The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

LuciAN. A. D. 290 211
to teaoli us tlie knowledge of Cotl, wlio inndc flie heavens
and the earth, who is eternal and invisible, lie moreover
gave us a rule of life, and delivered to us the precepts of
righteousness : he taught us to practise sobriety, to rejoice
in poverty, to be very meek, to be willing- to sutt'er, to pre-
serve the purity of our minds, and to be patient at all times.
He likewise foretold the things which have since happened
to us ; that we should be brought before kings and rulers,
and be slaughtered as victims : for which cause also though
he was innnortal, as being the Word and Wisdom of God,
he yielded himself to death, that whilst he was in the body
he might set us an example of patience. Nor did he deceive
us by dying, but on the third (lay rose again :— being innocent,
and unspotted, and undergoing death only that he
might overcome it by rising- again. These things are well
attested, and a large part of the world now acknowledgeth
the truth of them.'
3. There is likewise a Creed, or Formulary of Faith, concerning*
the Trinity, Avhich is sometimes called Lucian's.
Fabricius reckoning- up our martyr's works speaks of this
among the rest. I shall put his Avords in the^ margin : but
I am by no means of opinion that this is one of Lucian's
little books, or discourses concerning- the faith, mentioned
by Jerom in his Catalogue : 1 rather think that Jerom
intends Lucian's Apology, made a little before his martyrdom,
or some other short treatises in defence of the christian
religion. Rufinus, a contemporary, useth the same Mord
Avith Jerom, when he introduceth" the speech, or apology,
which Lucian made before the president at Nicomedia, calling
it, A Discourse concerning the Faith ; which was not
a formulary of the doctrine of the Trinity, but an apology
for the christian religion in general.
Bishop Bull'' readily allowed this Formulary to be Lucian's
: but let us consider the testimony of antiquity.
Sozomcn informs us, that' ' the Eusebians in a synod at
' Antioch published a Formulary, which they said was
' Lucian's the martyr.' But Sozomen adds, ' he did not
' know whether they spake truth, or whether they endea-
' voured to recommend their own composition under the
''
Praeterea, brevis fidei formula— exstat apud Athanasium de Synodis—T.
i. p. 892, et Socratem. ii. 10, quamque Synodi Antiochenae (A. C. 341.) patres,
Luciani esse affirmant, apud Sozomenum, iii. 5. Fabr. Bib. Gr. T, v. p. 279.
8 Turn ille, data sibi facilitate dicendi, hujusmodi orationem de fide nostra
habuisfe dicitur. Rufin. ubi supr. '' Def. Fid. Nic. cap. 3. sect. ii. n. 6.
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