't is necessary that we should be Ministers of the Gospel as well in the Letter as in the Spirit and that we preach the sensible or corporeal Gospel as he stiles it When we see it proper we tell the Carnal that we aim at nothing else but to know Jesus Christ crucified But when we meet with the elevated Minds that are advanced in the Doctrine of our Saviour and enflamed with the Love of Heavenly Wisdom 't is these we acquaint with the Knowledg of the Word or Logos And in his 7th Book against Celsus There is not one Person says he to whom Jesus Christ does not give a tast of these Mysteries some way or other For he imparts his Theology to the Wise who raise their Minds to contemplate sublime Subjects On the other hand he accommodates himself to the Capacity of the Common People of Idiots of the Weak of Women of Slaves c. He affords them such means of a good Life as they seek after keeping from them such Notions as they cannot comprehend Thanks be to God I can now take Breath The Doctrine of God the Word is no more than secret or mystical Christianity not necessary to the Vulgar and serves only for Contemplation May it continue to be the Study of contemplative Minds who were born for the purpose of knowing Mysteries and have Skill to advance their Knowledg beyond Revelation It 's enough for me that I have their Leave to content my self with plain revealed Christianity which is the Object of Faith and that they allowing me the Rudiments or Lessons of the Gospel for my Guide I may say with their Leave as the Apostle and other plain simple Christians of the same Class I know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified Really one could not but with surprize hear so great a Doctor as Origen treating the Christian Religion and the Theology of St. Paul so unworthily if one did not know at the same time his Fondness for Platonism What! shall this Contemplation be accounted the sublime Christianity because it has found out Objects of it self without the help of Revelation What then is that poor Faith that 's founded upon Objects revealed Can it be any thing more or less than a carnal Christianity 'T is some favour however that it may be Christianity Tho so much as that will hardly be granted at this time of Day They who know nothing but a crucified Christ do not pass even for Christians now a deified Jesus is the only Orthodoxy If you have a mind to observe also what a prodigious difference there is between the Simplicity of the Apostolic Faith and the Mystery of Platonism you need only to consider how little regard it had to the first assoon as any one own'd this Fundamental Article that Jesus was the Messias he was instantly baptized and received as a true Member of the Church But when its Articles of Faith were enlarged and became inexplicable by the profound Speculations with which they were clog'd how cautiously and warily did they initiate Persons in the Theology of the same Church This is plain from the several degrees of the catechized State thro which their Novices passed At first they did not suffer them to come within their Churches then they admitted 'em only to hear Sermons after that they might be present at the Prayers at last after long Instructions they were qualified for Baptism Tantae molis erat Platonis condere gentem So great a Task had they to establish the Platonick Theology Will it not be said that these are the same Formalities that were us'd in admitting the antient Mystae Thro how many degrees must they pass before they were admitted to enter the Sanctuary of the Great Goddess that is before they became Epoprae or Eye-Witnesses of the most private Ceremonies The Pagans lost nothing in the Forms of Initiation by embracing the Christian Religion But this is not all it must be farther consider'd what a Beadroll of Mysteries are taught in their Catechisings Take but that of Cyril of Jerusalem and you will certainly meet with them in him There you have the Trinity the Eternal Generation the Incarnation the sacred and venerable Sacrifice and many other things of that nature that must be known he tells you in order to Baptism If any one of them be neglected there 's no Admission for you All these Mysteries have an essential Band of Union between them so that if any one of them be not understood you are in peril of being ignorant of all the rest And hereupon Cyril recommends to the Catechized before all other things the Knowledg of these Mysteries What a Drudgery is here for the poor Novices Incomprehensible Mystery and a Labyrinth in Theology And besides which is a little wonderful he does not forget that Mystery of Mysteries and sublimer part of Theology I mean the Doctrine of Transubstantiation There is no longer says he to his Novices Bread or Wine let your Senses say what they please you are not to regard them but the Testimony of Faith Since J. C. has said of the Bread This is my Body who dares call it in question And since he has said This is my Blood who dares say it is not He at other times changed Water into Wine and is he not to be believed when he says he has changed the Wine into his Blood c. Here he acquits himself like an Orator and a Sophister too Can any body wonder after this if the stew baptized were deluded into the Belief of the Trinity with such Harangues as these The Artifice is the same in both Cases Wherefore the Author of the Book of the Sacraments takes care to compare these two Mysteries and to prove them as I may say by one another shewing that what we receive in the Eucharist is as really the true Flesh of Christ as he is truly the consubstantial Son of God As Jesus Christ says he is the true Son of God and is so not only by Grace as Men are but as he is a Son of the Substance of the Father So it is the Flesh of Christ we receive and the Blood of Christ that we drink One deep calls upon another The Doctrine of the Consubstantiality c. is the Model and Original to the Doctrine of Transubstantiation And the first serves for a Guide and a Light to conduct you thro the Perplexitys and Obscurities of the last for they are Twin-Sisters born in Plato's School That which is remarkable is that Justin the first of the Platonizing Fathers made the very same Comparison so natural was it for Platonism to sort these two Mysterys and make 'em Companions We do not says he Apol. 2. receive these things as common Bread or common Wine but just as by the Word of God Jesus Christ our Saviour was made Man and took Flesh and Blood to save us so we are taught that the Elements wherewith our Flesh and Blood are nourished by the Alteration
