Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] "But how then shall we take up the collection?" you ask, "how shall we keep the Lord's rites?" Why, exactly as the apostles did — kept safe by faith, not by money; and if that faith can move a mountain, how much more easily a soldier! Be cautious by wisdom, not bribery! For you will not automatically be safe from the mob either, just because you have bought off the military detail. You need faith and wisdom together for your protection; without them your bribe may cost you your safety anyway, and with them you will have no need to buy your safety at all. [2] Finally, if you cannot gather by day, you have the night, lit by the light of Christ against the darkness. Can you not move about among individual believers? Then let the church for you, for a time, be three people. Better that you sometimes not see your own crowds than that you sell them off. Keep the virgin bride for Christ; let no one turn her into merchandise.
[3] These things, brother, perhaps seem hard and unbearable to you — but remember that God has said: Let the one who can accept this, accept it — meaning, let the one who cannot, walk away. The man who is afraid to suffer cannot belong to the one who suffered; but the man unafraid to suffer, he will be made perfect in love — in God's love, that is; for perfect love casts out fear. And so many are called, few are chosen — the search is not for one ready to walk the wide road, but the narrow one; and that is why the Paraclete is necessary, guide into all truths, exhorter to all endurance. Those who have received him know neither how to flee persecution nor how to buy themselves out of it, having him who will stand for us — just as he is to speak on our behalf at the interrogation, so he is to help us in the suffering.