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Novatian
Introductory Notice to Novatian, a Roman Presbyter.
[5000] In his Commonitory, cap. xix. p. 57, ed. Baltimore, 1847. This useful edition contains the text, and a translation, with valuable notes, by the Late Bishop Whittingham of Maryland.
[5001] H. E., vi.
[5002] Vol. iii. cap 17, p. 677, this series.
[5003] His elaborate chapter (xlvii. and the note) must be read by all students who wish to understand the matter, or even to read Cyprian advantageously.
[5004] Defensio Fid. Nicæn., Works, vol. v. p. 374.
[5005] Dr. Schaff; History of Christian Church, vol. ii. p. 851.
[5006] [This is again putting a false face upon Antiquity. Purists, rather; i.e., in morals.]
[5007] See the last portion of Section Second of Neander’s Church History.
[5008] Hist. Eccl., lib. viii. c. 15. The text of Valesius has Οὔατον, not Novatus or Novatian.
[5009] [See p. 400, note 5, supra.]
[5010] Ep. li. p. 327, supra. [How could it be stated truly and yet seem friendly? The unfortunate man had violated discipline, and broken his most sacred obligations to the Christian flock, at a time when the heathen persecutions made all such scandals little less than mutiny against Christ Himself. Consult Matt. xviii. 7 and Luke xvii. 1. We owe to such discipline the sure canon of Scripture.]
[5011] Hist. Eccl., lib. iv. c. 28.
[5012] De viris Illustribus, c. 70.
[5013] Ep. xxx. p. 308, supra.
[5014] Ep. li. 5, p. 328, supra. [Also, see Ep. xli. 2, p. 320, supra.]
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.
[5015] Which we call the Creed.
[5016] From the ninth chapter to the twenty-eighth he enters upon the diffuse explanation also of those words of our creed which commend to us faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Lord our God, the Christ promised in the Old Testament, and proves by the authority of the old and new covenant that He is very man and very God. In chapter eighteenth he refutes the error of the Sabellians, and by the authority of the sacred writings he establishes the distinction of the Father and of the Son, and replies to the objections of the above-named heresiarchs and others. In the twenty-ninth chapter he treats of faith in the Holy Spirit, saying that finally the authority of the high admonishes us, after the Father and the Son, to believe also on the Holy Spirit, whose operations he recounts and proves from the Scriptures. He then labours to associate the unity of God with the matters previously contended for, and at length sets forth the sum of the doctrines above explained. [Anthropopathy, see cap. v. p. 615.]
[5017] “Mensurnis,” or otherwise “menstruis.”
[5018] [Jer. v. 22. Compare sublime page with paganism.]
[5019] “Inventionis.” “Redemptionis” is a reasonable emendation.
[5020] Or probably, “Neither indeed is,” etc. [Vol. iii. p. 428.]
[5021] Viritior. [See Robert Hall on French Atheism.]
[5029] Isa. lxvi. 1. [No portable or pocket god.]
[5031] Isa. xlv. 7. [A lesson to our age.]
[5032] Rom. i. 20. [“So that they are without excuse.”]
[5036] In other words, God is always the same in essence, in personality, and in attributes.
[5038] Ex. iii. 14. [The ineffable name of the Self-Existent.]
[5039] Ps. xxxiv. 15. [Anthropopathy, p. 611.]
[5044] Isa. lxvi. 1. [Capp. v. and vi. are specimens of vigorous thought.]
[5049] sc. in the Old Testament.
[5050] That is to say, “of Birth and dissolution.” [He is the Now.]
[5052] [Ex. iii. 2. Not consuming. Heb. xii. 29, “consuming.”]
[5053] [Madame de Staël has beautifully remarked on the benefit conferred upon humanity by Him who authorized us to say,“ Our Father.” “Scientific” atheism gives nothing instead.]
[5055] [Ezek. i. 10 and Rev. iv. 7.]
[5056] [The science of the third century had overruled the Pythagorean system, and philosophers bound the Church and the human mind in the chains of false science for ages. The revival of true science was due to Copernicus, a Christian priest, and to Galileo, and other Christians. Let this be noted.]
[5057] “Vigent,” or otherwise “lucent.”
[5058] “Ministraret” seems to be preferable to “monstraret.”
[5059] [Our author’s genius actually suggests a theory, in this chapter, concerning the zoa, or “living creatures,” which anticipates all that is truly demonstrated by the “evolutionists,” and which harmonizes the variety of animated natures. Rev. v. 13, 14.]
[5061] [The universe is here intended, as in Milton, “this pendent world.” Parad. Lost, book ii. 1052.]
[5062] Rom. xi. 33. “Note also the rest of the text” is our author’s additional comment.
[5083] John i. 14. [Of fables and figments, see cap. viii. p. 617.]
[5084] 1 Cor. xvi. 50. [Vol. iii. p. 521, this series.]
