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By whom it has been denied and oppofed, and by whom afferted and defended, in all ages of christianity.

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HE eternal Sonship of Christ, or that he is the Son of God by eternal generation, or that he was the Son of God before he was the son of Mary, even from all eternity, which is denied by the Socinians, and others akin to them, was known by the faints under the Old Teftament; by David, Pfalm ii. 7, 12. by Solomon, Prov. viii. 22, 30. by the prophet Micah, chap. v. 2. His Sonship was known by Daniel, from whom it is probable Nebuchadnezzar had it, Dan.iii.25. from which it appears he was, and was known to be, the Son of God before he was born of the virgin, or before his incarnation, and therefore not called so on that account. This truth is written as with a fun-beam in the New Testament; but my defign in what I am about is, not to give the proof of this doctrine from the facred fcriptures, but to fhew who first fet themselves against it, and who have continued the oppofition to it, more or lefs, to this time; and, on the other hand, to fhew that found and orthodox chriftians, from the earliest times of chriftianity to the prefent, have afferted and defended it. I fhall begin with

I. The first century, in which the Evangelifts and Apoftles lived; what their fentiments were concerning this doctrine, is abundantly manifeft from their writings. The perfons in this age who oppofed the divine and eternal Sonship of Chrift were,

ift, Simon

ift, Simon Magus, the father of herefies, as he is justly called; he first vented the notion afterwards imbibed by Sabellius, of one perfon in the Godhead; to which he added this blafphemy, that he was that person that fo is. Before he profeffed himself a christian he gave out that he was some great one; he afterwards faid, he was the one God himself under different names, the Father in Samaria, the Son in Judea, and the holy Spirit in the rest of the nations of the world; or, as Austin expreffes it, he faid that he in mount Sinai gave the law to Moses for the Jews, in the perfon of the Father; and in the time of Tiberius he seemingly appeared in the person of the Son, and afterwards as the holy Ghost, came upon the apostles in tongues of fire. And according to Jerom he not only faid, but wrote it; for it seems, according to him, he wrote fome volumes, in which he faid, "I am the Word of God, that is, the Son of God." Menander his difciple took the fame characters and titles to himself his master did '.

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2dly, Cerinthus is the next, who was cotemporary with the apostle John, of whom that well known story is told, that the apostle being about to go into a bath at Ephesus, and seeing Cerinthus in it, said to those with him, "Let us flee " from hence, left the bath fall upon us in which Cerinthus the enemy of truth "is" he afferted that Chrift was only a man, denying his deity f, and in course his divine and eternal Sonship; he denied that Jefus was born of a virgin, which seemed to him impoffible; and that he was the fon of Joseph and Mary, as other men are of their parents. Jerom fays", at the request of the bishops of Asia, John the apostle wrote his gospel against Cerinthus and other hereticks, and especially the tenets of the Ebionites, then rifing up, who afferted that Chrift was not before Mary; hence he was obliged plainly to declare his divine generation; and it may be observed, that he is the only facred writer who in his gospel and epiftles fpeaks of Chrift as the begotten and only begotten Son of God, at least speaks moftly of him as fuch.

3dly, Ebion. What his fentiment was concerning Christ, may be learned from what has been just observed, about the apostle John's writing his gofpel to refute it; and may be confirmed by what Eufebius' fays of him, that he held that Chrift was a mere man, and born as other men are: and though he makes mention of another fort of them, who did not deny that Chrift was born of a virgin, and of the holy Ghost, nevertheless did not own that he existed before, being God the Word and Wisdom. Hence Hilary calls Photinus, Ebion, becaufe of the fame

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b De Hæres. c. 1. 33. A. a Tertullian de præfcript. hæret. c 46. Tertullian ut fupra, c. 48. Irenæus ib. 1.1. c.25. Eccles. Hift. 1. 3. c. 27. vid..

b Catalog. fcrip. eccles. c. 19. fic Irenæus 1. 3. c. 11. Tertullian de carne Christ. c. 18.

k De Trinitate 1. 7. p. 81, 82.

ness of their principles, and Jerom fays', Photinus endeavoured to restore the herefy of Ebion; now it is notorious that the notion of the Photinians was the fame with the Socinians now, who fay, that Chrift was not before Mary; and fo Alexander bishop of AlexandriaTM observes of Arius and his followers, who denied the natural fonship and eternal generation of Chrift, that what they propagated were the herefy of Ebion and Artemas.

