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| 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.
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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.
The Rule of truth requires that we should first of
all things believe on God the Father and Lord Omnipotent; that is, the
absolutely perfect Founder of all things, who has suspended the heavens
in lofty sublimity, has established the earth with its lower mass, has
diffused the seas with their fluent moisture, and has distributed all
these things, both adorned and supplied with their appropriate and
fitting instruments. For in the solid vault of heaven He has both
awakened the light-bringing Sunrisings; He has filled up the white
globe of the moon in its monthly5017
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“Mensurnis,” or otherwise “menstruis.” | waxings as a solace for the night; He,
moreover, kindles the starry rays with the varied splendours of
glistening light; and He has willed all these things in their
legitimate tracks to circle the entire compass of the world, so as to
cause days, months, years, signs, and seasons, and benefits of other
kinds for the human race. On the earth, moreover, He has lifted
up the loftiest mountains to a peak, He has thrown down valleys into
the depths, He has smoothly levelled the plains, He has ordained the
animal herds usefully for the various services of men. He has
also established the oak trees of the woods for the future benefit of
human uses. He has developed the harvests into food. He has
unlocked the mouths of the springs, and has poured them into the
flowing rivers. And after these things, lest He should not also
provide for the very delights of the eyes, He has clothed all things
with the various colours of the flowers for the pleasure of the
beholders. Even in the sea itself, moreover, although it was in
itself marvellous both for its extent and its utility, He has made
manifold creatures, sometimes of moderate, sometimes of vast bodily
size, testifying by the variety of His appointment to the intelligence
of the Artificer. And, not content with these things, lest
perchance the roaring and rushing waters should seize upon a foreign
element at the expense of its human possessor, He has enclosed its
limits with shores;5018
| 5018
[Jer. v. 22. Compare sublime page with
paganism.] | so that when the raving billow and the
foaming water should come from its deep bosom, it should return again
unto itself, and not transgress its concealed bounds, but keep its
prescribed laws, so that man might the rather be careful to observe the
divine laws, even as
the elements themselves observed them. And after these things He
also placed man at the head of the world, and man, too, made in the
image of God, to whom He imparted mind, and reason, and foresight, that
he might imitate God; and although the first elements of his body were
earthly, yet the substance was inspired by a heavenly and divine
breathing. And when He had given him all things for his service,
He willed that he alone should be free. And lest, again, an
unbounded freedom should fall into peril, He laid down a command, in
which man was taught that there was no evil in the fruit of the tree;
but he was forewarned that evil would arise if perchance he should
exercise his free will, in the contempt of the law that was
given. For, on the one hand, it had behoved him to be free, lest
the image of God should, unfittingly be in bondage; and on the other,
the law was to be added, so that an unbridled liberty might not break
forth even to a contempt of the Giver. So that he might receive
as a consequence both worthy rewards and a deserved punishment, having
in his own power that which he might choose to do, by the tendency of
his mind in either direction: whence, therefore, by envy,
mortality comes back upon him; seeing that, although he might escape it
by obedience, he rushes into it by hurrying to be God under the
influence of perverse counsel. Still, nevertheless, God
indulgently tempered his punishment by cursing, not so much himself, as
his labours upon earth. And, moreover, what is required does not
come without man’s knowledge; but He shows forth man’s hope
of future discovery5019
| 5019
“Inventionis.” “Redemptionis” is a
reasonable emendation. | and salvation in Christ. And
that he is prevented from touching of the wood of the tree of life, is
not caused by the malignant poison of envy, but lest, living for ever
without Christ’s previous pardon of his sins, he should always
bear about with him for his punishment an immortality of guilt.
Nevertheless also, in higher regions; that is, above even the firmament
itself, regions which are not now discernible by our eyes, He
previously ordained angels, he arranged spiritual powers, He put in
command thrones and powers, and founded many other infinite spaces of
heavens, and unbounded works of His mysteries; so that this world,
immense as it is, might almost appear rather as the latest, than the
only work of corporeal things. And truly,5020
| 5020 Or
probably, “Neither indeed is,” etc. [Vol. iii. p.
428.] | what lies beneath the earth is not
itself void of distributed and arranged powers. For there is a
place whither the souls of the just and the unjust are taken, conscious
of the anticipated dooms of future judgment; so that we might behold
the overflowing greatness of God’s works in all directions, not
shut up within the bosom of this world, however capacious as we have
said, but might also be able to conceive of them beneath both the
abysses and the depths of the world itself. And thus considering
the greatness of the works, we should worthily admire the Artificer of
such a structure.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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