and the condition of this world,-which is equally temporary, and is now spread forth as it were a curtain interrupting the prospect of that eternal disposition of all things,-shall be removed, then shall the whole human race be restored to life, to receive the good or the evil which they have deserved in that temporary life; and so will their condition be determined for the endless ages of eternity.

Hence there is no real death, nor a constant succession of resurrections; but we shall be the same persons as we are now, and shall so continue for ever; the worshippers of God, before him for ever, clothed upon with the peculiar substance of immortality: but the wicked, and those who have not given themselves wholly to God, in the punishment of equally eternal fire, which possesses from its very nature, which is divine, the means of continuing for ever without exhaustion. Your philosophers themselves acknowledge the difference

This is probably an allusion to the opinion of a Millennium, which Tertullian had adopted; as is evident from the fanciful account which he gives in his third Book against Marcion, c. 24., of a city which had been seen suspended in the skies in Judea for forty successive days, in the morning. This he conceived to be an image of the new Jerusalem. "Nam et confitemur in terrâ nobis regnum repromissum; sed ante cœlum, sed alio statu: utpote post resurrectionem in mille annos, in civitate divini operis Hierusalem cœlo delata, quam et Apostolus matrem nostrum sursum designat, &c."

e 2 Cor. v. 2. So also Lactantius vii. c. 21. Et tamen non erit caro illa, quam Deus homini superjecerit, huic terrena similis, sed insolubilis, et permanens in æternum.

eyes.

between secret fire and that which is before our Thus the nature of the fire, which serves the ordinary purposes of life, is very different from that of the fire which executes the judgments of God; whether it darts lightning from heaven, or bursts forth from the earth at the tops of the mountains. For this fire consumes not that which it burns; but, while it blasts, restores the substance. Thus the mountains, which are continually burning, still remain; and a body stricken by the lightning is thenceforth secure from the flames, for it cannot be burnt.' This, then, may seem as a testimony of eternal fire, an example of a judgment, which constantly produces the means of punishment. The mountains burn, and continue. Much more the wicked, and the enemies of God.

Ut qui de cœlo tangitur salvus est, ut nullo jam igni decinerescat.

Minucius Felix, Octavius, c. 34. p. 105. seems to have understood Tertullian as asserting that the bodies of those who are killed by lightning, are apparently uninjured.

Nec tormentis aut modus ullus, aut terminus. Illic sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit; carpit et nutrit; sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt, nec absumunt: sicut ignes Ætnæ et Vesuvii, et ardentium ubique terrarum flagrant, nec erogantur. Ita pœnale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesâ corporum laceratione nutritur.

CHAPTER XLIX.

SUCH are the opinions which in us alone are regarded as prejudices, but in your philosophers and poets, marks of the height of wisdom and strength of intellect. They are prudent, we foolish; they are worthy of honour, we of ridicule, and even still further, of punishment. Suppose that the doctrines which we advocate are prejudices, and merely fanciful; they are yet necessary: if unfounded, they are yet useful, since those who maintain them are compelled to be better men, from the fear of eternal punishment, and the hope of everlasting happiness. Those tenets, therefore, ought not to be called false or foolish, which it is the interest of every one to consider true. What is of universal benefit ought by no means to be condemned. The charge of prejudice falls upon you, for condemning that which is useful. Neither can these opinions be foolish: and even if they were both false and foolish, they yet injure no one: they are even then merely like many other notions, against which ye denounce no punishment; fanciful

and fabulous, perhaps, but yet professed without danger of accusation or of punishment, because they are perfectly innocent. But in questions of this nature, if error is to be subject to ridicule, it at least ought not to expose us to sword and fire, to crucifixion and wild beasts; a degree of unjust cruelty, which is not only the delight of this blinded populace, but the boast of some even of yourselves, who court the favour of the people; as if all which we endure from you were not in our own power. Assuredly it is at my own option to be a Christian; ye will, therefore, then condemn me, when I am willing to be condemned. Since, therefore, all the power, which ye possess against me, ye possess not, unless I choose, your power no longer depends upon you, but upon my will. Hence also the pleasure which the people take in tormenting us is but a vain delight: for it is really our pleasure which they take to themselves, since we prefer to be so condemned, rather than to fall from God. On the other hand, they who hate us, ought rather to grieve than to rejoice, when we have attained the object of our choice.

CHAPTER L.

"WHEREFORE, then,"
then," ye will say,

"do ye

He

Christians complain that we persecute you, when ye ought to love us as the instruments by which ye attain the object of your wishes?" We are, indeed, willing to suffer; but it is with the feelings of a soldier, who would not choose to expose himself to the perils of war, but involuntarily dreads the danger, which he is compelled to encounter. yet fights with all his might; and he, who complained of the necessity of engaging in the battle, rejoices, when he hath fought and conquered in the battle, inasmuch as he hath obtained his reward of glory, and his portion of the spoil. It is our battle, to be called before the seats of judgment, there to contend for the truth at the hazard of our lives. And it is our victory, if we obtain that for which we strive. That victory obtains the glory of pleasing God, and the reward of eternal life. But, it will be said, we fall in the contest. We do fall, but it is when the victory is won: when we are slain, we are conquerors; when we fall, we gain