o kill a man, whose person the Divine Being designed to be sacred as to
violence."

It will be unnecessary to make extracts from other of the early
Christian writers, who mention this subject. I shall therefore only
observe, that the names of Origen, Archelaus, Ambrose, Chrysostom,
Jerom, and Cyril, may be added, to those already mentioned, as the names
of persons who gave it as their opinion, that it was unlawful for
Christians to go to war.

With respect to the practice of the early Christians, which is the next
point to be considered, it may be observed, that there is no well
authenticated instance upon record, of Christians entering into the army
for the first two centuries; but it is true, on the other hand, that
they declined the military profession, as one in which it was not lawful
for them to engage.

The first species of evidence, which I shall produce to this point, may
be found in the following facts, which reach from the year 169 to the
year 198, Avidius Crassus had rebelled against the emperor Verus, and
was slain in a short time afterwards. Clodius Albinus in one part of the
world, and Pescenninus Niger in another, rebelled against the emperor
Severus, and both were slain likewise. Now suspicion fell, as it always
did in these times, if any thing went wrong, upon the Christians, as
having been concerned upon these occasions. But Tertullian, in his
Discourse to Scapula, tells us, that no Christians were to be found in
these armies. And yet these armies were extensive. Crassus was master of
all Syria, with its four legions, Niger of the Asiatic and Egyptian
legions, and Albinus of those of Britain, which legions together
contained between a third and an half of the standing legions of Rome.
And the fact, that no Christians were to be found in these, is the more
remarkable, because, according to the same Tertullian, Christianity had
reached all the places, in which these armies were.

A second species of evidence, as far as it goes, may be collected from
expressions and declarations in the works of certain authors of those
times. Justin the Martyr, and Tatian, make distinctions between
soldiers and Christians; and the latter says, that the Christians
declined even military commands. Clemens of Alexandria, gives the
Christians, who were cotemporary with him, the appellation of
"peaceable, or of the followers of peace," thus distinguishing them from
the soldiers of his age. And he says expressly, that "tho