Tertullian, Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 4
If this offense was established as forbidden from the very beginning—backed by so many and such great precepts, never committed with impunity, and confirmed by so many and such great examples—and if no crime counts as more arrogant before God than a transgression of this kind, then we ought to grasp of our own accord the intention behind divine warnings and punishments. That intention was already supported by martyrdoms back then, martyrdoms that were not only not to be doubted but also to be endured, since idolatry was prohibited precisely so that martyrdoms could occur; otherwise martyrdoms would not have happened. And God certainly established His own authority, wishing to bring about the very things for which He had made room.
Now we are pricked by the will of God, and the scorpion doubles the blow by denying this will and accusing it—so that it may insinuate another God whose will this is not; or else destroy our God, whose will is of this kind; or altogether deny the will of God, if it cannot deny God Himself. But we, who fight about God elsewhere and about the rest of the body of each heretical doctrine, now lead forth certain lines of a single kind of contest. We defend not the will of some other God, but the will of the God of Israel—the will that made room for martyrdoms, both through precepts that always prohibited idolatry and through judgments that punished it.
For if an observed precept suffers violence, this will be in a certain way observing the precept: I suffer that very violence so that I can keep the precept, namely whatever violence threatens me as I avoid idolatry. And certainly the One who imposes the precept exacts obedience. Therefore He could not have failed to wish those things to happen through which obedience would be established.
It is prescribed to me not to speak of any other God; not even by speaking to form a God with my tongue, no less than with my hand; not to adore any other, or to venerate in any way, except the one and only God who so commands. He is the One I am also commanded to fear, lest I be deserted by Him, and to love with all my substance, so that I may die for Him. Fighting for this sacrament, I am provoked by enemies; I am their equal if I give in. Defending this, I fight in battle, I am wounded, I am struck down, I am killed. Who wished this outcome for His soldier, if not the One who sealed him with such a sacrament?
Latin
Hanc igitur si a primordio constat et prohibitam de tot tantisque praeceptis, et nunquam impune commissam, de tot tantisque documentis, nec ullum tam superbum crimen apud Deum deputari, quam hujusmodi transgressionem, ultro intelligere debemus divinarum et denuntiationum et executionum intentionem, jam tunc martyriis patrocinatam, non modo non dubitandis, verum etiam sustinendis, quibus scilicet locum fecerat prohibendo idololatriam: aliter enim martyria non evenirent; et utique auctoritatem suam praestruxerat, volens ea evenire quibus locum fecerat. Nunc enim de Dei voluntate compungimur, et ingeminat scorpius plagam, hanc negans, hanc accusans voluntatem, ut aut alium Deum insinuet, cujus haec non sit voluntas; aut nostrum nihilominus destruat, cujus talis sit voluntas; aut omnino neget voluntatem Dei, si ipsum negare non poterit. Nos autem de Deo alibi dimicantes, et de reliquo corpore haereticae cujusque doctrinae, nunc in unam speciem congressionis certas praeducimus lineas, non alterius Dei, quam Israelis, eam defendentes voluntatem, quae martyriis locum fecerit, tam ex praeceptis prohibitae semper, quam ex judiciis punitae idololatriae. Si enim praeceptum observatum vim patitur, hoc erit quodammodo observandi praeceptum, ut id patiar per quod potero observare praeceptum: vim scilicet quaecumque mihi imminet caventi ab idololatria. Et utique qui imponit praeceptum, extorquet obsequium. Non potuit ergo noluisse ea evenire, per quae constabit obsequium. Praescribitur mihi ne quem alium Deum dicam; ne, vel dicendo, non minus lingua quam manu Deum fingam; ne quem alium adorem, aut quoque modo venerer, praeter unicum illum qui ita mandat; quem et jubeor timere, ne ab eo deserar; et de omni substantia diligere, ut pro eo moriar. Huic sacramento militans ab hostibus provocor, par sum illis si manus dedero; hoc defendendo depugno in acie, vulneror, concidor, occidor. Quis hunc militi suo exitum voluit, nisi qui tali eum sacramento consignavit?