NOVATIAN DE TRINITATE.
Novatian De Trinitate. Edited by W. Yorke Fausset, "Cambridge Patristic Texts." (Cambridge University Press. Os. not.)—We have hero, in most convenient and attractive form, a short work on systematic theology written in the middle of the third century. In it we see in process of formation the historic faith afterwards formulated at the Council of Nicaea, and later still brought into a form almost the same as the Nicono Creed so familiar to us in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. We have here thrown open to our inspection early Christian thought about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Three in One, and with gratitude we notice how clearly lu1(ld firmly our modern interpretation of the Now Testament was ,11.°1 amid many conflicts, within and without, in the early Church. Phis work ie an interesting historical link between the New Testament and the Creed of Nimes,. It is also iuteresting to remember that its writer, holding so clearly and firmly the Catholic faith, became leader of, and gave his name to, a party which broke away from the Catholic Church, not because of doctrine, but as a protest against the election to the Soo of Rome of one whom they thought to be unworthy. In other words, in Navatian we have an early, perhaps the earliest, orthodox (1.2sonter. This admirable volume is well worth careful study. We know of no bettor introduction at first hand to historical theology.
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