defend the anathema annexed to that Creed. For it is evident that the Nicene Fathers, agreeable to the opinion of the primitive churches, from the days of the Apostles, had ratified their confession of faith with this anathema : "The Catholic and Apostolic church anathematizes all "those who say that the time was when the Son of God "C was not, and he was not before he was born, and that " he was made of nothing, and who affirm that he was "of another essence, or created, or convertible, or "changeable." This opinion of the universal church of Christ must be revered by pious and sober men at all times; and consequently they will beware of, and be utterly averse to, the God-denying heresy of the Samosetanians and Arians. Reader, whoever thou art, I sincerely wish thee to do the same. Farewell!

INTRODUCTION.

EPISCOPIUS, a very learned divine, observes, in

his Theological Institutes,*"That God is called the "Father of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ, as he is

man, is called the son of God, the Father, four ways, "in an eminent manner, in the Sacred Scriptures:"namely, on account of his conception by the Holy

Spirit, by his mediatorial office, resurrection from the "dead, and exaltation to the right hand of the Father. "He then adds and proves from certain passages in the "Holy Scriptures, and from inferences drawn thence, "(though in the whole disputation, he appears to support "this important truth with suspicious frigidity,) that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God, in a more eminent 66 manner than in any of the four above-mentioned. This "does not refer to him as man, as the Scriptures fre"quently speak of him whom they call Jesus Christ, "that there can be no doubt of him having really existed "as the true and only son of his Father, before he was "born of Mary, his Mother; consequently, before the "Creation, (as he afterwards explains himself more "fully) and in such a manner, that all things were made "by him; hence he must be God himself,"

At last he puts the question in his own way, and enquires: "Whether the fifth mode of the filiation of

*Lib. 4, sect. 2, cap. 33. Appendix, No. 1. +Cap. 34, ejusdem Libri.

:

"Jesus Christ be necessary to be known and believed "for salvation and whether those that deny it ought to "be anathematized?". He defends the negative by three arguments. The two former of which shall be left for others to discuss. The third only I propose to examine, as properly falling to my lot. His argument is briefly this: "Among the Primitive Churches, from the times of "the Apostles, during three whole centuries, the faith "and profession of this special filiation were not required "to be known and believed, as necessary to salvation; "therefore, there is no reason why it should be deemed necessary now. The consequence, according to the "rule of Vincentius Lirinensis,* is evident: whatever is "necessary to be known and believed for salvation, must "necessarily have been appointed in the Church of Christ, to be held the same at all times and in all places."

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The consequence we embrace with open arms; but the antecedent, we contend, is evidently false, which we shall abundantly prove in this work, without spending time in exposing the solecism of Episcopius: "that the Faith "and Profession of this special filiation were not required "to be known and believed as necessary to salvation."

One thing must be observed, that the opinion of the primitive Churches concerning the necessity of this, or of any other article of our religion, cannot be better ascertained by us, their late descendants, than by consulting the writings and labours of the Catholic Fathers, and more celebrated Doctors in those Churches, in order that we may know their sentiments upon the question. Afterward, we may examine ecclesiastical history concerning those, who, in the first ages, denied the divinity of our

Lord Jesus Christ, in order to ascertain what sentence the churches passed upon them; and whether they retained them in their communion, or rejected them as aliens from the body of Christ. Indeed there is a third way of ascertaining what doctrines the primitive church thought necessary to be believed; namely, by the creeds and confessions which she required from those who wished to enjoy her communion. We do not reject this method, but readily approve it, as will appear in the sequel. As many in these degenerate times interpret the ancient creeds of the church, and the scriptures themselves, not according to the rule of the Catholic church, (which Vincentius lays down) but according to their own prejudices; and as Episcopius and his followers have drawn an argument to support their own sentiments, from what is commonly called the Apostle's Creed, I propose deferring what I have to say about creeds, till I come to answer their arguments drawn from them.

These things premised, we shall easily refute the assertion of Episcopius, by the following method. I. Produce the testimonies of the primitive fathers, who taught plainly enough, "That the doctrine of the true divinity of Christ is necessary to be believed, in order to obtain salvation." II. Show from ecclesiastical history that no man ever denied the divine generation of Jesus Christ our Lord from God the Father before all ages, who was not excommunicated on that account, and looked upon as a heretic. III. Answer the arguments which Episcopius has used to support his system. Such is the design and end of this dissertation.

CHAP. I.

Testimonies of the Primitive Fathers produced, to prove that the article of the Divinity of our Saviour must be believed, and is absolutely necessary to Salvation.

I. To commence with the testimonies of the Primitive Fathers. Ignatius, a contemporary Bishop with the Apostles, at least with St. John, frequently, in his genuine epistles published by Js. Vossius, enforces the doctrine of Christ being God and Man, true God, and true Man, as absolutely necessary to be believed, in contradistinction to the heretics of that age, who denied one or either of the natures of Christ. So in his epistle to the Ephesians, after having recited their praises, which he had heard from Onesimus, their Bishop; namely, that they held fast the orthodox and apostolic doctrine, and kept themselves untainted with heresy; he admonishes them to persevere in the Catholic faith, and cautiously

* Ignatius was ordained Bishop of Antioch in A. D. 67, and suffered Martyrdom in A. D. 107. T.

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