1

SECTION I.

The Fact acknowledged by the Chriftian
Fathers.

AS

S thefe conceffions are of confiderable confequence to my argument, I fhall produce a number of them, from the earliest christian writers to a pretty late period, to fhew that it was the uniform perfuafion of all those who were the greatest friends to the doctrine of the trinity.

I shall begin with Juftin Martyr, the first who advanced the doctrine of the perfonification of the logos. What the Jews thought of their Meffiah in his time, appears very clearly from a paffage in his dialogue with Trypho, which will be produced hereafter. In the mean time, I fhall give his opinion with refpect to the doctrine of the Jews in general on the subject. "The Jews," he says, thinking it was "the Father of all who fpake to Mofes, when it was the Son of God, who is

"alfo

"alfo called an angel, and an apostle, are

66

justly cenfured by the Spirit of God, and

by Chrift, as not knowing either him or "his Father *.

Clemens Alexandrinus confidered the doctrine of the œconomy (or that of the incarnation of the logos) to be the doctrine of the perfect, alluded to by Paul in his epiftle to the Coloffians, where he speaks of their being filled with the knowledge of his will, and of the mystery which was hid from ages and generations, but now made manifeft to the faints, "fo that there are other myf"teries," he fays, "which were hid till "the times of the apoftles, and delivered

by them as they received them from the "Lordt." In another paffage he speaks

* Ιεδαίοι εν ηγησαμενοι αει τον πατέρα των όλων λελαληκεναι τω Μωσει, το λαλησαν αυτω ολG- υιε τ8 θες, ος και αγγελΘ και αποςοτα κεκλήθαι, δικαίως ελεγχονται καὶ δια τε προφήτικο πνευμαία, καὶ δι αυτό το χρισ8, ως 8λε τον πατερα, ελε τον υιον εγνωσαν. Apol. I. P. 94.

་

+ Το μυσήριον το αποκεκρυμμενον απο των αιώνων και απο των γενεων, ο νυν εφανερώθη τοις αγιοις αυλε . οις ηθέλησεν ο Θεος γνωρισαι, τι TO WAY? της δόξης το μυσηρις τελε εν τοις εθνεσιν. ωςε αλλα μεν τα μυτήρια τα αποκεκρυμμένα αχρι των θενία ως απο τα κυριε παρειληφασιν.

αποτόλων, και υπ αυλων παραδο
Strom. lib,
Strom. lib. 5. p. 576.

of

of this œconomy as what chriftians only were acquainted with *.

Tertullian had the fame ideas.

"adore," fays he,

" I

"the fulness of the "fcriptures," meaning thofe of the Old Teftament, "which manifeft the maker and "the things made; but in the gospel I "find the minifter, or the perfon by whom "it was made, and the judge, viz. the word "of the maker +." "It is the faith of the "Jews fo to believe in one God, as not to " acknowledge the Son, or the Spirit."What is the difference between us and "them, but this? What need is there of "the gofpel, which is the fubftance of the "New Testament (faying, that the law and "the prophets were until John) if from that period the Father, Son, and Spirit, being "three, are not believed to make one God.

* Ημεις εσμεν οι την οικονομίαν τε θες κατανενοηκόλες. Ad Gentes, Opera, p. 40.

+ Igitur in principio deus fecit cœlum et terram. Adoro fcripturæ plenitudinem, quæ mihi et factorem manifeftat et facta. In evangelio vero amplius et miniftrum atque arbitrum rectoris invenio fermonem. Ad Herm. fect. 22. Opera, p. 241.

"So

"So God would renew his covenant, that, "in a new manner, he should be believed

in, together with the Son, and his Spirit; "that God may be known in his proper "names and perfons *."

"ho

"The Jews," fays Hippolytus, *noured the Father, but they did not give "thanks; for they knew not the Sont."

Origen alfo fays, "the Jews were not acquainted with the incarnation of the only begotten Son of God +."

Eufebius fpeaks of the chriftians as differing from the Hebrews, in that the latter

* Judaicæ fidei ifta res, fic unum deum credere, ut filium adnumerare ei nolis, et poft filium fpiritum. Quid enim erit inter nos et illos, nifi differentia ifta? Quod opus evangelii, quæ eft fubftantia novi teftamenti, ftatuens legem et prophetas ufque ad Joannem, fi non exinde pater et filius et fpiritus, tres crediti, unum deum fiftunt? Sic deus voluit novare facramentum, ut nove unus crederetur per filium et fpiritum, ut coram jam deus in fuis propriis nominibus et perfonis cognofceretur, qui et retro per filium et fpiritum prædicatus non intelligebatur. Ad Praxeam, fect. 30. Opera, p. 518.

εκ επέγνωσαν.

+ Ιεδαίοι μεν γαρ εδόξασαν πατερα αλλ' εκ ηυχαρίσησαν υιον γαρ In Noetum, fect. 14. Opera, p. 16. Deerat enim illis in trinitate etiam de unigeniti incarnatione cognofcere, Opera, vol. 1. p. 290.

did

did not acknowledge the divinity of Chrift*. He confidered the doctrine of the divinity of Christ as peculiar to chriftians, and dis-. tinguishing them from Jews. "If any

Jew," fays he, "be afked, whether God "has a logos, he will fay, certainly. Every "Jew will fay, that he has one, or more of them; but if he be afked whether he has "a Son, he will not acknowledge it +."

"In

Cyril of Jerufalem fays, " In this refpect "our doctrine is more fublime than that of "the Jews, in that they acknowledge one "God the Father, but do not admit that he "is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "in which they contradict their own pro

phets, who fay, in the fcriptures, The "Lord faid unto me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." Cyril of