The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

COMMODIAN. A. D. 270. 131
divine scriptures say, Christ is.' Ho argues :
* Was' he
made, who is " The first-begotteu of every creature?" '
Col. i. 15. ' He observes, that" in many places the divine
oracles say Christ was begotten ; no where that he was
made.' Finally, at the conclusion of the fragment: " For^
I," says he, " and the Father are one." And, " 1 in the Father,
and the P'athor in me," ' John x. 30 ; xiv. 10, 11.
This is all I have to produce from Dionysius : though it
be little, it suffices to show the concurrence of this bishop
of Rome with other christians of that time in acknowledging
the divine scriptiues, and divine oracles, to be the rule of
faith by which all doctrines were to be tried. He likewise, as
well as others, teaches us where these oracles are to be
found ; namely, in the Old and New Testament, which contain
all the scriptures that were in the strictest sense sacred
and divine.
CHAP. XLIX.
COMMODIAN.
1. His history and work. II. Select passages. HI. His
testimony to the scriptures.
I. COMMODIAN, a Latin author, formerly supposed by
some to have lived in the time of Constantine, near the beginning
of the fourth century, now^ with more reason reckoned
contemporary with St. Cyprian, or to have lived soon
after him, is not at all mentioned by St. Jerom. As Gennadius,
who wrote near the end of the fifth century, has given
Commodian a place in his book of ecclesiastical writers, I
place'' the whole article entire at the bottom of the page.
* Hoiriiia 6 TrpwroTOKog vaffijc KTiaewQ ; ib. D.
" Kai 7roXXax« Se twv Cttcuv Xoyiiov ytytvriaQai.—Xtyo/xtvitiv ^k. X. ibid.
" Eyo) yap, (pi]ai, km 6 Trarrip iv ifffiev' Kai ejio ev Tiii Trarpi, Kai o TraTtjp tv
moi' ibid. E. ' They who desire to know more of Commodian
and his lime, and the editions of his work, will do well to consult Cav.
Hist. Lit. T. i. p. 136, &c. and Fabr. De Verit. Rel. Clirist. p. 227, &c. I
make use of Da vies's edition at the end of Minucius Felix. Cantabr. 1712.
'' Commodianus, dum inter seculares literas etiam nostras legit, occasioncra
accepit fidel. Factus itaque Christianus, et volens aliquid studiorum suorum
muneris olferre Christo, suse salutis auctori, scripsit mediocri sermonc, quasi
versa, libruni adversum Paganos, Et quia parum nostrarum attigerat literarum,
K 2
—