Christian Faith, containing as it does its pri. mary and fundamental doctrines; so the NICENE Creed was calculated to explain, and the ATHANASIAN Creed to defend it.

As there were a variety of Forms of Doctrine, or * Rules of Faith used in the second and third Centuries, of which no certain account can be given; the learned have concluded, that though the doctrine of this Creed is perfectly Apostolic, yet that the composition of it should not be ascribed to the Apostles, nor to any contemporary writer. At all events, when its antiquity, the estimation in which it was held in the primitive Church, and the simple and scriptural terms of which it is composed, are taken into account, it must be deemed, if not compiled by the Apostles, a Profession of Faith, at once the most original, authentic, and venerable of any in existence.

In conclusion, some notice should be taken of the unsettled signification of the term υποςασις, because of the many perplexities to which it has led; inasmuch as it may be taken, either for the existence of a thing, or the thing itself. This word considered as a synonyme with substance having occurred in the GREEK Copies of the Athanasian Creed, gives it the appear

* Every Bishop had power to frame a Creed for his own Church. —BINGHAM'S Antiq. Vol. 1. p. 35; and Burgess's Tracts, p. 329.

ance of being opposed to the Nicene Creed:this asserting, that the Son is of "one substance with the Father;" and the other, that "there is one substance of the Father; ANOTHER of the Son, and ANOTHER of the Holy Ghost." The apparent contradiction in the Greek will vanish from the mind of the Scholar, when he recollects, that the Creed, which bears the name of Athanasius, was not written by that Father; but that having first appeared in LATIN, Persona was the word, which the Translator into the Greek, rendered rosα015.

In this century, the first of the ten Persecutions of the primitive Christians, which have been ingeniously paralleled with the ten plagues of Egypt, and the ten horns of the Apocalypse, was set on foot by the tyrant Nero, A. D. 64. In the year 70, Jerusalem was taken by Titus, and both the sacred and civil polity of the Jews entirely extinguished. And towards the end of the year 95, the Second Persecution raged against the Christians under the Emperor Domitian.

The ecclesiastical writers of this age, including the Apostolic Fathers-Barnabas, Hermas, Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp; amounted to twenty-five. Among them appeared one pagan author.

THE

GNOSTIC AGE, OR SECOND CENTURY.

CHAPTER III.

SECT OF THE GNOSTICS.

THE GNOSTIC Heresy, which imparted its Title and Character to the second century, may be traced to Ammonius the founder of the Platonic School, if not found to originate with that impious Heresiarch himself:-* SIMON MAGUS. Habituated to the deepest reflection, the Gnostics readily conceived, that the LoGos, which they regarded as the bright image of the Deity, might assume the external form and appearance of a mortal. But as they considered this union of the Divine Spirit and material substance, incompatible, they were obliged to support their extravagant hypothesis by a total denial of the human nature of Christ. At least,

* It would appear from Epiphanius, adversus Hæres. cap. xx. p. 58, that SIMON MAGUS first taught the existence of a purgatorial state :ὑφηγειται σαρκος απολειαν μονον, Ψυχωνδε xabago. He impiously set himself up in Samaria as the Son of God!

this seems to have been the view taken on the subject about the year 142, by those early innovators, Cerdo and Marcion. They asserted Christ's divinity, yet they vainly attempted to prove, that he was not only a mere man; but no man at all; and that as he had only an apparent Body, his suffering on the cross was altogether illusory! From this circumstance, they acquired the name of DOCETE, or visionaries, while their generic appellation implied their ability to restore to mankind the knowledge (yrs) of the Great Eternal, which, they maintained, had been lost to the world.

It would be a waste of time to specify the objections raised by those Heretics to the Mosaic Records, as they relate to the Creation, the Fall of Man, &c. Suffice it, therefore, to observe, that their religious system was composed of a profane mixture of the tenets of oriental philosophy with the divine truths of the Gospel.

Justin Martyr, and other celebrated Gentiles became converts to Christianity in this century. In it, too, prevailed a schism between the Eastern and Western Churches, respecting the time, at which the Easter Festival should be celebrated.

In the GNOSTIC Age, the third Persecution of the Christians took place under Trajan, A. D. 107; notwithstanding the favourable represen

tation he had made to him of them by the Younger Pliny, his Governor of Pontus. According to Gibbon, it was more of the nature of an Inquiry, than a Persecution to which the Emperor directed them to be subjected. In this however, he falsifies the fact, as Tertullian shews in his Apology, Cap. 2. Speaking of Trajan, he says; negat inquirendos, ut innocentes; et mandat puniendos ut nocentes. Parcit et sævit, dissimulat et animadvertit, &c.

The fourth Persecution is referred by some to the reign of Adrian, by others, to that of M. Antoninus, A. D. 167.

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INFALLIBILITY. Two of the earliest Bishops of Rome, Eleutherius and Victor, gave great encouragement to the vain conceits of Montanus! This Heretic pretended to be the Person, on whom the Paraclete had descended for the purpose of clearing up the difficulties, which might occur in the Gospel Dispensation. Where Infallibility is concerned, the sanction given the errors of this dreaming enthusiast was inexcusable; for, even though they escaped

*

*Le Pape les Montanistes reçu dans sa communion-ce qui montre que le Pape n'etoit pas infallible. BASNAGE, Hist. Tom. 1. p. 360.

"Romanus Pontifex per literas Montanistis communionem impertiit, quos errore cognito, revocare coactus est." DUPIN, De Antiq. Eccl. Dis. 5. p. 346.