equal portion of what was subtle and what was gross; while the framer of these two natures was not the supreme Being, but a generated deity whom he called the Demiurge. This offspring of two of the Eons (of whom VALENTINUS created more than thirty) is represented as arbitrary and arrogant, aspiring to supreme dominion, as the God of the Jews, keeping mankind in slavery, &c.: but Jesus, one of the Eons, came to our world to chastise Demiurge, and to deliver mankind from his tyranny! It must not be omitted that the mother of this tyrannical pretender resolved to add to the two natures which her son gave to mankind a third nature far better than the other two.

4. BASILIDES was a mystic of no less extravagance. He held that mankind had "two natures," derived from two sources, that is, one nature from malignant matter, self-animated and eternal, but moulded originally into human form by angelic hands; the other nature was a principle of reason added to it by the kindness of the supreme deity. But still he left them under the dominion of their first formers; who themselves, in process of time, fell into a state of depravity. To complete his blasphemous nonsense, he asserted that one of these was the God of the Jews, to counteract whose pretensions, and to deliver mankind from the "two

natures" now enslaved, Christ was sent by his Father, the supreme deity. CARPOCRATES differed little from BASILIDES, except by adding a still greater portion of impiety to his philosophical reveries.

5. These heresies, among many others of minor consideration, made their appearance in the second century. In the third, the Manichæans made themselves prominent. MANES, the Persian, also held "two natures" in mankind, one sensual, the other rational; the latter derived from a good, the former from an evil deity. This impious magician, in common with the rabblement of Gnostics before mentioned, pronounced all matter to be eternally corrupt, and therefore denied a resurrection. The human body, he supposed, was originally formed by the prince of darkness, and was the prison of man's "two natures," or "two souls;" and the design of Christ, in coming into our world, was to liberate the better nature both from its lustful companion and from its prison; when, having completed his mission, he returned to his native residence, the sun, favouring the better part of mankind with MANES as his Paraclete!

§ 6. Such is a concise account of the fantastical impieties of these heresiarchs,-who

leaving the plain scriptures of truth, bewildered themselves and their followers among the fables and mythologies of the oriental heathen philosophy, falsely so called, and to whom the Bishop of Lincoln would apparently be very glad to persuade us that the Calvinists are closely allied. "Opinions of earliest Heretics resembling tenets of Calvinism," proved from the ancient Fathers! Nothing can be plainer: as these Heretics held, that there are "two natures" in men, so the Calvinists maintain, that แ by nature we are children of wrath," have a "carnal mind," which is "enmity against God," and that, by a plan of mercy and grace, some are "made partakers of the divine nature."

7. On the heresies above recited I would make a few remarks. 1. The specimens produced of the tenets of their leaders, are but a small part of their profane jargon. 2. Some of them put forth their germs in the apostolic age, and by degrees grew up, and infested a great part of the Christian church, for many centuries, though often assuming different aspects, according to the prepossessions of each prominent leader. S. Many of them, not content with dogmatizing with a fertile imagination, unrestrained either by judgment or any tolerable consistency, permitted their infatuated adherents to indulge in the most licentious practices.

4. It is not surprising if the ancient Fathers frequently adverted to their tenets and practices in their discourses and writings. 5. A proper knowledge of the prevailing heresy which each writer or speaker had in view, is the true key to open the meaning of many arguments and phrases employed by the Christian Fathers. 5. The Bishop of Lincoln has widely erred of the mark, while comparing the Gnostic and Manichean notions of "two natures" in men, with the sentiments of Calvinists, who keep closely to God's holy word, respecting the true character of Jehovah and the real state of man, as either sinful or gracious.

$ 8. We shall now examine what some of the Fathers remark on Christ's purchase. CLEMENT of Rome has this passage: "Let us look * stedfastly at the blood of Christ, and see how precious his blood is in the sight of God; 'which being shed for our salvation, has obtained the grace of repentance for all the world. Let 'us search into all ages, and learn that our Lord has in every one of them given oppor'tunity for repentance to all such as are willing to turn unto him.' This quotation may have some appearance of opposition to modern Calvinists, otherwise it would not have been

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*Refut. p. 288.

produced by his Lordship as an entire extract, unconnected with other matter: but where is the reality of opposition? CLEMENT explains what he means by "the grace of repentance" by an "opportunity of repentance;" and we maintain precisely the same. We profess that "the blood of Christ" (expressive of his whole humiliation unto death,) is a price of infinite value; that the proclamation of this plan of mercy is a "grace," a great favour; affording to the children of men an" opportunity for repentance;" and that "all such as are willing to return" unto God through Jesus Christ, shall obtain "forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace." Nor is it true that we hold, (whatever might be the conclusion of CALVIN) that there is any reprobating decree to prevent repentance.

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$ 9. The following passage from ATHANASIUS has more an apparent than a real opposition to our sentiments: "By his death salvation came to all, and every creature was ransomed. He is the life of all, even he, who like 'a sheep gave up his own body to death, as 'a ransom for the salvation of all.”—“That 'he might take away sin from all the race.' These expressions, I conceive, must have been

* Refut. p. 345, 346.