Baptism When we are going to enter the water, but a little before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and his angels. Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel. Then when we are taken up (as new-born children), we taste first […]
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Tertullian: On the Divinity of Christ
God made the world, and all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power. … The Word, and Reason, and Power, by which God made all, have spirit as their proper and essential substratum, in which the Word has in being to give forth utterances, and reason abides to dispose and arrange, and power is over all to execute. He proceeds forth from God, and in that procession […]
Read moreTertullian: Apology
The Persecution of Christians 1. Christians were deprived of the right to defend themselves before their accusers and the court. They were also denied the due process of law, for they were prosecuted differently from criminals, though condemned likewise, for “the crime of murder, or sacrilege, or incest, or treason”. And then, too, you do not in that case deal with us in the ordinary way of judicial proceedings against offenders; […]
Read moreTertullian: The Unity Of The Divine Law
He gave to all nations the selfsame law, which at definite and stated times He enjoined should be observed, when He willed, and through whom He willed, and as He willed. For in the beginning of the world He gave to Adam himself and Eve a law, that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree planted in the midst of paradise; but that, if they did […]
Read moreTertullian: The Foundation of Morality
Knowledge of God is Necessary for Virtue Taught of God himself what goodness is, we have both a perfect knowledge of it as revealed to us by a perfect Master; and faithfully we do His will, as enjoined on us by a Judge we dare not despise. But your ideas of virtue you have got from mere human opinion; on human authority, too, its obligation rests: hence your system of […]
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