because they have suffer'd themselves to be surpriz'd and their eyes to be dazled with cheir Platonick Philosophy The Wonderful and the Sublime are very tempting Schemes These Platonists are a sort of Philosophers or rather of Divines who have made a Voyage to the World of Ideas and some Christians are so weak as to swallow all their Visions for Mysteries But let us always remember for the honour of the Fathers that how far soever they wander'd in their large Field of Platonick Contemplation they never advanc'd so far as to equal the Divinity of the Word with that of his Father Origen who is one of them that went farthest never carried his Theology to that extreme Whatever lofty Idea he had of the Son he declares however in his 14th Tome on St. John That the Son was so much below the Father as he and the Holy Spirit were above the most noble Creatures Go we now after this and say that the Fathers held the necessity of believing that the Supreme God was incarnate and that Jesus Christ is that Supreme God Monsieur Huet had good reason to acknowledg upon this Passage of Origen that it could not be excus'd and to attempt to find an Orthodox Sense in it could not be consistent with Sincerity or Honesty CHAP. VII The same Proof continued together with an Examination of the Sense of Antient Creeds thereupon WE have no more to do but to consider the antient Creeds and to compare those which were form'd upon the Apostolick Theology with such as were fram'd according to the Platenick Scheme and we shall find in these latter that the Article of the Generation of the Word and of his Incarnation came in the room of that of the Conception of the Son of God which is found in the former Creeds The universal Church says Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 2. hath received this Faith from the Holy Apostles which is to believe in one God the Father c. and in Jesus Christ his only Son incarnate for our Salvation c. There 's nothing in this Confession of the Faith of the Catholick Church which is not in the very Creed of the Apostles excepting the word Incarnate But 't is clear that it stands in the very place of those other words conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary which are wanting in this Creed of Irenaeus He would say that the Spirit of God united it self to real and not to celestial and aerial Flesh as some Hereticks imagin'd The turn is somewhat Platonizing but after all he did not intend to advance any thing but the antient Doctrine since he disputes against those men who held that Jesus Christ was pure Spirit clothed with celestial Flesh and he on the other hand supposed that Jesus Christ was a real Man true Flesh animated with a Divine Spirit a Man born of a Virgin truly born of the Substance of a Woman altho form'd by the Power of a Spirit Tertullian in one of his Tracts de veland Virg. in initio having given us this plain Rule of Faith which he calls the immutable and unchangeable Rule to this purpose That we must believe in one God alone c. and in his Son Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary c. in another Tract de Praescrip adv Haeres presents you with another Rule of the Platonizing Faith which is to believe that the same Word by which God created the World spoke to the Patriarchs and inspir'd the Prophets coming forth from the Spirit and the Power of the Father it lit upon the Virgin and was made Flesh and wrought in J.C. all sorts of Miracles Had he forgot that the Apostolick Faith is not to be changed or reformed No without doubt he does not pretend to change any thing but only gives the antient Opinion of the Conception of J. C. in Platonick Stile in Philosophick Jargon or to speak better he substitutes an Allegory manag'd with force and violence in the room of this Evangelical Expression born of a Virgin by the Power of the Holy Ghost which is plain and literal This Spirit as Tertullian says being an Emanation from the Spirit and the Power of the Father may be said in a mystick and sublime Sense to be the same Spirit who created the World and inspir'd the Prophets St. Cyril in his Catecheses explains a Creed purely Arian which Dr. Bull pretends to be the antient Creed of Jerusalem the Mother of all Churches I believe it says in One God the Father c. and in One Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God begotten of the Father before Ages true God by whom all things were made incarnate and made Man c. I said this Creed is Arian for 't is expressed in the same Terms as all the Arian Confessions that are now extant And if the Doctor pretends that 't is Orthodox at the best hand it can pass for no more than the Creed of Constantinople as Monfieur Le Vassor has observed Traité de 〈◊〉 Examen ch 6. p. 226. This Creed of St. Cyril says he is almost the same with that of Constantinople especially in the Article concerning the Holy Spirit If it be true that the Catecheses we have are those which Cyril made in his Youth as St. Jerom reports it this Prelate reviewed and augmented 'em after the Council of Constantinople whose Creed he explains almost word for word In this case it will not be certain that the Article concerning the Church was in the Creed of Jerusalem Cyril might have added it to his Catecheses after the Synod If this Conjecture holds as to the Article of the Church much more will it do so as to the Platonick Word We can but say in this case it will not be certain that the Article concerning a Son begotten before Ages was in the Creed of Jerusalem Cyril might add to his Catecheses after the Synod of Constantinople Let 's join with this Learned Proselyte the famous Mons du Pin who in his second Tom. of his Bibliotheque p. 413. inunuates the Novelty of Cyril's Creed upon this account 1. That it has the Article of Life Everlasting which is not in all the antient Creeds And in his 1 Tom. Paris Edit p. 30. he says that Cyril in his Catecheses makes a particular Creed which the Church of Jerusalem us'd at the time that this Father wrote his Catecheses That those who have made Commentaries upon the Creed have omitted among others these Words Life everlasting And that St. Jerom observes in his Letter to Pammachius that the Creed ended with these Words The Resurrection of the Flesh These Words of du Pin are remarkable He says Cyril made a Creed which was peculiar to him and that it cannot be ascribed to the Church of Jerusalem till the time when this Father wrote For 't is certain that this is the sense of their Words in an Author that professes to believe that the Creed is not antient But however
