are breathed by men of your religion; the wild beasts feed upon your men, and the vile herds of gladiators are replenished from the same source. Among these no Christian is found, unless the name of Christian be his only offence; or if he be accused of any other crime, he hath already ceased to be a Christian.

CHAPTER XLV.

BUT, it will be asked, are we Christians, then, the only men who live innocently? What wonder is this, if it be a necessary consequence, as it really is, of the principles which we and others profess? Since it is God himself who hath taught us to live innocently, we have learned perfect obedience as revealed by a perfect master; and we faithfully keep his commandments, since they are delivered by one whose scrutiny we cannot despise. Now the opinion of man hath given the rules for your innocence; and human authority hath imposed the law. Hence your precepts are neither so full nor so authoritative as they ought to be, to establish innocence of life in all its truth. To what extent can the prudence of man reach in shewing what is truly good? What authority can it exert to enforce its commands? The one can as easily be deceived as the other despised. Thus, which is the more extensive command, that which says, Thou shalt not kill, or that which declares, Thou shalt not even be angry? Which is the more perfect, for a law to prohibit adultery, or to forbid even the impurity of an unchaste look? Whether

is it wiser to interdict the doing or the speaking evil? Whether is it more effectual to forbid injury, or not to suffer even retaliation? We have already spoken of the antiquity of Moses, that ye may know that even those very laws of yours, which may seem to tend to the encouragement of innocence of life, have borrowed their enactments from the Divine law, which is older than they.

But, after all, what is the authority of human laws? since a man may usually evade them, by escaping detection, and sometimes set them at naught, by pleading that his offence was involuntary, or compulsory: especially when it is remembered, that the punishment which they can inflict is short; since, at the worst, it is terminated by death. Thus it was that Epicurus taught men to despise all pain and torture, declaring that if it were small, it was unworthy of regard, if great, it was of short duration. Whereas we, who are to give our account to God who sees all things, and know that he will inflict eternal punishment, are justly considered the only persons who uphold innocency of life, as well from the extent of God's knowledge, as from the difficulty of escape, and the greatness of a punishment which is not only of long, but of eternal duration; for we fear Him, who ought to be the object of fear even to the judge, who condemns us; because we fear God. and not the proconsul.

CHAPTER XLVI.

WE have now, I trust, sufficiently answered every charge which hath served as a pretext for requiring the blood of the Christians. We have shewn the whole of our real condition, and by what means we can prove it to be what we assert, namely, by the fidelity and antiquity of the sacred Scriptures, and by the confession of spiritual powers. If there be any one bold enough to attempt to confute us, he must endeavour to establish the truth, not by the mere artifice of a verbal dispute, but in the same manner in which we have established our proof.

But, while our truth is made manifest to every one, the incredulity of our adversaries-being no longer able to deny the goodness of our religion, which hath already been established even with reference to the daily intercourse and transactions of life-hath recourse to the excuse, that our faith is not of divine origin, but rather a species of philosophy. The philosophers, they say, preach and profess the same virtues with yourselves, innocence,

justice, patience, sobriety, chastity. If this be true, why do we not enjoy the same impunity for professing our doctrines, which those possess, to whom we are thus compared? Or why is it, that, while we are exposed to the greatest danger, for refusing to perform certain services, they are not compelled to do the same? For who ever thought of obliging a philosopher to sacrifice, or to swear by your gods, or vainly to light candles at noon day? Yet they openly oppose the worship of your gods, and in their writings also, which ye receive with applause, inveigh against your superstitions. Many of them also receive your support while they attack your princes, and are rather honoured with statues and pensions, than sentenced to be exposed to the wild beasts; and justly so, since they are denominated philosophers, not Christians. Will this name of philosophers cast out devils? How should it do so, when philosophers place those demons in the rank of gods? It is an expression of Socrates, "If the demon permit." The same philosopher, when he had attained some knowledge of the truth, in that he denied your gods, did yet, in his last moments, order a cock to be sacrificed to Esculapius; I suppose in honour of his father Apollo, who had pronounced Socrates the wisest of mortals. O thoughtless Apollo! he gave testimony in favour of the wisdom of the man, who denied the existence of the gods. In proportion