Christians honor the one true God and the emperor rightly
Tertullian is addressing Scapula directly, explaining why Christians worship only one God and how they can still be loyal to the emperor.
We worship one God, whom you all know by nature, at whose lightning and thunder you tremble, and at whose blessings you rejoice. You think the others are gods as well, but we know them to be demons. Still, it is a matter of human law and natural right that each person may worship what he thinks best, and one person's religion neither harms nor helps another. Nor is it the business of religion to force religion, which should be accepted willingly, not under compulsion, since even sacrifices are required from a willing heart. So even if you force us to sacrifice, you will accomplish nothing for your gods. They will not desire sacrifices from the unwilling, unless they are quarrelsome; but a god is not quarrelsome. Indeed, the one who is true gives all his gifts equally to the profane and to his own, and for that reason he has established an eternal judgment for the grateful and the ungrateful.
Yet we, whom you consider sacrilegious, have never been caught in theft, much less in sacrilege. But all those who plunder temples and swear by the gods and worship them—they are not Christians, and yet they are caught as sacrilegious. It would take too long to recount the other ways in which all the gods are mocked and despised by their own worshipers. So too we are defamed regarding the imperial dignity of the emperor, yet no Christian has ever been found among the followers of Albinus, Niger, or Cassius. Rather, the very people who had sworn by the emperors' guardian spirits the day before, who had made and vowed sacrifices for their safety, who had often condemned Christians—those same people were found to be their enemies. A Christian is no one's enemy, much less the emperor's. Knowing that the emperor has been appointed by his God, a Christian must love him, revere him, honor him, and desire his safety along with that of the whole Roman Empire, as long as the world shall stand—for it will stand just that long.
We therefore worship the emperor in the way that is lawful for us and beneficial for him: as a man second to God, who has received whatever he has from God, and who is less than God alone. He himself will want this. For he is greater than all while he is less than the one true God alone. In this way he is also greater than the gods themselves, since they too are in his power. And so we also sacrifice for the emperor's safety, but to our God and his, and in the way God has commanded, with pure prayer. For God, the creator of the universe, does not need the odor or blood of anyone. Those are food for demons. And we not only reject demons, but we overcome them, expose them daily, and drive them out of people, as many know well.
Thus we pray all the more for the emperor's safety, requesting it from him who is able to provide it. And that we act according to the teaching of divine endurance should be clear enough to you, since we live in silence and modesty—such a great multitude of people, almost the larger part of every city—known perhaps as individuals rather than as a group, and recognizable only by the correction of our former vices. Far be it from us to resent suffering what we desire, or to plot any vengeance for ourselves, since we await vengeance from God.
Latin
Nos unum deum colimus, quem omnes naturaliter nostis, ad cuius fulgura et tonitrua contremiscitis, ad cuius beneficia gaudetis. Ceteros et ipsi putatis deos esse quos nos daemonas scimus. Tamen humani iuris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit colere, nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio. Sed nec religionis est cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debeat, non vi, cum et hostiae ab animo libenti expostulentur. Ita etsi nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil praestabitis diis vestris. Ab invitis enim sacrificia non desiderabunt, nisi si contentiosi sunt; contentiosus autem deus non est. Denique qui est verus, omnia sua ex aequo et profanis et suis praestat, ideoque et iudicium constituit aeternum de gratis et ingratis. Tamen nos, quos sacrilegos existimatis, nec in furto umquam deprehendistis, nedum in sacrilegio. Omnes autem, qui templa dispoliant et per deos iurant et eosdem colunt, et Christiani non sunt et sacrilegi tamen deprehenduntur. Longum est, si retexamus, quibus aliis modis et derideantur et contemnantur omnes dii ab ipsis cultoribus suis. Sic et circa maiestatem imperatoris infamamur, tamen numquam Albiniani nee Nigriani vel Cassiani inveniri potuerunt Christiani, sed idem ipsi qui per genios eorum in pridie usque iuraverant, qui pro salute eorum hostias et fecerant et voverant, qui Christianos saepe damnaverant, hostes eorum sunt reperti. Christianus nullius est hostis, nedum imperatoris, quem sciens a deo suo constitui necesse est ut et ipsum diligat et revereatur et honoret et salvum velit cum toto Romano imperio, quousque saeculum stabit: tamdiu enim stabit. Colimus ergo et imperatorem sic quomodo et nobis licet et ipsi expedit, ut hominem a deo secundum et quicquid est a deo consecutum et solo deo minorem. Hoc et ipse volet. Sic enim omnibus maior est, dum solo vero deo minor est. Sic et ipsis diis maior eat, dum et ipsi in potestate sunt eius. Itaque et sacrificamus pro salute imperatoris, sed deo nostro et ipsius, sed quomodo praecepit deus, pura prece. Non enim eget deus, conditor universitatis, odoris aut sanguinis alicuius. Haec enim daemoniorum pabula sunt. Daemones autem non tantum respuimus, verum et revincimus et cottidie traducimus et de hominibus expellimus, sicut plurimis notum est. Ita nos magis oramus pro salute imperatoris, ab eo eam postulantes qui praestare potest. Et utique ex disciplina patientiae divinae agere nos satis manifestum esse vobis potest, cum tanta hominum multitudo, pars paene maior civitatis cuiusque, in silentio et modestia agimus, singuli forte noti magis quam omnes, nec aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum. Absit enim, ut indigne feramus ea nos pati quae optamus, aut ultionem a nobis aliquam machinemur, quam a deo expectamus.