_The Cross and the Crucifix_ (Vol. v., pp. 39. 85.).--Under this title I
find two articles; and, as it is an interesting subject, I should like to
send a quotation which I copied some time since from the _Octavius_ of
Minucius Felix, A.D. 210 (Adam. Clarke):
"Cruces etiam nec colimus nec optamus. Vos plane qui ligneos deos
consecratis, cruces ligneas, ut deorum vestrorum partes, forsitan
adoratis. Nam et signa ipsa, et cantabra, et vexilla castrorum, quid
aliud quam inauratæ cruces sunt et ornatæ? Tropæa vestra victricia non
tantum simplicis crucis faciem, verum et affixi hominis imitantur.
Signum sane crucis naturaliter visimus in {190} navi, cum velis
tumentibus vehitur, cum expansis palmulis labitur," &c.
Similar sentiments, in almost the same words, are expressed by Tertullian,
_Apologet._, sect. 16.; and _Ad Nationes_, sect. 12. See also Justin
Martyr, _Apol._ lib. i. sect. 72. The quotation from M. Felix is from the
Leipsic edit., 1847, pp. 41, 42.