believed by all, even by the most unlettered Christian.

In the same apology, the book of Origen on the epistle to Titus is quoted, in which he comments on these words-" A man that is an here

tic, after the first and second admonition, reject," ch. iii. 10. "Heresy, as far as I can find, "is thus designated in the epistle of Paul to the "Corinthians :- For there also must be heresies

among you, that they which are approved may "be made manifest among you.'—I. Cor. xi. 19. "And again to the Galatians, Heresy is enume"rated among the works of the flesh: Now the "works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious

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ness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, emulations, "wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, mur“ders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of "the which I tell you before, as I have also told

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you in time past, that they which do such things "shall not inherit the kingdom of God'-ch. v. "19-21. Here we are informed, that as they "who are defiled by fornication, uncleanness, "lasciviousness, and idolatry, shall not inherit "the kingdom of God; so neither shall they "who have deviated into heresy. Therefore, "according to the judgment of the Apostle, we "must as much avoid heresy, as the other sins "which he enumerates, and not so much as join "in prayer with those who are tainted with it." "Farther on, Origen shows who are to be ac

counted heretics, in the following words: "Let "us describe as well as we are able, who is an "heretic. Every one who professes to believe "in Christ, and yet says that there is one God of "the Law, and of the Prophets, but another of "the Gospels, &c. We conceive that he must "have a false opinion of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who, either with the Ebionites and Valen"tinians,* says that he was born of Joseph and "Mary; or with those who deny him to be the "first-born, the God of the whole creation, both "the word and the wisdom which constitute the beginning of the ways of God, begotten before 66 any thing was made, before the foundation of "the worlds, or the foundation of the hills; but "asserting that he is merely man." Surely nothing can be plainer than what is here expressed.

VII. Dionysius,† a celebrated bishop of the Church of Rome, and who flourished but a short time after Origen; in his epistle against the Sabellians, as quoted by Athanasius, calls the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, "the most sublime doctrine of the church of God," the violation of which is impious. He condemns those who dared to affirm that the Son of God was a created being, as not only guilty of heresy, but of the greatest blasphemy. "It is, therefore," says he, "not

* See the notes of Huetius upon Origen's Commentary. + Dionysius succeeded Heraclius in the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Died A. D. 264. He is commonly called Dionysius

A. D. 247.

the Great. (T.)

"trivial blasphemy, but one of the greatest mag"nitude to say, that the Lord was in any man"ner made. For if the Son was made, there was "a time when he was not; but he always was."* It is evident then, that in the days of Dionysius, the church of Rome, which at that time was the most honourable of all churches, deemed the article of the eternal Godhead of the Son indispensably necessary to be believed; and would not cultivate the friendship of those who denied Christ to be God, but said he was only a creature.

VIII. To bring forward all the testimonies of the primitive fathers bearing upon this subject, would be an immense labour. I shall, therefore, to what has been already advanced, add this general observation; namely, that in the first ages there was a warm controversy between the Jews and Christians concerning the Messiah or Christ, whether he was to be God and man, as the prophets had foretold, or merely man. The Jews and Judaizing teachers affirmed the latter, accusing those who asserted the divinity of Christ, as guilty of Gentile Polytheism: but, all the Catholic Christians strenuously defended the former as the foundation of their faith and salvation. They accounted those who professed a sound faith in other things, but denied this, to be aliens from the Christian Church, and renegadoes to the synagogue. Hence, not acknow

* Tomi primi pars prima.

ledging Jesus to be the Christ, and denying him to be God, appeared to be the same thing to them.

IX. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, endeavouring to prove that the Messiah or Christ, foretold by the prophets, was to be God, and should be born man of a virgin ; Trypho objects thus: "It appears not only para"doxical and incredible, but even ridiculous, "when you say that this Christ was God, and "existed before all worlds, afterwards conde"scended to be born and to become man, yet he "was not man of man." To whom Justin replies: "I know that this language appears para"doxical, especially to men of your nation, who "neither wish to understand, nor do the things "of God, as God himself complains." Origen, in his first hook against Celsus, animadverts severely upon his Epicurean, for not having maintained a consistency of character in a Jew whom he figuratively introduced; but put into his mouth, words which a Jew would not use: namely, "But my prophet formerly predicted ' in Jerusalem, that the Son of God should come, "and be the rewarder of the pious, but the "punisher of the profane" He immediately assigns the reason of his animadversion. "Jew would not have confessed that the Son of "God was to come; for what they say is, that

" A

* Justin Martyr suffered under Marcus Aurelius, A. D. 167. (T,)

"the Christ of God will come. Indeed they "often directly dispute with us concerning the "Son of God, as if there was no such person, "nor was ever predicted by the Prophets.". Again he reproaches Celsus in the same manner, in his fourth book :-" Indeed he does not know "that the Jews do not say that Christ, as God, << or the Son of God, will descend in the world."

X. Tertullian,* in his book against Praxeas, toward the end, writes more pertinently to what has just been observed:-" Now the substance "of the Jewish faith is so to believe in one God "as not to acknowledge the Son, nor after the "Son, the Spirit. Otherwise, what difference "would there be between them and us? What "need would there be of the gospel, which is "the substance of the New Testament, deter

mining the law and the prophets to end in John; "unless from his time, the Father, the Son, " and the Spirit, these three should be believed "to subsist in one God? Indeed God has been

pleased to renew the covenant with us, that we "should believe in a new manner that he is one "by the Son and the Spirit; and that he might "be known now as God by his proper names and

persons, who, though anciently preached by "the Son and the Spirit, was not then under

* Tertullian is, by some, supposed to have suffered in the reign of Antoninus Caracallo, A. D. 216, but by others, in that of Gordian, A. D. 245. (T,)