Befides the infpired writers, particularly the apostle John, who wrote his gofpel, as now obferved, to confute the herefies of Ebion and Cerinthus, and in vindication of the deity of Chrift, and his divine and eternal generation, there are very few writings if any in this century extant. There is an epiftle afcribed to Barnabas, cotemporary with the apostle Paul, in which are these words ", having made mention of the brazen ferpent as a figure of Jefus, he adds, "what "faid Mofes again to Jefus the son of Nave, putting this name upon him, being "a prophet, that only all the people might hear that the Father hath made ma"nifeft all things concerning his Son Jefus in the fon of Nave, and he put this "name upon him, when he fent him to fpy the land-becaufe the Son of God in the last days will cut up by the roots the house of Amalek: behold again Jefus, not the fon of man, but the Son of God, manifested in the flesh by a 66 type.- -Likewise David said, the Lord said to my Lord.—See how David calls "him "Lord, and the Son of God:" by which it appears that he believed that Christ was the Son of God before he was manifefted in the flesh, or became incarnate; and that he was the Son of God according to the divine nature, as well as the Son of David according to the human nature, which he also expreffes in the fame paragraph. And elsewhere he fays, "For this end the Son of God ic came in the flesh, that the full fum might be made of the fins of those who per"fecuted the prophets," fo that according to him Chrift was the Son of God before he came in the flesh or was incarnate.

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Clemens Romanus was bishop of Rome in this century, and though the book of Recognitions, afcribed to him, are judged fpurious, yet there is an epiftle of his to the Corinthians thought to be genuine in which, after speaking of Chrift our Saviour, and the high priest of our oblations, and the brightness of the magnificence of God, and of his having a more excellent name than the angels, obferves, that the Lord thus fays of his own Son, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; thereby declaring his belief, that Chrift is the proper Son of God, and begotten by him. Ignatius was bishop of Antioch in this century, after the first bishop of that place Evodius, and was early in it, if any truth in thefe

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Apud Theodoret. hift. eccles. 1. 1. c 4. • Ibid. c 4.

Catalog fcrip. eccl c 117. n Barnabæ epift. c. 9. Clemens. epift. ad Corinth. p. 84. ed. Oxon. 16'9.

thefe reports that he was the child Chrift took in his arms, when he rebuked his difciples; and that he faw Chrift after his refurrection; but though thefe are things not to be depended on, yet it is certain that he lived in the latter end of the first century, and fuffered martyrdom in the beginning of the fecond. Several epiftles of his are extant, in which, as well as by words, he exhorted the faints to beware of herefies then fpringing up among them, and abounding, as Eufebius obferves 1; meaning the herefies of Ebion and Cerinthus about the person of Chrift: and fays many things which fhew his belief, and what was their error.

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of his epiftles he exhorts to decline from fome perfons, as beafts, as ravenous dogs, biting fecretly, and difficult of cure; and adds, "there is one phylician, "carnal and fpiritual, begotten and unbegotten, God made flesh, in a true and "immortal life, who is both of Mary and of God." In a larger epiftle to the fame, thought by fome to be interpolated, though it expreffes the fame fentiment; "our physician is alone the true God, the unbegotten and invifible Lord "of all, the Father and begetter of the only begotten one; we have also a phyfi