Ghost as to their Nature and Person as we speak I say those three Articles whereupon we dispute are very antient 'T is true the antient Formulas of Faith contain'd scarce any thing besides these which are an Exposition of the Form of Baptism but then 't is of these only we are debating Yea the Liturgy ascribed to St. James and the Oriental Creed of Russinus give us these Articles in the proper Words of Scripture clean of all Platonism Is not such a piece of Antiquity more primitive and even antecedent to Cyril and all the Platonic Fathers But this Creed says Dr. Bull whatever Simplicity it has is to be understood in the Extent or Latitude the Platonizing Fathers took it in who made it always supposing as you see that it was not made till since the Church expounded in her larger Creeds her Platonic Faith I will turn this manner of reasoning upon him and say that supposing on the contrary the antient Liturgy had this Creed in the Simplicity wherein we have it at this time it cannot be understood but in the sense of the Nazarene Disciples of St. James who most certainly did not platonize as indeed we have prov'd Platonism owes not its Rise to the Jewish but to the Gentile Converts and such Gentiles too as were Followers of Plato True Orthodoxy at the very beginning of Christianity consisted in believing that J. C. was begotten of the Holy Ghost and consequently was of a celestial Race or Origin That he had a sort of Pre-existence in this H. Spirit of Power which was united to him and that upon these accounts he was really and in the Letter the proper and only Son of God A Doctrine which the Disciples of St. James maintained against the Cerinthians and Ebionites there being no other Controversy than concerning the Generation of the Son of God For which reason the Creed of Marcellus says barely that the only Son of God was begotten by the Holy Ghost of a Virgin and not begotten before Ages which might have been said with as much ease as t'other and must necessarily have been said if the meaning of the Author of the Creed had been that only Son signifies begotten from all Eternity But after all what will the Doctor say with his Interpretations and his Expositions of the antient Creed I have observed in divers Passages of his Writings that he requires too much to be granted him For instance he will have it in his Judic Eccles p. 141. that this Elogy of the Holy Ghost in the Creed of Constantinople The Living Lord proceeding from the Father who is to be worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son That this magnificent Elogy was an Interpretation of the Word Paraclet in the Creed of Cyril Wonderful Paraphrase strange Interpretation that the Paraclet should signify all these fine things The Living Lord proceeding from the Father who is to be worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son Well! after this do we think the Doctor does not desire to be believed when he assures us that the Son begotten before Ages the true God by whom all things were made is the true sense of these Words the only Son of God With the good Leave of this Commentary-Maker 't is more natural to believe in adhering to the Terms of the antient Creed that begotten by the Holy Ghost of a Virgin is the true Sense and the right Exposition In fine this pure simple Creed was not fram'd by a Cabal a Party as the Creeds of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople were c. 'T is not known if I may so speak whence it came 't is as it were fallen down from Heaven 't is the Suffrage of the Universal Church and 't is this Suffrage that has saved the Church from Shipwrack and gain'd her Reverence Ruffinus in his Expos Symb. makes no scruple to say that this Creed was establish'd to be a Mark of Distinction by which they might be known who preach'd J. C. truly according to Apostolic Rules But 't is proper I should here transcribe a fine Passage out of Dr. Hammond upon this Subject in his Discourse of fundamental Points chap. 8. Says he This Creed is the very Badge and Livery of the Apostles the Abridgment of that Faith which was received from the Apostles for altho in their Epistles written to such as were already Christians one finds no one complete Catalogue of these Articles which they taught every where because they suppos'd them sufficiently known yet however the most antient Writers of the Church assure us that in all places where the Apostles went to plant the Faith of Christ they publish'd there distinctly and left there all these Articles which serve for a Foundation to the Christian Life And 't is reasonable to believe that the Apostles Creed was the summary of these fâ—â—â—damental Articles 'T is certain that before the Nicene Creed was made all the Churches in the World us'd this formulary of Faith which they received from their Ancestors and they from the Apostles themselves See Irenaeus lib. 1. c. 2. lib. 3. c. 4. and there is not the least room to doubt but this is the very same with that we at this day call the Apostles Creed Marcellus gives us a Confession of his Faith which he says he received from his Predecessors which is found to be the same with our Apostles Creed See Epiphan Haer. 72. What I am saying may be confirmed by this Observation of St. Austin in his Discourse de Bapt. contr Donat. cap. 24. viz. that 't is reasonable to believe that what has generally been received in the Church and has always been held by it without being instituted by any Council comes to us from Apostolic Tradition also Tertullian de veland Virg. The Rule of Faith says he is one and immutable c. That this Abridgment of our Creed given us by Tertullian is one and immutable can be from no other Cause but from its Apostolic Origin which alone ought to pretend to that Privilege For this reason the same Father says elsewhere contr Prax. cap. 2. This Rule came down to us from the very first preaching of the Gospel 'T is true the Controversy that the Platonizing Christians had at first with the Christians of Judea made the Church when in power despise this Creed which favour'd its Adversaries so that it but rarely appears in its Simplicity but is for the most part clog'd and blended with Platonism But in the fourth Century the Dispute being only between the Athanasians and the Arians both good Platonists holding the Pre-existence this Creed was received for it oppos'd one no more than t'other and neither of these two Parties had then prevailed over one another The Church of Rome made it always her Creed for the Platonic Controversies were not so warm there as in the East But Dr. Bull will return to the Charge and tell us as he has done more than once that to
