flagitious Men in the World I am of opinion we ought to answer that 't is not to be wondred at if a counterfeit Apostle belies the true ones This Crimination of the true Apostles is in the 5 th Chapter of the alledged Epistle The more learned and impartial Criticks freely observe concerning this Epistle that 't is full of strained and dull Allegories extravagant and incongruous Explications of Scripture and abundance of silly and notorious Fables concerning Animals And what all judicious Men think of the Epistle is that it is indeed very antient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen but that it was forged about the beginning of the 2 d Century or the 2 d Century being well advanced when also the Gospels of St. Thomas St. Peter St. Matthias the Acts of St. Andrew St. John and other Apostles were devised and published as Eusebiue witnesses H. E. l. 3. c. 25. But lest this Epistle should be thought to be of somewhat the more Credit because 't is barely quoted by Clemens and Origen the Reader may take notice that Clemens cites also other counterfeit Works of the Apostles as particularly the Revelation of St. Peter as has been noted by Eusebius H. E. l. 6. c. 14. And nothing is more common with Origen than to quote such supposititious Writings as for Instance the Book of Enoch the Revelation of St. Paul the Doctrine of St. Peter and many more concerning which Citations the Reader may see what Mr. du Pin has observed at large Cent. 3. p. 113. Dr. Bull 's next approved Father is the great either Prophet or Impostor Hermas in his Book called the Pastor or Shepherd We grant that St. Paul mentions one Hermas Rom. 16.14 and we doubt not that the Author of the Shepherd would be understood to be that Hormas for he makes himself contemporary with Clemens Romanus mentioned also by St. Paul Phil. 4.3 Vision 2 d. Chap. 4. The Shepherd of Hermas is distinguished into 3 Books whereof the first contains 4 Visions the second 12 Commands the third 10 Similitudes but both the Commands and Similitudes may be called Visions and Prophecies because they are Representations and Charges made to him by Angels The Scene of these Visions is Arcadia and that we may be assured that this Author would be taken for a Prophet and would have his Book pass for a Divine Revelation he introduces the Angel in his 2 d Vision Chap. 4. as commanding him that he should prepare 3 Copies of these Visions one for Clement then Bishop of Rome to be sent by him to all the Churches another for Grapte who should instruct out of it the Widows and their Children the third Hermas himself was to read to the Presbyters of the City of Rome This is the Book and Author in which Dr. Bull finds or thinks he finds some Passages in favour of our Saviour's Divinity as I said at first we must carefully examine what is the true Character of this Work and Writer By what has been said it is evident to every one that this pretended Hermas either was a Prophet or an Impostor there is no Middle between these two when the Person pretends to Visions to Conferences with Angels and such like extraordinary things That the pretended Hermas was not a Prophet is certain to me by these Arguments 1. He owns in the third Command that he was a most egregious and common Liar he saith expresly that he scarce ever spake a true Word in his whole Life but always lived in Dissimulation and that to all Men. He weeps hereupon and doubts whether he can be saved but his Angel assures him that if for the time to come he will leave off his Lying he may attain to Blessedness He that was so addicted to lying 't is no wonder that he has counterfeited also Visions and Colloquies with Angels or that to gain Credit to his Chimeras and Follies he father'd them on Hermas an Apostolical Man and Friend of St. Paul as others before him had laid their spurious Off-springs to the Apostles themselves But 2. Some of his Celestial Visions contain manifest Falshoods particularly he maketh his Angel to tell him that the whole World is made up of twelve Nations Simil. 9. Chap. 17. Being a Person altogether ignorant of secular Learning as appears in all his three Books 't was almost impossible but that in his feigned Conferences with Angels he should sometimes make them to speak divers things both false and absurd 3. To add no more on this Trifler he has been judged to be no Prophet by the whole Catholick Church in that his Book is not reckoned among the Canonical Books of Scripture were it a real Revelation from God by the Ministry of Angels as the Author pretends and so esteemed by the Catholick Church it must have been put among the Canonical Books It is true when it first appeared it imposed on some Churches by the Boldness of its Pretence and therefore was read in those Churches as other genuine Parts