Showing results by author "Quintus Tertullianus" in All Categories

The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. Do you inquire whom he has slain? If it contributes ought to the aggravation of the indictment, no stranger nor personal enemy, but his own self. By what snares? Those of his error. By what weapon? The offense done to God. By how many blows? As many as are his idolatries.

The Apology (Latin: Apologeticum or Apologeticus) is Tertullian's most famous work, consisting of apologetic and polemic. In this book, Tertullian defends the Christian Church, demanding legal toleration and that Christians be treated as all other sects or religions of the Roman Empire. It is in this treatise that one finds the phrase: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

In which the author gives a concise account of, together with sundry caustic animadversions on, the very fantastic theology of the sect. This treatise is professedly taken from the writings of Justin, Miltiades, Irenæus, and Proculus.

This was written by our author in confutation of certain heretics who denied the reality of Christ’s flesh, or at least its identity with human flesh - fearing that, if they admitted the reality of Christ’s flesh, they must also admit his resurrection in the flesh; and, consequently, the resurrection of the human body after death.

If ancient illustrations of faith that both testify to God’s grace and tend to man’s edification are collected in writing, so that by the perusal of them, as if by the reproduction of the facts, as well God may be honored, as man may be strengthened; why should not new instances be also collected, that shall be equally suitable for both purposes - if only on the ground that these modern examples will one day become ancient and available for posterity, although in their present time they are esteemed of less authority, by reason of the presumed veneration for antiquity?