Tertullian, Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 9

If the old order has its own sacrament, we must examine the Christian innovation—unless we are prepared to admit another God, and thus a rival discipline, whose wisdom does not know how to slaughter its own sons. In Christ, the divinity, the will, and the school are clearly different: either there are no martyrdoms at all, or they must be understood differently by the One who urges no one into such danger, who promises nothing to those who suffer for Him, because He does not want them to suffer. And so, laying out the principles of His teaching: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:10–12). That promise is absolute, addressed to everyone; then He narrows it to the Apostles themselves: "Blessed are you when they revile you, persecute you, and speak every evil against you on my account; rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you" (Matt. 5:11–12). He was thereby prophesying that they, too, would be killed, following the pattern of the prophets. Even if He had destined this conditional persecution solely for the Apostles at that moment, He would still have had in view—through them, with the whole sacrament, the propagation of the Name, and the transmission of the Holy Spirit to us—the discipline of enduring persecution for the heirs of the disciples, the fruits of the apostolic seed. For He speaks again to the Apostles: "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matt. 10:16), and "Beware of men; for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the nations" (Matt. 10:17–18). But when He adds, "Brother will deliver brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death" (Matt. 10:21), He plainly pronounces this wickedness upon others—a treachery we do not find among the Apostles. None of them suffered a brother or a father as a betrayer, yet many of our own have already done so.