by his Word that is to say by the Command and Order of God See Grotius on Joh. 10 3◠What is become now of the Mystery Whence comes such a gross Mistake The Learned Hammond quoting this Paraphrase in Luke 1.2 doth read it indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Word which is just what these Gentlemen would be at but if I am not mistaken 't is without any Authority nor do I think that if such a Reading were sound in any Copy either in Manuscript or printed it ought to be prefer'd to the common Reading which is grounded as we have shewn on the Custom of the Hebrews Besides we may assert without any fear of being in the wrong that if there be any alteration in the original Term it was not done to favour the Hereticks we may presume the contrary It is true indeed that Dr. Bull in his Defence of the Council of Nice quotes a Paraphrase we have not to prove the false Reading But it is likely that those who say they have seen it saw but a Latin Translation which hath it Verbo suo in the Ablative as the Grammarians term it by his Word and it is the ambiguity of the Latin Construction that impos'd on those who saw not the Original So true it is that Error always begets a Mystery and that even a Grammatical Ambiguity is capable to furnish us with high-flown and gorgeous ones What makes me think so is this that I have observ'd the like ambiguity in the Author of the imperfect Work on St. Matthew in Mat. 8.8 This Evangelist brings in the Centurion speaking Lord speak the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this Author allegorizing no doubt on the Term Word makes him deliver himself thus Lord you have need only to command one of your Messengers and Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and my Servant shall be healed whereas he meant only that our Saviour should speak the Word altho I would not condemn absolutely the Explication of this Author because it is somewhat plausible if we regard how the Centurion goes on For I am saith he a Man under Authority having Soldiers under me and I say unto this Man Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh and to my Servant Do this and he doth it These Expressions seem to insinuate indeed that he intended J. C. should command some one of his Servants as he commanded his own Speak to an Angel or to any one of your Disciples to go and heal my Servant and my Servant shall be healed And in this sense an Angel or an Apostle would have been the Word of J. C. even as J. C. himself was the Word of the Father If you take it thus I shall grant with all my heart that the Paraphrast in this place means the Messiah by that Term Word The Judgment of Father Simon upon these Paraphrases deserves your notice Hist critic du V. T. lib. 2. ch 18. It is true saith he that Galatine and many other Divines after him made use of these Paraphrases to establish some Articles of our Faith in opposition to the Jews principally those relating to the Messiah But altho these Proofs seem conclusive as to the Jews because they are taken out of their Books yet I do not think it advantageous to the Christian Religion to have recourse to Books stuff'd with Fables Besides the Passages we believe to favour our Religion consisting chiefly but in Allegories it will be easy for the Jews to evade them for we cannot prove the Truth of our Mysteries invincibly by Allegories But if notwithstanding all these Discoveries the Trinitarians will still insist upon these Paraphrasts to authorise their pretended Mystery we shall be alarm'd so little at the advantage they pretend to get by them that we shall over and above lend them this Passage of the Targum of Jerusalem extremely fit to prove the Pre-existence of their Word Glassius relates it Philol. p. 22. The Paraphrast expounding these Words Behold Adam is become as one of us brings in the Word speaking to his Father Papa behold Adam whom you have created who is your only Son on Earth as I am your only Son in Heaven It seems as if the Word was pleas'd that he had a Brother and a Compare on Shall we never be asham'd of these Rabbinick Frenzies or rather of these Platonick Impostures CHAP. XVII Concerning the Method of the Sacred Writers and some of their Disciples viz. Hermas Barnabas c. in the Interpretation of the Scriptures THE Writers of the New Testament being Jews by Birth did affect according to the Genius of that People an analogick Sense and Accommodations finding every where Relations between the Old and the New Testament Every body knows how they have adapted one History to another one Event to another Event and of what nature are their frequent Allusions and Allegories On this wise to omit other Examples what Moses saith of the Word of God producing the Creature out of nothing St. John accommodates to that Word of J. C. which forms Men anew and manifests the Power of God demonstrating by Miracles that all Creatures obey him J. C. being not so much the Interpreter of the Will of God as the Instrument of his Power You will find this Analogick Sense may be observ'd in most of the Passages of the Old Testament which the Apostles have applied to the New Beza on 2 Cor. 4.6 calls this Sense Anagogical that is to say Spiritual Sublime Mystical and exalted above the pitch of the Letter See Scult Exerc. Evangel lib. 1. cap. 62. where he speaks at large of the manner how the Sayings of the Prophets are accomplish'd analogically under the New Testament The Testimonies of the Old Testament saith he are not always alledg'd to confirm a thing but to illustrate it by an ingenious and well-contriv'd Accommodation which is very familiar to the Holy Ghost The Therapeutes or Jewish Philosophers of Alexandria retain'd this way of interpreting the more willingly because it was altogether conformable to the Method of the Platonists among whom they liv'd Eusebius relates Hist Eccl. lib. 2. c. 16. that they had the merely Allegorical Commentaries of the Antients and that in expounding the Scriptures they philosophiz'd after the manner of their Predecessors that is to say by the way of Figures and Allegories pretending that the Letter is but a Shell wherein many Mysteries are inclos'd The most antient Fathers of the Church viz. Hermas and Barnabas did follow this Method of the Jews searching for a Spiritual Meaning in the Facts and Rites of the Old Testament in order to adapt them to the New but yet not so as to bring in such Platonick Ideas as obtain'd some time after in the Christian Religion The following Fathers having not only carry'd their Allegories too far and exceeded the antient manner of affecting mystical Senses but also spoil'd this Method by joining gross Platonism with it which personaliz'd every thing