cian, our Lord Jefus Chrift, the only begotten Son before the world, and the "word, and at laft man of the virgin Mary;" and afterwards in the fame epiftle ftill more exprefsly, "the Son of God, who was begotten before the world was, "and constitutes all things according to the will of the Father, he was bore in "the womb by Mary, according to the difpenfation of God, of the feed of David "by the holy Ghoft." And a little farther ", "be ye all in grace by name, ga"thered together in one common faith of God the Father, and of Jefus Chrift "his only begotten Son, and the first-born of every creature; according to the "flesh indeed of the family of David: ye being guided by the Comforter." A plain account, as of the divine Sonship and Humanity of Chrift, fo of the doctrine of the Trinity. In another epiftle of his ", he speaks of Jefus Chrift, "who "was with the Father before the world was, and in the end appeared," that is, in human nature in the end of the world; and exhorts all to "run to one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jefus Chrift, who came forth from "one Father, and being in him and returning to him." And a little lower he adds, "there is one God, who hath manifefted himself by Jefus Chrift his Son, "who is his eternal word." And farther on he fays, "ftudy to be established "in the doctrines of the Lord, and of the apoftles, that whatfoever ye do may profper, in flesh and fpirit, in faith and love, in the Son, and in the Father, "and in the Spirit." A full confeffion of the Trinity, one of the principal doctrines he would have them be established in. All which is more fully exVOL. II.

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Ibid. p. 125.

Eccles. hift. 1. 3. c. 36.
Ibid. p. 136.

Epift. ad Ephes. p. 21. Ed. Vols.

" Ibid. p. 138.

▾ Epift. ad Magnes. p. 33, 34, 37.

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preffed in the larger epiftle to the fame perfons: speaking of Chrift, he says, "who was begotten by the Father before the world was; God the Word, the only begotten Son, and who remains to the end of the world, for of his kingdom "there is no end." Again, "there is one God omnipotent, who hath manifeft"ed himself by Jefus Chrift his Son, who is his Word; not fpoken, but effential, not the voice of an articulate fpeech, but of a divine operation, begot"ten fubftance, who in all things pleafed him that fent him." And farther on, "but ye have a plerophory in Chrift, who was begotten by the Father before all "worlds, afterwards made of the virgin Mary without the conversation of men." And in the larger epistle of his to other perfons, he thus fpeaks of fome hereticks of his time; "they profefs an unknown God, they think Chrift is unbe"gotten, nor will they own that there is an holy Spirit: fome of them say the "Son is a mere man, and that the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit, are the "fame:-beware of fuch, left your fouls be enfnared." And in an epistle to another people he fays, "there is one unbegotten God the Father, and one "only begotten Son, God the Word and man, and one comforter the Spirit "of truth." And in an epiftle afcribed unto him he has thefe words, "there "is one God and Father-there is alfo one Son, God the Word-and there is "one comforter, the Spirit; not three Fathers, nor three Sons, nor three "Comforters, but one Father, and one Son, and one Comforter; therefore. "the Lord, when he fent his apoftles to teach all nations, commanded them "to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost; not "in one of three names, nor into three that are incarnate, but into three of "equal honour and glory." Lucian, that scoffing, blafphemous heathen, lived in the times of Trajan, and before, as Suidas fays, wrote a dialogue in derifion of the christian religion, particularly of the doctrine of the Trinity which dialogue, though it is a scoff at that doctrine, is a teftimony of it, as held by the chriftians of that age; and among other things, he represents them as faying, that Chrift is the eternal Son of the Father. I go on,

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II. To the fecond century, in which the fame herefies of Ebion and Cerinthus were held and propagated by Carpocrates, the father of the Gnofticks, by Valentinus and Theodotus the currier, whofe difciples were another Theodotus a filverfmith, and Afclepiodotus and Artemon alfo, according to Eusebius a.

1ft. Carpocrates was of Alexandria in Egypt, and lived in the beginning of the fecond century: he and his followers held that Christ was only a man, born of

Page 145, 147, 151.
Ad Phillipans, p. 100.

▾ Ad Trallianos, p. 160.
Entitled, Philopatris.

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Ad Philadelph. p. 176.

• Eufeb. hift. eccles. I. 4. c. 7.

Ibid. 1. 5. c. 28.

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