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Satunilians, Basilidians, Carpocratians, and others, who all combined in this degradation of the almighty, and the taking from him the glory of this first manifestation of his power and Godhead, in creating and framing this stupendous fabric of the universe.

Now against all these various heretics and sundry heresies, to declare our belief of the omnipotent power and operation of God, was this word almighty partly inserted in the creed, whereby it is professed, that as there was no eternal substance or matter antecedent to the creation of the world, from whence it should be formed and taken, so God needed it not for that end; neither stood he in any want of the help and strength of angels, or others, to effect so glorious a work; but was infinitely able, and sufficient of himself, to produce that and ten thousand times more, if it had pleased him so to do.

In which sense, it is expounded by the author of the second explication of the creed to the Catechumens, extant amongst the works of St. Austin; "we believe God," saith he,

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to be almighty, who making all things, is not made himself; and therefore he is almighty, because he made of nothing whatsoever is made; for no matter helped him, on

which he should shew the power of his workmanship, but he created all things of nothing: for this is to be almighty, that not only the fabric itself, but also the matter thereof be found by him, who had no beginning." And when Eutropius, the judge of the disputation in the dialogues of Origen, sums up the Catholic faith, he applies this term almighty, not only to God's providential government of the world, but also to his infinite power in the making thereof, without the aids of any matter co-existent with them.

Irenæus bewails, that the Gnostics and Valentinians did by their craft and subtilty draw away those from the truth, who did not keep a firm faith in one God the father almighty: wherefore, as a preservative against their infection, he adviseth his reader firmly to adhere unto the creed, believed by the universal church, and received from the apostles; which creed saith he, obliges us to profess, that "God is almighty, who made all things not by angels, or any other powers; for he needeth none of these things, but by his word and spirit he compleated and perfected them." And in several other places, in opposition to the forementioned heresies, he writes, "that the angels did not make us, nor any power inferior to the father of all: for God

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Wanted none of these, to effect what he had before determined with himself to do, as if he had no hands of his own; for the son and spirit were always present with him, by whom and in whom he did all things freely and spon taneously." So that, from all these citations it is most evident, that this word almighty in the creed, doth in part denote the infinite power and energy of God, whereby he was able without the assistance of any other, to create the world, and to have done whatsoever else' had pleased him.

But, secondly, it also signifies God's univer sal, absolute, and sovereign dominion over all things and persons, and his providential regen cy and gubernation of them all, according to counsel of his will, for his own praise and glory. This indeed is the primary notion of the Greek word Pantocrator, which hath a res pect to governing and ruling, and is thus explained by Ruffinus, who writes, that in the creed God" is called almighty, because he háth dominion over all:" and to the same effect Salvian affirms, that we must believe, "according to the rule of faith, that God rules all things:" and so Cyril of Jerusalem applies this term almighty to God's providential power, whereby he governs and rules all persons and

things whatever. Now this assertion of God's: providential regency of the world, and of all affairs therein, seems to be levelled and intended against the Gnostics and Marcionites; both of whom refused to own, that God concerned himself with the management and direction of the world; and the former of them at least arrived to that pitch of blasphemy, as to attribute unto another being this very title of almighty considered under this notion of rule and authority; for of these Gnostics the venerable Irenæus assures us, "that whilst they confined the supreme and eternal God within a certain and imaginary space, circumscribed by bounds and limits, and placed the maker of the world (whom they supposed a distinct being from the true and only God) in a seventh heaven of their own framing and imagination, they allotted this inferior world, the seat of mankind, to be the habitation of the Devil, wherein he governs and tyrannizes;" for which reason, they called him Cosmocrator, or the governor of the world; and Pantocrator, which is the very word almighty ascribed to God in the creed. Or, if some of them were not arrived to that degree of im piety, as to place the government of the world, in the hands of the Devil, yet the best of them: refused to lodge it with the one only indepen

dent, and self-existent God, but appropriated it to that other subordinate deity, whom they fancied to be the creator of the universe; and unto whom for this reason they attributed the very word "almighty," which is in the creed. As for the true and supreme God, they con fined him within their feigned plenitude, imagining him there to live in ease and quiet, in rest and silence; that as he did not make the world, so neither was he in any manner concerned about the guidance and direction there of; therein agreeing, as Irenæus observes, "with the Epicureans; and being full with the spirit of the Devil, they invented a father, neither taking care, nor providing about those things that relate unto us."

"And as for the Marcionites, they did not only, as it hath been already related, introduce two eternal causes, God and the Devil, and ascribe the creation of the world unto the latter; but they also attributed the rule and government thereof unto him, calling him for that reason, as Irenæus informs us, Cosmocrator, or the ruler of the world: whereas, as the said father excellently well proves in opposition thereunto, the Devil hath no natural and lawful authority over man, the chief inhabit ant of this inferior world, and the principle subject of divine providence here below; that

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