change or vary and the things we make them to signify may not vary at all in our Minds or suffer the least Alteration The Facts for instance mention'd in the Apostles Creed are things of that nature the Ideas whereof are preserv'd without any Change As its Articles are plain few in Number without any Speculations and contain only the Primitive Doctrines of Christianity it was easy therefore to preserve the sense and to have always a true Knowledg of them 'T is a Faith as I may say that 's born with us that offers it self to our Understandings from the Moment we enter into the Church that is in the Mouth and Heart or every Christian and there is no need of ascending into Heaven of consulting Councils nor of descending into the Deeps to know it and employing Missions of Dragoons to impose the Lelief of it Wherefore Cyril in Catech. 5. Ruffinus in Expos Symbol Jerom in Epist 61. ad Pâ—mmach c. 9. Hilarius de Synod had good reason to say That the Creed was not only written upon Paper but upon the Tables of the Heart and in the Mind of Man Expressions that Jeremy and St. Paul make use of about the Precepts of the Gospel to signify that there 's no need of a Teacher to learn them because Reason is capable of suggesting them and Memory of retaining them The Passage of St. Hilary is the more remarkable because he makes an express Opposition between this Faith graven upon the Heart and that which is only in the Letter and the Writings of Men For he congratulates the Western Bishops for their maintaining the Apostolic Faith for the Spirit wherewith they were animated and that they knew not the Forms of Faith which were written by Mens Hands The Spirit here does not signify the Holy Ghost as Mons Du Pin supposes but the Spiritual Sense in opposition to the Literal Which shews that there was no need of writing down the Apostles Creed in the first Ages of the Church Every one had the sense of it in his Mind As it was short and plain and consisting only of the principal Facts and Primitive Truths which constitute the very Essence and Spirit of the Christian Religion it was easy for the most illiterate to keep it in mind as to the Substance of it for the rest every one expressed himself as he pleased Hence it was that 't was very late before any Formula was drawn up and that too with some difference in the Terms and Number of Articles particularly in those which seem to explain one another It ought not to be wonâ—red at after this if it be not found among the antient Doctors to be just as we have it at this day They received it only by Tradition and worded it upon occasion every one in his own way The Christians says Dupin Tom. 1. p. 30. had this Faith so ready in their Minds that they did not stick to any certain Form hence came the difference in point of Form of the Creeds mentioned by the Fathers Moreover it must not be supposed that when some particular Christians came at length to enlarge the Apostles Creed by their Platonic Speculations the People entered into those Notions and Philosophical Ideas They always kept themselves to that Simplicity of Faith which the general Spirit of Religion had imprinted upon their Minds The Christian Religion says Mons Le Vassor Traite de l'Examen ch 2. p. 69. was at no great distance from its first and primitive Simplicity till the Council of Nice If Origen and some others before that attempted to adjust it to the Principles of Pagan Philosophy their novel Speculations were not generally received In short Origen shews us that nothing but the Word revealed was preached to the People that is to say Jesus Christ crucified but the Word-God glorified was reserved for Persons of the higher Class that is for Favourite Souls who had spiritualized themselves in Plato's School Wherefore History tell us that to bring in this Platonizing Faith into the Church and to make Entrance for it into the Minds of ordinary Christians there was â—eed of no less than the Anthority of Emperors the Cabals of Councils and the Violence of Penal Laws Monsieur Jurieu speaks to the very same effect Says he all the vain empty Speculations of the Doctors of that time the Fathers of the three first Ages did no harm to the pure Faith of the Church that is the People Tabl. du Socin 1 part Let. 6. p. 269. The Speculations had not yet reached the People they continued in the Simplicity For the rest it was for the Speculative Divines and Philosophers bred in Plato's School such as the Justin Martyrs the Tatians and the Athanagoras's were and other Platonizing Doctors of that sort Then Jurieu concludes saying There 's no body but knows that Theological Explications are not matters of Faith 'T is true we must do this Justice to Jurieu as to own that he made room for the Mystery of God in three Persons in this Simplicity of the Primitive Faith But it would really be a wrong done to his Judgment and good Sense to believe that he spoke it seriously For in short if he would not affirm that the Belief of three Persons which are but one God was one of those Platonizing Speculations against which he so much declaims at least he ought to own that 't is an Explication that has nothing of Simplicity in it and which by consequence cannot be a matter of Faith I desire him to remember a Remark he has made in his seventh Pastoral Letter That when Learning was scarce among Christians two or three Learned Men drew the People into their Opinions He could have informed us better that two or three Platonizing Fathers for they were the Learned Men of the Age were able to mislead the People from the Simplicity of their Faith to the Theology of Plato If it be true that the People knew this profound Theology Mons Jurieu has spoken more truly than he thought For we find at the bottom of the Letter that two Learned Platonists Origen who had his Admirers in the East and St. Austin who had his in the West have not only led the People into their Opinions but likewise all the Learned Men that came after them who have only copied from them And consequently this Theology whether it be to be found only among the Learned or with the People too was none other than a strange Faith which the Learned brought into the Church and after drew the People into it It amounts to the same thing either the People understood it not or if they did 't was by surprize that the Learned impos'd their Mysteries and made the common People receive a Pagan Notion for the Doctrine of J. C. CHAP. XX. Of the Divine Polity or Oeconomy taught by the Fathers HAving given some account of the way of Allegories us'd by the Fathers I must not forget to say something
