omitted not to add, "that this one God was the creator and maker of all things;" which he sa well proved and confirmed, that Eutropius the Judge of the disputation, condemned the Mar, cionites 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 begotten, 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 sùpreme Lord over all; and particularly, the Christian's Lord, our Lord: two opposite

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 worshipped 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

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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 heretics, the creed directs us to believe, by his being born of the Virgin Mary, that he took from her flesh the real substance of his body: the birth of Christ employed also in conjunction 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 un der Pontius Pilate, who was Procurator of Judea 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.

HAVING in the former chapter spoken

concerning our faith in God the father; in this I come to consider in part, of that which relates unto the son: the beginning whererof is, "and in Jesus Christ;" wherein the first thing observable is, that the Nicene and more ancient Greek creeds read, " and in one Jesus Christ;" putting an emphatical force and energy upon the term One; as in one of the creeds of Irenæus, the Christian faith is not only terminated upon one God the father, but also upon one Jesus Christ; and where the said father exhorts his readers to a firm adherence under the faith, which the church received from the apostles, and distributes to her children, this is one article thereof, that there" is but one Christ the son of God:" which particular emphasis in the oriental creeds, was long ago remarked by Ruffinus, who assures us, "that as they did all read in one God the father almighty, so also in one Lord Jesus Christ, in conformity, as he thinks, to the authority of St. Paul, that there is but one Lord and one God."

.But, as I conceive a more probable account of this emphatical expression may be fetched from the blasphemous and horrid imaginations of the Gnostics, Cerinthians, and others, who by dividing Christ from Jesus, denied the uni