of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made." Here we see the words of the ancient Creed after " Only-begotten," namely, "of the Father before all ages," omitted, that room might be made for the clause on the consubstantiality. But the Constantinopolitan Fathers retained these words, adding what was necessary for the consubstantiality from the Nicene Creed, as follows, "The Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, "God of God, light of light,very God of very "God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with "the Father, by whom all things were made.” It is plain that nothing was added to the ancient Oriental Creed, which was not virtually in it before. For he who was begotten of the Father before all worlds, is the true God, by whom all things were made, and is necessarily consubstantial with the Father, that is, of the same nature or essence with him; (which is all that the Fathers intended by this word) and thus all Catholics always understood the words of the ancient Creed, before the Arian controversy was moved.

XXIII. I will now bring the matter within a narrow compass. It is agreed between the Arians and Catholics that all are obliged, by the rule of faith which has been handed down from the beginning, to believe in the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten before all worlds, true, (or as the Arians say) perfect God, by whom all things were made. It only remains to enquire which

party has interpreted this rule in a consistent manner, as well according to the obvious meaning of the words, as agreeably to the received opinion of the Church; the Arians, who teach that the Son of God is nothing more than a first creature made of nothing by God, (for this is their real opinion, when divested of their sophistical trappings;) or the Catholics, who believe him to be very God himself, and of the same nature and essence with God the Father? Surely there is room for doubting, since it is most manifest that the Catholics alone have held by the genuine meaning of that rule; but the Arians have wandered in an opposite direction, and consequently have departed from it. Any person may easily decide upon the Theodotians, Artemonites, Samosatanians, Photinians, and those indefinable prodigies of our own age, the Socinians, of whose cause, Episcopius has neither feared nor blushed to be the advocate.

Having diligently examined, and accurately compared the Creeds which were used in the Churches before the Council of Nice, it is abundantly plain, how much Episcopius hath laboured in vain to prove, "That in the primitive "Churches, from the time of the Apostles for "nearly three centuries, that particular mode of "Filiation by which Jesus Christ was begotten of ،، God the Father before all worlds, and therefore "God himself, was not judged necessary to be "known and believed for salvation." The con

trary assertion has certainly been proved from the same Creeds, Let us now, with the help of Christ our Saviour and our God, go on to finish what remains.

CHAP. VII.

Of a celebrated passage in Justin's Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.

I. There yet remains another argument by which Episcopius endeavours to prove his assertion." The second argument," says he, "by "which I prove the antecedent is from Justin

Martyr, a very ancient author (having flou"rished in A. D. 150), and a Martyr for the "Christian Religion, who makes it appear, that "all the Christian Churches of those times, did "not only think the determination and profession of this peculiar mode unnecessary to salvation; "but held communion with those who denied it, and professed to believe that Jesus Christ was no more than a mere man, or man of man', and "made Christ by election. The passage of Jus

tin from which it is proved, is in his Dialogue "with Trypho the Jew, which may be seen "quoted in the Apology of the Remonstrants, 46 near the end of the answer to the Censura,

chapter the third, and discussed at large in my "answer of the Remonstrants to the species of "calumnies, &c., of the four Professors of Ley"den. To save repetition I refer you to these writings."