their profound Speculations For to theologize according to them is not only to speak of God and his Attributes but of Angels too of Aeons of Ideas of Emanations and in a word of every thing that belongs to the intelligible World of the Platonists Theology being a Term affected by all the contemplative Gentlemen whether Orthodox or Gnosticks These sort of Folks did not regard the Facts of the Gospel which prove its Divine Authority any otherwise than as grosser Proofs proper for vulgar weaker Minds But for Contemplation the Case was quite otherwise this they thought a noble and powerful Medium by which Souls of the first Rank elevated themselves to the Knowledg of the noblest Truths Yet the Gospel is not founded upon any thing but Facts and the chief Objects of our Faith are certain Facts contained in the Apostles Creed Is it not therefore a putting the Gospel upon another Foot if we carry on our Contemplations to Abstractions and the Ideas of a crude chimerical Metaphysicks 'T is an extravagant System if instead of Facts well proved and rightly circumstanced there be nothing left but a mere Operation of the Understanding and an Ens Rationis which these Gentlemen are pleas'd to call the Word or the Son theologized That great Man Mons Jurieu whom God was pleased to favour with the knowledg of every thing did not fail to set aside this false Theology of the Fathers 7 Ler. Past de la 3. Année Besides the Faith of the Vulgar says he which was immediately founded upon the Sacred Writings the Doctors fram'd a Theology that is they undertook to expound the Mysteries in a sense beyond that wherein the Holy Scriptures themselves have delivered them And 't is in that they have disagreed and one must not wonder at it because the things they went about to explain were profound and it may be inexplicable and because they made use of a false Philosophy which they brought into their Theology And by so doing they have ruined Theology and at last Religion in all Ages The Faith of the Antients therefore must not be condemned as if it were changed altho they disagreed in their Theology And it must be noted that this Theology should not be admitted into the Faith that is Articles of Faith should not be formed out of Theological Expositions Is not this much for the Honour of the Theology of the Antients According to Mons Jurieu these good Doctors could not theologize the Son without hazarding the Faith and consequently one ought not to receive amongst the Articles of Faith their theological Explications concerning a Son begotten and not made an Internal Word and a Word brought forth c. Nevertheless it 's well known that the Fathers consider'd the theological Sense not only as true but as that which the Spirit of God had chiefly in its view So that they who would impose the Faith of the theological Sense of the Word because the Fathers urg'd it are themselves obliged to receive all the other theological Senses which the same Fathers have given to so many other Terms in Scripture and which they believe to be no less the Purport and Design of the Holy Ghost which yet is not done but they are looked upon even as ridiculous Why therefore is it not acknowledged bona Fide also that the Exposition of the Logos or Word is one of those wretched Allegories so much declaimed against at that day and an Article of that false Theology which is incompatible with the Christian Faith But let us pay as much respect to the Fathers as we can let us preserve their Theology be it so provided that the theological Sense be not said to be designed for any other than contemplative and seraphic Minds and that no more than the Faith or Belief of the plain natural sense be requir'd of Men as Men Origen was too fair to desire more than this he acquaints his Readers at the beginning of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Sacred Writers did not concern themselves with abstruse Matters and speculative Subjects which few of them whom they called to the Christian Religion were capable of understanding but confined themselves to those few clear Articles which were necessary for the Reformation of the World to bring them into a State of Righteousness and give them hopes of Immortality Leaving the more refined Contemplations which were not contrary to prime Truths to the commendable Curiosity of those whom Nature and Education had qualify'd for such Enquiries Dr. Rust in his Discourse of Origen and the chief of his Opinions has observed also That there were necessary Truths which the Apostles had clearly taught and the Church received the contrary whereto cannot be received without retrenching an essential part of Religion But that there were besides some Contemplations about which the Scriptures had not determin'd any thing and that the Truth as to these matters was purposely concealed by the Holy Ghost as Origen thought to excite their Study and Industry who were Lovers of the Truth that the Discovery of so great a Treasure might be a Recompence for their pious Enquiries Without doubt all the other Fathers agreed in this very Principle with Origen that the contemplative Subjects were not necessary nor essential to Religion that they did not oblige ordinary Christians and that they were left to the commendable Enquiries of the Curious Servetus who constantly imitates the Fathers agrees in this tho he was in other respects a great Admirer of Platonism and Contemplation The Apostles says he de Trinit lib. 2. p. 50. did not rashly publish this great Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word 't was after several Essays and having fasted and prayed that St. John pronounced these Words In the beginning was the Word c. 'T was sufficient to Salvation to believe that Jesus was the Christ or the Messias the Son of God the Saviour of the World The common People were justified by this Faith alone altho they did not exactly know his Divinity You therefore pious Readers who are not able to comprehend the manner of his Generation nor the whole Fulness of his Divinity always believe that he is the Messias begotten of God and thy Saviour This is the only thing you should believe that you may live by him But let us hear Origen speak for himself 't is in his Preface to St. John that one shall find the famous distinction he makes between the intelligible and the sensible Gospel and how he there divides Christians into two Classes the one of those who are Children in the Faith and are led by the Rudiments of the Gospel and the other of those intelligent and elevated Minds who are capable of understanding the Divinity of the glorified God That Doctor or Teacher says he who is willing to profit all Persons cannot however make the secret and sublime Christianity known to such who can only understand the plain and the revealed Christianity Wherefore
