the truth, and their opposition to their own salvation. The enumeration being made in proof of that general charge, it is natural to suppose, that each sect is described by that error, which, of all their absurd opinions was the fittest for the purpose of that proof, the clearest instance of their ignorance and blindness, and their contradicting of their own salvation. The particular error therefore mentioned in each clause is not indeed by itself a definition of heresy, but it is by itself a sure mark of a heretic; by which, every one maintaining that opinion might be known to come under that general character. One of these marks of a heretic is the opinion, that our Lord was literally and naturally the son of Joseph. All therefore were heretics in the judgment of Irenæus, upon whom that mark was to be found, whether they were Cerinthians, Carpocratians, or Ebionites. If this was a mark that might in the judgment of Irenæus convict a Carpocratian or Cerinthian, why should it not equally in his judgment, convict the Ebionites? because in the Cerinthians and Carpocratians, Dr Priestley will say, this opinion was blended with impieties which were indeed heretical. But this is to place the mark of the heresy in the judgment of Irenæus, not in the circumstance which he expressly mentions as the mark, but in others which he suppresses. A mode of interpretation by which every writer may be brought to

say whatever his expositor shall be pleased to say for him.

"If there be any other passage in Irenæus in which he calls or seems to call the Ebionites heretics," Dr Priestley declares he hath overlooked it. He hath then overlooked a very remarkable passage in the third book, the mention of which I have reserved for this place. Irenæus speaking of the universal credit and authority of the gospels, says, that "even heretics bear witness to it, since each of them endeavours to confirm his own doctrines by proofs from those writings. For the Ebionites using only the gospel according to St Matthew, are by that convicted of error in their notions of our Lord. Marcion, cutting off much of the gospel according to St Luke, may be proved a blasphemer against the only God from the parts which he retains, &c."†

As Dr Priestley mentions a definition of heresy given by Irenæus, in terms which exclude, or at

* Second Letters, p. 58.

+ Tanta est autem circa evangelia hæc firmitas, ut et ipsi hæretici testimonium reddant eis, et ex ipsis egrediens unus quisque eorum conetur suam confirmare doctrinam. Ebionai etenim, eo evangelio quod est secundum Matthæum solo utentes, ex illo ipso convincuntur non recte præsumentes de Domino. Marcion autem id quod est secundum Lucam circumcidens, ex his quæ adhuc servantur penes eum, blasphemus in solum existentem Deum ostenditur. Lib. 3. сар. xi.

least comprehend not the Ebionites," I shall just take the liberty to suggest, that he might confer an obligation upon the learned world, if he would be pleased to give information, in what part of the whole work of Irenæus that definition may 'be found.

Meanwhile it appears, that the Ebionites are repeatedly mentioned by Irenæus, and never mentioned but as heretics. When any heavy charge against heretics is to be confirmed by particular instances, the Ebionites seldom are forgotten. In the first book they appear in a list of heretical sects as one instance among many confirming the author's general assertion, that all the heretical sects of his own and the preceding age had their root and origin in the doctrines of Simon Magus. In the third book they are mentioned as one instance of heretics, who rejecting the greater part of the four gospels contribute to the general evidence of the authenticity and credit of those writings by their solicitude to build their particular opinions upon the parts which they receive, and yet are convicted of error in those opinions by those very parts to which they appeal. In another passage of the third book they are described as persons in a state of

* Second Letters, p. 58.

impenitence and hardened infidelity, lying under the dreadful sentence of eternal damnation. In the fourth book their sect is mentioned among those, whom the spiritual disciple, i. e. the sound believer will judge. In the fifth book they are mentioned among heretics whose doctrines are demolished all in the lump, and at one blow, by being contrasted with the scheme of man's redemption truly stated. And in another passage of the same book their distinguishing tenet of the mere humanity of our Lord is alleged as an instance of the ignorance and blindness of heretics, and of the forwardness of such persons to oppose their own salvation.

Of the truth of that remark of Dr Priestley's which provoked this long disquisition, that the Ebionites in Irenæus's large work" are again and again characterised by him in such a manner as makes it evident that even he did not consider them as heretics, and that he never calls them by that name;" of the truth of this remark, and of the qualifications of the man who could make it, and take credit to himself that he had been the first to make it, to enlighten the age upon points of ecclesiastical antiquity, let the intelligent reader now form his own judgment.

DISQUISITION FOURTH.

Of the sentiments of the fathers and others, concerning the eternal origination of the Son in the necessary energies of the paternal intellect.

IN a subject so far above the comprehension of the human mind, as the doctrine of the Trinity must be confessed to be in all its branches, extreme caution should be used to keep the doctrine itself, as it is delivered in God's word, distinct from every thing that hath been devised by man, or that may even occur to a man's own thoughts to illustrate it, or explain its difficulties. Every one who hath ever thought for any length of time upon the subject, cannot but fall insensibly and involuntarily upon some way or other of representing the thing to his own mind. And if a man be ever so much upon his guard to check the licentiousness of imagination, and bridle an irreverent curiosity upon this holy subject, yet if he read what others have written, orthodox or heretics, he will find opinions proposed with too much freedom upon the difficulties of the subject; and among different opinions he cannot but form some judgment of the different degrees of probability with which they are severally accompanied ; nor can he so far command himself, as not in