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. throw asi 4 e his works as utterly undeserving of notice , or deem it a sufficient ground for questioning the superiority of his genius # nd talent : we regard with surprise and regret this additional instance of human infirmity , but continue to read Telemachus with instruction and delight . Let us shew the same candour and sound judgment in the case of the Fathers : let us separate the wheat from the tares , and not involve * them in one indiscriminate conflagration . The assertion may appear paradoxical , but is nevertheless true , that the value of Tertuflian ' s writings to the theological student arises in a great
measure from his errors , When he became a Montanist , he set himself to expose what he deemed faulty in the practice and discipline of the Church : thus we are told indirectly what that practice and that discipline were , and we obtain information which , but for his secession from the Churchy his ^ vorks would scarcely have supplied . In a word , whether we consider the testimony borne to the genuineness and integrity of the books of the New Testament , or the information relating to the ceremonies , discipline and doctrine of the primitive Church , Tertulnart ' s writings form a most important link in that chain of tradition which connects the apostolic age With our own . "— -Pp ,
37—39 . To the justice of these remarks , excepting only the last , we willingly aspeent ; and we confidently hope that the labours of the learned Professor will produce a general desire in students of theology to become well acquainted with the writings not of Tertullian alone , but of all the Fathers who attained to any eminence in the ancierit Christian Church . No man who has not studied them can be entitled to the character of a theologian . A full and
accurate knowledge of the Scriptures of the New Testament , and , we will add , of the Old Testament also , is indeed of the first importance , as from these all the articles of our creed and all the rules of our practice must be derived . But the writings of the Fathers of the Church , especially of those who flourished during the first five centuries , are essentially necessary to > eaable us to trace the progress of erFor , to discover to us the various causes which operated to corrupt the simplicity of gospel truth , and to introduce and establish the various systems which have so long usurped introduce and establish the various systems which have so lone usurped
the place of pure and undefiled religion . No one who aspires to be a theologian should be content to follow either Ball or Whitby , Voasius or Wall , Whiston or Priestley , or any other writers to whose ze&l and industry we are indebted for large and valuable extracts from these writers : to judge fairly and satisfectarily , he must himself draw from the same sources . And in so < l © ravg he will obtain various trilateral important benefits which we need not distinctly point out * But even a slight acquaintance with the ancient Fathers will convince the student , that though they may furnish him with va *
Juable facts ,-he must be cautious not to rely upon ihdir judgment . He will find them worthy of all credit as witnesses to the genuineness and integrity of the books of the New Testament , btit , with few exceptions , miserable in--terpreters of their meaning * And neither to Tertullian nor to any other of the orthodox Fathers can we concede the praise of connecting the apostolic age with our own , by preserving the knowledge of the doctrine of the apos ties , excepting so far as they nave recorded the faith of thoBewhom they affected to despise as " simplices ^ imptudantes" and " idiottey
One only of the numerous treatises composed by Tertulhan supplies my pduifcivef evidence of its date , and various opinions have been formed jresf > ecting die time in which most of the rest were written . It has been usual to divide them all into two dawtf * y those written while he was in communion with the > ch < irch , and those written afttor he toetffcnie a Mohtankt But the difciiwtida is not Always t © be » e * cfeived ; " and kt the absence of tdt * st *
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Iteview . —Dr . Kaye * S TertUllim . 267
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/35/
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