that be Dr. Bull deceives himself grosly in supposing this Creed of Cyril to be the antient Creed of Jerusalem We can produce another of greater Antiquity which the same Church ascribes to the Apostle St. James Bishop Vsher de Symbol p. 10. presents us with it It must be minded says the Primate that there were two sorts of Creeds us'd by the Easterns one contracted which Ruffinus compares with that of Rome and Aquileia the other fuller and larger Among the first we place the Creed of Jerusalem the Mother of all Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I believe in one God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God c. Thus 't is read in the antient Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem ascribed to St. James who is held to have been the first Bishop of that Place and with this Creed an Office was read once a year in memory of its Antiquity And since the Articles that follow have which I mightily regret been left out as suppos'd to be generally known I thought it proper to repair this Loss by substituting in the room of what is wanting the entire Confession of the Apostolic Faith that Cyril expounded to the Illuminated at Jerusalem which indeed is somewhat larger as it appears by this addition at the beginning viz. visible and invisible The short Creed which Vsher gives us being made by St. James it follows that of Cyril is an Exposition and Commentary And 't is impossible on the contrary that this should be an Abridgment of Cyril's Creed for nothing can be more antient than the draught of an Apostle Without doubt the shorter Creed is the Original and the larger none other than a Copy stuffed and lengthened with a wretched Platonism and has not Simplicity enough to pass for an Apostle's but it may without wrong be accounted the Work of a Platonizing Faction But let that be as it will there is good ground for believing that Dr. Bull had a mind to deceive us in dissembling his Knowledg of this antient Creed of St. James of which Bishop Vsher makes mention and in palming upon us for the most antient Eastern Creed that of S. Cyril which is so very different For altho we have but two Articles of the Jerusalem Creed which is the same with what we call the Apostles yet these two are sufficient to shew that the Apostles Creed is in effect the most antient of all however Dr. Bull Jud. Eccles p. 128. pretends it to have been of later Date And I say further this may satisfy us that at this time of Cyril the Mother of all Churches had strangely alter'd her Faith Bishop Vsher observed what was added to the first Article Who doubts but that like might have been done to others about which there were far greater disputes He might have observed the same and the thing is obvious that the second Article concerning the Person of J. C. being entire as it appears by the Oriental Creed of Ruffinas which goes no further it follows then that all that which is in Cyril upon the same Article has been added since Platonism prevailed Ruffinus says Bishop Vsher has compar'd the shorter of these two Oriental Creeds with the Roman wherefore this shorter Creed was not the same with the Roman let the Doctor say what he will nor are we to be much concern'd as the Primate speaks for the Loss of it◠Ruffinus has preserv'd it Almost all the Eastern Churches says he in Symbol Apost give us their Creed after this manner I believe in one God the Father Almighty and then in the following Article whereas we say and in J. C. his only Son our Lord they say in one Lord J. C. his only Son professing one God and one Lord according to the Doctrine of St. Paul Note here all the difference the Easterns made between their Creed and that we call the Apostles There 's nothing in 'em of the Pre-existence of J. C. and his Generation before Ages as you have it in Cyril's Creed This shews that the Article concerning J. C. goes no farther in this part of the Oriental Creed which Bishop Vsher gives us that the etc. does not retrench any part of it but is plac'd at the end of the Article only to shew that the remaining Articles are omitted We may conclude therefore that all the Jargon of the Platovic Philosophy in Cycil's Greed took place of the antient simple Tradition which was I believe in J. C. the only Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary And consequently the antient Opinion of the Filiation and Deification of J. C. ran no higher than his being born of a Virgin by the Power of the Holy Ghost this was the true Theology concerning him Ruffinus had reason for calling this plain Confession the Tradition of his Ancestors meaning thereby not the Doctors bigotted with Plato's Enthusiasm but the whole Body of the Church the People as Du Pin observes Tom. 1. p. 30. who doubtless never enter'd into the Speculations of those Doctors Let us see what Marcellus wrote to Pope Julius Epiphan haeres 72. where after he had said what he thought fit concerning the Word which he denies to be an Hypostasis distinct from the Father saying it subsists in the Father and that 't is his very Wisdom and his inseparable Power he confines himself to this Confession of Faith which he says he had received from the Scripture and his Ancestors I believe in God Almighty and in J. C. his only Son our Lord begotten by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried the third day be was raised from the Dead and ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of God Whence he shall come to judg the Quick and the Dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Church the Remission of Sins the Resurrection of the Flesh the Life everlasting See here in express words the Creed we call the Apostles the antient Theology without Platonism without Speoulation There 's nothing retrench'd from the antient Confessions of Faith yet Retrenchments were not unusual amongst some of them If therefore some Creeds are found to be larger in some of the Antients 't is according to their laudable Practice by an addition of their novel Interpretations This is the more evident because that pretended Interpretations are found to be pure Platonism with which 't is known they were extremely bigotted CHAP. VIII Reflections upon the Apostles Creed with respect to the foregoing Doctrine TO render the Antiquity of the Apostles Creed doubtful 't is said that 't is notorious that the greater part of the Articles have been added from time to time and upon divers occasions What of that if those additional Articles are not in the present Contest Is it not enough that the three Articles concerning the Father the Son and the Holy
