ers, introduced but two principles, yet according to the relation of Rhodon, who lived at that time, some of them advanced farther, and asserted three eternal principles; the chief and head of whom, was one called Synerus: of which faction also was Megethius in the dialogues of Origen, who there affirms, that "there were three principles; the first the good God, who was the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the second, the creator of the world; and the third, the devil.”

But the body of the Marcionites, and their master himself, maintained only two gods; the one a good God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God of the Christians; the other an evil God, maker of heaven and earth, and God of the Jews. So. Irenæus, who lived in those days, assures us in several places, that "the followers of Marcion held but two gods, who were naturally so, being distant from one another, the one a good, and the other an evil God" and Marcus, the champion for this sect of the Marcionites, in the dialogues of Origen, affirms, that for his part," he believed not three principles, but only two, who were equally self-existent, without beginning, infinite, and in every place."

But though this impious and abominable te net was in those days generally known under

the name of Marcionitism, as it was afterwards under that of Manicheism, yet it was both hatched and vented before Marcion, and much more before Manes; for, as for Marcion, he is by none allowed to have been the first inventor thereof, but all affirm him to have received it from his master Cerdon, a noted heretic in the early days of christianity, of whom Tertullian writes, "that he introduced, two beginnings, that is, two Gods, a good God, and a fierce God; the good one being the superior god, and the firece one the crea tor of the world:" and Theodoret, that" he maintained, that there were two Gods; the one a good God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the other a just God, the creator of all things:" and even before Cerdon, as well as before his scholar Marcion, was this blasphemous heresy broached in the church; for Theodoret informs us, that both Cerdon and Marcion took the occasion of their blasphemy from Simon Magus: and Epiphanius positively assures us, that the author of two eternal principles, a good and a bad one, went to Jerusalem about the days of the apostles, and there disputed with the elders about the unity of the godhead, and the creation of the world.

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This blasphemous heresy then being so ear ly espoused from the very apostolical age, the belief of one God was inserted in the creed in opposition thereunto, as it may be gathered from Irenæus; who, after he hath recited the heresies of the Valentinians, and others, informs us in contradiction thereunto, that "the church had received from the apostles and their disciples, to believe in one God, the father almighty, &c. And in various places, throughout his whole five books, he confutes the Marcionites dotage of two Gods, shewing it to be not only inconsistent with reason, and opposite unto the scripture, but also contra. dictory to the faith and belief of the church whence Epiphanius in his large exposition of the creed, in opposition to the aforesaid here tics, tells us, that by this clause we are obliged to believe," that there is but one God, who was the God both of the law and the gospel, both of the old and new' testament," Tertullian in his prescriptions against the Va lentinians, Marcionites, and other heretics, sends them to the rule of faith, wherein it is professed that there is but one God: And, that I may add yet one instance more, it is ve ry observable in the dialogues of Origen, that when Adamantius, who sustained the part of an orthodox Christian against the Marcionites

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was by agreement first of all to recite the Catholic faith, which he would defend in contradiction to the forementioned heretics; he begins his creed with, "I believe there is but one God," and when one of the Marcionites laboured hard to prove his three, and the oth er his two Gods, Adamantius so invinci bly evidenced the unity of the godhead, that Eutropius, the judge of the disputation, declared the victory to be on his side; and when in the end of the last dialogue he repeats the articles of the true Christian faith, he begins it with the belief of" one and only God;" which makes it very probable, that this clause in the creed of " one God," was in part designed to contradict the blasphemous and implous conceit of those heretics, who introdu ced more Gods than one. But, Secondly, this clause may be also considered 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 almigh ty creator of all things; for though some heretics owned one supreme and original God, yet they denied him the creation of the world, and his paternity and almightiness in that Car tholic sense, wherein it is to be understood in

the creed; and those other heretics, who blas. phemed the unity of the godhead, contented not themselves with that, but dared to divest our true and only God, whom they called their kind and merciful one, of one of the greatest acts of his power, wisdom and goodness, even the making of heaven and earth; whereby they totally destroyed one of the most obliging relations we stand in to God, which is that of a creature to his creator.

Who those heretics were, with the particulars of their several heresies, shall be considered under those respective terms predicated concerning God in the creed, as they present themselves to our observation in their several order: there is nothing farther necessary in this place, than to shew, that this was in part the intended sense of this clause of the creed; for the proof whereof, innumerable passages might be produced from the writings of Irenæus; as in both his creeds, which he opposes to all these kinds of heretics, he expresses this article, by believing "in one God, the father almighty maker of heaven and earth;" and contrary to the delirious fancies of those atheistical wits, affirms, that the whole church of God throughout the world, received one and the same God the father; and that "the universal church received this by tradition from