mediate disciple of St. John, and having left a work of such extent, and full of such varied information on doctrinal points, it becomes of great importance that we should ascertain his real sentiments concerning our Lord's divinity. The testimonies produced from him are consequently more numerous than those cited from any of the preceding Fathers. Eusebius, as already quoted, mentioned Irenæus among the writers who spoke of Christ as God: but a Socinian writerk asserts positively, that " he was cer"tainly ignorant of the two natures in Christ." The truth or falsehood of this assertion may be tried by the following quotations.

In many passages of his work, Irenæus has shewn that it was customary in his day, as it had been before, to draw up short creeds or confessions of faith. He mentions that they were recited at baptism and though in some he only expresses the belief in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth, it is plain from other instances, that these creeds also contained the name of the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Thus he speaks of people being driven from the truth" who do not hold firm the belief in one God "the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ "the Son of God1:" and having mentioned “the "invariable rule of truth which a person received "at baptism "," and "the certain truth which was

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preached by the church "," he goes on to say, "The church, although dispersed through the whole "world, even to the ends of the earth, has received "from the apostles and their disciples the belief in "one God, the Father Almighty, who made the "heaven and the earth, and the sea, and all things "therein; and in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who "was incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Ghost, who proclaimed by the prophets the incar"nation P, and the coming, and the birth from a "virgin, and the suffering, and the resurrection "from the dead, and the incarnate ascension into "heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and "his coming from heaven in the glory of the Fa

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• Dr. Priestley (History of early Opinions, I. p. 306.) translates this the churches planted by the apostles, which is a manifest inaccuracy, and would mislead the English reader, who might not think that Irenæus asserted this creed to have been handed down from the apostles.

P I have translated olkovouías incarnation, which is the sense in which all the Fathers used the word. This is fully proved by Bull, (Defens. IV. 3, 12. and Animadv. in G. Clerke,) also by Waterland, (II. p. 296, &c.) St. Paul himself may have led the way to this meaning of the term by his use of it in Ephes. i. 10. If any person should still doubt, I would refer him to the examples collected in Suicer's Thesaurus.

Of four meanings, which he gives to the word, he states the third to be Ipsa Christi ένανpánσis, sive naturæ humanæ assumptio: after which he says -IV. tandem oikovoμía non tantum incarnationis, sed etiam totius redemptionis mysterium, et passionis Christi sacramentum denotat. I would rather have put the fourth signification before the third: oikovouía seems very naturally to mean totius redemptionis mysterium, i. e. the whole economy or scheme pursued by God in perfecting our redemption and of this the incarnation of his Son formed a part. The word will generally be translated incarnation in the following pages. See No. 161. The Benedictine editor of Athanasius has strangely misunderstood and mistranslated the words Kar' oikovoμíav in vol. I. p. 247. §. 6.

" ther—that to Christ Jesus, our Lord and God "and Saviour and King, according to the pleasure "of the invisible Father, every knee may bow 9," &c.

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In another place he speaks of "holding the rule " of the truth, which is, that there is one God, Almighty, who created all things by his Wordr.” At p. 176. he speaks of the faith which Clement of Rome held, as taught by the apostles, a belief in one God, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth" who was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ s.” In the next chapter he speaks of distant nations carefully observing the old tradition, believing in "one God, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things therein, by Christ Jesus, the Son of God: “ who, from his great love toward his creation, sub"mitted to be born of a virgin, himself by himself uniting man to God, and suffered under Pontius

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« Pilate, and rose again, and was received into 'glory, who is to come

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4 Ἡ μὲν ἐκκλησία, καίπερ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἕως περάτων τῆς γῆς διεσπαρμένη, παρὰ δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων, καὶ τῶν ἐκείνων μαθητῶν παραλαβοῦσα τὴν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν πα τέρα παντοκράτορα, τὸν πεποιηκότα τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὰς θαλάσσας, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πίστιν· καὶ εἰς ἕνα Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸν σαρκωθέντα ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡμετέρας σωτηρίας· καὶ εἰς Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, τὸ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν κεκηρυχὸς τὰς οἰκονομίας, καὶ τὰς ἐλεύσεις, καὶ τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γέννησιν, καὶ τὸ πάθος, καὶ τὴν ἔγερσιν ἐκ νεκρῶν, καὶ τὴν ἔνσαρκον εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἀνάληψιν τοῦ ἠγαπημένου Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν, καὶ τὴν ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ

in glory, the Saviour of

πατρὸς παρουσίαν αὐτοῦ, ἐπὶ τὸ ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα, καὶ ἀναστῆσαι πᾶσαν σάρκα πάσης άνθρω πότητος, ἵνα Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυ ρίῳ ἡμῶν, καὶ Θεῷ, καὶ σωτῆρι, καὶ βασιλεῖ, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ ἀοράτου, πᾶν γόνυ κάμψη ἐπουρανίων. κ. τ. λ. p. 48.

r Cum teneamus autem nos regulam veritatis, id est, quia sit unus Deus Omnipotens, qui omnia condidit per Verbum suum. I. 22. p. 98.