Holy Ghost In the next place let 's attend to Irenaeus who takes the Terms mere Man in the same sense as Justin They says he lib. 3. c. 23. who call him i. e. Christ a mere Man begotten by Joseph continue in the Bondage of the antient Disobedience They then according to Irenaeus held J. C. to be a mere Man who believed he was begotten by Joseph and consequently not begotten by the Holy Ghost of a Virgin To make good this Charge against those Persons it was not it seems necessary they should have denied a Platonic Generation But the Passage is so clear it needs no gloss I proceed to another Father and that is Euseb in his 3. B. c. 27. where he speaks thus of the Ebionites They believe J. C. to be a mere Man an ordinary Person begotten by Joseph and Mary but otherwise a just Man and extraordinary for his Vertue You see how Eusebius when Platonism did not run in his Head acquaints us that they were none other than Ebionites who held J. C. was begotten by Joseph and Mary upon which account it may be truly said that they made him a mere ordinary Man This scap'd Eusebius without doubt by his following the Mode of speaking according to antient Tradition which opposed in the Hereticks of that time not those Christians who denied an eternal Generation of the Substance of God for where was that Notion then but the Ebionites who contested the miraculous Generation of the Substance of a Virgin It remains that I examine two Passages of Epiphanius The 1st is in his account of the 29th Heresy which is that of the Nazarenes whom he ranks among the Hereticks altho Irenaeus who must have known them better has made no mention of this pretended Heresy I do not affirm says Epiphanius of those Nazarenes whether following the Impiety of Cerinthus they received J. C. to be but a mere Man or whether they acknowledged which is the Truth that he was begotten by the Power of the Holy Ghost on the Virgin Mary The two things oppos'd in this Passage make it evident to our present Trinitarians that it is not believing J. C. to be a mere Man when with Socinus 't is own'd that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary The second Passage of Epiphanius is in his 54th Heresy which is that called the Theodotians who he tells you held J. C. to be a mere Man How so Why because they believed he was begotten by a Man This is clear one Proposition explains t'other to be a mere Man and to be begotten by a Man are Phrases equivalent And by the Rule of Contraries to be begotten by the Holy Ghost is to be more than a mere Man that is to be the Son of God The Angel tells us as much and without doubt these were the Words which were the Foundation of the Theology of the Antients For says the Angel The Power of the Highest shall overshaddow thee and that which shall be born of thee not that which was begotten from Eternity but that which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God The Angel alludes to the Spirit of God which overshadowed the Chaos as if he would say that the same Power of God which drew the World out of that unshapen Mass would likewise cause the Messias to be born of Matter as infertile as the Chaos it self even of the Womb of a Virgin and that because of this extraordinary Birth he should be called the Son of God See Maldonate in Loc. The Expressions of the Angel have that force in them that the Moderns themselves when they are free from Prejudice and their Minds are not engaged in the Controversy have made them their Rule according to which they express themselves as to the Filiation of J. C. often alledging his Conception of the Holy Ghost as the formal Reason that made him the Son of God in opposition to Son of Man Thus Bishop Vsber us'd them in explaining a Passage of Ignatius Dissertat in Ignat. cap. 12. where he says The Devil knew not whether the Mother of our Saviour who was married to a Man was a Virgin at the Birth of the Child nor whether the new-born Infant ought to be called the Son of God or the Son of Joseph This Learned Person explaining an Apostolic Doctrine speaks in an Apostolic Manner He opposes Son of Joseph to Son of God but to what Son of God To a Son begotten from all Eternity 'T is plain enough of what Son he is speaking 't is to a Son of God who was begotten by the Holy Ghost who was not the Son of any Man altho he was born of a Woman and who had none but God for his Father So Grotius upon Mark 1.1 having given the reason why St. Mark spoke nothing of the miraculous Birth of J. C. he adds That 't was not necessary to speak of it till there were such who held that J. C. was no more than a mere Man From which Words of this great Critic it follows that to hold J. C. to be a mere Man is not to deny him to be the supreme God but to deny that he was born of a Virgin Dr. Bull in his Judicium Eccles p. 43. objects against this antient Faith that no Writer has spoken of it as of a Tradition different from the Platonic Faith which is pretended to have prevailed afterwards That on the contrary Eusebius gives this Testimony of the Bishops of Jerusalem that they had a right Knowledg of J. C. and that their Doctrine was sound on this Article But that which I am now going to say concerning this antient Faith and that which shall be said hereafter makes it evident enough that 't is to little purpose for the Doctor to boast that Antiquity is altogether silent in this matter As for his Proof from Eusebius 't is too uncertain and general to be us'd as an Argument in our Question Eusebius says in general that the Antients were sound in their Opinion or had a right Knowledg of J. C. Who doubts it Since in believing him to be born of a Virgin by the Operation of the Holy Ghost and not by her Conversation with Joseph they professed the sound Doctrine of that time and they rejected the Error oppos'd to it which made J. C. but a mere Man But Eusebius 't will be said could not speak so but with regard to his own Opinion which was that of the Pre-existence But I shall reply whence had Eusebius his Information that the Doctrine of the Antients was sound Was it not from Hegesippus or as he himself says from Monuments of the Antients which is the same thing But if this antient Author Hegesippus did not believe the Platonic Pre-existence as Eusebius did will it not follow that the Doctrine of these Bishops was sound not with respect to the sense of Eusebius but with regard to the antient Author who gives them that