This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
in English with some Latin
The whole of SL255 was bought at the 1936 Sotheby sale by Emmanuel Fabius for £13.10s. This portion was offered (but not sold) as section 3 of Lot 511 at the 2004 New York Sotheby sale. Folio 1 of this portion (f. 3 of the original document) was offered as Lot 55 at the 5 April 2008 Bloomsbury auction in New York with an estimate of $35,000-$45,000 US but not sold.
mention of s in scripture of any other generation of the son of God.
Iohn tells us, In the beginning was the Word, but he doth not tell
us that he was begotten in or before the beginning. This opinion
came from the Theology of the heathens, & whether it is
or false we cannot know without an express revelation. nor is it material
According to the opinion of the Christians mentioned
the son or Word of God was the natural essential
of the father from all eternity, & was emitted from him outwardly
(as light from the sun) before the beginning of the world in order
to create it came from the
heathens & waswas the came from the heathens & becameHeathens &
& amounted to a deniall of the father & the son (for the inherent
powers vertues
very early in the Churches so as to infect several Christians of Go good note before the end of the second century, especially such
as were first
became Christians & by their learning made themselves eminent.
For Athenagoras in his Apology, after he had been describing
the opinion of Plato concerning the Deity, subjoins.
impia est hæc Platonis de uno universitatis ingenito Deo sententia:
.......... ut etiam cadat sub aspectum.
The Church of Rome in the days of Pope Victor
began to place religion in ceremonies & to err in the
faith
for keeping Easter upon the 14th day of the first month
of the Lunisolar year (a thing in its own nature indifferent)
& wrote communicatory letters to the Montanists in Asia
& Phrygia & then turned Patripassian & recalling those letters
by the perswasion of Praxeas, as Tertullian a Montanist in
his book against Praxeas written about the year
thus mentions.
agnoscentem jam prophetias Montani Priscæ et Maxamillæ
et ex ea agnitione pacem ecclesijs Asiæ et Phrygiæ in
ferentem, falsa de ipsis prophetijs et ecclesijs adseverando, &
præcessorum ejus
revocare jam emissas et a proposito recipiendorum charis
matum concessare. Ita duo negotia diaboli Praxeas Romæ
procuravit, prophetiam expulit et Patrem crucifixit.almight the father almighty.
predecessors of Victor who had opposed the Montanists were Soter
& Eleutherus. For Soter wrote against them at their first
rise & Irenæus was sent to Rome by the Church of Lyons
to confer with Eleutherus against them. And therefore Victor
was the first bishop of Rome who turned Montanist. He
to be called
scriptione hæreticorumSed post hos omnes etiam Praxeas quidam hæresim introduxit quam Victorinus corrobera vi ret curavit.
By these instances it is manifest that the metaphysical
Theology of Orpheus Plato & other heathen Philosophers
began to spread manifestly much
end of the second century, & infected not only those who
separated from her & became hereticks of note, but also
many others who did not separate, & particularly that it
insinuated it self into the Churches of Antioch & Rome &
the
if it still got grownd in the third century & prevailed in the
fourth.
Antony the fa common father of the Moncks taught
the people (as Athanasius tells us,)the Word & wisdome of the fathers substance & therefore eternal.
Athanasius was educated a monck under Antony pouring
water upon his hands as Elisha did upon Elijah's, & imbibed the
same doctrine. even in his youth For he taught, as you may in many places of his works,
seethat th he takes the
for the ch
that the evoice
vanid voice but with a substance as light from e
from the fountain a tree from the root & so was consubstan
tial to him: chof & doctrine of the
Montanists (
doctrine Athanasius imbibed in his youth as may be gathered
from his Orations ch
wrote before the controversy th& continued in it ✝ ✝ till about the end of the reign of Constantius as
in ch
άθετος τοῦ Θεοῦ
the Word subsisting by himself.
Alexander bishop of Alexandria in his general Epistle directed
to all the bishops of the Church catholick in the very beginning of
the controversy with Arius & subscribed by all the bishops of his party, writes thus.
quomodo fuit tempus cum non esset? Perinde enim est ac si dice
rent
et sapientiæ expertem fuisse.
the bishops of his party may be taken for their common opinion.
Constantine the great who was influenced by Hosius published
the same opinion even before he influe convened the council of
Nice. For in an Epistle which he then sent to pub sent to Alexandria
& caused to be published in all the cities of the Roman Empire before
the meeting ofVnum dicis Deum. Habes ejusdem me sententiæ. Sic igitur sentias. Ejus essentiæ Verbum principij et finis exper.