[5085] Scil. in its alternative.
[5086] Matt. xxiii. 42 et seq.
[5092] Isa. xxxv. 3, etc.
[5093] Heb. iii. 3. [See English margin, and Robinson, i. p. 552.]
Chapter XIII. Argument.—That the Same Truth is Proved from the Sacred Writings of the New Covenant.
[5094] John i. 13. [For Sabellius, see p. 128, supra.]
[5104] John xvii. 5. [Note this exposition.]
[5108] Gal. i. 1 and 12
Chapter XIV. Argument.—The Author Prosecutes the Same Argument.
Chapter XV. Argument.—Again He Proves from the Gospel that Christ is God.
[5116] According to Pamelius, ch. xxiii.
[5128] “Dispositione,” scil. οἰκονομίᾳ.—Jackson.
Chapter XVI. Argument.—Again from the Gospel He Proves Christ to Be God.
[5129] According to Pamelius, ch. xxiv.
[5133] [That is, “the prescribed rule” of our Catholic orthodoxy reflects the formula of our Lord’s testimony concerning Himself. Here is a reference to testimony of the early creeds and canons.]
[5134] [That is, “the prescribed rule” of our Catholic orthodoxy reflects the formula of our Lord’s testimony concerning Himself. Here is a reference to testimony of the early creeds and canons.]
Chapter XVII. Argument.—It Is, Moreover, Proved by Moses in the Beginning of the Holy Scriptures.
[5136] According to Pamelius, ch. xxv.
[5139] Ps. xlv. 1. [As understood by the Father passim. See Justin, vol. i. p. 213; Theophilus, ii. 98; Tertullian, iv. 365; Origen, iv. 352, 421; and Cyprian, v. p. 516, supra.]
[5144] Deut. xxxii. 8. [ἔστησεν ὀρια ἐθνῶν κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀλλέλων Θεοῦ, Sept.]
[5146] According to Pamelius, ch. xxvi.
[5151] [This leading up and educating of humanity to “see God” is here admirably put. Heb. i. 3.]
[5152] [De subordinatione, etc.: Bull, Defensio, etc., vol. v. pp. 767, 685. The Nicene doctrine includes the subordination of the Son.]
[5153] [Isa. ix. 6, according to the Seventy. Ex. xxiii. 20. See Bull, Defensio, etc., vol. v. p. 30. Comp. Hippol., p. 225, supra; Novatian, p. 632, infra.]
[5154] [De subordinatione, etc.: Bull, Defensio, etc., vol. v. pp. 767, 685. The Nicene doctrine includes the subordination of the Son.]
[5157] Gen. xxi. 17, etc.
[5158] [See note 2, p. 628, supra.]
[5161] [See vol. i. p. 184.]
[5162] Isa. ix. 6, LXX.
[5163] [Among the apparitions are noted Gen. xxxii. 24; Ex. iii.; Num. xxii. 21; Josh. v. 13; 1 Kings xxviii. 11.]
Chapter XIX. Argument.—That God Also Appeared to Jacob as an Angel; Namely, the Son of God.
[5164] According to Pamelius, ch. xxvii.
[5166] [Eccles. v. 6. A striking text when compared with the “Angel of the Covenant” (Angelus Testamenti, Vulgate), Mal. iii. 1.]
[5167] Gen. xxxii. 24-27. [Vol. iv. 390, this series.]
[5170] Benedicat.
[5171] [A very beautiful patristic idea of the dim vision of the cross to which the Fathers were admitted, but which they understood not, even when they predicted it. 1 Pet. x. 11.]
[5172] According to Pamelius, ch. xv.
[5173] [Ps. xcvii. 7; John x. 36; Hippol., p. 153, supra.]
[5174] Ps. lxxxii. 1, 2, etc.
[5176] [The full meaning of which only comes out in the Gospel and in 2 Pet. i. 4. The lie of Gen. iii. 5, is made true in Christ.]
[5179] According to Pamelius, ch. xvi.
[5183] [John v. 19. The infirmities of language are such that cunning men like Petavius can construct anti-Nicene doctrine out of Scripture itself; and the marvel is, that the Christian Fathers before the Council of Nicæa generally use such precision of language, although they lacked the synodical definitions.]
[5188] Col. i. 15. [But not a creature, for the apostle immediately subjoins that He is the Creator and final Cause of the universe. Moreover, the first-born here seems to mean the heir of all creation, for such is the logical force of the verse following. So, πρωτοτοκεῖα (in the Seventy) = heirship. Gen. xxv. 31.]
[5191] Perhaps the emendation homine instead of homo is right. “He puts on and puts off humanity, as if it were a kind of tunic for a compacted body.”
[5193] According to Pamelius, ch. xvii.
[5195] [Not “a seipso Deus.” See Bull, Defens., vol. v. p. 685.]
[5196] According to Pamelius, ch. xviii.