of Scripture were but even then very many of the more Judicious rejected it and as the Church began to fill with learned and able Persons it was not only every where laid aside but censured as both false and foolish Of so many of the Antients as condemned it we need only take notice of Eusebius who speaking of the Books used by Christians whether privately or in publick says Some Books are received by common Consent of all others are of questioned and doubtful Authority and finally others are supposititious and counterfeit of which last kind saith he are the Acts of Paul the Revelation of Peter the Shepherd of Hermas and the pretended Epistle of Barnabas Euseb H. E. l. 3. c. 25. Dr. Bull 's third Author is Ignatius but neither is this Writer a whit better or honester than the pretended Barnabas or the counterfeit Hermas I do not mean to deny that we have still the Epistles that are quoted by the Antients Origen and Eusebius under the Name of Ignatius but this I affirm that they were forged under Ignatius his Name about the time that so many other Impostures were published under the Names of Aposiles and of Apostolical Men of which the Learned know there were almost an infinite Number Let us see first what the Criticks of the contrary Perswasion have to alledg for the Epistles of Ignatius we may hear Mr. Du Pin for them all because he has written last and more largely than any other He observes that St. Polycarp being thereto desired by the Philippians sent them the Epistles of Ignatius to which he also prefixed an Epistle of his own directed to the same Philippians Well we acknowledg that Polycarp writing to the Philippians tells them towards the Close of his Epistle that he had sent them according to their Desire the Epistles of Ignatius that had by any means come to his Knowledg or Hand He adds that in these Epistles Ignatius treats of Faith and Patience
and was of no farther Use the other is yet more suspicious for could not the Assistants distinguish the Smell of Frankincense no not from any other of the Oriental Spices tho both that and they were every day used in those times in their Funeral Piles But the Tale goes on When the Wicked saw that the Martyr could not be hurt by the Fire they commanded the Executioner to stick his Dagger into Polycarp and so dispatch him which the Hangman presently did but behold two other Miracles and believe me as credible as either of the former For out of the Wound which was in the Martyr's side sprang a Live-dove and then such a Torrent of Blood out of the Body of an old Man upwards of 86 Years as wholly extinguished all that great Fire This Text needs no Comment The Martyrdom of Ignatius affords another sort of Wonders Apparitions and Visions For the Night in which he suffered he appeared to the Christians who had assisted at his Martyrdom to some as one sweating after hard Labour to others standing by the Lord with much Assurance and in unspeakable Glory but however most courteously and lovingly imbracing them all 'T is a Miracle to me that he had not done sweating now that he was arrived at Blessedness or do Souls in their Etherial Vehicles sweat But 't is a greater Miracle that appearing at Christ's right Hand in Heaven he could at the same time imbrace or seem to imbrace those upon Earth As to the Epistles of Ignatius considering by whom they are said to be written and to whom they are more marvellous than the Martyrdoms Ignatius was Bishop at Antioch where he was condemned to Martyrdom by the Emperor Trajan but was sent to Rome guarded by ten Souldiers to suffer there in the Amphitheater In the Amphitheater the Condemned fought with Beasts Lions Leopards and such like till one or the other were killed And for this Reason they chose out of the Prisoners of War and the Condemned the most robust young Men that could make some Sport for the People by the valiant Resistance they made to the Beasts Therefore here are two things very incredible that Ignatius a decrepid old Man for he had been a Bishop above 40 Years should be condemned contrary to Custom and to the Intention of those Sports to fight the Lions And next that in order thereto he should be sent with ten Souldiers lest he should master and got away from four or five to guard him above 1500 Miles To what purpose should they be at so vasi a Charge especially when it had been more proper and more effectual to their purpose to execute him in his own City of Antioch The pretended Epistles however suppose all this they are written to divers Churches as the Old Man passes from Antioch to Rome to fight the Lions and either these Epistles must be granted to be forged or we must admit these extravagant incredible Suppositions But the Epistles themselves more plainly discover the Imposture That to the Romans is chiefly