y decide that the military service is not permitted to
Christians; he ends, indeed, by saying, Puta denique licere militiam
usque ad causam coronae.--G. ----M. Guizot is. I think, again
unfortunate in his defence of Tertullian. That father says, that many
Christian soldiers had deserted, aut deserendum statim sit, ut a multis
actum. The latter sentence, Puta, &c, &c., is a concession for the sake
of argument: wha follows is more to the purpose.--M. Many other passages
of Tertullian prove that the army was full of Christians, Hesterni sumus
et vestra omnia implevimus, urbes, insulas, castella, municipia,
conciliabula, castra ipsa. (Apol. c. 37.) Navigamus et not vobiscum et
militamus. (c. 42.) Origen, in truth, appears to have maintained a more
rigid opinion, (Cont. Cels. l. viii.;) but he has often renounced this
exaggerated severity, perhaps necessary to produce great results, and he
speaks of the profession of arms as an honorable one. (l. iv. c. 218.)--
G. ----On these points Christian opinion, it should seem, was much
divided Tertullian, when he wrote the De Cor. Mil., was evidently
inclining to more ascetic opinions, and Origen was of the same class.
See Neander, vol. l part ii. p. 305, edit. 1828.--M.]

[Footnote 103: As well as we can judge from the mutilated representation
of Origen, (1. viii. p. 423,) his adversary, Celsus, had urged his
objection with great force and candor.]

Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.--Part VI.

V. But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a
temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and natural
level, and will resume those passions that seem the most adapted to its
present condition. The primitive Christians were dead to the business
and pleasures of the world; but their love of action, which could never
be entirely extinguished, soon revived, and found a new occupation in
the government of the church. A separate society, which attacked the
established religion of the empire, was obliged to adopt some form
of internal policy, and to appoint a sufficient number of ministers,
intrusted not only with the spiritual functions, but even with the
temporal direction of the Christian commonwealth. The safety of that
society, its honor, its aggrandizement, were productive, even in the
most pious minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of
the Romans had felt for the republic, and sometimes of a similar
indifference, in t