Father Almighty, &c. And in various places, throughout his whole Five Books, he confutes the Marcionites Dotage of Two Gods, fhewing it to be not only inconfiftent with Reason, and opposite unto the Scripture, but also contradictory to the Faith and Belief of the Church; whence Epiphanius in his large Expofition of the Creed, in oppofition to the forefaid Hereticks, tells us, That by this Claufe we are obliged to believe, η That there is but One God, who was the God both of the Law and the Gospel, both of the Old and New Teftament, And Tertullian in his Prefcriptions against the Valentinians, Marcionites, Regula eft and other Hereticks, fends them to the autem fidei,- Rule of Faith, wherein it is professed, unum om-that there is but one God: And, that pino Deum I may add yet one inftance more, it

* Ότι Θεὸς εἰς ἡμῖν ἐν νόμω καὶ ἐν προφήταις, και εν ευαγγε λίοις καὶ ἐν Σποςόλοις, ἐν παλαιά xỳ naivñ Siałńng nenngun). Adverf. Her. lib. 3. Compend. Fid.

Cath. p. 464.

qua creditur,

effe.

is very obfervable in the Dialogues of Origen, That when Adamantius, who fuftained the part of an Orthodox Christian against the Marcionites, was by agreement firft of all to recite the Catholick Faith, which he would defend in contradiction to the forementioned Hereticks; he begins his Creed

k

νον Θεόν.
Dialog. 5.

with, I believe there is but One God; * *Eva sov ειπεand when one of the Marcionites la- πίςακα. Die boured hard to prove his Three, and al. 1. p. 3. the other his Two Gods, Adamantius fo invincibly evidenced the Unity of the Godhead, that Eutropius the Judge of the Difputation, declared the Victory to be on his fide; and when in the end of the laft Dialogue he repeats the Articles of the true Chriftian Faith, he begins it with the Belief of 1One and on-1"Eva μóby God, which makes it very probable, vorov. that this Claufe in the Creed of One p. 158. God, was in part defigned to contradict the blafphemous and impious conceit of thofe Hereticks, who introduced more Gods than One. But, Secondly, This Claufe may be alfo confidered in relation to what immediately follows in the Creed, viz. the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth in which regard it is a Declaration, that we believe this One God, and not a Being different from him, to be the Father, and Almighty Creator of all things; for though fome Hereticks owned one Supreme and Original God, yet they denied him the Creation, of the World, and his Paternity and Almightiness in that Catholick fense wherein it is to be underftood in the Creed;

F

4

Creed; and those other Hereticks, who blafphemed the Unity of the Godhead, contented not themselves with that, but dared to diveft our true and only God, whom they called their kind and merciful One, of one of the greatest Acts of his Power, Wifdom, and Goodness, even the making of Heaven and Earth, whereby they totally deftroyed one of the moft obliging Relations we ftand in to God, which is that of a Creature to his Creator.

Who thofe Hereticks were, with the particulars of their feveral Herefies, fhall be confidered under those refpective Terms predicated concerning God in the Creed, as they prefent themselves to our obfervation in their feveral order: There is nothing farther neceffary in this place, than to fhew, That this was in part the intended fenfe of this Claufe of the Creed; for the Proof whereof, innumerable Paffages might be produced from the Writings of Irenaus; as in Osoy Tales both his Creeds, which he opposes to alonego all these kinds of Hereticks, he exHóta devov preffes this Article, by believing min One God, the Father Almighty, maker

ex

Eis

* πεποιη

شارد

Lib. I. c. 2.

p. 35. In unum Deum frabricatorem cœli ac terræ. Lib. 3.c.4 p. 172.

of

» Unum & eundem Deum Pa

trem recipientibus. Lib. 5. c. 17.

P. 341.
cœli ac terræ,

Unum Deum fabricatorem

Ecclefia omnis

hanc accepit ab Apoftolis Traditionem. Lib. 2. c. 9. p. 107.

of Heaven and Earth; and contrary to the delirious Fancies of thefe Atheftical Wits, affirms, That the whole Church of God throughout the World, n received one and the fame God the Father; and that the univerfal Church received this by Tradition from the Apofles, that there was but One God, the maker of Heaven and Earth. This Claufe is likewise fo expressed in Two of Tertullian's Creeds, as that the condemnation of these various Hereticks appears moft evidently to have been defigned thereby; in one of them it is faid, That P by the Rule of Faith we must believe, that there is but One only God, and that there is no other befides the Creator of the World; and In unicum in the other, that we must thereby Deum omnibelieve in the only God Almighty, the Mundi condiframer of the World. The fame alfo torem. De Virmay be obferved, concerning the feve-p. 385. ral Creeds of Origen; in one of which, our Faith is declared to be * One God, who created and difpofed all

r

P Regula eft autem fidei, qua creditur unum omnino Deum effe, nec alium præter mundi Creatorem. De Prajcript. adv.

Hæret. p. 73.

in

potentem,

gin. Veland.

wala xlicas ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ τὰ πάλα κλίσας alaslicas, καὶ ποιήσας ἐκ

Fμù ŏ eis To Tá závla. Vol. 2. Com. in Joban. Tom. 32.

P. 397.

things,

Dialog. I. p. 3..

p. 53, &c.

f

things, and made thofe things that are, out of things that were not: And in that Creed, wherein Adamantius profeffed the Catholick Faith in oppofition to the erroneous Tenets of the Marcio"Eva Otor nites, he begins it with, I believe in jisww j Tuyor One God, the very Creator and Maker drála of all things: And fo Cyril of Jerufawexisdna. lem + explains the Unity of the God*Catech. 6. head, in contradiction to the Heresy of the Simonians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, and others, who made Two Gods, one a good God; and the other a juft God; and in another place, where he repeats and explains the Creed, he thus explains the Unity of u God, " That he is both Ὅτι αὐτὸς ἔαὶν ἀγαθὸς καὶ δίκαιΘ ἵνα ἐὰν ποτὲ ακέσης good and juft ; To that défov aigelin anno if we should bear any beSixcov, & aλnov 21 retical Perfon fay, that ευθὺς ὑπομνηθείς γνῶς τὸ αἱρέσεως ιοβόλον τολμήσαντΘ the juft God is cne, and ἀσεβῶς “ ἕνα Θεὸν διαχωρίσαι the good God another, we should remember it to be a venomous Herefy, daring wickedly to divide the one God. From all which it is most apparent, that the intended defign of this Claufe of One God, was in part to declare, That whatfoever is immediately predicated concerning God, in the fubfequent part of the Creed, related to one and the fame

Tof. Catech. 4. p. 24.

av

God;