and almost wholly imployed in advising and intreating the Christians of Rome that they should not rescue him from the Execution but permit him to undergo his Sentence The true Ignatius could never write such an absurd thing Was it ever heard of that Christians attempted to rescue their Martyrs on the contrary Martyrdom was reckoned in those days the very highest Glory of a Christian and it was the Indeavour of Christians who assisted at Martyrdoms to incourage the Martyrs by all possible ways to suffer couragiously in short they would as little have rescued a Martyr as they would have committed Sacrilege Besides were the Number and Power of the Christians at Rome in those early times so considerable that they might reasonably attempt so bold an Action as to attack the Amphitheater and the Imperial Guards on behalf of a Prisoner Ignatius perfectly knew the contrary to all this and therefore could not be Author of an Epistle which supposes these Follies The Epistle to the Ephesians is full of weak things He tells them there with equal Silliness and Falshood that the Virginity of Mary her Delivery and the Death of Christ the three great Mysteries saith he of the Gospel were kept concealed from the Devil and done in secret by God He adds that the Star which appeared before our Saviour's Nativity did exceedingly outshine the Sun and all other Lights of Heaven Pionius did not consider that if so it would not have been called a Star but another Sun and that there would have been no Night in Judea till this Star disappeared But see how they have made a dying Man a Bishop and Saint of the first Age of Christianity complement with the Church of the Magnesians I have been judged worthy to see you by Damus your most excellent Bishop by your very worthy Presbyters Bassus and Apollonius and by my Fellow-Servant Socio your Deacon In whom I rejoice because he is subject to his Bishop as to the Grace of God and to the Presbytery as to the Law of Christ Who sees not that this is more like a Master of the Ceremonies than an Apostolical Bishop and a primitive Martyr In the same Epistle he exhorts them not to observe the Sabbaths but it is certain that the Sabbaths were observed together with the Lord's Day till after the Times of Great Constantine it is not likely the true Ignatius would oppose the Custom and Practice of the Universal Church To the Trallians he saith that the Deacons are to be reverenced as Jesus Christ the Bishops as God the Father the Presbytery as the College of Apostles A complicated Blasphemy He tells them afterwards that their particular Bishop is such that his very Look is instructive He that writes thus of Bishops and Church-men must needs be an approved Doctor but I dare almost to give them my corporal Oath he never was a Doctor of the first Age. Writing to the Philippians he forgets not his usual and constant Custom to claw their Bishop Your Bishop saith he is able to do more by his Silence than others by their Speech There are many Bishops still of this mind but our Saviour's Motto was My Sheep hear my Voice To the Smyrneans he says 'T is a good thing to be subject to God and to the Bishop Then he salutes their very worthy Rishop their venerable Presbytery your Deacons my Fellow-Servants the very excellent Daphnus and Eutychus The last Epistle is to Polycarp and tho he writes to a Bishop not to a Church he cannot forbear his odious Daubing He that thinks says this Pseudo-Martyr that he knows more than his Bishop is ruined Hearken to the Bishop that God may hearken to you In the Conclusion of this Epistle as if he were a Prophet he says my Grace be with Attalus and with thee Polycarp A strain which some will think exceeds the Fulness of the Apostolical Character which this Impostor assumes in the Epistle to the
among them witnesses that all Jews who were Christians were named Ebionites or the poor ones partly from the poor Opinion they had of our Saviour's Person partly because they adhered still to the beggarly Principles and Rites of the Mosaick Law it unavoidably follows that the Nazarens were Ebionites in this Sense that they held the Lord Christ was a Man only and observed the Law together with the Gospel I said Ebionites in this Sense because as was noted before the Ebionites more strictly so called believed our Saviour was the Son of Joseph and Mary but the Nazarens tho they believed he was a Man only yet they held he was miraculously conceived in the Womb of Mary by the sole Power and Energy of God without the Concurrence of any Man As Origen makes no Distinction of the Ebionites into Ebionites and Nazarens because of their Agreement in the main Points that the Lord Christ was a Man only and that the Mosaick Law must be observed by all Jewish Christians no more does Eusebius who contents