Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Servants of God, learn -- you who are just now approaching God, and you who have already testified and confessed that you have approached him, review it again -- what the standing of faith is, what the ground of truth, what the rule of discipline is that, among the other errors of the world, also strips away the pleasures of the public shows; so that no one sins either through ignorance or through pretending not to know. For the force of pleasure is so great that it can stretch ignorance into an excuse and corrupt a guilty conscience into willful blindness. On both counts someone may still perhaps be charmed by the opinions of the pagans, who habitually argue against us on this point like this: that nothing stands in the way of religion, in the mind and conscience, in taking such outward comforts for the eyes or ears; and that God is not truly offended by a man's enjoyment, provided that, with one's fear of God and one's own honor kept intact, it is no crime to enjoy something in its proper time and proper place. But it is exactly this that we are now most concerned to demonstrate -- how such things do not fit true religion and true obedience to the true God. There are those who reckon that Christians, a breed ready for death, are trained toward this obstinacy by renouncing pleasures, so that, having cut the moorings, as it were, of life, they may more easily hold life cheap, and not miss what they have already made superfluous to themselves -- so that this is thought to be defined by this kind of calculation and human foresight, not by divine command. Because, evidently, it would be a shame even for men who persevere amid such great pleasures to die for the Lord! And yet, even if that were so, obedience was still owed to a discipline of such obstinacy, backed by so fitting a plan.