hath related several of the precedent blasphe mies against God as creator, the first argument that he useth for their confutation, is the creed received in the church, wherein we profess our faith in one God, the father almighty, "maker of heaven and earth and of every thing therein;" and in another place he saith "that the universal church throughout the whole world had received this tradition from the apostles, that there was but one God," the maker of heaven and earth" and again, disputing against the Gnostics and Valentinians, he cites for their confutation, the rule of faith received from the apostles in all churches, which saith he, teaches us, "that there is but one almighty God, who made all things by his word, whether visible or invisible, sensible or intelligible, temporal or eternal; which rule if we observe, although they affirm many and various things, yet we shall easily convince them to swerve from the truth.” But should I produce whatsoever is to be found in the books of Irenæus pertinent to my present pur pose I should swell this chapter into a volume."

In the dialogues of Origen, when Adaman. tius the orthodox Christian repeated the Catholic faith, which he would defend in opposition to the Marcionites; as he confessed therein, that there was but one God, so he

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omitted not to add, "that this one God was the creator and maker of all things;" which he so well proved and confirmed, that Eutropius the Judge of the disputation, condemned the Marcionites for fools; and together with Adamantius, in contradiction to their heresy, not only inserted in his creed the unity of God, but als so that he was "the creator and framer of all things;" so that when we recite this clause in the creed, of" maker of heaven and earth," we thereby profess our belief, that the one eternal and supreme God, is the alone creator and former of all things whatsoever, both visible and invisible,

CAA P. III.

The Nicene and more ancient Greek creeds, read in one Jesus Christ; which was a designed opposition to the blasphemous division of Jesus from Christ, by the Gnostics and others, whose several heresies are related. By believing in Jesus Christ, we profess that there was such a man as was known by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which word Jesus was an usual name amongst the Jews; and that this Jesus was the Christ, or the Messias, which was constantly a part of the creed from the very beginning of the gospel, it being

the foundation of all christianity, and that which was most violently assaulted by the Jews: the word Christ signifies anointed; unction used amongst the Jews on several occasions; in allusion whereunto Jesus is called Christ, from his consecration to his triple office of prophet, priest and king: his unction is to be understood in a spiritual sense; God the father was the anointer, and the holy ghost the oil, which was poured upon his human nature at his conception and baptism. His only son, wherein are two things contained; First, that he is the son of the father; his son which was foretold by the prophets, whence Messias and the son of God were convertible terms amongst the Jews at the time of our saviour's appearance. Christ was the son of God in several respects; but in one way peculiarly so, which is the second thing in this clause, that he is his only son. The scriptures affirm, that God had one son in a peculiar manner, which is expressed in the Greek creeds, to be by generation; which was perhaps opposed to the Valentinian emission or division from the father; caution to be used in the searching *into this mystery: Christ said in the Greek creeds to be the Monogenes, or the only be gotten, in contradiction to the Gnostics, and others. This article was coeval with Christianity, and denotes Christ's divine nature: the title Lord, denotes the dominion of Christ, who is Lord by way of eminency, being supreme Lord over all; and particularly, the Christian's Lord, our Lord: two opposite

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parties in the universe; the one under Christ, the other under the Devil, who have each their separate kingdoms; the Devil's interest among spirits, is unknown to us, but, amongst mankind he very much prevailed, insomuch that in several places he was wor shipped as God; but when Christ came, he destroysd the Devil's kingdom, which was but an usurped one, and erected his own kingdom; the admission whereinto was at baptism, when the baptized person not only acknowledged Christ's Lordship, but also expressly renounced the Devil's power. This article coeval with Christianity, and denotes a submission to Christ as our Lord, in opposition to the Devil. In the next place, the creed declares Christ's humanity, the necessity of his being man: his incarnation blasphemed and denied in sundry ways and manners, by various heretics; against whom was levelled, whatsoever is mentioned in the creed from our Saviour's conception to his resurrection. The conception and nativity are in most creeds joined together in one sentence. Ebion, Cerinthus and others, affirmed Christ to have been a man, conceived and born in the ordinary way of generation; against whom it is declared, that he was conceived by the holy ghost, and born of such a woman as was a virgin. Several heretics whose names are mentioned, denied that Christ assumed a material body from the substance of his mother, but held that his body was framed in heaven and passed through the Virgin Mary as water through a pipe; their rea

son for this heresy, which is emphatically condemned by this expression, ek Marias, or, of Mary: the strange notion of the Apelleians concerning the making of our Saviour's body, against whom, with the precedent here-tics, the creed directs us to believe, by his be ing born of the Virgin Mary, that he took from her flesh the real substance of his body: the birth of Christ employed also in conjunc tion with his passion, crucifixion, death and burial, to denote the reality of his body: These last four not all found in one and the same creed, till St. Augustin's days: the monstrous consequences of an imaginary and fantastical incarnation, which was maintained by a prodigious variety of heretics from the day's of St. John, as by the Simonians, Menandrians, &c. Against whom was inserted in the creed, the birth of Christ and his sufferings; which latter point was so convincing a proof, that to prevent any cavils, as if it were a doubtful and uncertain thing. The time thereof is declared to have been ur der Pontius Pilate, who was Procurator of Judæa in the reign of the emperor Tiberius: To condemn also the forementioned heresies, the crucifixion of our Saviour follows, that it was not Simon of Cyrene, as the Basilidians affirmed, but he himself who was crucified; and likewise his death which is mentioned because the certainty thereof is the foundation of the gospel: by death is meant the separation of soul and body; after which, for the same intent, follows the disposal of his dead body, viz. that it was buried, or laid in the grave.