himself to observe that some Ebionites hold the miraculous Conception others of them say he was the Son of Joseph and Mary Euseb H. E. l. 3. c. 27. But neither he nor Origen charge either of them as Epiphanius in after Ages from no Author does that they owned of the Old Testament only the Books of Moses and Joshua not the Prophets or that they calumniated St. Paul and rejected his Epistles publishing also certain Acts of St. Paul wherein they charge him as an Apostate from the Law only because he could not obtain for his Wise a Priest's Daughter Epiphanius imputes this not to the Nazaren-Ebionites but to those Ebionites who held our Saviour was the Son of only Joseph and Mary but as I said he quotes no Author and therefore this seems to be one of the malitious Tales which contending Sects and Parties frequently raise upon one another So in after-times the Albigenses Waldenses and Wiclevites were charged with monstrous Heresies which they not only abominated but are refuted by the Protestant Historians out of the Catechisms Sermons and other Books of those early Reformers They were charged with teaching that the Devil is above God that Elizabeth was Christ's Concubine and taken with him in Adultery with other more horrid and foolish things not fit to be named but the Protestant Historians have evinced to the Satisfaction even of all learned and ingenuous Papists out of the Books and Catechisms of those pious Men that these are diabolical Calumnies devised by their Persecutors the Friars Farther Dr. Bull grants that Theodoret Haeret. Fab. l. 2. c. 3. affirms expresly that the Nazarens honour the Lord Christ only as a holy Man not as God or a Divine Person Because this Father also lived in Syria was a most learned and inquisitive Person and writeth in that Work before-quoted of all Hereticks and their Opinions we may surely rely on the Account he gives 'T was impossible that Theodoret whose Bishoprick was in Syriâ cavâ whereabouts the Nazarens and Mineans then most abounded and whose very Design it was in that Book which we alledg to set down the peculiar Opinions of all the Distinctions and Denominations of Christians I say 't is impossible he should not certainly know the Doctrine of the Nazarens the most famous as well as most antient of all those Denominations which dissented from the Church or prevailing Party of those Times And whereas Dr. Bull excepts that Theodoret is a later Father than some he quotes 't is a mere and a wretched Subterfuge First because St. Jerom before cited witnesses that then the Nazarens flourish'd over all the Orient and Epiphanius that they abounded chiefly in Palestine and Syriâ cavâ Secondly because in very Deed Theodoret was contemporary with Sulpitius Severus who is as we shall see Dr. Bull 's only Author the only Father who ever mistook the Nazaren Doctrine concerning our Saviour and the Occasion of his Mistake was that he lived so remote from them they in the Orient he in the West that is to say at about 2000 Miles distance Sulpitius began to write at soonest about the Year 401. Theodoret was made Bishop in 420. so Theodoret might be the older Man But however that be one lived in Syria among the Nazaren Churches the other in the remotest Parts of Gaul distant from the Nazarens the whole length of the Roman Empire when in its greatest Extent and therefore 't is no wonder if he mistook the Nazaren Doctrine He grants again that Epiphanius Haeres 30. c. 2. informs us Cerinthianis Nazaraeis fuâ—sse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cerinthians and Nazarens had like Sentiments and Haeres 30. c. 2. Nazaraeos Ebionaeos capita simul contulisse suamque nequitiam invicem communicasse i. e. The Nazarens and Ebionites laid Heads together and communicated their Impiety by which Epiphanius without doubt means their Heresy one with another Lastly that Epiphanius doubts only of this whether in this the Nazarens agreed with the Cerinthians that the Lord Christ was a common and ordinary Man or was miraculously generated by the Holy Spirit or Power of God in the Womb of Mary Let us put this together Epiphanius says the Nazarens and Cerinthians had like Opinions but did the former believe as the other did that the Lord Christ was a common Man born as all other Men are of a humane Father and Mother or did they grant that he was a Man indeed but miraculously conceived by the Divine Power in the Womb of a Virgin Epiphanius professes that he cannot upon his own Knowledg charge the Nazarens with the former of these Opinions Farther he owns that the Ebionites and Nazarens were extremely gratious and intimate and communicated in the same Impiety that is Heresy These Testimonies do stagger Dr. Bull so that at last Judic Eccl. p. 56 57. he is willing to grant that at length some Nazarens