Novatian

Footnotes

Introductory Notice to Novatian, a Roman Presbyter.

^[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.]

Chapter I. Argument.—Novatian, with the View of Treating of the Trinity, Sets Forth from the Rule of Faith that We Should First of All Believe in God the Father and Lord Omnipotent, the Absolute Founder of All Things. The Works of Creation are Beautifully Described. Man’s Free-Will is Asserted; God’s Mercy in Inflicting Penalty on Man is Shown; The Condition After Death of the Souls of the Righteous and Unrighteous is Determined.

^[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.]

Chapter II. Argument.—God is Above All Things, Himself Containing All Things, Immense, Eternal, Transcending the Mind of Man; Inexplicable in Discourse, Loftier Than All Sublimity.

^[5021] Viritior. [See Robert Hall on French Atheism.]

Chapter III. Argument.—That God is the Founder of All Things, Their Lord and Parent, is Proved from the Holy Scriptures.

^[5022] Ps. cxlviii. 5.

^[5023] Ps. ciii. 24.

^[5024] Deut. iv. 39.

^[5025] Ps. ciii. 32.