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ty of our Saviour's person; concerning the former of which heretics, Irenæus writes, "that they did not only endeavor to withdraw persons from their faith in one God the father almighty, but also from their faith in one Lord Jesus Christ," by separating Jesus from Christ, affirming them to be two distinct and different persons, and not one Christ Jesus, as the creed declares.

The general opinion of the Gnostics relating to this matter, seems to have been this,

that Christ was the son of their creator, whom they termed Demiurgus;" from whom he derived an animal life, as from his Grandmother Achamoth he received a spiritual one; that he passed through the Virgin Mary as water through a pipe; and that at his baptism, Jesus who lived with the thirty ons with in the Pleroma, descended into hum in the form of a dove, and continued with him till his passion, when the said Jesus left Christ, and returned back to the Pleroma in an invis ible and incomprehensible manner.

The blasphemies of Valentinus, a principal leader amongst the Gnostics, respecting this particular, are thus briefly expressed by Theodoret, that he asserted, "that the only begotten was one, and the word another; that

there was one Christ within the plenitude, and another Jesus; and again one Christ without the plenitude; affirming moreover, that Jesus was incarnated, but putting on the Christ that was without, and assuming unto himself a body of an animal substance: thus making Jesus and Christ to be two different persons. Which heresy was hatched before his time, in as much as we find it ascribed to Cerinthus, who affirmed Jesus to be a mere man, "the son of Joseph and Mary, into whom Christ descended after baptism, in the shape of a dove, from that principality which is above all, and then revealed the unknown father, and wrought miracles; but in the end, Christ fled from Jesus, and Jesus suffered and rose again, whilst Christ remained impassible, being spiritual.", Against which error of Cerinthus, Irenæus assures us, "St. John levelled his gospel persuading them, that it was not as they said, that there was one Jesus the son of the creator, and another Christ, who came from the Pleroma, who remaining impassible, descended into the foresaid Jesus, the son of the creator, and afterwards returned back to the Pleroma again."

Now if St. John designed his gospel for the confutation of this heresy, it is no wonder that the church in her most early days inserted in the rule of faith a proper antidote there

against, requiring all her sons to believe in one Jesus Christ, which was a direct contra diction to all the forementioned heresies; for, as Irenæus well reasons, "if these figments should be admitted, it would necessarily follow, that there are two Christs; for, if one suffers, whilst the other is incapable thereof, and one is born, whilst the other descends ino him so born, and afterwards leaves him, it is most certain that they are not one, but two: which division and separation of our Saviour's person is such an intolerable blasphemy, that as the said father writes, "Christ Jesus shall judge the Valentinians for it, when he shall come to judge the world."

But, though the Eastern creeds did read in "one Jesus Christ," yet in the West, where the churches were not so much infested and ravaged by the Gnostics, the creed, as our present one doth, expressed this article without the addition of the term "one," saying, "and in Jesus Christ, his only son our Lord, &c." In which words, our faith is declared in the son of God; wherein we have him first described by his name Jesus; and then by his office, that he is Christ; and afterwards by his natures both divine and human, with several acts belonging thereunto: unto each of which I shall speak in their respective order.

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And first of all, by the word Jesus, I sup pose the designed sense thereof to have been no other than this, that hereby we must pros fess our belief, that without question or dis pute there really was such a man living in the world as was called Jesus, or Jesus of Nazareth, to distinguish him from others of the same name; for it must be observed, that Jesus was a proper name, attributed and given unto oth ers besides our Saviour: [Heb. iv. 8.]" as Joshua the son of Nun was called Jesus ;" and besides him, we read [Colloss. iv. 11.]" of Jesus who was called Justus," and [Acts xiii. 6.]" of Barjesus, or the son of Jesus" it being an usual name amongst the Jews, and like unto other names, imposed upon children at their circumcision: according to which St. Jerom tells us concerning our Saviour, "that as Christ was his common name denoting dig nity, so Jesus was his proper name, by the which," as Lactantius writes" he was called amongst men."

As for the exact time when this Jesus lived here on earth, it is not mentioned in this part of the creed, seeing in another part it is declared to have been in the days of Pontius Pi late; neither indeed was it necessary to be here expressed, since this article being co-eval with Christianity, it was a thing then universal

ly known and owned by all, as might easily be proved both from Pagan and Jewish writers there was such a man as Jesus of Nazareth, who preached an heavenly and divine doctrine, and confirmed it both by an exem plary life and undeniable miracles; wherefore the bare existence of such a man was sufficient to be expressed, whose name Jesus was principally inserted in the creed, and by consequence, chiefly to be considered, for no other reason than as it related, to the following word Christ, and in Jesus Christ; the intended meaning whereof was this, that the man called Jesus, who lived at Nazareth, is Christ; that is, is the Messias, or the anointed of God; that very person, who was designed and appointed by him to be the instructor, king and saviour of mankind: the declaration whereof at baptism, was required from the very foundation of Christianity, seeing it is that on which our whole religion depends, and what was most violently assaulted by the Jews, out of whom the first converts were made.

St. John relates concerning the fury and malice of the Jews, that they had agreed, that, if any man did confess that this Jesus was the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue, that is, be excommunicated; in which hatred against the person and name of Jesus, the

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