were infected with the Ebionite Heresy that the Lord Christ is a Man only and of these Nazarens whom he calls the latter Nazarens tho the Antients never make any such Distinction as the former and latter Nazarens he thinks Origen is to be undestood when he says as was before quoted that the Jewish Christians i. e. the Nazarens are Ebionites There never was a more injudicious Paragraph unless the Man wilfully prevaricates For first why doth he say some Nazarens were infected with the Ebionite Heresy when Origen who is his Author expresly says all the Jewish Christians are Ebionites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Jews that own Jesus to be the Christ are Ebionites Contr. Cels l. 2. p. 56. Secondly I desire to know of Dr. Bull how Epiphanius could more effectually declare the Doctrine of the Nazarens concerning the Quality of our Saviour's Person than by saying they hold as the Cerinthians do and they mutually communicate their Heresy with the Ebionites For was
evince how frivolous and impertinent it is He objects first the Authority of Sulpitius Severus who began to write about the Year 401. Sulpitius says The Emperor Adrian drove all Jews out of Jerusalem but this tended to the Advantage of the Christian Religion for at that time almost all of them believed in Christ God Hist sacr l. 2. c. 31. This Expulsion of all Jews from Jerusalem hapned about the Year of Christ 135. The Words almost all are intended to signify that as the Jews were the Majority of the Inhabitants and Citizens of Jerusalem so the most the far greater Number of them were Christians But when he adds they believed in Christ-God I have proved it to be a Mistake by the Testimony of those Fathers who lived among the Jewish Christians namely Origen and Theodoret and of other Fathers who were much nearer to them than Sulpitius even Epiphanius and St. Augustin Epiphanius was Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus an Island just by Palestine and he himself was a Native and had his Education in Palestine St. Austin from Hippo in Africa informed himself of the State of the Syrian and Palestine Churches not only by Letters to and from the Learned Men of those Churches and Provinces but also by some of his Clergy whom he maintained at Jerusalem and the Holy Land only for Intelligence and Information On the contrary Sulpitius lived in Aquitain a Province of Gaul in the remotest western Parts of the Roman Empire at the Distance of above 2000 Miles from Palestine and Syria where the Jewish Christians had their Churches or as their Enemies particularly St. Jerom spoke their Synagogues We cannot much wonder that at so great a Distance from the Jewish Christians Sulpitius mistook their Doctrine concerning the Quality of our Saviour's Person or whether he were God or Man nor will any Man of Prudence think that one Sulpitius at such a Remotion from them is to be believed against so many most learned Fathers who dwelt partly among the Nazarens partly very near to them Beside Sulpitius was not a Divine but a Lawyer bred a Heathen and went over to the Christian Religion after he had long practised as they speak at the Bar 't is easily conceived that a New Convert to Christianity might not be very skilful in the Knowledg and Distinction of Sects Therefore Monsieur du Pin observes concerning Sulpitius That tho his Abridgment of the Ecclesiastical History is the best we have of the Antients yet it is not very exact He commits divers Faults against the Truth of History especially the Ecclesiastical Eccl. Hist cent 5. p. 112. Dr. Bull cites also Euseb Hist l. 4. c. 5. where that Historian says that the first 15 Bishops of Jerusalem sat but a very short time but that he finds in the Writings of the Antients that those Bishops received and professed the true Knowledg of Christ I believe there is no learned Man will doubt that Eusebius his Author for this was Hegesippus who was the first that wrote an Ecclesiastical History which he published about the Year of Christ 170 a Work now lost to the great Regret of learned Men. But when Hegesippus says the Bishops of Jerusalem professed the true Knowledg of Christ did he mean as Dr. Bull supposes that Christ is God most High No he meant that they professed in opposition to the Docetae and others who held the Pre-existence of our Saviour and that he was not a Man he was a true and very Man and a Man only Of this I am perswaded by these Considerations First Hegesippus was himself a Jewish Christian as Eusebius Hist l. 4. c. 22. witnesses but all Jewish Christians saith Origen who lived and flourish'd above 100 Years before Eusebius were Ebionites that is denied the Divinity of Christ Secondly The same Eusebius ibid says that Hegesippus made use of St. Matthew 's Hebrew Gospel which was