tion which we call the œconomy; so that there is also a son of this one God, his word, who proceeded from him, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made that was made; that he was sent by the Father into a virgin, and of her born man and God, the son of man, and the son of God, and called Jesus Christ; that he suffered, died, and was buried, according to the scriptures; that he was raised by the Father, and taken up into heaven; that he sits at the right-hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead; who thence, according to his promise, sent from the Father the holy spirit, the comforter, and the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the father, the son, and the holy spirit

Let the impartial reader then judge whether we are not more likely to find the genuine proper creed, which was considered as containing the faith of all christians, unmixed with any peculiar opinions of Tertullian's own, in the treatise de Virginibus velandis, in which he is not opposing orthodoxy to heterodoxy, but simply faith to practice.

I am really surprised that you should lay so much stress on the testimony of Tertullian, admitting it to be clear and uniform, which it is far from being, and

Unicum quidem deum credimus, sub hac tamen dispensatione quam œconomiam dicimus, ut unici dei sit et filius sermo ipsius, qui ex ipso processerit, per quem omnia facta sunt, et sine quo factum est nihil; hunc missum a patre in virginem, et ex ea natum hominem et deum, filium hominis et filium dei, et cognominatum Jesum Christum. Hunc passum, hunc mortuum, et sepultum, secundum scripturas, et resuscitatum a patre, et in cælos resumptum, sedere ad dextram patris, venturum judicare vivos et mortuos, qui exinde miserit, secundum promissionem suam, a patre spiritum sanctum, paracletum, sanctificatorem fidei eorum qui credunt in patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum. Hanc regulam ab initio evangelii decucurrisse, &c. Adv. Praxeam, s. ii. p. 501.

also on that of Eusebius, with respect to the general faith of christians even in their own times, and much more in times preceding them, when it is so common for men to represent the opinions of those whom they esteem, as the same with their own. Every man should be heard with caution when he praises himself; and what he says in one place should be compared with what he says in another, and especially what he drops as it were accidentally, and when he was off his guard. As I said before, "their evidence in these cases is not to be regarded, unless they bring some sufficient proof of their assertions."

nions were.

Had Tertullian, Origen, and others thought more highly of the common people than they did, we should probably never have known from them what their opiBut happily for us they thought meanly of them, and, without being aware of the use and value of the information, have given us sufficient lights into this very important circumstance in the history of their times. But in this, as well as in several other respects, you, Sir, have been led into several mistakes through your ignorance of human nature; the knowledge of which, and a due attention to it, would have been of much more service to you in these inquiries than your knowledge of Greek, in which, however, I do not perceive that you greatly abound. This ignorance of human nature appears in your insisting, p. 174, that if I admit the evidence of Eusebius for the existence of the Ebionites in the time of the apostles, I must admit his testimony to their condemnation of them.

As Theodotus who appeared in the time of Tertullian is called a heretic in the appendix to Tertullian's

uni

book De Præscriptione, I think it probable that, after his excommunication, he formed a church of pure tarians, and might be the first who set up a separate place of worship on that account, and therefore was denominated a heretic in the original sense of that word; and this circumstance might give rise to the opinion that he was the first who taught the doctrine.

When Eusebius wrote so as evidently to suppose that the Ebionites existed in the time of the apostles, you say, p. 173, "I consider it as an hasty assertion of a writer over zealous to overwhelm his adversary by authorities." I suspect that he may have been guilty of something like this, when he said that Theodotus was excommunicated by Victor on account of his unitarian principles. That he was excommunicated I admit ; but that his unitarian principles was the sole ground of his excommunication I have some doubt, considering your own idea of the credit of the witness, which indeed is pretty much the same as my own.

I am, &c.

REV. SIR,

LETTER VIII.

Of Origen's Idea of Heresy.

WHAT I have said concerning Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertullian is true also of Origen, and these writers may help to explain each other. No man took more pains to inculcate the doctrine of the logos than Origen, and he thought meanly of those christians who did not adopt it, considering them as of an infe

rior rank; but I believe he never classes them with heretics; and whenever he speaks of heretics in general, he, as well as all preceding writers, evidently had a view to the Gnostics only. See his Commentary on Matt. vol. i. p. 156, 159, 212, 287, 475, and many other passages in his writings.

In his treatise entitled Philosophumena, which is the first of his books against the heretics, it is evident that he considered none in that light besides the Gnostics, see p. 6, 8, and 16, of that work, as published by Wolfius at Hamburg in 1706.

In one place he evidently considers the unitarians and heretics separately, as two distinct classes of men ; but supposes that the unitarians confounded the persons of the Father and the Son, on which account they were called Patripassians. But notwithstanding the evil that he says of them, he acknowledges that they adhered to their opinion, as thinking that it did honour to Christ, as on other occasions he ascribes it to their regard to the one true God the Father. "We are

not," says he," to consider those as taking the "to

part of Christ who think falsely concerning him, out of an idea of doing him honour. Such are those who confound the intellect of the Father and the Son, distinguishing their substance in idea and name only; and also the heretics, who, out of a desire of speaking magnificently concerning him, carry their blasphemy very high, even to the maker of the world, are not on his side*"

* Οὐ νομιστέον γαρ είναι ύπερ αυτου τους τα ψευδη φρονούντας περι αυτου φαντασια, του δοξάζειν αυτον. όποιοι εισιν συγχέοντες παπρος και υἱου εννοιαν, και τη ὑποστασει ένα δίδοντες ειναι τον πατέρα και τον υίον, τη επίνοια μόνη, και τοις ονομασι, διαιρούντες το ἑν

It is evident to me that in the time of Origen, viz. the beginning of the third century, the doctrine of the divinity of Christ was so far from being generally received, except by the bishops and the more learned of the clergy, that it was considered as a sublime doctrine, proper indeed for persons who had made advances in divine knowledge, but not adapted to the vulgar, who were content with the plain doctrine of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, looking no further than to his humanity, as it is delivered in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John's doctrine of the logos was thought to be too sublime for the generality of Christians.

may

"No one," says Origen, " taught the divinity of Christ so clearly as John, who presents him to us, saying, I am the light of the world; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the resurrection; I am the gate; I am the good shepherd; and in the Revelation, I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. We therefore boldly say, that as the gospels are the first fruits (or most excellent part) of the scriptures, so the gospel of John is the first fruits of the gospels; the sense of which no person can conceive except he who reclines on the breast of Jesus, and who can receive from Jesus his mother Mary, and make her his own. He must be another John, who was shown by Jesus as another Jesus. For, he who is perfect does not himself live, but Christ lives in him; and since Christ lives in him, he says to

ὑποκειμενον. και οἱ απο των αἱρέσεων, φαντασία του μεγάλα περι αυτού φρονειν, αδικιαν εις το ύψος λαλούντες, και κακως λεγοντες τον δημιουργον, ουκ εισιν ὑπερ αυτου. Comment. in Matt. ;-Origenis Commentar. edit. Huetii, Rothomag. 1668, vol. i. p. 470.