice, is at once apparent in the fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred [of the Christian religion], as soon as they have come to know it, leave off their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number of the Christians. Your constant cry is, that the State is beset [by us]; that Christians are in your fields, in your camps, in your islands. You grieve over it as a calamity, that each sex, every age--in short, every rank--is passing over from you to us; yet you do not even after this set your minds upon reflecting whether there be not here some latent good. You do 1 [This treatise resembles The Apology both in its general purport as a vindication of Christianity against heathen prejudice, and in many of its expressions and statements. So great is the resemblance, that this shorter work has been thought by some to have been a first draft of the longer and perfect one. Tertullian, however, here addresses his expostulations to the general publie, whilst in The Apology it is the rulers and magistrates of the empire whom he seeks to influence.] 1 [Comp. The Apology, c. i.] 3 Revincit. [" Condemnat" is Tertullian's word jn The Apology, i.] 4Defendit. ["Excusat" in Apol] not allow yourselves in suspicions which may prove too true,1 nor do you like ventures which may be too near the mark.2 This is the only instance in which human curiosity grows torpid. You love to be ignorant of wh...