used only by the Ebiouites and Unitarian Christians Thirdly When Hegesippus apud Euseb ibid. reckons up the Heresies and Hereticks of the Jewish Nation that were saith he against the Tribe of Judah and against Christ he names the Samaritans Pharisees Sadduces Esseans Masbotheans Galileans Hemerobaptists but if the Denial of our Saviour's Divinity had been a Jewish Heresy if the Ebionites or Cerinthians had been Hereticks in the Judgment of Hegesippus they must have come into the Catalogue of Hereticks that were against Christ for 't is certain and yielded on all hands that both these Sects denied the Divinity of our Saviour If it be said Hegesippus might not reckon the Ebionites and Cerinthians among the Jewish Hereticks because tho they were Jews by Nation they were Christians by Religion yet at least he would have put them into the List of Christian Hereticks which he does not The Christian Heresies according to Hegesippus are the Heresy of the Simomans Menandrians Marcionites Carpocratians Valentinians Basilidiaus Saturninians but not a word of the Ebionite Cerinthian Alogian or Monarchian Hereticks who were all Unitarians But the Reader must here take care that he is not imposed on by Valesius his Translation of Eusebius for the Translation after the Enumeration of the before-named Heresies and Hereticks adds aliique and others as if some were omitted but the Greek Text of Eusebius has no such Words In short I say Hegesippus gives a Catalogue of the Heresies of the Jews and Gentiles but does not account either the Cerinthians or Ebionites among the Hereticks which he certainly would if he himself had held the Pre-existence and Divinity of our Saviour Lastly I have before cited Valesius owning and professing that the Ecclesiastical History of Hegesippus was lost by the Antients because like the Hypotyposes of St. Clemens it was observed to agree with the Unitarians If it be said But did not Eusebius know this and yet he always speaks respectfully of Hegesipput I answer without doubt he knew it but durst not take notice of it it was not for Eusebius to find fault with an Apostolical Father he could only dissemble his Knowledg of what the Unitarians and particularly his Antagonist Marcellus would not fail to make Advantage and this also is the Reason as I hinted before why this crafty Arian will take no notice of the Apostolick Creed as composed by them tho he recites paraphrastically that so he may impose on his Reader the Heads of it Hist l. 1. c. 13. But if Hegesippus Unitarian Hegesippus was the Author whom Eusebius follows in the Account he gives of the first 15 Bishops of Jerusalem that they professed the true Knowledg of Christ which will not be questioned by any that are conversant in Eusebius or have observed that he professes Hist l. 4. c. 8 22. to follow Hegesippus concerning the Apostolick and following times we have also gained another very great Point namely this That not only the Jewish Christians but those of Rome and all the great Churches to which Hegesippus had resorted to know their Doctrine
and Discipline were also Unitarians that is held with Hegesippus that the Lord Christ is a Man only For he saith apud Euseb l. 4. c. 22. That he travelled to Rome where he lived under the Popes Anicetus Soter and Eleutherus successively Popes of Rome but both here and in all other Episcopates they keep the Doctrines taught by the Law and the Prophets and by our Saviour Briefly he owns that he found the Churches every where to be Orthodox and uniform of which if he was an Unitarian as I think I have proved the Meaning can be only this that they believed as the Jewish Christians do the Lord Christ is a Man the Prophet and Messenger of God on whom the Logos or Divine WORD rested This perfectly agrees with the Account that the old Unitarians in Eusebius give namely that they had kept the Doctrine deliver'd by the Apostles and which was professed every where till the Opposition made to it by the Popes Victor and Zepherin who succeeded to Eleutherus as he to Soter and Soter to Anicetus with which Orthodox Popes Hegesippus had conversed The short is We grant that Eusebius says the Jerusalem-Bishops professed the true Knowledg of Christ We answer he borrowed this from Hegesippus whom he took for his Author especially in what concerned the Apostolick Times and the Times that followed to the taking of Jerusalem by the Emperor Adrian in the Year 135 that is while the 15 Bishops concerning whom our present Question and Debate is governed the Churches of Jerusalem and Judea But Hegesippus being himself a Jewish Christian that is one that believed our Saviour to be a Man only when he said the Jerusalem-Bishops professed the true Knowledg of Christ he undoubtedly meant that our Lord was a true and mere Man against