[5197] [The Noetians, Hippol., p. 148, supra.]
[5198] [Irenæus, vol. i. p. 527.]
[5199] According to Pamelius, ch. xix.
[5203] “The miraculous generation is here represented as the natural, but by no means as the only cause for which He who had no human father was to receive the name of God’s Son.”—Oosterzee, in loco, on Luke.—Tr.
[5204] Principalitas.
[5205] The edition of Pamelius reads: ut sequela nominis in Filio Dei et hominis sit. The words Dei et were expelled by Welchman, whom we have followed.
[5206] According to Pamelius, ch. xx.
[5208] [Luke xx. 38. A solemn admonition is found in the parallel Scripture, Matt. xxii. 29, which teaches us how much we ought to find beneath the surface of Holy Writ.]
[5209] According to Pamelius, ch. xxi.
[5214] Isa. xlv. 1. Some transcriber has written Κυρίῳ for Κύρῳ, “the Lord” for “Cyrus,” and the mistake has been followed by the author.
[5226] [Cap. xxi. p. 632, supra.]
[5227] According to Pamelius, ch. xxii.
[5228] John x. 30; scil. “unum,” Gr. ἕν.
[5229] Original, “unas.” Scil. person.
[5230] Neuter.
[5231] 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7, 8 ( scil. ἕν).
[5240] Isa. ix. 6, LXX. [See pp. 628, 632, supra.]
[5246] [Cap. xxi. note 5, 632, supra.]
[5257] Joel ii. 28; Acts ii. 17.
[5265] [John xiv. 18, Greek.]
[5277] [To commit any one of these errors, he thinks, is to prove one’s self “sensual, having not the Spirit.” Jude 19; Rom. viii. 7.]
[5279] “There is one God.”
[5280] Scil. from Scripture.
[5281] [Gal. iii. 20; Deut. vi. 4.]
[5282] [“Non semper pendebit inter latrones Christus: aliquando resurget Crucifixa Veritas.”—Sebastian Castalio.]
[5296] διδάσκαλος.
[5297] As the Word formed. [He expounds Psa. 45, Sept.]
[5298] [“In a sense;” i.e., in logic, not time.]
[5299] [Compare the Athanasian Confession.]
[5300] [As in the Athanasian Confession.]
[5301] There is apparently some indistinct reference here to the passage in Heb. v. 7, “and was heard in that He feared”—ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλυβείας. [For the Angel of Great Counsel, see p. 629, supra.]
[5302] Entitled “A Letter of Novatian, the Roman Presbyter.”
[5303] “Liberiorem,” translated, according to a plausible emendation, as “hilariorem.”
[5306] Traditionem.
[5307] These letters are not extant, but they are mentioned by Jerome, De vir. Illustr., ch. lxx.
[5308] [1 Cor. vi. 13. A passage probably connected with the Jewish superstition. But see the Peshito-Syriac version on Mark vii. 19. Compare Murdock’s version ad loc., ed. 1855.]
[5309] Which, distinguishing between meats, granted certain animals as clean, and interdicted certain others as not clean, especially as all animals were declared “very good,” and even unclean animals were reserved for offspring in Noah’s ark, although they otherwise might have been got rid of, if they ought to have been destroyed on account of their uncleanness.
[5310] [The divers animals are also parables illustrating human passions and appetites. See Jones of Nayland, vol. xi. p. 1.]
[5312] This sentence is very unintelligible, but it is the nearest approach to a meaning that can be gathered from the original.
[5313] [Gen. ix. 3. The Noachic covenant was Catholic, and foreshadowed Acts x. 15, although clean and unclean beasts were recognised as by natural classification. Gen. vii. 2. Argue as in Gal. iii. 17.]
[5314] Or, as some read, “for eating,” substituting “esum” for “usum.”
[5316] [See chap. ii. p. 645, supra, note 9.]
[5317] Sui culpa.
[5318] [The moral uses of the animal creation are recognised in all languages; as when we say of men, a serpent, a fox, a hog, an ass, etc.; so otherwise, a lion, a lamb, an eagle, a dove, etc.]
[5319] [Novatian was a keen analyst, and his allegorial renderings are logical generally, though sometimes fanciful.]
[5320] Lev. xi. 4. [Jones of Nayland, vol. iii., Disquisition, ed. 1801.]
[5321] “Enervem,” but more probably “informem.”
[5328] [Or lower bowel, Mark vii. 19; Matt. xv. 17. See cap. i. note 7, p. 645, supra. It throws off refuse, leaving food only to the system.]
[5332] Zech. vii. 6, LXX.
[5333] “Attonitus” is assumed to be rightly read “attentus.”
[5334] [1 Tim. iv. 4; vi. 17. Against the Encratites (vol. i. p. 353), but not against moderation (vol. ii. p. 237, this series).]
[5339] Scil. abstain. [But see 1 Cor. viii. 4, etc.]
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