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Methodius. A. D, 290. 191
Trinity : but'' Tilleiuont says it is very difficult to put a
good sense upon .some of his expressions concerning tJie
Word, and concerning- the procession of the divine persons:
Basnage*- and ^ Beausobro speak to the like purpose. And
'"Methodius is one of those many ancient writers, whom Huet
supposeth to have thought falsely and absurdly about the
Trinity, and yet are not reckoned heretics, but are counted
amongst the orthodox writers of the church.
Let me take a passage or two of our author, that the reader
may the better judge for himself. In the work Concerning*
the Creatures, he says: ' There*^ are two creative powers:
one, who by his pure will, without any difficidty, creates w'hat
he pleaseth out of nothing; this is the Father: the other
disposeth into order, and polisheth things already made, in
imitation of the former; [or, according to the model given
by the former ;] this is the Son, the all-pow erful and stronghand
of the Father, by which he adorns and finishes the
matter first made by him out of nothing.'
This passage is censured by ^Petavius. I see that bishop
''Bull endeavours to justify it: but' Beausobre says that
this passage ' savours of Platonism, according to which it
' was thought improper that'' the supreme God should med-
' die with matter, or make any thing that is perishable.' He
says, moreover, that some of the ancient fathers ' divided the
' creation between the Father and the Son. The celebrated
' Methodius supposed that the Father's part lay in bringing-
' matter out of nothing, and that of the Son in forming the
' world after the plan which the Father had shown him.
Let us in the next place take the sequel of the passage
above transcribed, relating to the first man :
' For,' says
'' Tillem. as above, p. 138. '^ Dissimulari tamen vix potest,
multa in Methodic reperiri durissima, quseque Ariana vestigia non obscure
exiiibeant, &c. Basnag. Ann. 300. n. ix. Vid. quae ibidem sequuntur, et
num. vii. ^ Hist, de Manichee, &c. 1. vi. ch. iii. n. vii. T. ii.
p. 317. note 7. * Nam, ut alios brevitatis causa praetermittam,
quot recensere possumus, nulla haereseos suspicione aspersos, et de trinitate
tamen falsa et absurda commentos ? Venient in hunc ordinem Justinus Martyr,
—Clemens Romanus,—Methodius,—Huet. Origen. I. ii. c. 3. n. vi.
^ 'On 0jj(Tiv 6 ayiog, Svo Se SwafitiQ tv rotg trpobtfioXoyrifievoiQ f^a/itv tn'ai
TTOtriTiKag, TTjv tK «K ovTojv yvfivtf) Tqi (iuXrjfJiari, xuipig fitKiajm, [al. ^fXXijer/ia,]
afia Til) ^tXrjaat avTspyaauv 6 (inXiTUL ttouiv' rvyxavu Ce o Trarrip' S/artpav
Ci KaraKorTfinaav Kai TroiKiXXaffav Kara p.ip.r](ni> rijc TrpoTipng ra rjh} yiyovora'
f^i cf v'lOQ, T) TravTOCvvaf.iog Kai Kparaia ^ttp th Trarpog, tv y fttra to Trouiaai
Ti]v v\t]v il 8IC ovTwv KaTaKOffitt. Method, de Great, ap. Phot. Cod. 235. p.
937. fin. et. ap. Conibef. p. 344. e Petav. de Trinit. 1. i. c.
iv. n. xii. ap. Dogm. Theol. Tom. ii.
'' Def. Fid. Nic. Sect. ii. cap.
13. n. X. ' Beausobre, as before, 1. vi. ch. 6. n. ii. T. ii. p. 360.
''
dans lequel on ne permettoit pas au Dieu supreme de mettre le mam
a I'oemTe, de toucher a la matierc, ni de former rein de perissable. ibid.