the Docetae and other platonizing Christians who held his Pre-existence and denied that he was a Man Dr. Bull is not ashamed to infer from St. Austin's Saying that the Nazarens confess Christ is the Son of God that they held he is so the Son of God that he was born of God from all Eternity I say he is not ashamed of this Inference tho he knows that all Ebionites believed Christ was a Man only and yet Epiphanius says of them divers times as St. Austin does of the Nazarens that they own the Lord Christ is the Son of God For tho the Ebionites did not believe the miraculous Conception yet they said the Lord Christ is the Son of God progressione Virtutis quatenus ad sublimia coelestiaque provectus est i. e. by Holiness and by his Exaltation to the right Hand of God Epiphan Haeres Ebion c. 13. Iren. l. 3. c. 30. But let us recite the very Words of St. Austin de Haeres c. 9 10. The Nazarens as they confess Christ is the Son of God so they observe the whole Law the which Christians have been taught that 't is to be understood and taken spiritually not carnally The Ebionites also say that Christ is a Man only and observe the cernal Precepts of the Law These Words the Ebionites also say that Christ is a Man only would be Nonsense if the Nazarens of whom he speaks immediately before had not likewise so held In like manner he would put a false Meaning on these Words of St. Jerom The Nazarens believe in Christ the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary the same say they who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again from the Dead in whom also WE i. e. we of the Church believe One would have thought that when the Nazarens say here We believe in the Son of God that was born of the Virgin Mary was put to Death under Pontius Pilate and rose again from the Dead they had sufficiently declared that the Son of God in whom they believed was the Man Christ Jesus not a Son of God that could not be born of the Virgin Mary or die or rise again But because St. Jerom says in whom also we believe Dr. Bull cries out Look here the Nazarens believed in that Son of God in whom the Orthodox believed We think so too Doctor because both Parties believed in the Son of God who was generated and born of Mary died and rose again tho the Orthodox so called invented also another Son of God a Son that could not be generated and born of Mary a Son that could not die a Son as old as his Father a second Almighty another Creator first made known by the Council of Nice Next Dr. Bull produces as Passage out of Justin Martyr to prove that there were some Christians who observed the Mosaick Law and yet believed in such a Christ who was before Luciser and the Moon and who could these be but the Nazarens I answer whoever they were they were not the Nazarens most of the Gnostick Sects who also observed the Mosaick Law beld the Pre-existence of our Saviour What hinders but that they might be the Cerinthians Besides it is uncertain whether Justin meant to say that there were some Christians who keep the Law of Moses and yet believe that Christ was before Lucifer and the Moon to make out this Sense Dr. Bull is forced to add these Words to the Words of Justin such a Christ as you before described Judic Eccl. p. 52. which Addition seems also contrary to the Context where 't is inserted by Dr. Bull for Dr. Bull contends for a Christ in that Context who was before Lucifer and the Moon and the Context describes a Christ that was crucified and to whom GOD has committed the Judgment of the Dead and Living and has given to him a Kingdom that shall have no end This seems to be a mere Ebionite or Socinian-Christ a Man not God Lastly he quotes the Title of the 12 th Chapter of the 6 th Book of the Constitutions of St. Clement that is as Dr. Bull himself confesses falsly intitled to Sr. Clement The Words are these Of those who confess but yet live after the manner of the Jews Dr. Bull would have it thought that this Title speaks of those who confess that Christ is the most High and Eternal God These Mr. Bull thinks could be no other but the Nazarens But to come at that Conclusion Mr. Bull must first prove not only that the Nazarens believed the Lord Christ is God the WORD but that there were no other Denominations of Christians who observed the Mosaick Law and also believed that Christ is God the WORD But he knows that the Cerinthians and most of the Gnostick Sects did Judaize and also believe the Pre-existence of our Saviour and that he is God the WORD But let us grant to Dr. Bull whatever he contends for from this Citation and see how it will advantage his main Cause The Question is concerning the Nazarens whether they held as the Church now does that there is more than one Divine and Eternal Person are there two or three such Persons is the