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possess a prior claim to its dignities and If he was destined to lose his life, he had been taught that martyrdom was a second and more efficacious baptism-96 that it washed away every stain-and that, while the souls of ordinary Christians passed the interval between their separation from the body and the general resurrection in a state of incomplete enjoyment, that of the martyr was secure of immediate admission to the perfect happiness of Heaven.

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When such were the privileges conferred, both in this and in the next world, by suffering for the faith of Christ, it is not surprising that men of an ardent and enthusiastic temper should aspire to the crown of martyrdom, and eagerly encounter persecution. Nor can it be dissembled that 98 some of the early fathers, in

94 Sed alium ex martyrii prærogativa loci potitum indignatus. Adv. Valentinianos, c. 4. See de Fugâ in Persecutione, c. 11.

95 De Patientiâ, c. 13. Scorpiace, c. 6. sub fine. De Pudicitiâ, c. 9. sub fine, c. 22. De Baptismo, c. 16.

96 Apology, sub fine. Omnia enim huic operi delicta donantur.

97 Nemo enim, peregrinatus a corpore, statim immoratur penes Dominum, nisi ex martyrü prærogativa, Paradiso scilicet, non inferis, deversurus. De Resur. Carnis, c. 43. Scorpiace, c. 12. Ad ipsum divinæ sedis ascensum. De Patientiâ, c. 13. 98 Denique cum omni sævitiâ vestrâ concertamus, etiam ultrò erumpentes, magisque damnati quam absoluti gaudemus.

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their anxiety to confirm the faith of the convert, and to prevent him from apostatizing in the hour of trial, occasionally spoke a language calculated to encourage men to make that gratuitous sacrifice of life, to which the sober decision of reason must annex the name and the guilt of suicide. It may be asked, perhaps, "what surer mark there can be of that love of God, in which consists the perfection of the Christian character, than an earnest desire to be removed from this world of vanity and sin, and to be admitted to the immediate perception of the Divine Presence? 99 When Tertullian says, that the Christian's only concern respecting this life is, that he may as speedily as possible exchange it for another, in what does his language differ from that of St. Paul, who tells 100 the Philippians that he has a desire to depart, and to be with Christ? " But this desire was tempered and controlled in the mind of the Apostle by a feeling of implicit resignation to the will of God. He must

Ad Scapulam, c. 1. Absit enim ut indigne feramus ea nos pati quæ optamus, c. 2. See also c. 5.

99 In primis, quia nihil nostra refert in hoc ævo, nisi de eo quam celeriter excedere. Apology, c. 41.

100 c. 1. v. 23. Tertullian refers more than once to this very passage. Cupidi et ipsi iniquissimo isto sæculo eximi, et recipi ad Dominum, quod etiam Apostolo votum fuit. Ad Uxorem, L. i. c. 5. Ipso Apostolo festinante ad Dominum. De Exhort. Castitatis, c. 12. See also de Spectaculis, c. 28.

abide in the flesh so long as his ministry could be useful to the Philippians; and it was not for him to determine for how long a period his usefulness would continue. Though he was prepared-though he longed for the summons to depart, he did not venture to anticipate it; and far from courting martyrdom, he employed all warrantable methods of preserving his life. Tertullian himself, 101 in the Apology, discriminates accurately between the case of a Christian who voluntarily denounces himself, and that of one who, when brought before the magistrate, professes his gladness that he is called to suffer on account of his faith. He supposes a heathen to ask, "Why do you complain of being persecuted, when it is your own wish to suffer?" His answer is, "No doubt, we wish to suffer; but in the same manner that a soldier wishes for the battle. He wishes to obtain the spoil and glory consequent upon victory; but would gladly avoid the danger to which he will be exposed, though he does not shrink from it.

101 Ergo, inquitis, cur querimini quod vos insequamur, si pati vultis, quum diligere debeatis per quos patimini quod vultis? Plane volumus pati; verum eo more, quo et bellum nemo quidem libens patitur, quum et trepidare et periclitari sit necesse ; tamen et præliatur omnibus viribus, et vincens in prælio gaudet qui de prælio querebatur, quia et gloriam consequitur et prædam, c. 50.

So we, though we endure your persecutions in the hope of finally obtaining the reward of our fidelity, would gladly avoid them, could we do so consistently with our allegiance to Christ."

While however we condemn that immoderate anxiety to obtain the honours of martyrdom, which appears to have been too prevalent among the primitive Christians, let us not involve, in one indiscriminate censure, all who either became their own accusers before the magistrates, or refused to save themselves by flight, or by any other innocent means, from the certain death which awaited them. The moral character of the act must depend upon the motive by which it was dictated. The name of suicide is justly applied to that voluntary sacrifice of life, which originates in distrust of the goodness, or impatience of the visitations of God-in disgust at the world—or in a presumptuous desire to seize, before the appointed time, the rewards reserved in heaven for the faithful followers of Christ. But who can fail to discern the clear distinction between these cases and the noble refusal of Socrates to save his life by escaping from prison? a refusal dictated by a feeling of reverence for the laws of his country, and a conviction that he was bound to obey them even unto death. In like

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manner it may be presumed that, when the primitive Christians voluntarily presented themselves before the tribunal of the magistrate, they were frequently actuated by a more justifiable motive than the desire of securing the honours of martyrdom. They might hope to arrest the violence of an angry governor, by convincing him of the inutility of persecuting men who, far from dreading or avoiding any punishments which he could inflict, came forward to meet them. They might hope to excite a feeling, if not of compassion, at least of horror, in his mind; by shewing him that he must wade through a sea of blood in order to accomplish his purpose. Such is the construction put by 102 Lardner upon the conduct of the Asiatic Christians; who during a persecution presented themselves in a body before the tribunal of 103 Arrius Antoninus, the proconsul. He regards as an act of well-timed, as well as generous, self-devotion, that which

102 Heathen Testimonies. Observations on Pliny's Letter. Sect. vii.

103 Learned men are not agreed respecting the individual of whom this story is told. Lardner supposes him to have been the maternal grandfather of Antoninus Pius, who was proconsul of Asia during the reign of Nerva or Trajan. Gibbon supposes him to have been Antoninus Pius himself, who was also proconsul of Asia. Casaubon fixes upon an Arrius Antoninus, who was murdered during the reign of Commodus. Ælii Lampridii Commodus, p. 870.