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NovATus. A. D. 2ol. 117
say they, ' that the church of Rome did not acknowledge
' the epistle to the Hebrews, because the Novatians abused
' the words of chap. vi. 4, 5, 6, to exclude from the benefit
' of repentance and from the peace of the church those >vho,
' after baptism, had fallen into idolatry or other crimes.
' There is no likelihood that the church of Rome would reject
' a book Avhich had been held for canonical, because some
' new heretics endeavoured to make an advantage of it for
' the support of their errors: besides, it is certain that at Rome
* they counted but thirteen epistles of St. Paul before the
' rise of the sect of the Novatians, as appears from the testi-
* mony of Cains, presbyter of Rome, who wrote at the begin-
' ning- of the third century ; whereas'' the heresy of Novatns,
* likewise presbyter of Rome, did not begin to appear till
' after the middle of that age.' So those learned writers
and I think their argument conclusive.
But yet it must be owned that Philaster, who flourished
about the year 380, says, ' In his time*^ it was customary in
' some places to omit the public reading" of the epistle to the
* Hebrews; and that one reason of that practice was theadvan-
* tage which the Novatians endeavoured to makeof it.' Nevertheless
this does not alter my opinion of the forementioned
of those commentators. Philaster only informs us what was
the practice of some churches in his time, near the end of the
fourth century : as for the sentiments of the Latin christians
in the former part of the third century, and downwards till
below the middle of it, we need no information from him;
being already sufficiently informed about them by Tertullian,
Caius, the works of Cyprian, and Novatus himself, not t«
mention now any other writers.
7. Our next article will take in the seven catholic epistles,
and the book of Revelation.
1. There are no references in this author to the epistle of
St. James, nor to the first or second epistle of St. Peter.
However, we shall observe, >vith regard to the last mentioned
epistle, that he says: ' The^ several parts of the Avorld are
so firmly connected together as not to be dissolved by any
^ Or I'heresie de Novat. aussi pretre de Rome, ne commenca qu' apres ]e
milieu de ce siecle la. ib. p. 414.
* Et quia addidemnt in ea quaedam non bene sentientes, inde non
legitur in ecclesia : etsi legitur a quibusdam, non tamen in ecclesia legitur
populo, nisi tredecim epistolee ipsius, et ad Hebraeos interdura. Et quia et
factum Christum, dicit in ea, inde non legitur. De pcEnitentia autem propter
Novatianos aeque. Philast. Hser. 41.
^ ut ex disparibus elementis ita sit unus mundus ista coagmentata conspiratione
solidatus, ut nulla vi dissolvi possit, nisi quum ilium solus ipse qui
fecit, ad majora alia pnsstanda nobis, solvi jussent. de Reg. Fid. cap. 2. p. 19.
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