"those who are saved, and the Judge of those who " are judged t," &c. In another place he speaks of the true belief being "in one God Almighty, of "whom are all things, and in the Son of God, Jesus "Christ our Lord, by whom are all things": and "his incarnation, by which the Son of God became "man—and in the Holy Ghost," &c. This he calls "true knowledge, the doctrine of the apostles, "and the original form of the church throughout "the world."

After reading these different passages, there can surely be no doubt but that in the days of Irenæus, and, according to him, from the time of the apostles, the creeds contained the same doctrine with that which we call the Apostles' Creed, a belief in God the Father Almighty, in Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, and in the Holy Ghost. We may also compare the creeds of Irenæus with that of Hippolytus, who was one of his hearers, and in his work against Noetus has the following passage: "We "truly acknowledge one God; we acknowledge "Christ; we acknowledge the Son, who suffered, "&c. who died, &c. and rose on the third day, and " is on the right hand of the Father, and cometh to

t

:

in unum Deum credentes fabricatorem cœli et terræ, et omnium quæ in eis sunt, per Christum Jesum Dei Filium qui propter eminentissimam erga figmentum suum dilectionem, eam quæ esset ex Virgine generationem sustinuit, ipse per se hominem adunans Deo, et passus sub Pontio Pilato, et resurgens, et in claritate receptus, in gloria venturus Sal

vator eorum qui salvantur, et Judex eorum qui judicantur. III. 4, 2. p. 178.

See 1 Cor. viii. 6.

* Εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν παντοκράτορα, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα, πίστις ὁλόκληρος· καὶ εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν, δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα, καὶ τὰς οἰκονομίας αὐτοῦ, δι ̓ ὧν ἄνθρωπος ἐγένετο ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, πεισμονὴ βεβαία· καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ

IV. 33, 7. p. 272.

"judge the quick and dead." This is an evident allusion to some settled and prescribed form2.

The Unitarians, we know, object to the use of the Apostles' Creed; but I would ask them, does this creed go further in asserting our Lord's divinity than the creeds of Irenæus? Do not the creeds of Irenæus expressly say that Jesus Christ was born of a Virgina? And do not the Unitarians themselves conceive that this miraculous birth proves him to be more than man? I ask them lastly, Will the Unitarians join in reciting the creeds of Irenæus? if they do, they confess that Jesus Christ is more than man if they will not, how can they say that

* Καὶ ἡμεῖς ἕνα Θεὸν οἴδαμεν ἀληθῶς. οἴδαμεν Χριστόν· οἴδαμεν τὸν υἱὸν παθόντα, καθὼς ἔπαθεν, ἀποθα νόντα καθὼς ἀπέθανεν, καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ ὄντα ἐν δεξίᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς. Ι. vol. II. p. 6.

z The reader may also compare the creeds given by Tertullian, No. 133. and by Origen, No. 259.

a We could hardly suppose Dr. Priestley to be serious when he says of this expression," Even "this might not be intended to "describe the birth of Christ in "such a manner as to exclude "those who thought it natural,

after having proved that Jesus was born of a Virgin, he proceeds (III. 22.) to consider another opinion, of those who say, "that he took nothing from the

Virgin,” μηδὲν εἰληφέναι ἐκ τῆς παρθένου. If the miraculous conception of Christ was not an article of belief in the days of Irenæus, as Dr. P. would insinuate, that Father could not have chosen any form of words more likely to mislead his readers. In another place Dr. P. would persuade us, that what Irenæus says of the miraculous conception was inserted by himself, and that it did not form a part of the creed then used. (IV. p. 91.) This is entirely an assumption, and totally inconsistent with the words of Irenæus. The twenty-first chapter of the third book of Irenæus is exclusively occupied in proving that Jesus was born of a Virgin, and not begotten by Joseph.