Tertullian, On the Crown 15
Keep what belongs to God intact. He will crown it if He wishes—and He does wish it; in fact, He extends the invitation: "To the one who conquers I will give the crown of life" (Rev 2:10). Be faithful to death yourself. Fight the good contest, the very one whose crown the Apostle confidently trusted had been laid up for him. The angel also receives the crown of victory, riding out on a white horse so that he may conquer. Another is adorned with a rainbow's circle, a heavenly meadow. The presbyters sit crowned, and with that same gold the Son of Man shines above the cloud. If such images appear in a vision, what truths must exist in the reality? Look at them, inhale them. Why do you condemn a head destined for a diadem with a mere wreath or a snake-like band? Christ Jesus has made us kings to God and His Father. What do you want with a flower that dies? You have the flower from the rod of Jesse, the one on whom the full grace of the divine Spirit rested—the incorrupt, unwithering, eternal flower. By choosing it, the good soldier advanced in dignity within the heavenly order. Be ashamed, His fellow-soldiers: you are now being judged not by Him but by some soldier of Mithras. When that initiate enters the cave—in the camps of true darkness—a crown is offered to him with a sword interposed, a mockery of martyrdom, then fitted to his head. He is warned by an outstretched hand to push it from his head and transfer it to his shoulder, if he can, declaring that Mithras is his crown. From then on he is never crowned again; he keeps this as a sign for his testing, so that wherever he is questioned about the sacrament he can prove himself. The Mithraic soldier is believed the moment he throws away the crown and says it belongs to his god. Recognize the devil's cunning: he mimics certain divine realities precisely to confuse us and pass judgment on us through the faith of his own followers.
Latin
Serva Deo rem suam intaminatam. Ille eam, si volet, coronabit; imo et vult; denique invitat: Qui vicerit, inquit, dabo ei coronam vitae. Esto et tu fidelis ad mortem. Decerta et tu bonum agonem, cujus coronam et Apostolus repositam sibi merito confidit. Accipit et angelus victoriae coronam procedens in candido equo, ut vinceret. Et alius iridis ambitu ornatur, coelesti prato. Sedent et presbyteri coronati: eodemque auro et ipse Filius hominis supra nubem micat. Si tales imagines in visione, quales veritates in repraesentatione? illas aspice, illas odora. Quid caput strophiolo aut dracontario damnas, diademati destinatum? Nam et reges nos Deo et Patri suo fecit Christus Jesus. Quid tibi cum flore morituro? Habes florem ex virga Jesse, super quem tota divini spiritus gratia requievit, florem incorruptum, immarcescibilem, sempiternum: quem et bonus miles eligendo, in coelesti ordinatione, dignatione profecit. Erubescite, commilitones ejus, jam non ab ipso judicandi, sed ab aliquo Mithrae milite, qui cum initiatur in spelaeo, in castris vere tenebrarum, coronam interposito gladio sibi oblatam, quasi mimum martyrii, dehinc capiti suo accommodatam, monetur obvia manu a capite pellere, et in humerum, si forte, transferre, dicens Mithram esse coronam suam, atque exinde numquam coronatur, idque in signum habet ad probationem sui, sicubi tentatus fuerit de sacramento: statimque creditur Mithrae miles, si dejecerit coronam, si eam in Deo suo esse dixerit. Agnoscamus ingenia diaboli, idcirco quaedam de divinis affectantis, ut nos de suorum fide confundat et judicet.