"The devil in the mystic rites of his idols competes
even with the essential portions of the sacraments of
God. He, like God, baptizes some, that is, his own
believing and faithful followers, and promises the putting
away of sins by baptism; and if I remember rightly
Mithras there signs his soldiers upon their foreheads,
celebrates the oblation of bread, introduces a representation
of the resurrection, and places the crown beyond
the sword."[22]

Elsewhere Tertullian writes:--

"If any of you think we render superstitious adoration
to the cross, in that adoration he is sharer with us . .
You worship _victories_, for in your trophies the cross
is the heart of the trophy. The camp religion of the
Romans is all through a worship of the standards . . . I
praise your zeal: you would not worship crosses
unclothed and unadorned."[23]

In another of Tertullian's works we read:--


"As for him who affirms that we are the priesthood of a
cross, we shall claim him as a co-religionist . . .
Every piece of timber which is fixed in the ground in an
erect position is part of a cross, and indeed the
greater part of its mass. But an entire cross is
attributed to us . . . . The truth however is that
_your_ religion is _all_ cross . . . You are ashamed, I