Section 278

Cyprian f!;raveh^ charges upon him {Epist, lii, p. 74), placed all persons whatever, whose conduct showed a deficiency of Christian firmness, in one and the same predicament; and he inflicted the same penalties on the Libelliitici as on the Sacrijicati and the T/iuriJiciiti. As the laws of the ancient Church considered cer- tain other transgressors, especially adulterers and mur- derers, as equally guilty with the apostates, Novatian also seems to have comprehended them all in one sen- tence, and to have ordered the Church doors to be for- ever closed against others, as well as against apostates. Those writers of the 4th and 5th centuries who men- tion this Novatian doctrine, whether they refute it or only explain it, all so understand it, telling us that No- vatian prohibited all persons guilty of any great fault from readmission to the Church. And this rule cer- tainly was practiced by the Novatian churches in those centuries. This is most explicitly afhrmed by Asclepi- ades, the Novatian bishop of Nice, in the 4th century (Socrates, Hist. Eccles. 1. vii, c. 25, p. 3G7). In near- ly the same manner Acesius, another Novatian bish- op, explains the views of his sect (ibid. 1. i, c. 10, p. 38). He says that from the times of Decius there prevailed among his people this uusiera lex {avarr}- po<; Kaviov): " Neminem qui post baptismum ejus- modi crimen admiserit, quod peccatum ad mortem divi- ne scripture pronuntiant, ad divinorum mysteriorum communionem admitti oportere." None of the ancients has left us a catalogue of the sins which the Novatians accounted mortal ; and, of course, it is not fully known how far their discipline reached, though all pronounce it very rigid. They did not punish vicious mental habits, such as avarice and the like, but confined them- selves, it would appear, to acts contravening any of the greater commands of God, or what are called crimes. l?ut, beyond a question, the Novatian Church, in its maturity, refused to commune, not only with apostatiz- ing Christians, but also with all persons guilty of gross sins. This principle of the Novatians, in itself, appears to be of no great moment, as it pertained merely to the external discipline of the Church; but in its conse- quences it was of the greatest importance, as being in the highest degree adapted to rend the Church, and to corrupt reUgion itself. The Novatians did not dissem- ble and conceal these consequences, as other sects did, nor did they deny, but avowed them openly. In the first place, as they admitted no one to their communion who had been guiltv of any great sin after baptism, they must have held that the visible Church of Christ is a congregation of holy and innocent persons. This theory might have been borne with provided they had allowed that salvation was also attainable in the other churches, which permitted sinners to become recon- ciled by penitence; although they might hold its at- tainment to be more difhcult than in the churches denying restoration to the lapsed. But this they utterly denied, or at least represented as extremely dubious and uncertain. They certainly did not hold out to sinners a sure and undoubting hope of salva- tion. They Avould not indeed have the persons whom the Church excluded sink into utter despair; but, while committing their case to God alone, and urging them to persevere in their penitence through life, they de- clared that the lapsed might hope, but must not feel as- sured, or that they were unable to promise anything certain in regard to the judgment of (iod. This'surely was sufhciently hard and discouraging. One utterly uncertain of his salvation is not much happier than one who is in despair, for he must pass his life in continual fear. In what condition those of the lapsed were placed •whom the Novatians admitted to penitence is manifest; they remained through life in the class of penitents. They could therefore be present at the public discourses to the people, for this was allowed to penitents; and in a particular place, distinct from that of the faithful, they could manifest the sorrows of their heart in the sight of the brethren ; and they coiUd live and con-