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mortales olim congregate fuere . " They were a novelty in TertuUian ' s day , and he had no opportunity of witnessing what animosities they occasioned , and how generally they fomented instead of healing divisions , fifed he lived a century or two later , he might have addressed the assembled fathers in the words of the Jewish lawgiver , " Sirs , ye are brethren ; why do ye wrong one to another ?" .
In the latter part of the second century , the converts to Christianity were not admitted to baptism , as in the days of the apostles , merely upon their professing to believe in Christ , but were required to pass through a previous course of instruction and probation . While in this state they were called Catechumens ; when baptized , the Faithful : and for this last class some points of doctrine , or , at least , some interpretations of the Scriptures , were
reserved , which it was not thought right to communicate to those of the first class . The writings of Tertullian afford much information respecting penitential discipline and the distinction of offences ; but as the sentiments and practices , relating to these subjects , of the . Catholic church and of the Montanists were very different , his testimony must be received with caution . In no part of his works has he any allusion to " auricular confession . "
In conformity with the plan of Mosheim , our author next briefly mentions the ecclesiastical authors to whom Tertullian , in the course of his writings ^ alludes . These are Hennas , Clemens Romanus , Polyoarp , Justin Martyr * Miltiades , Irenaeus , Proculus and Tatian . Of the " Shepherd of Hernias " he speaks in his later treatises with great bitterness , and asserts that it had been " pronounced apocryphal by every synod of the orthodox churches . " It deserves no higher character .
In the huh chapter , the learned Professor enters upon the most important and extensive branch of his inquiry , " the information which the writings of Tertullian supply respecting the doctrine of the church in his day . " And in treating this part of his subject he has thought that he could not adopt a better course " than to consider the different doctrines in the order in which they occur in the Articles of the Church of England . " ( P . 262 . ) We suspect that he would not have adopted this course had he kept strictly to the
professed object of his work , " the illustration of the ecclesiastical history of the second and third centuries . " He must have seen that articles " composed chiefly , " as Dr . J . Hay acknowledges , " with a view to separating from the Church of Rome , in which , consequently , the doctrines of that church are treated with peculiar attention , " could not form a proper guide in the arrangement of passages relating to the doctrines and discipline of the age of
Tertullian . Accordingly we find that there are some articles to which nothing in the works of the Presbyter can be referred , several concerning which it i 3 more than doubtful whether the doctrine they are designed to maintain was known to him , and others , which the Professor candidly allows , derive from him no plain and direct support . This support , however , it is evidently his object to obtain in its fullest extent , and at the same time to withdraw it , wherever it has been claimed , from the Roman Catholic
church . It appears to us that it would have been a fairer and more satisfactory course , to select from the works of Tertullian the substance of all they contain relating to doctrine , discipline and ceremonieB , and to place the result in a systematic form , without reference to any existing formula or summary of faith . In pursuing the course which he has thought it best to adopt , the Right Reverend Author defers the consideration of the Ist ^ 2 nd , and 6 th Articles to the chapter relating to heresies , and the 27 tb , 28 th and UOtb , to that concerning
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354 Eeview . —» Df . Kctye * * Tertullian .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/42/
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