Tertullian, Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 9

It remains to recount the newness of Christianity, because antiquity also had its own sacrament, as if there were another God and therefore a rival discipline whose wisdom does not know how to slaughter its own sons. Clearly in Christ there is another divinity, another will, another school, which has commanded either no martyrdoms at all or martyrdoms understood differently, since it urges no one into such danger, promises nothing to those who suffer for it, because it does not want them to suffer. And so, drawing out the principles of his teachings, he says: Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10-12). This statement applies absolutely to everyone; then specifically to the Apostles themselves: Blessed will you be when they insult you, persecute you, and speak every kind of evil against you on my account; rejoice and be glad, because your reward is very great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were your fathers (Matthew 5:11-12). This was so that he might also prophesy that they themselves would have to be killed, following the example of the prophets. Although even if he had destined this entire conditional persecution only for the Apostles at that time, he would certainly have looked through them—along with the whole sacrament, the propagation of the name, and the tradition of the Holy Spirit to us—to the discipline of undergoing persecution as well, treating us as heirs of the disciples and fruits of apostolic seed. For again he directs his words to the Apostles: Look, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; 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 (Matthew 10:16-18). But when he adds: A brother will hand over a brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death, he clearly pronounced this wickedness against others, a wickedness we do not find among the Apostles. For none of them suffered a brother or a father as a betrayer, which many of ours have already suffered.