the apostles, that there was but one God, the maker of heaven and earth."

This clause is likewise so expressed in two of Tertullian's creeds, as that the condemnation of these various heretics appears most evidently to have been designed thereby; in one' of them it is said, that "by the rule of faith we must believe, that there is but one only God, and that there is no other besides the creator of the world," and in the other, that we must thereby believe "in the only God almighty, the framer of the world." The same also may be observed concerning the several creeds of Origen; in one of which, our faith is declared to be in "one God, who crea ted and disposed all things, and made those things that are, out of things that were not:" and in that creed, wherein Adamantius professed the Catholic faith in opposition to the erroneons tenets of the Marcionites, he begins it with "I believe in one God, the very creator and maker of all things:" and so Cyril of Jesusalem explains the unity of the godhead, in contradiction to the heresy of the Simonians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, and others, who made two Gods, one a good God, and the other a just God; and in another place, where he repeats and explains the creed, he thus explains the unity of God, "that he is

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both good and just; so that if we should hear any heretical person say, that the just God is one, and the good God another, we should remember it to be a venemous heresy, daring wickedly to divide the one God.

From all which it is most apparent, that the intended design of this clause of one God, was in part to declare, that whatsoever is immediately predicated concerning God, in the subsequent part of the creed, related to one and the same God; that one and the same divine being, was the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth; that all things had their spring and original, form and shape, from one and the same divine essence, who was the one and only God, so one as that there is none other besides him, and like unto whose unity there is nothing to be found in the whole world, whereby it may be represented or expressed.

After the existence and unity of God, there follows next in the creed, that relation wherein he stands to us as our father, as he is the author, cause, and origin of all beings. The reason whereof is most probably to be fetched from the Gnosticks, and the other heretics of the first ages, who denied God's paternity in this respect, by disowning him to have beca

the creator and producer of the world, and of the various creatures therein; and in an agree ableness thereunto did avowedly refuse to at tribute unto God this very title or appellation of father, acting therein far worse than the heathens, who by the glimmering light of na ture had conceived of God under this notion, that he was the Pater omnipotens, Pater andreonte Theonte, and as such had reverenced and adored him; for the proof whereof, the single testimony of Lactantius shall suffice, who writes, that "every God in the worship and prayers directed to him, was of necessity called father, not only for honor's sake, but for reason's also, because he is ancienter than man, and as a father, gave him his life, health, and food; and that therefore, Jupiter, and Saturn, and Janus, and Bacchus, with the rest of the Gods, were each of them called father."

The notion or signification of a father is so well known, as that it may be needless to say, that in its proper and restrained sense, it denotes such an one as communicates life and being to another generation being the foundation of paternity; and that more largely and comprehensively, it signifies such an one as confers kindnesses, favors, and benefits upon another every one knows, according to the forementioned citation from Lactantius, that

he is a father who gives life, health and food, to another but now, such an one the Gnos ticks had the wickedness to deny God to be How in this respect they blasphemed the divine majesty, I shall more particularly relate and prove, when I come to that article of ma ker of heaven and earth, unto which this word thus considered, hath a nearness and affinity; in this place it shall be sufficient to remark in general that the Gnosticks and Valentinians imagined the supreme and omnipotent God to live within circumscribed limits, in an une active, and idle rest and ease, whilst they feigned an inferior deity to be the crea tor of the world, the author of every being thereof, and of every gift necessary and Buitable thereunto, unto whom therefore they gave this title of father; which in this ac reptation, is alone communicable to the su preme and infinite majesty, calling this fancied maker of the world, "father and king of all, father and God, creator of the world and father," thereby making themselves guilty of the last and greatest blasphemy. Wherefore, to declare the true Christian's abhorrence of such an odious crime, Irenæus in his opposi tion thereunto, doth generally understand by God's being the father, his being the fountain, source, producer and creator of all other be ings whatsoever; and therefore, after he hath revealed at large this mystery of iniquity, this

portentous and horrid imagination of the Gnosticks, he immediately repeats as a proper antidote against the infection thereof, the apostles creed, by which we are obliged to believe in God the father; and having in his whole first book, related the extravagant fancies of these wild and distracted brains, and their blasphemous denials of God to have been the author and creator of the world, and of all things therein, he informs us in the be ginning of his second book, he intended to prove therein, that the true and supreme God was the "alone creator, and the alone father."

But there may be also another sort of pa ternity included in the creed, viz. the peculiar relation wherein God stands to his son, that he is his father, that he hath begotten him; the manner whereof is peculiar, eminent and ineffable, and is not only impossible to be explicated by us, but such an attempt would be both perillous and arrogant: For, who can search out God to perfection? Secret things belong unto God, but revealed things unto us and our children. Wherefore, waving all searches or inquiries into the manner or nature thereof, and reserving what I have farther to say on this point, till I come to the generation of the son, contained in that article, "his only son," I shall only in this place endeavor to